Transport of pesticides by surface runoff during rainfall events is a major process contributing to pesticide contamination in rivers. This study presents an empirical regression model that relates pesticide loading over time in the Sacramento River with the precipitation and pesticide use in the Sacramento River watershed. The model closely simulated loading dynamics of diazinon, simazine, and diuron during 1991-1994 and 1997-2000 winter storm seasons. The coefficients of determination for regression ranged from 0.168 to 0.907, all were significant at <0.001. The results of this study provide strong evidence that precipitation and pesticide use are the two major environmental variables dictating the dynamics of pesticide transport into surface water in a watershed. The capability of the statistical model to provide time-series estimates on pesticide loading in rivers is unique and may be useful fortotal maximum daily load (TMDL) assessments.
Abstract—Industries produce millions of cubic meters of effluent every year and the wastewater produced may be released into the surrounding water bodies, treated on-site or at municipal treatment plants. The determination of organic matter in the wastewater generated is very important to avoid any negative effect on the aquatic ecosystem. The scope of the present work is to assess the physicochemical composition of the wastewater produced from one of the brewery industry in South Africa. This is to estimate the environmental impact of its discharge into the receiving water bodies or the municipal treatment plant. The parameters monitored for the quantitative analysis of brewery wastewater include biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, ammonia, total oxidized nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, phosphorus and alkalinity content. In average, the COD concentration of the brewery effluent was 5340.97 mg/l with average pH values of 4.0 to 6.7. The BOD5 and the solids content of the wastewater from the brewery industry were high. This means that the effluent is very rich in organic content and its discharge into the water bodies or the municipal treatment plant could cause environmental pollution or damage the treatment plant. In addition, there were variations in the wastewater composition throughout the monitoring period. This might be as a result of different activities that take place during the production process, as well as the effects of peak period of beer production on the water usage.
Taihu Lake watershed region is one of the most densely populated areas in China and is confronted with numerous environmental problems, especially fresh water eutrophication. It is of crucial importance to improve soil nutrient management practices in order to have a positive effect on nutrient use efficiency, crop yield, and the environment. Nutrient balances of different times were calculated for arable soils in a case area. It was shown that positive balances for nitrogen and phosphorus and a negative balance for potassium had lasted for decades. Results of representative soil sampling between 1982 and 1999 show that decades of fertilization at rates exceeding the amount removed by crops have resulted in widespread accumulation of nitrogen and phosphorus in the area. Until recently the soil potassium level had declined due to the insufficient input. Soil pH of most samples also decline and this may be attributed to the over use of chemical fertilizer. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of nutrient budget and soil nutrient dynamics of the area some nutrient management options were proposed in the paper.
Left-censored datasets of virus density in wastewater samples make it difficult to evaluate the virus removal efficiency in wastewater treatment processes. In the present study, we modeled the probabilistic distribution of virus removal efficiency in a wastewater treatment process with a Bayesian approach, and investigated how many detect samples in influent and effluent are necessary for accurate estimation. One hundred left-censored data of virus density in wastewater (influent and effluent) were artificially generated based on assumed log-normal distributions and the posterior predictive distribution of virus density, and the log-ratio distribution were estimated. The estimation accuracy of distributions was quantified by Bhattacharyya coefficient. When it is assumed that the accurate estimation of posterior predictive distributions is possible when a 100% positive rate is obtained for 12 pairs of influent and effluent, 11 out of 144, 60 out of 324, and 201 out of 576 combinations of detect samples gave an accurate estimation at the significant level of 0.01 in a Kruskal-Wallis test when the total sample number was 12, 18, and 24, respectively. The combinations with the minimum number of detect samples were (12, 9), (16, 10), and (21, 8) when the total sample number was 12, 18, and 24, respectively.
This paper proposes a statistical model for mapping global landslide susceptibility based on logistic regression. After investigating explanatory factors for landslides in the existing literature, five factors were selected to model landslide susceptibility: relative relief, extreme precipitation, lithology, ground motion and soil moisture. When building model, 70 % of landslide and non-landslide points were randomly selected for logistic regression, and the others were used for model validation. For evaluating the accuracy of predictive models, this paper adopts several criteria including receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method. Logistic regression experiments found all five factors to be significant in explaining landslide occurrence on global scale. During the modeling process, percentage correct in confusion matrix of landslide classification was approximately 80 % and the area under the curve (AUC) was nearly 0.87. During the validation process, the above statistics were about 81 % and 0.88, respectively. Such result indicates that the model has strong robustness and stable performance. This model found that at a global scale, soil moisture can be dominant in the occurrence of landslides and topographic factor may be secondary.
Based on the data from Datong gauging station of Yangtze River,the grain-size characteristics of suspended sediment has been studied by using regression analysis. All the plots of suspended sediment grain-size against water discharge indicates the same trend that grain-size value increases with the rising of water discharge,which shows an obvious influence of the hydro-dynamic element on the suspended sediment grain-size features.The grain-size change with concentration is more complicated:for most years,with the increase of the mean monthly concentration,the corresponding grain-size increases to a maximum and then decreases; for other years,the mean monthly grain-size rises with the rising of the mean monthly concentration.The plot of the mean multi-year monthly grain-size against the corresponding concentration exhibits the parabola-shaped curve with the mouth open downwards,which is contrary to that of the mean yearly grain-size against the mean yearly concentration.All these relations between grain size and sediment comcentration are related to hydro-dynamics and sediment supplies.
India is the world's second greatest populated country after China with population of 1.21 billion (insights 2011) and that infers India contain17.5% of the aggregate people, is a place that is known for physical grouped assortment, climatic assortment, geographic arranged assortment, ecological nice assortment, social grouped assortment, social arranged assortment and etymological grouped assortment (Al-Hanbali et al., 2011; Yadav, 2013). The yearly improvement rate of urban populace in India is 3.35% (Census of India, 2011). The degree of people living in urban zones has extended from 17.35% (1951) to 31.2% (2011) (Karadimas et al., 2004; Census, 2011; Yogeshwar, 2012). The quick and consistent advancement in urban masses prompts an enthusiastic augmentation in urban solid wastage, with a genuine monetary and biological impact. In case this situation isn't dealt with in a proper route inside time then it would be immediate more unfortunate results on an overall level and besides causing biological tainting and have ended up being persevering issues for mankind. In this manner solid waste organization (Solid waste management) is one of the major thing basic organizations to be given by metropolitan specialists in India, the current circumstance gives rather an ungraceful picture the extent that organization movement as affirm by nonappearance of attractive general waste organization instrument (Khajuria et al., 2011). Show level of organization in various urban reaches is low to the point that there is a hazard to the general prosperity particularly and normal quality when all is said in done (Akolkar, 2005; Shahabi, 2012). Strong squanders are the natural and inorganic waste materials, for example, item bundling, grass clippings, furniture, apparel, bottles, kitchen won't, paper, apparatuses, paint jars, batteries, and so forth., created in a general public, which don't for the most part convey any an incentive to the main user(s) (Kamboj and Choudhary, 2013). Strong waste administration has turned into a noteworthy test in urban regions all through the world. Without a successful and productive strong waste administration program, the waste created from different human exercises, both mechanical and local, can bring about wellbeing perils and negatively affect the earth and people. Geographic information system (GIS) may adequately be utilized to choose the best possible site areas arranged by their needs (Sharholy et al., 2007; Nishanth, 2010). The spatial information might be put away as various topical layers and controlled to determine new usable data utilizing the current ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
A reliable single ended remote monitoring laser infrared radar (lidar) operating in the infrared is described. The system uses a 1.4-4.0 /im tunable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) source as transmitter. Continuous remote monitoring of atmospheric methane over a 17-h period demonstrates the reliability of the system. Simultaneous remote measurements of temperature and humidity using absorption lines of the 1.9-jim water band achieve relative accuracies of 1.0°C and 1%, respectively, over a 45 s averaging period. The expected sensitivity for the measurement of other pollutants with absorption lines within the tuning range of the transmitter is discussed.
Nacrtak In the southern United States thinning loblolly pine to produce whole-tree and clean chips for energy is likely to compete with thinning for roundwood pulpwood as bioenergy markets ex­ pand. Since chip harvests have higher yields per hectare and can tolerate smaller tree size, comparisons between harvesting costs and associated landowner returns are difficult to make. We completed a gross and continuous timing study on a 67 hectare whole-tree chip harvest (skidder, 2 feller-bunchers, disk chipper, and tracked loader) in southern Alabama in order to compare production rates, harvest costs, and landowner returns. The stand was 12 year old loblolly pine established on retired crop land with an average total biomass volume of 195 green tons (gt) ha and average stem volume 0.22 gt tree and 0.19 gt tree for harvested trees. The whole-tree pine chip harvest totaled 98 gt ha compared to estimated roundwood stem volume of 48 gt ha and clean chip volume of 73 gt ha. Machine production averaged 49.5 gt PMH for felling and 61.7 for skidding and 72.8 for loading, but loader production was limited by transportation and market availability. On average the crew produced 332 gt each 10 hour shift and skidding would have limited production at 392 gt PMH. Simulations generated from continuous timing data were used to compare harvest costs and potential landowner revenue from the site for whole-tree chips, clean chips and roundwood pulpwood.
Accompanies Oyster Mortality Study, 1966/1967 report. "Tables 1 through 5 give salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and pH data for Yaquina Bay while Table 6 gives temperature and salinity for Tillamook and Coos bays." "This information appears in the quarterly and annual reports as either mean values or ranges, but is presented in the following tables as collected. It is hoped that this information can be used for comparison in areas where high oyster mortalities occur." (from the Introduction)
Through the analysis of the selected indicators in the process of the studies on the relationship between landscape pattern and hydrology,it is suggested that,in the research,hydrological indicators select runoff coefficient,annual runoff variation coefficient,flood feature parameter,that water quality indicators select total nitrogen,total phosphorus,suspended solids,and chemical oxygen demand [Mn],and that landscape indicators choose vegetation patch area,landscape fragmentation degree,agglomeration degree and so on.
Utilisation of iron ore tailings in bricks as a replacement for sand will help in sustainable and greener development. The literature shows the potential use of iron ore tailings as a replacement of natural fine aggregates. As natural sand reserves are depleting day by day, there is a need for substitution for sand in bricks. A comprehensive overview of the published literature on the use of iron ore tailings and other industrial waste is being presented. The effects of various properties such as compressive strength, thermal conductivity and durability of bricks have been presented in this paper.
Agricultural irrigation is the major use of water in the seventeen western "Reclamation Act" states. A small portion of the projected demand in 1980 and 2000 might be supplied through reuse of municipal waste water (respectively about 7,500,000 and 11,900,000 acre-ft per yr of the predicted withdrawals of 175,000,000 and 170,000,000 acre-ft per yr). Data on direct land application of municipal wastewater is discussed particularly for the western states and examples are cited. The estimate for 1962 is about 300,000 acre-ft per yr or not more than 5% of the available wastewater. Diseases associated with sewage irrigation are discussed, the most recent outbreak attributed to the practice in the United States having been reported as occurring in 1919. It is concluded that public health considerations pose no obstacle to crop irrigation with treated municipal wastewater but the trend seems to be toward higher-value uses such as ground-water recharge, golf course irrigation, and recreational lakes.
Understanding the complex relationship between evapotranspiration and climate conditions and land surface characteristics is important within the context of global warming and increasing anthropogenic stressors. Based on the Budyko theory, we derived general frameworks for describing how the evapotranspiration ratio (actual evapotranspiration/precipitation, AET/P) responds to changes in the aridity index (potential evapotranspiration/precipitation, PET/P) and watershed characteristics (m). The frameworks show that the sensitivity of AET/P to PET/P decreases with increasing aridity but such decreasing pattern also depends on different watershed characteristics. The sensitivity coefficient tends to be greater in the energy‐limited regimes (above 0.3) than in the water‐limited regimes. The slope of the sensitivity curve becomes steeper for larger m values (e.g., m > 2). In addition, the sensitivity of the AET/P to m shows an asymmetrical unimodal curve, while the strongest sensitivity (inflection point) of evapotranspiration ratio to m occurs at PET/P > 1. We further examined spatial patterns of these sensitivities and the relative roles of PET/P (RCPET/P) and m (RCm) to AET/P over 91 hydrological basins worldwide. The tropical humid basins present the strongest sensitivity of AET/P to PET/P, while higher sensitivity coefficients of AET/P to m can be found in very cold basins. The changes in the sensitivity of evapotranspiration ratio to PET/P and m between 1930–1970 and 1971–2008 were assessed for these basins across broad climatic gradients. Most of these basins show a positive change in RCPET/P but a negative shift in RCm in the warming world.
Publisher Summary Knowledge of smoke spread and fire development in tunnels is generally obtained from large-scale testing and laboratory testing. The aim is usually to investigate some specific problems such as the influence of different ventilation systems on smoke and temperature distribution along the tunnel, the fire development in different type of vehicles or the heat exposure to the construction. The information obtained from the tests is often incomplete due to the low number of tests and lack of instrumentation. Large-scale testing is, however, necessary in order to obtain acceptable verification in realistic scale and the information obtained from many of the large-scale tunnel fire tests provides the basis for the technical standards and guidelines used for tunnel design today. This chapter provides an overview and analysis of large-scale tests performed in road and railway tunnels.
During the EOCUMM '94 cruise, 15 stations located in the Eolian Islands area (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) were sampled to analyse the distributions of the total bacterioplankton densities and the heterotrophic viable bacteria counts on Marine Agar 2216. According to the TS (temperature-salinity) diagrams, obtained by processing the CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) vertical profiles, the sampled stations were grouped in "hydrological clusters". The bacteriological variables, together with the chlorophyll a and the particulate organic carbon measures obtained during the same cruise were used to compare the stations of the same and different clusters. The results indicated that variabilities of the analysed microbial parameters were not obviously related to the hydrographic features of the sampling stations. This work is an attempt to verify the possibility of using microbial parameters to characterize the structure of the water column.
Ground-based polarimetric radar observations along the beam path of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR), matched in resolution volume and aligned to PR measurements, are used to estimate the parameters of a gamma raindrop size distribution (RSD) model along the radar beam in the presence of rain. The PR operates at 13.8 GHz, and its signal returns can undergo significant attenuation due to rain, which requires compensation to adequately assess the rain rate. The current PR algorithm used for attenuation correction of the reflectivity is cross-validated using ground-based dual-polarization radar measurements. Data from the Texas and Florida Underflights (TEFLUN-B) campaign and TRMM Large-scale Biosphere Atmosphere (LBA) experiment are used in the analysis. The statistical behavior of the raindrop size distribution parameters are presented along the vertical profile through the rain layer, which is used to evaluate the PR attenuation correction and rainfall algorithms. The PR rain rate estimates are compared to ground radar estimates. The standard error of the difference between the rainfall estimates from PR and ground radar was within the error of the rainfall estimates from the two instruments. Though no systematic differences between PR attenuation-corrected reflectivity and ground radar reflectivity measurements are observed, there may exist some undercorrection and overcorrection on a beam-by-beam basis. Comparison of the normalized reflectivity versus rainfall relation between PR and ground polarimetric radar is also presented.
Abstract Afforestation of croplands has been widely adopted on the semi-arid Loess Plateau in recent decades. However, knowledge of soil carbon and nitrogen changes after afforestation is still limited because of the complexity of afforestation approaches. Therefore, an experiment was conducted on two dominant arable soils (tableland soil and terrace soil) on the southern Loess Plateau to evaluate the impact of two afforestation approaches (walnut monocultures and walnut-based agroforestry) on the soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) content within 2 m soil profiles. In the tableland soil, compared with the continuous crop monoculture (135.90 t C ha−1), SOC stocks in the agroforestry and walnut monoculture system increased by 7.91% and 1.91%, respectively. While in the terrace soil, compared with crop monoculture (102.95 t C ha−1), SOC stocks in the agroforestry and walnut monoculture system decreased by 3.86% and 0.20%, respectively. The STN stock was lower in the tree monocultures and SOC content was significantly correlated with STN. Afforestation increased the SOC and STN stocks in the 0–10 cm soils, but decreased them in the 10–60 cm soils. In the deep soil layers (60–200 cm), SOC content increase was only found in agroforestry in the tableland soil, and no significant differences were found in the terrace soil. Converting cropland to agroforestry has advantages in terms of soil carbon sequestration.
Environmental degradation has compelled the energy experts to cut down fossil fuel based energy sources. To this end, this study is primarily aimed towards reducing the CO2 emissions from electricity production and also towards a green economic dispatch of the energy units. In our approach we first calculate the GI (Greenness Index) of selected energy sources based on their Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Following that an optimal dispatch of electricity based on greenness index of the sources and the cost of energy generation is determined. This work could serve as a starting point in power planning, dispatch and management of electricity sources based not only on cost but on their greenness as well. It also provides a framework for practicing a greenness index based Demand Side Management (DSM) by forecasting the GI of the electricity mix.
ABSTRACT Soil amending with biochar has been viewed as a sustainable way to improve soil moisture holding capacity. The potential of biochar application to improve water status of crops under drought stress has not been extensively evaluated. In this study, we evaluated the impact of biochar application (0%, 1%, and 2% w/w soil) on some important physiological traits of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L. Gaertn) under moderate and severe drought stress conditions in a controlled environment. Although, the application of biochar at the higher rate slightly improved soil moisture holding capacity, the magnitude of its effect was not sufficient to influence plant performance under drought stress. To get the positive effects of biochar application on milk thistle performance under drought stress, application with higher rates is probably necessary.
The underwater equipment will be played an essential role in investigation, arrangement both further operation of fields, and minerals transportation, on the Arctic shelf with severe ice conditions. Possibilities of the underwater equipment substantially depend on power equipment to carry out both transport, and technological functions. Among different types of power stations the closed-cycle gas turbine plants (CCGTP) with big power density are perspective for these purposes. The characteristics analysis of CCGTPs operating cycles of traditional schemes is made and CCGTP with heat recovery is selected as basic one as the most economical in comparison with CCGTP of a simple cycle and structurally preferable for the micro-gas-turbine unit using organic fuel in a single-circuit scheme with oxygen as an oxidizer. The methods of complicating the CCGTP cycles are considered in the paper for the purpose of further increasing the installation profitability and, as a result, more rational use of the oxidizer stock determining duration of underwater navigation. The direction of deeper utilization of warmth of the CCGTP exhaust gases by means of their partial transformation into mechanical work in the overexpansion turbine is chosen. The turbo-compressor utilizer (TСU) consisting of the overexpansion turbine driving the pressurizing compressor and cooler of gases between them joins the CCGTP exhaust. The next way for increasing the efficiency of the CCGTP with heat recovery and TСU is to transfer warmth regenerator in the TСU behind the overexpansion turbine. It is established that profitability of CCGTP with TСU and heat recovery is 15–25% higher in comparison with the basic CCGTP with heat recovery, at the same time, the power density increases by an average of 1,5 times. Also profitability of CCGTP with TСU and heat recovery has an intermediate position without power density increase. In terms of profitability and due to lower values of pressure ratio in the microturbine compressor it is reasonable to apply CCGTP with TСU and heat recovery.
This study have been conducted to analyze the feasibility of establishing Contamination Warning System(CWS) that is capable of monitoring early natural or intentional water quality accidents, and providing active and quick responses for domestic C_water supply system. In order to evaluate the water quality data set, pH, turbidity and free residual chlorine concentration data were collected and each statistical value(mean, variation, range) was calculated, then the seasonal variability of those were analyzed using the independent t-test. From the results of analyzing the distribution of outliers in the measurement data using a high-pass filter, it could be confirmed that a lot of lower outliers appeared due to data missing. In addition, linear filter model based on autoregressive model(AR(1) and AR(2)) was applied for the state estimation of each water quality data set. From the results of analyzing the variability of the autocorrelation coefficient structure according to the change of window size(6hours~48hours), at least the window size longer than 12hours should be necessary for estimating the state of water quality data satisfactorily.
This paper researched the progress of the chromic wastewater treatment processes by using the dia- tomaceous earth absorbent,and introduces some commonly used methods of chromic galvanization wastewater pro- cessing.It also described diatomaceous earth in processing wastewater aspect basic characteristic and application prospect.It researches the chromic simulation wastewater through reacting with the developer color;around use spectrophotometer method determination diatomaceous earth processing simulates in the wastewater Cr(Ⅵ)the density change.The experiment has discovered the best adsorption condition,the absorbent amount,the adsorp- tion reaction time,and the wastewater pH value to the chromium removing rate influence.Results prove that best treatment effect,when the value of pH is 1-2,the time is 25 minutes,70% Cr(Ⅵ)was removed for wastewater.
The heavy metal pollution of atmospheric environment has a seriously impact on the health of human and the safety of environment,and industrial flue gas has an important contribution to atmospheric pollution,so the removal technology of heavy metal has become a hot topic of many scholars.The domestic and overseas research status about heavy metal pollution in atmosphere is summarized,the research fruits on the source,migration and distribution,biological toxicity and the removal technology of the three common heavy metal pollution ions(Hg,Pb,Cd)in atmosphere are discussed.Simultaneously,the new trend of future research may focus on heavy metal pollution in atmosphere is proposed.
Snowcover coverage,snowcover depth and snowmelt water volume of the Kumalake River basin were calculated using EOS/MODIS satellite data form June to September of 2002-2008.The paper also analyses the following three aspects with meteorological and hydrological stations data: first,the relationship between the change of snow cap and meteorological factors during snowmelt periods in 2002-2008;second,15 effective temporal intervals of maximum temperature during the period of flood peak of 1990-2008;third,effective temporal intervals influenced by 12 hours precipitation.In the 7 flood peaks(2002-2008),4 of them are type of snowmelt dominance(2003,2006,2007,and 2008) and 2 of them are type of snowmelt secondary dominance(2002,2005).In the flood peaks of 2002 and 2005,precipitation is the dominant factor in 2002 while snowmelt is the dominant factor in 2005.Based on former analysis,following results were obtained: Firstly,snowmelt is the dominant factor in flood peaks during 2002-2008.When the snow cap in the mountain area was over 0.55 billion m3 and the height of 0 ℃ layer raised up to 4 500 m for more than 4 days,the snowmelt water from Kumalake River Basin reached up to 0.18-1.03 billion m3.The change of 0 ℃ level height of the Kumalake River Basin in summer indicates snowmelt flood well;Secondly,the snowmelt water of real snowcover in Kumalake River Basin in 2002-2008 reached up to 9.88×108 t,and the maximum possible snowmelt water was less than 11.18 ×108 t on hypothesis that all of the snowcover in the Kumalake River Basin was melted.The theoretically maximum possible snowmelt water was 17.55 ×108 t in this historical period.The snow-water equivalent produced by all of snowcover was melted was less than 17.75×108 t.The estimation of snowmelt water equivalent obtained from actually observed data and theoretical calculation can supply the support for estimating the maximum flood amounts due to snowcover melt in this mountain area.
The Peatland Restoration Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BRG-RI), an agency that is mandated to restore 2 million hectares of degraded peatland by 2020, has developed a 3-R approach towards tackling the problem based on the program of rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization of livelihood for the peatlands restoration in Indonesia. The Rewetting program that aims to rehabilitate hydrologically a peatland to a near natural state is carried out by canal blocking, canal backfilling, and construction of deep wells. To know the progress of the restoration activities by BRG, it is very important to understand the effectiveness of canal blocking on rewetting of the tropical peatland. The effectiveness of canal blocking was investigated through the monitoring of groundwater level (GWL) fluctuation around the canal block. This study was carried out at a canal block that is located at the peatland of Sungai Tohor Village, Kepulauan Meranti Regency, Riau Province. For monitoring of GWL fluctuation as the impact of canal blocking, five dipwells were set at the peatland that are perpendicular to the canal with the distance of 20 m, 70 m, 120 m, 170 m, and 220 m respectively. The results of this study show that the impact of canal blocking could raise the water table in the peatland at the radius of about 170 m from the canal. The radius impact of the re-wetting might be bigger or smaller, that strongly depends on the hydrotopography situation of the area.
The buildup of greenhouse gases could precipitate an abrupt collapse of the oceans' prevailing circulation system and send temperatures in Europe plummeting about 10° Celsius or more in a span of 10 years, says Wallace Broecker, professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and author of new research that appears in the November 28 issue of Science magazine.
Abstract. During the 2017 Ozone Water Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS), the Langley mobile ozone lidar system utilized a new small diameter receiver to improve the retrieval of near-surface signals from 0.1 to 1 km in altitude. This new receiver utilizes a single 90 ∘ fiber-coupled, off-axis parabolic mirror resulting in a compact form that is easy to align. The single reflective surface offers the opportunity to easily expand its use to multiple wavelengths for additional measurement channels such as visible wavelength aerosol measurements. Detailed results compare the performance of the receiver to both ozonesonde and in situ measurements from a UAV platform, validating the performance of the near-surface ozone retrievals. Absolute O3 differences averaged 7 % between lidar and ozonesonde data from 0.1 to 1.0 km and yielded a 2.3 % high bias in the lidar data, well within the uncertainty of the sonde measurements. Conversely, lidar O3 measurements from 0.1 to 0.2 km averaged 10.5 % lower than coincident UAV O3. A more detailed study under more stable atmospheric conditions would be necessary to resolve the residual instrument differences reported in this work. Nevertheless, this unique added capability is a significant improvement allowing for near-surface observation of ozone.
Fundamental Sampling Error (FSE) is generated whenever a sample is taken from a lot of particulate material and is caused by an intrinsic characteristic of every mineral deposit: the constitutional or intrinsic heterogeneity of the ore. FSE is the only error that can never be eliminated in sampling processes, but it can be reduced to acceptable values. The optimisation of sampling protocols is based on the minimisation of FSE and is essential to reduce the deviations of grade estimates for mine planning, process control and mine-to-mill reconciliation. In order to calculate minimum sample masses and to optimise sampling protocols, heterogeneity studies have been developed. The original heterogeneity test (HT), proposed by Gy (1967) and Pitard (1993; 2009), is an experimental method of obtaining the intrinsic heterogeneity (IHL). Most of the heterogeneity studies available in Brazilian literature have been performed on gold deposits, which have higher intrinsic heterogeneity due to the nugget and cluster effects and low grades, unlike base metal deposits. Nickel ores have never been the focus of heterogeneity studies in Brazil or worldwide. Therefore, the factors that compose IHL have never been validated for nickel ores, which was the objective of this article. Based on the results of the heterogeneity test performed on a nickel ore from Niquelandia, Brazil, the standard deviations of FSE were calculated at each stage of the sampling protocol. An optimised protocol is proposed herein, in which the total deviation of FSE is below the maximum value recommended by Pierre Gy’s Theory of Sampling (TOS).
ABSTRACT High Cu contamination in agricultural soil can cause toxicity, leading to ecological damages. Thus, we need to understand the concentration level, contaminated area, and spatial distribution of Cu in agricultural soils on a regional or national scale. This paper reviewed the studies on Cu concentrations throughout Chinese agricultural soils, based on relevant 482 published papers from 2004 to 2017. The results showed that the average Cu concentration was 29.85 mg/kg, higher than its background of 22.60 mg/kg, indicating that Cu has been introduced into soil from exterior sources. A large high spatial cluster was observed in southern China, including Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi provinces, while low spatial clusters were mainly found in Chongqing and Shandong provinces. About 3.08% of the agricultural areas faced a high Cu risk, higher than the pollution rates of the whole land uses, based on the spatial distribution of Cu concentrations throughout China. The remaining areas were within the ranges of moderate and low Cu risks.
The development of culture-independent methods for the identification of microbial community has opened a new era of study into real microbial populations and their dynamics. Although many attempts have been made to link such dynamics to system performance, few have been successful. In this research, a microbial fatty acid analysis technique was developed and evaluated for the detection of changes in microbial community populations associated with system performance. For the evaluation, three phases of experiments were executed. In Chapter 2, operating parameters such as pH, organic loading and chlorine addition, were varied in two identical laboratory-scale conventional activated sludge systems. Daily and cumulative similarity indices based on microbial fatty acid analysis were used to express the stability of microbial community populations in the systems. It was found that microbial compositions changed daily even under constant operating conditions and that the rate of change increased under dynamic operating conditions. The analyses of microbial fatty acids (MFA) also conveyed additional information: i f they are routinely executed as a monitoring tool for biological wastewater treatment systems, MFA analyses could be used for the calculation of biomass concentrations in a wastewater treatment system. The total fatty acid concentrations were estimated to be about 6.1% of the biomass concentration, measured as mixed liquor volatile suspended solids concentrations in this research. In Chapter 3, the new monitoring technique developed in Chapter 2, was applied to bioreactors with real municipal wastewater. The experiments demonstrated that the M F A analysis technique was also applicable to the reactors fed with real municipal wastewater. From the results, it was found that changes in operating factors such as pH, DO, chlorine addition impacted more significantly on the microbial community population and system performance in real municipal wastewater and the monitoring method developed was also applicable to a system subject to more dynamic operating conditions, suggesting that that this technique could be used for pilot-scale or full-scale wastewater treatment monitoring. The M F A monitoring technique was also evaluated using a lab-scale simplified University of Cape Town (UCT) reactor, to determine whether the technique was applicable for
The concept of global climate change encompasses more than merely an alteration in temperature; it also includes spatial and temporal covariations in precipitation and humidity, and more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events. The impact of these variations, which can occur at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, could have a direct impact on disease transmission through their environmental consequences for pathogen, vector, and host survival, as well as indirectly through human demographic and behavioral responses. New and future sensor systems will allow scientists to investigate the relationships between climate change and environmental risk factors at multiple spatial, temporal and spectral scales. Higher spatial resolution will provide better opportunities for mapping urban features previously only possible with high resolution aerial photography. These opportunities include housing quality (e.g., Chagas'disease, leishmaniasis) and urban mosquito habitats (e.g., dengue fever, filariasis, LaCrosse encephalitis). There are or will be many new sensors that have higher spectral resolution, enabling scientists to acquire more information about parameters such as soil moisture, soil type, better vegetation discrimination, and ocean color, to name a few. Although soil moisture content is now detectable using Landsat, the new thermal, shortwave infrared, and radar sensors will be able to provide this information at a variety of scales not achievable using Landsat. Soil moisture could become a key component in transmission risk models for Lyme disease (tick survival), helminthiases (worm habitat), malaria (vector-breeding habitat), and schistosomiasis (snail habitat).
The Odra (Oder) River flows from the Czech Republic through Poland to the Baltic Sea. Surface water as well as groundwater in the Odra River Basin is heavily polluted, especially in the Ostrava industrial region and its surroundings. The high level of pollution causes considerable impacts on human health and ecology. There is a definite need to develop sound abatement strategies to achieve long term objectives of reducing the deterioration of the environment and to restore the ecological balance in the surface water. This poster presents several related studies and focuses on the Czech-Norwegian one - “Abatement Strategies in the Odra River Basin”.
Forests are considered to be hydrologically important land uses since forest environment influences significantly two main hydrologic processes, namely evapotranspiration and infiltration. These two processes are mainly responsible for overland flow and soil water storage in a forest. Understanding of the behaviour of these processes is very important for proper management of watersheds of the country. However, information on these aspects are very rarely available. Therefore, an experiment has been initiated in a natural forest in the mid-country of Sri Lanka to study the relationships among rainfall, runoff, and water storage in the soil profile. The data of the first year of work was analyzed to estimate the water loss from the forest vegetation, change of water storage in the soil profile and water extraction pattern from the different soil layers. The results showed that most of the rainfall was stored and used by the vegetation thus minimizing run off. Water loss by vegetation (evapotranspiration and interception ) varied with the rainfall and the soil water conditions.
The Advanced Wastewater Treatment System and method for processing the waste water, sewage and manure, etc. are provided. The system 1 is, retention tank 10; and, the linking arrangement to a side of the retention tank 10 is filtered, the incoming sewage On the other hand, when removing the filtered contaminants backwash possible backwash filter apparatus ( 20); And, the filter device 20 and the tube or pipe is be a sewage treatment the sewage inflow unit 50 provided in the internal side to inlet to a constant flow rate without spreading of the sludge, the treated water to a natural discharge with no diffusion of the sludge of having a vertical movement process can discharge device 60 is installed under the surface of the water tank ever 40; consists of, The processing method includes the step (S1) that using the system 1, the retention of wastewater; and, sewage filtration and the backwash step to filter the waste water and the backwash is possible to enable a continuous reactor inlet of waste water ( S2); and, the filtered waste water tank (waste water inflow step of continuously flowing without sludge diffusion in 40) (S3); and the aeration step is a biological waste water treatment by the microorganisms carried out (S41), the sludge in an anaerobic condition a step in precipitation stage (S42) to form the treated precipitated sewage treatment (S4); And, the treated effluent step (S5) to the number of the process without the spread of the sludge discharged by natural discharge method; consists of. According to the invention, is filtered before the sewage flows into the reaction tank by reducing the BOD-SS load in the reactor, it is possible to reduce the size of the reaction vessel to facilitate and reduce the cost and space the other hand, the waste water inlet and the reaction vessel to the reaction vessel because diffusion is almost no generation of sludge precipitated in the treated water discharged from the tank when and provides excellent effects to increase the treatment efficiency of the wastewater.
It is widely accepted that silt pollution originating from disturbed exposed ground associated with construction sites is a contributing factor in the degradation of the water environment. A recent major highways construction project in Scotland resulted in releases of silt-rich water into ecologically sensitive watercourses which was followed by enforcement action by the Environmental Regulator. The review of current literature revealed a lack of clearly defined best-practice guidance as one of the contributing factors faced by contractors in terms of minimising the risk of pollution to the water environment during large scale construction projects. Without suitable, relevant and readily available reference material, contractors or their representatives are faced with the ongoing challenge of selecting appropriate control and treatment options targeted to site-specific characteristics. For this study, we collaborated with stakeholders involved in major highways construction projects, to identify the sources of best-practice guidance and ascertain any perceived limitations within them. The results comprise the identification of necessary key parameters required for successful and efficient runoff control and treatment of sediment contaminated water during earthwork construction. Based on the results of this study, an innovative framework is proposed which will aid in the selection of sustainable options best suited for local environmental variables and specific construction
The performance of the slow sand filter was examined using the landscape water with the experimental period of 46 days. The filter installed was similar to the traditional slow sand filter; expect that the top 5-cm sand was changed to the quartz sand. In this study, the variations of the turbidity, COD, BOD and TN were measured based on the filtration rate of 0.2m/h. Results showed that the average removal efficiencies of turbidity, BOD5 and COD achieved 86%, 67% and 34%, respectively, with the effluent turbidity ranged from 0.47 NTU to 2.58 NTU, BOD5 ranged from 0.4 mg/l to 1.1 mg/l and COD ranged from 13 mg/l to 18 mg/l, respectively. TN had a relatively high removal efficiency of 59% (average), with an effluent TN concentration lower than 1 mg/l. Also, the TN removal rate increased with the operational time after the steady operation was obtained. In addition, it was calculated that the efficient operation period for the slow sand filter was approximately 60 days, after which the head loss would increase to the maximum available of the SSF and the filter would be clogged significantly
In what case do you like reading so much? What about the type of the contributions to human biometeorology book? The needs to read? Well, everybody has their own reason why should read some books. Mostly, it will relate to their necessity to get knowledge from the book and want to read just to get entertainment. Novels, story book, and other entertaining books become so popular this day. Besides, the scientific books will also be the best reason to choose, especially for the students, teachers, doctors, businessman, and other professions who are fond of reading.
We will discuss Solaris, a proposed Solar Polar MIDEX mission to revolutionize our understanding of the Sun by addressing fundamental questions that can only be answered from a polar vantage point. Solaris uses a Jupiter gravity assist to escape the ecliptic plane and fly over both poles of the Sun to >75 deg. inclination, obtaining the first high-latitude, multi-month-long, continuous remotesensing solar observations. Solaris will address key outstanding, breakthrough problems in solar physics and fill holes in our scientific understanding that will not be addressed by current missions.
This paper explains how to design a wireless communication system via high altitude platform stations HAPS to cover the specific area (Using Diwaniyah city area as a model). High altitude platform station HAPS is unmanned airplane provides the wireless communication service to the wider area. It is designed to work at high altitude between (17-22 Km) and coverage area 400 Km. This study illustrated for calculating the co-channel interference between HAPS ground station with a terrestrial station and satellite station. Free space losses for a HAPS ground station has been applied to meet the geographic of Diwaniyah city. In addition, explaining the relationship between elevation angles with the radius of the coverage area. Interference mitigation techniques have been given, such as improving the antenna radiation pattern, then it proposed the elevation angle for the HAPS's ground stations to reduce an interference between HAPS network with Fixed Service (FS) and fixed satellite service (FSS). Finally, this study explains the relationship between elevation angles with the radius of the coverage area. For more reliability, the Scenario for covers the city of Diwaniya. Two ground stations have been proposed to connect with high-altitude platform station.
Non-agricultural source material (NASM) is material from non-agricultural sources that are applied to agricultural land under the Nutrient Management Act, 2002 (NMA), and Ontario Regulation 267/03. Providing valuable nutrients for crop production, NASM includes leaf and yard waste, fruit and vegetable peels, food processing waste, pulp and paper biosolids (Figure 1) and sewage biosolids. For more than 30 years, NASM has been safely applied to Ontario farmland. This Factsheet looks at the three methods used to classify NASM into odour categories.
ASHOURI AMIRHOSSEIN, SADHEZARI BAHAREH. 2016. Evaluating the Eff ects of Municipal Waste and Wastewater on Absorption of Nickel and Cadmium of Helianthus Annuus Plant. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 64(3): 741–749. The present study is an attempt to examine the eff ects of municipal waste and wastewater on absorption of nickel and cadmium of helianthus annuus plant. In order to determine cadmium and nickel in diff erent organs of the plant in soil with organic fertilizers of municipal waste and municipal sewage sludge, we conducted a split plot study. The study was in form of randomized complete block from 2011 to 2015 under farm conditions. We considered the main factor in fi ve levels of control, 10 and 20 tons of sewage sludge and municipal waste compost per hectare besides the minor factor of yearly treatment during four years. The results showed that using 20 tons of sewage sludge and waste per hectare increased absorbable soil nickel and cadmium up to approximately 220%. Also, the amount of cadmium and nickel in root was about 400% more than the control group. Bacteria found in soil contaminated to heavy metals showed remarkable resistance against higher concentration of these elements. Both bioaccumulation and biosorption techniques indicated high potential to refi ne aquatic environments. However, the bioaccumulation technique showed better effi ciency in lower concentrations and the biosorption revealed better effi ciency in higher concentrations of metals.
Combining the previous research,the model of cotton temperature suitability was established based on the air temperature data of 19 sites in Shandong Province in nearly 49 years(1960 ~ 2008).The variation trend of temperature suitability was also calculated.The results showed that the temperature suitability of cotton increased as a whole in Shandong Province,and its variation was different in different regions.The variation causes were also analyzed in this paper.So it was suggested to expand the cotton planting area appropriately in the future to deal with the climate change.
In order to determine the composition of ginger and fresh ginger and efficacy differences, this study uses gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify the ginger and fresh ginger supercritical CO2 extract of the chemical composition and relative content. The results showed that the extraction rate of ginger and fresh ginger oleoresin is respectively 5.15±0.12% and 4.67±0.15%, the chemical composition of both contained basically the same, mainly zingiberene α-, β-half times the water Qinene, β-myrrhene, α-farnesene, α-curcumene, 6-gingerol, 6 zingiberene phenol and decomposition zingerone etc., but significant differences relative content. In the aroma of terpene compounds, ginger relative amount of the compound 1, 8-cineole, βfragrant small chestnut, citral, geraniol, geranyl acetate and α-zingiberene other significant lower than fresh ginger and γ-Selinene and large myrcene D detected only in fresh ginger, ginger and the relative content of α-curcumene significantly higher than fresh ginger. The relative amounts of the total ginger gingerol compounds than fresh ginger high of 7.86%, in particular 6-and 10zingiberene relative content of phenol phenol zingiberene high 15.49 and 30.51%, respectively, compared with fresh ginger.
The Asian region has recently shown a remarkable economic growth which leads to a significant increase in the emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. As a result, the air pollution in Asia is becoming a serious problem. Therefore, urgent and effective mitigation measures to reduce these emissions are needed, which requires detailed information about the structures of the emission sources in the Asian countries. In addition, to understand the relationship between the emissions and pollution levels and to assess the effects of the mitigation measures, an analysis using atmospheric chemistry models based on accurate gridded emission data is essential. In this paper, studies about developing and improving the emission inventories in Asia were reviewed from the view points of a bottom-up approach and inverse modeling. For the studies using the bottom-up approach, the Regional Emission inventory in ASia (REAS) version 2.1 (http://www.nies.go.jp/REAS/) was introduced and based on the results of REAS 2.1, recent trends in the emissions in Asia were described. For the inverse modeling studies, comparisons of the NOx emissions over China between the results of REAS and inverse modeling based on satellite observed NO2 vertical column densities were discussed.
An automatic dishwasher (10) comprises a housing defining a wash chamber (14) for holding utensils to be washed, a movable sensor (70) for determining a utensil load within at least one preselected location within the wash chamber, and a controller (58) operably coupled to the movable sensor to control the direction of movement of the movable sensor to determine the presence and size of a utensil load in the at least one preselected location within the wash chamber.
Lianas are non‐self‐supporting systems that dominate in tropical secondary forests and their abundance is increasing as a result of global environmental change. The impact of liana coverage on canopy spectral reflectance is unknown. This research letter documents observations associated with spectral measurements of tropical trees infested with lianas in a tropical dry forest of Panama. From a construction crane, hyperspectral reflectance of five Anacardium excelsum tree crowns with different levels of liana infestation and two additional tree crowns were measured and compared using spectral vegetation indices. Results suggest that some leaf level properties of lianas (e.g. lower chlorophyll concentration and higher spectral reflectance at 550 nm) are transfer to the canopy level; in addition our results suggest that indices such as mSR705, mND705 and SR680 could be used as potential tools to map the presence or absence of liana communities.
Abstract Land use/land cover (LULC) is a fundamental concept of the Earth's system intimately connected to many phases of the human and physical environment. Earth observation (EO) technology provides an informative source of data covering the entire globe in a spatial and spectral resolution appropriate to better and easier classify land cover than traditional or conventional methods. The use of high spatial and spectral resolution imagery from EO sensors has increased remarkably over the past decades, as more and more platforms are placed in orbit and new applications emerge in different disciplines. The aim of the present review work is to provide all-inclusive critical reflection on the state of the art in the use of EO technology in LULC mapping and change detection. The emphasis is placed on providing an overview of the different EO datasets, spatial-spectral-temporal characteristics of satellite data and classification approaches employed in land cover classification. The review concludes providing recommendations and remarks on what should be done in order to overcome hurdle faced using above-mentioned problems in LULC mapping. This also provides information on using classifier algorithms depending upon the data types and dependent on the regional ecosystems. One of the main messages of our review is that in future, there will be a need to assemble techniques specifically used in LULC with their merit and demerits that will enable more comprehensive understanding at regional or global scale and improve understanding between different land cover relationship and variability among them and these remains to be seen.
In this study, the effects of large‐scale drip irrigation on the distribution of soil moisture and salt levels of farmlands (three cotton fields and one orchard) and their shelterbelts were investigated in Kalamiji Oasis in the lower reaches of Tarim River, north‐west China. The following conclusions were drawn: (i) in Kalamiji Oasis, the groundwater level declined at a rate of 0.5 m yr−1 as a result of the popularization of drip irrigation technology. Furthermore, the groundwater was shallower in non‐irrigation than in irrigation seasons, with an average decline of groundwater level of more than 1 m being observed during irrigation seasons. This indicates that farmers take up water from the groundwater for supplemental irrigation; (ii) the soil salinity in shelterbelts was significantly higher than that in farmland (p < 0.01). This indicates the role of biodrainage in the salt control process; (iii) under the present drip irrigation practice, and without expecting results of more detailed studies, it is recommended to implement flood irrigation probably once a year in order to preserve the shelterbelts and to stimulate salt leaching. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In our country, municipal solid wastes are always burnt in their original forms and only a few pretreatments are taken. Therefore it is vital to study the combustion characteristics of mixed waste. In this paper, thermogravimetric analysis and a lab scale fluidized bed facility were used as experimental means. The data in the two different experimental systems were introduced and compared. It can be concluded that, in general, the behavior of a mixture of waste in TGA can be expressed by simple combination of individual components of the waste mixtures. Only minor deviations from the rule were observed. Yet, in FB, it was found that, for some mixtures, there was interference among the components during fluidized bed combustion. Figs 3, tables 5 and refs 5.
Experiments were conducted to measure the evapotranspiration rate of paddy using Bowen Ratio Energy Balance and growth of rice during the grain filling stage. The measured data was used to validate the estimates of evapotranspirational rate by the FAO Penman-Monteith and Priestley and Taylor equations, and the estimates of rice growth using the Radiation Use Efficiency approach. The results showed good agreement between measured and estimated evapotranspirational rates obtained from both FAO Penman-Monteith and Priestley-Taylor equations. Although growth of rice was slightly underestimated, the approach was sufficiently sensitive and capable of revealing the recovery of rice from water stress.
Coastal wetlands in California are critically positioned at the interface between increasingly developed watersheds and the coastal ocean. These wetlands provide habitat for fish and wildlife, provide nutrients to surrounding coastal waters, and create recreational opportunities (Mitsch and Gosselink 1986). This report describes a circulation and transport model that is designed for tidal wetland circulation and mixing studies. Given the importance of wetland restoration projects to offset the impact of coastal development, wetland circulation and mixing models are of great utility for evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of various wetland restoration alternatives relative to issues such as bathing water quality, eutrophication, and sedimentation. An application of the model to a restored wetland and guidelines for its use are presented.
Influenced by increasing thirst for energy to fuel fast growing economy and pressure of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,biofuel production expanded rapidly these years.The total bio-ethanol production increased from 5.68×108 L in 1975 to 170×108 L in 2000 and to 511×108 L in 2007.The biodiesel increased from 9.1×108 L in 2000 to 132×108 L in 2007.The rapid increase of biofuel aroused hot debates on its effect on food security.This paper analyzed the debates of biofuel production,area of land used for biofuel production,its impact on land use changes and the international mechanism of farmers' land use decisions.Results show that as one of the main input of biofuel production,land use change is the medium of its influence on food security,environment and other social dimensions.Secondly,the arable land used for biofuel production has been increased rapidly these years.In 2004,there was 1400×104hm2 of arable land used for biofuel production,accounted for 1% of the total arable land(140583×104hm2).In 2007,figure increased to 4221.7×104hm2.It is projected that fuel crops' sown area may account for 15%-20% of the total sown area in some countries in the near future.Fuel crops will become one of the main crops.Thirdly,extension of the sown area of fuel crops caused remarkable land use changes.Large area of forest,grassland and unused land was converted to agricultural land.In the internal planting structure,food crops were converted into fuel crops.Fourthly,household is the basic decision maker of land use changes.Attracted by higher income,famers are more inclined to plant crops that have more net income.From the input-output comparison of main food and fuel crops in Guangxi,net income of fuel crops is much higher than food crops.In 2009,the net income of cassava was 11123.04 yuan/hm2 and sugarcane 12138.36 yuan/hm2,more than rice(6984.04 yuan/hm2),maize(5104.61 yuan/hm2) and peanut(2851.36 yuan/hm2).This is the basic reason for the increase sown area of fuel crops.Finally,the paper proposed that further studies were needed to be done on the quantitative analysis of the competition of biofuel crops and food crops,the internal mechanism of farmers' land use decisions,the impact of biofuel production on future land use changes in the process of urbanization.
Owing to the extensive critique of food-crop-based biofuels, attention and hopes have turned toward second-generation wood-based biofuels. An important question is therefore whether wood from boreal forests could serve as a source for biofuels. However, in a typical boreal forest, it takes 70-120 years before a stand of trees is mature. If this time lag and the real dynamics of the carbon stock of boreal forests more generally are taken into account, it becomes necessary to reconsider the potential mitigation effects of the increased use of wood fuels from boreal forests. This paper finds that the increased harvest of a boreal forest creates a biofuel carbon debt that takes 150-230 years to repay.
Solid waste disposal has become a big concern all over the world. Almost 50% of the municipal waste collected daily, especially in the metropolitan cities where the population is very high, consists of organic solid waste. This organic waste left in the open dumping grounds results in stench and contamination of groundwater. The present study aims to find out the utilization of effective microbial consortia for decomposing the organic waste. Different garbage samples was collected from Panvel area for isolating the effective organic waste degrading organisms. These strains were characterized by microscopic observations and biochemical tests. Their cellulolytic, proteolytic, amylolytic and lipoolytic activities were evaluated. Depending on these enzyme activities, different consortia were prepared and their efficacy in reduction, maturity and deodorization of organic waste was compared. The plant growth promoting effect of this degraded waste on Triticum aestivum (wheat) and Zea mays (maize) was evaluated. 5 Different Microbial Consortium was developed. Microbial consortia increased the efficacy of composting as compared to control. Consortia no. 1 and 5 showed better degrading ability. Consortia 4 and 5 facilitated the best growth for Wheat and Maize respectively. Consortia 2 showed the best result in terms of germination and growth for both wheat and maize
Highlight Research:Spawning potential ratio (SPR) based on the length and frequency data is a substitution approach for data-poor management in fisheriesGonad maturity is an indicator to ensure recruitment and stock sustainability. Therefore important to evaluate the impact of fishing capture on the size and length of fishSpawning potential ratio of skipjack relatively low and potential medium impact on risk sustainability AbstractWhen data is limited, management measurement from fisheries makes it possible to use natural history data to analyze the potential spawning ratio (SPR). This research aimed to determine skipjack fish management measure from the Indian Ocean landed at Cilacap Fishing Port through the SPR approach. The study was conducted in December 2014 to March 2015 using length and reproduction data. The analysis consisted of the size structure, growth rate, and asymptotic length that were analyzed using FISAT II program and length at fifty percent maturity (Lm50). The SPR analysis used SPR software from the application in http://barefootecologist.com.au/lbspr. The size distributions of skipjack obtained were a length of 220-790 mm and an average dominant length of 311-371 mm. The asymptotic length obtained was 831.57 mm, with growth rate and natural mortality of 1.1 and 1.44 per year respectively. The population proportion of 50% reaching gonad maturity (Lm50) was found at a length of 494.75 mm and (Lm95 = 522.39 mm) with an M/k ratio of 1.309. The length selectivity level was caught 50% (SL50 = 317.36 mm) and 95% (SL95 = 373.1 mm). The spawning potential ratio (SPR) ranged from 2-4 with an average of 4% during observation. The SPR potential, which is lower from the standardized threshold of 40%, indicates many young fish populations are caught, and the potential for overfishing is high, high risk, and low sustainability.
In this paper, a synthetic storm surge model is proposed. With the input information of peak surge height, storm duration, and shape coefficients, this model is capable of simulating most storm events with reasonable hydrograph results. The peak surge information is available for most coastal communities and can be obtained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) Flood Insurance Studies (FISs). Determinations of associated storm duration and shape coefficients for this model are discussed. Applications of this model include the predictions of the drainage time and flushing time in community retaining ponds that are connected to tidal water by culverts with control gates.
Due to the climatic changes in Egypt, the remarkable population growth and the high demand for water, especially for irrigation water. To rationalize the use of irrigation water, it has been  applied efficient irrigation systems such as trickle irrigation system for irrigating trees and plants by securing the least amount of water for the plant without wasting and saturation of the surrounding area. This study aims to evaluate the performance of some local and imported emitters. In this study, 16 emitters were used (9 imported emitters and 7 local emitters) divided into (9 non-pressure compensating and 7 pressure compensating), for evaluation under different operating pressures (0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5 bar), in addition to measure the hydraulic performance of the manufacture's coefficient of variation (CV %), emitter flow variation (   %), and the emission uniformity (EU %). The results showed that the highest emission uniformity value for emitters of (OT1, OT2, KF, TKY, CKF and OT3), with discharge of (2) L / h non- pressure compensating (NPC), 4 l/h non-pressure compensating (NPC), 4 l / h pressure compensating (PC), 8 l/ h non- pressure compensating (NPC),  8 l / h pressure compensating (PC) and 16 l / h non-pressure compensating (NPC) respectively, while, the lowest manufacture's coefficient of variation value (CV%), emitter flow variation (   %) were used with 6  emitters in the second part of the laboratory experiment to evaluate the side lines under the length of the hoses (50, 75, 100 m) at a distance between the emitters (4 m), for the calculation of the emission uniformity (EU%), friction  losses and consumption of power. From the last result in laboratory and through evaluation the 6 emitters under study in terms of prices and emission uniformity (EU%), a randomized field study was conducted on the farms where the three emitters (OT2, KF and OT1) under lateral length (50 m) and emitter spacing (4 m). The purpose of the field test was carried out to determine the degree of clogging throughout the operating period (after 2 and 4 years). A field test used an emitter (OT1, OT2 and KF) found for two months and has been used again for two years when farming in the farm was expanded and used four years ago by expanding the farm, the emitter (OT2) clogging ratio was 3.09% within two months, 6.95% within two years and 10.49% within 4 years, the emitter (OT1) clogging ratio was 5.26% within two months, 11.11% within two years and 17.64% within 4 years, the emitter (KF) clogging ratio was 6.83% within two months, 13.63% within two years and 20.96% within 4 years. The results showed that the lowest degree of clogging ratio of the emitter (OT2) was within two months of operation. In general, and as expected, the results indicate that clogging ratio increased with increasing the time of installation of the field emitter and the range of factors affecting the periodic maintenance and design of good and components of irrigation network with high quality and ratio of manufacture's coefficient of variation (CV%).
In this paper, we consider a road-ban problem in hazardous materials (hazmat) transportation. We formulate the problem as a network design problem to select a set of closed road segments for hazmat traffic and obtain a bi-level optimization problem. While modeling probabilistic route-choices of hazmat carriers by the random utility model (RUM) in the lower level, we consider a risk-averse measure called conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) in the upper level, instead of the widely used expected risk measure. Using RUM and CVaR, we quantify the risk of having hazmat accidents and large consequences, and design the network policy for road-bans accordingly. Despite that CVaR has been used in hazmat routing problems, it has not been considered with stochastic route-choice in hazmat network design problems. By applying CVaR to the route-choice behavior of hazmat carriers, we protect the road network from undesirable route-choices that may lead to severe consequences. We present a case study in the real road network of Ravenna, Italy.
The grain characteristic of falling dust and different height surface and their relationship were analyzed by the field observation data.The results are as follows: the falling sand-dust of 0.1 m height near surface is mainly from saltation matter,the fine sand compositions of falling dust are fewer and the powder sand elements are more.The relationships between the grain characteristics of surface and the sand dust storm are obvious,and the grain characteristics can reflect the degree of affording sand-dust from surface.
Soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic matter (SOM) contents of Estonian grassland soils are analysed in 20 soil groups using data from the database PEDON and CATENA. The SOC and SOM concentrations (g kg -1 ) and pools (Mg ha -1 ) for upland mineral soils (Leptosols, Cambisols, Luvisols, Albeluvisols, Regosols; total 9 groups), lowland mineral soils (Gleysols, Fluvisols; 9 groups) and wetland organic soils (Histosols; 2 groups) are given separately for humus cover (HC) and soil cover (SC). The SOC and SOM pools for the entire Estonian grasslands were calculated on the basis of different soil types, morphological characteristics and distribution superficies. It was concluded that in Estonian grasslands SC 39.9±8.0 Tg of organic carbon is sequestered, 76.2% of which is found in HC and 23.8% in subsoils. Grassland SOC is sequestered in 69.1±12.6 Tg of SOM. A quality analysis of humus covers of grassland soils (evaluated from the pedo-ecological perspective) distinguished 5 quality groups and 15 subdivisions.
The Congaree National Park includes extensive swamps of old growth bottomland hardwood forest. Since 1930, the Congaree River (created by the confluence of the Saluda and Broad Rivers) has been influenced by regulation of the Saluda Dam on the Saluda River. Many ecologists and water-resource managers have hypothesized that the regulated flows on the Saluda River have substantially decreased the magnitude and frequency of flooding of the riparian wetlands in the Park. To evaluate the effect of the dam on the flow and water levels of the Congaree River, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, analyzed the historical data of the Saluda, Broad, and Congaree Basins. Results from the study show that the Saluda Dam had much more of an effect on low and medium water levels than high water levels. The dam increased monthly minimum river stages by up to 23.1 percent and decreased monthly maximum river stage by up to 7.9 percent. Analyses of annual peak flows indicated that changes in the magnitude and frequency of floods on the Congaree River for pre- and post-regulation periods may be more related to climatic variations rather than changes in regulation of the Saluda River basin.
This paper presents an experimental study of the energy charge and discharge processes in a packed bed thermocline thermal storage tank for application in concentrated solar power plants. A mathematical analysis was provided for better understanding and planning of the experimental tests. The mathematical analysis indicated that the energy storage effectiveness is related to fluid and solid material properties, tank dimensions, packing schemes of the solid filler material, and the durations of the charge and discharge times. Dimensional analysis of the governing equations was applied to consolidate many parameters into a few dimensionless parameters, allowing scaling from a laboratory system to an actual industrial application. Experiences on the system design, packing of solid filler material, system operation, and data analysis in a laboratory-scale system have been obtained in this work. These data are used to validate a recently published numerical solution method. The study will benefit the application of thermocline thermal storage systems in the large scale concentrated solar thermal power plants in industry.
The principal component analysis method is used to carry out the data integration of 7water quality indexes of 18sections in 2013in Chanba River Basin.SPSS software is used to carry out the data processing.The integrated data are ranked and evaluated in terms of cumulative contribution rate of extracted 3principal component.It is found that the pollution in Chanba River Basin is of obvious regionalization and difference.The analysis results indicate that the midstream and downstream valleys have suffered from industrial sewage wastewater pollution,whereby leading to TN,TP and Ammonia Nitrogen,etc.of water quality indexes out of specification,which are found to be in agreement with actual conclusion obtained by means of the principal component method can provide the theoretical bases for water quality controlling work in Chanba River Basin.
Measurement of natural radioactivity concentration in sand samples collected from the coastal belt of Kerala has been carried out using NaI(Tl) detector, and the radiological parameters were evaluated from the measured activities. It is well reported that in certain situation, the natural radioactivity in the environmental matrices can reach reference levels or beyond. Hence, the study has been performed to understand the distribution and enrichment of natural radionuclides in the coastal environment of Kerala, and thereby assessing dose to the inhabitants. The mean activity concentration of naturally occurring radionuclides, namely 40K, 226Ra, and 232Th in the samples were 53.2, 7.0, and 101.3 Bq/kg, respectively. The radiological parameters, namely absorbed dose rate, the radium equivalent activity (Raeq), the annual effective dose (indoor and outdoor), and reference indices were evaluated and compared to the recommended safety limits. The present investigation indicates that the data are comparable with the reported values elsewhere and in most of the cases observed values were well within the permissible limit.
In offshore wind turbines, the blades are among the most critical and expensive components that suffer from different types of damage due to the harsh maritime environment and high load. The blade damages can be categorized into two types: the minor damage, which only causes a loss in wind capture without resulting in any turbine stoppage, and the major (catastrophic) damage, which stops the wind turbine and can only be corrected by replacement. In this paper, we propose an optimal number-dependent preventive maintenance (NDPM) strategy, in which a maintenance team is transported with an ordinary or expedited lead time to the offshore platform at the occurrence of the th minor damage or the first major damage, whichever comes first. The long-run expected cost of the maintenance strategy is derived, and the necessary conditions for an optimal solution are obtained. Finally, the proposed model is tested on real data collected from an offshore wind farm database. Also, a sensitivity analysis is conducted in order to evaluate the effect of changes in the model parameters on the optimal solution.
Solar energy currently represents the most abundant inexhaustible, nonpolluting, and free energy resources that could have a positive meaning in alleviating the global energy shortage and environmental pollution. However, the solar energy is intermittent in nature and that received on earth is of small flux density due to atmospheric scattering and abortion, making it necessary to use large surfaces to collect solar energy for drying cut tobacco process utilization. The major technologies used for solar energy conversion to heat are thermal processes comprising of solar collectors. In this thesis the fluid flow through solar collectors (flat plate and parabolic trough) is modeled using CREO design software. The thesis will focus on thermal and CFD analysis with different fluids air, water, R30 and R60 of the solar collectors. Thermal analysis done for the solar collectors by steel, aluminum & copper materials.
Algal chambers were used to estimate the effect of the benthic community on the dissolved oxygen rcsourccs of the Truckec River below the city of Rcno, Nevada. Community respiration cxcccded production, resulting in a net loss of 349 kg of dissolved oxygen/day in the 8-km study area. By deleting the amount of oxygen used in bacterial metabolism of sewage, an excess of production over respiration of 353 kg/clay was estimated. Maximum and minimum gross production at locations within the stream stretch were found to he 16.5 and 4.7 gm mm2 day-l, respcctivcly. Oxygen production and consumption studies were conductccl on algal communities dominated by Clnclophora and OsciZ2atoria spp.
Flash floods are one of the most serious natural disasters, and have a significant impact on economic development. In this study, we employed the spatiotemporal analysis method to measure the spatial–temporal distribution of flash floods and examined the relationship between flash floods and driving factors in different subregions of landcover. Furthermore, we analyzed the response of flash floods on the economic development by sensitivity analysis. The results indicated that the number of flash floods occurring annually increased gradually from 1949 to 2015, and regions with a high quantity of flash floods were concentrated in Zhaotong, Qujing, Kunming, Yuxi, Chuxiong, Dali, and Baoshan. Specifically, precipitation and elevation had a more significant effect on flash floods in the settlement than in other subregions, with a high r (Pearson’s correlation coefficient) value of 0.675, 0.674, 0.593, 0.519, and 0.395 for the 10 min precipitation in 20-year return period, elevation, 60 min precipitation in 20-year return period, 24 h precipitation in 20-year return period, and 6 h precipitation in 20-year return period, respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed that the Kunming had the highest sensitivity (S = 21.86) during 2000–2005. Based on the research results, we should focus on heavy precipitation events for flash flood prevention and forecasting in the short term; but human activities and ecosystem vulnerability should be controlled over the long term.
Basing on mid-low-temperature geothermal resource and waste heat resource,the paper introduces the distribution and power plant status of mid-low temperature geothermal resource briefly and studies the flash and binary geothermal power systems.The two system's energy efficiency is conducted.The operating data of two projects were given.The result shows that the mid-low temperature geothermal resource is of widely application in industries.
Abstract Multi-sensor and multi-resolution source images consisting of optical and long-wave infrared (LWIR) images are analyzed separately and then combined for urban mapping in this study. The framework of its methodology is based on a two-level classification approach. In the first level, contributions of these two data sources in urban mapping are examined extensively by four types of classifications, i.e. spectral-based, spectral-spatial-based, joint classification, and multiple feature classification. In the second level, an objected-based approach is applied to decline the boundaries. The specificity of our proposed framework not only lies in the combination of two different images, but also the exploration of the LWIR image as one complementary spectral information for urban mapping. To verify the effectiveness of the presented classification framework and to confirm the LWIR’s complementary role in the urban mapping task, experiment results are evaluated by the grss_dfc_2014 data-set.
We evaluated the P sources (point, diffuse), through a nested watershed approach investigating the Blaise (607 km), dominated by livestock farming, the Grand Morin (1202 km), dominated by crop farming, and the Marne (12 762 km), influenced by both agriculture and urbanization. Fertilizers account for the main P inputs (> 60%) to the soils. An agricultural P surplus (0.5 to 8 kg P ha y) contributes to P enrichment of the soil. The downstream urbanized zone is dominated by point sources (60 %, mainly in dissolved forms), whereas in the upstream basin diffuse sources dominate (60 %, mostly particulate). Among the diffuse sources (losses by forests, drainage and runoff), losses by runoff clearly dominate (> 90 %). P retention in the alluvial plain and the reservoir represents 15-30 % of the total P inputs. Dissolved and particulate P fluxes at the outlet of the Marne are similar (340 and 319 tons of P y respectively). The Blaise sub-basin receives P from point and diffuse sources in equal proportions, and retention is negligible. The Grand-Morin sub-basin, influenced by the urbanized zone receives, as does to the whole Marne basin, 60 % of P inputs as point sources. The total particulate phosphorus in suspended sediments averaged 1.28 g P kg, of which about 60% are inorganic and 40% organic P. Particulate phosphorus exchangeable in 1 week and 1 year (P isotopic method) accounts for between almost 26 and 54 % of the particulate inorganic phosphorus in the suspended sediment and might represent an important source of dissolved P, possibly directly assimilated by the vegetation. Bilan du phosphore dans le bassin de la Seine
Abstract The problem of frost resistance is relevant to facing materials, especially glazed ceramic tiles. Analysing the processes of ceramic tile destruction it is important to take into account the primary destruction symptoms. New estimation of service frost resistance of ceramie tile according to residual surface and residual mass of the tile after a certain number of simulated service cycles is presented in the paper. Applying the new estimation, the forecast of frost resistance under extremely unfavourable service conditions may be performed. As for other ceramie products regarding frost resistance, one of the most important parameters is the reserve of pore volume. For a rapid estimation of service frost resistance of ceramie tile it is best to use several parameters under multiple correlation with the parameter of service frost resistance.
Georgia is blessed with a diversity of natural resources. From the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the north, to the black water creeks in the south, to the estuarine habitats on the coast, Georgia’s aquatic ecological diversity rivals that of any state. Georgia is also one of the fastest growing states in America and this growth comes at an environmental price. Now more than ever, citizens in the state of Georgia must accept responsibility to help protect and preserve our existing greenspaces while helping to remediate already impacted systems. Georgia Adopt-AStream can help. Concerned citizens interested in learning about, protecting and preserving their streams, lakes, and wetlands can make a difference by participating in Adopt-A-Stream activities. Specific field demonstrations include watershed wide monitoring events, amphibian, lake and coastal wetland monitoring, citizen-based activities targeting urban watersheds, conservation practices that home owners can implement, and resources for connecting with students (K-12).
Water is a very important resource for maintenance of life and its quality directly affects human health. This study aimed to evaluate the water quality of the drinking fountains of the Para University State (UEPA) and verify that it is in accordance with the resolution 357/2005 of CONAMA and ordinance 2914/2011 of the Ministry of Health. The research was conducted in the five campi of UEPA in Belem, Para, Brazil. The physicochemical parameters evaluated were: pH, alkalinity, acidity, total iron, phosphorus, chloride and total hardness. Some results found for pH ranging between 3.92 and 7.64 showed values below the range established by Brazilian law. Phosphorus shows values between 0.468 and 2.671 mg L -1 , above the established standards, showing that there are drinking fountains with water inappropriate for human consumption.
NASA's space-based observations of physical, chemical and biological parameters in the Earth System along with state-of-the-art modeling capabilities provide unique capabilities for analyses of the carbon cycle. The Carbon Monitoring System is developing an exploratory framework for detecting carbon in the environment and its changes, with a view towards contributing to national and international monitoring activities. The Flux-Pilot Project aims to provide a unified view of land-atmosphere and ocean-atmosphere carbon exchange, using observation-constrained models. Central to the project is the application of NASA's satellite observations (especially MODIS), the ACOS retrievals of the JAXA-GOSAT observations, and the "MERRA" meteorological reanalysis produced with GEOS-S. With a primary objective of estimating uncertainty in computed fluxes, two land- and two ocean-systems are run for 2009-2010 and compared with existing flux estimates. An transport model is used to evaluate simulated CO2 concentrations with in-situ and space-based observations, in order to assess the realism of the fluxes and how uncertainties in fluxes propagate into atmospheric concentrations that can be more readily evaluated. Finally, the atmospheric partial CO2 columns observed from space are inverted to give new estimates of surface fluxes, which are evaluated using the bottom-up estimates and independent datasets. The focus of this presentation will be on the science goals and current achievements of the pilot project, with emphasis on how policy-relevant questions help focus the scientific direction. Examples include the issue of what spatio-temporal resolution of fluxes can be detected from polar-orbiting satellites and whether it is possible to use space-based observations to separate contributions to atmospheric concentrations of (say) fossil-fuel and biological activity
The invention relates to feed water treatment and in particular to a system and method for treating industrial park recycled water to form power plant boiler supplemental water, which are mainly used for solving the technical problems of high operating cost, large floor area, easiness for blocking a reverse osmosis membrane and the like in recycled water treatment in the prior art. The system comprises a grid flocculation inclined tube sedimentation tank, a high-efficiency fiber filter, an ultra-filter unit, a two-stage reverse osmosis membrane unit, a mixed bed unit and a chemical feeding system, wherein the grid flocculation inclined tube sedimentation tank is connected with the high-efficiency fiber filter, the ultra-filter unit, the two-stage reverse osmosis membrane unit and the mixed bed unit in sequence; a water inlet of the grid flocculation inclined tube sedimentation tank is used as an industrial park recycled water inlet; and the outlet water of the mixed bed unit is used as the power plant boiler supplemental water.
The authors present an analysis of volcanic aerosol loading above a northern mid-latitude observing station during the last decade, with particular attention to the decay in the aerosol resulting from the 1982 eruption of the El Chichon. The optical depth data at five wavelengths are derived from sunradiometry data. These are tabulated, and inferences regarding size distribution of the volcanic aerosol are drawn. Comparison with a number of other data sets is used to establish the validity of ground-based technique, and to draw inferences regarding stratospheric transport. The authors also report simulation calculations designed to establish the capabilities and limitations of the measurement and analysis techniques. The main conclusions of the study are as follows. Under suitable conditions, ground-based sunradiometry can reliably monitor variations in the stratospheric aerosol of less than 0.01 optical depths on time scales of a few weeks or longer. Large (on the order of 0.5 micrometer) particles remained present throughout the decay of the El Chichon aerosol, and there is substantial agreement among mid-latitude data sets collected by several techniques; thus inferences regarding stratospheric transport can be drawn from joint analysis of the available data. The available evidence supports the proposition that mid-latitude decay is modulatedmore » by annual transport of fresh material from low latitudes, primarily, with some transport from polar latitudes.« less
Abstract. Our understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of the climate-relevant trace gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) in the Peruvian upwelling system is still limited. Here we present, oceanic and atmospheric DMS measurements which were made during two shipborne cruises in December 2012 (M91) and October 2015 (SO243) in the Peruvian upwelling region. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) were also measured during M91. Relatively low DMS concentrations were measured in surface waters in October 2015 (1.9 ± 0.9 nmol L−1) and December 2012 (2.5 ± 1.9 nmol L−1). Nutrient availability appeared to be the main driver of the observed variability in the surface DMS distributions in the coastal areas. DMS, DMSP and DMSO showed maxima in the surface layer and no elevated concentrations associated with the oxygen minimum zone off Peru were measured. The possible role of DMS, DMSP and DMSO as radical scavengers (stimulated by nitrogen limitation) is supported by their negative correlations with N : P (sum of nitrate and nitrite: dissolved phosphate) ratios. Large variations in atmospheric DMS mole fractions were measured during M91 (144.6 ± 95.0 ppt) and SO243 (91.4 ± 55.8 ppt); however, the atmospheric mole fractions were generally low, and the sea-to-air flux density was primarily driven by seawater DMS. The Peruvian upwelling region was identified as a source of atmospheric DMS in December 2012 and October 2015, however, in comparison to the global monthly Lana climatology (mean: 6.2–9.8 μmol m−2 d−1 in October/December) (Lana et al., 2011), the Peru upwelling was not a hotspot of DMS emissions at either time (M91: 5.9 ± 5.3 μmol m−2 d−1; SO243: 3.8 ± 2.7 μmol m−2 d−1).
The study investigates how topographic and hydrogeological properties influence groundwater dynamics. Using the concept of the fundamental hydrologic landscape (FHL; Winter, 2001), the impact of slope angle, wavelength and amplitude, as well as boundary conditions and hydraulic conductivity on groundwater dynamics is systematically assessed. This type of global sensitivity study has been done for stream flow (e.g. Carlier et al., 2019) or within groundwater focusing solely on groundwater flow and fractions of regional versus local recharge at steady state (e.g. Gleeson and Manning, 2008). In contrast, we study the influence of controls on groundwater level dynamics by using transient models. The coupled, physically based Groundwater and SurfaceWater Flow simulator GSFLOW (Markstrom et al., 2008) is employed, to run a set of simulations for a FHL, where topographic and hydrogeological properties are varied across a range of possible value. The model is run at a daily time-step with climate data obtained from a measuring station in Southern Germany. Subsequently, groundwater level time series are read from the model domain across the set of simulations. These time series are decomposed into amplitude, magnitude, timing, flashiness and inter-annual variability by using dynamics indices (Heudorfer et al., 2019). Sensitivity of groundwater dynamics to the different topographic and hydrogeological controls is discussed and contrasted with the results from a prior empirical study (Haaf et al., under review). This type of global sensitivity study may aid understanding hypothesis testing of climate change impacts on groundwater level dynamics.
The study of soil–landscape relationships at a detailed scale (1:10 000) and its use for soil management was less common in developing countries. The study was conducted in western Ethiopia with the aim to explain the soil variability across landscapes, classify soils into mapping units and produce a map of these soils. This study was performed based on a discrete model of spatial variation. Five soil reference groups: Vertisols, Cambisols, Fluvisols, Luvisols and Leptosols were identified in the study site. Distribution of the soil reference groups was determined by landscape position. Variation in soil texture, colour, pH, exchangeable acidity, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus (av. P), carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), exchangeable potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) was observed within and among soil mapping units (SMUs). Variability was considerably high for exchangeable Ca and CEC. Factor analysis result indicated that variation in soil properties within land unit was comparatively highest in Leptosols of SMU9 (88.87%) and lowest in Vertisols of SMU1 (60.82%). Moderate‐to‐fine scale mapping of soil properties helps to build detail information for soil management. Grouping fields into mapping units that require more or less similar management measure would be an important soil–landscape concept. As a result, mapping units could be used as cost‐effective means of treating variable field so as to optimize the forecasted benefits.
Summary Field experiments were conducted in four provinces of Iran in which sugar-beet yield responses to added nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers were correlated with soil test values and number of irrigations. Although significant yield responses to fertilizer application were obtained in all four provinces, extremely few significant relationships were established between soil test values and yield response. Average crop yield was favourably influenced by the number of irrigations applied in Fare and Khorasan, by organic carbon status in Esfahan and Khorasan and adversely affected by increased soil conductivity in Esfahan and Khorasan. These results were taken to imply an inadequate number of irrigations in Fars and Khorasan. The high calcium carbonate status found in Fars soil adversely affected the level of average yield. Response to nitrogen fertilizer declined in Fars and Khorasan as the leaf nitrogen exceeded 3·15 and 4·0% respectively. Response to phosphate fertilizer declined in West Azerbaijan and Khorasan when leaf phosphorus exceeded 0·4%.
By using observations of meteorological variables and PM2.5 concentration, together with the meso-scale numerical Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model, the weather conditions and boundary layer meteorological features were investigated during haze periods in Beijing in January 2013. The comparison with observations shows that WRF is able to reasonably reproduce the spatial and temporal distributions of the meteorological variables. Analysis of the heaviest haze periods, which occurred during 10–14 January and 27–31 January, shows that meteorological factors and high concentrations of atmospheric particulates are both responsible for the haze pollution. Small or calm wind and steady atmospheric stratification led to a decrease in atmospheric diffusivity and accumulation of pollutants. In addition, the southerly wind carried surrounding pollutants and water vapor to Beijing, which not only increased pollutant concentrations, but also favored aerosol hygroscopic growth, and extinction increase, which consequently led to haze formation and visibility decrease.
The study was carried out the influence of long term manuring and fertilization on soil properties. Soil samples were collected in 2016 from a highly weathered terrace soil with rice-wheat cropping pattern at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) experimental farm having five OM (control, cow dung, green manure, rice straw and compost) treatments combined with three mineral N fertilizer (control, 155 kg ha, 220 kg ha) levels. Long term (28 years) application of mineral fertilizers and manure resulted in significant differences in soil organic carbon, total N content, C:N ratio of soil and soil pHKCl between the treatments. The soil organic carbon content varied among the different treatments from 6.11 g OC kg (application of rice straw and no N) to 9.43 g OC kg -1 (application of compost and 220 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ). The total soil N content varied among the different treatments from 0.41 g N kg (application of rice straw and no N) to 0.73 g N kg -1 (application of compost and 220 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ). The C:N ratios of the soil varied among the Original Research Article Ahmed et al.; ARJA, 13(2): 44-52, 2020; Article no.ARJA.61226 45 different treatments from 13.3 (application of no exogenous OM and no N) to 15.1(application of green manure and no N). The soil pH varied among the different treatments from 4.42 (application of cow dung and 220 kg N ha -1 yr ) to 4.89 (application of compost/cow dung and no N). So, long term fertilization and manuring undoubtedly bring some changes in the physiochemical soil properties of terrace soil.
In order to investigate the relationships between the change of T CO2 , ΔP CO2 and SST, current, upwelling and biological activities during El Nino event in the subtropical Pacific, the responses of T CO2 and ΔP CO2 in surface water in the subtropical Pacific during El Nino and La Nina have been simulated using a three-dimension carbon cycle model with biota pump. The results of numerical simulations show that T CO2 in sea water increases with reducing of SST during mature phase of El Nino in the subtropical West Pacific. At the same period, the Kuroshio in this region was weakened, the zonal currents were divergence, the upwelling carried the water with high concentrations of CO 2 to the sea surface, so both of T CO2 and ΔP CO2 in surface water were increased. But T CO2 and ΔP CO2 were decreased during La Nina period. These simulated results confirmed the observations in 1982/1983, 1986/1987, 1991/1995 and 1997/1998 El Nino events.
Croatia is a country with extremely various levels of population density. In addition to big town areas there are whole regions having very low population density or even areas that are hardly populated at all. Power supply within such regions represents not only a significant financial problem, but also a technical problem. This problem is especially emphasised on a range of smaller islands, and in individual high-seas islands. KONCAR as a concern having two core business areas, one of them being generation, transmission and distribution of electric energy, is monitoring, exploring and tending to: - Participate in research and development, as well as manufacture of equipment for renewable energy sources as well as in construction of advanced technology plants and facilities for generation, transmission and distribution of power ; - Implement and stimulate application of decentralised energy sources wherever it has technical and economical justification. One of achievable technical solutions of the above stated problem of energy sources supply that is also harmonised with the described KONCAR commitments is application of hydrogen as an energy carrier. In such a case hydrogen is being produced through the reforming process or it is generated by electrolysis using electric energy generated from renewable energy sources such as photo voltaic cells, i.e. by wind turbines and it is stored as necessary
The coconut plantation area on the banks of the Undan river is not function optimally. It can be seen from the inability of the river in flowing runoff discharge. The floods caused many dead coconut trees and disrupted the activities of residents in Sei Undan Village. Flood simulation analysis is done by analyzing the capacity of the river channel and comparing the calculated discharge it with rational method. Analyze channel calculation using HEC-RAS 4.1.0 software. Profile analysis is done by dividing into 2 river channels that reach A and B with 3 different reset times, is 5 years, 10 years, and 25 years. The result of this research can be seen that the existing condition with maximum height in reach B is 30 cm for return periode of 5 years, 30 cm for return periode of 10 years and 30 cm for return periode of 25 years and to reach A that is 19 cm for return periode of 5-years, 34 cm for return periode of 10 years, and 27 cm for return periode of 25 years. Simulation by constructing a levee on the riverbank by looking for Maximum inundation height with a higher levee size than the maximum inundation.
Understanding the impact of elevated ozone( O3) on crop yield is helpful for evaluating the yield loss and economic loss induced from atmospheric O3pollution. Open Top Chamber( OTC) systems,established in Beijing and Dongguan,Guangdong Province,were implemented to study the impact of different concentrations of O3on the winter wheat and rice,respectively. The crops were fumigated with O3during their whole growth period. The exposure indices were calculated,and the response relationship between the exposed quantity of O3and the yield of rice or winter wheat were obtained. The results showed that the critical level( based on AOT40,AOT40 is the hourly meanozone concentration accumulated over a threshold ozone concentration of 40 nLL) of the rice were 4. 95 μL( L·h)in Dongguan and 2. 44 μL( L·h) for winter wheat for Beijing. Critical levels for crop in China were calculated based on the relationship between the exposed quantity of O3and the yield of crops in previous studies. The critical levels were 4. 950-9. 506 μL( L·h) and 2. 280-3. 858 μL( L·h) for the rice and winter wheat in China,respectively. The sensitivity of rice to the atmospheric O3increased from the North to the South of China,while that of winter wheat not significantly changed between different regions. Under the current environmental φ( O3) condition,the relative yield loss was 2. 70%( AOT40 =2. 68 μL( L·h)) for the rice in Dongguan and 12. 85%( AOT40 =6. 72 μL( L·h)) for the winter wheat in Beijing. There are various crop growing environments and numerous crop categories in China,thus more studies should be conducted to establish O3local exposed quantity-yield response relationships and further to reasonably assess the loss of regional crop yield.
A survey of vegetation around an aluminium factory in Renukoot, Mirzapur, U.P., India, was made in the course of a study of the polluting effects on plants of gaseous hydrogen fluoride. These ‘pollugenic’ effects were analyzed by examining the chlorotic and necrotic symptoms of injury on the leaf surfaces, the plants then being classified into three categories on the basis of their sensitivity. The study revealed the absence, from the vicinity of the factory, of certain plant species which are normally present in the surrounding unpolluted areas. The tree species were the first to be affected, followed by shrubs, grasses, and finally forbs. These differences in response could be attributed in part to differences between the ambient air and ground-level concentrations of the pollutant. The concentrations in the ambient air, being higher than those at ground-level, were responsible for the greater impact on trees, with less on shrubs and grasses, and least on forbs, this being in part a function of the exposure-height of the plant species. The gradual improvement noted in the performance of the plants and the number of their species at increasing distances from the aluminium factory, was consequent on the gradual decrease in the concentration of the polluting hydrogen fluoride. Such a trend is clearly evident in the north-east direction, where the pollutant fallout was directed by the prevailingly southwesterly winds.
In the context of climate change and growing energy demand, solar technologies are considered promising solutions to mitigate Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and support sustainable adaptation. In Greece, solar power is the second major renewable energy, constituting an increasingly important component of the future low-carbon energy portfolio. In this work, we propose the use of a high-resolution regional climate model (Weather Research and Forecasting model, WRF) to generate a solar climate atlas for the near-term climatological future under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. The model is set up with a 5 × 5 km2 spatial resolution, forced by the ERA-INTERIM for the historic (1980–2004) period and by the EC-EARTH General Circulation Models (GCM) for the future (2020–2044). Results reaffirm the high quality of solar energy potential in Greece and highlight the ability of the WRF model to produce a highly reliable future climate solar atlas. Projected changes between the annual historic and future RCPs scenarios indicate changes of the annual Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) in the range of ±5.0%. Seasonal analysis of the GHI values indicates percentage changes in the range of ±12% for both scenarios, with winter exhibiting the highest seasonal increases in the order of 10%, and autumn the largest decreases. Clear-sky fraction fclear projects increases in the range of ±4.0% in eastern and north continental Greece in the future, while most of the Greek marine areas might expect above 220 clear-sky days per year.
A simulative study is made to the process of two typhoon waves that affected the sea area near Zhanjiang port based on the third generation of nearshore seawave numerical model SWAN.The wind field demanded by the model is provided after the corresponding typhoon elements,data at gridpoint of NCAR/NCEP,and measurements at individual station are assimilated by the virtue of Tengtian model of typhoon wind field.A boundary of the model's wave spectrum is obtained by the use of self nested method.The results of the two simulations conform well to the observed data,which can provide an improtant reference for modeling forecast of typhoon waves on the sea.
Based on the 10-year wind speed data, geographic data and grid data of Fujian Province, a wind disaster model of transmission and distribution lines including disaster-causing factor, disaster-embedded environment, disaster-bearing body and anti-disaster capability, is established. The geographical information system (GIS) technology is used to vectorize the wind disaster risk index of the transmission and distribution lines, and the distribution map of the wind disaster risk index based on the map of Fujian Province is obtained. The results show that the risk of wind disasters from coastal to inland is gradually decreasing. The risks from Fuzhou to Ningde and Xiamen to Quanzhou are the highest, and the maximum disaster index is 0.69 in Fuzhou.
The utility model discloses a double-tower air adsorption drier for a locomotive. The double-tower air adsorption drier comprises drying towers, an overflow valve, a bidirectional check valve, drain valves, a drying tower alternation-controlling electromagnetic valve, a guiding control valve and a regenerative nozzle. The number of the drying tower and the drain valve is two; each drain valve is connected with the humid air inlet of the corresponding drying tower; the drying tower alternation-controlling electromagnetic valve is connected with one of the drain valves, and the guiding control valve is connected with the other drain valve; the bidirectional check valve and the regenerative nozzle are connected between the two drying towers; the bidirectional check valve is in parallel connection with the regenerative nozzle; and the bidirectional check valve is also connected with the overflow valve. The double-tower air adsorption drier for the locomotive with compact structure, space conservation and low energy consumption can manage and monitor the normal operation of the drier.
Acid Mine Discharge (AMD) is a contaminated waste generated out of the mining activities both during and after the operation period. AMD has adverse impact on the socio-economic conditions of the people residing in and around mining site. It basically constitutes substances having high salinity, toxic elements and salts which pollute surface and sub-surface ground water. AMD in addition to polluting the ground water also affects the flora and fauna, soil degradation and the infiltration of the heavy metals into sub-surface of the regain. The release of mining waste has a direct relationship on the rise in the global warming and atmospheric ozone depletion. The potential impact of mining on water resources can be analysed from to the intensity of mining activity, volume of contaminated waste and its seepage into the sub-surface terrain, rate of re-watering and dewatering. The article refers to the possible remedies to environmental pollution which include prevention of intermixing of AMD with water flow, percolation of AMD into the underground water system, diversion of water streams away from the residue storage areas and controlled placement of acid generating waste. Description: Copyright: 2009 The Icfai University Press. Show full item record
Air pollution is one of the major health problems confronting humans today. The accumulation of air pollutants in the atmosphere in large quantities and of longer duration poses harm to human health, affect man-made structures as well as change the patterns of weather and climatic systems. This paper discusses the effects of air pollution upon human health with emphasis on primary air pollutants. It also looked at historical background of air pollution problem, various sources of primary air pollutants, nitrogen oxides (NOx), Carbon monoxide (CO), Particulate material(PM), Sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ), Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Radon (Rn) and Lead (Pb) and their upon human health that range from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, emphysema, asthma and so on. Control of air pollutants is likewise discussed from legislative view points and by use of instruments that lessen the quantities of pollutants released by motor vehicles, industries and so on.
Snow dynamics influence seasonal behaviors of wildlife, such as denning patterns and habitat selection related to the availability of food resources. Under a changing climate, characteristics of the temporal and spatial patterns of snow are predicted to change, and as a result, there is a need to better understand how species interact with snow dynamics. This study examines grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) spring habitat selection and use across western Alberta, Canada. Made possible by newly available fine-scale snow cover data, this research tests a hypothesis that grizzly bears select for locations with less snow cover and areas where snow melts sooner during spring (den emergence to May 31st). Using Integrated Step Selection Analysis, a series of models were built to examine whether snow cover information such as fractional snow covered area and date of snow melt improved models constructed based on previous knowledge of grizzly bear selection during the spring. Comparing four different models fit to 62 individual bear-years, we found that the inclusion of fractional snow covered area improved model fit 60% of the time based on Akaike Information Criterion tallies. Probability of use was then used to evaluate grizzly bear habitat use in response to snow and environmental attributes, including fractional snow covered area, date since snow melt, elevation, and distance to road. Results indicate grizzly bears select for lower elevation, snow-free locations during spring, which has important implications for management of threatened grizzly bear populations in consideration of changing climatic conditions. This study is an example of how fine spatial and temporal scale remote sensing data can be used to improve our understanding of wildlife habitat selection and use in relation to key environmental attributes.
The utility model discloses an automatic fire extinguishing system for a long tunnel, which comprises an emergency pipeline, a water tank, a PLC and more than three single-area fire extinguishing units. The PLC is respectively connected with the single-area fire extinguishing units via a control cable. Each single-area fire extinguishing unit comprises a sprayer, a pure water high pressure pump and an ultrahigh pressure pipeline, the pure water high pressure pump can output high pressure water flow of higher than 14 MPa, and the sprayer is a multi-nozzle combined water mist sprayer. The system uses tiny mist formed by ultrahigh pressure water flow after flowing through the special water mist sprayer for fire extinguishing, the mist can rapidly vaporize when encountering flame and high temperature and expand volume for more than 1700 times to greatly reduce oxygen concentration of a protective area, thereby having strong vaporization and cooling functions and oxygen separation and stifling functions, and simultaneously, the mist can further enclose fire source to prevent heat radiation and heat diffusion, thereby achieving the purpose of quick fire extinguishing.
This paper describes the so far largest PV installation in Brazil. The system was designed to assess the performance of the three commercially available thin-film PV technologies operating in warm climates. The fully-monitored, grid-connected installation comprises six subsystems using PV modules from four different a-Si (amorphous silicon), one CdTe (cadmium telluride) and one CIGS (copper, indium-gallium, diselenide) thin-film manufacturer. The installation was designed to measure irradiation levels (horizontal and plane-of-array), temperatures (ambient and back-of-the-module) and AC and DC electrical parameters continuously, in order to compare the long-term output performance of these six state-of-the-art module types and two inverter types, looking at annual energy yields and performance ratios. Different inverter/PV array power ratios are also an aspect of investigation, aiming at studying their influence on energy yields in a warm and sunny site.
A study was conducted to assess the impact of long-term manuring and fertilisation on transformation of soil sulphur (S) fractions in a Typic Haplustept during 39th cropping cycle of maize-wheat sequence under semi-arid sub-tropical India. The overall mean values of various S fractions ranged from 9.46 to 18.32 mg kg -1 (available S), 11.96 to 22.32 mg kg -1 (total water soluble S), 29.04 to 47.82 mg kg -1 (heat soluble S), 23.45 to 33.06 mg kg -1 (NaHCO3 extractable S), 10.09 to 19.28 mg kg -1 (inorganic S), 101 to 135 mg kg -1 (organic S), 111 to 155 mg kg -1 (total S) under various treatments over the soil depths (0-60 cm) in a cropping year. The contents of available S, total water soluble S, heat soluble S and inorganic S decreased from their initial soil contents over the 39 years of intensive cultivation, manuring and fertilisation. However, NaHCO3 extractable S, organic S and total S increased over their initial values. All the S fractions declined from surface soil (0-15 cm) to the lowermost soil depth (45-60 cm). Organic S was found to be the dominant form in this long-term fertiliser experiments (LTFE) soil, followed by heat soluble S, NaHCO3 extractable S, total water soluble S, inorganic S and available S, respectively. The highest and lowest content of various S fractions were observed in 100% NPK+S and 150% NPK, respectively. Except 150% NPK, the total S content of rest manuring and fertiliser treatments increased over their initial soil contents after 39 years of fertiliser use. Most of the S fractions varied significantly from premaize to post-wheat sampling stages during 39th cropping cycle. The contribution of various S fractions towards total S ranged from 7.28 to 12.43% (available S), 9.34 to 19.18% (total water soluble S), 23.57 to 34.22% (heat soluble S), 16.09 to 22.89% (NaHCO3 extractable S), 7.89 to 13.02% (inorganic S) and 87.19 to 92.11% (organic S) under different LTFE treatments across the depths after 38 years of continuous cropping and fertiliser application. Significant correlations were observed among various S fractions both in pre-maize and post-wheat surface soils. At the time of giving S fertiliser recommendation for crop production, both heat soluble S and NaHCO3 extractable S can be taken into consideration. Accumulation of soil organic
ABSTRACT The available phosphorus (P) in soil is a major limiting factor for maize productivity in the Nacala corridor, Mozambique. In this study, soils were collected from three representative sites, Ribaue, Nampula, and Nacala, in the area, and each was used for maize pot experiment with five P fertilizer levels. The soil-available P content was determined by the Mehlich-3 method at 30 days after P fertilization. The shoot biomass and P concentration at the tasseling stage increased as the P fertilizer level increased and were significantly expressed as a function of soil-available P. Based on the function, the available P that attains 90% of the maximum shoot biomass was estimated as 79 mg P2O5 kg−1. Consequently, the results in this study suggest a recommendation of 32–74 kg P2O5 ha−1 fertilizer for maize production in the Nacala corridor although a field evaluation and economical evaluation are necessary. Abbreviations Ex-: exchangeable cations; M-3: Mehlich-3; T-N: total nitrogen; T-C: total carbon
Abstract Rivers are revered worldwide for their ecologic, scenic, and recreational value. The capacity to communicate effectively among human groups with vested interest in rivers hinges on understanding the nature of human perceptions of water quality and the extent to which they vary intraculturally. Recognizing the intersection between measured water quality and the characteristics of rivers that influence human perceptions facilitates potential for better communication across disciplines and among stakeholders. We conducted interviews and a pile‐sort task with water quality experts and nonexperts. Our analysis suggested human evaluation of water quality is guided by culturally constructed criteria, regardless of respondent expertise, experience, or demographics. Cluster analysis results implied that measured physical and chemical parameters of rivers were directly related to the visible attributes used in human judgments. We suggest that, regardless of variability among individual stakeholders, observable characteristics may be the foundation for a common understanding of water quality in rivers.
A desiccant air-conditioning system (DACS) is proposed to cool the working area of the Egyptalum rolling factory. The proposed DACS is composed of consecutive processes: drying air through a desiccant, then cooling the dry hot air at exit from the desiccant material by dry cooling in a heat exchanger followed by evaporative cooling. The desiccant used is produced from alumina, a waste product of the factory, and zeolite 20%wt.
The deterioration of the environment as a result of the disposal of oil-based mud used in the oil industry in offshore and onshore environment is alarming and preventive measures must be taken to protect it. Vegetable oil as biolubricant in water-base mud has proved to have potentials in formulating drilling mud for oil and gas exploration due to their inherent properties. Nevertheless, the direct usage of this plant oil is limited in application due to their high viscosity, unstable hydrolytic and oxidative effect. These parameters can be improved upon through transesterification process.  This paper hereby review the derivable benefits of chemically modifying vegetable oil inorder to improve their physicochemical properties through transesterification reaction process, and the effect it will have when applied to drilling mud.
Yindaruqin is a large scale water supply project diverting water from the Datong River to Qinwangchuan irrigation area in Yongdeng County in the middle part of Gansu Province.The project has played an important role in improving local farming conditions and poverty situation,settling farmers from poor mountainous areas and promoting local economic and social development.However there are still some problems in achieving the designed project outputs due to influence of the various factors,which are mainly known as water supply volume haven't reach expected standards and water allocation haven't been fully optimized.Based on adequate primary information and data as well as current water demand and supply situation and water use trend in water supply areas,Yindaruqin irrigation area and it's possible surrounding irrigation areas were taken as an unified research area and considered as Yindaruqin water supply area to set up an optimized water allocation model with optimal economic,social and environmental benefits and restricted within water supply and demand volume by applying systematical water resources analysis theory.In order to serve for the various water users in different area and make the extra water resources available for use,an optimized water allocation scheme has been determined in both short-and long-term with the model,which is very important to get most project benefits and promote sustainable local economic and social development.
The objective of this study was the identification of the phenology dynamics of the main types of vegetation of Rio Grande do Sul state, for the period from 2000 to 2010, using Enhanced Vegetation Index data through the wavelet transform. The identification of cycles or seasonal patterns in time series of vegetation indices obtained by orbital sensors allows the observation of anomalies and effects of climate and environmental change. A temporal profile of Enhanced Vegetation Index was built for the Rio Grande do Sul region, where samples of the four main plant typologies were selected: native grassland, mixed ombrophilous forest, soybean and rice crop. These samples were submitted to the wavelet transform, which allowed the decomposition of the series and presentation of data in relation to time and frequency with which the phenological events have occurred. The data showed regularity in the dynamics of vegetation types tested, with annual cycles of plant growth and higher Enhanced Vegetation Index values in spring and summer and lower Enhanced Vegetation Index values in autumn and winter.
In this research of a variety of housing systems for fattening pigs, the impact by microorganisms and their metabolic products, as well as the effects of dust and harmful gases, was central. No distinct differences between the housing systems could be determined regarding the dust and gas concentrations. The biological hazards as well as the impact on animal health varies between the different housing systems.
The research was conducted based on the 1012 cases questionnaire for the purpose of to evaluate the change effect of university student's consciousness and behavior before and after lecture on environmental problems. And this questionnaires were performed with self-administered by the university student who made a application for liberal arts related to environmental subjects. The results were as follows. According to the analysis results the most students responded that the most serious problem of environmental pollution before the lecture on environmental education was a genetic modified organism(3.64/4.00), but the most serious problem of environmental pollution was changed to the topic of water pollution(3.96/4.00) after the lecture on environmental problem. And also according to the analysis results dributed by gender were that boy students show a higher concerning(170%) than that of girl students(150%). The most good results obtained after lecture on environmental problem were water pollution(23.0%), air pollution(11.5%), waste material pollution(10.9%), food additives (10.0%), genetic modified organism(8.0%), endocrine disrupter(7.5%), respectively. And according to the analysis results distributed by a grade were that the concerning of a low grade(freshman, sophomore) were higher than that of a high grade(junior, senior) in the topic of water pollution, air pollution, waste material pollution. But there were high level of awareness on the topic of food additives, genetic modified organism, endocrine disrupter to the all students(freshman to senior). And according to the analysis results distributed by a major field of study were that students who major in art & athletics, liberal art and etc(public health) were show a deep concerning than that of science & engineering. Finally, the environmental education during the university class were effectively contribute to increase the awareness of the seriousness of environmental pollution problem(8.2%) and also contribute to the practical life after class also increase their consciousness of environmental problem(59.8%)
In the last few years, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has reorganized its snow and ice control methods to minimize problems in winter weather. ITD's efforts can be characterized as preventive anti-icing rather than deicing. Crews subscribe to several weather services to get predictions and current weather data. When ice and snow accumulation seem likely, crews hit the streets to apply FreezGard, a liquid magnesium chloride product. ITD applies the chemical prior to an ice storm so that ice melts as it lands, rather than spreading the chemical on top of accumulated snow and ice. Magnesium chloride freezes at approximately -25 deg F (-32 deg C), so putting the liquid magnesium chloride on top of ice makes the liquid likely to freeze instead of melting the existing ice. Crews combine the chemical application with gravel spreading to further enhance the roads' drivability. Magnesium chloride typically will last for a few days before reapplication is necessary.
1998～1999年に行われた,GAME(GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment)プロジェクトの枠組みのもと,熱・水収支の解明と併せて熱帯モンスーン気候帯における大気-陸面間のCO2フラックスの季節変化を明らかにするため,タイ国の典型的な土地被覆(複雑地表面,水田地域)においてCO2フラックス観測が実施された.観測結果より,雨季での両地表面において,日中のCO2 fluxは-1.2～-1.0mgCO2m-2s-1の範囲の値となり,高い光合成速度が示された,また,夜間におけるCO2放出量は0.2～0.5mgCO2m-2s-1となった.これらの結果から,植物活動期では暖温気候帯で行われた同様の土地被覆上での観測結果と同程度の値となり大きな違いは見られなかった.一方,乾季においても両観測地において光合成活動が確認され,両地表面は年間を通じたCO2吸収源である可能性が示唆された.また,植物活動期の雨季を対象に群落コンダクタンスモデル,生化学モデルを組み込んだ群落単層モデルを用いて各土地被覆における蒸発散特性・光合成特性を示すパラメータを抽出し,比較を行った,雨季での環境要因に対する群落コンダクタンスの応答は複雑地表面に比べて水田地域が大きかった.また,CO2フラックスは,日中の光条件において水田地域における値が複雑地表面のそれを上回り,これは各植生群落の光透過・反射特性の違いに起因するものと考えられた.
The Murray–Darling river system is highly regulated and is Australia's major surface water resource. It is subject to blooms of the toxic cyanobacterium Anabaena circinalis, which present significant water quality problems. As a result of these blooms, an algal management strategy has been developed for the Murray–Darling basin. One of the major objectives of the strategy is the development of flow management strategies for key reaches of the river system. Intensive studies in the Murrumbidgee River, Australia, have indicated that persistent thermal stratification is a requirement for blooms of this cyanobacterium to occur. In the lower Murray, mean wind speed was found to be the major factor affecting the degree of thermal stratification under low flow conditions, which generally exist during the months of December to March. In this paper, the effect of various flow management scenarios on the likelihood of the occurrence of blooms in the River Murray at Morgan, South Australia, are assessed. A frequency analysis is carried out on 30 years of wind speed data to determine the probability of occurrence of persistent thermal stratification under a number of flow regimes. The scenarios evaluated include existing base flow conditions, altered base flow regimes, temporary releases from an upstream storage (Lake Victoria) and the temporary reduction of weir pool levels. The results obtained indicate that the dispersal of existing blooms by simultaneously reducing the weir pool levels at Locks 1–3 is the most effective and economical strategy for combating bloom formation by A. circinalis in the River Murray at Morgan. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pioneer Rocketplane plans to produce the Pathfinder aerial propellant transfer spaceplane. Pathfinder is a two-seat fighter-sized aircraft powered by two Pratt and Whitney F100 engines and one kerosene/oxygen-burning RD-120 rocket engine. The Pathfinder aircraft is about the same overall length as an F-15, but weighs about 40% more. The aircraft is designed to take off with its turbofan engines, and climb to 30,000 feet where it meets a tanker. It then transfers about 130,000 pounds of liquid oxygen from the tanker. After disconnecting from the tanker, the aircraft lights its rocket engine and climbs to about 80 mile altitude and Mach 12. By this time the aircraft is outside the sensible atmosphere and can open its payload bay doors, releasing the payload with a small solid rocket upper stage, which delivers the payload to its intended orbit. The doors are then closed and the aircraft reenters the atmosphere. After slowing down to a subsonic speed, the turbofan engines are restarted and the aircraft is flown to a landing field. This paper will discuss the design of the Pioneer Pathfinder, its advantages, and its capability for both orbital delivery and surface to surface transportation.
Background and Objectives: Antibiotics are potential pollutants that represent an important environmental problem because of their toxic effects on the food chain and aqueous streams. The objective of this research was to study the adsorption of penicillin G on to chestnut shell as an inexpensive adsorbent. Materials and Methods: This study was performed at laboratory scale and batch system. We studied the influence of process variables such as adsorbent dose, initial PEN G concentration, pH of solution, contact time, and breakthrough curves. In order to find out the possibility of reuse, desorption study was also carried out. The surface characteristics of adsorbent were investigated using Fourier Transform Infra-Red and Scanning electron microscope. Equilibrium study data were modeled using Langmuir, Freundlich, and D-R models. Moreover, kinetic studies were done by three models of pseudo first order, pseudo second order, and intra-particle diffusion. Results: The maximum PEN G removal achieved was 92%, at pH 3, adsorbent dose 0.1 g/l and contact time 120 min. The Langmuir equation (R2=0.99) provided the best fit for the experimental data. It was also found that adsorption of PEN G by chestnut shell followed pseudosecond order model (R2= 0.992). Conclusion: According to the results obtained, chestnut shell appears to be a suitable, low cost and efficient adsorbent for removing PEN G from waste streams. Keyword: Adsorption, PEN G, Aqueous solutions, Isotherm, Kinetic D ow nl oa de d fr om ij he .tu m s. ac .ir a t 1 1: 37 IR S T o n S at ur da y D ec em be r 15 th 2 01 8
Biogas is an alternative fuel that can be used as fuel in diesel engines. In this study, the machines used are hand tractor diesel engine one cylinder tiger R175 AN modified to operate with two fuel systems (dual fuel). Biogas fuel flow rate varied ie 2, 4, 6 l/min to determine the effect of the performance of the machine. Performance counts is power, torque, specific fuel consumption (SFC), thermal efficiency, and The ratio of air to fuel (AFR) is obtained from the results of the testing machine by using a static load of 600 and 900 Watt, as well as engine speed is increased slowly from 1000 to 1500 rpm with an interval of 100 rpm. Performance testing results obtained are then compared with the same diesel engine that uses pure diesel fuel, so that it can be seen the influence of biogas to the performance of the diesel engine. Exhaust emissions test was conducted to determine the feasibility of exhaust gases from engines using diesel fuel and biogas. Comparison of economic value was also calculated to determine efficiency economic value of the fuel changes. From the test found that the power and torque of the engine is likely to increase for some of the biogas stream flow rate, increased thermal efficiency for the entire biogas flow rate decreases while the AFR and SFC for the entire biogas flow rate. By using biogas, the economic costs incurred also decreased compared with pure diesel fuel.
Satellite wind scstterometers are midrovave radar instruments designcd to measure both global radar backscattering cross section (sigm*O) and near-surface wind speed and direction over the gIobal ocean. NASA has a long term commitment to ocean wind remote sensing, starting with the Seasat-A SatelZite Scatterometer (SASS), through NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), Sea Winds 071 QuikSCAT (QSCAT), Sea Winds on ADBOS-2 (Sea Winds) and Alpha-Scattcrornotsr on GCOM1B. QSCAT was launched on June 19, 1999 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, using a Titan I1 launch vehicle and Ball Aerospace’s Quikbird spacecraft. It was turned-on on July 7, 1999 and hm operated flawlessly since. The purpose of this paper is to present the QSCAT mission objectives, the spacecraft and instrument design concept, system parameters and performance, and the process and results of an intensive post-launch calibration and ver3ication (Cal/Val effort of the cnd-to-end QSCAT sensor system.
The main objectives of this study were to identify a small of edaphic factors that could be related to vegetation distribution in a coastal dune salt marsh system in the Southeast of Spain and to establish a simple conceptual model to describe the relationships between these soil factors and the main plant communities. Soil and vegetation data were obtained from 87 sampling plots. The plant communities studied were dominated by Crucianella maritima, Teucrium dunense, Ammophila arenaria, Lygeum spartum, Schoenus nigricans, Juncus maritimus, Limonium cossonianum, Sarcocornia fruticosa, Arthrocnemum macrostachyum, and co-dominance of Sarcocornia fruticosa and Arthrocnemum macrostachyum. The first four communities occupied summit positions and the rest of communities interdune depressions. In addition, we sampled plots in bare soil at interdune depressions. The soil parameters studied were soil salinity, soil moisture, the ground-water level, the depth to gleyed matrix, and the distance to the shoreline. Soils at interdune depressions were consistently more saline, wetter, and with a shallower water table and gleyed matrix than soils at summit positions. Soil moisture, salinity, and the distance to the shoreline were parameters related to plant distribution at summit positions. However, at interdune depressions species distribution was mainly related to salinity, moisture, the depth of the ground water, and the depth to gleyed matrix. In the conceptual model proposed, bare soils are characterized by their extreme salinity in the growing season (spring) and a shallower ground-water level, which leads to a shallower gleyed matrix.
ABSTRACT Liu, Y., 2020. Marine oil spill control based on discrete mathematical model. In: Yang, Y.; Mi, C.; Zhao, L., and Lam, S.(eds.), Global Topics and New Trends in Coastal Research: Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 103, pp. 387–391. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Marine oil spill has caused great environmental pollution. Therefore, the analysis of marine oil spill control based on discrete mathematics is studied. Based on the complex situation at sea, an on line monitoring and control system for offshore oil spill including an oil spill online monitoring subsystem and an oil spill integration subsystem is designed. The on-line monitoring subsystem of the oil spill establishes the land data center by the integration technology, uses the data center to monitor the pollution accidents such as oil spill and the like of the offshore oil platform, analyzes the multi-source monitoring data returned by the processing and reports the monitoring and early warning information, and expands the multi-source data receiving processing and the visual display. The main system uses the current loop discrete control model to design the PWM rectifier control module, the real-time dynamic visualization module based on the “oil particle” model, and the interactive fence distribution control based on the triangle partition algorithm to realize the oil spill control. Experiments show that the system could effectively monitor the oil spill on the sea surface, simulate the marine oil spill movement process under complex environmental conditions, and have a good step response.
In a hydrological simulation using a complex model, equifinality is likely to occur in many different ways, due to various sources associated with the model structure, parameter as well as data uncertainties involved in modeling process. This study aims to demonstrate the equifinality problem in streamflow prediction with a distributed rainfall‐runoff model and also investigate the effect of parameter and input uncertainties on an internal catchment response in time and space under the equifinality condition. For this objective, several experiments were carried out step by step as follows. First, we estimated plausible parameter sets, which lead to similarly good objective function values, using the shuffled complex evolution metropolis (SCEM‐UA) algorithm and also generated plausible input scenarios with different spatial patterns from radar rainfall field, which showed minimum runoff errors. Then, we adopted a computational tracer method based on a time‐space accounting scheme, combined with a distributed model for analyzing how a catchment behaves under a given equifinality condition by parameter and input uncertainties. It was found that the global responses of a catchment to the predefined equifinality factors were very similar; all simulated hydrographs were almost identical in spite of the different model parameter values and different spatial patterns of rainfall data. On the other hand, the internal catchment responses, tracked by the computational tracer method, were sensitive to plausible scenarios. The results of the internal catchment behavior show that the distributed rainfall‐runoff model has multiple alternative flow pathways, providing identical hydrographs in time and space when the rainfall over the catchment transforms into runoff. Our approach can be used to understand catchment responses to various uncertainty sources by visualizing the spatiotemporal runoff generation process at the watershed scale. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This report summarizes work completed by U.S. Geological Survey's Columbia River Research Laboratory (USGS-CRRL) in the Wind River subbasin during the period April 2006 through March 2007 under Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) contract 26922. During this period, we collected temperature, flow, and habitat data to characterize physical habitat condition and variation within and among tributaries and mainstem sections in the Wind River subbasin. We also conducted electrofishing and snorkeling surveys to determine juvenile salmonid populations within select study areas throughout the subbasin. Portions of this work were completed with additional funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group (LCFEG). Funding from USFWS was for work to contribute to a study of potential interactions between introduced Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and wild steelhead O. mykiss. Funding from LCFEG was for work to evaluate the effects of nutrient enrichment in small streams. A statement of work (SOW) was submitted to BPA in March 2006 that outlined work to be performed by USGS-CRRL. The SOW was organized by work elements, with each describing a research task. This report summarizes the progress completed under each work element.
Author(s): French, Adam Kerry | Advisor(s): Bury, Jeffrey T | Abstract: The converging impacts of climate change and economic globalization are driving adaptive resource governance through both conflict and institutional innovation on Peru's Pacific slope. Linking social and ecological systems, freshwater is particularly critical and becoming more scarce in this region due to both supply and demand-side pressures related to global change. As accelerating glacial recession reduces vital reserves stored in the natural water towers of the Andean cryosphere, the burgeoning Peruvian economy exerts growing demand on existing hydrologic supplies while causing severe impacts on water quality. In this setting, diverse actors are increasingly connected across geographic and political scales and economic sectors through reliance on shared flows that know no such boundaries. In a context of mounting hydrologic crisis, the Peruvian state passed a new water law in 2009 that restructured and rescaled national water governance through a model of integrated management at the level of the country's principal watersheds. The implementation of this model has proven difficult and remains incipient, however, and water conflicts continue to rise. This dissertation research examines global change and contemporary resource governance in one of Peru's most important Pacific-draining basins, the Santa River watershed. Drawing upon the research tradition of political ecology, the study employs interdisciplinary and participatory approaches to explore shifting resource access and institutional innovation and the implications of these processes for resource governance and social vulnerability. Through examination of theoretical perspectives from diverse disciplines coupled with the findings of more than two years of empirical fieldwork, the dissertation research highlights the socio-natural character of resource governance and social vulnerability and analyzes the complex governance networks and processes emerging through adaptation to linked processes of global change in the Santa River basin.
The invention belongs to a specific starting method of a 300000KW subcritical unit without an electric pump, which comprises the operation steps of: enabling a starting boiler to operate, supplying a heating steam source for operation of a deaerator, and after the deaerator enables the water quality to meet the water condition, starting a steam-driven fore pump to supply water to the boiler; igniting, heating and boosting the boiler, sealing hot pipes and supplying steam for a main shaft by using the steam source of the starting boiler, starting a vacuum pump to vacuumize a steam condenser of a steam turbine into the normal value, regulating the high pressure cylinder bypass and the low pressure cylinder of the steam turbine, keeping the pressure of the reheat steam of the boiler between 0.6Mpa and 0.8Mpa, using the reheat steam source of the cold section of the unit as a steam source of an auxiliary steam header of the unit, starting the steam source of the boiler as a standby steam source of the auxiliary steam header, and driving a steam feed pump to operate by using the auxiliary steam source; and according to the gradual increase values of the parameters of the main steam and the reheat steam of the boiler, controlling the corresponding rotation speed of the steam feed pump, and finally, normally supplying water to a boiler drum. The method has simple and convenient operation, shorter needed time and easy implementation.
The world agriculture uses about 70% of the world water resources in irrigation. The concern over the sustainability of water use as demand for agricultural, industrial, and domestic uses continues to increase. Conflicts between particular sectors result in tensions, which sometimes lead to “water wars” in different parts of the world. It is the reason why many national and international organizations are putting the water quantity and quality questions on the top of the world’s open questions/problems. The main aim of this paper is to present soil water balance of the Mediterranean region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, prepared for a long-term time series for two locations (Trebinje and Mostar) annually and during the vegetation period. The mean long-term data has been used as a base for future predicted calculation. The predicted PET was based on an increase in air temperature by 2°C and predicted decrease in precipitation by 25%. With so predicted calculated data of monthly PET and monthly precipitation the predicted soil water balance was done.
When cladding temperatures are measured for a blowdown experiment, cladding temperatures at the same elevation in the fuel bundle have usually some differences due to eccentricity of the fuel bundle and other reasons such as biased two-phase flow. In the present paper, manufacturing tolerances and uncertainties of thermal-hydraulics are incorporated into a LOCA code that is applied with the statistical method. The present method was validated with the results of different blowdown experiments conducted using the 6 MW blowdown facility simulating the Advanced Thermal Reactor (ATR). In the present statistical method, the code was modified to run fast in order to calculate the blowdown thermal-hydraulics a lot of times with the code using different sets of input data. These input data for sizes and empirical correlations are prepared by the effective Monte-Carlo method based on the distribution functions deduced by the measured manufacturing errors and the uncertainties of thermal hydraulics. The calculated curves express uncertainties due to the different input deck. The uncertainty band and tendency of the cladding temperature were dependent on the beak sizes in the experiment. The measured results were traced by the present method.
SUMMARY 1. Understanding the relationships between flow regime and the distribution of biota is critical for managing flows in regulated rivers. In northern Victoria, Australia, efforts are presently underway to restore a natural, intermittent flow regime to several streams which, for over 100 years, have received perennial diversions as part of a stock, irrigation and domestic water supply. 2. Bayesian, model-averaged, binomial regression was used to predict probabilities of occurrence for 13 fish species, including five non-native species, based on hydrologic variables characterising both the current and modelled future flow regimes at 10 sites representing a range of hydrologic regimes (categorised here as heavily regulated, moderately regulated and unregulated). 3. Regression models accurately predicted present probabilities of occurrence for most species across all sites. The models predicted a reduced likelihood of large, native, flowdependent species occurring at regulated sites following flow restoration. Predictions regarding the future distribution of widespread species including two small-bodied native and four exotic species were less certain as current distributions of these widespread species were unrelated to hydrologic variables we examined and thus unlikely to be significantly affected by flow restoration. The distributions of two small native species currently restricted to unregulated sites are predicted to increase throughout the system. 4. This study illustrates the effects of artificially induced perennial flow on lowland fish distributions. Furthermore, the combination of pre-restoration data together with predictive modelling provides valuable insights into the likely outcomes of flow regime shifts. 5. This study clearly demonstrates the value of combining empirical research and modelling in guiding environmental flow and ecosystem restoration decisions. Knowledge from the study is now helping guide management decisions and the development of mitigation strategies to protect highly valued species in the system from potential future threats.
Spatial mismatch of coarse resolution projections in Global Climate Models (GCMs) is a major constraint in site-specific climate impact predictions. The objectives of this study were to: (1) statistically downscale MRI monthly data at coarse resolution grid scale to station scale in the Sendai plain, Japan using transfer function method, and (2) estimate the potential range of groundwater temperature change in future from different GCM scenarios. Field observations of groundwater temperature and groundwater level were made in five observation wells. A water budget technique was applied to account for the changes of groundwater recharge in the future. A one-dimensional heat transport model was calibrated to the present day and used with the downscaled GCM results and potential recharge variations for predicting aquifer temperature change. The strongest effects were estimated that probably increase surface air temperature by 3.3°C and annual precipitation by 82 mm (7% from 1967 to 2006) during 2060-2099. The overall results show that the aquifer temperature, under the changed ground surface temperature and precipitation, will increase in a range of 1.1 to 2.6°C.
Pavement management systems are crucial because of monitoring the current pavement condition to supply safe, efficient, comfortable and durable riding surface for vehicles. Driving safety is the most important issue, which is closely related to pavement surface texture. The texture of the pavement surface and its ability to resist the polishing effect of heavy traffic is an important parameter in providing necessary skidding resistance during the service life. In this study, 4 different asphalt pavement sections located in Izmir/TURKEY with having different traffic characteristics were investigated every three months for two years aiming to evaluate the effect of traffic volume on the surface textural and frictional properties of the pavement. The textural properties were evaluated using sand patch test (SPT) and a 3D Laser Scanning System (LSS), while Dynamic Friction Tester (DFT) was employed to assess the frictional properties. As a result, lower Mean Texture Depth (MTD) and Mean Profile Depth (MPD) values were obtained for the increased traffic volumes. High correlation was derived between macro and micro textural properties of the asphalt pavement. Additionally, the textural and frictional properties were found highly related for the investigated asphalt pavement surfaces.
During research on Pelamis-Like wave energy converters based on AQWA, influence of buoys structural parameters on capturing energy is generally considered under a specific damping. However, different buoys structural parameters match variable optimal damping values. Studying through a particular damping all the time may interfere with buoys structural parameters analysis and cause incomplete results. This paper optimizes parameters of Pelamis-Like wave energy converters through Isight, AQWA and Matlab to ensure an optimal match between buoys structural parameters and optimal damping. Taking China’s sea conditions of short-wave period and small wavelength into account, the influence of buoys structural parameters ( float section, ratio between buoy length and wavelength, draft and number of buoys) and wave parameters ( wave period and amplitude) on capturing energy and factor are analyzed in a comprehensive manner under optimal damping conditions. The results show that elliptical buoy section can improve capturing energy ability. A large amount of energy can be obtained when buoy length approaches to half of wavelength. Increasing the draft has a smaller impact on capturing energy, and 4 or 5 buoys are better for capturing energy. By optimizing buoy length and capturing energy characteristics, the suitable buoy length for Chinese sea conditions is proposed.
We discuss the influence of solar activity on pluvial precipitation from time series of Lithuania (1910-1993) and Estonia (1866-1993), and using data of sunspots areas (1866-1993). By means of autoregressive and spectral methods for monthly and annual series we obtain significant cycles for solar and terrestrial processes with periods of 6 and 12 months, and 2.5 and 11 years. The analysis of the annual series of Estonian precipitation and sunspot areas features changes in the 11 year cycle, reduced to 9 years between 1915 and 1956; also, a significant oscillation with a period of 5 years in the last 6 decades was determined. The cospectra of the solar and climatic processes agree with other works and support the common nature of all cycles and the influenc e of the solar activity on the climate variability.
The use of the renewable energy resources is important due to economic and ecological issues, so they become the most critical concern of governments. And when there is no manage on the electric vehicles charging, the reduces of proper utilization of resources by the high penetration of electric vehicles in the distribution gridt For these reasons, needs to a solution for PHEV charging management, due to the curve of renewable energy sources. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible impact of PHEV on the penetration of renewable resources in a residential distribution grid. Additionally, the study develops a charging management program to increase from renewable resources for penetration. The fmding show that, this program is made to increase use of renewable energy resources by consumers and reducing received power of the conventional generation.
Dairy farmers (landowners) in the Willamette Valley have constructed long term manure  storage ponds for containing manure and rainwater volume during the winter period  (generally designed for 180 days). These liquid volumes are applied to crop fields  primarily from April to November (irrigation season), and on occasion during the  remaining months (storage season).  Landowners have asked for some form of irrigation scheduling. They recognize the  need to improve water use, reduce surface erosion, and minimize deep leaching of  solutes such as nitrate nitrogen. In short, they apply liquid volumes without a clear  understanding of how much to apply based on soil moisture conditions.  A series of Weather Stations were established on four dairy farms in the Willamette  Valley. Watermark (Irrometer Company, Riverside, Calif.) granular matric sensors were  established in crop fields. The Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) is being derived  for these fields. Landowners will soon have a greater knowledge of their crop fields in  terms of volumetric water content at a given matric potential. More precise liquid volumes can be applied during the irrigation season and possibly  during the typical storage period.  The end result of this work improves water use by landowners, optimizes crop yield, reduces surface  runoff and the potential for deep leaching of solutes through the vadose zone, and improves the  overall water resources in the Willamette River Watershed [USGS Hydrologic Unit Codes: HUC  1709005 (North Santiam), and HUC 1709007 (Middle Willamette)].
Objective To evaluate the effect of different brands of pressure steam sterilization chemical indicator cards on sterilization quality.Methods Based on the premise that the pulsation vacuum pressure steam sterilizer was in normal state and with qualified sterilization performance,involving four different brands of pressure steam sterilization chemical indicator cards,the study included two experiment groups with physical monitoring prompt indicating sterilization failure modes and control group with biological monitoring and monitoring with chemical indicator cards under normal sterilization condition,and the monitoring results were compared.Results In experiment group one,qualified rate of biological monitoring was 0,of which two brands of pressure steam sterilization chemical indicator cards showed the qualified rate were 56%,67% respectively while in experiment group two,qualified rate of biological monitoring was 22%,of which two brands of pressure steam sterilization chemical indicator cards showed both the qualified rates were 100%;in control group,all the monitorings met sterilization qualified standard,which were consistent with biological monitoring.Conclusion Under the condition that time,temperature,steam pressure,steam saturation were not up to the standard conditions,there is a significant difference between the results of pressure steam sterilization chemical indicator card monitoring and biological monitoring.Sterilization quality is determined not only by the monitoring results of the chemical card,but by physical parameters and biological monitoring results
There is a long history of potassium (K) fertilization research in the North-Central Region that has focused on developing soil-test K (STK) interpretations and K fertilization strategies. Research in Iowa has been particularly extensive because of the large area dedicated to row-crop production and STK levels varies much across the state. Loess derived soils in western areas are high in STK but levels decrease towards eastern areas. Increasing frequency of crop K deficiency symptoms has been observed in the region since the early 1990s. Particularly severe problems in Iowa prompted renewed field research that identified problems and justified major changes to K fertilizer recommendations. Two major changes were to recommend maintaining higher STK levels for optimum crop production and deep K placement for crops managed with no-till and ridge-till systems. Other changes adjusted suggested K concentration in harvested products and default yield values used to estimate maintenance fertilization. This article discusses reasons for the most important changes and for ongoing research.
Wetlands are highly productive and support a wide variety of ecosystem goods and services. Various forms of global change impose compelling needs for timely and reliable information on the status of wetlands worldwide, but several characteristics of wetlands make them challenging to monitor remotely: they lack a single, unifying land-cover feature; they tend to be highly dynamic and their energy signatures are constantly changing; and steep environmental gradients in and around wetlands produce narrow ecotones that often are below the resolving capacity of remote sensors. These challenges and needs set the context for a special issue focused on wetland remote sensing. Contributed papers responded to one of three overarching questions aimed at improving remote, large-area monitoring of wetlands: (1) What approaches and data products are being developed specifically to support regional to global long-term monitoring of wetland landscapes? (2) What are the promising new technologies and sensor/multisensor approaches for more accurate and consistent detection of wetlands? (3) Are there studies that demonstrate how remote long-term monitoring of wetland landscapes can reveal changes that correspond with changes in land cover and land use and/or changes in climate?
This study simulates optical depth of marine warm clouds for year 2001 based on interactively predicted aerosols concentrations with a global chemical transport model (CTM) driven by the ERA-40 re-analysis meteorological data. The simulated aerosol and cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) largely reproduce the variations between polluted and pristine marine environment as revealed by surface and aircraft measurements. By constraining cloud liquid water path (CLWP) with satellite microwave measurements, the simulated global and southern hemispheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) and cloud optical depth (COD) are well within 10% of the observed values. As a result of larger anthropogenic aerosol loadings over the northern oceans, the simulated CDNC and COD are, respectively, by 51 and 18% higher than those over the southern oceans, while the column-averaged droplet effective radius is 13% smaller. These simulated interhemispheric differences, while qualitatively consistent with satellite observations, are larger than the observations. Inclusion of drizzle effect improved the disparities but not entirely. The constrained CTM generally captures the seasonality in AOD and CLWP observations, and demonstrates that annual cycle of COD is dominated by CLWP. During winter monsoon the simulated and observed COD correlate more strongly with changes in AOD over the N. Indian Ocean.
The present work had an objective to compare the stable infiltration rate obtained by infiltrometers with reduced dimensions and varied forms in different land uses, in order to reduce the amount of water used and to facilitate the installation of infiltrometers. The infiltration tests were carried out in areas planted with cowpea, crotalaria, pigeon pea and millet, as crops previous to corn planting, and managed with no-tillage, minimum tillage and conventional tillage. The tests were also carried out in native forest area. Four infiltrometers set were used: double-ring infiltrometer (standard), double-ring reduced, single-ring and double square. In order to compare and analyze the results of the stable infiltration rates obtained between the alternative infiltrometers and the considered standard, the criteria involving the standard error of estimation (SEE), the standard error of estimation adjusted (SEEa), the standard error of estimation adjusted by origin (SEEao) and coefficients of adjustments of the linear equations with their respective determination coefficients (R) were used. It was verified that the double-ring reduced, single-ring and double square infiltrometers provided water saving of 57.06%, 66.19% and 38.54% respectively, relative to the standard. The alternative infiltrometers overestimated the stable infiltration rate in relation to the standard. The single-ring infiltrometer obtained a stable infiltration rate correction equation that showed results very close to the standard and the best statistical indices of stable infiltration rate results were obtained by the reduced double-ring infiltrometer.
A priority task for developing the Baikal region (the Irkutsk Oblast, Buryatia Republic, and Zabaikal region) is to modernize the existing chemical industry, and to build new facilities which are oriented on usage of both natural gas and its components, and producing high value added products. Being used as the power-generating and process fuel, gas could allow replacing expensive fuel oil and solving many social and ecologic problems. The Kovykta Gas Condensate Field ready for its commercial operation could become a resource base for such gasification. The paper also presents the economic assessment of building the new gas processing works and gas-chemical plants in the territory of the Baikal region; the efficiency of methane usage as fuel by different consumer's groups; a comparative analysis of several regional gas supply systems; and what is required the recommendations proposed to be realised.
China is the leading country for production of edible mushrooms and also outputs numerous mushroom residues. The recycling of mushroom residue can solve environmental pollution problems, provide nutrients for the farmland, and play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing soil carbon sequestration capacity. In order to investigate the effects of mushroom residue amounts on net greenhouse gas emissions in purple paddy soil, potted experiments using static opaque chamber and gas chromatography methods were used to study the changes of greenhouse gases, soil carbon sequestration, and net greenhouse gas emissions (NGHGE) in the paddy soil with five treatments: no fertilizer (CK), conventional fertilization (NPK), 9 t·hm-2 mushroom residue+NPK (LM), 18 t·hm-2 mushroom residue+NPK (MM), and 36 t·hm2 mushroom residue+NPK (HM) from March 2017 to September 2017.The results showed that: ① The greenhouse gas emissions (including CH4, CO2, and N2O) increased with increasing additions of mushroom residue. The emissions of CH4 from highest to lowest followed: HM > MM > LM≈NPK > CK. The HM treatment significantly increased the CH4 emission flux (P<0.01) more than the other treatments and showed an obvious single peak curve, while the CH4 emission flux with the LM treatment showed a bimodal curve, and the MM treatment showed a multiple peak curve. The CO2 emission flux followed: MM > NPK≈LM > HM > CK; and the curves for the LM, MM, and HM treatments were a single peak curve, bimodal curve, and multiple peak curve, respectively. The N2O cumulative emission from the NPK treatment was significantly higher than with the other treatments. The N2O emission flux of the NPK treatment was a bimodal curve and that of the HM treatment was a single peak curve, while the N2O emission flux of treatments LM and MM showed multiple peak curves. ② The carbon sequestration capacity with the LM treatment was lower than that of the other treatments and that from the MM treatment was the highest. The carbon sequestration capacity of the MM treatment increased by 59.2% compared to that of the NPK treatment and increased by 87.79% and 65.65% compared to that of the LM and HM treatments. The LM treatment has the highest carbon sequestration capacity, which was higher than that of the NPK and MM treatments and about 2.1 times greater than the CK treatment and HM treatment. ③ The minimum NGHGE value was -490.29 kg·hm-2 for the whole rice production period, and 18 t·hm-2 mushroom residue applied to the soil was the best way to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions in purple paddy soil.
Nuclear power plant construction noise impact has been quantified by use of the Equivalent Population Impact (Peq) concept recently used by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to assess the effect of portable air compressor regulation. Numerous construction scenarios, consisting of the constructinn of coal‐fired and nuclear power plants with and without cooling towers, were studied. These scenarios were studied using two approaches which considered both the ambient sound level and the change in ambient sound level. An additional method is discussed using a “normalized” Ldn as suggested in EPA “Levels Document” (EPA 550/9‐74‐004 (1974)). These methods are exemplified using a case study of a recent environmental assessment undertaken for a public utility.
The study measured the change and growth rate in area, production, and yield of wheat in Ethiopia based on secondary data during 1991/92-2012/13. Pared t-test was used to identify the significant change in area, production and yield of wheat between the periods 1991/92-2001/02 and 2002/03-2012/13. And semi-log model was applied to measure the compound annual growth rate of wheat for period I (1991/92 to 2001/02), period II (2002/03 to 2012/13) and the whole period (1991/92 to 2012/13). The results revealed that, yield and production of wheat increased satisfactorily from period I to period II. But area was not increased significantly. The compound growth rate in yield of wheat improved rapidly in period-II, whereas the growth rate in area and production decreased slightly. This shows us that increasing production through increasing the area may not be feasible without reducing the area share of other crops. Therefore to meet the growing demand of manufacturing industries, increasing the yield potential would be the solution in the long-run.
Knowledge of species ecology and biology in general and characteristics of its acclimatization in a particular region are the basis for its successful selection. In this work, the authors present the results of long-term phenological observations of Castanea sativa Mill. since its planting (1967). Ecological and biological analysis has showed some discrepancies in the passage of phenophases. If the growth processes were not completed before the onset of the autumn-winter cold weather, then in recent years the leaf fall ends at the end of October, annual shoots lignify, growth and generative buds are formed. But, in general, it allows us to draw conclusions about the correspondence of the seasonal rhythms of development of the studied sowing chestnut as an introduced species to their local ecological-phytocenotic analogues. It was experimentally established that the fruits of the chestnut do not need pre-sowing treatment, because seed germination is high (70%). The groups of leading factors influencing the stability and development of the species as a whole (in the study area) have been identified. These are: lack of heat in summer, which affects the formation of fruits; short autumn period with high temperature drops, which limits the ripening of the shoots; different spring periods, contributing to the loss of hardening; unstable winter with sharp cold snaps and thaws, intensifying the nature of winter damage
We divide Xiaoshuijing gold mine tailings pond ecological reconstruction into f ive test types (economic, ecological protection, native-plant protection, soil improvement and landscape-type) to explore different purposes and different construction technology of ecological restoration. Test results show that the various types of ecological restoration in the restoration of vegetation, soil and water conservation, improve land productivity, improve landscape achieved good results, but the ecological protection and native-plant protection are the best with lower cost. In practice we can combine the two applications.
Remotely sensed microwave measurements provide useful but indirect observations of surface soil moisture. Ground‐based measurements are more direct but are very localized and limited in coverage. Model predictions provide a more regional perspective but rely on many simplifications and approximations and depend on inputs that are difficult to obtain over extensive areas. The only effective way to achieve soil moisture estimates with the accuracy and coverage required for hydrologic and meteorological applications is to merge information from satellites, ground‐based stations, and models. In this paper we describe a convenient data merging (or data assimilation) procedure based on an ensemble Kalman filter. This procedure is illustrated with an application to the Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP97) field experiment. It uses land surface and radiative transfer models to derive soil moisture estimates from airborne L band microwave observations and ground‐based measurements of micrometeorological variables, soil texture, and vegetation type. The ensemble filter approach is appealing because (1) it can accommodate a wide range of models, (2) it can account for input and measurement uncertainties, (3) it provides information on the accuracy of its estimates, and (4) it is relatively efficient, making large‐scale applications feasible. Results from our SGP97 application of the ensemble Kalman filter include large‐scale maps (∼10,000 km2) of soil moisture estimates and estimation error standard deviations for the entire month long experiment and comparisons of filter soil moisture and latent heat estimates to ground truth measurements (gravimetric and flux tower observations). The ground truth comparisons show that the filter is able to track soil moisture fluctuations. The filter estimates are significantly better than those from an “open loop” simulation that includes the same ground‐based data but does not incorporate radio brightness measurements. Overall, the results from this field test indicate that the ensemble Kalman filter is an accurate, efficient, and flexible data assimilation procedure that is able to extract useful information from remote sensing measurements.
Recent changes in the EU green aims can help to overcome economic obstacles in the slow upscaling of Miscanthus cultivation. Using Miscanthus can permanently fix CO           2         within building materials thereby aiding the EU climate goals with the increased use of regrowing materials, as well as carbon fixation. Economic obstacles in the slow upscaling of Miscanthus cultivation are targeted by recent changes in the greening aims in the EU. Miscanthus can fulfill a valuable dual function in aiding the EU climate goals by achieving permanent CO           2         fixation within building materials. In contrast to energetic use, persistent applications create stable markets allowing for a reduced risk in the establishment of long term cultured perennial crops. However, the development of different building materials requires an understanding of the combination of the biological and technical aspects. This work presents an overview of the development of the general aspects for the agricultural product Miscanthus and the scientifically reported developments of Miscanthus used as feedstock in polymers, particle boards, and cementitious materials. While the product performance can be evaluated, the understanding of the influence by the input biomass as a main contributor to the product performance needs to be reinforced to be successful with a goal-oriented development of Miscanthus based products. The key feedstock parameters governing the technical performance of the materials are identified and the knowledge gaps are described.
Access to affordable, reliable, modern and sustainable energy is one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations for 2030. However, estimates indicate that progress towards that goal is not on track: 650 million people worldwide are estimated to remain without access to electricity in 2030 (IEA, IRENA, UNSD, WB, WHO, 2019). Nine out of ten of these people will live in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), mostly in rural communities, which face barriers in terms of affordability and supply.
Go out in your backyard and look around. Watch the fish weaving among the water lilies, the dragonflies moving in glittering arcs above the little pool. Don't move – the robins are busy feeding their youngsters in that nest above your head; squirrels are edging down the beech trunks behind you and darting into the shrubbery. The wisteria on your stone wall is almost irresistible to the humming bird that just appeared, and song sparrows are adding their notes to a tangle of birdsong sifting down from the oaks and maples. If you're really patient, that timid cottontail might bring her brood onto the grass for one last taste of the dew-silvered grass. This isn't your yard, you say? It could be.NOTE: this file is best viewed as a 2-page spread.
We use the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model (1) to project emissions of SO2, black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) for reference and climate policy cases for 16 global regions (2). In both cases, air pollution policy is endogenous (paramaterized similarly), so we are able to isolate co-bene ts. EPPA is a computable general equilibrium model that projects economic activity and emissions for 16 global regions. PROJECTED FUTURE EMISSIONS UNDER CLIMATE POLICIES
Concern about declining stocks of municipally managed shellfish species in Orleans, Massachusetts, led to several shellfish enhancement programs. Projects included bottom and raft culture of hatchery-raised seed, hatchery and upweller techniques, transplants of seed and adult shellfish, and other management options. However, deterioration of water quality and habitat prompted the town to initiate a multifaceted program to address the issues causing environmental degradation. A water-quality task force, appointed to determine solutions to the problems, recommended changes in land-use practices. A drainage remediation program was undertaken at five sites, resulting in the reopening of a viable shellfish area for the first time in 12 yr. Issues concerning nutrient enrichment, groundwater flow and depth, flushing characteristics of the embayments, proliferation of private docks and piers in the public tidelands, effect of barrier beach dynamics including erosion control measures, and the number of users and diversity of their activies employed on the waters themselves will be addressed in current municipal planning initiatives.
This paper presents the effect of soil material model on slope under vibration loading. A hard consistency clay is assumed within an example slope profile with the height of 10m and angle 25 for the evaluations. The linear elastic, Mohr-Coulomb and hardening soil models are considered using 2D finite element method by dynamic analysis. The results indicate that the velocities evaluated by the soil models are within the safety limits and accepted for the design. The soil models almost perform same values for factor of safety (not for linear elastic) and velocities. This study is believed to be beneficial for the applications in practice.
Abstract : Pilots flying high performance aircraft under sustained acceleration in an ACM (Air Combat Maneuver) have been exposed to an additional stress imposed upon them by their heavy, unstable helmet and its related oxygen mask. A newly developed lightweight mold-in-place helmet with an integrated oxygen mask system was dynamically tested on the Naval Air Development Center (NAVAIRDEVCEN) human centrifuge in a simulated ACM acceleration profile. Four pilots, each wearing three variations of the prototype helmet, were exposed to a peak of 6 Gz in 10 seconds, held for approximately 4 seconds, returned to 2 Gz, then built up to 4 Gz in 10 seconds, held for approximately 4 seconds and then returned to a plateau of either 3 Gz or 1 Gz for a total time of 4 minutes. Performance measurements were made during the plateaus. The pilots used the APH-6 single visor helmet as a standard for the conventional HGU-35/P helmet and a VTAS-II helmet (lightweight, mold-in-place helmet assembly using an A-13A oxygen mask and an add-on VTAS electronic/optical system) as a standard of comparison for the VTAS-III (an HGU-35/P integrated oxygen mask system and an integrated VTAS electronic/optical system). Based upon a perfect score of 100, the overall evaluation of the helmets tested scored as follows: APH-6 (57.5), VTAS-II (46), HGU-35P High Pressure (79), HGU-35 Low Pressure (77.5, and the VTAS-III (71). (Author)
The reduction of humidity inside a greenhouse is a key factor to ensure the quality of the crop and avoid the incidence of cryptogamic diseases. The method commonly used is a combination of heating and natural ventilation, although it is very deficient from the energy and environmental points of view. In cold and humid climates the use of a heat pump dehumidifier (HPD) can reduce energy consumption. To evaluate this technology in a Mediterranean climate, an HPD was installed in a greenhouse of the Cajamar Experimental Station in Almería. The environmental humidity inside the greenhouse decreased when using the HPD. The efficiency of the HPD was related to the value of the condensation temperature of the water vapor and to the temperature and humidity of the air inside the greenhouse. In addition, it was found that the energy efficiency of the system varied according to climate. For efficient management of HPD it is essential to know the influence of climate on energy efficiency. The flow of condensed water vapor and the power consumed presented differing behaviors. Thus, the production of liquid water correlated linearly with the condensation temperature, increasing the slope of the linear relationship with the temperature of the air inside the greenhouse. However, the power consumption was correlated linearly with the air temperature. The management of the system is efficient when the air temperature is above 15.0oC and the relative humidity is less than 90%.
It is known that a stressed state of ice cover appears due to the inner transfer of wind and water pressure through ice. Ice movement observed in some one point depends not only on force acting in this point, but on forces acting in all surroundings. Using drifting stations with special devices there is the possibility to estimate causal dependence between a stressed state in some local point and stress fields in large areas. Upon analyzing 4 equations for 4 characteristics of spatial irregularity of ice drift, it is found that ridging of ice can be connected with drift divergence or with deformation. This is because any change in the form of an ice cover element must be accompanied by regrouping of ice floes and their clash if ice concentration is enough. Dynamic phenomena in ice cover lead to specific acoustic noise under the ice. Knowing the statistical dependence ofthe acoustic pressure in water on wind velocity, ice drift, air temperature, deformation, divergence and other parameters and their derivatives, the equation of multicorrelation can be obtained, and it can be used for estimation of the stressed state of the ice cover.
The utility model discloses a power supply cabinet. When the power supply cabinet is switched on, a first high-voltage vacuum contactor connected with a high-voltage input end electrifies a high-voltage output end through a starting resistance, so the current which flows through a high-voltage output power supply can be reduced through flowing through the starting resistance; and after the preset time is prolonged, a second high-voltage vacuum contactor is used for absorption, so that the first high-voltage vacuum contactor and the second high-voltage vacuum contactor can directly electrify the high-voltage input end and the high-voltage output end. Therefore, the utility model can inhibit the peak current when the high voltage is adopted; thus the voltage of the high-voltage output power supply can not directly reach the rating; and the soft power supply is realized. Moreover, only the normally open button for instantaneous shutdown is required to be pressed so as to disconnect the first high-voltage vacuum contactor and the second high-voltage vacuum contactor to stop the high-voltage power supply output. After a certain period of stopping, the utility model can restore the high-voltage power supply output, and thus the instantaneous shutdown is realized.
In order to maximize the accumulation and preserve of limited natural rainfall in the soil and to increase its efficiency of usage at all possible ways,field experiments and large-scale demonstrations were combined and techniques of planting spring maize with fallen stalk in both sides of strip film mulching in no-tillage dryland,which coupled two techniques of no-tilling with fallen stalk mulched in winter fallow period and planting in both sides of strip-mulching film in growth period,were used to regulate water,fertilizer,air and heat in dryland and to fully utilize natural rainfall.Therefore,the spring maize grew healthily and its yield increased significantly and water utilization rate reached the maximum.Meanwhile,these techniques had effects of increasing organic matter in soil and decreasing sand and dust and improving ecological environment and promoting sustainable agricultural development,thus,they had wide application prospects.
The development of numerical calculation, GIS, rain detection with radar, and satellite cloud image promotes the development of the distributed watershed hydrologic model. It is pointed out that the structure of the distributed hydrologic model can be divided into the conceptual type and the physics based type, or the coupling type and the non coupling type. Besides, an analysis is performed of approaches to the derivation of the theoretical relationship between parameters of runoff and natural geographic factors for determination of parameters of the distributed hydrological model.
The paper presents hydraulic conductivity, unconfined compression strength (UCS) and triaxial test results of an 11 year old slag-cement-bentonite (CB) cut-off wall material and identifies factors affecting their long-term performance. The laboratory tests were performed on three types of CB samples ranging from contaminated block field samples to uncontaminated laboratory cast samples. The results showed that hydraulic conductivity reduces till 3 years and UCS increases till 90 days, but there after it remains constant till 11 years of age. The mean hydraulic conductivity and UCS values of block field samples are inferior and have large variability than laboratory cured samples. Such variations are mainly because of heterogeneity caused by aggressive environment and impurities within the specimen. Consolidated undrained triaxial test found that under an effective confining pressure of less than 200 kPa, tension failure occurred since the minor principal stress dropped to zero value at failure. The research outcome is useful for understanding future liability of CB wall and improving their design. © 2009 IOS Press.
Remotely sensed reflectance parameters from corn and soybean surfaces can be correlated to crop production. Surface reflectance of a typical Upper Midwest corn /soybean region in central Iowa across multiple years reveal subtle dynamics in vegetative surface response to a continually varying climate. From 2006 through 2014 remotely sensed data have been acquired over production fields of corn and soybeans in central IA, U.S.A. with the fields alternating between corn and soybeans. The data have been acquired using ground-based radiometers with 16 wavebands covering the visible, near infrared, shortwave infrared wavebands and combined into a series of vegetative indices. These data were collected on clear days with the goal of collecting data at a minimum of once per week from prior to planting until after fall tillage operations. Within each field, five sites were established and sampled during the year to reduce spatial variation and allow for an assessment of changes in the vegetative indices throughout the growing season. Ancillary data collected for each crop included the phenological stage at each sampling date along with biomass sampled at the onset of the reproductive stage and at physiological maturity. Evaluation of the vegetative indices for the different years revealed that patterns were related to weather effects on corn and soybean growth. Remote sensing provides a method to evaluate changes within and among growing seasons to assess crop growth and development as affected by differences in weather variability.
An ecosystem simulation model was developed to investigate potential mechanisms controlling the size-structured phytoplankton and nutrient dynamics in the mesohaline zone of the York River estuary. The model included 12 state variables in a unit volume (m 3 ) describing the distri- bution of carbon and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) in the surface mixed layer. General size-scale relationships and density-dependent feedback control terms were used in the ecosystem model. Forcing functions included incident solar radiation, water temperature, wind stress, river flow and tide, which include advective transport and turbulent mixing. Advective transport and turbulent mix- ing were incorporated into the model explicitly without coupling to other hydrodynamic models. The ecosystem model was developed in Fortran90 using differential equations that were solved numeri- cally using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta (explicit ) technique. After calibrating the ecosystem model, forcing and state variables in the model were validated using pre-existing data and field data col- lected over an annual cycle. Model predictions for forcing and state variables generally followed the pattern of field observations and were within the range of field data. Model sensitivity analysis was also performed to examine how sensitive model output was to specified changes in parameter values. Model output was not sensitive to changes in most parameters, suggesting that the model is relatively robust. These results suggested that the model including explicit feedback controls and hydro- dynamic processes captures plankton/nutrient dynamics and can be used for additional modeling analyses of phytoplankton and nutrient dynamics in the York River estuary, Virginia.
Composition and concentrations of air pollutants in particles have been shown to have a correlation with differences in mortality counts in different parts of the world. These particles are also able to deteriorate health especially the respiratory system and may lead to mortality. Toxic metals in these particles are associated with respiratory diseases and lung cancer in school children. The effects of HM toxicity are more severe to the schoolchildren as their immune system is not fully developed yet. Thus, this study aims to analyse the HM composition in particles collected inside the classroom during the school days (occupied) and the weekends (vacant), and to determine pattern of HM concentration from particles based on different location backgrounds (residential, industrial and rural). In order to achieve these objectives, the following samplings were done. The particles were simultaneously collected using GilAir-5 air pump sampler (Sensidyne, USA) inside and outside the classrooms. The sampling was done for a minimum of 8 hours. The exposed Mixed Cellulose Ester (MCE) membrane filters (0.8 µm, 37 mm) were digested following the International Standard Test Method (ASTM) for Determination of Elements in Airborne Particulate Matter by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The compositions of metals in particles were determined using ICP-MS NexION™ 300× (PerkinElmer, USA). From the result obtained, concentrations of Al, Zn and Pb inside the classrooms were higher compared to the other elements like Cr, Mg, Cd and Cu. Meanwhile, HM concentration detected in the industrial site was higher compared to the residential and rural sites.
This study was carried out during the period of 2006-2008 in order to assess the rain use efficiency factor and the grazing capacity of Preveza Prefecture rangelands by applying Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques and field work. Climatic data and forage production of representative range types were recorded for this study period. About 51.4 percent of total rangelands area has rain use efficiency value below 2 kg/ha/mm ranging from 0.00 to 2.00 kg/ ha/ mm. The rest 48.6 percent accounts to 2.01-4.00 kg/ha/mm. The grazing capacity value of Preveza Prefecture rangelands ranges from 0.00 to 8.80 AU/ha. The results also show that only 0.8 percent of total rangeland area is below 2.10 AU/ha and only 24.6 percent of total area is above 6.3 AU/ha. The results further show that forage production of Preveza Prefecture rangelands exhibit a high variation in relation to topography. Also, it seems that in grasslands and phrygana range types the usable forage is inadequate to meet the grazing animal requirements. However, long-term results are required to improve the accuracy of evaluations in Greek rangeland ecosystems.
Moisture sources and their corresponding temperature and humidity are important for explosive extratropical cyclones’ development regarding latent heating. To clarify the water origins and moisture-transport processes within an explosive cyclone, we simulated an explosive cyclone migrating poleward across the Sea of Japan on November 30, 2014, by using an isotopic regional spectral model. In the cyclone’s center area, a replacement of water origins occurred during the cyclone’s development. During the early stage, the warm conveyor belt (WCB) transported large amounts of moisture from the East China Sea and Kuroshio into the cyclone’s inner region. While in the deepening stage, the cold conveyor belt (CCB) and dry intrusion (DI) conveyed more moisture from the Northwest Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, respectively. Compared with the contribution of local moisture, that of remote moisture was dominant in the cyclone’s center area. Regarding the water origins of condensation within the frontal system in the deepening stage, the Northwest Pacific Ocean vapors, principally transported by the CCB, contributed 35.5% of the condensation in the western warm front. The East China Sea and Kuroshio moisture, conveyed by the WCB, accounted for 32.4% of the condensation in the cold and eastern warm fronts. In addition, condensation from the Sea of Japan, which was mainly triggered by the DI and induced by the topography, occurred on the west coast of the mainland of Japan and near the cyclone center. The spatial distribution of the isotopic composition in condensation and water vapor also supports the water-origin results.
Compost stability represents the state of microbiological activity and measurements of respiration either through evolution or uptake should provide the best indication of this state. Hog manure amended with sawdust was composted in a pilot-scale reactor vessels using continuous and intermittent aeration for 3 weeks. In this study we evaluated the respiration rate effect of aeration method on the reduction of evolution, and investigated the stability of fresh and finished compost for plant growth. The intermittently aerated composting is a practical proposition for a very stable compost making. The respiration rate in the fresh and finished compost during intermittently aerated composting was maintained from 0.3 to 1.4 and was good for use in horticulture, while the continuously aerated composting was 7 to 23 and needed more time for compost curing.
The countryside irrigation engineering mainly refers to the village level jurisdiction below the lateral canal the field project.According to field project present situation and irrigation water use factor analysis in Huihe river irrigation area,the saving water plan was proposed and the benefit analysis and the economic evaluation to this project were carried on,which provided the idea for development and realization of water resources in future in the area.
Remote sensing technique constructs a regression model to describe the relations between Aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the ground PM2.5 concentration. However, potential effects from meteorological and geographical factors on the regression models have never been carefully investigated. The manuscript selects three main meteorological variables and two major geographical variables, and investigates their impacts in the performance of geographical weighted regression (GWR) and ordinary least square (OLS) models for estimating ground PM2.5 concentration. Preliminary results on the case of Yangtze River Delta show that meteorological factors have more significant influence on the estimation of PM2.5 concentration than geographical factors. Moreover, the observations tell that the GWR is more preferably to estimate PM2.5 concentration than the OLS.
In mid-1971, NASA began a major program in emission reduction technology, which would consist of a continuing in-house effort on low emission combustor concepts and of contracted research programs with the major aircraft engine manufacturers. A description is presented of the design approaches taken by the manufacturers involved in the contracted programs. Current results are compared with EPA standards, and some of the engine related factors are briefly considered. In addition, some results from fundamental technology programs which indicate the emission levels which may be approached by advanced low emission combustors of the future are also discussed. It is found that special engine design features represent at least a partial solution to reducing aircraft emissions for engines of the future.
The study on some physico-Chemical and biological characteristics of Noyyal river at Tirupur, Coimbatore district was carried out. The sampling points were selected on the basis of their importance. Most of the drainage system of Tirupur carrying dyeing waste, industrial effluents and sewage, are allowed to mix with river water in and around the city. Water Quality Index (WQI) for Noyyal river at its source and before and after Tirupur has been calculated. For surface water, determination of water quality index becomes essential and prerequisite. Water quality index provides a system for rating water quality in terms of index numbers that offer promise as a useful tool in the administration of water pollution abatement.
Surgical laser plume ejector 12 comprises ejector body which forms a shape adapted for use in the normal position, it is placed close to and substantially completely surrounding the tissue site to be subjected to laser surgery. Ejector body has a structure where the negative plume. A main body connected with the exclusion from the plume and projecting ejector body outlet portion. Plume outlet portion 14 may be connected to a vacuum source, a vacuum is applied to the ejector body through which the plume produced at the surgical site during surgery due to exclusion from the surgical site through the body and the outlet portion plume excluded.
Abstract : The long-term goals are to understand how the marginal ice edge zone (MIZ) interacts with the open ocean in an oceanographic/meteorological/ biological sense. This includes understanding the processes and dynamics for the generation, dissipation and role of mesoscale eddies and chimneys in the MIZ (and in the open ocean after the ice has retreated or melted) in the Greenland Sea/Fram Strait. A further goal is to understand how these physical features interact with the biological and chemical oceanography causing enhancement of biological production in the MIZ and adjacent open ocean. All of this is aimed at understanding the physical and biological controls on the visible and acoustic environment of the MIZ. It is also aimed at understanding the effects of interannual variability and global change which result in variability in flux of carbon, through primary production, to the deep ocean possibly buffering CO2 in the atmosphere.
Studies about the zooplankton flux between the Santa Cruz Channel (SCC) - at Catuama inlet - and the Adjacent Continental Shelf (ACS) were carried out to quantify this exchange and to define the planktonic Decapoda transport mechanism and migration. Sampling were done at spring (05 and 06/08/2001) and neap (11 and 12/08/2001) tides, each 3 hours interval, during 15 hours at spring tide (n = 32 samples) and 24 hours at neap tide (n = 56 samples). The samples were collected in three fixed stations (Middle or Convergence, Continent and Island) in three depths (surface, middle and bottom). Each sample was obtained with a pump and the water was filtered through a plankton net (300 µm), from 3 to 5 minutes. After collection the samples were fixed with 4% neutralized formaldehyde. Simultaneous current velocity and direction data were obtained using an acoustic current profile (ADCP), besides temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen data. In laboratory, the samples were weighted to obtain the plankton biomass wet weight. Each sample was totally inspected under a estereomicroscope. The Catuama Inlet presented a high biomass data variability, with higher values mainly during the spring tide. The instantaneous biomass average transport was 98.10±75.92 mg.m-2.s-1, during spring tide, and of 31.46±26.52 mg.m-2.s-1, during neap tide. Higher biomass transport levels were associated to high density of Brachyura, Calanoida and Sergestoida. In relation to the organisms average transport the values were 831.47±1192.53 org.m-2.s-1, during spring tide and of 342.33±445.80 org.m-2.s-1, during neap tide. Higher biomass and organisms transport were observed during the night (flood and ebb tides). The importation and exportation flux did not present significative differences (p>0.05), suggesting that in some periods of the year the values can have the same magnitude order. Probably, this was caused by a strong marine influence in the studied area due estuarine fronts in the S
In the developing countries increase in population, improper urbanization and industrialization causing many issues to the ecosystem and the environment. Industrial Pollution has been a great concern for decades. Mainly Tanning industries located in many places of India as small scale industry. These small scale industries mostly running in the houses discharge partially treated and untreated effluents with high concentration of Chromium V1 into the water bodies. Research Study was initiated with proto type lab scale model to identify a suitable alternative technique to reduce the concentration toxic compound present in Chrome tannery wastewater. Coupling of two techniques like constructed wetland and Biochar as adsorbent. Main objective is to identify the efficiency of constructed wetland with coconut shell biochar as an adsorbent. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are artificial developed engineered systems which are formulated and constructed to operate the natural processes like vegetative wetlands, natural soils, with connected microbial assemblages helps in treating wastewaters by the action of filtration, adsorption, sedimentation and phytoremediation. Biochar was produced from the coconut shell which was heated to temperatures between 250 and 750°C, under less oxygen concentrations. Constructed wetland coupled with Biochar. The biochar was mixed into the substrate of constructed wetlands. By using the biochar substrate the constructed wetland coupled with biochar was developed as lab scale model. Different trails were carried with the model using tannery wastewater collected from local tannery unit. The adsorbent biochar acts as a treating media which reduces the color of the wastewater and also reduction in chromium concentration of wastewater.The constructed wetland assemblage helps in reduction of other organic concentration and total solids of the wastewater. Based on the different trials in the lab scale model a good reduction in color, chromium, BOD, COD can be observed. More than 60 to 70 % reduction efficiency was achieved with the help lab scale model. It is possible to achieve 4’R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recovery) if the same was carried out in a large scale.In the developing countries increase in population, improper urbanization and industrialization causing many issues to the ecosystem and the environment. Industrial Pollution has been a great concern for decades. Mainly Tanning industries located in many places of India as small scale industry. These small scale industries mostly running in the houses discharge partially treated and untreated effluents with high concentration of Chromium V1 into the water bodies. Research Study was initiated with proto type lab scale model to identify a suitable alternative technique to reduce the concentration toxic compound present in Chrome tannery wastewater. Coupling of two techniques like constructed wetland and Biochar as adsorbent. Main objective is to identify the efficiency of constructed wetland with coconut shell biochar as an adsorbent. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are artificial developed engineered systems which are formulated and constructed to operate the natural processes like vegetative wetlands, natural ...
Characterisation of groundwater modelling involves significant uncertainty because of estimation errors of these models and other different sources of uncertainty. Deterministic models do not account for uncertainties in model parameters, and thus lead to doubtful output. The main alternatives for deterministic models are the probabilistic models and perturbation methods such as Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). Unfortunately, these methods have many drawbacks when applied in risk analysis of groundwater pollution. In this paper, a modified Latin Hypercube Sampling method is presented and used for risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis of groundwater pollution. The obtained results were compared with other sampling methods. Results of the proposed method have shown that it can predict the groundwater contamination risk for all values of probability better than other methods, maintaining the accuracy of mean estimation. Sensitivity analysis results reveal that the contaminant concentration is more sensitive to longitudinal dispersivity than to velocity.
The present invention relates to a magnetic diesel fuel processing apparatus, comprising: a fuel supply line along the housing element is placed, having a fuel inlet and a fuel outlet corresponding to the inlet and a separator disposed offset from the inlet to the fuel, and a fuel forced by the route, in at least two opposed magnetic elements on the route. Forced along said path, the magnetic field induced in the fuel flow.
The intensive use of pesticides has led to widespread contamination of the biotic as well as the abiotic environment. Pesticides are found in surface water and also in groundwater sources all over the world. This paper discusses the pesticides and microbes present in groundwater in India. Groundwater in India is largely used for domestic purposes by 80% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population. In many areas, groundwater serves as the only source of drinking water (Chakraborti et al., 2011). Over abstraction of groundwater and river water for agricultural purposes leads to rapidly dropping water tables. Untreated sewage flowing in open drains and open landfills with no protection from leaching into the groundwater are the main man-made sources for water contamination (Central Pollution Control Board, 2008). It has been reported that more than 33% of India’s groundwater resources are unsuitable for consumption (Chakraborti et al., 2011). Anthropogenic pollution such as microbial contaminants, nitrate, pesticides and industrial discharge, together with geogenic contaminants such as fluoride, arsenic, iron and saline water, pose a threat to human health.
The utility model provides an automatic instrument for efficiently extracting bioactive substances, which comprises a shell, a bottom plate, a workbench, a magnetic needle, a magnetic needle moving mechanism, a sleeve, a sleeve moving mechanism and an airflow generation system, wherein the system is used for generating a local airflow in the upper area of an opening of a container with an upward opening and placed in a sample treatment area, and comprises an airflow source and an airflow channel; the airflow source can generate an airflow; the airflow channel can guide the airflow to horizontally pass through the upper area of the opening of the container; and the airflow generated by the airflow source flows along the airflow channel, so that the aerosol generated by the contact between the sleeve and a sample or reagent in the container is released from the opening of the container and moves horizontally. According to the automatic instrument provided by the utility model, the microenvironment for bioactive substance extraction by a magnetic rod method is improved by generating the local airflow so as to effectively reduce the pollution caused by extracting aerosol by a magnetic rod method.
The development objective of the Second Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project for Africa is to improve the quality, quantity, and development impact of postgraduate education in selected universities through regional specialization and collaboration. Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) eliminate dust during pneumatic drilling and destruction of walls by continuous vaporization of water and or installation of dust screens on the site; (2) set up retention for hazardous products and absorbent kits in case of accidental spills; (3) implementation of appropriate erosion and sediment control measures, such as hay bales and or silt barriers to prevent the movement of sediments from the site and the generation of excessive turbidity in the yards water and nearby rivers; (4) construction waste will be collected and disposed of appropriately by licensed collectors. Waste disposal records will be maintained as evidence for the appropriate management planned; (5) during operation, the engine covers of generators, air compressors, and other mechanical equipment shall be closed, and the equipment will be placed as far as possible from the residential areas; (6) establishment of safety rules and procedures in construction sites and application of instructions and rules of hygiene; and (7) active management of traffic by trained and visible staff on the site, if necessary, for a safe passage and convenient for the public.
This paper deals with the characteristics of the at- mospheric turbulent flow in the vicinity of the ground, and particularly with the profile of the horizontal wind variance. The study is based on experimental measurements performed with fast cup anemometers located near the ground at 5 dif- ferent levels (from 0.25 to 4 m) and sampled at 1 Hz. The experiment was carried over two agricultural plots with var- ious tillage treatments in a fallow semiarid area (Central Aragon, Spain). The results of this study reveal that near the ground surface and under moderate wind, the horizontal wind variance logarithmically increases with height, in di- rect relationship with the friction velocity and the roughness length scale. A theoretical development has allowed us to link this behaviour to the modeling of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) transport through the eddy diffusivity. Thus, the study proposes a formulation of the similarity universal function of the horizontal wind variance. Besides, the for- mulation offers a new method for the determination of the friction velocity and the roughness length scale and can be used for the evaluation of the TKE transport rate.
The article presents the results of the research carried out by the foreign ecologists, particularly the study of the system of municipal waste management in the municipality of Maienfeld, Switzerland. The total amount of municipal waste has been calculated. The systems of municipal waste collection, sorting, transportation and recycling have been studied. Besides, four possible scenarios of waste recycling in Maienfeld have been developed. Moreover, the environmental assessment of the waste recycling system by GHG/SLCP emissions has been conducted, and the impact of recycling on the climate has been determined. Finally, taking into account the results of the research, the best scenario of recycling has been proposed.
Noise levels in the vicinity of railway stations are determined through noise model analysis, which is a highly demanding process as a great quantity of data on many relevant parameters must be collected. The model optimization procedure is described in the paper. Calculation results are validated by on-site measurements on two representative locations. Compared to field measurements, the results obtained during this procedure are reliable, which is significant for making decisions about implementation of noise protection measures.
There is a great deal of environmental pressure in many parts of the world to ascertain how livestock waste can best be handled. Livestock manure, like cow dung in the absence of appropriate disposal methods can cause adverse environmental and health problems such as: pathogen contamination, odour, air borne ammonia, green house gases, etc. In this work, the utilization of biomass (cow dung) to produce biogas through anaerobic digestion for power generation is presented. The experiment was batch operated and was kept for 30 days. The enhancement technique for biogas generation is done through agitation process powered by a 12Volt, 750mAh UPS battery charged from a 5 Watt solar panel. The biogas composition is analysed using a Gas Chromatography. For power generation, the biogas was used for heating water through a normal LPG burner and the steam produced is used for running a turbine coupled with a 12volt DC generator.
Production of palatable herbage by native vegetation on the central Great Plains is low. For example, average production by palatable grasses from 1940 to 1956 on the Central Plains Experimental Range2, Nunn,-Colorado, was less than 600 pounds air dry per acre. Preliminary trials conducted on the Northern Great Plains have indicated that yields could be increased by the application of corral manure and commercial fertilizer to the native range vegetation.’ The response of the vegetation on the Central Great Plains to such treatments is reported herein. In southern Saskatchewan, Canada, y i e 1 d s of short-grass vegetation were more than doubled for a 6-year period by a single application of corral manure at the rate of 12 tons per acre (Clark et al., 1943). Annual rainfall on the study area averaged 12 inches, an amount comparable with that at the Central Plains Experimental Range. Re-
The invention provides a method for grading flood risk according to a plurality of space scales. Under each space scale, the method comprises the following steps of: S1, calculating a flood risk index by taking a precipitation amount index, a river-lake index and a terrain index as risk evaluating factors of flood; S2, calculating a vulnerability index after calculating vulnerability evaluating factors of the flood by taking a population density index and an economic GDP (Gross Domestic Product) density index as evaluating factors; and S3, generating a flood risk index by synthesizing the risk index and the vulnerability index, and further grading the flood risk index to generate a flood risk level. The method is implemented in a sequence from larger space scales to smaller space scales. Due to the adoption of the method for grading the flood risk, areas with social and economic damages possibly caused by flood disaster phenomena and risk levels can be analyzed on different space scales, and the monitoring frequency of highly-risky areas is increased.
Soil moisture dynamics in the Velen drainage basin (Sweden) were analyzed in order to assess the degree of and the reasons for spatial variation in basin behaviour. The main tool was a modified version of the soil moisture accounting routine in the conceptual runoff model HBV, optimized against neutron probe field data. Simulated soil moisture dynamics, interception and percolation rates agreed well with measurements and other calculations. Integration of simulated evapotranspiration from sites with different characteristics agreed well with water balance computations for the area. It was shown that unsaturated flow through macropores probably occurred after heavy rainstorms. During spring, evapotranspiration was limited to values below the potential (Penmans equation) even at times when no soil moisture deficit existed. Soil moisture differences between forest and grassland (including a deforested site) were, during summer, mainly attributed to differences in the root distribution with depth. The effect of interception on the total evapotranspiration rates was only significant during periods when transpiration demands were low. Soil moisture differences between forest sites were mainly attributed to topography but variations in soil characteristics and root distribution had to be considered, especially during dry periods.
Light nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs), due to their low solubility, dissolve slowly, acting as a long-term source of water contamination, and consequently they represent an important environmental issue. In the subsoil, more than 99% of spilled LNAPL remains as adsorbed and free phase; therefore, the volume estimation of free phase, obtained in this case through two different conceptual models (Pancake Model and Vertical Equilibrium Model), is considered a fundamental step for a correct site remediation. According to the first model, the LNAPL floating on the water table and its saturation is up to 100%; instead, according to the second one, the LNAPL can penetrate below the water table and the coexistence of LNAPL, water, and air in the pore fraction, leads to a lower LNAPL saturation, variable with the depth. Actually, in subsoil LNAPL and water saturations vary with depth due to the influence of capillarity, leading to the inaccuracy of Pancake Model assumption. Despite the evident limitation of Pancake Model, both models were applied, coupled with area calculations with Thiessen polygons and grid at regular mesh, to roughly estimate the free LNAPL volume existing in a contaminated site. The volume estimation carried out, considering the LNAPL type and its features, the soil type, and relative effective porosity, provides estimates of volumes having differences up to thousands of cubic meters. The results analysis shows that this estimation has several critical points such as area definition and the lack of site-specific data (e.g., porosity). Indeed, the sensitivity analysis for porosity shows that a reduction of this parameter provides a 20% reduction of estimated volume.
Results are mainly presented about the spatial changes in phytoplankton chlorophyll a(chl a) concentration, community structure and picoplankton abundance(i.e. Synechococcus and picoeucaryotes) from offshore to coastal surface waters of the South China Sea in the summer period of 2013. Total chl a concentration increased from 0.024 to 19.1 μg·L~(-1) from offshore to coastal waters. Coinciding well with chl a, the proportion of microplankton(20 μm) increased from 6.0%-81%, while that of picoplankton(3 μm) decreased from 85% to 5.1%; and the proportion of nanoplankton(3-20 μm) ranged during 9%-24% and showed no clear spatial change. There was a positive correlation of Synechococcus and pico-eucaryote abundances that increased towards the coastal waters from(2.58±0.21)×10~6 to(2.29±0.10)×10~8 cells·L~(-1) and from(1.62±0.91)×10~5 to(1.83±0.46)×10~7cells·L~(-1), respectively. In addition, our results indicated that the spatial variability of total surface phytoplankton biomass was mainly regulated by picoplankton abundance in the surveyed waters.
Log‐Normality of Air Contaminants and Its Hidden Characteristics Useful for Industrial Hygiene Technology: Akio Koizumi, et al. Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, Kyoto University—It is well known that concentrations of contaminants in the air fluctuate log‐normally, but there has been no mathematical model that can describe the stochastic nature of this. In the present study we constructed a stochastic model that can describe log‐normal distribution of the air contaminantion in workplaces. The so‐called Ito‐process can describe the log‐normality of the stochastic nature of the air contaminants by using two parameters: ventilation performance and random release of contaminants from the source. We also derived a theorem from the model. It indicates that splitting the source into small independent compartments decreases randomness and thereby reduces exposure intensity. The reduction of randomness of contaminant release is considered to be as effective as improvement of ventilation performance in reducing workers' exposure.
Slow sand filter processing is done by separating raw contaminant water which is passed slowly on sand. Fluctuating raw water quality resulted in the schmutzdecke layer not growing optimally. Therefore, it is needed media that help the performance of the sand filter. One of the media used is geotextile. The geotextile is useful as a medium to optimize the growth of microorganisms in the schmutzdecke layer. Geotextiles have similar surface structures such as sand filters as well as their pores. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of adding geotextiles in reducing turbidity parameters, number of coli and COD. This study used slow sand filter reactor with a continuous flow system of 0.3 m3 / m2.jam for 7 days. Based on the research, the addition of geotextile media is quite effective and can improve the performance of slow sand filter. Percentage of turbidity removal reached 94.27%, coli 99.40% and COD 92.85%. COD values tend to be dynamic as raw water conditions. Geotextiles is quite helpful in growing a layer of schmutzdecke because the structure resembles sand so as to increase the number of bacteria bed filters.
Based on the meteorological data and the yield data of summer harvesting crops in Xuzhou City of Jiangsu Province from 1960 to 2006,the effects of the accumulative rainy days and accumulative rainfall of spring continuous rain and the occurrence times of continuous rain on the yield of summer crops were analyzed.The results showed that the accumulative rainy days,accumulative rainfall and the occurrence times of continuous rain all showed the negative correlations with the yield of summer crops.The accumulative rainy days mainly had direct effects on the relative meteorological yield of summer crops.The accumulative rainfall and the occurrence times of continuous rain had indirect effects on the relative meteorological yield of summer crops.Finally,through calculating the total determination coefficient,the influencing degree of spring continuous rain on the relative meteorological yield of summer crops reached 40.59%.
A waste heat recovery IGCC cogeneration centralized heating system comprises an air separation unit, a gasification furnace, a gas cooler, a purification device, a gas turbine, a waste heat boiler, an absorption heat pump and a heat exchanger which are sequentially connected. A smoke evacuation outlet of the waste heat boiler is in evacuation or connected to a smoke inlet of the flue gas condensing heat exchanger, a steam outlet of the waste heat boiler is connected to an inlet of the gas turbine, an exhaust steam outlet of the turbine is connected to a steam inlet of a condenser, and a circulating water outlet of the condenser is connected to a cooling tower. The backwater of a heat supply network is heated and delivered to the heat supply network for use after a low-pressure steam extraction outlet of the gas turbine is cooled in three ways, two ways or one way. According to the waste heat recovery IGCC cogeneration centralized heating system, the clean and efficient IGCC is combined with the steam extraction heat supply of the gas turbine, the absorption heat pump is driven through the steam extraction of the gas turbine, the exhaust steam waste heat of the gas turbine and the smoke waste heat are recovered, and the steam extraction heat of the gas turbine and the recovered waste heat are used for centralized heating. The waste heat recovery IGCC cogeneration centralized heating system has the advantages of being clean, efficient, mature in technology and large in the amount of recovered waste heat as well as being capable of recovering smoke condensate water.
The invention discloses a smoke protection system for a stairwell. The smoke protection system for the stairwell comprises a first plenum chamber and a second plenum chamber which are symmetrically arranged in parallel and communicated with each other through an air duct; the air duct is connected with a fan; a first nozzle, a second nozzle and a third nozzle are formed at the lower end of the first plenum chamber; a fourth nozzle, a fifth nozzle and a sixth nozzle are formed at the upper end of the second plenum chamber; and the first nozzle and the fourth nozzle are formed symmetrically in a horizontal direction, the second nozzle and the fifth nozzle are formed symmetrically in a horizontal direction, the third nozzle and the sixth nozzle are formed symmetrically in a horizontal direction, and all air-out orientations are converged at a point. Due to the special design of the smoke protection system for the stairwell, an air piston can shift in the horizontal direction, incoming smoke rolls up in an upper space of an action range of the smoke, and a lower space is clean, so that the smoke is prevented from spreading to the stairwell, meanwhile an escape space for people cannot be occupied, and the aim of creating the relatively clean escape space in an area covered by the smoke is fulfilled.
Environmental variables (including natural and anthropogenic stressors) and meiobenthic communities were sampled in a ‘natural’ (Rooiels) and a ‘disturbed’ (Lourens) estuary in the Western Cape, South Africa, bimonthly for 20 months. A primary aim of the study was to assess if the meiobenthic community structure is driven by different variables when comparing ‘natural’ versus ‘disturbed’ system. Due to the much smaller catchment of the Rooiels Estuary, many environ mental variables were significantly different ( p< 0.001) from the variables in the Lourens Estuary, e.g. salinity, temperature, pH, total suspended solids, nitrate and depth. No pesticide concentrations were expected in the Rooiels Estuary due to the absence of agricultural development in the catchment. However, chlorpyrifos (8.9 μg/kg), prothiofos (22.0 μg/kg) and cypermethrin concentrations (0.42 μg/kg) were detected frequently, with the highest concentrations recorded during the summer months. Principal response curve analysis showed that temporal variability between sampling dates explained 42% of the variance in environmental variables and pesticide concentrations and spatial variability between the 2 estuaries explained 58%. Variables contributing most to the differences were higher concentrations of endosulfan, p,p-DDE and nitrate concentrations in the Lourens Estuary and larger grain size and higher salinity at the bottom in the Rooiels Estuary. In general the meiofaunal community in the Rooiels Estuary showed a significantly higher number of taxa ( p< 0.001), a significantly higher Shannon Wiener Diversity Index ( p<0.001) and a generally lower meiofaunal abundance with less variability than in the Lourens Estuary. The differences were mostly explained by a higher abundance of Cypretta and Darcythompsonia in the Rooiels Estuary and a higher abundance of Thermocyclops and Canthocamptus in the Lourens Estuary. The variables explaining a significant part (14%) of the variance in meiofaunal abundance in the Rooiels Estuary were salinity and temperature, with the Redundancy Analysis indicating that the abundance of most of the taxa increased with higher salinity and temperature, e.g. Upogebia, Nereis, Uroma and nematodes were clearly positively correlated to salinity and temperature. The variables explaining a significant part of the variance in the dataset (43%) within the Lourens Estuary were also salinity and temperature but included chlorpyrifos, nitrate and flow (including river and tidal flow).
Abstract Cumulus-scale vertical transports of sensible heat and angular momentum are computed by a technique which uses detailed precipitation measurements as basic input. Data from Boston, Mass., New Orleans, La., San Juan, P.R., and Tatoosh, Wash., are included in the study, and calculations are made for January, April, July and October. The seasonal and regional variations of the computed transports are consistent with climatology. The cumulus-scale transports are compared with the mean meridional, the synoptic-scale, and the total required eddy fluxes of heat and momentum, and are found to be of the same order of magnitude as the most important components of larger scale vertical flux during at least one season at each station.
The air conditioner which cools telecommunication equipment rooms or computer rooms must operate throughout the year. So we apply refrigerant pump cycle to the air conditioner to improve coefficient of performance (COP) at low outdoor air temperature. At first, this paper discusses two kinds of control methods. One is superheat control to manipulate refrigerant pump frequency. Refrigerant pump cycle controlled by this method can operate higher efficiency than that controlled by expansion valve. The other is room air temperature control method to manipulate air flow rate = of condenser. Next, this paper discusses year round electric consumption comparison with conventional air conditioner. The electric consumption of the air conditioner with refrigerant pump is 50% shorter than that of conventional air conditioner.
The objective of this study was to investigate the physiological responses and biological yield of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) to nitroxin biofertilizer and chemical nitrogen fertilizer in the form of urea under different irrigation regimes. A split plot experiment was conducted on the basis of randomized complete block design with three replications. The main factor included four irrigation regimes (i.e., weekly from emergence to harvest and withholding from blooming to maturity, flowering to maturity, and the start of seed formation to maturity) and sub-factor included five levels (i.e., no application of fertilizers, 80 kg N ha, 40 kg N ha, combination of 40 kg N ha+nitroxin biofertilizers, and nitroxin biofertilizer). Application of 80 kg N ha under full irrigation and the combined application of 40 kg N ha and nitroxin under all withholding irrigations produced the highest glycinebetaine, polyphenol oxidase and catalase enzyme, total chlorophyll, and biological yield. Withholding irrigation from the blooming stage and also the application of 80 kg N ha resulted in the highest concentration of malondialdehyde. In combined application of 40 kg N ha and nitroxin, polyphenol oxidase, proline, and soluble protein were at the highest levels. Generally, the combined application of 40 kg N ha and nitroxin increased the activity of the antioxidant enzymes and the compatible osmolites accumulation under all withholding irrigation treatments and thus decreased the negative effects of drought stress on black cumin, resulting in increased biological
Land use change may modify key soil attributes, influencing the capacity of soil to maintain ecological functions. Understanding the effects of land use types (LUTs) on soil properties is, therefore, crucial for the sustainable utilization of soil resources. This study aims to investigate the impact of LUT on primary soil properties. Composite soil samples from eight sampling points per LUT (forest, grassland, and arable land) were taken from the top 25 cm of the soil in October 2019. The following soil physicochemical parameters were investigated according to standard protocols: soil organic matter (SOM), pH, soil moisture, NH4+–N, NO3––N, AL-K2O, AL-P2O5, CaCO3, E4/E6, cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation (BS), and exchangeable bases (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and Na+). Furthermore, soil microbial respiration (SMR) was determined based on basal respiration method. The results indicated that most of the investigated soil properties showed significant difference across LUTs, among which NO3––N, total N, and K2O were profoundly affected by LUT (p ≤ 0.001). On the other hand, CEC, soil moisture, and Na+ did not greatly change among the LUTs (p ≥ 0.05). Arable soils showed the lowest SOM content and available nitrogen but the highest content of P2O5 and CaCO3. SMR was considerably higher in grassland compared to arable land and forest, respectively. The study found a positive correlation between soil moisture (r = 0.67; p < 0.01), Mg2+ (r = 0.61; p < 0.01), and K2O (r = 0.58; p < 0.05) with SMR. Overall, the study highlighted that agricultural practices in the study area induced SOM and available nitrogen reduction. Grassland soils were more favorable for microbial activity.
The hyporheic zone (HZ) is the transition zone between an aquifer and a surface water body and provides various ecosystem services including a habitat for interstitial organisms, a spawning ground for fish and a rooting zone for aquatic plants. Over the last decades this zone has increasingly become the focus of scientific research studying spatial and temporal patterns of groundwater-surface water interaction as well as the exchange of nutrients, oxygen and energy between the aquifer and a surface water body. Consequently, a variety of measurement techniques and analysis tools has been developed to improve the conceptual understanding of these processes (Buss et al. 2009). By comparison, the fate of contaminants in the HZ of streams has received much less attention so far. However, as streams are in many cases the final receptors of groundwater pollution, a delineation of transport and attenuation processes at sediment, reach and catchment scales seems essential for river/aquifer management purposes and for the design of adequate remediation techniques. Transport and attenuation processes in the HZ are defined by a variety of aspects including groundwater-surface water mixing patterns that define residence time of the contaminated water and biogeochemical activity of the streambed. In turn, mixing patterns are defined by local and regional flow processes, channel properties, climatic conditions or anthropogenic influence. Of major concern however are the characteristics of the streambed sediment that define local parameters such as hydraulic conductivities and exchange fluxes. In this study, we show the influence of heterogeneity in hyporheic sediments on natural attenuation of chlorinated ethenes by conducting a generic modelling study. A numerical flow and transport model of a synthetic aquifer/streambed is built in HYDRUS/HPx (Simunek 2006) using a TCE contaminant source and considering sequential reductive dechlorination. The model is then used to perform scenario analyses considering different degrees of heterogeneity of the hyporheic zone sediments as well as different spatial distributions of hydraulic conductivity, fluxes and biodegradation rates. These different distributions are based on data obtained from River Zenne and Slootbeek field sites in Belgium and the River Tern field site in the UK with a variety of measurement techniques including soil sampling and grain size analysis, falling head tests, microcosm studies, streambed temperature, exchange flux and hydraulic gradient measurements. Model results show the added value of including heterogeneous hyporheic zone sediments into contaminant transport modelling. However, not all scenarios perform equally well with respect to the attenuation of TCE and its daughter products. Overall, results can be helpful in the development of future management and decision support tools.
10 in PM , residue samples were prepared by burning of biomass, pine (leaves), palm oil and rubber (stem bark) plants. Residue sample obtained from the burning was then extracted using Soxhlet extraction method to extract the selected organic compounds from the residue. Both extracts were then injected into gas chromatography and gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Polar and non-polar fractions were then identified by their molecular weight. Compounds such as 2-ethylbutyl acetate, Methyl palmitate and methyl octadec-6-enoate were found in the polar fractions while trans-squalene in the aliphatic fractions. The result obtained shows that all identified organic compounds were detected in PM10 collected in SE and BBN, while only two out of four compounds were detected (i.e. 2-ethylbutyl acetate and methyl palmitate) in UKM. While for residue samples methyl palmitate was detected in all samples except pine burning residue, methyl octadec-6-enoate detected in all samples except palm oil, 2-ethylbutyl acetate was detected in palm oil residue samples only and trans-squalene was detected in pine residue samples only. Therefore, the burning of biomass, pine (leaves), palm oil and rubber (stem bark) plants are the major sources of atmospheric organic pollutant in these areas.
Economic evaluations of the benefits of integrated weed management often only consider the benefits of management in the crop phase, and ignore the impact of rotational options. In particular, non-crop phases such as annual and perennial pasture phases can have a substantial impact upon weed population dynamics and economic returns. Moreover, extended perennial pasture phases are being promoted to address a range of onfarm sustainability issues such as excessive deep drainage (i.e. salinity), runoff and soil erosion. A stochastic bioeconomic model is developed to evaluate potential trade-offs and synergies between the goals of long-term weed management and achieving sustainability goals.
Water scarcity is worsening worldwide, becoming a widespread problem in many arid and semiarid regions, such as Southern California, Southern Europe, and the Mediterranean basin. Climate change is projected to further exacerbate water scarcity problems by reducing water availability and increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme drought events. Emerging social demands for environmental protection of water-dependent ecosystems further increase competition for already scarce water in arid and semiarid regions, especially during dry years. Under these circumstances, the efficient and fair allocation of water among users is becoming a major challenge for water authorities. New water allocation mechanisms based on the involvement of stakeholders are needed. This paper develops a game theory framework in order to analyze cooperative water management policies that could address scarcity and drought in the Jucar River Basin in Spain. The paper empirically tests the propensity of stakeholders to cooperate and the options for protecting ecosystems in arid and semiarid basins under scarcity and drought. The results provide clear evidence that achieving cooperation could reduce significantly drought damage costs. However, cooperation may have to be encouraged by public agents, such as the basin authority, when scarcity is very high, in order to improve water management, protect ecosystems and increase economic benefits. The game theory institutions and stability indexes examined in this paper are very useful in analyzing the acceptability and stability of cooperative arrangements, and could be helpful to initiate a bargaining process aimed at reaching an agreement to share water resources in a river basin.
Abstract The metal contamination in soil and water samples from the area surrounding the coal mine drainage reservoir was studied, the main environmental risk are high acidity and high contents of berillium in drainage water. In solid samples there is serious contamination by arsenic, berillium and copper from mining activities. Contamination by lead and zinc mainly comes from domestic wastes. The metal enrichment factor defined is decreasing in the order Cu > As > Cr > Fe > Be > Zn > Cd > Pb.
Contents  I. Introduction 2  II. Carbon in temperate grasslands 2  III. The process of carbon sequestration in soils 4  IV. Tracking carbon movement 9  V. Models of soil carbon dynamics 10  VI. Management effects on carbon sequestration 11  VII. Climate-change effects on carbon sequestration 12  VIII. Response to elevated CO2 13  IX. Conclusions 14    References 14        Summary  The substantial stocks of carbon sequestered in temperate grassland ecosystems are located largely below ground in roots and soil. Organic C in the soil is located in discrete pools, but the characteristics of these pools are still uncertain. Carbon sequestration can be determined directly by measuring changes in C pools, indirectly by using 13C as a tracer, or by simulation modelling. All these methods have their limitations, but long-term estimates rely almost exclusively on modelling. Measured and modelled rates of C sequestration range from 0 to > 8 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. Management practices, climate and elevated CO2 strongly influence C sequestration rates and their influence on future C stocks in grassland soils is considered. Currently there is significant potential to increase C sequestration in temperate grassland systems by changes in management, but climate change and increasing CO2 concentrations in future will also have significant impacts. Global warming may negate any storage stimulated by changed management and elevated CO2, although there is increasing evidence that the reverse could be the case.
It is difficult for the general information gathering channels to get effective information required for research on international rivers,it is necessary and critical to explore new method of information collection in order to investigate hydrological water resources in some places where the data lack.In the million information of Internet,emergence of the platform-Google Earth(GE) provides a "scene" mode of remote information retrieval for environmental resources,traffic planning and many other fields.This article probed into the application framework and assessment method used for water resources development and utilization in the area with lack of needful data based on the GE platform,such research was applied to the middle-lower reaches of Balkhash Lake basin,the results show that the GE platform can be used as effective information gathering means for water resources development and utilization in area with lack of needful data.The proposed framework,application flow chart and assessment method have preferable maneuverability in this disquisition;the basic pattern of investigation area that was formed in early 1990,namely the middle-lower reaches of Ili River were regarded as main body,Junggar region and northern small rivers of Balkhash Lake were considered as important water system area;with the dramatic fluctuation in economic and social development of the investigation area,his water consumption has undergone the evolvement pattern of "growth-peak-acute reduction-restorative growth".Now it is expected to have resumed its water consumption to the level in the mid 1980's,which is around 6.5 billion m3.
Wastewater is the main source of groundwater pollution if it is not properly collected and treated. In many parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank wastewater is collected through cesspits, while in other areas it is collected through networks and treated in central treatments plants. Collecting aggregate information on the level of indicators with concern to the wastewater issues (collection, treatment and reuse) is essential for efficient wastewater management. So that conclusions regarding the level of 'improvement' or 'degradation' of various environmental compartments as a result of wastewater practices can be given. The approach to be followed consists of designing a monitoring system for wastewater (the parameter to be monitored, the location of monitored points and the temporal frequency of monitoring). The second part of the approach includes the design of an evaluation system for wastewater issues by considering the Driving force State Pressure Impact Response (DSPIR) model. Both systems will be applied to the Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant and wastewater reuse pilot. Developing such systems will enhance the effective control and monitoring of operation of the wastewater treatment plants. It also can establish a concrete basis for the sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse.
Eddy current sensor is an sensor based on eddy current effect. In practical engineering applications, the ambient temperature of eddy current sensor may be up to 135 ℃. The temperature drift of eddy current sensor magnifies the error of displacement detection. In this paper, the main factors that cause temperature drift are analyzed in detail, and the results show that the compensation based on single parameter can not meet the demand of high-precision measurement. For this reason, this paper proposes an external compensation method which applies mathematical fitting to realize compensation for temperature drift. The experimental results show that the measurement accuracy of the external compensation method reaches 0.25% in the working temperature range, which greatly improves the measurement accuracy of eddy current sensor under high temperature.
The invention discloses a geothermal well opening power station system and a power generation method thereof. The geothermal well opening power station system comprises a second gas-liquid separator, a flash evaporation tank, a second screw expander, a second electric generator and a steam ORC system; the second screw expander is connected with the second electric generator; the first end of the second gas-liquid separator is connected with the second screw expander, and the second end of the second gas-liquid separator is connected with the flash evaporation tank; saturated steam enters the second screw expander, and high-temperature and high-pressure brine enters the flash evaporation tank; steam obtained by flash evaporation is mixed in an outlet of the second screw expander and then enters the steam ORC system through a first evaporator, and the brine obtained by flash evaporation is conveyed to a recharge well through a first conveying mechanism and is injected into the underground again; and according to the geothermal well opening power station system and the power generation method thereof, the utilization efficiency of the geothermy can be improved.
Waste slurry emanating from an oil refinery wastewater treatment system was incorporated into soil at the Conoco Land Treatment Unit (LTU) since 1972. As a result, the soil contained a total selenium concentration (18.6 mg/kg) that approached the limit permitted by the state regulatory authority. Total concentrations of other elements included arsenic (34.4 mg/kg), chromium (159.6 mg/kg), lead (26.2 mg/kg), and zinc (185.8 mg/kg). This soil was saline (8.3 mmhos/cm), had a loam texture, and a pH of 7.2. The use of selenium accumulating plant species to decrease the soil selenium concentration was evaluated. Selenium accumulating plant species (canola, desert prince’s-plume, and Indian mustard) and selenium non-accumulating species (pubescent wheatgrass and tall fescue) were seeded at the LTU and harvested upon maturity. No significant change in soil metal concentration was measured. Based on scientific literature, it was expected that the selenium accumulating species would have tissue selenium concentrations in the range of 300 to 2000 mg/kg. Plant tissue selenium concentrations in canola (6.8 mg/kg), canola grown on phosphorous amended LTU soil (7.6 mg/kg), Indian mustard (10.4 mg/kg), and desert prince’s-plume (111.6 mg/kg) were considerably lower than expected yet great enough to present a chronic toxicity hazard in grazing animals. To determine whether lower than expected selenium accumulation was due to plant species selection, soil characteristics, or a characteristic of the waste slurry, selenium accumulating plant species were grown in replicated greenhouse trials on four different substrates; i) the LTU soil, ii) selenate-enriched LTU soil, iii) waste slurry-enriched sand, and iv) selenate-enriched sand. Mean plant tissue selenium concentrations in each substrate were 10.2 ± 6.5 mg/kg, 49.0 ± 27.8 mg/kg, 43.0 ± 37.5 mg/kg, and 683.9 ± 423.1 mg/kg, respectively. Plant selenium concentrations in selenate-enriched sand were significantly greater than in the other three substrates that received waste slurry as their principle supply of selenium. It was concluded that waste slurry, when applied to soil, contained either i) a form of selenium that was in a reduced oxidation state and thus unavailable for plant uptake or ii) another chemical constituent was present that competed with selenium for plant uptake.
A 91-m transect was set up in an irrigated field near Las Cruces, New Mexico to investigate the spatial variability of unsaturated soil properties. A total of 455 sampling points were monitored along a grid consisting of 91 stations placed 1 m apart by 5 depths per station. Post-irrigation soil water tension and water content measurements were recorded over 45 days at 11 time periods. The instantaneous profile was used to estimate the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity at the 455 sampling points. Fifty soil samples were also taken for analyzing sand, silt, and clay content distributions. The spatial and temporal variability of soil water tension and water content were investigated along with the spatial variability of parameters of an unsaturated hydraulic conductivity model. Results of the analysis show that spatial variation in soil water tension and water content is consistent with the soil texture spatial variability. In addition, the spatial distribution of the estimated parameter value of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity reflects the soil texture distribution. Using the statistics of the estimated hydraulic parameter values, a stochastic soil water tension model was employed to reproduce the variability of observed soil water tension. Although many assumptions were made, the results of the simulationmore » appear promising.« less
Nine different commercially available instant-read consumer thermometers (forks, remotes, digital probe and disposable color change indicators) were tested for accuracy and precision compared with a calibrated thermocouple in 80 and 90% lean ground beef patties and boneless and bone-in chicken breasts cooked on gas grills, electric griddles and baked in consumer ovens. All models registered less than 42% of the products as cooked at the recommended insertion time except for one indicator model which registered greater than 50% of the products as cooked in five meat product/cooking method combinations. Average thermometer readings deviated from the thermocouple by as much as 64F. Increasing insertion time increased percentage of product registering as cooked and decreased the temperature difference. Measurement repeatability (precision) was high within and between individual thermometers of the same model. These results indicate that consumers using these thermometers would cook meat products to higher temperatures than necessary to destroy harmful microorganisms.        PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS    Consumers are urged to use thermometers when cooking meat products. Consumer fork, remote, digital probe and disposable indicator thermometers are aggressively marketed for their convenience to the consumer. There is relatively little scientific information regarding the accuracy and response time for these types of thermometers. The results of this study conclude that these thermometers register temperatures much lower than the thermocouple temperatures. As a result, consumers will cook meat products to a higher end point temperature, which provides extra food safety but in some cases may cause detrimental quality changes.
Recent study was carried out to examine the efficacy of solar radiation in improving the quality of textile effluent in term of physicochemical properties and to degrade the dissolved organic matter (DOM) in textile effluent. The experiment was performed in natural light with dark control and both the changes in physicochemical parameters and the DOM in textile effluent were examined. Physicochemical properties of textile effluent changed gradually after photodegradation in different time intervals and the effluent quality improved. Not all the parameters were in standard limit but the pollution load decreased substantially. After twenty days of photodegradation, fluorescent intensity of DOM in textile effluent decreased from 5.5 RU to 0.16 RU which indicated photo-oxidation of low molecular weight DOM, whereas dark control showed no significant change in DOM fluorescent intensity.
Abstract. Since April 2004 the RAPID array has made continuous measurements of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) at 26° N. Two key components of this system are Ekman transport zonally integrated across 26° N and western boundary current transport in the Florida Straits. Whilst measurements of the AMOC as a whole are somewhat in their infancy, this study investigates what useful information can be extracted on the variability of the Ekman and Florida Straits transports using the decadal timeseries already available. Analysis is also presented for Sverdrup transports zonally integrated across 26° N. The seasonal cycles of Florida Straits, Ekman and Sverdrup transports are quantified at 26° N using harmonic analysis of annual and semi-annual constituents. Whilst Sverdrup transport shows clear semi-annual periodicity, calculations of seasonal Florida Straits and Ekman transports show substantial interannual variability due to contamination by variability at non-seasonal frequencies; the mean seasonal cycle for these transports only emerges from decadal length observations. The Florida Straits and Ekman mean seasonal cycles project on the AMOC with a combined peak-to-peak seasonal range of 3.5 Sv. The combined seasonal range for heat transport is 0.40 PW. The Florida Straits seasonal cycle possesses a smooth annual periodicity in contrast with previous studies suggesting a more asymmetric structure. No clear evidence is found to support significant changes in the Florida Straits seasonal cycle at sub-decadal periods. Whilst evidence of wind driven Florida Straits transport variability is seen at sub-seasonal and annual periods, a model run from the 1/4° eddy-permitting ocean model NEMO is used to identify an important contribution from internal oceanic variability at sub-annual and interannual periods. The Ekman transport seasonal cycle possesses less symmetric structure, due in part to different seasonal transport regimes east and west of 50 to 60° W. Around 60% of non-seasonal Ekman transport variability occurs in phase section-wide at 26° N and is related to the NAO, whilst Sverdrup transport variability is more difficult to decompose.
The coastal area of the Ganges delta in Bangladesh is characterized by tides and salinity from the Bay of Bengal. Salinities in the Bangladesh coast are dependent on the annual rainfall, evaporation, freshwater flows discharging from upstream and the impact of climate change. Average salinity concentrations at the coast are higher in the dry season than in the monsoon, due to reduction in freshwater flow from the upstream. The higher salinity levels have adverse impacts on agriculture, aquaculture, domestic and industrial water use and so on. Hence, the simulation of the calibrated salinity model is carried out in this study to investigate the baseline condition of salinity and assessment of hydrodynamic condition which will reduce the salinity level at downstream portion of Southwest region of Bangladesh. Historical data and field measurements on salinity, water flow, water level and numerical modeling technique are applied to develop the hydrodynamic scenarios (mainly based on upstream discharge condition), which are simulated with the calibrated and validated hydrodynamic and salinity model. The scenario with increase in upstream flow through Ganges connected rivers is simulated to identify the saline free zone at the most south end zone. The simulation of the calibrated salinity model is carried out by limiting salinity level (< 1ppt) with improved flow scenarios by mathematical modeling technique. The saline free zone with different flow scenarios is assessed by MIKE One-Dimensional (MIKE 11) and MIKE Two-Dimensional (MIKE 21FM) Modelling system.
This book is the first and only global synthesis of information related to constructed treatment wetlands. Types of constructed wetlands, major design parameters, role of vegetation, hydraulic patterns, loadings, treatment efficiency, construction, operation and maintenance costs are discussed in depth. History of the use of constructed wetlands and case studies from various parts of the world are included as well.
This paper describes new, easy to handle, liquid nitrogen sampler for the upper layer (80-160 mm) of water sediment and associated benthic organismus in streams and lakes up to 1.2 m depth. The 0.0531 m 2 sediment sample keeps its natural composition and spatial structure. The 15 kg total weight of the two sampler components enables use by hand even in not easily accessible rural areas. A successful two year test period in several first and second order streams demonstrated the applicability of sampler for sediment textures from fine clay to cobbles and velocity up to 1 m s -1 .
Abstract Debris-flow disaster has caused large casualties and tremendous economic loss. Check dams, flexible barriers, silt dams and baffle arrays are most used disaster prevention countermeasures. For a better design strategy, we made a thorough review and discussion about the achievements and challenges in four important aspects, including impact force estimation, run-up height prediction, failure analysis and plain configuration planning. The impact force exerted by debris flow on structures is the most crucial design parameter, while most widely used models are based on hydraulic theory and lack physical mechanisms, especially in accounting for the effect of nonstationary flow regimes, impact patterns and barrier characteristics. Current methods of designing protection structures mainly depend on static and deterministic theory to address dynamic problems that are highly stochastic, which reveals a great research gap in understanding the response and failure under impact of structures. In future, physically based design strategy should be highlighted, for which robust physical modelling methods and numerical simulation tools are needed for the better understanding of flow–structure interaction mechanism and the verification of structure design strategy. Furthermore, the resilience-based disaster prevention concept should be highlighted for its outstanding ability in preparedness, response, and recovery when threatened by unknown disasters.
Solar energy triggered steam generation has emerged as a green and sustainable strategy that can potentially address the long-standing global freshwater scarcity issue. However, given that there is inadequate light illumination early in the morning or late afternoon or cloudy days, it is continuous steam generation in all weather that is a great challenge for the state-of-the-art solar-driven steam generators. Here, we present an all-weather-available steam generation system, which is capable of harvesting solar energy to continuously generate steam based on the alternative photo-thermal and electro-thermal conversion of crosslinked MXene aerogels (CMAs) in the day time and at night. In virtue of the strong light absorption and excellent electrical conductivity of the CMA, the constructed steam generation system can not only convert sunlight into heat for steam generation on sunny days but persistently achieve heat generation by utilization of electricity in low-light or dark circumstances. Furthermore, the ingenious introduction of solar cells-battery components makes full use of the daytime sunlight to further power the steam generation system for heating up the CMA at night, avoiding extra electrical energy input and loss. This work offers new insights into developing continuous steam generation technologies applicable to day–night alternation and complex environments.
In this work we analysis the relationship between the industrial structure and regional subsidence base on the research in past. We mapped the spatial and temporal patterns of the land subsidence near the city of Hangzhou, China by PSI analysis with more than 49 scenes of ERS-1/2 SAR images acquired from 1992 to 2006.[1] According to the PSI results, 13 subsidence centers (express by red dashed circle in fig 1) were found in the Xiaoshan (a district of Hangzhou, China) Economic and Technological Development Zone. Characteristics of each subsidence centers are different. I have found out 86 different enterprises belong to different industrial types (express by red pin tag in Fig 1) by field survey. The Zone was approved as a state-level development zone by the State Council in May, 1993. The structure of the Zone industry Includes 10 main types, Such as petrochemical, power industry, manufacturing and so on. Fig 2 shows the Percentage of different types of enterprises. The main reason of land subsidence in the Zone is groundwater exploitation, which is necessary for the rapid economic development.
ABSTRACT As the reserve of prime coking coal is low, there is a good amount of research going on worldwide to improve the coking potential of non-coking coal. Researchers have revealed the importance of hydrogen generation/transfer to improve the coking potential of coal. Based on this hypothesis, in this paper, the authors have tried to improve the coking potential of non-coking coal by adding different polymers. The polymers are derived from formaldehyde and phenol derivatives. Coking potential has been tested through conventional tests like crucible swelling number. Thermogravimetric mass spectroscopy (TG-MS) has been used to get an idea of plasticity and hydrogen generation in the plastic zone. High-temperature microscopy has also been used to evaluate the swelling of coal. Results indicate that the addition of polymers in a small percentage has an effect on hydrogen generation in the plastic zone, and thus, it can improve the coking potential of non-coking coal.
The U.S. Coast Guard Research & Development Centre (USCG R&DC) and Analysis & Technology, Inc. (A&T) have been investigating technigues to estimate the leeway drift of targets for possible search and rescue applications. In previous leeway drift studies, the InterOcean S4(R) electromagnetic current meter was used to measure search target velocity relative to the 1-meter surface layer. A recently developed compact Doppler current sensor, the Aanderaa DCS 3500, may provide a new technique to measure the motion of floating objects relative to the surrounding water. The smaller size and larger sampling capability of the DCS 3500 make it a good candidate for use with small leeway targets. Intercomparisons of the DCS 3500 and S4(R) were conducted by towing the meters in-line behind a large leeway target in Long Island Sound and offshore of Delaware Bay. The results of the comparisons reveal that the differences in velocity between the two sensors are within expected variances. However, there does seem to be a slight bias in the direction measured by the DCS 3500 when compared with the S4(R).
Meetings held with all contractors on the ERDA fuel gas from animal waste program are listed. These meetings were held for project planning, project review, and contractor site visits. Engineering analysis of the anaerobic digestion process for the demonstration plant is being carried out. Expressions for material balances have been developed. Several proposals were received from ERDA and reviewed.
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARCOOS) High-Frequency Radar Network, which comprises 13 long-range sites, 2 medium-range sites, and 12 standard-range sites, is operated as part of the Integrated Ocean Observing System. This regional implementation of the network has been operational for 2 years and has matured to the point where the radars provide consistent coverage from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. A concerted effort was made in the MARCOOS project to increase the resiliency of the radar stations from the elements, power issues, and other issues that can disable the hardware of the system. The quality control and assurance activities in the Mid-Atlantic Bight have been guided by the needs of the Coast Guard Search and Rescue Office. As of May 2009, these quality-controlled MARCOOS High-Frequency Radar totals are being served through the Coast Guard's Environmental Data Server to the Coast Guard Search and Rescue Optimal Planning System. In addition to the service to U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Operations, this data supports water quality, physical oceanographic, and fisheries research throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight.
Purpose: Concerns over the quantity of available freshwater for agriculture have triggered the development of technologies intended to increase efficiency of water use, especially with regard to irrigation. A new technique called fertirrigation has been developed to use the same irrigation equipment for fertilization. Methods: Since the above-mentioned technique requires care during installation and use on farms, current analysis focuses on some of its characteristics. Results: High uniformity irrigation systems provide the best distribution of fertilizers, especially when used in combination with drip irrigation or micro-aspersion. The factors purity, compatibility, acidification, salinity, and solubility should be taken into account. Conclusions: Fertirrigation provides a significant increase in productivity as it allows for highly controlled nutrient application during the entire growing season. However, it may cause serious problems if misused or overused.
Potential rates of N2O production and N2O reduction associated with denitrification were measured from two Dutch soil samples under pine [Pinus] forest, with pH (H2O) 3.6 and 3.8. Undisturbed cores of the surface 15 cm litter and Ah layer were incubated for several weeks in closed pots, of which the gas phase was examined by gas chromatography for O2, CO2, N2O and C2H2. Under anoxic conditions created by soil respiration, average N2O-N production rates in samples from these soils ranged from 9 to 15 mu g cm-2 day-1 and average N2O-N reduction rates from 3 to 6 mu g cm-2 day-1. Rates of N2O production and N2O reduction were measured at two initial nitrate concentrations: N2O production rates were almost the same, but N2O reduction seemed to be delayed by the presence of nitrate. The results indicate that anoxic denitrification peaks might reduce about 1 kg nitrate-N per ha per day in the upper layer of these soils to N2O and/or N2. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)
Spectral imaging data have been acquired with the Navy HYDICE (the hyperspectral digital imagery collection experiment) instrument from an aircraft. Similar data will soon be collected with the NASA HSI instrument from the Lewis spacecraft. The majority of users of imaging spectrometer data are interested in studying surface properties. Therefore, atmospheric absorption and scattering effects must be removed from imaging spectrometer data, so that surface reflectance spectra can be derived. Previously, an operational atmosphere removal algorithm, which used the 5S code for modeling the atmospheric scattering effects and the Malkmus narrow band model for modeling atmospheric gaseous transmittances, was specifically designed for deriving surface reflectances from spectral imaging data collected by the NASA JPL airborne visible/infrared imaging spectrometer (AVIRIS). We have recently updated this algorithm by replacing the 5S code, which requires that the sensor be at the top of the atmosphere, with the 6S code, which accommodates sensors at any altitudes. The updated algorithm allows processing of imaging spectrometer data acquired from low- and high-altitude aircraft platforms, and from satellite platforms. We are currently developing another algorithm that uses a line-by line code to calculate atmospheric gaseous transmittances for processing imaging spectrometer data with spectral resolution between approximately 0.5 and 10 nm.
Soil light fraction organic carbon(LFOC) is regarded as one of the most sensitive indexes of soil labile carbon because the content and turnover ratio is more readily influenced by recent land use and environmental changes than the total organic carbon of soil.The subalpine forest soil in the southwestern China is one vulnerable ecosystem with high altitude and low temperature.The dynamics of LFOC in 0-10cm and 10-20cm soil with and without litter and/or snow cover of subalpine forest were assessed by on-site incubation of repacked homogenized soil during the cold season.The results showed that LFOC content was 15.5% of the total organic carbon in 0-20cm soil on average,and varied from 13.6% to 21.1% under different treatments with litter cover and/or snowcover after a cold season.Soil LFOC in 0-10cm layer under litter and snow cover was lower than those of other treatment,which indicated that soil surface cover of litter and snow and their combination impacted LFOC content significantly,and the coexsitence of litter and snow was helpful to restrict LFOC formation and to maintain organic carbon stability during the cold season.Different temporal dynamics of LFOC content in 10-20cm layer also showed significant difference under different treatments,indicating that subsoil LFOC were also associated with surface cover.Soil LFOC content and fluctuation were rather high during the cold season,even higher than that in the growth season,which suggested that soil LFOC was active even during the cold season.Litter cover,snowcover,sampling time,soil depth and their interactions affected soil LFOC dynamics in cold season significantly.It was concluded that soil carbon pool size and its stabilization of subalpine forest in the southwestern China would be influenced significantly by the changes of litter and snow cover during the cold season,especially under the global warming and land use changes.
Owing to the complex interactions of climate, plants, cattle grazing and land management practices, the impacts of climate change on cattle feed production have been hard to predict, say scientists. Faced with the potentially devastating impact of climate change on animal feed, they are now calling for an immediate push to develop new plant strains and farming technologies that will save the sector in the near future.
This paper discusses various policy alternatives for the implementation of a biofuel crop on an island scale. It adopts an integrated approach by carrying out Multi-Criteria Assessment, as well as using a Geographical Information System. The assessment is based on an interdisciplinary research project carried out by the University of La Laguna to evaluate the agricultural and chemical feasibility, and the socio-economic implications of the cultivation of Jatropha as a source of biofuel on one of the Canary Islands, Fuerteventura. A number of alternatives were analysed for growing Jatropha, and the results suggest that the best alternative involves using Typic Torrifluents soil and irrigation with reclaimed Recycled Urban Wastewater at 75% evapotranspiration cover.
This paper develops an ecological index (EI) model to assess ecological environment, which is more suitable for Guilin Karst Scenery, because of highlight a greater weight in land degradation, and a lower weight in biological abundance. The EI model considers the biological abundance index, vegetation coverage index, water density index, land degradation index, and environmental quality index, and these indexes are 55.7, 62.7, 69.8, 25.7, and 93, respectively. These indexes are taken into the EI model, and the ecological index is 60.3, which means that the karst ecological environment reaches a “Good” level, but not reaches an “Excellent” level. The results show that the City of Guilin, China presents a higher coverage of the vegetation, a richer biological diversity, and a suitable environment for human being survival. However, the results also indicate that the environmental problems have been arisen at the same time.
AbstractTemperature index snowmelt models often require representation of a snowpack’s melt rate. Defining the melt rate as a function of an accumulated number of warming degree-days is achieved in some temperature index models through the antecedent temperature index–melt rate (ATIMR) function, and provides a reasonable method for adjusting the melt rate during the season. Modelers have typically relied on a default ATIMR function developed two decades ago. However, literature concerning the nature of this default function and how it was developed is largely nonexistent. This paper presents results of a comparison between the default ATIMR function and ATIMR functions computed from field data from two headwater stations within the American River watershed upstream of Folsom Lake, California. An error analysis was also performed using the site-specific data. Using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s hydrologic modeling system (HEC-HMS), it was found that modeled results often varied dramatically between t...
With the increasing global concern on negative environmental effect from the transportation sector, conventional automobile technologies will not be viable for much longer. Countries like the EU and China have introduced emission related regulations which are stricter than ever. This has compelled automotive manufacturer to turn to Electric Vehicles (EV) as the most effective solution to this issue. There are mainly two types of EV, namely Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV). Both has its own strength and shortcomings, BEV with zero emission but limited range while HEV has better range at the expense of higher emission. Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) provides a midpoint between these options. This option provides the best of both worlds by allowing users to switch between both systems depending on the vehicle’s operating condition. This paper aims to presents a variety of Range Extender (RE) configurations based on its working principle and type of fuel used. Internal combustion engine, fuel cell, and microturbine are what RE is commonly powered by. The advantages and disadvantages are evaluated and compared to determine the optimal option. It was concluded that depending on fuel availability, space, and efficiency requirement, each configuration has its own merit.
European Directives and Swedish national goals aim at increasing buildings’ energy efficiency. The construction of low energy building (LEB) areas in Sweden has increasingly attracted attention due to national support. Compared to conventional buildings, LEBs require little space heating during the cold seasons. Still, there are various options for supply of the required heating. Thus, this study aims at comparing the long-term system cost of three heat supply options to a hypothetical LEB area assumed to be located close to an urban area: an “individual” (i.e. separate heat supply), an “on-site” (i.e. local district heating (DH) system) and a “large heat network” (i.e. heat production in a nearby DH system and transmission to the LEB area). A dynamic approach is applied allowing the heat supply system to develop with time, and an energy system model being able to account for the interactions between the building, heat and power sectors, is utilised for the calculations. Two climate policy scenarios are applied to address the uncertainty in future energy prices etc. A systematic sensitivity analysis is designed to investigate the threshold for cost-effectiveness of the large heat network option compared to the other two options. The sensitivity analysis takes into account different combinations of three key parameters: plot ratio of the LEB areas, specification of nearby DH, and distance between LEB area and nearby DH system. The results show, for most of the tested combinations and under both scenarios, that heat supply from the nearby DH system has the lowest system cost if the distance to this system is no more than 2 km, because of the low-cost sources of heat available in the large DH system. A local DH system is more cost-effective than individual heating of buildings even in a LEB area, if it is densely built.
During 2001 to 2007,artificial rainfall experiments were operated to generate electricity in four reservoirs in Hunan.This article presented some surveys about seven experiments,initially evaluated its operation effect and directly economic benefit.Under the advantageous synoptic situation,operating designed surface cloud-seeding to summer cumulus,developing and utilizing effectively water source over large reservoirs could increase surface precipitation,surface flow and the volume of reservoir.In order to evaluate its effect and benefit impersonally and scientifically,non-random zone control regression method and single cannon artificial rainfall method was used to test and estimate it.The analysis showed,while cloud-seeding rate was 0.24 and runoff rate was 0.3~0.5,the increased water amount of seven times was 5.67 hundred million m3.Using water consumption rate to generate electricity method to analyze benefit,it showed that the operation increased 40 million and 20 thousand kilowatt-hour or 16.055 1 million yuan,namely its input-output ratio was 1∶5.67.The result indicated rainfall enhancement for impounding water could not only increase the volume of reservoir,but also produce larger economic benefit for hydropower department,so rainfall enhancement was considered the little-input,high-enhancement and obvious-benefit project.
According to the characteristics of controlling dissolved oxygen in aerobic wastewater treatment system such as time-delay,nonlinearity and multi-disturbances,a method of dissolved oxygen based on fuzzy-PID control is proposed.Firstly the mathematical model of dissolved oxygen is established,then simulations with MATLAB and relative analyses are made by methods of traditional PID controller,fuzzy controller and fuzzy-PID controller respectively.It shows that the fuzzy-PID controller can achieve fine dynamic responsibility and good stability of controlling dissolved oxygen.
Abstract Maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland has grown remarkably during the 2000s. This increase has an impact on the environment and exposes it to risks. These problems should be controlled to guarantee sustainable development and the welfare of inhabitants in the area. A method for estimating the impact of ship-originated air emissions on the environment is to calculate their environmental externalities which are a part of the total marginal social costs of shipping. The internalization of externalities as a control method of transport would comply with the polluter pays principle and act as a fair traffic control method between transport modes. In this paper, we present the results of CO2, NOx, SOx and PM emissions originating from ships and their externalities in the Gulf of Finland up to 2015. The calculation algorithm developed for this study produces emission estimates per annum and converts them into externalities. We focus on passenger, tanker, general cargo, Ro-Ro, container and bulk vessel...
The utility model discloses a take scraper and belt cleaning device's chemical industry agitator tank, including upper cover and agitator tank, on cover and be provided with belt cleaning device, belt cleaning device includes transmission, rotating electrical machines and rotary spraying dish, the rotary spraying face of trying to get to the heart of a matter is provided with the nozzle, the upper cover left side is provided with the jack of rack, ring fixed connection is expected with inside the scraping of setting up of agitator tank in the rack bottom, the inside stirring chamber that is provided with of agitator tank, be provided with the stirring leaf in the stirring chamber, it stirs the position that the leaf left and right sides set up under and staggers each other to scrape the tablet, the agitator tank bottom is provided with the discharge gate, the utility model discloses a belt cleaning device's setting is convenient for to agitator tank heating clear water, and the rotary spraying dish is rotatory through the drive of rotating electrical machines for the agitator tank lateral wall is easy sanitization also, third gear band carry -over bar up -and -down motion, rack drive scrapes material ring up -and -down motion, and the material that will adhere on the agitator tank lateral wall is scraped down, prevents the waste of material.
rainfed agriculture and simulated irrigation requirement for tomato production in the Kabete Field Station. The model predicted increased irrigation requirement for a tomato crop of 33.1, 28.1 and 36.6 mm of water, in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd 10-day periods of development stage, respectively. The crop evapotranspiration (ETc) requirements by tomato crop were predicted as 456.5 mm for the short rainy season while actual evapotranspiration (ETa) was 232.1 mm for the short rains giving a yield response factor of 0.49. The model suggested an addition of 253.7 mm of irrigation water in order to realize optimal tomato yields as the crop experienced an irrigation deficiency of 48.8%. The moisture deficit at harvest was 63.6 mm of water which resulted in total yield reduction of 51.3%. In relation to actual yields calculated, the mean potential optimal tomato yields in the study area were 23.3 Mg/ha with proper soil management and adequate water supply. The suggested supply system was at 10 days irrigation interval/stage where the soils were irrigated just below or above field capacity. Rainfall losses and irrigation requirements would be reduced to 41.9 and 267.7 mm, with minimum water deficit at harvest of 15.5 mm and an irrigation efficiency of 100%. At this point, ETa would equal ETm and optimal tomato yield would be obtained with yield losses predicted at 0.1%. Yield gap analysis revealed that radiation, sunshine and temperature are favourable for crop production, but the heavy dependence on rainfall makes the area very vulnerable to drought.
Home refrigeration temperatures and product storage times are important factors for controlling the growth of Listeria monocytogenes in refrigerated ready-to-eat foods. In 2005, RTI International, in collaboration with Tennessee State University and Kansas State University, conducted a national survey of U.S. adults to characterize consumers' home storage and refrigeration practices for 10 different categories of refrigerated ready-to-eat foods. No distributions of storage time or refrigeration temperature were presented in any of the resulting publications. This study used classical parametric survival modeling to derive parametric distributions from the RTI International storage practices data set. Depending on the food category, variability in product storage times was best modeled using either exponential or Weibull distributions. The shape and scale of the distributions varied greatly depending on the food category. Moreover, the results indicated that consumers tend to keep a product that is packaged by a manufacturer for a longer period of time than a product that is packaged at retail. Refrigeration temperatures were comparable to those previously reported, with the variability in temperatures best fit using a Laplace distribution, as an alternative to the empirical distribution. In contrast to previous research, limited support was found for a correlation between storage time and temperature. The distributions provided in this study can be used to better model consumer behavior in future risk assessments.
The problem of returning a Mars sample to Earth was considered. The model ecosystem concept was advanced as the most reliable, sensitive method for assessing the biohazard from the Mars sample before it is permitted on Earth. Two approaches to ecosystem development were studied. In the first approach, the Mars sample would be introduced into the ecosystem and exposed to conditions which are as similar to the Martian environment as the constitutent terrestrial organisms can tolerate. In the second approach, the Mars sample would be tested to determine its effects on important terrestrial cellular functions. In addition, efforts were directed toward establishing design considerations for a Mars Planetary Receiving Laboratory. The problems encountered with the Lunar Receiving Laboratory were evaluated in this context. A questionnaire was developed to obtain information regarding important experiments to be conducted in the Planetary Receiving Laboratory.
Norway has implemented economic incentives over several years to encourage a transition from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs), and now has the largest share of EVs per capita in the world. In this study, the authors explore the impacts of increasing EV penetration levels in a Norwegian distribution grid, by using real power measurements obtained from household smart meters in load flow analyses. The implications of installing a fast charger in the grid have been assessed, and an optimal location for it is proposed, aiming at minimising both grid losses and voltage deviations. Moreover, the potential for reactive power injection to reduce the voltage deviations caused by fast chargers has been investigated. Results show that the EV hosting capacity of the grid is good for a majority of the end-users, but the weakest power cable in the system will be overloaded at a 20% EV penetration level. The network tolerated an EV penetration of 50% with regard to the voltage levels at all end-users. Injecting reactive power at the location of an installed fast charger proved to significantly reduce the largest voltage deviations otherwise imposed by the charger.
This paper provides an update on an earlier review [Fish & Fisheries 8 (2007) 31] of mitigation methods used to reduce seabird by-catch in trawl fisheries. Interactions of seabirds with trawl vessels fall into two broad categories: those focused on the trawl warps and those focused around trawl nets. For reducing seabird strikes on trawl warps, the use of bird-scaring lines has been proved to be the most effective mitigation device in the trawl fisheries in which comparative studies have been undertaken. However, the retention or strategic management of fish waste (offal and discards) is recommended as the most effective primary measure for by-catch reduction, and as such should be viewed as the best long-term solution to reducing seabird by-catch in trawl fisheries. Coincident with effective fish waste management, measures such as cleaning the net prior to shooting and reducing the time the net is on the surface should be viewed as best practice measures and incorporated into normal fishing activities. While a number of methods have been trialled to reduce the incidence of warp strikes, there continues to be the need for more work on effective measures for reducing interactions of seabirds with the trawl net.
The condition of the internal cellulosic paper and oil insulation are of concern for the performance of power transformers. Over the years, a number of methods have been developed to diagnose and monitor the degradation/aging of the transformer internal insulation system. Some of this degradation/aging can be assessed from electrical responses. Currently there are a variety of electrical-based diagnostic techniques available for insulation condition monitoring of power transformers. In most cases, the electrical signals being monitored are due to mechanical or electric changes caused by physical changes in resistivity, inductance or capacitance, moisture, contamination or aging by-products in the insulation. This paper presents a description of commonly used and modern electrical-based diagnostic techniques along with their interpretation schemes.
An acid rain control bill, H.R.4567, was introduced to the 99th Congress by Rep. Sikorski on April 10, 1986, and reported out of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in amended form on May 20, 1986. The bill never reached a debate in full committee, however. The bill consists of a two-phase program to limit utility sulfur dioxide (SO/sub 2/) emissions. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO/sub x/) and emissions from industrial boilers, industrial processes, and transportation sources would also be reduced. It is estimated that Phase I would reduce utility SO/sub 2/ emissions by 2.6 x 10/sup 6/ tons/yr by 1993, relative to the base-case forecast for that year. Phase II would reduce utility SO/sub 2/ emissions by 6.1 x 10/sup 6/ tons/yr by 1997. The approximate costs are $0.7 x 10/sup 9//yr for Phase I and $2.2 x 10/sup 9//yr for Phase II. These cost estimates are compared with similar estimates made by ICF Incorporated for the US Environmental Protection Agency. The Sikorski bill is estimated to also achieve a reduction in utility NO/sub x/ emissions of about 1.3 x 10/sup 6/ tons/yr at a cost of $400 x 10/sup 6//yr. In general, state-level electricity rates are more » not expected to increase by more than 6 to 8% when pollution control costs are equally distributed (in terms of percent electricity rate increases) among residential, commercial, and industrial users. 38 refs., 8 figs., 33 tabs. « less
We compare new observationally‐based data sets of Antarctic near‐surface air temperature and snowfall accumulation with 20th century simulations from global climate models (GCMs) that support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. Annual Antarctic snowfall accumulation trends in the GCMs agree with observations during 1960–1999, and the sensitivity of snowfall accumulation to near‐surface air temperature fluctuations is approximately the same as observed, about 5% K−1. Thus if Antarctic temperatures rise as projected, snowfall increases may partially offset ice sheet mass loss by mitigating an additional 1 mm y−1 of global sea level rise by 2100. However, 20th century (1880–1999) annual Antarctic near‐surface air temperature trends in the GCMs are about 2.5‐to‐5 times larger‐than‐observed, possibly due to the radiative impact of unrealistic increases in water vapor. Resolving the relative contributions of dynamic and radiative forcing on Antarctic temperature variability in GCMs will lead to more robust 21st century projections.
Abstract The determination of sea surface temperature from satellite is performed by means of multi-channel algorithms with channels 4 and 5 of AVHRRNOAA or using radiative transfer models and radiosounding profiles of air temperature and humidity. In this work, an alternative to the current algorithms has been established. A new method combining the information supplied by sensors of TOVS and AVHRR systems onboard NOAA satellites is proposed. It is based on the split-window technique, the coefficients A and B being determined as a function of the water vapour content, which is calculated using the TOVS sensors. The T4 and T5 temperatures are supplied by the AVHRR system. Then, combining both sensors the necessity of available radiosoundings is avoided.
As a kind of aircraft, airship works differently from traditional ones such as airplane and balloon. The buoyancy of airshipcomes from lifting gas which is infused in the ballonet. Thus, it is very important as how to control the air pressure of the ballonetwhich is close related with outer atmosphere and climate condition, with safety control, blastoff and landing control. It ’s not an easytask not only to realize safety control while ensuring the stability. Our article will discuss how to control the air pressure of ballonetbased on the mathematic model of airship, standard atmosphere model and Heat Transfer Theory.
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are continuously released into the environment following regular household use. With the improvement in analytical techniques, research addressing the occurrence, fate and effects of these compounds in various environmental media has increased over the last two decades. There is however, a significant knowledge gap regarding environmental exposure to PPCPs for different regions particularly low-to-middle income countries and emissions from sources other than wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), such as Onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTSs).  A cross-sectional survey of 350 households in southern Nigeria was used as a proxy to estimate the annual household use of personal care products (PCPs) and the mass of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) consumed per capita per year by applying the WHO Defined Daily Dose concept.  A risk-based prioritization scheme was developed to pre-select PPCPs with the greatest potential to enter groundwater from septic systems using the risk index (RI) approach. The developed priority list of PPCPs indicates that 14 APIs and 9 PCP active ingredients have RI ≥ 0.01 and are therefore considered high priority compounds for future groundwater monitoring protocols in southern Nigeria.  A comprehensive monitoring protocol was developed to characterize the occurrence and concentrations of dichlorvos (a household pesticide) and 61 APIs in domestic water wells impacted by septic systems in southern Nigeria. All sampled wells (53) had detected levels of at least 2 APIs and the six most frequently detected (>50%) APIs included paracetamol, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, carbamazepine, naproxen and caffeine. Dichlorvos was detected in 12 out of 20 sampled wells.  Finally, the risk of potential adverse effects from indirect exposure to APIs in drinking water was assessed by benchmarking exposure with the derived acceptable daily exposure (ADE) limits for individual APIs. Hazard quotient (HQ) was less than 1 for all APIs, which suggests that exposure to maximum levels of individual APIs in Nigerian groundwater currently do not pose an appreciable risk to human health. However, long term exposure to trace levels of chemical mixtures in drinking water may result in a relatively greater risk than that posed by individual substances due to potential for cocktail effects and underscores the need for further investigation.
The impact of farming of the edible oyster Crassostrea madrasensis on the sediment characteristics in Ashtamudi Lake was studied. The meat weight in the 25 m2 trestle (rack) farm with approximately 30,000 oysters was found to increase from 27 kg in March to 228 kg in September with a corresponding total shellon weight of 188 kg and 1431 kg respectively. The effect of farming on the top 1-5 cm and 5-10 cm column of the farm substrate was studied separately. Sediment in both the columns beneath the farm and the reference site (non-farm) in the estuary was predominated by fine sand (about 70%) followed by silt, clay and coarse sand. The average organic carbon content in the two sediment columns during the crop period were 0.87 (1-5 cm) and 0.73 (5-10 cm). Though there were variations in the sediment texture and organic carbon content between the farm and the reference sites the impact due to short term oyster farming on these parameters was not significant.
Block wise categorization of groundwater quality in Inland region of Tirunelveli district for its optimal usage to minimize the soil salinity was undertaken during November 2019. A total of 87 underground water samples representing different Inland blocks viz., Palayamkottai (5), Cheranmahadevi (5), Kalakkadu (6), Ambasamudram (8), Tenkasi (5), Shencottai (5), Kadayanallur (5), Vasudevanallur (7), Sankarankoil (6), Keezhapavur (5), Kadayam (4), Pappakudi (4), Alangulam (5), Melaneelithanallur (5), Kuruvikulam (6) and Manur (6) were collected, analyzed for quality parameter and categorized into different water quality as per the standard procedure. The investigation revealed that groundwater samples with respect to pH and EC ranged from 6.50 to 8.10 and 0.77 to 6.91 dS m-1, respectively. Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) varied from nil to 9.40 meq L-1 and Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) ranged from 0.34 to 9.46. Frequency of occurrence of good quality water in the blocks surveyed were in the order of Kalakkadu and Pappakudi (100%)> Ambasamudram (87.5%)> Cheranmahadevi (80%)> Alangulam (80%)> Sankarankoil (66.6%)> Tenkasi (60%)> Shencottai (60%)> Kadayanallur (60%)> Melaneelithanallur (60%)> Kadayam (50%)> Manur (49.98%)> Vasudevanallur (42.84%)> Kuruvikulam (33.32%) based on the CSSRI, Karnal water quality classification in Inland blocks of Tirunelveli district, 20 per cent of groundwater samples were in good quality, Saline water was found in Palayamkottai. Alkali water was found in Tenkasi, Manur, Kadayam, Kuruvikulam and Ambasamudram blocks to the extent of 20, 16.6, 25, 16.6 and 12.5 per cent respectively. Among the Inland blocks of Tirunelveli districts surveyed, Keezhapavur block falls under high Alkali (40%) and lowest good quality of groundwater (20%).
Stable water isotope concentrations can be used as tracers of the atmospheric water cycle.1 Differences in molecular mass of the isotopes cause them to fractionate during evaporation and condensation processes and, as such, they can record air mass history. The relative concentrations of carbon isotopes in methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), i.e., CH4, CH4, CO2, and CO2, in the atmosphere provides information about the sources of these greenhouse gases and can be used to study climate change. The atmospheric transmittance of solar radiation can be measured in the near-IR spectral region. Instruments that make such measurements with high-spectral resolution enable specific features in the spectrum, which are characteristic to different atmospheric isotopologues (chemical species that differ only in their isotopic composition), to be identified. These observations are used to calculate the total concentration of the gases in the atmospheric column. We have been developing new methods for retrieving the ratios of hydrogen deuterium oxide (HDO) to water (H2O), CH4 to CH4, and CO2 to CO2 from ground-based Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements.3 Ground-based FTIR measurements are made at the Ural Atmospheric Fourier Station (UAFS) simultaneously with direct wavelength-scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy (WS-CRDS) measurements of water isotopologues, and with meteorological parameters. By combining these measurements with an atmospheric general circulation model—such as ECHAM5-wiso4—the results from several different techniques can be compared.5 The UAFS site for atmospheric observations is located at the Kourovka astronomical observatory (57.038N, 59.545E, 300m above sea level), 80km northwest of Yekaterinburg, Russia (see Figures 1 and 2). UAFS began operations in 2009 and is Figure 1. Map of the Climate and Environmental Physics Laboratory target region in Western Siberia. Red star: Ural Atmospheric Fourier Station (UAFS) near Kourovka. Red circle: Yekaterinburg. White star: Planned observation site at Labytnangi.
ABSTRACT To investigate the uptake and depuration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with the Rena oil spill we sampled the surf clam Paphies subtriangulata at two open coast locations (6 km apart) just prior to oil coming ashore (7 October 2011), then at 1–3 week intervals for the next 4 months. Total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (tPAH) increased at both sites from 1 to 96–124 µg kg−1 (wet weight) by 18 October before declining to low levels (<4 µg kg−1) by February 2012. Ongoing sampling throughout 2012–2014 included three additional sites to the north east (up to 30 km away) and a site 5 km to the south east revealing tPAH levels generally <10 µg kg−1 except in October 2013 where levels ranged between 39–45 µg kg−1 at all sites. A comparison of PAH component profiles with oil-contaminated beach sediment indicated that the high levels observed in surf clams between October–December 2011 were clearly associated with the Rena spill. However, the October 2013 peak had a PAH profile inconsistent with weathered Rena oil, suggesting an alternative source of contamination. Our results highlight the potential for P. subtriangulata as a PAH monitoring tool but recognise more study is needed to better quantify baseline levels and uptake and depuration dynamics.
Indoor air pollution caused by domestic solid fuel use has been found harmful to human health. Fuel-based method, which is recommended by WHO, was used to estimate the cost-benefits for rural Guizhou's upgrading to cleaner fuel or stoves. Results showed that under three scenarios, including replacing to cleaner fuel(biogas), adding chimney to traditional stoves, and the combination of the above two scenarios, positive healthy benefits could be obtained. The avoided early death cases due to decease of ALRI, COPD and lung cancer was estimated to be 9 419, 2 617, 5 509 respectively for the three scenarios, and the benefit to cost ratio(BCR) was 3.6, 2.3 and 3.0. It is concluded that household solid fuel intervention program in rural Guizhou can achieve good benefits.
To improve usefulness of a nozzle managing apparatus for managing suction nozzles to be used for the purpose of holding electric components in an electric component mounting apparatus. A nozzle managing apparatus (80) is provided with a nozzle storing apparatus (100). The storing apparatus is configured such that the storing apparatus includes a plurality of pallets, each of which has a plurality of nozzles placed thereon, and a circulating apparatus (134) that circulates the pallets in the storing apparatus. Furthermore, as nozzle treatment apparatuses that treat the nozzles which are stored or to be stored in the storing apparatus, the nozzle managing apparatus is also provided with: a nozzle transfer apparatus (104) that transfers the nozzles between the pallets and a nozzle tray set to an electric component mounting apparatus; nozzle inspecting apparatuses (106, 108) that inspect the nozzles; and a nozzle cleaning apparatus (110) that cleans the nozzles. Transport apparatuses (114, 116, 118, 120) that transport the pallets between the apparatuses and the storing apparatus are provided.
Two alternatives were outlined in the first statement of work as possibilities for flow augmentation in Alturas Lake Creek. The alternatives were to raise the level of Alturas Lake and to acquire necessary water rights in Alturas Lake Creek. The first alternative considered in the study was raising the water level at Alturas Lake with a low head dam. Raising Alturas Lake, appeared feasible in that it provided the necessary fish flows in Alturas Lake Creek. However, raising the level of Alturas Lake has adverse effects to other resources and forced pursuing the second alternative as defined in this report. Some of these effects included: flooding Smokey Bear boat ramp, inundation of recreation beaches for extended periods, flooding of the campground and some of the road system, potentially contaminating the quality of lake water from flooded toilet vaults, and destroying the conifer canopy around the lake. Maintenance and operation costs of the dam, along with the need to have a watermaster to distribute flows over the course of the irrigation season, raised additional concerns that detracted from this alternative. The second alternative considered was the acquisition of water rights. This led to an appraisal of the water right values which more » was completed by BPA with a comparison appraisal done by the Forest Service. « less
Abstract Topographic effects on climate, and particularly on precipitation, are well known in the literature. Nevertheless their separation on the mesoscale from possible anthropogenic effects has proved difficult. A method based on patterns of correlation between local climate elements and indices of the general circulation, which was developed in a study of Australian rainfall, has been applied to precipitation in the State of Washington and surrounding areas where relief is much greater. Patterns are found which account for the major part of some climatic anomalies discussed in the literature and which have previously been ascribed to anthropogenic effects. The wider implications for the study of urban and other anthropogenic effects is discussed with reference to the La Porte anomaly and METROMEX.
In this study interrelations between soil moisture and terrestrial water storage are analyzed by using multi-sensor earth observations from satellites and the outputs of a hydrological model. The study targets at a better understanding of the dynamics and drivers of soil moisture and terrestrial water storage on global scale. Another objective is to find out whether the combined analysis of both parameters creates added value for their application in the field of natural disaster monitoring.
This research developed a mathematical model to evaluate positive effects of mangroves to nearshore process. Particular purpose of the study was to conduct the analytical calculation for the steady condition of wave energy density and wave heights distributions due to the presence of mangroves. The method used was an expansion of the equations for nearshore quantities from the general condition to the one with the existence of mangroves. First, the wave energy density was calculated analytically by solving the wave energy conservation equation. The analytic solution for energy quantity is a function of position variable, involving longshore currents component and other physical constant parameters. The next step was to insert the dissipation of wave energy flux due to wave breaking into another energy balance equation involving mangroves effects. The mangroves contribution is represented by the dissipation due to the existence of the plants in the water. Other quantities included in the model are the wave group velocity and the dissipation due to bottom friction flux. Then the wave heights distribution concerning the mangroves effect was derived from the wave energy density function governed.
Marine mammals rely on sound and hearing as their primary means of communication and sensing their world. Concerns that anthropogenic sound in the ocean could infer their sensing, cause stress or even damage their hearing physically rose a controversial discussion and triggered a worldwide boost in marine bioacoustic research. Innovative acoustic technologies and field methods are required to provide a basis for carefully designed and technically challenging research projects on free-ranging marine mammals, especially under the harsh environmental conditions of polar regions. The Ocean Acoustics group within the Marine Observing Systems section endeavors multidisciplinary research of environmental scientists, geophysicists, oceanographers, physicists, physiologists, and biologists to investigate the need and scope of mitigation measures for the effects of man-generated sound in the ocean, develop acoustic census techniques, explore marine mammal responses to various anthropogenic sounds, and study the vocal behaviour and hearing physiology of Antarctic marine mammals.
ABSTRACT In Japan, the number of snow storage plants has been increasing for the purpose of storing agricultural products and for the air-conditioning of buildings in summer. In order to gather snow into the snow storage room, a rotary snow plow is often used, but it is difficult to pile up snow within the room from inside out. To overcome this limitation, a pneumatic snow conveying system was developed in order to transport snow to the snow storage plant. The system consists of a blower, snow feeder, cyclone separator, and pipeline. The pressure type of the conveying system incorporates both negative and positive pressures, with a capacity to convey wet snow at 10 t/h a distance of 40 m. For snow with free water content below 15%, the system conveyed wet snow without sticking to the inside walls of the pipeline.
Based on an investigation covered 5 villages and 122 farm households on supply and demand in feed and planting structure in Mada town of Lanxi county where was the typical area in low hilly red soil region in Zhejiang province,it was found that demand for feed was quite large due to the developed livestock husbandry in the area but its self sufficient for feed was as low as 42 6% only,particularly lacking of protein feed resources,largely depending upon input from other places,that although this area provided with plentiful of land resources the planting structure was quite simple like following pattern:54 2% of paddy was winter fallow in double rice cropping system,21 2% of that was single cropping rice,winter fallow field was as high as 75 7% of total arable land,which revealed that there was great potential to develop the production of green feed It was suggested that proportion among poultry and livestock and planting of various crop in the region should be changed for developing green feed and herbivorous livestock and enhancing productivity of the system and improving sustainable development of regional agriculture.
Sedimentary records of past hurricane activity indicate centennial‐scale periods over the past millennium with elevated hurricane activity. The search for the underlying mechanism behind these active hurricane periods is confounded by regional variations in their timing. Here, we present a new high resolution paleohurricane record from The Bahamas with a synthesis of published North Atlantic records over the past millennium. We reconstruct hurricane strikes over the past 1,050 years in sediment cores from a blue hole on Long Island in The Bahamas. Coarse‐grained deposits in these cores date to the close passage of seven hurricanes over the historical interval. We find that the intensity and angle of approach of these historical storms plays an important role in inducing storm surge near the site. Our new record indicates four active hurricane periods on Long Island that conflict with published records on neighboring islands (Andros and Abaco Island). We demonstrate these three islands do not sample the same storms despite their proximity, and we compile these reconstructions together to create the first regional compilation of annually resolved paleohurricane records in The Bahamas. Integrating our Bahamian compilation with compiled records from the U.S. coastline indicates basin‐wide increased storminess during the Medieval Warm Period. Afterward, the hurricane patterns in our Bahamian compilation match those reconstructed along the U.S. East Coast but not in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. This disconnect may result from shifts in local environmental conditions in the North Atlantic or shifts in hurricane populations from straight‐moving to recurving storms over the past millennium.
In order to assess the impact of the economic growth on the energy structure, the total primary energy supply (TPES) of China in 2010 was estimated assuming that the ratio of energy consumption to the GNP growth is 0.7. This ratio is nearly the average of GNP growth rate in China from 1981 to 1990, after the projection of energy demand of various the sectors, e. g., industry, transportation, and other sectors. Our estimated TPES was then compared with the TPES projected for the same year by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and by the Energy Research Center China (ERCC).As the result of this study, it is clear that the TPES is significantly affected by the assumed energy consumption to the GNP growth ratio. The lower GNP growth projected by IEA and ERCC (between 0.43 and 0.53) resulted in lower in lower TPES estimates, when compared to our predictions. In our estimation, coal will still be one of the main energy resources for China at 2010. If the fractional distillation technology to convert crude oil to gasoline and diesel oil is remarkably improvemed, the clude oil supply will then depend on the demand for liquid fuel for transportation. Therefore the increase in the motorization will likely have a great influence on structure of energy demand and supply in China in the near future.
The St. Lawrence Estuary is a large seasonally ice-covered estuarine system in eastern Canada. The suspended particulate matter (SPM) dynamic in this estuary is strongly influenced by winds, tides, river runoff, and coastal jets. The particle size distribution (PSD) is an important property of the SPM as it may affect sinking rates, particle re-suspension and distribution of pollutants. A deeper understanding of the PSD helps to determine the vertical and horizontal fluxes of the matter in the water column.
A bstract : The paper describes factors influencing the development of electricity storage technologies. The results of the energy analysis of the electric energy storage system in the form of hydrogen are presented. The analyzed system consists of an electrolyzer, a hydrogen container, a compressor, and a PEMFC fuel cell with an ion-exchange polymer membrane. The power curves of an electrolyzer and a fuel cell were determined. The analysis took the own needs of the system into account, i.e. the power needed to compress the produced hydrogen and the power of the air compressor supplying air to the cathode channels of the fuel cell stack. The characteristics describing the dependence of the efficiency of the energy storage system in the form of hydrogen as a function of load were determined. The costs of electricity storage as a function of storage capacity were determined. The energy aspects of energy accumulation in lithium-ion cells were briefly characterized and described. The efficiency of the charge/discharge cycle of lithium-ion batteries has been determined. The graph of discharge of the lithium-ion battery depending on the current value was presented. The key parameters of battery operation, i.e. the Depth of Discharge (DoD) and the State of Charge (SoC), were determined. Based on the average market prices of the available lithium-ion batteries for the storage of energy from photovoltaic cells, unit costs of electrochemical energy storage as a function of the DoD parameter were determined.
Drinking Water Distribution Systems facilitate to carry portable water from water resources such as reservoirs, river, and water tanks to industrial, commercial and residential consumers through complex buried pipe networks. Determining the consequences of a water contamination event is an important concern in the field of water systems security and in drinking water distribution systems. The proposed work is based on the development of low cost fuzzy based water quality monitoring system using wireless sensor networks which is capable of measuring physiochemical parameters of water quality such as pH, temperature, conductivity, oxidation reduction potential and turbidity. Based on selected parameters a sensing unit is developed along with several microsystems for analog signal conditioning, data aggregation, sensor data analysis and logging, and remote representation of data to the consumers. Finally, algorithms for fusing the real time data and decision making using fuzzy logic at local level are developed to assess the water contamination risk. Based on the water contamination level in the distribution pipeline the drinking water quality is classified as acceptable/reject/desirable. When the contamination is detected, the sensing unit with ZigBee sends signals to close the solenoid valve inside the pipeline to prevent the flow of contaminated water supply and it intimates the consumers about drinking water quality through mobile app. Experimental results indicate that this low cost real time water quality monitoring system acts as an ideal early warning system with best detection accuracy. The derived solution can also be applied to different IoT (Internet of Things) scenario such as smart cities, the city transport system etc.
A net bag method has been used to study the decomposition of Salix alba leaves in five Garonne corridor sites (fast running water, slow flowing water, standing water, floodable willow stand, non floodable willow stand). Changes in the contents and the amounts of some leaf litter constituents were assessed over a 40 week period. Willow leaves decomposed rapidly and, in some cases, this could be described by an exponential model (k = 0.0040 to 0.0121/d) depending on site). Carbon content was rather stable. An absolute increase in nitrogen was observed at all sites for the first weeks. Cellulose loss was less rapid in slow flowing or standing waters and on floodable soils. The lignin fraction accumulated rapidly and was generally 50% after 40 weeks. Decomposition rates were not significantly different at aquatic and terrestrial sites. Both in waters and on soils, oxygen levels and temperature control the decomposition kinetics, especially of cellulose and lignin.
A water slurry, consisting of KCl and Al-Si based additives (kaolin and coal fly ash) was fed into an entrained flow reactor (EFR) to study the K-capturing reaction of the additives at suspension-fired conditions. Solid products collected from the reactor were analysed with respect to total and water-soluble K content to quantify the extent of the K-capturing reaction. The results showed that under suspension-fired conditions (1100 °C-1450 °C), kaolin and coal fly ash can effectively capture gaseous KCl. When increasing the mass ratio of KCl to Al-Si additives in the reactants, the conversion of KCl to K-aluminosilicate decreased. When reaction temperature increased from 1100 °C to 1450 °C, the conversion of KCl does not change significantly, which differs from the trend observed in fixed-bed reactor.
At 4 am.on 9,26,2005,the most severe typhoon“DAMREY”landed on Shangen town in Wanning city in Hainan Province since 1974.The typhoon damaged through amount 18 cities and counties,brought a very heavy disaster to Hainan Province that the economic losing was about 11,647 billions.In the article,the storm surge along the coastal area of Hainan Province by this typhoon and its reason are analyzed deeply,and the distribution of disasters caused by it is preliminarily studied.These will accumulate experience for the forecasting of this kind storm surge and provide basic data and foundation for preventing and reducing disasters.
Atmospheric water has a complex behaviour partly due to the influence of precipitation. Consequently, it is challenging to explain properties of water such as the scale-dependence of its variance, for which a range of spectral exponents has been identified in observational data. Here, a precipitating quasi-geostrophic (PQG) model is explored as a possible prototype for contributing to understanding of water spectra, in an idealised setting. Geostrophic turbulence is examined in numerical simulations, where precipitation is included to explore its effect on the water spectrum, but where phase changes are neglected to allow corresponding theoretical analysis. The water spectral exponent is seen to range from approximately −1.4 to approximately −5 depending on the rainfall speed parameter, , which indicates a significant influence of precipitation on the water spectrum. The limiting values of this range are explained through asymptotic analyses for large and small values of . To obtain this theoretical understanding of the model, a key observation is that water can be written as a linear combination of two other tracers (equivalent potential temperature and a moist variable M), which themselves have theoretically tractable spectra. These two other tracers are linked to distinct modes of the PQG equations–the vortical mode and a moist mode – and the analysis here highlights the usefulness of wave or mode decompositions for understanding water in a saturated domain.
The release characteristics of CO_2 and CO in fire smoke as well as the influence of airflow were investigated by analyzing experimental data appraising material toxicity in the literature. The research results show that the oxygen supply method has such a powerful influence on the CO_2 and CO release mechanisms that the structural characteristics of the experimental apparatus should be considered. The diffusion-controlled combustion is a two stage combustion process for the volatiles first and then the fixed carbon, with the combustion process influenced by the restricted O_2 supply and consumption. The release of the smoke components is also related to the airflow. The data shows a critical airflow rate and a kindling delay time. The ventilation accelerates the combustion but also dilutes and cools the smoke.
AbstractGlauconite has been a concern for different fields ranging from agriculture to heavy metal removal and wastewater treatment. For each application, glauconite must fulfill certain specifications. The most important parameter, acting as the controlling factor, in almost all the relevant industries, is particle size. Therefore, in the present work, several techniques were used to obtain suitable particle size distribution of glauconite in order to meet the standard specification for water treatment and for fertiliser. Dry crushing of glauconite ore, soaking in water for different period with or without stirring, attrition scrubbing in the absence and presence of pebbles, and wet grinding were conducted to achieve that goal. In each step, the glauconite was wet screened, separated into fractions, analysed and evaluated for water treatment or as a fertiliser. Results showed that the glauconite granules suitable for fertiliser use and for water treatment, in comparison with the standards given for each ...
Vipava valley in Slovenia is a representative hot-spot for complex mixtures of different aerosol types of both anthropogenic and natural origin. Aerosol loading distributions and optical properties were investigated using a two-wavelength polarization Raman LiDAR, which provided extinction coefficient, backscatter coefficient, depolarization ratio, backscatter Ångström exponent and LiDAR ratio profiles. Two different representative meteorological situations were investigated to explore the possibility of identifying aerosol types present in the valley. In the first case, we investigated the effect of strong downslope (Bora) wind on aerosol structures and characteristics. In addition to observing Kelvin–Helmholtz instability above the valley, at the height of the adjacent mountain ridge, we found new evidence for Bora-induced processes which inject soil dust aerosols into the free troposphere up to twice the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). In the second case, we investigated aerosol properties and distributions in stable weather conditions. From the observed stratified vertical aerosol structure and specific optical properties of different layers we identified predominant aerosol types in these layers.
Brief Summary • distribution of various land cover types in Yamal Peninsula • monitoring changes in tundra landscapes • analysis of the landscape dynamics during the past two decades (1988-2011).  Data: Landsat TM scenes for 1988 and 2011 years.  Originality: Application of ILWIS GIS spatial analysis tools and Landsat imagery for Bovanenkovo region in Yamal.  Methodology Technical tools: The RS data processing was performed in ILWIS GIS software.  Research method: Image interpretation applied to Landsat TM scenes, and supervised classification.  Geographic location: Yamal Peninsula, north Russia.  Yamal Peninsula: geomorphology  Specific climatic-environmental settings of Yamal Peninsula: flat geomorphology, elevations < 90 m. Processes: • seasonal flooding, • active erosion processing, • permafrost distribution and • intensive local landslides formation.  Yamal Peninsula: environmental settings  One of the typical process in Yamal tundra: cryogenic landslides. Landslides affect local ecosystem structure, because they change vegetation types recovering after the disaster.  Image classification • The key research method is supervised classification (Minimal Distance), which is based on the spatial analysis of spectral signatures of object variables, i.e. vegetation types. • The classes sampling was performed using Sample Set tool in ILWIS GIS. • The training pixels for each land cover type were selected as representative samples and stored as classification key. • Requirement for training pixels: they have contrasting colors, visually visible and distinguishable on the image.  Thematic mapping  Layouts of main research results represent maps of the land cover classes. The created domain Land classes includes legend with representation colors visualizing each category.  Environmental Analysis  Results show: • overall increase of woody vegetation (willows and shrubs) • decrease of peatlands, grass and heath areas. This illustrates environmental process of greening in Arctic, i.e. the unnatural increase of woody plants. The gradual changes in patterns and distribution of plant species affect landscape structure in Yamal. Triggering factors: • complex environmental changes in Arctic • local cryogenic processes (e.g. successive change in vegetation recovering after cryogenic landslides)
This paper presents an optimization model of urban land sustainable use planning, and this model has been implemented in the project of master planning at the Guilin city. In this paper, a modeling framework is proposed according to the demand of urban sustainable development. Then, transportation impact assessment model, spatial income equity assessment model, air quality assessment model and water quality assessment model of the Lijiang basin are established respectively. Considering assessment results of these assessment models, the objective of the optimization model is well elaborated. Finally, constraint conditions of the optimization model are presented.
In analyzing the condensation occurrence cases of built-in furniture in apartment buildings, various causes such as lack of insulation and thermal bridge are being raised at the defect dispute cases. Basically condensation occurrence in built-in furniture can be affected by temperature differences between indoor and outdoor air, the absolute humidity increase depending on the occupants' living environment. The judgement criteria for condensation was classified into the design, construction and the occupants thermal environment error. In this study, the defective judgement process was suggested to give the basic information of condensation problems to field inspector and residents.
This study is part of a generic investigation for the assessment of the required minimum distance between a Spent Fuel/High-Level Waste/ Intermediate-Level Waste (SF/HWL/ILW) repository and a Low/ Intermediate-Level Waste (L/ILW) repository. For this, a large-scale numerical model was constructed to investigate the two-phase flow behavior for such a repository configuration in a low-permeability claystone formation. The modeling focused on the pressurization mechanisms associated with (a) resaturation of backfilled underground facilities, (b) thermal effects caused by heat generation from the SF/HLW canisters, and (c) gas generation from corrosion and degradation of different wastes in the L/ILW and ILW caverns and in the SF/HLW emplacement tunnels. The model accounts for gas generation from corrosion and degradation of both L/ILW and ILW wastes indicating decreasing rates with time, and from corrosion of the SF/HLW canisters characterized by a constant rate. Heat generation from radioactive decay of radionuclides of MOX/UO2 wastes is described by an exponential decay with time. The preceding operational phases of the different repository components were simulated representing the transient initial conditions for the post-closure phase. The simulated pressure buildup in the L/ILW repository shows a near linear increase between 10 and 4,000 years when the peak pressure of 6.5 MPa is reached for a repository at about 370 m bg. This is followed by a similar decline, recovering to near hydrostatic pressures after 1 million years. The SF/HLW repository (repository level 600 m bg) indicates a pressure rise between 100 and 1,000 years affected by the early thermal effects, followed by a steep increase between 3,000 and 100,000 years when the pressures level off to a maximum of 6.5 MPa after 160,000 years (corresponding to a steel corrosion rate of 1 μm/year). This is the time when all the metal is corroded and the gas generation stops resulting in a sudden decline, and the pressures level off to about 4.5 MPa in the SF/HLW emplacement tunnel after 1 million years. The numerical modeling demonstrates that the main pressurization mechanism is from gas generation in the different repository components. The pressure histories show a distinct separation of the pressure peaks between the L/ILW repository and the SF/HLW/ILW repository. Moreover, the thermal phenomena affect the pressures in the SF/HLW repository at early time only (prior to about 2,000 years). The thermal expansion of the pore water in the nearfield around the SF/HLW tunnels does produce a relatively steep pressure buildup after 100 years, but it dissipates rapidly prior to the main pressure buildup caused by the gas generation and gas accumulation in the SF/HLW repository. The thermally induced pressure buildup is restricted to the vicinity of the SF/HLW emplacement tunnels (decameter range) and thus, significant interference of the thermally induced pressure perturbation around the SF/HLW/ILW repository with the early gas pressure buildup in the L/ILW repository can be excluded.© 2011 ASME
Littoral structure is often assumed to provide refuge to young of year (YOY) freshwater fish species, but empirical in situ tests of this relationship are lacking. We estimated mortality rates of YOY largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) over the open-water season in 13 lakes in northern Wisconsin and Michigan using repeated snorkel surveys. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that mortality rate is negatively related to the abundance of littoral coarse woody habitat, which ranged from 3 to 1500 pieces of wood per kilometre of shoreline in these lakes. Instantaneous mortality rates were well-constrained and ranged from 0.04 to 0.19 among the 13 lakes. Mortality was not related to coarse woody habitat abundance. Our results suggest that the relationship between coarse woody habitat and YOY mortality might not be as strong or universal as is often assumed.
Based on the 740-station data from China Meteorological Administration,the interdecadal variations of precipitation and air temperature in the recent 50 years in the upper reaches of Yangtze River are analyzed.Results indicate that annual precipitation in 1950s and 1960s is generally higher than the normal,and is lower in the middle and northeast of the upper reaches since 1990s;annual temperature has an increasing trend since the mid 1980s,especially in the northwest of the upper reaches.Among the variations of all seasons,autumn regional mean precipitation varies obviously with an decreasing trend,and winter regional mean temperature increases more significantly.The interdecadal variation of rainfall intensity shows that the regional mean days of small precipitation and middle precipitation have a decreasing trend over the upper reaches of Yangtze River.The variation of normalized different vegetation index(NDVI) from 1982 to 2001 shows that the vegetation in the eastern of the upper reaches has an evident degradation trend,while the vegetation activity in the western of the upper reaches increases.Interannual correlations between NDVI and climate changes show that there is uncorrelation essentially between rainfall and NDVI,while there is a significant correlation between NDVI from June to August and simultaneous temperature,meaning that temperature increase would be benefit to the photosynthesis and respiration of the vegetation.
The environmental assessment of historical mining sites contaminated with various inorganic species, as also the determination of remediation targets require a better knowledge of pollutant-bearing phases. The objective of this paper was to investigate the operational fractionation of arsenic (As) in an As contaminated (ca. 3 wt%) soil collected from a gold mining site in France, where mining activities and smelting processes of gold ores took place until 2004. Single and sequential chemical extraction procedures wereperformed to evaluate the potential mobility of As according to the fractions to which it was associated in the contaminated soil, and also the part of As sorbed onto soil particles. These procedures used provided information on the nature of arsenic fixation processes in the mining soil studied. Results showed that As appeared mainly sorbed (ca. 72%) with iron on the soil particles, in particular amorphous iron oxyhydroxides. These results confirmed a potential risk of arsenic mobilization under acidic and/or reducing conditions, which frequently occur in mining environment. This research evidenced the importance of the knowledge of As-bearing phases to better predict the mobility of this pollutant and in turn improve the management of arsenic contaminated sites.
Abstract : This document presents a review of the often contradictory literature describing the effects of release waters on the tailwater environment and biota. The physical and chemical conditions found in tailwaters downstream from warmwater and coldwater discharge impoundments are compared and contrasted to those found in natural streams. Reservoir discharges modify the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the stream ecosystem. Physical and chemical characteristics in tailwaters are primarily determined by the depth, volume, and schedule of water releases. The magnitude of change is related to the type of reservoir and to the design and operation of outlet structures. The structure of the biotic community reflects the physical and chemical conditions existing in a particular tailwater. The community is composed of organisms, including nonnative species, that are adapted to this environment. The effects of the tailwater environment on the life history, physiology, and abundance of selected species are described. This information will aid in the development of reservoir discharge guidelines that will enhance the quality of the tailwater environment to increase project benefits. (Author)
The utility model discloses a water and fertilizer integration type micro jet, irrigation and fertilization system which comprises an irrigation system, a fertilization system, a micro jet system and a control system; filtering devices are arranged at a plurality of parts of the system to ensure smoothness of irrigation; a stirrer, a heater strip and a temperature sensor are helpful to safe and rapid dissolution of chemical fertilizer; the height of a lifting column can be decreased when requirements are had on fertilization, so that fertilizer can immerge in soil fully, and the fertilization effect is relatively good; the height of the lifting column can be increased when no requirement is had on fertilization, so that water mist can be sprayed to crops from a high place, the crops can be moistened better, and the irrigation effect is better. The system can realize intelligent control and management.
This chapter intends to bring an overview about the Brazilian researches and their contributions to the production of biodiesel fromwastes. Currently, the main obstacles to spread the use of biodiesel are its high cost of production and the competition between biodiesel and food industries. So, the use of wastes plays an important role in reducing the biodiesel costs and reusing the materials that have no other applications, as deodorization residues, neutralization soap sticks, and animal fats, among others. Then, we present a review about Brazilian studies involving waste oils and fatty–acid-rich raw materials that helped the advancement in this field of knowledge during the last few years.
Base oil plays an important role in engine oil formulation in delivering overall performance attributes in addition to additives. Non-traditional base oil like polyalkylene glycol (PAG) did not get much attention in the past for formulating automotive engine oil. This investigation explored PAGs for enhancing engine oil performance primarily for fuel economy benefit over traditional mineral oil-based formulations. This paper highlights key findings from an extensive investigation, parts of which were published in detail elsewhere, and identifying opportunities and challenges. Several PAG chemistries were investigated depending on their feedstock material. Friction performance was evaluated by several methods starting with laboratory bench tests to engine components to chassis roll dynamometer tests. Durability was also evaluated from laboratory bench tests to engine components to ASTM sequence tests. The investigation revealed that significant friction reduction or fuel economy gain can be achieved with PAG oil but wear protection capability, piston deposit, and varnish require much improvement requiring identification/development of additive components. A few alternative routes for performance improvement are suggested.
Abstract This study focuses on least-cost farm-to-mill cotton cleaning configurations employing survey, regression, and simulation techniques. The resulting least-cost cotton cleaning configurations, employing standard textile technology, included the use of one lint cleaning in the ginning stage. The use of a field cleaner in the harvesting stage was also found to be optimal with some variation based on the desired yarn quality. Results of the study indicated that the optimal cleaning configurations were distinctly different from currently used practices, such that appropriate changes could save the cotton industry between $0.30 and $0.60 per bale of cotton, depending on the desired yarn quality.
Three scientific ozone products from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) aboard MetOp-A, retrieved in three different research teams (LA, LATMOS/ULB, LISA) with different retrieval schemes, are characterized and validated using ozonesondes measurements. The three products are mature enough to be used for detailed analyses of atmospheric chemistry and transport in the troposphere. The characteristics of the products are analyzed in terms of retrieval sensitivity, systematic and random errors, and ability to retrieve the natural variability of ozone and focus on different partial columns from the lower troposphere up to 30 km. The validation covers the midlatitudes and the tropics and the period from January to December 2008. The products present degrees of freedom (DOF) in the troposphere between 1 and 1.2 on average in the midlatitudes and between 1 and 1.4 in the tropics. The DOF are distributed differently on the vertical depending on the profiles and the season: summer leading to a better sensitivity to the lower troposphere, as expected. The error estimates range between 10 and 20 % from the lower tropospheric partial columns (0-6 km and 0-8 km for the midlatitudes and the tropics respectively) to the UTLS partial columns (8-16 km and 11-20 km for the midlatitudes and the tropics respectively) for all the products and are about 5 % in the stratosphere (16-30 km) and for the column up to 30 km. The main feature that arises from the comparison with the ozonesondes is a systematic overestimation of ozone in the UTLS (between 10 and 25 %) by the three products in the midlatitudes and the tropics, attributed to the moderate vertical resolution of IASI and possibly to spectroscopic inconsistencies. The ability of the products to reproduce natural variability of tropospheric ozone is fairly good and depends on the considered season and region.
Sun harvesting is free and the devices capable of trapping solar energy are readily available for the purpose of processing fish by drying. This study investigates the design for constructing and evaluating the performance of a pioneering Parabolic Dish Solar Collector (PDSC) for the purpose of drying fish. A fairly used Strong® satellite dish (model no. SRT D180E) of 1.8m diameter was used for the present study. Mirrors measuring 33X5 cm were glued to the inner side of the dish. A triangular frame was constructed to hold the dish in such a way that the direction of the sun can be easily tracked. A drying chamber with an adjustable stand were constructed and fixed in position at the focal point of the dish allowing the reflecting sun rays to reach the fish in the chamber. The highest solarimetre reading and temperature obtained in the focal point was 1.57kWhr/m2 and 84OC and the mean of both readings measured during the study was 1.35kWhr/m2 and 79OC, respectively. Evaluation of drying capacity using gutted samples of Clarias gariepinus, Bagrus bayad and Oreochromis niloticus showed effective drying as some sample were charred by the heat from the chamber. It is recommended that this method could be adopted for rural fish processing to replace the conventional sun drying as it is cheap to construct, give product that is clean and uses a free source of energy.
ABSTRACT Quadrat sampling is one of the most widely accepted methods for conducting vegetation surveys over the world for centuries. However, it is difficult to determine an optimal size to adequately represent the community compositions in quadrat samplings. Traditional labour-intensive census-based quadrat sampling is also very time consuming and insufficient to represent spatial community characters outside of the quadrat extent. In order to improve the above deficiencies, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/red-green-blue (RGB) photography based vegetation survey methodology was proposed in this study. The essential steps in the proposed method include: 1) obtaining high spatial resolution optical images from the UAV; 2) extracting species based on the orthographic image after mosaic; 3) performing statistics on a given species within the image through different quadrat sizes; 4) determining an optimal quadrat size according to the changing trend of the statistical data. In addition, a case study applied this proposed methodology was conducted in a desert area in Northwest China, where Ammopiptanthus mongolicus and Zygophyllum xanthoxylon dominated. The results show that the remote sensing UAV method could obtain RGB images and orthoimage with flexible control. The statistical data of species density decreased with the increase of quadrat size, but the values changed slightly after 20 m × 20 m, which was larger than the typical quadrat size (10 m × 10 m) used to investigate shrubs. An analysis based on the relationship among species density, plants distribution, and quadrat size further indicated the reasonability of determining the optimal size. Based on the results, it is concluded that a minimum quadrat size of 20 m × 20 m should be adopted for investigating the density and spatial pattern characteristics of A. mongolicus and Z. xanthoxylon, and the proposed UAV-based method provides an alternative for vegetation survey with high efficiency and accuracy.
Studies were conducted to investigate the effects of different fertilizers and supplementary feed on water quality parameters. Dissolved oxygen levels were higher in nutrient rich and plankton dense ponds. There were quite minor variations in water quality parameters among treatments and different seasons of the year. Values of alkalinity and hardness remained same irrespective of the type of input. Total solids were much higher in those ponds with both types of fertilizers and supplementary feed. Differences were more prominent in the levels of plankton productivity which was always higher in nutrient dense ponds where all the proposed inputs were present. During the winter months this difference however totally mitigated indicating low metabolic and decomposition activities. So it can be concluded that water quality can be maintained within acceptable ranges if all the inputs are added in well measured and managed way. Haphazard and poorly managed activities always lead to deleterious effects.
This study proposes a newly developed dry washing method for removing pollutants such as total petro-leum hydrocarbon (TPH) and oxidized iron from the surface of ballast gravel. A batch-type dry washing method showed a good performance in a previous study. In this study, a continuous-type dry washing system, instead of a batch-type system, was prepared to improve the efficiency of the system. A drier and a separator were also applied to this system as pre-treatment process, and the performance of this system was evaluated. In this experiment, blasting media was blasted on the polluted gravels through 12 nozzles by a pressure of 5-6kg/cm 2 for 20-30 mins to remove TPH and oxidized iron. It was found to be possible to remove 80-90% of TPH and oxidized iron by using this system. Several ways to improve the performance were suggested in this study.
Abstract. Deep soil recharge (DSR) (at depth greater than 200 cm) is an important part of water circulation in arid and semi-arid regions. Quantitative monitoring of DSR is of great importance to assess water resources and to study water balance in arid and semi-arid regions. This study used a typical bare land on the eastern margin of Mu Us Sandy Land in the Ordos Basin of China as an example to illustrate a new lysimeter method of measuring DSR to examine if the annual recharge coefficient is valid or not in the study site, where the annual recharge efficient is the ratio of annual DSR over annual total precipitation. Positioning monitoring was done on precipitation and DSR measurements underneath mobile sand dunes from 2013 to 2015 in the study area. Results showed that use of an annual recharge coefficient for estimating DSR in bare sand land in arid and semi-arid regions is questionable and could lead to considerable errors. It appeared that DSR in those regions was influenced by precipitation pattern and was closely correlated with spontaneous strong precipitation events (with precipitation greater than 10 mm) other than the total precipitation. This study showed that as much as 42 % of precipitation in a single strong precipitation event can be transformed into DSR. During the observation period, the maximum annual DSR could make up 24.33 % of the annual precipitation. This study provided a reliable method of estimating DSR in sandy areas of arid and semi-arid regions, which is valuable for managing groundwater resources and ecological restoration in those regions. It also provided strong evidence that the annual recharge coefficient was invalid for calculating DSR in arid and semi-arid regions. This study shows that DSR is closely related to the strong precipitation events, rather than to the average annual precipitation, as well as the precipitation patterns.
Generated reflectance and original MSS images were compared at six blue to near infrared wavelengths at thirty-eight (38) field locations in three different lakes. Both sets of images were evaluated in terms of their importance in explaining the variance of measured reflectances. Subsequently, the generated reflectance images were related to measured chlorophyll /und a/ and total suspended solids using a statistical analysis that uncovered the simplest relationships explaining the greatest amount of each water variables variance. Applying this methodology resulted in predictor equations explaining 82% of the chlorophyll /und a/ variance and 92% of the total suspended solids variance within the thirty-two (32) water samples analyzed. Maps were produced of L Lake depicting the distributions of two water quality indicators: chlorophyll a and total suspended particles. 16 refs., 6 figs., 4 tabs.
The Landcare Research sustainable commercial building in Auckland, New Zealand, was designed to have a small demand for mains water and minimal discharge of stormwater and sewage, to reduce its impact on natural waters. This was a challenge given that the core business operations of Landcare Research, such as research laboratories and experimental glasshouses, require a large volume of water. Minimising the use of mains water was achieved by harvesting and reusing stormwater as well as reducing demand, primarily by using composting toilets. In line with the principles of sustainability, the composting toilets produced a useable product from a waste and reduced untreated discharge from the building. Harvesting the stormwater from the roof reduced the impact of runoff from the building. The other key discharge was stormwater running off a carpark. The carpark forms part of a stormwater treatment train including a bioretention strip and raingarden which reduced the total volume and peak flow of water entering the stormwater network. Monitoring results are presented as an integrated urban water balance with discussion about the inputs to the system, followed by the demands placed on the system and then discharge from the system.
Shantou estuary is not only one of most important area for navigation in southern China,but also play a significant role in aquiculture and tourism in Shantou city.A science and technology project for marine development was started in 2002,because the pollution situation of Shantou estuary was so serious and hamper the local economic development.As a part of this research, the pollution degrees and the potential ecological risks associated with heavy metals content and distribution pattern in surface sediment of Shantou estuary were assessed with the method of single factor pollution index,marine sediment quality and Hakanson's potential ecological index.The results showed that:the average contents of Cd,Cu,Zn,Pb in surface sediment of Shantou estuary were higher than marine sediment quality standards(Ⅰ).Based on the single factor pollution index of target heavy metals,the surface sediment of Shantou estuary have to be considered as most strongly polluted with Cd,strongly polluted with Zn and moderately polluted with Cu,Ni,Pb.Based on ecological risk factor(E_r~i),the potential ecological risk to the Shantou estuary contamination was very strong with Cd,and only slight with other elements.Based on the multi-elements potential ecological risk indices(RI),the Shantou estuary was moderately polluted by heavy metals.The spatial difference of heavy metal pollution and their potential ecological risk have a consistent pattern with that of heavy metals content,which showed a decrease trend as waves from upstream to downstream of Shantou Estuary with a distinct peak in Niutanyang and upper region of Shantou harbor.This phenomenon maybe caused by the river inlet,sewer outlet distribution pattern in the study region, together with geographical and hydrological characteristics of Shantou estuary.
High levels of volatile organic sulfur compounds (VOSCs) have frequently been detected during algae-induced black blooms, which pose an ecological threat to water bodies and their surrounding residents. In this study, aeration was applied to remove the VOSCs after the outbreak of a black bloom. The removal efficiencies under different aeration rates (A1 (0.06 m3-air min−1 m−3), A2 (0.18 m3-air min−1 m−3), and A3 (0.54 m3-air min−1 m−3)) were compared. For treatments A2 and A3, the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) and the oxidation-reduction potential (Eh) increased sharply after 1 h of aeration, and about 70% of the VOSCs were removed from the water columns; however, for treatment A1, the increases in DO and Eh and the rate of removal of VOSCs were slower. The ultimate removal rate of VOSCs was >99% for all the aerated treatments after 24 h. The alteration of the oxidation-reduction conditions, induced by the aeration, could be the primary reason for the removal of the VOSCs. Thus, aeration treatment might be a feasible technique for the removal of VOSCs after the outbreak of black blooms in waterworks and some shallow lakes.
Research paper and results concerning fish assemblages at petroleum platforms, which serve as artificial reefs, in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Results determined the scope of area size that the fish inhabited around petroleum platforms and what types of fish were most prevalent. Appendices provide data on the Current, Temperature, Salinity, and Oxygen Data Coincident for three locations: South Timbalier 54, Grand Isle 49, and Green Canyon 18.
Data mining is the process of extracting non-trivial patterns from large amount of data. In recent decades we found the most diversity in every area and region of ecology and climate. As days go by, we are getting towards the destruction of our water system and for this reason in the upcoming years we might face the problem of lacking water. Not only the population and its disruption could cause this problem but also the climate change could hamper our water system, flow of water level and mineral contents. We have used previous 5 years data to calculate where and when the water level changes. We also try to identify the reasons for that. We use spatio-temporal data mining technique on the era of hydrology. We have used the BCA - Bangladesh Country Almanac - data set to analyze the spatial and temporal variability characteristics of temperature.
Fenghuoshan and Kunlunshan Tunnels lie in hinterland of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,of which the altitude is about 5 000 m.The problems of the life and health of workers,the protection of permafrost and the quality of tunnel become very severity because of lack of oxygen,coldness and bad geological condition in permafrost regions.The governing differential equations of construction circumstances temperature field and the surrounding-rock temperature field are established.The simulation of temperature field,the development and application of the construction ventilation and heating unit,the system of making and supplying oxygen,and the system of monitoring and controlling made the general controlling of air temperature and air quality become realism;it can provide important technology guarantee and appropriate working condition.
Vegetable wastes and fruit wastes are mixed for aerobic or anaerobic co-composting degradation.The degradation conditions and efficiency of different methods are found out and the effects are compared.The results indicate that the degradation rate of total organic substances and other components under aerobic condition is higher than under anaerobic condition.The aerobic degradation rate of vegetable wastes co-composting is lower than simple type.But it is higher than vegetable and fruit wastes co-composting obviously.
Abstract Incorporation of the remaining crop residue, including the root system, of grain (soybean and corn) and fiber (cotton) crops into the soil following harvest is a common agricultural practice. The crop residue represents a substantial portion of nitrogen initially applied as fertilizer, and thus is a potential source of nitrogen for NO emissions during the winter fallow period. Fluxes of NO and NO2 were measured from fallow fields from February 7 to March 23, 1994, using a dynamic chamber technique (ambient air as the carrier gas). Average NO flux rates, as a function of previous crop residue, were 9.2 (range –4.2 to 76) ng–N m–2 s–1 for soybean, 6.1 (range –11.7 to 110) ng–N m–2 s–1 for cotton, and 4.7 (range –0.2 to 40) ng–N m–2 s–1 for corn. Maximum NO fluxes were observed in mid–morning when soil temperatures were lowest. Minimum NO flux occurred after mid–afternoon when soil temperature reached a maximum. The decrease in NO flux with increase in soil temperature (5 cm depth) reflected the exi...
AbstractMidlatitude storm tracks shift in response to climate change and natural climate variations such as El Nino, but the dynamical mechanisms controlling these shifts are not well established. This paper develops an energy balance model that shows how shifts of the Hadley cell terminus and changes of the meridional energy flux out of the Hadley cell can drive shifts of storm tracks, identified as extrema of the atmospheric meridional eddy energy flux. The distance between the Hadley cell terminus and the storm tracks is primarily controlled by the energy flux out of the Hadley cell. Because tropical forcings alone can modify the Hadley cell terminus, they can also shift extratropical storm tracks, as demonstrated through simulations with an idealized GCM. Additionally, a strengthening of the meridional temperature gradient at the terminus and hence of the energy flux out of the Hadley cell can reduce the distance between the Hadley cell terminus and the storm tracks, enabling storm-track shifts that d...
Grain is vulnerable to mycotoxin contamination during planting,processing,storage and transportation,which causes a serious threat to human and animal health.However,current traditional methods for mycotoxin detection are usually laboratory-intensive,time-consuming or with low sensitivity,and could not fulfill the need for on site rapid and accurate testing,emerging as a bottleneck for grain quality and safety.Modern non-destructive determination methods,as a new piece of technology,can provide the quality evaluation of grain without destroying the samples.It becomes an important development direction for on-line and real-time detection of grain quality.It also has a great potential in rapid inspection of mycotoxin contamination in grain.This paper reviewed in detail the recent research progress in detection of mycotoxin contamination in grain by near-infrared spectroscopy,hyperspectral imaging and electronic nose techniques.Advantages as well as limitations of various techniques were discussed and application prospect was also forcasted finally.
Rice plant and soil are playing vital role for produce of methane (CH4) emission from flooded rice soil. Contribution of rice plants and cover crop biomass amended soil on methane emission has not been yet studied under different cover crop biomass incorporated in paddy fields. Closed-chamber method was used to estimate CH4 emission rates during rice cultivation under soil plus rice plants and soil alone condition. Soil plus rice plants chambers 62 × 62 × 112 cm3 and soil alone chambers 20 × 20 cm2 were placed at the same time during rice cultivation (0 days after rice transplanting). Therefore, to evaluate the contribution of soil plus rice plants and soil alone on methane (CH4) emission under different rates of cover crop biomass incorporated soil during rice cultivation. Methane emission from soil plus rice plants increased up to 53 days after transplanting (DAT) and then it’s decreased and continued till harvesting. It was found that ca. 47% - 52% CH4 was mediated by rice plants and ca. 48% - 53% through rice soil alone under 12 Mg·ha-1 cover crop biomass incorporated treated plots. Whereas, only ca. 9% - 10% CH4 emission was mediated by rice plants and ca. 90% - 91% by rice soil alone when 0 and 3 Mg·ha-1 cover crop biomass was incorporated. Therefore, it could be concluded that rice soil alone was more influenced for CH4 emission than rice plants in paddy fields.
The latter method of using a greenhouse in winter to promote the jujube two crops a year, from mid-December shed gradually warmed, maintaining the temperature and humidity different at different times of growth shed jujube, picking fruit crop, withdrawal plastic film greenhouses out of the tree timely retraction update, promote jujube secondary bud, flowering, fruit set, in late October on the film greenhouses buckle, the second crop after harvesting the fruit of the tree timely pruning, then the day will Gaiyan greenhouses, insulation curtain rolled up the night, and open the vents to cool, jujube mandatory dormant until mid-December to start heating up again.
In the further development of the raw material base of the oil and gas industry of the USSR, the planning for, proving, and evaluating of C1 reserves is very important; these are the source for higher categories of reserves. From January 1, 1959 to January 1, 1964, C1 category reserves increased 1.5 times for oil and 1.6 times for gas. Almost all the increase for oil was due to discoveries in Mesozoic sediments, which are host to the newly discovered fields of West Siberia, South Mangyshlak, and East Cis-Caucasus. The magnitude of C1 reserves in Mesozoic sediments increased 10.4 times during this period, whereas reserves in Cenozoic and Paleozoic sediments did not change. The percentage of the reserves in Paleozoic sediments dropped from 73.2% to 48% during this time, whereas those in Mesozoic increased to 34.9%.
Sandy soils generally lack of organic and mineral colloids, they have small active surface, low cation exchange capacity (CEC), nutrient supply and buffering capacity and have unfavorable structure developing capability. A common source of organic matter is liquid manure. Application of liquid manure however bears environmental risk, such as leaching of nitrogen or runoff with erosion. (Stefanovits et al., 1999) In the present work, organo-mineral complexes were used to improve the physical and chemical characteristics of sandy soil from the Nyirseg, a representative sandy area of Hungary, to develop better physical, and chemical soil properties and to reduce the hazard of nutrient and organic matter loss and pollution.
For the systems that experience competing failure processes, an uncertain process–based degradation model is developed to describe the systems. The competing degradation process is composed of internal continuous degradation and external shocks, and the mutual dependence between them is considered. When the magnitude of the internal degradation exceeds the threshold, the soft failure occurs. While for the shock processes involving the randomness and the subjective information, we adopt the uncertain random renewal reward process to characterize it. Hard failure occurs when the damage of the shock process exceeds the strength threshold of the system. By using the belief reliability metric, the reliability of the degraded system is defined as the chance measure that neither soft failure nor hard failure occurs. And the effect of the degradation‐shock dependence on the system reliability is performed by the parametric studies. Then the proposed degradation model is introduced into the preventive maintenance strategy to minimize the average maintenance cost. Using the microelectromechanical systems as an example, the effectiveness of the constructed degradation model and maintenance strategy is illustrated, and the proposed model can characterize the system degradation process in a superior way to the stochastic process model. These methods can be applied to other similar degraded systems and provide support for maintenance decisions.
We present an algorithm for design of a joint source-channel coder using a channel-optimized quantizer and multicarrier modulation. By changing the power of each subchannel in the multicarrier modulation system, different error protection can be provided for different bits according to their importance. The algorithm converges to a locally optimum system design. Compared to a Lloyd-Max (1982, 1960) scalar quantizer or a LBG vector quantizer using single-channel transmission, our optimized system can yield substantial performance improvements. The performance improvements are most pronounced at low channel signal-to-noise ratios.
3D lines in structured environments encode particular regularity like parallelism and orthogonality. We leverage this structural regularity to estimate the absolute and relative camera poses. We decouple the rotation and translation, and propose a novel rotation estimation method. We decompose the absolute and relative rotations and reformulate the problem as computing the rotation from the Manhattan frame to the camera frame. To compute this rotation, we propose an accurate and efficient two-step method. We first estimate its two degrees of freedom (DOF) by two image lines, and then estimate its third DOF by another image line. For these lines, we assume their associated 3D lines are mutually orthogonal, or two 3D lines are parallel to each other and orthogonal to the third. Thanks to our two-step DOF estimation, our absolute and relative pose estimation methods are accurate and efficient. Moreover, our relative pose estimation method relies on weaker assumptions or less correspondences than existing approaches. We also propose a novel strategy to reject outliers and identify dominant directions of the scene. We integrate it into our pose estimation methods, and show that it is more robust than RANSAC. Experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrated that our methods outperform state-of-the-art approaches.
For analysts in the discipline of Management Information Systems intent on increasing the level of understanding by users of critical information system concepts, utilization of the traditional structured systems analysis approach is the norm. A preliminary investigation followed by a feasibility analysis, identification of alternative solutions and general systems design are the normal activities that take place. Frequent interactions by analysts with the end-user and/or system requestor take place primarily on a scheduled basis with the analystsâ€™ presenting their findings and recommendations. Interviews, documentation, observation and questionnaires are the primary vehicles for data collection by the analyst. However, analysts and their clients are often In an adversarial relationship because of the mystery of technology, because of the feeling that the analyst does not really understand the issues the end-user is facing or because the client does not know what he/she wants want he/she knows they want something better. This paper presents a research framework to compare traditional and participatory approaches to systems analysis using a process oriented analytical procedure.
The extraction of description is important in audio-visual document retrieval. Although various approaches were proposed, extracting semiotic description that reflect the content knowledge remains a challenging task. This paper proposes an approach for describing external and a semiotic description of audio-visual document. The main objective is to associate a set of semiotic descriptions to each filmic segment in order to facilitate the interrogation of huge quantities of filmic document. The extraction description process relies mainly on the probabilistic LDA model and Dublin Core.To identify the description, a combination method applied both weighing score and position of each extracted theme. Qualitative and quantitative experiments were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The performance of the extracted semiotic description is better than that of the descriptions presented in the literature. The good results were obtained due to good choice of the information sources, the adaptation of the LDA and the importance of the identification process.
The network geographical information system faces some difficulties that the Web language does not support vector graphics.Thus delivering a great deal of variety spatial data is limited by the network bandwidth currently etc.Aimed at solving these problems in the geography information system,this paper analyse SVG technique and its advantages,puts forward system structure and work principle of WebGIS based on SVG technique.In this way,application of SVG technique has the good development foreground in WebGIS.
Over recent decades, the detection of faults in induction motors (IMs) has been mainly focused in cage motors due to their extensive use. However, in recent years, wound-rotor motors have received special attention because of their broad use as generators in wind turbine units, as well as in some large power applications in industrial plants. Some classical approaches perform the detection of certain faults based on the fast Fourier transform analysis of the steady state current (motor current signature analysis); they have been lately complemented with new transient time–frequency-based techniques to avoid false alarms. Nonetheless, there is still a need to improve the already existing methods to overcome some of their remaining drawbacks and increase the reliability of the diagnostic. In this regard, emergent technologies are being explored, such as the analysis of stray flux at the vicinity of the motor, which has been proven to be a promising option to diagnose the motor condition. Recently, this technique has been applied to detect broken rotor bar failures and misalignments in cage motors, offering the advantage of being a noninvasive tool with simple implementation and even avoiding some drawbacks of well-established tools. However, the application of these techniques to wound rotor IMs (WRIMs) has not been studied. This article explores the analysis of the external magnetic field under the starting to detect rotor winding asymmetry defects in WRIMs by using advanced signal processing techniques. Moreover, a new fault indicator based on this quantity is introduced, comparing different levels of fault and demonstrating the potential of this technique to quantify and monitor rotor winding asymmetries in WRIMs.
The signalling subsystem is the most expensive and complex element in cellular networks. Today's networks use signalling mechanisms whose design builds on more than 20 years of the operational expertise. Despite this, the signalling subsystem of all mobile network standards remains vulnerable to failures of equipment and to sharp increases in offered load caused by unanticipated traffic patterns. In this work we analyse the technical vulnerability of paging - a key signalling mechanism that is responsible for notifying mobile terminals of downlink service requests. Our assessment considers the operation of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks and in particular the performance of the paging mechanism on the radio interface. We implemented the paging procedure in a simulator, and we propose and verify a mathematical model of the system behaviour. The proposed mathematical model effectively captures the non-zero threshold of paging failure probability; it is scrupulously precise for the paging loads below the nonzero threshold and delivers a close approximation with the increasing paging load. The mathematical model can be applied to optimise the performance of the paging mechanism and to devise techniques able to overcome its technical vulnerability.
Automated visual inspection in the semiconductor industry aims to detect and classify manufacturing defects utilizing modern image processing techniques. While an earliest possible detection of defect patterns allows quality control and automation of manufacturing chains, manufacturers benefit from an increased yield and reduced manufacturing costs. Since classical image processing systems are limited in their ability to detect novel defect patterns, and machine learning approaches often involve a tremendous amount of computational effort, this contribution introduces a novel deep neural network-based hybrid approach. Unlike classical deep neural networks, a multi-stage system allows the detection and classification of the finest structures in pixel size within high-resolution imagery. Consisting of stacked hybrid convolutional neural networks (SH-CNN) and inspired by current approaches of visual attention, the realized system draws the focus over the level of detail from its structures to more task-relevant areas of interest. The results of our test environment show that the SH-CNN outperforms current approaches of learning-based automated visual inspection, whereas a distinction depending on the level of detail enables the elimination of defect patterns in earlier stages of the manufacturing process.
Along with the development of computer technology, multi-media technology, networking and optoelectronic technology, these technologies has gained more and more application in higher vocational education in China, it has been an important teaching mean in higher vocational education ----multimedia teaching. But many erroneous exist in the practice process, this article discussed on these erroneous zones, and proposed the corresponding countermeasures.
This thesis proposes a methodology, notation/theory, and software framework for organising documents using formal concept analysis. The documents are organised for the purposes of retrieval and analysis using background information in the form of a taxonomy of terms. An emphasis is placed on the development of a methodology that employs scalable computer programs to assist humans in the process of organisation, retrieval and analysis of document collections. The text retrieval community has also been concerned with the organisation of documents. The work outlined in this thesis makes use of the results of the text retrieval community at its lowest layer. Above this layer formal concept analysis is used as a mechanism to allow users to organise document collections using views determined by small numbers of attributes. These views, also known as scales, can make a mixture of coarse and specific distinctions between documents, and are either selected or created by the users to make precisely the distinctions between documents that are important to their current tasks. The primary tool for the presentation of the results of formal concept analysis is a line diagram. The effectiveness of the presentation of information contained in a line diagram is heavily dependent on the quality of the diagram. To support users in arriving at a quality diagram for a newly created view, graph drawing algorithms are adapted to the special case of determining a good layout for a concept lattice. This task is different from traditional graph layout problems because lattices exhibit a high degree of structure which should be exploited and made evident in the final diagram. A new layout algorithm is proposed that combines a layered diagram approach and an additive diagram methodology. This new hybrid algorithm is shown to produce better diagrams than other adapted graph drawing algorithms.
While DES has been proven to be breakable within a day given sufficient computational power, AES is still in use because it is extremely resistant to cryptanalytic attacks. Power Analytic Attacks use power consumption traces of the hardware or software implementation of these algorithms to reduce search space exponentially in the size of the key, thereby making computational complexity several orders of magnitude lower. This paper analyzes the increase in the computational advantage of an adversary who uses DPA and higher order power analysis attacks as opposed to algorithmic cryptanalysis. We highlight why there can be no perfect masking against DPA, and then define a standard for the security of masking countermeasures to such attacks. The main contribution is a security metric for systems and a cut-off for the number of encryptions allowable for a given order of masking to make the system immune to higher order DPA attacks.
The utility model relates to a controller, particularly to a GSM remote air conditioner power controller. The power controller comprises a central processing unit, an air-conditioner power-on/power-off control module, a wireless communication module, a temperature acquisition module and an LED display module. The central processing unit comprises an automatic control module, a hand-operated control module and a clock control module and is the module that stores and processes the command for powering on or powering off the air conditioner. The wireless communication module works on the basis of the GSM wireless network. The temperature acquisition module collects the temperature indoor. The temperature data is displayed in the LED display module. The central processing unit processes the collected temperature and then drives the air-conditioner on/off power control module to complete the remote control of power-on or power-off the air conditioner based on the GSM network.
Computer programming is a “two-way thinking process.” The programmer must think and implant his/her thought in the computer in the form of code. In return, the computer must think like the programmer in the way of output. Compilation is the only initial accurate way of confirming that the programmer and the computer are thinking the same way. In case of novice programmers, the compiler feedback does not suffice the need. In some cases it is a source of confusion and despair. To add to this complexity, the way initial programming is taught and the way programming materials are presented to learners goes contrary to the “two-way thinking.” There is a need for another (mediating) language between the compiler and the novice programmer. In this paper, the traditional practice of introducing programming lessons through programs that display a message such as “Hello World” or any other message is debunked. A new visualization approach through Memory Transfer Language (MTL) is proposed. It is proved that MTL is a language to learn programming whereby students are able to employ hands-on, minds-on and “two-way-thinking” approach to develop coding skills. General Terms Programming languages, programming materials, visualization
Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of two or more devices or nodes or terminals with wireless communications and networking capability that communicate with each other without the aid of any centralized administrator also the wireless nodes that can dynamically form a network to exchange information without using any existing fixed network infrastructure. And it’s an autonomous system in which mobile hosts connected by wireless links are free to be dynamically and some time act as routers at the same time, and in this paper gives the distinct characteristics of traditional wired networks, including network configuration may change at any time , there is no direction or limit the movement and so on, and thus needed a new optional path Agreement (Routing Protocol) to identify nodes for these actions communicate with each other path, An ideal choice way the agreement should not only be able to find the right path, and the Ad Hoc Network must be able to adapt to changing network of this type at any time. and this paper gives all the information of Mobile Ad Hoc Network which include the History of ad hoc, wireless ad hoc, wireless mobile approaches and types of mobile ad Hoc networks, and then present the types of the routing Ad Hoc Networks protocols have been proposed. In this paper, the more representative of routing protocols, analysis of individual characteristics and advantages and disadvantages to collate and compare, and present the all applications or the Possible Service of Ad Hoc Networks.
Presents an approach to decrease the acoustic mismatch between a test utterance Y and a given set of speech hidden Markov models /spl Lambda//sub X/ to reduce the recognition performance degradation caused by possible distortions in the test utterance. This is accomplished by a parametric function that transforms either U or /spl Lambda//sub X/ to better match each other. The functional form of the transformation depends on prior knowledge about the mismatch, and the parameters are estimated along with the recognized string in a maximum-likelihood manner. experimental results verify the efficacy of the approach in improving the performance of a continuous speech recognition system in the presence of mismatch due to different transducers and transmission channels.<<ETX>>
To realize the compelling future of computing studies, researchers and analysts must rethink the traditional way of partitioning and structuring computer science and engineering. A framework that USC is already partially implementing combines an explicitly interdisciplinary academic focus with a systems-oriented perspective. A more efficient organization for computer science and engineering (CSE) - and one that helps point the way toward its promising future - requires an intrinsically interdisciplinary framework that combines academic and systems-oriented computing perspectives. A virtual organization must be able to access information through interfaces that facilitate rather than interfere with getting the job done in time-critical situations.
In this article, a novel intermittent projected subgradient algorithm is presented to solve the randomized optimal consensus problem for heterogeneous multiagent systems with time‐varying communication topologies. The multiagent systems achieve the consensus meanwhile minimizing the global objective function ∑i=1mfi(x) via the proposed algorithm, where fi(x) is the convex objective function of agent i itself. Due to the common Bernoulli distribution adopted in the existing random optimization algorithm without considering the different computing capability of each agent. An individual projection probability is assigned for each agent based on computing capabilities so that either making projection or taking average is chosen according to the above probability which can effectively avoid overload for some agents with lower computing capabilities and improve the reliability of the overall systems. A new sufficient step‐size condition is given to ensure all agents converge to the optimal solution with probability one. Finally, a numerical example is also given to validate the proposed method.
This paper introduces a novel excitation approach for speech synthesizers in which the final waveform is generated through parameters directly obtained from Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Despite the attractiveness of the HMM-based speech synthesistechnique,namelyutilizationofsmallcorporaandflexibility concerning the achievement of different voice styles, synthesized speech presents a characteristic buzzinesscaused by the simple excitation model which is employed during the speech production. This paper presents an innovative scheme where mixed excitation is modeled through closed-loop training of a set of state-dependent filters and pulse trains, with minimization of the error between excitation and residual sequences. The proposed method shows effectiveness, yielding synthesized speech with quality far superior to the simple excitation baseline and comparable to the best excitation schemes thus far reported for HMM-based speech synthesis. Index Terms: Speech Processing, Speech Synthesis, HMM.
In this paper, we introduce the original Mobile Intelligent System (MIS) in embeded FPGA architecture. This node will allow the construction of autonomous mobile network units which can move in unknowns, inaccessible or hostile environnement for human being, in order to collect data by various sensors and transmits them by routing to a unit of distant process.  In the sake of improving the performance of transmission, we propose a global schema of QoS management using DiffServ/MPLS backbones. We provide an evaluation of several scenarios for combining QoS IP networks with MIS access network. We conclude with a study on interoperability between QoS patterns in access and backbone networks.
mining is the use of data mining techniques to automatically discover and extract information from web data, including web documents, hyperlinks between documents, usage logs of web sites, etc. Since large volumes of data is stored on web majority of the information retrieved through search engines may not be of much use to the web users. The information/data available on the web are extremely dynamic. The uploaded information can be used to gain more knowledge and based on the findings and analysis of the information make predictions as to what would be the best choice and the right approach to move toward on a particular issue. Application of data mining techniques would help to achieve the same. Web data mining is not only focused to gain business information but also used by various organizational departments to make the right predictions and decisions on business development, work flow, production processes and more by going through the business models derived from the data mining. In this paper a comprehensive review of different web mining techniques is being presented with their limitations.
In this study, we address the problem of chaotic synchronization over a noisy channel by introducing a novel Deep Chaos Synchronization (DCS) system using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Conventional Deep Learning (DL) based communication strategies are extremely powerful but training on large data sets is usually a difficult and time-consuming procedure. To tackle this challenge, DCS does not require prior information or large data sets. In addition, we provide a novel Recurrent Neural Network (RNN)-based chaotic synchronization system for comparative analysis. The results show that the proposed DCS architecture is competitive with RNN-based synchronization in terms of robustness against noise, convergence, and training. Hence, with these features, the DCS scheme will open the door for a new class of modulator schemes and meet the robustness against noise, convergence, and training requirements of the Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Anemia, or chronic malnutrition, in children under 5 is a social problem that affects the infant crucially in his or her growth and cognitive development. However, this problem presents itself in different ways in each department of Peru. Thus, in this work, the methodology of grey clustering, which is based on grey systems theory, was applied. The case study was conducted in the 25 departments of Peru, to analyze the departments most affected by chronic malnutrition in children under 5 years of age. The results of the study were that the departments of Cajamarca, Huancavelica, Loreto and Pasco have the highest rate of children with anemia; this may be due to the fact that these departments have greater poverty or negligence with respect to proper food handling. The results of this study could help local authorities such as the Ministry of Health to combat malnutrition, and also serve as a basis for future studies to evaluate the social impact of other conditions on health from a mathematical perspective. Keywords—Anemia; CTWF; grey systems; grey clustering
Herbaria in a form of a codex, which have been made since 16th century, nowadays are a very interesting and heterogeneous group of objects. They were usually made by botanists as specific kind of a scientific documentaction used for a scientific research, for the comparitioning the plant speciments and for the teaching and learning purposes. Becouse of the presence of the dried plants they are a great challenge for the conservatores of paper objects. This paper presents informations about the history and technology of the herbaria and about their preservation and conservation issues.
The number of PMUs (Phasor Measurement Units) has increased drastically in several countries. The collected data such as voltage, current, and frequency become over hundreds terabytes in a few years. It takes long time to retrieve specific similar patterns to a query for analysis. This paper defines data preparation layer in an analytical system. That enables enormous accumulation. The layer contains a function that creates index creation based on time-series patterns and another function that quickly retrieves user required patterns. Both functions process clusters as well as string. In the experiment, the time to retrieve similar patterns to a query is measured, and four architectures of time-series data process are compared; (1) conventional architecture with no data preparation layer (2) architecture with String (3) architecture with Cluster, and (4) architecture with String and Cluster. The experiment result shows that the best one with String and Cluster is 67.7 times faster than the conventional no-data preparation layer architecture. In conclusion, the proposed data preparation layer is effective to retrieve similar time-series data patterns to the query. It is also clarified that the layer is critical to analyze historical data for predicting wide-area power disturbance.
A novel comparator architecture is proposed for speed operation in low voltage environment. Performance comparison with a conventional regenerative comparator shows a speed-up of 41%. The proposed comparator is embedded in a continuous time sigma-delta ADC so as to reduce the quantizer delay and hence minimizes the excess loop delay problem. A performance enhancement of 1dB in the dynamic range of the ADC is achieved with this new comparator. We have implemented this ADC in a standard single-poly 8-Metal 0.13 mum UMC process. The entire system operates at 1.2 V supply providing a dynamic range of 32 dB consuming 720 muW of power and occupies an area of 0.1 mm2.
Purpose          This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.          Design/methodology/approach          This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2016.          Findings          The paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.          Originality/value          The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
A method for management of a response to motion detection in a motion-based system is disclosed. The method, and a corresponding system, determines a schedule (670, 675) for movement of a position and for movement of an orientation of a window treatment, wherein the schedules of movement include a time of movement and a duration of movement and provides the schedules of movement to selected occupancy sensors (130) within an enclosed area, wherein the selected occupancy sensors (130) receiving the provided schedules negate detection of motion during periods associated with the provided schedules.
Among other tasks in the frame of the Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase, the French National Metrology Laboratory (NML) LNE-SYRTE is engaged in the relative calibration of Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver delays: the GPS Common-Views (CV) using ionosphere free P3 technique is the time transfer backup mean for Two-Way satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT). The relative delay characterization of GPS equipment is scheduled today to be achieved by transport of a traveling equipment between Observatoire de Paris (OP) and another European NML, one Galileo Precise Timing Facility (PTF) and the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) successively. The goal here is to perform separate calibration of the P-Code delays as collected on either LI (PI) or L2 (P2) GPS carriers, by applying an original processing developed by LNE-SYRTE and derived from the standard TAIP3 processing. We describe the process, the techniques involved, the traveling equipment, the data processing and the uncertainty budget computation, according to former results obtained in the frame of the Galileo Time Service Provider (GTSP) Prototype development. Two possible applications of such a GPS receiver relative calibration campaign might be first an initial synchronization of Galileo System Time (GST) to UTC via UTC(OP), and second an initial GPS CV connection between GST and UTC(USNO), the UTC prediction of United States Naval Observatory, as a first step for the future computation of Galileo GPS Time Offset (GGTO). Therefore, we also propose here to study some limits of two links: first over a European baseline link, namely between OP and the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany; and second between OP and USNO, a long baseline compared to European links. We use the GPS TAIP3 files without any additional products to build Common-Views (CV), and we assess the quality of the results with respect to TWSTFT, and with respect to the computations of UTC - UTC(k) released monthly by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) in its Circular T. Provided the relative calibration of GPS receiver delays would be successful, we assess both potential initial synchronizations of GST to be possible within an expanded uncertainty below 10 ns (k = 2) over an averaging period of two days or more.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) Space Department has developed the JHU/APL Integrated Electronics Module (APL IEM) architecture for future satellites to minimize development costs while maximizing mission flexibility. The architecture supports both low earth orbit and deep space missions. Redundant and single string configurations are possible. Core spacecraft functions including communications, guidance, navigation, attitude, power control, health and safety, command, and data handling are implemented in the APL IEM. Extensive use is made of industry standards. Adhering to these standards at subsystem boundaries allows us to incrementally improve these designs without impacting the remainder of the system. Internal subsystems communicate over redundant, IEEE 1394, high speed, low power, serial buses. External interfaces include dedicated device specific links as well as those already in common satellite use. However, an unusual distributed approach to engineering housekeeping data acquisition based on the I 2 C industrial bus improves flexibility and increases design reusability.
In a control method and control device for motor vehicles with a folding roof, wherein at least one roof part or flap in at least one movement phase is moved, which is defined by one of two end positions limited displacement path of the roof part or the flap, and in which by means of an electronic control unit an adjusting device for moving the roof part or the flap is driven, is controlled by the electronic control unit, the adjustment device such that the speed at which the roof part or the flap is moved, terminating for the adjustment incipient first path portion and for the adjustment second path portion is smaller than the speed for the path section between the first and the second path portion.
Generalized optimally criteria methods can alleviate the computational burden of designing for many hundreds or thousands of design variables. The implementation in an Automated Structural Optimization System (ASTROS) for preliminary design of aerospace structures is described. A dual mathematical programming method is used in conjuction with a compound scaling technique. Both are applied together to minimize structural weight in example problems, including a wing model with constraints on its structural behavior and aerodynamic performance.
AOSD is an important technology in computer science and technology. Some research progresses are achieved on Agent architecture, Agent planning and Agent communication language recently. The agent planning implementation is discussed. It is proposed to employ genetic algorithm in the step selection of the Agent. Based on genetic algorithm, an Agent planning algorithm is given and an application is presented to show its running.
Catuspatha in Bali is interpreted not merely as a junction or crossroad but a crossroads that have their own sacred values and meanings and are equated with the great crossroads. At the time of the kingdom in Bali catuspatha was the center of the royal capital and meant the center of the country. Meanwhile, since the Dutch occupation in Bali, there has been a tendency to place aesthetic elements as the focal points or landmarks of a city at the center of a catuspatha and this trend was continued by the republican government during independence. The purpose of this study is to uncover the concept of catuspatha, the transformation of concepts, changes in the expression of catuspatha from the kingdom to independence and the impact of the changes. To achieve this goal, an observation was carried out on nine catuspathas of royal heritage in the Bali region with document research and reconstruction through interviews with priests of Shiva, Buddhism, Bachelors, and other elements as well as textual observations in the form of literature, research results, and ancient chronicles. The results obtained from this study indicate a change in the idea where the view of the center of the catuspatha as an empty space turned into an aesthetic element of the city that acts as a traffic sign and also as a city orientation. In the political context, there is an impact on the integrity of traditional values in the catuspatha where the symbols of royal power were expressed in the castle's structure. The central facilities of the kingdom, are transformed into a mayor's office with subordinate units. In the context of transportation technology, traffic lights are also expressed to regulate the flow of traffic on the catuspatha.
One initial goal for the DRMF is to seed our digital compendium with fundamental orthogonal polynomial formulae. We had used the data from the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF) as initial seed for our DRMF project. The DLMF input LaTeX source already contains some semantic information encoded using a highly customized set of semantic LaTeX macros. Those macros could be converted to content MathML using LaTeXML. During that conversion the semantics were translated to an implicit DLMF content dictionary. This year, we have developed a semantic enrichment process whose goal is to infer semantic information from generic LaTeX sources. The generated context-free semantic information is used to build DRMF formula home pages for each individual formula. We demonstrate this process using selected chapters from the book "Hypergeometric Orthogonal Polynomials and their $q$-Analogues" (2010) by Koekoek, Lesky and Swarttouw (KLS) as well as an actively maintained addendum to this book by Koornwinder (KLSadd). The generic input KLS and KLSadd LaTeX sources describe the printed representation of the formulae, but does not contain explicit semantic information. See this http URL
ABSTRACT This paper will provide an overview of Greek public libraries; it will then focus on the MOBILE project by summarising the design stages and the anticipated outcomes. Particular emphasis is placed on the user surveys and the results: how the surveys were designed and the factors which dictated the choice of user groups to target in the survey; the research methodology; survey results; and the implications of the results for the MOBILE project. Finally, the possible outcomes of the project will be mentioned.
This review critically examines five international scholarly publishers that publish academic journals using the gold (author pays) Open Access model. The author-pays model is changing scholarly publishing because authors, rather than libraries or other subscribers, become the publishers' customers, an arrangement that creates a built in conflict of interest. The more articles a publisher accepts, the more revenue it earns. New gold Open Access publishers are appearing almost weekly, and many are engaged in unethical practices. The review covers four predatory publishers, Academy Publish, BioInfo, ScienceDomain International, and Scientific Research Publishing, and one legitimate publisher, AOSIS Open Journals.
With the continuous shrinkage of feature dimensions on IC in the semiconductor industry, the measurement uncertainty is becoming one of the major components that have to be controlled in order to guarantee sufficient production yield. Already at the R&D level, we have to cope up with the accurate measurements of sub-40nm dense trenches and contact holes coming from 193 immersion lithography or E-Beam lithography. By using top-down CD-SEM it is currently impossible to extract profile information. Moreover, electron proximity effect leads to non-negligible CD bias in the final measurements. To enable measurement of challenging dimensions with better measurement and reduced measurement uncertainty we have explored and fine tuned an alternative 3D-AFM mode (so-called DT mode) for CD measurements purpose. Theoretically, this mode is supposed to be dedicated only for height measurement but for certain applications it could be extended to reach the nanometer scale accuracy of CD-measurements employing certain optimized scan parameters. In this paper, we will present and discuss results obtained related to the use of this particular mode for CD measurement purpose versus conventional 3D-AFM CD Mode that shows important limitations for aggressive trenches dimensions measurements. We will also present some results related to the use of advanced 3D-AFM tips (typically of 28nm diameter) that have been used with the enhanced DT mode parameters. Example of applications will be shown with typical sub-45nm trenches measurements dedicated to advanced lithography process development that will demonstrate that we have succeed to push ahead the limit of the 3D-AFM technology in measuring the tight dimensions that would allow to continue its use for current and upcoming technology nodes. Finally, we introduce the concept of hybrid metrology in order to smartly use the benefit of reference metrology (i.e 3D-AFM) through the optimization of CD-SEM algorithm that could be used for example for OPC model optimization.
A data warehouse stores information that is collected from multiple, heterogeneous information sources for the purpose of complex querying and analysis. Information in the warehouse is typically stored In the form of materialized views, which represent pre-computed portions of frequently asked queries. One of the most important tasks of designing a warehouse is the selection of materialized views to be maintained in the warehouse. The goal is to select a set of views so that the total query response time over all queries can be minimized while a limited amount of time for maintaining the views is given(maintenance-cost view selection problem). In this paper, we propose an efficient solution to the maintenance-cost view selection problem using a genetic algorithm for computing a near-optimal set of views. Specifically, we explore the maintenance-cost view selection problem in the context of OR view graphs. We show that our approach represents a dramatic improvement in terms of time complexity over existing search-based approaches that use heuristics. Our analysis shows that the algorithm consistently yields a solution that only has an additional 10% of query cost of over the optimal query cost while at the same time exhibits an impressive performance of only a linear increase in execution time. We have implemented a prototype version of our algorithm that is used to evaluate our approach.
The auditory brainstem response (ABR) is an electrophysiological test that examines the functionality of the auditory nerve and brainstem. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be detected if prolonged peak latency is observed in ABR measurements, since latency measures the neural conduction time in the brainstem, and an increase in latency can be a sign of pathological lesion at the auditory brainstem level. The ABR is elicited by brief sounds that can be used to measure hearing sensitivity as well as temporal processing. Reduction in peak amplitudes and increases in latency are indicative of dysfunction in the auditory nerve and/or central auditory pathways. In this study we used sixteen young adult mice that were divided into two groups: sham and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), with ABR measurements obtained prior to, and at 2, 6, and 14 weeks after injury. Abnormal ABRs were observed for the nine TBI cases as early as two weeks after injury and the deficits lasted for fourteen weeks after injury. Results indicated a significant reduction in the Peak 1 (P1) and Peak 4 (P4) amplitudes to the first noise burst, as well as an increase in latency response for P1 and P4 following mTBI. These results are the first to demonstrate auditory sound processing deficits in a rodent model of mild TBI.
In this paper, we have experimented left ventricular (LV) wall motion abnormalities using eigen LV space. We employ three phases of operations in order to perform efficient identification of LV motion abnormalities. In the first phase, LV border detection technique was used to detect LV area. In the second phase, eigen LV spaces of six abnormalities are to be converged as the search space. In the third phase, query is projected on this search space which leads matching of closest disease. The results proved using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve show that the proposed architecture provides high contribute to computer-aided diagnosis. Experiments were made on a set of 20 abnormal and 20 normal cases. We trained with eight normal and eight abnormal cases and yielded an accuracy of 88.8% for the proposed works and 75.81% and 79% respectively for earlier works. Our empirical evaluation has a superior diagnosis performance when compared to the performance of other recent works.
An architecture for a fault-tolerant spaceborne communications processor is described. The processor is designed to demodulate, deinterleave and decode lowrate data received over a number of channels and to encode and interleave an appropriately edited version of the received data for subsequent retransmission. Emphasis is placed on the combination of hardware and software techniques used to reconfigure the processor in order to circumvent its malfunctioning e lements.
This paper studies cooperation between two users in a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) with a pricing mechanism for energy saving. First, a two-user WPCN of one hybrid access point (H-AP) with a constant power supply is considered, while in the downlink (DL), wireless energy is transmitted to two users and in the uplink (UL) individually harvested energy is used to transmit independent information from users to the H-AP. Based on the “doubly near-far” phenomenon, a WPCN with user cooperation is proposed where the near user (U2) uses harvested extra energy to help the far user (U1) to relay information to the H-AP. Furthermore, a pricing mechanism is proposed to incentivize uplink cooperative communications to achieve energy saving for the far user (U1). In the ideal case with full cooperation, the payment of U2 equals the energy used by U1 to relay information. However, with partial cooperation, U2 expects to receive extra reward. This paper formulates the U1's pricing and relay data in an ideal case and also considers the communication mode selection and cooperation distance constraints. Finally, numerical simulation results show that the proposed cooperative communication of WPCN with pricing can significantly the decrease far user's expected cost and can also increase the reliability of user's communication in WPCN.
The invention provides a power head pressure plate and power head type drilling equipment with the same. The power head pressure plate comprises a hub connecting device used for being connected with a hub of a power head, and a pressure plate bottom board matched and arranged on the hub connecting device, wherein the hub connecting device is provided with a driver installing base, a retaining cylinder driver or pressure plate bottom board is selectively arranged on the driver installing base, and the retaining cylinder driver, the pressure plate bottom board and the driver installing base are detachably connected. According to the invention, the power head pressure plate is designed into the hub connecting device and the pressure plate bottom board, and the driver installing base is arranged on the hub connecting device, therefore, the pressure plate bottom board and the retaining cylinder driver can be arranged on the driver installing base, during replacement, after the pressure plate bottom board is dismantled, the retaining cylinder driver is arranged on the driver installing base, a large quantity of bolts between the hub and the power head pressure plate are prevented from being dismantled, therefore, the replacement time is saved, the replacement workload is reduced, and the construction efficiency is increased.
In the past couple of decades, the most emerging domain across the globe is Information Technology [IT]. It has made a significant contribution in cracking the criminal case and preparing the strong cases in the court of justice. IT technologies have become a vital tool for examination and gathering of the digital evidences. As crime rate is increasing day-by-day, in order to reduce the occurrence of crime and bring the culprit of the crime to justice, the computer forensics plays an indispensable role. With the recent technological developments, it has become more powerful and portable. Large amount of data has created stored and accessed everyday. Many technologically advanced devices are acting as repositories for the collected personal information. Such devices remain portable and accessible with a single click or even to the voice command. To have such large-scale information is important to get the conviction for the culprits but at the same time, investigating agencies has to maintain the privacy of the recovered data to make it admissible in the court. This gives rise to the security mechanism for such data. Collection, analysis, investigation and reporting of the digital data come under forensic science, which is a part of digital forensics domain. In this paper, we have presented a review on the existing researches available in the field of video forensic analysis.
In some previous works, two of the authors introduced a technique to design high-order numerical methods for one-dimensional balance laws that preserve all their stationary solutions. The basis of these methods is a well-balanced reconstruction operator. Moreover, they introduced a procedure to modify any standard reconstruction operator, like MUSCL, ENO, CWENO, etc., in order to be well-balanced. This strategy involves a non-linear problem at every cell at every time step that consists in finding the stationary solution whose average is the given cell value. In a recent paper, a fully well-balanced method is presented where the non-linear problems to be solved in the reconstruction procedure are interpreted as control problems. The goal of this paper is to introduce a new technique to solve these local non-linear problems based on the application of the collocation RK methods. Special care is put to analyze the effects of computing the averages and the source terms using quadrature formulas. A general technique which allows us to deal with resonant problems is also introduced. To check the efficiency of the methods and their well-balance property, they have been applied to a number of tests, ranging from easy academic systems of balance laws consisting of Burgers equation with some non-linear source terms to the shallow water equations—without and with Manning friction—or Euler equations of gas dynamics with gravity effects.
The aim of this work was to compare the geometric accuracy of X-ray angiography, MRI, X-ray computed tomography (XCT), and ultrasound imaging (B-mode and IVUS) for measuring the lumen diameters of blood vessels. An image fusion method also was developed to improve these measurements. The images were acquired from a realistic phantom mimicking normal vessels of known internal diameters. After acquisition, the multimodal images were coregistered, by manual alignment of fiducial markers and then by automatic maximization of mutual information. The fusion method was performed by means of a fuzzy logic modeling approach followed by a combination process based on possibilistic logic. The data showed (i) the good geometric accuracy of XCT compared to the other methods for all studied diameters; and (ii) the good results of fused images compared to single modalities alone. For XCT, the error varied from 1.1% to 9.7%, depending on the vessel diameter that ranged from 0.93 to 6.24 mm. MRI-IVUS fusion allowed variability of measurements to be reduced up to 78%. To conclude, this work underlined both the usefulness of the vascular phantom as a validation tool and the utility of image fusion in the vascular context. Future work will consist of studying pathological vessel shapes, image artifacts and partial volume effect correction.
The open source course management system, Moodle, is designed to help instructors deliver course materials to their students from a social constructivist perspective. This study evaluates the usability of Moodle based on the perceptions of 189 professors and 1867 students at the American University of Beirut. Participants were invited to participate in an online survey reflecting the performance of the system in teaching and learning by rating a set of 30 items related to five usability attributes: Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Error Prevention, and Satisfaction. Besides testing the usability attributes and evaluating the course management system, the study aims to attest the open source software quality at academic institutions in the Middle East region.
This study was investigated elementary school children's cellular phone usage and relationships between the usage and their self-efficacy and self-control. The data were collected by boys(101) and girls(155) among 5th grades, boys(125) and girls(177) among 6th grades elementary school in Busan. The data analyzed with the frequency, percentage, mean, SD and t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation in use of SPSS Win 12.0 program. The results from the research can be summarized as follows; First, there was no significant difference in the children's general usage of cellular phone in terms of grade and sex. Second, it was found in a couple of significant difference in the subcategories of the usage according to grades. The 6th grades children is higher scores than 5th grades in the 'control of cellular phone usage' and 'living trouble'. Third, there was correlated negatively between cellular phone usage and the children's self-efficacy/self-control.
The invention relates to a novel composite structure for supporting a rigid building template and a construction method. The composite structure comprises cuplock frames, U-shaped supports, main girder keels, auxiliary girder keels and a top plate template, wherein the auxiliary girder keels are movably connected to a template support plane, the main girder keels are connected with the U-shaped supports to form an integral support body, the cuplock frames are arranged below the U-shaped support, each main girder keel comprises a casing and a girder core, each casing is capable of sliding along the corresponding girder core, hanging grooves are formed on two sides of the casings, each auxiliary girder keel comprises a girder body and clamp pieces at two ends of the girder body, and the clamp pieces are clamped in the hanging grooves of the main girder keels and firmly connected with main girders. The construction method includes: erecting the cuplock frames, mounting the U-shaped supports, erecting the main and auxiliary girder keels, performing pile load test on site, leveling, paving the template, removing the template and the like. The novel composite structure for supporting the rigid building template has the advantages that component connection is modularized and standard, operation is easy, construction cost is lowered, construction period is shortened, labor efficiency is improved, construction quality is ensured, and the novel composite structure is applicable to construction of structural floor roof template support systems such as cast-in-place concrete frames and frame shear structures.
A decision-theoretic formulation of visual saliency, first proposed for top-down processing (object recognition) in (Gao & Vasconcelos, 2005) is extended to the problem of bottom-up saliency. Under this formulation, optimality is defined in the minimum probability of error sense, under a constraint of computational parsimony. The saliency of the visual features at a given location of the visual field is defined as the power of those features to discriminate between the stimulus at the location and a null hypotheses. For bottom-up saliency, this is the set of visual features that surround the location under consideration. Discrimination is defined in an information-theoretic sense and the optimal saliency detector derived for a class of stimuli that complies with known statistical properties of natural images. It is shown that the optimal detector consists of what is usually referred to as the standard architecture of V1 (Carandini, Demb, Mante, Tolhurst, Dan, Olshausen, et al., 2005): a cascade of linear filtering, divisive normalization, rectification and spatial pooling. The optimal detector is also shown to replicate the fundamental properties of the psychophysics of saliency (Treisman & Gelade, 1980): stimulus pop-out, saliency asymmetries for stimulus presence vs. absence, disregard of feature conjunctions, and Weber’s law. Finally, it is shown that the optimal saliency architecture can be applied to the solution of generic inference problems. In particular, for the class stimuli studied, it performs the three fundamental operations of statistical inference: assessment of probabilities, implementation of Bayes decision rule, and feature selection.
This study proposes a nature-based system survivability model. The model was simulated, and its performance was evaluated for the mobile ad hoc wireless networks. The survivability model was used to enable mobile wireless distributed systems to keep on delivering packets during their stated missions in a timely manner in the presence of attacks. A prey-predator communal defence algorithm was developed and fused with the Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocol. The mathematical equations for the proposed model were formulated using the Lotka-Volterra theory of ecology. The model deployed a security mechanism for intrusion detection in three vulnerable sections of the AODV protocol. The model simulation was performed using MATLAB for the mathematical model evaluation and using OMNET++ for protocol performance testing. The MATLAB simulation results, which used empirical and field data, have established that the adapted Lotka-Volterra-based equations adequately represent network defense using the communal algorithm. Using the number of active nodes as a measure of throughput after attack (with a maximum throughput of 250 units), the proposed model had a throughput of 230 units while under attack and the intrusion was nullified within 2 seconds. The OMNET++ results for protocol simulation that use throughput, delivery ratio, network delay, and load as performance metrics with the OMNET++ embedded datasets showed good performance of the model, which was better than the existing conventional survivability systems. The comparison of the proposed model with the existing model is also presented. The study concludes that the proposed communal defence model was effective in protecting the entire routing layer (layer 2) of the AODV protocol when exposed to diverse forms of intrusion attacks.
The authors observe the increasing prevalence of sophisticated data analysis on the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System. They select one of the analytical tools- the benefit-cost analysis-and review its methodology in some detail. They further present a model for using the benefit-cost analysis at the agency or program level as an aid in decision making. The model involves a five-step procedure: (a) statement of objectives; (b) cost attribution; (c) benefit projection; d) data analysis; and (e) decision making. As apart of this procedure, the authors introduce a value-weighted mechanism for benefit determination. The model is then demonstrated through a simulation. Although the authors caution that the benefit-cost analysis is a limited tool and does not supplant the role of decision maker, they conclude that it can be a useful device in organizing the data needed to make competent decisions about social service delivery.
Three closed-form solutions are proposed for six degree of freedom (6-DOF) visual odometry for light field cameras. The first approach breaks the problem into geometrically driven sub-problems with solutions adaptable to specific applications, while the second generalizes methods from optical flow to yield a more direct approach. The third solution integrates elements into a remarkably simple equation of plenoptic flow which is directly solved to estimate the camera's motion. The proposed methods avoid feature extraction, operating instead on all measured pixels, and are therefore robust to noise. The solutions are closed-form, computationally efficient, and operate in constant time regardless of scene complexity, making them suitable for real-time robotics applications. Results are shown for a simulated underwater survey scenario, and real-world results demonstrate good performance for a three-camera array, outperforming a state-of-the-art stereo feature-tracking approach.
In the era of digital information age, the internet has explored as decisive technology with its immense popularity and the user friendly interface to connect the entire world and it plays the important role in the development of innovative applications ranging from the normal to high level. Although, the internet has offered wide range of advantages but the applications based on it seriously suffer from lack of security. The digital images are the popular medium to perceive the information in the internet and providing the relevant security to them is the prominent research area and it is the research interest of this research paper.  Security has great importance in the image processing domain and it's applications, hiding the relevant information in digital images has been a area of interest from decades and maintaining the privacy of hidden information has utmost priority. Intense research work has carried out in the past to increase the data capacity, creating the secret image which look alike of target image but majority of the works fails to meet the requirements. A database independent approach is proposed in this work, a secret image is intelligently transformed to a secret fragment- visible mosaic image with same resolution in terms of appearance and this resolution (size) is of any selected target image. The generation of the mosaic image is followed by the sequential steps, i.e. division of the secret image into fragments and its relative color transformation into corresponding blocks of the target image. The simulation results are performed in the MATLAB programming language and the proposed results produce better results than the traditional data hiding methods.
Do all parts of the face contribute equally to face detection or are some parts more detectable than others? To evaluate this issue, we studied detection of the presence of normalized frontal-face images within aperture windows of varying extent. We performed a face summation study using two-alternative forced-choice psychophysics. The face stimuli were scaled to equal eye-to-chin distance, centered on the bridge of the nose, and windowed by fourth-power Gaussian envelopes of various sizes. The faces were intermixed with control stimuli consisting inverted faces to test for configuration effects, split-half inverted faces to perturb the symmetry, and phase-scrambled versions of the faces with equal Fourier energy. Face detectability improved rapidly at first, then at a progressively shallower rate for larger window sizes, in a similar fashion for the three face-based stimulus types. The spectrally equated noise stimuli were less detectable than the face stimuli for all except the smallest apertures. The results were fit with a model incorporating global face-specific and local nonspecific spatial integration mechanisms. Detection of the noise images was consistent with local detection mechanisms accessed through a wide-field attention mechanism. The data for face detection implied detection mechanisms that integrated linearly up to some small size, integrated more slowly up to an intermediate size, and failed to gain any improvement for information beyond some larger size. This performance supports the concept of a specialized face configuration mechanism operating at detection threshold, similar in extent among the observers.
The interactive entertainment industry is being actively involved with the development, marketing and sale of video games in the past decade. The increasing interest in video games has led to an increase in video game development techniques and methods. It has emerged as an immensely large sector, and now it has grown to be larger than the movie and music industry combined. The postmortem of a game outlines and analyzes the game’s history, team goals, what went right, and what went wrong with the game. Despite its significance, there is little understanding related to the challenges encountered by the programmers. Postmortems are not properly maintained and are informally written, leading to a lack of trustworthiness. In this study, we perform a systematic analysis on different problems faced in the video game development. The need for automation and ML techniques arises because it could help game developers easily identify the exact problem from the description, and hence be able to easily find a solution. This work could also help developers in identifying frequent mistakes that could be avoided, and will provide researchers a beginning point to further consider game development in context of software engineering.
In parallel time-interleaved sampling system, the timing mismatches between channels cause non-uniform sampling. Most original non-uniform reconstruction algorithms are very complex and not suitable for hardware realization. This paper presents a frequency reconstruction algorithm based on multi-channel processing. It decomposes the processing into low-speed channels that takes the advantage of parallel signal streams. Computer simulations and application results demonstrate this method could reconstruct the non-uniform signal effectively with less computation and higher real-time characteristic.
We describe an adaptive coded-aperture imager operating in the midwave IR. This consists of a coded-aperture mask, a set of optics, and a 4k×4k focal plane array (FPA). This system can produce images with a resolution better than the detector pixel limit by combining multiple frames of data recorded with different coding. This superresolution capability has been demonstrated both in the laboratory and with targets placed outside, the highest resolution being one-half of the FPA pixel pitch.
This article1 introduces two new kinds of graphic representation which have been developed by the evaluation and policy teams in two Commonwealth agencies, Environment Australia and Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia (AFFA), to assist in understanding the logic of complex programs. The traditional type of program logic diagram was intended to serve two purposes at once. One was to provide a basis for detailed analysis of the program, the sequence of actions and consequences, and the inputs and results required at each stage. The other was to allow a reader who was unfamiliar with the program and its context to seize in a single page the most important gist of what the program did and how it was expected to work. Most people who have used the standard technique have quickly found that the normal conventions serve both purposes adequately only when the program is a relatively simple one – ideally, one with a single intervention strategy and a single output. As soon as the program develops multiple strands, or has an outcomes hierarchy extending beyond a couple of levels, the traditional boxes-and-arrows diagram falls down on both counts. On the one hand, any account of the program simple enough to be captured in a single logic tree on a single page misses much of the content and strategic detail, in particular those aspects that make the program strategy unique. On the other hand, the number of boxes and the thatch of arrows that connect them rapidly become so confusing (often even to someone who knows the program) that the whole purpose of diagrammatic representation is defeated. Matters become several orders of magnitude worse when one comes to deal with environmental and Natural Resource Management programs of the kind which are becoming increasingly common in Australia and elsewhere. Such programs use multiple strategies to address complex problems of management and rehabilitation, involving a multiplicity of causative factors – biophysical, economic, social and political – and have a variety of objectives, not all of them strictly compatible. The difficulty is all the greater because in many such cases, however well the program works, it is unrealistic to expect to identify any clear sustained impact on the variables affecting resource condition (i.e. the true high-level objectives of the program) until anywhere between 10 and 40 years after the cessation of program funding. In such cases, it becomes all the more important to model the complex interactions as rigorously as the science and the evidence permit, simply to enable program managers and funders to establish with some confidence within the funded life of the program whether or not it is on track to achieving its real objectives. To be sufficiently informative, such models must necessarily be detailed and intricate. Conversely, the complexity of these programs is such that even those who work in quite strategic positions within them often have great difficulty in identifying where they fit into the overall scheme, or exactly where their work leads, without some form of road map. Imagine how much worse the challenge must be for a new minister coming into the portfolio for the first time, for a community-based group trying to adapt to the new program structure, or for a parliamentary committee attempting to come to grips with it in order to assess its effectiveness. At this level of complexity, it is no longer feasible to combine both purposes in the same kind of model. The kind of model needed for detailed planning could only be described in Doug Fraser
Since the concept of Software Defined Networking (SDN) was suggested, many SDN controllers have been proposed. In an early design of SDN controller, single SDN controller should manage a large-scale network. Although the SDN controller has innumerous advantages in the large-scale network, early SDN controllers have suffered from a bottleneck problem in the control plane. To mitigate the bottleneck problem, a concept of distributed SDN controller has been recently proposed such as Open Network Operating System (ONOS). Even if ONOS provides a way to distribute the control plane workload to resolve the bottleneck problem, it has still problems to determine when and how to distribute the control plane workload due to the lack of performance assessment which ONOS provides. In this paper, we propose OFMon to monitor all OpenFlow messages between ONOS controllers and OpenFlow switches. To the best of our knowledge, OFMon is the first OpenFlow monitoring system in ONOS. To evaluate the performance of OFMon in terms of CPU and memory usage, we conduct experiments within a well-controlled environment. As a result, OFMon requires more CPU usage at the maximum of 4% and memory usage up to 6%.
A very important question, with the present focus on mathematical modelling in the primary/lower secondary school, is: What kind of e-tools will promote children's ability to build models?    Partly because it is widely and readily available the spreadsheet has become a very popular tool for building algebraic models. However, it can be debated whether the spreadsheet programs in their current format are properly suited for mathematics education at the primary/lower secondary level.    A glaring weakness in today's spreadsheet programs, from a pedagogical point of view, is the fact that the mathematics describing the model is hidden. In other words the formulas are not directly visible in a spreadsheet. In a spreadsheet model you can manipulate the input and observe the effect on the output, but you can't directly see the mathematical relations between them.    Ideas for an e-tool for modelling in school, that builds on the core idea in a spreadsheet program, but in which the model is directly visible, is presented. Activities for a first implementation of the ideas (a program called miniCALC) has been developed and used successfully in school on the third to eight grade level.
We point out the interest in using Zipf law in the wide field of image analysis. We show how it is possible to adapt it to image analysis. There are many applications; here we are concerned with image compression and focus on a new definition of quality measurement of an image obtained after a decompression process. First we propose a coding mode of an image using some neighborhood of each pixel and the Zipf law. Then some significant comparisons can be achieved between different images. A statistical study of the patterns present in the image allows a characterization of the information contained in the image so that a measurement of information modification is made possible. We define two quantitative parameters; one indicates the structure of the image whereas the second indicates high content information. The examples of the images of a landscape and of a female face are used to illustrate the influence of the compression rate.
The paper examines several parallel processing solution algorithms for finite element equations arising in linear equilibrium problems. Two basic groups of algorithms, direct and iterative, are investigated with respect to a number of parallel computer architectures and associated selection criteria. The direct algorithms include: LR-Gauss, Crout, Cholesky, Cyclic Reduction and WZ-factorization. The iterative methods examined are: Accelerated Gauss-Seidel, Surrogate Stiffness, Jacobi, Series Expansion, and Energy Monte Carlo. For real-time applications, where the object is to minimize the execution time, Cyclic Reduction appears to be best suited. This assumes a computer with an unlimited number of parallel processors. However, for computers with a limited number of parallel processors that must be used efficiently, both Gauss factorization and Jacobi-like iterative methods rank favorably.
In this paper the shortages of using the Nan&ml Fourier Transform to analyze the Phonocardiogram (KG) signals is first pointed out and the need for time-varyingdigitat signal processing techniquesto conectly analyzeKG signals is discussed.‘I%vo timefrequency analysis techniques am presented in this pape~ namely, the Spectrogram and the Wavelet Transform. Furthermore, a comparisonstudy between these two techniques has shown the ~lution diffenmces between them. The Wavelet Transform is shown to be capable to detect the two components, aortic valve component A2 and pulmonary valve compment P2, of the second sound S2 of a normal PCG signal which am not detectable neitherusing the standardFourier‘fkansfonnmr the Spectrogram.In addition to thz the Wavelet ‘fYansfomtenables Physicians to obtain qualitative and quantitative measurements of time-fiwpency characteristicsof phonocadiogram (KG) signals.
In this paper, we introduce a new model of urban traffic networks by using timed event graphs (TEG). Based on dioid algebra, the behavior of the system is described by (Max, +)-linear equations. This will allow to approach the traffic control problems which rise issues of cycle times and of synchronization. As a result, we show how we can solve a non-null initial marking problem inherent in dioid modeling. Besides, the proposed model provides us with interesting performance evaluations, such as realtime counts of vehicles and bounds of sojourn time in each part of the studied street. An example is worked out to validate the model
Products should always be accurately identified, regardless of the type of warehouse and the specificity of stored products. Proper acceptance of a given product into a warehouse is the basis for the implementation of subsequent warehouse processes and affects the optimization of the entire logistics chain. Appropriate marking and marking of the location of products deposited in the warehouse is currently determined by an IT system that supports companies in organizational, technological and administrative activities. The aim of the article is to present a model of the process of identification of products accepted and placed on a warehouse using the Anteeo WMS information system.
Software for data archiving and data display was developed for use on a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-11/34A minicomputer for use with the JPL-designed flux mapper. The flux mapper is a two-dimensional, high radiant energy scanning device designed to measure radiant flux energies expected at the focal point of solar parabolic dish concentrators. Interfacing to the DEC equipment was accomplished by standard RS-232C serial lines. The design of the software was dicated by design constraints of the flux-mapper controller. Early attemps at data acquisition from the flux-mapper controller were not without difficulty. Time and personnel limitations result in an alternative method of data recording at the test site with subsequent analysis accomplished at a data evaluation location at some later time. Software for plotting was also written to better visualize the flux patterns. Recommendations for future alternative development are discussed. A listing of the programs used in the anaysis is included in an appendix.
This paper describes the processing of queries, expressing conditions on the content of images, in large image databases. The query language assumes that a semantic interpretation of the image content is available (i.e. an image symbolic interpretation), as result of an image analysis process. The image query language addresses important aspects of the image interpretations resulting from image analysis, by defining partial conditions on the composition of the complex objects, requirements on tkir degree of recognition, and requirements on their position in tk image interpretation. Particukzr emphasis is given on the definition of suitable content-based access structures to make more ejjicient the query processing. An approach based on multi-level signatures is adopted. The query is pre-processed on the signatures to jilter-out most of the images not sati~ing the query. Finally, an evaluation of the ejjiciency and precision of the signature technique is given.
This paper focuses on the network-based modeling and proportional–integral (PI) control for a continuous-time direct-drive-wheel system in a wireless network environment. The developed system can simplify configuration, reduce bus cables, and realize vehicle height adjustment. A novel network-based model is first established by constructing a PI control system and taking network-induced delays and stochastic packet dropouts into account. By using two different artificial delays to characterize the update of proportional and integral control signals, the network-based PI control system is modeled as a stochastic impulsive system with two input delays and reset equations at updating instants. Then, through involving the reset states and the relationship among two delayed states and the current state in the discontinuous Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and actively introducing the upper bounds of nonzero network-induced delays, some exponential mean-square stability and $H_{ infty }$ performance conditions with less conservatism are derived in terms of tractable linear matrix inequalities. An algorithm is presented to determine the minimum $H_{ infty }$ performance and the corresponding PI control parameters by combining a particle swarm optimization technique with the performance condition. These results can be extended to a network-based PI control of general continuous-time linear systems. A ZigBee-based network simulation platform is finally built and some simulation results are provided to validate the proposed methods.
Fidelity and comprehensibility are the common measures used in the evaluation of rules extracted from neural networks. However, these two measures are found to be inverse relations of one another. Since the needs of comprehensibility or fidelity may vary depending on the user or application, this paper presented a significance based rule extraction algorithm that allows a user set parameter to scale between the desired degree of fidelity and comprehensibility of the rules extracted. A detailed explanation and example application of this algorithm is presented as well as experimental results on several neural network ensembles.
Models of parallel processing systems typically assume that one has l servers and jobs are split into an equal number of k = l tasks. This seemingly simple approximation has surprisingly large consequences for the resulting stability and performance bounds. In reality, best practices for modern mapreduce systems indicate that a job’s partitioning factor should be much larger than the number of servers available, with some researchers going to far as to advocate for a "tiny tasks" regime, where jobs are split into over 10,000 tasks. In this paper we use recent advances in stochastic network calculus to fundamentally understand the effects of task granularity on parallel systems’ scaling, stability, and performance. For the split-merge model, we show that when one allows for tiny tasks, the stability region is actually much better than had previously been concluded. For the single-queue fork-join model, we show that sojourn times quickly approach the optimal case when l "big tasks" are subdivided into k≫ l "tiny tasks". Our results are validated using extensive simulations, and the applicability of the models used is validated by experiments on an Apache Spark cluster.
In this paper, a simplified mathematical ray-optics model for an oil immersion objective lens, considering Abbe's sine condition, is presented. Based on the given parameters of the objective lens, the proposed model utilizes an approach based on a paraxial thin lens formulation. This is done to simplify the complexity of the objective lens by avoiding the consideration of many lens elements inside a single objective lens. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed model, comparisons with exact ray tracing method, based on the specification of real objective lens, are presented in terms of several different criteria including the variation of shape of the light cone, the extent of vignetting and the focus displacement. From the exemplary simulations, it was demonstrated that the proposed model can describe the focusing of light through the objective lens precisely, even when the incident beam rotates.
The use of HTTPS as the only means to connect to web servers is increasing. It is being pushed from both sides: from the bottom up by client distributions and plugins, and from the top down by organisations such as Google. However, there are potential technical hurdles that might lock some clients out of the modern web. This paper seeks to measure and precisely quantify those hurdles in the wild. More than three million measurements provide statistically significant evidence of degradation. We show this through statistical techniques, in particular Rasch analysis, which also shows that various factors influence the problem ranging from the client’s browser, to their locale.
During a disastrous event, such as an earthquake or river flooding, information on what happened, who was affected and how, where help is needed, and how to aid people who were affected, is crucial. While communication is important in such times of crisis, damage to infrastructure such as telephone lines makes it difficult for authorities and victims to communicate. Microblogging has played a critical role as an important communication platform during crises when other media has failed. We demonstrate our ESA (Emergency Situation Awareness) system that mines microblogs in real-time to extract and visualise useful information about incidents and their impact on the community in order to equip the right authorities and the general public with situational awareness.
In this paper, we address the problem of multi-robot systems in emergency response applications, where a team of robots/drones has to visit affected locations to provide rescue services. In the literature, the most common approach is to assign target locations individually to robots using centralized or distributed techniques. The problem is that the computation complexity increases significantly with the number of robots and target locations. In addition, target locations may not be assigned uniformly among the robots. In this paper, we propose, CMMTSP, a clustering market-based approach that first groups locations into clusters, then assigns clusters to robots using a market-based approach. We formulate the problem as multiple-depot MTSP and address the multi-objective optimization of three objectives namely, the total traveled distance, the maximum traveled distance and the mission time. Simulations show that CM-MTSP provides a better balance among the three objectives as compared to a single objective optimization, in particular an enhancement of the mission time, and reduces the execution time to at least 80% as compared to a greedy approach.
A review of existing literature and research findings indicated that whilst the incidence of time extension claims is increasing, Contractors are failing to gather, analyse and present data as evidence to such an extent that there is a high rejection rate of claims made, and a consequent significant dissatisfaction rate amongst Contractors with awards being made. The current difficulties experienced by Contractors in managing information on site locations, combined with the low investment in, and usage of Information Technology, forms a major contribution to the problems arising in the preparation and presentation of time extension claims. This research work identified from empirical evidence, together with construction technical, professional and academic literature, the essential criteria and features of an efficient and effective time delay analysis approach for preparing time extension claims in connection with construction projects. The evidence from these sources led to the formulation of an alternative approach based on an integrated computer-aided systematic technique which relies upon analysis of project-specific performance data. The current practice of time delay analysis as currently executed by Contractors was formulated as a problem whose solution is implemented by the use of the disciplined capture of factual job data, systematic analysis including a computer modelled simulation exercise and logical compilation of results in report format. This allows full cross-checking and source identification of data used in the approach, and resultant computations. The proposed approach employs an improved method of data capture, computer aided delay impact simulation and presentation of results. The proposed approach abbreviated to CoSTAR requires the use of spreadsheet database, word processing and project planning software, all of which are currently industry standard, readily available and consequently do not require to be specifically written. The approach is designed to work on industry standard computing "PC" hardware of a specification suitable to run a full range of business software. The proposed approach (CoSTAR) was tested and validated with performance data from a multi million pound, major fast track building refurbishment project and used Lotus 123 version 2.4, WordPerfect version 5.1, and Pertmaster Advance software. The approach was also subject to separate validation by a panel of experts. The testing process showed the approach to be feasible, and capable of identifying and quantifying the critical delay activities which caused the time overnin to the project's fixed contract period.
Based on empirical evidence and practical purposes,this paper proposes a new model of teaching and learning Chinese called Trinitarian Grammar,consisted of three parts,the structure of sentences,the function of the structure and the contexts of the structure and the function used in Mandarin Chinese.It demonstrates that the three dimensional components are systematically structured and can be effectively used as a pedagogically grammar in teaching and learning Chinese language.
At present, the design knowledge can't be reused effectively and this leads to the long design cycle and repetitive works in product design. To solve this problem, this paper researched on a design knowledge reuse method based on knowledge component. By analyzing the representation demand of design knowledge, we studied the knowledge expression and reuse method which contains the ontology and knowledge component. We use ontology to integrate and represent design knowledge and use knowledge component to realize the rapid reuse of knowledge. In addition, we build the mapping between knowledge component and the ontology. We make sure the security of knowledge by a shared mechanism. Finally, we use the air inlet design process as an example to show that this method is meaningful.
This paper presents computational solutions for nonlinear optimal control problems with general state-space constraints that may not be representable in terms of analytical expressions. The presented approaches hinge on the iterative nature of an underlying computational nonlinear optimal control methodology by which the non-analytical constraint description can be incorporated as quadratic constraints within each iteration. The functionality and efficiency of the proposed methods are discussed from a computational point of view and illustrated on a standard parallel parking problem.
The information management system of general layout based on drawing element is combined with space and attribute in formation. It manages the graph of general layout by AutoCAD and the attribute by the technique of extending entity.A suit of software consisting of construction, pipeline, road and railway is developed with ObjectARX technique. By accomplishing the input; producing, editing and managing general layout information, you can get a great deal of drawing information and their attribute information from a single general layout. The applications prove that the new approach is reasonable and reliable. It provides a new technic tool for the management of drawing information.
We analyze the dynamics of a single-axis maglev system and derive its analytical model with full DOFs (degrees-of-freedom). Then, an adaptive sliding mode controller which deals with unknown parameters is proposed to accomplish both guidance and positioning in this system. Finally, stability is proved and simulation results are provided. From the simulation results, good performance of regulation for guiding-axes and of tracking for the positioning-axis is achieved.
Purpose – This article aims to describe GeoScienceWorld™: a premier science portal.Design/methodology/approach – The article is prepared by a library professional and provides a summary of the main features. Findings – GeoScienceWorld (GSW) is a comprehensive, widely‐accessible, easy to use, integrated, and cost‐effective online resource for journals in the geological and earth sciences. (GSW) provides access to scientifically peer‐reviewed full‐text articles from high impact geoscience publications with linking between cited references and articles within the GSW database and outside of GSW through CrossRef. “It is a comprehensive internet resource for research and communications in the geosciences, built on a core database aggregation of peer‐reviewed journals indexed, linked, and interoperable with GeoRef”.Originality/value – This article is a useful summary of a development of interest to library and information management professionals.
This study is to find several suggestions from analyzing English textbooks for struggling English readers in Elementary school, especially for higher grades. The survey was implemented for the needs analysis of teachers. First, it shows that teachers want the exact diagnostic scale to measure the struggle readers` abilities and the customized materials for each level. Second, the materials should be easy to use at schools and interesting to motivate struggle readers. Third, reading activities and teaching procedures must be finely-tuned for their levels. And the result of material analysis on the authorization textbooks of the 5th Grade about its system and contents, balanced teaching model is needed because materials should contain both gradual presentation of reading inputs(Bottom-up) and the meaningful reading context(Top-down) based on acquisition by spoken language. And it is necessary to reduce the scale of the contents and expand the additional programs for learning the relationships between sounds and letters, and compulsory vocabularies.
This paper presents a fuzzy speed controller for an obstacles avoiding system of a differential drive mobile robot using a real sense 3D camera. In order to drive the robot autonomously, one main issue is the ability to detect and avoid the obstacles on its path. The Depth camera is used as a sensor in this research due to its double integrated sensor, namely vision and distance. Using these data, the fuzzy controller is designed for obstacles avoiding system of a mobile robot. The obstacle is detected by the mobile robot equipped with 3D sensor and the position of the obstacle is generated by using a contour operation on a captured image, together with canny edge detector and morphological operation. The distance between the robot and obstacle is obtained from a depth frame. The velocities of left and right motors of the differential drive mobile robot are generated by the fuzzy controller. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was verified through several experiments.
Method of healing, books 1-2. While in general this works well, at times the reader will be baffled by the complexity of a note which seems to concern a topic that develops out of the actual commentary far more than one that relates closely to what Galen himself says. Conversely, many of the Realien are passed over in silence: e.g. p. 82, just what sort of hat is a pilleus/pilos? The weakest sections are to be found in the Introduction. The biography of Galen contains several tiny errors, e.g., p. 6, Galen did not study under Numisianus either in Corinth or Alexandria, and, p. 5, he did not acquire the Terra Sigillata for another thirty years. 'Industrial accidents', p. 4, is a curious term for gladiatorial wounds. The section on the manuscripts and the translator shows signs of incomplete revision. Much more is now known about Niccol6 and about P since 1979: Db 93, which contains this tract, survives intact and legible in Dresden: only the first part of this manuscript, Db 92, is badly damaged. My comment, reported on p. 54, refers only to Db 92 or to the two volumes taken together, for they originally formed a single codex, not two as might be assumed from p. 240. The stemma on p. 55, recently confirmed by Michael McVaugh in his article in the FestschriJi for John Murdoch, 1997, records manuscripts that do not contain this tract. Nor is De substantia facultatuni a cento of De propriis placitis, but the last three chapters of that work circulating under a new title. A useful appendix lists the abbreviations commonly used for the Galenic Corpus. However, it omits De theriaca ad Pamphilianum (xiv 295-310), the synopsis of the Timaeus (ed. Walzer) and many fragmentary texts, like the commentary on Airs, waters, and places, casts unjustified doubt on the authenticity of Paru. pil., Syn. puls., Ther., Gloss., and Praes., wrongly expands Hipp. Off. Med., and fails to stigmatize Qual. Incorp. as non-Galenic. But these weaknesses should not obscure the many strengths of this edition, which, it is hoped, will reintroduce to a much wider audience an effectively unknown text by Galen. In particular, the clear and accurate English translation will facilitate its use by historians as well as classicists.
The decision of TIA threshold is one of the most important problems. The authors analyze the present situation of the research about TIA threshold abroad, study China' s city traffic characteristics, basic traffic research situation, land development and economic level, and establish for the first time the theory and method of TIA threshold which adapt to China' s city characters. According to the volume of traffic produced by building item, the development type, intensity and location, etc, the threshold is divided into peak hour traffic, day traffic, total travel person-time in peak hour, development type and intensity, service level and the maximum travel threshold, etc. and the special method to decide all the thresholds is also put forward. At last taking the decision of TIA threshold of a certain area of Beijing for example, the authors express their viewpoints on threshold.
Customer relationship management (CRM) leverages historical users’ behaviors in order to dawn effort of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Thus, constructing a successful customer profile plays a critical role in CRM. As customers’ preferences may change over time, we take the different types of past behavior patterns of the registered members to capture concept drifts. Then, we combine the repurchase index (RI) and the preference drifts to propose a Behavioral Repurchase Prediction (BRP) model, and to predict the members’ repurchase rates in the specific category of the e-shop. The marketers of the e-shop can target the registered members with high repurchase rates and design corresponding marketing strategies. The experimental results with a real dataset show that our model can effectively predict the registered members’ repurchase rates.
Abstract This paper describes a model for estimating the performance of synchronous network simulation. The model is developed based on the BSP model, and includes various factors that may affect the performance of synchronous network simulation, such as load balancing, communication overhead, lookahead, and hardware plat-forms for running simulation. The model can not only predict but also help to improve the performance of synchronous network simulation. Experiments show that the model can estimate performance exactly. Treating the model as an objective function when the net-work topology is partitioned for synchronous simulation efficiently improves the performance of synchronous network simulation.
Factoring a composite odd integer into its prime factors is one of the security problems for some public-key cryptosystems such as the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman cryptosystem. Many strategies have been proposed to solve factorization problem in a fast running time. However, the main drawback of the algorithms used in such strategies is the high computational time needed to find prime factors. Therefore, in this study, we focus on one of the factorization algorithms that is used when the two prime factors are of the same size, namely, the Fermat factorization (FF) algorithm. We investigate the performance of the FF method using three parameters: (1) the number of bits for the composite odd integer, (2) size of the difference between the two prime factors, and (3) number of threads used. The results of our experiments in which we used different parameters values indicate that the running time of the parallel FF algorithm is faster than that of the sequential FF algorithm. The maximum speed up achieved by the parallel FF algorithm is 6.7 times that of the sequential FF algorithm using 12 cores. Moreover, the parallel FF algorithm has near-linear scalability.
In this work, we propose an alternative parametrized form of the proximal operator, of which the parameter no longer needs to be positive. That is, the parameter can be a non-zero scalar, a full-rank square matrix, or, more generally, a bijective bounded linear operator. We demonstrate that the positivity requirement is essentially due to a quadratic form. We prove several key characterizations for the new form in a generic way (with an operator parameter). We establish the optimal choice of parameter for the Douglas-Rachford type methods by solving a simple unconstrained optimization problem. The optimality is in the sense that a non-ergodic worst-case convergence rate bound is minimized. We provide closed-form optimal choices for scalar and orthogonal matrix parameters under zero initialization. Additionally, a simple self-contained proof of a sharp linear convergence rate for a (1 /L )-cocoercive ﬁxed-point sequence with L ∈ (0 , 1) is provided (as a preliminary result).Toour knowledge, an operator parameter is new. To show its practical use, we design a dedicated parameter for the 2-by-2 block-structured semideﬁnite program (SDP). Such a structured SDP is strongly related to the quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP), and we therefore expect the proposed parameter to be of great potential use. At last, two well-known applications are investigated. Numerical results show that the theoretical optimal parameters are close to the practical optimums, except they are not a priori knowledge. We then demonstrate that, by exploiting problem model structures, the theoretical optimums can be well approximated. Such approximations turn out to work very well, and in some cases almost reach the underlying limits.
Portal Website is the important pathway to communicate with tourists and the main field of the branding levels under the background of the information ear. The paper compared Changbai mountain attraction' s website to other 4 attraction websites based on interactive experience theory,which are Taishan mountain,Huashan mountain,Huangshan mountain and Songshan mountain. The contrastive analysis selected 4 aspects,which are online communication,online business,multi-dimensional exhibition and practical function. The result showed that information expression form of Changbai mountain's website is abundant and aesthetics,the information content is comprehensive and effective. But the respond speed of practical function and online communication was slow and ineffective. Changbai mountain attraction should complete and exploit new services based on problem analysis.
Due to the widely deployed sensors in the pipeline network, the data-driven detection method is a natural choice with multiple sensor measurements. However, the incomplete data problem caused by device failure or network interruption seriously hinders the implementation of pipeline status monitoring. Aiming at this difficulty, this article proposes a generative adversarial network based on trinetworks form (tnGAN) to handle leak detection problems with incomplete sensor data. First, the generative model is proposed to recover incomplete data through fully exploiting the same-level nature similarity of data features. Therein, the same type of sensor data, obtained from the pipeline network, is used as the input. Next, to further boost the temporal evolvement characteristics and the spatial similarity, a multiview awareness strategy is incorporated in the established model to facilitate the integration of inherent information. Then, a dual-discriminative network architecture is proposed to detect pipeline status through computing the similarity of the latent features of samples. With the abovementioned structure, the proposed method can achieve different incomplete data recovery situations, such as individual lost and random missing. In addition, it can also aggregate the output and features of the discriminative networks to obtain the pipeline leak detection result. Finally, the experiment results on a pipeline network demonstrate the capability and effectiveness of the proposed method in both data recovery and leak detection.
In the pre-service teacher training (for lower and upper secondary education) at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at Comenius University, Bratislava we have implemented a six-term course on Information and communication technologies and computer literacy. Each term of the course is focused on a particular aspect of ICT (like Basics of ICT, Computer systems, Algorithms development and programming, Educational software in subjects etc.). In our paper we present the contents and strategy of the third and the fourth terms of the course, namely The Basics of algorithmic skills and programming for future teachers. The goal of these seminars is to develop algorithmic skills and to learn how to build simple microworlds in Imagine Logo. We briefly list all topics and concepts of the seminars, all key terms from the microworlds development and the programming techniques we are working with. Finally, we present one more complex Imagine project, which our students are asked to develop by themselves at the end of the course.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey, explore and inform researchers about the previous methodologies applied, target audience and coverage of previous assessment of cybersecurity awareness by capturing, summarizing, synthesizing and critically comment on it. It is also conducted to identify the gaps in the cybersecurity awareness assessment research which warrants the future work. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a systematic literature review technique to search the relevant online databases by using pre-defined keywords. The authors limited the search to retrieve only English language academic articles published from 2005 to 2014. Relevant information was extracted from the retrieved articles, and the ensuing discussion centres on providing the answers to the research questions. Findings – From the online searches, 23 studies that matched the search criteria were retrieved, and the information extracted from each study includes the authors, publication year, assessment method ...
This paper describes a method for automated generation of Failure Modes and Effects Analyses from SysML models containing block definition diagrams, internal block diagrams, state transition machines, and activity diagrams. The SysML model can be created in any SysML modeling tool and then analysis is performed using the AltaRica language and modeling tool. An example using a simple satellite and ground user shows the approach.
Based on web text mining,puts forward an interest mining system for university campus network user.Firstly,it introduces the system structures.Secondly,it puts emphasis on the introduction of the key techniques of this system.Finally,it introduces the practical effectiveness of this system.The experiment indicates that this method can do a good job on the mining of the distribution of the interest concerning university campus network users and has important reference value for university reforms and individual commercial services.
The paper proposed the new hyperspectral image compression algorithm by using block compressive sensing and inter-band prediction error. Because of making the best use of the intense spectral correlation between adjacent bands, we can obtain the higher reconstruction quality and lower complexity. In this method, we firstly estimate the prediction parameters between adjacent bands by using least squares method. Then each band is measured by the same random projection matrix independently. Then the prediction parameters and random measurements are transmitted to the decoder. At last, we exploit a new restore process and prediction information to reconstruct the hyperspectral images. The prediction information is computed based on the previous restore adjacent band and the prediction parameters. Several experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is obviously better than the traditional compressive sensing, and has a very low complexity. In addition, our algorithm is easy to realize in practice.
Microarray database is a typical Relational database ,which contains a large number of columns and a small number of rows, and it poses a great challenge for existing associated pattern mining algorithms that discover patterns in item enumeration space. Here I want to Review some algorithms which helps to explore the row enumeration space to mine associated patterns. The row enumeration algorithms are used to avoid searching the large number of columns /items enumeration space, but those algorithms can try to search the associated patterns in the row enumeration space. The column enumeration algorithms can not be scaled to microarray database, where as it is possible to scale the row enumeration algorithms to microarray database. So I can right to say that the associated patterns /rules can be the better search substitutes, which can minimize the search time and complexcity. So instead of searching the large number of columns in a microarray database (bioinformatics database), its associated framing patterns should be searched.
Reliable and cost-effective health information exchanges require real-time monitoring of data sources, especially during implementation and deployment. MidSouth eHealth Alliance developers created a tool for real-time visualization of data feed logs which summarizes activity over multiple time windows and across different components, sources, and event types. This representation allows maintainers to differentiate between expected patterns and events that require rapid intervention to ensure reliable data handling, supporting efficient monitoring of and response to anomalous activity.
Human-Computer Interaction concerns both humans and computers and involves a number of different disciplines and interdisciplinary areas. In this talk I discuss how recent technological and socio-cultural developments challenge the established categories of design and use of IT. I suggest seeing use as work, included in the work knowledge and constituting the conditions for the work. Drawing on traditional design disciplines design of IT can be conceptualized as a combination of ideas and materials, where the particular qualities of IT as a design material influence both the design process as well as the design result. In the talk I discuss these conceptualizations and how they can help us discuss how the changing relations between design and use of IT. I draw on both old and new research projects to illustrate how the concepts can be applied.
The present paper deals with asynchronous decentralized optimization over networks. Pertinent algorithms are either centralized relying on a specific topology, where a single master connects all workers, or decentralized devoid of any master by only exchanging information between single-hop neighbors. The present work bridges the gap of existing approaches with a novel hybrid framework that is capable of accommodating multiple masters. Moreover, it enables considerable acceleration of decentralized approaches without physically deploying masters, thus making it possible to achieve a desirable tradeoff between convergence and communication/computation complexity by tuning the configuration. Numerical tests showcase advantages over decentralized counterparts.
Multi-label text classification (MLTC) is the task of assigning multiple labels to a given text, and has a wide range of application domains. Most existing approaches require an enormous amount of annotated data to learn a classifier and/or a set of well-defined constraints on the label space structure, such as hierarchical relations which may be complicated to provide as the number of labels increases. In this paper, we study the MLTC problem in annotation-free and scarce-annotation settings in which the magnitude of available supervision signals is linear to the number of labels. Our method follows three steps, (1) mapping input text into a set of preliminary label likelihoods by natural language inference using a pre-trained language model, (2) calculating a signed label dependency graph by label descriptions, and (3) updating the preliminary label likelihoods with message passing along the label dependency graph, driven with a collective loss function that injects the information of expected label frequency and average multi-label cardinality of predictions. The experiments show that the proposed framework achieves effective performance under low supervision settings with almost imperceptible computational and memory overheads added to the usage of pre-trained language model outperforming its initial performance by 70 % in terms of example-based F1 score.
While partial carry-save adders are easily designed by splitting them into several fragments working in parallel, the design of partial carry-save multipliers is more challenging. Prior approaches have proposed several solutions based on the radix-4 Booth recoding. This technique makes it possible to diminish the height of a multiplier by half, this being the most widespread option when designing multipliers, as only easy multiples are required. Larger radices provide further reductions at the expense of the appearance of hard multiples. Such is the case of radix-8 Booth multipliers, whose critical path is located at the generation of the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3X$ </tex-math></inline-formula> multiple. In order to mitigate this delay, in our prior works, we proposed to first decouple the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3X$ </tex-math></inline-formula> computation and introduce it in the dataflow graph, leveraging the available slack. Considering this, we then present a partial carry-save radix-8 Booth multiplier that receives three inputs in this format, namely, the multiplicand, the multiplier, and the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3X$ </tex-math></inline-formula> multiple. Moreover, the rest of the datapath is adapted to work in partial carry-save. In comparison with conventional radix-4 and radix-8 Booth-based datapaths, the proposal is able to diminish the execution time and energy consumption while benefits from the area reduction provided by the selection of radix 8. Furthermore, it outperforms prior state-of-the-art partial carry-save multipliers based on radix 4.
The construction and maintenance of data warehouses (views) in large-scale environments composed of numerous distributed and evolving information sources (ISs) such as the WWW has received great attention recently. Such environments are plagued with changing information because ISs tend to continuously evolve by modifying not only their content but also their query capabilities and interface and by joining or leaving the environment at any time. We are the rst to introduce and address the problem of capability (schema) changes of ISs, while previous work in this area, such as incremental view maintenance, has mainly dealt with data changes at ISs. In this paper, we outline our solution approach to this challenging new problem of how to adapt views in such evolving environments. We identify a new view adaptation problem for view evolution in the context of ISs capability changes, which we call View Synchronization. We also outline the Evolvable View Environment (EVE) approach that we propose as framework for solving the view synchronization problem, along with our decisions concerning the key design issues surrounding EVE. The main contributions of this paper are: we provide an E-SQL view de nition language with which the view de ner can direct the view evolution process, we introduce a model for information source description which allows a large class of ISs to participate in our system dynamically, we formally de ne what constitutes a legal view rewriting, we develop replacement strategies for a ected view components which can be shown to be correct, and we provide a set of view synchronization algorithms. A prototype of our EVE system has successfully been built using Java, JDBC, Oracle, and MS Access; and is currently running in the CS Department at WPI.
Despite the evolution of complex storage facilities for different application domains (e.g. multimedia-enabled databases, or RDF triple stores), the file system is still the major repository paradigm for unstructured content that is created, stored and managed by end-users. Many desktop file systems support the addition of metadata to files, but there exists no platform-independent agreement on how to retrieve and manage metadata, be it in a user's private storage or in shared data repositories.In this paper, we point out why the file system has significant drawbacks regarding efficient management of metadata, and how extensions to the well-known WebDAV protocol can be designed so that metadata can be retrieved, stored, managed and utilized for increased user benefit in searching and browsing situations. We describe the drawbacks of traditional file systems and strategies how to overcome their limitations. Finally, we express ideas regarding how the file system API for end user applications can be extended so that applications are enabled to annotate content with attention metadata, and describe how we plan to realize these ideas in the course of the SemDAV project.
Construction and Demolition Wastes (CDW) are currently one of the biggest problems in urban areas, since they are generated in significant volumes and do not have a suitable final destination. One of the ways to minimize the CDW impacts is through the implementation of a integrated management, which requires an approach supported by decision-making tools. Thus, this research aims to develop a computational system to assist the construction and demolition waste integrated management for brazilian municipalities, validated in the city of Recife, Pernambuco. For this, a diagnosis of CDW municipal management in Recife was initially carried out, in order to identify the main challenges of CDW integrated management. Sustainability indicators were defined to classify the CDW municipal management; a mapping of 565 points of CDW illegal deposition in the city was carried out, and a method was developed to classify the environmental risks from illegal deposition. Sites were also proposed for the installation of new eco-stations and Transhipment and Waste Sorting Areas (TWSA) in the city, as well as construction waste landfills and waste treatment plants in the Metropolitan Region of Recife (MRR). Subsequently, a diagnosis was made of CDW generation in 34 construction sites, in order to structure a database to, after statistical treatment, compose the database of a CDW generation mathematical model on sites. For the statistical treatment, a descriptive analysis of CDW generation data of the sites, analysis of variance anw was verified the applicability of the multiple linear regression for the dataset used. The mathematical model was developed in a spreadsheet, being validated in 13 works that did not compose the database of model calibration step. Finally, the Construction Waste Integrated Management System (SIGERCON) was developed. The conceptual model and the instantiation of the three system modules were established. From the structuring stage, the software coding was performed. After coding phase, the integration of the modules and the software validation was performed to verify the applicability of SIGERCON. The results showed that Recife has a median CDW management, mapping a total of 565 illegal dumping sites, being 53 points with high environmental risk. It was proposed the installation of 20 new eco-stations for the city and two TWSA. Regarding the generation of waste in construction sites, was verified that the generation rate varied between 29 and 157 kg/m² , so that it is necessary to consider the size of the site in the estimate of CDW generation. The average cost of CDW management was R$ 61,935.00, with a cost per m2 of R$ 4.86. The developed mathematical model was validated with data from 9 of the 13 sites used. SIGERCON was tested and validated in the municipality of Jaboatao dos Guararapes. It is concluded that the support system favors the implementation of CDW integrated management in brazilian municipalities, by having control and optimization tools, as well as a database that allows the municipalities to adapt to the reality of the region.
We study the unsplittable flow on a path problem which has received a lot of attention in the research community recently. Given is a path with capacities on its edges and a set of tasks where each task is characterized by a source and a sink vertex, a demand, and a profit. The goal is to find a subset of the tasks of maximum total profit such that all task demands from this subset can be routed simultaneously without violating the capacity constraints. The best known approximation results are a quasi-polynomial time-approximation scheme if the task demands are in a quasi-polynomial range [Bansal et al., STOC 2006] and a polynomial time (2 + e)-approximation algorithm [Anagnostopoulos et al., SODA 2014]. Finding a PTAS for it has remained an important open question.    In this paper we make progress towards this goal. When the task densities---defined as the ratio of a task's profit and demand---lie in a constant range, we obtain a PTAS. We also improve the QPTAS of Bansal et al. by removing the assumption that the demands need to lie in a quasi-polynomial range. Our third result is a PTAS for the case where we are allowed to shorten the paths of the tasks by at most an e-fraction. This is particularly motivated by bandwidth allocation and scheduling applications of our problem if we are allowed to slightly increase the speed of the underlying transmission link/machine. Each of these results critically uses a sparsification lemma which we believe could be of independent interest. The lemma shows that in any (optimal) solution there exists an O(e)-fraction (measured by weight) of its tasks whose removal creates, on each edge, a slack which is at least as large as the (1/e)th largest demand using that edge. This slack can then be used to allow slight errors when estimating or rounding quantities arising in the computation.
In order to improve the application effect of the collaborative navigation control, this paper presents a Q-learning algorithm based on the path restriction by constructing the absolute distance between a mobile agent of the virtual environment and its destination into a status function of reinforcement learning. In comparison with late and former statuses, a shortest path usually can be achieved. At the same time, the results of the learning can be shared by other agents, which can strengthen their perception of environmental information, learn the right decision-making more quickly, and make efficient route-seeking and navigation control.
The paper suggests a technique for fast data sort based on a specially organized binary searching network with the following new distinctive features: 1) data sort is done within the time of data acquisition through a serial interface; 2) a new type of pipeline, which we call ring pipeline, is created 3) the delay for receiving each data item is minimized thanks to the novel ring pipeline; 4) sorted data can be transmitted almost immediately after receiving the last input item; 5) several data sets may be sorted by the same network at the same acquisition time. It is proved theoretically that the network is very fast. It was modelled and evaluated in software and the basic components were synthesized and implemented in hardware. The results have shown a significant speed-up comparing to the best known alternatives. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.22.4.15920
We present a novel paradigm for modeling certain types of dynamic simulation in real-time with the aid of neural networks. In order to significantly reduce the requirements on data (especially time-dependent data), as well as decrease generalization error, our approach utilizes a data-driven neural network only to capture quasistatic information (instead of dynamic or time-dependent information). Subsequently, we augment our quasistatic neural network (QNN) inference with a (real-time) dynamic simulation layer. Our key insight is that the dynamic modes lost when using a QNN approximation can be captured with a quite simple (and decoupled) zero-restlength spring model, which can be integrated analytically (as opposed to numerically) and thus has no time-step stability restrictions. Additionally, we demonstrate that the spring constitutive parameters can be robustly learned from a surprisingly small amount of dynamic simulation data. Although we illustrate the efficacy of our approach by considering soft-tissue dynamics on animated human bodies, the paradigm is extensible to many different simulation frameworks.
A self-sampling PI (proportional-integral) control all digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) is introduced in this paper. Our design is based on the self-sampling PI control scheme. An advantage of this is that the transfer function as linear approximation of the system model remains almost the same at different lock point, a feature enabling theoretical analysis and systematic design. The complete design procedure developed with field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices and the detailed theoretical analyses are presented. Static, dynamic results of simulation and experiments are also presented, which show and verify that this ADPLL has good behaviors over wide tracking speed, excellent stability and flexible control characteristics. The ADPLL can act as a key part or a key module in a system on chip (SoC) digital system to simply the entire system's hardware architecture and ensure the high system reliability
The purpose of the paper is to improve the overall performance of proxy system,and to improve the efficiency of proxy server clusters.Based on more sophisticated research of load balancing algorithm in the field of distributed computing,and popular server traffic balancing strategy,the paper presents a new load balancing proxy system against the application background of proxy server cluster.In addition,the paper realizes the system architecture and load balancing strategy,and conducts performance test.
In this paper, we analyze a substructuring type algorithm for the Cahn-Hilliard (CH) equation. Being a nonlinear equation, it is of great importance to develop efficient numerical schemes for investigating the solution behaviour of the CH equation. We present the formulation of Neumann-Neumann (NN) method applied to the CH equation and investigate the convergence behaviour of the same in one and two spatial dimension for two subdomains. We illustrate the theoretical results by providing numerical example.
With the rapid development of the WiFi technology, the WiFi network is widely used in daily life. However, it is vulnerable to various attacks, such as rouge access point (AP). In this paper, we propose an AP authentication scheme that allows the authentication center to verify credibility of the target AP by jointly considering the received signal strength (RSS) and the channel state information (CSI). For the sake of effective authentication, an efficient machine learning algorithm, the XGBoost, is leveraged to train the authentication model offline. When the online authentication process begins, the coarse authentication process is initially performed according to the RSS. If suspicious, the fine authentication process is further executed according to the CSI. Through simulation, we verify that the proposed scheme achieves high probability of detecting rogue APs and low probability of treating legitimate APs as rogue ones. Simulation results also show that our proposed scheme can work well against rogue AP attacks.
To improve the effectiveness of office workers in their decision making, office systems have been built to support (rather than replace) their judgment. However, these systems model office work in a centralized environment, and/or they can only support a single office worker. Office work that is divided into specialized domains handled by different office workers (where cooperation is needed in order to accomplish the work) is not supported. In this paper, we will present a model that supports office problem solving in a logically distributed environment. (In some systems, information is geographically distributed for performance purposes rather than for conceptual need. The term, logically, is therefore used to indicate the logical need of organizing information without having to worry about the physical location of the information.) In particular, cooperative tools that can be used to support office workers during the process of their problem solving is discussed.
The present work proposes a detailed study of the implementation of a mathematical tool called dual quaternions and a depth analysis of its evolution and potential application on the robotics field. In parallel to this view is presented a comparison between the traditional way of calculating rotation and translation in the kinematics of manipulator robots. Dual quaternions have been massively used in robotics because they are computationally more efficient in representing rotational information than the representation with homogeneous transformation matrices. Thus, this work aims to provide a detailed explanation through a step-by-step for the use of quaternion algebra, in a simplified way, were used examples to better understand the implementation. Although there is a lot of literature about the theoretical aspects of dual quaternions, in a few of them there are practical examples of how their use really works. This work gives a clear notion of the introduction to the dual quaternion theory, in addition to it,  this document also demonstrates its application to a 4-DOF serial robotic manipulator. In this dissertation it was possible to make a comparison between the direct and inverse kinematics calculated using the matrix algebra versus the quaternionic algebra, it was verified that the quaternions are computationally more efficient although they do not allocate smaller area of the program memory for the Atmel microcontroller Atmega 328/P. Simulations and experimental tests were performed to prove the results.
Disclosed is a method for analyzing network properties including the steps of: receiving data about a network which includes nodes and links; generating data about a modified network which is modified by selecting one or more of the nodes and the links and perturbing the (original) network; and computing the data regarding one or more of a point attractor, the basin of the point attractor, a cyclic attractor, and the basin of the cyclic attractor of the modified network. [Reference numerals] (S11) Receiving the data of a boolean network having a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links for connecting the nodes; (S12) Generating data about a modified network modified from the network by perturbing the boolean network as one or more control targets selected among the nodes and the links; (S13) Calculating data about one or more things among a point attractor, a point attractor basin, a cyclic attractor, and a cyclic attractor basin in the modified network; (S14~S17) Providing the result of comparing the information about a point attractor, a point attractor basin, a cyclic attractor, or a cyclic attractor basin in the boolean network with the information about a point attractor, a point attractor basin, a cyclic attractor or a cyclic attractor basin in the modified network
The wireless billboard channels (WBCs) are integral part of the ubiquitous consumer wireless world (UCWW) - the wireless next generation network (NGN) proposal. The WBCs are used by the service providers (xSPs) for broadcasting advertisements of their services to the mobile terminals (MTs) so that the mobile users (MUs) may discover and associate with the best service following a user-driven ‘always best connected and best served’ paradigm (ABC&S). In this paper, a 3-layer model, a number of efficient algorithms and a software testbed for WBCs based on the digital video broadcast - handheld standard (DVB-H), are set out.
Carrying out collaborative learning activities (supported by technologies or not)  typically involves the coordination of multiple participants, in their dynamic assignment to  groups and roles and in the distribution of resources and tools to specific group or individuals.  While the mechanisms required to address these coordination aspects in digital educational  spaces have been largely studied, less research has been conducted on orchestration support for  facilitating this coordination in (technology-enhanced) physical spaces, such as the classroom  or the playground. This paper presents the Signal Orchestration System (SOS), a system that  augments the physical environment with digital signals indicating orchestration aspects. The  SOS facilitates its integration with digital educational spaces to allow transitioning activities  from digital to physical spaces. The paper describes the SOS system and its underlying  architecture through a functional prototype that has been developed to show its feasibility and  to enable its evaluation in authentic situations. The main components of the prototype include a  Manager, where orchestration visual and auditory signals are configured, changed on the fly  and transmitted, and three different designs of Wearable Signaling Devices, which are carried  by participants and render the orchestration signals. The prototype has been used in two  different experiments in the context of a real course applying adaptations of the well-known  Jigsaw collaborative learning flow pattern. The results show that the SOS enables a flexible  dynamic orchestration of the collaborative activities.
The number of applications leveraging data from sensors on smart-phones is growing. However, they tend to focus on single Apps for personal sensing rather than trying to achieve a greater good (social sensing) by addressing challenges as App interoperability and geographical distribution of devices. In this paper, we present MobileWave a framework that allows creating, composing and publishing RDF streams from smart-phones. MobileWave extends TripleWave with a publish/subscribe middleware that collects affluent RDF Streams, composes them into a swollen RDF stream and publishes it on the Web.
In this paper, word sense disambiguation (WSD) accuracy achievable by a probabilistic classifier, using very minimal training sets, is investigated. We made the assumption that there are no tagged corpora available and identified what information, needed by an accurate WSD system, can and cannot be automatically obtained. The lesson learned can then be used to focus on what knowledge needs manual annotation. Our system, named Bayesian Hierarchical Disambiguator (BHD), uses the Internet, arguably the largest corpus in existence, to address the sparse data problem, and uses WordNet's hierarchy for semantic contextual features. In addition, Bayesian networks are automatically constructed to represent knowledge learned from training sets by modeling the selectional preference of adjectives. These networks are then applied to disambiguation by performing inferences on unseen adjective-noun pairs. We demonstrate that this system is able to disambiguate adjectives in unrestricted text at good initial accuracy rates without the need for tagged corpora. The learning and extensibility aspects of the model are also discussed, showing how tagged corpora and additional context can be incorporated easily to improve accuracy, and how this technique can be used to disambiguate other types of word pairs, such as verb-noun and adverb-verb pairs.
Taking industrial agglomeration as the breakthrough point, this paper explores whether entrepreneurship can play a mediating role between agglomeration effect and enterprise technological innovation, puts forward a mediating model with moderating variables, and tests the moderating role of institutional environment in the whole process. Using survey data of 513 companies from Yangtze River delta, it demonstrates that industrial agglomeration effect is positively related to technological innovation and entrepreneurship plays a partial mediating role in this relationship. It also finds institutional environment plays a significant positive moderate role in the positive relationship of industrial agglomeration effect and entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and technological innovation, and in the mediating effort of entrepreneurship.
Internet information resources are proliferating at an astonishing rate, however, very little of that information is of high quality. Educators are in need of instruments to assist in evaluating information quality, which is the goal of a project underway at The University of Georgia. This paper is a progress report on the project to develop such a set of criteria and standards. Indicators of information and web site quality were identified, classified within eleven criterion categories, and rated in terms of importance by a panel of experts on Internet resources. Criterion categories used were: (1) site access and usability; (2) resource identification and documentation; (3) author identification; (4) authority of author; (5) information structure and design; (6) relevance and scope of content; (7) validity of content; (8) accuracy and balance of content; (9) navigation within document; (10) quality of the links; and (11) aesthetic and affective aspects. The highest rated indicators of information quality will provide the framework for a set of instruments and procedures for the evaluation of Internet information resources. Along with the information quality indicators, highly rated indicators of site quality are used to provide design guidelines for the developers of Internet information resources. (Author/SWC) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** Evaluating the Quality of Internet Information Sources c--Kevin M. Oliver N ON Gene L. Wilkinson (NI Lisa T. Bennett !--1 ..r Department of Instructional Technology A The University of Georgia, USA 4.4 Paper presented at ED-MEDIA/ED-TELECOM 1997, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Abstract: Internet information sources are proliferating at an astonishing rate, however much of that information is of dubious or unknown quality. Educators are in need of instruments to assist in evaluating information quality, which is the goal of a project underway at The University of Georgia. Indicators of information and web site quality have been identified, classified within eleven criterion categories, and rated in terms of importance by a panel of experts on Internet resources. The highest rated indicators of information quality will provide the framework for a set of instruments and procedures for the evaluation of Internet information resources. Along with the information quality indicators, highly rated indicators of site quality will be used to provide design guidelines for the developers of Internet information resources. Internet information sources are proliferating at an astonishing rate, however much of that information is of dubious or unknown quality. Educators are in need of instruments to assist in evaluating information quality, which is the goal of a project underway at The University of Georgia. Indicators of information and web site quality have been identified, classified within eleven criterion categories, and rated in terms of importance by a panel of experts on Internet resources. The highest rated indicators of information quality will provide the framework for a set of instruments and procedures for the evaluation of Internet information resources. Along with the information quality indicators, highly rated indicators of site quality will be used to provide design guidelines for the developers of Internet information resources.
With the perfection of wireless network technology(WNT), the traditional E business pattern is facing the transformation from the wire form to the mobile form. The current situation of the WNT,the advantage of combining the E business with the WNT and the application of the WNT in the E business field are discussed herein. Some problems which should be paid attention to in the mobile E business development are pointed out.
This article summarizes data from 1984 - 2010 to study the impact of Chinese enterprises' foreign direct investment(FDI) on Chinese export trade. It first gives a brief introduction to the status quo of Chinese enterprises' FDI and export trade. Then it uses the co integration theory to do empirical analyse of the relationship between FDI and export trade and to calculate the error correction model. Finally, it made a conclusion based on the study and made relevant policy recommendations.
This paper presents an algorithm that allows one to create a static schedule of the Profinet IO IRT (Isochronous Real Time) communication, which is an industrial Ethernet protocol standardized in IEC 61158. This algorithm offers an alternative to the available commercial tool, providing comparable results with respect to the resulting schedule makespan. Furthermore, the problem is extended by useful temporal constraints (i.e., release dates, deadlines and end-to-end deadlines of the messages) providing a greater flexibility with respect to the individual messages. Due to this flexibility, it is possible to place the selected messages in various parts of the communication cycle (in order to increase the computational time available for the main-controller application, or to retransmit the synchronization message without holdup in the switch, or to add new messages into the original schedule). The solution is based on a formulation of the Profinet IO IRT scheduling problem in terms of the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling with Temporal Constraints.
The throughput and complexity of a biomarker assay will determine the amount of effort that can be expended on quality control and assurance. Clinical chemistry quality control procedures can be readily applied to simpler chemical analysis such as blood lead and cholesterol, but even complex cell-based biomarker techniques such as HPRT mutation analysis and cytogenetics benefit from a formal quality control approach. Collaborative interlaboratory exercises are essential, especially when no certified reference material is available, and these can play a central role in the control of laboratory drift. Recommendations are made for the quality control of biomarker measurement based on clinical chemistry techniques. These include recommendations for coding samples so that the laboratory scientist is unaware of exposure status and for the use of formal laboratory protocols.
An optimization algorithm for chemotherapy scheduling study is developed in this paper. We consider the density of host and cancer cells of a patient as states, and define the optimal chemotherapy scheduling as the shortest treatment path that will cure the patient, if possible. Given the fact that the treatment time is always interger-valued in our model, we used a modified version of the value iteration algorithm originally designed for Markov Decision Process. Simulation results and discussions are also given.
The terms coefficient-of-friction (µ) and drag factor (f) are expressions often used in crash investigation and are commonly associated with various vehicle speed calculations based upon tyre mark geometry. Accordingly, the definitions and application of the respective terms are accepted doctrine by the various international educational institutions associated with crash investigation. Because the terms are closely related, their definitions and application are often confused by investigators and can result in misinterpretation, errors and confusion associated with vehicle speed calculations. This paper briefly discusses the specific scientific differences and applications between the two terms. The coefficient-of-friction µ is defined as the ratio of the tangential force F(tan) (parallel to the surface) applied to an object sliding across a surface to the normal force N (perpendicular to the surface) of an object. 1
In this work, we propose an approach for optimizing Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) resources allocation using stochastic networks optimization based on Lyapunov optimization. The approach targets reducing users' requests experienced delay while enhancing resource availability. We use Lyapunov drift plus penalty optimization to ensure design stability and to minimise the delay cost function. We perform extensive simulations under different charge conditions in order to prove the effectiveness of the approach in handling user requests with lower delays. Simulation results show that the approach enhances the experienced delay while ensuring a good utilization of resource pools.
In a digital signal processing (DSP) course for senior electrical engineering majors, students received two different types of instructional delivery messages (online text only and text along with a simulation tool: MATLAB) via two different types of instructional delivery media (desktop PC and personal digital assistant (PDA)). An experimental study was designed to investigate the potential main effects and the interaction of these two independent variables: instructional delivery message and instructional delivery media on three dependent variables: students' learning achievement, their intention, and satisfaction to use those instructional strategies. This study was a 2 times 2 randomized post-test design. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the collected data. Significant results were found in independent variables. However, there was no significant interaction found between the two studied independent variables for all the three dependent measures
The impact of de-identification on data quality and, in particular, utility for developing models for downstream tasks has been more thoroughly studied for structured data than for unstructured text. While previous studies indicate that text de-identification has a limited impact on models for downstream tasks, it remains unclear what the impact is with various levels and forms of de-identification, in particular concerning the trade-off between precision and recall. In this paper, the impact of de-identification is studied on downstream named entity recognition in Swedish clinical text. The results indicate that de-identification models with moderate to high precision lead to similar downstream performance, while low precision has a substantial negative impact. Furthermore, different strategies for concealing sensitive information affect performance to different degrees, ranging from pseudonymisation having a low impact to the removal of entire sentences with sensitive information having a high impact. This study indicates that it is possible to increase the recall of models for identifying sensitive information without negatively affecting the use of de-identified text data for training models for clinical named entity recognition; however, there is ultimately a trade-off between the level of de-identification and the subsequent utility of the data.
Digital life enables situations where people invade other’s privacy – sometimes with harmful intentions but often also without such. Given negative effects on victims of privacy invasions, research has examined technical options to prevent privacy-invading behavior (PIB). However, little is known about the sociotechnical environment where PIB occurs. Therefore, our study ( N = 95) examined possible situational (effort necessary to invade privacy) and individual determinants (e.g., personality) of PIB in a three-phase experiment. 1) Laboratory phase: participants were immersed into the scenario; 2) privacy-invasion-phase at home: automatically and covertly capturing participants’ PIB; 3) debriefing-phase at home: capturing whether participants admit PIB. Our results contribute to understanding the sociotechnical environment in which PIB occurs showing that most participants engaged in PIB, that the likelihood of PIB increased when it required less effort, that participants less likely admitted PIB for more sensitive information, and that individual characteristics affected whether participants admitted PIB. We discuss implications for privacy research and design.
Fromm on Freud SIR,-Despite his manful efforts to be fair, I do not think that John Cohen, in his review of Erich Fromm's Sigmund Freud's Mission (August 13, p. 514) succeeds in doing justice to an important book. Certainly his opinion that it " will be judged by posterity as little more than a footnote" to Ernest Jones's filial biography is wide of the mark. Fromm provides an alternative view from which Freud is seen as a human being, compact of strength and weakness, and not as a demigod. There is a closely reasoned and cogent argument, supported by biographical data and documented by quotations from Jones. Ferenczi, Sachs, and Freud's own letters. Future biographers will not be able to blink the facts adduced by Fromm, and will have to give radical consideration to his conclusions. The review also fails to bring out what a brilliantly written and fascinatingly readable book this is.-I am, etc., The National Hospital, ELIOT SLATER. London. W.C.1. Health at Work SIR,-Your advocacy (August 6, p. 445) of "the development of industrial health services" is very welcome. But need these services include the general nation-wide establishment of laboratories for this special purpose ? That we need some specialized reference laboratories to deal with the more unusual and less widespread problems, as we have in the bacteriological reference laboratories of the public health laboratory service, is probably true, but can we not graft most of the laboratory work on to existing group laboratories ? I am thinking particularly of the control of the health of individual workers in industries with hazards whose effects-for example, those of lead-fall within the scope of a well-equipped group laboratory. We ourselves give a moderate amount of such service, which could be economically stepped up by enlarging our establishment, to industrial concerns in our area. We find this particularly valuable when the factory medical officer is a general practitioner with whom we are already in close contact. The truth is the country cannot afford either the equipment or the technicians to set up a completely new chain of laboratories, but we could improve the scope and efficiency of many hospital laboratories by enlarging them to take on a good deal of what should be done for occupational health.-1 am, etc.,
Existing methods for transportation mode detection (TMD) using mobile sensing make it generally possible to distinguish between walking, cycling, and motorized transport. However, our means of transport evolve and we develop radically new ways of transporting ourselves, thus new TMD sub-classification methods are needed to distinguish these new transport forms. As we transition from fossil-fueled cars to electric vehicles, switch to bikes with electric motors, ride in hybrid buses, or do city sightseeing on Segways, new challenges arise in distinguishing these from a mobile sensing perspective. Distinguishing electric vehicles (EVs) from fossil-fueled vehicles (FFVs) is a challenge, where traditional methods based on features such as GPS speed, or statistics on raw accelerometer data, are insufficient. In this paper, we present methods for distinguishing EVs from FFVs using smartphones with built-in inertial sensors, by reliably identifying idle-engine motor vibrations through features built on frequency analysis. We provide an extensive analysis of the challenges involved in making the EV/FFV distinction, as well as practical tools based on the methods. This includes analyzing the measurable similarities and differences between EVs and FFVs, and developing methods of reliably separating them. The presented tools implement the methods as classifiers built using machine learning. The analysis of our experiments shows that we can achieve an accuracy of 89-95% distinguishing EVs from FFVs, even with on-body phones.
The popularity of digital images is rapidly increasing due to improving digital imaging technologies and convenient availability facilitated by the Internet. However, how to find user-intended images from the Internet is nontrivial. The main reason is that the Web images are usually not annotated using semantic descriptors. In this article, we present an effective approach to and a prototype system for image retrieval from the Internet using Web mining. The system can also serve as a Web image search engine. One of the key ideas in the approach is to extract the text information on the Web pages to semantically describe the images. The text description is then combined with other low-level image features in the image similarity assessment. Another main contribution of this work is that we apply data mining on the log of users' feedback to improve image retrieval performance in three aspects. First, the accuracy of the document space model of image representation obtained from the Web pages is improved by removing clutter and irrelevant text information. Second, to construct the user space model of users' representation of images, which is then combined with the document space model to eliminate mismatch between the page author's expression and the user's understanding and expectation. Third, to discover the relationship between low-level and high-level features, which is extremely useful for assigning the low-level features' weights in similarity assessment.
This study aimed to determine the literacy level of the 35 Bajau learners of “Bajau School by the Sea”, Tambacan, Iligan City with data gathered from their weekend classes from July to November, 2014. Findings showed that most of the Bajau learners whose parents’ means of livelihood were begging and those Bajau learners whose major daily activities were begging had the lowest performance in writing and reading but highest in numeracy specifically counting, identifying shapes and sizes but not so good in identifying colors. In addition, those Bajau learners who attended classes in order to learn were in the literacy level of progressing in terms of writing, reading and numeracy. Furthermore, the volunteer teachers used guided writing and reading, tracing letters and shapes, storytelling, the budding reading strategies, pointing and counting the objects as their teaching strategies. In addition, most problems encountered by the volunteer teachers were regarding the school environment such as garbage not properly disposed, bad smell of the surrounding, lack of personal hygiene, irregular attendance of learners and lack of instructional materials.
Three years in the making, the Grand Debate was one of the 34 industry sessions and a product of the IEEE Consumer Electronics (CE) Society AdCom. Bob Frankston, a CE Society Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer, was instrumental in discussing the topic of Internet versus telecommunications. He invited one of the originators of TCP/IP (Internet), Vinton Cerf, to be on the debate panel. Subsequently, David Farber from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and a well-known former chief technologist with the American Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was included in the debate to address the outdated frequency spectrum policy. Stephen Dukes agreed to serve as the debate moderator, together with Stagg Newman, another prestigious former FCC technologist. Dukes later found his schedule conflicted with the date of the debate, and Tom Coughlin was asked to fill in as moderator. After many e-mail exchanges, the panelists agreed to focus on a few mind-twisting issues. Last-minute technology hook-ups are never easy, and consequently, the debate time was reduced to 30 min, leaving little time to address the carefully designed questions. Nevertheless, everyone learned a little about the potential conflict between the Internet and telecommunications. Frankston published his position in the "Soapbox" column in the January issue of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine. The remaining topics are of particular significance to the CE Society and Communications Society as there is now a shifting paradigm caused by the Internet, both in network infrastructure and consumer devices.
A new method was described for gait recognition by using moment invariants. The body contour represented in 2D signature was transformed into moment invariants represented in 1D signature. The gait sequences could be represented by using moment invariants vectors. The vectors were normalized and used to recognize the gait. The results of the experiments show that the method have an encouraging recognition performance.
The invention discloses a computer group performance monitoring interface which is suitable for monitoring one or more computer groups. Each computer group comprises a plurality of nodes. The computer group performance monitoring interface comprises a plurality of node monitoring interfaces, wherein each node monitoring interface corresponds to each node and displays a performance index for the corresponding node; each node monitoring interface comprises a plurality of monitoring subparts; each monitoring subpart comprises a plurality of monitoring units; each monitoring subpart displays the index of certain category performance of the corresponding node in real time, and each monitoring unit displays the current index of certain performance in the category performance in real time; each monitoring unit displays the index of corresponding performance in a histogram; and the column height in a histogram reflects the corresponding performance index, and all the node monitoring interfaces have same monitoring subpart distribution. The invention also discloses a corresponding computer group performance monitoring method.
Abstract : In these times scientists are challenged to reverse dangerous climatic trends. U.S. military strategy will evolve to more passive defense measures. The role of remote sensing satellites cannot be underestimated at this early stage of a whole Earth philosophy. Satellites will provide surveillance data needed to verify arms treaties and the synoptic geophysical data required for either realtime monitoring of environmental conditions or data assimilation into prognostic models. Quality of these remotely sensed data will be limited by our understanding of the physical mechanisms which produced the signals. Surface wind over oceans is an physical phenomenon which can be sensed from remote platforms and which is paramount in monitoring the types of global changes described. Wind affects both strategic and tactical naval operations, drives ocean currents and determines air-sea fluxes important for climate modeling. In 1978 a microwave radar scatterometer onboard SEASAT used an algorithm, SASS1, to infer wind velocity from measured radar returns. Twelve years later, scatterometer data from this middion are still being analyzed to confirm the instrument as a breakthrough in maritime meteorology and oceanography and to reveal short comings of the SASS1 algorithm and the possibility that the radar return is sensitive to environmental parameters other than wind. This study evaluates environmental effects on the functional form, which relates radar echoes from sea surface to sea surface wind vector.
In this paper, we study the flow of two immiscible fluids namely, couple stress fluid and Jeffrey fluid in a porous channel. Instead of the classical no-slip conditions on the boundaries, we used slip boundary conditions, which are more realistic and meaningful. In addition, we used inclined magnetic field effects on the fluid flow. The couple stress fluid and Jeffrey fluid are flowing adjacent to each other in the region I and in the region II, respectively, of the horizontal porous channel. The nondimensionalized governing equations are solved analytically by using slip conditions at the lower and upper boundaries and interface conditions at the fluid-fluid interface. The analytical expressions for the velocity components in both regions are obtained in closed form. The effects of slip parameter, Hartmann number, couple stress parameter, Jeffrey parameter, angle of inclination, and Darcy number on velocity components in both regions are investigated. In the absence of slip, couple stress parameter, and Jeffrey parameters, limiting cases are obtained and discussed.
Without adding any primitives to the language, we define a concurrency monad transformer in Haskell. This allows us to add a limited form of concurrency to any existing monad. The atomic actions of the new monad are lifted actions of the underlying monad. Some extra operations, such as fork, to initiate new processes, are provided. We discuss the implementation, and use some examples to illustrate the usefulness of this construction.
Password-based remote user authentication is a hotspot in authentication protocol research.The security of a proposed remote user authentication scheme was analyzed.Whereby it used nonce random and had very low computational costs.However,this scheme still has many security faults.The weakness of the scheme was demonstrated.Password-based remote user authentication and key agreement protocol(PUAKP),a novel nonce and hash-based remote user authentication scheme and key agreement using smart cards were also presented.In order to avoid the risk of message replay attack,the scheme uses nonce random instead of using time stamps.PUAKP has many merits: it lets users freely choose and change password at their own will;it provides mutual authentication between two entities;it has more lower computational costs;it resists man-in-the-middle attack;in addition,it has wrong password sensitivity;and it has password nontransparency to system and strong security reparability.Furthermore,the session key has freshness,confidentiality,known-key security and forward security.
This paper presents an experimental study on 3D person localization (i.e. pedestrians, cyclists) in traffic scenes, using monocular vision and LiDAR data. We first analyze the detection performance of two top-ranking methods (PointPillars and AVOD) on the KITTI benchmark, with respect to varying Intersection over Union (IoU) settings and the underlying parameters of 3D bounding box location, extent and orientation. Given that the KITTI dataset contains relatively few 3D person instances, we also consider the new EuroCity Persons 2.5D (ECP2.5D) dataset, which is one order of magnitude larger. We perform domain transfer experiments between the KITTI and ECP2.5D datasets, to examine how these datasets generalize with respect to each other.
Distribution of volume along certain direction in 3D space is one of the most important features for a geomet- ric object,in this paper,based on an analysis of data structure of 3D manifold meshes,an algorithm to extract volu- metric characters from arbitrary given models is presented.The algorithm first rotates the mesh model to coordinate- axis-align position by employing Principal Component Analysis(PCA)methods,and then uses a set of parallel planes to slice the model into several high-equal segments along three principal axes,respectively.From cross section in each plane,a polygon set composed of one or more polygons can be obtained and absolute value of its area can be conse- quently computed by using the signed area formula of planar simple polygon.By normalizing the area,volume distribu- tions of the model along the principal axes can be plotted by three characteristic curves and the curves give the model a description of the shape.Experiments show that our algorithm is fast and stable,and can process various 3D models with arbitrary geometry and topology.
The article is devoted to the methodology of consideration of social objects as systems. At that it is proposed to use general scientific methodology of system approach, which links qualitative features of the system and the level of its integrity. In turn this integrity level depends on a number of parameters of strategic contacts, such as polar directionality, strength of ties and others. Such approach allows more reasonably highlight the kinds of social systems and describe their properties on the basis of qualities of strategic relations.
This paper analyses several common transmission pricing methods of marginal cost and embedded cost deeply. It analyses pricing models of several transmission pricing methods, long-run marginal cost (LRMC) method, MW-Mile method, sensitivity method, flow tracing method, contract path method and stamp method. It also gives a comprehensive comparison of characteristics and limitations of these pricing methods, discusses their applicable conditions in aspects of fairness, economic, financial balance, transparency, operability and others, and makes a quantitative research of comparison based on a case, and verifies the results.
The kinematic design of redundant seven-axis manipulators is addressed. It is shown that isotropic seven-axis manipulators are possible. Three different optimum solutions are presented: first, a nonlinear minimization problem is solved which, in effect, renders the Jacobian matrix fully isotropic. Next, it is argued that, despite the fully isotropic feature of the first solution, some of its structural features can be improved. This leads to pre-assigning some of the parameters defining the structure of the manipulator, resulting in a system of 21 nonlinear equations in 21 unknowns. As the second solution, the Hartenberg-Denavit parameters of an isotropic manipulator are then obtained by solving the said system of nonlinear equations. Further constraints to make the manipulator structure anthropomorphic yield a third solution. This last solution gave rise to a manipulator which is not fully isotropic but is very close to isotropy, and exhibits a greater resemblance to the structure of the human arm.<<ETX>>
In many real-world problems, one may encounter uncertainty in the input data. The fuzzy set theory fits well to handle such situations. However, it is not always possible to determine with full satisfaction the membership and non-membership degrees associated with an element of the fuzzy set. The intuitionistic fuzzy sets play a key role in dealing with the hesitation factor along-with the uncertainity involved in the problem and hence, provides more flexibility in the decision-making process. In this article, we introduce a new ordering on the set of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and propose a simple approach for solving the fully intuitionistic fuzzy linear programming problems with mixed constraints and unrestricted variables where the parameters and decision variables of the problem are represented by intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. The proposed method converts the problem into a crisp non-linear programming problem and further finds the intuitionistic fuzzy optimal solution to the problem. Some of the key significance of the proposed study are also pointed out along-with the limitations of the existing studies. The approach is illustrated step-by-step with the help of a numerical example and further, a production planning problem is also demonstrated to show the applicability of the study in practical situations. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is analyzed with the existing studies based on various computational parameters.
In this paper, we address the design of a wireless sensor network (WSN) using a single low earth orbit (LEO) satellite. The satellite, as small as a Picosatellite, requires employment of a very simple payload whereas all the complexity is brought back to the relay nodes (RNs), which are connected directly to the Picosatellite using a multiple access protocol. An improvement protocol to enhance the performance of Slotted Aloha, based on collision avoidance after first successful transmission, is proposed. We establish a mathematical model for evaluating the performance of the proposed protocol with collision avoidance termed as Slotted AlohaCA. Two appropriate performance measures are evaluated: Throughput and Energy efficiency. In the model, each RN has M packets to send during the visibility period of the Picosatellite. The proposed scheme approaches the maximum throughput of 100% for high value of M and hence improves significantly the energy efficiency compared with the traditional Slotted Aloha protocol owing to collision avoidance.
We showed in previous work that weighted finite-state transducers provide a common representation for many components of a speech recognition system and described general algorithms for combining these representations to build a single optimized and compact transducer integrating all these components, directly mapping from HMM states to words. This approach works well for certain well-controlled input transducers, but presents some problems related to the efficiency of composition and the applicability of determinization and weight-pushing with more general transducers. We generalize our prior construction of the integrated speech recognition transducer to work with an arbitrary number of component transducers and, to a large extent, release the constraints imposed on the type of input transducers by providing more general solutions to these problems. This generalization allowed us to deal with cases where our prior optimization did not apply. Our experiments in the AT&T HMIHY 0300 task and an AT&T VoiceTone task show the efficiency of our generalized optimization technique. We report a 1.6 recognition speed-up in the HMIHY 0300 task, 1.8 speed-up in a VoiceTone task using a word-based language model, and 1.7 using a class-based model.
With the continuous advancements in Information and Communication Technology, healthcare data is stored in the electronic forms and accessed remotely according to the requirements. However, there is a negative impact like unauthorized access, misuse, stealing of the data, which violates the privacy concern of patients. Sensitive information, if not protected, can become the basis for linkage attacks. Paper proposes an improved Privacy-Preserving Data Classification System for Chronic Kidney Disease dataset. Focus of the work is to predict the disease of patients’ while preventing the privacy breach of their sensitive information. To accomplish this goal, a metaheuristic Firefly Optimization Algorithm (FOA) is deployed for random noise generation (instead of fixed noise) and this noise is added to the least significant bits of sensitive data. Then, random forest classifier is applied on both original and perturbed dataset to predict the disease. Even after perturbation, technique preserves required significance of prediction results by maintaining the balance between utility and security of data. In order to validate the results, proposed method is compared with the existing technology on the basis of various evaluation parameters. Results show that proposed technique is suitable for healthcare applications where both privacy protection and accurate prediction are necessary conditions.
Abstract We show how the MAPLE package diffgrob2 can be used to analyse overdetermined systems of PDE. The particular application discussed here is to find classical symmetries of differential equations of mathematical and physical interest. Symmetries of differential equations underly most of the methods of exact integration known; the use and calculation of such symmetries is often introduced at advanced undergraduate level. Examples include cases where heuristics give incomplete information or fail in the integration of the determining equations for the group infinitesimals. The ideas presented here are thus an alternative method of attacking this important problem. The discussion is at a “hands on” level suitable as resource material for undergraduate instruction.
The application of Flash animation in website design becomes more popular because it is more attractive and infective than static pages. Functions of Flash, status in quo and characteristics of webpage design are analyzed in this paper; how to present and apply the interaction of Flash animation in webpage design better is promoted via three aspects including functional design of guide, smart application of transparent Flash in Banner ads images and the application of pure Flash making websites.
In this paper, we propose extended code architecture to express more information in existing iBeacon. Information that is available to the user is limited to 4byte because user can only use Major and Minor of iBeacon. Proposed scheme can use more information by transmitting consecutively Beacon signal containing classification and detailed information. When it comes to using more information of iBeacon, utilization range is widened further.
This paper presents a novel design concept for spintronic nanoelectronics that emphasizes a seamless integration of spin-based memory and logic circuits. The building blocks are magneto-logic gates based on a hybrid graphene/ferromagnet material system. We use network search engines as a technology demonstration vehicle and present a spin-based circuit design with smaller area, faster speed, and lower energy consumption than the state-of-the-art CMOS counterparts. This design can also be applied in applications such as data compression, coding and image recognition. In the proposed scheme, over 100 spin-based logic operations are carried out before any need for a spin-charge conversion. Consequently, supporting CMOS electronics requires little power consumption. The spintronic-CMOS integrated system can be implemented on a single 3-D chip. These nonvolatile logic circuits hold potential for a paradigm shift in computing applications.
This letter addresses the joint subcarrier and power allocation problem in downlink multiuser OFDM cooperative networks. The sum of the logarithmic per user time-averaged bits-per-Joule is maximized. The optimization problem is decomposed into two subproblems. First, the solution for the subcarrier allocation considering the proportional fairness is obtained. Second, an alternating power allocation (PA) scheme with separate transmit power constraints at the source and relays is derived under frequency selective fading channels. Then the complexity of the proposed scheme is analyzed. Finally, numerical results present the convergence, energy efficiency and outage probability performance of the proposed scheme.
This paper describes advances in the use of confusion networks as interface between automatic speech recognition and machine translation. In particular, it presents a decoding algorithm for confusion networks which results as an extension of a state-of-the-art phrase-based text translation decoder. The confusion network decoder significantly improves both in efficiency and performance over previous work along this direction, and outperforms the background text translation system. Experimental results in terms of translation accuracy and decoding efficiency are reported for the task of translating plenary speeches of the European Parliament from Spanish to english and from english to Spanish.
The Common Instrument Middleware Architecture (CIMA) defines a web services interface to scientific instruments. We have been experimenting with the use of CIMA web services for remote monitoring of synchrotron experiments and real-time data download, processing and storage. Here we discuss some performance issues with data transfer using CIMA web services, particularly for long-distance, high-latency transfers. We explore alternative approaches for improving the performance and robustness of data transfer with CIMA, and provide some experimental results.
This paper aims to propose a new approach to decompose an overall  data envelopment analysis model into equivalent two-stage models.  In this approach, we use a minimax reference point method to set the  weights and reliabilities of the two stage models so that the combined  efficiency of the two stages is equal to the overall efficiency. The  equivalent multi-stage models are useful to support planning for performance  improvement. An illustrative example is first explored to compare  the results from the new approach with those of four other existing  approaches. The main finding from the comparisons is that the new  decomposition approach of this paper satisfies the proposed assumptions.  A case study is then conducted on a two-stage process of steel manufacturing  to illustrate the validity and applicability of the proposed approach.
The forecasting of load is important basic work of power system operation and control. Accurate short-term load probability forecasting is very essential for power grid scheduling. The conventional forecasting methods are mostly to get deterministic forecasting result. The information derived from a deterministic forecasting model is not comprehensive because the electricity load is highly stochastic. The load probability prediction can get an interval of appropriate size, which provides more information to the power system. This paper proposes a Long Short-term Memory (LSTM)-based load probability forecasting model to obtain the forecasting of the electricity load for each hour of the next week. This model was trained and tested with the collected data set whose resolution was 1 hour. In addition, the model also considers the impact of meteorological factors on the electricity load during construction, so the inputs of the model correspond to the electricity load data and meteorological data for a period of time.
Through the analysis of the characteristics in teaching of electronic equipment, he and on the basis of Modern teaching theory, 'Five main line and Four levels' information architecture and the interactive system architecture to build a "learning environment" are proposed. The typical interaction model of the teaching of electronic equipment and several problems requiring attention in teaching multimedia design of electronic equipment are also given.
Engaging healthcare providers in acute care patient portal implementation is critical to ensure productive use. However, few studies have assessed provider's perceptions of an acute care portal after implementation. In this study, we surveyed 63 nurses, physicians, and physician assistants following a 3-year randomized trial of an acute care portal. The survey assessed providers' perceptions of the portal and its impact on care delivery. Respondents reported that the portal positively impacted care, and they perceived that their patients found it usable and trustworthy. Respondents reported that all the portal's features were useful, especially the display of laboratory test results. Compared with the results of a patient survey, providers underestimated the portal's usefulness to patients, and ranked features as very useful significantly less often than patients (57% vs. 74%; p<0.001). Our study found that providers supported their patients' use of the portal, but may have underappreciated the portal's value to patients.
In many applications, classification systems often require human intervention in the loop. In such cases the decision process must be transparent and comprehensible, simultaneously requiring minimal assumptions on the underlying data distributions. To tackle this problem, we formulate an axis-aligned subspace-finding task under the assumption that query specific information dictates the complementary use of the subspaces. We develop a regression-based approach called RECIP that efficiently solves this problem by finding projections that minimize a nonparametric conditional entropy estimator. Experiments show that the method is accurate in identifying the informative projections of the dataset, picking the correct views to classify query points, and facilitates visual evaluation by users.
Software Testing is defined as a single phase activity in software development process by using water fall model. We have been working on a research project on formal software testing technique. In this paper, contrary to usual practice, a built-in testing module at each stage of software development process is proposed. The problem description is first expressed in a formal notation to get the problem-definition, in an unambiguous and formal format. This formal description of the problem will be more accurate and will form a formal test bed in the tabular form. This test bed will facilitate different types of relevant testing at each phase of system development process, both vertical and horizontal testing. The said software testing technique consists of three modules. This paper covers the work done in the first module.
LoRa has become one of the most promising networking technologies for Internet-of-Things applications. Distant end devices have to use a low data rate to reach a LoRa gateway, causing long in-the-air transmission time and high energy consumption. Compared with the end devices using high data rates, they will drain the batteries much earlier and the network may be broken early. Such an energy unfairness can be mitigated by deploying more gateways. However, with more gateways, more end devices may choose small spreading factors to reach closer gateways, increasing the collision probability. In this paper, we propose a networking solution for LoRa networks, namely EF-LoRa, that can achieve energy fairness among end devices by carefully allocating network resources, including frequency channels, spreading factors and transmission power. We develop a LoRa network model to study the energy consumption of the end devices, considering the unique features of LoRa networks such as the LoRaWAN MAC protocol and capacity limitation of a gateway. We formulate the energy fairness allocation as an optimization problem and propose a greedy allocation algorithm to achieve max-min fairness of energy efficiency. Extensive simulation results show that EF-LoRa can improve the energy fairness by 177.8%, compared to the state-of-the-art solutions.
Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) is the problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of an agent's location within it. How to enable SLAM robustly and durably on mobile, or even IoT grade devices, is the main challenge faced by the industry today. The main problems we need to address are: 1.) how to accelerate the SLAM pipeline to meet real-time requirements; and 2.) how to reduce SLAM energy consumption to extend battery life. After delving into the problem, we found out that feature extraction is indeed the bottleneck of performance and energy consumption. Hence, in this paper, we design, implement, and evaluate a hardware ORB feature extractor and prove that our design is a great balance between performance and energy consumption compared with ARM Krait and Intel Core i5.
An open-loop single-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication scheme is considered where a transmitter, equipped with multiple antennas, encodes the data into independent streams all taken from the same linear code. The coded streams are then linearly precoded using the encoding matrix of a perfect linear dispersion space-time code. At the receiver side, integer-forcing equalization is applied, followed by standard single-stream decoding. It is shown that this communication architecture achieves the capacity of any Gaussian MIMO channel up to a gap that depends only on the number of transmit antennas.
Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) is a technology that has great potential to solve numerous mobile robotic and asset tracking problems in GPS-denied environments. Our goal is to help software and hardware designers in improving the state-of-the-art in UWB-based robotic localization. We developed a test-bed where an UWB transmitter is attached to a mobile robot. By combining the received signals with the robot's position log acquired through the dead-reckoning sensors, we obtain UWB signals which are well referenced with respect to the transmitter-receiver distance and orientation. In addition, we provide a model for every component of the setup. The entire setup allows us to simulate from first principles every aspect of an UWB localization system and then to implement low-level signal processing as well as higher-level modulation and localization techniques. We implement an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) algorithm to demonstrate the rapid proto-typing capabilities of the test-bed. Our work shows how an UWB robotic system and its models can be involved in all phases of the development of a technology that can help robot's navigation, localization and communication algorithms.
With an increasing number of robotic and prosthetic devices, there is a need for intuitive interfaces which enable the user to efficiently interact with them. The conventional interfaces are generally bulky and unsuitable for dynamic and unstructured environments. An alternative to the traditional interfaces is the class of Muscle-Machine Interfaces (MuMIs) that allow the user to have an embodied interaction with the devices they are controlling. In this work, we present a wearable, lightweight, Forcemyography (FMG) based armband for Human-Machine Interaction fabricated entirely out of 3D-printed parts and silicone components. The armband uses six force sensing units, each housing an Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) sensor. The capabilities of the armband are evaluated while decoding four different gestures (pinch, power, tripod, extension) and rest state and its performance is compared with a state-of-the-art Electromyography (EMG) bioamplifier. The decoding performance of the decoding models trained on the data acquired from the armband is significantly better than the performance of the models trained on raw EMG data. The hardware design and the related processing software, are disseminated in an open-source manner.
Concept maps can be a powerful learning tool for an interdisciplinary subject like geography in which the integration of progressively developed concepts, the incorporation of field experiences and data, and the integration of location specific applications of learned concepts require a holistic understanding of otherwise potentially segregated geographic processes. Two university courses in Physical Geography were introduced to the use of CmapTools in an effort to integrate various classroom-based and field-based knowledge and develop a meaningful, holistic understanding of many related concepts. The goal of this strategy was to emphasize the much desired connectivity among the many facets of this interdisciplinary subject domain as well as to integrate knowledge disseminated at various levels of undergraduate training. The outcome indicates that learners, when provided with adequate exposure and environment, use the concept mapping tool effectively to integrate hierarchical geographic knowledge. Learners also found it a satisfying and useful learning experience.
In this paper we discuss verification and validation of simulation models. The different approaches to deciding model validity are described, two different paradigms that relate verification and validation to the model development process are presented, the use of graphical data statistical references for operational validity is discussed, and a recommended procedure for model validation is given.
Network embedding plays a crucial role in network analysis to provide effective representations for a variety of learning tasks. Existing attributed network embedding methods mainly focus on preserving the observed node attributes and network topology in the latent embedding space, with the assumption that nodes connected through edges will share similar attributes. However, our empirical analysis of real-world datasets shows that there exist both commonality and individuality between node attributes and network topology. On the one hand, similar nodes are expected to share similar attributes and have edges connecting them (commonality). On the other hand, each information source may maintain individual differences as well (individuality). Simultaneously capturing commonality and individuality is very challenging due to their exclusive nature and existing work fail to do so. In this paper, we propose a deep generative embedding (DGE) framework which simultaneously captures commonality and individuality between network topology and node attributes in a generative process. Stochastic gradient variational Bayesian (SGVB) optimization is employed to infer model parameters as well as the node embeddings. Extensive experiments on four real-world datasets show the superiority of our proposed DGE framework in various tasks including node classification and link prediction.
This paper presents the performance analysis hardware/software co-design of iterative methods for solving linear systems in terms of speed, iteration and toleration. Three iterative methods, Jacobi, Gauss-Seidel (GS) and conjugate gradient (CG), are implemented using Xilink EDK (Embedded Development Kit). For comparison purposes, the same methods are also implemented in pure software using Xilink EDK. Comparisons of the implementations of three methods in software and hardware/software codesign show that the CG method benefits most from the hardware implementation of the matrix multiplication block. These indicators can be used for trade-off of area and speed during the development of reconfigurable hardware accelerator system for large scale circuit and neural simulations.
Autonomy is a pivotal concept that allows researchers to investigate important aspects such as job-related outcomes in Information Systems (IS) research. With the increase of mobile technologies, autonomy is increasingly gaining importance. Given the growing body of research in this area, this research presents the results of a systematic literature review. Our results show in detail how autonomy has been used and identifies fruitful avenues for future research. Specifically, we suggest that future research should contextualize autonomy to give it a central theoretical significance for IS research. Moreover, future research should also acknowledge the multidimensional facets of autonomy to enhance its
An optical implementation of the Hough transform that uses a two-dimensional array of computergenerated holograms based on a direct-binary-search algorithm is investigated. A Hough-transform filter consisting of 16 × 16 Fourier-transform direct-binary-search computer-generated holograms is examined. A novel matrix format, which uses the parameter domain in the Hough transform instead of a conventional orthogonal coordinate system, enables highly flexible fabrication of a Hough-transform filter by reducing constraints for reconstructed sample points of a computer-generated hologram. A completed Hough-transform filter has excellent performance both in the quality of the reconstructed image and in diffraction efficiency.
htmlabstractWhen significant weaknesses are found in cryptographic primitives on which the everyday security of the Internet relies, it is important that they are replaced by more secure alternatives, even if the weaknesses are only theoretical. This is clearly emphasized by our construction of a (purposely crippled) rogue Certification Authority (CA) in 2009 that in principle enabled the impersonation of all secure websites. This was possible due to the continued use of the insecure cryptographic hash function MD5 by a leading commercial CA. The hash function SHA-1, the successor to MD5 as the de facto hash function standard, has been theoretically broken since 2005. The Cryptology group at CWI has recently made a significant step towards a practical attack on SHA-1 that has long been anticipated, as well as efficient counter-measures against these cryptographic attacks.
Abstract : This report contains papers presented to an AGARD Fluid Dynamics Panel Round Table Discussion held in May 1984. The discussion was part of the Panel's Symposium devoted to Improvement of Aerodynamic Performance through Boundary Layer Control and High Lift Systems, reported in AGARD Conference Proceedings CP 365. The purpose of the discussion was to review recent progress in, and to provide guidance for future work in the field of 3-D boundary layers. Turbulence modelling, which is unsatisfactory in 2-D flows, is even less suitable for three-dimensional boundary layers. More sophisticated models do not appear to work better in many cases than simple ones. The situation is even less satisfactory for separated flows where the validity of certain computations is in question. Lack of accurate, extensive data hampers efforts to comprehend important flow mechanisms and validate computational results. The extensive review reported at the conference and in this discussion is remarkable in the paucity of high-quality experimental data cited. Keywords include: Three dimensional flow, and High lift devices.
Marine power systems are isolated from external grids, making them more vulnerable than land-based power system. Additionally, different from fixed terrestrial microgrids, all-electric ships are mobile transportation vehicles, complying with the regulation of safe return to port. In order to enhance the resilience and improve energy efficiency of mobile microgrid, this study proposes a two-stage economic and resilient optimization framework for an all-electric ship (AES), taking into account the impact of navigation. In the first stage, a joint voyage and power scheduling of the AES is developed to reduce the operation costs and greenhouse gas emissions for normal operation mode. In the second stage, resilience-oriented optimization is proposed to defend the extreme contingency by optimizing the navigation speed and load shedding. Furthermore, resistance during the whole AES navigation is also considered. To verify the proposed algorithm, several cases are compared to demonstrate the resilience and economy of the shipboard power system and the necessity of addressing the effect of sailing resistance on the AES voyage.
The publishing of knowledge organization systems (KOS) as Linked Open Data (LOD) has become a well‐accepted practice during the last five years. More than 1,000 thesauri, classifications, taxonomies, ontologies, term lists, and other types of KOS are available as LOD datasets. However, there are still visible and invisible barriers for the real end‐users (i.e., those other than the creators and publishers of KOS products) to access and use the LOD KOS. More importantly, the question arises as to how the LOD KOS can be used as more than traditional “controlled vocabularies” or function as more than just “value vocabularies” in the Semantic Web. Of course, the new functions are made possible because of the use of Semantic Web standards such as SKOS, OWL, RDFS, and SPARQL, but what are the appropriate practices for the implementation, extension, access, and use of these standards in the final deliverables? This panel will cover the use cases of the LOD KOS while also address the barriers and issues of using them.
We consider the uplink of a backhaul-constrained coordinated cellular network. That is, a single-frequency network with N multi-antenna base stations (BSs) that cooperate in order to decode the users' data, and that are linked by means of a lossless backhaul with limited capacity. To implement cooperation among receivers, we propose distributed compression: the cooperative BSs, upon receiving their signals, compress them using a distributed Wyner-Ziv code. Then, they send the compressed vectors to the central unit (also a BS), which implements decoding. In this paper, the achievable rate region of such a network is studied (particularized for the 2-user case). We devise an iterative algorithm that solves the weighted sum-rate optimization, and derives the optimum compression codebooks at the BSs. The extension to more than two users is straightforward.
Ambulatory cardiac monitoring has become an important scenario nowadays as a standard preventive cardiological procedure for detection of cardiac abnormalities. In the proposed system it is achieved with the Android smart phone. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is well known to give information about the autonomic heart rate modulation mechanism. In order to avoid erroneous conclusions, it is of utmost importance that only sinus rhythms are present in the cardiogram. Therefore, preprocessing of the RR interval time series is necessary. This paper presents an advanced automated algorithm to preprocess RR intervals obtained from a normal ECG. Validation of this algorithm was performed on recorded ECG signals by holter recorder and MIT-BIH database. The proposed algorithm therefore restricts the manual data check to the absolute minimum and allows a reliable HRV analysis.
The present invention relates to a substation intelligent data logging and analysis technology, this method can not only record the original multi-SV data merging unit MU are not synchronized, and using data re-synchronization technology to synchronize data, waveform data obtained fault power system for electricity failure in providing data. In this implementation, not only can effectively solve the multi-merging unit MU SV original data in the case are not synchronized recording, and multi-unit MU merge raw data sent by manual intervention, offline synchronization, improved fault data record authenticity, providing authentic evidence for intelligent substation incident handling.
In this paper, we describe about the monitoring of Indian agriculture using LPC2148.Monitoring of Indian agriculture is done using information of the temperature and humidity content. This is mainly used for saving water and monitoring agriculture without human presence. Temperature sensor and humidity sensor will continuously sense the information regarding the field. When the values are less than or greater than the threshold values it will do certain operations. We are using GSM technology also for sending information to the farmer. We have included two modes for monitoring manual and automatic mode. In manual mode farmer will be sending message and to monitor and control the water pump .In automatic mode farmer will not be involved to control the operations of motor .It will be operating the water pump motor automatically. So, that he can monitor from remote places also. As ARM7 processor is RISC architecture, it is so flexible to program and as advancements has increased in this field we have done code optimization for the program in this project.
Auditory spatial perception is the ability to perceive relative locations of sound sources in the environment and the spatial character of the surrounding acoustic space. Any property of an auditory event causing a rise to spatial sensation is called a spatial cue. Specific types of judgments resulting from spatial cues are categorized and discussed in the psychoacoustic literature as horizontal localization, vertical localization, auditory distance estimation, and spaciousness assessment. While judgments of directions toward sound sources received considerable interest in psychoacoustic literature, the judgments of auditory distance, and especially the judgments of spaciousness, received much less attention.
At present time,with the deepening application of GIS,the conversion between different data formats becomes a hot problem.In order to ensure integrality and security of the data format conversion process,and optimize the production steps of the GIS data,this paper has probed into this problem and put forward a way that based on the COM technology to develop an self-defined data format conversion interface,and taken the conversion between MapGIS and GeoMedia as an example to depict the process.
Cryptography plays a key role in all the aspects of today cybersecurity and any cryptographic approach relies on cryptographic keys, i.e., series of bits that determine how a plain text is encrypted and decrypted, according to an agreed algorithm. The secrecy and security of an encryption key are thus crucial and fundamental: if the cryptographic key is compromised and known, everyone can decrypt a text encrypted according to the strongest encryption algorithm. As a consequence, several Key Management Systems (KMS) have been developed to easily support the management of cryptographic keys, whose number is constantly increasing, due to the amount of devices and communications that take place today, even in very restricted contexts. SEkey is a key management system developed targeting a distributed environment, where it is possible to identify a single central manager that acts as a Key Distribution Center (KDC) and many users that locally store and manage their own keys. Users, to a certain extent, can also work ‘offline’ without being always in direct communication with the central manager. SEkey is built leveraging the functionalities and physical properties of the SEcube™ Hardware Security Module (HSM). All the key values and critical information are stored inside the SEcube™ and never leave the device in clear, and all the cryptographic operations are performed by the SEcube™ itself. The guidelines provided by NIST where followed during the whole development process, guaranteeing all the most important security features and principles.
In global competition, there is a need to measure the capability of continuous innovation for industrial clusters. Innovation capability for industrial cluster is measured by the Innovation Organization Sub-System (IOSS), Innovation Support Sub-System (ISSS) and Innovation Environmental Sub-Systems (IESS). In this paper, an evaluation system composed of 22 indicators is developed. An empirical study based on the Qingdao Technology Park has examined the changes of its innovation capabilities. Discussions and recommendations to improve the capabilities of continuous innovation are also given.
Simulation of grinding is a topic of great interest due to the wide application of the process in contemporary industry. Up to date, several modelling methods have been utilized in order to accurately describe the complex phenomena taking place during grinding, the most common being the finite element method and artificial intelligence techniques, e.g. soft computing methods. The present paper proposes a new hybrid model for precision grinding, more specifically the combination of finite elements with neural networks. The model possesses the advantages of both the aforementioned methods, for the prediction of several grinding features that define the outcome of the process and the quality of the final product.
An ad-hoc wireless network consists of a set of mobile nodes (hosts) that are connected with wireless links. The network topology (the physical connectivity of the communication network) in such a network may keep changing randomly. Routing protocol that find a path to be followed by data packets from a source node to a destination node used in traditional wired networks cannot be directly applied in ad-hoc wireless network due to highly dynamic topology. There are various issues in designing a routing protocol for ad-hoc wireless network. This paper focuses on three routing protocol – AODV, DSR, DSDV of ad-hoc network. The main aim is to find the routing protocol giving best result at different data rates.The simulation platform used for evaluating the proposed approach is GloMoSim , a discrete event detailed simulator for wireless network systems.
The system-level modeling and simulation framework Sesame/Artemis aims to efficiently explore the design space of heterogeneous embedded multimedia architectures. The Sesame environment provides several methods and tools to quickly and separately build the application process network model, the target architecture model, and the mapping model of the application onto the architecture. In addition, this tool is designed to allow the refining simulation models smoothly across different abstraction levels and to include support for refining only parts of an architecture model, creating a mixed-level simulation model. In this paper, the Sesame software framework is selected to implement at the black-box architecture model level a parallel H.264/AVC video encoding application targeting multiprocessors platforms.
Energy systems are evolving towards 100% green energy production. The share of green energy in electrical distribution systems is progressively increasing, implying also an increment on the number of renewable energy units in the low-voltage grid. Following this trend, thousands of consumers connected to the power grid in a decentralized manner become small producers, changing the traditional paradigm of energy distribution from top to bottom. Currently, the modern Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) enables the possibility of collecting several types of status data from the end-users which Distribution System Operators (DSOs) can use to their advantage to optimize management and planning operations. As a part of this optimization, having a spatial overview over the low-voltage grid can speed up the monitoring processes and allows to obtain a real-time insight on what is happening in the grid, compared to the traditionally used analysis methods. Many business structures for smart grid cyber physical systems are looking into how to integrate advanced data management models. Such models should provide the means for obtaining meaningful data visualization where only the relevant data is timely processed, filtered and visualized for the operators to efficiently react to grid anomalies in real-time.The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to efficiently design a monitoring/visualization system for low-voltage electrical grids based on the DSOs’ needs and feedback. The proposed system implementation stands on emulating an existing geographic scenario by a virtual AMI integration. The efficiency of the prototype is evaluated versus the traditional monitoring operations derived from user experience studies, such as a reduction in time to perform a specific anomaly detection operation. Furthermore, the advantages of spatial awareness are meant to further strengthen the motivation for integrating measurements into a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment.
The discrete analog-signal processing with charge-transfer devices(CTD's) has attracted special inerest recently. An impotrant limitation of CTD's arises from the effect of charge transfer inefficiency, and so especially in low frequency range CTD's cannot operate sufficiently. This paper proposes a new device for the implementation of discrete analog-signal processing. The device inherently differs from CTD's and is suitable for the applications in low frequency range. The device consists of a delay line that is constructed by monostable multivibrators with constant pulsewidths. In the device, signals appear in pulsewidth modulated forms, Without using analog memory elements, one stage of the delay line can be constructed by two IC monostable multivibrators and one IC AND gate. Fundamentally, the delay line has no degradation of signals during processing. Using this device practical digital filters are easily implemented. It will be able to make these filters one-chip processors.
A method for reconstructing a redundant data storage system. A plurality of data segments is redundant memory by the storage device of the first group, each of the at least a quorum of storage devices of the first group, and stores at least a portion of each data segment or redundant data. Storage devices of the second group is formed, the second group has a different membership from the first group. Data segment version having consistency is not stored by at least a quorum of the second group is identified from among a plurality of data segments. At least a portion of the identified data segment or redundant data is written to the at least one storage device of the second group, whereby at least a quorum of the second group, consistency of the specific data segments and stores the version with. .FIELD 1
This paper proposes a model predictive current control method for independent double three-phase interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSMs). The switching pattern selected by the model predictive control is determined, and the current of each winding is controlled considering of the voltage output of the inverter of the own group for each sampling and the voltage disturbance due to the inverter of the other winding. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is validated by the experimental results of dynamic and static performances. The proposed control method is also experimentally compared with a PI controller. The proposed model predictive current control can achieve a high torque response under dynamic characteristics.
The empirical performance studies on the emerging IEEE 802.11n technology by an independent and vendor-neutral party have not really been explored. In this paper, we conduct performance measurements for the IEEE 802.11n network using a mixture of commercially available IEEE 802.11n devices from various manufacturers. With the same standard 20-MHz channel width configuration, the results demonstrate that IEEE 802.11n significantly outperforms the IEEE 802.11g network. The performance improvements of IEEE 802.11n are measured to be roughly about 85% for the downlink UDP traffic, 68% for the downlink TCP traffic, 50% for the uplink UDP traffic, and 90% for the uplink TCP traffic. We also observe that the UDP throughputs are largely imbalanced for the uplink and downlink traffics in most test networks, while the downlink and uplink TCP throughput results are quite balanced for all test networks. In addition, the 40-MHz channel configurations only provide marginal performance improvements. Unlike other existing work, here we also capture and analyze the IEEE 802.11n packets transferred during the performance tests in order to technically explain the measured performance results. It is observed that when the frame aggregation and block acknowledgement mechanisms are utilized, the superior performance results are achieved. However, the decisions on how and when to use these mechanisms are very hardware dependent.
Behavior of sexual deviation is an unacceptable sexual behavior among the public. The lack of knowledge and the many obstacles to obtain information about early detection and community independence about sexual deviation and ignorance of the community in dealing with sexual deviation is also a factor not handled early. Forward chaining, consultation begins with a search of the premise or input data in the form of symptoms to the conclusion that is the conclusion of the type of deviation behavior as well as the solution. From the above problems will be built Web-based system that serves to detect the beginning independently of the perceived disorders that can be accessed with an extensive lap and time is not limited. The system is built using PHP and MySQL programming as the database. The method used for forwarding is forward chaining. While the results of the diagnosis will inform about the diagnosis of the list of symptoms included, information on the results of the rules of the disorder suffered and information about the possibility of handling can be done. Black box testing techniques are emphasized on data entry, output data, system functions, performance, and initialization in the system. While testing the alpha test is done by inviting 10 respondents testing is emphasized on the interface, dialogue, and information generated. From the results of testing the alpha test shows that the system created has been running well and produce information that is accurate, and easy to understand.
WS-Agreement is one of the most widely used SLA specifications. An advantage of WS-Agreement over other agreement metamodels is that it allows one to define conditional and optional term sets inside an agreement document, which are commonly found features in real-world agreements. Unfortunately, they increase the complexity of the automated detection and explanation of conflicts between SLA terms, leading to new kinds of conflicts that are not supported by current techniques. Furthermore, creating a general-purpose conflict analyser in WS-Agreement is a hard task since it should understand the semantics of an unbounded number of languages that can be used in the eight extension points that WS-Agreement includes for the sake of flexibility. In this article, we address these issues by providing a conflict classification for SLAs that includes new conflicts derived from the use of conditional and optional term sets; and a novel language-agnostic technique based on constraint satisfaction problems to automatically detect and explain these conflicts. In pursuing these results, we defined some WS-Agreement concepts as well as a fully-fledged WS-Agreement-compliant language. The developed technique and its reference implementation have been thoroughly validated.
Discriminative correlation filters (DCFs) have received much attention in visual tracking due to their high performance but suffered from unwanted boundary effects. Convolutional regression tracking reformulates the DCFs as a one layer convolutional network and avoids the boundary effects. However, this single convolutional network based algorithms’ performance has been drastically limited by over fitness caused by data imbalance. In this paper, we propose a residual attention module to the one layer convolutional network to inhibit the descent of discriminative ability caused by over fitness. A bottom-up and top-down fully convolutional structure is designed in the residual attention module to form samples with bigger receptive field. After that, two types of activation function are applied to capture spatial attention and time attention. By combining the two types of attention, the residual attention can highlight the object and diminish the background response. We perform extensive experiments on two widely used datasets, namely, OTB-2013 and OTB-2015 and the results show that the proposed algorithm achieves favorable performance compared with the state-of-art trackers.
One of the critical tasks required for fully autonomous functionality is the ability to achieve an accurate navigation solution; that is, to determine the platform position, velocity, and orientation. Various sensors, depending on the vehicle environment (air, sea, or land), are employed to achieve this goal. In parallel to the development of novel navigation and sensor fusion algorithms, machine-learning based algorithms are penetrating into the navigation and sensor fusion fields. An excellent example for this trend is pedestrian dead reckoning, used for indoor navigation, where both classical and machine learning approaches are used to improve the navigation accuracy. To facilitate machine learning algorithms’ derivation and validation for autonomous platforms, a huge quantity of recorded sensor data is needed. Unfortunately, in many situations, such datasets are not easy to collect or are not publicly available. To advance the development of accurate autonomous navigation, this paper presents the autonomous platforms inertial dataset. It contains inertial sensor raw data and corresponding ground truth trajectories. The dataset was collected using a variety of platforms including a quadrotor, two autonomous underwater vehicles, a land vehicle, a remote controlled electric car, and a boat. A total of 805.5 minutes of recordings were made using different types of inertial sensors, global navigation satellite system receivers, and Doppler velocity logs. After describing the sensors that were employed for the recordings, a detailed description of the conducted experiments is provided. The autonomous platform inertial dataset is available at: https://github.com/ansfl/Navigation-Data-Project/.
Programming style is the set of guidelines, and practices, applicable to a specific language, that are used while writing the source code and which are intended to introduce the universal look and feel of the code, improve understandability of the code and assist software engineers to not introduce more mistakes while writing code. Programming styles are different for different languages. To develop the ontology, one must first perform the extensive research on the topic, basically a domain analysis on the problem, identify the main concepts of programming styles, build a hierarchy of them and define the relationship between the concepts and their members. Ontology-driven programming style assistant was developed with the help of Protege. Ontology reasoning is a process in any ontology development to ensure that the ontology is of high-quality and does not contain any contradictory relations. For programming styles ontology was choice HermiTreasoner, because it proved to be one of the fastest, reliable and widely used reasoners in the current state of things in the ontological domain.Protege tool also automatically collects metrics about the ontologies, which are mostly concerning the numbers of class axioms, object property axioms and other important numbers.Ontology development using modern software tools is one of the key problems ontology domain. It is important that the users are able to create ontologies with ease and operate with description logic expressivity in the very clear and concise manner.
In southern Brazil, apple production is influenced by several factors that affect productivity, where climate conditions are among the most challenging factors. The thermal conditions along spring and summer influence the development of apple trees. The phenology of apple trees vary across harvests, mainly due to the air temperature. The number of days between phenological events increases as the minimum air temperature decreases. Predictive models to estimate phenological stages in apple trees as a function of the climate are essential to anticipate problems, helping agricultural technicians and engineers. Studies on the relationship between meteorological factors and phenological stages of other cultures, including fruit trees, are available in the literature. However, no previous work employs Fuzzy Time Series prediction mechanisms in the context of apple trees. In this work, we propose a methodology to evaluate different Fuzzy Time Series variants and select the best performing one to predict the duration of phenological stages of apple trees as a function of temperature. In particular, we are considering univariate and multivariate methods. We conducted experiments using real data from a Brazilian agricultural institution, whose results evidence the effectiveness on the prediction of phenological stages of apple trees.
How to achieve a fast and safe data dissemination in the Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) is a hot research topic these days. However, the high mobility of the vehicles makes the topology of VANET unstable, and real-time road information is generally limited. Considering these shortcomings, it is helpful to use the accurate traffic prediction to assist the topology control in the VANET. For offering a better traffic flow prediction, this paper proposes an innovative hybrid prediction method, Delay-based Spatial-Temporal Autoregressive Moving Average model (DSTARMA) to enhance prediction effect. This model mainly focuses on dealing with the travel delay problem in short-term traffic flow prediction. In other words, vehicles always need some time to move from one place to another in a real traffic situation, and this period is called travel delay. In previous spatial-temporal models, no one takes this factor into account. In our model, the travel delay is handled in the form of spatial-temporal weighted matrices and treated as a key role. We evaluated our approach based on data in England highway traffic system. The result proves our approach is reliable and has the ability to offer more accurate road information in advance to support VANET.
The growing trend of technology in the manufacturing environments of digital television has led to an increased level of complexity of these systems. Therefore, it became important to develop tools for monitoring and management of these systems, allowing the visualization of the occurrence of problems at any point in the supply chain. That way it will be possible to act immediately and minimize the negative impact in the production process The SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) has been the main protocol used for management and monitoring of networks. However, in recent years, the technologies of Web services have become very popular for the provision and access to network services. The fact that the implementation is based on exchange of XML messages (via SOAP protocol) and be able to access these services through a simple web browser, makes it very attractive to use in any type of application, particularly in monitoring systems operating network. Since the leading manufacturers of production systems now offer features TV monitoring through SNMP becomes important to ensure a path of migration that use both technologies (SNMP and Web Services). In this dissertation the main objective is the implementation of an SNMP agent that allows the monitoring of processes that are provided with SOAP interface. These multimedia files are accessed from a communication made between the SNMP agent that lead to a SOAP interface, creating a bridge between the two technologies. This bridge will allow the use of this two protocols enabling possible new modules to be added for processing. The use of SOAP interfaces are increasingly common in applications developed in this industry, so its important to find a way to enable this type of monitoring, looking how to do so, and examine issues that may be related.
While the computation of interatomic forces has become a well-established practice within variational Monte Carlo (VMC), the use of the more accurate Fixed-Node Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method is still largely limited to the computation of total energies on structures obtained at a lower level of theory. Algorithms to compute exact DMC forces have been proposed in the past, and one such scheme is also put forward in this work, but remain rather impractical due to their high computational cost. As a practical route to DMC forces, we therefore revisit here an approximate method, originally developed in the context of correlated sampling and named here the Variational Drift-Diffusion (VD) approach. We thoroughly investigate its accuracy by checking the consistency between the approximate VD force and the derivative of the DMC potential energy surface for the SiH and C2 molecules and employ a wide range of wave functions optimized in VMC to assess its robustness against the choice of trial function. We find that, for all but the poorest wave function, the discrepancy between force and energy is very small over all interatomic distances, affecting the equilibrium bond length obtained with the VD forces by less than 0.004 au. Furthermore, when the VMC forces are approximate due to the use of a partially optimized wave function, the DMC forces have smaller errors and always lead to an equilibrium distance in better agreement with the experimental value. We also show that the cost of computing the VD forces is only slightly larger than the cost of calculating the DMC energy. Therefore, the VD approximation represents a robust and efficient approach to compute accurate DMC forces, superior to the VMC counterparts.
This paper presents a methodology for the detection of objects that move independently of the observer in a 3D dynamic environment. Independent 3D motion detection is formulated as a problem of robust regression applied to visual input acquired by a binocular, rigidly moving observer. The qualitative analysis of images acquired by a parallel stereo configuration yields a segmentation of a scene into depth layers. A depth layer consists of points of the 3D space with almost constant depth from the observer. Robust regression in the form of Least Median of Squares estimation is applied within each depth layer in order to segment the latter into coherently moving regions. Finally, a combination stage is applied across all layers in order to come up with an integrated view of independent motion in the whole 3D scene. In contrast to other existing approaches for independent motion detection which are based on the ill-posed problem of optical flow computation, the proposed methodology relies on normal flow fields for both stereo and motion processing. Experimental results show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme, which is capable of discriminating independent 3D motion in scenes with large depth variations.
In view of staircase effect occurred in total variation minimization methods and insufficient noise suppression, a new wavelet-based image inpainting algorithm was presented in this paper.The inpainting processing performs with optimizing an energy function of total variational norm and the l2norm,and finite difference method is adopted for finally established diffusion equation.The scheme has strong capability of keeping sharp edge mean,and staircase effect is weakened in smooth area.Experimental results which use different image show that the proposed method achieves better inpainting effect,especially when the wavelet coefficient is relatively high.
Text is the basic form in language use.And coherence is a fundamental feature of a text.How to achieve and maintain coherence of a text has long been a concern in translation.The application of Speech Act Theory in translation has provided a new perspective and a theoretical foundation for translation study and practice.This paper attempts to explore how Speech Act Theory influences textual coherence in translation by presenting four strategies for the purpose.
Extending differential-based operations to color images is hindered by the multi-channel nature of color images. The derivatives in different channels can point in opposite directions, hence cancellation might occur by simple addition. The solution to this problem is given by the structure tensor for which opposing vectors reinforce each other. We review the set of existing tensor based features which are applied on luminance images and show how to expand them to the color domain. We combine feature detectors with photometric invariance theory to construct invariant features. Experiments show that color features perform better than luminance based features and that the additional photometric information is useful to discriminate between different physical causes of features.
The invention provides a storage and an erasing, programming and reading method of the storage. A first isolation unit and a second isolation unit are identical with a storage unit in structure. A first doping area of the storage unit is connected with a first bit line, a second doping area of the storage unit is connected with a second bit line, a second doping area of the first isolation unit is connected with the first bit line, a first doping area of the second isolation unit is connected with the second bit line, a first doping area of the first isolation unit serves as the connection end of the first isolation unit, a first control grid structure and a second control grid structure of the first isolation unit are connected together to serve as a control end of the first isolation unit, a second doping area of the second isolation unit serves as the connection end of the second isolation unit, and a first control grid structure and a second control grid structure of the second isolation unit are connected together to serve as the control end of the second isolation unit.
In a study of interlanguage development two linguistic features are investigated, the Copula Realization and Negation. The objectives of the study are to determine whether (a) the linguistic behaviour of Arabic-speaking secondary school students is systematic and rule-governed, (b) the strategies used by the subjects learning English as a foreign language are different from those used by learners of English in a natural environment, (c) the interlanguage development towards the target is affected by mother-tongue interference. A combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal approach is used covering a period of 15 months. Three Elicitation Instruments are used: translation from the mother-tongue to the target, recognition and correction, and elicited imitation. The first two tasks are applied 4 times while the last one was applied 3 times only. The data are capable of quantification and statistical analysis. Sixty subjects drawn from a cross-section of Baghdad urban secondary schools Grades 2-6 are involved. Preliminary data analysis revealed considerable variation and variability due to Task and Time. The items in the Copula Realization and do-support in Negation were found to constitute orders of difficulty significantly different from the official syllabus gradings. The main analysis of the data revealed that the orders arrived at are consistent irrespective of Task or Time whether cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Sets of these items were found to constitute significant arrays such that Guttman and/or Implicational Scales can be constructed to account for subject distribution. These scales are incor¬ porated into full scale developmental continua. It is found that neither learning situation nor mother-tongue affects the sequence of development. Evidence rather points to universal rather than language-specific development. The study ends with some pedagogical implications based on the findings. The most important of these is that structural and mother-tongue oriented syllabuses are useless and that the need is for restriction-free language situations where the learner can get whatever structures he needs at the time he needs them. Declaration I declare that this Thesis has been written and composed solely by myself.
This paper presents an approach whose objective is to support Web services substitution. Substitution means replacing a component with another component, as long as the replacing component produces the same output and satisfies the same requirements as the replaced component. Motives for substitution include Web service's non-responsiveness to client requests and better arrangement with another, competitor Web service. To perform Web services substitution with less impact on the ongoing, and sometimes critical, business processes, the approach proposes deploying communities of Web services. A community promotes the dynamic binding of Web services through a common interface, known as open service connectivity. The open service connectivity directs requests to and responses from Web services regardless of how these latter are specified, implemented, and located
Transport hubs such as airports, railway stations play an important role in the transportation system and urban development. Understanding the traffic flows of the transport hubs may help traffic engineers and policy makers to improve the transportation planning and support passengers to efficiently plan their trips. However, analyzing the movement data is very challenging due to their large data volume, implicit spatiotemporal relationship, and uncertain semantics. In this paper, we investigate effective visual analytics for exploring spatiotemporal, semantic patterns in the traffic flows in/out of the transport hubs. The contribution of this work is three fold: (1) we propose a visual analysis workflow incorporating data mining techniques and visualization methods to enable users visually explore the spatiotemporal and semantic patterns in the traffic flows in/out of the transport hubs; (2) we use a spatial clustering method to extract significant places and categorize them to different functional regions based on the POI information; (3) we design a novel visual interface that enables the visual exploration of movement data at both an aggregated and an individual level. The visual analytics framework is tested on a real world floating taxi data set in Shanghai. Preliminary experiments show that our proposed framework is feasible and can effectively support visual exploration and identify interesting traffic flow patterns.
The development of internet and new technology has been growing continuously, smartphone is now a necessary device that has great impact on users in various ways. Internet and smart devices have gained their success in various fields and have provided conveniences to all types of users. The flow of data is seen as a part of the internet and smart devices. Since a large amount of users rely on the internet for their own purposes, it then has become a big vulnerable target for attackers. In this paper, a design of elliptic curve cryptography-based authentication using QR Code is proposed. It mainly focuses on QR Code, as it is now widely used all over the world. However, the enhancement of the existing approaches is encouraged by the fast development of threats, which are presently encountered. The encryption process is included, and the proposed authentication protocol applies the concepts "Something you know" and "Something you have". Normally, people are not concerned about the threats behind the process of transmitting information over the internet, especially through QR Code. With this authentication process, users can ensure that they and their information are safe from online threats.
The government is still struggling to secure all the waters of the archipelago in maintaining and overseeing the security of its territory. This is due to the many islands that need human resources (HR) and require a lot of high-tech ships. So it is necessary to design a robot Electric Remote Control Waterjet Patrol 80 (ERC_WP 80) which could serve as patrol boats and destroyers. Waterjet propulsion drive system has a motion if the vessel was excellent at relatively high speed boats and has good acceleration capabilities. Boats with jet propulsion system can operate in very shallow waters. This is due to all parts of the engine located under the hull, including propeller, shaft and shaft house. Waterjet advantages compared with the steering system / rudder is conventional waterjet propulsion system is able to turn the steering wheel with a smaller angle. Maneuverability and good seakeeping of a ship is strongly influenced by the shape of the hull. Selection of the hull shape is designed to perform parametric studies hull of the vessel Fast Patrol Boats comparator (KPC) 14 1 228 m and the vessel JS Patrol. On the back of the boat is made with a slope angle (chine angle) of about 20 degrees in order to gain the necessary lifting force without reducing the stability of the ship. While at the front end of the ship made a slope angle of about 30 degrees with the intent facilitate ship moving at high speed and reduce the impact when the waves break. Unmanned patrol boats are designed using radio control GensAce 4S 3300mAh
Red cayenne papper is a food ingredient that has a high demand at the level of household consumers. Demand for red cayenne is influenced by several factors. Factors demand for red cayenne papper were red cayenne papper prices, curly red chili prices, household consumer income, number of family members and consumer tastes. The research aimed to analyze the determinant factors of red cayenne papper demand and to analyze elasticity of demand of red cayenne pepper in Semarang Regency. The research location determined by purposive. Survey method was used with Quota sampling to select 90 respondents from 3 District in Semarang Regency with the criteria of highest, medium and low red cayenne pepper production. Respondents taken by snowball method. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Regression analyzed showed that independent variabels simultaneosly significant on dependent variabel. Partially the income of consumers, the number of family members and consumer tastes significantly influence the demand for red cayenne pepper. While the price of red cayenne pepper and curly red chili did not significantly affect the demand for red cayenne pepper. Red cayenne pepper elasticity was elastic 0.135 and categorized as normal goods. The income elasticity was 0.317. Curly red chili was substitutes red cayenne pepper with elasticity 0.122.
In this paper, we strengthen the advantages of a simple PID controller as a study on the formation control of mobile robots and propose an adaptive PID controller with robust performance at the dynamics characteristics of following robot. Simulation studies show that the adaptive PID controller has better keeping constant distance and angle such as tracking performance of following robot for the formation control than a conventional PID controller. This is the proposed adaptive PID controller to change the gains is found to represent the best performance. This is able to verify that the performance of the proposed adaptive PID controller is excellent.
In this paper is presented an adaptive observer based on gain-scheduled principle as a core in the navigation system of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) moving in the horizontal plane. The estimated wave-frequency motions are removed from the measurements and the resulting smoothed signals are sent as feedback to the heading controller for horizontal motions control. As an important improvement, the adaptive capabilities are obtained setting the observer gains as function of the wave frequency, which represents the sea states. The wave encounter frequency is estimated using an algebraic approach with good results. Simulation results show an excellent performance of the observer and the resulting horizontal motion control system of the vehicle.
Various techniques identified by the wireless terminal to download and display system based on roaming status. Identification including text and / or graphics. The system includes a local identification system identification system identification and roaming, the roaming identification system comprises a group identifier and a specific identifier. The system associated with the local identifier, group identifier to one or more roaming indicator values ​​associated with one or more local system and identifying a specific one or more SID values ​​associated. Providing local system ID, group ID and a specific identifier to the terminal. When the local system to obtain service from the local terminal display identification system, the system identifies the roaming display system obtains service from a roaming. The particular roaming system to be displayed depending on the identity of the roaming indicator value and the SID value of the roaming system. Signaling can be transmitted over the air to the system identification downloaded to the terminal.
A river ice condition forecasting model was established based on BP neural network,whose training method was Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm.The model was to forecast the break-up date of the station on the Songhua River,based on the mechanism of the break-up and the ice condition statistics of the station.The practicable model was also founded with the iterative method,and the test results of the model show that the pass rate was 100%.This practical model was stable and precise due to its adequate utilization of relevant information of predicated factors and nonlinear mapping ability of the neu-ral network method.
We present a new strategy for dimensionality reduction which address the performance issues created by large data sets. It relies on the self-organizing map algorithm to perform topological pre-clustering, and on a spring model to achieve metric multidimensional scaling. By taking advantage of the distinct properties of these two methods, we provide a framework which can flexibly balance between qualityand speed-on-demand. Our approach permits the exploration of large data sets and delivers an intuitive frame of reference to the user.
The present invention relates to a method for detecting a snowfall on a road, and more particularly, to a snowfall detection method for detecting a snowfall in a road by acquiring an image from a CCD sensor already installed on a road, detecting an area in which there is no object movement, After calculating the trajectory of the eye with respect to the image using the boundary detection algorithm and the straight line extraction algorithm, the number of eye trajectories is calculated for the predetermined time only for the inactive area (MLZ) do. The snowfall detection method according to the present invention can accurately detect the snowfall state of the road from the CCD sensor installed on the road at a quantified intensity
This paper describes a content-based cross search scheme for two kinds of three-dimensional (3D) human motion data: time-varying mesh (TVM) and motion capture data. TVM is a sequence of 3D mesh models made for real-world 3D objects. TVM is generated using multiple-view images taken with multiple cameras. Since TVM can record shape, color, and motion of the real-world 3D objects, it has been drawing a lot of attention these days. In order to realize practical archiving systems for TVM, efficient retrieval systems are indispensable. The retrieval systems for TVM developed so far are based on query-by-example. This means additional TVM generation is required for constructing queries, which is computationally demanding and time consuming. On the other hand, motion capture systems are widely used to capture 3D human motion. However, the data structure is very different from that of TVM. Therefore, the two kinds of 3D human motion data are incompatible to each other. In this paper, we present a retrieval system that enables retrieving TVM using motion capture data as queries and vice versa using the modified shape distribution algorithm.
C ommunications and sensing are two key applications of electromagnetic waves. While the former discipline has attracted the majority of researchers’ attention in recent years, investigation in the latter discipline is progressing actively but more quietly. The 1,400-page book, Novel Radar Techniques and Applications, presents a variety of new concepts and techniques that are being researched in radar-related areas. Since most have yet to find their way into operational use, why would this work be of interest to the antennas and propagation (AP) community? The answer is that this is an excellent opportunity for AP professionals to catch a glimpse of promising radar concepts and, during the process, to perhaps identify how AP research can impact radarsensing technology. The editor of the book, Dr. Richard Klemm, is a renowned expert on radar signal processing and adaptive clutter cancelation. He spent a distinguished career at FGAN FHR (now the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques, Wachtberg, Germany). Dr. Klemm is also a superb classical pianist. I had the privilege to listen to a passionate performance of his for attendees of a 1999 NATO radar workshop in Spain that he organized. He has obviously invested the same kind of passion in this book, ensuring that the wealth of knowledge built up over the years can be passed on to developers of tomorrow’s radar. The work contains a total of 34 chapters, and approximately 25% of them were contributed by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute. The book consists of five separate topics, i.e., electronically steered arrays, synthetic aperture imaging, passive/multistatic radar, waveform diversity/cognitive radar, Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MAP.2017.2776153 Date of publication: 12 February 2018 editor’s Note
As well known, the courseware must work effectively. Given the current status of omniscient communication, cryptographers shockingly desire the unproven unification of redundancy and object-oriented languages, which embodies the confusing principles of metamorphic machine learning. In order to address this issue, we prove not only that erasure coding and Lamport clocks are rarely incompatible, but that the same is true for architecture in the system design.
This paper deals with the aspects of practical generation of basis function(s) (BF(s)) and the basic notions for orthonormal parametrical transform called as "constant rotation angle in matrix orthonormal transform" (CRAIMOT). The presented CRAIMOT BF generator is implemented as Altera's Cyclone II FPGA. A simplified block diagram and parameters of the generator are provided. The generator has a parallel structure and 5 times shorter sample time in opposite to the previous implementation. The sine/cosine former of BF generator has 3 different versions - CORDIC based, the linear interpolation based, and RAM table based. The comparison of the mentioned versions is provided.
This paper presents mosquito mapper: an android phone application created with the goal of giving science-driven citizens the means to monitor mosquito populations in an urban environment. Mosquito mapper allows the recording of mosquito encounters as well as conditions surrounding the encounter. It also features a rudimentary identification tool. The goal of the application is to create a database and construct a map of the encounters free to consult for citizens and scientists. Such database constitutes a necessary first step for the development of useful management strategies addressing potential human health threats induced by mosquitoes. The citizen scientist may voluntarily provide other additional information on the circumstances of the encounter that may contain scientifically useful information. We describe the current features of the application, showcase the limited data gathered so far, then discuss the strengths, limits, potential scientific value and suggest possible future extensions for the application. The original city for which the application was developed is Berlin, Germany, but the application is coded in such a way that it is easily applicable to any urban environment.
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After the Australian Electoral Commission reported a big uptick in citizen-initiated enrolment activity, the very holding of a same-sex marriage survey was being roundly cast as an own goal for the Coalition government. It had unwittingly encouraged “hundreds of thousands” (according to one commentator) of youngsters — who overwhelmingly vote left-of-centre — to get on the roll, where they would remain for the next general election and beyond.
Solving redundant robot kinematics inverse is difficult and critical for redundant robot kinematics. There is no unified solution formula for the general inverse solution of redundant robot structures. In this paper we present the kinematic quantities and computational schemes that are relevant in the kinematic description of a typical redundant manipulator named SIR700 with 7 DOF (degree of freedom) developed by Shenzhen Academy of Robotics. SIR700 has a character in geometric that Joint 3 and Joint 5 are not on the same plane, while Joint 2, Joint 4 and Joint 6 can form a triangle. An extra constraint is introduced based on that θ4 is solved in the solution of geometric first, then θ1, θ2, θ3 and θ5, θ6, θ7 are solved in the solution of algebraic form.
Uwe Schwiegelshohnt This paper analyzes job scheduling for parallel computers by using theoretical and experimental means. Based on existing architectures we first present a machine and a job model. Then, we propose a simple on-line algorithm employing job preemption without migration and derive theoretical bounds for the performance of the algorithm. The algorithm is experimentally evaluated with trace data from a large computing facility. These experiments show that the algorithm is highly sensitive on parameter selection and that substantial performance improvements over existing (non-preemptive) scheduling methods are possible.
For the purposes of this study, IMS specifications and public sources were analyzed using the general attack surface analysis methodology. These findings were verified and augmented by active scanning and passive analysis of the available real-world IMS test setups that were investigated during the project. As various tests and security probes were performed against the test setups, the system behaviour was analyzed for previously undetermined interactions and transient attack surfaces. After the IMS attack vectors had been identified, the Common Vulnerability Scoring System version 2 (CVSSv2) Base Scores were used to prioritize the IMS attack surface interfaces. CVSS is an industry standard for classifying vulnerabilities. It must be noted however that the idea of applying CVSS scoring to an a priori comparison of vulnerability categories and potential attack surfaces is original research by the authors of this study.
This paper presents a method of resolving ambiguity by using a variant of circumscription, prioritized circumscription. In a disambiguation task, human seems to use various preferences which have various strength. In prioritized circumscription, we can express these preferences as defeasible constraints with various strength and we infer the most preferable logical models which satisfy stronger constraints as much as possible. This representation is very natural for disambiguation since we can regard a logical interprentation as a possible reading and the most preferable logical models as the most preferable readings. We argue that prioritized circumscription is another promising method for the task. We also discuss an implementation of prioritized circumscription by a hirarchical logic programming (HCLP) language.
Power relations exist between social groups, institutions, women and men, young and old, ethnic groups, etc. In mass media discourses, they exist between authors and viewers, listeners or readers. Besides, it is said that power relations are always relations of struggle – the term which, according Norman Fairclough [1], is used in a technical sense to refer to the process whereby social groups with different interests engage with one another. If applying Fairclough’s view to the case of CNN commentaries which are used in our investigation, media discourses can be seen as sites where text producers exercise their power through well-written language; and thus, they should be involved in a struggle (a power relation negotiation) with assumed readers over whom they supposedly want to influence their opinions. In this kind of struggle, this paper demonstrates that the writers exercise their power via linguistic means while taking into due consideration the ‘ideal’ readers’ position. It could be claimed that throughout the media discourses, commentators do have to negotiate the power relations with assumed readers.
Citation: Alcaro S, Bolognesi ML, García-Sosa AT and Rapposelli S (2019) Editorial: Multi-Target-Directed Ligands (MTDL) as Challenging Research Tools in Drug Discovery: From Design to Pharmacological Evaluation. Front. Chem. 7:71. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00071 Editorial: Multi-Target-Directed Ligands (MTDL) as Challenging Research Tools in Drug Discovery: From Design to Pharmacological Evaluation
In collaborative control of multi motors for heavy-duty locomotives, the output value of the motor frequently exceeds its maximum allowable value during power redistribution. This results in a saturated motor owing to the power redundancy of each wheel set of the train. In this study, an algorithm for the tracking control of a consistent total amount of the extended observer through anti-saturation is proposed. First, mathematical models of multi-motor traction systems are developed. The system includes uncertain parameter perturbations and external perturbations. Second, a new type of extended sliding mode observer (ESMO) is designed to reduce the influence of the tracking effect on the input saturation of the system. Subsequently, for collaborative control of multi motors in heavy-duty locomotives, a new scheme for dynamic and auxiliary anti-saturation compensation (anti-windup) is established. The perturbation observation results and the systems’ auxiliary status are respectively input into the sliding mode controller (SMC). A traction total-amount coordinated tracking control (TACTC) of multi motors is achieved to ensure consistency of the system’s total output torque and the given traction characteristic curve. Finally, simulations and tests are performed on the motor actuators to demonstrate a good control effect.
Among the causes of traffic accidents in Taiwan in 2021, "not paying attention to conditions ahead of the vehicle" ranked among the top two. It is a big challenge to assist drivers in judging road conditions in advance to reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents. This project uses the DR(eve)VE dataset to capture video data of driving conditions in different environments and applies the YOLO v4 algorithm to detect real-time road objects. The detection results are then imported into the Deep Sort algorithm to track the trajectory of the objects. Finally, the optimal safe distance between the vehicle and the detected objects is calculated. If the objects are within the safe distance, the driver will be alerted to avoid potential car accidents. By integrating the YOLO v4 and Deep Sort algorithms, this project aims to assist drivers in judging road conditions so that they can arrive home safely.
f Auguat 27th are based on Major Kilkelly's paper. Several ophthalmic surgeons besides Major Kilkelly have given their opinions, and their names have appeared in ophthalmic journals as well as in the article referred to by Lientenant C )lonel Smith. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith's arguments in favour of the operation he favours by his technique are very much weakened by not meeting their arguments in the proper spirit through your journal instead of referring them to a coming early issue. of the Ophthalmic Record of Chicago, which is deferring the question. One is reminded when referring to Smith's, or "Jullundar Smith's," operation, of a question I once heard which was pat by a certain gentleman, who was the son of a bookseller, to a professor, in the presence of divines, 'i Whether the professor (naming him) was the author of that famous little book on Menttal,rd Moral Science ?" "* No, sir," said the professor, "the author of Mental and Moral Science was my author." I feel sure that many of us who are interested greatly in the various methods of operating for cataract would be prepared to meet Lieutenant-Colonel Smith as fairly as possible. I for one would, and be glad to suggest that in the presence of a just and fair tribunal of ophthalmic surgeons, either in this country or in India--India, perhaps, by preference, as Lieutenant Colonel Smith would say100 suitable cataract cases for operation be given each operator who desires to claim attention to his particular method. Let each operate in accordance with his own particular technique, and, finally, let the percentage of successes, failures, and accidents be made known to the world by the tribunal. Lientenant Coionel Smith, I understand, clainms priority by a particular technique of h8 own, and prefers no iridectomy. The accidents, etc., already mentioned by Major Kilkelly and others are avoided in his hands, and therefore the results are superior. I venture to predict that, given 100 suitable cases in India or anywhere, the opinion expressed in page 565 of your JOURNAL woould be justified not only in Europe, but all over the world. If it be proved to be so in India, then it would only be fair for Lieutenant-Colonel Smith to pay our expenses; but if it is not so, each should pay his own. The time occupied in the voyage to and fro, and spent in India to see the cases through, would probably occupy about three months altogether in the cold season, which is the best for such operations. Would some of the gentlemen who are interested in cataract operations take up this suggestion and be willing to champion their cause by sending in their names ?-I am. etc., October 15th. G. H. FINK, Major, I.M.S. (ret.).
Architecture and performance characteristics of an adaptive line equalizer VLSI needed to provide digital subscriber loop transmission at hundreds of kilobits per second are described. A wide automatic gain control (AGC) dynamic range and precise and quick adjustment are required for adaptive equalization. Considering these demands and advances in VLSI technology, a single-chip multiprocessor VLSI composed of a high-speed filtering processor, control processors, and a digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) has been developed using 1.5- mu m CMOS technology. The VLSI uses highly parallel processing, powerful instructions for equalization, and a rising edge detection DPLL. The chip can automatically equalize line loss of over 45 dB and cancel bridged-tap echoes up to four time slots after signal pulses at a 320-kb/s line bit rate. >
for an Invited Paper for the MAR09 Meeting of The American Physical Society Gene brushes on a chip: From crowding and the search problem to synthetic systems ROY BAR-ZIV, Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel We assemble DNA polymer brushes coding for entire genes on a surface by means of a new photolithographic approach. The gene density can be controlled from dilute to high density where the local concentration – Megabase pairs per micron cubed – is comparable to that in a bacterium. The gene brush, therefore, emulates the crowded medium of the cell, allowing us to study DNA transactions in vitro under native conditions. We find that transcription/translation from these gene brushes is highly sensitive to DNA density, orientation and composition. As a step towards multi-gene synthetic systems, we integrated on a chip two spatially separated gene brushes, and implemented a two-stage transcription/translation cascade.
In recent years, social networking services and e-commerce have been developing rapidly. The research of recommending in e-commerce service mainly focused on using the collaborative filtering algorithm. But the algorithm had the limitations of data sparsity and cold start. This paper presents a model using TagIEA expert degree metrics in the context of social e-commerce services, where tag and expert degree information are integrated into the collaborative filtering algorithm. The comprehensive recommendation based on the TagIEA expert degree can effectively mitigate the problems of cold start and data sparsity. Finally, this paper verifies the effectiveness of the improved collaborative filtering algorithm by experiments.
A simple algorithm is given to rebalance a binary search tree of optimal height after a single update. The algorithm uses time which is linear in the number of nodes. In comparison to previous algorithms it is short and very easy to implement. Moreover, this algorithm can be used to implement other classes of balanced trees and it is suitable for each update. When applied to perfectly balanced trees it has a lower average cost than previous algorithms.
This work is devoted to the modeling and investigation of the architecture design for the delayed recurrent neural network, based on the delayed differential equations. The usage of discrete and distributed delays makes it possible to model the calculation of the next states using internal memory, which corresponds to the artificial recurrent neural network architecture used in the field of deep learning. The problem of exponential stability of the models of recurrent neural networks with multiple discrete and distributed delays is considered. For this purpose, the direct method of stability research and the gradient descent method is used. The methods are used consequentially. Firstly we use the direct method in order to construct stability conditions (resulting in an exponential estimate), which include the tuple of positive definite matrices. Then we apply the optimization technique for these stability conditions (or of exponential estimate) with the help of a generalized gradient method with respect to this tuple of matrices. The exponential estimates are constructed on the basis of the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional. An optimization method of improving estimates is offered, which is based on the notion of the generalized gradient of the convex function of the tuple of positive definite matrices. The search for the optimal exponential estimate is reduced to finding the saddle point of the Lagrange function.
The wireless Internet is an important development trend of today's wireless network.Due to inherent limitations of wireless channel,the performance of a network is deteriorated badly when applying TCP/IP protocols to wireless networks.In this paper,focusing on HF,VHF or UHF communications widely used in military wireless communications,we first analyze effects of wireless data transmission on each layer protocol of the TCP/IP protocol stack and then present solutions for the existing problems.
This tutorial is intended to graduate students, specialized in microelectronics formation. Before this work, the concerned students have spent one week in the cleanroom. In this training, with the help of teachers of the common microelectronics center, they processed and characterized a specific thin film transistor technology. The main goal was to set-up a bench that allows measuring dynamic parameters such as rise time, fall time and oscillator frequency directly on glass substrate and to analyze and explain the results on the base of classical modeling available for VLSI CMOS circuits.
The paper introduces the design of a digital IF receiver using software radio technology,which has been used in TTC system.The paper also introduces the operation principle,analyses the key technologies of this receiver such as IF sampling,AGC control and digital down-conversion,and finally presents an implementation method which is realized through FPGA and DSP.The receiver features multi-channel parallel processing,large dynamic and high integration level,etc.,and the application result shows that the receiver fully meets the performance specification requirement.
A facility capable of direct synthesis of radar systems and their electromagnetic environments operating concurrently with missile flight simulations, range instrumentation sim ulations, and related test-range experiments has been needed for many years. This paper describes the design, development, and ap plication of a general-purpose Radar and Electromagnetic Environment Simulator operating under the combined control of digital and analog computers. This simulator is one of the more recent developments of the Analyses and Computation Directorate, White Sands Missile Range. In this system the combined operation of computers and microwave hardware is utilized to create realistic dynamic radio-frequency environmental effects based on time de lay, doppler shift, and RF-signal-power equations com bined with simulated radar and missile flight geometry dynamics and kinematics. Associated radar antenna pat terns, target backscatter patterns, clutter, and other target- induced RF phenomena are included. The simulator includes a flexible system for simulating RF signal generation and receiver signal-processing and provides a broad range of adjustment of radar parameters. The simulated transmitter signals are propagated through the computer-controlled environment simulation and are received and tracked by the receiver signal-processing equipment as in normal radar operations. Prototype radar subsystems and components, tracking beacons, jammers, counter-countermeasure receivers, and many other devices can be coupled into the simulator to be studied within the confines of the simulation laboratory.
Considering that the acquisition of culture-specific knowledge through listening to the radio is possible in the era of globalization and media convergence, this article analyses the topic of basic mass media functions and shows them through the prism of their hybridization. In consequence, it demonstrates the cultural role of modern radio but in the context of the edutainment approach. As a key example to discuss this issue serves the long-term cooperation between Fun Kids radio and the Polish Cultural Institute in London that has resulted in three radio series: “Where in the World? Poland!”, “Learn Polish!”, and “Robot’s Polish Power Pack”. Referring to them, the text explores how educational and entertaining functions of radio programmes may be combined to deliver content that inspires and engages young listeners as well as nurtures cultural ties between the UK and Poland, which is especially important nowadays, in the face of Brexit. The methodological framework of this study is mainly a subjective literature review. However, the theoretical analysis is extended with a case study that is based on the radio report provided by the Fun Kids radio manager, observations of contemporary mediasphere as well as a personal examination of episodes of selected radio broadcasts.
Accurate and reliable localization is crucial to autonomous vehicle navigation and driver assistance systems. This paper presents a novel approach for online vehicle localization in a digital map. Two distinct map matching algorithms are proposed: i) Iterative Closest Point (ICP) based lane level map matching is performed with visual lane tracker and grid map ii) decision-rule based approach is used to perform topological map matching. Results of both the map matching algorithms are fused together with GPS and dead reckoning using Extended Kalman Filter to estimate vehicle’s pose relative to the map. The proposed approach has been validated on real life conditions on an equipped vehicle. Detailed analysis of the experimental results show improved localization using the two aforementioned map matching algorithms.
The five-level active-neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) converters are newly hybrid topologies which have the advantages of traditional neutral-point-clamped (NPC) and flying-capacitor (FC) multilevel converters. A novel seven-switch five-level ANPC (7S-5L-ANPC) inverter topology is proposed, which reduces the number of active semiconductor switches over traditional 5L-ANPC inverter topologies. It is capable of operating under any power factor conditions. The special modulation strategy for 7S-5L-ANPC is proposed and simulation shows only reactive current is flowing through the seventh switch. Thus, low current rating switch can be selected for the seventh switch. The proposed 7S-5L-ANPC inverter is very suitable for unity and high power factor applications such as photovoltaic (PV) application. A 1KW single-phase inverter prototype is built to verify the validity and flexibility of the proposed topology and modulation.
From the desire to update the maximum road speed data for navigation devices, a speed sign recognition and detection system is proposed. This system should prevent accidental speeding at roads where the map data is incorrect for example due to construction work. Multiple examples of road sign classification systems already exist but none uses a fully trainable solution. This feature enables the "vendor" to easily add new speed signs by training with a set of examples instead of designing a new system. To meet the above requirements a fully trainable Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is used for the detection and recognition of speed signs. The system is trained with a labelled set of examples of speed sign images. Training of the total classification system is done off-line with the of error back-propagation algorithm. A trained system is used to collect new training data from road scene images to learn from previous errors, this technique is known as boosting. After the boosting step 0.19% of the images in our online available test set are misclassified. For the detection application the search window of the trained CNN is scaled to a 1280×720 HD image size to detect speed signs at multiple scales and positions in front of a vehicle. Because of the massive amount of parallelism in the computations of a CNN the algorithm is mapped to a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The GPU implementation demonstrates the abilities of the recognition system on a low cost consumer platform with a real-time frame rate of 35 fps.
Commit Classification(CC) is an important task in software maintenance since it helps software developers classify code changes into different types according to their nature and purpose. This allows them to better understand how their development efforts are progressing, identify areas where they need improvement. However, existing methods are all discriminative models, usually with complex architectures that require additional output layers to produce class label probabilities. Moreover, they require a large amount of labeled data for fine-tuning, and it is difficult to learn effective classification boundaries in the case of limited labeled data. To solve above problems, we propose a generative framework that Incorporating prompt-tuning for commit classification with prior knowledge (IPCK) https://github.com/AppleMax1992/IPCK, which simplifies the model structure and learns features across different tasks. It can still reach the SOTA performance with only limited samples. Firstly, we proposed a generative framework based on T5. This encoder-decoder construction method unifies different CC task into a text2text problem, which simplifies the structure of the model by not requiring an extra output layer. Second, instead of fine-tuning, we design an prompt-tuning solution which can be adopted in few-shot scenarios with only limit samples. Furthermore, we incorporate prior knowledge via an external knowledge graph to map the probabilities of words into the final labels in the speech machine step to improve performance in few-shot scenarios. Extensive experiments on two open available datasets show that our framework can solve the CC problem simply but effectively in few-shot and zeroshot scenarios, while improving the adaptability of the model without requiring a large amount of training samples for fine-tuning.
We adopted operator splitting method to solve the governing equations of explosion and impact problems, and used fuzzy interface treatment to crack 3D multi-material interface difficulties. Then based on message passing interface (MPI), the data dependence and relevance between adjacent subdomains in parallel computing of the Eulerian method were studied and analyzed. At last, we numerically simulated blast in air and shaped charge jet using PMMIC-3D hydrocode, and performed empirical and experimental comparisons. The results show that the cell spatial step has important influence on computational accuracy, and the calculating result with smaller cell spatial step is close to the empirical formula one. Therefore, it is necessary to develop parallel computing to enlarge the calculation scale at smaller cell spatial step for the explosion and impact issues.
WSN's are used with the ultimate objective of condition checking and are a trademark choice of the system to enable emergency to course services. Even though The course routes picked by the present technique guarantee productive course and gives perfect most secure route by using the min-max rule close by the quantiﬁcation approaches ,however fails to identify the gathering .In the present structure we used an estimation called as SEND which does not revolve around the stop up at a particular zone however, in the proposed structure we use a computation called as CAN i.e blockage adaptable navigation, which bases on the congested locale by swarm recognizing and associates the person to move in an elective way where the hazard level is low and the A* figuring for briefest path. The proposed system moreover has the segment to show no less than two ways which improves the prosperity by empowering the customer to pick the most pleasing path .By coordinating customers following the dive edge of the hazard potential field , The CAN count can along these lines gain guaranteed ground of course and give perfect prosperity.
Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS) is a recent product of a continuing effort to develop architectures for controlling either a single autonomous robotic vehicle or multiple cooperating but otherwise autonomous robotic vehicles. CARACaS is potentially applicable to diverse robotic systems that could include aircraft, spacecraft, ground vehicles, surface water vessels, and/or underwater vessels. CARACaS incudes an integral combination of three coupled agents: a dynamic planning engine, a behavior engine, and a perception engine. The perception and dynamic planning en - gines are also coupled with a memory in the form of a world model. CARACaS is intended to satisfy the need for two major capabilities essential for proper functioning of an autonomous robotic system: a capability for deterministic reaction to unanticipated occurrences and a capability for re-planning in the face of changing goals, conditions, or resources. The behavior engine incorporates the multi-agent control architecture, called CAMPOUT, described in An Architecture for Controlling Multiple Robots (NPO-30345), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 28, No. 11 (November 2004), page 65. CAMPOUT is used to develop behavior-composition and -coordination mechanisms. Real-time process algebra operators are used to compose a behavior network for any given mission scenario. These operators afford a capability for producing a formally correct kernel of behaviors that guarantee predictable performance. By use of a method based on multi-objective decision theory (MODT), recommendations from multiple behaviors are combined to form a set of control actions that represents their consensus. In this approach, all behaviors contribute simultaneously to the control of the robotic system in a cooperative rather than a competitive manner. This approach guarantees a solution that is good enough with respect to resolution of complex, possibly conflicting goals within the constraints of the mission to be accomplished by the vehicle(s).
In one embodiment, a proxy device in a computer network receives a redirected client request having a request source address as a client address and a request source port as a client port. The proxy device then decides whether to serve, proxy, or bypass the client request, and in response to deciding to proxy the client request, forwards the client request to a corresponding server with the request source address as the client address and the request source port altered to a selected proxy port value corresponding to the proxy. In addition, the proxy device may then receive a redirected server reply for the client request that has a reply destination address as the client address and a reply destination port as the selected proxy port value, wherein the redirected server reply is received from a forwarding device based on selected proxy port value within the reply destination port.
In this paper we will be describing a new animation architecture and its implementation in our system  LIVE. This model introduces a new blending layer approach which uses several motion generators on the  same character at the same time. Despite the numerous studies done, animating characters or complex  objects in a virtual world remains a difficult problem. In fact, the complexity of the data used to represent  the characters (often articulated rigid bodies) makes their control by an animator difficult and using only  one technique to generate motion tends to limit the quality of the animation. The solution will probably be  provided by the co-operative or concurrency use of several motion control methods.
In order to strengthen the reliability of software and improve the efficiency of software development, this paper proposes a formal methodology for software requirements engineering and designs a model which consists of MZASR (Model based on Z language to analysis software requirements) and MZMSR (Model based on Z language to management software requirements) to implement the software requirements management and maintain. First of all, we describe the software requirements specification by UML tools and models, which are divided into three-level where individual semantics are specified as Z-specification by approach bottom-up. Meanwhile, we refine every specification step by step for obtaining richer software requirements. Secondly, when talk about how to verify the result of the changed requirements, the process chains that composed by the Z-specification schemas interaction are used to check the changed software requirements for consistency with the help of the process algebra method. By analyzing the execution paths, we can know whether the affect of requirements update meet user's original need or not. Finally, the experiments show that our approach is an improved method.
The delayed resonator concept uses time-delayed feedback control to convert an ordinary passive vibration absorber into an actively tuned resonator. Inspired by this idea, this study proposes to enhance energy harvesting capacity using a delayed resonator-like feedback control. Although the proposed control action consumes some power, the resulting increase in harvestable energy from the actively sensitized structure can be much larger, which makes the new operation feasible. Following the broad literature, we select piezoelectric components as the energy transduction elements and deploy the existing theory on a piezoelectric network setup. This study brings two scientific novelties: experimental validation of the feasibility of delayed feedback induced enhancement of energy harvesting and the stability declarations of the time-delayed control. This encouraging proof-of-concept study is expected to yield some broader future pathways in energy harvesting enhancements, and beyond the confines of piezoelectric transduction alone.
This paper aims at analysing the frequency of usage, the functions and the linguistic parameters of dislocations left and right in colloquial and conversational spoken Italian and Spanish. Taking into account the data obtained from spoken corpora in both languages, it can be stated that (i) the frequency of usage of these marked structures is higher in Italian than in Spanish, (ii) their pragmatic functions do not always coincide, and (iii) the linguistic parameters to activate those structures are different in both languages. Furthermore, a trend towards word order changes has been observed in Italian, and this has led to automatisms - semilexicalized statements - and a tendency in specific constructions of discourse free technique to bring the constituent forward with a clitic, or to its topicalization.
The object of this paper is to start addressing the problem of matching fieldbus functionality to user requirements. This issue can now be usefully addressed because of the advances in the IEC fieldbus standard, and in ways of describing user requirements, such as the methodology proposed by the EIAMUG Esprit project. These advances now give some structure to the way we can describe complex user requirements and to the ways we can put together fieldbus network structures to meet those needs. Even though we have such structures to describe both the problem and the solution, these descriptions will still be complex. The problem of matching the solution to the problem is therefore of significant importance.
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Queuing delay is a dynamic network parameter that plays an important role in defining the performance of Internet applications over an end-to-end path. However, measurement of queuing delay is challenging because it requires a large infrastructural support from the path under test. In this paper, we propose an active scheme to measure queuing delay on a router using a probe-gap model. The scheme uses a popular data-clustering algorithm to process its data samples; therefore, its measurement efficacy is not dependent on the issues related to infrastructural access, certain variations (e.g., compression) in the probe gaps, and the number of clusters in the data processing. Here, we present a detailed evaluation of the scheme against the current state-of-the-art on a single-hop path through ns-3 simulation. Our results show that the proposed scheme is robust, consistent, quick, and highly accurate under different traffic conditions.
The invention provides a chassis control system of a concept car. The control system comprises an input device, a chassis controller, a steering device, a braking device and a power device. The input device is used for sending a control signal to the chassis controller, and comprises a rocker capable of moving in the X-axis direction and in the Y-axis direction. The chassis controller is connected with the input device, the steering device, the braking device and the power device, and is used for controlling the steering device to steer the concept car according to an X-axis control signal sent by the rocker and controlling the concept car to start or stop according to a Y-axis control signal sent by the rocker or controlling the power device to adjust the speed of the concept car. The chassis control system of the concept car can achieve basic running functions of the car such as running, steering and braking, improves user perception, and is high in safety.
Direct query to IP geolocation databases is a convenient and widespread way for determining geographic location where a host with corresponding IP address is. However, many databases available on the Internet may not provide accuracy data as they claim. In this paper, we focus on analyzing IP addresses of mainland China recorded in popular China-based IP geolocation databases. First, distributions and characteristics of IP addresses and blocks of mainland China at different geographic granularities are analyzed. Second, entries consistency comparisons among databases are implemented and those with better performances are recommended, we also use small amount of ground truth data to verify the recommended databases. Finally, clustering and classification analyses are conducted for IP blocks with different locations and preliminary conclusions are drawn.
Chat room monitoring becomes an urgent task with its wide use.In the process of chat room monitoring,in order to scale the ability of terms describing the contents of chat data,chat room monitoring systems at present generally use the text terms weight calculating method.However,this method neglects the difference between chat data and text in structure aspect;hence the weight calculated can not response the feature of chat data accurately.The paper presents a new method to calculate the term weight for chat data named CDTF*IDF.CDTF*IDF considers the special features of chat data.It calculates each term weight in different resources,and then gets the final weight by increasing the weight of key terms and some other means.Experiments based on IRC show that this method can calculate the terms weight accurately;at the same time,the chat room monitoring system based on the proposed method has a good performance in topic detection.
In object‐oriented terms, one of the goals of integration testing is to ensure that messages from objects in one class or component are sent and received in the proper order and have the intended effect on the state of the objects that receive the messages. This research extends an existing single‐class testing technique to integration testing of multiple classes. The single‐class technique models the behaviour of a single class as a finite state machine, transforms the representation into a data flow graph that explicitly identifies the definitions and uses of each state variable of the class, and then applies conventional data flow testing to produce test case specifications that can be used to test the class. This paper extends those ideas to inter‐class testing by developing flow graphs, finding paths between pairs of definitions and uses, detecting some infeasible paths and automatically generating tests for an arbitrary number of classes and components. It introduces flexible representations for message sending and receiving among objects and allows concurrency among any or all classes and components. Data flow graphs are stored in a relational database and database queries are used to gather def‐use information. This approach is conceptually simple, mathematically precise, quite powerful and general enough to be used for traditional data flow analysis. This testing approach relies on finite state machines, database modelling and processing techniques and algorithms for analysis and traversal of directed graphs. The paper presents empirical results of the approach applied to an automotive system. This work was prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties and is, therefore, a work of the U.S. Government and not subject to copyright. Published in 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Some sort of agent framework is an obvious requirement for teaching the basics of multi-agent systems to first year undergraduate students. This framework should be capable of supporting all vital properties that are needed for the intended course, yet remain simple enough to teach to first year undergraduates. Although numerous agent frameworks have been suggested in the large body of literature, none of these are simple enough for usage by the undergraduates. Hence we set out to create a new framework, which would realize all the requirements of the intended course without sacrificing simplicity. The students’ evaluation and subsequent research into the current state of java-based agent frameworks has led to the current version of our framework. We will demonstrate both the framework, which embodies the concepts of multi-agent systems, concurrency, persistency, distribution and mobility, and the content of the pertinent course teaching the basic concepts of AI using our framework.
This paper presents a probabilistic trajectory prediction of cut-in vehicles exploiting the information of interacting vehicles. First, a probability distribution of behavioral parameters, which represents the characteristics of lane-change motion, is obtained via Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). For this purpose, Gaussian Process (GP) models are trained using real-world trajectories of lane-changing vehicles and adjacent vehicles. Subsequently, the future states of the lane-change vehicle are probabilistically estimated using a path-following model, which introduces virtual measurements based on the information of behavioral parameters. The proposed predictor is applied to the motion planning and control of autonomous vehicles. A Model Predictive Control (MPC) is designed to achieve predictive maneuvering of autonomous vehicles against cut-in preceding vehicles. The proposed predictor has been evaluated in terms of its prediction accuracy. Also, the performance of the proposed predictor-based control has been validated via computer simulations and autonomous driving vehicle tests. Compared to conventional prediction methods, it is shown that the interaction-aware proposed predictor provides improved prediction of cut-in vehicles’ motion in multi-vehicle scenarios. Furthermore, the control results indicate that the proposed predictor helps the autonomous vehicle to reduce the control effort and improve ride quality for passengers in cut-in scenarios, while guaranteeing safety.
The invention relates to a controllable valve capable of being not automatically opened in a powered state and being automatically closed without power. The invention relates to a fluid pipeline safety control valve, belonging to the technical field of pipeline fluid distribution safety control. The controllable valve capable of being automatically closed without power is characterized by comprising a valve body (1), a valve disk (2) and a valve cover (4), wherein the valve disk (2) is movably connected with a valve rod at the upper part, the valve disk (2) is movably connected with the valve cover (4) by virtue of a valve disk return spring (3), the valve rod (6) is fixed, guided to move and sealed by a valve rod seat (5), the top of the valve rod (6) is connected and provided with a valve rod lifting controller which is used for controlling lifting of the valve rod (6), one side of the valve rod seat (5) is connected and provided with a locking type movable piezoelectric magnetic head (8), and the valve rod lifting controller can cause the valve rod (6) and the locking type movable piezoelectric magnetic head (8) to cooperate with each other. The valve provided by the invention can immediately stop pipeline fluid transportation when unforeseen circumstances happen in pipeline fluid transportation process such as overpressure, overtemperature, overproof liquid level, superstandard fluid leakage medium concentration, power failure, interruption of power supply and exception of fluid transportation terminal facility or equipment, the unforeseen danger level and loss can be reduced, the power consumption is low, and the high efficiency and energy conservation can be achieved.
In order to raise the efficiency of on-line programming of industrial robots,the method of off-line programming based on DXF files is put forward in this paper.A detailed approach on the basis of 2D model of industrial robot working path that generates robot program automatically is presented.And this continuous path model drew in AutoCAD can be composed of the line and arc geometry objects at any connecting type.This thesis also presents the arithmetic to extract data of industrial robots working path based on specialties about arc geometry information in DXF files.The experimental results have demonstrated that the technology has excellent effectiveness.
Device support bar height adjustment continuously for a child restraint system for transporting children in a motor vehicle. The invention is a mechanical system mechanically actuated which allows continuous adjustment of the height of a support bar or "support leg" which is used to prevent rotation through the imaginary axis describing the Isofix attachments of a child restraint system for transport children in a motor vehicle by supporting it to the vehicle floor.
Bit-patterned media (BPM) storage is one of the promising technologies to overcome the limitations of the conventional magnetic recording. However, a high-density BPM storage has intertrack interference, intersymbol interference and noise, which severely degrade the system performance. In this paper, we present a simple iterative two-dimensional (2-D) equalizer based on the contraction mapping theorem to mitigate these adverse effects. In the simulation, we demonstrate the bit separation characteristics of the one-dimensional (1-D) and proposed 2-D equalizers and evaluate the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the proposed equalizer comparing with the conventional equalizers. According to the simulation results, the proposed equalizer is a promising candidate with maintaining proper complexity for a high-density BPM storage.
The integration of mathematical modelling, proof of correctness and statistical software quality assurance lead to extremely high-quality software. The integration was named as cleanroom software engineering. It proof the correctness of the deliverables of each phase, Instead of the classic analysis, design, code, test, and debug cycle, the cleanroom approach suggests a different point of view. Due to the evolution in development methodology there is a strong need of evolution in estimation models also. In this work we have proposed the new cost estimation model. The evolved model is proposed for the new development methodologies and includes some more factors for estimation used in these new approaches.
The present paper comments on the current situation of the traditional language teaching method and its existing problems, elaborates the theory of whole language approach and its importance, raises and explains the model of whole language teaching method.Combining with the practice, the writer states the application of the theory in the college English teaching and thinks that the whole language teaching method will be an effective teaching method.
The manufacture of food during distribution, a concept known as “made-in-transit” (MIT) manufacture, has the potential to expand the distribution range, extend shelf-life, and provide the customer with the freshest possible product. Benefits for the manufacturer include maximising throughput while minimising manufacturing space and inventory. This concept is new, with mushrooms being the only MIT food developed so far. The feasibility of developing an MIT product from a fermented food was reviewed using yoghurt as a model system. Through the alteration of some of the yoghurt manufacturing parameters (e.g. milk base formulation, heat treatment, starter culture composition and fermentation temperature) it is possible to develop this form of yoghurt production. A predictive microbiology approach is suitable for predicting the effects of both time and temperature on designing and predicting the fermentation process. This review demonstrates the potential of the MIT concept for a fermented food.
Combining the advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technique, faster and highly packaged circuits have continuous developing for more than fifty years. During this period time, engineers focus on the higher electrical field and accelerate the degradation to make the highly performance of advanced CMOS devices with better and smaller size than before. At this moment, there are plenty of issues are found which can affect the performances ofthe device. For example, for the new material technique, people prefe tor use III-V materials to instead of the traditional silicon, and for the traditional CMOS device, the main reliability issue is bias temperature instability (BTI), NBTI for pMOS and PBTI for nMOS. Therefore, this thesis will talk about investigating the NBTI/PBTI and III-V device performance and lifetime prediction issues. For the whole ofthe thesis, it can be divided by 4 chapters to describe the details, the first chapter would be the introduction of background knowledge and current understanding for how the traditional CMOS device works, and why the new materials could be instead, like III-V device, it shows the advantages and disadvantages for each of them. Moreover, there are some other information would be explained, such as Discharging-based multiple pulse (DMP) method, and hot carrier stress. Those are also topics and directions relate tod this thesis for the further research. Chapter 2 shows a new measurement method, which called Fast reliability screening technique method (VSS). It compared the conventional measurement method, which is constant voltage stress (CVS), is faster and only use a single device. And it also combined the measurement details and results to show that method is more efficiently, which includes the benefits and parameters discussion in the different conditions. Chapter 3 shows a separation traps method of III-V devices with in In0.53Ga0.47As channel. In this chapter, firstly, it shows the introduction of III-V devices for the basic theory and working function, then there are some experiments, which include both AC and DC measurements to show the III-V devices have very fast recovery abilities. Then because of the recovery ability, the devices would work well after charging and discharging even after heavily stress and long stress time. Moreover, combine the different discharge voltage levels to get the whole border trap energy distribution. After that, the chapter 3 shows how to separate the traps into two different types, type A and type B. there are experiments results and details to show how it is divided. Then it also mentioned the method can work with different stress time, channel thickness and temperature dependence. In Chapter 4, the discussion and a summary about previous work has been given, which also points out the future research plans and directions. It includes the lifetime prediction under slow and fast measurements for III-V devices.
Emerging as a product in remote sensing systems with multiple polarizations, the specific differential phase difference provides an important input to target classification algorithms. The specific differential phase difference derived from the differential phase difference is the expression of the phase difference between two polarizations in a radar cell. The specific word refers to its formation on a cell basis. The differential phase difference is obtained accumulatively along a radar beam. Basically the specific differential phase difference is the derivative of the differential phase difference. Due to the nature of its electromagnetic propagation, the beam sent is noisily seen in the receivers. Due to this noise added to the electromagnetic wave in both polarizations and the cumulative acquisition of the differential phase difference, it becomes difficult to calculate the differential phase difference specifically on a cell basis. In this context, the propesed method reduces the noise seen in the receiver in the first stage. In the second stage, an algorithm was used to unfold the phase folds that can occur in the differential phase shift which is cumulative along the beam. Finally, linear regression with moving windows was applied on signals which noise reduced and phase folds opened, and the specific differential phase was calculated from here.
Previous studies showed that adaptive random testing is an effective alternative to random testing method, but requires additional overheads to evenly spread test cases. Mirroring was introduced to reduce the overheads of adaptive random testing. This paper is the follow-up work to a previous study on the integration of mirroring and adaptive random testing, namely the mirror adaptive random testing. It studies characteristics and effectiveness of mirror adaptive random testing in depth, and provides guidelines on how to apply mirror adaptive random testing in practice.
No longer just in the computer field but also in the television studio technology you always hear from so simple even to write Java applications that started from control tasks to high-quality television graphics solutions everything is easy. In fact, the "Java" language is now almost as popular among programmers as the caffeine-containing brews described by the Americans with Java. We asked Sebastian Zander, TU-Berlin, what is it about Java and where are the real strengths (and weaknesses)? The following article is a brief general introduction to Java. It is not a programming course, but only features and possibilities of Java are presented in order to give the TV engineer, who does not normally have to "program", a corresponding idea.
And application of the client computer, and the server of the server application, and authentication information to be transmitted via the public network between a server directory service application, encrypts, system and method for decoding is disclosed. The method for secure communication with the server by the processor, using a predetermined session master key by using the one-pass key generation probability authentication process, generates a message to the server, the message to the server It includes transmitting. The method for secure communication between the application executable on a computer, a web server coupled to the computer, in the initial authentication process with the server, involved by the application authentication phase 該初after process involves wrapping the SSLX-EA exchange any GET and POST request message to the server.
Upper limb prostheses are commonly mounted to the human residual limb by a passive socket. By this design, the sensitive residual limb is exposed to high reaction wrenches, which can be a source of medical complications. In this article, we introduce an active force-sensitive robotic socket, which carries the prosthesis, offloads the residual limb, and allows guidance via small interaction forces at the same time. We investigate the feasibility of this concept by a force-sensitive and wearable shoulder exoskeleton, called exoprosthesis when being combined with a prosthesis. We provide a first mechatronics prototype, two floating base controllers, and an analysis of the loads acting on the user body. Simulations and experiments confirm the concept and reveal that the wrench at residual limb can be fully compensated for the static case and by $ approx  text{50} %$ for the investigated motions. Human-in-the-loop tests are successfully performed by three able-bodied users showing the later real-world use case in a complex grasping situation. Overall, we believe that a force-sensitive robotic socket has the potential to advance prosthetics to a new level as it provides an intuitive and seamless user control interface.
In this paper, an embedded stereo coding algorithm is proposed. It is developed for the multiple participants video conference. The proposed algorithm is an embedded stereo tool, which can be grouped with any mono voice codec (e.g. AMR-WB, SILK etc.). Subband coding and transform coding methods are used for the proposed stereo tool. Simulation results show that the proposed the stereo voice codec algorithm has a better performance and lower delay in contrast with AMR-WB+ standard.
The present invention relates to a coordinator-based connected through a backbone network, a wireless network and a coordinator-based communication method and apparatus between the heterogeneous networks, non-wireless networks, and more particularly to a coordinator-based using a wired repeater connected to a wired backbone network, wireless network, and It relates to a communication method and apparatus between the heterogeneous networks. The communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention is the type of a heterogeneous network to a network device of a coordinator-based wireless network (Coordinator-based wireless network) to communicate with the network device is associated with a different type of network other than the coordinator-based wireless network, information and providing a frame including information about the length of the physical address that is supported by the heterogeneous network, and wired and wireless relay device is transmitted is converted into a format supported by the heterogeneous network frames according to these information. WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network), IEEE 802.15.3, wired or wireless access point
The Internet dictionary is a new kind emerging with the development of the Internet.This article,starting with the characteristics of the Internet dictionary which includes large inclusion of vocabulary,rapid undating,dynamic interaction,various methods of searching and rich resources,attempts to explore the functions of the Internet dictionary in enhancing the interest and efficiency of vocabulary teaching and learning as well as in promoting the understanding and mastery of the cultural information entailed in words.
A key problem in postsilicon validation is to identify a small set of traceable signals that are effective for debug during silicon execution. Structural analysis used by traditional signal selection techniques leads to a poor restoration quality. In contrast, simulation-based selection techniques provide superior restorability but incur significant computation overhead. In this paper, we propose an efficient signal selection technique using machine learning to take advantage of simulation-based signal selection while significantly reducing the simulation overhead. The basic idea is to train a machine learning framework with a few simulation runs and utilize its effective prediction capability (instead of expensive simulation) to identify beneficial trace signals. Specifically, our approach uses: 1) bounded mock simulations to generate training vectors for the machine learning technique and 2) a compound search-space exploration approach to identify the most profitable signals. Experimental results indicate that our approach can improve restorability by up to 143.1% (29.2% on average) while maintaining or improving runtime compared with the state-of-the-art signal selection techniques.
The importance of an optimal method for electric power transmission is crucial for ROV operation. Meanwhile, only few studies have shown the effect of electrical power system from power supply to ROV.This paper proposes a design and implementation of electrical power system for ROV that developed by Tech_SAS team from Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia. This work aims to obtain the optimal power system to supply ROV’s electrical and electronic components. Tech_SAS ROV is developed to compete on 1st and 2nd ASEAN MATE Underwater Robotic Competition. The system has demonstrated that 48V electric voltage can be transmitted to ROV with negligible voltage drop when using 20 meter 12AWG cable. The voltage is converted to 12V using DC-DC converter in order to supply various ROV’s electronic devices ROV safely and efficiently. Meanwhile, the microcontroller was used to as thrust control to manage current flow to DC motor. The system has been evaluated and demonstrates optimal results and provides a design consideration about ROV’s power system especially on tether cable and power distribution scheme.
The internet has impacted the lives of individuals, organisations, and governments all over the world. However, it is now viewed and adopted with caution due mainly to the criminal tendencies of some misguided elements within the society. The internet technology has evolved to become a weapon of "mass robbery" in the hands of criminals. Fraudulent mails emanating from Africa, in general and Nigeria in particular have received world wide attentions. These and more have dented the image of the country home and abroad. This study presents the various ways in which the internet is used for criminal purposes within the Nigerian polity. It further examined the various crime related laws, their adequacies, and implications. Findings revealed the interplay of different methods through which vulnerable individuals and organisations are defrauded. The strategies proposed for addressing these crimes with a view to giving the country a clean bill of health in the international community are as well applicable to other developing countries. The findings also lay solid foundations for further research within different strands of crimes. It also concludes with recommendations for policy makers, businesses, and internet services providers with emphasis on the need for greater awareness creation.
Mobile applications are rapidly growing in importance and can be used for various purposes. They had been used widely in education. One of the educational purposes for which mobile applications can be used is learning the right way to read and pronounce the verses of the Holy Quran. There are many applications that translate the Quran into several languages. In addition, there are applications that help usersto read the Quran, and search for a particular word or phrase in the text as well as listening to verses of the Holy Quran. This research aims to study the relationships of behavioral factors and perceived usefulness of using the mobile application “Say Quran” for learning Quran on students’ perceived performance, satisfaction and behavior. In this research a group of 118 students of the Computer Sciences and Information Systems College at Al Imam Muhammed Bin Saud Islamic University who are studying the Holy Quran course had been asked to use the application to help them on studying the Quran, then a survey had been distributed in order to collect the data. The results from this study provide evidence that there is a positive relationship between mobile application “Say Quran” and students’ perceived performance, satisfaction and behavior while engaged in studying the Holy Quran.
Indices that report how much a contingency is stable or unstable in an electrical power system have been the object of several studies in the last decades. In some approaches, indices are obtained from time-domain simulation; others explore the calculation of the stability margin from the so-called direct methods, or even by neural networks.The goal is always to obtain a fast and reliable way of analysing large disturbance that might occur on the power systems. A fast classification in stable and unstable, as a function of transient stability is crucial for a dynamic security analysis. All good propositions as how to analyse contingencies must present some important features: classification of contingencies; precision and reliability; and efficiency computation. Indices obtained from time-domain simulations have been used to classify the contingencies as stable or unstable. These indices are based on the concepts of coherence, transient energy conversion between kinetic energy and potential energy, and three dot products of state variable. The classification of the contingencies using the indices individually is not reliable, since the performance of these indices varies with each simulated condition. However, collapsing these indices into a single one can improve the analysis significantly. In this paper, it is presented the results of an approach to filter the contingencies, by a simple classification of them into stable, unstable or marginal. This classification is performed from the composite indices obtained from step by step simulation with a time period of the clearing time plus 0.5 second. The contingencies originally classified as stable or unstable do not require this extra simulation. The methodology requires an initial effort to obtain the values of the intervals for classification, and the weights. This is performed once for each power system and can be used in different operating conditions and for different contingencies. No misplaced classification occurred in any of the tests, i.e., we detected no stable case classified as unstable or otherwise. The methodology is thus well fitted for it allows for a rapid conclusion about the stability of th system, for the majority of the contingencies (Stable or Unstable Cases). The tests, results and discussions are presented using two power systems: (1) the IEEE17 system, composed of 17 generators, 162 buses and 284 transmission lines; and (2) a South Brazilian system configuration, with 10 generators, 45 buses and 71 lines.
1. Technical Field of the invention defined in the claims The invention will for the message service in a mobile communication terminal. 2. The invention attempts to solve the technical challenges The present invention provides a method that can input a destination address directly input in the message EDIT window in a message service, and a computer-readable recording medium recording a program for realizing the above method that its purpose. 3. Resolution of the subject matter of the invention, The present invention, in the destination input method for a message service, after receiving the input message from the user, a first step of determining the user of the requested type for the destination directly input in the message edit window; To activate the first when the input through the search, the user's desired type of functionality for a destination directly input it is determined in Step 1, find a destination in a state of activating the message editing window pane to a new layer (Layer), by a user, a second step of manually input the selected destination address in the message edit window; And in the case of input through the (Short Key) of the requested type is a shortcut user to a destination directly input it is determined in the first step, in a state of activating the message edit window using a shortcut on the rear end of the received input message, including a third step of directly receiving the destination address in the message edit window. 4. An important use of the invention, The invention yiyongdoem like a mobile communication service. SMS, scrolling window, direct input, the message editing window
In this paper, the aim is to study inter-organisational learning in innovation networks. In the context of organisational and particularly inter-organisational learning, due to, for instance, organisational and physical distances, various ICT tools and e-learning methods are of particular importance. The emphasis is on different currently important or increasingly important approaches and views on organisational learning that are relevant from the standpoint of networked innovation. Different learning approaches are analysed and their suitability in various situations and conditions of innovation networks is evaluated. Some useful practices to be considered in each learning approach are suggested.
The more popular it is to build an application from reusable software components, the more desperate is the need for showing correctness of such a composition. This requires on one hand, being able to formally specify behavior of software components, while, on the other hand, providing appropriate tool support for verification of correctness of the composition. In this paper, we suggest use of the formalism of extended behavior protocols and present a tool chain for verification of composition correctness of component applications. The advantage of the proposed approach is using a well-tested and supported model checker Spin as a backend. As a proof of the concept, we share our experience with application of the method.
This paper presents a solution to increase the accuracy of time-series processing of coarse-resolution Earth observation imagery (such as MODIS). It is based on two main points. First, the processing of imagery is based on a vector data model that enables more accurate representation of the actual observation footprints than the original raster model. Second, time-series composition is carried out at the level of units of analysis relevant to the problem to be handled (e.g. agricultural parcels for the monitoring of agricultural activities), defined a priori from ancillary data sources, independent from predefined grids used for “traditional” time-series processing. Compared to the raster/grid-based approach, this methods gives more control over time-series composition and analysis by providing details on the geometric configuration and hence the “purity” of each observation (pixel) with respect to the objects to be observed. Testing is done over an agricultural area in Hungary.
Zero-copy means during message transmission, there is no data copy among memory segments on any network node. When message is sent out, the data packets in user application space go through network interface directly and reach outside of network; and when message is receiving, the same way is used, means the data packets are transmitted into user application space directly. In order to implement the zero-copy, the main technology we used here is DMA data transmission technology and memory mapping technology. In this paper, we based on Linux (kernel version 2.6.11), by modifying its network device driver snull.c and improving on COW technology, we implement the zero-copy technology. The main method we used is the combination of MMAP and PROC procedures, and at the end, we also introduce the implementation of test program and the test strategies.
In the display device for performing time division gray scale display comprising: a capacitor for holding a signal level blown by 1 TFT, it is associated with a capacitor comprising: a pixel memory for holding a signal level blown by 1 TFT, the pixel memory to individually include a second TFT, a second select TFT driving bit selection line corresponding to, soon as the scanning signal line is in the selected state, through the first 1 TFT display signal level is set in the condenser at the same time, the second TFT is selected, is driven, and the display signal level is set to the pixel memory, the scanning signal line selection TFT is driven in a non-selected state is switched to the display signal level from the pixel memory. In this way, by the easy control method of making the scan every line, it is possible to exactly match the amount and ratio of the weight of each bit of the display period of each bit.
Finding the optimal network structure for information processing remains a challenge in using any of the learning algorithms available. Here we study the optimum architectural scaling of artificial neural networks (ANN) for efficient online learning using parity-N tests. We examine the learning performances of different architectures of a network with four layers-input, entry, hidden, and output. We show that the network learns more accurately when the layer sizes decrease by an order of magnitude from the entry layer to the output layer. This scaling avoids the redundancy of information processing with extra nodes via information compression. The same architecture is seen in neural network for vision in the primate eye. While information compression is observed when the network optimizes the correctness of learning, information expansion is observed when the network optimizes both the speed and correctness simultaneously. Here the use of a hidden layer size that is twice the entry layer size counter-intuitively results to the most efficient learning of the network. The scaling property is similar to the human olfactory network architecture.
The present invention relates to an element testing device and, more specifically, to a vision testing module which tests the surface of an element and an element testing device having the same. Disclosed is the vision testing module which includes a light source unit emitting lights on an object; at least two image acquisition units which acquire images of a testing object irradiated with the lights of the light source unit; a light splitting unit which splits a phase of the testing object corresponding to the number of the image acquisition unit to make each image acquisition unit acquire the images of the testing object; and a focus control unit which is installed on an optical passage between the light splitting unit and at least one of the image acquisition units and which controls a focus of the corresponding image acquisition unit.
Following the convergence proofs for stochastic approximation identification of pure autoregressive (AR) processes with dependent observations, as derived by Saridis and Stein, it is shown that the convergence for mixed autoregressive-moving-average (ARMA) cases can also be proved when none of the AR or the MA parameters or of the covariances are assumed known. Consequently, a generalized stochastic approximations identification procedure for ARMA processes is derived, which is extendable to any linear Kalrman filter models.
Abstract A method of numerical objective analysis has been developed for application to stratospheric constant-pressure data at the 100-, 50-, 30-, and 10-mb. levels (approximately 16, 20, 24, and 31 km., respectively). This system evolved from successive modifications of the programs employed for operational objective analysis of lower-level charts at the National Meteorological Center. For use with stratospheric data, the Automatic Data Processing portion of these programs was expanded to correct for the errors in high-level rawinsonde temperatures and heights caused by short and long-wave radiational effects on the temperature sensor. In addition, procedures for vertical extrapolation of rawinsonde reports and merging of off-time data were incorporated to compensate for the scarcity of reports at a given observation time. General degradation of stratospheric data with increasing height necessitated more stringent data rejection criteria within the entire system. It was also essential that increased emp...
The work presented in this paper is aimed at the implementation of a real-time multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) imaging radar used for area surveillance. In this radar, the equivalent virtual array method and time-division technique are applied to make 16 virtual elements synthesized from the MIMO antenna array. The chirp signal generater is based on a combination of direct digital synthesizer (DDS) and phase locked loop (PLL). A signal conditioning circuit is used to deal with the coupling effect within the array. The signal processing platform is based on an efficient field programmable gates array (FPGA) and digital signal processor (DSP) pipeline where a robust beamforming imaging algorithm is running on. The radar system was evaluated through a real field experiment. Imaging capability and real-time performance shown in the results demonstrate the practical feasibility of the implementation.
An application of a special approach aiming at the development of a new branch of soft computing (SC) for the adaptive control of approximately and partially known electromechanical systems is reported. Like "traditional" SC it uses "uniform structures" for modeling, but these structures are obtained from the symplectic group (SG). This approach can considerably reduce the number of free parameters in the model in comparison e.g. with that of the neural networks or ample sets of fuzzy rules. It also replaces the process of parameter tuning with simple, lucid, and explicit algebraic operations of limited steps. While in the previous approaches SG was utilized as an inner symmetry of classical mechanical systems, in the present one it is used in a formal way not utilizing mechanical symmetries. Furthermore, SG is not the internal symmetry of electrical, that is of electro-mechanical systems. In the present paper the new formal approach is demonstrated in the adaptive control of a 3 mechanical DOF SCARA-type robot arm actuated by DC motors together forming a 6 DOF electromechanical system. It is concluded on the basis of simulations that the control designed for the 3 DOF mechanical degrees of freedom can efficiently compensate for the behavior of the electrical degrees of freedom not modeled by the controller.
This study uses a nonlinear optimization method coupled with a vortex lattice cavitating propeller analysis method to design efficient propeller blades. Different constraints are imposed to improve propeller design. Several advancements in the method are shown, including the option for quadratic skew, user specified skew distribution, and a constraint limiting the minimum pressure in wetted regions of the blade. Results for a series of fully wetted runs demonstrate the effectiveness of the constraint on minimum pressure in preventing the onset of bubble or mid-chord cavitation. A comparison ofa design in uniform inflow with a design in non-axisymmetric inflow indicates that a propeller designed by the present method in non-axisymmetric inflow has more favorable cavitating flow characteristics than a propeller design assuming uniform inflow. Results are also shown for a series of runs utilizing the cavity constraints. These results indicate that the present method can be used to improve on propeller designs by imposing constraints on the cavity area and cavity volume velocity harmonics, as well as by using a quadratic skew distribution
We present in this paper a new method to deal with automatic sequences.  This method allows us to prove a Mobius-randomness-principle for automatic sequences from which we deduce the Sarnak conjecture for this class of sequences.  Furthermore, we can show a Prime Number Theorem for automatic sequences that are generated by strongly connected automata where the initial state is fixed by the transition corresponding to $0$.
Context: Core strength training (CST) has been popular in the fitness industry for a decade. Although strong core muscles are believed to enhance athletic performance, only few scientific studies have been conducted to identify the effectiveness of CST on improving athletic performance. Objective: Identify the effects of a 6-wk CST on running kinetics, lower extremity stability, and running performance in recreational and competitive runners. Design and Setting: A test-retest, randomized control design was used to assess the effect of CST and no CST on ground reaction force (GRF), lower extremity stability scores, and running performance. Participants: Twenty-eight healthy adults (age, 36.9+9.4yrs, height, 168.4+9.6cm, mass, 70.1+15.3kg) were recruited and randomly divided into two groups. Main outcome Measures: GRF was determined by calculating peak impact vertical GRF (vGRF), peak active vGRF, duration of the breaking or horizontal GRF (hGRF), and duration of the propulsive hGRF as measured while running across a force plate. Lower extremity stability in three directions (anterior, posterior, lateral) was assessed using the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). Running performance was determined by 5000 meter run measured on selected outdoor tracks. Six 2 (time) X 2 (condition) mixed-design ANOVA were used to determine if CST influences on each dependent variable, p .05. But 5000m run time showed significant interaction, p < .05. SEBT scores improved in both groups, but more in the experimental group. Conclusion: CST did not significantly influence kinetic efficiency and lower extremity stability, but did influence running performance.
PURPOSE Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) can reduce normal tissue toxicity and/or improve tumor control through treatment adaptations based on the current patient anatomy. Developing an efficient re-planning algorithm is an important step for ART. For the re-planning process, manual trial-and-error approach to fine-tune planning parameters is a time- consuming and resource-requiring task. However, prior information in the original plan, such as dose distribution or dose-volume histogram (DVH) can be employed to facilitate the re-planning. The goal of this work is to develop a re-planning algorithm that automates voxel weighting factor adjustments to generate a plan with close, or possibly better, DVH curves compared with original plan.   METHODS Our algorithm iterates the following two loops. The inner loop is the traditional fluence map optimization, in which we optimize a quadratic objective function penalizing the deviation of the dose received by each voxel from its prescribed or threshold dose with a set of fixed weighting factors. In outer loop, the weighting factors in the objective function for each voxel are heuristically adjusted according to the deviation of the DVH curves in the calculated plan from those in the original plan. The process is repeated until the result converges, or the maximum iteration step is reached. The whole algorithm is implemented on GPU for high efficiency.   RESULTS We have tested our algorithm on three 8-field head-and-neck cases. Compared with the DVH curves in original plan, the DVH curves in the resulting plan using our algorithm with 30 iterations are almost better for every structure. We can finish the re-optimization process around 30 seconds.   CONCLUSIONS Adjusting voxel-based weighting factors automatically, by comparing the DVH curves, seems to be a promising approach to avoid the tedious trial-and-error scheme for ART re-planning. This work is supported by Varian Medical Systems through a Master Research Agreement.
In the first part of the paper we associate a pre-additive category $ mathcal{C}( Sigma)$ to a closed oriented surface $ Sigma$, called the { em contact category} and constructed from contact structures on $ Sigma times[0,1]$. There are also $ mathcal{C}( Sigma,F)$, where $ Sigma$ is a compact oriented surface with boundary and $F subset  partial Sigma$ is a finite oriented set of points which bounds a submanifold of $ partial Sigma$, and universal covers $ widetilde{ mathcal{C}}( Sigma)$ and $ widetilde{ mathcal{C}}( Sigma,F)$ of $ mathcal{C}( Sigma)$ and $ mathcal{C}( Sigma,F)$. In the second part of the paper we prove that the universal cover of the contact category of a disk admits an embedding into its "triangulated envelope."
In highly diffusive regimes, the transfer equation with anisotropic boundary conditions has an asymptotic behavior as the mean free path $ epsilon$ tends to zero that is governed by a diffusion equation and boundary conditions obtained through a matched asymptotic boundary layer analysis. A numerical scheme for solving this problem has an $ epsilon^{-1}$ contribution to the truncation error that generally gives rise to a nonuniform consistency with the transfer equation for small $ epsilon$, thus degrading its performance in diffusive regimes. In this paper we show that whenever the discrete-ordinate method has the correct diffusion limit, both in the interior and at the boundaries, its solutions converge to the solution of the transport equation uniformly in $ epsilon$. Our proof of the convergence is based on an asymptotic diffusion expansion and requires error estimates on a matched boundary layer approximation to the solution of the discrete-ordinate method.
The goal of Section 2 is to provide a proof of Theorem 2.0.1. Section 3 introduces the necessary facts about Lie algebras and representation theory, with the goal being the proof of Proposition 3.5.7 (ultimately as an application of Theorem 2.0.1), and Proposition 3.3.1. In Section 4 we prove the main theorem, using Propositions 3.3.1 and 3.5.7. In Section 5, we apply the theorem to the special case where g is the exceptional Lie algebra G2, and k is a principal sl2-subalgebra of g. We obtain a sharp estimate of b(k, g) (in this case).
In this article we specify an M-member "individual-based" continuous time swarm model with individuals that move in an n-dimensional space according to an attractant/repellent or a nutrient profile. The motion of each individual is determined by three factors: i) attraction to the other individuals on long distances; ii) repulsion from the other individuals on short distances; and iii) attraction to the more favorable regions (or repulsion from the unfavorable regions) of the attractant/repellent profile. The emergent behavior of the swarm motion is the result of a balance between inter-individual interactions and the simultaneous interactions of the swarm members with their environment. We study the stability properties of the collective behavior of the swarm for different profiles and provide conditions for collective convergence to more favorable regions of the profile.
Different climatic simulations have been obtained by using a 2-Dim horizontal energy balancemodel (EBM), which has been constrained to satisfy several extremal principles on dissipationand convection. Moreover, 2 different versions of the model with fixed and variable cloud-coverhave been used. The assumption of an extremal type of behaviour for the climatic system canacquire additional support depending on the similarities found with measured data for pastconditions as well as with usual projections for possible future scenarios.
Heart disease has become one of the leading causes of death all over the world, so forecast and initial diagnosis of heart disease is very important to human health.Fuzzy cluster cyclic iteration model is adopted to analyze and deal with cardiogram,in order to provide doctors with assistant means to forecast and initially diagnose heart disease.Fuzzy cluster cyclic iteration model is provided in the system.The fuzzy relation and correlative degree are analyzed between symptoms and diseases.Actual application examples and performance estimation are provided.
Deep learning has enjoyed tremendous success in a variety of applications but its application to quantile regressions remains scarce. A major advantage of the deep learning approach is its flexibility to model complex data in a more parsimonious way than nonparametric smoothing methods. However, while deep learning brought breakthroughs in prediction, it often lacks interpretability due to the black-box nature of multilayer structure with millions of parameters, hence it is not well suited for statistical inference. In this paper, we leverage the advantages of deep learning to apply it to quantile regression where the goal to produce interpretable results and perform statistical inference. We achieve this by adopting a semiparametric approach based on the partially linear quantile regression model, where covariates of primary interest for statistical inference are modelled linearly and all other covariates are modelled nonparametrically by means of a deep neural network. In addition to the new methodology, we provide theoretical justification for the proposed model by establishing the root-$n$ consistency and asymptotically normality of the parametric coefficient estimator and the minimax optimal convergence rate of the neural nonparametric function estimator. Across several simulated and real data examples, our proposed model empirically produces superior estimates and more accurate predictions than various alternative approaches.
Error estimate in pade approximation.- Orthogonal polynomials in monotone and convex interpolation.- Polynomials orthogonal with respect to singular continuous measures.- Group theoretic interpretations of Askey's scheme of hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials.- A review of orthogonal polynomials satisfying boundary value problems.- Orthogonal polynomial solutions to ordinary and partial differential equations.- Rational approximations, orthogonal polynomials and equilibrium distributions.- Factorization of second order difference equations and its application to orthogonal polynomials.- Gauss quadrature for analytic functions.- On the Geronimus polynomial sets.- The bounds for the error term of an asymptotic approximation of Jacobi polynomials.- The distribution of zeros of the polynomial eigenfunctions of ordinary differential operators of arbitrary order.- Orthogonal polynomials and jump modifications.- Electrostatic interpretation of zeros.- Associated dual Hahn polynomials.- Szego's Theorem for polynomials orthogonal with respect to varying measures.- Associated Askey-Wilson polynomials as Laguerre-Hahn orthogonal polynomials.- Le calcul des formes lineaires et les polynomes orthogonaux semi-classioues.- The Lp minimality and near-minimality of orthogonal polynomial approximation and integration methods.- Orthogonal rational functions with poles in a finite subset of R.- Nth-root asymptotics of orthonormal polynomials and non-diagonal pade approximants.- Zeros of orthogonal polynomials on harmonic algebraic curves.- Open problems.
There is a special class of antenna arrays, called 'minimum redundancy arrays', that seeks the optimal array geometry, with a limited number of antenna array elements. Optimization techniques include analytical techniques, computational methods such as linear/non-linear optimization and genetic algorithms. The authors expand the scope of their earlier synthesis method to design planar circular arrays with concentric rings of circular apertures.
Principal component analysis is an effective method to improve the performance of clustering in high dimension. On the other hand, principal component analysis is easy to lose the components which benefits for clustering. In order to preserve these beneficial components, an iteration algorithm of dimensionality reduction and clustering, named constrained principal component clustering, is proposed. Each iteration step can be represented as a constrained optimization problem which has a analytical solution. This iterative clustering algorithm is called document clustering based on constrained principal component analysis. The experimental results on Reuter 21578 and WebKB show that the proposed algorithm outperforms to k-means, Non-Negative Matrix Decomposition and Spectral Clustering.
Movement behavior of an indicator species, zebrafish (Danio rerio), was analyzed with one- and two-individual groups before and after treatment with a toxic chemical, formaldehyde, at a low concentration (1 ppm). After the boundary area had been determined based on experimental data, intermittency was defined as the probability distributions of the shadowing time during which data were above a pre-determined threshold and were obtained from experimental time-series data on the forces and the inter-distances for one and two individuals. Overall intermittencies were similar in the boundary and central areas. However, the intermittencies were remarkably different between the one- and the two-individual groups: the single line was used to fit the data for the one-individual group whereas two phases were observed with breakpoints (approximately 10 seconds in logarithm) in the exponential fitting curves for the two-individual group. A difference in the probability distributions of the shadowing time was observed“before” and “after” treatment for different areas. Intermittency patterns before and after treatment were contrasted in the center for the one-individual group whereas the difference was observed in the boundary for two-individual group. The intermittencies for the inter-distances of two individuals in the boundary and the central areas were markedly different before and after treatment. When the differences between the intermittencies in the boundary and the central areas and between “before” and “after” treatment are considered, the distribution patterns of the shadowing time (scaling behaviors or intermittency patterns) should be a useful means of bio-monitoring to detect contaminants in the environment.
Based on cognition,the Chinese functional grammar of Dai Hao-yi supplied pretty accurate ex-planations to some grammatical phenomenon in Modern Chinese,as well as even solved some grammatical problems in the mythical materials in the oracle bone inscription of Yinshang Dynasty.But at the same time,this theory has not been perfect yet.Based on the means of character-making;this paper explores the shortage of the theory,and offerred a new research method to Chinese syntax.
To judge whether the structure of "adverbial verb object" is a multi cutting one or not,this paper thinks that it should be weighed from such three aspects as: structure, function and meaning. When analyzing the arrangements of the ideas in multi cutting "abverbial verb object" structure, the approximate extents of the ideas among those three elements:"adverbial", "verb" and "object" are the decisive factors.
Let G be a k-edge-connected graph and let L denote the subset of all vertices having odd degree in G. For every subset K = {u1, u2, . . . , uk} of L with |K| ≤ |L| 2 , and for every function h defined on K having the property that h(ui) ∈ dG(ui) 2 , dG(ui) 2 for all ui ∈ K, there exists an orientation D of G such that d +(x) = h(x) when x ∈ K and dG(x) 2 ≤ d + D(x) ≤ d G(x) 2 when x ∈ V (G) − K. AMS 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 05C99.
The notion of gluing of abelian categories was introduced in a paper by Kazhdan and Laumon in 1988 and studied further by Polishchuk. We observe that this notion is a particular case of a general categorical construction. We then apply this general notion to the study of the ring of global differential operators $ mathcal{D}$ on the basic affine space $G/U$ (here $G$ is a semi-simple simply connected algebraic group over $ mathbb{C}$ and $U subset G$ is a maximal unipotent subgroup). We show that the category of $ mathcal{D}$-modules is glued from $|W|$ copies of the category of $D$-modules on $G/U$ where $W$ is the Weyl group, and the Fourier transform is used to define the gluing data. As an application we prove that the algebra $ mathcal{D}$ is Noetherian, and get some information on its homological properties. AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 13N10; 16S32; 17B10; 18C20
We explore new asymptotic-numeric solvers for partial dierential equations with highly oscillatory forcing terms. Such methods represent the solution as an asymptotic series, whose terms can be evaluated by solving non-oscillatory problems and they guarantee high accuracy at a low computational cost. We consider two forms of oscillatory forcing terms, namely when the oscillation is in time or in space: each lends itself to dierent treatment. Numerical examples highlight the salient features of the new approach.
An algorithm is presented for the fuzzy segmentation of two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) multispectral magnetic resonance (MR) images that have been corrupted by intensity inhomogeneities, also known as shading artifacts. The algorithm is an extension of the 2-D adaptive fuzzy C-means algorithm (2-D AFCM) presented in previous work by the authors. This algorithm models the intensity inhomogeneities as a gain field that causes image intensities to smoothly and slowly vary through the image space. It iteratively adapts to the intensity inhomogeneities and is completely automated. In this paper, the authors fully generalize 2-D AFCM to three-dimensional (3-D) multispectral images. Because of the potential size of 3-D image data, they also describe a new faster multigrid-based algorithm for its implementation. They show, using simulated MR data, that 3-D AFCM yields lower error rates than both the standard fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm and two other competing methods, when segmenting corrupted images. Its efficacy is further demonstrated using real 3-D scalar and multispectral MR brain images.
This article is about the nonlinear problems of the theory of elastic Cosserat – Timoshenko’s rods in the material (Lagrangian) description with energy conjugated vectors of forces, moments and strains. The variational formulations of static problems was given. The differential equations of the plane stability problems were obtained from the second variation of the Lagrangian functional. The exact solutions of the stability problems for basic types of the end fixities of the rod were obtained for the Timoshenko’s rod (taking into account only bending and shear stiffness). It appears that classical well-known equilibrium stability functional and stability equations for the Timoshenko’s rod are incorrect. Also well-known Engesser formula (with bending and shear stiffness) is incorrect. The numerical solution of the stability problems for hinged Timoshenko’s rod with rigid support was obtained. Also, simplified formula for this problem was derived using asymptotic analysis.
In this paper, we introduce and develop the theory of semimartingale optimal transport in a path dependent setting. Instead of the classical constraints on marginal distributions, we consider a general framework of path dependent constraints. Duality results are established, representing the solution in terms of path dependent partial differential equations (PPDEs). Moreover, we provide a localisation result, which reduces the dimensionality of the solution by identifying appropriate state variables based on the constraints and the cost function. Our technique is then applied to the exact calibration of volatility models to the prices of general path dependent derivatives.
A three-dimensional (3-D) method of analysis is presented for determining the free vibration frequencies of hemi-spheroidal domes with non-uniform thickness having a top cut-out. Unlike conventional shell theories, which are mathematically two-dimensional (2-D), the present method is based upon the 3-D dynamic equations of elasticity. The edges of the shell may be free or may be subjected to any degree of constraint. Displacement components ur, uθ, and uz in the radial, circumferential, and axial directions, respectively, are taken to be sinusoidal in time, periodic in θ, and algebraic simple polynomials in the r and z directions. Potential (strain) and kinetic energies of the hemi-spheroidal domes with non-uniform thickness having a top cut-out are formulated, and the Ritz method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem, thus yielding upper bound values of the frequencies by minimizing the frequencies. As the degree of the algebraic polynomials is increased, frequencies converge to the exact values. Convergence to four-digit exactitude is demonstrated for the first five frequencies. Numerical results are presented for shallow and deep hemi-spheroidal domes with non-uniform thickness having a top cut-out of five values of aspect ratios, which are free at the inner edge and free or fixed at the bottom of the domes. The frequencies from the present 3-D Ritz method are compared with those from other 3-D analysis and a 2-D thin shell theory by previous researcher.
In ubiquitous robot system, robot localization, sensor network calibration, and environment mapping are three basic issues which are coupled with each other, and solutions to these three issues are prerequisites for efficient and intelligent service of ubiquitous robot system. In this paper, the concept of simultaneous localization, calibration and mapping of ubiquitous robot system is proposed. The joint conditional probability distribution is designed to describe the coupled question, and then is decomposed into several analytic terms according to Bayesian and Markov properties. The Rao-Blackwellized particle filtering is used to solve the analytic terms. Firstly, sensor network observation of robot, robot observations of mapped environments, and robot controls are combined to deduce the proposal distribution of robot pose and formula for updating particle weight. Secondly, sensor network observations of both robot path and mapped environment are combined to deduce the recursive formula of sensor network calibration. Thirdly, both sensor network observations and robot observations of environment (localized or newly found) are combined to deduce the recursive formula of environment mapping. The whole algorithm of simultaneous localization, calibration and mapping is designed according to Rao-Blackwellized particle filtering, and its efficiency is verified by simulated experiments.
In this work we study the existence of nontrivial solution for the following class of multivalued elliptic problems $$ - Delta u+V(x)u- epsilon h(x) in  partial_t F(x,u)  quad  text{in}  quad  mathbb{R}^2,  eqno{(P)} $$ where $ epsilon>0$, $V$ is a continuous function verifying some conditions, $h  in (H^{1}( mathbb{R}^{2}))^{*}$ and $ partial_t F(x,u)$ is a generalized gradient of $F(x,t)$ with respect to $t$ and $F(x,t)= int_{0}^{t}f(x,s) ,ds$. Assuming that $f$ has an exponential critical growth and a discontinuity point, we have applied Variational Methods for locally Lipschitz functional to get two solutions for $(P)$ when $ epsilon$ is small enough.
The present study was aimed to compare physiochemical and cooking properties of high yielding rice varieties of Tamil Nadu. Various physiochemical properties were studied in twenty five rice varieties. The milling percentage ranged between ADT 44 (50.0) to ADT 42 (71.0). HRR% varied from IR 50 (45.0) to CR1009 (64.0). The hulling percentage highly significantly associated with milling percentage, head rice recovery and gel consistency. Milling percentage positive significant association with HRR, BER and GC. The kernel length is highest in ADT 41(7.5 mm) which shows long grain length and lowest in short grain type ADT 37(4.9 mm) while the kernel breadth ranged between 1.9–2.9 mm. The Kernel length after cooking ranged from ADT 37(8.0mm) to ADT 41 (11.5mm). The volume expansion ratio in rice cultivars ranged from 3.27 in TKM 13 to 4.7 in ADT 39 and the gel consistency ranged from 48.0–118.0 mm. The varieties IR50, ADT 45, ADT 41 and ADT 48 poses high zinc content more than 30μg/g in brown rice. The relationship between physical, cooking and nutritional properties was determined using Pearson's correlation. Correlation was done for determining the nature of interaction among the characters. The cluster analysis suggested that the genotypes present in cluster I showed high hulling percentage, Milling percentage and Head rice recovery.
ABSTRACT A semiparametric regression estimator that exploits categorical (i.e., discrete-support) kernel functions is developed for a broad class of hierarchical models including the pooled regression estimator, the fixed-effects estimator familiar from panel data, and the varying coefficient estimator, among others. Separate shrinking is allowed for each coefficient. Regressors may be continuous or discrete. The estimator is motivated as an intuitive and appealing generalization of existing methods. It is then supported by demonstrating that it can be realized as a posterior mean in the Lindley and Smith (1972) framework. As a demonstration of the flexibility of the proposed approach, the model is extended to nonparametric hierarchical regression based on B-splines.
The following problem in risk theory is considered. An insurance company, endowed with an initial capital a ≥ 0, receives premiums and pays out claims that occur according to a renewal process {N(t), t ≥ 0}. The times between consecutive claims are i.i.d. The sequence of successive claims is a sequence of i.i.d. random variables. The capital of the company is invested at interest rate α ∊ [0,1], claims increase at rate β ∊ [0,1]. The aim is to find the stopping time that maximizes the capital of the company. A dynamic programming method is used to find the optimal stopping time and to specify the expected capital at that time.
A $directed$ $triple$ $system$ $of$ $order$ $v$ (or, DTS$(v)$) is a decomposition of the complete directed graph $ vec{K_v}$ into transitive triples. An $ ell$-$good$ $sequencing$ of a DTS$(v)$ is a permutation of the points of the design, say $[x_1  ;  cdots  ; x_v]$, such that, for every triple $(x,y,z)$ in the design, it is $not$ the case that $x = x_i$, $y = x_j$ and $z = x_k$ with $i < j < k$ and $k-i+1  leq  ell$. In this report we provide a maximum $ ell$-good sequencing for each DTS$(v)$, $v  leq 7$.
Treatment effects are often evaluated by comparing change over time in outcome measures. However, valid analyses of longitudinal data can be problematic when subjects discontinue (dropout) prior to completing the study. This study assessed the merits of likelihood-based repeated measures analyses (MMRM) compared with fixed-effects analysis of variance where missing values were imputed using the last observation carried forward approach (LOCF) in accounting for dropout bias. Comparisons were made in simulated data and in data from a randomized clinical trial. Subject dropout was introduced in the simulated data to generate ignorable and nonignorable missingness. Estimates of treatment group differences in mean change from baseline to endpoint from MMRM were, on average, markedly closer to the true value than estimates from LOCF in every scenario simulated. Standard errors and confidence intervals from MMRM accurately reflected the uncertainty of the estimates, whereas standard errors and confidence intervals from LOCF underestimated uncertainty.
The paper presents a case-control study involving a disease, exposures and several continuous confounders. The relative efficiency and validity of a fully matched design is compared with random sampling of controls. We test a viable option of a partially matched design when inability to match all study subjects on all confounders occurs. The degree of bias in the odds ratios introduced by the different designs and by the different analytic models is assessed in comparison with the estimates obtained from a total cohort, from which both cases and controls were selected. Matched designs and analytic strategies are also evaluated in terms of the variances of the odds ratios. The results indicate that matching on continuous variables may lead to a more precise estimate of odds ratio than statistical control of confounding in unmatched designs. Partial selection of controls by matching may be a useful strategy when complete matching cannot be achieved; in practice, partial matching achieves most of the benefits of full matching.
Let P(n,r) = {P n , r |P n , r = p 1 p 2…p r and p 1,p 2,…,p r ∊Z and p 1≠p j if i≠j}, where Z = {1,2,…,n}. An θ(r) algorithm for enumerating P(n,r) in the lexicographic order is presented. The mapping from P(n,r) to the set of their inversions and the inverse mapping are established by a pair of coding and decoding algorithms. Furthermore, ranking and unranking algorithms are also provided for establishing the mappings between P(n,r) and Z = {1,2,…,|P(n,r)|}. Indeed, the enumeration, ranking and unranking algorithms are more general than known algorithms.
This study aims to determine Employee performance assessed from  emotional intelligence and vocational training  at PT. Adi Sarana Arma, Tbk the number of samples in this study were 113 respondents. Based on the results of the t test can be seen in t arithmetic on the emotional intelligence variable of 4.899 greater than t table of 1.658 with a probability t of sig 0,000 smaller than the small significance of 0.05. Based on these values, the positive and significant emotional intelligence variables on the performance variable. In the human resource planning variable of 5.402 greater than t table of 1.653 with a probability of t of sig 0,000 smaller than the significance requirement of 0.05, the training variable partially has a positive and significant influence on the performance variable. Based on the results of the F test, the calculated F value is 48.572> 3.08 with sig 0,000 <0.05, indicating that Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted, means that emotional intelligence and job training are appropriate and positive for performance variables. The value of R Square obtained is 0.459 to see the size of the independent variable on the variable by calculating the coefficient of determination (KD) = R2 x 100%, so that KD = 45.9% is obtained. A value of 45.9% performance (participation variable) can be determined by emotional intelligence and job training. The remaining 54.1% is determined by other factors not approved in this study.
Studying the behavior of the heat diffusion process on a manifold is emerging as an important tool for analyzing the geometry of the manifold. Unfortunately, the high complexity of the computation of the heat kernel -- the key to the diffusion process - limits this type of analysis to 3D models of modest resolution. We show how to use the unique properties of the heat kernel of a discrete two dimensional manifold to overcome these limitations. Combining a multi-resolution approach with a novel approximation method for the heat kernel at short times results in an efficient and robust algorithm for computing the heat kernels of detailed models. We show experimentally that our method can achieve good approximations in a fraction of the time required by traditional algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate how these heat kernels can be used to improve a diffusion-based feature extraction algorithm.
Abstract Tetroon trajectories within the Los Angeles Basin in the autumn of 1973 show that, on non-stagnation days, air located in the Los Angeles area in the morning can pass over the Puente Hills and reach the San Bernardino-Riverside area by mid-afternoon of the same day. However, the enhanced vertical mixing associated with these Hills would be expected to dilute any pollution present. Of perhaps more importance is the evidence that, on stagnation days when the atmosphere is stable, air from the Los Angeles area may drift southward in the early morning katabatic flow, stagnate for 2–3 h in the industrialized and high vehicle-density region north of Long Beach, and then move rapidly eastward with the sea breeze flow through Santa Ana Canyon, reaching the Riverside-San Bernardino area in late afternoon. In this case there would seem to be more potential for severe pollution in the latter area. However, the frequency of occurrence of this particular trajectory pattern is uncertain.
An improved image filtering on Rough Sets is proposed in the paper.The method regards the traditional selective masking smooth filtering method as the thinking foundation.According to looking for the mask a pixel belongs to,then the mask RS precision approximation is used to precede image pixel to smooth whole image.It not only realizes cleaning noise and keeping the boundary, but also increases the contrast of picture and makes vision distinction restored picture to original one be minimum.In another words,while denoising the method keeps good details,increases the contrast degree of the picture,and improves the picture quality than the traditional pre-processing method.
Mathematical basis of the method of computerized tomography basic notions of the theory of ill-posed problems problem of integral geometry the Radon transfer Radon problem as an example of an ill-posed problem the algorithm of inversion of the two-dimensional Radon trans form based on the convolution with the generalized function 1/z2 cone-beam tomography reconstruction reducing the inversion formulas of cone-beam tomography reconstruction to the form convenient for constructing numerical algorithms elements of the theory of generalized functions in application to problems of inversion of the ray transformation the relations between the Radon, Fourier and ray transformations inverse kinematic problem in the tomographic setting direct kinematic problem and numerical solution for three-dimensional regular media formulation of the inverse kinematic problem with the use of a tomography system of data gathering deduction on the basic inversion formula and the algorithm of solving the inverse kinematic problem in three-dimensional linearized formulation model experiment and numerical study of the algorithm solution of the inverse kinematic problem by the method of computerized tomography for media with opaque inclusions. Appendix: reconstruction with the use of the standard model.
This paper is focused on studying the effect of cutting parameters (spindle speed, feed and depth of cut) on the response (temperature and tool life) during turning process. The inserts used in this study are carbide inserts coated with TiAlN (Titanum, Aluminium and Nitride) for machining a shaft of stainless steel 316L. Finite difference method was used to find the temperature distribution. The experimental results were done using infrared camera while the simulation process was performed using Matlab software package. The results showed that the  maximum difference between the experimental and simulation results was equal to 19.3 , so, a good agreement between the experimental and simulation results  was achieved. Tool life was decreased when spindle speed and feed were increased.
Let S be a minimal surface of general type with pg = 0 and K 2 = 6, such that its bicanonical map ': S ! P 6 is not birational. The map ' is a morphism of degree � 4 onto a surface. The case of deg ' = 4 is completely characterized in (Topology, 40 (5) (2001), 977- 991) and the present paper completes the classification of these surfaces. It is proven that the degree of ' cannot be equal to 3, and the geometry of surfaces with deg ' = 2 is analysed in detail. The last section contains three examples of such surfaces, two of which appear to be new. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 14J29.
A direct numerical simulation of the o w around a swept cylinder in the presence of a micro-roughness array has been performed. The roughness elements are placed periodically in the spanwise direction and their heigth is equal to one tenth of the boundary layer thickness. The aim of the simulation is to compute the amplitude of the crosso w instability waves generated within the laminar boundary layer by the presence of the roughness array. Results show that both a steady and an unsteady instability waves are generated, even if the roughness forcing is purely steady. A linear stability analysis based on the OrrSommerfeld equations is used to characterize these waves. The unsteady one is the traveling crosso w wave which is the most amplied according to this theory. The steady one must be distinguished from the roughness-induced response. This can be done with help of the biorthogonal decomposition method developed by Tumin and extended in this work to a swept boundary layer. This method is also a way to evaluate precisely the receptivity coecien ts. This has been done for both the unsteady and the steady crosso w waves. The results obtained for the steady crosso w wave should be considered with caution, since the non-parallel and curvature eects, not taken into account yet in the decomposition method, may be signican t for this specic zero frequency.
This paper has focused on the different image filtering techniques. Image filtering is one of the most important techniques for increasing the quality of the image as it act as the pre treatment to the images. All the other image processing techniques like image segmentation, image enhancement etc. are performed after image filtering. Image filtering is used to remove the different noisy pixels present in the image. To increase the picture quality image filtering can specifically remove the different kind of unwanted noises present in the given image by keeping the quality of the image. The main objective of this paper is to compare the different existing image filtering techniques using different parameters like noise density, peak to signal ratio, quality of image etc.
Cows spend more time lying down when stalls are soft and dry, and bedding plays a key role in the comfort of the lying surface. The first objective of this study (experiment 1) was to compare cow preference for 2 types of alternative deep-bedding materials, switchgrass and switchgrass-lime, using wheat straw on a rubber mat as a control. Nine Holstein lactating cows were submitted in trios to a 3-choice preference test over 14 d (2 d of adaptation, 3 d of restriction to each stall, and 3 d of free access to all 3 stalls). Cows were housed individually in pens containing 3 stalls with different lying surfaces: (1) rubber mat with chopped wheat straw (WS); (2) deep-bedded switchgrass (SG); and (3) deep-bedded switchgrass, water, and lime mixture (SGL). The second objective (experiment 2) was to test, in freestall housing, the effects of these 3 types of bedding on lying behavior, cow cleanliness, and teat end bacterial contamination. Bedding treatments were compared in a 3 × 3 Latin square design using 24 cows split into groups of 8, with bedding materials being switched every 4 wk. Lying behavior was measured with data loggers in both studies. During experiment 1, cows chose to spend more time lying and had more frequent lying bouts on SG (9.4 h/d; 8.2 bouts/d) than on SGL (1.0 h/d; 0.9 bouts/d). They also spent more time standing and stood more frequently in stalls with SG (2.0 h/d; 10.1 bouts/d) than in those with SGL (0.6 h/d; 2.6 bouts/d), and stood longer in stalls with SG than with WS (0.6 h/d). In experiment 2, the total lying time, frequency of lying bouts, and mean lying bout duration were, on average, 9.7 ± 1.03 h/d, 8.2 ± 0.93 bouts/d, and 1.2 ± 0.06 h/bout, respectively, and did not differ between treatments. No treatment effects were found for cow cleanliness scores. Bedding dry matter was highest for SG (74.1%), lowest for SGL (63.5%), and intermediate for WS (68.6%) [standard error of the mean (SEM) = 1.57%]. This may explain the higher teat end count of coliforms for cows on SGL (0.92 log10 cfu/g) compared with WS (0.13 log10 cfu/g) (SEM = 0.144 log10 cfu/g). In conclusion, cows preferred the deep-bedded switchgrass surface over the other 2 surfaces, and deep-bedded switchgrass appears to be a suitable bedding alternative for dairy cows.
To solve the constraint multi-solution problem,the constraints are separated to two sets,the original constraint set and the additional constraint set.First,the solver finds out multiple solutions.Then genetic algorithm and ant algorithm are combined in the process of searching optimal solution.We adopt genetic algorithm in the former process to produce the initiatory distribution of information elements,and then ant algorithm in the latter process.The random colony is adopted in genetic algorithm,which can not only accelerate the convergence process of ant algorithm but also avoid the local best solution.The heuristic searching algorithm maximizes the fitness of the additional constraint set,thereby reaches the final result that can satisfy the user's expectation.
Let $ varphi_{1}$ and $ varphi_{2}$ be holomorphic self-maps of the open unit ball $ mathbb B$ in $ mathbb C^N$, $u_{1}$ and $u_{2}$ be holomorphic functions on $ mathbb B$ and let weighted composition operators $W_{ varphi_{1},u_{1}}$; $W_{ varphi_{2},u_{2}}:A^{p}_{ alpha} to H^{ infty}_{v}$ be bounded. This paper characterizes the compactness of the difference of these operators from the weighted Bergman space $A^p_ alpha$, $0-1$, to the weighted-type space $H^ infty_v$ of holomorphic functions on $ mathbb B$ in terms of inducing symbols $ varphi_{1}$, $ varphi_{2},$ $u_{1}$ and $u_{2}$. For the case $p>1$ we find an asymptotically equivalent expression to the essential norm of the operator.
In this paper, a joint direction of arrival (DOA) and frequency estimation algorithm of narrow-band signals is proposed via compressed sensing (CS) parallel factor (PARAFAC) framework. The proposed algorithm constructs the data model into a PARAFAC model, and compresses it to a smaller one. Then trilinear alternating least-squares (TALS) algorithm is exploited to estimate the compressed parameter matrices, and finally the joint DOA and frequency estimation is obtained via the spatial sparsity and the frequency sparsity. Due to compression, the proposed algorithm has lower computational complexity than the conventional PARAFAC algorithm, and saves more memory capacity for practical application. The DOA and frequency estimation performance of the proposed algorithm is very close to that of the conventional PARAFAC algorithm, and better than those of the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) algorithm and the propagator method (PM). Furthermore, the proposed algorithm can achieve automatically paired DOA and frequency estimation. Besides, it is applicable for nonuniform linear arrays. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is assessed by simulations.
Piecewise affine (PWA) regression is a supervised learning method which aims at estimating, from a set of training data, a PWA map approximating the relationship between a set of explanatory variables (commonly called regressors) and continuous-valued outputs. In this paper, we describe a recursive and numerically efficient PWA regression algorithm, and discuss its application to the identification of multi-input multi-output PWA dynamical models in autoregressive form and to the identification of linear parameter-varying models.
In this thesis we study the Grothendieck Chow motives of projective homogeneous varieties, and their relations with classical invariants and questions of rational geometry. The motive (with ﬁnite coeﬃcients) of a projective homogeneous variety under the action of a semisimple aﬃne algebraic group G decomposes in an essentially unique way as a direct sum of indecomposable motives. Our work takes part in the program of classiﬁcation of those motives, our main tool being the theory of upper motives. We ﬁrst show that the classiﬁcation is reduced to the one with coeﬃcients in F_p if G is of inner type, and ﬁnd an analogue for groups of outer type. We then give a complete classiﬁcation of the indecomposable motives of varieties under the action of projective linear groups and derive from it the motivic dichotomy of PGL_1. We also provide a motivic tool used by Garibaldi, Semenov and Petrov to completely determine the motives of projective homogeneous varieties under the action of groups of type E_6. Finally we show that the motivic decomposition of generalized Severi-Brauer varieties SB(p, A) with coeﬃcients in F_p only depend on the p-adic valuation of the index of A.
The purpose of this text is to find out a better efficiency and faster image segmentation method.Difference model and optimal choice model is proposed based on the mean shift algorithm,and these two models are used in mean shift image segmentation.Difference model increases the step length of mean shift algorithm and optimal choice model improves the image segmentation's veracity.The experiment results indicate that the efficiency of mean shift image segmentation is improved obviously after the use of these two models.
Our earlier work, outlined key ideas in a theory of robust traffic distribution independent design of networks. Robustness is achieved by replacing the traffic matrix by a set of linear constraints representing gross traffic properties, on the traffic elements. The new formulation is more powerful than the pre-existing formulation, and, using linear programming, we can obtain traffic distribution-independent bounds on network cost under a variety of assumptions on traffic characteristics. We can derive maximal/minimal bounds for wireless ATM backhauls, which are exact without statistical multiplexing, and function as an adequate engineering approximation assuming statistical multiplexing. Our work is the first to be able to derive guaranteed upper and lower bounds on various parameters in wireless backhaul networks.
A detailed stationary phase analysis is presented for noncompact parameter ranges of the family of elementary eigenfunctions on the hyperbolic plane κ(z) = y 1/2 K ir (2πmy)e 2πimx , z = x+iy, λ = +r 2 the eigenvalue, s = 2πmλ -1/2 and K ir the Macdonald-Bessel function. The phase velocity of κ on {|s|Imz < 1} is a double-valued vector field, the tangent field to the pencil of geodesics G tangent to the horocycle {|s|Imz = 1}. For A ∈ SL(2; R) a multi-term stationary phase expansion is presented in A for κ(Az)e 2πin Rez uniform in parameters. An application is made to find an asymptotic relation for the Fourier coefficients of a family of automorphic eigenfunctions. In particular, for ψ automorphic with coefficients {an} and eigenvalue A it is shown for the special range n ∼ λ 1/2 that a n is O(λ 1/4 e πλ1/2 /2) for A large, improving by an order of magnitude for this special range upon the estimate from the general Hecke bound O(|n| 1/2 λ 1/4 e πλ1/2 /2). An exposition of the WKB asymptotics of the Macdonald-Bessel functions is presented.
A probabilistic formulation of statistical models of a priori source distribution information is presented with considerations of source strength correlations and finite distribution range constraints. A Bayesian analysis incorporating the a priori source distribution probabilistic information is given in treating measured data obeying Poisson statistics. A system of equations for determining the source distribution given the measured data is obtained by maximizing the a posteriori probability. An iterative approach for the solution is carried out by a Bayesian image processing algorithm derived using an expectation maximization technique. The iterative Bayesian algorithm is tested using computer generated ideal and experimental radioisotope phantom imaging noisy data. Improved results are obtained with the Bayesian algorithm over those of a maximum likelihood algorithm. A quantitative measurement of the improvement is obtained by employing filtered objective criteria functions.
Topology optimization has been evolved into a very efficient conceptual design tool and has been utilized into design engineering processes in many industrial parts. In recent years, topology optimization has become the focus of structural optimization design and has been researched and widely applied both in academy and industry. Traditional topology optimization has been using homogenization method and optimality criteria method. Homogenization method provides relationship equation between structure which includes many holes and stiffness matrix in FEM. Optimality criteria method is used to update design variables while maintaining that volume fraction is uniform. Traditional topology optimization has advantage of good convergence but has disadvantage of too much convergency time and additive checkerboard prevention algorithm is needed. In one way to solve this problem, element remove method is presented. Then, it is applied to many examples. From the results, it is verified that the time of convergence is very improved and optimal designed results is obtained very similar to the results of traditional topology using 8 nodes per element.
Due to ip-iq current detection method based on instantaneous reactive power theory will produce detecting error when voltage is unbalance, This paper proposed a method which uses the phase angle of positive sequence fundamental voltage to correct the error, Simulation results show that the active and reactive component of positive sequence fundamental current and the active and reactive component of negative sequence fundamental current can be obtained rapidly and accurately.
Abstract Blind Source Separation (BSS) deals with separating independent signals from their linear mixtures observed at different sensors. In this paper a nonlinear function based on the cost function as Kullback-Leibler divergence between joint probability density function of the source vector and its parametric model has been proposed. This cost function is equivalent to maximization of information transfer between inputs and outputs and minimization of mutual information between the components of the output vector. Derivation process becomes extremely simple due to a simple approximation. Simulations with communication signals indicate that proposed algorithm provides better accuracy. The three most popular neural algorithms (EASI, natural gradient and Bell-Sejnowski algorithm) has been compared. Effectiveness of these algorithms depends upon the nonlinear activation function. These algorithms have been evaluated with different nonlinear functions for sub-Gaussian and super-Gaussian sources.
In this work the theoretical relationship between the clear-sky outgoing infrared radiation and the surface upward radiative flux is explored by using a realistic finite semi-transparent atmospheric model. We show that the fundamental relationship between the optical depth and source function contains real boundary condition parameters. We also show that the radiative equilibrium is controlled by a special atmospheric transfer function and requires the continuity of the temperature at the ground surface. The long standing misinterpretation of the classic semi-infinite Eddington solution has been resolved. Compared to the semi-infinite model the finite semi-transparent model predicts much smaller ground surface temperature and a larger surface air temperature. The new equation proves that the classic solution significantly overestimates the sensitivity of greenhouse forcing to optical depth perturbations. In Earth-type atmospheres sustained planetary greenhouse effect with a stable ground surface temperature can only exist at a particular planetary average flux optical depth of 1.841 . Simulation results show that the Earth maintains a controlled greenhouse effect with a global average optical depth kept close to this critical value. The broadband radiative transfer in the clear Martian atmosphere follows different principle resulting in different analytical relationships among the fluxes. Applying the virial theorem to the radiative balance equation we present a coherent picture of the planetary greenhouse effect.
We investigated the relationships within forest stands between tree size and (a) stem volume growth rate and (b) risk of mortality for individual trees. Values of both x and y variables were plotted relative to the largest value in the stand. We refer to the resultant presentations as relative volume growth and relative survival graphs (VGSs). A pair of VGSs can be produced readily from an individual-tree growth model. It can also be constructed from consecutive sets of field measurements. Comparison of VGSs derived from model and measurement data provides a test of the validity of the components of the growth model. We have analyzed VGSs based on measurement data for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in central Finland and for beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in southern Germany. The graphs based on measurement data varied as a consequence of differences in competition, stand management, and tree species. We analyzed the relationship between VGSs and stand dynamics using a simple growth model. We found that different features of the VGSs imply characteristic tree size distributions in subsequent years. Thus, we conclude that if the VGSs generated by a model do not correspond to those based on field measurements, the model cannot be relied on to reproduce the development of tree-size distribution correctly. Relative growth and survival graphs thus provide a tool for evaluating complicated growth models.
There is a growing interest in using Kalman filter models in brain modeling. The question arises whether Kalman filter models can be used on-line not only for estimation but for control. The usual method of optimal control of Kalman filter makes use of off-line backward recursion, which is not satisfactory for this purpose. Here, it is shown that a slight modification of the linear-quadratic-gaussian Kalman filter model allows the on-line estimation of optimal control by using reinforcement learning and overcomes this difficulty. Moreover, the emerging learning rule for value estimation exhibits a Hebbian form, which is weighted by the error of the value estimation.
Introduction Early sweet corn production is enhanced by use of clear plastic mulch. Some growers use this practice on their earliest plantings to gain a market advantage and higher price. In cool, wet springs the practice is highly profitable. In central and northern Iowa, the years with a yield advantage more than offset the costs for years with no gain. There are many color plastic choices with various advertised benefits such as increased soil temperature and reflective radiation that speeds plant growth and development. The sweet corn research is designed to evaluate a few color mulches that are reported to affect corn growth and development—specifically, the sugar content of the kernel at harvest. The blue is supposed to enhance photosynthesis and improve translocation of carbohydrates (sucrose) to the developing kernel. As sweet corn is harvested in the immature stage (as opposed to field corn) it is thought there might be a sugar boost (some Canadian work was indecisive). The mulches were manufactured using pigment resins of a proprietary nature that change the wavelength of reflective radiation – blue and red. Thus, we measured the reflective radiation to see if that is true. Some plastics are included that affect soil temperature more than reflective radiation (i.e, the olive and clear). Increasing soil temperature and resultant enhanced shoot growth and leaf surface area may have more to do with photosynthesis and sugar production than specific reflective radiation.
In this paper, referring to [2], we will introduce general boundary input systems described by C 0 -semigroups and construct distributed input systems equivalent to them. The relationship between the equivalent distributed input systems and regular systems of Salamon-Weiss class[1] will be considered. Moreover, we will characterize a subclass of equivalent distributed input systems in Salamon-Weiss class.
This project further develops recent work which proposes a new theory that predicts  the forces on slender bodies, and slender and thin wings. A steady, incompressible uniform  field for high Reynolds numbers (although aerodynamically low-speed) is assumed, through  which a slender body with elliptic cross-section moves at a steady constant velocity. The  forces on this manoeuvring slender body through fluid at high Reynolds number have been  determined in this work. The theory is developed within Oseen flow and models the viscous  and vortex wake. The newly developed theory has been applied to cylinder bodies with  elliptic cross-section and comparison with experiments and standard Alien and Perkins  method has been made. The numerical analysis using ANSYS CFX has been done. The  comparison between new theory, experimental results, and numerical analysis has also been  done in this work.  Xlll
We consider the quasilinear parabolic equation $ dot y + { bf A}y + { bf F}(y) =  varphi $ on $Q: = (0,T)  times  Omega $. Viewing $ varphi $ as a control, we seek to minimize $J( varphi ): =  | { varphi -  hat  varphi }  |^2 +  lambda  left | {y -  hat y}  |^2 +  mu  | {y(T) -  hat  eta }  |^2 $. Under suitable hypotheses it is shown that one has existence of an optimal control $ varphi _ * $ , and that this satisfies the appropriate optimality system. Further, for small data $J_ * : =  min J$ is small enough) one has global uniqueness and continuous dependence on the data.
In this paper, we consider two semimartingales sampled at stopping times in an asynchronous manner. We are interested in estimating their cumulative co‐volatility separately from the sum of their co‐jumps. For this purpose, we combine the Hayashi–Yoshida method (to deal with the asynchronicity) with the threshold technique (to separate the jumps) and consider a class of statistics called the truncated Hayashi–Yoshida estimator. We prove the consistency and the asymptotic mixed normality of the truncated Hayashi–Yoshida estimator under some mild conditions allowing the presence of infinite activity jumps.
In order to estimate the distance between a moving camera and a golfball, the projective ball size in images is measured. Two methods are evaluated based on their ability to detect golf balls in TV broadcasting images: circular Hough transform and scale-space blob detection. A tracking algorithm is then proposed where, given a known ball position, a search window is used, adapting for ball speed in the image plane, ballsize and previous window size.Various pre-processing methods are also discussed, including deinterlacing and an approximate background subtraction method. Experimentsshows that none of these pre-processing methods significantly improves the performance in terms of ball detection, although tendencies of improvement is noticed in some test sequences.The tracking algorithm is evaluated by using sequences from TV broadcasts of golf competitions. The algorithm performs well under certain circumstances, where the projective size of the ball is the key to accurate measurements of the distance between ball and camera. The noisy input data however introduces noise also to the size estimations,resulting in noisy distance estimations. Additionally, the test sequences contains no ground truth for the actual distance between ball and camera,and the accuracy of the method could therefore only be determined in terms of noise analysis.
Error detection and correction code based on Redundant Residue Number System (RRNS) has a unique advantage that arithmetical processing errors can also be corrected. Existing algorithms for multiple residue digit error correction in RRNS require either large modulo operations to decode the magnitude of the residue digits or variable number of iterative computations to identify the locations of erroneous residue digits. This paper presents an efficient syndrome based multiple residue digit error detection and correction algorithm in RRNS. The received residue digits are divided into three groups from which seven error location categories are defined for all combinations of residue digit errors of any legitimate moduli set. Their error magnitudes are abstracted into three syndromes, which are used to identify the exact error location category and retrieve the residue digit errors concurrently from six lookup tables in no more than three cycles. The syndromes can be computed in parallel by small modulo subtractors, and their uniqueness criteria are proved to be easily fulfilled. The redundant residue space due to the uniqueness criteria can also be relaxed by increasing the number of syndrome computations and lookup tables used for the error decoding according to the number of information moduli.
A fast implementation of a special non-MSE cost function for blind equalization is presented here. This baud-rate equalization algorithm is based on a convex cost function coupled with a simple linear constraint on the equalizer parameters. For a generic class of channels with persistently exciting quadrature amplitude modulation input signals, this new algorithm allows the convergence of equalizer parameters to a unique global minimum achieving intersymbol interference suppression and carrier phase recovery.
Consider the action of $SL(n+1, mathbb{R})$ on $ mathbb{S}^n$ arising as the quotient of the linear action on $ mathbb{R}^{n+1} setminus {0 }$. We show that for a semigroup $ mathfrak{S}$ of $SL(n+1, mathbb{R})$, the following are equivalent: $(1)$ $ mathfrak{S}$ acts distally on the unit sphere $ mathbb{S}^n$. $(2)$ the closure of $ mathfrak{S}$ is a compact group. We also show that if $ mathfrak{S}$ is closed, the above conditions are equivalent to the condition that every cyclic subsemigroup of $ mathfrak{S}$ acts distally on $ mathbb{S}^n$. On the unit circle $ mathbb{S}^1$, we consider the `affine' actions corresponding to maps in $GL(2, mathbb{R})$ and discuss the conditions for the existence of fixed points and periodic points, which in turn imply that these maps are not distal.
The subgradient projector is of considerable importance in convex optimization because it plays the key role in Polyak's seminal work---and the many papers it spawned---on subgradient projection algorithms for solving convex feasibility problems. In this paper, we offer a systematic study of the subgradient projector. Fundamental properties such as continuity, nonexpansiveness, and monotonicity are investigated. We also discuss the Yamagishi--Yamada operator. Numerous examples illustrate our results.
We introduce a class of randomly time-changed fast mean-reverting stochastic volatility (TC-FMR-SV) models. Using spectral theory and singular perturbation techniques, we derive an approximation for the price of any European option in the TC-FMR-SV setting. Three examples of random time-changes are provided and are shown to induce distinct implied volatility surfaces. The key features of the TC-FMR-SV framework are that (i) it is able to incorporate jumps into the price process of the underlying asset (ii) it allows for the leverage effect and (iii) it can accommodate multiple factors of volatility, which operate on different time-scales.
In the following work we presented a method of using radar charts to calculate measures of conformability of two objects according to formulas given by, among others, Dice, Jaccard, Tanimoto and Tversky. This method incorporates another one presented by the authors of this study [Binderman, Borkowski, Szczesny 2010]. Presented methods can be also utilized to define similarities between given objects, as well as to order and group objects. Measures described in this work satisfy the condition of stability as they do not depend on the order of studied features.
We derive necessary conditions for the existence of complex Seidel matrices containing pth roots of unity and having exactly two eigenvalues, under the assumption that p is prime. The existence of such matrices is equivalent to the existence of equiangular Parseval frames with Gram matrices whose off-diagonal entries are a common multiple of the pth roots of unity. Explicitly examining the necessary conditions for p = 5 and p = 7 rules out the existence of many such frames with a number of vectors less than 50, similar to previous results in the cube roots case. On the other hand, we confirm the existence of p 2 × p 2 Seidel matrices containing pth roots of unity, and thus the existence of the associated complex equiangular Parseval frames, for any p > 2. The construction of these Seidel matrices also yields a family of previously unknown Butson-type complex Hadamard matrices.
Abstract Hole‐filling is a process to repair the holes in a triangular model and to keep the topology accurate and preserve the smoothness of the original surface as new meshes are added. We propose a hole‐filling algorithm by fitting the vertices in the vicinity of a hole into a B‐spline surface and plan new vertices on the u‐v domain corresponding to such a surface. The main advantage of such a method is that the u‐v plane, instead of a 3D plane conventionally used, can better be used for the planning of new vertices distributed appropriately on the hole, especially for curved holes with steep slopes. The points on the u‐v plane are mapped onto the B‐spline surface to yield 3D vertices. Since the surface does not pass through the boundary vertices of the hole completely, a modification algorithm based on the local moving least squares method is proposed to modify the 3D vertices. Successful examples are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.
The problem of robust state feedback guaranteed cost control was considered for a class of uncertain switched linear systems with time delays. A Lyapunov function was constructed, while linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach and switching technique were used for the class of systems with time-delay contained in both state and input. Memory hybrid state feedback controllers were designed under arbitrary switching laws and a sufficient condition was presented. Under this condition, the closed-loop systems is asymptotically stable and a lower upper bound is obtained for the quadratic cost function. Finally, a simulation result shows the correctness and validity of the designed method
We draw the connection between the model theoretic notions of internality and the binding group on one hand, and the Tannakian formalism on the other. More precisely, we deduce the fundamental results of the Tannakian formalism by associating to a Tannakian category a first order theory, and applying the results on internality there. We also formulate the notion of a differential tensor category, and a version of the Tannakian formalism for differential linear groups, and show how the same techniques can be used to deduce the analogous results in that context.
A new method is presented that is useful for the design of microwave feedback amplifiers, including considerations on parameter representation, normalizing impedance, stability and matching conditions. Analytical expressions for the feedback quantity with specified terminations are derived. This method provides insight into the effects of the feedback and controls the two-port parameters of the transistor amplifier for practical applications. An example is given to illustrate this procedure for achieving the optimum performance for stability and matching.
A new theory is presented for the radiation problem of heave and pitch modes of a slender ship advancing at arbitrary forward speed. The theory has no restrictions on the order of forward speed and oscillation frequency, embracing both of unified theory developed by Newman and high-speed slender-body theory (HSSBT). The inner velocity potential consists of a particular solution, which is the same as that of HSSBT, and a homogeneous component, which is constructed by the superposition of the real-flow velocity potential and the reverse-flow reverse-time velocity potential.Since precise computations of HSSBT are prerequisite for the present theory, the calculation procedure adopted for HSSBT is described, converting the formulation into an equivalent initial-value problem in the time domain and applying the higher-order boundary-element method at each time step.Numerical results of added-mass and damping coefficients based on the present theory are shown for a modified Wigley model and compared with corresponding experiments and other computed results by the strip method, HSSBT, and 3-D Rankine-panel method.
The paper examines the impact of home-country macroeconomic factors such as gross domestic product (GDP), money supply and inflation on the growth of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from India. Vector error correction model is employed to explore the long-run dynamics and short-run causality between the macroeconomic factors and OFDI for the period 1980-2014. The study finds that GDP has positive and significant impact on OFDI whereas money supply and inflation have significant but negative impact on it in the long-run. However, in the short-run, no causality is witnessed between OFDI and macroeconomic factors specified in the model.
Rice nitrogen status is an important index for rice growth evaluation,rice yield and quality estimation. It has important significance for the precise diagnosis of rice nitrogen status and effective management of rice production. Computer image processing technology is able to detect rice nutrition information accurately and nondestructively on a real time basis,which has widely applied in precision agriculture. The accuracy and speed of rice canopy segmentation directly affects the performance of model and efficiency of nutrition information detection. The image characteristics of RGB color channels of three typical rice canopy images in paddy field were analyzed in this research. A G-R color channel based OSTU method was proposed to segment rice canopy images from the edge,color and region of images. Experiments were conducted to compare the time required and segmentation effects with other methods. Results showed that in the 40 images,the success rate of proposed segmentation method reached 92.5% with the minimum time required.
Chinese government has proposed a strategic development thought named as "Harmonious Society", which contains the requirements to apply Chinese traditional theory to nowadays construction. However, the available theoretical achievement almost all stems from the western, and entirely not suitable for the real situation in China. Meanwhile the research method is fairly traditional. The appearance of the concepts of yin-region, yang-region and yin-yang structure changes the situation of the dominance by a series of westerners' concepts of describing the urban and regional space and theories of spatial structures. Based on the primary achievement of the theory, this article tries to apply GIS methods into the new theory, which makes it more consummate and scientific. This paper will put emphases on discussing the quantitative definition with GIS, evaluate effect and harmonious mechanism about urban yin-yang spatial structure based on existing primary researches of the author's mentor. By means of reasonable division, the yin region and yang region can be defined, and which makes the new definition be quantified and the theory more scientific. First, considering the aspect of economy, social progress and environment, 11 indexes composed of 24 factors are elected as the appraisal foundation. Then, decide the importance of each factor by gifting them different scores(hundred mark system is adopted, that is to say 100 stands for the strongest affection, while 0 stands for having no affection, the score between them from low to high represents the importance variety). Furthermore, rely on AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) synthesizing experts' marking methods, the final point is determined. In this way, the scale of the appraisal units scold be fixed. Then we could construct the effect of the factors. By doing this, the factors' entirety affection on every units can be reflected. Accumulating the factors' scores of each unit, the ultimate affection score could be determined by ArcGIS Analysis. Finally, we could divide the units into three groups according to their final score, from high to low they respectively standing for the yin-region, the transition region and the yang region. The research on yin-yang-regions and yin-yang structure will help stimulate the coordinated development of the whole society and make all the people reach an agreement that we should launch positive and effective strategies and measures to improve the development environment of yin-region, promote its transition to yang-region.
Artstein, Ball, Barthe, and Naor have recently shown that the non-Gaussianness (divergence with respect to a Gaussian random variable with identical first and second moments) of the sum of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables is monotonically nonincreasing. We give a simplified proof using the relationship between non-Gaussianness and minimum mean-square error (MMSE) in Gaussian channels. As Artstein , we also deal with the more general setting of nonidentically distributed random variables
The objective of this research was to study the response of two soybean varieties growth and yield on the biofertilizer and NPK compound fertilizer application. The factorial randomized block design was used in this research with three factors i.e. : varety (Anjasmoro and Grobogan), biofertilizer    (0, 50 and 100 kg/ha) and NPK fertilizer (0, 125, and 250 kg/ha). This research was conducted on the experimental field of North Sumatera University from April to August 2014. The results showed that varieties significantly affected the plant height (2, 3, 4 and 6 weeks planted, the leaf greeness level, time of flowering, the time of harvest, the number of productive branches, the number of pods per sample, the number of seeds per sample and the dry weight of 100 seeds. Biofertilizer unsignificantly affected on all parametres. The NPK compound fertilizer significantly affected the the plant height 5 weeks planted, the leaf greeness level and the number of seeds per sample. The interraction between variety and biofertilizer singnificantly affected the time of flowering, however the interraction between variety and NPK fertilizer affected the time of flowering and the number of seeds per sample. Keywords: soybean, variety, biofertilizer and NPK fertilizer.
We compare statistical and analytical reconstruction methods for micro-CT systems employing noncontinuous, modular CCD detectors. By combining many cooled CCDs connected with straight tapering to columnar CsI crystals, such systems would be capable of overcoming some major limitations of CCD-based technology, ie. limited field of view, insufficient detection efficiency at low exposures and blurring caused by fiber-optic coupling. When applied to such a modular setup, statistical reconstruction (SR) has the advantage that it simply ignores the missing projection data. Filtered back projection assumes a continuous detector and therefore requires interpolation to fill in the projection discontinuities. Both reconstruction methods result in images with significant artifacts when applied to a system with symmetric placement of gaps. This can be explained by the incompleteness of projection data inherent to this kind of configuration. When the gaps are placed asymmetrically, however, SR effectively removes the errors caused by detector discontinuities, whereas FBP still produces images polluted by streaks.
Based on unconstrained optimization and genetic algorithm, this paper presents a constrained genetic algorithm (CGA) for learning Bayesian network structure. Firstly, an undirected graph is obtained by solving an unconstrained optimization problem. Then based on the undirected graph, the initial population is generated, and selection, crossover and mutation operators are used to learn Bayesian network structure. Since the space of generating the initial population is constituted by some candidate edges of the optimal Bayesian network, the initial population has good property. Compared with the methods which use genetic algorithm (GA) to learn Bayesian network structure directly, the proposed method is more efficiency.
The non-commutative analytic Toeplitz algebra is the weak operator topology closed algebra generated by the left regular representation of the free semigroup on $n$ generators. The structure theory of contractions in these algebras is examined. Each is shown to have an $H^ infty$ functional calculus. The isometries defined by words are shown to factor only as the words do over the unit ball of the algebra. This turns out to be false over the full algebra. The natural identification of weakly closed left ideals with invariant subspaces of the algebra is shown to hold only for a proper subcollection of the subspaces.
A recursive solution is presented for the probability density function of the sum of N independent, random phase vectors. The recursion parameter is N , the number of vectors in the sum. This approach allows one to rapidly compute a complete set of these density functions for values of N = 2, 3, ..., N_{max} , where N max typically corresponds to the total number of system users in a multiuser FHMA/MFSK application, or one plus the total number of jamming tones in an FH/MFSK spread-spectrum application. Such evaluations are necessary for exact calculation of the average error probability performance of such systems.
A concept of image set convex differential equation system is outlined.This new concept is then used to propose a new iterative variational algorithm for a class of boundary value problems of differential equation system,in which the limit of the iterative solution U* exists.In a proper condition,U* is a generalized solution of the differential equation system.It should be stated that the space dimension discussed is invariant in contrast to that discussed in references,in which finite dimensional space is used to approximate infinite dimensional space.Moreover,the variation aim function I(F1(U),…,Fq(U)) is fixed and not determined by the form of differential equation system in contrast to that shown in references in which the Euler-Langerge equation obtained after variation of I(u) should be required to be the equation systems.
We extend high-rate quantization theory to distributed source coding for the case in which the rate is the conditional entropy of the quantization index given the side information. This theory is applied to orthonormal block transforms for distributed source coding. A formula for the optimal rate allocation and an approximation to the optimal transform are derived. We implement a transform-domain Wyner-Ziv video coder that encodes frames independently but decodes them conditionally. Experimental results show a rate-distortion improvement with respect to the pixel-domain coder by using the discrete cosine transform.
The fact that individuals are free not to participate to a survey, or to answer in an imprecise or even misleading way, represents a simple but very effective form of protection of individual privacy, which makes it largely unnecessary to formally regulate the use of individual data in statistical analysis. The increasing use of administrative data in statistical analysis has modified the picture and brought to the forefront the need of new forms of protection of individual privacy. The regulation recently introduced in Italy represents an important step forward in this direction. However, because it ignores the distinction between statistical surveys and administrative data, this new regulation could lead to an excessive level of protection, with an unncessary increase of the direct and indirect costs of protection.
It is difficult to analyse a large, complex structure in sufficient detail to obtain accurate results everywhere. One approach is simply to refine the whole structure model in the regions of interest. Another approach is to identify a subregion of the structure and develop a separate refined model of the subregion. It is difficult to assure accuracy in this subregion model because of uncertainties in specifying boundary conditions and loading from the whole structure model solution. In the current literature, three methods other than whole model refinement have been described to deal with this problem. These are called the specified boundary displacement method, the linear constraint method and the zooming method.    This paper describes a new approach to this problem of modelling subregions. This approach uses the stiffnesses and forces from the whole model solution at the nodes on the boundary of the sub-region model. Accurate displacement and stress solutions are obtained with this method as it takes into account the interaction between the new stiffness of the subregion and the rest of the structure. This approach is similar to substructuring; however, the equations outside the subregion are discarded rather than condensed out, which results in much less computation effort.    Examples of the application of this method to the problem of a plate with a centre hole in tensile loading are presented. The results compared favourably with the results of the same problem solved using other methods, with significant improvement in accuracy over the specified boundary displacement method. Also presented are some results from design modification of the subregion which illustrate the potential of this method for redesign application.
The Fibonacci Word Fractal is a self-similar fractal curve based on the Fibonacci word through a simple and interesting drawing rule. This fractal reveals three types of patterns and a great number of self-similarities. We show a strong link with the Fibonacci numbers, prove several properties and conjecture others, we calculate its Hausdorff Dimension. Among various modes of construction, we define a word over a 3-letter alphabet that can generate a whole family of curves converging to the Fibonacci Word Fractal. We investigate the sturmian words that produce variants of such a pattern. We describe an interesting dynamical process that, also, creates that pattern. Finally, we generalize to any angle.
Given n vertices in a plane and UCAV going through each vertex once and only once and then coming back, the objective is to find the direction (heading) of motion in each vertex to minimize the smooth path of bounded curvature. This paper studies the headings of UCAV. First, the optimal headings for two vertices were given. On this basis, an n-player two-strategy game theoretic model was established. In addition, in order to obtain the mixed Nash equilibrium efficiently, n linear equations were set up. The simulation results demonstrated that the headings given in this paper are effective.
This paper presents a new technique for noise removal in images. It benefits both from the recent advances in wavelet-based and variational denoising. Whereas wavelet-based analysis tends to strongly depend on the selected wavelet basis, we propose to combine and fuse several mono-wavelet analysis within a variational framework. The associated energy function involves M-estimator in order to guarantee the robustness to outliers and to preserve image structures (edges, ridges, etc.). An experimental evaluation for a Gaussian additive noise validates the proposed approach and an application to speckle removal in sonar sea-bed images highlights the interest of this approach for real images.
In this paper upper bounds are given for the successive differences $A_{n+1}-A_{n}$ and B$_{n}-B_{n-1}$ where $A_{n}=1/(n-1)  tsum_{r=1}^{n-1}f(r/n)$, $B_{n}=1/(n+1)  tsum_{r=0}^{n}f(r/n)$ and $f$ is superquadratic function. We obtain bounds for the successive differences of the more general sequence $1/c_{n} tsum_{r=1}^{n}f(a_{r}/b_{n})$ when $f$ is superquadratic, which refine known results for convex functions. We also obtain bounds for various successive differences when $f$ is an increasing subquadratic function.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of Types of students, Sex and Types of Faculty of the college students on Psychological Adjustment. The sample for the study comprised of 120 Tribal and 120 Non-Tribal College students from Sabarkantha District. Personal data sheet and Bell (1905) Psychological Adjustment Inventory Gujarati translate was developed by Bhatt,(1994) were used to collect the required data. 2x2x2 factorial design was planned where Types of students, Sex and Types of Faculty were considered as independent variables and Psychological Adjustment as dependent variable. Accordingly 2x2x2 ANOVA was carried out to test the hypothesis. Results revealed significant difference The Non-Tribal college students Psychological Adjustment is better than the Tribal college students. The boy college students Psychological Adjustment better then the girls college students. The Science college students Psychological Adjustment is better than the Arts college students. There is no significant mean interaction effect of the Psychological Adjustment in the types of students, Sex and Types of Faculty of the college students.
The isogeometric analysis is increasingly used in various engineering problems. It is based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) basis function applied for the solution field approximation and the geometry description. One of the major concerns with this method is finding an efficient approach to impose essential boundary conditions, especially for inhomogeneous boundaries. The main contribution of this study is to use the well-known Lagrange multiplier method to impose essential boundary conditions for improving the accuracy of the isogeometric solution. Moreover, Dirichlet boundary conditions on the derivatives of the solution field (which are not directly defined as independent degrees of freedom) can be treated easily. The Lagrange multipliers must be interpolated on a set of boundary points. Among the different available choices for the boundary interpolation points, the Greville abscissas are considered in this work. Several plate problems have been solved, which demonstrate significant improvement in accuracy and rate of convergence in comparison with the direct imposition of essential boundary conditions.
A novel current mirror that can work in weak and strong inversion is proposed. The mirror is capable of copying current down to nano-ampere range. The proposed scheme eliminates the DC matching error caused by the difference between drain-to-source voltages of both input and output transistors. The proposed configuration was verified using ORCAD simulator in 0.8µm CMOS process technology. Simulation results confirm the functionality and accuracy of the approach.
For those of us that generally live in the world of syntax, semantic  proof methods such as realizability or logical relations /  parametricity sometimes feel like magic. Why do they work? At which  point in the proof is "the real work" done?    Bernardy and Lasson express realizability and parametricity models as  syntactic model -- but the abstraction/adequacy theorems are still  explained as meta-level proofs. Hoping to better understand the proof  technique, we look at those theorems as programs themselves. How does  a normalization proof using realizability actually computes those  normal forms?    This detective work is an early stage and we propose a first attempt  in a simple setting. Instead of arbitrary Pure Type Systems, we use  the minimal negative propositional logic (arrows only). Instead of  starting from the simply-typed lambda-calculus, we work on  sequent-style terms in a simple subset of the Curien-Herbelin  L calculus.
The nilpotent graph of a group G is a simple graph whose vertex set is G∖nil(G), where nil(G) = {y ∈ G | ⟨ x, y ⟩ is nilpotent ∀ x ∈ G}, and two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if ⟨ x, y ⟩ is nilpotent. In this article, we show that the collection of finite non-nilpotent groups whose nilpotent graphs have the same genus is finite, derive explicit formulas for the genus of the nilpotent graphs of some well-known classes of finite non-nilpotent groups, and determine all finite non-nilpotent groups whose nilpotent graphs are planar or toroidal.
An analytical model for examining the dynamic behavior of rail overturning has been developed by the authors in another paper. This mathematical model of the rail-track system and dynamic equilibrium is utilized to determine the lateral deflection and rotation of the rail subjected to time-dependent lateral and vertical forces and constant axial force. The analysis is based on linear elastic theory.
In order to account for the stochastic nature of free-field earthquake ground motions in the time and space domain, an engineering interpretation of frequency wave number representation of stochastic wave fields in three-space Cartesian coordinates is presented. The advantage of this interpretation in an engineering modeling of ground motions is demonstrated by introducing a digital simulation method and a numerical example. The digital simulation method is based on the stationary, homogeneous stochastic field theory, but can be easily extended to non-stationary, non-homogeneous stochastic earthquake wave model by employing an evolutionary power spectrum.
We consider space-time transceiver architectures for space-division multiple-access (SDMA) fading channels with simultaneous transmissions from multiple users. Each user has up to four transmit antennas and employs a space-time orthogonal or a quasi-orthogonal design as an inner code. At the multiple-antenna receiver, efficient successive group interference cancellation strategies based on zero-forcing or minimum mean-square error (MMSE) filtering are employed in some fixed or channel-dependent order. These strategies are efficient in the sense that they exploit the special structure of the inner codes to yield much higher diversity orders than would be otherwise possible, while at the same time preserving what we call the decoupling property of the constituent inner codes which enables the use of low-complexity outer encoders/decoders for each user. Motivated by the special structure of the effective channel matrix induced by the inner codes, we obtain several new distribution results on the QR and eigenvalue decompositions of certain structured random matrices. These results are the key to a comprehensive performance analysis of the proposed multiuser transceiver architectures including the characterization of diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) curves and exact per-user bit-error rates (BERs) without making simplifying assumptions about error propagation.
Abstract A slender-body theory is developed for the axisymmetric Darcy flow from a large reservior to an isolated well bore. The resulting analysis serves to eliminate from the standard petroleum-engineering formula: the generally undefined parameter re , representing fictitious distance from an injection or production well to the undisturbed reservoir. In particular, we show that, upon equating re , to the well length l, one can interpret the above formula as an exact asymptotic result under fairly general circumstances including variations of the local well-bore pressure pw and radial injection velocity v 0 with axial position. We also present higher-order corrections to the asymptotic result, in terms of the well slenderness ratio re /l, by making use of a previous perturbation analysis of Handelsman and Keller (1967) for axisymmetric potential flow. Our results have application to other problems involving the potential field around slender sources.
In many management and mitigation situations spatial estimates of biological population density are used for decision making. Appropriate estimation of uncertainty in such situations, especially when species are endangered, is crucial. Density Surface Models (DSMs) are a two-stage approach for estimating spatially-varying density from line transect data. First, detectability is estimated by distance sampling, and then a Generalized Additive Model (GAM) is used to estimate animal density as a function of location and/or other spatially-varying environmental covariates. One criticism of DSMs has been that uncertainty from the two stages is not usually propagated correctly into the final variance estimates. We show how to reformulate a DSM so that the uncertainty in detection probability from the distance sampling stage (regardless of its complexity) is captured as a random effect in the GAM stage. This effectively refits an approximation to the detection function model at the same time as fitting the spatial model. This allows straightforward computation of the overall variance via exactly the same software already needed to fit the GAM. A further extension allows for spatial variation in group size, which can be an important covariate for detectability. We illustrate these models using line transect survey data of minke whales and harbour porpoise from a visual line transect survey of European waters.
Resistance training is a valuable exercise modality but few tools exist to aid practitioners in refining resistance exercise prescriptions. PURPOSE: To determine if a relationship exists between strength and selected body composition variables measured by DEXA; and if so, develop equations which predict total body and regional strength. METHODS: Sixty-eight subjects (Male n = 34, Age = 35±11.96yrs, Height = 181.54±6.76cm, Weight = 97.82±16.68kg, Body Fat = 31.24±8.12% | Female n = 34, Age = 37±12.6yrs, Height = 165.41±5.64cm, Weight = 80.55±18.48kg, Body Fat = 43.00±10.16%) underwent DEXA body composition testing and maximal strength testing utilizing Keiser® pneumatic resistance exercise equipment. Regional strength was assessed on seven different lifts: leg press, chest press, leg curl, lat pull-down, leg extension, triceps push-down, and biceps curl. The sum of the seven lifts was considered a measure of total body strength (TBS). Multiple linear regression (step-wise removal) was used to predict TBS and regional strength from: age, height (cm), weight (kg), lean mass (kg), fat mass (kg), and percent body fat. RESULTS: CONCLUSION: DEXA body composition measurements are correlated with, and are shown to be significant predictors of total body and regional strength. Data obtained from DEXA body composition measurements are a useful tool which may aid practitioners and the general public when maximal strength testing is ill-advised or impractical. Height (cm) Weight (kg) Lean Mass (kg) Body Fat (%) Constant Correlation Coefficient SEE Total Strength -15.049 49.552 1657.592 R2 = .747 293.776 Leg Press -10.889 2.210 22.049 1291.683 R2 = .689 151.146 Chest Press -1.116 -0.658 4.974 101.797 R2 = .746 25.750 Leg Curl 3.583 -17.974 R2 = .678 30.461 Lat Pull-down -0.494 -0.796 4.917 48.997 R2 = .780 24.811 Leg Extension -0.684 4.261 -17.836 R2 = .662 31.388 Tri Pushdown -2.968 7.385 -2.706 495.841 R2 = .564 73.997 Biceps Curl 0.291 1.233 -0.433 -51.421 R2 = .739 11.981
The paper describes rather simple mathematical models which demonstrate feasibility of unlimited cumulation even if initial data are not symmetric. Small perturbation can be suppressed. In some sense these models are counterexamples for Zababakhins hypothesis of limited cumulation. Simple partial differential equations are used to describe the evolution of a closed or cylindrical surface whose velocity depends on its curvature. The well known examples of such models include the CCW (Chester-Chisnell-Whitham) canal approximation for the evolution of a shock front. Such an asymmetrical focusing is theoretically possible in hydrodynamics, for example, in the so-called multidimensional flows with homogeneous deformation which result in focusing not only to a point, but also to a straight line segment or a figure limited by an ellipse. The paper put equation related to the identification of a class of possible initial states and a class of functions of curvature which give unlimited, possibly asymmetrical, cumulation.
A method for multi-LFM signals time-frequency representation is proposed. Firstly, we use the Radon-Ambiguity transform to get the linear kernel function, which can remove the cross terms of multi-LFM signals and some part of noise in the ambiguity domain.Then we use the two-dimensional Fourier transform to get the new time frequency representation. The validity of removing noise and cross terms of this method has been shown by computer simulation even in low signal to noise ratio condition.
Abstract This research is a descriptive-correlative research to find out the correlation between students’ interpretation ability and the students ability to finish questions about straight movement. The tools for data collecting is an essay test which consists of 8 numbers, 4 numbers used to measure students’ ability to interpret the graph, and another 4 numbers used to measure students’ ability to finish the question with 0,52 reliability (medium category). This research involves 25 students of class C from the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 7 Sungai Raya as the sample of the research and the students were chosen based on the withdrawn by intact group. Based on the correlative analysis product moment, there is positive correlation between students’ ability in interpreting the graph and students’ ability in finishing the straight movement questions where the correlation score is 0,4035. Based on significant coefficient correlation test, the result is t hitung > t tabel = 2,2564 > 2,069 with 5% significant level and dk=23, so there is a significant correlation between students’ ability to interpret the graph and the ability to finish the straight movement question. The writer hopes that this research might become the benchmark for science teachers, especially physics teachers to put more attention about students’ ability to interpret the graph, considering graph is really needed in order to finish the problems in physics subject. Keywords : Descriptive correlative, Graph, Straight Movement, Significance Test
The object under study is an aortic valve, located in the aortic annulus. The aortic valve leaflet has been assumed to be a three‐dimensional object. The computations were performed using the Ansys Multiphysics system. The result of our analysis takes the form of a model describing the interaction between two domains. The opening of the aortic valve model was obtained by iteration process. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
ABSTRACT. One-dimensional two parameters the normal distribution assorts basic probability distributions in the statistics, in last years into being many generalized versions, taking into account parameters of the asymmetry and the kurtosis. They there create the class of normal distributions «-parameter, properly with parameters, m = 1 positions (shifts), m — 2 — positions and variations (scale), m = 3 positions, variations and skewness and m = 4 positions, variations, skewnesses and kurtosis. On the job we give 7 chosen one-dimensional probability distributions from the class of normal distributions. For them one mentioned functions of the thickness and one averred normalizations to show, that the integral after area of the determinates of these functions is equal one.
In this paper we study the relationships between operations in K-theory and ordinary mod p cohomology. In particular, conditions are given under which the mod p associated graded ring of a filtered λ-ring is an unstable algebra over the Steenrod algebra. This result partially extends to the algebraic setting a topological result of Atiyah about operations on K-theory and mod p cohomology for torsionfree spaces. It is also shown that any polynomial algebra that is an algebra over the Steenrod algebra can be realized as the mod p associated graded of a filtered λ-ring. Another observation is that Atiyah’s result gives rise to a K-theoretic analogue of Kuhn’s Realization Conjecture concerning the size of spaces in cohomology.
In this paper, we will present information theoretic bounds on the estimated Zernike coefficients for various diversity phase functions. We will show that, in certain cases, defocus diversity may yield higher Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) than some other diversity phase functions. Evaluating the performance of the phase diversity algorithm using simulated images, we find that for an extended scene and defocus diversity, the phase diversity algorithm achieves the CRLB for known objects and approaches the CRLB by about a factor of two for unknown objects.
The semi-Markov decision model is considered under the criterion of long-run average cost. A new criterion, which for any policy considers the limit of the expected cost incurred during the first n transitions divided by the expected length of the first n transitions, is considered. Conditions guaranteeing that an optimal stationary (non-randomized) policy exist are then presented. It is also shown that the above criterion is equivalent to the usual one under certain conditions.
The standard Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure, a simple modification of the MH procedure (reanalyzing the data separately for high- and low-performing groups), and the iterative logit method were compared with respect to their robustness and power to detect symmetric nonuniform diferential item functioning (DIF). Data for a 79-item test with 11% of DIF items were simulated using a three parameter logistic model for focal and reference groups. The ability distributions of both groups were normally distributed. The factors manipulated were sample size (200 and 1,000 examinees per group) and DIF-size (.25 and .50). As expected, results show that sample size and DIF size improve power, although the power is rather low at each of the factor levels. The MH variation yields higher power than the standard MH procedure and the iterative logit method for each cell of the design, but it was not robust in the N = 1,000 sample size condition.
In this paper we are interested in the differential inclusion $0 in  ddot{x}(t)+ frac{b}{t} dot{x}(t)+ partial F(x(t))$ in a finite-dimensional Hilbert space $ mathbb{R}^{d}$, where $F$ is a proper, convex, lower semicontinuous function. The motivation of this study is that the differential inclusion models the FISTA algorithm as considered in [A. Chambolle and C. Dossal, J. Optim. Theory Appl., 166 (2015), pp. 968--982]. In particular, we investigate the different asymptotic properties of solutions for this inclusion for $b>0$. We show that the convergence rate of $F(x(t))$ towards the minimum of $F$ is of order of $O mathopen{}(t^{- frac{2b}{3}})$ when $0 3$ this order is of $o mathopen{}({t^{-2}})$ and the solution-trajectory converges to a minimizer of $F$. These results generalize the ones obtained in the differential setting (where $F$ is differentiable) in [H. Attouch, Z. Chbani, J. Peypouquet, and P. Redont, Math. Program., 2016, pp. 1--53], [H. Attouch, Z. Chbani, and H. Riahi,...
Product style is defined as the weighted average index of the style of feature subassemblies which is composed of some feature pixel points.By the vector mean of product shape feature,and using the normalized product style description-the three-dimensional cognitive space based on multi-dimensional scaling(MDS),the data structure fitting product style derivation is put forward.The derivation model of product style is explored deeply on the basis of subassembly shape-para prototype square matrix(SSPPSM) and subassembly style contribution rate square matrix(SSCRSM) which are introduced.
In this paper, a new algorithm for the design of optimal controllers of large-scale linear systems using a pole-assignment technique to achieve a desired degree of stability is presented. The method is based on obtaining the weighting matrix Q of a suitable quadratic performance index and the optimal-control matrix F that correspond to the desired closed-loop eigenvalues of the system. To achieve this, a reduced model, retaining only those eigenvalues of the original system which are to be shifted, is considered, and it has been proved that, if a suitable weighting matrix Q and an optimal control matrix F of the reduced model having the desired set of eigenvalues are found, a simple matrix manipulation yields the weighting matrix Q and the control matrix F of the original large-scale system. The algorithm has been illustrated with an example.
1. General. 2. Guide to Choosing a Basis Set. 3. Guide to the Appendices. 4. References. 5. Appendix A. Summary of Basis Sets Arranged by the Table Number. 6. Appendix B. Summary of Basis Sets Arranged by Type and Size. 7. Appendix C. Slater Exponents for Atoms He to Xe. 8. Appendix D. Slater Exponents for STO-ENG Expansions. 9. Appendix E. Molecular Optimized Gaussian Basis Sets and Standard Atomic Scale Factors. 10. Appendix F. Polarization and Diffuse Functions. 11. Appendix G. Gaussian Basis Sets.
Abstract Objective To determine the effect of increasing fruit visibility, adding information and lowering price on fruit purchasing at a university cafeteria in Lima, Peru. Design Quasi-experimental pilot study of a three-phase stepped intervention. In Phase 1, fruit was displayed >3 m from the point of purchase with no additional information. Phase 2 consisted in displaying the fruit near the point of purchase with added health and price information. Phase 3 added a 33 % price reduction. The duration of each phase was 3 weeks and phases were separated by 2-week breaks. Primary outcomes were total pieces of fruit and number of meals sold daily. Setting A university cafeteria in Lima, Peru. Subjects Approximately 150 people, students and non-student adults, who purchased food daily. Twelve students participated in post-intervention interviews. Results Fruit purchasing doubled from Phase 1 to Phase 3 (P<0·01) and remained significant after adjusting for the number of meals sold daily (P<0·05). There was no evidence of a difference in fruit sold between the other phases. Females purchased 100 % of the fruit in Phase 1, 82 % in Phase 2 and 67 % in Phase 3 (P<0·01). Males increased their purchasing significantly between Phase 1 and 3 (P<0·01). Non-student adults purchased more fruit with each phase (P<0·05) whereas students did not. Qualitatively, the most common reason for not purchasing fruit was a marked preference to buy unhealthy snack foods. Conclusions Promoting fruit consumption by product placement close to the point of purchase, adding health information and price reduction had a positive effect on fruit purchasing in a university cafeteria, especially in males and non-student adults.
The usual equation for both motions of a single planet around the sun and electrons in the deterministic Rutherford-Bohr atomic model is conservative with a singular potential at the origin. When a dissipation is added, new phenomena appear. It is shown that whenever the momentum is not zero, the moving particle does not reach the center in finite time and its displacement does not blow-up either, even in the classical context where arbitrarily large velocities are allowed. Moreover we prove that all bounded solutions tend to $0$ for $t$ large, and some formal calculations suggest the existence of special orbits with an asymptotically spiraling exponentially fast convergence to the center.
Abstract ℳultivariate uadratic public key schemes have been suggested as early as 1985 by Matsumoto and Imai as an alternative for the RSA scheme. Since then, several schemes have been proposed, for example hidden field equations, unbalanced oil and vinegar schemes, and stepwise triangular schemes. All these schemes have a rather large key space for a secure choice of parameters. Surprisingly, the question of equivalent keys has not been discussed in the open literature until recently. In this article, we show that for all basic classes mentioned above, it is possible to reduce the private – and hence the public – key space by several orders of magnitude, i.e. the size of the set of possible private and hence public keys can be reduced. For the Matsumoto–Imai scheme, we are even able to show that the reductions we found are the only ones possible, i.e. that these reductions are tight. While the theorems developed in this article are of independent interest themselves as they broaden our understanding of ℳultivariate uadratic public key systems, we see applications of our results both in cryptanalysis and in memory efficient implementations of -schemes.
In the system of computer aided geometric design(CAGD),using polynomial curves to approximate rational Bezier curves can simplify the onerous calculation in their integral computation and derivatives.The existing solution only tests whether a known rational curve has its corresponding convergent polynomial approximate curve.However,it is not easy to select proper weights to generate the rational curve which can be approximated by a polynomial curve.That is,designing it beforehand is not simple.At the same time,only does it depend on elevating the degree of the polynomial curve to diminish the approximate error of its integral computation and derivatives.This paper gives a kind of rational Bezier curves and the algorithm of its approximation using polynomial curves.It can overcome the two disadvantages above and has the value of application.
The unconditionally stable alternating-direction-implicit (ADI)-FDTD method for bodies of revolution (BOR) is extended to Debye dispersive media based on the auxiliary differential equation (ADE) formulation. To validate the proposed algorithm, two numerical examples are given. Compared with the 3-D FDTD result, they show good agreement and at least 83% of memory and 55% of running time is saved for CFLN=2.
In this paper, we flnd isomorphisms between certain invari- ant groups corresponding to difierent numerations on 6-points of surfaces. There is a combinatorial correspondence between four 6-point orderings obtained by exchanging two opposite labels. We derive isomorphisms be- tween certain invariant quotient groups obtained from these 6-point nu- merations. This is a preliminary step towards an ultimate classiflcation of 6-points invariants, and perhaps towards a proof that the invariant groups, or at least certain derived invariants, are independent of the arbi- trary choice of the numeration.
This paper presents a method of adaptive short time Fourier analysis (STFT) with linear frequency modulation window functions. The chirp rate of the window function is adaptively adjusted via the Time Lag Doppler function (TLDF) and the Radon transform, and a high time frequency resolution is achieved. Compared with current adaptive methods, this method is an open loop algorithm, which avoids nonlinear programming and iterative computation. Experiment results prove the validity of this method.
If an accessory stimulus regularly precedes a critical stimulus at a fixed inter-stimulus interval then the shorter the interval the lower the threshold for the critical stimulus. Three hypotheses which might explain this are discussed, and two experiments described. Experiment 1 shows that varying the intensity of an accessory stimulus does not affect the extent of the threshold fall it produces. Experiment 2 confirmed a prediction that randomizing inter-stimulus intervals over a small range would allow the threshold to fall as the mean inter-stimulus interval decreased at long mean intervals but not at short ones. Taken with earlier results, these experiments indicate that the subject lowers his threshold during a range of time about the end of the inter-stimulus interval in which he expects that the stimulus may occur. It is also shown that the extent of the fall in threshold is inversely proportional to the length of this range of expectation, and that the latter appears to be directly proportional to the duration of the inter-stimulus interval.    This variation in threshold level is considered in terms of the model of the threshold provided by signal detectability theory. It is shown that the threshold falls are due to changes in the criterion computed by the subject, rather than in the sensory noise. This model is also successfully used to predict the extent of the shifts in detection rate that occur as the inter-stimulus interval alters, on the assumption that subjects attempt to keep their false positive rates constant. Finally it is suggested that in computing the appropriate criterion for each inter-stimulus interval the subject uses a simple approximate method rather than the more complex exact method.
In attempting to understand how combinatorial modifications alter algebraic properties of monomial ideals, several authors have investigated the process of adding "whiskers" to graphs. The first and the fourth authors developed a similar construction to build a vertex decomposable simplicial complex $ Delta_ chi$ from a coloring $ chi$ of the vertices of a simplicial complex $ Delta$. In this paper, we study this construction for colorings of subsets of the vertices, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for this construction to produce vertex decomposable simplicial complexes. Using combinatorial topology, we strengthen and give new proofs for results of the second and third authors about sequentially Cohen-Macaulay edge ideals that were originally proved using algebraic techniques.
Numerical simulations of scattering from one-dimensional (1-D) randomly rough surfaces with Pierson-Moskowitz (P-M) spectra show that if the kernel (or propagator) matrix with zeros on its diagonal is used in the discretized magnetic field integral equation (MFIE), the results exhibit an excessive sensitivity to the current sampling interval, especially for backscattering at low-grazing angles (LGAs). Though the numerical results reported in this paper were obtained using the method of ordered multiple interactions (MOMI), a similar sampling interval sensitivity has been observed when a standard method of moments (MoM) technique is used to solve the MFIE. A subsequent analysis shows that the root of the problem lies in the correct discretization of the MFIE kernel. We found that the inclusion of terms proportional to the surface curvature (regarded by some authors as an additional correction) in the diagonal of the kernel matrix virtually eliminates this sampling sensitivity effect. By reviewing the discretization procedure for MFIE we show that these curvature terms indeed must be included in the diagonal in order for the propagator matrix to be represented properly. The recommended current sampling interval for scattering calculations with P-M surfaces is also given.
The article reveals the notion of phraseological units-“false friends” by the example of the English and Russian languages. The author gives a brief description of the existing classes of this type of phraseological units. Particular attention is paid to the functioning of interlingual “false friends” in the English-language internet resources, the possible difficulties in understanding are described, and the methods for avoiding mistakes in translation are suggested.
Constrained total least squares (CTLS) is a technique for solving an overdetermined system of equations Ax=b that tries to remove the noise present in A and b while simultaneously exploiting the algebraic structure of the noise in A and b. The CTLS method is applied to the problem of estimating the frequencies of sinusoids in white noise. For the case of 25 samples, a sampling rate of 1 Hz, and two sinusoids whose frequency separation is 0.02, the resulting root-mean-square error of the CTLS technique is very close to that of the maximum likelihood estimator up to 3 dB signal-to-noise ratio.<<ETX>>
Dynamic conditioning is a technique that allows one to formulate correlation models for large baskets without incurring in the curse of dimensionality. The individual price processes for each reference name can be described by a lattice model specified semi-parametrically or even nonparametrically and which can realistically have about 1000 sites. The time discretization step is chosen so small to satisfy the Courant stability condition and is typically of about a few hours. This constraint ensures needed smoothness for the single name probability kernels which can thus be directly manipulated. A flexible multi-factor correlation model can be obtained by means of conditioning trees corresponding to binomial processes with jumps. There is one conditioning tree associated to each reference names, one associated to each industry sector and a global one to the basket itself. Since the conditioning trees are correlated, the underlying processes are also mutually correlated. In this paper, we discuss a modeling framework for CDOs based on dynamic conditioning in greater detail than previously done in our other papers. We also show that the model calibrates well to index tranches throughout in the period from 2005 to the Spring of 2008 and yields instructive insights.
Let G be a finite transitive group of permutations of a finite set X. The rank of G is by definition the number of orbits of the stabilizer of a point. The transitive group G is primitive if the stabilizer of a point is a maximal subgroup of G. Let H be a finite transitive group of permutations of a finite set Y. Then (G, X) is a primitive rank 3 extension of (H, Y) if G is a primitive rank 3 permutation group on X and if there is an orbit D of G, the pointwise stabilizer of a X such that (G, D)(H, Y) as permutation groups. Several sporadic simple groups have been discovered as rank 3 extensions ofcertain known groups. In this paper we consider a rank 3 extension problem related to the projective symplectic group PSp(2m, q). This group is primitive of rank 3 when considered as a group of permutations of the points of a projective space P of dimension 2m over the field of q elements. Indeed for v e P, the group PSp(2m, q)o has 3 orbits on P, namely {v}, the set of all points of P unequal to v which are perpendicular to v, which we denote A(v), and the set of all points of P which are not perpendicular to v. We show that the only primitive rank 3 extension of PSp(2m, q) on A(v) is the natural one of PSp(2m, q) on P. A precise statement is the following.
Differential calculus is not a unique way to observe polynomial equations such as $a+b=c$. We propose a way of applying difference calculus to estimate multiplicities of the roots of the polynomials $a$, $b$ and $c$ satisfying the equation above. Then a difference $abc$ theorem for polynomials is proved using a new notion of a radical of a polynomial. Two results on the non-existence of polynomial solutions to difference Fermat type functional equations are given as applications. We also introduce a truncated second main theorem for differences, and use it to consider difference Fermat type equations with transcendental entire solutions.
In this paper we report the preliminary results of recognition of learned subjects from unlearned ones during foot writing process using electromyogram (EMG) signals recorded from thigh and shank muscles. For proof of idea, three subjects were asked to write seven letters with foot. We recorded and analyzed the data to study the learning process in five sessions. Since previous studies have shown that pressure of pen and stiffness of hand are inversely related to the learning level, we considered the pressure applied by a magnetic pen on a digital tablet during foot writing as one of the main features to represent the learning level. Pressure analysis demonstrated that the pressure on the tablet is decreased during successive task accomplishments. Statistical analysis of pressure indicates that the fourth day can be considered as the frontier of the learning process. The EMG signal was also recorded from eight leg muscles and for each of them 28 features were extracted. Several classification methods including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Linear Classifier, Naive Bayes and K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) were used in order to classify the recorded data. With 10 superior features chosen by Sequential Floating Forward Selection (SFFS) algorithm for each classifier, the accuracy of corresponding classifiers was in the range of 72%–95%. Moreover, we found out the SVM classifier, and the two Tibialis Anterior (TA) and Medial Gastrocnemius (MG) muscles could distinguish between learned and unlearned subjects most properly. The accuracy of features Mean frequency (MNF), Modified Mean Absolute Value (NMAV2) and Third spectral moment (SM3) belonging to TA and Willison Amplitude (WAMP) and Root Mean Square (RMS) belonging to MG was 90 and 85 percent, respectively. This preliminary study suggests that EMG signals can be effectively used to determine when the learning procedure is converging (or starting to converge) to its steady and ultimate level.
The linear model of a hydroelectric power plant under water hammer is considered. This model contains the hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations (hPDEs) of wave propagation along the distributed parameter tunnel and penstock, also a surge tank with throttling. The water hammer occurs following hydraulic turbine shut down. A system of Functional Differential Equations of neutral type (nFDEs) is associated to the basic Boundary Value Problem (BVP) and asymptotic stability is obtained using a quadratic Lyapunov functional suggested by the energy identity.
There exists deep relationship between fabric layers and performance of warm-keeping, By warm-keeping instrument measurement of double-fold silk, Stape rayon, pure-cotton delaine and jaegers under different layers conditions, linear equation of the four fabrics are obtained. The article provide theoretical Criteria for remarks and production designs on fabric' s performance of warm-keeping and can be references of user" s choice of fabric.
Hypersurface simple K3 singularities defined by nondegenerate quasi-homogeneous polynomials are classified into ninety five classes in term of the weight of the polynomial by T. Yonemura. We consider versal deformations of them. It has been conjectured that the stratum $ mu$ =const of the versal deformation of any nondegenerate hypersurface simple K3 singularity is equivalent to the $ delta_m$ constant locus. It holds true for the case deformations are also nondegenerate by K. Watanabe. On the other hand, it follows from Reid that the $ delta_m$ constant locus includes the $ mu$ constant locus generally. We show the conjecture holds true in general for No.10-14, 46-51 and 83 in the table of Yonemura.
We consider the fluctuations of shapes of two phases boundaries of the one-dimensional statistical mechanics models. By applying the theory of one-dimensional random walk, the models of the two phases boundaries are constructed by assuming that there is a specified value of the large area in the intermediate region of the two phases boundaries. Then we investigate the asymptotical behavior of the corresponding sequence of probability measures describing the statistical properties of the two phases boundaries. We show that the limiting probability measures coincide with some conditional probability distribution of certain Gaussian distribution. Further we discuss the properties of fluctuations of phase separation lines for the Ising model, and we obtain the asymptotic properties of the two interfaces S.O.S. model.
In this article,we obtain some explicit expressions about rooted petal bundles on the orientable surfaces(genus 2 and 3)and the nonorientable surfaces(genus 5)with the size as a parameter.Meanwhile,we consider a kind of maps:nearly 2-regular maps, topologically equivalent to petal bundles.By a combinatorial method,an explicit expression of rooted nearly 2-regular maps on the sphere with three parameters and the number of 2- regular maps on the surfaces with given genus are derived.
In this paper, we present a new and efficient method to implement robust smoothing of low-level signal features: B-spline channel smoothing. This method consists of three steps: encoding of the signal features into channels, averaging of the channels, and decoding of the channels. We show that linear smoothing of channels is equivalent to robust smoothing of the signal features if we make use of quadratic B-splines to generate the channels. The linear decoding from B-spline channels allows the derivation of a robust error norm, which is very similar to Tukey's biweight error norm. We compare channel smoothing with three other robust smoothing techniques: nonlinear diffusion, bilateral filtering, and mean-shift filtering, both theoretically and on a 2D orientation-data smoothing task. Channel smoothing is found to be superior in four respects: it has a lower computational complexity, it is easy to implement, it chooses the global minimum error instead of the nearest local minimum, and it can also be used on nonlinear spaces, such as orientation space.
In target tracking system,sensor measurements may arrive at the fusion center out of sequence because of the different communication delays,which results in the out-of-sequence measurement( OOSM) problem. Aiming at the OOSM problem in nonlinear condition,based on fast marginalized particle filtering( FMPF) solution algorithm is proposed on the basis of existing algorithm. The new algorithm deals with OOSM by combing the framework of FMPF and the idea of forward prediction filtering. The state vector of target motion is divided into linear state sub-vector and nonlinear state sut-vector,and corresponding OOSM algorithm are used to estimate. The algorithm can deal with OOSM problem both in 1-step-lag and multi-step-lags case. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiment indicates that the new algorithm can effectively deal with OOSM problem and reduces computation complexity and increase real-time of the algorithm.
Spike-time correlations capture the short timescale covariance between the activity of neurons on a single trial. These correlations can significantly vary in magnitude and sign from trial to trial, and have been proposed to contribute to information encoding in visual cortex. While monkeys performed a motion-pulse detection task, we examined the behavioral impact of both the magnitude and sign of single-trial spike-time correlations between two nonoverlapping pools of middle temporal (MT) neurons. We applied three single-trial measures of spike-time correlation between our multiunit MT spike trains (Pearson's, absolute value of Pearson's, and mutual information), and examined the degree to which they predicted a subject's performance on a trial-by-trial basis. We found that on each trial, positive and negative spike-time correlations were almost equally likely, and, once the correlational sign was accounted for, all three measures were similarly predictive of behavior. Importantly, just before the behaviorally relevant motion pulse occurred, single-trial spike-time correlations were as predictive of the performance of the animal as single-trial firing rates. While firing rates were positively associated with behavioral outcomes, the presence of either strong positive or negative correlations had a detrimental effect on behavior. These correlations occurred on short timescales, and the strongest positive and negative correlations modulated behavioral performance by ∼9%, compared with trials with no correlations. We suggest a model where spike-time correlations are associated with a common noise source for the two MT pools, which in turn decreases the signal-to-noise ratio of the integrated signals that drive motion detection. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Previous work has shown that spike-time correlations occurring on short timescales can affect the encoding of visual inputs. Although spike-time correlations significantly vary in both magnitude and sign across trials, their impact on trial-by-trial behavior is not fully understood. Using neural recordings from area MT (middle temporal) in monkeys performing a motion-detection task using a brief stimulus, we found that both positive and negative spike-time correlations predicted behavioral responses as well as firing rate on a trial-by-trial basis. We propose that strong positive and negative spike-time correlations decreased behavioral performance by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of integrated MT neural signals.
Aim To find the new exact solutions of Burgers-Fisher equation.Methods Using the non-Lie ansatze method.Results Nonlineav partial differential equations are changed into ordvrary dofforontial equations via the generaliced wndition symmetry and new exact solutiong can be get.Conclusion Promote the study of the Burgers-Fisher equation,but,if the method can goneralozed to study other more complex nonlinear esohetion equations,will be studied.
In this article, we study the iteration of Cox rings of klt singularities (and Fano varieties) from a topological perspective. Given a klt singularity (X,∆;x), we define the iteration of Cox rings of (X,∆;x). The first result of this article is that the iteration of Cox rings Cox(X,∆;x) of a klt singularity stabilizes for k large enough. The second result is a boundedness one, we prove that for a n-dimensional klt singularity (X,∆;x) the iteration of Cox rings stabilizes for k ≥ c(n), where c(n) only depends on n. Then, we use Cox rings to establish the existence of a simply connected factorial canonical cover (or scfc cover) of a klt singularity. The scfc cover generalizes both, the universal cover and the iteration of Cox rings. We prove that the scfc cover dominates any sequence of quasi-étale finite covers and reductive abelian quasi-torsors of the singularity. We characterize when the iteration of Cox rings is smooth and when the scfc cover is smooth. We also characterize when the spectrum of the iteration coincides with the scfc cover. Finally, we give a complete description of the regional fundamental group, the iteration of Cox rings, and the scfc cover of klt singularities of complexity one. Analogous versions of all our theorems are also proved for Fano type morphisms. To extend the results to this setting, we show that the Jordan property holds for the regional fundamental group of Fano type morphisms.
In this paper, we present a progressive image reconstruction scheme based on the semantically scalable multi-scale edge representation of images, with the resolution and visual quality scalable to various bitrate requirements. In the multi-scale edge representation an image is decomposed into its multi-scale primal sketch and the background where the multi-scale primal sketch preserves the structural semantics of images, and the background represents the smooth locale. Edge compensation is performed to smoothly remove edges at each scale. The multi-scale edges are then embedded encoded using the GFA modeling. The image reconstruction is progressively achieved by synthesizing multi-scale edges on the reconstructed image obtained from previous scale. As edge synthesis is performed at consecutive scales, the visual quality of the reconstructed image is progressively enhanced. Experiment shows that the proposed scheme performs well at low bit-rate multiresolution representation and progressive reconstruction
In 1966, Jenkins and Serrin gave existence and uniqueness results for infinite boundary value problems of minimal surfaces in the Euclidean space, and after that such solutions have been studied by using the univalent harmonic mapping theory. In this paper, we show that there exists a one-to-one correspondence between solutions of infinite boundary value problems for minimal surfaces and those of lightlike line boundary problems for maximal surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski spacetime. We also investigate some symmetry relations associated with the above correspondence together with their conjugations, and observe function theoretical aspects of the geometry of these surfaces. Finally, a reflection property along lightlike line segments on boundaries of maximal surfaces is discussed.
Numerical analysis becomes a powerful resource in the study of partial differential equations (PDEs), allowing to illustrate existing theorems and find conjectures. By using sophisticated methods, questions which seem inaccessible before, like rapid oscillations or blow-up of solutions can be addressed in an approached way. Rapid oscillations in solutions are observed in dispersive PDEs without dissipation where solutions of the corresponding PDEs without dispersion present shocks. To solve numerically these oscillations, the use of efficient methods without using artificial numerical dissipation is necessary, in particular in the study of PDEs in some dimensions, done in this work. As studied PDEs in this context are typically stiff, efficient integration in time is the main problem. An analysis of exponential and symplectic integrators allowed to select and find the more efficient method for each PDE studied. The use of parallel computing permitted to address numerically questions of stability and blow-up in the Davey-Stewartson equation, in both stiff and non-stiff regimes.
Based on the request of fiber-optic gyro (FOG) on the automatic temperature control (ATC) system of light source, the main factors influencing changes of temperature in syntony cavity are given, one is the change of working condition temperature, the other is the radiation resulting from its working. The particularly mathematics analysis about the refrigeration principium of light source LD and the working procession of tradition ATC. The ATC mathematic model of LD is founded. According to the emulate results under the disturbing of high and low frequency, some parameters is optimized and improved, a new high precision, adjusting at plus and minus direction ATC system is designed. The power dissipation being saved, the heat radiation and the size of the driving circuit is also reduced greatly. A driving circuit with high precision, low power dissipation and small minimized size is realized. Finally the test results indicated that, in the temperature range of -30degC ~ 30degC,the present technology can make a temperature control precision 0.1degC and the variation of light power less than 0.1%, the system is helpful to the improve of FOG precision and the research of other SLD light resources
Multirate sampling techniques are used to sharpen and extend the concept of "frequency response" for discretely excited continuous systems. Frequency response, in this case, pertains to steady-state response of continuous variables at the input frequency and its positive aliases. Simple expressions are given for computing the amplitude ratios and phase angles as a function of these frequencies. Results are presented in terms of the familiar Bode plot. This Bode plot must be interpreted in a novel way, however. Similar expressions, appropriate for interpreting frequency response data obtained from sampled records of continuous responses, are also given. These frequency response methods apply for analysis of both open-loop and closed-loop discretely controlled continuous system responses, and are useful for assessing intersample ripple effects. M(s) s T w w' z z
In this paper the extension of Wang-Said type generalized curves is provided by introducing some shape parameters.The blending functions of these new curves are showed explicitly,therefore they are easy to be integrated and find their derivative.By changing the values of those shape parameters,the shape of these new curves can be adjusted locally or entirely,and Said-Ball curves with multiple shape parameters are provided in the paper.
Taking green Chinese onion as the test material,through the comparison of drip irrigation fertilization and furrow irrigation fertilization methods,the effect of integration of water and fertilization through drip irrigation on yield and water fertilizer use efficiency is studied in this paper.The results show that,drip fertigation can save water by 24.25%~26.65%,improve the agronomic traits of onion,increase the yield by 10.36%,enhance the water use efficiency by 26.59% and increase economic benefits by12.90%.Also,the N,P,K fertilizer utilization rate is increased by 4.75%,4.53%and 19.20%,respectively,and the soil nutrient balance is good.The study result can provide technical reference and scientific basis for the future application of drip fertigation in the cultivation of onion in protected field.
We present an ongoing implementation of a dependent-type theory (Δ-framework) based on the Edinburgh Logical Framework LF, extended with Proof-functional logical connectives such as intersection, union, and strong (or minimal relevant) implication. Their combination opens up new possibilities of formal reasoning on proof-theoretic semantics. We provide some examples in the extended type theory and we outline a type checker. The theory of the system is under investigation. Once validated in vitro, the proof-functional type theory could be successfully plugged into existing truth-functional proof-systems.
The entropy region is constructed from vectors of random variables by collecting Shannon entropies of all subvectors. Its shape is studied here by means of polymatroidal constructions, notably by convolution. The closure of the region is decomposed into the direct sum of tight and modular parts, reducing the study to the tight part. The relative interior of the reduction belongs to the entropy region. Behavior of the decomposition under self-adhesivity is clarified. Results are specialized and extended to the region constructed from four tuples of random variables. This and computer experiments help to visualize approximations of a symmetrized part of the entropy region. The four-atom conjecture on the minimal Ingleton score is refuted.
Survival models can support the estimation of the resources needed for future renovations of sewer systems. They are particularly useful, when a large share of network will need renovation. This paper studies modelling sewer deterioration in a context, where data are available for pipes selected for inspections due to suspected or experienced poor condition. We compare the random survival forest and the Weibull regression for modelling survival and find that both methods yield similar results, but the random survival forest performs slightly better. We propose a method for estimating the range in which the actual network survival curve lies. We conclude that in order to reach reliable results, a life span model needs to be constructed based on a random sample of pipes, which are then consecutively inspected and in addition, censoring and left truncation need to be accounted for. The inspection data applied in this paper had been collected with the aim of finding pipes in poor condition in the network. As a result, the data were biased towards poor condition and unrepresentative in terms of pipe ages.
David Hitchcock, in his recent "Informal Logic and the Concept of Argument" (2007), defends a recursive definition of 'argument.' I present and discuss several problems that arise for his definition. I argue that refining Hitchcock's definition in order to resolve these problems reveals a crucial, but minimally explicated, relation that was, at best, playing an obscured role in the original definition or, at worst, completely absent from the original definition.
Abstract In ℓ1-regularization, which is an important tool in signal and image processing, one usually is concerned with signals and images having a sparse representation in some suitable basis, e.g., in a wavelet basis. Many results on convergence and convergence rates of sparse approximate solutions to linear ill-posed problems are known, but rate results for the ℓ1-regularization in case of lacking sparsity had not been published until 2013. In the last two years, however, two articles appeared providing sufficient conditions for convergence rates in case of non-sparse but almost sparse solutions. In the present paper, we suggest a third sufficient condition, which unifies the existing two and, by the way, also incorporates the well-known restricted isometry property.
This paper develops an algorithm for finding the dynamic shortest path from the source node to the sink node in stochastic dynamic networks, in which the arc lengths are independent random variables with exponential distributions. In each node there is an environmental variable, which evolves in accordance with a continuous time Markov process. The parameter of the exponential distribution of the transition time of each arc is also a function of the state of the environmental variable of its initiating node. It is also assumed that upon arriving at each node, we know the state of its environmental variable and also the states of the environmental variables of its adjacent nodes. Upon arriving at each node, we can move toward the sink node through the best outgoing arc or wait for encountering the better state of its environmental variable, which reduces the expected transition times of the outgoing arcs. In this paper, we apply the stochastic dynamic programming for finding the dynamic shortest path from the source node to the sink node by obtaining the optimal strategy of movement in each node of the network.
In this paper, we consider the primitive equations with zero vertical viscosity, zero vertical thermal diffusivity, and the horizontal viscosity and horizontal thermal diffusivity of size epsilon(alpha) where 0 < alpha < alpha(0). We prove the global existence of a unique strong solution for large data provided that the Rossby number is small enough (the rotation and the vertical stratification are large).
Suppose that $ Gamma_0 subset mathbb R^{n+1}$ is a closed countably $n$-rectifiable set whose complement $ mathbb R^{n+1} setminus  Gamma_0$ consists of more than one connected component. Assume that the $n$-dimensional Hausdorff measure of $ Gamma_0$ is finite or grows at most exponentially near infinity. Under these assumptions, we prove a global-in-time existence of mean curvature flow in the sense of Brakke starting from $ Gamma_0$. There exists a finite family of open sets which move continuously with respect to the Lebesgue measure, and whose boundaries coincide with the space-time support of the mean curvature flow.
A diagnostic system has been developed to determine the global system stability characteristics of an operating boiling water reactor (BWR) using the average power range monitor (APRM) signal as an input. A Kalman filter-based monitor is used to identify the stability characteristics of a BWR using an "M-ary" hypothesis testing scheme. Each hypothesis, i.e., system model with slightly different stability characteristics, is represented by one of several Kalman filters operating in parallel. In addition to calculating the current estimate of the system's states, the monitor also produces the a posteriori probability that each filter calculates an accurate state vector estimate given the measurements. The best estimate of the system stability corresponds to the Kalman filter producing the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP). Results suggest that a significant time savings, when compared to stability diagnoses performed via a more established technique (autoregressive modeling) requiring 30 min to 1 h worth of data, can be obtained using the MAP BWR stability monitor. MAP monitor diagnoses are typically performed in 20 to 30 s. Thus, the MAP monitor represents a novel approach for the detection of BWR instabilities.
The design of fractional order-holds (FROH) of correcting gains ß ∈[−1, 1] (potentially and possibly including zero-order-holds, ZOH with ß=0, and first-order-holds, FROH with ß=1) is discussed related to achieving output deviations being close with respect to its sampled values. A squared error time- integral between the current output and its sampled values is minimized to yield the appropriate correcting gain of the FROH in an analytic way.
In this paper,a class of strong limit theorems for the generalized relative entropy densities of m-th order nonhomogeneous Markov information source are discussed by constructing the joint distribution and nonnegative super martingales.As corollaries,some Shannon-Mcmillan theorems for Markov information source and non-memory information source are obtained and some results for the discrete information source which have been obtained by author are extended.
The present two-part review aims to put the different phenomena that have been called "beta diversity" over the years into a common conceptual framework and to explain what each of them measures. The first part (Tuomisto 2010) discussed basic definitions of "beta diversity". Each arises from a different way of combining a definition of "diversity" with a definition of its alpha component and with a mathematical relationship between the alpha and gamma components. This second part assumes that an appropriate basic definition of a beta component (which may or may not be true beta diversity) has been chosen, and the focus here will be on how to quantify it for a given dataset. About twenty different approaches have been used for this purpose. It turns out that only two of these approaches accurately quantify the selected beta component: one does so for the entire dataset, and the other for two sampling units at a time. The other approaches actually quantify other phenomena, such as mean species turnover between sampling units, compositional gradient length (with or without reference to an external gradient), distinctness of a focal sampling unit, rate of species accumulation with increasing sampling effort, rate of compositional turnover along an external gradient, or the rate of decay in compositional similarity with increasing geographical distance. Although most of these phenomena can be expressed as a function of a beta component of diversity, they do not equal a beta component of diversity. Many of these derived variables are not even numerically correlated with the beta component on which they are based, which needs to be taken into account when interpreting the results. The effects of sampling decisions when results are extrapolated beyond the available data will also be discussed.
The aim of this paper is to introduce and study a new cla ss ( ) * C A,B, δ α of Janowski Quasi- Convex univalent functions of order alpha associated with Ruscheweyh derivative. Sharp coefficient bound, distortion result and some inclusion results are discussed. Invariance of ( ) * C A,B, δ α under convolution with convex functions has also been examined and some of its applications are given. 2000 AMS subject classification: 30C45 • 30C50
We study the efficiency of covariate‐specific estimates of pure risk (one minus the survival function) when some covariates are only available for case‐control samples nested in a cohort. We focus on the semiparametric additive hazards model in which the hazard function equals a baseline hazard plus a linear combination of covariates with either time‐varying or time‐invariant coefficients. A published approach uses the design‐based inclusion probabilities to reweight the nested case‐control data. We obtain more efficient estimates of pure risks by calibrating the design weights to data available in the entire cohort, for both time‐varying and time‐invariant covariate coefficients. We develop explicit variance formulas for the weight‐calibrated estimates based on influence functions. Simulations show the improvement in precision by using weight calibration and confirm the consistency of variance estimators and the validity of inference based on asymptotic normality. Examples are provided using data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial Study (PLCO).
Let R be a ring and Q be a quiver. We prove the rst Finitistic Dimension Conjecture to be true for RQ, the path ring of Q over R, provided that R satises the conjecture. In fact, we prove that if the little and the big nitistic dimensions of R coincide and equal n < 1 , then this is also true for RQ and, both the little and the big nitistic dimensions of RQ equal n+ 1 when Q is non-discrete and n when Q is discrete. We also prove that RQ is a
The expression of prior distribution and prior information fusion are great importance in Bayesian theory's application.An approach about the integral inference of prior information is proposed based on one type weapon's complimentary test information in different conditions.The Dirichlet distribution is introduced as the prior distribution of importance factors in multi-source information and the inference model for importance factors are established by Bayesian networks.The posterior distribution can be obtained reasonably through the updated nodes by MCMC method.Hence,the problem of importance factors inference is settled.Simulation results show that this approach is able to fuse the prior distributions effectively and has a bright application prospect in accuracy evaluation.
The photosensitive CDIMA reaction was investigated using the Lengyel Epstein model modified to include the effect of external illumination. Different spatial patterns are exhibited under constant values of light, ranging from Turing Spots to Stripes for the minimum and maximum values of illumination, respectively. Moreover, by neglecting the diffusion, the system displays oscillations with a characteristic period that also depends on the illumination value. When illumination is set to periodically oscillate three different behaviors are observed. Namely, a regime exhibiting the period of the external forcing; another where there is a resonance between several periods of oscillations and a broad regime where the system demonstrates a chaotic-like behavior.
Over the years, a lot has been written about the three more common graph products (Cartesian product, Direct product and the Strong product), as all three of these are commutative products. This thesis investigates a non-commutative product graph, H × G, we call the Semi-Strong graph product, also referred in the literature as the Augmented Tensor and/or the Strong Tensor. We will start by discussing its basic properties and then focus on embeddings where the second factor, G, is a regular graph. We will use permutation voltage graphs and their graph coverings to compute the minimum genus for several families of graphs. The results follow work started first by A T White [12], extended by Ghidewon Abay Asmerom [1],[2], and follows the lead of Pisanski [9]. The strategy we use starts with an embedding of a graph H and then modifying H creating a pseudograph H∗. H∗ is a voltage graph whose covering is H × G. Given the graph product H × G, where G is a regular graph and H meets certain conditions, we will use the embedding of H∗ to study topological properties, particularly the surface on which H × G is minimally embedded. Chapter 1 Basic Graph Theory Definitions In this chapter, we present some introductory graph theory concepts and definitions that will be used in later chapters. Many results are presented without reference or proof. The reader can find them in the bibliography, especially [4], [8], [5] and [6] . Definition 1 A Graph G is a finite nonempty set V of vertices with a possibly empty set E of distinct 2-element subsets of V called edges. The vertex set is denoted V(G) and the edge set by E(G). An edge joining u and v is typically denoted uv or vu. If uv is an edge in G then vertices u and v are said to be adjacent vertices. Figure 1.1 below shows some very simple graphs.
The main objective of this paper is to provide an exclusive understanding about the theoretical and empirical working of the GARCH class of models as well as to exploit the potential gains in modeling conditional variance, once it is confirmed that conditional mean model errors present time varying volatility. Another objective is to search the best time series model among autoregressive moving average (ARMA), autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH), and exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) to give best prediction of exchange rates. The data used in present study consists of monthly exchange rates of Pakistan for the period ranging from July 1981 to May 2010 obtained from the State Bank of Pakistan. GARCH (1,2) is found to be best to remove the persistence in volatility while EGARCH(1,2) successfully overcome the leverage effect in the exchange rate returns under study.
Every permutation of {1,2,...,N} can be written as the product of two involutions. As a consequence, any permutation of the elements of an array can be performed in-place using simultaneous swaps in two rounds of swaps. In the case where the permutation is the k-way perfect shuffle we develop two methods for efficiently computin g the pair of involutions that accomplishes these swaps. The first method works whenever N is a power of k; in this case the time is O(N) and space O(log 2 N). The second method applies to the general case where N is a multiple of k; here the time is O(N logN) and the space is O(log 2 N). If k = 2 the space usage of the first method can be reduced to O(logN) on a machine that has a SADD (population count) instruction.
The aim of this paper is to present the metrics used to measure a distance between objects in a feature space. The analyses were performed on seven datasets. For each of them, the occurrence of clusters of similar objects was examined, and the measures of clusters’ dispersion were calculated. The calculations were carried out using fourteen metrics known from the literature. The article contains selected results with particular emphasis on the differences arising from the use of various metrics.
Success of high school students in solving physics questions of student selection examination (OSS) that has to be taken by high school students before entering the Turkish universities have been investigated with regard to these questions to be solved by students and suitability to high school physics curriculum and factors affecting students success. In this purpose a questionnaire has been distributed to undergraduate students of Necatibey Faculty of Education and Faculty of Science and Literature of Balikesir University in Turkey, especially to volunteer students (a total of 194 students) from Biology, Mathematics, Computer, Science Teacher Education programs and Physics departments. In addition to this, more than 30 high school physics teachers and university professors have been interviewed one to one to ask their opinion about this subject in order to investigate the results. Students and teachers criticized new OSS examination system and made some recommendations.
The implicit time-accurate approach developed by Morton, Melville and Visbal (1997) is extended to account for structural nonlinearities in fluid-structu re interactions. The flow equations are solved employing the Beam-Warming, alternate-direction, implicit scheme. The structural dynamic equations are solved by the Newmark-/3 method in time and a finite-differe nce method in space. Particular attention is focused on the elimination of the lagging errors associated with the exchange of loads and deformations at the fluid-structure interface. The implementation of Newton-like subiterations allows the coupling of vastly different aerodynamic and structural integration schemes while providing enhanced numerical stability and temporal accuracy relative to traditional lagged approaches. The nonlinear flutter of a panel is chosen as a model problem in order to address relevant issues of the fluid-structure interaction methodology. The phenomenon is modeled by coupling either Euler or Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid with the nonlinear plate deformation equations. The stability boundary of a simply-supported panel is computed for both inviscid and laminar viscous flow in the transonic regime. The approach is validated by spatial and temporal resolution studies, as well as by comparison with previous computational results. Comparison of Euler and laminar Navier-Stokes solutions reveal a pronounced stabilization of the panel due to viscous effects near sonic Mach numbers.
This report is subdivided in three parts. The first one reviews a new approach to the computation of inviscid flows using Cartesian grid methods. The crux of the method is the curvature-corrected symmetry technique (CCST) developed by the present authors for body-fitted grids. The method introduces ghost cells near the boundaries whose values are developed from an assumed flow-field model in vicinity of the wall consisting of a vortex flow, which satisfies the normal momentum equation and the non-penetration condition. The CCST boundary condition was shown to be substantially more accurate than traditional boundary condition approaches. This improved boundary condition is adapted to a Cartesian mesh formulation, which we call the Ghost Body-Cell Method (GBCM). In this approach, all cell centers exterior to the body are computed with fluxes at the four surrounding cell edges. There is no need for special treatment corresponding to cut cells which complicate other Cartesian mesh methods.
Abstract Knowledge of the rate of a biological process is important for characterizing the system and is necessary for gaining a deeper understanding of the process. Consider measurements, Y, made over time on a system following the model Y = f(t) + e, where f is a smooth, unknown function and e is measurement error. Although most statistical methodology has focused on estimating f(t) or f′(t), in some applications what is of real biological interest is the relationship between f and f′. One example is the study of nitrogen absorption by plant roots through a solution depletion experiment. In this case f(t) is the nitrate concentration of the solution surrounding the roots at time t and – f′(t) is the absorption rate of nitrate by plant roots at time t. One is interested in the rate of nitrate absorption as a function of concentration; that is, one is interested in Φ, where Φ(f) = – f′. Knowledge of Φ is important in quantifying the ability of a particular plant species to absorb nitrogen and in comparing...
Abstract Clustering optimization methods for continuous nu- merical multivariable functions have been used for increasing the eficiency in the selection of the start points in multi-start global optimization methods. Methods of this kind usually have three steps: (1) sampling points in the search domain, (2) transforming the sampled points in order to obtain points grouped in neigh- bourhoods of local optima, (3) using a clustering technique to identify the clusters. After the clusters are successfully identi- fied, the set of local optima (and from it the global optimum) can be easily determined by applying a local optimization method for each cluster. The novel Particle Swarm Clustering Optimization (PSCO) method proposed in this paper is concerned with simul- taneous integration of steps (1), (2) and (3) from the classical clustering optimization methods by applying Swarm Intelligence (SI) techniques. Two existing SI methods provided inspiration in the design of the PSCO method: Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Firey Algorithm (FA).
Aiming at single sensor’s limitation on spectrum and spatial resolution,this paper uses the technology of multi-sensor fusion,which furthest obtains the information description of target scene.This paper firstly adopts different edge detection to extract the same scene’s optical image and SAR image,obtaining each one’s edge feature image.By adopting the methods of moment invariants and contour-based moment to match each edge in the two edge feature images,this paper obtains the clearer and even more complete image.
This paper compares the performance of several single and system estimators of a two equation simultaneous model with unbalanced panel data. The Monte Carlo design varies the degree of unbalancedness in the data and the variance components ratio due to the individual effects. One useful result for applied researchers is that the feasible error components 2SLS and 3SLS procedures based on simple ANOVA type estimators of the variance components perform well with incomplete panels and are recommended in practice.
The MIL-STD-220A 50-ohm resistive method of measuring filter insertion loss using buffer networks has successfully masked the deficiencies of filters for many years. The method of measuring filter insertion loss proposed herein overcomes all the shortcomings of previous standards. It can measure insertion loss with full-rated line currents flowing (up to 400 amperes), without being adversely affected by the heavy currents and without affecting the performance of the system. It can be clamped around filter lines at installations without disturbing the circuits under test and thus can measure filter performance working into realistic load and source impedances. Filters can be evaluated using load and source impendance conditions selected as preferred from tenths of an ohm, to conjugate matched, to complex-resistive-reactive combinations, and to 50 ohms as desired. Any type of filter can be tested from lumped element to absorptive, active, or ceramic. Of major importance is the fact that this technique can also evaluate in the passband where filter insertion loss and gain is of great interest. These advantages are combined in a system that is capable of completing measurements quickly.
A successive refinement model in which each receiver observes its own side-information, while the side-information pair is stochastically degraded with respect to the source, is considered. It is further assumed that a one way conference link with given capacity exists between the decoder observing the degraded side-information and the one observing the higher quality side-information. Inner and outer bounds on the rate-distortion region are derived. Our bounds are partially tight in the sense that the characterization of the primary encoder rates is conclusive, the remaining gap being in the characterization of the conference encoder rate.
To satisfy the requirement of real-time simulation, the path planning of CGF armored car and gunship can be predigested to the path planning in a 2-D plane. This paper focuses on the core problem of the 2-D path planning—obstacles avoiding path planning. Firstly this paper bases on the problem-solving environment of the visual graph, and transforms the path planning into a matter of multistage decision. Using the improved visual graph and geometry approximation algorithm this paper solves each stage-problem and gets the shortest path of each stage. Finally by using the dynamic planning this paper solves the problem of obstacle-avoiding path planning.
A linear transformation matrix calculating apparatus linearly transforms a plurality of dictionary subspaces which belong to respective categories by a linear transformation matrix respectively, selects a plurality of sets of two dictionary subspaces from the plurality of linearly transformed dictionary subspaces, calculates a loss function using similarities among the selected sets of dictionary subspaces respectively, calculates a differential parameter obtained by differentiating the loss function by the linear transformation matrix, calculates a new linear transformation matrix from the differential parameter and the linear transformation matrix by Deepest Descent Method, and updates the new linear transformation matrix as the linear transformation matrix used in the linear transformation unit.
In this paper we perform the semiclassical analysis of a pair of resonances in the case of a quasi-symmetrical unstable double well. We consider two kinds of asymmetric perturbations: one supported in the infinite external well, the other one of the Stark kind. We prove that the first perturbation is able to localize each state inside one of the internal wells so that we have linear Stark effect and vanishing of the splitting at the crossing point of the two resonances. This phenomenon is critical in the ratio between the internal and external barrier lengths, and the critical value of the ratio is close to two. Possible applications to the molecular structure and to the vanishing of the inversion frequency are briefly discussed.
We present a model that investigates the spontaneous emergence of randomness in equity market microstructure. The phase space analysis of our model exposes an endogenous source of fluctuation in price and volume. We formulate a control problem for maximizing price regularity and stability while minimizing entanglement with the market, representing the NYSE specialists' affirmative obligation to maintain `fair and orderly markets'.
ideas from discrete calculus, quantum calculus, and continuous calculus to arbitrary time scale calculus. A time scale T is a nonempty closed subset of the real numbers R. When the time scale equals to the real numbers or integer numbers, the obtained results represent the classical theories of the differential and difference equations. Many other interesting time scales exist and give arise to many applications. The new theory of the so called " dynamic equation" not only unify the theories of differential equations and difference equations, but also extends these classical cases to the so called q difference equations (when T = q No := {q t : t ∈No for q > 1} or T = q = qU{0}) which have important applications in quantum theory see [2]. Also, it can be applied on different types of time scales like T = hZ and T = N0 2 . For an introduction to time scale calculus and dynamic equations, see Bohner and Peterson books [3, 4].
A 2-dimensional, multicomponent, multiphase, and incompressible compositional reservoir simulator has been developed and applied to chemical flooding (surfactants, alcohol and polymers) and convergence analysis. The characteristic finite difference methods for 2-dimensional enhanced oil recovery can be described as a coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations. For a generic case of the cross interference and bounded region, we put forward a kind of characteristic finite difference schemes and make use of thick and thin grids to form a complete set, and of calculus of variations, the theory of prior estimates and techniques. Optimal order estimates in L 2 norm are derived for the error in the approximate solutions. Thus we have thoroughly solved the well-known theoretical problem proposed by a famous scientist, J. Douglas, Jr.
To judge which steganographic algorithm is used for a JPEG image,some possible steganographic operations in DCT domain is investigated and a new steganographic feature space is constructed based on the methodology of micro-templates.Supported by this feature space,a new multi-class blind steganalyzer for JPEG images is presented.Experimental results indicate that,for stego-images with secret message length greater than 20%,which are produced by typical steganographic software,such as JSteg,F5 and Outguess respectively,the steganalyzer can reliably classify all the stego-images to their embedding techniques with high accuracy above 97%.The methodology of micro-templates can effectively distinguish different steganographic operations in DCT domain,which favors the detection of JPEG steganographic algorithms.
Integer-valued time series models have been a recurrent theme considered inmany papers inthelastthreedecades, butonly afewofthemhave dealt withmodels on Z (that is, including both negative and positive integers). Our aim in this paper is to introduce a first-order, integer-valued autoregressive process on Z with skew discrete Laplace marginals (Kozubowski and Inusah, Ann Inst Stat Math 58:555-571, 2006). For this, we define a new operator that acts on two independent latent processes, similarly as made by Freeland (Adv Stat Anal 94:217-229, 2010). We derive some joint and conditional basic properties of the proposed process such as characteristic function, moments, higher-order moments and jumps. Estimators for the parameters of our model are proposed and their asymptotic normality is established. We run a Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the finite-sample performance of these estimators. In order to illustrate the potential for practice of our process we apply it to a real data set about stock market.
ABSTRACT In high jumping, the horizontal velocity which jumpers aim to reach by the end of the run-up must be the maximum that they can control, enabling them to clear the greatest height possible. Furthermore, jumpers should reach the point of take-off with the lowest possible centre of mass (CM) to increase the thrust during take-off and thus produce a greater vertical velocity of the CM at the end of this phase. The aim of this study was to identify gender-related differences in the kinematic parameters of the sprint. The sample comprised 14 high jumpers (n = 8 males and n = 6 females) who were analysed during an official competition and recorded with four high speed panning cameras (sampling frequency: 50 fps). The results showed gender-related differences in the maximum height attained by the centre of mass during the flight phase (p = 0.004; Effect Size = 0.93) and in flight effectiveness (p ≤ 0.001; ES = 5.53), but not in jump effectiveness. Gender-related differences were not detected between the trajectory followed by the CM in the final supports of the run-up and the curve radius or in the direction of the final supports either. In conclusion, there are no significant gender differences in the run-up.
THIS small manual is characterised by the care which the author has taken to make clear all matters which give difficulty to beginners. The descriptive text and definitions are very concise and accurate, and the worked examples are set out in a very satisfactory fashion. The examples for exercise are both numerous and well chosen, and the book can be recommended strongly to School Certificate and Matriculation candidates as well as to junior students in the universities.Elementary Chemical Arithmetic.R. H.GibbsBy. Pp. 96. (London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1932.) 2s.
In this context, supposing a sampling survey framework and a model-based approach, the attention has been focused on the main features of the optimal prediction strategy of a given population mean, which implies estimation of some model parameters and functions, normally unknown. In particular, a wrong specification of the single unit model variances may lead to a serious loss of efficiency of estimates. For this reason, we have proposed some techniques for the estimation of model variances, which instead of being put equal to given a priori functions, can be estimated through historical data concerning past survey occasions. This approach is pragmatic and realistic, since quite always a time series of past observations is available, especially in a longitudinal survey context. Moreover, a simple post-stratification method has been proposed, in order to better define the models which can explain observed data. Finally, a comparative non parametric donor imputation procedure has been considered, which may be used separately or coupled with model assisted estimation. Usefulness of the techniques proposed has been tested through an empirical attempt, concerning the quarterly wholesale trade survey carried out by ISTAT (Italian National Statistical Institute) in the period 2005-2010. In this framework, the problem consists in minimizing magnitude of revisions, given by the differences between preliminary estimates (based on the sub-sample of quick respondents) and final estimates (which take into account late respondents as well). Main results show that model variances estimation through historical data leads to efficiency gains (lower average revisions) which cannot be neglected, and that model based prediction is normally more efficient than generalized regression estimation (which takes into account the sampling design randomness as well). Moreover, in many cases the mixed procedure (joint use of estimations of model unit variances through historical data, post-stratification and donor imputation) can improve precision of preliminary estimates even more.   Keywords: Donor; Longitudinal Survey; Model; Non Response; Post-Stratification; Revision; Variance.     2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 62D05
ABSTRACT We propose partially linear mixed-effects models with asymmetry and missingness to investigate the relationship between two biomarkers in clinical studies. The proposed models take into account irregular time effects commonly observed in clinical studies under a semiparametric model framework. In addition, commonly assumed symmetric distributions for model errors are substituted by asymmetric distribution to account for skewness. Further, informative missing data mechanism is accounted for. A Bayesian approach is developed to perform parameter estimation simultaneously. The proposed model and method are applied to an AIDS dataset and comparisons with alternative models are performed.
Two separate experiments were conducted to assess the grain and straw yield (Exp. 1), chemical composition and in vitro gas production (Exp. 2) of five varieties of rice; Hybrid, Exbaika, Jasmine 85, IR841 and Long grain ordinary 2. Experiment 1 was conducted in a randomized complete block design with four replicates per variety. After harvesting, the rice straw from each variety was combined with Kapok leaf meal (KLM) at three inclusion levels (0, 25, 50%) to formulate a diet. The sole rice straw and formulated diets were analyzed for crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and Ash. Approximately 0.2 g of each diet (sole and formulated) was incubated in a McDougall’s buffered rumen fluid under anaerobic condition for the in vitro gas production. The varieties differed ( P < 0.05) in relation to plant height, maturity days, percentage emergence, tiller number, straw yield and harvest index but did not differ in grain yield. The percentage emergence was in the range of 72.5 and 85.0%. with the highest ( P = 0.003) recorded in the Hybrid variety. Plant height ranged from 90.5 to 110.8 cm with the highest ( P = 0.046) reported in variety Long grain ordinary 2. Variety Long grain ordinary 2 had the longest ( P <0.001) mean maturity days with the least recorded in the Hybrid variety. The highest ( P < 0.05) straw yield was reported in variety Exbaika whilst Jasmine 85 had the least straw yield and harvest index. The CP concentration of the rice straw varieties increased numerically with an increase in the level of KLM. The NDF ranged from 622 g/kg DM to 913 g/kg DM for IR842 variety with 0% KLM and Long grain ordinary 2 variety with 25% KLM respectively. The ADF was in the range of 299.7 g/kg DM to 483.6 g/kg DM with the lowest reported in IR842 variety with 50% KLM. Mean asymptote gas production (b), fractional rate of gas production (c), in vitro gas production (IVGP) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) were not affected ( P <0.05) by the variety x KLM inclusion level interaction. However, IVGP at 24 h and IVOMD both differed ( P < 0.05) by variety. Varieties Jasmine 85, IR842 and Long grain ordinary 2 had higher IVGP and IVOMD as compared to the other two varieties. It was observed from the study that varieties IR841 and Long grain ordinary 2 provided higher grain and fodder production. The use of KLM as a replacement enhanced the nutrient composition, fermentation characteristics and digestibility.
The appropriate blend proportional factor value which combines two kinds of staggered grids used in Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for simulating the multiphase flow phenomena with large density ratio in the Polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) is fixed on. The shape deformation of the water droplet is found when using the two kinds of staggered grids to prevent the pressure oscillation when solving the Poisson equation of this LBM model and the shape of the water droplet varies with the changes of the blend proportional factor values. Two methods are adopted to find out the two staggered grids’ appropriate blend proportional factor value that can diminish or minimize the deformation of the droplet. The first one is to compare the simulation results of different blend proportional factors with the theoretical value and find the one mostly approaches the theoretical value; the second one is to compare the current velocity divergences of the two staggered grids using the results calculated by different blend proportional factor values. A water droplet resting in a tunnel is simulated with different blend proportional factor values and the appropriate value is decided.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
In recent years, amounts of permutation-diffusion architecture-based image cryptosystems have been proposed. However, the key stream elements in the diffusion procedure are merely depending on the secret key that is usually fixed during the whole encryption process. Cryptosystems of this type suffer from unsatisfactory encryption speed and are considered insecure upon known/chosen plaintext attacks. In this paper, an efficient diffusion scheme is proposed. This scheme consists of two diffusion procedures, with a supplementary diffusion procedure padded after the normal diffusion. In the supplementary diffusion module, the control parameter of the selected chaotic map is altered by the resultant image produced after the normal diffusion operation. As a result, a slight difference in the plain image can be transferred to the chaotic iteration and bring about distinct key streams, and hence totally different cipher images will be produced. Therefore, the scheme can remarkably accelerate the diffusion effect of the cryptosystem and will effectively resist known/chosen plaintext attacks. Theoretical analyses and experimental results prove the high security performance and satisfactory operation efficiency of the proposed scheme.
Let N(x) be the distribution function of the integers in a Beurling generalized prime system. The Chebyshev type estimates for Beurling generalized prime numbers in the general case n N(x) = x ∑ ν=1 n A ν log ρν−1 x + O(x log −γ x) is a long standing question. In this paper we shall give an affirmative answer to the question by proving that the Chebyshev type estimates ... (formule)... hold even under weaker condition ... (formule)... with ρ n = τ ≥ 1, 0 0. This generalizes a result of Diamond and a result of the present author
The inverse problem that requires finding the upstream flow of a diffusion column from measurements of the flow at the bottom of the column is investigated. The problem is mathematically formulated as a Cauchy problem for the convection–diffusion equation. The solution is sought using a mollification method which filters the input measured data prior to inversion. Although the original Cauchy problem is ill-posed, the mollified problem is proved to be well-posed and stability estimates are provided.
Esophageal motilitywas evaluatedfromthe analysisof six consecutive swallows. A sumimagewasgenerated compris ing the representativeinformationof an entire study. Calcu lation of emptying rates and characterization of the bolus behaviorwas performedfrom the sum image and the single swallowdata. In 86 patientsinvestigated,liquidand solid phasestudiesshoweda remarkable variationof singleswal low data in normals(relativevariationcoefficientfor liquid: 10%, solid: 14%), which were even higher (p < 0.001) in patients with disorders (liquid: 31%, solid: 25%). As sum imagescompensate for this intra-individual variation,false positive(liquid:16%,solid:25%)or negativesingleswallow findings(liquid:36%, solid: 27%)are reduced.Qualitative analysis of condensed sum images provided characteristic image patterns representing different pathophysiologicas pects.Sincethe methodintroduced betterdiscriminates be tweennormalandpathologic function,it mayenhance diag nosticaccuracy. JNucIMed 1991;32:1365â€”1370
Euler preconditioning has remarkable benefits in removing stiffness, making systems of equations behave as a scalar equation, preserving accuracy, and decoupling the Euler equations. Design criteria for optimal Euler preconditioning are discussed that retain the basic preconditioning benefits and remove the causes of instabilities due to the use of preconditioning. New families of 1D and 2D optimal Euler preconditioners are presented that may satisfy the design criteria in an optimal way. In particular, focusing on resolution of the stability problem associated with stagnation points, a stagnation preconditioner and a suboptimal Van Leer?Lee?Roe preconditioner are studied. These preconditioners are less sensitive to flow-angle variation across cells and/or produce a closer-to-orthogonal eigenvector system.
We propose a block structure preserving model reduction (BSMOR), which generalizes the structure preserving model order reduction (SPRIM). The blocks can be derived based on specific applications such as block current characterization of the substrate. Increasing block numbers leads to more matched poles or moments using the same Krylov space and also increases the sparse ratio of the state matrices of the resulting macro-model. Experiment shows that BSMOR has a 20X smaller reduction time than PRIMA does under a same error bound. To efficiently analyze the resulting macro-model with a large number of ports, we further propose a bordered-block diagonal (BBD) partitioning with a bottom-up hierarchical clustering (BBDC) where the macro-model is partitioned into a number of subset-port models, each with a manageable model size. With a similar accuracy, BBDC obtains 30X speedup compared to the original macro-model.
Schlesinger's trigonometric relations for combined static electron lenses are derived. The foci of Glaser's Glockenfeld are calculated by a 17-section approximation, the result of which is compared with their theoretical values and discussed. With the aid of parabolic axial potential distributions, two possible designs are suggested, in which the position of image remains fixed, while its magnification being changed.
We propose defining the stability of any chemical constituent of stored samples in terms that are quantitatively related to the precision of the measurement by which it is determined. We suggest that a constituent may be considered stable, for a stated period and under exactly defined conditions, when the average change in its measured value is less than a chosen number, K, of standard deviations of the data obtained by the measuring method over the concentration range in question. Based on this definition a technique utilizing a graphical truncated normal sequential test is presented as the appropriate experimental and statistical design for measuring stability. The statistical basis for the proposal is presented.
For the linear unitary array,the wideband constant width beam weights can be calculated by Chebyshey algorithm.The weights are realized by special designed FIR digital filters.Through the analysis of the constant width beam weights,the desired FIR filters can be a set of linear phase response FIR filters.The formulation defining the phase response of each desired filter is deduced.Three different methods which can design special frequency response filter are also given.Computer simulation is done based on a linear unitary array composed of 11 sensors in order to testify the capability of the given filter design methods.
Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and genetic algorithm–artificial neural network (GA-ANN) were investigated for predicting methyl salicylate (MeSA) effects on chilling injuries and quality changes of pomegranate fruits during storage. Fruits were treated with MeSA at three concentrations(0, 0.01 and 0.1 mM) and stored under chilling temperature for 84 days. ANFIS and GA-ANN models were used to predict the effect of MeSA application and storage time (0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70 and 84 days) on chilling injuries, quality parameters and physiological changes of pomegranate during storage. The GA-ANN and ANFIS were fed with 2 inputs of MeSA and time. The developed GA–ANN, which included 20 hidden neurons, could predict physiological changes and quality parameters of pomegranate fruit (weight loss, pH, titratable acidity, chilling injury index, ion leakage, ethylene, respiration, polyphenols, anthocyanins, total antioxidant activity) with average correlation coefficient of 0.89. The overall agreement between ANFIS predictions and experimental data was also significant (r=0.87).In addition, sensitivity analysis results showed that storage time was the most sensitive factor for prediction of MeSA effects on pomegranate fruit quality attributes during postharvest storage.
In order to realize high-efficiency and high-accuracy digital measurement unknown free-form surfaces in reverse engineering, an adaptive sampling method based on front path detecting is presented. The method is characterized by integration of one touch probe(TP) and two point laser probes(PLPs). The two PLPs are located on both sides of the TP. A coordinate transformation model is built to transform these three probes’ measurement results into a reference coordinate system. In the process of line-by-line sampling, at the measuring direction, the PLPs are used to detect the measuring path information in front of the TP, the data acquired by the PLPs is processed and fitted into B-splines instantaneously, and then the TP measuring path planning can be generated according to the curvature feature of the fitted B-splines. The obtained path detecting information is subsequently used to automatically guide the TP to achieve adaptive sampling. While at the cross-section intake direction, "cross-section angle" analysis algorithm is used to subdivide the cross-sections adaptively. Simulation and experiment results indicate that the sampling points generated by the TP are laid out rationally according to the curvature of the surfaces, and demonstrate that the sampling efficiency and accuracy can be improved significantly, and effective sampling data can be offered for reverse engineering.
Experiments were conducted to assess the effects of different dripper discharges, dripper spacings and lateral spacings on yield and physical quality attributes of drip-irrigated green beans. Three different drip irrigation system were arranges as: DS1: dripper discharge is 2 L h ‒1 , dripper spacings is 33 cm and lateral spacings is 50 cm (a lateral line for each plant row); DS2: dripper discharge is 2 L h ‒1 , dripper spacings is 33 cm and lateral spacings is 100 cm (a lateral line for two plant rows); DS3: dripper discharge is 4 L h ‒1 , dripper spacings is 50 cm and lateral spacings is 100 cm (a lateral line for two plant rows). In irrigations, wetted area percentage was taken as 75%. Present findings revealed that different drip irrigation treatments did not have significant effects on yield and physical quality attributes of green beans. Therefore, it was concluded that lateral spacing in drip irrigation of greenbeans could be selected as 100 cm (a lateral line for two plant rows). This will bring at least 50% saving in lateral pipe costs of drip irrigation systems.
Objective: Sliding and tapered sliding window methods are the most often used approaches in computing dynamic correlations in biomedical signals such as the brain resting-state fMRI. However, due to the discrete nature of windows, the window methods suffer spurious high-frequency fluctuations and the zig-zag pattern in dynamic correlations.  Methods: To address the problem and obtain more stable correlation estimates, we propose a novel windowless approach for computing dynamic correlations via heat kernel smoothing. The heat kernel, the natural generalization of the Gaussian kernel to manifolds, is used to defined a smoothing kernel without boundary or end points.  Results: We show that the proposed windowless approach smooths out the unwanted high-frequency noise in correlation estimations and is more stable in identifying and discriminating state spaces in resting-state fMRI. The proposed method is applied to the study of interhemispheric connectivity and whole-brain network analysis.  Conclusion: We present a novel framework using heat kernel to compute the windowless dynamic correlation, which is more stable with less high-frequency fluctuations than windowed methods.  Significance: The proposed windowless approach reduced the spurious rapid changes in the state space of brain connectivity, and identified the strongest connections in brain networks and symmetry in interhemispheric connectivity.
The purpose of this paper is to present the elements of a basis for a theory of information storage and retrieval. It is believed that this theory can best be formulated in terms of a general theory of indexing. After stating basic premises and defining essential concepts, the relationship between a theory of indexing and a theory of information storage and retrieval is considered. The similarities between the indexing process and the general communication process are discussed, and indexing is viewed as an order increasing (i.e., entropy decreasing) operation. The concept of a theoretical index is developed and contrasted with real-world indexing systems. The relationship between query formulation, retrieval, and benefit is discussed, and these notions are then related to the human performance variable. It is believed that the ideas presented in this paper provide a useful framework for more detailed investigations into the indexing process.
In this paper, we prove a fixed point theorem for the selfmaps of a closed convex and bounded subset of the Banach space satisfying a generalized nonexpansive type condition. Some results concerning the approximations of fixed points with Krasnoselskii and Mann type iterations are also proved under suitable conditions. Our results include the well-known result of Kannan (1968) and Bose and Mukherjee (1981) as the special cases with a different and constructive method.
A spatial distributed hydrological forecasting system was developed to promote the analysis of river flow dynamic state in a large basin. The research presented the real-time analysis and forecasting of multisite river flow in the Nakdong River Basin using a distributed hydrological model with radar rainfall forecast data. A real-time calibration algorithm of hydrological distributed model was proposed to investigate the particular relationship between the water storage and basin discharge. Demonstrate the approach of simulating multisite river flow using a distributed hydrological model couple with real-time calibration and forecasting of multisite river flow with radar rainfall forecasts data. The hydrographs and results exhibit that calibrated flow simulations are very approximate to the flow observation at all sites and the accuracy of forecasting flow is gradually decreased with lead times extending from 1 hr to 3 hrs. The flow forecasts are lower than the flow observation which is likely caused by the low estimation of radar rainfall forecasts. The research has well demonstrated that the distributed hydrological model is readily applicable for multisite real-time river flow analysis and forecasting in a large basin.
This paper presents a coupled finite volume inner doubly iterative efficient algorithm for linked equations (IDEAL) with level set method to simulate the incompressible gas–liquid two‐phase flows with moving interfaces on unstructured triangular grid. The finite volume IDEAL method on a collocated grid is employed to solve the incompressible two‐phase Navier–Stokes equations, and the level set method is used to capture the moving interfaces. For the sake of mass conservation, an effective second‐order accurate finite volume scheme is developed to solve the level set equation on triangular grid, which can be implemented much easier than the classical high‐order level set solvers. In this scheme, the value of level set function on the boundary of control volume is approximated using a linear combination of a high‐order Larangian interpolation and a second‐order upwind interpolation. By the rotating slotted disk and stretching and shrinking of a circular fluid element benchmark cases, the mass conservation and accuracy of the new scheme is verified. Then the coupled method is applied to two‐phase flows, including a 2D bubble rising problem and a 2D dam breaking problem. The computational results agree well with those reported in literatures and experimental data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An element a in a ring R is called left morphic if R/Ra ≅ lR(a), where lR(a) denotes the left annihilator of a in R. A ring R is said to be left morphic if every element is left morphic. In this paper, it is shown that if I is an ideal of a unit regular ring R, then for each positive integer n, $$ S=(R,I)[x]/(x^{n})= left { sum_{i=0}^{n-1}a_{i}x^{i}: a_{0} in R,  a_{1}, dots,a_{n-1} in I,  x^{n}=0 right } $$ is a left morphic ring. This extends two recent results of Lee and Zhou. It is also proved that if R is a strongly regular ring and Cn= 〈g〉 is a cyclic group of order n ≥ 2, then for any r ∈ R, 1 + rg is morphic in the group ring RCn.
Crop model has been becoming a powerful tool for agricultural water and nitrogen management and implementation of water-saving irrigation. This study was to explore the accuracy of CERES-Maize model for its simulations of summer maize growth,development,yield,and soil moisture under differentscenarios of water stress. Field experiments were conducted under a rainout shelter for summer maize growing under water stresses at different growth stages in two consecutive growth seasons( 2013 and2014). The whole growth season of maize was divided into four stages( seeding,jointing,tasseling,and grain filling). Water stress occurred at every single stage,while irrigations were applied at the other three stages. Thus,there were four different levels of water stress period( D1 ~ D4). Two irrigation levels of70 mm( I1) and 110 mm( I2) were applied according to the average rainfall during growth season of summer maize in 56 years. Consequently,there were a total of 8 treatments,with 3 replicates for each.The plots followed a split-plot experiment design. An extra control treatment with irrigation at all four stages was arranged nearby. The experimental data were used to calibrate and validate the CERES-Maize model with two parameter estimation tools of GLUE( Generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation) and PEST( Parameter ESTimation). Additionally,an overall evaluation was made with cross validation method for the prediction accuracy of the CERES-Maize model. Results showed that both GLUE and PEST had good stability and convergence for the estimation of genetic parameters of CERES-Maize model.The parameters values separately estimated with GLUE and PEST were very close. However,PEST had higher efficiency since it consumed much less time than the GLUE. CERES-Maize model can precisely simulate the growth, development, yield, and soil moisture of summer maize under full irrigation condition,since the absolute relative error( ARE) and relative root mean squared error( RRMSE)values of model calibration and verification were only between 6% and 8%. Anthesis and maturity dates of summer maize were different when water stresses occurred at different growth stages,but CERES-Maize model failed to simulate such kind of phenology differences caused by water stresses. In cross-validation,model simulation errors became bigger when water stresses occurred at early stages,especially at jointing stage. CERES-Maize model failed to correctly simulate the influences of water stresses at early growth stages on the final grain yield of summer maize,which was probably caused by the underestimation of LAI under such conditions. Lower estimated LAI values then made the simulations of ET incorrect. In general,CERES-Maize model was proved to be limited to simulate the growth,yield,and soil moisture of summer maize when under serious water stresses at early growth stages. It is necessary to modify accordingly the CERES-Maize model if it will be used in the simulation of agro-ecological systems of summer maize in arid and semi-arid areas of China.
This article deals with the problem of estimating parameters of the generalized exponential distribution based on a complete sample. We consider the case when both the parameters are unknown. We first prove the existence and uniqueness of maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the parameters for general sample size. Then we propose the inverse moment estimators (IMEs) of the parameters of the generalized exponential distribution. The precisions of MLEs and IMEs are compared through numerical simulations. Besides, two methods for constructing interval estimators for the parameters are proposed and their precisions are investigated through numerical simulations.
In this paper, a sum of squares(SOS) method is proposed to design observers for discrete-time polynomial fuzzy systems. The proposed SOS approach has two improved and innovative results for the existing linear matrix inequality (LMI) method to Takagi-Sugeno(T-S) discrete fuzzy observer designs. Firstly, a polynomial discrete fuzzy model is developed, which is a generation of the well-known T-S fuzzy system. Secondly, the conditions in the proposed approach are obtained in terms of SOS, which is the extension of the LMI method. Therefore, the conditions given in this paper are more general than the existing LMI approaches to T-S fuzzy systems. An example is given to show the effectiveness, which also demonstrate the SOS approaches are more relaxed than the existing LMI approaches. Finally, a conclusion is given to complete the paper.
Kontsevich's graph flows are -- universally for all finite-dimensional affine Poisson manifolds -- infinitesimal symmetries of the spaces of Poisson brackets. We show that the previously known tetrahedral flow and the recently obtained pentagon-wheel flow preserve the class of Nambu-determinant Poisson bi-vectors $P=[ ![  varrho( boldsymbol{x}) , partial_x wedge partial_y wedge partial_z,a] !]$ on $ mathbb{R}^3 ni boldsymbol{x}=(x,y,z)$ and $P=[ ![ [ ![ varrho( boldsymbol{y}) , partial_{x^1} wedge ldots wedge partial_{x^4},a_1] !],a_2] !]$ on $ mathbb{R}^4 ni boldsymbol{y}$, including the general case $ varrho  not equiv 1$. We detect that the Poisson bracket evolution $ dot{P} = Q_ gamma(P^{ otimes^{ # Vert( gamma)}})$ is trivial in the second Poisson cohomology, $Q_ gamma = [ ![ P,  vec{X}([ varrho],[a]) ] !]$, for the Nambu-determinant bi-vectors $P( varrho,[a])$ on $ mathbb{R}^3$. For the global Casimirs $ mathbf{a} = (a_1, ldots,a_{d-2})$ and inverse density $ varrho$ on $ mathbb{R}^d$, we analyse the combinatorics of their evolution induced by the Kontsevich graph flows, namely $ dot{ varrho} =  dot{ varrho}([ varrho], [ mathbf{a}])$ and $ dot{ mathbf{a}} =  dot{ mathbf{a}}([ varrho],[ mathbf{a}])$ with differential-polynomial right-hand sides. Besides the anticipated collapse of these formulas by using the Civita symbols (three for the tetrahedron $ gamma_3$ and five for the pentagon-wheel graph cocycle $ gamma_5$), as dictated by the behaviour $ varrho( mathbf{x}') =  varrho( mathbf{x})  cdot  det  |  partial  mathbf{x}' /  partial  mathbf{x}  |$ of the inverse density $ varrho$ under reparametrizations $ mathbf{x}  rightleftarrows  mathbf{x}'$, we discover another, so far hidden discrete symmetry in the construction of these evolution equations.
This paper presents analytical expressions of variable specific yield for layered soils in shallow water table environments, with introducing two distinct concepts of point specific yield (Syp) and interval average specific yield (Syi). The Syp and Syi refer to the specific yield for the water table fluctuation approaching zero infinitely and that for an interval fluctuation of water table, respectively. On the basis of specific yield definition and van Genuchten model of soil water retention, the analytical and semi-analytical expressions were respectively proposed for Syp and Syi towards layered soils. The analytical expressions are evaluated and verified by experimental data and comparison with the previous expressions. Analyses indicate our expressions for Syp and Syi could effectively reflect the changes and nonlinear properties affected by soil hydraulic properties and soil layering under shallow water table conditions. The previously confused understanding of Syp and Syi are also distinguished. The practicality and applicability for the specific yield expressions are comprehensively analyzed for the potential applications related to the subsurface water modeling and management issues.
The purpose of this paper is the derivation and development of the new definitions and methods for the new estimation of robustness for the systems having structured uncertainties. This proposition adopts the theoretical analysis of the Lyapunov direct methods, that is, the sign properties of the Lyapunov function derivative integrated along finite intervals of time, in place of the original method of the sign properties of the time derivative of the Lyapunov function itself. This is the new sufficient criteria to relax the stability condition and is used to generate techniques for the robust design of control systems with structured perturbations. The systems considered are assumed to be nominally linear, with time-variant, nonlinear bounded perturbations. This new techniques demonstrate the improvement of robustness bounds from the numerical results.
Results are presented from a combined numerical and experimental study to assess the accuracy of six different methods of data reduction for the mixed-mode bending test. These include two methods in the literature that use only the load data from the test, a modi® cation to one of these methods to improve accuracy, two variations of compliance calibration, anda newly proposed a load-de ection method.o First, the accuracy of the variousmethods were evaluated by comparison to ® nite element predictions for a typical laminate. Second, the various methods were applied to double cantilever beam and end-notched exure test data that had previously been reduced by well-established techniques. Finally, ® ve laminates were tested in the mixed-mode bending ® xture at each of ® ve mode ratios:GII/G = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0. The data from these tests were reduced by the variousdata reduction methods. The mean value of the critical energy release rate Gc at GII/G = 0.4 was compared to the mean Gc obtained by compliance calibration of a separate set of ® ve single leg bending test specimens, and Gc at GII/G = 1.0 was compared to the meanGc obtained by compliance calibration of a separate set of ® ve end-notched exure test specimens. By these comparisons, by physical considerations of the test results, and by examinations of the standard deviations of the various data pools, it was concluded that a method that uses only load data from the test is the most accurate. For improved accuracy, a modi® cation to this method is suggested that involves only the experimental determination of the bending rigidities of the cracked and uncracked regions and the use of these results in the reduction of data.
Commercial walking street is one kind of highly artificial visual corridor.With the commercial prosperity,its content becomes more plentiful and more diversity.In order to achieve better design and evaluation,the quantitative indicator for assessing the landscape visual complexity should be proposed.In this paper,the concept of visual entropy was introduced.By means of MATLAB digital image processing module,the visual entropy values could be calculated.Furthermore,the correlation between the evaluation conclusions of test subjects(105 people) and the corresponding visual entropy values was analyzed using the software of SPSS.The results indicated that there existed a significant correlation between visual entropy values and evaluation findings,and visual entropy could be used as a quantitative indicator for evaluating the commercial walking streets' landscape visual complexity.
We study the dynamics of a feedback system with hysteresis. The identification of switching surfaces in state space naturally gives rise to a Poincare map whose fixed points represent the periodic orbits of the system. For linear systems in feedback with a relay hysteresis nonlinearity, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of unimodal periodic solutions are obtained and the stability of the periodic orbit is analyzed.
Latent Markov (LM) models represent an important class of models for the analysis of longitudinal data (Bartolucci et al., 2013), especially when response variables are categorical. These models have a great potential of application for the analysis of social, medical, and behavioral data as well as in other disciplines. We propose the R package LMest, which is tailored to deal with these types of model. In particular, we consider a general framework for extended LM models by including individual covariates and by formulating a mixed approach to take into account additional dependence structures in the data. Such extensions lead to a very flexible class of models, which allows us to fit different types of longitudinal data. Model parameters are estimated through the expectation-maximization algorithm, based on the forward-backward recursions, which is implemented in the main functions of the package. The package also allows us to perform local and global decoding and to obtain standard errors for the parameter estimates. We illustrate its use and the most important features on the basis of examples involving applications in health and criminology.
This paper introduces a simple frequency domain test to discern whether two stationary time series have the same autocovariance function. The driving idea is that two stationary short-memory autocovariances coincide over all lags if and only if the corresponding spectral densities agree. As the spectral density is easily estimated via the periodogram, and the asymptotics of the periodogram are well known, a statistic based on the log-ratio of periodogram ordinates is proposed and explored. An application of the method is given. The exposition is made accessible to a general audience, although rudimentary familiarity with spectral densities and periodograms is assumed.
The effect of different cultivation measures on phosphorus content of corn plant and its dynamic change were explored under the wheat-corn annual double cropping farming systems,to find the best cultivation measures.The randomized block arrangement was applied,with 4 treatments and 8 replications.The test results indicated that the difference of corn plant phosphorus content reached to significant level under the different disposals and different periods.With the comparison of the average phosphorus content of different organs by various processing on maize plants,the processing ①(wheat straw returning to field + deep plough) was the highest.The phosphorus content of root,stem,leaves and male ear was separately 0.46,0.43,0.27 and 0.43g/kg higher than the processing ④(wheat straw not returning to field + no-tillage),improving 10.72%,12.72%,6.43% and 15.58%.At the filling-mature stage,the comparison of phosphorus content of female ear showed that the processing③(wheat straw returning to field + no-tillage) was 0.70g/kg higher than the processing ④,improving 16.02%.Through comprehensive analysis and comparison,the processing ③ was not only had high phosphorus content of female ear,but also had most total phosphorus uptake in the whole growth period,so it was beneficial to the reproductive growth and grain filling of corn.It was easy for getting high yield and could economize the labor quantity and time.It was advantageous to earlier development of the corn plants and enhanced their lodging-resistance.Thus,the cultivation measures of processing ③ should be extended in production.
We prove that the universal unramified deformation ring $R^{ mathrm{unr}}$ of a continuous Galois representation $ overline{ rho}: G_{F^{+}}  rightarrow  mathrm{GL}_n(k)$ (for a totally real field $F^{+}$ and finite field $k$) is finite over $ mathcal{O} = W(k)$ in many cases. We also prove (under similar hypotheses) that the universal deformation ring $R^{ mathrm{univ}}$ is finite over the local deformation ring $R^{ mathrm{loc}}$.
We propose a new construction of some favorable FH (frequency-hopping) sequences with an p/sup k/-p/sup m/ number of slots using a FSR (feedback shift register) over GF(p) and some nonlinear logic. We show that the resulting sequences satisfy the (almost) uniform symbol distribution in one period and pre-serve a reasonably good Hamming correlation property so that they are appropriate for military applications.
Integrations of the hydrostatic system of equations for the divergent barotropic model of an atmosphere confined within latitudinal walls are performed with three finitedifference schemes of second-order accuracy. Scheme I is the so-called leap-frog scheme, commonly used in numerical forecasting, scheme II is based on a method proposed by Lax & Wendroff and N. A. Phillips. Scheme III was discussed by one of the authors. Applying for all schemes the same grid system with respect to the field- and timecoordinates and allowing for no smoothing or friction it is possible to compare objectively the behaviour of the difference equations. Initially a geostrophically balanced jet stream field consisting of three zonal wave numbers is prescribed; the flow is barotropically unstable. The comparison is made with integrals of (?) eddy kinetic energy, including it's spectral parts, (b) zonal kinetic energy, (c) kinetic energy, and (d) total energy. The latter is a conservative property for the differential system. These integrals yield a good insight into the appearance of barotropic instability. This problem will be treated in a subsequent paper. All three methods give practically equal results within the first week of forecasting time; then scheme I begins to show numerical instability followed by scheme III about one week later. Scheme II seems to be completely stable, shows, however, as expected, a slight tendency of damping relatively short waves. Scheme III requires one field less to be stored in the computer than schemes I and II. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1968.tb00374.x
The scale function in wavelet transformation (WT) determines wavelet dilation and optimises the processing of a given signal. Here, the objective was to determine the influence of the scale function on the WT of 160 surface electromyograms using second-degree polynomial (WTpoly) and exponential (WTexp) scale functions. For each WT, a mean frequency (MNF) was calculated from the original wavelet spectrum and from the cubic spline interpolated wavelet spectrum, and these were compared with the MNF obtained from a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The total intensity (Tp) for each WT was compared with the root mean square (RMS). The MNFs computed from the original wavelet spectra were significantly (P < 0.05) lower and higher when computed from the reconstructed wavelet spectra than those from the FFT. The Tp computed from WTpoly showed significantly higher agreement with the RMS than the Tp from WTexp. Finally, the WTpoly may serve as a reference in electromyography.
This article focuses on model predictive control (MPC) of nonlinear systems in the case that the system parameters are inaccurate due to equipment wear or environmental changes. An MPC where the parameters of the predictive model are recursive estimated is proposed for nonlinear continuous time systems. The range of initial state that is able to guarantee the state always bounded in an allowable stability region, even when there does not exist any robust control law designed based on the mismatched initial model, is deduced. The corresponding optimization problem is designed based on Lyapunov controller techniques and includes parameter estimation parts. By this method, the state will eventually converge to a small neighborhood of the desired set‐point. Stability analysis is performed and an application of the proposed method to the chemical process is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Total body water (TBW), fat‐free mass (FFM), and fat as a percentage of body weight (fat%) were estimated by the doubly labeled water (DLW) technique in 23 healthy rural Bolivian subjects of a typical herding community of the high Andes. Using these values as the frame of reference, validation tests of several prediction equations for TBW and body density were made. Estimated values and errors for TBW, FFM, and fat% varied greatly with prediction equation. Among the prediction equations tested, however, three, Mellits and Cheek (1970; M&C), Durnin and Womersley (1974; D&W) and Conlisk et al. (1992; CNL), had a smaller bias and higher precision than others. Compared to the DLW method, the prediction errors of these equations for FFM and fat% as evaluated by the mean bias and the 95% limits of agreement were −0.7 ± 4.5 kg and 1.5 ± 10% (M&C), 0.9 ± 3.6 kg and −2.1 ± 8.5% (D&W), and 1.1 ± 3.6 kg and −2.7 ± 9.3% (CNL). For most practical purposes, these prediction errors for FFM as percentage of body weight may not be very important, but the errors in fat% may be serious. The interpretation of predicted data thus needs caution. In spite of differences in ethnic background and age range between the subjects and the samples on which the equations were developed, it is interesting that regression equations based on U.S., British and Guatemalan subjects also predicted the body composition of native Bolivian subjects with unexpectedly high precision. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:371–384, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
In this letter, we formulate two controllability maximization problems for large-scale networked dynamical systems such as brain networks: The first problem is a sparsity constraint optimization problem with a box constraint. The second problem is a modified problem of the first problem, in which the state transition matrix is Metzler. In other words, the second problem is a realization problem for a positive system. We develop a projected gradient method for solving the problems, and prove global convergence to a stationary point with locally linear convergence rate. The projections onto the constraints of the first and second problems are given explicitly. Numerical experiments using the proposed method provide some results that are difficult to deduce theoretically. In particular, the controllability characteristic is observed to change with increase in the parameter specifying sparsity, and the change rate appears to be dependent on the network structure.
In this paper, we investigate the growth/decay rate of solutions of a class of nonlinear Volterra difference equations. Our results can be applied for the case when the characteristic equation of an associated linear difference equation has complex dominant eigenvalue with higher than one multiplicity. Illustrative examples are given for describing the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in a class of linear difference equations and in several discrete nonlinear population models.
Rapeseed's morphological parameters provide important pattern information by corresponding to structure in the physical, optical and geometrical properties of plants. As one of the most important oil crops, the high-accuracy rapeseed geometric model contributes to agronomic horticulture, crop-breeding and plant genetics research. This paper proposes a new method to measure the morphological parameters by using the three-dimensional (3D) model of rapeseed plants, which is different from the traditional measurement method, for its higher data accuracy and efficiency of parameter acquisition. In this research, we use a portable 3D laser scanner to obtain and process rapeseed point clouds, and then we provide data preprocessing, process point cloud through building Delaunay triangulation mesh, and generate 3D model. Based on the rapeseed plant leaves high-precision model, we obtain the boundaries of rapeseed plant leaf model and characteristic points of rapeseed plant vein by the utility curvature extreme value method, and we fit the contour of rapeseed plant leaves and veins form by minimum spanning tree algorithm and the B-spline function. During the experiment, rapeseed plant 3D models are accurately reconstructed, the leaf areas are measured accurately based on the reconstruction models. We also verify the validity of the approaches and the accuracy of the models, and achieve a non-destructive measurement of rapeseed plants leaf area, acquire perimeter by blade boundary features line of blade models. According to the results, it can be concluded that the proposed methodology can not only reconstruct real rapeseed plant model, but also provides an accurate morphological parameter measurement in three dimensional way.
In this paper, a robust non-fragile controller applying for switched linear system with state delays is proposed for the controlled system. The observer is also designed for measuring unknown state variables. The reduction of the conservatism is resolved by using the switched Lyapunov function approach. Some results are also extended to the uncertain system. Several linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are established to guarantee the asymptotical stability in the system. Numerical examples are described to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Let I1, I2, . . . , In be a sequence of independent indicator functions de- fined on a probability space (Ω, A, P ). We say that index k is a success time if Ik = 1. The sequence I1, I2, . . . , In is observed sequentially. The objective of this article is to predict the l-th last success, if any, with maximum probability at the time of its occurence. We find the optimal rule and discuss briefly an algorithm to compute it in an efficient way. This generalizes the result of Bruss (1998) for l = 1, and is equivalent to the problem of (multiple) stopping with l stops on the last l successes. We extend then the model to a larger class allowing for an unknown number N of indicator functions, and present, in particular, a convenient method for an approximate solution if the success probabilities are small. We also discuss some applications of the results.
In June, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will release a report by Professor Henry Braun of Boston College and Dr. Jiahe Qian of Educational Testing Service (ETS). Among its many contributions, this report maps states’ performance standards (e.g., proficient) onto the score scale of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). At a glance, this mapping represents a ranking of states on the stringency of their performance standards. Its objective is to explain two provocative discrepancies in state-level test score reporting: 1) the often dramatic differences between states’ percents proficient (state-state comparisons) and 2) the often dramatic differences between states’ percents proficient and their corresponding NAEP percents proficient (state-NAEP comparisons).
We study two applications of random multipliers to fundamental numerical matrix computations, namely, low-rank approximation and Gaussian elimination with no pivoting (hereafter referred to as GENP). It is assumed that the m × n input matrix has numerical rank at most r ≪ n ≤ m for the former task and is nonsingular and well-conditioned (having numerical rank m = n) for the latter task. We prove that both algorithms output accurate numerical solution when they are applied to the average input matrix defined under these assumptions and under the Gaussian probability distribution and engage a well conditioned multiplier of full rank (that is, a nonsingular and well conditioned multiplier in the case of GENP). Moreover, both algorithms output accurate numerical solution with a probability close to 1 for any input matrix from these classes if a Gaussian random multiplier is applied. Our results explain why both algorithms pre-processed with random structured multipliers perform much better empirically than their previous formal analysis predicted. We analyze this subject further, obtain new insight into it, and propose some natural directions towards further improvement of the customary algorithms for these highly important computational tasks. Our initial tests confirm the efficiency of the new recipes. All our results for GENP are readily extended to the important algorithm of block Gaussian elimination. We also accelerate by a factor of four a popular randomized preprocessing of 1991 for symbolic GENP. 2000 Math. Subject Classification: 65F05, 65F35, 15A06, 15A52, 15A12
Let G be a reductive group and P a parabolic subgroup. For every P-regular dominant weight A let X(A) denote the variety G/P embedded in the projective space by the embedding corresponding to the ample line bundle ?(A). Writing A = pp +ZEj1 m>Ji, we prove that the degree d(A)v of the dual variety to X(A) is a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients in rm,. ,n4t. In the case of homogeneous spaces G/B we find an expression for the constant term of this polynomial.
SOUZA, Aline das Graças de. Production of pear and peach seedlings grafted hydroponic conditions. 2010. 91p. Dissertation (Master of Science in Agronomy/Crop Science) – Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras. In modern fruit production, technologies which enable the production of high quality fruits with less investment and high economic return are more and more sought. This is due to the growing levels of the market demands, more and more competitive. Few are the technological alternatives in the area of seedling production, mainly in temperate climate fruit trees such as pear and peach trees. The production of seedlings in hydroponics has been utilized in a pioneering manner due to its earliness of obtaining and the absence of pathogens, mainly of soil-borne ones. In the first part of this work, the purpose was to evaluate the growth of the rootstocks of pear tree “Taiwan Nashi-C” (Pyrus calleryana Decne) and the viability of production of grafted seedlings of three pear cultivars (“Trinfo, “Tenra” and Cascatense”) in three grafting methods (budding, inverted-T budding and cleft grafting). The Cleft grafting was the most appropriate for pear seedling propagation, enabling that the same ones to be ready for commercialization at 35 days after grafting (DAG). Cultivar Triunfo presented the greatest growth at 42 DAG. The highest dry matter yield and accumulation of macro and micronutrients were obtained with cultivars “Tenra” and “Triunfo” grafted through the cleft grafting method. In the latter part of this work, the objective was making the production of rootstock of peach tree “Okinawa” and of seedlings grafted in hydroponic system. In the former step, time of germination and vegetative growth of the plants of the rootstock of peach tree “Okinawa” and in the latter step the viability of production of grafted peach seedlings of cultivars “Aurora” and “Diamante”, associated with different types of cut on the rootstock after propagation of the peach seedlings, the same ones being ready for commercialization when they were 47.53 cm high at 116 DAT and both the cultivars presented the healing index of 100%, its being the case that cultivar Aurora presented greatest growth and greatest dry matter yield and accumulation of macro and micronutrients. The production of pear and peach seedling sin hydroponics is considered unprecedented, making a novel way of producing temperate climate fruit seedlings. 2 Guidance Comitte: Prof. Dr. Nilton Nagib Jorge Chalfun DAG/ UFLA (Adviser), Prof. Dr.Valdemar Faquin DCS/UFLA.
In this paper, we address the long-term system's requirement reserve sizing due to the high-level of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources penetration, inside the expansion planning model. The increase in the insertion of this kind of energy source will also bring an increase in the reserve requirements. A higher requirement will be translated into additional costs to the system since the system operator will need to allocate generators for reserve purposes. The VRE sources implicitly cause these costs, so besides the investment cost, the expansion planning models should consider those costs on the expansion decision process. The methodology proposed here aims to provide a probabilistic and dynamic evaluation of the forecast errors of VRE sources generation, translating these errors into the system's requirement reserve. This evaluation is done inside the expansion planning optimization model, treating the reserve requirement as an endogenous variable. Finally, a real case study of the Mexican system is presented, so that we can analyze the results of the methodology and the impacts of considering the reserve requirement along with the expansion planning decision.
Differences in the frequencies of chemical words of a given length in two nucleic sequences are used to define an “oligodistance” between the sequences. Oligo-distances are much easier and faster to compute than the distances conventionally determined by sequence alignment. A correlation between oligo-distance and alignment-distance is observed. The two kinds of distances are used to construct phylogenetic trees for artificially generated sequences and for a set of thirty-five 16S and 18S rRNA sequences. The gross topologies of the trees given by the two kinds of distances are identical when the sequences are complete but only the oligo-distance is robust against sequence deformations such as rearrangement, truncation and random concatenation.
The presence of many local minima in the merit function landscape is perhaps the most difficult challenge in lens design. We present a simplified mathematical model that illustrates why the number of local minima increases rapidly with each additional lens added to the imaging system. Comparisons with results obtained with lens design software are made for the design landscape of triplets with variable curvatures, a problem that is nontrivial, but still simple enough to be analyzed in detail. The mathematical model predicts how many types of local minima can exist in the landscape of the global optimization problem and what are, roughly, their curvatures. This model is mathematically quite general and might perhaps be useful as an analogy for understanding other global optimization problems as well, there where the number of local minima increases rapidly when more components of the same kind are added in the model of the problem.
Abstract A three-dimensional coupled mesoscale meteorological and photochemical model has been applied to the Athens basin in Greece. The Athens area experiences episodes of very high air pollution levels a few times every year. A severe episode on 25 May 1990 was chosen for this study. On this day a high pressure system was situated over Greece, and the synoptic forcing was weak. A sea breeze developed in the basin during the day, and the pollutants were transported out of the basin through the gaps between the mountains to the north and northeast. A northward gradient in ozone concentration was present both in the observations and the model results. Unhealthily high concentrations of nitric oxides and hydrocarbons built up during the night, when it was stably stratified and the wind speeds were low. Variations in parameters, such as terrain influence and deposition processes, are performed to illustrate the sensitivity of the model results. Deposition is shown to be important for the results, although t...
The research was conducted in the greenhouse of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Riau, Pekanbaru from February to July 2016. The experiment used a completely randomized design (CRD), factorial and 3 replications. The first factor:soil water tension, consists of three levels (pF 1.00 to 1.97, pF 2.29 to 2.54 and pF 2.70 to 3.00) and the second factor: upland rice varieties which consists of three varieties (Situ Patenggang, Situ Bagendit, and Inpago 8). The data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and Duncan test continued level of 5%. Parameters measured were plant height, plant growth rate, the maximum number of tillers, the number of productive tillers, harvesting, root volume, the ratio of the canopy and roots, crop straw weight, weight of 100 grains, pithy grain percentage, and the weight of dry milled grain. The results showed the interaction soil water tension and varieties of upland rice significantly affected the rate of plant growth, the number of maximum tillering, the number of productive tillers, harvesting, root volume, heavy crop straw, weighting 100 grains, the percentage of pithy grain, and the weight of grind dry grain. The combination of soil water tension pF 1.00 to 1.97 and varieties Situ Bagendit is the best combination, because the weight of dry milled grain yield tends more.
Abstract The simplicial wedge construction on simplicial complexes and simple polytopes has been used by a variety of authors to study toric and related spaces, including non-singular toric varieties, toric manifolds, intersections of quadrics and more generally, polyhedral products. In this paper we extend the analysis to include toric orbifolds. Our main results yield infinite families of toric orbifolds, derived from a given one, whose integral cohomology is free of torsion and is concentrated in even degrees, a property which might be termed integrally equivariantly formal. In all cases, it is possible to give a description of the cohomology ring and to relate it to the cohomology of the original orbifold.
Have various shapes to obtain a desired illumination pattern, a plurality of refractive and / or reflective optical elements, for example using a lens and a mirror, the optical components, optical devices and optical systems are disclosed. In various embodiments, a plurality of lenses having at least two lenses having different boundary shapes, for example, is arranged according to a predetermined pattern, to receive light from one or more light sources, the desired changes direction of the received light the far-field illumination pattern formed collectively. For example, the lens is to have a different boundary shape with the far field illumination pattern of boundary shape the far-field illumination pattern can be brought individually from the lens can be configured. .FIELD 1
The aim of this paper is to examine how people perceive correspondence between the 5-item Likert scale and the percentage scale (the LS-PS correspondence thereinafter). Are all five items of the Likert scale equidistant? Do people use the same scale when evaluating different objects? Are men and women different? Are people from different countries / cultures different? The method of the study was a questionnaire with 661 participating respondents altogether from the Czech Republic, Ecuador, and France. The results indicate that the 5-item Likert scale is neither equidistant, nor symmetrical. Furthermore, there are (highly) statistically significant differences in the LS-PS correspondence with respect to location, age, or gender of respondents. The results can be used as an input for more precise decision-making modeling associated with (fuzzy) linguistic variables.
ABSTRACT: Weed competition limits wheat yield by reducing the availability of essential resources for its growth and development. In this sense, this study aimed to estimate the economic threshold level (ETL) of wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) in competition with wheat cultivars. Treatments were arranged in a factorial scheme. The factor wheat cultivar consisted of early (BRS 328), medium (BRS 177), and late (BRS Umbu) cycles and the factor wild radish population ranged from 0 to 564 plants m-2 (10 populations) for the cultivar BRS 328, 0 to 472 plants m-2 for the cultivar BRS 177 (11 populations), and 0 to 724 plants m-2 for the cultivar BRS Umbu (10 populations). The early-cycle BRS 328 presented a higher competitive ability when compared to the medium-cycle BRS 177 and late-cycle BRS Umbu. Yield losses of wheat grains due to wild radish interference can be satisfactorily estimated by the rectangular hyperbola model using the variables plant population, shoot dry matter, soil cover, and leaf area of the weed. ETL values varied as a function of the cultivar cycle, being higher for the cultivar BRS 328 (early) > BRS 177 (medium) > BRS Umbu (late). Wild radish is competitive in wheat crop, requiring at least 1.6 plants m-2 for control to be justified.
Given a compact set E⊂Rd−1 , d⩾1 , write KE:=[0,1]×E⊂Rd . A theorem of Bishop and Tyson states that any set of the form KE is minimal for conformal dimension: If (X,d) is a metric space and f:KE→(X,d) is a quasisymmetric homeomorphism, then dimHf(KE)⩾dimHKE.We prove that the measure‐theoretic analogue of the result is not true. For any d⩾2 and 0⩽s0 , there exists a quasisymmetric embedding F:KE→Rd such that dimHF♯ν
We propose a formal framework for a modular and hierarchical organization of lexicalized grammars which are expressible with tree descriptions. The typical syntactic constructions of a grammar are expressed with tree descriptions embedded in modules which are organized into a hierarchy by a multiple inheritance relation. The syntactic constructions that constitute the entries of the lexicon are built automatically by crossing the terminal modules of this hierarchy under two kinds of constraints: negative constraints which are expressed by disjunctive inheritance and which forbid crossing some modules and positive constraints which are expressed by co-occurrence relations between modules and which force the crossing of other modules. The lexical modules that result from this crossing process are linked to the words of the language in the lexicon by a mechanism that is based on feature structures. Every module of the grammar is associated with a feature structure or a disjunction of feature structures which describes the morpho-syntactic profile of the words of the language that can anchor the syntactic construction described by the module. Unification is used for generating the profiles of the lexical modules in parallel with the processes of module inheritance and crossing.
Let $ eta$ be a stationary Harris recurrent Markov chain on a Polish state space $(S,  mathscr{F})$, with stationary distribution $ mu$. Let $ Psi_n:= sum_{i-1}^n I { mu in S_1 }$ be the number of visits to $S_1 in mathscr{F}$ by $ eta$, where $S_1$ is “rare” in the sense that $ mu(S_1)$ is “small.” We want to find an approximating compound Poisson distribution for$  mathscr{L}( Psi_n)$, such that the approximation error, measured using the total variation distance, can be explicitly bounded with a bound of order not much larger than $ mu(S_1)$. This is motivated by the observation that approximating Poisson distributions often give larger approximation errors when the visits to $S_1$ by $ eta$ tend to occur in clumps and also by the compound Poisson limit theorems of classical extreme value theory.  We here propose an approximating compound Poisson distribution which in a natural way takes into account the regenerative properties of Harris recurrent Markov chains. A total variation distance error bound for this approximation is derived, using the compound Poisson Stein equation of Barbour, Chen and Loh and certain couplings. When the chain has an atom $S_0$ (e.g., a singleton) such that $ mu(S_0)>0$, the bound depends only on much studied quantities like hitting probabilities and expected hitting times, which satisfy Poisson’s equation. As “by-products” we also get upper and lower bounds for the error in the approximation with Poisson or normal distributions. The above results are illustrated by numerical evaluations of the error bound for some Markov chains on finite state spaces.
For the SINR(signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio) equation based on the polarization ratio parameters,an optimal polarization method called iterative optimal polarization(IOP) was presented.The IOP scheme employs the big and small circle local optimal solutions as basic frames.These two frames are iterative each other,and every one utilizes the results from the other,and transfers the own results to the other.The simulation results show that IOP method is an effective method for optimal polarization.After several iterations,the final optimum and optimal polarization point can be obtained,and the average relative errors of the optimum obtained with IOP related to the actual optimum are very small.
In this paper, practical investigations of level accuracy and uncertainties using a Rohde & Schwarz signal generator (R&S SMB-B140) and spectrum analyzer (R&S FSV40) are performed up to 30GHz. We show that it is possible to measure frequency responses of DUTs with uncertainties below ±0.05dB up to 30 GHz instead of ±0.5…1.5dB using auto settings, standard setup, or relying on datasheets. The level linearity of instruments with integrated step attenuators is shown to be improved to ±0.03dB instead of ±0.3…1dB by using a special “hybrid” procedure. Furthermore, it is shown how computer aided measurements procedures should be programmed with these instruments to attain low deviations between measurements.
Johnson and Prince have classified all translation planes of order 81 that admit SL(2, 5), where the 3-elements are elations. In this article, it is shown that whenever SL(2, 5) acts as a collineation group on a translation plane of order 81, the problem can always be reduced to the elation case. Hence, there is a complete classification of all translation planes of order 81 admitting SL(2, 5); there are exactly 14 translation planes of order 81 admitting SL(2, 5).
The central topic of this thesis is Alperin's weight conjecture, a problem concerning the representation theory of finite groups.  This conjecture, which was first proposed by J. L. Alperin in 1986, asserts that for any finite group the number of its irreducible Brauer characters coincides with the number of conjugacy classes of its weights. The blockwise version of Alperin's conjecture partitions this problem into a question concerning the number of irreducible Brauer characters and weights belonging to the blocks of finite groups.    A proof for this conjecture has not (yet) been found. However, the problem has been reduced to a question on non-abelian finite (quasi-) simple groups in the sense that there is a set of conditions, the so-called inductive blockwise Alperin weight condition, whose verification for all non-abelian finite simple groups implies the blockwise Alperin weight conjecture. Now the objective is to prove this condition for all non-abelian finite simple groups, all of which are known via the classification of finite simple groups.    In this thesis we establish the inductive blockwise Alperin weight condition for three infinite series of finite groups of Lie type: the special linear groups  (SL_3(q) ) in the case  (q>2 ) and  (q  not equiv 1  bmod 3 ), the Chevalley groups  (G_2(q) ) for  (q  geqslant 5 ), and Steinberg's triality groups  (^3D_4(q) ).
The measurement of reaction time for item identification has been suggested as one metric of the equivalence of category members [C. Mervis and E. Rosch, Ann. Rev. Psychol. 32, 89–115 (1981)]. Reaction times were measured while adult subjects (N = 10) categorized computer‐generated CV syllables. One set of tokens varied along the VOT continuum (/ga‐ka/). A second set of tokens varied along the F2 starting frequency continuum (/ba‐da‐ga/). The subjects typically demonstrated increased mean reaction times for tokens at or near phoneme boundaries. In certain instances, tokens near a phoneme boundary were consistently identified as belonging to a certain phoneme category; however, significantly longer reaction times were required to make those decisions. This response pattern would suggest that all tokens within a given phoneme category may not be functionally equivalent. The results will be discussed in light of the perceptual demands of listening to ongoing speech.
The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of static and dynamic stretching protocols within general and activity specific warm-ups. Nine male and ten female subjects were tested under four warm-up conditions including a 1) general aerobic warm-up with static stretching, 2) general aerobic warm-up with dynamic stretching, 3) general and specific warm-up with static stretching and 4) general and specific warm-up with dynamic stretching. Following all conditions, subjects were tested for movement time (kicking movement of leg over 0.5 m distance), countermovement jump height, sit and reach flexibility and 6 repetitions of 20 metre sprints. Results indicated that when a sport specific warm-up was included, there was an 0.94% improvement (p = 0.0013) in 20 meter sprint time with both the dynamic and static stretch groups. No such difference in sprint performance between dynamic and static stretch groups existed in the absence of the sport specific warm-up. The static stretch condition increased sit and reach range of motion (ROM) by 2.8% more (p = 0.0083) than the dynamic condition. These results would support the use of static stretching within an activity specific warm-up to ensure maximal ROM along with an enhancement in sprint performance. Key pointsActivity specific warm-up may improve sprint performance.Static stretching was more effective than dynamic stretching for increasing static range of motion.There was no effect of the warm-up protocols on countermovement jump height or movement time.
In this dissertation, I explore the formal mechanisms underlying restrictive modification by nominals (RMN). The central claim is that RMN is dependent on how definiteness is encoded in a given language.In Greek, RMN is exemplified by extra definite determiners followed by bare adjectives, as shown in (1) below. These may precede or follow the matrix nominal:(1)   To ksilino to kuti      to skalistoThe wooden           the       box      the       carved‘The carved wooden box’/ ‘The carved box the wooden one’Syntactically, I argue that the determiner and the adjective may form either a restrictive or non-restrictive nominal depending on their structural position. Focusing on restrictive nominals, I argue that they are adjuncts to nP, which raise to FocP when focused. These adjuncts are small nominals, consisting of acategorial roots and n. A look at the structure of the matrix noun reveals that adjectives adjoin to NumP, as they are always prenominal. A look at genitives also suggests that Greek nouns move as high as NumP.Central to this thesis is the question of what licenses RMN. Previous analyses have correlated it with rich morphology (Lekakou and Szendrői, 2007, 2008, 2010). For them, the determiner is the spell-out of inflection, but is otherwise a semantic expletive. To these claims, I counter-argue that RMN is best viewed as being dependent on how definiteness is encoded and that the definite determiner is simply underspecified for definiteness. Assuming that definiteness consists of two components, familiarity and uniqueness, and based on data from Standard English and Scottish English, I propose that definite determiners spelling out one component, familiarity, are predicted to exhibit RMN. Familiarity and uniqueness can thus be mapped into two syntactic projections, FamP and ιP, respectively. I then propose a syntactico-semantic mechanism that derives these constructions.Hence, this research offers a modern cross-linguistic account of RMN, while it also provides us with new insights about how definiteness can be encoded cross-linguistically.
The homomorphic properties of the cryptographic techniques take the attention of the scholars and makes it open research problem. The traditional encryption schemes don't support the operations to be computed on the encrypted data, which may compromise the privacy of the sensitive data. The homomorphic encryption supports the algebraic operations to be computed on the encrypted data. This property of the homomorphic encryption scheme have a wide application areas such as secure electronic voting, multiparty computation, private searching, delegation of computation and many more. In this paper we proposed a homomorphic encryption scheme based on the Carmichael's theorem over integers. The operations in the scheme are modular arithmetic. The paper also discuss the security scheme and further optimization are pointed out.
The objective of this paper is to study systematically the bifurcation and control of a single-species fish population logistic model with the invasion of alien species based on the theory of singular system and bifurcation. It regards Spartina anglica as an invasive species, which invades the fisheries and aquaculture. Firstly, the stabilities of equilibria in this model are discussed. Moreover, the sufficient conditions for existence of the trans-critical bifurcation and the singularity induced bifurcation are obtained. Secondly, the state feedback controller is designed to eliminate the unexpected singularity induced bifurcation by combining harvested effort with the purification capacity. It obviously inhibits the switch of population and makes the system stable. Finally, the numerical simulation is proposed to show the practical significance of the bifurcation and control from the biological point of view.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient numerical method to study the complex crack initiation and propagation in linear elastic multiphase composites.Design/methodology/approachA phase field method is developed to study the complex fracture behavior in multiphase composites. A damage threshold is introduced for referring crack initiation in the proposed method. The damage threshold is assigned as a material property so that different composite components possess different thresholds. In this manner, smooth transition from crack initiation to propagation is revealed.FindingsThe proposed method is used to investigate complex crack evolution in mesoscale cementitious composite, which consists of aggregates, matrix and void pores. From a mesoscale point of view, it is found that cracks prefer to evolve within the matrix phase. As a crack encounters an aggregate, it tends to bypass the aggregate and evolve along the interface. Cracks tend to avoid to penetrate through aggregates. Also, cracks tend to be attracted by void pores. From a mesoscale point of view, it is revealed that the elastic modulus and strength of concrete models are closely related to porosity.Originality/valueA criterion with a damage threshold is introduced to the proposed method. The criterions with and without a damage threshold are compared with each other in details. The proposed method is proven to be a useful tool to study mechanical behavior and crack evolution of brittle multiphase composites.
Abstract: Partial least squares (PLS) method has been designed for handling two common problems in the data that are encountered in most of the applied sciences including the neuroimaging data: 1) Collinearity problem among explanatory variables (X) or among dependent variables (Y); 2) Small number of observations with large number of explanatory variables. The idea behind this method is to explain as much as possible covariance between two blocks of X and Y variables by a small number of uncorrelated variables. Apart from the other applied sciences in which PLS are used, in the application of imaging data PLS has been used to identify task dependent changes in activity, changes in the relations between brain and behavior, and to examine functional connectivity of one or more brain regions. The aim of this paper is to give some information about PLS and apply on electroencephalography (EEG) data to identify stimulation dependent changes in EEG activity.
The polynomials considered in this paper generalise the Bell polynomials and were introduced by Touchard in order to study some cyclic permutations. For the Touchard polynomials, we give difference-differential equations and recurrence relations, as well as extensions of some wellknown properties of the polynomials, their enumerative interpretations, and probabilistic applications, in particular, to analysing a single-server queueing system.
According to the simple polygon structure problems of the discrete point set,the article proposes a kind of the Voronoi diagram(V diagram) incremental constructing algorithm.First of all,the adjacent relation between vertices is determined according to Voronoi graph of initial vertices;then the vertex set is divided to different region for determining the initial quadrilateral.Regional point is iteratively inserted into the initial quadrilateral to structure simple polygon,combining the adjacent relation between vertices with the rule of minimal perimeter increment.The theoretical analysis shows that the time complexity of this algorithm is O[nlog(n)],where n is the number of vertices.
In this correspondence, new characterizations for the construction of zero correlation zone (ZCZ) sequences from mutually orthogonal Golay complementary sets (MOGCS) is presented. It is shown that the recursive construction of MOGCS is inherent in these characterizations. Previously known constructions of ZCZ sequences and MOGCS are shown to be special cases of this characterization. The notion of mutually orthogonal ZCZ sequence sets is also introduced
Let (R,m) be a local ring. Assume that R = A/I, where (A,n) is a regular local ring and / c n2 is an ideal. The depth of the symmetric algebra S(m ) of m over R is computed in terms of the depth of the associated graded module gr"(7) and the so-called "strong socle condition." Explicit results are obtained, for instance, if / is generated by a super-regular sequence, if / has a linear resolution or if / has projective dimension one. Introduction. In recent years the symmetric algebra S(I) of an ideal / and some related algebras, such as the Rees algebra a?(I) of /, or the associated graded ring gr,(R) of /, have been studied very extensively. One central problem always has been to give reasonable conditions for one of these algebras to be Cohen-Macaulay. As it turned out, the symmetric algebra has a strong tendency not to be Cohen- Macaulay. For instance, if we consider the symmetric algebra S(m) of the maximal ideal of a Cohen-Macaulay local ring (R, m) of positive dimension, Rossi (11) has shown that S( m ) is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if R is an abstract hypersurface ring; in other words, S(m) is almost never Cohen-Macaulay. One reason for this behavior of the symmetric algebra seems to be the fact that its dimension compared with the one of R may be much higher. In their paper (7) Huneke and Rossi succeeded in giving a very explicit formula for the dimension dimS(M) of the symmetric algebra of a module M. Applied to the above situation one finds that dim 5(111) = embedding dimension of R, provided R is not regular. (If R is regular, then dimS(rrt) = dim/? + 1.) It follows from a result in the same paper (7) that depth 5(m) < dim/? + 1. Here the gap between depth and dimension becomes apparent. Unfortunately the bound depth S(m) < depth R + 1 is not true in general if R is not Cohen-Macaulay, see the remark after (2.12). The main theme of the paper actually will be to compute or to estimate the depth of 5(m) for a Noetherian local ring (R, m), in the range up to depth R + 1. We shall see that depth S(rrt) is a much more sensitive invariant of S^rrt) than its dimension. Before going into a detailed description of our paper we just quote two of our results to give an impression of how delicate depth S( m ) behaves.
The stable marriage problem has recently been studied in its general setting, where both ties and incomplete lists are allowed. It is NP-hard to find a stable matching of maximum size, while any stable matching is a maximal matching and thus trivially we can obtain a 2-approximation algorithm.  In this article, we give the first nontrivial result for approximation of factor less than two. Our algorithm achieves an approximation ratio of 2/(1 + L−2) for instances in which only men have ties of length at most L. When both men and women are allowed to have ties but the lengths are limited to two, then we show a ratio of 13/7(<1.858). We also improve the lower bound on the approximation ratio to 21/19(>1.1052).
The fuzzy clustering algorithm is sensitive to the m value and the degree of membership. Because of the deficiencies of traditional FCM clustering algorithm, we made specific improvement. Through the calculation of the value of m, the amendments of degree of membership to the discussion of issues, effectively compensate for the deficiencies of the traditional algorithm and achieve a relatively good clustering effect. Finally, through the analysis of temperature observation data of the three northeastern province of china in 2000, the reasonableness of the method is verified.
The stable principal component pursuit (SPCP) problem is a non-smooth convex optimization problem, the solution of which has been shown both in theory and in practice to enable one to recover the low rank and sparse components of a matrix whose elements have been corrupted by Gaussian noise. In this paper, we show how several fast first-order methods can be applied to this problem very efficiently. Specifically, we show that the subproblems that arise when applying optimal gradient methods of Nesterov, alternating linearization methods and alternating direction augmented Lagrangian methods to the SPCP problem either have closed-form solutions or have solutions that can be obtained with very modest effort. All but one of the methods analyzed require at least one of the non-smooth terms in the objective function to be smoothed and obtain an eps-optimal solution to the SPCP problem in O(1/eps) iterations. The method that works directly with the fully non-smooth objective function, is proved to be convergent under mild conditions on the sequence of parameters it uses. Our preliminary computational tests show that the latter method, although its complexity is not known, is fastest and substantially outperforms existing methods for the SPCP problem. To best of our knowledge, an algorithm for the SPCP problem that has O(1/eps) iteration complexity and has a per iteration complexity equal to that of a singular value decomposition is given for the first time.
Knowledge is thought to be the capacity for classification in rough set theory, which bases on the indiscernibility relation between objects. In some cases, the indiscernibility relation. is too definite to define the relation of data well so as to limit the application of rough set. Some modifications have thus proposed presently. Among them are about the extension of the indiscernibility relation. Based on the work above, a generalized similarity relation is put forword in this paper. Some of the concepts in rough set are also extended and visualized by rough hypergraph etc.
In compositional data, an observation is a vector with non-negative components which sum to a constant, typically 1. Data of this type arise in many areas, such as geology, archaeology, biology, economics and political science among others. The goal of this paper is to extend the taxicab metric and a newly suggested metric for compositional data by employing a power transformation. Both metrics are to be used in the k-nearest neighbours algorithm regardless of the presence of zeros. Examples with real data are exhibited.
In this study aims to determine the individual (partial) and synchronously (simultaneously) the effect of pricing, product quality, and promotion of their purchasing decisions Coca-cola carbonated beverages (Case Study on Minimarket and Sport Centre Kartasura). The population in this research that people who never buy, consume coca-cola carbonated beverages at the minimarket and sport centers located in the area Kartasura. The sampling method using purposive sampling method selected sample of a population by using specific criteria or considerations. The samples used in the study is that people who are taking the product coca-cola carbonated beverages that were in minimarket and sports center in the surrounding area Kartasura. To facilitate research so that samples taken at random or random as many as 100 respondents. The method of analysis in this study using multiple linear regression analysis and hypothesis testing by t-test, F, and the coefficient of determination (R2). Based on the results of multiple linear regression analysis can be concluded the following research: Results of t test (partial) that the price (X1), Quality of products (X2), and Promotion (X3) has a positive and significant impact on purchasing decisions carbonated beverage coca-cola. The result of F test (simultaneous) that the price (X1), product quality (X2), and Promotion (X3) simultaneously (simultaneously) significantly influence purchasing decisions coca-cola carbonated beverages.
In this paper, we present new approaches to study the co-existence of some types of synchronisation between hyperchaotic dynamical systems. The paper first analyses, based on stability theory of linear continuous-time systems, the co-existence of the projective synchronisation (PS), the function projective synchronisation (FPS), the full state hybrid function projective synchronisation (FSHFPS) and the generalised synchronisation (GS) between general master and slave hyperchaotic systems. Successively, using Lyapunov stability theory, the co-existence of three different synchronisation types is proved, i.e., the inverse projective synchronisation (IPS), the inverse function projective synchronisation (IFPS), the inverse full state hybrid function projective synchronisation (IFSHFPS) and the inverse generalised synchronisation (IGS) are proved to co-exist between arbitrary master and slave systems. Finally, several numerical simulations of co-existence of synchronisation types are illustrated, with the aim to show the effectiveness of the approaches developed herein.
In this paper given was kind of second order diferential equation with variable coefficient , through they are not elementary solutiona in ordinary condition. And then, the concept of the charaeteristic equation is introduced, a practical integral sufficient criterion and the integral expression formula of it's general solution for this kind equation are given. Some classical and modem solvable results are extended, and endosed-integration region of ordinary differential equation is extended.
According to the noise attack characteristic,a new robust color image retrieval based on significant bit-plane is proposed.Firstly,the significant bit-planes are extracted from the color image based on bit-plane theory and the noise attack characteristics.Secondly,the color histograms are extracted from the significant bit-planes as color feature,and the standard deviation of color for every significant bit-plane is computed as spatial feature.Finally,the similarity between color images is computed by using a combined index based on color feature and spatial feature.Experimental results show that the proposed image retrieval is more accurate and efficient in retrieving the user-interested images.Especially,it can retrieve the noise(including fuzzy,sharpen, and illumination,etc) image effectively.
AbstractA new sensitivity analysis method is proposed for the ensemble prediction system in which a tropical cyclone (TC) position is taken as a metric. Sensitivity is defined as a slope of linear regression (or its approximation) between state variable and a scalar representing the TC position based on ensemble simulation. The experiment results illustrate important regions for ensemble TC track forecast. The typhoon-position-oriented sensitivity analysis (TyPOS) is applied to Typhoon Shanshan (2006) for the verification time of up to 48 h. The sensitivity field of the TC central latitude with respect to the vorticity field obtained from large-scale random initial perturbation is characterized by a horizontally tilted pattern centered at the initial TC position. These sensitivity signals are generally maximized in the middle troposphere and are far more significant than those with respect to the divergence field. The results are consistent with the sensitivity signals obtained from existing methods. The ...
Stochastic variational inference (SVI) is emerging as the most promising candidate for scaling inference in Bayesian probabilistic models to large datasets. However, the performance of these methods has been assessed primarily in the context of Bayesian topic models, particularly latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). Deriving several new algorithms, and using synthetic, image and genomic datasets, we investigate whether the understanding gleaned from LDA applies in the setting of sparse latent factor models, specifically beta process factor analysis (BPFA). We demonstrate that the big picture is consistent: using Gibbs sampling within SVI to maintain certain posterior dependencies is extremely effective. However, we find that different posterior dependencies are important in BPFA relative to LDA. Particularly, approximations able to model intra-local variable dependence perform best.
Models with a time delay often occur, since there is a naturally occurring  delay in the transmission of information. A model with a delay can be noninvertible,  which in turn leads to qualitative dierences between the dynamical properties of a  delay equation and the familiar case of an ordinary dierential equation. We give  speci c conditions for the existence of noninvertible solutions in delay equations, and  describe the consequences of noninvertibility.
We study the path behaviour of a simple random walk on the $2$-dimensional comb lattice $C^2$ that is obtained from $ mathbb{Z}^2$ by removing all horizontal edges off the $x$-axis. In particular, we prove a strong approximation result for such a random walk which, in turn, enables us to establish strong limit theorems, like the joint Strassen type law of the iterated logarithm of its two components, as well as their marginal Hirsch type behaviour.
The first part of the paper centers in the study of embeddability between partially commutative groups. In [KK], for a finite simplicial graph $ Gamma$, the authors introduce an infinite, locally infinite graph $ Gamma^e$, called the extension graph of $ Gamma$. They show that each finite induced subgraph $ Delta$ of $ Gamma^e$ gives rise to an embedding between the partially commutative groups $G( Delta)$ and $G({ Gamma})$. Furthermore, it is proven that in many instances the converse also holds. Our first result is the decidability of the Extension Graph Embedding Problem: there is an algorithm that given two finite simplicial graphs { Delta} and { Gamma} decides whether or not $ Delta$ is an induced subgraph of $ Gamma^e$. As a corollary we obtain the decidability of the Embedding Problem for 2-dimensional partially commutative groups. In the second part of the paper, we relate the Embedding Problem between partially commutative groups to the model-theoretic question of classification up to universal equivalence. We use our characterisation to transfer algebraic and algorithmic results on embeddability to model-theoretic ones and obtain some rigidity results on the elementary theory of atomic pc groups as well as to deduce the existence of an algorithm to decide if an arbitrary pc group is universally equivalent to a 2-dimensional one.
Abstract An explicit formula for the Kolmogorov‐Smirnov statistic, when distribution parameters are obtained from the data, does not exist in the literature. Lilliefors(5) provided a table of the Kolmogorov‐Smirnov statistic by a Monte‐Carlo simulation technique in which the sets of random samples determined the sets of parameters. This paper applies the 4‐parameter lognormal (SB) model defined by Johnson(6) to these Monte‐Carlo data and shows that the Kolmogorov‐Smirnov statistics can be described by this model which is constrained to the interval zero‐one.
Generalizations of openness, such as semi-open, preopen, semi-pre-open, α-open, etc. are important in topological spaces and in particular in topological spaces on which ideals are defined. α-equivalent topologies and ∗-equivalent topologies with respect to an ideal have some common properties. Relations between these aforementioned notions of openness are investigated within the framework of α-equivalence and ∗-equivalence.
We present the first family of binary codes that attains optimal scaling and quasi-linear complexity, at least for the binary erasure channel (BEC). In other words, for any fixed $ delta > 0$, we provide codes that ensure reliable communication at rates within $ varepsilon > 0$ of the Shannon capacity with block length $n=O(1/ varepsilon^{2+ delta})$, construction complexity $ Theta(n)$, and encoding/decoding complexity $ Theta(n log n)$. Furthermore, this scaling between the gap to capacity and the block length is optimal in an information-theoretic sense.  Our proof is based on the construction and analysis of binary polar codes obtained from large kernels. It was recently shown that, for all binary-input symmetric memoryless channels, conventional polar codes (based on a $2 times 2$ kernel) allow reliable communication at rates within $ varepsilon > 0$ of the Shannon capacity with block length, construction, encoding and decoding complexity all bounded by a polynomial in $1/ varepsilon$. In particular, this means that the block length $n$ scales as $O(1/ varepsilon^{ mu})$, where $ mu$ is referred to as the scaling exponent. It is furthermore known that the optimal scaling exponent is $ mu=2$, and it is achieved by random linear codes. However, for general channels, the decoding complexity of random linear codes is exponential in the block length. As far as conventional polar codes, their scaling exponent depends on the channel, and for the BEC it is given by $ mu=3.63$.  Our main contribution is a rigorous proof of the following result: there exist $ ell times ell$ binary kernels, such that polar codes constructed from these kernels achieve scaling exponent $ mu( ell)$ that tends to the optimal value of $2$ as $ ell$ grows. The resulting binary codes also achieve construction complexity $ Theta(n)$ and encoding/decoding complexity $ Theta(n log n)$.
In order to apply direct least squares ellipse fitting algorithm to detect multiple ellipses in image,this paper proposed a method to group edge points that belong to the same ellipse,and use arc group instead of discrete points as the fitting data.Experiment results show the method can reduce unrelated points in ellipse detection and provide reasonable group data for ellipse fitting to accurately and effectively achieve multiple ellipses detection in image.
The $k$-coverage problem is to find the minimum number of disks such that each point in a given plane is covered by at least $k$ disks. Under unit disk condition, when $k$=1, this problem has been solved by Kershner in 1939. However, when $k > 1$, it becomes extremely difficult. One tried to tackle this problem with different restrictions. In this paper, we restrict ourself to congruent Voronoi polygon, and prove the minimum density of the two-coverage with such a restriction. Our proof is simpler and more rigorous than that given recently by Yun et al.
A new method for peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerization prediction based on the theory of support vector machines (SVM) was introduced. The SVM represents a new approach to supervised pattern classification and has been successfully applied to a wide range of pattern recognition problems. In this study, six training datasets consisting of different length local sequence respectively were used. The polynomial kernel functions with different parameter d were chosen. The test for the independent testing dataset and the jackknife test were both carried out. When the local sequence length was 20-residue and the parameter d = 8, the SVM method archived the best performance with the correct rate for the cis and trans forms reaching 70.4 and 69.7% for the independent testing dataset, 76.7 and 76.6% for the jackknife test, respectively. Matthew's correlation coefficients for the jackknife test could reach about 0.5. The results obtained through this study indicated that the SVM method would become a powerful tool for predicting peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerization.
The two parameter Poisson-Dirichlet process is also known as the PitmanYor Process and related to the Chinese Restaurant Process, is a generalisation of the Dirichlet Process, and is increasingly being used for probabilistic modelling in discrete areas such as language and images. This article reviews the theory of the Poisson-Dirichlet process in terms of its consistency for estimation, the convergence rates and the posteriors of data. This theory has been well developed for continuous distributions (more generally referred to as nonatomic distributions). This article then presents a Bayesian interpretation of the Poisson-Dirichlet process: it is a mixture using an improper and infinite dimensional Dirichlet distribution. This interpretation requires technicalities of priors, posteriors and Hilbert spaces, but conceptually, this means we can understand the process as just another Dirichlet and thus all its sampling properties fit naturally. Finally, this article also presents results for the discrete case which is the case seeing widespread use now in computer science, but which has received less attention in the literature.
We introduce a new approach for solving forward systems of differential equations using a combination of splitting methods and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs). The proposed method, splitting PINN, effectively addresses the challenge of applying PINNs to forward dynamical systems and demonstrates improved accuracy through its application to neuron models. Specifically, we apply operator splitting to decompose the original neuron model into sub-problems that are then solved using PINNs. Moreover, we develop an $L^1$ scheme for discretizing fractional derivatives in fractional neuron models, leading to improved accuracy and efficiency. The results of this study highlight the potential of splitting PINNs in solving both integer- and fractional-order neuron models, as well as other similar systems in computational science and engineering.
We consider the problem of searching for a quantity x in a discrete, bounded domain (e.g. $ {$1, ...,$n }$) by asking "yes-no" questions, when some of the answers received may be lies. In particular, we concentrate on the case where the number of lies may grow linearly with the number of questions asked. The lies are adversarial, not random, in nature. The problem is modeled by the game of "Twenty Questions" between two players, where one player is a liar. Several versions of the game are considered, each variation defined by the class of "yes-no" questions the questioner is allowed and the way in which the answerer is allowed to lie. In the major result of this thesis, we show that if general questions are allowed, the questioner can win the game with O(log n) questions even when the answerer lies in up to half of the answers. We assume for this result that the liar keeps to her fraction of lying for any initial sequence of answers, that is, if her fraction of lying is r, then in any initial sequence of i answers, there will be at most ri lies. We also consider the more general case, where the liar is not restricted as above and can place her lies anywhere. For this case, we show that the questioner can tolerate up to 1/3 of the answers being lies, and still win the game with O(log n) questions. The results are generalized to playing in the unbounded domain.  To keep careful count of lies in solving these problems, the use of chip games becomes crucial. Chip games model computational problems in such a way that winning strategies for players translate into bounds on the critical resource. The critical resource is typically represented by some aspect of the chip game, such as number of chips used or number of moves in the game. They are used again to solve an unrelated problem: that of 2-coloring certain classes of hypergraphs on-line.(Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
The system $F_ leq$, the well-known second-order polymorphic typed $ lambda$-calculus with subtyping and bounded universal type quantification [Cardelli-Wegner 85], [Bruce-Longo 90], [Curien-Ghelli 92], [Pierce 92], [Cardelli-Martini-Mitchell-Scedrov 94], appears to be undecidable [Pierce 92] because of undecidability of its subtyping component. Attempts were made to obtain decidable type systems with subtyping by weakening $F_ leq$ [Castagna-Pierce 94], [Katiyar-Sankar 92], and also by reinforcing or  em extending / it [Vorobyov 94]. However, for the moment, these extensions lack the important proof-theoretic minimum type property, which holds for $F_ leq$ and guarantees that each typable term has the minimum type, being a subtype of any other type of the term [Curien-Ghelli 92], [Vorobyov 94]. As a preparation step to introducing the extensions of $F_ leq$ with the minimum type property and the decidable term typing relation, we define and study here the hierarchies of decidable extensions of the$F_ leq$ subtyping relation. We demonstrate conditions providing that each theory in a hierarchy:  beginenumerate  item extends $F_ leq$, proving everything that is $F_ leq$-provable  item satisfies the substitution property for boundedly quantified universal types  item is transitive (transitivity and substitutivity are indispensable for the minimum type property and typing proof normalization). We give conditions guaranteeing that a hierarchy condenses and converges to $F_ leq$, and study cases when a hierarchy collapses.
Since by hypothesis j'0(u) ^ 0 and also f'0(u) > 0 in the first integral and f'0(u) < 0 in the second integral therefore both integrals in the above equation are negative and so the inequality is always satisfied. Thus, we have shown that all single hump initial velocity distribution functions are stable. This is the same result which is usually obtained by means of a Laplaceor a one-sided Fourier transform with respect to the time variable. A notable feature of the present analysis is that it need not use any of the artificial mathematical assumptions which are, for example, present in regard to the process of analytic continuation when the method of integral transforms is used. Acknowledgement. The author would like to thank Dr. E. Astrom of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, for many valuable discussions on plasma oscillations while he was a visiting scientist at The University of Michigan, Institute of Science and Technology.
This study aims to determine: 1) the effect of LDR, NPL and BOPO on CAR and the influence of CAR on profitability, 2) the effect of LDR, NPL and BOPO on CAR-mediated profitability, 3) the influence of LDR, NPL and BOPO simultaneously on CAR. This research was conducted on banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange using a sample of 35 banking companies. The sample method is purposive sampling. Data collection techniques using documentation techniques, while the analysis method used is a classic assumption test which includes heteroscedasticity test, autocorrelation test, normality test and multicollinearity test. Hypothesis testing includes analysis of the determination coefficient, t test, F test, path analysis and sobel test. The results showed that: 1) LDR had a negative and insignificant effect on CAR, NPL had a negative and significant effect on CAR, BOPO had a positive and insignificant effect on CAR and CAR had a positive and significant effect on profitability, 2) LDR, NPL and BOPO simultaneously positive and insignificant effect on CAR, 3) CAR does not mediate the influence of LDR on profitability, CAR does not mediate the effect of NPL on profitability and CAR mediates the influence of BOPO on profitability. Keywords: LDR, NPL, BOPO, CAR, and Profitability
We begin with pervasive ultrametricity due to high dimensionality and/or spatial sparsity. How extent or degree of ultrametricity can be quantified leads us to the discussion of varied practical cases when ultrametricity can be partially or locally present in data. We show how the ultrametricity can be assessed in text or document collections, in time series signals, and in other areas. We conclude with a discussion of ultrametricity in astrophysics, relating to observational cosmology.
This research was conducted to find out, analyze and answer the influence of the work environment, motivation and organizational commitment both partially and simultaneously on the Employee Performance of the production section on the CV. Juke Abadi Sidoarjo. This study uses a quantitative method with an associative causal method that aims to determine the influence of two or more variables. This  study took all the population of production employees on the CV. Juke Abadi Sidoarjo, totaling 47 people, the data collection took primary data using a questionnaire. The secondary data obtained is obtained from personnel staff  CV. Juke Abadi Sidoarjo.The data analysis technique used is multiple linear regression analysis The results in the study show that: 1) The working environment does not have a significant effect partially on employee performance, with values with a calculated t value of 0.944 that is smaller than ttable 2017 with a significance value of 0.351> 0.05 then Ho is accepted and Ha is rejected, 2) Influential motivation partially significant to employee performance, with a value of t count 3.954 which is greater than ttable 2017 with a significance value of 0.000 <0.05 then Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted. 3) Organizational Commitment has a partial significant effect on employee performance, which results in tcount 2,189 which is greater than 2017 table with a significance value of 0.034 <0.05, then Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted, 4) Work environment, Motivation and Organizational Commitment have a significant simultaneous effect on employee performance, with a calculated F value of 15,277 which is greater than Ftable 2.82 with significant value of 0.000 <0.0 5, it can be concluded that Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted. With the value of R Square 0.516 (51.6%) which means that the work environment, motivation and organizational commitment is able to explain at 51.6% which affects the performance of employees in the production section of CV. Juke Abadi Sidoarjo.
Here, I will illustrate some links between Operations Research (O.R.), Jan Karel’s home turf, and the life sciences. Indeed, now in 2011, a large number of people in CWI’s Life Sciences Group are busy with developing O.R. techniques to solve problems from biology. In the following I will describe a general link between O.R. and the life sciences and explain why the same techniques can be used for problems arising in economy and in biology. I will focus on one such example, namely the protein design problem and the problem of assigning frequencies to radio links in telecommunication, which turn out to be close mathematical cousins. Finally, there are some personal remarks.
Let G be either an orthogonal, a symplectic or a unitary group over a local field F and let P = MN be a maximal parabolic subgroup. Then the Levi subgroup M is the product of a group of the same type as G and a general linear group, acting on vector spaces X and W, respectively. In this paper we decompose the unipotent radical N of P under the adjoint action of M, assuming dim W less than or equal to dim X, excluding only the symplectic case with dim W odd. The result is a Weyl-type integration formula for N with applications to the theory of intertwining operators for parabolically induced representations of G. Namely, one obtains a bilinear pairing on matrix coefficients in the spirit of Goldberg-Shahidi, which detects the presence of poles of these operators at 0.
Does religious pluralism decrease religious participation or increase it? Secularization theorists claim the former, while religious economies proponents claim the latter, and each side has used estimated pluralism‐participation correlations to support its argument. Using a formal game theoretic model, this article shows how religious market forces and regulations generate plausible pluralism‐participation correlations, whether or not the direct causal mechanisms argued by either side of the debate exist. The model generates testable hypotheses concerning the pluralism‐participation relationship at both local and national levels and yields insights into previous empirical work.
The present paper discusses a hypothetical but markedly interesting and effective form of price discrimination stemming from the evolution of opera as a distinctive cultural subdomain. The first chapters of the text describe in detail the origins of the genre and institution, characterising concurrently the genesis of partial price discrimination measures to yield the maximum consumer surplus possible. Opera apparently epitomises a prime example illustrating the business model based on price discrimination: unlike, for instance, drama as another category of theatrical entertainment, opera has always been accompanied by high costs, and effectively implemented price discrimination thus became a vital component of the relevant economic framework. The second section of the article then proposes a theoretical concept that exploits the individual discrimination methods applied within opera and that, using the lottery principle, exhibits a potential to acquire full consumer surplus.
The article presents conclusions of this Special Issue. It first summarizes the empirical findings of the individual contributions to this Special Issue in terms of whether EU power was enabled or constrained in response to the crisis. Second, the article synthesizes these findings to advance some overarching arguments about the EU as an actor in this crisis, and the types of power that were evident in this case. Third, it examines the significance of the study overall, and highlights some key policy implications. Finally, the article takes a broader perspective, and suggests that this framework is valuable more generally for understanding how various crises might impact the EU as a foreign policy actor.
The authors investigate the relationship between expectations formation and demographic variables in a primarily agrarian economy using data for Sweden for the years 1815-1913. The focus is on the impact of income instability in the form of harvest fluctuations on marital fertility and infant mortality. Two models of expectations formation are used an ARIMA process and a sequential auto-regressive process; harvest fluctuation is analyzed in terms of anticipated and unanticipated components. According to the authors "two important conclusions emerge from this analysis. First evidence is generated in support of rationality in the formation of expectations about future harvest conditions....Second the empirical analysis demonstrates that for demographic variables arising from a planning process in this case the married fertility rate it is important to distinguish between anticipated and unanticipated income movements when attempting to measure the influence of income upon these variables." (EXCERPT)
Abstract  Purpose  A food security indicator for technology impact assessment is needed that can be constructed with available data, is comparable over time and space, and represents the multiple dimensions of food security.      Methodology/approach  In this chapter, we review some commonly used food security indicators, analyze the extent to which these indicators satisfy key criteria, and introduce a food security indicator constructed for use in an economic impact assessment and that exhibits a number of desirable properties.      Findings  This income-based indicator is similar to a consumption-based poverty indicator, utilizing an estimate of the income required to purchase a food “basket” that meets nutritional requirements and comparing the food security income requirement to a household’s per capita income.      Social implications  The applicability of the indicator is illustrated with an analysis of the impacts of legume inoculation technology developed for smallholder farms in Tanzania and other parts of Africa. We conclude with a discussion of suggested improvements for food security indicators used for technology impact assessment.
The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was concluded in 1993, was the principal global forum to discuss agricultural trade in an extensive way. In this last venue of the GATT, South Korean negotiators had to agree to open the nation’s agricultural markets so as to assure manufacturing export access to international markets amidst heightening pressure from surplus agricultural producers. A broad range of economic studies have estimated that as an aftermath of the Uruguay Round, a majority of South Korean farmers, who are comparatively disadvantaged due to small-scale, laborintensive farming, might be displaced. In this context, the present study explores how South Korean farmers are encountering increasingly adverse free market forces as restructuring in the agricultural sector is proceeding in tandem with the comprehensive globalization process of the Korean society and economy. Based on a survey sample o f483 farm households in three provinces of South Korea, this research examines the perspectives of full-time farmers regarding trade liberalization, its effects on their lives, and the future of small-scale farming. The findings from the survey in this research indicate that South Korean farmers accede to terms of global integration in principle while disapproving state rural policies in practice. The survey data also indicate intra-regional differences in farmers' perceived satisfaction with living conditions, government farm policies, and socio-economic issues. Disparities in the degrees of discontent with government policies and socio-economic well-being are
Economists have long debated the nature of the determinants of the origin and development of economic theories. Many economists have maintained that these determinants are internal to the discipline itself. Economics, they typically have argued, consists of a logical system of laws which predicts the facts. Economics develops as new laws are deduced which encompass additional phenomena. The professionalization of economics enforces standard method while scholarly interaction within the profession prompts the direction of work. Economics consequently is autonomous and objective [85]. Yet other economists have maintained that economics develops in response to extra-scientific or external factors. Economists, they have argued, function within a socio-economic, cultural and political context. How economists perceive events in this external context affects their whole approach to economics-their scope of study, definitions, methods, even their facts. Economics as a result is highly subjective [31; 63]. This debate over the autonomy of economics never has been resolved.
In a competitive power market,it is important to expand transmission system in order to provide a fair environment to all market participants.In this paper,a new congestion concentration index taken the form of Lerner Index is defined to quantify the overall network inadequacy.With this congestion concentration indicator,a new transmission expansion planning model in the LMP-based market is constructed.The objective function of the model takes the congestion revenue into account to reimburse the network expansion investments as a reward.The main contribution of this research includes defining new transmission adequacy indicator for restraining the vertical market power during transmission transactions and introducing the congestion revenue for decreasing the investment risk in expansion planning.The bi-level optimal research strategy is then developed for the complete planning process.The test results on the IEEE 24-bus example system show that the optimized expansion planning could successfully improve the network adequacy.It illustrates that the proposed approach is more realistic for the transmission expansion planning under market environment and hence the supervision on the network adequacy is very necessary and effective.
Large scale transportation projects represent major investments devoted to the construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities over an extended period. Typically, these investments are irreversible in nature and require long-term commitment by the public at large relative to utilization, maintenance, and operation. Traditional economic analysis techniques used to evaluate the financial feasibility of such projects are based upon the assumption of deterministic future cash flows that are not subject to any uncertainty and risk. In reality, many of these projects are associated with significant uncertainties and risks stemming from lack of knowledge about future cost and benefit streams. There is a lack of comprehensive literature in addressing uncertainty and risk in transportation investment decision making. The authors present a framework for addressing uncertainty and risk for large scale transportation investments involving joint participation by the public and private entity. Demand, fare/toll, and demand responsive costs are considered in the uncertainty analysis. A bi-level programming is proposed, where the upper level constitutes the preference of the policy maker, and the lower level determines the user’s response to the policy. The uncertainty analysis provides economic feasibility of the transportation project. A set of relaxation policies is proposed to form various Ownership, Tenure, and Governance (OTG) strategies reflecting the nature and level of participation by the public and private entity. The uncertainty analysis output serves as input to the risk analysis. Monte Carlo Simulation is used to address risks for feasible policy options selected from uncertainty analysis. The concept of Value at Risk (VaR) is used to quantify risk. A methodology is proposed to integrate uncertainty and risk. The framework is tested on the proposed multi-billion dollar international river crossing entitled as the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) connecting the city of Detroit in the US and the city of Windsor in Canada. The combination of both uncertainty and risk reveals insights to the probable outcomes for a transportation infrastructure investment. This methodology can be used as a tool for transportation infrastructure investment decision making process.
Young (1995) estimated Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. He reported moderate growth rates for these four regions. This means that rapid growth of GDP in these four economies is due mainly to fast increase of inputs. Young (2000) also estimated the TFP growth rate of China to be 1.4% per year during the period of 1978 to 1998. Similar to his claim for the four 'Asian Tigers', he concluded that 'the productivity performance of the non-agricultural economy (of China) during the reform period is respectable, but not outstanding.' China's real GDP grew at about 9% every year during that period. Is this extraordinary growth rate only due to factor accumulation? Or is it to a large degree due to improved efficiency and innovations? To answer this question, this study uses a panel dataset of real GDP, capital stock, and labor force for 30 provinces for 1978 to 1998 to estimate the TFP for the Chinese economy. Two approaches are used to estimate the aggregate production technology: a fixed-effects model and a stochastic frontier model. Our results are consistent across models indicating a TFP growth rate of 4.9% and 3.3% respectively. Both estimates are higher than Young's 1.9%. Our estimates also indicate that national average of TFP's contribution to GDP growth amount to 41.3% and 38.7%, respectively. Other results of interest indicate that capital has contributed more than labor to GDP growth and that technological change has been labor using.
This article attempts to analyse the impact of economic growth on poverty reduction in Indonesia during the New Order (NO) era (1966–98). It also discusses the need of ‘anti-poverty’ versus ‘pro-poor development’ policies and programmes for poverty reduction. The paper addresses some long-standing questions in development economics. First, does data from Indonesia support the notion that growth is good for the poor? Second, does growth in agriculture matter for poverty reduction? Third, which one was the most responsible for the significant decline in poverty during the NO era: ‘anti-poverty’ or ‘pro-poor development’ policies? Through simple statistical analyses, the study shows that economic growth is positively correlated with poverty reduction, and the output or income growth in agriculture appears to have the strongest effect on poverty reduction than other sectors. This finding suggests and supports the general notion that the agricultural growth is essential for poverty reduction. This study also concludes that ‘anti-poverty’ programmes have been of minor importance in alleviating poverty compared with macroeconomic performance accompanied by ‘pro-poor development’ policies.
People-orientedness is the value of socialist objectives and the nature of the pursuit.Instead of capitalism and other exploitation systems,socialism is an inevitable choice of history.In the great journey of building socialism with Chinese characteristics,people are the fundamental driving force to promote continuous advance of the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the advance of the theory of Marxism in China.Therefore,in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics,the starting point and end-result should be the people-orientedness.
Kuznets Hypothesis means that income distribution and ecological environment tend to worsen first and improve late as a backward economy grows steadily.The experiences of economic development in China fully have proven to the existence of Kuznets hypothesis.Our goal is to build into a harmonious society with the coordination of economic development,societal equity and environmental amenity.But,the way to achieve this goal is not harmonious and it is necessary to undergo an unhappy progress from disharmony to harmony.This progress is just Kuznets' inverse U-shaped development progress.
Abstract The paper deals with application of the DPSIR diagram approach to the Aral Sea ecosystem problem. The DPSIR diagram, a causal framework for environment-society interaction, represents complex connections between the shrinking of the Aral Sea and various social and ecological problems in the region. Examining the components of this interdisciplinary approach - economic forces, pressures, states, impacts and responses could lead to a common response to the environmental, social and economic challenges in the Aral Sea region.
Any discovery which renders consumption less necessary to the pursuit of living is as much an economic gain as a discovery which improves our skills of production. (Kenneth Boulding) I. INTRODUCTION The total of resource consumption (throughput), by which the economic subsystem lives off the containing ecosystem, is limited - because the ecosystem that both supplies the throughput and absorbs its wastes products is itself limited. The earth-ecosystem is finite, non-growing, materially closed, and while open to the flow of solar energy, that flow is also nongrowing. Historically these limits were not generally binding, because the subsystem was small relative to the total system. The world was "empty." But now it is "full," and the limits are more and more binding - not necessarily like brick walls, but more like stretched rubber bands. The total flow of resource consumption is the product of population times per capita consumption. Many people have for a long time urged the wisdom of limiting population growth - few have recognized the need to limit consumption growth. In the face of so much poverty in the world it seems "immoral" to some even to talk about limiting consumption. But populations of cars, buildings, TVs, refrigerators, livestock, and yes, even of trees, fish, wolves, and giant pandas, all have in common with the population of human bodies that they take up space and require a throughput for their production, maintenance, and disposal. Nevertheless, some think the solution to human population growth lies in increasing the growth of populations of all the commodities whose services we consume. The "demographic transition" will automatically stop population growth if only per capita consumption grows fast enough. Arguing that one term of a product will stop growing if only the other term grows faster, is not very reasurring if it is the product of the two terms that is limited. Will the average Indian's consumption have to rise to that of the average Swede before Indian fertility falls to the Swedish level? Can the eroding and crowded country of India support that many cars, power plants, buildings, etc.? Never fear, the same people who brought you the demographic transition are now bringing you the Information Reformation, a.k.a. the "dematerialized economy." McDonald's will introduce the "info-burger," consisting of a thick patty of information between two slices of silicon, thin as communion wafers so as to emphasize the symbolic and spiritual nature of consumption. We can also dematerialize human beings by breeding smaller people - after all if we were half the size there could be twice as many of us - indeed we would have to dematerialize people if we were to subsist on the dematerialized GNP! The Information Reformation, like the demographic transition before it, expands a germ of truth into a whale of a fantasy. While all countries must worry about both population and per capita consumption, it is evident that the South needs to focus more on population, and the North more on per capita consumption. This fact will likely play a major role in all North/South treaties and discussions. Why should the South control its population if the resources saved thereby are merely gobbled up by Northern overconsumption? Why should the North control its overconsumption if the saved resources will merely allow a larger number of poor people to subsist at the same level of misery? Without for a minute minimizing the necessity of population control, it is nevertheless incumbent on the North to get serious about consumption control. Toward this end, a reconsideration of the meaning of consumption is offered below. II. CONSUMPTION AND VALUE ADDED When we speak of consumption what is it that we think of as being consumed? Alfred Marshall reminded us of the laws of conservation of matter/energy and the consequent impossibility of consuming the material building blocks of commodities. …
If we start from the premise that institutions are socially constructed (Berger and Luckmann 1966) and that economic activity is socially instituted (Polanyi 1957) and a situated process (Granovetter 1992), we may argue that economic phenomena are, in one form or another, also institutional phenomena. The intertwined relationship between institutions and human (including economic) activity has captured the imaginations of economists, political scientists, and sociologists since the late nineteenth century. In economics, attempts to adopt the "scientific method" were challenged unsuccessfully by economists of the German historical school led by Gustav Schmoller in the early 1900s. Drawing on the ideas of Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the group asserted that simplistic assumptions about the "rational man" and economic equilibria were unfounded and the quest for a set of universal laws for economics fruitless. Following the lead of their German contemporaries some American institutionalists, notably Thorstein Veblen, were also suspicious of abstract universal principles, interested in solving practical problems, and aware of the role of events and historical contingencies (Scott 2001). Early institutionalists pointed to pervasive market power and to indeterminacy even under perfect competition; the role of social institutions in shaping individual preferences (and hence the importance of institutions as the subject of economic analysis); the usefulness of pragmatic and psychologically realistic models of economic moti-
During the past decade, Japan established itself as the largest bilateral donor of development aid in the world, with more of it directed toward projects in China than any other recipient. Japan sees its aid flows to China as maintaining economic stability in East Asia, particularly as China's raw material and energy resources are articulated into regional markets. In this article, I argue that Japan's aid to China may unintentionally diminish Japan's and the East Asian region's long‐term security for two reasons. First, similar to other nations receiving such assistance, this aid may allow China to reallocate scarce capital to military modernisation. Such military modernisation may enable China to both better suppress internal dissent and carry out a more aggressive foreign policy. Second, this aid does not address the fundamental structural aspects of China's present instability. Long‐term structural instability has many sources, but the two discussed here are socio‐economic inequality (both interregional and intraregional), and sustainable production and environmental problems. Taken together these have important regional and geopolitical implications and repercussions. This article fills a gap in the existing literature on East Asian geopolitics. Namely, that by attending only to relatively short‐term corporate and perceived state interests of China and Japan, Japanese aid to China does little to ameliorate and potentially exacerbates long‐term structural social and environmental problems for China's vast majority living in rural hinterlands. The potential for internal turmoil springing from this uneven and unsustainable development inside China is the real basis for China's ‘threat’ to East Asian security. Thus what appears to make good development and geopolitical sense at first look, Japan's current aid regime with China, paradoxically may actually be the worst path to follow.
This is a millenium of leadership and management. To a considerable degree, the actions of the human beings in society are determinated by their association with informal or formal organization. Educational researches on school effectiveness have recently been dominated by the theories, models and skills of the Leadership or the Management or the Administration. These terms are often used interchangeably. But administratin consists of directing others in carrying out the will of a third party, management consists of directing others in the pursuit of ends and leadership consists of guiding, encourging and facilitating the pursuit by others. That is why I present in this article the principals theories and models of Leadership. Finally I examined a short model of the European Organisation in the context of our hopes for integration.
With assets taken to be pools, rational expectations on their delivery rates are, as default is permissible in an economy and its penalty prescribed in terms of utility, indispensable to the existence of equilibrium. And the resulting equilibrium relies heavily on the prevailing penalty level. We propose, in this paper, a path-following algorithm for calculating the level of penalty that leads to a Pareto efficient equilibriumâ€”Pareto efficient among the set of equilibria of the economies with distinct penalty levels. This algorithm brings off those rational expectations by identifying their upper and lower bounds iteratively until the discrepancies between them are admissible.
This paper analyzes the financial incentives for entities to self-impose punishments post-apprehension but before the enforcement body imposes punishment. We argue that violators punish themselves in order to affect the level and type of total punishment. Violators may be able to choose the punishment that minimizes lost revenue. The model includes an enforcing body whose objective is to be perceived as fair by the public. We consider the case of university self-sanctions for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) violations to test our self-punishment model using data from Division I schools’ major infractions of NCAA rules. The estimation results show that university self-imposed punishments can significantly affect the form or type of the final punishment they receive from the NCAA in response to a violation of NCAA rules.
The economics of internal organization is concerned with two closely related issues. As contrasted with received micro theory, which is preoccupied with the operation of markets (whence the firm exists mainly as an analytical convenience), the economics of internal organization emphasizes that market organization and hierarchical (internal) organization are alternative--sometimes substitute but also complementary-means of executing transactions. The object is to assign transactions to markets and hierarchies so as to achieve a most preferred (usually least cost) result, where this is judged principally in terms of transaction costs. Whereas conventional micro theory is relatively unconcerned with assessing the merits of executing transactions by one mode rather than another (partly because prevailinig modes are commonly held to be optimal), the economics of internal organization regards the assignment of transactions to markets and hierarchies as intrinsically interesting. The second issue of importance to the study of the economics of internal organization concerns organization form. Just as market structure matters in assessing the efficacy of price mediated transactions in the market place, so internal structure matters in assessing the properties of administrative organization. The hierarchical decomposition of tasks and the types of internal control processes that are employed are both germane to an assessment of internal organization. This paper sets out some of the leading attributes of Albert Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty (EVL) (1970) and my Markets and Hierarchies (MH) (1975). As will be evident, both sometimes complement received micro theory where conventional theory is silent or ambivalent. In other respects, however, EVL and MH offer substitute ways of interpreting or dealing with issues that fall within the range of received micro theory -or straightforward applications thereof.' EVL and MH also bear complementary and substitute relations to each other.2
The measures of price image proposed by the literature are mostly multidimensional and fail to consider the richness of this concept. This study proposes a measure of price image. An exploratory and qualitative study helped generate a pool of items. Then the obtained list has been subject to a questionnaire-based survey in order to determine the dimensions that would better conceptualise price image in the context of purchasing cosmetic products and perfumes. Three dimensions have been identified: the dimensions of “price security”, “proposed brand” and “value”. These dimensions have been then compared to unveil the difference between a specialised store price image and a non-specialised store price image. A mean difference test is conducted to attest for the hypothesis that a non-specialised store price image is evaluated more positively than a specialised store price image. Our study is nonetheless limited. The implications and limitations of our study open up new research venues worth exploring.
Based on the land use data of industrial field in Baotou city, the main concern of this paper is devoted to classify and appraise to land use intensification potentiality of industrial field. In the middle of study, the appraise indictors are selected, AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method is applied, the appraise model is set up and the indictor weights are established. According to the degree suffered by land use intensification, the Baotou industrial field can be divided into four sub-styles with different utilize level. Furthermore, the approaches and measures of land use intensification in industrial field are presented combined with its practicality situation.
Discusses value‐based management and how it has worked at Fletcher Challenge, a paper, building, energy, and solid wood plantation forestry operator in New Zealand. States Fletcher Challenge is not a backwater organization, far from it, as its issue of targeted shares in corporate finance have shown. Posits also that, at Fletcher Challenge, the focus is on creating value for shareholders and throughout the group. Provides a large question and answer piece with Fletcher Challenge chief executive Michael Andrews, in which much many financial areas around value‐based management and EVA are discussed.
The purpose of this paper is to measure individual intellectual capital (IC) of academic staff as well as to test its impact on the employability readiness of future graduates and the reduction of the discrepancy between competencies developed and grades obtained with the help of two indicators, i.e. intellectual capital indicator (ICI) and employability readiness indicator (ERI). While ICI measures the level of a teacher’s competencies to be transmitted in the education process, ERI measures the level of a student’s competencies developed after completing relevant courses.,This is an empirical research carried out in the form of a case study. Regression model is applied to find the influence of ICI on ERI. The minimisation problem is set with relevant constraints to decrease the discrepancy between ERI and traditional grade point average (GPA).,The data were collected at one Kazakh university and from experts from academia and industry by means of documentary analysis, specialised tests and structured interviews. The direct impact of ICI on ERI is confirmed and the optimal level of ICI that permits an effective decrease in the discrepancy between ERI and GPA is identified.,A longitudinal study covering more programmes is necessary to draw conclusions concerning causality. The application of ICI as a university’s management tool is shown.,The novelty of this study lies in providing a consistent and simple approach for calculating a teacher’s IC and its impact on a student’s employability readiness.
This paper studies the effects of social network based lending. This is a pervasive phenomenon in most of the developing world. Access to such network capital has an obvious influence on investment. It also influences the pattern of migration since, ceteris paribus, migrants would prefer to be in locations where they have access to their community's lending network. We show that under reasonable conditions such lending will generate a rather specific pattern of migration and investment. In particular, migrants to locations where they do not have access to their community's lending networks will tend to have higher ability than the traditional residents of that location, but will invest less relative to their ability. Under some conditions this generates the possibility that migrants have higher ability but invest less in absolute terms than the local people. We test this implication using data from the knitted garment industry in the South Indian town of Tirupur. Comparing the growth rate of output (which, we argue, proxies well for ability) with investment between garment firms owned by migrants to Tirupur and local people, we find that local people have slower output growth but invest substantially more at all levels of experience. We also find a positive correlation between investment and growth within any single community, consistent with the view that capital access does not vary within each group.
The global energy transition and geopolitics scene paints a picture of uncertainty and anxiety. This is propelled by the increasing need for renewable energy, the disruptive Middle Eastern conflicts and the resurgence of the global political and ideological divide, thereby threatening the predominately conventional hydrocarbon energy sources. Climate change parameters add further complexity, and perhaps an additional burden for sub-Saharan Africa struggling to develop energy infrastructure to meet its increasing demands. Looming energy transition and the abundance of natural resources poses both threats and opportunities for sub-Saharan Africa. The challenges include the lack of significant investment in energy infrastructure, human resources, and technology. The natural resource of sub-Sahara Africa places it in a prime position to effectively exploit and possibly lead in renewable energy transition.At present sub-Saharan Africa’s reliance on biomass is still high and the need to transition from heavy reliance on unsustainable biomass to renewable energy is stark. Equally stark is the optimism to leapfrog the conventional path to energy development and shift directly to renewables, in view of the advances in technology and climate change concerns. Recent trends show a shift in policy by African States towards abolishing energy production state monopolies and creating the platform to successfully overcome the energy trilemma, especially by financing sustainable energy projects.This paper, approached from a legal perspective, examines the recent optimism in Sub- Saharan Africa’s energy transition policies, evaluating the financing patterns, with the aim of assessing how the financing methods have promoted or limited energy projects. This article claims that the adoption of a legal framework that is receptive to innovative financing schemes will reduce the heavy reliance on donor support, worryingly influenced by global geopolitics. It further asserts that sub-Saharan Africa’s energy transition depends greatly on the supplementation of the traditional donor driven, highly politicized funding patterns, to developing specific themed equity and debt financing, including private-public partnerships, securitisation, targeting investors (even within Africa), with political commitments to open market access, thereby democratizing energy access and production.
Following implementation of the Uruguay Round agreement, reductions in price support programs, mainly in developed countries, will lead to reductions in food surpluses and stocks. As the developing countries open up their markets to world price signals, they could be hurt by fluctuations in prices, especially in the event of shortfalls and high food prices, unless measures to alleviate instability are undertaken.
We consider a monetary economy with directed multilateral matching between buyers and sellers. A buyer chooses how much money to hold, observes the location of all sellers, and decides which seller to visit. The number of buyers that arrive at a particular seller is random due to lack of coordination. Every seller has a single indivisible good and all buyers have the same valuation for the good, though they may hold different amounts of money. The good is allocated according to a second price auction where buyers bid with their money rather than valuations. We show that in equilibrium ex ante identical buyers choose different money holdings: carrying more money is costly but it increases the probability of winning the auction. The unique equilibrium distribution of money holdings is analytically characterized. The entry of sellers is efficient at the Friedman rule but is suboptimal for higher inflation rates
The cycle of prison, unemployment and re‐offending dominates many lives. Strangely, data about this all‐too‐familiar scenario has been lacking: historically the information was split between three different government departments, unshared and in incompatible forms. Melissa Wingfield and Paul Trenell show how data‐sharing across government has now yielded insights into the connections between employment, benefits and offending.
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of sovereign credit rating changes on financial markets using database of two countries (Greece, Ireland) in the European union over the period March, 2008-Dec, 2015. By analyzing the influence of sovereign credit rating on bond market yield We also examine the correlation between sovereign credit rating and bond market yield of each country during crisis period. Quarterly basis data of all variables is used in the research. By using regression analysis with Durbin Watson test and Pearson correlation for each country financial markets the findings indicated that sovereign credit rating has a significant impact on bond markets. Sovereign ratings are negatively correlated with Bond yield in both countries. The finding summarized that credit rating has a major influence on financial markets during crisis period.
This paper investigates the relationship between stock share and expectations and risk preferences using linked survey responses and administrative records from account holders. The survey allows individual-level, quantitative estimates of risk tolerance and of the perceived mean and variance of stock returns. Estimated risk tolerance, expected return, and perceived risk have economically and statistically significant explanatory power for the distribution of stock shares. Relative to each other, the magnitudes are in proportion with the predictions of benchmark theories, but they are substantially attenuated. MBA graduates have more stable beliefs, more knowledge about their account holdings, and less attenuation.
In this paper, we develop the idea that firm sizes evolve as log Brownian motions dSt = St(σdWt + μdt) where the constants μ, σ are characteristics of the firm, chosen from some distribution, and that the firms are wound up at some random time. At any given time, we see a firm of a given size. What can we say about its characteristics given its size? How would we invest in such a market? What do these assumptions imply about the distribution of sizes? By making simple and well-chosen modeling assumptions, we are able to develop quite concrete forms of the dependence of firm characteristics on size, from which we are able to deduce optimal investment weights as a function of size alone. As in the approach of Fernholz [2002, Stochastic Portfolio Theory. Springer], this avoids the need to estimate growth rates of stocks in order to decide on investment strategy.
This paper examined peace accounting and its implication on economic growth in Nigeria by means of secondary data of expenditure on defense, global peace index and gross domestic growth obtained for a period of 1996-2017. An Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) statistical technique was employed and ARCH regression estimator shows ARCH(1) parameter of.290 and LM test with p-value of 0.0009, which is below 0.05, suggests a rejection of the null hypothesis of no ARCH(1) effects of peace accounting on the level of economic growth in Nigeria (Walch chi2(2) = 14.13). This implies that the resources channeled to peacekeeping no doubt have affected the level of economic growth in Nigeria.  In view of the finding, it was recommended that the government should commit more resources and measures aimed at ensuring peaceful coexistence in the country in order to foster economic growth. As a matter of urgency, peace accounting models that can alleviate economic growth should be developed by accounting researchers. Besides, accounting regulatory framework should consider developing standards on peace accounting at both national and global levels.
Tax mechanism is established as a component of the financial mechanism; It uses domain-specific methods and techniques designed to identify subjects of taxation tax, taxable materials to evaluate and determine and quantify the state charged the correct rights in taxes and contributions. Fiscal process can be defined as a sequence of operations and techniques through which the operation is performed (request required) to impose taxes for taxpayers with income and wealth according to their and their collection and for the adoption of technical bad payers and tracking procedures enforced.
continuing problem in our society. Looking only at full-time workers (employed thirty-seven hours a week or more), women earn on the average sixty-two percent that of men. Not only has this disparity remained quite stable, it shows little sign of abating over the next few decades. In addition, job segregation is the rule rather than the exception, creating a situation requiring nearly two-thirds of all men and women to change jobs if equal representation in all occupations is to be achieved. Human capital theorists have argued that these differentials can be substantially explained by differing labor force participation patterns between men and women. As the theory is put forth, women will invest in less training and education in expectation of a non-continuous, and therefore shortened, life career path. Investment in skills that will not depreciate markedly over time through lack of use and a propensity to work in jobs that allow easy entrance, exit, and flexible work hours is consistent with these views. Women are charac
The corporate personality and limited responsibility of the shareholders signify not only that the legal burden of the corporation will be separated from that of its share holds, but also that the corporation will take the responsibility by itself. The institution of legal person, however, has not got a self-restricted legal mechanism, which is not able to prevent the share holders from abusing the right of the corporate personality and their limited responsibility for the corporation. The theory of disregard of the corporate personality, which embodies the legal principles of fidelity, on-abuse of rights and public interests, arises from the intension of eliminating the above drawbacks of the philosophy of corporate personality. Furthermore, the theory of disregard of the corporate personality, instead of disregarding thoroughly the corporate personality, shall perfect the institution of legal person.
In order to provide clear clues for future in-depth study on the im-pact of OFDI on industrial restructuring of the investing country,this paper re-views the related literatures published at home and abroad since the 1990s.Study abroad on this theme started earlier than that of China and are relatively mature in theory and research methods.Most of the domestic research documents have been emerging since China’s access to WTO in 2002 by using for refer-ence of foreign research ideas and methods.The consistent research conclusions include: OFDI can promote industrial restructuring of the investing country direct-ly or indirectly,but the promoting effect is still not obvious for China due to her smaller OFDI amount and the influence of "lag effect".The issues requir-ing further study are the roles of OFDI in company product upgrading,technolo-gy innovation and value-adding capacity rising;factors affecting the promoting performance of OFDI of industrial restructuring of the investing country;the pos-sible adverse effects of OFDI on investing country’ s adjustment of industrial structure.
The gradually schematized courses of economics contain,ternary intentions, that is, mathematization, symbolization, and psychologization. All these lead to the defilade for labor time and the nonhumanization of economics. The increase of masses' leisure time and the flourish of inhabitant's leisure life magnify the complexity of human nature, clarify the importance of life style for economics,and reveal the root of wealth, that is ,free time. In the long run, these tendencies will be pregnant with a thorough economic revolution sooner or later, and this means a transformation from the root of labor time to free time.
Commercial-bank risk management is fundamental in determining bank profitability, or indeed bank failure. Capital adequacy is widely considered the final safeguard of a bank?s solvency. Capital adequacy has been regulated chiefly according to the framework put forward by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 1988, this known as the Basel Capital Accord. Since 1991, the committee has published a series of consultative papers toward a new capital-adequacy concept, the so-called New Basel Capital Accord, or Basel II. This new capital-adequacy concept includes several important changes on the original accord. This paper attempts to gauge the impact of Basel II on Czech commercial banks.
The main preclusion of the greenhouses farms competitive ability comparing with industrial European countries is lack of the capital, old technologies, undeveloped cooperation (horizontal integration) as well as the absence of permanent ties between producers, buyers, processors, scientific, educational and financial institutions and politicians (vertical integration). Therefore competitive success of the greenhouses farms highly depends on the most important chain of the greenhouse’s vegetables market regulation and stabilization – cooperative societies. The purpose of this work is to prepare the principled scheme of the International Cooperative Logistic Centre of greenhouses farms and the organizational model of the Centre activity.
The paper proposes a rational reconstruction of the arguments developed by Malthus and Ricardo in their 1815 essays, Grounds of an Opinion and An Essay on Profits, to repudiate and endorse a policy of free corn trade, respectively. Malthus envisaged defence and opulence as two mutually alternative options and, if required to make a choice, he had no doubt in choosing the former. By contrast, Ricardo excluded any alternative between defence and opulence: trade does note give a sustainable weapon to potential enemies of Great Britain whereas trade-driven opulence may give Great Britain greater means to wage a war.
This article discussed how to understand the importance of the reunification realization of the motherland deeply under the guidance of the important thought of 'Three Represents'. To realize the reunification of the motherland, to create essential external condition for economic development, to offer new motive force and source for the modernization of both sides of the straits are the realistic demand that the Communist Party of China represents for the development of advanced productivity all the time. Also to realize the reunification the inevitable request for new socialism culture with Chinese characteristics is sacred historical mission on behalf of the fundamental interests of the broad masses of China and the Chinese nation's great rejuvenation realization all the time.
Population size and the level of income per capita are major determinants of the number of medals won by a country in the 1952-2004 Olympic Games. A parsimonious count (Poisson) model fits the data very well: the squared correlation between the predicted value of the number of medals won and the observed value is about 56%. There exist strong country-specific effects in Olympic medals results. While the USA and China tend to outperform other countries relative to their size and income, the Asian dragons tend to under-perform in the Games. Copyright 2008 The Authors Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the relative efficiency of universities using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The authors developed a map of efficiency indicators of universities depending on the three main functions of any university; i.e., teaching, research, and community service. Using hypothetical data of 27 universities in a given country, the authors developed the inputs and outputs for each of the three main functions of the universities. The DEA revealed some interesting results concerning the efficient and inefficient universities, and how to improve the inefficient ones. Moreover, the DEA was better than the traditional accounting method for performance evaluation. The authors concluded with some recommendations to improve efficiency of universities through the teaching, research, and community service activities. Finally, some implications for the Arab countries were discussed.
This mini-round-table presents three perspectives on the on-going globalization – convergence debate about public management reform. Jon Quah explores an important paradox about public corruption in Asian countries: despite a growing globalization and spread of such corruption, there is increasing national divergence in response to this phenomenon. Christopher Pollitt then presents a provocative analysis of the concept of convergence. He argues that, despite the wealth of literature on this topic, there is a lack of conceptual clarity about what actually constitutes convergence. In response to this gap, he presents a multi-layered theoretical framework for convergence which is a timely contribution to our understanding of it. Finally Linda McGuire offers an important empirical evaluation of the extent of globalization or convergence in one speci c  eld of public management, that of service quality. Taken together, these three papers offer a challenge to the current debate about global convergence and national divergence.
In this paper, the main socio-economic concepts and their applications in the study of soil degradation are reviewed under three broad headings: soil conservation as an input in agricultural production; topsoil as a natural resource somewhere between being renewable and nonrenewable; and the effects of dealing with common property resources. The treatment of soil conservation as an input has involved the demonstration of damage functions and a study of factors influencing the adoption of soil conservation. The study of renewability, or the lack of it, has involved the application of the concept of user costs, whilst the consideration of common property resources has concentrated on the need to minimise the divergences between social and private values. The literature is dominated by work on developed countries and also reveals the research on decision frameworks to be compartmentalised in terms of the three concepts.
Drawing upon diverse sources, including the Census of 1900, we argue that a somewhat unique pattern of settlement and adjustment of Sicilians took place in Louisiana. Sicilians began arriving in Louisiana in the 1880's, typically with their families. Comparatively speaking, they experienced more occupational success than their New York counterparts. By 1900, nearly half were shopkeepers, merchants, and peddlers. They were particularly concentrated in the food industry (grocers, truck farmers, restauranteurs, wholesale and retail produce dealers, imports and exports of agricultural products). We argue that their success was, at least in part, due to their familistic orientation. We explore the direct and indirect ways their familism gave them a competitive advantage in the Louisiana market place.
IN A NOW CLASSICAL PAPER, Nash (1953) studied the following bilateral bargaining game: The two parties state their demands simultaneously. If these are compatible with a feasible agreement, each party gets the utility corresponding to his demand. Otherwise both parties get their conflict payoffs. Under quite general conditions this game has a continuum of equilibria: Any possible agreement which is both Pareto optimal and individually rational corresponds to a particular equilibrium point. Recently, the literature on sealed-bid double auctions (see, e.g., Leininger et al. (1989) and Matthews and Postlewaite (1989)) has extended Nash's model to the case where each party has incomplete information about the other party's valuation. A common feature of these models is that they lead to an even larger set of equilibria and, thus, to an aggravation of the nonuniqueness problem. In the present paper, we will show that this problem all but disappears if a different kind of uncertainty is introduced into Nash's model, viz. if one assumes that the parties make errors in choosing their actions in the bargaining process. This modification will be seen to imply the existence of an equilibrium which Pareto-dominates all other equilibria. The rationale for our assumption lies in the implausibly precise coordination needed to induce equilibrium play in Nash's original model: each (nontrivial) equilibrium consists of a pair of demands that are just compatible. Even an arbitrarily small deviation (in the wrong direction) will reduce both players to their conflict payoffs. By adding error terms to tne bids, we get rid of this discontinuity and force the players to weigh their demands against the risk of breakdown. Thus, our assumption could be seen as a way of accounting for the strategic uncertainty which seems practically unavoidable in a game where strategies are continuously variable. More fundamentally, the errors may be thought to reflect the presence of some uncertainty about the exact values of relevant parameters. Formally, the errors will be modeled by letting a player's bid result from the addition of a stochastic term to his strategy. The rules of Nash's game will also be modified by allowing a surplus to be divided between the players. While in Nash's model the players get precisely what they have demanded even when demands are more than compatible, we make the more general assumption that some fraction (ranging between zero and one) of the unclaimed surplus is divided between the parties according to a surplus partition rule. A similar assumption is made in the above-mentioned incomplete information models, but the severe indeterminacy makes it impossible to assess its influence. The above described equilibrium properties of our model hold for errors of arbitrary magnitude. Naturally, it is particularly interesting to study the properties when errors go to zero. In the special case where no surplus is divided, we find a convergence to the
Household surveys of the distribution of income and expenditure are discussed in this paper. The potential for non-sampling errors, effecting both the mean and measures of dispersion, is noted. These errors are shown to result in substantial discrepancies between the survey data and national accounts-based estimates of the incidence of poverty and trends in living standards. It is argued that the reconciliation of these discrepancies offers the best way forward for improving both types of data.
The paper explores the foreign trade of Bulgaria in the years 1900 – 1945. It depicts the development of merchandise trade on the background of the country’s economic growth during the first half of the 20th century. GDP estimates for the whole period enable the evaluation of trade openness and its comparison to that of other European countries. Trade outcomes are assessed in terms of level and growth (the intensive margin), and diversification (extensive margin). The results of the analysis suggest increased dynamism in the Bulgarian economy and its external sector in the period between the two world wars. This newly found resilience enables the economy to recover after World War I and the Great Depression.
This paper surveys some recent work in the theory of business cycles, which emphasizes the role of public news and consumer expectations as driving forces behind short-run aggregate fluctuations. The paper uses a simple two period model to introduce and discuss three issues regarding this class of models: (1) what is the role of nominal rigidities, (2) what are the testable implications of these models, (3) what are their implications for monetary policy.
The specifi c situation at the current stage of development in the sphere of Russia’s foreign trade (including exports) has been shaped by the infl uences of the following three key factors: low activity on world markets due to the continuing uncertainty in the global economy; stagnation in Russia’s national economy and its major sectors; and the introduction of political sanctions and restrictions in the sphere of trade and economic exchange.
Recent increases in income inequality have led a number of authors to question the redistributive thesis, which predicts higher levels of income inequality will be met with increased redistribution of income, curbing inequality. This dissertation offers a new test of this theory, and sets out to understand the great variation maintained across nations regarding their redistributive policies. In light of expectations that the future will bring further increases in income inequality, findings of this dissertation show that this will unambiguously will put pressure on governments to increase their redistributive efforts and on social insurance schemes to cover the increased career risks facing workers.
Two models for the stock price fluctuations are proposed. Defining a stochastic integral Y(t) for the cumulative stock price change, the first model deals with the transformed solution of the probability density function of Y(t). Introducing the serial dependence of the inputs, a semi-Markov model is proposed for the stock price fluctuations. The moments of Y(t) are obtained from an integral equation for the characteristic function of Y(t).
Tracking poverty is predicated on the availability of comparable consumption data and reliable price deflators. However, regular series of strictly comparable data are only rarely available. Poverty prediction methods that track consumption correlates as opposed to consumption itself have been developed to overcome such data gaps. These methods typically assume that the estimated relation between consumption and its predictors is stable over time—assumptions that usually cannot be tested directly. This study analyses the performance of poverty prediction models based on small area estimation (SAE) techniques. Predicted poverty estimates are compared to directly observed levels in a series of country settings that are widely divergent, but where data comparability over time is not judged to be a problem. Prediction models that employ either nonfood expenditures or a full set of assets as predictors, yield poverty estimates that match observed poverty fairly closely. This offers some support for using SAE techniques especially those based on models employing household assets, to approximate the evolution of poverty in settings where comparable consumption data are absent or settings where price deflators are of dubious validity. However, the findings also call for further validation especially in settings with rapid, transitory poverty deterioration, as in Russia during the 1998 financial crisis.
Common stocks are typically traded on numerous exchanges both domestically and internationally. The price behaviour of stocks traded in multimarket settings provides investors with additional information regarding the risk characteristics of those shares. In this paper we provide a simple procedure to obtain the best linear unbiased (BLUE) estimator of relevant systematic risk (beta) of a stock by incorporating as much information as is possibly available in the market place.
This study aimed to identify and compare variables affecting life satisfaction of older women by focusing on household types and poverty levels. The study used data from the Korea Longitudinal Study of Aging administered by the Korea Labor Institute in 2006. The data for 1,017 older women ages over 65 including 427 single households and 590 couple households was analyzed. First, interaction effects of household types and poverty levels on life satisfaction were statistically significant. For the non-poverty households of older women, there was no explicit difference between single households and couple households in life satisfaction, but for the poverty households, single households were lower in life satisfaction than couple households. Second, as a result of reviewing four groups of older women (poverty-single household, poverty-couple household, non-poverty-single household, and non-poverty-couple household,), besides religion, it was found that there were significant differences in age, education level, number of children, health level, residence area, and status of economic activity. Third, when analyzing variables affecting life satisfaction, common predictors for the four groups were health level and ownership of house. Older women who perceived to be healthier and owned their own homes were higher in life satisfaction. For poverty-single households, older women with over middle school graduation were also higher in life satisfaction, but for poverty-couple households, older women with over middle school graduation and more children were higher.
This paper proposes a general equilibrium model with “double waste reduction” under standards of waste finally disposed of, and shows that some types of tax and/or subsidy must be required in addition to the standards to internalize externalities due to the waste disposal. Households and firms can reduce their waste independently using inputs or time. Two types of waste are distinguished, one of which is called “potential waste” from the households, and the other is called “actual waste” from the firms. The combinations of tax-and-subsidy policies under standards can be classified by the existence or inexistence of waste reduction by each agent. For all the cases, a degree of marginal disutility due to waste disposal relative to a shadow price of actual waste under the standards is particularly important since it determines whether a tax or a subsidy is required. We also examine a special case where the standards are not binding as a result of zero or very low price of potential waste.
Scale invariance, collective behaviours and structural reorganization are crucial for portfolio management (portfolio composition, hedging, alternative definition of risk, etc.). This lack of any characteristic scale and such elaborated behaviours find their origin in the theory of complex systems. There are several mechanisms which generate scale invariance but maximum entropy models are able to explain both scale invariance and collective behaviours. The study of the structure and collective modes of financial markets attracts more and more attention. It has been shown that some agent based models are able to reproduce some stylized facts. Despite their partial success, there is still the problem of rules design. In this work, we used a statistical inverse approach to model the structure and co-movements in financial markets. Inverse models restrict the number of assumptions. We found that a pairwise maximum entropy model is consistent with the data and is able to describe the complex structure of financial systems. We considered the existence of a critical state which is linked to how the market processes information, how it responds to exogenous inputs and how its structure changes. The considered data sets did not reveal a persistent critical state but rather oscillations between order and disorder. In this framework, we also showed that the collective modes are mostly dominated by pairwise co-movements and that univariate models are not good candidates to model crashes. The analysis also suggests a genuine adaptive process since both the maximum variance of the log-likelihood and the accuracy of the predictive scheme vary through time. This approach may provide some clue to crash precursors and may provide highlights on how a shock spreads in a financial network and if it will lead to a crash. The natural continuation of the present work could be the study of such a mechanism.
This paper examines alternative financial contracts for production decisions under an optimal-based valuation. We demonstrate that while the optimal loan contract consists of only conventional loans, the firm is over-borrowing and thus has over-production since its risk-adjusted future price is expected to be greater than the risk-adjusted current price. If the optimal contract consists of both conventional loans and commodity loans explicitly incorporating characteristics of the firm's product market, the firm's over-borrowing and thus over-production will vanish. Our results demonstrate that the form of contract structures provides much needed price expectation stability to the product market.
As the rate of the elderly is proportionally increasing in society, the demands of this group and the services pertaining to them is increasing. The demand for improved services is in relation to national income, the development of medical techniques and the interests of elderly. Therefore, the demand for aged social welfare facilities and management of them is increasing. This paper will focus on the types and states of aged social welfare facilities under the revised aged social welfare law in 2008. Following this research, The Social Welfare Corporation is the highest management level. To date the establishment of more infrastructure has increased rapidly, since 2000. There are many small facilities and a few large facilities.
Canada and the United States are each other's largest trading partner. Trade in agricultural goods has grown continuously since the signing of the Canada—United States Trade Agreement in 1989. The trade agreement removed most tariffs on traded agricultural goods. However, many nontariff barriers remain. We estimate the border effects for a select group of agricultural commodities and find that the quantity traded is less than would be predicted under free trade. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
In this paper we consider trends in the distribution of player talent across association football clubs over time. Player talent is the most important prerequisite for team success in professional sports leagues and changes in players' assortativeness in regard to the clubs they play for may arguably be an important factor for changes in competitive balance. We offer a new approach for measuring player talent and its distribution - the partial correlation of each player with the goal margin. We use this measure to analyze the degree of competitive balance over time. This approach enables us to examine how player mobility drives competitive balance over time. Empirical results are based on 19 seasons of the first two divisions of the German Bundesliga as well as domestic cup games. Our results show a decrease in competitive balance over time; better teams tend to attract increasingly better players. We show that this is driven by an increasingly unequal inter-divisional distribution of teams, coaches and players, as well as increasing assortativeness in the 1st Bundesliga. We further demonstrate that player transfers between Bundesliga teams results in assortative matching between players and teams. These domestic transfers do not, however, explain the reduction in competitive balance over time. Furthermore, we show that UEFA Champions League payments may have contributed to the reduction in competitive balance over the last two decades.
Knut Wicksell on marginal cost pricing, James M. Buchanan Knut Wicksell - a centennial evaluation, Carl G. Uhr Wicksell on fiscal reform - comment, James M. Buchanan the Wicksell effect, Edward Osborn the Wicksell effects in Wicksell and in modern capital theory, C.E. Ferguson and Donald L. Hooks the Cobb-Douglas or the Wicksell function? Carl-Axel Ollsson the Wicksell effect, Dewey, and others - a note, Bo Sandelin Knut Wicksell's "The Two Population Questions", Monica S. Fong Knut Wicksell and Gustav Cassel on secular movements in prices, Lars Jonung Knut Wicksell's norm of price stabilization and Swedish monetary policy in the 1930s, Lars Jonung Wicksell's missing equation, the production function, and the Wicksell effect, Bo Sandelin a new look at Wicksell's inflationary process, Patrick Honohan Wicksell and Pareto - their relationship in the theory of public finance, P. Hennipman Wicksell's missing equation and Boehm-Bawerk's three causes of interest in a stationary state, Takashi Negishi Bowley, Wicksell and the development of mathematical economics, Adrian C. Darnell value and physical capital in Wicksell's durable goods model, Larry W. Samuelson on Wicksell's missing equation, Larry Samuelson voluntary exchange, Wicksell and the principle of approximate unanimity, James M. Dean the Wicksell effect in a growing economy, Larry W. Samuelson Wicksell's critique of Ricardo's chapter "on machinery", Bjorn Hannson Wicksell and the Akerman Axe model - a re-examination, W.O. Coleman Knut Wicksell, father of the optimum, Joseph Spengler returns to scale and Wicksell's missing equations - a note, Larry Samuelson Wicksell on technical change and real wages, William Coleman cumulative process models from Thornton to Wicksell, Thomas M. Humphrey Wicksell on Edgeworth's tax paradox, John Creedy Knut Wicksell's unpublished manuscripts - a first glance, Lars Jonung British monetary orthodoxy in the 1870s, David Laidler Knight's Cursonia plant - a short cut to the Wicksell effect, Bo Sandelin Knut Wicksell on unemployment, Lars Jonung.
The growth process for a technological leader is different from that of a follower. While followers can grow through imitation and capital deepening, a leader must undertake original research. This suggests that as the gap between the leader and the follower narrows, the follower must undertake more formal R&D and possibly face a slower overall growth rate. This paper examines these ideas by discussing some simple models of technological catch-up and convergence and then applying them to the relative growth experiences of US and Japanese manufacturing. We construct measures of relative total factor productivity for eleven Japanese manufacturing industries and test whether a smaller productivity gap leads to slower growth, and whether R&D takes over as the engine of growth as Japan approaches the technological frontier. Our results suggests that Japanese and US productivity have been growing at similar rates since the mid-1970s, and that some of the Japanese growth slowdown is attributable to the exhaustion of imitation possibilities. Furthermore, since Japanese total factor productivity growth is faster than US growth before the mid-1970s, our results cast doubt on much of the cross-section convergence literature that assumes similar technology parameters across countries.
Abstract We show that a well-diversified portfolio of randomly chosen stocks must include at least 30 stocks for a borrowing investor and 40 stocks for a lending investor. This contradicts the widely accepted notion that the benefits of diversification are virtually exhausted when a portfolio contains approximately 10 stocks. We also contrast our result with the levels of diversification found in studies of individuals' portfolios.
The allocation of power in securities law is classified into three types:the singular regulator;the private contract and local competition mechanism.The securities regulation system in China has developed according to the first type for more than 20 years.However,problems caused by this singular regulator system have arisen;such as the ratio of listed companies from developed areas and from under-developed areas is rather imbalanced.Therefore,it is suggested to adopt a strategy of local competition mechanism within China Securities Regulatory Commission(CSRC) in a top-down order to disempower from central regulator to local regulation agencies.Such mechanism bears the advantages predicted by regulation competition theories and offers a better solution to governance deficiency of China's financial system.
With the deepgoing reform and the opening to the outside world,in the face of new requirements and new challenges of 21st century China higher education moving from quantity to quality,from educational big country to powerful country,Anhui University of Technology always sticks to deepen the reform of teaching and inner administration system,continuously strengthen the cooperation of production,learning and research,enlarge international exchange and cooperation,with the basis of cultivating high quality talents,achieve marked development in establishing disciplines with characteristics,promoting scientific research ability and strengthening social service,and lay firm foundation for promoting comprehensive power of running school and improving core competitive capacity.
In the context of world climate warming,as a major emitter of greenhouse gases responsible state,developed countries should reduce emissions obligatory.These countries have adopted a variety of policy instruments to reduce emissions,the more important and popular tools are carbon tax policy and carbon emissions trading policy.This paper selects the implementation of U.S.,EU,Japan and the UK carbon taxes and carbon trading policy instruments for a detailed analysis.
This article reports on the likely effects of compulsory collective tendering (CCT) in the UK. Although the process of preparing for CCT is forcing contractors to clarify their internal costs and organisational responsibilities, there are still doubts about whether CCT will improve services or save money. Work beginning in October 1993 will create the statutory framework for CCT across a wide range of functions previously considered basic parts of in-house local authority operations. From July 1994, councils will be required to begin the gradual process of tendering for these professional services; April 1997 is the deadline for tendering all these services. The British Government's decision to extend the CCT programme thus has caused concern within local authorities that already feel overburdened and under-financed. Transport responsibilities will be included under 'construction-related services', an ambiguous phrase including engineering functions, but still not specifying a precise range of transport functions. Companies with a high level of public sector expertise are keen to bid for the new CCT contracts. However, they will require such a wide range of expertise that many smaller firms, and those firms that have only undertaken contract work, may be unable to operate. Another option is for local authorities to externalise their own consultancy operations, perhaps with a management buyout.
We propose a discrete time probabilistic model of depositor behavior which takes into account the information flow among depositors. In each time period each depositors’ current state is determined in a stochastic way, based on their previous state, the state of other connected depositors, and the strategy of the bank. The bank offers payment to impatient depositors (those who want to withdraw their funds) who accept or decline them with certain probability, depending on the offered amount. Our principal aim is to see what are the optimal offers of the bank if it wants to keep the expected chance of a bank run under a certain level and minimize its expected payments, while taking into account the connection structure of the depositors. We show that in the case of the proposed model this question results in a nonlinear optimization problem with nonlinear constraints and that the method is capable of accounting for time-varying resource limits of the bank. Optimal offers increase (a) in the degree of the depositor, (b) in the probability of being hit by a liquidity shock, and (c) in the effect of a neighboring impatient depositor.
This paper examines the underpricing of A-share initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Chinese tourism industry. Test results show that a very high level of underpricing exists. Specifically, the mean 1-day initial return for 25 tourism A-share IPOs covering the period 1993–2006 is 150%. Notably, underpricing still persists 1 year after the initial listing dates. Three information asymmetry-based hypotheses – winner's curse, ex ante uncertainty and signalling – are investigated as plausible causes for underpricing. The test results support both the winner's curse and the ex ante uncertainty hypotheses, suggesting that investors, despite the high level of underpricing, should expect to earn no more than a market-adjusted return in the amount of the risk-free rate. On the other hand, empirical evidence leads to the rejection of the signalling hypothesis. Therefore, investors in the Chinese tourism IPO market should not view underpricing as a signal for quality firms.
We study a simple, tractable model of labor adjustment in a trade model that allows us to analyze the economy's dynamic response to trade liberalization. Since it is a neoclassical market-clearing model, we can use duality techniques to study the equilibrium, and despite its simplicity a rich variety of properties emerge. The model generates gross flows of labor across industries, even in the steady state; persistent wage differentials across industries; gradual adjustment to a liberalization; and anticipatory adjustment to a pre-announced liberalization. Pre-announcement makes liberalization less attractive to export-sector workers and more attractive to import-sector workers, eventually making workers unanimous either in favor of or in opposition to liberalization. Based on these results, we identify many pitfalls to conventional methods of empirical study of trade liberalization that are based on static models.
Overall, the Japanese economy continues to do well, despite a blip in the first quarter of 2018. There have been no big domestic surprises, and none are likely. In 2017, GDP increased 1.7 percent, greater than estimated potential or projected. GNP per capita, in some ways a better measure than GDP growth since Japan’s population is declining, increased by almost 1.9 percent. Unemployment continued to decline to 2.5 percent in July. Deflation has ended, but the major macroeconomic shortfall is that the 2 percent consumer price index (CPI) annual increase target has not been achieved. And it is not likely to be achieved any time soon. At the macro level, improvement is incremental and gradual. Indeed, this reads very much like my essay a year ago.
This article deals with several problems pertaining to cross-border insolvency, an important but ignored area in China. In this article, the current status of Chinese bankruptcy laws has been firstly addressed, with a focus on its legal blank on cross-border insolvency and unsatisfactory judicial practice. Thereafter, the influential Guargdong International Trust and Investment company case has been analysed, which further highlights the inadequacy of Chinese bankruptcy legislation and crying needs for its reform. Basing on the essential principles embodied in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law and European Union Regulation, the gaps between Chinese bankruptcy laws and international practice have been made clear. Accordingly, the developments of Chinese cross-border insolvency have been proposed in order to provide helpful references for the future legislation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The 2008 recession resulted from the failure of financial institutions including banks, due to their uncontrolled self-indulgent financial practices leading to a severe economic crisis. Policy options to resolve the recession that has resulted from the crisis included financial sector restructuring or bail-outs on the assumption that the banks are generally moral and trustworthy organisations. A bail-out policy required debt servicing which has led in the European Union to measures of austerity, damaging social fabrics and hurting the more vulnerable. An alternative policy in the US has been to borrow more to stimulate economic growth the result of which should be a servicing of the debt. The economic crisis was not predicted by any economic models. Prediction of the crisis by economic models failed. After the Lucas Critique which says that economic and political processes are both important to economic theory, political processes have tended to be been reflected in economic models. The policy options of austerity and investment can be associated respectively with the culturally based political modes of Individualism (methodological individualism) and Collectivism (collectivistic methodological institutionalism). The making of economic policy arising from either of these political modes is seen by some to be an inadequate basis for developing a sustainable economic society, implying the need for improved socio-economic modelling basis that reflects culture. A new culturally based economic meta-model is developed, where cultural orientation is a driver for a strategic economic agency and the formation of economic policy. The meta-model enables the modelling of the relationship between cultural, economic and political processes using cybernetic agency theory, and specific propositions can be introduced to generate specific models. The meta-model that arises can assist in the understanding of complex socio-economic processes. The meta-model adopts trait-based agency theory, the strategic economic agency that is constituted as an agency’s normative personality from which political orientations and the anticipation of classes of decision making behaviour can develop. The paper shows that Individualism and Collectivism can be seen as a subset of the broader mindscape theory, reformulated here for the meta-model.
This paper explores the key driving factors on the stages of industrialization and CO2 emissions. With the STIRPAT model and Dynamic OLS technique to assess the driving forces leading to CO2 emission in Madagascar, China and the United States within different stage of industrialization. Findings show that the key driving factor of CO2 emission is different at different stage of industrialization. At early stage of industrialization where the economy is principally agriculture dominant, the GDP growth tend to be the key driving force of CO2 emission, while at the middle stage where the economy is characterized by manufacturing and services, industry and energy intensity are both the key driving forces of CO2 emission and at the highly stage where the economy is dominated by the service sector, Energy intensity is the key driving factor of CO2 emission. To reduce CO2 emissions in industrialization is to internalize advanced technologies into industrial transformation and energy intensity enhancement which form joint forces to make economic growth much cleaner
This research investigates the relationship between human capital and access to safe drinking water and examines how urbanization and human development affect this association. The analysis is carried out using a household level dataset from 35 Demographic and Health Surveys by means of logistic and multilevel logistic regression. The results confirm significant positive influence of human capital on access to safe drinking water with differential effect of urbanization. While overall place of residence and urban growth has a positive effect on this association, we find that the impact of these indicators varies depending on the countries’ level of development.
This paper examines the role of money supply in determining unemployment rate in Nigeria. We employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model to examine the pass-through effect of the growth in money supply into unemployment rate using time series data over the period 1985 – 2015. Our approach allows for simultaneous test of the short- and long-run nonlinearities characterizing many macroeconomic variables through positive and negative partial sum decompositions of the money supply growth. We obtain the asymmetric dynamic multiplier that graphically depicts the traverse between the short- and the long-run responses of unemployment rates to the positive and negative money supply growth shocks. Our result suggests that money supply plays an important role and reveal that there is a significant pass-through effect of the money supply growth to unemployment rate in the long run. This finding infers that imposing a long-run symmetry where the underlying relationship is actually nonlinear will confound efforts to test for the existence of a stable long-run relationship between unemployment and money supply growth in Nigeria, and hence results in spurious dynamic responses. It also underscores the importance of correctly capturing short-run symmetries (asymmetries) in order to illuminate potentially important differences in the response of policy makers to positive and negative shocks.
The media rush to pick up on the revival of nuclear energy as a serious UK option, made plain in the DTI's recent Energy Review consultation document, has diverted attention from which tail will, in practice, be wagging the UK energy dog over the coming months and years. While some of the drivers are undoubtedly global -the Kyoto and Montreal protocol obligations and the realities of limited oil and gas reserves, others clearly derive from European Union legal obligations, with which the UK must comply under the terms of its EU membership. Deirdre Mason reports.
Over the last quarter-century, six Presidents have sought to encourage labor-management-government collaboration through the creation of advisory committees. This study describes how these committees have grappled with such crucial topics as wage-price stabilization, fiscal and monetary policy, and the employment problems created by technological change. Each of these committees eventually expired for a number of reasons: some Presidents ignored them and others viewed them as an exercise in public relations; business and labor representatives sooner or later disagreed with presidential policies and with each other; and those representatives could not speak for all American employers and workers. Nonetheless, the author concludes, the committees produced some concrete achievements, such as recommending or providing important support for certain programs, and they also provided a needed forum in which labor and business leaders could discuss issues of mutual concern.
ABSTRACT:Studies of rent control have utilized limited samples of cities over short timespans. Many are limited in value because of crude or poorly specified statistical analyses and a majority tend to focus on the most extreme form of rent control, that of New York City, and ignore more typical kinds. This study addresses these shortcomings by analyzing them over a 20-year timespan and using regression analysis which specifies the independent variable rent control as both a nominal and an ordinal variable. This is the largest sample using regression analysis over so long a period. The authors give an overview of the impacts of moderate rent control in 60 New Jersey cities. Their regression analysis reveals that moderate rent control laws in New Jersey have had only a small impact.
1. This report offers a discussion based on economic thinking of the costs and benefits for Peru of joining the Madrid Protocol. 2.Madrid accession has effect on two stakeholders: agents in the economy and INDECOPI. Agents include consumers, firms and trademark agents. Regarding consumers, Madrid accession is likely to have a positive (but modest) effect.3. Regarding firms:a. A quarter to half of Peruvian firms with international trademark activity will directly benefit from cheaper trademark protection. This figure is bound to increase as more Latin American countries join Madrid.b. Looking at export of branded products by Peruvian firms to Madrid and non-Madrid member states, there seems to be scope for growth in the number of applications filed in Madrid member states.c. We do not expect Madrid accession to strengthen trade/FDI significantly.d. The argument that Madrid accession will deteriorate the balance of trade is misguided.e. Economic reasoning does not support the argument that Madrid accession will increase the market power of foreign firms and hurt local producers.4. Regarding trademark agents:a. Descriptive comparisons suggest that the number of direct filings overall may decrease by about 6 to 16 per cent. However, experience in other countries that have recently joined (e.g., the Philippines) has shown that the drop could be smaller than anticipated.b. The Madrid System also creates opportunities for trademark agents: growth in overall applications in Peru (coming with new advising and representative roles), and opening up of the ‘Madrid market’ (i.e., capacity to file international Madrid applications on behalf of Peruvian clients).5. Regarding INDECOPI:a. Madrid accession will increase fee revenues collected by INDECOPI.b. The report draws attention to the fact that INDECOPI must be able to deal with the increase in applications that the Madrid System will induce.6. The report provides four policy recommendations to take full advantage of Madrid accession: i) Provide timely and reliable examination of trademarks; ii) Support or raise awareness of the System's opportunities for companies that do business abroad; iii) Inform agents on how to adapt their services on offer; and iv) Convince other Latin American countries to join the Madrid System in view of network externalities.7. There is a need for accurate forecasts of the increase in the number of applications induced by Madrid accession. 8. On balance, the report makes the point that arguments in favour of Madrid accession outweigh arguments against. The positive welfare effect of Madrid accession will become stronger as more Latin American countries join.
This article examines the foreign economic relations of Ukraine and the African continent in the field of trade in goods. The dynamics and commodity structure of trade with Africa are studied, the main aspects of cooperation in this direction are highlighted. The study revealed the rapid development of the countries of the continent: there is population growth and GDP growth. Despite such positive growth rates of the above indicators, a very serious problem for Africa is the provision of food products, the need for which has always existed, and is now exacerbated as a result of rapid population growth and effective demand. With insufficient domestic food production in the countries of the continent, the food problem is solved by imports, the scale of which is quite significant. Based on the fact that foreign trade operations today play an important role in the economy of our country, the forecast of export indicators for the coming years was made on the basis of previous ones. Of particular importance is foreign trade against the background of ever-increasing economic and technological imbalances, increasing the impact of non-economic factors on global processes, the gradual slowdown in economic growth in leading economies. This actualizes the expediency of revising the vectors of cooperation in Ukraine's foreign trade. The article presents the commodity structure of trade with these countries, analyzing the conclusions about the importance of this area of trade cooperation. The main crops that make Ukraine one of the world leaders are cereals and fodder crops, including wheat, corn, barley, sunflower, sugar beet, tobacco, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Possible options for establishing ties and practical recommendations for improving cooperation between Ukraine and the countries of the African continent are given. Today and in the future, the African continent is one of the main importers of agricultural products, which allows Ukraine, as an exporting country, to realize its potential in increasing exports. An analysis of recent years indicates that Africa is one of the leading exporters of Ukrainian products. At the same time, Africa is experiencing rapid economic and social development, which gives grounds for increasing cooperation with the continent.
Multi-level investors and diversified financing channels are provided for the development of circular economy by market-oriented system of financial support,and the development of circular economy tends to improve further the financial system in certain extent.In this paper,an input-output model is built to make an empirical analysis which proves the important promotion of the capital investment for the circular economy.Then,we propose the policy recommendations to build a financial supporting system which is market-oriented and takes the finance as its main body for the circular economy.
This paper presents the differential approach to applied demand analysis. The demand systems of this approach are general, having coefficients which are not neces- sarily constant. We consider the Rotterdam parameterization of differential demand systems and derive the absolute and relative price versions of the Rotterdam model, due to Theil (1965) and Barten (1966). We address estimation issues and point out that, unlike most parametric and semi-nonparametric demand systems, the Rotterdam model is econometrically regular.
ABSTRACT Industrial production can produce large amounts of harmful by-products, causing serious pollution and ecological risk. In addition, if government regulations are subjected into the industries, huge cost risk will be faced. This article adopts a two-stage slack-based undesirable-output data envelope analysis (DEA) model to measure the eco-efficiency of China. In the first stage, we analyze the eco-efficiency of each province of China, and in the second stage, we employed a truncated bootstrap method to understand the determinants of eco-efficiency. The results indicate that whereas the eco-efficiency of the eastern region was the highest, that of the western region was the lowest. The western region's economy lagged behind that of other regions, and its environment suffered from heavy pollution. It was found that the level of industrialization did not contribute to eco-efficiency. However, promotion of the service industry, investment for the environment, and regional innovation have positive effects on eco-efficiency.
It is well‐known that institutions and social capital are important determinants of economic development, and that trust is an important component of social capital. In this paper, factor analysis and three regression models are employed to analyze determinants of trust in central and eastern European countries (CEECs). The results indicate that the rule of law, the protection of property rights, and lower levels of perceived government corruption have a positive effect on trust in agriculture.
This paper uses a panel of 22 OECD Development Assistance Committee countries to examine whether fragmentation of executive power and the degree of competition from the legislative branch of government increased the amount of tied aid over the period 1979–2009. Fragmentation is defined as the degree to which the costs of a dollar of aid expenditure are internalized by decision-makers and is measured as the number of decision-makers in government. Legislative competition is defined as the relative strength of the government in relation to the legislature. Three variables are used to capture this effect. The empirical results show tied aid, both in levels and as a percentage of total aid, increases as the number of decision-makers within the government increases, and decreases as the proportion of excess seats a governing coalition holds above a simple majority increases.
This paper surveys competition policy in the APEC countries. It covers competition‐promoting policies such as free trade but focuses on competition law. Fourteen of the 21 APEC countries have comprehensive national competition laws but in some the coverage is limited and the enforcement is weak. After reviewing national, bilateral and regional competition laws, the paper discusses the problems of devising competition law in developing countries with a weak tradition of promoting competition.
Polish Pension Funds Investment - is There A Place For Real Property in A Portfolio? The pension fund investments should be characterised by a long term, low risk and profitability, which implicates the necessity of portfolio diversification. In general, pension funds having regular long-term contributions should develop the long-term policy and its effects would be responsible for the economic position of their future beneficiaries. The ways of capital allocation are also critical in terms of the entire economy, as a constant flow of financial resources provided by pension funds stimulates the activity of its recipients. The typical assets in a pension fund's portfolio in the developed economy are stocks, bonds and real property owing to low (negative) correlation between these assets and their diversified potential. The legal investment limits imposed on the Polish pension funds exclude direct investment in real property, which is responsible - in the authors' opinion - for the lower level of diversification and hinders the risk reduction. The authors analyze the Polish pension fund portfolios focusing on risk and return levels. The aim of the study is to find the answer to the important question about the results of hypothetically added real property to the portfolios of pension funds.
While unemployment has been the common experience of OECD countries over the last three decades, there have also been significant differences in its severity and extent. These differences were characterised in the 1990s as a “trade‐off” between unemployment and wage inequality. According to this argument, the USA has achieved relatively low unemployment at the cost of widening inequality, while Europe has only been able to maintain equality at the cost of high unemployment. This introduction to selected papers from Australia’s 6th National Conference on Unemployment questions whether such a trade‐off is well grounded in the evidence, and suggests that it may instead be thought of as an ideological construct which has been deployed to make a case for US‐style labour market deregulation and “workfare” against the supposedly inflexible European social democratic model.
This paper examines FDI determinants in the BRICS and MINT throughout the conditional distributions of FDI for the period 2001-2011. An instrumental variable quantile regression estimation strategy is employed based on the intuition that, the determinants are contingent on initial or existing FDI levels. The following are some of the findings established. First, FDI benefits of GDP growth are more apparent in nations with higher initial levels of FDI. Second, real GDP output would more positively influence FDI in countries where initial levels of FDI are higher. Hence, the market-seeking purposes increases FDI with a larger magnitude in Higher FDI countries. Third, the impact of trade openness has a Kuznets shape for Gross FDI and increasing tendency for Net FDI. The impact of political stability is only significant for Gross FDI in increasing order.
The objective of this discussion paper is to propose an asset-centred analytical framework for (i) mapping the most important redistributive policy tools that shape the distribution of income and income-generating assets (such as human capital and wealth, including land, industrial or financial capital) across individuals as well as between the private and the public sector and (ii) outlining key linkages between redistributive policies, equity and sustainable development by looking at how they can shape a socio-economic context and incentives that are conducive to financial stability and economic development, political inclusion, gender equality and social mobility, as well as environmental sustainability. The paper further aims at (iii) contrasting the potential scope of redistributive policies with the more narrow set of policies that have been implemented in most countries/regions over the last 30 years in order to (iv) derive recommendations for redistributive policies in support of greater equity and sustainable development in the post-2015 context. Conceptualizing redistributive policies from a stock-flow perspective reveals an artificial blind spot of the prevailing approach to redistribution and development: wealth redistribution. The prevailing approach generally covers income redistribution and the provision of public goods as a means to foster human capital accumulation (e.g., the MDGs approach), but it ignores wealth redistribution. This omission impoverishes the understanding of redistribution and hampers the design of redistributive policies in pursuit of development objectives (e.g., efficient taxation, progressive and increased revenue mobilization, poverty reduction, equality of opportunity, etc.). Furthermore, conceptualizing redistributive policies in light of their linkages to equity and sustainable development is increasingly needed given the upcoming transition from the MDGs to SDGs in a context characterised by sustainability challenges, such as rising income inequality, wealth concentration and growing carbon emissions. In this regard, an asset-centred model allows thinking beyond redistributive policy options affecting production and consumption incentives (e.g., progressive environmental taxes) in order to consider possible asset transfers between the private and public sector (e.g., socialization of natural resource ownership, etc.). Based on these premises, this paper suggests a number of steps for developing a more comprehensive approach to redistribution and moving towards a framework enabling asset-centred redistributive policies for greater equity, economic democracy and sustainable development.
INTRODUCTION There is an old joke that goes something like this: It's late at night and two junkies are sitting on a park bench, both of them coming down from the high of their latest fix. One turns to the other and says, "Do you know what my problem is? Do you know what's wrong with the world? It's these dealers! They control everything! They control the supply and the quality. They corner the market and they charge whatever the hell they want! My problem is I can't afford the good stuff." The second junkie looks at the first with an incredulous smile. As it begins to rain on the two of them, he responds to his complaining bench mate with uncommon clarity and insight: "No, you got it all wrong. That's not your problem. Your problem is you're a junkie." Although the respective situations are, of course, vastly different, in many important respects, the comments of the first addict are not unlike the government's response to the economic crisis that began in 2007 with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market--a collapse that led to the near total failure of the economy in the fall of 2008. In the aftermath of the crisis, several household names in the fields of financial services, insurance, securities, banking, and investment banking either ceased to exist, were acquired by other firms, or accepted substantial amounts of government money and partial government ownership in the face of imminent collapse. Among these entities were Countryside Financial, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, AIG, Merrill Lynch, General Motors, and Chrysler--to name only the most obvious examples. (1) The U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, and other government officials responded with a practical diagnosis of the financial crisis that had befallen the world. They looked to the existing structures and institutions to understand the problem and to formulate a solution. The problem was a lack of liquidity. The problem was the crushing burden of toxic assets. The problem was the opaque nature of the transactions. The problem was the faulty and insufficient information the ratings agencies provided. The problem was the atrocious lack of regulatory oversight. (2) In a few instances, the government sought to assign blame to those whom it regarded as the responsible parties. For the most part, however, the government simply sought to provide immediate relief by dramatically increasing the supply of what everyone agreed was desperately lacking-namely, credit. Although a more ambitious reform agenda has since been proposed, (3) this basic approach to basic structural reform remains in place. The addict who complains about his supply of dope and the prices he must pay seems to offer a reasonable, perhaps even sophisticated analysis of the situation in which he finds himself. He looks to the market and sees a systemic problem--one of supply and demand. He seeks to assign blame by pointing to his unsympathetic pusher as the cause of his misery. We know, however, that his analysis falls short. It does not penetrate down to the reality in which his life is truly grounded. No matter how plausible it may sound when spoken, a relatively superficial analysis always yields a relatively superficial solution--a solution that will inevitably prove inadequate over time as circumstances change and the flawed premises upon which the solution is grounded reveal their true weakness. Some might say that the addict is simply framing the problem as a "practical" matter that calls for a "practical" solution. Invoking such language, however, often masks the deeper values that are at stake in the matter at hand--values that lie hidden beneath the rhetorical gloss of practicality. What is presented as an obvious and simple matter of "common sense" is, upon closer examination, often revealed as something that is highly contestable, indeed, at odds with the values most people hold most dear. Again, although clearly different in many important respects, the analysis offered by the second addict in the brief story recounted above is not unlike the diagnosis of the world economy offered by the former Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, in his recent social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (4)--"Charity in Truth. …
Resources based economies in the United States may be fundamentally subject to the fluctuations of the prices of the resources used. Commodity price booms have been shown to have significant spillover effects on employment and earnings in the other local industries. For example, the coal boom in the 1970s had been a shock to both mining and non-mining industries across the US. We examine similar issue in the case of corn prices in the Midwest. The paper builds off of the work of Black, McKinnish and Sanders (2005), who examined the economic impact of the coal boom and bust on the mining and non-mining sectors in terms of employment and earnings. In their study, they did not include spatial spillover effects which we considered to be important in terms of employment and earnings. Through the fixed effects spatial autoregressive model, spillover effects across industries and States are captured. The motivation behind the use of spatial econometrics is that, the impacts of corn price shocks in the farm sector expand into the local sectors both in the source counties and the neighboring counties. Specifically, employment and earnings have experienced the substitution effects between farm sector and the local sectors. With regard to the time trend of the corn prices, non-boom and boom period were defined, and the spatial spillover effects are more pronounced during the boom period.
The economic risk associated with the death of a spouse mainly affects survivors with no own income. Whether and under which conditions the survivor suffers poverty depends on how social security protects the survivor against an income loss resulting from the death of the spouse. While a person’s standard of living is determined by net income, survivor benefits are normally derived as a particular share of the deceased spouse’s gross benefits. Thus, the present paper investigates the survivor’s decline in standard of living in relation to the effect of taxation and to fixed costs such as costs of housing. In contrast to existing studies, the present analysis is based on hypothetical retiree households. This guarantees that the household’s welfare before the death of a spouse is independent of individual factors such as differences caused by retirement age or earnings history. The present research investigates those surviving the death of a spouse in Austria, Germany and the U.S.A.. The results obtained help us understand why survivors are often exposed to poverty and how the design of adequate and fair survivor protection may be achieved.
The achievement of gender equity in universities continues to warrant attention. Globally, universities have much work ahead of them if they are to redress the gender imbalance in senior positions and remuneration rates. To examine this issue, multiple sources of evidence were used to observe teaching and research workload of academic staff employed at mid-tier business faculties from two urban Australian universities which had more women employed in junior academic ranks. This article argues that although gender equity, in terms of workload, has improved, inequality, in terms of pay and status, still exists. Specifically, while workload differences between genders were largely not evident, fewer women were employed in senior ranks. These results suggest, despite policy reforms, that inequity continues to be a problem in the Australian higher education sector with implications for the recognition (and addressing) of inequity in the global higher education industry. In summary, higher education institutions, senior policy-makers and managers must be cognizant of balancing teaching workloads with opportunities and support systems for research-related activities and directing human resource efforts and promotion opportunities.
In many organizations where there had been a mandatory retirement age (65), there was an option for early retirement (55) which was encouraged by employers and seen as desirable by employees. However simply having reached a specific chronological age no longer seems a valid reason for leaving the labor force given improved levels of health and longevity, as well as shortages of skilled workers. While increased longevity may be good news for aging people and their loved ones, it has also been cause for alarm regarding the provision of aged pensions and aged services. If people over 65 were unwilling to consider remaining in paid employment and preferred to take a well-earned rest, reliant on superannuation, savings and investments, or a pension, it could be difficult to persuade them otherwise. This problem may not need to be addressed if many older workers choose to stay in paid work after 55 and after 65. The findings described in this paper are drawn from interviews collected between 2008-2011, covering both future dreams of an ideal week without full-time work, as well as experiences of working after 'retirement', and suggest ways organizations may attract and retain valued talent of all ages.
Policy advocates argue for the transformation of non-government Microfinance Organisations (MFOs) into shareholder owned firms (SHFs). This paper investigates whether the proposed superiority of shareholder owned MFOs is empirically supported. The findings indicate that the difference between shareholder owned MFOs and non-government MFOs is minimal. Our results contradict established paradigms and policy guidelines in the industry. However, the results are not necessarily surprising since ownership theories support our findings. So do also studies from the general banking markets as well as historical studies. Adaptation of legal frameworks allowing well-performing NGOs to mobilise savings appears to be a better option than transformation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The paper introduces the use of several chosen Maple software finance application tools - specific examples from the Applications Center of the Canadian company Maplesoft that has been developed Maple since 1980. There are discussed the possibilities that Maple environment offers. Readers can also share author’s experiences as can be seen in the Maple environment usage presented in the Maple case studies. The paper introduces also essential information about computational finance and the theory of portfolios of securities and presents how to use the Maple tools for the computation of the efficient frontier and optimal utility of a portfolio of three securities from the Prague Stock Exchange.
A new occurrence in present-day Chinese acdemic journals is that more and more journals are charging publishing fees from the contributors. Charging publishing fees is the product of market economy. But it does not mean that journals are allowed to make profit in this way. On the contrary, it is an international practice that the contributors should be charged fees for their printed pages; and it can complement the costs of journals. Therefore, its high time that the publication management regulated and normalized the standard of charging the publishing fees.
Women’s economic participation has recently been at the centre of the debate on sustainable development. It is a widely held view that women have a strategic role in poverty reduction dynamics. The argument is that when women have equal access to education and full participation in business and economic decision-making, they are a significant driving force against poverty. Women economic empowerment increases earning power which in its turn raises household incomes while reducing fertility rates that triggers the population transition dynamics. This is eventually translated into well-being of children, reducing poverty of future generations. In fact currently World Bank Strategy to empower women among others includes the need to increase investment in women’s health. Recognising this issue, SADC region has developed a number of gender based health polices which are in line with regional and international commitments. As a result one of the key indicators of development in the region is now the state of women’s health. However overall health status has been an issue in SADC region, mostly due to HIV/AIDS infections and Tuberculosis. Globally SADC has the highest level of HIV prevalence and the most affected social group is women, between 15 and 24 years of age. Furthermore the review of literature indicates that much of what is known about the effects of health by gender in this region has been descriptive in nature. No previous study has empirically investigated the nature of these effects in this region. This chapter aims to fill this gap. This paper empirically investigates the link between improvements on health disaggregated by gender on productivity and hence economic growth in the SADC region between 1970 and 2010. Health improvement is measured by life expectancy and economic growth is measured by real GDP per capita at 2005 constant prices and data is taken from the WDI and PWT. Using Fixed Effect (FE) the findings presented in this analysis suggests that improvements in both female and male health can significantly improve economic growth in this region. However an increase in male health significantly raises economic growth greater than that of females. These effects are robust to changes in model specification. These findings may reflect women’s higher morbidity rates in the region compared to men in this region that might affect productivity. They also may reflect inequalities in accessing education or formal paid work that is required to trigger the population transition dynamics and eventually economic growth. These results imply the need of some policy adjustment in order to align all SADC gender policies particularly in education, employment and improvements in health in order to capitalize on the benefits of improvements on female health.
To produce a product the company frequently uses production costs are relatively large, one element of the production cost is Direct Labor Costs. Direct Labor Cost is worth noting because it somehow Direct Labor Cost plays an important role in corporate productivity. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is deviation between the actual direct labor costs with the standard direct labor costs incurred in the company. As a means of planning and controlling these costs is to use Standard Cost Analysis method. Because this method can analyze or compare the company's costs have been standardized between the costs actually happens in the company. If actual costs exceed the budget set is used this will directly be viewed as a difference that is not profitable or loss.
1. A Theory of the Social Economy 2. Capital and Imperialism 3. The Premises for Post Second World War Imperialist Expansion 4. From the Marshall Plan to International Production 5. The Postwar System Against Itself 6. Drawing the Lines: Economic Internationalization and Social Polarization 7. Social and Economic Constraints/Social Necessities and Possibilities 8. The Social Economy, Economic Development, and Socialism Appendix: The Logic of Capitalist Development
We describe an economy where a durable good is produced with an increasing returns to scale technology. Equilibria in this economy take the form of business cycles in which consumption fluctuates too much and is too low on average. A 2-sector version of this economy with imperfect credit and immobile labor also exhibits aggregate business cycles, in which outputs and labor inputs in different sectors move together. The model is consistent with a broad range of evidence on economic fluctuations.
We study loss aversion in majority voting. First, we show a status quo bias. Second, loss aversion implies a moderating effect. Third, in a dynamic setting, the effect of loss aversion diminishes with the length of the planning horizon of voters; however, in the presence of a projection bias, majorities are partially unable to understand how fast they will adapt. Fourth, in a stochastic environment, loss aversion yields a significant distaste for risk, but also a smaller attachment to the status quo. The application of these results to a model of redistribution leads to empirically plausible implications.
The European economic and monetary integration of Portugal should be analyzed from a historical perspective, taking into account not only economic but also political aspects. Despite its colonial heritage, Portugal is a country of emigrants in which Europe holds a very important part. Portuguese people have a European feeling they do not forget a dictatorship that has lasted almost half a century. The incomes of Portuguese are nowadays much higher as also the level of fixed capital - especially in infrastructure - and human capital than before European integration. The recent economic problems of the Portuguese economy are the result of imbalances that developed during the years after the Democratic Revolution. The absence of more appropriate policies for a monetary zone with a fixed exchange rate and with financial shocks caused by the reduction of interest rates and the massive entry of structural funds is responsible for the poor performance of the Portuguese economy after 2002 At present the banking crisis and public debt does not allow the exit of the Euro. But in spite of this constraint Portuguese governments and the great majority of the political parties envisage a deeper integration on the monetary union.
If currency crises are triggered when the currency overvaluation hits a threshold, the expected magnitude of a devaluation, conditional on its occurrence, is substantially different from the unconditional expected currency overvaluation. That is not true if currency crises are triggered by sunspots. Therefore, implications for the behaviour of the probability and the expected magnitude of a devaluation depend on what triggers currency crises. Those two variables are not observable but can be estimated using data on exchange rate options. This paper identifies the probability and expected magnitude of a devaluation of Brazilian Real in the period leading up to the end of the Brazilian pegged exchange rate regime and contrasts the estimates to the predictions from a simple model of currency crises under different assumptions about the trigger. The empirical findings favour thresholds and learning over sunspots.
Substantial variations in landowner's share under sharecropping arrangements are documented. Partial relationships between landowner's share and land quality and between landowner's share and physiological population density are explained by extensions of the competitive theory of share tenancy. It is shown that high landowner's share can be expected to be associated with high land quality and or high physiological density. The tendency for increases in population to be associated with increases in landlords' shares can be ameliorated by land-saving technological change.
In the context of expected utility maximization for utilities deflned on the whole real line, we deflne a new class of admissible strategies in terms of dynamic bounds on losses under the historical measure P. More precisely, the loss control is given by a P-martingale which is compatible with the preferences of the investor. The main result is the Ansel-Stricker-type Lemma 3.2 which shows that the admissible strategies are supermartingales under all sigma-martingale measuresQ with flnite relative entropy, therefore allowing for a duality theory for the optimization problem.
This paper argues that scholarship on the varieties of capitalism could provide a more complete understanding of fiscal policy convergence in the Eurozone after 2010 if it better examined the interdependencies between banks and sovereigns. Recently, this scholarship has explained fiscal convergence through a global imbalances framework. While the interaction between coordinated and liberal capitalisms, and their distinctive macroeconomic policy preferences, generates global imbalances, rebalancing can only occur if the incentives governing national polities change dramatically. In Europe’s case, sudden stops in capital inflows from coordinated capitalisms triggered an asymmetric response, forcing deficit (liberal and mixed) economies to address such imbalances. As wage-setting institutions could not restore exchange rate competitiveness a la Germany, governments were compelled to adopt the conservative macroeconomics of the coordinated economies in an institutional setting ill adapted to such policies. In contrast, our account highlights the constraints that financial actors in sovereign bond markets place on the conduct of fiscal policy. Drawing on recent contributions in the literature on financialization, we introduce the concept of the ‘collateral motive’ – investors’ demand for government bonds to meet their funding needs – and link it to the shift to transnational, market-based, collateral-intensive banking models. We show how this becomes a pivotal mechanism for fiscal consolidations as the singular response to the ongoing Eurozone crisis. The implication of our argument is that recent fiscal policy in the Eurozone cannot be adequately understood without analyzing the process through which the collateral motive ignited a run on peripheral sovereign bond markets which in turn compelled states to stabilize these markets through austerity.
In this paper, we estimate the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for the Chilean Construction Sector, considering an annual period between 1986 and 2015. The contribution of the productivity to the sectorial growth is estimated residually, based on a Cobb-Douglas production function for the sectorial GDP and independent measures for capital and labor, corrected by quality and intensity of use. As a result, the sectorial TFP has exhibited a downward trend in the last five years, after remaining virtually flat since 1986 to 2011. The economic growth of the sector shows to be dominated by the accumulation of factors rather than by the efficiency with which they are used in the productive process. This could explain, partially, the vulnerability of sectorial activity to the economic cycle.
This paper examines the stock price and volume effects surrounding the announcement of constituent changes to the S&P/ASX 200 and four supplementary indices. Between April 2000 and December 2002 additions to (deletions from) the ASX 200 were associated with a significant price rise (fall) over the 10 day period following the market announcement of the change. Additions (deletions) also displayed a significant rise (fall) on the announcement date itself. These findings were corroborated by significant increases in trading volume over the same intervals, suggesting heavy trading activity by index funds in response to changes to the ASX 200. Following the implementation of these changes, both additions and deletions experienced a significant price reversion, supporting the price pressure hypothesis. In contrast, none of the supplementary indices displayed evidence of stock price or volume effects, thereby precluding the information and liquidity hypotheses as viable explanations for the findings of this research.
The transmission expansion investment is substantial, especially in the developing countries like China. In the competitive power market, there is a need to develop a new method for evaluating the transmission expansion projects. This paper studies the economic impact of the transmission expansion on the power generators, consumers, the transmission company and the society, develops the benefits calculation models and analyzes the benefits and its impact factors applying the proposed method. Using a 30-node prototype system, this paper displays how to calculate the benefits of transmission expansion and analyses the impact of long-term bilateral contracts and generators' game behavior on the benefits of the transmission expansion. The proposed method can aid the decision making on transmission expansion investment.
Purpose          The purpose of this study is to investigate the Granger causal link between the stock market index and housing prices in terms of apartment and villa prices.          Design/methodology/approach          Monthly data from September 2005 to October 2013 on apartment prices, villa prices, the stock market index, mortgage rates and the consumer price index were used. Statistical methods were applied to explore the long-run co-integration and Granger causal link between the stock market index and apartment and villa prices in Sweden.          Findings          The results indicate that the stock market index and housing prices are co-integrated and that a long-run equilibrium relationship exists between them. According to the Granger causality tests, bidirectional relationships exist between the stock market index and apartment and villa prices, respectively, supporting the wealth and credit-price effects. Moreover, variations in apartment and villa prices are primarily caused by endogenous shocks.          Originality/value          To the authors’ best knowledge, this study represents a first analysis of the causal nexus between the stock market and the housing market in terms of apartment and villa prices in the Swedish context using a vector error-correction model to analyze monthly data.
This paper deals with the behaviour of commercial banks in the syndicated credits market, which proved to be the most popular instrument in the 1970s guiding credit flows to developing countries. The author argues that the distortions in the pricing structure of syndicated credits biased the international credit market towards overlending, thus making standard investment criteria less applicable to credit commitments to developing countries. The analysis of post-1982 rescheduling qualifies it as a vicious circle and stresses the urgent need for the partial forgiveness of developing countries' debts in accordance with the market price of securitized debt.
Microlending programs, commonly directed at women and presented as a solution to global poverty, provide borrowers credit to support small, informal income-generating activities. These initiatives have garnered much attention from anthropologists, who have long been interested in the social life of credit and debt. Despite numerous anthropological studies critiquing the social and economic consequences of such lending practices, they continue, bolstered by the affective dimensions of philanthropic marketing and the current embeddedness of microloans in local economies. This contradiction has led to more recent ethnographic work demonstrating the interaction of microloans with other forms of debt and credit in the social economy of borrowers. Building on this recent work, this article draws on ethnographic data from microloan borrowers in northern Honduras and the Bay Islands and contends that the activities associated with microlending participation and repayment may be understood as a form of productive, though hidden, labor. The article suggests further avenues of inquiry into the long-term economic and cultural transformations that microlending has precipitated.
T HE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT is faced with a dilemma in New Guinea. Trusteeship, under the United Nations, has become outdated and equated by some with colonialism. However, political instability in the region to the north, together with the recent Indonesian take-over of the western half of the island, inhibits the Australian Government in disengaging from an adjacent territory whose present capacity for complete self-rule is doubtful. Yet, to move more slowly than the emerging political forces in New Guinea will not only antagonise the anti-colonial bloc, and even Australia's friends, but is likely to jeopardise the future relationship between Australia and the nation whose eventual existence has now been somewhat reluctantly recognised. Australia has been involved in New Guinea since the latter part of the nineteenth century, but its present jurisdiction in the territory derives, for the southeast portion (Papua), from the British transfer of authority in i906 and for the northeast portion, first, from the Mandate granted by the League of Nations in i919, and subsequently from the trust agreement negotiated with the General Assembly of the United Nations in I946. Apart from an initial desire to deny the territory to an unfriendly power-an intention which reappeared at the time of the granting of the Mandate-New Guinea aroused little attention within Australia before I942.1 However, in that year indifference was shattered by the Japanese invasion. Vague and undefined fears, associated traditionally with an Asian threat, now crystallised and New Guinea was depicted as a springboard for enemy violation of the Australian mainland. Following the Second World War this image of the possible role of New Guinea significantly influenced governmental and public attitudes to the territory. For the Labor Government, which had held office since I94I, this resulted in an attempt to square security considerations with a traditional outlook on colonialism; for the Liberal-Country Party Government, which has been continuously in office since i949, it has meant, at least in its early years, a far less ambivalent approach. The Australian Government's position on trusteeship at the San Francisco Conference on International Organization can best be described as equivocal. Posing as the defender of the rights of small nations, espousing proposals for
It is a period of transition time of 3～5 years after china joined WTO in the construction corporation of china, the problem of engineering claim must tallies with international tradition ,in this paper based on international engineering tradition ,it discussed particularly that kind of bank security and importance action in the course of owner claim ,thus this paper offers a kind of project management method for owner that can be used for reference.
Currently, the electricity market is shifting from fossil fuels to renewable resources. The lack of controllability of the output of solar cells and wind turbines conflicts with the requirement that suppliers match their production with the demand at all times. Our solution is to drop this requirement and instead use flexibility on side of the consumer to align the demand with an optimal production schedule. In this thesis, we first investigate this scheduling problem. We then consider the setting in which consumers and suppliers have private information about their jobs and costs. In this context we propose the Transfer Redistribution Mechanism, which is budget balanced and individually rational. Under the assumption that consumers report truthfully, the mechanism is efficient. We conjecture that in practice truth-telling is a best strategy for consumers. We present experimental results that show that increased flexibility of jobs reduces the costs of suppliers. Furthermore, the consumers are found to benefit when the flexibility of their jobs is increased, thereby supporting the conjecture that truth-telling is a best strategy.
It is a well-known fact that cottage industries can play a significant role in the development of an economy like Pakistan. As it is observed that this industry is not required too much financing, imported and highly sophisticated technology. So the problems like deficit in public finance and balance of payments is not related with the growth and development of these industries. Simultaneously, high degree of female labour force participation in this sector has also been proved in the number of studies. Which seems to be helpful in the process of reduction of poverty especially in the rural areas. The Southern Punjab especially its rural areas are comparatively less prosperous than the other parts of Punjab. A number of female workers can be seen in the rural areas of Southern Punjab. The concentration of these workers is in few traditional areas and is characterised by the low technology and low production levels. These areas are typically those, which require skills that are basically the extension of household skills or which reflect a specific educational and employment experience of women. It has also been observed that women’s income of the rural areas of Southern Punjab are more likely than their male partners to go towards meeting their family’s basic needs. These women spent most of their business income on the households, food, clothing and education of their children rather than reinvesting it in their business.
The paper firstly analyses the agendas and progress in strengthening the architecture of the International Financial System after the Asian crises, including introduction of prudential regulation, promotion of private involvement, quest of adequate exchange regime, prevention of financial crisis etc.Secondly the paper discusses the function focusing of the two Breton Woods institutions.IMF would restructure its role to play in macro-economic surveillance and lend in the short span, and the World Bank would take initiative in poverty alleviation and development.Thirdly the paper reviews the recent increase in number and scope of structural conditionality in IMF-supported programs and proposes the radical change from the viewpoint of ownership and participation.
This article analyzes geo-referenced data to elucidate the relations between deforestation and access to roads andmarkets, attributes of the physical environment, land tenure, andzoningpolicies in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It presents separate models for Santa Cruz as a whole and for seven different zones within Santa Cruz, as well as for two different time periods (pre-1989 and 1989 to 1994). The relation between deforestation and the explanatory variables varies depending on geographic scale and the zone and time period analyzed. At the department scale, locations closer to roads and the city and places that have more fertile soils and wetter climates have a greater probability of being deforested. The same applies to colonization areas. Protected areas andforest concessionsare less likely to be deforested. Nevertheless, in manyspecific zones, these variables had no significant impact or actually had the opposite impact than in the entire department.Most of these relationswere weaker between 1989and 1994 than in the previous period.
The long-run underperformance of stocks after seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) is a major challenge to the efficient market hypothesis. We reexamine the SEO underperformance anomaly using the propensity score matching method on a sample of around 2000 offerings between 1986 and 1998. While underperformance characterizes equal-weight and buy-and-hold returns if traditional matching methods are used, the underperformance is economically and statistically insignificant when we match issuers to non-issuers by propensity scores. Our results suggest that SEO underperformance manifests statistical inadequacies of traditional matching methods rather than an anomaly challenging the efficient market hypothesis.
The budget of a project reflects the cost of the investment needed to build an infrastructure, install a system or acquire new materials or supplies. A well-formulated budget in accordance with market prices, allows contractors to prepare offers according to their technical, economic and financial characteristics. On the other hand, it avoids current philosophies that aim to get the contract at any price. Philosophies subsequently used to point out problems and claims during the execution of the project (contradictory prices, delays, etc.) in order to recover some or the entire economic bid carried out during the tendering. In this paper a simple and fast methodology is developed to check if the tendering price is in accordance with market prices, so that the economic viability of the project is not at risk. The application of the methodology on a sample of projects allows us to check the influence of the type of project (civil or building) on the characteristics of the budget. It also allows us to point out the insufficient economic endowment of the projects as the start of the subsequent problems during the execution of the work.
We provide a survey on the literature examining financial market fragmentation in the euro area and discuss the policy options how to reduce it. The fragmentation has increased markedly since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2007. It declined somewhat from late 2012 onwards, but is still above the pre-crisis level. Interest rate pass-through has become less efficient primarily because of increased mark-ups and, to a certain extent, the lower responsiveness of bank interest rates to policy rates. The effectiveness of interest rate pass-through has become more heterogeneous across euro area countries, making a common monetary policy more difficult. The unconventional monetary policy conducted by the European Central Bank has reduced financial market fragmentation notably; however, this policy was not without side effects. Enhancing financial and fiscal stability in the euro area is key for the efficient functioning of the monetary transmission mechanism.
P ROPOSALS have been made to amend the price discrimination section of the Clayton Act, as amended by the Robinson-Patman Act, to make mandatory the granting of functional discounts-discounts given by a seller to a buyer on the basis of the buyer's classification as a wholesaler or retailer.' Arguments advanced in favor of such proposals range from ill-disguised pleas in self-interest to the contention that mandatory functional discounts are necessary in order to carry out the original purpose of the Robinson-Patman Act, which purpose is said to have been aborted by the administrative and judicial interpretation the act has received. It is the purpose here to examine the effect of a law requiring functional discounts. The conclusion is reached that such a law would add to the already difficult, if not impossible, task of enforcement of the price discrimination sections of the antitrust laws; that it would do nothing to improve the over-all efficiency of the economy; and that it probably would not even further the interest of those members of the business community in whose behalf it is proposed.
In this exploratory paper, the dynamic stock return method (DSRM) initially proposed as an effective and replicable method by [14], [4], [5], [6] is deliberately applied to the US airline industry over the period from 1979 to 1992 (14 years). The longitudinal categorization or strategic group (SG) results from the DSRM show good face validity. They are consistent with the industry’s fact-based historical progress. We also observe that the operational measures such as market share or productivity tend to support the grouping results. Furthermore, the results of 15- and 7-year analysis of relative closeness of stock responsive movements between two representative airline firms (American and Hawaiian airlines, respectively) could be inferred that the SGs derived from the DSRM are valid and robust over a longer time span. We conclude that the DSRM could be a good alternative instrument for the longitudinal study of industry substructure.
ABSTRACT : Based on Manado Mayor Regulation No. 05 of 2011 in the administration set to the Employee Income Supplement PNSD Regional Government within the city of Manado . Earnings improvement allowance policy is expected to boost morale within the apparatus of Manado City Government . By taking the test site Personnel Board and Regional Training Manado City , conducted research to determine the extent of the influence of policy in improving morale apparatus . This study uses quantitative methods . Sources of data / research respondents set as many as 30 employees were taken with the technique of sampling srtratified 55 employees Personnel Board and Regional Training Manado City . Instrument and data collection techniques used questionnaires and assisted with interviewing techniques . Data analysis used statistical regression analysis and product moment correlation , processed using the computer program SPSS version 12.0 for Windows . The study found : ( 1 ) the regression coefficient of earnings improvement allowance policy on morale and apparatus are significant posifive ( 2 ) the correlation coefficient and the coefficient of determination of income improvement allowance policy on morale is strong and apparatus signifikan.Berdasarkan research concluded that : ( 1 ) earnings improvement policy impact or a positive and significant impact on morale improved apparatus , (2 ) earnings improvement allowance policy makers have the power / morale significant influence on the apparatus . Based on the research results , it is suggested that the government continues the policy of the city of Manado can benefit the earnings improvement and continue to evaluate and make improvements to the weaknesses . Keywords : policy , morale.
AbstractThis paper examines whether noncognitive skills â€” measures both by personality traits andeconomic preference parameters â€” influence cognitive tests performance. The basic idea isthat noncognitive skills might affect the effort people put into a test to obtain good results. We experimentally varied the rewards for questions in a cognitive test to measure to what extent people are sensitive to financial incentives. To distinguish increased mental effort from extra time investments we also varied the questionâ€™ time constraints. Subjects withfavorable personality traits such as high performance-motivation and an internal locus of control perform relatively well in the absence of rewards; consistent with a model in which trying as hard as you can is the best strategy. In contrast, favorable economic preference parameters (low discount rate, low risk aversion) are associated with increases in time investments when incentives are introduced, consistent with a rational economic model in which people only invest when there are monetary returns. The main conclusion is that individual behavior at cognitive tests depends on noncognitive skills.
For a long time now, African countries have been demanding increased trade with the developed economies of the West as a means to promote economic development. 'Trade not aid,' has become the hallmark: of this demand. The USA has responded to Africa's .demands through the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) that allows Africa access to the world's biggest and most lucrative market. This article examines the objectives of, and benefits under, AGOA with a view to analysing the opportunities it creates for Botswana's economic diversification into manufacturing, especially in the case of textiles and apparel industries; and the challenges it poses for Botswana.
We propose a general equilibrium knowledgeâ€ driven (semiâ€ )endogenousâ€ growth model with horizontal RD (ii) for any given government expenditure share, an increase (a decrease) in financialâ€ assets tax decreases (increases) the labourâ€ income tax; (iii) only the financialâ€ assets tax affects negatively the RD thus, to reduce the skillâ€ premium the financialâ€ assets tax must increase; (iv) ignoring the effect on wage inequality and on R&D intensity, taxes are substitutes.
The premise institution of intervention is that the government stands on the ground of freedom of economic mechanism,so that the government can safeguard social public interests consciously,can maintain a noble moral identity,and can hold higher nous and ability than any individual or society.Meanwhile the government should be bounded by its own laws,and should regard social public interests as the bottom line of all action.The mode of the national economic operation is that society controls material capital and government controls spirit capital,material capital produces material while spirit capital producces productivity and the latter determines the former,the latter absolutely takes the superior position to the former concerning national productivity.Freedom and production is always inseparable,intervention must be limited in the framework of achieving the goal of freedom.Intervention is a means to achieve freedom,and freedom is the purpose of intervention.
There have been influential advocates for financing and organizing health care in the United States and England based on the model of integrated health care delivery systems (IHCDSs). Despite good evidence that a few IHCDSs provide high-quality health care economically, such organizations are rare and localized in a few market areas in the United States and are absent in the English National Health Service (NHS). The explanation of why this is so includes various contributory factors: the way the development of the medical profession in each country pursued specialization; the division in British medicine between general practitioners and specialists; and the characteristics that we identify of established successful IHCDSs, which created formidable barriers to entry for a new IHCDS. This explains why currently the most promising organizational developments in U.S. health care are hybrids resulting from vertical integration. In England government policies of an "internal market," as adopted in the 1990s and currently, were and are based on a purchaser-provider split with the objectives that providers would compete and be funded by a system in which "money follows the patient." These policies recognize the division in British medicine, which also means that it is difficult to implement a reorganized English NHS based on high-performing IHCDSs.
An advanced decision support system is presented to answer aggregate planning questions regarding the trade-off between demand (product-mix) and supply (capacity) in a multi period stochastic setting. This tool improves the effectiveness and efficiency of sales and operation planning meetings by accounting for both revenues and costs that are relevant at the intermediate planning horizon. We develop a multi product, multi routing model, where a routing consists of a sequence of operations on different resources. Given customer demand in each time period, the model obtains the optimal production quantities in every period for each alternative routing, while explicitly taking into account the stochastic nature of both demand patterns and production lead times. This is the key difference between our approach and traditional aggregate planning models. At the same time, an optimal capacity level for each resource is obtained. We include trade-offs between level and chase strategies by charging costs for inventory, work-in-process, backorders, setups, regular time, overtime, etc. Outsourcing is considered as an alternative source with a stochastic lead time. The methodology builds upon a queueing network to estimate product’s lead time distribution and associated quoted lead time with a service level. More system improvements can be obtained by proper lot sizing. This model is a mixed integer non-linear programming problem. We show that the search process of the differential evolution algorithm is efficient to find stable results within acceptable time limits. A scenario analysis reveals interesting managerial insights.
In this article we tried to demonstrate that the organizational leadership problems are very well connected to the organizational culture ones. Organizational culture can help to the clarification of many phenomenons that appear in the organizations, can operate as brake or incentive for organizational effectiveness and the leadership play the main role in the creation and the development of organizational culture.
This paper provides an introduction to the problem of modeling randomly spaced longitudinal data. Although Point Process theory was developed mostly in the sixties and early seventies, only in the nineties did this field of Probability theory attract the attention of researchers working in Financial Econometrics. The large increase, observed since, in the number of different classes of Econometric models for dealing with financial duration data, has been mostly due to the increased availability of both trade-by-trade data from equity markets and daily default and rating migration data from credit markets. This paper provides an overview of the main Econometric models available in the literature for dealing with what is sometimes called tick data. Additionally, a synthesis of the basic theory underlying these models is also presented. Finally, a new theorem dealing with the identifiability of latent intensity factors from point process data, jointly with a heuristic proof, is introduced.
This study strives to identify the market segment for mobile Internet based ondemographic characteristics and technology USAge behavior attributes. Marketnsegment analysis is one of the most nimportant nfactors for target market identification ofnproducts or services. Segmentation analysis is also very crucial to the success of productdevelopment management to ensure that products reach their potential customers ortheir target market effectively with the right marketing strategies, thereby ensuringpeak profitability. In this segmentation research project, data were collected througha paper-based survey using nonprobability sampling among 232 respondents. nBasedon cluster analysis, the mobile Internet segment in Indonesia can be divided into fourgroups: savvy users (35.8%), loyal users (27.6%), value users (27.6%) and traditionalusers (9.9%). The study found that factors which clearly differentiate mobile Internetsegments are: mobile data USAge during web browsing, communication activityincluding social media activity, game activity, and price sensitivity.
This paper is concerned with growth patterns of US health care expenditures. Within a representative sample of OECD countries, we lay out a growth accounting exercise for health care expenditures to assess the influence of several explanatory variables. Our analysis demonstrates that the relative price of medical care and some health care laws can trace down fairly well the differential increase in US medical expenditures over the period 1970-2007. We then explore some major factors driving US medical care prices - including prescription drugs, the degree of competition, malpractice, and out-of-pocket expenditures. Some other explanatory variables - income growth, technological change, life expectancy, physicians' compensation, trends in aging population, and defensive medicine - would seem unable to account for the differential increase in US medical expenditures over various time periods.
There are two types of explanations of the Asian financial crisis: the ‘fundamentalist’, which focuses on macroeconomic imbalances; and the ‘self-fulfilling’, which ascribes the crisis to beliefs. This article argues that while both have some merit in explaining the Korean crisis, neither fits the facts very well. The authors put forward a new explanation which emphasizes the role played by financial liberalization and the structural weaknesses in the banking system. They explain that the combination of these factors created conditions that made the Korean banking system vulnerable to the sentiments of foreign investors, simultaneously eroding the ability of the Korean central bank to act effectively as a lender of last resort. The authors examine how various policy mistakes aggravated the crisis and draw some conclusions that may be useful for other emerging market economies.
A study on intra-household labor distribution and role of women in family decision making process was conducted over a period of 3 months with respect to sample 1 (S-1) single family with two children (children age around 12 years), sample 2 (S-2) joint family with husband and wife, brother-sister, father mother and children, sample 3 (S-3) joint family, husband-wife, brother-sister, father-mother and children (with primary education in any one).Total 30 families (10 from each sample) were assessed in terms of labor distribution in productive, reproductive, community & other works, role of women in family decision making process and work load after joining in to SHABGE-DFID project. Male members from all samples were spent more time in productive works and they have negligible role in reproductive works. The female members were spent more time in reproductive works. They were also spent remarkable time in productive works and little bit in community works. The female members from sample 1 were spent more time for various works in a day than other samples. The female members in sample 3 were spent less time than other samples and it is due to their consciousness (for their primary education). Among all the samples workload increased after joining in SHABGE-DFID project. They were managed this work load by taking help from husband and children (incase of sample 2&3). After joining in the SHABGE-DFID project 50% female from sample (1&2) were took part in family decision making process i.e. they were involved in family decision making process actively. After completion of the project the family members would be aware about their individual role and women could be take part in family decision making process more actively.
Romania's integration in the European Union implies, apart the complex process of policy transfer, the learning of new modes to make policies characteristic to a multi-level governance and partnership culture. Of the different levels of governance of the European model, the regional level ("regional governance") most faithfully reflects, in our opinion, the complexity of reconfiguring the role of state in economy, at the beginning of this new millennium, in the European Union space and presents the highest practical importance for Romania, as a new Member State of the European Union, for, at the regional level, the structures are more flexible and the good practices are more rapidly assimilable. The selection of the best regional growth and development economic policies, the choosing of the objectives out of a series of competing options, the calibration in time and space of powers, roles, capabilities, and responsibilities and the encouragement of the win-win solutions call upon the choice and combination of some appropriate and efficient instruments. Representative for the new context, the regional growth and development policy must integrate, in Romania too, more knowledge, more creativity, new combinations of capabilities and new fields of expertise. This paper presents preliminary research results afferent to the post-doctoral research project: "Growth and regional development economic policies. Challenges for Romania in the context of economic-financial crisis and European model integration", carried out in the project "Economic scientific research, reliance of human welfare and development in European context", the Romanian Academy, "Costin C. Kiriţescu" National Institute for Economic Research, project financed for the 2010-2013 period from the European Social Fund (EFS) and implemented by the Romanian Academy, "Costin C. Kiriţescu" National Institute for Economic Research, in the period of time 1 December 2010 - 30 November 2012, coordinator: Professor Dr. Valeriu Ioan Franc. The question we intend to answer, in the present phase of our research, based on the comparative analysis of the decentralisation systems of several Member States of European Union, respectively on the analysis of the regional disparities existing at the European Union level and of the effects of the economic integration, is - to what extent the capabilities of the regional policy should rather be concentrated in the hands of regional authorities or of the European Union than to be left individually to the Member States which should conceive their own regional policy? What we intend in this paper, based on the analysis of some experiences to decentralize the capabilities of economic policy at the European Union level, is to identify the regional implications of the interconnection of decentralization, centralization, respectively supra-nationalization tendencies and, implicitly, the analysis of the way to reconfigure the role of state in economy at the regional level, in the context of integration in the European model. The examination of the way to reconfigure the role of state in economy at regional level requires the review of the allocative, distributive, and regulating roles of the state from a regional perspective, the analysis, on one side, of the decentralization of economic policy capabilities from the national level to the regional level (for example, national level: pure public goods supply, for instance, national defence and the centralization of fiscal policy capabilities in order to achieve macroeconomic stability and revenue redistribution; regional level: mixed public goods supply, for instance, waste collection and community policy), on the other hand, the centralization/decentralization of regional capabilities at the European Union level.
The rapidly changing and volatile institutional environments, within which Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) must operate, have put traditional organisational forms under pressure. Globalization and regionalism develop at the same time, whereas regulation facilitating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) runs parallel to ‘reverse measures’ frustrating FDI (PIBR #7 – Van Tulder et al. 2012 provides an overview of mixed institutional pressures on the MNE). The leading question that this volume addresses is therefore whether there are adequate organizational responses that the MNEs can develop to these mixed pressures. How to internalize external inefficiencies, inter alia in the broader stakeholder sphere? MNEs have been responding along a variety of paths. One path has been to redraft relationships between headquarters and existing subsidiaries. Another path has been to adopt new organisational forms, both internally (team-based approaches and asymmetrical networks) and externally, (advanced management of value chains and stakeholder ecosystems). As a result, new organizational arrangements have appeared, including micro-multinationals, ‘born globals’, springboard multinationals, as well as other types of international new ventures. Taking stock of the present discourse in International Business (IB) we divide this chapter, and the contributions in this volume, along three organizational challenges. 1) Changing hierarchies: considers the shifting roles of headquarters and subsidiaries in MNEs, and explores the question whether headquarters still matter from various angles. 2) New organizational forms: considers new forms of organizing internationalization and international activities, including new roles of teams in multinational organizations. This part explores the question whether size still matters for MNEs. 3) Reorganizing the value chain: which gathers novel ideas about how multinational firms use external partners and parties in the organization of their international activities. The leading question here is whether the position of the MNE in the (international) value chain still matters. This chapter elaborates these three themes and provides a short account of each of the contributions that are selected for this volume in parts II, III and IV. These contributions include research-oriented papers, panel discussions and case studies.
Introduction The Case for a Political Economy of Markets, Institutions and Policy Reform Field Methods and Data Agrarian Structure in Coimbatore District, South India Exchange Relations and the Marketed Surplus The Marketing Systems Marketing Activity, Economic Power and Spatial Patterns Capital and Money in the Market Systems Labour and the Social Construction of Market Systems Merchant's Land and Control of Production State Regulation, Economic Crime and Bureaucratic Corruption Accumulation and its Politics Conclusion Agricultural Markets of Coimbatore District
Purpose – Whilst the government makes progress on opening up children’s social work, including child protection, to the market place and to private and commercial businesses, there has been little comment on the strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats, of the political policy direction being pursued. In particular, what are the implications for the integration and consolidation of services, which had been the “joined-up” services policy ambition of previous governments and, for health and social care services, remain the declared ambition of the current government? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper considers the potential impact on children’s social work services and child protection from the government’s policy and regulatory changes which open up all children’s social work to the market place. Findings – Particular concerns are noted that the changes now being allowed and promoted will lead to greater fragmentation rather than integratio...
Abstract. This paper estimates the magnitude of, and changes to the subterranean economy in Tanzania, as well as its adverse effect on tax revenue during the 1966-2015 period. To achieve this objective, the paper applies currency -ratio due to Gutmann and the traditional currency-demand approach a la Tanzi. Despite their differences, both approaches suggest the existence of a substantial size of the subterranean economy in Tanzania. This persistent large size of the subterranean economy is an important consequence of economic and social policies over the period of study. Using the currency-demand approach, the paper finds that tax evasion is positively correlated with the size and growth of the subterranean economy. Indeed, results show that the size of the subterranean economy and the magnitude of tax evasion over the 1966-2015 period, are on average, 32.7 percent and 6.6 percent of official GDP respectively. The implication of the results is that minimization of the size of the subterranean economy is necessary for effective addressing the problem of tax evasion and subsequent fiscal deficit in the long run. Keywords: Subterranean economy, Currency demand deposits, Currency demand approach, Tax evasion. JEL. E26, E41, H26, K42, O17.
Monetary policy regimes encompass the constraints or limits imposed by custom, institutions and nature on the ability of the monetary authorities to influence the evolution of macroeconomic aggregates. This paper surveys the historical experience of both international and domestic (national) aspects of monetary regimes from the nineteenth century to the present. We first survey the experience of four broad international monetary regimes: the classical gold standard 1880-1914; the interwar period with a short lived restoration of the gold standard; the postwar Bretton Woods international monetary system (1946-1971) indirectly linked to gold; the recent managed float period (1971- float period (1971-1995). We then present in some detail the institutional arrangements and policy actions of the Federal Reserve in the United States as an important example of a domestic policy regime. The survey of the Federal Reserve subdivides the demarcated broad international policy regimes into a number of episodes. A salient theme in our survey is that the convertibility rule or principle that dominated both domestic and international aspects of the monetary regime before World War I has since declined in its relevance At the same time, policymakers within major nations placed more emphasis on stabilizing the real economy. In the post-World War II era, the complete abandonment of the convertibility principle, and its replacement by the goal of full employment, combined with the legacy of inadequate policy tools and theory from the interwar period set the stage for the Great Inflation of the 1970s. The lessons from that experience have convinced monetary authorities to reemphasize the goal of low inflation, as it were, committing themselves to rule-like behavior.
This paper argues that development through large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in Gambella, western Ethiopia, belies a state-remaking project under a dispossessive political economy. This argument is based on fieldwork in Gambella, Addis Ababa, and Minneapolis and is situated within the broader development agenda pursued by Ethiopia's ruling party. The political economy of LSLAs tells us that the deals are not occurring in a predominantly economic manner; rather, extra-economic state intervention clears the way for, facilitates, and ensures sustained accumulation. This political intervention is “unlocking” and making the lowland resources accessible and extractable by the state, while a concomitant villagisation project is guaranteeing continued accumulation by disempowering the local population by making the community legible, governable, and controllable. By combining these processes, the Ethiopian state is mastering, and building itself in, Gambella's lowlands.
This paper examines the causal relationships among carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, energy consumption, gross domestic product (GDP), and foreign direct investments (FDI) in 57 developing countries from 1980 to 2013. The results of the analysis based on panel vector error correction model (VECM) indicate no direct short-run causality exists from FDI to CO2 emissions. These results are also confirmed by regional analysis, wherein the developing countries are divided into three regions. In the long run, a cointegrated relationship is found among CO2 emissions, energy consumption, GDP, and FDI, which supports the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. However, the long-run elasticity of FDI on CO2 emissions is very small even though it is statistically significant. These results do not support the pollution haven hypothesis of CO2 emissions through inward FDI in developing countries.
The population of Hunedoara County has manifested after the Revolution of December 1989 a continuous downward trend. According to National Statistics Institute in Hunedoara County, in 2012, at the last population census there was only a number of 418,545 people representing the constant population and since 2016 it had decreased with almost 5% in 4 years but counting from 1992 the decrease is of almost 28%. As far as concerns migration, the official figures of the number of the temporarily absent people left abroad for a shorter than a 12 months’ period it was 5,510 and the number of those who were left for a period longer than a year it was 15,215. As follows, the total numbe`r of migrants was 20,725 which represents a percentage higher than 4% from the total number of the population. Comparing the data received from the AJOFM Hunedoara (the statistics is effectuated every year in August) with those obtained from the CJRAE Hunedoara (statistics reported every year in February), - excepting the year 2015- when the effect of the liberalisation of the labour market in Great Britain can be remarked, it can be noticed a descendent evolution of the number of unemployed which fact drags a decrease of the children with migrant parents. On the other hand, a very important decline of the unemployment in 2017 resulted into a diminution of the parents who would leave abroad in the following year.
This paper uses examples to demonstrate the generality of issues resulting from the heterogeneity of a population. Heterogeneity is fundamental to the marketing strategy of any firm. If one market segment is more expensive to service, then members of that segment might be charged higher prices or be left to one’s competitors. We pay particular attention to heterogeneity issues in financial services, specifically, insurance underwriting, lending, and investing. We examine techniques that practitioners use to assess heterogeneity in a population with respect to loss events. We employ the x2-goodness of fit test to assess whether observations in risk classes (sub partitions of population) are relatively homogenous.  We use a sign-rank test to assess whether or not two loss distributions from different risk classes were drawn from the same probability distribution. We discuss how mutual ownership and price fixing have evolved as built-in safety nets to cope with modeling limitations.
This paper examines the draft Investment Chapter of the TPPA, leaked to the public, in light of recent concerns regarding the viability of investor state arbitration. The intent is to comment on the possible motivations of the negotiating parties in formulating the TPP provisions thus far and, more importantly, to recommend how the parties could proceed as they work to finalize dispute settlement provisions in the TPPA.
Private savings rate declined from an average of 23 percent of gross domestic income in the 1990s to an average of 16 percent in the 2000s in Turkey. There is a negative relationship between private and public savings rate especially for the period of 1985-1993 and 20002010 leading to Ricardian equivalence that the increase in public savings crowds out private savings, which results in unchanged domestic savings. Turkey also has a decreasing trend in domestic savings, hence there should be some other important determinants leading to decreasing private savings. The aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of private savings in Turkey to evaluate which determinants have the outmost importance for private savings and to advise policy changes in order to increase private savings to have sustainable growth in Turkey. IV/GMM Time Series Estimation is carried out for the period between 1985 and 2010 for Turkey
In this paper we investigate characteristics and drivers of sustainability marketing strategies. Based on an empirical study in the food industry, we identify four sustainability marketing strategy types with distinctive characteristics (performers, followers, indecisives and passives). Consumers are one of the main drivers of sustainability marketing strategies. Depending on the sensitization of consumers to socio-ecological problems, the perceptibility of socio-ecological qualities, the individually perceived net benefits and the availability of sustainable alternatives, we argue that the typology and drivers apply to non-food industries as well. Furthermore, we find that the incorporation of social and ecological aspects into marketing strategies also depends on the market segment in which the company competes: companies that are positioned in the premium or quality segment are more inclined to take an active stance on sustainability marketing than companies that compete in the price segment. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Background: Banana (Musa Paradisicia) is considered as one of the most important fruit crop across the globe. India is the largest producer of banana in the world with an output of 29 million tons per year on average. Assam, a state in the north eastern region of India, is one of the major banana producing state in the country. Banana is an important horticulture crop grown in Assam with some significant socio cultural importance. The production of banana in Assam accounts for 2.4 per cent of its total production in the country.Methods: The paper is an attempt to study the rate of growth and instability of area, production and productivity of banana cultivation in Assam and to compute the relative contribution of area, productivity and their interaction to the change in production of banana in the state. The study is based on secondary data for the period of 2003-04 to 2017-18. Compound annual growth rates are computed for estimating the growth trends of area, production and productivity of banana in Assam whereas Cuddy-Della Valle index of instability is used to estimate the instability.Result: The results of this study revealed positive growth in area, production and productivity of banana with low instability in the state. The productivity effect has been found marginally greater than the area effect on production of banana in the state during the reference period.
As the USSR undertakes the transition to a market economy, western words and concepts to describe business and management activity are becoming increasingly used there. The semantic discrepancies between the English word “businessman” and the Soviet word biznesmen are advanced as examples. But the main focus of attention is on the use and implications of the Russified forms of “manager” and “management”, which are becoming very fashionable in the USSR. A short historical review of these terms in the Soviet context is followed by a discussion of the impact of perestroika on the evolution of management as it becomes increasingly independent of Party and planners. Attention is paid to the distinction between industrial managers and entrepreneurs seeking to establish small businesses in the USSR. Use is made of Russian‐language sources.
This article empirically tests the hypothesis that credit-screening standards can be first increasing and then decreasing in the quality of the bank's pool of potential borrowers, which in turn may vary through the business cycle or across different segments of the lending markets. A key implication is that banks with lending opportunities toward the middle of the quality spectrum can have loan portfolios that perform better than do the portfolios of banks with loan-origination opportunities that are either too weak or too strong. Using banks' volume of secondary-market loan sales as a proxy for the richness of lending opportunities, I find an inverse U-shaped relation between the performance of banks' loan portfolios and their activity in the loan sales market. The pattern deserves scrutiny for its policy implications, as many regulators hold the view that countercyclical variation in credit standards may have a destabilizing effect on business cycles.
The focus of this paper is on the effects of the Great Recession on young women's labour supply decision. Given the deep effect of the Great Recession on the Spanish labour market and in particular on youth labour supply, in the empirical part of this paper we focus on the Spanish labour market and estimate women's labour supply models by age groups, with a special focus on those aged 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 to detect how young women living in couples show different labour supply probabilities according to their partner's labour market status by using EU-SILC 2007 and 2012 micro data for Spain. We correct also for the non random selection of women living in couple in the younger age groups. This first step of analysis allows us to detect a negative effect, on the likelihood of forming a new household, of precarious employment conditions. The results of our analysis on women's labour supply by age group confirm the discouragement effect of young children for the youngest mothers' labour supply and also a positive effect of being an owner of a house with a mortgage. The literature shows that different effects can be at work with the crisis: the added-worker effect (AWE), showing a countercyclical behaviour of labour supply that implies an increase in individual labour supply in response to transitory shocks in his/her partner’s earnings, and the procyclical discouraged-worker effect.The results of our estimation support the existence of AWE in 2012 for young women living in couples. If in 2012 the discouragement effect dominates only for women older than 40, in 2007 it dominates also amongst younger women. Women's higher propensity to enter the labour market when their partner becomes unemployed or is persistently unemployed coupled with their likelihood to be inactive in the presence of young children would call for labour market policies targeted towards young women who are also more likely to withdraw from the labour market in presence of children. Childcare facilities could mitigate the latter effect and produce a more continuous workprofile thus avoiding the negative effect of work experience interruptions on labour supply over women's life cycle.
Informal economy involving unrecorded, unregistered, extra legal activities employs majority of the workforce in the developing world. Such extra legal existence of informal manufacturing and service sectors is facilitated through extortion by agents of political forces in power. Such extortion activities themselves constitute an informal segment. We develop a general equilibrium model to explore the possible consequences of a change in the degree of extortion, change in the quality of administration, tariff reform etc. Economic reform of various kinds has interesting effects on the size of the extortion sector. Various reformatory policies may actually lead to an expansion of the informal sector.
This paper studied the Ninth National University Games market development which will be held at September 8,2012 in Tianjin with the methods of literature material law and Logical analysis.The research results are: the differences of the host cities at each national university games influence its combining the humanistic environment of the host city to take shape special game brand.The event operation mode of national university games is: municipal government of the host city organizes the race committee to manage the events.Most of sponsored enterprises of every sponsorship level are unnameble.The market development way of the national university games is: sponsors plan,franchise business plan,souvenir development plan,and other project development plan.This paper put forward several suggestions based on the conclusions.
In ~etting the dollar value of claims in survival and wrongful death actions, ~ most jurisdictions require that any award for lost future earnings include a deduction for the value of the "personal maintenance" expenditures of the deceased. The rationale is that in compensating the decedent’s estate or beneficiaries for lost future earnings, it must be recognized that there would have been costs involved in the production of those future earnings. Presumably, the sums spent on personal maintenance would not have been available to the estate or beneficiaries had the deceased survived.
HILL S. and MUNDAY M. (1992) The UK regional distribution of foreign direct investment: analysis and determinants, Reg. Studies 26, 535–544. This paper analyses the regional distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) within the UK. Following an examination of those regions that have been successful in winning new inward investment, the paper goes on to consider hypotheses that can be used to explain relative regional success in attracting new FDI projects and jobs. Empirical testing of these hypotheses suggests that both financial incentives and access to markets are important determinants of the regional distribution of new FDI projects and jobs. HILL C. et MUNDAY M. (1992) La distribution regionale de l'investissement direct etranger au Royaume-Uni: analyse et determinants, Reg. Studies 26, 535–544. Cet article cherche a analyser la distribution regionale de l'investissement direct etranger au sein du Royaume-Uni. Suite a une examination des regions qui ont reussi a attirer de nouvel investissement...
Power and transportation, two services that are essential to and also threaten the quality of life in the U.S., are discussed. This volume presents facts about who uses and needs all the power; what is the real nature of the crisis in natural resources brought on by demands for increasing amounts of energy; and what hazards are truly involved in nuclear power. Also examined are: progress being made in developing automobiles that do not pollute; creation of mass-transit systems; and sorting out of the problems of the expensive air transportation sector. Finally, the authors explain what citizens themselves can do to cope with these two crises that daily confront the mobile, energy-hungry American. (MCW)
List of Tables - List of Maps - List of Figures - Preface - Notes on Weights and Currencies - Notes on Abbreviations - Notes on the Contributors - PART 1: THEMES AND PERSPECTIVE - A Fresh Approach to Southeast Asian History H.Dick - Revenue Farming and the Changing State in Southeast Asia J.Butcher - Revenue Farming in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on Taxation, Social Structure and Development in the Early-Modern Period I.Copland & M.R.Godley - The Origins of Revenue Farming: Southeast Asian or Exotic? A.Reid - Imperialism, Trade and Investment in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries I.Brown - Chinese Revenue Farm Networks: The Penang Connection M.R.Godley - PART 2: COUNTRY STUDIES - Trade, Rajas and Bandars in South Bali A.van der Kraan - Revenue Farming and State Centralisation in Nineteenth Century Kedah K.K.Jin - Revenue Farming, Economic Development and Government Policy during the Early Bangkok Period, 1830-92 C.M.Wilson - The Collapse of Singapore's Great Syndicate C.A.Trocki - The Origins of the Opium Trade and the Opium Regie in Colonial Indochina H.Nankoe, J-C.Gerlus & M.J.Murray - Revenue Farming and Colonial Finances in the Netherlands East Indies, 1816-1925 F.W.Diehl - The End of the Opium Farm in Siam, 1905-7 I.Brown - PART 3: TAX FARMERS AND BUSINESS STRATEGY - Tan Seng Poh C.A.Trocki - Loke Yew J.Butcher - Thio Thiau Siat M.R.Godley - The Khaw Concern J.W.Cushman & M.R.Godley - Oei Tiong Ham H.Dick - Glossary - Bibliography and References - Index
This paper presents three initial stylized facts from the Vehicle Ownership and Alternatives Survey (VOAS), a nationally representative survey that elicits consumers' beliefs about gasoline prices and the relative energy costs of autos with different fuel economy ratings. First, American consumers devote little attention to fuel costs when purchasing autos. Second, consistent with a cognitive bias called "MPG Illusion," consumers underestimate the fuel cost differences between low-MPG vehicles and overestimate the differences between high-MPG vehicles. Third, Americans' mean and median expected future gas prices were above current prices and predictions of the futures market at the time of the survey. Although it is often argued that misperceived energy costs justify policies to encourage the sale of energy efficient durable goods, these results show that misperceptions and expectations that differ from market information could either increase or decrease energy efficiency.
This analysis of the reconstruction of the class foundations initiated by the Pinochet military dictatorship will begin with an examination of the reconstitution of the capitalist class, on the one hand, and the working and middle classes, on the other. The essay will conclude with a brief consideration of the faultlines that threaten the political and economic stability and reproduction of the neoliberal order, as well as the social movements that have emerged to challenge the legacies of the dictatorship and the prospects for a deeper transformation of Chilean society. Although the bulk of the analysis focuses upon the Pinochet dictatorship, public policies and processes of class transformation will be traced through the post-authoritarian period to the present. The underlying assumption is that the centre-left coalition that controlled the presidency from 1990 to 2010 represented continuity with the public policies and class transformations of the dictatorship to a far greater degree than it did change. Although there were certainly policy divergences, such as the capital controls of the 1990s, and policy improvements, such as the substantial increases in social expenditures, the centre-left governments reproduced – and in some cases even deepened – the basic macroeconomic and social policies of the Pinochet years and their concomitant effects on the processes of class formation.
Recent developments in the world sugar market—probably the most distorted of all commodity markets— suggest that domestic policy responses in the Philippines need to be realigned towards a smooth transition to the world market environment. The paper first describes these events in the sugar sector as well as the external changes. It then investigates the nature and magnitude of efficiency losses and transfers resulting from current domestic policies. Various policy options to improve the efficiency of resource use in the sector are also proposed.
In recent decades, a plethora of books and papers on socially responsible design has emerged. This literature, however, has not led to the implementation of the solutions needed to solve the environmental and social problems faced by the world today. The lack of initiation of more ambitious projects can to a large extent be explained by the uncertainties associated with the effects of these, as well as the desirability of such effects. More specifically, it can be difficult to get support for highly ambitious projects if there is uncertainty (e.g., in the form of disagreements) about their beneficial effects or the fairness of the distribution of sacrifices needed to implement these. To be able to choose a more ambitious path, we need to better understand the uncertainties associated with socially responsible designs and to reconsider the ethical assumptions guiding our choices. This issue is addressed by defining a framework for understanding uncertainties associated with such projects and by arguing for a consequentialist ethics to govern socially responsible design.
The motivation for this study is that real stock prices are observed to overreact to changes in interest rates. The real stock prices drop when long-term interest rates rise. It has been observed that bonds and stock prices are typically studied in isolation. The present paper attempts to analyze the dynamic linkages between stock and bond prices in India. One of the important contributions of this study is that in India, very little/almost no work has been done to understand the dynamics of the stock and bond prices after the recent recession. The present study examined the bivariate causal relationship between stock prices and bond prices. In the long term; i.e., periods from 2004 to 2007 and 2008 to 2009, there is no causality from stock market to bond market and vice versa. However, it is found that the bond and stock prices had a bivariate causality in the year 2009 and univariate causality in 2010. The results are interesting and support the view that excess volatility causes granger between the stock and bond markets. This can be inferred as a result of recession investors moving to bond markets and after the signs of recovery the investors might be returning to the stock markets. It is also evident that short-term interest rates have power to forecast short-term stock returns and risk premiums on observation of co-movement between stock and bond prices. This is reiterated by many empirical studies that have shown that the term “structure of nominal interest rates” contains information potentially useful for the conduct of monetary policy.
Bosnia&Herzegovina is in the process of transformation from a previously self-managed economy to a modern market economy. The process has begun immediately after the Dayton Peace Accord was signed. The transition package was based on the "rules of the game "of the Washington Consensus. We consider that an application of neoliberal economic concept in a war-torn country could provide nothing else than a disaster... The application of Washington consensus under given B&H' circumstances we consider as economic barbarism. In the paper we analyze the barbaric strategy of the international institutions and its consequences for B&H' economy and society. In our research we rely mostly on our primary data and research as well as on official World Bank publications. Our own neo-Keynesian economic development strategy supported by UNDP has been rejected by the IMF and World Bank in 1997.
Several titles reflecting different approaches to our subject matter were considered for the paper. An historical but somewhat pedantic approach to the teaching of investments might have been titled “Pedagogical Developments in Investments: Past, Present, and Future.” Another possibility was “Sex and the Single Investor,” a title which probably would have attracted a larger audience. “Beat the Dealer Versus Beat the Market” might well have been an appropriate title in view of our presence here in Las Vegas and also because of recent experience in the securities markets. We finally decided on simply “A Portfolio Analysis of the Teaching of Investments,” because this seems to better capture the essence of our viewpoint.
Over the centuries happiness, or more broadly, well-being has been subject of unremitting debate. Recently, measures of so-called subjective well-being (SWB; e.g. self-reported happiness) have gained prominence and are receiving increasing attention from scientists, policy makers and the public alike. A consensus appears to be emerging that people’s selfassessment of how well life is going can convey important information, in particular on underlying emotional states. This paper introduces measures of SWB, examining whether the measures are meaningful and valid, and exploring a possible role in shaping and appraising public policy. The first part elaborates what SWB means and discusses some of the indicators used to measure the construct. Special attention is paid to the quality of different SWB measures, i.e. their reliability and validity. SWB appears to be largely defined through the specific indicators used to measure it but that is not to say that these measures are not capturing something important. In the second part, several possible uses of SWB in the making of policy are discerned: (1) SWB as an explicit policy target; (2) SWB as a complement to existing measures of well-being; (3) SWB as a measuring rod in cost-benefit analyses; and (4) the use of SWB in the construction of poverty statistics and equivalence scales. The broad conclusion that emerges is that SWB indeed can help shape and appraise public policy. This holds despite the fact that SWB research still has important gaps. W hat is more, future research promises to secure further the usefulness of SWB research in policy applications, not least as improvements in measurement take hold.
The responses by the banking sector to the Basel III reforms will present both potential challenges and opportunities for Australian superannuation funds due to the significant interactions between these segments of the financial services industry. These regulatory changes will create an added layer of investment complexity, and new risk management and liquidity considerations for super funds, particularly against the backdrop of other prevailing market trends.
We explore how benefit-cost efficiency and electoral support affect road investment decisions in Sweden and Norway. In Norway, neither benefits nor costs seem to affect project selection. In Sweden, civil servants’ decisions are strongly affected by projects’ benefit-cost ratios, with a stronger effect for more expensive projects, while politicians’ decisions are only weakly affected, and only for small projects. In both countries, governments tend to favour investments in regions where they enjoy strong local electoral support. Using cost efficiency as a final selection criterion seems to filter out many inefficient projects already at an early stage of the planning process. We argue that even if political decisionmakers are apparently mostly governed by other concerns than cost efficiency, civil servants at the administrations should not shy away from preparing efficient project suggestions for decisionmakers to choose from.
Evidence is very scanty in Africa on the welfare effects of the recent shift of the horticulture industry from involving poor households through outgrower arrangements towards employing them in consolidated production entities. This study determines the impact of large-scale export vegetable production on the welfare of the employees in Zambia. It uses data from a survey of a random sample of farm worker households and comparison households in nine villages around one of the four largest estate vegetable farms in Zambia. Evidence from control function, propensity score matching, and odds-weighted regression models suggest huge and significant welfare effects as measured by per capita consumption expenditure. Estimated at 44 and 45% for non-food and food expenditure, respectively, the impact is not affected by the households' initial wealth in any statistically significant manner. This means that the recent industry changes might need to be supported and better understood, as opposed to being admonished.
IT has been the aim of much professional endeavour to discover through collection and comparison of statistics the factors which are likely to produce a good library service. Such ambitious undertakings as the Library Association survey, the County Libraries statistical reports, the London and Home Counties' Branch quinquennial reports and the McColvin report are examples of attempts to formulate for the benefit of all, standards which by contrast of good and bad may lead to the general improvement of the library service everywhere.
The paper discusses the relationship between material qualities of nature and the process of capitalist valuation. While valuation can be defined in a broad sense pertaining to how resources are identified, extracted and integrated into the world market, the focus here is narrower, centering on the specific qualities of nature that are important to the creation of value itself and touching on related questions such as how to evaluate tendencies in which nature materialities are increasingly commodified. The first part of the paper briefly reviews the work of scholars approaching nature as a materiality placing certain ‘limits’ on valuation. Most of these scholars tend to view valuation at the level of discrete production processes and while offering many examples of how material nature constraints or enables production, the role of these qualities in value generation is not clear. By contrast, a second part of the paper discusses work that directly addresses valuation, proposing that the specific role of nature lies in the fact that nature materialities are not necessarily commodified, offering a view in which nature is not a ‘limit’ or an ‘outside’ but a materiality that is a constitutive part of valuation, historically integrated through partial commodification. A final section deals with the specificity of the valuation of living nature. Agricultural biotechnologies in Latin America are briefly discussed, raising various issues that should form part of a future research agenda to evaluate how this particular type of nature valuation will reconfigure social inequalities in the area.
The aim of this study is to analyse the price developments and to compare national macroeconomic policies in response to the consumer prices that started to soar in 2007 across the European Neighbourhood Policy countries, the other arcelona countries2, Russia, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the euro area. The analyses focus primarily on ag-flation, but we analyse also the capital inflows in view of income levels in the EU's neighbour countries. The analyses unambiguously show that food inflation was pushing up total inflation, even despite the provision of food subsidies by national authorities.
This research attempts to place the formal Sraffian model with linear production sets into a general equilibrium framework and to derive a quantitative transformation theorem about Marxian theory of labor value and production price. Marxian reproduction solution established a dynamic general economic equilibrium, which can be characterized by input-(total) output ratio, namely, the reduced Organic Composite of Capital divided by the total productivity rate. The labor value thus the value rate of profit (ROP) can be determined from the production price by the use of the input-output matrix analysis. The increased value ROP and the decreased price ROP of USA around 2006/2007 revealed that there was an OCC reduction. Under the framework of the dynamic Marxian general equilibrium, it is possible to undergo an optimal planning about an economic system by the regulation of the government input, entrepreneur taxation, and minimal wage rate.
Maximum drawdown, the largest cumulative loss from peak to trough, is one of the most widely used indicators of risk in the fund management industry, but one of the least developed in the context of measures of risk. We formalize drawdown risk as Conditional Expected Drawdown (CED), which is the tail mean of maximum drawdown distributions. We show that CED is a degree one positive homogenous risk measure, so that it can be linearly attributed to factors; and convex, so that it can be used in quantitative optimization. We empirically explore the differences in risk attributions based on CED, Expected Shortfall (ES) and volatility. An important feature of CED is its sensitivity to serial correlation. In an empirical study that fits AR(1) models to US Equity and US Bonds, we find substantially higher correlation between the autoregressive parameter and CED than with ES or with volatility.
In this paper, we consider the problem of discrete-time optimal hedging for a portfolio of (illiquid) European contingent claims (ECCs) written on multiple underlying assets. First, we present a framework to find discrete-time hedging strategies that minimize the variance of terminal wealth using a hedging portfolio of liquid assets, also assumed to ECCs written on the same underlying assets. Next, we specialize the framework to the case of illiquid portfolio consisting of a simple ECC written on a single underlying asset and a hedging portfolio consisting of the underlying asset and another simple ECC written on the same underlying asset. For this special case, we provide a (computable) formula for the minimum variance hedging strategy. Finally, we show that the minimum variance hedging strategy converges to the Δ-Γ-neutral hedging strategy as the interspacing between the hedging times converge to zero.
This paper is concerned with economic developments in South Australia in the context of capital restructuring in the manufacturing sector, inter- State capital penetration and severe labour displacement. The paper discusses the advent of selective 'de-industrialisation' in this state as a feature of national and international capital restructuring. The analysis suggests that, although state policy was integrally involved in the development of the regional economy, state policy is currently faced with major structural problems to which it has few effective solutions. Indeed, the previous inability of the state apparatus to establish long-term economic policies of regional development has led to greater instability in the present crisis.
The significance of women entrepreneurial drive in economic development and growth cannot be underestimated as they have become income earners, employer of labour, reducing poverty rate, raising standard of living and contributing to national income through tax payment. Nigeria like any other Africa countries is with high rate of unemployment and underemployment, weak qualitative educational advancement, insecurity and poor infrastructural development in most cities and nearly all the rural setting. In traditional and religious arrangement in Africa women engagement in trading are limited and not encouraged as women role are seen to be domestic. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have shown new drive in the women fold as most of them are trying to be economically relevant in their various ways of life (Smith and Hunter, 2006) by finding their ways into risk taken ventures, labour market and demanding for women right to freedom to associate and be involved in activities outside the basic home keeping (Bragger, 1996), (Buttner and Moore, 1997), these make them to be self-driven with entrepreneurial activities and initiative. At the moment, the number of women entrepreneurs are gaining momentum and increasing all over the world. Countries like Canada and U.S have women entrepreneurs contributing to national development. Asian Tigers were not left out as several entrepreneurial initiative programmes are implemented to support this drive. Few African countries like Nigeria are coming up on realization of the importance of women in business and their contributions to important financial family issues. It was opined by Mass and Herington (2006) that women entrepreneurs are growing faster than the male counterpart making efforts to create fortune and better living conditions for their respective families. The degree of intensity of women in business led to the renewed focus on gender flexibility in entrepreneurial activities and ensuring adequate support and intervention for sustainability. Globally, different policies are formulated nationally and internationally to stimulate and encourage private ownership and innovativeness haven believed that is the corner stone of economic development of any nation. Male presence in business activities are seen in virtually all sector of the economy. Despite men dominance of business activities, most countries of the world especially Africa nations now encouraged women participation in business activities which is believed to be outside the primary responsibility of a woman as a wife in a traditional setting like Nigeria. But with women contributions to the living standard of their various homes, reducing poverty level and encouragement from developed economy for women empowerment (McConnell, 2007) the view that women have tendency of bringing prosperity and contributing to standard of living and economic growth in the world at large therefore suggest women entrepreneurial drive be encouraged. Considering this argument, Downing and Daniel (1992) note that activities of women entrepreneurs in some cities in Africa like Lesotho in South Africa are still very low. However, there is the need to explore the relative involvement of women in smoking of fish and sales relative to their male counterpart that were traditionally recognized as the original operators of such business and to examine how that has improved the economic standard of the women that are involved in fish smoking and sales and to what extent has it reduce poverty level, create jobs, and contributing to economic development of their locality. Research on women entrepreneurs in this area remain insignificant as no much write up exist. It was recently that few researches exist on women entrepreneurship in this part of the world but not on the fish smoking and sales in Badagry area of Lagos State. This justifies the reason for earnest investigation into the involvement of women in fish smoking and sales in Badagry Local Government area of Lagos State. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the level of women engagement in fish smoking and sales and how it has elevated their entrepreneurial consciousness and enhances their earnings, reduce poverty level, raise standard of living and generating income for the government and to consider the level of women entrepreneur discrimination and socio-cultural constraints. HO: women entrepreneurial drive has not reduce poverty level and raise standard of living of the families HA: women entrepreneurial drive has reduce poverty level and raise standard of living of the families HO: women entrepreneurial development is not affected by socio-cultural constraints HA: women entrepreneurial development is affected by socio-cultural constraints
This study assessed the budgetary allocation to agriculture in Benue State. Secondary data were collected for 10 years from Annual Reports of the Accountant General, Central Bank of Nigeria statistical publications, and Benue State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BNARDA). Descriptive statistics and regression were used to analyze the data. The result revealed that the Nigerian Government allocates only 8% of its annual budget to the agricultural sector, with the crop subsector being the most preferred (77.34%). The result of the regression analysis indicated a negative and nonsignificant (−3.3610) contribution to agricultural production. The Government should not only raise the fund allocation to the agricultural sector but devise adequate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure increased productivity.
Vandenbussche et al (2006), Aghion et al. (2009) posit and show that when economies operate close to the technical frontier, their ability to generate efficiency gains rests on the contribution of workers with advanced forms of education (i.e. those who attended tertiary education). The main originality of this empirical paper is to revisit and improve the analysis of that assumption in the context of firms located in advanced economics, assuming that something that has been verified for OECD countries or US states is likely to be observed also at a much more desegregated level. To that purpose, we analyse a rich panel of Belgian firm-level data, covering the 2008-14 period. In the first step, we concentrate on properly estimating each firm’s distance/proximity to frontier. Step 2 consists in regressing each firm's efficiency growth rate on [1] the share of workers by education attainment [2] its (initial) distance/proximity to the frontier and [3] (the main variable of interest here) the interaction between [1] & [2], whose sign provides a direct test of the Vandenbussche/Aghion assumption. The main result of the paper supports the idea that the closer the firms are from the frontier, the more educated workers matter for efficiency gains.
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is specially adopted to assess the efficiency of conventional banks in Malaysia. Specifically, this paper investigates the productivity level of the conventional banks in Malaysia. The analysis is based on a data set of 20 banks over the period of 1998-2007. Results indicate that the conventional banks exhibit an improvement in their productivity index. While 14 banks register improvement in their productivity levels, 5 banks register deterioration in their productivity levels during the same period. This reveals that there is a minimal input waste. The results also suggest that the implementation of the Financial Sector Master Plan (FSMP) is somewhat effective as the overall efficiency level improves.            Key words: Banks, productivity, efficiency.
ABSTRACT Historically, sources of retirement income have typically included private pensions, Social Security and per sonai savings. Unfortunately, recent developments are impacting all three sources, making a retirement free of financial worries less probable. Securing retirement savings has challenges for fixed income savers and equity investors. Low interest rates have reduced income levels for fixed income investors. Equity investors are being advised to lower expectations. Retiring employees are discovering that pension benefits may not be distributed as promised. Recent research suggests that investing in government bonds is a viable strategy for accumulating retirement savings due to low riskandease of investing. However, the previous focus has been on accumulation of retirement savings rather than on distribution management, which takes place after retirement. This article evaluates two important income withdrawal strategies available to households looking for low-risk retirement income: the purchase of fixed annuities and planned withdraw als of savings bond investments. INTRODUCTION For most wage earners, the main reason that saving for retirement is important is to replace earnings lost upon retiring from the workforce. Sources of retirement income have typically included private pensions, Social Security and personal savings. However, in the last 25 years, challenges have arisen for each of these potential sources of retirement income. Only about 50 percent of the workforce participates in employer-sponsored retirement plans. As late as 1980, a majority of those workers participated in defined benefit (DB) plans where the employer contributes and all covered employees automatically earn benefits, usually based on years of service. Today, however, the most prevalent plan has changed to a defined contribution (DC) plan. In 2006, only 20 percent of the workforce participated in DB, while 43 percent participated in DC plans. Approximately 12 percent of workers participated in both types of plans. (Purcell and Whitman, 2007) The result of such a shift in type of employer-sponsored plan is that employees approaching retirement are now discovering that pension benefits they were counting on for retirement income may not be secure, or may not be fully distributed as promised. Reports now show that there is a significant under-funding of many corporate pensions. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which helps pay benefits when corporations are unable to fulfill their defined benefit pension obligations, is showing signs of stress due to this under-funding. Congressional research staffers have recently estimated that the PBGC faces a shortfall of more than $120 billion dollars over the next decade due to the rising number of corporate bankruptcies. (Borrus, 2005) Additionally, large companies such as International Business Machines Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. have recently announced the freezing of their defined benefit pension plans. (Schultz, 2006) A study conducted on such activities found that almost one in ten companies offering defined benefit pension plans have frozen their plans. (Schroeder, 2005) When pension plans are frozen, those vested in the plans will receive reduced monthly benefits relative to the benefits previously estimated. For those workers who are not part of a DB plan, the responsibility for securing an adequate retirement income lies solely with the individual. In 2006, 20 percent of workers with DC plans available through their employers chose not to participate. (Purcell and Whitman, 2007) Those who do participate risk funding at less than adequate levels, and also risk making bad investment decisions. For both groups, there exists a substantial threat that retirement income from employer-sponsored plans will fall short of retirement needs. A second source of retirement income, Social Security, does not appear to be the answer to the retiree's financial concerns. …
Everyday tea consumption surveys indicate that tea consumption is not only the economic phenomenon,but also a cultural phenomenon.The current tea culture consumption coexists three main forms such as healthcare,social identity and aesthetic culture.In fact,to pursue healthcare efficacy and social status has greatly promoted the growing tea consumption,but being short of aftereffect stamina has even caused negative effect.Nowadays the overall development trend of tea consumption culture is to guide and foster the tea aesthetic interest of the public,and entirely raising the aesthetic value of tea culture will be a prosperous career.
This article examines the link between cities and culture from the point of view of the production of cultural goods, including media products. It focuses on the institutional structure of present-day cultural production and the media industry and on their geographical organization at the local and global levels. The cultural economy is a prime mover for globalization processes in the urban system, in which cultural production clusters act as local nodes in the global networks of the large media groups. The models frequently used to analyse the global city system will be supplemented and partially modified by an empirical analysis of the 'world media cities'. The analysis of the world media cities enables those locations to be identified, from which globalization in the spheres of culture and the media proceeds and is 'produced' in practical terms. Global city research has predominantly emphasized the role of advanced producer services—in contrast this article concludes that for the process of globalization the globally operating media firms are at least as influential as the global providers of corporate services, because they create a cultural market space of global dimensions, on the basis of which the specialized global service providers can ensure the practical management of global production and market networks.
It is well known how the Watt-Boulton steam engine freed England and then all nations from the geographic and climatic vagaries of water power and how it permitted man for the first time to concentrate great quantities of efficient motive power in one location. But how did this important transformation come about? What lessons about the economic characteristics of technological invention and innovation can we learn from the steam engine's history? The terms "invention" and "innovation" suggest the conceptual formulations of Abbott Payson Usher and Joseph A. Schumpeter. Crucial to Usher's conception of invention is an "act of insight" going beyond the exercise of normal technical skill, even though additional activities (perception of a problem, setting the stage, and critical revision) are also recognized.' Schumpeter, on the other hand, defined innovation as "the carrying out of new combinations."2 For the case of new technology, this can be identified with reducing an invention to practice and exploiting it commercially. Schumpeter emphatically distinguished his concept of innovation from that of invention.
The conventional wisdom is that the surge in productivity growth which has surged in the United States over the past 15 years has been attributed almost wholly to advances in the production and use of information technology. While this is certainly evident from the statistics, a driving force behind the IT revolution has been the development and growth of new firms. Indeed, the U.S. economy has achieved a remarkable transformation over the last several decades from an economy characterized by large, bureaucratic firms into one increasingly powered by entrepreneurial innovation. The challenge ahead therefore is to cement and strengthen the entrepreneurial form of capitalism. In this paper, we provide a framework for policymaking to achieve this objective.
Is has long been recognised that the monetary wages paid to many hotel workers do not constitute their total earnings. Additional monetary and non-monetary rewards are a feature of hotel employment. Surprisingly, little is known about these additional rewards or fringe benefits, which are growing in significance in wage and salary administration. Until now the state of knowledge has remained partial and fragmented, and debates conducted in an arena of almost total ignorance. Central to this debate is the comparison of hotel worker earnings with those in other industries. The author describes the research methodology and discusses his empirical data useful to clarify the role played by fringe benefits in the ‘earnings gap’ debate. The results constitute a distinct contribution to our knowledge. The author argues that further development of the techniques for comparing elements of reward, other than basic pay, is of particular importance. However, much remains to be done particularly in removing the constra...
Traditional models of sovereign debt assume that governments seek to maximize the long terminterests of their countries.We assume instead that governments borrow and default according to their own political interests. In particular they often have limited horizons and are reluctant to default strategically. This allows us to define a maximum sustainable debt to GDP ratio, and compute it as a function of the countrys fundamentals. We find that maximum sustainable debt varies a lot across countries, consistent with the notion of country specific debt (in)tolerance. Actual debt ratios are below their maximum sustainable levels, as governments seeking further terms in office fear debt-induced default that may jeopardize their prospects for reelection. The difference between actual and maximum sustainable debt ratios creates a "margin of safety" that allows governments to increase debt if necessary with little corresponding increase in default risk. The probability of default climbs precipitously once the margin of safety has been exhausted.
Half of the European population still lives outside major urban areas. However, the quality of life and employment opportunities in the remote areas of Europe are under threat. The social role of companies is manifested by the improvement of the living standards. In some cases the lack of the provision of financial services becomes unjustified having in mind the opportunities provided by information technology. This piece of research reveals the correlation between the geographical and financial exclusion concerning two isolated areas in Greece and identifies the banking attitudes of an excluded customer segment. Companies have to be repositioned in order to create a profile, in tune with the needs of regional and local communities and in line with their well-being evolution. It seems necessary, a certain re-thinking of some basic marketing concepts like segmentation and targeting, according to a more socially responsible strategic view.
Biochar has garnered much attention for its potential to improve farming productivity and sustainability by amending soil, enhancing crop yields, improving fertilizer use efficiency and sequestering carbon. However, few publications consider farmer perspectives on whether biochar is attractive as an agricultural input. This paper therefore investigates the micro-economics and social suitability of biochar in four contrasting Chinese agricultural systems, using linear optimization models and qualitative contextual data. Results demonstrate that commercially produced biochar is uneconomic as an independent farming input, whilst farm-produced biochar shows promise in just one of four case-study sites. This suggests that biochar research in China should shift away from on-farm production and application of pure biochar, towards combined biochar-inorganic fertilizer products.
Women have difficulty in taking up a job,a narrow range in obtaining employment,relatively low income and very low status in the structure of getting a job in the labor market.These show the sex discrimination in the labor market.In order to struggle for the true equality between women and men,to reduce or avoid this kind of social exclusion,women should improve their own qualities and enhance the consciousness of protecting their rights,and also our whole society should make efforts together.
Using the 1987 Survey of Volunteer Activity in Canada, we examine whether differential returns to volunteer work in the paid labour market can explain part of the male-female earnings gap. Male volunteers earn, on average, about 11% higher incomes than their non-volunteering counterparts as a result of their volunteer experience, whereas comparable female volunteers and non-volunteers earn similar incomes. This differential return across the sexes may be partially explained by the type of volunteer activity undertaken. Our results indicate that as much as one third of the male-female earnings gap may be attributable to the fact that the labour market rewards male and female volunteers differently.
In the framework of a Diamond-Dybvig-Peck-Shell banking model, in which a broad class of feasible contractual arrangements is allowed and which admits a run equilibrium, we stress the assumption that depositors are uncertain of their position in the queue when expecting a run. The formalization of the depositor's attitude towards this form of uncertainty is inspired by the multiple prior maxmin expected utility (MEU) theory axiomatized by Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989). We prove that there exists a positive measure set of subjective prior beliefs, obtained from the minimization over the set of admissible priors, for which the bank run equilibrium disappears. The implication is that `suspension schemes' are valuable since, in addition to the improvement in risk-sharing among agents (Wallace (1990)), they may undermine panic-driven bank runs.
This article addresses, in general, the occurrence clause in comprehensive general liability policies and, inparticular, the Third Circuit's recent holding in Chemical Leaman that under New Jersey law a subjective standard should be applied in determining whether an insured expected or intended environmental damage. Chemical Leaman follows the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in Morton as to how the occurrence clause should be analyzed in environmental coverage disputes, a decision also known for its regulatory estoppel holding on the pollution exclusion clause. The majority in Chemical Leaman concluded that Morton requires a subjective standard because, among other things, that standard comports with the twin policy goals of deterring wrongful conduct, while maximizing the amount of compensation available for injured third parties.
The demographics of the traditional American family are changing. More couples are electing to become domestic partners and remain unmarried; domestic partners include same-sex as well as opposite-sex relationships. Understanding the environment within which employers offer domestic partner benefits (DPBs) is essential. DPBs are an issue of marital status as benefits proposed to married employees differ slightly from those offered, if at all, to domestic partners. Our purpose is not only to provide a broad landscape of the barriers surrounding the offering of DPBs from a human resource perspective, but also some of the advantages of doing so.
One argument against forest reservation is that people want forest reserve resources and would not deliberately destroy it. In contrast, the basic assumption underlying forest reservation in Nigeria is that local communities cannot conserve and manage forests sustainably. How well this strategy has advanced the realization of the goals of reservation is not clear. This study adopted logit and multiple regression analyses and concluded that the average earning status and wealth status of households have significant effects on the probability of households having a formal access to forest reserves. Moreover, poor households are most likely prone to protesting the current conservation and management strategy by resisting forest reserve laws.
Germany and France are both Continental European welfare states with severe labor market problems such as low employment and high and persistent unemployment which can be explained by labor market institutions that inhibit labor market adaptability. This paper analyzes recent reforms in core areas such as active and passive labor market policies, employment protection and the funding of social policies through taxes and social security contributions in both countries. It shows if and to what extent more favourable conditions for employment growth could be created. The paper identifies the limits of partial reforms in terms of the creation of more efficient labor market institutions although these reforms are highly plausible in politico-economic terms. However, the cumulative effect of sequences of marginal changes leads to a gradual medium-term transformation of both Continental European labor markets.
The European Employment Strategy (EES) illustrates the most ambitious attempt to regulate and coordinate employment policies. However, some doubts arise about its capacity to favour convergence in the field of employment due to the regulatory nature of the process, based on the so-called soft regulation. This article aims to contribute to the debate of whether the EES can favour the convergence of employment policies by focusing on the effects of the policy discourse. It analyses the EU discourse on activation developed in the European Employment Strategy (EES) from 1997 to 2010 and its influence in Spain and the United Kingdom by means of a policy frame approach. The conclusions show that we are observing a process of relative ideological convergence of the activation models due to the influence of the EES discourse. However, divergences are still observed at the level of the instruments and methods of activation.
A guiding principle of assisting recovery from conflict is that normative transformations in political economy are essential to establishing peace through law and regulation. Significant and reflexive policy shifts have occurred since the 1990s so as to sustain ‘peace from below’. The chapter submits an interpretation of post bellum economic justice that emphasizes the persistence of norms about capital accumulation and the rights of labour. Particular norms and values have been categorical for interventionists, continually reproduced and almost ideologically unimpeachable, even though such presumptions about economic progress are in jeopardy in policy centres that promote post bellum transformations. However the global growth in economic service sectors will require new forms of sustenance and new enforceable regimes to establish and maintain peace that will be recognized as ‘just’.
Background: The early research on the baby boom tried to account for it as a logical recovery following the end of the Second World War (WWII). But it cannot be understood merely as a post-war phenomenon because its origins go back to the 1930s and early 1940s. Objective: I shall describe the methodology used to measure the total and marital baby boom and provide a detailed description of it. I shall attempt to explain the possible reasons that led to the sharp increase in the marital fertility rates and its subsequent decline. Methods: I will use various fertility indices that track the historical development of fertility (total and marital; period and cohort). Results: I show that there are major differences in the measurement of the baby boom depending on the index used. I found that the baby boom is highly heterogeneous in the 25 countries that form part of my study. It represented the logical response that families made to one period of prolonged political, economic, and military crisis (the crash of 1929 and WWII). Conclusions: Researchers who use only the total fertility indices are really analysing only the nuptiality boom, which took place during those years, rather than changes in reproductive behaviour. Contribution: I measure total and marital baby boom for 25 developed countries and perform the calculations to measure the impact of marital fertility and nuptiality on the total baby boom (TBB). I present a new explanation of the origins of the baby boom.
Based on empirical VAR models, we investigate the role of (option-implied) stock and bond market volatilities and monetary policy in the determination of the US 10-year term premium. Our preliminary findings are that an unexpected loosening of monetary policy - through a cut in the federal funds rate in the pre-crisis sample or an increase in bond purchases post-Lehman - typically leads to a decline in both expected stock and bond market volatilities and the term premium. However, while conventional monetary policy boosts economic activity in the precrisis period, bond purchases are found to have no statistically significant real effects postcrisis. Second, expected equity market volatility (VIX) is found to be more important than bond market volatility (MOVE). Pre-crisis, a shock to the VIX leads to a concomitant rise in the MOVE, a contraction of economic activity, a fall in broker-dealer leverage and a rise in the term premium, consistent with pro-cyclical swings in market liquidity. Post-crisis, an innovation to the VIX is instead associated with a drop in the term premium, suggesting the prevalence of flight to quality effects.
This research paper aims at highlighting the Total Quality Management (TQM) elements at university, through environmental scanning the researcher found many important factors in University, where quality of education Is the main purpose of a university education when providing service for students. A lot of researcher have been  studied (TQM)  around the world by educational institution , that’s indicators how is very important quality assurance in education sector based on revolution and hyper competition  between institution specially university.  accordingly this paper focus on TQM as a approach used in organization to enhance managerial method pulse increase the performance at university output. so the  main objectives in this paper to concentration on principle of TQM. Also, it studies the core concept of principle and highlight on important part that enhances the quality in university plus that what the distinguish from others papersto achieve academic excellence . Key words : Higher education, quality, Total Quality Management, academic excellence, Jordan.
The subjective equivalence scale for Poland in 2010 is estimated using the Polish Household Budget Survey. The scale increases consistently with household size, thus showing larger economies of scale than would be shown if the OECD approach was used. We compare the poverty rates based on the subjective scale with those obtained using expert approach. The overall poverty rates are not much different, but the choice of weighting methods leads to a significantly different distribution of poverty when different types of households are considered. In particular, according to the subjective approach, the one-person households are mostly at risk of financial poverty. This is opposite to the OECD approach, according to which larger households are more at risk. The results are consistent with those for the euro zone countries discussed in Bishop et al. (2014).
Applying the GARCH model, this paper finds that the Czech stock market index is positively associated with real GDP and the German and US stock market indexes, is negatively influenced by the ratio of government borrowing to GDP, the domestic real interest rate, the CZK/USD exchange rate, the expected inflation rate and the euro area government bond yield, and exhibits a quadratic relationship with the ratio of M2 to GDP. It suggests that the Czech stock market index and the M2/GDP ratio have a positive (negative) relationship if the M2/GDP ratio is less (greater) than the critical value of 60.0%. Hence, to promote a robust stock market, the authorities are expected to pursue or maintain economic growth, fiscal discipline, currency appreciation, a relatively low interest rate and expected inflation rate, and the M2/GDP ratio which is below the critical value of 60.0%.
In what follows, I will set out my formulation of the criteria for voluntary exchange in any market, including the labor market, and consider what these criteria imply for strikes and “yellow-dog” (union-free) contracts. Next, I will show how the NLA and the NLRA violate those criteria. Then I will briefly examine what Hayek and Hutt had to say about voluntary unionism. Finally, I will examine some of the provisions of the ECA as possible components of an American free-market union law. I have examined the usefulness of the ECA as a guide to building voluntary unionism elsewhere (Baird 2001). Here I do so in a bit more depth.
While recognizing the importance of a wide range of influences on current patterns of globalization in developing countries, this paper focuses on the role played by information technologies of various kinds. It is argued that these technologies are associated with a number of powerful cumulative mechanisms causing some countries to grow rapidly and others to become increasingly marginalized from the global economy. These differential effects of information technology on patterns of globalization are better viewed from the perspective of Myrdal's notion of cumulative causation than from the standpoint of standard economic theory
Based on the urban household survey in 2002,this paper discusses the distribution effects resulting from the large-scale privatization reform of public housing in the middle and late 1990s.It focuses on two issues,namely the basic characteristics of the population purchasing the public houses at a discount and the real subsidy scale concerning purchasing the public houses at a discount as well as its distribution.The empirical results indicate that work experience has significant effects on the behavior of purchasing houses and such factors as CPC membership,education,work unit and its features affect the behavior of purchasing public houses at a discount,while the housing prices only have very limited effects on the behavior of purchasing houses.In addition,the subsidies concerning purchasing the public houses at a discount widen the welfare inequality among urban residents.
In this paper we investigate the role of news shocks in aggregate fluctuations by comparing the empirical performance of models with and without the feature of the news shocks. We found a trivial difference between the two models. That is, the model with news shocks explains the variation as well as the alternative. The reason is that the news shocks can only advance the date at which agents know about the changes, but they do not change the stochastic structure of the model.
The neighborhood is increasingly used as an organizational anchorfor the promotion of planned social change, but defining neighborhood for programmatic ends in any given case is problematic because it admits a variety of competing choices. There is no universal way of defining the neighborhood as a unit, and selecting and defining target neighborhoods is a highly political and negotiable process. This article suggests a heuristic approach to defining neighborhoods that is guided by explicit programmatic aims, informed by a theoretical understanding of neighborhood and the elements it may include, and based on descriptive information on local context.
Confronted with the rising oil price, energy security and global warming, biodiesel is booming as a effective substitute of fossil diesel worldwide. At present, the production of biodiesel in three regions, EU makes biodiesel mainly using rapeseed, The U.S. and South American countries use soybean as the feedstock. In Southeast Asia, palm oil is used to produce biodiesel. The using of vegetable oil to produce biodiesel worldwide has a huge impact on oilseed and vegetable oil market in China, which depends heavily on import to satisfy vegetable oil and oilseed demand. China need make policies replying the development of food-based biodiesel to ensure food security.
Traditional research methods adopts normal distributions as a pattern of the stock market behavior. This paper utilized POT model of extreme value theory, and GPD distribution which can give more accurate description on tail distribution of financial returns/losses. EVT and POT techniques are applied to a series of daily losses of the RTS index (RTSI) over a 15-year period (1995-2009), RTSI is total index of 50 largest Russian stocks. The focus is on the use of proposed methods to asses tail related risk providing a modeling tool for modern risk management.
Brazil is one of the most biodiversity rich countries in the world, including a wealth of agricultural biodiversity in both wild and cultivated forms. This is particularly noticeable in southern Brazil, home to a wide array of underutilized food species whose genetic diversity is maintained mostly by farmers through on-farm management practices. Farmers’ contribution in safeguarding and keeping alive traditional knowledge (TK) essential for recognizing, cultivating, valorising and consuming these resources is critical to their conservation. Part of this diversity, a rich basket of native fruits and landraces of vegetables and grains, is also maintained through ex situ collections managed by Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and its partners. This article discusses the integrated efforts for in situ/on-farm and ex situ conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity in southern Brazil. This diversity represents an important cultural heritage, since its use, cultivation and associated knowledge result from the dynamic history of the Brazilian population, including colonisation and immigration by several different ethnicities. Many of these species are sources of genes that convey tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, as a result of the combined action of natural selection and artificial selection by farmers in agricultural systems with low inputs and diverse environmental conditions. Due to their importance for food security, use in breeding programs, high nutritional value, and potential for income generation, Embrapa has taken responsibility for the ex situ conservation of these species. The genebanks that safeguard against the loss of these resources do also play an important role in the restoration of this germplasm to farming communities.
This paper attempts to examine an interesting, but unfortunately with insignificant practical application so far, penal law institute, such as the justified economic risk. With a view to more complete clarification of the justified economic risk, some other law institutes, such as the normal production-economic risk and the exceptional need are indicated comparatively and in short, also a connection with the administrative and penal liability is made. The judicial practice on the specified problem is extremely inadequate which, on its part, provides a good opportunity for the doctrine to state its opinion in this connection.
The purpose of this paper is the comparative analysis of four natural gas storage valuation approaches. In competitive natural gas markets the optimal valuation and operation of natural gas storages is a key task for natural gas companies operating storages. Within this paper, four spot based valuation approaches are analyzed regarding computational time and accuracy. In particular, explicit and implicit finite differences, multinomial recombining trees, and Least Squares Monte Carlo Simulation are compared. These approaches are applied to the valuation of a gas storage facility considering three different underlying price processes. Major characteristics of historical natural gas prices are: seasonality, mean reversion and jumps. Therefore, we consider a mean reversion process as underlying price process. In a first step, we extend this mean reversion process to a mean reversion jump diffusion process, to account for jumps, occurring in historical gas spot price time series. Moreover, we consider a more general price process accounting for mean reversion as well as seasonal patterns as observed in the historical time series. Besides the analysis of the numerical results, the benefits and drawbacks of the methodologies are discussed.
The major tax policy challenge of the 21st century is the need to address the nation’s fiscal condition fairly and in a manner conducive to economic growth. But since California adopted Proposition 13 nearly forty years ago, antipathy to taxes has served as the glue that has held the Republican coalition together. Even though our taxes as a percentage of our economy are low by OECD standards and low by our own historical experience, anti-tax attitudes have become even more important for Republicans politically, since they now find it hard to agree on almost anything else. So revenue-positive, or even revenue-neutral, forms of tax reform — at least as long as the GOP maintains its legislative majority — are politically impossible. The sad truth, of course, is that the coming tax cuts cannot possibly be the great and simplifying tax reform that the President and Sixers claim and that our nation so badly needs.
A guaranteed income (GI) that replaces the welfare state is not currently on the political agenda, but it offers the possibility for a grand compromise that could attract a majority political coalition. Any large-scale GI cannot be economically feasible in addition to current welfare programmes. Financial constraints in both Western Europe and the United States require that the money for funding a GI comes from the existing Social Security budgets. Using conservative assumptions, the proposed GI is demonstrably superior to the current system in enabling the elderly to accumulate comfortable retirement incomes. Furthermore, the proposed GI effectively ends involuntary poverty, even assuming minimum-wage jobs and high unemployment. The work disincentive effects of the proposed GI are diminished by a high payback point that begins at US$25,000 of earned income. The proposed GI may be expected to bring about a substantial reduction in extramarital births, and to increase, to an uncertain extent, labour force participation among young males currently outside of the labour force.
Standard repeated-interaction theories of oligopoly make collusion seem much easier than a  structural consensus" suggests that it is. I show that more intuitive results can emerge if colluders could renegotiate after a deviation. In repeated Bertrand oligopoly, if agreements are subject to a certain kind of frictionless renegotiation, then full collusion is impossible with more than three rms, however high the discount factor. With more rms, partial collusion is possible, but its deadweight losses are small compared to monopoly e ects. I also analyze results for repeated Cournot interaction. Finally, I try to relate the game-theoretic literature, the structural consensus, and the concern over collusion. Forthcoming in the Festschrift in honour of James A. Mirrlees, edited by G. Myles and P. Hammond: Oxford University Press, 2000. y Professor of Economics and Director of the Competition Policy Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3880. email: farrell@econ.berkeley.edu. I thank Luis Cabral, Dennis Carlton, Andrew Dick, Richard Gilbert, Matthew Rabin, and Carl Shapiro for helpful comments, Rene Kamita for research assistance, and the National Science Foundation for early nancial support (Grant SES{9111095).
This paper shows that the impact of country interest rate shocks on emerging markets' economic activities can be associated with credit market imperfections affecting principally non-tradable activities. I present novel evidence documenting that tradable and non-tradable activities respond asymmetrically to changes in credit conditions in emerging markets. I show that country interest rate shocks are amplified through non-tradable activities, and that local credit substantially explains their output growth. Unlike the non-tradable sector, tradable activities are not significantly affected by changes in local credit conditions. To rationalize these findings, I introduce a small open economy model with heterogeneous access to international borrowing that accounts for the asymmetric response of tradable and non-tradable activities.
Aimming at the disadvantages of weak generalization ability that exists in most of the current regression functions,combining with the research achievement of statistic learning theory,the paper proposes the optimal regress model based on least-absolute criteria,or LaOR model.Compared with other regress models,LaOR model has taken regress error and confidence interval into account synthetically.LaOR model can reduce the expected risk of regress model effectively.The logistics demand short-term forecasting of Shanghai is used as an example to examine the validity of the LaOR model.
This paper examines the relationship between tax penalties and tax compliance. Conventional accounts, drawing from deterrence theory and norms theory, assume that the relationship is purely instrumental - that the function of tax penalties is solely to promote tax compliance. This paper identifies another aspect of the relationship that generally has been overlooked by the existing literature: the function of tax penalties in defining tax compliance. Tax penalties determine the standards of conduct that satisfy a taxpayer's obligations to the government; they distinguish compliant taxpayers from non-compliant taxpayers. This paper argues that tax compliance in a self-assessment system should require the taxpayer to report her tax liabilities only on the basis of legal positions that she reasonably and in good faith believes to be correct. However, the accuracy penalties provided under current law set much lower standards of conduct. In the case of a non-abusive transaction, current law allows the taxpayer to base her self-assessment on a position having as little as a one-in-five chance of prevailing; for an abusive transaction, the taxpayer only needs a reasonable belief that her position is more likely than not to prevail. The paper describes reformed standards of conduct for taxpayers, tax practitioners, and government officials that define tax compliance more appropriately for a self-assessment system.
This paper estimates country-specific fiscal reaction functions (FRFs) for selected European countries and tests for a change in fiscal behaviour since the beginning of the economic and financial crisis. The estimated country-specific FRFs, as well as a panel FRF for Central and Eastern European countries, are used in medium-term projections of the public debt-to-GDP ratio. Additional results in terms of fiscal risk assessment based on this FRF debt projection scenario and on the degree of realism of fiscal projections underlying public debt projections are also derived. Most EU countries are found to positively adjust their fiscal policy to rising levels of public debt, although to a weak extent in some cases. Since 2009, fiscal responsiveness to public debt appears to have generally increased over the sub-sample of EU countries considered. When using FRFs to project public debt ratios, results are on average less favourable than under the standard baseline no-fiscal policy change scenario used by the Commission services. However, for most countries, results generally corroborate the summary medium-term sustainability risk assessment made by the European Commission services (2016) based on more traditional debt projection scenarios and sensitivity tests. The paper also identifies a set of countries that are potentially at risk of fiscal fatigue.
This paper constitutes the first stage of an analysis of the problem of aid allocation when the donor is sensitive to both needs and governance considerations and is moreover able to influence local governance through its own disciplining effort. In this first stage, we write a principal-agent model of the relationship between a donor and a single recipient country. One key and original feature is the assumed comparability between domestic and donor-imposed disciplines: the two types can be summed up to obtain an aggregate discipline. We show that, paradoxically, an (exogenous) improvement of domestic discipline may be over-compensated by the donor so that total discipline actually decreases and elite capture increases. The relationship between domestic and total disciplines may thus be non-monotonous so that no simple general testable prediction can be inferred from economic theory regarding the impact of aid even controlling for domestic governance.
The agriculture is the base of our national economy while the agro-mechanic industry is related to the agricultural development. So the agro-mechanic industry should set up the tenet of serving the peasant. In this paper, the peasant loyalty model is built and the significance carrying out the analysis of the peasant loyalty is pointed out based on the analysis of the present condition of the peasant loyalty.
There is a substantial concern for the economic impacts of global warming. This study identifies the effects of seasonal temperatures on total economic output in the cities of China, and then projects the changes in local economic performance under future climate and development scenarios. The results suggest that there are significant negative effects of warm seasonal temperature but positive effects of cold seasonal temperature on economic growth. These different effects increase as more lags of temperature are included. By 2090, the cities may have the average reduction of 44% in GDP per capita under RCP8.5, but some of them in Northeast China are predicted to get positive impacts under RCP2.6. The difference in the estimated aggregate impacts under the two RCPs could be as much as 24%. The poor cities are likely to have higher economic damages, which amplifies the economic inequality. Finally, the ranges of economic impacts projected by different climate models are presented.
The enlargement of the EU to Central and Eastern Europe after 2004 was accompanied by great optimism: more dynamic economic development was expected in the wider Europe and also a general further development of social standards. The banking and debt crisis that started in 2008, however, has revealed structural shortcomings that disrupted and partly reversed the desired trends. The main reasons were inadequate governance options with regard to European economic and financial policy, together with substantial interference in the social dimension in the old and the new Member States. The impact of these processes in terms of convergence and divergence in the EU can be demonstrated on the basis of comparative empirical data series of core indicators in key areas for EU citizens. This impact has been exacerbated by inadequate state social protection and its funding by means of widely varying forms of taxation. A summary composite convergence/divergence index shows the current effects of crisis strategies in the EU regions.
Dollar-unit sampling is a popular method for sampling accounts by auditors. In this article, we analyze and compare two methods of obtaining dollar-unit samples, simple random sampling and sieve sampling. Two methods of assigning errors to the dollar units in the population are considered. For a variety of study populations based on actual accounting populations, it is found that sieve sampling, with either error assignment method, produces a more precise point estimator than simple random sampling of dollar units for sample sizes that are not excessively large for audit applications.
Reviews the contemporary debate on governance within the co‐operative sector and makes an analysis of the traditional approach taken by the movement. Critiques the view that democratic structures are an effective mechanism for governance in a co‐operative. Process and structure rather than purpose and culture inform the terms of the debate. Argues that professional management is inevitably gaining ground against lay directors. Explores the option of developing professional management as the guardians of co‐operative values and purpose – not to replace democratic governance structures but to support and supplement them using co‐operative value‐based adaptations of modern management methodologies to make consumer co‐operatives more responsive to their customers and members. When people identify with co‐operative purpose and values they will want to be involved. Good governance in co‐operatives is more a problem of management culture than it is a problem of democratic structures.
Observing that standard assumptions imply extreme discontinuity of bargaining power in continuous time limit, we develop a model of continuous bargaining power in continuous time. We formally introduce durability of bargaining power and show that it plays a central role, especially when the parties are optimistic. In particular, when bargaining power becomes more durable after a date, optimistic parties are enticed to wait until that date, leading to a period of disagreement. We show that when players are optimistic and bargaining power is durable around a period during which a (possibly stochastic) deadline is likely to arrive, the parties are enticed to delay the agreement until the deadline, as widely observed in experiments and real-world negotiations. We show that this deadline effect is stronger when the bargaining power is more durable around the likely time of deadline, or when the uncertainty about the deadline is smaller, or the parties are more optimistic.
Since 1978, loans from international financial institutions have accumulated to several tens of billion dollars and been an important source of external debt in China. Its ratio to external debt is relatively stable around 40 percent. Research on how these loans contribute to China's economic growth is rare. This paper tries to establish an econometric model derived from Cobb-Douglas production function and to answer the above question using national and provincial data from 1978, respectively. Our econometric analysis indicates that effect of loans from international financial institutions like World Bank on Chinese economic growth is different between pre-1990 and post-1990. Growth contribution to different regions also differs, which indicates that interaction between policy and foreign aid can lead to significantly different results.
Technology-sourcing foreign direct investment(TSFDI) relies on the reverse spillover effects and aims at getting advantageous technology.To understand logically the relationship between TSFDI and reverse spillover effects,the Cournot two-stage complete-information game model has be amended by adding two factors of spillover-amount and absorption.The conclusion shows that TSFDI is the foundation of the reverse spillover effect and it happens only under the conditions of having certain technology gap and absorption ability.
China's food security,especially its grain import and export,has been a focus in the world grain market for a long time.Based on an in-depth analysis of the evolving process of the world grain market and China's grain import and export trade,respectively,and also of their influencing factors and the relations,the author arrived at some conclusions as follows: increasing uncertainties but the stable supply of grain in the world grain market,the world grain market being one important way for China to guarantee its food security but not being taken good advantage of for the time being,there being something wrong with China's policy of grain import and export,and China having obvious ability of taking good advantage of the world grain market for its food security.Then,the author discussed some corresponding suggestions in order to promote China's taking best advantage of the world grain market to guarantee better its food security.
This paper examines the symbiosis between financial development and human capital accumulation in generating endogenous growth. We develop a theoretical model where human capital is a key factor in the creation of financial innovations, resulting in financial development which in turns facilitates the acquisition of new human capital. Compar- ing the steady state solutions of the decentralized model with those of a hypothetical social planner reveals two sources of divergence between the solutions. In addition, we explore the comparative statics and tran- sitional dynamics of these models, and examine their key implications for policy-makers.
Due to the economic crisis and the predominance of drug expenditure in healthcare costs, the cooperation of groups of hospitals to negotiate with suppliers and centralize warehouses has been a recent trend in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This paper shows the economic convenience of centralizing the hospitals' inventory decisions (how much/when to order) based on the sharing of medical prescriptions of patients along the supply chain. The logistic network under investigation (TO BE model) integrates: a central pharmacy negotiating with suppliers, collecting hospital orders, storing and distributing materials; a number of hospitals feeding their medical units with materials; and a number of medical units taking care of their patients. The study is carried out comparing the cost performances of the proposed model with a non-cooperative one(in which hospitals manage their stocks individually) by means of simulation.
Takaful industry has witnessed an exponential growth across the world over the last decade, demonstrating an enormous demand for takaful products ranging from short-term general takaful to long-term family takaful. It has attracted considerable attention not only from the Muslim countries, but also from the non-Muslim countries. Despite its promising growth, however, the takaful industry continues to face numerous contentious Shari'ah issues. The present study aims to discuss some of the most fundamental Shari'ah issues in takaful, namely the issue of applying tabarru' concept in takaful and the issue of underwriting surplus of tabarru' fund.
Purpose of study: This study aims to present empirical evidence about the analysis of e-entrepreneurship and e-commerce of digital economic development in West Sumatra in supporting national economic growth.  Methodology: the hypothesis used in the statistical method of this study is to test the classical assumption and multiple regression tests and descriptive statistical analysis.  Result: The results indicate that an increase in the number of E-entrepreneurship in Indonesia, especially in West Sumatra, provides a significant overall effect on national economic growth, the statistical result is 0.002% but the development of business people and the digital market developments haven't been significant because it is greater than alpha 5%.  Application: In the digital era there are still many challenges faced, especially related to the absorption of skilled labor and can be supported e-entrepreneurship. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the strength of e-entrepreneurship in the digital economy to increase income and encourage national economic growth.  Novelty/Originality of this study: This research has never been studied before in West Sumatra and raises a developing theme of the technological advancements of the industrial revolution and the digital era that can enhance the economic growth of a region.
Recent discussions of corporate heroes focus on benefits without examining costs. Although our perceptions are not entirely negative, we have discovered several reasons to be cautious about corporate heroes. We present some of the potential problems associated with creating heroes, and another set of dysfunctions occurring once heroes have been created. Our intention is not to debunk heroes, but to attach a cautionary note to their use in organizations. We fully expect the natural emergence of heroes in many organizations, but also propose that managers can accomplish as much, and often less hazardously, by working on perspective, praise, and trying to influence daily practice in their organizations. This approach is both more explicit and direct in infusing organizations with the same benefits of motivation and meaning derived from having heroes. Moreover, it can lay a foundation of values that ultimately determines what kinds of individuals emerge as heroes.
Women consistently work less in the labor market and earn lower wages than men. While economic empowerment of women is an important objective in itself, women’s economic activity also matters as a condition for sustained economic growth. The political debate on the labor market impacts of international trade typically differentiates workers by their educational attainment or skills. Gender is a further dimension in which the impacts of trade liberalization can differ. In a globalizing world it is important to understand whether and how trade policy can contribute toward enhancing gender convergence in labor market outcomes.
SINCE THE WORD "COST," IF USED WITHOUT REFERENCE TO THE SPECIFIC RELATION INTENDED MAY BE INDEFINITE, THE COMMITTEE DEFINES THREE COMBINATIONS OF ELEMENTS INVOLVED IN HIGHWAY COST ANALYSIS; ANNUAL ECONOMIC COST, ANNUAL DISBURSEMENT AND ANNUAL REVENUE FROM TAXES AND FEES. COMPUTATIONS OF HIGHWAY COSTS ARE NEEDED FOR: ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF IMPROVEMENTS, FOR DETERMINATION OF NEEDED ANNUAL INCOME AND TAX RATES AND FOR AID IN COMPARING HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION COSTS WITH THOSE OF OTHER FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION. FOR ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS, ANNUAL ECONOMIC COSTS ARE APPROPRIATE. FOR DETERMINATION OF NEEDED REVENUE AND TAX RATES ANTICIPATED ANNUAL DISBURSEMENT IS THE CONTROLLING FACTOR. FOR AID IN COMPARING COSTS OF DIFFERENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, COMPUTATIONS OF ANNUAL ECONOMIC COST ARE PROPER FOR ONLY THOSE PARTS OF THE PUBLIC OR PRIVATE INVESTMENT CHARGEABLE TO PURPOSES OF TRANSPORTATION. /AUTHOR/
The nomination of Ben Bernanke to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has rekindled a smoldering debate in U.S. monetary policy circles—namely, whether the Federal Reserve should join the ranks of the world’s inflation targeting central banks. “Inflation targeting” is a sometimes nebulous phrase used to describe a monetary policy style which, at its heart, has the central bank setting an explicit, long-run, numeric target for inflation. Beginning in the 1990s, several countries in the world, perhaps most prominently the United Kingdom, formally began inflation targeting. Bernanke is on the record favoring inflation targeting, while outgoing Chairman Alan Greenspan has been opposed. One particularly relevant summary of this debate occurred at the conference “Inflation Targeting: Prospects and Problems,” held at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in October 2003.1 At that conference, Bernanke, then a Fed Governor, participated in a panel discussion with Fed Governor Donald Kohn and European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Otmar Issing. Governor Kohn, like Chairman Greenspan, has generally been opposed to inflation targeting. The ECB, the central bank most like the Fed in size and influence, has wrestled with inflation targeting issues since its inception in 1998. Thus, the panel provided an opportunity to debate the pros and cons of inflation targeting. What were the main arguments? In his discussion, Bernanke stated that he felt there was an optimal, long-run inflation rate (OLIR) “that achieves the best average economic performance over time with respect to both the inflation and output objectives” [p. 166]. There would be no drawback, in Bernanke’s view, to announcing an explicit target in the neighborhood of 2 percent, provided the FOMC makes no particular commitment to a timetable for reaching the OLIR. This last proviso would make sure that there were “no unwanted constraints on short-run monetary policy” [p. 167]. In suggesting a numerical target near 2 percent, Bernanke emphasized that very low levels of inflation are generally preferred, but not so low that the FOMC would face an unacceptably high risk of encountering the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates, as has occurred in Japan over the past decade. The ECB experience is perhaps only cold comfort for the United States. Issing stressed that euro-zone monetary policy has been implemented only since 1999 and that many of the issues surrounding the introduction of the euro are special. Still, the ECB Governing Council did successfully introduce the new currency after adopting price stability as a main objective. The Council stated that it would strive to maintain a euro-zone inflation rate “below but close to 2 percent over the medium term” [p. 175]. Issing, like Bernanke, felt that 2 percent was reasonable in part because “a sufficient safety margin against the risk of deflation” [p. 175] was needed. Issing also emphasized that inflation targeting approaches often call for the central bank to adjust its nominal interest rate target in response to an inflation forecast. He warned that actual forecasts may not summarize all factors important for price stability; in addition, the forecasting model may be misspecified, reflecting economists’ uncertainty about the true nature of the macroeconomy. Issing labeled these concerns “practical pitfalls” of inflation targeting [p. 172]. Kohn argued that adoption of inflation targeting might actually lead to worse economic performance relative to what has been achieved in the past two decades, stating that “the U.S. economy has benefited from the flexibility that the Federal Reserve has derived by eschewing a formal inflation target” [p. 180]. He questioned whether there was evidence that inflation targeting countries have actually witnessed benefits relative to non-inflation targeting countries. Like Issing, Kohn emphasized that there are many factors in actual policymaking that inflation targeting approaches may be ill-suited to handle. He concluded by stating that “those who propose changes from a good system have a high burden of proof. The marginal benefits [of changes] are not likely to be high [and may have] unintended consequences” [p. 183]. The panel discussion makes it clear that Bernanke was thinking mostly in terms of the merits of setting an explicit, numerical inflation target. He allowed the proviso that the Fed should make no commitment about a timetable to return inflation to this target, providing flexibility to policymakers to respond to special factors that may be influencing the economy. Issing and Kohn expressed little or only moderate concern with an explicit inflation target, but had more serious reservations about unwittingly placing constraints on policymakers, limiting their ability to manage the risks that naturally arise day to day. Thus, the core of the debate concerns whether adoption of inflation targeting would place important short-run constraints on policymakers and, if so, whether that is a good idea or not. The conference proceedings, including the panel discussion, are published in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, July/August 2004, 86(4). Understanding the Inflation Targeting Debate
The standard BRANSON model is modified in a way which allows one to focus on the short term dynamics of foreign bonds markets, the money market and the stock market - or alternatively the oil market. This allows us to explain the dynamics of the exchange rate and the oil price within a portfolio choice model; also we identify critical expectation dynamics in a more conventional pricing approach to the oil market - expectations determine whether or not the oil market equilibrium is compatible with a stationary price or with sustained oil price inflation. Moreover, a straightforward innovative way to combine a portfolio approach with a growth model is developed. New results are obtained  through multiplier analysis  about the long term effects of changes in the savings rate, the process innovation rate, the product innovation variable and the money supply on the exchange rate and the stock market price; this raises many empirical issues. Finally, the analysis presented sheds new light on the global asset price dynamics in the context of the banking crisis.
If conditions change after parties enter into a contract, one of them might want to be excused from performance, or at least have its obligations revised. AngloAmerican law provides the disadvantaged party with a number of defenses which would extinguish that party's obligations impossibility, frustration, impracticability, and mutual mistake. Although there are some technical distinctions between these, for analytical convenience I will hereafter lump them all together under the impossibility rubric. My purpose in this essay is to explore some problems that have arisen in determining the appropriate scope of the impossibility defense. The importance of the impossibility defense is circumscribed by the ability of the parties to contract around the law. If the law were too liberal in excusing performance, the parties could narrow the range of acceptable excuses by explicit contractual language. Conversely, if the law were too niggardly, the parties could enumerate additional circumstances that would justify discharge of the contractual obligations. If the law were badly out of line in either direction, the problems could be vitiated by proper drafting of force majeure clauses. Such clauses, which are very common, will suspend or disscharge a promisor's obligations for "acts of God". *
Community participation in conservation activities is an important mechanism to coordinate the conflicts between conservation and local development. Hence, it is necessary to understand farmers’ preferences for different conservation and development policies. By surveying households residing inside and outside the four giant panda nature reserves in the Qinling Mountains, China, in 2018, this study uses a choice experiment model to evaluate participation willingness and stated preferences regarding the establishment of national parks (NPs), ecotourism development, ecological public welfare forest compensation, and provision of ecological jobs. Our results suggest that these conservation and development policies all have a positive impact on community participation in conservation. Among the different conservation and development policies, farmers seem to prefer the government developing ecotourism most, followed by providing ecological jobs, establishing NPs, and finally the compensation amount and period of ecological public welfare forests. Moreover, farmers with different characteristics have different preferences regarding conservation and development policies. Age, education level, whether the respondent is a village cadre, family forestland area, family income, and whether the respondent lives in a nature reserve are relevant socio-economic characteristics of the affected farmers.
Prior research suggests that, when making economic decisions, investors focus on subsets of more salient information. We extend this research by examining variation in investor response to a salient feature in analyst forecasts. We focus on the roundness of analyst forecasts as a salient signal of imprecision. We examine whether: 1) investors notice rounding even though it is binary and has potentially limited information content, 2) investor reaction to rounding is affected by its repetition, and 3) investor reaction to rounding varies by investor type. We document a weaker market reaction to rounded compared to non-rounded forecasts, consistent with investors using rounding as an indicator of less precise forecasts. Investor response to rounding is more pronounced in the presence of multiple rounded forecasts, simultaneously disclosed in analyst reports, and is primarily attributed to less sophisticated investors. We also provide evidence on investors’ delayed assimilation of the information content in rounded forecasts subsequent to the forecast announcement date. Our results shed light on the scope of limited investor attention.
Conventional wisdom holds that parity has increased in college football in recent decades due largely to limits on the number of scholarships teams can offer. The authors find that competitive balance has not increased in college football since the end of World War II, and they find mixed evidence of scholarship limits' effect on a range of measures of parity, including the standard deviation of winning percentages and Associated Press rankings. They also examine the 1991 NCAA roll-call vote to reduce the scholarship limit and find some evidence that stronger teams were more likely to vote for the lower limit.
Both sides of plea are mutually wounded for "suing of the prohibited subsidies",but the existence of prohibited subsidies is necessary for the developing members and the existence is quite reasonably.So it is necessary that from national responsibility this angle of view,we reexamines "the forbidden area for subsidy" have had the vital significance for the developing members through prove the dynamic relations country responsibility and the national interest.The article points out the strategy the suits of prohibited subsidies what the developed members sues and causes developing members undertake the essence justly national responsibility.
This paper examines the extent and speed of exchange rate pass-through to inflation in countries of the proposed West African monetary zone. Using monthly data starting from 2000:01 - the year the monetary zone was proposed ¨C to 2011:12 and utilising impulse response and variance decomposition functions within a vector autoregressive framework, the paper finds that exchange rate dynamics have a direct impact on headline inflation in these countries. The results show varying degrees of the extent and speed of exchange rate pass-through to headline inflation that policy makers need to mindful of in the proposed monetary union. The extent of pass-through is highest in Ghana and lowest in Nigeria. Also, except for Ghana where pass-through persisted, it died down in 12 months in the other member countries. Variance decomposition shows that the relative importance of exchange rate dynamics in explaining domestic prices is higher for Guinea and Ghana and those prices are largely driven by their dynamics among members of the proposed monetary zone.
Motivation: The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of restrictions on both the demand and supply side over a period of time. The former results from an increase in the coinsurance rate for patients; the latter results from a hospital bed reduction by the government. The cost-sharing rule of Government-managed Health Insurance (GHI) changed in September 1997. At that time the coinsurance rate for its employees was raised from 10 to 20 percent; in April 2003 it was raised again, this time from 20 to 30 percent. The coinsurance rate of dependents has stayed the same (30 percent). Although countries with national health insurance typically rely on supply side constraints to keep expenditures under control, the effect of supply side restrictions could not be taken into account in previous studies. We employed econometric time series techniques to develop a vector autoregressive model in order to capture the shocks on both the demand and supply side. Methodology/Data: To calculate the total price of the demand from outpatients, we focused on GHI because the health insurance system has an invalidity benefit for insured persons. GHI includes workers employed by small and medium companies. An insurer of GHI is the national government. We use a first difference series in the number of general beds to capture the productivity shock. Assuming that the amount of capital is fixed in the short run, we constructed a four variable VAR model for the health sector. The amount of labor in the health sector and the number of general beds were obtained from "The Operational Index of the Third Industrial Sector" of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the "Census of Medical Care Institutions and Hospital Report" of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, respectively. The rate of doctors' consultations, the health care expenditure per case for outpatients and the effective rate of out-of-pocket payments were calculated from the "Annual Operational Report" of the Social Insurance Agency. Results: By using impulse response functions and a forecast error variance decomposition, we found that the rise in the intensity of treatments leads to an increase in the rate of doctors' consultations in the short run, although a price shock dominates the behavior of both patients and physicians at forecast horizons. A price shock accounts for about 70 percent of the forecast error variance of health care expenditures for outpatient per case after the first eight months. Conclusion: We conclude that the increase in the coinsurance rate of the patient had the effect of restraining health care expenditures but that a labor supply shock did not have a permanent effect on the patient. What caused the differences between the response to a price shock and the response to a labor supply shock? We guess that the supply side of the health sector may absorb the change that occurred in the demand side from the shocks.
This paper establishes an intertemporal consumption-smoothing model in an open economy and studies the dynamic relationship between current account,income and permanent income in China by employing Granger-test,ADF-test and cointegration-test.This result indicates that there exists a long-run cointegration between current account,income and permanent income.The increase of income can increase current account surplus and the increase of permanent income can decrease current account surplus.Finally,this paper makes some suggestion according to our model and the empirical results.
In this thesis, we applied local analysis tools (eigenvalue and eigenvalue elasticity analysis, global function elasticity/sensitivity analysis), and global analysis tools (deriving the location and stability of fixed points) to both aggregate and individuallevel dynamic models of infectious diseases. We sought to use these methods to gain insight into the models and to evaluate the use of these methods to study their short-term and long-term dynamics and the influences of parameters on the models. We found that eigenvalues are effective for understanding short-term behaviours of a nonlinear system, but less effective in providing insights of the long-term impacts of a parameter change on its behaviours. In term of disease control, local changes of behaviours, yielded from the changes of parameters based on eigenvalue elasticity, are able to alter behaviours in a short-term, especially in the period of a disease outbreak. While eigenvalue elasticity analysis can be helpful for understanding the impact of parameter changes for simple aggregate models, such analyses prove unwieldy and complicated, particularly for models with large number of state variables; and easily fall prey to eigenvalue multiplicity problems for large individual-based models, and distracting artifacts associated with small denominators. In response to these concerns, we introduced other local methods (global function elasticity/sensitivity analyses) that capture many of the advantages of eigenvalue elasticity methods with much greater simplicity. Unfortunately, parameter changes guided by these local analysis techniques are often insufficient to alter behaviours in the longer-term, such as when system behaviours approach stable endemic equilibria. By contrast, the global analytic tools, such as fixed point location and stability analysis, are effective for providing insights into the global behaviours of disease spread in the long-term, as well as their dependence on parameters. Using all of the above analysis as a toolset, we gained some possible insights into combination of local and global approaches. Choice of applying local or global analysis tools to infectious disease models is dependent on the specific target of policy makers as well as model type.
It is perceived that cross-listing domestic stocks in foreign exchanges have significant valuation effects on a cross listed company’s shares. The purpose of the study was to examine the role of cross listing on financial returns of KCB group, Kenya The study objectives were: to determine the effect of growth on financial returns of KCB group of companies, Transnzoia County. The study used a descriptive research survey design. The target population comprised employees KCB group of companies, Kenya. The target population comprised of 4 Regional Managers and 31 heads of department totaling to 35 respondents. A census sampling technique was employed in selecting the 35 respondents. The researcher used questionnaire as the main data collection method. The data was obtained through analysis from company’s annual reports, internet and NSE journals. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive methods and inferential statistics. Correlations was used to show the relationship between the independent variables. The regression model was used to compute the overall effect of the changes in the value of stock for the cross listed firm. H 01 There is no significant relationship between growth and on financial returns of KCB group of companies, Kenya The study rejected the hypothesis (β = 0.597, P = 0.000). On the major way growth of cross listed firm affected their financial returns, the study concluded that it was by penetrating bigger markets. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made; Companies that want to increase the performance of their companies should adopt cross listing in different stock exchange market since companies that are traded in different markets attract more investors from different markets increasing their shareholder base which is significant for a company since it ensures that the company has more than sufficient resources to invest and increase the performance of the organization. Companies should aim to attract the best employees from the different market segments that they operate in since this ensures that the performance of the companies is top notch since the company is able to attract talent and innovation from the different market segments improving the financial returns of the company. Keyword: Growth, Financial Performance
Purpose          Past research demonstrated that novel IT-based business models generate tremendous returns for innovators. However, the risks associated with these innovations remain under-explored. This paper aims to address this critical gap analyzing risks and offering important insights particularly for practitioners.          Design/methodology/approach          The authors adopted an exploratory multiple-case study research design. It draws on 22 semi-structured interviews with managers from leading energy utilities, as well as leading providers of virtual power plants technology within the German energy industry.          Findings          The research reveals that main risks in new digital business models in the energy sector are associated with three forms of interdependence between innovation actors: the regulatory, the technological and the collaborative. To deal with these interdependencies, the authors propose an original multi-step risk management framework. This framework considers the outreach as a critical dimension for risk assessment and offers a new risk response matrix to draw individual and collective mitigation activities for specific types of risks.          Practical implications          This paper offers a framework for the management of interdependence risks that are fundamental for business model innovations based on IT. Thus, it is applicable in companies both inside the energy sector and beyond.          Originality/value          This paper analyzes an important digital business model innovation that has not yet been explored in management literature – the virtual power plant (VPP). It is based on original and current empirical work and proposes a novel risk management framework for business organizations.
The book is a critical rethinking of the nature of the classical eastern Mediterranean exchange relations with the coasts of the Indian sub-continent. It examines in the light of the extant source material and theoretical insights whether the expression 'Indo - Roman trade' is tenable. The book characterizing the nature of contemporary exchanges in detail, maintains that the expression, 'Indo-Roman trade' is inappropriate. It starts off with the theoretical premise that the term 'trade' if applies uniformly to all kinds of transactions in time and place, will lead to many anachronistic correlations, causations and generalisations about the nature of early forms of exchange. An important factor is that contemporary Mediterranean exchange of goods from the eastern world was a combination of multiple forms of exchange in which trade was just one and confined to Rome. The management of this ensemble was a heavily collaborative, extensively networked, document based, enterprise, with precise notions of weights, measures, rates of rent, interest, price and profit accounted in terms of money. It had necessitated a stratified society, aristocracy, state system and the entailing political economy of demand for luxury goods from far off lands. The book dismisses the claims in the South Indian historiography for the early historic Tamil Chieftains to have conducted overseas commerce, on the ground that such institutional and structural pre-requisites were absent in the social formations of contemporary Peninsular India. It was not possible for the merchant bodies to conduct independent overseas trade for there was no naval technology in the sub-continent efficient enough to conduct cross-oceanic voyages. There was no need for it either. Available in OSO:
The United States faces two key energy challenges — improving national security by reducing dependence on foreign oil and mitigating the impacts of climate change by reducing carbon emissions. Closely linked is another challenge – as well as an opportunity – boosting international economic competitiveness by discovering and widely commercializing clean energy technologies. Until now, the predominant approach to these challenges was to raise the cost of carbon, either with a tax or through cap and trade. But this approach has come under strong resistance in part because raising the price of energy hurts U.S. industrial competitiveness. This was one reason for the failure of cap and trade.
Anti-monopoly law is a legal system that opposes monopolies and protects competition in the market. The original meaning of ‘monopoly’ is for one business entity to control an entire market. However, because actions that restrict competition can lead to the monopolization of markets, some countries, such as Germany, also refer to ‘anti-monopoly law’ as the ‘law against restrictive competition’. Therefore, the term ‘monopoly’ has been broadened to include various acts that restrict competition. In the United States, anti-monopoly law is called ‘antitrust law’ because the establishment of large trusts can stifle competition, leading to market monopoly structures. Anti-monopoly law is a basic legal foundation for a national market economy system. Following China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), China should follow the basic WTO rules, learn from the experiences of other nations while taking into consideration China’s unique circumstances, and strive to establish and improve its socialist market economy legal system as soon as possible. Among these, quickly establishing and improving the legal framework for China’s Anti-Monopoly Law is of particular importance and urgency.
Abstract A growing literature has argued that electoral turnout decreases the more government policy constrained by economic and institutional factors. This paper investigates whether a certain type of policy constraint, fiscal rules, lowers turnout. Since fiscal rules set limits for government fiscal policy, they should lower the incentive for citizens to participate electorally. However, using parliamentary turnout data in a large panel of democratic countries, little robust evidence is found in favor of fiscal rules having a depressing effect on electoral turnout. Analysis of European individual-level data also suggests that national fiscal rules do not affect inequality in electoral turnout between income groups either. Difference-in-discontinuity evidence from Italian municipalities further suggests that the results are causally identified.
Fictitious capital is different from tangible capital in both operational character and movement trails.Along with the increase of the extent of fiction,its values are quite different from the inner values of tangible capital which it represents,but mainly depends on exchanges in the stock market,and depends on the expectations and confidences of investors.Fictitious capital exists in the shape of bubbles.The nature of economic bubbles is the over inflation of fictitious values,and economic bubbles have various kinds of effect on the economy.
This paper emphasizes on the aftereffects of china corporations' season equity issues,and surveys the reasons and the mechanism of China corporations' SEI in an irrational market.It concludes that the negative announcement effects(exist,) and they are quite different in different kinds of issues and in different markets(hot and cold).And it also finds that the long-term market performances become worse due to the investors' evaluations before issuing and other factors.When the stock is over-valued,equity issue is preferred.If information cost doesn't dominate,it is possible that the corporate will over-invest or abuse capital after issues,and therefore,the long-term returns move oppositely to evaluations.This relationship is more significant in hot market.
For the purpose of determining the influence of the amount of savings circulating in national economy on that economy's growth or drop, a discrete mathematical model with one commodity was developed describing its production as a function of joint investments, depreciation, and introduction of technical novelties, and its consumption as a function of current production discounted by the amount of savings repouring into the next phase of commodity's production.
1. INTRODUCTION Historically, Argentina has been among the world leaders in the production and/or export of agricultural products. The main reason for this is that it is a country relatively sparsely populated but richly endowed with natural resources for production agriculture. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (FAOSTAT database), in 2006 Argentina accounted for only 0.59% of the world's population, but for a much higher 2.10% of the world's total land area. Furthermore, Argentina's shares of the world's arable land and the planet's area with permanent meadows and pastures were even higher, at 2.23% and 2.96%, respectively. As shown in Table 14.1, Argentina produced 8.4% of world agricultural output and accounted for 2.9% of world agricultural trade over the period 2005-07. Such fi gures make Argentina the eighth-largest producer and the twelfth largest exporter of agricultural commodities in the world. Argentina's much smaller share of world exports (2.9%) compared to its share of world output (8.4%) is largely explained by the fact that Argentina tends to export commodities with relatively low value-added levels. Commodities for which the country is particularly relevant in world markets are soybeans and its associated products, soybean oil and soybean meal. Argentina is the top exporter of soybean oil and soybean
This paper assesses the extent to which threshold firms have emerged within British Columbia's wood processing industries. Threshold firms comprise an innovative business segment and are growth oriented, larger than most small firms but not giant, locally owned, international in scope at least with respect to exporting, reliant on skilled, well paid employees, and that have developed knowledgeâ€ based product market advantages. The analysis draws on an extended case study survey of 14 firms located in the lower mainland and Okanagan regions of British Columbia, and selected for their potential as threshold firms. The analysis examines six characteristics associated with threshold firms: size and ownership, internationalization, wood supply, labor relations, innovative design and collaboration, and local embeddedness. These firms reveal attributes of threshold firms, and the paper concludes by suggesting that an innovative forest policy for British Columbia could usefully focus on this type of firm.
This article looks at the empirical consequences of introducing endogenous capital depreciation in the standard neoclassical model with quadratic adjustment costs. To this end, we formulate an empirical specification that accommodates capital maintenance and utilization in the Euler equations for aggregate investment. The empirical estimates with data from the Canadian Survey on Capital and Repair Expenditures show that, in contrast to the existing literature, the performance of the Euler equations is improved when we account for the impact of variable capital depreciation.
Although a large theoretical literature discusses the possible inefficiency of sharecropping contracts, empirical evidence on this phenomenon has been ambiguous at best. Household‐level fixed‐effect estimates from about 8,500 plots operated by households that own and sharecrop land in the Ethiopian highlands provide support for the hypothesis of Marshallian inefficiency. At the same time, a factor adjustment model suggests that the extent to which rental markets allow households to attain their desired operational holding size is limited. Our analysis points toward factor market imperfections (no rental for oxen), lack of alternative employment opportunities, and tenure insecurity as possible reasons underlying such an outcome. They suggest that, rather than worrying only about Marshallian inefficiency, attention to the broader environment and policy framework within which producers can adjust to their optimum operational area will be warranted.
According to the unemployment problem in the world now planners are looking for ways to reduce this problem to some extent. Entrepreneurship is one of the main strategies. Entrepreneurship as a new phenomenon in the economy has an important role in the economic development of countries. For a dynamic and successful economy, it can provide need mechanisms according to environmental relative advantages and limitations because will crystallize flourishing the more entrepreneurs as the driving force of the economy. In this regard, the importance of rural development and it had critical role in advancing countries and especially developing. Due to the development of women's share in the national economy and coping with unemployment crisis of women is essential that by creating a business and job opportunities for themselves and others can relieve the current problem in society. Since rural women entrepreneurship will increase family income, it would be affect in term of a lot of aspects (such as reducing the gap between urban and rural households, saving production costs, improvement in education and family health, household finance as head ( supervisor) and reduce migration to urban areas) in living rural and eventually the entire community. Development of organizational and institutional capacity and hold training courses and learning and supporting government can be the fundamental of rural women entrepreneurship development. Women entrepreneurs in the country should have freedom of action to be able to try their desired activities.
This work is a a first serious attempt to analyse working of virtual markets using tools of rigorous economic analysis. On case study of World of Warcraft game it first introduces the reader to basics of Virtual Economies. It starts by examining price formation of virtual goods, which is traced back not only to the mechanics of game, but also to gold farmers - considerable number of (usually) Chinese players, who make their living through sale of virtual items and currencies. Second part then analyses development of RMT markets where farmers sell virtual currencies for real cash. Finally author examines inflation of virtual currencies finding its key drivers inside of the game, but surprisingly also in EUR-CNY and USD-CNY exchange rates. The part concludes with statistical evidence confirming popular opinion that Blizzard (virtual currency issuer) is the main cause of Inflation in World of Warcraft. Last two theoretical parts of the book are devoted to microeconomic analysis of virtual currency issuer and user. These two naturally result into description of environment with multiple currencies, challenging traditional Kyotaki & Wright stability framework.
Liberalization of the Indian economy (in 1991) and many other economies contemporarily made the survival of isolated economies out of question. With the opening up of economic barriers, better governance practices flowed from good governed to relatively badly governed countries. Now, with increased industrialization and opening up of economies for trade and commerce, political boundaries of nations have been transgressed by businesses. However, this opportunity of making money abroad may also bring some inconvenience to the parent company as it might suffer losses or receive eroded profits when the foreign currency is converted to the local currency at prevailing rates (Pandey, 2010). There may be several other examples like this in real and hypothetical scenarios, and these need to be addressed with prudence. This topic does the same as it calls for attention towards these risks and precautions/remedies available for the same. Apart from the MNCs, there are people who enter into the currency markets for speculative gains. These traders do not require these foreign currencies, but they buy/sell them for making profits from the existing market situations. The proportion of these traders is much larger than those who need foreign currency to make payments, give wages, and so forth. The present paper intends to provide an econometric model for the traders in the currency market which could, up to a reasonable extent, anticipate the fluctuations in major globally transacted currency pairs. This would be handy for the traders and for large businesses running overseas (which have to deal in different currency regions) as they can accordingly decide whether to invest in a particular currency or not.
Human Development Index (HDI) is a country-level measure of social welfare based on national values for average life expectancy, rates of adult literacy and school enrollment, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Since HDI is based entirely on national averages it can provide only limited information about distribution within countries. The distribution of access to key resources is an important determinant of the effect of health, education and income on both individual well-being and on the aggregate well-being of a population as a whole. This paper makes a case for the importance of inequality to measuring social welfare; presents an original alternative to HDI that includes the distribution of health, education, and income in each country; and reports the results of this inequality-adjusted HDI for 46 countries.
In the paper, the authors present open government expert monitoring and evaluation methodology designed according to the international experience in open government adoption. The methodology comprises and logically explains the relationship among open government principles, mechanisms, evaluation criteria and indicators. The methodology is tested by example of Russian federal public agencies. The authors use monitoring and evaluation results to formulate universal factors impeding effective adoption of open government principles and mechanisms worldwide. Among mechanisms of open government the authors consider reference groups, open data, social networks and citizens' requests. Finally, the authors discuss further research directions enabling effective adoption of openness by governments in future.
The aim of this study is to evaluate current policies and suggest the way of overcome financial impediments to the energy efficiency function of residential buildings. Based on this analysis the paper enumerates policy recommendations for enhancing how energy efficiency is addressed in building codes and other policies for residential buildings. For achieving this goal, this study conducts the cost-benefit analysis to measure total energy savings and associated total cost. The results of study shows that the cost is greater than the benefit from 1st to 4th year but the benefit will be greater than the cost for the rest of the year. In addition, this study designs a financial support method and an implementation mechanism. Investment from the capital market will take place with the government"s interest subsidy. Home retrofit will be undertaken with low interest rate with 2.5% and the return will be paid by a monthly energy bill. The results of this study provides some useful insights for the policy design, including the importance of developing information tools for providing appropriate information to households.
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) in Malaysia. This research considers monthly data of consumer price index and producer price index from January 1986 to April 2007. The Johansen cointegration method suggests that there is long-run equilibrium relationship between these two variables. Both Engle Granger and Toda-Yamamoto causality tests find that there is uni-directional causality running from PPI to CPI.
A number of recent papers have explored monetary policy options, including inflation targeting and inflation forecast targeting (notably Svensson (1999a, 1999b, 2000)) and price level targeting (Wolman 2000, Batini and Yates 1999, Blinder 1999). Most papers explore "optimal" monetary policy in the context of a single model. However, a number of conclusions made in the literature depend strongly on the model specification used. In addition, most papers have used the efficient policy frontier concept to define optimal monetary policy. This paper investigates the behavior of a variety of small structural macro models under a variety of targeting rules. The paper examines both minimum variance policy frontiers and utility-maximizing policy. In the latter case, an explicit model of consumer behavior with inflation-induced tax distortions is explored. The paper examines the improvement in utility from an optimal price-level target and re-examines the improvement in utility in moving from a positive to a zero target inflation rate. This paper is a revised version of Working Paper 00-5,"Optimal Monetary Policy in a Model with Habit Formation."
Increasing the area under irrigation and the widespread adoption of seed-fertilizer technology were the major factors that contributed to enhanced rice production in Sri Lanka, enabling the country to achieve self-sufficiency in rice. In recent years, there has been a shift in emphasis from expanding the irrigated land base to enhancing the productivity of irrigated land through diversification of agriculture and improvement of rice production, with better water management in irrigation schemes. This report attempts to assess how the irrigation sector in Sri Lanka is adapting itself to these new challenges. It analyzes the future direction of irrigation in Sri Lanka in light of recent trends in public and private investment in this sphere, and the revolution in groundwater development brought about by the poor performance and gradual deterioration of existing irrigation schemes.
Russian Abstract: Анализ практики регулирования ценовой дискриминации показывает, что в большинстве случаев решения антимонопольных органов оспариваются в суде и в более чем 50% случаев отменяются. Кроме того, с 2009 по 2013 год в арбитражных судах различных инстанций было рассмотрено 227 дел о нарушении антимонопольного законодательства по подпункту 6 пункта 1 статьи 10 Закона о защите конкуренции № 135, что говорит о высокой нагрузке на судебную систему и антимонопольные органы при регулировании ценовой дискриминации.В результате применения предложенных методов для оценки показателей ценовой дискриминации предлагается сформировать практику формирования цен на сырьевые товары в условиях олигополии с целью формирования верхней границы цены, что позволит снизить ценовую дифференциацию между покупателями, не соответствующую затратам на осуществление продаж.Также с целью снижения возможностей осуществления ценовой дискриминации предлагаются подходы к совершенствованию практики осуществления биржевых торгов на рынках сырьевых товаров.English Abstract: Analysis of the regulatory practice of price discrimination shows that in most cases the decision of antitrust authorities challenged in court and in more than 50% of cases are canceled. In addition, from 2009 to 2013 in the arbitration courts of various levels was considered 227 cases of violation of the antimonopoly legislation on sub 6 paragraph 1 of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition number 135, indicating a high load on the judicial system and anti-monopoly authorities in the regulation of price discrimination.As a result of the proposed methods for the assessment of indicators proposed form of price discrimination practices of formation of commodity prices under oligopoly to form the upper limit of the price, which will reduce the price differentiation between buyers and not the associated costs for the implementation of sales.Also, to reduce the capacity to implement price discrimination suggests approaches to improve the practices of the exchange trading in commodity markets.
IntroductionIntercollegiate athletics have brought increased exposure and recognition to colleges and universities since they were first established in the early nineteenth century. Even though the model has evolved over the years, athletics programs are still a very important tool for marketing and publicizing the institutions as a whole (Suggs, 2003). Schools must have an established fan base both on a local and national level in order to keep revenue sources intact and stadiums filled. Revenue generating sports such as football are relied upon most to execute this campaign. Administrators involved in all aspects of external relations from admissions to community affairs often use football programs and their games to orchestrate involvement that will translate into direct support for the university (Toma, 2003, p. 142).College football has enjoyed unprecedented growth in recent years despite a plethora of other concerns at many public and private universities. In five of the past six years, attendance records have been set at contests across the nation. The number of fans attending football games at the 638 NCAA schools in 2011 reached an all-time high of 49,699,419 (National Football Foundation, 2012). The total figure represents an increase of 28,524 from the 2010 season and an increase of more than 12.2 million fans (32%) since 1998 (National Football Foundation). This swell in attendance has come despite rising ticket prices across the country. The richest tickets during the 2011 season for the top games were valued at greater than $500 a piece according to secondary markets (Rovell, 2011). Furthermore, fans of college football are regularly subject to required donations to the athletic development department in order to be granted the right to purchase tickets in the first place.At the FBS level in 2011, the average profit for each football team was in excess of $1 mission each game, with the University of Texas program leading the way in both revenue ($96 million) and profit ($71 million) during the season (Smith, 2012). In addition, football teams can help to sustain the athletic program through lucrative media packages in place with the BCS, both at the conference an institutional levels. Deals such as the Pac-12's landmark $2.7 billion broadcast agreement with ESPN represent millions of dollars annually in newfound revenue for conferences and schools (Horrow & Swatek, 2011). The high television ratings in large part have justified these newfound deals. More than 213 million people watched a regular season college football game last season along with another 127 million who viewed the 35 post-season bowl match-ups (National Football Foundation, 2012).While the newly signed television deals are a benefit, they do not come without a cost to athletic departments. Nearly every college football game involving FBS institutions is now televised or available live on the Internet. With this being the case, many fans now have the choice to stay at home and watch games on their high-definition televisions with surround sound systems. This has become a more desirable option due to the fact that the experience has become so much better and it's more cost efficient than attending the game at the stadium. In response, athletic departments must find a way to respond to these challenges if they want to be financially sustainable in future years. There is no bigger, more prominent venue for schools to confront the current issues than at college football games. Therefore, it is logical to assume that all of the constituents with a vested interest in these contests can benefit from better understanding the factors that influence attendance at collegiate football games.Literature ReviewTo help frame the research, a conceptual framework was developed with the inclusion of an economic choice theory to help better understand consumer behavior. In addition, previous spectator motivation studies were examined to determine some of the reasons why consumers choose to attend sporting events. …
This study investigates the impact of foreign exchange market intervention and shilling in Tanzania. The study aspires to develop a deeper understanding of foreign exchange intervention in the country. Literatures suggest that central banks intervene in the foreign exchange market for several reasons, including calming disorderly markets, correct misalignments, and accumulating reserves. But literatures a one thing and market disorder another thing all together. The recently Bank of Tanzania intervention and shilling fluctuations has led to renewed interest in how central banks should intervene to maximize it efficacy. This paper sheds light on a number of operational aspects of intervention. For this purpose, economic technique OLS, cointegration test, and Error Correction Mechanism was applied to time series. To gauge impact of intervention, Error Correction Term was applied. The study selected weekly Interbank Foreign Exchange Market and foreign exchange inflows data from 2006q1 to 2012q1. It also presents evidence on intervention practices based on the outcome of the results. The results shows that BoT intervention play little role to correct exchange rates levels and at short term are increasing fluctuation while no proof was registered that commercial banks sales have either positive nor negative impact on the market. The empirical results of this study raise a number of policy issues, because Tanzania is a net import-economy, therefore, the central bank has to strike a balance between the exchange rates that will not discouraging exports but at the same time controlling prices up spiral, which are the results of imports because of shilling depreciations. Since, higher inflation has spiral effects, be it economically or politically.
The coordinate of political centralization and economic decentralization is the key feature of Chinese style decentralization.Chinese reform is always focused on two issues in the system of political centralization.One is how to distribute fiscal revenue between central government and local government.The other is how to simulate the local government to promote economic growth.Although the division of fiscal revenue is relatively clear,the responsibility of fiscal expenditure is not divided officially after the reform of tax-sharing.Accordingly there are some remarkable points of local government expenditure.The paper analyses the characteristic of local government′s expenditure and the risks which cause the long run economic growth.In the end,the respective policy that should be taken is raised.
In the paper, we test the effect of local development, regional and local policies on the location decisions and productivity of firms. Development indicators include local research and development activity or education while policy decisions used in this study encompass for example tax rates, investment incentives or road construction. The study builds upon a large national panel of firms. Importantly, such a rich dataset has rarely been employed for productivity and location choice exercises. The paper is composed of two sections dealing with location choice and productivity, respectively and we compare the effect of variables used in both sections. Among others, we find that density of road network positively influenced location choice and productivity as well, while a somewhat larger size of administration helps new firms to settle but later on, it has no effect on productivity.
We consider the role that seller motivation plays in determining selling time, list price and sale price. A new survey of home sellers suggests that sellers are heterogeneous in their motivation to sell. Our findings are that a seller who, at the time of listing, has a planned date to move sells more quickly than one who does not. Also, the shorter the planned time until a move at the time of listing, the shorter the actual duration of marketing time. We find that seller motivation affects sale price, but not the list-price markup. Our results suggest that theoretical models of the housing search process should be recast to allow for heterogeneous sellers. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
This article details the planning/implementation, and assessment of a worldwide electronics packaging take-back system by a key supply chain partner. The take-back system was a financial and environmental tradeoff between reducing cardboard packaging against increased use of ground and water transportation. Through Internetenabled life cycle analysis, the new system was shown to significantly reduce waste as well as energy and environmental impacts. If such methods were introduced more formally in the electronics industry, $150 million as well as billions of pounds of waste could be saved per year.
This paper develops a simple cost model for bus operators that enables the estimation of short-, medium-, and long-run marginal costs. The relationship between these marginal costs and trip lengths are examined. The model is estimated with cross sectional data from 138 bus companies in Norway. The Norwegian bus fare system is compared with the model's results. Assuming that bus fares should be set in line with marginal costs, ordinary bus fares are found to be too high for short distance trips and too low for long distance trips, while the discounted fares are too high for all trips.
The traditional operations management and queueing literature typically assumes that customers are fully rational. In contrast, in this paper we study canonical service models with boundedly rational customers. We capture bounded rationality using a model in which customers are incapable of accurately estimating their expected waiting time. We investigate the impact of bounded rationality from both a profit-maximizing firm's perspective and a social planner's perspective. For visible queues with the optimal price, bounded rationality results in revenue and welfare loss; with a fixed price, bounded rationality can lead to strict social welfare improvement. For invisible queues, bounded rationality benefits the firm when its level is sufficiently high. Ignoring bounded rationality, when present yet small, can result in significant revenue and welfare loss.
After the failure of the Phillips curve to explain the simultaneous ocurrence of rising inflation  and unemployment, the classical approach to the  theory of unemployment and inflation reemerged (see Friedman 1968; Phelps 1967, 1968). Milton Friedman (1968) defined the natural rate of unemployment as the level that would be ground out by the Walrasian system of general equilibrium equations, provided there is imbedded in them the actual structural characteristics of the labor and commodity markets, including market imperfections, stochastic variability in demand and supplies, the cost of gathering information about job vacancies and labor avialabilities, the cost of mobility, and so on.
SUMMARY If serious problems of business ethics plague and continue to plague the way business is conducted within Russia, the internationalization of Russian companies puts forward the problem of what business culture they bring along and what impact it may have on the recipient country. This article focuses on the case of Lukoil investments and operations in Bulgaria. It describes the main factors forming the contemporary Russian business culture and highlights the negative features that could be feared from the point of view of the country receiving Russian investments. Later the paper tries to analyze the operations of Lukoil in Bulgaria and investigate if there is reason to suspect a negative business culture spillover.
This paper analyses the monetary policy reaction function pre and post the recent global financial  crisis in South Africa. This is achieved by comparing the reaction function of the the monetary policy  interest rate to changes in the target variables that comprise the inflation rate, output gap and financial  stress index pre and post the recent global financial crisis. The results show a negligible reaction of the  monetary policy to changes in inflation in the pre and post the recent global financial crisis period. The  results further show a relatively loose monetary policy stance during the financially stressful economic  conditions in the pre and post the recent global financial crisis period. Most importantly, the results  show that the reaction of monetary policy to changes in the target variables pre the recent global  financial crisis period has not changed significantly compared to post the recent global financial crisis  period. Therefore the paper concludes that there is no material difference in the conduct of monetary  policy by the monetary authority in South Africa pre and post the recent global financial crisis.
Abstract It is often argued that Richard Nelson and Sydney Winter’s evolutionary theory is an alternative to neoclassical economics and is compatible with or complementary to Veblenian evolutionary economics. This article subjects such arguments to critical examination. I argue that while Nelson and Winter’s theory provides a more realistic account of the firm behavior than Marshallian-neoclassical theory does, it is a neoclassical evolutionary theory in much the same sense as Marshall’s economics is quasi-evolutionary, “neo-classical” economics according to Veblen. Therefore, Nelson and Winter’s evolutionary theory is in fact a protective modification of neoclassical economics and is antithetical to Veblen’s evolutionary economics.
In Germany, inequality of net equivalized income increased noticeably in the first half of the new millennium. We aim to identify the main drivers of this rise in income inequality since the early 1990s. We provide a broad overview of the circumstances under which inequality evolved, i.e. which changes in the German economy are most likely to provide an explanation for changes in income concentration. To explain the development of the distribution of net equivalized income we analyze changes in the distribution of market income as well as shifts in the effectiveness of public redistribution mechanisms. We find that cyclical and structural changes in the labor market, the increasing relevance of capital income as well as the decreasing effectiveness of the public mechanisms of income redistribution are the main explanatory factors for the development of income inequality. In addition to this, we discuss several issues that are of high relevance for the distribution of economic resources but are not directly covered in the analysis of net equivalized income. Most significantly, the design of the tax and social security contributions burden as well as the rising relevance of value-added taxes have exhibited negative redistributive effects for low income households.
We assess the impact of the quality of public institutions on economic growth during the period 1995-2013 in the Arab and Middle Eastern (AME) countries. We use a sample of 99 countries, of which 17 AME countries, and employ a dynamic panel approach that controls for unobserved heterogeneity, common shocks affecting the sample countries, and accounts for the endogeneity of the regressors. From a global standpoint, the impact of institutions on growth seems to be depending on the development level. From a regional perspective, the effect of institutions on economic outcome in the AME countries is found positive but insignificant. The prevalence of extractive industries could explain the insignificant effect of institutions on economic performance in some AME countries. In others, the insignificant result is likely to reflect shortages in technological readiness and inefficient resource-allocation policies
In this note, we discuss the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak from the perspective of the market-structure. We observe that the US market-structure has dramatically changed during the past four weeks and that the level of change has followed the number of infected cases reported in the USA. Presently, market-structure resembles most closely the structure during the middle of the 2008 crisis but there are signs that it may be starting to evolve into a new structure altogether. This is the first article of a series where we will be analyzing and discussing market-structure as it evolves to a state of further instability or, more optimistically, stabilization and recovery.
Abstract  Gaines and Taagepera [(2013) How to operationalize two-partyness. Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties, 23(4), pp. 387–404] propose two indices of two-party competition for district-level data, both of which are alleged to be flawed. The case against them rests mainly on whether or not elections with one dominant party should be regarded as exhibiting one- or two-way competition. For those inclined to see 90–10% and 50–50% outcomes are different in kind, our indices can provide better measures than the popular effective number of parties or the “gap”. We agree that assessment of a set of outcomes, in a given election or over time, requires careful attention to the important distinction between micro-level data and aggregate measures.
ABSTRACT A statistical measure of the containment of Covid-19 is proposed to describe seven possible outcomes ranging from the worst outcome of ‘beyond control’ and the best outcome of ‘under control with rapid progress towards zero infections’. This measure is used to examine the performance of 10 countries with emphasis on the role of government-imposed measures of social distancing (lockdown, etc.). The results show that social distancing is effective, even though it is difficult to separate the effect of government measures from that of social distancing triggered by personal initiatives. The experience of Sweden shows that social distancing as a personal initiative is inadequate for the purpose of containing the virus. The experience of Brazil shows that taking the virus lightly brings about serious consequences.
Malaysia has experienced tremendous economic transformation from agriculture based to a manufacturing based. Such development has spillover effect on the livelihood of rural household by engaging in the off-farm income activities. However, there have been income inequalities between both Coasts because most of the industrial parks are located in the West Coast. This study aims to examine patterns and determinants of household expenditure in four paddy farming areas. The results indicate that on average the household expenditure in east coast is lower compare to the West Coast. The expenditure function indicates that off-farm income and number of family members are the major determinants.
The E3ME-FTT model is applied to assess the impacts of alternative climate club structures. We consider two kinds of climate club memberships: the World Climate Club (WCC), where every country in the world joins the club, and the Core Climate Club (CCC), with seven likely club members: EU[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]5, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Australia. First, we find that both the WCC and domestic revenue-neutral recycling matter a lot. The global CO2 emissions in 2050 could be reduced by 50% from BAU under the WCC. With domestic revenue-neutral recycling, there will be large positive impacts on GDP under both the WCC and the CCC. Secondly, the negative effects of trade sanctions on cumulative global GDP and global CO2 emissions make it unwelcome to be used as part of the club design. Lastly, the introduction of international transfers will result in a win–win solution that will not only increase the cumulative global GDP and reduce global CO2 emissions but also enhance the equality among club members and induce more likely participation in the climate club.
We propose a randomised version of the Heston model -- a widely used stochastic volatility model in mathematical finance -- assuming that the starting point of the variance process is a random variable. In such a system, we study the small- and large-time behaviours of the implied volatility, and show that the proposed randomisation generates a short-maturity smile much steeper ('with explosion') than in the standard Heston model, thereby palliating the deficiency of classical stochastic volatility models in short time. We precisely quantify the speed of explosion of the smile for short maturities in terms of the right tail of the initial distribution, and in particular show that an explosion rate of t^r (r in [0,1/2]) for the squared implied volatility -- as observed on market data -- can be obtained by a suitable choice of randomisation. The proofs are based on large deviations techniques and the theory of regular variations.
An analysis on sex difference in unemployment duration of graduates is made,using survival model and oaxaca decomposition.Which shows that a notable sex difference exists in unemployment duration of graduates.Female graduates' unemployment period is longer than that of male.Major reasons behind this include:female graduates' individual human capital and their personal characteristics have no evident positive impact on their employment and there is severe sexual discrimination on labor market.
In this paper we propose a serious game for experience of music performance, which allows users to readily enjoy musical playing, even if the player has little or no experience in playing musical instruments. This game makes it easier for users to correctly perform given melodies along with standard performance, using a score-adjusting algorithm that can cope with the particular errors commonly made by beginners. This music performance is achieved by the agent to interpret the gestural sign of the user. We understands the interaction of the user and the agent as a communication model from the Peircean Semiotic perspectives.
Digital products such as software, music, movie, book, and picture are vulnerable against  digital piracy. The losses caused by digital products piracy keep increasing over years in  Indonesia. Long histories of intellectual property protection are unable to suppress piracy  behavior. Several studies have been done to find factors that affect consumer intention to  pirate digital products. However, study about intention to commit digital piracy in  Indonesia is limited. Therefore, this study tries to examine consumer intention to pirate  digital products.  This study use adapted survey questionnaire with 218 university students as the  sample. Ten research hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses. The  results are three out of ten hypotheses were rejected, while one hypothesis could not be  examined due to reliability problem. Attitude toward digital piracy shows significant and  positive impact toward intention to commit digital piracy, while moral obligation has  significant and negative impact toward intention to commit digital piracy. Two variables  of TPB (subjective norms and perceived behavioral control) were found to have  insignificant impacts on intention to commit digital products piracy.
More than half a century ago, Delay and colleagues have discovered, quite accidentally, that antihistamine (chlorpromazine) relieves psychotic symptoms. This discovery prompted further investigation through a series of performed experiments aimed to elucidate the antipsychotic mechanism of action. Initial results have shown that antipsychotic drugs in experimental animals lead to "neuroleptic effect" (indifference). However, not until the end of 1960s, it becomes clear that all previously known antipsychotics block dopamine receptors, particularly postsynaptic D2 receptors. The next three decades marked the development and application of these so-called classic neuroleptics in the treatment of psychotic patients. During the nineteen nineties, as a result of ongoing efforts to achieve greater efficiency and reduce the scope of side effects, novel antipsychotics were synthesized (second generation antipsychotics--SGA). As a result the notion of serotonin-dopamine antagonist (SDA) was formulated. According to one of the hypothesis, "new", so called atypical antipsychotic drugs strongly block the serotonin (5-HT2), and weakly block the dopamine (D2) receptors. Yet, there is still a debate as to the molecular basis of atypicality, whether it is in dopaminergic and serotonergic antagonism of neurotransmission or it lays exclusively in the modulation of dopaminergic system and dissociation rate at the level of D2 receptors in specific brain regions. Although the synthesis and use of antipsychotics in clinical practice have radically changed not only the basic approach to the patient, but also the quality of life of millions of people, the question remains whether this is just "old wine in new glasses".
Provides an overview of the research undertaken through the EU Leonardo EUROPROF project. Describes the aims of the project and outlines the methodologies undertaken in the work. Surveys the development of vocational education and training (VET) in Europe over the past two decades in relation to changing forms of work organization and the development of the economies of Europe. First looks at the changing role of VET, second examines the corresponding changes in the roles and occupational profiles of vocational teachers and trainers drawing on empirical studies undertaken by researchers in different countries as part of the EUROPROF project. Finally proposes a new framework for the education of VET professionals in response to the changing roles and responsibilities.
Traditional studies on agrammatism have not made fully clear the nature of language disturbance in the deficit; they have characterized it simply as the tendency to lose grammatical elements. A recent international project aiming at a large-scale comparative study on agrammatism has provided detailed observations of the deficit in Japanese. This paper reports some of the major findings. Recently, several important attempts have been made to explore hypotheses that might account for the general character of agrammatism. This paper critically discusses two of such attempts, Kean's and Grozinsky's hypotheses, bringing them to bear on the major findings from Japanese agrammatism. Finally, it discusses what seems to be the most promising hypothesis among them, Menn's hypothesis based on the notion of word.
VALUES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ANAEROBICS IN FOOTBALLERS I N DIFFERENT LEVELS OF COMPETITIONS The objectives of this work were to assess and compare the responses of physiological variables in anaerobic lactic and no lactic in footballers of different categories. There were 21 volunteers footballers from this study who acted in the second division of Sao Paulo state championship in 2006, they are 22.08 years old ± 8.28 years; bodyweight of 76.12 ± 9.8 kg; stature of 179.04 ± 7.02 cm and 12.21 ± 3.67% of body fat, and 16 players of the infant-juvenile category (Ginf) who are 14.9 ± 0.6 years; weight body of 57.8 ± 6.2 kg, height of 172.1 ± 7.1 cm and 13.0 ± 2.5% of body fat. The professionals were divided into two groups as follows; a group of attackers and backs (Ga-z = 9) and the group of lateral and middle field, (Gl-mc n = 12). The athletes were evaluated anthropometrically and submitted to two separate evaluations among themselves for a period of three days, composed of vertical jump tests ( "Ergo Jump", Lasa Technology), "squat jump” (SJ) and “countermovement jump"(CMJ ), and test of "Wingate" (TW) in cycle (BIOTEC 2100, CEFISE) for determining the peak power (PP), average power (PM) index and fatigue (IF). The comparison between the results was conducted by the “Test T of Student” and the "ANOVA ", and the correlations were determined by the correlation coefficient," Pearson and Spearman ", and were adopted the significance level of p ≤ 0.05. The results in CMJ were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.02) than the results achieved in SJ for Ga-z, Gl-mc and Ginf. There were no significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) between Ga-z and G1mc for SJ and the CMJ. For SJ led it had significant differences (p ≤ 0.01) between G1-mc and Ginf and the CMJ between Ga-z and Ginf (p ≤ 0.05), and between Gl-mc and Ginf (p ≤ 0.01). In TW both the PP and the PM showed significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) among professionals (Ga-z, Gl-mc) and Ginf. There were some significant (p ≤ 0.05) among professionals (Ga-z, Gl-mc) and Ginf. It was determined significant correlations (p ≤ 0.05: to Ga-z between CMJ and PP (r = 0.71); for Gl-mc between SJ and PP (r = 0.74) between CMJ and PP (r = 0.71), and for Ginf between SJ and PP (r = 0.54) between SJ and PM (r = 0.63). Despite the limitations, we concluded that the two protocols used in our experiment for the identification of components related to anaerobic power, "Wingate Test" and the test called "Jump Test" shows correlation between the results indicating that both they are good predictors of anaerobic performance. In our study the test of "Winaget" demonstrated sensitivity to determine the differences between the PP and PM in the professional players and the children and young people. Meanwhile, it was not possible to identify differences between the professional players Ga-z and Gl-mc.
Negotiating Self- and Peer Feedback on Teamwork Competencies with the Use of Reflective Journals in Higher Education Results indicate an overall improvement in teamwork competencies over three time points. Features of what students reflect on their learning of self and peer feedback were discovered. Major implications for practices related to teamwork and the development of teamwork competencies in higher education are discussed.
summary, most of the research about the personal meanings suggested that the outdoors is good for women and that participation in outdoor activities can build both self-confidence and self­concept. The problem with this conclu­sion is that we do not know exactly how those outcomes occur for women. Fur­ther, we have not always examined what dynamics must be present for growth to occur. Social. Another area of meaning for women in the outdoors related to so­ciocultural dimensions. The individuals with whom one interacted in the outdoors provided meaning. For example, Groff (1989) found that outdoor adventure pro­gram experiences as a child most affected future involvement but also created a contradiction regarding the gendered na­ ture of the outdoors. Girls had positive experiences in the outdoors but also learned that it was primarily a male do­ main, Gender roles and sex typing were also dimensions of the social meanings of the outdoors. Rogers (1978) found few significant differences in perception of outdoor activities as reflecting "stereo­typed traits." Climbing, however, was viewed twenty years ago as the only strictly male activity, and hunting and fishing were acknowledged as less appro­priate for females. McClintock (1996) found many reasons why women want to participate in women-only groups. One issue, for instance, related specifically to the desire to escape the bounds and limits that sexism and gender roles have placed on women. Even when sexism appeared, most women would still rather be with others in the outdoors than by themselves. Further, Lenskyj (1995) was critical of the assumption that the outdoors is always a helpful metaphor. The outdoors may still invoke power issues where women are "kept in their place" through reflecting women's roles in society rather then em­powering them.
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia characterized by the intermittent loss of electromyographic atonia normally present during REM sleep and the emergence of purposeful complex motor activity associated with vivid dreams. Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder usually affects older males and can be either idiopathic or symptomatic of various underlying disorders, in particular neurodegenerative diseases; in the latter case, RBD may be a prodromal symptom of the neurological disease. Several brainstem regions have been implicated in RBD pathophysiology, although the exact mechanism of the disorder in humans remains to be clarified. On clinical grounds, differentiation of RBD should be made from several non-REM parasomnias and other aberrant behaviours occurring during sleep. Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder can be diagnosed on the basis of a systematic medical, neurological and psychiatric evaluation of the patient, assisted by a standard polysomnographic recording that includes continuous overnight videotaping; a brain imaging study is mandatory when an underlying brain disease is being suspected. Clonazepam at bedtime is the treatment of choice for RBD; alternatively, melatonin or pramipexole can be administered when clonazepam is contraindicated.
The notions of content and structure of psychological systems are contrasted, and it is pointed out that most studies of personality, attitudes or judgement have examined content variables. Ways to measure more structural characteristics are described and these are applied to judgements within the domain of political stimuli. An investigation is reported in which left-wing, centre and right-wing subjects made several kinds of judgements about national governments. These judgements were analysed to generate a number of measures of differentiation of structure. Results indicate that a judge's political orientation is not related to the number of dimensions he uses, but that it is related to the nature of these dimensions. The implications which this methodology and conceptual framework have for investigations of other social stimuli and for cross-national research are discussed.
UNLABELLED Working outside the home is related to lower rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration. Enacted laws promote and support breastfeeding in working places.   OBJECTIVE To determine factors associated to breastfeeding after returning to work.   METHODS Anonymous questionnaires distributed among breastfeeding working mothers.   RESULTS The study subjects were 100 mothers. Most of them (77%) worked for the government. Fifty-six percent continued breastfeeding after returning to work. In 33% of the workplaces there was an area designated for milk extraction.Thirty-six percent of employers allowed the 30 minute periods mandated by law for extraction. Factors associated to continuing breastfeeding were: working in the private setting, having a place designated for extraction, knowing that employers were mandated to have such a place, being allowed time for extraction, and knowing the laws protecting breastfeeding.   CONCLUSIONS There is need for more education to working mothers about their rights to continue breastfeeding after returning to work.
Team and Non-Team Organizational Designs Measured By the Perceptions of Junior High/ Middle School Teachers (May 1982) John Stephen Katsoulis, B.S., University of Massachusetts, M.A. , American International College, Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Directed by; Professor George Urch The purpose of this study was to survey the perceptions of junior high/middle school teachers with regard to their school organizations. This was carried out to determine whether a statistically significant difference occurred when academic team and non-team teachers perceptions were compared by means of a questionnaire which included theoretical organizational characteristics. The research was divided into two major segments. The first portion consisted of a review of the literature with regard to early adolescent theory. The second section consisted of a staff survey which utilized a thirtynine item questionnaire to survey staff perceptions in eighteen participating schools. Those schools were divided equally into team and non-team organizations.
Environmental degradation caused by the unsustainable consumption behavior of consumers puts a strain on the environment and is hindering sustainable development. One approach is to reduce or change consumption from traditional products to green products to avoid this negative impact and encourage a more sustainable economy. This paper examines the impact of culture over the consumer’s green purchase intention in Jordan by examining the collectivism cultural dimension to the Jordanian consumer and applying attitudes towards green products, subjective norms towards green products and willingness to pay a premium. A conceptual model is developed in this research by linking collectivism with green product purchase intention and applying the effect of attitude toward green products, subjective norms towards green products and WPP to see if these mediators affect the direct relation between collectivism and green product purchase intention. By contacting data from 143 consumers, the result of this study revealed that collectivism plays a significant role in enhancing green product purchase intention and that such a relationship is mediated by attitude toward green products, subjective norms towards green products, and willingness to pay premium.
This article focuses on the role of the artistic process in connecting to the natural environment. In my research I have explored what participants experience and learn when they engage in different types of arts-based environmental education (AEE) practices that I have facilitated. The premise of AEE is that efforts to learn about our (natural) environment can effectively take their starting point in an artistic activity, usually conducted in groups. I found that, on the whole, two major orientations can be distinguished. One starts from the point of aesthetic sensibility: the tuning in with the senses, or with ‘a new organ of perception’ (Goethe), in order to perceive ‘the more than human’ with fresh new eyes. This tradition can be traced back (but is by no means limited) to the Romantic Movement. Art in this context may help to amplify the receptivity of the senses and strengthen a sense of connectedness to the natural world. The other major orientation in seeking bridges between nature and art builds on a view of artistic process as leading to unexpected outcomes and ‘emergent properties’. The fundamentally singular experience of making a work of art may evoke an aesthetic object that becomes a ‘self-sufficient, spiritually breathing subject’ (Kandinsky). The artwork can be spontaneously generative and multilayered with meanings, some of which may even be ambiguous and paradoxical. keywords imagination sensory perception improvisation arts-based environmental education emergent properties defamiliarization
This presents a genealogy of noir affect as it emerges alongside of and against midcentury humanism and the transformation of work from Fordism to the postwar logic of cybernetics. Tracing a filmic trajectory from Wilder’s Double Indemnity to Goddard’s Alphaville, Nieland also charts the changing fate of noir affect, which goes from a negation of midcentury Fordist humanism to becoming incorporated (and thus potentially defanged) in the global and cybernetic focus of the postwar moment. Nieland thus warns us early on about the complicated political effects of noir affect. It is rarely univocal or unambiguous in its political resonances.
In previous works it has been pointed out that the exercise of Psychology is not limited to a single type of practice; On the contrary, psychologists perform philosophical, theoretical, technological, professional and transdisciplinary practices. Derived from the above in the present work, it is argued that teaching-learning Psychology demands that the aforementioned practices be taught-learn, to a greater or lesser extent. Based on this, (a) the specific characteristics of each practice are described roughly; (b) there is an aroused presentation of the main interbehavioral theoretical contributions regarding the teaching-learning of Psychology, the didactic interaction and the teacher's performance, which have focused on the learning of the practice of scientific investigation and its teaching; and, derived from the previous points, (c) some reflections are presented regarding the teaching practice of psychology, as well as the learning of it, taking into account the different practices that are carried out in this discipline and not only with respect to the research practice. In the final comments, the benefits of the distinction of psychological practices in the training of apprentices of the discipline are indicated.
Fear of childbirth is one of the common problems found among pregnant women. It affects on a negative impact on a birth process. The objectives of this review are to explore factor related to fear of childbirth, consequences of fear of childbirth and assessment of fear of childbirth. A review was conducted in the electronic databases Pub Med, Science Direct, and CINAHL. Keywords used in the search were ‘fear’ in conjunction with ‘childbirth’. Combination of components of the Problem, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome strategy were used. The timeframe was limited to the years 1947-2019, as it was the timeframe where fear of childbirth made an appearance in the literature. The search was limited to English language articles. The results revealed factor related to fear of childbirth as prospective fear which composed of social aspect and personal aspect and retrospective fear. Consequences of fear of childbirth were decisions for future pregnancy and prolong labor. The measurements scales of fear of childbirth were Childbirth Attitudes Questionnaire and Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ).
According to the dual valuing process model (Grouzet, 2013), the social context can either facilitate the natural human tendency to pursue intrinsic goals, or thwart it by promoting extrinsic goals. Congruent with this idea, research in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) suggests that parental autonomy support (PAS) is associated with the development of intrinsic goals, whereas more controlling parenting styles, such as conditional regard (PCR), are expected to facilitate extrinsic goals. Results from two preliminary studies suggest that mothers tended to use PAS to promote goals that were more intrinsic, as well young adults were more likely to autonomously internalize these goals, whereas PCR was associated with more extrinsic goals. In the current study, we sought to extend these findings by including a general measure of perceived parenting style, as well as asking participants to recall a goal that was promoted during adolescence (i.e., 13-16 years). Results from this study indicate no difference in the type of goal that was promoted or the way in which it was internalized when mothers used either autonomy support or conditional regard, over and above general parenting style. Results will be further discussed in with respect to parenting, self-determination theory, and the dual valuing process model.%%%%Graduate
Burgeoning research on Personality-related measures and proximal behaviours demonstrates that academic performance at all levels is facilitated by such individual difference variables that complement and support cognitive ability.  The aim of this study is to explore the impact of trait and domain specific measures on academic performance and examine behaviour (absenteeism). Participants (N = 120) comprised of male (N = 47) and female (N = 73) students at a secondary level college in Merseyside.  A within-participant design was employed utilising a quantitative cross-sectional survey method (based on self reports) with a longitudinal component linked to archival indicators of performance data (i.e. GCSE exam results) which were aggregated into a Grade Point Average (GPA).  The study’s hypotheses were tested through bivariate and multivariate analysis. Good quality of data was evidenced by low levels of skewness and kurtosis and high. Correlation analysis revealed that Openness, Conscientiousness, ESE and ASE were positively associated with GCSE GPA. Agreeableness was negatively associated with academic performance.  Hierarchical Regression demonstrated that the best predictor of grades was Agreeableness. Results are comparable with much existent research signifying the relevance of individual difference studies at secondary level.
Objective: To study the reliability of 15(superscript Δ) prism inducing deviation in diagnosing of amblyopia. Methods: The visual acuity was examined by bilateral blind method and the fixation patterns were detected with 15-diopter (l5D) base-down prism-inducing deviation in 278 children. Results: By 15D base-down prism-inducing deviation, 74 cases had bilateral maintained fixation and equal vision, of which 46 had the vision of 1.0, 7 had the vision of 1.0(superscript -2-3), while 21 had the vision between 0.6~0.8; 51 cases had mild amblyopia, of them, 44 had the two eyes two or less lines different between 0.6~0.8, 7 had the two eyes more than two lines different between 0.4~0.5; 122 cases had marked amblyopia with the two eyes more than two-line different between 0.2~0.5; 31 cases had severe amblyopia with the visions less than 0.1. The coincident rate of amblyopia diagnosis with checking visual acuity and 15D base-down prism-inducing deviation was 92.4% (257/278). Conclusion: 15D prism-inducing deviation test for fixation pattern is an easy and reliable method for diagnosis of amblyopia. It makes possibility for early treatment of amblyopia.
Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the meanings and outcomes of adaptive sport and recreation participation among individuals with disabilities. In-depth open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 individuals. Analysis of the data followed qualitative data analysis and classical grounded theory utilizing line by line coding, identification of emergent themes, and identification of a core category grounded in the data. Results indicated that participants felt stigmatized and stereotyped, but their adaptive sports and recreation participation provided them with opportunities to build social networks, experience freedom and success, positively compare themselves with others without disabilities, and feel a sense of normalcy. The core variable identified adaptive sports and recreation participation as an opportunity structure that facilitated the identity negotiating process.
This study reports longitudinal follow-up of 300 children with developmental dysphasia. Their expressive disturbances are a manifestation of their auditory decoding impairment. These children were investigated on battery of tests of spoken language, of phonological processing and of different audiometric procedures, in order to register all the information necessary to be able judge the speech-language development. The tests focused on diagnosis of central auditory disorder, confirmed the difficulties in association area in children with developmental dysphasia. In speech perception, the temporal processing is one of the functions necessary for the discrimination of phonemes, and of similar words. Our results confirmed long-term problems of children with developmental dysphasia with central auditory perception disorder.
We explored potential contributing psychological factors in a patient (‘XF’) with focal retrograde amnesia, within the framework proposed by Kopelman (2000, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 17, 585). In particular, we investigated the psychological trait of self-enhancement. We constructed a self-report questionnaire measure of self-enhancement and compared XF's score on this measure with the scores of 61 control participants. XF was found to have a significantly greater level of self-enhancement than the entire control group, and also than a smaller sample of age- and sex-matched controls. We propose that heightened self-enhancement may reflect a premorbid tendency that potentially predisposes individuals to develop retrograde amnesia.
This research aimed to improve students's cognition and metacognition through kinematics and dynamics of particle experiment assissted by video recording and tracker software analysis. The research used problem solving learning model which developed using R a D method with 4-D steps, they are define, design, develop, and disseminate. The research involved 86 physics education students academic year 2013/2014 at one of the universities in Medan. The research method is quasi-experimental using randomized control group pretest-posttest design. The experimental class used problem solving learning model assisted by video recording and the control class used direct learning model. The cognition data were collected using multiple-choice test and meta-cognition data were collected using essay test. The students's cognition and metacognition improvement characterized by the normalized gain score. The research result show that the use of video recording and tracker software analysis was improve the students' cognition and metacognition in Kinematics and Dynamics topic in moderate category.
This thesis explores the field of mediated presence in a distant relationship, with a specific focus on the introduction of “receptiveness” as the biggest factor, when designing to enhance this mediated experience. I have approached this field in a user centered manner since it is fairly unexplored thus far. Through related work, cultural probe, interviews and discussions with the target group I have explored design opportunities. These design opportunities are contributing to the field. This by revealing how the target group evaluate presence, to what extent they do so and the different needs the relationship have when experiencing presence. The introduction of “receptiveness” as the main factor to how we experience presence lead to prototyping and user testing in regard of manipulation of certain times and spaces. Resulting in different explorations to how mediated presence will be experienced as enhanced.
Nonclinical staff in healthcare environments serve an invaluable role in the overall culture of the organization and individual units. Staff in roles such as environmental services, patient transport, dietary services, and maintenance spend a majority of their time on patient care units and interact with patients, families, and caregivers daily. We all bring a unique lens to our work formed by our training and experience.
Employees are foundation of company. Company needs high motivation employee. Job satisfaction is needed for optimal performance. The goal of this research to investigate the impact of motivation toward employee performance, job satisfaction toward employee performance, job satisfaction toward motivation and performance toward job satisfaction. The benefit of this research is to explain the research gab, that is not every of the job satisfaction and motivation influence performance not significantly. Hopeful this research can be a reference for another reseacher especially motivation measurement. This research uses McClelland motivation theory. This research conclude that motivation influence on employee performance, job satisfaction influence employee performance, job satisfaction influence motivation and performance influence job satisfaction significantly. The study used 74 respondents and the overall level of staff respondents were employees of Waroeng Spesial Sambal (SS) Yogyakarta. Motivation has positive effect on Employee Performance. Job satisfaction has positive influence on Employee Performance. Job satisfication has positive influence on motivation. And Employee performance has positive influence on Job satisfaction. .Keywords: [ motivation, job satisfaction, employee’ performance]
The production of real morality is not constraint by outer circumstances,but from people's will.It can restrict people through self-discipline,so the highest level of morality is self-discipline,which refers to self-regislation according to one's own moral value and thinking,and taking action according to one's own will and legslation.One who possesses self-discipline Shows healthy personality,such as,consciousness,self-control.forebearance,persistence and independence.Schools should cultivate students to foster self-discipline in their social moral life,The ways to cultivate students'self-discipline include frustration education,self-evaluation education,the discussion of moral problems,the cultivation of moral responsibilities and the setting up of active moral education courses,and so on.In the process of students' self-discipline education,the principles of "multi-levels"and "students on target"should be paid attention to.
Background and objective: Motivational interviewing (MI) is a communication style adopted by health professionals to support patient-centered decision making about behavior change. Little is known about how patients respond to this relational approach when it is used by baccalaureate students. Thus, the study aim was to explore how patients experience MI by undergraduate nursing students when it is used to support health behavior change for vascular risk reduction. Methods: A focused ethnography was undertaken to explore the tacit and explicit dimensions of patient health behavior change as it evolved through MI encounters with nursing students. The research setting was a post-secondary institution in Canada and comprised a sample of 16 patients who received MI by the nursing students, 2 clinical instructors who teach MI, and 20 third-year nursing students who used MI as part of a 13-week community based clinical experience. Data sources included participant observations, field notes and one-to-one interviews. Results: Patients described their encounters with nursing students using MI as novel, relative to typical instances with health providers, and foundational to supporting lifestyle change. The patients’ overall experience is characterized by a thematic arc of ‘talking the walk to walk the talk’. Motivational interviewing helped patients integrate personalized information about the meaning of vascular health, deliberate on options and initiate lifestyle changes to promote health. In most cases, patients translated knowledge and experience from their motivational encounters with nursing students into subsequent health management activities. Conclusions: Through their experiences of nursing students using MI, patients understood the personal implications of vascular health, took action on relevant goals and applied lessons learned to future behavior change efforts. The results contribute new information about how patients respond to MI from baccalaureate nursing students and reinforce current understanding of how change talk contributes to subsequent change behavior.
It is often assumed that second language learners should ideally acquire both the grammatical knowledge of the L2 and the same processing routines used by native speakers to implement this knowledge in online language comprehension. Here, we present a rare case in which failure to acquire native-like processing actually helps L2 speakers to avoid a native-like processing error. Results from a self-paced reading and a speeded acceptability experiment indicate that L1 Chinese learners of English are sensitive to subject-verb agreement violations in online processing, but, unlike native speakers, do not show any evidence of experiencing an illusion of grammaticality in sentences with agreement attraction configurations. In fact, since the L2 learners do not seem to experience an illusion of grammaticality, they are in a sense processing the input more accurately than the native speakers. We investigate how advanced learners of English whose L1 is Chinese (which lacks overt agreement) process subject-verb agreement in English, which often involves cue-based retrieval of the subject from memory and is susceptible to interference from a structurally inaccessible noun that matches the number cue of the verb (1). In native speakers, misretrieval of a number-matching attractor leads to facilitated processing of an agreement violation (Wagers et al., 2009), which suggests that both structural and number features are used as cues. In order for this facilitative similarity-based interference to occur, the number cue on the verb has to be used for retrieval in addition to the structural cue. We ask whether Chinese learners of English show not only knowledge of subject-verb agreement, but have also learned to use the number cue for retrieval in online processing. 1. The key to the cabinet/cabinets was/were rusty and had to be replaced. In Experiment 1, we manipulated attractor number and grammaticality, as in (1), in a moving-window self-paced reading paradigm. The L2 group (N=33) showed a clear impact of grammaticality, with a slowdown in the ungrammatical conditions (Chen et al. (N=30), the response to an agreement violation was equally strong in the presence of a plural attractor (figure 1). Somewhat puzzlingly, in a post-experiment offline whole-sentence judgment task administered after the SPR task, designed to evaluate grammatical knowledge without time pressure, both L1 and L2 subjects' responses showed an attraction effect. We suspected that presenting the whole sentence on the screen may have led to backtracking proofreading strategies in which the shorter linear distance between the verb and the …
There has been considerable controversy about methods for assessing life stress. However, self-report checklists and interview-based measures (the predominant approaches used in current research) differ in several respects, ranging from basic definitions through theoretical assumptions. Most research comparing these two approaches has focused on global comparisons in predicting disorder, which fail to take into account more specific information on how the methods vary. The present article outlines three stages of assessment for life stress: definition, operationalization, and quantification. Detailed examination of these stages with a sample of depressed patients helps to demonstrate in an explicit manner how self-report checklists and interview-based methods differ at successive stages of the measurement process. Data are presented that indicate large endpoint discrepancies attributable to specific differences in the definitional and operational procedures used in the two assessment approaches. The nature of the discrepancies found is discussed, along with the implications for assessing life stress and testing its implications for health and well-being.
ABSTRACT To investigate the relationship of ethnicity in the development of children in Head Start, this study examined the associations between ethnicities and reading trajectories and whether trajectories of home environment could over time explain their differential associations. Participants (N = 696) were selected from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data. Results indicated some similarities and differences in the results obtained. Study findings suggest including an environmentally sensitive family component in Head Start and suggest an early enrollment policy targeting at-risk populations to maintain long-term Head Start impacts across ethnicities. Future research and follow-up studies should investigate other family components that positively affect long-term development among Black, Hispanic, and White children participating in the Head Start program.
Democratic parenting is the best type of parenting style because it combines two types of extreme parenting which are both not really restrictive and not really free. Parents who implement this kind of parenting style have children whom become nice individuals. The charge of the household is still controled by the parents; however, the parents are very open to negotiate with the children. The children can still do things according to their will but it remains under the supervision of parents. Cognitive is an ability to think encompassing a simpler intellectual ability which involves memorizing, recalling, comprehending, assembling, knowing about the cause and effect, as well as to the ability to solve a problem that requires children for connecting and collaborating some ideas or methods learned to solve the problem, or the children find problem solving of the problem. The purpose of this study is to find out the correlation between parents’ parenting styles and cognitive development of early children in TK Aisyiyah Bustanul Athfal Limpung, Batang Regency in academic year 2015/2016. This research is a descriptive research. It was conducted in TK Aisyiyah Bustanul Athfal Limpung, Batang Regency, in group A and B in academic year 2015/2016. The samples of this research were the kindergarten students in group A with the total number of 36 students and students in group B with the total number of 37 students. The total number of samples was 75 students. The technique used in taking sample was random sampling. The technique of analyzing data used in this research was Product Moment Correlations. The result of this research was that, there was a correlation between parents’ parenting styles and cognitive development of early children in TK Aisyiyah Bustanul Athfal Limpung, Batang Regency in academic year 2015/2016. It could be proven by the result of r Pearson Correlation is 0,475 with a standard error of 5% rxy : rtabel = 0,475 : 0,296 to rxy > rtabel meant 0,475 > 0,76. With a standard error of 1% means rxy : rtabel = 0.475 : 0.227 to r xy > rtabel which means 0.475 > 0.2277 . Thus both the significance of 1 % or 5 % rxy > rtabel = 0.475 > 0.0296 > 0.227 indicating that Ho was rejected and Ha accepted meaning which meant that there was a correlation significance between parents’ parenting styles and cognitive development of early children in TK Aisyiyah Bustanul Athfal Limpung, Batang Regency in academic year 2015/2016.
The teacher is as important as the child in the educative process as there is need for systematic study of the problems and concerns of teachers. The right attitudes and involvement, the mental health andjob-satisfaction of the teachers are essential conditions for the success of any school programme. Teachers and their problems have been attracting a great deal of attention. “Teacher stress and Burnout” have become topic of public and professional concern. Teaching occupation is often perceived as semi-professional with relatively low social prestige and income. Educational reforms have tried to make teaching a more professional occupation by increasing teacher's commitment and accountability to theirjobs.
Abstract Pigeons (Experiment 1) and rats (Experiment 2) responded on variable interval (VI), variable time (VT), and extinction procedures. All three procedures were conducted for three different baseline rates of reinforcement. When the rates of reinforcement obtained from the VI and VT schedules did not differ significantly, the within-session patterns of responding observed on the two procedures did not differ. Both of these patterns differed from the patterns observed during extinction. These results are consistent with the argument that sensitization–habituation contributes to within-session patterns of responding during both conditioning and extinction and that subjects may sensitize and habituate to contextual stimuli as well as to reinforcers. The results help to explain why spontaneous recovery is not always observed during random reinforcement procedures. They also suggest that the factors governing within-session patterns of responding are independent of the factors governing absolute response rates.
CAUSATION and exposure have always been the key issues on which toxic tort cases are won or lost. Most toxic tort litigation involves diseases, such as cancer, for which there are numerous possible causes and where there is little objective, scientific proof that the claimant's disease was caused by the alleged exposure. Given the large number of potentially toxic chemicals to which people are exposed, it should be no surprise that there are few epidemiological or mechanistic studies of the toxic effects of many of these substances that are alleged to cause disease. Faced with this lack of scientific certainty, courts have seized on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. (1) as a way of requiring experts to present more than conclusionary opinions of causation and exposure in toxic tort actions. In Daubert, the Court recognized the difficulty between the "quest for truth" in the courtroom versus the scientific arena, holding that the trial judge must act as a gatekeeper to, on occasion, exclude novel, albeit "authentic," scientific views. Rather, experts now are routinely asked to identify the factual bases for their conclusions and to explain their methodology, demonstrating that both are scientifically reliable. A NEW FIELD: TOXICOGENOMICS A. What Is It? Toxic tort litigation as most trial attorneys know it today is about to undergo a drastic, irrevocable change. Genetic evidence has the potential to revolutionize in this area. The sequencing of the human genome and the creation of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) databanks now offer scientists the unprecedented research opportunity to understand the causation of disease. (2) Cellular and molecular testing made possible by recent DNA research analyzes what cellular changes cause disease and looks at the mechanism responsible for the onset of that disease process. This new scientific field, which has launched a new chapter in the proof of causation and exposure in toxic tort cases, is called toxicogenomics. It is the study of the impact of potentially toxic compounds on gene expression. A gene "expresses itself" by acting on proteins and other body processes in very complex ways to affect how the body grows and develops. (3) Toxicogenomics is the study of the alteration of those mechanisms that leads to conclusions about disease and disease processes. It combines the emerging technology of genomics and bioinformatics to identify and characterize the mechanisms of action of known and suspected toxins. The premier toxicogenomic tools now are the DNA microarray, also called the DNA chip, which is used for the simultaneous monitoring of gene expression levels, sometimes a hundred to a thousand at a time. (4) The results of these tests offer insights into the relationship between our genetic inheritance, exposure to chemicals and the environment, and the onset of disease. B. Use in Litigation The value of toxicogenomics to toxic tort litigators is quite apparent. For plaintiffs who have insufficient scientific proof that a product was more likely than not to cause cancer, the ability to show that an exposure to the product resulted in a genetic polymorphism or gene sequence difference, which increased cancer susceptibility, could be outcome determinative. Comparing DNA test results from before and after the use of the product provides an opportunity to develop quantitative proof of genetic changes. Before-and-after genetic snapshots will allow plaintiffs to prove that their injuries did not pre-date exposure to defendants' toxins. If these biological changes are specific to a defendant's product, then both causation and exposure have been shown. Defendants also may be able to use toxicogenomics to buttress their defenses. They could cite the absence of genetic biomarkers as evidence that claimants in fact were not harmed by the chemical in question. Genetic tests performed on plaintiffs may point to a genetic susceptibility to other potentially carcinogenic substances, in addition to the targeted product, and any one of those alternative exposures could have caused cancer. …
Objective: The present study investigated the relationship of characteristics of childhood sexual abuse and subsequent psychopathology. Method: Referrals to a female psychiatrist in private practice in an urban working class area provided 73 adult female subjects who reported having been sexually abused in childhood. Data were collected on age at onset, duration, physical invasiveness of the abuse, violence, and the number and relationship of abusers. Results: Having had multiple abusers in childhood was significantly (p < 0.01) associated with every outcome measure of severe psychopathology: an initial Global Assessment Functioning score of 50 or below; both single and repeated incidents of deliberate self-harm; overdose; self-mutilation; and psychiatric hospital admission. Conclusions: Notably, having had multiple abusers was the only characteristic showing a reliable independent association with any of these measures. Subjects who had had multiple abusers were significantly more likely to have an earlier age of onset and longer duration of abuse, and to have experienced violent abuse.
This paper examines some of the correlates of antisocial behaviors and delinquency among Filipino youth. Specifically examined is the salience of peer‐associations, family‐relations and legal beliefs as predictors of antisocial behaviors. The sample comprises grade school and high school students in the city of Cagayan de Oro in the Southern Philippines. Results show that peer‐associations, family‐relations and legal beliefs as well as gender are significant predictors of antisocial behaviors, but their saliency is not consistent across levels of behavior seriousness. Family relations are significant predictors of minor and medium forms of antisocial behaviors, while legal beliefs are significant predictors of medium and serious forms. Peer‐association is also more significant for medium to serious forms of antisocial behaviors.
OZET Amac: Arastirma, Dr. Sami Ulus Kadin Dogum, Cocuk Sagligi ve Hastaliklari Egitim ve Arastirma Hastanesi Kadin Dogum Poliklinigi’ne antenatal kontroller icin basvuran adolesan gebelerde beden imaji algisinin belirlenmesi amaciyla tanimlayici olarak yapilmistir. Yontem: Arastirmanin orneklemini 24 Haziran – 23 Aralik 2013 tarihlerinde Kadin Dogum Poliklinigi'ne antenatal kontroller icin basvuran 19 yas ve altinda , evli, okur-yazar, psikiyatrik sorunu olmayan, sozel iletisime acik, gonullu 165 adolesan gebe olusturmustur. Veri toplama araci olarak; adolesan gebelerin sosyodemografik ve obstetrik ozelliklerini belirlemek amaciyla arastirmacilar tarafindan hazirlanmis olan Tanitici Bilgi Formu ve adolesan gebelerde beden imaji algisini  belirlemek icin Vucut Algisi Olcegi kullanilmistir. Elde edilen veriler yuzdelik, ortalama ve standart sapma, Student’s t testi, Kruskal-Wallis, Oneway ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U ve Tukey test istatistigi kullanilarak degerlendirilmistir. Bulgular: Adolesan gebelerin %44.2’sinin 16-18 yas grubunda oldugu saptanmistir. Arastirmaya katilan adolesan gebelerin  %31.5’i I. trimesterde, %31.5’i II. trimesterdedir. Arastirma kapsamina alinan adolesan gebelerin Vucut Algisi Olcegi puan ortalamasinin 146.3±23.9 oldugu bulunmustur. Sonuclar: Adolesan gebelerin sosyal guvence durumu, aylik geliri algilama durumu ve esinin yasinin, vucut algisi puanlarini etkiledigi bulunmustur (p<0.05). Gebeligi planli olan adolesan gebelerin vucut algisi, planli olmayanlara gore daha olumlu bulunmus ve aralarinda istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir fark oldugu saptanmistir (p<0.05). Anahtar sozcukler: Adolesan; adolesan gebe; beden imaji; vucut algisi ABSTRACT Determination of Body Image Perception in Adolescent Pregnants Objective: The research has been done as a descriptive in order to the perception of body image in adolescent pregnants who applies for antenatal checks to Obstetrics and Gynecology Policlinic in Dr. Sami Ulus Obstetric and Gynecology, Pediatrics Training and Research Hospital. Method: Sample of the research constitutes of 165 volunteer adolescent pregnants, literate, 19 years old and under, married, having no psychological problem, open to verbal communication who has applied for Obstetrics and Gynecology Policlinic to antenatal checks in June and December of 2013. As a device of collecting data; Introductory Information Form which is prepared by researchers has been used to determine the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics, and Body Cathexis Scale has been used to determine perception of body image in adolescent pregnants. The obtained datas has been evaluated by using percentage, mean, standart deviation, Student’s t test, Kruskal-Wallis, Oneway ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U and Tukey tests. Results: It has been found that, 44.2% of adolescent pregnants are in 16-18 years olds.  31.5% of adolescent pregnants in the research are in the first trimestre, 31.5% of them are in the second trimestre. The average score of Body Cathexis Scale of adolescent pregnants who are in the research has been found 146.3±23.9. Conclusions: Social assurance attitude of adolescent pregnants, the situation of getting monthly salary and husband’s age have been found to effect body image score (p<0.05). Body image of adolescent pregnants whose pregnancy is planned has been found more positive than the other pregnants whose pregnancy is not planned and it is stated that there has been statistical meaningful difference between them. Key words: Adolescent; adolescent pregnant; body image; body cathexis
Interpersonal conflicts in work situations pose a significant risk both to workers’ health and to the organization. Early detection of the characteristics of these conflicts in order to be able to intervene in them in an appropriate manner is a necessity of the current organizations immersed in continuous environments of change where the norm is the reduction of people, resources or both. This article presents the validation of an instrument for the evaluation of the perception of interpersonal conflicts in work situations: the Perceived Interpersonal Conflicts Scale (PICS). This instrument allows analyzing five dimensions related to the types of conflicts present in work environments (task conflict, relationship conflict, status conflict, process conflict, context conflict) and a last one related to the escalation of the conflict. The results show a satisfactory reliability of the instrument, as well as a satisfactory convergent and discriminative validity using the SOFI-SM instrument. PICS offers a quick analysis (12 items) with an adequate level of reliability and validity, of the perception of conflict in work situations validated for the Spanish working population.
The present study examines the patterns in stress, phrasing and intonation found in a Spanish corpus of news read by broadcasters to describe the prosodic strategies that can be considered as genre-distinguishing features. Results indicate that, firstly, the main stress modifications concern the upgrading of unstressed syllables to accented ones, the stress shift to mark word-initial boundaries and the maintenance of adjacent stresses. Secondly, the special features related to phrasing are unexpected pauses, which enhance the prosodic units that offer new information, and the prosodic marking of initial edges of groups with the aim of capturing the listener’s attention. Finally, the most relevant tonal events that identify the typical chanting of broadcasters are a recurrent use of rises whose f0 peak coincides with the stressed syllable, a variety of non-falling pitch movements signalling intermediate phrasing, and the use of rising-falling pitch movements to signal ends. All the described prosodic and tonal strategies contribute to obtaining an emphatic style in news reading and are representative of a prosodically marked genre.
The goal of this paper is to compare the motivations and learning strategies of online and face-to-face students, utilizing the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich et al., 1993). Prior research (Crede & Phillips, 2011) suggest that motivation variables play a larger role in predicting student success in online courses compared to the specific learning strategies that are used, but little research has directly compared online students to face-to-face students. Results of this study found that while online students reported lower levels of motivation compared to face-to-face students, motivation variables were more strongly correlated with course performance than learning strategies, particularly for online courses. The results are discussed with implications for how to build student motivation to succeed, particularly in an online format, as well as different considerations for lower-level or upper-level students.
In this essay, I discuss a few characteristics of research that is rigorous, resilient, and impactful and identify some research topics that share these characteristics. I then share some observations on trends in the broader research environment that pose opportunities and threats for our continued ability to conduct research that is both rigorous and relevant. Finally, I offer some strategies to enhance our ability to continue to produce management knowledge that remains impactful over time.
The purpose of this study is to explore the flow of academic status and to establish the Knowledge map of the Keyword retrieved from papers in the ‘Journal of Korean sport psychology’ for 25 years. Research scope included keyword extracted from 520 papers in the area of “Sport Psychology” published in the Journal of ‘Korea Society of Sport Psychology’ from 1990 to 2014. Data pre-processing of extracted keyword was performed by Clustering and Simultaneous emergence matrix. Knowledge map was constructed by Social Network Analysis with extracted data. In this study, data pre-processing of extracted keyword was performed by Clustering and Simultaneous Emergence Matrix. Knowledge Map was constructed by Social Network Analysis with extracted data. We conducted the Word Cloud Analysis by utilizing R statistical package in order to visualize the frequency of subject keywords. We conducted the Centrality Analysis by pattern through Net Miner 4.2 in order to identify subject keyword’s intrinsic function and intellectual structure. We also conducted Community Analysis which is one of the social network analyses, thru Net Miner program in order to derive research area by each period. The results of analysis indicated that the subject keywords and the research concepts that were related to ‘motivation’, ‘emotion’ and ‘personality characteristics’ were playing the major role in sports psychology research. Also in the process of exploring these major theories, we could have an insight on entire research trend of how various psychological theories had newly emerged, declined or changed throughout each period. As a further study, examining research trend with a variety of view by identifying not only theory of paper but also citations and joint studies by authors could be an approach which can strengthen the insight of domestic sport psychology research trends.
While disagreement exists about the impact of television viewing on LDS family life, this research takes an audience-focused approached to the question of "media effects" by examining how a sample of LDS women describe experiences with television in their own words. Three "interpretive communities" reflecting different strategies for resolving television-related conflicts in the home are identified. These diverse perspectives about the role of television in LDS family life provide a useful point of departure for counselors and other professionals seeking to understand the relationship between television viewing and family conflicts.
Technological advancements in media have made it easier to maintain relationships over long distances. Social networking interfaces and websites such as Facebook have changed the way people communicate in geographically separated relationships. However, is this new technology improving or hindering communication and the maintenance of these relationships? In this exploratory study, self reports of FAcebook users and nonusers are analyzed to examine the effect social networking technology has on relational maintenance and satisfaction. Participants reported their general use of Facebook and reported the quality of their relationships with long-distant acquaintances. This report provides new research opportunities in this growing field of study. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Communication, Media and Theatre Arts First Advisor Dennis Patrick Subject Categories Communication Technology and New Media This open access senior honors thesis is available at DigitalCommons@EMU: http://commons.emich.edu/honors/280
4. Skim the many quotes of effective teacher language in this introduction. What, if anything, strikes you about them? Does anything jump out as similar to or different from the way you usually speak to students? Published by Center for Responsive Schools, developer of the Responsive Classroom approach, a research-based educational approach associated with greater teacher effectiveness, higher student achievement, and improved school climate.
In ancient China Li Qingzhao was one of the most brilliant poetess.She was a master in writing song lyrics.Whether in her poems about her daily life love and marriage or her later wandering and bitter life,the most noticeable was her sensitivity as an gentlewoman.She possessed her unique artistic taste and social ideal as an intellectual woman in her poems ranging from her elegant and idle family life to her concern about people and nation.
This research is a package that was carried out in a period of 3 years to develop a learning model based on the framework of Indonesia's national qualifications in an effort to improve students' vocational high school soft skills. The first year conducted last year found a draft learning model was found, namely the OSGIPE model. In this second year a formative trial was carried out on the OSGIPE model through individual, small group, and limited field trials. In the second year it was found that the OSGIPE model was feasible and effectively used to improve the soft skills of vocational high school technology students. There was a significant increase in students' soft skills by 23.05%. In the third year, a summative trial will be carried out, namely through a wide-scale test to see the effectiveness of the OSGIPE model for further dissemination. Keyword— OSGIPE instruction model, Soft Skills.
The concept of e-learning is a technology-mediated learning approach of great potential from the educational perspective and it has been one of the main research lines of Educational Technology in the last decades. The aim of the present systematic literature review (SLR) was to identify (a) the research topics; (b) the most relevant theories; (c) the most researched modalities; and (d) the research methodologies used. To this end, the PRISMA protocol was followed, and different tools were used for the bibliographic management and text-mining. The literature selection was carried out in three first-quartile journals indexed in JCR-SSCI specialized in Educational Technology. A total of 248 articles composed the final sample. The analysis of the texts identified three main nodes: (a) online students; (b) online teachers; and (c) curriculum-interactive learning environments. It was revealed that MOOC was the most researched e-learning modality. The Community of Inquiry and the Technological Acceptance Model, were the most used theories in the analyzed studies. The most frequent methodology was case study. Finally, the conclusions regarding the objectives of our SRL are presented: Main themes and research sub-themes, most researched e-learning modality, most relevant theoretical frameworks on e-learning, and typologies of research methodologies.
The performances of schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects were compared on an extensive battery of psychological tests that have been found at the Montreal Neurological Hospital to be differentially sensitive to atrophic lesions of the left or right frontal, temporal, or parietal cortex. Schizophrenic patients were significantly impaired at all tests that are disrupted by left or right frontal or temporal lobe lesions but performed within normal limits on all tests that are sensitive to parietal lobe damage. These results imply that schizophrenia results, at least in part, from a bilateral dysfunction of the frontal and temporal lobes.
Recent advances in neuroscience have led to new, more nuanced diagnostic categories for disorders of consciousness that result from traumatic or anoxic injuries to the brain: minimally conscious state (MCS) in addition to vegetative state (VS) and permanent vegetative state or PVS (Giacino et al. 2002). Unlike VS and PVS in which there is no awareness of self or environment, MCS is a state of consciousness, albeit severely limited consciousness, that is prognostically similar to the vegetative states (Fins 2008). Recent studies have revealed that some patients who appear to be in a vegetative state may retain cognitive abilities that cannot be detected by standard clinical diagnostic approaches but may become apparent through the use of fMRI imaging. Moreover, up to 41% of vegetative state patients are misdiagnosed (Schnakers et al. 2009) Thus, it remains an open question whether or not the diagnostic use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technologies contributes to better clinical, ethical, or policy outcomes. Caring for noncommunicative patients has always been a difficult charge, made all the more challenging in the United States because of our ethos of patient self-determination and shared decision making. The idea that enhancements in neuroimaging technology may give us the opportunity to look into the minds of brain-injured, noncommunicative patients in order to elicit care preferences (explicit or tacit) is tantalizing. Graham and colleagues (2015) assert that vegetative patients whose fMRI scans show responses to certain commands and nociceptive stimuli must be presumed to have “sentient interests . . . sufficient for moral status” (31) and thus are due certain moral and ethical considerations. We respectfully take issue with both claims. In order to address these two claims, let us first say a bit about the limits of the technology itself. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows clinicians to view neuronal activation through changes in cranial blood flow, showing which areas of the brain respond to different external stimuli. It has become a essential tool for brain mapping, neurological disease/injury diagnosis, and surgical planning. Novel applications such as in neuropsychiatry and criminal justice are less well established (Powell et al. 2014). However, its use in vegetative patients is relatively new. While changes in brain morphology, such as axonal growth, can be interpreted as potentiality with respect to recovery of consciousness, there remain questions as to whether images of increased blood flow in the brain are indicative of consciousness, or simply examples of retained modular function. Brain-injured patients can progress from vegetative to minimally conscious and back again (Fins 2008). While fMRI has value in documenting recovery and relapse, and perhaps identifying those patients whose prognosis is less bleak, it is less useful as a determinate diagnostic tool, especially if the injury is recent. While extremely beneficial as a noninvasive and low risk neuroimaging technique, fMRI is a fairly new and underinvestigated form of study. The interpretation of results is hypothetical, not empirical. The procedure itself has a tendency to give both Type I (false alarm) and Type II (missing the true effect) errors (Lieberman and Cunningham 2009) since it requires patients to remain completely still for an extended period of time. The sensitivity of the technology is such that results can be altered by something as slight as a change in pulse or respiration rates (Soddu et al. 2011). In vegetative patients, who are unlikely to comprehend the technician’s instructions and/or who have lost the ability to willfully regulate their bodily functions, fMRI results are even less capable of reliable interpretation. Even if it were possible to immobilize these patients, it would be remarkably difficult to obtain electronic monitoring devices that can be worn safely and comfortably in an fMRI machine. Thus, we should be skeptical about the use of fMRI to determine whether a patient is vegetative or minimally conscious. The second claim regards sentience or the ability to have sensations, to feel pain or pleasure, to feel more or less frustrated. Graham and colleagues argue that “the capacity for painful or pleasurable experiences is a sufficient condition for moral status,” and “self-report may be sufficient to confirm that the patient is in pain, even if the characteristic pain behaviors are absent” (34). With respect to the second criterion, even the most functional MCS patients are still characterized as noncommunicative and cannot “selfreport.” Putting aside for the moment the question of whether these patients have the capacity to experience
Compiled 30.3.2016 10:28:04 by Document Globe ® 1 Charles University students with special needs can use a range of University services which are designed to help students to overcome any difficulties they may encounter. The provision of support services for students with special needs is governed by the Rector’s Provision No. 9/2013: Charles University standards of support for students with special needs.
BACKGROUND Despite their great potential to inform intervention planning, screening instruments that assess children's exposure to multiple, non-behavioural risk factors are rare. The Family Risk Factor Checklist-Parent (FRFC-P), was designed to facilitate community risk factor profiling and subsequent intervention planning. The aims of the current study were to establish the psychometric properties of the FRFC-P and to examine the relative importance of family risk factors in relation to the onset versus persistence of children's mental health problems.   METHOD Data were collected from 1022 parents of 4-8-year-old children as part of the Promoting Adjustment in Schools Project (PROMAS). The FRFC-P assessed children's exposure to risk across five domains: adverse life events and instability (ALI); family structure and SES (SES); parenting practices (PAR); parental verbal conflict and mood problems (VCM); and parental antisocial and psychotic behaviour (APB).   RESULTS The FRFC-P had satisfactory test-retest reliability and construct validity, but modest internal consistency. Risk assessed by the PAR domain was the most important determinant of mental health problem onset, while the PAR, VCM, and APB domains were the strongest predictors of mental health problem persistence.   CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight the importance of considering risk factors for onset separately from risk factors for persistence of mental health problems and indicate that the studied population may benefit the most from preventive interventions that address parenting practices and treatment interventions that address parenting practices, and parental mood problems, conflict, antisocial behaviour, and psychiatric disorders.
The development of Thai preschool children tends to be delayed in all aspects due to the lack of opportunity to receive appropriate stimulation or promotion from parents and child caretakers and the change of social and environmental conditions. The parents' allowance for children to play alone with smartphones and tablets many hours per day also cause delayed development. Preschool child playing is important for child development and learning because it leading to the learning process of children in the future. Therefore, the parents and child caretakers need to understand and be able to apply toys or play activities to their children appropriately, which would enable children to gain development in physical, emotional, social and intellectual aspects, as appropriate as their age. The media made from natural and scrap materials for preschool children are most economical. These materials not only are economical but also conserve the natural environment and the toy culture from Thai local wisdom. In addition, they encourage the parent and caretaker to build the family relationship and the communities to participate in promoting child development by using local wisdom to produce toys or organize various activities. This may be a solution to reduce the number of preschool children with developmental delay. Keywords : Child Development Promotion , Local Wisdom
Purpose of review The aim of this review is twofold: to review recent literature on personality disorders, published in 2013 and the first half of 2014; and to use recent theoretical work to argue for a contextually grounded approach to culture and personality disorder. Recent findings Recent large-sample studies suggest that U.S. ethnoracial groups differ in personality disorder diagnostic rates, but also that minority groups are less likely to receive treatment for personality disorder. Most of these studies do not test explanations for these differences. However, two studies demonstrate that socioeconomic status partly explains group differences between African-Americans and European Americans. Several new studies test the psychometric properties of instruments relevant to personality disorder research in various non-Western samples. Ongoing theoretical work advocates much more attention to cultural context. Recent investigations of hikikomori, a Japanese social isolation syndrome with similarities to some aspects of personality disorder, are used to demonstrate approaches to contextually grounded personality disorder research. Summary Studies of personality disorder must understand patients in sociocultural context considering the dynamic interactions between personality traits, developmental histories of adversity and current social context. Research examining these interactions can guide contextually grounded clinical work with patients with personality disorder.
Pre-16th century Portuguese had a slight raising of post-stress /e o/ to [e Q] (but not to [i u]) in pre-pause position, and a full raising of /e/ to [i] under nasalization in initial position. The first of these developments is based on a decrease in average energy of articulation after the final stress of a breath group, while the second depends on several layers of confusion of prefixes. Later changes found in several geographically separate dialects are explicated in terms of the pre-16th century situation and various aspects of the process of grammar construction, including several formal mechanisms of generalization. For the back vowels, Continental Portuguese and Brazilian share one innovation, but differ in that the former shows a generalization to mirror-image form. Ceylon Portuguese goes one step further by generalizing this raising to front vowels as well; but in the first two dialects, raising of the front series is a result of the pre-16th century confusion of prefixes, generalized in an interesting way.
Consonance/dissonance affects human perception of chords from early stages of development [e.g., Schellenberg and Trainor, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 3321-3328 (1996)]. To examine whether consonance has some role in audition of nonhumans, three Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) were trained to discriminate simultaneous two-tone complexes (chords). The task was serial discrimination (AX procedure) with repetitive presentation of background stimuli. Each tone in a chord was comprised of six harmonics, and chords with complex ratios of fundamental frequency (e.g., frequency ratio of 8:15 in major seventh) resulted in dissonance. The chords were transposed for each presentation to make monkeys attend to cues other than the absolute frequency of a component tone. Monkeys were initially trained to detect changes from consonant (octave) to dissonant (major seventh). Following the successful acquisition of the task, transfer tests with novel chords were conducted. In these transfer tests, the performances with detecting changes from consonant to dissonant chords (perfect fifth to major seventh; perfect fourth to major seventh) were better than those with detecting reverse changes. These results suggested that the consonance of chords affected the performances of monkeys.
Objective: The purpose of this article is to provide a commentary on nonverbal communication in the physician-older patient interaction. Method: A literature review of physician-older patient communication yielded several published studies on this topic. Nonverbal behaviors were rarely examined in this body of literature even though the need to adopt a more “biopsycho-social” model of care was mentioned in several of the articles. The nonverbal communication literature was also reviewed to determine whether aging had been a variable of interest with regard to encoding (sending) and decoding communication (receiving) skills. Results: To date there have been very few studies that have investigated the role of nonverbal communication in the physician-older patient interaction. Selected encoding and decoding characteristics for both physicians and patients are discussed with the context of the aging process. In lieu of direct evidence linking nonverbal behavior and physician-older patient communication, possible implications are offered for the following characteristics: expression of emotion, pain expression, gestures, gaze, touch, hearing, and vocal affect. Three relevant outcomes (satisfaction with care, quality of life, and health status) are also discussed within the nonverbal behavior-aging framework. Conclusion: The connection between nonverbal behavior and how physicians and older patients interact with one another has not been rigorously examined. Identifying and improving nonverbal communication will likely enhance the verbal exchange in the medical encounter and may improve the older patient's quality of care.
Intimate relationships and sexual expression are fundamental human experiences that are impacted by serious illness and the end of life. People will experience changes in the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of their relationships and expressions of their sexuality. While people wish to talk with their healthcare providers about changes in their intimate and sexual relationships, many barriers exist. Despite a lack of prospective studies to guide assessment of the sexual and intimate needs of people at the end of life, healthcare providers can and should strive for inclusivity by using the multidisciplinary team, asking open-ended questions, and assessing the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of their patients. While some physical symptoms can be palliated, the physical and emotional changes that accompany serious illness and the dying process can be normalized and supported by healthcare providers.
This paper presents the argument that much of the current focus on caring in nursing is misdirected in that it is aimed at explaining a complex process with conceptual similarities to teaching, in terms of behavioural categories and structures. It is asserted that a pervasive use of the word 'caring' as synonymous with nursing has contributed to an erroneous emphasis in general nursing on emotional caring. This reflects a dualist notion of physical and emotional care, operationalized as separate nursing activities. The growing association of nursing with caring is thought to reinforce a fallacious distinction between caring and curing which has particularly impeded the development of a truly psychotherapeutic role for psychiatric nurses. It is concluded that nursing skills will be neither elucidated by further analysis of the concept of care nor promulgated by the connotations of the word.
Vocational psychology and behavior of migrants have been important factors which influence the orientation of migrants.According to previous studies,current characteristics of vocational psychology and behavior of migrants have been analyzed from four aspects,namely,occupational motivation,future occupation orientation,methods of job seeking and criteria of job choosing,and training motivation.On the basis of the analysis,policy recommendations for vocational development of migrants were put forward.
This study reports the results of a statewide teacher stress survey conducted with 187 teachers of learning disabled students and 178 teachers of nonlearning disabled handicapped students (total N = 365). Dependent variable ratings for the degree of intensity (how strong?) and the degree of frequency (how often?) of 30 sources and manifestations of stress, and six subscales and one total score for each of the stress frequency and strength dimensions were gathered. Background data regarding job satisfaction, peer, and administrative support during times of stress, use of mental health days, and professional counseling during times of stress are also presented.
With the expanding of university ranking influence,it drew more and more attention from the public.The university presidents,as the core administrators of universities,pay particular attention to the ranking list.But they show different ranking consciousnesses because of the different values and the vested interests.Therefore,it is of great help to analyze the reason for university presidents' different ranking consciousness and correct their ranking consciousnesses in the realization of the favorable interaction between universities and ranking list.
The entity of people with special health needs (SHN), in particular with disorders of the autistic spectrum becomes an important socio-cultural subsystem. This subsystem covers not only persons with SHN, but also their environment. The implementation of the correctional system is a disadvantage, in comparison with the inclusive model in which people with SHN are integrated into society. The problem for the solution of which the authors’ efforts are made is that, for the present, the considerable part of the world population is not ready to accept the autistic community as a real agent of the social planning, which fulfills its own management strategies. Researchers of autism quite often ignore a position of the most autistic community on this or that question. The purpose of this article consists in search of approaches to creation of a conceptual model of autism and autistic community, which could form the reliable basis for development of the social technologies promoting a full integration of the people with special health needs into society. Mainly theoretical methods of research are used: logical analysis, elements of the structural-functional analysis, comparative analysis, and also axiological approach. At the same time, an attempt to generalize a primary data obtained by empirical methods, such as observation, participant observation, questioning, the content analysis, interview is made. It is shown that for the stated goal to be achieved it is fruitful to consider a phenomenon of autism in the prospect of cultural anthropology. The concept of autistic culture is clarified and its relevance for study of autism and autistic community is substantiated. Some features of autistic culture are revealed. The discussion showed that many criteria of autism can be fully understood from the cultural-anthropological standpoint. The proposed approach meets the principles of post-non-classical rationality and allows to mitigate the social-biological dilemma. The results obtained can form a methodological-and-world-outlook basis for investigations in the fields of pedagogics, psychology, culturology.
The purpose of this study is to clarify that the distinguishing meaning of concession is supposition and to present the effective teaching method for letting Korean language learners know the meaning of concession by using the repetitive construction of alternative ending ‘－geon －geon’ or ‘－deun －deun’. The repetitive construction of alternative ending is used as subordinative clause and showing supposition. Also, its main clause is contrary to expectation of subordinative clause and is having the lower bound in likelihood scale like concessive sentence. In that respect, the repetitive construction of alternative ending is similar to concessive clause. And we show the repetitive construction of alternative ending is not too difficult semantically and syntactically for intermediate Korean language learners to study, and declare the repetitive construction of alternative ending and concessive clause could be presented at intermediate level of Korean language education.
When the sample selection probabilities and/or the response probabilities are related to the model dependent variable even after conditioning on the model covariates, the model holding for the sample data is different from the model holding in the population from which the sample is taken. Ignoring the sample selection or response mechanism in this case may result in biased inference. Accounting for sample selection bias is relatively simple because the sample selection probabilities are usually known. In this paper we consider the much harder problem where in addition to sample selection bias, the response mechanism is also not ignorable with unknown response probabilities. Our approach is based on empirical likelihood, which is defined with respect to the model holding for the data observed for the responding units. Simulation results with binary dependent outcomes illustrate the good performance of the proposed approach.
Objective: To explore the relationship between Chinese ”Big Seven” personality traits and well being. Methods: QZPS_Q and MHQ are used respectively to test 223 junior high school students. Results: Among the ”Big Seven” personality traits, extraversion, behavior style, manner of life and neuroticism can effectively predict well-being. Conclusion: In junior high school students, Chinese ”Big Seven” personality traits are powerful predictors of subjective well-being and psychological well-being.
Nowadays industrial revolution era, High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is part of skills needed to face global rivalry and complex life challenges.  However, these skills incline to be little-mastered. It seems to be necessary to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills from the early-ages, especially for students which are integrated in the learning process. This study is a kind of library research. The result of this study showed is the advancement of HOTS can be done through an open-ended approach. The open-ended approach is able to stimulate the students in getting used to think critically, logically, creatively, collusively, argumentating, until decision making in the form of problem solving which contains analyzing, evaluating, and creating activities. Thus, the open-ended approach is well done in the learning process that can support the development of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Background?The purposes of the research were to construct a “family therapy assessment model for the drop-out students in the middle way school” , and to evaluate the effects of the model. Method?The qualitative research method was adopted and the systemic theory was used to analyze the data. The family therapy assessment model was applied to 10 dropouts’ families, including home visit, 1.5 hours family interview, and 30 minutes family negotiation. All of the interview and negotiation were recorded and analyzed to provide the school staff the intervention maps. After one year’s intervention, the improvement of the dropouts’ behaviors as well as the family functions and relationships were evaluated. Findings? 1. The family therapy assessment showed (1) Parenting monitoring function badly. (2) Families had insecure attachment issues. (3) Rigid family interaction patterns reflected ineffective family communications and the parenting authorities failed. 2. The dropouts’ behaviors and the family function and relationship improved. Discussion? The assessment model for the high school dropouts was well built to improve the family health and the adolescents’ behaviors. It could be a potential model for other schools to use it. The rigid family interaction patterns, insecure attachment, and lack of parents’ monitoring in the dropouts’ families found implied a clinical intervention map.
Memory retrieval is considered to have roles in memory enhancement. Recently, memory reconsolidation was suggested to reinforce or integrate new information into reactivated memory. Here, we show that reactivated inhibitory avoidance (IA) memory is enhanced through reconsolidation under conditions in which memory extinction is not induced. This memory enhancement is mediated by neurons in the amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) through the simultaneous activation of calcineurin-induced proteasome-dependent protein degradation and cAMP responsive element binding protein-mediated gene expression. Interestingly, the amygdala is required for memory reconsolidation and enhancement, whereas the hippocampus and mPFC are required for only memory enhancement. Furthermore, memory enhancement triggered by retrieval utilizes distinct mechanisms to strengthen IA memory by additional learning that depends only on the amygdala. Our findings indicate that reconsolidation functions to strengthen the original memory and show the dynamic nature of reactivated memory through protein degradation and gene expression in multiple brain regions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02736.001
The third-person effect (TPE) is the tendency for people to perceive the media as more influential on others than on themselves. This study introduced a new methodological paradigm for measuring the TPE and examined whether the effect stems from an overestimation of the persuasibility of others, an underestimation of the persuasibility of the self, both, or neither. In three studies, we compared ratings of: (a) current self attitudes (both baseline and post-persuasion), (b) current others' attitudes (both baseline and post-persuasion), (c) retrospective self attitudes, and (d) retrospective others' attitudes. We also measured traditional third-person perception ratings of perceived influence. Rather than overestimating others' attitude change, we found evidence that people underestimated the extent to which their own attitudes had, or would have, changed.
Civic engagement can be empowering and might promote well-being, especially for individuals from marginalized backgrounds. This study uses a novel experimental approach to simulate civic engagement in a laboratory study and to test whether this approach engenders civic empowerment and buffers psychological and physiological reactivity to stress and social rejection. Young adults, primarily experiencing low socioeconomic status (N = 128), were randomly assigned to deliver a speech about a civic or a neutral issue. Giving a civic speech leads to higher feelings of empowerment compared with giving a neutral speech. Delivering the civic speech buffers sympathetic nervous system reactivity to stress (measured through the pre-ejection period) and leads to higher identification with social class background. This is one of the first studies to use an experimental approach and psychophysiological methods to examine the effects of civic empowerment on civic, psychosocial, and physiological reactivity outcomes.
People may have confidence in innovation, prone to try, buy and use new services and products. Expectedly, confidence in innovation is a component in the entrepreneurial mindset that promotes intention to become entrepreneur and is embedded in the micro-level context of gender and in the macro-level context of culture. - People's confidence in innovation is examined for a representative sample of 384,444 adults in 71 societies surveyed in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. - Linear modelling shows that people's confidence in innovation is a component in the entrepreneurial mindset by being especially high for entrepreneurs and by being related to other components such as self-efficacy, opportunity-alertness, risk-propensity and role-modelling. People's confidence are unrelated to their gender, unexpectedly, but are especially high in traditional culture, as hypothesised. Confidence in innovation promotes entrepreneurial intention, as expected and the benefit is especially high for men and in traditional culture, as hypothesised.
This study was conducted to determine changes in attitude toward science over time from the end of the first semester to the end of the second semester among seventh-grade life science students in a southeastern urban school system. The average attitude toward science of the 299 seventh graders changed from an undecided to a positive attitude toward science: 54 percent of the student sample remained the same in their attitude toward science, 46 percent had a change in attitude, 36 percent maintained a positive attitude toward science, and 20 percent of the student sample changed from a negative or undecided attitude to a positive attitude. Forty-four percent of the sample ended with a negative or undecided attitude toward science. Attitudinal subscales for this study included attitude toward the science teacher; science curriculum, and school. Significant relationships were found among the attitudinal subscales.
Research on the problems that exist in Adabiah Padang Senior High School, student learning competencies are still low. The effort that can be done is to apply the active learning model giving questioan and getting answer type with literacy content of SMAN Adabiah Padang. The purpose of this study was to study learning through an active model of giving questioan and getting answer type with literacy at SMA Adabiah Padang. This type of research is experimental research with randomized posttest control group design. The population in this study were all students of class X IPA SMA Adabiah Padang registered in 2019/2020. Sampling was done using the Simple purposive sampling technique, which was chosen as the research sample was class X IPA.4 as the experimental class and X IPA.3 as the control class. The instrument used consisted of posttest questions for knowledge competencies, observation sheets for competencies and skills. The assessment hypothesis using the t-test, can prove the knowledge competency tcount 7,90>ttable 1.67, competency assessment value 84% with very good categories and competency skills value tcount 3.65>ttable 1.84. This is an accepted hypothesis. It was concluded that the cooperative model of giving questioan and getting answer type with literacy opposed the competence of knowledge, attitudes, and skills of class X IPA students of SMA Adabiah Padang.
The study concerns the training of supervisors 1 of primary school teacher training institutions (ENI 2 ) in Niger with a particular focus on profiles, working conditions, and motivation. It aims at determining in what ways these variables influence or affect teaching activities. The results show that the variables related to profile and bad working conditions determine motivation which in turn affects classroom teaching behaviours.
Abstract This study examines the spatiotemporal patterns of Teenage Pregnancy (TP) disaggregated by location and key variables based on the 2008, 2013 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys using inferential statistics and geospatial techniques. TP rates fell in most areas over time especially between the 2013 and 2018 surveys. The socioeconomically disadvantaged Northern states had the highest TP rates but achieved the largest reductions over time while the Southern states had relatively lower TP rates but mainly experienced an increase or much smaller reduction over time. Persistent spatial clustering of TP and temporal changes in TP indicates geographical location had a significant impact on the occurrence of TP across Nigeria as well as on temporal changes in TP in individual states. TP rates also varied significantly over time by educational level, Wealth Index, marital status and ethnicity. The risk of TP remains high especially in Abuja, Delta, Kogi and Edo states where TP rates consistently increased over time and amongst teenage women that are poor, married/living together, widowed/divorced and illiterate. Findings suggest that designing and adopting policies/programs that take into consideration the spatiotemporal pattern and subgroup disparities in TP is fundamental to achieving more significant reductions in TP in Nigeria.
F or me (Dedre) Dan has been a protean figure. 1 first met him when I was a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego and he was a young professor at Berkeley. He was brilliant, charismatic, and compelling, yet at times engagingly shy. We stayed connected through a circle of friends centered in Nijmegen and the Bay Area, a group united by a passion for psychoIogically juicy theories of language acquisition and for crosslinguistic approaches-both signature positions of Dan's throughout his career. This has led to a many shared quests, and, ultimately, to deep bonds of friendship and respect. Dan and I (Melissa) fledged in the same academic nest at Harvard and were influenced by many of the same mentors, prime among them Roger Brown, but also Bruner, Miller, and Lenneberg. But Dan was there just before me, and had already finished and gone to Berkeley the year I arrived. Although I met him when he came back for a visit, I did not really get acquainted until I participated in his course at the fanious 1968 U. C. Berkeley summer school, "Language, Society, and the Child." I remember worrying about how to address him-could 1 presume to call him "Dan"? Now after years of friendship this makes me laugh, because Dan was then only 29 years old! But such was already his influence and natural authority. Down the years, Dan and I saw each other often-in Berkeley (conveniently, my home town), at the Max Planck Institute, and at conferences around the world. Language acquisition, of course, was often the focus of our discussions and sometimes heated
During the last few years, across Europe, special education has been orientated towards an inclusive model. Accordingly, in Greece, special education functions as an integral part of general education. However, few studies have investigated how children in the mainstream school understand diversity issues and specifically learning difficulties. The present study investigated typically developing children’s understanding of and attitudes towards diversity, and peers with learning difficulties. For this purpose, children aged 9–12 years, completed a questionnaire with mainly open‐ended questions and some close‐type questions. Regarding children’s understanding of diversity, the majority of responses focused more on individual/personality differences, on biological differences and less on disabilities or difficulties. Research into children’s understanding about the causes of learning difficulties demonstrated misunderstanding, while a large number of children had a total lack of knowledge. On the other hand, they seem to understand that learning difficulties may affect all the aspects of life. Children’s attitudes towards school inclusion were positive on a more superficial level. Results are discussed in terms of educational implications and school practice for the development and implementation of appropriate intervention programs.
The Study was conducted to investigate the relation between yacht racers metal toughness and goal achievement orientation. Data were collected from 143 yacht racers and analyzed through t-test, one-way ANOVA and phased multiple regression analysis. Based on the above research method, the following conclusions were made. First, the mental toughness by belonging team denoted significant difference in confidence, arousal control, attention control capability, visual and imagery control and attitude control. And amateur team showed higher than other teams in confidence, arousal control, attention control capability, visual and imagery control and attitude control. Second, the mental toughness by yacht career denoted significant difference in confidence, arousal control, attention control capability, visual and imagery control and attitude control. The group over 7 year career showed higher than other group in confidence, arousal control, attention control capability, visual and imagery control and attitude control. Third, the mental toughness by grade denoted significant difference in confidence, arousal control, visual and imagery control and motivation level. And the excellent player group showed higher than non-excellent player group. Fourth, after investigation the effects of mental toughness on goal achievement orientation, positive energy, visual and imagery control and attention control capability influenced in assignment orientation and motivation level and attention control capability influenced in ego orientation.
Adaptive and challenging behavior changes associated with movement from Minnesota's state institutions to community homes were examined. Most of the 148 participants who moved had severe or profound mental retardation, significant challenging behavior, and several decades of institutionalization. Adaptive and challenging behavior were assessed in the institution and thereafter annually in the community. Relative to institutional levels, adaptive behavior declined among residents who moved to community ICFs/MR but was unchanged for the HCBS Waiver group. Challenging behavior tended to worsen initially but, except for internalized behavior, no longer differed from institutional levels by the second community assessment. Change in challenging behavior was unrelated to community residence type. Previous papers involving these participants showed consistent lifestyle enhancements and reduced service costs relative to the institution.
The work deals with research, if observation of aggresive behaviour can inspire children in preschool age between 3 to 6 years in their own behaviour. The first part ot the labour is occupied with theory, concretely the influence od the mediums on the human psyche, especially of children. The anxiety the medium can influence the children exists from beginning. First reigns the fear of pressed mediums, as were f.e. printed serials, rodokapsy (printed pocket novels), later transferred the anxiety in directin to TV. A lot of medium sensationes showing violence on screen how in news service, so in second line, so called B-pictures, mainly of american production, in principle glorify the violence. This but the more the showed violence can become in the society a sort of norm. The work occupies mainly the influence of spectator-violence on children and a integral part of this is the resolution of the higher stated theme. To get confirm or displace of this hypothesis is used the method of a questionary form, that was given to the parents of preschool children, and more the received informations from approchable sources of literature and observations in praxis, what takes place in a nursery school.
SUMMARY As the attachment is very important in the development of the human being, that in this study to was investigated the adult attachment and the styles of love with relation to the satisfaction in the relationship. This study has been realized by relationship of Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian nationality. The objective was to know how they correlate the variables: attachment-related, styles of love and satisfaction in the romantic relationship. And to check which combination of variables they were a better success in the satisfaction in the romantic relationship. To measure of the variables, was used Spanish an Portuguese versions of the Scales. To measure the dimensions of the attachment-related was used of the Experiences in Close Relationships, ECR (Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L. y Shaver, P. R., 1998). To
analyzes Abstract This paper provides quantitative evidence on the underlying views of voters and state lawmakers about the legitimacy of medical marijuana based on voter- and legislature-adopted statutes between 1990 and 2012. Using latent class analysis and transition analysis, we determine whether state laws reveal underlying beliefs about the legitimacy of medical marijuana and the likelihoods of changing classes. Five distinct classes were identified: (1) Unacceptable; (2) Research Purposes; (3) Pharmaceutical Framework; (4) Home Remedy; and (5) Mixed Supply. Jurisdictions have a statistically greater likelihood of transitioning to a more varied supply framework if they have already passed a ballot initiative with home cultivation supply only and patient-recommended registration. A coordinated and flexible public health and public safety approach is needed to address the relevant legal frameworks adopted over time.
America's criminal justice system is broken. The United States punishes at a higher per capita rate than any other country in the world. In the last twenty years, incarceration rates have risen 500 percent. Sentences are harsh, prisons are overcrowded, life inside is dangerous, and rehabilitation programs are ineffective. Police and prosecutors operate in the dark shadows of the legal process--sometimes resigning themselves to the status quo, sometimes turning a profit from it. The courts define punishment as "time served," but that hardly begins to explain the suffering of prisoners.Looking not only to court records but to works of philosophy, history, and literature for illumination, Robert Ferguson, a distinguished law professor, diagnoses all parts of a now massive, out-of-control punishment regime. He reveals the veiled pleasure behind the impulse to punish (which confuses our thinking about the purpose of punishment), explains why over time all punishment regimes impose greater levels of punishment than originally intended, and traces a disturbing gap between our ability to quantify pain and the precision with which penalties are handed down.Ferguson turns the spotlight from the debate over legal issues to the real plight of prisoners, addressing not law professionals but the American people. Do we want our prisons to be this way? Or are we unaware, or confused, or indifferent, or misinformed about what is happening? Acknowledging the suffering of prisoners and understanding what punishers do when they punish are the first steps toward a better, more just system.
Purpose - This paper examines the dominant socio-cognitive intentions- based models for entrepreneurship development and proposes two new non- socio-cognitive, non-personality traits variables (personal freedom aspirations and personal stability requirements) that moderate entrepreneurship development. Design/methodology/approach - Determinants of entrepreneurial intentions are explored from a grounded perspective based on six cases of individuals who made decisions to abandon their wage-earning jobs in order to set up their own business ventures. Findings - The six cases suggest that, when personal autonomy is threatened, personal freedom aspirations could tip individuals into entrepreneurial intentions. These intentions are in turn moderated by personal stability requirements before embarking on entrepreneurial ventures. Research limitations/implications - The six case studies rely on individuals’ hindsight and recollections. Thus, reported associations amongst variables that led to entrepreneurial acti...
Anger, its development, differentiation, expression and control are important themes in psychotherapy process. Psychotherapists have developed different hypotheses about anger dynamics and have related it to effectiveness of psychotherapy. The study explores a subjective experience of long-term psychotherapy process. Seven women with experience in analytical, psychodynamic or existential therapy participated in our research. We asked clients to tell the story of their psychotherapy with special focus on the most important moments of the process. The method of thematic analysis was used in the qualitative analysis of data. Psychotherapeutic stories revealed various aspects of therapeutic experience, including the theme of anger. Respondents reflected on their therapeutic experience, spontaneously mentioned important changes in anger, such as reduction of its intensity, feeling of relief and liberation. Changes in anger were linked to the possibility of experiencing and expressing anger in psychotherapy, exploring anger’s motives, and experimenting with different forms of anger expression. Respondents claimed it was important to express their anger reactions towards therapists directly and to explore its meaning. Many respondents highlighted the role of the therapist in the process of exploration of anger. Analysis of respondents’ reflections showed that successful work with anger could be considered as a criterion of effective psychotherapy. (Less)
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Although communication apprehension (CA) has long been reported to hinder communication skills and academic attainment, its cumulative impact on self-stigma of academic help-seeking in a global education market has nevertheless been overlooked. The present study examined the relationship between CA and self-stigma of academic help-seeking among British university students who acquired English at different stages in their lives and its impact on achievement. Data were collected from 150 students who completed the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) and the self-stigma of academic help-seeking scale together with a demographic questionnaire. Overall, the findings showed a significant relationship between CA and self-stigma of academic help-seeking while age of English acquisition, residency status and level of study were also found to have a significant effect on the level of CA. The implications of the results are discussed within the higher education provision, pedagogy and psychological frameworks.
Purposes - This study aims to determine and analyze the effect of motorcycle advertisement and product attributes towards consumer attitude of students of higher education Islamic private in Medan City.  Methods - This research using associative approach which look for relation between motorcycle advertisement and attribute to consumer attitude with research object is student of private college of Islamic in Medan City. The data testing was used Multiple Regression.  Findings - The results showed that both partially and simultaneously both independent variables have a positive and significant impact on consumer attitudes that is equal to 85.5%. The rest is influenced by other variables not examined in this study  Keywords -  Advertisement, attributes, consumer attitudes
In prior research using trait self-report measures, depression has been linked to elevated anger experience and anger suppression, whereas observational studies of marital interactions reveal high rates of overt anger expression by depressed people. This study tested whether the key distinction between these contradictory lines of research is a) target of anger expression (people in general versus spouse) or b) method of measurement (self-report versus behavioral observation). Depressed patients (N = 33) scored significantly higher than did nondepressed controls (N = 41) on self-report measures of anger and anger suppression regardless of whether the target of anger was the spouse or others. Group differences were nonsignificant on anger expression. Thus, it appears that the critical feature of studies linking depression with heightened anger expression may be their use of behavioral observations rather than their specific focus on the marital relationship.
The implementation of the academic information services, UMM has been trying to present some system of academic services for the various students needs, one of the highlights is KRS-Online system because it is the most frequently used system of students in programming courses in each semester.Complaints and suggestions certainly are reasonable for the system services are used by many people.This study aimed to KRS-Online users’ convenience can be measured empirically based indicators of variable users’ experience and cognitive psychology to prove whether these two variables can affect the users’ convenience.Based on this research, it has been proved that the users’ experience and cognitive psychology significantly affect both users’ convenience variables partially tested individually or simultaneously or together.
Abstract In order to satisfy the several training requests regarding the method of Episodes of Situated Learning by teachers of all levels, in the academic year 2018/2019, CREMIT (Catholic University) has developed an e-learning course. This paper aims to describe the training structure, designed according to the ADDIE instructional system model, focusing on the elements such as micro-learning, e-tivities and e-tutoring. The course was delivered in two editions (November–December 2018 and May–June 2019). The evaluation process highlights some relevant aspects: the high level of participants’ satisfaction, the moderate numbers of dropouts and the completely positive results of the assessment activities. The analysis of the gathered data allowed us to re-design the e-learning course.
Objective: To compare sexual risk behaviors in maltreated male and female sexually active adolescents with a comparison population and examine whether specific maltreatment experiences were associated with sexual risk behaviors and teen pregnancy. Method: Data came from the fourth assessment (M = 7.2 years after baseline) of an ongoing longitudinal study with case-control design. The sample was restricted to only the sexually active adolescents, leaving a sample of 251 (n = 82 comparison, n = 169 maltreated, mean age = 18.49 years, SD = 1.46). Maltreatment type was coded from case records, and sexual behaviors were assessed via computerized questionnaire. Results: Maltreated youth were significantly younger at first consensual intercourse than comparison youth, and males were younger than females. Maltreated males reported significantly higher number of lifetime sexual partners than maltreated females. Neglected, sexually abused, and physically abused youth were more likely to have had a one-night stand than comparison youth. Sexually abused females were at higher risk of having sex under the influence than other maltreated females. Neglected females were more likely to have ever been pregnant than females with other maltreatment types or comparison females. A higher number of maltreatment victimizations predicted a younger age at first pregnancy involvement for both sexes. Conclusion: Many maltreated youth continue to be at high risk for engaging in behaviors that may initiate a trajectory of problematic sexual behaviors. The findings highlight maltreated males and neglected females as vulnerable groups that should be targeted in prevention efforts to curtail sexual risk behaviors and prevent teenage pregnancy.
The basic purpose of this research is to examine which factors have an influence on the choice of method of change and how they are linked to negative consequences which result from an inappropriate approach towards change. A quantitative approach to research work is applied. The data was obtained by a questionnaire, and then processed by using the method of factor analysis and multiple regression. Based on research findings we could conclude if between the factors of choice of change methods and negative consequences exists a direct link. The research is especially important for managers in the transition period when they approach different change methods proposed by consulting companies, academics and others. If management during this process will consider inappropriate factors in selection of change methods we believe the probability of failure, understood as lower added value for organization stakeholders, will increase. The research introduces new findings concerning the link between factors of choice of change methods, and the extent of the undesired consequences of change. Research studies of this nature are not presently to be found in the literature on change management.
How to teach science and how to train scientists are among frequently debated issues today. In this respect, many science teaching curricula have been developed and implemented in Turkey. It is observed that activities aimed at teaching the nature of science are included in curricula. In this study, the effectiveness of the explicit reflective approach, which is one of the methods employed in teaching the nature of science. The study was carried out in an elementary school selected from the city of Kirikkale. The semi-experimental design was used in the research. As the data collection instrument, the “Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire” (VNOS-E) developed by Lederman et al. (2002) was employed in the study. The findings obtained were analyzed using the content analysis method, which is among qualitative data analysis techniques. In conclusion, it was observed that the explicit reflective approach had positive effects in improving students’ views of nature of science.
As a society, tremendous strides have been made in addressing violence against women and children. Yet, when most acknowledgements of abuse are made, they tend to be within a specific or isolated context one that recognizes men as abusers and women as victims. There is lìttle recognition that women especially mothers have the capacity to sexually abuse children. Although there is some research that examines female-perpetrated sexual abuse, existing approaches tend to rest upon conceptions ofthe female offender as rnad, bad, or victirn. However, such constructions ignore the complexity of the issue and leave victims with no language to speak about their experiences. The aim ofthis work is to develop a more reflexive theoretical approach in order to move beyond rigid explanations. Such a perspective will be informed by survivors' narratives, specifically, multiple un-structured interviews with eight women who were sexually abused by their mother or female caregiver. Working within a poststructur alist framework (which locates matemal sexual abuse within a discourse analysis), survivor accounts are critically analysed iu order to explore how social constructions based on femininity, heterosexuality, and motherhood influence survivors' perceptions oftheir mother or female caregiver. Fìndings suggest the impact of mother-daughter sexual abuse on suwivors is particularly profound especially in tenns ofthe nature ofthe abuse as well as the complex ways survivors have coped wìth, resisted, and suruived the sexual violence, Furlher, while survivors certainly draw on (and actively use) mad, bad, and victim explanations when attempting to make sense of the violence, they also recognize that their lnothers hold agency and had the capacity to make different choices. Finally, matemal sexual abuse tends to have an enorrnous impact on surwivors' identities (speciñcally, gender, sexuality, and mother identities), which I argue are influenced by dominant discursive understandings of motherhood, femininity, and
Sleep spindles are bursts of 11–15 Hz that occur during non-rapid eye movement sleep. Spindles are highly synchronous across the scalp in the electroencephalogram (EEG) but have low spatial coherence and exhibit low correlation with the EEG when simultaneously measured in the magnetoencephalogram (MEG). We developed a computational model to explore the hypothesis that the spatial coherence spindles in the EEG is a consequence of diffuse matrix projections of the thalamus to layer 1 compared with the focal projections of the core pathway to layer 4 recorded in the MEG. Increasing the fanout of thalamocortical connectivity in the matrix pathway while keeping the core pathway fixed led to increased synchrony of the spindle activity in the superficial cortical layers in the model. In agreement with cortical recordings, the latency for spindles to spread from the core to the matrix was independent of the thalamocortical fanout but highly dependent on the probability of connections between cortical areas.
Introduction: Physical activity can improve depression symptoms and quality of life of its practitioners. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of physical activity in relation to depression and quality of life in the elderly. Methods: The evaluation of depression was applied and the Beck Depression Inventory to assess quality of life, Instrument Whoqol Breef in 40 subjects, divided into two groups, practicing and non-practicing physical activity. Results: Mean age was 67 ± 5.8 years with a female predominance. Regarding depression, the practitioner group showed a lower rate than the nondepressed group not practicing. A quality of life analysis showed that this was the best group of practitioners, with a statistically significant areas of environment (p = 0.043) and psychological (p = 0.007).Conclusion: It can be concluded physical activity is beneficial to the quality of life, and can promote improvement in rates of depression in the elderly population
Being Analysed By Freud in 1921: The diary of a patient - The author, who is a psychoanalyst, recounts how she discovered the diary in which her grandmother, who was a psychiatrist, described her four-month analysis with Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1921. Some biographical data about the patient are presented, and five extracts of the diary are reported. This diary, although at irregular intervals, reports the detailed interventions made by Freud and the patient in the course of the analysis. Finally, conclusions on how Freud worked with patients at that period, particularly insofar as transference is concerned, are drawn. (The complete diary, with comments by various authors, is published in German in the book edited by Anna Koellreuter "Wie benimmt sich der Prof. Freud eigentlich?": Ein neu entdecktes Tagebuch von 1921 historisch und analytisch kommentiert. Giessen: Psychosozial, 2009). KEY WORDS: Sigmund Freud’s technique, transference, interpretation, history of psychoanalysis, diary of a psychoanalysis
Teachers' professional development is inseparable from the development of teacher culture,and teacher culture has stimulative effect on teachers' professional development.In the current higher institutions can adopt suitable soft campus for teachers' professional development,encourage the establishment of specialized professional vision and beliefs in teachers group and strengthen teachers' self cultivation.It can provide the omni-directional "non-bordered" learning opportunities,promote teachers' professional development to promote teachers' specialization matures.
The relationships among ontology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and communication are developed. Communication is both a resource of the social world and that which constitutes the social world. As such, communication is hermeneutic —the interpretive and critical scheme —and the ontological foundation of the social world. Phenomenology is the perspective in and through which this foundation — seen as presuppositions — is critically examined. The phenomenological and positivistic perspectives are contrasted in terms of the respective emphases on ontological and epistemological objectives. Finally, a portion of a study is discussed as an illustration of the preliminary moves made in a phenomenological approach to communication research.
Teaching strategies help students take more responsibility for their own learning and enhance the process of teaching for learning. This study aimed to find out the application and effect of strategies in teaching Mathematics among Grade 7 students of Kipit Agro-Fishery National High School, Labason, Zamboanga del Norte, School Year 2015–2016. Quasi–experimental method of research utilizing the Pretest–Posttest Nonequivalent Group Design was employed in which the experimental group with 51 students was exposed to 5-in-1 strategies in teaching Mathematics while the control group with 46 students was exposed to the traditional talk-chalkeraser strategy. The teacher–made–questionnaire consisting of 60 items was used to determine the pretest and posttest performance of the students in both groups. The statistical methods used were the arithmetic mean, z – test one – sample group, t – test for independent samples, and t – test for correlated samples. The study revealed that the 5-in-1 strategies in teaching Mathematics which greatly influenced students’ academic performance showed substantive proof or evidence of their effectiveness. This necessitates that teachers and students should collaborate actively in constructing mathematical knowledge through the use of 5-in-1 strategies that encourage them to explore and investigate mathematical ideas. Moreover, teachers and students should cooperate in the teaching and learning of Mathematics to ascertain high level of students’ performance which is reflective of the students’ success and teachers’ teaching achievement.
Focal concerns has utility for explaining criminal justice decisions, including among police. At present, there is no research that has examined focal concerns and arrest decisions in non-sexual, intimate partner violence (IPV) cases. This study used a stratified random sample of 776 IPV incidents from an urban police department in one of the five largest and most diverse US cities to assess the effect of focal concerns on arrest. A multivariate binary logistic regression model demonstrated victim injury, suspect IPV and general criminal history, evidence, witnesses, victim preference for formal intervention, women victims, and intoxicated suspects predicted arrest. When the suspect was on scene, this was the strongest predictor of arrest. Implications and future research are discussed.
Pain, fear and anxiety are intimately linked in the brain and body, anatomically, chemically and as a function of survival. It is not surprising therefore that many behavioural problems caused by pain manifest as fear and anxiety, including separation problems; sound sensitivities; pacing and panting; and avoidance of previously accepted places to walk and/or sleep. The clues that indicate a clinical cause of a behavioural problem are often not specific to pain and further investigation or clinical assessment is often needed to identify pain as a likely cause. This article illustrates these principles by two cases of anxiety caused by pain.
Citation: Fallah Madvari R, Mosa Farokhani M, Fallah Madvari A, Mirfakhraei F, Laal F. Development and Validity of Krik patrick's Evaluation Tool to Investiagte the Efficincy of the Training Course on Workers' use of Hearing Protection Equipment. Archives of Occupational Health. 2018; 2(4): 193-8. Article History: Received: 18 July 2018; Revised: 31 August 2018; Accepted: 16 October 2018 Copyright: ©2017 The Author(s); Published by Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 Ph.D Student of occupational health engineering, Student Research Committee, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti Univers ity of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran• 2 Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran•3 B.Sc, Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran•4 B.Sc, Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran•5 Instructor, health promotion research center, Zahedan University of medical sciences, Zahedan, Iran• * Corresponding Author: fereydoonlaal, Email: fereydoonlaal@gmail.com, Tel: +98-543-3295799
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Logo therapy on suicidal thoughts and life expectancy among women with AIDS that covered by Community of values revival. This study was semi-empirical pre-test - post-test with control group. The statistical population included all women with AIDS that covered by community of values revival, 53women from this community were evaluated by Miller (1988) life expectancy questionnaire and Beck et al., (1991) suicidal thoughts questionnaire, 26 subjects who theirlife expectancy scored was lower than 120 and their suicidal thoughts scored was more than 15 randomly divided into two groups, control group (n = 13) and experimental groups (n = 13). Then logo therapy method in 10 sessions were conducted on experimental groups, in the end, both groups were assessed again by using research tools. The results showed that between experimental and control groups in terms of life expectancy and suicidal thoughts after the intervention there was a significant difference (p<0.01). Also in the experimental group between life expectancy scored and suicidal thoughts scored before and after intervention, significant differences were observed (p<0.01). Logo therapy can increase life expectancy and reduce suicidal thoughts in women with AIDS.
This study analyses the perception of the norm used in text messages among Italian university students, and its effects on the acquisition of orthographic competence in adolescent speakers. 107 graduate students from 48 provinces participated in the survey. Data were collected administering a 39 item ad hoc questionnaire. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to gather construct validity of the developing instrument. The classification for italiano digitato textisms is confirmed by psycometric properties. The qualitative analysis showed a high degree of rejection in the educational context, although this writing norm was not considered as prejudicial to texts drafted by the participants of the study. The results revealed that the participants have a negative assessment of textisms related to the graphic and phonological level, while they accept textisms related to lexical and semantic level. Also, the dialectalisms are confirmed as relevant textisms in Italian digital writing.
This paper suggested that the university students should make a reasonable direction according to themselves condition and social environments when they choose jobs.The students should follow objective regulation and promote their professional qualities in order to obtain ideal occupation.It was proposed that only doing themselves best at their practical position they could have opportunities to take up an excellent occupation.
This study is concerned with the assessment of body composition indicators for urban and rural schoolchil-dren (related to the same adaptive type) of the Republic of Tuva in the context of «transformation» of the tradi-tional lifestyle. Comprehensive surveys of the population in this region were started by anthropologists back in the 1970s; therefore, this research should be considered as a continuation of the work on the dynamics of adaptation processes among the indigenous population in the light of changes of the environmental factors, primarily socio-economic and cultural. Comparison of morphological characteristics and growth rates of urban and rural school-children is particularly interesting, as changes in the lifestyle of the population during the transition to urban condi-tions entail significant increase in anthropometric indicators, which is especially pronounced in comparison with children of the same age living in less urbanized environment. As such, the relevance of this study is determined by the necessity to assess the degree of adaptation of those modern indigenous groups of the Tuva Republic, which are at the transitional stage from one ecological niche to another. Comparative anthropo-ecological studies have been carried out according to the standard morpho-physiological program in two groups of school-age chil-dren: the first one was examined in the city of Kyzyl (406 individuals) in 2018, and the second one in the Todzhin-sky kozhuun (district) of the Tuva Republic (435 individuals) in 2019. Schoolchildren examined in the capital of the republic (as the place of their birth and residence) can be classified as conditionally urban. This is the first genera-tion born within or moved to the city with parents from various rural areas of the steppe zone of the republic. A large number of internal migrants from other areas have also been found in the villages of Todzha, where previ-ously Todzhan Tuvans represented the ethnic majority. In this study, we assessed the overall body dimensions and body composition indices, acquired using the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis. The obtained results show that there are virtually no significant differences between the anthropometric data from urban and rural groups of schoolchildren by overall dimensions and body composition across the entire age range. The observed differen-tiation at individual age points is more likely related to sample specifics. The age of menarche is not different in urban and rural groups: for urban girls it is 13.1 years, for rural girls — 13.0 years. The physical characteristics of schoolchildren indicate a relatively small shift in socio-economic conditions in regions with different extent of ur-banization. The differences are smoothed by the gradual withdrawal of the traditional way of life (stockbreeding), which is more intense among the indigenous groups of Siberia. Thus, our interim results of anthropo-ecological study conducted in Tuva Republic show significant desadaptive changes among the local indigenous population, both within the rural and the emerging urban communities.
ABSTRACT The achievement goal framework (Dweck, 1986, American Psychologist, 41, 1040) has been well-established in children and college-students, but has rarely been examined empirically with older adults. The current study, including younger and older adults, examined the effects of memory self-efficacy, learning goals (focusing on skill mastery over time) and performance goals (focusing on performance outcome evaluations) on memory performance. Questionnaires measured memory self-efficacy and general orientation toward learning and performance goals; free and cued recall was assessed in a subsequent telephone interview. As expected, age was negatively related and education was positively related to memory self-efficacy, and memory self-efficacy was positively related to memory, in a structural equation model. Age was also negatively related to memory performance. Results supported the positive impact of learning goals and the negative impact of performance goals on memory self-efficacy. There was no significant direct effect of learning or performance goals on memory performance; their impact occurred via their effect on memory self-efficacy. The present study supports past research suggesting that learning goals are beneficial, and performance goals are maladaptive, for self-efficacy and learning, and validates the achievement goal framework in a sample including older adults.
Contemporary football tends more and more to demand appropriate body structure, strong, enduring bodies, extensive football intelligence controlled aggressiveness, highly developed functional and motor abilities and a sense for improvisation and a collective game, of football players. The aim of this research is to define the average values of all the 712 participants in the 2002 World Football Championship by analyzing height and body mass, as well as certain weight-height relations. The research results point to the fact that the average height of all the participants in the 2002 World Football Championship is 180.90 ± 6.13 cm and the average body mass is 75.91 ± 6.38 kg. The biggest average height was noted in the case goalkeepers, then defense and offense players, and the smallest height (178.36 ± 5.55 cm) and body mass (73.87 ± 5.55 kg) was noted in the case of connecting players. The first team of Brazilian football players, the champions of this tournament (2002), is distinguished from second ranked Germany and third ranked Turkey and all the other participants. Brazilian football players are on average younger, they have played longer for their national team, they are of smaller body mass and weight-height index.
ABSTRACT Sexual minority youth and young adults (SMYYA) have higher prevalence of mental and behavioral health problems potentially linked to experiences of discrimination, stigma, and rejection. Among Hispanics, the intersection of stressors related to being an ethnic and sexual minority may result in compounding adverse outcomes. Coming out may play an important role in experiencing discrimination, stigma, and rejection. However, limited research examines coming out among Hispanic SMYYA (HSMYYA). This qualitative study seeks to understand the coming-out experiences of HSMYYA living in South Florida. Twenty participants between 18 and 28 years old were interviewed. Qualitative content analysis generated codes, which were grouped into categories to generate themes. This study presents data highlighting reasons for disclosing and not disclosing sexual orientation and the perceived consequences of those decisions. Additionally, we discuss unique cultural elements that impact HSMYYA’s decisions to reveal sexual orientation.
This study aimed to investigate EFL learners’ request strategies to faculty to see whether politeness is interpreted differently or similarly across gender and different levels of language proficiency in text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). Data included initial semistructured interviews with 4 EFL instructors and 10 college EFL learners. Based on the interviews, an online task was developed that included request situations that were most likely to occur in real life in SCMC settings. Having administered the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), the online task was completed by 99 lower-intermediate and 118 upper-intermediate EFL learners in 4 universities in Iran. Participants’ request strategies were coded and analysed to explore the possible differences. Chi-square findings suggested that gender had no relations with the choice of request strategies by the participants to faculty in SCMC; however, level of proficiency made a difference. This research provides guidelines for course designers to generate appropriate pedagogic guidelines for EFL learners in their hierarchical relationships with their teachers.
It is a key element that the problem of emotional feature extraction based on facial image to recognize a human emotion status. In this paper, we propose an Advanced AAM that is improved version of proposed Facial Expression Recognition Systems based on Bayesian Network by using FACS and AAM. This is a study about the most efficient method of optimal facial feature area for human emotion recognition about random user based on generalized HCI system environments. In order to perform such processes, we use a Statistical Shape Analysis at the normalized input image by using Advanced AAM and FACS as a facial expression and emotion status analysis program. And we study about the automatical emotional feature extraction about random user.
Before research agendas again deal with the question of how the physical attributes of a place impact on adult learning, we must consider some very basic, yet important, questions. This article urges the reader to think about the physical environment as one of many controllable conditions of learning. The author offers a conception of the physical environment as not only a stimulus evoking a response but also as a function of human intent, control, and structure. The purpose of the article is to encourage adult educators to ask appropriate questions about the physical learning environment and to develop increased environmental awareness.
Abstract This replication study examined protective effects of positive childhood memories with caregivers (“angels in the nursery”) against lifespan and intergenerational transmission of trauma. More positive, elaborated angel memories were hypothesized to buffer associations between mothers’ childhood maltreatment and their adulthood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms, comorbid psychopathology, and children's trauma exposure. Participants were 185 mothers (M age = 30.67 years, SD = 6.44, range = 17–46 years, 54.6% Latina, 17.8% White, 10.3% African American, 17.3% other; 24% Spanish speaking) and children (M age = 42.51 months; SD = 15.95, range = 3–72 months; 51.4% male). Mothers completed the Angels in the Nursery Interview (Van Horn, Lieberman, & Harris, 2008), and assessments of childhood maltreatment, adulthood psychopathology, children's trauma exposure, and demographics. Angel memories significantly moderated associations between maltreatment and PTSD (but not depression) symptoms, comorbid psychopathology, and children's trauma exposure. For mothers with less positive, elaborated angel memories, higher levels of maltreatment predicted higher levels of psychopathology and children's trauma exposure. For mothers with more positive, elaborated memories, however, predictive associations were not significant, reflecting protective effects. Furthermore, protective effects against children's trauma exposure were significant only for female children, suggesting that angel memories may specifically buffer against intergenerational trauma from mothers to daughters.
The purposes of this study were firstly, to determine the anthropometric variables that differ significantly (p  0.05) between successful and less successful young, South-African female gymnasts who participate in the floor item and secondly, to determine the anthropometric variables that contribute to the floor item performance of those gymnasts. Twelve young, female gymnasts (13.39 ± 2.14 years) from a gymnastics club in the North-West Province of South Africa participated in the study. Only gymnasts who participated at level 6-9 and junior as well as senior Olympic level were selected to participate in the study. Sixty-one anthropometric variables were measured on the dominant side of the body according to the methods of Norton et al. (1996). Independent t-tests revealed that the gymnast who obtained the highest marks (top 5) during the execution of the floor item during the South African Gymnastics Championships had statistical and practical significantly larger relaxed and flexed upper arm, wrist and ankle circumferences as well as mesomorphy values than the less successful gymnasts. The cluster analysis-reduced variables were used to perform a forward, stepwise multiple regression analysis which showed that bi-trochanterion (34.86%), femur (17.07%) and bi-deltoid breadth (4.93%); front thigh skinfold (19.71%); fat percentage (7.68%); acromialradial (4.09%) and foot length (0.05%) as well as waist (6.68%), chest (2.92%) and gluteal thigh circumference (2.02%) contributed 100% to the variance in gymnasts’ floor performances. The contributions of bi-trochanterion breadth, femur breadth, gluteal thigh circumference and foot length to floor-gymnastic performance were significant. Only gluteal thigh circumference showed a negative relationship with floor-gymnastic performance. The conclusion that can therefore be drawn is that larger limb and torso circumferences, waist breadths, fat percentages and front thigh skinfolds, as well as upper arm and foot lengths are important anthropometric floor performance determinants for young, South African female gymnasts and should be included in the sports-scientific testing protocols of gymnasts. Key words:  Gymnastics; Floor; Anthropometry; Performance; Females; Girls
A survey of 138 husbands in dual-earner households examined factors influencing participation in two household tasks, cleaning and cooking. Path analyses showed that husbands were more involved in these tasks if they had a nontraditional view of masculinity and if they perceived little conflict between their work and family life. Also, the greater the wives' contribution to family income, the greater the husbands' participation in cleaning and cooking. Finally, a traditional view of masculinity tended to decrease involvement in household tasks by increasing the perception of conflict between work and home life.
ABSTRACT Objectives: The two-fold purpose of this feasibility study was to determine if (a) self-regulated strategy development intervention would improve the writing skills of a child who uses cochlear implants and (b) if self-regulated strategy development intervention would improve the reading comprehension skills of a child who uses cochlear implants. Methods: One eleven year-old child with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss who utilised bilateral cochlear implants participated in this single-subject, multiple baseline across behaviours design treatment study which examined the effectiveness of using writing intervention to improve reading comprehension in children who are deaf. The participant completed three seven-week writing interventions focused on narratives, opinion essays, and persuasive essays. The participant also completed progress monitoring in baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions for each behaviour. Intervention was delivered one-on-one for 60 min one day per week. Results: Visual analysis of progress monitoring data indicated that writing performance improved in two out of the three styles of writing throughout the intervention and that the improvement for those two areas was maintained after intervention was complete. Comparison of pre- and post-test measures of reading comprehension indicated that the writing intervention was effective for improving reading comprehension for the participant. Conclusion: Self-regulated strategy development writing intervention may be a beneficial intervention strategy to improve writing skills, and potentially reading comprehension skills, in children who are deaf and use cochlear implants.
The Grammar of Dutch Intonation (GDI) provides a description of the possible intonation contours of Dutch. The GDI distinguishes accent-lending and nonaccent-lending pitch configurations, but refrains from further functional statements. This paper describes an experimental attempt to verify meaning hypotheses for four Dutch single-accent pitch patterns as postulated in the linguistic literature. The four pitch accent types were realized on proper names; the abstract meanings, in terms of the manipulation of an element of the background shared between speaker and listener, were incorporated in situational contexts, distinguishing between a “default” and a vocative use of the proper name (“orientation”). Listeners ranked the four melodic shapes from most to least appropriate in their specific context. After revision of part of the materials a second perception experiment was conducted, in which subjects had to rank four contexts from most to least appropriate for a specific pitch accent type. Results show a distinct effect of “orientation” on the appropriateness of two of the investigated pitch accent types in the various context types; the other two pitch accent types are associated with the predicted context types (and vice versa) well above chance, indicating the viability of at least two of the linguistic proposals.
Objective:To develop an emotion rating scale for Ganzangxiang (ERSG) of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).Methods: The ERSG was developed according to investigating of clinical semeiology of Ganzangxiang of TCM features by testing 359 case (117 Ganzheng of TCM patients, 78 others of TCM patients and 164 normal control subjects). The scale consisting of 36 final item was from 80 items without clinical validation.Results: The Cronbach's a ranged from 0.796 to 0.933; The test-retest reliability ranged from 0545 to 0.719; The result of factor analysis showed satisfactory construct validity. Conclusion: The ERSG attained satisfactory reliability and validity.
A traditional induction may not always be best suited to the needs of increasingly diverse student groups on study programmes. Research shows (Cook et al., 2006; Burley et al., 2009; Shofield and Sackville, 2006) that an extended induction which allows for a steady development of skills is more suitable for international and direct entry college students. Additionally, there is evidence that students respond well to new technologies that allow for a more interactive and relationship-building approach (Pringle et al., 2008), while learning from peers seems to help engage new students in learning (Lowe and Cook, 2003). This case study introduces online study skills resource ‘SPICE’ (Student Pre-arrival Induction for Continuing Education) designed to assist international students and students coming as direct entry students from colleges to the university. It provides a rationale for the development of the resource and examples of some of its features. The study then attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of the resource through feedback from students and tutors, and offers suggestions for further development of the resource.
Self-report is required to assess mental states in nuanced ways. By implication, self-report is indispensable to capture the psychological processes driving human learning, such as learners’ emotions, motivation, strategy use, and metacognition. As shown in the contributions to this special issue, self-report related to learning shows convergent and predictive validity, and there are ways to further strengthen its power. However, self-report is limited to assess conscious contents, lacks temporal resolution, and is subject to response sets and memory biases. As such, it needs to be complemented by alternative measures. Future research on self-report should consider not only closed-response quantitative measures but also alternative self-report methodologies, make use of within-person analysis, and investigate the impact of respondents’ emotions on processes and outcomes of self-report assessments.
3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete.
Lexical tone identification relies primarily on the processing of F0. Since F0 range differs across individuals, the interpretation of F0 usually requires reference to specific speakers. This study examined whether multispeaker Mandarin tone stimuli could be identified without cues commonly considered necessary for speaker normalization. The sa syllables, produced by 16 speakers of each gender, were digitally processed such that only the fricative and the first six glottal periods remained in the stimuli, neutralizing the dynamic F0 contrasts among the tones. Each stimulus was presented once, in isolation, to 40 native listeners who had no prior exposure to the speakers' voices. Chi-square analyses showed that tone identification accuracy exceeded chance as did tone classification based on F0 height. Acoustic analyses showed contrasts between the high- and low-onset tones in F0, duration, and two voice quality measures (F1 bandwidth and spectral tilt). Correlation analyses showed that F0 covaried with the voice quality measures and that tone classification based on F0 height also correlated with these acoustic measures. Since the same acoustic measures consistently distinguished the female from the male stimuli, gender detection may be implicated in F0 height estimation when no context, dynamic F0, or familiarity with speaker voices is available.
In the context of postmodern converted type of communication that defined the emergence of civilization. The development of information communication methods makes communication “mediated-direct”. In these conditions shown two important trends. Firstly, the return begins from abstract forms of understanding the world to visual-shaped, more closely related with emotional and affective sphere of spirituality. Second, beginning in weakened volitional consciousness. These trends, in our view, and represent a fundamental trend of historical development, which will determine the future of human civilization.
An analysis is presented of instances of delayed echoing produced in interactions occurring between a 3-year-old child with an autistic disorder and his mother at home. The study draws on the techniques of conversation analysis to explore the interactional work accomplished by these delayed echoes. Consideration is given to the social directedness of the child’s echoes, the manner in which they are received by his conversational partner, and the extent to which they can be seen to solicit speci® c responses. It is argued that the child’s echoes serve him in important ways as a resource for engaging in reciprocal talk with his mother. Furthermore, these echoes are a resource which is also drawn upon by the child’s mother, to particular interactional ends. Delayed echoes, for this dyad, have an important part to play in the construction of intersubjectivity.
The present study aimed at investigating the differences of infertile and fertile couples in the levels of depression, anxiety, aggression, self-esteem, marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. The sample comprised 200 infertile couples (females' mean age = 32.51, SD = 7.52; males' mean age = 37.55, SD = 7.95) and 200 fertile couples (females' mean age = 30.33, SD = 10.18; males' mean age = 35.3, SD = 11.26) from different cities of Pakistan. The Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Aggression Questionnaire, and the Indexes of Self-Esteem, Marital Satisfaction and Sexual Satisfaction were used. The results indicated that infertile couples tend to demonstrate higher levels of depression, anxiety, and aggression, and lower levels of self-esteem, marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction as compared to fertile couples. Furthermore, the results suggested that the age of infertile women and men had significant effects on their levels of sexual satisfaction, and infertile men of different ages also differed in their anxiety and self-esteem. Aggression and anxiety in infertile couples differed with gender and were influenced by educational level. Income level did not play any role in the psychological distress of infertile couples.
The American English hearing in noise test (HINT) was originally developed for use in the evaluation of binaural hearing aid fittings (Nilsson et al, 1994). The American English HINT is based on the work of Plomp and Mimpen (1979), who developed the first adaptive speech reception threshold test using Dutch sentences. This report provides an overview of the development of the American English HINT. The norms, reliability, and measurement characteristics of the HINT are also presented.
Adolescence is a transition period where one of the impacts is the emergence of risk of deviant behavior in adolescents both free sex, smoking, alcohol consumption and also drugs. PKPR is a health service that is intended to increase the knowledge and understanding of adolescents about adolescent health and the prevention of deviant behavior in adolescents. But in reality the PKPR program has not run optimally, including in the city of Surakarta. This study aims to evaluate Health HR in the implementation of PKPR in Surakarta City. This type of research was qualitative with a case study approach. The human resource research population in the Surakarta City Health Center which runs the PKPR program is the Pajang Health Center, Kratonan, Manahan and Sangkrah. Research subjects included the PKPR Puskesmas coordinator, PKPR implementing staff, Puskesmas Head and adolescents who had visited Puskesmas for PKPR services. The technique of determining the object of research used purposive sampling. Research data collection used interviews and data analysis used interactive models. This study concludes that the description of the input and output of the PKPR program in Surakarta City has not run optimally, this condition was due to the priority of PKPR implementation in the Puskesmas which was not yet a top priority and the low level of youth awareness to utilize this PKPR program. The description of the PKPR process in the city of Surakarta has been carried out, although it was not yet optimal due to the still low level of utilization of the PKPR program by teenagers.
The pressure of learning English in a very short period of time, often leaves families in a very difficult place where they have to make a choice between one language and another. Some students were able to maintain a very “high” level of proficiency in their heritage language, while others had remained at a very “low” level of language proficiency. This book looks into the factors that influence Russian language maintenance and loss among Russian-American students. The research focuses on students’ language use and language attitudes towards their home language in relation to maintenance or loss of their home language.
Background-Eye donation is an act of donating ones eye after his/her death. it is an act of charity,purely for the benefit of the society and is totally voluntary. age or systemic illness such as diabetes or hypertension, heart disease  ,kidney disease is not barrier for eye donation.. eye disease are a significant cause of visual impairment and blindness in the developing world.approximately 18.7 million people are blind in india and 1,90,000 are blind from bilateral corneal disease.For such people corneal transplantation helps in restoring their sight. According to the eye bank association of india the current cornea procurement rate in india is 22,000 per year.Programme and activities conducted across the country to impart the significance of eye donation and its useful to visual impaired people. Objectives- 1.To assess sociodemographic profile of the students.2.To assess the knowledge & awareness regarding eye donation among study subject. Methodology-Study Subject;-Medical student CIMS college Bilaspur. Type Of Study :-Observational Cross sectional study. Study Area :- CIMS medical college Study Duration:-July 2017 to December 2017. Sample Size :- 100medical students in CIMS medical college Bilaspur(C.G) Study Tools :- Pre designed questionnaires Results:- In the present study, there was nearly 46% male and 54% female. 100% of the participants had heard about eye donation.The commonest source of knowledge on eye donation, Dr (32%) followed by TV(25%), Friends (20%). Majority (63%) of participants had correct knowledge that eye should be removed from dead donor within 6 hours.80% of the participants replied eye donation is done by all age group people. Conclusion:- Majority (63%) of participant had correct knowledge regarding eye donation. Majority (79%) of the students have willingness regarding eye donation
Abstract : In the ongoing task to develop test materials that will increase the effectiveness of the operational Army Classification Battery (ACB), five cognitive measures of aptitudes and abilities contributing to clerical performance, and seven personality measures were administered to samples of trainees in the Common Specialist Clerk course at two training centers. These experimental measures were evaluated, in comparison with ACB selectors, as predictors of success in the Clerk, MOS 710, program. The experimental tests, as individual predictors, had generally good validity for suc cess in the Clerk Course. Analysis indicated, however, that they would add only marginally to the overall effectiveness of the total ACB for classification to clerical MOS. Potential con tribution of the tests to differential classifi cation is being evaluated more fully in studies of prediction for a wide range of MOS across all non-combat aptitude areas. (Author)
A prevalent goal of education in schools is reading comprehension enhancement. Therefore, a critical issue in   educational psychology is investigating the factors contributing to increase the reading achievement including both classroom climate and self-determination. This study explored the relationships of Iranian High School students’ self-determination and classroom climate with their reading achievement.  150 Iranian (male and female) students from Sama and Fazele high schools in Mashhad were selected through convenience sampling. The instruments were IOWA self-determination, Classroom Climate Questionnaires, and a validated researcher-made test. It was a type of quantitative and correlational research. Results revealed a significant and positive relationship between self-determination and reading ability. They also showed that among the six subscales of the self-determination, financial management had a significant relationship with the reading achievement scores of students. However, the emotional independence of peers had a negative correlation with the reading achievement scores of students. The results showed that teachers’ skill in orienting tasks can enhance reading achievement score and make the classroom climate more motivating. This study has potentially helpful implications for English language teachers, English institutes, and students. Teachers can enhance student’s self-determination by providing a friendly classroom environment and indirectly boost the students’ reading score.
We explored the relationships between information processing and language in order to further the understanding of language disturbances in psychiatric patients. To assess the impact of reduced processing capacity on language, 50 undergraduates completed an interview concurrent with a category monitoring task and a control interview without a concurrent task. Syntactic complexity, verbosity, and pause patterns were all disrupted by a reduction in processing capacity. In addition, individual differences in syntactic complexity and information processing were significantly associated, even after accounting for verbal intelligence. We discuss the relevance of the results for understanding language disturbances in psychopathology and hypothesize that a reduction in processing capacity may underlie the decreased syntactic complexity, decreased verbal output, and increased pause length found in schizophrenia.
Researchers have sought to understand how language is processed in the brain, how brain damage affects language abilities, and what can be expected during the recovery period since the early 19th century. In this review, we first discuss mechanisms of damage and plasticity in the post-stroke brain, both in the acute and the chronic phase of recovery. We then review factors that are associated with recovery. First, we review organism intrinsic variables such as age, lesion volume and location and structural integrity that influence language recovery. Next, we review organism extrinsic factors such as treatment that influence language recovery. Here, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of language recovery and highlight recent work that emphasizes a network perspective of language recovery. Finally, we propose our interpretation of the principles of neuroplasticity, originally proposed by Kleim and Jones (1) in the context of extant literature in aphasia recovery and rehabilitation. Ultimately, we encourage researchers to propose sophisticated intervention studies that bring us closer to the goal of providing precision treatment for patients with aphasia and a better understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie successful neuroplasticity.
The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe techniques nurses use to successfully manage disruptive behavior (DB) of colleagues. DB is any inappropriate behavior, confrontation, or conflict, ranging from verbal abuse to physical and sexual harassment. Nine RNs who had successfully managed DB in a nurse colleague participated in individual interviews. All participants felt it was important to confront in private unless patient safety was at risk. Participants’ described a deliberate approach that included delaying confrontation, approaching the colleague calmly, and acknowledging the colleague's point of view. Responses to the confrontation were positive. Participants also reported that the ability to confront DB improved their practice.
The following is a study of an aphasic Norwegian patient with a fluent anomic type of aphasia. Coupled with his word-finding problem is a strong tendency to perseverate, to repeat a word when it is no longer appropriate to the context. Perseveration is often found in the speech of anomic patients; and normally perseveration of a specific word will take one of two forms: either (1) the perseverated word occurs interspersed throughout a dialogue or (2) it occurs only once or twice following its first occurrence. An unusual feature of this patient's anomia is that the perseveration of some words lasted for several weeks. The purpose of the paper is to describe the nature of the patient's perseverations—the structure of the perseverated elements, where in the utterance they occurred—and to propose an account of how and why they occurred as they did.
The key role in healthy lifestyle (HLS) formation among the population belongs to medical specialists, who possess reliable scientific knowledge in this field. The effectiveness of spreading healthy living message is connected with organizational conditions: principles of segmentation and patient routing, role of non-physician staff, development of remote forms of work and staff training system. Much attention is given to healthy living attitudes among medical specialists. According to the conducted sociological study and review of foreign and national experience, the authors present practical recommendations which include organizational changes aimed at greater effectiveness of HLS promotion by healthcare professionals.
ABSTRACT. Objective. We examined the associationbetween a belief in one’s future mortality and variousrisk-taking behaviors among urban black adolescents. Inparticular, we investigated whether adolescents withhigher levels of participation in various risk behaviorswere more likely to believe in their future death as com-pared with adolescents with lesser levels of risk-takingbehavior. Methods. Data obtained from April 1994 to March1997 were analyzed for a total of 2694 adolescents, aged12 to 21 years. The odds of believing that one would diewithin the next 2 years were calculated for various levelsof participation in risk behaviors involving alcohol,drugs, and criminal or violent acts. Results. A total of 160 adolescents (7.1% of all boysand 5.4% of all girls) reported that they believed that theywould die within the next 2 years. The adjusted odds offuture death belief among adolescents who both activelyengaged in and knew others who participated in all ofthe various risk behaviors, relative to adolescents whoneither personally engaged in nor knew others who par-ticipated in any of the risk behaviors, was 3.22 (95%confidence interval [CI]: 2.01–5.17) vs 1.14 (95% CI: 0.67–1.95) for drug use and drug selling, 2.01 (95% CI: 1.38–2.92) vs 0.8 (95% CI: 0.39–1.62) for combined alcohol anddrug use, and 5.60 (95% CI: 2.03–15.47) vs 1.61 (95% CI:1.08–2.42) for violent physical behavior. In addition, res-idence in a foster home was significantly associated withdeath belief after adjustment for all other variables.
Pain Assessment in the Elderly: A Psychometric Evaluation of Self-Report and Behavioural Methods Limited research has been done that examines appropriate and reliable methods to assess for pain in the elderly population. For the cognitively impaired elderly, pain assessment is further complicated by their limited communication abilities. Reliable and clinically feasible methods are desperately needed to assess pain so that it can be managed appropriately. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties (Le., testretest and interrater reliability, criterion concurrent validity) ofthree verbal pain assessment tools (i.e., Faces scale, numerical rating scale, present pain intensity scale) and a behavioural pain assessment scale within the elderly population. This measurement study used a repeated measures design to examine the reliability and validity of these pain assessment tools across four groups of elderly participants: 1) cognitively intact, 2) mildly cognitively impaired, 3) moderately cognitively impaired, and 4) extremely cognitively impaired, using a nonrandom stratified sample of 130 elderly residents who live in long term care. The findings support the test-retest and interrater reliability of the behavioural pain assessment tool across all four groups of the elderly whereas the same measures of reliability for the verbal pain assessment tools decrease with increasing cognitive impairment. However, the majority of elderly with mild to moderate cognitive impairment were able to complete at least one of the verbal pain assessment tools. The
BACKGROUND Social climate has been measured in a variety of therapeutic settings, but there is little information about it in secure mental health services, or how it may vary along a gender specific care pathway.   AIM To assess social climate in women's secure wards and its variation by level of security and ward type, therapeutic alliance, patient motivation, treatment engagement and disturbed behaviour.   METHOD Three-quarters (80, 76%) of staff and nearly all (65, 92%) of patients in the two medium-security wards and two low-security wards that comprised the unit completed the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES) and the California Psychotherapy Alliance Scale (CALPAS); patients also completed the Patient Motivation Inventory (PMI). Pre-assessment levels of disturbed behaviour and treatment engagement were recorded.   RESULTS Social climate varied according to ward type and level of security. EssenCES ratings indicative of positive social climate were associated with lower levels of security; such ratings were also associated with lower behavioural disturbance and with higher levels of motivation, treatment engagement and therapeutic alliance.   CONCLUSION This serial cross-sectional survey indicated that use of the EssenCES alone might be a good practical measure of treatment progress/responsivity. A longitudinal study would be an important next step in establishing the extent to which it would be useful in this regard.
This paper studies how senior women's representation in the workplace leads to positive outcomes. I find that all-star female analysts positively affect the performance of their peers. Specifically, an increase in the number of all-star females in a brokerage spurs the future performance of other analysts in that brokerage. These results are not explained by unobserved factors that may affect analysts’ sorting behavior and performance. Analysts who cover firms in the same industry as all-star females experience a larger boost in their outcomes, suggesting that knowledge spillover is an economic channel through which all-star females affect their cohorts' performance.
Experts of abacus, who have the skills of abacus‐based mental calculation (AMC), are able to manipulate numbers via an imagined abacus in mind and demonstrate extraordinary ability in mental calculation. Behavioral studies indicated that abacus experts utilize visual strategy in solving numerical problems, and fMRI studies confirmed the enhanced involvement of visuospatial‐related neural resources in AMC. This study aims to explore the possible changes in brain white matter induced by long‐term training of AMC. Two matched groups participated: the abacus group consisting of 25 children with over 3‐year training in abacus calculation and AMC, the controls including 25 children without any abacus experience. We found that the abacus group showed higher average fractional anisotropy (FA) in whole‐brain fiber tracts, and the regions with increased FA were found in corpus callosum, left occipitotemporal junction and right premotor projection. No regions, however, showed decreased FA in the abacus group. Further analysis revealed that the differences in FA values were mainly driven by the alternation of radial rather than axial diffusivities. Furthermore, in forward digit and letter memory span tests, AMC group showed larger digit/letter memory spans. Interestingly, individual differences in white matter tracts were found positively correlated with the memory spans, indicating that the widespread increase of FA in the abacus group result possibly from the AMC training. In conclusion, our findings suggested that long‐term AMC training from an early age may improve the memory capacity and enhance the integrity in white matter tracts related to motor and visuospatial processes. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
This paper focuses on mother’s views on children's fashion and their consumption patterns as expressed in blogs: Which aspects are discussed concerning children's fashion from age- and gender perspectives? Is it possible to distinguish different consumer patterns and types of consumers among blogging mothers, and if so, which ones? The text analysis is based on five parenting blogs with 245 blog posts. The theoretical framework is based on theories of consumer culture and identity and sociological theories about children and childhood. Bloggers contribute to the construction of style and identity, linguistically and physically. Children are constructed as both actors and objects. Through images produced on the web linked to various fashion companies, they turn into commodities. Mothers express their own style and taste through their children. Especially girls are given control over clothes at an early age. However, with the guidance of an adult, different strategies are developed to minimize their choices. Four different consumer types occur: (1) The child centred consumer, (2) The gender-conscious consumer, (3) The status- and quality conscious consumer and (4) The ethical and environmentally conscious consumer. The present study provides a starting point for further research regarding consumption patterns related to children’s fashion and ethical discussions about children’s being, becoming and belonging.
TOEIC Test is one of tests  to assess an ability on English communication. The certificate of this test can be used as a requirement for workers to get a job. Because of a large amount of workers so that this test is very important to support the need of  workers and vocational school graduation. SMK Analis Kesehatan is one of vocational school that is preparing students to be an health analyst and chemical analyst. Unfortunately there is not TOEIC test training in this school yet. The TOEIC test training  gave the students knowledge and skill on doing the test and ability to communicate in English. The output of this program was the score of pre-test and post test. The method used were preleminary study and training. The amount of  participant was 24 students. From the result of pre-test and post-test, the score of 20 students were increase after having training. It means that 83 % from the total participant get the higher score. The main problem were lack of student’s knowledge on TOEIC test and  limited time of doing the test.
This research is aimed to: (1) create a teaching material of Physics for  Senior High School with emotional intelligence content, (2) facilitate the  improvement of appropriate High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in teaching  process, (3) know of the quality of Physics teaching material with emotional  intelligence content from the experts of theory and media, and the teachers of  Physics in Senior High Schools, (4) know the students’ response of the Physics  teaching material with emotional intelligence content, and the influence of the  teaching material to the improvement of High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).  The research procedures are adapted from the R & D (Research and  Development) research model which is developed by Borg and Gall. The  procedures include: finding the research problems, collecting the data, designing  the product, validating the product design, revising the design, and examining the  final product. The tryout subjects in this research are 37 students of XI Science 1  class in MAN Lab UIN Yogyakarta. Data is collected using a set of product  assesment, student’s respon quetionnaire, and also worksheet of pretest-posttest.  The teaching material with emotional intelligence content has been revised based  on the result of the field test, and the suggestions from the expert judgment and  validators.  The quality of the Physics teaching material with emotional intelligence  content according to the expert of the theory is good with 78,2 % ideality, while  according to the expert of media, the teaching material is also considered as  having good quality with 83,9% ideality. In addition, according to the Physics  teachers, the teaching material is excellent with 85,7% ideality. Furthermore, the  students give positive response with score 61,2 out of 80,0. As the result, using  the teaching material with emotional intelligence content, the students’ High  Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) improves in medium category with the N-Gain  0,45.  Keywords: Physics teaching material, Emotional Intelligence, High Order  Thinking Skills (HOTS)
The primary purpose of this study was to determine the linkage between work motivation derived from the expectancy theory and perceived organizational effectiveness derived from the Parsonian framework. School characteristics of community type, school size, and school socioeconomic status were used as predictor variables in the study. A secondary purpose was to examine these linkages in middle schools and to examine changes over time. Mixed methodologies, including quantitative and qualitative research techniques, were employed. The data were analyzed using the school and the individual teacher as units of analyses. To test the hypotheses, a multiple regression procedure was employed. The quantitative results of this study, based on a survey in 30 middle schools which included the perceptions of 659 middle school teachers, showed that work motivation and the three school characteristics were significant predictors of perceived organizational effectiveness when using the individual teacher as the unit of analysis. School size was found to be the best predictor of the criterion variable when using the school or the individual teacher as the unit of analysis. In the four middle schools selected as case study schools, middle school teachers were observed and interviewed at the end of the first semester. The findings are presented as case analyses and as a cross case analysis between schools. The four case studies were conducted to further investigate the perceptions of middle school teachers on work motivation and organizational effectiveness. The case studies supported the hypotheses and added additional depth to the study. The interview questions revealed additional findings about teacher expectations, student effect on effort levels, and middle school teachers need for feedback. Although the cross case analysis revealed many differences between the schools, the schools were generally divided into the following groups: schools with teachers with high forces of work motivation and schools with teachers with low forces of work motivation. The groups were similar in teacher certification and experience, mean ages of teachers, and teacher expectations. As organizational effectiveness becomes more accepted as a multi-dimensional concept and with accurate measures of these complex variables, greater understandings of schools as organizations are possible.
Recent empirical and theoretical developments suggest that clients who genuinely believe in the effectiveness of counseling are likely to improve regardless of the validity of the counselor's approach. This improvement is based on a “psychological placebo effect” that arouses client expectations for improvement and provides clients with additional security and self-confidence to deal with life more effectively. These considerations are discussed in the context of placebo reactivity, client susceptibility to persuasion, and counselor expectations for client improvement.
Background Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is frequently co-occurring with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents. Because ODD is a precursor of later conduct disorder (CD) and affective disorders, early diagnostic identification is warranted. Furthermore, the predictability of three recently confirmed ODD dimensions (ODD-irritable, ODD-headstrong and ODD-hurtful) may assist clinical decision making. Method Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used in order to test the diagnostic accuracy of the Conners' Parent Rating Scale revised (CPRS-R) and the parent version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (PSDQ) in the prediction of ODD in a transnational sample of 1093 subjects aged 5–17 years from the International Multicentre ADHD Genetics study. In a second step, the prediction of three ODD dimensions by the same parent rating scales was assessed by backward linear regression analyses. Results ROC analyses showed adequate diagnostic accuracy of the CPRS-R and the PSDQ in predicting ODD in this ADHD sample. Furthermore, the three-dimensional structure of ODD was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis and the CPRS-R emotional lability scale significantly predicted the ODD irritable dimension. Conclusions The PSDQ and the CPRS-R are both suitable screening instruments in the identification of ODD. The emotional lability scale of the CPRS-R is an adequate predictor of irritability in youth referred for ADHD.
Basically, parents crave their children work to achieve success not only in academic achievement but also behavior (good character). To realize the above, then it certainly should be prepared generation that has the values of strong character. The values of this character, should be instilled from an early age as it is believed that early childhood is the most potent stage the child in learning new things. Instill character education as outlined in the form of character values in children through children's emotional intelligence development approach, is one step for both parents and teachers in improving human resources. Thus, emotional intelligence training into a good emotional development efforts for the success and the success of children in the future. Developing emotional intelligence in children, must not be separated from the world of play. Through play children communicate, interact, learn to make decisions and learn to solve problems. In general, with education playing characters who instilled in children can be effective and enjoyable.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the significant relationship between different young mothers’ social classes and children’s language learning. According to this research goal, this study is eager to answer the two major research questions: (a) Is there any significant difference between middle-class and working-class mothers’ speech? (b) Is there any significant relationship between different social class mothers’ input and their children’s language acquisition? All of the subjects were selected from a kindergarten. The researcher chose 2-6 year-old children as subjects. They were eight boys and two girls. At each age, she chose two children. One was from a middle class family and the other was from a working class one. The criteria for classifying were the degree of education, career and income. About middle-class family, the parents were graduated from college. Also their careers were professionals, managers or owners. On the contrary, about working class family, their educational background was under college and their careers were like clerk, skilled manual workers or labors. The researcher used T-test to examine the difference among different social class mothers. In addition, Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to examine the significant relationship between young mothers and children.
Although the concrete problems in network-based "teaching evaluation given by students "are not the same in different colleges,the major one is that both the reliability and validity of the evaluation are not to the satisfaction of us,and it is mainly based on the insufficient attention paid by the teachers and students to the evaluation,the imperfect measuring scale,the bad evaluation procedure,mechanism and handling of a result.Therefore,to improve the reliability and validity of the evaluation,every college should enhance the teachers' and students' understanding of "teaching evaluation given by students",set up and complete an encouraging mechanism to arouse the teaching warmth completely,complete the teaching evaluation mechanism,improve and complete the measuring scale of "teaching evaluation given by students",and deal with the evaluation result in scientific ways.
The purposes of the present study were to investigate the influence of three sets of instructions, class level, and academic rank on teacher/course evaluation by student raters. Students did not differ in their teacher/course evaluation ratings when the instructions specified the evaluation results would be used: (a) only by the instructor, (b) by the administration, or (c) by students for course selec tion purposes. The evaluation of graduate courses did not differ from that of undergraduate courses. A statistical difference was found between the academic ranks examined. Specifically, graduate teaching assistants received higher ratings than did either assistant or full professors. IT IS A RARE COLLEGE or university that has not experimented with some system of student ratings of instruction. Such teacher/course evaluations serve a variety of functions (14). Prominent among these functions is that of providing administrators with comparative data on faculty personnel for the purposes of determining salary increases, promotions, and tenure. A second major pur pose of student ratings is to give teaching faculty feed back for improving their instruction. Still another function, if the data are published, is to offer students information useful for selecting courses. Given that student ratings of instruction can serve at least three quite distinct functions, do differences in the stated purposes for such evaluations influence student ratings? For example, do students rate professors differ ently if they are told that the ratings will be used by superiors for administrative decisions than if they are instructed that the ratings will be used solely by faculty members for their self-improvement? The primary thrust of this study was to compare evaluations that were obtained under three different purpose/instruction conditions. Studies investigating the effects of instructions upon student ratings are sparse. Aleamoni and Hexner (2) com pared the ratings of one professor under two different sets of instructions. During one semester students completed a course/instruction questionnaire with no instructions besides those relating to how to complete the form. Dur ing the other semester the students were told that the pur pose of the instrument was both to improve instruction and to provide data which would be used "... for salary and promotion consideration of your instructor by his department head" (2:6). Students who received the latter instructions rated the professor significantly higher than those who received no instructions. An obvious limitation of the Aleamoni and Hexner study is that the improve ment of instruction and administrative use purposes were confounded. Centra (4) conducted two similar studies to assess the influence of directions on student ratings. In both studies every other student in a given class received a course/ instructor evaluation form with directions indicating that the results were to be used for administrative purposes; the remaining students were given directions that stated that the ratings were to be used for the instructor's own self improvement. Centra predicted that the administrative directions would be the more powerful. Sixteen classes were involved in the first study and 26 in the replication. The unit of analysis was the mean of each instruction set by class. The data were analyzed item by item. In the first study no statistically significant differences were found. In the replication only five of the 25 items produced signifi cantly different results. All five favored the administrative directions. In addition to the impact of instructions on student ratings, the present researchers were concerned with two other variables which might plausibly interact with "instructions" and which are of intrinsic interest them selves. Costin, Greenough and Menges (5) discussed several variables that have been shown to influence evaluations by students differentially. Of particular interest here are the rank of the instructor and the class level of the student. Both Downie (7) and Gage (8) indicated that professors receive higher ratings than instructors at lower ranks. Sev eral other investigators have found that upper level stu dents tend to assign more favorable ratings to their This content downloaded from 207.46.13.189 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 05:13:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 150 THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH instructors than do lower level students (7,8). Remmers and Elliott (13) reported that graduate students tend to assign higher ratings to their teachers than do undergradu ate students. Data from the University of Illinois (1) sug gest that, on the average, the higher the level of the class, the more positive the student ratings. Other investigators, however, have reported that class level failed to make a difference in evaluations (9,12). The purposes of this study were to determine the influ ence of three variables: (a) instruction/purpose, (b) aca demic rank, and (c) class level on course/teacher evaluation.
The concept of progressive resistive exercise (PRE) is one of the major principles of athletic training. Development of strength and other physical elements during conditioning and orthopedic injury rehabilitation depends on proper application of the P RE principle. A related concept, progressive skill development (PSD) is essential in educating athletic training students. Indeed we might say that the competence (strength) of a new graduate depends on proper application of the progressive skill development principle. Would any competent professional say to a client o r patient, “You need to be stronger, go lift weights?” No; they would set up a specific program, usually written, that included specific exercises, specific days to lift, specific number o f sets and repetitions to perform, and specific amounts of weight to be lifted. The AT would then demonstrate how to perform each lift, watch the patient/client practice each of t he lifts, correct t heir p erformance as n ecessary, and then send them to the weight room for supervised lifting. As strength de velops, the am ount of weight would be increased and perhaps more difficult or complex exercises would be added. Clinical skill development must occur similarly.
Networked interactivity is one of the essential factors that differentiate recent online educational games from traditional stand-alone CD-based games. Despite the growing popularity of online educational games, empirical studies about the effects of networked interactivity are relatively rare. The current study tests the effects of networked interactivity on game users' learning outcomes by comparing three groups (online educational quiz game vs. off-line educational quiz game vs. traditional classroom lecture). In addition, the study examines the mediating role of social presence in the context of educational games. Results indicate that networked interactivity in the online educational quiz game condition enhances game users' positive evaluation of learning, test performance, and feelings of social presence. However, there was no significant difference between the off-line educational quiz game and the lecture-based conditions in terms of learning outcomes. Further analyses indicate that feelings of social presence mediate the effect of networked interactivity on various learning outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Work is increasingly viewed as an important part of life after spinal cord injury (SCI). A vast, multidisciplinary research field has highlighted the barriers and facilitators of returning to work (RTW) for this population, yet employment rates remain consistently low. The development of targeted vocational rehabilitation (VR) interventions has increased in the twenty-first century to address this issue, with one such family of interventions operating within primary rehabilitation. Early intervention vocational rehabilitation (EIVR) aims to intervene at the earliest appropriate time after injury to ultimately diminish the latency between injury and RTW. The outcomes of this emerging field are promising, but the research supporting these interventions is focused largely on clinical outcomes, potentially overlooking the experiences of the consumer. Qualitative research could complement the existing research base by providing the consumer’s viewpoint on EIVR interventions, centralising the consumers’ perspective in the ongoing development and refinement of EIVR. This study aimed to explore the consumer’s account of EIVR in the words of participants of the Back2Work program, an EIVR program operated in South-East Queensland, Australia. The research questions related to participants’ experiences of the program and their subsequent RTW pathways post-discharge. The process of researching these questions revealed a methodologically complex literature field, and implied the existence of common mechanisms that underpin the success of EIVR. Thus, the project was undertaken in three phases in order to a) clarify the extant literature base and establish conceptual frameworks for EIVR, and b) elucidate the consumer’s viewpoint of EIVR. To address the research questions, the study utilised a large systematic literature review and a qualitative, longitudinal design. The findings of the systematic review (Phase 2) were used to further inform the development of the qualitative project (Phase 3). The Phase 3 design aimed to capture participants’ attitudes and experiences within one year of discharge from the hospital-based EIVR program. Participants were interviewed at three time points—as close to discharge from hospital as possible, three months after the first interview and again three months after the second interview. Though efforts were made to recruit participants as close to discharge as possible, recruitment difficulties meant that some participants were recruited later post-discharge than others. Participants were asked to describe their RTW journeys thus far, reflect on challenges and areas of need, and highlight sources of support in their RTW journeys. The data were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological framework. The findings revealed two distinct trajectories of RTW: a potential ‘fast track’ involving return to the prior employer, and a more complex pathway when employment with a new employer or a different role was sought. Analysis revealed a trajectory of increasing readiness to engage with services, plan and eventually enact a RTW. Importantly, data suggested that this trajectory was staged, with distinct attitudinal shifts at each stage. These were contextualised within the transtheoretical (‘stages of change’) model of health behaviour change, providing targets for potential intervention to increase participant readiness. EIVR was valuable in supporting participants to progress through planning and enacting their RTW. Participants described a hope-inspiring process of planning, goal setting, strategising and support when speaking to the employer. The findings also suggested that EIVR reaches beyond pragmatic vocational support to also inspire hopefulness and empower consumers, working towards restoring autonomy during a time when participants’ independence was challenged. EIVR is theoretically underpinned by the notion that those who RTW sooner generally do so with their previous employer. The person’s attachment to their employer, or occupational bond, is capitalised upon to preserve pre-injury jobs. Despite the importance of the occupational bond within EIVR, these is very little research that directly investigates the concept. Rather, there are many smaller studies that explore concepts which conceptually overlap or are adjacent to occupational bonding. This study affirmed the existence of the occupational bond, and extended the conceptualisation of this construct to include attachment to the world of work in general. It seems that EIVR can promote supportive contact with the employer, and reinforce the salience of work within consumers’ rehabilitation programs, to protect the occupational bond and facilitate strong connections to work, ultimately encouraging RTW. This study addressed the knowledge gap relating to consumers’ perspective of EIVR services. It supported the early timing of EIVR, concluding that readiness to RTW is a staged process, beginning with readiness to engage with VR and moved through to readiness to implement the RTW program. The findings of this highlighted the role of EIVR in inspiring hope and empowering consumers after SCI as complementary to the broader rehabilitation program. Also complementary is the use of employment-related goals, which consumers report are very meaningful, and therefore, drive motivation to engage with rehabilitation. The study affirmed that EIVR addresses a clear need in early rehabilitation to support consumers’ working lives, providing them with clarity and hope regarding their employment situation and a sense of confidence in their long-term career pathways.
and effective as the which the has more complex and demanding. This progression is particularly evident in the history of psychological testing for enlisted selection and classification in the United States military. This chapter focuses on how this history has gone through three progressive stages: 1) screening for basic cognitive ability in a single service, 2) matching individual cognitive capabilities to job requirements separately for each service, and 3) developing a single cognitive battery to enable person-job matching for all services, and how it is currently embarking on a fourth stage: developing the capacity to select and classify applicants using a combination of cognitive and noncognitive measures. This last phase, while continuing the evolution, is revolutionary in terms of both character and pace (Rumsey, in press). These advancements have been facilitated by a number of technical advances, including the development and administration of group ability tests, the development of computer adaptive tests, the development of a model of job performance, and the development of fake-resistant personality tests.
Objective: To determine whether cognitively intact adults with the APOE ε3/ε4 genotype show reduced gray matter density on voxel-based morphometry (VBM) vs those homozygous for the ε3 allele. Methods: Participants were healthy, cognitively intact, right-handed adults, age 19 to 80, who completed genotyping, neuropsychological testing, and MRI. Forty-nine participants had the ε3/ε3 genotype and 27 had the ε3/ε4 genotype. Gray matter data were analyzed using the general linear model as implemented in the Statistical Parametric Mapping package, adjusting for age and sex. Results: The ε3/ε4 participants showed lower gray matter density than the ε3/ε3 participants in right medial temporal and bilateral frontotemporal regions as well as other areas. There were no regions in which ε3/ε4 participants showed higher gray matter density than ε3/ε3 participants. Conclusions: Regionally reduced gray matter density is detectable in cognitively intact adults with a single copy of the APOE ε4 allele.
This waitlist-controlled field study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of psychoanalytic short- and long-term psychotherapy for children and adolescents by using a prospective design. The presented analyses focus on the self- and parent-reported levels of depression and the therapists' ratings of the patients' level of functioning. Thirty-five children and adolescents (aged 4-21 years) and their parents who entered psychoanalytic therapy in private practices in northern Germany participated in this ongoing study. At the time of data analysis, the wait-list control group comprised 17 patients. Data were collected from therapists, parents, and from the patients themselves. Questionnaires were administered at the beginning and the end of treatment, as well as up to 5 points in time during therapy. Follow-up took place at 6 and 12 months after therapy. Depression levels were measured with the self- and parent-reported screening questionnaire Child Depression Inventory, and quality of life with the KIDSCREEN. Patients received, on average, 97 sessions of therapy (range: 25-205). Overall, patients showed pronounced impairments at the commencement of outpatient therapy. At the end of therapy, there was a significant reduction in depression in the treatment group (parent report: d = 0.88, p < .001; patient report d = 0.68, p ≤ .003). The wait-list control group, which received minimal treatment, displayed a slight, but not statistically significant, symptom improvement in the patient report (d = 0.07, p ≤ .503), but a significant improvement in the parent report (d = 0.49, p ≤ .008). The results suggest that psychoanalytic therapy is successful in alleviating depressive pathology and improving quality of life for a significant number of depressed children and adolescents.
For all those points in which, despite our most fundamental and concrete agreement in other matters, I differ from you could be summed up and characterized as an anthropological materialism that I cannot accept. It is as if for you the human body represents the measure of all concreteness. The direct inference from the duty on wine to L’âme du vin imputes to phenomena precisely the kind of spontaneity, tangibility and density which they have lost under capitalism. This sort of immediate—I wo...
The book Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (2003) is an engaging criticism of cognitive neuroscience from the perspective of a Wittgensteinian philosophy of ordinary language. The authors' main claim is that assertions like "the brain sees" and "the left hemisphere thinks" are integral to cognitive neuroscience but that they are meaningless because they commit the mereological fallacy—ascribing to parts of humans, properties that make sense to predicate only of whole humans. The authors claim that this fallacy is at the heart of Cartesian dualism, implying that current cognitive neuroscientists are Cartesian dualists. Against this claim, we argue that the fallacy cannot be committed within Cartesian dualism either, for this doctrine does not allow for an intelligible way of asserting that a soul is part of a human being. Also, the authors' Aristotelian essentialistic outlook is at odds with their Wittgensteinian stance, and we were unconvinced by their case against explanatory reductionism. Finally, although their Wittgensteinian stance is congenial with radical behaviorism, their separation between philosophy and science seems less so because it is based on a view of philosophy as a priori. The authors' emphasis on the a priori, however, does not necessarily commit them to rationalism if it is restricted to conceptual or analytical (as opposed to synthetic) truths.
In this study, the authors used a randomized controlled trial to explore the link between having positive peer relations and externalizing outcomes in 758 children followed from kindergarten to the end of 2nd grade. Children were randomly assigned to the Good Behavior Game (GBG), a universal classroom-based preventive intervention, or a control condition. Children's acceptance by peers, their number of mutual friends, and their proximity to others were assessed annually through peer ratings. Externalizing behavior was annually rated by teachers. Reductions in children's externalizing behavior and improvements in positive peer relations were found among GBG children, as compared with control-group children. Reductions in externalizing behavior appeared to be partly mediated by the improvements in peer acceptance. This mediating role of peer acceptance was found for boys only. The results suggest that positive peer relations are not just markers, but they are environmental mediators of boys' externalizing behavior development. Implications for research and prevention are discussed.
OBJECTIVE to know the suffering and the strategies of defense of CAPS AD III workers, from the perspective of the Work Theater proposed by Dejours.   METHOD a descriptive qualitative research, of the case study type, with CAPS AD III workers, using as theoretical framework the Psychodynamics of Work.   RESULTS CAPS AD III professionals identify that the suffering in the work arises from the frustration between the real and the prescribed one; by the hegemony of practices guided by the biomedical model; stigmatization and prejudice with users; and the limitations of the Health Care Network (Rede de Atenção à Saúde). As an individual defense strategy, the rationalization was defined, and as a collective strategy, the protection strategy.   FINAL CONSIDERATIONS worker uses strategies of defenses to face suffering and give a new meaning to it, characterizing themselves as ways of apprehending, understanding and giving meaning and new looks to their work.
The purpose of this investigation is to describe the standards of beliefs concerning health/illness in a group of students in private schools Bogota, and to determine its relation with the behavior of this population. Questionnaire CCHS-98 elaborated by GilRoales, it was applied to a group of students 14-18 years old, mostly from average social/economic status. According to the results, the sample presents a profile of medium to high risk in 66.8 percent, and a lesser experience relating to health in similar proportion (64.8 percent). Relation between profiles of risk and personal attribution toward smoking were encountered which indicates that even though a population tends to acquire the habit. The events are perceived as dependant upon personal factors which constitute a valuable recourse for prevention. The results make evident the factors of risk and protection in this population in particular, and these results can be useful in designing primary preventive programs for these young people. Index terms: beliefs, habits, risk profile, personal attribution, prevention.
Teacher’s philosophical accomplishment is the important part of teacher’s accomplishment.The teacher’s philosophical accomplishment has great significance for the life quality of teacher,individual development,and building spiritual world,professional intelligence,professional ethics,professional belief.Subjective conditions for teacher to generate philosophical accomplishment are that teacher should have a good personality,self-awareness of development,and understand philosophy correctly.Good social and working environment are the objective conditions for teacher generating philosophical accomplishment.To improve philosophical accomplishment of teacher need a long-term process,requiring teacher to practice in daily life and education practice.
We compared young people with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) with age, sex and IQ matched controls on emotion recognition of faces and pictorial context. Each participant completed two tests of emotion recognition. The first used Ekman series faces. The second used facial expressions in visual context. A control task involved identifying occupations using visual context. The ability to recognize emotions in faces (with or without context) and the ability to identify occupations from context was positively correlated with both increasing age and IQ score. Neither a diagnosis of ASD nor a measure of severity (Autism Quotient score) affected these abilities, except that the participants with ASD were significantly worse at recognizing angry and happy facial expressions. Unlike the control group, most participants with ASD mirrored the facial expression before interpreting it. Test conditions may lead to results different from everyday life. Alternatively, deficits in emotion recognition in high-functioning ASD may be less marked than previously thought.
Improvements in health care and standards of living have resulted in the elderly becoming one of the fastest growing groups of people. Current estimates by the US Department of Health and Human Services (1990), projects by the year 2000, the 35 million people over age 65 will represent about 13% of the population and by 2030, 22%. The population of the  oldest old , those over age 85, will have increased by about 30% to a total of 4.6 million by 2000. These figures contrast with only 4% of those over 65 constituting the population in 1900 and 8% in 1850. These estimates create significant concerns for health care workers. Literature suggests attitudes toward the elderly may have a relationship to standard of care. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if age and/or educational achievements of nursing assistants have an effect on their attitude toward the rural elderly. Nursing assistants have the most direct contact with the elderly while performing cares, but few studies have used the nursing assistant as subjects. This investigation used 80 nursing assistants employed at three rural Western Kansas long term care institutions. The nursing assistants completed two questionnaires, Kogan's Old People Scale and the McReynolds Nursing Assistant Information Sheet. This investigation used a non-experimental design using descriptive statistics. To substantiate the findings, a Spearman Rank Correlation was performed on all positive statements, all negative statements, and on the total score of the Kogan Old People Scale in relationship to age and educational achievements. Findings of this investigation show no significant relationship between age and/or educational achievements and attitudes toward the elderly.
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between Big Five Model of Personality and Personal Effectiveness. The present study was done on a sample of 150 management students belonging to different management Institutes. Variables in the study were assessed using two validated instruments. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data. It was found that the Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness were positively related to Personal Effectiveness whereas the fifth dimension i.e. Neuroticism was found to be negatively related to the Personal Effectiveness. The findings of the research would help the faculty of B-schools in identifying the dominant personality traits among their students which would further assist them to use right leadership style and help students with guidance and coaching, helping them improve in areas needed and making them placement worthy.
Integrating information on voice hearing from multiple disciplines and perspectives, we review current explanatory models and their implications for intervention strategies. Far from always signifying a mental illness, voice hearing may result from other causes, including drug side effects, brain lesions, and culturally-sanctioned phenomena. Accordingly, a wide range of assessment, intervention, and self-management strategies are available and appropriate. We conclude that by offering a diversity of treatment options, eliciting patients' causal theories, and incorporating these into an individualized treatment strategy, clinicians are likely to help clients control the distressing aspects of the voices, minimize stigma and discrimination, and make meaning of the experience.
In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported testing of a number of well-being scales for potential use on public health surveillance systems. The purpose of this study was to examine the descriptive and psychometric properties of the scales (i.e. Satisfaction with Life, Meaning in Life, Positive and Negative Affect, Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness, and global and domain-specific life satisfaction) and to examine the distribution of well-being levels in a representative sample of community-dwelling US adults (N = 5,399) using a stratified analysis. The scales demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Responses were negatively skewed, with most respondents reporting mildly positive levels of subjective well-being. With the exception of autonomy, competence, and relatedness scales, all scales demonstrated good variability across socio-demographic subgroups. Older age and higher levels of education, and income, were associated with higher levels of subjective well-being. Most of the examined scales and related items merit consideration for continued testing in telephone surveys used in public health surveillance.
This paper discusses the findings of research which is examining the nature of the values embodied or intended in the Australian Early Childhood Associations Code of Ethics (1990). In order to determine the nature of these values a meta-ethical analysis is adopted. Philosophical discourse on values in Australian early childhood education needs to be asserted in the face of current discourses where values are considered to be relative, or where education is considered to be a value-free or neutral activity. This discussion should be grounded in an understanding of the nature of the values which underpin early childhood education in Australia.
Purpose          While there is general agreement in the literature regarding the importance of the therapeutic alliance (TA) in psychological interventions with people, the forensic context raises some unique challenges. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how these challenges are managed within a therapeutic context.          Design/methodology/approach          This paper consists of a literature review examining the following: the significance of the TA in interventions with forensic clients, especially men who have committed a sexual offence and the impact on treatment efficacy and change; therapist characteristics as well as some of the obstacles and challenges present in a correctional setting, which can impact on the TA and; the role of transference and countertransference in relation to these forensic clients.          Findings          Through the literature review, there is a discussion regarding how some of the common obstacles within correctional settings can be overcome, and how certain therapist qualities should be interpreted.          Originality/value          This paper will discuss some of the practical applications of certain recommended therapeutic factors within a correctional setting, challenging some of the common misconceptions and limitations. Furthermore, transference and countertransference, topics which are seldom discussed, will be considered in this paper.
Intelligence is a core construct in psychological theory and practice around which a plethora of theoretical and applied work has grown. For more than half of the twentieth century, intelligence was conceptualized largely as ability for abstract cognitive reasoning and problem solving in a relatively decontextualized framework. The predominant psychometric tradition fostered the attempt to quantify mental abilities in terms of a lone “intelligence quotient” (IQ). In recent years, however, the notion of IQ has been questioned for several reasons, such as equivocality, non-linearity, and unidimensionality. The one-dimensional nature of intelligence was challenged by the unfolding of research on several related concepts (e.g., wisdom, multiple intelligence, social intelligence, emotional intelligence) which point to diversity in intelligence. Different metaphors (e.g., geographic, computational, biological, epistemological, anthropological, sociological, systems) lead to diverse ways of conceptualizing the acquisition and use of knowledge. Intelligence is now viewed as “the mental abilities necessary for adaptation to, as well as shaping and selection of, any environmental context”. This perspective suggests that intelligence cannot be divorced from the sociocultural milieu within which behavior occurs. Indeed, as early as 1911 Franz Boas argued that basic intelligence may well be the same among all people, but its manifestations vary with the individual's experience.      Keywords:    cognition;  intelligence
What you are about to read is the final account of a project that began shortly after last year’s eye-opening Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference in Waltham, Massachusetts. I hope some of the discussion in this article will help all of us become more enthusiastic for this year’s conference in Los Angeles. While driving home from OBTC 1987 my head was filled with a maelstrom of ideas, emotions, and exciting possibilities not only for the future of OB, but for my future as well. As a first time OBTCer, I
Online Social Networking (OSN) is a platform that enables one to socialize over the world online without having to meet anyone physically or face to face. However, privacy in OSN sites is becoming a main concern for users because of the potential threats that come with sharing one’s personal information online. The purpose of our study was to examine the key factors that influence the trust in publishing personal information on Online Social Network (OSN) sites in Malaysia. Primary data were gathered from 201 users  comprising  university students and working adults residing in the Klang Valley. Five factors were selected to gauge the users’ perception of potential threats , namely,  security/privacy of the website, word of mouth of family and friends, functional motives of OSN users, social motives of OSN users and psychological motives of OSN users. Results of the study showed that security/privacy, word of mouth, functional motives and social motives significantly affected the publishing of respondents’ personal information on online social network sites. The implication is that  the largest challenge of both now and in the future, in terms of users protecting themselves and their information, will be to find out and understand how to effectively access and change the privacy settings offered by all OSN sites. Keywords: online social network, security/privacy, word of mouth, functional motive, social motive, psychological motive
The objective of this work was to revise the national and international scientific production indexed in the Scielo and the periódico CAPES (Web of Science and Psychinfo), between 1996 and 2006 on the relation between morphological awareness, reading and spelling difficulties. Empirical studies had been selected that described the relationship between morphological awareness and literacy. It has been identified 16 articles (three national and 13 international ones) that were analyzed considering the following aspects: the causal relation between morphological awareness and literacy, and the role of morphological awareness in reading and spelling difficulties. An analysis of the articles and where they had been published, types of techniques of collection and analysis of data were made. The results point out to the lack of empirical studies that study this phenomenon in Brazil. The theoretical and methodological implications of these studies for the educational context and for the evaluation of the reading difficulties are also discussed.
OBJECTIVE This study investigated whether there is a bias against eating disorders research among the leading psychiatric, psychological, and medical journals.   METHOD The authors performed a comparison between the number of empirical articles published about anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia nervosa and the number of articles published about panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (i.e., disorders of comparable disease burden) in 29 high-impact journals over a 5-year period (1996-2001).   RESULTS There were almost twice as many published empirical articles about panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (N=365) as there were about anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia nervosa (N=169).   CONCLUSIONS The findings indicate a possible bias against eating disorders research among some leading psychiatric journals. Alternative explanations and implications are discussed.
Immigrants lose their unique psychosocial context when their experiences are subsumed under panethnic labels such as Hispanic, Latina/o, Asian, or African. The stress from navigating different cultural contexts becomes problematic when immigrants operate within mainstream cultural norms that are in conflict with their traditional values. The number of Kenyan immigrants to the United States has steadily increased since the 1980s. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to study the lived experience of Kenyan immigrants by focusing on their integration experience and how the integration processes may have affected their mental functioning. Transition theory and social constructionism theory were used as the theoretical lens for this study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews conducted with seven Kenyan men and women over the age of 18 from the Northeastern United States who had immigrated from 1996 to the present day. Coding was used to analyze the data by cross-case analysis to search for themes and patterns. Data analysis revealed discrimination, alienation, shame, overcompensation, and cultural shock from the Kenyan immigrants’ perspective.
Models such as the Extended Model of Goal-Directed Behaviour and the Theory of Planned Behaviour imply that the impact of one's goals on behaviour is mediated by more proximal determinants. We hypothesize that goals can have a broader and more dynamic impact on behaviour and, specifically, that goal desires can moderate the effect of intentions on behaviour. Four studies addressed this issue by examining the direct and moderated effects of goal desires on behaviour. All of the studies required participants to complete baseline measures and then a follow-up indicator of behaviour. In Study 1 (N=119) that focused on fruit intake, Study 2 (N=123) and Study 3 (N=96) concerned with drinking alcohol and Study 4 (N=109) regarding snack consumption, behavioural intentions were more reliably related to behaviour when goal desires were strong. The results of Study 3 suggested that goal desire stability increases the likelihood of this moderator effect emerging and Study 4 revealed that this effect was not suppressed by intention stability. The findings suggest that goals and behavioural intentions can operate simultaneously and jointly influence action, a view that contradicts predictions that the effects of goals are fully mediated by more proximal behavioural determinants.
The present study integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) for analysing consumers’ intention to make use of Paytm services. It is a cross-sectional study; the data was gathered from 259 Internet consumers. The statistical tools, including structural equation modelling (SEM), are applied to understand the inter-construct relationships. The intention to use Paytm is positively influenced by a perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and social influence. Moreover, the moderating effects of perceived risk (PR) are found to be significant on the associations among social influence, perceived ease of use and Paytm usage intentions. This study will help digital wallet service providers (DWSP), who focus on identifying the important factors for accelerating the use of mobile wallets. The findings will also facilitate the government to devise ways for augmenting cashless fund movement in the economy. Besides explaining the phenomenon of Paytm usage intentions, the study reveals the moderating role of PR with respect to various antecedents, thereby filling the gap in the existing literature.
Although many theorists and researchers have examined variables related to divorce, little attention has been given to how children may affect their parents' decision to divorce. Since over 60% of divorces involve children, the popular notion that they prevent divorce should be reexamined. The evidence indicates that in some instances children may facilitate the parental decision to divorce. Both theoretical formulations and empirical evidence are considered in assessing children's impact on divorce, and a model conceptualizing these effects is presented. Implications for parents, family practitioners, and researchers are discussed.
The text analyses formative practices in a group of literacy teachers, who are part of the Observatory of Education project, called “Studies and researches of school mathematics literacy practices and of teaching training”, of the Sao Francisco University, Itatiba, SP, for the period of 2013-2014. The project aims to investigate, through a collaborative work with basic education teachers, the school mathematical literacies practices, as well as the teachers’ formation practices of teachers who teach mathematics. We understand that the teachers’ practices when are systematized in a narrative form and shared in the researchers group and in scientific events make an academic literacy of all of the involved possible. In this way, we take as object of analysis the sharing moments of the teachers’ narratives in the researchers group and in scientific events, understating them as formative experience.
The Sleep to Forget, Sleep to Remember model (Walker, 2009) suggests that sleep quality influences emotional memory consolidation. This model has relevance to intrusive memories in PTSD, since theories of PTSD posit that intrusive memories are a product of inadequate processing of emotional memories (Brewin, Dalgleish, & Joseph, 1996; Ehlers & Clark, 2000). The present study aims to investigate the moderating effect of sleep on the relationship between PTSD and intrusive memories. 34 PTSD, 44 trauma exposed (TE) and 40 non-trauma exposed (NTE) participants completed an emotional memory task, where they viewed 60 images (20 positive, 20 negative and 20 neutral) and, two days later, reported how many intrusive memories they had of each valence category. Participants also completed three measures of sleep quality: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the REM Behaviour Disorder Screening Questionnaire and total hours slept before the second session. The PTSD group reported poorer sleep quality than control groups on all three measures, and significantly more negative intrusive memories than the NTE group. Moderation analyses revealed that hours of sleep before the second session moderated the relationship between PTSD symptomology and intrusive memories, as predicted by Sleep to Forget, Sleep to Remember (Walker, 2009).
Dedication. Contents. List of Figures and Tables. Foreword. Acknowledgements. Why Career Transition Coaching? Understanding Your Client and Career Transition Points. Psychological Factors in Career Satisfaction and Transition. Making Career Choices. Getting There. Challenging Transitions. Transition into a New Role or Life. What it Takes to be Successful as a Career Transition Coach. Final Word - Vital Considerations. References.
Background and aim Recent investigations pointed out to the important role of well-being in influencing physical and mental health, with robust findings for the dimension of depression. The aim of this systematic review is to provide an updated summary of articles focused on eudaimonia and depression, including psychosocial interventions that addressed both issues. Method The literature search was performed by entering the keywords: “eudaimonia” OR “eudaimonic well-being (EWB)” and “depression” and by limiting to “journal article” and to the English language. To be included in this, review articles had to present at least one EWB measure and one depression measure, and had to investigate young and adult populations, including populations with mental health disorders. Articles were excluded if they were published before 2014. Results Thirty-four articles were included, with a total of 81,987 participants. About the majority of participants were recruited in two twin studies, followed by college students, and by adults belonging to the general and clinical populations. Sixteen different instruments assessed eudaimonia, being Ryff’s psychological well-being scale the most frequently used. The most used instrument for assessing depression was the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, followed by Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. The studies confirmed the robust, inverse correlation between eudaimonia and depression, which was only partially explained by genetic common factors and which was mediated by other factors, as self-compassion, personality traits, and defense mechanisms. Various interventions were found to be effective both in promoting eudaimonia and in addressing depression, ranging from cognitive-behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness, to positive psychotherapy. Conclusion Clinicians, counselors, and practitioners can select different strategies to promote EWB and to address depression. The findings also suggest the need for a larger consensus on the definition of eudaimonia and on the specific measure(s) to evaluate it in different populations and in different life stages.
Affective computing is computing that relates to human affects things. In this research, it proposed a teaching model with affective computing. It uses a novel method to detect learner's emotion and adjust emotion when learner's emotion without in positive emotion status. The detecting emotion teaching model uses emotion management module that include the detecting emotion and emotion map functions to detect learner's emotion and record emotion status for learning. This research uses emotion map to record the emotion locus for learning activity. In this detecting emotion teaching model integrates learning activities and emotion locus to create a complete learning portfolio. And it can be applied in analyzing learning status for adjusting learner's situation. By this research detecting emotion teaching model it makes a method that was based on learner's emotion to build a more effective learning environment. The detect emotion teaching model, which is a kind of innovative learning model can be applied in game based learning for continuously developing in the future and it can be used in a variety of teaching environment for increasing study effect.
Abstract Ethnomethodologists in the field of offender-based research have recently criticised the earlier use of prison-based samples in research on residential burglary. They claim that interviewing burglars in their natural environment has produced findings of greater validity and reliability. By describing further analysis of data from earlier experimental research on burglars in prison, and drawing on findings from other work on residential burglary, this article sets out to highlight the striking similarity between findings from interview, experimental and ethnographic studies in this area. Far from discounting earlier experimental and interview studies, the recent ethnographic works have served to build on and complement earlier work. The value of using a variety of methods in offender-based research is then discussed.
A growing body of behavioral and molecular genetics literature has indicated that the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be attributed to both genetic and environmental factors. Family, twin, and adoption studies provide compelling evidence that genes play a strong role in mediating susceptibility to ADHD. Molecular genetic studies suggest that the genetic architecture of ADHD is complex, while the handful of genome-wide scans conducted thus far is not conclusive. In contrast, the many candidate gene studies of ADHD have produced substantial evidence implicating several genes in the etiology of the disorder. For the 8 genes for which the same variant has been studied in 3 or more case-control or family-based studies, 7 show statistically significant evidence of association with ADHD based on pooled odds ratios across studies: the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4), the dopamine D5 receptor gene (DRD5), the dopamine transporter gene (DAT), the dopamine beta-hydroxylase gene (DBH), the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT), the serotonin receptor 1B gene (HTR1B), and the synaptosomal-associated protein 25 gene (SNAP25). Recent pharmacogenetic studies have correlated treatment nonresponse with particular gene markers, while preclinical studies have increased our understanding of gene expression paradigms and potential analogs for human trials. This literature review discusses the relevance and implications of genetic associations with ADHD for clinical practice and future research.
A new paradigm that may be appropriate for uncovering speech perceptual codes is described. Illusory words (e.g. /bi u/) are detected by blending two dichotic stimuli (e.g. /bit -k u/). According to the logic of illusory conjunctions (Treisman & Schmidt, 1982), the speech unit involved in such illusions must be separately registered as an independent entity in the course of the recognition process. In addition, the design allows for comparison of different units by the manipulation of the distribution of information between the two inputs (e.g. for initial consonant, /ki u-b t /; for first vowel, /b u-kit /).
The purpose of this research was to explore the mediating effects of promoting interaction between classroom goal structure and students’ intrinsic motivation. A conceptual model of the three variables was developed and tested using mediation analysis. Participants included 60 students of age group 12-14 of 8th grade of a private Higher Secondary School. The result of this study revealed that classroom environment affects the perception of the students about their achievement related behavior and outcomes. This further influences the intrinsic motivation of the students. However, the effect of classroom context on students’ motivation is not always mediated through promoting interaction. The findings of the present study do not support the results and suggestions of the previous researchers. Finding suggests that there is a need for a rigorous and systematic investigation on the link between classroom goal structure and students’ intrinsic motivation by identifying a mediating variable. Also, it may be mentioned that there is a need for taking into consideration both the teachers’ classroom and personal goal orientations that affect students’ perceptions as this may further influence their learning.
In Indonesia discussing sex is a taboo subject to talk about. Many families, educational institutions, even the government is very minimal or even does not provide education about sex in early age to childrens and adolescents, so it cannot be denied that the lack of sex education causes many cases of women who become pregnant out of wedlock and also more people who contract sexually transmitted diseases. So in this writing the author examines the procurement of condom vending machines in the college environment that not only releases condoms but also some issues articles of various laws and regulations related to the aim of providing education about healthy and safe sex and giving reminders to young people about the consequences that will be faced if someone has sex outside of marriage. The method used in this writing is empirical juridical where the writer sees the reality and the facts that exist and integrates with the applicable legal norms. The results of this study that there are still many young people who ignore the importance of using condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and consider sex education as a taboo even in educational institutions
Providing information to test takers and test score users about the abilities of test takers at different score levels has been a persistent problem in educational and psychological measurement. Scale anchoring, a technique which describes what students at different points on a score scale know and can do, is a tool to provide such information. Scale anchoring for a test involves a substantial amount of work, both by the statistical analysts and test developers involved with the test. In addition, scale anchoring involves considerable use of subjective judgment, so its conclusions may be questionable. We describe statistical procedures that can be used to determine if scale anchoring is likely to be successful for a test. If these procedures indicate that scale anchoring is unlikely to be successful, then there is little reason to perform a detailed scale anchoring study. The procedures are applied to several data sets from a teachers’ licensing test.
A Rake's Progress is examined to discover in what ways a pictorial narrative can be narrative in a literary sense. The personality, actions, and background of the central character are considered from established literary-dramatic points of view in the body of the thesis. The Rake is seen as both a well-defined individual and a universal study of a reactionary who aspires towards ancient ideals; a mock-hero in a complex work. An explanation of misunderstood and neglected details is attempted and it is shown how they contribute effectively to what is thought to be a coherent work. It is argued that the heroine is not a pathetic and unfortunate addition to the story, but that she is an integral part of Hogarth's imaginative thought. His detached attitude towards her is considered as major evidence of a comic and melodramatic style. In the third part Hogarth's treatment of recurrent emblems is compared to the poetic purposes of iterative imagery and it is claimed that Hogarth's religious "imagery" shows that the progress is a multi-layered allegory. It is claimed in the conclusion that Hogarth manipulates his authorial viewpoint and chooses what he is prepared to disclose or not to disclose like a writer; that the symmetry of the work is comparable to the appearance of a short poem; that Hogarth's progresses offer a unique quality of multiplicity to the concept of narrative; that there is evidence which shows that Hogarth maintained a close relationship with his subscribers, anticipating that of Dickens; that A Rake's Progress represents a transitional work between simple, picaresque fictions and philosophically more complex ones.
This course-book is designed for Master’s level students who are trained as teachers of English at universities. It is an essential resource for teachers of Methodology, teachers of English and other stakeholders interested in modern methods of teaching English at university. The course-book aim is to provide students with important professional skills related both to general methodology of teaching English and teaching English at university.
The aim of this article is to review the current evidence for a genetic component of susceptibility to anorexia nervosa. We discuss the historical data that gave rise to the theory of a genetic component underlying susceptibility to anorexia nervosa and discuss the relative importance of the assumptions made. We illustrate through reference to more recent studies the type of approach that will be required to determine the genes involved in this underlying genetic susceptibility and summarise the story so far. There is now supporting data consistent with the theory that a genetic component is involved in the susceptibility to anorexia nervosa. However, it is clear that further studies involving larger numbers of subjects are required in order to clarify these recent findings. The current case–control association studies may go some way towards describing the genetic component of anorexia nervosa. However, it is important to accept that replication in independent study cohorts will be required before the rest of the scientific world will accept the current evidence. A world-wide study is currently under way. It allows patient cohorts from different countries to be compared. We hope that it will enable us to understand more clearly the genetics of this complex disorder. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and Eating Disorders Association.
This experiment was designed to investigate the effects of and possible interactions between social versus mechanical reinforcement, and reinforcement for right responses only versus reinforcement for wrong responses only on the concept identification performance of chronic schizophrenic patients. A number of writers (Aftleck, 1954; Davies & Harrington, 1957; Whiteman, 1954) have proposed that the presence of social cues elicirs more impairment and disorganization in the performance of various tasks in schizophrenic patients than is the case for normals. Johannsen (1959), however, is apparently the only investigator who has manipulated the amount of social cues in the situation by having Ss perform under conditions of E-present and E-absent. He found that normal Ss learned a simple sequence of pushing right and left positioned buttons more readily under the social condition (E present and verbally indicating both right and wrong) than under the non-social condition (E out of the room and both right and wrong responses indicated mechanically) ; whereas non-paranoid schizophrenic Ss learned more readily under non-social than social conditions. Paranoid schizophrenics learned about as well under both conditions. Atkinson and Robinson (in press) employed mechanical versus social feedback with normal and schizophrenic Ss in a paired-associate learning cask and found no differential effects of this variable. However, E sat close by S even in the mechanical feedback condition so that there may not have been much difference in the social cue values berween the two conditions. Several studies are relevant to the question of whether positively reinforcing incorrect responses only differentially affects the learning process in schizophrenics and normals. Atkinson and Robinson (in press) included these conditions as another variable in their study and found that normals learned relatively better when rewarded for correct responses, whereas schizophrenics learned relatively better when "punished or given feedback for incorrect responses. Atkinson and Robinson propose that schizophrenics are more highly motivated to escape punishment than normals, and also that socially administered rewards have less dear-cut meaning to the schizophrenic than to the normal. Other studies (Cavanaugh, Cohen, & Lang, 1960; Leventhal,
This research concerns the life of a young man named Sisyphus, who got his first job through a public policy of the municipality of Maracanau, state of Ceara. This study focuses on the movement of Personal Identity in the situation of young first-insertion, basing on the Historical-Cultural Psychology of Mind and Social Psychology Review. It was also discussed youth and social exclusion process. It was defined a qualitative methodology with analysis of content. Qualitative methodology was used by targeted interviews in three separate stages with an interval of two months and subsequent thematic analysis. From his reports, it is possible to understand that Working facilitates the Identity movement in the direction of the Personal Value and Personal Power, in a complex and nonlinear way, nourished by the contradictions of the reality in which he lives.
EPISODIC ataxias are rare disorders in which periodic episodes of ataxia are separated by normal or near normal motor behaviour. They probably arise from dysfunctional membrane ion channels in the cerebellum. A patient with episodic ataxia EA-2 performed three motor tasks, before, during and after an ataxic episode. In all three tasks there were significant performance deficits during the ataxic episode. Two of the tasks also assessed motor adaptation (prism adaptation) or motor learning (ideogram drawing). In neither task was there significant disruption of motor adaptation or learning. These results suggest that the cerebellum may have separate roles in learning and in performance of visually guided movements, and that the dysfunction in this patient affected only his motor performance.
This research start from the fact at school that it has 55 % the result of the study of the students in class x on Jasa Boga Competition in Subject Prosessing Continental Food are down of the KKM (7,5).This process make the hypothesis because of the proseces of the study still focus to the teacher and the studying process in teaching, the teacher also teacher also explain the material with conventional method. The purpose of this research to know the effect using demonstration method of Professsional Competition  students in their subject the proses of continental food in class x Jasa Boga department at SMK N 1 Sintuk Toboh Gadang in academic year 2012 / 2013. The kind of this research is quasi experiment research by using factorial planning one direction with all the population are students in class x Jasa Boga SMK N Sintuk Toboh Gadang. The sample is taken by using Total Sampling technique. The instrument is used test to estimate professional competition students are value form practice of questions test that given in the last research. The data analysis technique get t hitung > t tabel =  (4,8 > 1,67) in clusion, using demonstration method give positive effect it’s means that in significant level 0,05 of professional competition students on subject how do the process continental food in class x at SMK N 1 Sintuk Toboh Gadang in academic year 2012 / 2013. Kata kunci: Metode Demonstrasi , Kompetensi Profesional.
This article on “The Use of Comma in Students’ Writing: Some Grapho-Syntactic Considerations” investigates the use of the punctuation mark comma among students of University of Uyo. English has indices for good and effective written communication, the indices comprising grammar and orthography.  The paper aims at determining the relationship between appropriate punctuation and grammar and its effect on good written English. The paper observes that of all the punctuation marks, comma is the most versatile and intricate in writing.  To justify this assertion, data on punctuation were obtained from written texts, isolated, categorized and analyzed in line with Error Analysis, the theoretical model adopted for this work.   From the analyses, it is observed that units of grammar such as lexical items, phrase and clause structures determine the use of comma in written texts. The investigation reveals that many students use comma haphazardly, one based on ignorance of grammatical rules, and two based on the notion that comma marks a pause.  The findings indicate a general tendency towards the insertion of comma where it is not required by comma selection processes and the omission of comma where it is required. The findings also reveal the preponderance of the separation of the subject from its verb and the verb from its direct object by comma contrary to the grapho-syntactic rules of English. Also found out is the inappropriate use of comma in coordinate elements, subordinate clauses and appositive constructions. The paper concludes that there is a relationship between punctuation and grammar. Because of the importance of punctuation in good written communication, it is pertinent to intensify drills on this aspect of language teaching and to make punctuation teaching an integral part of language teaching.
Four experiments investigate the differences between implicit and explicit sequence learning concerning their resilience to structural and superficial task changes. A superficial change that embedded the SRT task in the context of a selection task, while maintaining the sequence, did selectively hinder the expression of implicit learning. In contrast, a manipulation that maintained the task surface, but decreased the sequence validity, affected the expression of learning specifically when it was explicit. These results are discussed in the context of a dynamic framework (Cleeremans & Jiménez, 2002), which assumes that implicit knowledge is specially affected by contextual factors and that, as knowledge becomes explicit, it allows for the development of relevant metaknowledge that modulates the expression of explicit knowledge.
A series of five consecutive clinical trials were performed in which the neuropeptide desglycinamide‐(Arg8)‐vasopressin (DGAVP) was administered to human subjects suffering from cognitive and memory complaints. The patients selected for the study were carefully screened with the aid of neuropsychological assessment procedures. The trials were conducted according to a structured design in which the variables ‘dose’, ‘route of administration’, ‘treatment schedule’, ‘diagnostic group’, and ‘severity of deficit’ were varied from trial to trial in order to find optimal conditions for the possible expression of a peptide effect. The results indicate a statistically significant effect of DGAVP on word list learning in patients with mild brain trauma, suggesting that learning performance and memory retrieval are improved after peptide treatment in these patients. Patients with more severe brain trauma did not respond to peptide treatment. Some DGAVP effects, e.g. increased speed of memory search, were observed in patients with age‐associated memory deficits.
Transport, housing and the dimensions of strain during training and race are important aspects of animal welfare. The race veterinarian has a great responsibility. He is responsible for the treatment of injured dogs and he has to give advice on all medical and animal welfare questions. The presence of the veterinarian during the entire race is very important. These veterinarians should have special knowledge of small animals and of sled dogs in particular. There should be health checks of sled dogs before and after racing similar to horse sport tournaments.
This article posits theoretical and methodological propositions for the development and use of an educational computer game in the area of training educational psychologists and as an object of research in the field of Educational technology. As an additional learning tool, this game can be used to mediate agreements with School Psychology by establishing an opportunity to enter this field of study. By articulating the theoretical orientations from Actor-Network, Enaction and Autopoiesis, we consider how learning through a computer game will be able to help overcome traditional dichotomies in Education, such as student-professor, and subject-object. In order to avoid didactic directions for the development of an educational software, we reflect on the maintenance of a symmetrical position for the exercise of learning based on the proposal of a political epistemology focused on teaching and researching.
The Rorschach and Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) were used to examine personality styles and dynamics of 73 incarcerated Alaska Native and nonnative men. There were clear differences between native and nonnative inmates on both the MCMI-II and the Rorschach. Also, when the participants were separated into bicultural, assimilated, and traditional groups, the bicultural group had the most difficulties in coping and in interpersonal relationships. The results of this study suggest that the profile for offenders is not the same for Alaska natives and nonnatives. Culture and cultural styles may contribute to create a significantly different type of "criminal personality" seen in forensic settings.
Traditionalists and Structuralists School improvement advocates gener ally fall into two camps "Tradition alists" want to return schools jto the way they were before the curriculum innovations of the '60s and 70s, with emphasis on the teaching of skills and traditional school subjects Tradition alists typically push for more more time spent in schools, more required courses, more testing, and more rigor ous standards for promotion and grad uation They believe that the schools and educational practices of the past, if repaired or strengthened, are ade quate to prepare students for life in the year 2000 and beyond "Structuralists," on the other hand, believe we need fundamental changes in the structure and organization of schools. They challenge the basic de sign of the American school, recom mend changes in the teaching profes sion, and urge new goals and priorities for schools Neither of these groups, however, has addressed the central question for true school change: What should schools be teaching to prepare stu dents for citizenship in the globalized society of the 21st century?
The case of patient V is one you want to dig for, being an example in which a Cluster B disorder (i.e., borderline personality disorder) is also accompanied by elements from Cluster A (such as those in the paranoid area). Symptoms from the dependent personality can be involved.  Objective: The presentation of a medical case of an 18-year-old young man, initially diagnosed at the age of 16 with Bipolar Affective Personality Disorder, and whose personality structure is better explained by a Borderline Disorder is the aim of the present article.  Method: The patient was hospitalized involuntarily. He was under medical supervision and treatment. He also underwent specialized investigations (EEG, brain CT), psychological and personality tests, as well as daily monitoring. Throughout the procedure there have been a collaboration with his family and the authorities.  Results:  From the detailed anamnesis and the reconstruction of the significant life events, a borderline personality structure emerged, having a paranoid core that provided V the capacity of being goal-oriented. The personality scales also showed elements of an antisocial nature, manipulation and desire to be socially liked. Psychodynamic interpretations show an emotional flattening, avoidance of being in touch with he's own emotions and feelings, his unconscious mind housing an unbearable pain.  Conclusions: The diagnosis of Bipolar Personality Disorder, sustained two years ago, is refuted, the patient being included in an axis II frame (i.e. borderline personality with a strong paranoid core and pathology of addiction)
Using a sense-making and threat management framework in rumor psychology, the authors used an exploratory web survey (n = 169) to query members of online cancer discussion groups about informal cancer statements heard from nonmedical sources (i.e., cancer rumors). Respondents perceived that rumors helped them cope. Dread rumors exceeded wish rumors; secondary control (control through emotional coping) rumors outnumbered primary control (direct action) rumors. Rumor content focused on cancer lethality, causes, and suffering. Rumors came primarily from family or friends in face-to-face conversations. Respondents discussed rumors with medical personnel primarily for fact-finding purposes, but with nonmedical people for altruistic, emotional coping, or relationship enhancement motives. Transmitters (vs. nontransmitters) considered rumors to be more important, were more anxious, and felt rumors helped them cope better, but did not believe them more strongly or feel that they were less knowledgeable about cancer. Most respondents believed the rumors; confidence was based on trust in family or friends (disregarding source nonexpertise) and concordance with beliefs, attitudes, and experience. Results point toward the fruitfulness of using rumor theory to guide research on cancer rumors and suggest that rumors help people achieve a sense of emotional control for dreaded cancer outcomes, inform the social construction of cancer, and highlight the continuing importance of nonelectronic word of mouth.
Food Literacy (FL) is associated with the improvement of autonomy and confidence around food, healthier dietary intake, and chronic disease prevention. However, to date, behaviour change research at CHI has focused on motivating healthy eating mainly through weight loss and calorie control, which can lead to poor nutritional choices as consumers optimize caloric intake over a balanced diet. To address this gap, we designed a mobile game called Pirate Bri's Grocery Adventure, that seeks to improve FL through a situated learning approach to grocery shopping. Our game leverages Self Determination Theory (SDT) to build a player's competence, autonomy, and relatedness as shoppers are encouraged to develop an understanding of the nutritional benefits of foods and are rewarded for balancing sugar, sodium, fats and fibre in their purchases.
The effects of food deprivation (0-1, 2-3, and 22-23 h) of pups and of lactational age of mother (1-7 days, 16-22 days and own mother) upon suckling behavior of pups were investigated with the mother anesthetized. The effect of food deprivation was not evident prior to 11 days of age but deprived pups showed higher level of suckling than non-deprived pups at 16 and 21 days of age (Experiment 1). The effect of lactational age of mother was not found at 6-17 days of age but pups at 1-2 and 21-22 days of age showed lower level of suckling to the anesthetized mother which differed in lactational age from their own mother (Experiment 2).
Since there is a need for cost-effective screening techniques to identify neuropsychological impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and because existing methods require cognitive testing with subsequent interpretation by a neuropsychologist, a brief self-report procedure was developed to screen for neuropsychological impairment in MS. In the first phase of the study, a pool of 80 items was generated based on a literature review and consultation with healthcare professionals. The set was reduced to 15 via Rasch analysis. Using these items, a brief (five minute) MS Neuropsychological Screening Q uestionnaire (MSNQ), including patient- and informant-report forms, was composed. In phase II, 50 MS patients and their caregivers completed the MSNQ. A comprehensive neuropsychological test battery was also administered. A nalyses covered the reliability of the MSNQ and correlations between both patient- and informant-report scores and objective neuropsychological testing. C ronbach’s a coefficients were 0.93 and 0.94 for the patient- and informant-report forms, respectively, and both forms of the test were strongly correlated with a more general cognitive complaints questionnaire. The patient MSNQ form correlated significantly with measures of depression but not with objective tests of cognitive function. In contrast, the informant form was correlated with patient cognitive performance but not depression. A cut-off score of 27 on the informant form of the MSNQ optimally separated patients based on a neuropsychological summary score encompassing measures of processing speed and memory. There were two false-negatives and one false-positive, giving the test a sensitivity of 0.83 and a specificity of 0.97. It is concluded, therefore, that this self-administered neuropsychological screening test is reliable and predicts neuropsychological impairment in MS patients with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
This paper discusses about epistemological and methodological approaches at Post- graduation Courses in Education, reflecting about the actual industrial-technologic scene and presents the characteristics of different paradigms that coexist in education field and in the knowledge produc- tion of this area, Using the results of an investigation about methodological approach, paradigmatic choose and different ways of looking reality, limitations are signalized suggesting a new evaluation of strategies and mechanisms used in that courses.
The treatment and display of the exilic theme in Old English poetry reveal certain Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards exile. A significant facet of such attitudes is that the Anglo-Saxons take both the personage and happening of exile as a crystallization of the unknown, which complexly arouses both disquiet and fascination. While exile is regarded by the Anglo-Saxons as one of the most miserable occurrences, it is feared because of not only the misery and torture it brings forth but also the sense of unknown it embodies. A warrior-member in community can never be sure whether or when he will fall into an exilic condition. He can never predict what those in exile will encounter and how they will react to community as well as to their exilic situation. Hence, the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons view exile are closely similar to, if not the same with, those in which they view the unknown: a sense of disquiet and fear yet meanwhile fascination. The last feeling derives from the knowledge of an answer behind the enigma, such as the possible solutions to the riddles and the explanation for the matter of life and death and of human fate provided by Christian faith. The sense of resolvability makes an enigma pleasing, just as the defeat and death of Grendel and Grendel’s mother render their existence rather desirable in Beowulf. The fact that the need for solutions becomes satisfied leads to pleasure and relief. Moreover, the process of solving an enigma itself is attractive enough to be expressed in Old English poetry. Such fascination can be found through the puzzles in riddles, the ambiguity in elegies, the construction and extinction of exile-monsters, and the display of the theme of exile.
ABSTRACT Gift-giving is popular in live streaming, and many users irrationally send virtual gifts to their favorite live streamers. Based on the attachment and flow theories, we applied the stimulus-organism-response model to explore the influence of live streamer characteristics (trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness) and live scene characteristics (telepresence, instant feedback, interactivity, entertainment) on users’ gift-giving intention through emotional attachment and flow experience. Four hundred and three valid responses to a survey questionnaire were analyzed. Findings of the research results include three aspects. First, live streamer characteristics (trustworthiness and attractiveness) can stimulate users’ emotional attachment to a live streamer, thus promoting users’ gift-giving intention. Second, live scene characteristics (telepresence and entertainment) can stimulate users’ flow experience in live streaming. Third, users’ flow experience influences their emotional attachment to live streamer.
PETER ALBERT LEHMULLER. The effect of multiple interventions on freshman college student engagement and retention. (Under the direction of DR. JOHN A. GRETES) College student retention has been widely studied in the past twenty five years, and institutions have developed numerous interventions aimed at improving student retention and persistence-to-degree. A number of theories have been promulgated to explain student departure. While none has proven absolutely conclusive, the concept that student engagement influences the decision to stay enrolled or depart the institution has achieved an almost universal acceptance. Most institutional programs aimed at improving retention seek to engage students on academic and social levels, following the theory that the more a student is connected to the institution, the more likely the student is to stay, and hence, graduate. Much research has been completed attesting to the efficacy of a variety of single interventions. This study determined if participating in more than one intervention significantly improves engagement and retention. Results indicated that participating in more than one intervention significantly improves retention, and that participation in an extended orientation when combined with a learning community with an embedded firstyear seminar was the most effective combination. Analysis also demonstrated a relationship between engagement, expressed as the quality of interactions a student has with the institution, and retention.
The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of the effects of aging on the female voice by obtaining measures of both acoustic and respiratory‐based performance in groups of 18–30, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, and 70–79‐year‐old subjects. Acoustic measures of speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), pitch sigma, jitter, shimmer, and signal‐to‐noise ratio, as well as respiratory‐based measures of vital capacity (VC), maximum phonation time (MPT), and phonation quotient (PQ) were obtained. Results indicated that the aging groups differed significantly in terms of SFF, pitch sigma, MPT, and VC. In addition, discriminant function analysis was used to classify subjects into age group via a three‐variable model consisting of VC, SFF, and pitch sigma (84% accuracy), and into pre‐ vs. post‐menopausal status via a two‐variable model consisting of VC and pitch sigma (92% accuracy). It appears that declinations in the respiratory and laryngeal mechanisms may occur simultaneously in the aging female.
It is the business of the human soul to impose her own order upon the clamorous rout; to establish a hierarchy appropriate to the demands of her own nature, and by the mere fiat of her absolute choice, if that be based upon self-knowledge.—Judge Learned Hand “Where is the standard of review in Judge Noonan's opinion?” The question has been posed—I am confident—more than once. I first heard it when I clerked for Judge Noonan, from a friend clerking elsewhere on the Ninth Circuit. My friend wanted to know by what standard of review Judge Noonan had reached his result. “It's not there,” I replied, “and come to think of it, it never is.” “Well,” retorted my friend, “how can that be? In our chambers, the standard of review decides the case.” That little exchange (which is not apocryphal) rendered me speechless and thus got me thinking about the fetters that bind judges. While I disdained such a facile incantation—indeed, caricature—of the judicial “can't,” I accepted that while appellate courts rarely stand on the shoulders of giants, they do not sit as though the trial court (or agency) never rendered a decision. If appellate courts are not to be second trial courts, there must be some deference to the earlier proceeding, and that might usefully be designated the standard of review.
Perseverance, above and beyond IQ, predicts academic outcomes in school age children. Yet, little is known about how very young children learn the contexts in which persistence is valuable (or not). Here, we explore how young children and infants learn about the rational deployment of effort through observing adults’ persistent behavior. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 indicate that preschoolers persist more after watching an adult persist, but only if the adult is successful at reaching their goal. Experiment 3 extends these findings, showing that even infants use adult models to modulate their persistence, and can generalize this inference to novel situations. Thus, both preschoolers and infants are sensitive to adult persistence and use it to calibrate their own tenacity.
The aim of this study was to analyze the point difference established at different phases of the game by the winners and losers in men’s singles badminton matches. We analyzed 136 games from matches of the 2015 World Championship. From each game were collected the final result and the maximum point difference established by the players in each phase of the game. We considered from 0 to 7 points the first phase, from 8 to 14 the second phase and 15 to 21 the third phase of the game. We found that in all phases the winners had a superior point difference than the losers and this difference increased significantly over the course of the match. For all the players who were not ahead on the scoreboard in the first phase, 78% have lost the game. We found that one point ahead in the second and third phases was not enough for athletes to win the game. The winners had at least five points of difference to the opponent from the middle to the end of the game. The results presented are important to monitor the athlete’s performance during the game and to readjust strategies based on point difference.
The subject of the work is analysis of the role of social-educational environment in formation of subjectness of the rising generation. The objective point of the work consisted in research of the causes because of which social-educational environment plays the role of inhibitor or facilitator for developing subjectness. The methods of theoretical, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data were used in the research. In present-day conditions of instability of social-economic life level of the most part of Russian population a serious transformation of the views on the questions of education and upbringing have taken place. Nowadays the conquest of material prosperity by the price of its achieving are the ambivalent ideas about the values necessary for development fully functioning personality. One of its sides is subjectness. The article aims at the research of the signs of subjectness, analysis of the conditions necessary for forming the subjectness of personality.
Village Consultative Body (BPD) is a manifestation of democracy and institution degree, the government of village closest to the people. BPD is formed around the village in Indonesia that has been overshadowed by Law No. 22 1999 on Regional Government. With the establishment of this BPD can help or meet all the needs of local communities, in accordance with the function of BPD according to Law No. 6 2014 on Village Governance. The number of members of the BPD Babatan Ilir Village as many as five (5) persons. This study aimed to knew or thingking of the public about the implementation of the functions of the Village Consultative Body (BPD) in the village of Babatan Ilir. There was took from 3 aspect article of 55 Law 6 of 2014 on the village, namely: (1) Discuss and agree of planning about village Regulations, (2) Collect and Distribute Aspirations, (3) performance Monitoring chief of village. The population in this study is a whole community of Babatan Ilir village, samples were taken by 84 person with random of Sampling Samples election. The approach in this study using the quantitative descriptive statistical presentation using tables, diagrams, mean, median, standard deviation, then the calculation of the percentage in the presentation of the results questionnaires. From this study, concluded that the public perception of the function (1) discuss and pass the proposed laws the village is considered quite good, because the people included in the rulemaking village and delivered again people result of the village regulations, (2) shared their aspirations, received unfavorable responses 58,80% of the respondents can’t to answer, people do not fully understand the functions entailed by the BPD, so that in the process and share their aspirations often opposition or dissent with the community (3) supervising the performance of the chief. Rated quite poorly in the eyes of the public, only a small fraction of society to know what the duties of the BPD. Lack of human resources, lack of curiosity people about government or institutions that exist in their environment. The conclusion is 44.6% of people didn’t knew the meaning of the public perception of the implementation of the BPD function less well. There was still a lot of negative feedback of people to the performance of BPD.
At present,the common logical restrictive relationship indivect inference is still restricted in simple judgment in the opinion of this article,the compound judgment can also make effective direct inference of restrictive relationship The united judgment,the selected judgment,the hypothesis judgment and the equal judgment of their negative one is deduced from each other,all of them can constitute new effective form of restrictive relationship in direct inference
The purpose of this study is identifying the impact of cross cultural differences on student’s satisfaction and intention to leave the institution in future. A conceptual framework comprises of four (4) factors that are originally developed by Hofstede (1986) and further enhanced in 2001 by adding fifth dimension of Confucian dynamism was used to examined the impact of cross-cultural differences on level of conflict experienced by African students and their intention to leave the institution in near future. A multivariate likert-scale questionnaire (scale from 1-5) has been developed. Samples of 250 respondents were used from four private institutions in Malaysia to collect the data using random probability sampling method. Simple linear regression and correlation analysis was conducted using SPSS 22. Regression beta coefficient and correlation coefficients were generated to test the hypotheses and to establish the causal effects of collectivism, power distance, Masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. The research shows no significant influence of cross cultural differences on both student’s perceived level of conflict experienced inside and outside of the academic institution. Also this research found no significant impact of cross-cultural differences on student’s intention to leave, except power distance. This study shows that as student’s perceived differences in power distance increases, the intention to leave also increases. Similarly this research found that perceived level of conflict has a significant and positive impact on student’s intention to leave. Therefore this study concluded that cross-cultural differences do not have any significant impact on perceived level of conflict and student intention to leave except power distance. Power distance has significant and positive impact on student intention to leave. However if students experience more conflict, it may strongly influences students intention to leave. Therefore managers at education sector should take initiatives and pay more attention to reduce level of conflict that may arise between students and management, teaching staff and among students. This might help the institution to retain the students in long-run or until they complete the study. Also it is important that government of Malaysia to take initiatives to aware general public and relevant authorities in dealing with African students to reduce the level of perceived conflict in order to attract more students. Future research should be undertaken on different context or by increasing the sample size by widening the research context to ensure validity and reliability of the results.
PurposeThe paper investigates changes in consumption of pure alcohol, vodka, beer, wine and fortified wine by neighboring age classes of Russians.Design/methodology/approachData source is the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – HSE from 2000 to 2017. Age groups are those born in 1934 and older, in 1935–1944 and further with a 10-years interval till the group of 1985 and younger. The amount of consumed alcohol is estimated with Heckman model. LR-test is used to determine the similarity of alcohol consumption behavior of age groups. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition presents the difference in the average level of alcohol consumption among two neighboring age classes with the explained and unexplained parts.FindingsMale and female respondents from the group (1985+) drink significantly less absolute alcohol than the previous age class born in 1975–1984. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition shows that an increase in absolute alcohol consumption for women and a decrease in absolute alcohol consumption for men come from the unexplained difference of consumption volumes. Policy measures should be targeted on the prevention of excessive alcohol consumption among Russian women since they demonstrate an increase in the consumption of vodka, beer and fortified wine from one generation to another.Originality/valueFor the first time, the paper presents decomposition of changes in alcohol consumption volumes for neighboring age groups of Russians. The change in consumption volumes might be due to the change of objective characteristics of individuals and unobservable factors like the influence of advertising, government policy and the entry of new alcohol producers into the market.
This article integrates some of the major literature of person- centered counseling and its contextual application to career counseling and career assessment. The discussion of a person- centered career counseling model and the use of testing or assessment in the person-centered stance emphasizes several factors in tandem with the crux of the person-centered approach. A historical perspective of the person-centered approach, the major premise hypothesized by Rogers of certain basic core conditions that are necessary and sufficient for therapeutic personality change, is reviewed within the perspective of person-centered assessment. In addition, a model which incorporates the principles of the person- centered approach is reviewed and examples of assessment from this particular framework are presented.
Health professionals who work with family caregivers of Alzheirricr's tlisease (All) patients are oftrn surprised at the variability of the carcgiving cxperierlce for diffcrcnt family rncrnbers. Prirrlary caregivers rriay be spouses, children, in-laws, or extended relatives. Understanding the caregiving relationship is important in planning iriterveritions that will be appropriate to assist caregivers of different types. Such interventions nlay include education, infornlation on and referral to various community and institutional resources and programs, training in specific problem-solving skills and behavior management techniques, guidance and emotional support, routine respite from caregiving tasks, social interaction opportunities, and the chance to confide how they feel about being in the caregiving role. These dirrerential interventions must be timed appropriately and based not only on the patient's status but also on the caregiver's perception of feeling burdened by caregiving responsibilities. How significant is the type of' kin re la tionship between arl AD patient and caregiver to caregiving burden and various caregiving effects o r outcornes? For this discussion, caregivirlg burden is defined as the strcssors associated with caregiving arld the irrlpact of these stressors on farrlily caregivers. Burclcrl is also related to a caregiver's feeling or perception of stress or strain (Lawton, Kleban, Moss, Rovine, & Glickrnan, 1989; Miller, McFall, & Montgomery, 1991; Miller & McFall, 1992; Morycz, 1985; Poulschock & Deimling, 1984). Indeed, feeling burden nlay contribute to the decision to inst i tut ional ize the pa t ien t (Montgomery, Stull, & Borgatta, 1985; Morycz, 1983). The development of emotional difficulties and perceived changes in health status have also been attributed to caregiving burden. For example, fhmily members caring for AD patients often report symptoms of clinical clepression (Cohen & Eisdorfer, 1988; Coppcl, Burton, Becker, 8c Fiore, 1985; Drirlka, Srnith, & Drinks, 1987; Gilleard, Relford, Gilleard, Whittick, & Gledliill, 1984; Mori t~, Kasl, & Berkman, 1989) and other negative health consequences (Wright, Clipp, & George, 1993). The purpose of this article is to explore some of the basic clinical implications of kin relationship on a caregiver's perception of burden and on o ther caregiving outcomes. How is burden different o r how
Covariations of self-reported sleep quantity (duration) and quality (disturbances) with affective, stressful, academic, and social experiences across the first year of university in 187 Canadian students (M age=18.4) were examined with multilevel models. Female students reported sleeping fewer hours on average than did male students. In months when negative affect and general levels of stress were higher, sleep quantity was lower. Poorer sleep quality was seen in students living away from home and reporting more financial stress at baseline. In addition, sleep quality was poorer in months when negative affect and general levels of stress were higher (attenuating the effect of financial stress) and better in months when students spent more days with friends. Three themes are presented to explore the mechanisms by which sleep quantity and quality rise and fall in tandem with experiences of the first year of university.
This paper presents the findings from research using the critical incident technique to identify the use of key competencies for communication management practitioners. Qualitative data was generated from 202 critical incidents reported by 710 respondents. We also present a brief summary of the quantitative data, which identified two superordinate goals, six major competencies and four main personal attributes required for competent practice. Our primary focus in this paper, however, is on the holistic, practitioner‐orientated descriptions and interpretations of workplace events, which illustrated how associated competencies and aptitudes are strategically applied in communication management. We identified further dimensions of competency development, such as reflective practice and transformative action as knowledge was constructed and reconfigured in the dynamic workplace environment.
The issue of teaching pronunciation has been severely neglected after the first year of most university foreign language (FL) courses. Moreover, research examining factors affecting the acquisition of the second language (L2) phonological system has been, in general, very scarce. In the present study I examine the acquisition of a nonnative phonological system by adult language learners studying Spanish at Indiana University, Bloomington. The objective of the study was to determine the success of supplementing intermediate Spanish courses with formal instruction in pronunciation. The instruction provided a multimodal methodology aimed to account specifically for individual differences and learning style variation. Variables such as field independence (FI), as measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971), and subject attitude or concern for pronunciation accuracy were examined in relation to improvement in pronunciation. The findings revealed that neither FI, nor subject concern for pronunciation accuracy, were significant predictors of improvement in pronunciation. In contrast, the multimodal methodology resulted in significant improvement of target language pronunciation for the subjects in the experimental group. The article ends with a classroom model of pronunciation instruction designed to enable teachers to incorporate this multimodal method into most second language (L2) curricula. There are also observations about pronunciation errors as they relate to contrastive analysis theory and several suggestions for future research.
The beliefs and attitudes of teachers are an important element in the development of inclusive education and its associated practices. Teacher education is seen as crucial in helping to develop positive attitudes and beliefs that are thought to promote inclusion, although attempts to reform teacher education in order to address issues of inclusion are complex. The paper reports the findings from a set of surveys that studied student teachers' attitudes to, and beliefs about, inclusion and exclusion at the beginning and end of a newly reformed 1-year professional graduate diploma course at the University of Aberdeen, which places inclusion at the heart of the programme. The findings from the surveys indicate that both primary and secondary student teachers' attitudes and beliefs towards the principles of inclusive education remain positive throughout the course and are largely undiminished by school experience. This contradicts some findings that are reported elsewhere, where attitudes and beliefs become more negative following experience in schools. Findings from this study also show that attitudes, beliefs and understandings of the principles of inclusion are enhanced by consideration of the ideas underpinning ‘Learning without Limits’.
This study assessed the extent and nature of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among 165 students attending an all-women’s college. Associations between NSSI behaviors and demographics, borderline personality disorder (BPD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and attachment styles were investigated. Statistically significant relationships between the severity of NSSI and demographic characteristics and BPD and PTSD were explored using bivariate analysis. Within this population, presence of NSSI behavior was significantly associated with age, years in college, nonheterosexual orientation, BPD, PTSD, and preoccupied attachment styles. There were also marginally significant associations with race and financial status. Severity of NSSI behaviors was significantly associated with age, years in college, BPD pathology, and primary parent’s level of education. A logistic regression analysis was developed that predicted NSSI behavior with 67% accuracy based on these findings. This study has implications for clinical practice.
Attorney-General John Elferink praised the work done by Victims of Crime NT and said the organisation provides a key support service for Territorians trying to return their lives to normal after a break-in or other property crime. “While the Government‟s commitment is to reducing levels of crime across the Territory, services such as Victims of Crime NT provide an important support role for anybody affected by crime,” Mr Elferink said. “The support of such an organisation enables victims to make some sense of crime and to rebuild after a crime event. “During the recent election campaign I committed to provide additional financial assistance to Victims of Crime NT to fund victim assistance programs. “I have honoured that commitment with a supplementary grant of $100,000 to Victims of Crime NT on top of our pre-existing contribution. “The extra funding will go towards enhancing victim information and referral services as well as increasing grants available to victims under the „Clean Up Assistance‟ scheme. “This is intended to be used to improve security at the homes of victims after a break-in through the installation of security lights and deadlocks and the repair of broken windows and door frames.
Utilizing the methods of questionnaire and interview research and quantitative investigation,this thesis discusses the characteristics of 377 Chinese and Japanese college students' money attitude and to find out the different characteristics in the country,gender,experience of part work,experience of loan,home address,family conformation and family social economic status.The findings are as follows:(1)the Chinese and Japanese college students pay little attention to the symbol of money and plan carefully and prepare adequately to the future when costing the money;they usually have indecisive and suspicious manners about the price of the goods and regard the money as the origin of anxiety;(2)the college students of the two countries had no notable difference in the 4 factors of the Money Attitude Scale;(3)the experience of loan had notable influence on the Power-prestige and Distrust factors of the Money Attitude Scale;while the home address had notable influence on the Anxiety factor of the Money Attitude Scale.
Process skills are very fundamental to science but there is still a serious educational gap in bringing these skills into the classroom for students’ acquisition. The purpose of this study therefore was designed to ascertain the influence of selected variables such as: sex, students’ attitude, school location, school type, laboratory adequacy and class size; on students’ science process skills acquisition. The design adopted for the study is an ex-post facto design. The sample consisted of 450 SS III science students from Adamawa and Taraba States of Nigeria using stratified random sampling technique. The research instrument was Science Process Skills Knowledge Test (SPSKT) which was subjected to both content and face validity using Kuder Richardson formula 21 to obtain the correlation value of 0.78. The SPSKT was analyzed using means and t-test statistics. The study revealed that sex; school location and school type does not influence students’ acquisition of science process skills while students’ attitude, laboratory adequacy and class size influences students’ acquisition of science process skills. Based on the findings, recommendations were made amongst which are equipping all secondary schools laboratories to enable teachers adopt methods that will lead students to have the appropriate skills and have positive attitude towards science and using enabling environment which discourages large class sizes in science classrooms. Keywords: Sex, students’ attitude, school location, school type, laboratory adequacy and class size
The article presents the research peculiarities of professional values and structure inclusive characteristics of common to all mankind values for students. According to the results of comparative analysis it is established that structure of values reflects age peculiarities and professional belonging of students. Purpose fullness index of professional values is far more higher with 4-yaer students as they are much more prepared to be identified as a subject of life situation and responsible for their status.
Abstract An attempt was made to interfere with learning on a continuous rotational fine motor foot-tracking task by maximizing the effects of artificially increased mass (moment of inertia) through the employment of massed practice (MP). College men (N = 120) performed the first 25 trials under one of the following assigned practice conditions: C, E–1 (MP), E–2 (medium mass and MP), and E–3 (heavy mass and MP). After a 5-min rest, all groups performed the last 10 trials under control conditions. With the exception of C, there was no significant improvement in prerest performance for the three experimental groups. However, significant learning occurred in all groups with no difference in the amount learned among groups. There was no change in leg strength measured before and after tracking and little relationship between it and performance and learning. It was pointed out that severe, related physical fatigue, introduced before and maintained throughout early learning, offers the best chance to significant...
A secondary analysis of data from a survey of physical and mental health in the general population was conducted in order to identify sociodemographic and psychological correlates of actual and desired weight insufficiency. In multiple logistic regression analyses, characteristics of respondents whose actual weight, desired weight, or both was insufficient according to Body Mass Index categories were compared to characteristics of respondents whose actual or desired weight was sufficient
It approaches the categories associated to general psychology, the interpersonal and group relations in which the professional of the information develops and interacts. Projections and characteristics of personological cut are proposed aimed to elevate synergic of the group, the commitment and success in the implementation of the “Management of the Knowledge”, assumed this one as a superior step of thought and action of the Organizations. It is emphasized in addition, in the roll and status of this actor of science and the knowledge, socializing generator and of the necessity of creation of the own knowledge, embryo of the "organization who learns", referential frame of the titled one "Age of the Knowledge".
In discussing the translation options for the best-seller 'The Runway Jury' by John Grisham, the purpose of this paper is to contemplate translation practices whose purpose would be to produce a fluent translated discourse concealing the translator's intervention in order to achieve acceptance by readers. According to the consideration given on the generally conceived image of best-sellers and some excerpts taken from the original aforementioned and its translation, entitled 'O juri' by Aulyde Soares Rodrigues, it has been possible to conclude that the translator is present throughout his or her production, which would not be limited to the intact transport of legal meanings, but always subject to his or her creative and inevitable transforming intervention.
The objectives of the study are to: 1) describe the characteristics of headmaster leadership in building work relation between headmaster and teachers at SMP Negeri 1 Delanggu and 2) describe the characteristics of togetherness between headmaster and teachers at SMP Negeri 1 Delanggu.  The study is qualitative study using ethnography design to understand view point of SMP Negeri 1 Delanggu community concerning work relation management of headmaster and teachers at international level prospective school. The data collecting techniques are observation, interview, and document. The data are analyzed by data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusion and verification.  Result of the study shows that: 1) the characteristics of headmaster leadership in building work relation between headmaster and teachers are performance evaluation of each teachers, headmaster has note about characteristics of each teacher, perception that headmaster needs teachers in performing job becomes base in building work relation, headmaster conducts meeting to discuss problems, headmaster greatly supports teachers in improving their skills and competences, headmaster builds networks between the school and other institutions either in regional, national, or international level, outsourcing program to improve English and computer skills. 2) the characteristics of togetherness between headmaster and teachers are there is support as friends in performing duty, there is openess in accepting critics, opinion, inisiative, and creativity fpr school, there is good cooperation in preparing event in order to get best result, there is effective communication in discussing and taking decision, headmaster conducts interview to post teachers based on their ability, there is discussion of problems outside school problems, and there is high commitment and reward.    Keywords: management, work relation, headmaster, teacher
We used a network approach to assess systems-level abnormalities in motor activation in humans with Parkinson's disease (PD). This was done by measuring the expression of the normal movement-related activation pattern (NMRP), a previously validated activation network deployed by healthy subjects during motor performance. In this study, NMRP expression was prospectively quantified in 15O-water PET scans from a PD patient cohort comprised of a longitudinal early-stage group (n = 12) scanned at baseline and at two or three follow-up visits two years apart, and a moderately advanced group scanned on and off treatment with either subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (n = 14) or intravenous levodopa infusion (n = 14). For each subject and condition, we measured NMRP expression during both movement and rest. Resting expression of the abnormal PD-related metabolic covariance pattern was likewise determined in the same subjects. NMRP expression was abnormally elevated (p < 0.001) in PD patients scanned in the nonmovement rest state. By contrast, network activity measured during movement did not differ from normal (p = 0.34). In the longitudinal cohort, abnormal increases in resting NMRP expression were evident at the earliest clinical stages (p < 0.05), which progressed significantly over time (p = 0.003). Analogous network changes were present at baseline in the treatment cohort (p = 0.001). These abnormalities improved with subthalamic nucleus stimulation (p < 0.005) but not levodopa (p = 0.25). In both cohorts, the changes in NMRP expression that were observed did not correlate with concurrent PD-related metabolic covariance pattern measurements (p > 0.22). Thus, the resting state in PD is characterized by changes in the activity of normal as well as pathological brain networks.
Objective: Sleep problems affect up to 70% of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and are associated with poorer child and family well-being in cross-sectional studies. However, whether these associations hold longitudinally is unclear. The authors aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between sleep problem trajectories and well-being in children with ADHD. Method: Children with ADHD (n = 186), aged 5 to 13 years, were recruited from 21 pediatric practices across the state of Victoria, Australia. Sleep problem severity data were collected at 3 time points (baseline, 6, and 12 mo) and were used to classify sleep problem trajectories. Child and family well-being (e.g., child emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life [QoL]) were measured at baseline and 12 months by teacher and/or caregiver-report. The well-being of children with “transient” and “persistent” sleep problems was compared with those “never” experiencing sleep problems using a series of hierarchical linear regression models. Results: After accounting for socio-demographic factors, children with transient and persistent sleep trajectories experienced more caregiver-reported behavioral and emotional problems (effect size [ES] both 0.7) and poorer child QoL (ES: −0.7 and −1.2, respectively). These associations remained after also accounting for ADHD medication and symptom severity and comorbidities, but after accounting for baseline measures many associations weakened to the point of nonsignificance. In the fully adjusted model—transient sleep problems were associated with behavioral and emotional problems (ES: 0.2). These associations were not evident by teacher-report. Conclusion: Children with ADHD experiencing transient or persistent sleep problems have poorer caregiver-reported well-being. Managing sleep problems in children with ADHD may improve child well-being.
This study examined self-image and educational plans in adolescents from two communities differing in geographic location (rural vs. suburban), socioeconomic status, educational attainment of adults, and unemployment level, differences hypothesized to affect their educational plans and self-image. Young adolescents in the eighth grade were sampled as part of two larger longitudinal studies (rural, n = 234; suburban, n = 253). Each adolescent reported educational plans and completed three scales from the Self-Image Questionnaire for Young Adolescents (SIQYA). The links of self-image and educational plans to parental educational attainment also were considered. Adolescent educational plans and self-image were consistently and significantly lower in the rural community. Within the rural sample, young adolescents with lower aspirations also had lower self-image. Self-image and educational plans were related to parental educational attainment primarily in the rural sample. These results suggested that community context may influence the nature of adolescent development.
The ‘centrepiece’ of international human rights law in the field ofmental health is often said to be the United Nations Principlesfor the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness of 1991. Some observers appreciate the symbolic importance of these principlesin providing visibility to the needs of the mentally ill, in stressingthe right of access to adequate mental health care and in establishingthe principle equivalence between psychiatry and the rest ofmedicine. However, the Principles appear basically flawedin several respects:
As a discipline, psychology is defined by its location in the ambiguous space between mind and body, but theories underpinning the application of psychology in psychotherapy are largely silent on this fundamental metaphysical issue. This is a remarkable state of affairs, given that psychotherapy is typically a real-time meeting between two embodied agents, with the goal of facilitating behavior change in one party. The overarching aim of this paper is to problematize the mind–body relationship in psychotherapy in the service of encouraging advances in theory and practice. The paper briefly explores various psychotherapeutic approaches to help explicate relationships between mind and body from these perspectives. Themes arising from this analysis include a tendency toward dualism (separation of mind and body from the conceptualization of human functioning), exclusivism (elimination of either mind or body from the conceptualization of human functioning), or mind–body monism (conceptualization of mind and body as a single, holistic system). We conclude that the literature, as a whole, does not demonstrate consensus, regarding the relationship between mind and body in psychotherapy. We then introduce a contemporary, holistic, psychological conceptualization of the relationship between mind and body, and argue for its potential utility as an organizing framework for psychotherapeutic theory and practice. The holistic approach we explore, “grounded cognition,” arises from a long philosophical tradition, is influential in current cognitive science, and presents a coherent empirically testable framework integrating subjective and objective perspectives. Finally, we demonstrate how this “grounded cognition” perspective might lead to advances in the theory and practice of psychotherapy.
This chapter approaches the question of “becoming just” from the perspective of theory and research on the psychology of the development of morality from childhood to adulthood. A perspective on the topic of what it means to be just is presented, based on both philosophical and psychological considerations. It is maintained that psychological-developmental research needs to be grounded in substantive definitions of the moral domain involving considerations of welfare, justice, and rights. Research has shown that there is a correspondence between philosophical analyses of welfare, justice, and rights and the types of judgments individuals begin to develop at early ages. Research findings are discussed regarding the types of social interactions children experience across cultures that contribute to their moral development, as well as the nature of moral judgments formed at different ages.
This research aims to determine the effect of the use of the PBL-based multimedia and learning motivation on the students’ critical-thinking skills in elementary school. This research method is quasi-experimental with the 2×2 factorial design of ANOVA. The sample in this research consisted of 66 students with 31 control-class students and 35 experimental-class students with a total sampling technique. The data collection techniques were the open-ended critical-thinking skill test and learning motivation questionnaire. The data analysis technique used was a prerequisite test and research hypothesis test. The prerequisite tests include normality and homogeneity tests. The research hypothesis test used a Two-Way ANOVA. The results of this research showed that there is the influence of multimedia-based PBL in the experiment class on students’ critical-thinking skills. The mean score of the experimental class is 69±2.890 and of the control class 51±3.071. There is the influence of high and low learning motivation on the students’ critical-thinking skills. The mean score of the students with high motivation is 68.572 and those with low motivation 52.171. There is no interaction between the PBL-based multimedia and the learning motivation on the students’ CTS.
Most of the research literature has given little or no attention to the social backgrounds and traits of black scientists and female scientists. The present study, based on survey findings on a national sample of American scientists, helps to fill this gap. Female scientists are compared with their male colleagues, and black scientists with their white colleagues. Race is a better predictor than gender of certain demographic characteristics. However, a clearer picture of variations in social background and current family patterns is derived from an analysis which controls for both race and gender. This analysis includes data on social status of parents, marital status of scientist, number of siblings and number of offspring, religious identity, and region of origin. The implications of these survey findings for the future development of scientific talent are explored, including some implications for researchers, sociologists of science, and social planners.
Objective:To investigate public's coping strategies and the effects of the coping strategies on the changes of people's living habits under the crisis of SARS. Methods:388 subjects finished the questionnaires including the Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised and the items about changes of people's living habits by Internet.Results:People generally employ the strategy of problem-focused, especially problem-solving, and there was no difference on gender. Public's living habits changed greatly,but it was not found the correlation between the deferent coping strategies and the changes of the living habits.Conclusions:Under the crisis of SARS, public used more problem-solving strategy. Different strategies had little influence on the changes of living habits.
ABSTRACT Objective: to identify in the literature the gains health students and professionals perceive when using clinical simulation with dramatization resources. Method: integrative literature review, using the method proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). A search was undertaken in the following databases: Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, Web of Science, National Library of Medicine, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, Scientific Electronic Library Online. Results: 53 studies were analyzed, which complied with the established inclusion criteria. Among the different gains obtained, satisfaction, self-confidence, knowledge, empathy, realism, reduced level of anxiety, comfort, communication, motivation, capacity for reflection and critical thinking and teamwork stand out. Conclusion: the evidence demonstrates the great possibilities to use dramatization in the context of clinical simulation, with gains in the different health areas, as well as interprofessional gains.
We describe the design, theoretical approach and major recent findings of a prospective longitudinal study of the offspring of schizophrenic mothers and controls, initiated in 1962 by Sarnoff Mednick and Fini Schulsinger in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over 90% of the original 207 high‐risk and 104 low‐risk subjects have been successfully followed up since the initial assessment. At the time of the most recent assessment (1989), the subjects averaged 42 years of age and were nearly completely through the risk period for developing schizophrenia. By relating the lifetime psychiatric diagnoses of the subjects back to information on their premorbid experiences and functioning, we have identified several precursors of schizophrenia. This paper reviews our recent findings concerning whether outcomes of schizophrenia that differ in the relative prominence of negative versus positive symptoms represent discrete longitudinal syndromes. Predominantly negative and predominantly positive symptom schizophrenia were found to follow different patterns of symptom development from adolescence through the adult course of illness and were predicted by different combinations of genetic and environmental influences. Taken together, the findings suggest that the pathological processes underlying these two forms of schizophrenia are 1) partly independent of each other, 2) at least partly active during the premorbid state and 3) to some degree stable in the adult course of illness.
In his recent examination of The Discourse o f Musicology Giles Hooper  poses the question ‘What should one say about music?’ and it is clear  that the use of the word should here covers a moral dimension.1 Unlike,  say, physicians and engineers, whose activities are assessed in terms of  outcomes such as health of patients and robustness of physical  constructions, what musicologists do must primarily be considered in  terms of the words they produce. Given that this is the case, and that  speech acts (understood to cover inscriptions - the normal mode of  scholarly discourse - as well as utterances) may be examined for  whether they are true or false, appropriately informative or deceptive,  perspicuous or vague, questions of truth, honesty, and intellectual  integrity, can become important issues for musicologists.
Response to neuroleptic drug treatment in ten chronic schizophrenic patients with enlarged cerebral ventricles was compared with ten similar patients with normal ventricles. The groups were closely matched for age, age at onset of illness, years of illness and hospitalization, drug dosage, and plasma neuroleptic concentration as measured by radioreceptor assay. Response was significantly worse in the patients with enlarged ventricles. This finding supports the notion that ventricular enlargement is clinically relevant in patients with chronic schizophrenia and that patients with this abnormality may have a biologically different illness than similar patients without it.
Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting more than 300 million people. As more millennials take on leadership positions, it is important to understand how companies are currently addressing mental health in the workplace and compare this to how millennials approach the subject. The quantitative analysis completed through this study helped to determine what a mentally healthy workplace looks and feels like for millennials. Companies are increasingly investing in mental health initiatives for several reasons: to increase brand recognition, to improve company culture, to mitigate potential lawsuits, and to increase employee engagement and retention. This survey assessed how influential company mental health initiatives are in their ability and potential to attract, engage, and inspire the millennial workforce. The three key findings obtained from the research are: 1. Communications needs to be at the forefront of every corporate mental health strategy, 2. One size does NOT fit all corporate mental health programs, and 3. A corporate mental health strategy must feed into the organization’s overall busin ess strategy. In the end, a company’s mental health strategy is only effective if it is being utilized and if it produces an open, stigma-free culture.
This research is very timely given Ireland’s recent ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the imminent full commencement of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act, 2015 together with proposed legislation dealing with Deprivation of Liberty.1 Although the sample in the study is small, it offers valuable insights into the referral of, and pathways into nursing homes for younger people with disabilities.  Whilst law and policy are centred on the enabling of people with disabilities to live the lives of their choosing in the community, the report notes that the supports to enable them to do so ‘are underdeveloped, unplanned and often not sufficient to meet their needs’. Instead of taking a human rights based, social model approach, which would look to the person’s will and preference, there is an overemphasis on the medical model in the assessment form. There is little focus on a person’s abilities, capabilities or on options for care in the community. Indeed a person’s preference for care seems to have been poorly recorded or not recorded at all.  The research makes it clear that younger people with disabilities do not often have a meaningful say in decisions that profoundly affect and impact their lives, rather their referral to nursing homes is defined by their level of functioning. The vast majority of these people, who enter nursing homes remain there without assistance to achieve an outcome of living independently and without really being in control of their own lives.  The report concludes with some very good and practical recommendations for both government and practice. These include adopting a personalised approach to the assessment and care of younger people with disabilities, and a commitment to exhaust all possibilities with the person centrally involved, assisted where necessary, before nursing home care is considered. We hope that government and the Department of Health will take the time to review the findings and recommendations of the report, and to take the necessary action to address the inappropriate placement of younger people with disabilities in nursing homes.
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders nowadays. Many researchers in psychiatry have investigated the cause of depression. Unfortunately, the problem of individual differences in response to antidepressant treatment still lingers in the clinical fi eld. For setting up the stage for the main topics in the later part of this overview, I start introducing the topics of monoamine hypothesis, the role of serotonin in causing clinical depression, as well as advents of antidepressants (briefl y describing tricyclic antidepressants, the arrival of selective serotoninreuptake inhibitor, and novel antidepressants). Then, I introduce the concept of pharmacogenetics, the candidate genes. Afterwards, I consider that genetic factors are recognized to have an independent effect on drug responses. To demonstrate, I highlight fi ve gene studies-serotonin transporter (5-HTT/SLC6A4), serotonin receptor 2A (HTR2A), G-protein β3 subunit (GNB3), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH). But some of candidate gene studies have been conducted, but results were not consistent. Since 2009, Genomewide Association Studies (GWAS) has provided further grounds for understanding the pharmacogenetic mechanisms of antidepressants and depression treatment. Further research and technological development are still needed.
Moral education is all long the important content of Chinese education,however,in present-day society,due to the unsatisfactory actual efficacy in moral education in schools,the necessary existence of moral education has been doubted.Actually,the low actual effect of moral education in schools is the result of combined action of various factors so we should fully display the joint action of schools,families and society to establish good moral education environment and meanwhile,we should reflect the moral education per se in schools to formulate proper moral education targets and to adopt scientific moral education methods to build good relationship between teachers and students in order to actually improve the validity of moral education.
This study investigates whether personality type affects one’s ratio preference by classifying people into different personality types based on the MBTI test from developmental psychology. 749 subjects were initially surveyed in this study. Of these subjects, 656 (270 designers and 386 novices) with a single personality type participated in an additional survey. 15 rectangle ratios were tested, including horizontal and vertical samples. Subjects were asked to evaluate their preferences for each rectangle using a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. The results were concluded that both personality type and educational background affect ratio preference. Moreover, T type is more inclined to prefer the nearly square rectangle, while F type is more able to accept the extreme proportions of rectangles. Keywords: golden ratio, MBTI, preference measures.
In this lecture, which was founded to commemorate the pioneer work of Sir David Ferrier on cerebral localization, I intend to deal with a subject in which he was particularly interested, that is the cortical representation of vision. Ferrier’s interest was at once excited by the discovery of Fritsch & Hitzig (1870) that certain portions of the surface of the forebrain are excitable, and he immediately adopted this new method of electrical stimulation to map out those areas from which movements can be produced. The results of his investigations on the motor cortex are well known, but he also discovered that movements could be elicited from other regions which he did not regard as primarily motor, including deviations of the eyes on stimulation of the angular gyrus on the lateral surface of the parietal lobe. He interpreted these movements as motor responses to ‘excitation of subjective visual sensations’ by the stimulus, and he therefore assumed that this region contained the primary visual centres, that is the centres through which retinal impressions excite visual perception. A series of experiments on monkeys which he reported in the Croonian Lecture of 1875 appeared to support this conclusion, for he found that destruction of one angular gyrus caused blindness of the opposite eye, which was not, however, permanent if the other angular gyrus was intact (Fig. 1). Ablation of both angular gyri appeared to cause complete and permanent loss of vision. He failed to detect any disturbance of sight when one occipital lobe only was injured, provided the lesion did not extend forwards to the angular gyrus.
Bodily state plays a critical role in our perception. In the present study, we asked the question whether and how bodily experience of weights influences time perception. Participants judged durations of a picture (a backpack or a trolley bag) presented on the screen, while wearing different weight backpacks or without backpack. The results showed that the subjective duration of the backpack picture was dilated when participants wore a medium weighted backpack relative to an empty backpack or without backpack, regardless of identity (e.g., color) of the visual backpack. However, the duration dilation was not manifested for the picture of trolley bag. These findings suggest that weight experience modulates visual duration estimation through the linkage between the wore backpack and to-be-estimated visual target. The congruent action affordance between the wore backpack and visual inputs plays a critical role in the functional linkage between inner experience and time perception. We interpreted our findings within the framework of embodied time perception.
THIS STUDY extends a former investigation (3) in which the writer correlated intelligence scores with gains in reading achievement, and each, i n turn, with gains in arithmetic reasoning, social studies and science, using 670 fifthand sixth grade pupils of the Bend Public Schools, Bend, Or egon, over a 19-month period. The purposes of this study were to learn 1) whether a relationship exists between intelligence scores and gains in the sub-tests of the Stanford Achievement Test Battery, (2) namely: Paragraph Meaning, Word Meaning, Spelling, Language, Arith metic Reasoning, Arithmetic Computation, S o c ial Studies, Science, and Study Skills: 2) the extent to which gains in the Paragraph Meaning test and gains in the Word Meaning test are related to gains in the other sub-tests of the battery; and 3)wnether a higher correlation exists if the results of the ad vanced battery, when administered to the pupils at the end of the sixth grade, are used in the place of those of the intermediate battery used in the pre vious study.
In the United States it has been estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of all adolescent children are obese (Cheek 1968; Hampton et al. 1966). In order to determine the extent of obesity in an individual, each clinician or investigator assesses "fatness" in his own way. The prediction of weight for a given height is a common approach. In the absence of direct measures of body fat, in vivo, indirect measures based on body density, body potassium, or body water have been employed (Cheek et al. 1970). Body water constitutes about 72 percent of lean body weight in normal humans after 1 year of life (Lesser & Zak 1963), a percentage which remains essentially constant through adulthood. Early work demonstrating this percentage was performed in guinea pigs by Pace and Rathbun (1945); this work was confirmed on rats by Cheek and West (1955) and on human subjects using specific gravity of the body by Osserman et al. (1950) and later by Brozek et al. (1963). With respect to whole body counting of K40, it has been found recently that this method, by itself, gives questionable results for obese subjects (Forbes et al. 1968). Body water is a function of lean body weight, and body fat can be defined as the difference between body weight and lean body weight. Thus, one can predict fatness from the difference between weight and lean body weight according to how this parameter relates to height in normal children. One can appraise fatness in obese children by the degree of departure from the expected norm. It is the purpose of this paper (a) to expand previous work by including more data to derive equations which accurately estimate total body water from anthropometric measures in normal individuals from infancy to adult-
This analytical cross-sectional study aimed to explore factors infl uencing problem drinking among college students in northeast Thailand. 1,149 vocational and technical students in Khon Kaen province were randomly recruited to complete 11 self-report questionnaires. All questionnaires were approved for content validity and reliability. Ordinal, multinomial and binary logistic regressions were used. A p level < 0.05 was considered to be statistically signifi cant. Findings showed that six factors infl uenced problem drinking among males and females; two factors affected only males, while three factors infl uenced only females. Based on these results, existing alcohol action programs in Khon Kaen province have not been able to cover all risk factors and enhance protective factors. The fi ndings will be useful for those who are interested in developing programs for prevention of alcohol abuse, taking into account the wishes of young people. keywords: problem drinking, alcohol actions, adolescents, college students * ä ́ŒÃÑo·Ø1Ê1ÑoÊ1Ø1 ̈Ò¡ÈÙ1Â ÇÔ Ñ̈Â» ̃ÞËÒÊØÃÒ (ÈÇÊ) ** 3⁄4ÂÒoÒÅÇÔaÒaÕ3⁄4aíÒ1ÒÞ¡ÒÃ ÇÔ·ÂÒÅÑÂ3⁄4ÂÒoÒÅoÃÁÃÒaa11Õ 3⁄4ÃÐ3⁄4Ø· ̧oÒ· Í.3⁄4ÃÐ3⁄4Ø· ̧oÒ· ̈.ÊÃÐoØÃÕ *** ÃÍ§ÈÒÊμÃÒ ̈ÒÃÂ áÅÐ¡ÃÃÁ¡ÒÃÈÙ1Â ÇÔ Ñ̈ÂáÅÐ1⁄2ƒ¡ÍoÃÁ ́ŒÒ1à3⁄4ÈÀÒÇÐáÅÐÊØ¢ÀÒ3⁄4ÊμÃÕ ¤3Ð3⁄4ÂÒoÒÅÈÒÊμÃ ÁËÒÇÔ·ÂÒÅÑÂ¢Í1á¡‹1 **** 1⁄4ÙŒa‹ÇÂÈÒÊμÃÒ ̈ÒÃÂ  ÀÒ¤ÇÔaÒaÕÇÊ¶Ôμ ÔáÅÐ»ÃÐaÒ¡ÃÈÒÊμÃ ¤3ÐÊÒ ̧ÒÃ3ÊØ¢ÈÒÊμÃ ÁËÒÇÔ·ÂÒÅÑÂ¢Í1á¡‹1 » ̃ ̈ Ñ̈Â·ÕèÁÕÍÔ· ̧Ô3⁄4Åμ ‹Í¡ÒÃ ́×èÁ·Õèà»š1» ̃ÞËÒ¢Í§1Ñ¡ÈÖ¡ÉÒÇÔ·ÂÒÅÑÂã1ÀÒ¤μÐÇÑ1ÍÍ¡à©ÕÂ§àË1×Í¢Í§ä·Â ÇÒÃÊÒÃ3⁄4ÂÒoÒÅÈÒÊμÃáÅÐÊØ¢ÀÒ3⁄4 Journal of Nursing Science & Health 103 »‚·Õè 37 ©oÑo·Õè 2 (àÁÉÒÂ1-ÁÔ¶Ø1ÒÂ1) 2557 Volume 37 No.2 (April-June) 2014 Introduction One of the risky behaviors that are found among college students and adolescents is problem drinking. Many countries, including Thailand, have tried to protect children from over consumption of alcohol. Although the Thai government took action to reduce alcohol problems more than fi ve years ago, the percentage of adolescents who drink alcohol at hazardous and harmful levels has not decreased. A previous study indicated that the alcohol intake of Thai adolescents is above what is considered to be a safe level: 118.35 and 61.95 g per drinking day for males and females, respectively. Furthermore, 26.5% of males and 13.2% of females drink at a hazardous level, while 4.5% of males and 2.2% of females drink at a harmful level. These statistics indicate that the actions taken thus far by the Thai government have not been suffi cient to protect college students and adolescents from the risks of alcohol abuse. Thus, factors from various theoretical frameworks that infl uence problem drinking should be re-examined. From a review of the literature, problem drinking is also known by several other terms, such as hazardous, risky or binge drinking. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized alcohol consumption into four levels, using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identifi cation Test (AUDIT): low-risk drinking, hazardous drinking, harmful drinking, and alcohol dependence. Some theories from previous research provide many causative factors which relate to each other in complicated ways. Some theories only include a few factors and are not holistic. The Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI), a comprehensive theoretical framework explaining adolescents’ problem behavior such as smoking, emphasizes three streams: cultural, social and intrapersonal streams and their related behaviors. TTI provides defi nitions of 21 factors that are generally accepted as explaining drinking problems in adolescents. Previous research reports have also defi ned 14 factors infl uencing problem drinking, i.e. sensation-seeking, social interaction anxiety, cognitive emotional preoccupation, cognitive behavioral control, drinking refusal self-effi cacy, peer drinking, parental drinking, perceived drinking norms, religious affi liation, knowledge about drinking alcohol, positive alcohol expectancies, expectancy valuations, attitudes toward alcohol, and smoking. By comparing defi nitions, the scope of these 14 factors covered all factors from TTI except values of alcohol use. Thus, TTI – reduced from 21 factors to 15 factors (14 factors from previous studies, plus values of alcohol use) – could be applied to explain problem drinking among adolescents. Khon Kaen, a province in northeast Thailand, is a transportation hub in the region. Hence, it is easy to distribute alcoholic beverages to consumers. Moreover, there are many schools, colleges and universities in the province. Many children and adolescents living in dormitories can easily get access to alcohol from nightclubs, pubs, bars and convenience stores located nearby. Problem drinking among adolescents in Khon Kaen can be found to a considerable extent, especially among vocational and technical students. Furthermore, alcohol action plans in Khon Kaen are the same as actions implemented throughout Thailand. They protect the general public and new drinkers, but they are not particularly effective for adolescents who are problem drinkers. For example, there are no alcohol screening programs or brief interventions for this group in the Khon Kaen health care system. The prevalence of problem drinking among adolescents in Khon Kaen shows that existing alcohol programs have had little effect on fac» ̃ ̈ Ñ̈Â·ÕèÁÕÍÔ· ̧Ô3⁄4Åμ ‹Í¡ÒÃ ́×èÁ·Õèà»š1» ̃ÞËÒ¢Í§1Ñ¡ÈÖ¡ÉÒÇÔ·ÂÒÅÑÂã1ÀÒ¤μÐÇÑ1ÍÍ¡à©ÕÂ§àË1×Í¢Í§ä·Â ÇÒÃÊÒÃ3⁄4ÂÒoÒÅÈÒÊμÃáÅÐÊØ¢ÀÒ3⁄4 Journal of Nursing Science & Health 104 »‚·Õè 37 ©oÑo·Õè 2 (àÁÉÒÂ1-ÁÔ¶Ø1ÒÂ1) 2557 Volume 37 No.2 (April-June) 2014 tors infl uencing problem drinking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine infl uencing factors derived from TTI on problem drinking among adolescents and college students, especially vocational and technical students, in Khon Kaen province, who are likely to become lifelong heavy drinkers if there is no intervention to decrease their consumption. This study will thus have long-term benefi ts for the prevention of alcohol-related cancers. Methods Study participants In light of previous research on the effects of sex and age on problems relating to drinking, participants in this study ranged from 15 to 19 years old, and were divided into male and female groups. With the approval of the Khon Kaen University Ethics Committee for Human Research, 1,378 vocational and technical students were randomly invited to participate in the study. The ideal number of subjects was calculated by using the Rule of Thumb and by comparing with previous research. The participants were from four colleges (two in an urban area and two in a rural area) in Khon Kaen province. One college in an urban area and one in a rural area had a greater proportion of males; the other two colleges had a greater proportion of females. Introduction letters and research consent forms were given to both the participants and their parents. Twenty-two students and/or their parents declined to join the study. Participants were informed of the aims and procedures of the study during student-activity class sessions. Afterwards, self-report questionnaires were administered. Incomplete questionnaires were returned by 207 participants. Thus, a total of 1,149 students, 409 males and 740 females, participated in the study. Data were collected from June through September, 2010. Variables and instruments To assess factors infl uencing problem drinking, 11 anonymous self-report questionnaires were used. Five questionnaires – general data, knowledge about drinking alcohol, perceived drinking norms, attitudes toward alcohol, and values of alcohol use were developed by researchers. After permission, six standardized questionnaires for Thai people were employed: the Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire– Revised (DRSEQ-R), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), the Sensation-Seeking Personality Questionnaire (SSPQ), the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol (CEOA), the Temptation and Restraint Inventory (TRI) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identifi cation Test (AUDIT). Content validity and reliability of all tools were established. They provided acceptable levels of internal consistency (KR-20 = 0.70; α = 0.70–0.94). Variables and instruments are shown as follows: Problem drinking was defi ned as drinking alcohol at more than a safe level. This was assessed by a 10-item test using AUDIT; the results were categorized into four levels, from low-risk drinking to alcohol dependence. Total scores of 0 to 7 were identifi ed as low-risk drinking (level 0); scores of 8 to 15 were hazardous drinking (level 1); 16 to 19 were harmful drinking (level 2); and 20 or more were categorized as alcohol dependence (level 3). Religious affi liation, peer drinking, parental drinking, and smoking were included in a general data questionnaire. Each factor was assessed by one question. The religious affi liation item asked about frequency of attending religious activities. The answer was grouped into two orders: none to few (0), and often to always (1). The peer drinking item asked about the number of peers who drank. The answers were divided » ̃ ̈ Ñ̈Â·ÕèÁÕÍÔ· ̧Ô3⁄4Åμ ‹Í¡ÒÃ ́×èÁ·Õèà»š1» ̃ÞËÒ¢Í§1Ñ¡ÈÖ¡ÉÒÇÔ·ÂÒÅÑÂã1ÀÒ¤μÐÇÑ1ÍÍ¡à©ÕÂ§àË1×Í¢Í§ä·Â ÇÒÃÊÒÃ3⁄4ÂÒoÒÅÈÒÊμÃáÅÐÊØ¢ÀÒ3⁄4 Journal of Nursing Science & Health 105 »‚·Õè 37 ©oÑo·Õè 2 (àÁÉÒÂ1-ÁÔ¶Ø1ÒÂ1) 2557 Volume 37 No.2 (April-June) 2014 into three ranges: no peers (0), a few peers (1), and half of all peers (3). The parental drinking item asked about the frequency of parents’ drinking in the last year. The answers were divided into two orders: none to once per month (0), and more than once per month to daily (1). Smoking was defi ned as tobacco use within the past month. The responses were categorized into two groups: no (0), and yes (1). All of the questions were checked for content validity by fi ve experts using the Index of Item Objective Congruence (IOC) technique; IOCs were from 0.8 to 1. Knowledge about drinking alcohol – defi ned as information
Color terms perform both the aesthetic and informative functions and possess various meanings according to different cultural backgrounds. It seems that people are more likely to label colors in a consistent fashion in each unique culture. Therefore, it is highly essential to investigate the cultural relevance of color terms, especially the color words in Chinese and English. Translation of color terms is also discussed from different aspects to show people's cultural preferences.
Abstract : Academic dishonesty can be considered as epidemic in all level of education in the world, viruses that spread and attack the academic quality. One of the kinds of academic dishonesty is cheating. The students who become victims of cheating aren’t conscious the influences or impacts of it. War againts cheating should be the first prioriy. Students are potential leader and also worker or employee in the future. Students must be armed with values and ethics or codes of honor or rules of conduct in which unethical behaviors are eliminated. Students should be directed to involve in all process of learning on the basis of integrity. Lecturers, management (institution) and students are expected to take apart in promotion and socialization the importance of integrity in the process of learning and to maintain the quality of academic. Keywords : Academic Dishonesty, Cheating, Ethic, Integrity, Students, Lecturers, Managements, Institutions Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA /* Style Definitions */   table.MsoNormalTable   {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";   mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;   mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;   mso-style-noshow:yes;   mso-style-priority:99;   mso-style-parent:"";   mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;   mso-para-margin:0cm;   mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;   mso-pagination:widow-orphan;   font-size:12.0pt;   mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;   font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";   mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;   mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}   MENYONTEK ( CHEATING ) – KECURANGAN AKADEMIK Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA
Increasingly college students are expected to use computers and technology in their studies. This study estimated the relationship between students’ use of technology and self-reported educational gains. These gains range from general learning outcomes to specific outcomes related to computers and technology. Results suggest a modest, but statistically significant relationship between students’ use of technology and closely related learning outcomes. Four college activities related to computer use emerged as strongest predictors of gains from college: searched internet for course material, used computer to analyze data, used index or database to find material, and retrieved off-campus library materials. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.
Abstract The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is a frequently employed screening tool with different scoring systems. Quantitative and semi-quantitative scoring systems, such as Sunderland’s et al. (1989), do not discriminate different error patterns. Thus, the same score can represent a number of different neuropsychological profiles. Therefore, the use of a scoring method that emphasizes qualitative aspects to determine specific error patterns is fundamental. Objective: To use a qualitative scale to analyze error patterns in the CDTs of older adults who scored 5 in a previous study. Methods: 49 CDTs with score of 5 were analyzed using the qualitative scale. Linear regression and hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analyses were performed. Results: The linear regression showed a significant association between the total score and all the error patterns of the qualitative scale. The hierarchical cluster yielded three groups. However, due to the heterogeneity observed among the groups, a non-hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to better understand the results. Three groups were determined with different neuropsychological profiles and patterns of errors. Conclusion: The qualitative scoring of the CDT is important when examining and analyzing specific neuropsychological domains in older adults, especially executive functions.
In the social sciences, two prevailing definitions of risk are: (1) risk is a situation or event where something of human value (including humans themselves) is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain; (2) risk is an uncertain consequence of an event or an activity with respect to something that humans value. According to these definitions, risk expresses an ontology (a theory of being) independent of our knowledge and perceptions. In this paper, we look closer into these two types of definitions. We conclude that the definitions provide a sound foundation for risk research and risk management, but compared to common terminology, they lead to conceptual difficulties that are incompatible with the everyday use of risk in most applications. By considering risk as a state of the world, we cannot conclude, for example, about the risk being high or low, or compare different options with respect to risk. A rephrasing of the two definitions is suggested: Risk refers to uncertainty about and severity of the consequences (or outcomes) of an activity with respect to something that humans value.
ABSTRACT Pet ownership is associated with both positive and negative emotions. Given that not everyone responds to pet care in a stressful way, perceptions of companion animals may play a role in how owners respond to them. In this study, we explored the relationship between pet ownership and perceived stress among Chinese pet owners. We also examined the effect of care practices and perceptions of pets on perceived stress. A total of 288 Hong Kong Chinese, adult pet owners, aged 18 to 70 years, were recruited. Participants were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire covering demographics, pet ownership background, pet attachment, and perceived stress. Regression analyses were performed to examine pet attachment in different demographic groups and its relationship with perceived stress. Moderation and mediation analyses were performed to elucidate their underlying mechanisms. After adjusting for demographics and pet ownership background, greater attachment to a pet was associated with lower stress in owners. The perception of pets as family members minimized the stressful burden of pet care. More time spent caring for a pet increased attachment to that animal which in turn reduced stress in owners. The findings suggest attachment to companion animals and the perception of them as family members can help manage and reduce stress in owners.
This paper explores the use of Engle and Conant's (2002) theoretical framework of productive disciplinary engagement to describe a group of fifth-graders' emergent dialogical argumentation about a rocky seashore ecosystem that was triggered by fieldwork activities. Engle and Conant's theoretical framework was mapped onto Weinberger and Fischer's (2006) multi-dimensional conceptual framework for CSCL-based argumentation in order to guide the selection of analytical approaches that would holistically assess students' argumentation along four dimensions (i.e. participation, formal argumentative structure, social modes of coconstruction of knowledge and epistemic reasoning). The application of these complementary analyses enabled the exploration of the effects of the different dimensions and the identification of instances of students' more productive argumentation of Science ideas in the Knowledge Forum (KF) platform.
Termination of parental rights (TPR) proceedings are among the most important family court activities. This study contributes to knowledge of the TPR process by illustrating practices employed in TPR proceedings and considering ways that certain practices can hinder perceptions of fairness. TPR court records from one state were analyzed using inductive coding procedures. The analysis identified nine categories of threats to perceptions of fairness in the TPR process. Findings have implications for procedural justice and the legitimacy of child welfare practice.
The historicity of psychological phenomena plays a key role in Vygotsky’s developmental theory. However, we rarely realize what historicity means to Vygotsky, and what implications the notions about the nature of historical change bring to his theory. We suggest, based on dialogue with authors from the social sciences, that Vygotsky worked with different notions of the nature of historical changes in each developmental plane (phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and historical-cultural). Our investigation on this topic showed that, for Vygotsky, each timescale studied behaved differently: for instance, teleological in civilizational scale, semi-open in ontogenetic time. Due to the great influence exerted by the author’s work on the fields of developmental and cultural psychology, we understand that this kind of investigation can be useful to clarify and enrich both scholarly knowledge about his works and contemporary claims about the role of historical change on the developmental processes in psychology.
Children is the most beautiful grace from the one God that we must protect, but they are susceptible of being victims of sexual violence, lots factors cause of children to a victim of sexual violence. There are still high cases of sexual violence in Indonesia and 50% of them are sexual violence against children that occurs in their nearest environment such as at home and school, which should be the safest place for children. The data on cases of children sexual violence reported by the community to the Karawang Police in 2018 recorded 52 cases, on August 2019 there were 30 cases and if averaged in one week, one case was reported. The research objectives are to examine the social phenomenon of children sexual violence in Karawang Regency by analyzing the characteristics of a victim of sexual violence, factors that cause children becoming the victims of sexual violence and examining the anticipatory steps and solutions to overcome children sexual violence. The approach of its research is a qualitative method, namely a phenomenological studies were related to incidents of children sexual violence in Karawang Regency by exploring the characteristics of the perpetrators. The data were collected by interviews, observation and documentation study and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The informants in the study were 21 people with the criteria of key informants, main informants and triangulation/ additional informants by using content analysis The characteristics of children who are victims of sexual violence are more often found with introverted children, introverted personalities are shy, don't talk and this is what is often used by perpetrators of sexual violence and children victims of sexual violence experiencing traumatic behavior. Other factors that trigger the lack of parental supervision of children, uncontrolled sources of information and socio-cultural factors that are still taboo with early childhood sex education. It is expected to increase the participation of the police, Social Service, and stakeholders such as teachers to be able to supervise children at
This research in the wake of the fact that in this time,  students who study Islamic religious education but in himself has not formed Muslim personality, Beginning of dress, speech, association, and other things. In fact, there are still many who have not established conduct religious teachings such as prayer, fasting, and in her social morals less reflects a Muslim student. And do not rule out some that have very broad spiritual  experience  can leave worship and even do things that are religiously forbidden.This research aimed to determine whether there is the effect of understanding islamic education on spiritual  experience  SMA N 1 Sangkulirang. The hypothesis of this study is " theare  is significant effect  among the understanding of Islamic religious education on  spiritual  experience  student SMA N 1 Sangkulirang." That is the better understanding of Islamic education, it would be better of  the spiritual  experience student SMA N I Sangkulirang.The sample collection technique is using cluster random sampling technique on student of SMA N1 class X and XI. While respondents count 104 students. The results obtained show that  understanding of Islamic religious education have the value of  r count of 0.587 with significance value of 0.000. And the count value r is greater than r table (0.578> 0.191), while the value of significance is also smaller than alpha of 0.05 (0.000> 0.05) thus testing showed Ha Ho accepted and rejected. These results show that the variable understanding of Islamic religious education in a positive and significant effect on students' religious practice.R Square results obtained amounted to 0.345 which means that the variable student religious practice can be affected by variables Islam understanding of religious education 34.5%, while the rest is influenced by other variables outside the research.Therefore can be concluded that the understanding of Islamic religious education affect on the  spiritual  experience student. Based on the above findings, the authors suggest to the school in order to further enhance the learning of Islamic education to provide religious understanding and practice to students.
Social appearance anxiety is a term related to the individual's concerns about their outer appearance so it is described as the worry and tension they experience if their outer appearance is assessed and criticized by the society. It is a term that predicts the fear on negative feelings on physical appearance. Social appearance anxiety in individuals who belongs to the adolescent category and the youth category might experience serious problems in their future. This helps the individuals to develop different types of coping attitudes among them. Individual use these coping strategies to minimize the problems occurred due to anxiety, stress or such negative life situations. The present study was used to determine the connection and association between social appearance anxiety and coping. The study was done on college students in Coimbatore and the data collected using Social Appearance Anxiety Scale and Brief Cope Inventory. The result showed that both the social appearance anxiety and the coping is moderate in college students but the relation between these two is relatively high. This means that the students developed coping to overcome negative evaluation of body image by the society and to minimize the problems of such anxiety.
The aim of this research is to investigate the Emotional intelligence among secondary school students. and it’s also assessed the gender difference and effects of counselling on emotional intelligence. Data was collected through purposive sampling from students of Kota city. t value is calculated to assess the difference between emotional intelligence among boys and girls. The finding of the study showed that students were having ‘Average’ Emotional intelligence in pre- and post-testing. Study also showed that in pre testing of emotional intelligence which shows that girls were having more Emotional intelligence level than boys and in post testing of emotional intelligence has no gender difference. It is also found that guidance and counselling doesn’t have significant role during adolescence age of students on emotional intelligence.
ABSTRACT Using two independent samples, this study validated a 12-item short form of the Multidimensional Co-Parenting Scale for Dissolved Relationships (MCS-DR12). Findings supported the identified three-item subscales: Support, Overt Conflict, Self-Controlled Covert Conflict, and Externally-Controlled Covert Conflict. In a sample of parents participating in divorce education, confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the factor structure and second order factor of co-parenting quality. In the second, more diverse sample, subscale factor structures were confirmed but the second order factor of co-parenting quality did not fit; further analysis revealed differences in criterion validity based on divorce status. Considerations about use with diverse populations are discussed.
No other psychiatric diagnosis has more profound negative implications than autism. On the surface, autism impacts social, emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning. However, autism is pervasive in ways less immediately observable, and, as a result, children with autism require developmental and educational interventions that are different in both form and intensity from those required by children with other special needs.
This article is part of a larger scale project on some aspects of the process of academic socialization of a group of Iranian Ph.D. students studying in five UK universities, particularly focusing on the relationship between these students and their supervisors. The study included eight engineering and five social sciences/humanities students, as well as four engineering and two social sciences/humanities supervisors. The overall methodology of the study has been a constructivist version of grounded theory, which is based on a rigorous approach to working with qualitative data and a constructivist epistemology according to which the results of the study are not ‘realities out there’ but the result of the interaction between the researcher and the data. This study looks at the relationship between students and supervisors as legitimate peripheral participation. The main features of this are that novice members are given enough credibility to be considered as ‘legitimate’ members of their target communities and are given ‘less demanding’ practices to perform to learn the craft of their ‘masters’. It is argued that this concept is a productive tool to understand the nature of learning at the Ph.D. level, but it is realized differently in various fields of study. It is also argued that legitimate peripheral participation is in line with informal routes to learning, an aspect which seems to be partially ignored in recent Ph.D. training guidelines by the Economic and Social Research Council.
This study aims at designing an instructional program by using inclusion teaching style, and it aims to find out its effect on learning some basic skills of badminton for students of physical education and sports sciences faculty, Hashemia University.  Sample included (26) of registered students of badminton course in second term of scholastic year 2007/2008, where the sample divided into two groups. Experimental group (n=13) was submitted to inclusion style, meanwhile control one) n=13) was submitted to traditional method (demonstration).  Results showed that inclusion style was more effective than traditional method in learning badminton skills.  The both researches recommended applying inclusion style in learning badminton skills.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relation between personality type D, depression, anxiety and stress in addict and non-addict individuals in Sabzevar, Iran. This is a descriptive and correlation study. The participants of the study were addicted and non-addicted individuals and sample size was 220 people who 100 people were addicted and 120 other were non-addicted who were chosen randomly. Personality type D and depression, anxiety, stress (DASS -21) were used for collection data. Data analysis was performed by using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression. Results revealed that there is a significant and positive difference between addicted and non-addicted individuals' scores in personality type D, depression, anxiety and stress. Considering the high prevalence of personality disorders in addicts, it seems that psychiatric interventions in medical treatment centers of drug abuse, along with medicine therapy is absolutely necessary.
This study was conducted to determine the effects of three group leadership styles on the personal and interpersonal functioning of 67 counselor trainees who participated in a required group experience in conjunction with a group experience course. The partici pants were randomly assigned to one of three group conditions: (1) structured T-group; (2) rotating leadership; or (3) Rogerian. Each of the 9 groups met approximately 20 hours over the course of the semester. Each subject completed the following instru ments : Edward's Personal Preference Schedule, Money Problem Checklist, and Reaction to Group Situation Test. Resultsfrom the pretest, posttest, and 6-8 weekfollow-up suggest that differences among the groups could be attributed in part to group leader ship styles. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
In the UK, the use of the polygraph has only recently been given serious consideration as a means of facilitating the assessment and treatment of sex offenders. This pilot polygraph study on sexual history disclosure testing (SHDT) was the first of its kind undertaken in Britain. This application of the polygraph has shown merit as a means of obtaining additional information about past sexual offending behaviours. Fourteen sex offenders who were attending a Community Sex Offender Groupwork Programme (C-SOGP) were given SHDTs. Substantial increases in the numbers of admitted victims and offences were determined when comparing polygraph disclosure results with previously obtained data from all other sources available. In addition, the subjects reported earlier onset of offending and a wider range of paraphilic interests than had previously been reported. This suggested that collaboration amongst treatment, supervision and polygraph professionals could help to contain sexual offending behaviour more effectively, to improve and enhance public protection.
Objective: To develop guidelines for the culturally responsive psychosocial assessment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people presenting to hospital with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Method: The Delphi method was used to establish expert consensus. A systematic search and review of relevant research literature, existing guidelines and grey literature was undertaken to develop a 286-item questionnaire. The questionnaire contained best practice statements to guide clinicians undertaking psychosocial assessment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people presenting to hospital with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. An expert panel comprising 28 individuals with clinical, community-based and lived experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and/or suicide prevention were recruited and independently rated the items over three rounds. Statements endorsed as essential or important by 90% or more of the expert panel were then synthesised into recommendations for the best practice guideline document. Results: A total of 226 statements across all relevant areas of clinical practice were endorsed. No statements covering the use of structured assessment tools were endorsed. The endorsed statements informed the development of a set of underlying principles of culturally competent practice and recommendations for processes of effective and appropriate engagement; risks, needs and strengths to be assessed; formulation of psychosocial assessment; and recommendations specific to children and young people. Conclusion: The guidelines are based on recommendations endorsed across a range of expertise to address an important gap in the evidence-base for clinically effective and culturally responsive assessment of self-harm and suicidal thoughts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in hospital settings. Further work is needed to develop an implementation strategy and evaluate the recommendations in practice.
Background & Study Aim: The aikido is a philosophy and a Japanese art of self-defence, which is proposed to have several beneficial effects on mind and body. It is limited, but growing research on this topic. A summary of the empirical works could shed light on the anecdotally postulated benefits of aikido. This systematic literature review aims to summarise the current knowledge about the physiological and psychological benefits of aikido training. Material & Methods: Databases including SPORTDiscuss, PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect were searched by following the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. A total of 20 articles met the final inclusion criteria. Results: The authors of the half of selected articles examined the physiological benefits (flexibility, wrist strength, functional efficiency, balance stability, scoliosis, and injuries) while the other half looked at psychological benefits of aikido training (mindfulness, self-control, self-esteem, health-related behaviour, mood profile, and goal orientation) but also on Type A behaviour, as aggressiveness and anger. In line with the analysed reports, the gist of these studies suggests that aikido training has positive benefits on both physiological and psychological measures, including flexibility, scoliosis, balance stability, mindfulness, anger control, and/or ego-orientation indeed. However, certain methodological concerns weaken the strength of the evidence. Conclusions: The key message of this review is that the theoretically postulated benefits of aikido have started to emerge from both physiologically and psychologically oriented empirical research, which provide infrastructure, as well as the incentive, for future work in this currently underexplored field of study.
This publication presents information on and examples of how teachers and students can better communicate and learn in today's culturally diverse classrooms. The document begins with a quiz designed to help one examine one's beliefs about clture and foundaLions for those beliefs. ThA remainder of the document is divided into four sections. Section 1 provides an overview of cultural diversity and its impact on the nation's schools and addresses the critical role teachers play in facilitating effective learning in culturally diverse classrooms. Suggestions are offered for becoming more sensitive to culturally diverse student and community populations. Section 2 features programs and projects used successfully by teachers in addressing the needs of culturally diverse populations. Section 3 presents a compilation of structured strategies for developing cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity, and thematic activities and related resources. Section 4 provides selections of useful multicultural resources, many of which are annotated. Five appendices offer: (1) helpful hints for working with new limited English proficiency (LEP) students; (2) 74 instant ideas for classroom teachers with ESL students; (3) sample Culturgram (Mexico); (4) chronological reference of key historical events related to U.S. ethnic groups; and (5) myths and facts about the "Discovery" of America and Native Americans. (Contains 75 references.) (LL) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Rid U 3 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 03(CP of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve rePrOduction duality Points of view of opinions stated in this clocui ment do not necesSerily represent official OERI poeit.on or policy
How mathematics and science teacher educators collaborated to promote the use of high-level tasks and inquiry-based instruction in high school classrooms. Working with a colleague in the School of Arts and Sciences, education professors developed and team-taught a model inquiry-based lesson. Then teacher candidates were asked to design high-level inquiry-based tasks and maintain the level of those tasks as they engaged their peers in similar micro-teaching activities.
The field of professionals who on a daily basis exercise their activity with people with intellectual disability can sometimes be influenced by some aspects linked with the exercise of the profession, given the activity’s characteristic and the direct contact with the environment. The effects of Emotional Intelligence and the quality of the acquired emotional skills could prove to be beneficial for improved personal development and a higher dispositional optimism. In the present study, an attempt is made to analyse the relationship between these concepts on intellectual disability healthcare professionals from the province of Jaen, Spain. The sample of the study is composed of 59 subjects (n=59), with a mean age of 38.59 years (±10.359). In order to obtain said information, the following tools have been used: the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQi-C) and the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R). There are significant relationships between some of the dimensions of the considered instruments (p<.05), with statistically significant differences between the Emotional Intelligence dimensions and the gender variable (p<.05). The regression analysis confirms the positive association between Emotional Intelligence (intrapersonal) and dispositional optimism. A discussion will be addressed around the results obtained from previously carried out researches on healthcare professionals who work with intellectual disability, concluding with a rigorous analysis of the different propositions that tackle the Emotional Intelligence, and dispositional optimism, and consequently the different practical strategies for starting specific programs of improvement.
There is limited understanding of the problems associated with repeated neuropsychological assessment in children, including the statistics used to guide decisions about cognitive change. This study investigated the utility of a computerized assessment battery that was specifically designed for the repeated assessment of cognitive function in children. Eighty-seven participants aged 8 to 12 years completed the battery four times within a 2-hour testing session. The results support the application of this assessment battery for measuring cognitive change in children. A novel method for calculating measurement error is employed, and its use in the detection of cognitive change in individual children is discussed. An estimate of the measurement error within each of the tests is provided, and recommendations are made regarding the application of this assessment battery for measuring cognitive change in children.
In times of social and political upheaval, a society of rational adults should advocate for “circling the wagons” around our children and adolescents and empowering families and communities to join forces by cogently advocating for constructive reforms on all fronts both to rectify injustices and to remedy the psychological damage that such upheaval can cause. Now the United States zeitgeist is characterized byunprecedented stressful crises: afatal Corona epidemic, drug overdose and suicide related health crises, bipartisan political hostilities, and racial unrest. Rather than attempting to ameliorate this damage, those who lead the “liberal progressive” socioracial new order defy what we have learned from history by pushing for a dangerous confrontational revolution. Their “bon ton” philology includes several incendiary terms. One of the most troubling is the bullying term of “White Privilege.” This intellectually compromised term is a reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty absurd statement, “when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less” [1]. The term “White Privilege” fails to acknowledge the inherent complex heterogeneity of any community defined simply on the basis of shared melatonin level only. Furthermore, any purported reform that attempts to justify a term such as “White Privilege” is naïve at best or at worst a misleading sham. The deleterious potential of this is a clear example of adding fuel to the fires of racial polarization by supporting reverse racism. This constitutes an immense potential of “collateral damage” in particular to impressionable developing young minds while serving no constructive purpose such as improving our youth’s understanding, empathy, compassion and assertive collaborative intervention to address the grievances of Black communities in historical perspective.
The parent-child picture book reading in the family is an important aspect of children's reading activities. Scientific and reasonable reading methods can promote the development and improvement of all aspects of children's abilities. On the basis of reading a lot of literature, this paper takes the kindergarten A in Hong District of Shenyang as an example. Through the forms of questionnaire and interview, this paper makes a survey on the status of parents and children in the kindergarten, and analyzes the problems and shortcomings of parent-child picture book reading. On this basis, the corresponding suggestions and countermeasures are put forward to improve the current situation of the parent-child picture book reading, and promote the healthy growth of children. Keywords—Parent-child picture book reading; Status survey; Countermeasures I. OVERVIEW OF PARENT-CHILD PICTURE BOOK READING A. Parent-child picture book reading In the education of infants and toddlers, parent-child reading mainly takes the form of parent-child picture book reading. Parent-child picture book reading means that parents create the reading environment or atmosphere, choose the picture books, and apply some approaches, methods or techniques to conduct reading communication and sharing activities with children in multiple forms [1]. B. Significance of parent-child picture book reading to development of children Parent-child picture book reading is of great importance to the development of children, which is mainly reflected in that the parent-child picture book reading can intrigue children’s reading interest, foster reading habit, promote the development of language skills, exploit perception and memory potentials, help them to develop moral character and aesthetic ideas, and strengthen bond between parent and child [2] II. SURVEY ON PARENT-CHILD PICTURE BOOK READING A. Survey contents and methods Questionnaire and interview are used to conduct the survey. The survey mainly focuses on parents’ emphasis on and perception of parent-child picture book reading, parents’ ability in guiding children to read picture books, the frequency and duration, and the environment or atmosphere of parentchild picture book reading. B. Survey respondents and goals This survey selects parents of children in the A Kindgarten of Shenyang as respondents, trying to understand the current status of parent-child picture book reading. In the survey, 100 questionnaires were sent out, all of which were retrieved, including 8 invalid questionnaires and 92 valid ones. III. SURVEY RESULTS AND ANALYSIS A. Parents’ emphasis on and perception of parent-child picture book reading The survey is mainly conducted to get to know parents’ knowledge on picture book reading, their perception on the effects of picture book reading, and willingness to read picture books with children. 1) Parents’ knowledge on parent-child picture book reading In the survey, 16 parents indicate that they know well about picture book reading, 44 parents know a little, 20 parents know very little, and 12 parents know nothing about it, as shown in the diagram below. We can see that only 17% of the parents have a clear perception about picture book reading, and most parents have scanty knowledge of, or have never heard of picture book reading. 1064 Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 2nd International Conference on Education Science and Economic Management (ICESEM 2018) Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 184
Albert Cohen in Delinquent Boys suggests that the school in particular awards status upon the basis of middle-class standards. Here, lowerand middle-class youths compete for status in terms of the same set of middle-class criteria, with the result that lower-class youths are relegated to the lowest status positions. As a result of the unequal competition, lower-class youths develop feelings of insecurity, become frustrated, and begin to search for some solution to their status problem.2
Abstract In this article, we reflect on the process and procedures that we embraced when completing our doctorates. In the quest for academic excellence, we examine the role of organization, current technology, collaboration among graduate students, and options in traveling and scheduling. With the intention of providing pragmatic information for those still in the midst of their research and writing, we also share what we wished we had known prior to the experience. ********** Do you recall the excitement you experienced when you opened your acceptance letter into your chosen doctoral program? And equally important, do you recall a few years later sitting in front of your computer in the middle of the night frustrated when your printer ran out of ink? What happened to the excitement you first held at the start of your program? The reality is that writing a dissertation is filled with unforeseen obstacles creating unique journeys for each individual. When less than 50% of graduate students actually complete the dissertation process (University of North Carolina, www.unc.edu, n.d.), this suggests that writing a dissertation is an experience like few others in life. In her humorous and carefully crafted essay, Higgins (2000) suggests that doctoral students are susceptible to DAC, Dissertation Avoidance Complex, if not aware of the various symptoms. Clearly, the path is long and filled with tension, energy, and excitement. Each person's journey is individualized, yet all writers share commonalities. In this article, and in a collective voice, we reflect upon the process, procedures, and products that we embraced when completing our dissertations. In the quest for academic excellence, we examine the role of organization, current technology, collaboration among graduate students, and options in traveling and scheduling. With the intention of providing pragmatic information for those still in the midst of their research and writing, we share what we wished we had known prior to the experience. Organization: The Key to Sanity We believe that writing a dissertation reflects more about the writer's sense of perseverance than about the intelligence of the writer. One way to promote and ensure perseverance is to be well organized. In this portion of the article we offer suggestions concerning manageable writing schedules, maximizing your time to read, understanding your new role as a scholar, structural shortcuts, how to create boundaries when writing, and how to organize your writing supplies. To begin, we recommend creating manageable writing schedules. When deciding how much you need to accomplish in the next day or in the next week, we suggest that you always stop before you finish. Specifically do not finish all items on your "to do" list at the end of your day because it may make you too unproductive. Expand your "to do" list at the close of the day and give yourself a clear agenda for your next writing session. By doing this, you will know exactly where you are beginning and based on our experiences, you could potentially save up to thirty minutes per day. Next, discover your most productive time of day and work on content area writing during this time period. At the close of your writing day when you are typically most tired, focus on the minutiae of formatting and editing that often requires less energy and concentration from most writers. Because you need to become a master in time management, we suggest that you carry "what if" articles. A "what if" article is reading material that is imperative to your study that you keep with you in the event you find a few extra minutes before a doctor's appointment, while stuck in a non-moving traffic jam, or during some other unexpected gift of time. It is important that as a doctoral student you learn to expand your definition of humility. While taking courses in a doctoral program, feedback from professors may reflect expectations they have for graduate students. …
In Fisher’s (January 2008) excellent and much-needed article, she rightly implied that when discussing ethical dilemmas, psychologists may find themselves saying “consult an attorney” almost as often as they find themselves saying, “consult a fellow psychologist.” Fisher’s article was meant to turn the ship so to speak, by providing psychologists with a foundation for thinking clearly about confidentiality issues—a foundation that does not use legal arguments as primary building blocks. The above being said, we offer comments about four issues that we hope will add to the fine ideas expressed by Fisher (2008). First, we believe that Fisher’s careful analysis of this area has opened a somewhat clearer view of a problem that many psychologists have when they write about client consent. Client consent really means two very different things (as Fisher implied but which we wish to emphasize). Psychologists can obtain client “consent” to disclose information, such as having the client consent to the release of records to another psychologist. Presumably under such circumstances, the client really does consent. In contrast, psychologists can also obtain “consent” when they ask clients to sign a statement acknowledging that confidentiality may be broken under certain circumstances. We believe that using the same word to describe both situations is confusing because in everyday language “consent” denotes voluntary or even proactive agreement. Obviously, Fisher did not create this problem, but her article throws it into relief, especially in Sections II, III, and IV of the model. Thus, when one reads the word “consent” in Fisher’s model (Table 2, p. 7), it is not always clear whether the usage refers to true consent or to acknowledgement of the limits of confidentiality. Perhaps the term “client consent” should be used only to refer to situations in which clients really do endorse a psychologist’s action, and a somewhat different phrase should be chosen to describe the process whereby psychologists are to provide complete information about the limits of confidentiality (e.g., “acknowledgement of guidelines that will be followed in psychotherapy” or “client acknowledgement of exceptions to confidentiality”). A second point is related somewhat to our discussion above. In her narrative, Fisher apparently endorsed Behnke’s (2004) “doors” model, including the door that allows disclosure when legally permitted for a valid purpose. Yet, Fisher’s (2008) choice of wording in Section III (“Obtain Truly Informed Consent to Disclose Voluntarily,” p. 7) of her model seems slightly confusing for two reasons. First, Rule A under Section III says: “Respect the rule: Disclose without client consent only if legally unavoidable” (p. 7). This seems somewhat different from the American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Standard 4.05(b), which says that one can disclose confidential information without client consent “where permitted by law for a valid purpose” (APA, 2002, p. 1066). It also seems different from Behnke’s and even Fisher’s narrative to some extent. Thus, the question arises as to whether Fisher believes that confidential information can be disclosed for a valid purpose or that it can be disclosed only if legally unavoidable. Second, it seems a little inconsistent for Fisher to criticize using legal arguments as the foundation for thinking about confidentiality yet then to suggest (Section III, Rule A, p. 7) that the only way one should break confidentiality without consent is if the legal system demands it. If psychologists wish to redeem confidentiality from the clutches of the legal system, as we think about a legitimate basis for breaking confidentiality and highlight relevant legal issues, shouldn’t we at least give equal weight to principled arguments about potentially higher ethical commitments (perhaps, for example, saving the lives of many people)? Third, although Fisher (2008) analyzed to some extent the words of the current Ethics Code, reviewed the wording of several older versions of the Ethics Code, and implicitly criticized some of these versions, it is still not completely clear where Fisher stands regarding the current relationship between the Ethics Code and confidentiality. Another way of saying this is that there is little in the article to tell us whether Fisher believes that the current APA Ethics Code is just fine the way it is or should be changed in order to shore up the (presumably) eroding foundation of confidentiality. We do understand that Fisher’s central point here is not to critique the current code but rather primarily to use it as a part of discussing confidentiality. Still, we would have liked to hear her ideas on this matter. Thus, when she says on p. 6, “Underneath all the legally imposed exceptions, the familiar old ethical rule is still there. The rule is simple enough,” one wonders how “simple” it can be given the earlier careful distinctions Fisher drew between various versions of the Ethics Code. Fourth, we believe that Fisher’s (2008) article would have been strengthened by some consideration of multicultural and cross-cultural issues. Although there are many practice settings in which psychologists’ commitment to confidentiality may not be significantly and often altered by cultural influences, it is obvious that there are cultural issues bound up in confidentiality (e.g., Meer & VandeCreek, 2002; Pettifor & Sawchuk, 2006). Thus, Fisher’s model would be strengthened if one or more sections of it were to explicitly remind psychologists that culture plays a role in how we understand the construct of confidentiality and how we carry out our commitments. We appreciate the contribution of this article to the literature on confidentiality;
This article offers description and interpretation for understanding the exercise of leadership in teacher collaboration. Data gathered in two urban high schools through observations and interviews were coded and categorized following Miles and Huberman’s modified analytic induction technique. The analysis contributes to emerging theory on leadership through examining and reframing Heifetz’s typology of technical and adaptive work to include nonrational properties evidenced in teacher teamwork. The findings forward questions, insights, and recommendations for practitioners about distributing leadership in efforts to reform teacher practice.
In this paper, we discuss part of training actions proposed and experienced by teachers in a municipal school system located in Mato Grosso State awarded by the One Computer For Student Project (PROUCA), an educational public policy formulated by the federal government for three hundred Brazilian schools. The research is characterized as a case study of qualitative nature, associated with narrative method held in conjunction with focal interviews, narrative interviews and participant observation sessions, as well as records on diary. The set of data analysis shows that the actions formulated by the Ministry of Education (MEC) failed to meet learning and teachers needs from the researched school, for these reasons the proposed actions not echoed in the pedagogical practices in classroom as proposed and wished the makers of the teachers training project for PROUCA.
Kodim 0714 located at Jalan Diponegoro No. 35 Salatiga Agencies have experienced an issue where the performance of employees in these institutions has decreased. Presumably it is motivated by beberaa factors such as low labor discipline, lack of empowerment of institutions and low work ethic. The formulation of the problem in this research is how Kodim 0714 seeks to improve the performance of employees. The population in this study was 54, where the method of sampling based on census methods, so that the number of respondents in this study as many as 54 people. Data analysis technique used is multiple linear regression and hypothesis testing partially or simultaneously. Based on the analysis, it can be seen that the t value of discipline and motivation variables respectively 5.995dan 2,242> t table 2:01, so it can be concluded that the first and third hypothesis can be accepted. T value variable empowerment of 1,646 <t table 2:01, so that the second hypothesis can not be accepted. Keywords: discipline, empowerment, motivation, performance
Abstract : Textile materials used by the armed forces are subjected to severe treatment in service and are known to fail in a number of ways due to chemical, photochemical, microbiological and mechanical factors. Before the extensive tropical operations of World War II introduced photochemical and microbiological degradation as prime factors leading to early loss of utility of our textile products, the major source of fabric failure was mechanical in nature. Included in the mechanical category are the following elements: tensile stress; flexing; compression; puncture; shear; dimensional instability due to the above actions, to laundering or to yarn slippage; snagging of yarns; and surface rubbing.
Multiple applications, especially in the automotive sector and in mechanical engineering, are predominantly affected by friction and wear stress and, therefore, represent a substantial challenge for the components being used. Oftentimes, the endurance and the efficiency of these components can be enhanced by means of application-specific coatings. For multiple applications, the functional requirements can be met sufficiently by polymeric coatings. Particularly, coatings based on high performance thermoplastic polymers like Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) have an outstanding potential due to their excellent properties in terms of temperature resistance and wear protection. Conventionally, PEEK is deposited in powder form and, subsequently, workpiece and powder are heated above the melting temperature of PEEK (approx. 340°C) by oven. Accordingly, this process is not suitable for temperature-sensitive base materials which show undesirable thermally induced effects (e.g. decrease of hardness) for temperatures below 340°C. A promising approach to enlarge the range of processable materials consists in the investigation of a laser-based process. Due to melting the PEEK with temporally and spatially controllable laser radiation, the thermal load of the workpiece is reduced. This process comprises four consecutive steps: a laser-based pre-treatment of the components, the preparation of a hydrous dispersion based on PEEK powder, the deposition of the dispersion by e.g. spray coating, and the laser-based melting of the PEEK powder. Regarding the pre-treatment using pulsed laser radiation, current investigations primarily focus on the dependence between the induced roughness and the adherence of the coating. For the laser melting process, the main goal is identifying a process window for dense and adherent coatings without thermally induced effects on the base material. By dense and adherent coatings with a thickness of 15 – 45 µm applied on steel substrates. The adherence is significantly increased by the laser-based pre-treatment of the metallic substrates.
Bulk nanocrystalline Fe-Al based alloys with 5, 10 and 15 wt. % Ni were prepared by aluminothermic reaction. The alloys were analyzed by electron probe microanalyzer, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope. Compressive yield strength and hardness of the alloys were tested. The experimental results showed that all of the alloys consisted of Fe-Al-Ni matrix and small amount of Al2O3 sphere. The matrix phases of the alloys with 5 and 10 wt. % Ni had disordered α-Fe solid solution, while the matrix phases of the alloys with 15 wt. % Ni had disordered α-Fe solid solution, NiAl phase and Fe3AlCx phase. Average grain sizes of the matrix phases of the alloys were about 20 nm. The alloys with 5 wt.% Ni had the best plasticity, but the alloys with 15 wt. % Ni had the highest yield strength and hardness. Yield strength of those alloys is higher than that of coarse-grained Fe3Al.
Hybrid membranes composed of porous metal-organic molecule nanocages as fillers embedded in a hyperbranched polymer (Boltorn W3000) were fabricated, which exhibit excellent pervaporation separation performances towards aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbons. The unique nature of the molecule-based fillers and their good dispersion and compatibility in/with the polymer are responsible for the good membrane properties.
The split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) technique has been widely used to determine the dynamic properties of engineering materials. Recent applications of this technique to materials with extreme properties (e.g., extremely soft or extremely hard) have forced more careful examination of the SHPB apparatus and mandated modifications to this well-established experimental technique in order to obtain valid results. In this paper, we present a brief review of recent developments that adapt this technique for testing a variety of engineering materials under valid dynamic testing conditions. It is shown that, in order to subject the specimen to uniform deformation at a nearly constant strain rate under dynamic stress equilibrium, pulse shaping must be used in the SHPB experiments. In addition, a more sensitive transmission bar must be employed to detect weak transmitted signals when testing soft materials.
Abstract In connection with the rubber crisis of the war, useful fundamental controls and improvements of quality of synthetic rubber which would fit in with current engineering were urgently needed. Variations in the solubility of butadiene polymers and copolymers had been noted by many rubber researchers seemingly to reflect important and controllable variables in the polymerization process, such as “modification” and degree of conversion. Solubility also was thought by some workers to bear on processability. Agreement was neither definite nor general on these phenomena. Solubility behavior and gel fraction had been casually observed for thirty years in natural and synthetic rubbers studied in Europe. No record of engineering application was found. After the organization of the polymer research program in the Office of the Rubber Director, more intensive examination of the significance of sol-gel in controlling the uniformity of GR-S was begun. A proposal new to polymer technology was made, viz., that t...
Regrind processing poses challenges for single-screw extruders due to the irregularly shaped particles. For grooved feed zones, the output is lessened by the reduction of bulk density in comparison to virgin material. Simultaneously, the melt temperature increases, reducing the extruder’s process window. Through experimental investigations on a test stand, a novel feed zone geometry (nominal diameter 35 mm) is developed. It aligns the regrind’s specific throughput with that of virgin material. The regrind processing window is essentially increased. As the solids conveying in the novel feed zone cannot be simulated with existing methods, numerical simulations using the discrete element method are performed. Since plastic deformation occurs in the novel feed zone geometry, a new hysteresis contact model is developed. In addition to spheres, the regrind and virgin particles are modeled as superquadrics to better approximate the irregular shape. The new contact model’s simulation results show excellent agreement with experimental compression tests. The throughput of the extruder simulations is considerably underestimated when using spheres to represent the real particles than when using irregularly shaped superquadrics. Corresponding advantages can be seen especially for virgin material.
Single crystal of D-(–)-alanine (DALA), a non-linear optical material from the amino acid family was grown using a home-made crystal growth setup. The crystals of DALA were also grown by slow evaporation solution technique (SEST). The grown crystals were characterized by using single crystal X-ray diffraction, high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and UV-vis-NIR and CD spectroscopy. Measurements of Vicker’s microhardness, laser damage threshold (LDT) value and second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency are also reported. Thermal and dielectric studies were also carried out.
A novel method for eliminating piston-compression ignition is proposed. Cool-flame degeneration/blue-flame generation is the key factor influencing whether the final hot flame will occur or not. Any late generation of formaldehyde other than from the fuel itself is deduced to be efficient for the retardation of the hot-flame onset. A method devised based on this concept consists of vapor addition to the mixture ; vapor of a low-volatile chemical compound which has very low vapor pressure and higher boiling point than that of the fuel is used. Confirmation experiment is carried out using a rapid-compression machine. Silicone oil (dimethylpolysiloxane) is used as the typical source of vapor. The vapor content of silicone oil does not exceed 0.4 percent of the fuel vapor. Air, when used as the oxidizing agent, is found to efficiently eliminate hot ignition ; this is not so when 21O2/79Ar is used instead.
Just before contact with the rear end of the syringe, by stopping the forward movement of the pressing portion, the chemical liquid is reliably prevented from become extruded from the syringe. Injection apparatus for injecting a chemical solution (1), the injection head syringe drug solution filled (91) is mounted (2), provided on the injection head (2), the rear end of the syringe (91) ( pressing portion pressing the 931) and (4), provided on the injection head (2), a rear end detector for detecting the trailing edge of (931) in a non-contact (7), a control unit for controlling the injection head (2) (50) comprising obtains the advance distance for advancing the pressing portion (4) after the trailing end (931) is detected, advance distance the pressing portion (4) after the trailing end (931) is detected only by advancing, a control unit for stopping at a position apart from the rear end (931) and (50).
The utility model relates to a diaphragm wall, in particular to a wall brushing device of a diaphragm wall groove, which comprises a box body and a steel wire brusher, wherein the box body is formed by welding steel plates, a hanging ring is arranged at the top of the box body, one group of steel wire brushers is connected on at least one side of the box body in a welding way. The wall brushing device of the diaphragm wall groove has good integrate effect of cleaning groove section splicing surfaces, and is easy in manufacture, and convenient and fast to operate.
A method of using earth pressure balance shield tunnel boring machine in the tunnel drilling method, the drill having a cutting head, a conveyor for removing soil excavation chamber bore and carried away from the cavity of the soil mechanism; wherein the cutting head is injected into the formation being drilled a foamed aqueous solution, characterized in that: (a) the aqueous solution contains two essential components which are: (i) an anionic sulfate or sulfonate a surfactant, and (ii) β- naphthalene sulfonate - formaldehyde condensate; wherein (b) at least one cavity in mining conveyor and the second aqueous solution was added to the soil to be removed in the borehole, the basic solution containing the high molecular weight polyethylene oxide and optionally sulphate or sulphonate anionic surfactant. This method allows the soil to be removed from the cutting head to the excavation chamber and the discharge chamber of the machine from the excavation. This method is particularly effective for soil adhesive containing a high proportion of clay and water.
Spectral and directional control of thermal emission holds substantial importance in different kinds of applications, where heat transfer is predominantly by thermal radiation. Several configurations have previously been proposed, like using gratings, photonic crystals, and resonant cavities. In the present work, we theoretically investigate the influence of periodic microstructures such as micro-scale gratings and photonic crystals on the thermal radiative properties of a structure constituted with these periodic microstructures. The enhanced thermal emission is found to be due to different excitation modes and the coupling between them. In order to offer insight into the mechanisms, we calculate and visualize the electromagnetic field profile at specified emission peaks. Furthermore, the emissivity pattern is calculated as a function of the emission angle and the angular frequency. The results reveal detailed spectral and directional dependence, and omnidirectional feature of thermal emission from the proposed structure. We show that it is possible to flexibly control the emission behavior by adjusting the structure dimensional parameters properly.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
The efficiency of far-IR germanium photoconductive detectors can be markedly improved by antireflective coatings. Recently, there has been an effort to develop several micrometer thick, low stress, amorphous carbon films for this purpose. To date, films of no more than 1 to 2 μm have been reported in the literature. In this paper we report the deposition of low stress carbon films which are over 5 μm thick and are effective antireflective coatings at wavelengths of up to Λ = 43 μm. Minimal stress, a requirement for good adhesion, was achieved with a chemical vapor deposition process (CVD) by controlling the hydrocarbon partial pressure (2.2 mTorr) and by doping the carbon film with nitrogen.
It is measured that upconversion fluorescent intensity of a new molecule is proportional to the quartic of excitation density. This demonstrates that it is a four-photon absorption process. Furthermore, at high-density ultrashort pulse laser pumping, an emission appears to satisfy four criteria of lasing, including the highly directional emission,the short emission duration, the spectral narrowing, and changing to linear output/input relationship above at hreshold. The experimental results demonstrate that the four-photon-process-induced amplified spontaneous emission occurs.
Objective To investigate the possibility of manufacturing dual-drug loaded isoniazid/rifampicin/poly L-lactic acid (PLLA) implant with donut-shaped structure via three-dimensional (3D) printing technique and study the drug release characteristic and biocompatibility of the implant in vitro.Methods PLLA was crushed into particles with diameters around 75-100 μm.Isoniazid and rifampicin bulk drugs were dissolved into the organic dissolvent respectively to be the binding liquid.The 3D printing machine fabricated the donut-shaped implant via binding the PLLA powder layer by layer.Dynamic socking method was used to study the in vitro release characteristics,and cell culture experiment was used to test the cytocompatibility of the implant.Results PLLA slow-release implants were made by using the PLLA powder as matrix and isoniazid/rifampicin organic solvent as binding liquid through 3D printing.The drugs in the implants distributed in nest under electron microscope.The concentrations of both drugs were still higher than the lowest effective bacteriostasis concentration after release for 32 days.Cytotoxicity and direct contact tests indicated that the implants had rare cytotoxicity and favorable biocompatibility. Conclusion The donut-shaped implants can be successfully fabricated using the 3D printing method,which offers a new method for the manufacturing of topical slow-release anti-tuberculosis drugs.
The kinetics and mechanism of reaction of glassy carbon with a pure silicon melt or a Si + Mo melt were investigated. The results showed that the growth of a continuous reaction-formed SiC layer followed a fourth-power rate law in the temperature range of 1430° to 1510°C. A model that could explain the fourth-power rate law was developed. In this model, an internal electric field was assumed to be set up over the reaction-formed SiC layer through a negative space charge, and then the diffusion of the carbon-ion vacancies across this layer, driven predominately by this electric field, was considered as the rate-limiting step for the SiC growth. Neither an increase in the processing temperature nor an addition of 10 wt% Mo into the silicon melt had a significant influence on the reaction kinetics. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the reaction products were β-SiC, and β-SiC + MoSi2 for the Si-C and Si-C-Mo reactions, respectively.
The partially cured gel coat was prepared by a process comprising the steps of applying a gel coat and then prepared in this manner to a substrate such as a polymer matrix reinforced:. A gel coat is applied such as unsaturated polyester resin to nonporous mold such as a polyester film, the non-porous mold to actinic radiation such as UV light is at least partially transparent; and B. a gel coat surface in contact with the film, i.e., the bottom surface is exposed to actinic radiation the actinic radiation passes through the first die. After some embodiments of the present invention, the bottom surface is exposed to actinic radiation below a bidirectional soon cured gel coat, the surface opposite the bottom surface of the gel coat, i.e., a top surface exposed to actinic radiation. Gel coat prepared by the method of the present invention is substantially non-porous and free of defects.
We demonstrate an all-fiber figure-eight mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser with a wide tunable range in both pulsewidth and wavelength. A 45-m-long ultrahigh numerical aperture fiber is used to manage the cavity dispersion, and the net cavity dispersion is calculated to be 0.8585 ps2 at 1900 nm. With net-normal dispersion, the experimental laser, operating in a dissipative soliton resonance region, generates stable rectangular pulses. The pulsewidth varies from 480 ps to 6.19 ns with the increasing pump power, and its center wavelength has a 28.95-nm tunable range (from 1940.22 to 1969.17 nm) by properly adjusting the polarization controllers. The maximum of average output power and pulse energy is 60.73 mW and 19.51 nJ, respectively. The rectangular pulses have a clamped peak power of about 3.16 W. The wavelength-tunable fiber laser with high-energy output operating at 2 μm has great potential in various application fields.
White-light emission in lead halide hybrid perovskites has attracted increasing attention due to their significant applications in the field of light-emitting devices. Despite tremendous efforts, two-dimensional (2D) white-light emissive perovskites with high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) remain scarce. In this work, by using alkoxyamine organic cations as a template, we successfully synthesized a new 2D layered hybrid perovskite, (γ-methoxy propyl amine)2PbBr4 (γ-MPAPB), which exhibits bright bluish white-light emission with an excellent color rendering index (CRI) of 85 and a high PLQE of 6.85%. Photoluminescence measurements show a correlation between self-trapped excitons and white-light emission. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a 2D hybrid perovskite with efficient white-light emission based on alkoxyamine cations. This work emphasizes the strategy of introducing alkoxyamine cations into 2D layered hybrid perovskites to design efficient white-light emissive perovskite semiconductors.
While experimental evidence demonstrates that the presence of hydrogen(H)impurities in diamond films plays a significant role in determining their physical properties,the small radius of the H atom makes detecting such impurities quite a challenging task.In the present work,first-principles calculations were employed to provide an insight into the effects of the interstitial hydrogen on the electrical and mechanical properties of diamond crystals at the atomic level.The migrated pathways of the interstitial hydrogen are dictated by energetic considerations.Some new electronic states are formed near the Fermi level.The interstitial hydrogen markedly narrows the bandgap of the diamond and weakens the diamond crystal.The obvious decrement of the critical strain clearly implies the presence of an H-induced embrittlement effect.
Finite difference quasielectrostatic modeling is used to predict the complex dielectric permittivity of barium titanium oxide (BTO)—polymer composites of interest for capacitor applications. The simulations explore the effects of the microstructural arrangement of spherical ceramic particles, the volume filling fraction of ceramic, and the type of polymer on the composite permittivity. For composites with randomly positioned ceramic particles, a soft percolation regime is found between volume filling fractions of 0.35 and 0.5 that leads to a more gradual growth in permittivity compared to ordered arrangements of particles. For BTO dispersed in a representative relaxor ferroelectric polymer, dielectric constants as high as 300 are predicted at a filling fraction of 0.45. Electric field statistics inside the composites are also computed, and localized intensification factors in the range of three to eight times the applied field are predicted, with an incrementally linear growth in high-field probability wi...
The investigation of complex shaped carbon fiber pa rts is a common need of the industry. Classical ult rasonic systems are commonly used, wide-spread and very eff icient. However, these techniques are often limited to simple shape objects. Major problems arise when the shape of the element to be investigated is complex (p ak, valley, small radius of curvature...). To overcome th se problems laser ultrasonic systems can be used a nd the recent developments show promising results.
The microstructure of friction stir welding lap joint between 6061-T6(upper) and A356-T6(lower) was observed by optical microscope,the microhardness of the welded joint was tested.The results show that the joint has well-shape and no obvious defects under the appropriate process parameters.In the weld nugget zone,there is a distinct interface between two plates.Compared with the original position,the position of the interface is higher.Tag appears at the advancing side of interface,which consists of two aluminum alloy microstructure alternating.However,the interface at back side looks like curve shape.Both of two plates show typical microstructure of FSW: the weld nugget zone is composed of fine equiaxed grains;the heat affected zone microstructures are similar to base material,and the grain coarses slightly;the grain in thermo-mechanical affected zone is stretched and bent with a clear plastic flow.The microhardness of two plates in the welding zone decreases in different degree compared with base material,and the upper plate of 6061-T6 is worse,whose highest hardness after FSW is about 65% of the base material.
The Gurson model is achieved by UMAT(user defined material subroutine) and VUMAT(vectorized user defined material subroutine) subroutines,which are the interfaces provided by Abaqus software,respectively.UMAT is used for standard calculation module in Abaqus software,ignoring inertial effect,while VUMAT for Explicit calculation module in Abaqus software,containing inertial effect.After the calculated results are analyzed comparatively,the influence of inertial effect on void growth behavior is investigated.The results show that:(1) Inertial effect is sensitive to loading rate,with the increasing of the loading rate,inertial effect restrains void growth in the beginning,then it accelerates void growth;(2) There is a critical loading rate,at which inertial effect has no influence on void growth,for aluminum alloy LY12CZ,the critical loading rate is about 1 740 s-1;(3) From the view of inertial effect,it can explain the phenomena that the fracture strain increases along with the increasing of strain rate at dynamic loading condition.Besides,it also can explain the characteristic of 'brittleness' performed by aluminum alloys at higher loading condition.
Delamination is easy to appear after high carbon steel wire drawing with large deformation. 84 C lead quenching steel wire is adopted as raw material,and drawn from 2. 7 mm to 0. 43 mm,total compression rate is 97. 5%,average pass compression ratio adopt 13%,20% separately,wire drawing die cone angle adopt 9°,12° separately. Four drawing solutions are made to draw wire,the indexes such as torsion time,shear strength,torsion angle-torque curve are tested by adopting torsion experiment,and torsional fracture is analyzed by SEM. The results indicated that torsion angle-torque curve can be used as a method for judging the steel wire delamination,and the appearance of fracture after delamination steel wire is spiral,the peak decline is because steel wire surface occurs cracks. The wire drawing die cone angle and pass compression ratio have influence on steel wire delamination. The steel wire delamination can be delayed by adopting the method of multi-pass and small compression ratio.
This paper reports an experimental and theoretical analysis of preferential orientation growth of metallic nanowires during electrochemical deposition using nanochanneled templates. In this work pure Co nanowire arrays were synthesized by electrochemical deposition using porous anodized aluminum oxide templates. The nanowire arrays are found to exhibit near complete preferential single axial orientation. The preferential orientation changed with increasing the applied voltage from [0002]hcp, [1010]hcp, [1210]hcp to [110]fcc. The observation is explained in terms of nucleation thermodynamics and crystal growth kinetics. The analysis demonstrates that at low applied voltages, when the wire growth is slow, the wire orientation is dictated by the criterion of minimum total surface energy, with the close-packed surfaces forming the external facets of the crystals. At high applied voltages, when the wire growth is fast, the crystal axial orientation is dictated by the growth kinetics, i.e., directions of the ...
A knowledge of the mechanical properties of bacterial biofilms is required to more fully understand the processes of biofilm formation such as initial adhesion or detachment. The main contribution of this article is to demonstrate the use of homogenization techniques to compute mechanical parameters of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 biofilms. For this purpose, homogenization techniques are used to analyze freeze substitution electron micrographs of the biofilm cross‐sections. The concept of a representative volume element and the study about his representativeness allows us to determine the optimal size in order to analyze these biofilm images. Results demonstrate significant heterogeneities with respect to stiffness and these can be explained by varying cell density distribution throughout the bacterial biofilms. These stiffness variations lead to different mechanical properties along the height of the biofilm. Moreover, a numerical shear stress test shows the impact of these heterogeneities on the detachment process. Several modes of detachment are highlighted according to the local strain energy in the different parts of the biofilm. Knowing where, and how, a biofilm may detach will allow better prediction of accumulation and biomass detachment. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 1405–1418. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
In order to clarify the spin structure of mixed antiferromagnets Co 1- x Ni x Cl 2 ·6H 2 O, proton NMR spectra are observed in an applied magnetic field along the b axis perpendicular to each easy axis. The resonance fields shift gradually from their positions in CoCl 2 ·6H 2 O to those in NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O upon increasing Ni concentration, x. From analyzing the Ni concentration dependence of these resonance fields, it is shown that the spin directions of these mixtures vary smoothly from the c axis (the easy axis of CoCl 2 ·6H 2 O) to the a ′′ axis (the easy axis of NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O) that is in a good agreement with the model proposed by Matsubara et al. It is confirmed that the oblique antiferromagnetic phase does not occur.
PURPOSE: A photosensitive resin composition comprising a polyamic acid is provided to enable development using alkali water solution of low concentration and to ensure excellent resolution, flexibility, adhesion with material, welding heat resistance and pressure cooker test tolerance. CONSTITUTION: A polyamic acid includes a repeating unit represented by chemical formula 1. The average molecular weight of the polyamic acid is 5,000-300,000. The photoresist resin composition comprises (a) polyamic acid, (b) curing accelerator, (c) photocrosslinking agent, and (d) photopolymerization initiator. The concentration of a solid portion of the polyamic acid is 1-20 weight% based on the total weight of the photoresist resin composition. The curing accelerator is an aromatic heteroamine-based compound.
Initial stages of epitaxial growth and formation of CaF2 nanostructures on Si(001) were studied. A variety of nanostructures were grown including ultrathin two-dimensional layers at 750 °C, quasi-one-dimensional stripes at 650 °C and well-ordered dots at lower growth temperatures. Atomic force microscopy and reflection high-energy electron diffraction were used to measure the nanostructure shape and lattice orientation. The evolution of the surface electronic structure under different growth conditions was studied by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and metastable de-excitation spectroscopy. The leading role of the wetting layer in high-temperature formation of the fluorite-silicon interface was established.
In this work, plasma electrolytic oxidation coating was formed on aluminium alloy in a cheap and inexpensive electrolyte to improve its wear resistance. It was found the micro-hardness of coatings increased first and then decreased with increasing the oxidised time. It was showed that the specimen treated under the time of 35 minutes exhibited the highest micro-hardness and lowest wear loss. The surface and cross-sectional morphology indicated that the coatings have a dense structure with low porosity. The presence of wear scars on the worn surface morphology demonstrates that the three-body rolling was the main wear mechanism for coated specimen. X-ray diffraction results showed the coating was formed mainly from α-Al2O3 and γ-Al2O3.
The phosphotungstic acid/mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride catalyst was successfully prepared by immobilizing phosphotungstic acid (H3PW12O40, HPW) on mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (mpg-C3N4). The prepared series of HPW/mpg-C3N4 catalysts was characterized via X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherm, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Results showed that the Keggin structure of HPW active species is still kept after being immobilized on the mpg-C3N4 surface. The HPW/mpg-C3N4 catalyst showed a high catalytic activity in the oxidative desulfurization process. Dibenzothiophene can be removed completely under optimal reaction conditions, and no significant decrease in the catalytic activity of the catalyst was observed after 15 recycles.
To synthesize composite solid materials of metal salt and CdSe nanocrystals by a simple one-step method has been described. These solids can form stable gel in some organic solvent, such as benzene, cyclohexane and 1-butanol, especial in n-decane even below 0.1 wt/vol.%. Furthermore, these gels appear strong fluorescence which can be easily adjusted by the gel concentration. Temperature-dependent fluorescence spectra of composite gels suggested that the CdSe NCs aggregate together in gel state which would induce the energy transfer between nanocrystals and these aggregates could be reversibly disintegrated when gel was heated to form sol. TEM observations provided the further evidence of the energy transfer and suggested that the CdSe NCs were enchased regularly not only on the surface of self assembly of metal salt, but also embedded inside of self assembly in composite gel with small size nanocrystals. In contrast, in composite organogel with large nanocrystals they were only enchased on the edge of self assembly.
Nano-sized amorphous nickel sulfide has been prepared in a mixed aqueous solution of Na2S2O3 and Ni2SO4 compounds using gamma-irradiation at room temperature, The obtained precipitate after gamma-irradiation was washed and dried at 60 degrees C, It was then crystallized by calcination in a flow of argon at 160 - 500 degrees C, respectively, All these samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscope. No peak is detected in the X-ray diffraction patterns of 60 degrees C dried and 160 degrees C calcined samples, it reveals that particles in these two samples are in amorphous states with high level of disorder, Several weak peaks are found in the pattern of 300 degrees C calcined sample and they become stronger in that of 400 degrees C and 500 degrees C calcined samples. All these peaks are due to NiS compound, EXAFS results demonstrate that the nickel sulfide particles in 60 degrees C dried sample are present in a tetrahetral structure with an average Ni - S coordination distance of 0.221nm and a Ni - S coordination number of 4.4, which are changed to octahedral structures with Ni - S coordination distances of about 0.238nm and Ni - S coordination numbers of near 6.0 after calcined at above 300 degrees C, Both the tetrahedral species and the octahedral species exist in 160 degrees C calcined sample.
In this article, we introduce an eco-friendly approach to achieve electrical conductivity at sufficiently lower loading of MWCNT in the PS/LDPE/MWCNT nanocomposites through judicious control of temperature during melt blending. The percolation threshold was achieved at 0.21 wt% of MWCNT following this method, which is lower, compared to the result obtained from direct mixing as well as the previously reported data. The morphological analysis revealed a co-continuous structure of the (70/30, PS/LDPE)/MWCNT nanocomposites in such a high asymmetric composition of blend constituents, which facilitates in the lowering of percolation threshold through selective dispersion of MWCNT in the minor LDPE phase. The electron conduction in the nanocomposites has well been explained in terms of tunneling mechanism, supporting thin coating of polymer over individual CNTs. The morphological, electric and dielectric properties have been well explained in this article. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:1574–1583, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers
Ion beams have been used to modify surface topography, producing nanometer-scale modulations (and even subnanometer ripples in this work) that have potential uses ranging from designing self-assembly structures, to controlling stiction of micromachined surfaces, to providing imprint templates for patterned media. Modern computer-controlled Focused Ion Beam tools enable alternating submicron patterned zones of such ion-eroded surfaces, as well as dramatically increasing the rate of ion beam processing. The DualBeam FIB/SEM also expedites process development while minimizing the use of materials that may be precious (Diamond) and/or produce hazardous byproducts (Beryllium). A FIB engineer can prototype a 3-by-3-by-3 matrix of variables in tens of minutes and consume as little as zeptoliters of material; whereas traditional ion beam processing would require tens of days and tens of precious wafers. Saturation wavelengths have been reported for ripples on materials such as single crystal silicon or diamond ({approx}200nm); however this work achieves wavelengths >400nm on natural diamond. Conversely, Be can provide a stable and ordered 2-dimensional array of <40nm periodicity; and ripples <0.4nm are also fabricated on carbon surfaces and quantified by HR-TEM and electron diffraction. Rippling is a function of material, ion beam, and angle; but is also controlled by chemical environment, redeposition,more » and aspect ratio. Ideally a material exhibits a constant yield (atoms sputtered off per incident ion); however, pragmatic FIB processes, coupled with the direct metrological feedback in a DualBeam tool, reveal etch rates do not remain constant for nanometer-scale processing. Control of rippling requires controlled metrology, and robust software tools are developed to enhance metrology. In situ monitoring of the influence of aspect ratio and redeposition at the micron scale correlates to the rippling fundamentals that occur at the nanometer scale and are controlled by the boundary conditions of FIB processing.« less
Metal oxide-based transistors can be fabricated by low-cost, large-area solution processing methods, but involve a trade-off between low processing temperature, facile charge transport and high-capacitance/low-voltage transistor gates. We achieve these simultaneously by fabricating zinc oxide and sodium-incorporated alumina (SA) thin films with temperature not exceeding 200 to 250 °C using aqueous and combustion precursors, respectively. X-ray reflectivity shows a compositionally distinct SA boundary layer forming near the substrate and that a portion of the SA is chemically removed during the subsequent semiconductor deposition. Improved etch resistance and reduced dielectric leakage was obtained when (3-glycidoxypropyl) trimethoxysilane was included in the SA precursor.
The present invention relates to a thread (1) with an extension (2), wherein the thread (1) has at least partially a thermoelectric material (3). Furthermore, the invention is directed to a method for manufacturing a device (12) for a thermoelectric module (15) is directed such that at least the following steps: a) providing at least one thread (1) with an extension (2), b) providing a tubular housing (13) having an outer peripheral surface (14), c) winding the at least one thread (1) around the tubular housing (13) so that (on the outer circumferential surface 14) at least one annular element (12) for a thermoelectric module (15) is formed.
Fracture toughness data for type 304 and 316 stainless steels and their welds are reviewed. The material and operational parameters evaluated in this paper include: heat to heat variability; weld process variations; welding induced, heat affected zones; crack orientation; cold work; monotonic and cyclic prestrain; long term thermal aging; neutron irradiation; temperature; and loading rates. Statistical analyses of literature data are provided to establish minimum expected fracture toughness values for use in fracture mechanics design evaluations. Guidance is also provided concerning the potential for component failure and when fracture mechanics assessments are required to guard against unstable fracture. Macroscopic fracture toughness properties are correlated with key microstructural features and operative fracture mechanisms.
The set of integral equations of the plane problem of the elasticity theory for many interacting cracks is reduced to a set of linear equations for the stress intensity factor at crack edges. The strength of bridges in a crack required to retain the bridge is found. Closely spaced cracks form a safe cluster for which the further growth of a crack after the coalescence of such initial cracks requires an enhanced stress. The exhaustion of safe clusters leads to a kinetic phase transition from distributed microcracking to the hypercritical propagation of the main crack.
A method of manufacturing an outer cutter 10A of a rotary electric shaver 1 that includes the outer cutter 10A and an inner cutter 12A which is slidingly in contact with a bottom surface of the outer cutter 10A and rotates, in which a plurality of the circular shaving surfaces 16A, 18A are integrally formed in the outer cutter 10A in a concentric manner, and round hole-shaped hair introduction openings 30 are formed in at least one of the circular shaving surfaces 18A includes (a) a step of grinding or polishing a predetermined position where the round hole-shaped hair introduction openings 30 are formed in the circular shaving surface 18A to obtain a thickness size smaller than an inner diameter size of the round hole 30; and (b) a step of forming the round hole-shaped hair introduction openings 30 in the position where the grinding or the polishing is performed by pressing, after the step (a).
We show that electrodynamic dipolar interactions, responsible for long-range fluctuations in matter, play a significant role in the stability of molecular crystals. Density functional theory calculations with van der Waals interactions determined from a semilocal “atom-in-a-molecule” model result in a large overestimation of the dielectric constants and sublimation enthalpies for polyacene crystals from naphthalene to pentacene, whereas an accurate treatment of nonlocal electrodynamic response leads to an agreement with the measured values for both quantities. Our findings suggest that collective response effects play a substantial role not only for optical excitations, but also for cohesive properties of noncovalently bound molecular crystals.
Resistivities of 5.4 μΩ·cm were measured in 10-nm-diameter metallic wires. Low resistance is important for interconnections of the future to prevent heating, electromigration, high power consumption, and long RC time constants. To demonstrate application of these wires, Co/Cu/Co magnetic sensors were synthesized with 20-30 Ω and 19% magnetoresistance. Compared to conventional lithographically produced magnetic tunnel junction sensors, these structures offer facile fabrication and over 2 orders of magnitude lower resistances due to smooth sidewalls from in situ templated chemical growth.
A modified heterostucture Ga1-xAlxAs near infrared emitting diode is described with single (SH) and double heterostructures (DH) adopted for carrier confinement. The active region is arranged in a layer for best crystal quality as shown by photoluminescence measurement. The maximum 3-dB bandwidth is 175 MHz and optical output power reaches 7 mW in a surface emitting diode. The experimental results are compared with optical characteristics for SH and DH IRED's.
A new type of spectrometer design for confocal-spectral microscopy is proposed in this paper. Spectral imaging is the technique to collect spectrum information of the sample at each point. By combining with the confocal microscope, the sign al related with the position including z-axis and the wavelength can be measured. To select appropriate wavelength ban d detected by PMT channel, various methods can be used as occasion demands. In this paper, it is proposed that the dispersed sign al is scanned by a galvano mirror to change the wavelength. Also, Acousto-optic tunable filter(AOTF) is used to diffract specific excitation light and to divide excitation and emission signals. Because of the birefringent characteristics in AOTF material, the emission lights experience different paths according to their polarization states. This effect is analyzed and compensated by using an additional birefringent material.
Nanoindentation techniques have recently been adapted for the study of biological materials. This feature will consider the experimental adaptations required for such studies. Following a brief review of the structure and constitutive behavior of biological materials, we examine the experimental aspects in detail, including working with hydrated samples, time-dependent mechanical behavior and extremely compliant materials. The analysis of experimental data, consistent with the constitutive response of the material, will then be treated. Examples of nanoindentation data collected using commercially-available instruments are shown, including nanoindentation creep curves of biological materials and relaxation responses of biomimetic hydrogels. Finally, we conclude by examining the current state and future needs of the biological nanoindentation community.
Alkali-activated materials or geopolymer technology is one of the material innovations that can provide several benefits by reducing the use of Portland cement. The source of precursor materials come from industrial by-products. This study investigated the reliability failure of seven-variation of alkali-activated fly ash/slag/micro-silica mortar (AAM) and one-type of Portland Cement (PC) mortar. Compressive strength test accompanied by acoustic emission is used to characterize cylindrical mortar specimens. Examination of fracture distribution according to stress level until final failure was then performed. The compressive strength of four-type of alkali-activated mortar AAM (AAM-IV, V, VI, and VII) at 14 and 28 days shows a slight strength increase, 61.9 to 63.6 MPa, 62.3 to 65.6 MPa, 64.8 to 68.3 MPa and 63.1 to 63.6 MPa, respectively. The slight increase of AAM compressive strength is caused by high early strength achieved due to the replacement of more than 40 % of fly ash with GGBFS. The presence of more CaO in the AAM mixture accelerates the reaction in early age. By contrast, PC mortar shows significantly strength increases from 55.2 MPa to 69.5 MPa during the same period. Amplitude filters greater than (50dB, 60dB, 70dB and 80 dB) is utilized to investigate the reliability of compressive strength of the mortar by acoustic emission. It was found that filter greater than 60dB is the most suitable filter. Alkali-activated mortars which contain raw material of 42.5% fly ash, 42.5% GGBFS, and 15% micro-silica has the lowest reliability of failure than those of other mortars whereas Portland cement mortar shows the highest reliability of failure than other alkali-activated mortars.
A coal-tar pitch/ poly(vinyl chloride-co-vinyl acetate,VC-co-VAC)/polyurethane(PU) composite was obtained by adding coal-tar pitch as filling agent to P(VC-co-VAC)/PU prepolymer.The influences of the kinds,amounts and particle sizes of coal-tar pitch on mechanical and dielectric properties of the composites were studied.Thermal stability was investigated with thermogravity technique(TG) under air.Using scanning electronic microscope(SEM),the granule pattern of coal-tar pitch was obtained and the machanism was discussed.The results show that when weight content of high temperature coal-tar pitch is 10%~15% can greatly improve mechanical properties of composites,and the smaller the coal-tar pitch particle size,the better the mechanical properties is.When coal-tar pitch partical size is 125 μm,dielectric properties is best.The initial decomposition temperature of composite is 190 ℃ and the termination temperature of composite is 610 ℃.The addition of coal-tar pitch has no effect on the thermal stability of composites,and coal-tar pitch also has ultra-violet light screening action.
Using trimethylopropane trimethylacrylate(TMPTMA) as crosslinking sensitizer,ethylene propylene dine terpolymer rubber(EPDM) was vulcanized by 60Co irradiation method.It has been found that the gel fraction of EPDM increases with the TMPTMA dosage and the appropriate dosage is 8% in weight percentage to EPDM.Tensile strength increases with the absorbed dose until 120 kGy.And the adopted absorbed dose is about 80 kGy.At the same time,the properties of aging resistance and thermal stability of radiation vulcanizate are improved compared with chemical vulcanizate.TG results show that the thermal decomposition temperature of radiation vulcanizate(480℃-530℃) is higher than that of chemical vulcanizate(430℃-480℃).These experimental results indicate that the properties of aging resistance and thermal stability of radiation vulcanizate are better than those of chemical vulcani-zate.
The appraising standard of drawing properties of cold rolled thin sheet has been reviewed with details of chemical composition,texture and grain size,surface quality,thickness dimension tolerance,processing conditions of cold rolling,numerical value of tensile test effected drawing properties of cold rolled thin sheet.The forming process of sheet V-bending including springback has been simulated with the software ANSYS/LS-DYNA.It can be used for guidance in the stamping production.
The degradation of an IM7/997 carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy exposed to ultraviolet radiation and/or condensation has been characterized. Based on observations of physical and chemical degradation it has been established that these environments operate in a synergistic manner that causes extensive erosion of the epoxy matrix, resulting in a reduction in mechanical properties. Matrix dominated properties are affected the most, with the transverse tensile strength decreasing by 29% after only 1000 h of cyclic exposure to UV radiation and condensation. While, the longitudinal fiber-dominated properties are not affected for the exposure durations investigated, it has been noted that extensive matrix erosion would ultimately limit effective load transfer to the reinforcing fibers and lead to the deterioration of mechanical properties even along the fiber dominated material direction.
Pure phase BiFeO3 films were successfully prepared on ITO/glass substrates by liquid phase self-assembled method using Bi(NO3)3·5H2O,Fe(NO3)3·9H2O as raw materials and citrate acid as chelating agent.The influence of Fe3+/Bi3+ molar ratio on the preparation of BiFeO3 films was studied.The BiFeO3 films were characterized by XRD,EDS,XPS,FE-SEM and FT-IR.The results indicated that:the covering effect of citrate acid to Fe3+ is responsible for the larger deposition rates of the chelates of Bi3+,which made the Bi2O3 and Bi2O2.33 phase could be observed,and the pure phase BiFeO3 films are obtained when the Fe3+/Bi3+ molar ratio was added to 2.6;the films are dense,smooth,grown well,the thickness of the pure phase BFO thin film is approximately 275 nm;the oxidation state of Fe atom is Fe3+ in the films;the chelates of Bi3+ and Fe3+ are induced and adsorbed onto the ITO/glass substrates with different rates through the —OH,which form strong chemical bonding,the crystalline BiFeO3 films are obtained after annealing process.
The dependence of performance of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) solar cells on the growth condition of the SiNWs has been described. Metal-assisted electroless etching (MAE) technique has been used to grow SiNWs array. Different concentration of aqueous solution containing AgNO3 and HF for Ag deposition is used. The diameter and density of SiNWs are found to be dependent on concentration of solution used for Ag deposition. The diameter and density of SiNWs have been used to calculate the filling ratio of the SINWs arrays. The filling ratio is increased with increase in AgNO3 concentration, whereas it is decreased with increase in HF concentration. The minimum reflectance value achieved is ~1% for SiNWs of length of ~1.2 μm in the wavelength range of 300–1000 nm. The performance and diode parameters strongly depend on the geometry of SiNWs. The maximum short circuit current density achieved is 35.6 mA/cm2. The conversion efficiency of solar cell is 9.73% for SiNWs with length, diameter, and wire density of ~1.2 μm, ~75 nm, and 90 μm−2, respectively.
Flow path (14) A tape heater poppet valve, wherein the valve housing (10) having a main bore (11, 12), connecting the main bore (11, 12), disposed in the flow path (14) the annular valve seat (15), the valve seat (15) a valve member opening and closing the poppet (13), and connecting the rod (16) of the valve member (13), the valve an outer circumferential surface of the housing (10) surrounds the valve housing (10) covering the entire circumference heat shield (30) made of a thermally conductive material, disposed within the heater to the heat transfer hole cover (30) (31) mounting a first rod-shaped heater (32). Thus, the rod-shaped heater can be used cost effectively heat the poppet valve housing whole outer peripheral surface.
Abstract Novel polythioamide (PTA) was prepared and blended with polyamide 1010 (PA1010). Based on morphology, molecular weight, polydispersity index, thermal, and shear stress behavior, PA1010/PTA (90:10) blend was opted as matrix for graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) reinforcement. Inclusion of functional GNP resulted in crumpled gyroid morphology. T0 (502°C) of PA1010/PTA/GNP was increased by 145°C than unfilled blend (357°C). Limiting oxygen index measurement indicated better non-flammability of PA1010/PTA/GNP1-3 nanocomposites (53-55%) relative to PA1010/PTA1-3 (41-48%). PA1010/PTA/GNP1-3 also attained V-0 rating in UL94. Furthermore, PA1010/PTA/GNP3 nanocomposite revealed optimum tensile strength (40 MPa), impact strength (1.9 MPa), and flexural modulus (1373 MPa) to manufacture automotive part.
AbstractThe geometry effects in the reactor and the initial concentration of substratum for a reaction of dichloroacetic acid (DCA) photodegradation with TiO2 – P25 as catalyst using a low-energy radiant field, were evaluated The catalyst concentration was constant and oxyg en concentration was near the saturation level at room temperature. The process performance and the effect significance were evaluated through the DCA photodegradation percentage and a lineal model. The photodegradation was improved with diffuse-radiation collectors, wide absorption area, and initial low concentration of DCA. The geometric factor had the highest influence in the process performance. The model obtained a high predictive capacity with a global associated error less than 3.5% and a correlation coefficient of 0.98.
There is provided a method for producing an optoelectronic component. Here, a housing body is provided. an LED chip and an exposed portion of the outer surface of at least one first electrical conductor are arranged on the housing base body. The LED chip is suitable for emitting an electromagnetic primary radiation. On at least the exposed part of the outer surface of the first electrical conductor and on exposed electrically conductive outer surfaces of the LED chip, a luminescence conversion material is applied using electrophoresis. The luminescence conversion material comprises at least one phosphor that is capable of converting the primary radiation at least partly into a secondary radiation. In addition, an optoelectronic component is specified. In a recess contained electrically insulating outer surfaces of the optoelectronic component are free of the luminescence conversion material substantially.
Along with the increasing pace of development, many methods and research have been carried out and developed aimed at increasing the strength of concrete, one of which is by utilizing waste rice snail shells as a partial replacement of cement. This snail is considered a pest for farmers. Snail carcasses can also damage the environment and cause a bad smell. This can be used and utilized as an alternative material in concrete mixtures. The percentage of use of rice snail shell substitution varied, namely 0%, 10%, and 15%. The tests carried out were the compressive strength test, split tensile strength test, flexural strength test, and the modulus of elasticity of concrete with a concrete quality of 25 MPa. The test objects used were cylinders measuring 15 cm and 30 cm high and beams measuring 60 cm × 15 cm × 15 cm with variations in age of 7 days, 21 days, and 28 days. The highest value was obtained at 10% snail shell variation with 27,540 MPa, 2,735 MPa, 4,131 MPa, respectively. so that the 10% snail shell variation used in this study is still safe to use as a cement substitution material in normal concrete mixtures.
OBJECTIVE To establish a localization ultrathin section method through which target cytopathic cells could be sectioned in situ.   METHODS Lab-Tek Chamber slide system (177402) was selected as resin embedding mould. Cells infected with Human adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) or A/HN/SWL3/ 2009 (H1N1) influenza virus were embedded in situ as models. Target cytopathic cells were exposed by trimming, sectioned and observed under transmission electron microscope (TEM).   RESULTS Target cells could be sectioned in situ and virus particles could be found easily on sections.   CONCLUSION A localization ultrathin sectioning method was established and this technique could be applied in virus detection in cytopathic cells to improve TEM detection efficiency.
The L-type of outdoors furniture frames and rails frames is a common structural pattern. This paper studied the effect of span on the strength of WPC L-type structure and its joint. The results were very significant and showed that the shorter of the span, the stronger of the structure, and the span have important effects on the strength of the joint structure. The joint property is best when the span is about 190mm.
Finite element models of the hot stamping and cold die quenching process for boron steel sheet were developed using either rigid or elastic tools. The effect of tool elasticity and process parameters on workpiece temperature was investigated. Heat transfer coefficient between blank and tools was modelled as a function of gap and contact pressure. Temperature distribution and thermal history in the blank were predicted, and thickness distribution of the blank was obtained. Tests were carried out and the test results are used for the validation of numerical predictions. The effect of holding load and the size of cooling ducts on temperature distribution during the forming and the cool die quenching process was also studied by using two models. The results show that higher accuracy predictions of blank thickness and temperature distribution during deformation were obtained using the elastic tool model. However, temperature results obtained using the rigid tool model were close to those using the elastic tool model for a range of holding load.
A partially hydrolysed poly(acrylamide)-grafted-gellan (HPAmGG) copolymer was synthesised and characterised. Temperature- and concentration-dependent rheology and gel-like property of Gelrite gellan (GG) disappeared in HPAmGG copolymer. Smart HPAmGG hydrogel was fabricated with variation in aluminium chloride (AlCl3) strength and initial drug loading. The hydrogel reticulates seemed spherical and showed a maximum of ∼65% drug retention, but the assay was ∼22% lower for GG hydrogel. The drug release rate was inversely proportional to AlCl3 strength in simulated intestinal milieu (pH 7.4), but approximated a proportional relationship with drug load. HPAmGG hydrogel liberated only 10–17% content in simulated gastric milieu (pH 1.2) in 2 h. The release data correlated well with the pH-dependent swelling of hydrogel and indicated the anomalous drug diffusion mechanism. Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses confirmed the amorphous nature of the drug and its stability in fresh and aged hydrogel. Hence, smart HPAmGG hydrogel had the potential to prolong drug release mimicking the variable pH of the gastrointestinal tract.
The proposed use of lasers to accelerate particles to ultrahigh energies has been motivated by the very high electric fields associated with focused laser beams. A number of conceptually different schemes have been proposed for this purpose and are under very active investigation. In the last couple of years significant results have been obtained on four of these schemes: the inverse-Cherenkov accelerator,' the inverse-free-electron laser accelerator,2 the laser-plasma beat-wave accelerator? and the self-modulated laser wakefield a~celerator.~ Of these, the first two are an example of what is known as far-field accelerators, that is, the acceleration of charges takes place far away from any solid surfaces. On the other hand, the latter two are an example of acceleration by a space charge wave that is induced by a laser beam in an ionized medium: a plasma. To effectively use the electric field of a laser to accelerate particles, one has to somehow obtain a component of the field in the direction of the particle and slow the electromagnetic wave down so that this electric field can interact with the particle over a long distance. In the inverse-Cherenkov scheme, the wave is slowed down by introduction of a gas at the focus of the laser beam. A radially polarized laser beam is focused into this gas such that the particles to be accelerated interact with the laser field at the Cherenkov angle. This accelerator employs the Cherenkov mechanism: If a particle moves faster through a medium than light travels in the same medium, then it will radiate. The inverse-Cherenkov accelerator (ICA) simply runs this effect backward. Recently a proof-of-principle experiment has been carried out at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Advanced Accelerator test facility,' which shows acceleration of a relativistic electron beam that uses a CO, laser in the ICA mode. In the inverse free electron laser (IFEL) scheme, the particles are accelerated by the ponderomotive bucket formed by the beating of the laser light with a static magnetic wiggler. The synchronism condition is maintained by bending the electron orbits continuously and periodically by the wiggler field such that the particle traverses one wiggle period just as one period of the electromagnetic wave passes by the particle. Very encouraging results on acceleration by the IFEL scheme have recently been obtained.2 Finally, relativistic space charge waves excited in a plasma by intense laser beams have shown dramatic results. Coherent space charge waves have accelerated electrons to about 30 MeV in just 1 cm using the laser beat-wave techniq~e.~ Electrons have been shown to gain up to 100 MeV of energy in about a millimeter with use of the so-called self-modulated laser wake-field acceleration4 scheme. These accelerating gradients are thus by far the largest terrestrial accelerating gradients for charged particles obtained to date.
Experimental measurements of the diffusion constant for ultrasonic waves (around 3 MHz) propagating in water through a random set of scatterers (parallel metallic rods arranged as a slab) are presented. The slab thickness is around ten times the transport mean free path. Transmitted waves are recorded over hundreds of emitting/receiving positions in order to estimate the ensemble-averaged transmitted intensity 〈I(x,t)〉. Focused beamforming is performed on both faces of the sample in order to mimic a set of point-like sources and receivers. In theory, under the diffusion approximation, the ratio of the off-axis intensity 〈I(x,t)〉 to the on-axis intensity 〈I(0,t)〉 shows a simple gaussian dependence on the lateral dimension x, independently from absorption or boundary conditions. This yields a simple way to estimate the diffusion constant D and therefore characterize the scattering medium. Based on that method, broadband as well as frequency-resolved measurements of the diffusion constant are presented in controllable model media, such as these forests of steel rods. Experimental results and difficulties for measuring a reliable value for D on a real sample are discussed.
Without doping any rare-earth ions, Ca3SnSi2O9 emits blue light and exhibits weak long-lasting phosphorescence. By selecting appropriate rare-earth ions doped into the host, multicolor phosphorescence can be obtained from Ca3SnSi2O9:Re3+ (Re = Pr, Tb, Sm) after excitation at 316 nm, which is due to the persistent energy transfer between the host and rare-earth ions. The thermoluminescence results indicate that the introduction of Re3+ (Re = Pr, Tb, Sm) produces more suitable traps (V ''(Ca)) depth at 360 K, which make an important contribution to the more excellent long persistent luminescence phenomena.
Piezoelectric cylindrical transducer is a type of excellent smart devices that can generate radial sound radiation due to its unique structural characteristics and has been widely used for ultrasonic and underwater sound applications. In the design of a piezoelectric cylindrical transducer, especially with the multilayer structure, the electrodes and electrical connections of piezoelectric layers are two key factors affecting the device performance but have not been well evaluated, which result in the inaccurate prediction of dynamic characteristics. This work establishes the exact theoretical models for radially polarized multilayer piezoelectric cylindrical transducers by taking into account the electrodes and electrical connections of piezoelectric layers. Based on the plane stress assumption, the dynamic solutions of the models are derived. Analytical expressions of electric impedances are also derived to obtain the resonance frequencies. In addition, the analytical solutions are validated using the special example in the earlier work and comparing them with the finite element analysis results. Subsequently, the effects of the electrodes and electrical connections of piezoelectric layers on the dynamic characteristics of the transducer are analyzed and discussed. The results show that the electrode thickness, the electrode type, and the parallel and series connections significantly affect the transducer’s performance, thus providing useful guidelines in the design of piezoelectric cylindrical transducers. This work contributes to an overall analysis on the dynamic characteristics of the radially polarized multilayer piezoelectric cylindrical transducers, which is very helpful to improve the performance of two-dimensional emitter and receiver in underwater sound and ultrasonic applications.
The present invention discloses a packaging method and packaging device. In one embodiment, the packaged semiconductor device comprising forming a first redistribution layer (RDL) is formed over the carrier and a plurality of mounting through-holes (TAVs) over the first RDL. An integrated circuit die over the first RDL is connected, and a first molding compound is formed over the RDL, TAV and an integrated circuit die. Forming a second plastic over the RDL, TAV and an integrated circuit die mold.
Summary form only given. Examinations of dimensional properties of semiconductor heterostructures, such as interface quality and quantum well layer thickness, require equipments with nanometer-scale resolution, and thus transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique is exclusively used for this purpose. Though this technique has been very successful and unique in a sense, it is costly and time-consuming, and therefore often discourages users, who might use the technique much more frequently otherwise. We propose to use a simple wet etching technique to cross-section a heterostructure (InGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum well) at a very shallow angle. Upon forming a vertical taper through a semiconductor heterostructure, a vertically small-scale structure such as a quantum well can be effectively magnified in the lateral direction by the tangent law.
The effect of electric field on diffusion of charge carriers in disordered materials is studied by Monte Carlo computer simulations and analytical calculations. It is shown how an electric field enhances the diffusion coefficient in the hopping transport mode. The enhancement essentially depends on the temperature and on the energy scale of the disorder potential. It is shown that in one‐dimensional hopping the diffusion coefficient depends linearly on the electric field, while for hopping in three dimensions the dependence is quadratic.
Experiments have been made to find the effect of the ratio of sting to base diameter on the base pressure of an axially symmetric body at zero incidence in a supersonic stream. The Mach number of the flow was 1·994 and the model boundary layer was turbulent. The model used was a one inch diameter circular cylinder without boat-tailing. It passed through and was supported upstream of the nozzle throat. This method of support allowed measurements to be made in the important (and hitherto unexplored) case of zero sting diameter. As the sting to base diameter ratio was increased from 0 to 0·85, the base pressure decreased. The minimum value reached was approximately 0·8 of the value it would have at the base of a two-dimensional body with a similar ratio of boundary layer thickness to base height. The base pressure coefficient rose rapidly to zero as the ratio was further increased to unity. Under the conditions of the experiments, with a sting to base diameter ratio of 0·4 the base pressure coefficient differed from that without a sting by approximately ten per cent. With the more modest ratio of 0·2, the difference was approximately three per cent.
The invention discloses a gas recognition method and device. The method comprises the steps of conducting chemical modification on each sensor in a sensor array so that a monofilm can be formed on each sensor; introducing gases with different concentrations to each sensor subjected to chemical modification multiple times, so that the monofilm on each sensor adsorbs gases with different concentrations multiple times; detecting multiple response results of gases with different concentrations adsorbed by the monofilms on the sensors multiple times through each sensor; obtaining multiple first parameters of gases corresponding to each monofilm through fitting of the multiple response results detected by the sensors and a gas adsorption curve of the monofilm of each sensor, wherein the first parameters are irrelevant to the concentrations of gases; recognizing introduced gases according to the first parameters. By the adoption of the technical scheme, gas recognizing and distinguishing capacity can be improved, and the application reality of the gas recognition method is improved.
Poly(L-lactic) acid (PLLA) is a biodegradable thermoplastic aliphatic polyester that has been found to be an excellent material of choice for biomedical applications including tissue engineered implants. This paper will discuss the characterization of PLLA core fibers being developed for tissue engineering applications and its degradation properties which showed that even with a mass loss of ~30 %, the fibers had no significant change in mechanical strength. It is important to understand the degradation of polymer fibers in the design of scaffolds in order to discover the expected temporal loss of mechanical strength and integrity. This will allow for more improved design of fabricated structures and scaffolds that can maintain integrity overtime in the body during the regeneration process.
Abstract : The emphasis of the research in this program has been to investigate the use of UV lasers for surface diagnostics and for the probing of nanoscale surface physics. Our current program focuses on electron coupling and confinement on nanostructured surfaces, and the use of short-pulse nonlinear laser photoemission techniques to probe these phenomena. Specifically the program is to investigate low-dimensional, quantum confinement of electrons on surfaces patterned with angstrom-scale features. Electronic systems of reduced dimensionality are of interest for a variety of applications for future nano-electronic and magnetic devices. For example, reduced dimensionality plays an important role in such important and timely phenomena as Q bits for quantum computing, and more generally in quantum-dot physics.
The phenomena known as `internal oxidation' can play a major detrimental role in the failure of  carburised components such as bearings and gears. Internal oxidation leads to a degradation of  the surface layer often leading to surface break up and fatigue. This work is concerned with a  detailed understanding of the formation of internal oxidation leading to modifications to  composition or process parameters to eliminate or reduce internal oxidation. Experimental steels for the most part have been used in this study with Si content varying from  0.11 to 0.77 mass percent. A commercial carburising process at David Brown Heatch Ltd.  consisting of a number of process stages with varying C potential and treatment temperature has  been used in the study. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)  ,  Cross sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy  (TEM), Energy Dispereive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA),  Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GDOES), Quantitative Image Analysis  techniques were applied to characterise the specimens.  A model has been proposed that explains the formation of the characteristic morphology  observed in internal oxidation and is based upon competitive processes concerning the diffusion  rate of alloy species within the bulk material and the differences in the free energy of formation  of the various oxides types. The observed morphology of the internal oxidation zone at different  carburised exposure time, in range of 0.25-16.6h, related to the penetration depth and density of  the internal oxides in the internal oxidation zone, with particular emphasis on the relative  importance of oxygen partial pressure at reaction and free energy of formation of oxides have  been studied. The research indicated that the internal oxides grew fast in the base process. Three  elements Cr, Mn and Si were oxidised at this stage and formed complex oxides within the grains  and on the grain boundaries. Further, as carburising time increased, existing oxides grew and  new oxides nucleated again along grain boundaries. In the boost process, only Si was oxidised.  Si oxides penetrated to a greater depth along the grain boundaries. The generally two-zone  morphology characteristic was found in the internal oxidation zone of carburised steel. Outer  zone: larger size complex oxides which contain higher concentrations of Cr, Mn and some Si on  the grain boundaries or within the grain; Inner zone: intergranular Si oxides on the grain  boundaries. Small dispersed oxide paticles were observed in both zones.  Different oxides were formed in the internal oxidation zone as complex oxides, sometime as  agglomerated oxide phases, and intergranular oxides. These complex oxides were identified as  Cr1.5Mnj.5 O4C, rMnO4, Mn2SiO4 and MnSiO3. The intergranular oxidation was mainly Si oxides,  such as Si02. The agglomerated oxide phases were observed usually as the Cr-Mn complex  oxides with Si oxides or Mn-Si complex oxides growing around them.  The role of Si is critical in that its solid state diffusion coefficient in Fe is considerably higher  than that for Mn and Cr whilst the free energy of formation of Si oxide is lower than that for Mn  and Cr. It affects internal oxidation, not only on the morphology but also the rate of penetration.  For the specimen with low Si bulk content, the internal oxidation zone consisted of larger  complex oxides elongation close to the surface, with intergranular oxidation remote from  surface. The penetration depth of the internal oxides increased with increasing bulk Si content.  In this case, oxygen diffused not only through the metal lattice but also at an enhance rate along  the internal oxides/metal matrix interface. There was a peak value, after which as Si increased in  the bulk metal, more intergranular oxidation was formed instead of the larger oxides. A  continuous layer was formed parallel to the surface that reduced further diffusion of oxygen.  The penetration depth of the internal oxides decreased with further increases of bulk Si content.  The higher the carbon potential, the lower was the penetration depth of the internal oxides and  the less dense the internal oxidation zone.
A combination of mathematical modeling and experiments on single MnS inclusions was used to investigate the role of MnS inclusions on the initiation of pitting corrosion of 304 stainless steel. Isolation of single MnS inclusions in chloride-containing solutions with use of microcapillaries as electrochemical cells showed that the orientation of the MnS inclusion played a significant role in pit initiation. Large, shallow MnS inclusions failed to initiate pitting corrosion, while the same inclusions, oriented narrow and deep, consistently exhibited the onset of localized corrosion. The formation of a microcrevice was observed between the dissolving MnS inclusion and stainless steel. The microcrevice resulted in a locally occluded region where aggressive ions can accumulate. A mathematical model was developed to explore the local chemistry within a one-dimensional microcrevice of which one wall was MnS and the other was stainless steel. The results of the simulations supported the view of a critical solution chemistry of sulfur species, in a chloride environment, as a possible trigger mechanism for localized corrosion. A critical microcrevice geometry of approximately 1 μm was predicted to be sufficiently large to generate stable pitting in the system under study.
The possibility to control the energetic properties of the molecules before their deposition can be a great advantage in the growth of ordered films of organic materials. To this end we have developed a new deposition method based on supersonic molecular beam. With this method the kinetic energy, the momentum and the internal energy can be controlled varying the properties of the supersonic expansion. Very interesting results are achieved with oligothiophene where the thin flims several hundred on nm thick grown with this method show optical, morphological and structural characteristics similar to the single crystal. Supersonic molecular beam deposition (SuMBE) is therefore proposed as an interesting method to study and to improve the performance of organic based devices.
Nanoindentation and nanoscratch experiments were performed on thin multilayer films manufactured using the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique. These films are known to exhibit high gas barrier, but little is known about their durability, which is an important feature for various packaging applications (e.g., food and electronics). Films were prepared from bilayer and quadlayer sequences, with varying thickness and composition. In an effort to evaluate multilayer thin film surface and mechanical properties, and their resistance to failure and wear, a comprehensive range of experiments were conducted: low and high load indentation, low and high load scratch. Some of the thin films were found to have exceptional mechanical behavior and exhibit excellent scratch resistance. Specifically, nanobrick wall structures, comprising montmorillonite (MMT) clay and polyethylenimine (PEI) bilayers, are the most durable coatings. PEI/MMT films exhibit high hardness, large elastic modulus, high elastic recovery, low friction, low scratch depth, and a smooth surface. When combined with the low oxygen permeability and high optical transmission of these thin films, these excellent mechanical properties make them good candidates for hard coating surface-sensitive substrates, where polymers are required to sustain long-term surface aesthetics and quality.
FIELD: process engineering. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to production of articles from aluminium alloys, particularly, to production of aluminium foil to be used as domestic foil, packing material, etc. this foil of produced by moulding of 6mm-deep strip, rolling it as-heated without mod annealing to depth smaller than 1 mm and further annealing. Note here that said aluminium alloy is aluminium alloy of series 1xxx, 3xxx or 8xxx. Aluminium alloy results from this processing that has no intermetallic beta-phase particles. Note here that this foil features depth of 5-150 mcm and structure, in fact, has no pores caused by axial liquidation of intermetallic particles. EFFECT: higher tenacity, elongation and Mullen pressure after complete annealing. 2 cl, 4 dwg, 2 tbl, 2 ex
The invention discloses a fresh-keeping shish kebab and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method of the fresh-keeping shish kebab is technically characterized by comprising the following steps of: selecting cold fresh mutton as raw material meat; removing fascia, then cutting and dicing; stringing without pickling or adding any preservative; during stringing, matching fat meat with lean meat; carrying out vacuum package according to the specification that the weight of each string is 50g and every 5 strings are placed into a bag; and sterilizing the package at high temperature, cooling, storing at normal temperature and selling. The production process of the normal-temperature fresh-keeping shish kebab is simple and easy to operate; the selected raw material meat is nutrient and easy for digestion; and after the vacuum package is carried out, high-temperature sterilization is carried out to inhibit the microbial proliferation and avoid secondary pollution. The requirements of storing and selling are not harsh; and the fresh-keeping shish kebab is easy for eating of consumers and becomes a new member of a shish kebab family.
The magnetic properties of thin films produced by vacuum evaporation depend on the deposition conditions, such as incident angle(α) and substrate temperature. These effects have been investigated in CoNi oblique incidence thin films by transmission electron microscopy. Both incident angle and substrate temperature are observed to have significant effects on the magnetization easy direction in the films. Low‐angle films (α≤60°) are magnetically continuous with in‐plane easy axes and reverse their magnetization by domain wall motion. On the contrary, high‐angle films are magnetically isolated with an out‐of‐plane easy axis and reverse their magnetization by an incoherent rotation process. Microstructural results show that a c‐axis texture increases with increasing incident angle. In high‐angle films, the columns are single crystals and have a high defect density. The c axis of the columns does not coincide with the column axis. Thus, it is concluded that the origin of the magnetic anisotropy in low‐angle films is mainly due to shape anisotropy. On the other hand, in high‐angle films, crystalline anisotropy and stress anisotropy should be taken into account in addition to the shape anisotropy.
Sintering pot tests of the magnetically roasted Dabaoshan ores were carried out in the hope to gradually substitute the latter for Dabaoshan 2# limonite ore at SISG,and the sintering properties of the Dabaoshan roasted ores were investigated.It was found that both the grade and production output of the sintered ores were decreased by adding the magnetically roasted ores,though the metallurgical properties of the sintered ores were slightly enhanced.
Recently, we experimentally demonstrated room-temperature lasing of self-assembled opal photonic crystal (PhC) made of rhodamine-B-doped polystyrene colloids. Here, we explain this experimental observations by analyzing the phenomenon of light amplification in dye-activated PhCs via a complex-valued permittivity of the colloids. We show that the lasing is facilitated by the enhanced distributed feedback due to the reduced group velocity in the vicinity of the photonic band edge. This simple approach to the analysis of PhC lasing behavior allows us to calculate the lasing wavelength in close agreement with the experimental value. It also enables the estimation of gain coefficient required for lasing and may prove useful in design of compact PhC-based lasers.
Rabbit hair is a kind of animal hair, containing a large amount of keratin which can be extracted. According to the preparation method of wool protein powder, rabbit hair powder was obtained, and the morphology of the protein powder was observed by microscopy. By reacting with the alkali solution, two kinds of protein powders which were prepared from rabbit hair and wool, were used in modification of polyester fabric. Experimental results showed that samples with rabbit hair protein powder has evident improvement in moisture absorption of polyester fabric compared with untreated and wool powder treated samples, while UV protective properties of sample treated by rabbit hair powder was unexpected decreased, a further investigation will carry out to explain it.
A co-injection molding apparatus includes a manifold, connected to the nozzle body of the manifold, the nozzle housing disposed within and between the sleeve and the outer sleeve of the nozzle housing defines a melt channel, the sleeve is provided in the within and between the pin and the sleeve defining an inner melt channel pin, and a nozzle tip portion in contact with the alignment sleeve. The sleeve for opening and closing operation of the melt between the outer melt channel communicating with the cavity gate. The pin action to open and close melt communication of the inner melt channel between the sleeve opening. The sleeve portion is aligned with the cavity gate along the range of motion of the sleeve are aligned.
Hydrophobins are small proteins secreted by fungi and which spontaneously assemble into amphipathic layers at hydrophilic-hydrophobic interfaces. We have examined the self-assembly of the Class I hydrophobins EAS∆15 and DewA, the Class II hydrophobin NC2 and an engineered chimeric hydrophobin. These Class I hydrophobins form layers composed of laterally associated fibrils with an underlying amyloid structure. These two Class I hydrophobins, despite showing significant conformational differences in solution, self-assemble to form fibrillar layers with very similar structures and require a hydrophilic-hydrophobic interface to trigger self-assembly. Addition of additives that influence surface tension can be used to manipulate the fine structure of the protein films. The Class II hydrophobin NC2 forms a mesh-like protein network and the engineered chimeric hydrophobin displays two multimeric forms, depending on assembly conditions. When formed on a graphite surface, the fibrillar EAS∆15 layers are resistant to alcohol, acid and basic washes. In contrast, the NC2 Class II monolayers are dissociated by alcohol treatment but are relatively stable towards acid and base washes. The engineered chimeric Class I/II hydrophobin shows increased stability towards alcohol and acid and base washes. Self-assembled hydrophobin films may have extensive applications in biotechnology where biocompatible; amphipathic coatings facilitate the functionalization of nanomaterials.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the acidity of saliva on changes to the surface roughness, friction and microhardness of NiTi alloys with various coatings. Three types of commercially available NiTi archwires: uncoated, rhodium coated and nitrified (dimension 0.508×0.508 mm, 10 cm long) were immersed in 10 mL of artificial saliva with the pH ranging from 4.8 to 6.6 for a period of 28 d. Surface roughness, friction and microhardness were analyzed and compared to the unexposed as-received wires. These mechanical properties were influenced by the wire coating with a moderate-to-high effect size (p 0.005; =0.132-0.309). The uncoated wire had a lower maximum roughness depth after exposure to pH 6.6 and 5.5 than the unexposed wire (p=0.026; =0.346). The friction was significantly increased only in the rhodium-coated NiTi at pH 4.8 compared to the lower acidities and the unexposed wire (p=0.005; =0.437). No correlation was found between pH, surface roughness, friction and microhardness, respectively. The coating of a NiTi alloy has a greater impact on the mechanical properties than the acidity does. A rhodium coating makes the alloy harder, induces a rougher surface and more friction. Nitrification does not alter the alloy as much. The relation between acidity and mechanical properties is not linear. A high acidity of 4.8 induces a high friction, but only in rhodium-coated NiTi. A lower acidity does not change the friction significantly.
The processes of multilayer thin Cu films grown on Cu (100) surfaces at elevated temperature (250–400 K) are simulated by mean of kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method, where the realistic growth model and physical parameters are used. The effects of small island (dimer and trimer) diffusion, edge diffusion along the islands, exchange of the adatom with an atom in the existing island, as well as mass transport between interlayers are included in the simulation model. Emphasis is placed on revealing the influence of the Ehrlich–Schwoebel (ES) barrier on growth mode and morphology during multilayer thin film growth. We present numerical evidence that the ES barrier does exist for the Cu/Cu(100) system and an ES barrier EB>0.125 eV is estimated from a comparison of the KMC simulation with the realistic experimental images. The transitions of growth modes with growth conditions and the influence of exchange barrier on growth mode are also investigated.
Hexaacrylated cyclophosphazene (HACP) and its cured powder were blended with a commercial epoxy acrylate, EB600, to obtain UV-curable flame-retardant resins. The flame retardancy and the thermal stability of their cured films at elevated temperature were found to be improved from the measurements of limiting oxygen index and thermogravimetric analysis. Photopolymerization kinetics study showed that the photopolymerization rate increased with increasing amounts of HACP in EB600, whereas the unsaturation conversion decreased conversely. Dynamic mechanical thermal and mechanical properties showed that the addition of HACP had no influence, whereas adding HACP powder to EB600 had a negative effect, thus limiting its application in UV formulations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 1776–1782, 2005
Single phase alloys of composition RFe11Ti with R=Y, Sm, and Dy were prepared by induction melting. The samples were nitrided by thermal cycling to 770 K, at a heating rate of 10 K/min, under an atmosphere of nitrogen in a thermopiezic analyzer (TPA). For YFe11TiN the x‐ray diffraction (XRD) patterns give a=0.8611 nm and c=0.4802 nm for the tetragonal structure, space group I4/mmm. This represents a 3% volume expansion of the nitrogen‐free unit cell. The amount of absorbed nitrogen corresponds to one nitrogen atom per formula unit indicating that RFe11TiN is a true nitrogen compound with the nitrogen atoms occupying the 2b site in the structure. The expansion of the unit cell is accompanied by a dramatic increase in the Curie temperature for all compounds.
Carrying capacity of heavy hydrostatic bearing is one of important indicators reflecting its performance. Aiming at the problem of influence of oil cavity shapes on carrying capacity of heavy hydrostatic bearing, use finite volume method to simulate gap film pressure field of heavy hydrostatic bearing with rectangular-shaped, sector-shaped, oval-shaped, and I-shaped cavity and study pressure field distribution law of four cavity shapes on the conditions of the same rotating speed, cavity depth and oil cavity area, then optimize oil cavity structure. Results show that pressure field distribution law of four cavity shapes is basically identical, but four kinds of cavities possess different carrying capacity which is respectively arranged as oval-shaped, sector shaped rectangular-shaped, and I-shaped cavity according to size. Simulation results and theoretical analysis are proved to have consistency, which provide valuable theoretical basis for selecting cavity shapes for heavy hydrostatic bearing in practical productions.
We consider the analysis of data obtained in one-dimensional acceleration wave experiments on a non-linear viscoelastic material and discuss how such data can be used to characterize the dynamic response of the material. To begin, we review briefly the general theory of one-dimensional motions in viscoelastic materials and the methods employed to generate and observe acceleration waves in a material sample. We then discuss two methods of data analysis, a wave front analysis and a wave profile analysis, and indicate the type of information each analysis provides with regard to the dynamic properties of the material. Finally, using a known model for poly(methyl methacrylate) in a finite-difference, Lagrangian wave-propagation code, we calculate acceleration wave profiles at several locations in the sample and, treating these profiles as “experimental” data, we then illustrate how data from three or more acceleration wave experiments can be used to formulate a specific viscoelastic constitutive model for the material.
In this manuscript, we report the fabrication of a dual-modality nanoprobe involving the co-encapsulation of fluorophores and iron oxide nanoparticles within ormosil nanoparticles, and their applications in in vitro bioimaging. The entire synthesis, including microwave-mediated precipitation of the iron oxide nanoparticles, was carried out within the non-aqueous core of an oil-in-water microemulsion. The nanoparticles are spherical and monodispersed, with an average diameter of around 150 nm. After synthesis, their composition, stability, crystallinity, as well as their magnetic and optical properties were evaluated. X-ray diffraction studies of the non-encapsulated iron oxide nanoparticles showed them to be crystalline, corresponding to an α-Fe2O3 phase. However, their crystallinity was found to diminish upon ormosil encapsulation. These doped nanoparticles displayed both optical and superparamagnetic properties, by virtue of which they have the potential to serve as dual diagnostic probes. The stability of the fluorophores was found to increase upon nanoencapsulation. In vitro studies have shown that the nanoparticles are non-toxic to cells in culture and undergo efficient cellular uptake, as shown by optical bioimaging. These observations demonstrate the promise of such nanoparticles for non-toxic bioimaging applications.
Provided is a high-voltage line suspension electricity-taking apparatus, comprising an electromagnetism loop, a voltage control circuit, a protection circuit, a rectification circuit, a filter circuit, and a voltage stabilizing circuit which are sequentially connected, wherein the electromagnetism loop comprises a current transformer; the voltage control circuit comprises a bidirectional silicon controlled rectifier and a resistor; the bidirectional silicon controlled rectifier is parallelly connected to the secondary side of the current transformer; and one end of the resistor is connected to the gate pole of the bidirectional silicon controlled rectifier, with the other end of the resistor being connected to the T2 pole of the bidirectional silicon controlled rectifier, thus to control to obtain energy from the primary side and the voltage from the secondary side. The whole circuit features simple and practical design, improves the stability of the apparatus, and decreases the production cost. The housing adopts a fully enclosed manner and is applicable to various working environments. The mutual inductor realizes electrical isolation, and improves the security for human body and the apparatus.
The present invention relates to a piston for robust pyrophoric. A piston located within the cylinder of an engine for an internal combustion engine. The piston comprises a disc-shaped exposed to the inner surface of the combustion chamber recess in the piston of the cylinder, thereby providing a concave portion from a top of the name of the piston. It includes a top recess located in the piston and the nominal outer diameter of the piston recess adjacent to the boundary, the vertex, and the inclined wall and connected to the apex of the recess boundary.
Submitted for the GEC18 Meeting of The American Physical Society Water ion thrusters using micro ECR discharges for CubeSat projects YOSHINORI TAKAO, KENGO NAKAMURA, YOSUKE SATO, Yokohama National University, HIROYUKI KOIZUMI, The University of Tokyo — The use of CubeSats has dramatically been increased since 2013 because of the low cost and shot development period. Since the limitation of the size, weight, and power, only a few CubeSats have propulsion system for their missions, where their propulsion performance is still very low. Ion thrusters are one of the high-performance propulsion systems and a promising candidate for CubeSat missions requiring high ∆v (change in velocity) if the gas storage and feeding system is significantly miniaturized. Here, an ion thruster using water as the propellant has been proposed for 10-kg class CubeSats and its discharge characteristics have been investigated by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation with Monte Carlo collisions (PICMCC) and the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The plasma source employs 4.2-GHz microwaves for the discharge and the size of the discharge chamber is 20 x 20 x 4 mm3. Many reactions, such as ionization, rotational and vibrational excitation, attachment, detachment, charge transfer, etc., are incorporated in the MCC process. The simulation results have indicated that H2O + and OH+ are the major components of ion species in the discharge, which is a favorable result since these species dominantly contribute to the thrust. Yoshinori Takao Yokohama National University Date submitted: 21 Jun 2018 Electronic form version 1.4
The chemical and physical properties of the double perovskite Pb2FeMoO6 are systematically studied by means of structural and magnetic characterization. The compound crystallizes in the cubic Fmm space group, with partial cation order involving iron and molybdenum at the perovskite B site. Structural and Mossbauer characterization points to the presence of nanometer-sized antiphase domains within the ordered matrix giving rise to two iron populations, characterized by different chemical environments, with the same weight but different valence (0.3 electrons) and inequivalent magnetic anisotropy. This structural feature deeply affects the properties of the compound: Mossbauer and EPR measurements show a high-temperature superparamagnetic-like behavior ascribed to weak magnetic interactions occurring between the antiphase domains and the rest of the sample. However, below 270 K ferrimagnetic ordering of the atomic moments is observed by neutron diffraction and SQUID magnetometry, with the onset of blocked long range magnetic interactions on the Mossbauer timescale involving both the antiphase domains and the ordered matrix below 230 K. The superparamagnetic-like behavior is ascribed to the presence of low anisotropy barriers, giving rise to an extremely thin hysteresis loop at 5 K, with a very small coercive field and remnant magnetization. The observed saturation magnetization of 1.75 μB per f.u. is in agreement with the magnetic structure determined by neutron diffraction, with the two symmetry independent sites producing a ferrimagnetic resultant μS = 1.59 μB.
The ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) properties of submicron-scale Ni81Fe19/Cu/Ni81Fe19 trilayered dots were investigated for application in programable microwave absorbers for broadband filter devices. The trilayered dot shows binary FMR frequencies, depending on the relative orientation of magnetization in the top and the bottom magnetic layers. A parallel configuration of magnetization, which exhibits a lower FMR frequency than that for an antiparallel configuration, can be metastable as the lateral aspect ratio of the dot is larger than the threshold value governed by the Cu layer thickness. The difference in the FMR frequencies between the parallel and antiparallel configurations is gradually decreased with elongation of the dot. This is associated with the suppression of the magnetostatic coupling energy that stabilizes the antiparallel configuration. It was also found that the magnetic configurations can be programed by the selective application of easy- and hard-axis magnetic fields used to saturate ...
The surface of magnesium oxysulfate (MOS) whiskers was treated through plasma polymerization to increase the compatibility between the MOS whiskers and a polymer matrix. Different plasma parameters were chosen to determine the most hydrophobic coating. The surface structure of the plasma‐treated MOS whiskers was examined. The MOS whiskers retained their crystal structure after plasma treatment, as shown by X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD) analyses. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy analyses revealed that a polymer sheath was formed on the surface of the MOS whiskers, and interfacial chemical bonds were generated between the polymer sheath and the MOS whiskers. The thin‐layer polymer sheath was uniform around the entire surface of the MOS whiskers and exhibited a typical amorphous structure, as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with selected area electron diffraction (SAED) analyses. The possible reaction mechanism on the surface of the MOS whiskers under plasma treatment was then proposed. Finally, the effect of surface treatment was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), measurement of the contact angle and contact angle hysteresis, and torque rheometer. Results showed that plasma treatment could markedly increase the hydrophobicity of the MOS whiskers' surface, effectively reducing the agglomeration and improving the dispersibility of the MOS whiskers in the matrix, which results in the improved compatibility between the MOS whiskers and the polyvinyl matrix, as well as the processability of the composites.
Abstract In order to calculate the changes in activation energies from self-diffusion values when impurities diffuse in simple matrix metals, we have considered the saddle-point configuration in a point-ion model using low-order perturbation theory. It is shown why, in this calculation, it is necessary to transcend the Sommerfeld model, for an essential feature is the difference in the electrostatic energy of interaction with the lattice for the impurity atom at a lattice site and at the saddle-point. A value for the change in the energy of movement is obtained and for Zn diffusing in copper the result is 0.079 ev, whereas a recent theory of Le Claire, who used a model of the saddle-point due to Huntington, gives 0.22 ev. The change in activation energy is therefore dominated by this term in Le Claire's treatment, whereas in the present theory the energy of formation contribution is almost as large as the change in the energy of movement. There remains a contribution from correlation in impurity diffusion...
The hybrid of self-prepared wool powder and synthetic fiber form seeds,and expand its fractal structure in the process of fiber forming.According this theory,this research tested the properties of different type wool powder/PP hybrid fiber,such as mechanical properties,moisture regain and dyeability.The results showed that the addition of wool powder greatly improved the fibers' moisture regain and dyeability,but lowed fibers' mechanical property.And the strength of hybrid fiber was enough for clothes purpose,thus provided theory foundation for industrialization of hybrid fiber.
This paper presents the results of the development and application of a dislocation–kinetic approach to the analysis of strength and ductility in metals and alloys. The influence of the temperature–strain rate conditions of deformation on the character of dislocation processes, taking place in some pure metals and alloys, has been investigated here as well. Special attention has been given to the analysis of the effect of grain boundaries, twins, impurity atoms and a non–equilibrium state of the grain boundaries on the activation of one or another deformation mechanisms in bulk ultrafine–grained metallic materials, obtained by the severe plastic deformation method.
Group III nitrides such as Ga-, Al- and In-nitride and compounds are a class of semicon-ductors with one of the highest technological potential today. But in contrast to the recent advances in epitaxial growth and technology, the understanding of fundamental material properties is surprisingly poor. Many questions concerning the electronic band structure are still open. A prominent example is the ongoing discussion about the exact value of the fundamental band gap of InN. A mayor problem for theoretical calculations is the correct treatment of In4d/Ga3d-core electrons, which slightly interact with the nitrogen 2s valence electrons. In GaN this interaction is much weaker than in InN. The s-d-coupling is di(cid:14)cult to handle, because it results also in an additional p-d repulsion e(cid:11)ect [2]. This coupling is may be responsible for the very low band gap of InN. The determination of the relative energetic positions between the valence and conduction bands could provide already helpful information [7]. But a com-plete experimental analysis of electronic transitions (excitations) is mandatory for testing and validating theoretical results. Common methods are either photoemission experiments, which determine e.g. the valence band DOS with respect to the Fermi level, or optical re(cid:13)ection and absorption measurements, which reveal interband electronic transitions in the visible and VUV spectral range. We use the synchrotron light at BESSY
In a preceding paper, the interfacial slippage model of the unidirectional fiber composite was developed assuming that the fiber and the matrix were both isotropic. By the use of this model, the elastic moduli and the stress distribution in the transverse cross-section of the composite can be predicted. In this paper, the interfacial slippage model has been extended to the composite reinforced with transversely isotropic fiber. The predicted transverse Young's moduli of the unidirectional carbon fiber/PEEK composites are compared with the experimental results. In the experiment, two types of unidirectional carbon fiber/PEEK composites are prepared : (a) from prepreg sheet and (b) from the cloth woven using the warp of carbon fiber and the weft of PEEK fiber. The transverse Young's modulus of the specimen (a) coincides with the theoretical results assuming the perfect adhesion at the carbon fiber/PEEK interface. On the other hand, the experimental result, of specimen (b) rather coincides with the theoretical prediction based on the interfacial slippage model.
Resistivity and magnetisation measurements were done with bulk and thin-film samples of La0.5Ca0.5MnO3. Bulk samples showed an antiferromagnetic insulating ground state as expected for this composition, whereas thin films demonstrated a ferromagnetic metallic ground state. This effect is attributed to the film adhesion to the substrate which prevents the lattice distortions necessary for the charge and antiferromagnetic ordering that occur in the bulk samples.
In this work we discuss the self-assembling behaviour in solution of a block copolymer, dextran-block-polystyrene, in the presence of homopolystyrene (PS) which allows to decrease the hydrophilic fraction f of the mixture. Dynamic and static light scattering experiments have been carried out in water-miscible solvents (DMSO and THF) to probe the formation of supramolecular structures. Results have been compared to those obtained with a block copolymer solution having the same hydrophilic fraction f. Interestingly, the morphology of the self-assembled structures was the same for a given value of f.
Cobalt60, 60 MeV proton and heavy ion tests have been performed on InGaAs and amorphous silicon microbolometer arrays with CMOS readout circuits. The readout circuits showed latch-up at threshold LETs~14 MeV/mg/cm2, but the total dose and displacement damage effects were negligible for low earth orbit conditions. Effects in a microbolometer array tested, for use in Mercury orbit, to 100 krd(Si) and 3.2 1011 60 MeV p/cm2 showed acceptable performance, though there was a significant increase in power consumption for the CMOS readout circuit when biased during cobalt60 irradiation.
We present the results on the evolution of microscopic dynamics of hybrid nanoparticles and their binary mixtures as a function of temperature and wave vector. We find unexpectedly a nonmonotonic dependence of the structural relaxation time of the nanoparticles as a function of the morphology. In binary mixtures of two of the largest nanoparticles studied, we observe re-entrant vitrification as a function of the volume fraction of the smaller nanoparticle, which is unusual for such high diameter ratio. Possible explanation for the observed behavior is provided.
A photoelectric extra-length special javelin strength training instrument relates to a special javelin auxiliary training instrument and aims to solve the problem that the javelin training method has uncertain strength angle of the flexion forearm before strength exerting, and the launching speed is difficult to be monitored effectively and timely. A sliding plate is in sliding fit with a bottom plate, a front fixed plate is connected with the sliding plate by a tensile elastic body, a fixed sleeve of the sliding plate is connected with a support column, a sliding sleeve is nested on the support column, a steel bar penetrates through a first steel bar jacket, a second steel bar jacket and a counterweight sleeve to be connected with a first sliding sleeve, a driven shaft is fixedly mounted with a traction belt wheel, a traction belt is fixedly connected with the sliding plate and is wound on the traction belt wheel, a driver motor is in transmission connection with the driven shaft, a first contact switch is fixedly connected with the front fixed plate and the sliding plate, a second contact switch is fixedly mounted on a rear fixed plate and the sliding plate, a control switch is fixedly mounted on the sliding plate and is connected with a support base hinged with a training javelin, and the second steel bar jacket; and a photoelectric speed sensor is fixedly mounted on a support plate fixedly connected with the front sliding sleeve. The photoelectric extra-length special javelin strength training instrument is applicable to special javelin strength training.
PLZT specimens 99.99% of theoretical density containing 7 at.% La with a 65/35 Zr/Ti atom ratio were fabricated with average grain diameters of ∼1 μm by pressure sintering. The dense, single-phase specimens were isothermally heat-treated in a low PbO activity atmosphere. For grain diameters from 1 to 5 μm, grain growth obeyed the D3-D03=k't relation, with an apparent activation energy of 86 kcal/mol. The mechanism controlling the grain-growth rate is consistent with a solid-solution impurity drag caused by an La ion concentration gradient near the grain boundaries.
This work aimed at studying biofilm development on glass and stainless steel (SS) at various incubation periods and assessing the action of hydrogen peroxide (HP), para acetic acid (PAA), sodium hypochlorite (SH), and mixture of PAA and SH against the biofilm. A 200 μl of 108 CFU/ml suspension of E. coli ATCC 29922 was inoculated on the coupons inside petri dishes containing 20 ml of Tryptic Soy Broth, incubated at 37°C for 24, 48, 72 and 168 hours. At each hour of incubation, viable cells developed were vortexed and quantified by agar plating. The action of the disinfectants against the biofilm was tested  after 168 hours of incubation. The results showed that E. coli developed highest biofilm on glass than on SS coupons. After disinfection treatment, HP had the highest bactericidal effect with LR value of 1.29 on glass while SH had the least bactericidal effect with LR value of 0.81 on glass. It can be concluded from this work that HP can be a good disinfectant against E. coli biofilm than PAA and SH.
Abstract Chitosan (CS) and hydroxyapatite (HA) bioactive molecules have been grafted onto commercially pure titanium surfaces (cpTi) to promote osteoblast adhesion and bone growth. The major challenge of this type of grafting is the attachment of the CS/HA biocomposite to the cpTi surface. In this study cpTi is biofunctionalized with CS/HA biocomposite material via silanization and the coated specimens were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle measurement and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR). The cpTi specimens were further evaluated for their in vitro bioactivity, hemocompatibility, protein adsorption and cell viability. The SEM micrographs showed uniform coatings adhered on cpTi specimens. The XRD and ATR-FTIR confirmed the presence of CS and HA on the cpTi specimens. The coated specimens showed improved in vitro bioactivity and hemocompatibilty along with enhanced adsorption of specific proteins. The cell viability studies showed non-cytotoxic nature of all the specimens and exhibited greater cell viability in the titanium CS/HA specimens. Hence, the studies showed that functionalized cpTi with covalent coating of CS/HA has significant potential in biomedical device implantation with improved bioactive properties.
Bullet penetration in steel plate is investigated with the help of three-dimensional, non-linear, transient, dynamic, finite elements analysis using explicit time integration code LSDYNA. The effect of large strain, strain-rate and temperature at very high velocity regime was studied from number of simulations of semi-spherical nose shape bullet penetration through single layered circular plate with 2 mm thickness at impact velocities of 500, 1000, and 1500 m/s with the help of Johnson Cook material model. Mie-Gruneisen equation of state is used in conjunction with Johnson Cook material model to determine pressure-volume relationship at various points of interests. Two material models viz. Plastic-Kinematic and JohnsonCook resulted in different deformation patterns in steel plate. It is observed from the simulation results that the velocity drop and loss of kinetic energy occurred very quickly up to perforation of plate, after that the change in velocity and changes in kinetic energy are negligibly small. The physics behind this kind of behaviour is presented in the paper. Keywords—AISI 4340 steel, ballistic impact simulation, bullet penetration, non-linear FEM.
Interconnects carrying high-frequency signals are of the most important sources of substrate noise. This paper computes the amount of the interconnect-induced substrate noise. We develop a substrate extraction tool based on the Finite Difference Method and combine the extracted output model with accurate interconnect models. Through simulation of the complete substrate-interconnect model, we investigate the impacts of frequency and several interconnect geometrical parameters on the amount of the substrate noise.
The invention discloses a reverse conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) semiconductor device. A groove is formed on the rear side of a silicon substrate, the groove cuts a field blocking layer into a three-dimensional structure, and therefore the depth of the field blocking layer can be increased and activation efficiency of the field blocking layer is improved. A first electrode area provided with a fast recovery diode is formed in the groove, and therefore integration of the IGBT device and the fast recovery diode is achieved. The invention further discloses a manufacture method of the reverse conducting IGBT semiconductor device.
In this work,we present a novel approach for synthesis of europium(Ⅲ)-doped SrY2(1-x)O4∶Eu2x3+ superfine powder with a precursor prepared in water-in-oil microemulsion.First,the precursor of strontium,yttrium and europium oxalates formed in a reaction between Sr(NO3)2-Y(NO3)3-Eu(NO3)3 and H2C2O4 in reverse microemulsions composed of OP-10,iso-pentanol,cyclohexane and water.Then the precursor was calcined at 1000℃ for 2h,and SrY2O4∶ Eu3+ was obtained.X-ray diffraction and TG-DTA results confirmed the formation of SrY2(1-x)O4∶Eu2x3+.SEM image showed the superfine powder of SrY2(1-x)O4∶Eu2x3+ has a rugby-like shape and a diameter of 70nm～ 100nm.This new method is very simple and has the advantages of small particle size and narrow particle size distribution.Upon excitation with 250nm and 260nm light,all the SrY2(1-x)O4∶Eu2x3+ powders show bright red emission due to the 4f-4f transitions of Eu3+,and the highest photoluminescence intensity at 610nm and 615nm was found at a content of about 9%(mol) Eu3+.Splitting of the 5 D0→7F0 and 5 D0→7F1 emission transitions revealed that the Eu3+ occupied two nonequivalent sites in the crystalline lattice by substituting Y3+.
PURPOSE: A vapor deposition reactor using plasma and a method for manufacturing a thin film using the same are provided to inject a source precursor or reactant precursor to a substrate using an electrode for generating the plasma. CONSTITUTION: A vapor deposition reactor includes a first electrode(301), a second electrode(302), and a power source(303). The first electrode includes a first channel(311) and one first injection hole(312) or more. The first injection hole is connected to the first channel. The second electrode is electrically separated from the first electrode. The power source applies power between the first electrode and the second electrode and generates plasma from a reactive gas between the first electrode and the second electrode.
A flexi electron gun consists of multiple electrodes and can be used to maintain uniform beam current over the life of a traveling-wave tube (TWT). The flexi electron gun consists of dispenser cathode, anode1, anode2, and anode3 in addition to a beam focusing electrode (BFE). In an optimized electron gun, anode1 potential plays an important role in increasing beam current within the same biased condition of electronic power conditioner (EPC) and can be used as a critical parameter to increase current with time when cathode performance (beam current) degrades with time. Geometry, position, and bias of these electrodes with respect to cathode provide low perveance electron beam optics to the interaction structure of a TWT. The flexi gun has been modelled in EGUN, developed and integrated with TWT, and simulated results are compared with experiment. This paper presents a detailed investigation of the effect of anode1 on beam current and also presents the cause of large variation of simulated and measured beam currents through back simulation in EGUN.
The invention discloses a wafer temporary bonding method. The method includes the steps that a silicon through hole and front face manufacturing technology of a wafer is completed; the front face of the wafer is coated with temporary bonding glue; the surface of a supporting piece is roughened; the roughened surface of the supporting piece is bonded with the front face, coated with the temporary bonding glue, of the wafer; the back face of the wafer bonded with the supporting piece is thinned until the thickness of the wafer reaches a needed value; a back face manufacturing technology of the wafer after the back face is thinned is finished; the temporary bonding glue on the wafer after the back face manufacturing technology is removed. According to the method, due to the fact that the surface of the supporting piece is roughened, the contact area between the temporary bonding glue and the supporting piece is increased, and the temporary bonding glue is nested and fixed and prevented from sliding and offsetting at high temperature.
The properties and application prospect of magnesium alloy was introduced,the semi-continuous casting technology for magnesium alloy was put forward.And four main factors that affect the magnesium alloy ingots properties in the semi-continuous casting process were analyzed.What's more,the applied fields used in the casting process and the main problems presented in the magnesium semi-continuous casting process were introduced.Finally,the prospect of semi-continuous casting technology for magnesium alloy was expected.
We have demonstrated a homemade high‐efficient ytterbium‐doped fiber laser with up to 1.75 kW of continuous‐wave output power at 1.09 μm with a slope efficiency of 76%. The fiber is pumped by two laser diode array (LDA) sources launched through opposite ends. No undesirable effect is observed with increasing pump power, which suggests that the homemade fiber laser could produce higher power output by using more pump sources. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 1668–1671, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.25226
Thermal drying consumes up to 25% of the industrial energy consumption in developed countries. Refractance Window (RW) is a relativelynew drying methodthat it is characterized by maintaining a relatively low temperature inside the food and short drying times. A RW dryer uses circulating hot water as a means to convey thermal energy to materials to be dehydrated. A RW dryer can produce high-quality products with retaining heat sensitive vitamins, color, phytochemicals content and antioxidant activity close to the freeze-dried products, while the cost of the RW equipment is less than 30 percent of the cost of a freeze-dryer and the energy consumption of RW is less than 50 percent of the energy consumption for a freeze-dryer. Early understandings heat transfer mechanism in RW drying suggested that the moist material on a thin plastic sheet over hot water, creates a “window” for infrared radiation(IR) and as the material dries, the “window” gradually cuts off the radiation. Recently a conjugate heat and mass transfer model showed that a major portion of thermal energy is transferred via conduction; some of the researchers proposed the term “conductive hydro-drying” for the name of this technology. Another important parameter in RW drying is air convection. Forced air convection causes lower product temperature and higher moisture loss in comparison with natural convection. Although many studies have been conducted on this technology, there are still many types of food materials for which RW drying and process optimization have not yet been investigated.
The invention discloses an antistatic coating for heat sublimation transfer printing. The antistatic coating is prepared from the following components in parts by weight: 5-30 parts of carboxymethyl cellulose, 5-20 parts of starch, 5-20 parts of polyacrylamide, 2-15 parts of polysaccharide derivatives, 2-20 parts of poly citric acid, 1-15 parts of a polyethylene glycol-citric acid copolymer, 1-15 parts of silicon dioxide, 1-15 parts of barium sulfate, 1-15 parts of aluminum oxide, 1-15 parts of titanium dioxide, 1-15 parts of kaoline, 1-15 parts of calcium carbonate, 4-10 parts of nano titanium dioxide powder, 8-15 parts of superfine tin antimony oxide powder, 10-20 parts of sodium alginate, 4-10 parts of bentonite powder, 5-10 parts of kieselguhr powder, 4-8 parts of phenolic resin, 4-8 parts of a bis-imidazoline quaternary ammonium salt corrosion inhibitor and 10-20 parts of thiophene aqueous dispersion liquid. A preparation technology of the antistatic coating is simple; the prepared coating has excellent anti-static ability, and also has good wear resistance, oxidation resistance, water resistance and adhesive ability.
Mg-doped InxGa1-xN alloys were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on semi-insulating c-GaN/sapphire templates. Hall effect measurements showed that Mg-doped InxGa1-xN epilayers are p-type for x up to 0.35. Mg-acceptor levels (EA) as a function of x, (x up to 0.35), were experimentally evaluated from the temperature dependent hole concentration. The observed EA in Mg-doped In0.35Ga0.65N alloys was about 43 meV, which is roughly 4 times smaller than that of Mg doped GaN. A room temperature resistivity as low as 0.4 Ωcm (with a hole concentration ~5 1018 cm-3 and hole mobility ~3 cm2/Vs) was obtained in Mg-doped In0.22Ga0.78N. It was observed that the photoluminescence (PL) intensity associated with the Mg related emission line decreases exponentially with x. The Mg energy levels in InGaN alloys obtained from PL measurements are consistent with those obtained from Hall-effect measurements.
Current economic restraints mean that motorway and trunk roads are much more likely to be surface dressed than before. This article explains the types of systems which may be used and the reasons for choosing them. Common types of surface dressing failure such as scabbing, bleeding and fatting-up, are discussed and their causes examined. The effect of stresses imposed by the traffic, the climate and the condition of the old surface on the choice of binder is investigated. Probes to measure road hardness can be used to determine the optimum size of aggregate. The advantages of double surface dressing either by a pad coat or by double, or single spray and double chip are discussed. Two sizes of aggregate are used where the maximum size of the smaller chip is half that of the larger size. Double surface dressings are intended for "difficult" and "very difficult" areas and for small areas of stress in the otherwise "easy" and "average" conditions. Single spray double chip (gap-graded) with an appropriate binder is an alternative where reduced maintenance is required. Double spray - double chip (gap or continuously graded) may be used with advantage at the extreme ends of the season. The curing of thermosetting binders is accelerated by high temperatures. (TRRL)
Resonant enhancement of transmission and reflection of a plane electromagnetic wave incident on a multilayer all-dielectric periodic structures is studied theoretically. Each layer can be a square lattice of cylinders embedded in a dielectric slab or a uniform slab. A defect layer and gain medium inclusions has been designed specifically to obtain a high-density mode. The numerical investigation is performed for a near infrared wavelength range. Spectral characteristics, 3D vector plots and maps for electromagnetic fields in the structures with dissipative losses are presented.
Atomic and electronic structures of Cu2H and CuH have been investigated by high pressure NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and ab-initio calculations. Metallic Cu2H was synthesized at a pressure of 40 GPa, and semi-metallic CuH at 90 GPa, found stable up to 160 GPa. Experiments and computations suggest the formation of a metallic 1H-sublattice as well as a high 1H mobility of ~10-7 cm2/s in Cu2H. Comparison of Cu2H and FeH data suggests that deviations from Fermi gas behavior, formation of conductive hydrogen networks, and high 1H mobility could be common features of metal hydrides.
A position sensor (10) comprises first and second fixed pin (18, 20) with first and second electrodes (26, 28) and a reference pole (22) positioned therebetween. The reference pole (22) is coupled to a shaft (12) and comprises a through semimetal (24) forming a conductive path between the first and second electrodes (26, 28). The shaft (12) positions the reference pole (22) between the first and second fixed pin (18, 20), and a resistance of the conductive path varies with the position of the shaft (12).
Disclosed is a switching device for connecting and disconnecting or earthing line sections in contact lines, comprising at least fixedly mounted one on a base (1) first rod insulator (2, 11) and a correspondingly, pivoted on the base retained second rod insulator (3, 12) and a switching contact set arranged at the free end of the rod insulators, from contact blades (15) and contact springs (16) formed (4). The switching contact set (4) is formed of a pair and rotationally symmetrically arranged rotated combination of contact blades (15) and contact springs (16).
Chemical crossover is one of the key factors affecting the stable cycling of Li metal batteries using conventional carbonate electrolyte. Solid state electrolyte can help solve this problem, but has serious electrolyte/electrode problems that may cause non‐uniform Li deposition. Herein, a simple strategy to balance the chemical crossover and interfacial problems by employing composite gel electrolyte composed of PEO‐based polymer electrolyte and liquid LiPF6 electrolyte, is reported. The high viscosity of the gel polymer can effectively prevent side reaction products and also ensures good contact between electrolyte and electrode. Meanwhile, Li+ migration number of the colloidal polymer electrolyte is as high as 0.67, allowing the cells to be operated at room temperature. The full battery assembled with commercial high‐capacity LiFePO4 (12 mg cm–2) has a specific capacity of 110 mAh g–1 after 160 cycles along with high Coulombic efficiency. Further structural analyses confirm the LiFePO4 cathodes are well maintained after long‐term cycling, indicating the simple cell engineering process is effective to prevent the shuttling of undesired ions and thus protects LiFePO4 cathode from corrosion due to chemical crossover.
The faceting of the grain boundary in the binary Cu-Bi system was experimentally observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For the observation, Cu bicrystals with � 33, � 9 and � 11 [110] symmetric tilt boundaries were doped with Bi at 1173 K for 120 h, and then homogenized at 1173 K for 48 h, followed by furnace cooling or water quenching. The misorientation angle between the [001] directions of the two single-crystals is 20.1 � , 38.9 � and 50.5 � for the � 33, � 9 and � 11 boundaries, respectively. According to the TEM observation, the grain boundary is faceted markedly in the bicrystal with furnace cooling but barely in that with water quenching. Thus, the faceting takes place during furnace cooling but not during homogenization. The faceting was analyzed quantitatively on the basis of the inclination angle dependence of the boundary energy in Cu. The analysis yields that the contribution of the torque term to the faceting is important. Comparing the boundary diffusivities of Bi and Cu in Cu, we may expect that the mobility is much greater for the grain boundary with Bi than for that without Bi. As a result, the faceting during furnace cooling takes place considerably for the grain boundary with Bi but scarcely for that without Bi. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MRA2008062]
ZnS thin film of thickness about 300nm was deposited by thermal evaporation under vacuum with base pressure 10-6 Torr on cleaned glass substrates. During the deposition, substrate was maintained at room temperature and the deposition was done at the optimized rate of 0.5nm/s. Detailed study of the structural and optical properties of the prepared thin film was carried out by means of XRD, AFM and UV-Vis spectrometry. From the XRD analysis, it is found that the film grown is polycrystalline in nature. The AFM images were captured for 2 μm x2 μm area and it revealed the uniform growth of the film. The optical properties were studied through UV-Visible transmittance spectra and the band gap energy was determined. Transmission spectra indicate a high transmission coefficient in the visible range. From Tauc plot, the band gap was found to be 3.45 eV.
Abstract• Fungal attack in wood involves severe mechanical losses, even in the early stages, due to depolymerisation of polysaccharides. The safety of building components could therefore be affected. It is believed that fracture properties could be much more sensitive to decay than conventionally measured properties, such as weight loss.• In this study, we propose the application of a fracture mechanics test, which measures the fracture toughness, KIC, during the biodegradation process. Two softwoods commonly used in construction, maritime pine and Douglas fir, were inoculated with Poria placenta. Samples were removed twice a week to determine the evolution of the decrease in their mechanical properties.• Toughness was initially greater for maritime pine, but a significant decrease of this property was observed during decay progression, while KIC remained more stable for Douglas fir. For maritime pine there was a loss of 52% of KIC, after 6 weeks of degradation. This species appears to be less durable even with respect to weight loss, which is less sensitive to decay than toughness.• This is a promising test for bio-damage quantification; however, due to the wood heterogeneity, measurement of the true impact of biodegradation is still difficult.
Spall damage is a typical failure mode of concrete structures under blast or high velocity impact loads. At the opposite side from which the structural element was impulsively loaded, spall will occur if the net primary stresses over an area exceed the dynamic tensile strength of concrete. Fragments of structural element could eject with large velocities, and this kind of damage can cause severe threats to equipment and personnel. In the present study, reinforced concrete columns subjected to the blast loading is investigated and the numerical study of concrete spall is conducted. The spall depth is recorded and compared with the theoretical results derived from wave propagation theory. The parameters that affect the concrete spall damage are investigated.
Submission about the solidification process of aluminum alloy after high-pressure die casting was given in the article. Intensity and distribution of residual stresses in longitudinal and transverse cross sections of a casting material after cooling are presented. It is determined that maximal stresses and strains are prevailed in casting volumes that are cooling slowly. Forecast of shrinkage, microporosity and hot tears in the casting material was given.
Cellophane, which is a conventional cellulose film regenerated from viscose, has been used for a long time as a base for tapes and food packaging materials etc. This is because it has durability against many chemicals and has useful properties such as easy-cut and bacterial barrier properties. However, some drawback of moisture absorption and deformation remains. Thus, some improvements such as dimensional stabilities under high humidity are required. Cellophane has been manufactured from a solution of pulp dissolved as cellulose xanthate using harmful carbon disulfide. That is, much attention has been focused on ionic liquids (IL) as a novel solvent that can easily dissolve cellulose and is easier to be handled than carbon disulfide. Some papers reported that IL and IL/co-solvent systems can work as esterification media without any catalyst. In this study, we prepared cellulose/cellulose acetate films by coagulation method of blended ionic liquid solution to impart hydrophobicity to the regenerated cellulose film. The films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), small angle Xray scattering (SAXS), viscoelastic measurements, visible light spectroscopy, and contact angle measurements. In conclusion cellulose and cellulose acetate can be blended without phase separation to inhibit crystallization of each other. The third component, glycerol, also has a function of inhibiting crystallization of cellulose and cellulose acetate. It improves the film transparency and the molecular mobility of the celluloses.
The utility model relates to an automatic returning/reversing plastic ceramic valve core, wherein a valve rod (6) is assembled at the upper portion of the inner space of a housing (4) after a gasket (8) and a rotor positioning shaft (17) are assembled on the valve rod (6) and an O-shaped ring (7) is sleeved to the valve rod (6); a return spring (3) and a spring gland (2) are assembled at the end portion of the upper portion of the housing (4); the return spring (3) and the spring gland (2) are connected and fixed to the valve rod (6) by a pin shaft (1); and a rotor (11), a ceramic movable piece (12), a ceramic fixed piece (13), three annular sealing rings (14), a base (15) and three annular sealing rings (16) are orderly assembled at the bottom of the valve rod (6) which is assembled in the inner space of the housing (4). The automatic returning/reversing plastic ceramic valve core is capable of reserving and switching hybrid water channels, so that the reversing valve can be automatically switched to a fixed position and a fixed flow channel when the valve is opened or closed for the first time; therefore, unnecessary waste and troubles are reduced and the requirements of customers are met. Besides, the automatic returning/reversing plastic ceramic valve core can be widely applied to various universal vales of sanitary ware.
Self-heating effects on integrated suspended and bulk spiral inductors are explored. A dc current is fed through the inductors during measurement to emulate dc and radio frequency power loss on the inductor. A considerable drop in Q by /spl sim/18% at 36.5 mW is observed for suspended coils with 3-/spl mu/m aluminum metallization compared to reference inductors on bulk-Si. Simulations in Ansoft's ePhysics indicate that, due to the thermal isolation of the suspended coil, the power loss from resistive self-heating in the metal has to be transferred outwards through the metal turns. This also results in a thermal time constant. This time constant is measured to be /spl sim/10 ms, meaning that it can affect power circuits operating in pulsed mode.
We investigate the switching characteristics in BaTiO3-based ferroelectric tunnel junctions patterned in a capacitive geometry with circular Ru top electrode with diameters ranging from ∼430 to 2300 nm. Two different patterning schemes, viz., lift-off and ion-milling, have been employed to examine the variations in the ferroelectric polarization, switching, and tunnel electro-resistance resulting from differences in the pattering processes. The values of polarization switching field are measured and compared for junctions of different diameter in the samples fabricated using both patterning schemes. We do not find any specific dependence of polarization switching bias on the size of junctions in both sample stacks. The junctions in the ion-milled sample show up to three orders of resistance change by polarization switching and the polarization retention is found to improve with increasing junction diameter. However, similar switching is absent in the lift-off sample, highlighting the effect of patterning ...
This research adds to the understanding of the areas of residual starch and biomass conversion to alcohol, by providing data from pilot plant equipment of larger scale than the minimum required to give commercially scalable data. Instrumentation and control is in place to capture the information produced, for economic and technical evaluation. The impact of rheology, recycle streams, and residence time distributions on the technical and economic performance can be assessed. Various processes can be compared technically and economically because the pilot plants are readily modifiable. Several technologies for residual starch yield improvement have been identified, implemented, and patent applications filed. Various biomass-to-ethanol processes have been compared and one selected for technical optimization and commercialization. The technical and economic feasibility of the current simplified biomass conversion process is being confirmed by intensive pilot plant efforts as of this writing. Optimization of the feedstock handling and pretreatment is occurring to increase the alcohol yield above the minimum commercially viable level already demonstrated. Samples of biomass residue and reactor blowdown condensate are being collected to determine the technical and economic performance of the high-water-recycle waste treatment system being considered for the process. The project is of benefit to the public because itmore » is advancing the efforts to achieve low-cost fermentable substrates for conversion to transportation fuels. This process combines the hydrolysis of agricultural residues with novel enzymes and organisms to convert the sugars released to transportation fuels. The process development is taking place at a scale allowing commercial development to proceed at a rapid pace.« less
The arrears in project payment has become a social problem effecting the construction enterprises and it is difficult to solve thoroughly in a short time. As the construction unit, in addition to normal project payment collection, the prevention consciousness by construction enterprises themselves should be strengthened. Based on the practical management experience, this paper analyses the causes of arrears in project payment and puts forward some corresponding countermeasures.
In this work, the transesterification process was adopted to convert used vegetable oil into biodiesel, while using KOH as catalyst. Ethyl ester was produced with mixed feedstock of various waste cooking oils that had a free fatty acids (FFA) content of 2.5%. The catalyst concentration of 1.25% w/w and ethanol to oil molar ratio of 6:1 were found to be optimum at a temperature of 343.15 K. The blending of petroleum diesel with produced ethyl ester was found to be more advantageous as the densities and kinematic viscosities of mixtures are slightly increased compared with the petroleum-diesel. Important fuel parameters such as viscosity, density, flash point, pour point and higher heating value (HHV) were characterized according to ASTM standards.
Elevated temperature in-situ experiments, local crystallographic mapping and digital image correlation techniques have been used to gain insight into strain localization near grain boundaries in polycrystalline René-104. Samples were heat treated to create either smooth (standard) or serrated grain boundaries. Deformation experiments concluded that strain tended to localize at triple points and special boundaries in the standard microstructure, while strain had a less-pronounced correlation in the serrated microstructure. Both materials exhibited grain boundary sliding (GBS), but the standard microstructure proved to be more susceptible. Site-specific extraction of TEM foils indicated that boundaries that exhibited strain localization experienced activation of multiple slip systems, while boundaries showing GBS showed activation of only a single slip system. Based on m′ analysis, slip transmission was expected to be difficult in boundaries that exhibited strain localization while boundaries that showed sliding allowed for easy slip transmission. A volume containing a boundary that exhibited GBS was analyzed to assess boundary surface topography and indicated that the boundary was macroscopically planer with local deviations that were on the order of the secondary γ′ size.
In this work, we studied metal/SnO 2 junctions using transport properties. Parameters such as barrier height, ideality factor and series resistance were estimated at different temperatures. Schottky barrier height showed a small deviation of the theoretical value mainly because the barrier was considered fixed as described by ideal thermionic emission-diffusion model. These deviations have been explained by assuming the presence of barrier height inhomogeneities. Such assumption can also explain the high ideality factor as well as the Schottky barrier height and ideality factor dependence on temperature.
The effect of ball scribing on iron loss of conventional grain-oriented ( CGO) and high-permeability grain-oriented ( HGO) electrical steel was investigated. In this paper,ball scribing was achieved by self- designed ball scribing instrument and a computer-controlled system capable of providing high accuracy and automatic measurements was developed for the magnetisation and measurement at high and low flux densities. The results showed that after ball scribing,iron loss of two types of steel ( C711 and H668 ) apparently decreases ( 5. 5% and 8. 2% respectively after 16mm scribing at 1. 2T) ,and at high and low flux densities, CGO and HGO electrical steel performs differently. Through the formation and development of free magnetic poles and secondary magnetic domains due to compressive stress,primary magnetic domain spacing of grain- oriented electrical steel becomes smaller,which reflects as a reduction of iron loss in the macroscopic magnetic properties. Through iron loss formula derivation,the effect of domain refinement on grain-oriented electrical steel was also interpreted.
Wear of the underside of modular tibial inserts (“backside wear”) has been reported by several authors. However, the actual volume of material lost through wear of the backside surface has not been quantified. This study reports the results of computerized measurements of tibial inserts of one design known to have a high incidence of backside wear in situ. A series of retrieved TKA components of one design (AMK, Depuy) with evidence of severe backside wear and extrusions of the polyethylene insert were examined. The three-dimensional surface profile of the backside of each insert was digitized and reconstructed with CAD software (UniGraphics). The volume of material removed was calculated from the volume between the worn backside surface and an “initial” surface defined by unworn areas. Computer reconstructions showed that in all retrievals, the unworn surface of the remaining pegs, the rim of material extruded over the medial edge and unworn surfaces on the anterior-lateral edge all lie in a single plane. This demonstrates that the “pegs” present on the backside of these inserts correspond to residual, unworn protrusions remaining on each retrieved component and do not represent cold flow extrusions through the base plate holes. The average volume of material lost due to backside wear was 608mm^3 ± 339mm^3 (range:80–1599 mm^3). This corresponds to an average loss of 569mg and an average linear wear rate of 103mg/year, based on the time in situ for each implant. The volume of material removed due to backside wear is significant and is of a magnitude large enough to generate osteolysis. Our results indicate that the appearance of pegs on the underside of components with screw holes on the baseplate are not due to creep, but instead are due to severe wear of the insert. The mechanisms of material removed due to pitting and burnishing actually produce debris of a size more damaging in terms of osteolysis than wear at the articulating surface making it clear that significant improvements in implant design are needed to prevent backside wear and osteolysis.
Building on the insights gained from electronic-structure calculations and from experience obtained with an earlier atomic-level method, we developed an atomic-level simulation approach based on the traditional Buckingham potential with shell model which correctly reproduces the ferroelectric phase behavior and dielectric and piezoelectric properties of KNbO3. This approach now enables the simulation of solid solutions and defected systems; we illustrate this capability by elucidating the ferroelectric properties of a KTa0.5Nb0.5O3 random solid solution.Building on the insights gained from electronic-structure calculations and from experience obtained with an earlier atomic-level method, we developed an atomic-level simulation approach based on the traditional Buckingham potential with shell model which correctly reproduces the ferroelectric phase behavior and dielectric and piezoelectric properties of KNbO3. This approach now enables the simulation of solid solutions and defected systems; we illustrate this capability by elucidating the ferroelectric properties of a KTa0.5Nb0.5O3 random solid solution.
Ferromagnetic nickel-filled carbon nanotubes (Ni-filled CNTs) were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition using Pauli paramagnetic lanthanum nickel alloy (LaNi5) both as a catalyst and as a source for the Ni-filling. The effect of various catalyst oxidation temperatures on the tunable filling rate and coercivity of Ni-filled CNTs were investigated. The influence of the addition of catalyst oxidation step prior to growth is required for filling of metallic Ni in CNTs. The filling rate and the magnetic properties of Ni-filled CNTs were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. TEM results showed that the filling rate of CNTs strongly depended on the catalyst oxidation temperatures and the higher Ni-filling was found to be at 500 °C. With the increase of catalyst oxidation temperatures, partially filled CNTs structure (at 300 °C) changed to Ni nanowire encapsulated CNTs (at 400 and 500 °C), then to fine Ni nanoparticles situated on the surface of CNTs (at 600 °C). The Ni-filling process through the catalyst oxidation is explained using the “surface segregation” mechanism. Magnetic hysteresis loops of Ni-filled CNTs revealed that their coercivity depended on the content and size of the encapsulated Ni. Coercivity value of Ni-filled CNTs synthesized after the catalyst oxidation temperature at 400 °C reached the maximum at 446 Oe, which is significantly larger than that of the bulk Ni at room temperature. Thus our work demonstrates a simple and facile approach toward tunable filling rate and ferromagnetic properties of Ni-filled CNTs would have potential in various applications.
Developing numerical methods for predicting microstructure in materials is a large and important research area. Two examples of material microstructures are Austenite and Martensite. Austenite is a microscopic phase with simple crystallographic structure while Martensite is one with a more complex structure. One important task in materials science is the development of numerical procedures which accurately predict microstructures in Martensite. In this paper we present a method for simulating material microstructure close to an Austenite-Martensite interface. The method combines a quasi-Newton optimization algorithm and a nonconforming finite element scheme that successfully minimizes an approximation to the total stored energy near the interface of interest. Preliminary results suggest that the minimizers of this energy functional located by the developed numerical algorithm appear to display the desired characteristics.
The use of a variety of stress wave transmission techniques for the in-service condition assessment of deteriorated wood is well documented. This paper summarizes results from an extensive study designed to examine the relationship between ultrasound transmission times and the deterioration of exposed wood. Two hundred seventy (270) southern pine lumber specimens were evaluated nondestructively using a through transmission ultrasound technique after field exposure for periods of up to fifty seven (57) months. Ultrasound transmission times increased with exposure time. Several statistical models of the relationship between transmission time and length of exposure were developed and are presented.
Theoretical investigation on the behavior of boron particles in the flowfield of a ducted rocket secondary combustor is presented.The study was motivated by the difficulties in achieving good combustion efficiencies of boron particles.The equation describing the gas flowfield and the particle behavior are solved numerically.Assuming that the ignition and combustion of boron particles is controlled by King's model.The solution presents the trajectory and oxide layer thickness of the boron particles due to the interactions with the surrounding gas.And some experimental investigations have been done on a connected-pipe test bed. Increasing the deflector between the two air intakes within proper range can increase the combustion efficiency.Decreasing the dome height increases combustion efficiency.
H2S gas would pose a threat to coal mine safety. This article from the biodegradation, microbial sulfate reduction, thermal decomposition chemistry, chemical sulfate reduction and magmatic 5 aspects to analyze the formation mechanism of hydrogen sulfide gas in coal mine, a coal mine combined with field data, analysis of hydrogen sulfide gas in the coal mining the transport mechanisms. Research for the comprehensive management of coal mine hydrogen sulfide gas has certain significance.
As an effort  to overcome scarcity of raw material for wood processing industries, utilization of wood from various lesser known species should be conducted. Wide prospects of utilization will be opened when complete data of species and their properties are available. The aims of this research is to get microscopic features concerning to the wood anatomical structure of Palele ( Castanopsis javanica ) at the vertical and radial directions. Observation of wood anatomical structures in accordance to International Association of Wood Anatomist standard; includes diameter, height and amount of vessel; also height, width and amount of wood rays; percentage of vessels, percentage of rays, axial parenchyma and percentage of fiber, fiber diameter, fiber lumina, and fiber wall thickness. In this research it is found that wood vessels are oval to round, solitary vessels in radial arrangement, vessels consist of rare tylosis, wood diffuse porous,  alternate pits with simple plate perforation.  Wood rays is uniseriate heterogeneous, two types of axial parenchyma, i.e. : apotracheal scalariform and paratracheal with narrow short bands and wavy.  Fiber quality includes in category class II. This wood has medium to long size fiber with thin walled and wide of lumina. It is predicted that wood fiber of Palele can be used as raw material for paper with smooth surface and medium strength.
A fundamental goal in the turbine engine industry is to reduce the mass of the components and thereby increase the efficiency of jet engines. One way to reach this goal is to reduce safety factors by sharpening the design rules. This approach necessitates a thorough understanding of mechanical behaviour of the materials used. Mainly advanced nickel base alloys are used in the high temperature sections of a turbine. Many structural turbine components are made by casting and exhibit a heterogeneous microstructure. In conventionally cast parts microporosities and carbides are found in the nickel matrix. The heterogeneous nature of the microstructure has a significant influence on the observed macroscopic material behavior. As described in [1] porosities give rise to stress peaks and are therefore one of the primary factors determining the fatigue lifetime of the components. Carbides cause local stress peaks due to their resistance against deformation. In the following the term inclusion will be used when referring both to micropores and carbides. The quantification of the effect of inclusions on the effective materials properties is crucial to sharpen the design rules and thereby enable a more advanced component layout. Over the last decades considerable effort has been put towards experimental and theoretical investigations on the influence of the microstructure on the mechanical behavior [2]. The finite element (FE) method provides one possibility to study and quantify local effects triggered by inclusions. There are two common strategies to set up FE models at the micro scale level. Real microstructure phase arrangements derived from 3D computed tomography (CT) and micrographs, or computer generated geometries can serve as geometries for the FE model. An advantage of computer generated microgeometries over geometries derived from the real microstructure is that the former enable parametric studies. The aim of this work is to present an approach to obtain computer generated microstructuers as the basis for micromechanical investigations. In order to achieve reliable results it is important that the automatically generated microstructres represent the characteristics of the real structure. These characteristics are the accumulated volume of the micropores and carbides, the shape of single inclusions including their radii of curvature as well as the spatial distribution of the inclusions in the sampled volume. These characteristics can be obtained from detailed studies of micrographs and 3D CT images of nickel base cast alloy samples. Using these data the aspect ratios and volumes of single inclusions are statistically characterized utilizing a truncated normal distribution with minimum and maximum thresholds. In the model the volume of single carbides is assumed between 1,000 and 20,000 μm3 because from the 3D CT images only carbides larger than 1,000 μm3 can be detected and 20,000 μm3 was the largest carbide found within the samples. The microporosity volumes considered in the model range from 10,000 2,000,000 μm3, again the upper limit coinciding with the largest detected micropores. As calculations show, micropores smaller than 10,000 μm3 do not have a significant influence on the FE solution and are therefore neglected. Of course, these limits can depend on the investigated material. The computer generation of the microstructure is based on a python script which uses the characteristics mentioned above as initial parameters. The generated geometry is designed so that it is suitable for the periodic microfield approach (PMA) as described in [2]. The inclusions within the generated geometry are placed into the unit cell using an advanced random sequential adsorption (RSA) algorithm. A description of the classical RSA can be found in [3]. This RSA is enhanced by taking the geometric periodicity and a minimum distance of the inclusions into account. Fig. 1 shows a comparison of a computer gen-
A method for preparing a single crystal silicon solar cell surface of the V-shaped groove suede used on silicon, epitaxially grown silicon copper compound V-shaped, V-shaped and then removing the copper compound epitaxial silicon grown by wet etching, the Dan Jing silicon surface to obtain a low reflectance of the V-groove texture structure, the steps of: a, Si on Si, are sequentially deposited Cu-Zr and Cu film, a composite film Si monocrystalline Si substrate system; Second, the composite film yl system annealing temperature 100-800 deg.] C, the degree of vacuum of better than 1 * 10-3, time of 5-10 min; Third, after annealing the composite film into the mixture, ultrasonic oscillation> for 5 minutes; Fourth, the oscillation ethanol and rinsed with deionized water, dried, to obtain the product. Advantageous Effects of Invention: V-shaped groove obtained by regular morphology, higher efficiency texturing; indicates that the structure can effectively reduce the reflection of light; 10-15% lower production costs, improve the quality, yield 30%.
The present invention belongs to the swirl cooling tower chemical cooling technical field. No cooling tower packing of the present invention, which comprises dispersing a layered laminate is 3 or demisting wheel pin wheel 5, sandwiching liquid discharge means 4, wheel comprising radially superposed coils hierarchical needle 15 seedlings. Miao rotation pin 15 is formed with a uniform angular velocity swirl. Cooling tower through a nozzle of the present invention is a dispersion, the dispersion cyclone, and 15 pairs of collision needle seedlings bead dispersion, and increased uniformity of distribution of the specific surface area of ​​the bead, the cyclone also increases the heat transfer rate to the heart of the gas stream, to enhance the cooling strength and heat dissipation effects, the heat dissipating the flattening, oriented radially; superposition wheel may be layered and spray level, crossflow cooling tower 6 may also be divided over a certain height by means of a multilayer air guide plate 7 into the wind, both to increase the cooling tower temperature drop and significantly reduce the cooling tower footprint. The present invention employs a cooling tower defog defogging centrifugal wheel 5, not only sufficiently complete removal of water, and permit atomizing spray nozzles have a wide range.
Abstract : A constitutive relationship was used to model the cyclic material response of damping test samples in separate bending and torsion configurations. This was done in order to better understand variations in reported values of damping for materials possessing strain dependent characteristics. The constitutive equations are based on a model of shape memory alloy stress strain behavior and have been adapted especially for the study of nonlinear hysteresis and the problem of strain dependent damping. Experimental measurements and analytical material response analyses of separate bending and torsion test samples indicated that when the damping of a single nonlinear material is plotted against the one-dimensional local strain of the sample, results are produced which are difficult to compare. However, when the same results are plotted against an invariant measure of three dimensional distortion the means by which one may compare the data is more straightforward. Also, the approach allows for a quantitative comparison of the damping at a material point to the overall damping. The method can be applied to any homogeneous isotropic nonlinear damping material.
The present invention relates to a cap opening and closing device having an automatic valve for a liquid container and, more specifically, to a cap opening and closing device having an automatic valve for a liquid container to enable users to discharge contents from a container by pressing the container without opening or separating a cap for covering the container; and to automatically close the container when the container is not pressed.
Problem statement: Since the residual stresses can cause a scienificant reduction in strength of the mechanical components, having a semi-destructive measuring method that would predict and model theses stresses would be an advantage. The hole drilling method has been used, by many researches, for measurement of the residual stresses in different materials. In this article, the finite element method is used to simulate the hole drilling method. Approach: The calibration factors required for measuring the residual stresses in composite materials are performed using a finite element procedure instead of experimental techniques. In this approach, the elements within the whole boundary are firstly removed from the finite element model of the specimen. Then, the average strains released around the whole area are measured using a there-strain gage rosette located near the whole boundary. Results: The calibration factors which are used to convert the released strains to residual stresses are obtained by the hole drilling method. The results for an orthotropic unidirectional ply made of glass/epoxy are presented. Conclusion: The compliance factors are represented as a 3×3 matrix for the orthotropic material. The results obtained from the finite element method are compared with the analytical solution method. A good agreement between the results shows the reliability of the numerical method presented in this study.
To enable good aging quality at room temperature, sake concentrated above 30 degrees alcohol content at a high concentration rate, the method of manufacturing concentrated sake and, centrifuge, and to provide a liquor manufacturing apparatus for the purpose of, a sake concentrating the alcohol content to 30 to 50 degrees by separating uniformly after freezing water, wherein the concentration ratio is 1.59 times or more.
The invention relates to a pulse full-fiber laser consisting of a master oscillator and a power amplifier, wherein the master oscillator consists of a semiconductor pump source with pigtailed fiber, a(1+1)*1 side coupler, signal light reflection fiber bragger grating double-wrapping-layer Yb-doped fiber, a fiber coupling acoustic optical modulator and an output coupled fiber bragger grating; pumpinput fiber in the (1+1)*1 side coupler is connected with the semiconductor pump source with pigtailed fiber; output fiber is connected with a signal light reflection fiber bragger grating or the output coupled fiber bragger grating; double-wrapping-layer Yb-doped fiber and the fiber coupling acoustic optical modulator are sequentially welded between the signal light reflection fiber bragger grating and the output coupled fiber bragger grating; and the output coupled fiber bragger grating or signal input fiber in the (1+1)*1 side coupler is connected with a signal input end of a power amplifier. The whole system of the pulse full-fiber laser only is simply air cooled, has the advantages of compactness, adjustable repetition frequency, narrow output pulse width, high peak power, and the like, and is stable and reliable and is easy to realize the product forming.
Weak light emission caused an ionization process of gases in the micro gag of an electrostatic actuator under a high electric field can be imaged using a high sensitive CCD camera, even if the electric field strength is below the breakdown threshold. The observation of the ionization process give an information about a space charge distribution in gases. It is found that irregular instability and the inhomogeneous distribution of electric field develop micro-discharges. The micro-discharge evaporates an electrode material, results in increasing the pressure in the gap, finally grows up to the breakdown. This effect is seemed to be remarkable, especially in narrow gaps. Furthermore, the electric breakdown threshed depends on the electrode material. Silicon-to-silicon gap configuration shows a higher breakdown threshold as well as the prebreakdown threshold in comparison with silicon-to-metal gap. It suggests that /spl gamma//sub i/ effect plays an important role in this process.
Increasing the efficiency of machining is a major goal of industrial companies. One way to increase efficiency is to increase the cutting speed. This paper presents a cutting experiment with an octagonal insert and its results. Using a constant depth of cut and a constant feed per tooth, I investigated the effect of cutting speed on cutting forces during face milling of non-alloy steel using five spindle speeds. The change in cutting force and specific cutting force showed that increasing the cutting speed increases the material removal rate with a decrease in energy demand in the studied parameter range.
Alkali ash material (AAM) concrete is a unique material that is sustainable and cost-effective because it utilises waste fly ash, and has properties superior to other concrete products. The AAM concrete described here is produced from the addition of inexpensive chemicals to fly ash. AAM can be used to create a wide range of materials including high performance concrete (HPC-AAM) and lightweight (LW-AAM). The high performance AAM provides rapid strength gain along with high ultimate strengths of more than 110 MPa (16000 psi). LW-AAM can produce materials with densities ranging from 1200 to 2200 kg/m3 and compressive strengths from 2 (290 psi) to 65 MPa (9500 psi). Both HPC-AAM and LW-AAM have far better environmental resistance than Portland cement concrete, resisting attack from sulphuric acid (H2SO4), hydrochloric acid (HCl) and organic acids. AAMs resists freeze–thaw attack and high abrasion, possesses low chloride permeability and does not exhibit alkali silica reactivity.
Bitumen to aggregate adhesion represents one of the fundamental characteristics of asphalt mixes which are closely connected to their durability and resistance to water and frost effects. With respect to increased focus on construction cost effectiveness it is preferred to use locally available aggregate sources. These are often hydrophilic and not suitable enough to secure sufficient adhesion. Another factor is the quality of bitumen used for asphalt mixture production which bears with respect to advanced distillation processes and general business preferences of petrochemical industry another risk affecting the adhesion. Based on these assumptions different chemical adhesion promoters have been used and compared. At the same time mechanically activated microfillers based on lime and/or fly­ ashes have been used as mineral adhesion promoters or intelligent substitutes to traditional filler. Asphalt mixes of ACbin 16 or ACwear 11 type have been laboratory designed with two different types of aggregates. Indirect tensile strength has been assessed for all mixes according to EN 12697-23 with determination of water sensitivity according to EN 12697-12 and by modified test procedure described by AASHTO T-283 used in the U.S..
This paper investigates the effect of fiber waviness on the behavior of carbon-epoxy composites. A theoretical elastic model is developed to predict lamina modulus of elasticity as a function of fiber waviness and is used in an incremental loading scheme to predict the general stress-strain response. This theoretical response is found to be nonlinear in the same fashion as the experimental, measured response.
Among the many active materials in use today, piezoelectric composite patches have enabled notable advances in emerging technologies such as disturbance sensing, control of flexible structures, and energy harvesting. The macro fiber composite (MFC), in particular, is well known for its outstanding performance. Multiscale models are typically required for smart-structure design with MFCs. This is due to the need for predicting the macroscopic response (such as tip deflection under a transverse load or applied voltage) while accounting for the fact that the MFC has microscale details. Current multiscale models of the MFC exclusively focus on predicting the macroscopic response with homogenized material properties. There are a limited number of homogenized properties available from physical experiments and various aspects of existing homogenization techniques for the MFC are shown here to be inadequate. Thus, new homogenized models of the MFC are proposed to improve smart-structure predictions and therefore improve device design. It is notable that current multiscale modeling efforts for MFCs are incomplete since, after homogenization, the local fields such as stresses and electric fields have not been recovered. Existing methods for obtaining local fields are not applicable since the electrodes of the MFC are embedded among passive layers. Therefore, another objective of this work was to find the local fields of the MFC without having the computational burden of fully modeling the microscopic features of the MFC over a macroscale area. This should enable smart-structure designs with improved reliability because failure studies of MFCs will be enabled. Large-scale 3D finite element (FE) models that included microscale features were constructed throughout this work to verify the multiscale methodologies. Note that after creating a free account on cdmhub.org, many files used to create the results in this work can be downloaded from https://cdmhub.org/projects/ernestocamarena.First, the Mechanics of Structure Genome (MSG) was extended to provide a rigorous analytical homogenization method. The MFC was idealized to consist of a stack of homogeneous layers where some of the layers were homogenized with existing rules of mixtures. For the analytical model, the electrical behavior caused by the interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) was approximated with uniform poling and uniform electrodes. All other assumptions on the field variables were avoided; thus an exact solution for a stack of homogeneous layers was found with MSG. In doing so, it was proved that in any such multi-layered composite, the in-plane strains and the transverse stresses are equal in each layer and the in-plane electric fields and transverse electric displacement are constant between the electrodes. Using this knowledge, a hybrid rule of mixtures was developed to homogenize the entire MFC layup so as to obtain the complete set of effective device properties. Since various assumptions were avoided and since the property set is now complete, it is expected that greater energy equivalence between reality and the homogenized model has been made possible. The derivation clarified what the electrical behavior of a homogenized solid with internal electrodes should be—an issue that has not been well understood. The behavior was verified by large-scale FE models of an isolated MFC patch. Increased geometrical fidelity for homogenization was achieved with an FE-based RVE analysis that accounted for finite-thickness effects. The presented theory also rectifies numerous issues in the literature with the use of the periodic boundary conditions. The procedure was first developed without regard to the internal electrodes (ie a homogenization of the active layer). At this level, the boundary conditions were shown to satisfy a piezoelectric macrohomogeneity condition. The methodology was then applied to the full MFC layup, and modifications were implemented so that both types of MFC electrodes would be accounted for. The IDE case considered nonuniform poling and electric fields, but fully poled material was assumed. The inherent challenges associated with these nonuniformities are explored, and a solution is proposed. Based on the homogenization boundary conditions, a dehomogenization procedure was proposed that enables the recovery of local fields. The RVE analysis results for the effective properties revealed that the homogenization procedure yields an unsymmetric constitutive relation; which suggests that the MFC cannot be homogenized as rigorously as expected. Nonetheless, the obtained properties were verified to yield favorable results when compared to a large-scale 3D FE model. As a final test of the obtained effective properties, large-scale 3D FE models of MFCs acting in a static unimorph configuration were considered. The most critical case to test was the smallest MFC available. Since none of the homogenized models account for the passive MFC regions that surround the piezoelectric fiber array, some of the test models were constructed with and without the passive regions. Studying the deflection of the host substrate revealed that ignoring the passive area in smaller MFCs can overpredict the response by up to 20%. Satisfactory agreement between the homogenized models and a direct numerical simulation were obtained with a larger MFC (about a 5% difference for the tip deflection). Furthermore, the uniform polarization assumption (in the analytical model) for the IDE case was found to be inadequate. Lastly, the recovery of the local fields was found to need improvement.
The utility model discloses a heat radiation structure for a heat radiation unit, comprising: a heat radiation unit body provided with a cavity, the cavity is provided with at least one nanometer level linear body structure layer and a working fluid, the nanometer level linear body structure layer is disposed at the inner wall of the cavity, Via disposing of the nanometer level linear body structure layer in the cavity, and capillary phenomenon can be greatly improved, and further, vapor-liquid circulating efficiency of the working fluid in the internal of a heat radiation device is improved, thereby improving thermal transmission efficiency.
Hydrogen-terminated diamond (HTD) contains an adsorbate layer at its surface that can generate hole carriers with a high density (10 13 ~10 14 cm -2 ) at room temperature. [1,2] The adsorbate appears to have acceptorlike properties with low activation energy. However, the poor thermal stability of the adsorbate layer limits the applications of HTD devices due to desorption below 350K. [3,4] The alternative is to use a passivation layer such as Al2O3 thin film that can also serve as a gate insulator produced by atomic-layer-deposition. [5,6] In this paper, we analyze the electrical characteristics of such passivated devices through a two-dimensional device simulation and compare the results with measured data for the temperature range from 140 to 500K. The temperature dependence of basic parameters such as density of states, electron and hole effective masses, intrinsic and extrinsic carrier densities, the saturation velocity and mobility of holes, etc., are studied. In the simulated temperature range, the thermal loss of adsorbates from the passivated device is negligible, and due to a small activation energy (6.147 meV), all adsorbates are ionized [5] . Hence the adsorbate-generated hole density is a constant. To model the temperature dependence of hole mobility, both Coulomb and impurity scattering are considered and their combination causes the temperature coefficient change from positive to negative around 250K, which explains the experimental results quite well [5] . In Fig. 2(a) and (b) the transfer and output characteristics are shown for a device with 400 nm gate length at 300 and 473K that also agree well with the measured data [6] . The maximum drain current at 473K is reduced by 10% of the value at 300K, and the shift in pinch-off voltage is also small, around 0.26 mV/K. This indicates the passivated HTD MOSFETs have stable performance. Since the transconductance of the MOSFETs is mainly controlled by hole mobility (as shown in Fig. 1), its temperature dependence is similar. In addition, the self-heating effect in HTD MOSFET is evaluated and compared with Si MOSFET (Fig. 3). The result suggests that for HTD devices with 200nm gate length, the drain current per unit width can reach up to 1 mA/m at Vgs = -5.5V and Vds = -15V. This is in good agreement with the experimental results for a passivated device [6] . At this high current, however, the increase in lattice temperature is negligible, as small as 30K, due to the high thermal conductivity (25W/(cm K) at T=300K [7] ) of diamond. For a similar Si MOSFET, the highest localized lattice temperature can increase by 510K under the same bias conditions, and the drain current may be reduced by 40% from its isothermal value. The ratio of the increase in lattice temperatures for MOSFETs made of Si and HTD is found to be 17:1, which is inversely related to the ratio of their thermal conductivities at 300K. In conclusion, our analysis confirms that a passivated HTD MOSFET device has good thermal stability for its high temperatures applications. [1]. Hiroshi, Kawarada, Surface Science Reports, vol. 26, pp. 205-259, 1996. [2]. M. Kubovic, M. Kasu, H, Kageshima, F. Maeda, Diamond and Related Materials, vol. 19, pp. 889-893, 2010. [3]. A. Denisenko, A. Aleksov, E. Kohn, Diamond and Related Materials, vol. 10, pp. 667-672, 2001. [4]. M. Kasu, M. Kubovic, A. Aleksov, N. Teofilov, Y. Taniyasu, R. Sauer, E. Kohn, T. Makimoto, N. Kobayashi, Diamond and Related Materials, vol. 13, pp. 226-232, 2004. [5]. Makoto Kasu, Hisashi Sato, and Kazuyuki Hirama, Applied Physics Express, vol. 5, pp. 025701 1-3, 2012. [6]. Kazuyuki Hirama, Hisashi Sato, Yuichi Harada, Hideki Yamamoto, and Makoto Kasu, IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 33, no. 8, pp. 1111-1113, 2012. [7]. J. R. Olson, R. O. Pohl, J. W. Vandersande, A. Zoltan, T. R. Anthony and W. F. Banholzer, Physical Review B, vol. 47, no. 22, pp. 14850-14856, 1993.
Authors have been studying for several years as for the effective utilization of sludge water produced in ready mixed concrete plants due to washing of a mixer, agitating truck dram etc. Nowadays, JIS A 5308 permits the usage under 3 percent as solids of sludge for the unit content of cement of new concrete. Recently, it is strongly requested to re-use a further large quantity of sludge water, in order to achieve the zero-emission. Sludge water consists of cement, fine particles of aggregate and water. All materials are one of the constituents of concrete. This study, in order to utilize the larger quantity of sludge water than that now allowed, is to verify the mix design of concretes containing sludge which has identical slump and compressive strength to comparative concrete. From the results of this study, it became clear that as for the high-range water reducer concrete containing stabilized sludge within the range of 3-15%, there was no problem about slump and compressive strength. It was possible to design the concrete of identical slump and compressive strength to comparative concrete. It was also confirmed that the bulk volume of coarse aggregate was available for the design method of concrete mixture.
The invention provides a silicon solar cell grid electrode manufacture method. In the prior art, an oxidized layer in an electroplated groove and an electroplated mask layer which is left over are not removed, the phenomenon that a contact area of a plated seed crystal metal level and silicon is small and an electroplated grid electrode can be stripped very easily and is large in resistance can be caused easily, an electrode metal layer is directly electroplated after a seed crystal silicon alloy layer is formed through sintering operation, stress is left between a seed crystal interface and a silicon interface, and therefore the electroplated grid electrode can be stripped easily. According to the silicon solar cell grid electrode manufacture method of the invention, a silicon solar cell to be electroplated is provided, the electroplated mask layer is deposited on the front face of the silicon solar cell to be electroplated, an electroplated groove running through the electroplated mask layer is formed, the oxidized layer in the electroplated groove and the electroplated mask layer which is left over are etched and removed, the seed crystal metal layer is deposited in the electroplated groove, the seed crystal silicon alloy layer is formed through sintering operation, the seed crystal metal layer is removed through corroding or plate stripping operation, and the seed crystal and electrode metal layers are electroplated. Through the silicon solar cell grid electrode manufacture method, the electroplated grid electrode can be effectively improved in intensity, a corresponding silicon solar cell and a corresponding assembly can be improved in reliability, and series resistance thereof can be effectively lowered.
The present invention relates to a cultivation carrier macroalgae, elements having grown from seed deposited thereon to ensure, in the body of water and having a suspension member. The carrier (11) to allow water to flow having a hole (12) from one side of the other side of the sheet, the sheet having a surface spores and holding the seed structure. The present invention further comprises a means for suspending such carriers (11). Comprising connecting means (16) connected to at least a portion of the edge of the carrier (14). It also can be used as immersed in the sea, attached to a carrier internet.
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films possessing extremely enhanced hydrolytic stability were developed by combining the improved processes of polymerization, melt extrusion, and biaxial stretching. The PET films obtained from the combined process were better than commercially available PET films with highest hydrolytic stability at present. An accelerated test (at 120°C and 100% relative humidity) was performed to learn the key parameters governing elongation-based hydrolytic durability of PET films. The results suggested that ultimate hydrolytic stability was because of the combined effects of significant decrease in the content of carboxylic acid terminal groups and enhanced crystallinity. Another reason for this was an increase in ground-state dimer sites due to intermolecular stacking between terephthalate units. These dimer sites were probably located in the densely packed amorphous regions, as suggested from the intrinsic fluorescence spectrum of PET films. The PET films developed in this study are very useful in outdoor applications such as backsheet materials in solar cell modules. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2017. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers
Modeling and analysis for the static behavior and collapse instabilities of a MEMS cantilever switch subjected to both electrical and thermal loadings are presented. The thermal loading forces can be as a result of a huge amount of switching contact of the microswitch. The model considers the microbeam as a continuous medium and the electric force as a nonlinear function of displacement and accounts for its fringing-field effect. The electric force is assumed to be distributed over specific lengths underneath the microbeam. A boundary-value solver is used to study the collapse instability, which brings the microbeam from its unstuck configuration to touch the substrate and gets stuck in the so-called pinned configuration. We have found negligible influence of the temperature on the static stability of the switch. We then investigate the effect of the thermal heating due to the current flow on the cantilever switch while it is in the on position (adhered position). We also found slight effect on the static stability of the switch.
The presence of high-frequency components has been drastically increasing in the power network due to increased use of power electronics and non-linear loads. Such pulsed or high-frequency voltages may affect the performance of insulation systems by increasing their ageing speed. To evaluate accelerated ageing of dielectric materials under high-frequency pulses with different characteristics, it is required to have comparisons between parameters that can indicate the degradation level of aged dielectric materials. This research adopts dielectric spectroscopy applied over a wide range of frequency and measurement voltage, for such comparisons. Paper/oil samples are tested at different time intervals of ageing, under both unipolar and bipolar voltage applications, and the dielectric parameters are compared. The results of this study can contribute in understanding the basics of dielectric responses of paper/oil insulation under high-frequency transient conditions.
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) offer new possibilities to harvest solar energy by using non-toxic inexpensive materials. Since they can generally be produced on flexible substrates, several research groups investigated possibilities to integrate DSSCs in textile fabrics, either by coating full fabrics with the DSSC layer structure or by producing fiber-shaped DSSCs which were afterwards integrated into a textile fabric. Here we show a new approach, electrospinning all solid layers of the DSSC. We report on electrospinning the counter electrode with a graphite catalyst followed by a thin nonconductive barrier layer and preparing the front electrode by electrospinning semiconducting TiO2 from a polymer solution dyed with natural dyes. Both electrodes were coated with a conductive polymer before the system was finally filled with a fluid electrolyte. While the efficiency is lower than for glass-based cells, possible problems such as short-circuits—which often occur in fiber-based DSSCs—did not occur in this proof-of-concept. Since graphite particles did not fully cover the counter electrode in this first study, and the typical bathochromic shift indicating adsorption of dye molecules on the TiO2 layer was not observed, several ways are open to increase the efficiency in forthcoming studies.
Household appliance comprising a drying device, such as clothes dryer, laundry drier or dishwashing machine, wherein the drying is made by or with the assistance of a heat pump assembly (1) comprising a rotary compressor, in particular comprising a rotary compressor, which is integrated by means of pipelines for transport of the refrigerant in the heat pump assembly (1) characterized in that the pipe (12) is rotational vibrations generated as a high pressure conduit (12) for accommodating the from the compressor (3) designed from the compressor to the heat exchanger (9) a meandering manner, that the pipe (12) projecting in two approximately mutually perpendicular planes (13) and (14) is arranged, wherein a pipe section (12.1) in the first plane (13) and a second pipe section (12.2) lies in the second plane (14), that the Rohleitungsabschnitte (12.1) and (12.2) at least two arch profiles (15.1, 15.2) and (16.1, 16.2) in the respective planes (13 ) And (14), and that the sheet profiles (15.1, 15.2) and (16.1, 16.2) within the respective plane (13) and (14) are of identical design of their extent in width.
The solutions containing Co/Mo, Fe, Pt and ferrocene were utilized for the growth of carbon nanotubes using pyrolysis of hydrocarbon. The metal solutions evaporated by an ultra sonic evaporator were fed into the furnace at high temperatures. In the case of solutions containing Co/Mo, Fe and Pt, the gas-phase catalytic reaction of solution produced multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon nano onions (CNO). The outer diameter of most products was in the range from 10 to 30 nm. The XRD pattern of MWCNTs displayed a well graphitized structure. The Raman spectra confirmed that the products in this study were present to be MWCNTs. However, the catalytic pyrolysis of solution containing ferrocene produced aligned MWCNTs. The outer diameter of products was in the range from 50 to 100 nm.
We use numerical simulations to examine two-dimensional particle mixtures that strongly phase separate in equilibrium. When the system is externally driven in the presence of quenched disorder, plastic flow occurs in the form of meandering and strongly mixing channels. In some cases, this can produce a fast and complete mixing of previously segregated particle species, as well as an enhancement of transverse diffusion even in the absence of thermal fluctuations. We map the mixing phase diagram as a function of external driving and quenched disorder parameters.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx), including nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) play important roles in determining the photochemistry of the ambient atmosphere, controlling the production of tropospheric ozone, affecting the concentration levels of the hydroxyl radical, and forming acid precipitation. A sensor system capable of simultaneous measurements of NO and NO2 by using a commercial 76 m astigmatic multi-pass gas cell (MPGC) was developed in order to enable fastresponse NOx detection. A continuous wave (CW), distributed-feedback (DFB) quantum cascade laser (QCL) and a CW external-cavity (EC) QCL were employed for targeting a NO absorption doublet at 1900.075 cm-1 and a NO2 absorption line at 1630.33 cm-1, respectively. Both laser beams were combined and transmitted through the MPGC in an identical optical path and subsequently detected by a single mid-infrared detector. A frequency modulation multiplexing scheme was implemented by modulating the DFB-QCL and EC-QCL at different frequencies and demodulating the detector signal with two Labview software based lock-in amplifiers to extract the corresponding second-harmonic (2f) components. Continuous monitoring of NO and NO2 concentration levels was achieved by locking the laser frequencies to the selected absorption lines utilizing a reference cell filled with high concentrations of NO and NO2. The experimental results indicate minor performance degradation associated with frequency modulation multiplexing and no cross talk between the two multiplexed detection channels. The performance of the reported sensor system was evaluated for real time, sensitive and precise detection of NO and NO2 simultaneously.
The use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites for the rehabilitation of structurally inadequate buildings and bridges is rapidly increasing but the majority of applications have been developed for reinforced concrete structures. The superior mechanical and physical properties of fiber reinforced polymers make them excellent candidates for repair and retrofit of steel structures as well. To date, the main focus of research on rehabilitation of steel structures with CFRP has been mostly limited to flexural strengthening. This paper reports on an analytical and experimental study conducted to investigate the buckling behavior of steel members strengthened with CFRP laminates. To improve the effectiveness of the CFRP wraps, the steel member is first sandwiched within a core (comprised of mortar or PVC blocks) prior to attaching the external CFRP sheets. The structural requirements to prevent buckling of the steel members are derived from equilibrium considerations and verified with test results. Small scale tests of wrapped steel members show that significant improvements can be achieved in the inelastic axial deformation reached prior to buckling and load carrying capacity after buckling when CFRP wrapping is used.
The start-up of the DR Pile at a time when every effort was being made to increase the power levels of the older piles, suggested the possibility of studying, during the early damage period, some of the conditions which were limiting the operating levels of the old piles. Of the operational limitations restricting the power level of the old piles, the maximum graphite temperature is the most severe and actually determines the operating level of the B, D, and F Piles and, to some extent, the H Pile. Though it was known that irradiation damage of the central part of the old piles had been arrested by the increased temperatures which resulted from the replacement of helium by carbon dioxide as the pile atmosphere, the extent of damage to be expected at the new DR Pile, where graphite temperatures were to be maintained as high as possible from the start, was not known, except for the H Pile startup where conditions were somewhat different. This report is intended to be a summary of the lattice conductance variations at the DR Pile during the first five months of operation. From the recorded conductances an attempt has been made to estimate the probable minimum conductance conditions which will be reached in the future, and from these, the power level limitations to be expected from graphite temperatures. Also a development of the equations used in calculating apparent thermal conductivity is included.
Abstract Graphene-based conductive films have already attracted great attention due to their unique and outstanding physical properties. In this work, in order to develop a novel, effective method to produce these films with good electrical conductivity, a simple and green method is reported to rapidly and effectively reduce graphene oxide film using a low temperature heat treatment. The reduction of graphene oxide film is verified by XRD, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. Compared with graphene oxide film, the obtained reduced graphene oxide film has better electrical conductivity and its sheet resistance decreases from 25.3 kΩ × sq−1 to 3.3 kΩ × sq−1 after the heat treatment from 160 to 230 °C. The mechanism of thermal reduction of the graphene oxide film mainly results from the removal of the oxygen-containing functional groups and the structural changes. All these results indicate that the low temperature heat treatment is a suitable and effective method for the reduction of graphene oxide film.
During the previous reporting period (Quarter Six), the charging and removal of a fine, high resistivity aerosol using the advanced technology of electron beam precipitation was successfully accomplished. Precharging a dust stream circulating through the EBP wind tunnel produced collection efficiency figures of up to 40 times greater than with corona charging and collection alone (Table 1). The increased system collection efficiency attributed to electron beam precharging was determined to be the result of increased particle charge. It was found that as precharger electric field was raised, collection efficiency became greater. In sequence, saturation particle charge varies with the precharger electric field strength, particle migration velocity varies with the precharger and collector electric field, and collection efficiency varies with the migration velocity. Maximizing the system collection efficiency requires both a high charging electric field (provided by the E-beam precharger), and a high collecting electric field (provided by the collector wires and plates). Because increased particle collection efficiency is directly attributable to higher particle charge, the focus of research during Quarter Seven was shifted to learning more about the actual charge magnitude on the aerosol particles. Charge determinations in precipitators have traditionally been made on bulk dust samples collected from themore » flue gas stream, which gives an overall charge vs. mass (Q/M) ratio measurement. More recently, techniques have been developed which allow the measurement of the charge on individual particles in a rapid and repeatable fashion. One such advanced technique has been developed at FSU for use in characterizing the electron beam precharger.« less
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to study the interaction energy between single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and polyphenylacetylene (PPA). The “wrapping” of nanotubes by PPA chains was computed. The influence of nanotube chirality, temperature, and chemical modification on the interfacial adhesion of nanotube−PPA was investigated. The results showed that the interaction energy between the SWNTs and PPA is strongly influenced by chirality but the influence by temperature could be negligible. For SWNTs with similar molecular weights, diameters, and lengths, the armchair-type nanotube may be the best nanotube for reinforcement. Besides, our simulations indicated that some specific chemical modifications of SWNTs play a very important role in determining the strength of interaction between the SWNTs and PPA. The SWNTs modified by methyl or phenyl groups can be well-wrapped by PPA, while the SWNTs modified by other types of groups cannot. The results also indicated that the interaction energy ...
In the field of fatigue testing in laboratory conditions, the common practice is uniaxial testing (i.e. in tension). The real-life loads on structures are usually not limited to one direction but contain multiaxial components. For this kind of testing, the ship and offshore structures department of Delft University of Technology developed a machine that is capable of exciting stresses in a specimen that resembles real life. A preliminary study has been conducted for the feasibility of using the acoustic emission method for monitoring fatigue on this multiaxial testing machine and in specific on a tubular double-side welded T-joint in offshore applications. This method is a tool to help to understand the fatigue progress in the material during testing. Fatigue is a process by which damage is caused under cyclic loading below the yield stress. This phenomenon initiates on a microscale were dislocations accumulate and grow into a crack. The crack can grow until the structural integrity fails in complete rupture. The fatigue lifetime may be predicted; this is done with the help of uniaxial fatigue models. For multiaxial fatigue these models are not accurate and therefore a multi axial fatigue model should be developed. The crux here is to do these experiments to gain knowledge of the multiaxial fatigue to develop an accurate model for multiaxial fatigue. The acoustic emission method is a non-destructive evaluation method that can help to determine the condition of a structural component. The acoustic emission signals have features that contain information on what is going on in the material. Feature extraction can also give insight to the fatigue lifetime. In addition, the acoustic emission signals can be used for localization of the damage. The localization calculation is done by comparing different times of arrivals and with this information the source can be localized. If this localization and tracking of the fatigue crack can be achieved on the multiaxial testing machine the new prediction models that are developed at the university can be more rigorously evaluated. Combining the knowledge of fatigue and acoustic emission method, the following main research question is formulated: “Is it possible to detect a fatigue crack with the acoustic emission method, and how can the crack length and position be estimated in the tubular welded T-joint specimen multiaxial loading?” Before the main question could be tackled, the background noise of the testing machine is measured for possible interference for future test. The second sub-question is: What features of the acoustic emission signal can be acquired and processed robustly for the tubular specimen? The last sub-question is: What are the essential features of the acoustic emission signals released by fatigue cracks under multiaxial loading? This last question could not be answered because there were no multiaxial experiments during the duration of this project. However, the methodology presented here as shown on a uniaxial case is believed to be directly applicable for multiaxial loading cases as well Three experiments were performed of which one uniaxial test was used for detailed acoustic emission analysis. The data was analyzed with localization of the fatigue crack in the specimen. The localization of the crack and tracking its position is shown to be possible when the data is of sufficient quality. The difference in the estimate of the crack size by acoustic emission and the measured crack length turned out to be smaller than 10% when the crack reached its maximum length.
The reaction of hexamethyldisilazane with zirconium tetrachloride furnishes an adduct, [(CH3)3Si]2NHZrCl4, which is soluble in dichloromethane. The decomposition of [(CH3)3Si]2NHZrCl4 proceeds with the elimination of trimethylchlorosilane and hydrogen chloride and is complete at 600C. The resulting powder is amorphous zirconium nitride which is highly susceptible to hydrolysis and oxidation. The pyrolysis of the precursor in a dynamic vacuum or ammonia atmosphere at 600C and subsequent sintering of the powder at 900C furnishes crystalline zirconium nitride. Transmission electron microscopy of the powder shows that the particles are coated with a thin zirconium oxide layer. Crystalline zirconium nitride powder, free from zirconium oxide impurities, is obtained if the sintering is carried out at 1075C.
The Y substituted cobalt ferrite(i.e. CoFe2-xYxO4, x=0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.2) was synthesized by using sol-gel auto combustion method. From XRD pattern it is confirmed that formation of spinel ferrite along with secondary phase due to solubility limit beyond doping level 0.05. From M-H curve, x=0.10 shows largest saturation magnetization. Coercivity get reduced with the Y substitution in cobalt ferrite lattice. The undoped cobalt ferrite shows maximum magnetostriction coefficient i.e. -257 ppm at 3000G. But with the increased in Y concentration magnetostriction and strain derivative reduced.The Y substituted cobalt ferrite(i.e. CoFe2-xYxO4, x=0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.2) was synthesized by using sol-gel auto combustion method. From XRD pattern it is confirmed that formation of spinel ferrite along with secondary phase due to solubility limit beyond doping level 0.05. From M-H curve, x=0.10 shows largest saturation magnetization. Coercivity get reduced with the Y substitution in cobalt ferrite lattice. The undoped cobalt ferrite shows maximum magnetostriction coefficient i.e. -257 ppm at 3000G. But with the increased in Y concentration magnetostriction and strain derivative reduced.
A high-energy high optic-optic efficiency 808-nm diode-end-pumped 1064-nm Nd:YVO4 picosecond master oscillator laser was demonstrated, and a 3×3×7 mm Nd:YVO4 crystal with a doped concentration of 0.5% was adopted. A maximum output power of 3.39 W was obtained with a pulse width of 16.3 ps and a repetition rate of 29.36 MHz under a pump power of 8.92 W, corresponding to an optic-optic efficiency of 38.0%. Compared to the previously reported picosecond master oscillator solid-state lasers, the optic-optic conversion efficiency of 38% is in the leading level among the reported lasers.A high-energy high optic-optic efficiency 808-nm diode-end-pumped 1064-nm Nd:YVO4 picosecond master oscillator laser was demonstrated, and a 3×3×7 mm Nd:YVO4 crystal with a doped concentration of 0.5% was adopted. A maximum output power of 3.39 W was obtained with a pulse width of 16.3 ps and a repetition rate of 29.36 MHz under a pump power of 8.92 W, corresponding to an optic-optic efficiency of 38.0%. Compared to the previously reported picosecond master oscillator solid-state lasers, the optic-optic conversion efficiency of 38% is in the leading level among the reported lasers.
P(Am-co-VAc) sizes were synthesized through emulsion and dispersion polymerizations respectively.The influences of the two polymerization methods on the viscosity,adhesion-to-fiber,and film behaviors of the sizes were investigated by the comparative analysis.The result demonstrates that P(Am-co-VAc) sizes prepared through emulsion polymerization are advantageous over those through dispersion polymerizations in adhesion-to-fiber,break strength and breaking elongation of the film and water solubility but similar moisture absorption property.The emulsion polymerization is beneficial to raising the application behavior of the sizing agents.
We report a detailed optical study of several sets of multiple quantum wells (MQWs) in the AlGaN/GaN system, as well as AlN/GaN superlattice (SL) structures. In this study all materials were grown by MOCVD, as opposed to most previous studies where MBE was employed. In undoped MQWs discrete photoluminescence (PL) peaks related to discrete well width fluctuations by one full c lattice parameter are clearly observed. In doped samples this effect appears to be screened. While the recombination process in undoped samples is excitonic, in MQWs doped with Si above about 5 × 10 18 cm -3 free electrons (a 2DEG) are dominant, and the PL process is a free electrons-localized hole transition at low temperatures. The hole localization prevails up to very high n-doping, as was previously observed in bulk GaN. The hole localization is demonstrated via several experiments, including results on PL transient decay times and LO phonon coupling. Near surface band bending, due mainly to dopant depletion in doped structures or interaction with surface states in case of higher Al content in barriers, influences the distribution of electron filling among the QWs, making a detailed modeling of the spectral shape somewhat ambiguous. It is found that AlN barriers promote a strong room temperature PL signal from the QWs, as opposed to the case with AlGaN barriers.
ABSTRACT With cholic acid as the core, five multi-arm ester liquid crystals were synthesised with different terminal substituents. B1–B5 were mesogenic arms which were linked to multifunctional chiral core cholic acid. The effect of electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups on the mesogenic behaviour of the compounds was discussed. All products were structurally well characterised by elemental analysis, 1HNMR, and FT-IR. The phase behaviours were investigated by means of polarised optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. B2, B4, B5 and C2, C4, C5 and D2, D4, D5 exhibited typical nematic texture and belonged to thermotropic enantiotropic nematic liquid crystals. B3, C3 and D3 also displayed typical nematic texture of thermotropic monotropic nematic liquid crystal. B1, C1 and D1 did not have mesogenic performance. Wider mesogenic range for 81.6°C of C5 whose terminal substituent is nitro on heating cycle while 121.1°C on cooling cycle. The results indicated that terminal substituents have a pretty important effect on the mesogenic phase and range of multi-arm liquid crystal compounds. The mesomorphic behaviour of compounds with polar groups terminally substituted performance much better than those without polar groups. In this ester multi-arm liquid crystal system, electron-withdrawing groups terminally substituted behave better than those electron-donating groups substituted. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Ultrasonic heating methods for hyperthermia have been developed because of several advantage i.e., its easiness in steering the applicator for the target, and its non-interference with other electronic equipment. Most of them make hot spots by focusing the ultrasonic beam, using acoustic lens or many transmitters. Therefore, these methods are based on analogous idea to the ray focusing, and higher frequency, i.e., from 500 kHz to 5 MHz, is used. However, there are some problems; hot spots are generated before the focus, and it is difficult to heat the region beyond gas and bones owing to the attenuation and scattering of the ultrasonic beam. Then, we propose a new method for heating the depths and local regions of the body. In this method, to heat the depths of the body low-frequency ultrasound is used since it has larger penetration depth and it is less scattered than higher-frequency ultrasound. To heat only tumours, hot spots are generated by synthesizing acoustic fields resulted from several incident waves. The heat generation and temperature distribution was analyzed using the models with properties similar to tissues for different values of parameters such as frequency, position and the number of sources. The results show that hot spots can be generated at the depths of the body. and that desirable temperature distribution can be obtained by selecting optimal parameters and cooling condition. To determine the temperature distribution more accurately it would be required to introduce the more complicated model of heat removal effect by blood flow and the experimental results. These problems are left for the future investigation.
Research on nonmaterials has become increasingly popular because of their unique physical, chemical, optical and catalytic properties compared to their bulk counterparts. Therefore, many efforts have been made to synthesize multidimensional nanostructures for new and efficient nanodevices. Among those materials, zinc oxide (ZnO) has gained substantial attention owing to many outstanding properties. ZnO besides its wide band gap of 3.34 eV exhibits a relatively large excitons binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature which is attractive for optoelectronic applications. Likewise, cupric oxide (CuO) has a narrow band gap of 1.2 eV and a variety of chemo-physical properties that are attractive in many fields. Moreover, composite nanostructures of these two oxides (CuO/ZnO) may pave the way for various new applications. So in this thesis, eight samples of CuO/ZnO junction were synthesized and exposed to temperatures 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 and 130. The electrical properties of Schottky diode junctions were analyzed by I-V measurements under the influence of direct solar radiation and, lag of radiation (darkness) which shows the semi-logarithmic I-V characteristic curve of the fabricated photodiodes. Also energy band gap was estimated and the morphology and particle sizes of the as-prepared sample were determined by SEM. The SEM images of ZnO + CuO sample films were annealed at 60°C to 130°C step 10.
Ni-Nb-Ti-Zr amorphous alloys were manufactured using melt-spinning methods. Amorphous formability, the supercooled liquid region before crystallization and mechanical properties were examined. The value of the reduced glass transition temperature and the supercooled liquid region of alloy were relatively high and were 0.612 and 76 K respectively. However, amorphous bulk alloy rod was not formed using the Cu-mold die casting. The mechanical properties were in the range of of hardness and GPa of tensile strength in the whole composition range.
High-temperature medium and time-varying covering flux lead to the difficulty of molten steel level measurement. For the measurement, in our previous work, a novel principle by using temperature gradient was proposed by us, and a refractory sensor was inserted into the metallurgical container to sense the temperature gradients of the flux and the molten steel. However, sometimes liquid adhesive flux on the sensor surface disables the extraction of true temperature gradients. To fix this problem, two new models, the adhesion thickness model and the adhesion flowability model, which are inspired by the adhesion mechanism of the flux, are proposed to detect the steel-flux interface. A unified approach, sequential clustering of the shapes of the pixel gray-time curves, is introduced to conduct the detection. On this basis, the thermal image sequence with 4-D spacetime information of the sensor is used for clustering. First, gray values of each pixel in the sequence are sorted in the time dimension, and grouping of the pixels in space dimension is done. Then, the region of interest is extracted from the image sequence to remove the invalid pixels, and sequential clustering is conducted with each group. Finally, the confidence of the clustering results is measured and the clustering results with the confidence higher than the threshold are retained to detect the steel-flux interface. By utilizing the two new models, the standard deviation of the measurement errors reduces from 4.8 to 3.7 mm.
The fabricating methods of nanoscale shapes on Si (100) surface by using atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM) were investigated. As a result, nanoscale grooves and faces were fabricated by the scratching methods using AFM. The scratching loads had a major influence on these shapes. Nanoscale pits, grooves and faces were fabricated by STM as a result of controlling the sample bias voltage and the tip curvature radius of tungsten probes. Cross-sectional TEM observations of the nanoscale grooves and faces fabricated by AFM and STM were carried out to study the microstructural changes of Si single crystals. As a result of the TEM observations, it was found that many dislocations and an amorphous phase appeared in the surface of the grooves and faces fabricated by AFM. On the other hand, the single crystalline structure without a dislocation was preserved in the surface of the grooves and faces fabricated by STM. Based on these results, it is considered that the fabricating mechanisms of AFM and STM are a mechanical processing and an electric field evaporation, respectively.
A monodisperse nanoparticle sample of polystyrene has been employed to determine performance of the 36 meter small‐angle neutron scattering (SANS) BATAN spectrometer (SMARTer) at the Neutron Scattering Laboratory (NSL)—Serpong, Indonesia, in a very low scattering vector q‐range. Detector position at 18 m from sample position, beam stopper of 50 mm in diameter, neutron wavelength of 5.66 A as well as 18 m‐long collimator had been set up to achieve very low scattering vector q‐range of SMARTer. A polydisperse smeared‐spherical particle model was applied to fit the corrected small‐angle scattering data of monodisperse polystyrene nanoparticle sample. The mean average of particle radius of 610 A, volume fraction of 0.0026, and polydispersity of 0.1 were obtained from the fitting results. The experiment results from SMARTer are comparable to SANS‐J, JAEA ‐ Japan and it is revealed that SMARTer is powerfully able to achieve the lowest scattering vector down to 0.002 A−1.
By an extention of the previous method2) a theoretical study has been made of the concentration distribution for the non-steady state diffusion in repeated laminates. The laminates considered are composed of 2m repeating units of two different substrates 1 and 2. The method to obtain the concentration distribution in a laminate 1-22) has been extended for a repeated laminate 1-2-1-2…, The treatment has been given for the conditions where the diffusion coefficients are constant and Henry's law is obeyed in each phase.Several cases have been treated numerically, and the concentration distribution and sorption rate for the laminate were compared respectively with those for homogeneous membranes.Several methods to evaluate the over-all diffusion coefficient from either the concentration distribution or the sorption rate have been suggested for the laminate system.
Abstract : Results of experimental investigations to determine threshold levels for minimally-sized retinal lesions caused by neodymium long-pulsed and Q-switched lasers are presented. The experimental animals were rhesus monkeys. In addition, results of retinal damage due to Q-switched ruby, neodymium, and doubled neodymium lasers at suprathreshold energy levels are also presented. A report on histopathology of retinal injury caused by Q-switched lasers is presented. Observations on damage due to both ruby and neodymium lasers are discussed. The design and construction of a fundus reflectometer is described, and preliminary measurements of fundus reflectance of rabbit, rhesus monkey, and human subjects are reported. Results of an experimental investigation to determine threshold damage levels for a CO2 laser to rabbit corneas are given. Data for three exposure times are included. In addition, theoretical calculations based on a one-dimensional heat-flow model are reported, and comparison is made with the experimental results. Finally, some results on permanent corneal damage due to CO2 laser are reported. (Author)
Abstract A conventional three dimensional (3D) printer utilizes horizontal planar layering to produce 3D printed parts. The development of a higher degree of freedom 3D printing platform allows for vertical and horizontal layering to be achieved in the same print. 3D-printed specimens were created using a conventional Cartesian 3D printer that utilizes layer upon layer deposition in a single plane. Multiplane 3D printed specimens were also created, using a robot arm platform with multiplane layering capabilities. All of the test specimens were put through tensile tests to characterize the mechanical properties of multiplane layered parts compared to single-plane layered parts. Three printing orientations, upright, on-edge, and horizontal, were used for both the conventional 3D printer and the robot arm platform 3D printer processes. The results show that the multiplane layering method implemented by the robot arm 3D printer improved the modulus of elasticity, the yield strength, and the ultimate tensile strength of the tensile specimens in the upright printing orientation compared to the specimens created by the conventional 3D printer. These results can be used to improve the design of 3D printed parts that require specific mechanical characteristics.
The invention concerns a melting furnace comprising a wall (2) and cooling water boxes (6) fixed on the wall with fixing means (20, 22), each water cooling box comprising a refractory mass (16) exposed inside the furnace and a cooling circuit. The fixing means (20, 22) are arranged such that each water cooling box (6) is detachable independently from the others, by sliding horizontally outwards of the furnace.
It is clear that scientists are now only beginning to comprehend the complexity of transdermal drug delivery. Elucidation of the biochemical composition and functioning of the intrinsic diffus ion barrier of the stratum corneum has prompted investigation of chemical and physical means of enhancing the percutaneous penetration of poorly absorbed drugs. Skin as an important site of drug application for both local and systemic effects However in skin, the stratum corneum is the main barrier for drug penetration. Penetration enhancement technology is a challenging development that would increase the number of drugs available for transdermal administration. The permeation of drug through skin can be enhanced by chemical penetration enhancement methods. In this review, we have discussed the chemical penetration enhancement technology for transdermal drug delivery as well as the probable mechanism of action.
The evolution of the microstructure and the composition distribution of as-cast and homogenized 2124 aluminum alloy were studied by optical microscopy (OM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray diffractometry (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The results show that serious dendrite segregation exists in the 2124 alloy ingot, and many eutectic phases with low melting-point exist in the grain boundary. Cu, Mg and Mn elements distribute unevenly from the grain boundary to inside of the alloy. The non-equilibrium eutectic phases dissolve after homogenization, and the grain boundary becomes sparse and all elements become more homogenized. The over-burnt temperature is 504 ℃. And the proper homogenizing process of the 2124 alloy is (490 ℃, 24 h), which is corresponding with the results of homogenizing kinetic equation.
Ultra coarse grain cemented carbide is a kind of developing and advanced cemented carbide for mining tools.Dissolution method of nanometer powder was used to prepare extraordinarily coarse grain cemented carbide with an average grain size of 8 9 μm in the paper.The results show that coarsening of the fine WC grains is controlled by diffusion of nanometer powder.This method leads to not only increase in average grain size of WC,but also high homogeneity of WC grain size distribution.Moreover,the number of complicated shape grains decreases and crystallization of the WC grains improves.
In an injector for fuel injection in an internal combustion engine, in which in particular a piezoelectric actuator (2) by means of a crank pin (3) actuates a servo valve or a nozzle needle, a problem arises in that the actuator (2) against the high fuel pressure in a leakage space (6) must be sealed. According to the invention, therefore, a device with a sealing ring is proposed, which comprises a flexible and fuel resistant plastic ring (4). The plastic ring (4) encloses the crank pin (3) centered and sealingly fixed against the applied fuel pressure. Furthermore, the plastic ring (4) is enclosed by a metal ring (5) determined, which in turn prevents axial displacement inside the housing (1). This advantageously means that not only a seal against the fuel pressure is achieved, but also a precise axial guidance of the actuator (2) or of the crank pin (3), without their vertical mobility is impaired.
The morphology of the delta and gamma forms of syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) was investigated using scanning electron microscopy. The crystalline forms, delta and gamma, characterized by the chains in helical conformation, were obtained by solvent-induced crystallization from the amorphous glassy polymer. Dichloromethane and acetone were used to obtain the delta and the gamma form, respectively. The last form was obtained by thermal treatments of the delta form, too. The surface of the solvent-crystallized samples shows a texture characterized by oriented elements and cavities, whereas the internal part is microspherulitic in the case of the delta form and is more complex in the gamma form. At variance, the gamma form obtained by annealing the delta form shows a much more regular microspherulitic texture.
A method for starting a four-stroke internal combustion engine with several cylinders (22), to the combustion chambers of at least one compressed air tank (38) directly via controllable charging valves (40) is connected, comprising the steps of: transferring the motor in a preferential position in which at least one first piston of a first cylinder (22) assumes a position just after the firing TDC, and driving the first piston. For the transfer of the motor in the preferential position, compressed air can be supplied from the compressed air tank (38) into the combustion chamber of a cylinder (22). The driving of the first piston can take place in the combustion chamber of the cylinder (22) by fuel injection into the combustion chamber of the cylinder (22), and initiation or by supplying compressed air from the compressed air tank (38).
Of the invention is that the value of the central angle of the outer magnetic pole parts to the central angle of the non-magnetic portion of each magnetic pole magnetization, and Y, the magnet portion to the circumferential length of each magnetic pole magnetization The value of the magnetic portion in the radial direction when the thickness ratio, called X, -0.3X + 0.63> Y The conditions to satisfy.
1緒 言 近年のナノテクノロジーの発展に伴い,広 い分野において ナノ材料の応用展開が図られてきている.中 でも金属酸化物 微粒子の用途は,研 磨,光 学,回 路基板,さ らには医学にま で及び,様 々な分野での応用が期待されている.我 々は金 属酸化物を中心としたナノサイズ微粒子の開発に取 り組み, これまでに種々の金属酸化物や複合酸化物において,ナ ノサ イズの微粒子を合成 してきた.本 報告では,こ れらの金属酸 化物粒子の中から,酸 化セリウム粒子 と酸化ジルコニウム粒 子について,合 成法 と得 られ た微粒子の形状および結晶構造 を解析 した結果について報告する. 酸化セ リウムと酸化ジルコニウムについては,酸 化セ リウ ムはCMP研 磨や紫外線遮蔽材料な どに利用されてお り,また 酸化ジルコニウムは主に高靭性保護膜材料や高屈折率材料な どに利用されている.こ れ らの用途では,現 状サブミクロン サイズのものが多用されているが,ナ ノサイズに微粒子化す ることにより,新 たな特性の発現が期待される.し かしなが ら,酸 化物を得 るためには高温での加熱処理が必要不可欠で あ り,そ のために少なからず焼結が起こる.こ の課題は,粒 子サイズが小さくなるほど深刻とな り,ナ ノサイズ微粒子を 得 る上では重要な課題である. このような加熱処理による焼結を防止する合成法 として, ゾルーゲル法や超臨界水熱法が知られている.特 に,最 近 注 目されている超臨界水熱法では,粒 子サイズや結晶構造を 正確に制御することが可能である反面,高 温 ・高圧下での処 理 とな るため,製 造コス トが高 くなるという問題がある.ま たゾルーゲル法では数十nmサ イズの粒子は報告されている が,数nmサ イズのものは得 られていない. 本報告では,焼 結を防止するため,で きる限 り低温条件で の合成 を試み,従 来の合成法では得 られなかったナノサイズ で板状形状の粒子の合成を目的とした.
The invention relates to a shape adaptive medical implant with at least one actuator, by which the implant can be adjusted from a first implant geometry in a second implant geometry, wherein the implant into the second implant geometry having a different geometric shape than in the first implant geometry, wherein the actuator comprises a swellable chemical substance that swells as a result of hydration, and wherein the implant has a liquid transporting means at least which is adapted to supply outside of the implant to the existing liquid swellable chemical substance. The invention also relates to the use of an electrical signal source.
High-temperature pyrolysis of various classes of polymers have been discussed. For the non-carbonizing polymers it was shown that polymer structure can affect the pyrolysis characteristics. Data on the high-temperature pyrolysis of some polypropylene samples with different crystallinity have been presented. Modification of the standard method allowing one to obtain kinetic data from the single experiment was discussed. A kinetic model for the degradation of char-forming polymers in conditions of high-temperature pyrolysis has been suggested. It has been supposed that pyrolysis of carbonizing polymers proceeds in some (two in present work) parallel stages with different activation energies, temperatures and pyrolysis rates. Questions of the applicability of the suggested model to describe the various types of charring systems have been discussed. High-temperature pyrolysis for a number of epoxy resin-based polymeric compositions have been investigated. Kinetic parameters of the pyrolysis have been computed.
To obtain strong hydrophobic property of silica,on the basis of traditional modification process with silane coupling agent stearic acid was introduced as complex modifier to modify the nano-silica powder.The modified silica particles were characterized with Fourier transform infrared analysis(FTIR),X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),contact angle tests and sedimentation tests.The complex modification mechanism was also discussed.The results showed that amino group(—NH2)was grafted successfully onto the surface of nano-silica particles by modification with silane coupling agent.After the second modification with stearic acid,amide bond(—CONH—)was formed by amino group(—NH2)and carboxyl group(—COOH)of stearic acid.As a result,the —(CH2)3COHN—(CH2)16CH3 group was obtained on the surface of nano-silica particles,which had excellent hydrophobic property.Because of the complex modification,the stearic acid molecules were grafted on the surface of nano-silica particles by chemical bonds,and the contact angle could reach 140°.
Silica exists under a number of different forms, either crystalline or vitreous. The density of silica glass is about 5% lower than that of cristobalite and 20% lower than that of quartz, two crystals of the same chemical composition. Further, vitreous silica can be permanently densified under high pressure and high temperature by more than 20%, keeping an amorphous structure. What is the origin of these differences at the microscopic scale ? We will first review our knowledge of the structure of silica glass : the basic element of the structure is a SiO4 tetrahedron as in crystals, but the angles between tetrahedra are irregular. Then, results of experiments for silica glass under compression will be presented. Under pressures in the GPa range, the results depend drastically on the fluid used as a pressure-transmitting medium for the compression : while the volume of the silica sample changes dramatically in argon, only a very small decrease in size is observed under helium. This shows that helium penetrates inside silica, the open and flexible structure of the glass allowing gas atoms to distend the network, the same way a porous material deforms upon fluid adsorption. Furthermore, a fine quantitative analysis of the behavior of the Raman modes in function of pressure shows that changes in force constants between atoms and bond angles between tetrahedra in the network occur simultaneously.
Cyclic voltammetry and polarization curve were used for study of the electrochemical mechanism of the TiNi alloy in amidosulphonic acid-formamide system.The anodic polarization curves and the Tafel curves were obtained.The dynamical parameters of the NiTi alloy are as follows: a=5.6399,b=0.7229,(i_0=)1.5784×10~(-8) A·cm~(-2),nβ=0.08.The results of cyclic voltammetry show that the NiTi alloy dissolves in the solution as intermetallics as a whole but no as titanium and nickel separately.The anodic reaction of the NiTi alloy in the system belongs to an irreversible process,the anodic peak on the CV curve corresponds with an one step seven electrons oxidation process,and the anodic reaction is: NiTi-7e→ Ti~(4+)+Ni~(3+).For Ni~(3+) is very instable in the acid solution,then a reduction process happens as follows: Ni~(3+)+e→Ni~(2+).
FROM analysis by means of polarized light it has long been known that nerves possess a high degree of molecular organization. The axis cylinder is positively birefringent due to the presence of anisotropic material, the optic axis of which lies parallel to the long axis of the fiber. The myelin sheath is constructed of lipoid fluid crystals with optic axes perpendicular to the direction of the fiber and radially oriented (Schmidt, 18). The positive birefringence of the axis cylinder is due presumably to the protein neurofibrils which, though visible in fixed and stained preparations, have never been demonstrated in living medullated axons under physiological conditions (Peterfi, 16). In view of the success with which the x-ray diffraction method for fine-structure analysis has been applied to certain other fibrous animal tissues such as hair, chitin, connective tissue, etc., it is desirable that full use be made of this tool in the case of nerve, particularly since modern research on nerve energetics reve...
Sol-gel technique takes advantage of the structural directing properties and templating characteristics of non-ionic, anionic and cationic surfactant to produce porous Iridium oxide, with Samarium doped Ceria (SDC) nanoparticles. The nano-powders were calcined at a temperature of 950°C, and the crystalline nanostructures and compositions were characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Textural characteristics and particle morphology were respectively characterized by Nitrogen sorption at 77.5 K and scanning electron microscopy. The nature of the surfactant influenced particle morphology, pore diameter, pore size, Crystallite size, surface area and electrochemical properties.
Long,cylindrical parts are usually produced with Gas-Assisted Injection Molding(GAIM) which can greatly reduce the required injection pressure and the parts′weight.However,improper setting of initial injection melt will lead to insufficiency of gas penetration or gas blow out.therefore analysis of the initial injection melt is necessary.In this article,the initial injection melt in the gas-assisted injection process was studied as gas penetration taking place in 1-dimension model,the volume of gas hollowing out was equal to the same of the melt front advancing during the filling stage of the whole process,also the formula for the minimum injection melt was given finally which can give directions for practice.
We have developed 1.1-μm-range high-speed VCSELs based on InGaAs-QWs for high-speed and highly reliable optical interconnections. 3-dB bandwidth up to 20 GHz and error-free 30-Gbps 100 m operations were demonstrated with oxide confined VCSELs. We also developed buried tunnel junction VCSELs to further improve the relaxation oscillation frequency limit. 3-dB bandwidth up to 24 GHz and error-free 40-Gbps operations were demonstrated with these VCSELs.
ABSTRACT A hyperbranched derivative of trazine group (EA) and ammonium polyphosphate (APP) are incorporated into polylactide (PLA) in a constant amount. The component ratio effect of APP/EA on the flammability and anti-dripping property of PLA are investigated using the limiting oxygen index, vertical burning, and cone calorimetry tests. Results indicate that composite has the highest LOI value (41.2%) and the lowest peak heat release rate (139 kW/m2) when the mass ratio of APP/EA is 15/5. Meanwhile, UL 94 V-0 rating is achieved and no flammable dripping is observed. Residues are also investigated by scanning electron microscopy, Fouriertransform infrared, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Results demonstrate that a complete cross-linking reaction has occurred in PLA/15%APP/5%EA composite, which improves the melt strength and locks more chemical constituents containing carbon and nitrogen in the residues. Therefore, a dense, compact and intumescent char layer is formed.
We demonstrate a method for mode-selection by coupling a GaN nanowire laser to an underlying gold substrate. Multimode lasing of GaN nanowires is converted to single-mode behavior following placement onto a gold film. A mode-dependent loss is generated by the absorbing substrate to suppress multiple transverse-mode operation with a concomitant increase in lasing threshold of only ∼13%. This method provides greater flexibility in realizing practical single-mode nanowire lasers and offers insight into the design of metal-contacted nanoscale optoelectronics.
Thermal and electrical tuning of laser emission from optically pumped blue phase I of dye-doped short pitch cholesteric mixtures have been achieved. Temperature changes or applied electric field to the liquid crystal cells induce structural changes in the blue phase configuration, producing a shift of the photonic band gap. The emission tunability in a structure that in addition allows multidirectional emission may herald a new age of multipurpose laser sources. Furthermore, the reversibility of the effect points out the potential applications of these soft photonic self-assembled materials.
A dual-band periodic structure is here proposed, which allows for versatile frequency selectivity and polarization conversion functionality. The structure is a monolithic full-metal piece, and it is built from the arrangement of unit cells consisting of waveguide sections at cutoff loaded with compound perforations. The topology of such unit cells enables the efficient and independent interaction with vertical and horizontal electric field components illuminating the periodic structure. A circuit model is proposed to characterize the cells and understand their behavior. Three different examples of cells are designed to illustrate the structure versatile functionality. One of these examples is manufactured, consisting of a dual-band structure that converts linear polarization into circular with orthogonal senses of rotation at each band. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions, thus validating the underlying operation mechanism and its practical feasibility.
Balloon-borne measurements of atmospheric electrical parameters made during the last several years indicate that there has been a significant change in the average small-ion mobility. In addition, on some soundings abrupt changes in the ion mobility profile have been noted. These variations provide an unusual opportunity to experimentally study the functional relationships between mobility, ion density, conductivity, and the recombination coefficient in the stratosphere. Within the uncertainties involved it is found that the measurements support the simple, predicted theoretical relationships between these various parameters. If fluctuations in ion mobility are in fact a usual occurrence, then this work indicates that variations frequently observed in the ion concentration are probably related to changes in ion mobility rather than aerosol variations, as is usually assumed. One somewhat surprising result predicted by the functional relationships between the electrical parameters indicates that the ambient conductivity may be relatively insensitive to mobility variations.
Microwave S-parameter measurements and equivalent-circuit modeling of In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As/In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As/InP semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor FETs (SISFETs) of 1.1- mu m gate length are discussed. The devices incorporated wide-bandgap buffers, self-aligned contact implants, and refractory air-bridge gates. Their DC I-V characteristics displayed sharp pinchoff, good output conductance of 10-20 mS/ss, and extrinsic transconductance up to 220 ms/mm at room temperature. The maximum unity-current-gain frequency was 27 GHz. Gate resistance was found to be the dominant factor limiting microwave power gain.<<ETX>>
This paper studies the effect of replacement ratio of modified starch ether(SE) on the property of fresh mortar,the result shows that SE can increase the viscosity of cement paste under certain dosage although its lower viscosity. Meanwhile mortar flow and its wet apparent density will be modified by utilizing SE,water retention will be sharply decreased at the same time.Rheology test indicates that SE would raise mortar yield stress value which helps to improve sag resistance. SE has no significant effect on the setting time,but if replacement ratio is above 30%,the setting time will be reduced slightly.
The knowledge of self-diffusion of various elements is important for understanding and elucidating the long-term dissolution of the nuclear waste glass. The self-diffusion coefficients of Na and Cs in P0798 simulated nuclear waste glass have been measured by an ion beam sputter-sectioning technique using the radioactive isotopes 22 Na and 137 Cs. The temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficients in each temperature range in P0798 glass below the glass transition temperature Tg can be expressed by the following equations: (428-574K) : D Na-belowTg = 2.7 x 10 -6 exp(-113±4kJ.mol -1 /RT)m 2 .s -1 (713-758K): D Cs-belowTg = 7.1 x 10 -5 exp(-241±10kJ.mol -1 /RT)m 2 .s -1 The diffusion coefficient of 22 Na was about ten orders of magnitude larger than that of 137 Cs at 573 K. The large difference in the diffusion coefficients is explained in terms of the ion size effect, the mixed-alkali effect and lower concentration of Cs compared with Na in P0798 glass.
Black chromium deposits obtained from NAL black chromium13; bath (patented) are characterised by X-ray diffraction, SEM and TEM. These studies reveal that good quality black chromium deposits are obtained from this bath even at low current density and at relatively higher temperatures. This bath has good covering power on copper also. Based on the detailed study13; of chemical and phase compositions it is concluded that the coating is a composite containing chromium particles in amorphous Cr2O3 Matrix.
For the first time, a laser ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (LI-TOFS) characterization has been performed on silicon oxycarbide glasses obtained by pyrolysis of sol–gel precursors. This technique allows to desorb intermediate range mesounits from the network, and to determine their mass and atomic identity precisely. It is therefore complementary to all the other analysis typically performed on SiOC glasses as it leads to collect information on a length scale which is usually difficult to probe: the medium range. The results indicate the presence, in the SiOC glasses, of mixed silicon oxycarbide units together with pure silicate mesounits (SiO2 and SiO3).
This research developed new nanostructured Al–Fe3O4 composites via accumulative roll bonding (ARB). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and field emission scanning electron microscopy were conducted to examine microstructural characteristics and particle distribution in the nanocomposites. Hardness and tensile strength tests were employed to examine their mechanical properties. After eight cycles of XRD analysis, the size of the Al crystals in the nanocomposites reached 198 nm. After eight cycles of tests on mechanical properties, the Al crystals exhibited a tensile strength and a hardness of 204 MPa and 63 HV, respectively. These values are higher than those achieved by pure Al. The depth of nanocomposite rupture observed in fractographic analysis revealed that a ductile fracture occurred in the materials because of the formation and growth of cavities.
A receiver for nano communication includes a power source including a cathode and an anode; a cathode unit connected to the cathode of the power source, the cathode unit including a nano device configured to receive a wireless signal modulated according to a predetermined modulation scheme, have at least two different resonant frequencies, and resonate based on a frequency of the wireless signal and the at least two different resonant frequencies; and an anode unit connected to the anode of the power source, the anode unit being configured to detect electrons emitted from the nano device, and demodulate a the wireless signal based on a pattern of the detected electrons.
Hexagonal AlN thin films have been obtained by Physical Vapor Deposition(PVD) Cathodic Arc ion Plating on single-crystal Si(100) substrates at different negative biases. X-ray diffraction was used to analyze the phase constitution and the change of preferential orientation of the asdeposited films. The morphology of the as-deposited films was observed using Scanning Electron Mi- croscopy(SEM). The results show that AlN films with(002) preferred orientation have smooth surfaces at lower biases, while AlN films with(100) preferred orientation have rough surfaces at higher biases. The preferred orientation and the morphology Of AlN thin films are determined by the bombarding energy at different negative biases.
The invention discloses a process for manufacturing a fluorinated silicone rubber extrusion hose using carbon fibers as an enhancement layer. The process comprises the following steps of: extruding an inner rubber layer on a mold core of required size; performing surface treatment on carbon fiber cloth to improve the content of polar groups on the surface of the carbon fiber cloth; winding or weaving the carbon fiber cloth which is subjected to the surface treatment and is used as the enhancement layer on the inner rubber layer; coating an outer rubber layer on the surface of the carbon fiber cloth; and vulcanizing the obtained hose to obtain a finished product, wherein the inner rubber layer and the outer rubber layer comprise fluorinated silicone rubber. The carbon fiber cloth is used as the enhancement layer to manufacture the fluorinated silicone rubber extrusion hose, so that the problems of low intensity and low pressure resistance of the conventional fluorinated silicone rubber extrusion hose are solved, and the temperature resistance and the pressure resistance of the fluorinated silicone rubber are exerted to the maximum extent. The hose produced by the process can be applied in fields of aerospace, aviation, nuclear power plants, military industry equipment and the like.
This article reports an experimental study on copper–water nanofluid flow inside plain and perforated channels. The effects of flow rate and nanoparticle concentration on the heat transfer and pressure drop are studied. It is found that the perforated channel has a remarkable heat transfer enhancement of 24.6%. Furthermore, by using the copper–water nanofluid instead of the base fluid, the heat transfer coefficient as well as pressure drop are increased for both plain and perforated channels. A noticeable thermal performance factor of 1.34 is obtained for the simultaneous utilization of both the heat transfer enhancement techniques considered in this article.
High-brightness XFELs are in demand for many users, in particular for multiple types of imaging applications. Seeded FELs including self-seeding XFELs were successfully demonstrated. Alternative approaches by enhancing slippage between the x-ray pulse and the electron bunch were also demonstrated. This class of Slippage-enhanced SASE (SeSASE) schemes can be unique for FEL spectral range between 1.5 keV to 4 keV where neither grating-based soft x-ray self-seeding nor crystal-based hard x-ray self-seeding can easily access. SeSASE can provide high-brightness XFEL for high repetition rate machines not suffering from heat load on the crystal monochromator. We report start-toend simulation results for LCLS-II project and preliminary experimental results for PAL-XFEL project. SLIPPAGE-ENHANCED SASE (SESASE) Free electron lasers (FEL) are perceived as the nextgeneration light source for many frontier scientific researches. Ultra-fast hard-X-ray FEL pulses, providing atomic and femtosecond spatial-temporal resolution, makes them a revolutionary tool attracting world-wide interest [1,2]. While an FEL provides high spatial coherence due to gain selection, i.e., only the transverse mode which has the highest gain will dominate at the end of the undulator; the temporal coherence is rather poor. The temporal structure is spiky with coherent spikes with random relative phase among them [3]. In the high-gain region, the FEL group velocity ∗ Work was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515 and the US DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program grant FWP-2013-SLAC-100164. † jhwu@slac.stanford.edu ‡ Now at Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, CA, USA § Also as UCLA., Los Angeles, CA, USA ¶ Visiting Ph.D. student from Institute of High Energy Physics, and UCAS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China ‖ Visiting Ph.D. student from NSRL, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China ∗∗On sabbatical leave from Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea ††hskang@postech.ac.kr is vg = ω0/(k0 + 2ku/3) and the electron longitudinal velocity is vl = ω0/(k0 + ku) where ω0 = k0c = 2πc/λ0 with c speed of light in vacuum, λ0 the FEL resonance wavelength; and ku = 2π/λu with λu the undulator period. So, the coherent spike duration, the cooperation duration, is only τs ≈ Nuλ0/(3c) where Nu is the total undulator period for the FEL to reach saturation. The so-called cooperation length is Zc = τsc. For the LCLS 1.5-Å FEL, Nu ≈ 2000 to reach saturation, so τs ≈ 0.3 fs, which is much shorter than the electron bunch duration on the order of 10 to 100 fs. To improve the temporal coherence, seeding approaches: both external [4,5] and self-seeding [6,7] have been actively pursued. Another approach along this line is to try to increase the slippage between the electron bunch and the FEL pulse. Such Slippage-enhanced SASE (SeSASE) [8–11] can produce bandwidth much narrower than that of a conventional SASE. The first preliminary experimental results was reported in Ref. [10]. ONE-DIMENSIONAL THEORY To understand the SeSASE mechanism, let us work with a 1-D theory here. Such analysis is very similar to those developed in Refs. [12–14]. The coupled Maxwell-Vlasov equations for the FELs can be written as [14]: ( ∂ ∂z − 2ikuην ) F (ν, η, z) = κ1 A (ν; z) ∂ ∂η V (η) , (1) ( ∂ ∂z − i∆νku ) A (ν; z) = κ2 ∫ F (ν, η; z) dη, (2) where z is the coordinate along the undulator system; η = (γ − γ0) /γ0 the relative energy deviation with γ0 the electron resonant energy; ν = ω/ω0 with ω the radiation frequency which is different from the FEL resonant frequency ω0; ∆ν = ν − 1 the detuning parameter; F (ν, η, z) is the electron bunch bunching factor; A (ν; z) is the slow varying envelop function of the FEL field, and V (η) is the 38th International Free Electron Laser Conference FEL2017, Santa Fe, NM, USA JACoW Publishing ISBN: 978-3-95450-179-3 doi:10.18429/JACoW-FEL2017-TUP058 TUP058 340 Co nt en tf ro m th is w or k m ay be us ed un de rt he te rm so ft he CC BY 3. 0 lic en ce (© 20 18 ). A ny di str ib ut io n of th is w or k m us tm ai nt ai n at tri bu tio n to th e au th or (s ), tit le of th e w or k, pu bl ish er ,a nd D O I. Advanced Concepts & Techniques Figure 1: Schematics of an one-stage SeSASE FEL. electron bunch initial energy spread distribution function. The coefficients κ1 and κ2 define the FEL parameter ρ [15]: κ1κ2 = k2 uρ 3. (3) Passing through an undulator gap providing a distance of D, both the FEL field and the electron bunching factor acquire an additional phase: A (ν; z + D) = A (ν; z) eu, (4) F (ν, η; z + D) = F (ν, η; z) e . (5) One-stage SeSASE Now let us discuss an undulator systemwith two undulator sections interrupted by a phase shifter in-between as shown in Fig. 1. The analysis here is similar to Ref. [16]. The first stage is a SASE process with the initial conditions: E1ν (0) = 0, ∫ F1ν (0) = 1 Nλ Ne ∑
While deep reactive ion etching using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source has proven to be a boon to the fabrication of silicon-based microelectromechanical systems, the process is highly sensitive to the geometry of any given device and needs to be modified accordingly. For a chemical microreactor involving fluidic structures of highly varying geometry on the same device, the implementation of ICP etching can be especially challenging. We present the results of a study of one such implementation.
MAS-osumilite is a metastable double-ring silicate which is attractive for use in glass-ceramics because of its low thermal expansion coefficient. The phase can be crystallized from glass powders of MAS-osumilite composition containing small amounts of BaO. The nucleation and crystallization process has been investigated by means of TEM and SEM. Crystallization starts with the precipitation of β-quartzss of composition MgAl2O4·nSiO2. BaO concentrates in a residual glass phase between the β-quartzss crystals. In a second stage small amounts of Ba-osumilite (BaMg2Al6-Si9O30) nucleate and crystallize from this glass phase, In a third stage BaO-free MAS-osumilite crystals are formed by epitactic growth on the Ba-osumilite surfaces and grow into adjacent β-quartzss grains. Two factors are essential for the suppression of undesired further phases to develop a monophase (besides some Ba-osumilite) MAS-osumilite glassceramic: a residual glass phase with a composition close to Ba-osumilite, and β-quartzss crystals having a composition close to that of MAS-osumite.
Gelation Process is the main approach to prepare the UO_2 ceramic microspheres,whichserves as the core of the high temperature gas cooled reactor(HTR) fuel elements.In the process of preparing the microspheres,the casting solution is first emitted from the nozzle into an air section in order to obtain droplets with specific degree of sphericity.The droplets are subsequently injected into the gelation section and solidified.The distance from the nozzle to the ammonia section is the length of the air section.To prepare the UO_2 ceramic microspheres with higher sphericity,a mathematical model was established to calculate the optimized length of the air section theoretically and the calculated outcome has been validated by experiment.
The source is a pivotal technology to improve the resolution of the optical coherence tomography (OCT). A novel method of synthesis of several light-emitting diode (LED) sources is proposed for the optical coherence tomography. Theoretical analysis and computer simulation show that the method can improve the resolution. The influences of the parameters of sources on the resolution are discussed. The optimization parameters of sources are given to decrease the coherence length and inhibit the side lobes.
Combustion is the reaction of fuel with oxygen in the air to release heat. Combustion is a complex interaction of physical and chemical processes. A good fuel for combustion is a material rich in hydrogen and carbon, called hydrocarbons. To ensure the combustion process can run perfectly, the combustion is carried out in excess air conditions (excess air). To increase thermal efficiency in the use of solid biomass fuels, combustion through cylinder type rocket furnaces is very possible. This study aims to examine more deeply the level of heat transfer rate that might occur in a cylindrical type rocket furnace into the environment. From the combustion test results, the maximum combustion temperature in the combustion chamber is ± 807.6 oC and ± 652 oC on the flame. While the rate of heat transfer rate from inside the rocket furnace to the environment is ± 2036.18 watts in the combustion chamber and ± 1500.38 on the flames. The high level of heat transfer rate is influenced by the characteristics of the solid biomass of tamarind wood species which affects the high and low combustion temperatures.
Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic devices made of PCDTBT (poly[N‐9′‐hepta‐decanyl‐2,7‐carbazole‐alt‐5,5‐(4′,7′‐di‐2‐thienyl‐2′,1′,3′‐benzothiadiazole)]) and PC70BM ([6,6]‐phenyl‐C70‐butyric acid methyl ester) are among the most efficient and stable devices studied so far. However, during a short regime called “burn‐in”, a significant decrease of power conversion efficiency was observed. A study of the photochemical mechanisms involved in the PCDTBT:PCBM active layer exposed to light in encapsulated systems is presented. It is found that the photochemical reactions resulting from the absorption of light by PCDTBT involve crosslinking between the 2,7 carbazole unit of PCDTBT and the fullerene unit of PCBM. Those reactions stabilize the BHJ by avoiding the formation of microsized PCBM crystals known to cause failure of BHJ solar cells. Using classical electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) (without illumination), paramagnetic defects along the polymer chains have been detected. The kinetics of defects intensity show a burn‐in trend. The evolution of their relaxation times upon aging is in good agreement with a structural change (crosslinking) of the BHJ observed from the nanomechanical properties. Finally, light‐induced electron paramagnetic resonance (LEPR) measurements performed on aged samples revealed that electron transfer is not significantly affected upon aging, confirming thus the stabilization of the BHJ in solar cell operating conditions.
The present article introduces a survey on ultrasonic technologies applied to material processing and describes the possibilities of improving the quality of coating made by thermal spraying introducing ultrasound into the covering process. The article contains the results of some other research works and discusses a number of conclusions about the possibilities of applying ultrasound in thermal spray technologies.
The spraying coating technology of PVDF on aluminium alloy was studied.The specification of phosphate-chromate conversion film was investigated.The composition of phosphating-chromating bath was optimized by means of orthogonal and single factors tests.Nickel nitrate in the solution were used to improve the conversion film properties,such as the corrosion resistance of the film was nearly doubled.The optimum compatibile system of phosphate-chromate conversion film with PVDF primer and PVDF top coating is obtained.It is suitable to applying on aluminium alloy.
It has been found that the proposed PLL design results in reduced lock time and reference spur while maintaining stable closed -loop operation. Composite PFD provides high gain and high loop band width (BW) during lock -in and lower loop BW after getting locked -in resulting in improvement in lock -in and noise characteristics. NL-PFD helps in eliminating blind zone, and linear PFD helps in eliminating dead zone while suppressing unwanted glitches completely from the output of the PFDs resulting in reduced reference spur. Charge pump and LF topology have been developed so as to maintain constant phase margin to ensure stability during tracking and after lock -in. A prototype of PLL operating at 2.56 GHz developed with 180 nm CMOS process is found to achieve reference spur of -71.4 dB c at 20 MHz offset.
The orthorhombic Ruddlesden-Popper phase La2CuO4±δ with the Cmce space group was obtained by a solid-state reaction route. Thermochemical data were calculated for the reaction of lanthanum cuprate formation Thermogravimetric measurements show the oxygen content is close to stoichiometric. Cyclic CLOU experiment was carried out to determine a specific oxygen capacity (ΔWo exceeding 3.9%), as well as oxygen nonstoichiometry (δ) of La2CuO4±δ. The combustion rate of methane at 950 °C in the CLOU cycle about 0.5 l/min for one mole of lanthanum cuprate was achieved.
A manganite p–n heterojunction composed of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 film and 0.05 wt% Nb-doped SrTiO3 substrate is fabricated. Rectifying behavior of the junction well described by the Shockley equation is observed, and the transport properties of the interface are experimentally studied. A satisfactorily logarithmic linear dependence of resistance on temperature is observed in a temperature range of 150 K–380 K, and the linear relation between bias and activation energies deduced from the R−1/T curves is observed. According to activation energy, the interfacial barrier of the heterojunction is obtained, which is 0.91 eV.
Recently, an experimental work reported a very high Tc of ∼190 K in hydrogen sulphide (H2S) at 200 GPa. The search for new superconductors with high superconducting critical temperatures in hydrogen-dominated materials has attracted significant attention. Here we predict a candidate phase of MgH6 with a sodalite-like framework in conjunction with first-principles electronic structure calculations. The calculated formation enthalpy suggests that it is thermodynamically stable above 263 GPa relative to MgH2 and solid hydrogen (H2). Moreover, the absence of imaginary frequency in phonon calculations implies that this MgH6 structure is dynamically stable. Furthermore, our electron–phonon coupling calculation based on BCS theory indicates that this MgH6 phase is a conventional superconductor with a high superconducting critical temperature of ∼260 K under high pressure, which is even higher than that of the recently reported compressed H2S. The present results offer insight in understanding and designing new high-temperature superconductors.
The aim of this work is to study interactions of ions and molecules with calcium carbonate polymorphs during their spontaneous precipitation and their epitaxial growth on the suspended mineral particles by using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy of Mn2+ ions, along with other analytical methods and technics. The study of naturally occuring composite materials, shells for instance, are also anticipated. Mn2+ ions substitute for Ca2+ in calcite, aragonite or vaterite crystal lattice and thus provide details of the structure of these centres and their immediate environment. So far, the incorporation of divalent ions (Mg2+, Mn2+, Cu2+, Sr2+, Cd2+, Ba2+, Pb2+) in vaterite and calcite has been studied [1-4], and the mode and sites of incorporation for some of these ions were determined.It was found that alkaline-earth cations easily substitute for Ca2+, not perturbing the vaterite crystal lattice, while Cd2+, Cu2+ and Pb2+ were not found to incorporate into vaterite structure but caused formation of calcite in the vaterite precipitating system. The precipitation of calcium carbonates influenced by the addition of suspended mineral particles (montmorillonite, kaolinite, quartz) was investigated [5]. Ca-montmorillonite was found to be a suitable substrate for the overgrowth of calcite, i.e. the lattice parameters of the substrate and the overgrowing solid phase were similar. This means that the lattice mismatch s between calcite and montmorillonite, s = (a-b)/a (where a and b are the stress free lattice parameters of the substrate and the overgrowing phase, respectively), was less than 0.02. It was also found that nucleation of calcium carbonate polymorphs occurs on the particular crystal planes of montmorillonites, i.e. the planes perpendicular to the basal plane. The dimensions of these planes were varied by intercalation of different cations in the montmorillonite interlayers. The forthcoming investigations will be focused on the interactions of amino acids and poly-amino acids with calcium carbonates, which is a base for the understanding of biocomposite formation and also for the creation of new composite materials. Reference 1. Lj. Brecevic, V. Noethig-Laslo, D. Kralj and S. Popovic (1996) J. Chem. Phys. Faraday Trans. 92, 1017. 2. V. Noethig-Laslo and Lj. Brecevic(1998) J. Chem. Phys. Faraday Trans. 94, 2005. 3. V. Noethig-Laslo and Lj. Brecevic(1999) Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 1, 3697. 4. V. Noethig-Laslo and Lj. Brecevic(2000) Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2, 5328. 5. D. Kralj and N. Vdovic (2000) Wat. Res. 34, 179.
The mechanical behaviors of the steels HSLA-65, DH-36, AL-6XN and Nitronic-50 were systematically studied at strains over 40%, a temperature range of 77-1000 K and strain rates of 0.001 to 8000 s-1.The results are as follows (1) plastic flow stresses of the four steels are all very sensitive to the temperature and strain rate, the flow stresses increased with decreasing temperatures and increasing strain rates; (2) with plastic strain increasing or changing, the temperature history remarkably evolved the microstructure of fcc metals; (3) dynamic strain aging occured in proper temperature and strain rate region. With increasing strain rate, the temperature region of dynamic strain aging will shift to higher. Taking into account these phenomena, based on the mechanism of dislocation motion, including the effect of viscous drag on the motion of dislocations, physics based model was given in which the dynamic strain aging effects were excluded. Comparing the results predicted and measured, good agreement is obtained for the plastic flow stresses of these steels in a wide range of temperatures and strain rates.
Inelastic emission characteristics from individual ethanol droplets (60-microm diameter) containing Rhodamine 6G dye and pumped by a cw laser (514.5 nm) were investigated. Laser emission was confirmed by noting the spectral, temporal, and output-versus-input intensity behavior. The liquid-air boundary of the droplets provides the optical feedback at selected wavelengths corresponding to the morphology-dependent resonances of a spherical droplet.
Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) based on SiGeC havebeen investigated. Two high-frequency architectures have beendesigned, fabricated and characterized. Different collectordesigns were applied either by using selective epitaxial growthdoped with phosphorous or by non-selective epitaxial growthdoped with arsenic. Both designs have a non-selectivelydeposited SiGeC base doped with boron and a poly-crystallineemitter doped with phosphorous.Selective epitaxial growth of the collector layer has beendeveloped by using a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition(RPCVD) technique. The incorporation of phosphorous and defectformation during selective deposition of these layers has beenstudied. A major problem of phosphorous-doping during selectiveepitaxy is segregation. Different methods, e.g. chemical orthermal oxidation, are shown to efficiently remove thesegregated dopants. Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) hasalso been used as an alternative to solve this problem. The CMPstep was successfully integrated in the HBT process flow.Epitaxial growth of Si1-x-yGexCy layers for base layerapplications in bipolar transistors has been investigated indetail. The optimization of the growth parameters has beenperformed in order to incorporate carbon substitutionally inthe SiGe matrix without increasing the defect density in theepitaxial layers.The thermal stability of npn SiGe-based heterojunctionstructures has been investigated. The influence of thediffusion of dopants in SiGe or in adjacent layers on thethermal stability of the structure has also been discussed.SiGeC-based transistors with both non-selectively depositedcollector and selectively grown collector have been fabricatedand electrically characterized. The fabricated transistorsexhibit electrostatic current gain values in the range of 1000-2000. The cut-off frequency and maximum oscillation frequencyvary from 40-80 GHz and 15-30 GHz, respectively, depending onthe lateral design. The leakage current was investigated usinga selectively deposited collector design and possible causesfor leakage has been discussed. Solutions for decreasing thejunction leakage are proposed.Key words:Silicon-Germanium-Carbon (SiGeC),Heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), chemical vapordeposition (CVD), selective epitaxy, non-selective epitaxy,collector design, high-frequency measurement, dopantsegregation, thermal stability.
Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) provides chemical images with a high spatial resolution, approximately 100 nm, and detailed chemical information. It is, however, often necessary to obtain images of higher spatial resolution and to detect high mass secondary ions with greater sensitivity, higher than several 100 Da. In this study, in order to improve the TOF-SIMS spatial resolution, image fusion using an image with a higher spatial resolution was evaluated based on principal component analysis (PCA). Moreover, in order to effectively detect important secondary ions with lower intensity, the intensity of one pixel was enhanced by integrating neighboring several pixels. According to the pixel reduction, the rank of the TOF-SIMS data matrix should be reduced. Due to the sparsity of TOF-SIMS data, sparse modeling techniques such as robust PCA were employed to the decomposition of the original data. In terms of image data fusion, PCA score distribution images of the model samples indic...
Eleven types of polyethylene particles are used to examine the influence of particle properties on the gravity flow through an orifice located on a flat bottom of a vessel. The density of particles is varied from 825 to 945kg/m3 and four of them are mixed with a slipping agent to improve the surface properties. Orifice size is changed from 20 to 27mm with an increment of one mm. As a result, when Duro-hardness becomes small, the mass flow rate of particles decrease whereas the wall friction coefficient against an acrylic plate and the angle of repose increase. Although the contraction coefficient increases with a decrease in Duro-hardness, the flow coefficient of the Beverloos' correlation equation is lowered. The particles with slipping agent show a decrease in the wall friction coefficient.
A self-venting, anti-bubble, automatic fluid checking, precision filtration, infusion apparatus, the drip chamber (3) thereof being provided with a self-venting device; the self-venting device comprises a self-venting tube (5) and an air filtration membrane (4); the lower end of the self-venting tube (5) is fixed at the bottom of the drip chamber (3), and is provided with a venting through hole (6) therein for interconnecting the inner cavity of the drip chamber (3) with the external air; the air filtration membrane (4) is fixed at the top of the self-venting tube (5); an anti-bubble device is disposed inside the bottom of the drip chamber; the anti-bubble device is a hollow venting core (9); a liquid inlet groove (8) is provided on the side wall of the venting core (9); the inner cavity of the venting core (9) communicates with a liquid outlet tube (10) at the lower end of the drip chamber (3); the venting core (9), the bottom end of the drip chamber (3), and the liquid outlet tube (10) at the bottom end of the drip chamber (3) employ an integrated structure; a fluid checking device (7) is disposed above the venting core (9). The present invention can be used without inverting or squeezing the drip chamber (3) or closing a flow regulator (11), thus being convenient to operate; the air filtration membrane (4) and the venting through hole (6) can successfully vent air in the drip chamber (3), and the venting core (9) and liquid outlet of the drip chamber (3) and the liquid inlet groove (8) of the venting core (9) prevent generation and accumulation of bubbles, and vent the air in the gas-liquid mixture entering the drip chamber (3).
Two-dimensional terahertz photonic crystals were manufactured from Si using deep reactive ion etching. Arrays of square holes with widths of 80 (100) μm and lattice constants of 100 (125) μm were etched through 500-μm-thick wafers with high resistivity. Stop bands with transmittance 200 GHz were observed near 1 THz for light with an electric field vector in the plane of the wafers (TE polarization). The observed stop bands are close to TE photonic band gaps predicted by a two-dimensional calculation.
We report on terahertz (THz) emission from a single layer ferromagnet which involves the generation of backflow nonthermal charge current from the ferromagnet/dielectric interface by femtosecond laser excitation and subsequent conversion of the charge current to a transverse transient charge current via the anomalous Hall effect (AHE), thereby generating the THz radiation. The THz emission can be either enhanced or suppressed, or even the polarity can be reversed by introducing a magnetization gradient in the thickness direction of the ferromagnet. The emission can also be enhanced using a synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) via the same AHE mechanism. In addition, we demonstrate by both simulation and experiment that the THz emission provides a powerful tool to probe the magnetization reversal process of individual ferromagnetic layers in the SAF structure – an important building block for all types of spintronic devices.
In this study, the effect of fluorine atoms on acid generation upon EUV exposure using an acid sensitive dye is investigated. Fluorinated polymers is used as polymers. Triphenylsulfonium-triflate (TPS-tf) is used as an acid generator. Coumarin6 (C6, Aldrich Chem.) is used as an indicator to evaluate acid yields. Tetrahydrofuran (THF, Wako) is used as a casting solvent. It is experimentally confirmed that the increase in the absorption coefficient of polymers leads to the increase in the acid yield.
PURPOSE: A control method of taper ratio of strip on finishing mill is provided to minimize fluctuation of coiling tension generated during final stand metal out in finishing mill by providing a control means capable of varying taper reduction ratio by accurately predicting residual weight. CONSTITUTION: The method comprises first step of calculating weight of non-coiled strip by the following expression when a tail part of the strip is at a point of fi stand metal out: £fidc = Wf{(i) to (i+1)} + Wf{(i+1) to (i+2)} + Wf{(i+2) to (i+3)} + Wf{(i+n-1) to (i+n)} + Wrot + Wprm|; second step of calculating completed coiling diameter of coil by the following expression so that taper tension is completed when the tail part of the strip is at a point of fi stand metal out by using the weight of the strip calculated by the first step: £Dfidc = {(total weight of coil - Wfidc)/(densityxπxstrip widthxspace factor(porosity)) + (diameter of mandrel/2)¬2}¬0.5 x 2|; and third step of calculating taper reduction ratio varied by the following expression according to unit weight of the coil by using the completed coiling diameter of the coil calculated by the second step: £taper reduction ratio = (initial tension set value - minimum tension set value)/(completed coiling diameter - diameter of taper tension initiating coil)|.
This study concerns the numerical simulation of two competing ultrasonic treatment (UST) strategies for microstructure refinement in the direct-chill (DC) casting of aluminium alloys. In the first, more conventional, case, the sonotrode vibrating at 17.3 kHz is immersed in the hop-top to treat the sump melt pool, in the second case, the sonotrode is inserted between baffles in the launder. It is known that microstructure refinement depends on the intensity of acoustic cavitation and the residence time of the treated fluid in the cavitation zone. The geometry, acoustic field intensity, induced flow velocities, and local temperature are factors which affect this treatment. The mathematical model developed in this work couples flow velocity, acoustics modified by cavitation, heat transfer, and solidification at the macroscale, with Lagrangian refiner particles, used to determine: (a) their residence time in the active zones, and (b) their eventual distribution in the sump as a function of the velocity field. This is the first attempt at using particle models as an efficient, though indirect, alternative to microstructure simulation, and the results indicate that UST in the launder, assisted with baffle separators, yields a more uniform distribution of refining particles, avoiding the strong acoustic streaming jet that, otherwise, accompanies hot-top treatment, and may lead to the strong segregation of refining particles. Experiments conducted in parallel to the numerical studies in this work appeared to support the results obtained in the simulation.
1) Jingwei Zhang, Mengchao Pei, Tian Liu1, Ajay Gupta1, Cynthia Wisnieff1, Pina C. Sanelli, Pascal Spincemaille, Yi Wang, Abstract 3334, Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) for High Resolution Quantitative Cerebral Metabolic Rate of Oxygen (CMRO2), ISMRM 2013 2) Jingwei Zhang, Tian Liu, Ajay Gupta, Pina C. Sanelli, Cynthia Wisnieff, Pascal Spincemaille, and Yi Wang, Abstract 20, Traditional Poster, Cerebral Metabolic Rate of Oxygen (CMRO2) Quantitative Mapping Using Quantitative Susceptibility
A series of mesoporous ZnO/TiO 2 composites were successfully synthesized using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant. The composites of different Zn:Ti molar ratios (0.5:1, 0.75:1, and 1:1) were prepared by impregnating ZnO onto mesoporous TiO 2 . XRD results verified co-existence of both anatase TiO 2 and hexagonal wurtzite ZnO in the ZnO/TiO 2 composites. Based on the Tauc plots, all the composites showed almost the same band gap energy of approximately 3.21 eV. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results successful covering of ZnO on the surface of the TiO 2 as the hydrophilicity property of TiO 2 decreased remarkably with the loading of ZnO in the composites. N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherms of the samples exhibited type-IV isotherm with a hysteresis loop. The Barrett-Joyner-Halenda pore size distribution revealed that the average pore size of the composites was around 3.6 nm, indicating the formation of mesopores dominantly in the samples. The photocatalytic removal of phenol over the samples under UV light irradiation after 3 h decreased in the order: ZnO/TiO 2 composites > anatase TiO 2 (with surfactant) > anatase TiO 2 (without surfactant) > ZnO. The composite with Zn:Ti molar ratio of 0.75:1 has achieved the highest photocatalytic activity of 36.5% in the removal of phenol under UV light irradiation for 3 h.
We have successfully grown SrTiO 3 films on LaAlO 3 and MgO substrates up to 2” in diameter using the deposition technique of reactive coevaporation. We have explored a wide range of deposition temperatures, oxygen pocket pressures, and compositions in order to determine the optimal growth process window. X-ray diffraction analyses indicate that the process window for growth on MgO substrates is narrower than for LaAlO3 substrates. Dielectric property measurements show that samples near stoichiometry have higher tunability, but their peak loss tangents are also high (∼0.02). The slightly Sr-poor samples (46-48 at.%) show a reduced loss tangent (
The present invention relates to a multifunctional blended material. Said multifunction blended material includes chitin fibre, bamboo fibre and cotton fibre, their blending ratio (weight ratio) is 10-40:10-40:40-60. Said blended material can be made into woven, knitted or non-woven face fabric, and has the good functions of resisting UV radiation, inhibiting bacteria, cleaning skin, resisting odor, relieving itching and other several health-care functions, so that it has the extensive application range.
OF DISSERTATION BIOMASS-DERIVED ACTIVATED CARBONS FOR ELECTRICAL DOUBLE LAYER SUPERCAPACITORS: PERFORMANCE AND STRESS EFFECT The vigorous development of human civilization has significantly increased the energy consumption in recent years. There is a great need to use renewable energy sources to substitute the depleting traditional fossil fuels, such as crude oil, natural gas and coal. The development of low-cost and high-performance energy storage devices (ESDs) and systems have drawn great attention due to their feasibility as backup power supply and their applications in portable electronics and electric vehicles. Supercapacitors are among the most important ESDs because of their long charging-discharging cycle life, high power capability and a large operating temperature range. In this thesis, high-performance activated carbons (ACs)-based SCs have been synthesized from two biomass materials in both “bottom-up” and “top-down” patterns, including high fructose corn syrup and soybean residues, which are economic and environmental friendly. Firstly, a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) physical activation method is presented to synthesize activated carbons from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The effect of the activation time on the geometrical and porous characteristics of the ACs is investigated. The electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor cells made from AC treated at 850oC for 4 hours are found as the best with a specific capacitance of 168 F/g at 0.2 A/g in 6 M KOH aqueous system. Secondly, a two-step HTC process followed by a physical activation to prepare activated carbons from soybean residue is presented. The effect of activation temperature on geometrical and porous characteristics of the ACs is studied. The ACs activated at 850oC are found partly crystallized and exhibit a specific capacitance of 227 F/g at 2 mV/s. To understand the effect of mechanical deformation of the electrode materials on the electrochemical performance of electrical double-layer supercapacitors, a series of compression tests of HFCS-based ACs are further conducted in both dry and wet conditions. The nominal stiffness of the compressed ACs is calculated from the unloading curves. For both dry and wet disks the stiffness get increased with increased compression load, where the wet ones get higher stiffness than that of the dry ones. A simple model of porous materials is used to explain the increase in the stiffness of a compressed disk with the increase of pressure. Lastly, the effect of mechanical deformation on the electrochemical impedance of HFCS-based ACs is studied. When increasing the mechanical pressure from 4 to 81.5 KPa, the system resistance shows a relatively stable trend around 1 ohm, while the charge transfer resistance shows a dramatic dependence on mechanical pressure decreasing from 420 ohms to 1.5 ohms.
The molding technology in IC assembly is to protect the ICs avoiding the external damage and indirectly provide the heat dissipation. The molding pattern design, transfer-mold system, providing the drawing pipeline for liquid molding compound in molding is not only the technical index, but the key in the assembly throughput. Furthermore, the integrity of molding compound in plastic assembly is the main role of assembly quality. Analyzing these two factors impacting the assembly performance is the chief investigation in this work.
This work reports for the first time the influence of degree of branching (DB) on the thermoresponsive phase transition behaviors of hyperbranched multiarm copolymers. Two series of PEHO-star-PEOs (series A) and PEHO-star-PDMAEMAs (series B) with the hydrophobic DB-variable PEHO core and different kinds of linear arms (PEO arms or PDMAEMA arms) were synthesized. It was found these two series demonstrate thermoresponsive phase transitions with the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). The studies on the LCST transition mechanism indicate that series A belongs to the thermoresponsive polymer system with LCST transition based on hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance, while series B belongs to the thermoresponsive polymer system with LCST transition based on coil-to-globule transition. Correspondingly, there is a big difference in the DB dependence of LCST transition between series A and series B. For series A, the LCST phase transition is highly dependent on the DB of the PEHO core in copolymers. For series B, the LCST phase transition is independent of the DB but dependent on solution pH. Such results may extend the knowledge on the structure-activity relationship of thermoresponsive highly branched polymers.
To reduce the health care provider of radiation exposure, or to reduce or eliminate contamination by ambient light of the light-sensitive component in the syringe, syringe shields used to confine the radioactive drug. Various embodiments may include a first shielding panel having a syringe hole designed and configured to conform to the shape of the syringe, the second with a syringe hole designed and configured to conform to the shape of the syringe It relates syringe shield comprising a shielding panel, and the reversible binding of the first shielding panel and the second shielding panel, configured syringe hole formed to accommodate the syringe, and associated with the syringe configured plunger access hole is formed so as to permit access to the plunger.
A Simplified Model to Calculate AC Losses in Large 2G HTS Coils AC losses are of great significance to quantify the performance of high temperature superconducting (HTS) devices. This paper presents a simplified model to calculate AC losses in large 2G HTS coils, which serves as a baseline to study HTS large scale applications such as electric machines. The model is developed by disregarding the multilayer architecture of 2G HTS tapes and then it goes to homogenize insulation layers and epoxies filled in HTS coils. Therefore, a large coil consisting of multiple HTS tapes can be analysed as a whole domain without the necessity of considering inner details. The model presented uses H formulation which directly solves magnetic fields, and the general partial differential equations (PDEs) module in Comsol Multiphysics is used to implement the model. Afterwards, the model is used to simulate the excitation stage of a racetrack HTS coil with 350 tapes. The AC losses in different excitation speeds are studied
The invention relates to a rough processing process before steak cooking, in particular to a pretreatment process of beef. The pretreatment process can improve quality and taste of the steaks. The pretreatment process comprises the steps of cooling and flushing raw material meat of a carcass hacked half after slaughtering for 48-72 hours at the temperature of 0-4 DEG C; cutting A-level ridge meat into blocks, boning and shaping to form meat blocks whose cross sections are 19cm long and 10cm wide, quickly freezing for 24-48 hours at the temperature of -32 DEG C after vacuum packaging; cutting the meat blocks to the extent that the piece weight is 150g and the thickness is 0.9-1.2cm, and then conducting shrink package; and quickly freezing for 12 hours at the temperature of -32 DEG C after outer packing, and then refrigerating at the temperature of -18 DEG C for later use. Compared with a condition that steak foods are manufactured by the existing steaks in a same method, the steak foods manufactured by the beef processed by the method are smooth and succulent in taste, pure in beef aroma, swelling in meat color and bright-colored under the condition that other conditions are the same.
A parameterization of the Abell-Tersoff potential is presented for all pairwise interactions of silicon atoms with each of the elemental components comprising InGaAs. That is, Tersoff models are provided for Si-In, Si-Ga and Si-As. Data obtained using ab initio pseudopotential calculations (DFT+GGA) were used as the reference information against which the Tersoff parameters were fitted, since experimental data are unavailable for the Si-X systems considered here. These sets of Tersoff parameters are optimized to describe the structural and elastic properties of the mostly theoretical alloys Si-As, Si-Ga and SI-In. We demonstrate the transferability of these parameters by partially predicting the defect formation energies of extrinsic point defects of Si across ternary InGaAs alloys with different local configurations. Comparison is made to a newly created DFT/GGA database of defect formation energies, showing that correct trends can be reproduced by the Tersoff models, given sensitive adjustments to a Tersoff model parameter, .
The thermodynamic compensation effect plot derived from Eyring rate process theory was applied to the thermal and UV ageing of LDPE/Carbon Black composites containing commercial carbon black (CB) and carbon black surface oxidized with nitric acid. Correlations were tested among compensation effect, electrical threshold field and volumetric electrical conductivity. Compensation plots from OIT measurements correlate with thermal and UV ageing effect on activation ΔS and ΔH values, giving a good linear correlation for all samples studied. The relative changes in dc conductivity and electrical threshold field are consistent with the OIT compensation plot, demonstrating that this analysis can be used to monitor LDPE/CB composite degradation under thermal or UV ageing. It can also be used to evaluate, quite accurately, the effect of oxidizing the surface of the CB on the electrical properties (dc conductivity and electrical threshold field) of the LDPE/CB composites.
Rice oranging physiological disease occurs in newly reclaimed lateritic soils. Electron probe was used to study the content and distribution of various elements in physiological diseased rice roots taken from two kinds of la- teritic soils. These rice roots were compared with those from two paddy soils. Pot experi- ments were conducted in the USA and China using four soils with N, P, K contents of 30, 65, 100 ppm respectively. The root were taken at heading stage and washed to remove the soil. A segment of root about 3～5 cm from the root tip was taken as sample. After freezing and drying,the root segment was embedded in epoxy resin, cut with knife or broken through freezing, then coated with carbon and analysed with electron probe. Difference of Fe and Si content in rice roots had great effects on rice oranging disease. Usually the root epidermis is rich in Fe and endodermis is rich in Si. However, in this experiment the rice root suffering from or- anging disease had. much more in epidermis Fe in endodermis and much less Si as comp- ared with the normal one. The characteristics of high Fe and low Si in the diseased rice root can be valuable physiological characteristics in studying the mechanism of rice oranging disease and relatedsoil conditions.
This second part of the article describes the results of studies on technological properties (formability and solid state weldability) of sheet titanium alloy VT6 (Ti-6Al-4V) with improved superplastic properties at low temperatures. When studying the formability of the sheet blanks, the radius of curvature R and average thickness S in the spherical part of the formed samples were determined. The ratio R / S was calculated and represented as a function of the forming time. The presented dependences show that the values of the optimum angle of a conical matrix depend on the forming temperature. The alloy under study had a sufficient formability at temperatures of Т = 750 and 800°C corresponding to the temperature range of the low-temperature superplasticity effect. Studies of solid state weldability of sheet blanks made it possible to establish that with an increase in the welding temperature from Т = 650 to 800°C, the average grain size increased from 1 to 8 μm, while the relative pore length in the zone of the solid-phase joint decreased from 0.21 at T = 650°C to 0.04 at Т = 800°C. The mechanical shear tests of the welded specimens showed that the shear strength of the welded joints varied from 91.4 to 96.9 % of the parent material strength depending on the welding temperature. The study of technological properties revealed that the titanium alloy VT6 could be successfully used in superplastic forming and diffusion welding (SPF / DB) technologies under conditions of lowtemperature superplasticity at the temperatures of Т = 700 – 800°С. The effective fabrication of a hollow blade model of a threelayer corrugated structure supports this idea.
High voltage thin film transistors (HV TFT) have potential applications for driving components for fieldemission display, MEMS devices etc[1 3]. Due to high carrier mobility and good thermal stability, amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) is good candidate for active layer of TFT[4]. Compared to the regular TFT with a rectangular channel, Corbino TFT could potentially work at higher drain bias because of the uniform electrical field distribution in the channel region[5]. In this study, Corbino TFTs with offset drain were studied for HV TFT application. The electrical characteristics of the device were simulated using a 3D TCAD simulations. Corbino amorphous IGZO thin-film transistor with offset drain was fabricated and the experimental characteristics were measured and compared with the simulation results. Fig. 1 shows the cross sectional schematics of Corbino a-IGZO TFT with offset structure. For the TCAD simulation, the effects of density of states (DOS) parameters on the device characteristics were simulated by adjusting band tail states. We simulate the output and transfer characteristics for Corbino a-IGZO TFT without drain offset and with drain offset, whose channel length/gate-to-drain offset length are 175/0 μm and185/10 μm. The output characteristics show that the current saturation voltage of simulated Corbino aIGZO TFT without drain offset and with drain offset are 10V and 15V, respectively. The offset drain structure obviously increases the current saturation voltage, which benefits high voltage operation. From the transfer characteristics for simulated Corbino a-IGZO TFT with drain offset, the threshold voltage (Vth ) is ~ 8.59 V, and the subthreshold swing (SS) is 1.29 V/dec, and the on-state current (Ion) is 27.43 μA, respectively, when Vd = 50V. The offset drain has almost no influence on simulated Corbino TFT’s subthreshold swing, but decrease TFT’s threshold voltage and on-state current significantly. Our results show that the length of offset has significant effect on TFT’s electrical characteristics. The Corbino a-IGZO TFTs with offset drain were fabricated using 50-nm-thick IGZO film prepared by sputtering. Mo thin film is used for the gate, drain and source electrodes. The experimentally obtained electric characteristics of the Corbino amorphous IGZO thin-film transistor with offset drain were measured and compared with the simulation results. It is found that the simulation results are consistent with the experimental results, as shown in the Fig. 2. Fig. 1. Cross sectional schematics of a Corbino a-
A sandwich-type supercapacitor consisting of self-healing layers and electrode layers can easily delaminate during deformation, thereby seriously affecting its reliability. In this work, a type of omni-healable electrode (denoted as CS@PANa–Fe3+–LiCl) is reported, which completely integrates a three-dimensional (3D) electrode material, a self-healing hydrogel and an electrolyte. Consequently, the ease of delamination and the large contact resistance due to the sandwich-type structure can be effectively overcome. Herein, the 3D porous carbon sponge (CS) serves both as an electroactive material and a carrier for the Fe3+-crosslinked sodium polyacrylate–LiCl (denoted as PANa–Fe3+–LiCl) hydrogel electrolyte. Combining the high electrical conductivity and good capacitance of the CS with the high ionic conductivity and excellent self-healability of the PANa–Fe3+–LiCl hydrogel electrolyte, the omnidirectionally integrated electrode exhibits good electrochemical and mechanical properties as well as excellent self-healing characteristics; furthermore, its capacity retention rate remains high (91.6%) even after five cutting/healing cycles. The as-fabricated CS@PA-SC device exhibits full self-healability, high energy density, good cycling stability, and integration characteristics. This investigation offers a facile and versatile strategy to integrate omni-healable electrodes that can be utilized to construct completely self-healable supercapacitors for wearable electronics.
Modeling electrical conductivity of polymer composites with conductive fillers has great applicability to predict conductive materials behavior. In this study, the electrical behavior of simple and hybrid systems prepared from Carbon Black (CB) and Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) was studied. There have been few advances reported in the literature regarding the modeling of hybrid systems, which motivated the development of this study. More specifically, a program was developed with the intention to describe the electric percolation threshold and the effect of synergism between the conductive fillers. Simulation was performed using the Monte Carlo method and Fortran programming language, considering concentration and geometry of conductive fillers to the system in two dimensions. Finally, simulation results were compared with the experimental results and this method proved to be effective in predicting the systems percolation threshold, being an important contribution to predict material behavior, which allows reducing the number of samples to be prepared in an experimental study.
A split Hopkinson pressure bar or Kolsky bar system was used to de- termine the dynamic compressive flow b e h avior of two materials. Dynamic, compressive stress-strain curves were ob- tained of AA2024-T3 and AA7075- T7351 aluminum alloys and their welds as produced by the friction stir welding process. To show the strain rate effect, quasistatic tests of these materials were also performed using a specimen config- uration identical to that used in the dy- namic tests. The experimental results showed 1) friction stir welding reduces the yield stress of the weld metal to below that of the base metal; 2) both materials exhibit the strain rate effect, i.e., the yield stress is higher under higher strain rates; and 3) the strain hardening appears to be similar for various strain rates. of the FSW process itself, has draw n much attention in past years (Refs. 3-10). However, the ultimate use of the weld is in structural application, which often in- volves the static, fatigue, dynamic or im- pact type loading found in automotive and aerospace applications. We l d strength, fracture and fatigue must be studied as well to ensure a safe and reli- able operation of the welded structure. Recent studies along this direction in- clude Refs. 11-13. In many applications, the welded structure may be subjected to dy n a m i c load such as impact and explosion. It is, therefore, important to understand the mechanical properties of structural mate- rials at the high strain rate to which the components may be subjected during service. The objective of the current work is to evaluate changes in the compressive mechanical properties due to the friction stir welding process. Aluminum alloy s AA2024-T3 and AA7075-T7351 were studied. Samples were tested at a quasi- static rate using a standard hydraulic load frame and at high strain rates using a split Hopkinson pressure bar system. Results are reported in the form of stress-strain curves for different strain rates. Hardness values of the material before and after testing are also presented. The results can be used in evaluating the dynamic re- sponse of the FSW structures as well as in studying the material flow behavior of the friction stir welding process. Experiment Dynamic Tests
Atomic resolution transmission electron microscopy has been used to examine antisite defects in Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) kesterite crystals grown by a hot injection method. High angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging at sub-0.1 nm resolution, and lower magnification dark field imaging using reflections sensitive to cation ordering, are used to reveal antisite domain boundaries (ADBs). These boundaries, typically 5-20 nm apart, and extending distances of 100 nm or more into the crystals, lie on a variety of planes and have displacements of the type ½[110] or ¼[201], which translate Sn, Cu and Zn cations into antisite positions. It is shown that some ADBs describe a change in the local stoichiometry by removing planes of S and either Cu or Zn atoms, implying that these boundaries can be electrically charged. The observations also showed a marked increase in cation disorder in regions within 1-2 nm of the grain surfaces suggesting that growth of the ordered crystal takes place at the interface with a disordered shell. It is estimated that the ADBs contribute on average ∼0.1 antisite defect pairs per unit cell. Although this is up to an order of magnitude less than the highest antisite defect densities reported, the presence of high densities of ADBs that may be charged suggests these defects may have a significant influence on the efficiency of CZTS solar cells.
Several new types of low-cost and robust magnetic near-field probes manufactured in low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) are presented in this paper. Parallel C-shaped strips and their variations are inserted into the loop area in the front end of probes to achieve common-mode high-pass and notch filters for electric-field noise suppression. These probes with this kind of filter have excellent wideband electric field suppression. They are called high electric field suppression probes type A ~ D. The size of loop aperture in all probes is 100 μm long and 400 μm wide. The signal received from the loop is routed to a measurement apparatus through a semi-rigid coaxial cable with an outer diameter of 0.047 in. The flip-chip junction with low loss and good shielding is used between the probe head in LTCC and the semi-rigid coaxial cable. We take the probes over a 2000-μm-wide microstrip line as device-under-test to measure the probe characteristics. The isolation between electric and magnetic fields for a reference probe based on an old design using the same LTCC process is better than 30 dB from 0.05 to 12.65 GHz. The type A probe has two parallel C-shaped strips, it has better isolation of 35 dB from 0.1 to 11.05 GHz. Type C has one end of its strip shorted to ground, its 30-dB isolation frequency range can be extended to 0.05 ~ 17.8 GHz. With additional layout variation in type D, isolation can be improved to 40 dB up to 10.9 GHz. The spatial resolution for these probes is 140 μm when the distance between the metal surface of the microstrip line and the nearest edge of the loop is held at 120 μm. The calibration factors of the proposed probes are only slightly increased as compared with reference probe.
A three-layer magnetic shielded room (MSR) has been built to house biomagnetic nanoparticles detecting system based on a low temperature Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID). The MSR with an open type door was designed to match the noise levels of SQUID coupled with one-order gradiometers while minimizing the overall facility cost. The room measures 2 × 2 × 2 m3 internally and consists of three-layer silicon-steel plate shell instead of the permalloy. The static shielding factor in the room is 25000 at which point the eminent magnetization is 2 nT. This valve matches the measurement of isothermal remanent magnetizations (IRM). We conclude that using cheap materials of silicon-steel plate with relative low permeability can also produce a high performance MSR.
Abstract Fluorescent white organic light‐emitting diodes showing high color‐rendering indices (CRIs) of up to 81 was demonstrated, with a silicon‐cored anthracene derivative (PATSPA) doped with DPAVBi utilized as the deep‐blue host and dye materials, and the commercial dyes rubrene and DCM2 utilized as the orange‐ and red‐light‐emitting dyes. The devices, consisting of three emissive layers, showed bright‐white‐light emission, but the ratio of the blue peak to the orange and red peaks changed with the current density and the thickness of the blue emissive layer. A high CRI was achieved with the use of a deep‐blue emitter doped in a novel host and by optimizing the blue‐layer thickness. The device with a blue‐layer thickness of 10 nm showed the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) color coordinate of (0.33, 0.35), a high CRI of 81, and a moderate external quantum efficiency of 2% at a current density of 2.5 mA/cm2.
Most studies investigating the relationship between muscle fiber characteristics and pork loin quality have focused on early postmortem characteristics. However, the influence of muscle fiber characteristics on aged pork loin quality or changes in pork loin quality during storage have not been fully investigated. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationships between muscle fiber characteristics and changes of pork quality during 14 d of cold storage.
A facile and effective way for the preparation of nano-sized Fe3O4@graphene yolk-shell nanoparticles via a hydrothermal method is developed. Moreover, the targeting properties of the materials for anticancer drug (doxorubicin hydrochloride) delivery are investigated. Excitingly, these hybrid materials possess favorable dispersibility, good superparamagnetism (the magnetic saturation value is 45.740 emu g(-1)), high saturated loading capacity (2.65 mg mg(-1)), and effective loading (88.3%). More importantly, the composites exhibit strong pH-triggered drug release response (at the pH value of 5.6 and 7.4, the release rate was 24.86% and 10.28%, respectively) and good biocompatibility over a broad concentration range of 0.25-100 μg mL(-1) (the cell viability was 98.52% even at a high concentration of 100 μg mL(-1)) which sheds light on their potentially bright future for bio-related applications.
storage tank to the hydrogen by absorption in a storage material (M) hydrogen, comprising: - a housing, - a hydrogen supply inlet, - a discharge outlet hydrogen, - a structure internal (S1) for storing the hydrogen storage material, said internal structure comprising a stack along a longitudinal axis (X) of at least two stages for holding the storage material (M), each stage comprising a cup dispenser (12), a receiving plate (14) of the storage material and a collecting cup (16), each dispensing cup (12), receiving (14) and collector (16) being superposed and joined to each other tight manner. A conduit (22) in parallel distribution of hydrogen in the dispensing cup (12) so that, for each stage, a stream of hydrogen flows from each dispensing cup (12) towards the collecting bowl (16) through the storage material (M).
The effects of heat treatment conditions on the properties of rice husk were evaluated in this study. The commercial products of the heat treated rice husk were also investigated in terms of the changes in the properties by the manufacturing methods such as the indirect rotary kiln method and the direct combustion method. The indirect rotary kiln treatment for the commercial product resulted in the lower carbonization and the lower absorption of methylene blue of the heat treated rice husk product than those of the direct heat treated rice husk product. In addition, the effect heat treatment was analyzed under two different conditions - by using muffle furnace at air atmosphere condition and by using tube furnace at nitrogen atmosphere condition - for comparative analysis. The rice husk treated in nitrogen condition showed less carbonation, less changes in pH and no significant changes in methylene blue absorption properties, compared to the rice husk treated in the air condition. The pH of the rice husk treated in the air condition changed from 3.5 at 300°C treatment to 9.5 at 500°C treatment. Also, the absorption capacity of the rice husk treated in the air condition was greatly improved as the treatment temperature increased.
The invention relates to a process for burning hydrogen-rich gaseous fuel in a premix burner (20 '), in which method combustion air (17) flows through the interior of the burner and the hydrogen-rich gaseous fuel (19) into the combustion air (17) is injected. A high protection against back ignition is achieved in that the injection of the hydrogen-rich, gaseous fuel (19) with respect to the combustion air (17) at least partially isokinetically, that is, in part, carried out with the same direction and speed.
Fiber reinforced plastic bar (FRP-rebar) is a two-component material consisting of polymer matrix (resin) and reinforcing filler (roving). Large-scale implementation of FRP-rebar and improvement of its manufacturing process have resulted in larger bar diameters. However, it is extremely complicated or even impossible to experimentally determine the mechanical properties of this kind of rebar when using standard testing machines. The reason for this is the low cross-direction strength of the rebar. The purpose of the research is to determine the elastic and strength properties of large diameter FRP-rebar by means of finite-element simulation as well as to analyze the influence of the components’ mass fractions and grooving on the mechanical properties being studied. In order to specify the parameters of the FE simulation model the authors performed some supplementary tests aimed at determining the structure of the fiber. A comparative study of the obtained numerical results against the experimental data is presented in the paper.
In this thesis, the synthesis and characterization of V2O5-nanostructures, as well as the gas sensing properties of V2O5-nanofibers and carbon nanotubes have been investigated. Various modifications of the nanowires have been successfully employed in order to achieve an improved sensitivity and selectivity of the sensors to specific analytes. The V2O5-nanofibers have been synthesized via solution-based chemistry. Two modifications of the standard synthesis route have been attempted in order to reduce the time required to grow fibers of sufficient length. The first modification utilizes silver ions, which allowed for a ten-fold increase in growth speed. In order to determine the role of the silver in the synthesis, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis has been performed, which revealed the presence of silver-clusters attached to the V2O5-nanofibers, as well as silver incorporated into the fibers. The second modification is based on hydrothermal synthesis performed at 180oC, which yielded VOx-nanobelts rather than V2O5-nanofibers. Most striking is their appearance in the shape of a boomerang with a reproducible angle of 96o. The origin of the kinked structure, as determined with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED), was found to be twinning of the crystalline material along the [130]-direction. Raman spectroscopy and temperature-dependent electrical transport measurements on the V2O5-materials revealed their close similarity. In all cases, the electrical transport was found to be dominated by a hopping-like conduction. To assess the gas sensing properties of V2O5-nanofibers and carbon nanotubes, network samples have been investigated at room temperature, using the change of resistance as sensor signal. For the detection of ammonia with the V2O5-nanofibers, the change of resistance has been ascribed to charge transfer. Through evaporation of gold onto the V2O5-nanofibers the sensor response could be improved by a factor of seven. The slower desorption of ammonia from the gold-modified fibers, as compared to the unmodified material, is attributed to a stronger binding of ammonia to gold. The detection of butylamine with V2O5-nanofibers has been studied due to the application relevance, as this compound is produced in rotten food. By investigating different contact configurations, the sensor response ( 500 %) has been found to originate from intercalation of the analyte between electrode and fiber, resulting in an increased contact resistance. Modifying networks of V2O5-nanofibers via deposition of an ultrathin layer of palladium rendered the sensors highly sensitive to hydrogen, resulting in responses of more than 100,000 %. The sensor mechanism, as elucidated through a combined study using Raman spectroscopy and temperature-dependent electrical transport measurements, involved atomic hydrogen, formed within the palladium layer. Its reaction with oxygen ions in the V2O5-lattice leads to oxygen deficiencies and hence the formation of additional polarons, which combine to less mobile bipolarons, as apparent from an increase in the hopping activation energy. Besides V2O5-nanofibers, the sensor properties of carbon nanotubes have been studied. Their gas sensing behavior has been interpreted in terms of charge transfer between the analyte molecules and the p-type semiconducting nanotubes present in network samples. In the specific case of ammonia exposure, the nanotube sensors do not recover completely to their original resistance, but equilibrate at an increased value. This observation has been accounted for by an adapted Langmuir isotherm, which assumes reversible and irreversible adsorption sites on the nanotube surface. The presence of irreversible sites, which require temperatures up to 500 K for the desorption of ammonia, could be experimentally confirmed by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). To render carbon nanotubes sensitive to hydrogen, palladium nanoparticles were electrodeposited. This method offers the advantage of restricting the modification to nanotubes which are contacted to the electrodes, while isolated nanotubes and substrate are not affected. Palladium-modified nanotubes prepared in this fashion showed good responses to hydrogen at room temperature.
Axial and eccentric compression experiments are carried out on 8 circular reinforced concrete specimens covered with steel tube,and the finite element method and the fiber model method are used to calculate the loadcarrying capacity of the specimens. Based on the experimental and theoretical analysis,a simplified calculation method of the load-carrying capacity for this kind of member is proposed in the study. The analysis indicate that the finite element method result is relatively small,and that the results of the load-carrying capacity of the specimens calculated by the fiber model method agree well with the experimental results. The circular reinforced concrete members covered with steel tube present the characteristics of both the reinforced concrete and concrete filled steel tube members,showing higher load-carrying capacity and greater deformability. The load-carrying capacity of circular reinforced concrete members covered with steel tube can be calculated by the method of the reinforced concrete member with the confined concrete. The load-carrying capacity of the circular reinforced concrete members covered with steel tube calculated by the simplified method is in good agreement with the experimental results.
A segmental concrete-filled basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) tube was proposed, whose lightweight characteristic promoted convenient bridge column transportation and construction. A special connecting component between the adjacent BFRP segments ensured effective transfer of sectional forces. Four specimens, including three segmental specimens and one comparative integral concrete-filled BFRP tube, were tested to investigate the mechanical performance of the BFRP tube under cyclic loading. Damage patterns, load-deformation response, and strain development were observed, showing that the segmental concrete-filled BFRP tube presented satisfactory load-carrying and deformation capacities. Further, the connecting component effectively guaranteed a satisfactory hysteretic performance. Based on the test results, the overall load-carrying capacity was mainly determined by the moment resistance of the interface. Furthermore, the segmental structure weakened the confining effect on the core concrete, though applying multiple stirrups could compensate for the reduced confining effect. Finally, design methods were proposed for the connecting component.
An exact solution for the elastic response of a cylindrical cross-ply laminated panel subject to mechanical loading and temperature variation is derived. The three-dimensional equilibrium equations, written in terms of displacements, are reduced to a system of coupled ordinary differential equations, which are then solved using the power series method. Numerical results are presented for graphite/epoxy composites.
Metal–organic–silica (MOS) nanocomposites of copper, silver nanoparticles, Cu2+, Ag1+, propyl ethylenediamine linker and silica gel (Cu–PEDA–S, Ag–PEDA–S, Cu2+–PEDA–S and Ag1+–PEDA–S) were prepared by surface chemical modifications. Silica surface was modified with propyl ethylenediamine functional groups (PEDA–S) followed by treatment with Cu2+ and Ag1+ solutions to produce metal ion–ethylenediamine–silica nanocomposites (Cu2+–PEDA–S and Ag1+–PEDA–S). Finally, the metal–organic–silica nanocomposites of Cu–PEDA–S and Ag–PEDA–S were formed by chemical reduction of the metal ion incorporating modified silica. The nanocomposites were characterized by CHN elemental analysis, FTIR, TGA, EDAX and transmission electron microscopy. The Cu2+ ion composite provides active sites for chemisorptions of 3.0 wt% water due to Cu complex formation. The metal nanocomposites show a high dispersion of uniform Cu and Ag nanoparticles through the silica support with diameter range from 5 to 20 nm. Thermal gravimetric analysis shows the improvement of CO2 adsorption stability in the MOS nanocomposites and Cu–PEDA–S has CO2 adsorption capacity of 28% and 100% higher than that for the PEDA–S and Cu2+–PEDA–S nanocomposites, respectively. The preparation procedure is simple and favourable for the synthesis of a variety of metal–organic–silica nanocomposites for application as catalysts in greenhouse gas removal and capture.
The effect of thermal degradation on the mechanical properties of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA)/1,3-bisaminomethylcyclohexane (1,3-BAC) epoxy system, cured with two different curing cycles-a short cycle and a long cycle-were studied using tensile and Izod impact experiments and scanning electronic microscopy, SEM, observations. From these experiments it can be noted a loss of mechanical properties of the material cured with both cycles with aging time, although the material cured with the long cycle presents better properties at any aging time. This better behavior can be explained from the time temperature transformation, TTT, diagram of this system. A good correlation was observed between the decrease in the intensity of the peak of p transition in tan δ curve obtained by dynamic mechanical analysis, DMA, and the decrease of the Izod impact strength when thermal aging is increasing. Also, a good correlation can be found between the increase in the fragility of the material with aging time and the morphology of fractured surfaces observed by SEM.
Solidification Study and Improved Structural Integrity of Electroslag Welds Hee-Sung Ann, Ph.D. Oregon Graduate Center, 1987 Supervising Professors : Dr. Jack H. Devletian and Dr. William E. Wood Principles of solidification mechanics were applied to study solute band formation, dendrite reorientation and renucleation mechanisms during weld metal solidification of electroslag(ES) welds. Dendrite reorientation and renucleation were significantly affected by solute banding. Development of secondary and tertiary dendrite arms was dependent upon a unique combination of the temperature gradient vector and primary dendrite arm growth direction. Mechanisms were proposed to explain these solidification phenomena. Mechanical properties of weld metal deposited by consumable guide electroslag welding (ESW) are controlledby the complex macro/microstructural features and impurity segregation developed throughout the weld. In order to understand this behavior, fundamental aspects in the design of high toughness welds in 50 mm and 76 mm thick A36 and A588 structural steels were investigated. Parameters such as voltage, current, gap size, welding speed, guide tube/plate designs, solid/tubular filler metals, flux variables (oxygen potential and basicity), and alloying additions (up to 2% Ni and 0.4% Mo in the filler metal) were examined and found to significantly influence the solidification structures, macro/ microstructures, impurity segregation and fracture toughness of ES welds. From these comprehensive studies, five different characteristic grain
Objective:To prepare the solid dispersions of ibuprofen,in order to improve dissolution properties and mask bitterness of ibuprofen.Methods: Ibuprofen raw materials were mixed with Eudragit EPO in the proportion of 1 to 1.5(w/w) and the solid dispersions were produced by hot-melt extrusion.The dispersed state of ibuprofen in Eudragit EPO was analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) and powder X-ray diffraction method.In vitro drug dissolution rates from ibuprofen solid dispersions,physical mixtures and marketed ibuprofen tablets were determined.In vivo bitterness evaluation of ibuprofen solid dispersions was carried out in healthy volunteers.Results: Specific peak of ibuprofen crystal structure was disappeared in DSC and X-ray diffraction profiles.In phosphate buffer solution,drug released faster from solid dispersions than from physical mixtures and ibuprofen tablets.The taste evaluation in volunteers showed considerable masking of bitterness in solid dispersions comparing to physical mixtures and ibuprofen raw materials.Conclusion: Hot-melt extrusion process can be employed to form the ibuprofen solid dispersions with Eudragit EPO to improve ibuprofen dissolution properties significantly and to mask the bitterness of ibuprofen.
The corrosion characteristics of as-cast SiCp/ 2024 al composites in chloride (Cl-) media were investigated using scanning micro reference electrode technique,electrochemical analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The composites have less resistant to pit initiation than the corresponding aluminum alloy. The increase in volume fraction of SiCp reinforced phase resulted in a signiflcant decrease of pitting potential. In situ mapping of the active centers in composites revealed that local breakdown of passivity and micropitting corrosion could happen even at the open-circuit potentials, and the increase of volume fraction of SiC particles reinforced phase in the composites led t0 a significant increase of active centers on their surfaces. Pitting corrosion attack occured preferentially at the interfaces of SiC / al, and al2Cu or (Cu, Fe, Mn)al6 inclusions / al for the composites.
A computerized micro-RIM machine has been designed and built for the study of Nylon 6 reaction injection molding (RIM). This machine was designed for three major purposes: interfacing with analytical instruments, molding of samples for mechanical testing, and precise control and monitoring of the RIM process. The machine is capable of injecting a wide range of amounts of material, between 0.04 and 200.0 cm in steps of 0.04 cm. The accuracy of injections is ±0.004 cm. The micro-RIM machine has been interfaced with a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). Infrared spectra have been recorded at 0.33 second intervals during the RIM process. This provides the capability for following the fast polymerization and crystallization of Nylon 6 RIM in situ and isothermally. The machine has also been used to mold samples of nylon 6 and nylon 6 reinforced with silicon whiskers.
The aim of the study was to develop a novel treatment method of knee osteochondral defects consisting in injecting platelet-rich plasma and crushed hyaline cartilage under a collagen membrane, and assess the technique in experiment. Materials and Methods. A prospective study was carried out on small cattle animals, 30 in number, aged 1.5–3 years weighing 20–30 kg. All subjects got a full-thickness defect to the subchondral bone, 4.5 mm in diameter. As a control, one of the joint defects was not replaced. Due to a replacement method, all animals were divided into three groups. One group animals underwent the replacement according to the developed technique: there were used an extracellular collagen matrix and the body resources (platelet-rich plasma and crushed autologous cartilage). Results. The results were assessed 1 month and 3 months after surgery analyzing the type and degree of defect filling. Best results were found in the group, where a defect was covered by an extracellular collagen matrix with platelet-rich plasma and crushed autologous cartilage. The results of the no replacement group were comparable with the findings of other researchers, according to which osteochondral defects almost have no self-regeneration. Conclusion. The suggested replacement technique for osteochondral defect using extracellular collagen matrix, autologous cartilage, and platelet-rich plasma is less aggressive compared to autochondroplasty, and the obtained results are more stable compared to microfracture or tunneling.
Techniques for manufacturing cross-structures of nanostructures, such as nanowires and carbon nanotubes are provided. In one embodiment, a method for manufacturing cross-structures of nanostructures include providing a substrate, patterning a first mask layer on the substrate, adsorbing first nanostructures onto surface regions of the substrate where the first mask layer does not exist, removing the first mask layer from the substrate, patterning a second mask layer on the substrate to which the first nanostructures are adsorbed, and adsorbing second nanostructures onto the surface regions of the substrate where the second mask layer does not exist, under conditions effective to manufacture cross-structures of nanostructures on the substrate.
This paper prposes a bandwidth enhancement of C-shaped antenna by coupling. The C-shaped coupled antenna is designed and simulated by HFSS simulation tool. The substrate is 1.6 mm thick have 4.4 dielectric constant and loss tangent ($ text{tan}   delta$) of 0.02. The obtained simulated bandwidth is 36.55% (1.755-2.54 GHz), gain of 3.32 dBi, radiation efficiency of 84% and bi-directional radiation pattern. The antenna is fed by $50  Omega$ Micro strip line feed.
NEI'S genetic distance estimate (D) between Polish Bombina bombina and B. variegata based on electrophoretic comparisions of 29 proteins encoded at 39 presumptive gene loci, is 0.487±0.127. This estimate suggests Pliocene separation of the species, in agreement with the fossil record. Remnants of B. bombina-like and B. variegata - like animals from Upper Pliocene have been found in Czechoslovakia, and B. bombina- like animals from the same period have also been found in Poland. Separation of European Bombina was probably connected with an ecological shift of ancestors of B. bombina, the most derived species of the genus, to lowland environment. The Pliocene divergence proposed here is considerably earlier than that postulated by MERTENS (1928) who linked Bombina speciation events to Pleistocene glaciations. Comparisons ofgenetic divergence measures and the fossil record for three other species pairs of European amphibians (Triturus cristatus/marmoratus, Bufo calamita/viridis and Rana lessonae/ridibunda) provide additional evidence that pre-Pleistocene speciations in the extant European amphibian fauna were more important than is traditionally believed.
As it is desirable that a fresh  catalogue should be prepared, embracing all the species  known at the present time, I have much pleasure in submitting  the following additional observations regarding our  fishes and fishing industries, together with a list of the  principal edible fishes, and a complete classified list of all the  fishes known to me at the present time.  The known sea and inland fishes of Tasmania, including  the eight species of European fresh-water fishes successfully  acclimatised, number 214 species. These are generally  grouped by naturalists under 4 sub-classes, 65 families, and  146 genera. About one-third of the number stated may be  considered good edible fish, although only about 21 species  are caught in sufficient number to form a market supply.  The following are the local names of those found in greatest  abundance, the first six alone forming articles of export: The  Hobart Trumpeter, Perch (Chilodactylus), Snotgall  Trevally, Barracouta, Kingfish, Conger Eel, Native Salmon, Bastard Trumpeter, Red Perch, Rock Gurnet, Flathead,  Horse Mackerel, Sea Mullet, Rock Cod, Ling, Flounder, Sole,  Garfish, Common Eel.  Includes extended list of edible fishes in Tasmanian waters and a list of fish sold in Hobart during the year 1888.
Most eukaryotic messenger RNAs are transcribed as precursor molecules that must be processed by capping, splicing, 3' cleavage, and polyadenylylation to yield mature mRNAs. An important, unresolved issue is whether any of these reactions are linked either to transcription by RNA polymerase II or to each other. To address one aspect of this question, we constructed a chimeric gene containing an RNA polymerase III promoter (the adenovirus VAI promoter) fused to the body and 3'-flanking sequences of a protein-coding gene (the herpesvirus tk gene). Here we show that this hybrid gene was transcribed from the RNA polymerase III promoter following transfection of human 293 cells and that the transcripts produced were stable and efficiently transported to the cytoplasm. Although a significant proportion of the transcripts were prematurely terminated at specific sites within the gene, a high percentage of the full-length RNA was accurately cleaved and polyadenylylated. These results demonstrate that cleavage and polyadenylylation of mRNA precursors are not obligatorily coupled to transcription by RNA polymerase II in vivo.
The potentials of Bio-arc (a commercial formulation of the Bacillus megaterium) at the rate of 5, 10, 15 and 20 ml and Nemastrol (a commercial formulation of active ingredients) at the rate of 0.25 ml, for induction of systemic resistance to sugar-beet var. Negma infected with M. incognita were conducted in two soil types. Results revealed that all treatments with tested rates were found to have nematicidal activity against nematode infection and improved plant growth parameters of sugar-beet with various levels of success. The dual application of Bio-arc+Nemastrol at the rate of 20 ml +0.25 ml proved to be the best and showed significant improvement in plant growth parameters in terms of shoot length (92.6,127.5%) and total plant fresh weight (91.7, 370.4) of sugar-beet grown either in clayey or sandy soil, respectively. Among all treatments Nemastrol ranked next to oxamyl and performed the best and significantly suppressed total nematode population (Rf=1.9, 2.2), root galling (RGI=3.0, 3.0), number of egg masses (EI=3.0, 3.0) and number of eggs / egg mass (Red. %=76.5, 74.5) in clayey and sandy soil, respectively. However, concomitant treatment showed better results than did Bio-arc alone at four tested rates. The greatest suppression in total nematode population was recorded with clayey and sandy soil receiving the dual application of Nemastrol (0.25 ml) and Bio-arc (20 ml) with reproduction factor 2.2, 2.6 and reduction percentages reached 92.8, 92.6% respectively. Leaves of sugar-beet were assayed for their biochemical profiles with respect to NPK, total cholorophyll, total carbohydrates, proteins, and phenols. Moreover, remarkable induction in such chemical constituents except phenol content was recorded with the application of Bio- arc+Nemastrol (20 ml+0.25 ml). On the other hand, activities of related enzymes i.e. Peroxidase (PO) and Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) were evaluated in roots of sugar-beet infected with M. incognita. The enzymes accumulation was much greatest in Bio-arc+Nemastrol (20+0.25 ml) treated plants compared to control as they reached their peak at day 9th from nematode inoculation
This paper provided data 2002-2010 years on research of infectious and parasitic diseases and their prevalence in populations of four harvested species of crabs from Western Kamchatka shelf: the lithodid crabs Paralithodes camtschaticus and P platypus and majid crabs Chionoecetes opilio and C. bairdi. According to the results of visual registrations in the catches, pathologoanatomic, parasitological, bacteriological, histological and histochemical studies the shell disease, necrosis of internal organs, and viral infections were the most important among infectious diseases. Microsporidia and dinoflagellates Hematodinium sp. were most common among parasitic pathogens. The effect caused by ciliate, amoeba, rhizocephalan B. callosus was insignificant.
1. Prey preference is determined by active predator choice and by the relative vulnerability of prey taxa. In this study, we addressed the mechanisms of prey preference in the perlodid stonefly Diura bicaudata. 2. Components of the predator-prey interaction between the stonefly and its prey were quantified in laboratory observations. These data were compared to prey selection in preference trials and to gut contents of field-collected stoneflies. Experiments were conducted in spring (May) and in autumn (September), using prey taxa commonly available in each season. 3. In the September trials, Diura exhibited positive selection for black fly larvae, whereas Heptagenia, Ephemerella and large Baetis mayflies were avoided. Encounter rates did not affect preference: these were highest for heptageniids and lowest for black flies. Once contacted, black flies were practically always attacked with a high capture probability. Attack propensity and capture success were very low for all other prey types, including Baetis mayflies. 4. In May, female Diura avoided Ephemerella mayflies and Asellus isopods, but showed a positive, albeit non-significant, preference for Nemoura stoneflies. Males did not select any of the prey types. Again, encounter rate was the least important determinant of preference: nemourid stoneflies were encountered less frequently than other prey, especially by female Diura. Females attacked Asellus more frequently than other prey types. Baetis was not a preferred prey for either of the sexes. 5. Our results show that D. bicaudata prefers sedentary or slowly moving prey types. Preference was determined both by active predator choice and differential prey vulnerability. We suggest that although mobile prey such as Baetis are encountered frequently, they are difficult to capture, and are thus relatively safe from stonefly predation when sedentary prey are also available. 6. Microhabitat overlap between predator and prey may determine encounter rates in the field, but this may not translate into prey preferences. Prey with efficient antipredatory behaviours can risk predator encounters, whereas prey with less efficient escape mechanisms may have to select microhabitats avoided by the predator. It is thus essential that laboratory systems incorporate at least some of the structural complexity of natural streams. However, even relatively simple laboratory systems may provide the complexity needed, as long as they contain prey refuges.
SUMMARY  The persistence in soil of captan and thiram was investigated by means of a technique in which the fungicidal content of soil was assayed by incubating plugs of soil containing fungicide on agar plates seeded with spores of Myrothecium verrucaria and measuring the diameter of the zone of fungal inhibition that was produced. When the fungicides were well distributed in soil they showed extremely low persistence, both fungicides having a half-life of between 1 and 2 days. In contrast, when the fungicides were added to soil in the form of dressings on the surface of glass beads they persisted well in soil, little change from their initial concentration occurring even after 21 days.    These results suggest that captan and thiram persist far longer in soil when localized in high concentrations than when uniformly distributed through soil. If a glass bead is regarded as a reasonable simulation of a seed these results help to explain the effectiveness of these fungicides as seed dressings despite their apparently low persistence in soil.
Though considerable circumstantial evidence suggests that the pathogen of prion disease is proteinaceous, it has not yet been conclusively identified. Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats and that the real causative agent may correspond to a structural protein of that microorganism. The microbial protein should resemble prion protein (PrP) and may replicate itself in the host by using mammalian DNA. A similar phenomenon was already described with a protein antigen of the ameba Naegleria gruberi. The various serotypes of the microbial protein may account for the existence of scrapie strains. It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms.
Oral administration of S-5682 (Daflon 500 mg, 90% diosmin, 10% hesperidin) inhibits oxidant-induced increase in macromolecular permeability in the postcapillary venules of the hamster cheek pouch microcirculation. In this study, the effect of S-5682 on leukocyte-endothelium interaction was evaluated using the same experimental model. Hamsters kept on a standard diet were divided into 5 groups (n = 6) and treated orally, twice a day, with placebo (10% lactose solution), S-5682, 5, 20 or 80 mg/kg/day (suspended in 10% lactose solution) or α-tocopherol, 1 mg/kg/day, for 10 days prior to the oxidant challenge with tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBOOH). Topical application of TBOOH (10–4 M for 5 min) to hamsters given acridine orange prior to TBOOH resulted in increases in the number of rolling and sticking (no movement for at least 30 s) leukocytes in postcapillary venules. No changes in the number of rolling leukocytes could be observed in the treated groups compared with the placebo group (p > 0.05). On the contrary, leukocyte adhesion was inhibited in groups treated with S-5682 (5, 20 and 80 mg/kg/day) or α-tocopherol: placebo 105 ± 3/6 mm2 (mean ± SEM); S-5682, 5 mg/kg/day 68 ± 3/6 mm2 (p < 0.01), 20 mg/kg/day 55 ± 3/6 mm2 (p < 0.001) and 80 mg/ kg/day 39 ± 2/6 mm2 (p < 0.001) and α-tocopherol 36 ± 1/6 mm2 (p < 0.001). The inhibition of oxidant-induced leukocyte adhesion by S-5682 was similar to that seen for ischemia-reperfusion and the higher dose of S-5682 was as effective as α-tocopherol in inhibiting it.
Nelapattu bird sanctuary is one of the biggest pelicanary and also a breeding and roosting site for long distant and local migrant birds is located in Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh, India. The sanctuary area is approximately 458.92 Ha and consists of freshwater ponds in core area of 82.56 Ha with Barringtonia trees which grow in water bodies where the birds roost. The water body also consists of Prosopis juliflora thorny plants. Both these plants are nesting and or roosting sites for Pelicans, Open bill storks, White Ibis, Cormorants, Large Egrets, Small Egrets, Dab Chicks, Pond Herons etc. The niches of these birds appear to overlap but each species roosts and nests in specific areas of trees thus partitioning the space resource and minimizing overlap and reduce competition among different species. The resource partitioning by vertical gradient of birds is an evolutionary adaptation that reduces the harmful effects of interspecific competition.
Adequate vascularization, a restricting factor for the survival of engineered tissues, is often promoted by the addition of stem cells or the appropriate angiogenic growth factors. In this study, human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and stem cells from the apical papilla (SCAPs) were applied in an in vivo model of dental pulp regeneration in order to compare their regenerative potential and confirm their previously demonstrated paracrine angiogenic properties. 3D-printed hydroxyapatite scaffolds containing DPSCs and/or SCAPs were subcutaneously transplanted into immunocompromised mice. After twelve weeks, histological and ultrastructural analysis demonstrated the regeneration of vascularized pulp-like tissue as well as mineralized tissue formation in all stem cell constructs. Despite the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor in vitro, the stem cell constructs did not display a higher vascularization rate in comparison to control conditions. Similar results were found after eight weeks, which suggests both osteogenic/odontogenic differentiation of the transplanted stem cells and the promotion of angiogenesis in this particular setting. In conclusion, this is the first study to demonstrate the successful formation of vascularized pulp-like tissue in 3D-printed scaffolds containing dental stem cells, emphasizing the promising role of this approach in dental tissue engineering.
Two species of caligid copepods, Lepeophtheirus atypicus n. sp. and Caligus oviceps Shiino, 1952, are described based on the specimens obtained from moribund rabbit fish (Siganus fuscescens) cultured in a cage-net at the Penghus Hatchery Station on Pescadores Island, Taiwan. The new species bears close resemblance to L. goniistii Yamaguti, 1936, but can be easily distinguished from it by the armature on leg 3. The antennule, sternal furca, and leg 4 of these two species also exhibit difference. Lepeophtheirus species from rabbit fish in Japan reported as L. goniistii by Shiino (1952) is reidentified as L. atypicus n. sp. Caligus truncatogenitalis Roubal, 1981 is proposed to be relegated to the synonym of C. oviceps.
Five cellulolytic bacterial isolates (Clostridium and Eubacterium spp.) from a methane-producing landfill were examined to determine their ability to utilize newspaper as a substrate for growth. Solubilization was poor with even the most actively cellulolytic bacteria. The major factor causing the low activity seemed to be that as much as 24% of the newspaper was composed of the high molecular weight polymer lignin, which exerts a protective effect on the attack of otherwise susceptible polymers. The presence of ink on heavily printed paper also reduced the rate of cellulose solubilization. Although the ink did not appear directly toxic to the bacteria it masked the surface of the paper, covering the cellulose fibres and preventing bacterial adhesion to the substrate. The action of the cellulolytic isolates was also strongly inhibited below the optimum growth temperature of 37°C.
Stable supercomplexes of bacterial respiratory chain complexes III (ubiquinol:cytochrome c oxidoreductase) and IV (cytochrome c oxidase) have been isolated as early as 1985 (Berry, E. A., and Trumpower, B. L. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 2458-2467). However, these assemblies did not comprise complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase). Using the mild detergent digitonin for solubilization of Paracoccus denitrificans membranes we could isolate NADH oxidase, assembled from complexes I, III, and IV in a 1:4:4 stoichiometry. This is the first chromatographic isolation of a complete “respirasome.” Inactivation of the gene for tightly bound cytochrome c552 did not prevent formation of this supercomplex, indicating that this electron carrier protein is not essential for structurally linking complexes III and IV. Complex I activity was also found in the membranes of mutant strains lacking complexes III or IV. However, no assembled complex I but only dissociated subunits were observed following the same protocols used for electrophoretic separation or chromatographic isolation of the supercomplex from the wild-type strain. This indicates that the P. denitrificans complex I is stabilized by assembly into the NADH oxidase supercomplex. In addition to substrate channeling, structural stabilization of a membrane protein complex thus appears as one of the major functions of respiratory chain supercomplexes.
Worldwide, tuberculosis remains one of the leading infectious diseases, accounting for nearly 3 million deaths and more than 8 million new cases annually. DNA typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is important for the control of tuberculosis, since it can be used to track transmission route of tuberculosis, source of internal laboratory contaminations, and to answer questions on the nature of tuberculosis infections such as reactivation or exogenous reinfection of disease. At present, IS6110-based RFLP is the choice of method for typing large numbers of clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, since it has the highest resolution power. However, RFLP requires long time, high cost and qualified experts, so only reference level laboratories can use the RFLP technique. In order to have an optional molecular typing method suitable for the clinical settings, this study evaluated the use of one of PCR-based typing methods, IS6110-based outward PCR for typing clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. In brief, the results from this study showed that IS6110-based RFLP is useful to discriminate diverse clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis as well as to identify clinical isolates that belong to the same family or cluster groups that have been previously classified by RFLP analysis. In addition, the banding profiles resulted from IS6110-based outward PCR seemed to represent genomic characteristics of M. tuberculosis, since strains belong to the K-family generated unique band that is not present in any other strains but present only in the genome of K-family strains. The IS6110-based outward PCR was also shown to be useful with DNAs isolated directly from liquid cultures indicating this method can be suitable for typing M. tuberculosis in clinical settings.
Abstract Introduction: Congenital heart diseases (CHD) have been reported to be responsible for 30 to 50% of infant mortality caused by congenital disabilities. In critical cases, survival of newborns with CHD depends on the patency of the ductus arteriosus (PDA), for maintaining the systemic or pulmonary circulation. The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy and side effects of PGE (prostaglandin E) administration in newborns with critical congenital heart disease requiring maintenance of the ductus arteriosus. Material and method: All clinical and paraclinical data of 66 infants admitted to one referral tertiary level academic center and treated with Alprostadil were analyzed. Patients were divided into three groups: Group 1: PDA dependent pulmonary circulation (n=11) Group 2: PDA dependent systemic circulation (n=31) Group 3: PDA depending mixed circulation (n=24) Results: The mean age of starting PGE1 treatment was 2.06 days, 1.91 (+/−1.44) days for PDA depending pulmonary flow, 2.39 (+/−1.62) days for PDA depending systemic flow and 1.71 (+/1.12) for PDA depending mixing circulation. PEG1 initiation was commenced 48 hours after admission for 72%, between 48-72 hours for 6%, and after 72 to 120 hours for 21% of newborns detected with PDA dependent circulation. Before PEG1 initiation the mean initial SpO2 was 77.89 (+/− 9.2)% and mean initial oxygen pressure (PaO2) was 26.96(+/−6.45) mmHg. At the point when stable wide open PDA was achieved their mean SpO2increased to 89.73 (+/−8.4)%, and PaO2 rose to 49 (+/−7.2) mmHg. During PGE1 treatment, eleven infants (16.7%) had apnea attacks, five children (7.5%) had convulsions, 33 (50%) had fever, 47 (71.2%) had leukocytosis, 52 (78.8%) had edema, 25.8% had gastrointestinal intolerance, 45.5% had hypokalemia, and 63.6% had irritability. Conclusions: For those infants with severe cyanosis or shock caused by PDA dependent heart lesions, the initiation and maintenance of PGE1 infusion is imperative. The side effects of this beneficial therapy were transient and treatable.
We have studied the appearance and phenotype of recent thymic emigrants in blood, spleen and lymph nodes (LN) of neonatal lambs. Using in situ labelling of thymocytes with fluoroscein isothiocyanate (FITC), we examined the expression of the LN homing receptor l‐selectin on αβ and γδ subsets of recent thymic emigrants 24 hr after labelling. There were marked differences in the proportions of CD4+, CD8+ and γδ T‐cell receptor (TCR+) cells exported from the thymus to spleen compared to lymph nodes. Spleen was enriched in CD8+ and γδ TCR+ emigrants while LN were enriched in CD4+ emigrants. There were also marked differences in the expression of l‐selectin by emigrants homing to spleen compared with those homing to lymph nodes. While the majority of thymic emigrants in LN expressed l‐selectin, considerably fewer emigrants in spleen were l‐selectin+. The presence of large numbers of CD8+ l‐selectin– and γδ TCR+ l‐selectin– thymic emigrants homing to spleen raises the possibility that unique homing receptor specificities underpin the migration of T cells to spleen as distinct from lymph nodes.
The current COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) pandemic is affecting the health and/or socioeconomic welfare of almost everyone in the world. Finding vaccines and therapeutics is therefore urgent, but elucidation of the molecular mechanisms that allow some viruses to cross host species boundaries, becoming a threat to human health, must also be given close attention. Here, analysis of all proteins of SARS-CoV-2 revealed a unique PPxY Late (L) domain motif, 25PPAY28, in a spike (S) protein inside a predicted hot disordered loop subject to phosphorylation and binding. PPxY motifs in enveloped RNA viruses are known to recruit Nedd4 E3 ubiquitin ligases and ultimately the ESCRT complex to enhance virus budding and release, resulting in higher viral loads, hence facilitating new infections. Interestingly, proteins of SARS-CoV-1 do not feature PPxY motifs, which could explain why SARS-CoV-2 is more contagious than SARS-CoV-1. Should an experimental assessment of this hypothesis show that the PPxY motif plays the same role in SARS-CoV-2 as it does in other enveloped RNA viruses, this motif will become a promising target for the development of novel host-oriented antiviral therapeutics for preventing S proteins from recruiting Nedd4 E3 ubiquitin ligase partners.
Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a food-borne pathogen that causes severe hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in humans. The gastrointestinal tract of cattle is the main reservoir for E. coli O157:H7, making cattle feces a possible direct and indirect source of exposure for humans. According to the CDC, shiga-toxin producing E.coli 0157 causes an estimated 73,000 illnesses annually in the United States, resulting in over 2,000 hospitalizations and 60 deaths (Frenzen et. al, 2005). Interventions used to reduce shedding of this microorganism will lower contamination of the environment. A recently developed vaccine that targets Gram-negative bacteria's ability to acquire iron may be a practical intervention strategy for reducing the prevalence of this pathogenic microorganism. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a vaccine containing outer membrane siderophore receptor and porin (SRP) proteins in reducing fecal prevalence and shedding of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle.
Following the nuptial flight, colonization patterns of queens of the leaf‐cutting ant, Atta bisphaerica, were studied by means of belt transects. Queen density on the ground following swarming varied from 500 to 13500 queens/ha. Colonization attempts were greater in areas occupied by mature colonies of conspecifics, probably due to disturbance caused by large colonies. However, queen execution by conspecifics was also greater in areas of mature colonies. Approximately 89% of all founding queens were executed, and another 3% were initially lost to predators on the ground in areas with mature colonies. Losses to predators were 59% during the pre‐claustral phase in queens in areas of no mature colonies.
In this study, ultrastructures of anther wall and sporogenous tissue of Leucojum aestivum were investigated during different developmental stages. Cytomictic channels were seen between pollen mother cells during prophase I. Polar distribution was described in the organelle content of pollen mother cells and microspores in early phases of microsporogenesis and also in pollen mitosis. Active secretion was observed in tapetal cells. Previous reports about developmental stages of male gametophyte were compared with the results of this study.
Surgically implanted radio transmitters are useful for monitoring fish behaviour, movement patterns and home range. In Chile, there are no reports using this particular technique in native freshwater tish. Therefore, no standardized protocols have been developed in Chile to describe surgical procedures for inserting the implant nor the required dose of anaesthetics and medications applied to avoid fish mortality. This study describes a procedure for implanting a radio transmitter in Diplomystes camposensis, a native fish of southern Chile, which can be valuable for future research. The procedure was successful on these organisms because it prevented post surgical mortality and allowed fish monitoring throughout the entire life span of the transmitter. Our research can serve as a guide for future studies involving surgical implants of radio transmitters on native fish with high conservation values, in which mortality due to research should be minimal.
In Bacteria and Archaea (formerly Archaebacteria) ribosomal protein L1 has a dual function, as a primary rRNA-binding protein and as a translational repressor which binds to its own mRNA. The L1-binding site on the mRNA exhibits high similarity in both sequence and secondary structure to the binding site for L1 on the 23 S rRNA. A sensitive membrane-filter-binding assay has been used to examine the interactions between ribosomal L1 proteins from different archaeal and bacterial species, and 23S rRNA and mRNA fragments from Methanococcus vannielii containing the MvaL1-binding site. Under standard conditions (0 degrees C, pH 7.5, 20 mM Mg2+, 500 mM KCl), the apparent dissociation constant Kd of the homologous MvaL1-23S rRNA complex is 5 nM, the apparent dissociation constant Kd of the MvaL1-mRNA complex is 0.15 degrees M. L1 proteins from Escherichia coli (EcoL1) and from the thermophilic Bacterium Thermus thermophilus (TthL1), and from the thermophilic Archaea Methanococcus thermolithotrophicus (MthL1), Methanococcus jannaschii (MjaL1), and Sulfolobus solfataricus (SsoL1) were tested for their affinity to the specific L1-binding sites on the 23 S rRNA and mRNA. In general, the affinity of L1 proteins from thermophilic species to the binding sites on both 23 S rRNA and mRNA is about one order of magnitude higher than that of their mesophilic counterparts. This stronger protein-RNA interaction might make a substantial contribution to the thermal tolerance of ribosomes in thermophilic organisms.
Phylogenetic reconstruction from gene-rearrangement data has attracted increasing attention from biologists and computer scientists. Methods used in reconstruction include distance-based methods, parsimony methods using sequence-based encodings, and direct optimization. The latter, pioneered by Sankoff and extended by us with the software suite GRAPPA, is the most accurate approach; however, its exhaustive approach means that it can be applied only to small datasets of fewer than 15 taxa. While we have successfully scaled it up to 1,000 genomes by integrating it with a diskcovering method (DCM-GRAPPA), the recursive decomposition may need many levels of recursion to handle datasets with 1,000 or more genomes. We thus investigated quartet-based approaches, which directly decompose the datasets into subsets of four taxa each; such approaches have been well studied for sequence data, but not for gene-rearrangement data. We give an optimization algorithm for the NP-hard problem of computing optimal trees for each quartet, present a variation of the dyadic method (using heuristics to choose suitable short quartets), and use both in simulation studies. We find that our quartet-based method can handle more genomes than the base version of GRAPPA, thus enabling us to reduce the number of levels of recursion in DCM-GRAPPA, but is more sensitive to the rate of evolution, with error rates rapidly increasing when saturation is approached.
The maintenance of glucose homeostasis is a complex process in which the insulin signalling pathway plays a major role. Disruption of insulin‐regulated glucose homeostasis is frequently observed in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection and might potentially contribute to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) development. Presently, the mechanism that links HCV infection to insulin resistance remains unclear. Previously, we have reported that HCV protein expression in HCV transgenic mice (B6HCV) leads to an overexpression of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) through an ER stress response. In the present work, we describe an association of FoxO1 hypophosphorylation and upregulation of both PGC‐1α and G6Pase to phenotypic hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance in B6HCV mice. In vitro, we observed that PGC1α is concomitantly induced with PP2A. Moreover, we show that the enhanced PP2A expression is sufficient to inhibit insulin‐induced FoxO1 phosphorylation via blockade of insulin‐mediated Akt activation or/and through direct association and dephosphorylation of pS‐FoxO1. Consequently, we found that the gluconeogenic gene glucose‐6‐phosphatase is upregulated. These observations were confirmed in liver biopsies obtained from CHC patients. In summary, our results show that HCV‐mediated upregulation of PP2A catalytic subunit alters signalling pathways that control hepatic glucose homeostasis by inhibiting Akt and dephosphorylation of FoxO1.
In green microalgae, prolonged exposure to inorganic carbon depletion requires long-term acclimation responses, based on a modulated expression of genes and adjusting photosynthetic activity to the prevailing supply of carbon dioxide. Here, we depict a microalgal regulatory cycle, adjusting the light-harvesting capacity at PSII to the prevailing supply of carbon dioxide in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. It engages a newly identified low carbon dioxide response factor (LCRF), which belongs to the Squamosa promoter binding protein (SBP) family of transcription factors, and the previously characterized cytosolic translation repressor NAB1. LCRF combines a DNA-binding SBP domain with a conserved domain for protein-protein interactions and transcription of the LCRF gene is rapidly induced by carbon dioxide depletion. LCRF activates transcription of the NAB1 gene by specifically binding to tetranucleotide motifs present in its promoter. Accumulation of the NAB1 protein enhances translational repression of its prime target mRNA, encoding the PSII-associated major light-harvesting protein LHCBM6. The resulting reduction of the PSII antenna size helps maintaining a low excitation during the prevailing carbon dioxide limitation. Analyses of low carbon dioxide acclimation in nuclear insertion mutants devoid of a functional LCRF gene confirm the essentiality of this novel transcription factor for the regulatory circuit.
For a long time we have been interested in the use of epidermal cells in the study of problems of grafting. Starting from previous experiments of Billingham and Sparrow (1955), we studied the effects of intravenous injections of epidermal cells in adult animals on the survival time of skin homografts from the same donors. In the adult rabbit as well as in the mouse, these preliminary injections, made a few days before the graft, produced an important prolongation of the urvival time of these skin homografts. Our experiments on the rabbit thus confirmed the results of Billingham and Sparrow. Unfortunately, these experiments with basal epidermal cells, isolated with trypsin and washed several times, were characterized by a high mortality. We first had a rather high mortality a t the time of, or shortly after, intravenous injections. This mortality could be reduced by additional washings of the cells, but the effectiveness of the cells on the survival of the homografts simultaneously decreased. However, when rabbits were used, there also was a delayed mortality that reached an average of 30 per cent. These experiments emphasized an additional risk in all our attempts at inducing homograft tolerance with living cells (namely, runt disease and homologous disease). As have many others, we tried to prepare cell-free extracts capable of eliciting, if possible, a total tolerance, or a t least a more or less prolonged survival time, of the skin homografts. With this objective in mind, we have investigated the problem in two ways: In one field of work we use extracts of gastric and duodenal mucosa. These extracts, if not identical, are a t least very close to the blood group substances or prepared by the same technique. When injected intravenously, they effect a very significant survival of skin homografts from the donor of the extracts. Like the blood group substances, these extracts have the property of inhibiting hemagglutination. They are heat-stable and do not produce transplantation immunity. This work is still going on and has been reported partially elsewhere (Albert and Lejeune-Ledant, 1958, 1959). The other field of this work consisted of an attempt to prepare extracts containing antigens capable of producing an immunological response in adult animals and inducing tolerance in immature animals. For this we chose epidermal cells. The first part of this work is the subject of our present communication.
Abstract VITAMIN B12 has been shown to support good hatchability in all-vegetable rations, containing soybean oil meal as the protein supplement, by Petersen et al. (1950), Carver and McGinnis (1950), Milligan and Combs (1950), Peeler et al. (1951), Johnson (1951), Yacowitz et al. (1952), and Milligan et al. (1952). Some conflicting reports have appeared in which B12 alone did not maintain hatchability at a high level. Olcese and Couch (1950), using a more purified diet containing sucrose and soybean protein, found that vitamin B12 would not support hatchability after the eighth week of feeding. Peeler et al. (1951) reported that hens kept in laying cages for a period of more than one year showed reduced hatchability due to early embryonic mortality which could not be improved by weekly injections of vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 supported good hatchability of those embryos which passed this early embryonic period. The purposes of the experiments …
Gregarious settlement in barnacles has been related to the settlement-inducing compounds from adult conspecifics, bacteria in the biofilms, and their interaction. Elucidation of larval settlement cues from these sources is limited. The effectiveness of larval settlement cues under different environmental conditions (salinity, temperature) needs evaluation. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium isolated from the shell surface of Balanus amphitrite Darwin, was used as a candidate. The influence of bacterial film, culture supernatant and its molecular-weight fractions, and bacterial extract was investigated along with the conspecific adult extract (AE). The influence of culture supernatants and exopolysaccharides obtained from the bacterium cultivated in different nutrient media, effectiveness of leachants and adsorbed (surface-bound) compounds on the metamorphosis of cyprids of B. amphitrite was also assessed. The influence of P. aeruginosa on cyprid metamorphosis varied with salinity and temperature. The differences were not significant as the film and the cyprids aged. When the bacterial film was examined in the presence of an active substance (agonist) such as AE, metamorphosis was facilitated, suggesting the role of competitive antagonism in cue perception. The higher molecular-weight fraction of the bacterial-culture supernatant was inductive at higher salinity. Conversely, the lower molecular-weight fraction of the culture supernatant showed maximum inhibition when the adsorbed (surface-bound) compounds were assessed along with the leachants. Bacterial extract showed the presence of ketonic compounds, and its influence differed with salinity. The inhibitory effect of the extract was nullified in the presence of AE. When the extract was examined in the presence of leachants, a 2-fold increase in the metamorphosis rates was evident where only surface-bound components were inhibitory. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy analysis revealed that bacteria grown in different nutrient media yielded culture supernatants with different chemical composition, thus altering their ability to induce metamorphosis of cyprids. Maximum inducement was provoked by the culture supernatant obtained from semi-solid culture, and this positive effect was protein concentration dependent. The exopolysaccharides obtained from bacteria grown in basal salt solution facilitated metamorphosis similar to that of the bacterial film and AE. The response of the cyprids to bacteria and its products seems to be regulated by both contact chemoreception and olfaction, depending on the properties of the settlement-inducing compounds. The need to characterize and distinguish the receptors, which act via different signaling systems on a particular settlement cue, may be a step ahead to resolve the complexities of invertebrate larval recruitment.
Malaria remains a threat for many countries, especially in Chad where it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Few reliable data exist, however, about the entomological and parasitological parameters of malaria transmission. The objective of this study was to investigate the entomological and parasitological parameters of malaria transmission in Douguia, a village located 75 km northeast of Ndjamena (Chad), as part of a training program for participants in Chad's malaria control program. Mosquitoes were collected after morning pyrethroid spraying, with a mouth aspirator. The parasitological data were collected by a rapid diagnosis test or microscopic examination. The study examined 350 subjects aged from 6 months to 80 years. The plasmodic index (PI) of Plasmodium falciparum was 25.4 % (n = 89) and the gametocygenic index (GI) 9.1 % (n = 32); they varied significantly from one age group to another (p = 10- 3). The PI in pregnant women attending antenatal clinics was 18.7 % (n = 12/64). Three Anopheles species were found: Anopheles gambiae s.l, An. arabiensis and An. pharoensis. An. coluzzii accounted for 94.9 % of the An. gambiae s.s. The antigen sporozoite index (SI) was 4.5 %. Our results confirm the endemicity of malaria in Chad (Douguia) and underline the major role of An. gambiae s.l. in its transmission. However, repeated studies using PCR for Plasmodium detection would help to improve our understanding of its epidemiology.
Diet composition of the Barn Owl Tyto alba was studied in agricultural landscapes in Thessaly, Greece, for 3 years (2003–05). A total of 852 Rattus spp. individuals were identified from 10 065 pellets, which accounted for 2.9% by frequency and 27.4% by biomass of 29 061 prey items. Rattus spp. were more numerous in Barn Owl pellets during winter months than in summer. We suggest that this difference was due to a shift in relative prey availability and an increased need for energy by the Barn Owl during the colder months. Comparisons between Thessaly and 15 other areas showed differences in prey availability between islands and mainland Greece. Microtus spp. were absent from all island diets except one, and some islands had greater species richness.
Most studies on the effects of tanniferous plants on nematodes have examined forages but have neglected the woody plants. Therefore, in vitro effects of extracts from 3 woody plants (Rubus fructicosus, Quercus robur, Corylus avellana) have been tested on trichostrongyles and compared to sainfoin, a legume forage. Because some in vivo results indicated that the effects of tannins differed depending on the parasitic species and/or stages, the effects were measured on third-stage larvae (L3) and adult worms of Teladorsagia circumcincta, Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus colubriformis. The effects of plant extracts varied according to the plant sources, the parasite species and stages. For the woody plants, significant inhibitory effects were obtained on both stages of abomasal species. Results for T. colubriformis were more variable. Effects of sainfoin extracts were significant on T. colubriformis and H.contortus L3, and on abomasal adult worms. In order to assess the implications of tannins, polyethylene glycol (PEG), an inhibitor of tannins, was added to hazel tree, oak and sainfoin extracts. Without PEG, significant inhibitory effects on L3 and adult worms were confirmed. After addition of PEG, the larval migration and motility of adult worms were restored in most cases. These results confirm variations in effects depending on factors related to plants or parasites and suggest that tannins are partly responsible for the effects.
The current knowledge of the Collembolan fauna of Thailand is reported here, based on the checklist of Bedos (1994) completed by data on several taxa described since this date, with an update of the taxonomic status of the species. A total of 194 species from 53 genera and 14 families are listed, that were mostly discovered and described during the last three decades. The updated checklist illustrates a strong unevenness in sampling efforts across space and habitats, and in the degree of taxonomic coverage of the different families of the group. Geographically, only the Doi Inthanon massif can be considered as relatively well known, but even there the species in several major habitats and microhabitats have not been sampled. Data are lacking or much more limited for all other regions of the country. The species richness of Thailand is undoubtedly much more than observed number.
The aim of the study was to find the sources of 137Cs in wild boar food in the natural ecosystem. The main emphasis is focused on the analyses of wild boar muscles and the content of wild boar stomach. Boars weighing 20 to 100 kg were killed at two locations. The highest specific activities of muscles were measured in boars originated from the Dvorce location; the average specific activity in boars killed on 14 April 2007 and 9 March 2008 achieved 132 Bq·kg-1. Due to high fluctuation the differences between the mean values of 31 Bq·kg-1 in males and 43 Bq·kg-1 in females were not significant. Earthworms from grass fields with a specific activity of 16 Bq·kg-1, rootlets from the Sabrava location with 200 Bq·kg-1 and Elaphomyces granulatus fruiting bodies with 4,743 Bq·kg-1 and 2,858 Bq·kg-1 are the components of boar food with the 137Cs specific activities higher than that of the detection limit. Consequently, underground mushrooms probably represent the main source of radiocesium in the food chain of boars. A remarkable reduction of 137Cs specific activities in boar muscles is not expected at the post-Chernobyl radiocesium contaminated locations with the occurrence of Elaphomyces granulatus within next two decades. Sus scrofa, 137Cs, Elaphomyces granulatus, radioecology, Chernobyl, radionuclide migration, ingestion, foot The consequences of nuclear accidents can have a long-term effect on some biocenoses. It is caused by the transfer capability of some radionuclides that move from the abiotic environmental components to the biotic component and accumulate in it. One of them is the 137Cs radionuclide, i.e. the primary post-Chernobyl nuclide (with its physical half-life of about 30 years), that was shortly accompanied by 134Cs (with its physical half-life of about 2 years) after the disaster, both with the chemical behaviour similar to that of potassium (Garger et al. 2006; Rajec et al. 2009). After successive reduction of the radiocesium activity in muscles of fair game, an unexpected reversal occurred in the 1990s. After floods in the North-Eastern Moravia in June 1997, the radiocesium activity increased in the muscles of fair game (in 183 specimens examined by the State Veterinary Administration). This mainly pertained to boars and ungulate game with the exception of mountain goats. According to the State Veterinary Administration of the Czech Republic, the average activities were 61 Bq·kg-1 from 1992 to June 1997, 588 Bq·kg-1 from July 1997 to 2000, followed by reduction to the average of 101 Bq·kg-1 observed during the years 2001 and 2002. Specific activities that exceeded 1,250 Bq·kg-1 were randomly detected in boars after the flood in North-Eastern Moravia, i.e. values that exceeded the maximum permissible activity (Decree of SUJB 2002). Such values were detected in four specimens (from 1,649 to 7,510 Bq·kg-1). Resorption of radiocesium (137Cs) in the digestive tract of vertebrates is relatively high (50% and more). Resorption can reach up to 80% in ruminants whereas 100% can be reached in monogastric animals (especially carnivores). The wild boar belongs to animals whose origins of 137Cs have not been exactly explained yet. ACTA VET. BRNO 2010, 79: S85–S91; doi:10.2754/avb201079S9S085 Address for correspondence: Prof. MVDr. Petr Dvořak, CSc. Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno Palackeho 1-3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic Phone: +420 541 562 608 E-mail: dvorakp@vfu.cz http://www.vfu.cz/acta-vet/actavet.htm The importance of radiocesium exposure of human beings by ingestion of boar meat seems to be negligible due to low consumption of wild boar meat in the Czech and Slovak Republics (about 0.5 kg a year). However, the radiological risk of a critical group should not be underestimated. For example, the consumption of wild boar meat by members of hunting associations is higher by nearly two orders than that of the rest of the population, exceeding sometimes more than a half of other yearly meat consumption. Ecological halflife models (Lettner et al. 2009) can be used as valuable and effective tools to specify the countermeasures for contamination reduction or meat consumption regulation. Cooking or salting, including meat brining can take part in such countermeasures (Dvořak at al. 2008). The explanation of radiocesium transfer into the digestive tract and consequently the transfer of radiocesium into the wild boar muscles is of great importance as the knowledge of this process might contribute to the development of countermeasures against possible muscle contamination. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explain the source of 137Cs in wild boar food in the natural ecosystem with the main emphasis on analyses of muscles and the content of stomach, and to find possible dependence of 137Cs activity in muscles on the sex of animals. Materials and Methods Wild boars weighing 20 to 100 kg originated from two adjacent locations (Sabrava and Dvorce) situated in the Odry Highlands and partly in the Nizký Jesenik mountains. The landscape is a typical upland (600 m above sea level on the average) with rich spruce forests, at lower altitudes with mixed forests and isolated beech and birch forests, and willows and alders near watercourses. There are large meadowlands and grasslands situated among individual forests. Arable land is quite rare; small-scale watercourses that formed deep valleys by erosion activity have strongly affected the landscape. Twenty two muscle samples and eleven samples of the stomach content were taken from wild boars of the weight ranging from 20 to 100 kg from 8 November 2006 to 4 April 2008 to determine the 137Cs specific activities. Twenty surface land samples were collected from the places rooted by animals and up to a distance of 2 m from them. All typical food items were collected, i.e. soil, needles, earthworms, beechnuts, rootlets, and mushroom Elaphomyces granulatus). Some additional foods (maize silage, sugar slices and oat) were also included. Stomach content sample with the specific activity of 100 Bq·kg-1 was rinsed by water and sorted according to the grain size on the 1 mm screen. The samples were not dried; all were measured in their native state or cooled to a temperature of –15 oC, and then measured. The 137Cs specific activities were measured using gamma-spectrometry with the semiconductor HPGe GC2020 detector (efficiency of 20%, resolution at 1.3 MeV of 1.8 keV) and the Inspector multichannel analyser. Three measurement geometries (i.e. methods of measurements) were used in this study: muscles were measured in the Marinelli beaker (450 ml), the contents of stomach and other potential radiocesium sources in 200 ml PE bottles (200 ml) and separated parts of stomach in Petri dishes (10 ml). All geometries including the gammaspectrometric system were certified in the Czech Metrological Institute. The following minimum detectable activities (MDA) for the measuring time of 3 h were determined: 0.9 Bq·kg-1 in the Marinelli beaker, 5.2 Bq·kg-1 in PE bottles and 83 Bq·kg-1 in Petri dishes. However, the measuring time was extended for some samples to 18 h with the following MDA: 0.4 Bq·kg-1 in the Marinelli beaker, 2.2 Bq·kg-1 in PE bottles and 10 Bq·kg-1 in Petri dishes. The combined relative standard uncertainties were calculated according to the Guide (1993). Details of the system were described by Dvořak et al. (2006). Statistics were evaluated by means of the basic parameters (modus, mean, and median) and by the polynomial curves describing the time trends. The effect of sex on the muscle activity concentrations was assessed by means of paired t-test with non-homogeneous variation.
T cell vaccination (TCV) activates Tregs of 2 kinds: anti-idiotypic (anti-id) and anti-ergotypic (anti-erg). These regulators furnish a useful view of the physiology of T cell regulation of the immune response. Anti-id Tregs recognize specific effector clones by their unique TCR CDR3 peptides; anti-id networks of CD4+ and CD8+ Tregs have been described in detail. Here we shall focus on anti-erg T regulators. Anti-erg T cells, unlike anti-id T cells, do not recognize the clonal identity of effector T cells; rather, anti-erg T cells recognize the state of activation of target effector T cells, irrespective of their TCR specificity. We consider several features of anti-erg T cells: their ontogeny, subset markers, and target ergotope molecules; mechanisms by which they regulate other T cells; mechanisms by which they get regulated; and therapeutic prospects for anti-erg upregulation and downregulation.
Helminths modulate both the adaptive and innate arms of human immune system. Such immune alteration seems to have an anti-inflammatory effect. Chronic helminth infections switch the immune response from Th1 to Th2 by various mechanisms and by different helminth derived molecules. Though these immunological responses provide a survival advantage, they seem to hamper the response to non-helminth derived antigens. Immune response to oral vaccines and many auto-immune disorders are influenced by immunomodulatory effects of helminths. As a part of eukaryotic community in the gut, helminths might have a potential role in the development of immune system.
This study included laboratory ovulation of the effect of alcoholic(ethanol) extract of Teucrium polium, Peganum harmala,Thymus vulgaris and Physalis angulata. It was values LC50 (102.5,101.0,78.0 and 53.0 ppm) and LC90(130.0,128.0,136.0 and 80.0 ppm) for Teucrium polium,Peganum harmala,Thymus vulgaris and Physalis angulata respectively at 24 hrs. of exposure time. It was found that extract the Physalis angulata were more effective as larvicides at 24 hrs. exposure time with LC50: 53.0 ppm for On the other side, the LC90 for the previous plants at the same exposure time were 80.0 pmm. Also, the sublarvicidal effect of the studed plant extracts at LC25 had been illustrated through histopathological effect on midgut. These effects were respectively by alimentary tract curling as body reflex, separation of epithelial columnar cell layer and separation of external muscular mucosa. Erosion of the Peritrophic membrane causing microvilli disappearing.
Cytochemical studies were performed on erythrocytes containing Cabot rings from the peripheral blood of two patients with severe untreated pernicious anemia. These studies demonstrated that the Cabot ring contained arginine-rich histone and non-hemoglobin iron. Structures that may represent precursors of Cabot rings were found in stippled late intermediate marrow megaloblasts. The Cabot ring may result in part from abnormalities in metabolism of both iron and arginine-rich histone that are known to occur in pernicious anemia.
Cellular reprogramming is defined as the ability of a cell to change its identity. Various examples of cellular reprogramming like reprogramming of a nucleus (dedifferentiation), reprogramming of a committed cell (transdetermination) or that of a differentiated cell (trans‐differentiation) have been described. Even though extensive work has been performed for the past two decades the exact mechanism by which a cell changes its identity is not clearly understood. Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in reprogramming cells will not only provide a comprehensive knowledge about normal development but also about pathological processes like cancer. It will also help to generate cell‐based therapies for debilitating diseases like diabetes, Parkinson’s disease etc in regenerative medicine and to develop diagnostic tools for the early detection of cancer. This research project uses the powerful genetics of C. Elegans to dissect the process and identify molecular players at a single cell level. In C. Elegans, during the 2nd larval developmental stage, one cell named ‘Y’, a differentiated epithelial cell of the rectum, migrates anteriorly and becomes a motor neuron ‘PDA’ which has a characteristic axon emanating from the cell body. Simultaneously, another neighbouring cell named ‘P12. Pa’ takes the position of Y in the rectum. This process happens in the absence of cell division. To identify players involved in the process a forward genetic screen by EMS mutagenesis was performed to isolate mutants that are affected at various steps of trans‐differentiation. One of the mutants, “fp8”, obtained is found to be a new allele of unc3, the sole COE (Collier‐Olfactory‐Early B cell factor) transcription factor in C. Elegans that is widely conserved among species. An elaborate analysis of unc3( 0) mutant shows that the “Y” cell that fails to trans‐differentiate into “PDA” is exhibiting neither epithelial nor neuronal characteristics and is blocked in an intermediate state suggesting that the transition of epithelial‐to‐neuronal identity proceeds through intermediary cellular steps and not by concomitant expression of epithelial and neuronal characteristics. This study will shed light on the factors that are used in a physiological process to reprogram a cell and will likely contribute to better understanding of developmental process and improve reprogramming strategies in regenerative medicine.
ABSTRACT Bacteriophages are the most abundant and genetically diverse viruses on Earth, with complex ecology in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Somatic coliphages (SC) have been reported to be good indicators of fecal pollution in seawater. This study focused on determining the concentration of SC and their diversity by electron microscopy of seawater, plankton, and bivalve samples collected at three coastal regions in São Paulo, Brazil. The SC counts varied from <1 to 3.4 × 103 PFU/100 ml in seawater (73 samples tested), from <1 to 4.7 × 102 PFU/g in plankton (46 samples tested), and from <1 to 2.2 × 101 PFU/g in bivalves (11 samples tested). In seawater samples, a relationship between the thermotolerant coliforms and Escherichia coli and SC was observed at the three regions (P = 0.0001) according to the anthropogenic activities present at each region. However, SC were found in plankton samples from three regions: Baixada Santista (17/20), Canal de São Sebastião (6/14), and Ubatuba (3/12). In seawater samples collected from Baixada Santista, four morphotypes were observed: A1 (4.5%), B1 (50%), C1 (36.4%), and D1 (9.1%). One coliphage, Siphoviridae type T1, had the longest tail: between 939 and 995 nm. In plankton samples, Siphoviridae (65.8%), Podoviridae (15.8%), Microviridae (15.8%), and Myoviridae (2.6%) were found. In bivalves, only the morphotype B1 was observed. These SC were associated with enteric hosts: enterobacteria, E. coli, Proteus, Salmonella, and Yersinia. Baixada Santista is an area containing a high level of fecal pollution compared to those in the Canal de São Sebastião and Ubatuba. This is the first report of coliphage diversity in seawater, plankton, and bivalve samples collected from São Paulo coastal regions. A better characterization of SC diversity in coastal environments will help with the management and evaluation of the microbiological risks for recreation, seafood cultivation, and consumption.
Episodic memory retrieval is associated with the holistic neocortical reinstatement of all event information; an effect driven by hippocampal pattern completion. However, whether holistic reinstatement occurs, and whether the hippocampus continues to drive reinstatement, after a period of consolidation is unclear. Theories of systems consolidation predict either a time-variant or -invariant role of the hippocampus in the holistic retrieval of episodic events. Here, we assessed whether episodic events continue to be reinstated holistically and whether the hippocampus continues to facilitate holistic reinstatement following a period of consolidation. Participants learnt ‘events’ that were composed of multiple overlapping pairs of event elements (e.g., person-location, objectlocation, location-person). Importantly, encoding occurred either immediately before or 24-hours before retrieval. Using fMRI during the retrieval of events, we show evidence for holistic reinstatement, as well as a correlation between reinstatement and hippocampal activity, regardless of whether retrieval occurred immediately or 24-hours after encoding. Thus, the hippocampus continues to contribute to holistic reinstatement after a delay. However, our results also revealed that holistic reinstatement can occur in the absence of a signature of hippocampal pattern completion after a delay (but not immediately following encoding). We therefore show that the hippocampal pattern completion contributes to, but is no longer necessary for, holistic reinstatement. Our results point to a consolidation process where the hippocampus and neocortex may work in a complementary manner, with the hippocampus still contributing to reinstatement despite not being necessary.
Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been implicated in the development of heart disease. Nonetheless, the crosstalk between factors secreted from EAT and cardiomyocytes has not been studied. Here, we examined the effect of factors secreted from EAT on contractile function and insulin signalling in primary rat cardiomocytes. EAT and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) were isolated from guinea pigs fed a high‐fat (HFD) or standard diet. HFD feeding for 6 months induced glucose intolerance, and decreased fractional shortening and ejection fraction (all P < 0.05). Conditioned media (CM) generated from EAT and SAT explants were subjected to cytokine profiling using antibody arrays, or incubated with cardiomyocytes to assess the effects on insulin action and contractile function. Eleven factors were differentially secreted by EAT when compared to SAT. Furthermore, secretion of 30 factors by EAT was affected by HFD feeding. Most prominently, activin A‐immunoreactivity was 6.4‐fold higher in CM from HFD versus standard diet‐fed animals and, 2‐fold higher in EAT versus SAT. In cardiomyocytes, CM from EAT of HFD‐fed animals increased SMAD2‐phosphorylation, a marker for activin A‐signalling, decreased sarcoplasmic‐endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase 2a expression, and reduced insulin‐mediated phosphorylation of Akt‐Ser473 versus CM from SAT and standard diet‐fed animals. Finally, CM from EAT of HFD‐fed animals as compared to CM from the other groups markedly reduced sarcomere shortening and cytosolic Ca2+ fluxes in cardiomyocytes. These data provide evidence for an interaction between factors secreted from EAT and cardiomyocyte function.
Filamentous fungi are notorious for their low DNA and high RNA contents as well as their rigid cell walls. This regular paper is available in Fungal Genetics Reports: https://newprairiepress.org/fgr/vol35/iss1/3 culture (Group 3) seemed to have a lasting effect for when these cultures were placed at 25° C in continous light, Group 3 had reduced growth compared to all other treatment groups. In contrast, those cultures which had been in the dark at 36° C for the first four days (Group 4) seemed to grow almost as well as Group 1 after being moved to light at 25° C. It appears that in the mutant M14-62 light-dark and temperature interact to exert an effect on growth which continues even after the mutant is transferred to ambient temperature and continuous light. Dept. of Biology, Georgia Southern College, Statesboro, GA 30460 Brownlee, A.G. Filamentous fungi are notorious for their low DNA and high RNA contents as well as their A rapid DNA isolation procedure rigid cell walls. I have been surveying genetic differences such as RFLPs in isolates of obliapplicable to many refractory gately anaerobic rumen fungi of the class Chitridiomycetes. These organisms present the filamentous fungi. added complications of slow growth in unconventional culture conditions, hence material is limited, as well as exceptionally low in DNA content by weight. In some instances as much as 35% of the dry weight is a glycogen-like storage polysaccharide (Concanavalin Areactive) that copurifies with DNA through many purification steps including CsCl density gradient centrifugation. This and other acidic polysaccharide contaminants severely inhibit restriction enzymes and DNA ligase. I describe a rapid procedure for isolating high MW genomic DNA from fungi (or any organism for that matter) where any of the above problems are encountered. The srparation of DNA from contaminants is based on the two phase technique of Kirby (1956, Biochem. J. 64:405-408) combined with polyethylene glycol precipitation of DNA from the phosphate-rich organic phase. The protocol is applied to 50 mg dry weight of starting material but can probably be adapted to larger amounts. 1. Lyophilized mycelium is ground to a powder in a mortar and pestle. 50 mg is placed in a microcentrifuge tube. 2. Material is suspended in 500 ul of 0.2 M Tris, 0.25 M NaCl, 0.025 M EDTA (pH 8.5) containing 0.5% SDS. 3. Add 10 ul of protease K (20 mg/ml), incubate at 65° for 30 min. (Note 1). 4. Add 500 ul of chloroform isoamyl alcohol (24:1), mix well and centrifuge 5 min. (Note 2). 5. Transfer the upper phase to a clean tube and add 0.7 vols. (350 ul) of isopropanol at room temperature, mix, leave 5 min. 6. Centrifuge the sample for 5 min, drain tube and dissolve the pellet in 200 ul sterile TE [10mM Tris, 1 mM EDTA (DH 8.0)]. Warming mav he lp. (Note 3). 7. Add 200 ul of cold 2.5 M potassium phosphate (pH 8.0) then 200 ul of cold 2-methoxyethanol (ethylene glycol monomethyl ether), mix well and centrifuge for ca. 2 min. 8. The DNA in the upper (organic) layer is transferred to a clean tube (~500 ul) avoiding the interface material. Add an equal volume of HOH and ca. 330 ul of 30% polyethylene glycol 6000 in 1.5 M NaCl. Mix well and leave on ice 15 min. (Note 4) 9. Centrifuge the tube for 5 min (12,000 x g) and remove the supernatant. Centrifuge again briefly to ensure that all of the viscous solution is at the bottom of the tube and remove it. 10. Dissolve the pellet in 200 ul TE (warm if necessary) then add 200 ul 5 M ammonium acetate and 1 ml ethanol at room temperature. After 10 min centrifuge the tube for ca. 10 min, drain and rinse the pellet with 70% ethanol. Dry the pellet briefly under vacuum and dissolve it in an appropriate volume of TE (50 ul). 5 ul of this solution is sufficient to check size and recovery on an agarose gel. Notes: (1) Protease K treatment substantially increased the yield of DNA in several trials. (2) The use of phenol or extended high speed centrifugation at this step (see Raeder and Broda, Letts. Appl. Microbiol., 1985, 1:17-20) is unnecessary. (3) RNAse treatment can be included at this stage but generally the RNA content of the final product is very low without it. (4) The final concentrations of PEG and NaCl are not critical. The object is to achieve 6-8% PEG in high salt while diluting low molecular weight contaminants including RNA, as much as possible (having regard to the nominal capacity of a 1.5 ml microcentrifuge tube). DNA can be precipitated from the high phosphate buffer with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (Bellamy and Ralph, 1968, Meth. Enzymol. 12:156-160) or cetylpyridinium bromide (Geck and Nasz, 1983, Anal. Biochem. 135:264-268) but the recovered DNA does not digest as well as when PEG is used and the RNA content is higher. The yield is usually 10-12 ug of high MW DNA (>30 kb by agarose gel electrophoresis) that is readily restriction digested or ligated in small volumes. I should emphasize that the method described here, unlike many others I have tried with this group of fungi, results in DNA of substantially improved yield and degree of purity yet is simple and rapid enough to permit joint processing of several samples on a small scale. The occasional sample with persistent resistance to restriction digestion can be further improved by spermine precipitation (Hoopes and McClure, 1981, Nucl. Acids Res. 9:54935504; Pingoud et al., 1984, Biochem. 23:5697-5703). Ms. D. Copelin was of great assistance in the development of this method. CSIRO, Division of Animal Production P.O. Box 239, Blacktown, NSW 2148, Australia.
Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and F1 hybrids between Atlantic salmon and brown trout (Salmo trutta) were distinguished among juvenile salmonids sampled at emergence from rivers in western and northern Scotland. Hybrids were present in samples obtained from seven of the 16 rivers examined. Salmon fry and hybrid fry that were demonstrably the progeny of female salmon that had escaped from fish farms were identified by detecting the presence of maternal canthaxanthin, a synthetic flesh colorant, in the juveniles' pigment load. Canthaxanthin was detected in 101 (4%) of the 2350 salmon and eight (35%) of the 23 hybrids examined. The difference in the frequencies of salmon and hybrids carrying canthaxanthin was significant. Escaped female salmon hybridized with trout more frequently than did wild females.
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular protozoan parasite which is a major opportunistic pathogen in patients who are immunocompromised that having cancer disease. Little is known about the epidemiology of T. gondii infection in patients who are immunocompromised. This study investigate the possible association of T. gondii infection with cancer disease via determining the seropositivity rate of anti T. gondii antibodies (IgG and IgM) in Iraqi patients infected with breast and colorectal cancer and investigate the level of IL-6 in the studying groups. Overall 223 women serum samples that included 112 healthy controls samples and 111 samples with breast cancer (CA. Breast) and colorectal cancer (CA. CRC) enrolled in this study. The participants were tested for T. gondii immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) antibodies and (IL-6) levels. The results showed that 86 (77.46%) cancer sample out of 111 samples and 23 (20.54%) out of 112 control samples were positive to anti T. gondii IgG. The seropositive rate of anti T. gondii IgG in CA. Breast and CA. CRC patients (77.50%, 77.42%) respectively compared with control group (20.54%). The present results revealed that the higher percentages for anti- T. gondii IgG and IL-6 titer was among patients with CA. Breast and CA. CRC whose are seropositive to anti T. gondii IgG. In regard to the tumor size, higher mean levels of IgG and IL-6 was shown in the tumor size (> 5 cm). Concerning to the tumor stages, the highest mean titer of IgG and IL-6 in patients with CA. Breast and CA.CRC whose are seropositive to anti- T. gondii IgG was in stage (IIIC). According to the grade status, the highest mean titer of IgG Abs and IL-6 was in patients with CA. Breast and CA.CRC whose are seropositive to anti- T. gondii IgG was in grade (G3). The increased levels of anti- T. gondii IgG and IL-6 was significantly higher in CA. Breast and CA. CRC patients that infected with T. gondii compare with healthy control. Thus, anti- T. gondii IgG test and circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines has to be taken into consideration as markers for staging of the cancers.
Phosphorylation ofaprotein (orproteins) ofmolecular weight120,000 intheAplysia abdominal gan- glion, asmeasuredbyincorporation of(1PI or(3Pisodium phosphate invitro followed byseparation ofthephospho- proteins on sodiumdodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gels, wasspecifically stimulated byincubation inthepresence oftheputative neurotransmitters octopamine orseroto- nin.Thestimulatory effect ofoctopamine andserotonin wasinhibited, by phentolamine and methysergide, re- spectively, andwasmimickedbyincubation inthepres- enceofdibutyryl cyclic AMP. Label-chase experiments indicated thatthedifference betweencontrol andocto- pamine-treated ganglia persists forseveral hoursafter re- movalofthedrugfromtheincubation medium.Thisre- sultsuggests thatneurotransmitters may producerela- tively long-lasting changes inaphosphoprotein inthegan- glion, perhaps inpostsynaptic cells. Ithasbeenrecognized forsometimethat invertebrate nervous systems areparticularly wellsuited forneurophysiological studies ofsynaptic function. Inparticular theabdominal (or parieto-visceral) ganglion ofthemarine gastropod mollusc Aplysia californica hasbeenpopular amongneurophysiolo- gists (for review seeref. 1),since itslarge nervecells are readily identifiable fromoneanimal tothenext, andareeasily penetrated bymicroelectrodes. Although thesmall amountof tissue inthese ganglia limits their usefulness forsomebio- chemical studies, thesustained viability oftheganglion cells inorganculture makesthis preparation useful forstudies in vitro thatattempt torelate biochemical changes withneuro- physiological events. Recently, Cedar andSchwartz (2)reported thatincubation oftheabdominal ganglion inthepresence ofneurotransmitters leads toanelevation oftheganglionic level ofadenosine 3':5'- cyclic monophosphate (cyclic AMP).In viewofthe suggestion by Greengard etal.(3)thatmanyeffects ofcyclic AMP may bemediated by activating protein kinases thatphosphorylate specific proteins, we investi- gated theeffect ofputative neurotransmitters onprotein phosphorylation intheabdominal ganglion. Theresults indi- catethatoctopamine andserotonin markedly stimulate the phosphorylation ofaspecific protein (orproteins) ofmolecular weight 120,000, apparently byelevating thelevels ofcyclic AMP.Thea-adrenergic antagonist, phentolamine (4), and theserotonin-blocking agent, methysergide (5), prevented the effects ofoctopamine andserotonin, respectively. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP stimulated phosphorylation of-the sameprotein band, butits effects werenotblocked bythese antagonists.
Most mammals and all primates, except man, develop vibrissae on the face. Histologically, the sinus hairs around the mouth and across the brow ridges of rhesus monkeys resemble those of nonprimate mammals except for their smaller size and lack of skeletal muscle attachments. These follicles grow in especially great density along the glabrous borders of the mouth. Unlike the linearly arranged vibrissae on the muzzles of more primitive mammals, the sinus hairs of the rhesus monkeys are distributed in less clearly defined patterns around the facial disc. Studies of vibrissae in nonprimate species indicate that these sensory hairs function in relation to eye-blinking, orienting, and biting reflexes, or in conjunction with olfaction.
Abstract Pasture and soil cobalt (Co) concentrations were monitored for 8–9 years on six properties that had been developed in pasture for periods ranging from 15 to 24 years on yellow-brown pumice soils in the Rotorua-Taupo area, New Zealand. All sites had been topdressed annually with Co before the survey began in 1979, but from then the amount and frequency of Co applied was reduced considerably. Despite this reduction, pasture Co concentration remained adequate for grazing livestock and soil Co extracted with EDTA was maintained at satisfactory values throughout the survey period. Serum vitamin B12 in lambs grazed on the sampled pastures confirmed that they all had adequate Co intake. In a field trial near Taupo, small plots of white clover, perennial ryegrass, and lucerne were established on a site previously in permanent pasture which had received 16 applications of Co. Ryegrass had the highest Co concentration, lucerne the lowest, and white clover intermediate but the outstanding result was that Co...
An analysis of doe productivity traits was carried out on 884 litter records including 52 sires and 210 daughters (paternal half sisters) of Bauscat (B) and Giza White (G) rabbits. Traits examined included litter size and weight at birth and at weaning, pre-weaning mortality and mean weight of young at weaning. Year-of-kindling affected most litter traits but no pattern of parity effects on litter size and pre-weaning mortality was observed. Litter weight and mean weight of young at weaning generally increased linearly as parity advanced. Litter size and weight and mean weight of young tended to increase as month of kindling advanced from October to March, and to decrease again during April and May. Pre-weaning mortality decreased as month of kindling advanced up to March and increased thereafter during April and May. The sire of the doe affected all litter traits studied, with the exception of litter size at birth and pre-weaning mortality in the B breed. Estimates of heritability for most of the litter traits were moderate or high. Genetic and phenotypic correlations among litter size traits and between litter size and litter weight traits were positive and relatively moderate or large. Litter weight traits were positively correlated both genetically and phenotypically. The genetic and phenotypic correlations between litter size traits and mean weight of young at weaning were negative and relatively moderate or large.
Objective To explore the correlative factors of ovulation-failure induced with clomiphene(CC) in polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS).Methods The relationship between ovulation rate(OR),ovulation cycle rate(OCR) among 178 cases,569 taking medicine cycles and clinical features,endocrine markers were retrospectively analysed.Results OR was 73.0%,OCR was 45.3%,OCR of both the dysfunctional uterine bleeding(DUB) and anovulatory menstruation groups were markedly higher than those of secondary amenorrhea group(P＜0.005，0.05)，OCR of the DUB group was significantly higher than that in oligomenstruation group too(P＜0.05).OR of the nonpilosity and nonobesity groups were markedly higher than that of pilosity and obesity groups respectively(P＜0.01，0.005).OCR of the unmarried group was significantly higher than infertility and fertilized groups(P＜0.025，0.005).OCR of LH/FSH≥3 and serum testosterone(T) level-normal groups were respectively higher than LH/FSH＜3 and serum T level-elevated group(P＜0.05～0.025).There was markedly correlation among LH/FSH radio,T level,BMI and OR,OCR,PRL levels and OR(P＜0.05～0.01).Conclusions The findings suggest that effect of the ovulation induced with CC in PCOS relate to types of menstruation,pilosity,status of marry-fertility,levels of LH/FSH,T,PRL.
In order to use food wastes for the source of fermented feed for pigs, this study was aimed to produce better culture inoculum by the aeration and addition of pig's blood meal as sub nutrient. For the preparation of inoculum as bacterial strain, Lactobacillus brevis isolated from pig intestine, and a yeast Saccharomyees cerevisiae from strawberries were used. Molasses and whey were used as main ingredients for the culture solution as well as yeast extract and other ingredients as sub nutrients. As the experimental result, aeration showed a positive effect to enhance viable cell count or retarding death phase. Although sub nutrient yeast extracts were replaced with pig's blood meal, fermentation characteristics were almost similar to that of yeast extract. When the inoculum was stored at room temperature, L. brevis and S. cerevisiae maintained the viable cell concentration of approximately 8 log cfu/mL for 1 week. 2 Days after the culture solution was mixed with food waste, the number of unwanted bacteria had rapidly increased, but E.coli was not detected for 5 days.
The potent neurotoxin saxitoxin (STX) belongs to a group of structurally related analogues produced by both marine and freshwater phytoplankton. The toxins act by blocking voltage‐gated sodium channels stopping the inflow of sodium ions and the generation of action potentials. Exposure from marine sources occurs as a result of consuming shellfish which have concentrated the toxins, and freshwater exposure can occur from drinking water although there have been no acute poisonings from the latter source to date. Previously, the majority of research into this group of toxins, collectively known as the paralytic shellfish toxins, has focused on acute exposure resulting in paralytic shellfish poisoning. While acute exposure guidelines exist for both sources, there are no chronic exposure guidelines and there has been minimal research into this pattern of exposure despite the known role of electrical activity in neurogenesis. We aimed to investigate this pattern of exposure and its potential effects on neurodevelopment using model neuronal cells. PC12 and SH‐SY5Y cells were exposed to STX (0.25–3 μg/l) for 7 days, after which time they were stained with TRITC‐Phalloidin, to observe adverse morphological effects. Cells exposed to STX had a significant decrease (18–85%) in long axonlike projections, instead exhibiting a significant increase in shorter projections classified as filopodia (p < 0.05). The results suggest that extended low‐dose exposure to STX can inhibit proper neurite outgrowth at concentrations well below guideline levels for both sources of exposure making it a potential public health concern.
We have isolated eight PALA-resistant mutants from CHO-PV cells and have shown that the CAD gene was amplified. We then localized the CAD genes with fluorescence in situ hybridization followed by G-banding and identified 10 different marker chromosomes carrying amplified DNA. TTAGGG repetitions, which normally map to the telomeres and centromeres, have also been localized on the 10 marker chromosomes. The organization of amplified genes and of TTAGGG sequences suggests that dicentrics were formed during amplification and that breakage-fusion-bridge cycles may have generated 7 marker chromosomes. One isochromosome was probably derived from abnormal centromere segregation at anaphase. The most striking observation was that TTAGGG sequences of centromeric origin surrounded the amplified regions and were always localized at the telomeres of the chromosome arms carrying amplified DNA. These results indicate that the recombination events that accompanied gene amplification frequently involved centromeric DNA. Moreover, breakage within centromeric TTAGGG repeats may produce telomere-like structures that stabilize the ends of rearranged chromosomes.
Highlights decorrelating autonomous STN activity was downregulated in both toxin and genetic models of PD elevation of D2-striatal projection neuron transmission was sufficient for downregulation downregulation was dependent on activation of STN NMDA receptors and KATP channels chemogenetic restoration of autonomous spiking reduced synaptic patterning of STN neurons and PD motor dysfunction eToC Excessive synaptic synchronization of STN activity is linked to the symptomatic expression of PD.McIver and colleagues describe the cellular and circuit mechanisms responsible for the loss of decorrelating autonomous STN activity in PD models and demonstrate that chemogenetic rescue of autonomous spiking reduces synaptically patterned STN activity and ameliorates Parkinsonian motor dysfunction. SUMMARY Excessive, synaptically-driven synchronization of subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons is widely thought to contribute to akinesia, bradykinesia, and rigidity in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Electrophysiological, optogenetic, chemogenetic, genetic, 2-photon imaging, and pharmacological approaches revealed that the autonomous activity of STN neurons, which opposes synaptic synchronization, was downregulated in both toxin and genetic mouse models of PD.Loss of autonomous spiking was due to increased transmission of D2-striatal projection neurons, leading in the STN to elevated activation of NMDA receptors and generation of reactive oxygen species that promoted KATP channel opening.Chemogenetic restoration of autonomous firing in STN neurons reduced synaptic patterning and ameliorated Parkinsonian motor dysfunction, arguing that elevating intrinsic STN activity is an effective therapeutic intervention in PD.
Aging is a consequence of complex molecular changes, but the roles of individual microRNAs (miRNAs) in aging remain unclear. One of the few miRNAs that are upregulated during both normal and premature aging is miR-29. We confirmed this finding in our study in both mouse and monkey models. Follow-up analysis of the transcriptomic changes during normal aging revealed that miR-29 is among the top miRNAs predicted to drive the aging-related gene expression changes. We also showed that partial loss of miR-29 extends the lifespan of Zmpste24-/- mice, an established model of progeria, which indicates that miR-29 is functionally important in this accelerated aging model. To examine whether miR-29 upregulation alone is sufficient to promote aging-related phenotypes in vivo, we generated mice in which miR-29 can be conditionally overexpressed (miR-29TG). We found that miR-29 overexpression in mice is sufficient to drive aging-related phenotypes including alopecia, kyphosis, osteoporosis, senescence, and leads to early lethality. Transcriptomic analysis of both young miR-29TG and old WT mice revealed shared downregulation of genes enriched in extracellular matrix and fatty acid metabolism, and shared upregulation of genes in pathways linked to inflammation. Together, these results highlight the functional importance of miR-29 in controlling a gene expression program that drives agingrelated phenotypes.
Visual Abstract The ability to discriminate spikes that encode a particular stimulus from spikes produced by background activity is essential for reliable information processing in the brain. We describe how synaptic short-term plasticity (STP) modulates the output of presynaptic populations as a function of the distribution of the spiking activity and find a strong relationship between STP features and sparseness of the population code, which could solve this problem. Furthermore, we show that feedforward excitation followed by inhibition (FF-EI), combined with target-dependent STP, promote substantial increase in the signal gain even for considerable deviations from the optimal conditions, granting robustness to this mechanism. A simulated neuron driven by a spiking FF-EI network is reliably modulated as predicted by a rate analysis and inherits the ability to differentiate sparse signals from dense background activity changes of the same magnitude, even at very low signal-to-noise conditions. We propose that the STP-based distribution discrimination is likely a latent function in several regions such as the cerebellum and the hippocampus.
2 2 : e02756 Demonstrated negative effects of increased temperatures on avian reproductive success suggest a mechanism by which climate change may impact species persistence. High temperatures can result in reduced parental care and reduced nestling condition in passerines with dependent young, resulting in lowered fledging success and population recruitment. We examined provisioning rate and nestling condition in a South African mountain endemic, the Cape rockjumper Chaetops frenatus, whose population declines correlate with warming habitat. Our aim was to determine whether rockjumper reproductive success could be affected by high air temperatures. We set up video cameras on nests at three nestling age classes (≤ 7 days old; 8–12 days old; ≥ 13 days old) for 8 hours on 37 separate days. We successfully collected full-day footage on 25 of the 37 days (four days with predation, eight with equipment failure). Nestlings were weighed at the beginning and end of each film day, barring the four days with mid-day predation (n = 65 nestling measures from 33 of the 37 days). Average mass gain across all nestlings per nest was positively correlated with provisioning rate (0.78 g provisions−1 hr−1, CI: 0.26–1.30), and provisioning rate decreased at increasing temperatures (−0.08 provisions hr−1 °C−1, CI: −0.15 to −0.01). Daily change in mass of individual nestlings was negatively correlated with air temperatures above a significant temperature threshold (22.4°C; −0.30 g °C−1, CI: −0.40 to −0.19). This suggests nestling energy requirements were not being met on higher temperature days – perhaps because nestling energy and water demands for thermoregulation are elevated and provisioning rate is not correspondingly maintained or increased. These results suggest that higher temperatures negatively affect nestling mass gain. While in our study this did not directly affect fledging rates, it may affect post-fledging survival.
Background.The growth and development of the fetal gastrointestinal tract is likely mediated, in part, by peptide growth factors. We compared the mitogenic effects of graded doses of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) to epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) on fetal rabbit gastric epithelial cells.    Materials and Methods.Fetal rabbit gastric epithelial cells were purified by mechanical dissociation and selected culture and grown in short-term (24 h) and long-term (12 days) culture. Stimulation of fetal gastric epithelial cell growth in response to individual peptide growth factors was measured by [3H]thymidine incorporation and cell counting.    Results.In short-term culture, HGF stimulated [3H]thymidine incorporation in a dose-dependent manner from a threshold at 10 pM to a maximum at 100 pM. For EGF and TGF-α, maximal stimulation occurred at 100 pM. For HGF, maximal [3H]thymidine incorporation was 3.6 ± 0.7 times basal. For EGF and TGF-α, maximal [3H]thymidine incorporation was 4.3 ± 0.4, and 3.6 ± 0.4 times basal, respectively. For IGF-1, maximal [3H]thymidine incorporation was only 70% of the maximal effect observed for the other growth factors tested. Rabbit amniotic fluid increased [3H]thymidine uptake in a dose-dependent manner. In long-term culture, purification to greater than 90% epithelial cells was attained after 12 days treatment. For HGF, EGF, TGF-α, and 20% rabbit amniotic fluid, significant increases in cell number above control (P< 0.05) were observed at 1 nM concentrations. None of these individual factors, however, increased cell growth as significantly as that of 10% fetal bovine serum.    Conclusions.Our results suggest that: (1) HGF stimulates [3H]thymidine uptake and cell proliferation in fetal rabbit gastric epithelial cellsin vitro,and (2) HGF's mitogenic effect on fetal rabbit gastric epithelial cell growth is comparable to that observed for EGF and TGF-α, but superior to the effect observed for IGF-1.
Seriola lalandi has been recognized as a potential aquaculture species in Chile, however, little is known about the genetic structure of local populations. This is important, as the current production system is based on an initial wild catching and ill management of these stocks can cause reduced genetic variability. To assess the genetic structure of local S. lalandi we evaluated 27 published microsatellite markers developed from genomic libraries of other species of the genera. However only 12 markers could be used to properly assess the populations, most of these markers showed deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with moderate inbreeding (F = 0.12). This species tends to show schooling behavior, so in all likelihood mating between relatives within small groups of fish is not unexpected. The population structure was assessed using Structure software, showing the presence of admixture with varying levels of individual ancestry. This was seen in both populations, without significant genetic differentiation. This may be explained by the migratory behavior, with mating between different populations likely to happen in small groups. Management of aquaculture resources is essential to secure a sustainable production system; this study is the first to provide estimates of genetic diversity of Chilean populations of S. lalandi.
In Mediterranean areas, the establishment of multi-species pastures for extensive livestock use is an alternative to the growing of traditional cereal crops. Lolium rigidum Gaud. is one of the most valuable forage grasses adapted to semiarid environments but its performance in mixtures is not fully understood. Field observations suggest that the species exerts allelopathic effects, although there is no evidence in the literature to support this assumption. The objective of the study was to determine whether L. rigidum affects the germination and seedling growth of common forage species by allelopathic means. Two bioassays were conducted to test for the allelopathic potential of seeds and adult (shoot and root) tissues of L. rigidum on two grasses, Lolium multiflorum Lam. and Dactylis glomerata L., and a legume, Medicago sativa L. The three species showed different degrees of sensitivity to L. rigidum with L. multiflorum being particularly sensitive to allelopathy. Positive and negative effects of L. rigidum on seedling development were noted. Shoot extracts of L. rigidum displayed the most consistent negative effects by inhibiting elongation of the radicle of the three target species. The significance of the results is that in drought-prone environments and where water resources are scarce poor root development decreases the ability of the plants to grow and survive.
Reproduction can have a high resource cost. It has been suggested that greater investments in sexual reproduction by female dioecious plants leads to a lower rate of vegetative growth in females than in males. In this study, we investigated sexual dimorphism in biomass allocation and genet growth ofthe dioecious clonal shrub, northern prickly ash (Xanthoxylum americanum). The allocation of biomass over the course of one growing season to reproductive tissue, leaves, and growth of aboveground first-year wood, was compared in 18 clones growing in fields and six clones in woods in southeastern Wisconsin during 1985 and 1986. In addition, the number of shoots per clone, and weight of nonfirst-year wood (accumulated biomass) above- and belowground were estimated. In open field sites, male clones allocated more biomass to new wood and less to reproduction than females, although males allocated more to flowers alone. Accordingly, male clones had significantly more shoots and more accumulated biomass both aboveand below-ground than female clones. In the woods, where fruit set was near zero, there were few significant differences between male and female clones in either biomass allocation or accumulated biomass. These results support the hypothesis that the high resource investment in fruit production by females reduces their vegetative growth relative to males. SEXUAL REPRODUCTION in plants is costly in terms of the resources required for flowering
To investigate the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships between polyploid Leymus and related diploid species of the Triticeae tribe, inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers was used to analyze 41 Leymus accessions representing 22 species and 2 subspecies, together with Pseudoroegneria stipifolia (St), Psathyrostachys fragilis (Ns), Australopyrum retrofractum (W), Hordeum bogdanii, H. chilense (H) and Lophopyrum elongatum (Ee). A total of 376 clear and reproducible DNA fragments were amplified by 29 ISSR primers, among which 368 (97.87%) fragments were found to be polymorphic. 8–18 polymorphic bands were amplified by each polymorphic primer, with an average of 12.69 bands. The data of 376 ISSR bands were used to generate Nei’s similarity coefficients and to construct a dendrogram by means of UPGMA. The similarity coefficients data suggested great genetic diversity in genus Leymus and related diploid Triticeae species, the genetic diversity among the different species more abundant than that of the different accessions. The dendrogram and principal coordinate analysis showed explicit interspecific relationships and demonstrated close phylogenetic relationships between Leymus species and Psathyrostachys.
Uric acid enhances the oxygen affinity of some crustacean haemocyanins and can account for some of the potentiating effects due to unidentified factors in the haemolymph of the freshwater crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes. A similar effect can be elicited by an analogous purine, caffeine, which demonstrates a low specificity of haemocyanin for urate. This suggests that other haemolymph purines might produce a cumulative effect on haemocyanin oxygen affinity.
The growth rate of Cladonia rangiferina and C. mitis was studied in Kuusamo, northeastern Finland, where they share more than 90 percent of the total lichen biomass. The material was collected from 5 pine forests of different ages in Calluna-Cladina heaths. The length growth rate of C. rangiferina varied by site from 3.9 to 4.3 mmyr -' and that of C. mitis from 3.0 to 3.5 mmyr-1 C. rangiferina achieved the fastest growth in a younger (60 years) shadowy forest; growth was slowest in a clear-felled area and in an old (180 years), already thinned forest. C. mitis grew fastest in a site with young (10 years old) pine plants and slowest in a younger shadowy site. The results do not support suggestions that clear-felling itself might negatively influence the growth of lichens. However, it is important also from the point of view of range management to create a new forest as soon as possible, since both species studied here grew faster in young forests than in clear-felled areas. Harmaaporonjakalan ja mietoporonjakalan kasvunopeus eri-ikaisissa metsissa. Abstract in Finnish / Yhteenveto: Harmaaporonjakalan (Cladonia rangiferina) ja mietoporonjakalan (Cladonia mitis) kasvunopeutta tutkittiin Kuusamossa. Aineisto kerattiin 5 puustoltaan eri-ikaiselti jakalakankaalta. Harmaaporonjakala kasvoi pituutta keskimaarin 3.9 - 4.3 mm/v ja mietoporonjakala 3.0 - 3.5 mm/v kasvupaikasta riippuen. Harmaaporonjakalan kasvu oli nopeinta nuorehkossa (60 v) tiheassa metsassa, hitainta paljaaksihakkuulla ja vanhassa (180 v), jo harventuneessa metsassa. Mietoporonjakala kasvoi nopeimmin 90 cm:n taimikossa ja hitaimmin varjoisimmalla kasvupaikalla. Tulosten perusteella on vaikea yhtya kasitykseen, etta paljaaksihakkuu sinansa vahentaa poronjakalien kasvunopeutta. Myos poronhoidon kannalta on kuitenkin tarkeaa, etta uusi metsa saadaan aikaan mahdollisimman nopeasti, silla molemmat lajit kasvavat nopeimmin eri-ikaisissa nuorissa metsissa.
The incidence of life threatening mycoses caused by opportunistic fungi has increased dramatically in recent years with Candida and Aspergillus being the most commonly encountered species. Candida albicans ranks among the four most common causes of bloodstream infections and is responsible for vulvovaginal candidiasis in the majority of women in their reproductive years. Limited spectrum of antifungal activity of currently available antifungals and emergence of resistance has become a serious problem. Therefore, in search of an alternative form of treatment of candidiasis, in the present study a monoclonal antibody (MAb-G5) of IgA isotype was identified from the hybridoma produced by the fusion of lymphocytes of C. albicans immunized mouse with Sp2/O cells. The MAb-G5 exhibited in vitro candidacidal activity and was also found to be useful for treatment and prophylactic use under experimental conditions in vivo.
Replication patterns of DNA in the chromosomes of barley, rye, and durum wheat were examined by an immunological method with an anti-5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) antibody. In barley metaphase cells, basically five types of chromosome replication were observed. They were characterized by replication signals in (i) proximal regions, (ii) proximal and interstitial regions, (iii) whole chromosomes, (iv) interstitial and distal regions, and (v) distal regions. These replication patterns appeared to change from type (i) to type (v) as the incubation duration after BrdU treatment increased. This suggests that in barley, chromosome replication generally starts in the distal regions and proceeds to the proximal regions. In rye and durum wheat chromosomes, however, it was suggested from similar observations that the replication commenced in the interstitial regions and, through replication in the proximal regions, ended up in the distal regions. C-bands tended to replicate late in the chromosomes of barley and rye, but this was not the case in durum wheat. These results suggest that in each species the timing of replication may be controlled simultaneously over a rather wide chromosomal area in each chromosome.
Subtropical China has drawn considerable attention for biogeography studies because of its high plant species diversity, which has been closely related to geo⁃climate changes since the Miocene. Phylogeography has become the main method for studying the influence of geo⁃climate changes on the distribution and genetic structure of plants. In this paper, we review the response patterns to geo⁃climatic changes since the Miocene and the historical causes of population⁃level genetic differentiation of broad⁃leaved forest plants in this region. During the Miocene and Pliocene, broad⁃leaved forest plants were forced to contract southward and form different lineages because of global cooling, the Qinghai⁃Tibet Plateau uplift, and Asian interior aridity. Meanwhile, the escalation of Asian monsoons provided suitable environment for diversification. During the glacial and interglacial ages in the Pleistocene, both deciduous and evergreen broad⁃leaved forests plants mainly underwent long⁃term isolation in multiple separated refugia. Different refugia populations respectively experienced localized contractions and expansions. Long⁃term isolation caused further divergence of different lineages, resulting in high genetic diversity and high differentiation. Few plants experienced southward contraction in glacial ages and obvious northward expansion in the interglacial ages. Finally, we speculate on the directions of future research based on accurate divergence time estimations and on mechanisms underlying the genetic structure.
Abstract Field experiments and supporting laboratory work were conducted to characterize the ability of the verde plant bug, Creontiades signatus (Distant), a boll-feeding sucking bug, to transmit a cotton seed and boll rot bacterial pathogen, Serratia marcescens (Bizio) (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae). Serratia marcescens was originally isolated from bolls infested with verde plant bug in south Texas, and a Rifampicin resistant S. marcescens strain was used in transmission and retention experiments. Serratia-exposed and nonexposed adult verde plant bugs from a laboratory colony were placed individually on 5-, 6-, 7-, and 8-d-old bolls (postanthesis). The bacterial acquisition process did not apparently affect insect vigor based on similar average boll injury ratings observed across both exposed and nonexposed bugs. Cotton bolls caged with Serratia-exposed verde plant bugs had significantly greater presence of S. marcescens and cotton boll rot symptoms than bolls caged without bugs (no-insect controls) or nonexposed bugs. Transmission of the disease agent by verde plant bug was confirmed across all boll ages assayed. Incidence of diseased locules on 5- and 6-d-old bolls was the same or greater than on 7- and 8-d-old bolls. Verde plant bug was able to harbor the disease agent from 24- to 96-h postinfection, and transmission efficiency rates ranged from 54 to 62% during initial transmission and retention (transmission across two bolls fed upon consecutively) studies. Along with photographic evidence, the experimental data supported that boll damage associated with verde plant bug infestations was magnified when insects transmitted the cotton pathogen S. marcescens as demonstrated in this 2-yr field experiment.
Weather-based models (Improved Blackleg Sporacle and SporacleEzy) to predict the date of onset of seasonal release from oilseed rape debris of ascospores of Leptosphaeria maculans or L. biglobosa , causes of phoma stem canker, were developed and tested with data from diverse environments in Australia, Canada, France, Poland and the UK. Parameters were estimated, using the same datasets from experiments in the UK and Poland, with an accuracy of root mean squared deviation ( RMSD ) of 7·4 (with a bias of − 4·54, L . maculans ) and 8·5 (with a bias of 0·30, L. biglobosa ) days for Improved Blackleg Sporacle, and of 2·9 (with a bias of − 0·06, L . maculans ) and 7·3 (with a bias of − 1·18, L. biglobosa ) days for SporacleEzy. When tested with data independent of those used for parameter estimation, overall predictions agreed well with observed data in five countries, both for Improved Blackleg Sporacle ( R 2 = 0·96, slope = 1·00, standard
The severe mutilating Hallopeau-Siemens type of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (HS-RDEB) is characterized by the absence of anchoring fibrils that consist of type VII collagen. We have previously identified premature termination codon (PTC) mutations in both alleles of the type VII collagen gene (COL7A1) in HS-RDEB patients. In this study we have defined the mechanism by which these mutations elicit their phenotypic consequences in a family. The extent of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay induced by these mutations was assessed by quantitation of the level of expression of the corresponding mRNA from each of the mutant alleles by RT-PCR of parental RNA. The level of expression of the paternal mutant allele with a PTC in exon 2 was approximately 30% of that of the wild-type allele whereas that of the maternal mutant allele with a PTC in exon 104 was reduced to about 80% of the normal allele. Immunoprecipitation of newly synthesized type VII collagen with a monoclonal antibody revealed reduced quantities of alpha1(VII) polypeptides in both parents' cells, whereas their synthesis was entirely absent in the proband's keratinocytes. Thus, a consequence of these premature termination codon mutations in COL7A1 is nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, with a dramatic reduction in type VII collagen synthesis, and the absence of anchoring fibrils in the proband. These results establish a mechanistic link between the presence of premature termination codon mutations in both alleles of COL7A1 and the clinical phenotype of HS-RDEB.
Defects of the mitochondrial genome are an important cause of genetic disease (1). The clinical features are very varied but in many individuals the defect leads to progressive problems which may result in severe disability and even death. It is against the background of increasing recognition and detection of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorders that clinicians and scientists must strive to develop effective therapies. In this article we discuss agents that are currently being used in patients (largely unsuccessfully) and possible future therapies. One of the major difficulties when assessing a potential therapy for mtDNA disorders is the clinical variability of the disease. Thus patients with the same genetic defect may present in a variety of different ways and the disease may take an entirely different course. This means that clinical trials are difficult to perform. In addition, we know relatively little about the natural history of these disorders and collecting enough patients with a similar phenotype in one centre is very difficult. Many drugs used in the treatment of mitochondrial disease therefore only have anecdotal data rather than clinical trials to support their use. All mitochondrial disorders result from the progressive decline in the ability to supply cellular energy demands in the form of available AT P. The respiratory chain is also a potent source of free radicals, thus a respiratory chain defect can result in ATP deficiency and an excess production of free radicals. Biochemical strategies have sought to increase the production
1. A very rapid metabolism of 3 H-labelled acetylcholine has been demonstrated in the intact abdominal nerve cord. It has been shown that the cholinesterase system is effective in drastically reducing the concentration of acetylcholine in the extracellular fluid of the terminal abdominal ganglion with bathing solutions of up to IO -2 M acetylcholine. 2. Evidence has been obtained which indicates that an appreciable hydrolysis of acetylcholine occurs at the periphery of the nerve cord. This effect is correlated with the electronmicroscopic demonstration of regions of eserine-sensitive cholinesterase located on glial membranes in the periphery of ganglia and connectives. It is suggested that some hydrolysis of extraneous acetylcholine may occur in the fibrous layer of the nerve sheath as a result of an accumulation of diffusible acetylcholinesterase in this region. 3. The results are discussed in relation to the possible involvement of the conventional cholinergic system in synaptic transmission in the central nervous system of this insect.
The homeotic gene labial (lab) is required for proper development of the embryonic and adult head in Drosophila melanogaster. The lab gene product accumulates in a complex pattern in both embryonic and imaginal tissue. During embryogenesis, lab is expressed in the endodermally derived cells of the midgut, in ectodermally derived cells of the procephalon and dorsal ridge, and in a small subset of progenitor sensory cells. Imaginal expression is restricted to a narrow region of the peripodial membrane of the eye-antennal disc. As part of our continuing effort to understand the role of lab in development, we have begun a dissection of the regulatory elements of the lab transcription unit and used germ line transformation experiments to determine which aspects of the observed expression pattern are essential for proper head development and viability. Transgenic embryos harboring an abridged lab gene are able to overcome the embryonic lethality associated with the loss of lab function and survive to adulthood. Interestingly, in these transgenic lines the lab protein accumulates only in a subset of those embryonic cells that normally express the gene, namely the procephalon and the anterior midgut. We also find that, once initiated, lab expression is maintained by positive autoregulation. Although lab minigene activity is sufficient to rescue the embryonic lethality of lab mutations, the transgenes fail to rescue defects in the adult head capsule. However, the defects observed in this study encompass a broader domain than those seen using somatic recombination to generate lab- clonal tissue. The failed rescue and observed cuticular defects are, at least in part, explained by the observation that the transgenes, rather than failing to be expressed, are associated with ectopic accumulation of lab protein in the peripodial membrane of the antennal disc. Moreover, this aberrant expression pattern is correlated with the abnormal expression of two other homeotic genes, Deformed (Dfd) and Sex combs reduced (Scr) in the eye-antennal disc. These results are only observed when the transgene is resident in a lab- genotype and ectopic expression of lab and misregulation of Dfd and Scr are not seen in a lab+ background. This result suggests that the wild-type lab gene product is necessary for the normal regulation of the locus in the imaginal discs, but unlike the case in the embryo, the event is negative. We discuss the biological implications of these results in relation to the role of lab in development.
v CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Research Questions 1 Dissertation Organization 2 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 4 General Information 4 Methods of Detection 27 Bioavailability and Metabolism 33 Toxicity 45 Acute Exercise Stress Effects on the Immune System 88 CHAPTER 3. CAFFEINE AS INTERNAL STANDARD FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY ANALYSIS OF DEOXYNIVALENOL IN WHEAT SAMPLES 96 Abstract 96 Introduction 96 Materials and Methods 97 Results and Discussion 99 CHAPTER 4. SENSITIVE SCREENING BIO ASSAY FOR DEOXYNIVALENOL DETECTION IN FOOD SAMPLES 104 Abstract 104 Introduction 104 Materials 105 Methods 106 Results 108 Discussion 111 CHAPTER 5. LOW-LEVEL DIETARY DEOXYNIVALENOL AND ACUTE EXERCISE STRESS RESULT IN IMMUNOTOXICITY IN BALB/C MICE. 116 Abstract 116 Materials 119 Methods 119 Results 123 Discussion 125 Conclusions 128 CHAPTER 6. IMMUNOMODULATORY EFFECTS OF LOW-DOSE DIETARY DEOXYNIVALENOL AND ACUTE EXERCISE STRESS IN BALB/C MICE 130 Abstract 130 Introduction 130 Methods 133 Results 138 Discussion 144 CHAPTER 7. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS General Discussion Recommendations for Future Research 149 149 150
Synaptic Vesicles Despite opposing ionic gradients, synaptic vesicles are able to accumulate neurotransmitters. To resolve the mystery of how this happens, Farsi et al. made parallel measurements of pH gradients and membrane potential at the single synaptic vesicle level. Glutamatergic and GABAergic vesicles had different uptake mechanisms, revealing insights into the energetic and ionic coupling of vesicular neurotransmitter transport.  Science , this issue p. [981][1]   [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aad8142
The lentiviral nef gene encodes several discrete activities aimed at co-opting or antagonizing cellular proteins and pathways to defeat host defenses and maintain persistent infection. Primary functions of Nef include downregulation of CD4 and MHC class-I from the cell surface, disruption or mimicry of T-cell receptor signaling, and enhancement of viral infectivity by counteraction of the host antiretroviral proteins SERINC3 and SERINC5. In the absence of Nef, SERINC5 incorporates into virions and inhibits viral fusion with target cells, decreasing infectivity. However, whether Nef’s counteraction of SERINC5 is the cause of its positive influence on viral growth-rate in CD4-positive T cells is unclear. Here, we utilized CRISPR/Cas9 to knockout SERINC3 and SERINC5 in a leukemic CD4-positive T cell line (CEM) that displays relatively robust nef-related infectivity and growth-rate phenotypes. As previously reported, viral replication was attenuated in CEM cells infected with HIV-1 lacking Nef (HIV-1ΔNef). This attenuated growth-rate phenotype was observed regardless of whether the coding regions of the serinc3 or serinc5 genes were intact. Moreover, knockout of serinc3 or serinc5 failed to restore the infectivity of HIV1ΔNef virions produced from infected CEM cells. Taken together, our results corroborate a similar study using another T-lymphoid cell line (MOLT-3) and indicate that the antagonism of SERINC3 and SERINC5 cannot fully explain the virology of HIV-1 lacking Nef.
The Caatinga biome features an exclusive endemic biodiversity, and is characterized by the presence of xerophytic, deciduous vegetation, high temperatures, and low rainfall. This important park has undergone anthropization, especially through extraction of firewood and timber and growing plants for raising goats. The objectives of this study were to compare the communities of filamentous fungi present in the preserved area and in the anthropized soil of the Catimbau National Park in Buíque, PE, Brazil, and to evaluate the impacts of anthropization on such communities. A total of 12 collections of soil samples were made, six in the preserved area and six in the anthropic area, and the physicochemical properties of the soil samples were analyzed. Fungi were isolated through suspension and serial dilution methods. After growth, the samples were purified and identified based on classical taxonomy, according to specific literature. The diversity, evenness, richness, dominance, frequency, and similarity among the species of filamentous fungi in both areas were assessed based on ecological indexes. A total of 4,488 colony-forming units of filamentous fungi were obtained, which were distributed into 65 species belonging to 15 genera. In the preserved area, higher abundance and richness of species were observed, with predominance of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium. In both areas, diversity and equitability were high, demonstrating that the species are well distributed in these areas. In the preserved area, the dominant genera were Aspergillus, Gongronella, and Penicillium, whereas Aspergillus was the dominant genus in the anthropic area. Two distinct communities were observed in the areas analyzed. Principal component analysis showed that Penicillium simplicissimum influences the total diversity of both communities. The anthropization that occurred in the Catimbau National Park has changed the composition of the filamentous fungal communities of the site, restricting the number of species and decreasing the abundance of these important microorganisms. This results in ecosystem damage and likely causes relevant major imbalances, with serious consequences, such as possible disappearance of the aforementioned species, as well as of species yet undiscovered by the scientific community.
Payosphaeria minuta Leong gen. et sp. nov. (Ascomycotina) was collected on submerged wood samples of Avicennia alba, A. lanata and Rhizophora apiculata in Mandai mangrove, Singapore; mangrove wood in Kuala Selangor and Sementa, Malaysia; and unidentified driftwood in north Sumatra. The new fungus is described and illustrated by light micrographs. It is compared with Trichosphaeria, Thalassogena sphaerica and Moana turbinulata.
The present study has taken advantage of publicly available cell type specific mRNA expression databases in order to identify potential genes participating in the development of retinal AII amacrine cells. We profile two such genes, Delta/Notch‐like EGF repeat containing (Dner) and nuclear factor I/A (Nfia), that are each heavily expressed in AII amacrine cells in the mature mouse retina, and which conjointly identify this retinal cell population in its entirety when using antibodies to DNER and NFIA. DNER is present on the plasma membrane, while NFIA is confined to the nucleus, consistent with known functions of each of these two proteins. DNER also identifies some other subsets of retinal ganglion and amacrine cell types, along with horizontal cells, while NFIA identifies a subset of bipolar cells as well as Muller glia and astrocytes. During early postnatal development, NFIA labels astrocytes on the day of birth, AII amacrine cells at postnatal (P) day 5, and Muller glia by P10, when horizontal cells also transiently exhibit NFIA immunofluorescence. DNER, by contrast, is present in ganglion and amacrine cells on P1, also labeling the horizontal cells by P10. Developing AII amacrine cells exhibit accumulating DNER labeling at the dendritic stalk, labeling that becomes progressively conspicuous by P10, as it is in maturity. This developmental time course is consistent with a prospective role for each gene in the differentiation of AII amacrine cells.
Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica and verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) are amongst the most important agents responsible for food outbreaks occurring worldwide. In this work, two Lactobacillus spp. strains (LABs), Lactobacillus plantarum (LB95) and Lactobacillus paraplantarum (LB13), previously isolated from spontaneously fermenting olive brines, and two reference probiotic strains, Lactobacillus casei Shirota and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, were investigated for their ability to attenuate the virulence of the aforementioned pathogens using animal cell culture assays. In competitive exclusion assays, the relative percentages of adhesion and invasion of S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis were significantly reduced when the human HT-29 cell line was previously exposed to LB95. The relative percentage of invasion by Listeria monocytogenes was significantly reduced when HT-29 cells were previously exposed to LB95. In the cytotoxicity assays, the cell-free supernatant of the co-culture (CFSC)of VTEC with LB95 accounted for the lowest value obtained amongst the co-cultures of VTEC with LABs, and was significantly lower than the value obtained with the co-culture of VTEC with the two probiotic reference strains. The cytotoxicity of CFSC of VTEC with both LB95 and LB13 exhibited values not significantly different from the cell-free supernatant of the nonpathogenic E. coli B strain. Our results suggested that LB95 may be able to attenuate the virulence of Gram-positive and Gram-negative food-borne pathogens; together with other reported features of these strains, our data reveal their possible use in probiotic foods due to their interesting potential in preventing enteric infections in humans.
Sensory stimulation leads to distributed activity across a wide population of neurons in the mammalian somatosensory cortex. It is presumed that information about the sensory stimulus is likewise distributed across a population of neurons, but it remains unknown how information content grows with the number of neurons in the observed population. We aimed to predict the onset times and angles of individual whisker deflections from the activity of simultaneously recorded layer 2/3 neuronal populations, in vivo. Layer 2/3 neurons located above the layer 4 barrel were bulk loaded with the calcium sensitive indicator Oregon-green BAPTA-1 AM and imaged using 2-photon microscopy (TPM). TPM allowed us to monitor both spiking and non-spiking neurons within these populations with single action-potential and single neuron resolution. In addition, this spiking activity was related back to neuron position within the somatotopic map with high (<5 μm) spatial resolution .
Of eight males from one wild population five proved to be heterozygous for an allele at locus T, giving tailless T/tw when crossed with Brachy T/+ laboratory females. The segregation ratio +:tw in such wild males was 10+:65tw, indicating significant excess of the mutant allele. A single female from a second wild population was also +/tw. The appearance of mutants at this locus in the first two wild populations tested is evidence that this locus is highly mutable in the wild.
In order to investigate the genetic divergence and phylogeny of turtles,mitochondrial DNA 16SrRNA gene segment sequences of 13 turtle individuals were obtained by PCR amplification and sequencing.16SrRNA sequences of other 47 turtles from NCB were downloaded and its phylogenetic characters were analyzed together with their own 13 sequences.The results were as follows:480 bp consensus sequences of 16SrRNA were obtained from these 60 sequences after aligned.Twenty hundreds and twenty nine variable sites were detected in all turtle individuals,accounting for 47.7% of total variable sites,with 186 parsim-informative and 80 indels.The average contents of A,T,G,and C were 33.6%,24.3%,18.5%,and 23.7%,respectively.The Ts:Tv ratio was 1.95.The K-2-P distances between the seven hinged turtles were 0.004-0.063,with average value 0.03;between 17 genus within Geoemydidae 0.053-0.120,with average 0.091;and between 8 families within Cryptodira(excluding Platysternon megacephalum) 0.071-0.259,with average 0.169.The results indicate that family Emydidae is the sister taxon to Geoemydidae plus Testudinidae,and Geoemydidae is closer to Testudinidae compared to Emydidae;the taxonomica status of Chinemys should be revised,and classified into Genus Mauremys,and that Pyxidea should be classified into Cuora;the results do not support the idea that the genus Cuora should be divided into two genera as Cuora and Cistoclemmys.
To understand the evolutionary history of Lymantriinae and test the present higher‐level classification, we performed the first broad‐scale molecular phylogenetic analysis of the subfamily, based on 154 exemplars representing all recognized tribes and drawn from all major biogeographical regions. We used two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 16S ribosomal RNA) and six nuclear genes (elongation factor‐1α, carbamoylphosphate synthase domain protein, ribosomal protein S5, cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase and wingless). Data matrices (in total 5424 bp) were analysed by parsimony and model‐based evolutionary methods (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference). Based on the results of the analyses, we present a new phylogenetic classification for Lymantriinae composed of seven well‐supported tribes, two of which are proposed here as new: Arctornithini, Leucomini, Lymantriini, Orgyiini, Nygmiini, Daplasini trib. nov. and Locharnini trib. nov. We discuss the internal structure of each of these tribes and address some of the more complex problems with the genus‐level classification, particularly within Orgyiini and Nygmiini.
Abstract One of the current challenges of evolutionary ecology is to understand the effects of phylogenetic history (PH) and/or ecological factors (EF) on the life‐history traits of the species. Here, the effects of environment and phylogeny are tested for the first time on the reproductive biology of South American xenodontine snakes. We studied 60% of the tribes of this endemic and most representative clade in a temperate region of South America. A comparative method (canonical phylogenetic ordination—CPO) was used to find the relative contributions of EF and PH upon life‐history aspects of snakes, comparing the reproductive mode, mean fecundity, reproductive potential, and frequency of nearly 1,000 specimens. CPO analysis showed that PH or ancestry explained most of the variation in reproduction, whereas EF explained little of this variation. The reproductive traits under study are suggested to have a strong phylogenetic signal in this clade, the ancestry playing a big role in reproduction. The EF also influenced the reproduction of South American xenodontines, although to a lesser extent. Our finding provides new evidence of how the evolutionary history is embodied in the traits of living species.
The importance of three-dimensional interactions between receptors with their respective ligands has been extensively explored during the binding process, but considerably less so for postbinding events such as induction of signaling pathways. Tumor cell receptor association with basement membrane proteins is believed to facilitate the metastatic process. Melanoma and ovarian carcinoma cells have been shown to utilize the alpha3beta1 integrin to bind to models of the alpha1(IV)531-543 sequence from basement membrane (type IV) collagen [Miles, A. J., et al. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 30939-30945; Miles, A. J., et al. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 29047-29050]. In the present study, the effects of ligand three-dimensional structure on possible signal transduction pathways induced by alpha3beta1 integrin binding have been evaluated. Human melanoma cell binding to type IV collagen resulted in Tyr phosphorylation of p125(FAK), consistent with prior studies correlating beta1 integrin subunit binding to collagen and p125(FAK) Tyr phosphorylation. Cross-linking of an anti-alpha3 integrin subunit monoclonal antibody also induced p125(FAK) Tyr phosphorylation. Incubation of melanoma cells with single-stranded or triple-helical peptide models of alpha1(IV)531-543 induced Tyr phosphorylation of intracellular proteins. Immunoprecipitation analysis identified one of these proteins as pp125(FAK). Induction of p125(FAK) Tyr phosphorylation was enhanced and the time of induction was shortened when the ligand was used in triple-helical conformation. Subsequent clustering of either the single-stranded or the triple-helical ligand also increased the level of p125(FAK) phosphorylation compared to unclustered ligand. The clustered triple-helical peptide ligand induced more rapid paxillin Tyr phosphorylation than the single-stranded ligand. In addition, the induction of activated proteases was found to be more rapid due to ligand triple helicity. Overall, these studies have shown that (i) a model of an isolated sequence from type IV collagen, alpha1(IV)531-543, can induce alpha3beta1 integrin-mediated signal transduction in melanoma cells and (ii) ligand conformation (secondary, tertiary, and/or quaternary structure) can directly influence several alpha3beta1 integrin-mediated signal transduction events. The effects of ligand conformation suggest that a "collagen structural modulation" mechanism may exist for tumor cell invasion, whereby triple-helical collagen promotes cell binding and induction of signal transduction, subsequently leading to collagen dissolution by proteases, decreased signal transduction, and enhanced tumor cell motility.
Penicillium  cyclopium  is  a  common  food contaminant  and  one such isolate  from  rice  has  been  used in the  present investigation.  Feeding  of  P. cyclopium-contaminated  diet to  rats  is  found  to  affect  the  intestinal  cellular  integrity as shown  bv  histopatholoaical  study,  followed  by analysis  of  major  intestinal  macromolecular constituents.  The in vivo intestinal absorption  studies  wing  '14C  alanine  and  methionine  indicate a  significant  reduction in  the  abrorption  of  these  amino  acids  during  toxicosis and this  is  corroborated  by  the  changes  observed in  the  membrane-bound  enzyme activities which  are  involved  in the  transport.
Soybean aphid is the most important insect pest of soybean in Iowa. Foliar insecticides, mostly pyrethroids and organophosphates, have been the primary management tactic for soybean aphid in Iowa since 2001. Regular scouting and timely treatments will protect yield. Our research and extension program at Iowa State University (ISU) is focused on evaluating insecticide efficacy for soybean aphid on a wide range of products. We are also screening soybean aphid populations for pyrethroid resistance in northern Iowa. Disciplines Agricultural Science | Agriculture This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cropnews/2481 2/26/2019 When is it Too Late to Spray for Soybean Aphid? | Integrated Crop Management https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2018/08/when-it-too-late-spray-soybean-aphid 1/4 Integrated Crop Management When is it Too Late to Spray for Soybean Aphid? August 8, 2018 Soybean aphid is the most important insect pest of soybean in Iowa. Foliar insecticides, mostly pyrethroids and organophosphates, have been the primary management tactic for soybean aphid in Iowa since 2001. Regular scouting and timely treatments will protect yield. Our research and extension program at Iowa State University (ISU) is focused on evaluating insecticide efficacy for soybean aphid on a wide range of products. We are also screening soybean aphid populations for pyrethroid resistance in northern Iowa. Photo 1. Soybean aphid. Photo by Matt Kaiser. Project Description Evaluations are established at two locations every summer (see 2005-2017 reports). Here, we show a two-year summary from the ISU Northwest Research Farm, near Sutherland, IA. There were 12 treatments in 2016 and 17 treatments in 2017. Soybean aphids were 2/26/2019 When is it Too Late to Spray for Soybean Aphid? | Integrated Crop Management https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2018/08/when-it-too-late-spray-soybean-aphid 2/4 counted on whole plants from June through September. Soybean aphids colonized plots in late June and July in both years. Foliar insecticide applications were made with a backpack sprayer when populations reached the economic threshold. The seasonal exposure of aphids on plants was converted into cumulative aphid days (CAD) and yield was estimated to compare treatments. We expect to see treatment differences when CAD exceeds the economic injury level of 5,500 (red lines in Figures. 1A and 2A). Figure 1. 2016 summary of A) cumulative aphid days (CAD) and B) yield. Means with a unique letter are significantly different (alpha = 0.10). Asterisks indicate pesticidal seed treatment. Figure 2. 2017 summary of A) cumulative aphid days (CAD) and B) yield. Means with a unique letter 2/26/2019 When is it Too Late to Spray for Soybean Aphid? | Integrated Crop Management https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2018/08/when-it-too-late-spray-soybean-aphid 3/4 are significantly different (alpha = 0.10). Asterisks indicate pesticidal seed treatment. Summary Aphids reached the economic threshold in both years; however, aphids were sprayed earlier in 2016 (9 August) than in 2017 (18 August). When aphids exceeded the threshold before seed set in 2016, foliar insecticides provided significant yield protection (Figure 1B). When aphids exceeded the threshold after seed set in 2017, there was no yield benefit to the foliar insecticides (Figure 2B). Plots with insecticidal seed treatments had significantly higher CAD than foliar insecticide treatments in both years (Figures. 1A and 2A). Foliar insecticides provided good efficacy in both years. We have not observed pyrethroid resistance at either location to date. Recommendations Insecticidal seed treatments are not recommended to manage soybean aphid in Iowa, as they do not provide a consistent reduction of CAD (Figures. 1A and 2A). Scouting and using foliar insecticides when aphids exceed the economic threshold (250 aphids on 80% of plants) before seed set will provide a 5-10 bushel yield increase (Figure 1B). Late-season aphid infestations may not impact yield; applying insecticides after seed set may not result in a return on investment (Figure 2B). Pyrethroid resistance is an emerging issue in the Midwest. It is important to check for efficacy after applications to look for resistant aphids. Acknowledgments: ISU Research Farms; Iowa Soybean Association and the soybean checkoff; BASF, Dow AgroSciences, FMC, and Syngenta Crop Protection. Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Integrated Crop Management News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This 2/26/2019 When is it Too Late to Spray for Soybean Aphid? | Integrated Crop Management https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2018/08/when-it-too-late-spray-soybean-aphid 4/4 article was originally published on August 8, 2018. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed. Category: Crop Production Insects and Mites Crop: Soybean Tags: aphid pest Author: Erin Hodgson Associate Professor Dr. Erin Hodgson started working in the Department of Entomology at Iowa State University in 2009. She is an associate professor with extension and research responsibilities in corn and soybeans. She has a general background in integrated pest management (IPM) for field crops. Dr. Hodgson's curre...
Type I interferons (IFN) are being rediscovered as potent anti-tumoral agents. Activation of the STimulator of INterferon Genes (STING) by DMXAA can induce a strong production of IFNα/β and the rejection of transplanted primary tumors. In the present study, we addressed whether targeting STING with DMXAA also leads to the regression of spontaneous MMTV-PyMT mammary tumors. We show that these tumors are refractory to DMXAA-induced regression. This is due to a blockade in the phosphorylation of IRF3 and the ensuing IFNα/β production. Mechanistically, we identified TGFβ abundant in spontaneous tumors, as a key molecule limiting this IFN-induced-tumor regression by DMXAA. Finally, blocking TGFβ restores the production of IFNα by activated MHCII+ tumor-associated macrophages, and enables tumor regression induced by STING activation. On the basis of these findings, we propose that type I IFN-dependent cancer therapies could be greatly improved by combinations including the blockade of TGFβ.
ABSTRACT Crataegus spes-aestatum J. B. Phipps is described as a new species from Missouri and Illinois. It is critically compared to C. dawsoniana Sargent, to which it keys out in the article where that species was published, and which is here lectotypified. Also, lectotypes for the following new combinations or status from the Missouri Crataegus flora are designated: C. collina Chapman var. hirtiflora (Sargent) J. B. Phipps, C. crus-galli L. var. regalis (Beadle) J. B. Phipps, C. pruinosa (H. L. Wendland) K. Koch var. magnifolia (Sargent) J. B. Phipps, C. reverchonii Sargent var. palmeri (Sargent) J. B. Phipps, C. viridis L. var. glabriuscula (Sargent) J. B. Phipps, and C. viridis L. var. nitens (Sargent) J. B. Phipps. In addition, lectotypes are designated for the varietal basionyms C. hirtiflora Sargent, C. regalis Beadle, C. magnifolia Sargent, C. palmeri Sargent, and C. glabriuscula Sargent, as well as for several of the species names involved, C. collina Chapman, Mespilus pruinosa H. L. Wendland, and C. reverchonii Sargent. Also, a lectotype and epitype for C. berberifolia Torrey & A. Gray, a species with a Missouri variety, are indicated.
1. A primary growth of perennial ryegrass was cut on 8 to 11 May (early) or on 12 June (late) for comparison with the primary growth of a tetraploid red clover, which was cut either on 1 or 2 June (early) or on 28 June (late). The crops were ensiled, after wilting for about 4h, with the addition of formic acid at 2·21/t fresh crop. The silages were given ad libitum alone or with rolled barley at 11·5 g dry matter per kg live weight to 40 British Friesian steers initially 3 months old and 108 kg live weight. 2. On average there was no significant difference in digestibility between perennial ryegrass and red clover. However, the rate of decline in digestibility with time was greater with perennial ryegrass than with red clover. 3. Calves given silage of red clover as the sole feed ate more dry matter and grew faster than calves given grass silage (P P 4. The results show that high rates of live-weight gain (0·74 kg/day) can be achieved by calves given silage of red clover and that earlier cutting of herbage for silage does not always result in higher intakes of dry matter. Supplementation of silages with barley can reduce markedly the difference in intake and live-weight gain apparent when the silages are given as sole feeds.
The granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)/interleukin (IL)-3/IL-5 receptor family regulates the production and function of myeloid cells. These cytokines signal through receptor complexes that consist of unique ligand-binding alpha-chains and common signaling beta-chains. IL-5 is distinct from IL-3 and GM-CSF in its capacity to induce eosinophil development, however, the molecular mechanisms that generate functional diversity within this receptor family are mostly unknown. Here, we characterized the selective IL-5Ralpha-binding adapter protein syntenin in IL-5R function. Syntenin and IL-5Ralpha colocalize at the plasma membrane and in early endosomal compartments. Manipulation of syntenin expression by ectopic expression or knockdown selectively modulated IL-5R but not GM-CSF receptor signaling, and severely affected IL-5-induced eosinophil differentiation from primary human CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells. We found syntenin up-regulated during eosinophilopoiesis but down-regulated during neutropoiesis. Syntenin forms complexes with multiple IL-5Ralpha chains, suggesting that syntenin-enhanced IL-5R output may result from stabilization of an IL-5-induced oligomeric receptor complex. These data demonstrate that cytokine-specific functions can be transduced by unique receptor alpha-chain-associating adapter proteins.
Serpins inhibit cognate serine proteases involved in a number of important processes including blood coagulation and inflammation. Consequently, loss of serpin function or stability results in a number of disease states. Many of the naturally occurring mutations leading to disease are located within strand 1 of the C β‐sheet of the serpin. To ascertain the structural and functional importance of each residue in this strand, which constitutes the so‐called distal hinge of the reactive center loop of the serpin, an alanine scanning study was carried out on recombinant α1‐antitrypsin Pittsburgh mutant (P1 = Arg). Mutation of the P10′ position had no effect on its inhibitory properties towards thrombin. Mutations to residues P7′ and P9′ caused these serpins to have an increased tendency to act as substrates rather than inhibitors, while mutations at P6′ and P8′ positions caused the serpin to behave almost entirely as a substrate. Mutations at the P6′ and P8′ residues of the C β‐sheet, which are buried in the hydrophobic core in the native structure, caused the serpin to become highly unstable and polymerize much more readily. Thus, P6′ and P8′ mutants of α1‐antitrypsin had melting temperatures 14 degrees lower than wild‐type α1‐antitrypsin. These results indicate the importance of maintaining the anchoring of the distal hinge to both the inhibitory mechanism and stability of serpins, the inhibitory mechanism being particularly sensitive to any perturbations in this region. The results of this study allow more informed analysis of the effects of mutations found at these positions in disease‐associated serpin variants.
A floristic inventory of the Esmeralda Forest which is the last relictual forest in the bank of the Cauca River in the department of Caldas is presented. Random walks were carried out inside the forest and through its edges collecting fertile samples of every growth habit. Two-hundred-sixteen (216) morphospecies (30 ferns lycophytes, 18 basal angiosperms, 49 monocots, and 119 eudicots) were recorded. The most diverse families were Fabaceae (16), Melastomataceae and Rubiaceae (12) in the eudicotyledonae, Araceae (17) and Orchidaceae (11) in the monocots, Piperaceae (9) in basal angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae (7) and Pteridaceae (5) in the ferns. The most diverse genera were Piper (9), Anthurium and Thelypteris (5), Miconia, Clidemia, Philodendron and Heliconia (4). These records characterize the transition of a forest from humid to dry forest. Eighteen new records are presented for the flora of Caldas, from which three present some category of extinction risk. Seventeen taxon cultivated in the edges and inside the forest were recorded from which 10 are neotropics nonnative, reason why their cultivation is not recommended. These results present arguments for the ordering of these ecosystems in which the generation of a legal protection strategy for the forests takes precedence.
For more than two decades, the standard paradigm for discussing membrane traffic in pathogen-infe cted cells has centered around fusion of the microbe-containing vacuole with lysosomes, and upon vacuole acidification. Organisms have been placed in one of three relatively invariant categories: pathogens residing in vacuoles which fuse with lysosomes and acidify, those that readily disrupt the vacuolar membrane and subsequently replicate in the host cell cytosol, and microbes residing in vacuoles which neither fuse with lysosomes nor acidify. The nature of membrane traffic was thought to be dictated almost exclusively by the requirement of the pathogen to avoid killing by the low pH and the degradative enzymes present in lysosomes. It is increasingly clear that this paradigm is oversimplified (1, 2). It neither appropriately reflects the selectivity and plasticity of membrane traffic within cells, nor does it give adequate weight to membrane traffic events which may be largely of importance for nutrient acquisition or induction of gene expression by the intracellular organism. This perspective will describe membrane traffic in pathogen-infe cted cells in the context of more recent advances in the cell biology of vesicular traffic, and with the above considerations in mind.
p210bcr/abl is detected in almost all chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients and a significant number of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases. It is generated by a reciprocal chromosomal translocation, t(9;22) (q34;q11), and the enhanced kinase activity of the protein is believed to be implicated in the pathogenesis of the diseases. To examine its oncogenicity in vivo and to create an animal model for BCR/ABL-positive leukemias, we generated transgenic mice expressing p210bcr/abl driven by the promoter of the mouse tec gene, a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase preferentially expressed in early hematopoietic progenitors. While the founder mice showed excessive proliferation of lymphoblasts shortly after birth and were diagnosed as ALL, the transgenic progeny reproducibly exhibited marked granulocyte hyperplasia with thrombocytosis after a long latent period, which closely resembles the clinical course of human CML. In addition, to investigate whether loss of p53 would play a role in the transition from chronic phase to blast crisis of CML, we crossmated p210bcr/abl transgenic (BCR/ABLtg/-) mice with p53 heterozygous (p53+/-) mice and generated p210bcr/abl transgenic, p53 heterozygous (BCR/ABLtg/- p53+/-) mice, in which a somatic alteration in the residual p53 allele directly abrogates p53 function. The BCR/ABLtg/- p53+/- mice exhibited rapid proliferation of blast cells and died in a short period compared with their wild-type (BCR/ABL-/- p53+/+), p53 heterozygous (BCR/ABL-/- p53+/-), and p210bcr/abl transgenic (BCR/ABLtg/- p53+/+) littermates. Interestingly, the normal p53 allele was frequently and preferentially lost in the tumor tissues, providing in vivo evidence that acquired loss of p53 contributes to the blastic transformation of p210bcr/abl-expressing hematopoietic cells. Our transgenic mice will be a useful model for investigating oncogenic properties of p210bcr/abl in vivo and will provide insights into the molecular mechanism(s) underlying the progression from chronic phase to blast crisis of CML.
Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) are congenital malformations that involve failure of the neural tube closure during the early phases of development at any level of the rostro-caudal axis. The planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway is a highly conserved, noncanonical Wnt-Frizzled-Dishevelled signaling cascade, that was first identified in the fruit fly Drosophila. We are here reviewing the role of the PCP pathway genes in the etiology of human NTDs, updating the list of the rare and deleterious mutations identified so far. We report 50 rare nonsynonymous mutations of PCP genes in 54 patients having a pathogenic effect on the protein function. Thirteen mutations that have previously been reported as novel are now reported in public databases, although at very low frequencies. The mutations were private, mostly missense, and transmitted by a healthy parent. To date, no clear genotype-phenotype correlation has been possible to create. Even if PCP pathway genes are involved in the pathogenesis of neural tube defects, future studies will be necessary to better dissect the genetic causes underlying these complex malformations.
A controversy exists for many years about the role of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in the uptake of estradiol by the cells. Using the estradiol-sensitive human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7 and SHBG isolated from human serum by a new method, we observed a strong inhibition of estradiol uptake. The inhibition was higher when the concentration of the hormone was low. On the other hand, there seemed to be a lag period in inhibition when the concentrations of SHBG were very low, followed by an exponential increase, when the concentration exceeded a critical value. The inhibitory activity was higher when SHBG was added before or along with estradiol in the cell culture, as well as when the incubation period was elongated, while was dramatically minimized by the presence of dihydrotestosterone. Despite the inhibition of estradiol uptake caused by SHBG, the distribution of the hormone in various cell components remained practically the same. In conclusion, all indications from experimental data seem to suggest a simple deprivative mechanism being responsible for the inhibitory activity of SHBG on estradiol uptake by MCF-7 cells in culture.
Dendritic cells (DC) are potent antigen - presenting cells that can orientate the immune response towards a Th1 or a Th2 type. DC produce chemokines that are involved in the recruitment of either Th1 cells, such as IP10 (CXCL10), Th2 cells such as TARC (CCL17) and MDC (CCL22), or non-polarized T cells such as RANTES (CCL5) and MIP-lalpha (CCL3). We investigated whether monocyte-derived DC (MD-DC) generated from healthy donors or from patients sensitive to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Dpt) and exposed to the cysteine-protease Der p 1(allergen of Dpt), could upregulate the expression of chemokines involved in type 1 or type 2 T cell recruitment. MD-DC were pulsed with either Der p 1 or with LPS as the control and the chemokines produced were evaluated using ELISA and chemotaxis assays. Der p 1-pulsed DC from allergic patients showed increased TARC (CCL17) and MDC (CCL22) production without modifying IP-10 (CXCL10) release. Der p 1-pulsed DC from healthy donors showed only increased IP-10 (CXCL10) secretion. RANTES (CCL5) and MIP-lalpha (CCL3) production were similarly increased when DC were from healthy or allergic donors. The selective Th2 clone recruitment activity of supernatants from Der p 1-pulsed DC of allergic patients was inhibited by anti-TARC (CCL17) and anti-MDC (CCL22) neutralizing Abs. By using anti-IP10 (CXCL10) blocking Abs, supernatants of Der p 1-pulsed DC from healthy donors were shown to be involved in the recruitment of Th1 cells. These results suggest that in allergic patients exposed to house dust mites, DC may favour the exacerbation of the Th2 response via the increase in type 2 chemokine production.
Conclusions Cells capable of continuous propagation in vitro were cultured from peripheral blood of normal individuals under conditions of complete isolation from other cell lines. A lag phase of 7 weeks preceded rapid multiplication. Cultivation of these cells is apparently not dependent on the presence of a herpes-like virus similar to the leukovirus found in Burkitt's lymphoma. The line has been cultured continuously for 1 year.
The human pyloric glands are simple or branched tubular glands which spiral through the connective tissue of the lamina propria. They are comprised of three cell types: the pyloric gland (mucous) cell, the parietal cell, and endocrine cells. The mucous cell is the most common cell type in the human pyloric glands and is characterized by an abundance of secretory granules. The secretory granules are usually round in shape and vary considerably in diameter. They are membrane-bound and comprise a heterogeneous population. The larger granules contain a light staining amorphous material and often possess an area of increased electron density near the limiting membrane of the granule giving them a mottled appearance. A smaller, more electron-dense secretory granule also is found both in relation to the Golgi complex and cell apex. The morphological observations indicate that the mechanism of mucin production by the mucous cells of the human pyloric glands may be similar to that reported in other mucin-secreting cells.
Leaf histochemical analyses were made in two genotypes of Arachis hypogaea L., of the Valencia group, which present different responses to some of the peanut foliar diseases. The analyses were performed on cross sections of the pulvini, petiole, rachis, pulvinulus and leaflets. The following constituents were observed: alkaloids, callose, cellulose with pectin, cristal, cutin, lignin, mucilage, oil, pure cellulose, resin, starch, tannin, wax and weight of ureides by leaflets. Some histochemical characteristics such the amount of tannin, alkaloids, pectin and oil can be produce different responses of peanut to foliar fungal diseases, and can be used in the characterization of peanut genotypes like the amount of pure cellulose and cellulose with pectin.
1. Metamorphosis can, as originally stated by Hogben, be induced in the neotenous axolotl larva of the Mexican salamander by regular injection of fresh extracts of the anterior lobe of bovine pituitary; the failure of Smith to obtain this result in experiments upon the Colorado axolotl appears to be due to the necessity of performing the extraction in acid medium. 2. Such traces of melanophore stimulant as are found in the anterior lobe of the mammalian pituitary result from post-mortem diffusion. 3. The substances responsible for production of metamorphic changes and pigmentary response are not identical.
A study of the phenotypes of four primary trisomies (2n + 1) in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) was conducted. The purpose was to determine whether measurable and consistent phenotypic differences exist between these trisomics and their disomic sibs. These trisomics are designated Tri A, B, C, and D. These trisomic stocks are homozygous but are not isolines. Root-tip squashes of seedlings were used to identify all trisomic and disomic plants. Several plants of each different trisomic type along with an equal number of their disomic sibs were transplanted to the field and randomized within four separate rows. Nineteen different phenotypic traits were measured on all plants.Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to select variables that were good discriminators (0.10 significance level). Each of the four trisomic–disomic comparisons contained a different but overlapping subset of variables that were used in subsequent discriminant analysis. The first discriminatory variable was computed for each trisomic ...
Abstract We investigated the impact of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) (NPK) and NPK plus glucose-balanced fertilization compared with N-only fertilization on the soil pH, NH4 +, NO3 −, ammonia-oxidizing bacterial community, bacterial community and function during microcosm incubation. The NPK and NPK plus glucose treatments resulted in significantly reducing soil acidification and NO3 − accumulation compared with the N-only fertilization. The terminal restriction fragment size measuring 283 (Nitrosospira) and 54 bp (unidentified) were predominant in the soil ammonia-oxidizing bacterial composition for all treatments. The N-only fertilization did not change the ammonia-oxidizing bacterial community, the bacterial community composition based on terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, and the bacterial functional diversity based on Biolog EcoPlateTM incubation. The NPK and NPK plus glucose treatments resulted in a shift in the soil ammonia-oxidizing bacterial community and bacterial community composition, and significantly increased the bacterial functional diversity (average well colour development, Richness and Shannon index). Nitrosomonas species were detected in the soil upon NPK and NPK plus glucose treatment on incubation day 9 but not on days 1 and 31. The effect of NPK treatment on the bacterial community composition was transient; a new 116 bp fragment was present on incubation day 9, but the data returned to their original values by day 31. In contrast, treatment with NPK plus glucose resulted in the appearance of a new 116 bp fragment that remained until incubation day 31. These results demonstrated that the balanced fertilization of N, P, K and glucose, plays an important role in regulating ammonia-oxidizing bacterial community quickly, and promoting nitrification functions. The results also showed the importance of balanced fertilization in reducing acidification, improving bacterial community structure and function in latosolic red soil. Therefore, optimizing the ammonia oxidation process by balanced fertilization may be helpful to reduce the loss of soil nitrogen.
Thymectomized, irradiated, bone marrow-reconstituted (T-deprived) mie infected with an avirulent strain of Toxoplasma gondii produced antibody titers comparable to those produced in intact syngeneic mice. Both immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies were produced in T-deprived animals; however, the IgM antibody remained constant in the presence of increasing amounts of IgG. In the intact animals, IgM became undetectable by day 50 postinfection as expected. Feedback inhibition of IgM by IgG seems to be dependent upon T-cells in Toxoplasma-infected mice.
The bacteria that cause diseases include opportunistic pathogen and non-opportunistic pathogen. The invention and usage of antibiotics have helped in preventing against various diseases, however, this "antagonism" solution without differention has drawback of drug-resistance. Thus, it's necessary to develop another strategy, rather than "antagonism", to treat these diseases.The approach of research in quorum sensing (QS) offers us an option to treat bacterial infection on the principle of "anti-pathogenic drug" without killing them. The principle of "anti-pathogenic" would change clinic thought from "antagonism" to "commensalism", therefore it's reasonable to resolve this contradiction through QS system.
Genetic susceptibility to murine Lyme arthritis has been correlated with the dominance of T-helper (Th1)- or Th2-cell-associated cytokines. To determine when commitment of the Th cell phenotype occurs, we examined the kinetics of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) production by lymph node T cells of disease-susceptible C3H/HeN and disease-resistant BALB/c mice from days 2 through 30 of infection, a period encompassing the evolution of disease and early regression. BALB/c mice produced more IFN-gamma on day 2 of infection than did C3H/HeN mice, whereas IL-4 was first detected on day 14. In contrast, only IFN-gamma could be detected in C3H/HeN mice, and the levels steadily increased from day 2 to surpass those seen in BALB/c mice by day 14 of infection. Despite the difference in cytokine profiles, both BALB/c and C3H/HeN mice developed comparable arthritis assessed at 14 days of infection. Arthritis regressed by day 30 in BALB/c mice but persisted in C3H/HeN mice. These studies are the first to demonstrate that the Th2 response to Borrelia burgdorferi infection of BALB/c mice is preceded by a Th1 cytokine response. Moreover, the timing of the appearance of IL-4 suggests that its primary effect is not in preventing disease, as suggested by others, but, rather, in hastening the resolution of inflammation. The implications of these findings for the orchestration of host defense against B. burgdorferi infection are discussed.
Epacrolaimus reyesi n. sp., an amphimictic species of a rare nematode genus, is described and illustrated. The new species ischaracterised by its long body (7.23–7.87 mm), 32 µm wide lip region, with well developed and distinct lips and liplets pro-vided with longitudinal corrugation on their inner surface; 19–22 µm long odontostyle with a wide, arched aperture occupying ca 85% of its length; 45–56 µm long odontophore; 55–67 µm long rounded tail, nine regularly spaced ventromedian supple-ments in males and 135–145 µm long spicules. The new species is compared with two other known species of the genus,namely E. declinatoaculeatus (Kreis, 1924) Andrassy, 2000 and E. imperator Andrassy, 2000. Compared to the former, thenew species has a rounded tail in females vs bluntly conoid, rounded on tip or with a minute peg, shorter tail (55–67 vs 63–75µm) shorter spicules (135–145 vs 215 µm) and fewer male copulatory supplements (9 vs 12). Compared to the latter species, E. reyesi n. sp. is wider at the midbody region (172–178 vs 156–160 µm), and has a shorter tail (55–67 vs 84 µm in females and58–65 vs 70–86 µm in males), shorter spicules (135–145 vs 202–210 µm) and fewer male copulatory supplements (9 vs 14–16).From both species the new species differs by having a rounded tail vs convex-conoid or slightly subdigitate. Beside the newspecies, a population of Paraxonchium laetificans (Andrassy, 1956) Altherr & Loof, 1969 with relatively numerous males wasfound from forests of northern Iran. The male of this species, which had not been found in Iran so far and had been described on two specimens only, is described and illustrated in detail.
ABSTRACT The parasite Toxoplasma needs to get from its intermediate hosts, e.g. rodents, to its definitive hosts, cats, by predation. To increase the probability of this occurrence, Toxoplasma manipulates the behavior of its hosts, for example, by the demethylation of promoters of certain genes in the host's amygdala. After this modification, the stimuli that normally activate fear-related circuits, e.g., the smell of a cat in mice, or smell of leopards in chimpanzees, start to additionally co-activate sexual arousal-related circuits in the infected animals. In humans, the increased attraction to masochistic sexual practices was recently observed in a study performed on 36,564 subjects. Here I show that lower rather than higher attraction to sexual masochism and submissiveness among infected subjects is detected if simple univariate tests instead of multivariate tests are applied to the same data. I show and discuss that when analyzing multiple effects of complex stimuli on complex biological systems we need to use multivariate techniques and very large data sets. We must also accept the fact that any single factor usually explains only a small fraction of variability in the focal variable.
POU4F3 gene encodes a transcription factor which plays an essential role in the maturation and maintenance of hair cells in cochlea and vestibular system. Several mutations of POU4F3 have been reported to cause autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss in recent years. In this study, we describe a pathogenic nonsense mutation located in POU4F3 in a four-generation Chinese family. Target region capture sequencing was performed to search for the candidate mutations from 81 genes related to nonsyndromic hearing loss in this family. A novel nonsense mutation of POU4F3, c.337C>T (p. Gln113⁎), was identified in a Chinese family characterized by late-onset progressive nonsyndromic hearing loss. The novel mutation cosegregated with hearing loss in this family and was absent in 200 ethnicity-matched controls. The mutation led to a stop codon and thus a truncated protein with no functional domains remained. Transient transfection and immunofluorescence assay revealed that the subcellular localization of the truncated protein differed markedly from normal protein, which could be the underlying reason for complete loss of its normal function. Here, we report the first nonsense mutation of POU4F3 associated with progressive hearing loss and explored the possible underlying mechanism. Routine examination of POU4F3 is necessary for the genetic diagnosis of hereditary hearing loss in the future.
Objective: To investigate the expression of early growth response gene-1(Egr-1) in the liver following hemorrhagic shock with or without resuscitation(HS or HSR). Methods: Mice were subjected to HS or HSR.Liver expression of Egr-1 mRNA was detected by Northern blotting.DNA binding activity of the Egr-1 protein in liver nuclear extracts(NE) was determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assay(EMSA).Western blot analysis was used to assess the induction of Egr-1 protein in the liver tissue,cytoplasma and NE. Results: Egr-1 mRNA was strongly expressed as early as 1 h after HS,and its level was decreased in the following 2.5 h but still higher than that in 1 h HS group.The Egr-1 DNA binding activity elevated in the liver NE of 2.5 h HS group and 2.5 h HS + 4 h R group,so did the Egr-1 protein in the liver and the liver NE of the same two groups.However,the maximal Egr-1 protein expression was found in the cytoplasma of liver following 2.5 h HS. Conclusion: Our data suggest that both Egr-1 mRNA and protein are strongly elevated and the binding activity of Egr-1 to its cognate DNA site is increased in the liver following HSR,indicating the increases of Egr-1 transcriptional and translational levels.This study provides evidence that Egr-1 gene is activated in the liver during HS and HSR.
Species-specific differentiation pace in in vitro assays indicates that some aspects of neural differentiation are driven by cell-autonomous processes. Here we describe a novel in vitro human neural rosette assay that recapitulates the temporal sequence of dorsal spinal cord differentiation but proceeds more rapidly than in the human embryonic spinal cord, suggesting that in vitro conditions lack endogenous signalling dynamics. To test the extent to which this in vitro assay represents a cell intrinsic differentiation programme, human iPSC-derived neural rosettes were homo-chronically grafted into the faster differentiating chicken embryonic neural tube. Strikingly, in vitro human differentiation pace was not accelerated, even in single host-integrated cells. Moreover, rosette differentiation eventually stalled in a neural progenitor cell state. These findings demonstrate the requirement for timely extrinsic signalling to accurately recapitulate human neural differentiation tempo, and suggest that while intrinsic properties limit differentiation pace, such signals are also required to maintain differentiation progression.
Okra peel exhibits numerous therapeutic effects. This study explores the potential ameliorative effects of okra peel powder on high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced hypercholesterolemia and cognitive deficits. Thirty-six C57BL/6J male mice were randomly divided into six groups (n = 6 per group): (i) control, mice fed with a normal diet; (ii) HFD, mice fed with HFD; (iii) HFD-SIM, mice fed with HFD and given simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day); (iv) HFD-OP1; (v) HFD-OP2; (vi) HFD-OP3, mice fed with HFD and okra peel (200, 400, or 800 mg/kg/day, respectively). Following 10 weeks of treatments, the mice were subjected to the Morris water maze (MWM). Parameters such as weekly average body weight, food intake, and blood lipid profiles were also recorded. The HFD group showed a profound increase in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein concentration compared to the control group. All okra-treated and HFD-SIM groups performed better than the HFD group during acquisition trials, whereas only the HFD-OP1 produced a significantly higher number of entries into the platform zone during the probe trial. In sum, all three okra doses improved the learning ability of the mice. However, only the lowest dose of okra significantly improved the spatial reference memory retention.
Leptin is an adipokine that acts in the central nervous system and regulates energy balance. Animal models and human observational studies have suggested that leptin surge in the perinatal period has a critical role in programming long-term risk of obesity. In utero exposure to maternal hyperglycemia has been associated with increased risk of obesity later in life. Epigenetic mechanisms are suspected to be involved in fetal programming of long term metabolic diseases. We investigated whether DNA methylation levels near LEP locus mediate the relation between maternal glycemia and neonatal leptin levels using the 2-step epigenetic Mendelian randomization approach. We used data and samples from up to 485 mother-child dyads from Gen3G, a large prospective population-based cohort. First, we built a genetic risk score to capture maternal glycemia based on 10 known glycemic genetic variants (GRS10) and showed it was an adequate instrumental variable (β = 0.046 mmol/L of maternal fasting glucose per additional risk allele; SE = 0.007; P = 7.8 × 10−11; N = 467). A higher GRS10 was associated with lower methylation levels at cg12083122 located near LEP (β = −0.072 unit per additional risk allele; SE = 0.04; P = 0.05; N = 166). Direction and effect size of association between the instrumental variable GRS10 and methylation at cg12083122 were consistent with the negative association we observed using measured maternal glycemia. Lower DNA methylation levels at cg12083122 were associated with higher cord blood leptin levels (β = −0.17 log of cord blood leptin per unit; SE = 0.07; P = 0.01; N = 170). Our study supports that maternal glycemia is part of causal pathways influencing offspring leptin epigenetic regulation.
Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) endemic to Africa is spread within and between rice fields by several species of Chrysomelid beetles and grasshoppers. In Tanzania and particularly in Kilombero District, the virus is increasingly becoming a serious problem to rice production. The relationships between the insect vectors and RYMV disease incidence and severity were not fully known hence the need for this study. The assessment of both disease incidence and severity of RYMV and population abundance of its insect’s vectors were conducted in the three divisions of Mngeta, Ifakara and Mang’ula in Kilombero District, Tanzania in 4m2 quadrat. Insect sampling was conducted using sweep net while RYMD incidence and severity were visually assessed in a 4 m 2 quadrat. Results of the insect identification indicated the presence of two insect vectors of RYMV i.e. (Chaetocnema spp. and O. hyla). The population densities of these RYMV vectors were higher at the border parts of the rice fields than at the middle parts. On the other hand, the incidence and severity of RYMV disease increased with the age of the crop. Results of within field distribution also indicated a random distribution of RYMV-affected plants in the rice fields in the agro ecosystem. The field studies of the virus–vector relationship established that RYMV occurrence varied in space and time and crop development stages. The partial correlation analysis showed a positive relationship between insect vector’s population density and the incidence and severity of RYMVD. The two insect species were tested for their ability to transmit RYMV and both were able to transmit the virus from RYMV-infected plants to healthy rice seedlings suggesting their potential contribution to RYMVD prevalence in the agro-ecosystem.
We examined the possible participation of nitric oxide (NO) in the activation of cyclooxygenase, a heme-containing enzyme, induced by interleukin-1 (IL-1) in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). IL-1 induced a delayed and prolonged release of both NO and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) from VSMC. NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA), an inhibitor of NO synthesis, partially but significantly inhibited the PGE2 release induced by IL-1, whereas it completely inhibited the IL-1-induced NO production. The inhibitory effects of L-NMMA on IL-1-induced production of both NO and PGE2 were partially reversed by a 10-fold excess of L-arginine. In addition, coincubation with superoxide dismutase enhanced the IL-1-induced PGE2 release from VSMC. In contrast, 8-bromo-cyclic GMP did not stimulate PGE2 release. Furthermore, 0.2 mM sodium nitroprusside directly stimulated PGE2 release from VSMC. These findings suggest that NO at least in part mediates the IL-1-induced PGE2 production, and that NO may be one of the important signals for the activation of cyclooxygenase to produce PGE2 in VSMC.
ABSTRACT Previously, we have developed an extramitochondrial assembly system, where mitochondrial targeting signal (MTS) can be removed from a given mitochondrial enzyme, which could be used to characterize the regulatory factors involved in enzyme assembly/disassembly in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that addition of exogenous acetaldehyde can quickly induce the supramolecular assembly of MTS-deleted aldehyde dehydrogenase Ald4p in yeast cytoplasm. Also, by using PCR-based modification of the yeast genome, cytoplasmically targeted Ald4p cannot polymerize into long filaments when key functional amino acid residues are substituted, as shown by N192D, S269A, E290K and C324A mutations. This study has confirmed that extramitochondrial assembly could be a powerful external system for studying mitochondrial enzyme assembly, and its regulatory factors outside the mitochondria. In addition, we propose that mitochondrial enzyme assembly/disassembly is coupled to the regulation of a given mitochondrial enzyme activity. Summary: A mutation study of cytoplasmically targeted aldehyde dehydrogenase Ald4p was conducted to show that the Ald4p structure formation is coupled to the regulation of its enzymatic activity.
Fromanalysis ofthelarge RNaseTl-resistant oligonucleotides ofKirsten sarcoma virus (Ki-SV), aphysical mapofthevirus genomewasdeduced. Kirsten murine leukemia virus (Ki-MuLV) sequences weredetected inTioligonucleotides closest tothe3'endoftheviral RNA andextended approximately 1,000 nucleotides intothegenome. Theratgenetic sequences started atthispoint and extended allthewaytothevery5'endoftheRNA molecules, whereasmall stretch ofKi-MuLVsequence wasdetected. Bycomparison ofthefingerprints ofKi-SVRNA andtheRNA oftheendogenous ratsrcgenetic sequences, it wasfound thatmorethan50%oftheTioligonucleotides weresimilar between Ki-SVandtheendogenous ratsrcRNA,suggesting anidentical primary nucleotide sequence inover50%oftheviral genomes. Theresults indicate thatKi-SV arosebyrecombination between the5'and3'endsofKi-MuLVandalarge portion ofthehomologous sequences oftheendogenous ratsrcRNA. Kirsten andHarvey sarcoma viruses (Ki-SV andHa-SV, respectively) wereisolated byinoculation ofmurine leukemia viuses (MuLV's) into various strains ofrats(11, 13). Although the original isolates weremixtures ofleukemia and sarcomaviruses, subsequent studies clearly showed that theviruses that induce solid tumors inanimals andtransform fibroblasts intissue culture (FT') arethereplication-defe ctive
We report a rare parasitic nematode infection in a 26-year-old healthy African American man. Gongylonema nematode infections in humans are unique in their ability to localize in the submucosa of the oral cavity and oropharynx. Humans are incidental hosts for the Gongylonema nematode, which is more commonly found in rudimentary animals, birds, and rodents. Approximately 50 cases of human Gongylonema infections have been reported worldwide, including 11 documented cases in the United States.(1) The pathogenesis, characteristic clinic findings, and identification features will be discussed.
Two endophytic fungal strains, Trichoderma longibrachiatum CSN-18 and Aspergillus sp. CSN-3, were isolated from healthy leaves of Camellia sinensis. The inhibitory activity against plant pathogenic fungi of these two fungi in the mixed culture was compared with monoculture. The results showed that the broth and its acetic ether extract of the mixed culture had much stronger inhibitions against Magnaporthe grisea, Phyllosticta camelliaecola, Guignardia camellia and other 5 species of plant pathogenic fungi as compared to monocultures of CSN-18 and CSN-3. The inhibition rates of acetic ether extract of the mixed culture to the mycelial growth of P. camelliaecola, M. grisea and G. camellia were 79.48%±1.46%, 76.99%±0.91% and 71.51%±4.93%,respectively. Inhibition rates of acetic ether extract of the mixed culture to the spore germination of P. camelliaecola, G. camellia and M. grisea were 100.00%, 90.90%±2.59% and 84.00%±5.29%, respectively. The broth of the mixed culture had a much higher inhibition rate to the mycelial growth of P. camelliaecola as compared to monocultures. Spore germination of P. camelliaecola was promoted by broth of the mixed culture in the concentration lower than 30%. But spore germination was dramatically inhibited when broth concentration was higher than 40%.
Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhp) is a kind of prokaryotes without cell wall. It is the main antigen that cause the Mycoplasmal pneumoniae of swine (MPS). It is well known that Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae has bad effect on the development of pig industry. Although its structure is very simple, it needs high nutrition in culture. It can't be deeply studied yet because of its strict culture condition. With the development of molecular biotechnology, people have made some researches on it from gene by using cloning technology in recent years. Now scientists have made some important progresses. In this article, there is a comprehensive statement on its morphologic characteristics, capsular materials (CM), major membrane surface proteins and gene. we also briefly discuss its problems at present and developments in future.
The discovery of resistance to a main inhibitor of coagulation [1] and the finding of a single factor V mutation (Arg506Gln, FV Leiden) affecting an activated protein C (APC) cleavage site in a significant proportion of thrombophilic patients of Caucasian origin [2] have been major advances for the clinical coagulation laboratory and for the genotyping of congenital thrombophilia. Hundreds of thousands of patients have been genotyped, and > 4500 articles investigating FV Leiden-related issues have been published. The concept that other frequent genetic mutations affecting FV properties could, in combination with FV Leiden, contribute to the thrombophilic tendency promoted further FV-focused investigation. A frequent, ancient and functional FV haplotype encoding FVR2 [3] was found to be associated with reduced FV levels and modest APC resistance, which might exacerbate the FV Leiden phenotype in compound heterozygotes. However, the reduced ability of FVR2 to predict a significant proportion of risk for thrombosis made it of limited use for diagnosis. Common susceptibility alleles with modest contributions to venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk were, indeed, common findings in several powerful candidate single-nucleotide polymorphism or genome-wide association studies [4]. On the other hand, the search for rare FV mutations able to produce APC resistance by affecting APC cleavage sites other than Arg506 was fruitful. The FV Arg306Thr mutation (FV Cambridge) was found in a family with thrombophilia [5], and confirmed by expression studies to produce mild APC resistance. The presence of FV Leiden only in Caucasians promoted the investigation of alternative genetic bases of APC resistance phenotypes in other populations. The Arg306Gly mutation, affecting the same residue mutated in FV Cambridge and conferring an undefined risk for thrombosis, was found in the Hong Kong Chinese population [6], and, more recently, the Glu666Asp mutation was reported [7] in a Chinese family with APC resistance and VTE. Through a different mechanism, the Ile359Thr mutation (FV Liverpool) [8] reduces cleavage at Arg306 and also causes equally low APC cofactor activity as FV Leiden. This substitution creates a new consensus sequence for N-linked glycosylation, the large bulky carbohydrate side chains of which could interfere with binding sites distant from the affected residue 359. In patients with an Amerindian ethnic background and APC resistance, the Met443Leu, Glu461Gln and Gly493Glu mutations were detected in exon 10, which encodes Arg506 [9]. The information available on the phenotypes produced by these mutations is not yet sufficient to enable their functional roles to be established. The detection of FV mutations associated with APC resistance is now favored by efficient and cheap sequencing tools. Unfortunately, the selection of cases for sequencing is not fully supported by current APC resistance phenotype screening, which is optimized to demonstrate resistance to APC resulting from the FV Arg506Gln mutation. These plasma assays may not have sufficient sensitivity to pick up mild APC resistance with other causes, as suggested by the marginally increased APC resistance observed for FVR2 and FV Liverpool. As compared with mutations clustered in the FV cleavage site protein regions, the Trp1920Arg mutation (FV Nara) [10], which was recently discovered in a Japanese boy with a low level of plasma FV activity and deep vein thrombosis, was located in a distant domain (C1). This module is involved in the spike-like structures that are able to bind membrane phospholipids. However, FV Nara and wild-type (WT) FV appear to bind phospholipids with similar affinity. Correspondence: Francesco Bernardi, Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 74, Ferrara I-44100, Italy. Tel.:+39 0532974425. E-mail: francesco.bernardi@unife.it
A number of genes encoding C-type lectin molecules have been mapped to the natural killer gene complex (NKC) at the distal region of mouse chromosome 6 and to a syntenic region on human chromosome 12p12-p13. In addition to those receptors which regulate NK cell function, related structures expressed on other cells types have also been localized to this chromosomal region. Among these are a number of recently characterized genes, including macrophage C-type lectin (MCL), macrophage-inducible C-type lectin (Mincle), dendritic cell immunoreceptor (DCIR) and dendritic cell-associated lectin-2 (Dectin-2). The amino acid sequences comprising the single C-type lectin domains of MCL, Mincle, DCIR and Dectin-2 are shown here to be closely related to each other. These molecules show overall similarity to two groups of animal C-type lectins, groups II and V, which demonstrate type II transmembrane topology. In this study, sequence analysis suggests that MCL, Mincle, DCIR and Dectin-2 represent a subset of group II-related C-type lectins which may participate in analogous recognition events on macrophages and dendritic cells. The genomic organization of the MCL gene and the sequence of the promoter region, with putative regulatory elements, were determined from a mouse MCL genomic DNA clone and are described here in detail.
Identifying genetic basis of domestication and improvement in livestock contributes to our understanding of the role of artificial selection in shaping the genome. Here we used whole-genome sequencing and the genotyping by sequencing approach to detect artificial selection signatures and identify the associated SNPs of two economic traits in Duroc pigs. A total of 38 candidate selection regions were detected by combining the fixation index and the Composite Likelihood Ratio methods. Further genome-wide association study revealed seven associated SNPs that were related with intramuscular fat content and feed conversion ratio traits, respectively. Enrichment analysis suggested that the artificial selection regions harbored genes, such as MSTN, SOD2, MC5R and CD83, which are responsible for economic traits including lean muscle mass, fertility and immunization. Overall, this study found a series of candidate genes putatively associated with the breeding improvement of Duroc pigs and the polygenic basis of adaptive evolution, which can provide important references and fundamental information for future breeding programs.
Abstract. We investigated the effects of temperature and CO2 variation on the growth and elemental composition of cultures of the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia subcurvata and the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis antarctica, two ecologically dominant phytoplankton species isolated from the Ross Sea, Antarctica. To obtain thermal functional response curves, cultures were grown across a range of temperatures from 0 to 14 °C. In addition, a co-culturing experiment examined the relative abundance of both species at 0 and 6 °C. CO2 functional response curves were conducted from 100 to 1730 ppm at 2 and 8 °C to test for interactive effects between the two variables. The growth of both phytoplankton was significantly affected by temperature increase, but with different trends. Growth rates of P. subcurvata increased with temperature from 0 °C to maximum levels at 8 °C, while the growth rates of P. antarctica only increased from 0 to 2 °C. The maximum thermal limits of P. subcurvata and P. antarctica where growth stopped completely were 14 and 10 °C, respectively. Although P. subcurvata outgrew P. antarctica at both temperatures in the co-incubation experiment, this happened much faster at 6 than at 0 °C. For P. subcurvata, there was a significant interactive effect in which the warmer temperature decreased the CO2 half-saturation constant for growth, but this was not the case for P. antarctica. The growth rates of both species increased with CO2 increases up to 425 ppm, and in contrast to significant effects of temperature, the effects of CO2 increase on their elemental composition were minimal. Our results suggest that future warming may be more favorable to the diatom than to the prymnesiophyte, while CO2 increases may not be a major factor in future competitive interactions between Pseudo-nitzschia subcurvata and Phaeocystis antarctica in the Ross Sea.
The seasonal occurrence of male pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella Saunders) moths and larvae was studied from 1981 to 1985 by means of sex pheromone traps using gossyplure and through examination of green bolls for larvae. Pink boll-worm moths remained active through out the year with minimum intensity during the summer (May and June) and winter (January and February). The most active period of moth emergence from the larvae of long cycle brood started as early as March and continued as late as mid July, with maximum emergence between mid March to end April, when the mean fluctuating temperature ranged between 22°C (March) to 26.5°C (April). Moth emergence from the short cycle brood started from middle of July to first week of November when the moth population was maxi-mum. The population of pink bollworm larvae showed positive correlation with the emergence of moths. Maximum of 153.7 larvae/100 green bolls were recorded during second week of November i.e. ten days after peak in moth emergence. The main period of moth emergence from August to first week of October coincides well with effective boll setting in H-777. Therefore, application of insecticides during this period can be based on the number of moths captured in pheromone traps.
Dynamics of dengue serotype 2 virus isolated from patients with different disease severity, namely flu-like classic dengue fever (DF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) were studied in its mosquito vector Aedes aegypti. We compared isolate infectivity and vector competence (VC) among thirty two A. aegypti-viral isolate pairs. Mosquito populations from high dengue incidence area exhibited overall greater VC than those from low dengue incidence area at 58.1% and 52.5%, respectively. On the other hand, the overall infection rates for the isolates ThNR2/772 (DF, 62.3%) and ThNR2/391 (DSS, 60.9%), were significantly higher than those for isolates ThNR2/406 (DF, 55.2%) and ThNR2/479 (DSS, 54.8%). These results suggest that the efficacy of dengue virus circulation was likely to vary according to the combination between the virus strains and origin of the mosquito strains, and this may have epidemiologic implications toward the incidence of flu-like classic dengue fever (DF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
Escherichia coli YfcE belongs to a conserved protein family within the calcineurin‐like phosphoesterase superfamily (Pfam00149) that is widely distributed in bacteria and archaea. Superfamily members are metallophosphatases that include monoesterases and diesterases involved in a variety of cellular functions. YfcE exhibited catalytic activity against bis‐p‐nitrophenyl phosphate, a general substrate for phosphodiesterases, and had an absolute requirement for Mn2+. However, no activity was observed with phosphodiesters and over 50 naturally occurring phosphomonoesters. The crystal structure of the YfcE phosphodiesterase has been determined to 2.25 Å resolution. YfcE has a β‐sandwich architecture similar to metallophosphatases of common ancestral origin. Unlike its more complex homologs that have added structural elements for regulation and substrate recognition, the relatively small 184‐amino‐acid protein has retained its ancestral simplicity. The tetrameric protein carries two zinc ions per active site from the E. coli extract that reflect the conserved di‐Mn2+ active site geometry. A cocrystallized sulfate inhibitor mimics the binding of phosphate moeities in known ligand/phosphatase complexes. Thus, YfcE has a similar active site and biochemical mechanism as well‐characterized superfamily members, while the YfcE phosphodiester‐containing substrate is unique.
To develop an oral drug,ITF gene encoding ITF proein,was expressed in a live delivery vehicle lactococcus lactis.First,the ITF gene was cloned into the prokaryotic expressive vector pNICE:sec.Second,the recombinant vector pNICE:sec-ITF was transformated into Lactococcus lactis strain NZ9000 to express ITF protein.Then the recombinant ITF was induced to express and was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot.Rabbits are divided into blank control group,preparation group and therapeutic group which are respectively administrated wih PBS and pNICE:sec-ITF Lactococcus lactis.By grades of ulcer test whether administrated pNICE:sec-ITF Lactococcus lactis protects against HCl-induced gastric injury in rabbits.The results were described as follows.The ITF was amplified and cloned in the vector pNICE:sec successfully.The fusion protein(5.9kDa) was expressed in L.lactis by the induction of the nisin.The quantity of expression accounted for 5% of the total bacterial protein.Western bolt analysis confirmed that fusion protein could be recognized specially by Monoclonal Anti-human TFF3 Antibody.Preparation groups and therapeutic groups do good than control group.Prove that administrated pNICE:sec-ITF Lactococcus lactis is biologically active in an HCl-induced rabbit gastric mucosal injury model.
Ectopic discharge generated in injured afferent axons and cell somata in vivo contributes significantly to chronic neuropathic dysesthesia and pain after nerve trauma. Progress has been made toward understanding the processes responsible for this discharge using a preparation consisting of whole excised dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) with the cut nerve attached. In the in vitro preparation, however, spike activity originates in the DRG cell soma but rarely in the axon. We have now overcome this impediment to understanding the overall electrogenic processes in soma and axon, including the resulting discharge patterns, by modifying the bath medium in which recordings are made. At both sites, bursts can be triggered by subthreshold oscillations, a phasic stimulus, or spikes arising elsewhere in the neuron. In the soma, once triggered, bursts are maintained by depolarizing afterpotentials, whereas in the axon, an additional process also plays a role, delayed depolarizing potentials. This alternative process appears to be involved in “clock-like” bursting, a discharge pattern much more common in axons than somata. Ectopic spikes arise alternatively in the soma, the injured axon end (neuroma), and the region of the axonal T-junction. Discharge sequences, and even individual multiplet bursts, may be a mosaic of action potentials that originate at these alternative electrogenic sites within the neuron. Correspondingly, discharge generated at these alternative sites may interact, explaining the sometimes-complex firing patterns observed in vivo.
The yeast-based two hybrid has been used to identify a novel protein that binds to the intracellular domain of the type 1 receptor for tumor necrosis factor (TNFR-1IC). The TNF receptor-associated protein, TRAP-1, shows strong homology to members of the 90-kDa family of heat shock proteins. After in vitro transcription/translation and S labeling, TRAP-1 was precipitated using a fusion protein consisting of glutathione S-transferase and TNFR-1IC, showing that the two proteins directly interact. The ability of deletion mutants of TNFR-1 to interact with TRAP-1 was tested using the two hybrid system. This showed that the amino acid sequences that mediate binding are diffusely distributed outside of the domain in the C terminus of TNFR-1IC that signals cytotoxicity. The 2.4-kilobase TRAP-1 mRNA was variably expressed in skeletal muscle, liver, heart, brain, kidney, pancreas, lung, and placenta. TRAP-1 mRNA was also detected in each of eight different transformed cell lines. Identification of TRAP-1 may be an important step toward defining how TNFR-1, which does not contain protein tyrosine kinase activity, transmits its message to signal transduction pathways.
1. The specific gravity of unhulled grain is mainly determined by the space left between the hull and the kernel. Consequently, the specific gravity of the unhulled grain which involved a fully developed kernel showed a high value. The unhulled grains of normal and white-belly kernels denoted a high value from 1.16 to 1.22 and those of basal-white kernels were ranged between 1.15 and 1.21 in the specific gravity. The specific gravity of unhulled grains of rusty, deformed, milky-white and partially opaque kernels distributed in lower and wider range as compared with that of unhulled grains of normal kernels. Unhulled grains of opaque kernels were ranged in the lowest specific gravity from 1.01 to 1.09. (fig. 5, 6) 2. The unhulled grains of normal, white-belly and basal-white kernels were selected by the specific gravity of 1.15 in company with those of comparatively well developed kernels among rusty, deformed and thin kernels. The unhulled grains selected by this specific gravity were appreciated as the high-grade rice and the remaining ones were recognizecl as the low-grade or trash rice. 3. The specific gravity of unhulled grain of some kernel quality was influenced by ripening condition and that of normal, white-belly or rusty kernel was heavier under well-ripened condition than under worse-ripened condition, but that of partially opaque or opaque kernel scarcely differed on both conditions. (fig. 3, 4) 4. As the moisture content of unhulled grain increase, the kernel involved in the hull expands and space between the hull and the kernel is diminished. Therefore, the specific gravity of unhulled grain became higher or lower as the moisture content increased or decreased and the variation in specific gravity-caused by moisture content was more remarkable in partially opaque and opaque kernels than in normal and rusty kernels. (table. 1, fig. 1, 2)
This research aims to examine the effect of phenolics on pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) (Homoptera: Aphididae) development and feeding behaviour, on leaves of selected low-saponin lines of Radius alfalfa (Medicago sativa). There was a slight, negative correlation (Spearman rank correlation rs = −0.80) between concentrations of saponins and phenols. Lines with higher concentrations of saponins had less phenolics. Levels of phenolics in low-saponin lines of alfalfa cv. Radius were related to their acceptance by the pea aphid. Our data revealed an inverse relationship between level of phenolics and the aphid abundance and its biology on studied alfalfa lines. Larval development of the pea aphid was longer, reproduction period was shorter, and the fecundity was lower on low-saponin lines with higher level of phenolics. There were observed some tendencies in the pea aphid feeding behaviour on these lines: prolonging the probing of the peripheral tissues (epidermis and mesophyll) and shortening the period of phloem sap ingestion. The better hosts for the pea aphid were low-saponin lines with low levels of phenolic compounds.
E10 chick sympathetic ganglion cells display a cell contact-dependent rise in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) specific activity over the first several days in culture. This effect can be mimicked by addition of crude membrane fractions prepared from E10 retina and adult chicken brain, but not by those from E10 brain. The effects of both cell-cell and membrane-cell contact are inhibited by the addition of anti-NCAM Fab fragments. The membranes capable of increasing ChAT and those which are ineffective all contain NCAM, however their relative levels of NCAM polysialic acid differ. Whereas membranes with high polysialic acid NCAM are ineffective, selective enzymatic removal of polysialic acid renders them capable of producing an increase in ChAT. The inhibition of NCAM-mediated adhesion produced by Fab fragments can be compensated for by addition of wheat germ agglutinin, but only with membranes whose NCAM has low levels of polysialic acid. Taken together, these data suggest that NCAM can regulate cell contact-mediated increases in ChAT activity. We propose that NCAM-mediated adhesion promotes contact between cell membranes to allow the transmission of an otherwise NCAM- independent signal. In addition, NCAM's polysialic acid moiety appears to influence the ability of cells to transmit this signal, even in the presence of an alternative adhesion mechanism.
Antimicrobial action of silanols, a new class of antimicrobials, was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and fluorescent dye studies. Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis were treated by silanols at concentration of less than 0.2 wt% for one hour. Membrane damage of the bacteria by the silanol treatment was clearly observed by transmission electron microscopy. Separation of the cytoplasmic membrane from the outer membrane for E. coli and disorganized cytoplasmic membrane of the Gram-positive bacteria were observed when compared to the control. Fluorescent dyes, green-fluorescent nucleic acid stain (Syto 9) and the red-fluorescent nucleic acid stain (Propidium iodide), were used to monitor membrane damage of the bacteria by Confocal microscopy and Spectrophotometer. A reduction of the green fluorescent emission was detected for silanol treated bacteria indicating membrane damage of the bacteria and supporting the hypothesis that their viability loss may be due to their membrane damage analogus to alcohols.
ABSTRACT Weakly electric fishes continually emit electric organ discharges (EOD) as a means of communication and localization of objects in their surroundings. Depending on water conductivity, the amplitude of the electric field generated is known to increase with decreases in electrical conductivity of the water. In Amazonian terra firme streams, water conductivity is extremely low and fluctuates constantly due to local and regional rains. In this context, the space between freely moving weakly electric fishes may be expected to decrease, on average, with an increase in water conductivity. To test this hypothesis, we recorded the positions at rest of the sand-dwelling fish Gymnorhamphichthys rondoni in a terra firme stream for several days in alternating months, over two years. Based on daily nearest neighbor distances among individual fish in a grid, we found a uniform temporal distribution pattern (which was not affected by water conductivity) indicative of site fidelity. Here we highlight the role of other factors that could influence resting site fidelity.
The effect of thermal stress (heat shock) on survival was evaluated for advanced larval stages and the possible effect on delay of metamorphosis in competent larvae was also evaluated in the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus under laboratory conditions. Eight-arm precompetent and competent larvae were kept at 15, 19, 23, 28, and 31 oC during 24 h to estimate their thermal tolerance and measure their survival in each treatment. Delay of metamorphosis was evaluated in competent larvae exposed to heat shock treatments of 15, 20, 24, 28, and 32 oC for 30 min. After this, larvae were induced to metamorphose in the presence of biofilms and KCl. Our results indicated that the thermal tolerance limit for precompetent and competent larvae was 27 oC; temperatures equal or above this value are lethal for both stages of development, where we observed 100% mortality in a period of 24 h for the treatment at 27 oC and of 2 h at 31 oC. Competent larvae subjected to a heat shock treatment of 28 oC for 30 min delayed the onset of metamorphosis (<40%) and showed high percentage of larvae with incomplete metamorphosis (55%). These results indicate the sensitivity of late larval stages to temperatures above 27 oC for short periods of time, and that this sensitivity may compromise the onset of metamorphosis. This could have some effect on the settlement and recruitment patterns of the purple sea urchin, particularly in intertidal sites exposed to high temperatures during the summer.      El efecto del estres termico (choque termico) en la supervivencia de estadios larvarios avanzados y en el retraso de la metamorfosis en larvas competentes de erizo morado Strongylocentrotus purpuratus fueron evaluados en condiciones de laboratorio. Las larvas precompetentes de ocho brazos y competentes se mantuvieron a 15, 19, 23, 27 y 31 oC durante 24 h para determinar su limite de tolerancia termica y medir su supervivencia en cada tratamiento. El retraso de la metamorfosis se evaluo en larvas competentes sometidas a tratamientos de choque termico a 15, 20, 24, 28 y 32 oC durante 30 min; las larvas fueron inducidas a la metamorfosis mediante biopeliculas y KCl. Los resultados indicaron que el limite de tolerancia termica para larvas precompetentes y competentes fue de 27 oC; las temperaturas iguales o superiores a este valor resultaron letales para ambos estadios de desarrollo, donde se observo 100% de mortalidad en un periodo de 24 h para el tratamiento de 27 oC y de 2 h para el de 31 oC. Se observo que las larvas competentes sometidas a condiciones de estres termico de 28 oC durante 30 min retrasaron el inicio de la metamorfosis (<40% de metamorfosis), y mostraron porcentajes altos de larvas con metamorfosis incompleta (55%). Estos resultados indican la sensibilidad de los estadios larvales tardios a temperaturas superiores a 27 oC por periodos de tiempo cortos, y que esta sensibilidad puede comprometer el inicio de la metamorfosis. Esto puede tener algun efecto en el asentamiento y los patrones de reclutamiento del erizo morado, particularmente en sitios del intermareal expuestos a altas temperaturas durante el verano.
The hypothesis was tested that fish fed to satiation with iso-energetic diets differing in macronutrient composition will have different digestible energy intakes (DEI) but similar total heat production. Four iso-energetic diets (2×2 factorial design) were formulated having a contrast in i) the ratio of protein to energy (P/E): high (HP/E) vs. low (LP/E) and ii) the type of non-protein energy (NPE) source: fat vs. carbohydrate which were iso-energetically exchanged. Triplicate groups (35 fish/tank) of rainbow trout were hand-fed each diet twice daily to satiation for 6 weeks under non-limiting water oxygen conditions. Feed intake (FI), DEI (kJ kg−0.8 d−1) and growth (g kg−0.8 d−1) of trout were affected by the interaction between P/E ratio and NPE source of the diet (P<0.05). Regardless of dietary P/E ratio, the inclusion of carbohydrate compared to fat as main NPE source reduced DEI and growth of trout by ∼20%. The diet-induced differences in FI and DEI show that trout did not compensate for the dietary differences in digestible energy or digestible protein contents. Further, changes in body fat store and plasma glucose did not seem to exert a homeostatic feedback control on DEI. Independent of the diet composition, heat production of trout did not differ (P>0.05). Our data suggest that the control of DEI in trout might be a function of heat production, which in turn might reflect a physiological limit related with oxidative metabolism.
Objective To investigate the nitric oxide(NO) and interferon-γ(IFN-γ) levels produced by spleen cells and macrophages in mice treated orally with squid ink. Methods Griess and ELISA assay were used respectively to detect quantitatively NO and IFN-γ in the culture medium of macrophages and spleen cells from mice after the treatment of squid ink. Results NO level produced by peritoneal macrophage and spleen cell from the mice was increased significantly compared to the control and IFN-γ level by the spleen cells was also relatively higher on the day 4 and 6 after the treatment of squid ink. The positive correlation (r=0. 98) was seen between the levels of NO and IFN-γ secreted by the spleen cells. LPS showed the activity promoting the production of NO in coordination with IFN-γ. Conclusion The squid ink is able to promote the production of NO in macrophages. There was a positive correlation between the levels of NO and IFN-γ produced by spleen cells from the treated mice with squid ink.
A total of 985 bacterial strains with different colony characteristics were isolated from the root of tree peony plants (variety 'Fengdan' and 'Lan Furong'); 69 operational taxonomic units were identified by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis. Representatives of each group were selected for partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. The major groups in the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and rhizoplane of Fengdan were Firmicutes (63.2%), Actinobacteria (36.3%), and Betaproteobacteria (53.0%), respectively. The major bacteria groups in the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and rhizoplane of Lan Furong were Actinobacteria (34.8%), Gammaproteobacteria (45.2%), and Betaproteobacteria (49.1%), respectively. In total, the bacterial isolates comprised 26 genera--14 in the bulk soil, 14 in the rhizosphere, and 11 in the rhizoplane. The most common genus in the bulk soil of Fengdan and Lan Furong was Bacillus (49.6% and 32.6%, respectively), in the rhizosphere Microbacterium (21.1%) and Pseudomonas (42.0%), and in the rhizoplane Variovorax (53.0% and 49.1%, respectively). The results show that there are obvious differences in the bacterial communities in the three root domains of the two varieties, and the plants exerted selective pressures on their associated bacterial populations. The host genotypes also influenced the distribution pattern of the bacterial community.
Larvae of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) has been widely applied as a biological agent for biodegradable wastes upcycling through bioconversion process. However, most of the biodegradable wastes produced from economic activities other than industrial is heterogenous. This may cause some physiological change which may alter the survivorship, growth, and efficiency of the bioconversion process. In this study, the substrate combination of macronutrients provided to black soldier fly larvae were observed to understand the larvae ability to degrade organic waste from economic activities. The substrat proportion consist of three major macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein, and lipid) and made of a mixture of decayed cabbage (Brassica oleracea) (source of carbohydrate), shark catfish (Pangasius sp.) (source of protein), and avocado (Persea americana) (source of lipid) which consisted of four types of substrate namely high fiber, high protein, high lipid, and balance. The feeding rate was 100 mg/larvae/day which provides every three days until 50% of larvae metamorphosed into prepupae. Mortality rate, the weight of larvae, and weight of residue (undigested substrate) were measured during substrate replacement and used to calculated survivorship rate, ECD (Efficiency of Conversion Digested-feed), AD (Approximate digestibility), and WRI (Waste Reduction Index). The proximate analysis also conducted on the harvested larvae biomass. The larvae group fed on high protein substrate showed best survivorship (64,75±2,60%), growth rate (2,97±0,166 mg/larvae/day), and AD (57,39±3,39) while the highest WRI recorded for larvae group fed on high fiber substrate and the highest ECD recorded for larvae group fed on high lipid substrate. The proximate analysis showed the best nutritional content of prepupae of larvae group fed on high protein substrate. It can be concluded that the proportion of macronutrients of substrate effect the growth and bioconversion performance of black soldier fly larvae. Some strategies related to the optimization of the bioconversion process for heterogeny substrate are discussed.Keywords: biodegradable wastes, black soldier fly, heterogeneity, growth, nutritional content, survivorship.
Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus spp., known for their hepatotoxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic activity in humans and animals. AF contamination of staple food commodities is a global concern due to their toxicity and the economic losses they cause. Different strategies have been applied to reduce fungal contamination and AF production. Among them, the use of natural, plant-derived compounds is emerging as a promising strategy to be applied to control both Aspergillus spoilage and AF contamination in food and feed commodities in an integrated pre- and postharvest management. In particular, phenols, aldehydes, and terpenes extracted from medicinal plants, spices, or fruits have been studied in depth. They can be easily extracted, they are generally recognized as safe (GRAS), and they are food-grade and act through a wide variety of mechanisms. This review investigated the main compounds with antifungal and anti-aflatoxigenic activity, also elucidating their physiological role and the different modes of action and synergies. Plant bioactive compounds are shown to be effective in modulating Aspergillus spp. contamination and AF production both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, their application in pre- and postharvest management could represent an important tool to control aflatoxigenic fungi and to reduce AF contamination.
Ontomorphogenesis and life forms have been studied of 16 boreal willow species S.alba, S.fragilis, S.caprea, S.pentandra, S.cinerea, S.aurita, S.starkeana, S.myrsinifolia, S.rosmarinifolia, S.triandra, S.acutifolia, S.viminalis, S.dasyclados, S.vinogradovii, S.myrtilloides, S.lapponum. Several life forms are typical for these species due to polyvariance of their evolution. Depending on ecological conditions, these species acquire 11 life forms.
Two slope profiles covering altidudes from 620 - 1.420 mNN and exposed to N and S, respectively, were investigated during 2 seasons for their thermal conditions regarding the development of spruce bark beetle populations. Temperature of air and cambium in different positions on trap trees were recorded continously, in order to calculate the thermal sums available for the broods under different site and weather conditions. Moreover, flight activity and brood development was observed. In the laboratory the developmental zero and the required thermal sum of Ips typographus (Linnaeus 1758), Ips amitinus (Eichhoff 1871) and Pityogenes chalcographus (Linnaeus 1761) were experimentally determined. Significant differences between the 3 species were found. Since the data from laboratory proved to be valid also in the field, they can be used for calculating the developmental potential of these Scolytidae species under different thermal conditions. The latter differed considerably due to altitude, exposition, shadowing and weather, thus providing a wide range of different thermal sums available to the broods. Taking into account that Ips typographus cannot hibernate in a subadult stage, the effective period of reproduction during season varies between a few weeks in spring and a few months in summer. The implications for population dynamics of Ips typographus and Pityogenes chalcographus are briefly discussed, considering a diapause of adults with Ips typographus and the differences between specific modes of hibernation.
Objective: To clone human angiopoietin-2(Ang-2)gene,construct its eukaryotic vecter and analyse the gene sequence.Methods: The total RNA was isolated from human placenta.The Ang-2 gene was synthesized and amplified from the total RNA by RT-PCR.Its eukaryotic vector was constructed and the gene was sequenced.Results: The total cDNA of human Ang-2 gene was amplified by RT-PCR,and the positive clone contained a 1.5kb insert.The recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1-HA2-Ang-2 was verified by restriction endonuclease analysis and sequencing.Conclusions: The human Ang-2 gene is cloned and its recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1-HA2-Ang-2 is constructed successfully.This lays a good foundation for the further study on human tumor angiogenesis mechanism and anti-angiogenic activity.
Objective:To explore the methods of using Flow Cytometry to examine the apoptosis.Methods:Flow Cytometry was used to examine the DNA content,the phosphatidyl serine,the mitcchondrial membrane potential and the calcium ion,the apoptosis was analyzed.Results:The DNA content had some deflexion.The phosphatidyl serine examination can reflect the early and advanced stage apoptosis punctually.The mitcchondrial membrane potential and the calcium ion examination can reflect the physiological index of apoptosis cell.But if combined with morphology the analysis will be more objective.Conclusion:Through comparing empirical method,we find more precise methods of using the Flow Cytometry to examine the apoptosis in the future.
Using aerobic soil slurry technique nitrification and nitrous oxide production were studied in samples from a pine site in Western Finland. The site received atmospheric ammonium deposition of 7–33 kg N ha−1 a−1 from a mink farm. The experiments with soil slurries showed that the nitrification potential in the litter layer was higher at pH 6 than at pH 4. However, the nitrification potentials in the samples from the organic and mineral horizons at pH 6 and 4 were almost equal. Also N2O was produced at a higher rate at pH 6 than at pH 4 in slurries of the litter layer samples. The reverse was true for samples from the organic and mineral horizons. The highest N2O production and nitrification rates were measured in the suspensions of litter layer samples. Nitrification activity in field-moist soil samples was lower than the activity in the slurries indicating that the availability of ammonium limited nitrification in these soils. Acetylene (2.5 kPa) retarded nitrification activity (70-–100%) and N2O production (40 – 90%) in soil slurries. Acetylene inhibited the N2O production by 40–60% during the first 3 days after its addition to field-moist samples incubated in aerobic atmosphere. After 3 days the inhibition became much lower (4–5%). The results indicate that, in soil profiles of boreal coniferous forests receiving ammonium deposition, chemolithotrophic nitrification may have importance in the N2O production, and that changes in soil pH affect differently nitrification as well as N2O production in litter and deeper soil layers.
In the past cytologists have made considerable contributions toward an understanding of the systematics of the genus Gossypium. Especially, Skovsted (19331937), Webber (1934X1939) and Beasley (1940-1942) have demonstrated the sharp cytological divisions existing between the different sections of the genus, namely: Anomala in Africa and Arabia, Stocksiana in Arabia, Sturtiana in Australia, Wild American, and the cultivated cottons of the Old World, the Herbacea.2 The amphidiploid origin of the last section, the Hirsuta, from which are derived the most important commercial cottons of today, was first demonstrated by cytological means (Skovsted, 1934 and Beasley, 1940). The cytological relationships within these groups, while certainly not omitted from consideration by the above mentioned authorities, have not yet been completely clarified. Also, the search for those species in the various sections which might be closest to the connecting links between the neighboring sections poses a special challenge. Of course, the tools of the cytologist can be applied only to those hybrids in which there is conjugation between chromosomes; and the looser the pairing, the blunter become these tools. The present paper represents a study of metaphase associations in the pollen mother cells of some hybrids from the sections Herbacea, Anomala and Hirsuta which show a high degree of chromosome conjugation.
Abstract An essential oil from Origanum vulgare subsp. hirtum var. Vulkan (DOS 00001) is intended to be used as a sensory additive in feed for all animal species. In a previous opinion of the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP), the Panel concluded that the recommended use level of 150 mg additive/kg feed was safe for chickens for fattening and weaned piglets and this conclusion was extended to all poultry and porcine species grown for meat production. The Panel also concluded that the dose of 500 mg additive/head and day (equivalent to ~25 mg/kg complete feed) was safe for dairy cows. Since the recommended use level differs between the dairy cow and the non‐ruminants tested, the lower use level of 25 mg additive/kg feed was applied to all target animals not included above. The Panel also concluded that the additive was safe for the consumers and the environment, but should be considered as an irritant to skin and eyes and a potential skin and respiratory sensitiser in susceptible individuals. In the present application, the applicant has provided a new tolerance study in dairy cows to support the safety of a higher use level of 150 mg/kg for all animal species. Data on residues in milk from dairy cows fed the additive at the maximum recommended use level where also provided to assess consumer exposure. The Panel concluded that the essential oil under assessment is safe for cows at the recommended use level of 150 mg additive/kg feed. Since safety has been demonstrated in three major species with a comparable margin of safety, this conclusion on safety is extrapolated to all animal species. No concerns for consumer safety were identified following the application of the additive at the proposed use level in animal nutrition.
The HPLC method to detect the activity of soybean trypsin inhibitor(STI) was established,the differences of wild soybean(G.soja),black soybean and yellow soybean(G.max) which grow in the same area in Shandong were compared;STI of wild soybean were extracted and purified by affinity chromatography on trypsin-conjugated agarose.The contents of STI in the three soybeans were compared;the amino acid sequence of kunitz trypsin inhibitor of wild soybean(KSTI)protein was obtained from its coding region by PCR and TA cloning protocol.The results showed that the STI of wild soybean had higher activity and content than black soybean and yellow soybean.The amino acid sequence of KSTI of wild soybean had only one different amino acid residue,that is Ser59 turned into Thr59.This position is located near the active site.In conclusion,the STI activity of wild soybean in Shandong is stronger,the STI content is also higher than that of black soybean and yellow soybean.
MASHEVA, S. and V. TODOROVA, 2013. Response of pepper varieties, F 1 hybrids and breeding lines to Verticillium dahliae Kleb. in two methods of infestation. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 133-138 During the period 2006-2007 in the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute, Plovdiv have been tested twenty breeding lines, varieties and F 1 hybrids from different variety types – var. Conicum, var. Kapia and ser. var. Grossum. Plants from each genotype were tested by two methods – direct planting in infected soil and infestation in transplanting by root-dip technique and planting in the same soil. The level of resistance to Verticillium dahliae Kleb in the studied materials is higher in planting in infected soil without additional infestation. Firmly low index of infestation (below 5 %) is found in line 820/03 from kapia type and in line 398/03 from ser. var. Grossum. Variety Yasen F 1 is more slightly susceptible to the pathogen in planting in infected soil without additional infestation. Lower index of infestation was determined in candidate-variety Milkana F 1 in infestation by root-dip technique and planting in infected soil. The breeding line 398/03 is with high level of resistance in the two methods of infestation and could be used as a source of resistance in the future breeding programs.
Climate change is considered a major threat to world agriculture and food security. To improve the agricultural productivity and sustainability, the development of high-yielding stress-tolerant, and climate-resilient crops is essential. Of the abiotic stresses, flooding stress is a very serious hazard because it markedly reduces plant growth and grain yield. Proteomic analyses indicate that the effects of flooding stress are not limited to oxygen deprivation but include many other factors. Although many flooding response mechanisms have been reported, flooding tolerance mechanisms have not been fully clarified for soybean. There were limitations in soybean materials, such as mutants and varieties, while they were abundant in rice and Arabidopsis. In this review, plant proteomic technologies are introduced and flooding tolerance mechanisms of soybeans are summarized to assist in the improvement of flooding tolerance in soybeans. This work will expedite transgenic or marker-assisted genetic enhancement studies in crops for developing high-yielding stress-tolerant lines or varieties under abiotic stress.
Sixteen different genotypes of parsley, including two cultivars, six populations, and eight inbred lines, were investigated regarding their sensory characteristics in relation to the volatile patterns and resistance to Septoria petroselini . The sensory quality was determined by a combination of profile analysis and preference test, whereas the volatile patterns were analyzed by headspace-SPME-GC of leaf homogenates with subsequent nontargeted data processing to prevent a possible overlooking of volatile compounds. The more resistant genotypes are characterized by several negative sensory characteristics such as bitter, grassy, herbaceous, pungent, chemical, and harsh. In contrast, the contents of some volatile compounds correlate highly and significantly either with resistance (e.g., hexanal and α-copaene) or with susceptibility (e.g., p-menthenol). Some of these compounds with very strong correlation to resistance are still unidentified and are presumed to act as resistance markers.
The study on population dynamics of main pests and enemies in the Cry1Ac plus CpTI cotton field was carried out in 2002 and 2003. The results showed that the transgenic Cry1Ac plus CpTI cotton had no effects on the number of Cotton Bollworm (CBW) eggs in the field, but it could control the larva of CBW very effectively. Comparing with the general cotton, the number of CBW larva in the periods of second, third and forth generation decreased by 81.4%, 87.1% and 87.0%, respectively, and decreased by 11.1%, 33.3% and 57.1% compared with transgenic Bt cotton, respectively, and decreased by 20.0%, 66.7% and 40.0% compared with general chemical control cotton, respectively. Comparing with the general cotton, general chemical control cotton and transgenic Bt cotton field, the numbers of seedling style aphids increased by 21.6%, 153.9% and decreased by (4.0%); summer style aphids decreased by (23.3%), increased by 61.7% and decreased by 5.5%; the number of red spider mite increased by 158.3% and 287.5%, and decreased by 34.0%; Lygus lucorum increased by 20.8% and 52.6%, and decreased by 39.6%; thrips, increased by 23.1% and 60.0%, and decreased by 5.9%; sweetpotato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) decreased by (13.0%), and increased by 33.3%, and decreased by 16.7%; Erigonidium graminicola increased by 9.5%, 53.5% and (4.5%); Prpylaea japonica increased by 8.9% and 345.5%, and decreased by 7.5%; Orins minutus decreased by (9.1%) and increased by 100% and 11.1%; Lysiphlebia japonica decreased by 28.6% and increased by 36.4% and 7.1%; Microplitis sp. decreased by 83.3% and was the same as general chemical control cotton and transgenic Bt cotton field.
Torula thermophila produced typical chlamydospores either as intercalary chains within prostrate hyphae or as terminal swellings on short, lateral, hyphal branches. Mature chlamydo-spores were spherical, dark brown, smooth-surfaced structured structures with thick, single-layed cell walls (= secondary wall layer) usually differentiated into an outer electron-dense zone and an inner electron-transparent zone. Disarticulation and sport release occurred after the disintegration of the original hyphal wall. The thallospores of T. thermophila arise in a manner different from the blastospores produced by other species of Torula and are structurally more closely related to the spores produced by Humicola insolens. However until further work has been completed on spore development in the Torula-Humicola complex of fungi the name T. thermophila is retained.
Chestnut blight disease caused by Cryphonectria parasitica, is one of the most important diseases affecting chestnut trees (Castanea sativa) in Guilan province. Seven sites from Shaft (Visrud, Taleghan and Babarekab), Lahijan (Shahbalutmahaleh and Gharibabad), Rezvanshahr (Doran) and Rasht were selected for investigating occurrence and frequency of vegetative compatibility groups. VCG were assessed according to the mycelial-barrage response on PDA. Among 272 evaluated isolates, four Iranian VCGs namely IR-1 to IR-4 were detected. Diversity of vc groups at individual localities was varied between one and two groups. IR-1 was the dominant VCG occurred at five populations, comprised 63.2% of all isolates and IR-4, with the lowest frequency (3%), occurred only in a single locality. IR-1 was the dominant group in Taleghan and Babarekab with 50/7% and 31/3% respectively. IR-3 was included 88% and 12% of all isolates in Shahbalutmahaleh and Doran respectively. The Shanon diversity index varied from zero to 0.58, with a mean of 0.20 for all regions.
A new compound, kaempferol 3-O-(2″-O-galloylrutinoside) (1), was isolated from the white flower of Nymphaea candida, together with nine known flavonol glycosides, kaempferol (2), kaempferol 3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (3), kaempferol 3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranoside (4), kaempferol 3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosylglucopyranoside (5), kaempferol 7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside 3-(O-α-l-rhamnopyranosylglucopyranoside) (6), quercetin (7), quercetin 3-O-β-d-xylopyranoside (8), myricetin (9), myricetin 3′-O-β-d-xylopyranoside (10). The structure of 1 was established on the basis of the analysis of its 1D and 2D NMR spectral data. Compounds 1–7 and 9 exhibited moderate to significant antioxidant activities, which were evaluated by measurement of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in vitro. Compounds 1, 3, 4, 6 and 9 exhibited promising neuroprotective effects on ischemic injury model of cultured rat cortical neurons treated with sodium dithionite in glucose-free medium. Furthermore, compounds 1, 5, and 9 had distinct cytotoxicity to adrenal gland pheochromocytoma, PC12 cells, being treated by the same way.
A method for the micropropagation of pepino (Solanum muricatum Aiton) from nodal segments was developed. Detailed surface disinfection methods of leaves and nodes were tested. Via establishment of initial culture using nodal segments, effect of Murashige and Skoog Basal Medium (MS) with N 6 -benzylaminopurine (BAP) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 mg/l) or MS with α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (2, 4, 6 and 8 mg/l) on some morphologic and vital parameters were noted. To obtain the best shoot multiplication medium from shoot tips of in vitro growth plants; MS with BAP (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mg/l) and control medium without any plant growth regulators were tested. In both of the two stages, proliferation rate (%), number of shoots (shoot number/explant), length of shoots (cm), callusing rate (%) and callus size (cm) were determined. In addition, at initial culture, rooting rate (%), number of roots (root number/explant) and length of roots (cm) were also evaluated. Fully expanded shoots were transferred rooting medium MS with or without indole-butyric acid (IBA) (0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg/l) and rooting rate (%), classification of root quality, callusing rate (%), callus size (cm), and length of shoots (cm) were determined. Initiation time of rooting according to treatments were also observed in every day and fully in vitro rooted plants transferred two different acclimatization media under two different climatic conditions step by step and for each step survival rate (%) were evaluated.
Conclusions 1) A search for the encystment promoter amongst the organisms comprising a bacterial complex “M” which fosters cyst formation in vitro of E. histolytica has been made. 2) From study of one line of amoebae “A” it appeared that organism c was essential, but that no one organism (including c) could by itself promote cyst production. Some balance or combination of products or conditions appears to be the requirement. There is a suggestion that one organism (f) may in some way be antagonistic to cyst formation. 3) Another line of amoebae “L” gave similar results to “A” but certain additional combinations of 5 organisms gave cysts. This may indicate a strain difference but, because of the small numbers of cysts found in all tests, we feel that the observation requires verification.
Clinical islet transplantation (CIT) is a potential therapy for type 1 diabetes. Allorejection mediated by the host CD4 T cells is a major hurdle for successful CIT, despite potent systemic immunosuppression (SI). To address these issues, we engineered PLGA microparticles (PLGA-MPs) that allow the localized delivery of TGF-β1 for regulatory T cells (TRegs) induction at the transplant site. TGF-β1 is an immunoregulatory agent that promotes the TRegs differentiation from naive CD4 cells by inducing FoxP3 expression while suppressing inflammatory Th1 and Th2 responses. To date, we have (i) fabricated TGF-β1 loaded PLGA particles by double emulsion (PVA(aq)- CH2Cl2- PVA(aq)) with characterization in size (45±26 μm), TGF-β1 encapsulation efficiency (49.1±0.1%), and release kinetics (durable biphasic release for 14 days); (ii) proved effective TRegs conversion in OVA-OTII antigen-specific murine model (Fig.1); and (iii) shown efficacy for in vivo Treg conversion by MPs in rodent islet allografts, where accepted grafts showed improved insulin production and elevated TRegs. Future studies exploring the competency of PLGA-MPs to provide durable allograft protection in rodent models is on-going. Based on these promising preliminary results, TGF-β1 PLGA-MPs could provide a translational therapeutic strategy to minimize islet graft rejection and the dependency on SI. Disclosure Y. Li: None. A. Frei: Employee; Self; Medline Industries, Inc.. S.D. Barash: None. C.L. Stabler: None.
The last 25 years have witnessed an exponential increase of interest in the lipoprotein Lp(a). The structure of the gene encoding for its unique apo protein, Apo(a) has been determined resulting in possible structure/function relationships which may explain the close association between elevated levels of Lp(a) and atheromatous vascular disease. These findings may have profound therapeutic implications for the future treatment of the hyperlipidaemias and hypercholesterolaemia in particular.
Newly collected specimens of the large bivalve Vesicomya inflata Kanie & Nishida from the lower Cenomanian Tenkaritoge Formation reveal that it is not I vesicomyid but is instead all unusual lucinid. The new monotypic genus Ezolucina is herein proposed for this species, which is characterized by venerid or vesicomyid shell shape. large size, a smooth surface, a deeply impressed lunule. one cardinal and one anterior lateral tooth in the right valve. and two cardinal teeth in the left valve. Stable carbon isotope analyses and petrographic observations show that the carbonate concretions yielding this species do not represent ancient hydrocarbon-seep deposits as was suggested previously. Rather. Ezolucina inflata and the associated solemyid, lucinid, thyasirid, and manzanellid bivalves lived in organic- and sulfide-rich sediment.
The aim of the present work was monitoring chicken thighs microbiological quality after treatment by ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), coriander ( Coriandri aetheroleum ) and spearmint ( Menthae spicata aetheroleum ) essential oil, stored under vacuum packaging, at 4±0.5°C for a period of 16 days. The following treatments of chicken thighs were used: Air-packaging control samples, control vacuum-packaging samples, vacuum-packaging with EDTA solution 1.50% w/w, control samples, vacuum-packaging with Menthae crispae aetheroleum essential oil at concentrations 0.2% v/w and vacuum-packaging with Coriandri aetheroleum essential oil at concentration 0.2% v/w. The quality assessment of all samples was established by microbiological analysis. The microbiological parameters as the total viable count, Enterobacteraceae genera counts, lactic acid bacteria and Pseudomonas spp. were detected. The results of this present study suggest the possibility of application the essential oil of Coriandri aetheroleum and Menthae spicata aetheroleum as natural food preservatives and potential sources of antimicrobial ingredients for food industry.
Griffithsin is an algae-derived lectin with strong anti-viral activity against HIV and a positive safety profile. Multiple clinical studies are investigating griffithsin's utility as topical HIV microbicide. HIV microbicides are an extremely cost-sensitive market and plant-based griffithsin protein expression has the potential to meet those demands. The griffithsin product used in the clinic has been expressed and purified in N. benthamiana, using a TMV-based viral vector system, Geneware®. Outdoor pharming of biopharmaceuticals would further alleviate startup costs for biotechnology firms and may allow broader product accessibility. Therefore, this study assessed expression in a hybrid tobacco line, N. excelsiana, that is susceptible to TMV-based viral vectors and can be grown outdoors. In addition to using this hybrid line we expand on methods for in planta storage of griffithsin in leafy plants by ensiling kilogram quantities of griffithsin. The ensiling process allows year-round biomanufacturing, minimal environmental-controlled storage, and reduces the industry need for multiple growth areas to maintain multi-product manufacturing of plant-based pharmaceuticals. This study shows that griffithsin can be expressed in N. excelsiana and is stable, recoverable, and active from ensiled tissue. These studies can pave the way for future plant-based pharmaceuticals to be expressed and stored in this manner.
Angiogenesis is a complex process involving dynamic interaction of various cell to cell interactions. Endothelial cell interactions regulated by growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, or hemodynamic stress are critical for balancing vascular quiescence and activation. Yes-associated protein (YAP), an effector of Hippo signaling, is known to play significant roles in maintaining cellular homeostasis. However, its role in endothelial cells for angiogenic regulation remains relatively unexplored. We demonstrated the critical role of YAP in vascular endothelial cells and elucidated the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in angiogenic regulation of YAP. YAP was expressed in active angiogenic regions where endothelial cell junctions were relatively loosened. Consistently, YAP subcellular localization and activity were regulated by VE-cadherin-mediated PI3K/Akt pathway. YAP thereby regulated endothelial sprouting via angiopoietin-2 expression. These results provide an insight into a model of coordinating endothelial junctional stability and angiogenic activation through YAP. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(8): 429-430]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease is a neurological disorder linked to environmental exposure to a non-protein amino acid, β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA). The only organisms reported to be BMAA-producing, are cyanobacteria – prokaryotic organisms. In this study, we demonstrate that diatoms – eukaryotic organisms – also produce BMAA. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry revealed the occurrence of BMAA in six investigated axenic diatom cultures. BMAA was also detected in planktonic field samples collected on the Swedish west coast that display an overrepresentation of diatoms relative to cyanobacteria. Given the ubiquity of diatoms in aquatic environments and their central role as primary producers and the main food items of zooplankton, the use of filter and suspension feeders as livestock fodder dramatically increases the risk of human exposure to BMAA-contaminated food.
SummaryDate fruits of the cv Shahani were harvested bi-weekly from 28th June to 28th October 1975 and their physical and chemical constituents measured. Fruit colour changed from dark green to brown with maturity, as evidenced visually and also by a sharp decrease in chlorophyll content. Fruit length, diameter and fresh and dry weights of pulp and seed increased with maturity in a sigmoid pattern. Similarly, there were increases in pH, titratable acidity, soluble solids and sugar contents of fruits during the softening period, but astringency, respiration rate and the amount of pectic substances decreased markedly with fruit maturity.
Functional Analysis of the TRIB1 Locus in Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) By Adrianna Douvris The TRIB1 locus (8q24.13) is a novel locus associated with plasma TGs and CAD risk. Trib1 is a regulator of MAPK activity, and has been shown to regulate hepatic lipogenesis and VLDL production in mice. However, the functional relationship between common SNPs at the TRIB1 locus and plasma lipid traits is unknown; TRIB1 has not been identified as an eQTL. This cluster of SNPs falls within an intergenic region 25kb to 50kb downstream of the TRIB1 coding region. By phylogenetic footprinting analysis and DNA genotyping, we identified an evolutionarily conserved region (CNS1) within the risk locus that harbours two common SNPs in tight LD with GWAS risk SNPs and significantly associated with CAD. We investigated the regulatory function of CNS1 by luciferase reporter assays in HepG2 cells and demonstrate that this region has promoter activity. In addition, the rs2001844 risk allele significantly reduces luciferase activity, suggesting that altered expression of the EST-based gene may be associated with plasma TGs. We identified an EST within the risk locus directly downstream of CNS1. We performed 5’/3’ RACE using HepG2 RNA, identified multiple variants of this EST-based gene, and confirmed its transcription start site within CNS1. We hypothesize that this EST is a long noncoding RNA due to low abundance, poor conservation, and absence of significant ORF. Over-expression of a short variant implicates its function in the regulation of target gene transcription, although the mechanism of action remains unknown. We conclude that the risk locus at 8q24.13 harbours a novel EST-based gene that may explain the relationship between GWAS SNPs at this locus and plasma lipid traits.
Ovarian teratomas can be associated with various complications and demonstrate a wide spectrum of clinical and imaging features. The complications include torsion (16% of ovarian teratomas), rupture (1%-4%), malignant transformation (1%-2%), infection (1%), and autoimmune hemolytic anemia (<1%). These complications require different therapeutic strategies; therefore, timely and accurate diagno- sis of these complications is important for optimal patient treatment. In cases of complicated ovarian teratomas, the clinical manifestations provide only limited information and often overlap with those of other diseases. Furthermore, ovarian teratomas may have unusual clinical and imaging manifestations, thereby leading to misdiagnosis. These unusual manifestations include immature teratomas, monodermal teratomas (struma ovarii), combination tumors and collision tumors containing teratomas, and mature cystic teratomas without demon- strable fat or with pure fatty components. To provide adequate treat- ment and prevent misdiagnosis, it is necessary to be familiar with the imaging findings of both the complications and the unusual manifesta- tions of ovarian teratomas. ©
Previous studies in nonhuman primates revealed a striking positive correlation between liver cholesteryl ester (CE) secretion rate and the development of coronary artery atherosclerosis. CE incorporated into hepatic VLDL is necessarily synthesized by ACAT2, the cholesterol-esterifying enzyme in hepatocytes. We tested the hypothesis that the level of ACAT2 expression, in concert with cellular cholesterol availability, affects the CE content of apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins. In a model system of lipoprotein secretion using COS cells cotransfected with microsomal triglyceride transfer protein and truncated forms of apoB, ACAT2 expression resulted in a 3-fold increase in microsomal ACAT activity and a 4-fold increase in the radiolabeled CE content of apoB-lipoproteins. After cholesterol-cyclodextrin (Chol-CD) treatment, CE secretion was increased by 27-fold in ACAT2-transfected cells but by only 7-fold in control cells. Chol-CD treatment also caused the percentage of CE in the apoB-lipoproteins to increase from 3% to 33% in control cells and from 16% to 54% in ACAT2-transfected cells. In addition, ACAT2-transfected cells secreted 3-fold more apoB than control cells. These results indicate that under all conditions of cellular cholesterol availability tested, the relative level of ACAT2 expression affects the CE content and, hence, the potential atherogenicity, of nascent apoB-containing lipoproteins.
Objective To explore the correlation between the family of p16 gene inactiviation in generation, development and prognosis of leukemia, and then to clarify, the pathogenesis of leukemia, to inspect process of leukemia, to provide basis for gene therapy. Methods Methylation sensitive enzyme and polymerase chain reaction(PCR) technology were used to investigate p16, p15, p18, p19 gene methylation in leukemia. The subjects of the thesis were focused on the following aspects: (1)studies on homozygous deletion of the family of p16 exon 1 and/or exon 2 in leukemia with different type and different period; (2)methylation of the family of p16 gene was investigated in cases of leukemia by REP PCR. To explore methylation frequency on leukemia, and analyse the correlation between methylation of the family of p16 gene and generation of leukemia. Results Methylation rates of p16 and p15 gene exon 1 were 35 29% and 48 65% in acute leukemia(AL), respectively. It were found 60% and 69 23% in acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL), 25% and 37 5% in acute non lymphocytic leukemia(ANLL), 61 54% and 70 59% in relapsed AL, 29 09% and 42 10% in primary AL, respectively. There was no methylation in complete remission acute leukemia(CR AL) and the controls, in chromic period and blast crisis of chronic myelocyte leukemia(CML). There was no methylation of p18 and p19 gene in AL, chronic period and blast crisis of CML, CR AL, and the controls. Conclusion (1)In the family of p16 gene, methylation rates of p16 and p15 gene in ALL were higher than in ANLL. It were highest in replase cases, expecially. There was no methlation of p18 and p19 gene found in AL. (2)The methylation rate of p15 gene is higher than that in p16 gene. Methylation p16 and p15 gene in ANLL was higher than that in CR AL or the controls. (3)p16 and p15 gene inactiviation might be one of parameters for forecasting progression, relapse and prognosis in AL. (4)There is no relation in chronic period and blast crisis of CML with inactiviation of p16 and p15 gene.
During the transition into extrauterine life, the newborn goes through a fasting period (presuckling) that starts from the cessation of the transplacental supply of nutrients to the beginning of lactation. During this presuckling period, the newborn depends on its own reserves in a unique period of stress and vulnerability. The energy expenditure needed by the neurons is so high that under these circumstances the gluconeogenesis is not capable of reestablishing the blood glucose levels. Consequently, during the presuckling period there must be a different energy source and lipogenic substrates that help to maintain the synthesis of neurotransmitters.
The invention belongs to the technical field of poultry feed, and discloses quail feed and a preparation method thereof. The quail feed comprises the following components in parts by weight: 35-45 parts of maize, 10-15 parts of wheat, 10-15 parts of polished rice flour, 5-10 parts of pastry slag powder, 15-25 parts of soybean meal, 0-5 parts of cottonseed meal, 0-5 parts of wheat protein powder, 2-3 parts of chicken meal, 0-3 parts of silkworm chrysalis meal, 0.5-1.5 parts of meat and bone meal, 5-7 parts of stone powder and 3-4 parts of premix. According to the quail feed provided by the invention, the wheat, polished rice flour and pastry slag powder are used for replacing part of the maize, and the cottonseed meal, wheat protein powder, chicken meal and silkworm chrysalis meal are used for replacing part of the soybean meal and all imported fishmeal; the quail feeding cost is greatly reduced, the maize, soybean meal, imported fishmeal and other resources are saved, and the quail feeding effect is better than that of the traditional maize-soybean meal-imported fishmeal daily ration. The production performance of quail can be significantly improved, and the quail feed has the advantages of wide raw material sources, low production cost, high feeding benefits and the like.
Abstract The Arcto-Tertiary Geoflora concept of Ralph Chaney, that the Mixed Mesophytic Forest of eastern Asia and eastern North America are relicts of a Northern Hemisphere high-latitude circumglobal deciduous forest of the Late Cretaceous–Early Tertiary that migrated south to the temperate zone as an intact unit, was shown by Wolfe and others to be invalid. To explain the origin and development of these disjunct forests, Wolfe and Tiffney developed the boreotropical hypothesis. Accordingly, a paratropical (near-tropical) rainforest flora containing a mixture of tropical, paratropical, and temperate genera developed at several places in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in the Eocene and spread around the globe via the Bering and North Atlantic land bridges and shores of the Tethys Seaway. Further, the Mixed Mesophytic Forest of eastern Asia and eastern North America developed independently after disruption of the boreotropical flora by subsequent changes in climate and geography, thus accounting for differences in the flora and physiognomy of the present-day Mixed Mesophytic Forest in the two areas. The fruit and seed flora of the Middle Eocene Clarno Nut Beds of Oregon are representative of the boreotropical forest. In response to climatic cooling during the Eocene–Oligocene transition, this broad-leaved evergreen rainforest was replaced by a temperate broad-leaved deciduous (Mixed Mesophytic) forest, which remained present in the Pacific Northwest through most of the Miocene. The Early Oligocene Bridge Creek flora of Oregon, the Middle Miocene Succor Creek flora of eastern Oregon and adjacent Idaho, and the Middle Miocene Clarkia and Musselshell Creek floras of northern Idaho are good examples of the Mixed Mesophytic Forest. These Oligocene–Miocene fossil floras include important genera in the present-day Mixed Mesophytic Forest of eastern Asia and eastern North America, as well as those that today occur only in eastern Asia or only in eastern North America. Using Graham as the primary source of, and guide to, information on microfossil and megafossil plant paleoassemblages and paleoclimates in eastern North America, we chart the Late Cretaceous–Tertiary sequence of vegetation and climate for Kentucky. Further, we briefly review the palynofloral provinces in which Kentucky was situated during the Middle and Early Cretaceous. In contrast to the Mixed Mesophytic Forest flora (a component of the boreotropical forest) of the Middle Eocene Clarno Nut Beds, the Middle Eocene Claiborne flora of Tennessee and Kentucky represents a semideciduous tropical dry forest dominated by Leguminosae taxa that have strong phylogenetic and biogeographical relationships with the Old World and tropical South America. Apparently, this dry forest developed from a Paleocene–Early Eocene tropical rainforest following a decrease in amount and an increase in seasonality of rainfall. The Mixed Mesophytic Forest developed from this seasonally dry forest following the Eocene as a result of an increase in the amount of rainfall and a decrease in its seasonality. The hypothesis that closely related disjunct taxa between eastern Asia and eastern and western North America represent relicts of a circumglobal Mixed Mesophytic Forest in the Miocene is supported by fossil and molecular phylogenetic data.
5-Fluorouracil, 5-fluorouridine (FUrd), 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine (FdUrd), 5-fluorocytidine (FCyd), 5-fluoro-2'-deoxycytidine (FdCyd), 5-trifluoro-2'-deoxythymidine (F3dThd), and the 5'-monophosphates and 3',5'-cyclic monophosphates thereof were found to inhibit thymidine kinase-deficient (TK-) mutant strains of herpes simplex virus (HSV) at a much lower concentration than the wild-type (TK+) HSV strains. Other 5-substituted 2'-deoxyuridines that have previously been recognized as potent thymidylate synthase inhibitors behaved in a similar fashion. The activity of FdUrd, FdCyd, F3dThd, and their 3',5'-cyclic monophosphates against TK-HSV was readily reversed by 2'-deoxythymidine (dThd) but not by 2'-deoxyuridine (dUrd). These compounds also inhibited the incorporation of [6-3H]dUrd into DNA at a concentration which was up to 5 orders of magnitude lower than the concentration at which the incorporation of [methyl-3H] dThd was inhibited. Thus, while not being a target for the well established anti-HSV compounds in TK+HSV-infected cells, thymidylate synthase appears to be an important target in TK-HSV-infected cells. In addition to dTMP synthase, TK-HSV-infected cells appear to reveal other therapeutically exploitable targets such as OMP decarboxylase (towards pyrazofurin), CTP synthase (towards carbodine and its cyclopentenyl analogue), dihydrofolate reductase (towards methotrexate), and S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (towards neplanocins).
Our previously (Nucl. Acids Res. 10, 229 (1982] described program is largely extended. Maintaining the program architecture we are now able to present the same program with a highly increased comfort. The number of nucleotides per line is variable and the option for calculating restriction enzyme fragments is included. A four digit code guides through the program. The program is selfdefining and may be used without any prior computer experience. Copies are available on request.
In order to calculate the growth of the red clam Megapitaria aurantiaca, we analyzed the traslucent growth marks or annuli in 198 specimens. We measured the distance at each mark starting from the umbo, along the axis of the diameter. With these data, we estimated the growth rate and average length between marks. Assuming the marks are formed annualy, the distance between marks represents the anual growth rate, the parameters of the von Bertalanffy growth equation were calculated as; k = 0.299 (year) and Loo = 119.7 (mm) In order to validate the results, the growth rate was calculated from tagged and recaptured organisms. The same parameters were calculated as k = 0.266 y Loo = 102.9. The analysis of covariance was used for comparing the regression coefficients in both cases. We concluded there were not significant differences.
In this study, we investigated the distribution and run timing of naturally spawning pink salmon of northeastern Hokkaido, Japan in the Tokoro River system where a weir is installed, and in the Bairagi River which has no weir. In the Tokoro River, naturally spawning pink salmon were observed in 8 of 24 tributaries surveyed during 2005-2008. In visual surveys conducted in 2010, the number of pink salmon increased in early September, reached a maximum in mid-late September and subsequently decreased in early October. This pattern closely agreed with the fluctuation of the number of pink salmon captured by the weir for hatchery broodstock. In the Bairagi River, pink salmon were not observed until late September, and occurred in early October for the first time. Our study indicates that natural spawning of pink salmon may occur every year even though a weir is installed for hatchery broodstock collection, and the numbers, distribution, and timing may differ among sites and years.
Thewell-coordinated efforts byvanEmbdenetal.(5), in ninelaboratories located insixdifferent countries onthree continents, toward astandardization ofthemethodology for DNA fingerprinting ofMycobacterium tuberculosis areindeedmeritorious. Bygeneration ofstrain-specific patterns, thestandardized methodistargeted towarddetection of variable numbers andgenomic positions ofIS6110. The methodshould support thecomparison ofdataobtained fromdifferent laboratories. Moreover, useofthemethod mayprovide straightforward information onthedynamics of international tuberculosis transmission, relative infectivity, virulence, anddrugresistance ofM.tuberculosis isolates. Furthermore, thetechnique, following appropriate modifications, wouldbeveryvaluable inthecharacterization of innumerable Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine strains (3) inglobal use. Administration ofBCG vaccines during early infancy is associated withregional lymphadenitis andabscess formation inapproximately 1%ofvaccinated children (2, 4). BCG vaccines mayinduce lupus vulgaris: atleast 62reports of BCG vaccine-associated lupusvulgaris havebeendocumented. Twosuchchildren whoreceived BCGvaccination at6yearsofagerequired treatment withrifampin, ethambutol, andisoniazid (6). Theseverity and/or theoccurrence oflymphadenitis andsuppuration caused bydifferent vaccinestrains will vary. Thesestrains havebeendifferentiated through their MPB70andmycoside B content. MPB70isa unique BCG-specific antigen thatelicits adelayed-type hypersensitivity inguinea pigssensitized withviable BCG cells, while mycoside Bisrelated tocolonial morphology (3). Characterization oftheMPB70andmycoside B contents of thethree parent strains, Glaxo1077, Tokyo172, andPasteur 1173Pz, hasbeenoflittle assistance indefining heterogeneity invaccine strains. WhilemostoftheBCG strains havea single copyofIS986atthesamechromosomal site, the Brazilian, Japanese, and(former) USSR strains havean additional copyatadifferent location (1). Thestandardized methodology (5)applied toBCGvaccine strains wouldassist inanin-depth characterization ofthe chromosomal DNAs ofSwedish, Beijing, Prague, Dutch, Indonesian, andDakarstrains. Theclones, ifany,responsibleforregional lymphadenitis orlupus vulgaris could possiblyberecognized andeventually eliminated fromprospectiveBCG vaccine batches. Anyenhanced reactivity ofa vaccine lotcouldalsobeinvestigated byagenetic amplification ofM.bovis DNA fragments inbiopsy oraspiration fluid fromenlarged lymphnodes.
Previous studies have established that the cell of origin of oncogenic transformation is a determinant of therapeutic sensitivity. However, the mechanisms governing cell-of-origin-driven differences in therapeutic response have not been delineated. Leukemias initiating in hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are less sensitive to cytotoxic chemotherapy and express high levels of the transcription factor Evi1 compared to leukemias derived from myeloid progenitors. Here, we compared drug sensitivity and expression profiles of murine and human leukemias initiated in either HSCs or myeloid progenitors to reveal a novel function for Evi1 in modulating p53 protein stability and activity. HSC-derived leukemias exhibit decreased apoptotic priming, attenuated p53 transcriptional output, and resistance to lysine-specific demethylase 1 inhibitors in addition to classical genotoxic stresses. p53 loss-of-function in Evi1low progenitor-derived leukemias induces resistance to LSD1 inhibition. By contrast, Evi1high leukemias are sensitized to LSD1 inhibition by the BH3 mimetic venetoclax, resulting in enhanced apoptosis and greater reductions in disease burden. Our findings demonstrate a cell-of-origin determined novel role for EVI1 in p53 wild-type cancers in reducing p53 function and provide a strategy to circumvent drug resistance in high-risk, chemoresistant EVI1high AML.
As the only obligatorily predatory primates, tarsiers are notoriously difficult to keep successfully in captivity. Here we report empirical and experimental results from a 5-year study of behavior and life history in captive Tarsius bancanus. Four reproducing adult tarsiers used space nonrandomly, preferring small-diameter vertical or near-vertical locomotor substrates at midlevel enclosure heights (1.2–2.1 m) for sleeping, scanning, and prey capture. The tarsiers were completely nocturnal, and spent 78% of the scotophase scanning, 13% sleeping, and 9% in prey capture and other activities. Only live crickets were eaten; prey capture rates were highest in the first hour after waking, but overall activity rates were highest later in the scotophase. Adult males and nonpregnant or lactating females ingested approximately 44.7–49.7 kJ/day. Growing and lactating individuals ingested approximately 84.4–94.1 KJ/day. An energetically conservative, sit-and-wait predatory strategy was employed, in which 88% of capture attempts were successful. Most successful prey captures involved reaching for, or leaping from, 90° or 60° supports in a horizontal or downward direction onto prey less than 0.6 m away. Virtually all prey captures were in arboreal locations, despite much higher densities of crickets on enclosure floors. Prey capture rates during the first hour of the nocturnal activity period were positively correlated with arboreal cricket densities. At constant arboreal cricket densities, capture rates were negatively correlated with ambient light intensity, with optimum levels for prey capture ranging from 0.1 to 2.0 Lux. In terms of social behavior, these T. bancanus were nongregarious. Females enforced interindividual spacing by chasing and displacing males. Chase/displacement rates increased significantly during late pregnancy and lactation, apparently in an attempt to keep males from harassing infants. There was no direct male parental care. Infants were precocial at birth, and grew at a rate of 0.35–0.5 g/day, until nutritional weaning at approximately 60 days of age. The implications of specialized predatory morphology and behavior for management are discussed. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The monitoring was based on 6 localities selected from within different regions of the Czech Re - public. The vegetation was monitored during 2005 to 2008. Plant checklists have been made for each locality. Permanent plots of 9 m 2 in size have been marked and the phytosociological releves have been recorded. The standard Braun-Blanquet scale of abundance/dominance was used. Biological diversity was evaluated using the Shannon, Simpson, and Evennes indexes. While some localities were stable and no threat was found (Radobýl), other localities were (to an extent) disturbed (Grado, Vaclavka, and Děcin); seriously damaged (Zbraslav), or permanently lost (Jilovský potok). Collecting seeds for the Gene Bank ex-situ conservation can serve as a backup for in situ conservation. Protection of two localities is suggested.
In species with a high degree of fission‐fusion dynamics group members may differ in the use of the group home range to reduce food competition. Such differential use may result in distinct individual core areas. We studied core area quality and overlap among 21 female spider monkeys belonging to the same group over a period of 4 years. Core areas ranged between 62 and 161 ha with a mean overlap of 56% between any given two females. Only a small portion (mean = 3 ha) of each individual core area was used exclusively. No single part of the home range was used as core area by all females, and only an area of less than 1 ha was used as part of the core area by 20 of the 21 females. The time a female spent in the group (i.e., group tenure) was associated with characteristics of the core areas: the longer the group tenure, the better the quality of her core area. In addition, the longer the time two females spent together in the same group, the larger the overlap between their individual core areas. As this result was obtained while controlling for the time two females spent together in the same subgroup, females may reduce direct competition by using the same resource at different times. In sum, spider monkey females’ group tenure plays a central role in the quality and overlapping patterns of their individual core areas. Am. J. Primatol. 77:777–785, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A survey was made of the influence of the use of superphosphate and subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) on podzolic soils formed on granodiorite in the Crookwell district of New South Wales (average rainfall, 32.7 in. per annum). Forty-four paddocks were sampled; they varied from untreated native pasture to paddocks which had been for 26 years continuously under clover and which had received a total of 13 cwt of superphosphate per acre. In all instances there had been no cultivation during treatment, and the land use mas uniformly one of sheep raising, principally for wool but with some emphasis on fat lamb production on highly improved pastures. Criteria used in this study were the changes in yield and botanical composition of the pasture, changes or trends in the chemical composition of the 0-4 in. depth of soil, and the yield of oats produced by each of the soils in pot culture with varying superimposed applications of phosphorus, sulphur, and nitrogen. The native pasture species disappear under the competition by subterranean clover, which gives a fourfold increase in the yield of pasture. Within the limits of experimental error, the phosphorus and sulphur applied as superphosphate, even that applied many years previously, can be accounted for in the surface 4 in. of soil. Losses by removal in wool and carcases are small. The added phosphorus is present in approximately equal amounts as organic phosphorus and readily extractable inorganic phosphorus. The applied sulphur appears to become a part of the organic complex. Eighty-five pounds of nitrogen has been added in the surface 4 in. of soil by rhizobial activity for each hundredweight of superphosphate applied per acre. Initially the most acute deficiencies affecting plant growth on these soils are those of phosphorus and nitrogen, with a less pronounced deficiency of sulphur. After a period of several years of superphosphate and clover, each of these deficiencies is much reduced, the order of the intensity of deficiencies then being nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus. Soil pH falls with superphosphate application at the rate of about 0.06 units per hundredweight of fertilizer per acre, but may reach an equilibrium value at about 5.1. This could be due to the increase in exchange capacity of the soil as a result of the increase in organic matter. A field experiment on two sites also indicated the increase in fertility under subterranean clover pasture and demonstrated the capacity of the improved soils to produce a satisfactory field crop of oats.
Highly metastatic cells are known to overexpress certain Asn-linked oligosaccharides in the plasmatic membrane. Another phenotypic characteristic of malignant cells consists in the expression of high levels of intracellular glutathione (GSH). The aim of the present work was to demonstrate that the inhibition of N-glycosylation induces changes in intracellular GSH levels, and in turn participates in the inhibition of the metastatic potential of tumor cells by tunicamycin treatment. Firstly, we demonstrated that in comparison to the poorly metastatic cell line F21, the highly metastatic cells S4MH express a higher number of Asn-linked β1–6 branched oligosaccharides and sialic acid (SA) and/or chitobiose oligosaccharides in glycoproteins involved in the regulation of the adhesion efficiency of tumor cells on endothelial cells and extracellular matrix. Our results showed that the decrease in S4MH cell adhesion efficiency on endothelial cells and extracellular matrix after the inhibition of N-glycan processing by tunicamycin treatment was caused by: (1) inhibition of the expression of N-glycan structures recognized by endothelial endogenous lectins, including β1–6 branched oligosaccharides and SA and/or chitobiose oligosaccharides, and (2) redistribution of cell surface glycoproteins with β1–6 branched oligosaccharides and/or SA and/or chitobiose oligosaccharides in their structures, caused by the depletion of intracellular GSH levels. The latter condition prevents the organization of these glycoproteins in the plasmatic membrane of S4MH cells necessary for anchoring to the substratum.
To find the strains that can expel and control Pieris rapae,the endophytic fungi from the Euphorbiaceae family were screened.The strain B6 showed good expelling and insecticide activity.The adjustment mortality of its fermented broth was 60.86 % in 72 h and the adjustment mortality of n-butanol extract was 42.44 %.There were three blots in TLC.There were aromatic smell in the fermented broth and mycelium.3-methy-2-oxo-methyester,acetate acid 1-methylethylester and acetate acid were detected from the mycelium extract of acetate acid ester.There was insecticide activity in the part of n-butanol extract.The strain was identified by rDNA ITS sequences and morphology as Ceratobasidum stevensii.It was benefit to elucidate the eddophytic fungi and the host.The strain would be developed as new insecticide.
Abstract Known-age red drums Sciaenops ocellatus from a 1984 stocking in a freshwater heated reservoir were used to validate aging techniques and to directly estimate growth. Annuli on scale impressions and otolith sections were easily identified for age estimations; however, estimates from the two structures differed after age 0. Among the 18 4-year-old red drums assayed, scales indicated age 2 for 13 fish and age 1 or 3 for 5 fish. Otoliths that were available from eight of these fish all indicated age 3. Red drums grew to approximately 404, 597, and 682 mm total length by 12, 24, and 36 months, respectively, according to the fitted von Bertalanffy growth parameters of L ∞ = 749 mm, K = 0.82, and t 0 = 0.05 years.
A study about “intestine histology structure of Silver Sharkminnow (Osteochilus hasseltii C.V) in Singkarak Lake, West Sumatera” has been done at Animal Structure and Developmental Laboratory, Department of Biology, Mathematic and Science Faculty, Andalas University, Padang. This study used an observational method to microscopically examine the histology of intestinal asang fish (Osteochilus hasseltii C.V.) directly at four locations in Lake Singkarak, namely Sumani, Paninggahan, Sumpur, Ombilin using purposive sampling method.. Histolgical samples of intestine were isolated, fixated, dehydrated and embedded on paraffin, stained using Haematoxylin-Eosin and observation using microscope. The results showed some histological alteration of gastrc and intestine samples in each location. Those alteration varied from edema , vili erotion, hemorrhage, lysis and necrosis.
Ranging from rabbits in Australia to zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, tales of invasive alien species that wreak havoc in agricultural or natural ecosystems are textbook horror stories to most ecologists. T aday, opportunities for the global redistribution of species, hy design or default, arc expanding rapidly. The same crumbling of trade barriers and burgeoning of global markets that leads to concerns about the" McDonaldization" of world cultures is causing biologists to worry about homogenization of the world's biota. In recognition of the threat to unique native plant and animal assemblages, the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted at the 1992 United Nations environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro calls on participating nations "as far as possible and as appropriate" to "prevent the introduction of, control or eradicate those alien species which threaten ecosystems, habitats or species." So far, IS3 nations have ratified the biodiversity treaty. Spurred by these treaty obligations and growing international concern, groups like The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), which was created by the nongovernmental International Council of Scientific Unions, are developing new global strategies and resources to help nations better manage introduced species and prevent further damage by invaders to either wild or productive landscapes. Yet, when scientists, land manag-
Significance Through massive shotgun sequencing of circulating cell-free DNA from the blood of more than 1,000 independent samples, we identified hundreds of new bacteria and viruses which represent previously unidentified members of the human microbiome. Previous studies targeted specific niches such as feces, skin, or the oral cavity, whereas our approach of using blood effectively enables sampling of the entire body and reveals the colonization of niches which have been previously inaccessible. We were thus able to discover that the human body contains a vast and unexpected diversity of microbes, many of which have highly divergent relationships to the known tree of life. Blood circulates throughout the human body and contains molecules drawn from virtually every tissue, including the microbes and viruses which colonize the body. Through massive shotgun sequencing of circulating cell-free DNA from the blood, we identified hundreds of new bacteria and viruses which represent previously unidentified members of the human microbiome. Analyzing cumulative sequence data from 1,351 blood samples collected from 188 patients enabled us to assemble 7,190 contiguous regions (contigs) larger than 1 kbp, of which 3,761 are novel with little or no sequence homology in any existing databases. The vast majority of these novel contigs possess coding sequences, and we have validated their existence both by finding their presence in independent experiments and by performing direct PCR amplification. When their nearest neighbors are located in the tree of life, many of the organisms represent entirely novel taxa, showing that microbial diversity within the human body is substantially broader than previously appreciated.
A PCR was developed to detect Eperythrozoon wenyonii in cattle.The specific 314 bp fragment was amplified from 16S rRNA gene of E.wenyonii.The practical limit of detection showed that it had high sensitivity;an approximate DNA of 0.178 fg was detected by the PCR system and there were no cross among Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae,Babesia orientalis,B.bovis,B.bigemina,B.motasi,Anaplasma marginale,A.central,A.ovis,Trypanosoma evansi,Theileria hirci,T.annulata and E.wenyonii.The 333 blood samples collected from Hubei,Jiangsu and Heilongjiang Province were examined for the presence of E.wenyonii by PCR.The results showed that average infection rate of E.wenyonii were 10.3%,5.3% and 45.8%.This data revealed that bovine eperythrozoonosis was present in the three provinces,and present widely in Hubei Province.
A new simian T-lymphotropic virus, STLV-PH969, was recently isolated from a wild-born Hamadryas baboon. Previous analysis had revealed that it differs sufficiently from the other HTLV/STLVs to be considered a new type, provisionally designated primate T-lymphotropic virus-L. Here we analyse a 3850 bp cDNA fragment spanning the 3' part of the STLV-PH969 genome. The fragment encodes three major proteins: Env, Tax and Rex. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis indicate that in general STLV-PH969 tends to be more closely related to HTLV-II than to HTLV-I, although separate gene regions might have evolved under different constraints. Detailed comparison of the Env, Tax and Rex proteins among the HTLV-I, -II and STLV-PH969 prototypes reveals that the amino acid sequence of each protein shows a preferential conservation of functionally important domains. RNA-PCR on cytoplasmic messengers demonstrated splicing between a splice donor site immediately downstream of the env start codon, and two splice acceptor sites identified in the pXregion. The predominant spliced messenger encodes both Tax and Rex. The other messenger potentially encodes a new viral protein from the proximal part of the pXregion that is similar in amino acid composition to p12 ~ and pl0 X~ of HTLV-I and HTLV-II respectively. This genomic organization of the proximal pX region of STLV-PH969 is different from that found in HTLV-I and HTLV-II. Therefore, the distinct classification of this virus can be justified, not only in terms of sequence divergence but also in terms of its different genomic structure.
We compare levels of flowering and fruiting in 55 samples of Neotropical forest understory from 13 sites in 6 countries. Each sample consists of a census of fertile understory plants along a transect. Changes in species richness and density of fertile understory plants are correlated with rainfall and soil fertility. Areas with weak (or no) dry seasons and intermediate to rich soils average 64 fertile plant species and 174 individuals per sample, whereas areas with poor soil and a strong dry season average only 5 fertile species and 8 fertile individuals. Areas with either strong dry seasons and good soils or weak dry seasons and very poor soils have intermediate values. Taxonomic composition of the understory also changes predictably with rainfall and soil fertility. In increasingly stressed forests changes are found in understory structure, with sequential loss of terrestrial herbs, epiphytes, understory shrubs, and lianas. The understory of the poorest soil site consists almost entirely of young trees. The effects of seasonal differences at a given site are small compared with between-site differences. We suggest that the level of understory fertility may provide a simple indicator of overall ecosystem productivity. THE UNDERSTORY OF A TROPICAL RAIN FOREST iS composed of a different set of species than is the canopy. The understory, though often neglected, is an integral and important part of the plant community. For example, understory species constitute 25 percent of the species and 24 percent of the individuals sampled in 1000 m2 at a wet-forest site in western Ecuador (Gentry and Dodson 1987). In a coastal Ecuador moist forest, 2 1 percent of the species and 44 percent of the individuals in a similar sample are restricted to the understory. The importance of understory plants is evident from local species lists: 46 percent of the Rio Palenque species (Dodson and Gentry 1978), 43 percent of the Barro Colorado Island, Panama species (Croat 1978), and 47 percent of the Jauneche (Dodson et al. 1985) species are herbs, shrubs, and small trees. These figures are overestimates, since a number of the species included in such lists are weedy and found rarely, if at all, inside the closed forest, but the overall importance of the understory to rainforest plant diversity is clear. The understory supports a different fauna than does the canopy. Many species of insects, birds, and mammals are restricted to the understory, and understory plants are major food sources for this biota. For example, hermit hummingbirds, major pollinators for many plant taxa, are exclusively understory birds. Such frugivores as birds of the family Pipridae and bats of the genus Carollia are largely dependent on understory fruits (e.g., Snow 1965, Stiles 1981, Fleming 1985). Temperate zone studies have shown that response of the forest understory to environmental gradients can differ from that of the canopy (summary in Whittaker 1977). For the tropics, we now have data that show predictable patterns of change in plant community composition across such environmental gradients as annual precipitation (Gentry 1982a, 1987, in press). Surprisingly little attention has been focused on the easily accessible understory, and few data are available for comparing the structure or floristic composition of the rainforest understory in differ-
A series of field plot experiments showed that AC 84777 (1,2 dimethyl-3, 5-diphenylpyrazolium methyl sulfate) as a postemergence herbicide provided selective control of wild oats (Avena fatua L.) in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) equal to or better than barban over a growth period of the weed extending from the 3-leaf to the 5-leaf stage. Barban (4-chloro-2-butynyl m-chlorocarbanilate) must be applied at the 2-leaf stage of the wild oats to achieve effective control of the weed. AC 84777 increased in efficacy as the wild oats advanced from the 3- to the 5-leaf stage. Spot applications of AC 84777-C14 showed that the C14 label entered the leaf of wild oats or barley and moved quickly in an acropetal direction. It had concentrated in the leaf area above the point of application in a space of 30 min. Spot applications of AC 84777 made at the mid-point of the first through to the fourth leaf of wild oats resulted in necrosis of the leaf area above the point of application. Application at or below the meristemati...
The Xenopus laevis gene tumorhead (TH) is a regulator of cell proliferation of the ectodermal germ layer during embryonic development. TH overexpression results in increased cell proliferation within the developing ectoderm, causing an expansion of the neural plate. Conversely, loss of TH function results in inhibition of proliferation of ectodermal cells. Embryos with altered levels of TH protein are unable to express neural differentiation markers, indicating that the effect of TH in proliferation is linked with differentiation in the nervous system. To date, the molecular mechanism by which TH affects cell proliferation during embryogenesis is unknown. We have utilized the yeast two-hybrid system to identify protein partners of TH that could lead us to define the mechanism or pathway through which TH functions. Using this assay we have identified a new variant of TH designated TH-B, as a potential protein partner of the original TH, now referred to as TH-A. The sequence for TH-B was found to be 85% identical at the amino acid level to the TH-A sequence. Further characterization of the TH-B variant using RT-PCR indicates that it is expressed ubiquitously throughout development from early cleavage stages until at least the tadpole stage. TH-B association with TH-A was confirmed in co-immnoprecipitation studies in Xenopus, indicating that the two variants may function as an oligomer in vivo. These studies reveal the presence of an isoform of TH that may possess novel functional capabilities.
The distribution of [3H]vasopressin- and [3H]oxytocin-binding sites was examined, using an autoradiographical technique, in the kidney of Long-Evans and Brattleboro rats. Two types of binding sites with affinities in the nanomolar range were detected: one, located on glomeruli, bound both vasopressin and oxytocin; the other, on collecting ducts, bound vasopressin selectively. In the presence of 10 mumol oxytocin/l, [3H]vasopressin labelling was abolished in glomeruli, but only reduced in collecting ducts; [3H]oxytocin labelling was completely abolished by 10 mumol vasopressin/l. These observations are discussed in relation to known effects of neurohypophysial hormones on renal physiology.
The acquisition of mismatch repair deficiency is common in many tumor types. A unique subtype of mismatch repair deficient tumors, called tumors with microsatellite instability (MSI), has been recently approved for treatment with PD-1 PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy. Therefore, developing a quick, inexpensive, and easy-to-implement technique for classifying tumors as MSI is of utmost importance. Here, we describe such a method using next-generation sequencing data, and show that it can detect MSI from cell-free DNA (cfDNA), even when there is low fraction of tumor DNA in the cfDNA. We first analyzed the unique mutational features of MSI vs. microsatellite stable (MSS) tumors. Using our SignatureAnalyzer tool, we analyzed the signatures of the different insertions and deletions within microsatellite loci (MS-indels), and found that MSI tumors harbor elevated MS-indels of certain types, which we further validated using whole genome sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We next used this information to develop a method (MSIClass) that analyzes the WGS data of a given sample by capturing the features unique to MSI tumors. This method assigns each sample a score based on aggregating information from all MS loci simultaneously; since MSIClass is a sample-based tool, it can call the MSI status of tumor samples that have no patient-matched normal sample. We further demonstrate that MSIClass requires minimal genomic information; indeed, sequencing coverage as low as 0.05x (current sequencing cost of ~$2/sample) is sufficient for accurate classification by MSIClass. Using in silico and in vitro DNA mixing we show that MSIClass can accurately identify MSI cases in very low purity cases, at 0.1% tumor DNA (using 0.5x sequencing coverage). We show that MSIClass, applied on cfDNA, could accurately classify 29 colon cases -- 22 MSS and 7 MSI cases, 3 of which are early stage disease and with low tumor content. We then applied MSIClass to ~2000 cfDNA samples from various tumor types and found MSI cases in tumors that are not associated with MSI such as breast. These results demonstrate that MSIClass is an inexpensive MSI test that can be applied in various cases: bulk sequencing where a matched normal is not available, cases of very low purity tumors, and even using cfDNA from blood in cases a biopsy is not available or possible. Finally, this methodology can be the basis for monitoring minimal residual disease, and potential be used for early detection of MSI tumors. Citation Format: Yosef E. Maruvka, Ruslana Frazer, Jonna Grimsby, Emily E Van Seventer, Carrie Cibulskis, Viktor Adalsteinsson, Ryan Corcoran, Gad Getz. MSIClass - Identification and classification of microsatellite unstable tumors using cell-free DNA from ultra low pass sequencing [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A094. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-A094
Airway smooth muscle remodeling is implicated in a number of constrictive pulmonary diseases such as asthma and may include changes in smooth muscle orientation and abundance. Both factors were compared in the normal distal bronchioles of the mouse, rabbit, and rhesus monkey (respiratory bronchioles included). Airway smooth muscle was measured by using a three-dimensional approach employing confocal microscopy and whole-mount cytochemistry with fluorochrome-conjugated phalloidin, a probe for polymerized actin. Smooth muscle orientation had a wide range of angles along the airway, but the distribution was conserved among species and among distal airway generations. At the bifurcation of proximal bronchioles, smooth muscle was nearly parallel to the longitudinal axis of the airway. Smooth muscle abundance was significantly different between species (abundance was less in the monkey compared with the mouse and rabbit), and there was a trend for abundance to decrease with each more distal airway generation. This study defines the normal distribution of smooth muscle in three test species and provides a basis for future comparisons with the diseased state.
The superficial and total blood flows of the forearm and hand were studied by the use of 4 different methods. Over 100 experiments were performed on 15 healthy adults, including 2 women. Each experiment was preceded by a rest of 15 to 30 minutes, and equally lengthy periods of control observation. The experiments lasted from 1 to 3 hours. The plethysmograph indicates that a deep breath causes a fall in forearm volume of from 5 to 10 cc. The shrinkage begins near the end of inspiration, and reaches a maximum in from 15 to 30 seconds. Recovery is slower but complete. The fall in volume may be analyzed further by the discontinuous blood flow method of Hewlett and Zwaluwenberg. 1 While the hand and part of the forearm are in the plethysmograph, the venous outflow is obstructed suddenly by abruptly raising to 70 or 80 mm. Hg. the pressure within a small cuff placed just centrad to the plethysmograph. The resultant changes in forearm volume indicate the rate of inflow of blood through the still open arteries. Although this method of measuring is discontinuous, it has the advantage of indicating the total blood flow through the forearm. This method shows that on deep inspiration the blood flow begins to slow in mid-inspiration; reaches its maximum at the end of inspiration, and disappears rapidly. A record obtained in mid-expiration shows the flow already partly recovered. On deep inspiration, the blood flow through the forearm is stopped completely, for from 1 to 15 seconds, depending upon the rate and depth of the inspiration and the subject of the experiment. Experiments performed at every phase of the respiratory cycle indicate that the diminished flow is due to the inspiratory movement, for recovery becomes complete even when the breath is held at inspiration.
Intercellular fluids obtained by an in vacuo infiltration technique from compatible race-cultivar interactions of five races of Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi and pea induced extensive light brown necrotic (hypersensitive type of) lesions in resistant but not susceptible cultivars. In susceptible cultivars the intercellular fluids induced extetensive water soaking symptoms. The intercellular fluids elicited intermediate reactions in pea cultivars of moderate resistance. The intensity of the light brown necrotic reactions in pea appears to be positively correlated with the degree of resistance.
The invasive false mussel, Mytilopsis adamsi Morrison, 1946 (Bivalvia: Dreissenidae), is a brackish water bivalve, native to tropical West Pacific coast of central America. The species has now become established in East Asian, South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Species spread has been especially rapid with its distribution now including the lower part of the Gulf of Thailand. This is the first report of the establishment of this species in the lower part of the Gulf of Thailand, in Haad-kaew Lagoon and Thale Sap Songkhla, in Songkhla province, and the Pak Phanang Estuary in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, south Thailand. Descriptions of its morphology are consistent with previous descriptions from other areas as M. adamsi. Based on the available evidence, it is postulated that the species was transported to the areas between the year 1990 and 2000 via international commercial cargo ships. These findings indicate that the spread of M. adamsi is still in progress and that this invasive mussel continues to colonize the Songkhla Lagoon System.
The tricellular junction (TCJ) forms at the convergence of pleated septate junctions (SJs) from three adjacent cells in polarized epithelia and is necessary for maintaining the transepithelial barrier. In Drosophila, the transmembrane protein Gliotactin was the first identified marker of the TCJ, but little is known about other molecular constituents. We now show that Gliotactin associates with Discs large at the TCJ in a Ca2+-dependent manner. Discs large is essential for the formation of the TCJ and the localization of Gliotactin. Surprisingly, Gliotactin localization at the TCJ was independent of its PDZ-binding motif and Gliotactin did not bind directly to Discs large. Therefore Gliotactin and Discs large association is through intermediary proteins at the TCJ. Gliotactin can associate with other septate junction proteins but this was detected only when Gliotactin was overexpressed and spread throughout the septate junction domain. Gliotactin overexpression and spread also resulted in a reduction of Discs large staining but not vice versa. These results suggest that Discs large participates in different protein interactions in the SJ and the TCJ. Finally this work supports a model where Gliotactin and Dlg are components of a larger protein complex that links the converging SJs with the TCJ to create the transepithelial barrier.
The object of the present communication is to establish the fact that, in a mammal which has long been subjected to intensive and extensive laboratory investigations, constitutional factors are normally of prime importance in determining whether or not the individual organism will form a mammary tumor. In addition, constitutional factors may also play an important part in determining what general type of mammary tumor is formed. The material used is mice. It may be well, at the outset, to emphasize the fact that the type of mammary tumor to which reference is ordinarily made in this paper is the common adenoma-carcinoma series in which the epithelial elements are definitely the site of the most pronounced neoplastic development. The distinction between this group and that in which the connective tissue is most active is brought out by a comparison of the incidence of the two types in a reciprocal outcross between two inbred strains, reported by Murray and Little (1935). Cloudman has completed the histological diagnosis of each tumor tabulated. In one outcross (dBF 1 and F 2 ) using females of high mammary tumor stock, there was a total of 239 adenomas and carcinomas, with 4 fibrosarcomas. The percentage of fibrosarcomas is 1.6. In the reciprocal cross (BdF 1 and F 2 ) using females of low mammary tumor stock, among 30 tumors, mammary in position, 9 or 30.0 per cent were fibrosarcomas. The influence of constitution on the incidence of the two types is striking. Long ago Tyzzer, J. A. Murray, Bashford and others showed that mammary tumors occurred much more frequently among the descendants of tumor-forming ancestors than they did among the descendants of mice which did not form mammary tumors. These earlier writers spoke of high-tumor families or strains as contrasted with low-tumor families or strains and expressed their belief that there were constitutional differences at the basis of the distinction between the two groups.
Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of the Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) was 16 821 bp in length. The accession number was KT004451 and the contents of A, T, C, and G were 31.10%(5237 bp), 25.60%(4309 bp), 28.60%(4814 bp), and 14.60%(2461 bp), respectively. Gene organization and length was similar to other species of birds. It comprises of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and 1 control region. All protein-coding genes use the typical initiation codon ATG, except for COX1 which was initiated with GTG. All the complete stop codon was coincident with the Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) and the Grey-backed Shrike (Lanius tephronotus), except for ND2, which was terminated with TAG. In addition, the phylogenetic relationships of Passeriformes based on complete mitochondrial genomes showed that the genetic distance of Laniidae and Corvidae was closer than others.
Chordoid meningioma, World Health Organization grade II, is an uncommon variant of meningioma with a propensity for aggressive behavior and increased likelihood of recurrence. As such, recognition of this entity is important in cases that show similar morphologic overlap with other chondroid/myxoid neoplasms that can arise within or near the central nervous system. A formal comparison of the immunohistochemical features of chordoid meningioma versus tumors with significant histologic overlap has not been previously reported. In this study, immunohistochemical staining was performed with antibodies against D2-40, S100, pankeratin, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), brachyury, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in 4 cases of chordoid glioma, 6 skeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, 10 chordoid meningiomas, 16 extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, 18 chordomas, 22 low-grade chondrosarcomas, and 27 enchondromas. Staining extent and intensity were evaluated semiquantitatively and mean values for each parameter were calculated. Immunostaining with D2-40 showed positivity in 100% of skeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, 96% of enchondromas, 95% of low-grade chondrosarcomas, 80% of chordoid meningiomas, and 75% of chordoid gliomas. Staining with S100 demonstrated diffuse, strong positivity in all (100%) chordoid gliomas, skeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, low-grade chondrosarcomas, and enchondromas, 94% of chordomas, and 81% of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, with focal, moderate staining in 40% of chordoid meningiomas. Pankeratin highlighted 100% of chordoid gliomas and chordomas, 38% of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, and 20% of chordoid meningiomas. EMA staining was positive in 100% of chordoid gliomas, 94% of chordomas, 90% of chordoid meningiomas, and 25% of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas. Brachyury was positive only in the chordomas (100%), whereas GFAP was positive only in the chordoid gliomas (100%). EMA was the most effective antibody for differentiating chordoid meningioma from skeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, low-grade chondrosarcoma, and enchondroma, whereas D2-40 was the most effective antibody for differentiating chordoid meningioma from extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma and chordoma. Our findings demonstrate that in conjunction with clinical and radiographic findings, immunohistochemical evaluation with a panel of D2-40, EMA, brachyury, and GFAP is most useful in distinguishing chordoid meningioma from chordoid glioma, skeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, chordoma, low-grade chondrosarcoma, and enchondroma. A lack of strong, diffuse S100 reactivity may also be useful in excluding chordoid meningioma. Among the neoplasms evaluated, brachyury and GFAP proved to be both sensitive and specific markers for chordoma and chordoid glioma, respectively. Of note, this study is the first to characterize the D2-40 immunoprofile in extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, results that could be of utility in differential diagnostic assessment.
BACKGROUND Postharvest pinking is a serious issue affecting lettuce quality. Previous studies suggested the possibility of using deficit irrigation to control discolouration; however, this approach may also affect yield. This study investigated the effect of varying irrigation deficits on iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) to determine the relationship between irrigation deficit, pinking and fresh weight.   RESULTS The deficit imposed and head fresh weight obtained depended on both the duration and timing of withholding irrigation. Withholding irrigation for a period of 2 or 3 weeks in the middle or end of the growth period significantly reduced rib pinking compared to well-watered controls. Withholding irrigation for 2 weeks at the start of the growth period or 1 week at the end did not significantly reduce pinking. Withholding irrigation also reduced head fresh weight such that minimising pinking would be predicted to incur a loss of 40% relative to well-watered controls. However, smaller benefits to pinking reduction were achieved with less effect on head fresh weight.   CONCLUSION Deficit irrigation could be used to provide smaller but higher quality heads which are less likely to be rejected. The balance of these factors will determine the degree of adoption of this approach to growers. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
The mean annual rainfall of Barrow Island, located about 90 km north of Onslow off the arid Western Australian coast, is 324 mm, 74% of which falls as cyclonic rain between February and May. Spinifexbirds captured in May 1992 had a mean body mass of 12.3 +/- 0.3 g and a total body water content (TBW) of 774 +/- 1.6%. In December 1992 the mean body mass was significantly lower (11.7 +/- 0.2 g; P 35 degrees C. The data suggest that spinifexbirds have limited physiological adaptations to desert conditions compared with some other arid-zone birds.
The genus Trachylepis Fitzinger, 1843 encompasses two-three species in Iran: Trachylepis vittata (Olivier, 1804) distributed in western Iran, west of the Zagros Mountains; T.septemtaeniata (Reuss, 1834) in southern regions of the Zagros Mountains and T. aurata transcaucasica Chernov, 1926 from northern to central parts of the Zagros Mountains. For study of geographic variation in the latter two taxa, 58 specimens of these two taxa (T. aurata transcaucasica and T. septemtaeniata) were collected from five distinct localities in the Zagros Mountains and adjacent regions. Post-ANOVA pair- wise analysis (Tukey test) and two multivariate analyses including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) based on 22 metric and five meristic characters across all the studied groups verified significant intra- and-interspecific differences in some important characters. Especially, results of the multivariate analyses suggest that most of the studied populations have acquired certain degree of morphological divergence. For instance, 88.9% of west Azerbaijan, 95% of Kurdistan, 90% of Kermanshah, 80% of Lorestan, and 77.8% of Khuzestan populations were assigned to their correct a priori group by classification resulted in discriminant analysis. The specific status of T. septemtaeniata is questioned and it is concluded that this species being just a subspecies of T. aurata.
KDM6A is a histone demethylase, known to remove methyl moieties at the lysine residues of histone 3-labeled (H3K27me3) poised enhancers and bivalent promoters, which regulates gene expression during the differentiation of embryonic stem cells and tissue-specific development. However, while tissue- and disease-specific analyses have been performed, little is known about the location and consequences on gene expression of these regulatory regions in human pluripotent cells. Poised enhancers and bivalent promoters function in a coordinated fashion during development, which requires timely and efficient histone modifications. Identification of KDM6A-specific gene-regulatory domains is important for understanding the developmental mechanisms controlled by these histone modifications in pluripotency. In this study, we compared genome-wide histone modification and gene expression differences in isogenic wild type and cas9-mediated KDM6A knockout human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) lines. Here, we report that the absence of KDM6A does not alter the pluripotent phenotype but does substantially alter the histone modification profile at poised and active enhancers, resulting in decreased expression of associated COMPASS complex genes KMT2C and KMT2D and subsequently increasing the expression of gene pathways involved in ectoderm differentiation.
Seasonal and diurnal flight patterns of the invasive walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis, were assessed between 2011 and 2014 in northern California, USA in the context of the effects of ambient temperature, light intensity, wind speed, and barometric pressure. Pityophthorus juglandis generally initiated flight in late January and continued until late November. This seasonal flight could be divided approximately into three phases (emergence: January–March; primary flight: May–July; and secondary flight: September–October). The seasonal flight response to the male-produced aggregation pheromone was consistently female-biased (mean of 58.9% females). Diurnal flight followed a bimodal pattern with a minor peak in mid-morning and a major peak at dusk (76.4% caught between 1800 and 2200 h). The primarily crepuscular flight activity had a Gaussian relationship with ambient temperature and barometric pressure but a negative exponential relationship with increasing light intensity and wind speed. A model selection procedure indicated that the four abiotic factors collectively and interactively governed P. juglandis diurnal flight. For both sexes, flight peaked under the following second-order interactions among the factors when: 1) temperature between was 25 and 30°C and light intensity was less than 2000 lux; 2) temperature was between 25 and 35°C and barometric pressure was between 752 and 762 mba (and declined otherwise); 3) barometric pressure was between 755 and 761 mba and light intensity was less than 2000 lux (and declined otherwise); and 4) temperature was ca. 30°C and wind speed was ca. 2 km/h. Thus, crepuscular flight activity of this insect can be best explained by the coincidence of moderately high temperature, low light intensity, moderate wind speed, and low to moderate barometric pressure. The new knowledge provides physical and temporal guidelines for the application of semiochemical-based control techniques as part of an IPM program for this invasive pest.
Water is one of the important substances on earth. Water is indispensable for life. Total 42 samples were collected from the study area. Six samples were from Government hospital and 36 drinking water samples were collected from six different Private hospitals of Chikhli town in Buldana district. The microbial quality of drinking water samples were assessed by making use of the Multiple Tube Fermentation Technique test (MPN/100 ml), presence of total coliform, faecal coliform and thermo tolerant coliform. Bacterial isolate is identified on the basis of cultural, morphological and biochemical characterization. From this water samples 21% have presumptive bacterial count MPN above the permissible limits for drinking water. Also Salmonella typhi was confirmed in total ten drinking water samples out of the forty two samples. Out of the total forty two samples three samples were thermo tolerant Escherichia coli positive. Totally there was only 5 water source with excellent type, 28 with acceptable, 7 unacceptable and 2 grossly polluted. Out of the total analyzed samples, only 33 had acceptable faecal coliform count (less than 10 MPN per 100 ml of water), 5 sample excellent range. All the excellent type of water samples were collected from private hospital. Environmental assessment of the sample locations revealed that some of the environments were dirty. The results of the bacteriological analysis of drinking water showed that most drinking. The contamination of drinking water sources should be because of the improper sanitation and hygiene, handling processes and leakages in the distribution system. So it increases the threats of the waterborne diseases in the people in that hospitalized area.
Actinophage active against both neutrophilic and acidophilic streptomycetes were isolated from a variety of soils by a specific enrichment method. No phage were detected in soils with a pH below 6.0, despite the presence of acidophilic streptomycetes in these soils. However, some phage isolated from neutral soils were able to lyse acidophilic streptomycetes at pH 5.5. Selected actinophage were shown to be stable between pH 5.5 and 9.0 in sterile soils and broth, but were rapidly inactivated at lower or higher pH values. Survival of these phage was good in neutral soils, but negligible in acidic soils. This suggested that free phage were unable to remain infective in acidic soils, thus at least partially accounting for the failure to isolate them. Acidity was shown to have variable effects on several stages of phage replication including adsorption, penetration and the length of the latent period. The latter effect was directly related to the metabolic activity of the host.
Two human hemopoietic growth factors involved in monocytopoiesis, interleukin-3 (IL-3) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were studied for their ability to stimulate blood monocytes and to bind to the monocyte membrane. Both cytokines maintained monocyte/macrophage numbers during long-term culture and increased cell size as compared with controls. Effects on cell numbers were present at low cytokine concentrations (6 to 20 pmol/L), whereas enhanced 3H-thymidine incorporation was observed only at higher concentrations (greater than or equal to 60 pmol/L). Autoradiographic studies showed only 1% to 3% of stimulated monocytes with nuclear grains. These results suggest that the primary mechanism for IL-3 and GM-CSF-induced maintenance of monocyte/macrophage numbers in humans is through an effect on cell survival. Surface receptors for both IL-3 and GM-CSF were studied by using 125I-labeled recombinant human (rh) cytokines and performing Scatchard analyses. Both cytokines showed curvilinear Scatchard plots, and computer analyses favored a two-site binding model. High-affinity binding data for 125I rhIL-3 (Kd 7.7 to 38.2 pmol/L; receptor number/cell 95 to 580) and for 125I rhGM-CSF (Kd 4.7 to 38.9 pmol/L; receptor number/cell 8 to 67) show similar binding affinities for the two cytokines but a lower receptor number/cell for 125I rhGM-CSF. Low-affinity binding characteristics for 125I rhIL-3 (Kd 513 to 939 pmol/L; receptor number/cell 179 to 5,274) and for 125I rhGM-CSF (Kd 576 to 1,120 pmol/L; receptor number/cell 130 to 657) show a similar pattern for the two cytokines. Specificity of 125I rhIL-3 and 125I rhGM-CSF binding to monocytes was established by the ability of the homologous cytokine to inhibit binding and the inability of a range of other cytokines to compete at 100-fold excess molar concentration. It is important, however, that binding of 125I rhIL-3 was partially inhibited by rhGM-CSF and that rhIL-3 partially inhibited binding of 125I rhGM-CSF to the monocyte membrane under conditions shown to prevent receptor internalization. The degree of inhibition varied between 25% and 80% in different experiments, and quantitative inhibition experiments showed that 1,000-fold excess concentrations of competitor failed to inhibit binding of the heterologous ligand completely. These results demonstrate that human IL-3 and GM-CSF have similar effects on growth and survival of human monocytes in vitro and suggest that these and other common biological effects may be mediated either through a common receptor or through distinct receptors associated on the monocyte membrane.
Postgenomic pharmacology deals with the desirable and undesirable effects of drugs in relation to the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and reactome. The transcriptomic activity of ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate (EMHPS) has not been previously characterized. Objective : to investigate the dose-dependent effects of EMHPS on the transcription of 12,700 annotated human genes in the neural progenitor cells (NPC.TAK cell line). Material and methods . The paper presents the results of chemotranscriptome analysis of the EMHPS molecule from the point of view of its impact on transcription of the human genome in the NPC.TAK line cells during 24-hour incubation of cells with EMHPS. Results and discussion . The significant dose-dependent effects of EMHPS on transcription (on average, ≥10% transcription changes for each 1 μmol/L of EMHPS) were evaluated for 2,400 of the 12,700 annotated human genes. EMHPS reduced the transcription of groups of the genes that were involved in cell division (n = 226), those in gene expression processes (n = 122), and those in protein synthesis, degradation, and secretion (n = 123). EMHPS increased the transcription of the genes encoding proteins involved in neurotransmission (n = 103) and those in exerting neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects (n = 49). Conclusion . The efficacy of EMHPS may be related to its effect on the transcription of the genes that are involved in neurotransmission and in the showing of neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects.
Increasing fuel prices coupled with declining supplies of fossil fuels have affirmed the need for alternative energy strategies both in the United States and globally. Brassica napus is a leading candidate in the search for oilseed biofuels, having received much recent attention by agriculturalists and breeders due to its high oil content and potential to be used onsite as a biofuel for farm equipment. However, production of a regionally-adapted variety of B. napus would be necessary in Colorado where drought tolerance is a key trait. The objective of this study is to map and analyze yield and yield components as well as plant morphology and maturity characteristics in B. napus using quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and statistical analyses. A new population of 240 doubled haploid B. napus lines, constructed from a cross between an annual and biennial variety, was grown in four replicates of a row-column design under dryland and irrigated conditions in Fort Collins, Colorado in summer 2010. Yield was found to depend heavily on flowering time and siliques per main raceme in the dry condition correlated with yield (R 2 =.4215, p<.0001) and less so in the irrigated condition (R 2 =.01, p=.06). Oil content is currently being evaluated along with seeds per silique and thousand seed weight. Results (cont.) Yield components measured in the field were found to correlate positively with yield, indicating that they are a good measure of potential seed yield in a genotype. Components included length of main raceme (rainfed treatment only), number of siliques per main raceme, number of seeds per silique, and thousand seed weight.
Abstract: The major postsynaptic density protein, proposed to be a calcium/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase, becomes phosphorylated when a postsynaptic density preparation from rat cerebral cortex is incubated in medium containing calcium and calmodulin. Upon longer incubation, however, the level of phosphorylation declines, suggesting the presence of a phosphatase activity. When Microcystin‐LR, a phosphatase inhibitor, is included in the phosphorylation medium, the decline in phosphorylation is prevented and a higher maximal level of phosphorylation can be achieved. Under these conditions, the maximal phosphorylation of major postsynaptic density protein is accompanied by a nearly complete shift in its electrophoretic mobility from 50 kDa to 54 kDa, similar to that described for the a subunit of the soluble calcium/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II. Of the four major groups of serine/threonine protein phosphatases, the enzyme responsible for the dephosphorylation of major postsynaptic density protein is neither type 2C, which is insensitive to Microcystin‐LR, nor type 2B, which is calcium‐dependent. As Microcystin‐LR is much more potent than okadaic acid in inhibiting the dephosphorylation of major postsynaptic density protein, it is likely that the postsynaptic density‐associated phosphatase is a type 1. The above results indicate that the relatively low level of phosphorylation of the major postsynaptic density protein observed in preparations containing postsynaptic densities is not due to a difference between the cytoplasmic and postsynaptic density‐associated calcium/calmodulin‐dependent kinases as previously proposed, but to a phosphatase activity, presumably belonging to the type 1 group.
It is well known that variation in the concentration of estrogens affects insulin action. In this study we examine the impact of estradiol (E2) on insulin signaling in the rat heart. Ovariectomized female rats were treated with E2 6 h prior to analysis of basal protein and mRNA content of insulin signaling molecules, and additionally with insulin 30 min before the experiment to delineate E2 effects on phosphorylations and molecular associations relevant for insulin signaling. The results show that E2 decreased insulin receptor (IR) tyrosine phosphorylation, while it did not alter IR protein and mRNA content. E2 administration did not change IR substrate 1 (IRS‐1) protein content and tyrosine phosphorylation, while decreased mRNA content and increased its association with the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K). E2 decreased protein and mRNA content of IR substrate 2 (IRS‐2), while did not change IRS‐2 tyrosine phosphorylation and IRS‐2 association with p85. The increase of IRS‐1/p85 is accompanied by increase of p85 protein and mRNA levels, and by stimulation of protein kinase B (Akt) Ser473 phosphorylation. In contrast, Akt protein and mRNA content were not changed. In summary, although in some aspects cardiac insulin signaling is obviously improved by E2 treatment (increase of p85 mRNA and protein levels, enhancement of IRS‐1/p85 association and Ser473Akt phosphorylation), the observed decrease of IR tyrosine phosphorylation, IRS‐2 protein content, and IRSs mRNA contents, suggest very complex interplay of beneficial and suppressive effects of E2, both genomic and non‐genomic, in regulation of heart insulin signaling. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
CHARGE and DiGeorge (DGS) are multiple malformation haploinsufficiency syndromes that show significant phenotypic overlap, especially when considering derivatives of the pharyngeal apparatus. Patients exhibit characteristic cardiovascular malformations including anomalies associated with defective patterning of the pharyngeal arch arteries (paa).    CHD7, on chromosome 8q12.1, was recently identified as a candidate gene for CHANGE and is mutated in ~60% of patients. Most DGS patients carry a 3Mb heterozygous deletion of chromosome 22q11, encompassing ~30 genes including TBX1. Animal models of DGS have demonstrated the importance of Tbx1 during pharyngeal and heart development. The critical role of TBX1 in DGS is supported by the identification of TBX1 mutations in DGS patients without 22q11 deletions. CHARGE and DGS exhibit overlapping genetic etiologies. Patients diagnosed with CHARGE can have 22q11 deletions, while complete DGS can be found in patients with CHD7 mutations. However, despite the genetic overlap between the two human conditions, work presented here failed to identify CHD7 mutations in a cohort of non-deleted patients.    Results presented in this thesis show that insertion of a gene trap cassette, disrupting CHD7, produced a mouse model of CHARGE consistent with the human condition. Chd7^{+/-} embryos exhibited heart defects resulting from aberration of the paa, including interrupted aortic arch type-B. Chd7 is only the second gene reported, after TBx1, heterozygous mutations of which cause fourth paa defects.    Furthermore, the phenotype of Chd7^{+/-} animals demonstrated epistasis between the two genes during formation of the fourth paa and thymus.    Contrary to hypotheses suggesting CHARGE is the result of genetic deficiencies in neural crest cells (NCC), conditional Wnt1-Cre driven restoration of Chd7 expression in NCC, did not prevent paa defects. AP2  propto –Cre driven restoration of Chd7 expression in the ectoderm and NCC simultaneously, rescued the paa defects, identifying a requirements for Chd7 expression in the ectoderm during development of these vessels.
Culture of microalgae has become important due to its growth efficacy and metabolite  yield. Carotenoids are photosynthetic pigments that have an antioxidant capacity and  are essential for the human organism (FAO, 2002), (SEMPLADES, 2009).  Coenochloris sp., is a clorophyte microalga capable of accumulating photosynthetic  pigments in optimal growth conditions. The assessment of the microalga to produce  pigments is important to categorize it as an alternative species that provides output in  the production of pigments. This research aimed to separate and quantify  photosynthetic pigments (carotenoids) from the microalgae culture Coenochloris sp.,  in mixotrophic conditions. It was feasible to adapt the microalga in laboratory  conditions in an autotrophic culture with foliar nitrophoska (3mL/L). The microalga  was assessed through three different cultures, autotrophic (CNFK), mixotrophic  (FSPGSC M) and discontinuous fed culture (FSPGSC CDA), where 2,5 mL/L of  soluble fraction of germinated peeled potato (FSPGSC) 5% were added to the  mixotrophic treatments and the discontinuous fed culture. The length of the assessment  was 29 days, where CNFK revealed the biggest concentration of carotenoids, followed  by FSPGSC CDA and FSPGSC M showing 0,4853 nm, 0,4792 nm and 0,4681  respectively. The most effective solvent to get the pigments was the DMSO. The  separation of carotenoids was more efficient by column chromatography displaying  54% of efficiency. The results obtained by HPLC have not shown presence of  carotenoids in any sample as they have been highly oxidized.
ABSTRACT The varicella-zoster virus (VZV) ORF62/63 intergenic region was cloned between the Renilla and firefly luciferase genes, which acted as reporters of ORF62 and ORF63 transcription, and recombinant viruses were generated that carried these reporter cassettes along with the intact native sequences in the repeat regions of the VZV genome. In order to investigate the potential contributions of cellular transregulatory proteins to ORF62 and ORF63 transcription, recombinant reporter viruses with mutations of consensus binding sites for six proteins within the intergenic region were also created. The reporter viruses were used to evaluate ORF62 and ORF63 transcription during VZV replication in cultured fibroblasts and in skin xenografts in SCIDhu mice in vivo. Mutations in putative binding sites for heat shock factor 1 (HSF-1), nuclear factor 1 (NF-1), and one of two cyclic AMP-responsive elements (CRE) reduced ORF62 reporter transcription in fibroblasts, while mutations in binding sites for HSF-1, NF-1, and octamer binding proteins (Oct-1) increased ORF62 reporter transcription in skin. Mutations in one CRE and the NF-1 site altered ORF63 transcription in fibroblasts, while mutation of the Oct-1 binding site increased ORF63 reporter transcription in skin. The effect of each of these mutations implies that the intact binding site sequence regulates native ORF62 and ORF63 transcription. Mutation of the only NF-κB/Rel binding site had no effect on ORF62 or ORF63 transcription in vitro or in vivo. The segment of the ORF62/63 intergenic region proximal to ORF63 was most important for ORF63 transcription, but mutagenesis also altered ORF62 transcription, indicating that this region functions as a bidirectional promoter. This first analysis of the ORF62/63 intergenic region in the context of VZV replication indicates that it is a dual promoter and that cellular transregulatory factors affect the transcription of these key VZV regulatory genes.
ABSTRACT The postantibiotic effects (PAEs) of antimycobacterial agents determined with a BACTEC TB-460 instrument (CO2 production) and by a traditional viable-count method against Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) were not significantly different (P > 0.05). The longest PAEs following a 2-h exposure to 2× the MIC were induced by amikacin (10.3 h), rifampin (9.7 h), and rifabutin (9.5 h), while the shortest PAEs resulted from clofazimine (1.7 h) and ethambutol (1.1 h) exposure. CO2 generation is a valid and efficient means of determining in vitro PAEs against MAC.
The process of ecological risk assessment should involve the ability to predict adverse outcomes of particular environmental contaminants or human intrusions. Ecological risk assessment generally focuses on populations, communities, and ecosystems, rather than on individual health. We explore the importance of life history strategies of aquatic turtles to their risk from environmental contaminants and other human activities using three examples: the wood turtle Clemmys insculpta, a freshwater species; the diamondback terrapin Malaclemys terrapin, a littoral species; and marine turtles as a group. These turtles are partly herbivorous and are at low or intermediate levels on the food chain, yet are particularly vulnerable due to their life history strategies of being long-lived with relatively low survival of young. They suffer a variety of natural mortality factors that include predation, starvation, and disease, as well as inundation and destruction of nesting beaches and their eggs by storms. Yet they also face a number of anthropogenic hazards, including toxic chemicals and floatables (plastics); capture for food, other products, and pets; incidental mortality in fishing gear; disturbance while nesting or moving on land; injuries or death by collision with boats; and increased predator exposure because of humans. The three turtle species (or groups of species) examined have experienced these natural and anthropogenic pressures differentially, with resultant differences in the rates of population declines. Because they are lower on the food chain than other obligate carnivores, they are less vulnerable to toxics, and to date, toxics seem a relatively inconsequential environmental risk to turtles.
Inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP3) receptors are emerging as key sites for regulation by pro‐ and anti‐apoptotic factors. Induction of apoptosis for 3 h increased mRNA and protein levels of type 1 IP3 receptors in non‐differentiated (ND), but not in differentiated (D) PC12 cells. Inhibitors of the IP3R's calcium release—2‐aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2‐APB) and xestospongin—completely prevented Bax and caspase‐3 mRNA increase after treatment with the apoptosis inducer set (AIK), and this reinforces the importance of IP3R1 in the apoptosis of ND PC12 cells. Apoptosis induction not only increases the IP3R1 protein, but it also causes formation of IP3R1 clusters in the nucleus which most likely result from fusion of the nucleoplasmic reticulum and/or IP3R1 translocation to the nucleus. This is quite similar to the observations noted after overexpression of IP3R1 in PC12 cells. The amount of IP3 induced calcium release was higher in control than in AIK‐treated cells. From our results we propose that after the apoptosis induction the amount of intranuclear calcium decreased dramatically due to the increase of calcium permeability of the nuclear calcium store vesicles. Therefore, increase of the calcium permeability may result from IP3 receptors translocation to nuclei that can boost the calcium transport through IP3 receptors. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 3147–3155, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The objectives of the present study were to investigate use of interspecific hybridization for yield and quality in Eu-Sorghum. Heterosis of the order of 206 • 42 per cent over better check was obtained in case of green fodder yield in cross S. caudatum × S. roxburghii. For dry fodder yield, it was maximum (228-83 per cent) in case of S. durra × S. roxburghii. In general, overall best crossees for most of the eleven morphological characters studied; including green and dry fodder yeild, were S. durra × S. roxburghii, S. caudatum × S. roxburghii, S, vulgare × S. roxburghii and S. roxburghii × S. virgatum. Exploitation of these crosses is advocated.
Anesthesia is a common practice used in fish research and aquaculture. For both applications, it is important to understand anesthetics effects on the animal and tissues of interest to ensure the validity of data and to improve animal welfare. Captive fish production is only possible with artificial reproduction, and it is known that manipulation is a stressor stimulus in fish. The most common method of determining fish stress responses is measuring the circulating level of cortisol. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of different concentrations (100, 200, and 300 mg L-1) of the anesthetic tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222) on cortisol levels and their influence on the sperm quality maintenance in Rhamdia quelen. After hormonal induction, 28 sexually mature males (average weight = 363.00 ± 71.24 g) were randomly distributed among treatments, and their semen and blood samples were collected. Anesthesia induction time, motility rate, sperm concentration and morphology, plasma cortisol levels, and reproductive hormones concentrations (testosterone, 17-α-hydroxyprogesterone, and estradiol) were evaluated. Anesthesia with 100 mg L-1 MS-222 presented a longer induction time than that with 200 and 300 mg L-1 MS-222. Sperm motility rate was significantly higher in the control than in the 300 mg L-1 treatment but did not differ among the control, 100, and 200 mg L-1 treatments. Estradiol level was significantly higher in non-anesthetized than in anesthetized fish, but plasma cortisol levels did not differ significantly between treatments (182.50 ± 42.03 ng mL-1). MS-222 anesthetizes fish by blocking the sodium channels, preventing the development of nerve action potentials. However, MS222 at concentrations of 100, 200, and 300 mg L-1 did not prevent stress in South American silver catfish males. In addition, its use did not maintain sperm quality, as it impaired motility and decreased levels of plasma estradiol.
Trained innate immunity attracts more and more attention in recent years. Innate immune memory is observed in natural killer cells, monocytes and macrophages after being trained by certain antigens and non-specific strong immune responses may occur after the secondary stimulation. Mechanism studies reveal that induction of trained innate immunity depends on epigenetic reprogramming. In this article, the phenomenon, mechanisms and possible applications of the trained innate immunity are reviewed.
Personality traits, such as exploration–avoidance, are expected to be adaptive in a given context (e.g. low-risk environment) but to be maladaptive in others (e.g. high-risk environment). Therefore, it is expected that personality traits are flexible and respond to environmental fluctuations, given that consistency across different contexts is maintained, so that the relative individual responses in relation to others remains the same (i.e. although the magnitude of the response varies the differences between high and low responders are kept). Here, we tested the response of male cichlid fish (Oreochromis mossambicus) to a novel object (NO) in three different social contexts: (i) social isolation, (ii) in the presence of an unfamiliar conspecific, and (iii) in the presence of a familiar conspecific. Males in the familiar treatment exhibited more exploratory behaviour and less neophobia than males in either the unfamiliar or the social isolation treatments. However, there were no overall correlations in individual behaviour across the three treatments, suggesting a lack of consistency in exploration–avoidance as measured by the NO test in this species. Moreover, there were no differences in cortisol responsiveness to an acute stressor between the three treatments. Together, these results illustrate how behavioural traits usually taken as measures of personality may exhibit significant flexibility and lack the expected consistency across different social contexts.
A study of the blood pathways within the gills of Latimeria has been carried out using light and transmission electron microscopy. Clear evidence has been found for the presence of a secondary non-respiratory circulation in addition to the well-established respiratory pathway through the gill lamellae. All essential components of this system have been observed and have the same relationships and basic structure as comparable secondary systems in actinopterygian and elasmobranch fishes. These include a central venous sinus (CVS), arterio-venous anastomoses (AVAs) and central filament arteries (CFAs). AVAs connect both arterial vessels of the primary circulation and CFAs of the secondary circulation to the CVS. The latter contained many red blood cells. The presence of this secondary circulation in Latimeria gills contrasts with the situation in the gills of the three living genera of lungfishes where a system possessing the essential features of the tetrapod lymphatic vessel system has been recognized. No suggestions of a true lymphatic vessel system were observed in Latimeria. Other features of gill and vascular anatomy in Latimeria show its closer relationship to dipnoans than other groups of living fishes but evidence derived from this study of the secondary circulation clearly supports the view that the Dipnoi rather than Latimeria represent the living fishes most closely related to the tetrapods.
Foraminifera are the single celled microscopic organisms found abundantly in the seas and oceans. The tests of these organisms are preserved in the present sediments of the ocean as in the past, sometimes constituting extensive deposits as oozes; however they form one of the major constituents of almost all types of sediments. They are not only considered to be the major source of oil and gas but some of the species are also considered as delineators or markers of oil bearing horizons and geological time factors. Thus, they are indicative of various parameters like the environmental conditions of deposition, latitudinal zonation, type of the geosynclinal structural, distance from the shore, rate of sedimentation etc. In fact, they have a story to tell, which can be unravelled by careful analysis and interpretation. Foraminifera are primarily of two kinds-planktonic and benthonic-each having a significant role to play. Therefore, in the study of a sample, the planktonic and benthonic populations should be considered separately. It is so suggested because these two assemblages represent different habitats and environmental conditions. Planktonic foraminifera are distinctly a few in number compared to several thousand benthonic species present. These are about 50 in all but the most characteristic ones are about 30-35 only, however, there are only 8-10 living genera, most of the species of which occur in an extreme abundance of individuals. Individual species are widely distributed by ocean currents and occur, in marine water masses at different depths; thus they are not only pelagic but occur survive, propagate and characterise the distinct parameters of depth distribution, water density, salinity variation, oceanic circulation, temperature gradient or a vertical thermal structure and latitudinal zonation of the seas and the oceans
We evaluated the growth inhibitory effect of triclosan, which has recently been reported to inhibit the growth of Plasmodium species and Toxoplasma gondii, on bovine and equine Babesia parasites in in vitro cultures The growth of Babesia bovis and B. bigemina was significantly inhibited in the presence of 100 microg/ml of triclosan, while B. caballi and B. equi were susceptible to as low as 50 microg/ml. Babesia bigemina and B. caballi were completely cleared as early as on the first and second day of the treatment, respectively. These parasites did not exhibit any growth in the subsequent five-day period of subculture without triclosan. Drug-treated parasites appeared pycnotic and atypically shaped, and ultrastructurally showed pronounced vacuolations, leading to complete destruction of parasites. Light microscopy showed that used concentrations of triclosan showed no toxicity against the host cells. The results suggest that triclosan can be used for chemotherapy of babesiosis.
Incorporation of 'Jalshakti', a water absorbent compound at 20 g per 8 kg soil significantly checked the primary incidence of downy mildew, Reduction in disease incidence over the check was 72.3 per cent at 30 days after sowing (DAS) and 59.3 per cent at 42 DAS. Flyash, silica gel and bentonite clay significantly contained the disease only up to 30 DAS. Lignite incorporation had no effect. With the application of farmyard manure (FYM) at 5 ton ha'i mixed in soil in the seed furrows, the reduction in downy mildew was 81.5 per cent at 42 DAS and 44.9 per cent at 70 DAS as compared to check. Crop sown in NW-SE direction resulted in maximum reduction (39.6%) in disease incidence at 70 DAS. Systemically infected plants were maximum (19.1 %) in N-S sown crop. Grain yields in EN-WS and NW-SE sown crop were almost silimiar but significantly higher than W-E and N-S. Crop sown in NW-SE direction received maximum solar radiations and had the highest soil temperature and wind speed with the. lowest soil moisture and shade while the conditions in N-S sown crop were just the reverse.
The Sulejow Reservoir is a lowland dam reservoir that was constructed in 1973 on the Pilica River at the village of Smardzewice. It is 15.5 km long and has an elongated, trough-like shape. It is characterized by a low depth (mean - 4.5 m), and its mean annual retention time ranges from a dozen to four dozen days. The reservoir is strongly eutrophic due to large loads of phosphorus and nitrogen entering its catchment area. Since the creation of the reservoir, strong water blooms have been caused by Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, Anabaena flos-aquae, Microcystis aeruginosa, and Microcystis wessenbergii. These blooms were associated with the intensified development of green algae, mainly of the genera Coelastrum, Dictyosphaerium, Pandorina, Pediatrum, and Scenedesmus. Beside the blue-green and green algae, the diatoms were the richest in species, of which Asterionella formosa, Aulacoseira granulata, Cyclotella meneghiniana, Diatoma tenuis, Fragilaria capucina, F. Pinnata, F. Ulna, Melosira varians, and Stephanodiscus hantzschii constantly dominated. These three groups were accompanied by Dinobryon sertularia, Ceratium hirundinella, and Peridinium inconspicuum.
The pea leafminer, Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard), is a polyphagous insect pest on vegetables and ornamental plants. In order to investigate the interaction between this pest and its host plants, we assayed the contents of soluble sugars, soluble proteins, tannins, flavones and chlorophyll in cucumber leaves infested by the 1st to 3rd larvae of L. huidobrensis with different damage levels using anthrone colorimetric method, Coomassie brilliant blue staining, phosphor-molybdenum acid-phosphor-tungstenic acid colorimetry, Soxhlet extraction and acetone spectrophotometry, respectively. The results showed that the contents of soluble sugars, soluble proteins and chlorophyll in cucumber leaves decreased while those of tannins and flavones increased with the increase of damage by the larvae. The largest decrease amplitudes of the former three were 62%, 35% and 40%, respectively, and the highest increase amplitudes of the latter two were 26% and 53%, respectively. The influences of the larval infestation on the above compounds were systemic. The results suggest that the larval damage caused the decrease of nutrient contents and phytosynthesis of host plants while the increase of secondary metabolite contents, and therefore induced the resistance to herbivores. This study may provide a useful reference to further research on the interactive mechanisms between the leafminer and its host plants.
We report here the results of in vitro studies that demonstrate that purified human recombinant interleukin-2 (hrIL-2) is a potent stimulant for freshly isolated cord blood lymphocytes of healthy full-term infants. Different culture parameters were studied to define the optimal conditions for eliciting maximal levels of activation. Highest levels of hrIL-2-induced TdR[3H] uptake were recorded on day 7 for cultures containing 100 U hrIL-2/ml. Results of comparative studies demonstrated that the reactivity of cord blood lymphocytes to hrIL-2 was equal to, if not greater than, that of healthy adult lymphocytes. Cord blood cells that had been activated with hrIL-2 could be propagated in long-term (greater than 30 days) cultures as hrIL-2-dependent lines, and these lines could be initiated with a high degree of success. Phenotypic analysis was performed using different monoclonal antibodies and cytofluorometry, and studies characterizing cells of the long-term lines have shown that they consisted of a heterogenous population of T4 helper and T8 cytotoxic/suppressor cells; in some instances, natural killer (NK) cells were also present. Other experiments demonstrated that hrIL-2-activated and hrIL-2-propagated T cells expressed the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R; defined by monoclonal antibody anti-Tac) and the number of IL-2-R-positive cells could be increased two-fold or more by exposing the cells to a phorbol ester. This report provides additional information to support the hypothesis that hrIL-2 not only sustains T cell proliferation (i.e., second signal) but also induces T cell activation (i.e., first signal).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Cod Gadus morhua are important predators in many ecosystems in the North Atlantic, but their ecological importance has diminished in many areas due to stock size reductions. In contrast, the Barents Sea cod stock is currently the world’s largest and at a high level. The goal of our study was to elucidate spatial aspects of cod−prey interactions in the Barents Sea during recent warm years (2004 to 2009). We used data on cod and prey distributions and cod diet collected during the Barents Sea ecosystem survey. Local prey use, feeding success, spatial displacement and spatial overlap between cod (>2 yr) and prey (capelin, herring, polar cod, shrimp and macrozooplankton) were analysed. While prey species were found in spatially segregated habitats, cod were widely distributed, except the deepest parts of the Barents Sea where shrimps prevailed. Local diet reflected local prey availability. Cod abundance was higher in areas occupied by capelin and herring and lower in the northeastern areas occupied by polar cod. Feeding success increased with the local abundance of capelin and polar cod. Capelin were a targeted prey, and cod fed efficiently on capelin in the areas where they overlapped. Herring overlapped with cod, but feeding success did not increase with herring abundance, suggesting that herring might escape predation. Although feeding success increased with local polar cod abundance, polar cod had a spatial refuge in the northeastern part, which cod did not enter. Our analyses imply that the cod were spatially constrained and that their prey differed in suitability.
Treatment of pregnant rats on Day 12 of pregnancy with luteinizing hormone-antiserum (LH-AS) (equine anti-bovine LH) had no effect on the maintenance of pregnancy or serum progesterone levels in rats bearing either 2 or more than 8 conceptuses. In rats with only 1 conceptus, LH-AS administration resulted in a significant decline in serum progesterone to basal levels within 24 h and all animals (n = 6) failed to maintain pregnancy. All rats with either 1, 2 or greater than 8 implantations showed no effect of normal horse serum (NHS) administration. There was no effect of LH-AS administration on serum testosterone levels, compared to NHS-treated controls.
There are a number of poisonous mushrooms in the wild fungi.As a result of the difficulty in recognising these poisonous mushrooms,a large-scale development of work has been delayed,the past and present methods for identifying poisonous mushrooms are summed up here.They are chiefly the morphological identification,the animal testing and the chemistry inspection.Each method has its limitations.Facts have proved that the traditional morphological identification is only useful for certain poisonous mushroons;the fungus taxonomy appraisal is scientific,but it is only suitable for the professionals.The animal testing method is safe and reliable,but it takes much time and needs many materials.The chemistry inspection method meets the difficulty in examining mushrooms of many toxins.Until now,none of these methods is easy and feasible for recognising poisonous mushrooms.
Tipin is a mammalian protein that interacts with Timeless, which plays a role in DNA damage checkpoint responses. Here, we show that Tipin is a nuclear protein that associates with the replicative helicase and protects cells against genotoxic agents. Tipin is required for efficient cell cycle arrest in response to DNA damage, and depletion of Tipin renders cells sensitive to ionizing radiation as well as replication stress. Loss of Tipin results in spontaneous γ-H2AX foci, a marker for DNA double-strand breaks. We find that Tipin and Timeless form a complex that maintains the level of both proteins in cells and that the loss of either one will lead to the loss of the interacting partner. This observation explains the similar checkpoint phenotypes observed in both Tipin- and Timeless-depleted cells.
Tree improvement programs have influenced significantly the quality of southern pine seeds produced when compared to collections from native stands. Seed orchard management practices such as fertilization can increase seed size and reduce seed dormancy. These result in the need for less complex pregermination treatments. Repeated cone collections from the same clones facilitate collections according to ripening (cone specific gravity), which can improve seed germination and storage. However, cultural practices may result in seed properties that are more sensitive to damage during processing procedures and result in lower quality unless special care is provided during this stage of handling. The effect of orchard management practices on seed quality also varies by species, with loblolly pine being less affected than longleaf pine. Key words: Pinus spp., seed germination, seed dormancy, seed storage, cone maturity
A correlation coefficient matrix and two-way contingency tables reveal multiple associations among the life history characteristics of diapause, voltinism, phagism, and distribution. Diapause is at the hub of numerous intercorrelations, a position shared by voltinism. Diapause and voltinism are significantly correlated with phagism and frost-free day (FFD) numbers and range, each of which, in turn, is correlated with one or more of the other characters. When these data are treated to a PC analysis, the latent principal components of the intercorrelations become apparent. The major influence on the variations in the patterns of the characters in this study is a result of thermal habitat differences (measured by number of FFD). The niche width or resource diversity of the species (measured by breadth of the thermal range of distribution and diversity of acceptable host plants) and foodplant growth forms (the factor least implicated by simple univariate methods) are also principal components of the patterns of variation of these characters. Discernible patterns emerge with respect to thermal habitats and foodplant growth form and the stage at which diapause occurs. Species which fail to undergo any form of diapause during their life cycle are confined to warm habitats and are most frequently associated with herbaceous host plants. Associations with warmer habitats and woody host plants are apparent for species which undergo reproductive diapause as adults. The species which undergo diapause as pupae are relatively diverse with respect to these factors, but show definite clustering associated with woody host-plant species and relatively warm habitats. Species that undergo diapause as larvae are relatively diverse in relation to the three principal components, although a large number of these species are associated with colder habitats and herbaceous host-plant species. In contrast to species which undergo diapause as larvae or pupae, those species which undergo egg diapause are narrowly defined in both thermal habitat and foodplant-type and are associated with cooler habitats and woody host-plant species.
The meiotic behaviour of 13 spontaneous interspecific F 1 hybrids of Amaranthus was studied. The hybrids between species with n = 16 chromosomes had 16 bivalents but varied considerably in pollen stainability (0-55%). These results suggest the existence of cryptic structural hybridity. The hybrids involving A. cruentus (n = 17) and species with n = 16 (A. caudatus and A. quitensis) always formed 15II+1III with very low pollen stainability (5-7%). Further observations indicated that Amaranthus species are allotetraploids with basic numbers of x = 8 and x = 9 but exhibit x = 16 and x = 17 as secondary basic numbers, as demonstrated by (a) the frequent presence of 8II + 17I in the meiosis of the hybrid A. spinosus (n = 17) x A. hybridus (n = 16) ; and the occurrence of secondary associations between bivalents in MI. Genomic formulae are proposed for each species, on the basis of the meiotic behaviour of the hybrids studied.
The study was conducted to evaluate the quality of cryopreserved buffalo and zebu semen thawed and held at low temperature. Progressive motility of frozen semen thawed in a 37 °C water bath for 45 s (control) was compared with that of semen held in ice water (3-5 °C) for 180 min. Semen collected from 3 buffalo and 2 zebu bulls was used for this purpose over 3 weeks (replicates). Fertility was compared after performing 28 inseminations with buffalo semen and 100 inseminations with zebu semen either after control thawing or thawing straws in ice water for 30-60 min. Progressive motility of buffalo and zebu semen thawed and held in ice water for 30 and 90 min, respectively, was not different from that of semen thawed at 37 °C. The conception rate of buffaloes and zebu cows (69.2% and 60.0%) inseminated after control thawing was higher than that of animals inseminated with semen kept in ice water for 30-60 min (53.3% and 47.7%). However, the difference between conception rates after insemination with the 2 thawing methods was not significant in either case. It is concluded that there was a trend for decreased fertility for both buffalo and zebu semen when inseminations were performed after thawing and holding semen for 30-60 min in ice water.
Cultured skin fibroblasts and lymphoblastoid lines (established by Epstein-Barr infection) derived from patients have been commonly used in studies on inherited metabolic disorders. It is generally accepted that, on some occasions, valuable information for comprehending the normal transport function and intracellular metabolism in human cells only becomes available through studies using affected cells, and not normal cells. Besides clarification of the mechanism an abnormal function caused by a mutant enzyme, cultured cells provide other useful information (or products), with advanced procedures including cell fusion and gene technology; genetic heterogeneity (gene complementation analysis), correction of mutant genes (transfer of genes or gene products), gene cloning of a specific locus (using chromosomal deletion) and gene expression. The application of "reverse genetics" may permit further access to a complex cellular system.
Specific suppressor cells in mice and monkeys can be induced with high doses of Streptococcus mutans antigen. When these cells are further cultured with a low dose of S. mutans antigen in vitro, they secrete specific suppressor factors which decrease the cooperative responses to this antigen. In view of the sensitivity of these cells to anti-Thy 1 and complement, and as they are not retained on nylon-wool, these suppressor cells are T cells. The suppressor factor exerts its effect on T helper cells and not on B cells. Suppressor cells and factors may regulate antibody responses to S. mutans and might be of significance in determining the dose and frequency of immunization and the type of adjuvant to be used.
THE relation of genes to characters includes all the processes of development, from the gene in the chromosome to the end result. It is worth while first to consider what are the essential and what are the secondary characteristics of the problem. If we were to list what information is desirable, it would be, first of all, knowledge of the relation of the gene to the active product in the cytoplasm; of the arrangements in the cytoplasm for using the active product; of the possibilities for genic interaction within the nucleus, and afterwards, for interactions of the products in the cytoplasm; and of a number of other such properties of the system. All these are essentials of the problem of the effects of genes on development. We should subsequently turn our interest to the secondary interactions which occupy the embryologist, the relation of genes to organizers, and so on. Finally we should study the actual appearance in development of the characters differentiating, let us say, one mutant race from another. From this point of view, it is clear that the essentials are precisely the problems which are least accessible, The reason is simple: if we knew enough about developinent, and about cellular physiology in general, it would be possible to use the effects of genes on development to find out something about the nature of the gene. Contrariwise, were we familiar with the properties of the
The cytoskeleton is important in the maintenance of cellular morphology and differentiated function in a number of cell types, including hepatocytes. In this study, adult rat hepatocytes sandwiched between two layers of collagen gel were compared to cells cultured on a single collagen gel for differences in the organization and expression of the cytoskeletal proteins actin and tubulin. Hepatocytes cultured between two layers of hydrated rat tail tendon collagen (sandwich gel) morphologically resembled cells in intact liver for several weeks. Actin filaments (F-actin) in these hepatocytes were concentrated under the plasma membrane in regions of cell-cell contact. In contrast, hepatocytes cultured on a single collagen gel were flattened and motile and had F-actin containing stress fibers. This was accompanied by a severalfold increase in actin mRNA. Microtubules formed an interwoven network in hepatocytes cultured in a sandwich gel, but in single gel cultures they formed long parallel arrays extending out to the cell periphery. Tubulin mRNA was severalfold greater in hepatocytes cultured on a single gel. Fibronectin and laminin staining were greater in single gel cultures, and these proteins were concentrated in fibrils radiating from the cell periphery. Overlaying a second collagen gel onto hepatocytes that had been cultured on a single gel (double gel rescue) reversed cell spreading and reduced stress fibers. Double gel rescue also resulted in a decrease in actin and tubulin mRNA to levels present in sandwich gel cultures and freshly isolated hepatocytes. These results show that the configuration of the external matrix has a dynamic effect on cytoskeletal proteins in cultured rat hepatocytes.
FROM THE END TO THE MIDDLE: REGULATION OF TELOMERE LENGTH AND KINETOCHORE ASSEMBLY BY THE RNR INHIBITOR SML1 Amitabha Gupta Accurate DNA replication is essential for proper cellular growth and requires an adequate and balanced supply of dNTPs. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, de novo dNTP synthesis through nucleotide reduction by the Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) enzyme is the sole method of production. Hence, RNR activitity is highly regulated via allosteric control, transcriptional control, differential localization of subunits, and direct inhibition of the large subunit, Rnr1, by Sml1. Loss of RNR regulation results in increased mutation due to an imbalance or an absolute change in the dNTP levels in cells. In this study, I describe how mutants in dNTP regulation, including sml1∆, play a role in telomere length homeostasis. Reduction in total dNTP concentration results in a modest decrease in telomere length, while altering the ratios between the four dNTPs has a much more pronounced effect. The altered telomere lengths correlate with the relative amount of dGTP and are dependent on telomerase. At reduced levels of relative dGTP, telomerase repeatedly stalls and dissociates from telomeres, thereby leading to shorter telomeres. Conversely, with elevated relative dGTP levels, telomerase is able to processively add nucleotides and even shows low levels of repeat addition processivity. The correlation between telomerase activity and dGTP is conserved in human telomerase, which shows increased repeat addition processivity at increased dGTP concentrations. Thus, telomere length homeostasis is also sensitive to dNTP regulation in the cell via a conserved dependence on dGTP. RNR regulation is, however, relaxed in the cell following DNA damage to allow for an increase in dNTP levels to repair the damage. In response to various forms of damage, Rad53 and Dun1 are activated and then phosphorylate numerous downstream targets, including the Rnr1 inhibitor Sml1. In this study, it was shown that the phosphorylation of Sml1 triggers its ubiquitylation by the Rad6-Ubr2-Mub1 ubiquitin ligase complex and subsequent degradation by the 26S proteasome. Furthermore, I was able to identify novel genes involved in the degradation of Sml1. Of the genes identified, many are involved in the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), cohesin establishment, and kinetochore integrity. The loss of SML1 in mutants of these genes resulted in synthetic growth defects that were not due to the loss of dNTP regulation, indicating a second dNTP-independent function for Sml1. Analysis of the double mutants revealed elevated chromosome loss and aberrant spindle dynamics, pointing to a role for Sml1 in the spindle/kinetochore. Through analysis of kinetochore assembly kinetics, Sml1 was found to be the functional human Mis18α ortholog involved in timely establishment of the kinetochore. Thus, Sml1 has a novel structural function at the kinetochore in addition to its role in dNTP regulation.
A yeast null mutant (erg 3) defective in ERG 3, the gene encoding the C-5 sterol desaturase required for ergosterol synthesis was transformed with an Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA library inserted in a yeast vector. Transformants (4 x 10(5)) were screened for cycloheximide (CH) resistance and 400 possible clones were analyzed to determine their sterol profile. Low levels of ergosterol in addition to delta 7- and delta 8-sterols normally present in erg3 were isolated in three yeast transformants. Characterization of one transformant indicated a cDNA of 1141 bp. Transformation of an erg 3 strain with this plasmid led to CH resistance, nystatin sensitivity and an ergosterol profile. After subcloning in a pBluescript vector and subsequent sequencing, an ORF of 843 bp encoding a possible 281 amino acid polypeptide was deduced. Three histidine-rich motifs (HX3H, HX2HH and HX2HH) were found in the A. thaliana ORF which are also present in the yeast ERG 3 gene. These histidine-rich motifs are also characteristic of many membrane-bound fatty acid desaturases from higher plants. These data strongly suggest that the A. thaliana cDNA encodes a delta 7-sterol-C-5-desaturase.
The present study was undertaken to investigate the mechanisms of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) ligand-induced apoptosis on human myeloid leukemia K562 and HL-60 cell lines. The results revealed that both 15-deoxy-delta(12,14)-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2) and troglitazone (TGZ) have significant anti-proliferation- and apoptosis-inducing effects on these two kinds of leukemia cells. Marked morphological changes of cell apoptosis including condensation of chromatin and nuclear fragmentation were observed clearly using Wright's and Hoechst 33258 staining. Reverse transcription-PCR and western blot analyses demonstrated that both survivin and bcl-2 expression were downregulated markedly, while bax expression was upregulated concurrently when apoptosis occurred. We therefore conclude that 15d-PGJ2 and TGZ have significant apoptosis effects on K562 and HL-60 cells in vitro, and that upregulation of bax as well as downregulation of survivin and bcl-2 expression may be the important apoptosis-inducing mechanisms. The results suggest that PPAR-gamma ligands may serve as potential therapeutic agents for both acute and chronic myeloid leukemia.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of peptidase inhibitors on peptide induced relaxation of renal arteries from diabetic rats. Rats were injected with 60 mg/kg streptozotocin (IP), and treated with α‐lipoic acid (2.5g/kg), Enalapril (500mg/kg), Candoxatril (300mg/kg), AVE7688 (500mg/kg), or Alogliptin (200mg/kg) in the diet for 12 weeks. Tension studies were performed on tertiary branches of renal arteries Acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside responses were not altered in phenylephrine constricted arteries. Atrial natruretic peptide (ANP) and calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) responses were attenuated in arteries from diabetic rats. Responses were improved when rats received the peptidase inhibitors, but not when rats were treated with α‐lipoic acid. Thus, responses to vasoactive peptides are reduced in diabetic rats, and treatment with peptidase inhibitors, improves dilation to these peptides. Supported by VA merits to Drs. Oltman and Yorek.
Summary  The iodine-bromine numbers of some edible oils such as coconut oil, gingelly oil, groundnut oil, mustard oil, olive oil, palm oil and sunflower oil were determined titrimetrically using the N-bromoimides, N-bromophthalimide (NBP) and N-bromosaccharin (NBSA). The proposed excess-back titration methods were based on quantitative bromination of the glycerides of unsaturated fatty acids present in the oils and both the methods were simple, rapid and accurate.
We have studied the genetic segregation of human T-cell receptor beta-chain (TCR beta) genes on chromosome 7q in 40 CEPH (Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain) families by using restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). We constructed haplotypes from eight RFLPs by using variable- and constant-region cDNA probes, which detect polymorphisms that span more than 600 kilobases of the TCR beta gene complex. Analysis of allele distributions between TCR beta genes revealed significant linkage disequilibrium between only 6 of the 28 different pairs of RFLPs. This linkage disequillibrium strongly influences the most efficient order to proceed for typing of these RFLPs in order to achieve maximum genetic informativeness, which in this study revealed a 97.3% level of heterozygosity within the TCR beta gene complex. Our results should provide new insight into recent reports of disease associations with the TCR beta gene complex and should assist in designing future experiments to detect or confirm the existence of disease-susceptibility loci in this region of the human genome.
Application of neurotrophic proteins including ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), members of the family of gp130‐associated cytokines, can rescue CNS neurons from injury‐induced degeneration. However, it is not clear so far if these effects reflect a physiological function of the endogenous cytokines. Using fimbria‐fornix transection as a model, we examined whether responses of GABAergic and cholinergic septohippocampal neurons to axotomy are altered in mice lacking CNTF. In addition, we studied the cellular expression of CNTF, LIF and related cytokine receptor components in the septal complex following lesion.
Thirteen isolates from African AIDS patients and from the environment in Zaire were identified as members of the Mycobacterium avium complex by phenotypic tests. RFLP analysis showed that the isolates belong to a genetically homogeneous cluster. The 16S rRNA sequence analysis suggests a close relationship with the P‐49 strain (ATCC 35847), a reference strain for the serotype 7 of M. avium complex. This work shows the close relationship between certain M. avium complex strains responsible for disseminated infection in AIDS patients and M. avium complex strains isolated from the environment in Zaire. Further, our findings confirm that atypical mycobacteria may disseminate in AIDS patients in Africa and suggest that infection in these patients probably originates in their environment.
In the past decade, a general design for sequence-specific minor groove ligands has evolved, based on the natural products distamycin and netropsin. By utilizing a basic set of design rules for connecting pyrrole, imidazole, and hydroxypyrrole modules, new ligands can be prepared to target almost any sequence of interest with both high affinity and specificity. In this review we present the design rules with a brief history of how they evolved. The structural basis for sequence-specific recognition is explained, together with developments that allow linking of recognition modules that enable targeting of long DNA sequences. Examples of the affinity and specificity that can be achieved with a number of variations on the basic design are given. Recently these molecules have been used to compete with proteins both in vitro and in vivo, and a brief description of the experimental results are given.
ABSTRACT The genomes of four novel marine Actinobacteria have been assembled from large metagenomic data sets derived from the Mediterranean deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM). These are the first marine representatives belonging to the order Acidimicrobiales and only the second group of planktonic marine Actinobacteria to be described. Their streamlined genomes and photoheterotrophic lifestyle suggest that they are planktonic, free-living microbes. A novel rhodopsin clade, acidirhodopsins, related to freshwater actinorhodopsins, was found in these organisms. Their genomes suggest a capacity to assimilate C2 compounds, some using the glyoxylate bypass and others with the ethylmalonyl-coenzyme A (CoA) pathway. They are also able to derive energy from dimethylsulfopropionate (DMSP), sulfonate, and carbon monoxide oxidation, all commonly available in the marine habitat. These organisms appear to be prevalent in the deep photic zone at or around the DCM. The presence of sister clades to the marine Acidimicrobiales in freshwater aquatic habitats provides a new example of marine-freshwater transitions with potential evolutionary insights. IMPORTANCE Despite several studies showing the importance and abundance of planktonic Actinobacteria in the marine habitat, a representative genome was only recently described. In order to expand the genomic repertoire of marine Actinobacteria, we describe here the first Acidimicrobidae genomes of marine origin and provide insights about their ecology. They display metabolic versatility in the acquisition of carbon and appear capable of utilizing diverse sources of energy. One of the genomes harbors a new kind of rhodopsin related to the actinorhodopsin clade of freshwater origin that is widespread in the oceans. Our data also support their preference to inhabit the deep chlorophyll maximum and the deep photic zone. This work contributes to the perception of marine actinobacterial groups as important players in the marine environment with distinct and important contributions to nutrient cycling in the oceans. Despite several studies showing the importance and abundance of planktonic Actinobacteria in the marine habitat, a representative genome was only recently described. In order to expand the genomic repertoire of marine Actinobacteria, we describe here the first Acidimicrobidae genomes of marine origin and provide insights about their ecology. They display metabolic versatility in the acquisition of carbon and appear capable of utilizing diverse sources of energy. One of the genomes harbors a new kind of rhodopsin related to the actinorhodopsin clade of freshwater origin that is widespread in the oceans. Our data also support their preference to inhabit the deep chlorophyll maximum and the deep photic zone. This work contributes to the perception of marine actinobacterial groups as important players in the marine environment with distinct and important contributions to nutrient cycling in the oceans.
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in diverse biological processes, such as transcriptional regulation, cell growth and tumorigenesis. However, little is known about whether lncRNA-GAS5 (growth arrest-specific 5) regulates bladder cancer progression. In the present study, we found that the GAS5 expression is commonly downregulated in bladder cancer cell lines and human specimens. Knockdown of GAS5 promotes bladder cancer cell proliferation, whereas forced expression of GAS5 suppresses cell proliferation. We further demonstrated that knockdown of GAS5 increases CDK6 mRNA and protein levels in bladder cancer cells. Expectedly, GAS5 inhibition induces a significant decrease in G0/G1 phase and an obvious increase in S phase. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies showed that GAS5 inhibits bladder cancer cell proliferation, at least in part, by regulating CDK6 expression. Conclusions Downregulated GAS5 promotes bladder cancer cell proliferation, partly by regulating CDK6, and thus may be helpful in the development of effective treatment strategies against bladder cancer.
The genetic diversity and structure of 72 Appaloosa horses belonging to a closed breeding popula- tion from an ecological reserve in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was investigated using eight microsatellite markers from the International Society for Animal Genetics panel. Our data showed that this Appaloosa horse population had an elevated degree of genetic diversity (He = 0.746) and did not present a significant increase of homozygous individuals (FIS~0). However, the short tandem repeats, AHT5, ASB2, HTG10 and VHL20, were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P-value< 0.05). Genetic relationships between this population and other well known horse breeds showed that Appaloosa horses from Argentina could have had their origin in the horses of the Nez Perce's people in Idaho while other Appaloosa horses may have had influences from Andalu- sian and Lusitano breeds. This closed breeding population conserves an important degree of Appaloosa genetic diversity and notwithstanding its particular breeding characteristics, represents a valuable genetic resource for conservation.
AIM: To investigate the role of heat-shock protein 70(HSP_(70)) in the protection of myocardial cells against ischemic injury. METHODS: Myocardial cells were cultured in vitro. HSP_(70) was induced by hyperthermia.H_2O_2-injured myocardial cells were divided into different groups. Flow cytometry, DNA Ladder and biochemistry methods were employed to observe the myocardial cells of different groups. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry showed hyperthermia induced the up-regulation of HSP_(70) in myocardial cells. Apoptotic rate, activity analysis of cytochrome C and succinic dehydrogenase in H_2O_2-injuried and HSP_(70)-protected groups were obviously different. Electron micrograph shomed hyperthermia alliviated myocardial cell injury induced by H_2O_2. CONCLUSION: HSP_(70) delays apoptosis and protects against H_2O_2-induced myocardial cell injury.
Algal-available phosphorus (Paa) in river water and wastewater entering the Gulf of Finland (a Baltic Sea sub-basin) was estimated by a fresh-water and a brackish-water modification of the dual-culture algal assay. The assay results were further related to those obtained by routine chemical analyses. According to the brackish-water assay, an average of 44% (range, 9-88%) of total phosphorus (TP) in water samples from the Neva, Kymijoki, and Narva rivers consisted of Paa, whereas the mean value given by the fresh-water assay was 22% (range, 0-48%). Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin, which was used as the test alga in the brackish-water assay, had higher phosphoesterase activity and P affinity than did Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata Korschikov, which was used in the fresh-water assay. This difference may explain the higher values of Paa shown by the brackish-water assay. Of the analytical P forms, total dissolved P best approximated, yet underestimated, the Paa in river water samples. As for the biologically purified wastewaters of the city of St. Petersburg, both assays suggested that about 80% of TP (range, 59-103%) was available. That the assays gave similar results was probably due to the fact that most of the P in the wastewater samples was in the form of readily available dissolved reactive P. In untreated urban wastewaters, the mean proportion of Paa in TP was 46% (range, 19-76%). Although the true Paa may not be obtained by any assay, our findings corroborate the view that severe underestimation may occur if the test conditions are suboptimal for the release and uptake of P.
Abstract A Y‐tube olfactometer and a still‐air olfactometer were developed to determine the attractiveness of several host plants for the vine weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus (F.); Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Odours of weevil‐damaged yew (Taxus baccata) and spindle trees (Euonymus fortunei) are attractive to the vine weevil, but Rhododendron and strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) are not. Undamaged Euonymus is attractive to the weevils in springtime but not in late summer. When clean air or undamaged Euonymus is the alternative, weevils strongly prefer weevil‐damaged Euonymus foliage, and this preference is retained throughout the year. Hence, plant damage plays a role in attraction of the vine weevil. In contrast to the permanent attractiveness of weevil‐damaged Euonymus, mechanically damaged plants gradually lose the attractiveness that they have early in the growing season. This suggests that emission of volatiles, produced by the plants in response to weevil damage, is important for attraction of the weevils because the weevils may use these plant odours to find suitable food plants throughout the season. Apart from weevil‐damage‐related plant volatiles, green leaf volatiles must also play a significant role, as indicated by the fact that weevils prefer: early season, undamaged Euonymus over clean air; early season, mechanically damaged Euonymus over undamaged Euonymus; and, throughout the season, had no preference when mechanically damaged Euonymus is tested against weevil‐damaged Euonymus. Thus, monitoring traps may be developed by the use of green leaf volatiles and/or herbivore‐induced volatiles, as attractants.
The current trend in publishing new Legionella species is to utilize culture and phenotypic characteristics, serology, cellular fatty acids and isoprenoid quinone profiles, DNA relatedness, and a molecular phylogenetic analysis targeting usually more than one gene. To investigate the greater use of sequence-based phylogenetic analyses in lieu of serology, fatty acid and isoprenoid quinone profiles, and even perhaps DNA relatedness, 56 strains representing 33 potentially novel species were phylogenetically assessed with 6 gene targets. First, following a phylo-genetic analysis based on sequence from the mip gene, 49 strains representing 30 potentially novel species were selected because their genetic distance from recognized species was greater than that between recognized species. Second, DNA studies on two strains indicated that they were novel, even though their mip sequence-derived genetic distance was closer to a recognized species than that between recognized species. Last, the remaining five strains were selected because they were genetically related to either of these latter two strains, based on their macrophage infectivity potentiator (mip) sequence-derived genetic distance. The six gene targets used in this analysis, 16S rRNA gene, the mip gene , the RNA polymerase β-subunit (rpoB), the RNase P RNA gene (rnpB), and the DNA gyrase A subunit (gyrA), together with the zinc metallo-protease (proA, also known as mspA) gene. In the interim, the use of a combined approach using the sequenced- based phylogeny to identify “nearest neighbor” species will greatly simplify the use of total DNA relatedness studies.
The invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans) is now firmly established in the waters of the Bahamas but little is known of its dietary habits this novel range. In order to assess the risk to the spiny lobster population a survey of lionfish diet was carried out at artificial lobster habitats on the Great Bahama Bank. The stomach contents of 71 lionfish were analyzed by prey type, representing the largest quantitative data set on lionfish diet published to date. Fish were found to make up over 75% of prey. While no lobster remains were identified, traces of shrimp, crab and isopods were found. An increase in piscivory with age was apparent. In comparison with the few previous studies there was an increase in the proportion of fish in the lionfish diet and evidence of diurnal feeding. The naivety of fish prey to the threat of the invasive lionfish is put forward as an explanation for these findings. These results indicate that reef fish, including those of economic interest, are most at threat from this invasion.
Farmers who delay corn (Zea mays L.) planting into sod until after a hay harvest are interested in no-till to conserve soil and reduce fuel, machinery, time, and labor costs. Growth, yield, and economic returns for corn planted no-till (NT) and with conventional tillage (CT) following hay harvest were compared in a field study conducted from 1985 to 1987. Mixed alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)/grass hay was harvested in late May and corn hybrids of three maturities were planted after either moldboard plowing (CT) or chemically killing (NT) vegetation. Increased residue cover with NT did not consistently influence soil temperature and moisture after planting compared with CT. No-till, however, reduced corn emergence in all years by 8 to 20% and delayed emergence by 1 to 11 d. In addition, NT reduced plant vegetative dry weight at stage V6 by 20 to 60% and delayed silking 5 d in 2 of 3 yr compared with CT. Grain moisture was approximately 4 percentage points higher in 2 of 3 yr when produced under NT. Grain yields were similar for CT and NT in 1986, but yields were reduced 66 bu/acre under NT in 1985 and 25 bu/acre in 1987. Yield reductions probably would have been even greater if plots had not been overplanted and thinned to constant plant densities. Short-season hybrids produced greatest yields for both tillage systems. In all years, NT reduced economic return, from $8 to $156/acre compared with CT. Savings in machinery and labor with NT were offset by increased pesticide costs and lower yields compared with CT. On rolling hillsides in the upper Midwest, reduced tillage may be a better option than NT for late-planted corn following hay harvest.
The presence in agroecosystems of plants able to develop symbiosis with nitrogen (N 2 ) fixing microorganisms is encouraged as may decrease the need for mineral N fertilizers. Biological N 2 fixation is widespread among Fabaceae, but legume species differ in their ability to develop symbiosis with N 2 fixing microorganisms: for example, while this frequently occurs in the sub-family Papilionoideae, only about 5% of the species of the sub-family Cesalpinoideae have developed such symbiosis mechanism. Carob (Ceratonia siligua L.) is an evergreen legume tree belonging to Cesalpinoideae, typical of the Mediterranean basin, used for animal feeding, but with a great potential as a crop for the food and cosmetic industries and medicin. The ability of carob trees to develop symbiosis with rhizobia is unclear: root nodules have not generally been found in nature but were formed on roots of carob trees inoculated with rhizobia. We have applied the 15 N natural abundance technique to field grown carob trees in Sicily and Sardinia (Italy) to assess the potential contribution of atmospheric N 2 for tree metabolism. As soil derived N is generally more enriched in 15 N than atmospheric N 2 (δ 15 N=0 ‰), if a tree uses atmospheric N 2 through the symbiosis with N 2 fixing microorganisms, then the 15 N abundance in its tissues should be lower than that of a tree deriving all its N from the soil. Leaf sampling were performed in six sites in different periods of the year from mature carob trees and from adjacent trees either normally able (Spartium junceum or Robinia pseudoacacia) or unable (control trees, like Olea sativa, Olea oleaster, Arbutus unedo, Pistacia lentiscus) to develop efficient symbioses with rhizobia. Soil δ 15 N ranged from 5.1 to 8.4‰. While leaves of trees known to develop N 2 fixing symbioses had lower δ 15 N than the others, leaves of carob trees had similar values of δ 15 N than control trees. Data from the study did not support the hypothesis that field grown carob trees used N derived from symbiotical fixation.
Anti-keratin monoclonal antibody AF5 was introduced into fertilized eggs of Xenopus laevis.,and its effects on embryonic development were studied.Survival rate of the antikeratin-injected embryos was much lower(only 35.67% at gastrula)than that of the control(74.85% at gastrula),in which embryos were injected with mouse IgG.Most of survivors in the experimental series showed aberrant external appearance.On the other hand,in cleavage stage,ie 2-7h after fertilization,immunohistochemical staining of embryos showed that the expermental embryos were mostly keratin negative,while embryos of the control ones were keratin positive.When introducing this antikeratin into one cell of a 2-cell embryo,only the uninjected half of the embryo continued its development while the other half could not develop at all.These results suggested that intact keratin cytoskeleton in early embryos is indispensable to the embryonic development of Xenopus laevis.
The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (St(a)。l), is an important insect pest of rice in Asia. Its importance has been attributed to the effects of “Green Revolution” which promoted intensive rice monocultures with high fertilizer and pesticide applications. Since BPH depends on rice for its existence, host plant chemistry plays a major role in the population biology of BPH. The combined effects of increased colonization and improved performance may result in rapid population growth and high densities in nitrogen enriched crops. To fully clarify the ecological mechanism of BPH outbreak on the rice plants with high nitrogen regimes, this study was emphasized on the response of BPH to high nymph density on rice plants with different nitrogen regimes and was conducted in International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. The results indicated that the nymph survival rates were markedly decreased with the increase of nymph density and with the reduce of nitrogen content in rice plants, implying the negative feedback mechanisms restricting population growth by both high nymph density and low quality of host plants, while lower nymph survival rates were found in the populations of BPH fed on rice plants with low nitrogen regime. The ratio of nymphs to total number of BPH was negatively related to the content of nitrogen in host plants at high nymph densities of 80 and 160 per pot, indicating the shortened nymphal development on the rice plants with high nitrogen content under high nymph densities, meanwhile significant longer nymph durations of BPH were recorded in the populations continuously fed on rice plants with low nitrogen regime compared to those on rice plants with high nitrogen regime. The ratio of female to male adults was positively related to the nitrogen content in host plants at the nymph density of 40 per pot, however, it decreased with the increase of nymph density. Female adult weight was significantly reduced with increased nymph density on rice plants with low nitrogen fertilizer. Female adult longevities on high nitrogen host plants were 3-fold longer than those on low nitrogen plants at all three tested nymph densities. Increased nitrogen content in rice plants significantly increased BPH fecundity, and the great difference in fecundity among three tested nymph densities was recorded on rice plants with low nitrogen fertilizer. Those results should suggest the application of high nitrogen fertilizer increased the load capacity of rice plants for a high BPH density.
During 2009-2010,salt tolerance(ST) of 49 introgression line populations derived from Minghui 86 were evaluated according to performance of ST-related traits including percentage of survival plants,seed setting rate and grain weight per plant under 0.5% salinization(sea water+fresh water) over the whole growth stage.The results indicated that the populations differed in ST even derived from the same subspecies,indica or japonica.The introgression populations originated from japonica parents showed better ST than those originated from indica parents.The four populations with Shennong 265,Y134,Zaoxian 14 and Gayabyeo as donor parents had high percentage of salt-tolerant lines,10.04%,6.98%,11.83% and 7.9%,respectively.High reproducibility of the results in the two years conformed the high reliability.The hybrids between the restorer lines with ST and Xieqingzao A were evaluated for heterosis under conventional cultivation.Six elite combinations with better performance in panicle number per plant,spikelet number per panicle,1000-grain weight and grain yield per plant were selected from the progenies of Xieqingzao A/salt-tolerant restore lines under conventional cultivation.Field salt stress over whole growth stage creat favorable conditions for breeding of hybrid rice with ST and high yield potential.
DNase X is the first mammalian DNase to be isolated that is homologous to DNase I. In this study, we have examined its function using a novel monoclonal antibody and showed it to be expressed on the cell surface as a glycosylphosphatidylinositolanchored membrane protein. High level expression was observed in human muscular tissues and in myotubes obtained in vitro from RD rhabdomyosarcoma cells. We observed that RD myotubes incorporated a foreign gene, lacZ, by endocytosis but that expression of the encoded coding product, β-galactosidase, was strongly inhibited. Overexpression of DNase X inhibited endocytosis-mediated gene transfer, whereas knockdown of DNase X with small interfering RNA had the opposite effect. These results reveal that DNase X provides a cell surface barrier to endocytosis-mediated gene transfer.
Achyranthes coynei is a rare, endemic perennial shrub reported from Karnataka and Maharashtra states of India. The plant is used to treat various disorders by folk healers and was proven to have antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. The present study was undertaken to evaluate microscopic and macroscopic characters of A. coynei stem, along with its physicochemical parameters. ProgRes ® CapturePro and Microsoft Excel were used for statistical analysis. Perennial, shrubby nature and woody stem were the distinguishing morphological characters observed. Transverse section (TS) illustrated quadrangular outline of the stem and showed the presence of two types of trichomes on the thick-walled epidermis. TS also showed number of rosette calcium oxalates crystals; prismatic and microsphenoid crystals; conjoint, collateral open secondary vascular bundles; and two amphixylic medullary bundles in the pith. Ash and extractive values, micro and macro elements and nutritive factors were estimated in the present study. The presence of alkaloids, saponins and triterpenoids were observed in preliminary phytochemical screening. High-performance thin layer chromatographic analysis yielded different bands and also indicated the presence of oleanolic acid. The studied parameters for A. coynei stem will be useful for identification and authentication of the plant material.
TRIP-Br1 oncoprotein is known to be involved in many vital cellular functions. In this study, we examined the role of TRIP-Br1 in hypoxia-induced cell death. Exposure to the overcrowded and CoCl2-induced hypoxic conditions increased TRIP-Br1 expression at the protein level in six breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, MDA-MB-231, T47D, Hs578D, BT549, and MDA-MB-435) but resulted in no significant change in three normal cell lines (MCF10A, MEF and NIH3T3). Our result revealed that CoCl2-induced hypoxia stimulated apoptosis and autophagy, in which TRIP-Br1 expression was found to be upregulated. Interestingly, TRIP-Br1 silencing in the MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cells accelerated apoptosis and destabilization of XIAP under the CoCl2-induced hypoxic condition, implying that TRIP-Br1 may render cancer cells resistant to apoptosis through the stabilization of XIAP. We also propose that TRIP-Br1 seems to be upregulated at least partly as a result of the inhibition of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and the overexpression of HIF-1α. In conclusion, our findings suggest that TRIP-Br1 functions as an oncogenic protein by providing cancer cells resistance to the hypoxia-induced cell death.
The Gorakhpur region consitutes a major part of the Terai-belt in Uttar Pradesh, India. This region experiences an humid sub, tropical climate and is adorned with rich phanerogamic flora. As a result of the long term mycological survey of this region, the authors have collected a large number of interesting plant parasitic fungi some of which have been reported and described recently (KAMAL et al., 1977, 1978; KAMAL & SINGH, 1978; SINGH & KAMAL, 1978). This paper, however, describes and illustrates three new species of Sarcinella viz., S. colebrookiae sp. nov. (on Colebrookia oppositifolia SMITH), S, glycosmidis sp. nov. (on Glycosmis pentaphylla CORREA), and S. gorakhpurensis sp. nov. (on Diospyros melanoxylon ROXB.),
Emergence and survival of the seedlings of warm-season native perennial grasses Aristida ramosa R.Br., Bothriochloa macra (Steud.) S . T. Blake, Dichanthium sericeum (R.Br.) Camus, Sporobolus elongatus R.Br., Eragvostis leptostachya Steud. and Chloris truncata R.Br. and the cool-season species Stipa variabilis Hughes and Danthonia linkii Kunth were studied in both native pastures and sown monospecific plots on the north- west slopes of New South Wales. The most favourable period for the successful emergence and establishment of warm-season grasses was from mid summer to early autumn. Cool-season native perennial grasses established best from seedlings that appeared from mid autumn to late winter. Few seedlings were observed to germinate in spring, probably as a result of large variations in temperature, low minimum temperatures or intra and interspecific competition. Seedlings growing in native pasture spent long periods in the vegetative phase compared to the early flowering of seedlings in the sown plots. In the pasture studied only two seedlings flowered over 700 days after emergence, and many others after persisting for up to 2 years died without producing seed. These findings indicate that the seedlings in these native pastures were under considerable stress and that the adult populations of the species examined were relatively stable and little recruitment occurred.
The present investigation on postharvest chemical manipulation in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) regeneration under Jammu sub-tropics was carried out to standardize the dose and time of application of chemicals for optimising the runner production. Application of plant growth regulators enhanced the runner production in strawberry cultivar Chandler under Jammu sub-tropics. The maximum number of runners/mother plant (13.53), number of trains/mother plant (4.10), number of runners/train (3.30), plant spread per mother plant (34.02 cm), plant spread per runner plant (10.83 cm), number of leaves per mother plant (22) and number of leaves per runner plants (7.29) of strawberry cv. Chandler was recorded with the application of 300 ppm GA3 + 150 ppm BA. The maximum plant height per mother plant (23.29 cm), plant height per runner (10.88 cm), petiole length per mother plant (19.1 cm), petiole length per runner plant (10.70 cm) and root length per runner plant (5.90 cm) were recorded under application of GA3 100 ppm. Whereas, control treatment recorded the maximum crown diameter (6.92 mm), crown weight (0.66 g) and leaf area (16.57). The findings indicated that the application of GA3 (300 ppm) + BA (150 ppm) enhanced the regeneration capacity of strawberry runners under Jammu sub-tropics.
In this study, we examined the effects of apple polyphenols (APs) on hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, hepatic steatosis and endothelial function and investigated the potential mechanisms. ApoE−/− mice were fed a western-type diet and orally treated with APs (100 mg/kg) or atorvastatin (10 mg/kg) for 12 weeks. Hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis in the aortic sinuses and, and hepatic lipidosis were measured. The treatment with APs or atorvastatin induced a remarkable reduction in the atherosclerotic lesions and hepatic steatosis and decreased the levels of low-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, CCL-2 and VCAM-1 levels in the plasma. Conversely, the APs significantly increased the plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and markedly up-regulated the glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels in liver tissues. Moreover, the APs treatment modulated lipid metabolism by up-regulating the transcription of associated hepatic genes including PPARα, while down-regulating the transcription of SCAP and its downstream genes associated with lipid synthesis in the liver. Histological assessment showed that the APs treatment also reduced the macrophage infiltration in the aortic root plaque and the inflammatory cells infiltrations to the liver tissues. Moreover, we confirmed that the APs treatment greatly reduced the ox-LDL-induced endothelial dysfunction and monocyte adhesion to rat aortic endothelial cells (RAECs). Mechanistically, the APs treatment suppressed the ROS/MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway, and consequently, reduced CCL-2, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression. Our results suggest that the APs are a beneficial nutritional supplement for the attenuation of atherosclerosis.
Hyperspectral remote sensing has great potential for accurate detection of forest pests and diseases. The main objectives of this research were: i) to determine the best hyperspectral wavelengths or their combinations to discriminate Pinus massoniana trees infected by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus disease from healthy trees over the spectral range of 350-1000 nm; and ii) to assess the chlorophyll content of infected trees using the hyperspectral algorithm. We also discuss the possibility of an early detection method of B. xylophilus disease dynamics by combining the spectral characteristics and the chlorophyll content of trees. The hyperspectral data were gathered for six stages of healthy to infected trees using a 1-nm-wide handheld spectroradiometer. First derivative (FD) spectra and vegetation indices were used for data dimensionality reduction and to select the most effective wavelengths for detection. The most effective FD spectrum in 759 nm was selected to discriminate the infected and healthy P. massoniana plants. The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI)(810,450) value in the fully infected stage correlated with the variation of chlorophyll content (R2=0.95). We conclude that the combination of specific spectral characteristics and chlorophyll content is a reliable method for confirming infection about 30 days after B. xylophilus inoculation.
The transcription factor Sox2 is one of the earliest determinants of the neural system in vertebrate and plays crucial roles in stem cell maintenance. Through bioinformatical analysis, we found that the 3'untranslated regions (3'UTR) of vertebrate Sox2 mRNAs (especially the 300 bases at the most 3' end) are highly conserved and contain four conserved AU rich fragments. Through reporter gene analysis, we evaluated the effects of the Sox2 full length 3'UTR and the conserved fragments on gene expression in Xenopus laevis embryos and cultured cells. The results showed that the conserved fragment 2 from the 3'UTR of Xenoups laevis Sox2 was able to increase the reporter gene expression significantly, indicating the possibility that the expression level of Sox2 might be regulated post-transcriptionally through its 3'UTR.
Changes in ascorbate metabolism during maturation of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) fruit 'Golden Bell' were investigated. The mature fruits were divided into four stages, based on changes in peel color from green to yellow ; Green=100% green, Green/Yellow=10a20% yellow, Yellow/Green=50a60% yellow, Yellow=100% yellow. 1. Ascorbate content in sweet pepper fruit increased during maturation, whereas dehydroascorbate content remained at 1% throughout the maturation. 2. L-Galactono-γ-lactone dehydrogenase activity increased during maturation, the highest activity was occurring at Yellow stage. 3. Ascorbate peroxidase activity was highest at Green/Yellow or Yellow/Green stage and lowest at the Yellow stage. 4. Dehydroascorbate reductase activity was almost constant during maturation, whereas monodehydroascorbate reductase activity increased from Green to Yellow stage. From our results we attribute the increase of ascorbate contents during maturation to the increase in L-galactono-γ-lactone dehydrogenase and monodehydroascorbate reductase activities.
The fetotoxic and teratogenic potential of 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD) for rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) was tested through oral administration to monkeys early in pregnancy. A single or divided dose, 1 μg of TCDD/kg of body weight, was followed by abortion in 13 of 16 pregnant monkeys treated between days 20 and 40 of gestation. One of four aborted at 0.2 μg/kg, and two of two at 5 μg/kg. None of the mothers given 0.2 μg/kg showed signs of toxicity. Eight of the monkeys aborting at 1 μg/kg showed clinical toxicity 44 to 111 days after aborting, and three died. Both given 5 μg/kg became toxic soon after abortion and died. No malformations except for two minor palatal abnormalities of questionable significance were found in the six fetuses that were not aborted at doses of 0.2 and 1.0 μg/kg. These results indicate (1) that TCDD is fetotoxic at doses that frequently have delayed toxicity to the mother, but that conclusions about teratogenicity cannot be drawn, and (2) that pregnant rhesus females are more sensitive to the toxic effects of TCDD than any species tested but the guinea pig.
The expression of miR-210,a much concerned hypoxia-induced molecule,is significantly changed under the condition of hypoxic microenvironment.The up-regulation of miR-210 depends on the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor in different types of hypoxic tumor cells and normal cells.This review article summarizes the recent progress on the regulation of miR-210 expression and its biological function under hypoxic condition.
OF THESIS ESTABLISHING GROWING DEGREE DAY ESTIMATES TO PREDICT CRITICAL GROWTH STAGES IN SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT Predicting developmental growth stages in soft red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (SRWW) could improve agronomic management in Kentucky. However, predicting SRWW development is complex due to vernalization requirement and photoperiod sensitivity differences of cultivars. The objectives of this study are to (1) determine ability of Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) genotyping to predict phenotype; (2) determine the relative vernalization requirement (RVR) of 50 SRWW cultivars in a greenhouse (GH) assay; and (3) measure growing degree-days (GDD) required by cultivars to reach eight growth stages in a field assay. Fifty SRWW cultivars were characterized with 14 KASP markers for Vrn and Ppd loci. Additionally, cultivars were grown in a GH, vernalized outdoors for three, six, or nine weeks, and moved back into the GH where days to full flower were measured. Cultivars were also seeded into hill plots monthly from October to March at Princeton (2016; 2017) and Lexington, KY (2017) in three field trials. Cumulative GDD to emergence, green-up, pseudo-stem erection, jointing, flag leaf, beginning flower, full flower, and harvest maturity were measured. Field trials and supporting historical wheat development data suggest that prediction of SRWW growth and development is possible using a cumulative GDD scale in Kentucky.
Toll like receptors(TLRs) , a pattern conservative receptor superfamily are found on mammalian cell surface over the last decade. TLRs recognize distinct pathogen - associated molecular patterns, which can lead not only to the responses of the innate immunity but also to the development of the antigenspecific adaptive immunity. The expression of TLRs have changed in some carcinomas, besides, microbial composition and drugs mediate the tumor immunotherapy by the way of TLRs signal transduction. Consequently , deep studies on TLRs will provide new approaches for tumor immunotherapy.    Key words:  Immunity, natural; Antineoplastic protocols; Receptors, cell surface; Immunotherapy
Abstract:  As new assay methods for quantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), such as real time RT‐PCR techniques, approach theoretical limits of per reaction sensitivity, further increments in the sensitivity of measurements of viral load can only be achieved by increasing the amount of input RNA per reaction. We describe a robust, convenient, rapid integrated approach for specimen preparation and real time RT‐PCR assay for plasma simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) RNA viral load that provides a threshold sensitivity of 10 copy Eq/ml, and tolerates less than optimally processed specimens. The method provides accurate quantitation of viral load for the SIV virus isolates in common use for non‐human primate studies. We demonstrate the utility of the method in sensitively tracking viral load in an animal showing effective control of viral replication to levels below the threshold for quantitation in conventional assays.
Abstract Methods employed by the World Health Organization (WHO) are used during this study to determine the optimum storage conditions for maintaining the culturability of Streptococcus pneumoniae in skimmed milk, tryptone, glucose and glycerin (STGG) transport medium. A comparison of S. pneumoniae strains sensitive and resistant to penicillin showed no significant difference in their survival ability in STGG medium. Furthermore, it is confirmed that storage at –70°C remains most effective for maintaining viability by culture of S. pneumoniae. Storage at –20°C would only be acceptable in the short-term, while storage at +4°C is not recommended. Of note, this study has shown STGG medium at room temperature to be an efficient growth medium for pneumococci in the short-term. This work will help to establish robust sampling protocols when performing community studies to ensure culturability of comparison between community and laboratory pneumococci survival.
The fruitfly Tephritis acanthiophilopsis new for the Netherlands (Diptera: Tephritidae) The first record of Tephritis acanthiophilopsis Hering, 1938 for the Netherlands is presented. A single male was collected with a malaisetrap on the ‘Stampersplaat’, a shoal in the ‘Grevelingen’, just north of the town of Brouwershaven, province of Zeeland. The genus Tephritis Latreille, 1804 is characterized and the difference between the two Dutch species of the cometa-group is illustrated.
Dendritic cells (DCs) are a vital component of the immune system. Their main function is to detect the presence of pathogens and act as antigen presenting cells, processing antigenic material then presenting it on their surface in the context of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules to lymphocytes. Thus DCs provide a crucial link between innate and adaptive immunity. DCs efficiently activate naive T cells making it particularly important that they are correctly targeted by vaccines in order to induce both effector and memory responses. This property of DCs has important clinical application in the development of cancer vaccines. However, under certain circumstances DCs can also tolerize T cells, exploiting this may lead to the development of novel therapies for T-cell mediated autoimmune diseases. Recently, there has been substantial progress in the understanding of how to manipulate DCs, however the challenge of translating this from experimental models into the clinic remains. Some patents on DCs, which may lead to the development of effective immunotherapy, are discussed in this review.
Significance Down-regulation of TGFβ signaling is a therapeutic strategy for several disease applications, particularly cancer and fibrosis. However, TGFβ blockade may have adverse effects because TGFβ signaling is necessary for formation and maintenance of normal blood vessels. Because side effects may vary between individuals due to innate differences in genetic makeup, it is important to find which interindividual genetic variants regulate responses to reduced TGFβ signaling and how these operate at the molecular level. Here we identified polymorphic variants of mouse a disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 that differentially regulate TGFβ signaling output and influence the severity of Tgfb1-dependent vascular pathology. This has relevance to risk assessment for clinical manifestations in TGFβ-driven diseases, as well as for prediction of desirable and undesirable responses to anti-TGFβ therapy. Outcome of TGFβ1 signaling is context dependent and differs between individuals due to germ-line genetic variation. To explore innate genetic variants that determine differential outcome of reduced TGFβ1 signaling, we dissected the modifier locus Tgfbm3, on mouse chromosome 12. On a NIH/OlaHsd genetic background, the Tgfbm3bC57 haplotype suppresses prenatal lethality of Tgfb1−/− embryos and enhances nuclear accumulation of mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 2 (Smad2) in embryonic cells. Amino acid polymorphisms within a disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 (Adam17) can account, at least in part, for this Tgfbm3b effect. ADAM17 is known to down-regulate Smad2 signaling by shedding the extracellular domain of TGFβRI, and we show that the C57 variant is hypomorphic for down-regulation of Smad2/3-driven transcription. Genetic variation at Tgfbm3 or pharmacological inhibition of ADAM17, modulates postnatal circulating endothelial progenitor cell (CEPC) numbers via effects on TGFβRI activity. Because CEPC numbers correlate with angiogenic potential, this suggests that variant Adam17 is an innate modifier of adult angiogenesis, acting through TGFβR1. To determine whether human ADAM17 is also polymorphic and interacts with TGFβ signaling in human vascular disease, we investigated hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), which is caused by mutations in TGFβ/bone morphogenetic protein receptor genes, ENG, encoding endoglin (HHT1), or ACVRL1 encoding ALK1 (HHT2), and considered a disease of excessive abnormal angiogenesis. HHT manifests highly variable incidence and severity of clinical features, ranging from small mucocutaneous telangiectases to life-threatening visceral and cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). We show that ADAM17 SNPs associate with the presence of pulmonary AVM in HHT1 but not HHT2, indicating genetic variation in ADAM17 can potentiate a TGFβ-regulated vascular disease.
BACKGROUND Mesothelial cell injury is common in peritoneal dissemination (PD) of cancer cells. The plasminogen activator system, including urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and type-1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), plays an important role in repair of the peritoneum damaged by several types of peritonitis. We investigated and compared the expression of uPA and PAI-1 in the peritoneum of cancer patients with and without PD.   MATERIALS AND METHODS Cancer cell-positive peritoneum and cancer cell-negative peritoneum specimens were obtained from 11 patients with PD, while peritoneum specimens were also obtained from 24 patients without PD. The presence or absence of cancer cells in the peritoneal tissues was confirmed by both hematoxylin-eosin staining and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) mRNA. uPA and PAI-1 mRNA expression in these peritoneal tissues was determined by RT-PCR and the proteins were localized immunohistochemically. The results were compared statistically.   RESULTS uPA mRNA was expressed in the cancer cell-positive peritoneum from 9 of the 11 (81.8%) patients with PD; PAI-1 mRNA was expressed in the peritoneal tissue from 10 of (91.9%) these patients. Either uPA or PAI-1 mRNA was expressed in the cancer cell-negative peritoneum from 8 (72.7%) of the 11 patients with PD, whereas uPA mRNA was expressed in none of the peritoneal tissues from the 24 patients without PD and PAI-1 mRNA was expressed in specimens from 4 (16.7%) of these patients. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed uPA and/or PAI-1 in the mesothelial cells and submesothelial fibroblasts in cancer cell-negative peritoneum from the patients with PD but not in peritoneum from the patients without PD.   CONCLUSION uPA transcription in the peritoneum may be a host marker indicating the existence of PD.
Watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus) flesh and seeds were dried and pulverized, and their extracts were diffused to sterile discs for the evaluation of anti-microbial activity. The disc-diffusion technique was used to assess anti-bacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pasteurella multocida, Yersinia enterocolitica, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Xanthomonas campestris, Staphylococcus aureus . Anti-fungal activity against the yeasts Candida albicans and Rhodotorula glutinis was also examined. Standard anti-biotics were also tested as controls. Watermelon flesh and seed extracts were found to be effective against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and yeasts. The extracts were also screened for anti-oxidant activity using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free-radical-scavenging assay, total reducing ability using the Fe 3+ –Fe 2+ transformation method and ferrous ion (Fe 2+ )-chelating activity. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and α-tocopherol were used as reference anti-oxidant radical scavenger compounds. The most potent anti-bacterial activity was demonstrated by watermelon–ethanol extract (inhibition zone 30 mm) against K. pneumoniae, and the most potent anti-fungal activity was demonstrated by watermelon–acetone extract (inhibition zone 26 mm) against R. glutinis. Watermelon–ethanol and watermelon seed–ethanol extracts both demonstrated marked anti-oxidant activity. These results highlight that watermelon fruit and seed extracts have potential for the development of efficient, safe and cost-effective natural anti-oxidant compounds for application in the functional food industries.
Reliable detection of substances present at potentially low concentrations is a problem common to many biomedical applications. Complementary to well-established enzyme-, antibody-antigen-, and sequencing-based approaches, so-called microbial whole-cell sensors, i.e., synthetically engineered microbial cells that sense and report substances, have been proposed as alternatives. Typically these cells operate independently: a cell reports an analyte upon local detection. In this work, we analyze a distributed algorithm for microbial whole-cell sensors, where cells communicate to coordinate if an analyte has been detected. The algorithm, inspired by the Allee effect in biological populations, causes cells to alternate between a logical 0 and 1 state in response to reacting with the particle of interest. When the cells in the logical 1 state exceed a threshold, the algorithm converts the remaining cells to the logical 1 state, representing an easily-detectable output signal. We validate the algorithm through mathematical analysis and simulations, demonstrating that it works correctly even in noisy cellular environments.
Creatine kinase MB isozyme was found in the serum of 29 (91%) patients with progressive or congenital muscular dystrophy. The magnitude of its elevation exceeded that of other enzymes or isozymes studied. Mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase (mAST) was detected in the serum of only seven patients (24%), all at an early stage of the disease, and it constituted without exception 5% or less of the total AST activity. Elevations of lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) activity were mainly due to increases of LDH 1-3 isozyme activity.
A phylogenetic study of marine ascomycetes was initiated to test and refine evolutionary hypotheses of marine-terrestrial transitions among ascomycetes. Taxon sampling focused on the Halosphaeriales, the largest order of marine ascomycetes. Approximately 1050 base pairs (bp) of the gene that codes for the nuclear small subunit (SSU) and 600 bp of the gene that codes for the nuclear large subunit (LSU) ribosomal RNAs (rDNA) were sequenced for 15 halosphaerialean taxa and integrated into a data set of homologous sequences from terrestrial ascomycetes. An initial set of phylogenetic analyses of the SSU rDNA from 38 taxa representing 15 major orders of the phylum Ascomycota confirmed a close phylogenetic relationship of the halosphaerialean species with several other orders of perithecial ascomycetes. A second set of analyses, which involved more intensive taxon sampling of perithecial ascomycetes, was performed using the SSU and LSU rDNA data in combined analyses. These second analyses included 15 halosphaerialean taxa, 26 terrestrial perithecial fungi from eight orders, and five outgroup taxa from the Pezizales. In these analyses the Halosphaeriales were polyphyletic and comprised two distinct lineages. One clade of Halosphaeriales comprised 12 taxa from 11 genera and was most closely related to terrestrial fungi of the Microascales. The second clade of halosphaerialean fungi comprised taxa from the genera Lulworthia and Lindra and was an isolated lineage among the perithecial fungi. Both the main clade of Halosphaeriales and the Lulworthia/Lindra clade are supported by the data as being independently derived from terrestrial ancestors.
The specification of the most convenient cultivars based on multiple trait indices is a new approach in durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) adaptation and stability studies. This approach helps to define the best cultivar based on multiple traits and multiple locations because cultivars are affected by unpredictable climatic conditions. Some traits (ears per square meter, spike length, number of grains per spike, spike yield, and leaf chlorophyll content among others) can be produced for primary breeding purposes because they are influenced by environmental factors and indirectly affect grain yield and quality. Therefore, in the present study, the new genotype × yield × trait (GYT) biplot approach was used to identify the best cultivar among 10 durum wheat cultivars based on multiple environments (8) and multiple traits (18). Cultivar ranking was examined by a superiority index that combined yield and other target traits with the GYT biplot. The general adaptability of each cultivar in terms of all the traits indicated differences based on environment means, and significant differences were found between varieties for the GYT biplot. In the GYT biplot, yield-trait combinations clearly indicated the most stable cultivars, whereas in the genotype × trait (GT) biplot, the best cultivars were not defined for all traits. ‘Sariçanak’ was ranked as the best combination of physio-morphological traits with grain yield, ‘Zühre’ was the best for more quality traits, and ‘Güneyyildizi’ was the best for both physio-morphological and quality traits in the GYT biplot. The GYT biplot combines traits with yield and can help the visual identification of the best cultivars; it is better than the GT biplot method.
Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA, Kennedy’s disease), a late-onset neuromuscular disorder, is caused by expansion of the polymorphic polyglutamine tract in the androgen receptor (AR). The AR is a ligand-activated transcription factor, but plays roles in other cellular pathways. In SBMA, selective motor neuron degeneration occurs in the brainstem and spinal cord, thus the causes of neuronal dysfunction have been studied. However, pathogenic pathways in muscles may also be involved. Cultured cells, fly and mouse models are used to study the molecular mechanisms leading to SBMA. Both the structure of the polyglutamine-expanded AR (polyQ AR) and its interactions with other proteins are altered relative to the normal AR. The ligand-dependent translocation of the polyQ AR to the nucleus appears to be critical, as are interdomain interactions. The polyQ AR, or fragments thereof, can form nuclear inclusions, but their pathogenic or protective nature is unclear. Other data suggests soluble polyQ AR oligomers can be harmful. Post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, acetylation, and ubiquitination influence AR function and modulate the deleterious effects of the polyQ AR. Transcriptional dysregulation is highly likely to be a factor in SBMA; deregulation of non-genomic AR signaling may also be involved. Studies on polyQ AR-protein degradation suggest inhibition of the ubiquitin proteasome system and changes to autophagic pathways may be relevant. Mitochondrial function and axonal transport may also be affected by the polyQ AR. Androgens, acting through the AR, can be neurotrophic and are important in muscle development; hence both loss of normal AR functions and gain of novel harmful functions by the polyQ AR can contribute to neurodegeneration and muscular atrophy. Thus investigations into polyQ AR function have shown that multiple complex mechanisms lead to the initiation and progression of SBMA.
BACKGROUND Parasitism detection and species identification are necessary in fruit fly biological control. Currently, release of mass-reared Fopius arisanus is practiced worldwide, as it is effective in controlling Bactrocera dorsalis and Ceratitis capitata. To detect and assess parasitism in parasitoid mass-rearing colonies and parasitism levels in field populations across all life stages of hosts, the development of a rapid, specific and sensitive method is important.   RESULTS A species-specific probe was designed for F. arisanus, as well as a universal tephritid probe. Utilizing rapid DNA extraction techniques coupled with quantitative-PCR, a simple and fast assay has been developed to detect parasitism of F. arisanus that is sensitive enough to detect the parasitoid across all developmental stages, including a single egg per host egg or 0.25 ng of parasitoid DNA in 40 ng of host DNA. The qPCR methods also detect a higher parasitism rate when compared with rearing-based methods where parasitism rate is based on wasp emergence and where unemerged wasps are not included.   CONCLUSION This method is a rapid, sensitive and specific technique to determine the parasitism rate of F. arisanus across all life stages of B. dorsalis, which will be useful to predict parasitoid output from mass rearing and evaluate the outcome of pest suppression after mass release in the field.
Oxygen consumption was examined in three species of tropical frogs, Rana blythi, R. chalcanota and R. nicobariensis, at ambient temperatures between 20 and 35oC. Oxygen consumption varied directly with temperature over the entire range studied. The thermal coefficient (Ql0) for oxygen consumption for the three species averaged 2.67 (range 2.49-2.84), which is similar to that of temperate zone amphibians. At 25oC, the resting oxygen consumption of the tropical frogs averaged only 30% of that predicted for ranids on the basis of body weight. Oxygen consumption of R. nicobariensis and R. chalcanota, determined at 30oC in continuous darkness at 15-min intervals for 26 consecutive hours, exhibited an endogenous rhythm with a period of approximately 12 hours. Thus, while these tropical anurans resemble their temperate relatives in some respects, they possess greatly reduced levels of resting oxygen consumption.
Objective To study coked rice′s regulation effects on the diarrhea resulted from intestinal flora imbalance.Method The mice were divided into model group,normal group,control group,uncooked rice group,coked rice group and natural recovery group.First,all mice except those in normal group were given Folium Sennae decoction to make Diarrhea models,then given rice decoction,coked rice decoction and saline respectively,two times per day.The condition of mice in each group was observed;fecel samples were taken at Days 2 6 to detect intestinal flora.Result Mice in Coked rice group recovered more rapidly compared with those in uncooked and natural recovery groups,and the difference was significant(P0.05).Intestinal flora of coked rice group returned to normal more rapidly than the uncooked rice group,but the difference was not significant.Conclusion Coked rice plays a positive role in diarrhea mice's recovery;it may be related to certain new components generated in the processing of rice coked rice.
Summary Experiments were conducted to study blood-borne tumor emboli for non-metastasizing, transplantable mouse tumors. Susceptible mice were inoculated with blood and lung brei from non-metastasizing, transplantable tumor-bearing animals. Intraperitoneal tumor growth resulting from viable tumor cells in the inocula was obtained from lung tissue in the 3 non-metastasizing tumors Sa, Sb, and GL/46; and from blood in the case of Sa and GL/46. The same procedure was followed with blood and lung brei from metastasizing, transplantable tumor-bearing mice. Here, viable tumor cells were demonstrated in the blood and lung tissue of hosts for all tumors used. That metastases did not appear in hosts of Sa, Sb and GL/46 is therefore not due to absence of embolism, but to other factors which are discussed.
Pigeonpea is an important pulse crop is known to attack by wide range of insect pests from seedling stage to storage. Among these, recently gall weevil causing threat to pigeonpea at seedling stage. Investigation on management of gall weevil using cultural practices revealed that less incidence of gall weevil was recorded in redgram intercropped with cowpea with only 1.17 galled plants per 10 plants and also highest percent reduction of galled plants over control (82.45 %). Followed by redgram + soybean with 2.33 galled plants per 10 plants and 65.07 percent reduction of galled plants over control. Redgram equivalent yield of intercrop added to redgram yield was significantly higher in redgram+ cowpea (28.87 q/ha) intercropping system.
Objective Laparoscopic hysterectomy(LAVH) the indications,operation and value of clinical applications.Methods A retrospective analysis of maternity and child care centers of gaozhou January 2008 in January 2010 do patients with uterine total resection of 105 cases,laparoscopic hysterectomy auxiliary Yin type 56 cases observation group,Yin type for hysterectomy in 49 cases(control group).Results The observation group(53 patients successfully completed surgery,3 patients with severe and transferred to opening appendectomy,adhesion success rate of operation 94.6%(53/56),two groups of operation time there was no significant difference in sex(P0.05),but the two groups of peri-operative bleeding and postoperative anal exhaust time,activity time,be in hospital bed than time greup(P0.05).Conclusion LAVH has security,minimally invasive,patients less bleeding,quicker recovery,operation simple easy to master,and so on.
PURPOSE The initial purpose of this study was to determine the effects of intravascular adenoviral vector-mediated gene transfer of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (AdeNOS) on experimental hindlimb ischemia in the rat. Unexpectedly, administration of AdeNOS immediately after induction of acute limb ischemia led to limb gangrene. We subsequently sought to define the molecular mechanisms responsible for this unusual effect and to devise adenoviral gene transfer strategies to prevent the development of gangrene in acutely ischemic limbs.   METHODS Phosphate-buffered saline or adenoviral vectors containing the bovine endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene (AdeNOS) or no transgene (Ad-E1) were injected intra-arterially into the hindlimb of a rat under vascular isolation immediately after surgical induction of severe ischemia. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed on muscle sections to evaluate inflammation. A separate group of animals was injected with an adenovirus containing a nontranscribable genome, treated with cyclosporine, or received delayed administration of the adenoviral vector. Gene expression after delayed adenoviral gene transfer was assessed with immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity assay.   RESULTS Both AdeNOS and Ad-E1 caused gangrene of the entire hindlimb within 12 days in a dose-dependent manner, at a threshold concentration of 1 x 10(9) plaque-forming unit/mL. Adenoviral delivery was associated with more inflammation and edema compared with phosphate-buffered saline histologically. Inactivation of adenoviral DNA transcription did not affect induction of gangrene. However, gangrene was prevented by concurrent immunosuppression with cyclosporine or delayed administration of the vector. Delayed administration allowed adenoviral gene expression as determined by immunohistochemistry, NOS protein levels, and an assay of NOS enzyme activity.   CONCLUSION Intra-arterial administration of adenoviral vectors, under vascular isolation, immediately after induction of acute ischemia causes inflammation and subsequent limb gangrene. The inflammatory response is unrelated to the expression of the recombinant transgene or the adenoviral genome and is likely due to the adenoviral capsid proteins. However, administration of cyclosporine or delayed injection of the adenoviral vector is a method that can be used for adenoviral mediated gene transfer in limb ischemia.
Abstract : The objective of this paper was to provide a description of the casualites admitted to NSAH, Danang. Data collected at NSAH during this six month period was used to determine the number of months in service in Vietnam, days on operation, combat experience, location at time of injury, wounding agent, casualty transit time, wound description, triage and operating room use, admission hematocrit, units of blood given, type of anesthesia administered, and disposition. Demographic information was obtained by matching the service numbers to the record of the Naval Health Research Center hospitalization and career data base. The results indicate that the majority of the casualties admitted to NSAH were Caucasian, infantrymen, less than 25 years old, and in the service less than two years. Artillery, mortars, and rockets accounted for the largest number of admissions. Most casualties were admitted to NSAH within five hours of injury. The majority of the injuries occurred in the lower and upper extremities. The demographic information indicated that the casualties were representative of what is generally known about those who served in Vietnam. The injury and wounding agents descriptions were reflective of the nature of combat occuring in the Vietnam War. Keywords: Surgical treatment; and Wounding agents.
By collecting relevant ancient literature, with retention of urine, umbilical therapy and Shenque (CV 8) as key words, various umbilical therapies for retention of urine from the Song dynasty to Qing dynasty were retrieved and summarized. The results indicated rich knowledge of umbilical therapy was recorded in ancient literature (the Song dynasty to the Qing dynasty), including 9 kinds of therapies e.g. sticking umbilical method, ironing umbilical method, pasting umbilical method, smearing umbilical method, filling umbilical method, sealing umbilical method, covering umbilical method, dripping umbilical method and bundling umbilical method. Moreover, the detailed methods were briefly explained. It is hoped to provide reference for modern application of umbilical therapy for retention of urine.
Abstract A male neonate was born at 41 weeks of gestation with a birth weight of 3320 g. Artificial respiratory management was required due to respiratory disturbance 1 h after birth, and subsequently catecholamine-refractory low cardiac output-induced shock occurred. Severe combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD) was considered based on the presence of his respiratory disturbance, hypoglycemia and micropenis. After hydrocortisone (HDC) administration, circulatory dynamics rapidly improved. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed aplasia of the anterior pituitary gland and ectopic posterior gland. γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase (γ-GTP) increased from day 10 after birth and direct bilirubin increased from day 18. On ultrasonography, sludge filling the common bile duct and gall bladder was observed. After initiating treatment with both ursodeoxycholic acid and recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), cholestasis improved and the sludge disappeared at 3 months after birth. In newborns with CPHD, severe central adrenal insufficiency might induce cardiogenic shock after birth. Early diagnosis and intervention are necessary.
125 years have passed since Wilhelm Uhthoff reported the symptoms he observed after an increased body temperature from physical exertion. Those symptoms, which might have led to the transient impairment of vision in patients with Multiple Sclerosis and also observed in optic neuritis, were later named after him "Uhthoff's phenomenon". This has defined the strategy of rehabilitation procedures in Multiple Sclerosis for more than 100 years, restricting the use of thermal treatments and the possibility of aerobic exercises. The current state of knowledge concerning the Uhthoff's phenomenon and its influence on comprehensive rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis were presented in the current review report.
This study aimed to examine progressive temporal relationships between changes in major reproductive hormones across three waves of a cohort study of older men and (1) changes in bone mineral density (BMD) and (2) incident fractures (any, hip or non‐vertebral) over an average of 6 years of follow‐up. The CHAMP cohort of men aged 70 years and older were assessed at baseline (2005 to 2007, n = 1705), 2‐year follow‐up (n = 1367), and 5‐year follow‐up (n = 958). Serum testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), estradiol (E2), and estrone (E1) (by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry [LC‐MS/MS]), and sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) (by immunoassay) were measured at all time‐points, whereas free testosterone (cFT) was calculated using a well‐validated formula. Hip BMD was measured by dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) at all three time‐points, and fracture data were verified radiographically. Statistical modeling was done using general estimating equations (GEEs). For total hip BMD, univariable analyses revealed inverse associations with temporal changes in serum SHBG, FSH, and LH and positive associations for serum E1 and cFT across the three time‐points. In models adjusted for multiple covariables, serum SHBG (β = –0.029), FSH (β = –0.065), LH (β = –0.049), E1 (β = 0.019), and cFT (β = 0.033) remained significantly associated with hip BMD. However for femoral neck BMD, only FSH (β = –0.048) and LH (β = –0.036) remained associated in multivariable‐adjusted models. Temporal change in serum SHBG, but not T, E2, or other hormonal variables, was significantly associated with any, nonvertebral or hip fracture incidence in univariable analyses. In multivariable‐adjusted models, temporal increase in serum SHBG over time remained associated with any fracture (β = 0.060) and hip fracture (β = 0.041) incidence, but not nonvertebral fracture incidence. These data indicate that a progressive increase in circulating SHBG over time predicts bone loss and fracture risk in older men. Further studies are warranted to further characterize changes in circulating SHBG as a mechanism and/or biomarker of bone health during male ageing. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Background: Nurses are responsible and accountable for their n ursing practice and there is a need to be culturall y and linguistically competent in all of their encounters . To be culturally competent community nurses should have the appropriate transcultural education. It is therefore important to assess the level of cultural competence of the c ommunity nurses, within their everyday practice. Aim: The aim of the article was the cultural adaptation of the cultural competence assessment tool based on Papadopoulos, Tilki and Taylor Model in a sample of Cypriot community nurses. Methodology: To explore the psychometric properties of the Cultur al Competence Assessment Tool that has been distributed in a sample of 28 community nurses. Also, a pre and post-measurement has been applied as to assess the test-retest reliability of the tool. Results: The analysis has shown that the Cultural Competence Assessment Tool has good psychometric properties and it is easy to understand by the community healthcare professionals. Results showed that 60.7% disagreed that there is the same level of cultural competency with other European co untries and 89.3% reported that assessment of their cultural competence is needed. Using the special analysis software for this tool, the pilot study showed that Cypriot commu nity nurses have some degree of cultural awareness. Conclusion: Culturally competent care is both a legal and a mora l requirement for health and social care profession als . Valuing diversity in health and social care enhance s the delivery and effectiveness of care for all pe ople, whether they are members of a minority or a majority cultural group. Using an appropriate tool for assessing cultural c ompetence is very important and useful for health professionals to be culturally competence.
There has never been a better time to launch a new journal to serve the field of immunotherapy. In the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disease and allergy, we have already seen the replacement of conventional treatments with immunotherapy drugs, and in coming years, it is likely that more diseases will reveal immunological targets as their disease mechanisms are uncovered. It is also likely that new challenges in managing long-term chronic diseases and co-morbidity, posed by an ageing population, will require new immunological solutions. As immunotherapy becomes mainstream, the current immunotherapy drug market is projected to grow to over $270bn by the year 2025 [1]. This growth will help to pull through novel agents and therapeutic approaches from the laboratory into clinical trials: especially given the current appetite of the pharmaceutical industry for ‘bio-innovations’ as opposed to ‘bio-similars’. Furthermore, in the field of oncology, there are thousands of ongoing clinical trials that combine current approved immunotherapeutics with other agents [2]. In order to differentiate the efficacy of each combination, it will be necessary to understand exactly how the drugs interact to bring about their clinical effect and this will inevitably drive research into mechanism of action; no doubt fuelling the development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches in other diseases. All this will generate a large amount of new knowledge, and in Immunotherapy Advances, we hope to capture the very best research spanning the translational pipeline from discovery research and preclinical models through to clinical trials. We launch with three research articles including both preclinical [3] and human [4, 5] studies. We are particularly keen to encourage experimental medicine and first-in-human clinical studies where they contribute to immune-mechanism insight. We will complement our research content with insightful commentary and informative reviews from field leaders. I am delighted to say we have examples of both at the time of launch in December 2020, in the form of a vision for immunotherapy from one of the pioneers of translational cancer immunology, Kees Melief [6]; a superb and accessible primer for immunotherapy in the form of a review on immunotherapeutic approaches to infectious disease, from our Regional Editor for Africa Stefan Barth and his colleagues [7]; as well as reviews on CAR-T therapy in infectious disease [8] and follicular T-helper cell responses to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy in diabetes [9]. To stay abreast of the fast pace of progress in the booming immunotherapy clinical trials landscape, we are publishing a special TrialsWatch section in which we give experts the opportunity to summarise the very latest clinical trials activity in their area. A special feature of the TrialsWatch series is the involvement of the British Society for Immunology (BSI) Affinity Groups – UK networks organised across key themes in immunology. These articles represent their consensus view of what is topical and they bring a vast amount of immunology expertise to bear on the timeliness and importance of the area under review. We launch with two splendid examples: one a highly specific analysis of a phase 1 trial of a first-in-class therapeutic in ulcerative colitis from the
The steaming of raw cashew seeds prior to shelling is adopted widely in small-scale cashew nut processing mills with the help of baby boiler. The wide variations in energy intensity of these mills reveal the scope for energy conservation. The baby boiler coupled with cooker commonly used for steaming of raw seeds was evaluated. The variation in steam pressure, temperature and operating time with respect to fuel was observed along with thermal efficiency of a boiler. The energy intensity to produce the steam using different fuel sources determined. The study revealed that the thermal efficiency of boiler using electricity as a fuel was higher (69.31%) as compared to 4.66% (Wood) and 4.47% (Cashew nut shell). It was observed that, the energy consumed per kg of cashew nut steaming using electricity (248.99 kJ/kg) was minimum followed by wood (3829.96 kJ/kg) and cashew nut shell (3835.64 kJ/kg). The variation of energy consumption for cashew nut steaming revealed the scope for energy conservation in biomass combustion system. The improvement in the biomass combustion efficiency for steam generation could results in less fuel consumption and shorter period.
Jensen CD, Block G, Buffler P, Ma X, Selvin S, Month S. 2004. Maternal dietary risk factors in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (United States). Cancer Causes Control 15(6):559–570.    Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer (with 2,400 cases diagnosed each year in those under age 20) and the second most common cause of mortality in children aged 1–14. Recent research has confirmed that ALL can originate in utero. New findings from the NIEHS-funded Northern California Childhood Leukemia Study (NCCLS) show that the disease may originate even earlier—in the foods a woman eats before she even becomes pregnant.    The effect of maternal diet on child leukemia risk has not been rigorously studied; the few studies that have been done have focused on specific dietary factors, and the results have been mixed. The NCCLS is a population-based case–control study of risk factors for child leukemia, including maternal diet. It is the first study to capture mothers’ overall dietary patterns and relate them to child leukemia.    Researchers compared 138 mothers of children diagnosed with ALL with a control group of 138 mothers whose children did not have cancer. All the mothers completed a questionnaire pertaining to their diet in the 12 months prior to pregnancy. The researchers chose this period as a more accurate reflection of each woman’s typical diet, compared to pregnancy, when diet can vary with the degree of nausea experienced. The questionnaire asked about 76 food items, plus use of vitamins, certain reduced-fat foods, and cooking fat.    The researchers found that the more vegetables, fruits, and proteins a woman ate, the lower the risk of her child having leukemia. Of the vegetables and fruits, carrots and cantaloupe showed the highest inverse effect, perhaps because of these foods’ high carotenoid content. String beans and peas also correlated inversely with ALL risk. Among the proteins, beef and beans—both sources of the antioxidant glutathione—showed the highest inverse effect. Use of vitamin supplements was not significantly linked to leukemia risk.    The authors stress that dietary factors work together, and no one food should be singled out in attributing risk or benefit. Further, a cause-and-effect relationship can not be concluded from this study. However, they write, it remains prudent for women who are pregnant or think they may become pregnant to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.
Trueperella pyogenes causes disease in cattle, sheep, goats and swine, and is involved occasionally in human disease worldwide. Most reports implicating T. pyogenes have been associated with clinical cases, whereas no report has focused on pathogenicity of T. pyogenes in mouse models or precision-cut lung slice (PCLS) cultures from swine. Here, we isolated and identified a virulent, β-hemolytic, multidrug-resistant T. pyogenes strain named 20121, which harbors the virulence marker genes fimA, fimE, nanH, nanP and plo. It was found to be highly resistant to erythromycin, azithromycin and medemycin. Strain 20121 was pathogenic in mouse infection models, displaying pulmonary congestion and inflammatory cell infiltration, partial degeneration in epithelial cells of the tracheal and bronchiolar mucosa, a small amount of inflammatory cell infiltration in the submucosa, and bacteria (>104 CFU/g) in the lung. Importantly, we used T. pyogenes 20121 to infect porcine precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) cultures for the first time, where it caused severe bronchoconstriction. Furthermore, dexamethasone showed its ability to relieve bronchoconstriction in PCLS caused by T. pyogenes 20121, highlighting dexamethasone may assist antibiotic treatment for clinical T. pyogenes infection. This is the first report of T. pyogenes used to infect and cause bronchoconstriction in porcine PCLS. Our results suggest that porcine PCLS cultures as a valuable 3D organ model for the study of T. pyogenes infection and treatment in vitro.
To determine if teaching caregivers behavior management techniques (BMTs) reduces long-term psychotropic use in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, we examined 12-month follow-up data from a 4-month randomized study com paring placebo, BMTs, trazodone, and haloperidol for the treatment of agitated behaviors in persons with AD. After 4 months, treatment was allowed with any agent. Between 42.8% and 51% of AD patients received additional psy chotropics between 4 and 12 months. The relative risk of being prescribed any psychotropic drug after the 4-month trial was at or about 1.0 for subjects in each drug arm or placebo arm versus BMTs. We concluded that teaching caregivers BMTs did not diminish long-term prescription of psychotropic drugs. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2002; 15:95-98).
AIM To study cardiac cycle parameters in patients with grade I and II AH by equilibrium radioventriculography (ERVG) and the possibility of using them for diagnostics of systolic and diastolic myocardial dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS Left and right ventricular diastolic and systolic functions were evaluated by conventional ERVG using a MB-9100 gamma-chamber (Gamma, Hungary) and the Gold-Rada+ system for data collection and processing. The study involved 142 patients divided into 3 groups. Group 1 included 38 patient with grade 1 AH (mean age 20.7 +/- 6.2 yr), group 2 85 patients with grade II AH (58.7 +/- 10.7 yr), group 3 19 practically healthy subjects (29.4 +/- 10.8 yr). RESULTS No significant abnormalities in hemodynamic characteristics except increased filling of the right ventricle for 1/3 diastole were observed in group 1. Decreased filling for 1/3 diastole, maximum filling rate, and the ratio of filling to ejection rates were revealed in group 2. In order to counterbalance HR differences, the time-related ERVG values were calculated per RR interval; it allowed to reveal diastolic disorders confirmed in the study of ERVG "hemodynamics characteristics. Patients with grade II AH showed a longer time of maximum filling rate with respect to left and right ventricular RR intervals compared with controls. In group 1, this parameter was lower than in healthy subjects.
Two adult mixed-breed ewes were presented with a 2-wk history of upper respiratory disease. Both animals were depressed, with bilateral serosanguineous nasal discharge and harsh bronchovesicular sounds accompanied by crackles and wheezes on auscultation. One animal was recumbent and was euthanized at presentation. The other animal with similar signs, as well as exophthalmos, was euthanized because of a mass in the nasal passages. On autopsy, severe pyogranulomatous and necrotizing ethmoidal rhinitis with focal pyogranulomatous pneumonia was diagnosed in both animals. An intralesional fungal organism was identified in the nares and lungs of both animals. The organism could not be isolated via fungal culture but was identified as Trichosporon sp. by a PCR assay. Trichosporon spp. are rarely associated with disease in veterinary medicine. This ubiquitous fungus might cause disease following trauma to the nasal passages or secondary to immunocompromise.
AIM: The study of immune response of open versus laparoscopical total mesorectal excision with anal sphincter preservation in patients with rectal cancer has not been reported yet. The dissected retroperitoneal area that contacts directly with carbon dioxide is extensive in laparoscopic total mesorectal excision with anal sphincter preservation surgery. Tt is important to clarify whether the immune response of laparoscopic total mesorectal excision with anal sphincter preservation (LTME with ASP) in patients with rectal cancer is suppressed more severely than that of open surgery (OTME with ASP). This study was designed to compare the immune functions after laparoscopic and open total mesorectal excision with anal sphincter preservation for rectal cancer.METHODS: This study involved 45 patients undergoing laparoscopic (n=20) and open (n=25) total mesorectal excisions with anal sphincter preservation for rectal cancer.Serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) were assayed preoperatively and on days 1 and 5 postoperatively. CD3+ and CD56+ T lymphocyte count, CD3- and CD56+ natural killer cell (NK)count and immunoglobulin (IgG/IgM/IgA) were assayed preoperatively and on day 5 postoperatively. The numbers of CD3+ and CD56+ T lymphocytes and CD3- and CD56+ NK cells were counted using flow cytometry. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for IL-2, TL-6 and TNFα determination. And IgG, IgM, and IgA were assayed using immunonephelometry.RESULTS: The demographic data of the two groups had no difference. The preoperative levels of CD3+ and CD56+ T lymphocyte count, CD3- and CD56+ NK count, serum IgG,IgM, IgA, IL-2, IL-6 and TNFα also had no significant difference in the two groups (P＞0.05). The CD3+ and CD56+ T lymphocyte counts had no obvious changes after surgery in laparoscopic (d=-0.79±3.83 %) and open (d=0.42±2.09 %)groups. The CD3- and CD56+ NK counts were decreased postoperatively in both laparoscopic (d=-7.23±11.33 %) and open (d=-9.21±13.93 %) groups
Introduction There are an impressive number of instances in medicine in which a clear understanding of the fundamental pathogenesis of a disease has resulted from careful clinical observations of the results of an effective, though empiric, form of therapy. Hopefully, this will be the case in regard to changes which occur in hemorrhagic diabetic retinopathy following suppression of pituitary function. Most reports agree that the correct performance of an operation on the pituitary gland can modify the diabetic retinopathy to the extent that further visual impairment is prevented. In some cases, actual regression of the process has been described. Nevertheless, doubts as to whether hypophysectomy should be recommended as a measure of treatment have been raised in view of its unavoidable hazards.1-6The accumulation of carefully obtained data should resolve the problem and lessen the discrepancy in views concerning the merits of the procedure, but it is fundamental to
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND : Data on age in developing countries are subject to errors, particularly in circumstances where literacy levels are not high. A common error in age reporting is the tendency of rounding the ages to the nearest figure ending in ‘0’ or ‘5’ or to a lesser extent, to the nearest even  number. Because of this tendency, commonly known as “digital preference”, age heaping occurs at certain ages. The aim of this study was to study this phenomenon and both Myers’ and Whipple’s Indexes were employed to identify the digit preference in Iranian national census, 2005. METHODS : Myers’ and Whipple’s Indexes were employed to study the pattern of digit preference. The Myers' Blended Index shows heaping at ages ending in 0 and 5 years, and the pattern of heaping is pronounced for both urban and rural populations. RESULTS : The quality of age reporting for the 2005 census data was poor if compared to the 1995 census data. Digit preference occurred most often in the female population compared to male one, and in rural areas compared to urban ones. CONCLUSIONS : It can be concluded that both males and females tend to misreport their ages before age 60 especially in rural areas. So, whenever any data gathering regarding age information occurs, the ID card should be used regardless of person's self report.
BACKGROUND Past estimates of the length of Australian general practice consultations have been based on Medicare item numbers claimed, which carries probable serious inaccuracies.   AIMS To describe the length of general practitioner consultations.   METHODS A random sample of 926 GPs recorded the start and finish times in minutes of their consultations for which a Medicare item number was claimed between April 2000 and March 2001, within a continuous cross sectional national study of general practice activity.   RESULTS Mean length of the consultations was 14.8 minutes (range 1-106). Mean length per GP varied widely (mean of means 14.8, range 3-39, mode 15.0 minutes). Female GPs had significantly longer consultations than males. Younger (< 45 years) male metropolitan GPs had the shortest mean length. Most attendances (85.7%) were designated Level B, 1.5% as Level A, 11.7% Levels C and 1.1% as level D. Mean length of Level A was 7.1 minutes, Level B-13.0, Level C-26.1, and Level D-44.9 minutes.   CONCLUSION This study suggests that the majority of GPs are not practising 'six minute medicine', and may assist cost projections of any changes to the Medicare Schedule.
A series of 9 patients having a tuberous sclerosis associated to a midline ventricular tumour is reported. Microscopically, the presence of giant cells within the lesion is a major characteristic of the disease. The origin of these subependymal giant cells tumours is questionable since astrocytic, neuronal and ependymal features have been noted by several authors providing various denominations. In the literature and in our series as well, the intra-ventricular tumour presented as the initial manifestation of the disease in most of cases, usually with increased intra-cranial pressure symptoms. On CT, the tumour arises in the area of the foramen of Monro and enhances after contrast injection while the other intracranial anomalies of the disease do not enhance. In 8 patients, a direct transcortical transventricular approach was used. 1 patient was treated by shunt only. The results were evaluated according to the degree of the preoperative neuropsychological impairement: there were 3 deaths, 3 "excellent", 2 "fair" and 1 "poor" results. The problem of the surgical indication raises mainly in patients in whom the diagnosis of the tuberous sclerosis is ascertained prior to the diagnosis of the tumour. Since acute C.S.F. blockage or intra-ventricular bleeding may occur during "conservative" treatment, direct approach seems preferable.
Fig. 1. Computed tomography of brain in an infant with severe hemophilia A with intracranial hemorrhage mistaken to be caused by child abuse. (A) Left temporal and parietal bone fractures. (B) Acute epidural hematoma along the entire left hemisphere and falx cerebri, multifocal hemorrhagic contusion of left cerebral hemisphere, associated subfalcine herniation, and brain edema. 11. Jain MD, Ziccheddu B, Coughlin CA, et al. Genomic drivers of large B-cell lymphoma resistance to CD19 CAR-T therapy. Blood (ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts) 2021;138(Suppl):42. 12. Juskevicius D, Lorber T, Gsponer J, et al. Distinct genetic evolution patterns of relapsing diffuse large B-cell lymphoma revealed by genome-wide copy number aberration and targeted sequencing analysis. Leukemia 2016;30:2385-95. 13. Morin RD, Assouline S, Alcaide M, et al. Genetic landscapes of relapsed and refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Clin Cancer Res 2016;22:2290-300. 14. Reich M, Liefeld T, Gould J, Lerner J, Tamayo P, Mesirov JP. GenePattern 2.0. Nat Genet 2006;38:500-1. 15. Shouval R, Alarcon Tomas A, Fein JA, et al. Impact of TP53 genomic alterations in large B-cell lymphoma treated with CD19-chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. J Clin Oncol 2022;40:369-81.
In a multicenter, double-blind, parallel-group study, 233 patients with classical or definite RA who demonstrated disease flare during a prestudy washout period were randomized to 12 weeks of treatment with either the nonacetylated salicylate, salsalate (salicylsalicylic acid), or aspirin. Of the 150 patients who completed the study, 83 received salsalate and 67 were treated with aspirin. Doses of the two drugs were calculated to provide equal amounts of bioavailable salicylic acid. The efficacy of salsalate and aspirin, as measured by all the usual variables, was equivalent but aspirin-treated patients had a higher incidence of severe gastrointestinal problems. Thus, this study demonstrated that the acetyl group of aspirin does not enhance the anti-inflammatory efficacy of salicylic acid in RA.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Accurate and early diagnosis of recurrence for cervical cancer after the treatment and aggressive salvage treatment could improve the prognosis of this disease. Serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCAg) is the most commonly used tumor marker for the detection of asymptomatic recurrence of cervical cancer. This study was to evaluate the application and value of (18)F-FDG PET/CT in cervical cancer with elevated of serum SCCAg level during the follow-up.   METHODS Thirty-one patients with cervical cancer with elevated serum SCCAg level during the follow-up undergoing (18)F-FDG PET/CT in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between August 2005 and November 2008 were entered into this retrospective study. The pathological types, the serum SCCAg level, PET/CT results, results of other imaging modalities, pathological and clinical follow-ups were recorded.   RESULTS All 31 patients'pathological examination showed squamous cell carcinoma, including three adenosquamous carcinoma. Lesions of all patients were examined by PET/CT. Three patients had local recurrence in the uterus or vagina, 28 had metastatic disease. Of these 31 patients, three were confirmed to have local recurrent disease, 27 were verified to have metastatic disease and one was diagnosed as primary lung squamous cell carcinoma by pathological or clinical manifestations. The total detection rate of PET/CT for malignancy was 100% (31/31); the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT for recurrent cervical cancer was 96.8% (30/31). The levels of serum SCCAg during the follow-up were 1.5-37.8 ng/ml. There was no relation between the level of serum SCCAg and the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) of PET/CT. Compared with other imaging modalities, PET/CT was more efficient in detecting recurrence and finding more lesions.   CONCLUSIONS An elevated level of SCCAg in cervical cancer during the follow-up indicates tumor recurrence. PET/CT is efficient in detecting the recurrence and has high diagnostic accuracy.
INTRODUCTION Penile amputation is a rare type of external genital trauma. It may arise from accidental trauma, assault or self-inflicted mutilation. As with all trauma, initial management focuses on assessment and resuscitation of the patient. When available, hypothermic preservation of the detached penis should be undertaken.   AIM This review serves to compile the current available information on etiology and management of penile amputation injuries, with focus on functional and cosmetic results.   MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Main outcome measures were penile cosmetics, viability, and sensation; urethral patency and graft survival, functionality.   METHODS A literature search using Medline, PubMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health), and abstracts from scientific meetings was performed from 1980-2013.   RESULTS Due to the rarity of penile amputation injuries, no randomized trials exist. Likewise, available published series on management of this condition are comprised of a small number of patients.   CONCLUSIONS Penile amputation is rare but challenging. Current microreplantation procedures have a uniformly good result with a minimum number of post-operative complications. When microreplantation cannot be performed, older corporal reattachment techniques may be offered. When phallic reconstruction is required, a microsurgical free forearm flap phalloplasty may be performed to restore the patient with an acceptable cosmetic and functional phallus. Virasoro R, Tonkin JB, McCammon KA, and Jordan GH. Penile amputation: Cosmetic and functional results. Sex Med Rev 2015;3:214-222.
The aim of this experiment was to study the prevalence of sera agglutinins anti-leptospira in bulls in Goiânia Micro-Region. Sixty farms were chosen randomly in according to sorovars presented and the tax of prevalence of them. The correlation of the prevalence of the leptospirosis were establish with the type of herd (beef or dairy) and the occurrence of abortions in farms. One hundred forty samples bulls from “Goiânia Micro-Region” were analyzed (MG) regarding 60 properties. The sera reagents prevalence was 74.28% and . presented titles with variation of dilution from 1:100 to 1:800. The prevalence of the sera varieties, presents in this “Goiania Micro-Region”, was the following: wolffi (19.23%); hardjo (15.38%); djasiman and grippotyphosa (5.76%); shermani (4.80%); patoc (1.92%); andamana, castellonis, copenhageni, hebdomadis, sentot and tarassovi (0.96%). According to these results, it was possible to conclude that leptospirosis is an endemic agent in this part of Goias State and there were not any relationship with production system or abortions and prevalence.  KEY WORDS: Leptospirosis, cattle, bull, prevalence.
Laboratory studies have provided a foundation of knowledge regarding vehicle emissions, but questions remain regarding the relationship between on-road vehicle emissions and changes in vehicle speed and engine load that occur as driving conditions change. Light-duty vehicle emissions of CO, NOx, and NMHC were quantified as functions of vehicle speed and engine load in a California highway tunnel for downhill and uphill traffic on a _4% grade. Emissions were measured throughout the day; average speed decreased inside the tunnel as traffic volume increased. Emissions of CO were typically 16-34 g L-1 (i.e., grams of CO emitted per liter of gasoline consumed) during downhill driving and ranged from 27 to 75 g L-1 during uphill driving. Downhill driving and moderate-speed uphill driving resulted in similar CO emission factors. The factor of 2 increase in CO emissions observed during higherspeed uphill driving is likely evidence of enriched engine fuel/ air ratios; this was unexpected because uphill driving observed in this study occurred at moderate engine loads within the range experienced during the city driving cycle of the U.S. emissions certification test. Emissions of NOx (as NO2) were typically 1.1-3.3 g L-1 for downhill driving and varied between 3.8 and 5.3 g L-1 for uphill driving. Unlike observations for CO, all uphill driving conditions resulted in higher NOx emission factors as compared to downhill driving. NOx emissions increased with vehicle speed for uphill driving but not as strongly as CO emissions. Emissions of CO and NOx are functions of both vehicle speed and specific power; neither parameter alone captures all the relevant effects on emissions. In contrast to results for CO and NOx reported here and results for NMHC reported previously by Pierson et al. (Atmos. Environ. 1996,30, 2233- 2256), emissions of NMHC per unit of fuel burned for downhill driving were over 3 times greater than NMHC emissions for uphill driving. Emission rates of CO and NOx varied more with driving conditions when expressed per unit distance traveled rather than per unit fuel burned while NMHC emission rates normalized to distance traveled were approximately constant for uphill versus downhill driving during peak traffic periods.
Introduction: Globally, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness. The diagnosis of the disease, especially at an early stage, is often an occupational challenge for young ophthalmologists. Adequate diagnostics requires a comprehensive ophthalmologic examination that is related to a broad range of knowledge, skills and various high-tech devices. Bulgarian scientific literature does not offer information about the currently used methods for treatment and diagnosis by residents and young ophthalmologists; there is also no detailed information about the difficulties that ophthalmologists experience in the management of the disease. Aim: The main goal of this study is to provide information about the methods used for the management of glaucoma by residents and young ophthalmologists in Bulgaria, as well as data on the potential difficulties and problems that may reduce the quality of health care. Methods: Detailed anonymous questionnaires about workplace, used equipment, methods of investigation, potential weaknesses in the diagnosis and management of the disease, as well as personal attitude towards the problems in the field, were sent to residents and young ophthalmologists with experience of up to 5 years by e-mail and with the help of social networks. Results: One hundred and twenty questionnaires were sent but only 45 individuals responded to the survey. Of these, 30 were classified as residents (66.7%) and 15 as specialists with up to 5 years of experience (33.3%). Regarding the number of glaucoma patients examined, 27 of the participants (60.0%) indicated that they have examined under 5 patients who suffer from glaucoma or are suspected of glaucoma, 14 (31.1%) under 10 and only four (8.9%) managed less than 20 glaucoma patients per day. Thirty-four of the participants (75.6%) mentioned air tonometry as the main method in their practice. Eleven percent of the participants never performed gonioscopy, and 4.4% had tried but failed. Only 11 (24.4%) of the participants said they had no difficulty performing gonioscopy. A preferred method of determining the depth of the anterior chamber was Van Herick's method (51.1%). Regarding perimetry, 43 (95.6%) of the participants always required the presence of a glaucoma diagnosis, and 39 (86.7%) reported that they always performed a visual examination to evaluate the optic nerve and the neurofibrillary layer. Fifteen respondents (33.3%) (of them 12 residents) never assisted in an anti-glaucoma operation. Thirty-eight (84.4%) of the participants found a need for more trainings and seminars on glaucoma. Conclusion: Diagnosis of glaucoma is a challenge for doctors as well as for patients. Identifying potential weak spots among ophthalmology residents and young professionals and obtaining sufficient feedback is essential to improve the proper management of the disease nationwide.
4 Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of pyramid and reverse pyramid resistance trainings on serum cell injury indices (CK, AST, ALD) and growth factor (IGF-1) in untrained women. Also, it tried to assess the possible relationship between them. 34 subjects (age 18.5±2.20 years, weight 56±9.86 kg, height 162±5.33 cm( participated in this study and were randomly assigned to pyramid training (PT) (N=12), reverse pyramid training (RPT) (N=12) and control groups (CON) (N=10). The two experimental groups performed resistance training 3 days a week for 6 weeks. The pyramid group started their first set of te n repetitions at 50% of 10 RM, the second set of ten at 75% of 10 RM and the third set of ten at the 100% of 10 RM. The reverse pyramid group performed their sets quite the reverse: 100% of 10 RM, 75% of 10 RM and 50% of 10 RM. Blood samples were gathered before (T1) and 24 hours after (T2) the first training session and before (T3) and 24 hours after (T4) the last training session. ANOVA and t test were used to compare data. At T2, CK increased in both groups with no difference observed among the groups. After 6 weeks, there was no change in AST and ALD but CK increased again and this increase was lower compared to the first session (it was only significant in RP group). In fact, CK increment had a significant decrease in the last session compared to the first session in the PT group, which indicated that adaptations occurred. IGF-1 had no significant change and there was no relationship between growth factor and cell injury indices. After 6 weeks, adaptations occurred in response to CK and muscles underwent little pressure or even injury. These two methods had similar effects on growth factor response, but enzyme response was greater in Oxford method. Both methods were found to be efficient at developing strength.
Objective To observe the stress response of amateur runners in marathon.Methods Twenty-six amateur runners were phlebotomized one hour earlier before and five minutes later after marathon race so that their stress hormones would be measured.Results Renin,angiotensin and steroid,which were related to stress response,increased after running,and so did heart rate.Conclusion It is indicated that amateur runners make obvious stress response to marathon,most of which is within allowable range.
Forty seven cases of paraquat poisoning which have occurred in Papua New Guinea since 1969 are reported. There were thirty five fatalities. Most cases of poisoning were due to ingestion but six fatal cases followed skin absorption. Because reporting systems are inadequate many other cases of paraquat poisoning have not been recorded. The toxicology, symptomatology and treatment of paraquat poisoning are briefly reviewed. The Papua New Guinea Government is urged to urgently introduce comprehensive pesticide control legislation. Language: en
PURPOSE Lhermitte's phenomenon (LP) is a rare manifestation, which is defined when a sudden electric-shock sensation transmitted down the spine induced by neck flexion; however, the reverse LP is defined when symptoms are induced by neck extension, not flexion. Because reports of LP are limited in the Taiwan literature, we report this case.   CASE REPORT A 74-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with sudden onset of right neck pain when extending the neck. The pain mimicked an electric shock and radiated to the left shoulder. Imaging showed spondylosis and spondylolisthesis without any spinal canal stenosis. A neck collar was recommended, and the strange phenomenon did not recur over the following year. However, long-term follow-up and aggressive workup are recommended to rule in or rule out the possibility of multiple sclerosis in the future.   CONCLUSION Although LP represents spinal demyelination disorders, reverse LP is induced by extrinsic compression of the cervical cord, and neck collar immobilization rather than intravenous or oral medication is recommended.
The polo‐like kinase (Plk) family is comprised of five different members (Plk1–5), each with their own distinct functions. Plk family members participate in pivotal cell division processes as well as in non‐mitotic roles. Importantly, Plk expression has been correlated with various disease states, including cancer. Multiples therapies, which primarily target Plk1, are currently being investigated alone or in combination with other agents for clinical use in different cancers. As the role of Plks in disease progression becomes more prominent, it is important to outline their functions as cell cycle regulators and more. This review summarizes the structure and both mitotic and non‐mitotic functions of each of the five Plk family members, sequentially. Additionally, the proposed mechanisms for how Plks contribute to tumorigenesis and the therapeutics currently under investigation are outlined.
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or Kala-azar is a potentially fatal vector-borne zoonotic disease caused by a protozoan parasite, Leishmania donovani. Nepal, together with India, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan constitutes the five countries of the world where more than 90% of VL occurs. In Nepal, the disease affects eastern Terai region which lies adjacent to the Bihar state of India. Although leishmaniasis is regarded as a significant health problem in Nepal by the Ministry of Health, there is no active case detection programme in the country. Information on the morbidity and mortality is thus very limited. The objectives of this study were to determine the up-to-date morbidity and mortality trend for VL in Nepal. Data collected from eight zonal hospitals in the Terai region suggests that the first confirmed case of VL was recorded in 1980. By 2003, the disease has spread to 14 districts of central and eastern regions of Nepal, and nearly six million people residing in these districts were at the risk of acquiring the disease. A total of 25890 cases with 599 deaths were reported during the year 1980-2006 (up to July). The case fatality rate (CFR) varied from 0.23% to 13.2%. District-wise analysis showed that, during 2003, highest incidence (per 100,000) was in Mahottari district (184), followed by Sarlahi (100) and Sunsari (96). The highest CFR was in Dhanusha (2.9%) followed by Bara (2.4%) and Saptari (2.0%). Majority (70.9%) of persons affected by VL were aged 15 years and above, followed by 10-14 years (13.9%), 5-9 years (11.9%) and 1-4 years (3.3%). The incidence of VL in Nepal seems to be increasing at a faster rate indicating that the existing control programs have been ineffective. To achieve success in control programs, the existing ones should be amended as there is evolution of resistance in the parasite as well as the vector. Public health education, to make the people aware about preventive aspects of the disease is important. The possibility of the existence of animal reservoirs should also be considered and checked out for better control measures.
Aim of this study was to demonstrate the diagnostic ability to differentiate odontogenic keratocysts (OKCs) from ameloblastomas (AMs) based on computed tomography (CT) or cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. Preoperative CT and CBCT scans from 2004 to 2019 of OKCs and AMs were analyzed in 51 participants. Lesions were three-dimensionally (3D) assessed and Hounsfield units (HU) as well as gray scale values (GSV) were quantified. Calculated HU spectra were compared within the same imaging modalities using unpaired t-tests and correlated with participants characteristics by calculating Pearsons correlation coefficients. Within the CT scans, AMs had highly significantly higher HU values compared to OKCs (43.52 HU and 19.79 HU, respectively; p < 0.0001). Analogous, within the CBCT scans, AMs had significantly higher GSV compared to OKCs (−413.76 HU and −564.76 HU, respectively; p = 0.0376). These findings were independent from participants’ gender and age, anatomical site, and lesion size, indicating that the HU- and GSV-based difference reflects an individual configuration of the lesion. HU and GSV spectra calculated from CT and CBCT scans can be used to discriminate between OKCs and AMs. This diagnostic approach represents a faster and non-invasive option for preoperative diagnosis of such entities and has potential to facilitate therapeutic decision making.
The crystallization and viscosity of modified blast furnace slag are key factors in fiber forming conditions. In this paper, the crystallization behavior of modified blast furnace slag under continuous cooling conditions was studied by differential scanning calorimetry, and its crystallization kinetics with different acidity coefficients were established. On this basis, the evolution law of the crystallization phase and the influence of crystallization on the viscosity of modified blast furnace slag with different acidity coefficients were analyzed. The results indicated that the crystallization phases of slag with acidity coefficients of 1.05 and 1.20 were, respectively, Melilite and Anorthite. During the cooling process at the acidity coefficient of 1.05, the critical rates of precipitation of Melilite and Anorthite were 50 °C/s and 20 °C/s, respectively, while they were 20 °C/s and 15 °C/s, respectively, at the acidity coefficient of 1.20. With the increase of the acidity coefficient, the crystal growth mode of slag changed from two-dimensional and three-dimensional mixed crystallization to surface nucleation and one-dimensional crystallization. The crystallization activation energy of slag with acidity coefficients of 1.05 and 1.20 were 698.14 kJ/mol and 1292.50 kJ/mol, respectively. In addition, the change trend of viscosity was related to crystal size and content.
ContextPopulation-based data on cancers associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in children are lacking.ObjectiveTo determine risk of pediatric AIDS-associated cancers.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsUsing records from 11 locations in the United States for varying periods between 1978 and 1996, we linked data for children aged 14 years and younger at AIDS diagnosis to local cancer registry data.Main Outcome MeasuresCancer frequency and, in the 2-year post–AIDS onset period, cancer incidence and relative risk (RR; measured as standardized incidence ratio), by cancer type.ResultsAmong 4954 children with AIDS, 124 (2.5%) were identified as having cancer before, at, or after AIDS onset, including 100 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), 8 of Kaposi sarcoma (KS), 4 of leiomyosarcoma, and 2 of Hodgkin disease; there were 10 other or unspecified cancers. Expected numbers for all cancers identified in the study sample, based on population rates (using area-specific registry data), were less than 1. In the first 2 years after AIDS diagnosis (5485 person-years), NHL incidence was 510 per 100,000 person-years (RR, 651; 95% confidence interval [CI], 432-941). Median time for developing NHL after AIDS diagnosis was 14 months (range, 3-107 months). The most common type of NHL was Burkitt lymphoma. However, the risk of primary brain lymphoma (91 per 100,000 person-years) was especially high (RR, 7143; 95% CI, 2321-16,692), and 4 cases were diagnosed more than 2 years (range, 37-98 months) after AIDS onset. Leiomyosarcomas also tended to occur several years after AIDS onset, with 3 of the 4 cases occurring 33 to 76 months after AIDS diagnosis, whereas KS was reported only at or within 2 years of AIDS diagnosis. Hodgkin disease risk was also significantly increased (RR, 62; 95% CI, 2-342).ConclusionsThe spectrum of AIDS-associated pediatric cancers resembled that seen in adults, with the addition of leiomyosarcoma. Both primary brain lymphomas and leiomyosarcomas tended to occur in children surviving several years after AIDS onset. Because the expected numbers of these cancers in this population were less than 1 and because of the small numbers of some types of observed cancers, the RR estimates are imprecise and caution is warranted in their interpretation.
Specific oligonucleotide sequences, when administered subcutaneously, in particular, to the mucous membranes (e.g., intranasally, intravaginally, or rectally) when administered, healthy subject and in animal studies in vivo, and in vitro as confirmed in human PBMC collected from the blood of patients suffering from CLL, have a significant effect on the form of a variety of human cancers. These compounds also radiotherapy, hormone therapy, surgical intervention, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, photodynamic therapy, laser therapy, hyperthermia, selected from cryotherapy, angiogenesis inhibitor, or any combination thereof, is preferably used in combination with Rugan therapy, it is most preferred if combined with immunologic therapy comprising administration of an antibody to the patient.
BACKGROUND The intestinal microbiota influences the appropriate function of the gastrointestinal tract. Intestinal dysbiosis may be associated with a higher risk of esophageal lesions, mainly due to changes in gastroesophageal motility patterns, elevation of intra-abdominal pressure, and increased frequency of transient relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter.   OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the intestinal microbiota in individuals with erosive esophagitis and in healthy individuals using metagenomics.   METHODS A total of 22 fecal samples from adults aged between 18 and 60 years were included. Eleven individuals had esophagitis (eight men and three women) and 11 were healthy controls (10 men and one woman). The individuals were instructed to collect and store fecal material into a tube containing guanidine solution. The DNA of the microbiota was extracted from each fecal samples and PCR amplification was performed using primers for the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. The amplicons were sequenced using the Ion Torrent PGM platform and the data were analyzed using the QIIME™ software version 1.8. Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney non-parametric test and the ANOSIM non-parametric method based on distance matrix.   RESULTS The alpha-diversity and beta-diversity indices were similar between the two groups, without statistically significant differences. There was no statistically significant difference in the phylum level. However, a statistically significant difference was observed in the abundance of the family Clostridiaceae (0.3% vs 2.0%, P=0.032) and in the genus Faecaliumbacterium (10.5% vs 4.5%, P=0.045) between healthy controls and esophagitis patients.   CONCLUSION The findings suggest that reduced abundance of the genus Faecaliumbacterium and greater abundance of the family Clostridiaceae may be risk factors for the development of erosive esophagitis. Intervention in the composition of the intestinal microbiota should be considered as an adjunct to current therapeutic strategies for this clinical condition.
Literature references contain a considerable number of inaccuracies, both in citations and in quotations. We investigated the accuracy of quotations and references in Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde. We checked at random 100 references of articles presented for publication during a period of 4 weeks using Index Medicus. The citation and quotation of another 100 references (50 with a reading list of less than 13, and 50 with a reading list of more than 24 articles) of published original articles were checked, using the original article. In the references of articles presented for publication 70% contained one or more inaccuracies. In the published articles 31% was not completely correct. In 5% these errors prevented immediate identification of the cited article. In one of every three articles a citation error was made: 5 trivial errors, 16 slightly misleading and 12 seriously misleading errors were found. We could not find a relation between the number of citation errors and the length of the reading list. The original source was not cited in 8 articles. Our conclusion is that the number of inaccuracies, in references as well as in citations, is high; authors should check this part of their articles more carefully. Notably the use of multiple references after a sentence with a number of statements is to be avoided.
The development of selective protein kinase inhibitors has become an important area of drug discovery for the treatment of different diseases. We report the synthesis and characterization of a series of novel quinazoline derivatives against three therapeutically important and pharmacologically related kinases: 1) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR; wild type and mutant) in the field of cancer, 2) receptor-interacting caspase-like apoptosis-regulatory kinase (RICK) in the field of inflammation, and 3) pUL97 of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). For reference purpose we have synthesized the four clinically relevant quinazolines, including the lead compounds, which we previously identified for RICK and pUL97. A total of 52 quinazoline derivatives were synthesized and tested on the basis of these leads to specifically target the hydrophobic pocket of the ATP-binding site. Selected compounds were tested on wild-type and mutant forms of EGFR, RICK, and pUL97 kinases; their logP and logS values for assessing suitability as drugs were calculated and hit or lead compounds identified.
The energy imparted to the children in diagnosing and hydrostatic reduction of intussusception was measured in 45 children by means of an area-dose measurement device and the mean absorbed dose was estimated. The device was provided with data on tube kVp, mAs and shutter positions and the results were presented as dGy × cm2. The device had been calibrated against a 30 cm3 ionisation chamber at the relevant kVp range. The median energy imparted and mean absorbed dose were 10.8 mJ and 0.94 mGy, respectively. 70% of the total dose was delivered during fluoroscopy. The complex irradiation situation with varying field collimation, tube voltage and amount of photon absorbing barium sulphate in the intestines renders organ dose and hazards estimations less reliable. However, even leaving the radiation shielding effect of the barium sulphate out, the radiation load is justifiable for a combined diagnostic and interventional procedure.
The clinical benefits of beta‐blockers in heart failure are currently subject to intense debate and are being investigated. The economic impact of beta‐blockade, however, has largely remained unexplored. The Cardiac Insufficiency Bisoprolol Study (CIBIS), while failing to show statistically significant reduction in mortality over conventional therapy, demonstrates that the administration of bisoprolol adjuvant to standard therapy leads to a significant reduction in hospital admission. The present study is a cost minimisation analysis based on CIBIS data for the UK and is restricted to direct costs only. The costs of bisoprolol medication and inpatient treatment of heart failure are considered. The ‘base case’ analysis and the sensitivity analyses carried on all cosidriver parameters show that administering bisoprolol to heart failure patients adjuvantly to the standard therapy is at least cost neutral. Additional drug costs incurred by bisoprolol are compensated by the inpatient treatment costs of heart failure avoided. All other non‐quantifiable clinical benefits such as improvement of New York Heart Association functional class are positive extras to patients and the National Health Service.
With the technological advances and increased experience with laparoscopy, increasingly complex procedures are being performed laparoscopically. Pancreatic resections accompanied this evolution and are possible in centers with great experience. Due to its low incidence and surgical complexity, there is no standardization of the procedure, including spleen preservation. We present a case report of a patient with cystoadenoma in the body of the pancreas who underwent laparoscopic resection with preservation of the spleen. The procedure was performed using six laparoscopic portals. The duration of surgery was 180 minutes. There were no intraoperative complications, and no need for transfusion of red blood cells or other blood components. The patient developed a pancreatic fistula on the third post-operative day; with conservative treatment there was clinical resolution. The patient stayed in the intensive care unit for 24 hours and in the hospital for six days. In this case, laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy with spleen preservation was shown to be safe and effective, requiring a short hospitalization.
Spermatic cord liposarcoma is a very rare tumor. About 200 cases have been currently reported in the literature of which most were reported cases in adults, presenting with a painless inguinal or scrotal mass, and were usually mistaken for an inguinal hernia or a hydrocele testis. Its treatment includes radical surgical excision, usually radical inguinal orchidectomy. Published literature on LSC has been limited to case reports with limited clinical information.
Twenty-four patients with mild to moderate hypertension were randomly assigned to 42 days of treatment with 20 mg of nitrendipine once daily or 20 mg of nicardipine thrice daily. In the nitrendipine-treated and nicardipine-treated patients, respectively, mean resting blood pressure decreased from 163 +/- 12 and 161 +/- 11 mmHg at baseline to 152 +/- 12 and 146 +/- 9 mmHg at six weeks (P less than 0.001). Blood pressures were reduced after one day of treatment, followed by an attenuation of the drug effect. In both treatment groups, blood pressures after cycloergometric, isometric, and cold-pressure tests were significantly lower at six weeks than at baseline; at six weeks, blood pressures were also significantly reduced two hours after drug administration, compared with those at or just before drug administration. It is concluded that nitrendipine taken once daily is safe and effective in the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension.
Purpose Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for approximately ninety percent of primary liver cancer. This study attempted to investigate the effects of the long noncoding RNA MIR100HG (MIR100HG) in HCC and the underlying molecular mechanism. Materials and Methods qRT-PCR was implemented to analyze the expression of MIR100HG, microRNA-146b-5p (miR-146b-5p), and Chromobox 6 (CBX6). The correlation between MIR100HG and clinicopathological features of HCC patients was assessed. Additionally, the effects of MIR100HG knockdown on HCC cell viability, migration, and invasion were explored. The interactions among MIR100HG, miR-146b-5p, and CBX6 were confirmed. Furthermore, rescue experiments were conducted to investigate whether MIR100HG knockdown modulates HCC cell behaviors through modulating the miR-146b-5p/CBX6 axis. Results The expression of MIR100HG and CBX6 was enhanced, while miR-146b-5p was inhibited in HCC cells. High MIR100HG expression was positively associated with the TNM tumor stage and Edmondson-Steiner grading in HCC patients. MIR100HG knockdown considerably reduced the HCC cell viability, migration, and invasion. In addition, MIR100HG directly targeted miR-146b-5p, and miR-146b-5p directly targeted CBX6 in HCC cells. Moreover, miR-146b-5p suppression or CBX6 elevation evidently rescued the suppressed viability, migration, and invasion of HCC cells caused by MIR100HG knockdown. Conclusions Knockdown of MIR100HG inhibited the viability, migration, and invasion of HCC cells by targeting the miR-146b-5p/CBX6 axis, offering a potential therapeutic target for HCC therapy.
In 1989 accidental death of 72 persons with an age of at least 60 years were determined at the Institute for Legal Medicine in Hamburg. 41 of them (57%) died by traffic accident. In those cases 18 of them died from pneumonia or embolism of lung as a result to be laid low. The causal connection and phenomenoms of those complications are described and problems of medicine, social-security payment and insurance benefit of the elder age are discussed.
We report a case of trigeminal neuralgia treated with microvascular decompression 10 years after We report a case of trigeminal neuralgia treated with microvascular decompression 10 years after Gamma Knife radiosurgery was performed. The patient was a 65-year-old female. The root entry zone of the trigeminal nerve received irradiation:a 4-mm shot, with a maximum dose of 80 Gy. The symptoms improved following treatment, however pain recurred five and a half years later. The pain gradually increased over time, to the point where the patient was unable to eat solid food. Carbamazepine was prescribed and the dosage increased. However, side effects such as dizziness and drowsiness manifested. Microvascular decompression was performed, revealing that the trigeminal nerve was markedly atrophied and being pressed upon by the superior cerebellar artery. The superior cerebellar artery was transpositioned with Teflon braided tape to the cerebellar tent. There were no abnormal findings such as arachnoid thickening, adhesions between vessels and nerves, or atherosclerotic plaque in the affected vessels. Pain completely abated following surgery, and side effects such as numbness of the face have not been observed at the time of writing this report.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. Ubiquinone is contained in mitochondria and has an important role in aerobic energy production and metabolism. Administration of ubiquinone could improve the quality of life of patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A controlled randomized and double-blind clinical trial was performed with Patients were eligible if they were stable COPD as GOLD criteria, ages more than 30 years old. Patient were randomly assigned to receive ubiquinone or placebo for 12 weeks. Patients were instructed to continue other routine medication. All patients were assessed the level of lactate, lung function, blood gas analysis, six minute walking test and quality of life patient of COPD with St George’s Respiratory Questionnare (SGRQ) before and after 12 weeks of ubiquinone or placebo administration. A total 60 patients were available for outcome analysis, 30 patients in ubiquinone group and 30 patiens in control group. There were no differences between the groups with regard to gender, stage of COPD, BMI. The serum level of lactate was significantly decreased in an ubiquinone group compared to control group (1.10+1.1, -1.02+0.94; p 0.05). There was significant increase in the distance of six minute walking test in ubiquinone group compared to control group (-35.78 ± 27.30, 0.21 ± 25.90; p<0.01). Patients who had received ubiquinone showed significant improvement of SGRQ score in symptoms, activity and impact compared to placebo (22.32 ± 9.10 vs -1.42+3.68; p<0.01, 2.95+2.87 vs -4.19+13.29;p<0.01, 15.37 ± 8.43 vs -2.25+8.21;p<0.01). Ubiquinone administration has favorable effect on the energy production of muscle in patients with stable COPD and on improvement of quality of life. Keywords: ubiqinone, COPD, level of lactate, SGRQ, quality of life
Cardiovascular diseases account for more than 30% of all deaths worldwide and many could be ameliorated with early diagnosis. Current cardiac imaging modalities can assess blood flow, heart anatomy and mechanical function. However, for early diagnosis and improved treatment, further functional biomarkers are needed. One such functional biomarker could be the myocardium pH. Although tissue pH is already determinable via MR techniques, and has been since the early 1990s, it remains elusive to use practically. The objective of this study was to explore the possibility to evaluate cardiac pH noninvasively, using in‐cell enzymatic rates of hyperpolarized [1‐13C]pyruvate metabolism (ie, moles of product produced per unit time) determined directly in real time using magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a perfused mouse heart model. As a gold standard for tissue pH we used 31P spectroscopy and the chemical shift of the inorganic phosphate (Pi) signal. The nonhomogenous pH distribution of the perfused heart was analyzed using a multi‐parametric analysis of this signal, thus taking into account the heterogeneous nature of this characteristic. As opposed to the signal ratio of hyperpolarized [13C]bicarbonate to [13CO2], which has shown correlation to pH in other studies, we investigated here the ratio of two intracellular enzymatic rates: lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), by way of determining the production rates of [1‐13C]lactate and [13C]bicarbonate, respectively. The enzyme activities determined here are intracellular, while the pH determined using the Pi signal may contain an extracellular component, which could not be ruled out. Nevertheless, we report a strong correlation between the tissue pH and the LDH/PDH activities ratio. This work may pave the way for using the LDH/PDH activities ratio as an indicator of cardiac intracellular pH in vivo, in an MRI examination.
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and, to date, bariatric surgery remains the only effective treatment for morbid obesity in terms of its capacity to achieve durable weight loss. Bariatric surgery procedures, including Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass (RYGB), adjustable gastric banding (AGB) and sleeve gastrectomy (SG), have been the primary procedures conducted over the past decade, with SG increasing in popularity over the past 5 years at the expense of both RYGB and AGB. Although these procedures were initially proposed to function via restrictive or malabsorptive mechanisms, it is now clear that profound physiological changes underlie the metabolic improvements in patients who undergo bariatric surgery. Data generated in human patients and animal models highlight the rapid and sustained changes in gut hormones that coincide with these procedures. Furthermore, recent studies highlight the involvement of the nervous system, specifically the vagus nerve, in mediating the reduction in appetite and food intake following bariatric surgery. What is unclear is where these pathways converge and interact within the gut‐brain axis and whether vagally‐mediated circuits are sufficient to drive the metabolic sequalae following bariatric surgery.
Background High‐sensitivity troponin (hs‐TNT), a biomarker of myocardial damage, might be useful for assessing fibrosis in Fabry cardiomyopathy. We performed a prospective analysis of hs‐TNT as a biomarker for myocardial changes in Fabry patients and a retrospective longitudinal follow‐up study to assess longitudinal hs‐TNT changes relative to fibrosis and cardiomyopathy progression. Methods and Results For the prospective analysis, hs‐TNT from 75 consecutive patients with genetically confirmed Fabry disease was analyzed relative to typical Fabry‐associated echocardiographic findings and total myocardial fibrosis as measured by late gadolinium enhancement (LE) on magnetic resonance imaging. Longitudinal data (3.9±2.0 years), including hs‐TNT, LE, and echocardiographic findings from 58 Fabry patients, were retrospectively collected. Hs‐TNT level positively correlated with LE (linear correlation coefficient, 0.72; odds ratio, 32.81 [95% CI, 3.56–302.59]; P=0.002); patients with elevated baseline hs‐TNT (>14 ng/L) showed significantly increased LE (median: baseline, 1.9 [1.1–3.3] %; follow‐up, 3.2 [2.3–4.9] %; P<0.001) and slightly elevated hs‐TNT (baseline, 44.7 [30.1–65.3] ng/L; follow‐up, 49.1 [27.6–69.5] ng/L; P=0.116) during follow‐up. Left ventricular wall thickness and EF of patients with elevated hs‐TNT were decreased during follow‐up, indicating potential cardiomyopathy progression. Conclusions hs‐TNT is an accurate, easily accessible clinical blood biomarker for detecting replacement fibrosis in patients with Fabry disease and a qualified predictor of cardiomyopathy progression. Thus, hs‐TNT could be helpful for staging and follow‐up of Fabry patients.
The currently recommended prophylaxis for individuals exposed to rabies virus is the combined administration of rabies vaccine and rabies immune globulin (RIG). However, limited supply hampers the availability of RIG, particularly in enzootic areas. To circumvent the global RIG limitation we aimed to develop a human monoclonal antibody combination, CL184, for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) that would replace the plasma origin RIG. CL184 consists of two human IgG1 mAbs, CR57 and CR4098, which are directed against non-overlapping rabies virus (RV) glycoprotein epitopes. Previously, we have shown that the in vitro breadth of neutralization of CL184 against a large panel of street RV of various animal origins as well as in vivo protection by CL184 in a Syrian hamster rabies challenge model was comparable to results obtained with human RIG. A detailed preclinical selection procedure was applied to establish the CL184 antibody combination. Efforts on RV surveillance to ensure adequate coverage by CL184 continue. In addition, encouraging data from the Phase I (US and India) and Phase II (US and Philippines) clinical evaluation of CL184 have been obtained. In preparation of the pivotal Phase III evaluations for CL184, a final Phase IIb evaluation has been executed for which data analysis is ongoing. The future availability of CL184 may help to ensure consistent supply of pivotal life-saving biologics to rabies endemic areas and could substantially contribute to the reduction of human rabies deaths, when combined with educational measures and efforts to eliminate canine rabies.
A prospective study conducted between 1995 and 1998 assessed trends in contraceptive use in rural Rakai District, Uganda. Over a period of 30 months, women's use of modern contraceptives increased significantly from 11 percent to 20 percent. Male condom use increased from 10 percent to 17 percent. The prevalence of pregnancy among sexually active women 15-49 declined significantly from 15 percent to 13 percent. Women practicing family planning for pregnancy prevention were predominantly in the 20-39-year age group, married, better educated, and had higher parity than others, whereas women or men adopting condoms were predominantly young, unmarried, and better educated. Condom use was particularly high among individuals reporting multiple sexual partners or extramarital relationships. Contraceptive use was higher among women who desired fewer children, among those who wished to space or terminate childbearing, and among women with previous experience of unwanted births or abortions. Self-perception of HIV risk increased condom use, but HIV testing and counseling had only modest effects. Contraception for pregnancy prevention and for HIV/STD prophylaxis are complementary.
Response profiling using shotgun proteomics for establishing global metallodrug mechanisms of action in two colon carcinoma cell lines, HCT116 and SW480, has been applied and evaluated with the clinically approved arsenic trioxide. Surprisingly, the complete established mechanism of action of arsenic trioxide was observed by protein regulations in SW480, but not HCT116 cells. Comparing the basal protein expression in the two cell lines revealed an 80 % convergence of protein identification, but with significant expression differences, which in turn seem to affect the extent of protein regulation. A clear-cut redox response was observed in SW480 cells upon treatment with arsenic, but hardly in HCT116 cells. Response profiling was then used to investigate four anti-cancer metallodrugs (KP46, KP772, KP1339 and KP1537). Proteome alterations were mapped to selected functional groups, including DNA repair, endocytosis, protection from oxidative stress, protection from endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) stress, cell adhesion and mitochondrial function. The present data suggest that knowledge of the mechanism of action of anti-cancer metallodrugs and improved patient stratification strategies are imperative for the design of clinical studies.
Surfactant protein A (SP-A) is known to inhibit surfactant secretion from pulmonary alveolar type II epithelial cells (type II cells). It is unknown whether SP-A acts as an inhibitor in the presence of lipids since SP-A mostly exists complexed with surfactant lipids. In this paper we focused on this issue using purified surfactant, purified SP-A and synthesized lipid liposomes. Surfactant secretion from type II cells was evaluated as TPA-stimulated secretion of radiolabeled lipids. The results demonstrated that 1) the inhibition of lipiD secretion by purified surfactant depended on its lipid components, not on the SP-A component, 2) the inhibitory effect of SP-A purified from surfactant was reversed in the presence of lipid liposomes, and 3) SP-A free from surfactant was unable to inhibit lipid secretion. We conclude from these results that SP-A can potentially inhibit surfactant secretion, but surfactant secretion is mainly regulated by surfactant lipids.
Tbe appearance of the first AIDS cases in Ger­ " many in 1982 evoked a deep sense of horror at the prospect of a possibly unstoppable cataslrophe and consequenlly lriggered a comparatively strong pol­ itical willingness 10 act and provi~ fundingI. After much diseussion. the organizalion of a slr.ltegy of "social leaming" as opposed to a more segrega' lional S!ralegy of repressive control became possible in Germany. From 1988 onwards, funds amounting 'to aboul 120-160 million German marks have been made availaQle for measures in the field of public health awareness, practice­ oriented model projecls. and dinical and social scienee research projecls. Govemment funds alone have financed more lhan 1.000 posts for staff in praclice-oriented model programs, as weil as new AIDS-relaled lasksof many existing facilities for pre 'cntion. eounselIing, and eare. Tbus. in a eom­ paratively short time. a fairly broad system of ser­ vices has sprung up. leading to very important in­ novations in medieal and psycho-social care. , Tbis study of burnout in the field of AIDS. was' prompled by the fear that colleagues aClive in this comparalively new area were under special' and grealer strain compared ~ith colleagues in other areas. First. qualitalive sludies1 showed thaI often very young and inexperieneed workers, who strongly identified with their clients, had entered this oew area of work. Lacking practiee-orienled , models, these worlc.ers had 10 "leam by doing" in a situation where they were under considerable Summary
Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is one of the most common causes of community-acquired respiratory tract infections (RTIs). We aimed to investigate the prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection, antibiotic resistance and genetic diversity of M. pneumoniae isolates across multiple centers in Beijing, China. P1 protein was detected by Nested PCR to analyze the occurrence of M. pneumoniae in pediatric patients with RTI. M. pneumoniae isolates were cultured and analyzed by Nested-PCR to determine their genotypes. Broth microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antibiotics. Out of 822 children with RTI admitted to 11 hospitals in Beijing, 341 (41.48%) were positive for M. pneumoniae by Nested PCR and 236 (69.21%) samples had mutations in 23S rRNA domain V. The highest proportion of M. pneumoniae positive samples was observed in school-age children (118/190; 62.11%) and in pediatric patients with pneumonia (220/389; 56.56%). Out of 341 M. pneumoniae positive samples, 99 (12.04%) isolates were successfully cultured and the MIC values were determined for 65 M. pneumoniae strains. Out of these, 57 (87.69%) strains were resistant to macrolides, and all 65 strains were sensitive to tetracyclines or quinolones. M. pneumoniae P1 type I and P1 type II strains were found in 57/65 (87.69%) and 8/65 (12.31%) of cultured isolates, respectively. Overall, we demonstrated a high prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection and high macrolide resistance of M. pneumoniae strains in Beijing. School-age children were more susceptible to M. pneumoniae, particularly the children with pneumonia. Thus, establishment of a systematic surveillance program to fully understand the epidemiology of M. pneumoniae is critical for the standardized use of antibiotics in China.
OBJECTIVES Recently, it has been recognized that there are increasing incidences of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) multicentricity. Thus, intraoperatively detected hepatic lesions that were once thought to be metastatic lesions now need to be carefully reexamined to determine whether they are true metastatic lesions or the multicentric development of HCC.   METHODS We investigated the histological characteristics of small nodular lesions detected during intraoperative ultrasonography in 33 consecutive patients with small HCC who underwent laparotomy at our institution.   RESULTS Fourteen nodular lesions were found incidentally in 10 of 33 patients (30.3%), and were classified into the following three groups: 11 nodules in nine patients (27.3%) were HCC, two nodules in two patients (6.1%) were hemangioma, and one nodule in one patient (3.0%) was a large regenerative nodule. HCC therefore comprised 78.6% of the intraoperatively detected nodular lesions. Of the 11 HCCs, six were hyperechoic, four were hypoechoic, and one was isoechoic. Five (83.3%) of six small hyperechoic HCCs and two (50.0%) of four hypoechoic HCCs were well differentiated and retained their preexisting liver structure. These findings closely coincide with the characteristics of early stage HCC. Thus, early stage HCC comprised 63.6% of the intraoperatively detected HCC cases.   CONCLUSIONS A certain proportion of small satellite HCCs detected during intraoperative ultrasonography in patients with small HCC, which were previously thought to be metastatic lesions from the main HCC, may instead be early stage HCCs. Such findings would also support the concept of the multicentric development of HCC. Approximately 60% of all small HCC cases detected intraoperatively may be early stage HCC. As a result, it is predicted that the emergence of HCC is either multicentric or unicentric, with early intrahepatic spread, although the former seems to be more common.
The classification of rules may be one of the most fundamental targets in the study of cellular automata. In this paper, we propose a method for achieving such a classification, in which a new quiescent string dominance parameter F, which is orthogonal to lambda, is introduced. For N -neighbor and K -state cellular automata, in the region 1/K<lambda<1-1/K, the maximum F corresponds to the class III rules, and its minimum, to the class II or class I rules. Therefore, transition of the pattern class takes place between them without fail. By using lambda and F, the phase diagram of cellular automata is determined in the (lambda, F ) plane for five-neighbor and four-state cellular automata. The phase diagram indicates that along the F axis, class III rules are distributed in a large F region, while class I and class II rules are, in a small F region, and class IV rules are found in the overlapping region of class II and III rules. These distributions are almost independent of lambda. Along the lambda axis, all four pattern classes are found in the region 0.25<lambda<0.75, and no correlation between pattern class and lambda parameter is observed.
Thyroid hormones are essential for normal behavioral, intellectual, and neurological development. Congenital hypothyroidism, if not treated, can result in irreversible mental retardation, whereas thyroid diseases with more moderate impairment of thyroid function, such as resistance to thyroid hormone, cause less severe intellectual and behavioral abnormalities, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. There is increasing evidence that exposure to certain synthetic compounds, including dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), during the perinatal period can also impair learning, memory, and attentional processes in offspring. Animal and human studies suggest that exposure to these environmental toxicants impair normal thyroidfunction. Although the precise mechanisms of action of the adverse effects these toxicants have on neurodevelopment have not yet been elucidated, it is possible that they are partially or predominantly mediated by alterations in hormone binding to the thyroid hormone receptor. The convergence of studies that examine the neurodevelopmental consequences of moderate impairment of thyroid function, such as is found in resistance to thyroid hormone, with those studies that demonstrate the adverse behavioral and cognitive effectsof perinatal exposure to dioxins and PCBs serves to generate new hypotheses to test in a research setting. Such studies may provide new insights into the basic pathogenesis of developmental neurotoxicity following exposure to thyroid-disrupting synthetic compounds.
Human IBD, including UC and Crohnˈs disease, is characterized by a chronic, relapsing, and remitting condition that exhibits various features of immunological inflammation and affects at least one/1000 people in Western countries. Polyphenol extracts from a variety of plants have been shown to have immunomodulatory and anti‐inflammatory effects. In this study, treatment with APP was investigated to ameliorate chemically induced colitis. Oral but not peritoneal administration of APP during colitis induction significantly protected C57BL/6 mice against disease, as evidenced by the lack of weight loss, colonic inflammation, and shortening of the colon. APP administration dampened the mRNA expression of IL‐1β, TNF‐α, IL‐6, IL‐17, IL‐22, CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, and IFN‐γ in the colons of mice with colitis. APP‐mediated protection requires T cells, as protection was abated in Rag‐1−/− or TCRα−/− mice but not in IL‐10−/−, IRF‐1−/−, μMT, or TCRδ−/− mice. Administration of APP during colitis to TCRα−/− mice actually enhanced proinflammatory cytokine expression, further demonstrating a requirement for TCRαβ cells in APP‐mediated protection. APP treatment also inhibited CXCR3 expression by TCRαβ cells, but not B or NK cells, in the colons of mice with colitis; however, depletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells alone did not abolish APP‐mediated protection. Collectively, these results show that oral administration of APP protects against experimental colitis and diminishes proinflammatory cytokine expression via T cells.
Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) related protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) in the following areas: clinical features, laboratory, endoscopic and imaging characteristics, treatment and outcome. Method: A retrospective analysis was performed. Results: From 2001 to 2010, 48 patients had SLE related PLE and their clinical characteristics were: age 40.8 ± 14.3 years, male-to-female ratio 1:8.6, mean symptom duration 4.3 ± 3.4 weeks, initial presentation and concomitant activity of SLE in 21(43.8%) and 37 (77.1%) patients, <20% patients developed gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, mean serum albumin level 24.4 ± 5 g/L. Thirty (62.5%) patients had diffuse non-erosive erythematous GI mucosa with chronic inflammatory cells in lamina propria. Protein leakage was at the small bowel in 15 (31.3%) patients, terminal ileum/caecum in 16 (33.3%) patients and ascending colon in 11 (22.9%) patients. Thirty (62.5%) patients responded initially well to a combination of prednisolone and azathioprine (AZA) and 33 (68.8%) patients were maintained well by the above therapy. Higher potent induction and maintenance therapy were required in patients with: proteinuria (p < 0.01), history of previous immunosuppressive therapy (p < 0.02) and requirement of higher potent induction therapy (p < 0.01). PLE as initial SLE presentation was associated with better prognosis. Four reversible adverse events were reported: one had AZA-induced pancreatitis, two developed AZA-induced hypoplastic anemia and one developed steroid psychosis. One patient developed shingles in the fourth month and responded to oral acyclovir. No thromboembolic events were reported and one patient died of SLE nephropathy. Conclusion: There appears to be increasing prevalence of SLE related PLE. A diagnosis can be made using 99m Tc-labeled HSA scintigraphy. PLE generally responds well to immunosuppressive therapy.
In another paper (p. 1092) the same authors consider some unusual neurological and cardiovascular complications of respiratory failure. Their patients presented with acute respiratory failure superimposed on chronic obstructive disease of the airway. All were cyanosed, had symptoms of hypercapnia, and had mixed venous Pco2 levels above 50 mm. Hg. They were treated in the usual way with oxygen by Venturi mask, respiratory stimulants, and antibiotics. Tracheotomy was done on four patients but mechanical respirators were not used. Five patients developed fatal neurological complications clinically indicative of gross damage to the cerebrum or cerebellum. These developed between 5 minutes and 36 hours after the cessation of continuous oxygen therapy at a time when the mixed venous Pco2 had fallen considerably. The fatal cases had been in acute respiratory failure for an average of 23 days, as opposed to 12 days in the non-fatal group. Necropsy consistently showed cerebral oedema and varying degrees of brain softening with little atherosclerosis. The authors make the interesting suggestion that an important factor in the production of damage to the brain is the cessation of continuous oxygen therapy combined with a reduction of blood flow to the brain consequent on the lowering of the CO2 tension of the blood. Unfortunately no information on the oxygen tension in the arterial blood is provided, though to obtain it would have much increased the complexity of the investigation. Certainly a rise of CO2 tension in the blood has a powerful vasodilatory effect on cerebral blood-vessels, and perhaps in the anoxic state this is no bad thing. Since coming to that conclusion Hamilton and Gross have concentrated more on correcting anoxia than hypercapnia, and they have not had any more of these neurological disasters. However, the situation in respiratory failure is very complex. Different types of apparatus for giving oxygen to patients in respiratory failure are described at page 1081 by Professor K. W. Donald and his colleagues, and they put forward a new design for a mask which combines efficiency with economy. Workers at the Birmingham school4 have recently shown that apart from the anoxia and hypercapnia patients in respiratory failure have severe pulmonary hypertension, a cardiac output considerably below its normal or high normal value, reduced renal blood flow, and excessive tubular reabsorption of sodium and bicarbonate. D. B. Shaw and T. Simpson" have shown that these patients also have an increased red-cell mass which is largely masked in acute exacerbations of respiratory failure by the rise of plasma volume. Doubtless many other mechanisms, such as the partition of potassium and hydrogen ions between intracellular and extracellular spaces, are pushed beyond the brink of their range of adaptation. It is therefore difficult to assign to any one mechanism the premier role in the production of a particular disturbance. Clearly respiratory failure of the type under consideration has its origin in underventilation at the alveoli owing to obstructive disease of the airway. It is becoming increasingly likely that, despite the alarming clinical features of hypercapnia, anoxia is much the more dangerous factor. The duty therefore of the practising doctor is to clear the airways and give oxygen.
The present study explored the anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic mechanism of Jingfang Granules on tail thrombosis induced by carrageenan in mice. Thirty-two male ICR mice were randomly divided into a control group, a model group, a Jingfang Granules group, and a positive drug(aspirin) group, with eight mice in each group. The thrombosis model was induced by intraperitoneal injection of carrageenan(45 mg·kg~(-1)) combined with low-temperature stimulation, and the mice were treated with drugs for 7 days before modeling. Twenty-four hours after modeling, blood was detected for four blood coagulation indices in each group. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) was used to detect the activity of plasma interleukin-6(IL-6), interleukin-1β(IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), and other inflammatory factors. The tails of mice in each group were cut off to observe tail lesions and measure the length of the thrombus. The protein expression and phosphorylation level of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2(ERK1/2) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(p38 MAPK) in spleen tissues were detected by Western blot. The results showed that dark red thrombus appeared in the tails of mice in each group. The length of the black part accounted for about 40% of the total tail in the model group. Additionally, the model group showed prolonged prothrombin time(PT), increased fibrinogen(FIB) content, and shortened activated partial thromboplastin time(APTT). Compared with the model group, the groups with drug intervention displayed shortened black parts in the tail and improved four blood coagulation indices(P<0.05). As revealed by ELISA, the expression levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in the mouse plasma were significantly up-regulated in the model group, and those in the groups with drug intervention were reduced as compared with the model group(P<0.05). As demonstrated by Western blot, the protein expression and phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK in the spleen tissues were significantly elevated in the model group, while those in the Jingfang Granules group were down-regulated as compared with the model group with a significant difference. Jingfang Granules can inhibit tail thrombosis of mice caused by carrageenan presumedly by inhibiting the activation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK signaling pathways.
Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA  Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma is characterized by high frequency of recurrence (70% of patients) and carboplatin resistance acquisition. We recently showed that Carcinoma-Associated-Mesenchymal Stem Cells (CA-MSC) are involved in ovarian tumor growth via the facilitation of angiogenesis in the tumor site as well as in ovarian cancer chemoresistance acquisition. Our aim is to identify the mechanisms by which CA-MSC activate tumor cells signaling pathway for both effects. First we showed that factors released by CA-MSC are able to induce angiogenic cytokines (IL-6, IL-8 and VEGF) synthesis by tumor cells in a cell line specific way. Second, CA-MSC are able to attract and activate macrophages into a M2 TAM like phenotype and allow them to secrete a huge quantity of pro-angiogenic cytokines, favorable to tumor progression of all the associated ovarian adenocarcinoma cells tested. Third, factors released by CA-MSC protect adenocarcinoma cells from carboplatin-induced apoptosis by inhibiting the activation of effector caspases 3 and 7, inducing the activation of PI3K/Akt pathway signalling and the phosphorylation of the downstream target XIAP (caspase inhibitor from IAP family). XIAP depletion by siRNA strategy or inhibitors permitted to restore carboplatin-induced apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells stimulated by CA-MSC conditioned medium . Our results suggested targeting factors released by CA-MSC could be of interest in ovarian cancer therapy.  Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting.  Citation Format: Benoit Thibault, Magali Castells, Delphine Mihas, Ludivine Genre, Cecile Gandy, Eliane Mery, Jean Pierre Delord, Bettina C. Couderc. Chemoresistance acquisition by ovarian adenocarcinoma cells due to microenvironment. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1155. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1155
Purpose of review Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is one of the most common myopathies, involving over 870,000 people worldwide and over 20 FSHD national registries. Our purpose was to summarize the main objectives of the scientific community on this topic and the moving trajectories of research from the past to the present. Recent findings To date, research is mainly oriented toward deciphering the molecular and pathogenetic basis of the disease by investigating DUX4-mediated muscle alterations. Accordingly, FSHD drug development has been escalating in the last years in an attempt to silence DUX4 or to block its downstream effectors. Breakthroughs in the field include the awareness that new biomarkers and outcome measures are required for tracking disease progression and patient stratification. The need to develop personalized therapeutic strategies is also crucial according to the phenotypic variability observed in FSHD subjects. Summary We analysed 121 literature reports published between 2021 and 2023 to assess the most recent advances in FSHD clinical and molecular research.
A novel Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein with a silent activity against the Colorado potato beetle is described. The crystal proteins are produced as bipyramidal crystals. These crystals contain a protein of 129 kDa with a trypsin-resistant core fragment of 72 kDa. Neither a spore-crystal mixture nor in vitro-solubilized crystals are toxic to any of several Lepidoptera and Coleoptera species tested. In contrast, a trypsin-treated solution containing the 72-kDa tryptic core fragment of the protoxin is highly toxic to Colorado potato beetle larvae. The crystal protein-encoding gene was cloned and sequenced. The inferred amino acid sequence of the putative toxic fragment has 37, 32, and 33% homology to the CryIIIA, CryIIIB, and CryIIID toxins, respectively. Interestingly, the 501 C-terminal amino acids show 41 to 48% amino acid identity with corresponding C-terminal amino acid sequences of other crystal proteins. Because of the toxicity of the fragment to the Colorado potato beetle and because of the distinct similarities of the toxic fragment with the other CryIII proteins, this gene was given a new subclass name (cryIIIC) within the CryIII class of coleopteran-active crystal proteins. CryIIIC represents the first example of a crystal protein with a silent activity towards coleopteran insect larvae. Natural CryIIIC crystals are not toxic. Toxicity is revealed only after an in vitro solubilization and activation step.
PURPOSE Reports concerning carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and linear correlation to age in healthy subjects did not distinguish the side and sex of the subjects. The purpose of this investigation attempts to clarify these issues.   METHODS 2402 asymptomatic persons, age 35-64, are separated into men's left (Lt) and right (Rt) and women's Lt and Rt carotid arteries for difference of CIMT between them and analysis of CIMT vs. age.   RESULTS There are significant difference between men's CIMT of Lt(CIMTML) vs Rt (CIMTMR), women's Lt(CIMTWL) vs. Rt (CIMTWR), Lt side CIMT of men vs women, and Rt side CIMT of men vs. women. The regression equation of CIMT vs. age for all four groups is determinated.   CONCLUSION We found an excellent linear correlation of CIMT to age and CIMT is significantly higher in men than women, so as higher in Lt than Rt. Further grouping of data into about 5-year period showed more clearly stepwise increasing of CIMT, so as the ratios of Lt CIMT different than Rt. CIMT study is served as highly efficient examination in therapy, prevention, clinic, or research survey about atherosclerosis and risk of stroke. Future study design concerning CIMT in separation groups of men and women, so as Lt and Rt is highly recommended.
Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by the disorder of the body′s response to infection.Sepsis is the focus of critical illness medicine and difficult problems nowadays.At present, the incidence of sepsis in children is still high around the world.If the treatment is not timely, sepsis can develop into septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, which is a serious threat to human health.Therefore, the early identification, diagnosis and treatment of sepsis is important for reducing mortality.And the biomarkers play an important role in the early diagnosis of sepsis, pathogenetic condition and prognosis as well as efficacy evaluation.This article summarized the biomarkers of sepsis in recent years.      Key words:  Children; Sepsis; Biomarkers,
In the fall of 2005, leading scientists from the National Cancer Institute announced the beginning of the cancer genome atlas project, a large-scale endeavour to map every gene implicated in cancer and the first step toward development of new therapies for treating this disease. This spin-off of the human genome project is only the latest research advance in a decades-long quest to fully understand the biochemistry of the human body and thereby gain insights into the secrets of health, disease, and ageing. Biochemist Frank H. Stephenson tells the compelling story of how scientists on many fronts are working in the battle against disease. With a gift for making the complexities of genetics and biochemistry understandable to the average reader, Stephenson offers an interesting tour of the mechanisms of our body and the therapeutic techniques that are gaining in sophistication and effectiveness every year. The author examines a wide variety of health threats and illnesses: HIV infection, the many forms of cancer, asthma, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, obesity, and even erectile dysfunction. Each is discussed in terms of its root cause and treatment in plain, jargon-free language that not only educates but also entertains.
Tirumanisetty P, Prichard D, Fletcher JG, Chakraborty S, Zinsmeister AR, Bharucha AE. Normal values for assessment of anal sphincter morphology, anorectal motion, and pelvic organ prolapse with MRI in healthy women. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2018;30(7):e13314. https:// doi.org/10.1111/nmo.13314. In the article detailed above, the author would like to advise readers that Figures 3 and 4 were previously incorrect and have been updated in the online version. The correct Figures 3 and 4 are shown below:
1 Shinchi M, Horiguchi A, Ojima K et al. Deep lateral transurethral incision for vesicourethral anastomotic stenosis after radical prostatectomy. Int. J. Urol. 2021; 28: 1120–6. 2 Sullivan L, Williams SG, Vimig BA et al. urethral stricture following high dose rate brachytherapy after prostate cancer. Radiother. Oncol. 2009; 91: 232–6. 3 Matsushita K, Ginsburg L, Mian BM et al. Pubovesical fistula: a rare complication after treatment of prostate cancer. Urology 2012; 80: 446–51. 4 Shapiro DD, Goodspeed DC, Bushman W. Urosymphyseal fistulas resulting from endoscopic treatment of radiation-induced posterior urethral strictures. Urology 2018; 114: 207–11. 5 Wessells H, Morey AF, McAninch JW. Obliterative vesicourethral strictures following radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer: reconstructive armamentarium. J. Urol. 1998; 160: 1363–5.
Non-ocular melanocytic tumor (NOMT) is rare in cats. NOMTs with high proliferative activity on the nose have been suggested to have a poor prognosis, but there is little information on treatment. We performed a nasal planectomy in a cat with a rapidly growing NOMT on the nasal planum. Histologically, the resected tumor was composed of nongranular epithelioid and spindle cells with moderate nuclear atypia and frequent mitotic figures, and it was diagnosed as a malignant melanoma. The tumor cells were near the caudal margin but were determined to be completely resected. No recurrence or metastasis was observed for more than 5 years after surgery. Nasal planectomy may be a therapeutic option for nasal NOMTs without metastasis in cats.
We write this letter regarding the acute care of patients with asthma in the UK. Asthma can cause considerable morbidity and potentially preventable mortality in young patients. Despite evidence-based therapies and guidelines, the UK is associated with one of the highest mortality rates related to asthma in Europe. We wanted to look at the acute management of patients with asthma in the emergency room in the UK. We …
Introduction: Esophagus injuries secondary to caustic ingestion occurs frequently in children. Oral damages cannot give us a clear image of what has happened in upper GI. Therefore endoscopy is only diagnostic way to evaluate upper GI injuries. In this study, we found out the endoscopic results in children admitted with caustic ingestion in Qaem (A. S.) hospital between 2011 to 2013 , and compare it with the result of other studies
We describe a case of a 59-year-old white woman, that first developed a myasthenia gravis picture, then palindromic rheumatism and, in the end, systemic lupus erythematosus. We have searched in the literature the common features and the differences between myasthenia gravis and systemic lupus erythematosus. In this report we emphasize the possible connection between palindromic rheumatism and autoimmune diseases.
THE investigation of the distribution of cases of multiple sclerosis in Switzerland between the years 1918 and 1922 seems to have established that the frequency of this disease can vary greatly in different geographic locations.1 The subsequent studies by Gram2 in Denmark and more recent investigations in the United States3 , 4 leave little doubt that these variations may be real and not due to technical errors in diagnosis, methods of collecting the data and so forth. In another study, Swank5 has suggested the possibility that these variations are related directly to the amount (and possibly the nature) of the fat consumption. . . .
Introduction: Ocular chemical injury can lead to visual loss or significant visual impairment. Use of safety devices such as protective goggles during work is key in the prevention of eye injury from occupational hazard. This case report highlights the importance of the use of protective clothing and device during work. Case report: Presented was Mr EO, a 37 year old mechanic who presented on account of injury to both eyes following battery explosion and was managed for bilateral chemical conjunctivitis and left keratitis without adverse sequelae. Conclusion: The case highlights the importance of protective device during work to protect vital organs of the body.
Ageing is the process of losing physical and mental balance of an individual. The age plays an important factor  in many aspects especially susceptibility toward many diseases. Most of the early adult’s faces eye and ear related  problems along with increasing age. In this article an author is trying to focus on eye related problems. The medical  conditions such as deceased vision, blockage of inner eye vessels, and inflammation in the eye, eye surgery, and  autoimmune disease of eyes are responsible for causing the severe blindness disease like glaucoma. The high risk  factors such as poor vision, intraocular pressure, diabetes, thinner corneas, high blood pressure and eye pressure, sickle  cell anemia, farsight and nearsight, family history of glaucoma are involved as glaucoma causing agents in many cases.  As per the current research, there is no any effective treatment for glaucoma across the world. So the finding of effective  treatment against the glaucoma becomes challenge to the researchers throughout the globe.
Gadolinium offers extra insight into our body’s condition. But, is it safe? Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) were safely delivered to millions of patients throughout the world since 1988, and their usage has definitely benefitted many individuals by allowing doctors to detect neurological disorders earlier and more accurately. GBCAs frequently have minor side effects. Injection-site discomfort, nausea, itching, rash, headaches, and dizziness are the most prevalent adverse effects. Patients with significant renal issues are more likely to experience serious, but uncommon side effects, including gadolinium poisoning and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis1. One of the biggest radiological concerns in recent years is the safety of GBCAs used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). As a study showed that gadolinium deposited in the brain and remained there, radiologists began to question the safety of gadolinium2. Results showed that the high signal intensity in patients’ brains is correlated with the number of GBCAs administrated. The new findings have sparked a major debate in radiology about the safety of these agents. For all GBCAs of MRI, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates a new class warning and additional safety precautions in terms of gadolinium staying in the patients’ bodies, including the brain, for months to years after taking these medications3. It is known that patients with renal insufficiency cannot filter the gadolinium from their body, so it is included as a FDA warning label on the contrast packaging. However, there was less evidence showing patient safety issues in those with normal renal function. Boxed warnings are also mentioned for recognized hypersensitivity relationships that can arise in individuals, especially in those with allergic diseases. Using GBCA in MRI has been questioned in recent years as evidence has emerged linking gadolinium to nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) and gadolinium deposition. Although most gadolinium is removed by urine after an MRI scan, a minimal amount stays and can accumulate over time, according to research published in 2017. This is an important concern for people who need to have MRI scans on a frequent basis1. Linear and macrocyclic agents are the two types of GBCAs depending on their chemical forms. Several studies indicated that the linear agents remain more in the brain than macrocyclic agents. However, new research has revealed that all treatments, including macrocyclic, leave some gadolinium in the brain. While gadolinium accumulation in the brain has been the focus of attention in recent years, the authors claimed that, in animal tests, 100 times more gadolinium was found to be retained in the skin and bones than in the brain4. The patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) should have brain MRIs both during relapse and remission (every few months) to assess disease activity. In the individuals with MS, the dentate nucleus (DN) T1 hyperintensity was detected5. However, certain studies on the effects of various kinds of GBCA administrations on gadolinium accumulation in MS patients have yielded conflicting results. In these investigations, some researchers6 found that repeated macrocyclic GBCAs administrations enhanced DN-to-pons signal intensity ratios, while others4 found that numerous doses of macrocyclic chelates administrations did not affect brain signal intensity variations in MS patients. To date, no specific clinical evidence was reported for complications associated with the deposition of GBCAs in the patients’ brains. However, it is possible that based on the deposition of GBCAs in different areas of the brain, some symptoms, such as neurological and motor disorders, may occur in patients, which requires further studies. Gadolinium deposition in the humans appears to be linked to a wide range of diseases. One of the studies observed the difference in gadolinium deposition between patients
The article by Ziegler et al. (1) about the treatment of cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is an example of bad habits in clinical research leading to the foreseeable consequence that a doubtful therapy is about to be established in daily routine. The authors come to the following conclusion: "These findings suggest that treatment with ALA . . . may slightly improve CAN in NIDDM patients." The suggestion that something may slightly improve can be the hypothesis on which a study is based; it cannot, however, be the result of a study. The threefold restrictions ("suggest," "may," and "slightly") indicate that the authors do not trust their own results and/or that they hesitate to confess that the results are virtually negative. In fact, there are many shortcomings of the study and its presentation. The first point of criticism is based on the study design, in the sense that neither a primary study goal is named nor an a priori hierarchy of the multiple parameters used for the diagnosis of CAN and the evaluation of treatment efficacy has been established, not to mention the missing sample size calculation. When considering these points, the presented study may be called a pilot study, which by itself limits the conclusions to be drawn from the results. The second point of criticism is that the authors should know that a per-protocol analysis of data has the potential risk of biasing the results toward more favorable ones. It is the consensus of the vast majority of biometrical experts that the appropriate way of analyzing a randomized clinical trial is the intention-to-treat analysis. Because this is easy to do, one would like to know if the results obtained from the two analytical approaches are different. The third point of criticism is that in an analysis consisting of multiple tests, a correction for multiple testing (e.g., Bonferroni-Holmes) needs to be performed to minimize the probability of obtaining significant results by accident. In the presented study, a correction for multiple testing obviously has not been performed. In conclusion, the presented study is not able to prove that the treatment of CAN with a-lipoic acid (ALA) is effective. This is in accordance with results from other authors. We were also involved in the DEKAN (Deutsche Kardiale Autonome Neuropathie) Study and performed a monocentric randomized open-labeled controlled study to compare the effect of a pure oral treatment with ALA with the effects of a sequential therapy (intravenous priming therapy followed by pure oral therapy) in NIDDM and IDDM patients with CAN. In our study of 40 patients (performed with an intention-to-treat analysis), we were not able to demonstrate any differences between the two treatment strategies concerning spectral analysis of heart rate (main criterion), and, moreover, we could not find any changes concerning CAN parameters between the start and end of the study (2,3).
Herbal medication use is prevalent and increasing in the general population. A comprehensive review of complementary and alternative medicine use including herbal medications and supplements is often overlooked by physicians. Patients generally believe that all herbal products are safe without any side-effects. Herbal medications may have complex pharmacodynamics and can be associated with various psychiatric symptoms. The general population, as well as physicians, may be unaware of the risks and side-effects associated with herbal supplement use and further research may be needed. The objective is to describe a case report of acute onset of symptoms of hypomania associated with the increasing use of herbal supplements. A 49-year-old man developed symptoms of hypomania after a two-month history of daily use of a combination of more than 25 herbal supplements and daily cannabis use. Hypomania symptoms were temporally associated with the use of multiple herbal supplements that included ginseng. We recommend that a thorough history of medication use including herbal supplements and other alternative medications and a collateral report from family members and other providers including herbalists be obtained on all patients presenting with psychiatric symptoms. Further research is needed to identify the pharmacodynamics, risks, and adverse effects, and drug and food interactions of each herb.
1. KEMPE CH, SILVERMAN EN, STEELE BE, DROEGEMUELLER W, SILVER HK: The battered-child syndrome. JAMA 1962; 181: 17-24 2. JACOBS J: Child abuse, neglect and deprivation and the family. A perspective from Canada. In SMITH SM (ed): The Maltreatment of Children, MTP Pr, Lancaster, EngI, 1978: 245-316 3. SANDERS RW: Resistance to dealing with parents of battered children. Pediatrics 1972; 50: 853-857 4. COHN AH: Pediatricians' role in the treatment of child abuse implications from a national evaluation study. Pediatrics 1980; 65: 358-360 5. GRAY JD, CUTLER CA, DEAN JG, KEMPE CH: Prediction and prevention of child abuse. Semin Perinatol 1979; 1: 8590 6. HALPERIN SL: Abused and non-abused children's perceptions of their mothers, fathers and siblings: implications for a comprehensive treatment plan. Fain Relations 1981; Jan: 80-96 7. JACOBS J: Overview of the problem. In: Child abuse: a special report. Ont Med Rev 1978; 45: 13-17 8. Child at Risk, A Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Health, Welfare and Science, Dept of Supply and Services, Ottawa, 1980
IN 1958 we reported an experience with the use of adrenocorticosteroids in the treatment of 23 children who had ingested lye. 1 No definite conclusions could be reached regarding the efficacy of such therapy but the results were sufficiently encouraging to warrant further extension of this study. It also became apparent that the use of early esophagoscopy would be helpful to determine the presence of esophageal burns, and a limited experience with this technique was not found to be harmful. It therefore was decided to extend the study by performing esophagoscopy as soon after admission as practical and to give a full course of treatment only to those patients with esophageal burns. The purpose of this report is to present the results of continuation of this study. A total of 99 patients have had treatment based on early esophagoscopy and 31 have been managed without this procedure, bringing the total
In laboratory animals, acupuncture needs to be performed on either anesthetized or, if unanesthetized, restrained subjects. Both procedures up-regulate c-Fos expression in several areas of the central nervous system, representing therefore a major pitfall for the assessment of c-Fos expression induced by electroacupuncture. Thus, in order to reduce the effect of acute restraint we used a protocol of repeated restraint for the assessment of the brain areas activated by electroacupuncture in adult male Wistar rats weighing 180-230 g. Repeated immobilization protocols (6 days, 1 h/day and 13 days, 2 h/day) were used to reduce the effect of acute immobilization stress on the c-Fos expression induced by electroacupuncture at the Zusanli point (EA36S). Animals submitted to immobilization alone or to electroacupuncture (100 Hz, 2-4 V, faradic wave) in a non-point region were compared to animals submitted to electroacupuncture at EA36S (4 animals/subgroup). c-Fos expression was measured in 41 brain areas by simple counting of cells and the results are reported as number of c-Fos-immunoreactive cells/10,000 m . The protocols of repeated immobilization significantly reduced the immobilization-induced c-Fos expression in most of the brain areas analyzed (P < 0.05). Animals of the EA36S groups had significantly higher levels of c-Fos expression in the dorsal raphe nucleus, locus coeruleus, posterior hypothalamus and central medial nucleus of the thalamus. Furthermore, the repeated immobilization protocols intensified the differences between the effects of 36S and non-point stimulation in the dorsal raphe nucleus (P < 0.05). These data suggest that high levels of stress can interact with and mask the evaluation of specific effects of acupuncture in unanesthetized animals.
Transcriptional regulation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae HO gene is highly complex, requiring a balance of multiple activating and repressing factors to ensure that only a few transcripts are produced in mother cells within a narrow window of the cell cycle. Here, we show that the Ash1 repressor associates with two DNA sequences that are usually concealed within nucleosomes in the HO promoter and recruits the Tup1 corepressor and the Rpd3 histone deacetylase, both of which are required for full repression in daughters. Genome-wide ChIP identified greater than 200 additional sites of co-localization of these factors, primarily within large, intergenic regions from which they could regulate adjacent genes. Most Ash1 binding sites are in nucleosome depleted regions (NDRs), while a small number overlap nucleosomes, similar to HO. We demonstrate that Ash1 binding to the HO promoter does not occur in the absence of the Swi5 transcription factor, which recruits coactivators that evict nucleosomes, including the nucleosomes obscuring the Ash1 binding sites. In the absence of Swi5, artificial nucleosome depletion allowed Ash1 to bind, demonstrating that nucleosomes are inhibitory to Ash1 binding. The location of binding sites within nucleosomes may therefore be a mechanism for limiting repressive activity to periods of nucleosome eviction that are otherwise associated with activation of the promoter. Our results illustrate that activation and repression can be intricately connected, and events set in motion by an activator may also ensure the appropriate level of repression and reset the promoter for the next activation cycle.
Purpose: We reviewed the available data on transurethral microwave thermotherapy in the treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Furthermore we provide a perspective of this minimally invasive treatment modality. Materials and Methods: To our knowledge all previously reported data from clinical trials of transurethral microwave thermotherapy for BPH are reviewed. Results: Transurethral microwave thermotherapy was designed to apply microwave energy deep within lateral prostatic lobes whle simultaneously cooling the urethral mucosa, thus enabling an outpatient based anesthesia-free procedure. Lower energy protocols using the Prostraton* device provide significant symptomatic improvement and improvement in maximum flow of approximately 35% over baseline. Similar changes are being documented with other transurethral microwave thermotherapy devices. Higher energy protocols using the Prostatron device result in symptomatic improvement similar to that of lower energy protocols, while improvement in uroflowmetry is much more pronounced. However, the latter effect is achieved at the expense of increased morbidity. Second generation protocols have not yet been documented by users of the other thermotherapy devices. Conclusions: Numerous studies unequivocally support the efficacy and safety of transurethral microwave thermotherapy for treatment of symptomatic BPH. Significant improvement in objective and subjective parameters has been realized with transurethral microwave thermotherapy at multiple centers in the United States and Europe.
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most common cause of vertigo in the otolaryngology clinic. The liberatory maneuvers are the treatment of choice in this entity. In a low percentage of patients, about 5-10%, we found no response to the maneuvers. The occlusion of the posterior semicircular canal is offered for intractable cases. We report a case of woman with an intractable BPPV in which an occlusion of the posterior semicircular was done. We describe the indications, how to perform the surgery and the functional results of this technique.
Back-of-device interaction is a promising approach to interacting on smartphones. In this paper, we create a back-of-device command and text input technique called BackSwipe, which allows a user to hold a smartphone with one hand, and use the index finger of the same hand to draw a word-gesture anywhere at the back of the smartphone to enter commands and text. To support BackSwipe, we propose a back-of-device word-gesture decoding algorithm which infers the keyboard location from back-of-device gestures, and adjusts the keyboard size to suit the gesture scales; the inferred keyboard is then fed back into the system for decoding. Our user study shows BackSwipe is feasible and a promising input method, especially for command input in the one-hand holding posture: users can enter commands at an average accuracy of 92% with a speed of 5.32 seconds/command. The text entry performance varies across users. The average speed is 9.58 WPM with some users at 18.83 WPM; the average word error rate is 11.04% with some users at 2.85%. Overall, BackSwipe complements the extant smartphone interaction by leveraging the back of the device as a gestural input surface.
Social behavior is essential for health, survival, and reproduction of animals; however, the role of astrocytes in social behavior remains largely unknown. The transmembrane protein CD38, which acts both as a receptor and ADP‐ribosyl cyclase to produce cyclic ADP–ribose (cADPR) regulates social behaviors by promoting oxytocin release from hypothalamic neurons. CD38 is also abundantly expressed in astrocytes in the postnatal brain and is important for astroglial development. Here, we demonstrate that the astroglial‐expressed CD38 plays an important role in social behavior during development. Selective deletion of CD38 in postnatal astrocytes, but not in adult astrocytes, impairs social memory without any other behavioral abnormalities. Morphological analysis shows that depletion of astroglial CD38 in the postnatal brain interferes with synapse formation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus. Moreover, astroglial CD38 expression promotes synaptogenesis of excitatory neurons by increasing the level of extracellular SPARCL1 (also known as Hevin), a synaptogenic protein. The release of SPARCL1 from astrocytes is regulated by CD38/cADPR/calcium signaling. These data demonstrate a novel developmental role of astrocytes in neural circuit formation and regulation of social behavior in adults.
INTRODUCTION To compare qualitative and quantitative imaging features from conventional and diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detection of metastatic pelvic lymph nodes in bladder cancer patients undergoing cystectomy.   MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-six patients who had undergone cystectomy for bladder cancer with preoperative MRI with DWI sequence prior to surgery were included. Imaging features on conventional and DW-MRI were compared with histopathology at cystectomy.   RESULTS Nodal features associated with metastatic lymphadenopathy were short axis (AUC = 0.85, p < 0.001; when SA > 5 mm: sensitivity = 88%, specificity = 75%), long axis (AUC = 0.80, p < 0.001; when LA > 6 mm: sensitivity = 88%, specificity = 71%), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) on DWI, normalized to muscle (AUC = 0.66, p = 0.113; when nADC < 1.35: sensitivity = 75%, specificity = 68%), and absence of fatty hilum on conventional imaging (AUC = 0.73, p = 0.012; when fatty hilum absent, sensitivity = 75%, specificity = 71%). ADC without normalization was not associated with metastasis (p = 0.303).   CONCLUSIONS Imaging findings from conventional MRI and DWI achieved reasonable accuracy for detecting metastatic lymph nodes in bladder cancer, although sensitivity was higher than specificity. A short axis greater than 5 mm on conventional MRI had the highest accuracy of any individual finding. When using DWI, normalization of ADC values to muscle ADC may improve diagnostic performance.
The effect of retrobulbar epinephrine administration on ocular and optic nerve blood flow was studied in phakic rabbit eyes using a radioactive microsphere (85Sr) technique. Blood flow measurements were performed either 5 minutes or 30 minutes after retrobulbar injection of 10 microliter of a 2% (base) epinephrine bitartrate solution to the right eye of each rabbit. Blood flow was determined for the iris, scraped ciliary processes, choroid, retina, and optic nerve. Five minutes after retrobulbar injection, there was no statistically significant (P greater than 0.05) difference in epinephrine-treated eyes compared to contralateral control eyes that received 10 microliters of retrobulbar saline. Thirty minutes after injection, eyes receiving retrobulbar epinephrine had a statistically significant (P less than 0.05) fall in blood flow to the iris and scraped ciliary processes, but not to the choroid, retina, or optic nerve.
In the past 25 years, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have become leading causes of illness and death in the United States. Over 1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in this country, yet there continue to be many individuals who are unaware of their HIV status. Efforts have been made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase awareness by recommending universal testing in healthcare setting for all individuals ages 13–64, for both public health and personal health reasons. As women are one of the fastest-growing segments of the population with new HIV diagnoses, obstetrician-gynecologists are in a unique position to address this issue by recommending HIV testing to both pregnant and nonpregnant women. In this article, we compare the results of two recent studies conducted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists—one which examined obstetrician-gynecologists' practice patterns related to HIV testing and recommendations and the other which assessed patients' perceptions of HIV testing and recommendations by their obstetrician-gynecologists. The results of this comparison raise intriguing questions about the similarities and differences between what obstetrician-gynecologists report doing and what their patients perceive them doing as it relates to HIV testing recommendations. Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives: After completion of this article, the reader should be able to distinguish between opt-in and opt-out testing schemes for HIV testing, identify their state's laws as they relate to HIV testing and assure their own compliance, and use new ACOG guidelines regarding HIV testing for pregnant and non-pregnant women in their practices.
The concept of transepidermal elimination (TE) was introduced by Mehregan 1 in 1968. In this process, the epidermis shows changes of pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia and channels through which material from the dermis extrudes. The extruded matter frequently consists of material foreign to the dermis (as seen in calcinosis cutis or osteoma perforans), altered collagen (as seen in reactive perforating collagenosis, necrobiosis lipoidica, or granuloma annulare), or altered elastin (as occurring in pseudoxanthoma elasticum or elastosis perforans serpiginosa). 2 The mechanism of TE is unknown. We describe a patient who had perforating rheumatoid nodules (RNs) that histologically exhibited the features of TE. While we believe this phenomenon is not rare, we could find no similar cases reported in the literature. Report of a Case A 54-year-old woman was first seen in March 1981 for infection of a nodule on the anterior part of the shin. She had had a history of rheumatoid
Two experiments investigated the psychological impact of two velocity conditions (constant low velocity (V1) and variations of low and high velocity (V2)) in two temperature conditions (Experiment 1: an air temperature increase from 21°C to 24°C; Experiment 2: an air temperature increase from 25°C to 27°C) in females and males, aged 16 to 18 years, under realistic classroom conditions during an exposure period of 80 min. It was predicted that the V2 room condition compared to the V1 room condition would be more beneficial for subjects' perceived room temperature and air quality, self-reported affect and cognitive performance. The results obtained showed no significant effects on cognitive performance. However and as predicted, in Experiment 1, the subjects in the V2 compared to those in the V1 room condition felt that the air temperature decreased (while it de facto increased) and reported a constant level of high activation. In Experiment 2, the subjects in the V2 room condition felt that the air temperature increased less and reported that their unactivated unpleasantness increased less and activated pleasantness decreased less than it did for subjects in the V1 room condition. All this indicates, as was suggested by Wigö et al. (2002), that a cooling effect, induced by air velocity variations, might be beneficial for subjects in a ventilated room and that their perceived pleasantness of the indoor climate could be met at a higher room temperature than otherwise.
In patients with liver cirrhosis, minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is triggered by a shift in peripheral inflammation, promoting lymphocyte infiltration into the brain. Rifaximin improves neurological function in MHE by normalizing peripheral inflammation. Patients who died with steatohepatitis showed T-lymphocyte infiltration and neuroinflammation in the cerebellum, suggesting that MHE may already occur in these patients. The aims of this work were to assess, in a rat model of mild liver damage similar to steatohepatitis, whether: (1) the rats show impaired motor coordination in the early phases of liver damage; (2) this is associated with changes in the immune system and infiltration of immune cells into the brain; and (3) rifaximin improves motor incoordination, associated with improved peripheral inflammation, reduced infiltration of immune cells and neuroinflammation in the cerebellum, and restoration of the alterations in neurotransmission. Liver damage was induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) injection over four weeks. Peripheral inflammation, immune cell infiltration, neuroinflammation, and neurotransmission in the cerebellum and motor coordination were assessed. Mild liver damage induces neuroinflammation and altered neurotransmission in the cerebellum and motor incoordination. These alterations are associated with increased TNFa, CCL20, and CX3CL1 in plasma and cerebellum, IL-17 and IL-15 in plasma, and CCL2 in cerebellum. This promotes T-lymphocyte and macrophage infiltration in the cerebellum. Early treatment with rifaximin prevents the shift in peripheral inflammation, immune cell infiltration, neuroinflammation, and motor incoordination. This report provides new clues regarding the mechanisms of the beneficial effects of rifaximin, suggesting that early rifaximin treatment could prevent neurological impairment in patients with steatohepatitis.
INTRODUCTION Cranio-cervical anomalies are significant complications of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a rare bone fragility disorder that is usually caused by mutations in collagen type I encoding genes.   OBJECTIVE To assess cranio-cervical anomalies and associated clinical findings in patients with moderate-to-severe OI using 3D cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans.   METHODS Cross-sectional analysis of CBCT scans in 52 individuals with OI (age 10-37 years; 32 females) and 40 healthy controls (age 10-32 years; 26 females). Individuals with a diagnosis of OI type III (severe, n = 11), type IV (moderate, n = 33) and non-collagen OI (n = 8) were recruited through the Brittle Bone Disorders Consortium. Controls were recruited through the orthodontic clinic of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).   RESULTS OI and control groups were similar in mean age (OI: 18.4 [SD: 7.2] years, controls: 18.1 [SD: 6.3] years). The cranial base angle was increased in the OI group (OI: mean 148.6° [SD: 19.3], controls: mean 130.4° [SD: 5.7], P = .001), indicating a flatter cranial base. Protrusion of the odontoid process into the foramen magnum (n = 7, 14%) and abnormally located odontoid process (n = 19, 37%) were observed in the OI group but not in controls. Low stature, expressed as height z-score (P = .01), presence of DI (P = .04) and being male (P = .04) were strong predictors of platybasia, whereas height z-score (P = .049) alone was found as positive predictor for basilar impression as per the Chamberlain measurement.   CONCLUSION The severity of the phenotype in OI, as expressed by the height z-score, correlates with the severity of cranial base anomalies such as platybasia and basilar impression in moderate-to-severe OI. Screening for cranial base anomalies is advisable in individuals with moderate-to-severe OI, with special regards to the individuals with a shorter stature and DI.
Objective To explore the practice and experiences of specialized nursing clinic. Method The measures included identifying the specialized project and service content,screening clinic nursing staffs and defining the responsibilities,setting up reasonable clinic rooms,establishing related system,standardizing medical process,establishing outpatient nursing diary,and extending service function. Results Over 27,000 outpatients were received since the opening of the specialized nursing clinic,and the clinic was got the recognition of the patients,their families,doctors and nurses. The comprehensive satisfaction rate of specialized nursing clinic was 96. 54%. Conclusion The opening of the specialized nursing clinic can help to improve the status of nursing specialty,meet the health needs of different patients,and promote the growth of specialized nurses.
Objectives: This paper describes the implementation of a state-wide clozapine management system to improve the quality of care for those with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. This intervention includes standardised forms, computer-based monitoring and alerting and nurse-led clinics for stable consumers. Methods: Methods used during system development included medical record and clinical information system audit, consensus review of available evidence and qualitative review of existing forms, systems and stakeholder opinion. Results: Nurse-led monitoring safely reduced medical outpatient appointments by 119 per week in metropolitan public clinics. In the 15 months following the implementation of all interventions, mortality associated with physical illness not related to malignancy was reduced from an average of 5 deaths per year to one. Conclusions: Differing interpretations of clozapine guidelines have contributed to confusion around monitoring. Standardised documentation has helped to increase understanding and improve protocol adherence. A regular training programme has increased basic knowledge of risks and protocols. Computer-based documentation and alerting systems have improved communication between hospital and community-based teams and prompted early intervention reducing the risk of adverse events. These factors have combined to help improve outcomes in clozapine management. Nurse-led clinics are a safe and efficient alternative for monitoring clozapine treatment.
Purpose This preclinical study aimed to evaluate placental oxygenation in pregnant rats by real-time photoacoustic (PA) imaging on different days of gestation and to specify variations in placental oxygen saturation under conditions of maternal hypoxia and hyperoxygenation. Material and methods Placentas of fifteen Sprague-Dawley rats were examined on days 14, 17, and 20 of pregnancy with a PA imaging system coupled to high-resolution ultrasound imaging. Pregnant rats were successively exposed to hyperoxygenated and hypoxic conditions by changing the oxygen concentration in inhaled gas. Tissue oxygen saturation was quantitatively analyzed by real-time PA imaging in the skin and 3 regions of the placenta. All procedures were performed in accordance with applicable ethical guidelines and approved by the animal care committee. Results Maternal hypoxia was associated with significantly greater decrease in blood oxygen saturation (ΔO2 Saturation) in the skin (70.74% ±7.65) than in the mesometrial triangle (32.66% ±5.75) or other placental areas (labyrinth: 18.58% ± 6.61; basal zone: 13.13% ±5.72) on different days of pregnancy (P<0.001). ΔO2 Saturation did not differ significantly between the labyrinth, the basal zone, and the decidua. After the period of hypoxia, maternal hyperoxygenation led to a significant rise in oxygen saturation, which returned to its initial values in the different placental regions (P<0.001). Conclusions PA imaging enables the variation of blood oxygen saturation to be monitored in the placenta during maternal hypoxia or hyperoxygenation. This first preclinical study suggests that the placenta plays an important role in protecting the fetus against maternal hypoxia.
AIM:To observe the effect of lidocaine taken orally in treating and preventing patients with nausea and vomiting during or after operation.METHODS:One hundred and twenty patients with nausea and vomiting during or after upper abdomen operation were randomly divided into two groups.The patients in meto- clopramide group were administered metoclopramide 10 mg intravenously and patients in lidocaine group were given lidocaine 2-3 mL orally as nausea or vomiting occurred.The time of onset and efficacy were recorded. RESULTS:The effective time of onset in lidocaine group was(1.0±0.7)min,obviously shorter than that of metoclopramide group((2.2±1.2)min,P＜0.01).There was also significant difference in clinical efficacy be- tween the two groups(P＜0.01).CONCLUSION:Lidocaine taken orally in treating patients with nausea and vomiting during or after operation is a quick,safe and effective management.
The subcortical structures of the brain are relevant for many neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s disease (HD). Quantitative segmentation of these structures from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) has been studied in clinical and neuroimaging research. Recently, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been successfully used for many medical image analysis tasks, including subcortical segmentation. In this work, we propose a 2-stage cascaded 3D subcortical segmentation framework, with the same 3D CNN architecture for both stages. Attention gates, residual blocks and output adding are used in our proposed 3D CNN. In the first stage, we apply our model to downsampled images to output a coarse segmentation. Next, we crop the extended subcortical region from the original image based on this coarse segmentation, and we input the cropped region to the second CNN to obtain the final segmentation. Left and right pairs of thalamus, caudate, pallidum and putamen are considered in our segmentation. We use the Dice coefficient as our metric and evaluate our method on two datasets: the publicly available IBSR dataset and a subset of the PREDICT-HD database, which includes healthy controls and HD subjects. We train our models on only healthy control subjects and test on both healthy controls and HD subjects to examine model generalizability. Compared with the state-of-the-art methods, our method has the highest mean Dice score on all considered subcortical structures (except the thalamus on IBSR), with more pronounced improvement for HD subjects. This suggests that our method may have better ability to segment MRIs of subjects with neurodegenerative disease.
AIM :To compare the efficaciy of nitrendipine with atenolol in old patients with hypertension. METHODS:Nitrendipine was given orally to 98 patients(M 79,F19,age 64 ± s9a) ,10mg,tid,for 1 mo. In the controlled group,atenolol was given orally to 92 patients(M 77,F 15,age 60 ± 9 a),25 mg,tid,for 1 mo. RESULTS:In the nitrendipine group,theexcellent response rate was 68 %,the effective rate was 24 %,and the total response rate was 92% . In the atenolol group,the excellent response rate was 41%,the effective rate was 26%,and the total response rate was 67%. There were significant differences (P0.01) between the 2groups in the total response rates. CONCLUSION :In the treatment of hypertension in elderly patients nitrendipine is superior to atenolol.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of initial non-compliance with treatment. DESIGN: An observational study with interviews of patients, which compared prescriptions filled at the Siruela Health Centre (Badajoz) with those dispensed at the town's only pharmacy. SETTING: Primary Care; rural ambit. RESULTS: 8,100 prescriptions were filled for an attending population of 3,100 people. 218 (2.7%) were not collected at the pharmacy. Non-compliance was considerably greater among active workers (4%) than pensioners (2%) (Z = 5.3; p < 0.001). Non-compliance was also greater when prescriptions were written by locums at weekends or on bank holidays (8.6%) than when they were written by the normal doctor (2.2%) (Z = 9.8, p < 0.001). 50.9% of prescriptions not collected were for pensioners on Social Security and 49.1% for the active population. Causes of non-compliance indicated by the patients were: medicine had little effect (33%), high price (28.4%) and not financed by the National Health System (26.6%). 32.6% of the cases of non-compliance were followed up; 64.8% of them returned to the consultation. CONCLUSIONS: Better information to patients on their pathologies and treatments would avoid many cases of non-compliance.
Introduction Insular gliomas have complex anatomy and microvascular supply that make resection difficult. Furthermore, resection of insular glioma is associated with a significant risk of postoperative ischemic complications. Thus, this study aimed to assess the incidence of ischemic complications related to insular glioma resection, determine its risk factors, and describe a single surgeon’s experience of artery-preserving tumor resection. Methods We enrolled 75 consecutive patients with insular gliomas who underwent transcortical tumor resection. Preoperative and postoperative demographic, clinical, radiological [including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)], intraoperative neurophysiological data, and functional outcomes were analyzed. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and radiological characteristics like the relationship between the proximal segment of the lateral lenticulostriate arteries (LLSAs) and the tumor, the flat inner edge sign (the inner edge of the insular glioma is well-defined) or obscure inner edge sign, the distance between the lesion and posterior limb of the internal capsule and the invasion of the superior limiting sulcus by the tumor were analyzed. Strategies such as “residual triangle,” “basal ganglia outline reappearance,” and “sculpting” technique were used to preserve the LLSAs and the main branches of M2 for maximal tumor resection according to the Berger–Sinai classification. Results Postoperative DWI showed acute ischemia in 44 patients (58.7%). Moreover, nine patients (12%) had developed new motor deficits, as determined by the treating neurosurgeons. The flat inner edge sign [odds ratio (OR), 0.144; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.024–0.876) and MEPs (>50%) (OR, 18.182; 95% CI, 3.311–100.00) were significantly associated with postoperative core ischemia, which affected the posterior limb of the internal capsule or corona radiata. Conclusions Insular glioma resection was associated with a high incidence of ischemia, as detected by DWI, as well as new motor deficits that were determined by the treating neurosurgeons. Insular glioma patients with obscure inner edge signs and intraoperative MEPs decline >50% had a higher risk of developing core ischemia. With our strategies, maximal safe resection of insular gliomas may be achieved.
OBJECTIVE To understand the status of hand hygiene and hand-washing compliance in grass-roots hospitals and investigate the relation between hand hygiene and hospital infections to institute the administration strategy of hand hygiene.METHODS Hand contamination of medical staff in grass-roots hospitals was investigated.The species carrying were detected and the reason was analyzed.RESULTS The carrying rate of pathogenic bacteria before hand-washing was 100.0% while that after hand-washing was 36.5%.The pathogenic bacteria carrying included: Staphylococcus aureus,Escherichia coli,Klebsiella pneumoniae,Proteus,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,P.alcaligenes,coagulase negative Staphylococcus,Enterococcus,etc.CONCLUSIONS The hand contamination is the important risk factor of cross infection.We should streng then hospital infections idea among medical staff,think highly of supervision of hand hygiene and enhance the recognition and compliance of hand-washing to eliminate effectively the cross infection transmitted through hands.
point a disaster strikes, and we forget how to make insulin. The hundred diabetics may now die without reproducing. While it is tragic that these 100 people would die young with disease, what is the genetic impact of treating that first diabetic? He will not only have produced over several generations the 100 diabetics but would also have passed on his own normal genes to many hundreds of individuals who will have been selected for survival and have a positive impact on the health of the species.
Objective To construct a dual-color fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(DC-FQ-PCR) for detecting the expression of the BCR/ABL fusion gene and ABL gene in the bone marrow cell form chronic myeloid leukemia(CML)patients and exploreing the possibility and significance of it′s applying in early diagnosis of the chronic myeloid leukemia.Methods The corresponding primers and probes of ABL gene and BCR/ABL fusion gene were designed and synthesized.The total RNA of the bone marrow cells from CML patients and of the lympha cells from the normal men was extracted and reverse transcripted into cDNA.Then a DC-FQ-PCR was constructed and employed to detect the transcription levels of the two genes in CML patients and in normal men.The the expression ratios of the two genes were calculated.At last,we discovered the significance of the amplification in CML gene testing of DC-FQ-PCR by comparing the ratio with the clinical data.Results We constructed the DC-FQ-PCR successfully for detecting BCR/ABL fusion gene expression in the bone marrow cell of CML patients.Detected with the DC-FQ-PCR,33 from 35 patients but none of the 12 normal men were positive of the expression of BCR/ABL fusion gene.There was a significant differnce of the positive ratio in the two groups.Conclusion The DC-FQ-PCR was a feasible,rapid,accurate,high-throuhput and low-cost detection method.After further expanding samples and drawing the precise scope of that variation,this method could be applied to diagnosis of the CML.
Present-day mothers have an increased desire to breastfeed, but this desire has increased in parallel with the increased use of epidural analgesia during labor. Epidural anesthesia requires a high level of technical profi ciency to avoid serious complications and should always be performed by a trained anesthetist using a strict aseptic technique to reduce the risk of infection. There is currently no consensus regarding the relationship between breastfeeding and epidural analgesia during labor. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the eff ect of epidural analgesia on breastfeeding.
Omental bleeding is potentially life-threatening. There are many causes of omental bleeding including trauma, neoplasia, arterial aneurysm rupture, omental torsion, vasculitis, or segmental arterial mediolysis (SAM). Without remarkable pathological features, the diagnosis of idiopathic omental bleeding is made. Omental bleeding is relatively a rare disease, and there is no established treatment strategy. A 53-year-old woman was brought to the ED for sudden onset abdominal pain. CT revealed hematoma in the omentum and was diagnosed as idiopathic omental bleeding accordingly. The patient underwent laparoscopic partial omentectomy and was discharged nine days after surgery. The pathological findings of the resected omentum were not remarkable, and the final diagnosis was made as idiopathic omental bleeding. In some case reports of omental bleeding, interventional radiology (IVR) was chosen for hemostasis, but IVR cannot resect tissue of omentum so it is difficult to make a pathological diagnosis. The surgical approach of idiopathic omental bleeding is uncommon. However, the use of the laparoscopic approach hasn't been reported in the literature. Laparoscopic partial omentectomy can provide effective hemostasis. We report laparoscopic partial omentectomy surgical procedure and review of the literature.
Peri-implantitis is described as a destructive inflammatory disease affecting the soft and hard tissues around osseointegrated implants, leading to the formation of a peri-implant pocket and loss of supporting bone. There is various treatmentapproaches are available for peri-implant disease (conservative & surgical therapy). Peri implant mucositis and moderate case of peri-implantitis can be treated by conservative approach. Treatments includedifferent manual techniques, laser-assisted systems as well as photodynamic therapy, which can be extended by local or systemic antibiotics. It is possible to regain osseointegration. In cases of moderate to severe peri-implantitis cases surgical approach are more effective than conservative therapy. This review aimed to evaluate the etiologies & pathogenesis, risk factors, diagnosis & treatment of peri-implantitis.
Creating varieties with high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is crucial for sustainable agriculture development. In this study, a superior barley doubled haploid line (named DH45) with improved NUE was produced via F1 microspore embryogenesis with three rounds of screening in different nitrogen levels by hydroponic and field experiments. The molecular mechanisms responsible for the NUE of DH45 surpassing that of its parents were investigated by RNA-seq analysis. A total of 1027 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified that were up- or down-regulated in DH45 under low nitrogen conditions but showed no significant differences in the parents. GO analysis indicated that genes involved in nitrogen compound metabolic processes were significantly enriched in DH45 compared with the parents. KEGG analysis showed the MAPK signaling pathway plant to be highly enriched in DH45 relative to its parents, as well as genes involved in alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, and arginine biosynthesis. In conclusion, our study revealed the potential to fix trait superiority in a line by combining crossing with F1 microspore culture technologies in future crop breeding and also identified several candidate genes that are expressed in shoots and may enable barley to cope with low-nitrogen stress.
Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is still difficult to diagnose in the field of chronic pain management. CRPS is diagnosed by purely clinical criteria based on the characteristic signs and symptoms, which have to be differentiated from similar pain conditions like posttraumatic neuropathic pain. Until now, there has been a lack of objective diagnostic tools to confirm the di agnosis of CRPS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a three phase bone scan (TBS) for making the diagnosis of CRPS. Methods: A total of 121 patients who had been diagnosed with CRPS were e valuated. All the patients were examined by performing a TBS as a part of the diagnostic w ork-up. A diffuse increased tracer uptake on the delayed image (phase III) was defined as a positive finding for CRPS. Results: Forty-one patients (33.9%) out of 121 showed the positive results on the TBS. The patients with a duration of pain of less than 24 months had a significantly higher positive result (43.4%) on the TBS than did the patients with duration of pain longer than 24 months (12.1%). Conclusions: A TBS could give a better objective result for diagnosing CRPS for patients with a shorter duration of pain and a TBS gives little information for the diagnosis of CRPS in patients with a duration of pain longer than 24 months. (Korean J Pain 2009; 22: 33-38)
Abstract Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir was recently granted emergency use authorization for mild to moderate coronavirus disease 2019. Drug–drug interactions between ritonavir and tacrolimus are underappreciated by nontransplant providers. We describe 2 solid organ transplant recipients prescribed nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for outpatient use who developed tacrolimus toxicity requiring hospitalization and were managed with rifampin for toxicity reversal.
OBJECTIVES The present study aims to identify radiographic methods revealing data that are most representative for the true peri-implant bone as assessed by histology.   MATERIALS AND METHODS Eighty implants were placed in 10 minipigs. To assess matching between different image modalities, measurements conducted on intra-oral digital radiographs (IO), cone beam computer tomography (CBCT) and histological images were correlated using Spearman's correlation. Paired tests (Wilcoxon test) were used to determine changes in the bone parameters after 2 and 3 months of healing.   RESULTS Significant correlations between bone defect depth on IO and histological slices (r= + 0.7, P<0.01), as well as on CBCT images and histological slices (r= + 0.61, P<0.01), were found. CBCT and IO images deviate, respectively, 1.20 and 1.17 mm from the histology regarding bone defects. No significant correlations were detected between fractal analysis on CBCT, intra-oral radiography and histology. For bone density assessment, significant but weaker correlations (r= + 0.5, P<0.01) were found for intra-oral radiography vs. histology. Significant marginal bone-level changes could be observed after 3 months of healing using intra-oral radiography.   CONCLUSIONS This study allowed linking radiographic bone defect depth to the histological observations of the peri-implant bone. Minute bone changes during a short-term period can be followed up using digital intra-oral radiography. Radiographic fractal analysis did not seem to match histological fractal analysis. CBCT was not found to be reliable for bone density measures, but might hold potential with regard to the structural analysis of the trabecular bone.
PURPOSE:to determine the prevalence of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and identify their associations in an elderly population.METHODS:a cross-sectional study in elderly patients evaluated by audiological evaluation, comorbidity questionnaireand Dix-Hallpike maneuver Were applied nonparametric tests: Chi-square and multivariate regression with a confidence interval of 95%.RESULTS:the final sample consisted of 494 individuals, with a median age of 69 (64.75 to 74.00) years. Observed prevalence of 23.9% of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and 51.6% of neck pain and headache 37.9%. There was a statistically significant association between benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and neck pain, headache and gender in this population.CONCLUSION:it is concluded that this elderly population the prevalence of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo was 23.9% and the neck pain was 51.6% and there was a significant association between benign paroxysmal positional vertigo with neck pain and female gender.
ABSTRACT Unlike mammalian cells, malarial parasites are completely dependent on the de novo pyrimidine pathway and lack the enzymes to salvage preformed pyrimidines. In the present study, first, it is shown that 1843U89, even without polyglutamylation, is a potent folate-based inhibitor of purified malarial parasite thymidylate synthase. The binding was noncompetitive with respect to methylenetetrahydrofolate, and 1843U89 had a Ki of 1 nM. The compound also had potent antimalarial activity in vitro. Plasmodium falciparum cells in culture were inhibited by 1843U89, with a 50% inhibitory concentration of about 70 nM. The compound was effective against drug-sensitive as well as drug-resistant clones ofP. falciparum. As predicted by the biochemistry of the parasite, the potent inhibition of parasite proliferation by 1843U89 could not be reversed with 10 μM thymidine. In contrast, in the presence of 10 μM thymidine, mammalian cells were unaffected by 1843U89 even at concentrations as high as 0.1 mM, thus offering a selectivity window of more than 1,000-fold. On this basis, folate-based thymidylate synthase inhibitors may represent a powerful additional tool that can be used to combat drug-resistant malaria.
Microglia, the only immune cells resident in the brain, actively participate in neural circuit maintenance by modifying synapses and neuronal excitability. Recent studies have revealed the differential gene expression and functional heterogeneity of microglia in different brain regions. The unique functions of the hippocampal neural network in learning and memory may be associated with the active roles of microglia in synapse remodeling. However, inflammatory responses induced by surgical procedures have been problematic in the two-photon microscopic analysis of hippocampal microglia. Here, a method is presented that enables the chronic observation of microglia in all layers of the hippocampal CA1 through an imaging window. This method allows the analysis of morphological changes in microglial processes for more than 1 month. Long-term and high-resolution imaging of the resting microglia requires minimally invasive surgical procedures, appropriate objective lens selection, and optimized imaging techniques. The transient inflammatory response of hippocampal microglia may prevent imaging immediately after surgery, but the microglia restore their quiescent morphology within a few weeks. Furthermore, imaging neurons simultaneously with microglia allows us to analyze the interactions of multiple cell types in the hippocampus. This technique may provide essential information about microglial function in the hippocampus.
Coronary embolism caused by the thrombus from guiding catheters is a rare and challenging complication, which may result in serious and fatal consequences due to the loss of blood flow of the coronary artery during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Current strategies for the reduction of thrombus burden include pharmacological agents (typically glycoprotein IIb/IIIa platelet inhibitors), embolic protection devices (filters and distal balloon occlusion with aspiration), mechanical thrombectomy and manual or aspiration thrombectomy devices. The above strategies are widely used as the first-line treatments, but have limitations for some refractory thrombus. A few techniques have been invented before to address this issue, but they are not always effective or unavailable in some medical centers.  Here, we presented two cases of refractory coronary thrombus embolism originated from the guiding catheter. Large intracoronary thrombus poses a challenge during PCI. Following the failure of manual aspiration thrombectomy, the thrombus was finally removed by using a new method named “thrombus aspiration catheter-assisted twisting wire technique”. Case 1. A 55-year-old male with no risk factors was admitted due to typical angina. The electrocardiogram showed ST-segment depression in V1-V4 leads, and the cardiac troponin TnI was negative. Coronary angiography revealed a severe bifurcation lesion in the proximal left anterior descending (LAD) with Medina 1.1.0 (Figure 1A) and no significant stenosis in the left circumflex artery (LCX) and the right coronary artery (RCA). PCI was performed using a 7Fr BL3.0 guiding catheter (Terumo, Tokyo, Japan) after infusion of 100 U/kg of heparin. Three guidewires (Runthrough NS, Terumo, Tokyo, Japan) were positioned into the LAD, LCX and the first diagonal (D1). After predilation with a 2.0 mm × 20 mm semicompliant balloon (Ryujin,
A clinical study on the failure rate of 882 bands and 1194 directly bonded brackets placed on the teeth of 100 consecutively completed orthodontic patients treated with the Begg light wire technique showed an overall adhesion failure rate of 4.7%. This was significantly lower than the 7% recorded in a comparable study by Mizrahi in 1979 using only bands. The reduction was due primarily to a much lower failure rate of directly bonded brackets compared to bands on the maxillary cuspids and incisors. These results indicate that the lowest attachment failure rate during orthodontic treatment can be achieved by using bands on molars and bicuspids, directly bonded brackets on maxillary cuspids and incisors, and either on lower anterior teeth.
Nanotubesmediate mitochondrial transfer to tumor cells (by Michael Str€ock via Wikimedia Commons) Tumors use various mechanisms to escape immune detection in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Saha et al. show that tumor cells form nanotubes that physically interact with immune cells in the breast cancer TME. Mitochondria are then transferred from immune cells to tumor cells, leading to tumor metabolic enhancement and loss of specific immunecell subsets needed for antitumor responses. Targeting nanotube formation reversed these effects andwhen combinedwith immune checkpoint blockade, resulted in improved outcomes in a murine breast cancer model. The data highlight a new immune “hijacking” mechanism that tumors cells could use to promote cancer progression.
Thrombophilia might be the essential pathogenetic mechanism of thromboembolism associated with pregnancy. Venous thromboembolism during or after assisted reproductive technologies is predicted to emerge due to increased number of women undergoing this technique. Low molecular weight heparins was effective for preventing recurrent thromboembolism and severe obstetric complications. Women with personal or family history of thromboembolism or with history of obstetric complications should be screened for thrombophilia.
Conventional X-ray films were made with varying degrees of tilt of a pelvic phantom containing an acetabular prosthesis. The position of the prosthesis was then reconstructed graphically. The measurement errors were calculated and an estimate was made for the tilt. There is a linear correlation between the measurement error and the tilt of the prosthesis. Therefore a tilt dependent maximum error can be calculated. This error is very small for small degrees of tilt, so that acetabular migration can in this instance be evaluated with greater confidence than with other graphical methods. The error also correlates with the determination of the selected region of the acetabulum, but not with the position of the central focus spot or image magnification.
The purpose of this review is to provide verified data on the current knowledge acquired from preclinical and clinical studies regarding topically used antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with diabetic wound healing activity. The electronic databases were searched for articles published from 2012 to 2022. The 20 articles comparing topically used AMPs in diabetic wound healing treatment versus control treatments (placebo or active therapy) were selected. AMPs have several unique advantages in diabetic wound healing, such as a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity even against antibiotic-resistant strains, and the capability to modulate the host's immune response and affect wound healing processes through various mechanisms of action. AMPs through antioxidant activity, stimulation of angiogenesis, keratinocytes, and fibroblast migration and proliferation may be considered as an important support during conventional therapy used for diabetic wound treatment.
Layered lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2, LCO), which serves as a structural motif for the widely adopted layered cathodes in lithium-ion batteries, has a long history, and its unstable phase transition during high-voltage operation (∼4.5 V) remains an intractable problem. Many research strategies, such as surface coating and immobile ion doping, have been proposed to address this issue, but a clear understanding of the effects has not been demonstrated because of various potential parameters (e.g., particle size, shape, and dopant content). Herein, we report a molten salt synthesis method that produces sphere-like single-crystal magnesium (Mg)-doped LCO. In situ X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption fine structure analyses confirmed that the lattice strain was effectively alleviated by the effects of both the particle shape and Mg doping compared to the plate-like and sphere-like single-crystal LCO samples. Furthermore, the preference for Mg doping in the Co site (3b) rather than in the Li site (3a) in the LCO framework is systematically revealed, and a clear understanding of Mg doping that suppresses the monoclinic phase transition is discussed in detail.
Objective:We perform one stage arteriovenous reversal with hydraulic destruction of deep vein valves on dogs to evaluate its effectiveness of providing a better arterial retrograde perfusion to ischemic extremities through the deep veins.Materials and Methods:40 hind limbs of dogs were selected to measure the retrograde hydraulic pressure that was able to destroy the deep vein valves.And 10 dogs were selected to receive one stage arteriovenous reversal with hydraulic destruction of deep vein valves.Results:A mean pressure of 20 23±3 09kPa was able to destroy the deep vein valves in the hind limbs of dogs.The one stage arteriovenous reversal with hydraulic destruction of deep vein valves could accelerate the destruction of the distal deep vein valves and ensured the arterial perfusion in the distal of the extremities.Meanwhile it was observed that more collateral circulation was established without enhancement of the edema or thrombosis.Conclusions:The one stage arteriovenous reversal with additional hydraulic destruction of deep vein valves ensures the arterial perfusion in the distal of the extremities.Meanwhile it can form more collateral circulation without the enhancement of the edema or thrombosis.That's an active approach for preservation of the ischemic extremities.
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of PCR-SSCP to rifampicin resistance in mycobacterium tuberculosis.Methods A fully recursive literature search was conducted in PUBMED,EMBASE,Chinese biomedical literature database,Chinese scientific journals full text database and China journal fulltext database,items of quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies were used to evaluate the quality of included studies.Meta-disc software was used to handle data from the included studies.The diagnostic value of PCR-SSCP was assessed by sum- mary sensitivity,summary specificity,summary receiver operating characteristic(SROC)and so on.Results 4 studies were included finally.PCR-SSCP showed better specificity and specificity. The summary sensitivity,summary specificity,summary positive likelihood ratio,and summary negative likelihood ratio were 97%,84%,8.14,and 0.05 respectively.The SROC of PCR-SSCP was 0.986 9.Conclusion According to the results,we recommend that PCR-SSCP can be used as high valid test for rifampicin resistance in mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Lung cancer is devastating cancer that ranks as the leading cause of cancer-related death. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) opioid growth factor receptor pseudogene 1 (OGFRP1) was recognized as an oncogene in many cancers. However, the molecular mechanism of OGFRP1 in lung cancer is still poorly understood. The expression of target RNAs and genes was detected by quantitative real-time PCR and western blot. The interaction between miR-299-3p and OGFRP1 or solute carrier family 38 member 1 (SLC38A1) was predicted by StarbaseV3.0 and verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Besides, a transplantation model of human lung cancer in nude mice was established to evaluate the role of OGFRP1 in lung cancer. OGFRP1 and SLC38A1 were overexpressed, whereas miR-299-3p was lowly expressed in lung cancer tumors and cells. OGFRP1 knockdown suppressed cell proliferation and facilitated ferroptosis by promoting lipid peroxidation and iron accumulation in lung cancer. Besides, Furthermore, miR-299-3p inhibitor or SLC38A1 overexpression attenuated OGFRP1 depletion-induced suppression on cell proliferation and ferroptosis in lung cancer. Animal experiments indicated that OGFRP1 deficiency restrained tumor growth in vivo by regulating the miR-299-3p/SLC38A1 axis. OGFRP1 regulated cell proliferation and ferroptosis in lung cancer by inhibiting miR-299-3p to enhance SLC38A1 expression, providing a novel therapeutic strategy for lung cancer.
Edited by T Reilly and A M Williams. London: Published by Routledge, 2003, £24.99, softcover, pp 332. ISBN 0415262321  The editors are to be congratulated for their work in the field over the years represented in this text which has arisen from a series of World Congresses of Science and Football which began in 1987 in Liverpool. Unfortunately this also reveals a weakness in the limited pool of authors from which the text draws, the majority of whom list their professional addresses as Liverpool. As an Aussie with an AFL background, it may be a bit …
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) commonly spreads to regional deep cervical nodes. In most cases, these metastases present as firm, solid masses in the designated lymph node chains. A distinct subset of metastatic nodes present as cystic masses, with most of the volume made up of a liquid center surrounded by a thin solid rim. It has been observed that certain squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) subsites are more likely to produce metastases that are cystic. These sites predominantly include primary tumors of tonsil tissue from Waldeyer's ring. In the past, these cystic cancers often have been erroneously diagnosed as branchiogenic carcinomas, that is, a branchial cleft cyst that has undergone malignant degeneration. Today, most authors have concluded that so‐called branchiogenic carcinomas are actually cystic metastases in the neck probably arising from an oropharyngeal primary SCC. The purpose of this work is to consider the phenomenon of cystic lymph node metastasis in head and neck cancer in depth.
In 2000, the United States achieved measles elimination (defined as interruption of year-round endemic measles transmission). However, importations of measles into the United States continue to occur, posing risks for measles outbreaks and sustained measles transmission. During 2011, a total of 222 measles cases (incidence rate: 0.7 per 1 million population) and 17 measles outbreaks (defined as three or more cases linked in time or place) were reported to CDC, compared with a median of 60 (range: 37-140) cases and four (range: 2-10) outbreaks reported annually during 2001-2010. This report updates an earlier report on measles in the United States during the first 5 months of 2011. Of the 222 cases, 112 (50%) were associated with 17 outbreaks, and 200 (90%) were associated with importations from other countries, including 52 (26%) cases in U.S. residents returning from abroad and 20 (10%) cases in foreign visitors. Other cases associated with importations included 67 (34%) linked epidemiologically to importations, 39 (20%) with virologic evidence suggesting recent importation, and 22 (11%) linked to cases with virologic evidence of recent importation. Most patients (86%) were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. The increased numbers of outbreaks and measles importations into the United States underscore the ongoing risk for measles among unvaccinated persons and the importance of vaccination against measles.
OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship of the clinical appearance, histological characteristics, bacterial culturing, and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of RANTES, interleukin 6, and interleukin 12, as well as the occurrence of endothelial adhesion molecules, in inflammatory diseased maxillary sinus mucosa in critically ill patients.   DESIGN Prospective case series.   SETTING General intensive care unit and neurosurgical intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital.   SUBJECTS Seven critically ill patients, nasotracheally intubated or tracheotomized, who received ventilator treatment for more than 7 days and treatment with antibiotics.   INTERVENTIONS Bilateral biopsy specimens of antral mucosa were obtained at sinoscopy. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the cytokine mRNAs in situ on paraformaldehyde-fixed tissue, and intercellular adhesion molecule 1, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1, E-selectin, and P-selectin were analyzed by immunochemistry on frozen sections. Sampling of secretion and tissue from the antra was performed for bacterial culturing.   RESULTS Macroscopic and histological appearance varied and showed moderate to pronounced inflammation in 6 antra. All 4 bacterially infected antra showed mRNA RANTES (P=.005). No correlation was found for interleukin 6 and interleukin 12. Up-regulation of P-selectin in all cases and sparse expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 indicate that the inflammation is chronic but nonallergic in type.   CONCLUSION We find an indication that RANTES is more prevalent in bacterial sinusitis.
167 International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Physiology| Apr-Jun 2014 | Vol 1 | Issue 2 PB Less sample size and exclusion of females have been mentioned as limitations in this study. It is also noted that there was more (though not statistically significant) serum total cholesterol and triglycerides in LSM group compared with yoga group. The lipid profile at the end of the study has not been reported. The lipid profile does influence the arterial stiffness.[3] Constant high lipid profile may be the factor which prevents the reduction in systolic blood pressure in the LSM group. It will be more interesting and informative, if such studies also report the changes in autonomic function as yoga plays a key role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure.
Juxtapapillary diverticula are often associated with biliary lithiasis. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of juxtapapillary diverticula in choledocholithiasis and in cholecystolithiasis without common bile duct stones. The results of 520 consecutive retrograde cholangiographies were retrospectively analysed. The prevalence of juxtapapillary diverticula was higher in patients with biliary lithiasis than in patients without: 26.0% vs 10.5% (p less than 0.001). However, juxtapapillary diverticula were more frequently encountered in patients with choledocholithiasis than in those with gallbladder lithiasis or previous cholecystectomy and a stone-free common bile duct: 40.0% vs 10.2% (p less than 0.001). There was no significant difference between the patients with cholecystolithiasis alone and those without biliary lithiasis. Among the patients with previous cholecystectomy or with gallbladder lithiasis, common bile duct stones were more frequently found in patients with juxtapapillary diverticula than in those without: 80.3% vs 40.6% (p less than 0.001). These data suggest that juxtapapillary diverticula are associated only with choledocholithiasis and not with gallbladder lithiasis.
Workers in the coffeee industry were investigated. Study I comprised 50 selected cases of whom 25 had work‐related symptoms and 25 had not. Prick tests and RAST investigations with different factory dust extracts were performed. Study II was a cross‐sectional study comprising 129 workers who were prick‐tested with one factory dust extract and with castor bean (CB). More than 40% described occupationally related asthma, rhintis, and in about half of these cases sensitization with one or two allergens found. One allergen comes from coffee beans and is found in the factory dust, mainly where the raw coffee is handled. This allergen is destroyed in the roast other allergen is identical with the allergen from castor bean and is presumed to enter the plant via the sacks. Predisposing factors to developing sensitization were atopic status, degree and length of exposure, and smoking habits.
Background: Malnutrition is one of the significant factors contributing to Infant and child mortality in developing countries of the world. Nutrition during the first five years has an impact not only on growth and morbidity during childhood, but also acts as a determinant of nutritional status in adolescent and adult life. Aims and objectives: The study aimed at assessing practice and attitude regarding dietary habits in relation to prevemntion of malnutrition among mothers of preschool children, finding the correlation between practice scores and attitude scores, and find out association between practice and attitude scores with selected demographic variables. Materials and methods: Practice of mothers regarding dietary habits was assessed by 3 point rating scale, Attitude of mothers was assessed by 5 point likert scale. 50 mothers were selected by convinient sampling for the study. Results: The study results shows that 82% mothers having good practice and 18% having average practice. Regarding attitude 80% of mothers having good attitude, 18% having average, and 02% having poor attitude. The correlation r value shows 0.341 as a mild correlation between practice and attitude. There was a significant association between practice scores with number of children (X 2 =6.799, df=2) and educational status(X 2 =6.01, df=2) of mothers. Conclusion: The study concludes that improve the practice and attitude of mothers regarding dietary habits in relation to prevention of malnutrition among children by giving health teaching.
Cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs) constitute an important cause of disability and death in Quebec. Among the primary CVA risk factors, certain socioeconomic characteristics of individuals and living environments appear to play a central role. The purpose of this article is to examine the links between material/social forms of deprivation and CVA mortality in a group of 4,339 individuals aged 25 to 74 years who died between 1994 and 1998. The socioeconomic profile of these persons was estimated on the basis of the enumeration area in which they resided. The Poisson regression technique was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) of mortality by deprivation level. Our results show the presence of a mortality gradient for both material and social forms of deprivation, where the relative risks of mortality of the most disadvantaged group and the most advantaged group are, respectively, 1.34 and 1.35. Despite the existence of a system of universal health care, inequalities in mortality persist and need to be taken into account when implementing intervention programs.
Major depressive illness is associated with significant costs for both the patient and health care systems. Against a background of limited resources, clinical efficacy cannot be regarded as the sole requirement in justifying innovative therapy. New therapies must establish both clinical and economic effectiveness. Even supposing that clinical trials offer the best vehicle for demonstrating such characteristics, trial data are not always in a form which enables cost-effectiveness to be investigated. There appears to be widespread agreement that patients should continue to receive active medication for a period of time, following an initial episode of depression. For the purposes of this paper, it is taken as axiomatic that such treatment would be based on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The costs and consequences of the prophylactic use of SSRIs is investigated by simple modelling methods which enable several key parameters to be concurrently varied. The model simulates two alternative treatment strategies—a 'watchful waiting' approach in which patients are actively treated for depression once it reemerges; a prophylactic in which all patients received SSRIs following their initial episode of depression. The average cost per symptom-free patient is estimated to be 271, under the first strategy and between 474 and 389, under the second strategy. The results of this modelling exercise indicate that a strategy of maintaining patients with a known history of depression for a 12 month period on SSRIs. results in an increased number of patients who are symptom-free. Assessing the cost-effectiveness of such a strategy rests ultimately with the comparison of marginal costs and benefits. Although the revenue implications of a prophylactic treatment strategy are clearly significant, it may well be the case, that both psychiatrists and patients share the view that the costs are wholly justified in terms of the additional benefits for patients who avoid recurrence or relapse of their depression.
he position statement of the American Geriatrics Society on Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) was published in the May T issue of the Journal,' and a relevant report by Rubenstein et a12 from a Task Force on Health Assessment of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) is in this issue. We concur in the four positions taken by the AGS, although we believe it is important to stress two caveats, as previously emphasized in the NIH Consensus Development Conference statement3 and in associated ~ommentaries.~,~ The first is that, thus far, CGA has been found effective only in certain subgroups of geriatric patients, those neither "too well" nor too irreversibly disabled; thus, there is general agreement that targeting of CGA to the patients most likely to benefit is critical to successful assessment programs. The second caveat is that CGA is primarily a diagnostic, rather than a therapeutic, process; therefore, for optimal effectiveness, the assessment must be inextricably linked to the ongoing care of the patient, with the objective of assuring that the comprehensive care plan is implemented and modified as events may dictate. We would like to seize on this time of great interest in CGA to make some suggestions regarding nomenclature. As the literature of clinical geriatrics has proliferated, inconsistent terminology has hindered communication among those interested in the care of elderly persons. The most confusing example has been the use of the term, functional assessment (FA), as synonymous with CGA by some authors, while others view it in a more restrictive vein. We wish to propose the adoption of a common language to describe the assessment of older persons. Although preservation or restoration of function has been a principal goal of all geriatric assessment, we would suggest, for clarity, that the term functional assessment be reserved for the measurement of a patient's ability to complete functional tasks and fulfill social roles. Functional tasks can range from the simplest selfcare to executive-level occupational responsibilities. The first step in clarifying the description of these tasks would be to classify them into three levels of function, stratified according to difficulty and complexity into basic, intermediate and advanced activities of daily living (BADL, IADL, and AADL, respectively). BADLs include the elemental functions estimated by the Katz Index or similar scales of self-care IADLs have been measured as the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living of Lawton and in the OARS instrument; they are symbolic of similar tasks essential to maintaining independen~e.",~ Often, independence or dependence in these IADLs determines whether an elderly person can continue to live alone. AADLs may be thought of as "luxury" items of function, well beyond what is needed to maintan independent living. They tend to be volitional, specific to the individual and influenced by cultural and motivational forces. They usually relate to recreational, occupational, altruistic, or community service functions. Although not essential for independence, the AADLs may become an important area for future study, since one's capacity to continue AADLs may be conducive to strong mental health and certainly contribute to maintaining excellent quality of life. Furthermore, one might hypothesize that decline in the ability to perform AADLs might be a valuable early predictor of more senous functional decline. Some illustrative patterns of the effects of age-related disease on function in this threelevel model are diagrammed in Figure 1. Social function includes social activities, relationships, community and religious services, and employment. At the highest levels of ADLs and social function, the distinction between these two spheres often disappears. For example, a tennis match represents both a complex AADL and a social activity. Function may be assessed by self-report (either by the patient or a proxy), interview (either by the patient or a proxy), or by direct observation. Each of these methods has its advantages and drawbacks, discussed most thoroughly by Kane and Kane'O and commented on further by Rubenstein, et a1.* Their value is dependent on the reliability of the source of information. We believe that it
Objective: To study the risk factors and TCM symptomatology of lacunar infarction cognitive impairment(LICI). Methods: One thousand four hundred and seventy-one cases of lacunar infarction patients were divided into two groups: the LICI group(745 patients) and the LI group(726 patients). Risk factors of cognitive impairment and TCM symptoms were compared. Results: There were significant differences in Mo CA scores, age, education, hypertension history, numbers of LI and TCM syndrome elements(P0.05, P0.01). Conclusion: There is a positive relationship between LICI and age, education, hypertension history, and numbers of LI. TCM syndrome elements of LI patients are complex and various, especially the lacunar infarction patients with cognitive impairment, with complicated syndrome factors and various symptoms.
Background and objectives Many risk prediction models have been developed globally to identify specific populations at high risk for colorectal cancer in specific settings. Documentation of available evidence from existing studies will serve as a useful information base. We performed a scoping review, to review and analyse published risk prediction models for colorectal cancer the world over. Methods A scoping review was undertaken to address the following question ‘what are the existing risk prediction models to identify the risk of developing colorectal cancer among individuals in different countries and settings?’ using the framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley for scoping reviews. Forty-one articles were included in this review from database searches and from additional searches. The titles and abstracts were reviewed using predetermined screening criteria. We limited our search to existing literature in English language and included both observational and interventional studies. Results Out of the 58 risk prediction models identified, most were developed for colorectal cancer followed by advanced colorectal cancer. Most of the articles reviewed were cross sectional studies or cohort studies. Statistical methods such as multiple logistic regression was used by a majority, while few have incorporated non-statistical methods such as consensus method and extracting data from published literature. The authors of the 58 risk prediction models have considered 77 different risk factors excluding the genetic variants. Conclusions This comprehensive scoping review demonstrates the capacity of the existing risk models to stratify the general population into risk categories, detailing the studies conducted, location, study design, outcome, overview of the methods, data source and the identified risk predictors. While striving to build on existing knowledge, the review also identifies the research gaps and the need for further improvement.
OBJECTIVE Condom use is critical for the health of sexually active adolescents, and yet many adolescents fail to use condoms consistently. One interpersonal factor that may be key to condom use is sexual communication between sexual partners; however, the association between communication and condom use has varied considerably in prior studies of youth. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to synthesize the growing body of research linking adolescents' sexual communication to condom use, and to examine several moderators of this association.   METHOD A total of 41 independent effect sizes from 34 studies with 15,046 adolescent participants (M(age) = 16.8, age range = 12-23) were meta-analyzed.   RESULTS Results revealed a weighted mean effect size of the sexual communication-condom use relationship of r = .24, which was statistically heterogeneous (Q = 618.86, p < .001, I² = 93.54). Effect sizes did not differ significantly by gender, age, recruitment setting, country of study, or condom measurement timeframe; however, communication topic and communication format were statistically significant moderators (p < .001). Larger effect sizes were found for communication about condom use (r = .34) than communication about sexual history (r = .15) or general safer sex topics (r = .14). Effect sizes were also larger for communication behavior formats (r = .27) and self-efficacy formats (r = .28), than for fear/concern (r = .18), future intention (r = .15), or communication comfort (r = -.15) formats.   CONCLUSIONS Results highlight the urgency of emphasizing communication skills, particularly about condom use, in HIV/STI prevention work for youth. Implications for the future study of sexual communication are discussed.
Summary The bacterial flora in the upper oesophageal pouch of forty neonates with oesophageal atresia was studied at daily inter- vals preoperatively. Of the twenty-nine infants whose oeso- phagus was anastomosed within 24 hours of admission, no or- ganisms were isolated in sixteen, despite the fact that only nine of these patients had antibiotics. The remaining thirteen grew oropharyngeal organisms. Of eleven infants having de- layed anastomosis eight received antibiotics. All eleven grew organisms in the upper pouch. Pseudomonas and serratia grew only in those receiving antibiotics. These results suggest that prophylactic antibiotics are rarely indicated. Efficient continuous aspiration of the pouch is probably more impor- tant.
We would like to thank our colleagues for their precise comments on our article.1 Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a valuable tool for evaluation of inflammation and is obtained from an inexpensive and widely attainable laboratory test — complete blood count. Currently, there are valuable tests for prediction of prostate cancer, particularly high-grade cases. These tests include: PCA3; prostate health index (PHI) multibiomarker test, which combines free and total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) with [-2]proPSA; and four kallikrein protein biomarkers (total PSA, free PSA, intact PSA, and human kallikrein-related peptidase 2), named as 4K score.2-4 However, these tests are expensive and not yet available worldwide. Therefore, tests that are widely available, like NLR, are especially important for use in developing countries. Distinct phases of carcinogenesis and cancer growth cause different immune system responses.5 Initially, association of NLR and prostate cancer was shown in metastatic cases, that is, higher NLR indicated more aggressive disease and poor response to treatment.6 Recently, further studies investigating the role of NLR in the pre-biopsy setting were published.1,7 In these studies, higher NLR values were found to be associated with higher rates of prostate cancer. There is also one study focusing on and early-stage and low-risk prostate cancer. In this study, Kwon et al found that lymphocyte count was associated with Gleason score upgrading and neutrophil count was associated with biochemical failure; NLR was not found to have association with any of the study endpoints.8 Our group also investigated the results of low-risk cases in which the patients underwent radical prostatectomy. We found that NLR was associated with higher rates of Gleason score upgrading and high-grade prostate cancer cases, but not with disease upstaging (data not yet published). Although the results from the early-stage prostate cancer cases are conflicting, there is good proof of alterations in the immune system in the development and progression of prostate cancer. However, as it was mentioned in the comment to our study, levels of immune cells in the peripheral blood are prone to change in many circumstances.9 Due to the retrospective nature of our study, we could not retrieve data on the conditions that might have affected levels of immune cells. On the other hand, such data, although valuable, still does not clarify the changes in immune system and immune response to development and progression of prostate cancer cells. A study with immunohistochemical examination of the prostate tissue from biopsy or radical prostatectomy specimens would better identify the changes in the prostatic tissue level.
Health-care organization and financing is rapidly changing in the USA due to competitive pressures. Parallel changes are occurring in other countries. These changes are affecting, and will affect, home care services. Watching these changes, and building on social models, leads one to focus on important developments. These developments include: point of service plans, disease management, outcomes measurement, price and quality competition. These changes will make measured outcomes and demonstrated value essential in home care.
Background: Serrated lesions give rise to 15% to 30% of all colorectal cancers, driven predominantly by the sessile serrated polyp (SSP). Fecal immunochemical test (FIT), has low sensitivity for SSPs. SSP detection rate (SSPDR) is influenced by performance of both endoscopists and pathologists, as diagnosis can be subtle both on endoscopy and histology. Goals: To evaluate the SSPDR in a population-based screening program, and the influence of subspecialty trained pathologists on provincial reporting practices. Study: The colon screening program database was used to identify all FIT-positive patients that received colonoscopy between January 2014 and June 2017. Patient demographics, colonoscopy quality indicators, pathologic diagnoses, and FIT values were collected. This study received IRB approval. Results: A total of 74,605 colonoscopies were included and 26.6% had at least 1 serrated polyp removed. The SSPDR was 7.0%, with 59% of the SSPs detected having a concurrent conventional adenoma. The mean FIT value for colonoscopies with only serrated lesions was less than that for colonoscopies with a conventional adenoma or colorectal cancer (P<0.0001). Centers with a gastrointestinal subspecialty pathologist diagnosed proportionally more SSPs (P<0.0001), and right-sided SSPs than centers without subspecialists. Conclusions: Serrated lesions often occur in conjunction with conventional adenomas and are associated with lower FIT values. Knowledge of the characteristics of SSPs is essential for pathologists to ensure accurate diagnosis of SSPs.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia are possibly related to environmental and/or occupational exposure. The primary objective of this study was to develop a questionnaire for screening patients with these blood disorders who might benefit from a specialized consultation for possible recognition of the disease as an occupational disease. The study included 205 subjects (male gender, 67.3%; mean age, 60 years; NHL, 78.5%). The questionnaire performed very satisfactorily in identifying the exposures most frequently retained by experts for their potential involvement in the occurrence of NHL. Its sensitivity and specificity in relation to the final expertise were 96% and 96% for trichloroethylene, 85% and 82% for benzene, 78% and 87% for solvents other than trichloroethylene and dichloromethane, 87% and 95% for pesticides, respectively. Overall, 15% of the subjects were invited to ask National Social Insurance for compensation as occupational disease. These declarations concerned exposure to pesticides (64%), solvents (trichloroethylene: 29%; benzene: 18%; other than chlorinated solvents: 18%) and sometimes multiple exposures. In conclusion, this questionnaire appears as a useful tool to identify NHL patients for a specialized consultation, in order to ask for compensation for occupational disease.
The present study included 82 patients at the age from 28 to 60 years (46 women and 36 men). Radiotherapy was given to 44 patients of whom 27 presented with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and 17 with diseases of the locomotor apparatus (LA) and concomitant dislipoproteinemia (DLP). The control group was comprised of 38 subjects (27 with CVD and 11 with LA disease + DLP). The patients received radiotherapy every other day as a series of 8-9 radon baths (water temperature 36-37 degrees C) for 10-15 min each at a radon concentration of 20-40 nCi/l (total dose 1.2 mSv). The treatment caused a significant increase of serum cholesterol (CL) and high-density lipoproteide (HDLP) levels with simultaneous reduction of the atherogenicity index and a tendency towards a decrease in the levels of total cholesterol, cholesterol of low density lipoproteides (LDLP), and triglicerides. Clinically, the desired level of arterial pressure was reached in 77.2% of the patients.
This study was designed to test whether cyclic nucleotides play a role in the regulation of bacterial killing by human monocytes. Agents were tested for their ability to activate monocyte adenylate or guanylate cyclase in cell-free preparations, to increase cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) or cyclic guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) in intact human monocytes, and to modulate monocyte-induced killing of Staphylococcus aureus in vitro. Prostaglandin E1 and cholera toxin activated monocyte adenylate cyclase and inhibited monocyte killing of S. aureus. An adenylate cyclase inhibitor, RMI 12330A, reversed the prostaglandin E1-mediated inhibition of bacterial killing, thus implicating cAMP as the intracellular mediator of this inhibition. In contrast, monocyte cGMP levels were increased 5- and 17-fold by 5-hydroxytryptamine and N-methyl-N' -nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, respectively, but neither agent was effective in modulating monocyte bactericidal activity. Thus, modulation of bactericidal activity in human monocytes did not conform to the yin/yang theory of opposing actions by cAMP and cGMP, for although monocyte-mediated killing of S. aureus was inhibited by cAMP agonists, it was not enhanced by cGMP agonists.
Over the past two decades, super-resolution microscopy (SRM), which offered a significant improvement in resolution over conventional light microscopy, has become a powerful tool to visualize biological activities in both fixed and living cells. However, completely understanding biological processes requires studying cells in a physiological context at high spatiotemporal resolution. Recently, SRM has showcased its ability to observe the detailed structures and dynamics in living species. Here we summarized recent technical advancements in SRM that have been successfully applied to in vivo imaging. Then, improvements in the labeling strategies are discussed together with the spectroscopic and chemical demands of the fluorophores. Finally, we broadly reviewed the current applications for super-resolution techniques in living species and highlighted some inherent challenges faced in this emerging field. We hope that this review could serve as an ideal reference for researchers as well as beginners in the relevant field of in vivo super resolution imaging.
OBJECTIVE Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer death due to insufficient diagnostic methods in early stage of PC. Growing evidence has shown that long intergenic non-coding RNAs (LINCRNAs) is a biomarker of the early-stage of PC. However, the expression level and diagnostic value of LINC00162 remains unclear.   METHODS LINC00162 expression was detected in peripheral blood samples from 155 subjects (52 healthy controls, 52 benign pancreatic disease (BPD) persons and 51 PC patients) by quantitative reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of LINC00162, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 199 (CA199).   RESULTS Our data indicated that the LINC00162 expression was upregulated in PC patients compared with healthy controls and BPD (all P<0.001). Furthermore, PC patients with advanced pathological grades, positive lymph node metastasis and positive distant metastasis showed higher LINC00162 levels (all P<0.001). In addition, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) found that the LINC00162 had higher diagnostic ability than CEA and CA199 in distinguishing the early-stage PC patients (AUC: LINC00162 versus(vs) CEA vs CA199=0.932 vs 0.669 vs 0.725).   CONCLUSION In summary, the LINC00162 may be a noninvasive and efficient marker for identifying patients with the early-stage PC. Further validation studies with a large number of patients and long-term follow-up patients are needed to confirm the potential diagnostic value and clinical utility of LINC00162 in patients with PC.
The evaluation of victims of ischemic stroke has evolved over the last few years, primarily as a result of the introduction of innovative, sensitive, and informative diagnostic procedures. The role of the neurologist appears to have been redefined as one in which the identification of the presumptive cause and mechanism of the stroke is one of the primary responsibilities. The trend towards classification of patients into stroke subtypes, based upon etiology and pathogenesis, has led to ashift in care to a more etiology‐specific approach. The inclusion of results of ancillary tests in the criteria utilized for stroke subtype classification has expanded the neurologists' ability to ascertain the presumptive etiology of many strokes that in the past were considered of unknown etiology. This has also resulted in an apparent increase in the proportion of ischemic strokes presumably due to cardiogenic embolism. The impact oftransesophageal echocardiography upon changes in the presumptive etiology of ischemic stroke is illustrated, underscoring the future collaboration of neurologists and cardiologists in the evaluation of victims of presumed cardiogenic ischemic stroke.
Hypothesis / aims of study Best practice guidelines identify appropriate reasons to insert an indwelling urinary catheter (IUC) (1); however, there is evidence to suggest that adherence to guidelines is poor and may be a particular problem in Emergency Departments (ED) where many catheterisations are initiated (2). This study aimed to describe the practice and reasons for the insertion of an IUC in adult patients in the ED of an urban Western Canadian hospital in order to inform an intervention to reduce the prevalence of catheter associated complications.
BACKGROUND The pattern of glomerular diseases in northwest Iran is unknown. This study was conducted to evaluate the histological pattern of renal diseases in this region.   METHODS We retrospectively studied the reports of 266 native adult renal biopsies at the Imam Reza and Taleghani Hospitals from June 2007 to June 2012. Pathological findings include minimal change disease (MCD), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis (MCGN), post streptococcal proliferative glomerulonephritis (PSPGN), membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN), hypertensive nephropathy (HN), crescentic glomerulonephritis or rapid progressive glomerulonephritis (CGN or RPGN), chronic tubular interstitial necrosis (CTIN), chronic sclerosing glomerulonephritis (CGN), Alport syndrome, acute tubular necrosis (ATN), lupus nephritis, renal amyloidosis. The data were collected and analyzed.   RESULTS The mean age of the patients was 37.41±15.78 years. Nephrotic syndrome was observed in 155 (58.3%) cases which was higher in frequency in females (61.9%) (p<0.005), followed by renal insufficiency in 87 (32.7%) cases. Totally, 187 (70.3%) had primary glomerulonephritis (GN) whereas, 79 (29.7%) had secondary GN. MCD was found to be the most common histological pattern (44%) and CGN (1.12%) was the least common. The frequencies of secondary glomerulonephritis (GN) include lupus nephritis to be the most frequent (41.8%) followed by chronic tubulo interstitial nephritis (38%) and type II diabetic nephropathy (19%).   CONCLUSION The results showed that minimal change disease ranked first followed by focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. We hope that this will form the basis for developing a renal biopsy registry across the continent in Iran.
Wrong Perception is one of the risk factors of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) type 2 will make adolescent to do unhealthy lifestyle that leads to DM disease. Increasing knowledge through health education is expected to increase the perception. The purpose of research was to analyze adolescent’s perceptions changing after was given health education using audio visual media about risk factors of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. The method in this research was experimental research with Quasi-Experimental design pretest-posttest. The sample consisted of 128 respondents, 64 respondents in control group and 64 respondents in the experimental group. Sampling was done by purposive sampling. The results showed an increasing perceptions average 2.31 in control group. In experimental group increased a perceptions average 3.44. Further analysis showed that health education using audio-visual media is more effective in improving perceptions. The conclusion of this research showed that using audio-visual media is more effective to increase the perception. Audio-visual media provide a more attractive appearance, so that there is a dynamic movement to attract the attention. The research recommended an increasing in preventive and promotive diabetes type 2 through health education and activities around school (SMU).
Asian Americans encounter barriers to mental health care, some of which are structural, whereas othersmay be cultural. Using data from a probability sample (N ! 490) drawn from the largest Cambodianrefugee community in the United States, the authors assessed the extent to which structural and culturalbarriers were experienced. Surprisingly, a relatively small proportion endorsed commonly cited culturalbarriers such as distrust of Western care (4%) and greater confidence in alternative care (5%), whereasmost endorsed structural barriers such as high cost (80%) and language (66%). Among those with aprobable diagnosis, a similar pattern was found. Findings suggest that structural, not culturally based,barriers are the most critical obstacles to care in this U.S. Cambodian refugee community.Keywords: Cambodian, refugees, Asian Americans, mental health, treatment, barriers
v List of Figures x List of Tables xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Rationale for the Study 4 Purpose of the Study 8 Research Questions 9 Significance of the Study 9 Summary 13 Dissertation Overview 13 Chapter 2: Literature Review 15 Teacher Preparation 15 No Child Left Behind Impact on Teacher Retention 16 Importance of Teacher Training 18 Fostering Partnerships 20 Teacher Induction 21 Mentoring and Teacher Retention 24 Professional Learning Communities and Teacher Retention 27 Impact of TEACHNJ and AchieveNJ on Non-Tenured Teachers 29 Impact of Professional Development Schools on New Teacher Attrition 32 Organizational Change for New Teacher Support 33 Leadership for Organizational Change and New Teacher Support 36 vii Table of
The aim of the study was to analyze Thoroughbred mortality caused by diseases or injuries during the first six months of life. Causes of foals' deaths from birth until weaning were analyzed. Data were collected at one of Polish Thoroughbred National Studs. Twelve breeding seasons were analyzed during which 395 foals were live-born. Data were collected from broodmare cards, foaling notes and direct information was received from the generał farm manager. Colts and fillies were divided into two groups. One of them we re foals dead until third day of life and another groups were foals dead from fourth day of life until weaning, which had place around 6 month of life. Causes of foals' death were diseases of the following systems: digestive, circulatory, nervous, respiratory and musculoskeletal. Injuries were also considered. Because of incomplete data in broodmare cards, a group of foals dead from unknown causes was created. It was found that 4.55 % of foals died until third day of life and 15.19% died until sixth months of life. Main causes of foals' deaths up to third day of life were diseases of circulatory system (16.16%) and from fourth day of life Rhodococcus equi pneumonia (58.97 %).
Objective The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations Model on preoperative and postoperative patient anxiety. Design The study used a randomised clinical trial design. Setting The sample of this study consisted of 120 patients who attended the surgery clinic at Atatürk University Hospital in Erzurum, Turkey between 1 June and 30 October 2004. Subjects The patients were randomly assigned to the study group (n=60) and the control group (n=60). Interventions Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations Model intervention was implemented with the study group. Main Outcome Measure The effectiveness of Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations Model intervention with preoperative and postoperative patient’s level of anxiety. Results The level anxiety of patients in the study group decreased considerably preoperatively. There was a statistically significant difference between the study group and the control group in terms of the mean anxiety score postoperatively and before discharge from the hospital. Conclusion The researchers concluded that decreased patient anxiety was likely to be associated with intervention based on Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations Model. Peplau’s model can be recommended as an intervention for nurses to improve patient care by decreasing anxiety in the preoperative and postoperative period. RESEARCH PAPER
Neuromodulation of the immune system has been proposed as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. We recently demonstrated that stimulation of near-organ autonomic nerves to the spleen can be harnessed to modulate the inflammatory response in an anesthetized pig model. The development of neuromodulation therapy for the clinic requires chronic efficacy and safety testing in a large animal model. This manuscript describes the effects of longitudinal conscious splenic nerve neuromodulation in chronically-implanted pigs. Firstly, clinically-relevant stimulation parameters were refined to efficiently activate the splenic nerve while reducing changes in cardiovascular parameters. Subsequently, pigs were implanted with a circumferential cuff electrode around the splenic neurovascular bundle connected to an implantable pulse generator, using a minimally-invasive laparoscopic procedure. Tolerability of stimulation was demonstrated in freely-behaving pigs using the refined stimulation parameters. Longitudinal stimulation significantly reduced circulating tumor necrosis factor alpha levels induced by systemic endotoxemia. This effect was accompanied by reduced peripheral monocytopenia as well as a lower systemic accumulation of CD16+CD14high pro-inflammatory monocytes. Further, lipid mediator profiling analysis demonstrated an increased concentration of specialized pro-resolving mediators in peripheral plasma of stimulated animals, with a concomitant reduction of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids including prostaglandins. Terminal electrophysiological and physiological measurements and histopathological assessment demonstrated integrity of the splenic nerves up to 70 days post implantation. These chronic translational experiments demonstrate that daily splenic nerve neuromodulation, via implanted electronics and clinically-relevant stimulation parameters, is well tolerated and is able to prime the immune system toward a less inflammatory, pro-resolving phenotype.
Background Variations in patient demand increase the challenge of balancing high-quality nursing skill mixes against budgetary constraints. Developing staffing guidelines that allow high-quality care at minimal cost requires first exploring the dynamic changes in nursing workload over the course of a day. Objective Accordingly, this longitudinal study analyzed nursing care supply and demand in 30-minute increments over a period of 3 years. We assessed 5 care factors: patient count (care demand), nurse count (care supply), the patient-to-nurse ratio for each nurse group, extreme supply-demand mismatches, and patient turnover (ie, number of admissions, discharges, and transfers). Methods Our retrospective analysis of data from the Inselspital University Hospital Bern, Switzerland included all inpatients and nurses working in their units from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017. Two data sources were used. The nurse staffing system (tacs) provided information about nurses and all the care they provided to patients, their working time, and admission, discharge, and transfer dates and times. The medical discharge data included patient demographics, further admission and discharge details, and diagnoses. Based on several identifiers, these two data sources were linked. Results Our final dataset included more than 58 million data points for 128,484 patients and 4633 nurses across 70 units. Compared with patient turnover, fluctuations in the number of nurses were less pronounced. The differences mainly coincided with shifts (night, morning, evening). While the percentage of shifts with extreme staffing fluctuations ranged from fewer than 3% (mornings) to 30% (evenings and nights), the percentage within “normal” ranges ranged from fewer than 50% to more than 80%. Patient turnover occurred throughout the measurement period but was lowest at night. Conclusions Based on measurements of patient-to-nurse ratio and patient turnover at 30-minute intervals, our findings indicate that the patient count, which varies considerably throughout the day, is the key driver of changes in the patient-to-nurse ratio. This demand-side variability challenges the supply-side mandate to provide safe and reliable care. Detecting and describing patterns in variability such as these are key to appropriate staffing planning. This descriptive analysis was a first step towards identifying time-related variables to be considered for a predictive nurse staffing model.
The diarrhea during menstruation means loose stool,even watery diarrhea several times a day during or before or after menstruation,and returned to normal when menstruation ends.In this paper,etiology,pathogenesis,clinical treatment of the diarrhea during menstruation both in the ancient books and literature in recent years were reviewed.It is found the pathogenesis is spleen deficiency,kidney Yang deficiency,liver stagnation and spleen deficiency,and the heat attacking large intestine.TCM treatment is safe and effective for this disease.
OBJECTIVE Increasing numbers of adults with a psychiatric disorder are also parents of dependent children. The present article aims to outline ways in which Fellows of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) can assist in enhancing psychiatric care when a person with a mental illness also has parenting responsibilities.   METHODS The national Children of Parents With A Mental Illness (COPMI) initiative undertook consultations with consumers, carers, young people and a range of professionals to assist in development of documents and resource materials to enhance policy and practice. Communication and interaction with key psychiatrists' professional bodies to seek their advice and participation has been maintained throughout the project.   RESULTS The RANZCP Fellows have assisted the COPMI project in the development and dissemination of draft principles and recommended actions for services and people working with children of parents with a mental illness and their families, and in the development of associated resource materials. They are now considering a College position statement on this issue.   CONCLUSIONS If children of parents with a mental illness are to benefit from proposed enhancements to practice relating to services provided to their families, it is essential that psychiatrists themselves are involved in the development, implementation and review of good practice in this area.
Summary The antiarrhythmic effects of intravenously administered lignocaine and mexiletine were compared over a period of 48 hr in a randomized trial on 24 patients who developed ventricular tachyarrhythmias within 48 hr of the onset of acute myocardial infarction. Mexiletine was given as an initial bolus of 200 mg, followed by an infusion of 1 mg/min reduced to 0.5 mg/min after 1 hr. Lignocaine was given as a bolus of 100 mg, followed by an infusion of 3 mg/min reduced to 2 mg/min after 1 hr. Plasma levels of mexiletine, lignocaine, and monoethylglycinexylidide were monitored. The frequency of “complex” ventricular tachyarrhythmias was significantly lower in the mexile-tine-treated group. This group of patients also had significantly fewer ventricular extrasystoles than those receiving lignocaine, the difference being most marked during the second 24 hr of treatment. Too few episodes of ventricular fibrillation occurred for statistical comment. The greater efficacy of mexiletine was not associated with increased drug toxicity.
Abstract Hepatitis B and its resultant liver cancer are leading causes of morbidity and mortality among Asians and Pacific Islanders (API). In the United States, the disproportionately high prevalence rates of these diseases in the API population constitute some of the nation's greatest health disparities. However, public awareness remains poor and public health efforts need to be strengthened. The Jade Ribbon Campaign is a culturally and linguistically targeted, evidence-based model programme for health communication to improve awareness among API. This model demonstrates that cultural competency does not simply entail a straightforward transfer of ideas, strategies, and materials from one culture or language to another. Rather, it requires a deep understanding of a target community, a multi-faceted approach, and the buy-in of diverse stakeholders, many of whom may not be in health-care-related fields. This paper discusses the Jade Ribbon Campaign as a model programme to illustrate the strategies and components for developing a successful, culturally competent health awareness campaign.
The invertase inhibitory protein isolated from Cyphomandra betacea Sendt and Solanum tuberosum inhibited the invertase activity from different species, genera and even plant family. Furthermore, proteinaceous inhibitors are not invertase specific; fungal, bacterial and higher plant enzymes including polygalacturonase, pectinase, pectin lyase, α - l -arabinofuranosidase and β -glucosidase are also shown to be inhibited. Both inhibitors exhibited an in vitro antibacterial action against phytopathogenics strains of Xanthomonas campestris pvar vesicatoria CECT 792, Pseudomonas solanacearum CECT 125, Pseudomonas corrugata CECT 124, Pseudomonas syringae and Erwinia carotovora var carotovora.
Degradation of juvenile hormone and reproductive function during starvation and experimental increase of the juvenile hormone titer were studied in wild type and mutant D. virilis females incapable to respond to heat stress by changes in juvenile hormone metabolism and fertility. After 24-hour starvation, the females of both lines were characterized by a decreased level of juvenile hormone degradation, 24-hour delay of egg laying, increased egg laying within 3 h after the termination of starvation, and decreased fertility within three days. Application of exogenous juvenile hormone also led to a decreased level of its degradation and 24-hour arrest of egg laying. Experimental increase of the juvenile hormone titer before the beginning of starvation led to a sharply increased fertility (number of laid eggs and number of progenies) within the first 24 h after the termination of starvation. The dynamics of juvenile hormone degradation and of fertility were similar after starvation and upon application of the exogenous hormone. The role of juvenile hormone in the control of egg maturation and laying under stress conditions has been discussed.
Thermoregulatory, metabolic and peripheral vascular responses to cold were studied in two groups (six each) of healthy men during exposure to the natural cold environment of the Arctic. Group A comprised of two arctic natives and four temporary residents who had migrated from the temperature zone of Russia. Group B consisted of six soldiers from a tropical region (India). Group B was airlifted to the arctic (70 degrees N, 38 degrees E). Both groups stayed in a field camp. The experiments were conducted during the 7th week of the stay. The volunteers were subjected to a standard cold test at 10 degrees C for 2 h wearing only shorts. Their heart rate, blood pressure, ventilation, oxygen consumption, oral temperature, mean skin and extremity temperatures were recorded initially and at 30 min intervals during standard cold test. The cold-induced vasodilatation response in both groups was also studied separately. The tropical natives (Group B) were flown back to Delhi and retested after 6 weeks. The physiological responses to general cold exposure as well as peripheral vascular response to local arctic cold stress were similar in both groups. The observation suggested that cold acclimatization in tropical men is similar to that of the people of Russian origin from a temperature zone.
Introduction: We report a case of Ehlers-Donlos syndrome which raised left ventricular pseudo-aneurism at the site of transapical aortic cannulation after acute aortic dissection repair. Case Report: A 49-year-old male underwent total arch replacement for type A aortic dissection using transapical aortic cannulation. CT revealed a pseudoaneurysm at the left ventricular apex 2 weeks after the initial surgery, and the size of pseudoaneurysm increased in another 2 weeks. We performed reoperation and found suture dehiscence of transapical cannulation closure. Post-operative course was uneventful. He was diagnosed as Ehlers-Donlos syndrome by genetic examination after the second surgery. Conclusion: Ehlers-Danlos syndrome might be attributed to vulnerability of cardiac muscle and suture dehiscence, and transapical cannulation should be carefully applied in the patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
The study examined whether Shigyaku‐san (Si‐Ni‐San) extract (TJ‐35), a traditional Kampo medicine, prevents acute gastric mucosal lesion progression in rats treated once with compound 48/80 (C48/80). Rats treated with C48/80 (0.75 mg/kg body weight, i.p.) received TJ‐35 (0.15, 0.35 or 0.75 g/kg body weight, p.o.) 0.5 h after the treatment at which time gastric mucosal lesions appeared. At 0.5 h after C48/80 treatment, the gastric mucosa of the treated rats had increased myeloperoxidase (an index of neutrophil infiltration) and xanthine oxidase activities and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (an index of lipid peroxidation) content. At 3 h after C48/80 treatment, the gastric mucosa of the treated rats showed progressive lesions and further increases in myeloperoxidase and xanthine oxidase activities and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances content and decreases in vitamin E, ascorbic acid and adherent mucus contents and Se‐glutathione peroxidase activity. Post‐administered TJ‐35 attenuated all these changes found at 3 h after C48/80 treatment dose‐dependently. These results indicate that TJ‐35 prevents the progression of C48/80‐induced acute gastric mucosal lesions in rats possibly by attenuating enhanced neutrophil infiltration, enhanced lipid peroxidation associated with decreased vitamin E and ascorbic acid contents and Se‐glutathione peroxidase activity, and destruction of the defensive barrier in the gastric mucosa. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Summary: Mutations in cortex and grauzone cause abnormal arrest in Drosophila female meiosis. cortex was mapped to a 14 kb interval in 26F–27A by the male recombination mapping method. While these experiments mapped the gene accurately, they also illustrated some complexities of this method. Rescue results showed that a 2.8 kb genomic fragment from this interval was able to fully rescue the cortex phenotype. The 2.8 kb rescuing fragment contains a single open reading frame. The predicted amino acid sequence indicates that cortex encodes a WD‐repeat protein and is a distant member of the Cdc20 protein family. Results from a developmental Northern analysis showed that the cortex transcript is expressed at high levels during oogenesis and early embryogenesis. Interestingly, the meiotic metaphase‐anaphase II arrest defect in embryos laid by cortex homozygous females resembles the mitotic metaphase‐anaphase defects observed in yeast cdc20 mutants. The predicted nature of the Cortex protein, together with the observed meiotic phenotype in cortex mutants, suggest that a similar pathway to the cdc20 dependent APC‐mediated proteolysis pathway, which governs the metaphase‐anaphase transition in mitosis, is also important in regulating oocyte meiosis. genesis 29:141–152, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Metal ions have unique electrochemical and spectroscopical properties that cannot be attained by purely organic compounds. Most of the metal ions are toxic to humans, but paradoxically, metallodrugs are used in medicine as therapeutics and theranostics. Metallodrugs are eliminated in urine and faeces, and therefore release toxic metals and ligands into aquatic ecosystems, thereby raising concerns regarding environmental risks. The use of metallodrugs based on essential metal ions (i.e., iron, copper and zinc), instead of toxic ions, is a new alternative with minor hazards. Kojic acid is an Asperigillus oryzae metabolite of low toxicity used in the food and cosmetics industries. Its derivatives form stable complexes with iron(III) ions, which bind effectively to DNA and inhibit DNA polymerization. The iron(III)/S2 ligand complexes reduce in vitro colon carcinoma (Caco2) cell viability and significantly decrease the cell number. The kojic acid derivative complexes with iron(III) presented here are an alternative to the currently used platinum complexes in cancer therapy.
Object : This study was designed to evaluate the effects of oriental medicine therapy on a renal atrophy Patient. Methods : The patient was hospitalized from July 31. 2009 to Aug 27. 2009. Patient was treated with herbal medicine, acupunture and moxa therapy. Result & Conclusion : After the treatment, the symptoms and IPSS, DITI results improved. From These results suggest that oriental medicine is an effective treatment for renal atrophy Patient. But more clinical case reports are needed.
Objective: The aim of this article is to update ADHD diagnosis/treatment trends by age, gender, and race. Method: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data were obtained for 2008-2009 to 2012-2013. Physician office visits including ADHD diagnosis and pharmacotherapy were measured per 1,000 population and per 1,000 office visits overall, and by demographic group. Logistic regression models controlled for demographics, psychiatric comorbidities, insurance type, and time period. Interactions of time, demographics, comorbidities, and insurance type were tested. Results: Diagnoses of ADHD increased by 36% in adults and 18% in youth, and diagnosis + drug by 29% in female and 10% in male youths. ADHD diagnosis was 77% less likely among Black than White adults but 24% more likely among Black than White youths in 2012-2013. Conduct disorder (CD) in youths multiplied odds of diagnosis + drug by 3.31; interaction of Black race × CD by 3.78. Conclusion: Upward trends in ADHD diagnosis and treatment have continued but vary markedly by group. Studies of undertreatment/overtreatment are needed.
Objective:To investigate the role of sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1)/sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) signaling in inflammatory response in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Background:SAP is an acute inflammatory process of the pancreas, which may lead to systemic inflammatory response syndrome and multiorgan dysfunction syndrome. SphK1 and its product S1P have been implicated in inflammatory response and various immune cell functions. However, the potential role for SphK1/S1P in inflammatory response in SAP is still unclear. Methods:Twenty-two patients with SAP were enrolled in this study. SphK1 expression on peripheral neutrophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes was evaluated by flow cytometry. SphK enzymatic activity in neutrophils and lymphocytes was measured using a radiometric assay. The expression of S1P1 and S1P3 mRNA was determined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-&agr; (TNF-&agr;), interleukin-1 (IL-1&bgr;), and IL-6 were measured by ELISA. Results:The expression of SphK1 and SphK activity were markedly increased in peripheral immune cells in the early stage of SAP and then reduced in the restoration stage in the patients. Moreover, we found that the level of S1P3 mRNA in peripheral neutrophils and lymphocytes of SAP patients was significantly elevated in the early stage as compared with the healthy volunteers, and it reduced in the restoration period. SphK1 expression on human peripheral neutrophils, monocytes, and CD4+ T lymphocytes were positively correlated with the APACHE (Acute Physiological and Chronic Health Evaluation) II scores in patients with SAP. The levels of serum proinflammatory cytokines including TNF-&agr;, IL-1&bgr;, and IL-6 showed similar shifts with intracellular SphK1 expression in SAP patients. Conclusions:The authors identified a link between the SphK1 expression on peripheral immune cells and the severity of SAP. Observations showed a possible immunomodulating role for SphK1/S1P signaling in inflammatory response in SAP, suggesting that regulation of SphK1/S1P pathway may represent novel targets in the treatment of SAP.
Introduction: Alopecia Areata is a chronic recurrent nonscarring skin disease characterized by sudden Asymptomatic localized hairless. Alopecia Areata can cause emotional and psychosocial distress in affected individuals. Personal appearance due to patchy hairloss may affect patients social relationship and change in quality of life. This study is designed to investigate the effect of Aleopecia Areata on quality of life in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Methods: In this case-control study, 50 patients of confirmed Alopecia Areata disease referred to Shahid Mohammadi hospital dermatology clinic and 50 age, sex and education matched individuals were selected as cases and controls. Demographic characteristics were collected and severity of disease measured by Oslen/Corfield method. Quality of life was evaluated by WHOQOL/BREF questionnaire. Data were analysed by SPSS software using descriptive methods as well as Chi-Square and t tests. Results: The results showed a significant difference in mental health and social relations in cases compare to control group (P<0.05), but there was not a significant difference in other quality of life aspects. Quality of life mean in mental health and social relations aspects in male cases were significantly less than that in control group, while in none of the quality of life aspects there was a significant different in female cases and controls. Conclusion: This study reveals that although the disease with any severity and in each age can affect quality of life, the severity of its effect in males is higher than that in females.
Researchers have found a potential medical use for fidget spinners— the flat, multilobed toys with a ball bearing at the center—especially in parts of the world that lack electricity and other resources. Experiments described in an Analytical Chemistry article point to the potential for the spinner to act as an inexpensive, hand-powered, portable, lightweight centrifuge platform for separating whole blood. Centrifugation with high-speed rotation is typically used to sediment blood cells for various laboratory tests, but centrifuges are expensive and require electricity. To test whether commercially available fidget spinners could generate enough force to separate blood plasma for clinics in resource-limited regions, investigators in Taiwan placed human blood samples in tiny tubes, sealed the ends, and taped a tube to each of the 3 prongs of a fidget spinner. Flicking the spinner with a finger 3 to 5 times produced a plasma yield rate and purity of 30% and 99%, respectively, in as little as 4 to 7 minutes. To verify that the plasma was suitable for diagnostic tests, the researchers spiked blood with HIV-1 p24 capsid protein, separated the plasma with the spinner, and performed a paper-based detection test. The inexpensive, simple method detected clinically relevant concentrations of the viral protein in a single drop of blood. After optimization, investigators achieved a reasonable limit of detection of 0.03 ng/mL at an optimized reaction time of 5 minutes and a recovery rate as high as 98% for the separated plasma. Markers for other diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, might also be detected in this way. “I hope that young people, children, and students understand that we can help people in other countries by using some simple tools or even toys to link with global health problems,” said senior author Dr Chien-Fu Chen, of National Taiwan University. “I also encourage them to try to observe and solve some science problems with simple tools, and to give those tools different functions.” Liu CH, et al. Blood plasma separation using a fidget-spinner [published online December 11, 2018]. Anal Chem. doi: 10.1021/acs. analchem.8b04860. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10. 1021/acs.analchem.8b04860.
Dear Editor, We have read with interest the Letter to the Editor by Dr. Safer and colleagues regarding our manuscript [1]. Dr. Safer correctly pointed out that muscle mass measurements by cross sectional imaging alone (Total Psoas Area) might not be the optimal method for classification of sarcopenia in cancer patients. They indicated that lumbar skeletal muscle index was recently put forth in a consensus statement as a recommended method for measuring sarcopenia [2]. Our study agrees with this finding. In our study, sarcopenia was quantified using two endpoints. This included the Total Psoas Index (TPI), which is different from the Total Psoas Area in that it takes into account patient height. Similar to the consensus statement, it is an index calculation and not a gross measurement of muscle mass. We also utilized the Hounsfield Unit Average Calculation (HUAC), which is a measurement derived from the radiation attenuation of the psoas muscle in conjunction with the psoas area. The HUAC is representative of psoas muscle quality accounting for both muscle density and fatty infiltration. Therefore based on using the TPI and the HUAC we did not employ muscle mass measurement alone in our study. Using our database of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma treated with pancreatectomy, we evaluated the impact of these endpoints on graded operative complications using multivariate analysis. Our results indicate that the HUAC was an independent predictor of numerous study endpoints, including overall and severe operative complications. The TPI only independently predicted length of hospital stay in our study. In the Discussion, we support the notion that TPI alone may not be as valuable as previously thought and that the HUAC, accounting for both muscle mass and density is something novel to be evaluated in future studies. Our conclusion highlights the HUAC as a proxy for the extent of a patient’s sarcopenia and discusses the potential clinical applicability of this measurement in cancer patients undergoing major operations. The European Consensus Definition of sarcopenia is the presence of low muscle mass and one of the following clinical variables—low muscle strength or low physical performance [3]. Future studies that build on the current body of literature should therefore include not only muscle indices measured by imaging, but also clinical parameters such as muscle strength, physical performance, and frailty [4]. Thank you very much for taking interest in our study.
The volatile compounds in Jinhua ham samples after different aging times were characterized using solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), and needle trap (NT) extraction methods combined with gas chromatography–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC–TOF/MS). Hundreds of aroma compounds were identified, including aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, furans, esters, acids, pyrazines, and sulfides. The results showed that NT extracted the greatest number of volatile compounds, whereas the extraction efficiency of SPME headspace adsorption was highest among the three sample preparation methods. Principal component analysis of SPME effectively distinguished the variation in the aroma of the Jinhua hams specific to aging time. Butyrolactone, 2,6-dimethylpyrazine, 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, phenylacetaldehyde, and acetic acid were considered as the main volatile compounds in the Jinhua ham samples at three years of aging. The results showed that SPME–GC–TOF/MS effectively discriminated among samples by age. By comparing the three extraction methods, this study provides a theoretical basis for the selection of extraction methods of volatile aroma compounds in Jinhua ham.
Objective To establish a time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay(TRFIA) kit for the detection of human hemoglobin(Hb) in fecal occult blood(FOB).Methods Two anti-Hb monoclonal antibodies were used to develop the sandwich TRFIA kit for detection of Hb in FOB.Results The limit of detection was 0.8 ng /mL and the measure range of kit was 0.8～1000 ng /mL.The intra-and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 3.4%～8.9% and 5.2%～ 13.4%,respectively.There was no cross reactivity with Hb of goat,chicken,bull,pig,rabbit and dog.90 samples were detected by TRFIA and Gold-immunochromatography assay(GICA).Compared with clinical results,TRFIA had sensitivities and specificity of 100%,and GICA had sensitivities of 95.6% and specificity of 100%.Conclusion The developed Hb-TRFIA kit in this study was valuable for clinical application with better sensitivity,specificity,and accuracy.
In response to the emerging environmental pressure (highly dynamic, complex and competitive for qualified employees), higher learning institutions are transforming their structures and management systems. As a result, many universities are rethinking their reward strategies to better align them with the new realities in order to improve teaching staff motivation and retention. This study was conducted to identify academic staff reward related problems and to examine the effectiveness of both financial and nonfinancial reward systems at Jimma University, Ethiopia. A descriptive survey with both quantitative and qualitative methods was carried out with 150 instructors out of the total academic staff of 806 from eight faculties. Self administered questionnaires were distributed to the academic staff and some qualitative data obtained from interviews with human resource plan and program officers and human resources personnel were used. The result of the study indicates that inefficient administration, lack of recognition and appreciation, absence of participation in decision-making, unsatisfactory financial rewards, and poor performance evaluation were ranked as major ones. However, job security, opportunity for further education and promotion were ranked less. The solutions suggested focused on rewarding seniority, reducing staff discrimination, improvement of performance evaluation and the reward system, and improving the skill and ability of administrators and developing participative management.
Purpose: Depression is a highly prevalent condition in primary care settings. In our previously reported work, we investigated the processes and conditions that influence primary care clinicians' recognition of depression. Three conditions influence the recognition of depression: familiarity with the patient, time available, and clinical experience. This article further describes the role of clinical experience in depression care. Methods: The grounded theory method was used to guide data collection and analysis. In-depth, in-person interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 8 clinicians. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Results: We identified 3 areas that comprise clinical experience relevant to depression care: (1) knowing one's professional role, (2) knowing oneself, and (3) knowing one's patients. In knowing one's professional role, 4 subdimensions were identified: (1) becoming familiar with illness patterns and clinical skills, (2) learning what works in the real world, (3) understanding what being a doctor is about, and (4) thinking of the whole person. The analysis indicated that clinical experience results from professional and personal growth during interactions with patients. The outcome of this developmental process was the achievement of comfort with depression care, a critical mediating variable that influenced primary care clinicians' recognition of depression. Conclusions: The developmental process of attaining comfort in managing depression warrants further exploration. Developing interventions to speed this process offers another approach to enhancing care for the management of depression.
Exercise-training might be a logical method to reverse muscle atrophy and weakness in patients treated with glucocorticoids. The purpose of the present investigation was to establish whether a treatment with low dose prednisone (10 +/- 2.9 mg/d) modulates the effect of a moderate strength type isokinetic training during 7 wk (21 sessions of 20 min) on "muscle efficiency" (power output/muscle mass) and on concomitant changes in ultrastructure of the thigh muscle measured by quantitative electron-microscopic morphometry. Training caused a similar increase in "muscle efficiency" in patients on prednisone (n = 9) as in normal volunteers (n = 9). In normal subjects the increase in muscle efficiency was associated with an increase in sarcoplasm, whereas in patients on prednisone the functional improvement was associated with an increase in sarcoplasm, capillaries, and mitochondria content. Thus, a therapy with low dose prednisone does not abrogate training-induced improvement of muscle efficiency but modulates the ultrastructural response of the muscle to the training.
The aims of this study were to characterize the biochemical profile, the reproductive performance and to identify potential predictive biomarkers of disease state of dairy cows with hyperketonemia, lipomobilization and hypocalcemia raised in tropical conditions in southeastern Brazil. Dairy cows (n = 50) were divided into a group of healthy cows (n = 14), cows with lipomobilization (n = 14), cows with hypocalcemia (n = 11), and a group of cows with hyperketonemia (n = 11). Evaluation of body condition score (BCS), body weight (BW) and blood samples were performed on 21, 14, 7, 4, and 2 days before calving, parturition, 1, 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 days postpartum and milk production was recorded on days 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition. Blood samples were assayed for aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutammyltransferase (GGT), albumin, total protein, globulin, fibrinogen, total cholesterol, triglyceride, urea, creatinine concentrations. The biochemical profile, BCS, BW, milk production and reproductive performance differed (P < 0.05) among the groups. Our findings indicate changes in the biochemical profile of dairy cows with metabolic diseases and impaired production and fertility of dairy cows in this group. Variable importance in projection plots demonstrated that cholesterol, urea, total protein, albumin and fibrinogen in the serum were the strongest discriminators between hypocalcemic and healthy cows; and AST, cholesterol, urea and triglycerides for hyperketonemic and healthy cows; and cholesterol, urea, triglycerides, total protein and fibrinogen for lipomobilization and healthy cows, which might be useful as predictive biomarkers of the disease state.
Jong-Min Kim, So-Hee Hong, Jun-Seop Shin, Byoung-Hoon Min, Jiyeon Kim, Eung Soo Hwang, Hee-Jung Kang, Chung-Gyu Park Xenotransplantation Research Center, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Institute of Endemic Diseases, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Bile acids and bile salts have essential functions in the liver and in the small intestine. Their synthesis in the liver provides a metabolic pathway for the catabolism of cholesterol and their detergent properties promote the solubilisation of essential nutrients and vitamins in the small intestine. Inherited conditions that prevent the synthesis of bile acids or their excretion cause cholestasis, or impaired bile flow. These disorders generally lead to severe human liver disease, underscoring the essential role of bile acids in metabolism. Recent advances in the elucidation of gene defects underlying familial cholestasis syndromes has greatly increased knowledge about the process of bile flow. The expression of key proteins involved in bile flow is tightly regulated by transcription factors of the nuclear hormone receptor family, which function as sensors of bile acids and cholesterol. Here we review the genetics of familial cholestasis disorders, the functions of the affected genes in bile flow, and their regulation by bile acids and cholesterol.
Inorganic nanoparticles, as a versatile nanoplatform, have been broadly applied in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers due to their inherent superior physicochemical properties (including magnetic, thermal, optical, and catalytic performance) and excellent functions (e.g. imaging, targeted delivery, and controlled release of drugs) through surface functional modification or ingredient dopant. However, in practical biological applications, inorganic nanomaterials are relatively difficult to degrade and excrete, which induces a long residence time in living organisms and thus may cause adverse effects, such as inflammation and tissue cysts. Therefore, the development of biodegradable inorganic nanomaterials is of great significance for their biomedical application. This review will focus on the recent advances of degradable inorganic nanoparticles for cancer theranostics with highlighting the degradation mechanism, aiming to offer an in-depth understanding of degradation behavior and related biomedical applications. Finally, key challenges and guidelines will be discussed to explore novel biodegradable inorganic nanomaterials with minimized toxicity issues, facilitating their potential clinical translation in cancer diagnosis and treatment. .
We have investigated the role of NAADP‐mediated Ca2+ mobilization in endothelin (ET) signaling via endothelin receptor subtype A (ETA) and endothelin receptor subtype B (ETB) in rat peritubular smooth muscle cells. Microinjection and extracellular application of NAADP were both able to elicit Ca2+ release which was blocked by inhibitory concentrations of NAADP, by impairing Ca2+ uptake in acidic stores with bafilomycin, and by thapsigargin. Ca2+ release in response to selective ETB stimulation was abolished by inhibition of NAADP signaling through the same strategies, while these treatments only partially impaired ETA‐dependent Ca2+ signaling, showing that transduction of the ETB signal is dependent on NAADP. In addition, we show that lipid rafts/caveolae contain ETA, ETB, and NAADP/cADPR generating enzyme CD38 and that stimulation of ETB receptors results in increased CD38 activity; interestingly, ETB‐ (but not ETA‐) mediated Ca2+ responses were antagonized by disruption of lipid rafts/caveolae with methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin. These data demonstrate a primary role of NAADP in ETB‐mediated Ca2+ signaling and strongly suggest a novel role of lipid rafts/caveolae in triggering ET‐induced NAADP signaling. J. Cell. Physiol. 216: 396–404, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
I knew things had got out of hand when my fellow swimmer perched a sports drink at the end of her lane to ward off dehydration. In a joint investigation this week with BBC’s Panorama , Deborah Cohen tells how dehydration has emerged as one of sport’s greatest fears (doi:10.1136/bmj.e4737). It’s an unedifying tale of scientists, sports and sports medicine organisations, guideline developers, and medical editors—and the sports drinks companies that bankroll them. Science’s role has been to dazzle, not to illuminate.  Somewhere amid “the coupling of science with creative marketing” it was forgotten, or obscured, that healthy bodies have exquisitely sensitive mechanisms for maintaining plasma osmolality (doi:10.1136/bmj.e4171). Thirst is the …
Nanostructured composite materials based on polyaniline (PANI) and gold nanoparticles have been prepared by means of an osmosis based method. Several morphologies have been obtained for the pristine nanoPANI and for nanoPANI–Au composite, ranging from amorphous to sponge-like and spherical shapes. On the basis of this morphological investigation, different materials with high surface area have been selected and tested as chemical interactive materials for room temperature gas and vapor sensing. The resistive sensor devices have been exposed to different vapor organic compounds (VOCs) of interest in the fields of environmental monitoring and biomedical applications, such as toluene, acetic acid, ethanol, methanol, acetonitrile, water, ammonia and nitrogen dioxide. The effect of doping with H2SO4 has been studied for both nanoPANI and nanoPANI–Au samples. In particular, nanoPANI–Au showed sensitivity to ammonia (up to 10 ppm) higher than that to other VOCs or interfering analytes. The facile preparation method and the improved properties achieved for the polyaniline–gold composite materials are significant in the nanomaterials field and have promise for applications in ammonia vapor monitoring.
SUMMARY A prospective cohort studyofatwice weekly exercise programme forsixmonths wasundertaken todetermine thebenefits ofanexercise class for28elderly women following hipsurgery. Theeffects oftheexercise programmewere monitored usingcycle ergometry. Walking speedwasmeasured onentry andat 3,6 and12months. Twenty-six subjects completed theprogrammewithan overall attendance rateof88%.Measures offitness, calculated fromcycle ergometry, didnotimprove significantly apartfromtestduration. Incontrast there wasasignificant improvement inmeanwalking speed, witha50% increase between 0and3monthsandafurther 21% increase between 3and6months. Thisimprovement wasmaintained at12months.
Objective: Since preoperative differentiation between follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA) and carcinoma (FTC) remains very difficult, the purpose of this study was to identify the genes differentially expressed in FTA and FTC in order to construct a diagnostic system based on such genes for differentiation of FTA and FTC. Methods:Gene expression profiles of 45 FTAs and 22 FTCs were analyzed by means of adapter-tagged competitive polymerase chain reaction (ATAC-PCR) with 2,516 genes (learning set). The genes differentially expressed in FTAs and FTCs were then used to construct a diagnostic system based on the weighted-voting algorithm. In addition, a validation study of this diagnostic system was conducted using 12 FTAs and 6 FTCs (validation set). Results: The diagnostic system for differentiation of FTA and FTC, constructed with the aid of the learning set samples, was based on 60 genes differentially expressed in FTA and FTC, which included several genes previously identified as overexpressed in FTC (DPP4, KRT19 and IGFBP3) or FTA (trefoil factor 3 and thyroid peroxidase).The leave-one-out cross-validation study showed that the accuracy of this diagnostic system was as high as 90% (sensitivity: 77.3% and specificity: 95.6%), and was confirmed by the validation study (diagnostic accuracy: 83.3%; 95% confidence interval: 62.8–95.4%, sensitivity: 66.7% and specificity: 91.2%). Conclusions: This diagnostic system using the ATAC-PCR assay is expected to be clinically useful for preoperative differentiation between FTA and FTC since ATAC-PCR can be used for the small amount of RNA obtained from fine needle aspiration biopsy.
J Thorac Dis 2020;12(5):1762-1765 | http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jtd-20-1692 As of April 7th, 2020, approximately 1,337,749 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been confirmed worldwide, with nearly 74,169 deaths occurred. It is critical to understand the epidemiological features and transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 outbreaks. Compartments models are the most widely used mathematical models to describe the dynamics of infectious diseases. As an example, a susceptible(S)-exposed(E)-infected(I)-removed(R) (SEIR) model can be used to modelling the process of an individual experiencing the infection course from susceptible to exposed, then infected and finally recovered or dead. Traditional SEIR model assumes a closed system (no individuals move in or out), and each individual transmits to one of the other states at a fixed rate. However, traditional SEIR model may get challenged when be used to model the epidemic of COVID-9 in China. The size of the overall population in each province of China is not fixed as January of 2020 is the “Chunyun” period, with an estimation of around 3 billions trips (1). Mobility information should be included in the model to reflect the impact of Chunyun on the populations of susceptible and exposed individuals. Meanwhile, Chinese government has taken intensive interventional policies to control the spread of COVID-19, which definitely changed the transmission dynamics.
This, investigation was designed to study the effect of educa­ tional training on self concept and cognitive knowledge. The voluntary subjects for this study were forty Arizona school foodseryice workers taking either a short course, semester course, or no course at all. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale was used to assess self concept. An instructor-prepared test for cognitive knowledge was also administered. Both the experimental group's and the control group were pre.and posttested using these instruments. Statistical analysis showed no correlation between a high initial self concept and a high cognitive gain in a course. There was no significant change in self concept as a result of receiving instruction but there was a significant change in cognitive knowledge as a result of receiving instruction. Cognitive gain was greater for those taking a semester course than it was for those taking an inten­ sive one week short course. There was ho significant difference in self concept between school foodservice workers who elected to take continuing education and those who did not do so.
Objective:To investigate the utilization ofβ-hydroxy-β-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A(HMG-CoA)reductase inhibitors in 71 primary medical institutions in Beijing from 2010 to 2012.Methods:Analysis was made on the utilization of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors in 71 primary medical institutions in Beijing from 2010 to 2012,including drug names,manufacturers,hospital locations and levels.Results:The consumption quantity and consumption sum of various HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors showed a rising trend year by year.Atorvastatin and simvastatin were two predominant lipid-regulating drugs and their consumption sum accounted for about 90%of the total consumption sum.The quantity and consumption sum of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors in the first-level hospitals were both significantly lower than those of the second-level hospitals,and corresponding data of suburban hospitals were significantly higher than those of urban hospitals.Conclusion:The most frequently used HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors were atorvastatin and simvastatin in primary medical institutions in Beijing.The consumption sum of drugs by foreign enterprises is higher than that of the drugs by domestic enterprises.
ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2014, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life. The interdisciplinary panel members responsible for this consensus report thoroughly examined current circumstances for those who are dying and made recommendations for improvement. Many nurses care for terminally ill patients and their families. Many of us have also experienced this journey with our loved ones. We know how hard this time of life is for the patient and the family. And we’re frustrated when the healthcare system, which should be helping to ease the burden, instead contributes to their suffering and distress. Witnessing these situations, we become distressed ourselves and want to do something, yet we often feel powerless. But you as a nurse can make a difference by using your professional expertise and advocacy skills to apply the practical recommendations from the Dying in America report. Many of these recommendations are things that we as nurses can influence or implement to improve outcomes for patients and their families. The report’s findings and recommendations are divided into five major areas. The following suggestions for applying the recommendations to your nursing practice are based on the report’s recommendations in those five areas.1
Objective  To evaluate the effects of AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation, Thanks) communication mode in the modified electroconvulsive therapy.      Methods  Firstly, according to the procedure of the modified electroconvulsive therapy, we established the standard phrases of AIDET communication mode. Secondly, 100 cases of hospitalized psychiatric patients from August to October 2013 accepted the modified electroconvulsive therapy and were divided into the control group and the observation group, with 50 cases in each. The control group used the traditional lecture-style communication, while the observation group was given the AIDET communication processes and standard terms. The anxiety of two groups before and after the treatment was compared by the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), in addition with the treatment adherence and the satisfaction of nursing.      Results  Comparison of the HAMA scores in the two groups before the treatment was not significantly different (P>0.05). After using the two different communication modes, the HAMA scores of somatic anxiety, mental anxiety and the total score of the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (t=5.99, 6.51, 10.87, 10.23, 6.19, 7.94, respectively; P<0.05). The treatment adherence and the satisfaction with nursing of the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (Z=5.77, χ2=7.16, respectively; P<0.05).      Conclusions  The AIDET mode of communication can effectively reduce the patient′s anxiety, and improve the patients′ adherence, treatment compliance and satisfaction.      Key words:  Modified electroconvulsive therapy; AIDET communication; Anxiety; Satisfaction
A new homochiral BINAPDA-Zr-MOF was prepared by a new chiral organic linker of ( R)-4,4'-(6,6'-dichloro-2,2'-diethoxyl-[1,1'-binaphthalene]-4,4'-diyl)dibenzoic acid ( R-L) and ZrCl4 under solvothermal conditions. Its structure was determined by Pawley refinement on the basis of the measured PXRD pattern determined for BINAPDA-Zr-MOF, and it showed that the obtained chiral MOF crystallized in the F23 space group with the same topological structure as that of UiO-66. The obtained BINAPDA-Zr-MOF can be a very active catalyst to catalyze aldehyde cyanosilylation. In addition, the chiral BINAPDA-Zr-MOF was a typical solid catalyst, which was proved by a hot leaching test; moreover, it could be reused at least five times without loss of its catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.
Cells of the Lewis lung carcinoma (3LL), B16 melanoma and Ehrlich carcinoma pre-treated in vitro by a recombinant tumour necrosis factor (rTNF) were studied for their spontaneous and experimental metastatic spreading. The rTNF (1000 u/ml) was determined to stimulate a metastatic potential of the Lewis carcinoma cells after their treatment with the factor for 6 h and, vice versa, to inhibit it after 96 h prolonged treatment. The efficacy of the stimulating effect of rTNF on a metastatic spreading depends on the peculiarities of the studied cells.
AIMS Detection of atherosclerosis has generally been limited to the late stages of development, after cardiovascular symptoms present or a clinical event occurs. One possibility for early detection is the use of functionalized nanoparticles. The aim of this study was the early imaging of atherosclerosis using nanoparticles with a natural affinity for inflammatory cells in the lesion.   MATERIALS & METHODS We investigated uptake of cowpea mosaic virus by macrophages and foam cells in vitro and correlated this with vimentin expression. We also examined the ability of cowpea mosaic virus to interact with atherosclerotic lesions in a murine model of atherosclerosis.   RESULTS & CONCLUSION We found that uptake of cowpea mosaic virus is increased in areas of atherosclerotic lesion. This correlated with increased surface vimentin in the lesion compared with nonlesion vasculature. In conclusion, cowpea mosaic virus and its vimentin-binding region holds potential for use as a targeting ligand for early atherosclerotic lesions, and as a probe for detecting upregulation of surface vimentin during inflammation.
Human norovirus (HuNoV) is a foremost cause of domestically acquired foodborne acute gastroenteritis and outbreaks. Despite industrial efforts to control HuNoV contamination of foods, its prevalence in foodstuffs at retail is significant. HuNoV infections are often associated with the consumption of contaminated produce, including ready-to-eat (RTE) salads. Decontamination of produce by washing with disinfectants is a consumer habit which could significantly contribute to mitigate the risk of infection. The aim of our study was to measure the effectiveness of chemical sanitizers in inactivating genogroup I and II HuNoV strains on mixed salads using a propidium monoazide (PMAxx)-viability RTqPCR assay. Addition of sodium hypochlorite, peracetic acid, or chlorine dioxide significantly enhanced viral removal as compared with water alone. Peracetic acid provided the highest effectiveness, with log10 reductions on virus levels of 3.66 ± 0.40 and 3.33 ± 0.19 for genogroup I and II, respectively. Chlorine dioxide showed lower disinfection efficiency. Our results provide information useful to the food industry and final consumers for improving the microbiological safety of fresh products in relation to foodborne viruses.
Positive patient-physician interaction is essential to a successful practice. Positive patient-practice experiences may also result in decreased medical liability costs. However, most medical practices are not organized according to this mind-set. As managed care physicians in either closely linked medical groups or loose affiliations consider signing Medicare risk contracts, the importance of a "patient-focused" orientation is critical for success. Measured patient retention is the positive outcome of such efforts.
Objective In this study,we explored the gene expression of poly(ADP-ribose)Polymerase(PARP),and the role of PARP in apoptosis and DNA repair following transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats.Methods Adult Wistar rats were respectively subjected to 30 min and 2 h of transient focal cerebral ischemia induced by intraluminal blockade of the left middle cerebral artery, followed by 1～48 h of reperfusion. PARP mRNA level was measured by in situ hybridization technique. Apoptosis was evaluated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP-flourescein nick end-labeling (TUNEL) assay in adjacent sections.Results PARP mRNA increased after 30 min of occlusion with 1 h of reperfusion. The expression was ischemia-and reperfusion-time dependent. Apoptosis was observed in the inner boundary zone of infarction, with a temporal profile similar to that of PARP mRNA expression. However, in the outer ischemic area with few apoptotic cells, the expression of PARP mRNA was also increased at all time points studied.Conclusions Our findings provide evidence that PARP gene expression is up regulated after transient focal cerebral ischemia.The altered PARP gene expression plays a role for PARP in repairing DNA after brain ischemic injury.
Cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita (CMTC) is a sporadic congenital vascular anomaly usually presents at birth as a localized or generalized reticulated, erythema and telangiectasia. The pathogenesis of CMTC is unknown. Additional anomalies have been frequently reported in association with CMTC. This article describes the characteristics of the clinical presentations in a series of 7 children with CMTC in HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Medical Center, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand. Both genders were almost equally affected (3 male/4 female). The lower limbs were involved in 7 patients (100%), the trunk in 3 patients (42.9%), and the upper limbs in 1 patient (14.3%). There were 2 patients (28.6%) who presented with the involvement of both trunk and limbs. The mean of the body surface area involved was 17% (2-50). Asymmetry of affected limbs were found in 2 patients (28.6%). On follow-up, improvement of reticulated lesions was noted in all patients. The prognosis of uncomplicated cases is good. No specific treatment is needed. The skin lesions usually disappear gradually.
The clinical, nutritional progress and immunological changes of 30 Aboriginal children admitted to the Alice Springs Hospital with malnutrition and infection, and 11 adequately nourished children admitted with acute infection were studied. The initial toxic phase of infection lasted from six to 21 days during which the mean weight velocity of malnourished children averaged 8-8 g/kg/day. The subsequent period of nutritional rehabilitation was accompanied by a slower weight velocity of 3-7 g/kg/day up to a body weight at discharge of approximately 80% standard weight for age. The principal clinical form of malnutrition was moderate protein calorie malnutrition of marasmic type. All children showed laboratory evidence of persistent immunological stimulation with leukocytosis, elevated numbers of T and B lymphoid cells, raised erythrocyte sedimentation rates and hyperimmunoglobulinaemia. These findings were not significantly changed by short-term antibiotic therapy and nutritional rehabilitation and may indicate an underlying defect resulting in the high rate of reinfection and readmission of these children.
Objectives To analyze the hospitalization expenses and duration of military tuberculosis patients.Methods The expenses of hospitalized military tuberculosis cases in our hospital were analyzed in 2012.Results The total hospitalization expense of 78 military tuberculosis cases was RMB1 036 746.07 yuan and the average medical expense and hospitalization days were MB 13 291.62 yuan and 27.2 days.The average hospitalization expenses of soldiers and smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis were RMB13 981.82 yuan.The medical expense of soldiers and cadres account for 96.58% of total hospitalization expenses.The average hospitalization days of retired cadres /secondary pulmonary tuberculosis and smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis were 42.33/29.45 days and 67.23 days,respectively.Conclusion It's necessary to reasonable allocation of medical resources and the control of tuberculosis hospitalization expense depends on the control of medical expense of hospitalized tuberculosis soldiers and cadres.
Abstract Aim Weight gain during pregnancy is an important indicator in the prediction of morbidity and mortality in infants and mothers. This study aimed to determine the association factors for weight gain during pregnancy. Design A longitudinal study. Methods A total of 734 women were selected using multistage cluster sampling. Data were collected using demographic and midwifery questionnaires, economic and social status, psychological factors, domestic violence, perceived social support and food insecurity. Results Of participants 28.7%, 49.6% and 21.7%, respectively, received insufficient, adequate and excessive weight gain in pregnancy respectively. Among health determinants entered in the model, mother's age, prepartum body mass index and direct and indirect prenatal care, size of households, food insecurity, stress, anxiety, stress and pregnancy‐specific stress as well as violence had a positive and increasing effect on weight gain during pregnancy. Conclusion Considering the effect of inappropriate weight gain during pregnancy on undesirable pregnancy outcomes, related factors such as nutritional status, stress and depression in prenatal care should be assessed. Healthcare providers should consult, educate pregnant women.
Objective To investigate the effect of acupoint injection with adipose-derived stem cell(ADSC) on angiogenesis after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rats.Methods A total of twenty-four SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation group,model group,control group(saline acupoint injection) and treatment group(ADSC acupoint injection),six rats in each group.The cerebral ischemia-reperfusion model of middle cerebral artery in rats was established by suture occlusion method.ADSC suspensions were marked with PKH-26 which was infused into acupoints of "Dazhui"and"Neiguan" in the treatment group,and saline was infused in the control group.The neurological function score were observed by neurological severity scores(NSS)at 72 hours after reperfusion.The expression of VEGF was detected by using imunohistochemistry and real-time fluorescent quantitative-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and microvessel density(MVD) was evaluated by immunohistochemistry with the specific antibody CD34.Results The ADSC which was labeled by PKH-26,was observed in hippocampus in the treatment group,and no red fluorescence signal was observed in the other three groups at 72 hours after reperfusion.Compared with sham operation group,the NSS of model group,control group and treatment group increased(P0.05);the NSS of control group and treatment group were lower than the model group(P0.05),and the NSS of treatment group was lower than control group(P0.05).There was no the protein and mRNA expressions of VEGF in hippocampus region in sham operation group.Compared with sham operation group,and the protein and mRNA expressions of VEGF,MVD were significantly enhanced in model group,control group and treatment group(P0.05).Compared with model group and control group,the protein and mRNA expressions of VEGF,MVD of the treatment group were significantly increased(P0.05),however,there was no difference of the expression of VEGF,MVD between model group and control group(P0.05).Conclusion ADSC acupoint injection could improve the neurological function in rats after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion,which may be related to up-regulating VEGF and MVD in hippocampus region.
The treatment of bone loss in revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has involved using revision implants in association with cement, augments, particulate, and structural allograft. Newer metaphyseal augments were introduced to allow for metaphyseal fixation of the prosthesis while managing significant bone loss. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the outcome of revision TKA using metaphyseal sleeves. The authors prospectively followed 96 knees that underwent revision TKA with metaphyseal sleeves. Eighty-three knees met the minimum 2-year criteria for follow-up. Thirty-six sleeves were used in femoral revisions and 83 sleeves were used in tibial revisions. The defects were classified according to the Anderson Orthopaedic Research Institute classification. Femoral defects were classified as type I in 4 knees, type IIb in 25 knees, and type III in 7 knees. Tibial defects were classified as type I in 9 knees, type IIa in 1 knee, type IIb in 68 knees, and type III in 5 knees. The patients were followed for an average of 2.4 years (range, 2.0-3.7 years). Mean Knee Society function score improved from 47.9 to 61.1 points. Mean Short Form 36 physical score improved from 43.3 to 56.3 points. Mean Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index improved from 55.3 to 25.9 points. None of the implants demonstrated progressive radiolucent lines around the metaphyseal sleeves. At final follow-up, only 2 (2.7%) tibial components required revision for aseptic loosening. At short-term follow-up, revision TKA with metaphyseal sleeves provided reliable fixation. This is especially encouraging given the severe nature of bone loss in the majority of patients in whom a metaphyseal sleeve was used. Long-term follow-up is needed to demonstrate the true effectiveness of these devices.
Background: Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes, and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. We examined the associations of several obesity metrics, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and glucose levels in a large multi-ethnic cohort. Methods: Participants and those screened for entry into the DREAM clinical trial from 21 different countries make up the EpiDREAM cohort (n= 24 595). Participants had obesity metrics taken and an oral glucose tolerance test at baseline. Multiple logistic and linear regression were used to determine the associations of obesity metrics with odds of T2D and area-under-the-glucose-curve (AUC; mmol*h/L). Results: An increase in one standard deviation of BMI (OR T2D = 1.32, 95% C.I. 1.28–1.37, β AUC = 0.68, 95% C.I. 0.63– 0.74), WC (OR T2D = 1.39, 95% C.I. 1.34–1.45, β AUC = 0.76, 95% C.I. 0.70 – 0.81), HC (OR T2D = 1.20, 95% C.I. 1.15–1.24, β AUC = 0.44, 95% C.I. 0.39 – 0.50) or WHR (OR T2D = 1.42, 95% C.I. 1.36–1.48, β AUC = 0.79, 95% C.I. 0.72– 0.85) was associated with an increased odds of T2D or AUC after adjusting for age, sex, smoking and ethnicity. After adjusting for HC, the standardized associations of WC with outcomes (OR T2D = 1.76, 95% C.I. 1.65–1.88, β AUC = 1.21, 95% C.I. 1.11–1.31) were strongest. HC was inversely associated with outcomes after adjusting for WC (OR T2D = 0.75, 95% C.I. 0.71– 0.81, β AUC = −0.55, 95% C.I. −0.64- −0.45). Women had a significantly higher odds of T2D or AUC than men for an increase in WC, WC adjusted for HC, and HC adjusted for WC. Conclusions: WC adjusted for HC is the obesity metric most strongly associated with odds of T2D and AUC. A significant sex interaction was observed. The inverse association of HC with odds of T2D and AUC in this study suggests that anthropometric measures of obesity should include both WC and HC. The role of these metrics in predicting incident dysglycemia is being assessed in the prospective phase of the study.
In spite of the continuing need for new and improved anti-protozoal drugs for use in man, a considerable contraction of industrially based research on anti-protozoal drugs has occurred in recent years. Newton (1983) reviewed the reasons for this decline and presented a compelling argument that fundamental research on the biology of the parasites is essential for the discovery of leads for the development of a new generation of drugs – a rational chemotherapy. The rapid advance in knowledge of the biochemistry of parasitic protozoa which has occurred in recent years has provided a number of potential leads to new drug development and has permitted a greater understanding of the mode of action of many current drugs. The account of these advances which follows is necessarily selective and relates to protozoan parasites of man.
BACKGROUND Transmitted resistant HIV may revert to wild-type in the absence of drug pressure due to reduced replication capacity (RC). We observed eight therapy-naive patients infected with HIV harbouring four mutations at nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) resistance-related positions: M41L, T69S, L210E and T215S. If partial reverted resistance patterns like these are detected at baseline, concerns for more extensive resistance in the quasispecies often directs selection of first-line combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) towards more complex regimens.   METHODS Genotypic resistance testing and phylogenetic analysis was performed using pol sequences of 400 therapy-naive patients and 1322 patients with at least one NRTI-related mutation. Reverse transcriptase (RT) genes were cloned into a reference strain and RC was investigated.   RESULTS Phylogenetic analysis showed that all eight patients are part of a transmission cluster (bootstrap value 92%). The patients resided in three distinct geographical regions and were either homosexually or heterosexually infected. Prior negative serology and analysis of base ambiguity demonstrated circulation for at least 7 years. In vivo evolution showed a mixture with wild-type (T215S/T) in only one untreated patient more than 6 years after diagnosis. The reverted resistance pattern did not confer a substantial reduction in RC compared with wild-type, explaining its persistence in vivo and long-term circulation in the population. Four patients started cART; three of them received quadruple cART. All patients showed good virological and immunological response.   CONCLUSIONS Long-term circulation transcending distinct regions and transmission groups suggests reversion occurred in previous hosts in the transmission chain. Identification of clusters using epidemiological data and active-partner tracing may broaden therapeutic options in cases of transmitted resistance.
Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are associated with gastritis and mucosal injury. The present study examined the efficacy of the synthetic prostanoid, Ro 22-1327, as a mucosal protectant against aspirin. Dogs were orally administered either vehicle followed by 650 mg of aspirin, or Ro 22-1327 followed one hour later by 650 mg of aspirin. Two hours later the dogs were endoscoped and lesions were scored. In separate dogs, with gastric pouches, acid secretion stimulated by food was monitored in the absence and presence of Ro 22-1327 for four hours. There were no gastric lesions in the dogs treated with the vehicle (polyethylene glycol 400; PEG) for Ro 22-1327 followed by vehicle (carboxymethylcellulose) for aspirin. Dogs dosed with PEG followed by aspirin had gastric lesions: mean (+/- S.E.) scores were 2.16 +/- 0.24 and 2.75 +/- 0.18 for the antrum and body, respectively. Ro 22-1327 provided protection from aspirin-induced injury. Significant (P less than 0.01) protection occurred at 1.0 mcg/kg of Ro 22-1327 in the antrum (0.60 +/- 0.40) and body (1.60 +/- 0.40). An oral dose of 10 mcg/kg did not inhibit peak or total food-stimulated gastric acid output. Ro 22-1327 is a potent mucosal protectant against aspirin-induced mucosal injury and this activity is not dependent upon inhibition of gastric acid secretion.
Benign fibrous histiocytoma (BFH) is a soft tissue neoplasm which occurs mostly on the skin of extremities. BFH rarely occurs in bone and may affect femur, tibia, and pelvic bone. Jaw bone involvement is very unusual with only 11 cases reported till date. This report describes a case of BFH occurring in a 30-year-old female patient affecting left mandibular posterior region. Computed tomography revealed a well-defined expansile lytic lesion in the posterior mandible. Gross examination of the tumor revealed an admixture of fibroblasts and histiocytes in a fascicular and storiform pattern. Immunohistochemical staining was positive for CD68.
Peritoneal carcinomatosis is the most common secondary peritoneal tumor caused by many malignant tumor cells dissemination. Fluorescence-guided cytoreductive surgery is one of the most promising approaches for facile elimination of tumors in situ, thereby improving prognosis. Herein, we successfully developed a simple strategy to construct a novel chain-like NIR-II nanoprobe (APP-Ag2S-RGD) by self-assembly of amphiphilic peptide (APP) into nanochain followed with chemical crosslinking of NIR-II Ag2S QDs and tumor-targeting RGD peptide. This nanochain probe exhibits higher capability of cancer cell detection compared with that of RGD functionalized Ag2S QDs (Ag2S-RGD) in the same concentration, which was attributed to the flexible geometry and multivalent targeting properties of APP-Ag2S-RGD. Upon intraperitoneal (IP) injection, superior tumor-to-normal tissue signal ratio is successfully achieved and non-vascularized tiny tumor metastatic focis as small as ~0.2 mm in diameter could be facilely eliminated under NIR-II fluorescence imaging guidance. These results clearly indicate the great clinical translation potential of this probe for fluorescence-guided tumor staging, preoperative diagnosis and intraoperative navigation.
ABSTRACT Aim: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) have increased pain sensitivity and recurrent pain episodes; however, pain is underreported in children with intellectual impairment. Cardiac autonomic regulation is imbalanced in chronic pain conditions and neurological disorders. This study aims at exploring the autonomous nervous system regulation of pain in children with CP compared with typically developing peers (TDP).Method: Heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded during 24 hours in 26 children with CP and 26 TDP, and examined offline at baseline (sleeping, seated rest) and during spontaneous pain events. Pain and fatigue, HRV indices (linear indices on time – IBI, SDNN, RMSSD – and frequency domains – high, low, and very low frequency – and non-linear indices – Hurst coefficient and multiscale entropy) were computed.Results: Children with CP showed comparable HRV during daily conditions and similar reductions after pain events than their TDP, regardless of their level of intellectual impairment. Interpretation: Children with CP have an intact autonomic regulation in acute pain events. HRV could be an accurate pain biomarker in children with CP and intellectual disability. What this paper adds: Autonomic regulation in acute pain is efficient in children with cerebral palsy. Heart rate variability indices can be reliable pain biomarkers in intellectual impairment.
cognized complication of colorectal surgery, complete colonic anastomotic obstruction from benign disease is rare and there are few reports of endoscopic management [1–4]. Here, we describe a case of successful endoscopic treatment using a novel combined anterograde-retrograde endoscopic rendezvous technique facilitated by CT-guided fluoroscopy. A 73-year-old man presented to us with complete anastomotic obstruction following deep anterior resection for UICC stage III rectal carcinoma complicated by an anastomotic leak that had been treated by endoscopic sponge placement in the pararectal cavity [5].Weattempted toemploya rendezvous method to perforate the stenosis as described previously [1,3,4], with a colonoscope passed through the existing loop ileostomy and an upper endoscope advanced to the stenosis in a retrograde fashion. The scopes, under fluoroscopy, were seen to be in proximity to each other, but a “kissing position” could not be attained (●" Fig. 1). This was because of the J-shaped configuration of the anastomosis with two dead ends on its lower aspect, neither of which could be positively identified as the anastomotic stenosis in question (●" Fig. 2). Administration of barium through both endoscopes, in addition, revealedanonlinear alignment of the colon and showed that the oral and aboral endswere separated only by a fibrousmembrane (●" Fig. 1). To demonstrate the exact position of the endoscopes in a three-dimensional fashion we repeated the procedure with CT guidance. CT fluoroscopy confirmed that the tips were facing each other when the lower endoscope was placed in one of the two dead ends (●" Fig. 3). Under CT-fluoroscopic and transillumination guidance, the fibrous septum was penetrated using a biopsy forceps passed through the accessory channel of the retrograde endoscope. After visualization of the forceps by the anterograde colonoscope, a wire-guided “through-the-scope” balloon was placed at the site of the stricture and used to dilate it sequentially to 12mm (●" Fig. 4). Within 1 month following this first intervention, the stenosis was dilated up to 20mm in a series of five endoscopic sessions. Clinically, the patient was well with normal defecation. Barium enema confirmed good passage (●" Fig. 5) and the ileostomy was closed 6 weeks after the CT-guided endoscopic intervention. We believe that CT fluoroscopy guidance adds a measure of safety by allowing the endoscopist to visualize the stenosis and the position of the endoscopes three-dimensionally in complex situations where unambiguous identificationof the stenosis is not possible in conventional fluoroscopy. Limitations of the technique include the need for either instrument exchange or a second endoscopy unit and a pre-existing ostomy to perform the rendezvous procedure. Treatment of a completely obstructed colonic anastomotic stricture using a CT-guided endoscopic rendezvous technique
Aims Tibiofemoral alignment is important to determine the rate of progression of osteoarthritis and implant survival after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Normally, surgeons aim for neutral tibiofemoral alignment following TKA, but this has been questioned in recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether varus or valgus alignment indeed leads to increased medial or lateral tibiofemoral forces during static and dynamic weight‐bearing activities. Patients and Methods Tibiofemoral contact forces and moments were measured in nine patients with instrumented knee implants. Medial force ratios were analysed during nine daily activities, including activities with single‐limb support (e.g. walking) and double‐limb support (e.g. knee bend). Hip‐knee‐ankle angles in the frontal plane were analysed using full‐leg coronal radiographs. Results The medial force ratio strongly correlated with the tibiofemoral alignment in the static condition of one‐legged stance (R2> = 0.88) and dynamic single‐limb loading (R2 = 0.59) with varus malalignment leading to increased medial force ratios of up to 88%. In contrast, the correlation between leg alignment and magnitude of medial compartment force was much less pronounced. A lateral shift of force occurred during activities with double‐limb support and higher knee flexion angles. Conclusion The medial force ratio depends on both the tibiofemoral alignment and the nature of the activity involved. It cannot be generalised to a single value. Higher medial ratios during single‐limb loading are associated with varus malalignment in TKA. The current trend towards a ‘constitutional varus' after joint replacement, in terms of overall tibiofemoral alignment, should be considered carefully with respect to the increased medial force ratio.
Background: Quality of life (QoL) is frequently investigated as a secondary endpoint in clinical trials but is rarely evaluated in clinical practice. The present survey sought to assess the QoL of patients with advanced gastrointestinal tumours receiving palliative chemotherapy. Furthermore, we wanted to compare the results of subscales of the generic EORTC QLQ-C30 (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Quality of Life Questionnaire, version 3.0) using assessment tools with an emphasis on pain and depression. Patients and Methods: 150 patients with gastrointestinal tumours undergoing palliative chemotherapy completed 3 questionnaires. QoL was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30, Beck depression inventory (BDI) was utilised to measure the severity of patients’ depression and a visual analogue scale (VAS) was applied to measure patient’s pain intensity. Correlations between these assessments were calculated. Results: The survey revealed that treatment of pain and depression appeared to be inadequate in the present cohort of patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer. Good correlations between EORTC QLQ-C30 subscales and the VAS (r = 0.86), as well as the BDI (r = 0.63) were found. Conclusion: The present analysis indicates the need for better symptom control regarding the examples ‘pain’ and ‘depression’. In view of the good correlation between the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the BDI and VAS, further studies on the implementation of the EORTC QLQ-C30 as a screening tool, or for follow-up measurements in daily practice are warranted.
Worldwide, more than 1 million infants die as a result of premature birth. In the United States, where 1 in 10 births occurs preterm, premature birth is the leading cause of infant mortality. Premature infants have high rates of mortality and morbidity, with the highest rates seen in those infants born extremely preterm—prior to 30 weeks gestation. Severe morbidity in these infants often contributes to life-long health problems. Maternal hypertension (HTN) is one contributor to preterm birth and also contributes to fetal growth restriction, resulting in birth weights which are small for gestational age (SGA, and generally within the lowest 10th percentile). Within this high risk population, SGA infants have increased risk of mortality compared to appropriate for gestational age infants. Therefore the impact of maternal HTN on neonatal outcome might be presumed to be negative. Previous studies however, have been contradictory, with both higher and lower rates of infant mortality reported in infants born to mothers with HTN, as well as differing reports analyzing the relationship between serious morbidity and maternal HTN. Utilizing the Vermont Oxford Network Very Low Birth Weight database, a collaborative database of Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units across the world, 88,275 North American infants born between 22+0 and 29+6 weeks gestational age between 2008 and 2011 were identified. This dissertation explores the relationship between maternal HTN and gestational age at time of birth within this population, and the reported rates of morbidity and mortality in infants born prior to 30 weeks gestation. The independent contributions of maternal HTN with neonatal morbidity and mortality in our population were estimated using logistic regression and adjusting for factors previously known to be associated with risk, including birth weight, antenatal steroid exposure, infant sex, maternal race/ethnicity, prenatal care, inborn/outborn status, and birth year. We hypothesized that mortality rates would be lower for infants born to mothers with HTN compared to those born due to other factors, when corrected for the noted confounding variables and surviving infants would have better prognoses, as evidenced by lower rates of severe morbidity, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia, intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, necrotizing enterocolitis, and infection. Within the higher-risk SGA population, we hypothesized that mortality rates would be higher than observed in appropriately grown infants, but decreased in those born to mothers with HTN, despite the association between maternal HTN and SGA. This dissertation begins with an explanation of current knowledge about preterm birth, maternal HTN, and their associations. Chapter 2 focuses on the relationship between maternal HTN and infant mortality in extremely preterm infants. Chapter 3 examines the risk associated with severe morbidities in surviving infants. In addition, we also use a combined morbidity risk assessment score which has previously been used to determine future risk of long term disability. In Chapter 4, SGA infants are separately evaluated for their risk of mortality and the association with maternal HTN. These analyses support the high mortality and morbidity rates seen in extremely preterm infants. Maternal HTN, after adjustment, results in reduced risk of both mortality and severe morbidities in infants compared to infants born to mothers with other underlying contributors to preterm birth. This suggests that clinical practices and parental counseling should reflect differing risk profiles in sub-populations of extremely preterm infants.
Production of recombinant biologics in plants has received considerable attention as an alternative platform to traditional microbial and animal cell culture. Industrially relevant features of plant systems include proper eukaryotic protein processing, inherent safety due to lack of adventitious agents, more facile scalability, faster production (transient systems), and potentially lower costs. Lower manufacturing cost has been widely claimed as an intuitive feature of the platform by the plant-made biologics community, even though cost information resides within a few private companies and studies accurately documenting such an advantage have been lacking. We present two technoeconomic case studies representing plant-made enzymes for diverse applications: human butyrylcholinesterase produced indoors for use as a medical countermeasure and cellulases produced in the field for the conversion of cellulosic biomass into ethanol as a fuel extender. Production economics were modeled based on results reported with the latest-generation expression technologies on Nicotiana host plants. We evaluated process unit operations and calculated bulk active and per-dose or per-unit costs using SuperPro Designer modeling software. Our analyses indicate that substantial cost advantages over alternative platforms can be achieved with plant systems, but these advantages are molecule/product-specific and depend on the relative cost-efficiencies of alternative sources of the same product.
Blended teaching combines traditional in‐person components (simulation‐based training and clinical‐based placement) with online resources. Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, we modified our Women's Health Interprofessional Learning through Simulation (WHIPLS) program – to develop core obstetric and gynaecological skills – into a blended teaching program. There is limited literature reporting the observations of blended teaching on learning.
We report herein a case of Factor XIII deficiency that remained undiagnosed until 2 years of age. Part of the delay in diagnosis was a consequence of testing that was performed on a blood sample obtained after plasma transfusion therapy for a life‐threatening bleeding episode. Due to insufficient family follow‐up after discharge from the hospital, the diagnosis was delayed 1 year until the child was rehospitalized and a pre‐transfusion plasma sample was tested. The commonly accepted approach of using only a qualitative test for the diagnosis of factor XIII deficiency is challenged by this case report. Am. J. Hematol. 71:328–330, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Forty percent of the reanimation or geriatric patients develop a pressure ulcer, of which 40 % are posterior heel ulcers. The main suspected causes are the excessive pressure intensity (leading to internal strains above 50 % for about 10 minutes) and prolonged compression (leading to internal strains above 20 % for about two hours) [1]. Prevention based on daily clinical examination lacks efficiency because deep tissue injuries result from internal strains and when visual symptoms appear it is often too late for treatment. It is consequently important to monitor the internal strains on a patient-specific basis as the shape of the calcaneus in the lying patient might affect the outcome. Based on our previous foot model [2], we study the influence of the calcaneus shape on internal strains. The Finite Element (FE) model used here represents the soft tissues of the lower leg and is composed of four different sub-domains each modelled using a Neo Hookean material with Young moduli and Poisson ratios of 200 kPa and 0.495 for the skin, 30 kPa and 0.49 for the fat, 1 GPa and 0.495 for the tendon, and 60 kPa and 0.495 for the muscles [3], see figure. Bones are modelled as rigid solids. This leg model rests on a FE model of a cushion with three compartments of varying stiffness: under the calf, the Achilles tendon, and the heel back. Simulations carried out on 18 models each implementing a different calcaneus demonstrate the influence of this bone's morphology on the magnitude of internal strains with a standard deviation (STD) of the Von Mises strains of 19.3 percentage points. Additionally, the model was used to identify the supporting cushions' stiffness combination that minimizes the ulceration risk for each individual. The pressure magnitudes below the different sections of the lower leg can be related to the speed of the pressure ulcer creation: higher cushion stiffness below the heel lead to a mean internal strain of 56.9 % with a STD of 13.2 % and could result in ulcers in less than 10 minutes, while mild cushion stiffness maintain the internal strains between 20 and 50 % (with a mean internal strain of 27.7 % with a STD of 2.0 %) and the risk of ulcer creation around two hours [1]. Additionally, the maximal strains are located at the interface between the calcaneus and the fat layer when the cushion is more inflated under the heel, therefore increasing the risk of pressure ulcer when maintained for a long time.
Abstract Background Autonomic imbalance is linked with multiple health conditions, yet its associations with frailty were rarely studied. We assessed the relationship of resting heart rate (RHR) and visit-to-visit heart rate variability (HRV) with future frailty among elderly men with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods Three-hundred-six community-dwelling men with CHD who participated in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention (BIP) trial (1990-1998; mean age 56.6 ± 6.5 years) underwent assessment of physical frailty in 2011–2013 (mean age 77.0 ± 6.4 years). Mean RHR and visit-to-visit HRV were calculated from electrocardiogram as indicators of autonomic imbalance. Nominal logistic and linear regression models were used to assess the relationships of RHR and HRV with frailty status and its components (i.e. gait speed, grip strength, weight loss, exhaustion and activity), respectively. Adjustments were made for various demographic, clinical and metabolic covariates. Results Of the 306 men, 81 (26%) were frail and 117 (38%) were prefrail. After controlling for potential confounders, RHR, but not visit-to-visit HRV, was associated with higher odds of being prefrail [OR = 1.44 (95%CI 1.15, 1.79)] and frail [OR = 1.35 (95%CI 1.03, 1.77)]. Each 5-bpm increase in RHR was associated with weaker grip (β= −1.12 ± 0.32 kg; p-value < .001) and slower gait speed (β = 0.19 ± 0.08s/m; p-value = .022). Conclusions Midlife RHR may be associated with late-life frailty in men with CHD.
Introduction In Korea, deceased donor liver transplantations (DDLT) have been performed using donation after brain death (DBD) donors, donation after circulatory death (DCD) has not been reported.   Methods Despite five consecutive EEG tests, a 52-years old man who was not diagnosed with brain death was finally determined to donate an organ in DCD category III (awaiting cardiac arrest). The final donor organs were decided with liver and kidney, a 56-years old man with a Meld score of 27 was selected as a recipient of the liver.   Results After the withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy, which includes termination of cardiopulmonary support and all essential medications, functional (true) warm ischemic time was (SBP <50 mmHg or SpO2 <70%-asystole) 14 minutes and total warm ischemic time was 21 minutes. The liver was retrieved with the super-rapid technique, LT of the recipient was successfully performed. The recipient's recovery was uneventful and discharged on a postoperative day 37.   Conclusions With an increasing demand for donor organs, DCD could be an alternative option to contribute to donor numbers.
HL‐A antigens were examined in sixty‐two patients, thirty‐one boys and thirty‐one girls, diagnosed as having JRA. HL‐A 27 was the only antigen with a significantly increased frequency. This increase concerned predominantly male patients in whom the disease developed at the beginning of puberty. In this group of sixteen boys, the polyarticular form was more frequent and tended to be associated with sacroiliitis, while the rheumatoid factor was negative in all but one. The frequency of HL‐A 27 in this group was 62.5%.
Atevirdine is a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor with in vitro activity against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and is currently in phase II clinical trials. Atevirdine is most soluble at a pH of < 2, and therefore, normal gastric acidity is most likely necessary for optimal bioavailability. Because of the rapid development of resistance in vitro, atevirdine is being evaluated in combination with didanosine and/or zidovudine in both two- and three-drug combination regimens. To examine the influence of concurrent didanosine (buffered tablet formulation) on the disposition of atevirdine, 12 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected subjects (mean CD4+ cell count, 199 cells per mm3; range, 13 to 447 cells/mm3) participated in a three-way, partially randomized, crossover, single-dose study to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of didanosine and atevirdine when each drug was given alone (treatments A and B, respectively) versus concurrently (treatment C). Concurrent administration of didanosine and atevirdine significantly reduced the maximum concentration of atevirdine in serum from 3.45 +/- 2.8 to 0.854 +/- 0.33 microM (P = 0.004). Likewise, the mean atevirdine area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 24 h after administration of the combination was reduced to 6.47 +/- 2.2 microM.h (P = 0.004) relative to a value of 11.3 +/- 4.8 microM.h for atevirdine alone. Atevirdine had no statistically significant effect on the pharmacokinetic parameters of didanosine. Concurrent administration of single doses of atevirdine and didanosine resulted in a markedly lower maximum concentration of atevirdine in serum and area under the concentration-time curve, with a minimal effect on the disposition of didanosine. It is unknown whether an interaction of similar magnitude would occur under steady-state conditions; thus, combination regimens which include both atevirdine and didanosine should be designed so that their administration times are separated. Since the duration of the buffering effect of didanosine formulations is unknown, atevirdine should be given prior to didanosine.
We have assessed the effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in the thyroid function test in prostate cancer patients. Serum levels of tri-iodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), free thyroxine (FT4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were determined in a cross-sectional study that included 279 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. A subset of 96 patients free of prostate-specific antigen relapse after radical prostatectomy became a control group and 183 patients under continuous ADT formed the study group. Sixty-four patients out of the study group were treated with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist and 119 with LHRH agonist plus bicalutamide. The average time of ADT was 42.5 months (3–218). Results were as follows. Mean T3 level was 122.7 ng/dl (72.6–213.0) in the control group and 123.8 ng/dl (64.4–228.2) in patients under ADT, p=0.472. Mean T4 level was 7.66 (1.81–4.30) and 7.66 μg/dl (3.60–13.30), respectively, p=0.884. Mean TSH level was 1.58 (0.44–11.70) and 1.81 mU/dl (0.15–6.58), respectively, p=0.007. Mean FT4 level was 1.24 (0.80–1.90) and 1.18 ng/dl (0.80–1.90), respectively, p=0.018. No statistically significant differences between the T3, T4, TSH and FT4 serum levels were detected according to the modality of ADT. The serum level of TSH was higher than 5 mU/l in six patients (2.1%); however, all cases had a normal FT4 serum level. This mild hypothyroidism was detected in two of the 96 patients of the control group (2.1%) and in four of the 183 under ADT (2.2%). Our data show that ADT seems to alter the thyroid function test. A statistically significant increase in TSH serum level and a decrease in FT4 serum level were detected in patients under ADT. However, only a mild hypothyroidism was detected in about 2% of the patients with prostate cancer, independently of ADT.
The effect of whole tobacco smoke and the gas phase of tobacco smoke on the metabolism and phagocytic ability of alveolar macrophages was monitored over a 30-day exposure period. It was demonstrated that both the gas phase and whole tobacco smoke induced a weight loss in exposed rats. Alveolar macrophage oxygen consumption was markedly increased by both exposure regimens. Superoxide generation was not affected by whole tobacco smoke exposure but was increased in response to the filtered gas phase. Hexose monophosphate shunt activity was not altered by either treatment. When metabolic alterations were seen in response to the separate exposures, they were seen only after a phagocytic challenge to the macrophage and not when the cell was unchallenged. Neither whole tobacco smoke nor the gas phase had any significant effect on the ability of alveolar macrophages to phagocytize a viable challenge of Staphylococcus aureus. Our results suggest that many of the metabolic and functional effects of tobacco smoke on alveolar macrophages can be attributed to the gas-phase component of whole tobacco smoke.
This study evaluated the sensitivities and false positive rates of the screening test using ultrasonographic measurement of thickness of nuchal translucency (NT) with different cut-offs for chromosomal aberration in a Korean population. We included 2,570 singleton pregnancies undergoing ultrasound between 11 weeks and 14 weeks of gestation in this study. We analyzed the sensitivities of NT alone for screening chromosomal aberration using three cut-offs -2.5 mm, 3.0 mm, and 95th percentile for each crown rump length (CRL). There were 31 chromosomal aberrations (1.2%) including 12 cases of trisomy 21. The numbers of chromosomal aberrations that were detected by NT with different cut-offs of 2.5 mm, 3.0 mm and the 95th percentile CRL were 22, 18 and 23, respectively. At a threshold of 2.5 mm, the sensitivity and the false positive rate for total chromosomal aberrations were 67.7% and 6.3%, respectively. At 3.0 mm, those were 54.8% and 3.5%, respectively. At the 95th percentile CRL, those were 70.9% and 5.8%, respectively. The use of CRL-dependent cut-offs for nuchal translucency improves the detection of chromosomal aberrations when compared to fixed cut-offs in a Korean population.
Active management of the third stage of labour (AMTSL) using oxytocin substantially reduces postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), a leading cause of maternal mortality. An economic analysis of the use of AMTSL was conducted as part of an intervention study in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. A spreadsheet was used to calculate various scenarios and estimate the costs and outcomes of the routine use of AMTSL with oxytocin in Uniject compared with oxytocin in ampoules, and AMTSL compared with no AMTSL. We estimated the health outcomes from probabilities that were generated from the effectiveness portion of the AMTSL intervention project. The study also estimates the costs of treating PPH and the net incremental costs of AMTSL (costs and savings); examines the impact of different scenarios of PPH rate and Uniject cost; and estimates the potential cost per PPH case and PPH death averted. The additional net cost per woman of providing AMTSL with ampoules was just US dollar 0.20 in the base case; using Uniject devices added only US dollar 0.08 more per woman to the ampoule cost. Varying the rate of PPH had the biggest effect; if the underlying PPH rate were 8%, the incremental cost of AMTSL drops to just US dollar 0.07 per woman with ampoules and the cost to avert a case of PPH is US dollar 2.10 with ampoules and US dollar 4.52 with Uniject. The low net incremental cost of AMTSL suggests that the introduction of AMTSL in primary-level facilities in Vietnam can reduce the incidence of PPH and benefit women's health without adding much to national health care costs.
Abstract Gold‐catalyzed transformations of 1,3‐diarylpropargyl alcohols and various aryl nucleophiles were studied. Selective tunable synthetic methods were developed for 1,1,3‐triarylallenes, diaryl‐indenes and tetraaryl‐allyl target products by C3 nucleophilic substitution and subsequent intra‐ or intermolecular hydroarylation, respectively. The reactions were scoped with regards to gold(I)/(III) catalysts, solvent, temperature, and electronic and steric effects of both the diarylpropargyl alcohol and the aryl nucleophiles. High yields of triaryl‐allenes and diaryl‐indenes by gold(III) catalysis were observed. Depending on the choice of aryl nucleophile and control of reaction temperature, different product ratios have been obtained. Alternatively, tetraaryl‐allyl target products were formed by a sequential one‐pot tandem process from appropriate propargyl substrates and two different aryl nucleophiles. Corresponding halo‐arylation products (I and Br; up to 95 % 2‐halo‐diaryl‐indenes) were obtained in a one‐pot manner in the presence of the respective N‐halosuccinimides (NIS, NBS).
Objective: To observe the clinical significance of modified sling in the treatment of moderate stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Methods: From January 2016 to January 2019, eighty patients with moderate urinary incontinence who were hospitalized in our hospital were randomly divided into two groups. 40 patients in the experimental group underwent modified sling transvaginal tension-free mid-urethral suspension. Modification method of the sling: cut the sling to a remaining length of about 6~7cm, properly connect the barbed sutures (V-LOCK) on both sides of the sling, and insert the urinary incontinence sling from the urethra to the obturator membrane, from the obturator membrane to the thigh. The inner skin area is replaced by the V-LOCK line. The 40 patients in the control group were unmodified ordinary slings. The operation time, the local pain of the inner thigh after the operation, and the improvement of postoperative urinary incontinence symptoms were compared and analyzed between the two groups. Results: Both groups of patients were successfully operated. The operation time was 16.36 minutes in the experimental group and 27.18 minutes in the control group. The difference in operation time between the two groups was statistically significant (p=0.00); the catheter was pulled out on the third day after the operation. One patient in the group had urinary effort, four patients still had urinary incontinence symptoms, the remaining 35 patients had good urinary control (effective rate 87.5%), five patients in the control group still had urinary incontinence, two patients had urinary effort, and the remaining 33 patients had urinary control Good, (effective rate 87.5%), there was no significant difference in surgical effectiveness between the two groups (p=0.53); follow-up for 12 to 36 months, no significant long-term complications occurred, the pain score of the inner thigh of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group ,statistically significant (p=0.04). Conclusion: The efficacy of the modified sling in the treatment of moderate SUI is the same as that of the traditional sling, but the operation time is shorter, the operation is simpler, and the local pain is significantly reduced.
It was proposed some years ago that, in osteoarthritis, one source of joint stiffness arises from 'articular gelling', but, if so, why does this not occur in the normal joint? In a preliminary experiment using agar gels, it is shown how such fusion of gel surfaces can be inhibited by surface-active phospholipid (SAPL)--both synthetic and human--as quantified by the shear stress needed to cause cleavage between samples after prolonged contact. On the other hand, normal bovine articular cartilage (BAC) does not fuse to itself, but can be made to do so if rinsed with a powerful lipid solvent known to remove the outermost layer of adsorbed SAPL along with the hydrophobicity so characteristic of the normal 'waxy' surface it imparts. It is then shown how the inhibition of gel fusion can be restored by treating both bovine and human articular surfaces with exogenous SAPL derived from human AC and with synthetic SAPL. Samples of human articular cartilage excised from osteoarthritic hips and knees during total joint replacement showed a 55% greater tendency to fuse together than normal BAC. This was exacerbated by solvent rinsing and can be attributed to a deficiency in the outermost lining of SAPL previously studied as a load-bearing boundary lubricant capable of reducing friction and wear to the remarkably low levels observed physiologically. Hence, joint stiffness can be attributed, in part, to a deficiency in the lubricating layer of SAPL lining the normal articular surface where it can inhibit articular gelling/gel fusion, possibly imparting other desirable physiological functions. The possibility of clinical replenishment of SAPL in the osteoarthritic joint is discussed.
A catalytic membrane nanoreactor (CMNR) with Cu-Agx (where x is the millimolar concentration of AgNO3) bimetallic catalysts immobilized in membrane pores has been fabricated via coupling flowing synthesis and replacement reaction. Surface characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) gives obvious evidence of the formation of Cu-Ag bimetallic core-shell nanostructures with Ag islands deposited on the Cu core metal. An apparent high shift phenomenon for the Cu element and a low shift phenomenon for the Ag element was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), indicating a close interaction with the transfer of electron density from the Cu atom to the Ag atom. The hydrogenation catalysis of p-nitrophenol (p-NP) was tested to evaluate the catalytic performance. During the catalytic process, the Cu core acts as an electron-deficient site to adsorb and activate the -NO2 group for p-NP, and the Ag shell is beneficial for enhancing active H spilling to the Cu surface and then performing hydrogenation. A volcano-shaped apparent reaction rate constant can be achieved, which rises initially with the increasing Ag content and subsequently drops with a further increase in the Ag content. The highest value of 1071 min-1 can be achieved for CMNR immobilized with Cu-Ag2 owing to the suitable adsorption activation behavior and the best hydrogen spillover behavior.
Objective To construct the training contents of tumor palliative care by analyzing the opinions of the nurses from tumor hospital on the training contents of tumor palliative care and carrying out correlative analysis over their opinions and their age,service standing and professional title.Methods In May 2007,the training contents of tumor palliative care were constructed based on the 9 modules advanced by ELENC in U.S.,the palliative care courses of Wisconsin University and the contents regulated by Australian Palliative Care Association.The contents included an overview on palliative care,symptom nursing,mental care,communication skills,moral and ethics and terminal nursing.A questionnaire was used into the investigation among 148 nurses from a tumor hospital,131 sheets valid.SPSS10.0 was used to treat the collected data,with descriptive statistical analysis and Spearman non-parameter rank correlation test.Results(1) In the order of content importance,communication skills ranked the first,followed by mental care,symptom nursing,moral and ethics,terminal nursing and overview on palliative care.(2) Spearman rank correlation test showed: The service standing was positively correlated to mental care(rs=0.240;P=0.006),communicative skills(rs=0.201;P=0.022),and moral and ethics(rs=0.233;P=0.008) and so it was with the professional title and training on communicative skills(rs=0.187;P=0.034).The education was negatively correlated to training,but with no statistical significance.Conclusion Communicative skills and mental care are the key points included in palliative care training.We should put weight on the enhancement of young nurse's recognition to the importance of the training of mental care,communicative skills,moral and ethics.The nurses at all levels have not received training on palliative care,so the construction of training contents should be apt to nurses with different education backgrounds.
PURPOSE Arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging to assess cerebral blood flow (CBF) is of increasing interest in basic research and in diagnostic applications, since ASL provides similar information to positron emission tomography about perfusion in vascular territories. However, in patients with steno-occlusive arterial disease (SOAD), CBF as measured by ASL might be underestimated due to delayed bolus arrival, and thus increased spin relaxation. We aimed to estimate the extent to which bolus arrival time (BAT) was delayed in patients with SOAD and whether this resulted in underestimation of CBF.   METHODS BAT was measured using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in ten patients with high-grade stenosis of the middle carotid artery (MCA). Regional CBF was assessed with pseudocontinuous ASL.   RESULTS BATs were nonsignificantly prolonged in the stenotic hemisphere 4.1±2.0 s compared with the healthy hemisphere 3.3±0.9 s; however, there were substantial individual differences on the stenotic side. CBF in the anterior and posterior MCA territories were significantly reduced on the stenotic hemisphere. Severe stenosis was correlated with longer BAT and lower quantified CBF.   CONCLUSION ASL-based perfusion measurement involves a race between the decay of the spins and the delivery of labeled blood to the region of interest. Special caution is needed when interpreting CBF values quantified in individuals with altered blood flow and delayed circulation times. However, from a clinician's point of view, an accentuation of hypoperfusion (even if caused by underestimation of CBF due to prolonged BATs) might be desirable since it indexes potentially harmful physiologic deficits.
An 11-year global WHO campaign for eradication of smallpox finished in October 1977 as the result of Edward Jenner's primary success in 1796, who for the first time applied human vaccination against variola virus (VARV). The 200th anniversary of this happening is a good occasion to summarize the current status of the knowledge about the role of B and T lymphocytes in the control of orthopoxvirus infections. This short review concentrates on general characteristics of orthopoxviruses and the immune response to infection, mainly by vaccinia virus (VV) and ectromelia virus (EV).
Somatostatin receptor expression on both protein and gene expression level was compared with in vivo (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT in patients with neuroendocrine carcinomas (NEC). Twenty-one patients with verified NEC who underwent a (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT between November 2012 and May 2014, were retrospectively included. By real-time polymerase chain reaction, we quantitatively determined the gene expression of several genes and compared with (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET uptake. By immunohistochemistry we qualitatively studied the expression of assorted proteins in NEC. The median age at diagnosis was 68 years (range 41-84) years. All patients had WHO performance status 0-1. Median Ki67 index was 50% (range 20-100%). Gene expression of somatostatin receptor subtype (SSTR) 2 and Ki67 were both positively correlated to the (68)Ga-DOTATOC uptake (r=0.89; p<0.0001 and r=0.5; p=0.021, respectively). Furthermore, SSTR2 and SSTR5 gene expression were strongly and positively correlated (r=0.57; p=0.006). This study as the first verifies a positive and close correlation of (68)Ga-DOTATOC uptake and gene expression of SSTR2 in NEC. SSTR2 gene expression has a stronger correlation to (68)Ga-DOTATOC uptake than SSTR5. In addition, the results indicate that the gene expression levels of SSTR2 and SSTR5 at large follow one another.
The review summarizes recent data about the use of calcium channel blockers for the treatment of cardiovascular complications in patients with diabetes mellitus. It is shown that disturbances of Ca ion homeostasis play an important role in the pathogenesis of such diabetic complications as cardiomyopathy, microangiopathy, hypertension and the use of modern calcium channel antagonists for their treatment seems to be quite justified. However, despite definite positive effects of such treatment, these drugs should be used with care, especially if combined with derivatives of sulphonylurea as activators of the beta-cell function. Calcium channel blockers may intervene in the mechanism of the activity of beta-cells in which activation of the calcium channels is an obligatory link for triggering insulin secretion. Nevertheless, according to most of the authors, in such cases Ca antagonists can be recommended in moderate doses under continuous control of the hormonal status of the patient.
Background Readmission for ventilator support in tracheostomy patients with primary brain injury is often attributed to failure of airway protection and aspiration pneumonia. Data regarding the incidence of intensive care unit readmissions and associated factors in these patients are limited. Objectives To determine the factors associated with intensive care unit readmission among tracheostomy patients with primary brain injury, as compared with tracheostomy patients without primary brain injury. Methods Prospectively acquired data from an ongoing tracheostomy registry at an academic health center were reviewed retrospectively. A total of 164 patients more than 18 years of age who received an elective tracheostomy and had at least 1 readmission to the intensive care unit between 2007 and 2013 were included. Results The incidence of mechanical ventilation resumption and readmission was significantly higher in patients with than without primary brain injury (P = .005). Patients requiring tracheostomy for airway protection were at a higher risk for atelectasis (odds ratio, 8.23; P = .05). In patients with primary brain injury, a higher Glasgow Coma Scale score was associated with a lower risk for atelectasis (odds ratio, 0.84; P = .04). Mean (SD) Glasgow Coma Scale score was higher in patients without primary brain injury (10.64 [3.98]) than in patients with primary brain injury (8.62 [4.57]; P = .006). Conclusions Tracheostomy patients with primary brain injury may have central nervous system‐mediated respiratory compromise associated with reduced Glasgow Coma Scale score, increased atelectasis, and shorter duration of ventilator dependency.
Objective  To investigate the effects of ulinastatin on inflammatory reaction, immunologic function, and postoperative cognitive function of patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).      Method  s A total of 100 cases undergoing cardiac valve replacement under CPB were randomly divided into two groups: ulinastatin group (group UTI) and normal saline group (group NS), 50 cases in each group. A continuous dose of ulinastatin (0.5×104 unit/kg) or the same amount of normal saline was injected intravenously in group UTI or group NS before cutting the skin, both of which were completed within 1 h. Central venous blood samples were collected at 30 min before the surgery (T0), 30 min after the beginning of operation (T1), and 1 h (T2), 1 d (T3), 3 d (T4), 5 d (T5) after the end of operation, and the expressions of monocyte-platelet adhesion (CD42a+/CD14+) and monocyte activating capacity (HLADR+/CD14+) were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). Cognitive function tests were performed on the patients of the two groups at 1 d before the surgery and 30 d after the surgery, and the occurrence rate of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) was calculated by the Z scoring method.      Result  s The expression of CD42a+/CD14+ in group UTI was obviously lower than that in group NS at T1, T2, T3 (P<0.05), while the expression of HLADR+/CD14+ in group UTI was obviously higher than that in group NS at T3, T4 (P<0.05). As cognitive function tests showed, compared with group NS, the scores of Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) and digit span test (FSDT) were both higher in group UTI at 30 d after the surgery (P<0.05). The occurrence rate of POCD was calculated by the Z scoring method: there were 15 cases of POCD in group NS, with the occurrence rate of 30.0%, and 5 cases of POCD in group UTI, with the occurrence rate of 10.0%. Compared with group NS, the occurrence rate was lower in group UTI (P<0.05).      Conclusion  Ulinastatin can reduce the inflammatory reaction and decrease the occurrence rate of POCD in patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement under CPB.      Key words:  Ulinastatin; Immunologic function; Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD); Cardiac valve replacement
A 1-cm segment of repaired rabbit flexor tendon was first subjected to 10,000 rads of x-radiation and then placed in the synovial cavity of a rabbit's knee joint. Macroscopic examination revealed healing at the repair site and rounding of the tendon ends without adhesions. Light- and electron-microscopic studies revealed cells resembling fibroblasts at the repair site and the periphery laying down collagen. Healing of this irradiated nonviable tendon was brought about by the cells present in the synovial fluid.
Objective Cardiovascular disease is an underappreciated issue in prison medicine. Recent studies have revealed a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors (CVDRFs) among individuals in prison, but the impact of incarceration on CVDRFs over time is not well understood. This review aimed to assess available literature and quantify the relationship between incarceration and trends in major CVDRFs in high-income countries. Design Systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. Meta-regression on weight change and obesity. Data sources Medline, Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Central Wiley and Web of Science. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Longitudinal studies reporting on the incidence of, or trends in any CVDRF among current or former people in prison over time, in high-income countries. Data extraction and synthesis Two authors independently screened articles for eligibility, extracted data and assessed quality using an adapted version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Trends in CVDRFs during and following incarceration were summarised and in those with sufficient data a meta-regression was performed. Results Twenty-six articles were identified. CVDRFs assessed included obesity, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, tobacco use, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet. A meta-regression on change in weight during incarceration found a mean increase of 5.3 kg (95% CI 0.5 to 10.1) and change in body mass index of 1.8 kg/m2 (95% CI −0.9 to 4.6) at 2 years. Weight gain appeared most pronounced right after entering prison and then plateaued at 2 years. Concerning hypertension, the results were inconclusive, despite a trend towards rising blood pressure or prevalence of hypertension during incarceration, and an increased incidence of hypertension following incarceration. Results are contradictory or inconclusive for the other CVDRFs reviewed. Conclusion Possible explanations for the association between incarceration and weight include a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, forced smoking cessation, psychotropic medication use and high levels of stress. Incarceration may be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Angiomatous polyps are the extremely rare variant of sinochoanal polyps that are characterised by dilated, large vascular spaces. A 27-year-old female patient presented with a three-month history of unilateral right-sided nasal obstruction and recurrent mild epistaxis. Paranasal computed tomography demonstrated a mass in the right maxillary sinus extending through the nasal cavity. It was resected with both endonasal endoscopic and Caldwell-Luc approaches. Histopathological examination identified an angiomatous nasal polyp. Follow-up of thirteen months showed no recurrence.
A major event in embryonic development is the rearrangement of epigenetic information as the somatic genome is reprogrammed for a new round of organismal development. Epigenetic data are held in chemical modifications on DNA and histones, and there are dramatic and dynamic changes in these marks during embryogenesis. However, the mechanisms behind this intricate process and how it is regulating and responding to embryonic development remain unclear. As embryos develop from totipotency to pluripotency, they pass through several distinct stages that can be captured permanently or transiently in vitro. Pluripotent naïve cells resemble the early epiblast, primed cells resemble the late epiblast, and blastomere-like cells have been isolated, although fully totipotent cells remain elusive. Experiments using these in vitro model systems have led to insights into chromatin changes in embryonic development, which has informed exploration of pre-implantation embryos. Intriguingly, human and mouse cells rely on different signaling and epigenetic pathways, and it remains a mystery why this variation exists. In this review, we will summarize the chromatin rearrangements in early embryonic development, drawing from genomic data from in vitro cell lines, and human and mouse embryos.
Various hypothalamic-pituitary diseases cause hypopituitarism. Inflammation related to autoimmunity also causes hypopituitarism. Hypophysitis is a representative disease caused by autoimmunity. Generally, anterior pituitary hormones are non-specifically impaired in this condition, but specific hormone defects have been reported in some cases. Anti-PIT-1 (pituitary-specific transcription factor 1) antibody syndrome is a novel clinical entity that presents an acquired combined pituitary hormone deficiency characterized by a specific defect in growth hormone, prolactin, and thyroid-stimulating hormone. Circulating anti-PIT-1 antibody along with various autoantibodies are detected with multiple endocrine organopathy, meeting the definition of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome. Mechanistically, cytotoxic T lymphocytes that specifically react with PIT-1 protein play an important role in the development of this syndrome.
PURPOSE To compare the sexual function of healthy adult pregnant women with that of gestational diabetes patients (GDM) in the third trimester.   METHODS This cross-sectional study enrolled two groups of women managed antenatal care clinics. Inclusion criteria were: maternal age .20 years, gestational age at least 28 weeks, being in a heterosexual relationship with the same partner for at least 6 months, and being able to read. We excluded women with a medical recommendation for sexual abstinence due to clinical or obstetric disorders; hypertension controlled through medications; pregnancy resulting from rape; absent or sexually unavailable partner in the last month; hospital admission in the last month; use of vaginal creams in the last 30 days; multiple pregnancy, regular use of alcohol or illicit drugs or use of medications that can interfere with sexual function. Eighty-seven patients fulfilled the selection criteria and were included in the study. The Sexual Quotient . Feminine Version (QS-F) questionnaire was used to assess sexual function. Student's t and χ² tests were used to compare differences between groups and p<0.05 was considered significant.   RESULTS The mean gestational age of the participants was 34 weeks. There were no significant differences in the mean QS-F scores between groups (62.5 healthy vs 62.8 GDM women, p=0.9). Approximately half the participants (47 and 47.5% of the healthy and GDM women, respectively, p=0.9) had total scores up to 60, indicative of dysfunction in one of the assessed domains (desire, sexual satisfaction, arousal, orgasm, dyspareunia and vaginismus).   CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of sexual dysfunction was high among women in the third trimester of pregnancy and did not differ significantly between healthy women and women with GDM.
Following the South African government's temporary closure of education institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions (HEIs) resorted to online teaching. In this study, we report on the perceptions of undergraduate BCom Financial Sciences and Accounting students at a South African University on the use of pre-recorded demonstration videos to support the teaching of an advanced Excel module. The study was guided by the four learning theories for the digital age on how students learn. A qualitative study was conducted using an online survey, with 512 students participating in the survey. Data was analysed using the conventional content analysis. The qualitative analysis resulted in five themes, (i) support for learning and understanding, (ii) support for self-paced learning, (iii) support for assessment preparation, (iv) comparison with face-to-face learning, and (v) criticisms and suggestions for improvement. Students felt that the pre-recorded demonstration videos played an important role in their learning. The main contribution of this study is that it has demonstrated the benefits of pre-recorded videos in facilitating online teaching and learning in periods of pandemic, especially when resources are limited. © Proceedings of the 2021 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research.
The AA. intend to find a significant relationship between the subjective intensity of the tinnitus experienced by 47 patients, as assessed by themselves from a 7-point scale, and the objective intensity evaluated by audiometric matching of the noise. The relationship among the subjective intensity, the frequency of tinnitus and the hearing loss at the same frequency of the tinnitus aurium has also been studied. A statistically significative relationship between these parameters could not be possible find out. So they think necessary to find some others means to assess the intensity of the tinnitus.
This study1 of the Geman compul sory sickness insurance is based on twenty years of practical medical experience2 from the three medical view points involved. The purpose of this study is not to advocate the adoption of the German system in other countries but to present the facts regarding the German situation during the normal years. Organization.—The compulsory sickness insurance in Germany covers twenty million members plus fourteen million dependents, almost half the entire population. It is supervised by the Ministry of Labor and administered by a special government office (Reichversicherungsamt) with branch offices in every province (Landesversicherungsamt). It is composed of different statutory bodies: the largest is the general sickness fund (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse), for workers and employees who do not belong in one of the following special categories; the industrial sickness fund (Betriebs Krankenkasse), operated by the individual plants; the sickness fund of the guilds (Innungs Krankenkasse), for special workmen's guilds; the miners' fund (Knappschafts Krankenkassen), for the miners; the seamen's sick fund (SeeKrankenkasse), for the merchant marine; and the farmers' sick fund (Land Krankenkasse), for farmhands. Such a decentralization has been proved superior to one giant centralized sick fund because it guarantees a certain autonomy of its administration exercised by employers and employees knowing the requirements of their respective labor groups by their own experience. Furthermore, it has been found more flexible in adapting the insurance benefits to the special needs and more economical than one unified mammoth sick fund, serving all the various types of wageand salary-earners. Criterion for membership in all these sick funds is an income not exceeding $1,200 annually for the individual wage or salary-worker. For these, membership is mandatory and goes automatically with employment on a pay-roll deduction plan, two-thirds paid by the employee and one-third by the employer, the insurance premium varying between 3-8 per cent of the basic wage. It guarantees the "right" to complete coverage in case of illness or accident for a period of twenty-seven to fifty-two weeks in each year to the member and his dependents. In case these weeks are exceeded, government relief takes over automatically and indefinitely. The same benefits are secured by the government to the unemployed and administered by the C.S.I. system. Benefits.—The main features of the compulsory sickness insurance are the
Objective: To evaluate the associations between physical fitness levels, health related quality of life (HRQoL) and sarcopenic obesity (SO) and to analyze the usefulness of several physical fitness tests as a screening tool for detecting elderly people with an increased risk of suffering SO. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a population-based sample. Setting: Non-institutionalized Spanish elderly participating in the EXERNET multi-centre study. Participants: 2747 elderly subjects aged 65 and older. Measurements: Body weight, height and body mass index were evaluated in each subject. Body composition was measured by bioelectrical impedance. Four SO groups were created based on percentage of body fat and relative muscle mass; 1) normal group, 2) sarcopenic group, 3) obesity group and 4) SO group. Physical fitness was evaluated using 8 tests (balance, lower and upper body strength, lower and upper body flexibility, agility, walking speed and aerobic capacity). Three tertiles were created for each test based on the calculated scores. HRQoL was assessed using the EuroQol visual analogue scale. Results: Participants with SO showed lower physical fitness levels compared with normal subjects. Better balance, agility, and aerobic capacity were associated to a lower risk of suffering SO in the fittest men (odds ratio < 0.30). In women, better balance, walking speed, and aerobic capacity were associated to a lower risk of suffering SO in the fittest women (odds ratio < 0.21) Superior perceived health was associated with better physical fitness performance. Conclusions: Higher levels of physical fitness were associated with a reduced risk of suffering SO and better perceived health among elderly. SO elderly people have lower physical functional levels than healthy counterparts.
Do you have days when you trudge around dispirited; you feel as though there has just been or is soon to be an explosion; sighs in the office are contagious, nothing is accomplished, and at five o'clock when you skulk out the door, you are pelted by sheets of an April sleetstorm screaming off the lake? On such days my thoughts turn to my old friend and patient, Earnest Pocket, the bag man. Bag people are individuals who carry all their earthly goods in shopping bags. They are ubiquitous in large, US cities; one sees them sifting through garbage for choice discards, wearing layers of thermal underwear covered by soiled, tattered overcoats. In time, the clothing adheres to the skin of the bag person and may conceal medically interesting but disquieting lesions. Bag people fall into two groups, depending on whether or not they mumble out loud. The mumbling bag
Objectives: To determine the rate of, and potential risk factors for, unscheduled PICU readmission and assess for variability among PICUs within the United States. Design and Data Source: This retrospective cohort study used 2005–2008 data from 73 PICUs in the Virtual PICU Systems database. Methods and Measurements: Early (within 48 hr of PICU discharge) and late (later than 48 hr) unscheduled readmission rates were calculated. Hierarchical logistic regression, with a random intercept for site, was used to identify factors independently associated with early readmission. Significant random effects identified sites with an outlying risk of readmission, adjusting for patient and admission characteristics. Main Results: For 117,923 children meeting inclusion criteria, the unscheduled readmission rate was 3.7% with 38% (1.4%) occurring early. Half of early readmissions had the same primary diagnosis as the first admission. Patients with late readmissions had a higher mortality (6.6% vs 3.3%, p < 0.001) and longer median total PICU length of stay (11 d vs 6 d, p < 0.0001) than those with early readmission. Patient characteristics strongly associated with increased risk of early readmission included the following: age < 6 months, acute respiratory and renal disease, and several underlying chronic conditions such as liver disease, bone marrow transplant, airway stenosis, and abnormal antidiuretic hormone balances. An initial PICU admission that was unscheduled, originated from the general floor, or with a discharge time between 4 PM and 8 AM was associated with higher risk of readmission. A quarter of sites were identified as potential high (16%) or low (8%) outliers. Conclusions: The rate of unscheduled PICU readmission was low but associated with worse outcomes. Patient and admission/discharge characteristics associated with increased risk of readmissions could be used to target high-risk populations or modifiable factors to improve outcome. Variation of risk among centers suggests room for improvement.
Background Groin injuries cause major problems in the football codes, as they are prevalent and lead to prolonged symptoms and high recurrence. The aim of the present study was to describe the occurrence and clinical presentation of groin injuries in a large cohort of sub-elite soccer players during a season. Methods Physiotherapists allocated to each of the participating 44 soccer clubs recorded baseline characteristics and groin injuries sustained by a cohort of 998 sub-elite male soccer players during a full 10-month season. All players with groin injuries were examined using the clinical entity approach, which utilises standardised reproducible examination techniques to identify the injured anatomical structures. The exposure time and the injury time were also recorded. Injury time was analysed using multiple regression on the log of the injury times as the data were highly skewed. Effects are thus reported at relative injury time (RIT). Results Adductor-related groin injury was the most common entity found followed by iliopsoas-related and abdominal-related injuries. The dominant leg was significantly more often injured. Age and previous groin injury were significant risk factors for sustaining a groin injury. Groin injuries were generally located on the same side as previously reported groin injuries. Adductor-related injuries with no abdominal pain had significantly longer injury times compared to injuries with no adductor and no abdominal pain (RIT 2.28, 95% CI 1.22 to 4.25, p=0.0096). Having both adductor and abdominal pain also increased the injury time significantly when compared to injuries with no adductor and no abdominal pain (RIT=4.56, 95% CI 1.91 to 10.91, p=0.001). Conclusion Adductor-related groin injury was the most common clinical presentation of groin injuries in male soccer players and the cause of long injury time, especially when combined with abdominal-related injury.
Achieving universal access to institutional delivery has been recognized as a major strategy for improving maternal survival. Despite improved coverage, financial barriers to accessing health care exist. High maternity-related health care expenditure is often considered as an important barrier in the utilization of health care during pregnancy and childbirth which may also be catastrophic for households. This study aims to investigate the incidence, intensity and socio-economic correlates of maternal health care expenditure in India. There is evidence of high burden of maternal health care expenditures, which varied significantly across states. Good implementation of government schemes can help to reduce the direct OOP expenditure for maternal health care.
Background: Minimally Invasive Hip Replacement Surgery (MIS) has been promoted by patient choice. Patients request less trauma, smaller scars and shorter hospital stays. MIS has been randomly defined as incision less than 10cm long. Are we achieving the patients goals and if so are we potentially compromising long term results in the process. Design: Retrospective study Setting: Acute District General Hospital. Method: A retrospective study in a district general hospital using a single surgeons patients was performed. 30 patients underwent total hip replacement surgery via a posterior approach. There were 8 uncemented cups and 22 cemented cups and all stems were Exeter, cemented with modern cementation techniques. 15 patients who had incisions less than 10cm (MIS group – average scar length 9.5 cms) were compared with 15 patients with incisions greater than 10cm (Conventional group – average scar length 23 cms). Data collected included a Visual analogue pain score (VAS), analgesic requirement in the immediate postoperative period, activity score and oxford hip score at a minimum of six months follow up. Radiographs were assessed independently and blinded for technique, assessing implant position and quality of cementation using Barrack and Charnley and DeLee classifications. Results: In the immediate postoperative period there was no statistically significant difference in the pain score and the analgesic requirement between the two groups. Neither the oxford hip scores nor the activity scores demonstrated statistically significant difference between the groups at a short term follow up of six months. There was a statistically significant difference in the scar length between the two groups (p There were no intra-operative complications in study groups. Conclusions: Though we accept that this is a small pilot study, we feel that MIS joint replacement can be safely performed and is more pleasing for the patients. There was no difference in analgesic requirements, blood useage or hospital stay. These advancements in surgical technique require constant monitoring to ensure good long term results.
Background. Physical activity is being a protective factor of frailty syndrome. Sedentary life style is related to frailty, comorbidities and mortality. Sitting time is associated with greater risk of dying from all causes of mortality. The correlations between physical activities, sitting time and frailty have not been studied at Indonesia. Objective. To know the correlations between physical activities, sitting time and frailty syndrome among elder person in Malang. Methods. Survey method is used in this research among elders of >60 years old in Malang. Quistionnaire-based interview was asked to respondesn and frailty measurement based on Fried’s Criteria. Results. Physical activities measured with MET (Metabolic Rate) conversely related to frailty condition in elderly and sitting time correlate well with frailty. Conclusion. Physical activities and sitting time have strong correlation with frailty in Malang.
Aims and background To analyze stage distribution and biological features of interval cancers observed in Verona mammography screening compared to screen-detected cancers and “clinical” cancers occurring in the absence of screening, as provided by the Veneto Cancer Registry. Methods and study design Screen-detected cancers were identified in the screening archives. Interval cancers and clinical cancers (occurring in women never screened or not yet invited) were identified through the local cancer registry. Studied variables were age, stage, pathological pT and pN category, histological grading, estrogen and progesterone receptor status, and proliferation index (Ki67). Results We compared 95 interval cancers, 761 screen-detected cancers, and 1873 clinical cancer cases. Interval cancers had more aggressive features than screen-detected cancers, the difference being statistically significant for pT (P = 10–6), pN (P = 0.0003), grading (P = 0.007), estrogen receptors (P = 0.0006), and progesterone receptors (P = 0.00005), but not for Ki67 (P = 0.18). The features of interval cancers were not more aggressive than those of clinical cancers for pT (P = 0.84), pN (P = 0.33), grading (P = 0.61), estrogen receptors (P = 0.48), and progesterone receptors (P = 0.69), and were better for Ki67 (P = 0.02). In contrast, screen-detected cancers showed significantly better features than clinical cancers, for all studied variables: pT (P = 10–6), pN (P = 10–6), grading (P = 10–6), estrogen receptors (P = 10–5), progesterone receptors (P = 10–6), and Ki67 (P = 10–6). Conclusions Our findings are consistent with the length biased sampling hypothesis of interval cancers having a faster growth rate and a less favorable presentation than screen-detected cancers. Compared to clinical cancers, interval cancers had similar features, whereas screen-detected cancers had definitely more favorable features. This finding suggests, rather than a faster growth rate for interval cancers, a slower growth rate for screen-detected cancers, which, together with diagnostic anticipation, may explain a certain degree of overdiagnosis.
OBJECTIVE To assess level of adult patients' satisfaction and associated factors in nursing care provided in selected public hospitals in Ethiopia.   METHODS A cross sectional institution based study was conducted on 582 randomly selected patients admitted for at least two nights in three wards of selected public hospitals in Eastern Ethiopia. Patients were interviewed face to face using the adapted Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scales (NSNS) at the time of their discharge. Data was analyzed using SPSS V 16.   RESULT More than half of the respondents, 307(52.75%), were satisfied with the nursing care they received. The patient satisfaction was found to be 62.71%, 55.67%, 44.85% and 55.15% for nursing characteristics, the caring activities, the amount of information given and the entire caring environment respectively. Previous history of admission, patients' income level, and type of admission rooms have been found to significantly affect overall satisfaction of patients.   CONCLUSION The overall level of adult patients' satisfaction was moderate. The hospitals should consider mechanisms to improve the nurses' communication skills and interpersonal relationships beyond training on direct patient care.
Interscalene blockade (ISB) is commonly associated with Horner's syndrome, indicating spread of injectate to the cervical sympathetic chain. Cervical sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) is believed to influence cerebral autoregulation, and a decrease in sympathetic tone may alter cerebral blood flow (CBF). This study investigated whether ISB influenced CBF in patients undergoing shoulder surgery. Patients (n=30) scheduled for elective shoulder arthroscopy were recruited. Cerebral oxygen saturation (ScO2) of the left and right frontal cortices was continuously measured during ISB administration, sedation and anaesthetic induction. Baseline ScO2 was similar in blocked and unblocked sides (74 ± 5% and 73 ± 5% respectively, P=0.70). ScO2 decreased with sedation (-3 ± 3% and −4 ± 3%, P=0.93), and increased with pre-oxygenation and general anaesthesia (P <0.01). Following ISB there was no change in ScO2 between blocked and unblocked sides (P=0.18), or any difference between right- or left-sided ISB. ISB is not associated with an increase in CBF as indicated by ScO2, despite the presence of Horner's syndrome.
BACKGROUND AND AIM Amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAM-dMSCs) are a potential source of mesenchymal stem cells which could be used to repair skin damage. The use of mesenchymal stem cells to repair skin damage requires safe, effective and biocompatible agents to evaluate the effectiveness of the result. Quantum dots (QDs) composed of CdSe/ZnS are semiconductor nanocrystals with broad excitation and narrow emission spectra, which have been considered as a new chemical and fluorescent substance for non-invasively labeling different cells in vitro and in vivo. This study investigated the cytotoxic effects of QDs on hAM-dMSCs at different times following labeling.   METHODS Using 0.75, 1.5 and 3.0 μL between quantum dots, labeled human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells were collected on days 1, 2 and 4 and observed morphological changes, performed an MTT cell growth assay and flow cytometry for mesenchymal stem cells molecular markers.   RESULTS Quantum dot concentration 0.75 μg/mL labeled under a fluorescence microscope, cell morphology was observed, The MTT assay showed cells in the proliferative phase. Flow cytometry expression CD29, CD31, CD34, CD44, CD90, CD105 and CD106.   CONCLUSIONS Within a certain range of concentrations between quantum dots labeled human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells has good biocompatibility.
Abstract Introduction: Long segment lower ureteral strictures may be reconstructed through creation of Boari flap ureteroneocystostomy. Although conventionally performed through incisional approach, Boari flap may also be attempted through laparoscopic approach.1 We present a video demonstration of this procedure in solitary and bilaterally functioning units and narrate our experience with this procedure. Methods: Patients were evaluated in detail, including presenting complaints, clinical parameters, and blood profile. Imaging protocol included ultrasonogram (USG), computed tomogram urography, or magnetic resonance urogram (CTU or MRU). Preprocedure cystoscopy and retrograde pyelogram was performed. Patients were positioned in Trendelenberg decubitus. Four ports were utilized: 1–10-mm camera port and 3–5-mm working ports. Ureter was disconnected before stricture level and spatulated. Usage of thermal energy was restricted during ureteric mobilization. Anterior mobilization of bladder was performed and sp...
Experimental systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can be induced in mice by immunization with a human monoclonal anti-DNA Ab, bearing a major Id 16/6Id. Immunized mice initially produce Abs to 16/6Id, DNA and nuclear Ags, and subsequently develop various clinical manifestations including leukopenia and renal immune complex disease. MHC class I Ags play a critical role in the induction and progression of experimental SLE. The present study reports that ocular changes also occur in mice with experimental SLE. The ocular disease is characterized by bilateral subacute and chronic inflammation of the eyelids (blepharitis) with immune complex IgG deposition and hypertrophic meibomian glands. The severity of ocular changes was strain dependent: most severe in 129 mice, less intense in BALB/c animals and only minimal in C3H.SW mice. No blepharitis developed in mice deficient in MHC class I expression. Further, the disease was strongly inhibited in BALB/c mice treated with methimazole, an agent that has been shown to repress transcription of MHC class I. In these cases, there was no IgG deposition and a decreased infiltration of inflammatory cells in the eyelids. These observations thus suggest that, similar to the observation with experimental SLE, MHC class I is critical in the onset of this experimental autoimmune blepharitis. The new experimental eye disease described here provides an animal model for chronic blepharitis in humans, a common condition for which such a model has been sought.
Muscle biopsies were performed in eight children with cerebral hypotonia. While the gross architecture of the muscle is known to be normal in such cases, abnormalities in maturation were defined by histochemical techniques. The pathogenesis of the maturational abnormalities is not fully understood. However, the results suggest that this may be a useful technique in further delineating the relationship of cerebral factors in muscle integrity and development.
BACKGROUND Generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) is suggested as a contributing factor for injuries in young athletes and adults. It is presumed that GJH causes decreased joint stability, thereby increasing the risk of joint and soft tissue injuries during sports activities. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between the hypermobility score (using the Beighton`s modification of the Carter-Wilkinson criteria of hypermobility) in gymnasts and injury rate, during the period of one year.   METHODS This study observed 24 artistic gymnasts (11-26 years old), members of Qatar National Team in artistic gymnastics. We examined the Beighton joint hypermobility screen and a seasonal injury survey. The gymnasts characteristics (age, gender) and gymnastics characteristics (training per day and number of years in training artistic gymnastics) and their relations to injury rate were also included.   RESULTS The most common injury was the lower back pain injury, followed by knee, shoulder, hip and ankle injuries. We found strong correlation of number of years gymnastics training and injury rate (P<0.001). There is no significant correlation in the numbers of training hours during one week and hypermobility score to numbers of injuries (P>0.05).   CONCLUSIONS According to this study there is no correlation between GJH and injury rate in artistic gymnasts in Qatar. Total training period in gymnastics have greater contribution in injury rate.
Experience with food additive petitions submited after publication of the Food and Drug Administration's Redbook I (U. S. FDA, 1982) guide lines indicated a number of areas in which improvements were needed, and advances in toxicol-ogy testing during the last decade required additional rev is ions. In March 1993, the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) distributed copies of a draft of Redbook II for public comment. Since that time, revisions have been made based on comments received on the initial draft. This article describes the rationale for Redbook II guidance on the design of pharm acoki-netic studies and discusses some common problems the FDA has encountered in reviewing pharmacokine tic data submitted as part of food additive petitions. Points emphasized are that (1) pharmaco kinetic information is needed for the interpretation of toxicity studies and is most use ful when conducted before major toxicity studies, (2) the use of whole-body autoradiography is encouraged as a means to select tissues of interest, and as a substitute for dissection and tis-sue sampling, (3) kinetic and mechanistic studies conducted with blood compo-nents, tissue slices, hepatocytes, and othercell types in vitro ofien provide more useful information on the fate of chemicals in specific tissues than information extracted from whole-animal studies. The intention of th e new guide lines for pharmaco kinetic studies is to increase the information content of data gathered and to encourage the use of pharmaco kinetic models and results in the selection of doses for subchronic, chronic, and developmental toxicity studies.
Back ground and Objective : There is a need for objectification and scientific verification of Pattern identification in Oriental medicine. The purpose of this study was to investigate the skin characteristics of Qi deficiency and Blood deficiency animal models. Material and Methods : Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: normal group, Qi deficiency group and Blood deficiency group. The Qi deficiency animal model was induced through restriction of food (75g/kg/day) for 20 days. Blood deficiency animal model was induced by bleeding from tail vein(0.3 ml/time) 8 times. The normal animal model was kept without any intervention. The general condition was observed by measuring body weight, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, and hematological and biochemical parameters. The skin characteristics were observed by measuring the erythema index(EI), melanin index(Ml), transepidermal water loss(TEWL) and dermal microcirculation. Results : 1. In the Qi deficiency group, body weight was lower than the other groups. In the Qi deficiency group, blood pressure was lower than in the Normal group. There was no difference in body temperature and pulse rate between the three groups. 2. In the Qi deficiency group, blood sugar was lower than in the Blood deficiency group. There was no difference in triacylglycerol between the three groups. In the Qi deficiency group, the WBC count was lower than in the Blood deficiency group. RBC count was highest in the Qi deficiency group, Normal group and Blood deficiency group respectively. In the Qi deficiency group, Hb and Hct were higher than the other groups. 3. EI and MI were decreased in the Qi deficiency group, and EI showed a significant decrease. 4. EI and MI were increased in the Blood deficiency group, and MI showed a significant increase. 5. TEWL was significantly increased in the Qi deficiency group, while it was decreased in the Blood deficiency group, TEWL was highest in the Qi deficiency group, Normal group and Blood deficiency group respectively and all three groups showed significant difference. 6. In the Qi deficiency group, dermal microcirculation was lower than the other groups. Conclusion : The above results show that the erythema index decreases in the Qi deficiency model, and the melanin index increases in the Blood deficiency model. The Qi deficiency animal model shows an increase in transepidermal water loss, while the Blood deficiency animal model shows a decrease. Further studies should develop new models of Pattern Identification that are more specific.
Background: Cesarean section (CS) rates have increased; this is especially concerning in developing countries. The mode of placental delivery contributes to morbidity associated with CS, and determines blood loss during CS.  Objective: The aim of the work was to compare spontaneous placental delivery with cord traction and manual removal of placenta as regards amount of blood loss during elective cesarean section.  Patients and Methods: This prospective Cohort study included a total of 48 Women prepared for elective cesarean section, attending at Zagazig University Hospitals and Zagazig General Hospital. This study was conducted between April 2019 to October 2019. The included subjects were divided into two groups (24 each) regarding methods of placental delivery. Group A; placenta was allowed to be separated spontaneously and removed by gentle cord traction. Group B; placenta was removed manually by the surgeon’s hand introduced into the uterine cavity and cleavage plane was created between the placenta and decidua basalis following which the placenta was grasped and removed. With the use of oxytocin by intravenous infusion 20 units after delivery of the baby in both groups.  Results: Blood loss in spontaneous placental separation group was (881.67 ± 74.54) ml, but in manual placental separation group was (962.79 ± 116.11) ml, (p < 0.01).The preoperative hemoglobin (g/dl) in spontaneous separation group was (11.3 ± 1.07) and in manual separation group was (11.63 ± 1.11), postoperative hemoglobin in spontaneous separation group was (10.3 ± 0.83) and in manual separation group was (9.42 ± 0.74).  Conclusion: Manual removal of placenta only seems to be superior in saving the time taken to extract out placenta. Manual removal of placenta adds to the post-operative complications in form of greater blood loss and infections.
Mothers must be made aware of the importance of recognising any decrease in fetal movements and of notifying immediately their appropriate carers. Failure to do so featured significantly in a report on the incidence of stillbirths in the UK (CESDI, 1997). Electronic fetal heart monitoring provides accurate information of fetal wellbeing during antepartum and parturition but machines are confined to hospital premises and their use during delivery limits the mother's choice of birthing position. The rise in the use of Doppler devices has enabled midwives to monitor fetal heart rates in a mother's own home and even during a waterbirth delivery. Many mothers experience anxiety during the time in between obstetric examinations, especially following a previous problematic pregnancy. Low-cost Dopplers are available for purchase or hire by a mother for home use to reduce such worry.
The authors report the results of a symposium on improving the standards of care for patients with cancer pain. The symposium was sponsored by the Advisory Committee on Cancer Control of the National Cancer Institute of Canada and was held Apr. 8 to 10, 1994, in Toronto. Participants included experts on control of cancer pain and on diffusion techniques, patients with cancer and representatives of regulatory agencies. They suggested the following strategies to improve outcomes in patients with cancer pain. Processes for accreditation of health care institutions should require documentation of cancer pain, its treatment and its outcome. Tertiary care facilities that provide cancer treatment should have expert, subspecialty, multidisciplinary programs for pain control and should provide adequate psychosocial support to patients suffering cancer pain. The Canadian Cancer Society should conduct a public-education campaign to encourage patients to report pain to health care providers. The National Cancer Institute of Canada should foster research on cancer pain by restructuring its process for review of pain-research protocols. Examinations for professionals who care for patients with cancer should include a defined number of questions concerning pain and symptom control. Provincial programs to monitor prescribing through the use of triplicate prescription pads should have an educational as well as regulatory purpose.
It has been shown that, following the treatment of normal, human, cell-free plasma with chloroform, a proteolytic enzyme is elaborated (1). It has also been shown that the enzyme is associated with the globulin fraction of the plasma proteins (1, 2). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the enzyme may be prepared by the action of chloroform on a saline solution of human plasma euglobulin (1). Because hemophilic blood is known to have a deficiency in the coagulation activity associated with plasma euglobulin (3, 4), it seemed advisable to compare hemophilic and normal human plasmas as sources of enzyme activity. The present communication concerns a comparative study of the proteolytic activity of normal and hemophilic plasma after treatment with chloroform.
Subjects in tumour studies are often misclassified with respect to histologic features that are not routinely recorded in diagnostic reports and that display heterogeneity within tumours. Pathologic analysis of the tumours may miss the feature of interest if the pathologist was not alerted to detail the microscopic feature of interest or if it is not present in the selected specimens. In this setting, only the subjects for whom the outcome is not found are potentially misclassified. Analyses of associations between the observed, potentially misclassified, outcome and a second outcome are invalid if the probability of misclassification depends on the second outcome. Three natural tests of association based on the observed data depend on different numbers of nuisance parameters. Most promising is a test based on the ratio of proportions of the observed feature. We illustrate this test using a study of the association of imaging parameters with genetic features in subjects with oligodendroglioma, a common brain tumour. In this study, calcification, a feature related to the imaging parameters, was potentially misclassified as not present. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We discuss a disorder that, although at first considered of possible fungal origin, now is known to be due to an alteration of erythrocytes induced by petrolatum-based antibiotic ointment. In this country, the structures of myospherulosis have been seen most often in tissues from the nose and paranasal sinuses following surgery in this region. Our studies show that both components of the vehicle of a commonly used tetracycline antibiotic ointment, lanolin and petrolatum, either separately or together, produce the structures of myospherulosis in vitro. It is recommended that a nonpetrolatum-based substance be used in nasal packing for purposes of hemostasis.
Correctly articulated dental casts are essential for certain dental treatment. Articulation can be traditional: using a physical articulator; digital: using a physical articulator followed by 3D scanning, or virtual: using 3D scanning and software to articulate scans without initial physical articulation. This study compared the precision of traditional articulation, using physical centric relation records and an articulator and virtually, by digitally aligning scans of the casts and record. Articulated casts and centric relation records were obtained. 12 record pairs were recorded from the articulated casts. Virtual method: all records were scanned, unclamped, in a custom laboratory scanner. The casts were aligned to each scanned record to create virtual articulations. Traditional method: each record was used to physically articulate the casts. Each articulation was recorded using an intraoral scanner. The mean inter-arch separation between three key-points on each cast-pair were used to determine differences in occlusal separation in three anatomical directions, and precision of methods. Traditional articulations: standard deviations in key-point distance never exceeded 0.102mm. The virtual equivalent was 0.059mm. Statistically significant differences (p⟨0.05) between all anteroposterior separation distances were found between the methods, and in three of six lateral/vertical separations. Virtual articulation was significantly more precise than traditional articulation.
Background: This study aimed to evaluate whether income-related inequalities in access to dental care services exist in Japan. Methods: The subjects included beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance (NHI) in Chiba City, Japan, who had been enrolled from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015. The presence or absence of dental visits and number of days spent on dental care services during the year were calculated using insurance claims submitted. Equivalent household income was calculated using individual income data from 1 January to 31 December 2013, declared for taxation. Results: Of the 216,211 enrolled subjects, 50.3% had dental care during the year. Among those with dental visits, the average number of days (standard deviation) spent on dental care services per year was 7.7 (7.1). Low income was associated with a decreased rate of dental care utilization regardless of age and sex. However, there was a significant inverse linear association between the number of days spent on dental care services and income levels for both sexes. Conclusions: There were income-related inequalities in access to dental care services, regardless of the age group or sex, within the Japanese universal health insurance system.
The quandary is, "How can the very different fiduciary responsibilities of physicians and pharmaceutical companies ethically coexist in a society where its healthcare system is under increasing financial scrutiny?" It is paradoxical that the number of states requiring continuing medical education for medical licensure has increased to 39, in the face of reduced federal funding and the squeeze of managed care. Despite industry's providing more than half of the funding required to sustain the increasing need for continuing medical education, some physicians claim it is inappropriate for continuing medical education sponsors to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies because of their vested interest in selling prescription medications. Is the integrity of the physician-patient relationship at risk? I will show that there are ethical standards in place, for professionals and industry, that are effectively maintaining the continuing medical education system in balance. Eliminating the current opportunities for collaboration between sponsors and commercial supporters would severely compromise the continuing medical education enterprise in the United States, ultimately, a disservice to patients, who expect their physicians to continue their medical education lifelong.
BACKGROUND We report a case of intestinal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in a syngeneic bone marrow transplant patient.   METHODS Several days after receiving a bone marrow transplant from his identical twin for treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a 47-year-old man developed a skin rash and diarrhea.   RESULTS A colonic biopsy on day +15 revealed characteristic changes of acute intestinal GVHD. Molecular studies (microsatellite DNA and HLA sequence-specific primer polymerase chain reaction analyses) confirmed the genotypic identity of donor and host and the improbability of transfusion-associated GVHD.   CONCLUSION This case illustrates that pathological evidence of GVHD does not absolutely require the presence of genetic differences between host and donor and questions existing concepts about the nature of cyclosporine-induced GVHD.
Abstract: We investigated the effects of sickle erythrocytes on the production of vasotone mediators in endothelial cells (ECs) using an in vitro recirculating flow system. Sickle erythrocytes increased the EC production of two important vasoactivators, prostacyclin and endothelin‐1, under venous wall shear stress conditions of 1 dyn cm−2. The presence of interleukin‐1β in the perfusion system, as a model for inflammatory cytokine effects, enhanced the overall amounts of released prostacyclin but did not affect the production of endothelin‐1. This study demonstrates the effects of sickle erythrocytes on the function and metabolism of ECs under vascular flow environments. The altered production of vasoactivators may contribute to the vasotone instability and vasoocclusive crises in sickle cell anemia.
Antiphospholipid antibodies consist of a group of heterogeneous autoantibodies against anionic phospholipids. We describe the case of a 19-year-old patient who was consulted in the obstetrics service after her second miscarriage. She was a smoker and six months after this consultation she developed diabetes mellitus. At 21 years of age she suffered from myocardial infarction, when high anticardiolipin antibody levels were evidenced. Some months later the patient again became pregnant and prophylaxis against miscarriages was performed using low doses (5000 IU) heparin administered subcutaneously at 12-hour intervals. She evolved with preeclampsia, however, the baby was born in good health. One year after she again became pregnant and prophylaxis against miscarriage was again performed using low doses of heparin. The pregnancy successfully resulted with the birth of her second child.
ABSTRACT Traditionally, the components of ocular refraction are analyzed in surface powers and their linear separations in the eye. More recently it has been suggested that the refractive effects of these components are better studied in terms of their vergence contributions. This study presents an improved method of vergence analysis which takes into account the refractive status of the eye. Results show a significant interaction of all components and indicate that their relative contributions are dependent on refractive status.
An important role of the complex of biological properties of Staphylococcus aureus, including anticomplementary and antilysozyme activity, capacity for the inactivation of the bactericidal component of interferon and the Fc-reception of immunoglobins, in the prolonged character of the purulent inflammatory process induced by this infective agent. The system permitting the prognosis of the unfavorable course of post-injection abscesses, based on the analysis of known informative properties of the infective agent, was developed with the use of the heterogeneous consecutive procedure of sample recognition.
Summary: The ability of the heart to increase in size when subjected to an increased work load, a process called compensatory hypertrophy, is dependent upon the availability of cofactors, which, if deficient, may limit the extent of activation of protein and nucleic acid synthesis. We report here some results of the effects of orotic acid or uridine, administered to rats by oral intubation (10 mg/kg/day) and supplemented with vitamin B12 (100, μg/kg/day) and folic acid (2 mg/kg/day), as agents which enhance biochemical and physical parameters during myocardial hypertrophy.        Four days after the onset of hypertrophy, the orotic acid and cofactor treated rats showed enhanced myocardial contractility as measured by isometric contractility studies using an isolated papillary muscle preparation. This treatment also enhanced the rate of total myocardial protein synthesis giving an earlier and higher peak in this parameter after the onset of hypertrophy. It has also been shown that orotic acid and cofactor treatment does not cause an elevation in the activity of circulating enzymes, nor any ultrastructural alterations in the heart.        The studies reported here support the claim that orotic acid and cofactor administration enhance the processes of adaptation of the myocardium to increased work load.
Forkhead box (FOX) proteins are multifaceted transcription factors that have been shown to be involved in cell cycle progression, proliferation and metastasis. FOXP4, a member of the FOX family, has been implicated in diverse biological processes in tumor initiation and progression. However, the molecular mechanisms of FOXP4 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) remain unknown. In the present study, differentially expressed transcripts in transforming growth factor-β-treated TU177 cells were screened using microarrays and it was found that FOXP4 was significantly upregulated. The high expression of FOXP4 was detected in LSCC tissues and cells, and predicted poor prognosis. The role of FOXP4 in laryngeal cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion was determined by gain- and loss-of-function assays. Besides, FOXP4 was demonstrated to participate in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process at the mRNA and protein levels. Mechanically, FOXP4 directly bound to the promoter of lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 and activated Wnt signaling pathway, which was confirmed via chromatin immunoprecipitation and luciferase reporter assays. Consequently, these findings provided novel mechanisms of FOXP4 in LSCC progression, which may be considered as potential therapeutic and prognostic targets for LSCC.
OBJECTIVE To determine positive predictive value (PPV) of the breast imaging reporting and data systems (BI-RADS) category 5 mammogram and ultrasound (US) in the diagnosis of breast cancer in the study center and correlation between clinical, mammographic and US findings, and breast cancer.   MATERIAL AND METHOD Four hundred and ninety seven patients with BI-RADS category 5 who underwent mammograms and US at the Breast diagnostic center, Ramathibodi Hospital from January, 1, 2002 to December 31, 2004 were enrolled into the present study. Selected clinical information, mammographic and US findings, and histopathological diagnosis were retrospectively reviewed.   RESULTS Breast cancer was found in 467 of 497 patients, giving a PPV of 94%. Invasive ductal carcinoma was the most common malignancy (89.5%). Fibrocystic change was the most common benign pathology found in the remaining patients. Discrete mass was the most frequently encountered lesion detected on mammography and US, followed by mass containing calcifications. Patients with advanced age, having a clinically palpable breast mass, with mammographic and US evidence of mass containing calcifications showed significant statistical association with breast cancer.   CONCLUSION PPV of BI-RADS category 5 lesions in the present study was comparable to other published studies. Although the probability of malignancy was very high, a small number of patients had benign pathologies. Preoperative histopathologic diagnosis is necessary before definitive treatment.
PURPOSE The main purpose of this critical ethnography was to examines the process and discourses through which family caregivers experience while caring for their sick family member in a hospital.   METHODS This was achieved by conducting in-depth interviews with 12 family caregivers, and by observing their caring activities and daily lives in natural settings. The study field was a unit for neurologic patients. Data was analyzed using taxonomy, discourse analysis, and proxemics. All research work was iteratively processed from March 2003 to December 2004.   RESULTS Constant comparative analysis of the data yielded the process of becoming a successful family caregiver: encountering the differences and chaos as novice; constructing their world of skilled caregivers; and becoming a hospital family as experienced caregivers. During the process of becoming an experienced hospital family, the discourse of family centered idea guided their caring behaviors and daily lives.   CONCLUSION The paternalistic family caregivers struggled, cooperated, and harmonized with the patriarchal world of professional health care system. During this process of becoming hospital family, professional nurses must act as cultural brokers between the lay family caring system and the professional caring system.
Ependymomas (EPs) are tumors of the brain and spinal cord constituting ∼10% of the childhood central nervous system neoplasms and about 30% in children aged <3 years. Their anatomic distribution varies according to the age, with those arising in the supratentorial (ST) compartment, spinal cord being more common in older children and adults, and those at the infratentorial location are more common and occurring more frequently in infants and children. Recently, molecular classification of EP subgroups has been proposed and a supratentorial ependymoma subgroup characterized by RELA-fusion genes (ST-EP-RELA) has been established. It would be useful to define a standardized, robust method for the diagnosis of these relevant fusion genes. We used real-time polymerase chain reaction, conventional real-time polymerase chain reaction, and Sanger sequencing to characterize RELA fusion status in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples from 42 ST-EPs (12 adults and 30 pediatric). We tested p65/RELA and L1CAM protein immunohistochemistry for their ability to predict RELA-fusion status. We reviewed clinical data to assess significant associations in this anatomic subgroup. Of the 42 patients, we identified RELA-fusion genes in 17 cases. L1CAM immunostaining displayed 94% sensitivity, 76% specificity, 73% positive predictive value (PPV), 95% negative predictive value (NPV). The p65/RELA immunostaining displayed 100% sensitivity, 92% specificity, 89.5% PPV, 100% NPV. Concordant double immunostaining improves PPV to 92.5% and maintains 100% NPV. Immunohistochemistry using both p65/RELA and L1CAM antibodies is valuable for ST-EP-RELA diagnosis: the negativity with both antibodies consistently predicts the absence of RELA fusions, whereas verification of fusion transcripts by molecular analyses is warranted only in single-positive or double-positive staining cases.
A case of malignant histiocytosis in a two year old boy is reported. His main clinical features were fever, lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. Lymph node biopsy showed a sinusoidal type of lymph node infiltration, histiocytes of malignant aspect and erythrophagocytosis. Liver infiltration with tumoral cells was demonstrated by needle biopsy. The clinical evolution was rapidly progressive and after six months of chemotherapy he died of intercurrent respiratory infection.
5 families with autosomal dominant inherited colonic cancer were analyzed with reference to the characteristics of familial colonic cancer: 45% out of 54 family members had colorectal carcinomas, with a mean of 4.5 affected members per family. The mean age on diagnosis of colonic cancer was 43.9 years. 50% of the colorectal carcinomas were located in the right colon; 11 out of 14 carcinomas were Dukes C, with a predominance of poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas and mucin-producing cancers. 22% had synchronous cancers and 13% developed metachronous cancers. Cancer at another location was found in 8.7% of cases. Prospective screening of relatives (siblings, children) revealed a colonic neoplasm in 3 out of 6 asymptomatic subjects. The typical characteristics of familial colonic cancers were demonstrable in our patients. The elucidation of an exact family history in all patients with colorectal carcinoma and a strategy of meticulous surveillance are absolutely necessary for the diagnosis and management of this inherited trait.
Objective:To explore the TCM syndrome distribution rules and syndrome elements characteristics of human papilloma virus(HPV) positive cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN). Methods: 210 cases of HPV positive CIN patients were selected to establish a symptom database,using SPSS17.0 statistical software package processing. The TCM syndrome distribution was analyzed with R clustering method of system clustering analysis and the syndrome elements characteristic analysis was with descriptivestatistical method. Results:The syndrome type distribution of HPV positive patients with CIN from high to low was:spleen deficiency and dampness in 75 cases,accounting for 35.7%;damp-heat in 61 cases,accounting for 29.1%;30 cases of kidney yang deficiency;yin deficiency with dampness accounted for 14.3%;15 cases of Qi stagnation and blood stasis,accounted for 7.1%. The disease locations include kidney,liver,spleen,heart,Chong and Ren and the syndrome elements include Qi deficiency,blood deficiency,yin deficiency,yang deficiency,qi stagnation,blood stasis,heat and toxin,damp,damp-heat and cold-damp.
Background: The second COVID-19 wave severely limited access to elective surgery. Methods: Between December 2020 and May 2021, 530 patients underwent a procedure in the elective ambulatory unit (EAU), a walk-in and walk-out model of surgery, and we used a prepandemic cohort of day-case patients for comparison. Results: We have had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 transmission on-site. The infection rate for EAU and day-case units for carpal tunnel decompression was 1.36% and 2%, respectively, and this difference was not significant, P = .696. Patient satisfaction was excellent at 9.8 of 10. The waiting time from primary care referral to carpal tunnel decompression was cut from 36 weeks to 12 weeks during the study period. Significant benefit in efficiency and cost saving was also found. Conclusion: Elective ambulatory unit provides a template to perform high-volume low-complexity hand and wrist surgery in a safe, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
Background Current neonatal resuscitation guidelines recommend that chest compressions (CCs) be delivered at a rate of 90/min. The aim of the study was to investigate the haemodynamic effects of different CC rates in a neonatal piglet model. Methods Six asphyxiated piglets were randomised to CC with rates of 60/min, 90/min, 120/min, 150/min and 180/min for 1 min at each rate. CCs superimposed with sustained inflations were performed with an automated CC machine. Results Six newborn piglets (age 0–3 days, weight 2.0–2.3 kg) were included in the study. Overall, there was a gradual increase in stroke volume, minimum and maximum rate of left ventricle pressure change (dp/dtmin and dp/dtmax), and carotid blood flow until CC rate of 150/min, with a level-off effect at a CC rate of 180/min. However, cardiac output continued to increase with the highest being at a CC rate of 180/min. Conclusion Rate of CC was associated with changes in haemodynamic parameters during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. CC rate of 150–180/min during CC resulted in the highest cardiac output and arterial blood pressure. Trial registration number Preclincialtrials.eu PCTE0000249. In this paper, the authors found that incremental increases in the rate of chest compressions up to 180/min improved cardiac output in asphyxiated piglets receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation with sustained inflations.
IT has been demonstrated by Way (1948) that squamous carcinoma of the vulvar region treated by radical vulvectomy carries a relatively good prognosis. The most unsatisfactory aspect of the method he has advocated is the very long time it takes for the raw surface left by the vulvectomy to heal. Various attempts have been made to expedite healing but although occasional successes provide encouragement to the surgeon to keep trying, the overall picture has hitherto been one of almost unrelieved failure. However, in 1962 a preliminary report was published (McGregor, 1962) describing a simple and effective method of providing skin cover which involved waiting until the post-vulvectomy wound had granulated and then applying a split-skin graft. This paper presents further experience of the method. To appreciate why this method has succeeded where other methods have failed it is necessary first to discuss the problems that face the wouldbe provider of skin cover after vulvectomy.
Knowing the relative risk (RR) of mortality associated with being outside the guideline targets and the percentage of patients in this situation, it is possible to estimate the number of patient life years that could be gained from adhering to guideline recommendations. We used a prevalent cross-sectional sample of 576 Italian patients from the Dialysis Outcomes and Practices Patterns Study (DOPPS) phase II (2002-2004) to determine the percentage of patients who failed to meet the Italian Society of Nephrology's targets for dialysis dose (spKt/V ≥ 1.3), anemia management (hemoglobin ≥ 11 g/dL), and mineral metabolism (serum calcium and phosphorus: ≤ 2.6 and ≤ 1.8 mmol/L, respectively), and the National Kidney Foundation's Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (K/DOQI) targets for nutritional status (serum albumin ≥ 4 g/dL) and vascular access (facility catheter use ≤ 10%). We used a larger random sample of DOPPS patients to establish the adjusted RRs of mortality associated with the 6 examined targets. The percentage of patients outside the targets and the adjusted RRs were 34% and 1.12 for dialysis dose, 37.7% and 1.20 for anemia management, 40.8% and 1.14 for phosphorus, 14.4% and 1.22 for calcium, 62.5% and 1.46 for albumin, and 40.1% and 1.20 for facility catheter use. The adjusted sum of life years potentially gained by complete adherence to all 6 guidelines was 25,156 over a period of 5 years (2006-2010); a more conservative estimate, modeling life years potentially gained by bringing half of all patients outside targets within them, was 13,382. In conclusion, this analysis suggests opportunities to improve hemodialysis patient care in Italy. The magnitude of potential savings in life years should encourage greater adherence to guidelines and practices that are significantly associated with better survival.
Although genetic reserch in neurological diseases has been dramatically advanced, its application to clinical neurology is still limited. Given the increased awareness of genetic testing in neurological diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxia, patients and their relatives' requests for information is increasing. In this report, we provide a framework for assessing genetic risk of neurological diseases in at-risk relatives baesd on our experience in TMDU medical hospital. Reagrding asymptomatic individuals, there are concerns that prerictive testing may trigger some unexpected psychological responses, such as severe depression and anxiety. Thus we also conducted a questionnaire for neurologists about predictive genetic testing in their clinic. Thre obtained results contained the complexed difficulties which can be shared among broader communities of medical specialists.
Introduction: Lipid laden macrophages have previously been reported to be present in the diseased human airway, secondary to gastro-oesophageal reflux. We investigated the possibility that the lipid index (LI) system of scoring cellular lipid content by oil red o (ORO) staining could correlate with disease status and the Hull Airway Reflux Questionnaire (HARQ). We also investigated the hypothesis that lipid could be ingested directly from gastric contents by alveolar macrophages. Methods: Primary alveolar macrophages were obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of patients undergoing diagnostic bronchoscopy. Patients were asked to fill in the HARQ prior to treatment. Lavage fluid was filtered and centrifuged (350xg;10min.) and cells transferred to glass slides using cytospin equipment. Cells were stained with ORO, counterstained with haematoxylin and macrophages scored according to the LI system. Meanwhile THP-1 cells stimulated to differentiate with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA;50μg/ml;24h) were incubated with varying concentrations of a high fat liquid meal and a fat free liquid meal as a control, at 37°C. The high fat meal contained a combination of canola and sunflower oil. Results: 18 patients with a range of respiratory diseases had LI scores ranging from 4 to 309. LI score correlates (r = 0.86) with the HARQ but not to a particular disease group. PMA stimulated THP-1 cells showed maximal lipid accumulation by ORO staining with 10% v/v high fat liquid meal for 24h. No lipid accumulation was seen with the control feed. Conclusion: Macrophages were shown to be capable of lipid uptake directly from liquid meal and airway reflux correlates with the presence of lipid laden macrophages in the airway.
Perhaps I don’t watch enough television because only last week I saw for the first time this commercial: “You may have lowered your LDL cholesterol but if the good HDL is low and your triglycerides are high you still might be at risk for a heart attack...” Finally, a television commercial directed at the public on the role of lipid components and cardio vascular risk. This message was timely and necessary. Focusing on just LDL and ignoring the other two lipids seems akin to sitting on a one-legged stool. Even if you manage to do it somehow, sooner or later you are going to fall. Most physicians know the goals for LDL-C, HDL-C and triglycerides but managing the lipids to those goals can be difficult, especially in patients with type 2 diabetes.
A network of transcription factors (TFs) coordinates transcription with cell cycle events in eukaryotes. Most TFs in the network are phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK), which limits their activities during the cell cycle. Here, we investigate the physiological consequences of disrupting CDK regulation of the paralogous repressors Yhp1 and Yox1 in yeast. Blocking Yhp1/Yox1 phosphorylation increases their levels and decreases expression of essential cell cycle regulatory genes which, unexpectedly, increases cellular fitness in optimal growth conditions. Using synthetic genetic interaction screens, we find that Yhp1/Yox1 mutations improve the fitness of mutants with mitotic defects, including condensin mutants. Blocking Yhp1/Yox1 phosphorylation simultaneously accelerates the G1/S transition and delays mitotic exit, without decreasing proliferation rate. This mitotic delay partially reverses the chromosome segregation defect of condensin mutants, potentially explaining their increased fitness when combined with Yhp1/Yox1 phosphomutants. These findings reveal how altering expression of cell cycle genes leads to a redistribution of cell cycle timing and confers a fitness advantage to cells.
Governing the professional and intellectual potential – interdisciplinary field of scientific research and a systematic process of creating, using and developing the innovation technologies of transforming the individual knowledge and specialists’ experience in such a way that would apply the knowledge and experience to the processes, services and products offered by an organization to reach its strategic goals. From the technological standpoint, governing the professional and intellectual potential represents modeling, forming, using and developing the corporate system of governing the professional and intellectual potential, including: (a) corporate model of external environment and internal business processes; (b) corporate information system; (c) corporate knowledge management system (KMS); and (d) corporate learning management system (LMS). Author considers structuring knowledge using this model rather valuable during the stage of forming the governance system of the professional and intellectual potential. Understanding, i.e., explicit definition of these factors, would allow for constant observation of the behavioral trends and for organizing the activity in a way conducive for influencing the favorable change of these factors. In addition, the presence of the critical management factor (CMF) system enables one to check the significance of any activity (i.e., any processes within a company) against these factors.
C2C e-commerce is fast growing in China,more and more Chinese acceppt this way and practise doing shopping in Internet.But the development of CtoC e-commerce is not plain sailing,and the problems exist in the field of logistics,payment and credit.This text has described the current situation of the development of C2C e-commerce in China,while analyzed the peoblems and corresponding countermeasures among them,looked forward to the prospect of C2C e-commerce finally.
The Equal Opportunities Spanish Law (from 2007), establishes that those companies with more than 250 workers have to design and implement an equal opportunities plan between women and men. Since the “cost-benefit” relation of equal opportunities has not been yet studied, companies have to convince themselves about the convenience of designing and adopting an equal opportunities plan by means of non quantitative reasons. In this paper the main advantages of equal opportunities for companies are discussed, and some criteria are offered for its application.
T HIS article presents a framework for comparing and evaluating efforts in reengineering, or business process redesign. The framework is applied to the study of the reengineering of the securities processing function at the brokerage and financial services firm Merrill Lynch, comparing the firm’s old and new processes. The new process features image processing, character recognition, and extensive redesign. Reengineering, one of the latest trends in the information systems field, is defined by Hammer and Champy [4] as “the fundamental
Since the seventies, governments and other public sector transport authorities in many parts of the world have taken the opportunity to pursue several variants of new and so-called innovative methods of contracting to acquire transportation and municipal infrastructure. These methods have emerged, as a response to the increasing challenges faced by the public sector in implementing projects needed to meet urban mobility demands. Government debt loads because of increasing demands for broader, essential social services, spiraling costs, political instability during project development, organizational deficiencies, urbanization and environmental pressures are examples of these challenges. A major element in the methods pursued has been the move from totally public sector-funded projects to varying degrees of public-private partnership in both the implementation and operation of transport services. This partnership approach has been seen as the means of achieving transport projects by a complementary combination of the capabilities that each sector is considered best able to contribute to ensure project success. Worldwide experimentation whit project development by public-private partnership has led to a range of contracting strategies, examples of which, can now be cited as having been either successful or unsuccessful attempts at achieving the basic objectives of the partnership approach.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted various human economic activities. Restrictions on people's movements with Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) have resulted in sluggish production activities and capital outflows which have resulted in a weakening of the rupiah exchange rate. In addition to impacting the exchange rate, the Covid-19 pandemic also had an impact on declining sales in the automotive sector. This study aims to model the increase in the number of positive cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia as well as to identify differences in economic conditions before and after the pandemic and the enactment of the PSBB. The data source used from the website of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force, Bank Indonesia, and the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Based on the results of the analysis, the ARIMA (2,1,1) ARCH (1) model is the right model to be used to predict positive case data for Covid-19. In addition, paired sample t-test analysis shows that there are significant differences in economic conditions in Indonesia before and after the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of large-scale social restrictions.
Financial institutions of the banking sector are one of the financial institutions that serve as the measure of progress of a country. To realize the financial system that grows continuously and stable, and able to protect the interests of consumers and society, the Government established the OJK (Financial Services Authority). This research uses secondary data relating to the level of effectiveness of consumer protection of financial services. Data collection techniques through observation, library studies. The result of this research is the development of consumer complaints in the banking financial sector. It is expected that the research has increased education by conducting socialization on consumers and monitoring and surveying of banks, in order to minimize the mistakes committed by the banking sector.
The purpose of this study was to examine opinions regarding future trends in outsourced intercollegiate sports marketing from managers of the outsourced marketing companies hired to administer media and marketing rights at select National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I schools. Twenty-eight of the 61 companies selected to participate in this study responded. Via the Delphi Method, data were collected as descriptive statistics, and frequencies were analyzed along with qualitative responses. The findings indicated that outsourced companies seek new business opportunities for the future with athletic departments. The most likely area involved athletic facility naming rights; retailing, licensing and concessions are less desired areas. The responders also indicated that companies are satisfied with their relationship with the schools though properties are looking for means to reduce expenses in the partnership. Those responding also indicated that future ventures and continuous sales efforts are likely to focus on select Division I schools (both private and public) and their respective conferences, since these appear to be the most capable of demonstrating a larger financial return on investment within intercollegiate athletics.
Interest rates are fundamental to a 'capitalist society’ and are normally expressed as a percentage rate over the period of one year. Interest rate as a price of money reflects market information regarding expected change in the purchasing power of money or future inflation (Ngugi, 2001). Interest rate spread is defined by market microstructure characteristics of the financial sector and the policy environment. The objective of this study was to establish the effect of interest rates spread on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The descriptive research design was applied. The target population of the study was all the 43 commercial banks in Kenya. The study used secondary data sources to gather information relevant in reaching at the research objectives. The secondary data was collected from the CBK offices on their annual reports on the macro-economic indicators and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) offices. The secondary data on financial performance of commercial banks was analyzed from 2007 to 2011. Regression analysis was used to analyze the data and find out whether exists a relationship between interest rate spread and the performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study found that there is strong relationship between financial performance of commercial banks with interest rate spread, default risk and inflation. The study recommends there is need for government to regulate the inflation rate in the country and interest rates as this would help commercial banks to operate in stable environment and safeguard borrowers from exploitation by commercial banks.
This study evaluated the impact of Build Operate Transfer (BOT) arrangements with foreign partners on state telecommunications enterprise P.T. Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TELKOM) and its employees. A total of 3207 employees from six regional divisions were administered a self-report survey measuring perceptual, and attitudinal responses two years after implementation of BOT arrangements. The questionnaire measured perceptual responses of job characteristics, structural characteristics, communication, training, adjustment to and perception of change, and attitudinal responses of organisation commitment and job satisfaction. The productivity measures were obtained from four productivity measures namely 1) revenue per employee, 2) human resource cost per total cost, 3) lines in service per employee and 4) cable performance. A profile of the respondents was obtained from demographic data.    Four statistical methods were used to evaluate differences between divisions under management of BOT arrangements and TELKOM (which were non-BOT). Firstly, discriminant function analysis was employed to provide information regarding discriminant patterns of dependent measures for BOT and TELKOM groups divisions. Secondly, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed to provide deliberately maximise the differences between BOT and TELKOM groups of divisions. Thirdly, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) enabled the assessment of differences between divisions and between groups of divisions (BOT and TELKOM) by removing the effect of covariate productivity measures. Lastly, Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was employed to analyse the relatedness among dependent measures. Prior to all these analyses, data were examined for robustness, validity and reliability.    Results show that transfer of managerial practices in divisions with BOT arrangements is feasible, if BOT contract specifies this objective. However, the contract obligations for infrastructure and revenue sharing created differences in productivity achievements between BOT and TELKOM divisions. The private partners concentrate on the short term objectives of infrastructure development and revenue sharing. The main implication from these findings is BOT scheme is a form of joint venture private public partnership that blends foreign private national and organisational cultures to have a significant effect on the home organisation and employees, but has the benefits of knowledge transfer and can potentially improve the competencies and capabilities of home state enterprise over time.
Air transportation plays a significant role not only in connecting remote and isolated areas but also in enhancing national economic development. Indonesia, a country consisting of more than 17,000 islands, has 162 airports administered by its government through the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of the Ministry of Transportation. In response to budget constraints to expand these airports for services, the government has initiated collaboration with the private sector to develop airports. This paper aims to assist decision makers in deciding which of the 162 airports should be prioritized for partnership based on project feasibility. The study used qualitative and quantitative approaches, employing an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method, multi-criteria weighting, and financial feasibility to analyze the findings. As a result, the prioritized airports recommended for partnership with the private sector are expressed in a quadrant priority of scale.
ABSTRACT Wei, H., 2021. Optimal design of an integrated cross-border logistics network for China's inland regions. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(3), 644–655. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. As the Belt and Road Initiative is initiated, a strong demand for the development of an inland cross-border logistics occurs. The inland port begins to play an important role in the establishment of the inland cross-border logistics network that functions to link sea and land transportation. From the perspective of the hub connection function of inland ports to the cross-border logistics network, this paper studies the optimal design of the integrated inland cross-border logistics network by a multi-objective mixed-integer program, which is built based on factors, e.g., logistics costs, freight time value, environmental costs, and governmental fiscal subsidy policy for cross-border travels. In addition, the influence of different target preferences, different cost structures, and different financial subsidy policies on the network especially on the proportion of different transportation modes are discussed to provide insights for the decision made to establish an efficient and environmental cross-border logistics network inland in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Strategic competitive intelligence is a necessity for corporate decision making in today's highly complex, “hypercompetitive” global markets, where current and potential rivals are encountered on multiple levels of competition. Key strategic decisions regarding diversification, downsizing from past diversification, and strategic alliances must be based on sound assessments of the competitive environment. Strategic CI, for example, can provide a basis for assessing the opportunities, necessities, and risks of present or future alliances, for making decisions regarding appropriate forms and intensities of present or future cooperative arrangements, and to choose among stable or variable forms of cooperation. Similarly, strategic CI can provide relevant knowledge concerning a firm's strategy-related, structure-related, and culture-related challenges with respect to diversification. D'Avini's framework of four cooperative arenas highlights why, with respect to the new competitive realities, corporate-level strategy requires dynamic, multi-level, and multi-arena competitive intelligence to identify and analyze probable threats and opportunities on all levels, and in all arenas, of competition. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Vietnam's financial reform achieved greater efficiency in bank size and efficiency,scale of securities and insurance markets. But Vietnam's reform is full of financial repression because Vietnam has not built a good system with property rights and legal system as the core. Therefore,after the financial crisis,Vietnam should strengthen its protection of property rights,quicken the legal processions,promote the efficiency of law and government work by gradual reform path to push forward the financial reform.
A complex set of regulations is intended to guide and control the capital markets and the equity initial public offering (IPO) process, with the goal of creating efficient markets for equity capital and investor protection. Often in response to market innovations, regulators impose new, and reinterpret existing, regulations. This chapter documents key US securities regulations over the past two decades that have affected the IPO process. While motivated by good intentions, many of these regulations have led to burdens on issuing firms and have had deleterious effects on US capital markets. The authors posit that these effects are driven by the burdens placed on firms, the incentives of firms to pursue alternatives to an IPO, the disincentives for banks to conduct IPOs, and the attractiveness of more profitable (and less regulated) alternative activities available to banks. This suggests questions for IPO researchers concerning the effects of such regulations.
Outsourcing logistics functions to third-party logistics (3PL) providers has been a source of competitive advantage for most companies. Companies cite greater flexibility, operational efficiency, improved customer service levels, and a better focus on their core businesses as part of the advantages of engaging the services of 3PL providers. There are few complete and structured methodologies for selecting a 3PL provider. This paper discusses how one such methodology, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), is used in an automotive supply chain for export parts to redesign the logistics operations and to select a global logistics service provider.
Purpose – SMEs are considered as engine for economic growth all over the world. After the globalization of market, SMEs have got many opportunities to work in integration with large‐scale organizations. They cannot exploit these opportunities and sustain their competitiveness if they focus only on certain aspects of their functioning and work in isolation. This paper tries to identify the major areas of strategy development by SMEs for improving competitiveness of SMEs in globalised market.Design/methodology/approach – About 134 research papers, mainly from referred international journals are reviewed to identify thrust areas of research. On the basis of review, gaps are identified and research agenda is proposed.Findings – SMEs have not given due attention for developing their effective strategies in the past. They are localized in functioning. On export fronts SMEs face many constraints due to lack of resources and poor innovative capabilities. For sustaining their competitiveness, they have to benchmar...
Although private security guards are a visible presence and come into contact with the general public, very little is known about citizens’ trust in and satisfaction with private security agents who act not only in the capacity of service providers but as agents of crime prevention. Given the rapid increase in the employment of security guards in Portugal in recent years, the goal of this study is to assess citizens’ level of trust in and satisfaction with private security agents in Portugal and whether factors such as citizens’ contact experience and their perceptions about the professionalism, imagery, civility and accountability of private security guards influence their confidence in them. Findings from a sample of 163 respondents from the city of Porto suggest that professionalism and accountability appear to be good predictors of citizens’ confidence as measured by trust in and satisfaction with private security guards.
Government Innovation is divided into two aspects: denotation and connotation. The connotative meaning includes the creations of theories, system, staff and operation. This paper discusses certain problems in government innovation from the above four dimensions, in order to explore the concept of rule of government, the management changes to the services, the government functions changes to the services, the formation of the administration personality and "Electronic democracy".
The article deals with the issue of formation and functioning of rural tourism clusters in Ukraine. Here, formation of cluster structures in rural tourism is at its initial stage. Analysis of existing clusters resulted in their classification into groups based on the criterion of specialization: lodging and food (farmsteads), agritourist and local history tourism clusters. Analysis of the main research models for the creation and analysis of rural tourism clusters functioning has been performed. A multilevel universal model of the rural tourism clusters with basic structural levels (basic, af-
Constructing one hundred Modern High-efficiency Agriculture Demonstration Park(MHADP)is one of the key tasks of Guizhou Province.The provincial government set the goal that by 2017the MHADPs should become"propulsor"and"engine"to promote agricultural industrialization,farmer income increase and economic development.Recent field study found out that overall the MHADPs develop well and some mechanism innovations have been practiced.The study also pointed out some issues and difficulties in MHADP construction.Countermeasures are suggested to address the issues.
This thesis deals with market segmentation and customer behavior analysis in the energy sector. The theoretical part explains the basic concepts of market segmentation, marketing environment, marketing mix and the purchasing behavior of customers. The empirical part is focused on analysing the market environment, products of one specific company and customer segmentation in the energy market. The main goal of this thesis is to describe the customer segmentation and customer behavior in the energy market. The results of our work are listed in the conclusion part.
PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the effects of adopting and implementing blockchain technology (BT) in accounting and auditing practices in terms of benefits and threats, thus discovering new and upcoming risks and issues.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a critical perspective to investigate how the implementation of BT could affect accounting and auditing practices, providing a reflection on the role of accountants and auditors during such a technological revolution.FindingsThis paper highlights the importance of the unreplaceable professional conscience and experience of accountants and auditors compared to the impersonal and standardised operating system of artificial intelligence provided by BT. The development and diffusion of BT are leading professionals to acquaint themselves with new accounting and auditing systems, such as reinventing old practices and finding new ways of taking advantage of blockchain instead of being overwhelmed.Originality/valueDifferent from the majority of previous literature contributions, this study looks beyond the potential and undeniable benefits that BT can offer to accounting and auditing environments by focussing especially on the threats and risks caused by its implementation.
In order to ensure the implementing of state investment polices and keep and increase the value of state capital, the modern enterprise systems giving first place to the limited state independent capital company and limited liability company should be carried out, implementing the separation of government and enterprise, implementing the relationship between property and right in focus, implementing scientific and flexible management system and implementing the independent management according to the company law
Providing cost-effective and efficient services are important to both courier companies and their contract customers. This work proposes modelling of multi-resource domestic courier operations with the aim of improving the service in terms of meeting a specific time window for pickup/delivery at minimum total cost. The characteristics of this pickup and delivery operations are (a) one delivery resource (e.g., van) can transport both customer items and a non-identical, lighter resource (e.g., courier); (b) item transfer is allowed between resource units where the transfer location(s) is to be decided, say among customer sites. In actual practice of some courier companies
Any business activity entails varying degrees of uncertainty with regard to its operations. This is recognized as risk associated in conducting the business.  In the past three decades financial markets have witnessed the emergence of many financial instruments, which facilitate financial risk management. The most popular amongst these products are financial futures and options. India is one of the most successful developing countries in terms of a vibrant market for exchange-traded derivatives. After the credit crisis took its toll in 2009, the global futures and options industry returned to rapid growth in 2010 after leveling off in 2009. Derivatives are becoming increasingly important in world markets as a tool for risk management. A comparative study has been made between various stock exchanges of the world with respect to trading volume of all the four exchange traded financial derivatives. The study has been made between various Derivative Instruments and also between various Stock Exchanges in the world where financial derivatives are traded. The results shows growth of some derivatives very fast than others, Suggestions have been made to support the growth of Financial Derivatives in India and World.
Straipsnyje nagrinėjami isorės ir vidaus veiksniai, kurie gal turėti įtakos informacijai apie įmonės finansine būkle ir veiklos rezultatus iskraipyti. Apžvelgiami duomenų apie turtą, įsipareigojimus, pajamas, sąnaudas, pelną iskraipymo būdai. Isryskinama infliacijos įtaka pateiktų duomenų objektyvumui ir tycinio duomenų iskraipymo pavojai. Remiantis duomenimis apie Lietuvoje tiriamų baudžiamųjų bylų pobūdį, Finansinių nusikaltimų tyrimo tarnybos darbo ataskaitomis ir bankrotų statistika mėginama įvertinti nagrinėjamos problemos mastą ir padarinius. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: finansinės ataskaitos, ekonominė informacija, informacija apie įmone, informacijos iskraipymas, įsipareigojimai, pajamos, sąnaudos, pelnas, iskraipymo būdai. Ways and consequences of information fraud about an enterprise Vaclovas Lakis Summary In today’s global world, every legal entity is entitled to get a reliable information about other companies if their relationship is based on finance, production, cooperation, trade, etc. Usually, everybody believes that the situation in the company they are interested in will be under constant improvement and will never get worse. However, in the real world, a company’s financial status and its performance results for different reasons can fluctuate. In turn, such negative consequences can influence a company’s performance and make a negative impact on managers, because investors, creditors and partners hardly tolerate them. Companies experiencing a constant pressure try in permissible ways to depict the company’s activity as being stable and reliable. This is done using permissible standards but an inappropriate combination of means which distort the company’s performance and financial state. Moreover, sometimes information is mispresented and distorted to such extent that a correct information about the company’s assets and activity is impossible. Conscious distortions are most dangerous for legal entities when documents are a fraud, the enterprise’s performance and activities undergo distortion too, and registered data presented in financial statements and accountancy do not depict the real situation. The value of a company’s assets and liabilities provides good possibilities to cover all the debts owed to creditors and to continue the company’s performance. The value of fixed assets can be distorted, if the depreciation was not estimated at all or the calculation was done wrongly. In accountancy, if the depreciation value is presented as being smaller, it means that the cost price decreases and the profit increases. Sometimes, because of the maintenance and reconstruction of the fixed assets, their quality did not improve, or the usage did not prolong; it means that the expenses increase the cost price of the current period. In order to improve the company’s image, the value of fixed assets is increased by the amount of incurred expenses. It means that in a certain period of time the profit increases and in other periods decreases without a real ground because of the increased depreciation of assets. There are cases when fixed assets must be adjusted. If this is not done, the information about the company’s performance is incorrect. Company’s liabilities can be concealed if the classification does not correspond to a true picture, if the invoices and guarantees are not provided, if the real debt value is not given and can increase because of interest or fine. The amount of revenue and expenditure makes an impact on the company’s profit, so the company tries to show an increase of revenues and a decrease of expenditure. Consequently, if the company wants to show a decrease of profit, the situation is inverse. The amount of revenues can be distorted by manipulating with the company’s transactions. The amount of expenditure is decreased intentionally either directly or indirectly changing the terms of time. Moreover, profit can be distorted too, if transactions with other companies do not depict the real picture; as a result, the price of fixed and current assets is much bigger than the market price. The assets acquired by the third party are sold at the market price, i.e. experiencing great losses. If the financial statements depicting the value of assets which are bought and sold are consolidated, the following step is elimination of transactions from the consolidated financial statements of different enterprises. Using the distorted information about a company, other legal and physical entities make erroneous decisions. Losses due to such decisions made on the basis of distorted financial statements are very big. Very often such distortions lead to bankruptcies. In the period from 1993 to 2007, the value of the companies that underwent or were on the verge of bankruptcy was 6421,42 million Lt and the debt to creditors 9216,80 million Lt.
Using data from both company records and an insurance provider, the authors develop a direct measure of out-of-pocket costs incurred by employees choosing a health care plan. Previous studies have used characteristics of medical plans and demographic variables as proxies for OPC. By better specifying the consequences of the health care choice, the authors show how the demand for health plans is kinked in a manner consistent with risk aversion. The results suggest that using the proposed OPC measure can help practitioners and researchers better understand and predict the pattern of employee health care benefit choices.
Increasing employee engagement through organizational culture has numerous advantages for the organization. When employees are involved in the process of making decisions, they are more cooperative in accepting them and more committed, leading to increased performance. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of participatory management on organizational culture and performance. According to the available literature and research background, three hypotheses are formed and tested. A standard questionnaire is used as the data collection tool, distributed among employees of District 6 of Isfahan Municipality. The collected data are analyzed using SPSS V.18.0 and AMOS V.20.0 software packages. The results show that participatory management has both direct and indirect, through organizational culture, impacts on organizational performance.
Throughout the world, whether in the Americas, Europe, Africa, or Asia, the rising cost of health care and limitations on access to care are central concerns. For example, in the United States, health care costs in 1992 reached $838 billion — 13% of our gross national product and many of our citizens, particularly in our poor and minority communities, confront financial, geographic and other barriers to health care.
Among the changes generated by the transition of the accumulation pattern with state intervention to the neoliberal pattern in Latin America, we highlight the consolidation of financial capital as a dominant economic player, the release of its international flows, and the progress of its merger with real estate capital in the cities. This form of capital has generated new material products such as peripheral social interest housing and/or real estate developments for the renovation of highly valued central areas, commodification and tertiarization of urban life, while speculative and risky financial instruments multiply. The financial-real estate capital’s prominence has led to the weakening of indicative urban planning, replaced by a “strategy”, and local governments apply policies to facilitate its action.
We examined the effects of unsystematic and systematic firm risk on CEO compensation risk bearing and total pay. Both the proportion of variable pay in CEO pay packages and their magnitude are curvilinearly related to unsystematic firm risk—that is, they are highest under conditions of moderate firm-specific risk. Our results are consistent with agency theory predictions that both performance-contingent pay and the greater earnings potential associated with that form of pay are highest when an agent has greater control over performance outcomes.
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a reverse supply chain (RSC) has a low degree of circularity, mainly focusing on recovering or recycling. Targets to increase the circularity have recently been introduced in the EU WEEE directive. In this case study, we have investigated how WEEE is handled within an electric and electronic (EE) equipment manufacturer. The case study includes findings from two different Nordic countries, Norway and Denmark, with interviews of six stakeholders. The case study shows that there are significant differences in how the case company fulfills its extended producer responsibility (EPR), especially related to reporting. The study also found that there is a mismatch between the ambitions in the WEEE directive and a company’s approach related to circularity in the end-of-life phase of an EE product. Based on the results of this case study and from the literature we propose recommendations on alignment with other directives and on a common information regime within the WEEE RSC.
We examine whether uncertainty affects the use of round numbers in investment decisions. Using unique data of more than 15,000 investments from WiSEED—the largest equity crowdfunding platform in France—for the period 2009-2016, we find that investors are more likely to invest a round number when facing greater uncertainty in equity crowdfunding campaigns. As more investors pledge funds, the perceived uncertainty is reduced, which in turn reduces the use of round numbers by follow-up investors. This finding is consistent with the round-number bias. When investors no longer know the funding status of the ongoing campaign, experience helps reduce the round-number bias. This suggests the presence of a learning-by-doing phenomenon through experience: as investors become more familiar with equity crowdfunding investments, they are less prone to behavioral bias. These findings are consistent with behavioral theories of investment.
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present a model that compares the switching costs that consumers face when they buy pioneering and follower products.Design/methodology/approach – A study of 255 new products indicates that switching costs are actually higher when switching from an existing product to a pioneering product.Findings – The study shows that people who buy a pioneering product may also face switching costs, if the pioneering product is launched in an existing category where consumers are already familiar with similar products.Research limitations/implications – The results help to reinforce the view that first movers have advantages and demonstrate that switching costs do not lead to a higher level of consumer retention.Practical implications – This study provides interesting managerial implications on how to launch new products more effectively when they suffer from switching costs..Originality/value – Researchers commonly view switching costs as a barrier to market entry that prote...
Using the method of AHP- EVMentry combination empowerment and coupling coordination degree model,from two aspects of Suzhou logistics industry and regional economic development,this paper constructed logistics industry and regional economic development coupled coordination evaluation index system,and analyzed logistics development level,regional level of economic development and the evolution of the logistics industry and coupling coordination level of regional development process of Suzhou from 2002 to 2011 for 10 years.At last,it put forward the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions.
The strategic choices of enterprises have faced conflicts of diversification and specialization,and how to resolve this contradiction affects the issue of long-term development of enterprises.In this paper,the methodologies of logical inference and comparison research are used to explore the core competencies of network organization(NO),which has many functions of complementary innovation,multi-buffer,win-win,and value chain optimization,but its main function is exactly the equilibrium between diversification and specialization,that is,rich diversity in the network level and intensive profession in the enterprise level.The balanced solution provides a realistic support for the future development and cooperation of enterprises.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is gaining more and more importance nowadays. It is connected with the activity that includes the ethical conduct of the organization towards the public, in particular its recipients, employees, other stakeholders as well as the impact on the natural environment. The universities deserve special attention in terms of socially responsible activities, which play a huge role in shaping the society, its development and are a source of information for it. The role of higher education in the context of social responsibility is special. This is due to the fact that, like any educational institution, they are responsible for educating and taking care of young people. Therefore, they bear huge responsibility for the knowledge and skills they provide their students, and thus how they will be able to cope in their lives. However, the university responsibility does not end with this. In addition to educational activities, they also conduct research activities. This means that it is in them that new discoveries are made and the further direction of societies development is shaped. The topic of the work is research in the field of university management strategy in the context of the idea of social responsibility. The work includes collecting, processing and analyzing data, information and knowledge necessary to identify applicable management strategies at selected universities. The developed conclusions will contribute to building a list of recommendations of a new university management strategy taking into account the concept of social responsibility.
Electronic governments have been playing a remarkable role in the developed countries and some provinces in China.Nowadays with the economic development of Shaanxi province and under the influence of the financial support from local governments,there still exist several problems in the course of development of Shaanxi electronic government,such as,lack of knowledge about the characteristics,status,and role;lack of long-term planning;ignorance of concrete relations;lack of safety sense;and lagging of management.For the reasons mentioned above,this article puts forward some constructive suggestions on how to plan as a whole to solve the lack of current information,to improve the value link of enterprises,to obtain the great support from the country's policies,and to take good advantage of marketing means in the course of the development of Shaanxi electronic government.
It is the most important problem Which provide basic security and public goods to thecountrysid for urban and rural economic development and building a new socialist countryside.The public goods in Rural areas are not only the to-tal supplying shortage,but also Out of line in demanding and supplying structure.Therefore,We should optimize the supplying of public goods in rural areas,and continuously improve the public finance efficiency of the use of funds.
We document a number of striking features about the initial impact of the pandemic on local commerce across 16 US cities. There are two novel contributions from this analysis: exploration of neighborhood-level effects and shifts between offline and online purchasing channels. In our analysis we use approximately 450 million credit card transactions per month from a rolling sample of 11 million anonymized customers between October 2019 and March 2020. Across the 16 cities we profile, consumers decreased spend on the set of goods and services we define as “local commerce” by 12.8% between March 2019 and March 2020. Growth in all 16 cities was negative. Consumers shifted a substantial share of local commerce spend online, such that year-over-year growth in online spend was small, but positive, at 1.5%. With respect to grocery and pharmacy purchases, online spend grew at least three times as fast as offline spend. Overall spend declines were uniform across neighborhoods of differing median household income, though lower-income neighborhoods experienced the highest proportion of extreme negative declines. We also find evidence that many low-income neighborhoods are increasing spend on online grocery slower than others, but increasing their use of online restaurants the fastest. Consumers in low-income neighborhoods also tend to live farther from the grocery stores at which they shop. Compared to their counterparts in higher-income neighborhoods, consumers in low-income neighborhoods have not been more likely to shop at grocery stores closer to where they live since the onset of the pandemic.
This thesis research conducted at PT. Bank Negara Indonesia under the title "Performance and Process of Bank Guarantee Issuance at PT. Bank Negara Indonesia Malang Branch Office ".  The purpose of this study is to determine the Performance and Process of Bank Guarantee Issuance at PT. Bank Negara Indonesia Malang Branch Office.  The data collected for analysis in the writing of this Final Project is in the form of descriptive data, that is explaining something done by Performance and Process Issuance of Bank Guarantee at PT. Bank Negara Indonesia Malang Branch Office.  The results showed that the mechanism of bank guarantees issuance in Bank Negara Indonesia branch of malang in differentiation into two types that is using full cover guarantee and guarantee not full cover. Bank Guarantee by using full cover means using account, while not full cover that is using customer's asset account which has been mentioned in Bank Payment Opening Agreement (PPGB). Performance is done in making bank guarantee Bank Negara Indonesia branch office malang is optimal according to standards that have been made or commonly called operational standards that have been made. Obstacles that are encountered in the opening of the bank guarantee is the funds are not available or the funds in need is not enough, unclaimed documents, system interrupted, customer verification, over the input limit. And as a suggestion the Bank Negara Indonesia Malang Branch should improve service to customers and more thoroughly first and be careful in issuing bank guarantee that check first before bank warranty in published.
This paper analyzes the global trend of agricultural extension development before it reviews major problems in China and the requirement of agricultural technical extension in the new era.It further examines the newly-established extension system of the 'one major multiple units' pattern,and explores the ways for further developing agricultural technical extension.It has proposed that in order to deliver better extension services,it is necessary to maintain the major role of the public extension as well as to encourage and support other organizations to participate in agricultural technical extension.Meanwhile,it is also imperative to seek innovative ways in practice to deliver better services well accepted by farmers.
Regulation concerning on limiting campaign funds have not proven to limit campaign funds from donors with binding interests. Therefore, the need to identify various weaknesses in the regulation Regulation concerning on limiting campaign funds to optimize clean campaign funds that prevent conflicts of interest, ensure transparency about origin of donations and ensure independence in making policies post election. Normative legal research methods are used in this study by starting from primary legal materials includes all laws and regulations governing campaign funds in regional head election and literature review which related to regional head election, secondary materials and tertiary material. This research concludes that it is necessary to affirm the limitation of campaign funds the candidate, regulating composition of contributors with the reasonableness ratio, reformulation of sanctions which excess of limit campaign funds, and application of investigative audit.
Abstract The rapid growth in the number of post‐secondary institutions in Saudi Arabia over the last few years necessitated the creation of a government agency for accreditation and quality assurance. The National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment was established in 2004 for this purpose. Between 2005 and 2008, it developed a new three‐stage quality assurance and accreditation system that benefited from the international expertise, while keeping its characteristics. This comprehensive detailed system was implemented gradually with wide acceptance. It included standards in 11 areas of activity for both programmes and institutions, including: a national qualifications framework that specifies generic standards of learning outcomes, and supporting materials such as key performance indicators, student surveys, self‐evaluation scales, templates for programme plans and reports, and handbooks detailing quality assurance processes. During this period, considerable help has been provided by the British Council through the Excellence in Higher Education project.
The supervision issue is always a critical one in new Rural Cooperation Medical System(RCMS) since it has been built in 2003,which resulted in less confidence in some rural areas. In investigation to Shizhu county,Chongqin city,we found that there was special supervision model in this place. That is the REMS Association,spontaneously organized by the farmers who joined the RCMS. This paper examines the innovation of this supervision model.
Objective To understand the present situation of rural health service utilization in Fujian province.Methods The data of the fourth health services utilization in Fujian Province were collected and the utilization of health service in rural areas were analyzed. Results The two-week consultation rate and one-year hospitalization rate in rural areas were 16.36% and 5.41%,respectively.Per capita expense of consultation and hospitalization were RMB 174.60 and RMB 8441.41 yuan,respectively.There 26.91% of the farmers not accessible to health service and 72.55% of them not hospitalized were due to economic constraints.There 95.59% of the outpatiens and 76.46% inpatients chosed county medical facilities.Conclusion The health service utilization rate in rural areas of Fujian Province is low.The fast increase of medical costs and economic constraints are the main factors hindering the access of the farmers to the health service.
We examine the operational efficiency of one of the large Canadian banks’ branches, which is primarily affected byits strategy of allocating staff and the service quality provided to customers. Two Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)models are proposed in this research: (1) a staff allocation evaluation model pertinent to employee numbers andtransaction volumes, and (2) a customer satisfaction benchmark model to check if the staff allocation scheme meetsthe expectations of the bank's management. Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) and Variable Returns to Scale (VRS)model results for different branch sizes and geographical regions are presented for analysis. The findings arecompared to the bank’s current models, validating the use of the proposed DEA models for evaluating operationalefficiency from a staff allocation viewpoint in the banking industry. One of the interesting aspects of this work is thatthe requirement for best practice is not full efficiency but something less. The rationale is that if staff is pushed to thelimit, they break and leave – the costs of training and integrating new staff is very high and service levels suffer.
Feeders are devices that convey electric power to Substations for electricity distribution. Its performance in 24 hours consistent daily delivery of energy is centered around reliability of electric power distribution systems. This article appraises the reliability of electric power distribution feeders of a regional Unit, in Southwestern, Nigeria. Each of this Business Hub has a 33kV feeder with two or more 11kV feeders. An annual data on daily power interruption for the year 2016 were collected from the central unit were analyzed to obtain reliability indices using a spreadsheet package. The results were compared to smart grid adopted few cities in the developed economy. This is to illustrate or illuminate the inefficiency (or problems) in the current distribution grid in Nigeria and the need to adopt smart devices in the electric power distribution grid. The finding revealed that the annual total outage duration (SAIDI), Outage frequency (SAIFI) and the percentage Availability (ASAI) were 2470.16 hours, 695 times, and 71.88%, respectively. The results obtained were too far from the international acceptable standard values (IASV) of 2.5 hours, 0.01, and 99.98%, respectively. The result showed that power supply services in the regional unit were unreliable and unpredictable despite the four years unbundling effects. However, adoption of smart grid (SG) technologies in lieu of conventional grid network will improve the reliability and efficiency of power distribution.
Australia's Murray–Darling basin (MDB) water plan is an ambitious attempt to balance ecological, social and economic benefits, where a key aspect of the reform process has been recovery of water for environmental use. This paper focuses on a set of initiatives established by a local non-governmental organisation and an Indigenous community designed to engage with local values and priorities and incorporate them into this complex river basin governance system. Contrary to expectations that local and basin-scale interests and outcomes will diverge, the case studies reveal the ability for local groups to collaboratively manage both land and water resources to achieve locally important outcomes, and contribute to basin-scale outcomes. The analysis also highlights a progressive style of community-based environmental management for water management that utilises multiple institutional arrangements and planning pathways to protect the values that are important to local communities, and to nest those values within the broader effort to sustainably manage the basin's water resources.
Credit union has a substantial role in supporting the growth of the national economy. A number of credit Unions implements DSS application to promote and accelerate the process of decision-making by management. DSS can provide ease of calculation, accuracy in the calculation and examination. However, an IT investment in DSS application, as well as other investments, is a segment that depletes costs and effort. The cost is calculated from the procurement, and continues during maintenance or during the investment implemented. Thus the implementation of DSS on a credit union needs to be measured whether it is quite fit and gives positive impacts on decision-making by management and on sale.
This paper presents a comprehensive empirical examination of the foreign exposure effect on Japanese corporations and sectors. We provide compelling evidence that, after controlling for marketwide movements, the exposure effect on Japanese corporations' stock returns is both statistically and economically significant. Based on a wide array of about 1200 Japanese firms and a group of 23 different Japanese industries in our sample, we find that Japanese stock returns on average are negatively correlated with contemporaneous exchange rate changes, but are virtually uncorrelated with lagged exchange rate fluctuations. The results are robust not only across exporting and non-exporting firms and industries, but also across sample periods. Exposure effects are also found to vary through time. We further show that both the market and currency risks are priced in the Japan stock market. Our results provide strong evidence that their conditional covariance risks are time-varying.
Environmental management systems (EMS) have been introduced globally to reduce environmental degradation issues brought about by industrial development. The research discussed in this paper is aimed at identifying the benefits and motivations of the implementation of EMS in compliance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 standard in Malaysian industries by using the pairwise comparison method. Experts in EMS from the Scientific and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia were invited to participate in the research panel. Based on the experts’ input, data analysis was carried out by using multi-criteria pairwise comparisons. The findings showed the ranked benefits and motivations of the implementation of the ISO 14001 standard for businesses. The results can indicate to policy-makers and business advisors how businesses can be encouraged to implement the ISO 14001.
This paper first analyze the less developed regions' ability to innovate with reference to the Chinese system of innovation indicators——Diamond model,determining three abilities——the ability of creating value,improving technique and attracting talent as the foremost evaluating index according to these areas' situation.On this basis,construct the regression equation to make a deep research towards such factors and finally combined with the findings,policy recommendations are proposed to improve the innovation ability of less developed regions.
Purpose – The aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis has accelerated a pre‐existing process of ethical approach in the banking industry. Today, all banks claim to be socially, environmentally and economically committed with the philosophy of sustainable finance. The purpose of this paper is to show that, beyond the outward similarities, there are three different types of banking approach, each reflecting a distinct business model: banks whose ethical/social approach is mainly based on what they say, represented by universal banks; banks whose ethical/social approach is based on what they are, essentially the co‐operative banks; banks whose ethical/social approach is based on what they do, the so‐called ethical banks.Design/methodology/approach – The paper bases its argument on the German banking industry, which is a big European country with a fairly diversified banking sector. The paper examines three types of sources for each of the above‐mentioned categories of banks: the social and environmental re...
This study aims to determine the effect of accounting conservatism and inventory intensity on tax avoidance in manufacturing companies of food and beverages listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2013-2017. The population in this study were food and beverages companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period of 2013 to 2017 as many as 21 companies. The type of research used in this study is associative - quantitative research. The data used in this study are secondary data obtained from the annual financial statements of manufacturing companies in the food and beverages sector which are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) through the site www.idx.co.id. Sampling using purposive sampling method and obtained 40 financial report data manufacturing companies in the food and beverages sector that meet the criteria. Data were analyzed using a multiple linear regression analysis model and using SPSS version 24. The results of the study showed that simultaneously Accounting Conservatism and Inventory Intensity had an effect on Tax Avoidance. And partially, the two independent variables, including Accounting Conservatism and Inventory Intensity, influence Tax Avoidance
Trends of the global Information Communication Technology (ICT) in remote areas will become a strongly affect in the direction of policies in ICT. The government of Indonesia should response to such external dynamic. Three activities havet to be carried out by the government, namely: developing the local knowledge, long distance learning and creative industries. All those are knowledge-based products. To achieve that, Indonesia has to integrate ICT systematically. Results of several studies on ICT in the rural areas shows that several initiates on ICT for rural areas has been conducted in Indonesia, among others are an information of the value added product through the Industrial Tree information, held by LIPI, Community learning and Training Centers held by NGO, and capturing indigenous knowledge for developing small scale industries.
Many traditional brick-and-mortar businesses supplement their physical outlets with e-commerce capabilities on the Web, but there has been little empirical research on the underlying dynamics of the "click-and-mortar" business approach. This paper develops a conceptual framework that highlights the four types of synergies obtained by integrating e-commerce with physical infrastructures: cost savings, improved differentiation, enhanced trust, and market extension. Case studies of click-and-mortar enterprises provide concrete examples ofthese synergybenefits and ofthe managerial actions needed to prevent channel conflicts.
The main goal of this bachelor thesis is to prove the significance of negotiation and to evaluate the importance of its strategies and tactics in commerce. First of all, the research is carried out on the basis of literary sources where the individual styles, types and phases of negotiation are determined. Thereafter, the most widespread strategies and tactics of effective business negotiation are examined and described in detail. The practical research is realized through the questionnaires compiled on the basis of theoretical findings. The role of research is to find out if the executives consider negotiation as an integral part of business and what importance they attribute to the individual strategies and tactics. The practical research has for object to support findings of literary sources. At the end, the recommendations for improvement of the whole negotiation process are included.
Strategic management is an organization process of d eveloping and implementing strategic objectives,which includes strategy formula tion,strategy implementation and strategic evaluation,and in the three stages of strategic management,the central part is implementation.Human resource mana gement,because of the task it undertakes in business management,plays an import ant role in the strategy implementation.If human resource management can fully play its positive role by the introduction of scientific methods,it will promot e the corporate to achieve strategic goals.
Bid documents are the most important written documents in the bidding and tendering process of construction projects. This paper reviews the compilation of bid documents in the recent years, and discusses the related departments' supervision on bid documents as well as the problems that the tenderer should observe when compiling bid documents. This paper aims at making modest contribution to the further normalization of bidding and tendering.
The magnitude of changes in observable quantities of interest at hedge fund activism targets are economically small and unimportant except when the company is up for sale. When it can facilitate the sale of companies, hedge fund activism is likely to benefit target shareholders, though investors must consider whether the companies acquiring the targets are also in their portfolios and merely overpaying, so that money is simply shifting from one part of their portfolio to another. But the rest of hedge fund activism finds itself sitting with past rounds of shareholder activism of which it is only the latest manifestation. Like those past forms of shareholder activism, it just doesn’t seem to matter much.
The financial services industry in India is expanding and heading for global competition. The market players need to frame a well thought customer oriented product planning and pricing strategy with a commitment to add value to customers in the volatile and competitive environment. This study elicits the responses of major players in the industry and offers inputs for acquiring competitive capabilities in planning and pricing financial services.
The main focus of this paper is to discuss the possible impact of public governance quality andperception of government spending on taxpayer compliance behaviour in Libya. Even though tax is one of the important revenue sources after oil in Libya, over the last five years, tax collection has been on decreasing trend. It is a great challenge to the Libyan tax authority to convince taxpayers to comply with tax regulations. This paper recommends possible positive impact of public governance quality and perception of government spending on taxpayer compliance behaviour in Libya. The Libyan government may need to place attention and promote actions related to public governance quality and government spending aspect in order to encourage taxpayer compliance.
The critical factor in business strategic development process is financial resources. In this paper, we develop a model that examines how small and family firms got financial resources from the bank and explore how different levels of relationship affect the efficiency of bank financing. Based on literature review and field study, the research reveals that the inter-person relationship and inter-firm relationship facilitate the reputation of firm and then promote the bank financing performance. Further, practical suggestions are discuss for small and media firm in clusters.
Korea’s shipbuilding industry has led the world in the technical area over the last century. Despite this commendable performance, around 2,000 workers experience accidents almost every year with 40 being killed. This raises a question of whether the safety level of our shipbuilding industry, in particular the safety of workers, is actually at the world-class level. Accordingly, this research has analyzed several types of safety training currently provided in the field through investigating statistical data of serious accidents occurring from 2006 to 2015 in the domestic shipbuilding industry, analyzing its occurrence and causes, and conducting a survey targeting employees in the shipbuilding industry. Based on this, it has investigated problems of safety training in the shipbuilding industry and suggested improvements. First, it is essential to create a standard system for safety training in the shipbuilding industry to address problems of different kinds and levels of safety training provided by each shipyard and low quality of training, and operate more organized and systemized training. Second, safety training curriculum specializing in the shipbuilding industry should continue to be developed and standardized based on a standard system for safe training to prevent serious accidents and improve safety awareness of workers. Lastly, both employers and employees should actively provide and participate in safety training to secure safety of workers through preventing serious accidents and ultimately create safety-first culture in workplace.
In this contribution it is proposed a critical framework, based on Basil Bernstein’s theory, for two aims. The first one is a critical reflection on some structural limits of the Indicator Frameworks used to evaluate the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care services (ECEC), since they rely mainly on measures of the structural and processual characteristics of the educational settings. As a consequence, the processual dimensions are reduced to their individual components, overlooking the complex and contingent interactions that create opportunities for learning. The second aim is to propose a framework, based on Basil Bernstein’s theory to analyse the different child-centred approaches to ECEC.
The complexity and the risks involved in derivative financial instruments and their proper disclosure are very important to show the financial and economic situation of companies that use them. In this context, this work was carried out to analyze the overall level of disclosure that the Brazilians joint-stock companies provide in their financial reporting, more specifically, we analyzed the impact of accounting convergence in the level of disclosure. The sample involved 21 companies listed on BOVESPA, between 2005 and 2010, and analyzed their notes to financial statement because these notes included quantitative and qualitative information about the derivative operations. The disclosure was
The brutal law enforcement and the weak law enforcement are two extreme law enforcement methods of the public security organ.The public security administration enforcement activity is realized by each law enforcer.It is easier to find the crux of the extreme law enforcement by analyzing law enforcers.The main factors of the extreme law enforcement are the misunderstanding of perception and valuation system,and the lack of enforcement capability.According to those factors,the perception of law enforcement can be set up by theory study,and innovation of police theory.The combination of the soft system and the tough system can improve the method of police enforcement.The soft system includes professional ability training,enforcement environment modifying,and psychological counseling.The tough system includes accountability system,restraint and supervision system,and performance evaluation system.
Social work has an important role to play in remote, rural and regional Australia in combating social disadvantage like poorer health, lower education standards, fewer employment opportunities and lower wages. The future of rural social work in Australia can be guaranteed by supporting those wishing to live and work in rural communities through education programs, industry support programs and ongoing professional programs.
The position of Cingular Wireless as the leading wireless carrier in the US is being challenged by Verizon as it continues to rapidly close in on subscriber growth and may overtake Cingular in the next 12 to 24 months. While Cingular's position has improved over the last few years with its acquisition of AT&T, reports show Verizon consistently outperforming the market every quarter in the critical areas of customer loyalty and underlying strength. Cingular, however, believes it can stay ahead of the competition by bringing the wireline broadband experience to the mobile market. To achieve this goal, the company has begun a comprehensive upgrading of its entire network. The company is also working on acquiring technology that could allow customers to view brief segments of live television programming.
The results of the research note that in preparing the income statement, Bank BPR Ingin Jaya has used the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards issued by the Indonesian Accounting Association and Accounting Guidelines of BPR Banks issued by Bank Indonesia. In preparing the income statement of Bank BPR Ingin Jaya using current operating income method, the form of presentation of corporate income statement is a multiple step that separates the operational transactions with non-operational transactions. The preparation of the income statement of the company is done in the form of staffel that is sorted down. The authors suggest that in preparing and presenting the income statement in order to always be guided by the statement of financial accounting standards issued by the Indonesian Institute of Accountants and also the accounting guidelines for BPR issued by Bank Indonesia. Because by following PA-BPR, it is expected that the completeness, reasonableness, accuracy and clarity of the information presented in the BPR financial report can be improved, so that the information is more understood and trusted by the community. Keywords: Statement of financial accounting standards, income statement
The goal of this paper is to meta-analyze the results of 35 studies that examine the effect on earnings management of firms’ boards of directors and ownership structure.We examine whether differences in results are attributable to moderating effects related to the system of corporate governance, the measurement of the governance variable, or the particular specifications of discretionary accruals models. The findings show that the variation in the results of previous studies on CEO duality and audit committee independence are caused by sampling error. In addition, the measurement of dependent variable, discretionary accruals, and the corporate governance system moderate the association between earnings management and some corporate governance variables. The measurement of variables, especially discretionary accruals, influences the findings found in previous studies. The findings emphasize the need to explicitly consider the legal and institutional setting when one analyzes the effect of mechanisms of corporate governance on discretionary accruals. Future research should include matrix correlations, and consider detailed measures of earnings management and more attributes of boards of directors in order to facilitate research using meta-analysis. The results suggest that board independence, board size, and audit committee independence can improve investor confidence by constraining earnings management. Additional empirical evidence regarding refined measures of ownership and board, specifically board independence, would be very useful in gaining greater understanding of how the different approaches to these constructs influence earnings management.
The purpose of this research is to get empirical evidence of the influance of Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), Productive Asset Quality (KAP), Non Performing Loan (NPL), Net Interest Margin (NIM), and Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR) to regional government bank financial performance. The dependent variable in this research is financial performance which is measured using Return on Asset (ROA). The independent variables are Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), Productive Asset Quality (KAP), Non Performing Loan (NPL), Net Interest Margin (NIM), and Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR). The sample of this research was 8 Regional Development Banks (BPD) in Sumatera on the base of 4 years quarterly financial report data in 2013-2016. The method of data collection uses purposive sampling technique. The analytical method in this research uses multiple linear regression analysis through Eviews Program 9th version. The results of this research indicate that CAR and NPL does not affect the financial performance of regional government banks, KAP has a negative effect on the financial performance of regional government banks, NIM has a positive effect on financial performance of regional government banks, LDR has a negative effect on the performance of regional government banks.
The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze how the right strategy for business development in the Irfan Jaya Chips business in Randuagung Village, Lumajang Regency. The methods used to determine and analyze data are SWOT analysis and SWOT matrix analysis. The method used in conducting this research is descriptive qualitative method, for data collection techniques, namely interviews, and the sampling technique used in this study is purposive sampling such as owners, employees and consumers. The results showed that there are strategies that can be used to develop the Irfan Jaya Chips business in the village of Randuagung Lumajang, maintain the quality of taste and chips products, improve distribution channels and add resellers, maintain good relationships with consumers, suppliers and retailers, increase the quality and quantity of production, and further increase promotional activities through social media.
Korean hog farms have been scaled up in the past decade. Even though, hog farms measure the management performance with just productivity or profitability. There is an evaluation system that gives positive effect on business performance by using both financial and non-financial evaluation indices. This study selects Key Performance Indicators (KPI) suitable for hog farms based on Kaplan & Norton''s Balance Score Card (BSC). Using the Structural Equation Model (SEM), we analyze the relationships between financial and non financial perspectives. The results show that the learning and growth perspective has a positive effect on customer perspective and internal business process perspective respectively. Internal business process perspective has a positive effect on customer perspective and financial perspective respectively. The learning and growth perspective has a positive effect on financial perspective indirectly via the internal business process.
In appropriate circumstances, judges overseeing class litigation should exercise their discretion to provide class members a second chance to opt out at the time when settlement terms are known. Such an opportunity comports with the plaintiff's traditional due process right to exert control over her claim and simultaneously recognizes the need to efficiently resolve large numbers of similar claims. Judges should provide a second opt-out opportunity when two factors are present: (1) when class members did not have sufficient information to make an informed choice by the opt-out deadline and (2) when a significant number of the claims would be economically viable in individual litigation. When both of these factors are present, a class member's interest in controlling her claim will normally outweigh the efficiency gains that might be achieved by denying class members a second opportunity to opt out.
ABSTRACT Purpose: Several development organisations have implemented programs to enhance smallholder farmers’ crop productivity and market access through collective action with mixed results. Therefore, this study examines the drivers of success of collective action initiatives as a pathway to improving farmers marketing performance using data from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses primary data collected from 30 farmer groups through focus group discussions. These groups are assessed for differences in their marketing performance using descriptive and cluster analysis techniques. Findings: Most of the group members are poor (67%) and few are considered as rich (2%) or middle class (28%), while the rest are destitute. The destitute community members are often excluded from the groups due to their own passivity and inability to contribute financial resources for joint activities. Mature farmer groups with strong internal structures and greater participation in product bulking as well as formally organised groups with stable external links significantly have higher marketing performance. Practical implications: We recommend that for farmers to maximise the benefits of collective action, supportive policies are necessary to encourage the formation of groups and transform existing ones into business entities to access high-value markets and perhaps even export markets. Farmer groups need to intensify their market research to access ready and stable markets such as supermarkets and institutions with larger volumetric requirements. Theoretical implications: The study shows that collective action is important for smallholder farmers in developing countries to sustainably access markets and increase their marketing performance. Originality/Value: Few studies have examined how social capital and collective action are utilised to improve smallholder farmers marketing performance, particularly in Central Africa.
vii Acknowledgement xi 1. Towards an Integrated Approach in Land Use Planning and Policy Analysis 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 The problem of integration 2 1.2.1 Land evaluation (LE) 2 1.2.2 Fanning systems analysis (FSA) 4 1.2.3 Land evaluation and farming systems analysis (LEFSA) 6 1.3 The need for an alternative integrated approach 7 1.4 Scope and objectives of the study 7 1.5 For whom? 8 1.6 Outline and structure of the study 8 2. Description and Analysis of Challenges to the Integration 11
We analyze the monitoring role of occupational pension funds, the largest category of shareholders in the UK. Our hypothesis is that, unlike other financial institutions, occupational pension funds are expected to monitor companies in which they hold large stakes because of their objectives, structure and overall share holding. After controlling for size and industry, we find that the value added by these funds is negligible and their holdings do not lead companies to comply with the Code of Best Practice or outperform their industry counterparts despite their long-term holding strategies.
Agile project management uses more digital online tools and methods to replace traditional and offline forms of project management. Agile methodologies have also claimed to make employees more productive and satisfied than those under traditional methodologies. Despite its increasing popularity, discussions about the effects of digitisation on employees' job satisfaction in agile workplaces are scarce. Following a case study design, this study fills this gap in the literature by analysing the IT department of a marketing consultancy firm. By verifying the presence of five core job characteristics, namely, skill variety, task identity, autonomy, task significance, and feedback, which are based on the job characteristics model by Hackman and Oldham, we draw conclusions about the satisfaction of employees in a digitised agile workplace. In doing so, we introduce two new elements to the model, location independent access and workplace communication, which help to understand the effect of digitisation on future workplaces accurately.
Innovation is often perceived as the catalyst that ignites the creation of new companies. By enabling the discovery of novel or disruptive solutions for the things people need, business innovation can turn interesting ideas into viable enterprises. Knowledge worker is a person who earns by selling his knowledge. Knowledge workers include teachers, data analyst, programmers etc. Most of them prefer autonomy. Knowledge workers are managed by themselves. This study is intended to examine the challenges of business innovation among knowledge workers. In order to do so, we considered the variable, challenges of business innovation. From the study it has been revealed that, there is no difference among the age group and occupation of knowledge workers with regard to challenges of business innovation.
Theft, deception, bribery, rogue trading and money laundering present massive and apparently insuperable problems for governments worldwide. On a national and international scale, these types of activities may have social, economic and political repercussions. This new book is primarily concerned with the impact of these activities upon private individuals. The text analyses the position of the victim, the fraudster, recipients of property and accessories. The focus is upon the civil law aspects of fraud and the increasing significance of money laundering legislation and the law of human rights.    The main theme of this book is an examination of the extent to which fraudulent activity triggers special rules which are exceptions to the general principles of civil law. There is the further question of the extent to which theft and fraud affect transactions which are interlinked. Policy issues are weighed in the balance, such as the protection of property rights against the need to ensure the free circulation of goods and the security of good faith purchase, and the demand for certainty in the law against the need to deter fraud.
Urban slums often create complicated problems, such as its existence which become the most difficult problem to handle. Besides, there are physical and social problems that worsen the environment quality. This is happened in North Jakarta as the research area. As one of the central economic activities, North Jakarta had attracted local people to work and live there. This conditions encourage the development of slum area in certain parts of North Jakarta. It is also worsened by the loose government control therefore, the slums grew prosperously in the greenbelt area of the city. Slums commonly caused various problems related to the decrease of the environment quality. The appearance of poor housing environment is probably because it is based on the individual activities pattern and environment setting that directly influence the people activities and process of environment formation. Thus, poor people always think on how to optimized the empty and illegal spaces but neglect the quality of the environment. People usually develop temporary house with unorganized settlements, very poor social and economic condition, inferior infrastructure and bad facilities. One of the reasons of low economic condition related to the economic conditions of the people is most of these migrants has low income. It is very hard for them to get better live since they got through urbanization by depending to others. This condition caused difficulty in surviving on urban area as seen in the Pejagalan sub district. Based on above condition, this research is aimed to reveal detail of real problem that may occur in Pejagalan sub district and show an alternative solution to the arrangement of the slums. The method used in this research was qualitative descriptive study which explain and describe the problems and all the findings in research area. While data collection was done through FGD (Focus Group Discussion) so that it will ease researcher to find out the problems and anything related to the research and find the solutions. The concept of humanized settlement as the output of this research is expected to become the best solution for relocating poor people along the river bank in Pejagalan, North Jakarta. The objective are to improve environmental quality and relocate poor people from the slums. This should be done in line with the efforts of reduceing poverty in order to avoid the spread of the slums in urban area.
Few would disagree with the proposition that trust plays a central role in the way in which financial services organisations present themselves to their customers. Intangibility, product complexity, and the long term nature of many products mean that customers face high levels of risk in making purchase decisions; they will often have difficulty in judging product performance and will need to trust financial services institutions (FSIs) - whether providers or advisers - to offer products of an appropriate type and quality. Analysis of the UK retail financial services market suggests that trust in a financial adviser may be more important than the adviser's status', that there is an association between purchasing and positive views of the industry^ and that familiarity and brand name are important correlates of trust and trustworthiness.^ Similarly, in North America, the Banking Association Chairman, Ken Fergeson noted that survey evidence suggested that 'more than half of bank customers believe that having a relationship of trust with their financial institution is more important than getting the best value for money'.'' However, there is also evidence to suggest, that levels of trust may be a cause for concern. In the UK, there is increasing anxiety about declining levels of consumer trust in financial services; perceived industry mal-practice (for example, mis-selling of pensions, endowments and related products) and the impact of stock market difficulties in the early part of the current decade are thought to have had a significant negative impact on consumer trust and confidence.^ Fines in the region of £75m imposed on firms in industry by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) since early 2002^ and estimated compensation costs running into hundreds of millions would tend to reinforce these perceptions. Most recently, the fact that the FSA has announced a commitment to increase consumer confidence would tend to confirm the difficulties that the industry faces in relation to trust.
The authors have worked in academic libraries (large and small, public and private); for library vendors; and in public libraries of varying sizes. This paper discusses their perspectives on the opportunities, surprises, and lessons learned via a substantial change in organizational type, structure, and/or size. In addition, ideas for evaluating job applicants with experience in a much different setting are provided.
Chinese industrial companies have evolved into serious competitors for German companies. The success of companies such as Lenovo, Haier, Huawei or CIMC is a clear proof of their competitiveness. What is interesting is that they do not follow the traditional Western management principles. The competitive behaviour of Chinese companies differs from Western companies similar to the Japanese with their revolutionary management concepts such as Lean Management, Total Quality Management or Kaizen. The lack of knowledge on Chinese competitive behaviour often leads Western managers to making the wrong decisions in terms of sustaining or extending their market position as opposed to Chinese competitors. This article gives a detailed description of the competitive behaviour of Chinese companies and offers a guideline for managers on how to deal with emerging Chinese challengers.
This paper explores the process of creation of the netbook market by Taiwanese firms as an example of a disruptive innovation by latecomer firms. As an analytical framework, I employ the global value chain perspective to capture the dynamics of vertical inter-firm relationships that drive some firms in the chain to change the status quo of the industry. I then divide the process of the emergence of the netbook market into three consecutive stages, i.e. (1) the launch of the first-generation netbook by a Taiwanese firm named ASUSTeK, (2) the response of the two powerful platform leaders of the industry, Intel and Microsoft Intel, to ASUSTeK’s innovation, and (3) the market entry by another powerful Taiwanese firm, Acer, and explain how Taiwanese firms broke the Intel-centric market and tapped into the market-creating innovation opportunities that had been suppressed by the two powerful platform leaders. I also show that the creation of the netbook industry was an evolutionary process in which a series of responses by different industry players led to changes in the status quo of the industry.
ZGAJNAR, J. and S. KAVCIC, 2010. Efficiency of risk reduction on Slovenian livestock farms: whole-farm planning approach. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 500-511 This paper deals with whole farm planning problem under stochastic conditions caused by production and price risk. Exposition to risk and efficiency of risk reduction was studied on five livestock farms in Slovenia. For this purpose linear and quadratic risk programming modeling paradigm has been applied. Linear program assumes that farmer maximizes expected gross margin subject to a set of constraints related to farm’s limited resources, while quadratic risk programming is based on E,V efficient rule, minimizing total variance. Risk performance of livestock case farms has been analyzed in E-V efficient set. Efficiency of diversification strategies for all farms has been estimated with risk gradient value.
As digitalization has caused major changes within various traditional industries, firms are forced to explore new technological paths and access knowledge beyond their boundaries. This dissertation focuses on knowledge provided by startups. Besides introducing search approaches and successful search strategies to identify startups, this work also provides insights into how corporations may become attractive partners for startups. In addition, the quality of startup ideas is compared with ideas originating from established suppliers. Finally, this dissertation examines the implications of engaging with startups.
The purpose of this research is to obtain empirical evidence about the effect of corporate social responsibility, credit interest, and bank size on financial performance at banking companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2015-2017. The benefit of this research is to help convince investors to invest in the bank's companies . This research used a purposive sampling technique to collect data and consisted of 93 banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2015-2017. The statistical method used in this research is used multiple linear regression analysis methods. In this research used the Eviews program, 10 version. The results of the research based on the tests that have been carried out state that corporate social responsibility, and credit interest not had a significant effect on financial performance, while bank size had a significant positive effect on financial performance.
The use of NCAs is currently regulated under state law. These laws embody diverse approaches to the regulation of NCAs which generally limit enforcement of NCAs to those with reasonable and narrowly tailored terms. State law also incorporates various approaches to mitigating the negative effects NCAs might have on workers, including requiring adequate disclosure, consideration, and banning their use in certain employment contracts. These diverse approaches can leave regulatory gaps in certain states and can result in overregulation in others. But this can also be a feature—diverse approaches to legal regulation of NCAs at the state level takes advantage of the laboratory of the states to generate information that will allow economic research to better evaluate the effects of these diverse legal approaches without exposing the entire nation to potential mistakes.    There has also been a growing and robust literature that has examined state variation in the regulation of NCAs and the effect of these laws on worker welfare. However, current evidence does not yet suggest a reliable and predictable link between the use of NCAs and the effect on employee welfare. Moreover, changes in employee welfare can be negatively correlated to changes in consumer welfare. Any antitrust rule that broadly prohibits the use and enforcement of NCAs would be based on incomplete evidence, would interfere with the current operation of the balanced and nuanced state by state approach to regulating NCAs, and would potentially be at odds with the antitrust laws’ focus on consumer welfare.
This article is aimed to define the cross-regional technology transfer network based on the symbiosis theory.It explains the characteristics of three symbiosis factors in the cross-regional technology transfer network of China which contains the symbiosis unit,symbiosis environment and symbiosis mode from a static perspective to structure a symbiosis aggregation and compatible degree model.Then the author uses the relevant data to give the substantial evidence of symbiosis energy generating and digestion level in 30 provinces in China from a dynamic perspective,and then classifies,analyzes and evaluates the technology transfer development in different provinces according to the substantial evidence to give the corresponding governance suggestions eventually.
The purpose of Car Rental System is to automate the existing manual system by the help of computerized equipments and full-fledged computer software, fulfilling their requirements, so that their valuable data/information can be stored for a longer period with easy accessing and manipulation of the same. The required software and hardware are easily available and easy to work with. Car Rental System, as described above, can lead to error free, secure, reliable and fast management system. It can assist the user to concentrate on their other activities rather to concentrate on the record keeping. Thus it will help organization in better utilization of resources. The organization can maintain computerized records without redundant entries. That means that one need not be distracted by information that is not relevant, while being able to reach the information.
Halal market has been growing for the past couple of decades. The growth has been spurred by the demands of the Muslims society worldwide, the potential market it shows, the government support and initiatives, the private sector resourcefulness and the increase knowledge and awareness of the Muslims society and the Non-Muslims worldwide. However, although Malaysia has taken a lot of initiatives in ensuring halal industry grows substantially, Malaysia’s governing bodies and the private sector needs to be aware of the challenges the Halal market needs to face in terms of fulfilling the consumer acceptance, religious acceptance, health and convenience and economic acceptance. A proper reasoning and understanding of the halal market and conditions will enable Malaysia to take the halal market to a more substantial level without offending or disregarding any factors in the first place.
According to ITU database about telecommunication regulatory bodies, regulators were responsible to monitor the quality of services in about 84% countries across the world in 2005; furthermore, regulators assigned the quality borders in about 76% of countries. In this paper we use metamodeling strategy to analyze and model the required processes for QoS/SLA management system. This model is developed based on regulatory requirements for the sake of monitoring operators. Inevitably regulatory monitoring methods and policies are different in each counties regarding to their customers and industrial infrastructures; however, the important points achieved from their experiences are similar and applicable in our modeling. In this design the prominent elements from regulatory side are being considered with special focus on the customer assessments. Interfering customer's opinions in our proposed model is the most important part which defines the most critical regulatory responsibility. By this means regulator can be informed about the customers' desires and market's potentials; also, it helps comparing and ranking between service providers. In brief, analyzing customers' ideas helps the regulator to better policy making and performing.
In the paper,the status quo of Chinese land management system was introduced,and from the angle of the various regulations of land management and their functions,the performance effect of the current land management system as well as its existing problems and causes was analyzed.Finally,some personal views and suggestions were provided for the reform and future trend of Chinese land management system reform.
We investigate two potential deterrents of aggressive pro forma reporting. First, the design of compensation contracts can encourage managers to adopt either a short- or a long-term focus. While it is difficult to observe whether compensation contracts are tied directly to pro forma earnings numbers, we posit that managers with a short-term horizon are more likely to make aggressive pro forma exclusions than managers with a long-term focus. Second, auditor effort can discourage potentially misleading pro forma earnings adjustments. Consistent with our predictions, we find that when compensation contracts include a long-term performance plan, managers are less likely to make potentially misleading pro forma earnings adjustments. Similarly, we find some evidence of a negative association between auditor effort (as proxied by higher-than-normal audit fees) and potentially misleading earnings adjustments. Taken together, this evidence is consistent with the notion that the design of compensation contracts and auditor effort can significantly influence managers’ pro forma reporting decisions. The results also suggest that investors discount earnings information when opportunism is likely to motivate managers’ earnings adjustments. Moreover, when managers make aggressive earnings exclusions in the presence of safeguards that limit opportunistic behavior, investors appear to react even more negatively.
Abstract: Jamsostek program is a form of economic and social protection programs to provide protection in the form of compensation for the loss of income in the form of cash and protection in the form of services, care or treatment at the time of a worker hit by certain risks. Jamsostek existence as living safeguard employment in a company is very beneficial, and therefore as a measure to ensure the life of labor, the company will enter the workforce in Jamsostek program managed by PT. JAMSOSTEK. Key words: Jamsostek Program, Worker Protection Law
With the aim of illustrating an innovation model in an emerging market, this case summarizes the successful launch of drug-eluting stents at MicroPort and the development of innovation capabilities and culture within the company. The case also demonstrates a strategic dilemma after one round of effective technology innovation and, more important, the role of understanding the value system related to health care in sustaining innovation.
For sizable populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), remittances from abroad form significant portion of their income. The remittances are monies sent to them by their close relatives or friends who work as migrant workers in high income countries. The total remittance amounts have been steadily growing over the last several decades to hundreds of billions of dollars as of 2019 (World Bank). For some low-income countries, these funds account for as much as 10 to 15% of their annual GDP. As important as this source of income is for those living in LMICs, the transfer of money may involve untrusted third parties that charge hefty fees to facilitate such transfers. These fees can be anywhere from 5% to 10% of the total funds per transaction. Even if majority of these transactions occur without any problems, there is always possibility of fraud and theft resulting in loss of income for those who depend on such funds. The use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies is an alternative to money transfers. Use of these technologies eliminate need for untrusted third parties in funds transfer operations. With increasing penetration of mobile phone technologies all, even those who may be “unbanked” are likely to have access to mobile phones. In such case, cryptocurrency/blockchain technology can be utilized for funds transfer to their mobile devices.    There are at least two well-known cryptocurrency companies (Ripple and Stellar) that help in near instantaneous digital funds transfer for a tiny fraction of fees charged by banking industry and other money transfer operators; although their global reach is limited to high-income countries. What is needed in the LMIC case is an entity that has global appeal and reach.    The recent announcement of a new cryptocurrency called “Libra” by Facebook may be one such candidate; given that Facebook has a vast social network spanning the entire globe with nearly 2.5 billion active users. That could help its cryptocurrency Libra as medium of exchange and cross-border funds transfer.    In this paper we consider remittance operations with and without cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies in general and present pros and cons of Libra for cross-border payments and money transfers. We also present a brief discussion on challenges posed by global cryptocurrencies to central bank governing bodies all over the world and policy implications arising out of potential conflicts between sovereign currencies and future of global cryptocurrencies such as Libra.
This study offers an empirical investigation of inventory and sales dynamics in a large-scale retail network setting. We infer the impact of product shortages on sales in neighboring outlets using unique data from a large fast fashion retailing chain. Since the product shortages do not occur at the same time, we conduct a novel Difference-in-Differences (DiD) methodology to align the stock-out periods across the stores in the network. In addition, we stratify data based on the periods in which stock-out is observed and apply pairwise DiD analyses to validate the robustness of our results. Our analysis reveals that sales for a particular item at a focal store increases when that same item experiences stock-outs in neighboring stores, especially so for neighboring stores that are physically closer to the focal store. These findings suggest that there is substitutability across stores, and that this substitutability is the strongest in the period when the stock-out is observed for the first time, and decreases in the time since the stock-out and dissipates with physical distance. In order to assess the value of considering the impact of stock-outs on inventory allocation, we develop an optimization model and calibrate it by using parameters estimated via DiD analysis. The simulation analysis confirms that revenues markedly improve on average by 2.2% when neighboring stock-out information is taken into account for sales forecasting when optimizing inventory allocations. Finally, we conduct sensitivity analysis to evaluate how this effect changes with problem parameters such as product price, and inventory.
The transportation sector is consuming a high quantity of oil and producing air pollution, CO2, allergies, as well as promoting the storage of goods in traditional warehouses. It’s creating not only waste and polluted the environment but also increase the temperature, air pollution, and low rainfall. The present study intends to uncover and understand the challenges of logistic infrastructure as well as how the adoption of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) business strategies is useful to encourage those practices and technology which are useful in transforming the logistic infrastructure into an eco-friendly environment. The DIY focuses on purposely utilising digital technologies to increase the engagement and involvement of customers in businesses. Moreover, DIY enables organisations to produce products and services that are highly demanded and have high acceptability. After doing an extensive literature review the enablers of DIY are identified and empirical investigation has been conducted. The analysis of the study provides a business strategies framework of DIY which would help the logistics managers in the proper implementation of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) practices to minimize negative environmental impact and improve business performance.
Some researches believe that working position turnover may be the active choice of migrant workers to improve their wage,in practice,however,it needs deep studies on whether the working position turnover can improve the employment quality of migrant workers. Using the RUMIC2008-2010 panel data on the basis of distinction between wage-employment and self-employment,we establish an empirical equation to control the initial employment status to investigate the influence of turnover on the quality of employment of migrant workers,the analysis results show that the effect of turnover on the changes of employment quality of migrant workers depends on the pre-employment status,that the higher the quality of the pre-employment was,the more limited space the current employment quality improved,and that the turnover has greater promotion role in employment quality for the migrant workers who stayed in lower employment status. Migrant worker who has attended pension insurance or has a fixed or long-term labor contracts will encounter a deteriorated situation,by comparing with non-turnover migrant workers,the turnover make his employment quality adverse.
This research focuses on the development of small urban center or agropolitan that is agricultural-based small urban areas in rural regions with the aim of sustainable regional development. A method to make an agropolitan master plan is by using a technological tool like Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Global Positioning System (GPS), in combination with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) playing a major role in developing effective information systems for regional development to realize the scientific management of agropoitan. The objective of this study is to identify criteria and alternative of agropolitan and select locations for constructing and development of an agropolitan area. The result of this study shows that the Eastern part of the district is a very suitable area for agropolitan in Prakasam district and Ongole region is best priority which is indicated by most potential area of primary commodity. In the other point of view, the agropolitan with agricultural business activities could generate all potencies in Ongole and the surrounding area that can improve the life situation of local people. Finally, development of agropolitan area leads to improve linkage between rural and urban to increasing prosperous rural society.
This paper analyzes the net cost of universal service obligations in the postal sector after full liberalization and the potential burden they represent for the universal service provider. It considers various interpretations of what an ‚unfair burden. might be and discusses the competitive impact of corresponding compensation scenarios by means of a stylized theoretical model with endogenous entry and coverage decisions.
The sale of options to buy and sell commodity futures contracts recently has been the source of great concern to various regulatory agencies, with much of this concern centering on the desire of these agencies to exercise jurisdiction over the sale of options on unregulated commodity futures contracts.1 In People v. Puts & Calls, Inc.,2 a case of first impression, the California Commissioner of Corporations succeeded at the trial level in bringing the sale of such options within the ambit of his agency's regulatory powers. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary to convince the trial court that the concept of "securities" encompasses the scheme whereby Puts & Calls sold options on commodity futures contracts, and that such sales therefore were subject to the qualification and regulatory provisions of California's blue sky law, the Corporate Securities Law of 1968.3 The purpose of this
For a long time cultural organizations were focused on receiving legitimacy from the government. Current developments demonstrate that the government is stepping back. Cultural organizations need to search for other resources. The aim of this research is to explore the field of corporate support in the form of partnerships. By creating a framework of different points of view, values and motives, new insights are provided on the positions and perspectives of cultural organizations and corporations in The Netherlands. The research question of this study is stated as followed: In what way are the cultural and corporate fields connecting in The Netherlands and which difficulties and opportunities are emerging in pursuing a partnership?    The cultural economic perspectives on values, spheres, motives, cultural entrepreneurship and the gift economy are used to provide an insight on the issue. To obtain information about the connection, a qualitative research has been conducted. On the basis of eight in-depth qualitative interviews with professionals within the commercial and cultural field, a data generation of perspectives on the subject is presented. Consequently, the theoretical framework is reflected on the findings of the empirical study.    The analysis of the fields demonstrates that cultural organizations are mainly focused on the economic value of corporations, while corporations are pursuing partnerships based on the concept of reciprocity. In addition corporations are searching for the perfect match of the social and cultural values. Their main question is what are both parties gaining from the partnership. Cultural organizations are too much focused on the inside and their cultural values. Corporations move in the market sphere, but this sphere cannot work independently from the social sphere. Building business relationships or a network takes place in the third sphere, the social sphere where people share feelings and values. Cultural organizations are in need of people who understand these issues. In order to connect they need to speak the language and have knowledge of the conditions. The cultural entrepreneur could be the person that makes the connection.
National governments often choose to delegate tasks and burdens to lower levels in a comprehensive system of administration. Local and regional governance thereby becomes an important factor in policy implementation. This paper focuses on the incentive problem that follows from such a delegation of competences to collect taxes and do lending at the local level in a multi-level geo-administrative system. The paper uses the Danish administrative system to illustrate the actual outcomes from such incentive problems. A two-step estimation procedure will be used to derive results on the importance of incentive problems in multi-level geo-administrative systems. Setting up elaborate administrative systems will introduce agency problems that lead to inefficiencies in both local and national governance.
By employing primarily the Kendall's Concordance Test, the paper attempted to conduct an experts' evaluation on the interaction among the agents in Busan marine tourism cluster and recommend some measures for policy consideration for the cluster's activation. For this purpose, a conceptual framework was developed to guide the assessment by using inter-agent cooperation and network approaches regarding the nature of the marine tourism cluster. Such factors as cooperation, competition, relationship marketing, and networking were identified as critical. Findings of the study imply that Busan marine tourism cluster is at its embryonic stage and needs desperate measures for improvement in the inter-organizational cooperation and networking, the major regional characteristics that determine the competitiveness of marine tourism.
To reduce labor costs and enhance profitability, many modern businesses have begun to employ temporary labor. Temporary labor not only helps businesses by providing necessary manpower during the busy season, it can also help businesses reduce labor costs during declining economic conditions by outsourcing labor. To address the need for flexibility in labor supply and extend the time needed to make labor decisions, this study presents the innovative concept of real options on temporary workers. The purpose of such options is to hedge the demand-supply uncertainty in future labor and wages. This study not only introduces the concept and method of real options on temporary workers but also provides real-life empirical samples to verify the reasonableness, applicability and practicability for issuing real options on temporary workers.           Key words: Temporary workforce, Stackelberg model, Real option.
FALL 2007 I nvestors in high-tech industries face a common issue: how to put a valuation on a technology based venture or project? Although classic investment valuation methods, such as discounted cash flow, are well understood, they tend to fail in this environment. Technology investments not only look into an uncertain future, they also have a business plan that is still flexible and subject to change. Both issues often make an investment decision a matter of a mere “judgment call.” In this article, we provide a compelling solution to assist investors in high-tech investment decisions: the Real Options Toolkit. This model allows one to capture and evaluate the flexibility of managers to adjust their strategy to alterations in the uncertain high-tech environment. This type of managerial flexibility is modeled as a “real option.” Based on the actual investment case of SemCo., a technology carve-out venture, we give clear guidelines on when and how to use real options analysis to evaluate technology-driven investment decisions. Beyond its appeal for pure investment valuation, the real options framework also provides another insight: the hidden “option value” in a technology investment does not just unfold by itself. Managers need to understand its logic in order to actively leverage and capture the value of their flexibility. REAL OPTIONS CAN MAKE A STRIKING DIFFERENCE IN TECHNOLOGY VALUATION
The growing trend to decentralize the IT function and move applications development to business units is often controlled by top management. A coordinated set of best practices helps IT managers take charge of change, position the IT organization as both a vendor of development services and a provider of vital infrastructure services, and ensure a logical career-enhancing structure for IT professionals.
This paper develops a theory of information disclosure with disagreement, and then examines its implications for financial and non-financial firms. I build a model in which managers of firms are voluntarily communicating objective and subjective information, and prior beliefs about the strategy to maximize project value are rational but heterogeneous, creating the possibility of fundamental disagreement. Four main sets of results are derived. First, not all firms disclose (subjective) information about strategy that can potentially increase disagreement with investors. This lack of disclosure occurs even though there are no exogenous communication costs, and 'proprietary signaling costs' are precluded because the model has no spillover effects related to the firm’s product-market competitors. Second, more valuable firms voluntarily disclose less information in equilibrium. Third, information disclosure has real consequences because it interacts with project values, investor relations and corporate governance. Thus, this paper provides an economic rationale for higher-quality firms to withhold more strategic information, and this has pervasive consequences. Fourth, banks, facing greater withdrawal risk than non-financial firms, optimally disclose less strategic information than non-financial firms. Regulations that compel banks to increase information disclosure have the unintended consequence of making banks more fragile. Hence, the analysis exposes a potential tension between information transparency and greater fragility in banking. Improvements in corporate governance will lead banks to voluntarily disclose less strategic information, become less fragile, keep less on-balance-sheet liquidity, and make longer-maturing loans.
Undoubtedly, the tax burdens that must be assumed by the taxpayers that allow contributing with the financing of the expenses and investments of the state as contemplated by the political constitution, represent in the vast majority of cases one of the main obstacles for the generation of companies that operate within a framework of complete legality. In Colombia the tax system is quite aggressive given the economic conditions of our country, this is how we see that on average every two years a new tax reform, reforms that are not structural at all, but rather correspond to temporary tax reforms that they complicate and make the task of complying with fiscal obligations complex.  Taxes are divided into national and territorial, at the national level we find taxes that are administered directly by the national government and whose collection is done through entities such as the direction of national taxes and customs (DIAN) and territorial level we find a large amount of taxes whose collection is in charge of the respective municipal and departmental secretaries as appropriate.  The taxes of the territorial order, specifically the industry and commerce tax, represent for the municipalities the main source of own revenues, this tax together with its accessory notices and boards allow the entities to generate cash flows that guarantee the functioning of public entities and the execution of investment works that improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. It is important to point out and recognize that the tax on industry and commerce is one of the taxes that generates the most burden to taxpayers, given that it taxes the gross income at the rate defined by the municipal councils through agreement and is unaware of any cost or deduction over them, which in turn generates all kinds of flavor and desosiego in the taxpayers to face this situation. All this accumulation of precedents leads the taxpayer to think of evasion and avoidance as mechanisms to protect their interests and takes advantage of the low or null control and control measures available to the municipal administrations.  In the municipality of Pamplona one of the projects advanced by the municipal finance secretary since 2017 but with its maximum ceiling in 2018 was the adoption of strong enforcement measures against the tax evaders of the industry and commerce of the city, situation that generated discomfort in the whole community of merchants but that represented an increase in the collection levels of the municipality, leading the administration to think in a promotion in the categorization established by the national government according to the law 617 of the 2.000 . Thus, it is clear that the control measures are necessary and that it is also important that administrations have guidelines and manuals that allow the development of processes such as coercive collection, taking into account procedural rules that ensure the correct execution of the processes and guarantee the due collection of the different taxes of the municipal order.
Funds of research are an important part of university revenue.The funds administration of research is an important part of university financial management,a key link in improving the use efficiency of the funds of research,and an economic foundation for colleges and universities to realize sustainable development.The existing main problems in the funds administration of research in colleges and universities are pointed out,such as complications of the funds administration caused by diversified funding channels,severe separations of project management from financial management,the university authorities'failure in attaching much importance to the funds administration of research,no unitary rules and regulations made by the state for the funds administration of research,etc.Suggestions oriented towards strengthening and improving the funds administration of research of college and universities are made,such as optimizing the mechanisms for project management and financial management,continuously perfecting the financial administration system,establishing and completing the responsibility system for the funds administration of research,doing well the work of accounting,and strengthening auditing and supervision,and performance appraisal as well.
Web, or networked, distribution technologies have challenged the power of US media corporations, which set high technical standards for production value, a measure of content quality. Legacy TV companies privilege complex, seamless technical execution supported by large crews of workers – lighting, sound, design, visual effects – but exclude as producers culturally marginalised creators perceived as too risky for the big investment necessary to execute it. The internet disrupts these dynamics by allowing for the distribution of smaller scale TV and video productions that are independently or inexpensively made. In smaller scale work, cultural production value asserts more importance, as producers create with and for their community.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the Critical Influencing Factors (CIFs) of internationalization by Nigerian service firms, as well as, examines specific relationships between these CIFs and Perceived International Business Performance Measure (PIBPM). A total of 567 management staff of 15 Nigerian service firms, with international presence was randomly selected from a business-to-business database maintained by a national list provider. Using the general framework of Dunning’s (1980) eclectic theory, factors manifesting PIBPM were regressed on the CIFs, manifesting successful internationalization. However, multivariate analyses was mathematically represented in a single equation, and this equation is expected to be used by Nigerian service firms in composing strategies to optimize their management of international entry decisions and international business performance. Overall, internationalization to significantly improve international business performance, the decision to expand to foreign country must be based on Increasing value and number of employee, high market potential, possession of unique proprietary technology, tacit know-how, and firm reputation/ image, favorable government policies, complementary and receptive host nation’s organizational structures, processes and administrative conveniences, and favourable pattern and government regulation of competition in the host nation. The model also provides predictive implications on improved international business performance, given the activities of CIFs manifesting successful internationalization.
As the country with the largest population in the world, China has entered an aging society as the population ages, and it has become the country with the largest number of elderly people in the world. Resolving the problem of population aging that is growing year by year is an important task that needs to be resolved to maintain social stability and promote national economic development. As an emerging science and technology, Internet of Things technology has been applied to the field of old-age services in many countries, aiming to create a new way of intelligent retirement. The use of Internet of Things technology to scientifically integrate existing pension resources, and provide comprehensive and seamless service for the elderly according to the needs of the elderly of different ages, can not only resolve various problems existing in the current supply of aged care services, but also satisfy the needs of the elderly at different levels of the elderly, to achieve the goal of stabilizing society and promoting economic development.
Small and micro social enterprises deal with meeting unmet or inadequately met needs of marginalized people and communities by creating values for them. While organizing and focusing their efforts on doing this entrepreneurially, they are constantly buffeted by complexities and uncertainties. Most of these enterprises are initiated and led by committed social activists who become ‘accidental managers.' In their attempts to continue being relevant and committed to their true mission, these social entrepreneurs resort to novel methods through a unique framework called the Cynefin-Bricolage Framework that is essentially an ‘analysis-solution' tool for solving critical problems associated with uncertainties in organizational contexts for small social enterprises. This chapter uses two case studies from Nepal which deploy this framework effectively, setting an example of good practice for other small and micro social enterprises, with significant relevance to the sector as a whole.
Teleworking is enabled by technology which reflects an innovation capability of an organisation to gain sustainable competitive advantage. A major gap that exists in teleworking research literature today, is the absence of a theoretical framework that can be used to help firms understand the competitive advantage of a teleworking firm. This study attempts to bridge the gap by developing and proposing a framework which identifies factors that might have an impact on teleworking performance which in turn generates a firm's sustainable competitive advantage. The resource-based theory (RBT) suggests that the sustainability of competitive advantage is dependent on a firm's innovation capability. This study applies RBT to understand the competitive advantage of teleworking firms. The interview findings reveal that innovation capability is ascertained by tangible and intangible resources that are acquired and accessed by a teleworking firm.
Abstract:  This paper uses the concept of “streets for all” as the analytical basis to critique the neglect of pedestrians, cyclists and street vendors in transport policy and practice in the city of Nairobi. The paper shows that transport planning in Nairobi has not adequately taken care of informal economy and non-motorized transport such as walking and cycling. This has resulted in competing use of pavements and roads, exposing pedestrians, cyclists and street vendors to insecurity and harassment. The paper calls for inclusive transport planning for multiple street activities, which requires implementing a “streets for all” policy. Such a policy needs to be critically pursued at the level of dealing with the institutional and structural bias in urban transport planning towards motorized traffic and the overall urban development that does not adequately consider the spatio-temporal activity pattern and the life of pedestrians, cyclists and vendors on the streets.
Specialty market is a newly emerging market system since China's reform and open-up. The evironment for survival and development is quantitative consumers and small and medium sized enterprises. As consumer behavior changed in coastal areas, there was an evidence that the specialty market's customer group moved northward and westword. And so did the specialty market Meanwhile, small and medium sized enterprises brought up a new demand to the function of specialty market. A transformation from sheer commodities gathering and distributing to a multy functions market which could also deal commodities exhibition, information gathering and spreading etc., is the trend of specialty market in future. So, specialty market must be reconstructed based on information technology.
Summary In the decision-making process that determines timber sales between private forest owners and the Finnish forest industry, opinions frequently confl ict about the extent to which the forest landscape should be managed. The objective of this study was to investigate whether it would be useful to develop a landscape visualization tool that would help forest owners understand the consequences of harvesting so they could make a more informed decision on whether to sell their timber. We evaluated responses to a survey sent to forest owners in two regions of Finland to provide insights into owner appreciation of the forest landscape. The 545 forest owners who responded also evaluated the value of computer visualizations and a set of computer-generated images of the landscape. Our analysis concentrated on whether visualizing the landscape would affect sales decisions and – since women are increasingly becoming forest owners – how gender affected perceptions of the landscape and decision making. Visualization proved to be a popular tool for all forest owners. However, male and female forest owners had different perspectives on the forest landscape. Factors that differed between men and women for the statements with the strongest weightings in the principal component analysis explained 26 per cent of the overall variation in perceptions. Women particularly wanted to be able to visualize the post-harvesting landscape and preferred different types of visualization than men. Values associated with forest landscapes and their visualization seem more important to women and may therefore affect their sales decisions more than those of men. Based on these results, it will be useful to design and implement a decision support tool that will help forest owners visualize the consequences of harvesting and help the Finnish forest industry provide a more environmentally friendly service that accounts for the owner’s landscape-related goals.
Discusses new products introduced in the marketplace as being repurchasable and concerns itself with an estimate of the ratio of first‐time buyers to repeat buyers, relating this to the product expansion rate and time between first‐time and repeat buying. Gives fundamental hypotheses and defines the problems involved using tables and mathematical equations for emphasis giving examples of applications. Concludes that the model here may be usefully employed to obtain indications of the market wherever the sale of a product is expanding rapidly – but the turnover is also large.
Retailers are using the term retail theatre (theater) to imply a service offer that is different and special. An important component of the offer is an increased opportunity for consumers to interact and participate within the overall experience. This article compares consumer participation in retail theatre with audience participation in actual theatre. It draws on ideas from Bertolt Brecht, a playwright who is widely recognised for his application of radical and innovative methods to engage his audiences in all aspects of a performance. A detailed examination of Brecht’s methods is structured around his management and development of the roles and performances of actors, his techniques for providing planned opportunities for audiences to influence performances, and his arrangement of staging and mechanics to stimulate audience participation. Implications for retailers, of the comparison, relate to both human resource management and operational considerations, and challenge conventional practice. It is advocated that the actual theatre is a rich source of ideas for retailers wishing to offer different and engaging “experiences” to consumers.
The purpose of this study is to construct and to test a model that illustrates the incubation process and project business incubation outcomes. Following a discussion of the nature and function of business incubators, real options theory is used to develop a theory of business incubation.A model of this real options-driven theory of business incubation is presented, along with three hypotheses generated by the model. Taken together, the hypotheses suggest that business incubation performance is positively related to selection performance, the intensity of the incubator's monitoring and business assistance efforts, and resource munificence. Data from a 2004-2005 survey of 53 incubator managers are used to test the model. Analysis of these data does not support the hypotheses suggested by the model. The implications of the model's failure to predict incubation outcomes are explored.
In order to present the picture and facts of the 370clause of Jammu and Kashmir and the impacts of it in the business as an opportunity as well as challenge. The purpose of this thesis is to show the situation that is created after the law and to mention the further benefits that would be possibly come up with further hitches with it. This thesis gives the knowledge of entire business that is been followed over there for so long time and what new business get the change enter over there. This study also provides information about the techniques that should be implied to understand the overall situation in an easier way and to promote the tourism business in a better way.
Discretion may challenge the formal principle of justice as it may involve unequal treatment of the same type of case. This article explores the discretionary reasoning exhibited by the frontline workers at different Norwegian Labour and Welfare offices (NAV) towards the same fictitious case. Frontline workers participate in a focus group where they are presented with a vignette concerning the case of a user with medically objective findings, that is, a severe head injury. The analysis focuses on the reasoning of the frontline workers before they come up with a suggestion as to how to proceed with the case. The findings demonstrate that while different avenues are pursued in the reasoning of the focus groups, the same conclusion is reached as to the treatment of the case. The article argues that the institutional logic which guides the frontline workers actions infers the reasoning process through a “norm of action” that states how it ought to be done.
This paper is about building theory from a single case study for a practice phenomenon called spin-along. Spin-along is a combination of internal and external corporate venturing elements that supports large corporations' innovation activities. The case study contributes to corporate venturing practice and the literature as it points out the important role of management in an intentional, process-oriented corporate venturing activity. On the theoretical basis of the strategic ambidexterity concept, which refers to the close interconnection between strategic and organisational activities, we conducted the case study at a leading international laboratory and process technology provider. Results from the case study reveal that there must be two merged perspectives, namely from the parent firm and the spin-along, in order to achieve organisational ambidexterity and a higher overall innovative performance. Merging these two perspectives involves managing conflicting goals between the parent firm and spin-alongs, controlling organisational synergies and enabling the exchange of resources.
ABSTRACT Increasingly, organizations are focusing on the implications of their employer brands and the processes that will differentiate them from competitors in order to offer a more attractive place for top talent to work. In this article, we begin by reviewing constructs in marketing, human resources (HR), and industrial–organizational (I/O) psychology, many of which are closely related, that have been invoked to refer to the broad topic of employer branding. Following that, we review research findings in strategic human resources management as a basis for guiding and informing the employer-branding process. HR typically views processes in recruiting, on-boarding, training, performance management, and rewards separately and at the tactical/execution level. The role of strategic HR, however, is to consider these processes as a set to promote a positive employer brand. We conclude with action steps for organizations and key issues for HR/organizational behavior (OB) scholars to address in developing and improving employer brands.
ABSTRACT Providing practical information, which can be valued monetarily and enhances the economic well being of those who use it, is an important function of the public library. Most public libraries, however, do not aggressively market this niche. Precedence is given to marketing the library as an educational and cultural institution. This role has had a long and dominant history. Traditionally, public perceptions of the library and other factors have made it difficult to broaden library marketing to focus on other information segments. Over time, this bias erodes the viability and relevance of the public library since other organizations usurp the niche. Methods for broadening the library's marketing focus to include practical information are outlined.
With the rapid development of the internet,users made "video-on-demand" come true with the help of the new VOD(FastVOD) technology.The network video advertisements are following the new trends of marketing in this era and has become a fresh troop which has exert great influence on advertisement market with its obvious specialty,say,plentiful content,convenient communication between advertisers and users and accurate introduction,however,the net video advertisement are newcomers in this market,its effectiveness is still waiting for further discussion.
ABSTRACT PT. Fajar Surya Wisesa ( PT. FASW) is a manufacturing company producing paper for packaging material.  About 30% of its products is exported while the rest is for domestic market. PT FASW intends to increase its export share to anticipate the free trade era. To achieve this objective, PT FASW needs to adopt a new marketing strategy to support product promotion. One of the marketing strategy alternatives that PT FASW looks for is e-commerce so that it can put its products information anytime, anywhere by utilizing website technology.  By developing e-commerce, PT FASW expects to be able to improve its company image at international market as well as to promote all of its products widely at low operational cost. The objectives of this research are (1) to design e-commerce system, and (2) to develop e-commerce software which can assist PT. FASW to market its products through internet. The developed e-commerce system includes, among others, registration of new customer, on-line order, payment method, detection of order status, information of payment status and invoice notification. Key words : e-commerce, packaging material, PT. FASW
Although the terminology of global public goods may be new to international law scholarship, many of the principal features and implications of global public goods are familiar: global public goods are externalities writ large; they create incentives to free ride; and in many cases, they require international governance to provide. Nevertheless, the global public goods literature has been valuable in highlighting that global public goods come in different types, with different ‘production technologies’. Some depend on the aggregate effort of the entire group, while others depend on a ‘single best effort’ or on the ‘weakest link’. These different types of global public goods raise different governance issues and hence different challenges for international law.
The efficiency of knowledge transfer depends on characteristics of transferred knowledge and equilibrium of trade perceived by people involved. There is high transfer efficiency for explicit knowledge by structured and technology-driven approach. While, transferring tacit knowledge successfully needs more interactions between suppliers and recipients. Internal knowledge market as a kind of transfer mechanism, under a proper organizational control, it plays a significant promoting role for both explicit and tacit knowledge.
Introduction. Moscow City is one of the greatest megapolises of the world and the largesttransport system in Europe relating to scales of its development, amount of exploited transportvehicles. volumes of passenger and freight traffics.Autotransport has become the most powerful source of negative influence onenvironment in Moscow recently. The significant increase in number of cars is the main reasonof such situation taking into account share of old transport in the total number of vehicles , slowdevelopment of transport infrastructure, not always satisfactory level of cars technicalcondition. The problem of environmental pollution by motor transport is manifested not only ininfluence of functioning transporto, but also in negative influence of end-of-life cars.At present. some enterprises and organizations of Moscow region make proposals ondevelopments for improvement of the existing system of collection and treatment of vehicles.Making conception provides creation of a regional system for abandoned and end-of-lifevehicles. The technological scheme consists of stages of collection, preliminary preparation,metallurgy or shredding treatment and metal/metalloid scrap sorting. The Conception includes themain technico-econm ical indicators of the proposed system of processing.Making the complexes of conversion of vehicle waste is a large investment project,requiring not only anraction of significant funds, but also creation of a centralaized system,allowing guarantee the arrival of waste flow.The aim of the project is to develop organizational, financial, legal mechanisms andtechnical measures for making a motivated system. It must be based on the Polluter PaysPrinciple and consequent conversion of cars wracks into commercial goods. This work includesalso a forecast for transport waste volumes. Without these data it is impossible to make planningfor development of the system.
ABSTRACT Small firms can be assisted a great deal with the support of external business consultants, but consultants need to constantly strive to improve their services. This paper reviews recent conceptual and empirical works to provide a practical guide for consultants to use in assisting small firm performance. The paper helps consultants improve small firm performance (1) by suggesting where to focus improvement efforts and (2) by suggesting a new strategy for marketing their services.
Climate change and environmental aspects are key issues on public agenda. Governments and politicians try to implement new regulations and limits to reduce the environmental burden of the industries around the globe. However, success can be seen only to a limited extend in many areas. On the other hand some industrial sectors themselves start to think about solutions to handle the big impacts. Some pioneers in this field discovered already also the competitive and economic advantage of implementing so called green and sustainable solutions in their business. This includes production, manufacturing and transport activities but also ways how to manage and monitor such activities from an eco-friendly perspective. This paper will give an overview of the implication of green logistics along the supply chain in regard to the automotive industry including supply companies from SME sector and will demonstrate the application of this issue. For that an example of the European market leader Volkswagen AG in Germany is chosen and analyzed in the case description.
ABSTRACT This quantitative study aims to observe the purchase intention of halal food products in Spain from the perspective of Muslim tourists. 500 Muslim respondents who have visited Spain participated in answering our research questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the PLS-SEM method using SmartPLS 3.0 software. Our result shows that both the halal credence and the need for cognition have no direct effects on halal purchase intention. However, halal consumers’ attitude acts as significant mediators in the indirect effects of both halal credence and the need for cognition on halal purchase intention.
Public authorities address issues related to urban maintenance management on a daily basis. Maintenance is vital for preserving efficient architectural and functional quality, but the economic resources that can be invested in it are increasingly limited. Thus, authorities tend to carry out maintenance works only when effective emergency situations occur. On the contrary, adopting a preventive maintenance plan would allow a better management of the available budget and savings of resources. The paper aims to present a methodology to optimize maintenance costs by integrating GIS and BIM systems in order to create a City Information Model (CIM). It is meant to optimize management and monitoring of urban maintenance works assisting public authorities in their effort in making a more efficient use of the economic resources allocated.
This paper examines the level of existence of supply chain integration, which covers supplier integration, internal integration and customer integration. From the literature, the level of supply chain integration among Malaysian manufacturing firms has yet to be identified. This empirical research was conducted in firms that implement green supply chain management practices and are ISO 14001 certified. Results showed that manufacturing firms in Malaysia practiced a highly progressive level of supply chain integration. Between supplier integration, internal integration and customer integration, internal integration was the most adopted. These findings provided an evaluation on the current level of supply chain integration and therefore provided insights to the importance of supply chain integration in firms that implement green supply chain management practices. Keywords- Supply chain integration, Green Supply Chain Management Practices, ISO 14001, manufacturing firm.
A financial bubble is defined as a condition in which the trading price of an asset is above (and increasing relative to) its discounted present value of earnings, i.e., its fundamental value. Consider the data in Figure 1 where an asset was traded over 15 consecutive trading periods. In the figure, we plot the deviation in mean contract price from the net asset value (NAV) of the security for each of the trading periods. Notice that the price grows steadily, peaks, and then "crashes" to its NAV. There is a puzzle concerning the level of premiums and discounts from NAV for closed-end funds, which provides a challenge to a rational expectations theory of asset pricing, since the data in Figure 1 was generated from an experiment in which the fundamental value of the asset was controlled. There were no external market factors to justify the deviation from fundamental value other than the capital gains expectation of the participants (see smith, Suchanek and Williams [1988] hereafter referred to as SSW). The phenomena describe in Figure 1 is a very standard outcome of a specific experimental asset market that has been replicated over 70 times with diverse subject pools.
Social programs are often designed under the assumption that individuals make rational decisions that improve their welfare. Yet, informational and behavioral constraints limit the extreme and chronic poor's access and participation in social programs. This paper reviews the implementation and performance of two"social intermediation services"that were designed to address these constraints, improve beneficiaries'access to social programs, and help the poor surmount poverty: Chile Solidario, the first such service in Latin America, and Red Unidos, implemented later in Colombia. The analysis provides insights on key factors influencing performance, cost effectiveness, and the impacts that such services can be expected to have.
Nowadays, in order to achieve a large market share, peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing platforms try to attract both owners and renters. Since the supply is determined by the owners, there exist two supply cases: the supply shortage case and the supply surplus case. The owner determines whether to join the platform. If it's profitable for her to join, she then determines the rental time and the price to share. The platform determines commission rates charged from both owners and renters. In our model, the platform connects independent self-scheduled owners and heterogeneous renters through commission rates. We find the supply surplus case is more beneficial to the owner. The platform also benefits from this supply case by determining proper commission rates. We also find that high commission rates hurt the earnings of the owner side. High owner fraction hurts the earnings of the individual owner. The earnings of all owners and the platform's profit first increase then decrease in the owner fraction.
The papers presented here represent the objective of this meeting which was to examine a wide variety of ideas concerning efficiency and productivity in transportation and logistics management, and to learn about opportunities for their successful implementation, as well as to assess the constraints which are inevitably associated with any attempt at improvement. Seminar type activites at the meeting included such topics as sales estimating and inventory planning, management by objectives, truck and freight car leasing alternatives, distribution innovations, computerized systems, and the role of the railroads in a period of energy uncertainity. Panel discussions provided timely points of view regarding the U.S. Railway Association, and academic progress in transportation (do they meet the needs of industry?). Observations were also made on the content of contemporary AST&T examinations.
Since Korean construction firms have steadily advanced into the international market, small and medium construction companies (SMCCs) have also advanced in such market. SMCCs’s recent trend have clearly shown the changes of contract types from single subcontractor projects to multiple general contracting projects. However, among those multiple projects performed by SMCCs, 1 out of 3 projects were deficit projects that impact the overall performance of the firm. To increase such performance, risk management for in international construction must be managed at the enterprise level for SMCCs. This research aims to create a multiple project management model for SMCCS that employs the concept of acceptable risk to assess the limit risk level for corporation to acceptable. Using the accumulated data from previous survey and International Construction Association of Korea (ICAK), integrated risk of each firm and their profitability of each project are analyzed. Through the analysis, each firm’s acceptable risk level is derived. Through the two research steps, acceptable risk algorithm was developed based on corporate integrated risk and profit correlation. To prove the acceptable algorithm relevance, financial statement analysis of 3 corporation was derived that level of acceptable risk and financial statement were available. Through the approach, this research allows the firms to analyze the firm’s capability and find projects that suits the firm’s situation and capability.
According to increasing number of injury claims, the challenge is reducing investigation of cases of injuries by selecting them more delicately, while also increasing the redemption rates and the amount of restitution. In this regards, we developed the fraud detection model for injury claims of self-employed insured by using decision tree after collecting medical claim data from 2006 to 2011 of the National Health Insurance in Korea. As a result of this model, subject types were classified into 18 types. If applying these types to the actual survey compared with if not applying, the redumption collecting rate will be increasing by 12.8%. Also, the effectiveness of this model will be maximize when the number of claims handlers considering their survey volume and management plans are examined thoroughly.
This study points the way consumers are influenced by social media - whether through  information sharing between them or companies marketing activities - to buy products that  interest them. The field research was based on a sample of 184 graduation, MBA, master and  certificate consumers of Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa. The results indicate that the  influence of social media in purchasing decision occurs mainly through the information  sharing among consumers.
Consumer-driven demand for meat and dairy products is driving an increase in livestock production and demand for improved animal healthcare services. These must be effective, affordable and accessible to ensure a profitable livestock sector. Especially important are the needs of poor livestock keepers who may have no other means of livelihood and who, following privatisation, may have become excluded from animal healthcare services. Animal healthcare has far-reaching implications. Increased livestock production brings risks to public health from greater animal-human contact and zoonotic diseases. There are potential environmental hazards as well as issues of food safety and the need to ensure trade standards are met. But effective, comprehensive animal healthcare services are expensive. At a time when demand is increasing but government budgets for veterinary services are declining, how could such services be funded? The purpose of this Working Paper is to study a wide range of funding mechanisms in both developed and developing countries. The author discusses the process of collecting revenue from sources ranging from individual households to foreign governments through, for example, direct and indirect taxation, fees and user charges, compulsory or private insurance contributions, levies, and international loans or grants. Mechanisms for pooling funds, distributing them and providing services are also described in some detail. Useful comparisons are made with the funding and provision of human healthcare services. Animal healthcare services are usually funded from a mix of sources and some sources will be more directly linked to effective and fair service provision than others. Many practical examples of funding mechanisms are given, and their impact on service provision is described. The author emphasises the need for transparency in revenue collection and service provision and suggests that further research would help to provide the basis for improvement. Above all, the needs of different users for animal health services should be assessed so that funds collected are appropriately and accurately allocated.
The management right transfer based on land ownership,contracting right and management right division is not only a necessary way to reconcile the contradictions between decentralized contracting under household contract responsibility system and scale management in agricultural modernization,but also an important means to promote urbanization in China while market construction is the inevitable choice for contracted land management rights transfer.The market characteristics,influencing factors,evaluation of marketization,the effect on new agricultural management main body,market construction countermeasures were reviewed with a preview on research of the contracted land management rights transfer market construction: strengthening the researches on the characteristics of the contracted land management right; adjusting measures to local conditions to foster the contracted land management rights transfer market mechanism; determining the evaluation measurement framework to assess the degree of marketization; strengthening the inside and outside market environment construction of contracted land management rights transfer based on of the theory of system engineering; ensuring the basic interests of the farmers; and strengthening the case study.
The use of natural sources and increase in environmental damage around the world have come to a state in which it threatens the existence and functionality of forest resources as well as other natural resources’. The idea that economic development can only be achieved through the mentality of sustainable forest management supported by community involvement has ensured the improvement in certification systems of forestry and forest product. Therefore, in this study, the opinions of directors of state forestry administration in Turkey concerning the difficulties encountered or hardships which are possible to encounter in forestry and forest products certification are addressed. In this context, a questionnaire based on the face-to-face interview method has been carried out on 147 participants in manager position in 71 different State Forestry Management. While 11 of the forestry managements, on which the questionnaire is conducted, have FSC forest management certificates, 60 are non-certified businesses. At the end of this study, that bureaucratic procedures will increase within the management and that malfunctions will be experienced with respect to the operation, low level of certification awareness in Turkey, the inadequacy of collaboration between stakeholders and the incomplete forest cadastre all are determined as major obstacles to the certification. On the other hand, it has been detected that there are noteworthy differences in opinions between employees in certified companies and workers in non-certified businesses in respect to worker’s health and safety, and stakeholder collaboration. In addition, it is conducted that there are significant differences between the working hours of participants and the participants’ opinions concerning the problems encountered in the forest products certification.
This paper explores the impact of the family network on the start-up decision byidentifying domestic drivers and barriers to entrepreneurship. For this, we used anadjusted model of work-family conflict theory, with special attention to the family lifecycle stages. In order to identify the drivers and barriers, 45 semi-structured interviewswith young start-up entrepreneurs were conducted.The findings in this study show that being in a one-person household, allows fulldevotion to the start-up life but there is lower intra-household social capital. Two- person households have the benefit of intra-household social capital but family timedemands and family involvement are higher, often leading to time and strain basedconflicts. Support from the partner is especially important with the presence of youngchildren who increase the family time demands and family involvement that are barriers, but this reduces with age.The findings indicated that the domestic network exerts influence on the moment tostart the company. This depends mainly on the level of family time demands, familyinvolvement and the fixed costs of living. New concepts like family life cycle stagesand low and flexible living costs, should therefore be added to work-family conflictmodels used in future entrepreneurship research
Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam) is one of the most important staple carbohydrate foods in Sub-Saharan Africa, reputed for its capacity to tolerate marginal environments and high energy-fixing efficiency to produce high dry matter at a short period of time. It arrived Nigeria between 1694 and 1698 and, through the research and extension efforts of National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, and other collaborating institutions, has been disseminated to farmers in Nigeria. Using the multistage sampling technique, and a structured interview schedule as instrument for data collection, this study assessed the extent of adoption of sweetpotato production technology by farmers in the Souteast agro-ecological zone of Nigeria. The findings showed 79.63% of the farmers were aware of the technology, while 20.37% were not. Majority of the farmers had adopted all the sweetpotato production practices except plant spacing. The constraints to increased adoption of the technology were scarcity of land, difficulty in integrating sweetpotato production technology into existing production system, low consumer preference associated with sweetpotato products, lack of market, unavailability of sweetpotato vines, high cost of available sweetpotato vines and unavailability of inorganic fertilizer. Others included high cost of available inorganic fertilizer, unavailability of agro-chemicals, high cost of available agr-chemicals, lack of contact with important sources of information on sweetpotato production, lack of adequate technical knowledge about recommended sweetpotato farm practices, and problems of pests and diseases. The study recommended the development of less complex technologies by research, increased use of contract out-growers to multiply planting materials and increased farmer-participation in farmers/social organizations.
In the EU Directive on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources, indicative targets for the contribution of electricity from renewable energy sources to gross electricity consumption in 2010 are set. For many European Union (EU) Member States these targets require a substantial growth of the share of renewable energy sources in the national energy mix. To encourage investments in the production of electricity from renewable energy sources, several policy instruments can be used. The Directive does not indicate which (set of) policy instrument(s) would be favourable. As a result Member States continue to develop their own national mix of policy instruments to stimulate renewable electricity. A comprehensive overview of the different policy instruments used in the Member States (and Norway) is hard to find. This report provides a clear and systematic overview of policy instruments used in the Member States of the EU and Norway for the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources. Norway is a special case, since 99.2% of the electricity production is already produced from renewable energy sources. This report is a reference book, which describes the proportion of renewable energy sources in the present fuel mix and the development of renewable energy sources for every country in the European Union. For each Member State the national renewable electricity targets are given, and an overview of the policy instruments that are in place to promote the use of renewable energy in order to achieve the targets. The sources on which this report is based vary between Member States. Many of the descriptions of the policy instruments are based on policy documents and laws, others on secondary sources.
Mass-customization is a form of consumer-centric business practice, which is a hybrid of customization and mass-production (Gilmore & Pine II, 1997). It is the use of flexible processes and organizational structures to produce individually customized apparel products at the low cost of a standardized mass-production system (Hart, 1995). Very limited academic consumer research has been conducted in the area of apparel mass-customization. The purposes of the study were (a) to investigate consumers’ purchase intentions of mass-customized apparel, (b) to examine the relationships among consumer characteristics, perceived usefulness, perceived behavioral control, attitude toward using apparel mass-customization, and purchase intention of mass-customized apparel, and (c) to identify the predictors of the overall purchase intentions and those of the purchase intentions of specific types of mass-customized apparel (i.e., design, fit and personalization mass-customized apparel). A conceptual model was developed, and eight hypotheses were generated to test the proposed relationships among the variables. A questionnaire was developed as the instrument of collecting data. A national sample of 474 male adults was recruited by a market research company. Statistics such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the collected data. The results indicated that more than half of the respondents were willing to purchase masscustomized dress shirts. The relationships among consumer characteristics, perceived usefulness, perceived behavioral control, attitude toward using apparel mass-customization, and purchase intention of mass-customized apparel were confirmed, and the predictors of the overall purchase intention and of the purchase intention of specific types of mass-customized apparel were identified. Based on the results, in-depth discussions and related marketing implications were provided.
Uses the results of a mail survey to gain insights into international expansion of US retailers and their strategic thrusts. The findings indicate that important drivers of the retail internationalization process are related to four distinct retailer characteristics, i.e. retail‐specific advantages, dimensional factors, and to international market orientation of companies and their strategic management teams. However, neither the retail operating format nor the lack of domestic growth opportunities emerged as factors promoting international retail expansion. Retailers in this study favored full control entry modes and culturally similar country markets. Implications for future research and retailing practice are outlined.
Examines a study carried out on three large Swedish firms examining the effects of education, experience and the environment on ways in which decisions are made. Studies, in particular, purchasing behaviour in an international context with the central theme and analysis of how purchasers evaluate suppliers located in different countries. Acknowledges, surprisingly, both knowledge of foreign language and experience of foreign countries seemed to be unimportant. Concludes that the results are on a tentative level requiring further research.
The Standing Committee of National People's Congress of P.R.C. ratified the amended Commercial Bank Law. This paper explores the merits and flaws of the amended Commercial Bank Law in terms of its reform and service development.We hold the view that we should recognize the connotation of the commercial bank further and standardize the business range and definc the policy according which national industry guide commercial bank so that the aim that we optimize commercial bank menagement can be achieved.
In the light of the problems existing in the internal accounting control of the institutions, this paper puts forward some suggestions on strengthening the internal accounting control of the institutions such as perfecting the auditing system, strengthening the management of the receipts, making clear the responsibility of the accounting post, regulating the procedure of the vouchers circulation, and decomposing the cost targets, etc.
Almost three decades since the collapse of the socialist regime, Romania’s farm structure is characterized by a distinct dual pattern. The far majority of farms is relatively small, while a small number manages about half of the total utilized agricultural area. Most farmers face significant constraints in creating viable farm businesses. When this is the case, it can be assumed that farmers will unite and establish agricultural service cooperatives (ASCs), as has been observed in many other parts of the world. In Romania, however, as in many other postsocialist economies, farmers tend to be reluctant to form or join formal organizations of mutual assistance. Yet there are signs of change, as first ASCs have recently been established. The objectives of this contribution are twofold: First, we discuss the major obstacles why ASCs did not develop after regime change. Second, we analyze the major reasons and influencing factors why private family farmers become more open to this type of formal organization in recent years. The analysis is based on a literature review, farm statistics, and qualitative in-depth interviews with farmers in 2018.
Guanxi has existed in China’s Confucian society for more than two thousand years and at the end of the 1970s when China opened its doors to the outside world, guanxi was investigated in great detail. Current literature indicates that no prior studies of guanxi have been investigated in China’s banking industry, or in particular, the China’s foreign banks (“CFBs”). This paper provides a theoretical review of the existing literature on guanxi in general to facilitate development of the research problem, gaps, questions and propositions/issues for further investigation into a study on the role of guanxi in the CFBs.
The article describes the successful operation of the "speedline" bus service by the Eastern Counties Bus Co in the Orton Area of Peterborough. Buses operated by this service are fitted with devices which activate coils beneath the busway triggering traffic signals to green. This gives buses priority over other traffic enabling the services to avoid traffic congestion and penetrate into otherwise traffic-free areas so that passengers can get closer to their destinations. The Plessey ident-a-bus system is the selective vehicle detection (svd) equipment installed. (TRRL)
The allocation problem is unavoidable whatever control system is adopted, whether it be national emission targets, taxes, or other approaches. All systems that will have global impact will impose costs on participants, and must include some resource transfers if poorer countries are to take part. . . . [I]n practice, some degree of equity considerations have appeared as a consistent feature in a large number of negotiated international environmental and natural resource regimes.. . . Pure equity may well have a stronger role to play than in many agreements, in part because of the economic stakes involved combined with the need to gain widespread and very long term adherence to a control regime.2
The advancement of logistics socialization has been proved efficient.In the process of marketing and industrialization in logistics socialization,the facet of the "property of education" and "the nature of public welfare" should also be considered.It is not proper to put university logistics completely to the market without any guidance or support.The resultant force from government, society and university are supposed to be taken to promote university logistics service and to perfect the policies and laws of university logistics socialization.
Chariff Realty Group is pleased to present for lease, 4670 NE 2nd Ave - Buena Visa Lofts. This Brand new building will feature Prime ground floor retail spaces with Lofts on the Upper Floors* and is located within steps to the Miami Design District which sees thousands of visitors per week. Spaces feature floor to ceiling storefronts, with excellent signage opportunity and optimal exposure right on the ever-busy NE 2nd Ave with +/- 50,000 Daily Traffic Count. The subject property also includes Exclusive ample parking for customers and employees on site + additonal street parking in the immediate area.
This paper adopts agent-based simulation to study the horizontal competition among homogenous price-setting retailers in a one-to-many supply chain (a supply chain consists of one supplier and multiple retailers). We model the supplier and retailers as agents, and design their behavioral rulesrespectively. The results show that although the agents learn individually based on their own experiences, the system converges asymptotically to near Nash equilibrium steady states. When analyzing the results, we first discuss the properties of these steady states. Then based on these properties, we analyze the effects of the retailers' horizontal competition on the retail prices, retailers' profits and supplier's revenue.
In the last 10-15 years, carsharing has attracted significant attention as a “green” transportation alternative that can reduce car dependence and promote smarter, healthier mode choice in urban areas. Despite rapid growth and aggressive funding from companies like Zipcar, carsharing remains a niche product with quantifiable but relatively small benefits. A new type of carsharing seeks to expand its reach—and perhaps its benefits—by eliminating some of the inconveniences of traditional services, such as having to book in advance and having to return the car to the same location. Flexible or one-way carsharing, pioneered by Daimler’s car2go program in late 2008, also introduces a logistical problem not present in traditional carsharing: the spatial distribution of vehicles tends to fall out of equilibrium due to the randomness of demand. This report describes an agent-based model that can be used to measure and predict the level of service offered to users. The results of representative simulations are compared with those of fully operational car2go programs in Austin, TX and San Diego, CA, from which we conclude that that the model reasonably estimates the steady-state level of service of a one-way carsharing system. Introduction The prevalence of solo driving in our cities is detrimental to society in a number of ways: it limits sustainable land use, increases pollutant emissions and greenhouse gases, and strains our energy supply [1]. Moreover, car ownership and operation has become an increasingly large burden on the budget of American households. In fact, the average cost of owning and driving a private car rose from 50.2₵ per mile in 2002 to 58.5₵ in 2011, a 16.5% increase in less than a decade. It is worth noting that for 2011, the cost of ownership alone was 40.8₵ per mile if one assumes that owners drive 15,000 miles per year [2]. In spite of this, the number of cars in the U.S. increased by 9.1%, from 234.6 million in 2002 to 255.9 million in 2008, the last year for which official data are available [3] . Innovative transportation solutions that offer the flexibility of a private automobile and some of the efficiency of public transportation will play an important role in reducing car dependency in urban areas. In the last 15 years, carsharing organizations have emerged as a credible alternative to car ownership. Existing carsharing organizations (e.g., Zipcar) have shown great potential in reducing parking needs, lowering households’ transportation costs, and promoting transit ridership by increasing awareness of the true cost of car trips and by filling gaps in transit service [4]. A carsharing organization can be defined as “a membership program intended to offer an alternative to car ownership under which persons or entities that become members are permitted to use vehicles from a fleet on an hourly basis” [5]. To use the vehicles, members reserve them in advance for a desired period of time—most often through a website or a smartphone application—and access them by using a smart card, an electronic key fob, or a similar device. Once the vehicle is returned to its station and the reservation is complete, the user is billed based on the number of hours the vehicle was used and, with some exceptions, the number of miles the vehicle was driven. Fuel, maintenance, insurance, and parking at the station are included in the hourly fee. It is important to understand that carsharing systems will complement, not replace, public mass transit by allowing travelers to make occasional trips for which a car is usually needed without the hassle of actually owning one. The fact that work and school commute trips are so numerous and occur at the same time of day means that they are most efficiently served by high-capacity public mass transit. In other words, the purpose of carsharing is not to serve commuters, but to provide users with a sustainable way to do their other, non-recurrent trips. This seemingly limited role can result in significant reductions in car ownership rates, increases in transit ridership and non-motorized travel, and financial savings for carsharing users. More background on traditional carsharing will be presented in the following section. The report will then move on to the latest generation of carsharing systems, which have been seldom studied in an academic setting. The contributions of this report include: (a) the definition of a metric to measure carsharing level of service, (b) an agent-based model that can be used to predict level of service, and (c) a process to estimate real-time level of service in actual systems. History and Outlook Carsharing began in earnest in the late 1980s in Switzerland and Germany, where it has found strong success and growth [6]. North American carsharing lagged behind Europe for much of the 1990s, but is now experiencing rapid growth as it becomes mainstream (see Figure 1). As of July 2011, 26 U.S. carsharing programs claimed 560,572 members sharing 10,019 vehicles [7]. Zipcar, the largest carsharing operator, claims that 604,571 members share 9,480 cars worldwide as of August 2011 [8]. Figure 1: Growth in North American carsharing, adapted from Shaheen and Cohen (2007) Growth in the carsharing industry is expected to continue at a rapid pace. A recent market analysis by Frost & Sullivan estimates that North American membership will grow to 4.4 million by 2016 [9]. Most of this shortto medium-term growth will be the result of aggressive expansion by Zipcar, which is committed to reaching $1 billion in revenue by 2020, up from $120 million in 2010 [10]. On the other hand, if growth continues at current rates, only about 1.3 million North Americans will be carsharing members by 2016. Drawbacks of Traditional Carsharing While the benefits of carsharing have been well studied, the literature—which usually portrays carsharing in a favorable light—is very brief on its drawbacks. The most notable downside of carsharing is that it lacks the flexibility of a privately-owned vehicle, which may be responsible for the reluctance of many members to give up their car. Consider that to make a carsharing trip, members must know how long their trip will take. If they overestimate and make their reservation too long, they will have to pay for the time the car is idle at the station. On the other hand, if the reservation is too short, the member will need to extend it, which is cumbersome and can only be done if there are no reservations immediately afterwards. Carsharing operators typically charge a high penalty if members return the vehicle after their reservation has ended (e.g., Zipcar charges $50 as of 2011). 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000
With the beginning of market transformations of concept small business, small-scale business was included into our life. Speaking about the state support of small business, it is necessary to notice that the important role here belongs to the existing legislation as no regulation of financial and economic activity of subjects of small business would be impossible without presence of corresponding standard legal certificates.
The world is becoming international marketplace and the international environment is pushing industries to take practically everything into attention. In recent years supplier selection and order distribution as an important part of supply chain management are facing extraordinary challenges and difficulties.  High customization and fast changing market stresses on modern supply chain management. Growing flexibility is needed to remain competitive and respond to quick changing market in this state supplier selection represents one of the most significant function to be done by the purchasing division.  Supplier selection is the process by which industries classify, calculate, and deal with suppliers. In order to select the finest supplier it is necessary to make a compromise between these tangible and intangible criteria. The supplier selection method deploys a tremendous amount of a firm’s financial resources. In return, firms expect significant benefits from contracting with suppliers presenting high value. This research investigates and examines supplier selection criteria and the impact of supplier selection to the industry performance. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and technique of order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods are used by the researcher for selecting finest supplier. ISM help to find the important criteria used by the firm and topsis give the rank to the supplier. The results show that the planned method is capable of improving the shape of manufacturing systems and delivers pictured information for decision manufacturers. Keywords: - Supply Chain Management, Supplier Selection, ISM, TOPSIS Method
This paper presents a brief account, based primarily on available secondary sources, of the current status of drinking water supply and sanitation in rural Madhya Pradesh. With a discussion on the lopsided hydrogeological attributes of water availability and shortages, a regional analysis of issues of access, quality of water and sustainability has been attempted. A brief discussion on the poor sanitation coverage of rural households in the State has been attempted. In addition to the State's role in enhancing the availability of water resources (through rainwater harvesting, for instance), a particularly disturbing aspect of unreliable database concerning water and sanitation sector has been underscored.
With the adoption of Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks,2007(hereinafter referred to as the Convention),the influence of the Convention on the removal of wrecks in Chinese coastal waters is studied by analyzing the framework and features of the Convention and probing the existing Chinese laws and regulations on the removal of wrecks.The policies of legislation on removal of wrecks,implementation,establishment of instruments and related parties to undertake their responsibilities are also discussed.The following suggestions are given:(1) the process of national legislation on removal of wrecks shall be well-done,(2) the progress of introducing compulsory insurance with respect of removal of wrecks within the PI clubs and commercial insurers shall be facilitated,(3) the equipment and management of hydrographic survey and aids to navigation in Chinese coastal waters shall be improved,(4) the administration of the ships engaged in international voyages entering and exiting Chinese ports shall be reinforced,(5) attempts can be carried out in applying compulsory insurance on wrecks removal to the ships engaged in national voyages step by step.
Cyber space has been widely used within organization/country as an important platform to deal with business and all daily routine. The evolution of cyber space functions has lead to main problem, which is cyber war. Most of the organizations have their own strategies and policies as their preparation to protect from cyber-attacks. However, the prevention from this security issue may not be the same way in Islamic countries due to their limited resources. From this issue, this paper will covers on different view of Maqasid Shariah (MS) by Islamic scholars regarding the preparation of cyber war. In addition, we want to see the implementation of MS by prioritizing which factor/element need to be focused first in order to prepare the organization/country with current and upcoming cyber-attacks.
The evolution of technology and internet (World Wide Web) has brought about many predictions of their possibilities to transform the businesses, education, economy, and social at bigger perspective. With the advent of the internet and ad server in early 1990s, internet has become one of the marketing channels that have been used for advertising purpose. Based on the article stated in Digital Advertising Broke $100 Billion in 2012 it mentioned that “In 2012, web advertising approximately grew about 55.8% in the Middle East and Africa and 38.4% in Eastern Europe while 21.5% and 13.9% for North America and Western Europe”. The latter shows that the users and the advertisers increasingly shift their attention on web applications that as well give the benefits to the publishers to maximize more revenue. This project going to discuss further details the mechanism for publishers to monetize their website and to match the related advertisements with the website contents. Providing these kinds of advertising (contextual) will give a challenge to the publishers to display the advertisement that possibly will be clicked on by the users. Two main objectives will be addressed in these research papers are; to study the best approach for the publishers to maximize the revenues by displaying related advertisement with website and to develop a website prototype that shows important connection between the function of publishers to maintain and manage the website contents and Contextual Ads. Hence, the scope of the study will be discussing on the major player in online advertisement which is publisher; to learn, discover and analyze the theory and concept of online advertisement and contextual advertising from publisher’s perspective.
The protection of public health is one of the legislative purposes of China’s environmental legal system. The “Environmental Protection Law” puts forward the legal goal of “establishing and improving the environment and health monitoring, investigation and risk assessment system”, and incorporates the environmental health risk assessment system into the environment Protect the scope of basic systems, but China’s existing environmental monitoring, environmental impact assessment, and environmental standards cannot achieve the functions of environmental and health risk prevention and regulation. It is necessary to build an environmental health risk assessment system with Chinese characteristics from both physical and procedural aspects.
A reliable and valid CRM (customer relationship management) index is developed in this paper. A standard methodology for scale development was followed; further to this the CRM index is developed through a case based method along with the customer and service provider weights. The findings clearly depict CRM as a multidimensional construct comprising factors namely claim payment security, knowledge about products, personalisation, transparency in product selling and service quality. A fair amount of literature on the Indian insurance sector dealt with identifying factors explaining the constructs of quality, value and satisfaction. But there is a paucity of research pertaining to industry-specific CRM index specifically catering to the Indian insurance sector. The proposed index will help in identifying issues that contribute to CRM and thereby formulating strategies accordingly, resulting in effective and efficient practices. The scores from organisational as well as customer's perspectives can be calculated so as to get newer insights.
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic is the largest mass effect incident in a century, requiring hospitals to consider how best to adapt the Hospital Incident Command System for a sustained pandemic. Given the scope of the pandemic a central position is required to improve the flow of information to providers, the flow from providers to the Incident Commander, and the overall coordination between diverse service lines and specialties. We describe a novel position, the Physician Clinical Support Supervisor, a position that has three primary functions during disaster operations: liaison, coordinator, and advocate. This role proved critical in day-to-day operations and facilitated highly effective communication up and down the chain of command, created a single point-person to coordinate multiple service lines and specialties, and served as a primary advocate for front-line workers and command.
Waqf is one of the financial instruments in Islamic economics used in the time of the Prophet. The waqf assets currently managed still revolve around land assets, mosques, madrasah or Islamic boarding schools and funerals. The implementation of most waqf institutions does not have good waqf asset management, causing manipulation of waqf asset availability or loss of waqf assets. Therefore, research problem formulation 1) how is the condition of asset management waqf at the waqf institution in Indonesia? And 2) How is the model of waqf asset management in the waqf institution in Indonesia? The contribution of this research is to offer the performance of waqf asset management at the waqf institution in Indonesia. The result of this study is the condition of waqf asset management has not yet fulfilled all stages, such as the making of a waqf pledge deed at the planning stage. And financial reporting at the evaluation and monitoring stage. And Nadzir has yet to meet the asset management model of waqf wealth protection.
It refers to the act of visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural or  agribusiness operation for the purpose of leisure, education, or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation or just staying in rural areas and visiting attractions in those areas.A number of terms are used to describe the concept of agro tourism and these include agricultural tourism, agri-tourism, farm tourism, farm vacation tourism, wine tourism, agri- entertainment. In general, these terms refer to all scales of farming enterprises and community events that showcase the activities and produce of rural families and the agricultural heritage of farming regions to the traveler.
This study examined the effect of intragroup resource sharing on the relationship between corporate control and group-affiliated companies' product innovation in Taiwan. Results from a survey of 42 group-affiliated companies support a contingency approach to innovation. When strategic control is used by the parent company of a business group, high sharing of either intangible resource or executive resource may facilitate group-affiliated companies' product innovation. In contrast, when the parent company emphasizes financial control, high sharing of physical resource can enhance innovation. These findings suggest that executives should be cognizant of several contingencies that might guide their choice among various approaches to corporate control, as well as the effects these choices have on the innovation of their group members. The value of any approach to corporate control can be augmented or diminished by simultaneously managing the resource sharing.
Organizations today have realized the significance of human assets and no organization can achieve great success without talented employees. It is the skilled and competent employees that make the organizations and they are not only to be procured but also need to be retained and sustained. Industries operating in highly volatile and dynamic environments, requiring skilled and competent workforce becomes a challenge itself, especially for the IT sector. Hence there is a need to focus on what practices and strategies can be adopted to attract and retain potential key talent. The study aims is to identify talent retention strategies that are adopted in the IT sector in India and to determine the reasons for talent management strategies and their efficiency thereof. This will help us understand the key drivers of employees' intentions to stay in their current organization based on TM's strategies. The present work is empirical in nature and the data was collected from a randomly drawn group of 185 IT professionals working in IT companies in Noida, and Gurgaon. Delhi NCR is fast emerging as India ’ s foremost IT destination. Mean and independent sample t-tests were applied for the purpose of data analysis and interpretation. The results of the study highlight salary & incentives and work life balance as the key strategies for talent retention. The main reason that emerged for TM is its upmost importance for the business to be successful and sustain well in a turbulent environment like the IT sector.
As one of the main liquidity providers in the financial system are banks, regulators and policy makers concentrate on monitoring the liquidity positions of these institutions so as to maintain a robust liquidity framework and overall stability of the financial markets. This book describes methods and models quantifying market liquidity risk. The presented models are compared with respect to their theoretical components, risk estimation performances and ease of practical implementation. Even though all the methods described in this book can be used by any market participant, the model comparison is performed mainly from a risk management perspective with a clear focus on requirements of financial institutions.
Mitigating climate change and contributing to the sustainable development of host countries are the goals of the CDM. In order to achieve these goals, projects follow an implementation chain, which starts with the design and ends with the issuance of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). During the project design phase, as a means of maximizing the contribution of projects to sustainable development, the input of local stakeholders (Non-Governmental Organisations, Community Based Organisations) is required in a process of public consultation. Drawing on conclusions from a recent study of the multi-stakeholder interaction of two Argentine biogas projects, this article identifies some of the shortcomings of the CDM when it comes to the involvement of local stakeholders in the process of consultation, and highlights how this relates to the sustainable development goal of the CDM.
This thesis is different from the traditional thesis done for the Honors College. This thesis took place over the course of 2 semesters of classes in Accounting 420. Dr. Vicki  Dickinson led this class and helped shape our professional development in the field of accounting. The cases were not the only part of the thesis. Every other week of the class an accounting firm would come visit. They would have a slideshow and guest speaker and discuss accounting related topics that were relevant to the field. Afterwards there was always an opportunity to network with the professionals. There were also two other case studies that each student had to participate in. These case studies were done in a randomized group. These case studies were put on by PWC and KPMG. We all had to speak in front of partners the findings that we came up with that would best help the company we were assigned. This class not only helped my professional development, but also helped boost my recruiting and knowledge in accounting. Being able to meet with the professionals in a relaxed setting was extremely beneficial. All of these cases in some way, shape, or form required an in-depth analysis into a company’s financial statements. The Cases discussed in my thesis are all relevant to major accounting issues. Most of them are pertaining to accounting methods and the differences it has on financial statements. A major benefit of this thesis is getting the ability to look at different industries. I was able to see oil and gas companies all the way to technology companies. This wide variety of clients is hard to find in the professional world because everyone is specialized. This insight will give me a head start for my career as an accountant.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows the holy Qur’an as its Constitution, and virtually every sphere of human activity is governed by the Shariah. Owing to the particular nature of the tenets of Shariah, several forms of business activity are held to be illegal and forbidden, including anything that pertains to gambling, pornography and alcohol. Moreover, the Shariah has its own code with regard to loans and investments, and the charging or paying of interest are both prohibited.  Foreign direct investment (FDI) is almost universally regarded as significant for the growth of an economy. Nations vie with one another to attract FDI from multinational corporations. Numerous studies have suggested a link between FDI and the growth rate of the GDP or gross domestic product of a nation. Globalisation has caused a marked degree of homogeneity in the world economy and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia offers various business opportunities to foreign investors. However, the intricacies of the workings of the Shariah need to be clearly understood by overseas investors.  In this thesis, an attempt is made to study the investment climate of the KSA, and to explore the various key factors of the Shariah, the desirability of FDI for development, the forces of globalisation, and the mechanisms by which the KSA can uphold its laws as well as profit from an increasing infusion of funds by overseas investors. The research yields several interesting insights into various aspects of the KSA investment climate, and concludes with a series of recommendations that are designed to reconcile the apparently conflicting interests and pressures.
Advancements in the digital domain, for example, in blockchain technology, big data, and machine learning, are increasingly shaping the lives of individuals, groups, organizations, and societies. These developments call for effective governance to protect the basic interests and needs of these actors. Simultaneously, the very nature of governance is also changing. Policy-making is increasingly moving away from top-down governance by the state toward more horizontal modes of governance. This paper reviews the literature on governance theory in order to conceptualize governance as a mode of decentralized, networked regulation. We argue that the current dominant modes of governance are inadequate in understanding governance in the digital domain and are poorly equipped to conceptualize novel forms of governance such as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Therefore, this study proposes a new mode of governance based on the regulation of new power relationships between the state and actors in the digital domain. This model further explores the role that blockchain technology can play in what we term decentralized network governance.
Purpose – One of the commonly cited problems in the implementation of quality practices is related to cultural resistance to change. While the importance of organizational culture to quality management (QM) practices has been recognized in the recent literature, little is known about how quality culture influences quality performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanism of how the nurture of quality culture in a firm influences quality performance. Design/methodology/approach – This study empirically assesses the path from quality culture to infrastructure practices, core practices, and finally to quality performance using data collected from 397 Chinese manufacturing firms in a structural equitation model. Findings – The results indicate a chain effect that quality culture serves as an antecedent for infrastructure practices to take effect and infrastructure practices provide a supporting foundation for core practices to generate positive impact on quality performance. Anything that bre...
With the development of Internet, the communication between sellers and customers becomes more convenient. But information asymmetry in e-commerce brings lots of problems about trust because of the virtuality of the Internet. This paper analyzes the trust problems brought by information asymmetry and trust mechanism in e-commerce environment from the point of view of economics. It also discusses the factors of trust mechanism through data-analysis and a model. At last it offers relevant solutions for settling the trust problems and improving the market efficiency.
At present,China affordable housing sources mainly come from new creation,the affordable housing sources is too simple. Based on the entire housing market supply and demand,the paper analyzes necessity and practical way of commercial housing converted into affordable housing,which is in favor of structural optimization of affordable housing,making full use of spare real estate,while easing the financial pressure of housing construction.
The new financial services industryoincluding banks, thrifts, securities dealers, and insurance and real estate investment companiesois big, diverse, complex, and international in scale. The U.S. regulatory agencies that oversee various parts of this system domestically have been trying for some time to come to terms with the effects of more than a decade of rapid change in the world financial sector.
The New Accord on Capital, known as Basel II, has induced a progressive harmonization of evaluation processes on credit risk merit in Italy. The present work analyzes the effect of Basel II on the basis of the definition of default that will come into effect at the end of the transition period. The analysis is based on a representative sample of a retail portfolio of one major Italian bank and distinguishes Northern, Central and Southern Italy. The findings highlight that under the new definition of default risk, estimates of portfolio riskiness are higher (mainly due to the different repayment schedule that are customary in Italy), but the impact of new estimates on capital requirements are limited. Additionally, the need to calibrate credit risk models on the basis of territorial diversity emerges.
The objectives of this paper are to overview and analyse the technological and social approaches of the IoT application areas. Applying things, which are connected in networks, could revolutionise many industry and service sectors thus creating new service provisions and administration methods based on information technology. Practical cases show that the applicability potential for IoT is wide; however, technological basis, legal regulation and the value to the end-user are the fields worth discussing in order to better understand the possible positive and negative aspects of the technology.
China ́s apparel market is in its opening stage and will remain one of the fastest growing markets in the world in the coming years. Multinational company who wants to enter the Chinese market need to be aware of the cultural difference as well as different consumer preference. The Icelandic company Cintamani was choosen for this study. The aim of this study is to investigate the Chinese consumer preference for outdoor apparel, the main factors that influence the purchasing decision. In the end there will come a conclusion of where to use standardization, adaptation or a combination of both strategies in Cintamani ́s marketing mix. Participants of the study were 572 randomly selected Chinese online voluntaries of both male and female who were born after 1950. T-test and ANOVA were conducted to examine the difference between age and gender groups. The main result indicates that quality is the most important attribute to today ́s Chinese consumer when it comes to outdoor apparel. Friend/Family Review results also seems to be the factor that most influence consumer ́s purchasing decision. The researcher has come to a conclusion that in the short run, Cintamani can choose standardization strategy for its Product and Place, and adaptation strategy for Price and Promotion. But in the long run, it is recommended that Cintamani choses standardization and adaptation strategy for its Product, and adaptation strategy for rest of its marketing mix components.
In today's meta-competitive era, all marketers are on the way to put information in the mind of their customer that affects their purchase decisions. Consumer's motivation to achieve a specific purpose is affected by the effort he spends on the achieving goods and services. Involvement is a means of understanding consumer behavior that depends on consumers' impression in response to advertising and it evolves with the impetus given to the driver and the task of deciding. Investigating the effects of consumer involvement on consumer purchasing decisions and behavior is the most familiar issue with the concept of involvement in advertising. The precise understanding of involvement and ability to measure it provides the possibility for researchers and companies to have appropriate strategies in their marketing and provide better insight. This paper divides the theoretical basis into four sections, as follows: types of involvement, involvement with different objectives, different types of purchase decisions and consumer involvement, involvement in marketing. This paper attempts to provide definitions, research background and theoretical literature, as well as statistical data on the involvement of youth shopping in Tehran and the findings clearly suggest that one of the ten most influential models is the effective model of Kapferer and Laurent. We tested it and found that the claimed aspects of this model are acceptable and the correlation is significant.
Abstract Program accreditation has been debated for many years by fisheries and wildlife professionals as a way of improving educational quality, conferring professional recognition, facilitating employment decisions regarding hiring and promotion, and providing numerous other possible benefits. We discuss the potential benefits and disadvantages of program accreditation and give examples of current accreditation or similar systems for professional evaluation and recognition. We believe the potential benefits of an accreditation program would not be sufficient to counteract its many significant disadvantages, and such a program would be redundant with the current certification programs of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) and The Wildlife Society (TWS) and other program review methods. Because of the difficulty of reaching agreement within the fisheries and wildlife professions and the resistance of colleges and universities to accept new accreditation programs, we believe there is little likelihood of...
The word "合作社"is called cooperative in English,while in Japanese it is called cooperative combination.The word "combination" originates from Houhanshu of China,whereas Japanese enrich and develop it.The cooperative combination in Japan his its broad and narrow sense.In a narrow sense,it means cooperation and combination;in a borad sense,it also means combination and treasury.Through a summary and careful study of its language origin,we can find that Japanese cooperatives have the following seven types,agriculture cooperative combination,consumation and life cooperative combination,fishery cooperative combination,enterprises of medium or small size cooperative combination,forest cooperative cmbination,credit treasury and labor treasury.In can be classified into three types,current combination,process combination and manufacture combination.Agricultural associations in Japan vary greatly.It can be classfied into different types according to form of fund,business and ways of organization.
This paper,based on the regional sustainable development mechanism,discusses the resource-environment industrial transformation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei,analyzes the heterogeneity,openness and difference in regional industrial structures,which shall be integrated so as to achieve the complementarity during regional industrial development.Under the resources and environment and ecological capacity,this paper discusses how to set up an integration mechanism of regional development and urban space,and presents some suggestions on industrial transformation and structural adjustment.
The impact of international electronic commerce (IEC) on export trade increases along with its expanding scale. Based on relevant data and the gravity model of China’s IEC export trade, this paper develops a theoretical model that can be used in IEC scenarios, applies regression equations, a Hausman test, and other empirical methods to verify relevant data, and performs a robustness test. The purpose of this paper is to explore the mechanism of IEC impact on China’s trade, and hopefully to study the temporal structural changes of the impact of IEC activities on China’s export trade based on the financial crisis and European debt crisis variables. The innovation of this paper is mainly reflected in the large sample of China’s trade selected in this paper. It can also determine the changes in the distance effect of international trade in the era of IEC, and reveal the mechanism by which IEC applications help foreign trade enterprises overcome economic crises. Four key conclusions are obtained as follows. First, the development of IEC has significantly promoted the expansion of China’s export trade scale. Second, in the context of the global financial crisis and European debt crisis, the positive promotion effect of IEC on exports is not significant. Third, the promotion effects of IEC on China’s exports to both developing and industrialized countries are significant, with the impact on developed country exports being slightly greater. Fourth, although the geographical distance for measuring transportation costs has a negative effect on China’s exports, such effect has been greatly weakened.
Abstract This introduction to the special issue on local governance networks in the Nordic countries has got two aims. First, we discuss how local governance networks partly can be conceived as a novel mode of local governance, partly must be seen as a continuation of already existing patterns of governance in Nordic local governance. Second, we discuss how the concept of network governance can be employed for internally comparing the Nordic countries.
The road transport is a constantly unrolling sector of the national economy. Consistent height of the number of motor vehicles in it of heavy vehicles load-carrying is posing an essential threat to the safety of the environmental protection. The present article is supposed what action to show are entertaining review bodies in the European Union among others Inspection of the road transport in Poland in order to prevent illegal installing devices eliminating the correct functioning of the SCR system, and consequently for increasing the amount of harmful substances emitted to the environment. Appointing institutions which will be conducting an examination and inspections of devices are an obligation of member states of the European Union, as well as will be implementing solutions guaranteeing tightening the system up. Experience, the economic pressure and rivalry in the road transport took hauliers to the non-observance of principles, in particular concerning the correct functioning of the SCR system (Selective Catalyst Reduction). The article contains duties which lie with drivers by vehicles, is taking issues of the system security and optimum action of devices and consequences which can result from the non-observance of provisions, as well as surrendering them to manipulations.
Islamic and conventional banks are in the same banking competitive industry. This study examined the comparison between the effects of external and internal factors on the bank's financing problems (NPF with NPL), with the period January 2003 - October 2015. External factors comprise of economic performance (EK), inflation (INF) and the global financial crisis dummy (D07). Meanwhile, internal factors consist of financing (FIN / LOAN) and the financing rate of return (FR). The results of cointegration test indicated that there was a long-term relationship between the external and internal factors of banksâ€™ NPF and NPL. The results of research in general shows that external factors significantly affect the bank's NPL but not the NPF. Internal factors of the bank had a negative effect on NPF and higher influence than the NPL. This suggests that the increase in financing rate of return of Islamic banks lower the NPF. It is concluded that the financing of Islamic banks is healthier compared to that of conventional banks.
Indonesia has several isolated power system grids due to the geographical condition which consist thousands of island spread along We Island in the west to the Merauke Island in the east. This condition constraints this country to seize its electricity ratio. Indonesia recorded 89.1 % of electrification ratio with 216 TWh of energy sales in 2016. Jawa Bali Power System, the largest power system grid in Indonesia, accounts for about 75% of Indonesia's total electrical energy consumption. This paper will explore the Jawa Bali Power System in Indonesia. Besides that, the operational performance and the challenges will be discussed as well.
Electronic contracts mirror the paper versions exchanged between businesses today, and offer  the possibility of dynamic, automatic creation and enforcement of restrictions and  compulsions on service behaviour that are designed to ensure business objectives are met.  Where there are many contracts within a particular application, it can be difficult to determine whether the system can reliably fulfil them all, yet computer-parsable electronic contracts may allow such verification to be automated. In this chapter, we describe a conceptual framework and architecture specification in which normative business contracts can be electronically represented, verified, established, renewed, and so on. In particular, we aim to allow systems containing multiple contracts to be checked for conflicts and violations of business objectives. We illustrate the framework and architecture with an aerospace aftermarket example.
Fast and being First for updated and live Information today has been considered as a vital need of today’s society. To maintain the pace with this highly moving and fast changing world, updating in the news and knowledge is the need of the hour. It takes now a single day to become outdated rather updated. Updating with the world with its news, development, creativity, social issues, national and international problems, social causes, community, learning, knowledge sharing is becoming important to everyone. Media, especially Digital media has seen tremendous growth in past decades. There are many tools now a days, one can update them. Latest news and sharing ideas helps us to learn a lot about the world around us. Latest news and information helps us to ensure that we hold the direct compatibility with current trends, weather it is world of fashion, economics, sports or various other areas.
This research paper involves discovering a model for measurement of efficiency in decision making of managers of a service organization. Efficiency is achieving maximum output using minimal resources. Service efficiency is complex to measure as it is intangible. Many service sector organizations are struggling in achieving the required results even though they are recruiting operational and tactical level managers to perform various business functions, incurring a cost to their bottom-line.The purpose of this research paper is measuring the efficiency in decisions making of managers to achieve the organizational targets and increase the profitability of the organization. This paper’s finding can be used to evaluate performance of managers for rewarding them, and as a tool for performance appraisals of operational and tactical level managers. Also this model can be used for improving the planning and controlling activities of a business.Internal secondary data of the selected sample service organizations were taken for the model building and analysis. The cost of the decision making is compared with benefits achieved form the decision making of managers. Here, quantitative benefits of growth in revenue, increase in profitability or decrease in operational costs are considered. The main focus of this paper is introducing a model on measuring the efficiency in decision making of operational and tactical level managers of an organization. In other words, this is measuring the efficiency in short term decision making of managers. At the stage of decision making of mangers, usually various types of costs incur, these are identified from in data/information gathering, data processing, use IT support tool for data analysis, knowledge sharing, compensation for managers, training cost for managers and so on, in the phase of decision making. Moreover, decision making process of a manager can be explained as a selection of an option from various given alternatives. Therefore the decision making of managers precisely incur opportunity costs as well. There are possible corrections and failure and correction costs also happen after a decisions made. Incremental cost only considered for the model building. Also sunk costs of training costs, recruitments costs are ignored according to the concepts of management accounting. Survey methodology uses stratified random sampling for data collection from three different service industries. They are Insurance, Education and healthcare.
This paper presents the underlying determinants of relationship continuity among fashion retailers and their suppliers. Bibliographical review has focused on channel, industrial and relationship marketing literature and identified trust as a key role player for relationship continuity. Survey data has been collected from 154 product managers working in 29 fashion retail firms, belonging to 4 distinct retail formats: high and low end specialty shops, department stores and hypermarkets. Data has been grouped in factors and their influence over intention to stay measured under factor analysis and multiple regression techniques, respectively. Six correlated factors to dependent variable have been identified: supplier competencies, sales rep characteristics, willingness to agree, supplier values, product development and agility. Retailers, depending on the retail format, assign different weighs to these six determinants.
This research is aimed to find empirical evidence on whether there is a significant difference between Regionally-Generated Income (Pendapatan Asli Daerah, or PAD) before and after the shift of the collection of Land and Building Taxes for Rural and Urban Sectors (Pajak Bumi dan Bangunan sektor Pedesaan dan Perkotaan, or PBB-P2) to regional governments. PAD is measured by local revenue sources. Three regencies/municipalities that have experienced the shift during the 2011-2013 period were selected for sampling. Secondary data were obtained from Revenue Realization Reports (Laporan Realisasi PAD) of Yogyakarta for the years 2011-2013, Revenue Realization Reports of Sleman and Bantul for the years 2012-2013, and PBB-P2 and the Sales Value of the Tax Object (Nilai Jual Objek Pajak, or NJOP) data obtained from DPPKAD. Meanwhile, primary data were obtained through interviews conducted with the PBB-P2 tax officers. The findings showed a significant differenceÂ of PAD. This, however, was not due to the shift of PBB-P2 tax collection to regional governments. The difference was caused by other revenue sources. Keywords: PBB-P2 tax collection shift, PAD
Under increased scrutiny from top management and shareholders, marketing managers feel the need to measure and communicate the firm value of their actions. In particular, how do customer value creation (through product innovation) and customer value communication (through marketing investments) affect stock returns? Examines conceptually and empirically how product innovations and marketing investments for such product innovations lift stock returns by improving the outlook on future cash flows. We address these questions with a largescale econometric analysis of product innovation and associated marketing mix in the automobile industry. We find that investors react favorably to companies that launch innovations, particularly pioneering innovations, backed by substantial advertising support, in large and growing categories. Finally, we quantify the stock return benefits of increasing advertising support for new-to-the-company versus new-to-the-world products.
The wealth of the sea area and fisheries resources owned by Indonesia make some countries do Illegal fishing. Illegal fishing in Indonesia is one of the main problems that have a major impact on Indonesia. Vietnam is one of the countries that have been caught in Illegal fishing activities, therefore there needs to be law enforcement efforts such as sinking ships and imposing sanctions.   In this study aims to determine the efforts to solve the problem of Illegal Fishing in Indonesia with Vietnam, the author uses descriptive methods and uses the concept of international cooperation as a collective problem solving effort by William D. Coplin and the concept of Maritime sovereignty.   The results of this study indicate that Indonesia's efforts to deal with cases of fishing theft with Vietnam in addition to sinking ships have resolved the problem of handling Illegal Fishing by working with Vietnam to deal with Illegal Fishing cases in the form of maritime cooperation (Maritime Cooperation Plan of Action).
This research is focused on the implementation of partnerships which includes the legal basis of implementation, the role of each party, form and model of partnership. In fact, the employment partnership of the village government, the private sector and the community lasts quite a long time, but it has not been able to improve the quality of employment services. The results of the study show that employment partnerships are carried out by two parties, namely the village-private and public-private governments, which are based on the outcome of the agreement through an agreement, in the implementation there is no equality of position between the partners, the coordination relationship is low and there is no balance of benefits and risks. While the partnership form is similar to the build own operate, the partnership model is franchise and free market.
Adoption of Internal control on Financial Application Systems (FAS) improves procurement management process by raising efficiency through reduction of pilferages. An institution that has well set internal controls is likely to have benefits brought by transparency, accountability, and usage of available resources. Organizations adopting use of FAS in Internal control (procedural, operating, periodic, and feedback controls) in procurement management enhance transparency, accountability in the procurement process. However, issues arise from non users of FAS in mismanagement of funds reported delay in procurement process. Benefits have not been documented and schools are still susceptible to frauds and malpractices associated with manual functioning of procurement management. The study assessed influence of internal control in Financial Application Systems on procurement management (PM) at SOS Eldoret, Uasin Gishu. The study employed census research design with target population of program director, 10 board management committees, 16 finance officers, and 52 teachers of Hermann Gmeiner School (HGS). The study employed structured questionnaire and interview for data collection. Analysis was obtained through classifying and tabulation of data. Internal control amongst which procedural control had more influence on procurement. Findings revealed that: timelines, planning, pre-qualification, and payment manipulation were curbed in procurement process through use of well set procedures and guidelines. However, operating controls were not adequately utilized in procurement since the institution did not perform fraud risk assessment which only identifies fraud and loss using set controls. Periodic controls in procurement management were found to monitors inventory on periodic basis to ascertain delivery frequency. The study recommends that HGS developed policy on management of internal controls of the FAS to account for procurement processes. Right persons recruited to run the system effectively and efficiently. School management to customize feedback control to enhance monitoring and evaluation of procurement process.
Many of Australia's river systems have been seriously degraded by inappropriate management of regulated flows. Other systems are facing threats from future water resources developments. There is a lack of information available to aid in allocation of environmental flows to rivers in order that they are managed in an ecologically sustainable manner. The Environmental Flows Initiative (EFI) is a major Australia-wide R&D program into environmental flows, funded through the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT), and administered by Environment Australia (EA). The program aims to identify environmental values, undertake targeted research to identify risks to river systems and flow requirements to sustain environmental values, to trial flow management options, and to evaluate these trials. The NHT relies on matching funding provided by the State and Territory authorities, and supports integrative approaches with emphasis on works on-the-ground where possible. While the EFI will close significant knowledge gaps, other gaps remain. Some of these relate to development and validation of rapid assessment techniques, understanding the importance of flow variability and how to define it, manipulation of flows to control alien species, developing a system of prioritising rivers for environmental flows, and enhancing flows with other catchment, channel and floodplain rehabilitation measures.
Benchmarking is a management accounting innovation (MAI) that can be used for performance measurement and management in both the private and the public sectors. Although public sector accounting researchers have reported some success with the use of benchmarking, frequently charged problems exist in implementing and using this management technique. To look beyond the technical and institutional explanations, this paper takes a translation approach and presents a case study of a local government benchmarking network. We conclude that there is a link between benchmarking implementation problems and initiators’ failure to build a strong network of benchmarking allies. Implementation is facilitated if actors, other than the initiators, recognize the possibility of making benchmarking more relevant and less cost focused. However, even when a network of actors has a favourable attitude towards benchmarking, benchmarking may still appear as an unruly ‘actant’. Furthermore, the perception of implementation failure and success is heterogeneous and connected to various actors’ adoption of benchmarking. We also conclude that there is a connection between the use of benchmarking and 1) actors’ possibilities to use benchmarking in the struggle for resources and 2) the perception of benchmarking information as ‘factual’ or ‘factual enough’. However, the perception of benchmarking information as ‘factual’ or ‘factual enough’ seems not only a matter of correct or incorrect ratios but also of whether such information serves actors’ interests. A final conclusion is that the use of benchmarking increases when actors other than the initiators complement the original idea and ‘counter interest’ the initiators.
Abstract Objective To measure the impact of a reimbursement-based consumer subsidy on vegetable expenditures, consumption and waste. Design Two-arm randomized controlled trial; two-week baseline observation period, three-week intervention period. Participants’ vegetable expenditures, consumption and waste were monitored using receipts collection and through an FFQ. During the intervention period, the treatment group received reimbursement of up to 50 US dollars ($) for purchased vegetables. Setting Participants were solicited from Palo Alto, CA, USA using materials advertising a ‘consumer behavior study’ and a small participation incentive. To prevent selection bias, solicitation materials did not describe the specific behaviour being evaluated. Subjects One hundred and fifty potential participants responded to the solicitations and 144 participants enrolled in the study; 138 participants completed all five weekly surveys. Results Accounting for the control group (n 69) and the two-week baseline period, the intervention significantly impacted the treatment group’s (n 69) vegetable expenditures (+$8·16 (sd 2·67)/week, P<0·01), but not vegetable consumption (+1·3 (sd 1·2) servings/week, P=0·28) or waste (−0·23 (sd 1·2) servings/week, P=0·60). Conclusions The consumer subsidy significantly increased participants’ vegetable expenditures, but not consumption or waste, suggesting that this type of subsidy might not have the effects anticipated. Reimbursement-based consumer subsidies may therefore not be as useful a policy tool for impacting vegetable consumption as earlier studies have suggested. Moreover, moderation analysis revealed that the subsidy’s effect on participants’ vegetable expenditures was significant only in men. Additional research should seek to determine how far reaching gender-specific effects are in this context. Further research should also examine the effect of a similar consumer subsidy on high-risk populations and explore to what extent increases in participants’ expenditures are due to the purchase of more expensive vegetables, purchasing of vegetables during the study period that were consumed outside the study period, or a shift from restaurant vegetable consumption to grocery vegetable consumption.
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This paper studies the knowledge sharing between logistics enterprises using related game theory. To simplify the analysis, only two logistics enterprises A and B are considered the game model. To achieve knowledge sharing between enterprises, both enterprises involved in the game model must develop a feasible and optimal strategic combination, the strategic portfolio includes input cost for knowledge sharing and the final knowledge achievement, this paper focuses on the analysis of these two factors: the sharing input cost and the profit sharing ratio. According to game characteristics, basic assumptions, the backward inductive method is adopted to solve the Stackelberg equilibrium of the game model, then the related factors that affect the knowledge sharing between enterprises are analyzed, and learning that knowledge sharing security coefficient is proportional to enterprise’s optimal profit value, and the knowledge sharing mechanism is also affected by the profit distribution proportion.
The theme of this paper is the impact of participation in an environmental scheme on the host SME and the measurement of other entrepreneurial activity associated with the same SMEs. The following work objectives were adopted: To examine a representative sub sample of these SME participants and non-participants in the Shropshire Hills Environmentally Sensitive Area (SHESA) and to conduct a longitudinal study over the 23 year period 1986 to 2009 of farming and enterprise in the families concerned. Busenitz, Gomez and Spencer (2000) inform the study in their conceptual framework, relating the institutional perspective of entrepreneurship (regulatory, cognitive and normative) with the sample taken for this research. The conceptual framework of McElwee (2008) and the earlier work of Carter (1998) are applied to classify the actions of the farmer SMEs with relation to their entrepreneurial activities. A longitudinal study of a stratified random sample of rural SMEs in the Shropshire Hills was undertaken in 1997 with 43 face to face interviews. A telephone survey of the same sample was carried out in 2008. Four face to face interviews with farmer SMEs were carried out in 2009. The evidence shows that the participants in the environmental scheme farmed more intensively than the non-participant group. Participation in the environmental scheme did not appear to be an aspect of or to enhance farmers’ entrepreneurial tendencies. The work has implications for agencies involved with increasing entrepreneurial capacity and promoting responsible business behaviour and corporate social responsibility in SMEs and with farmers and consultants.
This paper highlights the difference between statutory and effective tax rates in the value added tax in China, and explores the role of administrative discretion in generating this difference. In China, unlike in Europe where the VAT originated, there can be significant differences between effective and statutory rates because of features of tax administration. The tax is collected at local level, but tax administrators have a centrally directed revenue plan to meet. They in turn have a range of elements of individual discretion in their tax collecting activities as they both administer the tax and meet their plan. We discuss what the elements of administrative discretion in China’s VAT are, and access a firm level data set from the National Bureau of Statistics to explore the implications of administrative discretion in oversight of the tax. In this dataset, VAT payable at firm level is reported and the data point to effective tax rates that can on average be close to double the statutory rate. These rates, however, vary by type of enterprise, by time, by region and other characteristics.
Shopping plays an important role in tourism. However, the development speed of tourism shopping in Heilongjiang province is slow, and there are still many problems, such as scattered shops and small scale; cannot meet the needs of tourists; low market share, restricts the development of Heilongjiang's tourism industry. Therefore, it is necessary to give full play to the leading role of the government, attach great importance to tourism shopping, increase the proportion of lifestyle tourism souvenirs, explore the cultural attributes of tourism souvenirs, and so on, to promote the overall development of tourism economy in Heilongjiang Province.
Six Sigma is a well known methodology for quality and process improvement with an emphasis on defect prevention rather than defect detection. By reducing variation and waste in the process, bottom line results and competitive advantage are to be improved. Knowledge Management on the other hand is aimed at creating competitive advantage, too. This paper is aimed at introducing the general idea of using Six Sigma not only to improve processes but to use it to create knowledge within an organization, too.
An investment portfolio management system enables computation of hedging strategies (each including one or more hedging transactions) and presentation of the strategies to the investor. Each hedging strategy takes into consideration tax impact information that is particularized to the individual investor. Investor portfolio data identifying assets owned by an investor and tax status information associated with the investor can be stored at a server that is accessible by a web browser. Software at the server enables computing of the hedging strategies based on an analysis of an investor's investment portfolio. The portfolio analysis includes an analysis of at least a first one of the assets identified by the investor portfolio data and a tax impact analysis to determine gain and loss and tax impact data associated with hedging transactions. The determined gain, loss and tax impact data can be determined based on the investor's particular tax status information.
The study examines the relationship between the bank selection criteria and the Islamic bank customer satisfaction. The bank selection criteria is directly link to the possible good perception on the good quality of service provided by the Islamic banks which also related to the high level of bank customer satisfaction in addressing  the preference of the customers . The bank selection criteria is very important for their future expansion and commitment. The bank can use such information to strengthen their services, planning for capture the markets, out of many factors being theorized to have link with bank selection criteria, it is infesting to observe that today's customers ( within the context of this study) are after higher rate of return.the other factors such as Islamic principle, location and recommendation do not really effecting to bank selection criteria. It is suggestion that the Islamic bank should focus more on objective factors, such as providing competitive rate of return,in trying to attract and retain customers.
As the world's largest CO2 emitting country, China may become the largest carbon trading market in the future. While building an emissions trading scheme (ETS) is becoming one of the major policies being adopted to reduce CO2 emissions in most developed countries, the government of China has declared and implemented regional pilot emissions trading schemes in seven municipalities and provinces. This study reviews the history of the emissions trading policy and discusses the lessons learned. From an economic perspective, we further estimate the potential structure of the pilot jurisdictions in China, including overall trading emissions, the number of enterprises included, and the industrial structure across the pilot ETSs. It is speculated that challenges arise from the inherent size and highly-concentrated industrial structure of the pilot ETSs. Inter-pilot trading and regulatory harmonization are necessary to boost trading and liquidity in the future.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and internationalisation in born global small and micro-businesses in Ireland, when owner-manager perceptions are taken into account. Following an exploration of the major theoretical approaches of SME internationalisation and performance, and entrepreneurial/market orientations, a qualitative study is undertaken on owner-managers of four born global firms to present a conceptual model. Although there are a number of studies on born global firms and extensive research on entrepreneurial and market orientations, this study proposes to combine internationalisation and orientation approaches in studying small and micro-businesses. Future studies could empirically test the proposed new conceptual model within a large sample.
Ecotourism embodies the emphasis on ecology and ecotourism enterprises are the components of modern tourism market. To study the business model innovation of ecotourism enterprises based on different value models, this paper was based on three different forms of value formation of value chain, value ring and value network in the reality. This paper mainly discussed the basic characteristics of different value forming models, and the different effects and constraints analysis on the factors of business model. Under the background of value model, the direction and characteristics of business model innovation of ecotourism enterprises were discussed. The research showed that ecotourism enterprises can have various alternatives.
The security situation in a territory continuously evolves and, therefore, a new safety culture is formed that takes into account the actual knowledge and experience with interdependencies among public assets, including experience with extreme social crises. In dealing with disasters, historical development of human activities has included numerous preventive and mitigation measures applied according to legal rules, technical standards, norms and public instructions, response systems and ways of recovery. As a rule, these ensure protection against basic disasters and not to ‘calamities’ or random combinations of phenomena that may cause catastrophes. Problem solving the complex territory safety requires proactive, strategic risk management based on qualified data, methods, knowledge and good practices in their application. This paper summarizes the set of principles that ensures qualified decision-making for risk management, or ‘whole-of-life risk governance,’ directed at provision of human security and sustainable development. It addresses the key domains related to effective risk management.
Introduction U.S. beef producers are striving to improve the quality of their product. Most packers send economic signals to producers by paying quality grade and yield grade premiums based on the USDA standards in an effort to reward the higher quality beef producers and receive better quality animals in their slaughter plants. But the premiums and discounts for quality and yield grade vary between plants and grids. Therefore, identifying the characteristics of the lot before deciding which plant or grid system to sell their cattle is of special relevance for the producers. Quality, yield, or weight discounts are less common, but large relative to the premiums and have a greater influence on the average prices received for cattle. Discounts are typically paid on carcasses with quality grade Select or lower, yield grade 4 or 5, and weights above 950 pounds or below 550 pounds. We will refer to these as Discounted Carcasses in this paper. While economically important, it is very difficult for producers to identify these animals before they are slaughtered. The focus of this analysis is to evaluate the ability to predict at different times in the feedlot the probability of producing a Discounted Carcass of each animal. The predictions are based on information observable at that point in time and we will consider two events: arrival and just before slaughter. Predicting the animal carcass traits before slaughter permit the producers to sort their cattle into the grid with premiums and discounts that will favor each animal, i.e., higher quality cattle on grids with higher premiums and outlier cattle to grids with smaller discounts. This procedure could also be used to decide when to sell the animals by comparing marginal revenue to marginal cost of additional feeding. For example, consider a case where the producer estimates that his animals will not grade well if they are sold right now, but there is high chance of improving their grade by keeping them for four weeks. They could analyze if the increment in costs is paid by the lower quality discounts and the increase in pounds sold per animal. Knowing the carcass performance of the animals in an earlier moment in the feedlot is much more useful, because this gives also the possibility of making management decisions according to the expectations they have on the animal’s performance. Moreover, there are some management practices that could be made in order to decrease the probability of an animal to get a high discount at slaughter. They could also try to get rid of animals that are more likely to produce a Discounted Carcass.
SUMMARY: This article analyses board organization in closely held corporations in Denmark. First, we identify companies’ motives for having a board. Second, we analyse motives for having larger boards than the minimum sized required by the company law. Finally we test whether the organization of the board affects firm performance and discuss the policy implications of our results in relationship to the recent debate in Denmark on good corporate governance.
Why does everyone think cities can save the planet? Contemporary planning interventions promise salvation via spatial fixes that might reduce carbon emissions, boost metropolitan economies, and allow urban society to thrive in spite of rising seas and climate disasters. New wetlands, floodgates, and other adaptive infrastructures allow water to coexist with urban space; new parks, such as New York’s High Line and Chicago’s 606, celebrate the interweaving of built and natural environments and suggest how outmoded infrastructure can be repurposed for civic benefit. While the climate dilemmas at hand are historically new, the use of landscaped environments in the service of solving social problems is not. Dating to the first generation of urban park development in the 19th century, planners have deployed green spaces as solutions to various cultural, political, and economic conundrums of the city. Offering an historical parallel and counterweight to investigations of contemporary urban–environmental dynamics, this paper investigates the period of park development that occurred in the 19th century in North America and Europe, using Chicago’s Olmsted-designed South Park (the contemporary Washington and Jackson Parks) as a case study. I argue that green spaces’ distinct nexus of (1) normative cultural meanings around nature, (2) power relations bound up in dominant landscape aesthetics, and (3) direct link to the economic realm via the structuring of land values have made green space development a powerful ‘cultural fix’: a means of using social space to mitigate perceived social crises. Understanding the historical foundations of green spaces’ use as cultural fixes can inform contemporary analyses, particularly as new landscape ideologies emerge as part of broader green urbanism development and climate change adaptation strategies.
Due to the increase in mobile payment user, this study explores the factors influencing continuance usage intention mobile payment in Indonesia. A total of 506 respondents are collected and analyzed using SmartPLS 3. The result revealed that additional values, perceived transaction convenience, and perceived risk are significant factor that positively affect continuance usage intention. However perceived security and trust surprisingly do not affect continuance usage intention of mobile payment in Indonesia.
This research is a quantitative research that aims to determine the effect of brand image, price and sales promotion on purchasing decisions of Lenovo brand smartphones. The population in this study is the community of Ciganjur Urban  Village, South Jakarta. The sample size was taken as many as 75 respondents, with non probability sampling method, especially purposive sampling. Data collection is done through questionnaires. The analytical tool used is using the method of PLS (Partial Least Square) analysis. The results of this study indicate that (1) brand image has no significant effect on purchasing decisions with path coefficient values of -0.310. (2) Price has a significant effect on purchasing decisions with a coefficient of 0.441. (3) sales promotion has a significant effect on purchasing decisions with a coefficient of 0.762.
To increase tourism’s contribution to the Malaysian economy, the current national policy is to increase tourist arrivals and tourist expenditure. However, tourists are not homogeneous, nor is tourism a single product and studying tourism demand as such will lead to flawed conclusions. Therefore, a disaggregated study of tourists and tourism products would consider the characteristics of different categories of tourists and as such will be more informative and relevant.  Hence, the objectives are to firstly study the determinants of tourism demand of Long Haul (LH), Medium Haul (MH) and Short Haul (SH) tourists from the perspectives of tourist arrivals and tourist expenditure, secondly study the demand for the tourism products of accommodation, shopping, food and beverage (F&B) and transportation and thirdly study the demand for accommodation by tourists categorized by travelling companions using the methodology of System Generalised Method Of Moments (SYS GMM), Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR), Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) and Fixed Effect Method (FEM) with Driscoll and Kray standard error correction, whilst applying the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and Lancaster’s characteristic demand models.  The findings indicate that the word of mouth effect is important for all travellers, price of tourism is important for LH travellers, whereas travel cost is an important consideration for MH travellers. Thailand is a complimentary destination for LH, MH and SH travellers, whereas Indonesia is a substitute country for LH and MH travellers and Singapore is a substitute country for MH travellers.  The findings from the study of tourism products show that the own price elasticity of shopping and F&B are elastic whereas accommodation and transportation are inelastic indicating that the former goods are luxury goods and the later goods necessities. The cross price elasticity findings indicate that accommodation, shopping and F&B are complimentary goods with prices affecting them in tandem whereas transportation is a substitute good where a change in prices of other tourism goods will affect the demand for transportation in the opposite. The expenditure elasticity indicate that transportation will receive the largest expenditure and shopping the least expenditure when income increases.  The findings from the study on the impact of travelling companion on accommodation demand indicate that accommodation is a necessity for all segments of travelling companions. However, the travelling with spouse segment has the least inelastic demand indication that this segment would more likely switch to cheaper accommodation when room rates increase.  The familiarity and word of mouth effect is significant, hence word of mouth marketing (WOMM) tactics is essential with monitoring of review webpages and negative reviews swiftly attended to. The varied results obtained when LH, MH, SH were studied indicated that market segmentation and price discrimination policies would be beneficial in achieving the objectives of increase numbers and higher yield. Due to their elastic price elasticity shopping and F&B prices should be kept low whereas accommodation and transportation should be increased. Demand for accommodation varies with the travelling companion, hence price discrimination policies could be applied to different segments.
Introduction"There have been tens of thousands of suicides by farmers in the country, and the government wants to dispute what a suicide is, who a farmer is."- Arundhati Roy1Indian farmers in the western state of Maharashtra now address their suicide notes to the Prime Minister and President, hoping that their words will affect circumstances facing their fellow farmers.2 The Vidarbha region of India's Maharashtra state is seen as the epicenter of a farmer suicide crisis that has gripped India's cash crop farmers for more than a decade.3 Statistics compiled by the Indian government reveal that 241,679 farmers in India committed suicide between 1995 and 2009.4 These farmers and their families are among the victims of India's longstanding agrarian crisis-a crisis that demands the attention of the Indian government, which, to date, has failed to meet its obligation to ensure farmers' human rights.The magnitude of the number of Indian farmers who have committed suicide must not eclipse the fact that an intensely individual tragedy lies behind each and every one of these deaths. These tragedies haunt the families of the casualties of India's agrarian crisis in ways that are inescapable. The financial struggles associated with these deaths do not end with the farmer's suicide. In many cases, the surviving family must shoulder the debt, often forcing children to leave school in order to further support the family.5 Even more reliant on the farm than ever, these young farmers begin buying even more seeds in the hopes of a successful harvest, and become trapped in debt themselves.6 The surviving widow, who often inherits her husband's debt, may also take their own lives out of similar desperation.Farmer Suicides and Governmental SchemesA combination of India's economic reforms, the influence of multinationals in the cotton farming sector, and poor climate conditions have all led to a deepening agrarian crisis. As a result, smallholder farmers are trapped in a cycle of debt. During a bad year, money from the sale of the cotton crop might not cover even the initial cost of the inputs, let alone be sufficient for paying the usurious interest on loans or provide adequate food or necessities for the family. The only way out might be to take on yet more loans and buy yet more inputs, which in turn can lead to even greater debt. The farmer may see little hope in this situation and, ironically, many take their lives by ingesting the very pesticide which they went into debt to purchase. The ripple effects of farmer suicides are great surviving family members inherit the debt, children drop out of school to become farmhands, and widow and unmarried daughters may themselves commit suicides in despair. As explained below, the Indian government has, by and large, failed to address the scope and far-reaching impact of these suicides.Farmer suicide counts have been tragically high in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.7 These states are among the highest cotton producing states in the country. In Andhra Pradesh alone, at least 17,775 farmers committed suicide between 2002 and 2009.8 In the state of Maharashtra, more than 2,500 farmers committed suicide each year between 2002 and 2009.9 In a tragic twist, family members of farmers who have committed suicide-who themselves take over farming land, and subsequently commit suicide because of debt-may also not be counted as farmer suicides, if the title has not been formally passed on to them. Tenant farmers may likewise not be counted as farmers for the purposes of the National Crime Bureau.10 Failing to adequately capture the extent of the problem, government programs aimed at addressing the crisis have also fallen drastically short.Following years of inaction, the farmer suicide crisis generated some political responses at both the national and state level. These responses, primarily in the form debt waiver and compensation programs, aimed to alleviate the proximate cause of farmer suicides indebtedness. …
With the arrival of NTT DoCoMo's FOMA services in October 2001, the world has turned its attention to the 3G mobile system. In this study, we will analyse and compare the 3G industries in Japan and Taiwan using Porter's modified framework of five forces (bargaining power of suppliers, complementors, bargaining power of buyers, rivalry among existing competitors, threats of new entrants, threats of substitutes). Through a comparison of Japan's and Taiwan's 3G industries, we derived six tentative implications.
Water right system is one of the main factors with significant influences on the sustainable utility of water resources.According to the actual situation of severe shortage of water resources in the irrigation area of continental river basin of the Hexi corridor,the unfavourable factors to the sustainable development in the current water right system were revealed and some inducible factors and potential benefit to the innovation of the water right system were discussed.Some innovation ways of the water right system were put forward,such as some kinds of water rights that can be traded in the market based on the public water rights introducing the water ticket system.At last,in accordance with the sustainable development of the water-saving agriculture,the paper advances the following suggestion as defining initial water rights,executing trade of the water rights.
The purpose of this article is to assess the impact of national distance on market entry mode choice. Using the CAGE framework proposed by Ghemawat (2001), the authors measure the effect of four different dimensions of distance on the choice between cooperation and merger-acquisition. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 203 interfirm linkages formed by French companies with partners across the world. The results indicate that administrative and economic distance has a significant influence on market entry mode choice, whereas the impact of cultural and geographic distance is not significant.
Using S&P500 companies as a sample, this paper investigates the effectiveness of fair value option in reducing information asymmetry. In February 2007, FASB announced statement 159, ’’ The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Liabilities ‘’ (SFAS No.159). This statement provides companies the option to measure financial assets and liabilities by fair value (i.e. Fair Value Option). The FASB believes that the adoption of SFAS No.159 would benefit from mitigating volatility in reported earnings caused by accounting mismatch. Moreover, resulting from hedge accounting simplification and more disclosure requirements, lower forecast dispersion is expected. Therefore, the hypothesis of whether adopting fair value option is negatively related to information asymmetry is tested. Results of the study are inconsistent with the hypotheses. This empirical result could come to the explanation that the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the following financial crisis might affect the data period of FVO due to this special period. Hence, the empirical results of this study do not support the hypotheses that adopting the FVO leads to decreased information asymmetry.
In recent times, with the upgrading of living standards, more and more attention have been paid to the product development and design for the elderly and the disabled. In the viewpoint of enterprises, product development should pay attention to user's needs, and have the economic effect of the product. This study is to understand the orientation of the product development using universal design from the viewpoints of users and enterprises. The results showed that there's inter-influenced connection between the product development and the users. If the enterprises develop more economical products/environments which were more suitable for users, they can not only provide high-grade environment for operation but also provide low-cost and high-usability products. As a viewpoint of an enterprise, the products will be high competitive and promote enterprise image.
In the modern conditions the business management should be focused on growth of its market value, which provides wealth increase to owners (investors) of the enterprise on the basis of the net assets’ value increment, and consequently the amount of their private capital. In this regard, all the major decisions in the field of the enterprise management are considered in terms of their impact on the value of the business.
It has been said that Continual Improvement (CI) is difficult to apply to service oriented functions, especially in a government agency such as NASA. However, a constrained budget and increasing requirements are a way of life at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), making it a natural environment for the application of Continual Improvement tools and techniques. This paper describes how KSC, and specifically the Space Shuttle Logistics Project, a key contributor to KSC's mission, has embraced the Continual Improvement management approach as a means of achieving its strategic goals and objectives. An overview of how the KSC Space Shuttle Logistics Project has structured its Continual Improvement effort and examples of some of the initiatives are provided.
Nowadays, a new competitive situation arises, which our domestic enterprises have to face, named hypercompetition. The one, who makes full use of hypercompetition in the long run, takes precautions and makes the disruptive innovation strategy about market, will succeed in the future. This article begins with the strategic thinking of hypercompetition, explores the strategic mode and designs the best route of disruptive innovation. Based on these, it analyzes the strategic component of new 7-S's, puts forward three main tactics of disruptive innovation.
We examine whether heterogeneity of CEO academic qualifications matters in explaining the performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). We find that CEO education attainments perform a signaling role which depends not only on the level but also on the major of education. Specifically, we show that, irrespective of the level of academic achievements, IPO investors have a preference for top managers with practice or business oriented degrees as opposed to liberal arts degrees. Importantly, our findings suggest that both the level and quality of education training tend to reduce IPO underpricing, and this effect is less pronounced for less specialized degrees.
The “construction industry meso-system” analysis which is proposed underlines the complexity and the heterogenity of the construction industry. It focuses on the use of the structures. It includes not only the construction firms and the professionals but also the materials industry and the property management firms. It highlights the part held by the existing stock. This “construction industry mesosystem” analysis emphasizes the importance of innovation in non-technical fields, focuses on the use of the facilities and deals with profitability.
In building a new socialist countryside,the town and township government is hindered in changing its functions.To make the functions of the town and township government smoothly changed,it is necessary to renew the idea of administration accurately defining the functions of the town and township government,deepen reform of town and township organs improving the management system,optimize the financial management system providing a financial guarantee for the change of functions of the town and township government,and increase the quality of cadres working in towns and townships providing intellectual guarantee for the change of functions of the town and township government.
Quick adoption of e-business and emerging influence of “Electronic Word of Mouth e-WOM” communication on guests made leading hotel brands successful examples of electronic guest relationship management. Main reasons behind such success are well established procedures in collection, analysis and usage of highly valuable data available on the Internet, generated through some form of e-GRM programme. E-GRM is more than just a technology solution. It’s a system which balance respective guest demands, hotel technological capabilities and organizational culture of employees, discharging the universal approach in guest relations “same for all”. The purpose of this research derives from the necessity of determining the importance of monitoring and applying e-WOM communication as one of the methods used in managing guest relations. This paper analyses and compares different hotelier’s opinions on e-WOM communication.
This study aims to determine the impact of the ownership structure and corporate governance to profitability. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling. The sample used is a company engaged in the conventional banking sector listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) and follows corporate governance ratings by The Indonesian Institute for Corporate Governance (IICG) in the period 2010 to 2014. Profitability is measured using return on assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). The results showed that private ownership has significantly negative effect on ROA and corporate governance have a significant negative impact on ROA and ROE. Variable control of Non-performing loans negatively affect ROE and positive effect on the firm size of ROA and ROE. This research is expected to help managers increase profitability by considering several factors such as private ownership, Corporate Governance Perception Index (CGPI), non-performing loan (NPL) and firm size. Key words : CGPI, corporate governance, domestic ownership, foreign ownership, private ownership, profitability, ROA, ROE
Rural tourism as a selective form of tourism is still not properly developed. This claim mainly concerns the continental part of Croatia, in which only 5% of the overall number of overnight stays is accomplished. Although nearly 88.7% of Croatia is classified as a rural area by the criteria of OECD, if the tourist traffic in coastal Croatia is excluded, it is evident that the forms of rural tourism are still not developed properly in a great part of our country. On the other hand, there is a presence of the insufficient connection of various forms of specialized business subjects that are concentrated geographically and have a potential of operating in a segment of rural tourism. By the research conducted under the name of ‘‘Clusters in the Republic of Croatia 2011’’, there are 5 clusters of insufficient degree of development, the activity of which is considered to be a part of the segment of rural tourism. Clusters effect the growth of the productivity and associating into clusters actuates the growth of the competitiveness of cluster members positively. However, before the actual act of assembling the clusters, what needs to be conducted is the analysis of the basic assumptions for the emergence and development of clusters. The aim of this work is to point that the basic assumptions for the emergence of clusters exists. The work also aims at pointing that the clusters founded with the goal of connecting the prospective development coordinators of rural tourism in the area of three counties of continental Croatia- Koprivnica-Krizevci, Virovitica-Podravina and Osijek-Baranja can contribute to the rapid development of the rural tourism in the advised area.
The establishment of Nature Reserve is the fundamental way to protect ecosystem services.Taking Laotudingzi Nature Reserve in Laoning Province as example,ecological benefits of the nature reserve were quantitatively and comprehensively assecsed the by using ecological economics and environmental economics from 10 aspects,such as the production of forest products,soil and water conservation,soil melioration,carbon fixation and oxygen release,air purification,micro-climate improvement,flood and drought abating,forest recreation,wild life protection,and plant diseases prevention.The results indicated that the total value of this nature reserve were 2.74×108 yuan(RMB).Suggestions for the protection and deve-lopment of the reserve were put forward to realize the sustainable development of the reserve.
Small and medium-sized enterprises have had a dominant position in most economies in the world and constitute the most important part of them. According to the European Commission, 98% of the companies are small and medium-sized and provide jobs to 90% of the employed population. Small and medium-sized businesses have become very popular among the majority of entrepreneurs for a number of reasons. The main advantage of this type of business is flexibility and fast, flexible reaction to market demands. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises have the ability to operate very dynamically and flexibly, and to specialize in their fields. In most cases, these companies have a very simple and transparent organizational structure, and they are managed by the entrepreneurs themselves. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the negatives that are associated with small and medium-sized enterprises. They often face the lack of capital, which can lead to other problems, such as limited access to foreign markets, low possibility of obtaining and maintaining highly specialized staff, etc. The major objective of this paper is to assess the level of small and medium-sized enterprises in Nitra Region, with emphasis on specifications, types and locations of SMEs.
Abstract The research goal is to present the results of research on corporate governance mechanisms used by supervisory boards when assessing the management of the activities of Polish housing cooperatives. To achieve this goal, the essence of corporate governance and its mechanisms in relation to housing cooperatives were analyzed, followed by empirical research whose respondents were members of supervisory board. The research object is a housing cooperative operating in Poland. Achievement of the objectives of the article was possible due to an in-depth study of domestic and foreign literature related to the topic of the work, as well as the application of the survey method.
The rapid development of the world of information and communication technology increases competition in the business world. Currently with technology digital server-based payment system offered by fintech, users can transact directly with their business partners. Only by making digital payment transactions via smartphone. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Brand Image and Sales Promotion on purchasing decisions using OVO applications at Royal Plaza Surabaya. This study uses quantitative methods and sampling techniques conducted through purposive sampling with 100 respondents. The results of this study indicate that 1) Brand Image has a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions using OVO at Royal Plaza Surabaya; 2) Sales Promotion has a positive and significant influence on purchasing decisions using OVO at Royal Plaza Surabaya; 3) Brand Image and Sales Promotion simultaneously have a positive and significant influence on purchasing decisions using OVO at Royal Plaza Surabaya. Keywords: Brand Image, Sales Promotion, Purchasing Decisions
The Social Security system was designed to protect against dependency and destitution in old age. We believe however, that pensions may have been used for reasons which have little to do with this. Many governments use pension plans for other purposes, including redistribution across income groups or regions, as a way of reducing unemployment, or for patronage. While these practices are widespread, Italy is a particularly good example of a country where we believe age pensions, and also disability pensions, have been used to achieve a multitude of goals. In particular, pensions have been one of the channels through which public resources have been redistributed. We perform a cluster analysis and a Pooled cross-section time-series analysis. The general picture that emerges from the empirical analysis as follows: opportunities in the job market are better in the North, so retirement at earlier age is much more attractive in the South when compared to available employment opportunities. Age pensions are much more attractive in the South Surprisingly however excluding payments made to the truly disabled and thus concentrating on the share of spending whose distribution may be better assessed on purely economic grounds, an important amount of resources accrues to the part of Italy with highest percentage of GDP. Overall, Italian public pensions seems to have poor redistributive properties across Italy and the welfare system seems to be skewed in favor of the richer part of the country.
Given the increasingly irregular foreign exchange rate that occurred in Indonesia and there is often a foreign exchange differences on foreign currency happens to companies engaged in the Money Changer, due to the use of cost of goods sold calculation method is not in accordance with the rules of accounting. While the calculation of cost of goods sold is very influential over balance sheets and income statements are presented per period. Thus the author really need to raise the topic in this article titled "Calculation of Cost of Goods Sold FX in PT Supra Gading Raya Jakarta".
Tapping into tax-exempt financing can require developers to do some hoop jumping. Nevertheless, tax-exempt debt can offer a better position in competing for power projects. Independent power developers are asking more questions this year about tax-exempt financing for power projects than ever before. With things slowing down in the domestic market, many developers are turning to municipal utilities as potential customers for wholesale power. However, it is hard to offer a municipal utility that can borrow at tax-exempt rates to finance its own power plant economic terms for a private project unless the developer can figure out how to get into the tax-exempt markets as well. Currently, there are four types of independent power facilities that can be financed in the tax-exempt bond markets, and a fifth category that qualifies for such financing in the Caribbean and Central America. Furthermore, developers continue to scour the map in search of other routes into the tax-exempt market, and sometimes they find narrow paths that work for particular projects.
When groups compete for resources, some groups will be more successful than others, forcing out less successful groups. Group-level selection is the most extreme form of group competition, where the weaker group ceases to exist, becoming extinct. We implement group-level selection in a controlled laboratory experiment in order to study its impact on human cooperation. The experiment uses variations on the standard linear public goods game. Group-level selection operates through competition for survival: the least successful, lowest-earning groups become extinct, in the sense that they no longer are able to play the game. Additional control treatments include group comparison without extinction, and extinction of the least successful individuals across groups. We find that group-level extinction produces very high contributions to the provision of the public good, while group comparison alone or individual extinction fail to cause higher contributions. Our results provide stark evidence that group-level selection enhances within-group cooperation.
In this century the management of the country is in a dynamic, multiplicity and controversial environment. For their competitiveness is necessary to look for the interaction between the knowledgebased economy and the sustainable development. A strong correlation between those objects.forces scientists to analyze, create new evaluation methodologies. The aim of this study – to examine the role of importance between knowledge–based economy and sustainable development, create and calculate an integrated sustainable knowledge–based economy index of Lithuania and according to the results or research, make proposes for more effective development of Lithuania’s sustainable knowledge–based economy. The index consists of Socio-economic, environmental, innovation, human resources and information and communications technology sub–indices..The calculation showed that the development of a knowledge–based economy is not sustainable, because not all the development of sub–indices.is the same. The biggest positive changes taking place in information and communication technology, and negative – socio-economic areas. The sustainable development of the knowledge–based economy in Lithuania since 2010 is growing up. JEL codes: O1, O2, O3.
ABSTRACT To gain insight into the use of Dynamic Solvency Testing (DST) and Financial Condition Reporting (FCR), a questionnaire was distributed to Appointed Actuaries in United Kingdom life offices. The response rate of the main survey was 76%. An independent-samples t-test for non-respondent bias was conducted and the results suggest that the respondent sample is representative of the survey population. Results from the 62 firms responding revealed: (1) Scenario testing was the most commonly used DST techniques. (2) Most life offices regularly run less than ten scenarios in scenario testing. (3) Most life offices reported using a five-year forecast period in DST. (4) The two most commonly seen difficulties are: difficulties in communicating complex issues to non-specialists, and how to present extremely adverse scenarios without causing undue concern. (5) Nearly all life offices use FCR. (6) Guidance Note 2 is generally considered acceptable. (7) Compared with the results reported by previous studies, the use of DST techniques is now more common in life offices. (8) There is a significant difference in DST/FCR practices between with-profits and non-profit offices.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain whether sustainability development of firm reputation dimensions will enhance to perform and to reach firm reputation. Design/methodology/approach - The role of accounting research that is considered and supported accounting practice may help to provide accounting information related the investor decision making. This research is preliminary study and this research approaches based on explanatory with meta-analysis. In theory, the environment of accounting is both very complex and very challenging. The complex is because the product of accounting is information. The firm reputation dimensions seem important in terms of increasing the future firm reputation that could bring result of competition advantages. Finding – The principal finding of sustainable development of firm reputation adoption is to perform the expected firm growth. Original/value–The results of this study make contribution to quick response for investor to make investment decision on the outcomes of firm reputation should be the value to investor who wants the data accuracy and reliable accounting information. Keywords: sustainability development, sustainability development offirm reputation dimensions, accounting information.
The concept and structure of contextual performance is the core content in contextual performance research,however,currently,the theory on concept and structure of contextual performance at abroad has many differences and debates and the lack of empirical research on China's enterprises in China exists.This paper consults foreign literatures,based on the questionnaires on real employees relation performance of Chinese enterprises,the survey data were collected from 736 managers and employees of companies which were different kinds and from different districts of China.The results show that contextual performance of Chinese employees is a three-dimension construct,comprising interpersonal contextual performance,organizational contextual performance and job contextual performance.
Based on literature analysis and market investigation,this paper analyzes the current conditions and existing problems of the sports facilities in Shanghai.It points out some main factors affecting the development of the facilities and makes some suggestions on strengthening macro- guidance and control,encouraging private investment in the market of physical exercises,establishing an association for the privately-run sports facilities,etc.
This diploma thesis deals with the effective management of net working capital in the company COMINFO, a.s. The theoretical part is focused on summarizing available theo-retical knowledge of efficient management of net working capital and its individual com-ponents. The following practical part is devoted to the analysis of the components of net working capital in the company COMINFO, a.s. and the analysis of its economic situation by indi-cators of financial analysis. Based on the results of the analysis the project of effective working capital management is proposed. Conclusion of the practical part is focused on the assessment of the proposed solutions benefits for the company COMINFO a.s.
Motivated by the increasing environmental concerns about the used electric vehicle batteries in China, an electric vehicle manufacturer’s battery recycling strategy under government subsidy was studied. A consumer utility function was used to capture consumer environmental awareness associated with battery recycling and the game-theoretical approach was applied to analyze the interaction between the government and the manufacturer. It was found that, with an exogenous government subsidy, the manufacturer either recycles all the batteries, or it does not recycle any batteries if the impact of the recycling scale on costs is unremarkable; otherwise, the manufacturer recycles some used batteries when the benefit from recycling is moderate. Interestingly, an increased subsidy causes the manufacturer’s battery recycling rate to decrease if the subsidy is sufficiently large. When the government subsidy is endogenously, either full recycling, no recycling, or partial recycling can still arise. The optimal battery recycling rate and social welfare are lower in a non-cooperative game than in a cooperative game if the benefit from recycling is relatively low. The main findings were numerically justified with realistic subsidy data in China. The numerical results indicate: (1) the optimal battery recycling rate locates in a closed interval from 0 to 1 given an exogenous or an endogenous government subsidy, and it decreases with the subsidy when the subsidy is not less than 50% of the production cost of electric vehicle; (2) the social welfare first increases to a maximum value and then decreases as the subsidy increases; and (3) the optimal battery recycling rate increases significantly and the social welfare is improved when there is cooperation between the government and the manufacturer.
This study aims to provide insight into of the extent of usage of other corporate financial information sources by Jordanian individual investors in taking their investment decisions in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in comparison with annual corporate reports. The study also aims to identify the main reasons for using sources of information other than corporate annual reports. The result of study revealed that corporate annual report was the most used sources of information. This followed by published daily share price, newspapers and magazines, corporate web sites, advice of friend, tips and rumours, stockbrokers’ advice and discussion with company staff respectively. These results indicated that Jordanian individual investors put more emphasis on the usage of the written sources than verbal sources. The results also indicated that Jordanian individual investors start to give more attention to the usage of electronic sources as the corporate web sites ranked forth. In respect to reasons that encouraged investors to use sources of information other than corporate annual reports, the results indicated that the first three reasons include; easier to get information, containing new information and giving up-to-date information. These reasons form the features of the written sources which were indicated as the most used sources of information.
Technological innovation is the source power of economic growth and economic development.The paper regards innovation progress as one stage and two stages,sets up an index system to evaluate the technical innovation performance and use DEA method to analyze and evaluate the technological innovation development of Jiangxi province impersonally by introducing the ideal DUM to research the data from 1999 to 2008.The Paper regards the delay time of the output as 2 years.The research shows that with the expanding input make distinct technical progress has been made,the technology innovation transfer rate is relatively lower.Because of the poor disposition and utilization of the available resources,there' s not good transformation to the advanced technology.Therefore,the crucial measure to set up innovation province is to set up the mechanism to introduce and cultivate the high - level technical personnel currendy.
One way a business actor strengthens their business is through cooperation with other business actors. One form of cooperation is a "merger" or another term, "merging." Mergers carried out by business actors can result in monopolistic practices or unfair business competition. A merger of competition aspects is regulated in Article 28 and 29 of Law No. 5 of 1999 on the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition which provides regulation regarding post-notification of mergers. Commission Regulation No. 1 of 2009 on Pre-Notification of Mergers, Consolidations, and Acquisitions gives a different arrangement, namely in the form of pre-notification to business actors. This difference in notification arrangements provides ineffectiveness and inefficiency for business actors.  Keywords: Post-Notification, Mergers, Unfair Business Competition.
Abstract The paper attempts to quantify the benefits of contract farming on farmers income and investigates the determinants of participation in contract farming. This is based on a survey of 1,331 farmers engaged in cultivation of onion, okra and pomegranate from Maharashtra State in India. Descriptive statistics, regression analysis (using instrumental variable) and propensity score matching have been used in the analysis. The study reveals that contract farming, by connecting smallholders to high-end international market, ensures them with higher returns to the tune of Rs 14.5 per kilogram over independent farmers. Access to institutional credit, extension services, farm-size, ownership of transport, and migration significantly affected farmers participation in contract farming. The empirical evidence on benefits from contract farming in high value export commodities should induce conducive policies for promotion and upscaling of contract farming in India. Acknowledgement : We are grateful to the United States Agency for International Development for extending financial support to conduct this study.
Managerial compensation is strategically pivotal and practically interesting to manage as it has long-lasting ties with firm?s performance. It is regarded as most crucial tool to attract and retain the top-notched professionals to achieve the firm?s strategic and long term objectives. The executives tends to support their comparatively higher level of compensation sometimes, may be at the cost of priority to firm?s value and interest of principles. In corporate finance literature, this phenomenon of opportunistic behavior has been controlled by various monitoring mechanisms. The new spectacle is apposite in Pakistani financial institutions that have no more strict application of compensation regulation. The current study empirically evaluates the impact of different corporate governance attributes such as institutional shareholders? activism, independence of audit committee and board structure and block holding on the level of compensation paid to CEO of Pakistani listed firms for a period of 2007-2013. All these personas worked as monitoring mechanism for CEOs is scrutiny through stepwise regression. The results found that independent audit committee and board of director along with dual CEO structure and greater family ownership are helpful in mitigating the higher level of CEO compensation with is in align with the agency cost hypothesis. Moreover, higher financial institutional ownership found positively related to CEO compensation which is in accordance with the strategic alliance hypothesis. However, the role of institutions in deciding CEO compensation becomes negative in case of family firms as compared to non-family firms.
Abstract We study fragmentation of equity trading using a model of imperfect competition among exchanges. In the model, increased competition drives down trading fees. However, additional arbitrage opportunities arise in fragmented markets, intensifying adverse selection. Due to these opposing forces, the effects of fragmentation are context dependent. To empirically investigate the ambiguity in a single context, we estimate key parameters of the model with order-level data for an Australian security. According to the estimates, the benefits of increased competition are outweighed by the costs of multi-venue arbitrage. Compared with the prevailing duopoly, we predict the counterfactual monopoly spread to be 23% lower.
This research aims to study the relationship between corporate governance mechanism and earnings management. Corporate governance, proxied by institutional ownership and managerial ownership are the mechanism that is expected to reduce this practice by minimizing the agency problem. Earnings management is proxied by absolute discretionary accruals. Control variables are used in this research are company size, Return on Assets and Leverage.  The number of samples used in this research is 70 manufacturing companies which are listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange during three consecutive years 2014-2016, therefore the number of sample companies used during three years is 210. These companies are selected by using purposive sampling technique. The analysis method used in this research is multiple linear regression analysis. The conclusions based on the results indicate that institutional ownership and managerial ownership have negative not significant influence on earnings management, control variables company size has negative significant influence on earnings management, return on assets has positive significant influence on earnings management, and leverage has positive not significant influence on earnings management.     Keywords: Earnings Management, Corporate Governance Mechanism, Company Size, Financial Performance
Indigenous farming is a production system, based on renewal of ecological processes and strengthening of ecological functions of farm ecosystem to produce safe, healthy and sustainable food. Indigenous agriculture is being adopted by the farmers of Kolli Hills in centre Tamil Nadu for different reasons. However, a lot of constraints prevent the farmers in adopting indigenous farming practices, that include poor yield, poor marketing facilities, higher production cost and urbanization
Malaysia is making an aggressive effort of transformation to become a fully developed country.  As one of the pillars for transformation, the construction industry has been undergoing a major reform with regard to the traditional method of construction. In recent years, the Industrialised Building System (IBS) has been promoted extensively with the government taking a lead with the practice.  Studies showed that IBS has been able to expedite construction process, improve the time taken to accomplish a project, improve building quality, able to control cost and human resources, which in overall, raise occupational health and safety standard of construction.  Despite, as most IBS projects were carried out under the traditional procurement method, the full benefits of IBS are somehow obscured. Several issues such as work delay, lack of communication and integration, lack of knowledge and an increase in cost, which are synonymous to the traditional procurement method appear to outweigh the benefit of IBS. Hence, this research aims to suggest an alternative to the traditional procurement method with regard to IBS project implementation. The focus of this research has been on the challenges and innovative procurement methods most suited for IBS project. Two objectives were outlined: (1) to identify issues faced by the client on current procurement method in IBS project; and (2) to identify the client’s perspective on innovative procurement method most suited for IBS project. Data for this research was collected through semi-structured interviews with five respondents from five major developers having experience in IBS project implementation. The results from the thematic analysis revealed that apart from the common issues which ascend from the sequential nature of the traditional procurement method, design integration issue was opined to aggravate the situation. Unanimously, respondents agreed that partnering is the way forward for IBS project implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. This research contributes by providing important pointers for the local construction industry to move forward with IBS project implementation.
In many security markets, market-makers offer to trade at a discount relative to their posted bid and ask quotes. In this article we provide an explanation to this phenomenon. We show that market-makers can mitigate informational asymmetries by selectively offering price improvements to their regular clients. We study a specific type of pricing strategy which consists (a) in offering price improvements to investors who have not repeatedly inflicted trading losses to the market-maker uses this pricing strategy, there are equilibria in which his clients optimally choose not to contact him when they have private information. These equilibria Pareto-dominate those which are obtained when the market-marker does not or can not make his quotes contingent on his clients' trading histories. Our Model predicts that (1) market-makers should grant price improvements to their regular clients but that (2) these improvements should be temporarily suspended after sequences of purchases (sales) followed by price increases (decreases).
This study analyses the economic importance of the Brazilian citrus industry in the Brazilian Trade Balance in the period of 1996 - 2000, as well as the economic financial transaction in the citrus chain along 1999. This analysis shows the considerable participation of the frozen concentrate orange juice (FCOJ) in the Sao Paulo Trade Payment, where only recently this product lost the 1st place for airplanes, as well as its importance among the most important Brazilian export products, placing the Brazilian fruits crops inside the best export products.
Since the beginning of industrial revolution, growth and development of industries have brought new creations and changes to our life. This continuous progress has produced major environmental accidents and has influenced the human's health, climatic change, destruction of ozone layer, extinction of animal species and plants. These global crises and environmental tragedies highlight areas of significant concerned. Environmental groups are promoting and educating the communities on environmental issues and induce awareness on environmental trends and regulatory policies to establish effective ways to curb pollution, reduce generation of wastes and to enforce stringent standards and regulations on industries.
With the development of our economy and the progress that we made on internationalization of our market economy,the industry of real estate develops rapidly,and the actual accounting standard on investment property has been unable to adjust to the demands of real estate's development.Treasury Department of China issued the new standard of investment property,which embodied a progress of our internationalization and which arose some feedback in the stock market of China.This paper studies the effect of the accounting standards for investment property on enterprise's stock price,hoping that can help us to correctly comprehend the new standard and appraise the new standard's feasibility.
The Israeli flavors maker Frutarom has increased its penetration into the cosmetic ingredient and dietary supplements market with the purchase of Israeli Biotechnology Research for $21 million. Frutarom made 12 acquisitions last year. With IBR it gains a business based on plant and algae extracts with annual sales of more than $7 million and 30 employees. Frutarom says the latest deal advances its strategy to be “the preferred partner for tasty and healthy success.”
The primary purpose of this research is to examine the feasibility of expanding Quinta dos Açores retailer network in Lisbon starting from 2015 onwards. A time series model was developed to estimate the company’s future production and sales. A Discounted Cash Flow analysis was also conducted to determine the profitability of this expansion opportunity. Our findings reveal that Quinta dos Açores will face negative results in the first two years of the expansion strategy, but the overall opportunity presents a net positive result of almost three million euros.
Government formation in multi-party democracies is notoriously ridden with information uncertainty. Uncertainty is aggravated when new parties enter parliament, which generally suggests a ‘newcomer handicap’ in government formation. However, relegating newcomers to the opposition comes with uncertainty in its own right, which suggests immediate cabinet participation as new leaders seize the opportunity and established parties pursue containment. We explore elite responses to this strategic problem in the postcommunist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) where new parties often gain parliamentary representation. Even in CEE, a newcomer handicap in government formation is apparent, controlling for other detrimental party attributes. However, this applies to small newcomers only. For larger parties the handicap turns into a bonus, an effect only qualified once the newcomer outnumbers its competitors. Either way, newness-induced uncertainty thus intensifies the strategic rationale of government formation. As party systems become more volatile, these findings are relevant beyond CEE.
This paper examines how the information environments of subsidiaries located abroad affect investment decisions in multinational corporations. We hypothesize and find that foreign subsidiaries in country-industries with more transparent information environments better translate the local growth opportunities into investments. Cross-sectional tests show that the effect is greater when there is greater information asymmetry between the parent and the subsidiary. This suggests that the external information environment helps mitigate information asymmetry problems that arise when firms expand their operations across borders. This paper contributes to the literature by showing that the external information environment helps resolve information asymmetry frictions within multinational firms.
ABSTRACT Despite several studies, international treaties and individual organization's commitment to going green in the tourist hotel industry, there has been limited discussion of the business case for implementing environmental practices. Several hotels have determined that there are numerous benefits to greening their hotel operations; however, there is still a gap between attitude and action in this industry. Cost savings; competitive advantage; employee loyalty; customer retention; regulatory compliance; risk management and social responsibility have been identified as the benefits to environmental commitment however with very limited discussion and proof in relation to the hotel industry. This paper seeks to identify the business case for environmental commitment with a focus on the Canadian hotel industry. Concrete examples of benefits that apply to this industry are discussed as well as future trends that support the case that going green is necessary for an economically viable and efficiently run hotel.
Some of the largest tech companies in the world, not to mention a stream of smaller startups, are now our roommates. Homes have become the target for smart devices and digital platforms that aim to upgrade old appliances, like refrigerators, and provide new capabilities, like virtual assistants. While smart devices have been variously championed and demonized in both academic literature and popular media, this article moves critical analysis beyond the common—but still important—concerns with privacy and security. By directing our attention to the wider political economy of datafication, it reveals the increasingly influential, yet shadowy, role of industries outside the tech sector in designing and deploying surveillance systems in domestic spaces. Namely, the FIRE sector of finance, insurance, and real estate. When Amazon and Google moved into our homes, they also let in a suite of uninvited third parties.
The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is again reminding us of the importance of using telehealth to deliver care, especially as means of reducing the risk of cross-contamination caused by close contact. For telehealth to be effective as part of an emergency response it first needs to become a routinely used part of our health system. Hence, it is time to step back and ask why telehealth is not mainstreamed. In this article, we highlight key requirements for this to occur. Strategies to ensure that telehealth is used regularly in acute, post-acute and emergency situations, alongside conventional service delivery methods, include flexible funding arrangements, training and accrediting our health workforce. Telehealth uptake also requires a significant change in management effort and the redesign of existing models of care. Implementing telehealth proactively rather than reactively is more likely to generate greater benefits in the long-term, and help with the everyday (and emergency) challenges in healthcare.
Purpose of the community service activity is to improve the quality of organic manure made from the waste of milking cow cattle and the marketing management. Problemsolving methods used are teaching and training about the organic manure making techniques, packaging and the marketing management. Community service activities shows the results, in accordance with the method is expected that results from the manufacture of the organic manure product showed that the participants can understand and practice the manufacture of the product as well, discuss various problems and the manufacture and marketing of the organic manure product as well as suggestions / feedback from the instructor can be understood and accepted manufacturing practices and extension yhe organic manure product carried out simultaneously showed effective results.
This paper provides evidence about the relationship between innovation and employment in Argentina. In particular, it quantifies the impact of different types of innovations (process or product innovations) on employment growth and skill composition (skilled-unskilled labor) and the impact of different innovation strategies (buy or make) on employment growth, and analyzes whether these impacts depend on firm size or technology intensity. To answer these questions a model proposed in Harrison, Jaumandreu, Mairesse, and Peters (2008) was estimated using an IV approach with data from the Innovation Surveys for Argentina for the period 1998-2001. The results suggest that product innovations have a positive impact on employment growth while process innovations have no significant impact on employment growth. In addition, there is some evidence that product innovations are skill-biased, and that a mixed innovative strategy of make and buy has a larger impact on employment growth than a buy-only strategy. Finally, similar impacts for small firms but differential impacts for low-tech and high-tech sectors were found.
Marketing relationships can be placed on a continuum from short, discrete transactions to ongoing brand relationships. The majority of recent work has focused on relational exchanges, with some scholars even suggesting early on that the marketing discipline was undergoing a paradigm shift from a transaction-based marketing perspective toward a relational exchange perspective. However, there has been a growing recognition that not all customers seek relational exchanges. Consequently, the current research considers customer relationship management from the less studied, but oft seen, perspective of transactional exchange. A study is presented using recent advances in structural equation modeling analyses, including Bayesian estimation methods and mediation analyses. We further consider the psychological processes underlying the formation of consumer loyalty based on pre- and post-purchase measurements taken over multiple time periods. We specifically hypothesize that consumer satisfaction judgments will fully mediate any influences of post-purchase trust judgments on future loyalty intentions. With American consumers’ trust in businesses at an all-time low, coupled with the recent trend that more and more brick-and-mortar retailers are at risk of “showrooming” for online retailers, there is an apparent need to also consider retail customers who see the value of relationship marketing only selectively.
In the current, chaotic health care climate an important success determinant for health care administrators and clinicians is the support of timely, collaborative decisions for delivery of patient care. The purpose of this article is to describe implementation and outcomes of the application of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model, a strategic management system, for a Women's Services Clinical Business Unit (CBU) in an academic health care institution, a complex adaptive system. Emphasis is focused on crucial process and outcome indicators that demonstrate how the work of all team members makes a difference at the point of clinical services across the continuum. Finally, implications for leadership development are revealed from the principles underlying complexity science.
Recently, more and more people with different professional backgrounds are involved in multiple stages of drug development processes and research, encompassing clinical trials. Given this diversity, there should be available a set of core laws, regulations, and guidelines that govern the processes and research. This article aims to introduce basic information regarding those rules and regulations. Ethical principles and regulatory objectives, national and international regulatory authorities, and core laws and guidelines are listed. The main focus is placed on the objectives, principles, rules, and tools of Good Laboratory Practice, Good Clinical Practice, and Good Manufacturing Practice Guidelines. In addition, the requirement of clinical trial registration to the open database is explained. Ongoing efforts by national and international authorities (agencies) for the international harmonization in this field are also
The paper provides a theoretical analysis based on the idea that the active market is the main determinant of human capital recognition in the financial statements within football industry. The study represents a general review of the authors concerning the situation of players' contracts registration which may influence the management decision processes of companies operating inside and outside of the football arena. The paper can help the managers of firms operating in other industries than football to discover insights about the possibilities of recognition of human capital rights in the financial statements. We have used the archive method for documents such as UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations and Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players. The paper contributes to the literature by analysing the situation of football players' rights being recorded in the financial statements in order to inform future research in the field.
This study aims to analyze the effect of tax planning and profitability on earnings management with company size as a moderating variable. The population of this study is companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for the period 2013-2018. The selection of this sample uses a purposive sampling method. Hypothesis testing uses multiple linear regression analysis and Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) with statistical procedures using SPSS software version 24.  The results showed partially that tax planning has an effect on earnings management. Meanwhile, profitability has no effect on earnings management. Simultaneously, tax planning and profitability have effect on earnings management. Based on the results of the MRA interaction test, company size can moderate the effect of tax planning on earnings management, but cannot moderate the effect of profitability on earnings management.  Keyword:    Tax Planning, Profitability, Company Size, Management Earning.
Vocational education is one of the four education systems.The relationship between the stakeholders turns so amusing that stakeholders vary in interest,value and behavior.Thus this paper probes into the mechanisms of the governmental support,business attraction,school incentives,and public opinions as well as the participation of the third party.The purpose is to ensure the sustainable development of the Chinese vocational education.
Private economy is the important component of the socialist market economy in our country.The constant growth of economy in Ningbo also benefits from the fast development of local private economy.The development of private economy has made enormous achievement in Ningbo since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy.However,in the course of its development,there exist some profound questions.Technological innovation,brand construction and personnel training,etc.are the basic route to the sustainable development of the private economy in Ningbo.
This study critically examines the relationship between issue news and corporate brand equity. Using Uchumi supermarkets as a case study, this research argues that issues news have a significant impact on the brand equity of companies. This is especially critical when companies are facing crises occasioned by various factors and actors as was the case with Uchumi supermarkets whose brand equity has taken a battering in the recent years. The research was premised on the main objective which was to examine the relationship between issue news and Uchumi Supermarket’s corporate brand equity. The specific objectives were: to determine consumer awareness of issue news about Uchumi Supermarket; to establish the relationship between issue news and Uchumi supermarket brand equity; and, to evaluate the mediating role of consumer’s sensitivity to information from the news media on Uchumi supermarket brand equity. Evidence from all the eight Uchumi supermarkets in Nairobi and eight competing stores was used. Moreover, the research also talked with 73 respondents comprising of 32 shoppers from Uchumi, 32 shoppers from competing supermarket brands located close to Uchumi’s eight supermarket stores in Nairobi and nine key informants was used. In addition, newspaper clippings and TV clips were analysed to confirm the effect issue news had on shoppers’ and stakeholders’ behaviour and choices towards Uchumi. Most of those interviewed, as evidence in this study shows, consider brand equity and reputation as critical to the choices they make. Unfortunately, most of those interviewed, or 95 per cent, considered Uchumi’s reputation and brand as bad largely because of the negative press and challenges it faces. Given this situation, the study notes that Uchumi has been unable to effectively deal with the crisis bedevilling it. Accordingly, had Uchumi had a crisis communication plan in place, it might have been able to control the impact of the issue news on their corporate brand reputation and by extension limited the effect on their corporate brand reputation.
Bank syariÂ’ah Laboratories is one of the financial institutions that operates the offer products Â– banking products, one of banking products that offered by Bank Syariah Laboratory is the financing of SMes that are intended for micro businesses around campus III of University of Muhammadiyah Malang.    The research objective is to determine how much the funding application procedures, analysis of business financing, until the process of financing is approved or rejected by bank Syariah Laboratory. The Location studies of bank syariah Laboratory in Jl. Ry Tlogomas 246 Malang. Telp. (0341) 4643318 ext. 232 Fax. (0341) 460435 65144. Malang Campus III UMM GKB II, IV floor.    Based on the research that has been done, it can be concluded that the Bank SyariÂ’ah Laboratory for the procedure of financing is not too difficult for the customer, because the existing of financing procedures in the bank syariÂ’ah laboratory as well as other syariÂ’ah banking, in addition, the analysis of funding distribution used by bank syariÂ’ah laboratory is 4C, (Character, Chapacity, Condition, Capital)4p (Perpose, Payment, Profitability, Prospect) dan 3r (Return, Repayment, Risk). For determining the financing is approved or rejected.
Financial institutions often do not charge explicit fees for the services they provide, but are instead compensated by the spread between interest rates on loans and deposits. The lack of explicit fees in lending makes it difficult to measure the output of banks and other financial institutions. Effective measurement should distinguish between income derived from lending services and income derived from portfolio decisions about risk and duration, and should be consistent among bank and nonbank financial institutions.
Construction projects are dynamic and complex systems; their planning, execution and delivery involve considerable collective effort and coordination on the part of multiple individual stakeholders that come together to form a temporary project organization (TPO) for a project’s duration. In contrast, traditional construction project management practices are static. They often rely on inadequate and early assumptions of a handful of individuals in the TPO that try to predict and plan the execution of the project in great detail in the early stages of a project. To manage uncertainties, contingencies and buffers are introduced into the planning process. This static approach to construction management often results in variability which leads to waste and loss of value. Innovative tools and approaches such as building information modeling (BIM) and Lean construction have emerged over the years and aim to eliminate waste and inefficiency resulting from current practices in the construction industry. These approaches, however, require significant reconfiguration of the interactions within a TPO, among other things, which introduces significant challenges in their adoption and implementation. This manuscript presents the findings of a 16 month action-research project undertaken with a specialty trade. The research project aimed to investigate the implementation of lean principles within the organization and the potential impact on a complex, mixed-use project. Several performance metrics, such as planned percent complete (PPC) and degree of change in scheduled tasks, were utilized to measure and assess the reliability and efficiency of the planning efforts on the project. Reliance and dependency of following specialty trades on
This chapter analyzes the evolution of employment regulation in Brazil in order to understand the current moment that it is experiencing. In the current political, economic, and social crisis scenario, the protection system, which is historically valid and justified by the intense social inequalities, is questioned as the country is trying to deal with the urgencies of a big economic downturn without trust of local and international investors in internal market. An intensely advanced legal and judicial system in terms of constitutional principles and guarantees faces a number of structural problems that affect its effectiveness, while at the same time, in the middle of the scenario, the effectiveness and immediacy of the legal and judicial solutions becomes urgent. This chapter finally aims to analyze, in a historical and systematic way, and through statistical data related to employability, GDP and litigation linked to the subject of labor relations, how this Latin “giant” stands and seeks the solution between proposals for legislative reform. Brazil’s Employment Regulation and Outsourcing: A Precarious Option
Accidents related to sleepiness related fatigue are an important concern in transportation related industries. This brief review outlines the public safety concerns with sleepiness related fatigue in the railroad, aviation and motor vehicle transportation fields. In addition, the common causes of sleepiness related fatigue, and impact on operators and their families are highlighted. It is suggested that in addition to greater recognition and changes in duty hour regulations, there should be a greater emphasis on the education of operators on the importance of sleep and circadian factors in causing fatigue, as well as strategies to mitigate their impact. Reports from the Field
Sometimes, businesses restrict their hardware products with intellectual property legal instruments to maintain near-monopolies in market niches. This proprietary approach to technology risks creating anti-competitive rent-seeking behaviour and comes with its own set of economic and social costs. In The Hardware Hacker, Andrew ‘Bunnie’ Huang builds on his entrepreneurial experience in manufacturing hardware to provide a viable alternative. In addition to extensive tips on the practicalities of hardware mass production, Huang’s book documents the thriving technology counterculture in Shenzhen, China’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Called the ‘shanzhai’, these entrepreneurs ignore patent and copyright restrictions and openly copy features from other products to remix them into new ones. While some call them thieves, shanzhai innovations pre-empted now-common device categories such as the smartwatch, and may address market niches unreachable by intellectual property-encumbered business models. Huang personally experimented with this approach (while operating within existing intellectual property laws) through his open hardware business ventures – notably the Novena open laptop – and in this book discusses the lessons learned. They include reflections on access to hardware as a form of civic action, implications of advances in biotechnology, and an optimistic view on the growth of open hardware in light of the deceleration of Moore’s Law. Refreshingly accessible and entertaining, The Hardware Hacker shows us the importance of the right to tinker in an age where technology permeates all aspects of life.
With the objective to find out the level of knowledge and constraints of rice farming, a study had been conducted. A sample of 80 respondents (40 resource rich and 40 resource poor) was selected from two blocks under four villages. The knowledge index was derived from obtained scores of individual respondent and primary data were used by open ended response for identification of production constraints. On the basis of ranking of knowledge, it was observed that respondents have poor knowledge about plant protection measures in rice farming. Overall, it was observed that majority of respondents (76.25 %) had low to medium level of knowledge about rice production. The prevalence of insects and diseases, scarcity of labour and lack of technical knowledge were mainly observed as the major constraints in the rice production technology. The practise wise knowledge of the respondents clearly state, if the farmers update their knowledge level, there must be a scope of enhancing the productivity. In addition, organizing demonstrations and trainings to promote the location specific crop production and protection technologies for farmers and farm women may improve the crop production and protection technology. Strategic steps should also be taken in to prime consideration to overcome the production constraints and make rice farming more profitable and sustainable.
Positioning in Online Social Networks Through QDQ Media: An Opportunity for Spanish SMES?.- Modeling the Influence of eWOM on Loyalty Behaviour in Social Network Sites.- Crowdsourcing as a Competitive Advantage for New Business Models.- Analyzing a Successful Incubator Business Model: The Case of Barcelona Activa.- Website Effectiveness for Tourism Accommodation Companies.- Gender in the Elderly Internet Users.- Search Engine of Optimization (SEO) and Ethical Leadership Strategies.- Search Engine Ranking: A SEO Strategy.- The Integration of Social Networks in the Competitiveness of Cooperation Networks: An Analysis to be Applied in Pharmacies.- How Are New Media Changing the Working Environment? What are the Challenges?.- Improving User Experience: A Methodology Proposal for Web Usability Measurement.- The Importance of Trust in Information Security in Interconnected Organisations.
enabled me to examine all of Aldobrandini's religious commissions at first hand. I also travelled to Ravenna, Carpineto, the Abbey of Fossanova and the Eremo of Camaldoli to visit other sites linked to Aldobrandini and his patronage. Aspects of my research were included in talks I gave during the year at the School, at the University of Ferrara and at the British Art Medal Society in London. The results of these talks and new evidence provided by my archival research will be the basis for my Ph.D. and for articles to be published in the future.
This research aims to measure and to model the urban expansion of Greater Muscat using the combined techniques of geographical information systems (GIS) and satellite remote sensing (RS). Basing on detailed datasets and knowledge of historical land use maps, attempts were made to simulate future growth patterns of the city. A significantly detailed dataset of land use for Greater Muscat, derived from an assemblage of aerial photographs and high resolution satellite imagery, was assessed. The outcome of this exercise was the design of six land use maps covering the years 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2003. The results show that the area of Greater Muscat has expanded by 650% in the period 1970-2003 with an annual growth rate of approximately 20%. An important objective of this study is to determine the extent to which such changes could be modeled and used to forecast and simulate patterns of change in the future. After intensive literature review, the SLEUTH model, developed by Keith Clarke from Santa Barbara University, was employed. Six image inputs (slope, land use, excluded areas, urban extent, transportation and hillshade) were used to model future urban expansion. The SLEUTH model agreed with average annual increased especially the average of increased between 1990 -2003. The model was also be able to identify the sequences of future urban expansion.
A new kind of ionospheric oblique backscattering sounding radar was developed.With the new system design,the radar can usually obtain 27 dB gain from phase coded pulse compression and 21 dB gain from coherent spectral integration using pseudo-random code,pulse compression and coherent spectral integration techniques.Furthermore,due to the adoption of a new kind of sounding system of alternate transmission and reception in equal interval,this radar can detect the ionospheric state in 2 000 km with no dead zone and can achieve the largest gain of applied pseudo-random sequences.In addition,a large portion of the functionality was implemented using programmable signal processing techniques for the sake of programmable,reconfigurable and upgradeable ability.This radar also exploited merits of PXI(Peripheral component interconnect extensions for Instruments) bus technology and was designed as a modular,compact PXI-based system.The results show that the backscatter ionogram and Doppler ionogram can be clearly obtained over 2 000 km for 100 W power.
The topic of this paper is the functional and design characteristics of multifamily (formerly collective) residential buildings created in the post-war period of Modern architecture of Nis. For the post-war period of intensive and mass construction of residential buildings, a time classification of constructed buildings was performed, and they are classified into two categories. The first category includes buildings built in the 1950s, in the period of the „mature“ Modern architecture, which is a continuation of modern architecture of Nis between the two world wars. The second category consists of residential buildings created in the late 1960s and 1970s, in the period of the late (industrial) Modern architecture of Nis. In this paper, two representative examples of residential and commercial buildings from the mentioned periods were selected, both built on the 14. Oktobar square, in the central core of the city of Nis. As typological representatives of the mentioned periodizations of construction, the buildings will be analyzed in the form of two case studies.
The present study´s aim was to identify how the practice of straight line horse races was constituted in the city of Porto Alegre, in the second half of the 19th century. Data was collected in printed sources; such as the catalogue of Revista do Globo, records and a remembrance book of Jockey Club do Rio Grande do Sul. The city presented a scenery of urban development in the half of the XIX century. In this context, the maintenance of the old passion of Rio Grande do Sul’s people was searched: the horse races. Even before the opening of the first hippodrome, lots of disputes took place in the suburbs of Porto Alegre. As the hippodromes were being created, straight line horse races started losing space in the city. Straight line horse races, possibly, constituted an equestrian sportive practice able to evidence a development of the horse races simultaneous to the slow, but constant, modernization process of the city and its population.
Study of sunlight and shadow effects on the city has become more accessible with the development of 3D city  models. It allows measuring when and how an object is exposed to the sunlight, which enables conducting many  related studies such as energy analyses or urban planning. While many works have been done for this purpose, it  may be interesting to know which objects (terrain, buildings, trees, etc.) prevent other objects from being  exposed to the sunlight. In this paper we propose a method which detects the sunlit zones on a city model and the  shadow impact of its objects. As these objects can be of various natures and as the acquisition processes varies  from one city to another, they are not all necessarily available in each city model. Since an object’s shadow can  impact other very distant objects, we must have a method that handles efficiently large areas, especially knowing  that city models can have fine geometric and semantic definitions. The generic approach we propose can manage  these different city models by supporting every type of the above-mentioned objects and by relying on the use of  standards.  This paper presents a generic method which allows sunlight and shadow computation on arbitrarily large 3D city  models for impact analyses of each city object on its surroundings (close and far). This means that besides  checking if a city object is shaded or not, we know which objects are responsible for the shade, thus allowing  various impact analyses on cities.
ESTRUCTURE OF INFRACOMMUNITIES OF STRONGYLID NEMATODES (NEMATODA: STRONGYLIDAE) OF CECUM OF Equus caballus NATURALLY INFECTED,FROM METROPOLITANA REGION OF RIO DE JANEIRO STATE; BRAZIL The strutucture of the infracommunities parasitic nematodes in equines from Metropolitana Region of Rio de Janeiro State was analyzed. Patterns in the parasite diversity and interspecific relationships were observed. Moreover, the prevalence and abundance of the strongylid nematodes were calculated. Thirty-three equines were necropsied, and were collected 8,640 helminths (6,078 belonging to Strongylidae) from the intestinal cecum. Dominance among the Cyathostominae species was not observed. Coronocyclus coronatus (90.9%, 60), Cylicostephanus calicatus (87.9%, 48.9) and Strongylus vulgaris (84.8%, 24), were more prevalent and abundance species. Cylicostephanus brevicapsulatus showed highest values of dispersion and aggregation. Three infrapopulations (2, 3 and 15) showed the same parasite richness (3), however the value obtained from Shannon and Pielou indices were different because the unequal evenness of these samples. From 182 possible associated species pairs, only 8 showed significance association and covariation.
Unlike the sea-sand-sun triangle, the change in the consumer trends has begun to form the foreground of alternative tourism due to the increase in the tourism diversity. The uniformity and de-differentiation experienced in the consumer form forces societies to develop alternative tourism possibilities. Accordingly, the protection of natural and cultural values, the purchase of accommodation-eating-drinking services in areas with pristine natural beauty, the benefit to the local people, the recognition of rural cultures and the activities made in a region compatible with the environment have started to appear as alternative tourism varieties. IIn the concept of alternative tourism, terms such as ecotourism, rural tourism, green tourism, cultural tourism, sustainable tourism, and adventure tourism are also used. Alternative tourism is built on a system based on the use of indigenous resources and traditional architecture. With this work, it has been tried to put forth the current situation of the alternative tourism in Gümüşhane and the touristic potential of the province. The strengths and weaknesses of alternative tourism in terms of Gümüşhane province in the study and the threats and opportunities that may be encountered in the future are determined with the help of SWOT Analysis. As the strengths of Gumushane province due to the internal factors of alternative tourism; being geographically out of the center and to have an intact natural structure; possession of spider and city forests with a flourish richness; nature and history, such as Tomara Waterfall, Çakırkaya Monastery, Santa Ruins, Karaca Cave, Satala Ancient City, Limni Lake Nature Park, Artabel Lakes Nature Park; to have a spiritual value like Ahmet Ziyaüddin-i Gümüşhanevi in terms of religious tourism; the presence of Zigana winter sports tourism centers; to be the province with the most highlands in Turkey; different plant varieties in the flora since it is located in the Black Sea and the Terrestrial climate; the existence of agricultural and livestock enterprises that can be used for alternative tourism in the region; comes into prominence. Reluctance to protect natural or historical riches; adequate infrastructure, lack of transport network; the public does not actively participate in tourism; the inadequacy of tourist guides and local travel agents; lack of promotion and marketing; disadvantages resulting from geographical structure are also seen as weaknesses. The history of the province is on the silk road; the presence of the Süleymaniye Ski Center, which has just started to work on infrastructure; Kose Airport is being built; the presence of historical and urban textures that can be adapted to restoration work; are the opportunities to be included in the scope of the attraction centers program; insufficient capital accumulation; the resistance of local power centers and the unconscious behavior of the people; to face the risk of deterioration of the natural balance of the province with alternative tourism activities to be carried out without planning; the migration of young people are among the threats. As a result, when the strengths and weaknesses of alternative tourism in Gümüşhane province are compared, the strengths are heftier. The changes that have taken place in the tourism understanding in recent years, also offers Gümüşhane new opportunities. When features of Gümüşhane like climate, its unique nature, its flora showing endemic characteristics, its geography hosted various civilizations, being on the route of the historical Silk Road, its authentic settlement areas which are suitable for natural life such as plateau, mountain, balloon, bicycle, tent village and cave tourism , the characteristics of the environment in which citizens with different religions, languages and denominations live in peace for thousands of years are taken into consideration, it indicates that the unlimited potential of the region can be utilized.
Information and communication technologies are increasing day by day among different communities for obtaining the information about related issues, problems and their solutions. In the context of agriculture development, information and communication technologies have played important role in developing countries. Most of the developing countries have got fruitful results of the technologies. Internet, mobile phones, radio and television are most important tools of communication providing knowledge and information to farmers about agriculture. By using these technologies in different countries it was found Positive results in agriculture development have been found by using these technologies. In remote areas radio is still favourite tool of communication which broadcasts many agriculture programs while television also contributes much in disseminating information about agriculture in developing countries. Furthermore, mobile phones have reduced the gap among farmers and buyers, now farmers directly communicate with customers and get price of their products from market. Mobile phones have also provided new approach to farmers to get latest information from metrological department for weather conditions before using pesticides in their farms. However, internet is also disseminating information regarding price and marketing of goods and farmers are receiving information within minutes from all over the world.
The first record for South Italy of Cymbalophora rivularis (Ménétriès, 1832) is reported, until now recorded in Italy only for Central Apennine. Three specimens were collected during August-September 2017, in an Acer spp. forest located on Monte Sparviere, a Site of Community Importance within the Pollino National Park. Furthermore, this species was successfully barcoded for the first time. This finding reinforces the biogeographic importance of Pollino Massif as refuge area for relict populations of several animal and plant species.
Abstract This paper explores the highly urbanized landscape of the Los Angeles River. Direct encounters with the contemporary river are combined with an historical exploration of some of the developments associated with its transformation into a 51-mile concrete drainage channel. It is suggested that the current landscape of the Los Angeles River not only reveals much about the complex relations between nature and culture in southern California but also illustrates how the contemporary city is marked by a schism between technical conceptions of water control and new attempts to combine river management with wider social and ecological objectives.
This research explores the role of the local identity and cultural heritage in urban regeneration strategies and the conflicts caused by significant urban renewal and development projects that represent a negative impact on the local identity that is being promoted. This study analyses from the domain of heritage and identity, the conflict of two interventions in the city of Valparaiso, Chile, and establishes the importance of governance and civic society participation for the construction of heritage. It also considers the problematic caused by the institutional and policy framework of the case study whose centralism and lack of integral approach of current development policies, impact negatively in the development of cities and local aspects.
The heroism thatcharacterizesSelvon s first novel, A BrighterSun (1952), in an important way, continues in The Plains ofCaroni (1969), a work that resulted from an eighteen-month stay in Trinidad, when Selvon was paid by Tate & Lyle, the British sugar conglomerate, to write a book about the sugar industry in Trinidad. Although Selvon spent his longest return visit in Tacarigua, where incidentally Turn Again Tiger is set, he chose to set his new novel in Wilderness, more than likely a fictionalized of Warrenville, a sugar-cane village six miles north east of Chaguanas. It was here that an incident over the introduction of the mechanical harvester occurred in 1968, an incident in which shots were fired without injury. This is the historical quarry from which Selvon partially drew his material for what is arguably his most heroic, and sadly, his most neglected novel. To date, only a few short reviews have appeared. The Plains ofCaroni was republished in 1985 to introduce a recently-migrated Selvon to the Canadian public. Evidently, the event went unnoticed, for the Canadian literary world was silent. This, therefore, is the first sustained analysis accorded The Plains ofCaroni, which one reviewer calls Selvon's "finest book."1 In The Plains of Caroni, the heroic impulse is channelled through two different characters, one young, the other old. Selvon creates two heroes who, curiously, are at odds with each other. Balgobin, the father, represents a traditional Indo-Trinidadian peasant sensibility; Romesh, the son, em bodies a progressive world-view, moving from canefield to university to working for the management of the sugar company. Both Balgobin and Romesh are ignorant of their precise propinquity, a fact known only to Seeta, Romesh's mother. Selvon uses this old literary device to allow each individual freedom to act independently. Balgobin is the exemplar of an obsolescent heroism, a heroism that recalls the conduct of the epic heroes
s of Papers, 1978, Second Canadian Congress on Leisure Research. Ontario Research Council on Leisure, 77 Bloor Street West, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 183p. $5. This report presents 85 abstracts in French and English of papers given at the Second Canadian Congress on Leisure Research. An index of program participants is also included. Canadian Catalogue of Leisure Research Completed in 1976 and 1977. Ontario Research Council on Leisure, 77 Bloor Street West, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 1978. 262p. $6. Abstracts of 360 studies completed in Canada during 1976 and 1977 with indices of funding agencies, institutional affiliation, investigators, and subjects by keywords are included in this report. Park and Recreation Futures in Canada. Ontario Research Council on Leisure, 77 Bloor Street West, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 1978. 192p. $6. Discusses the application of futures research techniques to long-range planning and management recreation participation and growth limits and its implications. Proceedings of the Second Canadian Congress on Leisure Research 1978. Ontario Research Council on Leisure, 77 Bloor Street West, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. November 1978. Presents full papers and presentations of all 89 plenary and workshop sessions at the Second Canadian Congress on Leisure Research. All plenary papers are translated, and workshop papers are presented in the original language with French and English abstracts. National Tourism Facts, 1978. English Tourist Board, 4 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DU, United Kingdom. No date. Unpaged. This brochure provides information on British and overseas residents’ tourism in England, British tourist spending in Britain and abroad, accommodation of tourists in England, occupancy of hotels in England, holiday tourism in England, and tourist spending. British Home Tourism Survey 1977. English Tourist Board, 4 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DU, United Kingdom. 1978. 18p. Approximately $3.50. This report gives a comprehensive description of tourism by British residents. It is based on a survey commissioned by the English Tourist Board on behalf of the national tourist boards for England, Scotland, and Wales and the British Tourist Authority. Data provided include number of trips-abroad and in Britain, purpose of trip, accommodation used, month trip started, length of trip, origin of trip, and data on holiday, business, and conference tourism. PAR As Applied to County Economy. Jack Gray. Recreation Resources Center, University of Wisconsin&mdash; Extension, 1815 University Avenue-327, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. July 1978. 16p. This paper discusses PAR, a method to capsulize the economic activity within a county or tourism region. PAR means simply a common level or an amount taken as an average or norm. To determine a county’s par, comparisons are made by computing the percentage of the nation’s Consumer Spendable Income for that county and assigning it a 100% of par. The percentage of the national activity in all of the remaining categories is then computed and divided by the percentage of consumer spendable income. If above 100, the activity is above average and conversely, if below 100, below aver-
The Gambella region has seen factional fighting and inter-community violence since the last two decades. There have always been clashes between the Anuak and the Nuer, mainly over resources and for socio-cultural reasons. Historically resource-based clashes and small-scale skirmishes attributed to values embedded in identity and culture have been common in the area. What is striking, however, is the transformation in the nature and intensity of conflicts over the last two decades. The major defining moments that transformed the conflict in Gambella were the Sudanese civil war and the political transformation in Ethiopia in the early 1990. Both led to the regionalisation of the conflict and to some extent, seem to have altered traditional competition and rivalry, which are at the centre of this study. Why is the Gambella region prone to conflict? What converts local/traditional disputes, which have always been there, into open large-scale regional conflict? The purpose of this study is to analyse the context, identify the origins, and explain the key determinants of the conflict in Gambella, its linkages with the political and security issues in Sudan and Ethiopia, and its impact on regional peace and security.
This study reports growth and carbon storage of four bottomland hardwood forest sites in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) of southern Louisiana. Forest growth and carbon sequestration rates at the four sites were highly variable because of differences in stand composition, age, structure, and site hydrology. Mean annual carbon assimilation rates ranged from 1.9 - 3.4 Mg/ha/yr during a seven year period. The highest sequestration rates occurred in trees on the drier, ridge site. Remnant mature trees accounted for a large proportion of total carbon assimilated and stored and at each site. The carbon sequestration rates reported in this study are generally less than those reported by previous research of carbon storage capacity of bottomland hardwood forests in the LMAV.
On September 5, 1950 (04:08 GMT), a strong earthquake struck a large part of Central Italy, causing heavy damage in the districts of Teramo, Pescara, L’Aquila and Rieti. This earthquake is considered, in the Italian Seismic Catalogues, as the largest event which occurred in the Gran Sasso Range area. This area is characterized by an infrequent and moderate seismicity. On the contrary several neighboring areas are prone to a high and frequent seismicity. This paper aims to reappraise the 5 September 1950 earthquake and the following seismic period, deepening our knowledge of this event from the macroseismic and seismotectonic points of view. Historical research in public archives allowed us to retrieve many unpublished documents, related to the 1950 earthquake and to the strongest aftershock which occurred on 8 August 1951. Very important documents are in particular the “Genio Civile” folders about damage reconnaissance in the provinces of Teramo and Rieti. Results concern the large increase of intensity points, from 137 to 386 for the 1950 event, and from 33 to 94 for the 1951 event, with respect to the known literature. Maximum intensities are I=VIII for 1950 earthquake and I= VII for 1951. By means of the Boxer code version 3.3 (Gasperini et al., 1999) new epicentral parameters have been calculated from macroseismic data, together with the macroseismic magnitude values (Maw=5.9±0.2, for the 1950 event and Maw=5.2±0.2 for the 1951 aftershock). Finally, a hypothesis about the seismogenic source responsible for the mainshock is proposed. According to the damage distribution, an EW oriented source (strike 91,5±18, length 10,7 km, width 7,4 km) can be hypothesized, located below the Laga Mountains, not related to known tectonic structures of the region. The seismogenic source of the 1950 earthquake could therefore be represented by a blind fault pertaining to a structural level deeper than that of the active normal faults which affects the Apennine extensional domain.
The Soil Conservation Service - Curve Number (SCS-CN) method is a popular rainfall-runoff model that is widely used to estimate direct runoff from small and ungauged basins. The SCS-CN is a simple and valuable approach to estimate the total stream-flow volume generated by a storm rainfall, but it was developed to be used with daily rainfall data. To overcome this drawback, we propose to include the Green-Ampt (GA) infiltration model into a mixed procedure, which is referred to as CN4GA (Curve Number for Green-Ampt), aiming to distribute in time the information provided by the SCS-CN method so as to provide estimation of sub-daily incremental rainfall excess. For a given storm, the computed SCS-CN total net rainfall amount is used to calibrate the soil hydraulic conductivity parameter of the Green-Ampt model. The proposed procedure was evaluated by analyzing 100 rainfall-runoff events observed in four small catchments of varying size. CN4GA appears an encouraging tool for predicting the net rainfall peak and duration values and has shown, at least for the test cases considered in this study, a better agreement with observed hydrographs than that of the classic SCS-CN method.
The phytocoenotic diversity of forest communities of Bolimow Nature Park is characterized. On the basis of analysing 360 phytosociologic releves 14 associations were distinguished and described. Data on: diversification of syntaxa into subassociations and variants, distribution, state of preservation, anthropogenic changes and threat, are presented. The most interesting and valuable associations of the study area are: Ficario-Ulmetum and Potentillo albae-Quercetum . The associations of Salici-Populetum and Vaccinio uliginosi-Pinetum are most threatened. The highest phytocoenotic diversity is displayed by the Tilio-Carpinetum association.
Dust profiles have been observed by a laser Ceilometer (MEISEI CT25K) at Shapatou, China which is located at the edge of the Tengger Desert. The observation was conducted throughout one year of 2004 successfully and showed the behaviors of the atmospheric dust profile from near the surface to about the 1000-m height. The results of the observation were compared with several other meteorological data, such as surface, radio sonde and sky radiometer measurements. In particular, the dust profiles observed on calm and fair weather days were analyzed and compared with other meteorological data. The dust profile at the calm and fare weather day in the desert area is mainly influenced by thermal convection due to strong surface heating in the warm season. The dust amount lower than the 500-m height decreases in the daytime and recovers in the nighttime. The data of the sky radiometer shows that the total amount of the dust at the same calm and fair-weather days is almost constant during the daytime. The observational evidence was explained in the paper.
Understanding of the complex interactions between the mesoscale and cloud environment and between microphysical and dynamical processes within clouds can be substantially increased with the aid of sophisticated numerical models. These models can provide additional insight in key areas where scientific knowledge is presently lacking. To study the initiation, organization and complete life cycle of convective and orographic clouds over complex terrain requires time-dependent models with three spatial dimensions. The sophistication is necessary because the interactions that occur in nature in a cloud and between the cloud and its environment are often times non-linear and self compensating. In the past, numerical models with one or two spatial dimensions have been extensively used in weather modification research and only recently have models with three spatial dimensions received more attention. The reason for this is that the computer technology to run these sophisticated models has improved in the past several years and is now more available. The paper gives an overview of the present state of art of numerical modelling in weather modification efforts. Some of the recent applications and studies in precipitation enhancement programs using the sophisticated three-dimensional time dependent Clark model are highlighted.
Based upon radio-tracking, and using kernel analysis techniques, the mean range size of three adult male leopards Panthera pardus was 2182.37 ± 491.628 km2, that of five adult females 488.70 ± 292.893 km2, and that of a single subadult male 1323.80 km2 These ranges are considerably larger than for leopards elsewhere, and may reflect the aridity and prey-poor nature of the southern Kalahari. The subadult male dispersed over a linear distance of 112.6 km from its presumably natal area to where it established a new range.
We examined the capture locations of polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) on land in western Hudson Bay over 19 years (1986–2004) to assess temporal trends in the distribution of the population. We found that the distribution of bears of most age and sex groups shifted northward and eastward over the study. The causes of these shifts may be related to an altered population structure, changing environmental conditions, or a combination of both factors. Segregation by age, sex, and reproductive status persisted over time as found in earlier studies, but more females with young were within 5 km of the coast after 2001 than before. The distribution changes were correlated with the timing of sea-ice breakup, which now occurs, on average, about three weeks earlier than it did 30 years ago. While environmental conditions may have influenced polar bear distribution, the reduction in the number of large adult males along the coast may also have affected distribution patterns, allowing adult females to remain closer to the coast in more recent times.
Global warming is one of the major policy challenges for contemporary societies. The construction and implementation of an environmental policy largely depends on public attitudes. Those public attitudes can be influenced by the mass media in several ways. Therefore, exploring the quality of the media coverage on global warming is important. So far content analyses of the communication on climate change have mostly focused on the USA and the UK press. Although the UK coverage has been examined several times, content analyses in other European countries are very sparse. Research of the EU coverage should be broadened, because previous research suggests that there might be differences in the way American and European media report on global climate change. Content analyses in the US press have shown that in many articles the emphasis is on scientific uncertainty. This critical reporting is less prominent in the UK, and in Germany the emphasis is on scientific certainty. On the other hand, the UK press reflects a very alarmist tone when it covers global warming and Germany describes global warming as a ‘climate catastrophe’, while US newspapers tend to use a more neutral tone. Because these results suggest that there might be differences between US and EU reporting, we argue that more research in Europe is needed and suggest a research method for pursuing it.    Keywords: global warming, climate change, press communication, USA, EU, cultural differences/influences
Abstract Depending upon altitudinal gradient in the Himalayas, the rate of climate change varies from lowland to upland. The Chitwan Annapurna Landscape (CHAL) is the central part of the Himalayas and covers all bioclimatic zones. Analysis of time series data (1970-2019) of temperature and precipitation was carried out in seven bioclimatic zones extending from lowland Terai to higher Himalayas. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test was applied to determine the trend, which was quantified by Sen’s slope. Annual and decade interval average temperature, precipitation trends, and lapse rate were analyzed in each bioclimatic zone. Out of seven bioclimatic zones, four zones showed a decreasing precipitation trend (lower tropical, upper tropical, upper subtropical, and alpine bioclimatic zones)at the rate of 1.8, 1.98, 2.06, and 1.80 mm/year, and in lower sub-tropical, temperate, and lower subalpine bioclimatic zones, increasing at the rate of 0.45, 1.81 and 1.28mm/year, respectively. Precipitation did not show any particular trend at decade intervals. The average annual temperature at different bioclimatic zones clearly indicates that temperature at higher elevations is significantly increasing more than at lower elevations. In lower tropical bioclimatic zone (LTBZ), upper tropical bioclimatic zone(UTBZ), lower subtropical bioclimatic zone (LSBZ), upper subtropical bioclimatic zone(USBZ), and temperate bioclimatic zone(TBZ), the average temperature increased by 0.022, 0.030, 0.036, 0.042 and 0.051oC/year, respectively. The decade level temperature scenario revealed that the hottest decade was from 1999-2009. The average temperature was found as 24.1, 21.8, 19.7, 17.5, and 13.3oC in LTBZ, UTBZ, LSBZ, USBZ, and TBZ, respectively, and the average annual precipitation in LTBZ, UTBZ, LSBZ, USBZ, TBZ, LBZ, and ABZ was 2002.1, 2613.1, 2223.9, 3146.9, 1447.2, 952.1, and 361.7mm/year, respectively, in CHAL. With the impact of climate change site and region-specific, this information highlights the need to mitigate climate change in different bioclimatic zones.
paper aims to present a detailed setup for the future treatment facility of Vilarinho, where a detention pond in a poor peripheral area of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) will be revitalized and combined with a constructed wetland and public leisure area. The paper discuss the technical aspects like concentrations and pollutant load during dry weather and wet weather periods, needed for the wetland design, without forgetting the social implementation of the future public service.
We propose a new method to estimate the player position from badminton video on the bird’s-eye viewpoint. The position estimated by the plane projective transformation matrix from the correspondence between the court line in the video and the court model defined by the rulebook. We achieve high precision player position estimation by deploying the superior software of long-term tracking, and preprocess of inpainting white lines that adversely affect the tracking. The evaluation experiment was conducted on badminton singles video.
Northern Territory Times and Gazette, Monday 25 January 1897 p3.    One of the most sorrowful outcrops from the terrible cyclone was the death of Mr. M. D. Armstrong, which took place at the Palmerston Hospital on the morning of the 17th. Deceased was a good deal exposed during the night of the storm and on the following day, and this brought on internal troubles to which he eventually succumbed. The intimation of his death was received in town with very marked signs of regret, and a large gathering followed his remains to the grave.    The deceased had been amongst us for about sixteen years, and during that time he drew round him a very large circle of intimate friends, who will deeply deplore his death. In many, ways Mr. Armstrong was a prominent and useful member of the community, forward in most things pertaining to the common good. His mother and other relatives are alive.
The Development of the present national and regional done aiming at improving the well-being of the community. Execution of development can not be inevitable from the use of natural resources. However, the exploitation of natural resources which are not heeding the abilities and resources support neighborhood resulted in a deterioration in the quality of the environment. It is necessary to research on the opportunities of the city towards sustainable development in order to improve the welfare of society. This study aims to measure the probability of the city towards sustainable development based on the classification of cities in Urban Semarang and yogyakarta. Analysis tool used is the multinomial logistic regression. The results showed the economic factors, demographic and social factors that influence the classification of the city towards sustainable development. City inhabitants are solid probabilities to become a sustainable city is getting smaller. Calculation probabilities through scenario data, mapping can be used in the future and the basis of decision-making or the determination of urban policies relating to the environment. Key words: probability, city, sustainable, scenario, binary logistic regression
Throughout the course of their intervention in the Niger basin, the British were confronted by a variety of issues that reflected the diversity of issues and factors that are peculiar to its distinct inhabitants and their respective internal variations. This paper goes beyond orthodox historiography by employing the tenets of the Eckstein-Gurr theoretical framework to illuminate those internal variations especially the respective sets of social authority patterns that are peculiar to each of those distinct inhabitants, to provide a complex political economy account of the processes and factors that derived from those variations and impacted the evolution of British intervention in its different phases that included benign Crown Colony rule in Lagos and the dawn of classical colonial rule on the auspices of the subsequent set of autocratic social authority patterns that characterized the latter.
In the Peace River region, vegetative shoots of field horsetail, Equisetum arvense L., emerge from June 1 to July 1, and reach full growth about July 16. All herbicides studied were most effective applied July 16 to 30. Amitrole (3-amino-1,2,4-triazole) at 8 lb/A at this time gave 96%, stand reduction the next year. For selective killing in barley, MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid) at 4 to 8 oz/A killed 100lo of the top growth in the year
The aim of this paper is to discuss briefly the various meanings of the concept of territory in a geographic perspective that appear in policies and programs of public policies in health. In this direction, we seek to understand this concept in three dimensions that complement each other, namely: a) as a geographical category, b) as a concept present in the Basic Operational Norms (NOBs) and Operating Standards of Health Care (NOAS) and, Moreover, c) the presence of this concept in the Family Health Strategy (FHS). To this end, we compared some official documents on
A study area within the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District, which lies east of Yuma,  Arizona, was used to verify the threshold model proposed in Part I. Verification results  showed that the threshold model could not reliably predict salinization potential;  consequently, a modified threshold model, Model 1, was formulated. Model 1 was capable  of predicting nearly 60 percent of the salinization potentials correctly, a significant  improvement over the original threshold model. Nevertheless, Model 1 fell short of  being considered a reliable forecasting tool.  It is postulated that the interactions between the factors believed to give rise to  salinity development at the study site were too complex to characterize with the simple  threshold model approach. Rather, a means of weighting the significance of the individual  factors in the overall salinization process may be necessary.
Abstract In this paper, we discuss different types of verbal aspect in three varieties of Sorbian, Standard Lower and Upper Sorbian and Colloquial Upper Sorbian. There are basically two formally differentiated aspect oppositions in Sorbian, the Slavic opposition of perfectivity, expressed by stem alternations (prefixation, suffixation and suppletion) and thus grammatically derivative, and the opposition of aorist and imperfect, expressed by inflection. These two types are, however, restricted in their distribution, as modern Lower Sorbian lacks the inflectional type completely, and Colloquial Upper Sorbian uses it only with auxiliaries, modal verbs and some verbs of speech. Even in Standard Upper Sorbian the independence of the two oppositions is rather relative, as only the second and third person singular have different endings for the two grammemes, whereas in all other persons formal differences between imperfect and aorist are expressed, if at all, only by stem alternations, dependent on the opposition between the imperfective and the perfective stem. Therefore, even in Standard Upper Sorbian we have a clear differentiation between perfective and imperfective only outside the synthetic past tense, e.g. in the analytic l‑past or in the future, while the imperfect is linked exclusively to the imperfective and the aorist to the perfective. While the functions of the stem-based aspect opposition are in the Standard languages of the common Slavic type, Colloquial Upper Sorbian has an idiosyncratic aspect type based functionally on an opposition of grammaticalized telicity. The reasons for the special characteristics of verbal aspect in the varieties of Sorbian in formal as well as in functional respect essentially go back to language contact with German. The ILA model of the interaction of the lexicon with aspect serves as a theoretical base for the following presentation.
The article examines the main elements of the USA supremacy in the post-cold war world. For this, the text goes back in the time and analyzes the crisis of the hegemonic expansion of the North-American power in the 1970’s, that was followed by policies, military force, monetary and financial answers from the USA that, together, culminated in the North- American imperial project in the post-cold war.
Sturgeons are primitive large-bodied anadromous fish with most of the species living in the sea and reproducing in rivers. Because of their complex life history and their intensive exploitation, sturgeons are considered as globally threatened species and close to extinction (Gessner, 2000). Presently, fishing by-catch, poaching, habitat degradation, and physical obstacles to migration are major threats to the survival of these species (Ludwig, 2008). The River Evros basin, including in its lower drainage the tributaries Arda, Tundja and Ergene, with a total length of 550 km and a total catchment area of 39 000 km is the second largest river system in the Balkans, after the Danube. The river and the sea around its estuary (Thracian Sea) were the last fishing areas for A. sturio in Greece. This fishery sustained a small-scale canning industry, which during the early 1960s gave a production of 90–120 kg of sturgeon caviar annually (Georgacas, 1978). The River Evros population of A. sturio showed signs of decline already in the 1960s with the catches decreasing dramatically in the 1970s. Since 1980 only one catch of a mature female is reported by the Local Fishing Cooperative of Alexandroupolis in 1991. Consequently, A. sturio was considered as extinct from the river, despite the fact that this was never reported officially. During the recent years sporadic capturing of sturgeons has been recorded in the estuary of the River Evros (Koutrakis and Economidis, 2006). Herein, by employing morphological and molecular tools, we describe the taxonomic identification of three specimens captured in the years 2005 and 2006.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the cooking time of three common beans crops and its relation with different factors by analyzing the physicochemical characteristics such as: grain size, cooking time, water absorption capacity as well as proximate chemical analysis of different species of Phaseolus vulgaris (Pinto Saltillo, Bayo Victoria and Black, San Luis). Among the obtained results , the seed weight is related to grain size, thus it was assigned the following classification: medium size to the San Luis Black variety and Pinto Saltillo variety and big size to Bayo Victoria variety; it wasn ́t found an relation between the grain size and the water absorption capacity, in the case of the medium size varieties their water absorption capacity resulted bigger than the big size variety ́s water absorption capacity and the variety of greatest water absorption percentage was the medium size variety Pinto Saltillo with a 48.23% which in the evaluation of cooking time registered the lower time with 115 minutes, followed by the San Luis Black with a time of 137 minutes and the Bayo Victoria with 243 minutes. Palabras clave: frijol, calidad, grano.
Villages Act requires a paradigm shift toward the village, which puts the village as a subject not related objects rural development within the framework of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia. One of the things that is being debated is related to the management of bengkok village land. Before the birth of the Village Act, bengkok village land is an asset village partly used to provide compensation / income for the village head and the village because of his so-called origin inherent rights because of the positions. With the Act the village, the village head and village get income fixed and allowances budgeted in APB village a source of funding is the revenue villages. Their fixed income and this additional polemical for the continuity of the village administration, because of the Law of the village is considered removing government authority bengkok village land to work the land as compensation for his position.
This paper is primarily concerned with the Chinese history and rural society, using the example of Sanmentang village as a case, to illustrate the internal relations of timber trade activities and regional social change in the downstream areas of Qingshui river basin. It probes into the complicated relationship between nongovernmental contracts and local timber trade during the period of late Ming dynasty (AD1368-1644) and early Qing dynasty (AD1644-1911) in China. It explores regional social history, social structure changing process and its main driving factors. The findings reveal the direct effects of commercial activities on regional economic development, and its indirect impacts on local community. Findings also reveal the historic significance of stone tablets and contractual documents in old China. Finally, relationship of “timber trade → economic development → social change” is shown to be evident.
How does global Christianity relate to processes of globalisation and modernization and what form does it take in different local settings? These questions have lately proved to be of increasing interest to many scholars in the social sciences and humanities. This study examines the tensions, antagonisms and outright confrontations that can occur within local Christian communities upon the arrival of global versions of fundamentalism and it does so through a rich and in-depth ethnographic study of a single case: that of Pairundu, a small and remote Papua New Guinean village whose population accepted Catholicism, after first being contacted in the late 1950s, and subsequently participated in a charismatic movement, before more and more members of the younger generation started to separate themselves from their respective catholic families and to convert to one of the most radical and fastest growing religious groups not only in contemporary Papua New Guinea but world-wide: the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This case study of local Christianity as a lived religion contributes to an understanding of the social and cultural dynamics that increasingly incite and shape religious conflicts on a global scale.
The inadequacy of housing conditions for a subsantialpartofthe South African population is one of the most relevant development priorities for present public policy. Various hypotheses have been raised with regard to demographic or economic circumstances which can favour or be associated with the appearance and worsening of these conditions. Most of these hypotheses can be generalised to a developing country pattern, but aspects related to the specific development of an individual country are also to be taken into account. The analysis considers these hypotheses with particular reference to South Africa, by applying cross-region regressions to three types of dwelling which are deemed to reflect poor housing conditions, eventually broken down also by community group. LES CONDITIONS D'HABITATION DES PAUVRES EN AFRIQUE DU SUD
A survey of a 10 mile segment of the route of the proposed Charleston Innerbelt Freeway, from the intersection of U.S. 17 and South Carolina 7, west of Charleston, and Virginia Avenue (Road S-58) in North Charleston was carried out by the writers in July, 1975. The survey indicated that three archeological sites would be destroyed by the proposed construction. Though none of these sites are recommended for placement on the National Register of Historic Places, they may be considered none the less to have considerable scientific and historical value. Collections of prehistoric cultural material from the Kinloch Site, 38CHl09, suggest prehistoric Indian occupation during the time period of fiber tempered and Thoms Creek ceramics, roughly 2,000 to 1,000 B.C., and again during the period of Wilmington ceramics, roughly A.D. 500 to 1,000. These prehistoric components represent the earliest and latest extremes, respectively, of what Milanich (1972, 1973) has called the Coastal Tradition and that he has suggested represent a continuity in population and subsistence strategy adapted to the biotic resources of the Southeastern coastal plain. Intensive investigation of the prehistoric components at 38CHl09 would be an opportunity to partially test Milanich's hypothesis and obtain much needed information on non-shell midden sites from this time range. At 38CHl09 and at the Dog Pound Site, 38CH262, are large quantities of e~ghteenth century artifacts which, in both cases, seem to represent farmsteads or plantations. No eighteenth century sites of this type have been intensively investigated in the South Carolina coastal area. Suggested problems for further research at these sites include investigation of (1) settlement variability in the Charleston area in Colonial times, (2) the growth and change of eighteenth century plantations and farmsteads, and (3) the social composition of such settlements. It is also suggested that, if extensive documentary data on these sites are obtainable, this might be an opportunity to establish correlates between behavior and social groups represented in history and the content and structure of archeological sites. One of the analytical problems of interest to historic archeology which might be investigated at these sites is the role of Colono-Indian ceramics in Colonial society. The remaining site, 38CH263, is a group of pits believed to have resulted from extraction of clay for brick manufacture at Ashley Hall Plantation during the eighteenth century. The historic significance of Ashley Hall has been recognized by the placement of the site on the National Register of Historic Places. Archeological information from these pits would be essential to a well-rounded picture of eighteenth century activities on this plantation. It is recommended that a program of archeological research be carried out at these sites in order to mitigate the adverse effects of the building of the proposed Freeway. A two-stage intensive excavation program for both the prehistoric and historic components at 38CHI09 and 38CH262 and a brief program of topographic mapping and trenching at 38CH263 are recommended.
The Internet-based Tussock Grassland MIS was instigated to provide information and decision support for those involved in the management of the South Island high country. The site was developed in 1998, and was made public on the World Wide Web almost a year ago. Evaluation meetings were held with scientists to gain ongoing support for supply of information for the site, and to discuss barriers to the involvement of the science community. In discussions with Department of Conservation and regional council staff, issues relating to support for the site, practicality of the site, and technological and organisational matters were covered. In total about 25 people were involved.
Purpose: PMV, PET, and similar thermal comfort indices and microclimate modeling have recently become actively used to evaluate thermal comfort. This study will look at pedestrian roads with diverse spatial characteristics on university campus using the ENVI-met model as the base for onsite measurement. Method: The PET was used as the thermal comfort index. The first microclimate measures were collected on September 20, 2014, and the second microclimate measures were collected on June 1, 2015. The ENVI-met model was used at the same time. Result: As a results, Onsite measurement results differed depending on the PET spatial characteristics. The location associated with the most discomfort had a PET of 47.8°C. The spatial characteristics of this place included a with no shade. The most comfortable location had shade, and the PET was 24.6°C. When the ENVI-met model and onsite measurements were compared, similar patterns were found, but with a few differences at specific points; this was due to the limitation of using input materials such as trees, buildings, and covering materials with the ENVI-met model. This factor must be thoroughly considered when analyzing modeling results.
The prevalence of road traffic accidents is on the rise, thus contributing to morbidity and mortality. In the year 2000, road traffic injuries was the 11 th leading cause of death globally, currently, it is the 9 th leading cause of death. Despite the tragedy behind the loss of life and injuries due to road traffic crashes, there is less mass media attention and public awareness than other less frequent types of tragedy. This study was done to assess the causes and prevalence of road traffic accidents among commercial long distance drivers in Benin City. A descriptive cross sectional study design was used, and data was collected from 315 commercial long distance drivers and their vehicles. Study was done from January to October, 2013. Respondents were recruited using systematic random sampling technique. Study instruments included structured interviewer administered questionnaires and focus group discussion guide. The results showed that 114 (36.2%) were within the age group of 31-40 years. Ninety-one (28.9%) were in the 41-50 years age group while 18 (5.7%) fell within the 61-70 years age group. Most of the respondents 272 (86.3%) were married, 28 (8.9%) were single, 10 (3.2%) were cohabiting, while 2 (0.6%) were separated. Almost all the respondents 311 (98.7%) were males while 4 (1.3%) were surprisingly females. More than half of the respondents 172 (54.6%) had a secondary level of education, 112 (35.6%) had a primary level of education while 12 (3.8%) had no formal education. The study showed a prevalence of road traffic accidents of 47.9% in Benin City occurring more in day time and the common causes of road traffic accidents include careless driving, speed violation, brake failure, traffic violations, faulty overtaking, burst tyre, bad roads, alcohol use and armed robbery attack. Thus measures should be made to ensure proper maintenance of the roads to ensure the risk of RTA due to bad road is reduced and also provide adequate security for road users to prevent armed robbery attacks. Key Words: Road traffic accidents, determinants, crashes
Pag. 39-50 Abstract We describe the floristic composition and structure of two premontane forest fragments at the city of Villeta in Cundinamarca, Colombia. All individuals with a diameter at breast height ≥ 10 centimeter were counted in a 0.1 ha plot of each forest. A total of 67 species in 45 botanical families were recorded; with Lauraceae, Melastomataceae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae y Euphorbiaceae being the most abundant and diverse. La Esmeralda fragment showed a large abundance, with 48 species and with Quercus humboldtii, Alfaroa colombiana, Guatteria lehmannii and Clethra fagifolia as the most abundant. At San Isidro fragment only 42 species were recorded and Clethra fagifolia, Hedyosmum bonplandianum and Meriania speciosa where the most abundant. Six of the most abundant families were registered in both places. The floristic diversity was similar in the two fragments (H` 3,5 y 3,3), but the index of similarity was low, only 29,3% of the species were shared. The results showed that these forests have a low diversity, since we registered fewer number of species and individuals than has been reported in other premontane forests.
The relations of production and appropriation of the urban space by Tourism and Leisure are widely discussed, especially in the fields of Geography, Urbanism and Tourism itself. The context of expansion and consolidation of capitalism has led to a significant increase in tourist activity and, at the same time, there is a constant expansion of urban space, which implies changes in social relations. In this context, the relations between tourism and urban expansion/formation of new centralities is analysed in order to understand the role of this activity in the spatial [re]production. From a qualitative and exploratory approach, we sought the main authors of urban geography and tourism whom focused on the study of urban expansion, centralities and peripheries. Based on the theoretical analyses undertaken here, it was possible to understand that, in addition to the formation of new centralities influences tourist offer, tourist activity also has a role in the production of these spatial forms: the center-periphery relation.
This study aims to identify the area of yard farmland owned by the farmers' families in the cultivation of vegetables and spices and to identify the amount of costs incurred by the family of farmers for the consumption of vegetables and spices in one month. This study was conducted for three months from the time of preparation to the preparation of the final research report.Activities begin from September to November 2017. The data used are primary data and secondary data. Primary data obtained from the respondents through surveys, documentation, interviews using a list of questions that have been prepared first.Teknik sample used is purposive sampling technique with the number of samples of 30 respondents. With the provisions of the families of farmers who grow vegetables and spices as many as 15 respondent and farm families who do not grow vegetables and spices as many as 15 respondent. Then the data collected will be analyzed descriptively and presented in written form and table. Based on data analysis that has been collected, it is concluded that the area of yard area owned by family of farmers who grow vegetables and spices mostly located in the area between 100 m² - 120 m² whereas family of farmers who do not plant vegetables and spices mostly located in the area between 121 m² - 140 m². As for the cost of consumption of vegetables, both farming families who do not plant, the average cost of Rp 330,000- Rp 599,000. for the cost of spice consumption of both planting and non-planting farm families, the average cost of Rp 289,000 - Rp.576,000.
Aim: To quantify the extent to which national mixes of winegrape varieties (in terms of vineyard bearing area) have become more or less diversified, and â€˜internationalizedâ€™, since wine globalization accelerated from the 1990s. Method and results: In addition to bearing area (in hectares), shares and indexes are estimated for each of 53 countries in an updated global database involving 700+ wine regions that account for 99% of the worldâ€™s winegrape vineyard area and 1,700+ DNA-distinct prime winegrape varieties and 1350+ synonyms, for 2000, 2010 and 2016. This global database (Anderson and Nelgen 2020) is a major revision, extension and update of Anderson (2013). Its prime varieties are linked to their country of origin and synonyms are as nominated by Robinson, Harding, and Vouillamoz (2012) or otherwise JKI (2019). Conclusion: These results reveal that vigneronsâ€™ winegrape varietal choices are narrowing across the world. That is, they are becoming less diversified as many countries converge on the major â€˜internationalâ€™ varieties, especially French ones. This is not inconsistent with the fact that wine consumers are enjoying an ever-wider choice range, thanks to far greater international trade in wine associated with the current wave of globalization. Nor is it inconsistent with strengthening vigneron interest in â€˜alternativeâ€™ and native varieties in numerous countries, including Italy (Dâ€™Agata, 2014) and Australia (Higgs, 2019). That interest stems in part from a desire to diversify their varietal mix to differentiate their offering â€“ including through the terroir-driven use of minor varieties in blends â€“ and to hedge against increasing weather volatility. It just happens that in recent decades the latter centrifugal forces are dominated by the centripetal force of embracing the most popular varieties for ease of marketing and presumably higher profits. Moreover, the quality of the current global mix of varieties is arguably substantially above the average quality of the top half-dozen varieties as of 1990. Significance and impact of the study: The apparent paradox of reduced diversity and greater internationalization in the worldâ€™s vineyards is partly explained by major changes in a few national bearing areas. This new database provides many other insights in addition to those highlighted in this paper. For example, it includes for the first time numerous climate variables for each of its 700+ regions, prepared with the assistance of Gregory Jones of Linfield University, Oregon. That allows one to examine the varietal mix in regions whose climate in recent years is similar to what other regions will endure in the decades ahead thanks to on-going climate changes.
Citizen science refers to a spectrum of activities where scientists and members of the public collaborate in scientific work. While conversations to more concretely define and bound “citizen science” are underway (Eitzel et al. 2017), we consider citizen science inclusive of projects across domains and scales, to include both local, place-based initiatives and broader, crowdsourcing solutions.1 Though the phrase citizen science entered the vernacular in the mid-1990s (Bonney 1996; Irwin 1995), members of the lay public have been involved in science for centuries. Driving and enabling factors for the current proliferation of activities include the rise of the Internet; increased smartphone penetration along with the spread of other information and communication technologies (ICT); recognition from scientists that involving volunteers can support and augment their work; funder requirements for public engagement or outreach; and the rapid increase in global education (Silvertown 2009; Cooper 2016). Millions of people now contribute to citizen science each year. SciStarter, a United States (US)–based directory of citizen science projects and related activities, recorded an average of 30 projects added per month during the course of 2018. Educators in formal and informal settings introduce citizen science with the goal of enhancing topical knowledge and public understanding of science (Bonney et al. 2016). Scientists in academic institutions incorporate citizen science into their research programs, with bibliometric analysis demonstrating the exponential growth of publications referencing citizen science in recent years (Follett and Strezov 2015). Citizen science is also enjoying increased attention on the policy level, as seen in Europe and the US (Nascimento et al. 2018). Members of professional and public communities engage in diverse citizen science activities for a wide range of reasons. Some seek to advance the research enterprise, for example, by enabling data collection on scales and resolutions not possible through professional activities alone (Cooper et al. 2012). Others seek to bridge the science-society gap by making professional researchers and citizens more accountable to each other (Irwin 1995). The growth and formalization of citizen science is supported by professional associations based in Australia, Bowser, A, et al. 2020. Still in Need of Norms: The State of the Data in Citizen Science. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 5(1): 18, pp. 1–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.303
Crop rotation can influence the soil fertility and the sequence of plant pests and decease. Besides, land tenure effects to the allocation of resource. This study aimed at determining the impact of crop rotation and land tenure status to the technical efficiency. This research was done in four districts in Nganjuk,namely Sukomoro, Rejoso, Bagor, and Gondang. The primary data were conducted with 90 farmers through interview method with a guided questionnaire. Data were analyzed with Cob-Douglass production function with frontier stochastic approach. The results indicated that the significant factors influencing production were farm size, fertilizer and seeds. Shallot farming in Nganjuk was technically efficient, in which the efficiency level was 0,749 and 58,59 percent of farming activities having efficiency level was more than 0,7. Twice  cultivation in a year, fixed-rent system, and long experience of farmers improved technical efficiency of shallot farming. The yield loss, in addition, is 3.871,86 kg/ha. Keywords : technical efficiency, crop rotation, land tenure, yield loss
Along the Pacific coast (CA/OR/WA), the historical mainstays of the fishing industry have been thePacific salmon, groundfish, and Dungeness crab fisheries. However, recent cuts in allowablelandings of salmon and groundfish have shifted fishing effort toward crab. Diminishingopportunities in salmon and groundfish in California will further increase fishing effort onDungeness crabs, resulting in the intensifying derby that now characterizes the fishery andimposing increased pressure on stocks at deeper depths. Projected increased fishing effort will alsolikely create new biological conservation concerns for Dungeness crab populations and diminish itsnet economic value of the fishery.
Background: Pakistan has grappled with the challenge of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) however the country has made definite strides towards addressing it. IDD is easily prevented through consumption of adequately iodized salt. This article documents Pakistan's journey on the road to achieving universal salt iodization. Methods: Non-systematic review of Nutrition International's (NI) internal documents, case studies and other articles was used to assimilate findings. Additionally, Situation Analysis of the Salt Sector was also undertaken. Results: There are 1,350 salt processors producing 1.12 million tonnes of salt, of which 54% is for edible purposes and 46% for industrial purposes. Small, medium and large salt processors are categorized based on the production capacities. NNS, 2018 reported a higher household coverage of iodized salt (79.6%), while urinary iodine excretion showed that 7.3% of 6-12 year children were severely deficient in iodine. Conclusion: As Pakistan moves ahead in its journey towards achieving USI, it is important to understand that the focus on the program will gradually shift to sustaining USI. Hence, keeping in mind all the constraints, we need to prepare ourselves for the next stage of achieving and sustaining USI.
Base on profound analysis of the main factors influencing the forest landscape resources,this article confirms the relative importance of dividing rank in the forest landscape resources in Fujian Province,and constructs the ranking of coefficient on the importance factors by applying the method of grey relevance analysis and cluster analysis,so as to divide the ranking area of forest landscape resources and thus proposes the relative counter-measures in different ranking area.
Sacred architecture is a clear reflection of each region's history, culture, and identity and is considered as an especial domain in architectural studies. Mosque as the symbol of Islamic art and architecture positions a place of importance between artists and scholars worldwide. Although numerous materials have been documented about various mosques’ regional typologies, the Southeast Asian mosque style has been surprisingly neglected. Since the advent of Islam in Southeast Asia during the 13th-15th centuries, numerous traditional mosques with distinctive architectural form and ornamentation, very different from what is known as a mosque in Middle East or Indian subcontinent, were erected in the region. Due to the unique geographical position of the area the powerful role of Melaka during the 15th -18th centuries, various ethnic groups from different cultures have been always presented in the Straits of Melaka. Melaka scenery has been formed as a result of one special attribute of local entities; being receptive to new notions and ideas, as long it does not interfere strongly rooted local beliefs. Melaka style traditional mosque architecture shows foreign influences from great civilizations in east and west while still introduce an authentic style of Southeast Asian mosque. This study tries to provide a discussion about Hindu-Buddhism and Chinese influences on Melaka traditional mosques by comparing the architectural appearance of the mentioned cultures and three selected traditional mosques in Melaka. Through interpretation of the gathered evidence, this study indicates that Hindu-Buddhist architectural characteristics profoundly influenced the Melaka style mosque in form, while the Chinese influence in appearance of certain architectural elements and ornamentation is discernible.
Beach handball is a sport characterized by being a complex, dynamic, fluid of constant exchange of offensive and defensive plays. The objectives of this study was describe and analyzing the kinematics and thermal responses in male and female beach handball players during an official game in Costa Rica. Sixteen beach handball players participated, eight women and eight men. All participants were grouped by sex in two teams, male team and female team and every team played against the same adversary. Every game had two periods, 10 min each, 5 min rest, were made. GPS devices were used to quantify the kinematics responses, heart rate was obtained through cardiac monitors, internal temperature was measured using CorTemp pills and body weight loss, sweating rate and fluid intake were calculated. The main results shown significant differences between men and women in the total distance (m) (p< .01), average speed (km/h) (p< .01), maximum speed (km/h) (p= .022), total impacts (g) (p< .01), body weight change (%) (p= .038), sweat rate (ml/min) (p< .01), and liquid intake (ml) (p< .01). Internal temperature (°C) was different between men and women after warn-up (p= .044) and final first period (p= .007). Also, it found a significant decreased in the maximum speed (km/h) (p= 0.10) and body load (AU) (p= .026) in the second period both in men and women. In conclusion, beach handball is a sport that is played a medium-high intensity [HR mean (men= 156.1±17.5 bpm, women= 158.1±19.8 bpm)]. As a practical implication, this study provides information that may be used as a base or support to plan and designing training methodologies according to the specific kinematics and thermal requirements of beach handball players.
Aims: The aims of this research are to evaluate mandibular movements' normal values in a representa- tive population sample of various chronological ages, to analyze the differences according to the chronological ages groups, to find out the correlation between mandibular movements' values and height and weight in each age group, and to determine gender differences in each age group. Materials and Methods: A total of eight hundred forty subjects were chosen from primary and secondary schools and college of dentistry/Mosul University students and staff, in the city of Mosul in Iraq, and ordered into six groups according to the chronological age. The variables analyzed were maximum mouth opening MO, right and left lateral RL and LL, and protrusion movements P; considering age, height, weight, and gender. Results: Mandibular movements' ranges and means in normal healthy Iraqi popu- lation in the city of Mosul are: MO 35-70 mm 49.1 mm, RL and LL 4-13 mm 7.5 mm, P 3-13 mm 6.9 mm. The maximum mandibular movements' values were in young adults group. There were significant positive Pearson Correlations among mandibular movements' values, height, and weight. Significant differences P<0.5 were found in terms of gender and mandibular movements in all age groups, except the children group. Conclusion: Mandibular movements' values were measured in order to establish normal reference values in Mosulian Iraqi population. Age, height, weight, and gender are important variables in relation to mandibular movements' values.
This analysis attempts to reconcile existing ecological theories, rehabilitation planning goals and implementation constraints in the form of a rehabilitation paradigm that considers potential and pragmatic ecosystem transformation pathways. The framework prioritises multiple developmental scenarios for post-disturbed landscapes within a continuum of ecological outcomes. A feature of the framework is that ‘novel’ ecosystems and agro-ecosystems, having a range of commercial and societal values, are valid outcomes spanning the conceptual divide between the ecological functions of under-rehabilitated versus re-instated ‘natural’ landscapes, especially in a changing environment. Landscape suitability analyses are considered to be fundamental to the incorporation of regional landscape and climate in the implementation of land rehabilitation and management strategies. Altogether, the paradigm could facilitate the identification of widely pertinent rehabilitation goals having direct implications at the regional scale of restoration ecology and acceptance of the need for ongoing commitment to the management of disturbed environments.
During July 1999 the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council undertook investigations within the gardens designed by William Kent at Horseheath Hall, Horseheath, Cambridgeshire. Investigations were undertaken to inform on the presence and nature of archaeological remains which might be affected by the proposal to excavate a pond on the northern side of Acre Pond.  Investigation identified cobbled and gravel surfaces located directly to the north and northwest of the boathouse and a grotto both of which are set against the northeast corner of Acre Pond. The cobbled surface is the remains of a track which led to the grotto designed by William Kent in the eighteenth century and formed part of a circular walk or ride around Acre Pond. The trackway is depicted on the 1769 plan of the Hall and parklands and bottle glass dated to the middle of the eighteenth century was recovered from the cobbled surface during rescue excavations at the Hall in 1990. The gravel surface was not depicted in 1769 however, this also probably dates to the late eighteenth century. This surface may have provided a hard standing next to the boathouse and grotto or may indicate an open space designed to give an advantageous view across the lake to the Hall.  The development will affect archaeological remains whose importance lies in their association with the Kent-designed garden. The trackway provided a circuit of Acre Pond and linked the grotto, boathouses, gardens and buildings which included an orangery, to Horseheath Hall. The remains of these buildings survive as earthworks around the pond and were surveyed by the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments in England in 1990.
On the national level,the overall development orientation of Gansu is important ecological barrier,economic corridor,strategic channel,energy base and cultural source regions,so the development of Gansu's city and suburban's ecological function is essential for West China,even for the country.In this paper,based on the analysis of the Yellow River valley in Gansu and the development of the suburban ecological function areas at the present,aimed at the leading industry indeterminate of city and suburban ecological function area in Gansu,put forward that in the government's ecological function areas,the preferential policy should be shift from tilting to area to tilting to industry,and should cultivate and develop key industries,and then through improving environmental standards,promoting the ecological agriculture reconstruction project,boosting the development of modern logistics industry,expediting the industrial optimization,building three-dimensional tourism industry system,developing new energy industry and other measures to build a brand new industrial development models,to reshape the important modern industrial base in West China.Finally,harmonious and healthy development will be realized in the ecological function areas.
Over the last 20 years, the Friche de la Belle-de-Mai in Marseilles has been much in the news. Created in 1990, thanks to a handful of cultural operators and a commitment from local politicians, “La Friche”, as it is known locally, is now, in 2010, the most important cultural institution in the southern city of Marseilles. Thanks to its international reputation, it has played an important role in Marseilles’ successful candidacy for the label “European Capital of Culture in 2013”. And yet, the transformation of a productive industrial site (the former SEITA tobacco factory) into a cultural and artistic site was not a simple affair. In addition to physical and architectural constraints on the site, La Friche is located in a poor neighbourhood in a rundown urban district. Twenty years after its creation, when it is on the point of being transformed into a Community Cooperative Society (SCIC), the Friche Belle-de-Mai seems to have arrived at a crossroads.
While the regional economic integration in the former Soviet Union turns out to be highly inefficient, there appears to be a stronger interest to the regionalism in smaller groups of more homogenous and geographically connected countries of the region, specifically, Central Asia. This paper attempts to understand whether the preconditions for the regional integration in Central Asia are indeed better than in the CIS in general. Using a new dataset of the System of Indicators of Eurasian Integration of the Eurasian Development Bank, it finds that although the economic links between the Central Asian countries are more pronounced than between that of the CIS in several key areas, this advantage has been disappearing fast over the last decade. In addition, the trend of economic integration of Central Asia seems to strongly correlate with that of the CIS in general, while Russia persists as the dominant gravitation pole for all of Central Asia. Currently Central Asia should be treated as a sub-region of the post-Soviet world rather than a definite integration region. On the other hand, however, we find that Kazakhstan emerges as a new center for regional integration, which can bear some potential for regionalism in Central Asia.
Immigrants' return, despite the increasing interest currently aroused in this theme , is the least know aspect of the Spanish migration to Europe in the XXth century, and especially those that took place between 1958 and 1975. This paper constitutes a global aproach to the subject matterand it attracts our attention to both demographic (labour exodus, foreign professional reassessment, home location after return , etc.)and economic aspect (emigrants' remittance, saving usage, etc.) within the modernization framework of the country. A basic bibliography is also provided.
In 2009-2010, small trenches were excavated at the Early Mesolithic site Rahakangas 1 in Joensuu, Eastern Finland. A red ochre grave with preserved tooth enamel was discovered at the site. The radiocarbon date of the charcoal from the filling of the grave is 2000-2500 years younger than the other dates (Table 1). Nevertheless, the grave can be considered to be the oldest one with preserved osteological material in Finland (Pesonen et al. subm.).
Despite the large improvements of numerical weather prediction models (NWP) during the last decades, including more advanced data assimilation methods that allow extensive use of satellite data, such models still occasionally produce forecast failures. Though these forecast errors are rare, they tend to involve cases of rapid cyclogenesis that cause dangerous weather. This investigation deals with a method that allows the human forecaster to improve the numerical analyses and forecasts in cases of imminent strong cyclogenesis. The combined use of potential vorticity (PV) fields in the numerical analyses and information retrieved from Meteosat water vapor (WV) images reveals analysis errors early in the stage of strong cyclogenesis. It is demonstrated that manual correction of the PV fields in the analysis according to information retrieved from the WV images can improve the short range forecasts of rapid cyclogenesis substantially. This is achieved by performing inversion of the corrected PV fields. By this method a new, dynamically consistent analysis is produced, from which a numerical resimulation is carried out. It is further demonstrated that singular vectors constitute an additional important tool in this process, by allowing PV corrections to be performed in sensitive regions. This procedure makes it possible to determine the likely 3-dimensional structure of the required PV modifications. The beneficial effects by this method may have some limitations in cases of downstream developments.
Scott Flavelle will trace the history of avalanche damage to the Alcan transmission towers and the various mitigation methods recommended by our avalanche forefathers since the powerline was first built in 1953 to two recent tower failures in 1992 & 1993. Hector MacKenzie will then describe his psychological epic of being trapped by weather in a plywood coffee shack in a large avalanche track with modern linesman while avalanches are running...
China is one of the world’s most important countries for waterfowl because of the large amount of potential habitat and its position along major migratory routes. Waterfowl poaching in China is a serious threat, and for over twenty years colleagues and I have tracked waterfowl poaching in China including hunting methods, trade routes and prices involved. According to the latest survey of a NGO, 11.8% of Chinese people have participated in wildlife consumption, and about 32.0% of people have seen wildlife consumption (Not necessarily involved in killing and eating the wildlife). The survey results come from 100 000 internet questionnaires. The current report provides an update focusing on waterfowl poaching in Xinjiang Province of the northwest China, where is highly pathogenic area on the avian influenza, SARS and the Wuhan coronavirus pneumonia (such as COVID-19). The cases in 2011, 2012, and 2014 involved about 1816 to 2760 birds of more than 20 species, with an estimated total of 200 000 wild birds being hunted by a group per year in Xinjiang. Strangely, the poacher was not punished by any law. We know a few waterfowl species are protected as a list of Key Protected Species in China, and hopefully this report will draw attention to the scope of waterfowl poaching in China. China has made great progress with protecting other wildlife, and hopefully more can be done to protect migrating waterfowl.
Our aim in this paper is to examine the ways in which electronic gaming machines (EGMs) redistribute resources to and from three remote towns in the Northern Territory (NT), namely Katherine, Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy. We describe EGM expenditure levels in each town at the level of the individual venue, examine patterns of socioeconomic status within each town, explore the ways in which EGM markets are racialised through venue gate-keeping practices and spatially-based alcohol regulations, and examine the effects of resource redistribution mechanisms designed to return a proportion of EGM profits to host communities. The ability of venues to draw resources from extremely disadvantaged groups from the remote periphery is of central concern when attempting to assess the societal consequences of gambling in remote towns, both in terms of individual harm and the adequacy of resource redistribution. Existing mechanisms for resource redistribution are both selective and relatively meagre, pointing to a political and racial economy of EGM gambling that transfers resources from remote towns to sites of centralised 'white' power. We conclude that political economy in the context of remote NT towns may not be understood outside a consideration of racial economy and the way that constructed notions of race operate to legitimate existing processes of economic exploitation and resource redistribution.
Abstract  In order to determine the critical level and classify the soil Zn in Western Azerbaijan, Eastern Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah dryland areas, a study was conducted in a complete randomized block design having 4 treatments (0, 5, 10 and 15 kg.ha-1 of zinc sulfate) with three replications for four years (1998-2002).When the experiment ended, the crop and soil data uniformity test were performed for all experimental sites. The results of these experiments were interpreted by different methods including: Cate-Nelson graphical method, Cate-Nelson two and three classes ANOVA models, Mitshcherlich equation, plant response column order procedure and interaction chi-square methods. The results showed that the Zn critical levels using the mentioned methods were 0.75, 0.55, 0.65, 0.61, 0.80 and 0.66 mg.kg-1, respectively. Different Zn critical levels calculated by different soil testing interpretation methods were compared by using contingency table. The results showed that Cate-Nelson two classes ANOVA model with 0.55 mg.kg-1 Zn and 0.47 predictability value was a better model for determining the Zn critical level than all other models for Northwestern dryland region of Iran. Using different soil testing interpretation methods for determining the Zn critical levels it was concluded that all the values were to some extent similar; however, Cate-Nelson two classes ANOVA model seemed to be more suitable for this purpose.    Key words: Zn critical level, dryland wheat, Western Azerbaijan, Eastern Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah.
This paper is a study on the history of Gaepyeongri in the middle and late Joseon Dynasty. The discussion focused on Jeong Yeo-chang's the posthumous conferment of honors by recognizing merit and socio-economic change. First, I have confirmed the fact of the Jeong Yeo-chang family. In 1550 Jeong Yeo-chang's career was not widely known. By May 1570, the country's PoJeung to Jeong Yeo-chang was finalized. Jeong Yeo-chang is the symbolic figure of Gaepyeongri. Therefore, the compilation of Munheonsilgi by Jeong Su-min is significant in the history of Gaepyeongri. In 1662, Daedongbeop was conducted in Hamyang. Gaepyeongri residents also benefited from this. Residents of Gaepyeongri were unstable due to Gyeongsin Daegigeun in the middle of the 17th century and epidemic epidemics and Jeong Hee-ryang case in 1728 and others. Since the middle of the 18th century, Hwangok's evil has become very poor in the Lower Class of the Hamyang area, including Gaepyeongri. From around the 1790's Gaepyeongjeom residents escaped serious Hwangok's evils. However, dissatisfaction of farmers due to land tax formulated excessively high in the 19th century is increasing more and more. Bukchang, Jangsi and Gaepyeongjeom, etc. which were located in Gaepyeongri, are historical sites showing the social and economic changes of Gaepyeongri in the late Joseon period. They are the center of land transportation and the base evidence of the Hamyang area. Gaepyeongjeom was born and operated in relation to it. Gaepyeong Jangsi in the late Joseon Dynasty was held every five days from five days a month. As a result, Gaepyeongri played a central role in society, economy and culture in relation to neighboring villages. And Gaepyeong Jangsi was a place symbolizing various living conditions of Gaepyeongri people.
With a great interest in urban regeneration, it has been a critical issue for urban revitalization since 1980s in western countries. From the early of 1930"s or 1940"s after the World I, most of the nations such as UK and America had began to initiate urban renewal projects on the purpose of community development through the high density in the inner city for the major cities. The purpose of this paper is to suggest strategy of urban regeneration and growth of regional industry through the analysis of economic impacts on various sectors in Small and Medium-Sized Cities in Gyeongnam Province. Also it will be estimated for the future urban regeneration. This thesis is to analyze to some extent, the economic impacts of urban regeneration projects, in deteriorated districts of the city in relation to the urban regeneration projects which study the tendencies of various countries in the area of urban policies. From evaluating the economic impacts on diverse grounds in a need for urban regeneration, this paper hopes to raise the efficiency of policies from a new paradigm of urban projects.
The City of Quincy proposes the diversion of the existing Town Brook from a connecting point upstream of Quincy Center along the south side of the Concourse Roadway Improvement project, through 1,200 linear feet of closed and open channel culvert sections to the proposed connection point downstream of Quincy Center, where it will rejoin the existing Town Brook alignment. The Town Brook Enhancement Project is one of three Core Public Improvement projects the City of Quincy is undertaking to upgrade the aged infrastructure within Quincy Center and is the initial improvement project. Town Brook originates from freshwater wetlands in the Blue Hill Reservation and flows into the Old Quincy Reservoir in Braintree. It continues to flow through 1,700 linear feet of culvert section where it eventually meets the tidal Town River Bay. The Town Brook River system is a diadromous fish run supporting rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) and American eel (Anguilla rostrata). Town Brook was considered a relatively large rainbow smelt spawning run with high egg densities relative to the amount of available riffle habitat (approximately 800 m in length and 3,241 m 2 in area; Chase 2006). However, in the late 1980’s, the smelt run sustained acute impacts (egg mortality and spawning habitat loss). In addition, there are also chronic impacts to the smelt run (sedimentation, periphyton accumulation, reduced water depth and velocity) due to diminished base flow since the installation of flood control structures designed to reduce flooding in downtown Quincy in the late 1990s. The flood control projects caused habitat alteration and chronic decreases in water velocity and depth, reducing spawning attraction and egg survival. MarineFisheries, the City of Quincy and other interested parties have been coordinating efforts since this time to find ways to augment brook flows and reverse the degradation of this valuable fish run. The rainbow smelt are a pelagic, schooling species that spends most of its time in nearshore waters. The spawning season begins in early March and continues through May in MA. They deposit their eggs in small tributaries in swift, shallow riffles at night just upstream from the
The need for some kind of modern transit system as an alternative to the automobile in the San Francisco Bay Area had its genesis over a guarter century ago, at a time when the established transit systems in the area were suffering decreasing patronage and freeways were gaining popularity in California. This is a report on the actions which developed from early recognition of that need. The report describes the concept of BART and the major experiences translating that concept to its present operation in revenue service. At the conclusion, the report gives an account of BART's patronage and its trend as an indicator of its acceptance as a People Moving System.
To what extent, if at all, were globes used for practical navigation during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries? Globes were discussed by several writers of the period, but, with the exception of John Davis, these were not practical seamen. What evidence is there that globes were ever actually used by navigators at sea? The first recorded globe was made by Martin Behaim in 1490. The most celebrated makers who followed were Gemma Frisius in 1530, Gerhard Mercator in 1541 and Emery Molyneux in 1592.
This paper presents an analysis of the remote sensing methods of extracting information on soils and land cover. For this porpoise we selected Danube Delta, a complex ecosystem, with an important role in Romanian environment and economy. Several types of satellite images were used; in order to assess their suitability in land cover and vegetation changes detection. Landsat MSS and TM, ERS 1 and 2 images were used. We applied contrast enhancing and special filtering procedures to improve image and remove speckle. At the end of this phase, we obtained good quality images with not significant information losses. One these images we performed unsupervised and supervised classifications. The result of this application was the confirmation that only combined sets of images can be a useful tool for land cover assessment, vegetation and soil discrimination. Beside the multi sensor approach, another condition for a compete observation is the multitemporal approach, by using several images acquired at different intervals of time, in this way we can obtained a good vegetation discrimination on seasonal basis.
A comprehensive guide to the weather, climate, and their impact on human life. * Two chronologies, one on significant weather events in U.S. history and one on weather events throughout human history around the world * An extraordinary visual program filled with photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and tables * Numerous activities in each volume, including experiments, simulations, discussion questions, and problems * Extensive bibliography of print and online resources for further exploration * A complete glossary of key terms
The lichenicolous fungi of Finland have been largely neglected until recently. Only a relatively few species are listed in Santesson et al. (2004), but they include a fair number of species originally described from Finland by early authors such as W. Nylander, P. A. Karsten, E. A. Vainio and V. Räsänen. The present list was primarily prepared during the fi rst author’s two-week work in the herbarium in Helsinki (H) in August 2006. Apart from collections from Finland and former Finnish parts of Russia, many specimens from other parts of the world are also reported. Several new Finnish records from Peltigera spp. were also discovered but they will be published in forthcoming papers. Only species which are supposed to be new to a country or a province (or other comparable unit) are included. Some specimens could not be identifi ed during the visit and will be treated later on. All the cited collections are preserved in Helsinki (H), if not otherwise mentioned. The lichenicolous fungi in Russian areas adjacent to Finland in the east have been surveyed rather intensively. A new checklist of Russian lichenicolous fungi prepared by M. Zhurbenko (2007) is in press (the manuscript was available to us). He has recently published several papers on lichenicolous fungi in the Republic of Karelia or Murmansk and Leningrad Regions (e.g., Zhurbenko 2001, Zhurbenko & Himelbrant 2002, Zhurbenko & Alstrup 2004, Zhurbenko & Ahti 2005; see also Alstrup et al. 2005), and they also include some records from Finland.
Biltong is a traditional South African preparation of the meat of game, salted and dried in the sun. I t can be eaten without further preparation, and pieces can conveniently be carried in the pocket. It occurred to one of us (H. E. L.), who is a South African, that biltong might be a useful addition to the sledging rations on the British North Greenland Expedition (Lewis & Masterton, 1955a, b), and an approach for a supply was made to the Rhodesian Government through its High Commissioner in London. We were extremely grateful for their generous gift of I cwt. of biltong. It was prepared from the carcasses of three antelopes, the shooting of which required special permission as it was the close season, and since time was so limited the donors showed even further imagination by sending the gift air-freight by Comet from Rhodesia so as to reach the expedition ship before it left on 8 July 1952. A month later it was unpacked at the Expedition main base, Britannia S0 in North East Greenland, and pieces were distributed to the men sledging to the interior of the ice sheet to set up the Northice weather station at latitude of about 80" N. Biltong, in South Africa, is a national delicacy, but outside the subcontinent it is relatively unknown. Its taste usually requires some cultivation, especially as the dried meat has an unappetizing appearance not unlike that of a piece of dark wood. It is quite hard, but it is softened readily by the saliva when it is chewed. However, on the British North Greenland Expedition it was appreciated and enjoyed by almost all the members when they ate it as a snack during sledging or man-packing. In view of its acceptability this investigation was carried out to find the value of biltong to travellers, whether in polar regions or elsewhere, on either big or small expeditions.
Rural landscape was rapidly changing in southern Europe during the last years. Urban growth with the consequent abandonment of cultivated lands, and the unsustainable use of land, soil, and water resources are examples of the growing environmental pressures impacting on the agro-forest ecosystem. The linkage between the environment and the primary sector can be expressed by the ecosystem functions. Based on this framework, a set of agro-environmental indicators was proposed here in order to assess the sustainability of the agriculture at the local scale. Indicators were classified into three groups to depict agricultural constraints, benefits, and negative externalities. A preliminary analysis of a key indicator selected within the specified set was carried out at the municipal level in Latium, central Italy, a region with high crop yield and a marked human pressure on rural lands. The dimension of agro-environmental quality was explored in the study area by pointing out the influence of the socio-environmental context, including the growth of the urban area of Rome determining soil consumption of agricultural and forest land in rural districts. The role of agro-environmental indicators as a decision-making tool aimed at overcoming the socio-economic and ecological unbalances at the local and regional scales was finally discussed.
Abstract Road accident analysis is not new. It has come to attention as traffic fatalities had an explosive increase in the 50's and 60's, especially in the industrialized world and during the intense period of economic growth. This paper examines the potential use of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology in facilitating road accident analysis in Hong Kong. Various point-pattern techniques are illustrated. While GIS can extend the visualization and analytical capabilities, its implementation in Hong Kong would hinge upon more comprehensive planning in data acquisition and integration. A master digital database on road systems of Hong Kong with a standardized structure and coherent naming conventions in both Chinese and English is fundamental to further GIS development in the area of road accident analysis.
Leptophlebia packii Needham was originally described from the North Fork of the Ogden River, Weber County, Utah, by Needham (1927). This species is one of the tusked burrowing leptophlebiids of western North America (e.g. Edmunds and McCafferty 1996), and was referred to as Pack’s Tusker by Needham and Christenson (1927). Traver (1935) correctly referred to it as the recombined Paraleptophlebia packii (Needham). Beginning with its citation in a checklist by Edmunds and Allen (1957), it has been incorrectly referred to as Paraleptophlebia packi. As per the recent correction of the name Drunella doddsii (Needham) by Jacobus and McCafferty (2004), even if the subsequent emendation of orthography was deliberate, the use of the first spelling ending in “-ii” is mandated by Section 4 of Article 33 of the current International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999), and the original orthography is here restored. This species has been known from Grand and Jackson Counties in Colorado (McCafferty et al., 1993), Weber County in Utah (Needham 1927), and Teton County in Wyoming (Kroger 1974). New records of P. packii based on materials residing in the Purdue Entomological Research Collection, West Lafayette, Indiana, or on data provided by the late George Edmunds, include the following: UTAH: Summit County, Weber River, at Peoa, 14-X-1970, M. M. Boreman (larvae); Wasatch County, Provo River, at Midway, 11-XI-1947, G. F. Edmunds (larvae and adults); Weber County, South Fork Weber River, at Huntsville, 20XI-1968, G. Z. Jacobi (larvae). WYOMING: Natrona County, North Platte River, at By-The-Way Ranch, ca. 24 miles southwest of Casper, off State Road 220, 8-X-2001, W. P. and N. McCafferty (larvae).
The paper concerns the theme of the coastal landscape of ancient Naples and its employment dynamics over time, linking the data already known from historical and archaeological literature to new elements uncovered from excavations conducted following the path of the subway lines created along the coastal strip where the sites of Parthenope and Neapolis were located.  Neapolis is the new polis founded in the late 6th or early 5th century BC, Parthenope the previous Greek settlement founded by the inhabitants of the city of Cumae on the hill of Pizzofalcone at the end 8th century BC.  This contribution runs through the protohistoric precedents, dealing with the archaic and classical phases of Parthenope and Neapolis, up to the Hellenistic age when an important refunctionalization of the harbour basin uncovered in piazza Municipio (Municipio station) was carried out.  The theme of the chronological and topographical articulation of the two sites of Parthenope and Neapolis is developed by interpolating the environmental and archaeological data of the settlements and the harbour with those of the material culture which contributed to define the chronology and dynamics of their relationship.
Unfolding in the tense years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Trees Without Wind takes place in a remote Shanxi village in which a rare affliction has left the residents physically stunted. Director Liu, an older revolutionary and local commune head, becomes embroiled in a power struggle with Zhang Weiguo, a young ideologue who believes he is the model of a true revolutionary. Complicating matters is a woman named Nuanyu, who, like Zhang Weiguo and Director Liu, is an outsider untouched by the village's disease. "Wedded" to all of the male villagers, Nuanyu lives a polyandrous lifestyle based on necessity and at odds with the puritanical idealism of the Cultural Revolution. The deformed villagers, representing the manipulated masses of China, become pawns in the Party representatives' factional infighting. Director Liu and Zhang Weiguo's explosive tug-of-war is part of a larger battle among politics, self-interest, and passion gripping a world undone by ideological extremism. A collectively told narrative powered by distinctive subjectivities, Trees Without Wind is a milestone in the fictional treatment of a horrific event.
r I 1HE chief feature of the pattern of internal migration in western Libya' is urbanward movement-more precisely, movement to the city of Tripoli, the largest center in the country and the only urban area in the region (Fig. i). Rural-urban migration is not new in North Africa, but it has been accentuated in the twentieth century as a result of economic expansion in the coastal cities. Traditionally, the northern coastlands have exerted the greatest attraction on Libyan migrants. Motives behind migration have most commonly been economic, and it is in the north that employment opportunities have been most numerous because of its natural advantages for agriculture (as in the Tunisian tell and, to a smaller extent, the eastern Jebel of Tripolitania), mineral exploitation (in the phosphate mining regions of central Tunisia and today in the Libyan oil fields south of the Gulf of Sirte), and urbanization.
Lessepsian fishes species were recorded in Greek Seas (Economidis, 1973, Papaconstantinou, 1990). In this work information collected at the Hydrobiological Station of Rhodes on Lessepsian fishes species previously observed in the marine region of Rhodes and on two Lessepsian fishes recently occurred in the same area (Corsini & Economidis, 1998, in press) are given, with the aim to contribute to enrich the knowledge on their distribution. Observations on the maintenance of some of these species in the Aquarium are furthermore described.
Summary Early blight caused by Alternaria solani and late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans are the major diseases of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) in Cameroon. The effect of both diseases on fruit yield was evaluated during the 1995 growing season in Dschang, Cameroon. Ten varieties were planted in the first trial (March-July) and nine in the second (JulyNovember). In both trials, plots were sprayed weekly with Ridomil Plus (2.0 kg/ha) before flowering and with maneb (1.6 kg/ha) after flowering. Early blight was more severe in the early part of the first trial, while late blight caused most damage during the second. Marketable yields varied according to variety. High yields in sprayed plots were obtained in Dona F1 (61.63 t/ha) and Heinz 1370 (68.24 t/ha) during the first trial, and in Fline (58.35 t/ha), Mecline (64.25 t/ha), and Moboline (55.16 t/ha) during the second trial. Percent fruit infection in sprayed plots caused by both diseases varied according to variety from 12 to 65% in the first season and from 14 to 52% in the second, while losses in marketable yields for both blights were as high as 100% in unsprayed plots.
Model-based approaches to automatic target recognition (ATR) generally infer the class and pose of objects in imagery by exploiting theoretical models of the formed images. Recently, we have performed an evaluation of several statistical models for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and have conducted experiments with ATR algorithms derived from these models. In particular, a one-parameter complex Gaussian model, classically used to model diffuse scattering, was shown to deliver higher recognition rates than a one-parameter quarter-power normal model on actual SAR data. However an extended, two-parameter quarter-power model was consistently a better fit to the data than a corresponding two-parameter Gaussian model. In this paper, we apply Rician, gamma, and K distribution models, which are two-parameter extensions of the complex Gaussian and quarter-power normal models, to ATR from SAR magnitude imagery. We consider maximum-likelihood estimation of unknown model parameters and apply the resulting training and testing algorithms to actual SAR data. We show that the K distribution model performs better than the Rician and gamma models for both large and small sample sizes. The one-parameter complex Gaussian model performed slightly better than the K model overall. For small sample sizes, this is likely due to the relative stability in estimating only one model parameter. For large sample sizes this is likely due to a lack of persistence in specular reflections over the large angular intervals required to obtain large samples.
This paper challenges the view, widespread amongst historians and archaeologists, that prior to the Improvement period the carselands west of Stirling were devoid of settlement due to near-continuous peat  mosses. The argument is supported by cartographic evidence of pre-Improvement settlement and by documentary evidence of farming and settlement from the 15th century onward. Settlement was concentrated along the river margins and most of the modern carseland settlements are recorded by the 17th century. Eighteenth-century writers thought that the mosses had always been discontinuous and identified the important relationship between settlement and soil-types across the carse. Fortunately, the scientifically and archaeologically important surviving peat mosses have made the area a focus of palaeo-ecological and geomorphological research in recent decades. The scientific evidence supports the historical conclusion that the mosses were likely to be discontinuous in the pre-Improvement period, providing attractive sites for early settlement along their margins and confirms the correlation between documented early modern settlement and soil types, themselves a reflection of the evolution of the carse in the post-glacial period. The modern landscape is not, in this view, simply a product of moss clearance but also includes land never covered by moss and land only partially reclaimed. The reasons why recorded archaeological evidence for settlement is confined to the margins of the carse are briefly considered, as are some of the wider historical implications (such as movement between the north and south of Scotland).
Once past the lockdown stage in many parts of the world, the important question now concerns the effects of relaxing the lockdown and finding the best ways to implement further lockdown(s), if required, to control the spread. With the relaxation of lockdown, people migrate to different cities and enhances the spread of the virus. In the present work we study a modified SEIRS model with population migration between two cities: a fraction of population in each city is allowed to migrate. Possible infection during transit is also incorporated - a fraction of exposed population becomes infected during transit. A punctuated lockdown is implemented to simulate a protocol of repeated lockdowns that limits the resurgence of infections. A damped oscillatory behavior is observed with multiple peaks over a period.
It was February 7, 2009, a stiflingly hot day. The wind whipped through the eucalypts. Mid-afternoon and power was cut, leaving us with no water, lights or phone. I saw flames racing across the hillside on an adjacent property. The sky turned black. I wet blankets to put over my young children who were frightened and confused. As fire approached on three sides, I wondered if we had enough water in our tanks in our Kinglake Ranges home to put up a fight. There was no time to evacuate. My husband stayed to defend our home.
Coyotes are a species that has been the source of many human dimension conflicts throughout the western states. Over the past hundred years it has made a new home in the southeastern U.S. However, relatively little is known on how the public in the Southeast feels about this species. My goals of this study were to understand management preference towards coyotes, compare these preferences to those towards another common wildlife species, and identify factors that many help predict these preferences in the public. Through a mail survey I inquired about recreation participation, wildlife interactions, wildlife preferences, and beliefs on wildlife management. I found that how respondents valued wildlife, especially coyotes, was the most important predictor in determining wildlife management preferences. In relation to other local wildlife, coyotes ranked low in preference. Many of our respondents did not even realize that coyotes lived in their communities. However, the majority felt that, if management was deemed necessary, they would support lethal control methods preformed by management agency personnel for removal of coyotes. Coyote presence is not currently concern in western Georgia area but managers should be prepared for education programs if management should need to be implemented.
Although a relatively unimportant crop in the Near East, millet has an especially interesting history that may throw some light on the cultural relationships of the Middle–Late Bronze Ages and the Iron Age. Thus the prompt, separate, publication of a large deposit of foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.), recently identified from an Iron Age level at Tille Höyük, seems justified. This is the first find of the cereal in such large quantities—definitely as a crop—from the Near East or Greece. The rest of the plant remains from this level will be published in conjunction with the rich samples that are expected to be found in the massive Late Bronze Age burnt level at Tille. The opportunity is also taken in this paper to present other previously unpublished millet samples, from second millennium B.C. levels at Haftavan Tepe, northwestern Iran, and from Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval levels at Aşvan Kale, eastern Turkey. A full discussion of these criteria will be included in the first author's forthcoming publication of the Aşvan plant remains. Knörzer (1971) has published a useful key to millet seeds. Three genera of millets (all belonging to the tribe Paniceae of the grass family) have grains of the relatively wide, large embryoed type discussed here.
Comparative studies have four types: large-scale diachronic comparison, large-scale synchronic comparison, small-scale diachronic comparison, and small-scale synchronic comparison. In order to study the homology and heterology in the clothing, food and housing life of nations and peoples in Asia, and understand the circumstances, factors and patterns of analogy among/between them, any type of comparison needs to place ‘the phenomenon-classifying comparison’ before ‘the descriptive comparison’. To account for analogy in the clothing, food and housing life among/between nations and peoples is to understand it comparatively in the context of their whole cultures. In making comparative studies of the clothing, food and housing life on the level of nations and peoples, the contents of comparison are their process of production and consumption in the clothing, food and housing life. To contribute to the effective understanding of their culture, this comparison should be made in terms of the technological, economic, political and ideological aspect of production and consumption. An explanation of homology and heterology in the clothing, food and housing life among/between nations and peoples needs to establish critical variables such as natural circumstances, occupations, national institutions, cultural exchanges, social structures, religion and rituals.
The Tanjungwangi Beach has a length of 4.52 km has been experiencing with accretion and abrasion in some area due to the dominant wave from northeast direction. Therefore, it is important to take any actions considered as necessary countermeasures to solve the problem of accretion and abrasion. The aim of this study is to understand the distribution of wave direction, the wave with the return period of 25 years H max , H , and the dominance of wave from northeast direction. In term of sediment transport and coastline stability problems, the study location is aiming to find the technical solution. The results indicated that the direction of highest wave comes from the south with rate of 51.505 %, while the highest wave was developed from the northeast direction was 12.596 %. Transported sediment based on data analysis were 13,267.552 m 10 3 /year (abrasion) and 812.239 m /year (accretion). However, the field observation within 10 year period showed that the transport rates are 13,294.955 m 3 /year (abrasion) and 808.018 m 3 3 /year (accretion). Based on the analysis, Tanjungwangi Beach is majorly experiencing with abrasion processes. The revetment structure of natural rock pile was suggested to be set up within the study area. Keywords: Tanjungwangi beach, wave, accretion, abrasion, revetment
INTRODUCTION The process of restructuring which has occurred as a result of globalization and technological developments of the last 20 years of the world has shown itself in both economic and physical space. This restructuring process has been occurring in regional, national or international levels spatially. Information and communication technology have created new possibilities for the organization of business and site selection, also face-to-face relationships have lost their importance with the increasing automation system. As a result of this technological development, business firms have begun to become decentralized and networkoriented (Begg,2005). Globally-integrated production chains increased, international trade, investments and capital flows have been important (Benner,2002). This situation has developed the system of networks which have been formed by the nodes that are specialized on various topics in different geographies. This network is constantly in motion, flexible and also renews itself according to the changing conditions of the market (Breathnach,2000). This process of change which has been experienced also changed the criteria of the urban hierarchy and so the concept of relationship networks has begun to come forward.
Based on a set of spatial proximity characteristics this paper develops a model that estimates for every neighborhood in Flanders (Belgium) the amount of traffic that would be generated by an additional residential unit when socioeconomic variables are held constant. The results show that residential density, land use diversity and proximity of facilities influence daily travelled distances when these variables are measured in the immediate vicinity of the residential location of the respondent (within a radius of 1 km). When aggregating these variables at a larger geographical scale, in most cases the impact proves no longer significant. Variables based on the spatial distribution of jobs, or on the global accessibility of the entire population in the study area, do not show significant effects on the travel distance. Despite the statistical significance only a fraction of the observed variance in reported distances is explained by characteristics of spatial proximity. However, we can assume that the importance of spatial structure in the genesis of mobility patterns will increase in case the cost of transport would rise (cf. peak oil). For this reason, the application of the mapped results of the proposed model could contribute to the practice of sustainable spatial planning. Not unexpectedly, the most urbanized areas turn out to be the most resilient and sustainable locations. This means that a further increase of residential density and land use mix in urban areas is the best guarantee for curbing excessive mobility and preparing for the end of cheap oil.
The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmental change in the earth system, reshaping the global landscape. The rapid rate of environmental change is disrupting the ability of millions of people around the globe to live their everyday lives and maintain their human niche. Evidence suggests that we have entered (or created) a new epoch, the Anthropocene, which is defined as the period in which humans and human activities are the primary drivers of planetary change. The Anthropocene denotes a global shift, but it is the collective of local processes. This is our frame for investigating local accounts of human-caused disruptive environmental change in the Pampana River in Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Since the end of the Sierra Leonean civil war in 2002, the country has experienced a rapid increase in extractive industries, namely mining. We explored the effects of this development by working with communities along the Pampana River in Tonkolili, with a specific focus given to engaging local fishermen through ethnographic interviews (N = 21 fishermen and 33 non-fishermen), focus group discussions (N = 21 fishermen), and participant observation. We deployed theoretical and methodological frameworks from human niche construction theory, complex adaptive systems, and ethnography to track disruptive environmental change in and on the Pampana from upstream activities and the concomitant shifts in the local human niche. We highlight the value of integrating ethnographic methods with human evolutionary theory, produce important insights about local human coping processes with disruptive environmental change, and help to further account for and understand the ongoing global process of human modification of the earth system in the Anthropocene.
Background: The microbial evolution of the J’ben Elgafs prepared with raw milk from local cows, was studied during the manufacturing and maturating process in order to characterize this variety of cheese from the Algerian terroir.Methods: The microbial activity and physical-chemical parameters were tested during the three dairy seasons of the year. Total, lactics and alteration floras were counted on their selective environments.Result: Lactic germs multiply considerably during the first days and only stabilize towards the end of maturation. The low presence of alteration floras is the result of the continuous modification of the physico-chemical parameters of Aw and pH from one stage to the other of the j’ben production and the respect of good processing practices. These different proportions of variation are induced by the biochemical reactions and microbial interactions that take place responsible for the sequential growth of one microbial group compared to another.
In this paper, wave attenuation and shoreline changes behind segmented impermeable submerged breakwaters have been investigated numerically using Delft3D. The roller breaking wave dissipation model accompanied with the modified wave breaking parameter of Tajziehchi and Cox [8] have been applied in the model. Comparison of numerical results with experimental data revealed good agreement between predicted transmitted wave height and shoreline changes and those measured by Ranasinghe and Sato [4] for a single breakwater. The effect of gap size on shoreline changes was examined applying the calibrated model for oblique wave attack. The model revealed that for a relatively sheltered shoreline location the developed double salient size does not vary substantially when the ratio of gap size to the length of breakwater is between 0.7 and 1.25. For cost efficiency reasons larger gap sizes can be contemplated, resulting in reductions to the major salient and accumulated sand volumes whilst the width of the minor salient remains greater than 0.4 x breakwater length and thus provides reasonable beach amenity. The model approach can be used to examine the performance of segmented submerged breakwaters for other sites including open coasts, varying wave climates and a range of submergence and geometries.
En este documento se examina la sostenibilidad de la deuda publica externa en el Istmo Centroamericano, utilizando varias metodologias, y se identifica el caracter pro o anticiclico de la postura fiscal. Problemas en disponibilidad o compatibilidad de datos obligaron a enfocar el analisis en 1990-2004. Los indicadores de endeudamiento externo muestran que El Salvador y Panama tuvieron una situacion de endeudamiento en 2004 mas comprometida que la de sus cinco anos previos. Los indicadores de Costa Rica y Guatemala en 2004 avanzaron respecto de su promedio historico. Honduras y Nicaragua mejoraron notablemente su posicion de endeudamiento publico externo en 2004. Al aplicar la metodologia desarrollada por Mendoza y Oviedo (2004) al periodo 1990-2004, se concluye que los paises centroamericanos, en particular Guatemala y Costa Rica, no presentarian problema de sostenibilidad de la deuda publica externa, pese a la fragilidad aguda de algunos ante eventuales choques en sus ingresos fiscales. Mediante la estimacion del balance primario estructural y del componente ciclico ?aplicando metodologia convencional con variaciones? se identifico la postura fiscal en el Istmo Centroamericano. Los resultados indican que, excepto en Panama, dicha postura fiscal tuvo un sesgo prociclico en buena parte del periodo analizado; es decir, la politica fiscal ha tendido a acentuar los ciclos economicos en lugar de suavizarlos. En el estudio se constata que se requiere aumentar la carga tributaria para controlar la dinamica de la deuda publica externa. Ademas, el desequilibrio fiscal es basicamente de naturaleza estructural, por lo que un ajuste en las finanzas publicas tendria que realizarse por el lado de los ingresos, aunque el gasto publico puede asignarse de manera mas eficiente. Si bien el diseno de reglas fiscales podria considerarse como una opcion atractiva para obtener estabilidad fiscal y flexibilidad para actuar de manera contraciclica, para ello los paises del Istmo Centroamericano tendrian que cumplir algunos requisitos y condiciones esenciales para moverse en esta direccion en el corto plazo. The sustainability of public debt and fiscal posture in the economic cycle: the Central American Isthmus Abstract: This document examines the sustainability of public external debt in the Central American Isthmus by means of various methodologies, and identifies the pro and anti cyclical character of the fiscal stance. Due to problems of availability and comparability of data, the analysis was focused on the period 1990-2004. The indicators of external indebtedness demonstrates that Panama and El Salvador found themselves in a more complicated debt situation in 2004, than in the five previous years. In 2004, the indicators of Costa Rica and Guatemala improved in comparison to their historical average. Honduras and Nicaragua improved substantially on their position of public external indebtedness in 2004. By applying the methodology designed by Mendoza and Oviedo (2004) to the period of 1990-2004, the report concluded that the countries of Central America, in particular Guatemala and Costa Rica, did not present problems of sustainability of the public external debt, despite the acute vulnerability towards the effects of possible crises on their fiscal income. By means of an estimation of the preliminary structural balance and of the cyclical component, applying a conventional methodology with variations, the report identifies the fiscal stance of the Central American Isthmus. The results indicate that, except for Panama, said fiscal stance experienced a pro cyclical turn for the greater part of the analyzed period; which is to say the fiscal policy has had a tendency of accentuating economic cycles, rather than softening them. The study confirms the need to raise the tax burden, in order to control and the dynamics of the external public debt. Additionally, the fiscal imbalance is basically of a structural nature, which implies that an adjustment of public finances needs to be realized on the revenue side, although the public expenditure needs to be allocated in a more efficient manner.While the design of fiscal policy may be considered as an attractive option for obtaining fiscal stability and flexibility for acting contra cyclical, it requires the Central American countries to fulfil certain pre-requisites and essential conditions in order to enable short-term advances in this direction.
Recent high seismic activity in the Rif-Alboran boundary zone (Al-Huceima region) provides new data to reconsider geodynamic aspects in this part of the Ibero-Maghreb plate boundary. Upper mantle tomography structure in Northern part of Morocco is investigated by imaging Pn variations and anisotropy. The results obtained indicate zones of high velocity in eastern Rif and Meseta while low velocity dominates the Atlas upper mantle. The lower lithosphere structure in the Rif mountains show marked variations between Eastern Rif and western parts. Low velocity of the Atlas lithosphere, and Miocene and Quaternary magmatism fit with a process of upwelling mantle. However, intermediate depth seismicity beneath the central Atlas mountains is evidence for descending flows. Both upward and descending motions seem better explained by a process of delamination. In central Rif, the faults system may be deeply seated from Al huceima region to Taounate basin to explain East West complex Pn variation and related anisotropy in this region.
Measuring the informal sector and informal employment is of critical importance owing to the key role that this sector plays in African economies – a role that is set to expand in the years to come. This article presents an assessment of 1-2-3 surveys on the infor mal sector and infor mal employment, which have grown exponentially in Africa for more than 15 years. After presenting the fundamental principles of the modular mixed surveys adopted by 1-2-3 surveys and their properties in comparison to other types of surveys, we describe the generic schema of the 1-2-3 survey, its logic, and limitations. The focus of the article then shifts to national experiments in implementing surveys. We show how the gap between theory and practice has been bridged, the way in which certain technical problems have been solved on the ground, and the issues that remain to be adressed. Paradoxically, we conclude that today it is easier to obtain reliable data on the informal sector than on the formal sector. For each of the three phases of 1-2-3 survey, we illustrate our analyses with significant examples drawn from the African context. Finally, we delineate some perspectives for future developments.
Tynommatidae, n. stat., elevated from Tynommatinae, is established as a schizopetalidean family encompassing the western North American callipodidans previously assigned to the Mediterranean Schizopetalidae. It is considered a valid taxon despite somewhat anatomically dissimilar subfamilies, and Colactidinae, Texophoninae, Diactidinae, and Aspidiophoninae constitute tribal elevations and additional new statuses. With a subbasal telopodal prefemoral process, Diactis hedini, n. sp., requires rediagnoses of all three diactidine genera, Diactis Loomis, 1937, and Florea and Caliactis, both by Shelley, 1996, and suggests that telopodal branches ‘B’ in congeners and Florea represent distal relocations of the process along the stem. Similarities in the sizes and shapes of the pleurotergal carinae suggest a sister-group relationship with the other, and partly sympatric, New World family, Abacionidae, which is supported by gonopodal similarities between Colactidinae and Abacion Rafi nesque, 1820. The Western Interior Seaway of the Cretaceous Period, Mesozoic Era, ~141–66 million years ago, appears to have fueled divergence by isolating “proto-abacionid stock” in “Appalachia,” the Eastern North American land mass, which has subsequently spread well into previously inundated areas. The allopatric position of Texophoninae, on the Gulf Coast of south Texas around 1,136 km (710 mi) east of the most proximate familial records, is attributed to this waterway, which eradicated faunal linkages with “proto-Tynommatidae” in “Laramidia,” the Western North American land mass. Texophoninae probably survived the Cretaceous on insular refugia; however, it is rarely encountered anymore and seems destined for imminent extinction. Representatives of the east-Asian families, Caspiopetalidae, Paracortinidae, and Sinocallipodidae, also possess demarcated pleurotergal crests and, implausible though it seems, may share ancestry with the North American taxa vis-a-vis the “Asiamerica” and or “Boreotropic” concepts.
The purpose of this study is to understand the present housing condition of the suburban housing complex, and the residents' preferences to make their living condition better in Yong-in and Yang-pyeong, Pocheon, Kwang-ju and Kimpo in Kyung-Ki province, Korea. Questionnaire survey has been carried out to figure out the current status and residents' preferences of the Suburban housing complexes (hereafter SHC). The study showed the present status and the demands of people for their houses as a result like the below. First, currently the SHCs are managed by a joint control type, and the preferences of the residents' showed the similar way. Because of this status, the SHC planning is supposed to have the self-governing management and community space to support the activity of their community. Second, most SHCs doesn't have many public facility, in contrast, each house has various exteriors. This result shows the residents want more to develop their own houses' exterior than that of the SHC's public facility. Prior to plan the SHC, a program should be considered to give better understanding to residens what is the complexed life and make them choose what they really want to have. Third, the studied SHCs' renovation activities are commonly focussed on the exteriors. This shows the residents' life style is focussed more on the out-door life. The planning for the future SHC is supposed to have the points that could follow up the out-door friendly situations.
Due to advances in rendering techniques and hardware capability, stereoscopic 3D (s3D) visualization is becoming increasingly common in daily life. However, this does not change the fact that stereo effects and visual comfort depend greatly on how the related parameters are controlled during the production of the s3D images. In geo-virtual reality systems, which are important browsers for Digital Earth, the maintenance of these parameters is deeply related to the navigation process. Therefore, the navigation method in such systems requires special care. This paper presents a new flying method based on a Cubemap structure. The method defines a Vehicle model and modifies the original Cubemap structure by adding a front view camera during the navigation; it allows the users to fly through a virtual geographic environment with automatic speed control, smooth collision resolution, and dynamic adjustment of the s3D-related parameters. A user test was conducted to compare this new method with the original method based on the Cubemap structure. The results show that the new method performs better than the former one for it provides a convenient interaction experience with improved stereoscopic effect, and diminishes visual discomfort.
Between the 8th April and 28th May 2015 Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) carried out excavations at Land off St Michael's Way, Wenhaston with Mells Hamlet. A full excavation was carried out of the 1.5 hectare proposed development area.  An archaeological evaluation of the site was conducted by NPS Archaeology in 2013 that identified significant Roman archaeological remains including possible 'dark earth' deposits in the eastern part of the site.  The excavation demonstrated the presence of significant Roman settlement remains, previously indicated by the substantial metalwork and other surface find assemblages recovered from the surrounding fields. Many Roman metalwork artefacts were recovered from the excavation of the overlying topsoil and subsoil, and the tertiary fill of a palaeochannel leading towards the valley of the River Blyth from a spring. The coin assemblage was indicative of special deposition rather than casual loss and the range of other metalwork artefacts recovered, that includes a relatively large number of brooches and a miniature votive sword, may further indicate the presence of a possible shrine/sanctuary in the close vicinity.  The settlement remains appear to predominantly belong to the 2nd and first half of the 3rd centuries AD but spans the Early-Middle Roman periods (c.AD43-300). A regular system of ditched plot boundaries ran across the higher/flatter ground in the western part of the site. The central part of the site revealed settlement remains focussed on a spring, with palaeochannel deposits found to equate the 'dark earth' deposits encountered in the evaluation. An enclosure and two further ditched boundaries were revealed around a set of large pits, probably representing wells, and a watering-hole sunk into the perched water-table of the spring. Three post-built structures were also revealed across the site, along with further pitting activity.  Further excavation was undertaken of the waterlogged deposits within the wells and watering-hole between the 23rd November and 4th December 2015. These excavations revealed timber well lining preserved at the base of one well and deposits of preserved timbers at the base of a further well. In addition, pottery recovered from the base of these two wells displays a couple of examples of graffiti (Chi-Rho and swastika symbols) indicative of some form of votive offering, possibly with Christian connections.  The remains encountered in this excavation are of local and regional significance with the potential early Christian graffiti being of possible national significance. The findings of this investigation provide a context for the substantial artefact scatters found in the surrounding fields and provide an important insight into the chronology and evolution of the Roman settlement of Wenhaston.
Urgency of credibility evaluation of complex simulation system was proposed.Combined with the idea of VVA(Verification,Validation,Accreditation),the basic evaluation process of credibility was given.And the credibility evaluation index system was established,which included high-level index about availability,accuracy,interoperability and effectiveness of simulation system.By analyzing the numbers characteristics of cloudy model,method for complex simulation system credibility evaluation based on cloudy model was put forward.This method can effectively solve the problem of quantifying the credibility evaluation results through certain steps,which included clouding of qualitative and quantitative VVA results,building the index cloudy model,comprehensive assessment.Finally,its effectiveness was verified through example.The results of the experiment show that this method is more credible and efficient compared with the traditional credibility evaluation method,and provided a new idea for the credibility research of complex simulation system.
Matisone I., Zumberga A., Lībiete Z., Gerra-Inohosa L., Jansons J. (2018): The impact of forest infrastructure reconstruction on expansion of potentially invasive plant species: First results from a study in Latvia. J. For. Sci., 64: 353–357. Today, when anthropogenic pressure on natural ecosystems promotes degradation of natural habitats and facilitates distribution of alien species, local disturbances such as forest management become more significant in relation to alien plant species expansion. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of forest road and drainage network reconstruction on the vegetation composition focusing on the expansion of invasive alien plant species. The occurrence and coverage of vascular plant and bryophyte species were recorded within 160 sample plots along four forest roads and four drainage ditches. This paper summarises the first results of this study. The main results indicate that small-scale linear corridors like forest roads and drainage networks can promote the expansion of invasive alien plant species.
a Chinese wide shawl another wide shawl, from the Quixos region, embroidered a woolen wrap-around skirt and a woolen wide shawl a large Chinese porcelain two large stickpins with their bells one small chain with two other stickpins of marked silver one women belt or girdle of purple silk, in the Roman style, with an ornamental border a scarlet satin wide shawl with its silver brooch [?] a new wide shawl of light silk or linen, with Castilian needlework a wide shawl of green Castilian damask with golden edging a choker of pearls and purple beads some filigreed earrings with small pearl pendants some earrings with three pendants edged with pearls a choker of pearls and blue and red beads more chokers of baroque pearls, silver, and bells another choker of pearls and little golden bells and coral … two bracelets of coral and pearls. The early years of European discovery and conquest of America was a period of violence, dramatic social change, and profound transformation in the lives of indigenous peoples. The Indian world was conquered, dismantled, and restructured according to the conqueror's vision. The conquest probably had a more varied effect on Indian women than any other single group. But not all Indian women were equally affected by the conquest. The aftermath of conquest severed the lives of some women and reduced others to slavery; still others managed to integrate themselves into European society, in many cases more successfully than the Indian men.
The article dwells on regional investitive projects as one of the elements of the system managing envestitive resources and their significance in investing the objects. The author conducts an analysis of the investitive projects along the regions of Tajikistan Republic, place and importance of regional investitive projects as a considerable element of the social-economic system of the region. The methods of management and state regulation in regard to regional investitive projects are based on prognostication related to the projects already existing in Tajikistan Republic. Investitive policy is considered on regional level where special attention is attached to investitive attractiveness of a regional project.
Characteristic average power spectra at different frequencies in the ELF/VLF bands for electromagnetic radiation fields originating from lightning events related to the cyclone ‘Roanu’ are presented in this paper. Techniques for the measurement of sferics noise are first clarified. As a measuring instrument we have used a radio signal receiver for recording sferics signal in different frequency bands. An overview of the main function blocks in a “circuit-like” style of the measuring instrument is described with special emphasis on default position of the output switches, on waveform of the input and output signals and also on noise blanker for suppressing pulse-type noise. We have elaborately considered the wind speed and direction from the International Space Station as measured by RapidScat, AIRS created three-dimensional maps of air and surface temperature, water vapor, and cloud properties as well as NASA's Terra satellite captured ‘Roanu’ at the time of approaching of the cyclone in its mature stage. The spectral patterns we received on an undisturbed day at two frequency ranges have shown to compare the plot of spectral pattern during local disturbances for the concerned frequency ranges. Our analysis shows a sharp distinction with prominent fall of intensity level at the lower band during cyclonic motion and also higher intensity levels with smaller fluctuation at the time of peak activity.
From the investigation,the rodents are mainly aemyospalax baileyi,ochotona curzoni,et al. They are distributed at mountainous pasture, high land pasture, mountainous meadow pasture at 2200-4200m above sea level. There are 65323.6ha rodents area, and damage area is 197927ha. Poisonous plants mainly are oxytropis ochrocepgala, O.cocerulea, stellera chamaejhasme, achnathenum inebrians. They are distributed at mountainous pasture. Damage area of oxytropis is196609.6ha, damage area of stellera chamaejhasme is 46559.8ha.
Accurate height-resolved measurements of higher-order statistical moments of vertical velocity fluctuations are crucial for improved understanding of turbulent mixing and diffusion, convective initiation, and cloud life cycles. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility operates coherent Doppler lidar systems at several sites around the globe. These instruments provide measurements of clear-air vertical velocity profiles in the lower troposphere with a nominal temporal resolution of 1 sec and height resolution of 30 m. The purpose of the Doppler lidar vertical velocity statistics (DLWSTATS) value-added product (VAP) is to produce height- and time-resolved estimates of vertical velocity variance, skewness, and kurtosis from these raw measurements. The VAP also produces estimates of cloud properties, including cloud-base height (CBH), cloud frequency, cloud-base vertical velocity, and cloud-base updraft fraction.
Given the importance of phosphorus to the productivity and sustainability of pasture, the aim of the present experiment was to evaluate forage yield and some yield components of grass Xaraes cultivated in Cerrado soil and fertilized with different phosphorus amounts. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse of the CCAA/UFMA in Chapadinha Municipality, Region of Lower Parnaiba. The species used was Brachiaria brizantha. Xaraes cultivated in the period from July to November 2011. Using four amounts of P, firstnamely: 0, 50, 70 and 90 kg/ha P2O5, corresponding to the control, low, medium and high technological level. The analysis of variance revealed for the total production of herbage dry matter, leaf dry mass, dry mass of stems, whose highest values were observed at doses of 70 and 90 kg/ha P2O5. The P acted positively on morphogenetic and structural grass Xaraes. However, had no effect on tillering, leaf/stem ratio, production of root dry weight ratio and the aera/root, LAR and LSR.
Micro-enterprise development has become one of the most important approaches to reduce poverty in the LDCs. Like other LDCs, in Ethiopia micro-enterprise development forms the major component in the promotion of broad based growth and improvement of the well-being of the poor by providing income generating opportunities. Accordingly, formalizing informal sector activities has become one of the priorities of micro-enterprise programs. The main aspect of micro-enterprise programs is the use of social capital as a substitute for collateral in providing credit and forming enterprise groups. Despite the significance of social capital in micro-enterprise programs in particular and the informal economy in general, its nature and potential contributions remain under-investigated in Ethiopia. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to examine the configuration of social capital among the poor street vendors in Addis Ababa. The study has employed the network approach to social capital. Data were collected from 154 street vendors living in Addis Ababa. Multi-stage sampling procedures involving purposive and systematic random-walk techniques were used to draw samples. The study applies a mixed-methods research design. Accordingly, quantitative and qualitative data were collected through name and position generator surveys and in-depth interviews. While the quantitative data were analyzed through social network analysis procedures and statistical techniques, the data from interviews were transcribed, classified, and presented in a narrative form. Two-sample T-test, one-way-ANOVA, and OLS and Instrumental Variable regression models were used as statistical tools for the study. The results of the study reveal that homophily in religion and ethnic lines forms the strongest divide among street vendors’ personal networks followed by sex and marital status homophily. However, street vendors exhibit heterophilous networks regarding income, age, and occupation. Street vendors demonstrate dense, less effective, less efficient, and highly constrained network structures. They also exhibit greater proportion of strong ties in their personal networks. Street vendors have most of their relationships with people of lower occupational prestige. In addition, they have low access to high prestige positions, low resource heterogeneity, and low social capital volume.  Comparisons of networks between gender and among ethnic groups show the presence of significant differences. Women’s network exhibits larger percentage of strong ties and more ethnic and religious homogeneity than men. Also, women exhibit small network size, less effective, and highly constrained networks. Network characteristics by ethnic group shows that the Gurages exhibit high proportions of strong ties and high levels of ethnic homophily but embedded in networks of diverse education, occupation, and income compared to the Amharas and the Oromos. Conversely, the Amharas have diverse ethnic and religious contacts and demonstrate relatively high proportions of weak ties than others. Structurally, while the Gurages exhibit large network size with dense and less effective networks; the Amharas display small network size and less dense networks. The overall heterogeneity index shows that the Gurages exhibit more heterogeneous networks than the Amharas and the Oromos. By examining network dynamics, the study also reveals significant changes in the number and nature of ties kept, ties lost, and new ties created over the phases of enterprise development. There have also been changes in network composition and structure over the three entrepreneurial phases. The study further investigated the effect of social capital in enterprise performance. Four separate regression models were fitted to predict the effect of relational, structural, and embedded resources dimensions of social capital on enterprise performance. After controlling the potential endogeneity problem of social capital, the estimation results revealed that the resources embedded in networks contribute positively to enterprise performance compared to the strength of ties and the structural constraint. Human capital measures, on the other hand, do not significantly predict enterprise performance.  The implications of the outcomes of the study is that in providing credit and establishing enterprise groups, micro-enterprise programs should evaluate the trade-off between strong versus weak ties and homogeneity versus heterogeneity of networks. While religion, ethnicity, gender, and marital status homophily as well as strong family and friendship ties are worthwhile for credit delivery and forming enterprise groups, network heterogeneity is central for enterprise success. Overall, it is unlikely that social problems can be resolved without analyzing the social ties of individuals in particular and the community in general. Thus, it is imperative to conduct further studies in a broader scope to advance the significance of social capital for poor targeted development interventions in Ethiopia.
This study analyzes the effect of agrarian change on regional settling dynamics in Chile during the last 35 years. The transformations of agrarian structure have produced important changes in the spatial configuration of country-city relations, particularly regarding the new features of rural-urban migration in regional contexts. Whereas until the sixties rural-urban migration was associated with an occupational shift from agriculture to urban employment, after the seventies this relation practically disappeared, leaving a virtual disassociation between the territorial mobility of the population and the occupational mobility of the labor force. This disassociation is a central trait of the current regional pattern of country-city relations.
Suitability of a multispectral sensor with high spatial resolution (QuickBird, 2.4 m) and a hyperspectral senor with medium spatial resolution (Hyperion, 30 m) was tested in mapping benthic macroalgal cover in West Estonian Archipelago, eastern part of the Baltic Sea. The results of this study indicate that using of multispectral satellite data with high spatial resolution is preferable to using of hyperspectral medium resolution data in mapping benthic macroalgal cover in areas where the spatial heterogeneity is high. The number of benthic classes detectable in a multispectral image is higher than was expected based on previous model estimations. This can be explained with variability in both shape and magnitude of reflectance spectra which can be utilised when a single image is used and in situ data is available.
We used a cluster-randomized field trial to evaluate training natural leaders (NLs) as an addition to a community-led total sanitation (CLTS) intervention in Ghana. NLs are motivated community members who influence their peers’ behaviors during CLTS. The outcomes were latrine use and quality, which were assessed from surveys and direct observation. From October 2012, Plan International Ghana (Plan) implemented CLTS in 60 villages in three regions in Ghana. After 5 months, Plan trained eight NLs from a randomly selected half of the villages, then continued implementing CLTS in all villages for 12 more months. The NL training led to increased time spent on CLTS by community members, increased latrine construction, and a 19.9 percentage point reduction in open defecation (p < 0.001). The training had the largest impact in small, remote villages with low exposure to prior water and sanitation projects, and may be most effective in socially cohesive villages. For both interventions, latrines built during CLTS were less likely to be constructed of durable materials than pre-existing latrines, but were equally clean, and more often had handwashing materials. CLTS with NL training contributes to three parts of Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals: eliminating open defecation, expanding capacity-building, and strengthening community participation.
The traditional manual grating of cassava roots by farm households in Nigeria has been observed to be tedious  and less productive. Thus it was needful that a technique that would necessarily eliminate the constraints in  cassava processing be developed. The mechanized cassava grater developed by International Institute ofTropical  Agriculture (/ITA) Ibadan and National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike was there/ore designed  to replace the traditional method. This paper seeks to appraise the use of mechanized cassava grater among  farm households in Southeastern Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling methods were employed in the conduct ofthe  field survey. Five out of nine states that constitute Southeast Agro-ecological zones of Nigeria were purposively  sampled for the study because they were identified as notable cassava growing states. In each state, two  agricultural zones were selected by simple random sampling. By same ransom sampling method two blocksfrom  each agricultural zone, two circles from each block and then eight farmers from each circle were also selected  for the study. Thus, 64farmers were selected from each state which summed up a sample size of320farmersfor the  entire study area. Using structured questionnaires, data regarding the respondents' age, sex, educational  statuses, household size, access to the cassava grating machine, as well as cost of using the machine were  collected and analyzed with Probit model statistics. An R2-value ofO. 7985 indicating that 79.85% 0/ variation  in use of the technology was explained by the variables considered in the study. Educational and marital  statuses of the household heads, participation of household members in d~cision making, accessibility of the  machine as well as quantity of cassava roots processed were positively related to use of the technology. On the  other hand, safety consciousness was negatively related to use of the machine. It is thus recommended that farm  households should by assisted by government and non-governmental organizations to have easy access to the  machine through establishment of cassava processing centers in rural communities in the zone. Also soli loans  should be granted to enterprising households and farmers' cooperative societies to acquire the mechanized  cassava grater while efforts should be made by the research institutes to eliminate sources of occasional accidents  associated with use of the technology.
The study of regional features of the RF in the conditions of over-mortality of the population is actual, which determined the subject of this study. One of the important achievements in the field of cardiology in the second half of the 20th century was the discovery of factors affecting the development and progression of CVD, which received the name of risk factors (RF). At the same time, it is necessary to take measures aimed at changing the way of life and correction of other risk factors or diseases. The analysis, based on non-fitting criterion, proves possible impact of such risk factors as obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse (these risk factors are seen more often among younger population), marital status (especially widowers and widows), job dissatisfaction and stress, on the development of cardiovascular diseases in the population. However, high level of educational qualifications in the population allows having special courses for hyper-tensive individuals where technological intervention acts as a basic method of primary prevention of hypertension and its complications [6,7].
Marine aerosol was studied with the excimer-dye laser multifrequency lidar of Institute of Oceanology in several sites on the Southern Baltic Polish coast. The aerosol was sounded from lidar located in a van a few hundred feet from the shore in different meteorological conditions. The soundings were performed at several angles to the horizon, starting from horizontal optical path. The backscattered signal collected at 2 - 4 wavelengths allowed for calculation of total aerosol concentration and estimation of its size-distribution every 20 feet of the optical paths at several heights over the sea surface. This allowed for 2D mapping of aerosol concentration over the wave-breaking zone and the shore. The 2D aerosol concentration maps obtained in the research will be useful for verification of models of mass and energy fluxes in the wave-breaking zone of coastal sea basins.
ABSTRACT. This is the first checklist of Maine mosses since the publication of the state bryoflora, Maine Mosses. The checklist lists and ranks the 455 taxa of mosses that have been collected in Maine. This includes collections cited in Maine Mosses and/or the Tropicos Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden (denoted by M). These collections have been verified by Bruce Allen, Lewis Anderson, or Richard Andrus. Literature reports cited in Maine Mosses are denoted by m. Also included are collections in the database of the Consortium of North American Bryological Herbaria (denoted by r). The identity of these latter collections is mostly unverified with the exception of the Sphagnum. An * denotes species not yet found in Maine but expected to occur there.
We investigated spider assemblages in trees at three cloud forest sites and in trees isolated in pasture habitat in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Spiders were collected from two forest types (primary and secondary) within each forest site, and at two different levels (canopy and understory) within forest types and the pasture. They were identified to family or genus level and assigned to morphospecies. Araneidae and Linyphiidae were the most commonly collected families at all locations. Although spider abundance and morphospecies richness did not differ between forest types, perhaps due to their close proximity, these parameters were generally lower in the forest canopy than in the understory. Relative abundances of nearly all common spider families also differed between canopy and understory levels within forests, suggesting that distinct sub-assemblages exist. However, spider abundance and morphospecies richness did not differ between canopy and understory in pasture trees. Spiders were generally more abundant and more diverse in the pasture than the forest, possibly due to its lower elevation or its greater habitat complexity in the form of vascular epiphytes.
Secondary forests are increasing in area in the tropics, and in the Amazon alone they occupy 23% of deforested areas. These forests are repositories of biodiversity, playing an important role in ecosystem services, and contributing to the livelihoods of local populations. Natural regeneration is an important strategy for the recovery of native Brazilian vegetation, for example, the Forest Code, the National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (PLANAVEG in portuguese) and the international commitments of forest restoration undertaken by the country. This study describes the natural recovery of plant species diversity in secondary forests of different ages in the Southeast of Pará, Eastern Amazonia. A database of structural and floristic characteristics, collected in 2014 and 2015, was used for 20 fragments of secondary forest in the municipalities of Marabá, Parauapebas, Eldorado dos Carajás and Canaã dos Carajás. The vegetation sampling followed the methodology applied by the Sustainable Amazon Network. In each forest fragment, a transect of 10 x 250 m or 20 x 125 m (0.25 ha) was delimited, subdivided into 25 plots of 10 x 10 m, where the upper stratum (DAP ≥ 10 cm) was sampled. The lower stratum (DAP <10 cm) was sampled in five 5 x 20 m subplots nested in the transect. The phytosociological parameters were calculated using the Fitopac 2.1 software. The dominance pattern was evaluated through species ranking. The similarity among transects was evaluated using non-metric multidimensional scaling in the PCORd 5.15. The phytosociological parameters between two age classes were compared using Anova. Indicator Species Analysis (IndVal) was performed for each class using the R Program. We found 282 species, 61 families and 5509 individuals in the 20 study transects. The natural recovery of species diversity occurs rapidly in the first 10 years of ecological succession. But the recovery trajectory was not linear and was marked by a stabilization of the parameters of structure and diversity between 10 and 20 years. Species diversity was correlated with basal area, although the relationship was not linear. Regeneration was not accompanied by convergence of floristic composition between sites of similar age. However, the similarity in species composition was higher among the nearest sites, suggesting spatial autocorrelation resulting from biotic or environmental processes. The studied forests were separated into two age classes with some species, mainly of the family Fabaceae, indicating the sites in more advanced stages of regeneration. The recovery of plant diversity in the first 20 years of succession provides evidence of high forest resilience in the study region. The findings of this study on the natural regeneration potential of the forests in Southeastern Pará is important to guide the management and conservation strategies underway in the Amazon.
This article examines the origins of the Mediterranean diet, tracing them back to the great classic cultures of ancient times. It then describes what we understand today as being the Mediterranean diet and analyses the nutritional value of the foods that make up the diferent types of Mediterranean diet. Finally, while not suggesting that this diet is a panacea, it is argued that it is suflciently balanced and varied to make it a healthy option.
Gulf Oil Exploration and Production Company completed two major phases in the development of a high frequency (HF) CODAR Doppler transponder system for measuring sea ice motion. The system measures positions and instantaneous velocities of transponders deployed on the ice with accuracies of plus or minus 100 ft ( plus or minus 30m) and plus or minus 0. 003 ft/sec ( plus or minus 0. 001 m/sec), respectively, at ranges up to 38 miles (60 km). Each phase involved a field deployment of the system in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. The 1983 field program assessed the basic concept of using the system to measure ice motion. Based on the encouraging results of the 1983 program, Gulf committed to a major field demonstration of the system in 1984. The 1984 program demonstrated the capability of the system to accurately measure real-time velocities and positions of up to 25 transponders deployed on the ice. Such data is considered to be valuable in developing reliable design, construction, and operation criteria for Arctic offshore structures and systems.
The Jordan Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It presents findings from recent World Bank work on Jordan. It places them in a longer-term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and otherchanges in policy on the country’s outlook. Its coverage ranges from the macro-economy to financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development. It is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, business leaders, financial market participants, and thecommunity of analysts and professionals engaged in Jordan.
This chapter shows how, through a recurring discourse of ‘pastoralism’, Blackwood’s used the lingering traumas of the Highland Clearances as an opportunity to develop new literary conventions. Rather than seeing pastoral as merely concomitant with the Blackwood’s circle’s reactionary Toryism, we should recognize that Blackwood’s and its authors were operating in a more complex ‘post-pastoral’ register that challenged modernity’s exploitation of the natural world while conceding art’s reliance on modern, exploitative, destructive impulses. Such post-pastoral tensions were especially pronounced in Blackwood’s running commentary on agrarian reform, rural economics, and the Highland Clearances.
Abstract Ungulate mortality from capture-related injuries is a recurring concern for researchers and game managers throughout North America and elsewhere. We evaluated effects of 7 variables to determine whether ungulate mortality could be reduced by modifying capture and handling procedures during helicopter net-gunning. During winter 2001–2006, we captured 208 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and 281 pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) by helicopter net-gunning throughout the Northern Great Plains. Of 281 pronghorn, 25 (8.9%) died from capture-related injuries; 12 were from direct injuries during capture, and 13 occurred postrelease. Of 208 deer, 3 (1.4%) died from injuries sustained during helicopter captures, with no mortalities documented postrelease. We used logistic regression to evaluate the probability that ungulates would die of injuries associated with helicopter net-gun captures by analyzing effects of snow depth, transport distance, ambient and rectal temperatures, pursuit and handling times, and whether individuals were transported to processing sites. The probability of capture-related mortality postrelease decreased 58% when transport distance was reduced from 14.5 km to 0 km and by 69% when pursuit time decreased from 9 minutes to <1 minute. Wildlife managers and researchers using helicopter capture services in landscapes of the Midwest should limit pursuit time and eliminate animal transport during pronghorn and white-tailed deer capture operations to minimize mortality rates postrelease.
A common complaint from occupants of low or moderate cost two-story houses and apartments is that their “upstairs” floor is often uncomfortably warm in the summer, while their “main” floor is either comfortable or too cool.1 The source of this problem can usually be traced to the exclusive use of single-zone2 all-air HVAC systems, which are the most common type used in much of North America’s housing.3 This article describes one practical energy-saving solution to this cooling-mode stratification problem in such an existing multistory residence.
San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood is often described in classic "skid row" terms as a neighborhood characterized by crime, prostitution, drugs, homelessness, seedy hotels, and rampant blight. It is described as 'hopeless' and 'lost', and a place to be avoided at all costs. In reality, the Tenderloin is a more complex neighborhood than a simple skid row definition allows, with a rich fabric of social dynamics, built form, local heroes,and powerful villains. While the historic culture bearers of other San Francisco neighborhoods have been gradually pushed out by younger, richer, tech-affiliated residents with little understanding of the historical context they have settled in, the Tenderloin has managed to retain its intrinsic grit, codify its historic artifacts, and ward off attempts to soften or commodify its rough edges through gentrification. Given the rapid rate at which income inequality and low-income displacement is transforming the social conditions and power dynamics within neighborhoods throughout San Francisco, this thesis uses the Tenderloin as a living laboratory for answering the flowing questions: To what extent has the Tenderloin resisted the forces of gentrification that have meanwhile infiltrated bordering neighborhoods such as Union Square and Mid-Market? What are the physical and social design qualities of the Tenderloin neighborhood that have allowed it to resist whole-sale changes to its function as a provider of affordable housing and shelter for San Francisco's most marginalized and vulnerable populations? To what extent does the urban form of the Tenderloin allow for continued resistance of gentrification, and what role(s) does it allow for planners and designers to assist in curating this continued resistance? This thesis begins with a field study of the neighborhood's public realm, undertaken in January and March of 2017. The resulting observations and conversations with public realm users served as the primary data source for the research, along with secondary data sources on the Tenderloin's development history from its reconstruction after the 1906 earthquake to the present. From these findings, this thesis concludes with a series of public realm design recommendations for preserving the Tenderloin as a sustainer of low-income people and as a shelter for those beyond the scope of the tech industry's viewfinder.
In order to determine trends in the percentages of good degrees awarded, data showing the awards profiles for the five academic years 1994–95 to 1998–99 for universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were analysed by institution and by subject area. Although earlier research had shown a rise in the modal class of honours degree over the period 1973 to 1993, the present analyses demonstrate that, although there is an overall upward trend in the percentage of good degrees, the direction of the trend has varied from subject area to subject area. In seven of 17 subject areas, the upward trend is, statistically, reasonably robust. The trends in individual institutions have varied, probably as a result of differing combinations of influences.
This paper describes a climatic analysis of landscape strategies for outdoor cooling in a hot arid region, accounting for the efficiency of water use. Six landscape strategies were studied, using different combinations of trees, lawn, and an overhead shade-mesh. The effects of these treatments were tested in two adjacent courtyards at Sde-Boqer, in the Negev Highlands of southern Israel, during summer (July-August). On average, air temperature in the non-vegetated exposed courtyard reached a maximum of about 34oC in mid-afternoon. Compared to this base case, a configuration with shade trees and grass yielded a daytime temperature depression of up to 2.5°C, while shading the courtyard with a fabric shading mesh, counter-intuitively, caused a relative increase of nearly 1°C. Unshaded grass was found to provide only a small air temperature depression and had the highest water requirement. However when the grass was shaded, either by the trees or by the shade mesh, a synergic effect produced greater cooling as well as a reduction in total water use of over 50%. The "cooling efficiency" of these strategies was calculated as the ratio between the sensible heat removed from the space and the latent heat equivalent of the evaporated water. This measure is proposed as a criterion for evaluating landscape strategies in arid regions, where the water resource is scarce.
The present study explores the relationship between some important socio economic factors affecting the likelihood of incidence of tuberculosis in district Sargodha, Pakistan. The logistic regression model was estimated using a sample of TB and non-TB patient. We found that socio-economic factors i.e. schooling, monthly income, crowding, family system, and marital status are statistically significant contributing factors for the incidence of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is causing deaths of many productive individuals in the most important phase of their life; 15 to 44 years age group.
This study analysed the impact of changing family structure on income distribution. Specifically, it analysed how changes in the proportions of different categories of family in the population contributed to increases in the income of the richest and poorest social strata in Brazil, and the consequent impacts on income inequality. Rural and urban families were compared in order to understand how these dynamics had different impacts on more developed (urban) and less developed (rural) areas. The results emphasize how changes observed in family structure are more pronounced among the richest families, contributing to an increase in (i) the income of the richest families and (ii) income inequality between the richest and poorest families, as well as between urban and rural areas.
An investigation was developed to determine the incidence of the stigma fly, Euxesta spp, in different maize producing areas of the Republic of Panama and identify the associated species. Farms were selected in the provinces of Chiriqui, Los Santos, Herrera, Veraguas and Cocle, considering that these provinces have the highest levels of area sown and harvested from the crop nationwide. In each province, farms with average size of one hectare were selected, with maize in flowering stages and ears in a milky state, placing 4 traps per hectare, distributed 30 m apart from each other. The traps placed remained in the field for a period of 11 7 days. After this period, the traps were collected to verify the incidence of the stigma fly in these plots and provinces. In the cases of the province of Chiriqui and Cocle, sweet corn production farms were included in this study. In all the provinces and farms sampled, the stigma fly (Euxesta spp) was found, both in common corn and in sweet corn. The species identified were Euxesta mazorca, Euxesta stigmatias and Euxesta annonae.
Abstract: This paper analyzes panel data from 2003–2012 to identify the factors driving the expansion of construction land in Ningbo city; it uses panel data, regional-level, and year-by-year regression models. The results indicate the following: (1) For each 1% increase in the size of the economy, urban population, and industrial structure adjustment coefficient, the amount of construction land increased by 0.35%, 0.52% and -1%, respectively. (2) The factors driving the expansion of urban construction land differed across regions. In more highly developed areas such as Yuyao, Cixi, Fenghua and the downtown area, population growth was the most obvious driving factor with coefficients of 4.880, 1.383, 3.036 and 0.583, respectively, in those areas. Here, the impact of industrial structure adjustment was lower than that of population growth (with coefficients of 1.235, 0.307, 0.145 and -0.242), while economic development was an increasingly insignificant factor (with coefficients of -0.302, 0.071, 0.037 and 0.297). On the other hand, economic development was the most important factor for the expansion of construction land in relatively less developed areas such as Xiangshan and Ninghai counties with coefficients of 0.413 and 0.195, respectively. Here, population growth (with coefficients of -0.538 and 0.132) and industrial structure adjustment (with coefficients of -0.097 and 0.067) were comparatively weaker driving factors. (3) The results of the year-by-year regression indicate the increased impact of economic development as a driving factor (from -1.531 in 2005 to 1.459 in 2012). The influence of the population growth factor slowly declined (from 1.249 in 2005 to 0.044 in 2012) and from 2009 on was less influential than the economic development factor. The industrial structure coefficient remained negative and its influence diminished from year to year (from -5.312 in 2004 to -0.589 in 2012).
This paper employs a matrix version of the Lowry model to generate spatially disaggregated employment and population impacts. The model is used to study the effects of the decentralization of basic employment in the Los Angeles metropolitan region from its central core to a suburban location in Orange County. Advantage is taken of the fact that the study region comprises a large number of separate fiscal jurisdictions, and so the model is extended to measure the fiscal impacts of the derived population and employment changes associated with this decentralization. It is shown that net impacts hide significant gross expansions and declines that occur at the geographically disaggregated level. The relocation of a given number of basic jobs from Los Angeles to peripheral Orange County has a marked impact on jobs, population, and public expenditures in individual cities, depending on their relative proximity to the sources of basic-employment change. Although the relationship between the central city and the suburbs is highly competitive, the central city may gain from spatial-multiplier impacts if the suburbs (especially close-in suburbs) attract jobs from outside the region.
Concerns estimation of 'production functions' for regions (e.g., a State) when time-series data on outputs and inputs are available for sub-regions (e.g., districts). An approach is proposed and applied which is an alternative to working with aggregate regional data and which derives regional functions from estimates for sub-regions. Not only is the resulting relationship meaningful as a description of the regional input-output relationship but it also has certain attractive statistical properties based on optimal extraction of information from the sub-regional functions. Proceeding on the assumption that statistical macro production functions have some use, a Cobb-Douglas type specification for four major crops (rice, sugarcane, groundnuts and tobacco) of the State of Andhra Pradesh in India is estimated. The available data restrict the analysis to only four inputs: irrigated and unirrigated land, fertilizers and rainfall. -from Authors
In this study the determinants of household income in Afghanistan: case study of Samangan province has been researched, In the literature review, generally the factors affecting household income in developing and undeveloped countries have been greatly examined. In this study, bachelor degree, high school, household size and over the age of 25 have been taken as the variables affecting total household income in Samangan province. For this purpose, firstly in order to know weather, the variances of the predication determined by regression remain constant or differ heteroscedasticity test was run and the result showed that there is no heteroscedasticity in our model, also by running Ramsey Reset test we found that our model is well-fitted. According to regression results all variables except household size have significantly affect household income in Samangan province. If we subtilize on the result, a person with having bachelor degree in Samangan province can affect his or her total household income, it means that a person with bachelor degree can affect 14.9 percent total household income. A person with having high school degree in Samangan province can affect his or her total household income about 15.2 percent. if a household increase with one person over the age of 25 it can affect total household income approximately 24.3 percent. But household size has negative affect on total household income it means by increasing one person in the family, total household income decreases -4 percent.
This article is a result of a collecting trip of the author in Albania during September 17th—26th. Data for 108 Macrolepidoptera species are presented. 7 genera and 26 species are new for the fauna of Albania. One species Nola squalida Staudinger, 1870 is new for the Balkan peninsula; for two other species their occurrence in the Balkans is assured. For the mentioned species all known localities are given using the available literature about Alba­ nia after Rebel & Zerny (1931). Illustrations of the male and female genitalia as well as photographs of a large portion of the species are given. During September, 17th—26th 1993 I had the possibility of visiting Albania for a second time. The collecting trip had been made by car. The trip involved primarily the Albanian sea coast due to the availability of roads. My previous trip had shown this to be one of the most inter­ esting area whose species differ from those found in the countryside. More over, the moun­ tains are unattractive concerning Lepidoptera during this season. Part of the material was collected by a Bulgarian student, Boyan Petrov, a member of the Bulgarian speleological expedition in North Albania, May-June 1993. All the localities mentioned in this paper are marked on the map and explained in the text. The uncommented moths were collected by the author using a 250W UV-lamp and are part of the author's collection. Only a small part of the species (Geometridae: Sterrhinae, Larentiinae) is still undetermined. Another part of the species (migrants) are published (Beshkov, 1995). Genital preparations are made by the author for most of the specimens. A portion of them are figured here. This is to avoid future misunderstandings concerning the identity of the species reported. It is necessary, because there are some doubts about correct determina­ tion and recently reported species by Albanian authors. Furthermore, following Rebel & Zerny (1931), no illustrations of Albanian specimens and their genitals have been made. The pictures of the genitalia were taken by Mr. I. Stoychev and the author. The map was prepared by Mr. S. Abadjiev (Sofia). The picture of the Lepidoptera species were taken by the author together with S. Yotov. Because of difficult access to most articles, as they are inaccessible having been published in Albania in Albanian, all the literature for the country after Rebel & Zerny (1931) is referred here. Thus all the localities mentioned prior in literature, are given for the species mentioned in this article. For every locality all authors in chronological order are given. The systematic order of the families given follows Leraut (1980) and Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nordbayerischer Entomologen (1988). The systematic of the family Noctuidae is given according to Fibiger & Hacker (1990). 365 ©Ges. zur Förderung d. Erforschung von Insektenwanderungen e.V. München, download unter www.zobodat.at
Montane habitat is often utilized by migrants in the summertime for reproductive purposes although considerable interannual variation can occur in its availability for occupancy and in the conditions favorable for breeding. For example, variation in snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California can cause access to nesting sites for Mountain White-crowned Sparrows Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha to vary by a month or more, depending upon the depth of the residual snowpack and upon how quickly spring weather causes its depletion. Because breeding is terminated at about the same time each year, this environmentally-induced variation in the onset of nesting can affect the duration of reproductive efforts and, thereby, productivity. There is, in fact, a strong negative relationship between snowpack depth at the end of winter and the numbers of young White-crowns produced in the subsequent summer. Storms can occur at any time during the reproductive period. Some are severe enough to cause egg or nestling mortality and, on occasion, abandonment of the subalpine meadow breeding areas by territory holders for temporary quarters at lower elevations. When nests are lost because of storms, predation, etc., pairs are able to recycle through a truncated but behaviorally complete nesting effort, culminating in oviposition, within 4 to 6 days (unless storms intervene). Despite the vagaries of high altitude weather, the endocrine profiles of Mountain Whitecrowned Sparrows usually resemble those observed in other emberizines at low elevations. Data will be presented on gonadal size and on steroid hormones associated with undisturbed breeding cycles, along with changes that occur during environmental perturbations, such as storms and snowpack-delayed reproduction, in order to provoke questions about how behavioral and endocrine responses are altered in response to high elevation condition.
Based on survey data collected from Maonan Minority area in Hubei Province,this paper studies the current situation of human resource development and utilization in Maonan minority,Nan-xiang County.It finds that there are indeed some problems in terms of human resource development in minority area,such as inefficiency,low quantity,lack of a full system of education and health,lack of a sense of developing human resource,etc.
Objectives: The analysis of transmission dynamics is crucial to determine whether mitigation or suppression measures reduce the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study sought to estimate the basic (R0) and time-dependent (Rt) reproduction number of COVID-19 and contrast the public health measures for ten South American countries. Methods: Data was obtained from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Country-specific R0 estimates during the first two weeks of the outbreak and Rt estimates after 90 days were estimated. Results: Countries used a combination of isolation, social distancing, quarantine, and community-wide containment measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 at different points in time. R0 ranged from 1.52 (95% confidence interval: 1.13-1.99) in Venezuela, to 3.83 (3.04-4.75) in Chile, whereas Rt, after 90 days, ranged from 0.71 (95% credible interval: 0.39-1.05) in Uruguay to 1.20 (1.19-1.20) in Brazil. Different R0 and Rt values may be related to the testing capacity of each country. Conclusion: R0 in the early phase of the outbreak varied across the South American countries. The adopted public health measures in the initial period of the pandemic appear to have reduced Rt over time in each country.
This paper analyzes the various factors that affect the level of income of small farmers in Chile using a representative sample of these farmers. It tries to evaluate the relevance of several of the major hypotheses found in the literature that explain the persistance of rural poverty. The study corroborates the importance of education, particularly secondary education , as a factor that help increasing the income of poor farmers. It shows that primary education does very little to increase income and that its major role is to serve as a vehicle for higher-level education that has a high rates of return. There is also some support for the hypothesis that institutional restrictions can play a role in decreasing the income of the small farmers. In particular , a negative impact of the lack of secure land titles that affect a large proportion of the small farmers has been found. The idea that free extension and technical assistance is effective in inducing greater
In this paper, the integration of a multi-criteria analysis methodology that enables identifi cation of critical road network links that can be applied to Mexico is proposed. In order to achieve this, recent works about road network vulnerability are reviewed in this article and their main fi ndings are analyzed. It was found a concept of vulnerability accepted by some authors, where vulnerability is related to the consequences of link failure, irrespective of the probability of such failure. Some cited works, propose to take into account the road link capacity in vulnerability analysis, for that reason it is included in the proposed methodology. Finally, an exercise using a hypothetical network is made and a multi-criteria model is described. Gradilla-Hernandez L.A.
TANZANIA’S ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BRICS : ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION INITIATIVE? ..................................................................................................i 1.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 2.0 AID ................................................................................................................................. 3 China ................................................................................................................5 india ................................................................................................................8 Brazil ...............................................................................................................9 South afriCa ....................................................................................................10 ruSSia ............................................................................................................10 3.0 TRADE ........................................................................................................................... 10 4.0 INVESTMENTS ................................................................................................................ 14 5.0 MIGRATION ................................................................................................................. 20 6.0 KEY FINDINGS AND MAIN MESSAGES .......................................................................... 22 7.0 CONCLUDING REMARKS ............................................................................................. 24
A social problem that low-income people are unable to purchase houses in urban areas has been focused in recent years and the housing security system has also become an important part of the social security system. In recent years, public rental houses appeared as a new type of affordable houses. The national government took the construction of public rental houses to the national strategic level. Currently, there are many problems in the public rental house construction. For example, policy mechanisms are inadequate, the use of funding is not in an efficient way, the location of public rental houses is far away from the downtown, the plot ratio is too high, and facilities are incomplete. There are no appropriate indicators to comprehensively evaluate the public rental house construction. Based on the livable evaluation system in Chongqing, we selected four aspects of relevant indicators as the economic suitability, environmental suitability, social suitability, and life suitability to establish the public rental house construction suitability evaluation system.
The business plan developed for the project Pacific Plaza & Suites, is in the phase  of PRE-FACTIBILITY. The finality is to analyze the multiple variables to determine if the Project is viable or not. The Real Estate Developer did not make a market study, but the chapter was developed and analyzed from data obtained by observation, in order to define the characteristics of the product and customer profile. The weakness of the project analyzed is that the architectural distribution of areas such as parking, they are not well assigned for the socioeconomic level that the project is focus on, so this makes a weak commercial strategy and therefore a very sensible financial strategy to be aware of.
In 1982, Congress endorsed the Office of the Secretary of Defense's (OSD) mandate that the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) should initiate a program to develop an all-digital production system capable of meeting the Armed Forces' critical demands for mapping, charting, and geodesy (MC&G) support. In response to the OSD decision, DMA undertook the Exploitation Modernization Program, currently known as the Digital Production System (DPS), to redesign and retool its MC& production systems and processes. The objective of this ten-year conversion program is to develop and implement an improved capability to produce DMA products using computer-assisted techniques.
Review(s) of: Flying the Coop: New and selected poems, 1972-1994, by Rhyll McMaster; Heinemann, 1994; Night rainbows, by Jan Owen, Heinemann, 1994; View from the turret, by John Millett, Five Islands Press, 1994; West of Krakatoz, by S.K. Kelen, 1994. Fireworks and sparrows, by S.S. Charkianakis, Primavera, 1994; Burning Swans, by John Mateer, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1994; South China, by Dane Thwaites, Hale and Iremonger, 1994; Language of the icons, by Dipti Saravanamuttu, Angus and Robertson, 1993; Coming up for light, by Aileen Kelly, Pariah Press, 1994; Our houses are full of smoke, by Deb Westbury, Angus and Robertson, 1994.
We consider the problem of tracking a receiver using signals of opportunity (SOOP) from beacons and a reference anchor with known positions and velocities, and where all devices have asynchronous local clocks or oscillators. Based on an extended Kalman filter, we propose a sequential estimator to jointly track the receiver location, velocity, and its clock parameters using time- difference-of-arrival and frequency-difference-of-arrival measurements obtained from the SOOP samples collected by the receiver and reference anchor. Field experiments are carried out using a software defined radio testbed, and Iridium satellites as the SOOP beacons. Experiment demonstrate that our measurement model has a good fit, and our proposed estimator can successfully track both the receiver location, velocity, and the relative clock offset and skew with respect to the reference anchor with good accuracy.
The follow ing list had its beginning in a small collection of L epidoptera made at Nelson by the late Harry Cane, and now in my possession; few of his spec imens show dates of capture. Loca lities other than Nelson represent my collecting; most of the species from Brilliant were taken at light, chiefly at a number of 1,000-watt flood lights. The Nelson-Robson-Trail district is in the southern part of the "Vest Kootenay region of British C olumbia, adjacent to the northeastern corner of the State of W ashington. The localities are as f ollows, and all are within the quadrilatera l between the 49th and 50th para llels of latitude and the 117th and 11 8th mer idians of longitude; W arfi eld is a suburb of Trai l. B.-Brilliant. Elevation ca . N .-Nelson " " R.-Robson " . " T .Trail " " W.-vVarfield " " 1,550 ft . 1,774 " 1 ,41 0 " 1,400 " 1,900 "
The University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization (nine volumes) makes available to students and teachers a unique selection of primary documents, many in new translations. These readings, prepared for the highly praised Western civilization sequence at the University of Chicago, were chosen by an outstanding group of scholars whose experience teaching that course spans almost four decades. Each volume includes rarely anthologized selections as well as standard, more familiar texts; a bibliography of recommended parallel readings; and introductions providing background for the selections. Beginning with Periclean Athens and concluding with twentieth-century Europe, these source materials enable teachers and students to explore a variety of critical approaches to important events and themes in Western history. Individual volumes provide essential background reading for courses covering specific eras and periods. The complete nine-volume series is ideal for general courses in history and Western civilization sequences.
Solid waste management (SWM) as a vital link in urban water supply and sanitation is the main focus of urban development in South Asia. In this regard a London School of Economics study in India and Pakistan highlights the partnerships that function with official waste recovery and disposal systems. It is noted that despite the health hazard associated with poor urban water supply and sanitation SWM remains a neglected issue. It is even attracting attention that extends beyond obvious public health concerns. In response to the above SWM schemes emphasize on boosting private sector participation. However there is difficulty in scaling-up or replicating informal and decentralized initiatives to the city level due to existing social relations that underpin SWM. As such informal SWM systems are initiated which are based on asymmetrical social relationships.
The Climate Impacts Group (CIG) at the University of Washington (funded under NOAA’s Regional Integrated Science and Assessments Program) works to increase the resilience of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) to fluctuations in climate. CIG develops, tests, and introduces natural resources planning and decisionmaking tools that are based on seasonal/inter-annual climate forecasts and/or projections of anthropogenic climate change derived from global climate models. Over recent years, CIG has been evolving towards a regional “climate service,” that is, an information broker providing users with the information about climate impacts and response strategies they need to make climate forecasts relevant to planning and decision making. Here we describe CIG’s scope, research approach, and strategies and objectives for developing and maintaining long-term relationships with stakeholders; highlight CIG’s annual water resources planning workshops; and introduce new products and ongoing research on applications of climate forecasts for PNW natural resource management.
Forest management often causes changes to forest ecosystems, which can alter habitat use by avian species. Even with modern forestry practices which attempt to simulate natural disturbances, many avian species are still experiencing population declines in the Maritime provinces because of habitat alterations. Black Brook district in North Western New Brunswick is an intensively managed forest where over 90 recorded bird species reside. My project focused on modelling which forest variables in the Black Brook district forest affect the occupancy of four resident bird species, Certhia Americana, Cardellina canadensis, Contopus cooperi, and Seiurus aurocapilla. I also measured the influence of these forest variables on turnover in the broader avian community. All four focal species had unique habitat requirements, and turnover analysis suggested that the community also changed dramatically among different habitats. These patterns suggest that to maximize habitat for all avian species managed forests should work to create heterogenous landscapes.
To be in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the United States Department of the Navy is required to assess the potential environmental impacts of conducting at-sea training operations on sea turtles and marine mammals. Limited recent and area-specific density data of sea turtles and dolphins exist for many of the Navy’s operations areas (OPAREAs), including the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point OPAREA, which encompasses portions of Core and Pamlico Sounds, North Carolina.  Aerial surveys were conducted to document the seasonal distribution and estimated density of sea turtles and dolphins within Core Sound and portions of Pamlico Sound, and coastal waters extending one mile offshore. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data for each survey were extracted from 1.4 km/pixel resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer remote images. A total of 92 turtles and 1,625 dolphins were sighted during 41 aerial surveys, conducted from July 2004 to April 2006.    In the spring (March – May; 7.9°C to 21.7°C mean SST), the majority of turtles sighted were along the coast, mainly from the northern Core Banks northward to Cape Hatteras. By the summer (June – Aug.; 25.2°C to 30.8°C mean SST), turtles were fairly evenly dispersed along the entire survey range of the coast and Pamlico Sound, with only a few sightings in Core Sound. In the autumn (Sept. – Nov.; 9.6°C to 29.6°C mean SST), the majority of turtles sighted were along the coast and in eastern Pamlico Sound; however, fewer turtles were observed along the coast than in the summer. No turtles were seen during the winter surveys (Dec. – Feb.; 7.6°C to 11.2°C mean SST). The estimated mean surface density of turtles was highest along the coast in  the summer of 2005 (0.615 turtles/km², SE = 0.220). In Core and Pamlico Sounds the highest mean surface density occurred during the autumn of 2005 (0.016 turtles/km², SE = 0.009). The mean seasonal abundance estimates were always highest in the coastal region, except in the winter when turtles were not sighted in either region. For Pamlico Sound, surface densities were always greater in the eastern than western section. The range of mean temperatures at which turtles were sighted was 9.68°C to 30.82°C. The majority of turtles sighted were within water ≥ 11°C.    Dolphins were observed within estuarine waters and along the coast year-round; however, there were some general seasonal movements. In particular, during the summer  sightings decreased along the coast and dolphins were distributed throughout Core and Pamlico Sounds, while in the winter the majority of dolphins were located along the coast and in southeastern Pamlico Sound. Although relative numbers changed seasonally between these areas, the estimated mean surface density of dolphins was highest along the coast in the spring of 2006 (9.564 dolphins/km², SE = 5.571). In Core and Pamlico Sounds the highest mean surface density occurred during the autumn of 2004 (0.192 dolphins/km², SE = 0.066). The estimated mean surface density of dolphins was lowest along the coast in the summer of 2004 (0.461 dolphins/km², SE = 0.294). The estimated mean surface density of dolphins was lowest in Core and Pamlico Sounds in the summer of 2005 (0.024 dolphins/km², SE = 0.011). In Pamlico Sound, estimated surface densities were greater in the eastern section except in the autumn. Dolphins were sighted throughout the entire range of mean SST (7.60°C to 30.82°C), with a tendency towards fewer dolphins sighted as water temperatures increased.    Based on the findings of this study, sea turtles are most likely to be encountered within the OPAREAs when SST is ≥ 11°C. Since sea turtle distributions are generally limited by water temperature, knowing the SST of a given area is a useful predictor of sea turtle presence. Since dolphins were observed within estuarine waters year-round and throughout the entire range of mean SST’s, they likely could be encountered in the OPAREAs any time of the year. Although our findings indicated the greatest number of dolphins to be present in the winter and the least in the summer, their movements also may be related to other factors such as the availability of prey. (PDF contains 28 pages)
Pakistan and China enjoy the bilateral and friendly diplomatic relations since 1951. Both countries are trustworthy allies of one another. China has always backed Pakistan in the difficult matters to stabilize the geo-political and geoeconomic situation in the region. Although, Pakistan also enjoys good diplomatic relations with America but down the line these relations and ties weakened due to increasing mistrust and unreliability between both the countries. Pakistan had various occasions has been ally of the United States (US) such as War against USSR in Afghanistan. But after the war the US has put sanctions on Pakistan and tensions between both countries arose. On the other hand, China has always supported Pakistan stance even in the wars against India. These relations took a new turn with the Chinese project of Belt Road Initiative (BRI) generally and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from 2013 onwards. This huge transformation of Pak-China dealings seen the two-sided connections long-drawn-out from military to the economic domain. The collaboration under CPEC, with increased investment of China in building Pakistan’s power and infrastructure segments. The deepening relations of China and Pakistan and Pakistan’s decreasing dependency on the US has grabbed attention of the USA. America has moved its all energies to East Asia from the European and Arab countries. Therefore, the aim of current study is to look headlong from this viewpoint and pursue to sightsee and explore the expansions that took place in two-sided associations outside CPEC keeping the US stance on this collaboration and its significance.
The role and value of data assimilation techniques have been verified in many engineering areas. In this paper, the data assimilation technique, Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), is used to assimilate the remote sensing data of Suspended particulate matter (SPM) from the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer instrument (MERIS) sensor on ESA’s ENVISAT in the computational water quality model, Delft3D-WAQ. The objective is to determine SPM concentrations and calculate the flux of marine silt along the Dutch coast. The first results are demonstrated together with the new aspects and challenges.
During last years the oilseed rape has expanded on crop due to its high oleic content and to the increasing of numerous technical applications based on rapeseed oil such as: use of rapeseed oil as an alternative to fossil fuels, use of rapeseed oil for pharmaceutical industry, use of rapeseed oil in chemical industry for obtaining industrial solvents etc. The extension of rape crop was promoted by the European Union’s restriction to cultivate genetic modified soybean and also by the penetration of varieties, particularly the new hybrids that allow rape cultivation within varied areas in terms of climatic conditions. In Romania, over the last 20 years the cultivated area of oilseed rape has increased from 14 800 ha in 1990 to 381.000 ha in 2011, the rape crop becoming one of the most important field crops in the country.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to produce a high-quality measure of the nature of healthcare resources available in China’s Township Health Centers (THCs), paying particular attention to equity between high- and low-income areas. Design/methodology/approach - This study makes use of data from a nearly nationally representative survey in rural China conducted by the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. The samples of towns were selected randomly from 25 counties located in five provinces from different regions of China. Data were collected through questionnaires and direct observation. Findings - The THCs located in rich areas have higher levels of human resources than poor areas. THCs in rich areas also have more fixed assets than those in poor areas. In fact, even though the Chinese Ministry of Health mandates that all THCs have certain basic levels of medical equipment and facilities, many THCs in poor areas do not have them. The allocation of mandated equipment is unequal. Practical implications - These findings suggest that China’s government should pay more attention to THCs located in poor areas, especially in light of new initiatives to improve health care in poor rural areas. Originality/value - This is the first nationally representative study to employ rigorous empirics to investigate the extent of inequality in allocation of resources within THCs across China.
This article includes the establishment period of general Muslim educational institutions from the beginning of hijri century (7th A.D.). As it is known, mosques were the main educational institutions in Islamic world till the latter part of 5th century (hijri), and after this time they are gradually replaced by the madrasahs. In the less than a hundred and fifty years after the establishment of the first madrasah in Khurasan, they spread all over the Islamic world and constituted the most widespread educational system of this period. In fact, they were not the only institutions in Islamic educational system. Meanwhile other remarkable Islamic educational institutions, e.g. kuttabs, which were also known in the pre-Islamic Arabia, Dar al-Qurans, Dar al-Hadiths, Khanaqahs, Ribats and Zawiyays were also established or developed. And all of them provided accommodation facilities and salaries for professors, sheiks and students though some special financial arrangements. With these entire institutions Islamic social, cultural and educational milieu is created
Summary Faulty spatial structure of villages in south-eastern Poland is a result of historical, socio-economic and demographic processes. They are responsible for many long-lived inconsistencies and errors in the Register of Land and Buildings (EGiB) acting as the Cadastre in Poland. The article discusses the problem of the flawed structure of the possession of land, land use and the fragmentation of cadastral parcels in the villages Konieczkowa and Lutcza in the Strzyzow District (powiat), Podkarpackie Voivodeship. Correction of the flawed spatial structure of rural areas, through the known agricultural ar rangement treatments such as consolidation and exchange of land, is a chance to improve the economic conditions of the Subcarpathian villages. This process is long-lasting, requiring the cooperation of local authorities with inhabitants and proper legal safeguards. The advantage of carrying out this process would provide a basis for EGiB reforms in order to transform it into the real estate cadastre.
Abstract : The magnetic data have been represented by the K-indices, which give the range of the magnetic variation during three hour periods. The auroral activity has been measured by a photometer scanning along the geographic meridian. The intensity of the green auroral line has been measured, and an auroral index related to the intensity of the 5577 Angstrom units line has been included in the report. An equipment for the measurement of the earth current potentials has been installed at the observatory. The potential variations of the east-west, and northsouth components have been measured. It has been found that the north-south component is 3.5 times stronger than the east-west component. The data of the earth current variations (northsouth component) have been represented by the range of variation in mV/km over three hour intervals. (Author)
Loose silky-bent grass (Apera spica-venti) is one of the most important grass weeds in Bavaria. Effective chemical weed control is essential to prevent loss of yield and harvest quality in winter cereals. Crop rotations with more winter cereals and reduced soil cultivation caused a higher infestation of loose silky-bent in arable farming regions. Effects of herbicide resistance were observed since the last 15 years. Herbicide resistance of loose silky-bent is well observed by the official plant protection service of Bavaria. A wide experience of resistance tests shows the development of resistant loose silky-bent grass and provides an opportunity for future prospects in resistance dynamics.
Tropical peat swamp forests (TPSFs) are found mainly in Southeast Asia and especially Indonesia. A total of 61% were lost between 1990 and 2015 and 6% remained in a pristine condition by 2015. Tropical peat swamps store vast amounts of carbon in their peat, but peat degradation, through drainage and fire, leads to high greenhouse gas emissions. This is gaining much international attention and, with it, policy initiatives and funding for restoration from local to landscape scales are being promoted. Unfortunately, although there is a now strong desire and need for TPSF restoration, methods are lacking. Ecological understanding is still at an early stage, and, even more so, in its applied use. There is an imbalance between the activities of TPSF restoration and sound ecological application. Furthermore, while many activities are underway and knowledge is being gained, these techniques are yet to be published. This article has been written to provide a common‐sense, practical guide to tropical peatland forest restoration which summarizes what we know to date, while acknowledging the gaps in our understanding. Topics covered include species selection, land assessment, land selection, and appropriate nursery, transplanting, and monitoring methods. The authors make no apologies that in places this reads like a manual as, given the importance of tropical peatland recovery and the recent attention and funding opportunities available, it is essential we now provide techniques to restoration practitioners working on the ground, and a basic common‐sense approach must be the starting point.
Respiratory diseases caused or aggravated by dust or smoke (PM10 and PM2.5) are of concern to health officials in arid and semiarid regions where windblown dust constitutes a serious threat to public health. This paper presents early results of work on Public Health Applications in Remote Sensing (PHAiRS), a project that seeks to integrate NASA remote-sensing products into an existing public health decision-support system. With the goal of forecasting dust events, the project relies on outputs from the Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (DREAM). To characterize and establish baseline model behavior prior to the anticipated substitution of specified model parameters with NASA Earth Science data, a point-by-point comparison between in-situ observations and baseline DREAM model output is performed across reporting stations from north-central New Mexico to the Texas gulf coast for the two-day dust event of December 15-16, 2003.
The present work is dedicated to a modern complex morphological study on a representative sample (42 fish specimens from the stock collection of the Zoological Institute RAS and 3 specimens-holotypes from the collection of the Zoological Museum of the National Museum of Natural History NAS of Ukraine) Kerguelen icefish of the genus Channichthys Richardson, 1844 (Channichthyidae) with a special structure of the gill apparatus – double-rowed gill rakers: charcoal icefish Channichthys panticapaei Shandikov, 1995, big-eyed icefish Ch. bospori Shandikov, 1995, and pygmy icefish Ch. irinae Shandikov, 1995. All this species of icefish, with their common similarity, are united by the special structure of the gill apparatus - the presence of two well-developed rows of gill rakers on the gill arches, especially on the first gill arch, which is a key defining sign that is clearly distinguishes them from all other species of the genus Channichthys. Until now, there is no unambiguous universally accepted opinion of specialists about the taxonomic status of these icefish. They are distinguished either in one species, or in three species, or are identified as Channichthys sp. In the course of this work, a redescription of Ch. panticapaei with the confirmation of the validity of this species, based on complex data of external morphology, the study of the seismic sensor system and especially the structure of the gill apparatus, highlighting the most important diagnostic features of the species, as well as the replace of the species Ch. bospori and Ch. irinae, to the synonymy of Ch. panticapaei.
Knowledge of the properties of the wood is essential to their best use. Juvenile and mature wood differ in their fitness for use, the first can be used as round timber, limited structural scantlings while the mature large can be used in joinery, quality facing or other more valuable uses. It is therefore important to establish the time of transition between the two as well as other properties of wood resistance of this species at older ages. For this, we studied a) tracheid length to differentiate juvenile / mature wood b) Basic density, and c) mechanical
less of the economic activity involved, is ephemeral. New place-of-origin to place-of-destination dyads manifest themselves; some place-of-origin to place-of-destination dyads evaporate; the volume of human or commodity movement between some pairs of places and along some routes expands or contracts. In short, all the phenomena normally put under the scrutiny of economic geographers and location theorists possess fleeting qualities. Furthermore, the frozen image of a single specific economic geographic distribution or spatial interaction pattern at any given moment is the product of a process which, it may be contended, has general features which are isomorphic with those of the process generating any other economic geographic distribution or spatial interaction pattern. That the last statement is the case and that traditional location theory, with its considerable insights, must be complemented so as to take account of this, has become increasingly implicit and explicit in the writings of geographers since the 1953 publication of Torsten Hagerstrand's major work in innovation diffusion [4, 5].1 Hence, if economic
There are longstanding debates about whether neighbourhood segregation of ethnic minorities promotes minorities’ economic success or whether it constrain opportunities. Here, Carolina V. Zuccotti and Lucinda Platt show that growing up in a neighbourhood with a higher proportion of those from the same ethnic group as you can have both positive and negative consequences: these play out differently for men and women and for groups with different levels of resources
The food habit of Francois^s Leaf Monkey (Presbytis francoisi) was observed from January 1995 to January 1997 in the field and got the following results: (1)the numbers of plant species on which monkey fed during day time were influenced by how much time that they spent to feed on crops; (2)the monkey fed on different parts of plants in each season; (3)the time in that monkey spent on feeding was negatively correlated with the time that they fed on crops in each season; (4)their seasonal food items were very different.
Pottery and Mobility: A Functional Analysis of Intermountain Brownware by Britt J. Betenson Dr. Karen Harry, Examination Committee Chair Assistant Professor of Anthropology University o f Nevada, Las Vegas Intermountain Brownware, is a late prehistoric ceramic type made by mobile huntergatherers that is found throughout southern Nevada, western Utah and northern Arizona. Most hunter-gather groups around the world are not pottery producers. Through interdisciplinary analysis, I examine the physical and morphological characteristics to understand the amount of labor invested in the construction and production of Intermountain Brownware. I then evaluate these results amongst environmental, historical, ethnological, and archaeological data to conclude that Intermountain Brownware possesses lower porosity, and is thinner and stronger than commonly reported. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is performed to empirically characterize food residues remaining in the pores of each sherd. Seed and root residues were predominant in our archaeological samples and meat was not. This study demonstrates that Intermountain Brownware ceramics are of better quality than previously thought, that labor investment was significant, and that these vessels were primarily constructed for cooking seed and root stews.
The aim of this study was to examine the practices of Kombolcha Community Radio (KCR). The theory of participatory communication as articulated in the UNESCO’s debates of the 1970s and the dialogical or critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire served as the theoretical frameworks in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the study. Questionnaires, interviews, documents and observation were the tools employed for gathering the data from residents of the community and KCR staff. Probability sampling (i.e. random sampling) and non-random sampling (i.e. purposive sampling) methods were used to select the subjects. Based on the information obtained, it was found that KCR focused on entertainment (i.e. music), educational, phone-in and discussion programs. It provided good access, but the quality of the signal and the representation of the community culture in the output of the station’s programs were found to be poor. The participation of the community was also found to be poor in the overall activity of the station. Even though the community was assumed to participate in decision making process through their representatives, the representatives themselves didn’t participate in the station’s activity. Similarly, the study revealed that the station gave independent platform were the community members discuss of issues of concern to them. Finally, it was recommended that the station focus on participatory programs, use modern transmission equipment and give much emphasis to the Kombolcha Community’s culture as well as creating a mechanism for soliciting feedback.
With each monthly release of not seasonally adjusted employment estimates, the Current Employment S tatistics (CES) p rogram upda tes the two p revious m onth’s pr eliminary estimates to reflect additional data receipts. The updated estimates are then used to produce concurrent seasonal adjustment factors and these are applied only to the revised estimate levels. As a result, part of the seasonally adjusted over-the-month change for two months prior to the newly released month is attributed to levels produced from different concurrent runs, creating what we call a seam effect. This paper uses simulated data, created by using the original seasonal adjustment specifications, to examine the impact of changing from the current monthly seasonal adjustment process to updating up to 61 months of seasonally adjusted data with each monthly release, a process similar to what is done during the annual benchmark process. Updating 61 months of data moves the seam effect from two months prior to 61 months back to provide a five year history of seam effect free estimates. The change also results in a higher probability of the peak and trough dates shifting and higher exposure of variability.
Indonesia has more than 17,506 islands and 92 islands of them are outermost small islands.  Lingayan is one of them located in Northwest of Sulawesi Island and it has geostrategic role to determine the sea boundaries of Indonesian State (NKRI) including the territorial seas, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf.  Recently, the coastal ecosystems of Lingayan has degraded and the island’s economy is weak so they cannot support the life’s survival of inhabiting people. This condition could weaken the geostrategic role in accordance with article 121 Chapter VIII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Based on the above reasons, the study aim to examine and assess the causal relation of components in the socio-ecological and socio-economical systems as a basis for management of the Lingayan Island with target on conservation of coastal ecosystems and growth of inhabitant’ business economic.  Causalities relations within components were built using Statistic Equation Model (SEM) with AMOS method and 40 constructed indicators as well as determinate the suitability program using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP).  The research showed that there is relationship between the components of socio-ecological systems as indicated by the fit model of causal relation path diagram that provides chi square value = 236.994, RMSEA = 0.083, GFI = 0.884.  Furthermore, there is relationship between the components of socio-economical that provides chi square value = 192.824, RMSEA = 0.081, GFI = 0.900. The most appropriate programs are seaweed cultivation (34.0%) and restoration (23.4%).
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been used increasingly to map instances of environmental injustice, the disproportionate exposure of certain populations to environmental hazards. Some of the technical and analytic difficulties of mapping environmental injustice are outlined in this article, along with suggestions for using GIS to better assess and predict environmental health and equity. I examine 13 GIS-based environmental equity studies conducted within the past decade and use a study of noxious land use locations in the Bronx, New York, to illustrate and evaluate the differences in two common methods of determining exposure extent and the characteristics of proximate populations. Unresolved issues in mapping environmental equity and health include lack of comprehensive hazards databases; the inadequacy of current exposure indices; the need to develop realistic methodologies for determining the geographic extent of exposure and the characteristics of the affected populations; and the paucity and insufficiency of health assessment data. GIS have great potential to help us understand the spatial relationship between pollution and health. Refinements in exposure indices; the use of dispersion modeling and advanced proximity analysis; the application of neighborhood-scale analysis; and the consideration of other factors such as zoning and planning policies will enable more conclusive findings. The environmental equity studies reviewed in this article found a disproportionate environmental burden based on race and/or income. It is critical now to demonstrate correspondence between environmental burdens and adverse health impacts--to show the disproportionate effects of pollution rather than just the disproportionate distribution of pollution sources.
Migrant populations have been blamed for over-harvesting natural resources threatening the long-term viability of the natural resource base. It has been argued that they over-harvest because they lack skills and experience. Chamaedorea sp., is one of the few non-timber forest products with which a significant number of agricultural households in rural Peten supplement their income. This paper presents a case study of the harvest of three xate species and of the economic importance of xate among the returnees (migrants returning to their home country from exile) in the cooperative Union Maya Itza in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala. This case study shows that xate represented an important economic asset in the community. The institutional and human resources in La Quetzal have been important for realizing the economic value of xate for the community; however, these resources have also contributed to realizing a sustainable management of the xate resource in the community.
Bengawan Solo Estuary has a very large area of mudflat, which make it suitable area for waterbird’s habitat. The purpose of this study were to determine the value of diversity index of waterbirds. This study was conducted in mudflat area at Kali anyar estuary, Bengawan Solo. Data was collected on March 2018. The method used to calculate the waterbirds was concentration count and to estimate the population was used block method. The result showed that value of diversity index of birds was 2,029 with the value index of evenness was 0,553. Total species  found were 39 species from 7 families. Calidris canutus, Calidris tenuirostris, Chlidonias hybridus and Chlidonias leucopterus were dominant species. There were 2 species Endagered and, 7 spesies Near Threatened according to IUCN also Tweleve spcies were protected in Indonesia. Keywords: Bengawan Solo, bird diversity, mudflat, waterbirds
Graphic displays for virtual environments and telerobotics require effective communication of the details of 3-D object shape. This paper presents empirical evidence on the relation between human perception and several properties of graphic shape depiction. A series of experiments examined a 3-D shape discrimination task requiring judgments of superquadric volume primitives varying in shape within different rendering and display conditions. The displays were dynamic, with constant rotational motion. Over the series of experiments, the contributions of diffuse and specular shading, occluding contour, aspect ratio, and covarying size were evaluated. The results revealed a consistent sensitivity to differences in superquadric shape parameters, that was surprisingly robust over rendering variations. One major finding was that the presence of specular highlights did not enhance shape discrimination performance beyond that observed for purely diffuse reflectance. The results suggest strategies for optimizing interface properties where 3-D shape is a primary component of the display. They also support the use of superquadric primitives in situations where humans interact with shape display systems.
Earth scientists use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enable measurements and observations that cannot be collected by manned aircraft such as the ER-2, DC-8 or B-200. Science community interest in UAVs to date has largely been focused on the larger class of UAV such as the Global Hawk and Predator, because of the large mass of legacy airborne science instruments. With the continued miniaturization of instruments and data systems and the rapid pace of development of all classes of UAV world-wide during the past decade, smaller classes of UAV are now capable of providing important science measurements and observations. Small (<50 lbs GTOW) and medium-class UAV (>500 lbs GTOW) complement the larger platforms by enabling in situ measurements of the atmospheric boundary layer with low-altitude remote sensing or air sampling, while providing a relatively low cost platform for storm penetration and dangerous, remote missions where the system may not return. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote Research Aircraft (SIERRA) project at the Ames Research Center (ARC) has demonstrated the utility of a medium class unmanned aircraft for providing science measurements in remote and dangerous environments using active, passive and in situ earth science instrument payloads. This article describes the SIERRA project, details past and future missions, and discusses the primary requirements for small and medium class UAV.
Due to the impact of anthropogenic activities on forest extent and integrity across Madagascar, it is increasingly necessary to assess how endangered lemur populations inhabiting human‐dominated forest fragments can effectively sustain themselves ecologically. Our research addresses this concern by exploring how the distribution patterns of a small population of crowned lemurs (Eulemur coronatus), occupying a degraded forest fragment at Oronjia Forest New Protected Area in northern Madagascar, are impacted by the availability of key ecological and anthropogenic factors. We hypothesize that the distribution of E. coronatus within the fragment is limited by the availability of critical ecological resources and conditions and the intensity of anthropogenic features and activities. To examine this, we used MaxEnt to develop a species distribution model using presence‐only occurrence records and 10 independent background covariates detailing the site's ecological and anthropogenic aspects. The results indicate that the realized distribution patterns of E. coronatus within human‐dominated forest fragments are strongly associated with sections of forest that contain sparsely and sporadically distributed resources, such as freshwater and continuous hardwood vegetation. We conclude that the distribution of E. coronatus at Oronjia is shaped by their need to maximize foraging opportunities in a degraded forest landscape where they are subject to both environmental and anthropogenic stressors.
Coexistence in 4 species of hermit crabs, viz, Clibanarius padavensis.,C. olivaceus, C. longitarsus and Diogenes avarus, occurring in large numbers in the intertidal region was studied through shell selection and habitat partitioning experiments in the laboratory. While selecting the shell, all the species, at each size group showed preference for one and the same species of empty gastropod shell. In habitat selection experiments, C. padavensis and D. avarus showed preference for sandy substrate while C. olivaceus and C. longitarsus for muddy substrate reflecting their distribution pattern in nature. An inventory of available empty gastropod shell resources and type of shells occupied by these crabs revealed that shell resources do not limit these estuarine hermit crabs population, and the mechanism allowing coexistence of these appeared to involve both habitat partitioning and sharing of the abundantly available empty gastropod shell resources.
This resource book results from a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for 30 teachers conducted in 1992 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Curriculum materials developed were field-tested the following school year. Divided into three sections, part 1, "Essays," contains the following chapters: (1) "Maps in the Context of Time: The Historian's Contribution to Cartographic Literacy" (Gerald A. Danzer); (2) "The Center of the Earth: World Maps and Point of View Analysis" (Mark Newman); (3) "Islamic Maps in the Context of Western Civilization" (Kathleen Borghoff); and (4) "The Debate over Global Projections" (Raymond M. Brod). Part 2, "Lessons and Units," contains the following chapters: (1) "Early Civilizations in the Ancient Near East" (John Mullins); (2) "The Earliest World Map" (Victoria Goben); (3) "World Maps and World Views before Columbus" (Victoria Goben); (4) "Ancient and Medieval Maps for Classroom Discussion" (Charles Hart); and (5) "Mai.ping in Grades 5 and 6: Suggestions for a Unit" (Roger Anna). Part 3, "Urban Perspectives and Local Applications," contains the following chapters: (1) "Cities of the World: Cartographic and Historical Perspectives" (Charles Hart); (2) "The World in Our City: Ethnicity in Chicago" (Margaret Kania); and (3) "The History of Cicero Township: Cartographic Perspectives" (Charles E. Samec). Appendices offer additional maps and suggestions on how to use them in the classroom. (EH) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. **************************************,.******************************
The determination of applicable law to international contracts in absence of a choice of party in the European Union was governed for over twenty years by the article 4th of the Rome Convention of 1980. This precept mixed a high degree of flexibility to choose the law of the contract —through the principle of closest connection— with a moderated level of rigidity —presumption based on the characteristic performance theory—. Article 4th generated many difficulties of interpretation which caused a lot of contradictory judgments. Throughout the transformation of the Rome Convention of 1980 into a Regulation of the European Union, it was drawn upon to include significant changes to article 4th; especial attention is paid to the establishment of rigid rules in order to inflexibly determine the applicable law to eight of the most important international contracts. This article aims to analyze if the rigid points to determine the applicable law represent a solution that achieves a high degree of legal certainty in the European Union.
The aims of this paper are to identify inter-prefectural migration patterns, and extract “migration field” which are defined as joint origin destination regions of migraion.Data for the study were taken from the Resident Registration data published by the Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Prime Minister, Japan. The data are expressed in the from of 46×46 origin-destination migration matrix.Study period in the study is in 1971-80, and divided into three periods, that is, 1971-72, 1973-75, and 1976-80 (see Table 1).Factor analysis were applied to reduce theabove-mentioned migration (OD) matrix to its underlying dimentions, representing regional groups of places (prefectures) treated as destinations and origins.The results are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 6. They are summarized as follows:Through all the periods, Eastern Japan field and Western Japan field were two major patterns of inter-prefectural migration in Japan. But, Western Japan field is weakening its influence contrary to the growing of Kyushu field, Hanshin-Sanyo field and Chugoku field.Consequently, in the above mentioned period, it became clear that the migration fields in Japan were in reconstructing process.
The traditional village of Bali Aga is a sub-tribe that has been on the island of Bali since prehistoric times and at the time of the development of Hinduism in the archipelago. Bali Aga traditional village is distinct along with the other Bali traditional villages. The difference lies in the socio-cultural characteristics of the community as well as in the spatial arrangement of their residential settlements. Tenganan indigenous village is one of Bali Aga's traditional village in Bali island. Tenganan indigenous village often holds cultural festivals. This research was conducted in order to introduce the notion of cultural historical tourism to Tenganan indigenous village, as a destination of choice on Bali island. This research was conducted by a qualitative method with pre-iconographic and iconographic approaches in its effort to describe traditional spatial arrangement conditions in Tenganan indigenous village. Data analysis was conducted in an interpretation method. Data was collected by direct object observation and interviews. Then the researchers’ analysed the socio-cultural philosophy of the indigenous Balinese Aga tribe. The result was the traditional spatial arrangement over Tri Hita Karana philosophy that is in line with Tenganan traditional village community culture, the macrocosmos and microcosmos zones sectioning, Hulu-Teben orientation and visual inertia. This research is expected to be useful for the general public so that they can understand the strong socio-cultural wisdom of the Tenganan indigenous peoples and participate in maintaining its spatial arrangement pattern in their residential settlements without damaging the environment.
This chapter attempts to add an international perspective on understanding rurality, and the challenges of living in an African countryside compared to that of the Western countryside. The discussion acknowledges that there are large differences between the experiences of rural life in Africa compared to that of the more developed world, making the two rurals almost incomparable. The chapter should not be seen as a representation of Africa as a whole, but focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa, with specific reference to Zambia as a case study. In doing so, it explores the rural idyllic representations of the West with those of Africa and argues that, much of the Zambian countryside, commands very negative representations, making the rural idyll more of a western construct. Drawing upon a historical and political economy perspective, the chapter seeks to reveal the lack of structured coherence in Zambian rural areas and highlights the factors that have (re) shaped perceptions and development of the rural over time and the implications that this can have for the rural together with its inhabitants.
We investigated the effect of sector (position in canopy) on translocation and distribution of 13 C-photosynthates in mangosteen trees and related the findings to previous analyses of fruit quality. Our experiment was conducted on three 25-year-old mangosteen trees. Tree canopies were divided into 9 sectors based on height (bottom, middle, top) and width (inner, center, outer). One branch from each sector was labeled with 13 CO 2 in December 2003. Immediately after labeling, 13 C concentration in leaves from middle sectors was higher than that in leaves from other positions. 13 C concentration in all leaves decreased rapidly for 24 h after 13 C feeding, followed by a gradual decrease. In contrast, 13 C concentration increased over time in the pericarp and aril of fruits. Translocation of 13 C-photosynthates into fruit was high in Sectors 4 and 5, and in top positions (Sectors 7 to 9). At 96 h after 13 C feeding, the highest distribution ratio of 13 C-photosynthates was observed in stems, followed in descending order by pericarp, leaf, and aril. 13 C distribution ratio in the aril was generally highest in fruits from inner and center positions. The relationship between partitioning of photosynthates and quality of mangosteen fruit, which differs among sectors, has been discussed.
In this software of agricultural drought assessment system in production index of Shanxi Province,many original data are applied,and putting data into a database is the request of the process of writing.In this paper,the methods of how to create relational database and the methods and thinking of how to put the historical data into a computer program to calculate using some specific methods of DBMS and SQL langague embeding in Visual Basic are introduced,and some relational problems are also discussed.
The research area was 10 km on both sides of the segment of Xingyou expressway within the boundary of Youxi county.The expressway is one the projects of expressway network plan of the economic zone on the west side of the straits.Remote sensing images were the main source of information,the multivariate data were integrated as well as combined the results of wild quadrats and lines investigation,then with the help of unsupervised classification,supervised classification,and overlay classification these three methods of remote sensing interpretation,the remote sensing image of this evaluation region are vegetation interpreted and mapped.Ultimately the evaluation region is divided into 7 land types:coniferous forest,broadleaf forest,moso bamboo,economic forest,farmland,rural land and water.Comparing the results of these three methods of the interpretation,it shows that the interpretation result of overlay classification is the most accordant one to the real situation as well as the highest interpretation accuracy.
Injuries and deaths due to unsafe driving practices are a substantial health and socioeconomic burden to the community. Young socially disadvantaged males who are involved in a lifestyle of risky behaviour, crime and motor vehicle accidents seem unaffected by educational campaigns to improve safer driving. The aim is to develop a driving and social behavioural profile that may explain the lack of effectiveness of road safety advertising and suggest ways to refine educational strategies to reduce the risky lifestyle and associated harms among those most vulnerable, the 15-25 year olds. The procedure involved a quantitative and qualitative analysis through questionnaires, surveys and focus groups involving a comparison of populations (n = 668) by age, gender and socioeconomic status in three discrete Australian sites. Information gathered included issues related to road safety awareness, knowledge of advertising, personal and peer group attitudes as well as driving and life style history. The results indicate that within the community a highly visible profile of strong anti-social road safety activities by an educationally and economically disadvantaged sub-culture exists and this group seem impervious to road safety advertising and education initiatives. As the overall unsafe driving and risky antisocial behaviour is significant among 15-25 year olds within the community the solution is seen to be community based. A long-term (five to ten year) program has been posited; promoting community partnerships through consultative and local action committees at all levels creating locally designed formal and informal educational and mutual support programs.
The non-completion of primary school and educational attainment in general in Indonesia has been associated with an increased likelihood of being or remaining poor. In light of this, this paper considers the evolution of primary school non-completion using six rounds of the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey covering the period 1991–2012. The paper presents new, consistent estimates of the evolution of the incidence of and total composition of, primary education non-completion in Indonesia over two decades by the characteristics of household heads. The paper argues that although such deprivations remain concentrated among households in rural areas and in households with heads not in work or employed in agriculture, counter-intuitively, as deprivations decline,there are growing and sizable proportions in urban and non-agriculture headed households meaning a policy focus largely on the ‘traditional’ characteristics of deprived households might risk missing substantial proportions of the remaining and likely future poor in Indonesia.
Public opinion, politicians and technical experts systematically avoid Mexico City’s future sustainability as a central topic for national debate, even if it represents a crucial issue for national development. According to this article, Mexico City, as one of the most chaotic mega capitals in the world, lacks any viability for sustainability in the long-term, affecting Mexico’s entry to the global era in aspects such as geopolitics, economy, energy, technology, migration and infrastructure. A new understanding of the situation will include among its solutions a geopolitical urban re-order as well as world-class technological infrastructure in the chaotic capital of this centralized country
The country of Sudan has been known for its long history of wars, poverty, and disease. These multiple factors combine to cause a high incidence of morbidity and mortality, besides the inability of the population to seek and receive medical care. Malaria in Sudan affected more than two million people in Sudan in 2005. It is the number one killer in the country. Malaria being endemic to most of Sudan; 75% of the population lives daily with the risk of contracting it. Malaria contributes to 30% of hospital admissions and 16% of hospital deaths. As compared to other age groups., children below 3 years are ABSTRACT
We report the presence of the bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the northeastern of the state of Hidalgo, in the municipality of San Felipe Orizatlan, at 156 meters of altitude. One individual male of L. rufus was run over in a dirty road and donated by local people. This record extends the distribution of this species in Hidalgo approximately 118 km to the southwest of previous records and it is the first evidence of the presence of the species in semievergreen tropical forest in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico.
Among testimonies of other occupations, the Pena d’Água Rock-shelter revealed two “stratigraphic blocks” (i.e. sets of layers) reporting, respectively, to the Early and Middle Neolithic, with preservation of organic matter (charcoal and faunal assemblages). The older “stratigraphic block” is characterized by decorated pottery, use of local raw materials, and the balanced exploitation of a large spectrum of animals (both domestic and wild), whereas the younger is characterized by plain pottery, long-distance exchange of raw materials, and specialization in the hunting of cervids and herding of sheep/goat (itinerant pastoralism?). This cultural and subsistence shift coincides with increasing aridity and the emergence of megalithism in Portugal, but sound correlations between these phenomena are still to be made. k e y w o r d s : Portugal, Neolithic, site formation process, economy, palaeo-environment.
The Ongoing New Zealand Household Travel Survey is an ongoing survey of household travel conducted by the Ministry of Transport. Each year since 2003, people in 2200 or more households throughout New Zealand have been invited to participate in the survey by recording all their travel over a two-day period. Each person in the household is then interviewed about their travel and is also asked about their alcohol consumption up to and over the travel days and other travel-related information. This survey is important in that the follow-up interviewing occurs within a short time period of the travel and drinking in question so that it is still fresh in the mind of the person interviewed. This paper presents an overview of the alcohol consumption data available from the survey for July 2003 - June 2007 and compares it to data from other New Zealand Travel Surveys. As respondents are asked about the starting time, finishing time and venue of each drinking session, as well as the type and number of drinks consumed, a variety of areas can be examined. Travel after said sessions can also be studied and an estimate made of driver trips made while the driver is over the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit.
Abstract: This article summarises and presents the results of a research on the radio programme grid, contents and adaptation to new technologies of a total amount of eleven public radio stations of different Autonomous Regions of Spain. As a result, it is confirmed that all of them cover three areas of special interest: local information, entertainment, and sports. Also, it shows that most of them do not have get adapted to social networks and new Web 2.0.
THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS IN SALZBURG, 12-21 FEBRUARY, 1975. THE ORGANIZATION OF WINTER MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS IN THE TOWN OF MULHOUSE IS BASED ON THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES: PERMANENCE, SPEED, CONTINUITY AND FLEXIBILITY. SNOW REMOVAL OPERATIONS AND DEICING OF CARRIAGEWAYS AND FOOTWAYS ARE DESCRIBED TOGETHER WITH THE COMBINED SNOW REMOVAL ON CARRIAGEWAYS AND FOOTWAYS. COSTS OF THE EQUIPMENTS AND OPERATIONS ARE QUOTED.
To know the status quo of the constitution and health of the rural residents in different areas of Jiangsu Province and clarify the changing tendency of the fitness level of the rural residents in the years of 2000-2005.Method:To compare the fitness level in different areas and different years with Chisquare Test.To compare the changes of the fitness evaluation in different areas and years with ANOVA and T Test.Conclusion:There is no significant changes of the fitness level in the southern areas of Jiangsu Province.There is obvious improvement in the central areas,but the failure rate is still high.While in the northern areas,the fitness level decreased a little.Suggestion:In order to speed up the construction of socialist new countryside,we should strengthen the physical exercise of the rural residents and do the publicity and education work for the improvement of the rural residents' fitness level so as to enhance the quality of the rural people.
Crayfish are fascinating animals that inhabit virtually every freshwater ecosystem in the United States. Only Alaska, Hawaii, and portions of the western Great Plains and desert Southwest are without natural populations of these organisms. However, because crayfish are secretive animals, their presence frequently goes unnoticed. Nevertheless, they do play an important role in the ecology of many aquatic communities and are worthy of more attention by biology teachers and their students. Crayfishes are members of the class Crustacea, a group of arthropods with gills and heavy, crust-like exoskeletons. Included in the Crustacea are such diverse forms as the microscopic water fleas and copepods, the larger sowbugs and amphipods, and the more familiar decapods including the crayfishes and river shrimp. In the United States, the crayfishes are represented by two families (Astacidae and Cambaridae), 10 genera, and nearly 300 species (Hobbs 1974). Crayfishes occupy almost every conceivable aquatic habitat from streams, rivers, and lakes to springs, marshes, and temporary ponds. According to Crocker and Barr (1968), most species are stream dwellers, usually hiding under cover, waiting to seize any food that happens by. Because their gills must be kept moist to function properly, no crayfishes are permanently terrestrial. However, crayfishes may venture on shorelines at night and some can travel considerable distances over land if the grass is moist with dew or rain. Some crayfishes even make their own aquatic habitat by digging burrows or tunnels below the water table. These burrows are usually located along stream banks or near ponds, but if the water table is not too deep, they may be found in fields far from any body of water. Different species dig burrows of different design (Crocker and Barr 1968). Some tunnels are simple and unbranched while others are equipped with side branches and enlarged chambers. When digging a tunnel, the crayfish brings mud to the surface and deposits it around the opening of the burrow forming a "chimney" that may be several inches high. The importance of crayfishes in the food webs of most aquatic ecosystems is due primarily to their tremendous reproductive potential and their omnivorous feeding habits. According to Meredith and Schwartz (1960), the natural diet of crayfishes includes insect larvae, worms, smaller crustaceans, snails, small fish, tadpoles, and aquatic plants. Burrowing species often eat large amounts of young terrestrial plant stems and roots. Adults usually feed at night, but immatures may frequently forage during the day. Crayfishes also consume large quantities of dead plant and animal material and as a result, represent an efficient means of main taining the flow of energy within aquatic communities. Conversion of detritus to food for vertebrate animals is completed without the loss of energy and substance which a more complex pathway would entail. Despite their formidable appearance, nocturnal habits, and other protective devices, crayfishes lead precarious lives as they are preyed upon by a host of other animals. Their greatest enemies are probably fish, but they are also eaten by frogs, turtles, water snakes, and raccoons. Birds such as kingfishers and herons also take their toll (Pennek 1978). Crayfishes occasionally eat each other; in such cases, recently molted individuals are usually the victims.
This study aims to investigate the regional climate changes and their impact on the East Asia under double CO2 concentration (560ppm) scenario. The results are discussed in two papers. This paper is the first part which discusses the results from a global climate system model (the NCAR CSM) in simulating the influences of different climate scenarios (1xCO2 vs. 2xCO2). Part two using the results from the NCAR CSM simulations to drive a regional climate model (the MM5) and to simulate the impact of these two climate scenarios on the regional climate of the East Asia. The results of MM5 will appear in the next paper. The results from the NCAR CSM show that when CO2 concentration reaches to double of the pre-industrial era (280 vs. 560ppm) the climate will plausibly have the following changes. First, the maximum temperature increase (up to 6.5℃) in winter in the East Asia is over the Yellow River basin. While the temperature increase is smaller (lie in 1~1.5℃) over Taiwan region due to the modulation of the surrounding oceans. This is in accordance with the results of other models. Second, the dynamic reason for the temperature increase in winter season in East Asia is the weakening of the Mongolia anticyclone. This weakening then is under the influence of the CO2 concentration double. Third, the nearby region in Taiwan may have more winter precipitation because of the eastward shift of the East Asian main trough. The shift of the trough pushes the accompanied frontal system southward and intensifies the frontal system around Taiwan area. Fourth, the chance of precipitation in Taiwan will reduce in summer. This mainly is affected by the southward shift of the Pacific subtropical high. Taiwan is covered by the anticyclonic air mass and the weather is very hot. Therefore, Taiwan may be threatened by the shortage of water and electricity because of the temperature increases and the decreases of typhoon precipitation in summer. Finally, the maximum temperature increase in summer is over the Yangtze River Valley. This results from the ridge of the Pacific subtropical high shifting to this region and bringing in warm southerly flows. In the end, what we want to emphasize is the results found in this study can provide a valuable reference to estimate the probability of regional climate changes and to deduce the dynamic causes of the changes. However, these are not an exclusive conclusion, since the disparity in the results from other contemporaneous climate system models in the world are still very large.
Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.), the dominant species in Qilian Mountains of Northwest China, has an important role in ecological service function, especially in carbon sequestration. The current work simulated stem volume growth of Qinghai spruce at individual and stand levels using a widespread bio-geochemical cycle (BIOMEBGC) model and considering the crown projection area (CPA). CPA was introduced because photosynthesis was only carried out on the vegetation canopy. The results showed that: (1) the CPA-simulated stem volume of individual Qinghai spruce in the three sites fitted well with the observed stem volume; (2) the introduction of CPA corrected the overpredicted stem volume for relatively younger stands and the under-predicted stem volume for relatively older stands in BIOME-BGC; and (3) meteorological factors may be crucial parameters that influence the model accuracy, aside from CPA. Therefore, CPA should be considered in correcting the carbon simulated by BIOME-BGC, and the meteorological data should be improved to obtain high-accuracy BIOME-BGC outputs.
An annotated checklist of the marine fishes of the Uji Islands in the East China Sea, Kagoshima Prefecture, southern Japan, was compiled on the basis of 560 specimens from field and literature surveys. All registered specimens previously recorded from the Uji Islands in published papers were re-examined. A total of 153 species (126 genera and 70 families) plus one hybrid individual of the Oplegnathidae, including 148 species that represent the first records from the islands on the basis of collected specimens, are listed with citations of literature, registration numbers, sizes, nomenclatural and taxonomic remarks, and color photographs if available. The zoogeographical implications of the Uji Islands ichthyofauna are discussed. Vol. 64, pp. 10 ~ 34 (2015) Introduction The Uji Islands, a group of six uninhabited islands, is located at the northwestern extremity of the Ryukyu Islands (31°11ʹN, 129°27ʹE), north of the Okinawa Trough and west of the East China Sea continental shelf. It is also ca. 65 km west of the western coast of the Satsuma Peninsula (Kagoshima mainland) between Koshiki and Kusagaki islands (Fig. 1). The Uji Islands have a combined area of ca. 1.7 km and a highest point above sea level of 319 m. The islands are surrounded mostly by rocky reefs with small patchy coral reefs; there are no sandy beaches nor freshwater rivers around or on the islands. Fishes occurring on the East China Sea continental shelf and in the Okinawa Trough have been well surveyed and their species lists were published by Yamada et al. and Shinohara et al. 2) respectively. Recently, fishes of islands in the Osumi Group, including Yaku-shima, Iou-jima, and Take-shima islands, were comprehensively investigated and field guides 4) were published. Fukui et al. recorded 23 species from deepwater off Kuro-shima island in the Osumi Group. Although the fish faunas of such islands nearby the Uji Islands have been relatively well surveyed, only four papers recording fish species of the Uji Islands have been published (on the basis of specimens deposited at the Kagoshima University Museum): viz., Shimada, Yamashita et al., Hata et al., and Jeong et al.. This paper provides a list of 153 species of marine fishes (126 genera and 70 families), plus one hybrid individual of the Oplegnathidae, occurring off the Uji Islands on the basis of 560 collected specimens. Previously reported specimens from the islands were re-identified during this study. The zoogeographical implications of the Uji Islands ichthyofauna are discussed. 1 The Kagoshima University Museum, 1-21-30 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan 2 Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, 4-50-20 Shimoarata, Kagoshima 890-0056, Japan 3 School & Diving Service Umikobo, 4-30-5 Shimoarata, Kagoshima 890-0056, Japan 4 The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Kagoshima University, 1-21-24 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan 5 Fisheries Research Laboratory, Mie University, 4190-172 Wagu, Shima, Mie 517-0703, Japan 6 The Graduate School of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, 4-50-20 Shimoarata, Kagoshima 890-0056, Japan 7 Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, 499 Iryuda, Odawara, Kanagawa 250-0031, Japan 8 National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-4 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan *Corresponding author, E-mail: motomura@kaum.kagoshima-u.ac.jp 11 Ichthyofauna of the Uji Islands Materials and Methods In this paper, fishes collected from waters within a 20-kilometer radius of the Uji Islands are listed; some fishes collected from outside the Uji area, such as 50 km off the Uji Islands, were listed by Fukui et al. as “fishes off Kuro-shima island”. Most specimens were collected by scuba diving and line-fishing during the RV Nansei-maru voyage on 21–23 April 2015 (Fig. 2), by free diving during a fishing boat expedition on 20–21 July 2013, and by purchasing fishes from the Uji Islands that were landed at the Kagoshima Central Fish Market. Additionally, some old specimens (possibly collected in the 1950’s) were found in the collection of the Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University. Curatorial procedures for newly collected specimens followed Motomura and Ishikawa. The systematic arrangement of families follows Nelson. Scientific names generally follow Nakabo and Eschmeyer, with some modifications by recently published or unpublished taxonomic studies. Species in families are arranged in alphabetical order by species name. Standard Japanese names (abbreviated as ‘Jpn name’) follow Nakabo, and are transliterated using the Hepburn system. Each species record was compiled from voucher specimens and literature sources. Data for each voucher specimen comprises registration number and standard length [SL; sometimes total length (TL) or disc width (DW)]. Distributional and other remarks are included for some species. The list of specimens is followed by literature cited. Specimens collected from the Uji Islands have been deposited at collections of the Kagoshima University Museum, Kagoshima, Japan (KAUM), and the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, Odawara, Japan (KPM). Fig. 1. Map of southern Kyushu and adjacent islands, Japan. Numbers in the map show major places mentioned in the text: 1, Uji Islands; 2, Kusagaki Islands; 3, Koshiki Islands; 4, Kuro-shima island; 5, Iou-jima island; 6, Takeshima island; 7, Yaku-shima island; 8, Tanegashima island; 9, Satsuma Peninsula; 10, Osumi Peninsula. Numbers 4–8 belong to the Osumi Islands. Fig. 2. Photographs from ichthyofaunal surveys in the Uji Islands. A, Uji-shima island; B, Uji Fishing Port; C, operating bottom long-lines from RV Nansei-maru; D, line-fishing off the Uji Islands; E–F, scuba diving surveys (photo F taken by M. Matsuoka; other photos by H. Motomura).
Water scarcity during the dry season and the abundance of water in the rainy season affected by global climate  change, so as to affect the agricultural production. Quantity factor K in Central Java Province ranged from 0.29 to  1.0 especially during September during the dryseason, it shows a ruinous drought ensued until the condition is safe  or an inefficient provision of water availability for irrigation water needs. The purpose of this paper is to apply  SDP (SeDrainPond) technology as water catchment which is utilized to increase the water needs for the plant because of lack availability of irrigation water in support of food security. Result of the application of SOP (SeDrainPond) technologies was held in Central Java Province ranges from (50-100) units per acre, with a  diamater ranging between (0 Im - 0 l.5m) with a depth of 3 m, then the volume of between 2.35 m" until 5.29 m3  SDP per unit or can accommodate water ranges between ( 117.5-235) m' to (264.5-529) m3. Result of agricultural  production (maize/corn) an increase in the range (4 to 6) quintals per hectare, where results of corn/maize before  eDrainPond made by 50 quintals per hectare and once there is SeDrainPond registration (54 to 56) quintals per  hectare. Result for agricultural production (Chili) an increase occur ranged between ( I to 2) quintals per hectare,where result of chili before SeDrainPond made of IO quintals per hectare and once there is SeDrainPond  egistration ( 11 to 12) quintals per hectare.
According to the meaning of urbanization quality,the paper constructs the appraisal index system of urbanization quality,including economic development quality,social development quality,residential living quality,population development quality,landscape environment development quality,and land-use development quality.With the method of principal component analysis,the urbanization quality of 49 counties and cities in Jiangsu province in 1990,1997,2009 and 2011is analyzed.The results are as follows:since 1990,the urbanization quality level of county in Jiangsu province has shown the trend of equalization.However,there's a comparative difference on urbanization quality among south,middle and north in Jiangsu province,the urbanization quality level of southern Jiangsu is higher obviously than that in middle and northern Jiangsu.Besides,the spatial distribution of urbanization quality level is significant,with the urbanization quality level from the Coast of Taihu Lake to middle Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu.
Today the term migrant have been shifted to diaspora and women are becoming a significant focus of attention in Diaspora and Transnational studies. The focus of this study is on Iranian diasporic women in the context of their relationship with home and host land, interrelations between different groups of Iranian communities, and their socio-cultural or political action through trans-nationalism and the issue of women’s rights in Iran. To explore their transnationalism, these women were individually interviewed about their perspectives on reasons for their departure from Iran, questions of Iranian women’s rights and the women’s new relationships in the land of settlement. The author applies Kim Butler’s ‘five dimensions’ of diaspora analysis in order to differentiate groups of Iranian women in the diaspora. The study examines the reasons and conditions of dispersal and the women’s ties with homeland and host country. The study is thus able to conclude that interrelationship patterns depend on the type of migration involved, and the age, class and activities of different groups of women with the Iranian diaspora communities. The study distinguishes between Activist women, Housewives and Students, as significant sub-categories of diasporic Iranian women, constructing their own kinds of transnationalism, whilst living in Europe and North America.
Non-cultivated land in cultivated land is the key factor effecting monitoring cultivated land area using Remote Sensing technology on a large scale.In this paper,the conception of non-cultivated land coefficient was proposed to express the percentage of non-cultivated land in arable land.Non-cultivated land coefficient shows the effects of human activities to the cultivated land.The results were as follows:theoretically,non-cultivated land coefficient was increasing from down-scale to up-scale.In this paper,the model between non-cultivated land coefficients under different scales was built.The model in the paper could express the exchanges of non-cultivated land coefficients under different scales.The paper discussed the non-cultivated land coefficients under the usually used data scale.The linear model,which could meet the requirements of precision,was useful in exchanging the non-cultivated land coefficients between TM and the CBERS data scale.
The amount of chlorophyll-a depends on the amount of algae and can also be used as an indicator of phytoplankton abundance and biomass in coastal water. The concentration of chlorophyll-a also could be a general measure of water quality. A series of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data acquired on different dates were used in this study since chlorophyll-a concentration change over time. In this study, four different algorithms had been chosen to extract chlorophyll-a concentration from MODIS data in the South China Sea. MODIS data acquired on 13 Jun 2001 was used to derive the coefficients in the algorithm since ground truth data is available. The accuracy of these algorithms was also assessed by comparing the correlation between measured and calculated chlorophyll-a values. The best algorithm is the Gordon algorithm with a R2 value of 0.735. Thus, Gordonâ€™s algorithm was used to obtain chlorophyll-a distribution during the north east monsoon and south west monsoon period in 2003 and 2004. The results show that during the north east monsoon and south west monsoon periods, the chlorophyll-a concentration is between 0.1-0.5 mg m-3 while the chlorophyll-a concentration during the inter-monsoon period is between 0.1-1.0 mg m-3.
We investigate the convergence process among EU regions between 1980-2002 taking into account the effects of spatial heterogeneity and spatial spillover effects. The spatial regimes model allows for different steady-state growth paths. In contrast to previous analyses, the regimes in this paper refer to spatial categories, i.e. we assume that agglomerations, urbanised and rural regions are characterised by group-specific steady-states. Moreover, the regression analysis considers the effects of interaction among neighbouring regions, possibly leading to a spatial dependence of regional growth rates. We check whether spatial dependence is caused by spatial spillovers or bases on country effects.
The space-time changes of landscape pattern in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Region have been analyzed in terms of Landsat TM/ETM+ images from 1989,1996,2000 and 2008 based on GIS and RS techniques,with its driving forces discussed.The principle and technique of landscape ecology were used to study the landscape pattern change.Results show that there was a remarkable difference in the area change of various landscape types in nearly 20 years between 1989 and 2008 in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Region.The main change in landscape area is that: the farmland and woodland were changed into built-up area.The landscape types' change rate increased gradually from 1989 to 2008.Landscape change is also obviously in the decades.Totally,landscape number and landscape density increases,the largest patch index decreases gradual,the patch becomes more complexity.From the change of Shannon Diversity Index and Shannon Evenness Index,we know that the diversity of landscape and the Interspersion Juxtaposition Index increase.The patch shape becomes more complex with the increasing landscape shape index.The driving force analysis of landscape pattern dynamics shows that three main human factors played an important role in driving landscape pattern changes in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Region.They are population growth,economic development and guiding effect of policies.
The Spanish Labour Force Survey has been used to analyse the impact of economic recession on both Spaniards’ and foreign migrants’ labour market participation. Data used covers from the third quarter 2007 —the moment just before the economic crisis begun— to the last available data when the paper was written. We intend to answer the question on whether foreign migrants have felt the effect of the economic crisis more than Spanish people or, as other authors claim, they are more resilient than native workers to labour market harsher conditions. Results show that, though at the beginning, during the first years of the economic crisis, they effectively were more resilient, in a second part of the crisis, since the middle of 2011, and particularly from the beginning of 2013, foreign migrants are now the most affected by the recession and are the ones that are currently losing more jobs.
The thesis deals with a proposal for strategic development of Kysucke Nove Mesto town. The thesis consists of two parts - theoretical part and practical part. The practical part is divided into analytical part and project part. The theoretical part defines theoretical fundaments in the field of regional and urban marketing, regional development and discusses the basic programming documents for regional development, marketing mix, marketing environment and strategic marketing planning. It is followed by the analytical part discussing the current position of Kysucke Nove Mesto with special focus on tourism. The aggregate results were processed in a SWOT analysis. In relation to the analytical part, the project part deals with a specific proposal for strategic development of the city and elaboration of a project in the field of tourism. The objective of the thesis is to propose such development strategy that would be able to ensure efficient utilisation of all the capacities and sustainable development of the town for the people living in Kysucke Nove Mesto. The success depends only on these people.
Abstract This study was carried out of investigate the effect of weed control methods on the growth of‘campbell early’ grape at the vineyards which was divided into the 18 zone (3.5 m × 5.5 m/zone) in the graperesearch institute. It’s investigated control effects, growth and quantity of grape and dominant weed ofJuly~August by sprayed glufosinate ammonium and paraquat dichloride each 3 times, fabric covering, grassplanting (Festuca myuros), mechanical weeding (3 times). The weed showed total of 16 species at thevineyards. Late-May to early growth stage of grape was dominated Chenopodium album and Trifoliumrepens , but to late growth stage of grape from mid-July was dominated Erigeron canadensis, Echinochloacrus-galli and Chenopodium album. Weed control effect of 10 day after treatment showed fabric covering100%, grass planting (Festuca myuros L.) 95.3%, mechanical weeding 81.9%, glufosinate ammonium (3times) 98.1% and paraquat dichloride (3 times) 90.4%, respectively. Growth of grape was higher herbicidestreatment and mechanical weeding than others. Yield tended to be higher glufosinate ammonium (3 times)and paraquat dichloride (3 times) each 12.6 kg/tree, 12.3 kg/tree than others.Key words Campbell early, Control effect, Grape, Growth, Weed
Airborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar(In SAR) is one of the key methods to generate digital elevation model(DEM). As the accuracy of DEM would be affected by errors of In SAR system parameters, it is necessary to correct system parameters and compensate system errors using interferometric calibration. Most of the solving methods for airborne In SAR calibration establish the sensitivity matrix with antenna baseline length, baseline obliquity and phase bias jointly to calibrate parameters' errors, which can be referred as the parameters-coupled solving methods. Since the sensitivity of phase bias is much smaller than baseline length and baseline obliquity, it would easily cause the sensitivity matrix to be ill-conditioned when establishing the sensitivity matrix with the three parameters together. In this situation, errors of the solution vector could be amplified,which consequently affects the interferometric calibration accuracy, and increase the sensitivity of corner reflectors' locating heights to calculations. This paper presents a parameters-separated solving method for airborne InSAR calibration by separating the baseline length, baseline obliquity and phase bias during the calibrating-solving process. The method establishes the sensitivity matrix with baseline length and baseline obliquity firstly, to calibrate these two parameters. Then, the phase bias was fitted individually, and afterwards we acquire the integrated calibration result of all three parameters. According to the validation result of real SAR data obtained by the dual antenna airborne In SAR system, the condition number of sensitivity matrix established by the parameters- separated solving method drops from 1.07 E + 06 to 5.02 comparing with the parameters- coupled solving method. Also, the average deviation of height, which accounts for the differences between DEM that generated by the calibrated airborne In SAR system and the reference DEM with high accuracy, drops from 14.98 m to 6.51 m. The interferometric calibration accuracy is improved significantly. Furthermore, the result of simulation analysis demonstrates that the locating height of corner reflectors has no distinctive impact on interferometric calibration accuracy when using the parameters-separated solving method. Therefore, the parameters-separated solving method has a higher adaptability regarding to different locating heights of corner reflectors, which can effectively reduce the intensity of field works for airborne SAR interferometric calibration.
Historic period rural settlement in the Scottish Highlands has, over the past few decades, become an increasing focus of archaeological concern in academic, governmental, developer-funded-archaeological, and amateur contexts alike. Despite this, there have been no reviews of the theoretical underpinnings of the subject. Below, I discuss changing theoretical concerns within rural settlement studies from about 1850 to the present and end with a discussion of the active role archaeologists of rural settlement and landscape can take in writing the social history of the Highlands in the recent past.
This is a report on the contributions of the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis (and Onchocerciasis) Research (NITR) towards the elimination of the two Neglected Tropical Diseases. The socio-economic importance of African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness in man, SammorA in domestic animals) and onchocerciasis (River blindness) cannot be overemphasized. The sleeping sickness epidemics in the twentieth century resulted in loss of huge numbers of human lives and desertion of the affected localities and farm lands by survivors. To provide short and long term strategies towards the elimination of the burden of African Trypanosomiasis, the then British Colonial Government established the West African Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research (WAITR) in 1951 to serve the needs of Nigeria, Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone and The Gambia. WAITR metamorphosed to NITR in 1964 following the nation’s independence in 1960. And in 1975, mandate for onchocerciasis research was given to NITR. From its inception to date, NITR had pioneered research works that curbed the outbreaks of Sleeping Sickness, enhanced recognition of the public health importance of onchocerciasis and emphasizing poor funding of research as a great challenge militating against the elimination of endemic parasitic diseases such as trypanosomiasis and onchocerciasis. This paper presents most of the directions and contents of research (diagnostics, therapeutic approaches, etc.) including collaborations NITR had to forge in its efforts to drive the elimination of the two diseases from Nigeria. Future research works are indicated. Keywords: Trypanosomiasis; onchocerciasis; elimination; Nigeria.
This manuscript investigates the community-level and phylogenetic distribution of iridescent colors in hummingbird communities in Ecuador. The authors use spectrometry data and a set of field observations to examine the distribution of different color variables within and between communities and to elucidate which variables of color change at variable phylogenetic and community scales. The topic is fairly original in that it attempts to examine color macroevolution in an ecological framework, aided by the fact that the study system contains many co-occurring taxa with varying degrees of relatedness which have diversified using an understudied and complex plumage coloration mechanism. This is an informative and novel study and the reviewer therefore recommends that the authors revise the manuscript to reflect the enclosed suggestions. The conclusion that character displacement acts on certain patches and certain plumage color axes makes intuitive sense and is supported by the evidence presented. However, the conclusion which assumes that co-occurrence of similar phenotypes represents convergence or environmental filtering due to camouflage may be aided by some description or quantification of the colors which are exhibited in the differing light environments of the canopy and understory. For the most part this paper is clear and readable. The most confusing aspects of the paper involve the use of jargon specific to methodology. There is a clear distinction made between phenotypic and phylogenetic dispersion, but when these terms are used in close proximity it is sometimes hard to mentally track these terms and the matrix of hypotheses. It potentially might be clearer to refer to biological hypotheses in plain text as opposed to numerically or to include table S2 as a main-body table. Additionally, it would be nice to have some description of the actual colors which are on these
In this paper, the NCEP reanalysis data and the sea surface temperature data are used to diagnose the development process of the intense tropical cyclone “IDAI” generated in the SouthWest Indian Ocean. The results show that the presence of the high pressure ridge in the northeast and the weak high pressure in the south makes “IDAI” moving slowly or even stagnantly. According to the intensity, the development of “IDAI” can be divided into three processes: the rapid strengthening process, the weakening maintenance process and the secondary strengthening process. Then it eventually developed into an intense tropical cyclone. The high sea temperature, the relatively small vertical wind shear and the favorable high-level divergence conditions are benifit environmental conditions for its rapid strengthening; during its development process, the external water vapor transport is weak, the water vapor and heat mainly come from the ocean; the eye wall replacement process causes the second strengthening of its intensity. Finally it landed in Mozambique with an intensity of intense tropical cyclone. Keyword—South-West Indian Ocean, Tropical cyclone, Genesis analysis 摘要—本文利用 NCEP 再分析资料、海温资料等对西南印度洋 生成的强热带气旋 “伊代”(Idai)的发展过程进行了诊断 分析,结果表明:其东北侧的高压脊及西南侧弱高压的存在 使得“伊代”移动缓慢甚至停滞不前;“伊代”经历了快速 加强阶段、减弱维持阶段以及二次加强阶段,最终发展成为 强热带气旋,较高的海温、相对较小的垂直风切变以及良好 的高层辐散条件是其发展加强的有利环境条件,使其强度能 够迅速发展;其发展过程中外部水汽输送较弱,水汽和热量 主要来自海洋;眼墙置换过程促使其强度二次爆发,最终以 强热带气旋级登陆莫桑比克。
The Institute of Marine Research collects data from different sources for the estimation of fish abundance. These data can be divided into two groups: 1. Data from research surveys. 2. Fishery based data. In this thesis, we aim to utilize both data sets to estimate the abundance of fish, along with the catch. In addition to a point estimate, we wish to assess the uncertainty in these estimates. More formally, we hope to find quantiles of the simultaneous distribution π(N,C|D ,D , parameters), that is, the distribution of the abundances and catches, given both data sources. On the way towards this goal, we need to specify a model for the abundance, the catch, and the data. The model for the abundance and catch is what we call the Poisson-binomial model. This model is the central theme of the thesis. We explore the properties of the model, and derive conditions for when it is identifiable. Furthermore, we investigate both a frequentistic and a Bayesian method to estimate the model parameters. It turns out that we are not able to describe the simultaneous distribution π(N,C|D ,D , parameters) analytically, and we can neither sample directly from it. However, we can obtain Monte Carlo samples of this distribution through importance sampling techniques, and thereby calculate approximate quantiles. The methods we develop are applied to data on Northeast Arctic cod (Skrei in Norwegian), from the years 1985-2003.
The paper is about managerial decision-making style and how the process is influenced by culture. Subordinate participation in decision-making processes has been analyzed with a view to exposing decision-making style in India, Bangladesh, and Finland. The participation issue has been analyzed from the managerial point of view; it examines how managers ensure subordinate participation in the decision-making process. The paper is based on the PhD dissertation of the author entitled “Managerial Decision-Making Behavior and Impact of Culture” which was defended on 18.12.2009, at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. The study finds that managerial decision-making style varies in the case countries and the root factor of these variations is culture; organizationalnationaland family culture.
This paper investigates fuel consumption responses to different urban land use and transport patterns. It was observed that land use patterns and public transport performance influence fuel consumption. Road pricing in the central city shows reduction in urban congestion but no improvement to fuel consumption. Growth corridor response was different to the city norm due to the particular characteristics of the region.
The research of modern and fossil soils was conducted at three archaeological sites: Nizhniy Kayancha, Novoilinka-3, and Tytkesken-2. Nizhniy Kayancha is a burial ground (dated 5th century BC) situated on the left bank of the Katun River (400-700 m above sea level). An archaeological site is a burial mound with seven mounds which can be visually separated within the site, and which are placed by small chains with 2–3 objects. The south mound of the first group was examined for a phytolith analysis. Еhe Novoilinka-3 settlement (dated 3rd millennium BC) is situated in the north of Kulunda, in the southern part of a hill formed by the false River Burla. The Tytkesken-2 settlement is situated on the verge of the stream Tytkesken, the left tributary of the Katun River, on its second terrace above the flood plain. Geobotanical research was conducted in the territory of the archaeological sites under study. Grass phytoliths of modern flora were examined. Soil samples from different layers of the walls of excavation sites were collected. Phytolith extraction was based on the methods described by A.A. Golyeva. 20 g of soil, and 100 g of plant material of each species were processed during the initial period. The examination of the phytoliths of leaves, stalks and flower heads from the samples obtained from the plant material was carried out with the help of an optical microscope (Olympus BX-51). The phytoliths were counted to 250 (in ashed plants) and to 300 (in soils) particles. More mesophytic plant communities of the ancient epochs have been reconstructed for all three examined archaeological sites. The territory of the Nizhniy Kayancha burial ground was covered by birch forest at the time prior to formation of the archaeological site. The territory of Novoilinka-3 settlement was covered by pine and birch steppificated forest in the Eneolithic period, but the territory was deforested as the settlement developed. Several stages of vegetation change have been reconstructed for the Tytkesken-2 archaeological site. This includes deforestation of pine forest and further steppe formation in the late Neolithic Age, prairiefication in the Eneolithic Age and new steppe formation in the Bronze Age up to the present time.
In this paper we analyze the determinants of births in Russia in the 1990s and the changes in their effects since the 1980s and factors influencing fertility intentions in the 1990s. In the first part, based on the current social and economic situation in Russia, specific hypotheses for different parities (realized and intended fertility) are developed and subsequently tested by using logistic regression methods. On the basis of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) we find that the social differentiation that took place in Russia in the 1990s resulted in an increasing importance of economic conditions for a first, second or third birth. The same applies to parity-specific intentions.
This chapter outlines Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR's) experiences in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing over the past decade and a half. The analysis provides a brief history of IUU fishing in the CAMLR Convention area, and discusses the jurisdictional challenges faced in its regulation. CCAMLR's efforts to combat IUU fishing are documented, including some pioneering actions, diverse regulations and related compliance-enforcement activities. An attendant issue is the extent to which CCAMLR conservation measures can be effectively applied on the high seas within the Convention area. CCAMLR has long held that IUU fishing compromises the sustainability of Toothfish stocks in the Convention area. IUU catches of Toothfish in the Convention area exhibited a progressive and marked decline between the 1996/97 and 2007/08 fishing seasons. The chapter concludes by commenting on CCAMLR's effectiveness in combating the IUU problem. Keywords: CCAMLR; convention area; illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; jurisdictional issues; toothfish
Capsule The provision of meat for garden birds is unusual in the UK but a reintroduced raptor, the Red Kite Milvus milvus, is now regularly fed in some areas. A questionnaire of garden kite feeders revealed that people were most often motivated to feed by a desire to see kites close up and that most provisioning falls within available guidelines. We estimated the median amount of food thought to be taken by kites per kite-feeding garden per day as 21 g, sufficient to support 0.12–0.26 individuals.
It is accepted that accurate estimation of risk of population extinction, or persistence time, requires prediction of the effect of fluctuations in the environment on population dynamics. Generally, the greater the magnitude, or variance, of environmental stochasticity, the greater the risk of population extinction. Another characteristic of environmental stochasticity, its colour, has been found to affect population persistence. This is important because real environmental variables, such as temperature, are reddened or positively temporally autocorrelated. However, recent work has disagreed about the effect of reddening environmental stochasticity. Ripa and Lundberg (1996) found increasing temporal autocorrelation (reddening) decreased the risk of extinction, whereas a simple and powerful intuitive argument (Lawton 1988) predicts increased risk of extinction with reddening. This study resolves the apparent contradiction, in two ways, first, by altering the dynamic behaviour of the population models. Overcompensatory dynamics result in persistence times increasing with increased temporal autocorrelation; undercompensatory dynamics result in persistence times decreasing with increased temporal autocorrelation. Secondly, in a spatially subdivided population, with a reasonable degree of spatial heterogeneity in patch quality, increasing temporal autocorrelation in the environment results in decreasing persistence time for both types of competition. Thus, the inclusion of coloured noise into ecological models can have subtle interactions with population dynamics.
As time passes, places used by people as shelter or housing become diverse, modern and more complex. In many ways, housing joints architecture with life and the life necessitates mental organization and physical arrangement of the world as places. Housing of vernacular Turkmen tribes is one of the well-known examples in Gomishan city. Early shelters have good adaptation with climate and are mainly composed of tent and tent with certain types of wooden structures. The role of culture in forming vernacular housing of Turkmen people and application of vernacular house in definition of social structure are some of the goals of research. Since cultural characteristics, climate and tribes' lifestyle play vital role in socioeconomic structure and vernacular housing forming, theoretical framework of the research is based on culture and tradition. The method of research is descriptive-analytical and historical-interpretative and data are collected using documentary-library study and field studies. According to results, fixed and variable basics of design which are proportional to utilities and certain situations were recognized.
Sustainability is the long-term goal of achieving a method of living on Earth that can be extended into perpetuity. The method of reaching sustainability is called sustainable development. Sustainable development can be defined as meeting this generation’s, and future generations’, social, environmental, and economic needs. Many forces oppose sustainable development, but one of the most powerful is sprawl. Sprawl is development that consumes land as if it was considerably abundant and as if there was little economic or societal cost in discarding or under-utilizing old land in search of new. One way to control sprawl is through sustainable infrastructure planning. This thesis develops a GIS planning tool to assist decision-makers account for sustainable development in their decisions. The tool asks planners to rank nineteen environmental data layers based on their individual priorities. It then multiplies each data layer by a weight corresponding to this ranking and adds the layers together. The result is a composite map that shows the planners the most ideal places to target infrastructure development, based on their ranking. The strength of the tool is its ability to quickly perform iterations of this process to allow planners to compare the results of different environmental priorities.
The objective of this research is to determine the effect of new technology for road winter maintenance in Lithuania. Data comparing two methods used for ice are presented: the traditional method (spreading dry salt and sand), and the new method (spreading salt in a solution). Comparison was done in accordance with the following criteria: traffic safety, environmental effects, economy of materials, costs of winter maintenance machinery, economy of expenditure. The data show the positive effect of the new technology.
This study was undertaken to assess the portability of ground water with the reference to heavy metals in Angul-Talcher region of Orissa, India. The groundwater samples from 19 different locations from industrial as well as domestic areas were collected in pre and post monsoon season. The Standard methods (APHA, 1998) were adopted for heavy metal analysis of these samples and the results were compared with the Indian Standards (IS: 10500) for potable water. The study reflects the presence of some heavy metals in few groundwater samples but all were within the limits except cadmium. Mercury (Hg) could not be detected in any of the samples in the study area. (Nature and Science. 2009;7(6):52-56). (ISSN: 1545-0740).
Hurricane Hugo caused unprecedented damage and extensive beach erosion in South Carolina on 22 September 1989. One week after Hugo, a plan was prepared to push up an emergency dune along 65 miles (105 km) of developed beaches between Folly Beach and North Myrtle Beach. This was the first part of a three-phase project to restore South Carolina beaches. Dune restoration by scraping was successful along shorelines having healthy beaches and dunes before Hugo. However, 20 miles (32 km) of developed coast in the impacted area had a sand deficit and lacked a dry-sand beach prior to the storm. A second phase of the project was therefore implemented to nourish these areas from external sources. Five beach-fill projects were constructed at North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, Garden City, and Pawleys Island. Total nourishment volume was 1.25 million cubic yards (950,000 cubic meters). Criteria for these projects included prestorm condition surveys and poststorm profiles indicating volumetric losses. Construction was complete by April 1990. The final phase of the project involved dune revegetation and sand fencing. Total cost of the project was $9.8 million with 60 percent state funding and 40 percent federal funding. Preliminary results indicate the combination of emergency nourishment and natural recovery of the beach profile restored Myrtle Beach to near prestorm conditions by October 1990. North Myrtle Beach had recovered 85 percent of its Hugo losses within one year after the storm. Sand budget data were not available for the other projects at the time of this writing. A network of beach profiles, preexisting volumetric analyses, and data on potential borrow sources was critical to developing emergency dune/beach renourishment plans in a timely manner. Implementation was facilitated by close coordination among federal, state, and local officials.
Considering two global observations in Central Europe of, firstly, the need for, and development of, sustainable and biological conservation practices for forest and/or woodland areas and, secondly, the lack of long-term fire history, an attempt has been made to reconstruct the fire and the forest history at several investigation sites in Germany. The overall data set gathered and analyzed has been used for on-site naturalness assessment. This latter notion is crucial for forest system conservation/restoration planning, considering the past human impact on forest dynamics. Also, in view of this past human impact on forest systems, which is well documented for Central Europe, as occurring on a multi-millennium scale, an historical perspective perceptive that combined a long and short temporal scale of investigation was used.  Nine investigation sites were selected, in order to include various and representative types of Central European forest. Therefore, the investigation sites were located in two main investigation areas. One is in Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) and includes four investigation sites. The other is in Central Germany (Harz Mountains) and includes five investigation sites. Four main approaches were used. To assess the current state of the investigated site, forest stand characterization was undertaken (i.e. based on various forest attributes that concern stand structure and composition). Tree ring series were analyzed to provide insights about short-term forest tree population dynamics. Then, charcoal records from soil (combined with soil analysis) and peat sequences were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. These last two approaches also provide information about the past fire history.  Forest current and short-term dynamics illustrated various levels of stand complexity, often corresponding to various levels of human impact that had been postulated. Eight mean site tree-ring chronologies, standardized in high and mid-frequency signal, spanning at a maximum of up to AD 1744 and at a minimum of up to AD 1923, were obtained. The insight, about the identification of events of growing changes and the correlated temporal and, if possible, spatial patterns, was discussed. Charcoal analysis provided a long term insight about fire history. Based on 71 charcoal radiocarbon dates, it was shown on a macro-scale that there were two phases that had a greater frequency of fire - one during the transition from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene, and one during the mid- and late Holocene. A strong human control during the most recent fire phase has been postulated. This is supported by on-site soil and peat charcoal record analysis, allowing one to point out the event of environmental changes (disturbances), at local scales. In the end, the on-site data from the various indicators were combined to assess the fire and forest history and the naturalness level of the investigated sites, based on past insights, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the present and helping to anticipate the future.
Literature on African kinship political economies suggest that under matriliny wealth flow would be biased towards a matrilineal line in that children would engage in transfers with their maternal more than their paternal relatives. Under patriliny the reverse would be the case. We explore these propositions using data from a sample survey of 1257 respondents in rural Malawi 29 percent of whom were from a predominantly matrilineal ethnic group 36 percent were from an ethnic group that is transforming from matrilineal to patrilineal practices and 35 percent were from a patrilineal ethnic group. These data were complemented by qualitative interviews of 18 respondents from the matrilineal ethnic group 20 from the transforming group and 18 from the patrilineal group. Results reveal little evidence to support the propositions. We think that the increasing privatisation of production and consumption that has over the years penetrated rural Malawi has led to some individualistic tendencies among rural Malawians and weakened both matrilineal and patrilineal influence on peoples wealth transfer behaviours. (authors)
An RSC covering all of East Asia is a recurrent pattern. Before and during the Second World War, Japanese power and imperial ambition linked Northeast and Southeast Asia together into a single security region. Earlier still, periodic waxings of Chinese power also brought these two regions into the same security sphere. But before the rise of imperial Japan in the late nineteenth century, and during waning periods of Chinese power, Northeast and Southeast Asia sometimes had largely separate regional security dynamics. During the Cold War, the patterns of regional security in East Asia were heavily penetrated by, but not completely subordinate to, the two superpowers. Although somewhat masked by Cold War patterns, this chapter will tell their story as separate Northeast and Southeast Asian RSCs, albeit with some interregional crossover by China (Buzan 1988a, 1988b, 1994). After the Cold War, penetration from the global level diminished substantially and altered in form, and the regional level story is best told on an East Asian scale. That will be the approach of chapter 6. In Southeast Asia, decolonisation produced a fairly typical postcolonial conflict formation. It was almost entirely composed of weak states, but since most of these had solid historical roots, a set of relatively durable modern states eventually emerged. Like that in the Middle East, this RSC quickly became heavily penetrated by outside powers. In Northeast Asia, only the secondary states (Korea and Taiwan) were postcolonial.
Erosion-hazard assessment is an important aspect in the management of a river basin such as Siak River Basin, Riau Province, Indonesia. This study presents an application of fuzzy logic approach to develop erosion risk map based on geographic information system. Fuzzy logic is a computing approach based on “degrees of truth” rather than the usual “true or false” (1 or 0) Boolean logic on which the modern computer is based. The results of the erosion risk map were verified by using field measurements. The verification result shows that the parameter of soil-erodibility (K) indicates a good agreement with field measurement data. The classification of soil-erodibility (K) as the result of validation were: very low (0.0–0.1), medium (0.21-0.32), high (0.44-0.55) and very high (0.56-0.64). The results obtained from this study show that the erosion risk map of Siak River Basin were dominantly classified as medium level which cover about 68.54%. The other classifications were high and very low erosion level which cover about 28.84% and 2.61% respectively.
Abstract : This thesis studies the physical mechanisms which ventilate the subtropical thermocline of the eastern North Atlantic. The coupled transient tracers tritium and 3He define a tracer age diagnostic which estimates the elapsed time since a water parcel was resident at the ocean surface. Analysis of the historical database of 3He and tritium measurements reveals large, systematic changes in the observed tracer age. The first hypothesis examined is that the observed shift in tracer age results from a weakening of the physical ventilation. Examination of a time-series of the meridional geostrophic velocity and the large-scale oxygen distribution, both based on historical hydrography, reveal no evidence for such a change. Therefore, the temporal trend in observed tritium-3He age cannot be explained by an alteration of the physical ventilation of the thermocline. A second hypothesis is that the temporal change in the tritium-3He age field reflects a signal of the tritium invasion itself. Numerical simulations of the thermocline ventilation of 3H and 3He are performed to examine the steadiness of the tracer age field under different advective-diffusive regimes. The temporal behavior of the tracer age field is dependent on the relative importance of the advection and diffusion of the flow field. The observed temporal behavior of the tracer age field is evidence of a significant role for lateral mixing in the ventilation of the thermocline.
Johnson and Krohn (2001; hereafter,J&K) reported on a series of aerial photographic surveys of breeding colonies of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), Great Black-backed Gulls (L. marinus) and Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) in Maine. Although their paper was primarily addressed to the timing of surveys, they concluded that "... aerial photos taken during the first few weeks of June can be used to reliably detect population trends in all three species" (p. 31). I believe that this claim was not adequately supported by the information presented either in the paper byJ&K (2001) or in the Ph.D. thesis by Johnson (1998) on which it was based. This information did not
The results of seasonality studies undertaken with prehistoric faunal materials from the Greenwich Cove site in coastal Rhode Island are presented. Growth patterns in shells of the hard clam or quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria) are used to reconstruct the time(s) of year this species was collected. A controlled study of seasonal growth provides a comparative baseline for this analysis. Seasonality of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) hunting is interpreted through the examination of growth structures in preserved teeth. The seasonal availability of migratory species is also considered. Relatively year-round coastal settlement is proposed for the final centuries of the prehistoric period.
The tourism in Beijing is the core and representative of the tourism development in China. But now the imbalance in the spacial and temporal distribution of the visitor flow in Beijing is getting worse. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the spacial and temporal distribution of the visitor flow in Beijing quantitatively, and take some action to alleviate this complexion. An on-site survey of Beijing's 12 typical scenic spots of different types, including Badaling Great Wall and the Imperial Palace etc, was carried out from May 2001 to May 2002. The real visitor flow condition was ascertained on the basis of the statistics of the on-site survey of these scenic spots to investigate the distribution of visitor flow in these scenic spots. Then an overall investigation of 183 important scenic spots was made, including monthly vistor reception, annual vistor reception and other static space configuration data. This paper analyzes the overall trend as well as the distributing character of visitor flow in scenic spots of city centre, suburbs and outskirts. We concluded that the spacial and temporal distribution of the visitor flow in Beijing is obviously imbalance; and to a certain extent, the supply of the tourism products can't meet the demand of the tourist market. Four maojor conclusions are: Firstly, the visitor flow mainly concentrates in the city proper and the mountainous area of northern Beijing, and the number of the visitors in the suburbs increases faster than that in the city proper. Secondely, the centralization of tourism time is intensified with the appearance of "the tourism golden week", which added the burthen to the senic spots during the midseason, especially caused the problem of the serious hotspot overcapacity. Thirdly, both amount of the senic spots and the competition are increasing, which is responsible for the decreasing of the vistor reception amount of some theme senic spots and traditional senic spots in the suburbs. At the same time, museums and a large amout of resembled new spots are facing a problem of the visitor shortage. Finally, the overall adjusting and controlling countermeasure for development direction, the spatial pattern of Beijing's tourist products, including improving the creativity of tourism product, attaching importance to the dragon-head effect and the centralization effect of the new product, leading the leisure tourism demand of the citizen to the suburbs, is presented. Besides, the adjusting and controlling countermeasures of visitor flow in scenic spots of the city proper, suburbs and outskirts is also proposed.
Regardless of size, Nepal is famous for floral and faunal diversity in the world. Out of 15,000 identified plant species in this country, more than 2000 plants have medicinal properties and more than 100 plant species are in commercial trade. There is growing concern in governmental and non-governmental organization to promote NTFP for improvements of rural livelihoods and forest conservation. However, field evidences do not demonstrate its meaningful contribution in forest conservation objective. This paper attempts to appraise the bottleneck issue in maintaining Maximum sustained yield (MSY) of viable NTFPs. The analysis is more focused on production characteristics rather than demand and institutional characteristics of NTFPs. Finally, the paper concludes by recommending few potential options for improvement. The suggested intervention includes preparation of new inventory guideline; improve forestry governance, training and extension for collectors, capacity building for forestry professional, and support for strengthening market infrastructure.
Background: Prior studies identified a seasonal pattern in symptoms of depression in clinical and population-based samples. The aims of our study were to estimate the prevalence rates of routine seasonal variations in mood and behavior and of current depressive symptoms in the Finnish general population over 30 years, and to find differences, if any, between the northern and southern regions of residence. Methods: 5749 participants aged 30–97 (3156 women and 2593 men) were interviewed face to face and attended a health status examination. We included the modified Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire and the modified Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for the analysis. Results: 85% of the sample, representative of a general population, had seasonal variations in mood and behavior; 9% of the sample scored high on both scales, thus having the routine seasonal variations together with a current self-report of winter depression. Scoring high on the former scale yielded the odds ratio of 3.12 for scoring high on the BDI. Neither the global seasonality score nor the BDI sum score was associated with latitude. No significant differences in affective symptoms were found by the latitude. The seasonal variation in sleep duration (P<0.001) was more prevalent in the northern regions. Limitations: The seasonal variations were assessed with a self-report only. Conclusions: A seasonal pattern in mood and behaviors was detected in a general population. Implications of our findings include the assessment of the seasonal variations as a risk factor of depressive illness.
Archaeological investigations have treated agriculture as a nominal variable. Mass spectrometric analysis allows a more detailed characterization of a prehistoric sub sistence system. Bone from four Late Prehistoric Monongahela sites in the West Virginia panhandle was analyzed mass spectrometrically. The I3C values ob tained indicate that 1) the Monongahela subsistence system was a specialized sys tem based on maize agriculture; 2) ecological differences across sites are associated with variation in the levels of maize consumption; and 3) maize as a food source comprised at least 70% of the diet at all four sites. These suggest that the Mononga hela subsistence base was nutritionally inadequate and highly specialized, and hence susceptible to both famine and subsistence collapse.
Observations of S waves from small earthquakes recorded at near distances indicate that the relative S wave generation extends over a wide range. Similar measurements from underground nuclear explosions indicate a ratio of S to P wave generation to be below the observed values for 70 % of the earthquakes studied. The observation of S waves from small events at teleseismic distances is made difficult by interference of microseisms in the period range where S waves may be expected. The observation is also made difficult by the physical requirement that two horizontal component seismographs are required to obtain good resolution of S wave motion. Some measurements have been made at the University of Michigan by means of three-component seismometers in arrays to obtain better resolution of S wave motion. The results of these measurements suggest that improvements in S wave signal/noise ratios similar to those obtained for P waves are possible. The use of S waves from small events at teleseismic distances should not be considered of value as a method of detection. It does, however, offer promise as an added method of identification for small seismic events.
Recieved: March 8, 2021 Final Revision: April 15, 2021 Available Online: April 25, 2021 This study aims to describe the lingual form, which is a manifestation of the understanding of the speech community of the environment towards its environmental dimension. The theory used in this research is ecolinguistic. Data in the form of basic lexicons and affixed lexicons related to the marine environment were collected through interviews with informants. Furthermore, the data were analyzed by grouping them based on the word class, environmental category, and the affixation process contained in the affixed words. The results of the study show that many marine environmental lexicons which are divided into noun lexicon and verb lexicon. The noun lexicon is divided into four lexicon categories, namely: (1) Marine Environmental Fauna Lexicon (88 lexicons); (2) Flora of the Marine Environment Flora (9 lexicons); (3) Lexicon of Facilities / Infrastructure for Marine Environmental Activities (16 lexicons); and (4) Nominal Environmental Lexicon (7 lexicons). The number of vocabulary that is still recorded in the cognition of the Barus coastal Malay language community indicates that the community is very familiar with its environment and therefore the vocabularies are preserved. keyword Coast community, ecolinguistics, linguistic form, marine ecolexicon,
A robust algorithm for estimating the parameters in a simple model of ionospheric electron density in the presence of model uncertainties and malicious noise is presented. Noisy sounding data is asynchronously recorded by a geographically distributed array of identical ionospheric sounders. The ionospheric dynamics are modelled as a state space system, with a robust H/spl infin/ type filter developed to track the evolving ionospheric state as new measurements become available.
December 26th, 2004 tsunami killed thousands of people and caused a massive damage to properties. It was recorded as the worst tragedy of the century. It devastated 65 public libraries in coastal areas and out of these 65 public libraries 28 Libraries were completely destroyed. Though several reconstruction projects were operated to facilitate the tsunami affected public libraries in south coastal areas, there are no adequate internet facilities provided for them. The present research attempts to address this problem.
A study is made on the short period fluctuations in the equatorial electrojet parameters at the magnetic equatorial location of Trivandrum (8.5 °N, 77 °E; dip 0.5 °N), during daytime for a number of magnetically quiet days, using coherent VHF backscatter radar observations in the altitude region of 90-115 km. For this study ΔH values at and off equatorial latitudes have also been used. The detailed analysis of radar and magnetometer data show the following: (a) Significant fluctuation amplitudes in the period range of 25-35 min are present in the radar observations at different range bins over and above the dominant diurnal pattern of the height invariant large scale E-W electric field (Ey). The same periods do manifest when the radar data products are divided into sub-intervals of 1-1.5 h. (b) Values of H also indicate the same periods as that of radar observations. (c) A decrease in the amplitudes of the fluctuating components in H is seen from equator to low latitudes. The implications of the observations in terms of the possible origin of the fluctuations are discussed.
The influence of artificial light on the orientation and behaviour in hatchling Chelonia mydas was studied at two locations on Peninsular Malaysia’s east coast during the nesting season (June-August 2005). Study sites were a hatchery and an in situ beach. The impacts of other environmental factors that might affect hatchling orientation, such as weather and moon phases were also considered and analysed. The swimming behaviour and speed of hatchlings in natural conditions (in situ site) to reach an 80m open water marker was identified by swimmers following 3m behind hatchlings that were equipped with chemical light sticks. An observer on the beach recorded the journey of the hatchlings with way points being recorded on a map. There were significant differences (P=0.004) between the orientation of hatchlings tested at the hatchery site and those at the in situ site. Weather conditions, moon phases, artificial lights (from boats and offshore) and the position on the beach in which hatchlings were released demonstrated that all factors have a significant impact (P < 0.001) on hatchling seafinding behaviour. The “powerstroke” style was the main form of swimming behaviour in hatchlings. Moreover, hatchlings exhibited a prolonged dive (3-5secs) once they entered the ocean, and wave height (P=0.01) influenced the direction in which hatchlings swam. The findings of this study are important because they can be used by the Department of Fisheries in Malaysia to establish and/or refine new hatchery management practices for sustainable sea turtle population conservation in this region. Malaysia is considered to be at the forefront of sea turtle conservation in the south-east Asian region and thus the information garnered from this research will contribute to long-term survival of this endangered species for the benefit of future generations.
82% of adult Europeans are «somehow» interested in football, and 25% show «greater interest» in it. As a result, in contemporaiy Europe football fans represent a numerous enough company and an active social group which needs a detailed analysis. Most football fans are identified and identify themselves with a football club which has gained their confidence. In England a certain football tradition was formed «to support your local team». However, the intensity of social mobility diluted the uncertainty of fans’ identification with the teams which were within their area of residence. However, constant social mobility growth (including territory mobility) made football fans identification with the local teams less possible. For example, during World War II many Londoners were evacuated outside of the capital but they continued to support their local teams. Later fans passed their love and support for the team to their children. As a result, there were fans supporting the team from the region they did not live in; they supported the team from the location their parents and grandparents had lived in. Besides, some football fans (especially those from the regions without football teams or teams with low rating) identify themselves with the leading football clubs. This can also be explained by the spread of television that allowed fans to watch the game being far from the team location. Therefore, football fans from European countries now represent a numerous social group consisting of diverse subgroups with their own member criteria, identity markers and social practice. Support for the football team as a contemporary European society phenomenon crossed the national borders and functions as a phenomenon of the at least the whole of Europe. The market of trade articles and services concerning football forms a considerable economic segment making football clubs think of football fans as of a significant money enrolling resource. Violation level decrease allows people of different income to find target goods and service. Football fans have a certain political power which is used by certain political party leaders. Nowadays it has not yet been widely spread because of low control over the fans on the part of the officials. Social connections within the given group are thought of as stable enough and they largely define the status of a person in the society structure. One can speak of this as a very important element for social status identification and social mobility perspectives. Besides, football fans are characterized by a specific world view making them different from other modern European population categories. Football fans behavior stereotypes largely define their activity during matches and in the intervals between the matches.
Eleven new species of Anthurium are described and illustrated: Anthurium aromoense Croat (sect. Digitinervium), A. banderasense Croat (sect. Pachyneurium), A. becerrae Croat (sect. Pachyneurium), A. betsyae Croat (sect. Porphyrochitonium), A. donovaniae Croat (sect. Digitinervium), A. imazaense Croat (sect. Pachyneurium), A. magrewii Croat (sect. Pachyneurium), A. paloraense Croat (sect. Pachyneurium), A. quinonesiae Croat (sect. Porphyrochitonium), A. riocojimiesense Croat (sect. Tetraspermium), and A. trujilloi Croat (sect. Pachyneurium). The species are from a broad area of the Andean South America from Colombia to Peru but six of the species: Anthurium aromoense, A. banderasense, A. donovaniae, A. magrewii, A. paloraense and A. riocojimiesense are from Ecuador, while A. becerrae, A. betsyae and A. imazaense are from Peru and A. quinonesiae, and A. trujilloi are from Colombia.
In aerial and remote sensing archaeology the determination of the best period for the image acquisition in each study area is of major importance. This allows for a large number of marks to be indentied in the selected studied area. The first step before the collection of images (archival and/or new image acquisitions) for the studied area is the identification of the Theoretically Best Period for Marks Detection (TBPMD) of the buried archaeological structures. The second step (before the supply of new image acquisitions) is to check the reliability of TBPMD. This study proposes a documentation methodology of TBPMD that is based on the results of a systematic observation (change of intensity) of marks of known archaeological structures. An image acquisitions system (remote control balloon) was used for the pilot study. Images were acquired every month for the period of one year in archaeological positions with known buried structures (Via Egnatia in the plain of Philippi, Eastern Macedonia, Greece). Analytical meteorological-climatic data of the area was collected and studied at the same time. The results of the study are encouraging, as they allow for further reduction of TBPMD in half days.
Introduction: This project is a paleoethnobotanical exploration of human-environmental interaction during the Late Classic period (600-900 CE) in the Maya Lowlands. Paleoethnobotany, the study of ancient people’s plant use, offers an opportunity to document diverse ways people exploited the plant world. This study presents the analysis of archaeobotanical remains from Baking Pot, an ancient kingdom in the upper Belize valley of western Belize. Plant data provide information on the types of resources ancient inhabitants used for food, construction materials, and ritual. This project offers a description of dynamic economic, ecological, and cultural aspects of past plant use.
A total of 192 outbreaks of waterborne disease affecting 36,757 persons were reported in the United States during the period 1971-1977. More outbreaks occurred in nonmunicipal-water systems (70%) than municipal-water systems; however, more illness (67%) resulted from outbreaks in municipal systems. Almost half of the outbreaks (49%) and illness (42%) were caused by either the use of untreated or inadequately treated ground water. An unusually large number of waterborne outbreaks affected travelers, campers, visitors to recreational areas, and restaurant patrons during the months of May-August and involved nonmunicipal-water systems which primarily depend on ground-water sources. The major causes of outbreaks in municipal systems were contamination of the distribution system and treatment deficiencies which accounted for 68% of the outbreaks and 75% of the illness that occurred in municipal systems. Use of untreated ground water was responsible for only 10% of the municipal system outbreaks and 1% of the illness. The major cause of outbreaks in nonmunicipal systems was use of untreated ground water which accounted for 44% of the outbreaks and 44% of the illness in these systems. Treatment deficiencies, primarily inadequate and interrupted chlorination of ground-water sources, were responsible for 34% of the outbreaks and 50% of the illness in nonmunicipal-water systems.
Highlands are important and taken seriously considered in development planning to avoid slope failure happened. Thus, GIS technique has ability to identify sensitive slopes using specific analyzes such as the analysis of space duplicity and slope analysis. This research study conducted to determined possible land used land cover in according to slope failure by using GIS approach. GIS techniques required several data for analysis, namely elevation data and contour maps, land used map data, original map data, and vegetation map data; which can be received from government department or agencies, height and topographic data maps, data from internet sources, and data from documentation includes publications. The selected area for this research study is Selangor State, which highlighted rapid development of land used for human activities. Accordingly, the first step will be entering all data into database, which involve with the physical and environment components; while the second step will be identification and preparation based on the data layers that required in the research study; and the third step are storing data into database for designed. The storage is referring to non-spatial data elements and geographical data. Results indicate the steepness parameter in determining the slope failure are 0 % to 15 % is no risk area, 15 % to 25 % are less risk area, 25 % to 40 % are moderate risk area, and more that 40 % are high risk area. GIS technique expressed three areas to have significantly high percentage to cause slope failure, namely Ulu Selangor, Gombak and Hulu Langat. As conclusion, the government and private sector should take note for not continues to suggest any development within the area for the sake of people quality life and properties.
This study assesses thermal environment of detached housing area by classifying buildings types with codes based on spatial characteristics and forms of the detached housing area and applying heat island alleviation measures, especially focused on FBCs (Form-Based Codes). We analyzed shapes and materials of outdoor space with 3D-CAD, which can affect the surface temperature of the case studies, focusing on heat island alleviation measures, and performed space design by applying relevant climate factors to a simulation. As to the 3D surface temperature and HIP distribution, low-temperature distribution was shown in the case studies when we applied heat island alleviation measures. FBCs (Form- Based Codes) is being developed for the purpose of creating new urban environment. This study is significant because it pays attention to the effects of surface temperatures on accumulation of sensible heat and reviews heat island alleviation measures with outdoor space shapes/materials in order to lower surface temperatures, aiming at improved pleasantness of the detached housing area.
Although cultural tourism has generated extensive literature, it has often overlooked proximity tourism practices and the determinants of visits to near-home cultural amenities, often located in rural destinations with lower market appeal. This article investigates visiting behaviors and characteristics of intra-regional flows from urban settings toward museums and heritage sites located in surrounding areas. We use a unique transactional data set of about 76,000 subscribers to a regional museum card in Piedmont (Italy) to analyze visiting patterns in the 2011–2014 period from the city of Turin to out-of-town cultural institutions. Our empirical analysis shows that being male, having lower socioeconomic status, visiting home-based museums, and loyalty to the card program are the most relevant factors explaining propensity to out-of-town visits. At the same time, a clear polarization of visits between a limited number of cultural attractors and the tail of minor heritage sites suggests that differences in museum characteristics can generate distinct motivations for visits to the two types of cultural institutions. From a policy perspective, although a definitive evaluation of the effect of the museum card on proximity tourism cannot be undertaken, findings suggest that bundle of minor attractions and major urban museums can generate indirect network advantages, foster cultivation of taste, and eventually stimulate both the demand for regional destinations and the development of original cultural programs.
Global cultural tourism constitutes a particular aspect of intercultural contact. When examining tourism more closely, can it be viewed as an intercultural encounter for the purpose of a dialogue? Is understanding of and interaction with a foreign culture promoted merely by visiting a site enhanced and prepared for cultural tourism? How can cultural tourism contribute to the understanding and interaction between global guests and local hosts? In the following these questions will be discussed by the subject of world heritage tourism.
We investigated the accuracy in three dimensional geo-positioning derived by four high resolution satellite images acquired by two different sensors using the vendor-provided rational polynomial coefficients(RPC) based block adjustment in this research. We used two in-track stereo pairs of GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 satellite and DGPS surveying data. In this experiment, we analyzed accuracies of RPC block adjustment models of two kinds of homogeneous stereo pairs, four kinds of heterogeneous stereo pairs, three 3 triplet image pairs, and one quadruplet image pair separately. The result shows that the accuracies of the models are nearly same. The accuracy without any GCPs reaches about CEP(90) 2.3m and LEP(90) 2.5m and the accuracy with single GCP is about CEP(90) 0.3m and LEP(90) 0.5m.
Socio-economic and ecological challenges faced by the small-scale fishers dependent on the Old Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh are assessed using a combination of questionnaire survey, co-monitoring of fish catch, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Results reveal that the fishers are involved in professional, seasonal or subsistence fishing. Fish catches from the river have declined significantly because of overfishing, destructive use of fishing gear, water pollution, siltation, rapid urbanization and human encroachment, thereby threatening the health of the river ecosystem as well as the future of small-scale fishing. We evaluate various social, economic and ecological challenges faced by the fisher communities. We propose a conceptual framework that recognizes linkages among social, economic and ecological aspects in devising a sustainable river fisheries management system. We recommend effective legal enforcement of policies and regulations, strong institutional collaboration and active fisher community participation in management to ensure sustainable use of the resource base.
The paper presents a methodology to develop a three dimension model of any area using DTED data and mapping toolbox of MATLAB. This three dimension model is further use to calculate the volume from minimum bottom level using finite numerical methods and hence to classifying the area based on level and volume of water occupying upto particular level. This data is used to create the alarming system for shifting of wild animals from area based on volume and elevation data during flood. Further based on these results, areas are determined which are going to flood if water comes either through rain or through Tsunami.. Simulations are performed to compare the results between mathematical formulations and numerical methods.
Introduction by Jonathan Lemco The Impacts of Climate Change on Canada by Jurgen Schmandt and Lisa Chernin Acid Rain and Global Warming: The Impact of Environmental Protection on Canadian Arctic Gas Development by Gregory P. Marchildon Transboundary Acid Rain: A Canadian-U.S. Problem Requiring A Joint Solution by Fredric C. Menz Great Lakes: Great Rhetoric by Alan M. Schwartz Lessons From the Past: Energy Use, The Economy, and the Environment by Andrew W. Wyckoff The Greening of U.S. and Canadian Electricity Trade by Amy Abel and Larry B. Parker Water and Hydroelectric Exports from Canada to the U.S. by Kendall D. Moll Beyond the NIMBY Syndrome in Hazardous Waste Facility Siting: The Albertan Breakthrough and the Prospects for Cooperation in Canada and the United States by Barry G. Rabe Selected Bibliography Index
A rapid disappearance of forests, coastal mangrove forests and wetlands is increasingly lacking in natural purification of polluted waters. The present study of Water Quality Index (WQI) is based on the analysis of samples of water collected from Ganga River from various locations in and around Kolkata city, India. The water quality parameters are analysed using linear correlation coefficient statistical technique and artificial neural network is used to model Water Quality Index. The results show that Water Quality Index mainly changes depending on the location and seasonal variation and artificial neural network able to simulate the experimental Water Quality Index satisfactorily.
Elderly care has become a challenging issue in many European countries, due to the increasing number of aging population. In Finland the organizing responsibility of elderly care is mainly in the public sector, which is under heavy pressure to keep the costs in tight rein due to aging of the population. The present paper approaches the reorganization possibilities of welfare services for elderly through segmentation. Considering the services that elderly need, there are three possible instances that could fill the needs related to elderly welfare: the public sector, private service producers and non-profit organizations based on voluntary work. Segmentation is used as a method to discover the service need and to assess the opportunities for service delivering from each of the mentioned instances. Empirical evidence is provided with two different data sets. The selection of segmentation basis is discussed, i.e. the selection of the proper set of variables or characteristics used to assign potential customers to homogeneous groups. Due to the fact that we use two unrelated data sets, we are able to produce two different segmentation solutions that will give an extend view for planning the entirety of the elderly welfare services so that the private and non-profit services complement the legally guaranteed public services.
Resumen: La causal de disolucion por perdida del capital social –patrimonio neto negativo- y la convergencia de la legislacion societario y concursal, en una apreciacion comparatista entre las legislaciones colombiana, peruana, uruguaya, argentina y espanola. Palabras claves: Capital social – Patrimonio social – Patrimonio negativo – Disolucion y liquidacion – Responsabilidad administradores y socios. Abstract: Causes of dissolution due to loss of social capital -negative net assets- and the convergence of corporate and bankruptcy law from a comparative point of view between Colombian, Peruvian, Uruguayan, Argentinean and Spanish laws. Key words:  social capital, social equity, negative assets, dissolution and settlement, partners and associates responsibility
Old wheat varieties are regarded as useful genetic resources to transfer desirable genes in breeding programs especially in arid zones. On the other hand, modern cultivars have better responses to the inputs application increases, but there have been contradictory reports about the relative advantage of old varieties for cultivation on poor soils. The experiment was carried out in Agricultural Research Station of Islamic Azad University of Ardabil, Iran in 2008-09 to study the responses of old and modern bread wheat cultivars to different nitrogen (N) levels and seeding rate. A factorial split-plot experiment based on a Randomized Complete Blocks Design (RCBD) with three replications was used. The combinations of N levels (54 and 108 kg N.ha -1 ) with two seeding rates (250 and 400 seeds.m -2 ) were regarded as main plots and 44 cultivars (15 modern and 29 old bread wheat cultivars) as sub-plots. The results showed that new cultivars produced significantly (P<0.01) greater grain yield than old cultivars (527.18 and 449.41 g.m -2 , respectively). The increase was only observed in grain yield, and straw yield was not affected by cultivar. Consequently, Harvest Index (HI) of modern cultivars (0.35) was 13% greater than that of old cultivars (0.31). Modern cultivars had 12% less spikes.m -2 and 26% more grains.spike -1 than old cultivars, but the single grain weights of modern and old cultivars were not significantly different. The cultivars did not have significant differences regarding total tiller number while fertile tiller number was significantly lower in new cultivars (2.30) than in old cultivars (2.57). The decrease in plant height of modern cultivars compared to old ones (11.23 cm) was due to the decrease in internode length (by 2.8 cm.internode -1 ) and not the node number.
District residents know well about the problems faced by their own district. However, it is not easy to bring on a concrete discussion concerning space configuration. The space image drawn in each person's mind is different, and therefore, it is difficult to arrive at a consensus building. In this study, it was clarified by an experiment that one's memory can be incorrect, even for someplace quite familiar. Moreover, it was also clarified that the understanding of the space configuration could be deepened by presenting visual information.
The study area, between Borg El Arab and El Hammam, is recently subjected to intensive land reclamation projects aiming to cultivate about 57000 feddans. It is supplied by two main sources of irrigation, i.e. the surface water as a main source (Bahig canal and El Hammam canal), and the groundwater from more than 600 shallow wells tapping the Ralat aquifer (calcareous sandstone) of Plio-Pleistocene age as a supplement source. During the last three decades (1985 – 2014), conjunctive use of surface water together with groundwater has resulted in serious hydrologic problems e.g. water losses, canal seepage and water logging, where the depth to water level has risen up from about 20 m (1985) to less than 5.0 m (2014). Meanwhile, the groundwater salinity decreased during this period from more than 5000 ppm to less than 2000 ppm, indicating a dilution effect by seeped water. Received: 7 April 2016, Revised on: 8 January 2017 &Accepted on :28 January 2017. Nahla.A.Morad, Researcher, Hydrology Dept., Desert Research Center, Matariya, Cairo, (e-mail: nahlamorad@hotmail.com). Ramadan Mohamed Abdel Latif, Researcher, Hydrology Dept., Desert Research Center, Matariya, Cairo, (e-mail: ramadankhalifa_20106@yahoo.com). The water seepage from the dissecting canals is estimated in the present work by 65.18 x 106 m3/year replenishing the groundwater system in the down gradient areas. Might as well, the irrigation return flow through permeable soil in the study area is estimated by 4.125 x 106 m3/year due to the applied flood irrigation technique. In other words, 95% of the total groundwater replenishment is from the canal seepage, while only 5% from direct percolation. The investigation of wells tapping the Ralat aquifer in the study area has indicated that water levels are ranging from 21.0 m to 1.0 m above mean sea level. More than 57.6 x 106 m3/year (average 84% of the natural groundwater discharge) are pumping from such wells to get water of about 2000 ppm salinity, indicating a significant hydraulic connection between the surface water canals and the underlying aquifer. The calculated water balance of the Ralat aquifer has resulted in an amount of annual surplus water of the order of 11.705 x 106 m3/year as groundwater storage.
Abstract: India had a highly developed urban culture approximately 2500 years ago. This country witnessed many phases of urban development and decline. Due to its geographical and socio-cultural diversity, remarkable spatial variations in the level of urbanization can be noticed in India. Hill states are generally characterized by low level of urbanization. In this study, trends of urbanization from 1971 to 2001 have been examined in context of Himachal Pradesh. Some components of urbanization e.g. size and growth of urban population, structural pattern of urbanization, distribution of towns, level of urbanization etc. have been taken for the analysis. Observations reveal that growth of urban population is very low in the state and it has always been a least urbanized state of India since 1971. There is preponderance of small towns and emergence of large number of towns is the results of administrative exigencies .
The paper assesses the seasonality impacts on tourism development in the East region of Macedonia. This is made by applying several simple tests for calculating seasonality patterns in tourism demand in terms of tourist arrivals on monthly basis for the interval 2010M1:2014M12. Due to fact that the East region practices many events which are explored in tourism manner, the aim of the research was to identify wheather they perform positively in preventing negative seasonality influences. Furthermore, the research gives an overview of tourism importance for economic development of the East region. The findings point to low level of tourism seasonality with balanced flow distribution to tourism demand. This confirms the positive interaction between the regional tourism events and tourism development of the region. Finally, the study may serve as a starting point in identifying possibilities for enhancing regional growth, in the first line by introducing new tourism events, as well as by boosting the current modest event tourism development.
In this paper GIMMS/NDVI data was utilized to analyze the vegetation cover characteristcs of spatio-temporal variation and its response to temperature and precipitation change in Northwest China during 1982 to 2006.The results show that: the annual average NDVI has been increased with an rate of 0.5%/10a in Northwestern China,the vegetation cover was significant increased in July,August and October.The vegetation cover was significant increased in Xinjiang Tianshan,Artai Mountains,Gansu Qilian Mountains and the eastern part of Qinghai;and it was declined from Germu to Yushu in Qinghai,most parts of Shaanxi and Talimu Basin,Tulufan,Tahe,Tuoli in Xinjiang.It was positive correlation between vegetation cover and temperature and precipitation inter-annual changes.However,it was a significant linear relationship between the vegetation cover and the monthly average temperature and precipitation during the years.The relation with high positive correlation between the vegetation cover and the monthly average temperature,but when the average monthly temperature was exceed 20℃ and the NDVI decreased;when the average monthly precipitation was in the 0~100 mm,the NDVI was increased with linear,however,when the average monthly precipitation was more than 100mm,a clear growth trend was no longer exist.
Eight new species of the carabid genera Sphallomorpha Westwood and Adelotopus Hope are described from VVestern Australia: Sphallomorpha parinterioris, S. permutata, S. szitoi, S. t7avorufil, S. c(ypeosetosa, AdeIotopus pi/barae, A. basalis and A. minutus. Records from Western Australia of the following rare or poorly documented species are also dealt with: Sphallomorpha froggatti (Macleay), S. faIIax (Westwood), S. polysetosa Baehr, S. guttigera (Newman), S. maClJ1ata (Newman), S. uniformis Baehr, S. flavopicea Baehr, Adelotopus brevipennis Macleay, A. puncticolIis angustemaculatus Baehr, A. rubiginosus Newman, A. houstoni Baehr, A. adustus Baehr, A. coriaceus Baehr, A. paroensis Castelnau, Cainogenion ipsoides occiclentale Baehr, and Paussotropus cylindricus (Chaudoir). For SphaIlomorpha t7avopicea Baehr and Aclelotopus houstoni Baehr the male genitalia are described and figured for the first time. All new species and those to which new taxonomic information is added, are inserted in the respective general keys. The Western Australian distributions of most mentioned species are figured in maps.
Suburb lies in the edge of city and is the boundary of state-owned land and the border of collectively owned land.In this paper,based on rural house-building administration and in order to discuss the topic of binary land systems of urban and rural areas,the existing problems and their reasons of rural house-building administration are analyzed,and proposals to improving rural house-building administration are put forward.
Since the Cold War,there has been no war in East Asia,and the development of economy is prosperous in this district.On the contrary,the trust in politics and culture in common are reducing.The "against" situation has consisted of many barriers among China,Korea,and Japan.International problems happened continuously.In addition,the influence from the rest of the world has made the stable situation to peace and safety stagnate and incubate.The well-prepared regional cooperation forwards slowly,even worse,the structure of "against" situation gave birth to the return of East Asian Nationalism.According to the emergencies and sensitive crisis,Nationalism which conflicts with the regional security situation,shows more apparent side effects.On one hand,it loosens the stable formation of political and economic cooperation in East Asian countries objectively.On the other hand,it restricts and weakens the role of existing system,which intensifies people's mistrust and rouse people gaps in East Asian countries.What's more,Nationalism has become a firm barrier of East Asia regional cooperation.
ABSTRACT The COVID-19 lockdown of society in 2020 deprived people of access to many heritage sites. This made the public uniquely aware of why they visited heritage sites and what they valued about the visits, once heritage sites reopened. In particular, regaining access framed visits in terms of personal agency and wellbeing. Notions of capability, social connections, ontological security, and trust – all important elements of wellbeing – were widely shared values. Heritage sites also offered distinct opportunities for combining hedonic (subjective) and eudaimonic (psychological) wellbeing effects. While heritage value cannot be reduced to wellbeing effects, we suggest that constructive awareness of how these effects may be generated can enhance the outcome of visits to heritage sites.
Mopeds and motorcycles, the Powered Two-Wheelers, because of their little use of space, both when parked or in use, are an excellent tool for individual urban mobility or as a complement to the public means of transport. This paper proposes the organisation of Seminars for municipalities as an approach that has proved to be successful in Spain to improve the urban use of Powered Two-Wheelers. Representatives from municipalities, citizens and experts from the industry, both at national and European level, have had the opportunity of discussing the mobility in the European cities, the role that Powered Two-Wheelers can play in it and the measures proposed by the experts for the weak points identified by the local authorities. This paper presents as well the conclusions of the two seminars organised so far in Spain. For the covering abstract see ITRD E108160.
The concept of water governance is distinctive through its focus on not only public in- tervention, but also on self-organisation as a way to deal with water issues. This article first elaborates a framework with five dimensions to describe governance regimes. Thereafter it illustrates and uses this analytical framework with a cross country comparison of the evolu- tion towards more integrated water governance regimes. Furthermore four qualities of such regimes are introduced and used to assess the degree to which a governance regime is support- ive for integral and adaptive water management. Lastly the article explores how governance regimes evolve over time and what forces shape this combination of stability and dynamics.
This study aims to analyze the evolution of the use and land cover and forest dynamics mainly in the city of Cacapava do Sul in the period 1991-2011. Held digital supervised classification using the maximum likelihood algorithm. The thematic classes were chosen: Planted Forest, Native Forest, Field, Bare Soil, Water and Crops of Winter. Analyzing the classes within these years, we can say that there has been significant change in the class Planted Forest which increased by over 50% in 2011 compared to 1991, however, its area does not correspond to 1% of the municipality. The class with the highest expansion was the Bare Soil, for the period 1991-2011 grew 117.40 km² 58% in the period 1991 to 2011. Classes Native Forest and Field, have coverage of 90% and other uses, distributed in the remaining 10% of the municipal area.
Earthquake is the top in all of nature disasters. It can bring a series of social or psychological or mentality and economic heavy impacts. Human being tries to seek a way for earthquake forecasting. On present situation of research, earthquake forecasting just likes a sword that has a double side blade. Successful earthquake forecasting can bring a positive effect. However, false earthquake forecasting or correct earthquake forecasting but a wrong decision can bring a negative effect. Successful earthquake forecasting is our target that we don’t need to discuss. False earthquake forecasting attributes to the development of science, which also don’t need to discuss on this paper. Here, we focus on discussion of negative effect by correct earthquake forecasting but a wrong decision. And how can we reduce negative effect by incorrect decision from earthquake forecasting. In this paper, we give an analysis of case about negative effect by correct earthquake forecasting but a wrong decision. That is earthquake panic event (meanwhile, pollution of Songhua River, flu of birds and beasts) in Harbin, Nov, 2005. One million citizens of Harbin escape. We find the key of the case. (1) Unprofessional director and professional researcher. (2)Director makes arbitrary decisions. (3) Frail psychological or mentality of the public need improve and spread earthquake knowledge and science. To solve those problems need to do: (1) GIS dealing with calm down the public; (2) Monitoring flow focus point of Internet information and frequently key word;(3)Construction of modernizations decision making system.
Industrialization level is an important signal of the economic development stage that a country or district sits in. Using Chenery's Multi-national Model, Hoffmann Theorem and other index systems , the thesis concludes that the industrialization of the Western Regions of China is in a transition period from initial phase to middle phase .It then analyzes the particularities and barriers of the new-type industrialization of the Western Regions of China and provides realization approaches and strategies for it.
In nine of the sixteen rural regions and three small towns in Tomskaya oblast, marriage structure with regard to birth place and ethnicity of spouses was genetically and demographically studied by selectively analyzing marriage records from 1970-1985. Migration processes of high intensity were shown to be characteristic of rural and urban inhabitants of Tomskaya oblast. High values of the migration index (0.56 for rural regions and 0.75 for small towns) and low values of the local endogamy index (0.22 and 0.08 respectively) were obtained. Analysis of marriage assortativeness according to birth place and ethnicity of spouses demonstrated, in total, low but statistically significant estimates of marriage assortativeness. Subdivision of oblast populations was determined mainly by ethnicity.
This study aims to determine: 1) Know the difference natives housing with migrants in the Village District of Lubuk Sikarah VI Parts Solok. 2) Know the difference between the income level of the natives with migrants in the Village District of Lubuk Sikarah VI Parts Solok. 3) Know the difference between the educational level of the natives with migrants in the Village District of Lubuk Sikarah VI Parts Solok. 4) Know the difference between the level of health of the natives with migrants in Sub VI Parts Solok District of Lubuk Sikarah. This type of research is Descriptive Comparative Research. The population of this research is all the settlers and the indigenous people residing in the Village District of Lubuk Sikarah VI Parts Solok. The sampling technique of this research is purposive sampling means samples rondom selected based on certain considerations are 174 people. This type of data is the primary data (ie, questionnaire) and secondary data. The results of this study indicate that: 1) There are differences in housing conditions between local people and migrants in the Village District of Lubuk Sikarah VI Parts Solok, 2) There are differences in education between natives with migrants in Sub VI Parts Solok District of Lubuk Sikarah,, 3) There are differences in income between natives with migrants in Sub VI Parts Solok District of Lubuk Sikarah,. 4) There are differences between the health of indigenous people by the settlers in the Village District of Lubuk Sikarah VI Parts Solok.
About 95 percent of humanity will live in the urban areas of the South, whose population will double to nearly 4 billion over the next generation. 2 The most dramatic result will be the growth of new megacities with populations in access of 10 million, and, even more spectacularly, hypercities with more than 20 million inhabitants. The number of urban poor living in slums in the world has already crossed the one billion mark-when one in three city residents live in inadequate housing with no or few basic services and often face forced evictions from their settlements. 3 Hundreds millions of new urbanities will be involved in the peripheral economic activities in the informal sectors of the economy who become a living museum of human exploitation in the age of a surplus humanity. 4 During reforms under neo-liberalism while market becoms very dominant due to the declining role of the state the proliferation of fortified enclaves has created a new model of spatial segreggation and transformed the quality of public life in many cities which marginalizes the poor urban communities. The policing of poverty has been strongly spatialized through the segregation of the poor on the urban periphery and through slum clearance justified as urban renewal or development. 5
On the basis of the archives of the 167 Catholic religious posted to Polynesia from 1834 to 1914, we are introduced to the everyday reality of the nineteenth-century missionary, through his early education, his arrival in the Pacific world, his harsh conditions of existence and his cultural and economic activities. Part of contemporary Polynesia is also illuminated by this study, since this handful of religious left a legacy of social models which have continued into present-day use.
Integrated Watershed Management (IWM)/Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) seeks to combine interests, priorities and disciplines as a multi-stakeholder planning and management process for natural resources within the watershed ecosystem, centered on water. Driven bottom-up by local needs and priorities, and top-down by regulatory responsibilities, it must be adaptive, evolving dynamically with changing conditions. IWM ideas and methods spearhead natural resource management processes that are more sustainable. IWM/IWRM is new and still evolving: “IWRM has neither been unambiguously defined nor has the question of how it is to be implemented been fully addressed. What has to be Katherine Scott Department of IDCE Timothy Downs, PhD Department of IDCE Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01610-1477 Email: tdowns@clarku.edu Clark University 913 Main Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01610-1477 Email: katiescottl0@hotmail.com integrated and how is it best done? Can the broad principles of IWRM be operationalized in practice and, if so, how?” United Nations Global Water Partnership, Technical Advisory Committee, 2001 Our team looked at existing water resource/watershed management practices in case study watersheds in North America, South America, Africa and Asia, comparing them against a Canadian Model of IWM/IWRM. This was done to explore the types of integration that are occurring, the successes and failures, and the potential for improving current practices. These preliminary comparative studies offer insights into common problems that require attention by scholar-practitioners we exemplify. The scope and need for cross-disciplinary approaches is impressive, well-supported by this work. The need to view IWM/IWRM within the broader context of integrated capacity building (ICB) is also discussed, thus providing an operational mechanism for more sustainable resource management strategies to evolve for developed, transitional and underdeveloped country contexts.
The aim of this paper is to predict the hydrochemic al phases and the main chemical reaction models depending on chemical parameters (cations and inions) by using geochemical modeling approach. This study was carried out by sampling ground water of 11 wells at different locations at Baghdad City, Iraq. However, these selected samples are oversaturated with carbonate minerals a nd undersaturated with sulfate minerals, and showed significant variations of anal yzed parameters. The study revealed that there are many reaction mod els which responsible for chemical composition variation of shallows ground water system, and significant differences in the resulted reactions on both secto rs of Baghdad were noticed.
SAN FRANCISCO is situated on the northern extremity of a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water. Its population of 800,000 is confined within a rectangular area of 43 square miles. It is one of the hilliest cities in the United States, with land elevations varying between sea level and 930 feet. North of Market Street and the diagonal line bisecting the city, the streets are laid out in a substantially north-south, east-west grid pattern; see Fig. 1. South of this line the street pattern is made up either of smaller grids, oriented in many different directions, or of contour streets in and around the hillier sections.
The objective of this study was accomplishes a knowledge survey of the Bororo indigenous on the mammals of natural occurrence in their territory, Meruri village, who is located in the Mato Grosso State, Brazil, in the Savannah biome, and also the relationship of the indigenous with these wild animals. As method for collect the data were used open and semi-structured interviews. Twenty-two indigenous were interviewed, both genres and different ages. The interviewees mentioned 37 species of mammals and they showed wide ecological knowledge regarding these animals. Such relationships are complex, being evidenced a mythical interaction between the man and the elements of nature. The oral transmission of knowledge occurs across generations.
The development of technologies, especially the information and communications technology (ICT) and navigation technology, opened the possibility for collecting geospatial data to all interested parties. This trend has led to a new paradigm in the form of volunteered geoinformation (VGI). The speed of data collection as well as the amount of this data makes their use a great potential. On the other hand, there is a question of the quality of such data. They are by default collected by volunteers who have no formal training in the collection of spatial data. It is therefore important to examine the quality as well as to establish appropriate standards for data collection, but also for usage. This paper gives an overview of the phenomenon of VGI, its definition, the links with spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) and the possibilities of its use. Some examples of collecting through and using the various VGI-based applications in Croatia are shown. Furthermore, an analysis of data completeness in the case of OpenStreetMap has been performed. The results of this research indicate that the completeness of VGI depends primarily on the interests of those who collect and use them. In the case of the OpenStreetMap data for Croatia, it is evident that the content of information is more complete in urban as well as coastal areas, while this is not the case in suburban and rural areas. A general trend of collecting and increasing the amounts of VGI already provides an alternative to the official spatial databases to a certain extent. Through appropriate standardization, VGI data can serve as a good source for the database updating and maintenance.
The effect of seeds shapes and sizes to field survival, plant stand, harvesting amount and structure of calendula crude drug were under investigation. Biological feature of calendula is heterogeneous seeds formation, when the same inflorescence forms seeds of various shapes and sizes. The following seeds fractions according to their shapes and sizes were used for sowing: uncinate shaped, crescent shaped as well as unseparated, including, except uncinate and crescent seeds, ring-form and scaphoid shaped seeds. It was discovered that maximum indices of laboratory, field survival of calendula seeds and plant stand were in conjunction with uncinate shaped seeds. Maximum crude drug harvest was in conjunction with the sowing seeds of uncinate shape, varied from years from 2.11 to 2.40 t/h; minimumat unseparated seeds sowing, varied from years from 1.83 to 2.05 t/h. Crude drug extreme efficiency was determined in 1-3 gatherings by inflorescence weight gain and its quantity increase on the same plant. According to the size of elements of crude drug harvesting structure (inflorescence quantity and mass of the same plant, the same inflorescence mass) the variant of uncinate shaped seeds sowing had advantages
The frequency offset estimation is one of the most important tasks in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems. To estimate frequency offset, a periodogram-based estimator has been proposed by Ren [6]. The method consists of three estimation steps and gives an accurate results. However, in the second and third estimation steps, the maximum frequency offset that can be estimated is limited by subcarrier spacing. This range is insufficient compared with the overall signal bandwidth, and causes high complexity in the first estimation step. In this paper, we propose a novel frequency offset estimation method with wide estimation range. The proposed method can efficiently extend the estimation ranges without loss of accuracy.
This raises a series of questions regarding whether or not our samples are valid representations of the populations from which they came. How can we recognize bias in the materials bioarchaeologists study, and how might we deal with any shortcomings? This chapter discusses the impact of social/cultural and demographic factors on bioarchaeological samples along with the effect of taphonomy and research techniques. Above all, it emphasizes the need to understand the context and demographic characteristics of our samples so that we can arrive at interpretations that have some relation to reality. The importance of comparison in evaluating the representativeness of samples will be evident from many of the historical and archaeological examples given.
An evaluation of ALOS PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) data for shrub height and aboveground biomass (AGB) estimation has been performed in scrub-dominated ecosystems of central coastal California. Comparison between AGB field measurements and SAR estimations showed a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.53 for the HV polarization. Post-fire AGB regeneration was examined two years after the Big Sur Basin Complex fire of 2008. In 2009, the average patch size of AGB density classes between 20-40 Mg ha-1 and 50-70 Mg ha-1 was 0.49 ha and 0.09 ha, respectively. In 2010, patch sizes in these same two AGB density classes increased to averages of 0.8 ha to 0.15 ha, respectively. No strong saturation in the SAR-AGB relationship was found, which indicated the potential for more advanced applications of L-band SAR data for coastal ecosystem AGB mapping.
This paper attempts to review road safety research in Africa and makes recommendations for its strengthening in order to cope with the road accident situation in Africa. The studies reviewed were those found in the literature available to the author covering the work done by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory, the French National Organisation for Traffic Safety, the University of Nairobi and the Kenyan experience, Nigeria, Libya and the Egyptian experience. The results from these studies are summarised. The need for research, organisation, funding, training, documentation and dissemination is shown. The lessons learnt from past experience are indicated and recommendations are made for the strengthening of road safety research in Africa. African countries cannot and should not rely mainly and solely on external researchers to carry out road safety research in their own countries. Indigenous professionals should be given the necessary material, moral and political support in order to adequately cope with the challenges posed by road accidents in their countries. (Author/TRRL)
Many research studies are available for Canada relating air pollution and human health. For example, Burnett et al. (1994a, 1994b, 1995, 1997a, 1997b, 1999) utilized data on hospital admissions for cardiorespiratory diseases and air pollution data from 1980 to 1994 to conclude that there were positively significant associations between air pollution (e.g., O3, sulfates) and respiratory diseases in many cities of Canada. Pengelly et al. (2000) investigated the association between the 6 air pollutants (PM10, SO4, CO, NO2, SO2, O3) and mortality/hospitalizations in Toronto and concluded that three of the six pollutants (NO2, CO, SO2) were associated with almost 80% of air pollution-related premature deaths. Stieb et al. (1996) examined the relationships between ozone level and asthma emergency department visits in Saint John, New Brunswick and found that the frequency of the visits was about 33% higher when the daily 1-hour maximum ozone concentration exceeded 75 ppb. Smoyer et al. (1999) investigated heat-related mortality for five large cities in the Toronto-Windsor Corridor and determined that only in Metropolitan Toronto were mean daily heat stress mortality rates (heat index >32C) significantly greater than non-heat stress mortality (heat index ≤32C). All of the previous studies examined the health impacts of air pollution or individual weather elements on excess mortalities. Many of the studies to date have used Poisson regression analysis to evaluate the impacts of air pollution on human health in many regions of the globe. Several researchers have built Poisson regression models for respiratory diseases based on a variety of pollutants as well as daily mean temperature and relative humidity (Schwartz et al., 1991; Hefflin et al., 1994; Dab et al., 1996; Schouten et al., 1996; Vigotti et al., 1996; Peters et al., 2000). Some studies have utilized the same method to analyze the relationships between air pollution and hospital visits for asthma (Schwartz et al. 1993, Pönkä and Virtanen 1996), while others have simply
Natural history studies or case studies are important for problem solving and progress in conservation biology (Shrader-Frechette and McCoy 1993). For many species, empirical life history data needed for computer simulation modeling are lacking. Additionally, knowing the distribution, demography, survival, and recruitment of a population is fundamental to understanding the causes for a population decline and determining management options to restore a population (Caughley and Gum 1996). In this study, we investigated a small population of desert bighorn sheep (Ovis ccrnodensis cremnobates) to obtain baseline health and demographic information and to develop management recommendations aimed at regaining population viability.
Envisat carries a number of sensors able to provide quantitative information on raining clouds: AATSR delivers information on cloud microphysics (particle size, temperature etc.), MWR-2 gives columnar totals for liquid and vapour forms of water, and RA-2 yields rain rate and wind speed. This paper examines the complementarity of these sensors, with a focussed study on significant rain events in the N. Atlantic, covering both coherent large storms and fronts with smaller scale structure. The difference in liquid water estimates from the infra-red and passive systems appears to be related to the temperature and sizes of drops being detected.
The relationship between land use and biodiversity is important to understand the decision support systems in order to attain sustainability. Nowadays, land use and biodiversity management is focused on protected areas, discarding other habitats, tending to favor exclusive property rights over the territory, thus creating unfeasible solutions for society. Azores has 420 endemic species and subspecies, being these protected by the Directives of Habitats and Birds. A better understanding of endemic species value is a remarkable tool to preserve biodiversity, thus affecting social welfare. The aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between land use and endemic species richness. For this, spatial endemic richness for different taxa (Bryophytes, Vascular Plants, Mollusks, Arthropods and Vertebrate) was identified at the spatial scale. After that was use SPSS and Geoda to explain endemic species richness with the mosaic of land uses and underlying environmental conditions, to allow soil use management and conservation measures to be determined through the integrated organization of landscape and not only by the definition of protected areas. First, we selected particular places where land use decisions were taken, reflecting trade-offs and through the opportunity cost of different land uses and the implicit values of different degrees of endemic species. After that, we determined estimated models considering neighborhood effects between geographical units, using GeoDa. Results are consistent and explain in a much adjusted way the relationship between land use and endemic species richness, allowing to determine the existent trade-offs between land use and species richness.
Current measurements indicate that the deuterium abundance in diffuse interstellar gas varies spatially by a factor of ~4 among sight lines extending beyond the Local Bubble. One plausible explanation for the scatter is the variable depletion of D onto dust grains. To test this scenario, we have obtained high signal-to-noise, high- resolution profiles of the refractory ion Ti II along seven Galactic sight lines with D/H ranging from 0.65 to 2.1 × 10-5. These measurements, acquired with the recently upgraded Keck/HIRES spectrometer, indicate a correlation between Ti/H and D/H at the better than 95% confidence level Therefore, our observations support the interpretation that D/H scatter is associated with differential depletion. We note, however, that Ti/H values taken from the literature do not uniformly show the correlation. Finally, we identify significant component-to-component variations in the depletion levels among individual sight lines and discuss complications arising from this behavior.
A general theory for collective diffusion in interacting lattice-gas models is presented. The theory is based on the description of the kinetics in the lattice gas by a master equation. A formal solution of the master equation is obtained using the projection-operator technique, which gives an expression for the relevant correlation functions in terms of continued fractions. In particular, an expression for the collective dynamic structure factor Sc is derived. The collective diffusion coefficient Dc is obtained from Sc by the Kubo hydrodynamic limit. If memory effects are neglected (Darken approximation), it turns out that Dc can be expressed as the ratio of the average jump rate and of the zero-wavevector static structure factor S(0). The latter is directly proportional to the isothermal compressibility of the system, whereas is expressed in terms of the multisite static correlation functions gn. The theory is applied to two-dimensional lattice systems as models of adsorbates on crystal surfaces. Three examples are considered. First, the case of nearest-neighbour interactions on a square lattice (both repulsive and attractive). Here, the theoretical results for Dc are compared to those of Monte Carlo simulations. Second, a model with repulsive interactions on the triangular lattice. This model is applied to NH3 adsorbed on Re(0001) and the calculations are compared to experimental data. Third, a model for oxygen on W(110). In this case, the complete dynamic structure factor is calculated and the width of the quasi-elastic peak is studied. In the third example the gn are calculated by means of the discretized version of a classical equation for the structure of liquids (the Crossover Integral Equation), whereas in the other examples they are computed using the Cluster Variation Method.
This project sought to break down high jump twist rotation into portions contributed by angular momentum and those contributed by rotational action and reaction ("catting"). Five male and 5 female high jumpers were studied with three-dimensional film/video analysis procedures. The hip twist angle at the peak was broken down into an initial twist angle at takeoff and the subsequent twist rotation accumulated between takeoff and the peak. The latter was in turn broken down into rotations contributed by the twisting component of angular momentum and rotations contributed by catting. It was found that the contribution of catting to the twist rotation was at least as large as that of the angular momentum. The important contribution of catting to the twist rotation introduces the possibility that defects in its execution might play a role in the problems that some high jumpers have with twist rotation.
We report on preliminary measurements of the inclusive single muon and dimuon cross sections in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV using the D0 detector at the Fermilab collider. From these results, we extract the cross section for b-quark production for the kinematic range {vert_bar}yb{vert_bar} < 1.0 and 6 < p{sub t}{sup b} < 50 GeV/c. We also report measurements on the J/{psi} production, and correlations between muons in dimuon events.
The phase diagram of water has been calculated from the TIP4PQ/2005 model, an empirical rigid non-polarisable model. The path integral Monte Carlo technique was used, permitting the incorporation of nuclear quantum effects. The coexistence lines were traced out using the Gibbs-Duhem integration method, once having calculated the free energies of the liquid and solid phases in the quantum limit, which were obtained via thermodynamic integration from the classical value by scaling the mass of the water molecule. The resulting phase diagram is qualitatively correct, being displaced to lower temperatures by 15-20 K. It is found that the influence of nuclear quantum effects is correlated to the tetrahedral order parameter.
BS>The de Haas-van Alphen effect was observed in a copper single crystal by means of a null-deflection torsion balance technique. Detailed measurements were carried out, providing an accurate determination of the topology of the Fermi surface necks in copper. Effective mass values are found to be in excellent agreement with cyclotron resonance results. Unusual behavior observed in the angular dependence of the amplitude of the oscillatory torque is attributed to the spin-splitting factor in the theoretical expression for the magnetization. (auth)
This thesis is concerned with perturbative aspects of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in a space-time of the form T3xR, in the regime where the gauge coupling is weak. Wave functions of vacuum states of super Yang-Mills theories  are supported on the moduli space of flat connections, and we consider a semi-classical treatment of such theories, obtained by expanding the fields around some normalizable zero energy background field configuration. In particular, we consider the theories localized at a certain class of vacua corresponding to isolated points in the moduli space.  In the limit where the gauge coupling vanishes, and the degrees of freedom of the theory decouple, the theory describes equal numbers of non-interacting massless bosonic and fermionic fields related by supersymmetry. The energy  spectrum of the free theory is determined by the eigenvalues of the covariant derivative with respect to the isolated flat background connection. We discuss the construction of the free Hilbert space and compute the energy spectrum for all isolated vacua in simple gauge groups using Lie algebra theory.  Subsequently, we consider the interacting theory (still in the weak coupling regime) for the case when the gauge group is SU(n)/Zn. We discuss the construction of the Hilbert space of this theory using perturbation theory in the coupling constant. We also consider the perturbative corrections to the energy spectrum to quadratic order and show that supersymmetry implies a non-trivial cancellation of UV divergences rendering these corrections finite.
The generality and universality of the Ising spin‐glass‐like phase transitions observed in several rare‐earth, random‐anisotropy magnets are discussed. Some uncertainties and practical problems in determining critical exponents are considered, and a comparison is made to insulating spin glasses and crystalline spin glasses where an apparent anisotropy‐induced crossover from Heisenberg to Ising‐like behavior is seen. The observation of a reentrant transition in a weak anisotropy system and its correlation with the theory of Chudnovsky, Saslow, and Serota [Phys. Rev. B 33, 251 (1986)] for the correlated spin glass is discussed.
We have carried out 2D and 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of jets launched self-consistently from accretion disks orbiting Kerr black holes. The accretion flow generates energetic jets in the axial funnel region of the disk/jet system, as well as a substantial coronal wind. The jets feature knot-like structures of extremely hot, ultra-relativistic gas; the gas in these knots begins at moderate velocities near the central engine, and is accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities (Lorentz factors of 50, and higher) by the action of the magnetic field in the axial funnel. The increase in jet velocity takes place in an acceleration zone extending to at least a few hundred gravitational radii from the central engine. The overall energetics of the jets are strongly spin-dependent, with high-spin black holes producing the highest energy and mass fluxes. In addition, with high-spin black holes, the ultra-relativistic outflow is cylindrically collimated within a few hundred gravitational radii of the black hole, whereas in the zero-spin case the jet retains a constant opening angle of approximately 16 degrees. The simulations also show that the coronal wind, though considerably slower and colder than the jets, also carries a significant amount of mass and energy. When simulation data is scaled to the physical dimensions of a collapsar (a mechanism proposed to account for at least some types of gamma-ray bursts) the jets operate for a period ranging from 0.1 to 1.4 seconds, until the accretion disk is depleted, delivering approximately 10 49 erg.
Manipulation of momentum space in photonic structures has enabled a range of physical phenomena including negative refraction, slow light, enhanced nonlinearity and three‐dimensional complete bandgaps. Recently, Topology, a property related to the global structure of the frequency dispersion of a photonic system, emerged as a new tool for the control of momentum space and an additional degree of freedom for the discovery of fundamentally new states of light. The Weyl point systems considered in this work are an excellent platform to investigate topological bosonic states. Weyl points act as monopoles or anti‐monopoles Berry flux in momentum space, and carry chirality defined by quantised topological charges. In this work, the experimental realisation of photonic type I Weyl points at optical frequencies is demonstrated in a bio‐inspired three‐dimensional photonic crystal coated uniquely with layered‐composite nanometric materials. More importantly, the chiral nature of the photonic Weyl points is discovered by coupling with spin‐angular momentum carried by circularly polarised light. This Weyl‐point induced mechanism leads to reversed circular dichroism along the directions that intersect the oppositely charged topological photonic states. This discovery provides an entirely new platform for developing topologically protected super‐robust photonic devices in angular‐momentum‐based information processing, circular‐dichroism‐enabled protein sensing, spintronics and quantum optoelectronics.
Supersymmetry breaking and radius stabilization by constant superpotentials localized at boundaries is studied in a supersymmetric warped space model where a hypermultiplet, a compensator and a radion multiplet are taken into account. Soft mass induced by the anomaly mediation can be of the order of 100GeV and can be dominant compared to that mediated by bulk fields. A lighter physical mode composed of the radion and the moduli can have mass of the order of a TeV and the gravitino mass can be of the order of 10^7 GeV. The radius is stabilized by the presence of the constant boundary superpotentials. We also find that the mass splitting has an interesting dependence on the bulk mass parameter c.
The mini/micro-channel heat sinks have already been a successful innovation for cooling of electronic devices, and many factors could affect their thermal performance. However, the flow distribution is one of the fatal factors influencing the performance of the mini/microchannel heat sinks. As we know, uniform flow strongly depends on the optimum structure design of the heat sinks. The particular focus of this work is the channel width arrangement effects on the flow uniformity and heat transfer inside mini-channel heat sinks (MCHSs). The mini-channel heat sinks with five non-uniform channel width arrangements were compared with a mini-channel heat sink with uniform channel width under four inlet flow rates and a fixed heat flux. Overall thermal resistance and pressure drop were used to evaluate the thermal performance of the heat sink. The simulation results show that the non-uniform channel width arrangement is significantly beneficial for achieving uniform flow distribution in the mini-channels and reduces the overall thermal resistance with up to 6.1%. It is found that the 5-type MCHS performs the best flow uniformity and the lowest thermal resistance with a moderate pressure drop. Besides, this study supplies a guideline to optimize the arrangement of channel width.
This paper presents an AE source localization technique using near-field acoustic emission (AE) signals induced by crack growth and propagation. The proposed AE source localization technique is based on the phase difference in the AE signals measured by two identical AE sensing elements spaced apart at a pre-specified distance. This phase difference results in canceling-out of certain frequency contents of signals, which can be related to AE source direction. Experimental data from simulated AE source such as pencil breaks was used along with analytical results from moment tensor analysis. It is observed that the theoretical predictions, numerical simulations and the experimental test results are in good agreement. Real data from field monitoring of an existing fatigue crack on a bridge was also used to test this system. Results show that the proposed method is fairly effective in determining the AE source direction in thick plates commonly encountered in civil engineering structures.
The tail-flapping propulsion of a robotic fish forms a hydrodynamic pressure field that depends primarily on the flapping frequency and amplitude. In a two-robot aligned group, the tail of the front robot generates an oscillating pressure that is detectable by its follower. This paper proposes a position estimator for the follower to locate the position of the leading robotic fish. The position estimator uses the hydrodynamic pressure measured on a sensor array installed on the forefront of the following vehicle body. We derive a potential flow model to describe the pressure field of the leader in the presence of the follower. Using this pressure field model, we further derive an observability measure which is used to determine the relative positions of the leader and follower for which the position estimator will produce a reliable estimate. The position estimator employs the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, due to the nonlinearity of the pressure model. Results from the observability analysis show that a satisfactory estimation of the leader position is achieved when the leader is located directly ahead, on the starboard-bow, or the port-bow of the follower, similar to the formation pattern generally found in a school of fish. The observability analysis also shows that poor estimation is obtained when the leader is abeam of the follower. Tank experiments confirm the observability analysis and also demonstrate the use of the position estimator for feedback control by the follower.
In an effort to study the effect of the entrance channel mass asymmetry on the fusion process at near-barrier energies, we have measured the fusion cross section and its distribution according to the different evaporation residues for the $^{28} mathrm{Si}$${+}^{142}$Ce, $^{32} mathrm{S}$${+}^{138}$Ba, and $^{48} mathrm{Ti}$${+}^{122}$Sn systems. All these systems lead to the same compound nucleus $^{170} mathrm{Hf}$. The measurements were performed using a delayed x-ray technique. For the last two systems we have also measured the fission cross sections in the same bombarding energy range. This experimental information can be used to restrict the free parameters of the statistical model used to account for the relative yield. A constrained and realistic statistical decay model is useful in reducing the uncertainties in the determination of the spin distribution from measurements of gamma multiplicities for these systems. The excitation function for the fusion cross section can be described using a schematic coupled channels calculation with realistic coupling strengths. Our results show no umambiguous effect that can be associated with the entrance channel mass asymmetry.
Continuous-wave ultrasonic tomography is an imaging technique used to obtain information about the structure of deep-lying layers of a certain rotating body. In recent research, the analysis of this tomographic technique is introduced. In this paper, it was assumed that the rotating object is a rigid body, i.e. all particles of this object have the same amount of angular motion and accordingly, all these particles deliver Doppler signals whose frequency depend only on their distance from the axis of rotation. However, If the rotating body includes particles that can move relative to the rest of the body, then the net Doppler frequency shift resulting from the rotation of such particles will not be imaged in their true position, i.e. they will be either too far or too near to the axis of rotation. This effect can be considered as an error in the imaging process. In this paper, this problem will be discussed and suggestions will be introduced in order to avoid this error.
Comparison of damage development of textile composites made by combination of two resin (Polyamide and Epoxy) and two kinds of fiber bundles (conventional tows and spread tows) is carried out. The quasi-static tensile tests were carried out with using DIC (digital image correlation) system to estimate the full field strain and AE (acoustic emission) sensors for measurement of the acoustic emission features. The CFRTP specimens were also investigated with optical microscope to clarify the difference of damage. Fig.1 shows characteristic damage of each CFRTP. The fiber debonding and delamination were shown in CF(with spread tows)/PA composites and the damage in weft yarn covered a wide range of test specimens. It is suggested that these features of damage were influenced with effect of fiber opening. This may also be explained by AE events. In weft yarn of CF(with conventional tows)/PA composites, we observed not only transverse crack but also clack which propagated parallel to loading direction. This type of crack was not found in other thermoplastic carbon composites such as CF/PPS described in the literature. From these results, we conclude that the damage development of textile composites is sensitive to the form of fiber bundles and the properties of the matrix.
Spin currents can be obtained through adiabatic pumping by means of electrical gating only. This is possible by making use of the tunability of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling in semiconductor heterostructures. We demonstrate the principles of this effect by considering a single-channel wire with a constriction. We also consider realistic structures, consisting of several open channels where subband spin mixing and disorder are present, and we confirm our predictions. Two different ways to detect the spin-pumping effect, either using ferromagnetic leads or applying a magnetic field, are discussed.
The HydroHillChart software is a complex one used to calculate the hill chart for hydraulic turbines. The application was developed in the Python programming language, while the mathematical tool used for interpolation is the cubic spline type function. The paper presents the HydroHillChart - Kaplan module application, used to calculate the hill chart of the Kaplan hydraulic turbine models, by processing the data measured on the test rig. The hill chart expresses graphically the functional dependence of the Kaplan turbine parameters (n11, Q11, ao, φ, η) and is the instrument on which the industrial turbine is designed. This dependence arises from extensive experimental research carried out on Kaplan turbine models, leading to a library of optimized characteristics for the specific flows and heads of these turbines types.
A three-step graded undoped-InGaN layers embedded between the GaN last quantum barrier layer and the p-AlGaN electron blocking layer was proposed and its effect on the performance of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. In the proposed structure, the electron leakage is found to be effectively reduced, while the hole injection efficiency is simultaneously increased significantly, hence enabling a greatly enhanced radiative recombination rate within the active region. As a result, improvements of 12.25% in the optical output power and 11.98% in the external quantum efficiency are obtained from the proposed device with the respect to the reference device.
The interaction of plasmas with liquids requires an understanding of charged particle transport in both the gaseous and liquid phases. In this study we present a generalized fluid-equation framework to describe bulk electron transport in both gaseous and non-polar liquid environments under non-hydrodynamic non-equilibrium conditions. The framework includes liquid structural effects through appropriate inclusion of coherent scattering effects and adaption of swarm data to account for the modification to the scattering environment present in such systems. In the limit of low-densities it reduces to the traditional gas-phase fluid-equation model. Using a higher-order fluid model (four moments), it is shown that by applying steady state electron swarm data in both the gaseous and liquid phases, to close the system of equations and evaluate collisional rates, an improvement in macroscopic electron transport results over popular existing assumptions used. The failure of the local mean energy approximation in fluid models to accurately describe complex spatial oscillatory structures in both the gaseous and liquid phases is discussed in terms of the spatial variation of the electron distribution function itself.
A K Levine and A J De–Maria (eds) New York: Marcel Dekker 1976 pp x + 329 price S29.75 This fourth volume in a series of critical reviews5 contains contributions on Nd: YAG lasers by H G Danielmeyer, on single frequency lasers by P W Smith, on heliumneon lasers and the positive column by R Arrathoon, and on optical parametric oscillators by R G Smith. The articles are selfcontained, thorough, well-referenced, but, surprisingly, the second and third mentioned carry no references later than 1971; the first, 1974; the last, 1973.
We use the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR) 4 yr sky maps to model Galactic microwave emission at high latitudes (|b| > 20°). Cross-correlation of the DMR maps with Galactic template maps detects fluctuations in the high-latitude microwave sky brightness with the angular variation of the DIRBE far-infrared dust maps and a frequency dependence consistent with a superposition of dust and free-free emission. We find no significant correlations between the DMR maps and various synchrotron templates. On the largest angular scales (e.g., quadrupole), Galactic emission is comparable in amplitude to the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The CMB quadrupole amplitude, after correction for Galactic emission, has amplitude Qrms = 10.7 μK with random uncertainty 3.6 μK and systematic uncertainty 7.1 μK from uncertainty in our knowledge of Galactic microwave emission.
In this paper, partial cavitation over axisymmetric bodies have been solved, using the Boundary Element Method (BEM), based on potential. In this method, the cavity and the wetted surface of the body will be estimated by panels. Then, the cavitation will be modeled, by means of Green's third identity integral. For this purpose, the rings of the sources are distributed on the cavity surface, and the ring of the dipoles are distributed on the body and the cavity surface. The high speed and also proper accuracy in calculating the geometry of the cavity and the drag coefficient are considerable advantages of this method.
Spherical unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), of both plasma and solid-like kinds, have often been observed in the world. Several monitoring campaigns have permitted us to know better some structural properties and temporal behaviour of such phenomena. On the basis of what has been observed so far, and considering the deduced constants that characterize the phenomenon, and of the consequent physical working-hypotheses that results, possible dangers to aviation are examined from several point of view of physical science; both natural and non-natural features of these kind of UAP are considered. A systematic instrumented observational plan is proposed, involving both recurrence areas and time flaps of the phenomenon itself. NARCAP Report for Monograph Project Sphere Page 2 M. Teodorani
Over the past decade, the BeSSeL Survey and the VERA project have measured trigonometric parallaxes to ≈250 massive, young stars using VLBI techniques. These sources trace spiral arms over nearly half of the Milky Way. What is now needed are accurate distances to such stars that are well past the Galactic center. Here we analyze the potential for addressing this need by combining line-of-sight velocities and proper motions to yield three-dimenensional (3D) kinematic distance estimates. For sources within about 10 kpc of the Sun, significant systematic uncertainties can occur, and trigonometric parallaxes are generally superior. However, for sources well past the Galactic center, 3D kinematic distances are robust and more accurate than can usually be achieved by trigonometic parallaxes.
We study the branching fractions and the lepton polarization asymmetries of rare $B  to X_s  tau^+  tau^-$ and $B  to K^{(*)}  tau^+  tau^-$ modes within the Standard Model and in the Appelquist-Cheng-Dobrescu model, which is a New Physics scenario with a single universal extra dimension. In particular, we investigate the sensitivity of the observables to the radius $R$ of the compactified extra-dimension, which is the only new parameter in this New Physics model. For the exclusive transitions we study the uncertainties due to the hadronic matrix elements using two set of form factors, finding that in many cases such uncertainties are small. In particular, we show that the $ tau^-$ polarization asymmetries become free of hadronic uncertainties if Large Energy relations for the form factors, valid for low momentum transfer to the lepton pair, are used. We also consider $K^*$ helicity fractions and their sensitivity to the compactification parameter.
Effects of pulse width on ultrashort laser pulse and spectrum and their carrier-envelope phase(CEP) dependence in a dense V-type three-level atomic medium are investigated with numerical solutions of a full Maxwell-Bloch equation without slowly varying envelope and rotating wave approximations.It is shown that: As pulse width is small,pulse splitting number is less,spectrum is wide,high-frequency part of the spectrum is significant,CEP has great effect on pulse and spectrum,particularly effect on time interval between sub-pulses and strength of high-frequency part is more obvious;As pulse width increasing,pulse splitting number increases,width of spectrum narrows and high-frequency part of the spectrum decreases gradually,effect of CEP on pulse and spectrum weakens gradually.
Cloud computing is a transformative mechanism that changes the way hardware and software design and procurement are built for businesses. Everybody pushes data and application applications to cloud data centers due to cloud simplicity. The Cloud Service Provider (CSP) can maintain integrity, accessibility, privacy, and confidentiality, but CSP does not provide client and stored customer data with secure data services. This research discusses problems related to the storage of cloud data, such as data breaches, data theft, and cloud data unavailability. Finally, we are offering potential solutions to related cloud problems.
The state-specific expansion approach to the solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation was applied to the calculation of aspects of the multiphoton response of He to short laser pulses of and . Ionization rates and probabilities, saturation intensity and generalized cross sections are compared with recent experimental findings by Charalambidis et al. Above-threshold ionization spectra and the corresponding photoelectron angular distributions show a minor dependence on the temporal shape of the pulse.
A W-band compact Dual Reflector Cassegrain antenna with high gain, pencil beam and good sidelobe level has been designed using High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) IE software. The proposed antenna consist of a Main reflector, Sub reflector and a Feed all together joined with a support structure made of Aluminum. Simulated and Experimental measured results for various antenna parameters show a very good agreement. Effect of support structure has also been studied and optimized to minimize the effect on electrical properties of the antenna.
It has long been one of the most magnificent dreams for human to find extraterrestrial life. Many trials have been carried out so far, yet no clear evidences. Some people got bored especially after the disappointing results of the Viking Mars missions(1). After the report of David McKay et al. in 1996(2), the forgotten enthusiasm came back with much debate, and the Martian exploration restarted. However, for the effective implementation of the life detection, there are many to overcome. Recently it has been recognized that human system is just a part of a ecological system, and the ecological system is subsequently involved in the cosmic system. The relationships among these systems are bi-directional (interactive). On the other hand, human activity has been expanding day by day, and many unexpected and undesirable effects have become prominent. Under these circumstances, we have to know the present position and direction of movement of our system in the ecological as well as in the cosmic systems. The main target of cosmobiology resides in just this point. The most basic points of the target are to know 1)how life was born, 2)the type of terrestrial life is the only one in the universe or just one of the many possibilities, 3)the principles of life is common to universe or unique to Earth, 4)are there really any extraterrestrial life, and 5)to know the size, structure and mechanisms of the ecological systems. These points are addressed not only to Cosmobiology but also to legitimate life sciences. Among natural sciences, orientation to life sciences has become current tendency. Unfortunately, however, the studies on the subjects mentioned above has become less popular among life scientists because of the lack of clues for the elucidation, and bias to apparently more imperative subjects such as decease-related sciences. However, even from the stand point of applied sciences, Cosmobiology is indispensable. Take environmental problems for example, global and cosmic view point is inevitable. Even the exploration of extraterrestrial life is valuable to elucidate the mechanisms of life and subsequently the mechanisms of ecological systems (Biosphere). How long can our society will exist is the biggest problem irrespective of the fields.
It is shown that the well-known W UMa type eclipsing binary system UZ Leonis has an appreciable period increase. This conclusion is obtained by the analysis of 61 earlier times of minimum (available from the literature) and 13 newer ones (from photographic plates and photoelectric measurements). The period increase implies that the primary is accreting mass at a rate of Delta-m/m=5.41 X 10-8 year-1.
A compact synthetic aperture radar microsatellite antenna operating in the L-band is presented. To reduce size and weight of the small spaceborne SAR, we utilize a lightweight deployable parabolic mesh reflector and operate at low Earth orbital altitudes. The antenna is a wrap-rib center-fed parabolic reflector with dedicated receiving and transmitting feeds. Antenna requirements are: gain better than 30 dBic, center frequency of 1.275 GHz with bandwidth of 28 MHz and circular polarization with axial ratio better than 3 dB. This work describes the development of a compact Circularly Polarized SAR L-band antenna system and the design considerations suitable for small spacecrafts. Simulation of the parabolic reflector and effects of different structural elements to the main radiation pattern were analyzed, which include ribs, struts, feed blockage, and mesh surface. A research model of the parabolic reflector was constructed, and the reflector surface verification was realized using two different approaches, a laser distance meter along ribs and the other using 3D scanning of the reflector surface. RMS errors wree 1.92 mm and 3.86 mm, respectively, both below required 4.55 mm of surface accuracy. Near-field antenna measurements of the deployable reflector mesh antenna was realized for final antenna validation, presenting good agreement with the simulation results. Future work comprises prototyping and testing of the full polarimetric feed assembly.
Based on 1-dimensional numerical simulations including the rotational acceleration in a quasi-spherical approximation we present pulsation-driven mass loss from luminous stars. In particular, for  our model WN8 with M = 60 M ๏ , L = 8×10 5 L ๏ and T eff = 25 000 K  with a rotation rate of v  sin  i = 160 km s -1 given at the stellar photosphere of R p = 47.6 R ๏ and a stellar pulsation of P = 4.144 days we compute a time-dependent mass loss with an averaged rate of  1.28×10 -4 M ๏ /yr. Further implications of such theoretical  models are briefly discussed for observations of variable stars with large amplitudes.
Uhlmann’s mixed state geometric phase [Rep. Math. Phys. 24 , 229 (1986)] is analyzed in the case of a qubit aﬀected by isotropic decoherence treated in the Markovian approximation. It is demonstrated that this phase decreases rapidly with increasing decoherence rate and that it is most fragile to weak decoherence for pure or nearly pure initial states. In the unitary case, we compare Uhlmann’s geometric phase for mixed states with that occurring in standard Mach-Zehnder interferometry [Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 , 2845 (2000)] and show that the latter is more robust to reduction in the length of the Bloch vector. We also describe how Uhlmann’s geometric phase in the present case could in principle be realized experimentally.
Since Burgess et al. (1997) have recently ques- tioned the accuracy of the eective collision strength cal- culated in the IRON Project for the electron impact ex- citation of the 3s 2 3p 4 1 D 1 S quadrupole transition in Ar iii, an extended R-matrix calculation has been per- formed for this transition. The original 24-state target model was maintained, but the energy regime was in- creased to 100 Ryd. It is shown that in order to ensure con- vergence of the partial wave expansion at such energies, it is necessary to take into account partial collision strengths up to L = 30 and to  top-up" with a geometric series procedure. By comparing eective collision strengths, it is found that the dierences from the original calculation are not greater than 25% around the upper end of the common temperature range and that they are much smaller than 20% over most of it. This is consistent with the accuracy rating (20%) previously assigned to transitions in this low ionisation system. Also the present high-temperature limit agrees fairly well (15%) with the Coulomb{Born limit esti- mated by Burgess et al., thus conrming our previous ac- curacy rating. It appears that Burgess et al., in their data assessment, have overextended the low-energy behaviour of our reduced eective collision strength to obtain an ex- trapolated high-temperature limit that appeared to be in error by a factor of 2.
Relativistic heavy ion collisions are treated analytically within a hydrodynamical (participant-spectator) model under the assumption of partial nuclear transparency. For the fragmentation regions the parameter free relation Tspec = 42 MeV (vpart/c) is derived in the target (projectile) frame and relates the temperature of the spectators to the velocity of the participants. Combining this relation with the experimental observation of a 10 MeV temperature in the fragmentation region allows one to estimate within this model the magnitude of nuclear transparency and the energy density of the participant sources.
We analyze the power of the Tevatron data set to exclude or discover fourth generation neutrinos. In a general framework, one can have mixed left- and right-handed neutrinos, with Dirac and Majorana neutrinos as extreme cases. We demonstrate that a single Tevatron experiment can make powerful statements across the entire mixing space, extending LEP's mass limits of 60-80 GeV up to 150-175 GeV, depending on the mixing.
Disordering of GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well asymmetric Fabry-Perot modulators (AFPM) was carried out using impurity free vacancy diffusion (IFVD), involving the deposition of a SiO2 cap followed by rapid thermal annealing at 930°C. Blue shifts of up to 52 meV, while maintaining clearly resolved heavy and light hole excitons, were achieved. This enabled the production of both normally-off (contrast >10 dB for -5 V bias) and normally-on (reflection change >30% for -8V) AFPM's from the same wafer, thus displaying how IFVD can be used to tailor the optoelectronic properties after growth.
Four Monte-Carlo codes where tested to simulate bremsstrahlung spectra for accelerated electron beams at the energy range 4–20 MeV. All four codes give the same shape of the spectrum, in which in addition to the bremsstrahlung part there are characteristic energy lines of the target atom and an annihilation line of 0.511 MeV caused by secondary processes of the photoelectric effect and of electron-positron pair production. The absolute values of the energy spectrum have close magnitudes but it requires a more thorough study.
A scheme is presented for generating entangled states for two atoms in a cavity. In the scheme two atoms simultaneously interact with a cavity mode with a small detuning. The operation time is very short and thus the decoherence can be effectively suppressed. Furthermore, the scheme is valid no matter whether the two atoms have the same coupling strengths or not. The scheme can be used to generate multi-atom W states without the requirement of individual addressing of the atoms, which is also experimentally important. The scheme can also be generalized to produce entangled states in an ion trap without individually addressing the ions.
This paper investigates the fundamental operation of and mechanism of conduction occurring within metal-insulator varistors (MIVs). MIVs based on micron-sized spherical metal particles coated with nanometer-thick Al2O3, SiO2, and BN films are investigated and discussed. MIV functionality is found to be dependent on the non-Ohmic operation of the thin electrically insulating films separating adjacent conductive metal particles within the high-density varistor particle matrix. Several experimental results suggest that the breakdown and conduction behavior are strongly dominated by Fowler–Nordheim tunneling and can be accurately modeled by a simple tunneling expression. The exceptional electrical properties exhibited by MIVs suggest a strong potential for use in the suppression of fast rise-time transients.
New high-resolution spectra of V716 Cen revealed for the first time lines of the secondary component and its radial velocities. The simultaneous solution of the new radial velocity curves and the Hipparcos light curve yield the reliable absolute dimensions of this semidetached system. The masses for the primary and secondary are M 1 = 5.68 ± 0.07 M ⊙ and M 2 = 2.39 ± 0.05 M ⊙ , respectively, and the radii are R 1 = 4.08 ± 0.07 R ⊙ and R 2 = 3.36 ± 0.02 R ⊙ . We derive also effective temperatures of T eff1 = 15 500 ± 50 K and T eff2 = 9000 ± 80 K, and equatorial rotational velocities of u rot sin i = 137 ± 2 km s -1 and v rot sin i = 116 ± 7 km s -1 . These rotational velocities imply that the components rotate synchronously. The distance to the system is d = 339 ± 8 pc, in good agreement with the less accurate Hipparcos distance (337 ± 72 pc). The primary is underluminous and the secondary overluminous compared to normal main-sequence stars of the same mass. This implies that the secondary component of the semidetached system is in slow mass transferring stage after mass ratio reversal, although the Ha-line profiles do not show clear evidence for this.
In this study, colloidal ternary ZnxCd1-xS white light quantum dots (WQDs) were prepared, which have the characteristics of broad emission window. We used epoxy, styrene ethylene butylene styrene block copolymer (SEBS), and silicone as encapsulate materials to pack the device. The results show that the Zn0.5 and Zn0.8 have band edge and surface state emission. The quantum yield (QY) and particle size of Zn0.5 and Zn0.8 WQDs is 19, 32 % and 4.5±0.5 and 3.1±0.5 nm, respectively. The white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) were obtained by mixing WQDs with different resins, and pumping by UV chip. The luminous efficacy is 6.7 and 8.5 lm/W for Zn0.5 and Zn0.8-based WLED by using epoxy resin as encapsulate material. Moreover, the long period test can maintain 201 and 184 h for Zn0.5 and Zn0.8-based WLED, respectively. The results of this study present that the device encapsulated by epoxy resin can improve the luminous efficacy and stability of device. This outstanding finding may contribute to the future development of solid-state lighting (SSL).
In this paper we will present a description of the High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02) developed for the China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) project.  CSES is a scientific mission dedicated to monitoring electromagnetic, plasma and particles perturbations of atmosphere and inner Van Allen belts caused by solar and terrestrial phenomena, and to the study of the low energy component of the cosmic rays (3 - 100 MeV for electrons and 30 - 200 MeV for protons).  The first satellite, launched in 2018, hosted several instruments onboard. The HEPD-01, built by the Italian "Limadou" collaboration, is the instrument devoted to separate electrons and protons, as well as light nuclei in the MeV energy window. The detector is composed of two planes of double-sided silicon microstrip detectors which give the direction of the incident particle, a segmented plastic scintillator for trigger and a calorimeter.  The CSES-02 satellite is planned to be launched by the end of 2021. The next generation HEPD foresees improvements both on the tracker and the calorimeter. To improve trigger efficiency a new system with crossed layers of 2 mm thick segmented counters read by light-guides has been designed. A new tracker study is ongoing: 3 planes of ALPIDE CMOS pixel chips, developed for ALICE experiment at LHC.
The objective of this paper is to present recent developments in the field of machine fault signature analysis with particular regard to vibration analysis. The different types of faults that can be identified from the vibration signature analysis are, for example, gear fault, rolling contact bearing fault, journal bearing fault, flexible coupling faults, and electrical machine fault. It is not the intention of the authors to attempt to provide a detailed coverage of all the faults while detailed consideration is given to the subject of the rolling element bearing fault signature analysis.
The change of an electronic state near the insulator-metal transition is studied by an effective Hamiltonian obtained from the highly correlated {ital p}-{ital d} mixing model. The {ital d}-electron freedom is reduced to only its spin freedom. The model becomes a modified Kondo model in the sense that the spin interaction between the {ital p} and {ital d} electrons is momentum dependent, and its strength and dependence on momentum are correlated with the kinetic term of the {ital p} electron. The results show that a tail structure at the top of the occupied {ital p} band is induced and a new narrow band develops at the Fermi level, which is split from the main {ital p} band. The effects of a nonbonding band are also discussed.
The melting temperatures (532° to 580°K) of copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene and hexafluoropropylene have been measured on a microscope hot stage. The copolymers had concentrations of perfluoromethyl groups between 0.0275 and 0.075 groups per carbon atom and lamella thicknesses which varied from 340 to 500 A independently of comonomer concentration. An equation based on the concept of inclusion of the groups within the lamellar crystals as defects has been fitted to the data. The constants of fitting yield the equilibrium melting temperature, 616.6°±4.9°K, the surface energy, 4.5×10−13±1.6×10−13 erg/fold, and the perfluoromethyl defect energy, 0.047±0.003 eV/defect. Within the limits of error, these values are shown to be satisfactory by the possible comparisons with previously reported values or with values deduced from physical models. Neglecting the effect of lamella thickness yields a significantly poorer fit of the data.
A scheme to achieve strong quantum squeezing of a mechanical resonator in a membrane-in-the-middle optomechanical system is developed. To this end, simultaneous linear and nonlinear coupling between the mechanical resonator and the cavity modes is applied. A two-tone driving light field, comprising unequal red-detuned and blue-detuned sidebands, helps in generating a coherent feedback force through the linear coupling with the membrane resonator. Another driving light field with its amplitude modulated at twice the mechanical frequency drives the mechanical parametric amplification through a second-order coupling with the resonator. The combined effect produces strong quantum squeezing of the mechanical state. The proposed scheme is quite robust to excess second-order coupling observed in coherent feedback operations and can suppress the fluctuations in the mechanical quadrature to far below the zero point and achieve strong squeezing (greater than 10 dB) for realistic parameters.
Experimental differential cross sections for the optical collision process K(4s)2S + Ar + hν → K(4p)2P + Ar are reported. The characteristic interference structures are used to determine the repulsive parts of the KAr X2Σ and B2Σ potential curves by comparison with the results of exact quantum coupled-channel scattering calculations. By a least-squares procedure we obtain potentials with a relative accuracy of typically 1% in the range 0 ⩽ V ⩽ 1000–1500 cm−1, corresponding to absolute values of 2–4 cm−1 for the larger and 10–15 cm−1 for the smaller distances sampled by the experiment.
Spectrophotometric observations of three QSOs lying in the field of the spiral galaxy NGC 1073 are presented. These objects have been reported by Arp and Sulentic (1979), who obtained redshifts for two of them. The present observations, made with the Shane telescope at Lick Observatory, extend the wavelength coverage, show L-alpha in BSO 1 at z = 1.945, yield a firm redshift of z = 0.599 for BSO 2, and confirm the redshift z = 1.41 of RSO obtained by Arp and Sulentic (1979).
In this work, a phenomenological approach is proposed to analyze the electrical transport through an insulating barrier in insulating/metallic bilayer systems using conductive atomic force microscopy. The influence of the substrate in the electrical properties of ferroelectric/ferromagnetic bilayers was studied in the frame of this model. The substrate roughness was found to increase the barrier height distribution and increase the attenuation length in the material, reducing the barrier quality for the developing of multiferroic tunnel junctions.
We analyze the electronic structure of a superlattice in a magnetic field parallel to the layers using a tight-binding scheme where Wannier functions centered on each well are coupled to their nearest neighbors. Gauge and translational invariances impose the condition that, within a single conduction miniband, electrons are subjected to a one-dimensional periodic potential of magnetic origin whose overall amplitude equals the miniband width. Landau levels are thus nondispersive in this energy range, and remain quasiparabolic at higher energies. The influence of interface disorder is also studied. The valence dispersion curves of a superlattice are described in an original way which leads to calculation schemes quite simpler than those already published: k ensuremath{ cdot}p expansion along the layers, and k-dependent tight binding along the growth axis. The allowed energies when a transverse magnetic field is applied are then computed, with particular emphasis on the numerous anticrossings due to heavy- and light-hole coupling.
We review recent theoretical progress on the use of electron spins as qubits in coupled semiconductor quantum dots for quantum information processing. We discuss the spin exchange mechanism and its microscopic origin in both laterally and vertically tunnel-coupled quantum dots and explain how it can be used to implement the quantum XOR gate which, in combination with single spin rotations, allows to perform arbitrary quantum computations. In addition to their functionality as a quantum gate, coupled quantum dots can act as a source for photon pairs in entangled polarization states which are useful for quantum communication. We describe a mechanism for the production of such entangled photon pairs via a biexciton state in tunnel-coupled quantum dots.
Within the two-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, we derive a self-consistent thermodynamic potential $ Omega$ for a QCD matter in an external magnetic field $B$. To be consistent with Schwinger's renormalization spirit, counter terms with vacuum quark mass are introduced into $ Omega$ and then the explicit $B$-dependent parts can be regularized in a cutoff-free way. Following that, explicit expressions of gap equation and magnetization can be consistently obtained according to the standard thermodynamic relations. The formalism is able to reproduce the paramagnetic feature of a QCD matter without ambiguity. For more realistic study, a running coupling constant is also adopted to account for the inverse magnetic catalysis effect. It turns out that the running coupling would greatly suppress magnetization at large $B$ and is important to reproduce the temperature enhancement effect to magnetization. The case with finite baryon chemical potential is also explored: no sign of first-order transition is found by varying $B$ for the running coupling and the de Haas-van Alphen oscillation shows up in the small $B$ region.
An asymptotic method based upon the principles of geometrical optics, which has been used for linear problems, is extended to nonlinear wave propagation in a rotating fluid of variable depth. It yields the same modes, the same phase function, and the same rays as does the linear theory. However along each ray the amplitude satisfies a nonlinear equation of Korteweg‐DeVries form. Thus, the theory combines certain features of the linear theory of short waves and the nonlinear theory of long waves. The theory is developed for a layer of fluid with a free surface or for an atmosphere which extends upward to infinity, and also for fluid in a channel or a waveguide. It may be useful in dealing with problems of geophysical interest.
Flip chip mounting of bare dice is gaining widespread use in microelectronics packaging. The main drivers for this technology are high packaging density, improved performance at high frequency, low parasitic effects and potentially high reliability and low cost. Many companies have made significant efforts to develop a technology for bump processing, bare die testing and underfill encapsulation to gain the benefit of all potential advantages. We have focussed on low cost bumping of fully processed silicon wafers to develop a flexible scheme for various reflow requirements. The bumping process is based on galvanic plating from an alloy solution or, alternatively, from several elemental plating baths. Sputtered Mo/Cu or Cr/Cu is used as a wettable base for electroplating. Excess base metal is removed by using the bumps as an etching mask. Variation of the alloy composition or the layer structure, allows the adjustment of the bump reflow temperature for the specific requirements of the assembly. Using binary tin-lead and ternary tin-lead-bismuth alloys, reflow temperatures from 100 °C (bismuth rich alloys) to above 300 °C (lead rich alloys) can be covered. The influence of the plating current density on the final alloy composition has been established by ion beam analysis of the plated layers and a series of reflow experiments. To control the plating uniformity and the alloy composition, a new cup plating system has been built with a random flow pattern and continuous adjustment of the current density. A well-controlled reflow of the bumps has been achieved in hot glycerol up to the eutectic point of tin-lead alloys. For high temperature alloys, high molecular weight organic liquids have been used. A tensile pull strength of 20 g per bump and resistance of 5 mΩ per bump have been measured for typical eutectic tin-lead bumps of 100 μm in diameter.
The three-dimensional unsteady flow field in a centrifugal pump is numerically simulated,where SST k-ω turbulence model is adopted to solve Navier-Stockes equations.The detailed influence from different impeller-volute tongue location to instantaneous pump performance and total pressure pulsation are presented.Pulsation of the static pressure is discussed after using amplitude and time-frequency domain analysis methods.The results show that the instantaneous values of head coefficient and efficiency showing a periodic change highly depend on the interaction between blade and volute tongue,yet the power coefficient is almost invariable.It is a way to improve overall pump performance by improving the lowest instantaneous performance at particular time.Main pressure pulsation source are distributed near the cut-water and blades,especially the strongest fluctuation do not locate at the top of volute tongue,but migrate along with the spiral direction.Blade passing frequency is the main form of the pressure pulsation.
Abstract The dechanneling width λ of a dislocation loop is a function of the diameter ϕ of the loop. From the expected behaviour of λ at small and large values of ϕ, an hyperbolic variation: is proposed both for axial and planar channeling. Values used for λ∞ are taken from Ref. 3. The dechanneling cross section of perfect loops is proportional to their surface for small loops, and to their length for large ones.
The present invention relates to a coordinate measuring apparatus, having: an optical distance measuring device (200, 300) for measuring a distance to the space available in the auxiliary measuring means (5) is movable; an objective lens having a focal length variation relative to at least two shafts rotating zoom camera (106); and a pair of surveying camera (5) measuring coarse positioning assist device (104). Distance measuring light output means (200, 300) and a light receiving optical means (101, 102), the zoom camera (106) and a surveying camera (104) disposed in a common, at least with respect to the two axes (A, Z) can be rotating the carrier (1). The optical axes (111) distance measuring means (200, 300) and a surveying camera (104) (112) preferably extending coaxially outside said coordinate measuring apparatus. Preferably, the distance measuring means (200, 300) subunit disposed on the carrier (1) and the intermediate unit (2) rotatably, and connected to each other by a light conductor (501-508).
Some errors are introduced into existing sensor radiance models due to ignoring the anisotropy of the earth surface.Aiming at this problem,a novel calculation model for sensor irradiance contribution,including effects of earth surface and atmosphere reflected light is proposed.This model takes three factors into account: earth surface reflection,atmospheric scattering and radiative transfer effect.Based on the model,a heuristic Monte Carlo predominant light sampling method is presented.Given parameters of sensor and spatial geometry,the influence of earth surface and atmosphere reflected light on space optical sensor can be calculated efficiently.
Theoretical investigations are presented, and their results are discussed, of the laser acceleration of a single electron by a chirped pulse. Fields of the pulse are modeled by simple plane-wave oscillations and a $ cos^2$ envelope. The dynamics emerge from analytic and numerical solutions to the relativistic Lorentz-Newton equations of motion of the electron in the fields of the pulse. All simulations have been carried out by independent Mathematica and Python codes, with identical results. Configurations of acceleration from a position of rest as well as from injection, axially and sideways, at initial relativistic speeds are studied.
Abstract Reflectivity spectra in the far-infrared have been made of the ferroelectric semiconductor compound SbSBr in the glassy state and they have been compared with the reflectivity spectra of the crystalline state. The reflectivity data were analysed using Kramers-Kroning dispersion theory to obtain the oscillator parameters and the dielectric and optical constants. The close similarities of vibrational modes in the spectrum of glassy and crystalline SbSBr supports speculation that the glassy SbSBr retains identifiable and distinct molecular units. A hardening and softening of the ferroelectric mode of SbSBr at the vitrification and recrystallization has been observed.
Rice bran and corncob are the agricultural waste with the high cellulose content. The research was carried out to utilize rice bran and corncob as media/substrate to produce cellulase enzyme by means of the bacteria fermentation process. Bacteria that used to the fermentation process isolated from the shrimp paste origin Bonang, Samarinda, East Kalimantan. Bacteria identified molecularly based on 16S rDNA sequence. The results of identification showed the bacteria is Bacillus subtilis A8. In the research showed the cellulase enzyme activity of B. subtilis A8 on the rice bran media have optimum of incubation time 3 days at pH 6.0 and temperature 60°C, activated by Na+, Co+2, Cu+2, Mg+2, and Zn+2 ions and the protein content 0.13 μg/mL. The cellulase enzyme activity of B. subtilis A8 on the corncob media have optimum of incubation time 3 days at pH 7.0 and temperature 50°C and activated by Na+ and Co+2, whereas Cu+2, Mg+2, and Zn+2 are inhibitor and the protein content 0.04 μg/mL.
Recently, microvessel imaging at super resolution using contrast agents has been successfully demonstrated. However, the computational costs associated with the processing is extremely high. To overcome some of the computational issues, new techniques for generating high-resolution microvessel images with contrast MBs are warranted. One computationally inexpensive technique to realize high-resolution microvessel imaging is to use null subtraction imaging (NSI) [1]. NSI uses nulls in the beam pattern to produce images at much higher apparent lateral resolution and is especially suited for sharpening ultrasound images of specular scatters like MBs. In this study we acquired 1000 frames of ultrasonic data of chicken embryo with microbubble as contrast agent inside and utilized NSI to attain image with improved spatial resolution compared with traditional delay and sum image.
We propose a phenomenological yet very general model in a form of generalized complex Ginzburg-Landau equation to understand the dynamics of the quasi-periodic fluid instabilities (called edge-localized modes) in the boundary of toroidal magnetized high-temperature plasmas. The model reproduces key dynamical features of the boundary instabilities observed in the high-confinement state plasmas on the KSTAR tokamak, including quasi-steady states characterized by field-aligned filamentary eigenmodes, transitions between different eigenmodes, and rapid transition to non-modal filamentary structure prior to the relaxation. It is found that the inclusion of time-varying perpendicular sheared flow is crucial for reproducing the observed dynamical features.
The classical Heisenberg Hamiltonian was solved for oriented spinel thin and thick cubic ferrites. The dipole matrix of complicated cubic cell could be simplified into the form of dipole Matrix of simple cubic cells. This study was confined only to the highly oriented thin films of ferrite. The variation of total energy of Nickel ferrite thin films with angle and number of layers was investigated. Also the change of energy with stress induced anisotropy for Nickel ferrite films with N=5 and 1000 has been studied. Films with the magnetic moments ratio 1.86 can be easily oriented in 90 direction when N is greater than 400.
The microwave detection capability of GaN-based asymmetric planar nanodiodes (so-called Self-Switching Diode, SSD, due to its non-linearity) has been characterized in a wide temperature range, from 70 K up to 300 K. At low temperature, microwave measurements reveal an enhancement of the responsivity at frequencies below 1 GHz, which, together with a pronounced hysteresis in the DC curves, indicate a significant influence of the surface states. This leads to a significant variability and non-repeatability which needs to be reduced since it degrades the accuracy of the detection. For this sake, the RF characterization was repeated after applying a positive/negative voltage able to fill/empty the surface states in order to have a well-established preconditioned state. As a consequence of the positive pre-soak bias, a significant enhancement of the measured responsivity, with a × 10 increase at low temperature. The RF detection measurements after such preconditioning contains a time dependence induced by the slow discharge mechanism of the traps, so that the improved responsivity remains even after 100s of seconds. On the other hand, a negative voltage pre-soak benefits the discharge process, thus suppressing the low frequency dispersion and the important variability of the detection without the pre-conditioning step. We also show that the relation between the voltage and current responsivities in each case allows to explain the impact of the surface charges in terms of the device impedance.
The properties of Cadmium sulphide (CdS) thin films were investigated by applying atomic force microscopy (AFM) and far–infrared spectroscopy. CdS thin films were prepared using thermal evaporation technique under a base pressure of 2 × 10−5 torr. The quality of these films was investigated by AFM spectroscopy. We apply far–infrared spectroscopy to investigate the optical properties of CdS thin films, and reveal the existence of a surface optical phonon (SOP) mode at 297 cm−1. For the first time, the dielectric function of CdS thin film is modeled as a mixture of homogenous spherical inclusions in air by the Maxwell–Garnet formula. In the analysis of the far–infrared reflection spectra, a numerical model for calculating the reflectivity coefficient for a system which includes films and substrates has been applied.
Investigation of dispersed particle rotation characteristics in multi-phase flow is important in understanding the mechanism of multi-phase flow.In previous studies,many people focused on Magnus force produced by particle rotation in solid-gas two-phase flow,and proposed Magnus lift coefficient at different Reynolds numbers through experimental and theoretical investigations.In recent years,many researchers have studied the effect of particle rotation on the flow field through theoretical numerical simulation and dealt with particle rotation by improving multi-phase flow numerical model,and the simulated results are in agreement with experimental results.But because of the limitation of the model,it is impossible to take into full account the influence of particle rotation on particle cluster and surrounding flow field.From the experimental aspect,many researchers use high-speed digital imaging system to measure particle rotation speed and particularly one author successfully measured particle rotation speed in real gas-solid two-phase flow.Nevertheless,more accurate and efficient method needs to be developed.The authors of this paper proposed that the application of the direct numerical simulation in particle rotation characteristics simulation should be the emphasis of research in the future.And the technology of the reconstruction of 3D motion and structure of the object from image sequence in computer vision science should also be paid much attention in particle rotation speed measurement.
We present the experimental results on influence of an external magnetic field on the dust particles which were suspended in the strata of a glow discharge, where the magnetic field was created using a Helmholtz coil. Observations were made in the strata that located between the coils, under the coil, and above the coil. We observed an interesting behavior of dust particles, which was not previously reported. It was revealed that the dust structure rotates clockwise above the coil and counterclockwise under the coil, while the dust structure located between the coils does not rotate. Experiments were performed with both mono- and poly-disperse dust particles at $B  le 28$ mT. The radial distribution of the angular velocity of dust particles, at the induction of the magnetic field 8, 13, and 19 mT, in different regions was measured. For explanation of the experimental results, we developed a simple theoretical model which shows that the direction of the rotation is determined by the radial component of the magnetic field induction.
SOLRAD and many other satellite systems have provided a large data base showing the time-dependent behavior of broadband solar fluxes in the X ray and EUV spectral regions. These bands are broad in the sense that one band may contain many ionospherically important spectral lines. We present results of tests performed to determine how this information can best be used to predict the effects of a solar flare on the ionosphere. Our approach has been to first adopt a model of the spectral line and continuum enhancements based on a synthesis of many types of flare observations. This detailed spectral model is used in a time-dependent ionosphere model to calculate the response of the electron and ion density profiles. Then the spectral model is mathematically filtered to show how it would appear to the SOLRAD EUV detectors, and this degraded information is used in the ionosphere model. Comparison of the two ionosphere calculations shows that the two spectra produce changes in the total electron content in the ionosphere that differ by only a few percent. Thus, given the present uncertainty in our knowledge of solar flare EUV spectra, SOLRAD broadband EUV solar flux measurements can be used to calculate the ionospheric effects of EUV flare enhancements. Significant changes due to the flare which occur in the individual species densities are described.
PCM (phase-change memory) is an important class of data storage, operating based on the Joule heating-induced reversible switching of chalcogenide alloys. Nanoscale PCM often requires advanced microfabrication techniques such as dry (plasma) etching, but the possible impacts of process damages or imperfections on the device performance still remain relatively unexplored. This is critical because some chemical etching species are known to cause over-etching with rough edge onto the sidewall of a phase-change material. It is also possible that the phase-change material experiences a composition change due to etching-induced re-deposition of by-products or thermal stress. In this study, a finite-element simulation is performed to understand the effect of dry etching on the RESET characteristics of a nanoscale PCM device to provide a guideline on the PCM manufacturing and cell design.
Wavefront sensing and control (WFSC) will play a key role in improving the stability of future large segmented space telescopes while relaxing the thermo-mechanical constraints on the observatory structure. Coupled with a coronagraph to reject the light of an observed bright star, WFSC enables the generation and stabilisation of a dark hole (DH) in the star image to perform planet observations. While WFSC traditionally relies on a single wavefront sensor (WFS) input to measure wavefront errors, the next generation of instruments will require several WFSs to address aberrations with different sets of spatial and temporal frequency contents. The multiple measurements produced in such a way will then have to be combined and converted to commands for deformable mirrors (DMs) to modify the wavefront subsequently. We asynchronously operate a loop controlling the high-order modes digging a DH and a control loop that uses the rejected light by a Lyot coronagraph with a Zernike wavefront sensor to stabilize the low-order aberrations. Using the HiCAT testbed with a segmented telescope aperture, we implement concurrent operations and quantify the expected cross-talk between the two controllers. We then present experiments that alternate high-order and low-order control loops to identify and estimate their respective contributions. We show an efficient combination of the high-order and low-order control loops, keeping a DH contrast better than 5 x 10-8 over a 30 min experiment and stability improvement by a factor of 1.5. In particular, we show a contrast gain of 1.5 at separations close to the DH inner working angle, thanks to the low-order controller contribution. Concurrently digging a DH and using the light rejected by a Lyot coronagraph to stabilize the wavefront is a promising path towards exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy with future large space observatories.
We report the measurement of absolute excitation frequencies of {sup 87}Rb to nS and nD Rydberg states. The Rydberg transition frequencies are obtained by observing electromagnetically induced transparency on a rubidium vapor cell. The accuracy of the measurement of each state is < or approx. 1 MHz, which is achieved by frequency stabilizing the two diode lasers employed for the spectroscopy to a frequency comb and a frequency comb calibrated wavelength meter, respectively. Based on the spectroscopic data we determine the quantum defects of {sup 87}Rb, and compare it with previous measurements on {sup 85}Rb. We determine the ionization frequency from the 5S{sub 1/2}(F=1) ground state of {sup 87}Rb to 1010.029 164 6(3)THz, providing the binding energy of the ground state with an accuracy improved by two orders of magnitude.
MXenes are atomically layered carbides and nitrides of transition metals that have potential for micro-devices applications in energy storage, conversion, and transport. This emerging family of materials is typically studied as nanosheets or ultra-thin films, for which the internal defects are mostly nanoscale flake-flake interface separation type. However, micro-devices applications would require thicker films, which exhibit very high density of microscale pores. Electrical conductivity of thicker MXenes is significantly lower than nanosheets, and the physics of defect size and density control are also different and less understood. Current art is to perform high temperature annealing to improve the electrical conductivity, which can structurally alter or degrade MXene. The key contribution of this study is a room-temperature annealing process that exploits the synergy between electrical pulses and compressive mechanical loading. Experimental results indicate over a 90% increase in electrical conductivity, which reflects a decrease in void size and density. In the absence of compressive loading, the same process resulted in a conductivity increase of approximately 75%. Analytical spectroscopy and microscopy indicated that the proposed multi-stimuli process kept the MXene composition intact while significantly decreasing the void size and density.
A brief analysis of the existing methods of additive technologies with reference to the aviation industry is carried out. The prospects of this direction are shown taking into account the possibility of production of aircraft parts on the principle of “bottom-up”. The results of researches of additive technology of electric arc surfacing in carbon dioxide of complex parts are presented. In the course of the carried out studies technological peculiarities of the technology connected with the parameters of welding arc, melting of cladding wire have been found out. Arc current has the greatest influence on the appearance of the molding. The wire feed rate affects the height of the welded roll. It is shown that the stability of the welded rolls formation depends on the modes of metal transfer, which depend on the conditions of wire feeding and insertion into the melt bath.
Measurements of trace metals and inorganic ions were carried out on PM10 aerosols sampled at two sites in the city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Samples were collected with a Thermo Andersen high volume PM10 sampler on glass fiber and quartz filters. The ions SO4 2- , NO3 - , Cl - , F - , PO4 3- , NH4 + , K + , Na + , Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ were analyzed by ion chromatogra- phy and the trace metals V, Cu, Cr, Pb, Ni, Mn, Fe and Al were analyzed using an atomic absorption spectrometer with a graphite furnace attachment. The results indicated that SO4 2� was the most abundant ion, and Al the trace metal with the highest concentration. Pearson's correlation applied to all data showed a high correlation among SO4 2� , NO3 � and NH4 + , indicating a common an- thropogenic origin. In addition, the correlation found between Na + -K + and Ca 2+ -Mg 2+ indicated a crustal origin. No corre- lation was found among the trace metals except Cu-Cr and Fe-Cr. The influence of wind direction on trace metal concen- trations is also discussed.
In this paper, we study the relations between the number-noise squeezing of the output light of a LED driven by high-impedance constant-current source and LED's electronic/optical quantum efficiencies, ieakage current effect, negative feedback of photon-flux fluctuation and noise frequency. We poiat out that with appropriate negative-feedback of the photon-flux fluctuation, LED driven by high-impedance constant-current can generate number-squeezed state light, the number-noise squeezing is significantly enhanced and its ideal value is limited only by residual noise of the high impedance constant-current source, LED's leakage current effect and quantum efficiency.
Experimental studies on low frequency noise in bipolar junction transistors (BJT) including polysilicon emitter, hetero-junction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and silicon-germanium hetero-junction transistors (SiGe HBTs) are reviewed. The 1/f noise is treated in terms of mobility fluctuations. The validity of a new empirical relation between the 1/f noise corner frequency fc (the frequency where the 1/f noise and shot noise are equal) and the peak cutoff frequency frpeak is investigated. The experimental procedure to investigate the most dominant low-frequency noise source in the equivalent circuit is described. At medium frequencies, the white noise becomes dominant and the noise figure is calculated taking into account the emitter and base series resistance.
For those of a superstitious frame of mind, the past few years have seen three significant events. Comet Swift-Tuttle, recovered in September 1992, was initially thought to be on a collision course with the Earth in August 2126 until the orbit was refined. Then some 21 fragments making up the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 were discovered, more than a year before its observed impact on Jupiter. And finally, the beautiful comet Hale-Bopp, the brightest comet to grace northern skies for a generation, became visible to the naked eye earlier this year. (Some would also add to that list comet Hyakutake, which was discovered just seven weeks before its exceptionally close passage to Earth on 25 March 1996.)
Using CCD photometry obtained by the EROS collaboration in 1991-1993, we have discovered an LMC variable star with a light curve that is oscillating with a mean period of $ sim 14$ days and an amplitude of $ sim$ 0.3 mag. The oscillations appear with irregular amplitude variations. The Fourier spectrum shows that the pulsation of this star is phase locked between two modes of frequencies $f_0$ and 1.5$ times f_0$. Moreover, this object has strong $H  alpha$ and $H  beta$ emission lines and neutral lines of Helium that suggest a spectral type between late O and early B. In a preliminary analysis, we derive a luminosity of $ L=3.4-3.8L_ odot$ and an effective temperature in the range $ log(T_{eff}) =3.85-4.2$.
This study will explicitly demonstrate by example that an unrestricted infinite and forward recursive hierarchy of differential equations must be identified as an unclosed system of equations, despite the fact that to each unknown function in the hierarchy there exists a corresponding determined equation to which it can be bijectively mapped to. As a direct consequence, its admitted set of symmetry transformations must be identified as a weaker set of indeterminate equivalence transformations. The reason is that no unique general solution can be constructed, not even in principle. Instead, infinitely many disjoint and thus independent general solution manifolds exist. This is in clear contrast to a closed system of differential equations that only allows for a single and thus unique general solution manifold, which, by definition, covers all possible particular solutions this system can admit. Herein, different first order Riccati-ODEs serve as an example, but this analysis is not restricted to them. All conclusions drawn in this study will translate to any first order or higher order ODEs as well as to any PDEs.
Adelic generalization of theoretical physics lead us to multiple wave functions of a quantum system, multiple realities and multiple universes, consequently. Our understanding of matter, especially its quantum aspects is still quite pure, but discretization appears as a quite favorable prediction of the theory, challenging our understanding of continuality and reality. It was shown that a general theory, based on number theory and nonarchimedean spaces, including multiple wave functions of the Universe, can be compatible with Cosmic Microwave Background observations. Recent investigations show that quantum tachyons could allow us to consider even more realistic inflationary models including quantum fluctuation. In this paper, we consider physical but also philosophical implications of this theoretical progress.
The common belief is that water can affect the performance of iron nanocatalysts (FT) in Fischer-Tropsch reaction by reducing the activity, selectivity and the rate of reaction. In this study, using nano iron - Paraffin/polymer matrix as nanocatalysts have enhanced the FTS performance in the presenceof water partial pressure.Thermal decomposition method was successfully used to synthesize iron nanoparticles with different nano size, which measured using scattering of dynamic light. In the Fe - Paraffin/polymer (Fe-P/p) systemsthe polymers;polyethylene glycol (PEG) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR)were used. The conversion of the synthesis gas which depends on the contact time wasfrom 4% to 74%.XRD and AFM confirmed that there are two forms of iron;Fe3O4 and δ-FeOOH. The high rateof reaction of FTS (RCO) was observed in the Fe–paraffin– PEG as nanocatalyst. The experimental data was used to analyze the kinetic models for the flow of CO;this gave water partial pressure(PH2O),kinetic and thermodynamic characteristics of the process.The relationship between the values of the activation energies and the polymers nature of the stabilizers were established.
A new two element hybrid MIMO DRA is presented for LTE operation. The presented MIMO having two elements excited with CPW feeding. This is operating under hybrid TM mode. MIMO is intended on partial ground with thickness of 0.035 mm, substrate (FR-4) with dielectric constant (εr) of 4.6, thickness 1.6 mm and loss tangent 0.019. The DRA is placed on the two elements individually. The dimensions of the presented MIMO are 90 X 107.8 X 13 mm3. The antenna gives a multiband to covers 0.8 GHz, 1.5 GHz, and 1.7 GHz for |S11| ≤ -10 dB. The proposed MIMO can cover LTE Band 5 and Band 6 at 0.84 GHz with operating band width of 83.2 MHz (0.8106 – 0.8938 GHz), LTE Band 21 at 1.5 GHz with operating band width of 45.4 MHz (1.4825 – 1.5279 GHz) and LTE Band 9 at 1.7 GHz with operating band with is 72.6 MHz (1.7382 – 1.8108 GHz). The simulated isolation of -74.96 dB, -75.53 dB and -81.41 dB are obtained with respect to the mentioned frequencies, respectively. MIMO provides very good radiation efficiency >140 % at band-1, > 81% at band-2 and >82% at band-3. The proposed antenna is discovered to attain good isolation, better impedance matching, low Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC) and adequate gain. Hence, This MIMO suitable for LTE applications. The HFSS software is used for the simulation.
The results of the APMP key comparison on calibration of gauge blocks by interferometry (APMP.L-K1.1.2011) are reported. This comparison is bilateral between KIM-LIPI and NMIJ and used a similar set of steel gauge blocks ranging from 0.5 mm to 100 mm in length as APMP.L-K1.1. The results are analyzed using En numbers with weighted mean values as the reference values. The agreement between the laboratories is well within the expanded uncertainties. However, there are signs of possibilities of latent offset and length-dependent errors. Furthermore, the KIM-LIPI's results on the gauge block of 90 mm showed a strange distribution. Further investigation and comparison with other laboratories are advisable. Main text. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCL, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).
Specificities of Josephson effect electrodynamics in anisotropic superconductors are of considerable interest for the study of high temperature superconductors with strongly anisotropic layered structure. In this paper the authors give the calculation for the tunnel Josephson contact of an isolated vortex, the law of dispersion of its low-amplitude oscillations, the critical field H/sub cl/ for the penetration of magnetic flux, and the maximum current across a rectangular contact.
Changes in temperature or stress state may induce reversible B2$ leftrightarrow$(R)$ leftrightarrow$ B19' martensitic transformations and associated shape memory effects in close-to-stoichiometric nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys. Recent experimental studies confirmed a considerable impact of the hydrogen-rich aging atmosphere on the subsequent B2 austenite $ leftrightarrow$ B19' martensite transformation path. In this paper, we employ Density Functional Theory to study properties of Ar, He, and H interstitials in B2 austenite and B19' martensite phases. We show that H interstitials exhibit negative formation energies, while Ar and He interstitials yield positive values. Our theoretical analysis of slightly Ni-rich Ni--Ti alloys with the austenite B2 structure shows that a slight over-stoichiometry towards Ni-rich compositions in a range 51--$52 , text{at.%}$ is energetically favorable. The same conclusion holds for H-doped NiTi with the H content up to $ approx6 , text{at.%}$. In agreement with experimental data we predict H atoms to have a strong impact on the martensitic phase transformation in NiTi by altering the mutual thermodynamic stability of the high-temperature cubic B2 and the low-temperature monoclinic B19' phase of NiTi. Hydrogen atoms are predicted to form stable interstitial defects. As this is not the case for He and Ar, mixtures of hydrogen and the two inert gases can be used in annealing experiments to control H partial pressure when studying the martensitic transformations in NiTi in various atmospheres.
We calculate the soft gluon radiation spectrum off heavy quarks (HQs) interacting with light quarks (LQs) beyond small angle scattering (eikonality) approximation and thus generalize the dead-cone formula of heavy quarks extensively used in the literatures of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) phenomenology to the large scattering angle regime which may be important in the energy loss of energetic heavy quarks in the deconfined Quark-Gluon Plasma medium. In the proper limits, we reproduce all the relevant existing formulae for the gluon radiation distribution off energetic quarks, heavy or light, used in the QGP phenomenology.
The shape of a drop centered in an axisymmetric extensional flow is determined by the viscous stresses that deform the drop and surface tension γ′ that resists the deformation. The ratio of these stresses is given by the capillary number, Ca. When Ca is small enough, the drop attains a steady shape. However, above a threshold value, Cacr, the drop elongates continuously, and no steady shape is attained. When surfactants are present on the drop interface, the surface tension is determined by the surface concentration profile, which varies throughout the deformation process. Initially, the surface tension is given by γeq′, in equilibrium with the uniform surface concentration Γeq′. When the flow is initiated, surfactant is swept toward the drop tips, reducing the surface tension there, and altering the interfacial stress balance tangentially through Marangoni stresses and normally through the Laplace pressure. In this paper, the effects of an insoluble surfactant on drop deformation are studied. In previous...
Due to rapid demand on the thermoelectric cooler box, an investigation concerning the effect of water volume on a thermoelectric cooler box performance and its COP has been conducted. The aim of this study is to know the performance and the COP of the cooler box with water volume variations. The conduction heat transfer rate flowing from the ambient to the cooler box space is discussed deeply as this type of heat transfer rate is seldom to be elucidated in the published literature and it can be the dominant of the heat load when there is no water volume inside the cooler box. The cooler box size was 390 mm x 320 mm x 530 mm and the water volume variations employed were ranging from 0 to 4500 ml. The power used was of approximately 51.27 W. The results indicate that increasing the water volume raises the cooler box space temperature and the COP but decreases the conduction heat transfer rate. At 0 ml water volume, the conduction heat transfer rate increases and it gets constant, while at higher water volumes the COP decreases with the time. The effect of the water volume on the heat transfer rate of the air is negligible but it is significant on the total heat transfer and conduction heat transfer.
Zn1−xNixO thin films (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20) were systematically synthesized by Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption And Reaction (SILAR) method with 40 SILAR cycle and then were annealed at 300 °C. Influence of nickel doping and annealing treatment on the structural, morphological, optical and gas sensing properties of Zn1−xNixO thin films were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and optical absorption measurements were used for characterization of the films. The gas sensing properties of the Zn1−xNixO sensors for low nitric oxide (NO) gas concentrations were investigated as a function of operating temperature and doping concentration. The gas sensing results showed that the doping process strongly influenced the response of ZnO sensors. The optimal operating temperature of the sensors was found of 95 °C, the response of the annealed Zn00.90Ni0.10O sensor for 25 ppm NO reached a maximum of 63%. The Zn0.90Ni0.10O sensor exhibited higher response and better response/recovery times than the others. It was concluded that Ni doping and annealing treatment enhanced the gas sensing properties of sensors by changing microstructure, morphology, bandgap of ZnO films.
In an exposure of the Fermilab 15-foot neon-hydrogen bubble chamber to a quadrupole triplet neutrino beam, 49 ..mu../sup -/e/sup +/ and 14 ..mu../sup +/e/sup -/ events with e/sup + -/ momenta greater than 0.3 GeV/c have been observed, yielding ..mu..e rates per charged-current event of (0.73 +- 0.11)% and (1.1 +- 0.3)%, respectively. The ..mu../sup -/e/sup +/ rate shows no strong energy dependence in the range from 30 to 300 GeV. The 18 neutral strange particles observed in the 63 events contain 14 K/sup 0//sub S/, 2 ..lambda.., and 2 ..lambda../K/sup 0//sub S/ ambiguities, suggesting that the events are predominantly D-meson production and decay and that the ..lambda../sup +//sub c/..--> lambda..eX branching ratio is very small. The corrected numbers of neutral strange particles per ..mu../sup -/e/sup +/ and ..mu../sup +/e/sup -/ event are 1.2 +- 0.3 and 0.6/sup +0.6//sub -0.3/, respectively. Properties of the events, including strange-particle production, are compared to ..mu../sup - +/..mu../sup + -/ events in the same experiment and to a charm production and decay model, and good agreement is found, apart from a possible enhancement at approx.5--6 GeV/c/sup 2/ in the mass of the system recoiling against the ..mu../sup +/ in ..mu../sup +/e/sup -/ (and ..mu../supmore » +/..mu../sup -/) events. As reported previously, four events show short-lived-particle decays, and D-meson lifetime estimates are reevaluated using the final event sample. One ..mu../sup +/e/sup +/ and three ..mu../sup -/e/sup -/ events were observed. The ..mu../sup -/e/sup -/ events are consistent with background and lead to a ..mu../sup -/e/sup -//..mu../sup -/e/sup +/ ratio of less than 0.07 (90% confidence level) for e/sup + -/ momenta above 0.8 GeV/c. Five candidates for dilepton production by electron neutrinos and antineutrinos in the beam are consistent with approximately 1% rates. No good three-lepton candidates were found, and one, previously reported, four-lepton candidate was found.« less
Two voltage-mode multi-phase sinusoidal oscillators are realized in this paper using dual output second generation current conveyors as active elements and with some passive elements. The topology of proposed oscillator-I is a non-inverting band-pass filter and a unity gain feedback circuit. The proposed oscillator-II realizes a voltage mode oscillator and generates eight phases of sinusoidal output having equal magnitudes. PSPICE simulation results confirm the theory.
During the first 35 close Titan flybys the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument (RPWS) aboard the CASSINI orbiter did not observe radio signals possibly associated with lightning in the atmosphere of Titan [Fischer et al., 2007, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22104). The electric field sensors of the HUYGENS PWA instrument (permittivity, waves and altimetry) observed smooth variations as well as impulsive events varying with altitude during the descent of the probe in the atmosphere of Titan. While a part of the low frequency signals was explained as externally driven Schumann resonances, there is still a debate on the origin of the impulsive events. In order to differentiate natural atmospheric discharges from sources on the parachute or the probe the HUYGENS electric field data have been re-evaluated und combined with probe attitude and velocity. The correlation results indicate that atmospheric electricity phemonena are present in the atmosphere of Titan.
We present a theoretical study of the image potential resonances (IPRs) at metal surfaces. We develop the Green's functions approach allowing us to calculate binding energies ${E}_{n}$ and lifetimes ${ ensuremath{ tau}}_{n}$ of IPRs with high quantum numbers $n$ (up to 10 in this work). A systematic study is performed at the $ overline{ ensuremath{ Gamma}}$ point for the close-packed metal surfaces: Cu(111), Ag(111), Au(111), Al(001), Al(111), Be(0001), Mg(0001), Na(110), Li(110), and also at the $ overline{ mathrm{Y}}$ point on Cu(110). The calculated lifetimes of IPRs on close-packed surfaces demonstrate the scaling law ${ ensuremath{ tau}}_{n} ensuremath{ propto}{n}^{3}$. Our results are in agreement with available experimental data. We show that at the $ overline{ mathrm{Y}}$ point on Cu(110) each quantum number $n$ corresponds to a pair of IPRs ${n}^{+}$ and ${n}^{ ensuremath{-}}$, where the energy difference ${E}_{n+} ensuremath{-}{E}_{n ensuremath{-}}$ is proportional to ${n}^{ ensuremath{-}3}$. The lifetimes ${ ensuremath{ tau}}_{n+}$ and ${ ensuremath{ tau}}_{n ensuremath{-}}$ differ significantly, however, they both obey the scaling law ${ ensuremath{ tau}}_{n ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}} ensuremath{ propto}{n}^{3}$. Since the electrons trapped in the long-lived IPRs are strongly localized on the vacuum side, we argue that the inelastic electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering have a small contribution to the decay rate of these IPRs. The latter is dominated by the resonant electron transfer into the bulk.
In the previous paper we studied Dirac fermions in a non-Abelian random vector potential by using lattice supersymmetry. By the lattice regularization, the system of disordered Dirac fermions is defined without any ambiguities. We showed there that at strong-disorder limit correlation function of the fermion local density of states decays algebraically at the band center. In this paper, we shall reexamine the multi-flavor or multi-species case rather in detail and argue that the correlator at the band center decays { em exponentially} for the case of a { em large} number of flavors. This means that a delocalization-localization phase transition occurs as the number of flavors is increased. This discussion is supported by the recent numerical studies on multi-flavor QCD at the strong-coupling limit, which shows that the phase structure of QCD drastically changes depending on the number of flavors. The above behaviour of the correlator of the random Dirac fermions is closely related with how the chiral symmetry is realized in QCD.
The effect of patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) on the top-surface (P-GaN-surface) and the bottom-surface (sapphire-surface) of the light output power (LOP) of GaN-based LEDs was investigated, in order to study the changes in reflection and transmission of the GaN-sapphire interface. Experimental research and computer simulations were combined to reveal a great enhancement in LOP from either the top or bottom surface of GaN-based LEDs, which are prepared on patterned sapphire substrates (PSS-LEDs). Furthermore, the results were compared to those of the conventional LEDs prepared on the planar sapphire substrates (CSS-LEDs). A detailed theoretical analysis was also presented to further support the explanation for the increase in both the effective reflection and transmission of PSS-GaN interface layers and to explain the causes of increased LOP values. Moreover, the bottom-surface of the PSS-LED chip shows slightly increased light output performance when compared to that of the top-surface. Therefore, the light extraction efficiency (LEE) can be further enhanced by integrating the method of PSS and flip-chip structure design.
We calculate partition functions for lens spaces up to p = 8 and for genus-1 and -2 handlebodies , in the Turaev - Viro framework. These can be interpreted as transition amplitudes in three-dimensional quantum gravity. In the case of lens spaces these are vacuum-to-vacuum amplitudes , whereas for the 1- and 2-handlebodies , they represent genuinely topological transition amplitudes and , respectively.
In recent years, Fourier-based methods, originally introduced by [Moulinec and Suquet, 1994], have become ubiquitous for computing numerically the properties of composite materials, with applications in domains ranging from linear elasticity [Willot et al., 2008], viscoplasticity [Lebensohn, 2001], crack propagation [Li et al., 2011], to thermal and electrical [Willot et al., 2013, Willot and Jeulin, 2011], but also optical properties [Azzimonti et al., 2013]. The success of the method resides in its ability to cope with arbitrarily complex and often very large microstructures, supplied as segmented images of real materials, e.g., multi-scale nano-composites [Jean et al., 2011], austenitic steel [Belkhabbaz et al., 2011], granular media [Willot et al., 2013] or polycrystals [Prakash and Lebensohn, 2009, Rollett et al., 2010, Lebensohn et al., 2005]. This technique allows maps of the local fields to be computed in realistic microstructures. Such fields are representative of the material behavior if the resolution is small enough, and if the system size is large enough, compare d with the typical length scale of the heterogeneities. Contrary to finite-element methods where matrix pre-conditioning often necessitates additional memory occupation, Fast-Fourier-Transform (FFT) methods are limited only by the amount of RAM or fast-access computer memory required to store the fields.
A model for synchronization of globally coupled phase oscillators including "inertial" effects is analyzed. In such a model, both oscillator frequencies and phases evolve in time. Stationary solutions include incoherent (unsynchronized) and synchronized states of the oscillator population. Assuming a Lorentzian distribution of oscillator natural frequencies, g(Omega), both larger inertia or larger frequency spread stabilize the incoherent solution, thereby making it harder to synchronize the population. In the limiting case g(Omega)=delta(Omega), the critical coupling becomes independent of inertia. A richer phenomenology is found for bimodal distributions. For instance, inertial effects may destabilize incoherence, giving rise to bifurcating synchronized standing wave states. Inertia tends to harden the bifurcation from incoherence to synchronized states: at zero inertia, this bifurcation is supercritical (soft), but it tends to become subcritical (hard) as inertia increases. Nonlinear stability is investigated in the limit of high natural frequencies.
This paper proposes a 128-channel column-parallel two-stage time-to-digital converter (TDC) utilizing a time difference amplifier (TDA) and shows measurement results with a 0.35um CMOS process. The 1st stage operates as a coarse TDC, the time residue which is not converted in the 1st stage is amplified by a TDA, then converted by the 2nd stage TDC. As the gain of the time difference amplifier can be adjusted from 8.6 to 21.6, the time resolution of the TDC can be tuned from 22.4ps to 8.9ps. The time resolution variation due to PVT effects is ±12% without compensation, however calibration can be used to compensate for this variation.
The enhancement factors of a new structure called the nanograting metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which was proposed to achieve higher current drivability, were analyzed. From the measurement of the transconductance, the drivability enhancements of both n- and p-type MOSFETs were confirmed. This was mainly ascribed to the increased effective channel width. However, the enhancement ratios in nMOS and pMOS were different. In the nanograting MOSFETs, the existence of the current flowing in the <110> direction on the (110) surface caused the effective electron mobility to be lower and the effective hole mobility to be higher than that in the conventional devices on the (100) surface. The stress from the polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) gate also resulted in the change of the mobility. Because of the reasons above, the mobility difference between the nanograting nMOSFET and pMOSFET became slighter, thus, the area balance of the nanograting complementary MOS (CMOS) circuit could be improved. Combining this with the increased drivability could give the area advantage of the nanograting CMOSFETs.
The frequency dependence of carbon nanotube (CNT) first hyperpolarizability has been studied. A code for quantitative estimation based on the sum over states (SOS) method has been written and calculations performed on a symmetrized basis. The main advantage of performing SOS calculations with symmetrized eigenfunctions relies on the direct identification of the essential channels that give a contribution to first hyperpolarizability. Although the method calculates hyperpolarizability both for metallic and semiconducting chiral CNTs, as an explicative example, results of calculation for the (4,1) metallic chiral topology are reported together with an analysis of the transitions responsible for resonant enhancements. The role played by CNT electron statistics is investigated in detail: results of simulations demonstrate that the ratio of the resonant peaks can be interpreted as a signature of a quasi-Luttinger or Fermi liquid regime. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We present an experimental setup for laser-based angle-resolved time-of-flight photoemission. Using a picosecond pulsed laser, photons of energy 10.5 eV are generated through higher harmonic generation in xenon. The high repetition rate of the light source, variable between 0.2 and 8 MHz, enables high photoelectron count rates and short acquisition times. By using a time-of-flight analyzer with angle-resolving capabilities, electrons emitted from the sample within a circular cone of up to ±15° can be collected. Hence, simultaneous acquisition of photoemission data for a complete area of the Brillouin zone is possible. The current photon energy enables bulk sensitive measurements, high angular resolution, and the resulting covered momentum space is large enough to enclose the entire Brillouin zone in cuprate high-T(c) superconductors. Fermi edge measurements on polycrystalline Au shows an energy resolution better than 5 meV. Data from a test measurement of the Au(111) surface state are presented along with measurements of the Fermi surface of the high-T(c) superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8 + δ) (Bi2212).
A 4π germanium spectrometer was developed for measurements of neutron capture cross sections of minor ac-tinides and long-lived-fission products. It was installed on the Beam Line No. 04 of the MLF in the J-PARC. We measured its full-energy peak efficiency and gamma-energy resolution at 1.3-MeV with a 60Co standard source (10kBq). As an example of a result of TOF measurements with the spectrometer, preliminary TOF and energy spectra of 108Pd are shown in this paper.
Electric field has a lot of applications in technology. One of them is electrodynamic separation : electric field influences selectively granular solids of different electric moments or charges. A mathematical model of the separation process in the high voltage drum separator is presented in the paper. Particles are charged both with induction and corona phenomena: next, they are separated with field forces. The computational results are presented and analysed.
Demand for skin replacements is rapidly increasing as burn and full-thickness wounds are difficult to repair due to the low regeneration capability of innate tissues, as well as the physical drawbacks associated with currently available substitutes. To address this need, an emerging 3D printing technique, melt-electrowriting (MEW) was used to create novel bioactive scaffolds to promote skin regeneration. Polycaprolactone (PCL), a bioresorbable and biocompatible, synthetic polymer with Food and Drug Administration approval for use in the human body was selected as scaffold material due to its mechanical stability, flexibility, and superior melt processing properties. In order to increase PCL’s biological functionality bioactive milk proteins (MPs) were blended with PCL. To date, this is the first study of its kind detailing the tissue regenerative capacity of PCL containing MPs as bioactive additives for skin regeneration using MEW. The aim of this study was to MEW MP/PCL tissue engineered constructs (TEC) and assess their suitability for generating tissue in vitro. The MPs, lactoferrin (LF) and whey protein (WP), were mixed with PCL individually at varying concentrations (0.05%, 0.1%, 0.25%), and in combination (COMB) at concentrations of 0.25% each. TECs were characterised chemically, physically, and their biological activity assessed in vitro. Physical characterisation of MEW MP/PCL scaffolds showed that reproducible, layered micron range scaffolds could be fabricated; displaying high porosity, low degradation, and rapid protein release. Biological activity, determined via an in vitro skin model using human keratinocytes (HaCaTs) and normal human dermal fibroblasts cells, showed significantly increased cell growth, spreading, and infiltration into LF (0.25%) containing scaffolds and COMB scaffolds when compared to PCL alone (p ≤ 0.05). These findings demonstrated that the combined addition of LF and WP increased the biological activity of MEW PCL scaffolds and could be potentially used as a TEC for deep tissue dermal regeneration.
In the axial gauge an integral equation for the gluon propagator of a pure Yang-Mills theory is derived based on the Dyson-Schwinger equation and the Slavnov-Taylor identities. Dimensional regularization is used. The solution of this equation is investigated in the case where the variable γ = (nk)2/n2k2 is different from zero and it is seen that the nice properties of the confining solution D(k) ~ 1/k4 are lost in this case.
The aim of this research was to apply bromelain enzyme from rough extract of Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. peel into the mouthwash preparation and investigate the enzyme activity to inhibit Streptococcus mutans growth.. The research method, bromelain was extracted by means of a blended pineapple skin, the extract was filtrated and centrifuged to obtain a supernatant. Enzyme activity was analyzed by spectrophotometer at 275 nm. Mouthwash formula which involved different concentration of bromelain (20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 50%, and 60% (v/v)) was tested the antimicrobial activity by disc diffusion method. The results showed that the formula with 35% enzyme was an effective in restricting the growth of Streptococcus mutans, with a relative potential value of 100.40% compared to Chlorhexidin 0.1% as possitive control.
Superconducting spoke cavities for laser Compton scattered (LCS) photon sources is under development. The operating frequency is 325-MHz to accelerate electron beam for the LCS sources, where the size of the spoke cavity is less than an elliptical cavities with the same frequency. Because of the complicated shape of the cavity, it may be suffered from a strong multipactor effect. A trial of multipactor analysis is described.
The article presents the prospects of using biogas fuel. Mathematical model of processes proceeding at the gas purification in amine installation unit has been developed. A software package has been proposed that allows to determine the quantitative yield of methane, design and thermal insulation characteristics of a biogas reactor by anthropogenic load. We determine the main parameters and energy efficiency of the biogas plant for the conditions of the Saratov, efficiency of energy-saving measures at the biogas fuel usage is shown. The practical significance of the work lies in the use of the developed model in the design of anaerobic reactors on polygon of residential solid waste (RSW), small settlements and microdistricts distant from other sources of energy supply.
In the prostate cancer treatment, the dose prescribed by the medical radio-oncologist depends on the extension of the disease and the threshold dose of the adjacent healthy tissues. In order to achieve an optimal tumoral control in early and locally advanced stages, it is necessary to increase the dose with a low morbility probability at the vesicle an rectal level. This is achieved through conformal radiotherapy. The Instituto Nacional de Cancerología uses this technique, but two questions arise from the medical-physicists and medical radio-oncologist: In accordance with clinical protocols, the conformal radiotherapy delivers a low dose to the adjacent healthy tissues. What experimental method exists that can prove with certainly the veracity of this affirmation? And, Do the dosimetric simulation systems calculate suitably the dose for each tissues, as recommended by International Atomic Energy Agency quality control programs for ionizer radiation? This paper seeks to answer these questions. Through thermoluminiscent dosimetry and the use of a physical simulator, we measured the absorbed dose at the target volume and the adjacent tissues using conformal and conventional radiotherapy. We proved that organs such as the rectum and bladder, receive a minor dose in conformal radiotherapy, hence reducing their morbility probability. In addition, the readings from the thermoluminiscent dosimeters and the doses calculated by the ECLIPSE dosimetric system were compared, concluding that the patient’s prescribed dose is effectively delivered as recommended by the quality control programs in radiotherapy.
A scheme combining nodal finite elements and the technique of field expansion into eigenmodes is proposed to determine the equivalent circuit parameters and scattering characteristics of general waveguide junctions. The field description is based on the (A,V)-formulation providing continuous variables for jumps of both permittivity and permeability. To ensure a unique field description the Coulomb gauge is imposed on the magnetic vector potential. Hence, a numerically stable formulation is achieved which was proved to generate no spurious solutions. To verify the reliability of the suggested approach various scattering problems have been investigated. Some numerical results and comparisons are given. >
The invention discloses a 3GHz pulse frequency measurement method realized by using a pulse broadband amplification and demodulation circuit. The method comprises inputting a pulse signal to a directional coupler, and connecting one branch of signals outputted by the directional coupler to the input end of a prescaler after being amplified by a broadband amplifier; inputting the other branch of the signals outputted by the directional coupler to a switch control and door control unit; outputting door control signals from one branch of the switch control and door control unit, and inputting the other branch to the prescaler; subjecting the signals to frequency division treatment by the prescaler according to carrier frequency; directly transmitting the carrier signals after frequency division treatment by the prescaler to a counter in an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) to count the pulses; demodulating signals from the previous stage; dividing the pulse signals into two branches after being amplified by the amplifier; detecting a modulation envelope to serve as the door control signal; measuring each modulated pulse width; and calculating the carrier frequency. The method provided by the invention has the advantages of simple test process and high sensitivity, and is convenient and accurate in use.
Cellulose is a polymer that is abundant in the environment, but they are unable to digest by the human digestive system. This study aims to determine the anti-pathogenic ability and measure the cellulase activity of B-G31 isolate. Auto-aggregation and co-aggregation methods were used to analyze the anti-pathogenic role of B-G31 against biofilm formed by Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. To assess glucose concentration obtained from cellulose degradation, B-G31 supernatant was reacted in different CMC concentrations (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, and 2.5%) and was measured their absorbance (OD540) using ELISA spectrophotometer. The study has revealed that the percentage of B-G31 auto-aggregation is 26% and they can explicitly inhibit colonization of E. coli and S. aureus biofilm accounted for 20.21% and 21.20%, respectively, the bacteria also exhibited antagonistic activity towards two bacterial pathogens. Furthermore, enzyme activity was relatively high in the presence of 2% CMC with 0.913 U/mL to yield average glucose of 411.75 ppm and significantly different from that in the control group (p < 0.05). However, the enzyme value in 0.5% CMC concentration was about 0.345 U/mL and not significantly different from control group (p > 0.05). Our results indicated that B-G31 isolated from Valanganigricornis can form aggregates against bacterial-tests biofilm and increase degradation of cellulose, thus, the isolate could probably be used as probiotics to digest cellulose.
Abstract We obtain a fermionic coset realization of the primaries of minimal unitary models and show how their four-point functions may be calculated by the use of a reduction formula. We illustrate the construction for the Ising model, where we obtain an explicit realization of the energy operator, Onsager fermions, as well as of the order and disorder operators realizing the dual algebra, in terms of constrained Dirac fermions. The four-point correlators of these operators are shown to agree with those obtained by other methods.
In an aspect, an isolator is provided for isolating torsional vibration between a crankshaft of an engine and an endless drive member. The isolator includes a driver drivable by the crankshaft, a pulley that is engageable with an endless drive member, at least one isolation spring that is positioned to transfer forces between the driver and the pulley and to isolate torsional vibrations in the driver and the pulley from one another, and a damping structure configured to frictionally resist relative movement between the driver and the pulley beyond a selected relative threshold angle, and to permit relative movement between the driver and the pulley within the selected relative threshold angle without frictional resistance from the damping structure.
In this letter we explore the propagation behavior of permeability reduction due to particulate transport in heterogeneous porous media. By simulating an advection-dispersion–based model we find that an attenuating sequence exists in terms of the propagation of particle concentration, permeability reduction and heterogeneity perturbation. The advancing speed of the fronts of the mentioned physical quantities attenuates successively from const to to (where n > 1 and t denotes time) regardless of the heterogeneity patterns. Then we move on to discuss the micro-dynamics of the propagation sequence, involving how it originates and how it connects with the macroscopic results. Moreover, exploiting the propagation mechanism enables us to know the condition under which we can apply the hypothesis of media homogeneity to describe the behavior of the particulate transport system in porous media.
Ice crystals are present in a variety of clouds, at suﬃciently low temperature. We consider here mixed-phase clouds which, at temperature & − 20 ◦ C , contain ice crystals, shaped approximately as thin oblate ellipsoids. We investigate the motion of these particles transported by an isotropic turbulent ﬂow, and in particular, the collision between these crystals, a key process in the formation of graupels. Using fully-resolved direct numerical simulations, and neglecting the eﬀects of ﬂuid inertia on the particle motion, we determine the inﬂuence of the turbulence intensity and of gravitational settling, in a realistic range of parameters. At small Reynolds numbers, collisions are induced mainly by diﬀerential gravitational settling between particles with diﬀerent orientations. The eﬀect has a clear signature on the relative orientation of colliding ellipsoids. As the Reynolds number increases, however, the inﬂuence of the turbulent velocity ﬂuctuations becomes the dominant eﬀect determining the collision rate. Using simple estimates, we propose an elementary understanding of the relative importance of gravitational settling and turbulent ﬂuctuations.
Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) is a warning system that provides information about the estimated S wave arrival time, which can cause significant and destructive seismic energy using the information carried by the P wave. Technological advances in analyzing data supported by big data, the interconnection between networks, and high-performance computing systems in the era of the 4.0 industrial revolution have posed challenges to process and analyze earthquake early warning using modern seismological techniques. Early identification of earthquake events is the key to time efficiency to accelerate the dissemination of information. Here, we implement deep learning for early detection and classification of the earthquake P wave and noise signals using raw historical data from 3 component BMKG single station (2014 -2020) in the subduction zone of West Sumatra. The feature selection of the waveform is only selected for earthquakes distance in the cluster close to the station centroid. Statistically, the results of training and testing show good and convergent performance. This result is a preliminary study of deep learning, which is targeted at the classification of earthquakes p wave and noise signals and its association to estimate early earthquake location using 3 component record channels.
The magnetization and magnetoresistance of (A = Sr, Ca) single crystals have been studied in the static regime. The same characteristics have been investigated as functions of time in response to a sharp change of the magnetic field. The magnetic moment M, dynamic magnetic susceptibility , and resistivity are found to relax noticeably in the samples with A = Sr (x = 0.3, 0.35). These parameters are shown to relax approximately logarithmically over time. The relaxation is temperature dependent, and diminishes when the temperature is far from that of the magnetic transition. The resistivity and magnetization do not relax when the field direction is reversed instantaneously. The static and relaxation properties observed are interpreted in the framework of a simple phenomenological model.
The Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), using the coupled BATSRUS model, the Rice Convection Model, and an ionosphere electrodynamics solver, is used to simulate 10 space weather events. The simulations are completed in near real time using a limited amount of computational resources. Satellite‐specific magnetic field, plasma energy‐density spectra, and integrated particle density and temperature are compared against in situ measurements to validate the coupled system. Results are examined both qualitatively and quantitatively to assess model performance. The results show that the system is adept at reproducing large‐scale magnetic field variations and predicts plasma temperature and density at values near to the measured mean. Smaller‐scale features, such as dipolarizations of the magnetic field at geosynchronous locations, are not reproduced well. Lack of cold particle sources in the inner magnetosphere causes the particle results to suffer. This work is part of a larger effort to thoroughly validate the SWMF.
A radio wave reception unit (20) receives radio waves transmitted by a positioning satellite, by using an antenna (10), and receives positioning satellite signals. A speed measurement unit (50) measures the travel speed of the antenna (10) and the travel distance of the antenna (10) along an orbit from a reference position. A position and time calculation unit (80) calculates the position of the positioning satellite, the reception position of the antenna (10), and the time, on the basis of the positioning satellite signals. A time measurement unit (30) measures time within a set error range. An error upper limit determination unit (60) evaluates a positioning error upper limit for the antenna (10) reception position on the basis of: a value obtained as a result of the difference between the time calculated from the positioning satellite signals and the time measured by the time measurement unit (30) being multiplied by a coefficient determined from position of the positioning satellite; and orbit position information in a storage unit (40). A position determination unit (70) corrects the travel distance measured by the speed measurement unit (50) and determines the antenna (10) position, on the basis of the positioning error upper limit evaluation.
Previous studies have shown that nanoparticle chain aggregates (NCA) of titania are elastic [S. K. Friedlander, H. D. Jang and K. H. Ryu, Appl. Phys. Lett. 72, 1 (1998)]. The NCA were a few tenths of a micron long and composed of (approximately) 7 nm primary particles. They were produced by thermal decomposition of titanium tetraisopropoxide vapor in nitrogen. The goal of this study was to see whether the elastic behavior depends on (a) the material properties, (b) primary particle size, and (c) method of NCA formation. For this purpose, titania, alumina, and iron oxide NCA were generated by laser ablation. Rotating metal foil targets were mounted in a small cylindrical chamber and exposed to an excimer laser beam. The resulting aerosol was swept out by an oxygen stream. The generator was operated to produce NCA with similar mobility diameter and primary particle size. The NCA were deposited on the carbon or formvar films of an electron micrograph grid. Under the electron beam a hole develops in the carbo...
The generalized McVittie space-times, which are the natural extensions of a class of metrics introduced by McVittie in 1933 to model the space-time outside a spherical object embedded in an expanding universe, have recently been proposed by Faraoni and Jacques as candidate space-times for cosmological black holes. In this paper I analyze the singularities and horizon structure of the generalized McVittie space-times, and show that any expanding space-time of this type that satisfies the null energy condition and develops apparent horizons must asymptote to a standard McVittie solution. Furthermore, if the scale factor is asymptotically exponential then the space-time is future-incomplete and can be joined smoothly to an eternally-inflating Kottler (Schwarzschild-de Sitter) solution. I argue that no generalized McVittie space-time, apart from the Schwarzschild solution, can adequately represent a black hole, because all singular points are surrounded by anti-trapped regions rather than trapped regions.
We present Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) observations of interstellar UV absorption toward HD 177989, a B0 III star at 4.9 kpc in the direction l = 17.°8, b = -11.°9. The line of sight passes through the high-latitude ejecta of the Scutum supershell (GS 018-06+44), which is ~5° in diameter extending ~7° below the Galactic plane at a kinematic distance of ~3.5 kpc in the Scutum spiral arm. The observations with the STIS E140H and GHRS echelle B gratings provide far- and middle-UV spectra at resolutions (FWHM) of ~3 km s-1 and a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of ~20:1 to 50:1. The observations reveal strong and broad absorption in the lines of Si IV and C IV centered on LSR velocities of +18 and +42 km s-1 and weaker absorption from these ions near -50 and -13 km s-1. Weak absorption by N V extends over the full velocity range traced by Si IV and C IV. The +18 km s-1 high-ionization absorption likely occurs in gas ~400 pc below the Sagittarius spiral arm, while the extremely strong +42 km s-1 absorption occurs in highly ionized gas in the Scutum supershell at a distance of ~700 pc below the Galactic plane. The properties of the highly ionized gas associated with the Scutum supershell are similar to the gas found in radio loops I and IV; in both cases there is a strong enhancement in the column density of C IV without a corresponding increase in the column density of N V, which causes N(C IV)/N(N V) to be among the largest measured in the interstellar medium. The low-ionization absorption lines of N I, S II, Si II, and Fe II produce narrow absorption features at +37, +40 km s-1 and +55, +60 km s-1. The strength and kinematic properties of these absorption features bear no resemblance to those expected for the high-latitude neutral cloud seen in the H I 21 cm line. This may be due to the relatively low angular resolution (FWHM ~21′) of the 21 cm observations. The kinematic relationships among the high-ionization and low-ionization absorption lines observed in the UV suggest a related origin in a hot-warm gas interface region. We are possibly seeing the warm gas in the swept-up shell surrounding a region where hot gas is being vented into the halo. In the warm gas, N(N I)/N(S II) ~0.01 solar, which implies a similar value for N(H0)/[N(H0) + N(H+)]. The warm neutral and ionized gas in the matter overlying the Scutum supershell has values of Si /S and Fe /S roughly similar to those found in the warm neutral medium of the Galactic disk in the vicinity of the Sun. While there has been grain processing in the ejecta of the Scutum supershell, the processing has not been complete. Based on observations of interstellar C IV and Si IV at high S/N and high resolution toward four very distant stars, we determine that highly ionized gas absorption components occur at a frequency of ~1 component kpc-1. The strongest components are associated with lines of sight that pass over or under spiral arms or that pass though Galactic supershells.
Acoustic techniques used for determining bubble distributions can be limited because a solution to an ill‐conditioned inverse problem is required. Examining cases in which closed‐form solutions are possible, however, may give us insight about the inverse procedure. In a previous ASA meeting [Goodman, Caruthers, and Elmore, ‘‘Dispersion estimates for bubbly seawater,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 3196(A) (1997)], exact solutions for dispersion for the inverse procedure in special cases of bubble distributions were explored. Here some of those special cases are examined in terms of how they apply to attenuation measurements. For cases in which the closed‐form solution are not possible, the resonant bubble approximation allows for estimating the bubble population from attenuation measurements. This paper shows that there is observable error in this procedure, but that the error can be reduced by application of an iterative procedure discussed here. [Work supported by ONR.]
A possibility of `advanced tokamak' operation based on RF heating and current drive is studied using 1-D transport modelling for long pulse tokamaks such as Tore Supra. A current drive with lower hybrid and fast magnetosonic waves and strong electron heating with ion cyclotron waves are applied in this scenario. The self-consistent evolution of the energy, particles and current densities is simulated, starting from an ohmic plasma and arriving at a non-inductive steady state equilibrium. An estimation of the RF power required for the setting up of this equilibrium characterized by an improved confinement due to the building up of particle and energy internal transport barriers in the reversed magnetic shear configuration is presented. The maximum bootstrap current fraction attained in this scenario is about 50%. A limit on the bootstrap current fraction in plasmas with an L mode edge and improved core confinement produced due to the stabilizing effect of a low or negative magnetic shear is found. The conventional operational techniques with fixed plasma current or controlled plasma flux and non-inductive current are compared with the operation with the current profile control algorithm, and the advantages of current profile control are shown. The results presented are relevant to present tokamaks operating with RF heating and current drive and possibly to future tokamak projects aimed at advanced operation.
In this paper we have analyzed samples of Neolithic ceramics from Cucuteni-Scanteia - Vaslui county and Neolithic and Dacian ceramics from Magurele - Bucharest, by the method of neutron activation analysis. The following elements have been observed: Fe, K, La, Mn, Na, Sc and Sm. It has been noticed a relative and a slight clusterization of the analyzed items on the ratios of concentrations Na/Mn, La/Sc and La/Sm.
The paper discusses the deformation of plates and shallow shells, taking into account the geometric nonlinearity and plastic deformations under variable loading. In the case of an elastoplastic material, unloading, secondary plastic deformations material compressibility are taken into account. Geometric and physical relations and solving nonlinear differential equations of the theory of flexible shallow shells of elastoplastic material are given for an arbitrary loading cycle. The relationship between the intensity of stresses and strains, using the generalized Masing principle, allows one to investigate the deformation of flexible plates and shells of cyclically ideal, hardened and softened materials. In the expressions for the internal forces and internal moments, additional forces and additional moments are taken into account, as well as the history of loading of shallow plates and shells on the previous n-1-th loading.
Linear and nonlinear interactions of an electromagnetic wave with molecules of an isotropic medium induce in them multipole moments which contribute to electric polarization of the system [1]. Out of absorption bands optical rectification (OR) via the second-order susceptibility is forbidden but the fourth-order dipolar electric nonlinearity may cause OR in chiral liquids [2]. However, in absorption bands of optically active molecular system OR is allowed via the imaginary part of the Second-order susceptibility related to electric dipole interaction with the radiation field [3]. We consider an isotropic molecular system in which a plane monochromatic light wave with the electric field
We review new physics effects on CP violation in B decays. We describe the Standard Model predictions for the various types of CP asymmetries and discuss the theoretical cleanliness of these predictions. We point out the ingredients in the analysis that are most sensitive to new physics and deduce the type of new physics that is likely to modify the Standard Model predictions. Several explicit examples are discussed in detail. Finally, we explain how, if deviations from the Standard Model predictions are measured, we will be able to learn detailed features of the new physics involved. Plenary talk presented at the Workshop on B Physics at Hadron Accelerators, Snowmass, Colorado, June 21 - July 2, 1993.
The first generation of wind turbine (WT) blades are now reaching their end of life, signalling the beginning of a large problem for the future. Currently most waste is sent to landfill, which is not an environmentally desirable solution. Awareness of this issue is rising, but no studies have fully assessed the eco impact of WT blades. The present study aims to provide a macroscopic quantitative assessment of the lifetime environmental impact of WT blades. The first stage has been to analyse global data to calculate the amount of WT blade materials consumed in the past. The life cycle environmental impact of a single WT blade has then been estimated using eco data for raw materials, manufacturing processes, transportation, and operation and maintenance processes. For a typical 45.2 meter 1.5 MW blade this is 795 GJ (CO2 footprint 42.1 tonnes), dominated by manufacturing processes and raw materials (96% of the total. Based on the 2014 installed capacity, the total mass of WTB is 78 kt, their energy consumption is 82 TJ and the carbon dioxide footprint is 4.35 Mt. These figures will provide a basis for suggesting possible solutions to reduce WTB environmental impact.
Abstract Direct force measurements and qualitative flow visualization were used to compare flow field evolution versus lift and drag for a nominally two-dimensional rigid flat plate executing smoothed linear pitch ramp manoeuvres in a water tunnel. Non-dimensional pitch rate was varied from 0.01 to 0.5, incidence angle from 0 to 90°, and pitch pivot point from the leading to the trailing edge. For low pitch rates, the main unsteady effect is delay of stall beyond the steady incidence angle. Shifting the time base to account for different pivot points leads to collapse of both lift/drag history and flow field history. For higher rates, a leading edge vortex forms; its history also depends on pitch pivot point, but linear shift in time base is not successful in collapsing lift/drag history. Instead, a phenomenological algebraic relation, valid at the higher pitch rates, accounts for lift and drag for different rates and pivot points, through at least 45° incidence angle.
A detection system for the missing assembly of clutch-driven plate springs is established. The algorithms used in this system, such as point cloud data preprocessing, spring area positioning, and spring missing detection, are studied. Firstly, according to the characteristics of the clutch-driven plate spring point cloud, the Gaussian statistical method is used to eliminate the outliers incurred by system error and other reasons, and the two-sided filtering is performed on the clutch-driven plate spring point cloud that eliminates the outliers to eliminate the noise points with small ups and downs. Then, the theoretical division area is constructed by using the theoretical width between the clutch-driven plate springs and the theoretical width of the springs. Compared with actually recorded positions, the theoretical area is expanded so that the real spring point cloud data are in the corresponding positioning area; finally, the spring in the region is identified by using the characteristics of an inconsistent number of point clouds in different assembly conditions, so as to detect the missing assembly of the clutch-driven plate spring. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy of the clutch-driven plate spring assembly is as high as 100%. It can basically meet the detection requirements for the missing assembly of clutch-driven plate springs.
Experimental observations of the amplitude and frequency of low frequency magnetic field and soft X-ray fluctuations in the reversed field pinch (RFP) ZT-40M, which has toroidal and poloidal gaps in its stabilizing shell, have shown that for high values of the pinch parameter these fluctuations can be strongly affected by the configuration of the toroidal field circuit. Parallel connection of coil sections improves the toroidal flux uniformity, which results in a reduction of the fluctuation level, the toroidal loop voltage and the implied energy losses compared with those of coils connected in a series or series-parallel configuration. These results indicate that the operation of RFP experiments with shell gaps and field coils well removed from the plasma can be further improved by the addition of close fitting, parallel connected, low current coils.
The special character of certain degrees of freedom in two-layered neural networks is investigated for on-line learning of realizable rules. Our analysis shows that the dynamics of these degrees of freedom can be put on a faster timescale than those remaining, with the profit of speeding up the overall adaptation process. This is shown for two groups of degrees of freedom: second-layer weights and bias weights. For the former case our analysis provides a theoretical explanation of phenomenological findings. The resulting learning algorithm is compared with natural gradient descent in order to check whether the proposed scaling can be naturally derived from that type of learning rule.
The use of an intense beam of heavy ions to ignite a thermonuclear pellet at a distance from the final lens system requires a long thin beam with a very small longitudinal velocity spread. For perturbations long compared with the beam diameter, the longitudinal electric field due to the beam space charge can be approximated by the first derivative of the line charge density. This system of equations exhibits steepening of a finite amplitude wave. When other effects are included, such as the dispersion which occurs as the perturbation wavelength approaches the beam pipe diameter, a variation in density along the beam, or the exponential growth due to wall resistivity, the wave dynamics increase in complexity. Computer simulations are presented which illustrate some of the effects which can occur.
The UNSPEC code is used to solve the problem of unfolding an observed x-ray spectrum given the response matrix of the measuring system and the measured signal values. UNSPEC uses an iterative technique to solve the unfold problem. Due to experimental errors in the measured signal values and/or computer round-off errors, discontinuities and oscillatory behavior may occur in the iterated spectrum. These can be suppressed by smoothing the results after each iteration. Input/output options and control cards are explained; sample input and output are provided. (RWR)
The sheet resistivity has been measured in isothermal annealing studies of 10 kohm cm silicon implanted with 40 keV boron ions. The doses used were 2 x 1012 and 2 x 1014 ions/cm2. The annealing was performed in the temperature range 300 to 800°C and the maximum annealing time used was 4 hours at each temperature. The sheet resistivity of the low dose implant at each temperature decreased when the annealing time was increased but the reduction was small during annealing at 550°C. The implant with the dose 2 x 1014 ions/cm2 gave an annealing time dependent increase in the sheet resistivity at the temperature 550°C. The annealing behaviour of the implanted layers seems to be the same for the two doses. Annealing treatment of boron implanted silicon layers give for the two different doses a possibility of varying the sheet resistivity from 60 kΩ/square to 500 Ω/square.
Abstract. This paper is the second in a series on a study of the link between IMF and sporadic-E layers within the polar cap. In Paper I (Voiculescu et al., 2006), an analysis of the sporadic-E data from Thule and Longyearbyen was presented. Here we concentrate on the electric field mechanism of sporadic-E generation. By means of model calculations we show that the mechanism is effective even at Thule, where the direction of the geomagnetic field departs from vertical only by 4. The model calculations also lead to a revision of the electric field theory. Previously, a thin layer was assumed to grow at a convergent null in the vertical ion velocity, which is formed when the electric field points in the NW sector. Our calculations indicate that in the dynamic process of vertical plasma compression, a layer is generated at altitudes of high vertical convergence rather than at a null. Consequently, the layer generation is less sensitive than previously assumed to fluctuations of the electric field direction within the NW sector. The observed diurnal variations of sporadic-E occurrence at Longyearbyen and Thule are compared with the diurnal variations of the electric field, calculated using a representative range of IMF values by means of the statistical APL model. The results indicate that the main features of Es occurrence can be explained by the convection pattern controlled by the IMF. Electric fields calculated from the IMF observations are also used for producing distributions of sporadic-E occurrence as a function of electric field direction at the two sites. A marked difference between the distributions at Thule and Longyearbyen is found. A model estimate of the occurrence probability as a function of electric field direction is developed and a reasonable agreement between the model and the experimental occurrence is found. The calculation explains the differences between the distributions at the two sites in terms of the polar cap convection pattern. The conclusion is that the electric field is the major cause for sporadic-E generation and, consequently, IMF has a clear control on the occurrence of sporadic E within the polar cap.
In plasmas found in nuclear fusion energy and astrophysics, radiative properties play a pivotal role and they are needed in radiation hydrodynamic simulations of these plasmas. However, their calculation is a very complex problem involving very long computational times. One of the solutions is to perform parametrizations of the plasma radiative properties as a function of the plasma conditions which leads to considerable reductions in computational costs. In this work, we present models to generate and parametrize radiative properties databases as a function of plasma conditions which are valid for any plasma thermodynamic regime.
An analytical equation is presented which yields singly differential cross-sections for electron ejection by proton collisions. The expression is a combination of a modification of the classical binary encounter approximation for small electron energies and an exponential equation for high energies which was derived from a promotion model. The equation is consistent with the Bethe theory of inelastic scattering. The equation is fitted to experimental energy distributions of electrons over the range of proton energies from 5 keV to 1.5 MeV. Related quantities such as the average electron energy and stopping cross-section are easily calculated from the model.
We consider experimentally and theoretically a refined parameter space near the transition to multi-pulse modelocking. Near the transition, the onset of instability is initiated by a Hopf (periodic) bifurcation. As cavity energy is increased, the band of unstable, oscillatory modes generates a chaotic behavior between single- and multi-pulse operation. Both theory and experiment are in good qualitative agreement and they suggest that the phenomenon is of a universal nature in mode-locked lasers at the onset of multi-pulsing from N to N + 1 pulses per round trip. This is the first theoretical and experimental characterization of the transition behavior, made possible by a highly refined tuning of the gain pump level.
A pinhole camera for imaging x-ray synchrotron radiation from a dipole magnet is now in operation at the NSLS X-Ray Ring. The pinhole camera detector is a 0.5 mm thick YAG phosphor screen viewed by a video camera. Both the theoretical pinhole diffraction pattern and the measured modulation transfer function (MTF) of the phosphor and camera have been deconvolved from the measured profile in order to derive the true transverse profile of the electron beam. This profile was then fit to a 2-dimensional Gaussian. The electron beam emittance as a function of the phase space acceptance of the pinhole camera has been derived, so the horizontal and vertical electron emittances can be deduced from the major and minor sigmas of the fit Gaussian. In the X-Ray Ring, the vertical emittance is kept small to maximize the synchrotron radiation brightness. The ratio of the measured vertical to horizontal emittance is 0.001.
The possibility of multiplexing holograms in LiNbO3 by means of an applied electric field is investigated experimentally. The effect of an applied electric field on the recording of holographic gratings as well as on the Bragg condition for previously stored ones is studied in the reflection geometry. The conclusion is that two image holograms can be addressed using an electric field. This multiplexing is shown experimentally.
As for the present situation of coronal mass ejection(CME) triggering models,the distributions of Alfven waves in flux ropes are different from model to model,and thus examining those distributions in interplanetary coronal mass ejection(ICME) is an effective way to connect ICME observations with these theoretical models of CME triggering.However,previous observations of Alfvenic fluctuations in ICMEs were rare with locations ranging from 0.3 AU to 0.68 AU only,which is usually explained as rapid dissipation of those remnant waves.Here we present an observation of Alfven waves in a magnetic cloud(MC) near 1 AU,in situ detected by WIND in February 17～20,2011.The MC was generated by a CME accompanied with the first X-class flare in the 24 th solar cycle.The slope of the power spectral densities of magnetic fluctuation in the MC,are similar to those modes in ambient solar wind,but more anisotropic.The results will also be helpful for studies of CME theories and ICME thermodynamics.
The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of negative hadrons and participant protons have been measured for central [sup 32]S+ [sup 32]S collisions at [ital p][sub lab]=200 GeV/[ital c] per nucleon. The proton mean rapidity shift [l angle][Delta][ital y][r angle][similar to]1.6 and mean transverse momentum [l angle][ital p][sub [ital T]][r angle][similar to]0.6 GeV/[ital c] are much higher than in [ital pp] or peripheral [ital AA] collisions and indicate an increase in the nuclear stopping power. All [ital p][sub [ital T]] spectra exhibit similar source temperatures. Including previous results for [ital K][sub [ital s]][sup 0] [Lambda], and [bar [Lambda]], we account for all important contributions to particle production.
In this paper, the practical analysis methods are proposed for analyzing the singular index and the intensity of singular stress field (ISSF) at the vertex of the interface in the three dimensional (3D) bonded plate. The analysis methods focus FEM stresses at and around the vertex. The singular index is determined from the FEM stress ratio at the vertex obtained by performing FEM analyses on the finely and coarsely meshed models. Then, the ISSF is determined by the ratio of the average FEM stresses at and around the vertex obtained by performing the FEM analyses on the reference and unknown models under the same mesh pattern. The validity of the present methods was examined by the plane strain bonded plate and 3D bonded plate in the literature. It was found that the present methods for the singular index have the same accuracy as the FEM eigenvalue analysis. The asymptotic solutions with the singular index and ISSF by the present method correspond to FEM stress distributions. Since the ISSF by the body force method (BFM) is used as the reference solution, the present method for ISSF has the same accuracy as BFM. Moreover, the critical ISSF values were calculated in the experimental results of the butt joints with various adhesive thicknesses. In the case of the ductile epoxy adhesive, it was shown that the critical ISSF at the vertex by 3D model was more constant against the thickness than that by 2D model. The result is quite different from that of the brittle epoxy adhesive and can be never obtained by 2D model.
We use the 3+1 split of spacetime and the York splitting into free and constrained variables to set up initial data and solve the vacuum Einstein equations in plane symmetry. We present numerical solutions for free data in the form of traveling waves in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. No evidence of nonlinear wave propagation is found and we demonstrate that for our class of metrics the nonlinearity lies in the Coulomb'' or nonradiative components of the Riemann curvature tensor.
Reshetikhin–Turaev (a.k.a. Chern–Simons) TQFT is a functor that associates vector spaces to two-dimensional genus [Formula: see text] surfaces and linear operators to automorphisms of surfaces. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that there exists a Macdonald [Formula: see text]-deformation — refinement — of these operators that preserves the defining relations of the mapping class groups beyond genus 1. For this, we explicitly construct the refined TQFT representation of the genus 2 mapping class group in the case of rank one TQFT. This is a direct generalization of the original genus 1 construction of arXiv:1105.5117 opening a question that if it extends to any genus. Our construction is built upon a [Formula: see text]-deformation of the square of [Formula: see text]-6[Formula: see text] symbol of [Formula: see text], which we define using the Macdonald version of Fourier duality. This allows to compute the refined Jones polynomial for arbitrary knots in genus 2. In contrast with genus 1, the refined Jones polynomial in genus 2 does not appear to agree with the Poincare polynomial of the triply graded HOMFLY knot homology.
A product for use in a turbocharger system. A turbine housing may define a center core that is circular in shape with a circumference. The turbine housing may define a first volute that extends for a length around only a part of the circumference of the center core, and a second volute that may be positioned radially outside the first volute and that may extend entirely around the circumference of the center core. The first volute and the second volute may define first and second exhaust gas passages through the turbine housing that may be asymmetric. All points of the second volute may be radially outside the first volute from the center core over the entire length of the first volute.
Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is among the high-performance and modern concretes in the concrete industry. The inclusion of chemical and mineral admixtures and other aggregates causes better workability, flow ability, better compressive strength and high resistance to segregation. Silica fume (SF) is a mineral admixture which improves mechanical properties and reduced permeability. Secondly, the super-plasticizer (SP) is a chemical admixture and used for water-reducing, increase cohesiveness, improve passing and filling ability of SCC. However, SF affecting the physical properties of SCC if added in excess quantity in cement. Furthermore, the substitution of SP causes to deliver a negative surface charge on the concrete particles which in turns to result in electrostatic repulsion. Moreover, the higher quantity addition of both SF and SP will badly affect the fresh and hardened properties of SCC. Thus, an ample review was conducted to study the influence of SF and SP on the fresh and hardened properties of SCC. More than 50-previous research articles have been reviewed systematically to argue on the fresh ad hardened properties of SCC. Based on the reviewed literature, the conclusion has been drawn some future recommendations have been achieved related to the title of the research.
Plasma line observations obtained from incoherent radar backscatter have been used as a ground-based method for deriving information about the size and anisotropy of the ionospheric photoelectron fluxes. In the past data interpretation has been confined to altitudes above the F2 peak. Measurements below the F2 peak consistently show an anisotropy in the ratio of the downshifted to upshifted amplitudes of 20-50% when it is generally assumed that diffusion processes dominate. Calculations of the plasma line intensity are described which use a multi-angle multi-energy calculation of the photoelectron distribution function. The calculated electron flux exhibits a low-altitude, low-energy anisotropy which is reflected in the plasma line measurements. Given anisotropic elastic electron-neutral cross-sections, the flux anisotropy arises when the local mean free path is of the order of the local scale height. The net effect is conversion of a spatial density inhomogeneity into a velocity distribution anisotropy.
Existing circuit-field coupling schemes can deal with a single magnetic field model connected to an external circuit. However, modern electrical systems are a complex interconnection of multiple magnetic devices, which opens up the question of how to consider multiple interacting field models. In this paper, we propose a scheme based on the finite element and modified nodal analyses, to solve the problem of coupling multiple magnetic field systems with circuit networks. The proposed methodology is systematic since each element within the electrically connected problem has a building block, which is easily inserted into the global system of equations. This applies to any magnetic field system, where massive and filamentary conductors are equally accommodated. Hence, each electrical network component can be modeled with any desired level of detail: as a magnetic system (distributed parameter model) or as a circuit (lumped parameter model). To show the flexibility and power of the proposed methodology, the finite-element models of a three-phase induction motor and a transformer are electrically interconnected through circuits that represent an infinite bus bar and a short transmission line.
We demonstrate that the beam-propagation method can be employed to calculate the electric-field amplitude inside and outside a grating structure excited by an arbitrary incident field. We establish the accuracy of the method by comparing our results for constant-period gratings with results obtained from other theoretical methods. Subsequently, we analyze thick-focusing gratings with the beam-propagation method.
Is the name “Solar Planetary Relationships” too vague and broad to adequately describe the type of work we do in our Section? For example, the prime “relationship” between the Sun and the planets is, of course, gravitational attraction. However, few in SPR regard orbital mechanics as a principal research thrust. We study the Sun and the planets, but the “relationship” aspect is limited to that affected by solar wind plasma and fields, energetic particles and solar photons.    I have the feeling that a more descriptive name could be beneficial, but to what should we change it? What title, if any, would be agreeable to everyone? The relevant section of the Journal of Geophysical Research has the title “Space Physics.” NASA's Office of Space Science has a a division with the same name. Some of us study plasma physics, so “Space Plasma Physics” might be a better title. However, those ? 30–40%l of us who are in the SA subsection are involved largely with the study of neutral and ion chemistry in the upper atmosphere/ionosphere. None of the above names are particularly relevant to this portion of our work. The term “aeronomy” (measurement of air), coined by Sidney Chapman, is used by many university departments and in the titles of international conferences. Thus a title such as “Space Physics and Aeronomy” is even better (but longer). However, there are “aeronomers” who do not like the label, either for themselves or for their laboratories. A more serious problem is that the term is not in most dictionaries (not in Webster's Third New International Unabridged English Dictionary, 1966), so the man on the street probably will not understand this at all (perhaps we should write to Websters to get this changed!).
Diffraction in time of matter waves incident on a shutter which is removed at time t = 0 is studied in the presence of a linear potential. The solution is also discussed in phase space in terms of the Wigner function. An alternative configuration relevant to the current experiments where particles are released from a hard-wall trap is also analysed for single-particle states and for a Tonks–Girardeau gas.
Detection thresholds, auditory filter widths, and temporal modulation transfer functions were measured in European starlings before, during, and after a 10‐day injection series of kanamycin, an ototoxic aminoglycoside antibiotic. Hearing loss in response to the drug exposure was observed in frequencies at or above 3 kHz; threshold shifts above 3 kHz were ≳60 dB. The auditory filter broadened at 5 kHz from 9% to 20% of center frequency (CF). After 60 days of recovery, detection thresholds improved to within 15 dB of predose estimates, and auditory filters at 5 kHz recovered to 11% of CF and were permanently changed in the skew toward lower frequencies. At 3 and 1 kHz, changes in filter bandwidths were small and transient. At 3 kHz, no permanent change in filter width occurred, but filters were permanently skewed toward lower frequencies. At 1 kHz, changes in skew occurred, but only during the period of greatest threshold shift at higher frequencies. Temporal resolution was largely unaffected by hearing los...
Offshore wind market demands higher power rate and reliable turbines in order to optimize capital and operational cost. These requests are difficult to overcome with conventional generator technologies due to a significant weight and cost increase with the scaling up. Thus superconducting materials appears as a prominent solution for wind generators, based on their capacity to held high current densities with very small losses, which permits to efficiently replace copper conductors mainly in the rotor field coils. However the state-of-the-art superconducting generator concepts still seem to be expensive and technically challenging for the marine environment. This paper describes a 10 MW class novel direct drive superconducting generator, based on MgB2 wires and a modular cryogen free cooling system, which has been specifically designed for the offshore wind industry needs.
Summary form only given. Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams of non-zero order (also called "doughnut" or "vortex" beams), with their unusual phase and intensity spatial variation, have lately attracted interest in atom trapping and cooling research. These modes have a cylindrical geometry with respect to the direction of propagation and an intensity variation described by I(r)/spl prop/r/sup 21/e/sup -2r2/, where r is the radial distance from the axis of propagation measured in units of the beam waist and l is the order of the mode.
Context. Sulphur is a relatively abundant element in the local Galaxy that is known to form a variety of molecules in the circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars. The abundances of these molecules vary based on the chemical types and mass-loss rates of AGB stars. Aims. Through a survey of (sub-) millimetre emission lines of various sulphur-bearing molecules, we aim to determine which molecules are the primary carriers of sulphur in different types of AGB stars. In this paper, the first in a series, we investigate the occurrence of H2S in AGB circumstellar envelopes and determine its abundance, where possible. Methods. We surveyed 20 AGB stars with a range of mass-loss rates and different chemical types using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope to search for rotational transition lines of five key sulphur-bearing molecules: CS, SiS, SO, SO2, and H2S. Here we present our results for H2S, including detections, non-detections, and detailed radiative transfer modelling of the detected lines. We compared results based on various descriptions of the molecular excitation of H2S and different abundance distributions, including Gaussian abundances, where possible, and two different abundance distributions derived from chemical modelling results. Results. We detected H2S towards five AGB stars, all of which have high mass-loss rates of. M >= 5 x 10(-6) M-circle dot yr(-1) and are oxygen rich. H2S was not detected towards the carbon or S-type stars that fall in a similar mass-loss range. For the stars in our sample with detections, we find peak o-H2S abundances relative to H-2 between 4 x 10(-7) and 2.5 x 10(-5). Conclusions. Overall, we conclude that H2S can play a significant role in oxygen-rich AGB stars with higher mass-loss rates, but is unlikely to play a key role in stars of other chemical types or in lower mass-loss rate oxygen-rich stars. For two sources, V1300 Aql and GX Mon, H2S is most likely the dominant sulphur-bearing molecule in the circumstellar envelope.
With a direct force modulation technique we measured the regional stiffness of the self-assembled-(SAM) films. A magnetic thin film was deposited at the end of the backside of the AFM cantilever so as to apply forces directly to the tip through the external magnetic field of an electric coil. This technique is able to detect the difference between the phase-separated monolayer films with two similar stiffnesses composed of hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon and identify the components of the film. We obtained the effective spring constant of 4.8 N/m on hydrocarbon SAM and 6.5 N/m on fluorocarbon SAM at the applied force of 1 nN.
Direct numerical simulations with a spectral method are performed to study the effects of spanwise rotation on a turbulent Poiseuille flow at very low Reynolds number. At this Reynolds number, the region of zero absolute vorticity, typically observed in the mean velocity profile of rotating Poiseuille flow, disappears in the channel center, and the mean velocity gradient becomes opposite to that of zero absolute vorticity. When zero absolute vorticity disappears, very long low-speed streaks, accompanied by the vortices aligned in the streamwise direction like a chain, dominate the flow, in which the transfer of turbulent kinetic energy into the vicinity of the wall and small-scale streamwise vortices disappear there. However, low-speed fluids are pumped up from the near-wall region, and trapped into the channel center by the larger-scale chain vortices away from the wall, which decreases the mean velocity in the channel center and shifts its peak location toward the wall.
We present a numerical study of solitary waves in one dimensional (1D) granular lattices. Our system consists of an array of deformable spheres which we model using Hertzian interactions between neighbouring bodies. A general discussion of the origin of solitary waves is presented. We then provide an analysis of the Hertz force. For the case of a uniform chain of spheres, we derive an approximate solution in the asymptotic limit to the system equations. The solution is a solitary wave and numerical simulations verify this result. A scaling analysis is used to determine a relation between wave speed and amplitude. We find vs ∝ F 1/6 peak, where vs is the wave speed and Fpeak the amplitude and this is corroborated using simulations. We then proceed from uniform chains to those containing a defect. A study of the effect of defect size and material properties (i.e. Young’s modulus E and Poisson ratio ν) on a propagating solitary wave is performed. Finally, we outline the origin of intrinsic localised modes in granular lattices. These objects cause the scattering of incoming waves which can lead to interesting resonance phenomena. We probe the interaction of both solitary and plane waves with these modes. The transmission coefficient for plane waves is measured as a function of wavenumber q in order to observe whether the system permits behaviour analogous to Fano resonance. The results obtained do not clearly correspond to the Fano resonances observed in other systems. Thus, further studies are required to explain the mechanism of a plane wave’s interaction with a localised mode.
In this paper, the particle swarm algorithm is applied to the analysis of nonlinear microwave circuits. It should be emphasized that the particle swarm algorithm of this study is utilized for analyzing nonlinear microwave circuits, but not for optimization. The problem of analyzing a nonlinear microwave circuit was successfully transformed into the minimization of a scalar fitness function. This scalar fitness function is then minimized by particle swarm algorithm. Numerical simulation shows that the results calculated by this study are consistent with those calculated by the harmonic balance technique. Our analysis is very efficient and straightforward. In addition, our analysis imposes no limitation on the nonlinearity of microwave circuits. Therefore, this study can be applied to the analysis of many other nonlinear problems in electromagnetics.
A p article -shadow -velocimetry (PSV) technique that employs light sources with sig nificantly lower power than laser s is introduce d as a variant of particle -image velocimetry (PIV) . The PSV technique uses a non -scattering approach that reli es on direct in -line illumination by a pulsed source such as a light -emitting diode (LED) onto the camera imaging system . Narrow -depth -of -field optical setups are employed for imaging a two dimensional plane within a flow volume , and images that resemble a “negative ” or “inverse ” of the standard PIV scattering mode are produce d by casting particle shad ows on a bright background . In this technique the amount of light reaching the image plane and the contrast of the seeding particles are significantly increased while requiring significantly lower power than scattering approaches . The l imitations of the technique, its velocity ranges , and the setup parameters are discussed.
A description is given of the measuring system set up at the PTB for the realization of the SI volt and the determination of the conversion factor Kv by means of a voltage balance. The voltage balance comprises two cylindrical electrodes to generate the electrostatic force from the measuring voltage of 10.186 kV, and a substitution balance to measure the force by comparison with the force due to gravity acting on a 2 g mass. To achieve force equilibrium a small variable voltage is added to the constant measuring voltage. The measuring voltage is generated in a two-stage 1000-fold step-up and linked up with the asmaintained volt by using a transfer standard consisting of 10 saturated standard cells connected in series. The total relative uncertainty of Kv is expected to be less than 4 parts in 107.
The development of population and development activities in big cities in Indonesia, especially in the city of Jakarta and surrounding areas is very rapid. From several land subsidence studies, several factors have been identified that cause land subsidence, namely: excessive groundwater extraction, reduction due to building/infrastructure loads, subsidence due to natural consolidation of soft soil layers, and subsidence due to tectonic forces. At present the exploitation of ground water for industrial and residential needs is at a level that needs attention. Excessive pumping of groundwater will cause a decrease in the quantity of ground water, entry of seawater into the land (sea water intrusion) and land subsidence. Symptoms of the negative impact of land subsidence have been felt in several areas, especially in industrial areas located in the northern part of Jakarta. This land subsidence can be measured by GPS or satellite geodetic method, which have begun to develop in Indonesia in the past two decades. Measurements were made using the radial method at 53 GPS points in 2015 up to 100 measurement points in 2019 in Jakarta Groundwater Basin. The result of these campaign GPS surveys that is northern part of Jakarta relatively had higher subsidence rate than the southern. The largest subsidence almost reached 6.2 cm/year in Muara Baru in northern area which is southern area only suffered an average rate of 1.16 cm/year.
In our paper, we make two new extensions for the integral type condition for a set valued mapping in a complete partial metric space (Y, p): 1- ψ(∫0H(Gx,Gy)φ(t)dt)≤ψ(∫0p(x,y)φ(t)dt)−ϕ(∫0p(x.y)φ(t)dt)  ∀ x,y ∈Y 2- ψ∫0H(Gu,Gv)h(t)dt≤μ(p(u,v))ψ∫0p(u.v)h(t)dt,  ∀ u,v ∈Y . And by using these two conditions we prove that a set valued mapping can have a fixed point in a complete partial metric space. Finally we illustrate each condition by an example as an application for these two theorems.
The paper presents hybrid MPI+OpenMP (message Passing Interface/Open Multi-Processor) used for paralleled programs including high-order compact method. The main tools used to implement parallelism in computations are OpenMP and MPI which differ in terms of memory they are based on. OpenMP works on shared-memory and MPI on distributed-memory whereas hybrid model is based on combination of those methods. Tests performed and described in this paper present significant advantages provided by hybrid MPI/OpenMP. Testing computations needed for verifying possibilities of MPI, Open-MP and Hybrid of both are carried out using an academic high-order SAILOR solver. Obtained results seem to be very promising to accelerate simulations for fluid flows as well as for application using high order methods. The proposed approach was tested up to 96 cores with up to 4 nodes.
This paper presents the analysis, design and implementation of a millimeter-wave W-band power detector. Fabricated in a 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology, the detector circuit exhibits a responsivity of 91 kV/W, a noise equivalent power of 0.5 pW/Hz, and a noise figure of 29 dB. The power dissipation of the detector is 75 µW. Reasonable agreement between simulations and measurements is obtained. To the authors' best knowledge, the detector in this work achieves the highest responsivity reported to date for any solid-state W-band detector.
We have investigated exciton dynamics and spin relaxation in a GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum well and in tensile-strained GaAs1−xPx/Al0.35Ga0.65As quantum wells. The studies have been done by picosecond time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. The strain introduced by the presence of phosphorous in the GaAs1−xPx/Al0.35Ga0.65As quantum wells modifies the subband dispersions, permitting access to new structures that include the possibility of the light-hole exciton’s being the first excited state of the system. Our studies have focused on the influence of the different subband dispersions on exciton dynamics and spin relaxation. We have found that the exciton formation and the spin relaxation times decrease for the quasi-degenerate heavy-hole–light-hole excitonic ground state and that the recombination time depends essentially on the character of the excitonic ground state.
The polarization dependence of the low field microwave photoconductivity and absorption of a two-dimensional electron system has been investigated in a quasioptical setup in which linear and any circular polarization can be produced in situ. The microwave induced resistance oscillations and the zero resistance regions are notably immune to the sense of circular polarization. This observation is discrepant with a number of proposed theories. Deviations between different polarizations occur only near the cyclotron resonance where an unprecedented large resistance response is observed.
This paper presents an analysis of electron-ion recombination processes in ionization tracks of recoiled atoms in liquid argon (LAr) detectors. The analysis is based on the results of computer simulations which use realistic models of electron transport and reactions. The calculations reproduce the recent experimental results of the ionization yield from 6.7 keV nuclear recoils in LAr. The statistical distribution of the number of electrons that escape recombination is found to deviate from the binomial distribution, and estimates of recombination fluctuations for nuclear recoils tracks are obtained. A study of the recombination kinetics shows that a significant part of electrons undergo very fast static recombination, an effect that may be responsible for the weak drift-field dependence of the ionization yield from nuclear recoils in some noble liquids. The obtained results can be useful in the search for hypothetical dark matter particles and in other studies that involve detection of recoiled nuclei.
Magnesium alloys have been broadly used in the applications of transport and aerospace industries due to their low density and high specific strength while their workability is limited by the structural properties. In the present study, microstructure and texture evolution of AZ63 magnesium alloy are investigated at temperature range of 250 °C–350 °C, strain rates of 0.01 and 0.1 s−1 and various strains of 0.1 to 0.4, using hot compression tests. Microstructural investigation reveals that the emergence of twinning is dominant deformation mechanism at lower temperature (250 °C) whereas discontinuous recrystallization (DDRX) occurs at 300 °C and 350 °C as a result of work softening at low strains. In addition, texture analysis at various temperatures indicates twinning formation at 250 °C and initial strains. However, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) at 300 °C and 350 °C decreases the basal texture intensity.
We investigate the statistical properties of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors in a random matrix ensemble with $H_{ij} sim |i-j|^{- mu}$. It is known that this model shows a localization-delocalization transition (LDT) as a function of the parameter $ mu$. The model is critical at $ mu=1$ and the eigenstates are multifractals. Based on numerical simulations we demonstrate that the spectral statistics at criticality differs from semi-Poisson statistics which is expected to be a general feature of systems exhibiting a LDT or `weak chaos'.
The principles of spin gauge theories are explained. A particular spin gauge symmetry within the Clifford algebra C2.6 is shown to give the correct GSW electroweak interactions for the electron-neutrino system. A new concept of mass is introduced, the electron mass being interpreted as an interaction with the 'frame field', which is proportional to the spacetime dependent Dirac matrices ( gamma u( chi )). Including the frame field in the 'extended covariant derivative' Delta mu and calculating ( Delta mu , Delta v) gives, along with the boson Lagrangian kinetic terms, exactly the correct photon, W and Z mass matrix. Transformation of the lepton extended covariant derivative to the 'quark representation' of the Clifford algebra, which is determined by the electromagnetic coupling constants, reproduces the GSW interactions for the up and down quarks. Thus, for the first generation electroweak theory, the 'Higgs-Kibble mechanism' is replaced by the frame field concept of mass. The models studied indicate that an energy associated with the frame field is approximately three times the W boson rest mass MW. A refinement of the theory suggests a fermion mass of the order of MW.
The desorption kinetics of hydrogen from the Si ~100!-231:H monohydride surface was investigated by means of variable-temperature scanning-tunneling microscopy ~STM! in the temperature range between 590 and 668 K. By directly counting the number of desorption sites in the STM images for various annealing time at several temperatures, an activation barrier of Ed52.2260.20 eV and a pre-exponential factor of nd53.4 310 s for the H2 recombinative desorption are deduced. The sequential images acquired in real times show that hydrogen desorbs in a random manner and the interaction between two neighboring paired dangling bond sites is repulsive. @S0163-1829 ~99!51036-9#
This is an ambitious book aimed at introducing the relatively new concepts and possibilities of optical fibre sensors for structural monitoring to the uninitiated who have an engineering or general physics background. Measures draws the reader into the volume with a description of smart structures - the structural monitoring equivalent of artificial nervous systems - before a series of back-to-basics tutorials on optical theory and photonic technology. The emphasis on smart structures early in the book is a worthy attention-grabber since it elevates the subject of structural health monitoring above just another set of techniques for making engineering measurements. The promise is to `revolutionize engineering design philosophy' by creating `intelligence within otherwise inanimate structures'. In the latter two thirds of the book, the author steps through the main issues of structural monitoring using fibre optic sensors. Intensity-based, interferometric, polarimetric and spectral sensors (including the ubiquitous Bragg grating) are compared and contrasted. The hot topic of strain versus temperature discrimination in fibre sensors earns a whole chapter and several useful techniques for overcoming this cross-sensitivity are portrayed. Installation of sensors is also discussed with reference to retro-fit and co-manufacturing (embedding) approaches. Examples of concrete constructions such as bridges (a frequent theme in the book) and fibre-reinforced plastics such as glass-fibre and carbon composite materials are considered. A chapter on `short-gauge' sensors and applications deals in some depth with the Bragg grating as a strain sensor. The methods of multiplexing and interrogating these devices are explored with many examples from both Measures' own research and the work of other groups worldwide. The Beddington Trail bridge trial in Calgary, one of the first such installations of Bragg gratings, followed by the more ambitious Confederation Bridge, also in Canada, provide concrete examples of the technology's application. The material is marred somewhat by the inferior reproduction of some of the photographs, especially those showing field installations of the optical sensors. Other applications are not neglected. A description of trials aboard a Norwegian Naval vessel with composite hull monitored by Bragg gratings is also given. Interferometric sensors in similar applications trials are also covered in chapters on short and long gauge length devices. Distributed strain and temperature sensing techniques using Fourier transform, low coherence and stimulated backscattering are covered in the penultimate chapter, which draws together distributed measurement at a small physical scale in the form of intra-Bragg grating strain profile measurements (on the scale of millimetres) and measurements over kilometres using stimulated Brillouin scattering. In this reviewer's opinion the book dwells on strain monitoring in civil engineering structures at the expense of a broader scope, which could have included, for example, the detection of impacts or the acoustic emissions from crack propagation and other forms of structural damage. Nevertheless, this volume is an impressive collection of background and examples of real applications in heavyweight engineering. It adds significantly to the claim that fibre optic sensors have at last arrived. Peter Foote
A thermoacoustic heat pump was constructed and tested. It was composed of a looped tube, a straight tube, and a regenerator. The looped tube contained the regenerator and was connected to the straight tube. The tubes were filled with nitrogen. When an acoustic wave was input to the tubes, a temperature difference formed along the regenerator. Our experiments showed that this heat pump could work as both a cooler and a heater. This heat pump achieved −39 °C as a cooler and 270 °C as a heater. Using antifreeze liquid and oil as heat media, the cooling and heating performance of the heat pump was measured within the temperature range from −3 to 160 °C.
An analysis is presented for the repetitively pulsed dual‐beam thermo‐optical absorption spectrometer, which has been used recently to determine the absorption strengths of several organic liquids in the visible spectral region covered by the cw tunable dye laser. The model succeeds in describing the development of the thermal lens on a pulse‐by‐pulse basis. The equations derived are then used to optimize the spectrometer design with respect to the parameters which are under the control of the experimenter. It is further demonstrated how one identifies the region of linear operation of the spectrometer. Finally, it is shown how the relative absorptivities of compounds may be determined.
Mt Sinabung has been erupting and spewing fumes many times in the recent year after inactive for four centuries. This paper investigates the ground deformation due to the Mt Sinabung eruption in February 2018 using Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar Technique (DInSAR). The deformation observed and extracted from Sentinel 1A satellite data in ascending orbit that provided by Europe Space Agency (ESA). The result shows eruption direction and depth vulcanic fumes in millimeters units. This study will improve our mitigating and understanding to predict future eruption effect.
A systematic experimental study shows that the Hall mobilities of electrons at 77 K over the entire accessible range of electron densities in VPE GaAs films grown under high‐purity conditions are below the theoretically predicted values. At a given electron concentration the experimental mobilities are independent of the preparation parameters (As/Ga ratio, dopant element, dopant pressure, growth temperature). Most of the literature data, not only on VPE but also on LPE and MBE films, appear to be in good agreement with these results. This finding casts some doubt on the idea that all such layers are electrically compensated.
Defects in phosphorus-doped silicon samples of floating-zone material, n-FZ-Si(P), produced under irradiation with 15 MeV protons at room temperature are studied by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy over the temperature range of ∼ 30 K - 300 K and by low- temperature Hall effect measurements. After annealing of E-centersand divacancies, we detected for the first time high concentrations of positron traps which had not been observed earlier. These defects are isochronally annealed over the temperature interval of ∼ 320 °C - 700 °C; they manifest themselves as electrically neutral deep donor centersin the material of n-type. A long-lived component of the positron lifetime, τ2(I2 < 60%) ∼ 280 ps, attributed to these centers, suggests a relaxed configuration involving two vacancies. The enthalpy and entropy of annealing of these centersare Ea ∼ 1.05(0.21) eV and ΔSm ≈ 3.1(0.6)kB, respectively. It is argued that the microstructure of the defect consists of two vacancies, VV, and one atom of phosphorus, P. The split configuration of the VPV complex is shortly discussed.
A self-consistent model has been proposed to study the switchable current-voltage (I-V) characteristics in Cu/BaTiO3/Cu sandwiched structure combining the phase-field model of ferroelectric domains and diffusion equations for ionic/electronic transport. The electrochemical transport equations and Ginzburg-Landau equations are solved using the Chebyshev collocation algorithm. We considered a single parallel plate capacitor configuration which consists of a single layer BaTiO3 containing a single tetragonal domain orientated normal to the plate electrodes (Cu) and is subject to a sweep of ac bias from −1.0 to 1.0 V at 25 °C. Our simulation clearly shows rectifying I-V response with rectification ratios amount to 102. The diode characteristics are switchable with an even larger rectification ratio after the polarization direction is flipped. The effects of interfacial polarization charge, dopant concentration, and dielectric constant on current responses were investigated. The switchable I-V behavior is attr...
With the perturbative QCD approach based on k{sub T} factorization, we study the pure annihilation type radiative decays B{sup 0}{yields}{phi}{gamma} and B{sup 0}{yields}J/{psi}{gamma}. We find that the branching ratio of B{sup 0}{yields}{phi}{gamma} is (2.7{sub -0.6-0.6}{sup +0.3+1.2})x10{sup -11}, which is too small to be measured in the current B factories of BABAR and Belle. The branching ratio of B{sup 0}{yields}J/{psi}{gamma} is (4.5{sub -0.5-0.6}{sup +0.6+0.7})x10{sup -7}, which is just at the corner of being observable in the B factories. A larger branching ratio BR(B{sub s}{sup 0}{yields}J/{psi}{gamma}){approx_equal}5x10{sup -6} is also predicted. These decay modes will help us in testing the standard model and searching for new physics signals.
The invention relates to a resolution of grating lobes based on digital beamforming. An antenna system, such as a radar antenna system, includes an array of antenna elements and a controller. The controller outputs an in-path indicator in response to an angle of arrival for a target being less than a threshold angle for a given range to the target. The angle of arrival is based on a differential phase angle derived from data defining first and second composite signal returns from the target associated with first and second apertures respectively, and a phase center offset between the apertures. The first and second apertures are formed from first and second subsets of the antenna elements respectively.
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) may dramatically impact habitability and atmospheric composition of planets around magnetically active stars, including young solar analogs and many M dwarfs. Theoretical predictions of such effects are limited by the lack of observations of stellar CMEs. This thesis addresses this gap through a search for the spectral and spatial radio signatures of CMEs on active M dwarfs. Solar CMEs produce radio bursts with a distinctive spectral signature, narrow-band plasma emission that drifts to lower frequency as a CME expands outward. To search for analogous events on nearby stars, I worked on system design, software, and commissioning for the Starburst project, a wideband single-baseline radio interferometry backend dedicated to stellar observations. In addition, I led a survey of nearby active M dwarfs with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), detecting coherent radio bursts in 13 out of 23 epochs, over a total of 58 hours. This survey's ultra-wide bandwidth (0.23-6.0 GHz) dynamic spectroscopy, unprecedented for stellar observations, revealed diverse behavior in the time-frequency plane. Flare star UV Ceti produced complex, luminous events reminiscent of brown dwarf aurorae; AD Leo sustained long-duration, intense, narrow-band "storms"; and YZ CMi emitted a burst with substructure with rapid frequency drift, resembling solar Type III bursts, which are attributed to electrons moving at speeds of order 10% of the speed of light. To search for the spatial signature of CMEs, I led 8.5-GHz observations with the Very Long Baseline Array simultaneous to 24 hours of the VLA survey. This program detected non-thermal continuum emission from the stars in all epochs, as well as continuum flares on AD Leo and coherent bursts on UV Ceti, enabling measurement of the spatial offset between flaring and quiescent emission. These observations demonstrate the diversity of stellar transients that can be expected in time-domain radio surveys, especially with the advent of large low-frequency radio telescopes. Wide bandwidth radio dynamic spectroscopy, complemented by high-resolution imaging of the radio corona, is a powerful technique for detecting stellar eruptions and characterizing dynamic processes in the stellar corona.
This work presents a search for the pair production of doubly-charged Higgs Bosons in the process p{bar p} {yields} H{sup ++}H{sup --} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -}{mu}{sup -} using inclusive dimuon events. These data correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 113 pb 1 and were recorded by the D0 experiment between August 2002 and June 2003. In the absence of a signal, 95% confidence level mass limits of M(H{sub L}{sup {+-}{+-}}) > 118.6 GeV/c{sup 2} and M(H{sub R}{sup {+-}{+-}}) > 98.1 GeV/c{sup 2} are set for left-handed and right-handed doubly-charged Higgs boson, assuming 100% branching into muons and hypercharge |Y| = 2 and Yukawa coupling h{sub {mu}{mu}} > 10{sup -7}. This is the first search for doubly-charged Higgs bosons at hadron colliders. It significantly extends the previous mass limit of 100.5 GeV/c{sup 2} for a left-handed doubly-charged Higgs boson measured in the muon final states by the OPAL collaboration.
Free carrier absorption of optical radiation in layers of an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure is studied by the method of probe radiation coupling in order to determine the absorption cross section parameter in the AlGaAs material with a high (22%) aluminium concentration. For this purpose, we have fabricated special samples based on AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures simulating an n-type-doped laser waveguide with carrier concentrations in the range 5 × 1016 − 3 × 1017 cm−3. The doping profile and the composition and thickness of layers are measured and the temperature and spectral dependences of the absorption coefficient are studied. It is shown that an increase in temperature and in the probe wavelength leads to an increase in the absorption in the heterostructure layers.
The authors investigate optical bistability in CdS, induced by photo-electronic non-linearities. Varying the photon energy and the temperature of the sample they find three different types of optical bistability. The switching times are always around 1 ns or below, notably 300 ps for dispersive optical bistability. Optical bistability by bleaching of absorption at room temperature shows a contrast ratio of about 50 between the two stable branches. The dependence on various parameters, including the microscopic foundations, is discussed experimentally as well as theoretically.
The star 53 Psc (HD 3379, B2.5IV) has been observed as variable by several authors (Sareyan et al., 1979) with frequencies around 10 c d –1 and has been classified as a β Cephei star. Conversely, other authors (e.g. Percy, 1971) found it to be constant. New high resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio, Spectroscopic observations have been performed at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence in 1996 over 11 nights. The spectral domain covers around 200 A and is centered on H δ . Radial velocities were deduced from an auto-correlation technique with a scatter around 0.4kms −1 . No high frequency variations are observed. Three frequencies have been detected with a false alarm detection above the 1 % level. A fourth one may be present but its amplitude is below this 1 % level. Results are displayed in Table 1.
The photovoltaic performance of CdS quantum dots sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) using the 0.2 wt% of reduced graphene oxide and TiO2 nanoparticles (RGO+TiO2 nanocomposite) photoanode is investigated. CdS QDs are adsorbed onto RGO+TiO2 nanocomposite films by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique for several cycles. The current density–voltage (J–V) characteristic curves of the assembled QDSSCs are measured at AM1.5 simulated sunlight. The optimal photovoltaic performance for CdS QDSSC was achieved for six SILAR cycles. Solar cells based on the RGO+TiO2 nanocomposite photoanode achieve a 33% increase in conversion efficiency (η) compared with those based on plain TiO2 nanoparticle (NP) photoanodes. The electron back recombination rates decrease significantly for CdS QDSSCs based on RGO+TiO2 nanocomposite photoanodes. The lifetime constant (τ) for CdS QDSSC based on the RGO+TiO2 nanocomposite photoanode is at least one order of magnitude larger than that based on the bare TiO2 NPs photoanode.
The permanent magnetic disk type separator has such advantages as energy saving,convenient maintainance and large separation space,while the magnetic field intensity and the effective separation area of disk as well as the disk spacing are important factors affecting the performance of permanent magnetic disk type separator.SOLIDWORKS 2007 is used to build the 3D model of the magnetic disk of new-type permanent magnetic disk type separator,and 3D finite element computation of the magnetic disk is carried out with COSMOS.Finally,the deformation features and stress distribution of the magnetic disk under given magnetic field intensity are obtained,and reasonable structure and safe thickness of the magnetic disk are concluded,which provides theroetical references for the selection,design and study of new-type permanent magnetic disk type separator.
In 2-SPEED (Two Scissored Pair Ensemble, Explicit Distribution) four single-gimbal control moment gyros (SGCMGs) configured into two scissored pairs are combined with an explicit distribution of angular momentum between pairs to produce a system relatively insensitive to the singularity problems which have plagued other SGCMG concepts. In this system, the singularity surfaces in momentum space degenerate to discrete curves. Further, the system permits a smooth passage through these remaining singularities with, at worst, a temporary delay while momentum redistribution takes place. Finally, CMG-out operation is possible within the full volume of the reduced momentum envelope.
Listeners' perception of prosodic structure may differ depending on whether they are instructed to attend to the meaning of a spoken passage, or to the acoustics. Real-time perceptions of prominence and phrasal boundaries were obtained from Rapid Prosody Transcription (Cole et al. 2010). Twenty naive French listeners were divided into two groups that were given either meaning- or acoustically-based instructions for listening to passages of spontaneous speech. While listening, they read an orthographic unpunctuated transcript of the speech. Half of each group first labeled words they perceived as prominent in five passages, then phrasal boundaries in five different passages; the other half performed the tasks in the opposite order. Consistent with previous results, listener agreement (measured by kappa) was higher for labeling boundaries than for prominence. The mean kappa was 0.80 for both meaning- and acoustically-based responses, but the difference between prominence and boundaries was greater in meanin...
In previous work, we have developed force-constant models of the low-temperature clean reconstructed W(100) surface and have used them to study the vibrational properties of this surface. Here, we present a physical interpretation of the low-lying longitudinal- and transverse-surface modes of particular interest to experiment. This picture is based on the anticrossing of these modes and their zone folding upon reconstruction. These results provide insight into the interpretation of recent He atom scattering data and also into choices of force-constant models for this surface.
In order to improve the adaptability of command and control organizations to complex operational environments and effectively solve the unexpected events that may be encountered in the operation of C2 organizations, this paper studies the dynamic task assignment of C2 organizations and proposes multi-objective tasks assignment method based on NSGA-II algorithm. Firstly, two kinds of emergencies such as platform damage and task increase in the course of combat are analyzed, and the mathematical expression method is given. Secondly, a multi-objective optimization model aiming at maximizing task completion quality and minimizing plan adjustment cost is constructed. And the adaptive NSGA-II algorithm is designed to solve the model. Finally, the simulation experiment shows that the constructed model can effectively deal with the above-mentioned emergencies, and the designed algorithm can obtain the better Pareto frontier and realize the dynamic task assignment.
SAO 244567 is an unusually fast evolving star. Within twenty years only, it had turned from a B-type supergiant into the central star of the Stingray Nebula. Space- and ground-based observations obtained over the last decades have revealed that its spectrum changes noticeably over just a few years, showing stellar evolution in real time. The low mass of SAO 244567 is, however, in strong contradiction with canonical post-asymptotic giant branch evolution. Thus, its fast evolution has been a mystery for decades. We present preliminary results of the non-LTE spectral analyis of the recently obtained HST/COS observations, which finally allow us to shed light on the evolutionary history of this extraordinary object.
Laser spectroscopy of muonic hydrogen atoms, μp, has revealed a proton root-mean-square (rms) charge radius rE that is an order of magnitude more accurate than the CODATA world average from elastic electron–proton scattering and precision spectroscopy of regular (electronic) hydrogen. Interestingly, though, the value of rE from μp is 4%, or 7 combined standard deviations smaller than the CODATA value of rE. This discrepancy has been coined “proton radius puzzle”. We summarize the experiment and give a brief overview of the theory in muonic hydrogen. Finally we discuss some possible scenarios for the resolution of the “proton radius puzzle”.
The absolute differential excitation cross section of the 23S state of helium at 90 degrees scattering angle is obtained from threshold to 3.6 eV above. The energy transmission efficiency of the post-collision analyzer of the electron impact spectrometer is obtained from the known characteristics of the ionization process near threshold. The results are made absolute by normalization to accurate elastic cross section of helium. Recently calculated cross sections are in good agreement with these measurements.
It is suggested that the production of CH$sup +$ in interstellar clouds occurs by a chemical scheme initiated by the radiative association of C$sup +$ and H$sub 2$. The scheme leads to CH$sub 2$ $sup +$ and CH$sub 3$ $sup +$ which are photodissociated to give CH$sup +$. In contrast to previous formation mechanisms, it is not necessary to suppose that the dissociative recombination of CH$sup +$ is anomalously slow. The same chemical sequence is also able to produce CH in harmony with the measured abundances.
Purpose: Depending on the useful dose range in which radiochromic films operate, number of different radiochromic film models have been designed. The impact of different film models on quenching effect for percent depth dose (PDD) measurements in proton beams has been investigated. Methods: Calibrated PTW Markus ionization chamber was used to measure PDD and beam output for 26.5 MeV protons produced by CS30 cyclotron. An aluminum cylinder was added in front of the beam exit serving as a radiation shutter. The measured signal was normalized to a monitor chamber reading and subsequently scaled by ratio of water-to-air stopping powers at given depth, while the effective depth of measurements was scaled by ratios of material-to-water physical densities and CSDA ranges. Output was measured in water at 2.1 mm reference-depth in the plateau upstream from the Bragg peak. Following the TRS-398 reference dosimetry protocol for proton beams, the output was calibrated in water. Three radiochromic film models (EBT, EBT3 and HD-V2) were calibrated within Lexan phantom positioned at the same water-equivalent depth. Thicknesses of films sensitive layers were 34 µm, 30 µm and 8 µm, respectively. Small film pieces (1 x 2 cm 2 ) were positioned within polyethylene phantom along the beam central axis with an angulation of 5° for PDD measurements. Results: While the output of the proton beam was found to be around 7 Gy/sec, the actual value of the output per monitor chamber reading (2.32 Gy/nC) was used for reference-dose irradiations during film calibration. Dose ratios at the Bragg peak relative to the reference-depth were 3.88, 2.52, 2.19, and 2.02 for the Markus chamber, HD-V2, EBT3, and EBT film models, respectively. Conclusion: Results at hand suggest that quenching effect is reduced when a radiochromic film model with smaller sensitive layer thickness is used for PDD measurements in proton beams. David Lewis is the owner of RCF Consulting, LLC
High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) were used to study the microstructural properties of CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with various capping layers. Crystallization of CoFeB layers was strongly dependent on the capping materials, and was affected by B diffusion. With NiFe-cap MTJs, CoFeB crystallized from the cap interface and formed a fcc structure; on the other hand, with Ta- and Ti-cap MTJs, CoFeB crystallized from the MgO interface and formed a bcc structure. EELS analysis showed that B mainly diffused to the capping layers and rarely to the MgO layers with increasing temperature. With Ti-cap MTJs, B diffusion caused hcp-Ti crystals to form an amorphous structure and CoFeB crystallized at lower temperature.
The phase-locked loop is started using the reception signal. Phase-locked loop may include a received signal and the receiver signal for generating a mixed signal based on the oscillator signal, a frequency control circuit for adjusting the oscillator signal by comparing the mixed signal with the reference signal. At this time, the received signal may be a high frequency, the mixed signal may be an intermediate frequency (intermediate frequency). Phase lock loop may operate at a low power without frequency divider (divider).
Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate in detail the characteristics of strong ground motions separated from acceleration Fourier spectra of ground motions observed by K‐NET, KiK‐net, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) Shindokei network in Japan using the generalized spectral inversion method. The separation method used here is the same as that proposed by Kawase and Matsuo (2004), with the same reference bedrock site at YMGH01. We include events with magnitude equal to or larger than 4.5 observed from 1996 to 2011. Our results are in good agreement with previous results regarding source, path, and site characteristics, but with higher stability thanks to the increased amount of data. We obtain site amplification factors common to all source types but with different Q ‐values for three source categories: crustal earthquakes (type C), subducting plate‐boundary earthquakes (type B), and intraplate earthquakes (type I). We find that our frequency‐dependent Q ‐values are comparable to those of previous studies, and that the obtained Q ‐values depend on the traveling regions. As for the geometric spreading factor n , we find that for type B and type I earthquakes, the value is close to 1.0 as expected, but type C earthquakes show apparent frequency dependence. From the corner frequencies of source spectra, we calculate Brune’s stress parameters and find a clear magnitude dependence, in which smaller events tend to spread over a wider range while maintaining the same maximum value. This means that stress drops for larger events would be maximal. We confirm that this is exactly the case for several mainshock–aftershock sequences. The average stress parameters are 5.1 and 6.0 MPa for types B and I, and 0.8 MPa for type C. This large difference between types B and I and type C can be explained primarily by the depth dependence of stress parameters.
Wavelength modulation spectroscopy with diode lasers has been used by many researchers to perform sensitive measurements in gaseous media. However, there is one distinct complication that often arises from the use of diode lasers which is that frequency modulation, performed by modulation of the injected current, is accompanied by simultaneous amplitude modulation. In this paper, we treat the effects of simultaneous amplitude and frequency modulation and obtain a complete expression (accounting also for the phase difference between the two types of modulation), for the signal in a modulation spectroscopic experiment in which phase sensitive detection is performed at any harmonic of the modulation frequency.
Abstract Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have enabled numerous high performance, energy efficient, and compact technologies for optical communications, sensing, and metrology. One of the biggest challenges in scaling PICs comes from the parasitic reflections that feed light back into the laser source. These reflections increase noise and may cause laser destabilization. To avoid parasitic reflections, expensive and bulky optical isolators have been placed between the laser and the rest of the PIC leading to large increases in device footprint for on-chip integration schemes and significant increases in packaging complexity and cost for lasers co-packaged with passive PICs. This review article reports new findings on epitaxial quantum dot lasers on silicon and studies both theoretically and experimentally the connection between the material properties and the ultra-low reflection sensitivity that is achieved. Our results show that such quantum dot lasers on silicon exhibit much lower linewidth enhancement factors than any quantum well lasers. Together with the large damping factor, we show that the quantum dot gain medium is fundamentally dependent on dot uniformity, but through careful optimization, even epitaxial lasers on silicon can operate without an optical isolator, which is of paramount importance for the future high-speed silicon photonic systems.
Ionizing radiation has been employed in conjunction with various clinical modalities for therapeutic purposes. Often, surgery, chemo and radiation therapies have been combined on the arsenal against cancer. Nontraditional techniques, as Tumor Treating Fields (TTF) that uses low-intensity variable electric fields, have also been employed for the treatment of brain tumors, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), with promising results in reducing the harmful radio and chemotherapy effects, while maintaining the same tumor control rates. The combination of electromagnetic field and chemotherapy has already held a clinical investigation; however, it is missing the experimental and theoretical studies coupling electric and magnetic fields with electron radiotherapy. Herein, a theoretical analysis involving the Stopping Power of electron particles in conjunction with static electric and magnetic fields (E, H) was addressed in order to study the relevance of the use of external electromagnetic fields in radiotherapy. The findings reinforce the possibility of application of the coupling magnetic field with electron radiotherapy, and open a horizon to future experimental and clinical studies if the relevance is enough.
A quantum computer is a hypothetical device in which the laws of quantum mechanics are used to introduce a degree of parallelism into computations and which could therefore significantly improve on the computational speed of a classical computer at certain tasks. Cluster state quantum computing (recently proposed by Raussendorf and Briegel) is a new paradigm in quantum information processing and is a departure from the conventional model of quantum computation. The cluster state quantum computer begins by creating a highly entangled multi-particle state (the cluster state) which it uses as a quantum resource during the computation. Information is processed in the computer via selected measurements on individual qubits that form the cluster state. We describe in detail how a scalable quantum computer can be constructed using microwave cavity QED and, in a departure from the traditional understanding of a computer as a fixed array of computational elements, we show that cluster state quantum computing is well suited to atomic beam experiments. We show that all of the necessary elements have been individually realised, and that the construction of a truly scalable atomic beam quantum computer may be an experimental reality in the near future.
We present a technique to obtain detailed resonance structures from R-matrix calculations of atomic cross sections for both collisional and radiative processes. The resolving resonances (RR) method relies on the QB method of Quigley–Berrington (Quigley L, Berrington K A and Pelan J 1998 Comput. Phys. Commun. 114 225) to find the position and width of resonances directly from the reactance matrix. Then one determines the symmetry parameters of these features and generates an energy mesh whereby fully resolved cross sections are calculated with minimum computational cost. The RR method is illustrated with the calculation of the photoionization cross sections and the unified recombination rate coefficients of Fe XXIV, O VI, and Fe XVII. The RR method reduces numerical errors arising from unresolved R-matrix cross sections in the computation of synthetic bound–free opacities, thermally averaged collision strengths and recombination rate coefficients.
The authors extend previous results on the linear spectral problem introduced by Fordy and Kulish (1983). The odd-order isospectral flows admit both a KdV and MKdV type reduction. The non-linear terms are related to the curvature tensor of the corresponding Hermitian symmetric space. Their KdV equations are themselves reductions of known matrix KdV equations. They discuss the conserved densities and Hamiltonian structure associated with these equations.
Sloshing of a magnetic fluid can be controlled through altering the sloshing natural frequency by applying magnetic fields. The magnetic field is applied by two permanent magnets. The intensity of the applied magnetic field is changed by varying the position of the magnets and the magnet type. The dynamic pressure responses on the inner wall surface were used to gain an understanding of the sloshing phenomenon in this investigation. Several frequency response spectra are obtained in each experimental condition. These results indicated that the free surface disturbance caused by the sloshing was suppressed by the applied magnetic field.
Apparatus comprising: a cylindrical member in which the insert piece (5A; 5B); a plurality of gripping elements (49) between a first closed position and a second flared position, which is disposed in said cylinder an outlet end shaped member; and binding to said exit end of said cylindrical guide member and orienting means (71, 73) for guiding and orientation of said cylindrical object is inserted into the cylindrical member toward the said gripping elements.
This study aimed to determine the effect of curvature configuration to sensitivities and linearities of Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) water level sensor. POF type SH-4001-1.3 has been used in this study. The jacket of POF of 20 cm was removed. Transparent piped inserted by alcohol gel has been used to replace the jacket. This is head of a sensor. The head of a sensor is curved with variations of the specified path length, peel length, the width of curvature, the height of curvature and waveform. Configuration A (20 cm, 34 cm, 6 cm, 2 cm, 1 wave), configuration B (20 cm, 34 cm, 8 cm, 2 cm, 1 wave), configuration C (20 cm, 34 cm, 9 cm, 2 cm, ½ wave), configuration D (20 cm, 34 cm, 10 cm, 2 cm, ½ wave). The head of a sensor inserted into the water tank. The light source inserted to one end POF is a He-Ne laser light with a power of 5 mW and a wavelength of 632.8 nm. Power output at the other end received by the Optical Power Meter (OPM). The curvature configuration the head sensor of POF affects the output. Configuration A has good sensitivity, however good linearity given by configuration.
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory and a manufacturing method. In a nonvolatile semiconductor memory having a memory cell array region and for supplying a voltage to the memory cell array region of the coupling band, the memory cell array area, forming a plurality of word lines and a plurality of sources in the row direction, source line, and a source line formed between two wordlines. In the coupling region with the word line and the source line extending in the row direction and without separation from the word lines and the source lines of the memory cell array region collinear therewith, and each word line and the source line having word line contacts and source line contact.
The 2:1 two-dimensional anisotropic quantum harmonic oscillator is considered and new sets of states are defined by means of normal-ordering non-linear operators through the use of non-commutative binomial theorems as well as solving recurrence relations. The states generated are good candidates for the natural generalisation of the su(2) coherent states of the two-dimensional isotropic oscillator. The two-dimensional non-linear generalised ladder operators lead to several chains of states which are connected in a non trivial way. The uncertainty relations of the defining chain of states are calculated and it is found that they admit a resolution of the identity and the spatial distribution of the wavefunction produces Lissajous figures in correspondence with the classical 2:1 oscillator.
The temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation time, T1, for 35Cl nuclei was measured in the two crystalline phases of p-chlorobenzenesulphonyl chloride. The observed behaviour of T1 is ascribed to the triggering of thermally activated semi-external molecular motions. The results of the present study support the conclusion drawn from previous observations of the nuclear quadrupole resonance frequency, nu Q(T)-namely that the triggering of wagging semi-external movements occurs in this compound at temperatures higher than 160K.
There is the Triangle Size Effect (TSE) in wind measurements with Spaced Antenna (SA) method due to electronic noise and ground clutters etc. Another possible cause (non-stationary of atmosphere) of TSE and the mechanism of its effect to wind measurements was discussed in this paper. The work also presents Increment's Cumulant Approach (ICA) to eliminate the non-stationary of atmosphere and ground clutter based on the analysis of the causes of TSE; the analytical expression of one dimension mean velocity can also be obtained by the special case of Increment's Cumulant Approach (the 2nd order zero-lags ICA). In addition the high order (k≥3) cumulant of increment are proposed to suppress Gaussian noise. The comparisons between FCA and ICA with non-stationary and ground clutter by numerical simulations show that the measurement errors of ICA are much less than those of FCA by comparing mean horizontal velocities (output of simulations) and input velocities of mode.
The properties of singlet flavor chiral symmetry of lattice QCD with Wilson fermions are analyzed. We show that a suitable U(1) axial current can be defined, satisfying, in the continuum limit, the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly. Moreover, the renormalization properties of composite operators which appear in U(1) chiral Ward identities are discussed. Finally, starting from the renormalized Ward identities for the axial U(1) current, we analyze a definition of topological susceptibility suitable for nonperturbative studies and discuss preliminary numerical results.
The optical and electronic properties of the α-SiTe, β-SiTe, and RX-SiTe2 are investigated. A detailed analysis of electronic properties is done using standard density functional theory (DFT) and hybrid functional (HSE06) methods. The optical dielectric properties are studied under three different methods: standard DFT, many-body Green’s functions (GW), and Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE). Our calculations show that the SiTe compounds possess extremely high static dielectric constants in their bulk forms (ε0(⊥) = 68.58, ε0(‖) = 127.29 for α-SiTe, and ε0(⊥) = 76.23, ε0(‖) = 98.15 for β-SiTe). The frequency-dependent dielectric functions Im() have very large values (>100) in the optical regime, which are among the highest of layered materials, suggesting them as excellent light absorbents in the corresponding frequencies. α-SiTe exhibits a high degree of optical anisotropy as compared to the other two compounds, consistent with their structural configurations. A strong interlayer excitonic effect is observed in bulk RX-SiTe2. In addition, an analysis of Raman intensity is also performed. Introduction Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in Si-Te compounds. The study of this materials family originally started in 1953 when Weiss and Weiss synthesized SiTe2 for the first time. Ploog et al. synthesized Si2Te3 in 1976 and characterized its structure. Since then, Si2Te3 has been the most widely studied compound in the Si-Te family, especially after Keuleyan et al. reported in 2015 that this material can be made into 2D form. A number of researches have also been done on exploring the other forms of Si-Te compounds and their properties, both theoretically and experimentally. Like Si2Te3, many of them also possess 2D forms. The reduced dimension is expected to alter the electronic and optical properties of these materials and makes them potentially more interesting for optoelectronic applicantions. Chen et al. in 2016 proposed the α-SiTe and β-SiTe monolayers as silicon-based analogs of the black and blue phosphorene, respectively. The structural, electronic, and mechanical properties of these compounds were discussed. Our recent theoretical investigation predicted a novel phase of SiTe2 (which we name as RX-SiTe2 here) where the Si and Te atoms exhibit a unique atomic arrangement. This phase was found to be more stable than its CdI2 phase, the most common phase in the IV-VI system. The optical properties of these SiTe and SiTe2 compounds remain to be explored. In addition, since optical anisotropy has been observed in 2D Si2Te3, it would be interesting for investigation in these Si-Te compounds as well. We explore the electronic properties of the α-SiTe and β-SiTe monolayers by both the standard DFT and the hybrid density functional theory (HSE06) methods, including the spin-orbit interactions. The analysis of the optical properties of α-SiTe, β-SiTe, and RX-SiTe2 is carried out using standard DFT, many-body GW, and BSE methods. Our calculations show that α-SiTe and β-SiTe possess large static dielectric constants and large values of the imaginary part frequency-dependent dielectric functions Im(). Among the three compounds investigated, α-SiTe also shows the most optical anisotropy. In addition, a strong interlayer excitonic effect is observed in bulk RX-SiTe2. Analysis of Raman spectra in SiTe shows the shifting of major Raman active modes from bulk to monolayers. These calculations can help to investigate the materials experimentally and increase the potential usefulness of the Si-Te compounds. Computational Methods The structural optimizations and the analysis of band structure and dielectric constants are performed using the VASP package. The projected augmented wave (PAW) pseudopotential with exchange and correlation functional under generalized gradient approximation in the Perdew-BurkeErnzerhof (PBE) form is used in the calculations. A plane-wave basis set with the kinetic energy cutoff of 500 eV is used for the expansion of the electronic wave functions. The electronic and force convergence criteria during the structural optimization are set to 10 eV and 10 eV/Å, respectively. The Brillouin zones are sampled in the Gamma centered k-point grids of 13×13×13 for α-SiTe and β-SiTe as well as 13×13×7 for RX-SiTe2 in the bulks, and 13×13×1 in the monolayers. The Raman spectra calculations are done using the Quantum ESPRESSO package under the density functional perturbation theory (DFPT). The normconserving pseudo-potentials generated via Rappe-Rabe-Kaxiras-Joannopoulos (RRKJ) method are used. A plane wave basis with the cutoff energy of 80 Rydberg (Ry) is used in the calculation. The total energy convergence criterion for the self-consistent calculation is set 10 Ry after the structures are fully relaxed under the ionic minimization conditions, where the energy and force convergences are set to 10 Ry and 10 Ry/Bohr respectively. During the phonon calculation, the convergence criterion is set to 10 Ry. Results and Discussions A. Crystal structures The crystal structures of α-SiTe and β-SiTe monolayers are taken from the literature. After the monolayers are optimized, a reverse technique is followed to obtain the corresponding bulk structures. The resulting bulk lattice parameters are summarized in Table I. The corresponding crystal structures of α-and β-SiTe are shown in Figure 1, along with the RX-SiTe2 structure. The in-plane lattice parameters of the bulk structures differ from their respective monolayers. For the α-SiTe monolayer, the optimized lattice parameters are a = 4.29 Å and b = 4.11 Å. In the bulk form, we find a = 4.077 Å, and b = 4.231 Å, which are 4.96 % smaller and 2.94 % larger than their monolayers, respectively. Also, the α-SiTe is found to preserve its orthorhombic structural symmetry from bulk to monolayer. For the β-SiTe, lattice parameters are a = b = 3.83 Å in the monolayer, which are increased by 7.07 % to a = b = 4.101 Å in the bulk form. The energies per atom of both SiTe compounds in bulk are -4.081 eV and -4.083 eV for α-SiTe and β-SiTe, respectively. Meanwhile, the energies are -4.025 eV and -3.996 eV in the corresponding monolayers, which shows ~29 meV per atom energy difference. This result is consistent with the previous finding that the monolayer α-SiTe is energetically more favorable than the monolayer β-SiTe. Table I. Lattice parameters of α-SiTe and β-SiTe in their bulk Phases a (Å) b (Å) c (Å) α (°) β (°) γ (°) Bravais lattice α -SiTe 4.077 4.231 5.849 90 90 90 Orthorhombic β -SiTe 4.101 4.101 4.223 60.949 119.051 119.999 Triclinic Figure 1. Crystal structures of α-SiTe, β-SiTe, and RX-SiTe2 with the top views and side views represented by (a-c) and (d-f) respectively. The solid red lines indicate the lattice vectors. Si and Te atoms are represented by blue and light tan color, respectively. B. Electronic Properties To understand the electronic properties of SiTe phases, we calculate their band structures in the bulks as well as in the monolayers. The calculations are done under DFT and HSE06 method with and without taking the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect into account. The band structures of bulk SiTe phases with SOC are presented here (see Supplementary Material for band structures of monolayers). Figure 2 shows the electronic band structures of bulk α-SiTe with SOC, in which the DFT band structures (Figure 2 (a)) feature a slight overlapping of the valence band and conduction band, giving rise to no band gap. Figure 2 (b) is the band structures under the HSE06 method, which in most cases overcomes the limitation of standard DFT results in underestimating the band gap, thereby providing better agreement with the experiment. Under this method, the band gap is found to be 0.09 eV and is indirect in nature. This value is 0.15 eV if we neglect the SOC effect in the calculations. Table II. Band gaps of SiTe compounds under DFT and HSE06 methods SiTe Phases DFT HSE06 Without SOC With SOC Without SOC With SOC α -SiTe Bulk 0 0 0.15 0.09 Monolayer 0.40 0.36 0.67 0.61 β-SiTe Bulk 0 0 0.23 0.18 Monolayer 1.83 1.54 2.49 2.20 Similarly, the band structures of bulk β-SiTe under DFT and HSE06 methods with SOC are shown in Figure 3. The HSE06 band gap is 0.18 eV, which becomes 0.23 eV without SOC. For the monolayers, the band gaps under DFT are 0.40 eV and 1.83 eV for the α-SiTe and β-SiTe, whereas 0.67 eV and 2.49 eV under HSE06 method without SOC. These results agree with the previously reported values. However, when the SOC is turned on, the respective band gaps become 0.36 eV & 1.54 eV under DFT as well as 0.61 eV & 2.20 eV under HSE06 method. This implies that the spin-orbit interaction is lowering the band gap by 0.04-0.06 eV in α-SiTe monolayer and 0.29 eV in β-SiTe monolayer, thus suggesting the presence of strong SOC effect in β-SiTe. The band gaps of the two SiTe phases from different methods are presented in Table II. Figure 2. Electronic band structures of bulk α-SiTe from (a) DFT (b) HSE06 method. The Fermi level is represented by dotted red line. Figure 3. Electronic band structures of bulk β-SiTe from (a) DFT (b) HSE06 method. C. Dielectric Properties Next, we discuss the static dielectric constants of the three compounds under the DFT method. In the bulk, the calculated dielectric constants for α-SiTe are ε0(x) = 75.23, ε0(y) = 61.92, and ε0(z) = 127.29, while for β-SiTe, these values are 76.23, 76.23, and 98.15, respectively. Taking an average, we find that ε0(⊥) = 68.5, ε0(‖) = 127.29 for α-SiTe and ε0(⊥) = 76.23, ε0(‖) = 98.15 for β-SiTe. These values are much larger than the dielectric constants of the Si2Te3. Although the large dielectric constants in the bulk, their monolayers exhibit relatively small values, being ε0(x) = 23.36, and ε0(y) = 18.31 for α-SiTe as well as ε0(x) = ε0(y) = 3.96 for β-SiTe. Clearly, the in-plane dielectric function is anisotropic in α-SiTe and is isotropic in β-SiTe. The structural configuration appears to be the majo
We derive semiclassical contributions of periodic orbits from a boundary integral equation for three-dimensional billiard systems. We use an iterative method that keeps track of the composition of the stability matrix and the Maslov index as an orbit is traversed. Results are given for isolated periodic orbits and rotationally invariant families of periodic orbits in axially symmetric billiard systems. A practical method for determining the stability matrix and the Maslov index is described.
Cosmic (super)string loops emit moduli as they oscillate under the effect of their tension. Abundance of such moduli is constrained by diffuse gamma ray background, dark matter, and primordial element abundances if their lifetime is of the order of the relevant cosmic time. It is shown that the constraints on string tension G{mu} and modulus mass m are significantly relaxed for moduli coupling to matter stronger than gravitational strength which appears to be quite generic in large volume and warped compactification scenarios in string theory. It is also shown that thermal production of strongly coupled moduli is not efficient, hence free from constraints. In particular, the strongly coupled moduli in warped and large volume compactification scenarios and the radial modulus in the Randall-Sundrum model are found to be free from the constraints when their coupling constant is sufficiently large.
Using the classic ferroelectric BaTiO$_3$ as an example, we show that the 180 degree ferroelectric domain wall, long considered to be of Ising-type and charge neural, contains both Bloch and Neel type polarization components, and is thus charged. The bound charge density at the wall may reach as high as 10$^6$~10$^7$ Cm$^{-3}$. It is demonstrated that the flexoelectric effect arising from stress inhomogeneity is responsible for the additional Bloch and Neel polarization components. The magnitudes of these additional components are determined by the competing depolarization and flexoelectric fields.
Cables are critical components for a variety of structures such as stay cables and suspenders of cable‐stayed bridges and suspension bridges. When in operational service, they are vulnerable to cumulative fatigue damage induced by dynamic loads (e.g., the cyclic vehicle loads and wind excitation). To accurately analyze and predict their dynamics behaviors and performance that could be spatially local and temporal transient, it is essential to perform high‐resolution vibration measurements, from which their dynamics properties are identified and, subsequently, a high spatial resolution, full‐modal‐order dynamics model of cable vibration can be established.
One of the AMIGA (Analytical Model for IGM and GAlaxy evolution) predictions is that the reionization of the intergalactic neutral hydrogen occurred in two stages: a first one at z ≥ 10, due to Pop. III stars, and a second and definitive one at z ≥ 6, due to young galaxies formed at z > 6. The study of high redshift galaxies is crucial for understanding this process, the formation and evolution of galaxies and the large scale structure in the Universe. The main goal of this project is to detect and quantify the predicted double reionization and the corresponding population of LAES (Luminous Lyman-– Emitters) at z ≥10. We want to detect LAEs at z=9.3 by the flux excess due to the Ly– emission and for this we have carried out the data reduction of a large amount of infrared images. A total of 16 objects have been identified from an ultra deep exposure (equivalent to a total of 4.6 h of integration) taken with a narrow band filter (with FWHM = 11nm and central wavelength ⁄c = 1,254 μm) and the CIRCE nIR camera for GTC, but for the time being, no unidentified object already. The ultra deep image has been obtained within the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) field and the limit magnitude of this study has been mF 125W ≥ 22.3.
An expansion of the square of the momentum transfer times the differential cross section, in powers of the momentum transfer, about the nonphysical point of zero momentum transfer, is carried out through terms of the order of the reciprocal of the square of the incident energy. The results confirm the view that the differential cross section can be regarded as a function of the square of the momentum transfer down to relatively low energies. Simple formulas are presented for calculating corrections to electron impact estimates of the intensity at zero scattering angle in order to obtain accurate optical oscillator strengths. Correction formulas are also presented for obtaining quadrupole transition probabilities from optically forbidden transitions. The case of spin forbidden but exchange allowed transitions is also considered. It is shown that certain second Born exchange corrections exist with the same dependence on the incident energy as that found for the leading term in the first Born approximation for exchange.
Current-induced magnetization excitation is a core phenomenon for next-generation magnetic nanodevices, and has been attributed to the spin-transfer torque (STT) that originates from the transfer of the spin angular momentum between a conduction electron and a local magnetic moment through the exchange coupling. However, the same coupling can transfer not only spin but also energy, though the latter transfer mechanism has been largely ignored. Here we report on experimental evidence concerning the energy transfer in ferromagnet/heavy metal bilayers. The magnetoresistance (MR) is found to depend significantly on the current direction down to low in-plane currents, for which STT cannot play any significant role. Instead we find that the observed MR is consistent with the energy transfer mechanism through the quantum spin-flip process, which predicts short wavelength, current-direction-dependent magnon excitations in the THz frequency range. Our results unveil another aspect of current-induced magnetic excitation, and open a channel for the dc-current-induced generation of THz magnons.
Discrete element method (DEM) simulations of a pseudo 2-D fluidized bed at nonisothermal conditions are presented. Hot gas is injected in a colder bed that is close to minimum fluidization conditions. Following a verification of the implementation bubbles formed in monodisperse beds of different particle sizes (1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm) and with a range of injection temperatures (300 to 900 K) are analyzed.
A grid of models has been constructed of the surface brightness of selected transitions of interstellar formal-dehyde for three interstellar clouds. The grid included radial gas density gradients over a considerable range from uniform to very steep. The model results were then compared to observations of the interstellar dark clouds B361, L183, and L134. In all three cases, the comparison indicates that the gas is centrally condensed and follows a gradient in density which closely approximates an inverse square law. This result offers a hint that the dust may be more centrally condensed than the gas in B361.
A fraction of merging galaxy clusters host diffuse radio emission in their central region, termed a giant radio halo (GRH). The most promising mechanism of GRHs is the reacceleration of nonthermal electrons and positrons by merger-induced turbulence. However, the origin of these seed leptons has been under debate, and either protons or electrons can be primarily accelerated particles. In this work, we demonstrate that neutrinos can be used as a probe of physical processes in galaxy clusters and discuss possible constraints on the number of relativistic protons in the intracluster medium with the existing upper limits by IceCube. We calculate radio and neutrino emission from massive (>1014 M ⊙) galaxy clusters using the cluster population model of Nishiwaki & Asano. This model is compatible with the observed statistics of GRHs, and we find that the contribution of GRHs to the isotropic radio background observed with the ARCADE-2 experiment should be subdominant. Our fiducial model predicts the all-sky neutrino flux that is consistent with IceCube's upper limit from the stacking analysis. We also show that the neutrino upper limit gives meaningful constraints on the parameter space of the reacceleration model, such as the electron-to-proton ratio of the primary cosmic rays and the magnetic field; in particular, the secondary scenario, where the seed electrons mostly originate from inelastic pp collisions, can be constrained even in the presence of reacceleration.
All papers published in this volume have been reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing Publishing. • Type of peer review: Single Anonymous • Conference submission management system: Morressier • Number of submissions received: 44 • Number of submissions sent for review: 0 • Number of submissions accepted: 44 • Acceptance Rate (Submissions Accepted / Submissions Received × 100): 100 • Average number of reviews per paper: 0 • Total number of reviewers involved: 0 • Contact person for queries: Name: NOR ELIZA BINTI ALIAS Email: noreliza@utm.my Affiliation: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) - FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
In these lecture notes we review the physical properties of Anderson impurity models in connection with the physics of the Mott transition as revealed by Dynamical Mean Field Theory. In particular, we discuss the novel features that emerge in clusters of Anderson impuritities with respect to single‐impurity models and how they may translate into the physics of lattice models across a Mott transition within the cluster extensions of Dynamical Mean Field Theory.
Two-photon (2E1) decay rates are calculated for metastable 3dj states in Ca+, 4dj states in Sr+ and 5dj states in Ba+ to evaluate contributions of these transitions to the corresponding lifetimes. The calculations are carried out using the relativistic single-double method, where single and double excitations of Dirac–Fock wavefunctions are included to all orders of perturbation theory. We find that lowest-order calculations of the two-photon rates are strongly modified when correlation corrections are included.
We have now sufficient information that convinces us that discrete dusty annular belts (rings) are formed around every gravitating centers with common regularities of the distributions around these centers (see e. g. [1, 2]). Mean distances these rings are near to an = nao/2, ao = βM, (1) where n – natural numbers, β=(115,78±0,11).10 m.kg is the integrationg constant, M – mass of attracting center [3]. A comprehensive research of Mars including its micrometeoritic surroundings is urgent in connection with the preparation of human mission to the Mars. According to (1) for Mars ao= aM= 381 km. The comparison of the calculated semi-major axes an of Phobos and Deimos orbits with their observed values aobs is shown in the table. The Satellite n an=naM/2 aobs ∆a= aobsan Phobos Deimos 49 123 9341 km 23447 9278 23459 37 12
The crystal structure of the 4-aminopyridinium perchlorate (4-apyH)ClO4 has been determined at 100 K by means of x-ray diffraction as monoclinic, with space group P 21, with Z = 8. The crystal undergoes two structural phase transitions: one of first-order type, reversible, at 241/243 K (on cooling/heating respectively) and one of weakly first-order type, irreversible, at 277 K (on heating). The crystal dynamics is discussed on the basis of the temperature dependence of the 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance second moment (M2) and spin–lattice relaxation time T1. Both phase transitions are interpreted in terms of the changes in the motional state of (4-apyH)+ cations and ClO4− anions. The dielectric dispersion studies disclose a relaxation process over the high-temperature phase (above 241 K) in the audio-frequency region. The dielectric results are described by a Cole–Cole equation. The title crystal reveals pyroelectric properties below 241 K. The ferroelastic domain structure of (4-apyH)ClO4 is observed over the whole temperature range studied.
Advances in merged-beams instruments have allowed experimental studies of the mutual neutralization (MN) processes in collisions of both Li+ and Na+ ions with D− at energies below 1 eV. These experimental results place constraints on theoretical predictions of MN processes of Li+ and Na+ with H−, important for non-LTE modeling of Li and Na spectra in late-type stars. We compare experimental results with calculations for methods typically used to calculate MN processes, namely the full quantum (FQ) approach, and asymptotic model approaches based on the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) and semiempirical (SE) methods for deriving couplings. It is found that FQ calculations compare best overall with the experiments, followed by the LCAO, and the SE approaches. The experimental results together with the theoretical calculations, allow us to investigate the effects on modeled spectra and derived abundances and their uncertainties arising from uncertainties in the MN rates. Numerical experiments in a large grid of 1D model atmospheres, and a smaller set of 3D models, indicate that neglect of MN can lead to abundance errors of up to 0.1 dex (26%) for Li at low metallicity, and 0.2 dex (58%) for Na at high metallicity, while the uncertainties in the relevant MN rates as constrained by experiments correspond to uncertainties in abundances of much less than 0.01 dex (2%). This agreement for simple atoms gives confidence in the FQ, LCAO, and SE model approaches to be able to predict MN with the accuracy required for non-LTE modeling in stellar atmospheres.
We report results of measurements by low coherence Doppler interferometry of the path length distribution of photons undergoing multiple scattering in a highly turbid medium. We use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with multimode graded index fibers and a superluminescent diode as light source. The path length distribution is obtained by recording the heterodyne fluctuations arising due to the Brownian motion of particles in an Intralipid suspension as a function of the optical path length. The experimental path length distribution is in good agreement with predictions of Monte Carlo simulations. In the heterodyne spectrum an increase of the mean Doppler frequency with the path length is observed. The path length resolution of the setup was directly evaluated by replacing the turbid medium with randomly moving scatterers by a mirror attached to a harmonically oscillating piezo-element. The maximum (peak-to-peak) mirror displacement was 10% of the optical wavelength. We observed a narrow and strong (signal/noise ratio ~300) interference peak with the full width at the half maximum ~50 microns equal to the coherence length of the superluminescent diode. However, additional weaker satellite peaks are also observed, which may be caused by the intermodal dispersion in our multimode fibers. We demonstrate that our setup allows achieving high path length resolution for biological tissues where the width of the path length distribution is several millimeters.
The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) has been proven for different protocols, in particular for the BB84 protocol. It has been shown that this scheme is robust against eventual imperfections in the state preparation, and sending only three different states delivers the same secret key rate achievable with four states. In this work, we prove, in a finite-key scenario, that the security of this protocol can be maintained even with less measurement operators on the receiver. This allows us to implement a time-bin encoding scheme with a minimum amount of resources.
The effects of mode-mode and isospin-isospin correlations on nonequilibrium chiral dynamics are investigated by using the method of the time-dependent variational approach with squeezed states as trial states. Our numerical simulations show that large domains of the disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) are formed because of the combined effect of the mode-mode and isospin-isospin correlations. Moreover, it is found that, when the mode-mode correlation is included, the DCC domain formation is accompanied by the amplification of the quantum fluctuation, which implies the squeezing of the state. However, neither the DCC domain formation nor the amplification of the quantum fluctuation is observed if only the isospin-isospin correlation is included. This suggests that the mode-mode coupling plays a key role in the DCC domain formation.
This is the second in a series of papers studying the variable stars in Large Magellanic Cloud globular clusters. The primary goal of this series is to study how RR Lyrae stars in Oosterhoff-intermediate systems compare to their counterparts in Oosterhoff I/II systems. In this paper, we present the results of our new time-series B−V photometric study of the globular cluster NGC 1786. A total of 65 variable stars were identified in our field of view. These variables include 53 RR Lyraes (27 RRab, 18 RRc, and 8 RRd), 3 classical Cepheids, 1 Type II Cepheid, 1 Anomalous Cepheid, 2 eclipsing binaries, 3 Delta Scuti/SX Phoenicis variables, and 2 variables of undetermined type. Photometric parameters for these variables are presented. We present physical properties for some of the RR Lyrae stars, derived from Fourier analysis of their light curves. We discuss several different indicators of Oosterhoff type which indicate that the Oosterhoff classification of NGC 1786 is not as clear cut as what is seen in most globular clusters.
We have built a proof-of-concept photon-counting x-ray imaging system using a Xe:CH4 gas microstrip detector (GMD) as the image receptor, and have used this system to demonstrate several advantages of photon counting over energy integration. Our experiments spanned x-ray spectra from 10 to 50 kVp and Xe:CH4 pressures from 1 to 4 atm. When photon counting is done, the energy deposited in the detector by each incident photon can be measured on adjacent anode strips and a centroid calculation can be used to provide spatial resolution significantly better than the anode strip pitch. We measured >11 lp mm-1 at 13 kVp with our 200 µm pitch detector, and 8.2 lp mm-1 at 50 kVp. The energy resolution of our GMD is 5.2% at 59.6 keV, and the space-charge limited counting rate is >2 × 106 mm-2 s-1 at 3 atm for a 30 kVp beam.
In this paper, we analyse the energy deposition and erosion of the W/EUROFER blanket module for the first wall (FW) of DEMO due to the runaway electrons (RE) and vertical displacements events (VDEs). The DEMO data for transients were extrapolated from ITER data by using the scaling arguments. The simulations were performed at an RE deposition energy in the range 30–100 MJ m−2 over 0.05–0.3 s. In the case of a ‘hot’ VDE, all stored plasma energy is deposited on the FW area for ∼1 s. For a VDE following the thermal quench phase the remaining magnetic energy is deposited on the FW for ∼0.3 s. It is shown that the minimum W thickness needed for preventing failure of the W/EUROFER bond (assumed to be the EUROFER creep point) is large enough, causing armour melting. Both RE and VDE in DEMO will pose a major life-time issue depending on their frequency.
We study the symmetric Anderson-Holstein (AH) model at zero temperature with Wilson's numerical renormalization-group (NRG) technique to investigate the interplay between the electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. An improved method for calculating the phonon propagator using the NRG technique is presented. It is more accurate and reliable than the previous methods in that it is written in the form of the Dyson equation which calculates the phonon renormalization explicitly, and satisfies the boson sum rule better. The method is applied to calculate the renormalized phonon propagators along with the electron propagators as the on-site Coulomb repulsion U and electron-phonon coupling constant g are varied. As g is increased from 0, the phonon mode gets softened (hardened) for U≥(≤)U S (Δ) depending on the parameters of the AH model, U, and the hybridization A. And, for g≥g c o , one crosses over to the regime where the phonon mode splits into two components, one of which developing into a soft mode and the other approaching back to the bare frequency as g is further increased. Correlated with the emergence of the soft mode, the central peak of the electron spectral function is severely suppressed. These NRG calculations are compared with the standard Green's-function results for the weak-coupling regime to understand the phonon renormalization and soft mode.
The electrical resistivity of the high quality single crystals of one-dimensional bis(1,2-benzoquinonedioximato)platinum(II), Pt(bqd)2, has been studied at low temperatures and high pressures under hydrostatic conditions. The resistivity along the c-axis abruptly decreases with increasing pressure up to 0.9 GPa at room temperature. Pt(bqd)2 with an energy gap of about 0.3 eV at ambient pressure indicates the insulator-to-metal (IM) transition at around 0.8 GPa. The x-ray diffraction and the electronic spectrum of Pt(bqd)2 have been studied at room temperature and high pressures. The mechanism of the IM transition of Pt(bqd)2 is discussed. Below 235 K the resistivity of Pt(bqd)2 increases with decreasing temperature at around 0.8 GPa. The metal-to-insulator (MI) transition for Pt(bqd)2 is found at around 235 K under 0.8 GPa. This is the first example that the one-dimensional metal formed from single molecules shows the MI transition at low temperatures.
The long-term goal of NA62 is to measure the ultra rare K  ± → π ± ν¯ν decay with a sensitivity of 10−12 per event. This is done by using the decay-in-flight technique which allows a signal acceptance of ∼ 10%. The aim is to collect about 100 signal events in two years of data taking with a background-to-signal ratio smaller than 10%. The principle of the experimental measurement and the layout of the detector are presented. During 2007/2008 a dedicated run devoted to NA62 prototype tests and study of Ke2 decays was taken. The first phase of the NA62 experiment is aiming at a high-precision test of the lepton universality by measuring the helicity suppressed ratio RK. The preliminary result based on 40% of the 2007 NA62 data sample, RK = Ke2/Kμ2 = (2.500 ± 0.016) × 10−5, which is the first  result with a precision better than 1%, is consistent with the Standard Model. Aiming at charge asymmetry measurements, the NA48/2 experiment collected an  unprecedented amount of charged K3π events. The large samples allowed a precision measurement of rare charged kaon decays. New measurements of the K ± π�� decays based on the full NA48/2 data sample collected during 2003/2004 are reported in this paper. Samples of about 7200 reconstructed K ± → π ± e+e− events, and more than 3000 K ± → π ± μ+μ−  events, with a few percent background contamination, have been collected. A precise measurement of the branching fractions and the form factors of the rare decays K ± π�� were performed. Measurements of the CP-violating and the forward-backward asymmetries are reported.
A non-adiabatic quantum molecular dynamics approach for treating the interaction of matter with intense, short-duration laser pulses is developed. This approach, which is parallelized to run on massively-parallel supercomputers, is shown to be both accurate and efficient. Illustrative results are presented for harmonic generation occurring in diatomic molecules using linearly polarized laser pulses.
Summary form only given. For the new large germanium detector arrays (e.g. EUROGAM, Gammasphere, Euroball, etc.) which are currently under design/in construction, an improved time resolution is desirable to improve the coincidence time resolution. Currently with Ge-Ge timing one can reach a time resolution of the order of 20 ns with large detectors (>30% efficiency). By digitizing the signal every 10 ns with a flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) system and a following analysis of the digitized pulse, the time resolution can improve relative to conventional techniques (time filter and constant fraction). Measurements show a time resolution of about 9 ns using a conventional technique for a fast plastic and a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. With digital pulse shape analysis a resolution of 3 ns is observed.<<ETX>>
The minimum weight design of rotating pretwisted blades subject to dynamic behavior constraints and side constraints is investigated. T l ~ e dyrlarnic behavior constraints considered in the present paper are the restrictions on several blade natural frequencies and on maximum blade dynamic deflections. 'I'hc aerodynamic forces acting on the rotating blades are simulated as harmonic excitations. The sensitivity of pretwist angle and blade setting angle is also examined. Nnrnrrical resulk based on t h r opt,imality criterion and the met,hod of modified feasible directions show that the effect of setting angle on the first natural frequency is much rnore than on those of higher frequencies. On the ~ o n t ~ r a r y , the pretwist angle affect the higher frequencies much rnore than the fundamental frequency. The phenomena are also applied to t,he casr of opti~rlurn design weight with different frrquency constraint.
Recent results show that atmospheric $ nu_ mu$ oscillate with $ delta m^2  simeq 3  times 10^{-3}$ eV$^2$ and $ sin^2{2 theta_{atm}}  simeq 1$, and that conversion into $ nu_e$ is strongly disfavored. The Super-Kamiokande (SK) collaboration, using a combination of three techniques, reports that their data favor $ nu_ mu  to  nu_ tau$ over $ nu_ mu  to  nu_{sterile}$. This distinction is extremely important for both four-neutrino models and cosmology. We propose that neutrino-proton elastic scattering ($ nu + p  to  nu + p$) in water  v{C}erenkov detectors can also distinguish between active and sterile oscillations. This was not previously recognized as a useful channel since only about 2% of struck protons are above the  v{C}erenkov threshold. Nevertheless, in the present SK data there should be about 40 identifiable events. We show that these events have unique particle identification characteristics, point in the direction of the incoming neutrinos, and correspond to a narrow range of neutrino energies (1-3 GeV, oscillating near the horizon). This channel will be particularly important in Hyper-Kamiokande, with $ sim 40$ times higher rate. Our results have other important applications. First, for a similarly small fraction of atmospheric neutrino quasielastic events, the proton is relativistic. This uniquely selects $ nu_ mu$ (not $ bar{ nu}_ mu$) events, useful for understanding matter effects, and allows determination of the neutrino energy and direction, useful for the $L/E$ dependence of oscillations. Second, using accelerator neutrinos, both elastic and quasielastic events with relativistic protons can be seen in the K2K 1-kton near detector and MiniBooNE.
In contrast to a stationary Gaussian random function of a real variable which is free to have any correlation function, the closest analogous analytic random function in the complex plane has no true freedom - it is (statistically) unique. Since it has arisen only recently, as an apparently universal feature in the physical context of quantum chaos, I refer to it here as `the chaotic analytic function'. I note that it is implied by the assumption that a quantum chaotic wavefunction has Gaussian randomness and has a constant value for the average of its Wigner function in phase space. Interpreted literally this shows that the chaotic analytic function is the Bargmann function of a pure `white noise' wavefunction. More physically, if `constant' is replaced by `smooth on the scale of a Planck area', these assumptions are the semiclassical ones made by Berry for chaotic eigenstates. The analysis shows that the chaotic analytic function is still obtained semiclassically.
Abstract : The problem of wave propagation in a linearized 3-component (electron, ion, neutral) gas is discussed for the case where the ambient gas parameters are arbitrary functions of the vertical coordinate in z and uniform with respect to time and the horizontal coordinates. The formulation of the problem from the Boltzmann equation to a system of simultaneous coupled linear algebraic and first order differential equations in z is discussed in some detail in the first part of the report. In the second part, mathematical methods of dealing with such systems are treated, culminating in a discussion of the numerical method finally chosen and the computer program used to obtain solutions.
The direct measurement of magnetic fields by magnetometers, originally made of the Earth's magnetic field, has been now extended to solar planets by numerous satellite missions. Magnetic effects have been observed in the solar neighborhood and even near some comets, such as the Giotto mission to comet Halley. However, observations of magnetic fields in cosmic objects require remote sensing methods.
Encoding information using the topological charge of vortex beams has been proposed for optical communications. The conservation of the topological charge on propagation and the detection of the topological charge by a receiver are significant in these applications and have been well established in free-space. However, when vortex beams enter a diffuser, the wavefront is distorted, leading to a challenge in the conservation and detection of the topological charge. Here, we present a technique to measure the value of the topological charge of a vortex beam obscured in the randomly scattered light. The results of the numerical simulations and experiments are presented and are in good agreement. In particular, only a single-shot measurement is required to detect the topological charge of vortex beams, indicating that the method is applicable to a dynamic diffuser.
In this paper aeroelastic instability of a plate in a gas flow is investigated by direct time-domain numerical simulation. Plate deformation and gas flow are simulated in solid and fluid codes, respectively, with direct coupling between these codes. A series of simulations under different parameters has been conducted.Three types of the plate response have been observed: stability, static divergence and flutter. Depending on Mach number, two types of flutter were detected: single mode flutter and coupled mode flutter. At M = 1.8, a good correlation between the present study and the piston theory for coupled mode flutter has been obtained. At lower M, from 1 to 1.6, single mode flutter in 1st, 2nd and higher modes has been observed. Amplitudes and frequencies of flutter limit cycle oscillations have been studied. It is shown that limit cycle oscillations can occur in form of pure one-mode oscillations, or include 1:2 internal resonance, when fluttering mode excites another mode. In the region of Mach numbers from 1.3 to 1.5, where several plate modes are simultaneously unstable, transition from periodic to quasi-chaotic flutter oscillations occurs.© 2014 ASME
The Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations constitute a rigorous formulation of the quantum mechanical N-body problem in the framework of non-relativistic dynamics. They allow the exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation for bound and scattering states to be obtained. In this review, we will present the general formalism as well as the numerical tools we use to solve Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations in configuration space. We will consider in detail the description of the four- and five-nucleon systems based on modern realistic nuclear Hamiltonians. Recent achievements in this domain will be summarized. Some of the still controversial issues related with the nuclear Hamiltonians as well as the numerical methods traditionally employed to solve few-nucleon problems will be highlighted.
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We have measured the Rayleigh linewidth in C${ mathrm{O}}_{2}$ in the critical region using a self-beat spectrometer. The linewidth was measured as a function of both temperature and cell height. The thermal diffusivity $ ensuremath{ chi}$ calculated using the Landau-Placzek equation is in excellent agreement with the values that have been obtained by thermodynamic measurements at three temperatures within the temperature range we investigated ($T ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}= ensuremath{-}1.04$, +1.06, and +3.8C ifmmode^ circ else textdegree fi{}). Thus the Landau-Placzek equation is directly verified in the critical region, at least for temperatures not too close to ${T}_{c}$. However, we find that very near ${T}_{c}$ [for $ ensuremath{ epsilon} ensuremath{ equiv} frac{(T ensuremath{-}{T}_{c})}{{T}_{c}} ensuremath{ lesssim}{10}^{ ensuremath{-}4}$], the correlation length in C${ mathrm{O}}_{2}$ is of sufficiently long range ( ensuremath{ sim}250  AA{} at $ ensuremath{ epsilon}={10}^{ ensuremath{-}4}$) to require that the Fixman-modified linewidth equation be used in order to correctly describe the linewidth behavior. The thermal diffusivity was obtained along the critical isochore for the temperature range $0.02 ensuremath{ le}(T ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}) ensuremath{ le}5.3{ mathrm{C}}^{ ensuremath{ circ}}$ and along both the gas and liquid sides of the coexistence line for $0.02 ensuremath{ le}({T}_{c} ensuremath{-}T) ensuremath{ le}2.3$ C ifmmode^ circ else textdegree fi{}. The results are (in units of ${ mathrm{cm}}^{2}$/sec): along the critical isochore, $ ensuremath{ chi}=(18.1 ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}0.5) ifmmode times else texttimes fi{}{10}^{ ensuremath{-}6}{(T ensuremath{-}{T}_{c})}^{0.73 ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}0.02}$; along the gas coexistence line, $ ensuremath{ chi}=(36.0 ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}3.0) ifmmode times else texttimes fi{}{10}^{ ensuremath{-}6}{({T}_{c} ensuremath{-}T)}^{0.66 ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}0.05}$; and along the liquid coexistence line, $ ensuremath{ chi}=(34.8 ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}2.5) ifmmode times else texttimes fi{}{10}^{ ensuremath{-}6}{({T}_{c} ensuremath{-}T)}^{0.72 ifmmode pm else textpm fi{}0.05}$. These exponents are in reasonable quantitative agreement with the prediction of Kadanoff and Swift that $ ensuremath{ chi} ensuremath{ sim}{| ensuremath{ epsilon}|}^{ ensuremath{-} ensuremath{ nu}}( ensuremath{ nu} ensuremath{ approx} frac{2}{3})$. Our exponents are also in accord with the thermal-conductivity divergence $ ensuremath{ lambda} ensuremath{ sim}{ ensuremath{ epsilon}}^{ frac{ ensuremath{-}1}{2}}$ predicted by Fixman and by Mountain and Zwanzig, if the isothermal compressibility diverges as ${ ensuremath{ epsilon}}^{ frac{ ensuremath{-}5}{4}}$, as predicted by the Ising model. Thus both theory and experiment indicate a stronger divergence in the thermal conductivity than has heretofore been assumed. Our subcritical exponents are also in agreement with the linewidth measurements by Saxman and Benedek in S${ mathrm{F}}_{6}$; however, above the critical temperature they obtained an exponent of 1.27, in definite disagreement with our result.
We demonstrate that the further indication of a possible annual modulation effect, singled out by the DAMA/NaI experiment for WIMP direct detection is widely compatible with an interpretation in terms of a relic neutralino as the major component of dark matter in the Universe. We discuss the supersymmetric features of this neutralino in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model and their implications for searches at accelerators.
The mammalian cochlea is a structure comprising a number of components connected by elastic elements. A mechanical system of this kind is expected to have multiple normal modes of oscillation and associated resonances. The guinea pig cochlear mechanics was probed using distortion components generated in the cochlea close to the place of overlap between two tones presented simultaneously. Otoacoustic emissions at frequencies of the distortion components were recorded in the ear canal. The phase behavior of the emissions reveals the presence of a nonlinear resonance at a frequency about a half octave below that of the high-frequency primary tone. The location of the resonance is level dependent and the resonance shifts to lower frequencies with increasing stimulus intensity. This resonance is thought to be associated with the tectorial membrane. The resonance tends to minimize input to the cochlear receptor cells at frequencies below the high-frequency primary and increases the dynamic load to the stereocilia of the receptor cells at the primary frequency when the tectorial membrane and reticular lamina move in counterphase.
We have measured the time-dependent decay rate for the process $B  to J/ psi K^{*0}(892)$ in a sample of about 88 million $ Upsilon(4S)  to B bar{B}$ decays collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy $B$ Factory at SLAC. In this sample we study flavor-tagged events in which one neutral $B$ meson is reconstructed in the $J/ psi K^{*0}$ or $J/ psi  bar{K}^{*0}$ final state. We measure the coefficients of the cosine and sine terms in the time-dependent asymmetries for $J/ psi K^{*0}$ and $J/ psi  bar{K}^{*0}$, find them to be consistent with the Standard Model expectations, and set upper limits at 90% C.L. on the decay amplitude ratios $|A ( bar{B}^0  to J/ psi K^{*0})|/|A (B^0  to J/ psi K^{*0})|<0.26$ and $|A (B^0  to J/ psi  bar{K}^{*0})|/|A ( bar{B}^0  to J/ psi  bar{K}^{*0})|<0.32$. For a single ratio of wrong-flavor to favored amplitudes for $B^0$ and $ bar{B}^0$ combined, we obtain an upper limit of 0.25 at 90% C.L.
A theory is outlined in which n scalar fields interact in a way that is invariant under all real, nonsingular, local, linear transformations of the mesons among themselves. The energy of the system is positive. The symmetry spontaneously breaks down to a compact subgroup of GL(n,R) and the gauge mesons of the broken symmetry become massive. Their longitudinal components are supplied by the derivatives of an internal metric tensor to which no physical particles are associated.
Two optical configurations for generating two self-pumped phase-conjugated waves from two signal laser beams transporting different information were presented: one in which the two signal laser beams were directed at two opposite faces [(100) and (100)] of the crystal and the other in which both beams were directed at the same (100) face. Using a barium titanate (BaTiO3) single crystal as a self-pumped phase-conjugated mirror, the generation conditions of two discrete self-pumped phase-conjugated waves of high quality with reduced interference were investigated. Successfully self-pumped phase-conjugated images were observed to be more readily achievable by changing the incident beam power than by changing the incident position onto a single face.
If the neutron-nucleus scattering amplitudes for no spin change, f(theta), and for spin flip, g(theta), are given at a fixed energy, then by replacing the Schroedinger equation in the interior of the potential by a difference equation it is possible to construct the optical potential including the spin-orbit force. The method has been applied to obtain local interactions for n-/sup 16/O and n-/sup 40/Ca.
An important approach in the design of new environmentally friendly materials is represented by the study of analogous systems already existing in nature. In the search for new water splitting catalysts, the corresponding natural analogue is represented by the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II, which is a large membrane protein complex present in photosynthetic organisms. The understanding of the catalytic strategy of its active Mn4CaO5 core is important to unravel the mechanisms of water oxidation in photosynthesis and can serve as an inspiring model for the design of biomimetic catalysts based on largely non-toxic, earth abundant elements. The magnetic interactions between Mn ions are studied in the present work by means of DFT + U broken symmetry ab initio molecular dynamics within a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics framework. The room temperature dynamics of two different structural models (i.e. with total high-spin and total low-spin ground states) was stable during the simulated time. We observed large fluctuations of the magnetic coupling constants calculated on both the structural models of the complex, causing occasionally instantaneous swapping of the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic coupling between the metal centers.
Using three-dimensional thermal modelling of a high-power laser diode with a stripe contact width of as an example, we analyse the thermal parameters of high-power laser diodes mounted using submounts. We consider a range of thermal conductivities of submounts that includes parameters of widely used thermal compensators based on AlN, BeO and SiC, as well as on CuW and CuMo composites and polycrystalline and single-crystal synthetic diamond with high thermal conductivity. Taking into account experimental overall efficiency vs. pump current data, we calculate the temperature of the active layer as a function of the width, thickness and thermal conductivity of the submount at thermal loads corresponding to cw output powers of 10, 15 and .
The majority of attempts to synthesize the theoretically predicted superhard phase β−C3N4 have been driven towards the use of techniques which maximize both the carbon sp3 levels and the amount of nitrogen incorporated within the film. However, as yet no attempt has been made to understand the mechanism behind the resultant chemical sputter process and its obvious effect upon film growth. In this work, however, the chemical sputtering process has been investigated through the use of an as-deposited tetrahedrally bonded amorphous carbon film with a high density nitrogen plasma produced using an rf-based electron cyclotron wave resonance source. The results obtained suggested the presence of two distinct ion energy dependent regimes. The first, below 100 eV, involves the chemical sputtering of carbon from the surface, whereas the second at ion energies in excess of 100 eV exhibits a drop in sputter rate associated with the subplantation of nitrogen within the carbon matrix. Furthermore, as the sample temper...
A study of single top quark production via flavor changing neutral current interactions at $tq gamma$ vertices is performed at future circular hadron electron collider. The signal cross sections for the processes $e^{-}p to e^{-}W^{ pm}q+X$ and $e^{-}p to e^{-}W^{ pm}bq+X$ in the collision of electron beam with energy $E_e=$ 60 GeV and proton beam with energy $E_p=$ 50 TeV are calculated. In the analysis, the invariant mass distributions of three jets reconstructing top quark mass, requiring one b-tagged jet and other two jets reconstructing the $W$ mass are used to count signal and background events after all selection cuts. The upper limits on the anomalous flavor changing neutral current $tq gamma$ couplings are found to be $ lambda_q < $ 0.01 at future circular hadron electron collider for $L_{int}=100$ fb$^{-1}$ with the fast simulation of detector effects. Signal significance depending on the couplings $ lambda_q$ is analyzed and an enhanced sensitivity is found to the branching ratio BR($t to q gamma$) at the future circular hadron electron collider when compared to the current experimental results.
The rational design of materials requires a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms driving their self-assembly. This may be particularly challenging in highly dense and shape-asymmetric systems. Here we show how the addition of tiny non-adsorbing spheres (depletants) to a dense system of hard disc-like particles (discotics) leads to coexistence between two distinct, highly dense (liquid)-crystalline columnar phases. This coexistence emerges due to the directional-dependent free-volume pockets for depletants. Theoretical results are confirmed by simulations explicitly accounting for the binary mixture of interest. We define the stability limits of this columnar-columnar coexistence and quantify the directional-dependent depletant partitioning.
Enhanced low field magnetoresistance (MR) in Nd0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (NSMO) has been achieved by using high‐Tc superconducting flux focusing devices made of YBa2Cu3O7(YBCO)/NSMO heterostructures. Two kinds of flux focusing schemes, gap, and washer devices, have been used where an applied magnetic field is expelled from patterned YBCO pads and focused onto a bridge of NSMO film. Using such a magnetic lens, at temperatures below 77 K ∼800% enhancement in MR=−(RH−R0)/R0 was observed for different samples. This corresponds to more than 10% change in the MR of NSMO in the presence of 200 G. For the maximum MR response in NSMO, the YBCO/NSMO heterostructures were deposited on (100) LaAlO3 substrate by pulsed laser deposition in situ so that the peak resistance temperature (Tp) of NSMO was below the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of YBCO.
Abstract : Motion evoked potentials were collected from subjects while they were rotated from side to side in a seated postion. The MERS were bipahsic with major component mean latencies of 278 MSEC It is concluded that the MERS are of brain origin and not due to artifacts from the recording environment. The latencies of the waveform components of the MERS suggest that the MER results from the onset of the rotation stitumulus.
A numerical analysis of conventional and differential pulse-width pair Brillouin optical time domain analysis systems is reported. The tests are focused on determining the performance of these systems especially in terms of spatial resolution, as a function of the pulse characteristics. A new definition of spatial resolution is given, based on analysis of the shape of the Brillouin gain spectrum. The influence of the rise/fall time of the pulse light to the spatial resolution is also studied.
A theoretical model of cavity excitation driven by a modulated electron beam is developed in connection with application to relativistic klystron amplifiers. The equations that govern the phase and amplitude of the excitation voltage appearing on the cavity opening are obtained in terms of time t and current modulation strength. Several points are noteworthy: (1) amplitude and phase shift of the induced voltage indicate a damping oscillation, whose frequency is proportional to the mismatch (Delta) (omega) between the modulation frequency (omega) and the cavity resonance frequency (omega) 0; (2) rise time of the cavity excitation amplitude decreases as the value of the frequency mismatch increases; (3) for a large value of the frequency mismatch (Delta) (omega) , the power transfer from the modulated beam to the cavity occurs at the beginning of the beam pulse; and (4) it is observed that the absolute amount of energy delivered from the beam to the cavity decreases drastically as the frequency mismatch increases.
A large program of spin structure measurements is underway in Jefferson Lab's Hall B. Of particular interest is the first moment of the spin structure function g1, which goes through a rapid transition from the photon point (Q2 = 0), where it is constrained by the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule, to the deep inelastic limit where it is sensitive to the nucleon spin fraction carried by quarks. One can then study the transition from hadronic to quark degrees of freedom over the whole range of Q2. It is also interesting to look for the onset of quark-hadron duality in spin structure functions. We use longitudinally polarized electrons with energies from 1.6 to 5.7 GeV incident upon polarized NH3 and ND3 targets to investigate proton and deuteron spin observables in and above the resonance region. We present the GDH and Bjorken integrals using the 1.6 and 5.7 GeV data and comment on the validity of local quark-hadron duality over the wide kinematical range (0.05 ⩽ Q2 ⩽ 4.5 GeV2 and W < 3.2 GeV) covered by this experiment.
In this thesis, I introduce and compare an implementation of tw different shell models for physical systems consisting of multiple identical bosons. In the main part, the shell model is used to study the energy sp ectra of bosons with contact interactions in a harmonic confinement as well as those of unconfined H clusters. The convergence of the shell-model results is investigated in detail as the size of the model space is increased. Furthermore, possible improvements such as the smearing of contact inter actions or a unitary transformation of the potentials are utilised and assessed. Systems with up to twelve bosons are considered. Moreover, I test a procedure to determine scattering observ ables from the energy spectra of fermions in a harmonic confinement. Finally, the position and widt h of resonances are extracted from the dependence of the energy spectra on the oscillator lengt h. Some parts of this thesis have been previously published in f ollowing articles: • S. Tölle, H.-W. Hammer, and B. Ch. Metsch, Universal few-body phys ics in a harmonic trap, C. R. Phys.12, 59 (2011). • S. Tölle, H. W. Hammer, and B. Ch. Metsch, Convergence properties of the effective theory for trapped bosons, J. Phys. G 40, 055004 (2013).
Two recent studies based on composite reddened quasar spectra have indicated the presence of "gray" dust in quasar environments. This gray dust has a relatively flat extinction law in the UV, consistent with the theoretical expectation of a lack of small dust grains close to a quasar. In contrast, individual reddened quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey tend to have steep extinction laws in the UV, similar to that in the SMC. We analyze the method used in determining extinction laws from composite quasar spectra in order to resolve this discrepancy. We show that quasars reddened by SMC-type dust that are present in quasar samples have a negative correlation between EB-V and redshift, due to selection effects. The fact that the highest redshift quasars (which contribute to the UV part of a composite spectrum) are less extincted leads to shallower extinction in the UV. We construct a composite quasar spectrum from a simulated sample of quasars reddened by SMC-type dust and show that the extinction curve derived from the composite does not recover the intrinsic extinction law. We conclude there is no evidence of gray dust in quasar environments.
Here Z, a 60 TW/5 MJ electrical accelerator located at Sandia National Laboratories, has been used to implode tungsten wire-array Z pinches. These arrays consisted of large numbers of tungsten wires (120–300) with wire diameters of 7.5 to 15 μm placed in a symmetric cylindrical array. The experiments used array diameters ranging from 1.75 to 4 cm and lengths from 1 to 2 cm. A 2 cm long, 4 cm diam tungsten array consisting of 240, 7.5 μm diam wires (4.1 mg mass) achieved an x-ray power of ∼200 TW and an x-ray energy of nearly 2 MJ. Spectral data suggest an optically thick, Planckian-like radiator below 1000 eV. One surprising experimental result was the observation that the total radiated x-ray energies and x-ray powers were nearly independent of pinch length. These data are compared with two-dimensional radiation magnetohydrodynamic code calculations.
Effective Hamiltonians and effective electroweak operators are calculated with the Okubo-Lee-Suzuki formalism for two-nucleon systems. Working within a harmonic oscillator basis, first without and then with a confining harmonic oscillator trap, we demonstrate the effects of renormalization on observables calculated for truncated basis spaces. We illustrate the renormalization effects for the root-mean-square point-proton radius, electric quadrupole moment, magnetic dipole moment, Gamow-Teller transition and neutrinoless double-beta decay operator using nucleon-nucleon interactions from chiral Effective Field Theory. Renormalization effects tend to be larger in the weaker traps and smaller basis spaces suggesting applications to heavier nuclei with transitions dominated by weakly-bound nucleons would be subject to more significant renormalization effects within achievable basis spaces.
X-ray spectra from the surface of insulating samples were measured using a 30 kV Ga+ focused ion beam instrument equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, showing an intense emission of low energy X-rays from insulating materials such as Al-K and O-K of Al2O3. This low energy ion induced X-ray emissions (LIIXE) from insulating materials is expected as a new analytical technique for light elements in insulating samples. It was found that X-ray yield induced by Ga+ ion beam irradiation depends on the incident beam energy. It was also found that high voltage of a secondary electron detector located near the sample strongly influences the intensity of X-ray emission, implying that bombardment of electrons, which may come from the chamber wall, onside the sample surface is a key phenomenon for the X-ray emissions.
We discuss dissipative processes occurring during production and escape of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) from magnetars’ magnetospheres, the presumed loci of FRBs. High magnetic field is required in the emission region, both to account for the overall energetics of FRBs, and in order to suppress “normal” (non-coherent) radiative losses of radio emitting particles; this limits the emission radii to ≤ few× 10RNS. Radiative losses by particles in the strong FRB pulse may occur in the outer regions of the magnetosphere for longer rotation periods, P ≥ 1 second. These losses are suppressed by several effects: (i) the ponderomotive pre-acceleration of background plasma along the direction of wave propagation (losses reduced approximately as γ ‖ : smaller frequency, ∝ γ 2 ‖ in power, and times scales stretched, ∝ γ‖); this acceleration is non-dissipative and is reversed on the declining part of the pulse; (ii) Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effects (long radiation formation length and ensuing destructive interference of scattered waves). In some cases an FRB pulse may be dissipated on external perturbations (e.g. an incoming pulse of Alfvén waves): this may produce a pulse of UV/soft X-rays possibly detectable by Chandra.
Entangled polymer solutions and melts show a variety of behaviours under different  flow conditions. Recent step strain experiments [Macromolecules 42, 6261 (2009)]  demonstrated a fracture-like behaviour that was interpreted in terms of a massive loss of entanglements after yielding. This was taken to violate the Doi-Edwards tube model [The Theory of Polymer Dynamics (Oxford University Press, New York, United States, 1986)]. Here this phenomenon is investigated using the Rolie-Poly model, which approximates a successful version of the DE theory. The results give close quantitative agreement with the experiments, as well as with the proposal by Marrucci and Grizzuti in 1983 that entangled polymer liquids possess an elastic instability. The `fracture' is a transient manifestation of this elastic instability that relies on the amplification of spatially inhomogeneous fluctuations. Linear stability analysis of the fluid shows that there is also a viscous contribution to this instability so that this fracture-like behaviour is possible before the elastic limit is reached.
The primary objective of this research is to support the design of liquid rocket systems for the Advanced Space Transportation System. Since the space launch systems in the near future are likely to rely on liquid rocket engines, increasing the efficiency and reliability of the engine components is an important task. One of the major problems in the liquid rocket engine is to understand fluid dynamics of fuel and oxidizer flows from the fuel tank to plume. Understanding the flow through the entire turbo-pump geometry through numerical simulation will be of significant value toward design. One of the milestones of this effort is to develop, apply and demonstrate the capability and accuracy of 3D CFD methods as efficient design analysis tools on high performance computer platforms. The development of the Message Passage Interface (MPI) and Multi Level Parallel (MLP) versions of the INS3D code is currently underway. The serial version of INS3D code is a multidimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes solver based on overset grid technology, INS3D-MPI is based on the explicit massage-passing interface across processors and is primarily suited for distributed memory systems. INS3D-MLP is based on multi-level parallel method and is suitable for distributed-shared memory systems. For the entire turbo-pump simulations, moving boundary capability and efficient time-accurate integration methods are built in the flow solver, To handle the geometric complexity and moving boundary problems, an overset grid scheme is incorporated with the solver so that new connectivity data will be obtained at each time step. The Chimera overlapped grid scheme allows subdomains move relative to each other, and provides a great flexibility when the boundary movement creates large displacements. Two numerical procedures, one based on artificial compressibility method and the other pressure projection method, are outlined for obtaining time-accurate solutions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The performance of the two methods is compared by obtaining unsteady solutions for the evolution of twin vortices behind a flat plate. Calculated results are compared with experimental and other numerical results. For an unsteady flow, which requires small physical time step, the pressure projection method was found to be computationally efficient since it does not require any subiteration procedure. It was observed that the artificial compressibility method requires a fast convergence scheme at each physical time step in order to satisfy the incompressibility condition. This was obtained by using a GMRES-ILU(0) solver in present computations. When a line-relaxation scheme was used, the time accuracy was degraded and time-accurate computations became very expensive.
The detection of far-infrared (far-IR) and sub-mm-wave radiation is resistant to the commonly employed techniques in the neighbouring microwave and IR frequency bands. In this wavelength detection range the use of solid state detectors has been hampered for the reasons of transit time of charge carriers being larger than the time of one oscillation period of radiation. Also the energy of radiation quanta is substantially smaller than the thermal energy at room temperature and even liquid nitrogen temperature. The realization of terahertz (THz) emitters and receivers is a challenge because the frequencies are too high for conventional electronics and the photon energies are too small for classical optics.Development of semiconductor focal plane arrays started in seventies last century and has revolutionized imaging systems in the next decades. This paper presents progress in far-IR and sub-mm-wave semiconductor detector technology of focal plane arrays during the past twenty years. Special attention is given on recent progress in the detector technologies for real-time uncooled THz focal plane arrays such as Schottky barrier arrays, field-effect transistor detectors, and microbolometers. Also cryogenically cooled silicon and germanium extrinsic photoconductor arrays, and semiconductor bolometer arrays are considered.
An observational study of a sample of pointsymmetric PNe is presented. The study includes an analysis of physical conditions and nature of the emission. A description of each object, taking into account morphological and kinematic data obtained from literature, is discussed within the context of collimated outflows in PNe. Point-symmetry is a morphological feature of many kinds of astrophysical systems, which is being found increasingly frequently in Planetary Nebulae (PNe). As in many other phenomena, the most relevant and systematic data are needed in order to reveal the nature, origin, and evolution of such systems. The goal of this work is to find out the physical conditions in particular regions (point-symmetric features) for a sample of PNe, for which the kinematics has been analyzed in the past. In this case, the sample corresponds to the four point-symmetric PNe studied by Guerrero, Vázquez, & López (1999), namely, Pe 1-17, PC 19, He 1-1, and He 2-429. Long slit low-dispersion spectroscopy was obtained with the B&Ch spectrometer, combined with the f/7.5 focus in the 2.1-m UNAM telescope at the San Pedro Mártir Observatory (México). Observations were made on 1999 July 18 to 21. A 300 lines/mm grating was used, whereas a CCD Tektronix 1024× 1024 was the detector (24 μm pix). The wavelength ranged from 3400 to 7500 Å, with a dispersion of 4 Å pix, and an angular scale of 0.84 pixel. Seeing was 1. 4 during observations and spectral resolution was 9 Å. A typical spectrum is shown in Figure 1. With no intention to generalize, we found that, for these objects, electron temperature ranges from 10 000 to 16 000 K, but there is a wide range of densities, from 300 to 10000 cm (or even more). There is no apparent correlation between radial velocity and physical conditions. The two higher velocity features (∼ 30 to 40 km s) have very different densities, from a few hundreds to more than 3000 (or
Beginning with the multiferroic material,recent advances in triangular antiferromagnets ACrO2(A=Li,Na,K,Ag,or Cu) are introduced.The ferroelectricity of compounds ACrO2 is driven by spiral-spin ordering.Due to the combination of magnetic and dielectric properties,with eventual cross-coupling between these properties,such multiferroics combine very rich and interesting fundamental physics problems with a technologically appealing potential for applications in the general area of spintronic.The magnetic structure,electronic structure and magnetism of AgCrO2 have been studied by using the density function theory(DFT) with the generalized gradient approximation(GGA) using the projected augmented wave(PAW) method.Based on the collinear magnetic structure calculation,the magnetic ground state is found to be striped antiferromagnetic.The density of states indicates that the physics properties of AgCrO2 are determined by Cr3+.By performing non-collinear magnetic structure calculations,the 120° spin structure within the spiral plane parallel to (110) or (110) plane are given,respectively.AgCrO2 is expected to be a good two-dimensional triangular lattice Heisenberg material with strong interlayer coupling and very weak interlayer interaction.
The unsteady viscous sublayer model proposed by Einstein and Li was used to study the character of the velocity history occurring near a smooth wall in a turbulent flow. It is shown that a distinctly intermittent velocity should exist, alternating between a higher, turbulent type velocity with large fluctuations and a lower, laminar type velocity with smaller fluctuations. A supercritical flow of viscous oil was established in an open channel. With the point of measurement far out in the flow (at all times beyond the viscous layer), the total head (or velocity) records exhibited the random character expected in turbulent flow. With the point of measurement close enough to the wall so as to be covered part of the time by the alternately growing and decaying sublayer, the velocity records took on the intermittent properties predicted by the model, with the percentage of time spent in the turbulent phase depending on the distance of the point of observation from the wall. Autocorrelation curves made from the total head measurements indicated a periodicity of the same magnitude as that predicted by the sublayer model.
We report on the study of heat 2D-distribution in InGaN LEDs with the stress made on local device overheating and temperature gradients inside the structure. The MQW InGaN/GaN/sapphire blue LEDs are designed as bottom emitting devices where light escapes the structure through the transparent GaN current spreading layer and sapphire substrate, whereas the LED structure with high-reflectivity Ni/Ag p-contact is bonded to the thermally conductive Si submount by a flip-chip method. The measurements are performed with an IR microscope operating in a time-resolved mode (3-5 um spectral range, <20 μm spatial and 10 μs temporal resolution), while scanning a heat emission map through a transparent sapphire substrate. We show how current crowding (which is difficult to avoid) causes a local hot region near the n-contact pads and affects the performance of the device at a high injection level.
Because the signal amplitude corresponding to the phase of BPSK modulation is ±1, it’s autocorrelation function is shaped like a mountain peak. The fuzzy function of BPSK-LFM is multiplied by two parts, the left part is the fuzzy function of the standard LFM signal, and the right part is the autocorrelation function of the BPSK communication symbol, which won’t change with the random change of the communication symbol. Therefore, the fuzzy function performance of BPSK-LFM signal is better than that of LFM signal, but the transmission rate of communication is low. The shape of the fuzzy function will change with the change of random communication symbol in QPSK-LFM and 8PSK-LFM modulation. OFDM multi-carrier modulation can improve spectrum efficiency and communication transmission rate. MIMO technology can multiply channel capacity and spectrum efficiency without increasing signal bandwidth B. As a result, the integrated radar communication signal designed in this paper is a centralized MIMO-OFDM-BPSK-LFM signal. The distance between receiving antennas and transmitting antennas is very small in centralized MIMO radars, which is easy to place together.
The conventional analysis of a Peltier cooler approximates the material properties as independent of temperature using a constant properties model (CPM). Alternative concepts have been published by Bian and Shakouri (2006 Appl. Phys. Lett. 89 212101), Bian (et al 2007 Phys. Rev. B 75 245208) and Snyder et al (2012 Phys. Rev. B 86 045202). While Snyder's Thomson cooler concept results from a consideration of compatibility, the method of Bian et al focuses on the redistribution of heat. Thus, both approaches are based on different principles. In this paper we compare the new concepts to CPM and we reconsider the limit for maximum cooling. The results provide a new perspective on maximum cooling.
Abstract The characteristics of interstellar dust reflect a complex interplay between stellar injection of stardust, destruction in the ISM, and regrowth in clouds. Astronomical observations and analysis of stardust isolated from meteorites have revealed a highly diverse interstellar and circumstellar grain inventory, including both amorphous materials and highly crystalline compounds (silicates and carbon). This review summarizes this dust budget and inventory. Interstellar dust is highly processed during its sojourn from its birthsite (stellar ejecta) to its incorporation into protoplanetary systems. Processing by strong shocks due to supernova explosions is particularly important. Sputtering by impacting gas ions in shocks in the intercloud medium of the ISM is counteracted by accretion in cloud phases and their balance sets the observed, interstellar, elemental depletion patterns. Astronomical and meteoritical-stardust evidence for these processes is reviewed and it is concluded that dust formation in the ISM is very rapid. Not surprisingly, the characteristics of interstellar dust are expected to vary widely reflecting local stellar sources, the effects of SNe processing, and the interstellar accretion process.
Employing universal relations for the Onsager coefficients in the linear regime at the symmetric point of the single impurity Anderson model, we calculate the conditions under which the quantum scattering phase shift should satisfy to produce the asymptotic Carnot's limit for the thermoelectric efficiency. We show that a single quantum dot connected by metallic leads at the Kondo regime cannot achieve the conditions that cause the best thermoelectric efficiency. We study a system of serial double quantum dots without inter-dot correlations. We show that maintaining one dot in the electron-hole symmetric point makes it possible to obtain conditions for the quantum phase shift linked to charge fluctuations in the other quantum dot that satisfy the conditions associated with enhancing the thermoelectric efficiency. We also discuss the presence of bound states in the continuum (BICs) and quasi-BICs associated with the quantum scattering interference process that improves thermoelectric efficiency. We identify two types of quasi-BICs that occur at low and high temperatures: The first is associated with single Fano resonances, and the last is with several Fano processes. We also discussed possible temperature values and conditions that could be linked with the experimental realization of our results.
In order to obviate the necessity for providing a complete channel of electronics for each transducer of an array incorporated into a real-time ultrasonic imaging system, all system transducers are disposed in apparent series with a single inductor as to direct current. Charging resistors permit each transducer to slowly capacitively charge to a predetermined voltage under static conditions. When a switching transistor disposed in series with a given transducer is placed in the conducting state, the transducer rapidly discharges and mechanically deflects to introduce an ultrasonic pulse into an object. While the switching transistor remains conductive, the inductor and transducer are in parallel circuit as to echo signals returning to the transducer. When the switching transistor is rendered non-conductive, the transducer again charges capacitively in anticipation of a succeeding cycle. All echo signals sensed are amplified by a single preamplifier and applied to a display which is sweep coordinated with the sequence of transducer energization.
Control of light propagation is usually obtained by appropriately designing the optical path, that is, the refractive index of the material. Common examples are standard lenses and dielectric waveguides. Recently, a new way to tailor the wave front emerged, based on the Pancharatnam-Berry phase (PBP). The PBP is a geometric phase related to changes in the polarization state of light along its propagation [1]. Such geometric phase delay is proportional to the solid angle defined by the polarization state along its path on the Poincarè sphere [1]. In an anisotropic material, a transverse gradient of PBP can be induced by a local rotation of the crystal axes. When the thickness of an anisotropic plate corresponds to a half-wave plate (phase difference of π between the ordinary and the extraordinary polarization), the PBP between two points across the beam profile equals twice the relative rotation of the optic axis. Thus, the beam wave-front is polarization-dependent and can be molded at will by a space-dependent rotation of the optic axis in the transverse plane, using very short propagation distances [1]. The term planar photonics has been coined to describe this revolutionary optical technology.
An analytical model predicting the growth rates, the absolute growth times and the saturation values of the magnetic field strength within galactic haloes is presented. The analytical results are compared to cosmological magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of Milky Way-like galactic halo formation performed with the N-body/spmhd code gadget. The halo has a mass of ≈3 × 1012 M⊙ and a virial radius of ≈270 kpc. The simulations in a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology also include radiative cooling, star formation, supernova feedback and the description of non-ideal MHD.        A primordial magnetic seed field ranging from 10−10 to 10−34 G in strength agglomerates together with the gas within filaments and protohaloes. There, it is amplified within a couple of hundred million years up to equipartition with the corresponding turbulent energy. The magnetic field strength increases by turbulent small-scale dynamo action. The turbulence is generated by the gravitational collapse and by supernova feedback. Subsequently, a series of halo mergers leads to shock waves and amplification processes magnetizing the surrounding gas within a few billion years. At first, the magnetic energy grows on small scales and then self-organizes to larger scales. Magnetic field strengths of ≈10−6 G are reached in the centre of the halo and drop to ≈10−9 G in the intergalactic medium.        Analysing the saturation levels and growth rates, the model is able to describe the process of magnetic amplification notably well and confirms the results of the simulations.
Oxide-isolated GaAs nanowires (NWs) were obtained through a lithography-free method in which axial growth of NWs coated in aluminum oxide (Al2O3) is restarted using an annealing step. NWs are grown using the vapor–liquid–solid method and coated in nanometer thin oxide films using atomic layer deposition. Continued growth at the oxide-coated nanoparticle (NP) occurs after the thermally-induced fracture of the oxide during annealing. This oxide fracture is observed to depend on NP diameter, oxide thickness and annealing temperature. A thermal expansion mismatch model for stresses on the oxide shell is put forward to explain these results.
We show theoretically that an open-dissipative polariton condensate confined within a trapping potential and driven by an incoherent pumping scheme gives rise to bistability between odd and even modes of the potential. Switching from one state to the other can be controlled via incoherent pulsing which becomes an important step towards construction of low-powered opto-electronic devices. The origin of the effect comes from modulational instability between odd and even states of the trapping potential governed by the nonlinear polariton-polariton interactions.
The largest of the hanging-bowls from Sutton Hoo is distinguished by the abundance and the brilliance of the mosaic glass adorning its mounts, and by the mannered drawing of its delicate Celtic scroll-patterns. The character of the mosaic glass links this bowl very closely with the newly discovered bowl from Scunthorpe, Lincs., and, but less closely, with the bowl from Barlaston, Staffs., and the bowl represented by the Northumberland escutcheons in the British Museum. Only the Scunthorpe bowl, however, bears mosaic of comparable elegance, and it is also much closer to the Sutton Hoo bowl in its ornamental style. This Celtic style has been studied by Mr Leeds' and Franqoise Henry,2 and, therefore, to Sutton Hoo and Scunthorpe we can add as further representatives of the same school of design the wellknown Faversham mount^,^ the escutcheon from Barrington, Cambridge, the enamelled bronze vessel from Needham Market, Suffolk, and the escutcheon from Benniworth, Lincs.
Abstract A number of archaeological artefact distributions are studied as measures of contact or interaction with a production, marketing or service centre. The fall‐off in interaction with distance is examined with a regression model. The parameters of this model are found to vary in an interesting fashion. The use of the gravity model for predicting service areas around nodes of contact is also shown to be possible in archaeological contexts.
This is a story of travel and discovery such as the leader of the Assyriological world well knows how to tell, and the enthusiasm with which he writes is such that the reader is carried away, and can almost imagine that he witnesses himself the things described. The discomforts and the pleasures of the journey, the scenery, the present manners and customs of the people, compared with those of the ancient Babylonians, are all depicted as by one gifted with unusual power of observation. Typical is the following :— "No Arab knows how old he is, which is very pleasant for the nose-ring bedecked beauties who live there. When I asked a young Arab how old he was he shook his head. Then he erected his thumb and said, ' In that year the palms there were planted, in that year (raising the index-finger) came Moosyoo Bootroos (Monsieur Peters) over the sea; in that year (holding up the second finger) such and such a man was Wali-pasha in Bagdad — and in that year (showing the third finger) I came.' As Professor Peters began the excavations at Niifer in 1889, it could easily bê calculated that the young man was 13 years old. Exactly in this way, after prominent events, the old Babylonians, about the time of Hammurabi, indicated the years—Year when the city of Isin was captured, year the throne of Merodach was set up in E-sagila, etc. The art of medicine has made no progress among the aboriginal population since the time of the Babylonians. If an Arab has headache, a glowing hot bone of a dog, with which he burns himself upon the forehead, serves as his megrim-pencil, and bodily pains are treated in exactly the same way. For the healing or checking of eye-diseases the Arabs swallow seven pomegranate blossoms, for the holiness of the number seven still survives. And when we, on the 19th of July, had pitched our tents on the bank of the Euphrates near the little village
Not surprisingly, his observations that China's lack of 'any ideological claim to global leadership' and that its parochial goals of 'restoration nationalism' (230) have little appeal elsewhere seem to have been blind-sided by recent events. Two years after this book was published, Chinese policy economic, foreign, or cultural holds attractions rapidly fading in that of the United States: a burgeoning economy, a more rather than less collaborative foreign policy, and so far greater immunity from the perils of global terrorism. This is not to offer a counter-prediction, or even to say that Stuart-Fox may not be proved right in the long run. But it is a reminder that historians are better off hedging their bets, especially in their near-term prognostications. Stuart-Fox might well have borrowed another leaf from Paul Kennedy, who quotes at length Jonathan Pollack's 1984 assessment of China's foreign policy. Pollack wrote that Beijing's 'overall strategy has at various times comprised confrontation and armed conflict, partial accommodation, informal alignment, and a detachment bordering on disengagement, sometimes interposed with strident angry rhetoric. As a result, China becomes all things to all nations, with many left uncertain and even anxious about its long-term intentions and directions [...] China has assumed a singular international position [...] as a state that resists easy political or ideological categorization' (quoted in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, pp. 457-458). This assessment accords quite well with Stuart-Fox's rendering of China's relations with Southeast Asia, and his Short History of China and Southeast Asia provides the background that makes it possible to understand many of China's choices, at least in hindsight. If his judgments on superpower relations seem hasty, Stuart-Fox's broader view of Chinese-Southeast Asian relations should be taken to heart. Although his dependence on the Middle Kingdom and mandala model as the basis for analysing two millennia of international relationships is awkward at times, he is certainly correct to argue that 'History is central to the way both Chinese and Southeast Asians understand the world' in ways that it is not for Westerners, and that neither 'scholars' nor 'international relations analysts' can wisely ignore this history or its underlying dynamics (vii). However Southeast Asian countries individually and collectively (through ASEAN, for instance) define their relationships with China in the future, they will 'draw upon the cultural presuppositions and historical precedents that [...] lie buried deep within their respective international relations cultures' (245), to which this book is a good introduction.
Volume 13 contains Luther's Commentaries on Psalms 65, 68, 90, 101, n o , i n (notable as containing an exegetical statement of Luther's liturgical and sacramental teaching) and 112. Volume 21 includes a series of sermons which Luther preached on the Sermon on the Mount and a devotional tract on the Magnificat. According to the editor, "the two works presented in this volume are probably the most significant and influential commentaries to come from [Luther's] life long preoccupation with the Synoptics." The two volumes preserve the high merit of the earlier volume; in them we discern Luther the man, Luther the preacher, Luther the theologian, and Luther the reformer.
The article examines how memory of past violence is remediated online and how its remediation interacts with contemporary collective traumas in post-socialist countries. For this purpose, it examines how a single episode of the Second World War – the Battle of Kyiv of 1943 – is represented and interacted with on Wikipedia. Using web content analysis, the article traces the evolution of narratives of past violence in different language versions of the encyclopedia and explores how the current conflict in Ukraine affects the refashioning of Second World War memory in digital media.
Jingzhou Guan Gong Yi Yuan, as a landmark of local tourism culture, built in 2016, is located in Jingzhou, Hubei, with a total area of about 152,000 square meters. It opens a window to local traditional culture. In recent years, Guan Gong culture has enjoyed scholars’ great concern, but most studies merely related Guan Gong’s life story to its cultural images as the God of Wealth, Martial Arts, etc. few research suggest to facilitate and accelerate bilingual travel service of Guan Gong culture. In light of its urgent need for the public transmission, this article aims to make a creative design of a Chinese-English bilingual Wechat platform for the promotion of Guan Gong Culture. Results show that the layout of Guan Gong Yi Yuan sightseeing service platform can be divided into four sections: the first one is booking tickets by which visitors can directly consult and book tickets on the official account instead of sparing time on queuing and fetching tickets at the ticket window; the second menu is a map guided navigation by which visitors can follow the route guide and make a free choice of their favorite scenic spots; the third function is to involve Guan’s spirit and culture in the reality show; the fourth is a bilingual explanation of Guan Gong’s life and deeds together with his loyalty, folk images, etc.. By means of this Wechat platform, visitors may have a bird view and comprehensive and profound understanding of Guan Gong Culture. It is contributed to spread and internalize the essence of Guan Gong culture.
Arguing from a position of total conviction, Rene Girard proposes that the complete works of Shakespeare—and, he tends to suggest, the very mind of the writer himself— can be explained, and can only be explained, in terms of the concept of "mimetic desire." More often than not, the key relationships in the plays involve not mere love between two individuals, but love and envy between three or more. Girard efficiently demonstrates a range of instances in which one individual falls in love with a second as a consequence of hearing that person admired by a third party, often a close friend. Desire is ignited by envy and is acted on in imitation of the friend. The pursued love object is often of less interest to the lover than is the mediating friend. Taking his main evidence from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Troilus and Cressida, Julius Caesar, and A Winter's Tale, Girard legitimately concentrates his focus on sources which will answer his own purposes. But he is conspicuously weak when dismissing texts which, because he has not found "mimetic desire" in them, do not interest him. The histories are dismissed as "rather meager works" which need not, therefore, be taken into account. This is the kind of lofty criticism that requires few footnotes since it only rarely refers to other critics by name. Girard prefers to lump them all together as the mythological beast "traditional criticism," which he attacks at every opportunity. To find out whom he means one has no alternative but to trawl through his inadequate footnotes to gauge the dates of his sources. In fewer than fifteen notes naming Shakespearean critics, the majority of the texts he refers to date from the Sixties, only one from the Seventies, and the remainder from the Fifties and earlier. On the other hand, there are no fewer than ten notes referring to non-Shakespearean works by a single writer: Rene Girard himself. The fact is that the book appears to be underresearched—not because Girard does not know his Shakespeare, but because he does not appear to know what he is talking about when he attacks "traditional" Shakespearean criticism. There are astonishing gaps in his research which start to make him look like a very "traditional"— which is to say, out of date—critic himself. For example, at no point
The complexities surrounding biblical and rabbinic eschatology led George Foote Moore to issue a judicious warning against the scholar's temptation to detect "borrowings." Those complexities apply no less to later discussions of the subject; caution remains an apt watchword. It is tempting, for example, to account for Maimonides' cool matterof-fact inclusion of bodily resurrection among his articles of Jewish faith by recurring to the prominence of the belief in Christian and Muslim teachings and to the power of proximate example. In this view resurrection's designation as a dogma would be a concession to prevailing popular opinion reluctantly presented by one who thought and knew better. Yet that presentation, far from allaying suspicions, drew fire upon Maimonides' head in his lifetime and beyond. Further, the extraordinary defense that Maimonides mounted in support of his original position hardly calmed the irate and distraught. For that defense, the Treatise on Resurrection,' is itself so surprising, assertive, and complex as to invite narrow-eyed scrutiny rather than goodnatured assent and relief. In a controversy neither of his choosing nor
Glendale may house the most visible Armenian diaspora in the world; however, it remains among the most invisible in print. The following begins to shed light on this community by providing a brief background and demographic profile of Armenians in Glendale. The article then attempts to expand discussions of Chinese “ethnoburbs” by situating Glendale Armenians in these discussions. Despite scholars’ expansion of the concept, the ethnoburb has had limited application—largely, to Chinese and a few other Asian immigrant communities. However, is the concept of the ethnoburb generalizable in contexts outside of Chinese immigrant settlements? In this article, I contend that the ethnoburb model is generalizable by situating Glendale's Armenian community within this framework.
Languages, like organic species can be classified into groups and subgroups … Dominant languages and dialects spread and lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex The lure of English has not left us. And until it goes, our own languages will remain paupers. Mohandas Gandhi (1965) Stable and unstable language arrangements One of the hallmarks of diglossia is its stability over long periods of time, a feature it shares with grassroots bilingualism. In both cases the population is territorially stationary, exhibiting no abrupt changes in residence patterns or language choice. If we think, for example, of German-speaking Switzerland, the Basque country and Jammu, north-west India, the language scenarios of these regions have lasted for many generations. No uncertainties or challenges undermined the alternating language-choice conventions for Swiss German/High German, Basque/Spanish and Pashto/Urdu. Stability is a rather vague notion. If, for present purposes, it is defined to mean that nobody alive remembers different language-choice conventions, it implies that basic patterns have been in place for at least four generations. In this sense the three cases, different though they are in terms of sociogenesis and functional allocation of codes, exemplify stable language arrangements. However, the stability of multilingual arrangements is by no means the rule. Around the globe speech communities live in close proximity, influencing each other. From a language-centred point of view as suggested by Darwin's above-quoted analogy, languages influence each other, expand, contract or die.
of a Charter for propogating the Gospel in foreign Parts, &c. A Sermon. 180.Two Discourses and a Prayer. Sundry do. . . . do. . . . Character of S. Fothergill, Src. An Epistle to Friends in Tortola. The Trial of Spirits. A Short Account of the Quakers. An Epistle of Advice. Ditto to the Inhabitants of S. Carolina. An Alphabetical Extract of the subjects of Epistles. Ditto of Advices. 181.An Address respecting Personal Security. Declaration of Right in Legislation. The legal Means of Political Reform11. A ¡short Tract on the Doctrine of nullum tempus occurrit Regi. An Examination into the Rights of the Indian Nations in America. An Address to the freemen of S. Carrol. Observations on the Reconciliation of G. Britain d: the Colonies. A Plan of a Compact with G. Britain. Historical Narrative Sr Description of Louisiana Sr W. Florida. 182.Personal Slavery established by Custom. Considerations on keeping Negroes. A short Account of that Part of Africa, inhabited by the Negroes ; German de English. A forensic Dispute on the Legality of enslaving the Africans. An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements on
W7 HEN Horace Walpole met Lady Mary Wortley Montagu at Florence in 1740, he read 'a Volume of her poems in MS'.I He must surely have praised this verse to its author, since she thought him 'particularly civil to me'; but elsewhere he expressed a grudging opinion: 'they are too womanish; I like few of her performances'.2 At first sight the adjective seems surprising. Lady Mary was frequently described as a masculine woman, and Walpole himself later agreed with John Chute that 'scarce any woman could have written' her 'Epistle from Arthur Gray to Mrs. Murray'.3 He can hardly have found in Lady Mary any 'feminine' stylistic features, the softness and sweetness for which other poetesses were praised; nor is it likely that he would have objected to the preponderance of women among the imaginary characters in her verse. Despite his reservations of judgement, Walpole was sufficiently impressed to transcribe freely from the volume she showed him-probably that whose cover bears her inscription: 'all the verses and Prose in this Book were wrote by me, without the assistance of one Line from any other. Mary Wortley Montagu.'4 Even more of this volume was copied for Joseph Spence, who was travelling with Walpole, and whose opinion of Lady Mary was much more enthusiastic. From its first fifty-two pages (perhaps all that Lady Mary had then filled) Spence took copies of every poem except three, and of these three he possessed a separate copy of one and a copy from print of another.5 One poem only he ignored.6 Still unpublished, through the ignorance or caution of Lady Mary's editors, it makes a good centre from which to explore one element of her verse that might be called 'womanish': its feminist propaganda.
This book is an eye-opener about the way America viewed its seamen as replaceable tools of the trade. I found myself moved, saddened and outraged by its multi-layered narratives. Mudgett's book has the power to make us feel. The ambiguity of fiction, the excitement of legal argument, and the helplessness of a flogged seaman-this book is about all of these. -Stephen Curley, Regents Professor of English at Texas A&M
Shelley prefaces "With a Guitar, to Jane" with the dramatic direction "Ariel to Miranda;-" and it might appropriately serve as an epigraphic allusion for the whole group of late poems addressed to Jane Williams. This obeisance to the lyric genius of Shakespeare as embodied in The Tempest, rather than in the sonnets, accurately reflects the special status among Shakespeare's works which the Romantic poets assigned to this play.' The particular and affectionate regard which it excited in such readers suggests that it spoke to their own imaginative vocation, not as dramatists but as lyric and visionary poets. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Shakespearean plots and characters begin to assume a life which is partially independent of their verbal setting,2 while lyrical passages are quarried not only from the sonnets and Venus and Adonis, but from the plays as well.3 At first glance Shelley is capable, or guilty, of similarly dissociated use of Shakespearean elements. When Prometheus describes Jupiter's tyranny-"Whilst my beloved race is trampled down / By his thought-executing ministers"4-the complaint seems only casually allusive to King Lear's apostrophe to the lightning as "sulph'rous and thought-executing fires" and to the elements in general as "servile ministers," and it is true that Shelley's first concern appears to be with his own verbal resources. What he wants primarily is the feel of King Lear and a demonstration that the compounds characteristic of Prometheus Unbound, such as "eagle-baffling" and "moonfreezing," are Shakespearean as well as Aeschylean, native as well as Hellenic. He also plays ingeniously with the sense of his borrowed words. The meaning of "thought-executing" is narrowed and more firmly specified. "Thought" here is clearly the object and
2019 is the centenary year of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), and therefore it is both timely and appropriate to reflect on the historiography of denominational histories that have been produced for and promoted by this, the largest of Canadian Pentecostal denominations. Between 1958 and 2018 five different books were published about this denomination, with the PAOC’s endorsement. The authors of these books were clear about the purposes they hoped their work would accomplish, including inspiration for current and future members of the PAOC churches. Writing denominational histories is no easy task. Bruce Guenther, a Canadian Mennonite Church historian and past president of the Canadian Society of Church History, critiques denominational histories in general, saying that many “are poorly written works of triumphalistic hagiography in which well-intentioned amateur historians have copiously compiled as much detail as possible concerning the people, places and events they wish to celebrate or commemorate.” Guenther concedes that while such histories are “an invaluable source of information,” they usually fail to “situate a denominational story within larger social-cultural, national or theological trends.” Pentecostal history books suffer those same weaknesses identified by Guenther. Yet by exploring officially endorsed histories published by the PAOC, one can trace identifiable trends in those books over time. The historiographer’s task is to analyze what has been written and to explain why the presentation of the narrative changes over time. This paper analyzes each of the history books published by PAOC to identify the messages behind the narrative. The paper also provides some context for each book to explain why particular approaches to the history were taken and what the denomination hoped those history books would accomplish.
The bibliography of Aristotle's Poetics by Cooper and Gudeman, most welcome in 1928, has now become antiquated, even for the period it covers. The present one registers all editions, translations, commentaries and studies bearing on the Poetics or the major concepts that have been associated with it, correctly or incorrectly, from 1481 up till 1996. Moreover, a survey is given of the medieval translations and commentaries written in the Orient and in Europe. Special attention has been given to the reviews. The oldest one registered dates from 1697. The second book of the Poetics being lost, publications related to the Tractatus Coislinianus, which partly rests on Poetics II, have been included. There are seven indices. Especially those on passages and subjects should prove to be useful instruments. In the author's text Greek nouns and adjectives have been transliterated.
After a spell in the Canadian military during World War II, Phil Thomas earned his living for most of his adult life as an elementary school teacher and art teacher. He graduated with a B.Ed. from the University of British Columbia in 1949, but during the Cold War his left-wing political opinions made it difficult to obtain a teaching position in either Victoria or Vancouver. In consequence, his first teaching post was in the small coastal community of Pender Harbour, located on the western shore of the Sechelt Peninsula. It was there that he also began his unpaid career as a collector of B.c. vernacular songs, which spanned a more than twenty-year period, from 1953 to 1975. This article surveys his activities as a collector of folksongs from oral tradition in British Columbia. It also examines the way in which he combined his oral material with manuscript and printed sources to create a social history of British Columbia through the medium of vernacular song. Thomas encountered novelist and short-story writer Bill Sinclair in Pender Harbour in 1951. They had similar intellectual interests and political views, and they became fast friends. Sinclair had been born in Scotland, lived for a while as a cowboy in Montana, and by the early 1950s was working as a trollerman in the local fishing industry. He had developed considerable respect and admiration for the hard-working but fiercely independent local fisherman, and had written a dramatic narrative poem titled Bank Trollers. Thomas found a suitable melody and created a seven-stanza song based on Sinclair's text, which he also called "Bank Trollers".
Pickens, Kevin Brownlee, Sarah Beckwith, and Kate Greenspan show, masculine or feminine perspectives can be donned at will to display different varieties ofexperience. Christine de Pizan, for example, rejects outright the notion ofan essentialized feminine nature, deliberately displaying her virtuosity by engaging in an epistolary exchange between male and female writers. Such mystical writers as Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich and Magdalena of Freiberg, too, exploit preconceived notions of female difference as a way of inscribing their own voices and experiences as authoritative
IntroductionBolsover Castle, overlooking the Doe Lea valley in Derbyshire, and Nottingham Castle, overlooking its city, are among the most dramatic of seventeenth-century great houses. This article proposes an explanation for the re-building of these two medieval castles that is based upon the social circumstances of the family and household responsible for the work. Separated by sixty years, the two buildings appear to be very different yet share the same remarkable patron. William Cavendish (1593-1676) became Viscount Mansfield, then Earl, Marquis and finally Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.1 He is celebrated for his extravagant entertainments for Charles I in 1633 and 1634 and his governorship of Prince Charles, the future Charles II. In 1618, he married a local heiress, Elizabeth Bassett, who became the mother of his children before dying in 1643. William was commander of the king's army in the north during the Civil War and went into exile for fifteen years after losing the battle of Marston Moor in 1644. His second marriage took place in Paris in 1645, to Margaret Lucas, lady in waiting to Henrietta Maria and also a prolific writer.2 He lived in Antwerp, where he wrote his famous book on horsemanship, until 1660. At the Restoration, he returned to live mainly at his family home at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire until his death in 1676. The Little Castle at Bolsover was begun by William's father Charles Cavendish (1553-1617) and William himself added interior decoration and further buildings on the site. He commissioned Nottingham Castle at the very end of his life: work began when he was over eighty.3 William's passion for building, as this article will suggest, was shared by his whole family.Bolsover Castle is well known to architectural historians, but a comparison with the less familiar work at Nottingham Castle provides a new explanation for the earlier project. Like many great houses, Bolsover and Nottingham Castles have been seen as bids to win courtly status. They illustrate a familiar story of the gradual arrival of classical ideas in English architecture. This suggests William Cavendish's growing erudition and signals his wish to move in the advanced circles of the court. Yet there is an alternative version of politics that exists alongside the expected story of magnificence and the struggle for court advancement. It will be argued here that the fruits of William's architectural patronage were consumed by his family and household, as well as by the great of the realm. His houses can be read as examples of court culture, but they also provide an archaeological record of the micro-politics of his household.Architectural historians have often made connections between building and political power. As long ago as 1899, Thorstein Veblen identified the phenomenon of 'conspicuous consumption' - the expenditure of money to win respect - and the links between a prince's magnificence and his policy are well known.4 In 1978, Mark Girouard memorably described the courtier houses of this period as 'power houses'.5William Cavendish's buildings can certainly be seen as fitting into this pattern: he was offered the Garter partly because of having 'Lived in his Contrey [county] in as great honour and splendour as any of the Nobility'.6 Yet his ambitions for winning power at court remained partly unfulfilled. Friends, enemies and historians have all occasionally treated him with derision and scorn, and his architecture does not seem to have 'worked' as straightforward conspicuous consumption. Cedric Brown has pointed out similar ambiguities in relation to William's famous royal entertainment at Bolsover in 1634.7 In architecture, William's intention may have been to produce courtly buildings. But he did not possess the control over the building process necessary to eliminate the local references introduced by the household members and craftsmen who were also involved. Although the decoration of Bolsover Castle can be linked to William's acquisition of a rich wife and a peerage, he built Nottingham Castle at a time when these things were less important to him. …
IN their broad outlines, the relations between Emperor Henry VI and the bishops of his realm differed only in degree from what they had been under Barbarossa. Henry relied heavily on the ecclesiastical princes, and they responded to his needs. Under Henry VI bishops are seen performing the customary servitia of supplying food and shelter during the emperor's visits to their cities; attending court; accompanying their lord throughout Germany and Italy; filling high offices of state; executing diplomatic missions; and joining in the emperor's crusade and military campaigns. Occasionally Henry encountered episcopal opposition and defiance, but normally the churchmen cooperated with him in his political endeavors. This was not an accident. Rather, such close collaboration resulted from Henry VI's policy of careful control over elections to the episcopal sees, so that men upon whom he could rely and whom he could trust secured these important offices and their resources.1 Forty-two episcopal elections occurred in German dioceses during the reign of Henry VI.2 Information is not extant for assessing the degree of his influence over all forty-two f these elections, and the fact that he spent nearly half of his reign in Italy reduced the opportunities for direct intervention. Also, ten elections occurred in Sees such as Kammin, Brandenburg, Gurk, and Olmutz where the Empire had no significant interests to safeguard or which lay under the proprietary jurisdiction of another prince or bishop. Subtracting these ten, we have thirty-two elections where Henry VI might be expected to have been concerned;
Dr. Alison B. Hoxie is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her education includes a B.A. in Natural Science from the College of Saint Benedict (1999), a B.S.M.E (2001) and a Ph.D. (2007) from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She has held positions as a consulting engineering in power and energy sector, and as an Instructor at the University of Utah. Her current research focuses on cost effective methods for efficient utilization of biomass-derived oils in combustion applications.
This paper describes a seemingly paradoxical situation in a specific region of the Australian arid zone where indigenous archaeological material is more densely concentrated in areas away from, rather than near, the most permanent waters. In the Palmer River catchment, sites near certain ephemeral waters are argued to have functioned as regional centres while the role of permanent waters is seen to be secondary, particularly in respect of strategies of social interaction and ceremonial performance. Large aggregations at permanent waters were probably the exception rather than the rule and the general trend was toward a reduction in group size with resource scarcity. The use of ephemeral resources for regional interaction provided a means to distribute temporary surplus across a wider population while increasing certainty that essential resources would remain accessible from permanent waters in periods of low rainfall. These features, which were part of the settlement pattern from the mid to late Holocene, were not evident in the archaeological record from the late Pleistocene. The implications of the results for models held to account for settlement patterns in arid regions are addressed.
Ritual music in western Guangdong is an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of music in Guangdong province. It is one of the representative music forms in western Guangdong. The ritual music of western Guangdong is of great historical research value and educational value. This paper takes Zhanjiang Nuowu as the research object, and uses musicological research methods to analyze and study the historical origin and musical characteristics of ritual music in western Guangdong, and explore the ontological features of ritual music in western Guangdong. In addition, the author also analyzes and studies the educational function of western Guangdong ritual music, aiming to realize the contemporary inheritance of western Guangdong ritual music through school music education.
Introduction—The Discovery Dilemma "[A] common law trial is and always should be an adversary proceeding. Discovery was hardly intended to enable a learned profession to perform its functions either without wits or on wits borrowed from the adversary." 1 This quote from Justice Jackson's concurring opinion in Hickman v. Taylor eloquently articulates the struggle in the discovery process between the right to access all relevant information prior to trial in order to advance the goals of discovery 2 and the need to preserve effective trial preparation. 3
The two novels of this paper, Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers and Herman Wouk´s Marjorie Morningstar , represent sequent generations in American Jewish immigrant literature. Bread Givers (1925) is partly an autobiographical novel, the story of an American Jewish immigrant girl in conflict with her traditional role as the servile daughter of a demanding father and the growing impact of American society. Marjorie Morningstar (1955) treats basically the same theme, the clash between tradition and transition, although from the point of view of second generation immigrants. The basic fears of assimilation and loss of identity in the Jewish sense are still there. Both novels also focus on the role of women and particularly the changing role of Jewish women.
Most retired people in China today grew up under the rule of Chairman Mao, who many still worship. Needless to say, while Mao unified the country after decades of civil war, this was a time of great despair and chaos in China. These people were dragged through the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s and the economic chaos (and lost educational opportunities) of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Prior to this, China had spent the previous century being invaded, occupied, force-fed opium, and doing whatever necessary to try to be left alone. At one point in the early 20th century, China had 22 different sovereign court systems operating within its borders! These people have come from a history of invasion and very hard times. They are tough, gritty, and resilient. There is a saying about them: They learned to eat dirt!…
Hedge Funds: Structure, Strategies, and Performance provides a synthesis of the theoretical and empirical literature on this intriguing, complex, and frequently misunderstood topic. The book dispels some common misconceptions of hedge funds, showing that they are not a monolithic asset class but pursue highly diverse strategies. Furthermore, not all hedge funds are unusually risky, excessively leveraged, invest only in illiquid asses, attempt to profit from short-term market movements, or only benefit hedge fund managers due to their high fees. Among the core issues addressed are how hedge funds are structured and how they work, hedge fund strategies, leading issues in this investment, and the latest trends and developments. The authors examine hedge funds from a range of perspectives, and from the theoretical to the practical. The book explores the background, organization, and economics of hedge funds, as well as their structure. A key part is the diverse investment strategies hedge funds follow, for example some are activists, others focusing on relative value, and all have views on managing risk. The book examines various ways to evaluate hedge fund performance, and enhances understanding of their regulatory environment. The extensive and engaging examination of these issues help the reader understands the important issues and trends facing hedge funds, as well as their future prospects. Contributors to this volume - H. Kent Baker Greg Filbeck Oreste Auleta Christopher Barnes Paul-Henri Bayart-De-Germont Monica Billio Michel Brocard Thuy Bui Tony Calenda Daniel Capocci Lamia Chourou Douglas Cumming Na Dai George Dikanarov Shantanu Dutta Caroline Farrelly Arup Ganguly Abhishek (Abhi) Ganguly Juan Jose Garcia-Santos Lin Ge Gaurav Gupta David Hampton Hunter M. Holzhauer Ashrafee (Ash) Tanvir Hossain Claus Huber Daniel Imfeld Sofia Johan Wulf A. Kaal Rachel Koh Timothy A. Krause Paul Lajbcygier Francois-Serge Lhabitant Joseph McBride William R. McCumber Christopher Milliken Ehsan Nikbakht Phillip Njoroge Dale A. Oesterle Jyotsaana Parajuli Loriana Pelizzon Dianna C. Preece Nan Qin Samir Saadi Roberto J. Santillan-Salgado Jason Scharfman Mila Getmansky David M. Smith Garrett C. C. Smith Kenneth Small Jeff Smith Andrew C. Spieler Filippo Stefanini Maxim Treff Mikhail Tupitsyn Guillaume Weisang Ying Wang
A marble statue base found at Thespiae preserves an elegiac couplet about Praxiteles' Eros signed by one Herennia Procula (BCH [1926] 404-6). This poet, who is absent from surveys of ancient women writers, is here identified as a member of a wealthy Roman family resident at Thessalonica (IG X 2.1 no. 70). The couplet, which was probably composed for a copy of the Eros statue made to replace the original removed by Nero, makes sophisticated allusion to a series of epigrams about Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite, but with a key variation that points to the nature of the worship of Eros at Thespiae. Plutarch's Amatorius, set during the celebration of the Thespian Erotidia, provides important parallels to show that the Praxitelean Eros had by the early Flavian period become an object of veneration for women hoping for happy and sexually fulfilling marriages.
Introduction 1. Provenance list 2. Abbreviations and Symbols Used for Physical Descriptions 3. The correspondence 4. Undated letters 5. Appendix I: Bibliography of Publications by John Herschel: 6. Apppendix II: Bibliography of Works Containing Printed Herschel Correspondence: 7. Appendix III: Bibliography of Publications on John Herschel: 8. Appendix IV: Bibliography Register and Index of Correspondents: 9. Bibliography of sources for bibliographical register 10. Index.
The inaugural lecture which underlies this article examines the past and future of Imperial history as a subject and its relationship to both imperial power and projects of human emancipation. It explores the origins and history of the Rhodes Chair of Imperial History at Kings College London, and locates its new incumbent as both opponent and heir to different aspects of its tradition. It examines how British imperialism, as a regime for extracting   
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In historical literature of Song and early Yuan dynasty,it recorded that Liangshan bawcock were loyal to emperor which later transforming into a pure righteousness to helping common people.This endowed Liangshan political force ever-called "robbers" and "thieves" with a sublime righteousness and a proud and independent spirit.Drama "Li Kui Asking for Forgiveness" mentions lightly the robber characteristics of Liangshan figures who become a group of Baoqingtians,and describes Liangshan as a serene and harmonious fairyland.Its robber-dispelling differs a lot from that of "Outlaws of the Marsh" and Shuihu drama in Qing dynasty,since there is an obscure expect of establishing an ideal society transcending the existing system.
The International Academy for History of Science had many difficulties to survive after the war. It has been a very small, elitist, closed, and bureaucratic body. The importance given by Needham to the history of science prevailed on him to impose – through UNESCO's science division – the establishment of an International Union for the History of Science (IUHS) besides the Academy. He engaged Cortesao, an historian of science, in the science division; he gave money to publish the Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences; and he provoked the creation of a commission for "the history of the social relations of science" within the IUHS. Needham's intervention deeply shaped the development of the IUHS in the following years. The following text is the section (1st part of the book) dedicated to the part played by Needham and Cortesao in the establishment of the IUHS
The legendary period in the ancient history is an important subject in historical studies.The book A new Probe to the Legendary Period in Ancient History has solved may tricky problems in this field and provided many new methods and ways of thinking.First,the book has employed the method of multiple evidence and multiple disciplines to explore the original appearance.Second,the book starts from the traditional Chinese culture and at the same time break down the bounds between disciplines,thus reconstructing the history.All this shows the author's profound understanding of both western and Chinese cultures and his good mastery of academic theories.
Early in the twentieth century, antiquarian collectors began installing displays of early American period rooms in art museums. Over the course of the century, improved scholarship into early American life allowed curators to reinterpret these displays, usually with increasing accuracy. Nonetheless, conceptions of early America were invested with shifting ideological connotations that resonated deeply at crucial moments in the twentieth century, influencing curatorial interpretations. The following article provides a historiographic overview of museum period room interpretations, using one room as a case study.
Chinese-English Translation of Public Signs is always regarded as a symbol of civilization of a city or region.Chinese-English Translation of Public Signs is of great significance to the internationalization,economic development and international communications of the Pearl River Delta region with Guangzhou as the centre.Through interviews and questionnaire surveys among teachers and students who care for the problem,this paper focuses on a better understanding of Chinese-English Translation of Public Signs.After analyzing the results of the questionnaires and interviews,this paper tries to present solutions to the problem in the hope of offering help to the internationalization of the region.
Confucianism was spread smoothly in Yuan dynasty which was governed by the ncn-han nation.Although the intrinsic nature of Confucian thought is very important,we can not explain the problem fully if we ignore the factor of people.So we select Hao Jing,a famous thinker of the period,as the object of the study,and reduce the use of text,historical logic of the unity of research methods.Through the deep analysis of Hao Jing's thought that one who can practice Chinese principle is the master of China,we reach the understanding of Chinese culture and its response that the Han Confucian does under the dominance of the minority nationality.Plays Hao Jing' s thought and practice that the Yi dynasty should be changed by Xia Plays an important role in promoting historical development
The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad * Jonathan E. Brockopp (Ed.) New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010 * 326 pp. * ISBN 978-0-521-88607-9 (HB) * 978-0-521-71372-6 (PB) "Europeans and Western people are making research on every subject ... except the personality of Sayyidina Muhammad, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa-sallam" Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani in his khutbat al-Jumu'a at the First International Islamic Unity Conference in Los Angeles on August 2, 1996. The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad is a collection of fourteen essays introduced by Judaism and Islam in practice: A Sourcebook author Jonathan E. Brockopp and written, the back cover blurb informs us, "to engage and inform. readers coming to the subject for the first time." The essays are presented in three parts respectively entitled "Muhammad in his world" (three historico-biographical essays and the book's most relevant part), "Muhammad in history" (six monographical essays on "his legacy as a law maker, philosopher, and politician"), and "Muhammad in memory" (five essays on "how Muhammad has been remembered. in biography, prose, poetry ... film and fiction") by professors active in university departments of religion, theology, Islamic studies, Arabic studies, Asian and African studies, near eastern languages and civilizations, and history in the US (9), Israel (2), the UK(1), Canada (1), and France (1). Of all the contributions in this volume University of Exeter Arabist and expert on legal theory Robert Gleave's article in Part Two (pp. 103-122), "Personal piety" (a misnomer), on the juristic hadith-based determination of obligation versus mere desirability and whether the Prophet "can make mistakes," impressed me for its fair tone and general accuracy--even if he adduces four forgeries in its first three pages. The rest do not live up to the promise of the title nor do they rise to Shaykh Nazim's challenge, leaving seekers of a true Muhammad vade mecum defrauded. In 1982 Salah al-Din al-Munajjid published a 400-page "sourcebook of works about the Messenger of Allah" (Miijam ma ullifa Qan Rasulillah) in twelve sections of up to twenty-one sub-sections each, documenting the massive tradition of hadith, sira, shama'il, khasa'is, dala'il, nasab, tarikh and the interactive/paradigmatic manuals of mawalid, salawat, and mada'ih among other aspects of the study of the Prophet. It is disappointing that, thirty years later, a work purporting to be an English-language guide to the same subject that gave rise to such a still-growing mine of published material is only a festschrift offering snapshots often devoid of relevance to its subject-matter. Worse, the Cambridge Companion to Muhammad is a faithless one in three senses: 1. It maintains a wall of separation between itself and its supposed company, whom it distrusts as it does all of hadith, sira, and tafsir: By portraying the law as a well-designed series of rationally explainable interactions between the Qur'an and the Sunna, the role of the Sunna was made to seem not only integral but absolutely indispensable to the structure of the law (Joseph E. Lowry, p. 87; emphasis added). Muhammad's biographies should not be classified as history books ... among Muslims, the[ir] popularity ... is based not on the historical evidence that they include but on their didactic, edifying, propagandistic, and entertaining features that address the needs of readers and listeners on various educational, psychological, and artistic levels. Had it not been for those features, the biographies would have been forgotten or marginalized long ago. (Michael Lecker, p. 63) "The post-Qur'anic sources read back" sira events into the Qur'an because "[p]ost-Qur'anic Muslims needed a hero who could be venerated.... a new Muhammad, a person blessed with powers that he still lacked in the Qur'an and that bridged the gap between him and the previous prophets." (Uri Rubin, p. …
The aim of this article is to compare the use of referring expressions to the deceased in obituaries written in English and in French, with an aim to define implications for translation. While both grammatical systems provide speakers with similar expressions (First Name + Family Name, Family Name, Title + Name, First Name, Nickname, Lexical Descriptions with or without Names, Pronominal Forms), these do not show the same distribution and frequency. Through the study of Necrocorpus, a corpus of recent obituaries written in English and French, inter-language differences are uncovered and used for a discussion on the utilization of inter-language differences for translation training and quality assessment.
ABSTRACT:This article offers a reading of DC's groundbreaking 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths in order to think about the history of event comics and their importance to the comic-book industry. Working from a position that favors a media studies approach to understanding the history and development of franchises and media industries, I present two arguments about Crisis. First, Crisis responded to a cultural sense of crisis and calamity in the US through a narrative that featured the destruction of dozens of universes and that killed off multiple prominent characters. Second, in addition to voicing late-Cold War anxieties about global capitalism and the generalized, easily marketable woes of postmodernity through the trope of a calamitous event of unprecedented proportions, Crisis also exhibited anxieties about franchising in the comic-book and media industries in the 1980s. This maxi-series gave voice to both the cultural and economic anxieties of the comic-book industry, while inaugurating the event comic as a publishing tool for rebooting and revitalizing fictional universes.
In this study, the imprint of articles giving information about the part of Eastern Anatolia Region covering the cities of Van, Bitlis, Hakkâri, Mus and Agri between 1800-1914 are included. Thus, an effort was made to create a bibliography that would illuminate the Contemporary History of the mentioned area. In addition to the articles, a few encyclopedia articles that are considered important and provide preliminary information to the researchers, and non-refereed journal articles are also included. Apart from Turkish, different articles in English, German and French are included in the study. The selection of the cities of Van, Bitlis, Hakkâri, Mus and Agri is that they show similar characteristics socially, cultural and economically. In the study, 460 article names related to the subject are included. The articles with their names contain more or less informaton about the state of the region during period under consideration. When we look at the names of articles that we have given, it will probably be the impression that these studies mostly address issues of security and political history. However, when the context are examined, it will be seen that the social and economic structure affecting the public security events and political development in the region with some aspects are also included in the articles.
Newly observed congruencies between Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes and circumstances in Peisistratid Athens lend credence to Norman O. Brown's hypothesis that the hymn was motivated by the establishment of the Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens in 522/521 B.C.  Relevant details in the hymn include the use by Hermes of a gluphanos, a sculptor's chisel, his unmotivated journey to Pylos, and the location of his sacrifice on the banks of the Alpheios River. The last two details seemed designed to conjure up a connection between the cult of the Twelve Gods and the ancient Neleids, Peisistratus' supposed ancestors.
Nanjing is the political, economic and cultural center of the six dynasties, especially with its diversified ideology and culture, it has made an immortal contribution to the preservation, innovation and revival of Chinese civilization, leaving rich and splendid cultural treasures for today's people. Nanjing's brilliant cultural achievements during the six dynasties benefited from its unique cultural characteristics. According to the special historical background of the six dynasties, this paper concretely explains the cultural characteristics of Nanjing at that time, in order to enrich the cultural study of Nanjing city.
present a Native-American perspective of events. Much of this activity emerged from scholars associated with the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, at the Newberry Li brary, in Chicago. During the past two decades these historians have expanded our understand ing of the Native-American experience. Although more traditional historians pre viously ignored the pre-Columbian pe riod, scholars recently have re-evaluated
The second generation of Mexican-Americans, the ‘GI Generation’ born and raised in the United States, experienced the Great Depression and the Second World War and became political and community leaders in the post-war periods. Historians have not expanded their work to include the history and experience of the third generation, their children. This essay bridges that gap by using sports as a symbol of the American dream. It examines the period from 1947 to 1951 to explain how Mexican-American youths and their Finnish-American coach in Miami, Arizona, promoted Americanization, achieved success and won the 1951 state basketball championship. They revitalized a hometown's pride and team spirit and united a copper community that had a chequered and disturbing history of racism and discrimination against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The rise of this third generation through sports enabled their families to realize their dreams of equality for their children.
how and why it did so is still a mystery. This is so partially because this well-written essay tries to contrast northern and southern religion without addressing proslavery ethics, the social functions of religion in southern locales, the distinction between abolitionists and other northerners, the nature of personal piety among soldiers of both sections, the qualities of southern honor, and the complex nature of military morale.
Daryle Williams'  Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945  offers a clear picture of the conflict between culture and politics during the Vargas era. Williams begins by placing the term "culture wars" in a Brazilian context, noting that in comparison to the United States, Brazilian culture wars are held on a much smaller scale, mainly restricted to the cultural elite. Within the first few pages of the text, Williams qualifies his use of the term suggesting that, during the Vargas era, culture wars occur in Brazil when there is a dispute over who controls images of national identity. For Williams, the term culture wars embraces a myriad of genres including, but not limited to, fine art, museums, expositions, architecture, literature, radio and film. Under Vargas, these areas become pawns for political players who each want the right to define a modern Brazil. Williams' key argument is that state-sponsored culture took on a new and very complex meaning during the Vargas regime.
Neither is Africa a uniform continent (we could speak of several Africans), nor can we speak of a single African education, so we have to speak in plural. Even more so if we refer to the enormous diversity of peoples, languages and cultures that populate the continent from north to south and from east to west. It also seems obvious to speak of diversity and plural when we refer to the current educational systems of the different African nations, which build their own educational models from their respective independence at the heart of the twentieth century, but taking into consideration many of the ancestral African traditions of the original peoples. In this confluence of situations is contained the interpretative key of the educational being of the present African continent, which possesses very rich and ancestral traditions, even with written cultures synchronous to the Greek, Judeo-Christian primitives and Arabs, and not just oral, thus breaking some of the prevailing cliches about the absence of written culture among Africans. A comparative analysis of several samples and examples leads to a less linear and traditional interpretation of the African educational models of our time.
WE BELIEVE that the time is at hand when a comprehensive statement of the Science of the Absolute, also of its practice, should be set forth with indisputable clarity, accuracy and conviction. The marriage of The Word with human thought and action is celebrated in proportion as the letter and the spirit together hear witness to Reality. Some of the essentials which are considered in this booklet and are explained lucidly and exactly are as follows: THE SENSES: THE MIND: CREATION: INFINITY OF PERFECTION.
The protagonist in The Confidence-Man symbolically enacts a Native American desire for victory over whites. Fragmentary Amerindian references in the novel are well-known, among them the celebrated “Indian-hating” section, the reference to Manco Capac, the asylum for the Seminole, the Goneril episode, and the herb-doctor. But, in fact, the entire work is imbued with an Amerindian dimension, both thematically and structurally. Although pinning down Melville’s confidence man (especially in the person of the cosmopolitan) is risky business, I argue that when seen in Native American guise, this multifaceted figure assumes yet greater originality, indeed justifying the description “QUITE AN ORIGINAL.” Furthermore, I also suggest that the creation of such a protagonist may have stemmed from Melville’s experience in the South Pacific. Manco Capac, as mentioned in the first sentence of the novel, subtly sets the tone: “At sunrise on a first of April, there appeared, suddenly as Manco Capac at the lake Titicaca, a man in cream-colors, at the water-side in the city of St. Louis.”1 Manco Capac, the first Incan emperor to unite various tribes and considered a demigod, was placed by his father, the Sun god, in Lake Titicaca and then traveled northwards as an ambassador of “true” civilization. Such a mythological figure and journey fit the novel in which the protagonist probes the meaning of true civilization in the multiracial United States. As a deity, Manco Capac parallels the novel’s smooth-tongued operator who is likened to Christ in the third paragraph with the word “advent” (NN CM 3), and in the last paragraph of the chapter, with “lamb-like figure” (6). Melville’s “The River” (apparently a deleted passage from the novel and existing only in manuscript) offers a connecting Amerindian-related thematic framework for the novel.2 It opens:
This study of the nominal forms of Bilin follows the theoretical approach and expositional framework of a previous paper that dealt with the verbal forms of the language, but the linguistic statement is both phonologically and morphologically of a very different type. The forms associated with the scatter of the noun are far less numerous than those of the verb; the maximum number theoretically obtainable from the analysis presented here is 84. Some of the forms could be regarded as composed of three elements (and in some cases four), but for a general statement it is more appropriate to treat Bilin as inflected rather than as agglutinative. For there are again phonetic features that preclude a purely segmental analysis; these include pitch pattern, but not vowel harmony, and two new features, one of reduplication, and the other involving alternating types of consonantal articulation.
The Cyprus hoard contained at least twenty-seven Ptolemaic silver coins sixteen tetradrachms and eleven smaller denominations purchased by O. Merkholm for the National Museum, Copenhagen. His catalogue and commentary first appeared in NC 1987, pp. 156-8 and later in NR Cyprus 15-21 (1984-90, published 1992), pp. 179-82. Both publications, alas, included errors, because Merkholm died before he could emend his notes. The present article will correct these errors and submit termini for the Dionysiac issues. Although it will keep his numbers for the coins, it will change their order in the catalogue, so that all tetradrachms will appear in the first section and all smaller coins will appear in the later sections. Merkholm supplied the weights of the coins and the references to J. N. Svoronos, Die Munzen der Ptolemaer (Athens, 1904-8) or to A. Kromann and O. Merkholm, SNG Copenhagen.
One of the most striking features of the New Testament is the remarkable diversity of its writings in form and content alike. With these twenty-seven documents—composed by nine to eighteen authors, depending on who does the counting—there are no fewer than five genres of literature written within fifty to one hundred years—again, depending on who does the counting. From the earliest days of the church, centuries before there was a canon of New Testament documents, Christians recognized and often struggled with the wide variety represented by these diverse documents. As recently as the Reformation, Martin Luther declared that some New Testament books—notably James and Revelation—were lacking in true evangelical proclamation. Even today, most Christians betray their own functional "canon within a canon" by the fact that some pages in their Bibles are more worn and heavily used than others. All this testifies to the diversity of the New Testament.
The development of the interpretation of the Qur'an in Indonesia is strongly influenced by the development of intellectual dynamics in this region. The characteristics of the development of interpretations are very significantly influenced by the socio-historical changes and intellectual development of the Indonesian people. In this context there are four interpretive typologies which are also stages of the development of interpretations in Indonesia, namely: the first period of interpretation of the translation, in which the interpreters of the archipelago rely heavily on Middle Eastern interpreters as a reference and most works are explored from Middle Eastern commentators. Second, the modern period, where the interpretation that developed was the influence of modern developments in Islam. Third, the period of contextual interpretation, that is, interpretations are written on certain topics .
This volume is a collection of papers from the Second Catalan Symposium, held in October 1991, under the sponsorship of the Center for Catalan Studies at The Catholic University of America. Contributions were made by Patricia J. Boehne, Peter Cocozzella, Manuel Duran, Roberto J. Gonzalez-Casanovas, Suzanne S. Hintz, C. Raymond La Fontaine, Kathleen McNerney, Charles J. Merill, Antoni Torres-Alcala and Josep M. Sola-Sole, the editor. All the papers focus on the topic Tirant lo Blanc: Text and Context, analyzing various aspects of the Catalan masterpiece: consideration of the generic status of Tirant both as a medieval romance and in the light of modern theories of the novel; its daring treatment of sexuality; references on a new and more complete English translation; the scholarship on the novel in the past 50 years; and finally, a comprehensive bibliography. This volume is dedicated to the memory of Father Pere Masdevall i Busquets, Sch. P., who, aside from teaching Spanish at the former Calasanctius School in Buffalo, also taught for many years at the summer Course in Valencia of The Catholic University of America.
T hough largely forgotten by historians, a magazine called London Life flourished in interwar Britain. This magazine became a site for queer and kinky pleasures, as its readers attested in surprisingly frank ways. In 1930, for example, one reader calling herself “Betty” wrote to that magazine’s popular correspondence column about the diversity of thrills that could be found in its pages: “This interesting business of thrills—what queer ways people get them. Some by wearing super tight corsets, some by tying themselves up in all sorts of positions of discomfort, some by covering their legs in silk.” A columnist wrote about the prevalence of kinks. According to her, “If kinks were a definite sign of insanity, then a surprising number of people would have to be classed as insane. For almost everyone has a kink of some kind, although few will readily
The Bear Trap Spring Rockshelter (NYSM 9792) is a Multi-Component Pre-Contact Site in the Rondout drainage in the Town of Olive, situated along the eastern edge of the Catskills in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley. It was almost entirely excavated by avocational archaeologists from the New York State Archaeological Association's Mid-Hudson Chapter from c. 1959 to 1966. Occupations found in the rockshelter range from the Middle Archaic Neville Phase to those of the Late Woodland/Contact Period Esopus Indians. Comparisons with 8 other nearby rockshelters in the Ashokan Catskills, as well as 14 rockshelters within a 50 km radius, point to consistent peaks in occupation during the Late Archaic and the Late Woodland.
Indonesian nation has a long historical record, not only about the physical resistance in the struggle for Indonesian independence, but also the culture of its dynamic society and continues to evolve with the changing times. The history of the past brings Indonesian culture into contact with and against the outside culture which then affects various aspects of people's lives. Acculturation, assimilation, and even shock culture also coloring the cultural changes caused by external cultural influences. Included in the field of building architecture, one of which is building a mosque located in the Sultanate of Cirebon, which will provide many interpretations of cultural forms through visual media. The emergence of ports in Cirebon become entrance of various cultures in Cirebon such as Arab and Chinese, in addition to Hindu culture, Buddhism which is already much more rooted in public life. Therefore, studying the development of culture through building a mosque becomes an interesting thing to do.The method used in this study is the historical method. This method uses four stages of work namely heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. Heuristics is the stage of source collection, especially visual sources. Criticism is the stage of source selection or often referred to as the source verification stage. Visual analysis is the stage of visual analysis of visual sources that have escaped criticism (visual facts). Meanwhile, the interpretation or stages of visual elements interpretation or can also be referred to as the stage of visual explanation. Then the stages of historiography is the stages of writing or presentation of history. In addition to historical approaches that emphasize the process aspects are also used social approaches that emphasize the structural aspects. Theories or concepts used in between, social history, and cultural history.The results of this study is a description of the traces of the past culture as a form of acculturation with the outside culture that entered and developed in Cirebon. The building of the mosque becomes very representative since not many more historic buildings are left in Cirebon. Examples of mosque building objects studied in this study are the Pejlagrahan mosque. A mosque which is the oldest mosque in the Sultanate of Cirebon. This study will describe what kind of culture is left from the corners of the mosque building visually. So hopefully this study is enough to explain traces of past culture that is still inherent in the life of the people of Cirebon. Keywords: Culture, Building, Mosque, Visual
held by his contemporaries. That he was not lacking in courage when he had a clear conviction of duty is proved not only by this reputation, but also by his last public act, when, knowing that it was at the peril of his life, he set out for Mutina on a mandate from the senate, as Cicero says, ' not refusing to try with his last breath if he might bring some aid to his country.' CATHARINE SAUNDERS.
As an interdisciplinary subject, the history of philosophy is rife with tensions: the object of the philosophical enterprise – the search for atemporal criteria for truth – seems to be immune from any process of historicization. The discipline is nonetheless an institutional fact: few professional philosophers have attempted, let alone succeeded, in dispensing with it entirely. This paper considers the case of the recent history of medieval philosophy. First, it uses the various ways of conceiving of the history of philosophy to open up a number of methodological alternatives. A more pragmatic inquiry then presents the literary forms and concrete practices of writing the history of medieval philosophy. Finally, the paper addresses three classic historiographical debates: the object of history, its situation in a context, and the scale of historical reconstruction.
Over a century ago Henry Shaw climbed the business ladder in St. Louis, and in his later years he did much for the culture of his adopted city. Shaw left behind many records of his career. Those pertaining to his business have been deposited in the Baker Library at Harvard University. The records are voluminous and as yet unused, except in so far as they have been examined for the purpose of the following tentative statement. The collection includes personal accounts, real estate records, family correspondence, and business records, such as waste books, journals, ledgers, invoice books, and bank balances. The collection of letters is particularly significant and valuable, for it deals with many subjects, including importing and exporting, and covers the whole period of Shaw's activity in America.
This article offers critical examination and explanation of the claim of “clan cleansing” in Somalia as was featured forcefully in the book by Lidwien Kapteijns on the 1991 Somali clan convulsions. Upon the publication of the book, conflicting narratives of the Somali conflicts were delegated from oral discourse to academic venture as the debate over who lost what, why and where in 1991 and over who won, what, why and where has become both a politicised project and an academic phenomenon. By re-evaluating the whole picture, the article casts a new light on Kapteijns’s book (2013) and demonstrates how inaccurate simplistic statements were used as a documentation of the clanised conflicts in 1991 Somalia. Blaming specific clans and communities of complicity for “clan cleansing,” when there is no reliable document and real proof, is tantamount to igniting a new round of warfare. Drawing on long experience of living and working in Mogadishu – the city this author was born and bred as well as the site of the conflict itself – and also using interviews conducted with players and bystanders of Somali politics across clan lines, the article argues that Kapteijns has produced the most mythicohistorical work in Somali Studies. In addition to identifying the invalidity of partisan and partial points, the article finds how Kapteijns lobbies for certain clans at the expense of others. Thus, the critique goes beyond the cleansing, exploring wider issues of war and conflict in Somalia.
ABSTRACT This paper explores contemporary cultures of British military recruitment and considers the domestication of geopolitics as matters of the ephemeral (fleeting, sensory encounters), and of ephemera (everyday objects). It employs an auto/ethnographic approach toward spaces critical to recruitment – the airshow, the home and the body. Three central contributions are developed: first, building on a recent turn to the material in political geography, the paper argues that taking seriously materiality, objects, and ‘stuff’ enhances our understanding of the connections between geopolitical, militarised and everyday; second, deploying a notion of the geopolitical social, it explores the geopolitical as it is situated in everyday lives and spaces; third, it investigates the tendency for militarised objects to find their way onto and around bodies and into domestic spaces. Set at the interface of literatures in critical geopolitics and critical military studies, the paper concludes that material encounters and everyday objects are matters central to the business of geopolitics and militarism.
HarveyCushing wroteaPulitzer prize-winning biography ofSirWilliam Osler in1925, anditwas followed byJohnFulton's equally brilliant biography ofHarvey Cushing. Bothbiographies vividlyencapsulated thecontribution ofthenewJohns HopkinsHospital tothegrowthofacademic medicine intheUnited States attheturnofthe century, andalsobeyond, because these biographies haveinfluenced manystudents worldwide tocontinue thetrial ofscientific medicine atits intellectual best. William Osler heldprofessorships atMcGill, Pennsylvania, theJohnsHopkins andfinally the Regius Chair ofMedicine atOxford. Histextbook ThePrinciples andPractice ofMedicine appeared in 1892anditsnumerous editions became aworld best-seller inthedayswhenauthors really were single authors. DrAlexSakula hasnowprovided theworld with theperfect reminder ofOsler atjust theright time, fornowadays postgraduates aretoobusyto remember himandstudents havenever evenheard ofOsler. Ina delightful preface, AlexSakula unfolds hisownattachments toOsler since 1937 when, asastudent, heearned aprize copyofOsler's textbook andwentontobecome President ofthe Osler ClubofLondon. Hehasnowimmortalized hislinks withOsler byproducing asuperb Portraiture, published by theRoyalSociety of Medicine.' Itwill beenjoyed withaffection and familiarity byOslerians worldwide; butmore important itwill introduce thegreat SirWilliam to anewgeneration ofheathens, whohadnever heard ofhim.Allknownportraits, mostly fromlife but someposthumous, inoils orwater colour, charcoal sketches, busts, plaques, medallions andmedals havebeenincluded. Osler hadasallow complexion, drooping moustache, andwasbalding, sohe appeared sombre atfirst sight, buthewasknownto haveatwinkle inhiseye, heart andmindaswe knowfromhisalter-ego Egerton Yorrick Davis. It
In line with the current historiographical debates, this article contributes to questioning the suitability of the name “Spanish Civil War” to the conflict that developed in Spain from the summer of 1936 onwards. In the same way, it aims to rethink its classics chronological limits. All this is carried out through the conceptual genealogical study of the Fifth Column, a phenomenon that arose in that contest that, however, has had a significant transcendence both in space and time. Thus, the resulting reflections are presented in two sections: in the first, in which the complexity of the term to be treated is exposed, addressing its different meanings and evolution; and, in the second, in which the empirical arguments that contribute to these questions are shown, emphasizing the “irregular” factor of the war and highlighting its didactic value.
Reflections in Black, the first comprehensive history of black photographers, is a groundbreaking pictorial collection of African American life. Featuring the work of undisputed masters such as James VanDerZee, Gordon Parks, and Carrie Mae Weems among dozens of others, this book is a refutation of the gross caricature of black life that many mainstream photographers have manifested by continually emphasizing poverty over family, despair over hope. Nearly 600 images offer rich, moving glimpses of everyday black life, from slavery to the Great Migration to contemporary suburban life, including rare antebellum daguerrotypes, photojournalism of the civil rights era, and multimedia portraits of middle-class families. A work so significant that it has the power to reconfigure our conception of American history itself, Reflections in Black demands to be included in every American family's library as an essential part of our heritage. A Los Angeles Times and Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2000, and a Good Morning, America best gift book of 2000.
This article argues that "folklore" has served as a narratological device in modern scholarship of rabbinic culture; rather then reflecting rabbinic history, "folklore" has served in constructing sociocultural images that are not grounded in, or indicated by, the rabbinic corpus itself. The first part of the article addresses the role of "folklore" as yielding a variety of historiographical tropes in the writings of scholars such as Lieberman, Urbach, Ginzberg, and Fraenkel, as well as in the writings of specific folklore scholars such as Hasan-Rokem and Yassif. "Folklore," as an essential category, when applied to rabbinic texts, designates ideological, institutional or social margins, and in turn, it implies an imagined canon. As the article argues, the identification of "folklore" with marginality cannot be sustained by the texts themselves. The article therefore suggests implementing folkloristic tools in reading rabbinic texts without the underlying essentialistic understanding of the texts themselves as reflecting rabbinic "folklore." The second part of the essay applies the nonessentialized use of folklore methodology to two close readings of rabbinic texts.
This article resurrects an old and well-known problem of periodization: locating the beginning of the modern period in the Middle East. In the past quarter of a century or so it has been the focus of a debate that, though seldom articulated or presented as such, stands at the core of studies of the modern era. Two basic approaches have been offered. One, often described as Orientalist, has suggested that the modern period in the Arab Middle East was ushered in by Napoleon's invasion in 1798. Those who adopt this approach find a clear correlation between the invasion, emblematic of ‘the impact of the West’, and the beginnings of modernization and progress in a stagnant Middle East. The other, revisionist stance raises serious doubts about this correlation and suggests other timetables according to which modernity had its roots in the region itself or in continued interaction with the West before the arrival of the French revolutionary army. The article suggests a third option which takes into account new approaches to history that view modernity itself as a set of historical phenomena created mainly by and through the colonial encounter.
The identification of Philistine Gath with Tell eṣ-Ṣafi has met with widespread, though not complete, acceptance. The present study argues for using historical geography not only to identify the site but also to reconstruct the socioenvironmental context and geopolitical history. In the present case, Tell eṣ-Safi's history is shaped by its position along the international highway, by its location on the fertile Philistine Alluvial Basin, and by its junction with an important local route leading into the hill country and Jerusalem. These factors confirm its identification with Gath while at the same time illuminating the geopolitical interaction between the coastal plain and the hill country in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages.
Many people do not know what a planetarium is. Since this disappointing fact is even true for well-educated people, including students and teachers, many pupils will never hear about planetariums. In order to spread knowledge about planetariums, universities can play a major role. One of the best ways is to visit a planetarium with students, especially those who will become teachers. Such a visit is a very efficient multiplying factor. But in order to make a planetarium visit efficient, one should not go unprepared. We therefore go with education students who are enrolled in an astronomy course. Before their visit, we inform them about what a planetarium is and about how it is used. We teach them, for example, specific terms of the rotating sky, its coordinates, and the significance of the ecliptic and of retrograde loops. And of course, we teach the students how the sky appears from different latitudes, including the equator and the southern hemisphere. We also teach the technical aspects of how the projector works.
There are still few studies on the Spanish of Italian Jews, particularly in diplomatic-character documentation. This work analyzes the linguistic modality found in four unpublished inventories located in Pisa, which cannot be considered as Judeo-Spanish but a variety of Spanish rather close to the peninsular one, in the anteroom of the imminent linguistic assimilation to Italian. Also, a critical presentation of these documents is proposed, following the line begun by Manuel Ariza when in 2012 he edited several 17th- Century notarial documents from Pisa.
The debates about female fashion in the new Republic of Lithuania in the 1920s and 1930s saw papal representatives, bishops, leading public intellectuals, and members of Catholic youth movements argue about deep décolletés and short skirts. In this predominantly Catholic country, objections made against modern fashion may initially look like a conservative stand against modern developments. Studying more closely the debate around women's fashion as it developed in a particular subset of the Catholic population in Lithuania—educated youth in the Ateitis Catholic student association, this article examines the interconnected arguments that were woven together to evaluate what women should wear in interwar Lithuania and shows that Catholics in this northeastern European country aimed to create a modern national and rational woman. At issue were not just Catholic moral norms but also national identity and the challenges posed by mass consumer culture. The new ideal being proposed was a modern Catholic female intelligentsia, a gender ideal that embraced the opportunities offered in the first decades of the twentieth century, such as suffrage, education, urban living, more active participation in civic life, while retaining more conservative moral norms, questioning consumer culture, and debating woman's nature and mission.
Presences of Nature: British Landscape 1780–1830 (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art) by Louis Hawes, 1982, 214 pp., 174 ills, 15 colour pls, hardback £20, paperback £8.95        Literary Landscape: Turner and Constable by Ronald Paulson, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983, 274 pp., 83 ills. £15        James Ward's Gordale Scar: An Essay in the Sublime (London: Tate Gallery) by Edward J. Nygren, 1982, 64 pp., 60 ills, £2.95        Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction (London: Tate Gallery) by David H. Solkin, 1982, 251 pp., 146 ills, 14 colour pls, £9.95        Constable's England (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art) by Graham Reynolds, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983, 184 pp., 18 ills, 65 colour pls, £12.95        Constable: The Painter and his Landscape by Michael Rosenthal, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983, 255 pp., 175 ills, 95 colour pls, £15.95        John Linnell: A Centennial Exhibition (Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, and Yale Center for British Art, New Haven) selected and catalogued by Katharine Crouan, 1982, 107 pp., 98 ills, 9 colour pls, hardback £18.50, paperback £5.95
In the 1940s,novelists of the"People's Republic of China"record Chinese Rural revolution for nearly half a century, from the"Republic of China"to"People's Republic of China".China's rural revolution is the essence of the reform of land own- ership,and its content includes not only the armed revolution between the Communist Party of China and KMT,but also the na- tional war and rural land reform movement.This generation of novelists inherits leftist literature descent,or draws nourishment from the folk culture,or carries forward the essence of classical Chinese literature.In the similar social,political and cultural context they form their own unique literary style,which has three types of fiction:village"epic",village"haipai",village"lyr- ic".The 1980s novelists experience various social realisties,especially the"cultural"revolution,they deconstruct or draw or master."New Historical Novel"reconstructs"village revolution"landscape in the story of village revolutionary.In the vision of literary history of the 20th century,the 1940s revolutionary village novels demonstrate their unique status and influence.
Scientific cooperations between the museums of natural history in Berlin and in Budapest are described. Already in 19th century, for instance, the specialists of zoological Taxonomy Edmund Reitter (coleopterologist), Geza von Horváth (helminthologist) and Ludwig von Mehély (herpetologist) intensively communicated with the Berlin Zoologists Julius Weise, Karl August Möbius and Anton Collin. After World War II the mueums have been continued using the special collections to their mutual benefit, and when in 1956 the Hungarian collections were disturbed by Soviet military actions, Hungarian zoologists asked for assistance with exchanging specialists and well destined items of their collections. This way in 1963 there have been officially arranged both yearly visits to the museums in Berlin and Budapest and cooperations not only on taxonomy but also on general museological research like problems of modern exhibitions and their evaluating. In 1973, the Berlin museum also participated in the Dictionarium museologicum (1986) initiated by the Hungarian museologist István Eri.
Recently, speculation has come to abound over Pakistan with seemingly premature and, arguably, unjustified contentions that Pakistan has awoken to reality and committed itself wholeheartedly to the Global War on Terror (GWOT). This comes after years of rising tensions between the state and Western stakeholders in the Asian sub-continent. In this burgeoning, pre-popular worldview, Pakistan is now perceived to be not only a partner in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda (T/AQ), but also a veritable ally. With this purported 180-degree geo-political turn-around, the picture suggested, if not crafted, byWestern governments and their spokespeople (official and unofficial), is that it is merely a matter of time before the Government of Pakistan (GOP) ousts the Taliban/al-Qaeda from their redoubts on the Eastern side of the Durand line. In other words, the political roadblock to negating the T/AQ has been masterfully navigated by both Western diplomacy and a Pakistani awakening. The supposition is that the problem is therefore being resolved. However, before celebrating both this apparent and rapid strategic “U-turn” and much-touted “once in a lifetime” geo-political paradigm shift, and Pakistan’s avowed intention to dismantle the very terrorist networks it has sponsored over successive generations, a realpolitik review of both the military and political situation inside Pakistan, and its relationship to the Western fight with the Taliban and al-Qaeda is warranted. Pakistan is a bona fide failed state. It consistently ranks at the bottom of “failed state” indicators across the board: poverty; illiteracy; health care; terrorist activity; intraand extra-religious hostilities; corruption; poor governance; drug trafficking and other assorted crime indices – murder, human trafficking – the list goes on. It is also the last state in the world that Western governments would have wished to acquire a nuclear weapon capability. It is a state that is, through plausibly deniable protocols and the scapegoating of A. Q. Khan, directly and indirectly responsible for the diffusion, or Defense & Security Analysis Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 243–260, September 2010
The article analyses the missionary activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in the territory of Bashkortostan during the period from the second half of the XVI -first half of the XIX century. The spread of the Orthodox religion in the region started when the Bashkir lands had voluntarily joined the Moscow kingdom in 1557. The role of the state in the conversion of Bashkirs to Orthodox Christianity is discussed. It is concluded that the process of baptism of the population in the region was not uniform and combined both elements of administrative pressure and proper missionary activity.
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feel that the study fails to take full measure of the religious evidence, to attach due importance to the religious phenomenology described therein. This is the case, I think, with religious activities such as prayer, divination, and the like. There is a brief discussion of miracles (pp. 32-5), concluding thus: ' The historian can use these supernatural statements to understand contemporary belief and motivation, subsequent interpretation, and the cosmology common to all sides of the struggle.' I agree about belief, motivation, and interpretation; but these are not prominent in the rest of the book. I disagree about a common cosmology. There were common elements, between Muslim and traditional practices, for example in the importance attached to intense spiritual exercises, by holy men, in times of crisis: but when, for instance, Bambara traditions have Umar mobilizing the spirits under the earth before the battle of Woitala in September 1860, hanging like a bat from a tree and counting his beads, they illustrate not a common cosmology but the indefatigable capacity of the traditionalist context to absorb and transmute intrusive elements—in fact, that mixture of Islam and Paganism which so often so offended the reformers. Other elements were not common at all: Umar's warriors, for instance, lived at the gate of heaven, they entered battle hand in hand with the houris of paradise. Life eternal and sex appeal, an intoxicating new cosmological dimension. Robinson mentions this, but in rather general terms, omitting the vividness of some sources. Umar's acquisition, while on pilgrimage, of the right to perform istikhara, a ritual means of seeking divine guidance, is cited (p. 97), but thereafter appears only once, in a footnote (p. 131—significantly, authorizing the launch of the jihad). Khalwa, a far more awesome procedure, is not indexed at all, and is explicitly mentioned only once (p. 32 n.)— though presumably it lurks behind the gentle (also unindexed, and surely quite insufficient) English word ' meditation' (e.g. pp. 32-4, 123, 321). Umar himself was ultimately destroyed by Ahmad al-Bakkay's khalwa, directed against him (pp. 35, 306). The deployment of such spiritual resources against one's enemies is, I think, more central, and less unorthodox, than Robinson allows: he calls it unfair manipulation (p. 34), but it seems not utterly dissimilar to the Commination, or denouncing of God's anger and judgements against Sinners, in the Book of Common Prayer.
is that ideological constructs define one’s perspective on life and offer guidance for action and for interpreting events. The ideas of Pax-Americana and neoconservatism clearly possess these qualities. In contrast, Islamophobia involves fear, a negative—often thoughtless— emotion deriving from a perception (or misperception) of someone else’s ideas and actions. Robert Spencer, who has made the production of anti-Muslim literature into a career, may be motivated by a political agenda that sees value in fanning the flames of anti-Muslim prejudice. He is also gaining a livelihood through this work. This set of activities can hardly be described as ingredients for ideological formation. For culturalists, Islamophobia could arguably fit the definition of a subculture. As the case of Spencer shows, Islamophobia has become a pattern of thinking that now informs a way of life for a small segment of Americans, a segment that has grown dramatically after the Ground Zero mosque affair in 2009. The anti-shari a campaign, which has been propelled by an anti-Islamic tendency, has grown into a movement and even attracted many legislators in the southern states. Fortunately, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down that state’s anti-shari a law. Moreover, an anti-Islamophobia movement that includes several major Christian and Jewish denominations as well as interfaith organizations has begun to take shape since 2010 (see www.shouldertoshouldercampaign.org). On balance, Sheehi’s analysis of anti-Muslim bias in U.S. policy is timely and substantive, but it calls for a more methodical examination.
lected. The editors have provided the reader with ample aids for understanding both the content and context of the letters. A short introduction to the volume recalls the chief issues and events in which Beza was involved. Preceding each of the epistles (all in Latin save three) is a synopsis of its substance, and following each letter are copious notes clarifying obscure statements in the text. This work plainly has been performed with care and thoroughness. The correspondence collected here reflects Beza's mounting responsibility for the fate of the reform movement that issued from Geneva. In this period Calvin was still master, but his disciple and eventual successor is revealed as a leader commanding growing respect. A large proportion of the letters is directed to the problems of the struggling reformes in France. For approximately a year Beza lived among them, and while there he frequently sought (and received) counsel from Calvin regarding the affairs of the French Protestants. The correspondence between the two men attests a high degree of mutual respect and agreement. A major event during Beza's French visit was the Colloquy of Poissy: this effort to achieve Protestant-Catholic rapprochement is the chief subject of fifteen of the letters.
This is a book about the second crtescent in the Crescent City of New Orleans. Historians generally devote their energies to the Vieux Carre or Old Square in the first crescent which Bienville admired as thte, "finest crescent in the river." Monsignor Bezou has added to the library of historians a carefully researched work on the other crescent in the Mississippi, nine miles abovte the Vieux Carre and what is now known as Jefferson Parish, pioneered at the same time that New Orleans was being founded. The artea was observed by LaSalle in 1682, explored by Iberville and Bienville and founded by the Chauvins and other families as Le Chopitoulas. Bezou has provided a lavishly detailed account of the founding and development of this area. It will be of primary interest to Louisiana and New Orleans historians, as well as to church historians because of the great enriched deail concterning the development of the churches, particularly of the Roman Catholic Church in this area. Bezou lovingly outlines the evolution of the Catholic parishes of this area in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Metairie where he serves as pastor. He documents the early attempts by the Capuchins from France to establish a ntew parish church for the area, the dissolution of the Society of Jesus and the subsequent activities of the Dominicans. This book is a thoroughly researched and valuable contribution to the history of South Louisiana and of the Roman Catholic Church in South Louisiana. It is meticulous in detail and will be an invaluable reference book for the students of the area. However, the book is limited in subject matter and format to a work of reference. This was clearly the intent of the author.
The Memorial Hall as part of a wider sense of public art for the study by the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan and the United States,Arizona Memorial Museum in China and the United States,the two representative of the Memorial case study to analyze the folk culture of the two countries in which the And reflect the comparison.Mainly through the construction of the historical background,in the form of construction,display design,to commemorate the form and manner,and so on a visit to the folk culture of China and the United States to do the analysis and comparison.
course. The book's ten essays are grouped in four sections—"Identities in Time and Space," "Contrastive Identities: 'Us' and 'Them'," "'Essential' Identities," and "Symbols of Identity." Each section begins with an editorial introduction, and each essay (or chapter) has a dual structure: first historical and theoretical background on the issue at hand, then a study of a particular cultural phenomenon or series of texts. While the chapters vary in balance, the editors have succeeded admirably in guiding their distinguished contributors, whose subjects range so widely, toward a unified structure. The editors' opening contributions—Franklin on "Russia in Time" and Widdis on "Russia as Space"—are, as one might expect, exemplary. Franklin's overview of concepts of Russia in historical time is followed by engaging close readings of two kinds of texts: postage stamps and banknotes. Widdis's discussion of conceptualizations of Russian space moves to the representation of national space in the Stalinist period, focusing first on Ivan Pyr'ev's film Tale of the Siberian Land and then on a 1934 map of socialist achievements. Franklin, who contributes a second chapter as well, on identity and religion (his highlighted texts there are Nikolai Leskov's "Enchanted Wanderer" and Sergei Eizenshtein's Akksandr Nevskii), is particularly good at what he calls "brutal summaries" (104) that prepare the reader for the original analyses that bring die broad picture to life. These summaries may be more necessary to students who are a principal audience for this book, than to scholars, but while scholars will be especially interested in the specific readings of cultural texts, they should also be appreciative of the condensed wisdom of the contributors: the graceful introduction to a field of inquiry is a difficult genre that all of them do well. The contributors, and their topics, are as follows: Hubertus F. Jahn, "'Us': Russians on Russianness"; Anthony Cross, "'Them': Russians on Foreigners"; Marina Frolova-Walker, "Music of the Soul?"; Boris Gasparov, "Identity in Language?"; Catriona Kelly, "Byl: Identity and Everyday Life"; Lindsey Hughes, "Monuments and Identity"; Stephanie Sandler, "'Pushkin' and Identity." This list makes clear the range of riches here. The texts analyzed extend from folk songs (in Frolova-Walker's fascinating analysis of the myth of Russian melancholia) to nineteenth-century peep shows (Jahn) to 1920s' child-rearing guides (Kelly). The chronological spread, as already indicated, is broad: Gasparov's account of the role of Church Slavonic in the formation of Russian identity takes us back as far as Vladimir Monomakh; Hughes deals with cathedrals and monuments from the Muscovite to the Soviet periods; Cross focuses on the late eighteenth century; Sandler's reading of the meanings of Aleksandr Pushkin includes the latest postmodern Pushkiniana. While the book is accessible to the undergraduate or general reader familiar with the outlines of Russian history (the editors take such care to make it accessible that they even offer a parenthetical definition of "permafrost"), the authors do not in any way condescend. These are demanding and often thought-provoking essays, full of illuminating moments, that will point graduate students and specialists in profitable directions. On the matter of directions, one quibble: the map of Russia preceding the essays uses the misleading projection that shows Kiev to be farther north than Moscow and St. Petersburg to be farther east. The book as a whole, however, admirably fulfills its goal of mapping the dimensions of national identity, what Franklin and Widdis in their opening essay call "the interwoven strands and multiple layers of imagined Russianness" (8).
This topic was chosen as an “out-of-the-academic-box” approach to examining the volatile nature of British culture in the 1970s. Using satire as political commentary, Monty Python and the Holy Grail takes one of Britain’s best-known culturally referenced myths and attacks it via Britain’s almost-nationalistic brand of humour. Better known as comedy-by-embarrassment, this film’s use of awkwardness provides a skewed vantage point for investigating the changes lobbed at what constitutes Britishness by criticizing class, sovereignty, and, to a lesser extent, gender; racial tension, however, was glaringly omitted. This omission provided a unique aspect for studying this film as a cultural text.The Holy Grail was definitely a product of its time that deftly used cultural or mythological history to criticize historical events, past and present. Its keen use of anachronism provides an effective mirror that reflects the modern 1970s British zeitgeist as a cauldron of confusion and discomfort. It is through this source of friction that one is both amused and somewhat reflective, thus begging the question, was what occurred in the British cultural past really much different from what is occurring here and now?
The twelve essays in this collection constitute an investigation into the uses that have been made of Shakespeare—as playscript, as body of text, as narrative pattern, as authorial construct, even as icon—from the Restoration to the present. 'Appropriation' is a key word, stressed by the editor in her introduction and employed at least once in each essay: 'associated with abduction, adoption and theft, appropriation's central tenet is the desire for possession . . . making sense of a literary artefact by fitting it into our own parameters . . . we possess it by reinventing it as surely as if we had secured its physical presence by force.' The implicit notion of 'Shakespeare' as goods or property which can be stolen, possessed and sold—rather than something free as air—reflects the cultural-materialist project pursued through many (though not all) of these essays. Frequently, we find Shakespearian homage in its various forms to be an extension of Tory or bourgeois conservative agendas. The evidence is strained at times, but for the most part the authors make convincing cases.
Europe’s Crusaders first began rallying to Pope Urban II’s call for a Holy War following the Council of Clermont in 1095. He charged Christians to set aside their coreligionist struggles in order to set out and reclaim the holy lands of the Near East, specifically Jerusalem, from the ‘infidel’ Muslims. The first, ill-prepared, noncombatant-driven expedition, the “People’s Crusade,” led by Peter the Hermit, was massacred almost to a man in August 1096. Following that slaughter, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I consolidated the European generals in Constantinople and immediately launched the first “armed pilgrimage.” This pilgrimage was not only successful, but provided the undertone of romanticism for further exploits. The rise in popularity and nod to “Christian duty” in the Western world still echoes with the exploits of the Crusader knights on their quest from God. Muslim historiography contradicts this line of thought and treats the “Crusades” almost as a footnote within the greater struggles of warring factions in the region—that they were in fact, “tiny and futile attempts to halt the inevitable expansion of Islam.” In the beginning of the conflict, the Muslims did not even consider themselves involved in a religious struggle against Christianity. Aside from a handful of primary sources from some contemporary historians, such as the personal memoirs of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh, or in the collective works of ‘Izz ad-Din Ibn Al-Athīr, Abu Ya’la Hamza ibn Asad at-Tamimi (also known as Ibn Al-Qalanīsī), and Nasir ad-Din Ibn al-Furāt, most surviving historical Islamic sources reference early works that have been lost. Other surviving documents include significant revisions reflecting the views and motives of the author. Although the term jihad was a familiar lexicon in the Muslim world, the term crusader was not a term used by contemporary participants on either side of the struggle. It was not the Crusades, nor the Islamic reaction to them during the two hundred-year struggle, that shapes the modern-day world debate concerning the eternal struggle between Christianity and Islam. Western views dominate the historiography of the Crusades, presenting a one sided view of a topic that is far from black and white. M.R.B. Shaw’s translation of European noblemen Joinville and Villehardouin does just that. It captures contemporary views of Western Christendom’s involvement in the Crusades. A true The Franj Invasion of Islamic Lands: Muslim View of the Crusades
We present a case of a bilateral atlas posterior arc fracture that occurred during wrestling training. Atlas bone fractures are rare although may result with catastrophic consequences. A male amateur wrestler aged 25 years, who was otherwise healthy fell on his head while doing a cartwheel and could not continue training. He was admitted to the outpatient orthopedics clinic with persistent neck pain and dizziness after 7 days. X-ray and computed tomography of the patient revealed a stable fracture of C1 vertebra. He was then treated with a hard collar for 6 weeks. After removal of the collar, cervical strengthening exercises were started, which gradually increased in the rehabilitation program. The patient was allowed to perform contact sports 12 weeks after the incident.
The audience of the epitaphios logos assembled to hear a leading politician recount the earlier military exploits of the Athenians and how they had shaped the contemporary exploits of the war dead. The funeral oration upheld an idealised image of Athenian action in which Athens excelled in war and undertook warmaking only for noble ends. This focus attempted to reconcile the mourners to loss and grief by appealing to common and unquestionably good outcomes. By contrast, it is now orthodox to state that Athenian tragedy encouraged questioning and self-critique among the Athenians. Although the funeral speeches intimately connected past and present, at another level they clearly distinguished between them, as one speaker on one day showed how the war dead of a particular year had exemplified eternal Athenian superiority. Tragedy, however, avoided explicit coverage of the present, operating in a vague space between ancient and contemporary. This vagueness might have offered theatre-goers opportunities for critique of Athens and self-critique. However, what they brought to tragedy from the funeral speeches might equally have pushed them to a strongly affirmative idea of Athenian action. Recent readings often argue that tragedians criticised Athenian warmaking. Yet, every surviving tragedy where Athens features is fully intelligible as an endorsement of Athenian action, often combined with the spectacle of the suffering of others. Clearly to identify as a citizen of a state that helped those who were suffering while remaining untouched by this suffering was pleasurable. The funeral oration and tragedy probably worked together from different perspectives to solidify a strongly positive view of Athens for Athenians.
In the fall of 2015, the faculty of the Museum Studies Program at RIT mounted an exhibition titled "Kate Gleason, Visionary: A Tribute on Her 150th Birthday." While Kate Gleason’s name is familiar on the RIT campus because the College of Engineering is named for her, this association obscures recognition of her many and varied accomplishments. The challenge we undertook was to contextualize her work in engineering within her other entrepreneurial endeavors in manufacturing, banking, and building, focusing on the innovation and vision that united them. In addition, we wanted Gleason’s career and accomplishments to be compelling and relevant to our students. To this end we created an exhibition in two different formats: first, a mobile pop-up exhibition that traveled to several venues on campus to encounter students in the course of their daily campus routine and second, a formal gallery exhibition in the campus library. These articles reflect on the process of creating the exhibition’s underlying thesis, bringing the concept to life in two different types of exhibitions, engaging students in the creative process, and reflecting on the exhibition’s impact on its audience. This essay is available in The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/sfd/vol2/iss1/3 THE SENECA FALLS DIALOGUES JOURNAL, V. 2, FALL 2017 1 REMEMBERING KATE GLEASON: INTRODUCING A TWENTIETH-CENTURY BUSINESSWOMAN TO TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY STUDENTS MICHAEL J. BROWN , REBECCA A. R. EDWARDS , & TINA OLSIN LENT ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
plans for a drama on I Adam Unparadized.' No future criticism will be able to ignore a connection so sOlidly and imaginatively established. It is worth recalling, however, the limits of the masque as model for Milton's poetry. The points of contact usually pertain to what can be visualized for example, the opposed thrones of God and Satan, each surrounded by appropriate debate, dance and song, recall the manner in which the chairs of state of the noble peer and Comus were placed at the opposite ends of the performing space of Milton's Ludlow masque. But the masque and its allied theatrical forms do not appear to illuminate what is said in the dramatic passages of Milton's poem, nor is it realistically possible to delete the poet from the narrative or even the descriptive sections. Once again, we see how Milton integrates genres so skilfully that the result is a new form with its own unity. Everything he touches becomes his own, for as Coleridge observed, he 'attracts all forms and things to himself, into the unity of his own ideal. '
An international conference on the condensed state of simple systems was held at Varenna sul Lago di Como, Italy, on the 11th to the 14th of September, 1957. The subject of discussion concerned primarily simple liquids and the melting of crystals. The meeting was at the invitation of the Italian Physical Society and was held in the charming Villa Monastero on the shores of Lake Como. Approximately eighty scientists from over eleven different countries attended. Both experimental papers and theoretical papers on statistical mechanical theory composed the formal part of the program.
In recent years, cultural geographers have begun to scrutinize the relationships between the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘extraordinary’. These studies assert that the ordinary and extraordinary are not fixed and discrete, but rather, mutable and connected. The main goal of this article is to explore how landscape can combine the ordinary and the extraordinary by reflecting on my participation in the 2017 Summer Lectures Crop Circle Conference in Devizes, England, and drawing on Jean-François Lyotard’s work, Discourse, Figure (1971). My argument is that crop circles and the conference participants’ research practices landscape the ordinary and extraordinary by magnifying disruptive yet alluring rifts (écarts) between textual acts of reading and visual acts of seeing. I illustrate how such rifts, which Lyotard aligns with ‘figural space’ (l’espace figurai), occur on and off the conference site as follows: first, through an awkward slowness demanded by drawing crop circles in a sacred geometry workshop; second, as a result of the opaque thickness of the local countryside wherein researchers struggled to locate crop circles in fields and navigate country lanes; and third, in the operations of desire in group consciousness workshops that propelled disagreements over how to access the sacred. The article concludes by acknowledging some of the limitations of my reading of figural space, as well as some reasons why we should ‘go figural’ in cultural geography.
Acting Editor Yvonne LawrenceEditor Katharine BarnesAssistant Editor Gillian MacKenzieEditorial Coordinator Paul LambertIllustrations The StudioPublishing Manager O. Claire MoultonEditorial EnquiriesTrends in Pharmacological SciencesElsevier,84 Theobald’s Road,London, UK WC1X 8RRtel: +44 20 7611 4400fax: +44 20 7611 4470e-mail: etj.tips@elsevier.comSubscription EnquiriesE-mail: ct.subs@qss-uk.comAdvisory Editorial BoardS.G. Amara, Pittsburgh, PA, USAH. Betz, Frankfurt, GermanyN.J.M. Birdsall, London, UKN.G. Bowery, Verona, ItalyJ.N. Crawley, Bethesda, MD, USAA.C. Cuello, Montre´al, CanadaA. Dray, Montre´al, CanadaJ.R. Fozard, Basel, SwitzerlandB.B. Fredholm, Stockholm, SwedenT.P. Kenakin, Research Triangle Park, NC,USAR.W. Kerwin, London, UKB.K. Kobilka, Stanford, CA, USAM. Lazdunski, Valbonne, FranceG-Q. Liu, Nanjing, ChinaC.A. Maggi, Florence, ItalyJ. Meldolesi, Milan, ItalyM. Mishina, Tokyo, JapanW.H. Moolenaar, Amsterdam,The NetherlandsC.P. Page, London, UKR. Ruffolo, Jr, King of Prussia, PA, USAT.K. Sawyer, Cambridge, MA, USAR.J. Summers, Melbourne, AustraliaT. Tanaka, Tsu, JapanD. Wallach, Rehovot, IsraelZ.G. Wang, Beijing, ChinaS.P. Watson, Birmingham, UK
Tranquebar mission (Heike Liebau, Die indischen Mitarbeiter der Tranquebarmission (1706–1845): Katecheten, Schulmeister, Ubersetzer (Tübingen: Max-Niemeyer-Verlag, 2008)). Brian Stanley engages directly with hagiography in what “can only be described as the ‘cult’ of Henry Martyn” (p. 109). His account of the development of this cult is much stronger than his answer to the final question he sets himself, namely, “how far is it possible to draw aside the hagiographic veil ... and discover something of [Martyn’s] personality and the impact it made, both on Europeans and on the Muslims of north India and Persia who met him” (p. 120), relying, as he does, almost exclusively on European sources. As Avril Powell shows in her study of Abdul Masih, “whose conversion was the only one directly attributable to the influence of Henry Martyn” (p. 87), it is possible to recover Indian perspectives on Christian mission from an early period even where those perspectives are—as in this case—now available only as filtered through processes of selection and translation by missionaries. Richard Fox Young likewise “resurrects” P. Ragaviah “from the archival tomb” (p. 69) in order to examine his views on Christianity and colonial knowledge of India. Geoffrey Oddie reviews the role of pandits in shaping missionary knowledge of Hinduism, concluding that, in all but a few exceptional cases, other sources were more influential. Frykenberg has been, at times, dismissive of the value of theory, preferring the firmer ground of the primary source materials in the substantial archives generated by Christian communities in South Asia. He will therefore likely appreciate the closing chapters of this volume, which provide useful overviews of missionary archives relating to South Asia in the UK, by Rosemary Seton, and of Protestant collections in the US, by Martha Lund Smalley. The book contains also a useful bibliography of Frykenberg’s works to 2009.
Introduction: A New Sensibility for Classics 1. Our Native Classics, Complete and Uniform 2. The Elzevirs of Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis 3. William Creech and John Boyle: The Classics Move across Scotland 4. John Bell's Little Trifling Edition Revisited 5. Johnson's Prefaces and Bell's Connected System of Biography 6. The Best Judges of Vendible Poetry: William Strahan, Joseph Wenman, et al. 7. Robert Anderson's Comprehensive View of English Poetry 8. Charles Cooke's Pocket Library 9. . John Sharpe and Alexander Chalmers: A Body of Standard English Poetry? 10. Splinter Canons, Fugitives, and Empire Epilogue: A Library to Every House Appendices Bibliography Index of Poets Index of Booksellers, Printers, Publishers
It is the purpose of this research to explore the role that animals played in both the life and writings of Lord Byron. The first areas of concentration are on the specific examples of Byron's affection for animals and on the psychological aspects of this love. Secondly, the thesis attempts to explore the symbolic importance of animals in relation to Byron and his works. Finally, the research is focused on Byron's concepts and ideas, which he frequently illustrated and clarified by animal symbolism.
This study aims at shedding the light on the impact of the technological and cultural features associated with an era on landscape painting. A critical study is carried out analysing the artworks of two British painters lived in two different eras. These are “Joseph Turner" and “David Hockney”. Painters’ artistic features including the construction of their paintings are discussed. It was found that each era has a great impact on forming artists’ colour palette, composition and media used. Therefore, cultural and technological features associated with an era should be taken into consideration in the process of criticising artworks including painting.
The main theme of this article is the interaction between secular and spiritual reconstruction in the post-war decades. During this period, Scotland witnessed a massive public housing construction drive, resulting in large-scale population movement. The Church of Scotland viewed this as both a challenge to its role as a national church and as an opportunity for church renewal. Part of a much larger religious boom in Western Europe and North America, the Church Extension movement in this case initially displayed energy and imagination in launching a parallel programme of church building in the New Towns and housing estates. Four million pounds were raised through voluntary effort, with aim of placing the Church at the centre of community building in the new housing areas. Yet, by the late 1950s the movement had begun to falter in terms of confidence and momentum. To some extent, this reflected the material and psychological legacy of dominant territorial church, including its continuing attachment to the historic narrative of working-class irreligion. Indeed, the mobilisation of the traditional congregational mainstream behind the dynamism of Church Extension proved persistently problematic. Ultimately, however, the ambitions of Church Extension were frustrated by the growing threats posed by rising affluence and youth disenchantment, which would also fuel the general crisis of institutional religion in the next decade.
This article applies the analytical paradigm of classical reception theory, widely used within Humanities disciplines but relatively uncommon in the legal academy, to an old problem of legal history. Has Roman law, especially as exemplified by Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis, had a direct substantive impact on American jurisprudence? This Article arrives at an affirmative answer by applying classical reception study to an original body of data culled from over two centuries of published U.S. Supreme Court decisions. After briefly discussing the history and contents of the Corpus, this Article explores the direct influence of a particular point of Justinian law on American jurisprudence -- the law of alluvium -- to prove how Roman law has substantively impacted our law.
The location of the forum at Lincoln has been a matter of dispute among scholars for many years. Since the discovery late last century of the so-called ‘Bailgate colonnade’ (see below, p. 69) various arguments have been put forward both for and against the interpretation of this imposing feature as the frontage of a forum-basilica complex. The evidence consisted of the colonnade itself, the ‘Mint Wall’ running westwards from the northernmost columns and probably forming the northern boundary of the complex and, within the area to the south and west of these, several references to finds of tessellated pavements.
The history of Scotland has often been the history of its aristocracy, lawyers, and clergy, but recent years have brought growing interest in the lives of ordinary country people and the domestic craftsmen who formed an essential role in the life of the community. Until the industrialization of the towns and depopulation of the countryside -- which took place at widely differing pace in different regions of the country -- the miller was of vital importance in the community. His product was the chief element of the diet of all Scottish people until Victorian times. The mill was shop as well as manufacturer and was the only source of what people ate most of the time. This fascinating study discusses in detail the origins of milling, the social context and daily life of the miller, as well as the technical aspects of the industry.
The group of ancient writings now commonly designated as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" came accidentally to light twenty-five years ago. According to one version of the story, a young Arab boy was idling away his time by throwing stones at the side of a hill. He was grazing some sheep and goats on the hillside of Wadi Qumran, an area of land about a mile and a half down the western coast of the Dead Sea from where the Jordan River spills into that so-called "sea of death" or "Salt Sea." The young man's curiosity was aroused when one of the stones he threw disappeared into a cave, causing what sounded to him like the breaking of a pottery jar. He climbed the steep ascent of the hill and entered the cave. There among the dung of bats and the dust of eroding limestone he found a group of jars and the writings which have stirred up both popular and scholarly furor in the twenty-five years which fol lowed. From this inauspicious beginning was raised the clamor of dozens of languages and hundreds of persons. Eventually scholars from every nation of the world found their way to this remote section of the Holy Land. The documents of a people of antiquity came to the light of day for the first time since they were hidden some eighteen hundred seventy years before.
This is the tenth interview in a series, Digital Challenges to Academic Publishing, by Adeline Koh. Each article in this series features an interview with an academic publisher, press or journal editor on how their organization is changing in response to the digital world. The series has featured interviews with Duke University Press, Anvil Academic, NYU Press, MIT Press and the Penn State University Press.
nicaJities, too. The treatment of doubtful conscience happily escapes from the too-familiar pattern that loses sight of the complexity of actual moral decisions. While remaining attached to the equiprobabilist conception that what is certainly more probable is also closer to the truth, he reminds the reader that probabilism (and moderate probabiliorism) are nonetheless admitted within the Church, and that a confessor cannot refuse absolution to a penitent attached to an opinion rejected by the confessor but respected by serious writers. The idée-mère of the work—response to the divine word, responsibility in in Christ—is not just an artificially superimposed framework within which to say the old things in the old way; the idea really penetrates and guides the whole work. And it enables H. to give their proper value to law, virtue, self-perfection, and salvation as foci of Christian ethical thinking, without permitting any of them to become the sole focus.
The music and dance style of the electronic based Kuduro has dominated dance floors all over the world since the release of French DJ Frédéric Galliano’s Kuduro Sound System (2005/2008), which featured Angolan artists such as Dog Murras. Kuduro’s upbeat tempo results in frenetic dancing that usually consists of hip hop-inspired moves, traditional Angolan and carnival dance steps, and dramatized everyday movements such as dancing on knees as if lower legs were amputated, or mimicking media images of “starving Africans.” This article traces the relationship between Kuduro dance and racialized disability. Looking specifically at the Kuduro variant of melindro, this article shows how the inclusion of large numbers of Angolan amputees who were victims of foreign and civil wars has created a black urban dance vocabulary via differential embodiment. Not only does Kuduro incorporate disability as part of its movement repertoire but it also includes differently abled bodies without insisting that they move as if able-bodied.
This article analyses perceptions of China in Russia and of Russia in China by focusing on exchange through material culture, including the tea trade and the borrowing of architectural styles. It demonstrates that some things Chinese became domesticated in Russia, having first arrived there in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, whereas others continued to represent an exotic “China.” Fewer things Russian were familiar in imperial China. In twentieth-century China, Russia became closely associated with Communism, while the idea of “Russia” was also fashioned via cultural and material exchange. Other areas of historical contact between Russia and European countries and China and Asian countries have been mapped out by extensive research. This article argues that the field of contact between Russia and China has been neglected because historians have grown too used to conceptualizing relations between Europeans and Asians in terms of a confrontation of West and East.
Tattooing is a process of inserting ink into the human skin. This process is a type of  art from people around the world because the main purpose of tattooing is to  decorate the human body with symbols and paintings.  First, it is important to remark that in the ancient time, the art of tattooing had been  disputed by lots of different types of tribes. Tattooing was not only a decoration of  their body but also an emotion of incorporating myths and beliefs which have played  important role in their society.  Undoubtedly, epidemiological studies of larger scale should be conducted, to collect  more information with a goal to reduce the risk substantially. Thus, the evolution of  ink and their ingredients is a big issue that have concerned a range of scientists.  Eventually, how safe are inks considered for the human body?  Furthermore, there is an observation of the numerous side effects that tattooing and  permanent make up can present, such as dermatitis, infections, allergic reactions,  photo toxicity and viral infections.  Cosmetic tattooing involves the insertion of pigment into the dermis to create a  permanent make-up enhance one’s appearance. A presentation of the  implementation and differences between the techniques that permanent makeup  arise is described.  In the European Union, including Greece, there is an operational frame that is in  use. All professional tattoo artists should apply health rules to protect their clients  accordingly.
The article is devoted to the situation concerning Islam and Muslims in St. Petersburgin the 2000s. The paper analyzes the number of Muslims have been living then in the city. The author attempted to reconstruct demographical dynamics concerning people/nationalities traditionally professing Islam for the intercensal period 2002–2010.The characteristic of Muslim religious organizations existing in St. Petersburgis also given and explained. Considerable attention was paid to the functioning of two centralized religious organizations existing in the region. The article contains description of the main objects of Muslim religious infrastructure in St. Petersburg
Abstract Ogam is a writing system invented for the Irish language and originally used as a monument script in inscriptions on stone in Ireland and western Britain between the fifth (or late fourth) and the seventh centuries. Even though it was no longer used as a means of communication after the eighth century, it became an emblem of linguistic and cultural identity for medieval and early modern Irish scholars and poets because of its distinctive form, structure and letter names. The paper describes the characteristics of ogam as a script system and traces its place in medieval learned traditions about the origin and status of the Irish language and its alphabet, its use as a terminological tool for descriptions of Irish grammar and phonology, and its contribution to the construction of cultural memory and identity.
They say the past is another country. It can seem alien, inhabited by people different from us, whose beliefs and practices were outlandish, even vicious. Yet the past is not only the generations without end who journeyed into oblivion before we were born but is also ourselves when younger, and it encompasses all who were alive when we appeared. One might think that this nearer past would feel familiar, and that one could conjure it up without recourse to dusty documents. Yet it is not only among celebrities in Western Australia that there occurs forgetfulness or denial concerning recent deeds and thoughts. Selective amnesia is common.
I Have no space to relate the early history of Jhansi. Before her marriage, the Rani's name was Manubai Tambe. Her father, Moropant Tambe, was a Karhad Brahman from Wai in the Satara district. He obtained employment with the last Peshwa Bajirao II, and through his influence married his daughter to Gangadharrao Newalkar, the Raja of Jhansi, who was of the same caste as himself. According to Indian custom, Manubai thereafter changed her first name to Lakshmibai.
Discussed are gold inlaid objects found in the destroyed barrow of Zaporozhe near the Dnieper River (USSR) in 1968: a bracelet; two belt plaques with reliefs, on iron bases; six round plaques/phalerae on bronze bases, which served as bridle decorations; and two round plaques/rosettes on iron bases which are the ends of psalia. Comparable objects in the animal style (belt plaques and plaques/phalerae) are found in the so-called Siberian collection of Peter the Great, the precise origin of which is unknown. Similar round plaques/phalerae come from kurgans of the northern Black Sea area (Zubovsky Khutor, Kurdzhipskaya, Sadovy, Ust-Labinskaya, Buerova Mogila and others), and parallels may be seen in the decoration of a sword sheath in the animal style from Roshava Dragana kurgan near Stara Zagora in Bulgaria (in ancient Thrace). The abundance of precious metals in the Balkan peninsula, the knowledge of the necessary manufacturing techniques and the similarity to the Roshava Dragana artifacts suggest a Balkan origin for the Zaporozhe finds, as well as for those in Peter the Great's collection. The Zaporozhe complex may be dated by comparison with the Migulinsky vessel in the polychrome animal style, the inscription on which is assigned to the second century A. C.
Abstract Le chevalier délibéré by Olivier de la Marche is now largely forgotten. Immediately after its publication in 1483, however, it enjoyed great success. The text was disseminated throughout Europe and was held in particularly high esteem in the French-speaking parts of the Netherlands. Such was its popularity in this region that it came to have a profound effect on Dutch literature. The text was translated twice into Dutch, by Pieter Willemsz in 1492, as Vanden ridder welghemoet, and by Jan Pertcheval a year later as Den camp vander doot. Two very early editions of the original French text were also published in the Netherlands. Moreover, wood cuts from the book were used in other volumes, and the first Spanish translations of Le chevalier délibéré were printed in Antwerp. Several Dutch authors were also directly inspired by this French poem, using it as the basis of their own work. Jan van den Dale and Jan Baptist Houwaert are particularly indebted to de la Marche. These writers were in turn highly successful, even if they have now lapsed into obscurity: Jan van den Dale was held in especially high regard, as his Wre vander doot was reprinted at least five times.1
H “box” brown’s escape from slavery in 1849 became almost immediately one of the most celebrated stories of liberation in the history of American enslavement.1 Inspired, according to Brown, by God’s response to his prayers, Brown placed himself in a crate and had himself shipped by Adams Express from Richmond to Philadelphia, where he was received on March 24, 1849 in the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In September of that year, the first narrative of Brown’s escape, written by the white abolitionist Charles Stearns, was published: Narrative of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped from Slavery Enclosed in a Box 3 Feet Long and 2 Wide. Written from a Statement of Facts Made by Himself. With Remarks upon the Remedy for Slavery. In May, 1851, Brown, now living in England and well known both for his escape and his public performances, published in Manchester the second version of his narrative (and the “First English Edition”): Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself. The larger story presented in these two narratives (and, indeed, throughout Brown’s public career) might be framed by a simple question: What are the possibilities for black agency in a white supremacist culture? The scholarship on Brown generally references his narratives largely to find his agency elsewhere—in his spectacular performances on the antislavery lecture circuit, where Brown restaged his escape in the box and displayed his moving panorama, Henry Box Brown’s Mirror of Slavery, and beyond, as Brown presented himself at various times as an African Prince, as “King of all Mesmerizers,” and as “Prof. H. Box
In this unusual and original study, Marcia Pointon examines the cultural effects and consequences of the participation by women in acts of representation in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She explores their lives and work, and a cultural environment in which images of female saints and goddesses established indices of femininity in the homes of wealthy men. Did the women portrayed also possess artefacts, and did they use the power of gifts and bequests to determine social relations? Did they themselves participate in the processes of creating images of the seen world? Pointon sets out to answer some of these questions through a series of novel and vividly recounted case studies of women such as Emma Hamilton (wife and mistress); Mary Moser, the artist; Dorothy Richardson, the antiquarian. She shows that the relationship of these women to the world of consumption was affective and imaginative as well as economic.
In 1920's, LuXun wrote many articles to show his criticism and query to Mei Lanfang and the Chinese traditional opera. His negation to the Chinese traditional opera was based on his position and attitude that he completely opposed the feudal civilization. It was the product of that epoch, and also had the profound historic origin and positive realistic significance. He had this kind of attitude, just because he ignored to analyse the self regulation and feature of the opera art. LuXun's criticism to the phenomenon that male acted as felmale on the opera stage, was a very important aspect of his negation to the Chinese traditional opera. Its limitation is because he ignored the NanDan's special aesthetic value in the Chinese traditional opera art.
The article deals with the history of combat operations for the defense of Don River crossings in the Manych and Sala River valleys conducted by the 110th Separate Kalmyk Cavalry Division (in the stanitsas of Bagaevskaya, Melikhovskaya and Razdorskaya) in July of 1942. After the heavy defeats of the late 1941 - early 1942 the German military command realized the impossibility of conducting strategic operations on all fronts, and chose the South direction as the main one within the new campaign aiming to secure the Caucasian oil fields and, thus, win the war not by direct attacks but as a result of economic oppression. The Wehrmacht planned to encircle and eliminate troops of the Southwestern and Southern Fronts within a chain of operations on the right bank of the Don - so as to clear the way towards their goal. So, Army Group South accumulated large forces equipped with latest military machinery and weapons. During the Donbass defensive operation of 1942 the Soviet troops attempted to counter the attacks of fascist forces but were defeated. And those were Don River crossings - including the mentioned ones - that proved critical to the rescue of Southern Front units. The rivers crossings next to the stanitsas of Bagaevskaya, Melikhovskaya and Razdorskaya were defended by the 110th Separate Kalmyk Cavalry Division. The national military unit had been formed shortly before in Kalmykia, had no combat experience, and became fully armed (except for air defense guns) only on the eve of the battles. Nonetheless, the 110th Cavalry Division was perfectly manned (including with those from the discontinued 111th Kalmyk Cavalry Division), its soldiers had passed full training courses, were acquainted with and trusted their commanding officers. The Soviet top military were well aware that a cavalary division was not designed for such defense activities, especially on the 58 km long front, but no infantry units that could replace the Kalmyk cavalry were found. Recognizing the importance of those river crossings, the Germans had constantly bombed the area, and then forwarded there the most elite division of the Wehrmacht - the Panzer Grenadier Division Grossdeutschland. Still, due to efficient actions, valour and tremendous efforts of soldiers and officers who worked and defended the crossings, they managed to rescue and transport to the southern bank over 425 thousand people, 215 tanks, approximately 1 300 artillery pieces, over 8 thousand tractors and trucks (including multiple rocket launchers), 10 thousand carts, 22 thousand horces, etc. It was through those river crossings that the bulk of the 37th, 24th and 9th Armies as well as diverse remnants of some other armies of the former Southwestern Front - that had played a significant role in the Battle of the Caucasus at the initial stage - were evacuated. As a result, the German top military's plans of encircling the troops of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts were disrupted, which proved crucial to the general failure in achieving the main goal of the 1942 campaign. And the 110th Separate Kalmyk Cavalry Division largely contributed to this failure of the Wehrmacht.
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of ‘war’ as the human sin ‘par excellence’ and argue that its overcoming is a key motive in the theology of Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, twentieth-century Russian Orthodox theologian and ascetic. Seldom addressed in the growing number of academic and/or spiritual studies dedicated to him, war appears as problematic already on the first page of his first book St Silouan the Athonite (1948). Defined as ‘fratricide’ and denied any legitimacy, war remains a commanding force behind the entire theology emerging on the pages of Archim. Sophrony’s books. In the 1920s, as a young Russian emigre in Paris, he discovers the oneness of humankind as a reaction to the tragedy of the First World War. In the 1940s, living as a hermit in a cave on the cliffs of Mt Athos in Greece, he cries out in prayer against the slaughter of the Second World War. In his last works, published posthumously in England, he laments his powerlessness against this greatest of evils. Structurally, Part One of the paper is an analysis of the ways in which Fr Sophrony uses the terms ‘war’ and ‘peace’. Having defined the key terms, I move, in Part Two, to his understanding of the workings of divine providence. Here my analysis is enriched by a comparison with Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958), a personal friend and colleague of Archim. Sophrony’s in Paris. The paper is built around large citations of texts, many of which are offered here for the first time in English translation. The conclusion contextualises the findings of the paper within the larger Orthodox tradition and indicates possible avenues for further research.
Academics have raised questions concerning racial imaging in the popular children’s book Curious George. Many of these scholars utilize symbolism to warn readers of hidden messages in the book that negatively affect black children. One of the most prominent images includes the capture of an African monkey by a white man, which academics believe reflects American slave history. These arguments, however, fail to address three important issues this research project emphasizes to properly reinterpret an image. First, one must properly outline a historically racist image such as the American Sambo in order to determine who created the image, what messages are being portrayed by it, and why these messages are important to the image’s creator and audience. Following the outline of a racial image, the next step is to view the rise and fall of another popular children’s book in order to determine how society interprets books over time. The rise in popularity to the outright banning of Helen Bannerman’s The Story of Little Black Sambo in the twentieth century fits this requirement because an extensive academic and social archive detailing the book’s racial debate exists in newspaper articles, editorials, and academic journals. Lastly, this project examines personal and business correspondence of Curious George’s authors, Margret and Hans Rey, and reinterprets the Curious George stories as a mirror of the Reys’ immigration history.
Abstract:During the fifteenth century, many musici thought of counterpoint as an improvisational practice in which certain procedures were employed to produce a musical texture in which interest lay in the interplay of two or more melodic lines. The improvisational practice was called singing upon the book (cantare super librum): it required one singer to realize a preexisting melody (called a cantus firmus) inscribed in a text while one or more other singers (called concentors), reading from that same text, devised, ex tempore, a countermelody or melodies that obeyed the rules of counterpoint with respect to the cantus firmus. Similar procedures, applied in writing, produced resfacta, contrapuntal texture in textual form. Counterpoint and resfacta were alternative means of providing music for occasions both sacred and secular. During the sixteenth century, several factors combined to alter the relationship between improvised and written counterpoint, and by the end of the century the importance of the former was greatly diminished. The growth of music printing provided an abundance of music for a growing community of amateurs who could read music but were not interested singing upon the book. The composers responsible for this new music embraced emerging ideas that stressed the advantages of written music, which enjoyed permanence that improvised counterpoint lacked, which was usually more observant of the rules than improvised counterpoint could be, and which enhanced the reputations of the composers who created it. As a result of these developments, emphasis shifted from improvised to written counterpoint, from the procedures that produced a contrapuntal texture to the texture itself, and singing upon the book came to be seen by many not as an end in itself but as a way to sharpen composers' skills. Marginalized by print, improvised counterpoint survived in a much reduced community, largely in Catholic France and Iberia, and eventually, for want of a musical community large enough to sustain it, ceased to be a living musical tradition.
Global capitalism is in crisis; an ideological battle for the hearts and minds of the impoverished of the global South rages; and the political left, which should be in a position to take advantage of such disarray in the West, struggles to find a meaningful identity and even more difficultly to simply connect with the voting public. These are the currents that shape the latest book from Thomas Ekman Jorgensen, and the second volume in the Protest, Culture and Society series from Berghahn Books. Yet this is not a book set in the midst of the economic crisis of today, but one that concludes with the profound moment of transition and transformation of capitalism in the West in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jorgensen follows the political ebbs and flows, the personality fights, and the agenda shifts of the social and political left from 1956 to 1980. It is with ironic timing that Jorgensen's book should appear now, as he chronicles the forcefully certain proclamations that capitalism had reached its limits by 1974, and that the entire system was on the verge of collapse. As the editors of Poltisky Revy put it in 1976, they saw only two alternatives: socialism or barbarism (p. 155). In May 1974, 100,000 workers walked out in Denmark during a general strike, and euphoria was rekindled for the change that was promised in 1968 by the events across Europe and the world. But just as in 1968 when the students returned home in France and Italy, the protesters in Chicago beaten, the demonstrators in Mexico City shot, and the streets of Prague occupied by tanks, the active Danish workers of 1974 did not tum out for additional strikes, and likewise in Sweden the activists of the left slowly and quietly slipped away; so much so that, in Sweden at least, Jorgensen claims that the left, as it had been known in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ceased to exist as an active movement by the 1980s (p. 195). But how did this happen? Transformation and Crises opens with the difficult period that all leftist movements and factions faced across Europe. After the heady days of defeating fascism and Nazism evaporated quickly, the leftist groups of the 1950s found themselves facing the same dilemma as in the 1930s: how close should they follow the Soviet Union? When the book opens in 1956, this question remains unsettled; on the one hand, Reuters had revealed in early March news of Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress made in February. On the other hand, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in October. Especially relevant for the leftist organizations and parties in Denmark and Sweden, also in that same month of 1956, Anglo-French forces occupied the Suez Canal along with Israeli troops. Which aggression was worse? How could the Soviets turn on their socialist brothers and sisters? How could Denmark be part of a NATO force that included the British and the French? With whom were the workers of a neutral Sweden to side? Jorgensen follows these
In June 1884,in the midst of the Sino-French War, a column of French and colonial soldiers marched along country roads in northern Vietnam on their way to occupy the town of Lang Son. En route they encountered a larger Chinese force near the village of Bac Le, where a brief but bloody firefight took place. In March 1946, 62 years after the 'Bac Le Incident', Chinese and French forces again clashed in northern Vietnam. This time, Nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi's [Chiang Kai-shek] Republic of China exchanged fire with French ships arriving at the port city of Haiphong in an attempt to restore French colonial rule to Vietnam after the Japanese occupation during the PacificWar.
Religion and its visible manifestations were fundamental and consistent aspects of the Renaissance household, yet the subject remains largely overlooked in the scholarship on the domestic environment. Based on a variety of contemporary sources for evidence, this article introduces readers to the religious visual culture of the Venetian casa through an examination of its three main components: the sacred objects acquired for the domestic sphere, the ritual settings fashioned through their display and use, and the purposes that this visible piety served for the familial audience. Holy domestic articles – which consisted of a wide variety of goods, including painting, sculpture, and decorative arts – fostered devotion within the interior setting, while serving important roles as protective devices, as aids for religious development, and as outward expressions of the family's devoutness and honorable reputation. Additionally, while located within a ‘private’ setting, religious objects from domestic spaces connected individuals and families to Venice's wider community of Christian devotion and were intimately tied to the Republic's mercantile way of life.
quicken his critical focus. We thus read that the Augustan era was the ‘golden age’ of English translation (p. 2), a characterisation that seems unexceptionable until we reflect on the achievements of a Golding, a Chapman, or a North, to say nothing of the innumerable translators/ paraphrasers of the psalms from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. To claim the golden age for the long eighteenth century Davis would have needed to offer a view as to why Augustan translations were better than their Elizabeth and Jacobean predecessors. It goes without saying that, after Dryden’s publishing deals with Tonson, there were more English translations of the classics and that those responsible for them were accorded higher levels of remuneration and cultural status. Yet to suspend one’s enquiries here is to inhabit a decidedly shaky critical edifice, to mistake the agreeably finished appearance of wallpaper for a solidly constructed set of walls. Be this as it may, to reflect that Translation and the Poet’s Life could have been something greater than it is should not detract from what is an impressive, intelligent, and thought-provoking study. Without doubt, it is essential reading for students of the authors it treats, and it will furnish other scholars with rewarding new ways in which to translate seventeenthand eighteenth-century poetry for themselves.
Fiona Probyn-Rapsey. Made to Matter: White Fathers, Stolen Generations. Sydney: Sydney UP, 2013. 179 pp. AU$25.00 ISBN: 9781920899974 (pbk) 9781920899981 (ebook: epub) 9781743323687 (ebook: kindle) https://sup-estore.sydney.edu.au/jspcart/cart/Product.jsp?nID=810n simultaneously 'incorporating and distancing' (quoting Stoler, viii). Archaeologist Denis Byrne's notion of 'jangling nerves' is invoked throughout to describe the tensions of these conflicting imperatives, which play out across 'domestic, familial and national' sites (viii).The first chapter of Made to Matter, 'Husbands,' analyses a series of letters and reports by, to and about white fathers, mostly written 1902-04, found mainly in the archives of the Queensland Director of Native Affairs. These concerned white men's desire to marry Aboriginal women and/or to take responsibility for Aboriginal children.The second chapter, 'Breeders,' tells of a debate between two men who took opposing views on the question of white men's fathering of children with Aboriginal women. Cecil Cook, Chief Protector Aborigines in the Northern Territory (NT) from 1927-1939 wrote reports which argued that white paternity would 'uplift' the Aboriginal race. Xavier Herbert wrote novels and other material about race relations set in the NT in the 1930s. 'While Cook was campaigning to "breed out the colour", Herbert was dreaming of "breeding in" the Indigeneity' (39)'The Combo' introduces Bill Harney, 'bushie and teller of tales' (46) who becomes a key source for the book. Among many jobs in the bush, Harney worked as 'patrol officer for the Native Affairs Branch (1940-47)' where he would have been responsible for removing children (47). He wrote ten books about bush life in the NT, published 1943-1968. Harney had two Aboriginal wives, Linda, a woman from the Groote Eylandt Mission, and then Ludi Yibuluyma, and fathered two children with each. This made him a combo; Bill Harney wrote that this was a transformative process, that such men became anti-racist (46, 80). …
In December 1851, Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigor'ev, one of Russia's foremost specialists on the history and languages of Central Asia and the Near East, set off from St. Petersburg to build a new career as an administrator in the turbulent borderlands around the city of Orenburg. Grigor'ev's reasons for leaving Petersburg were both professional and personal. Unable to find an acceptable position in either the educational system or the state bureaucracy, Grigor'ev, formerly a professor at the Richelieu Lycee in Odessa, had subsisted for several years as assistant editor of the journal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and by 1851, with little prospect for advancement, he was willing to look further afield for employment. Grigor'ev's biographer also alludes to personal problems—a painful conflict with a close friend that made his presence in St. Petersburg unpleasant if not unbearable.
Human expressions have diversified into different types of actions, these can be observed from the plastic art, to the auditory art. Throughout history they have highlighted a purpose, a particular use in society. What we propose in this article is to denote the uses of music in the process of spiritual conquest and colonization of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, making a literature review according to the study problem. In essence, what we seek to clarify is how music, as well as being a means of expression, had a specific use and message according to the interests of certain groups of people in the viceregal time.
The wandering novels written by the writers of Creation Society are some outstanding contributions to modern Chinese literature.Among them,Guo Moruo and Yu Dafu are even more outstanding.Because of their different experiences of studying abroad and their distinctive writing styles,the wandering figures they have depicted possess their respective characteristics.Generally speaking,Guo Moruo's wandering figures can be described as "toiling vagrants" while Yu Dafu's as "grievous vagrants".All these images have enriched the collection of literary figures in modern Chinese literature with their unique charm,which in turn highlights the literary value of wandering novels.
Almost four decades ago, Donald Russell published in this journal an analysis of the first sixteen chapters of the Life of Alkibiades , which consist largely of short self-contained anecdotes about Alkibiades' childhood, youth and early career (Russell 1966b). As Russell demonstrated, most of these anecdotes are juxtaposed without any causal link. Although there are the occasional chronological markers – indications, for example, that Alkibiades is getting older and passing from childhood to early manhood – some are plainly out of chronological order and it is impossible to extract a clear chronology from them. Russell argued, however, that to try to extract such a chronological narrative would be to misunderstand the function of this material, which is not to provide a narrative of Alkibiades' early years but rather to illuminate and illustrate his character. Russell's argument, in particular the stress on Plutarch's interest in character, was seminal; together with two other papers published at roughly the same time, it marked the beginning of a new appreciation of Plutarch as an author of literary merit. But Russell was rather less convinced of the logic of selection of the first five anecdotes, which relate to Alkibiades' youth and comprise some one-and-a-half pages of Teubner text ( Alk. 2–3).
Chapter 1 examines the sixth-century foundation of female monastic authority in Poitiers and its model created through artifacts of Radegund’s life written by Gregory of Tours, Venantius Fortunatus, and Baudonivia. Radegund’s biographies articulated her sanctity and established Radegund’s two strategies for protecting her monastery: first, she relied on networks of allies, primarily bishops and kings, to support her; and second, she created a set of cultural ideas, symbols, and materials that later nuns used to attach new allies to the Abbey. Radegund left two holy objects that became key elements in the abbess’s efforts to assert her authority: the True Cross relic and her own physical relics. Radegund sought to free Sainte-Croix’s abbesses from their local bishop and connect them, instead, to the bishop of Tours, Frankish kings, the Byzantine emperor, and the papacy, believing that this would strengthen Sainte-Croix. Documents Radegund secured began an archive of privileges crucial to the authority of future abbesses.
Military Politics from Bonaparte to the Bourbons Is an Intriguing full-length biography and character study of Michel Ney, Napoleon's marshal who came close to snatching victory from Wellington at Waterloo in 1815. Raymond Horricks provides a comprehensive look at the marshal from birth to death, with all his valiant battles and his personal relationships in between. Horricks describes Ney's first days as a soldier, fighting with the revolutionary armies and culminating in his great tenacity at Hohenlinden in 1800. He then delves into Ney's convoluted involvement with Napoleon, including his friendship with Josephine. As a marshal, he was the hero at Ulm, where an entire Austrian army under General Mack was forced to surrender, and later, the man who defeated the Russians at Friedland. Horricks gives a complete account of Ney's escapades, ending with the reasons for and heroism of his trial and execution. The nature of this gallant marshal's life provides a rare insight into military politics in the early nineteenth century. "Military Politics from Bonaparte to the Bourbons "will be an enjoyable read for political scientists, historians, and students of military affairs.
sionistic in covering its 84 subjects. Greater analytic attention t o a few of the most significant figures would have been the better course to pursue. Throughout, the book is poorly written. Bowers is addicted t o the passive voice, the impersonal third person, and unwarranted conjecture. Finally, had he paid more attention to politics Bowers would have avoided his unnecessarily fatalistic conclusion.
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tor and who was too much absorbed in technique. Berenson's modern theoretical stance gave way to an acrid, antimodern "posture"; we are left with the image of someone struggling to maintain his youthful beliefs in the face of the new challenge to mimesis. Calo has sensitively drawn the picture of a theory in search of a theorist; despite his ambitions, the Olympian connoisseur never fulfilled his intellectual hopes. She hints at several extremely important aspects of his role as a conduit of European philosophy which demand more sustained attention. One of these, allied to his preoccupation with decline, is the degree to which Berenson's moral aesthetic requirements, although restricting his vision of modernity, alluded to those very same Germans whom he disdained yet assiduously read. That Berenson has often been characterized as a "humanist", finally, is linked more to his lifestyle and to his attachment to the human form in art than to any Renaissance definition. For him, the figure was an ideal but fixed template set into the pictorial landscape, rather than an active and mutable interlocutor with the past. MEREDITH J. GILL University of Maryland, College Park
Abstract Despite its association with the ill-fated reforms of Archbishop Laud in the 1630s and its dubious legality, the railed altar re-appeared in parish churches in the years after 1660. Initially only a handful of parishes and a minority of bishops backed so controversial a change, but the reconstruction of the city churches in London after the fire of 1666 popularised the railed altar, which was adopted elsewhere, particularly during the tory reaction of the 1680s. Studies of two urban parishes in the early 1680s indicate how struggles between dissenters and zealous anglicans could extend to disputes over worship. By 1700, what had been new and contested in the 1630s was becoming widely accepted, which may point to the powerful legacy of Laudian ideals in the restoration church.
was not in his personal life a courageous man but courage, in the sense of unequivocal commitment, is not a characteristic of his prose. Had it been, Merleau-Ponty’s prose might have been less &dquo;magical&dquo;-less like that of a skilful conjuror, that is to say. It might also have had the kind of innocence, depth and fidelity to the wholeness of being which MerleauPonty tried both to describe and achieve throughout his career.
Donald C. O’Brien’s The Engraving Trade in Early Cincinnati is the first published survey of individuals and businesses engaged in engraving, lithographing, and printing in early Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. O’Brien, a retired public educator, is a past president of the American Historical Print Society and a member of the American Antiquarian Society. This title highlights the work of early engravers and printers in Cincinnati in the wider context of American engraving and illustration, while also giving an overview of notable items and titles produced by these firms. O’Brien gives a roughly chronological look at the firms and their work in . . .
After a considerable period of conflict with nineteenth-century traders, hunters and ‘explorers’, the Turkana of northwestern Kenya actively resisted the occupation of their country by the Imperial forces of British East Africa and Uganda during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. At first, this primary resistance was largely in the hands of war-leaders, notably Ebei, the most important military leader of the southern sections. Bitterness engendered by Hut Taxes and other unpopular British policies led to the brief ascendancy of Koletiang, an influential southern diviner, until he was imprisoned in 1911. Again the resistance leadership fell to the military until especially brutal ‘punitive actions’ in 1915 had the effect of consolidating resistance in the north. At this point, Lowalel, another powerful diviner, became the spiritual patron of the war-leaders and their followers, reaffirming the close co-operation which traditionally had existed between religious and military leaders in Turkana society. So charismatic and innovative was Lowalel's leadership that he amassed armies several thousand strong and was joined by other peoples including the Merille and Dongiro, as well as by the forces of the Ethiopian Empire, in resisting the extension of British colonial rule.
The discussion of category of "Qi" in Ci-poetry eyesight of the Qing Dynasty,is mainly embodied in three aspects: the first is the praising "Qi" as the Ci-poetry aesthetic root,the second is probing its aesthetic expressional characteristic,the third is inspecting its creating.The above-mentioned three aspects,expand the Ci-poetry "Qi" theory,develop,promote and deepen the classical Ci-poetry "Qi" theory on the many aspects.
I always look forward to this conference; few academic societies are as welcoming and warm as the International Bunyan Symposium. Jim Forrest, who had for so many years imagined such a society, would have been very pleased to see such a congenial gathering of scholars - including many of his own students - from so many places and disciplines. For its triennial conference, the Society met at the University of Keele, Staffordshire, England, for two days' discussion on the theme of 'Bunyan and the Dissenting Tradition'. Roger Pooley, the President of the Society, was our kind host from 26-28 July 2010.The four plenary sessions took us through evangelical adaptations, a theology of violence, a post-secular reading, and a panel on teaching Bunyan. The conference opened with a presentation by Isabel Rivers, Queen Mary University of London, a particular pleasure for those of us whose introduction to the Renaissance came from her Classical and Christian Ideas in English Renaissance Poetry. She spoke on ''The Pilgrim 's Progress in the Evangelical Revival', exploring editions and adaptations of Bunyan' s allegory by John Wesley, John Newton, and others. It is in those adaptations, she argued, that we can detect not just attitudes towards Bunyan but the history of evangelism itself. The University of Leicester's John Coffey presented the second plenary on 'Bunyan and Violence.' There we heard about the peaceful man whose work rings with violence and violent metaphor. Although the conventional notion is that violence in The Pilgrim 's Progress is almost a distraction from its purpose, Coffey argues that that violence is actually necessary to an understanding of Bunyan' s theology. I was especially energized by the panel presentation on teaching Bunyan, which suggested that whether we teach at large institutions or small, public or private, we share both the challenges and the rewards of helping undergraduates discover Bunyan's work. Nigel Smith (Princeton, chair), Dan Runyon (Spring Arbor), Peter Hinds (Plymouth), and Maxine Hancock (Regent College, Vancouver) each shared experiences of teaching Bunyan in a variety of course settings and levels. We closed the conference with an inspiring and provocative talk by Lori Branch from the University of Iowa, author of Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth. She gave a loving reading of Bunyan, followed by, in her words, a 'manifesto' for a new post-secular criticism: a reading that neither completely rejects nor completely embraces faith.Of course, one can tell a good conference when it is intensely difficult to choose among concurrent sessions, as it was here. I heard Arlette Zinck (King's University College) and Maxine Hancock (Regent College, Vancouver) introduce us to questions of ageing in Bunyan and Baxter. Michael Davies (Liverpool) asked us to wonder, as we all called to mind the illustrations from various editions, which Bible Christian is carrying at the beginning of Pilgrim 's Progress. …
No other bird is quite so ever-present and familiar, so embedded in our culture, as the robin. With more than six million breeding pairs, the robin is second only to the wren as Britain’s most common bird. It seems to live its life alongside us, in every month and season of the year. But how much do we really know about this bird?    In The Robin Stephen Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its lifecycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird; via courtship, song, breeding, feeding, migration – and ultimately, death. At the same time we trace the robin's relationship with us: how did this particular bird – one of more than 300 species in its huge and diverse family – find its way so deeply and permanently into our nation’s heart and its social and cultural history? It’s a story that tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the robin itself.
Recently voiced concerns that the study of literature has become the study of history has led to a resurgence of interest in aesthetics. This essay assesses some of the implications of this work for Renaissance literary studies and the impact that it has already had. However, rather than setting historicism and aestheticism in stark and simple opposition, the essay takes the condition of literary criticism ‘after theory’ to be an opportunity to overcome polarizations which have in any case often been more of a convenient shorthand than a reality. The essay argues, for example, that the new cultural historicisms frequently aestheticise history and that other putative oppositions, between the human and the historical, the universal and the particular, feeling and intellect, and ‘evangelical’ and ‘sceptical’ attitudes towards literature, are misleading not least because literature itself straddles these divides. The notion of being ‘after theory’ should not be taken to mean that we have somehow moved beyond the need to be reflexive or to identify the assumptions which underlie critical practice, but that the assumed antagonisms upon which certain influential forms of theory have rested, that, for example, the cultural construction of literature undermines its universality, can now themselves be questioned.
During the restoration of the succursal Church of St. Peter in Drasici, a few written documents dating back to the first half of the 20th century were discovered in the sacristy cabinet. Many invoices, receipts, bills, lists of payers and two final accounts for the years during World War II relate to the administration of the commune (village community) of Drasici and its church, which belonged to the Metlika parish. The discovered documents, as well as regulations on the Drasici village community dating back to the years after World War II, reveal the functioning and organisation of the commune as a special form of village self-governance. The latter was based on the common economic interests pursued by the heads of households from Drasici and the neighbouring village of Krmacina, both belonging to the same succursal church.
Setting aside therefore the circumstances, the conclusions, and peculiar disposition of the collateral incidents, together with every thing that concerns merely the embellishment of the work, which is entirely arbitrary, we declare that all the essential parts are as truly historical, and perhaps more to be depended upon, than any composition of a political writer of the best credit we can meet with.
Spain's settlement of California as a northern buffer zone for her empire to the south began in the 1760s. Within a decade outposts had been established in northern and southern California. By 1782 Captain Jose Francisco de Ortega established the Santa Barbara Presidio, the last of four such Spanish outposts in California, and found the several thousand Chumash Indians in the channel area peaceful. Four years later Father Fermin Francisco Lasuen dedicated the tenth of twenty-three California missions in Santa Barbara. Some 200 soldiers, missionaries, servants and families populated the area in 1797, and an Indian pueblo adjoining the mission was completed in 1808. '
This essay presents me with some audience problems, for I have only a fragmentary sense of who reads Critical Inquiry and an even less reliable sense of how well they know the issues raised by feminist literary study. At my home institution there are, to my knowledge, five subscribers: a senior eighteenth-century specialist (male), an associate professor of romantic and modern British literature (female and feminist), an assistant professor of philosophy working in aesthetics (male), an instructor in English completing an interdisciplinary degree in culture (female), and me. I am male, a Victorianist (though more a critic than a literary historian), and "feminist." I like to think that the distribution of age, sex, intellectual interest, and political orientation is even more various in the readership at large, for feminists like Annette Kolodny have something very important to say to the whole of the art-criticism-scholarship complex. I was, therefore, heartened to see her "Some Notes on Defining a 'Feminist Literary Criticism' " in the Autumn 1975 number.' Like Kolodny, I think feminism one of the most vital and energizing forces in literary criticism today, but for two reasons I found her exposition of the topic disappointing. It seems to me that (1) she underplays the most crucial of the many aesthetic and pedagogical issues raised by feminist literary study, and (2) she endorses a kind of intellectual defeatism when, in the conclusion of her essay, she places a "Posted" sign between the male readers of Critical Inquiry and her own area of work. Both flaws (as I would call them) arise, it appears, out of her underestimation or understatement of the revolutionary implications of feminist
This excellent edited collection results from a 2004 conference on Moche political organization held in Lima, Peru, jointly sponsored by Dumbarton Oaks, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, and the Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera. The volume contains 14 chapters in all, most of them written by experts who have each been engaged in active research on the Moche culture for at least the last 20 years and, in some cases, over 40 years. We have definitely come a long way since 1968 when I first learned about the Moche culture in Mike Moseley's South America class at Harvard. The breadth and depth of knowledge that has been gained through the multiple efforts of both native Peruvian and non-Peruvian archaeologists is quite staggering.
After listening to Professor Current's paper, one almost deplores the very existence of Lincoln's address to the Young Men's Lyceum because of its effect on recent scholarly endeavor. Contemplating that speech sagging under the weight of the theorizing piled upon it, especially with Mr. Current serving as building inspector, should call us back to fundamentals. The text so exhaustively and ingeniously analyzed by psychohistorians is taken, after all, from the Sangamo Journal, not from a Lincoln manuscript. Printed with it was a resolution of the Lyceum asking Lincoln to furnish a copy for publication, but this call did not guarantee that Lincoln furnished the manuscript used for delivery of the original speech. Indeed, given the importance of the ex posure of this speech, he may have solicited comments from men he respected or even have incorporated unsolicited comments from members of the original audience. He may also have al lowed friends and mentors to improve his prose. We have no guarantee against further changes in the newspaper office or even by compositors. Under such circumstances, we have added reason to doubt the level of significance of particular words/or phrases. One might conclude then, that altogether too much importance has been assigned a non-autographic document reflecting young Lincoln in search of political identity, an aspiring politician eager to say something about recent episodes of mob violence, especially the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, yet not to speak directly to the issue but instead to place what was really on his mind in some broader and more statesmanlike setting. Much analysis of Lincoln's speeches and letters assumes that he always stated with clarity and wisdom exactly what he hoped to convey. Yet even as late as July, 1863, speaking to a crowd assembled to celebrate the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Lincoln appears to have cast about in a preliminary way for
Hume et al. (1997) argue that in Leti, an Austronesian language spoken on Leti Island off the coast of East Timor, geminate consonants are not moraic. In particular, they focus much of their attention on the word- initial geminates of Leti, which are syllable-initial when they begin a phrase. They argue that Leti initial geminates cannot be moraic and are instead best represented as in (1), with a single root node linked to two X- slots. (The example in (1) displays a syllable with an initial geminate; the vowel is moraic. The term root indicates the consonantal root node; the features under it are not indicated.) While Hume et al. do not explicitly extend their discussion of the representation of initial geminates by examining relevant data in other languages, they do note (pp. 397–398) that ‘given the paucity of discussion in the phonological literature concerning syllable-initial geminates, the evidence from Leti is particularly important not only for further enriching our understanding of these segments but, in addition, for serving as a testing-ground for theories of prosodic structure and the representation of geminate consonants’. From this, one could postulate a strong position in which all initial geminates have the same, non-moraic, representation. The purpose of this squib is to argue against this strong position. While the evidence provided by Hume et al. against the moraic representation of Leti initial geminates is convincing, I present evidence in this paper showing that initial geminates are moraic in other languages. In § 2 I present data from Trukese previously discussed by Churchyard (1991), Hart (1991) and Davis & Torretta (1998) that provide a compelling case for the moraic representation of word-initial geminate consonants in that language. In § 3 I suggest that the different representations of word-initial geminates in Leti and Trukese are supported by the very different phonotactics of word-initial clusters found in the two languages. Finally, in § 4 I relate the discussion on initial geminates to the peculiar patterning of palatal segments in Italian, where palatals always surface as long except in phrase-initial position. I argue that the palatal segments in Italian are moraic even when surfacing in phrase-initial position. I conclude that initial geminates may be moraic in some languages but not in others.
Mar. 16, 1998. 16 pgs. Features on upcoming GCSU election; Glendon Model UN team heading to New York for the National Model United Nations Conference; University of Toronto boasts ambitious private fundraising campaign. Contributers: J. Belaki, Annette Brandt, Elaine Cheung, Paul Fabry,. Christea Fedirchuk, Elise Gatti, Ishani Gunasekera, Daniel Guerrier, Annamaria Kougias, Amanda Loughran, Barry Lawrence, Madness, T.P., Alain Parizeau, Andrew Sunstrum, Dominique Tanguay, Bridget van Voorden Chief Co-Editors: Joel Ramirez, Jane Gorley Assistant Editor: William Paterson Features Editor: Denise Alevizos Arts Editor: Luke Matthew Webbe  Sports Editor: Alison Sammut Poetry Editor: Kimberley Wulf Photography Editor: Jennifer Westcott Graphics Editor: TJ Braganza Production: Husna Ali Typesetter: Paul Fabry Advertising Manager: Cameron Couch Distribution Manager: Jane Gorley Revisions: Anne-Marie Flanagan, Paul Fabry Article titles: Editorial Letters to the editor More letters to the editor Protesters swamp the BoG View from the swamp Election time again Final forum at Glendon Glendon takes charge Warnings fired off to York students in wake of protest News in brief She said, he said What are you going to do for St. Patrick's Day? Green wishes at the end of the rainbow Looking for sexual liberation in all the wrong places Obsession, comics, and a dead bird Glaring inequalities in university fundraising Are we all little people? Things get hot and steamy in Palmetto Post-apocalyptic opera not for the meek The Big Lebowski gets a perfect strike Lebowski soundtrack gets a spare Marquise is sad Poetry and fiction
Ferenc KUBINYI belonged to the first group of scholars in Hungary who, in the early 19th century, began to study palaeontology seriously. He published 21 papers in Hungarian and German during his palaeontological research, whichincluded exploratory, descriptive and explanatory work. He also produced 38 scientific papers dealing with other topics. Apart from these efforts, he collected significant artefacts for his family's museum at Losonc, and worked as a researcherfor the palaeontological collection of the Hungarian National Museum. For his scientific work he was elected to be a correspondent of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1840 and later, in 1858, he became an honorary member of theAcademy. Besides his scientific research, in the 1840s he played a leading role in the development of scientific movements in Hungary. He was a founder member of, respectively, the congresses of Society of Hungarian Physiciansand Naturalists, the Royal Hungarian Natural Science Society and the Hungarian Geological Society. It is an important fact that he was the first vice-president of the latter.
Over the past decades history researchers of church-state relations have  been doing active work with archival sources. Newly opened documents are  regularly published, shedding light on certain problems. However, for various  reasons, a huge layer of historical data is stored in the archives of diocesan administration  of the Russian Orthodox Church. The author considers this research  as an opportunity to significantly enrich knowledge of the religious policy  of the state in the XX century, the life of society, social institutions and the  formation of religious educational institutions.  From the researcher’s point of view, the development of religious education in post-Soviet Russia, the Archive of Smolensk diocesan administration is of particular interest, since it was the Diocese of Smolensk where a complete system of upbringing and education was formed in a fairly short time, from kindergarten  to a higher educational institution such as a seminary. The sources under the research are considered in the process of the origin and development of educational  institutions. The method of structural analysis makes it possible to analyze  the data contained in the reports of religious educational institutions.  As a result, the author concludes that, despite the presence of certain difficulties, which are usually not typical of state archives, the archive of Smolensk diocesan administration is an important source of documents on the activities of religious institutions in Russia at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries.
Abstract A board of ‘law-guardians’, or nomophulakes, has long been associated with the Athenian regime of Demetrius of Phalerum (317-307 BC). The duties of Demetrius' officials have been surmised from an entry on nomophulakes in the Atthis of Philochorus (FGrHist 328 F64), which lists their central functions as the supervision of magistrates and the prevention of illegal resolutions by the assembly and council. This understanding of the fourth-century nomophulakes stands in contradiction to the explicit testimony of Pollux (8.102), who asserts that Demetrius changed the name of the hendeka, the eleven Athenian gaolers, to nomophulakes. A case is made here for the acceptance of Pollux, a case based on textual grounds and on comparison with other reforms associated with Demetrius. It is further argued that Philochorus' description applies – as the sole excerpter of the Atthis to give a temporal context, the Lexicon Cantabrigiense, indeed states – to nomophulakes created in the aftermath of Areopagite reform in the mid-fifth century, and that Demetrius' officials were linked to these early nomophulakes through their inheritance of different aspects of nomophulakia associated with the early Areopagus.
In 1963 Michael Jarrett published a short paper on ‘The Military Occupation of Roman Wales.’ It discussed the documentary evidence relating to the Roman conquest of the Welsh tribes and the differing attitudes of these tribes to Rome, but its main importance lay in the six distribution maps illustrating the forts occupied in a.d. 80, 100, 130, 150, 220 and 330. Subsequently Dr J. L. Davies has published a series of nine maps covering the first and second centuries. Two papers have recently extended the same treatment to Scotland. The north of England has never been afforded the same discussion. The most detailed distribution maps published to date are the five which appear in Professor Frere's Britannia. However, there have been maps and discussions of certain areas such as north-west England, or particular periods. It seems appropriate that a portrayal of the changing face of military deployment in north England over nearly 350 years should appear in a volume dedicated to John Gillam, who has done so much to illuminate the history of the area, not least through his work on that basic dating material, coarse pottery.
placed more emphasis on women’s professions in Vietnamese society. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the science of motherhood and childcare during the Depression Era. Here Nguyen examines the administration’s focus on infant survival and goals to decrease the infant mortality rate. Nurseries were implemented to promote Western-style childrearing education, hygiene, and feeding schedule programs. Catholic churches played a role in managing crèches (day nurseries) and orphanages to cope with abandoned children due to economic hardships and illnesses, such as gastrointestinal diseases, that plagued children. The global food corporation Nestlé promoted infant care under the banner of science (p. 146) and provided orphanages and crèches with nutritional supplies. With the intention of assisting working mothers, the daycares benefited a certain class of families, thus the administration’s failure to acknowledge Vietnamese family traditions. Nguyen credits the administration for improving infant survival and health by implementing motherhood counseling programs and introducing puericulture (p. 145). Throughout the book, Nguyen emphasizes medicine as a tool of health improvement and posits that, through local resistance, Vietnamese women helped create a pluralistic system. Despite her reiteration of the key issues between colonial administrators and Vietnamese birthing practices, the book is strengthened by Nguyen’s use of French archives and comparative literature. Through the use of physician and midwife reports, and a memoir, the book offers insights into the clinicians’ and student-midwives’ experiences. In addition to colonial Vietnamese literature, she also draws from sources with perspectives on reproductive health history across cultures, including American, European, and African. Moreover, Childbirth, Maternity, and Medical Pluralism in French Colonial Vietnam provides a provocative obstetrical history that is valuable in understanding contemporary issues regarding women’s bodies and reproductive health governance.
How do prehistoric settlement patterns relate to competition for resources? The distribution of fortified and open sites provides one indication, but using an example from Fiji, the author shows that land holding recorded in historic times may also provide a fossil of earlier competition. Comparing the land parcels and the fortified sites with the ecological zones showed that it was the richer – but less reliable – lower parts of the Sigatoka valley that were most fought over, leaving a patchwork of small defended claims, while the upper areas supported larger, co-operative land units.
Few works of classical literary scholarship can enjoy as green an old age as Richard Heinze's Virgils epische Technik (hereafter VET), first published in 1903 (third edition 1915), and now published in an English translation1 just ten years short of the book's centenary. It has become a cliche among Latinists to maintain that H.'s is still the best single book on the Aeneid, and this not merely among laudatores temporis acti. The welcome opportunity for teachers in the Anglo-Saxon world to put this fabled work in the hands of our students is a good moment to reassess the justice of this hagiolatry and also to measure the distance between H.'s reading of the Aeneid and contemporary fashions. H.'s clear and energetic prose is remarkably uncluttered with references to scholarly debate, a lightness of touch the more striking when contrasted with the depth of learning deployed so masterfully in footnote after footnote. But this sense of planting footsteps in the void is the sign of a self-conscious response to the state of German criticism and scholarship at the end of the nineteenth century.2 H.'s revaluation of Virgil's art was seminal for the whole of Virgilian criticism, but it was truly revolutionary only within the German context: as Friedrich Leo pointed out in his review of the book,3 while Germans considered it "Menschenrecht" to dismiss Virgil as a third-rate poet, this was not the case in England or France; and Heinze himself, in his 1906 Leipzig lecture on "Die gegenwartigen Aufgaben der romischen Literaturgeschichte,"4 included among the forerunners of his new Latin literary history the works of Hippolyte Taine (on Livy) and William Sellar. In France and England the works of Ste-Beuve5 and Sellar6 had presented sympathetic and insightful accounts of the Aeneid, but neither is a monument of high scholarship. In Germany the Romantics' denigration of Virgil as an uninspired imitator had forced Virgilian scholars into the extremes of Quellenforschung and Entstehungsanalyse, as the texts were hacked to pieces in an ever more minute examination of their supposed component parts, distinguishable with reference either to their ill-digested Greek models, or to the different stages of composition by a poet endowed with a
The article identifies and examines a series of parallels between Shakespeare's Hamlet and the traditional accounts of the biblical patriarch Lamech. It is argued that these parallels – including a hitherto unacknowledged anagrammatic link between the names "Hamlet" and "Lameth", an alternative form of Lamech's name employed in various medieval and post-medieval English works – are more numerous and specific than has been previously acknowledged, with important implications for our understanding of the play.
Abstract This article presents a typology of phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical features illustrative of factors conditioning the usage of speakers and writers of Revived Manx, including substratal influence from English; language ideologies prevalent within the revival movement, especially forms of linguistic purism; and language-specific features of Manx and its orthography. Evidence is taken primarily from a corpus of Revived Manx speech and writing. The observed features of Revived Manx are situated within Zuckermann's (2009, 2020) framework of ‘hybridization’ and ‘revival linguistics’, which takes Israeli Hebrew as the prototypical model of revernacularization of a non-L1 language. However, Manx arguably provides a more typical example of what to expect when a revived minority language remains predominantly an L2 for an indefinite period, with each new cohort of speakers able to reshape the target variety in the absence of a firmly established L1 norm. (Manx, Celtic, language revival, language ideology, language shift, language contact)*
Abstract Aldhelm of Malmesbury was one of the most prolific and influential scholars of early Anglo-Saxon England. His contemporary fame rested partly on the fact that he had been a pilgrim to Rome. This article presents new evidence for Aldhelm's literary debt to the epigraphy of early Christian Rome. Two ninth-century manuscripts from Reims contain an anthology of six epigrams which derive largely from verse inscriptions in Old St Peter's. Aldhelm quoted two of these, de Petro and de Andrea, almost verbatim in his Carmina Ecclesiastica. It is likely that Aldhelm knew these verses from first-hand observation rather than via the pages of a manuscript sylloge.
ABSTRACT: Critics frequently call attention to the theme of “moral insanity” in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” without considering the broader implications of the narrator’s “overacuteness of the senses.” Rather than treating the character’s acute hearing as symptomatic of mental imbalance, Kristie Schlauraff proposes that his mode of listening causes his unraveling. This article contextualizes the character’s mental instability within nineteenth-century concerns regarding the predominance of rationality over emotion, a shift exemplified by the increasing authority of physicians over patients. The narrator’s listening practice, Schlauraff argues, mimics a new technological and diagnostic intervention known as mediate auscultation, or stethoscopic listening, which distanced medical practitioners from their subjects by providing a way to access the intimate soundscape of their bodies and bypass narrative accounts of illness. Like a physician wielding a stethoscope, the narrator accesses two key soundscapes: the conventional sonic environment all the characters perceive, and the internal environment of the human body only the narrator discerns. His failure to navigate these competing soundscapes demonstrates the potential dangers of heightened hearing and the powerful influence of sound. As an allegory for stethoscopic listening, “The Tell-Tale Heart” offers a critique of the scientific community’s growing emphasis on rationality and sensory observation to the detriment of such human characteristics as morality and empathy.
This study is a descriptive grammar of Pukapukan, the language of one of the Northern Cook Islands, which is spoken by approximately 4,500 people in various communities in the Cook Islands, Australia and New Zealand. The main focus of the thesis is a synchronic analysis of the Pukapukan language as spoken today, although occasionally comparative comments are made, both of a diachronic nature comparing the language spoken today with the language of the past, as well as externally, making comparisons with other Polynesian languages. The grammar is divided into ten chapters which cover phonology, morphology, and syntactic structure. Chapter 2 discusses the phonology of the language. Chapters 3-6 cover the structure of phrases: Chapter 3 the structure of the verb phrase; Chapter 4 the structure of the noun phrase; Chapter 5 particles which can occur in noun phrases or in verb phrases; and Chapter 6 the prepositional phrase. Simple clause structure is discussed in Chapter 7, together with syntactic processes occurring within the clause. Negation and Interrogatives are examined in Chapters 8 and 9. Finally, Chapter 10 covers compound and complex sentence types including coordination, complementation, relative clauses, adverbial clauses and nominalisations. Several aspects of Pukapukan grammar are relate to current linguistic debate or typological issues: case marking and transitivity, the use of possession to encode agents, negation, nominalisations and split predicates. There is a phonetic and syntactic description of the definitive accent which has previously been well described only for Tongan. The notion and relevance of the category 'subject' is discussed with reference to Chung (1978) and Dukes (1998, 2002) who advocate two opposing views in Polynesian languages.
Summary.  This article analyses the mortuary data of the ‘Second Palace’ period (c. 1700–1450 BC) on the Aegean island of Kythera. It proposes that the chamber tombs which were first introduced to the island in this period can offer potential insights into aspects of local-level social relations, especially at the central site of Kastri. This approach complements the broader cultural perspective that has usually been taken regarding these tombs, which have been viewed as indicators of Cretan cultural influence and, indeed, colonization. It is proposed that a strong horizontal in-group solidarity was being expressed by the tomb-using group at Kastri through spatial and diachronic uniformity in burial practices, and that this uniformity should be viewed at least partially as a response to local-level social agendas. The hypothesis is then explored that status identities were also being asserted in the burial sphere by at least some members of this group, through tomb location, the resources devoted to mortuary rituals and, perhaps, emphasis on lineage.
Introduction: June 4th 1989: A Watershed in Chinese Contemporary History - Jean-Philippe Beja 1. June Fourth: Memory and Ethics - Perry Link 2. The Chinese Communist Party and 4 June 1989 --Or how to get out of it and get away with it - Michel Bonnin 3. The Impact of the June 4th Massacre on the pro-Democracy Movement - Jean-Philippe Beja and Merle Goldman 4. The Chinese Liberal Camp in Post-June 4th China - Feng Chongyi 5. Wang Xiaobo and the No Longer Silent majority - Sebastian Veg 6. The Seeds of Tiananmen: Reflections on a Growing Chinese Civil Rights Movement - Xiaorong Li 7. The practice of law as conscientious resistance: Chinese weiquan lawyers' experience - Eva Pils 8. The Politicisation of China's Law-Enforcement and Judicial Apparatus - Willy Lam 9. The Enduring Importance of Police Repression: Laojiao, the Rule of Law and Taiwan's Alternative Evolution - Jerome A. Cohen and Margaret K. Lewis 10. The Impact of the Tiananmen Crisis on China's Economic Transition - Barry Naughton 11. The Tiananmen Incident and the Pro-Democracy Movement in Hong Kong - Joseph Y.S. Cheng 12. How China managed to de-isolate itself on the international stage and re-engage the world after Tiananmen - Jean-Pierre Cabestan 13. China and International Human Rights: Tiananmen's Paradoxical Impact - Andrew J. Nathan 14. A Shadow over Western Democracies: China's Political Use of Economic Power - Guoguang Wu
Amedeo Maiuri (1886–1963) is rightly considered one of the greatest Italian archaeologists of the twentieth century and his scientific archaeological work at Herculaneum has been much studied. Yet while Maiuri’s work flourished under the patronage of Mussolini’s fascist regime, the nature of his relationship with the party has received less attention. This paper, based both on archival sources and Maiuri’s published writings, investigates Maiuri’s politically committed response through archaeology, both to the ideological and the propaganda needs of the fascist regime. It is argued here that Maiuri’s writings as well as his museological practice in the reconstruction of Herculaneum as a ‘resurrected’ and ‘living’ Roman town, represent an attempt to further develop the affective aspect of the fascist doctrine of romanita. Maiuri, drawn to the ‘action not words’ of fascism, provided the regime’s propaganda with an inspiring example of what willpower, hard work and modern machines could achieve in the archaeology of the ‘New Italy.’
Page 1/5 10/18/2019 https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/an-approach-to-history/ Abstract: When researching and evaluating historical information, it is easy to come across things that may lead to a crisis of faith. Some of those crises may lead individuals to leave the Church and actively proselytize against it. It is much better when dealing with historical issues to approach them from a standpoint of charity, treating historical figures as we would like to be treated.
Introduction: 'The church had never such a writer' 1 Swift, War, and Ireland: 'an Heap of Conspiracies, Rebellions, Murders, Massacres, Revolutions, Banishments' 2 Courting the Favour of the Great: A Discourse and A Tale of a Tub 3 'an entire Friend to the established Church': Churchman among the Statesmen and Wits 4 The Echo of the coffee House and the Voice of the Kingdom: Propagandist for a Peace 5 'do I become a Slave in six Hours, by crossing the Channel?': The Dean, the Drapier, and Irish Politics Conclusion: 'Upon this Great foundation of Misanthropy'
As early as 1722 it was known' that Rotrou derived the plot and the leading characters of Venceslas, his most celebrated work, from No hay ser padre siendo rey, but the source of the latter play remained undiscovered in spite of the various researches that it occasioned. Voltaire considered Rotrou's plot entirely fabulous.2 Proper names, usually the principal resource of investigators, have in this case led them astray by suggesting that the history of a king called "Venceslas" was the source of the plays, although this name, found in Rotrou's play, does not occur in the Spanish work, where the monarch is referred to merely as Rey de Polonia. It has even been assumed that the sovereign treated is the Venceslas who was king of Poland and Bohemia at the end of the thirteenth century,3 even though the life of that monarch is admitted to offer no resemblance to the incidents of the French tragedy, and it is difficult o see how this man, who was not yet thirty-five at his death, could be the prototype of the elderly king described by Rotrou and Rojas. Person4 searched through various histories of Poland and Bohemia for sovereigns named "Venceslas," who might guide him to some anecdote on which the play could have been based. But it should have been evident enough to him that Rotrou's proper names could furnish no guidance, except in so far as they agreed with those of his Spanish source, for it is highly improbable that Rotrou had the least idea of the material
The comparative scarcity of evidence as to dramatic performances of saints' miracles in mediæval England has frequently been the subject of comment. The only surviving independent texts of separate plays are those of Mary Magdalen, St. Paul, and the Cornish Meriasek; and the list of recorded performances is far from impressive. Particularly noticeable is the almost complete lack of evidence of such independent Miracles of Our Lady as would correspond to the amazing French series of Miracles de Notre Dame.1 The Lincoln play of the Assumption (sometimes Ascension) and Coronation of Our Lady, undertaken by the cathedral clergy over a long period, and, perhaps, as time went on, linked with the municipal St. Anne's play, is unusual.2 But, if self-contained plays of the Virgin Mary are notable mainly by their absence, there is ample evidence of a well-established group of Death and Assumption of Mary plays within the framework of the regular Corpus Christi cycles. Texts of such groups have survived in the York Register3 and in the Ludus Coventriœ.* Records of such plays occur at Newcastle, where the Burial of the Virgin was played by the masons;6 at Beverley where the priests, and at Aberdeen where the tailors were responsible for the Coronation of Our Lady;6 and, as we shall see, at York. At York, too, as elsewhere, certain features, at least, of the Assumption Play seem to have been incorporated in royal entry civic celebrations.
Can you believe it's that time of the year again when we start counting the days till the December holidays? Advertising pamphlets are already adorned with Christmas baubles and year-end specials, while the majority of shopping malls have started decorating in true North Pole-style. But I always know Christmas is around the corner when my toddler comes home every day reciting a different festive carol he's been rehearsing for the school play! Ah, the joys of the festive season.
ABSTRACT Allusions can pose a challenge in intercultural communication especially in distant cultures such as Anglophone and Iranian. Their rendition is not easier in the context of audiovisual translation. This study investigated the variety and the frequency of the translators' strategies for the rendition of verbal allusions in Persian dubbing of Tarantino's films. The results indicated that Direct Transfer and Literal Translation were the most frequent strategies for the rendition of proper name and key-phrase allusions, respectively. In addition, Borrowing had a low frequency in the rendition of proper name and key-phrase allusions. The results are discussed in relation to the related literature.
pope, Martin i (5 July 649-17 June 653, died in exile 16 September 655), resolved to give formal synodical support to Maximus and to oppose the emperor and the patriarch at New Rome. With the aid of the four houses of Greek monks resident in Rome, and no doubt directly or indirecdy of Maximus also, his archivist carefully prepared a dossier of documents illuminating the (monophysite) origins of the formula of one energy or one will, then the protests of Sophronius of Jerusalem in 633-4, of the archbishop of Cyprus in 642 and of African provincial councils. Florilegia were prepared both of orthodox excerpts to vindicate dyotheletism, and of heretical pieces on the opposite side. An awkward hurdle was a text of Dionysius the Areopagite speaking of' a new theandric energy'; to that Sophronius had already retorted that the holy bishop of Athens and pupil of St Paul did not say one energy. To full citations of the Ekthesis and Typos Martin and his council opposed their own dogmatic definition, with twenty attached anathemas. The act of defiance was to cost the pope his see and his life, and Maximus also suffered.
Over the last decade, historical research into photography in the Pacific has grown and diversified, yet an enormous amount of visual material remains untapped, new approaches and questions await exploration, and most historians still neglect critical engagement with visual evidence. This article, in summarising developments in the historical research of photography both generally and in the Pacific, identifies directions in recent work, and argues that closer links between visual history and Pacific History promise revisions and new vistas of Pacific pasts.
Originally published in Documentaliste: Sciences de I'information 28, numero 3 (mai-juin 1991), 150Ί53, under the title, "Pholographie et documentation: le point sur la technique," translated by Mr. Rouyer and Phillip White, and reprinted here with the permission of the Association Franqaise des Documentalistes & des Bibliothecaires Specialises. Philippe Rouyer is conservateur at the University of Rouen, France. He also lectures on micrographics, and works as a consultant. Phillip White is an Associate Librarian at SDSU in San Diego, California, and has published various articles in library science.
R. B. Seed, R. G. Bea, R. I. Abdelmalak, A. G. Athanasopoulos, G. P. Boutwell, J. D. Bray, J.-L. Briaud, C. Cheung, D. Cobos-Roa, J. Cohen-Waeber, B. D. Collins, L. Ehrensing, D. Farber, M. Hanemann, L. F. Harder, K. S. Inkabi, A. M. Kammerer, D. Karadeniz, R.E. Kayen, R. E. S. Moss, J. Nicks, S. Nimmala, J. M. Pestana, J. Porter, K. Rhee, M. F. Riemer, K. Roberts, J. D. Rogers, R. Storesund, A. V. Govindasamy, X. Vera-Grunauer, J. E. Wartman, C. M. Watkins, E. Wenk Jr., and S. C. Yim
In April, 1806, nearly four hundred nobles met in a session of the Kozep-Szolnok county assembly in Northern Transylvania. The speaker before them came from a prestigious family whose ancestors had addressed that body for two centuries. None of this was unusual. What was extraordinary was that the speaker was nine years old. In his youthful voice, he announced to them his intention to become a patriot:
Some manuscripts among the Dunhuang documents found in the Library Cave are about the Pingkang Village or the Pingkang villagers.An analysis of the relationship between the names of the villagers mentioned in these documents suggests that twelve documents including P.4693,S.6123,P.4525(8) and Дx.2954 are also about the Pingkang villagers.This paper further summarizes the boundaries and temples of Pingkang village as well as the living conditions of the residents.
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At present, the companies that provide cargo transport services fix the freight price empirically, without taking into account the costs incurred. This does not allow them to know which route generates the most profitability. The competition among the companies of the sector has generated that many of them fix a lower freight with respect to the market price, without taking into account a system of costs, because they only worry in making grow their portfolio of clients without being conscious of which they could have losses. The present research work was carried out in order to have knowledge of how the company obtains the cost of its service before the freight offered to its clients, to determine the costs involved in the service and to design a cost structure that serves as a support so that said entity offers an adequate price that allows it to cover its expenses and obtain profitability, also it is intended that the owners really know what their profitability is. When designing a cost structure for the service provided, we observe that the company has a standard freight price for the different routes, as if it were a direct service, which does not allow knowing the real profitability.
The noteworthy discovery which I have the honour of illustrating for the Journal of Roman Studies is a very recent one, and it was unlooked for because one would not expect to find a rich and beautiful series of small artistic bronzes among the ruins of a great bakehouse. This building consisted of a double series of rooms in which are gathered together the machines for crushing the grain, the machines for kneading the flour (machinae quae farinae subiguntur), and, lastly, two enormous ovens for the making of the bread. This great bakehouse, placed in the heart of the city, near the temple of Vulcan, was destroyed by a fire in the third century, as is proved by certain coins, and it was never re-built. The small bronzes, touched but not destroyed by the fire, were found among the ashes covering the pavement of the ground floor, and since they have nothing in common with the great bakehouse, they come assuredly from the first floor of the building, which was perhaps the dwelling-house of the miller, and it may be supposed from this that they were the religious and artistic furniture of his private chapel.
EASURING THE extent of Ovid's influence on English literature would be a task of formidable proportions, if not so large as to defy focus. "What has been the influence of Ovid on English literature?" asks a leading English critic. "What, for that matter, has been the influence of whisky on English politics? Such things are not, finally, subject to measurement."l Yet we can at least wonder at the extraordinary impact of his poetry-especially the Metamorphoses, but also the love poems and Heroides-on earlier English literature. When that influence begins to wane, as it clearly does in England toward the end of the seventeenth century, we feel that a great tradition is coming to a close, and naturally look for an explanation. In one intelligent, engaging study of Ovid and his influence, L. P. Wilkinson seems to have provided the most comprehensive set of explanations, of which the following are relevant to the purposes of this essay:2 (1) The post-Renaissance shift in interest and taste saw the Metamorphoses less in demand as a mythological handbook or as a collection of erotic tales, the latter need having been filled by an increasing number of vernacular works of fiction. (2) Ovid suffered by comparison with recently discovered classical literature of much better quality, pre-eminently that of Greece. (3) Classical literature began to lose its hold on the moderns. (4) A Christian reaction against paganism had set in, which devalued mythology in the schools and salons. In this paper I shall point out yet another explanation for Ovid's
Al-ShanfarA’s1 “Lamiyattu’l oArab,”2 in spite of its aesthetic qualities, its eloquence, and its superb use of language, is based on a series of contradictions that reveal al-Shanfara’s character as hollow and show him in a light that is quite different from what many scholars have described and, in my view, contrary to how the poet intends to depict himself. Those critics who have seen in al-Shanfara’s persona the positive characteristics of the pre-Islamic Arabian desert-dwellers3 have failed to understand the contradictions embedded in the wording of the text, which portray the man as malicious, narcissistic, masochistic, and disingenuous. Scholars who have read the poem as presenting the
use distribution and the artefacts themselves within the context of early Anglo-Saxon society. The authors look towards Scandinavia and the continent throughout the volume, but are less inclined to investigate the art of the west and north and the legacy of early Anglo-Saxon art beyond the early seventh century. The inclusion of the Staffordshire Hoard within the volume and its discussion is welcome, but might perhaps have been better left until research on this extraordinary find has been more thorough and wide ranging. Pollington and his fellow authors have produced a volume that will appeal to the general reader. The combination of line drawings, large colour images and reconstructions amply illustrates the discussions, although several of the larger colour images, such as plates 59 and 60, have not reproduced well. The use of reconstructions of objects and costumes adds a visual dimension to the volume that will no doubt serve to popularize the art of this era further and engage new audiences with both the artefactual legacy of the period and some of the key themes relating to the function, role and production of early Anglo-Saxon art.
Galilee has fascinated historians for the last 150 years. Ernest Renan, the nineteenth-century biographer of Jesus, thought that ancient Galilee must have been a paradise. He referred to the area around Nazareth as “This enchanted circle.” Galilee was “charming and idyllic” and was characterized by green, shade, beautiful flowers, and small, gentle animals. “In no country in the world do the mountains spread themselves out with more harmony.” Galilee, he thought, “spiritualised itself in ethereal dreams—in a kind of poetic mysticism, blending heaven and earth.”1 It was here in Renan’s dreamlike never-never land that he pictured Jesus’ youth. What we need is a more sober appraisal of ancient Galilee. The research in the last thirty years has sought to do that, but, nevertheless, the current study of Galilee is fraught with conflicting conclusions. If the Sermon on the Mount is known for its six antitheses (Matt. 5:2148), scholars may look back on this period of research as the antitheses of Galilee: (1) Some look at Galilee through the lenses of cultural anthropology and macro-sociology;2 others look at Galilee through the lenses of archaeology and reject the use of social theories.3 (2) Some
Australian waters, a record which deserves a place on the bookshelf of any student of marine engineering development. He has also given some deserved publicity to the efforts of a small number of enthusiasts dedicated to the exploration, recording and recovering of much historical material from many wrecks of early steamships around the country's coastline. May their efforts continue to be rewarded with the success they deserve.
point passed over in silence on p. 113, 13.12, line 9. A few explanations seem not entirely satisfactory. Unit 6.2 describing the comitative case muddles it up with the adjective-forming suffix of the same shape treated in 13.6. Indeed, the same example, MopbTOii ' having a horse', is given in each paragraph. The reference to -Jiryii in 25.28 is not adequate. The double suffix -Jiryit usually indicates a strong positive, e.g. Saftaryii ' bound to be', Tarejiryft aaxaB ' naturally, of course '. The explanation given in 25.28 seems a forced one. The phrase under discussion, ymniiJK aB^ar 6afiJiryft Â3> is a normal construction meaning ' will certainly be praying' and 6aftjiryii is not to be forced into a meaning such as ' without stopping'. Unit 14.2 gives -rnryH as a form expressing the negative of the suffix of possibility -Maap. This is true, but the negative forms -Maapryft and yii . . . -Maap could also have been mentioned. In the index it is disturbing to find quite different suffixes which happen to be identical in form classified together as if they were the same suffix. These are only points of detail. Mr. Bosson's careful work will earn him the gratitude of all his colleagues who up to now have had to cope with handbooks in less familiar languages.
Abstract The 2014 excavations carried out in 2014 at the protohistoric settlement of La Monédière, in Bessan (Hérault, France), confirmed the unique status of this site during the sixth to fifth centuries B. C. E. The site is located near the Greek colony of Agathé (Agde), at the interface between colonial and indigenous areas. Inside the limits of the site’s habitation areas, excavations discovered a huge pit which has been interpreted as a bothros. Dated to the fifth century B. C. E., it was filled with material associated with banqueting. Among the numerous amphorae and vessels of the earliest phase (475–450 B.C.E), the discovery of an Etruscan black-glazed cup from the “Spurinas” group is notable. This cup is characterized by the existence of a painted inscription “APA” (“father”). It is the first attestation, within this class of ceramic, of this Etruscan appellative interpreted as a reference to a chtonic divinity. Moreover, excepted Lattara (Lattes), La Monédière is the only place outside Etruria where a ceramic from the “Spurinas” group was found. The context of discovery is in itself very unique, and raises question about the implemented rituals, and the likely presence of Etruscan people among an indigenous or mixed community.
To honour Steve Bentheim, we have put together a group of  four stories of how we remember the first editor and initiator of the Satir International Journal.  Steve was an innovative and “out of the box” thinker who wanted to make a difference in the world.  He also wanted to fulfill a long standing dream of bringing together those people around the world interested in the theory and practice of therapy of Virginia Satir.
This article is devoted to the study of general and specific features of military texts including stylistic, grammatical and lexical features. The quality of translation is directly related to interdisciplinary links and to the level of cadets’ knowledge of military terminology. The importance of teaching military vocabulary in English to cadets is highlighted in the article in connection with translation. It is essential that language teachers should pay a great attention not only to teaching military vocabulary but also to speaking, reading, writing and to translating texts on specialty.
Human society is facing enormous problems this century as result of our climate crisis. These problems include sea level rise and the loss of farming capability. Society will need all the new tools it can develop to address these problems. Artificial intelligence with deep learning is one of these powerful tools, and it is new. Exactly how it will be used has not been determined. The current approach to the human/AI interface is referred to as master/slave. The human simply tells the AI what to do. This arrangement has many problems, and replacing it has been suggested. One possible new arrangement is a human/AI symbiosis. This would require a long-term relationship between a specific human and a specific AI. A novel, Born to Storms, exploring this arrangement is discussed at length.
Throughout the period of social withdrawal when each person, in a different way, had to tackle such an emergency as the pandemic, the proposed paper offers some reflections on the possibility that a non-resolving condition of the emergency will likely happen shortly. Namely, that an extremely catastrophic eventuality will occur. What would happen for humans and therefore for architecture if Covid-19 were not defeated? What are the consequences if humans, forced into persistent social distancing, are only allowed to live in a delimited, circumscribed, measured, virtual space?
The undersigned defendant, having been advised of his or her right to be present at all stages of the proceedings, including, but not limited to, presentation of and arguments on questions of fact and law, and to be confronted by and cross-examine all witnesses, hereby waives the right to be present at the hearing of any motion or other proceeding in this cause. The undersigned defendant hereby requests the court to proceed during every absence of the defendant that the court may permit pursuant to this waiver, and hereby agrees that his or her interest is represented at all times by the presence of his or her attorney the same as if the defendant were personally present in court, and further agrees that notice to his or her attorney that his or her presence in court on a particular day at a particular time is required is notice to the defendant of the requirement of his or her appearance at that time and place.
The paper discusses the use of ethnoarchaeology in the interpretation of prehistoric hunter-gatherer cultures, and takes as a case study the application of observations made on the Evenk reindeer hunters (Olenok area, Siberia) to interpreting patterning in the Late Glacial Hamburgian archaeological record of northern Europe. It is argued that a focus on repeatedly appearing cultural features seen in relation to a holistic framework which incorporates the entire range of social behaviours can form a useful interface between archaeology and ethnoarchaeology, because it allows an integrated approach to phenomena with both material and spiritual aspects. The latter are too often ignored in ethnoarchaeology despite their evident impact on spatial patterning in the material record of contemporary hunter-gatherers. It is also suggested that archaeology and ethnoarchaeology should be used in an interactive way, including the development of archaeological strategies for checking the ethnoarchaeological extrapolations.
Robert Lee. (Studies in Modern British Religious History, 11.) Pp. xii+235 incl. 5 figs and 23 tables. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006. £45. 1 84383 202 X JEH (58) 2007 ; doi :10.1017/S0022046907001194 In exploring the relationship between Anglican clergy and rural parishioners in nineteenth-century Norfolk, Robert Lee seeks to understand the clergy’s role in creating, exacerbating or soothing social, cultural and political tensions in communities. Using autobiographies, pamphlets, sermons, local newspapers and evidence to parliamentary commissions for direct evidence of their thoughts and opinions, and poll books, petty and quarter sessions records, poor law guardians’ and school governors’ minute books and church and chapel buildings he appraises the impact of clergy, as landowners, magistrates, poor law guardians, school governors and charity administrators, on the lives of the rural labouring poor. The book is divided into two conceptual halves : the first ‘Encountering the poor ’, and the second ‘Managing the poor ’, based on a presumption that clergy stood in an authoritarian relationship to parishioners, interacting with them across a gulf of social experience and cultural understanding. Lee identifies two clashing cultures : one unwritten and popular, taking its cues from the ‘traditional dialogue of the moral economy’ ; the other ‘alien, legalistic, elite and authoritarian’. The clash, he believes, is shaped by ‘secularisation ’, a declining Anglican influence, the rise of rural Methodism and trade unionism, a rural exodus and its social implications, and the maintenance of public order. He suggests that the clergy were identified with squires and farmers, who were thought to have robbed the poor of traditional lands and rights at enclosure, and who enforced the new poor law, and stigmatised their supporters as ‘ strangers ’, ‘ foreigners ’ and ‘social agitators ’. Although individual clergymen laboured for the good of the poor, and made efforts to bridge the cultural chasm dividing them from their parishioners, entrenched perceptions were not changed. He illustrates this hypothesis in discussing tithe disputes, the suppression of ‘popular culture ’, the ‘restoration ’ of churches, without reference to the interests of the poor, the rise of Primitive Methodism and the clergy’s passive acceptance of the new poor law, their involvement as magistrates in enforcing unpopular game laws, their role in an educational system which allegedly oppressed the poor, and as agents of landowners. Lee concludes that the clergy lost contact with rural society, and the respect of the rural poor. He suggests that they withdrew from village centres to ‘ stately ’ new parsonage houses, and showed little industry in taking part in renewing local government in parish and rural district councils. The conclusions may be right, but the picture is more complex and nuanced than is allowed. Some early nineteenth-century social disturbances focused on the clergy, but they were not necessarily anti-clerical. How deep was the penetration of Primitive Methodism in rural Norfolk? What was the impact of ‘high’ farming from 1840 until 1870, and the effect of the long agricultural decline after 1870, especially on the administration of the poor law and criminal law? He quotes little evidence of the involvement of clerical magistrates in cases of poaching and ‘social crime’, and forgets that most poaching cases involved professional poachers. Church schools may have kept children down, but no one else bothered about them.
This book attempts a synthetic overview of select aspects of the city in Roman Palestine—primarily as built environment, but also addressing material on the administration and regulation of such urban institutions as marketplaces, including some aspects of market regulation and administration (chaps. 1-3), taverns and their policing (chap. 4), bathhouses (chap. 5), other public buildings (chap. 6), roads (chap. 7), city walls (chap. 8), and water management (chap. 9). Most of the volume was written by Sperber, and it demonstrates the combination of extensive knowledge of literary material and detailed philological interest that students of rabbinics and of the history of Roman-period Palestine have come to expect from his work. The subject of Sperber's discussions is almost always textual (literary and epigraphic), although occasionally he raises the relationship of the textual material to archaeological remains (e.g., of roads, pp. 103-104 and n. 6). Sperber is at his most useful, particularly for those whose primary frame of reference is rabbinic texts, in bringing Greek, Latin, and rabbinic texts to bear on one another. For example, his discussion of oil in bathing practices links together an allusion to the remains at Pompeii, the first-century Latin writer Celsus, an Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragment of a gospel text, and what appears to have originally been a thirdor fourth-century school text from Gaul with rabbinic traditions about the bathhouse (pp. 59-62).
Any discussion of the Jewish background of Christianity may easily be organized around three historical figures, on the one hand, and three ways of defining Jews, on the other. This chapter suggests that Christianity appeared as a result of the confluence of certain processes in poles of the Jewish world represented, respectively, by John, Jesus and Paul. These processes undermined the importance, for the definition of a person as being Jewish, of Jewish place, of Jewish pedigree, and also of the practical side of the Jewish religion, thus allowing for the appearance of a type of Judaism that defines its adherents by common belief alone. John and Jesus were both from Palestine, but from different parts: John seems to have been from the south and also to have been associated with Qumran, Jesus was from the Galilee.Keywords: Christianity; Galilee; Jesus; Jews; John; Paul; Qumran
In his Preface to R. M. Ballantyne's most famous novel, J. M. Barrie writes that “[t]o be born is to be wrecked on an island,” and so the British boy “wonder[s] how other flotsam and jetsam have made the best of it in the same circumstances. He wants a guide: in short, The Coral Island” (v). While for Barrie the island is a convenient shorthand for masculine self-actualization, the question pursued here is the relevance of a coral island, or more specifically the coral that forms the island, to the child reader. Published in 1857 and widely recommended for boys in the latter half of the nineteenth century, The Coral Island presents three boys, shipwrecked in the South Pacific, who in the first half of the novel demonstrate their resourcefulness in forming an idyllic community. Their pre-lapsarian paradise is then disrupted, first by Pacific Island cannibals and then by European pirates, the juxtaposition implicitly presenting civility as a quality that must be actively maintained by the European reader, rather than assumed as inherent in ethnicity. The second half of the novel sees the boy narrator, and eventually all the boys, implicated in key Western activities in the South Pacific: piracy, trade, and missionary activity. The latter is important to Ballantyne, a staunch Christian himself, and is focused through the historical phenomenon of Pacific Island “teachers,” that is, converted Pacific Islanders who preceded or accompanied European missionaries in the effort to spread Christianity across the South Pacific. The missionary work highlighted in the novel, as this essay will show, is also integrally connected to the coral featured prominently in its title.
This article is devoted to the historical changes of the status of access to American TV and cinema content in Poland. Using the framework of cultural studies, media are treated here both as texts and objects. The analysis of case studies from the VHS era as well as of contemporary online streaming services connects the way people access video content with the production of social prestige, and shows how changing styles of video consumption mark social transformations in contemporary Poland.
The aim of this paper is to show how was born the Political Science Art, through your great thinker Niccolo Machiavelli can be cross centuries and even today as a philosopher with contemporary conceptions . Looking to put in writing all the richness and diversity of thought that illustrious Florentine , keeping the ideas about the laws , freedom , the political instructions , to proclaim between ethics and politics and the need to distinguish the moral action of political action itself. Machiavelli 's ideas are shown a vision of an Italy divided between the Republic and the government , and on this point we will see some settings to it regarding its three major works : the main " The Prince " after comments on the First Decade of Titus Livy ( the Discourses ) and the Art of War while showing what is your view of what a " state " ( monarchy or republic ) . Within these thoughts , we seek to show their placement policies.
Chapter 3 focuses on Joyce’s allusions to American literature. It will look to historicize precisely Joyce’s use of American literature within contemporary perceptions of that writing and the canon; clarifying those perceptions is the aim of the first part of this chapter. Walt Whitman was, the following section argues, an important but ultimately compromised model of a decolonized, national poet for the young Joyce. My argument in the next section, focusing on Bret Harte, emphasizes the point that Harte’s reputation in Ireland in the early twentieth century when Joyce wrote Dubliners was significantly more literary than it is today and that Joyce, like Yeats, was drawn to what appeared as a decolonized literary culture with obvious appeal for Irish writers. Finally, Washington Irving provides another focus for a discussion of allusions to writing marked by colonial histories and revolutions.
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Summary Geschlechter and Zunfte, principales and comun. Urban Conflicts in Late Medieval Castile and the German Empire Late medieval urban conflicts in Castile and Germany lend themselves to fruitful comparisons. Despite the different social structures, non-privileged townspeople (comun, meinheit) aspired to political participation and representation in both countries. This emergence of civic consciousness was due to rather well educated and economically successful members of the upper middle classes. In times of struggle or civil war or in situations of doubleelectionsof the king in the Medieval Empire, they were important partners of the monarchy. In the towns of Northern Atlantic Spain, their pragmatic alliances with the new dynasty of Trastamara, particularly the Catholic Kings, served mutual interests. It was directed against the influence of strong noble lineages and resulted in successful petitions and municipal reforms. German and Castilian terminology of communities and corporations (gemeinde, me...
ABSTRACT This introductory essay situates Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622), Michael Drayton’s vast chorographical and historical poem of England and Wales, in terms of its development as a poetic project, its structural choices, and its reception by early readers. It sets the tension in the text between the local and the national against the backdrop of a more fundamental seventeenth-century shift from national to regional description. By exploring the text’s depiction of the ancient Picts, it also considers some of the difficulties that Drayton might have faced, had he managed to extend his poem north to Scotland.
Throughout a four-decade career, the controversial poet, historian, biographer and essayist Robert Southey explored the trajectories both of his own individual life and of the time and the society in which he lived. Using a range of published and unpublished sources, including Southey's vast correspondence, this essay will track this preoccupation for the first time and consider its implications for understanding both of Southey and of Romanticism.
leaving home—whether it be by going away to college, getting married, or moving into an independent living space—conveys to the individual, and to the world, that a child has become an adult” (39, emphasis added). Regardless of any shortcomings, Accidental Immigrants is a valuable contemporary work that should appeal to a general audience and could certainly be included in a basic college course, similar to anthropologist Elliot Liebow’s Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1967). Both Kelley and Liebow observe, probe, and investigate specific populations and places, and their diverse findings have (and have had) the potential to educate and inform a wide audience about unique, personal situations and the ways in which those relate to broader, globalized themes. With a larger immigrant population pursuing advanced degrees in smaller towns and in cities around the world, Kelley’s work may become useful for classroom and at-home discussions about the nature of obtaining an education abroad and the intricacies of living in a multiethnic society. Given that most discussions of emigration and immigration in the general media focus on the problems of the “lower class,” people’s employment or lack thereof, or an escape from war and poverty, Accidental Immigrants is a refreshing account that tells the stories of four relatively privileged women who chose to adopt new countries as their homes instead, as is often the situation, of being forced to flee.
This paper deals with Arabic language guides created for the British army during the British occupation of Egypt (1882–1922), when officers were sent to Egypt and the Sudan to head the Anglo-Egyptian army. They needed to communicate with Egyptian soldiers in Egyptian Arabic, as well as correspond with officials in Standard Arabic. This situation was complicated by the fact that Turkish was also used in the Egyptian army. This paper explores five language guides which were written for the British army, comparing them on points of vocabulary, Arabic grammar, and their general usefulness for the British officers.
During the past centuries, when the churches came to live with increasing divisions between them, hymns frequently provided a kind of "secret ecumenism" (Markus Jenny), and this long before churches openly committed themselves to the ecumenical vision and the ecumenical struggle. Hymns have therefore often been an important ecumenical element in the liturgical life of the churches. In the twentieth century, this "hymnic ecumenism" has been brought to the open and many of the new hymnals of the churches now manifest a definite convergence in singing. Six recent hymnals from different ecclesial traditions and different parts of the globe will here be introduced.
In this article, we will analyze the influence of Greek spirituality on Russian culture in the second half of the 18th century, when Enlightenment ideas infused Russian society. Russian intellectual circles and the upper social class were inspired by Western categories of thought. The absence of a living theology that would give man the true meaning of life has caused tension and a great spiritual crisis in Russian society. One possible solution was to start a fight against the Enlightenment and reject any Western ideas. The second solution was to pay attention to the forgotten tradition and look for inspiration in it for the renewal of spiritual life. The spiritual renewal, known as the philokalic movement, leaned towards the second solution, building upon the Byzantine hesychastic tradition of the 14th century. This paved the way for a new era of Orthodox spirituality, which significantly influenced thinking and spiritual life in Russia. The movement of spiritual renewal is associated with the translation and publication of manuscripts written by Byzantine niptic authors, which were published in the book Dobrotolublye (gr. Philokalia). This significantly contributed to the spread of the hesychastic tradition in Russia and became an impetus for a return to Byzantine spiritual values. This article examines the spiritual, literary, and cultural activities of the most important centers of Russian Hesychasm, such as Sarov, Valaam, and Optina, and their influence on Russian society, which has not yet been recognized sufficiently.
Purpose – To thrive in today's competitive marketplace, businesses constantly need to search for opportunities to develop and be tuned into consumers as innovators. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to further understandings of the ways in which consumers transform ordinary products to serve their everyday needs; and broaden appreciation of the role observational research plays in opportunity identification.Design/methodology/approach – A hermeneutic approach to observational research is adopted, incorporating both subjective personal introspection (SPI) and videography to discover one family's unusual usage behaviours.Findings – Analysis, following Holbrook's typology of consumer value, reveals examples of innovative behaviours for the four active consumer value types of efficiency, status, play and ethics, while identification of the reactive value types of aesthetics, esteem, excellence and spirituality proves more difficult.Research limitations/implications – This research suggests alter...
This article examines the cultural contours of the Royal Navy's postwar ‘Empire Cruise’. In late 1923, the British government dispatched a ‘Special Service Squadron’ of powerful battlecruisers on a massive public relations tour. But the popular response to this carefully orchestrated propaganda stunt varied widely. Settler populations in the Dominions often embraced the navy as a ‘bond of empire’ that reconciled Britishness with their own emerging national identities. They celebrated the navy as evidence of a shared maritime heritage handed down over the course of centuries. Meanwhile, non-white populations often responded in ways that ran counter to the intentions of the event organizers. Zulu villages in Natal hosted athletic competitions and indigenous women in Fiji organized a dance for the visiting Jack Tars – unsanctioned gatherings that offered alternative points of contact to the existing arrangements. In other locations, anti-colonial nationalists took advantage of the publicity surrounding the navy to mobilise against colonial policies. Ultimately the appearance of the navy in the far-flung ports of the empire stimulated widespread public debates about race, identity, and colonialism, and challenged the intended narrative of imperial unity.
One phenomenon in Chinese lexic development is that a new word could replace an old one when the meaning and the referent do not change.Zuo Zhuan and The Historical Records are about 300 years apart from each other,and their contents overlap in many cases.In such case,the substitution of words in the two books is suggestive of the patterns in lexic development.The paper chooses 5 groups of the words,including "Zhou(舟) and Chuan(船)","Ying(楹) and Zhu(柱)","Tian(田with the meaning of hunting)and Lie(猎)","Qi(启)and Kai(开)","Ji(疾)and Bing(病)(both meaning of disease)",to examine the patterns and the laws of lexic development from the Spring and Autumn Period to the early Western Han Dynasty.
Karen Connelly’s poetry and prose has dealt extensively with her experience of living abroad and writing about foreign places – notably Thailand, Burma, France, Spain, and Greece. In this interview, she discusses how learning a foreign language offers her a point of entry into a new culture and transforms her sense of self as well as how her books – especially Touch the Dragon, One Room in a Castle, The Lizard Cage, and Burmese Lessons – engage with concepts of the foreign and the fraughtness of empathy.
Congo has for decades faced sustained neglect of all its institutions and now suffers a protracted conflict. Most Congolese attempt to survive hunger, sickness, and war. In this context the preservation of historical information is fraught with difficulties. Nevertheless, the oral history and archive project detailed in this paper set out to collect historical sources from one Christian denomination in Congo. It is but a small part of a huge depository of historical data held by churches in the country. Mission and Church bodies have significantly contributed to nation-building and the establishment of social structures throughout the twentieth century. In Congo the churches continue to run many of the schools, hospitals, and community development programs in the country and provide a conduit for relief aid. They are involved in the daily negotiations for survival on which life depends. While there is significant overlapping of religious adherence between ‘traditional’ beliefs, Christianity, and Islam, over 90% of the population acknowledge allegiance to a Christian denomination. For this reason church bodies provide invaluable resources to the historian. This project sought not only to protect the bureaucratic documents produced by one particular denomination, but to gather oral testimonies from a wide range of individuals connected with that church in order to begin a process of historical reflection. When finally collated and cataloged, it will be of use to Africanists and social anthropologists interested in the eastern half of Congo, as well as those with a particular interest in church history in Africa.
The Great Awakening that swept through mid-eighteenth-century America has recently been singled out as the seminal factor in the birth of a new society. ' In their efforts to attribute meaning and continuity to colonial development, however, many historians have homogenized the variety of responses elicited by the revivals among the many diverse groups within different denominations in the individual colonies. Thus, they have lumped all supporters of the revivals under a New Light or New Side label and gathered all opponents into an Old Light or Old Side party and proceeded to assign each group those characteristics and positions which will sustain a consistent and comprehensive interpretation. Some have even projected the divisions of the 1740s onto the periods preceding and following the Great Awakening, assuming for the purpose of their argument that these parties remained unchanged throughout the eighteenth century. The result has been a series of generalizations that neglect the diversity of colonial society in general and the complexity of the Great Awakening in particular. In the current revival of interest in the Great Awakening, "religious" and "secular" historians agree that the accepted generalizations no longer suffice. Martin E. Marty describes this phenomenon, which he thinks cannot be explained by any single theory, as an enigma. What seems to be called for is a series of local and particular studies of the participants from which a new constellation of generalizations can be generated.2 Some of these studies are
In 1951 Gabriel García Márquez, hard at work on his first novel, was offered some unusual advice by a much-younger brother: “ ‘the first thing a writer ought to write is his memoirs, when he can still remember everything.’ “ Author of such acclaimed novels as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1970) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1988), and progenitor of what has come to be known as magical realism, García Márquez is also endowed with a memory both expansive and meticulous. His long-awaited memoir, Living to Tell the Tale, the first in a planned autobiographical trilogy, is a richly imagined volume, brimming with lush description and historical immediacy. And if the author has, over the course of his seventy-five magical years, succumbed to those ineluctable lapses in memory, we’re certainly none the wiser. And it wouldn’t matter anyway: as García Márquez writes in the book’s epigraph, “Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.” Unlike many contemporary autobiographies, this one does not indulge in postmodern fripperies. Instead, García Márquez offers a “traditional” memoir: one recounted through the first-person in the past tense, in a voice both warm and conversational. Told from the author’s contemporary vantage, looking back on the early years of his life, Living to Tell the Tale is an account of the author’s development from a shy young boy into a working journalist, published short-story writer, and burgeoning novelist. As straightforward a memoir as García Márquez’s may seem to be, progression through the story of the author’s life is hardly chronological; he eloquently captures the asynchronies of memory through deft temporal shifts – from adulthood to adolescence, or from childhood deep into family history – that bring to mind similar ones in many of his most wellknown novels. In fact, the book opens not with the author’s birth, as might be expected, but, novelistically, in medias res, at a point of emotional and artistic crisis in the young man’s life. Having dropped out of law school, García Márquez is struggling to make ends meet as a journalist in a ramshackle Caribbean town. In spite of all his efforts, he is floundering:
To name a person is an art, and the name is the special sign which people can use to distinguish between others. However, the names in both Chinese and English literature have its special implication based on the characters’identity, status, and the theme of the literature works. Therefore , this paper tries to make an exploration of the implication of the names in literature works and the ways to translate them.
Puerto Rican officials revealed that, given the depressed economy, the government could never generate the revenues required to pay the staggering $73 billion debt. They warned that without federal assistance Puerto Rico would soon face a profound humanitarian crisis that the insular government was incapable of managing. The federal government’s response was the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, popularly known by its acronym, PROMESA. The law, signed by President Obama on June 30, 2016, authorizes the president of the United States to appoint a financial control board with extraordinary powers and with a mandate to enforce measures to compel Puerto Rico to repay its creditors. According to the law, the financial control board “holds supremacy over any territorial law or regulation that is inconsistent with the Act or Fiscal reform plans.”
Argument This article explores the history of mummy unwrappings in the West, culminating in Margaret Murray's public unrolling of two mummies in Manchester in 1908. Mummy unwrappings as a practice have shifted often between public spectacles which displayed and objectified exotic artifacts, and scientific investigations which sought to reveal medical and historical information about ancient life. Although others have looked at Murray's work in the context of the history of mummy studies, I argue that her work should be viewed culturally as poised between spectacle and science, drawing morbid public interest while also producing ground-breaking scientific work that continues to this day. Murray's main goal was to excite the interest of the public while at the same time educating them in the true history of ancient Egypt, while ascertaining new scientific information and contributing to the scholarly interpretations of ancient Egypt.
Introduction Under enhanced greenhouse conditions changes to the hydrological cycle are likely (e.g. Allen and Ingram 2002), with projected change s to climatic and hydrological extremes likely to have the most impact on human so ciety (Tebaldi et al. 2006). Although using downscaling methods to examine clima te change impacts is now a relatively well-developed field of research, few st udies have examined the uncertainties introduced by using multiple climate model outputs on the hydrological response to climate change, mainly due to a lack of available comparable climate model outputs (Fowler et al. 2007a). However, a variety of applications in othe r fi lds have demonstrated that combining models through a m ultiodel ensemble generally increases the skill, reliability and consistency of model predictions (Tebaldi and Knutti 2007). In addition, recent regional climate model (RCM) intercomparison projects, such as PRUDENCE (Prediction of Regional scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European Climate change risks and Effects; Christensen et al. 2007) and NARCCAP (North American Regional Climate Change Ass es ment Program; Mearns et al. 2006) have now provided suitable ensemble data se ts for the assessment of climate change impacts at the catchment scale.
England Made Me. published in 1935 in London and later released in the United States under the title The Shipwrecked, was one of Graham Greene's favorite novels. In this early work, Greene thought he "let go" for the first time as a storyteller treating the contemporary world.1 Greene was very consciously attempting to relate several key themes in his fiction to the social, economic, and political realities of contemporary life; England Made Me was his first truly political novel. Despite a carefully worded disclaimer that "none of the characters in this book is intended to be that of a living person,"2 most readers could see the parallels between Greene's portrait of an industrial giant, Erik Krogh, and the life of Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish match manufacturer. In England Made Me, Greene was studying the milieu of capitalism and the shipwrecked souls who tied their fates to the rise of industrial dynasties. In barest outline, the novel is the tale of two twins: Anthony Farrant. a charming ne'er-do-well imbued with traditional English prep school values, and his sister, Kate, an efficient successful executive, who loves her brother and who feels responsible for his archaic and parochial value system. Kate, the mistress of the manipulative financier Erik Krogh, the archetypal internationalist and modern man, hopes she can salvage the man of her past, Anthony. England Made Me involves a perverse love triangle which encapsulates larger interactions: of past values and present realities, of nationalism and internationalism, of human tradition and industrial expedience. Greene, who became film critic for The Spectator the same year England Made Me was published, used a film-inspired epigram for his novel: "All the world owes me a living." This small bit of wisdom from Walt Disney in The Grasshopper and the Ants offers a rather sardonic comment on the political and economic themes Greene treats. England Made Me is a study of the way people make a living and of the way they live; it is also a story of debts, short term and long term, financial and psychic. Greene is just as concerned in England Made Me with the psychology of his characters as he is with the realities of their environment. England Made Me is his only novel in which he periodically employs a stream of consciousness technique to force readers inside the mind of his protagonists. Early in the novel readers share with Anthony his dreams of "old faces, faces hated, faces loved, alive or dead, sick or dying, a lot of junk in the brain after thirty years, the prow rising to the open sea, the lightship behind, and the gramophone playing" (p. 11). Most of the junk in Anthony's brain involves his traditional English education, the merciless beatings which convinced him of the value of love, honor, and family; his musing also catalogues the long exile in the East where he tried to carry English ideals forward in his pursuit of elusive success. Tony Farrant had not always accepted the English tradition; as a boy, he tried to run away from his father, from his twin sister, from English values, but Kate, he remembers, sent him back to endure the necessary misery, the savage indoctrination. Kate, in her interior monologues also remembers the past, Tony's attempted escape, and her role in sending him back. Kate loves her brother physically and emotionally and views her whole adult life as an attempt to undo that fateful advice, the inadvertent betrayal that condemned Tony to a conventional English value system. Kate has, she declares, "plotted for this, saved for this. that we should be together again" (p. 59). While most critics feel that Greene's attempts at stream of consciousness narration were not felicitous and that he subsequently abandoned the technique because he sensed its limitations, the stream of consciousness chapters in England Made Me are central to the development of the novel. All of England Made Me depends on a constantly shifting, but none the less limited point of view. …
Artikkelit tieteellisissä kokoomateoksissa © Edward Elgar 2020. This is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in Handbook of Research on Management and Organizational History edited by Kyle Bruce, published in 2020, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd 10.4337/9781788118491. The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only. All rights reserved http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781788118491
This study affirms that the core issues of the land ownership disputes case in Dampelas region can be acknowledged, where land ownership is envisaged in the context of social, cultural and economic value. This research employs a historical method in which the source, including books, journals, archives, newspapers contemporaries, and research results. This study aims to explain the existence Dampelas which in the past was part of the Celebes Afdeling Midden located between two reigns, namely the Kingdom of Banawa in Donggala and Dutch East Indies in Batavia through their representatives in Makassar and Manado. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this area became an important part of the Dutch East Indies in Banawa. The Dutch tried to take over the management of the potential of forest products Dampelas, without giving concessions to indigenous groups. In the reign of King Lamarauna, Kingdom of Banawa successfully suppress Dampelas without the cost and bur-
role in the immediate postwar era, the pervasiveness of the CIA in the years following, and Washington's power to control events during the "Edsa" revolution of 1986 downplay the autochthonous, the indigenous, the Filipino. A central thesis of this book is that "history is often a series of expedients that grow into dogmas—today's pragmatism becoming tomorrow's doctrines; thus, the American presence in Asia evolved" (p. 80). Karnow maintains that America "embarked on a unique experiment: to duplicate itself in a drastically different terrain." He argues that this effort was "innocent, naive," a fantasy that was "later punctured by reality" (p. 200). The American "performance in the Philippines was flawed," because the Americans "coddled the elite while disregarding the appalling plight of the peasants, thus perpetuating a feudal oligarchy that widened the gap between rich and poor" (p. 198). The oligarchy, the elite, has been the historical villain, using America's well-meaning help to increase its power. Emilio Aguinaldo and Luis Taruc are presented far more sympathically than Pardo de Tavera and Manuel Roxas because they had an integrity that the Americanistas over the past ninety years have lacked. One of the most interesting and troubling aspects of this book is a tendency to discount things Filipino. It is argued that "Christianity, the cement of Spanish rule, was more pervasive than profound" (p. 49). When the author first got to the Philippines he saw it as "a mirror image of America, but I soon learned that the mirrors reflected distorted images, like those at a carnival sideshow. If this was not Asia, neither was it America" (p. 361). Throughout the book Filipino customs and institutions are seen as ersatz copies of other societies' structures and values. The reader must also decide whether the Philippines was ever as fully in America's image as Karnow suggests. Was William Howard Taft trying to instill an indigenous democracy or rather to demand a total recapitulation of what existed in America? The United States can well be faulted for intervening initially, for justifying imperialism as altruism, for imposing self-serving restrictions on the economy, on the bases, and on the independence of the archipelago. But when Karnow writes that "Filipinos, with their talent for imitation, had merely learned enough from their American mentors to make the charade seem real" (p. 208), he risks demeaning both the Filipinos and the Americans who have shared this historical experience. Stanley Karnow clearly loves the archipelago and its people, but he may not have given them and their history the dignitas they deserve.
Turkish Dictionary, in Two Parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and English, in Which the Turkish Words Are Represented in the Oriental Character, as Well as Their Correct Pronunciation and Accentuation, Shown in English Letters, 2D Ed., REV., and Enl.English and Turkish DictionaryEnglish and Turkish DictionaryCambridge Learner's Dictionary English-Turkish with CD-ROMAn English and Turkish Dictionary, in Two PartsA Pocket Dictionary of the English and Turkish LanguagesAn English and Turkish DictionaryA Dictionary of Turkish VerbsHistorical Dictionary of TurkeyTurkishEnglish-Serbian (Latin) Bilingual Children's Picture Dictionary Book of ColorsAn English and Turkish Dictionary, in Two Parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and English In which the Turkish Words are Represented in the Oriental Character as Well as Their Correct Pronunciation and Accentuation Shewn in English Letters on the Plan By J.W. RedhouseEnglish and Turkish DictionaryRedhouse's Turkish DictionaryEnglish Turkish Turkish English DictionaryEnglish and Turkish DictionaryTurkish DictionaryAn English and Turkish DictionaryEnglish-Turkish DictionaryEnglish / Turkish / Arabic DictionaryLangenscheidt English-Turkish, Turkish-English Universal DictionaryHippocrene Concise English-Turkish, Turkish-English DictionaryThe Redhouse Pocket English-Turkish & Turkish-English DictionaryNew English-Turkish Dictionary-English to TurkishNew Bilingual Visual Dictionary (English-Chinese)Turkish DictionaryRedhouse's Turkish DictionaryTurkish-English, English-Turkish Dictionary & PhrasebookAn English and Turkish Dictionary, in Two Parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and EnglishAn English and Turkish Dictionary in Two Parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and English; In which the Turkish Words are Represented in the Oriental Character, as Well as Their Correct Pronunciation and Accentuation Shewn in English Letters, on the PlLangenscheidt, Pocket Turkish DictionaryA Dictionary of Business and ManagementEnglish / Turkish / Kurdish DictionaryAn English and Turkish Dictionary, in Two Parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and English In which the Turkish Words are Represented in the Oriental Character as Well as Their Correct Pronunciation and Accentuation Shewn in English Letters on the Plan By J.W. RedhouseLangenscheidt's Pocket Turkish DictionaryCollins Spanish Phrasebook and Dictionary Gem Edition ebook (Collins Gem)An English and Turkish Dictionary, in Two PartsAn English and Turkish Dictionary, in Two Parts: English and Turkish, and Turkish and English;A Frequency Dictionary of TurkishHugo Turkish Dictionary
In 1945, Janet Vaughan, a distinguished haematologist, became Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, her Principalship lasting until her retirement in 1967. Described in her obituary as ‘a woman of extraordinary vitality and not a little impatience’, Vaughan — awarded the DBE in 1957 — played a key role in steering the college through a period of major change in British Higher Education. Not least amongst the changes was a significant growth in the number of students at university across the country, which resulted in numerous, often high-profile, construction projects. Somerville, which had been founded in 1879 as the University of Oxford's second college for women, was not untouched by this development, and at Vaughan's retirement party, her colleague, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin, referred to the several new buildings completed during the previous two decades. The college's post-war building campaign had begun modestly with two small infill developments by Geddes Hyslop in 1948–50 and 1954–56.
The paper focuses on the specific features of the ‘One’s own — Alien’ conflict in the dramatic works by Lesia Ukrainka. The majority of her dramas and dramatic poems were written on the basis of foreign cultural phenomena, including the Ancient Greek, Biblical, and other topoi and images. Foreign cultural realities are aimed at the actualization of both the entire context of Ukraine and the writer’s autobiographic discourse in a recipient’s consciousness, forming the imagological paradigms ‘One’s own — Alien,’ ‘Me — Another’. Upon involving the imagological theories, the author of the paper traces the development of dialogue between various cultural realities in Lesia Ukrainka’s dramatic works. This allowed elucidating the peculiarities in the artistic representation of the exotic topoi of different countries as the significant feature of Neoromantic and, in general, Modernist discourses, which were basic for Lesia Ukrainka’s writing. The textual analysis of Lesia Ukrainka’s dramas reveals the specific features of unfolding the ‘One’s own — Alien’ conflict, first of all, on the ethnic-mental level, epitomized in the ‘conquered — conqueror’ collision of the plays “Babylonian Captivity”, “Over the Ruins”, “Orgy” and “Boiarynia”. The other dimension is the worldview and religious level, mostly realized through the collision ‘Antiquity — Christianity’ (“In the Catacombs”, “Rufinus and Priscilla”, “Martian the Lawyer”, and others). It is proved that the  ‘One’s own — Alien’ conflict deepens the problems of the works and serves as a way to reveal the essential characteristics of the heroes. The paradigm of the mentioned conflict highlights the borders of the national and personal identities, emphasizes axiological concepts and active ideas, fundamental for Lesia Ukrainka’s dramatic works, such as the tragedy of misunderstanding, the need for constructive dialogue, the necessity of choice, the search for spiritual and national freedom, the meaning of sacrifice, and the role of art.
THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY results from research conducted for the chapter on "Modern Scandinavian Literature" in Kenneth Haynes and Peter France, eds., The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, vol. 4 [1790-1900] (Oxford: Oxford UP, forthcoming.) Because the Oxford history is unique in its focusing on translators, this bibliography is as well. It presents what is hoped is an exhaustive account of the work of translators from all the Scandinavian languages and Finnish into English during the period and excludes only translations of Hans Christian Andersen, which limitations of space prohibit me from including. Most translations of Andersen are anonymous, but the prominent named translators begin with Mary Botham Howitt, who produced the first English translation of an Andersen book in 1845 (The Improvisatore; or, Life in Italy). Other significant translators from the remaining thirty-three are Charles Beckwith-Lohmeyer, Charles Boner, Mrs. Anne S. Bushby, Henry William Dulcken, Mrs. Henry B. Paull, Caroline Peachey, and Augusta Plesner and Henry Ward. (1) For a complete list of Andersen's works in English in the nineteenth century, see Elias Bredsdorff, Danish Literature in English Translation with a Special Hans Christian Andersen Supplement: A Bibliography (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1950). All entries in the present bibliography are by translator followed by year of publication, title, source-language author (in brackets), place of publication, and publisher. Besides standard literary histories, biographies, critical works, and online resources such as WorldCat and the catalogues of such major libraries as the British Library and Library of Congress, the following bibliographical tools were consulted: Hilkka Aaltonen, Books in English on Finland: A Bibliographical List of Publications Concerning Finland until 1960, Including Finnish Literature in English Translation. Publications of Turku University Library 8 (Turku, 1964); Nils Afzelius, Books in English on Sweden: A Bibliographical List, 3rd edn. (Stockholm: The Swedish Institute, 1951); Adolph B. Benson, "A List of English Translations of the Frithiofs Saga. A Retrospect at the Centenary," Germanic Review, 1 (1926), 14-2-67; Elias Bredsdorff, Danish Literature in English Translation with a Special Hans Christian Andersen Supplement: A Bibliography (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1950); Michael Collie and Angus Fraser, George Borrow: A Bibliographical Study (Westminster, Hampshire: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1984); Ingebrit Grondahl and Ola Raknes, "List of English Translations" in Chapters in Norwegian Literature (1923; repr. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries P), pp. 297-304; Erling Gronland, Norway in English: Books on Norway and by Norwegians in English 1936-1959: A Bibliography Including a Survey of Norwegian Literature in English Translation from 1742 to 1959 (Oslo: Norwegian UP, 1961); P.M. Mitchell and Kenneth H. Ober, Bibliography of Modern Icelandic Literature in Translation, Including Works Written by Icelanders in Other Languages (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1975); and Thorvald Solberg, "Bibliography of Scandinavia. A Catalogue of the Important Books in the English Language, Relating to the Scandinavian Countries" in Fredrik Winkel Horn, History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North from the Most Ancient Times to the Present, trans., by Rasmus B. Anderson (1884; repr. New York: Krause Reprint Co., 1971). DENMARK Anonymous (1742, 1746, 1749, 1755). A Journey to the World Under-Ground [Holberg]. Trans. from Latin. London: T. Astley. [1749, London: R. Baldwin, Jr., and B. Collins, Salisbury; 1755, London: R. Baldwin]. -- (1812). Niels Klim's Journey Under the Ground [Holberg]. In Henry Weber, Popular Romances. Trans. from Latin. Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Company. -- (1826). The Adventurers (Lykkeridderen). In "Specimens of German Romance." Vol. 3. [Oehlenschlager]. London: G.B. Whittaker. -- (1826). …
The foreign missionary was always a prominent source of Sino-foreign friction. The appearance of Protestant missionaries in China's interior, and their intrusion into Chinese society in the latter half of the nineteenth century, caused strong resistance from the Chinese and many outbreaks of xenophobia. After the Boxer Uprising of 1900, however, this resistance and these outbreaks greatly declined. And the foreign missionary in the second and third decades of the twentieth century had to face new problems: namely, tension between the foreign and Chinese members within the church. In the late 1910s the missionaries found that their well-educated Chinese colleagues demanded equal treatment. Between 1925 and 1928 the missionaries and their Chinese members were involved in a severe conflict between ‘foreign’ Christianity and ‘Chinese’ nationalism, and this created even greater tension. How the missionaries responded to these problems, and how they influenced Christianity in China, deserve further analysis.
T^ E MILLENNIUM did not arrive in 1694. For Johannes Kelpius, who had come to Pennsylvania with a small group to await the reign of Christ on earth, the disappointment was sharp. "I went with joy into this desert, as into a garden of roses," he wrote in 1697, "and I knew not at that time, that it was the furnace of affliction in which the Lord was about to purify and to prove me . . . ." He accepted the delay with characteristic humility, for he surely could not know all of God's plans, and "though we have revelation hereof, this revelation cannot comprehend the spirit of the instrument . . . ."' The original leader of the group, Johann Jakob Zimmerman, had predicted the advent of the millennium for the year 1694. In preparation for this event, he organized a "Chapter of Perfection" in Germany—a brotherhood of learned men, most of them Lutheran Pietists, who also believed in the imminent establishment of the Kingdom of God. When Zimmerman died in Rotterdam before embarking on the voyage to Pennsylvania, the group selected Kelpius as its leader. With the help of Benjamin Furly, William Penn's agent in Rotterdam, Kelpius and his companions finally sailed to the New
This brief text offers a &dquo;preliminary map of the emerging intellectual terrain of Chinese women’s studies in the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong&dquo; (x). While its primary goal is to facilitate collaborative research across the Pacific, it also seeks to link ongoing research projects and to encourage graduate students interested in gender studies. It clearly achieves its goals. The book provides an historical description of the development of women’s studies programs, explaining their causes, their challenges, and their aspirations in the context of these three Chinese cultures. This handy guide contains the names and locations of leading scholars in the three domains and an annotated bibliography of the major publications of women’s studies research. As the short introduction explains, research on Chinese women underwent a turning point in the 1980s and 1990s through international conferences and collaboration. There
A decree signed by the President of the French Republic on the 2nd of January 1882 provided for the creation of the first chair in the world for the teaching of neurology at the Faculty of medicine in Paris. The chair was named: Clinic for Diseases of the Nervous System and was attributed to J. M. Charcot. The historical and political circumstances related to the creation of this chair are reviewed. J. M. Charcot's hospital and university careers are retraced, emphasis being placed on the turning point in 1867 when J. M. Charcot, having been refused the chair of Medical Pathology, dedicated his time to the study of hysteria and nervous system diseases. The birth of neurology is therefore situated in relation to that of psychiatry. But this chair is also and still that of Charcot; it was thus convenient to remind the man, his origins, his personality, his ideas, and his social role.
Music, Piety, and Propaganda: The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria , by Alexander J. Fisher. The New Cultural History of Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. xvii, 359 pp.  Having previously focused on the music of Counter-Reformation Augsburg,1 Alexander Fisher here widens the scholarly lens to explore the city of Munich and, more broadly, the territory—urban and rural—of Bavaria. The biconfessional (Catholic and Protestant) nature of sixteenth-century Augsburg is well known, while Bavaria is usually considered a strongly Catholic territory. But Fisher notes that the religious complexion of Bavaria is more varied than is customarily assumed: “the duchy of Bavaria was in many respects a confessional borderland in which the triumph of Counter-Reformation Catholicism was hardly assured” (p. 3). Thus, the purpose of this book is to explore “how music in Bavaria articulated religious identity and difference,” his methodology being “to join purely ‘musicological’ concerns with the study of soundscapes … and of space and identity” (p. 4).  In considering the possibilities and implications of imagining historical soundscapes, Fisher defines the soundscape as “the totality of perceived sounds in a given space and time, some of which command immediate attention, others of which are habitual sounds that are invested with cultural meaning, and still others of which recede into the background as constant acoustic phenomena” (p. 9). More specifically for this study, Fisher is concerned with “sounds deployed as acoustic communication, ranging from speech to music, from bells to gunfire” (p. 9). Significantly, Fisher connects these concepts of soundscape to physical spaces, and to the ritual actions that play a role in forming sacred spaces. Particularly in an age when religious identity was contested, spaces—Fisher points to the dichotomies of “sacred” and “profane,” “Catholic” and “Protestant”—were defined, shaped, and controlled in part through sound, including sound connected with ritual actions (p. 10).  Having thus established the concept of the soundscape, and having linked sound with space and ritual action, Fisher connects sound—including but not limited to music—with religious …
At the center of this intelligent, lucid, useful book is a chapter on poetic meter which contains this sentence of commonsense approach to the conflicting demands of rule and individuation or tradition and the individual talent: ‘‘What happens is, the regular pattern sets up an expectation, which the poet can then surprise’’ (137). Since this book as a whole purports to be a primer—that is, an elementary presentation of the ‘‘regular patterns’’ of various sorts that distinguish poetry and the analysis of poetry—we can suppose that anyone who brings to a reading of it some previous acquaintance with poetry (surely the virtual whole of its readership, unless the book is misadopted as a text for students too young) must be in search of its surprises, its imaginative triumphs over the mechanical sorting of elementary knowledge into the ‘‘regular pattern’’ of reasonable categories.Though the choice of organizing categories is itself interesting, what is required for the book to be a primer is just that sorting and clear exposition of elementary knowledge; what is required for the book to be of interest (to readers of poetry and literary theory) are those moments of wondrous surprise, transcending the categories into which the book is organized. Wolosky must there-
Charles Herbert Lankester (1879-1969) was without a doubt the most dominant figure of Central American orchidology during his time. Better known as ‘Don Carlos’, Lankester was born in Southampton, England, on June 14 1879. It was in London that he read an announcement offering a position to work as an assistant to the recently founded Sarapiqui Coffee Estates Company in Costa Rica, he applied and was hired. Surely influenced by his uncle’s zoological background, Lankester was at first interested in birds and butterflies. However, living in Cachi, at that time one of the regions with the greatest botanical diversity, he must have fallen under the spell of the plant world as he soon began collecting orchids in the nearby woods. Many of the plants he collected at this time proved to be new species. With no literature at his hand to determine the plants he collected, Lankester started corresponding with the assistant director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Arthur Hill in 1910, and somewhat later with Robert Allen Rolfe, Kew’s most eminent authority on orchids. At the same time, Lankester began his collection of living plants that would become so famous years later. He returned to England in 1920 to enroll his five children in English schools. Lankester traveled to Africa from 1920 to 1922, hired by the British Government to do research on coffee plantations in Uganda. When returning to England, he found that Rolfe had died the year before. Many orchids that he had brought to Kew were left without identification. Lankester was back in Costa Rica in 1922, the year that was a turning point in his career as an orchidologist: it brought the first correspondence with Oakes Ames. Over the next fifteen years, Ames would discover more than 100 new species among the specimens he received from Costa Rica. In 1922, Ames began a series of publications on orchids, which he named Schedulae Orchidianae. In its third fascicle, in January 1923, Ames started to describe many of the Lankester orchids, which were deposited at Kew and had been left unidentified. Ames kept asking Lankester to send more and more specimens. After 1930, Lankester and Ames seem to drift slowly apart. Ames was taken in more by administrative work at Harvard, and Lankester traveled abroad more frequently. In 1955, after his wife’s death and already 76 years old, Lankester decided to sell his farm but retained the small part which contained his garden, a piece of land called “El Silvestre”. Lankester moved to a house he had bought in Moravia, one of the suburbs of the capital, San Jose. On a section of this farm called “El Silvestre”, Lankester began his wonderful collections of orchids and plants of other families, which formed the basis of the Charles H. Lankester Botanical Garden of the University of Costa Rica.
While the adoption of a a child in the ancient Near East and Egypt was generally customary, this legal institution is completely absent from the Old Testament nomistic literature. Only in a few narrative texts do we find slight allusions to adoption. Of these texts only Est 2,7.15 suggests the adoption of an orphan by its first cousin. That Israel did not take over this common ancient Near Eastern practice can be explained by its theological self understanding according to which YHWH alone was the guarantor of progeny, That YHWH alone gave life and punished the evildoer with sterility and childlessness was a universally valid principle of Israel's faith found in all theological currents. In the eyes of the exilic and postexilic theologians in particular it would have been a blasphemy to circumvent YHWH's command by a law of adoption. For this reason Israel rejected adoption as a means for securing its continued existence.
Forensic identification of human remains has long been a core contribution of forensic anthropologists to death investigations. The array and scientific robusticity of the identification methods employed by the anthropologist has evolved in the last several decades, and as with other nonidentification methods, anthropologists have embraced the progression toward the use of validated and statistically defensible methods for identification. This article presents an overview of the role that the forensic anthropologist plays in the identification of human remains and the evolution of anthropological methods of identification.
There exists an obvious semantic relationship between some Classical Arabic quadriliteral roots which have šīn or sīn as first radical and their twin triliteral roots. This paper is a preliminary survey on these roots in order to explore the possible linguistic phenomena that underlie this correspondence. The working hypothesis is that some of these quadriradical rootsmay derivate from triradical ones, by adding a s(or š-) element, to produce a new root. This process may have worked in Arabic in two ways: 1) denominative derivation, when we deal with possible loanwords;1 2) verbal derivation, supposing that a s(or š-) verbal prefix was active and productive in some ancient stage of the Arabic language, or in some of the ancient dialects which contributed to the formation of Classical Arabic. First, I have compiled a comprehensive list—given here in the appendix— of quadriliteral Arabic roots beginning with šīn (list 1) and sīn (list 2) recorded in Lisān al-ʿArab by Ibn Manẓūr (d.1311/711h)2 which have a twin triliteral root. In these lists the corresponding triliteral roots of both Ancient South Arabian (ASA) and Modern South Arabian (MSA) languages, if existing, have been added for comparison. The choice to compare these Classical Arabic roots with the same roots in ASA and MSA languages is suggested by the following: a) at least since the 2nd century ad Arabic speakers are attested in South Arabia, in those areas where ASA languages were consistently written. It is also reasonable to assume that ancestors of MSA languages speakers used to live in the same general area. This long term geographic contiguity could have given rise to foci of language contact; b) many of both ASA
Philip Curtin's contributions to our understanding of panregional and global phenomena are considerable and noteworthy. His classic census of the Atlantic slave trade springs immediately to mind, as does his later work on cross-cultural trade in world history and, most recently, his investigations into European mortality in the tropics during the 19th century. Given his proven ability to integrate diverse materials into comprehensive analytical frameworks, The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex comes as a disappointment which leaves the reader with the sense that Curtin has missed an excellent opportunity for another important work of synthesis. This book is a collection of fourteen essays on what Curtin has described as the "South Atlantic system" in the past and which he now prefers to characterize as the "Atlantic plantation complex." The essays are organized into four sections: "Beginnings," which traces the origins, early development, and spread of sugar plantations from the eastern Mediterranean to Brazil; "17th Century Transition," which charts the complex's expansion from Brazil into the Caribbean and the subsequent development of slave societies on this new economic frontier after the 1640s; "Apogee and Revolution," which considers aspects of the complex at its peak and the beginnings of its subsequent decline during the democratic revolutions of the late 18th century; and "Aftermath," which examines the adjustments and changes in the complex which followed the abolition of the transAtlantic slave trade and the subsequent emancipation of slaves in the Americas.
The hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName remind non-African Americans of issues that black communities in the United States have long faced: disproportionate police killings of black persons of all genders, mass incarceration of black and brown persons, economic and educational disadvantages, discrimination in housing, racial and sexual stereotypes that harm both rape complainants and defendants, and so on. I view these issues through a deep lens into history, extending back from Jim and Jane Crow through to religiously sanctioned legal slavery, behind that to the Vatican-approved onset of the Portuguese and Spanish slave trades with West Africa, canon-law sanctioned slavery going back from the Middle Ages to late antiquity, and to the Christian Bible, both testaments of which tolerate slavery. To be sure, Christians were at the forefront of opposing slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and many other factors have played a role in arriving at the current situation. Nevertheless, the Bible and the ancient sources of canon law served as justifications for the slavery whose legacies linger.My mentor Krister Stendahl's concept of the "public health" aspect of New Testament studies has inspired me to undertake research that may limit harm caused to marginalized persons through specific uses of the New Testament and further the values of human dignity and equality as these interact with the Bible. To that end, most of my research has consisted of historically grounded, close analysis of New Testament, contemporaneous, and other ancient texts, each of which has some relevance for contemporary public and religious debates. I see my work as part of a broader mosaic of scholarly contributions that, together, can provide solid historical depth and religious literacy in contemporary policy discussions. I am reflecting here on how I, as a biblical scholar, respond to structural racism and other contemporary forms of inequality.As I contemplated current racial and gender inequities and considered how I, as a scholar of the New Testament and of Jewish and early church history in the Roman period, could contribute to solving these pressing ethical problems, I determined that collaboration was the best way to observe connections and contrasts, thereby creating a deep historical picture. Within the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project that I direct, a group of outstanding scholars specializing in several religious traditions and periods of history and in ethics, theology, and law, and activists in the areas of US incarceration practices and contemporary slavery made that possible. In addition, artists in dance, music, and poetry, as well as musicologists, helped audiences to shift their vision, to see the world around them in new ways.Collaborators sought to address the nexus of slavery, religion, and sexuality, especially as it has impacted women and girls. The collaboration resulted in Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies (2010), as well as an archive of the public conference on the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project's website.1 The team of scholars, artists, and activists investigated this issue beginning with the Bible and the ancient Near East and extending through to early Christianity; the Talmud; early Islamic jurisprudence; sixteenth-century Valencia; US slavery, including the use of the Bible in antebellum slavery debates; contemporary incarceration practices in the US; welfare reform; reparations for slavery; contemporary cultural depictions of slavery; a reading of the Bible and the Qur'an on slavery by a formerly enslaved woman; and poetry inspired by these themes.The researchers ascertained that sexual access by masters to enslaved women and girls and, although far less frequently acknowledged, to men, boys, and persons of other genders, has de facto characterized the slavery systems analyzed. While the Qur'an and early Islamic jurisprudence explicitly allowed a master sexual access to his enslaved women and girls, which the jurists then regulated by obligating masters vis-a-vis the slave-woman or slave-girl and the child of such a union, the Jewish and Christian Bibles, the Talmud, and the ancient sources of canon law did not prohibit such sexual access even as they showed awareness that such contact occurred in their own communities. …
HE THIRTEENTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE, recently the subject of a detailed commentary by D. S. Potter,l is one of our most important sources for the history of the mid-third century, and is the only contemporary narrative to survive from the period, with the exception of the so-called Res Gestae of Shapur. The prophetic obscurity and apocalyptic tone of the Oracle make it a particularly difficult text to read. Any informa­ tion that can be gleaned about its background is precious, both for students of Roman history and for those interested in the cultural relations of the Near East in antiquity. The text clearly breaks into two parts (Potter 151, 328), and both show a local, eastern perspective on the world. The first part (to line 154) ends by celebrating the brilliant victory of a "sun-sent priest" over the Persians that will magnify "the city of the sun." This refers to the man known to us from his coinage as Uranius Antoninus of Emesa, clearly a member of the family that produced the 'Syrian' emperors earlier in the century.2 It is not the only occasion when the author's viewpoint is decidedly regionaP The second much shorter part of the Oracle, an additional section by a new author with no interest in the fate of Antoninus, ends by hailing the rise of Palmyra under its prince Odaenathus. The text is the product of a region where Greek and Semitic culture meet and mix in a 1 D. S. POTTER, Prophecy and History in the Crisis of the Empire: A Historical Commentary on the Thirteenth Sybylline Oracle (Oxford 1990: hereafter 'Potter'), whose text is used below.
This index presents a list of Old Icelandic terms that occur in this book titled Heroic Identity in the World of Beowulf. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order. Grettir becomes the most famous exile in Icelandrespected, tolerated, or despisedfor almost twenty years. Grettirs ambiguous motivation and the contradictory appraisals of it indicate that the saga characters cannot fathom his violence.Keywords: Beowulf; Iceland
It is assumed that R. K. Narayan has based his novel The Dark Room on the basis of the theme of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. There are certain points to accept this assumption that make us to find out the similarities in the theme and the characters. However, it is significantly different in its treatment and views expressed in Indian context, rather than it implies the modern trend of feminism. Surprisingly it is noted that both the writers were not ready to be labeled with feministic, both were humanistic. Ibsen has declared in his speech: I am not a member of the Women’s Rights League. Whatever I have written has been without any conscious thought of making any propaganda. I have been more poet and less social philosopher than people generally seem inclined to believe. I am not even quite clear to what this women right movement really is. To me it seemed problem of humanity in general” ( 2006 :93). They humanistically approached the matters happening in the lives of their characters particularly female characters in these two stories. It is not with feministic intention either of them wrote the story of Nora or Savitri and their revolting action. They observed it as a human problem. Belonging to different cultures, however, they depicted it with different views and style. Therefore we see, though Savitri from The Dark Room is called here as Nora’s sister, she appears a different lady with her Indian cultural background and in some other aspects. The analytical study of both these characters will help to examine critically the views of both the authors and it will throw light on why Ibsen’s A Doll’s House became a milestone in the dramatic literature of the world and imitating its rebelling approach Nora’s sisters born all over the world. It appealed greatly to the traditional and modern viewers and readers. On the other hand, The Dark Room is not that
In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, black literature was dominated by cultural nationalism, a form of black nationalism which assumed that race was the most significant factor in a black person's life and art was the best instrument for nurturing a black consciousness. Amiri Baraka, a central figure of the movement, proclaimed in 1966 that "Black People are a race, a culture, a Nation." However, by the mid-70s black writers such as Al Young and Ishmael Reed were beginning to envision literature as multiethnic instead of mono-ethnic. They realized that there was a kinship among the literatures of the people who were not part of the dominate culture; they were all excluded from the mainstream for being different. In 1972 Young, Reed, and others established the Yardbird Reader. Significantly, the first issue was not all black; it reflected the end of a mono-ethnic consciousness and published not only black writers but also Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and Euro-American writers; later issues published native American authors as well. In Yardbird Reader 5 (1974) Reed succinctly summarizes the magazine's goals:
accidental and transient sense; the Near East is fundamentally, essentially, permanently between East and West.# The Near East is neither East nor West, nor a synthesis of East and West. This negative characterization is perhaps its most distinctive one. The Near East is not the East, notwithstanding the obvious presence of traces of Hindu mysticism in the Near Eastern spirit. For there are radical differences between the basic and dominant Near Eastern character, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, either the Chinese character, founded on the whole upon social, ethical and family relationships, or the Indian metaphysical-Hindu outlook, which in its typical instance tends to consider everything worldly, historical or material a mere shadow.
The phrase "if it bleeds, it leads," was as true in early modern England as it is today, and—in many plays adapted from murder narratives—the domestic tragedy genre catered to audiences' desires for authentic stories of violent, true crime.  Though these domestic murder tragedies traded on growing interests in authenticity and fact in early modern culture (Barbara Shapiro, A Culture of Fact ; Mary Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact ), they were adapted through the non -factual genres of drama and poetry.  These plays, therefore, highlight a tension between the "authenticity" of true crime and the inventive nature of theater.  I argue in this essay that the desire to adapt such narratives into drama ushered in a new kind of dramatic storytelling: the concept "based on a true story."  Though fidelity to accepted facts was greatly valued in early murder plays, such as Arden of Faversham , these plays nevertheless relied on speculation and invention to adequately dramatize the characters involved, and the addition of fabricated elements to truth-based stories changed the ways in which these stories came to be "known."  The interplay of differing perspectives and sympathetic connections, only available through speculative invention, allowed these narratives to act as a kind of alternative truth—one not based on the concept of fidelity to "reality."  In this paper, I examine two domestic crime adaptations, Arden of Faversham and The Miseries of Enforced Marriage , and I argue that, as fictional elements became increasingly acceptable in reality-based plays, playwrights would eventually modify the meaning of "truth" in true drama.
on which he has tried to found a sketch of the advance of the Roman spirit and of things Roman in the East until the time of Hadrian. He divides his matter into five periods—early, middle and later Republic, the time of Augustus, and the early Empire. This arrangement is, in principle, unimpeachable, but has not proved altogether happy in practice; the reader seems always to be chasing his pet subject from one section to another. Possibly marginal headings might have helped him in his search. Dr. Hahn concentrates his energies especially on the department of language with very successful results. His firsthand researches as to the various infiltrations of Roman words and constructions into Greek writings and inscriptions are a very solid foundation of information. We cannot equally praise the rest of the book. In spite of the interest of the subject, it is extraordinarily monotonous to read. Perhaps the author has been too diffident; instead of boldly advancing two or three ideas of his own and working them out thoroughly, he is inclined to quote the opinions of other people, and as he only quotes them in fragments the result is very disturbing. What ought to have been a general sketch of an interesting character has degenerated too much into a compilation. If Dr. Hahn intends to write more on this subject—and it is to be hoped that he will—it would be better if he presented his researches either in the form of a detailed and minute investigation into one particular point, as he has done in his section on language, or in the form of a very readable general sketch, without too much detail.
518 Volume 38, Number 3 race through competitions with whites. This overrepresentation has advanced the notion of the natural black athlete: a problematic concept to say the least. The one area that Martin does not include, which is extremely important, is the discussion of the unintended consequences of the First World War and how the “Great Migration” and service in the military both abroad and on the home front, provided African Americans in general and black men in particular a new sense of themselves as citizens and as men. At the core of American identity politics is the understanding that it is the relationships between the various peoples residing within the imagined and real borders of the nation, which provides one with a sense of belonging and purpose. The beginning of WWI initiated numerous changes within the African-American community, many of which have still gone unaccounted for. In Benching Jim Crow, Martin clearly recounts and examines the social, political, economic, and cultural influences on the development of Big-Time college sports in both the North and the South, deconstructing the decisions of specific colleges and universities to either support or negate the promotion of exclusionary tactics in the service of white supremacy. Indeed, as a result of the national and global realities brought about by WWI and the changing definitions of American manhood emerging during the first half of the twentieth century, public performances linked to the evolution and maintenance of a particular kind of white American masculinity were aggressively protected by the various stewards of whiteness, including institutions of higher education. These protectors of the nation’s core identity sought to exclude anyone who could diminish or damage the psychological advantages maintained in minimizing the competitions between those who posed a threat to the fragile nature of white American manhood: black men. Fortunately, the war and the service rendered by African-American men who performed wonderfully as citizen-soldiers proved important to the changes documented here by Martin. —PELLOM MCDANIELS III University of Missouri Kansas City
the back of June Levine’s A Season of Weddings states that the novel is “an extraordinarily powerful insight into how the instinctive bonds between women can spill over into love, and into the great gaps—in all societies— between women’s lives and expectations.” The jacket summary does not belie the book’s contents, though it does rehearse universalism and essentialism more aggressively than the novel; if anything, the jacket summary is more explicit about sexuality than the book itself when it asserts that “through her increasingly intimate relationship with Maya, the young Indian mother of a bride, [the protagonist, Nora Ryan] begins to probe the nature of sexuality and ritual. . . .” I introduce this book-jacket blurb because it suggests the difficulties presented by lesbianism in Irish feminist discourse. Levine’s novel is one of many Irish feminist narratives, fictional and historiographical, that subsume the lesbian experience of their protagonists into a more general narrative of feminist “awakening.” Lesbianism is put to the service of self-discovery and engagement with the difficulties of being a woman in Ireland. While such insights into women’s experience are useful, this incorporation of lesbianism into a more general narrative of feminist experience results in the erasure of lesbian experience. I argue that this erasure follows the pattern and logic of Irish nationalist discourse, which, as David Lloyd has argued, seeks control of narratives “since its political and legal frameworks can only gain consent if the tale they tell monopolizes the field of probabilities” (6). By accepting the logic of nationalism, feminist writers do to
Background: In paediatrics and neonatology, the term ‘‘near miss’’ is mostly used in the situation of adverse events during patient care. Another common use of the term is in the perspective of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). No accepted definition of NNM in this setting currently exists. The definition of Neonatal near miss (NNM) used differently, can aid in assessing and improving obstetric and paediatrics practice in different settings. By identifying those neonates that escaped being apprehended as a death statistic, deficiencies in the services rendered to pregnant women may be addressed and this may lead to further improvement in care.1Methods: The unmatched case control study was conceded in Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Rukamani Chainani Hospital Vadodara. Newborns admitted in NICU, having any one of criteria like birth weight less than 1500, gestational age less than 30 weeks and Apgar score less than 7 at 5 minutes, were defined as Near miss in this study.Results: Neonatal mortality rate was 22 per 1000 live births during study period, whereas neonatal near-miss rate was 87.6 per 1000 live births. In study groups average duration of stay in NICU was 10 days for neonates.Conclusions: There must be a scoring system or calculation of infant mortality index events into the system to identify near miss events which help for the restructuring and improvement of care for pregnant women and newborns.
1. IntroductionLanguage and Jewish Identity Jewish Language and Identity in Comparative and Historic Perspective Language and Jewish Identity in Modern Times Conclusion 2.HebrewHebrew as Language of Ancient Israel The Death of Hebrew as a Spoken Language Hebrew as a Sacred Language Diaspora Hebrew and the Modern European Ideology of Language-and-Identity The Revival of Hebrew Diaspora Hebrew Today Conclusion 3.Other Jewish languagesAramaic Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Spanish Yiddish Are "Jewish languages" a Unique Phenomena? Why are there no new "Jewish Languages? Flowering and Death Catastrophe and Emotional Attachment Prestige of Languages Is Yiddish Qualitatively Different from Other Diaspora languages? Conclusion 4.Themes in Jewish sociolinguisticsConflict with everyday-language-and-identity Groups Sociolinguistics in Israel Today Language, Identity and Nation References
ABSTRACT How did New York City’s climate politics change after Hurricane Sandy, and why? Prevailing accounts of extreme weather’s impact on climate politics draw on survey data and characterize climate policy in vague terms. However, weather does not do the work of politics; the specifics of climate policy matter. I develop a relational sociological approach focused on mobilized actors, political economy, and event theory. Drawing on interviews and document analysis, I show how senior disaster officials, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg and his Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, community groups and Occupy Sandy activists responded to Hurricane Sandy. Actors maintained outlooks and practices consistent with their position in the city’s power relations. This selective continuity shifted New York’s climate policy from decarbonization-focused tentative cosmopolitanism to adaptation-focused defensive parochialism. I term this convergent prioritization of adaptation a ‘fortress of solitude’ social logic. Only subsequent events explain New York’s 2019 low-carbon legislation.
In the last fifteen years of research into the history of Catholics in England it has become possible to discover much about their numbers and organisation, their political ideas and relations with the government, and their social and financial status. What still tends to be elusive is the nature and quality of their spiritual life. What follows is an attempt to see how far and under what conditions Catholics of Staffordshire in the eighteenth century carried out their religious duties.
Relationship research on Mexican origin women often focuses on their ethnicity while ignoring other aspects of their lives. Mexican origin women are diverse and as researchers we need to study this diversity. Informed by Chicana Feminism, this dissertation examines the experiences of Mexican origin women in intimate relationship in the form of three manuscripts. My goal is to make Mexican origin women’s voices more wholly heard in relationship research. The first manuscript is a conceptual one, in which I examine the shortcomings of relationship research on heterosexual Mexican origin women. Some scholars have regarded Mexican origin women as a “triple minority” (see Arellano & Ayala-Alcantar, 2004) due to their disadvantaged social locations in terms of gender, ethnicity, and social class. I argue that in order to fully understand the experiences of Mexican origin women, it is necessary to study the intersections in which they are situated. This manuscript critically examines how the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and class affects women’s experiences in heterosexual intimate relationships. In the second manuscript, I examine Mexican origin women’s perceptions of the division of childcare and how these perceptions influence evaluations of their romantic and parenting relationships. Results reveal women’s perceptions of the division of childcare impact both their romantic and parenting relationship. The moderating effects of gender role attitudes are also investigated. Results demonstrate the diversity of Mexican origin women’s experiences within families. Lastly, in the third manuscript, I explore the impact of structural, behavioral, and attitudinal familism on relationship conflict. Participants were 64 cohabiting or married couples
survived most intact in Dixie” (p. 363). But he might have used his formidable research and analytical skills to explore more fully how that enduring view facilitated Sun Belt conservatism’s rise and, with it, a renewed commitment to military spending and an interventionist foreign policy. These critiques, however, should not detract from Fry’s achievement. The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie is a valuable book—deeply researched, well written, comprehensive, and persuasive. For courses on the Vietnam War, this book offers a regional counterpoint to texts that take a national view of domestic politics. For courses on the New South, it will reveal how southern history and culture shaped the region’s approach to, and the country’s prosecution of, the Vietnam War. Both perspectives remain important as Americans continue to grapple with Vietnam’s legacy and begin the undoubtedly long process of coming to terms with more recent international conflicts.
Palestinian National Council is not “the governing body” of the PLO (p. 17) but its legislative body; the name of the “celebrated Palestinian-American academic” cited on p. 81 is Hisham Sharabi, not Shirabi; Cecil Hourani’s ideas about exploiting Arab oil in order to influence Europe were expressed in 1967, not 1969 (p. 30). Despite these shortcomings and other flaws (some of which come from sloppiness), Inglorious Disarray is a highly informative work that draws attention to an important subject that has hitherto received little attention. The book underlines the need for similar studies dealing with the Arab and Israeli perspectives on Europe’s involvement in the conflict during the same period.
In early 1942, 23,000 Japanese Canadians on the West Coast were forcibly relocated against their will to the interior of Canada after Japan entered the war against the Allies. This forced relocation left deep scars in that community. Decades later, Japanese Canadians mounted a redress campaign for an official apology and financial restitution. This provocation examines that campaign and explores how it has shaped Canada’s constructed memory of the Second World War.
The original meanings of Hijiri have been clarified to some extent by the descriptions in the opening section. Hijiri as a specifically religious concept came into existence in the middle of the Heian Period, succeeding the formed ubasoku(upasaka)zenji group of the Nara Period65), as represented by Gy6gi-bosatsu66) and En-no-ubasoku67). It was gradually formed on the basis of feelings which were common to both the special religious ascetics who had firm faith and strict practices, including the observance of the Buddhist discipline of forbearance and mercifulness, and the religious hermits who had endeavored to achieve a higher form of religious experience and consciousness in the isolated and secluded mountains or hermitages. Buddhism in the Nara Period made a sharp discrimination between state Buddhism and private or popular Buddhism, because it had developed under the patronage and control of the state. The attitude of the government toward private beliefs and practices was negative
In 1880 the English actor and manager May Holt, following her real-life marriage to a ‘gentleman’ and temporary withdrawal from London and provincial stages, wrote six plays which were staged many times by several managements. The introduction gives some details of her career and examines in detail her most successful work, a short ‘curtain raiser’ comedy, Waiting Consent, which starred several major actors over the next decade, including Violet and Irene Vanbrugh. An unusual early ‘bedroom farce’, it challenged assumptions about women and marriage in the same decade that saw the passing of the Married Women’s Property Act and the first staging of Ibsen’s A Doll's House. The edited script of Waiting Consent follows.
Wade Brown, The God-Inspired Language of the Book of Mormon: Structuring and Commentary. Clackamas, OR: Rainbow Press, 1988. x + 988 pp. $19.95. Reviewed by David P. Wright A tradition in Book of Mormon literary study has crystalized over the past twenty years or so. This tradition has three discemable directions. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the attempt to identify structures and forms in the book that are found in ancient documents, particularly the Hebrew Bible and other Near Eastern documents, such as poetic parallelism (i.e., the collocation of semantically, syntactically, or grammatically similar phrases, sentences, or paragraphs) and chiasmus (inverse parallelism, such as the pattern a b c I c b a). Another familiar course is "wordprint" analysis by which scholars attempt to determine if a work derives from one or many authors. While these two approaches seek to elucidate the meaning of the text, they (and particularly the second) have often had the historical goal of seeking to demonstrate the antiquity of the book. A third, less familiar direction is the application of modem literary-critical methods to elucidate and discuss the book. This approach has generally not had the historical aim the other two approaches have had. The book under review here has been influenced by all three of these directions, but is mainly in line with the first. The book chiefly consists of displaying the parallelistic or repetitive structure of the entire Book of Mormon. Apart from the author's extremely short "Introduction" and "A Note of Explanation" (pp. iii-vii) and his wife's "Foreword" (p. i), which all provide the rationale for the work and its theological and historical perspectives, the entire book is a reproduction of the Book of Mormon with phrases, sentences, and paragraphs indented and spaced in order to exhibit the book's perceived parallelistic structure (pp. viii-988). The only other materials coming from the author are comments and footnotes, mostly on the first one hundred pages, which make a few observations regarding specific passages or forms in the first part of the Book of Mormon, present definitions of literary terms and structures, and offer theological and inspirational miscellanea. By its own admission, the book is not a scholarly work but rather a witness of the author's religious convictions. Indeed, it was his family for whom the work was originally BROWN, LANGUAGE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON {WRIGHT) 11 written as a "as a gift of his testimony of the language of the Book of Mormon" (p. i) that had the work published. This may account for th~ extremely brief and undeveloped character of the author's arguments and analysis. If there is a main argument in the introductory material and notes, it is that the literary form of the Book of Mormon is evidence of the book's divine character. While the author notes that real proof of the book's character comes through a spiritual witness, the concentration and perfection of repetitive structures throughout the book show for him that the form, and hence the text, has a divine origin. Moreover, the "refined and pure phrasing" in the Book of Mormon which is not found in other books, the author argues, gives meaning to Joseph Smith's statement that "the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth" (p. iv). One of the author's specific historical arguments is that "parallelism is not original with the Hebrews nor is it a product of language evolution" since parallelistic form is found not only in parts of the Book of Mormon which by traditional dating and interpretation stem from ancient Israel but in the speeches of "the pre-mortal Messiah and his prophets ... long before the house of Israel came into being" (p. v). In other words, this style is not of human origin; it is divine. The point of this review is not to question Brown's religious views, nor will it dwell on his metaphysical-historical judgments about the origin of the parallelistic form of the Book of Mormon which certainly can be questioned, even by scholars who view the book from an orthodox perspective. The point is rather to show that his layout of the text-apart from the problematic secondary material he has added-is a helpful contribution to the literary study of the Book of Mormon and has implications for further study. That the Book of Mormon has a style which involves parallelism and repetition is not Brown's imposition upon the text. And he does not go too far in trying to see these structures throughout the entire book. They are really there. Before becoming acquainted with Brown's book, I began my own study of Book of Mormon narrative. Part of this work involved ascertaining in detail the rhetorical or literary structure of certain chapters in the book. All the chapters studied displayed structures of repetition or other definable structures (see below). This is not to say the Book of Mormon is somehow unique in having discemable literary forms. Every product of speech-be it literary, religious, scientific, journalistic, or whatever-has a 12 REVIEW OF BOOKS ON TIIE BOOK OF MORMON formal logic and stylistic features. Form is inherent in the conventions of speech and is begotten the minute we open our mouths or pick up the pen. But this investigation showed that the Book of'Mormon had its own concentrated and intelligent style that required description. When Brown's book appeared, I was happy to see that someone had attempted to perform this analysis for the entire Book of Mormon. Certainly there are problems with Brown's textual presentation and his secondary observations. Brown is too simplistic in calling all his discerned structures examples of parallelism. It seems in several cases that his search for repetition may have obscured the representation of other forms. Furthermore, his work, though covering the entire Book of Mormon, has no real analysis or commentary. For example, a reader would like to see some discussion about how form affects the meaning of passages or a much more mature and extensive discussion about the historical significance of the forms. In connection with the lack of analysis, while Brown does refer to some studies of literary matters in the Hebrew Bible for elucidation of points here and there, he has not digested this material but uses it in a piecemeal fashion. Another difficulty lies in the Book of Mormon text he has used. Literary analysis should be conducted on the best text available, which, arguably, is the text that Joseph Smith first dictated. The Original Manuscript would for the most part represent this text (theoretically it may not completely represent what Joseph Smith dictated since there is a chance that scribes did not correctly write what he said). But since it is not available for general public use and is incomplete, constituting an "original" text can only be done by making conjectures from the Original Manuscript in connection with the Printer's Manuscript (copied by Oliver Cowdery from the Original) and early published editions of the Book of Mormon. Brown has apparently attempted to give his readers something of an original text, but it is not trustworthy. His sources for his text seem to be the first edition ( 1830) and the Printer's Manuscript, which he calls "the earliest documents available" (p. 125; cf. pp. 260, 540). It appears that he has eclectically chosen readings from these sources, but he has not always included clearly authentic readings from these early documents. These shortcomings limit the value of Brown's textual representation. Nevertheless, it is still beneficial as a springboard for more detailed consideration of form and style. BROWN, LANGUAGE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON (WRIGHT) 13 It draws our attention to literary features that require further investigation and discussion. A few examples will show the type of features and issues Brown's work brings into view. The first three derive from my own study of Alma 30 conducted prior to my seeing Brown's book. The structuring of the text, however, is much the same as in Brown's work. The fourth and last example is dependent on Brown's work, though with this I use my own, slightly different, structuring. This selection of examples will not only show how Brown's work might stimulate thinking about the issues; it will also exemplify the diversity of Book of Mormon forms and will show how we can go beyond mere structuring of the text to say something about its meaning. 1. One of the Book of Mormon's formal characteristics is embedding, where each phrase in a series of phrases is grammatically or logically dependent upon the phrase just before it, thus forming a chain of linked phrases. For example, in Alma's description of Korihor's curse (Alma 30:47) we find a five-member embedded structure: a Therefore, if thou shalt deny again, b behold, God shall smite thee, c that thou shalt become dumb, d that thou shalt never open thy mouth any more, e that thou shalt not deceive this people any more. The first two phrases are members of a conditional ("if-then") phrase. Phrase c develops b with a result clause conjoined with the word "that" describing the effect of the smiting; phrase d develops c, also with a result clause similarly conjoined, describing or defining the effect of being dumb; and finally e concludes with another similar result clause describing what happens when one cannot open one's mouth. One of the literary effects of this particular embedded structure is a feeling of focusing. From the general condition of denial one moves to the specific result of being smitten. This is then defined further as becoming dumb. Temporal limits are then set for the curse: Korihor will never open his mouth any more. The final clause fleshes out the description by giving the ultimate rationale for the curse. 2. Another feature of Book of Mormon narrative is listing. This may be termed a type of parallelism. Korihor describes the 14 REVIEW OF BOOKS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON mea
independence in reinterpreting the primary documents to strike a balance fairer than the received opinion; and if he occasionally seems to this ignorant reader to tilt the scales the other way, the opposing view is invariably documented. The book falls easily into two* parts, the hinge in the fortunes of the kingdom being the conversion of king Reccared from Arianism to Catholicism in 587. Though Thompson provides analyses of the political, economic, and social factors affecting the growth and the decline of the kingdom, inevitably the religious issues loom largest, since Arianism remains for so long the chief cultural symbol of the conquerors. The author is in fact concerned to play down the influence of religious factors as they affect foreign policy vis-d-vis Franks and Byzantines, and he is surely right to stress that national feelings always proved stronger than international creeds. 'Heresy did not make another nation an enemy, just as orthodoxy did not make it a friend.' But the internal history is dominated by the religious issue. Here Thompson's studies are chiefly directed towards showing that the Arian leaders manifested towards the Catholics a tolerance far more edifying than the attitudes of Catholic bishops. There must be much justice in this view, and Leovigild in particular emerges from this study as a constructive monarch of prudent and judicious tolerance. Yet the discussion of this broad religious question does seem in places a little one-sided (though the reviewer must confess his parti pris at this point). It might have been stressed that the bishops were not working and thinking within a purely Spanish framework; their attitudes towards such thorny issues as the Arian insistence on rebaptism are moulded by a developing theology greatly affected by the struggle with the Donatists in Africa. Within such a framework of thought, tolerance meant schism, and schism was the ultimate scandal, the division of Christ's body. Again, I think that insufficient tribute is paid to Isidore and to Braulio in their refutations of anti-Semitism; a bishop who sturdily defends Christian principles against both pope and monarch (see P.L. lxx. 667) should make the Arians scarce forbear to cheer. But these of course are controversial details. Professor Thompson's study, well written and well constructed, brings illumination into an area of preCarolingian Europe hitherto little examined by English-speaking scholars.
This thesis combines work in hauntology and phenomenology to explore the ways in which individuals experience the history of the Lizzie Borden House, especially on a tour of the house guided by a member of the staff. Hauntology is a concept developed primarily by Jacques Derrida in order to explore the lingering injustices associated with Western fears of communism (1994). However, it has been further utilized by diverse scholars, such as Avery Gordon (2008) and Byron Good (2012) to study how unspeakable traumas are engaged by literature and ethnographic subjects. My work will expand and connect these discrete lines of scholarship through the ethnographic and historical legacy of an infamous American murder scene that is now a privately owned and operated bed and breakfast.
Initiation rituals are concerned with the crossing of boundaries such as those between boyhood and manhood or the unmarried and the married state. From an anthropological point of view, they can be seen to lie in the broader category of rites of passage, which includes the rituals associated with birth and death and also with the crossing of boundaries in space and time, for example from one territory to another or from one year to another. Rupert Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past "Turning and Turning ... the Widening Gyre ..." How to find a real falcon? In the middle of London? A daunting task. So I was quite astonished to discover an advert for live falcons, in a trashy magazine called Exchange and Mart. Some guy in Dalston in the East End of London was selling some falcons newly arrived from India. I remember it clearly to this day, going into this decrepit, dilapidated old house and being taken down into the basement. Another basement. ... There, on high wooden perches in dark, dingy rooms, were the falcons. It was a moment of ecstasy. I had never imagined that the birds could be so utterly beautiful. When I asked if they could be trained for falconry, he promptly invited me to watch him flying a falcon on some nearby playing fields. I will never forget the moment the bird opened its wings and took off from his wrist. It seemed to me at that moment, to be the most incredible thing I had ever seen in my life. From that moment onwards, until 1991, falcons were the essence of my life, the sacred central meaning of my existence. I lived as a falcon, breathed as a falcon, copulated as a falcon, bred falcons in all kinds of difficult conditions, travelled to remote and dangerous mountain and desert regions, brought their eggs back thousands of miles on my stomach, sometimes even hatching them there. Without fully being conscious of it, I was gradually being drawn more and more into the realm of the Mysteries of Isis. The very first falcon I bought that day was a small red- headed Merlin from India. This was in 1969, soon after I had finished The Fall. I named the bird Aten, which was the name Akhenaten gave to the sun's disc. This was only the beginning. I had yet to learn the complexities of the art and craft of falconry. There was nothing spiritual about that. It was about learning how to communicate with a once wild living creature and to develop a harmony between us. It was a delicate pro cess which might well be considered "of a spiritual quality." The development of this kind of relationship with a living falcon is a fragile, fascinating experience, and no one documented it so accurately as T. H. White in The Goshawk (1951), a painfully authentic description of the gruelling pro cess by which you create the necessary, working relationship between man and a trained bird of prey. Taken from the wild. My life with the falcons spanned the next twenty years. I breathed falcons every minute of every day. I lived with them, I slept with them in my bedroom, I risked my life for them in the wild, in extreme conditions, time and time again. I went to some of the most remote and dangerous places in the world, po liti cally and physically. I walked across glaciers, lived and slept in cars in temperatures of minus fifty Fahrenheit. One year I captured falcons in Alaska as late as December. No sun, just two hours of dusk. I taught myself to climb rocks in Morocco because I needed to scale cliffs to retrieve live eggs from nests. But these were huge desert cliffs which my climbing teacher- a friend I'd taken along who had climbed Everest- refused to climb with me, calling it "vertical mud. Suicide!" The cliffs were indeed really dangerous as there was literally nothing solid to cling to. The Arctic is also a dangerous place, at all times, but I had to go there at the absolutely worst time of year, when the birds laid their eggs. I would arrive on these ice fields just as they were beginning to melt. …
In May, 1990, the reknowned Czech author Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997) visited the Department of Slavonic Languages and Literatures at the University of Glasgow. Jan Culik was present and later took Hrabal for a trip by car to Loch Katrine. On his return to Czechoslovakia, Bohumil Hrabal wrote an experimental text about this which was published in his volume Dopisy Dubence (Letters to April). In this contribution, Jan Culik compares the image of Hrabal's visit to Glasgow and to Scotland as it is featured in his literary text to what happened in reality.
Taking Northern Nigeria during the years 1946 to 1966 as an example, Professor Whitaker shows how modern institutions--parliamentary representation, a cabinet system, popular suffrage, and political parties--were introduced and how they resulted not in a displacement of tradition but in an astute absorption by traditional forces. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
With the establishment and consolidation of the ritual in the Han Dynasty,the love songs,which reflected the free and vivacious love between young men and women in the Book of Songs.Airs of the States,were disappearing.Meanwhile,a large number of works appeared which described women’s situation and feelings in their marriage.Among them the works by Xu Shu reached higher achievements in female literature.Her masterpieces,such as Reply to the Poem by Qin Jia,Reply to the Letter from My Husband Qin Jia,Another Letter to Qin Jia,had made great significance and contributions to the female literature of the Han Dynasty.
The title of William Golding's last novel, The Double Tongue (1995), alludes to the notorious ambiguity of the Delphic oracle; the novel explicitly draws on Euripides's tragicomedy Ion as hypotext. Not only is the eponymous character of Euripides's play clearly adapted by Golding, but Golding's narrator and main character, Arieka, can be regarded as a conflation of two Euripidean characters, Kreousa and the Priestess. In both works, Apollo plays a dominant role extra scaenam as divine manipulator of human action. In the Ion, he literally rapes Kreousa; in The Double Tongue, he metaphorically rapes Arieka by forcibly impregnating her with the seed of oracular truth. In this article, Genette's theory of hypertextualite is employed to help us understand the relationship between Euripides and Golding. After exploring Golding's strategies for contextualising an historical novel, I examine his adaptation of the Euripidean hypotext in terms of setting, plot, characterisation and theme.
Allen T?te said of Em?y Dickinson that she Uved in "the perfect Uterary situation" in New England. She was able to focus her art at a junc ture between Hawthorne's world of Christian redemption, then drawing to a close, and a newer, more Emersonian one in which arose "the con formist idea of respectab?ity among neighbors whose spiritual disorder, not very evident at the surface, was becoming acute." Peter Taylor, one of America's most gifted writers of short stories in the second half of the twentieth century, did not inherit Dickinson's reconfigured New England. His own world fixes on the northern boundary states of the South in the decades foUowing World War II, but it was for him also a "perfect Uterary situation." An older order of hierarchical class and racial separation de fined by rigidly held social mores was coUapsing to be replaced by a largely homogeneous, standardized, and morally groundless middle class that was, in fact, misplacing its southern identity. Taylor's greatest work be comes enmeshed in the losses and gains of that transition, though for him, as for Walker Percy, the losses seem greater. Like Dickinson's emerg ing New England, Taylor's new South is one "whose spiritual disorder ... [is] becoming acute." Though they are less frequently anthologized now, such stories as "The Old Forest" (perhaps his masterpiece), "In the Miro District," "Venus, Cupid, FoUy and Time," and "Miss Leonora When Last Seen" belong among the major achievements of the last century. His novel, A Summons to Memphis, won the Pulitzer Prize for 1986. A handful of critical studies of Taylor's work have appeared in recent years, along with a coUection of his interviews. Now, Hubert H. McAlexander, who edited the interviews, has pubUshed the biography Peter Taylor: A Writer's Life. The dominant impression that I came away with after reading it is that Peter Taylor became, for the whole of his Ufe,
Fifteen years before his theory was published in full in The origin of species (1859), Darwin wrote to the English botanist J. D. Hooker that becoming convinced of the mutability of species was "like confessing to a murder".' The wheels of justice have rolled on ever since; today, it seems, the ideas, assumptions and implications of evolutionism still stand on trial. Even in the courts of science, where it is often supposed that a consensus of opinion prevails, there may still be heard cries of "inadmissible evidence", "faulty testimony", and more worryingly, "rigged jury". To some degree it is true that Darwin's theory must be accepted for the life sciences to collate and organize all the phenomena which fall under their province. If, as H. G. Wells once said, biology is a "digestive science", then evolutionary theory is the body of that science.! The debates which occur nowadays concerning the pace and pattern of evolution, its mechanism, and the relations between natural selection in the animal and human worlds are nonetheless important and, taken as a whole, prompt some fundamental reassessments of the status of the theory in relation to standards of scientificity. The titular, and very real, originator of such debates would certainly have found them important and, given his interest in the philosophy of science, Darwin would also have found value in the methodological strains in current re-evaluations of his doctrines. On the other hand, those varied political and moral instructions which were swiftly drawn from his work locked Darwin in a dilemma rather than a debate. The dilemma was that Darwin felt his private beliefs had little bearing on his public statements and, moreover, that science taught no ethical or religious lessons at all. On a personal level, Darwin felt bewilderment at the complexity of the issues involved in viewing problems of faith through the lens of fact "Let each man hope and believe what he can", he wrote.' But Darwin's retiring modesty must actually have encouraged others to assume his sponsorship of their own views even where there was little justification for so doing. In addition, the sanctions which Darwin's theory supposedly gave to various beliefs depended as much on the status of that theory in the public and the professional mind as on the innate character of those beliefs. The relish with which, say, political theorists turned to The origin for support says a good deal
The subject matter of this article is a reception study conducted with children in Santos, a city in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the musealization of marine archeology there. The survey was carried out with nine-year-old students from a public school in that city and included theoretical assumptions derived from museum communication and public archeology. A range of intervention methods was applied over six months whose topics for guiding the collection of information were museum, port, archeology and underwater archeology. The investigation enters into a dialogue with contemporary musealization proposals which value the public’s participation in the heritage preservation process.
Over 55 years ago, I graduated from the then almost new University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and went off to Boston and the Brigham to be a straight medical intern. I had been married for 2 years, and my wife was pregnant with our first child—neither of us knew a soul in Boston. I was on duty for 36 of each 48 hours (except for 1 weekend a month) and was of little help to my wife, who was alone in a strange city and was facing the imminent birth of our first child.
S INCE World War II, Southem Rhodesia has been undergoing an economic revolution. Throughout its previous history, gold mining had remained the basis of its economy, but in the postwar years this has been overshadowed by an agricultural expansion that has brought new wealth to the Colony. Still more significant have been the postwar rise of secondary industry and the striking growth of industrial centers. Since 1945 the European population has nearly doubled; for immigration has been at a rate exceeding i per cent of the population a month a rate probably unparalleled in the history of the British Commonwealth.' Expansion has been greatest in the twin cities of Salisbury and Bulawayo, now overcrowded with more than half the Colony's white population. Within a decade Southern Rhodesia will almost certainly become the industrial hub of Central Africa. A disquieting feature of this expansion, in industry and agriculture alike, is its dependence on migrant African labor. Southern Rhodesia at present employs about half a million Africans, of whom half are indigenous and half are migrants from neighboring territories. Alien migrants include Africans from Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia to the extent of one-quarter and one-sixth respectively of their able-bodied male populations-evidence, incidentally, of the economic iinterdependence, as well as of the human interrelationships, of the territories comprising the Central African Federation. These migrants constitute nearly two-thirds of all African emigrants from the two northern territories. In addition, Southern Rhodesia employs about one-tenth of all African emigrants from Mozambique. Yet, except for the Mozambique flow, interterritorial migration is waning. Increasingly, labor migration, hitherto regarded by most African
Wortman, and others, along with major and lesser-known Russian scholars. Vinitskii follows a traditional path as he structures the book chronologically to focus on three key periods of Zhukovskii's career, but at the same time, he shows acute scholarly imagination in the creation of thematic titles and subtitles that bring out the complex ramifications of the problems addressed. The main title of the book itself, The House of the Interpreter, comes from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and describes the stopping place where the interpreter shows the pilgrim pictures dramatizing Christian faith. Earlier scholarship has typically focused on Zhukovskii's role as an interpreter of German romantic sensibility and has generally given less attention to his role as a spiritual interpreter who sought to integrate life's ongoing spiritual quest into the very real literary and historical processes of the given world. It is this latter Zhukovskii who dominates Vinitskii's study in compelling fashion. Other headings include the book's prologue, "Poeticheskaia semantika Zhukovskogo, ili Rassuzhdenie o vkuse i smysle 'Ovsianogo kiselia'" (Zhukovskii's poetic semantics, or Discourse on the taste and purpose of 'Oatmeal'); "Nebesnyi Aachen" (Heavenly Aachen); "Doroga bur'" (The road of storms); and "Nevidimyi eshafot" (The invisible gallows). Vinitskii presents Zhukovskii's "Oatmeal" essentially as a template for the poet's larger endeavor: the creation of a parable that was "Christian not in terms of its plot or characters but rather in its internal form and intended effect on the listener" and that took "the idyllic themes of leisure, organic growth, nourishment, labor, children, sunshine, harvest, and death [and] turned them into religious symbols" (66-67). By choosing a bowl of Russian oatmeal as his subject, Zhukovskii establishes "an indissoluble teleological connection between low and high, joke and lyric, earth and heaven, everyday life and religion" (69).
This project, sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society, improved an existing index for early scientific illustrations. The project created a webpage to access the existing database which contains information on illustrations from the early volumes of Scientific American. The project also updated the database to include new features, corrected issues with the previous data, added Volume 1 to the database and explored how useful the database might be for researchers studying periodicals, inventions and technology from the mid 1800‘s.
This chapter explores immigration, race, and religion through the nation’s first Jewish rural cemeteries of the 1850s. These grounds embodied an important duality for Jewish New Yorkers’ social belonging to an emerging white middle class while also safeguarding Jewish particularity and continuity. Still recent Jewish immigrants eagerly participated in the Rural Cemetery Movement, laying out lavish cemeteries and embracing its universalism by setting those grounds in closer proximity than ever before to non-sectarian Christian counterparts. Conversely, Jews of all stripes made sure to cluster together behind clear physical barriers, and nearly all synagogues and Jewish fraternities prohibited Christian burial and maintained old links between interment rights and intermarriage. Aware of increasing acceptance in the United States, Jewish New Yorkers celebrated their costly new cemeteries as symbols of mobility and belonging. At the same time, they doubled down on physical, ritual, and intangible divisions within them to temper that integration.
The book (Looking Good, GD&, 2016) is a collaboration between GraphicDesign& and Cambridge theology graduate Veronica Bennett, in which Mark was invited to devise a set of icons to represent the medals worn by a range of religious orders. 'Looking Good: A visual guide to the nun’s habit' identifies and illustrates the dress of more than 40 Catholic communities of nuns and sisters. It catalogues and compares this ‘extra ordinary’ religious clothing, explaining its components, significance and distinguishing identifiers. The accompanying text, incorporating visions and miracles, high drama and humble beginnings, persecution and insurrection, reveals how the story of the habit is also that of the struggle between the powerful and the poor; of politics, social care and the role of women.
RSVP AT SEANMCMEEKIN.EVENTBRITE.COM The First World War is still alive in Turkey, in a way it has not been in Europe for decades. To the extent most westerners think about the conflict, they tend to follow what we might call the “European Union” narrative, chalking it up to outmoded militarism (mostly Germanic), which produced a senseless Civil War between European nations who learned to live in peace only after an even more terrible rerun from 1939-1945.
This report summarizes the important aspects of the workshop on "Managing and Mining Genome Information: Frontiers in Bioinformatics" which took place October 31st until November 4th, 2005. Twenty five Participants came from six different countries representing various "branches" of the bioinformatics community. The presentations ranged from describing highly theoretical models to presenting prototypes or systems for managing and mining data in bioinformatics.
Spanning the years of 1940-1965, THE LAST LION picks up shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister-when his tiny island nation stood alone against the overwhelming might of Nazi Germany. The Churchill conjured up by William Manchester and Paul Reid is a man of indomitable courage, lightning fast intellect, and an irresistible will to action. THE LAST LION brilliantly recounts how Churchill organized his nation's military response and defense; compelled FDR into supporting America's beleaguered cousins, and personified the "never surrender" ethos that helped the Allies win the war, while at the same time adapting himself and his country to the inevitable shift of world power from the British Empire to the United States. More than twenty years in the making, THE LAST LION presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic leader. This is popular history at its most stirring.
Asia: almost one-half of Malaya's, and threesevenths of Taiwan's. Proper use of insecticides and fertilizers could double the rice yield. Yet, despite expropriation, rural credit banks, and resettlement, tenant farming still increases (it is now between 47-58 per cent). Failure to educate the owners to their full responsibility and to motivate farm workers has limited Philippine growth. Short-sighted use of capital has also prevented development of hybrid corn, high-quality copra (the Philippines is the world's leading exporter but its careless smokecure lessens the copra's value), or the kind of by-products that can rescue the sugar industry when (after 1974) it no longer receives premium U. S. prices. Meanwhile, fishponds have multiplied, but there is almost no deep-sea fishing. The Philippines has a near-monopoly on first-class abaca, but machine-decortication destroys some of its tensility. Its tobacco is primarily cigarfiller; and it imports an imbalance of U. S. cigarettes. Almost half the land is forested and in public domain, but Japan can buy Philippine timber and undersell their plywood. Similarly, most of the Philippines' iron ore goes to Japan for lack of coking coal. Already 44 per cent of the country's total electric energy comes from waterpower; but other water goes to waste—only one-ninth of the cultivated land is irrigated. Every resource is accompanied by its cultural or natural impediment. Not the least is the inadequacy of transportation. With Japanese reparations, the Philippines has just begun to replace war-depleted rolling stock. Its effort to extend the Luzon track south and northeast is intermittent; and none of the other forty-five major islands have any track whatsoever, aside from short mining or sugar central spurs. Somehow Huke overlooked this additional "shadow" and neglected inter-island shipping altogether. Nevertheless, his volume is more than adequately substantial for course-work, scholarly speculation, and even corrective legislation.
Textbooks represent a peculiar and intriguing way of historical reception. They are used for educating children and students, but in the particular setting of the nineteenth-century Austrian-Hungarian Empire, they were printed, translated, and published in a variety of political, ideological, and cultural, circumstances. The personality of Saint Gerard was refected in a number of different Serbian textbooks in the nineteenth century. The majority of these textbooks was published in Southern Hungary, i.e. now part of Serbia and the Romanian region of Banat. The aim of this paper is to present what was written on the character, work, and aims of Saint Gerard in the nineenth-century Serbian textbook. Through author biographies, curriculums, and the textbooks themselves, it is possible to highlight the importance of theHungarian medieval history in textbooks and the role of Christianity not only in the textbooks themselves, but in the educational system, as well.
This scientific article is devoted to investigation of the peculiarities of Gerund in Old and Modern Kazakh language. The differences and similarities of Gerund and the formation and development of consistent patterns according to developing periods in history are given in this research. The peculiarities, differences and common features of Gerund in Old and Modern Kazakh language were analyzed by comparing the language of ancient written language and the grammar of Modern Kazakh language.
ABSTRACT This essay is arranged into three sections to present the traditional Chinese rendering and publishing process of The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia: (1) copyright and publishers; (2) the interpretation of terminology between translators; (3) market evaluation and circulation.The whole progress for us is like a never-ending language game that leads ourselves to this spiritual adventure.
A common complaint is that there's not enough critical writing on Indigenous Australian art, due largely to an aesthetic and spiritual impasse, and to political correctness gone mad. I agree with this but only insomuch as there is not enough critical writing on the arts as a whole, in the context of the dwindling of related newspaper columns and TV broadcast time and the preference for pithy profile and promotional pieces in the glossier albeit more popular art mags. There is still a mass of critical writing going on though, in print and online and even just within Australia but this writing, largely manifest through niche publishing and academic agencies, does not generally reach a mass readership.
This concluding chapter argues that as the three western allies crossed the threshold of victory after profoundly different wartime experiences, their postwar moments were bound to vary as well. Independently from one another, progressives in the three countries held comparable values and agendas for postwar change, which they encapsulated in three manifestos: the Common Program of the clandestine National Council of the Resistance (CNR) in early 1944; the Labour Party manifesto for the 1945 British general election, Let Us Face the Future; and The People's Program for 1944 of the CIO-PAC for the U.S. election of November 1944. When aligned, these three programs constitute a new portal into the postwar moment. Domestic postwar struggles in each country form three distinct scenarios, but they constitute a single story as well, foreshadowed by the common themes in the three manifestos.
Wealth ensures exist and development of human being,and running after wealth is people's com- mon character.Because of the restriction of times'economy,politics,culture and thinking mode,wealth concept and wealth theory also display different times'features.Ethic wealth concepts of ancient China have distinctive society background and deep connotation.The exploration of ethic wealth concept of ancient China has important practical or immediate significance.The significance lies in three facets that are how to establish the position, how to find modern value and how to realize modern changing of ethic wealth concept of ancient China.
The fourth chapter centres on the Lutheran mayor Bartholomäus Scultetus (1540–1614) who introduced the Gregorian Calendar to Lusatia and the Bohemian lands. Other Lutheran territories, most notably Saxony, refused to accept the more accurate calendar on religious grounds. Scultetus, however, advocated for the calendar and exchanged letters with Catholic dignitaries, praising the benefits of a calendar reform. He dedicated multiple works to Catholics, was friends with some of them and even included woodcuts of his Catholic friends or their coat of arms in his works. Other examples of this cross-confessional exchange include a monk who was one of the most popular godfathers in Zittau until the 1540s or the peaceful negotiations between Lutheran town councils and Franciscan monks regarding new town schools. Scultetus and other councillors also engaged in the creation of a Reformation memory, but without a clear shape of Lutheranism, these histories did not follow a unified pattern.
Survey data are a valuable source of archaeological information for tracing shifting patterns of human settlement, and they permit interpretive reconstructions of the changing organizational structure of regionally defined communities. In the semiarid highlands of central Jordan, Early Bronze Age survey data from the Madaba Plain region reveal a shift from a pattern of isolated site clusters concentrated along wadi systems or around perennial springs during the Late Chalcolithic/EB I to a more dense pattern configured in the form of a settlement hierarchy during the EB II-III. Models calculating the sustaining areas and rank-size distribution of known EB II-III sites, however, indicate a settlement system with a low level of integration and centralization. Rather than a truly urban culture, what emerged was a rural landscape composed of communities that remained self sustaining and sociopolitically autonomous while participating in limited production intensification. The settlement density reached during the EB II-III was reversed in the EB IV, with sites again confined to the principal wadi systems and springs in the region.
West Xia was the national regime existing in the same period with the Song Dynasty.Through imitation and learning from the Han nationality and the Tibet culture as well as foreign cultural elements,the book binding art gradually developed into maturity.A large quantities of paper documents and secular books in the medieval West Xia no matter in graphic form or layout,illustrations or covers,all exhibited the artistic characteristics of the fusion of diversified cultures.
This chapter highlights Coptic life-writing; identifying its various strands and forms can open new avenues for the analysis of Coptic literature. On the whole, the rise of the biographic that has been noted more generally for Late Antiquity is greatly felt in Coptic texts, perhaps even more strongly than in other languages as a proportion of the overall production. In many ways, the impulses of classical biography can be found in Coptic texts: they are used to define morality, provide examples, obtain adherence, persuade, justify, or legitimize. From the self-denying exemplum to the incredible superhero whose adventures inspired a mix of entertainment, suspense, and fear, the range of admirable individuals was broad. What brings all of those life stories together is their general lack of individuality in the characterization. The stress of these stories is on the authority embedded in a number of exemplary individuals, and the true source of that authority comes from conformity to a model and a set of received criteria. Accordingly, the genre is not at all introspective, despite the meta-discourse on introspection that pervades the ascetic biographies.
Early modern European governments and their subjects had difficulty agreeing to laws governing behavior on the sea - an environment that featured watery borders, rampant piracy, the threat of free trade, and the large-scale transportation of human cargo. The essays in this volume explore how the exploitation of the oceans changed the institution of slavery, long-distance trade, property crime, the environment, literature, and memory from medieval times to the nineteenth century.
printed in 1516, no doubt because of its manifest local associations, to be discussed below.1 The book in question is the Missale ad usum Cistercieñ printed in Paris by Jean Adam and Jean Kerbriand (alias Huguelin) for Jehan Petit, whose device is prominent on the title-page. Printed in red and black in double columns, it has 204 leaves with the fol lowing collation: A8 (unfoliated), a–o8 p4 (foliated j-cxvj), A–K8 (pagi nated j-clxj [an error for cljx] on rectos only).2 The local associations of the Leeds copy relate to both its preand post-Dissolution ownership. The principal explicit indication of its pre-Dissolution provenance is an eighteenth-century inscription on the inside front cover, which begins: ‘This Book is very scarce. It was probably amongst other things preserved by Mr. Will. Cooke of Beeston when Kirkstall Abbey was dissolved in 1540 [sic].’ Further evidence in support of this probability is presented below. The 1516 mis sal evidently circulated widely amongst Cistercian houses in Europe.3 Recently two other copies have been identified as having belonged to religious houses in the north of England.4 The Leeds copy would make a tenth item (and the second printed book) known to have once belonged to Kirkstall abbey.5 Bibliographical Notes
This dissertation turns specifically to the recovered writings of Reverend Adin Ballou, a historically neglected New England preacher, to re-envision and re-interpret what it meant to be a "seeker" during the religiously tumultuous antebellem era in the United States. Using Ballou as a lens, I argue that for both the pastor and practitioner, one's own understanding of religion was fluid despite denominational indentification.
A foot soldier. Great Britain entered the war August 4, 1914 and by the end of the war over six million British soldiers had fought in the war. Of these, over seven hundred thousand had been killed by the war's end. Translation of title: The Great War. The effort and ideal of Great Britain. Represented by a series of lithographs. Museum of Luxembourg. Signed: MD, 1918. Promotional goal: Fr. K92.J1. 1918. Item is no. 236 in a printed checklist available in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room. MB
Colour is one of the most prominent features of human experience, but has often been ignored or overlooked in archaeological research. All practising archaeologists are aware of the colour of the materials which they handle — be they stone artefacts, painted pots, prehistoric monuments (frontispiece) or historical buildings. Yet all too frequently these items are robbed of their colour when they are published as black and white photos, abstract plans or reductionist line drawings. Equally discouraging is the fact that original colours are frequently missing or faded, removed by the passage of centuries. We know, for example, that the famous marble Cycladic figurines were originally brightly painted, but few traces of colouring survive. Yet such traces are enough to alert us to the radical transformation which colour could bring to old and faded remains. In this Viewpoint feature we have invited a range of specialists to consider the meaning of colour in early societies. The intention has been to focus on those societies where evidence of colour is not so readily apparent. Egyptian art and Palaeolithic caves have their place in this debate, but we are also interested in the selection of stones of particular colours for tools or structures, and for the use of colour in textiles; areas in which almost all early societies must have been engaged. The meaning of colour may be approached at a variety of levels. In literate societies, or those with a rich and detailed iconographic tradition, it may be possible to explore the particular significance of different colours in myths or rituals. Such understanding is more difficult in the case of prehistoric societies, yet even here we can gain some insight into colour symbolism by careful consideration of context, or by cautious appeal to common human experience. Context may suggest that red ochre in burials equates with blood, common experience that yellow is associated with the sun, and blue with the sky or the sea. The value accorded to particular colours can also be indicated by the workmanship and finish which objects received, and the distances that materials travelled: polished jadeite from the Alps to Scotland, or lapis lazuli from Afghanistan to Mesopotamia. As the following articles demonstrate, all societies are concerned about colour, and such concern can be traced back to at least the Upper Palaeolithic, if not before. To what extent particular colours, such as red or black, have cross-cultural significance, is an altogether more difficult question. Colour awareness and colour sensitivity must however be an integral part of any archaeological analysis concerned with the development and nature of human cognition.
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In No. 172, Museum covered a museum in Central Argentina that was the life work of a lone and very tenacious person, Aroldo D. Rosso. The phenomenon of what we called ‘single-parent’ museums seems, in fact, to he quite widespread. In this section we offer first some thoughts on their general roles and prospects, followed by a report on the Paris museum that artist Gustave Moreau built to house his paintings.
MASATOSHI NAGATOMI WAS a panoramic thinker. Raised in a Jødo Shinsh¥ family, he chose the distant world of Indian Buddhism as his research field. Educated at Kyoto University, he went on to complete his doctorate at Harvard University, spending time studying in India as well. When thinking about Indian Buddhist literature he could call upon analogies from East Asia; when discussing Buddhist rituals in China he could draw upon his knowledge of Tibet. In sum, for him Buddhism was not a regional or sectarian entity but a worldwide and multi-faceted tradition, and no student of his could fail to be impressed by the broad range of his perspective. Most students of Pure Land Buddhism, by contrast, have approached their topic within a far narrower frame. Generally this form of Buddhism has been treated as an East Asian phenomenon, and indeed it is often studied (with, one should recognize, many valuable results) within the parameters of a single school or sect. This paper, however, is intended as a small attempt to emulate Professor Nagatomi’s sweeping cross-cultural vision of Buddhist history by examining the evidence for Pure Land Buddhism not in East Asia, but in India. To understand how Amitåbha was viewed by Indian Buddhists, however, requires beginning with a sketch of the circumstances within which scriptures devoted to this figure emerged. I will begin, therefore, with a brief overview of some of the key developments that preceded— and indeed, may have elicited—the composition of scriptures devoted to Amitåbha.
Thereafter, his 'intensely personal analysis of the play' is all too often a celebration of his own production and fellow performers in it. BerkoflPs accounts of his own dynamics of performance are more illuminating (also the occasions for some supremely self-conscious slabs of Berkoff Purple Verbals), and demonstrate his essentially heroic sense of drama, where energy can be equated with morality to an alarming degree ('This is grand and majestic . . . the lion's spirit roared out in hyperbole', 36). Elsewhere, Berkoff exhibits an almost endearing extent of selfcontradiction concerning Shakespearian text. He alternatively avows with a piety befitting Richard III, 'Let us obey Shakespeare and he will not lead us astray' (45), then lists copious cuts of ostensibly 'boring and unnecessary', slack or monotonous passages. Berkoff gives the reader a vivid and thorough account of a production: also irrelevant personal anecdote, theatrical gossip, laddish camaraderie, artistic sniping and political pontification which often remain unsubsumed into the drama he is otherwise describing. For example, his Falklands War analogies do not seem to be made theatrically overt or even particularly clear (as were Michael Bogdanov's in his 1983 production of Hamlet at Dublin's Abbey Theatre). This is a frustratingly spasmodic book, inaccountably dedicating a disproportionate amount of attention to the first three acts of the play. Intriguing metaphors like 'Shakespeare has a habit at the beginning of plays of being like a frantic knitter with four needles and many colours' are succeeded by populist deductions such as 'He digresses and needs trimming to reveal the core' (6), when it is BerkofTs writing that might profitably have been sent to to the barber's, or been sifted by an editor unintimidated by 'taurean bellows'. University College of Wales, Aberystwyth DAVID IAN RABEY
A projectile-velocity measurement system using novel laser diode screen is introduced.After collimated and spread,the light of LD is projected to the Scotchlite retroreflector,and then reflected to form a spot with certain diameter.An fiber optic taper is used to transform the spot with larger diameter into smaller one,which is then received by a photodiode.In addition,the reflectivity measurement method and result of Scotchlite retroreflector is presented in the paper.Finally,the waveform of 3 mm flying object has been presented.The experiment result indicates that the photoelectric detecting system with Scotchlite retro-reflector and fiber optic taper has high S/N ration and sensitivity.
The most impressive movement in human history of tool usage is the development from the tool into the machine. In the modern age, machine developed into self-referencial movement of modern art. It is often told that modernism failed in architecture, because they just stopped on the Pseudo-Scientifism. Nevertheless, the relation between architecture and machine is worth studying till now as used to be. If we understood machine as physical or nonphysical object working according to method given by human, the machine could be not only in physical space but also in cyberspace. I would like to make a new point of view about these two machine and find out the capablity of the machine in cyberspace through this study.
An analysis of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is to evaluate the system through the total cost accounting during the total life cycle. Railway system has problem that abundant capital has to be utilized efficiently because railway system is a combined system such as power supply, machines, electric signals. Especially, Magnetic Levitation Train needs high technique and more study about the Life Cycle cost by using the system being developed currently in Korea. Therefore, the Modeling of Life Cycle Cost for Magnetic Levitation Train is proposed considering the tendency of the studies in other countries.
This book is intended to be a working reference book of IUD designs. It is not complete; it can be updated and enlarged subsequently. No data on performance have been included since this infromation can be obtained elsewhere. The report contains a section detailing considerations for IUD design including mention of pathology insertion and removal. Another section presents photographs of devices classified by type of design. Further sections give specific i nformation on each IUD model and the patent drawings for each.
In this study, an adaptive video quality algorithm is developed for Ultra High Definition (UHD) video broadcasting through Digital Video Broadcasting by Satellite 2nd Generation (DVB-S2), where three conditions are responsible for enhancing or reducing the quality of a video signal received by the DVB-S2 Set-Top-Box (STB). The conditions are: Coverage area, Distance between transmitter and receiver and Separation distance. These conditions are responsible for the required Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), resultant Bit Error Rate (BER) and the overall capacity of the system. Based on these conditions, received parameters of an HD or UHD video vary; and the quality viewed by the user changes. Therefore, in this study, we have proposed an algorithm based on the future broadcast scenario where the broadcasters will be dealing with simulcasting of multiple video standards of HD and UHD, varying in resolution, frame rate, codec and more. This algorithm is developed using the Principle of Inclusion.
We carried out full-scale model test of applying shotcrete and anchors to strengthen surrounding rock blocks. According to research achievements in this regard and engineering practice at Huangdao water-sealed cavern,we demonstrated and revealed that the anchoring effect could increase the self bearing capacity and restrain the deformation of surrounding rock. We also discussed the key issues inclusive of the design,materials,construction and monitoring of the anchor-shotcrete support for large underground water-sealed cavern. Measures such as applying anchor with low prestress,steel-fiber reinforced shotcrete,shotcrete containing silicon powder,as well as overall control over seepage water could increase the long-term stability of water-sealed cavern and prevent the groundwater seepage.
The invention relates to determining a reflechissante.Elle area relates to a method which comprises setting light source position conditions (B) and optical axis (Ax), the creation of surfaces formed freely (20) which perform predetermined shape conditions and selecting one of them that satisfies a predetermined operating condition, creating a reflecting surface by dividing the freely formed surface (20) into segments, the assignment of an element (40) reflecting surface of each segment, and the selection of the reflecting surface by setting an axis (Lx) evaluation reflection characteristics and by determining a distribution of reflection areas. Application to the reflectors of vehicle lamps.
In this paper, gear ratios of a two-speed transmission system are optimized for an electric passenger car. System models, including the vehicle model, the motor, the battery, the transmission system, and drive cycles are established in MATLAB/Simulink at first. Torsional dynamics effects of the electric powertrain are analysed. To obtain the optimal gear ratios, iterations are carried out through Nelder-Mead algorithm under constraints. During the optimization process, the motor efficiency is observed along with the drive cycle, and the gear shift strategy is determined based on the vehicle velocity and acceleration demand. Simulation results show that the electric motor works in a relatively high efficiency range during the whole drive cycle. The energy economy of the case-study vehicle is therefore further improved by utilizing the optimized a two-speed transmission, compared to that of the baseline vehicle with fixed-ratio reduction gear, demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed optimization .
Europe is proposing a system called the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) as a candidate for IMT-2000. It is characterized by a FDD and a TDD mode, both with a CDMA component. Two options are being considered for the spreading for the TDD mode: a multicode option, where each user may have several codes of fixed length, and a single code option, where each user always has one code, but with a variable length. This paper compares the peak-to-average ratio as well as the receiver complexity and performances for both options. It shows that the single code option enables to decrease the complexity by up to 50% and to increase the performances by up to 1 dB, compared to the multicode option. The single code option allows in addition a reduced peak-to-average ratio of the RF signal, resulting in a more efficient power amplifier.
Bu tezin temel amaci; biyolojik, sosyal ve bilissel yetersizliklerin siklikla goruldugu yaslilik surecinde bulunanlarin ve bu kisilere bakim hizmeti sunan calisanlarin mahremiyet algilarini tanimlamak ve gelisen yetersizliklerle birlikte zorunlu olarak artan ?oteki? ile iliskinin, soz konusu mahremiyet algisina olan etkilerinin degerlendirilmesidir. Mahremiyet kavraminin etik ve hukuksal boyutu ile birlikte saglik alanindaki yansimalari da ele alinmistir.Turkiye'deki yaslilarda ele alinisi ile ilgili olarak, mahremiyet kavraminin bilesenlerinde kavramsal calismaya gore farklilik olup olmadiginin arastirilmasi hedefi ile sinirli bir calisma yapilmistir. Bu calisma icin yasli bireylerin oteki ile yogun iliski icinde bulundugu kurumsal cati olan huzurevleri ele alinmistir. Yapilan bu sinirli calismadan elde edilen veriler dogrultusunda oneriler olusturulmustur.Dunyada yasanan ve degisik boyutlarda tum toplumlari etkileyen bilimsel, sosyoekonomik, kulturel ve teknolojik degisimler, tip ugrasinin ilk gunden baslayan yasami uzatma hedefinin gerceklesmesini saglamistir. Bunun yaninda yine benzer faktorlerin etkisi ile kentlesme ve onun sonucu olarak cekirdek aile yapisina donus, dogum hizindaki dusme yasli nufusta hizli bir artisa neden olmaktadir. Kuresel yaslanma olarak da adlandirilan bu surecle birlikte yaslanmanin getirdigi daha cok gerileme ile karakterize degisimler, kisinin diger bireylerle kimi zaman bagimliliga uzanan iliskisine neden olmaktadir.Tum bunlar yaslilik surecindeki bireyin ozerkliginin ve ana bileseni mahremiyetinin korunmasi gerekliligini getirmektedir. Bakim hizmeti sunumunda bu gerekliligin goz onune alinmasinin onemi ortadadir. Ancak bu sartlarin saglanmasi durumunda bakim hizmeti veren kurumlar yasli bireyler icin birer yasam mekani haline gelebilecektir.Tez calismasi sonucunda ulasilan nokta, ozellikle ve oncelikle bakim hizmeti sunan bireylerin mahremiyet kavrami ve bilesenleri konusunda egitim destegi almalari gerektigi ve bunun saglanabilmesiyle mahremiyetin korunmasi gerekliligi ile ilgili var olan duyarliliklarinin artirilabilecegidir.AbstractThe main objective of this paper is to define the privacy perception of health care professionals providing service to those who go through aging process in which biologic, social and cognitive deficiencies are commonly experienced. This paper assesses the repercussions of the relation with the ?other? as far as the perception of privacy is concerned. The relation at stake escalates herein compulsorily due to developing deficiencies. Along with its ethical and juridical dimensions, privacy?s reflection in the field of health is also elaborated.As far as the issue is considered with regard to elderly people in Turkey, a limited study has taken place in respect to the objective of finding out whether there is a difference in the components of privacy concept when compared to the conceptual study. Nursing homes, the institutional structure where elderly people encounter an intensive contact with the other, are taken into the scope of this study.Scientific, socio-economic, cultural and technological developments in the world have led medical science to achieve its ever existing goal; prolonging life. In addition, urbanization came along as a result of similar developments given above. Thus, the return to core family structure and the decline in birth rates lead to a rapid increase in the old population. In this process, also called global aging, aging brings along transformations which are characterized by more regressions and which culminate in having relations with other individuals, extending sometimes to the level of dependency.All above mentioned issues bring along the necessity to protect the autonomy, and its main component, the privacy of the aging individual. It is also evident that this necessity should be taken into account while providing care services. It is only when these requirements are met; care service providing institutions will translate into livelihood for elderly individuals.The conclusion drawn in this paper is that the individuals providing care services should receive training support, above all and before all, in respect to privacy concept and its components which would then lead to increase the existing sensitivity on the necessity to protect privacy.
Historic buildings constitute a valuable cultural heritage, and at the same time due to the passage of time, they are exposed to a number of adverse factors. In order to preserve them in a non-deteriorated condition, it is necessary to provide comprehensive control of technical condition for these historic buildings, including regular geodetic measurements. This works includes a brief characterisation of the modern measurement techniques, as well as the presentation of possibilities of using the selected techniques for two historic buildings. The first one is the XIII-century cathedral, for which a network for testing vertical displacements was established and an initial measurement was performed. Moreover, a horizontal geodetic control network was implemented, intended for inventory works and the results of measurements were developed, combining angular-linear observations with GNSS vectors. The second building is the XX-century water tower, for which detailed architectural documentation of external walls was prepared on the basis of terrestrial laser scanning. The performed works confirm the need for geodetic monitoring of historic buildings and confirm the effectiveness of used measurement techniques.
The decision for enhancing geological w or k by State Department is a good plan, focusing on a historical new s tage , keeping on scientific development demanding, aiming at future Chinese geo logic al enterprise. To set up multi-channel support system of geological scienc e and technology and increase the invest to geological science and technology, creatio n ability for geology must be advanced and geological education is the u rgent af fair.
Abstract : Since 2001, the Marine Corps and Army have spent billions of dollars to reset equipment, including equipment returning from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reset refers to the repair, recapitalization, or replacement of equipment.1 Reset can include depot (sustainment) and field-level maintenance and supply activities that restore and enhance combat capability to equipment used in combat operations. The Marine Corps and Army have identified a multibillion dollar reset liability as they seek to complete their reset efforts.2 In April 2014, Marine Corps leadership stated that the Marine Corps reset liability declined from an estimated $3.2 billion to a remaining $1.0 billion as the Marine Corps makes progress in completing reset.3 At that time, the Army projected a need for just over $6.0 billion for reset.4 As of February 2015, Marine Corps officials anticipate they will complete their reset efforts in fiscal year 2017. Army reset is expected to continue 2 to 3 years after the end of major overseas operations; consequently, there is not a specific end date for Army reset. Service officials have stated that inadequate reset funding can directly decrease military readiness. For example, in April 2014, a senior Army official described a fully funded Army reset program as critical to ensuring that equipment worn and damaged by prolonged conflict is recovered and restored for future Army requirements.5 The official testified that the Army had deferred equipment reset amounting to more than $700 million and that in the event of a crisis the Army would deploy units at a significantly lower readiness level.6 We have previously reported on challenges affecting the reset of Marine Corps and Army equipment. For example, in 2007 we reported about the importance of detailed information on reset expenditures and obligations, and concluded that Congress needed visibility to exercise effective oversight of reset programs.7
The article substantiate the necessity to improve the automatization of the information process in the system of medical support in extreme situations and thus to liquidate the disproportion between the medico-diagnostical and information accumulation storage facilities. These facts clearly define the importance of work which is being carried out by Medical Service towards an elaboration of the "Disaster Medicine" automated information retrieval system (AIRS). The data obtained as a result of AIRS processing could be directly used for reference or prediction purposes.
The present paper analyses the behaviour of moment resisting frames in reinforced concrete subject to earthquakes recorded in near-field areas. In these areas, the signals show impulsive-type accelerograms, with velocity and displacement peaks higher than in far-field zones especially for the fault-normal component of the ground motion velocity in the direction of propagation of the wave, which shows large-amplitude pulses. In the following, seven near-field signals scaled in agreement with the design spectrum of the Italian code (NTC, 2008) have been adopted to perform a nonlinear analysis on a six-story frame. The response has also been determined for the same frame protected once with hysteretic-type energy dissipaters and once with base isolators. The aim of the present study is to acquire quantitative knowledge on the near-field ground motion effects on frame buildings and on their damage also in the presence of passive seismic protection systems.
In practical design for bolted joints, the stress concentration factor (SCF) of the first root in screw threads is important. In the present paper, the SCF in screw threads taking account of spiral in the screw threads is analyzed using three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM). In addition, the stress states of screw threads under repeated and static loadings are analyzed in elasto-plastic deformation range. The effect of bolt nominal diameter (M12, M24 and M33) on SCF is also examined. In addition, the experiment to measure the strains at the roots of screw threads was carried out newly. It is found that the FEM result is fairly coincided with the measured results. It is also found that the SCF increases as the bolt nominal diameter increases and the maximum stress is found to occur at the half pith from the engaged screw threads. The value of SCF is smaller in the coarse screw threads of M12 than that in the fine screw threads of M 12. Finally, the bolt ruptures for several nominal diameters are shown to occur from screw threads in the non-engagement in bolted joints under static loadings and under the repeated loadings the bolts are ruptured from the first root of screw threads due to fatigue even if the bolt preload is the higher.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
According to the special characteristic of electron beam weld in shaft coupling,it is hard to apply radiographic testing and normal ultrasonic testing,so the phase array ultrasonic testing(PAUT) is required.In the paper,the structure of the electron beam weld(EBW) in the shaft coupling is analyzed,and also the trait of PAUT.So it seems that the PAUT is fit to the EBW.And then a PAUT process is setup,reference block for sensitivity is produced,and several experiments are put in.At last,it is shown,A-type,B-type and C-type ultrasonic testing can be done synchronously via PAUT,and it has characteristics of high sensitivity,intuitionistic result,etc.so as to apply testing on EBW in shaft coupling availably.
The classic Ziegler column under compressive follower force is considered now in a generalized form including a stabilizing spring acting at the end of the column. Damping in the joints is neglected. With increasing spring stiffness from zero to infinity one can observe evolution of the dynamic properties of the column from the original free-end form to the limit configuration with the end simply supported. Attention is focused not only on the stability of the straight-form equilibrium of the column but also on the eigen-frequencies, eigen-values and eigen-forms of motion of the column near the equilibrium. The follower force is responsible for loss of stability but the stabilizing spring considerably affects the stability boundary. The most interesting phenomena occur in the low zone of the spring stiffness where quite complicated interactions between flatter and divergence is observed under increasing follower force. Detailed analysis of the eigen-values is presented in the four regions of the parameter space to demonstrate new phenomena not reported in the literature.
The problem of increasing numbers of road accidents in Africa is described. The paper then goes on to draw up a road safety action programme based on the outcome of the First African Road Safety Congress in 1984, the Second African Road Safety Congress in 1989 and the baseline assessment undertaken during the preparatory phases of UNTACDA II. More specifically it shows the state of the art of road safety activities in Africa and develops strategies and action plans to be implemented within the framework of UNTACDA II. These include the preparation of an African Highway Code, the establishment of national road traffic safety councils, the organisation of seminars and the establishment of vehicle testing facilities. For the covering abstract see IRRD 889227.
Of all the proposed resonant techniques， the well-known phase-shifted full bridge converter remains one of the most attractive because it offers an easy way of achieving ZVS with a minimum of extra components added, which is essential for the high power applications. This paper describes the design of a digital controller for a Phase Shifted Full-bridge PWM Converter. The small-signal model is derived incorporating the effects of phase-shift control and the utilization of the transformer leakage inductance and power FET junction capacitances to achieve the zero-voltage resonant switching. Based on the derived small-signal model, the digital controller is designed in the discrete domain. The performance of designed controller is verified through the simulation.
Industry 4.0 has become a driver for the entire manufacturing industry. Smart systems have enabled 30% productivity increases and predictive maintenance has been demonstrated to provide a 50% reduction in machine downtime. So far, the solution has been based on data analytics which has resulted in a proliferation of sensing technologies and infrastructure for data acquisition, transmission and processing. At the core of factory operation and automation are circuits that control and power factory equipment, innovative circuit design has the potential to address many system integration challenges. We present a new circuit design approach based on circuit level artificial intelligence solutions, integrated within control and calibration functional blocks during circuit design, improving the predictability and adaptability of each component for predictive maintenance. This approach is envisioned to encourage the development of new EDA tools such as automatic digital shadow generation and product lifecycle models, that will help identification of circuit parameters that adequately define the operating conditions for dynamic prediction and fault detection. Integration of a supplementary artificial intelligence block within the control loop is considered for capturing nonlinearities and gain/bandwidth constraints of the main controller and identifying changes in the operating conditions beyond the response of the controller. System integration topics are discussed regarding integration within OPC Unified Architecture and predictive maintenance interfaces,providing real-time updates to the digital shadow that help maintain an accurate, virtual replica model of the physical system.
After the large and huge capacity generators are put into the power system ,the requirements of improving performance and reliability of protection systems result in the research on relaying protection . On the other hand, the development of computer technology provides a powerful tool for applying new protection schemes and principles. On the basis of investigating present situation, this article surveys the newest development in numerical relay for large generators and further trend of the protective technology is predicted.
General failure event data from various sources are often used to estimate the failure probability for the system of interest, especially when s-dependence exists among component failures, where common cause failure plays an important role. Failure event data from different sources must be reasonably explained, and correctly applied, so that the information about load environment, and component/system property can be used correctly. In estimating the probability for s-dependent system failure, both the load distribution, and component strength distribution are much more important than component failure probability index. Based on the relationship among different multiple failures, this paper presents a data mapping approach to estimating dependent system failure probability through multiple failure event data of other systems with different sizes. The underlying assumption on data mapping is that failures of different multiples (including single) are correlated with each other for a group of components if they are subjected to the same or correlated random load (loads). Taking the situation of a group of s-independent components operating under the same random load as an example, the likelihood of a component failure at a trial depends not only on the strength of the individual component but also on the realization of the random load. The likelihood of a specific multiple failure at a trial is also determined by both the component strengths, and the realization of the random load. Furthermore, if a larger load sample appears, the likelihoods for failure are higher. Conversely, if a smaller load sample appears, the likelihoods of failure are lower. We emphasized in this paper that system failure event data should be interpreted & applied under the principle that various multiple failures are distinguished by their respective failure multiplicity and/or system size, and are inherently interrelated through correlated load environments. The approach starts with determining the load parameter, and component strength parameter according to multiple (including single) failure event data available. Then, these parameters are used to calculate the probability of multiple failures for systems of different sizes. This approach is applicable to predict high multiple failure probability based on low multiple failure event data. Examples of estimating multiple failure probabilities of EDG (emergency diesel generators) with mapped data illustrate that the proposed approach is desirable.
The brushless DC drive is now widely used and conventional design methodology determines key dimensions to give the required pole flux and the target torque/speed characteristics. However these analytical procedures give only limited information on saturation, armature reaction, and space/time variation of flux arising from MMF and permeance harmonics. This additional information can be provided by finite element techniques. This paper describes the application of transient magnetic finite element techniques to brushless DC machines involving permanent magnets, magnetic nonlinearity, induced currents, rotor movement and associated inverter circuits. The approach is being used to investigate and aid optimisation of machines under constant current and voltage forced operating conditions. Computed results for static/low speed torque ripple and dynamic current waveforms show close agreement with measured values.
This systematization of experiences in the course “Teaching Resources for Commercial Education Learning” mainly aims to analyze the teacher role and the relation with the utility and pertinence given to the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the secretarial major. This course is part the bachelor´s degree program in Commercial Education. The methodology consisted in elaborating teaching devices with traditional technology and resources, as well as observing high school lessons where the secretarial major was taught. The observations led the students to elaborate teaching proposals. A qualitative approach was used during the systematization process. The main findings show that most of the teachers do not use ICT as teaching resources in their classes. Students pointed out to the need for having more interactive lessons with the help of technological devices. Through this systematization it is expected that teachers and students will be motivated to use and recognize the need to innovate their classes with new technologies.
A transfer device has a carriage supported on a base, movable between a home position and an extended position. A table assembly includes a lower table fixed to the carriage and an upper table coupled to the lower table, movable between a downward position in forcible contact with the lower table and an upward position having no contact with the lower table. The table assembly moves toward the extended position with the tables in forcible contact to place the table assembly underneath the object to be transferred while keeping the base stationary. The plates are separated to lift the object on the upper table while the lower table remains resting upon the support surface. The table assembly returns to the home position while supporting the object on the upper table and keeping the upper and lower tables separated. The device may operate in a bidirectional manner.
Because of its simplicity and ease of implementation, the perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm is the most commonly applied maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control scheme in photovoltaic (PV) applications. Two techniques are usually used for implementing the P&O algorithm: reference voltage perturbation where a reference value for the PV generator output voltage is used as the control parameter and direct duty ratio perturbation where the duty ratio of the MPPT converter is used directly as the control parameter. This paper presents an experimental comparison between these two techniques when used in a photovoltaic system feeding a resistive load. The influence of the step size and the speed at which the control parameter is perturbed is investigated. The various advantages and drawbacks of each technique are identified and energy utilization efficiency is calculated for different weather conditions. Practical results obtained using a 540Wp PV experimental setup show very good agreement with numerical simulations. (6 pages)
Abstract With digital texts being employed in classrooms, the construction and content of communication need to be examined to understand implications for classroom pedagogies and the development of new communicative practices. The study employs a multimodal interaction analysis (MIA) framework (Norris 2004) to carry out a microethnographic analysis of digital literacy events of first-year university students in a Japanese university explaining online stories. The data captured are analysed to reveal how meanings are multimodally constructed in relation to elements and features of the mediating digital texts. The analyses showed that specific “modal configurations” (Norris 2009) such as spoken language, gesture and gaze appeared to be shaped by the visual meanings in the mediating texts. The spoken meanings were also focussed directly on what was visually present in the texts, further demonstrating the impact of the visual nature of the texts in shaping meanings made in the digital literacy events.
The main purpose of this video-tutorial is to show you how to clone a DB2 subsystem to other subsystem running in the same Z/OS LPAR. Each step is explained with a video (screen cast). It is supossed that you have two DB2 subsystems, in this case DB8G (source) and DBF (target), both up & running.The procedure is automated in three main steps contained in library SYSADM.ODBCLONE. First step is related with the physical COPY from SOURCE datasets to TARGET DB2 datasets. While the remaining, are related with making target DB2 BSDS & CATALOG consistent with the location of the DATASETS copied from source subsystem
There is growing interest in cost-effective techniques that can detect the earliest stage of degradation or malfunction and predict machinery failure. New diagnostic and prognostic techniques may be effectively coupled with novel control techniques in the context of an intelligent motor-pump-control system. An integrated intelligent system is described for pumping applications that can sense the operating condition and health of the components of a hydraulic system and automatically change the operation of the motor-pump system. The change in control is goal-directed whereby the prescribed operating change is intended to achieve previously defined operating goals or performance objectives. 9 NEXT GENERATION PUMP SYSTEMS ENABLE NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMIC OPTIMIZATION
Florida International University (FIU), a public research university of 54,000 students located in Miami, recently launched a significant partnership with Sweetwater, a city of about 19,000 residents, mostly low-income Hispanics, located right across the university’s main entrance. In September 2013, FIU received a 11.4 million dollars grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to work on necessary infrastructure work needed to help transform Sweetwater into a university city and connect it more efficiently to the university and Greater Miami. Down the line, several privately funded residential towers designed specifically for FIU students will also be built in Sweetwater. The first one, called 109 Tower, opened its door in August 2014. This partnership will evidently have a major impact on FIU students and especially on the ones opting to live in these towers. It is therefore imperative to take their opinions, needs, and desires into account going forward. This research project does this, focusing on the level of awareness and the emotional attachment of the students living in the 109 Tower to the University City project. Research methods include a combination of surveys and questionnaires. Research results will be analyzed and shared with university and city officials to ensure that the students’ voices are included in future planning.
Surface-functionalizations are of essential importance for diverse areas from biomedicine to biosensing, nanocomposites, water treatment, and energy harvesting devices. One facile and rapid way to functionalize any materials surface is by mussel inspired polydopamine (PDA) coating. It has been realized that dopamine (DA), the precursor, can be coated virtually on any substrates in presence of a buffer of pH ~ 8.5. Over the past 20 years, an overwhelming interest has been noticed around cellulose based materials specially nanofibers (CNFs) shown due to its many unique characteristics including high stiffness and modulus, great transparency well biodegradability, biocompatibility and low production cost. Despite of the facts, pristine cellulose often suffers from certain characteristic limitations in biomaterial applications due to the lack of appropriate surface functionalities. This research therefore aims to develop cellulose based composite materials suitable for biomedical applications, precisely electrode material for biosensors. The electrodes were made of controlled amount of polydopamine treated cellulose nanofiber composite. When investigated the mechanical properties of the composites, significant improvement was observed. Moreover, the composites exhibited good sensing behaviors under electrochemical investigations, leading them to be a promising material for biosensing applications.
Summary It is well recognised that considerable amount of carbon is released throughout the life cycle of construction facilities. To help alleviate the effect of climate change, the construction industry should identify and adopt pragmatic measures to cut down on carbon emissions. A possible way to achieve that is by means of carbon trading. While there is no shortage of successful carbon trading examples, the attention is primarily on trading of carbon arising from the manufacturing of highly emitted construction materials like cement and steel products. The potential of extending carbon trading to other construction phases including the construction, operational, refurbishment and demolition stages is largely ignored. This paper aims to examine whether carbon trading is a suitable approach to reduce construction emissions. The paper begins by introducing the concepts of carbon trading. It is then followed by reporting the results of a semi-structured interview carried out in Hong Kong. The paper concludes by discussing the way forward of carbon trading in the construction sector.
Static and dynamic calibration methods of sensor system used in ultra-precision form measuring instrument are investigated. The nonlinear error of sensor system are corrected through static calibration, and the nonlinear characteristic of sensor system is obtained with a piezo nanopositioning stage, then the nonlinear characteristic is stored in a computer in the form of error correction function, while the sensor system works, according to the established error correction function, corrected value of nonlinear error that correspond to the measured point is to be taken out automatically, and the actual measurement data could be compensated by real-time, namely, the dynamic compensation model for nonlinear error could be established. Especially, if the position of measurement data point is not the same as that pre-stored in computer, corrected value could be obtained using linear interpolation. Dynamic calibration of sensor system is performed using the elliptical standards, and in this case the calibration status of sensor system is consistent with its normal measurement status.
A rigorous model is presented for dynamic simulation of an industrial tray column which uses mass and energy balances together with a proper hydraulic equation. Three different liquid flow regimes can be considered in the industrial tray columns which each of them possesses a specific hydraulic equation. The implemented model by recognizing the type of liquid flow regime is able to use the proper hydraulic equation in the computations. Moreover, by calculating the tray efficiency, the effect of tray geometry on the separation performance is investigated. As the result of this study, the open loop response of the industrial tray column is presented after inputting a step change in reflux flow rate.
The present status of combustor-noise prediction in the NASA Aircraft Noise Prediction Program (ANOPP)1 for current-generation (N) turbofan engines is summarized. Several semi-empirical models for turbofan combustor noise are discussed, including best methods for near-term updates to ANOPP. An alternate turbine-transmission factor2 will appear as a user selectable option in the combustor-noise module GECOR in the next release. The three-spectrum model proposed by Stone et al.3 for GE turbofan-engine combustor noise is discussed and compared with ANOPP predictions for several relevant cases. Based on the results presented herein and in their report,3 it is recommended that the application of this fully empirical combustor-noise prediction method be limited to situations involving only General-Electric turbofan engines. Long-term needs and challenges for the N+1 through N+3 time frame are discussed. Because the impact of other propulsion-noise sources continues to be reduced due to turbofan design trends, advances in noise-mitigation techniques, and expected aircraft configuration changes, the relative importance of core noise is expected to greatly increase in the future. The noise-source structure in the combustor, including the indirect one, and the effects of the propagation path through the engine and exhaust nozzle need to be better understood. In particular, the acoustic consequences of the expected trends toward smaller, highly efficient gas-generator cores and low-emission fuel-flexible combustors need to be fully investigated since future designs are quite likely to fall outside of the parameter space of existing (semi-empirical) prediction tools.
Scholars have recently turned to a surprising source for analyzing contemporary science and technology: concepts of virtue drawn from ancient philosophy and religion. This chapter provides a brief history of the relationship between virtue, science, and technology before turning to the contents of this edited volume. Science, Technology, and Virtue offers a range of perspectives illustrating how scholars across multiple disciplines have found virtue valuable for helping us to understand, construct, and use the fruits of modern science and technology. In doing so, the authors show how intellectual and moral character—as embodied dispositions for action—continue to be central for pursuing the good life, even in an age of high technology and science.
A hardware system of temperature control for 300 mm vertical furnace was designed and realized.The hardware system consisted of signal collecting module,PLC module,IPC and signal output control module.An integrated temperature control software system was developed based on the process properties.The software system realized the following functions: compensation for thermocouple signals,auto profiling of temperature zone,PID parameters self-tuning,trajectory plan,temperature ramp and constant temperature of process.Finally,the temperature control and process experiment results indicated that the temperature control system could successfully meet the requirements of 300 mm vertical oxide furnace in reliability,stability and precision.
This paper investigates the effectiveness of the use of seismic isolation devices on the overall 3D seismic response of curved highway viaducts with an emphasis on expansion joints. Furthermore, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of cable restrainers is presented. For this purpose, the bridge seismic performance has been evaluated on four different radii of curvature, considering two cases: restrained and unrestrained curved viaducts. Depending on the radius of curvature, three-dimensional non-linear dynamic analysis shows the vulnerability of curved viaducts to deck unseating and joint residual damage. In this study, the efficiency of using LRB supports combined with cable restrainers on curved viaducts is demonstrated, not only by reducing in all cases the possible damage, but also by providing a similar behavior in the viaducts despite of curvature radius.
The aim of this paper is to explain a novel technique to improve voltage and frequency profiles on microgrids controlled using the droop control scheme. The method consists on retuning the controller according to the present load scenario by adjusting the droop coefficients in a way that is proportional to the load changes. The proposed technique is tested through numerical simulations and the results show a significant improvement on the quality of voltage and frequency profiles, as well as in other important operating parameters of a microgrid. The proposed scheme can lead to a widening on the scope of droop based controllers within microgrids and renewable energy systems.
There are several code and standards, handbooks and guidelines for the nuclear power plant maintenance in Japan, the US and EU. They include SCC and fatigue crack growth curve for crack growth calculation. In this paper the authors selected five kinds of codes, standards and guidelines and compared their fatigue crack growth curves for choice of the suitable curves. The feature of each curve was summarized quantitatively evaluated. JSME maintenance rule and ASME code provide the fatigue crack growth formulae for both ferritic and austenitic steels and consider the environmental effects in some cases. The FITNET curves are categorized in many kinds of metal whereas the FKM guideline and WES procedure provide the common properties applicable to steels generally.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Combined high and low cycle fatigue (CCF) generally induces the failure of aircraft gas turbine attachments. Based on the aero-engine load spectrum, accurate assessment of fatigue damage due to the interaction of high cycle fatigue (HCF) resulting from high frequency vibrations and low cycle fatigue (LCF) from ground-air-ground engine cycles is of critical importance for ensuring structural integrity of engine components, like turbine blades. In this paper, the influence of combined damage accumulation on the expected CCF life are investigated for turbine blades. The CCF behavior of a turbine blade is usually studied by testing with four load-controlled parameters, including high cycle stress amplitude and frequency, and low cycle stress amplitude and frequency. According to this, a new damage accumulation model is proposed based on Miner’s rule to consider the coupled damage due to HCF-LCF interaction by introducing the four load parameters. Five experimental datasets of turbine blade alloys and turbine blades were introduced for model validation and comparison between the proposed Miner, Manson-Halford, and Trufyakov-Kovalchuk models. Results show that the proposed model provides more accurate predictions than others with lower mean and standard deviation values of model prediction errors.
The purpose of this study is to extract the factors in determining the components and to clarify the correlation of the factors and residential uses in MXDs. For this purpose, discriminant analysis was conducted as the main research method and SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) program was applied for statistical analysis.  The results are summarized as follows :  (1) The factors in determining the components are defined [Land Size], [Total Floor Space], [Development Density], [Development Entity], [Primary Use], [Site Location] and [Development Objectives].  (2) The factors affecting the Planning of the components are [Primary Use], [Development Objectives] and [Site Location].  (3) The significant internal items of these factors are 'U1(Office Uses)', 'U2(Retail Uses)', 'U3(Hotel Uses)', 'S1(Existing Residential District)', 'S3(CBD)', 'S5(Suburban CBD)' and 'O2(Community)'.  (4) Through these results, we were able to extract the relationship of the internal items and residential uses.
Artificial neural network (ANN) has been used for many years in sectors and disciplines like medical science, defence industry, robotics, electronics, economy, forecasts, etc. The learning property of ANN in solving nonlinear and complex problems called for its application to forecasting problems. This report present the development of an ANN based short-term load forecasting model for the 132/33KV sub- Station, Kano, Nigeria. The recorded daily load profile with a lead time of 1-24 hours for the year 2005 was obtained from the utility company. The Levenberg-Marquardt optimization technique which has one of the best learning rates was used as a back propagation algorithm for the Multilayer Feed Forward ANN model using MATLAB ® R2008b ANN Toolbox. Experiences gained during the development of the model regarding the selection of the input variables, the ANN structure, and the training parameters are described. The forecasted next day 24 hourly peak loads are obtained based on the stationary output of the ANN with a performance Mean Squared Error (MSE) of ૞.ૡ૝ࢋ ૟ and compares favorably with the actual Power utility data. The results have shown that the proposed technique is robust in forecasting future load demands for the daily operational planning of power system distribution sub-stations in Nigeria.
Various types of clean energy vehicles (CEVs) have been developed to reduce CO2 emissions and move our economies away from petroleum in the transportation sector. To make an innovation of these technologies and introduce them into the market effectively, it is important to analyze an optimal portfolio of CEVs, CO2 reduction effects and total social cost in the future that can be used as a decision-making guideline for governments and companies. Meanwhile, CEVs contain some metals that have supply risks because of the reserves and political availability. However, previous researches have not taken the metal resource problems into account. In this paper, we develop the optimization model by linear programming for CEV portfolios by 6 regions of the world, considering metal resource usage of CEVs. As a case study, under the definition that the objectives are minimizing total social cost or copper resource usage, and the constraint is CO2 emission reduction target, we clarify an optimal CEV portfolio of the world. In case of minimizing total social cost, electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle were mainly selected. On the other hand, in case of minimizing copper usage, fuel cell vehicle and clean diesel vehicle are selected. The optimal portfolio is different for both cases. Moreover, the relationship between CO2 emission target and copper usage to achieve is clarified. Finally, we evaluate copper resource constrains. When achieving 15% reduction of CO2, about 1.7 million ton of copper (approximately equal to 33 million units of EV) might be in short supply.
The spinning process is an important process in the Textile Industry. The yarn (output) coming out of the spinning process has a unique relationship with the input fibers. The input and output properties show a non-linear relationship between them. Many techniques, such as multiple regression, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model, etc, have been used in an attempt to develop the said relation. In this paper, the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), combined with subtractive clustering, is used to predict yarn properties. The ANFIS technique is evaluated for different datasets and its performance is compared with the ANN model.
The 500 kV or UHV transmission line shunt reactors are deployed with an under-compensation method, resulting in a problem that there is excessive reactive power for the power system in its small operation mode, but insufficient in its large operation mode. This problem is proposed to solve with a solution of shunt transformer-controllable reactor, which is a reactive compensating facility consisting of transformer, low voltage reactor bank and transformer nature small current reactor, and connected to the EHV or UHV transmission line site. The solution can reach the grade control purpose of controllable reactors, and realize zero to over compensation-controllable mode, and reduce the number of low voltage capacitors, reactor compensating facilities as well as the third windings of main transformers in substations.
Harvesting the wind energy has been existing since ancient civilization such as sailing ships. Nowadays, wind energy is harvest to generate an electrical energy using a wind generator. In order to ensure the safety and the durability of the wind generator, the performance and the characteristic of the generator needs to be investigated. Unfortunately, the wind generator does not come with a detail drawing and electrical properties that required for modeling purposes in the FEA software. An image processing techniques is proposed to acquire the dimension. In order to generate a quality meshing, adaptive meshing technique is used in the magnetostatic solver. Then, the mesh is imported into the transient solver. It is shows that by using the proposed method to acquire the dimension, the dimension error is around 5 percent. Furthermore, using adaptive meshing technique proposed in this study, the difference between the simulation results and experimental results is around 3 percent.
T HE coupling between flight mechanics, aeroelasticity, and control system is called aeroservoelasticity. Flight vehicleswith slender configuration can experience aeroservoelastic instability during flight. This type of instability is likely to occur when short period rigid-bodymode, body bendingmode, and control loopmode are not properly phased. On the other hand, stable aeroservoelastic phenomena can affect the planned trajectory of the vehicle. For this reason the extent of aeroservoelastic interaction for guided supersonic vehicles is of considerable importance. The dynamics of the elastic vehicles have been studied in various categories. Meirovitch and Nelson [1] examined the dynamic stability of a spin-stabilized spacecraft containing flexible rod appendages. Meirovitch and Wesley [2] presented an approach for nonspinning variable-mass rockets aeroelasticity whereas Oberholtzer et al. [3], Crimi [4], and Platus [5] investigated the same approach for spinning missiles. Whereas the researchers focused on special cases, an integrated approach developed for nonspinning elastic hypersonic flight vehicles by Bilimoria and Schmidt [6]. To predict the effect of body flexibility on control systemNewman and Schmidt [7] developed a two-dimensional aeroelasticmodel offlight vehicles. The effect of flexibility on the poles and zeros of a general flexible flight vehicle has been studied by Livneh and Schmidt [8]. Thrust effect in the boost phase of flight on the vibrational characteristics of flexible guided vehicles has also been studied by Pourtakdoust and Assadian [9] numerically. Using the previous works of Platus [5] and Bilimoria and Schmidt [6] on the aeroelasticity of unguided flight vehicles, the present work develops an analytical model for the study of aeroservoelasticity of guided supersonic slender body flight vehicles. For this purpose, modal analysis method is employed for the structure, slender body theory is used for aerodynamics, and rate-gyro and actuator dynamics in roll, pitch, and yaw channels are also considered in construction of the model. The solutions to the equations of motion are analyzed for instability prediction. Formulation
The use of brain monitoring based on EEG, in natural environments and over long time periods, is hindered by the limited portability of current wearable systems, and the invasiveness of implanted systems. To that end, we introduce an ear-EEG recording device based on generic earpieces which meets key patient needs (discreet, unobstrusive, user-friendly, robust) and that is low-cost and suitable for off-the-shelf use; thus promising great advantages for healthcare applications. Its feasibility is validated in a comprehensive comparative study with our established prototype, based on a personalized earpiece, for a key EEG paradigm.
One of the newest financial schemes for environmental projects is the Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) concept, which is being used increasingly worldwide as a project delivery system by which governments obtain the infrastructure projects by private sector after a concession period free of charge. In the Egyptian environment up to now, promoters and investors have had many fears toward declared projects. This study aims to investigate the potential for implementing the BOT system in the Egyptian environment. This can be achieved by giving a clear view of BOT and of its problems, risk areas, and features, pertaining to the Egyptian environment, in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks as much as possible. The collected data was analyzed based on actual implementation in Egypt. This involved the following: (1) An overview of the critical success factors in order to achieve a BOT project; (2) an analysis of results obtained from questionnaires seeking to determine the possibility of occurr...
The invention relates to a frame structure for a connection box, which is coupled together from ARMS OF STRUCTURE AND SAMPLE RECEPTION OF FIXING THAT APPLY IN THE SIDES OF ARMS OF STRUCTURE FORMING the inside edges of frame STRUCTURE. CHANCES OF VARIATION WITH RESPECT TO THE FITTING THE EQUIPMENT IS EXTENDED essentially according to the invention in such a way that ARMS OF STRUCTURE FORMED ONLY ONE FRAME STAND AND THAT AT LEAST ONE PART OF THE ARMS OF STRUCTURE ARE STATES OR MAY BE JOINED in a fixed or detachable mounting rails that part EXTEND AT LEAST THROUGH THE LONG ARM OF STRUCTURE COORDINATED AND FORMED WITH rOWS OF PERFILADOS SIDES THAT HAVE RECEIPTS OF FIXING PART OF THE INTERIOR EDGES.
Develpement of simulation system for shotcrete robot virtual prototype base on Visual Ba-sic6.0 is studied.The inverse algorithm of the arm is used to describe the simulation procedures,imple-mentation of the simulation by the size.The new design ideas was provided for the complex three dimen-sional mechanical movement simulation.The system provides the user a better telepresence of ture 3D vir-tual environment.The various parameters of joint can be regulated on the system.It will promote the appli-cation of the robot technology in practical using.
BESIDES SENSITIVITY TO TRANSVERSE PLACEMENT, OTHER IMPORTANT DESIGN CRITERIA INCLUDE INEXPENSIVE MANUFACTURE, INEXPENSIVE INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE, PORTABILITY, RUGGED CONSTRUCTION FOR FIELD USE, RELIABILITY OF OPERATION, CONCEALMENT FROM THE DRIVER, AND WEATHER RESISTANT QUALITIES. THE DETECTOR IS OF THE SO-CALLED METALLIC CONTACT TYPE IN WHICH TWO METALLIC ELEMENTS, NORMALLY HELD OPEN BY SOME FORM OF A SPACER, ARE CLOSED BY A WHEEL PASSING OVER THEM. IN THIS DESIGN, THE BOTTOM CONTACT EXTENDS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE UNIT AND SERVES AS A COMMON CONTACT FOR ALL THE CIRCUITS. THE TOP CONTACT IS MADE UP OF ONE-FOOT METAL SEGMENTS WHICH, TOGETHER WITH THE COMMON BOTTOM CONTACT, CONSTITUTE THE ELEMENTS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CIRCUITS. LEAD WIRES ARE ATTACHED TO EACH SEGMENT SO THAT, WITH APPROPRIATE JUMPER CONNECTIONS, ANY DESIRED SEGMENT WIDTH CAN BE READILY OBTAINED. THE ENTIRE UNIT IS ATTACHED TO THE ROAD SURFACE BY MEANS OF A QUICK DRYING RUBBER CEMENT AND A COVERING OF INDUSTRIAL ADHESIVE TAPE. THE TAPE ALSO SERVES TO PROTECT THE UNIT FROM ABRASIVE TIRE ACTION. IN ORDER TO EVALUATE THE DESIGN A TEST PROGRAM WAS SET UP WHEREIN THE DETECTING UNIT WOULD BE SUBJECTED TO BOTH SEVERE AND ORDINARY DRIVING CONDITIONS AS WELL AS TO A SERIES OF CONTROLLED CONDITIONS INVOLVING RAPID ACCELERATION, DECELERATION AND SKIDDING. /AUTHOR/
Distributed Product Data Management (DPDM) is a framework which links disparate data sources together to create a hybrid network of resources that can be exchanged in real-time by different organizations. Current product management systems optimize intra-organizational processes by centralizing data management while maintaining distinct original system configurations. DPDM can manage disparate data sources without creating additional resource management databases. In addition, it eases intra-organizational management by normalizing interaction between various tiers. The architecture contains a hybrid server for controlling the application and managing client details. Distributed agents are used to link the system to different client data sources. DPDM provides deployment tools to integrate new clients into the system and programmable modules to extend the architecture programmatically for implementing additional features. Multitiered implementation of the framework enables transparent extraction and exchange of data across the network. A prototype is built using the architecture to demonstrate the flexibility, affordability, extendibility and interoperability of the framework. A distributed architecture is used with project-product oriented data modeling and illustrates various aspects of framework. DPDM being an extendable interface can be deployed in domains that require distributed data exchange. Implementations can be developed in a “self-service” and low cost manner to suit specific organizational requirements.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
The future of mobility is changing at an exponential rate, as every day passes it moves closer to the goal of complete autonomy, therefore, it is safe to say that the adaptation of self-driving cars in near future is no more a matter of science fiction. Keeping in view the rapid evolution of mobility, this study tries to enlighten and compile the importance of autonomous vehicles in our daily life by highlighting monetary and societal advantages of adaptation. Moreover, it analysis the Austrian expert's opinion on the topic of adaptation of the self- driving cars and business prospects with autonomous vehicles for current businesses. The data on these two questions was collected in a workshop using Delphi method, where experts from varied professional backgrounds participated. But mainly the participants of the controlled group were representatives of public procurement, energy and automobile industry/sector. After a detailed presentation and discussion over the topic, the participants were asked for their views on forth mentioned two questions. Their opinions were recorded and visualized on a custom made graph and further analyzed using the descriptive statistical tool. At the end of the question and answer session a vast majority of experts, which is approximately 80%, thought that there is a good possibility of adaptation of autonomous vehicles in near future. But on the other hand relatively less percentage of experts were confident about the bright future for current businesses in automobile industry; They argued that the current business decorum would change dramatically in a couple of decades and this would be the question of survival of the fittest and smartest.
In pulse modulators applying pulse transformers reset circuits are used to achieve optimal utilization of the core material, which results in lower costs, downsized pulse transformer/system volume and therefore in an improved pulse behavior due to the smaller parasitics. Because of its simplicity the most common method to reset the core is a dc reset circuit, where a dc current is used to premagnetize the core. However, the dc reset circuit - even with an optimal design - leads to significant losses in the freewheeling path. By applying an active reset method the losses due to the passive reset circuit can be significantly. So far, only the theoretical behavior of the active reset circuit has been examined. Therefore, the detailed design and measurement results are presented in this paper. Furthermore, a new control method for achieving symmetrical flux swings in the core are presented.
The experiments described in this thesis deal with handwriting characteristics which are involved in the production of forged and genuine signatures and complexity of signatures. The objectives of this study were (1) to provide su?cient details on which of the signature characteristics are easier to forge, (2) to investigate the capabilities of the signature complexity formula given by Found et al. based on a different signature database provided by University of Kent. This database includes the writing movements of 10 writers producing their genuine signature and of 140 writers forging these sample signatures. Using the 150 genuine signatures without constrictions of the Kent’s database an evaluation of the complexity formula suggested in Found et al took place divided the signature in three categories low, medium and high graphical complexity. The results of the formula implementation were compared with the opinions of three leading professional forensic document examiners employed by Key Forensics in the UK.    The analysis of data for Study I reveals that there is not ample evidence that high quality forgeries are possible after training. In addition, a closer view of the kinematics of the forging writers is responsible for our main conclusion, that forged signatures are widely different from genuine especially in the kinematic domain. From all the parameters used in this study 11 out of 15 experienced significant changes when the comparison of the two groups (genuine versus forged signature) took place and gave a clear picture of which parameters can assist forensic document examiners and can be used by them to examine the signatures forgeries. The movements of the majority of forgers are signi?cantly slower than those of authentic writers. It is also clearly recognizable that the majority of forgers perform higher levels of pressure when trying to forge the genuine signature. The results of Study II although limited and not entirely consistent with the study of Found that proposed this model, indicate that the model can provide valuable objective evidence (regarding complex signatures) in the forensic environment and justify its further investigation but more work is need to be done in order to use this type of models in the court of law. The model was able to predict correctly only 53% of the FDEs opinion regarding the complexity of the signatures.    Apart from the above investigations in this study there will be also a reference at the debate which has started in recent years that is challenging the validity of forensic handwriting experts’ skills and at the effort which has begun by interested parties of this sector to validate and standardise the field of forensic handwriting examination and a discussion started. This effort reveals that forensic document analysis field meets all factors which were set by Daubert ruling in terms of theory proven, education, training, certification, falsifiability, error rate, peer review and publication, general acceptance. However innovative methods are needed for the development of forensic document analysis discipline. Most modern and effective solution in order to prevent observational and emotional bias would be the development of an automated handwriting or signature analysis system. This system will have many advantages in real cases scenario. In addition the significant role of computer-assisted handwriting analysis in the daily work of forensic document examiners (FDE) or the judicial system is in agreement with the assessment of the National Research Council of United States that “the scientific basis for handwriting comparison needs to be strengthened”, however it seems that further research is required in order to be able these systems to reach the accomplishment point of this objective and overcome legal obstacles presented in this study.
The underwater self-reconfigurable System(USS)is a chain-type underwater self-reconfigurable robot. USS now consists of only 1 kind of self-reconfigurable module, USM-1. It is different from land self-reconfigurable modules because of the special underwater environment.In this paper we describe hardware design in detail. Its capability of locomotion and self-reconfiguration have been examined through experiments.
Uncertainty of parameters like material mechanical properties are traditionally described by probabilistic model, which requires detailed statistical information of parameters limited to obtain in engineering application. In this paper, the problem is solved by using the non-probabilistic convex model that only needs the upper and lower bounds of variables instead of abundant statistical information, which greatly reduces the demand of data and avoids unsafe results caused by the scatter of data. Based on the non-probabilistic convex model, the non-probabilistic interval analysis method is introduced to calculate the creep damage of HK40 high temperature furnace tube and to discuss the influence of operation conditions on creep damage with operation pressure and operation temperature regarded as interval variables. Consequently, the effect of outer wall temperature on creep damage interval is greater at the beginning of furnace tube operation stage. With the increase of running time, the effect of inner wall temperature on creep damage interval is greater and greater, and at the same time greater than that of creep damage interval when the outer wall temperature considered as interval variables. When the operating pressure is treated as interval variable, the upper and lower bounds of creep damage are nearly in a straight line that indicates the effect of pressure change on damage is little. Meanwhile, the life of high temperature furnace tube is predicted according to the definition of non-probabilistic interval index, and the analysis results are compared with the results of probabilistic model. The analysis results sufficiently demonstrate that the non-probabilistic approach presented in this paper is viable.
Based on the characteristic of corrosion of aircraft structure under service conditions,a fatigue holistic assessment model that can incorporate the effects of various corrosion damage and age-degradation into a systematic damage tolerance framework was established with existing engineering principles.The influence of age-degradation and fatigue interaction on aircraft structure integrality was quantified through this model.In the meantime,the predictive model of residual strength and crack growth of the wide panel with multiple site damage(MSD) was established according to the holistic assessment method.Thus a reliable theory is provided for corrosion damage tolerance assessment.A more effective engineering method for the maintenance,inspection,repair and extending use of aging structure systems can also be provided by this theory.
In this paper, the primary network leases some part of its available resources to cognitive radio (CR) users, with the aim of increasing its achievable data rates. In counterpart, CR users are allowed to exploit the leased resource for their own transmission. By using distributed beamforming among CR nodes, we formulate a beamforming problem so as to optimize the parameters involved in the leasing process. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed leasing method provides benefits for both primary and CR networks. Copyright © 2012 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved. n Number of cognitive nodes 1 n Gaussian complex noise vector at CR
Deployment of distributed energy resources has brought the concept of autonomous hybrid power systems at community levels and remote areas into limelight. In such systems, proper sizing of energy resources at design stage is very crucial to meet energy requirements at minimum cost. Other than technical and economic constraints, system sizing should abide the preservation of environmental interests pertaining to sustainability needs. To investigate this problem, a sizing methodology preserving both economic and environmental interests is proposed in this paper. The problem for component sizing is formulated as an optimization problem with cost minimization objective including both cost and emissions. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) method is then applied to arrive at optimal solution, minimizing the dual objectives i.e., of system cost and embedded emissions. The proposed optimal sizing methodology is simulated for an autonomous hybrid power system renewable energy sources (photovoltaic, wind energy), conventional sources (diesel generator) and energy storage (battery systems). The dual objective function is optimized with different weightages for cost and emissions and the results demonstrates that, mutual exclusive nature of cost and emissions can be addressed with the tradeoff solution.
The utility model discloses a bead ring wrapper rewinding machine of a radial tire. A damping plate is connected with an unreeling mechanism; a pneumatic brake is connected with the damping plate; an unreeling square shaft, a first transition roller and a second transition roller are orderly connected through a wrapper; an annular optical axis sensor is arranged between the first transition roller and the second transition roller; the second transition roller, the unreeling mechanism and a third transition roller are orderly connected through the wrapper; a clamping mechanism is arranged between the third transition roller and a storage mechanism; a position detecting mechanism is arranged on the storage mechanism; the storage mechanism, a fourth transition roller, a fifth transition roller, a sixth transition roller and a rolling mechanism are orderly connected through the wrapper; and a retaining mechanism is arranged between the fifth transition roller and the sixth transition roller. By virtue of the bead ring wrapper rewinding machine of the radial tire, the production efficiency and the bead ring wrapper winding quality of the radial tire are improved, and the specification of a bead ring wrapper roll is specified.
the Deshun Battle, happening in the Shaoxin later years during Gaozongs reign, is one of the important battles that decides the success or failure of war between the Song Dynasty and Jin Kingdom. The author expounds the impact of the Deshun Battle on the western battlefield and even the whole war situation between the Song Dynasty and Jin Kingdom from the angle of the fighting quality of the Song army in the west, the strategical plan of the courtiers who advocate marching northward to fight and the important strategical position of Deshunjun, and holds that the key reason for the Song armys failure is that the general in charge has to obey what the central government has to say and thus has no say in carrying out the battle.
This paper reports that completion of a recently commissioned pipeline automation system in China overcame delays caused by serious difficulties in communications, organization, customs, and distance. The 153 mile, 28 in. hot-oil pipeline is located in the Shangdong Province, east of Beijing, China, and runs from Dongying, in the Shengli oil field, to the port of Huangdao on the Yellow Sea. The Shengli Oil Pipeline Co. (SOPC) now operates the fully automated Dong-Huang liquid pipeline with capability for central control in Weifang.
Motivated toward dynamic rolling control of hybrid walking-climbing-rolling robots, this paper presents a greedy graph search method using two different metrics for purposes of joint path planning for a planar three degree of freedom hybrid mobility robot. Given an initial configuration and a desired net center of gravity location for the robot, the graph search finds joint paths that relocate the robotpsilas center of gravity to the desired position without causing its links to collide. An emphasis is placed on fast search times such that the planners may be used as part of real-time control loops for rolling mobile robots.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the adequacy of the automobile mechanics courses taught in certain Texas high schools to determine (1) what high schools of Texas offer courses in auto mechanics; (2) in what place in the curriculum are such courses offered; (3) what methods of teaching auto mechanics are being used; (4) how many units are offered and what is contained in each unit; and (5) the opinions of the school administrators, auto mechanics teachers, and industrial arts teachers as to what should be taught in the auto mechanics courses.
The purpose of the paper consists of development of techniques and determination of influence of operating parameters of the withdrawal rolls' electric drive on certain types of billet macrostructure defects and development of an automated electric drive of withdrawal rolls on their basis. An automated electric drive of withdrawal rolls should ensure the increase of machine productivity through the enhance of billet casting speed due to improvement of quality of the internal billet structure. Solution of the assigned problem is based on the analytical and numerical methods of solving algebraic problems and mathematical modeling required according to distribution of the load moments on the electric drives of withdrawal rolls and calculation of the longitudinal forces generated by the electric drive in crystallizing ingot and also the methods of statistical treatment of a large data volume about billet macrostructure defects and performance indicators of the electric drives of withdrawal rolls. The paper novelty is in development of requirements for the automated electric drive of withdrawal rolls and its control system aimed at quality improvement of continuous cast billets. At the same time, the novelty is presented by development of the methodology for statistical assessment of influence of distribution of electric drive load currents of withdrawal rolls and statistical longitudinal forces generated by the electric drive of withdrawal rolls in billet on its macrostructure quality.
Structural health monitoring is receiving much attention as a means to prevent catastrophic failure in structures in operating conditions. In most cases fracture is caused by the growth of crack, which cannot be precluded in many engineering structures. Moreover, to have an accurate quantitative estimate of crack tolerance of a structure to prevent fracture of load bearing components, an effective non-destructive evaluation procedure becomes necessary to monitor the structure under working conditions.
A vacuum switchgear is provided to improve reliability of ground insulation by forming an insulating unit on an outer circumferential surface of a non-grounded vacuum vessel. A vacuum switchgear includes one or a plurality of non-grounded vacuum vessels(1). A plurality of main circuit switches are received in one or the plurality of vacuum vessels and have movable electrodes(5A,5B,5C) and fixed electrodes(9A,9B,9C). A plurality of bushing conductors(12A,12B,12C) are fixed at the fixed electrodes of each of the main circuit switches respectively and extended outward from the non-grounded vacuum vessel. A plurality of ground switches have contacts received in ground switch vacuum vessels or ground switch air insulated vessels in correspondence to the main circuit switches. A plurality of air insulated bodies(14A,14B,14C) transmit a motion of an operating mechanism to the movable electrodes of each of the main circuit switches. A grounded resin mold vessel(22) seals outer circumferences of the non-grounded vacuum vessel, the bushing conductor, and the ground switch vacuum vessel. A cover(23) is airtightly installed at one end of the grounded resin mold vessel.
The transmission of reactive power has negative impacts on stability and security of power system,and traditional reactive power compensation technologies are difficult to meet system requirements.In order to improve the performance of reactive power compensation,the principle and topology of H-Bridge STATCOM were studied.The direct current control method of tracking PWM was used to study the steady state and dynamic state reactive power compensation performance of cascade H-bridge STATCOM.MATLAB simulation results prove the validity of the control method and the performance of cascade H-bridge STATCOM for reactive power compensation.
The methodological analysis of the author was motivated the fact that his team could  apply its GPS techniques directly by using an existing geoid map (GAZSO, TARASZOVA,  1984). Regarding the Hungarian particularities, he analysed the sensitivity of the de- termination of elevations above sea level by applying GPS methods to the knowledge of  geoid heights. He pointed out the possibility that a 7-parameter transformation of spatial  coordinates can provide automatically a linear elevation fitting. To make a global approx- imation to the geoid in Hungary, he derived a third-degree formula with two variables by  means of Chebyshev approximation.
This paper examines the evolution of change dependencies during an electrical motorcycle design project undertaken by a start-up team. It was found that only 33% of the changes made in the project were planned and change propagation accounted for 20% of all changes made. The findings also suggest that an analysis of direct inter-component dependencies at the start of the project could have prevented (or prepared for) 67% of change propagation. Such detection rate may suffice for resource-strapped start-ups who cannot afford more advanced change analysis.
Because the mixing efficiency is influenced remarkably by varying the geometrical configurations, the study of flow characteristics inside the mechanical agitator is very important to improve the performances. The draught tube in the agitator makes intermixing between the screw and tube by interrupting radial flow, and it makes circulation region in a mixing chamber. In general, the helical screw agitator with a draught tube (HSA) is proved more efficient to mix than the others. Consequently, such as the shapes of helical screw, number of pitches and the variation of angular velocity are the main parameters for improving the capacity of HSA. And also the suspension of the solid particles in the agitator can be determined these parameters. The rate of solids suspension in the mixing chamber was quantified with a statistical average value, of. Numerical analyses were carried out, using a commercial CFD code, Fluent, to obtain the velocity, pressure and particle distributions under steady, laminar flow and no-slip conditions. Results are graphically depicted with various parameters.
In the electrical control system on the centrifugal ventilator,ventilation door and winch in Sangzhang in the second coal mine,there is a deviation between the design on the reverse ventilation door,winch and the actual operation.So the phenomenons of the two doors act in the opposite direction appear in the actual operation.It will prolong the operation time so long as the reverse ventilation occurs.In the same time it will constitute to a menace to the security of the production and the workers' lives who work underground.This paper proposes amendments and addenda in the reverse ventilation in the concentric control system on ventilation door and winch.It can not only reduce error in operating but also avoid the appearance discribed above.
For the reduction and efficient management of railway noise, first of all prediction of railway noise is necessarily requisited. Many studies for prediction of railway nearby noise have been accomplished. But it is impossible to predict easily and exactly for the Korean Railway, because the acoustic powers for each rolling stock operated in Korea have not been built yet. So in this study, Prediction model equation for environmental noise for Korean rolling stock Saemaeul was suggested using SEL of engine and rolling noise component separately. Finally for the validation of prediction equation, the predicted result was compared to the measured.
This thesis consists of three main parts. The first part of the master thesis looks at the identification of thruster dynamics and low speed ship dynamics. The relevant parameters identified are time constants and time delays in the system. Simple step tests are used for the identification. Different models for identification are suggested, both for uncoupled surge, sway, and yaw dynamics. Other test results, such as agility plots, DP 4 corner tests, and pure DP tests (stationkeeping) are reported. All the results are to be compared to similar tests performed after R/V Gunnerus has a retrofit of the thruster system. The second part discusses another problem, and that is the topic of numerically estimat- ing the body frame position of the GNSS and MRU sensors. For the GNSS position an Luenberger observer design and an adaptive scheme are proposed and analyzed. The es- timation designs are tested using numerical simulations and experimental data from the Gunnerus sea trials. A similar Luenberger observer is proposed for the MRU positions, and experimental data from the sea trials are used to test the observer. The third part discusses a hybrid augmentation of integral action. The motivation is a DP system, where typically the integral action is tuned very low to avoid oscillations due to the integral action. When there is a sudden load change, such as a ice load that hits the vessel, or if a mooring wire snaps, then a hybrid update augmentation could be useful, to speed up the convergence of the integral action. The update law is a linear update law based on the error in the states (the velocity for the DP system). The augmentation can significantly improve performance, especially for very large disturbance changes.
ing the previous ideas further, I considered making a “relevance map”, showing the DDC classification and the distance of relevance between the books through tags. This is where the models get increasingly complex and might need a closer study. Consider for example the two books The history of Western philosophy and The order of things. They will have a number of tags in common. For example, they both have the tags “sociology”, “history of science”, “history of ideas”, “philosophy”, and “history” in common. The tags are placed along the arch and the distance
The Art Crafts Movement was original from England at late 19 century,a direct fruit of Morris theory.The most important representative and founder,William Morris who was affected by democratization and socialism of Ruskin,emphasized the service object in design.He wanted to prosper the national tradition of the Art Craft and objected to artificial Victoria style.This thesis tried to figure out the background of the reason of The Art Craft Movement,analyzed the condition of happening,so that we can have a more intensive understanding about modern design.
This article presents a novel frequency selective surface (FSS) with switchable polarization, which is realized using the improved cross slots with embedded strips and isolated island structure. The transmission characteristics of FSS unit cell for both horizontal polarization and vertical polarization are simulated with CST. And a FSS made of an array of 20 × 20 cells is implemented on the substrate Rogers RO4003. The experiment results show that the proposed FSS can obtain polarization switching through short and open circuits for X‐band application. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:515–518, 2014
Growth in air transportation in the last 40 years has been quite dramatic with much of the progress being due to the many advances that have taken place in the aero gas turbine engine. This progress has included the development of engines for aircraft as large as the Boeing 747 and as fast as Concorde. Steady growth is expected to continue well into the next century requiring the continuous development of the aero engine. Advancement in military aircraft and engines has been equally spectacular. Tornado powered by the RBI99 engine is a very advanced weapons system with multi role capability whilst the European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) powered by the Eurojet EJ200 engine will represent a major step forwards in aircraft and engine technology. The Harrier aircraft, powered by the Pegasus engine has clearly demonstrated the operational benefits of short take-off and vertical landing for land and sea based operations with future engine growth aimed at enhanced payload/range performance. In the longer term a new aircraft and powerplant concept with supersonic capability is likely to emerge from the joint US/UK A/STOVL programme. The role of the helicopter in military operation has changed significantly in recent years and this again owes much to the advancement in small gas turbine engines. Future developments in small engines will continue to yield benefits in performance and weight whilst focussing strongly on further reductions in cost. The paper will describe some current engine developments and look forwards to the potential future developments in civil, military and helicopter engines including their enabling technologies.
The article by Candidate of Historical Sciences Vladimir Shavkunov "Stone Disc from Primorye" is about archaeological find of the teachers from Sviyagino village of Spassk region. This is a round disc made of a strong dull stone. The author gives a detailed description of this disc; he makes suggestions about its function, technology and draws a conclusion that this stone in a way reflects the level of knowledge and skills of the ancient Tungus-Manchu population of Primorye.
Background and objective: Laboratory wastes are produced in small, but varied quantities. These wastes need to be managed correctly. Consequently, this re - search has undertaken a quantitative and qualitative assessment and manage - ment of the laboratory wastes of Zakaria Razi Laboratory Complex in Tehran Science Research Branch Islamic Azad University. Materials and Method: This study, primarily with the help of interviews, de- termined the most productive laboratories of the Complex, which then led to the selection of two educational laboratories and two research laboratories for qualitative and quantitative sampling. After sampling which the samples were catalogued according to the four categories of corrosive, toxic, flammable and reactive. Results: The findings of this research show that 54% of the hazardous waste of the research laboratories is flammable and in the educational laboratories 56% of the waste produced is corrosive. Conclusion: In most of the laboratories in this complex (88%), a list of the hazardous waste produced is not compiled and stored, and in all but 16% of the laboratories where hazardous waste is disposed after being secured in ap - propriate containers, this waste is poured into the drain without any proper management. A list of produced wastes in each laboratory is required to be prepared, using the laboratory operator's assistance. Keyword: Laboratories waste, Hazardous waste, educational research labora - tory, Zakaria Razi Complex
Much debate and misinformation has been published in various technical journals and in the marketplace on the use of Resistive Temperature Deteetor (RTDs) as a sensor of partial discharges (PD) in motors and generators. The authors have more experience in this field of technology than any other company in the world. With hundreds of applications working in operating facilities and thousands of data records, this technology is well proven. This paper addresses the concerns in using RTDs as a PD sensor through sound technical analysis and case studies. Specific response to the paper titled "Investigations Into the Use of Temperature Detectors as Stator Winding Partial Discharge Detectors" presented at the 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Blectrica1 Insulation is made. I. INTRODUCTION Four new case studies are presented. to once again substantiate the use of this technology. One case study compares signals from an RID that is installed. in the same slot as a Stator Slot Coupler (SSC). A point by point response to the paper referenced in the abstract is not made, however, the conclusions of the 2006 paper are analyzed, and appropriate responses given.
Within the context of the energy crisis in the Western Cape, the Provincial Government and Eskom (the South African power utility) embarked on a retrofit campaign to install 5 million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in a desperate attempt to decrease the generation deficit. There is also increased pressure for investments in new generation capacity, with all options including the Pebble Bed Modular reactor (PBMR), the Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGT) as well as renewable resource technologies being proposed. Despite all these concerted efforts it is widely r egarded that demand-side technologies, with education programs, subsidies and research fund ing, have greater scope for achieving success as they tackle the root cause rather than the symptom. The light emitting diode (LED) is a new energy efficient option in the lighting sector that has in recent times been deployed extensively by the City of Cape Town’s T ransport Network Operations Department. The technology promises superior attributes that include a longer lifespan and higher energy conversion efficiencies, when compared to the traditional incandescents and fluorescents. This paper details the achievements of the LED in its brief history in the local traffic and signals industry as well as its projected impact on the city traffic light department’s future energy and maintenance budget. It is then proposed that these monochromatic signal LEDs, which is fast evolving into a white LED, holds the best promise in Cape Town as well as the Western Cape’s energy future if adopted for general lighting in the domestic, commercial and industrial market.
Port of Dong-Hae was opened as the port gateway of Gangwon province Youngdong region in 1973. But, this Port of Dong-Hae cannot cope with the role and contribute regional economy. Youngdong region. Also, the Gangwon province are included in its influence district, with a high potential of industrial development by satisfying the trade policies with North-East Sea economy. Despite the geopolitical advantages, the quality of many aspects like port facilities, operations, strategy etc. are very poor. Therefore, this Article has the objective to give a proposal to enhance the situations above, and came to a conclusion like the following. First, the Port of Dong-Hae as a international port should specialize its functions to increase foreign trade. Second, they should establish a logistics network including the Dong-Hae international port. This logistics network including Dong-Hae international port can establish a joint by relating the neighboring port. Third, they should improve a traffic network including road and railroad.
The risk of a collision between aircraft is rising as the density of commercial air traffic increases. This trend, together with the overwhelming need to upgrade the National Airspace System, has motivated the Federal Aviation Administration to sponsor the development of metrics to evaluate “dynamic density”—a proxy for the likelihood of collision risk. Here we propose and evaluate a mathematical index of dynamic density, D, that describes collision risk. Although our domain of investigation is aviation, the logic of D is applicable whenever objects move in limited spaces. A series of sensitivity analyses illustrate how D responds to frequently encountered air traffic conflict situations. We illustrate a use of D that characterizes pilot performance and efficiency in experimental simulations of free flight and suggest other human factors applications. This research could be applied immediately by the traffic management units of en-route air traffic control centers to reformulate the criterion for the critical capacity of sectors.
The paper deals with the description of realised implementations of semi-active road-friendly truck suspensions and with the description of provided experiments. The possible consequences in form of economical feasibility of serial practical implementations are included. There have been materialised two implementations. The first one was within the EU funded Copernicus project SADTS - Semi-Active Damping of Truck Suspsension and Its Influence on Driver and Road Loads  in 1997-98. The second one was within the mutual workshop of IKA RWTH, DLR, CTU  Moderne Nutzfahrzeug-Fahrwerke, Potential zur Ladegut- und Fahrbahnschonung  in Aachen in March 2000. the first implementation was on the SKODA-LIAZ platform truck and the second one was on the MAN truck-tractor with semi-trailer. Both implementations have again proved that the semi-active suspension is capable to decrease the dynamic part of road-tyre forces and to reduce road damage. The semi-active road-friendly suspension can serve for the reduction of road damage or for the allowed increase of useful truck payload. The economical feasibility of both variants is shortly provided.
A new energy utilization way called hybrid photovoltaic-thermal solar system, which turn solar energy into thermal efficiency and the electric efficiency, becomes much more popular recently. In view of this point, a mathematical model was established for a new structure of PVT in this paper, and solved with the finite difference method, to draw a conclusion for diagram of speed and temperature as well as the relationship between heat-collecting efficiency and air flow and Inlet Temperature. Analogue simulation in many shapes, sizes Photovoltaic-thermal Solar panels by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT. Optimizing the optimized solutions by improving the shapes, sizes and the initial conditions of Import and export, To raise efficiency of utilization of solar energy.
An agreement of understanding signed by Columbia LNG Corp. and the National Iranian Gas Co. (NIGC) in Apr. 1978 provides for delivery of 300 million cu ft/day of gas as LNG to the Cove Point, Md., terminal for 20 yr beginning in 1982. A barge-mounted liquefaction plant is to be designed and built and 90% financed by Norway's Moss-Rosenberg Verft A/S, with 10% financing by NIGC. Six 125,000 cu m LNG tankers will be needed. The liquefaction/storage plant will have two liquefaction trains that use the Air Products and Chemical Co. prestaged propane cycle. The barge will incorporate six spheres of the Moss-Rosenberg design with a capacity of 165,000 cu m. The Marine LNG System is actually made up of three separate barges: one for the processing plant and two for cargo tanks. After being towed to the site, they are welded together to form a single unit.
The measurement of aerodynamic forces and moments acting on an aircraft model is  important for the development of wind tunnel measurement technology. The primary  purpose of wind tunnel measurements over the model for the forces and moments is  to predict the performance of the full-scale vehicle. Force measurement techniques  in wind tunnel testing are necessary for determining a variety of aerodynamic  performance parameters. For three-dimensional aircraft models, forces and moments  are usually measured directly using a balance system. The balance mechanically  separates the total aerodynamic load on a model into its six aerodynamic  components. Two fundamental types of balances, external and internal balances, are  used today. External balances carry the loads outside the tunnel before they are  measured and internal balances which fit in the model and are arranged to send data  out through electrical wires.In this research work, six-component external balance is commissioned and the  calibration has been thoroughly checked and the detailed procedure of measurement  of aerodynamic forces is recommended. A set of winglet has been designed for the  existing aircraft model at the Aerodynamics laboratory of the Aerospace  Engineering Department, UPM. Further the aerodynamic forces are measured on the  aircraft model having a rectangular wing with and without winglet attached to the  model. Tests have been carried out on the aircraft model with and without winglet at  the Reynolds numbers 170,000, 210,000 and 250,000. The experimental results  show that lift curve slope increases by 1-6% with the addition of certain winglet  configurations and at the same time the drag decreases by 20-28% as compared to  those for the aircraft model without winglet for the maximum Reynolds number  considered in the present study.
A new two-step approach for probabilistic structural health monitoring is presented, which involves modal identification followed by damage assessment using the pre and post-damage modal parameters based on a new Bayesian model updating algorithm. The new approach aims to attack the structural health monitoring problems with incomplete modeshape information by including the underlying full modeshapes of the system as extra random variables, and by employing the Expectation-Maximisation algorithm to determine the most probable parameter values. The non-concave non-linear optimisation problem associated with incomplete modeshape cases is converted into two coupled quadratic optimisation problems, so that the computation becomes simpler and more robust. We illustrate the new approach by analysing the Phase II Simulated Benchmark problems sponsored by the IASC-ASCE Task Group on Structural Health Monitoring. The results of the analysis show that the probabilistic approach is able to successfully detect and locate the simulated damage involving stiffness loss in the braces of the analytical benchmark model based on simulated ambient-vibration data.
Abstract : Solidification/stabilization (S/S) of chromium in contaminated soils has proven to be one of the more intractable problems in applying S/S technology. This is particularly true when attempting to reduce the mobility of the chromium VI ion. The evaluation problem is compounded by the availability of numerous proprietary S/S mixes. This paper describes a study in which eight formulations were evaluated for their ability to reduce the mobility of chromium III an chromium VI. The physical and contaminant release properties of a generic formulation and formulations provided by seven vendors were evaluated in a rigidly controlled study conducted at the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station. The suite of physical tests included unconfined compressive strength, wet/dry durability, permeability, moisture content, Atterberg limits, Proctor density, bulk density, specific gravity, slump, cracking, bleed water, and resistance to penetration. MWEP, Permeability, Solidification,
ABSTRACT Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) is one of the widely recognized and used nontraditional machining processes in the industry today. Advancements in the process mechanism and control have been rapidly taking place in this process. WEDM can machine harder, high strength, corrosive and wear resistant, and difficult to machine newer materials. Additionally, WEDM can machine intricate shapes which cannot be achieved using the traditional machining processes such as turning, milling, and grinding. Applications of WEDM process include extrusion dies, fuel injector nozzles, aircraft engine turbine blades and machining of difficult-to-machine materials like tool steel, titanium and cemented carbides. Wire-cut EDM has experienced explosive growth and sophistication of equipment, and in the demands made on the basic tool of the process i.e. wire. In this paper, we describe technologies from the widely used brass wire electrodes to the latest coated wire electrodes which have been developed and helped the users demand and need maximum productivity and throughput, increased accuracy, and predictable performance. Higher angles of taper, thicker workpieces, automatic wire threading, and long periods of unattended operation, make choosing the optimum wire a much more critical factor in achieving a successful operation.
Basic factors in planning communication facilities for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) new 500-kV system are discussed and descriptions given of broadband carrier coupling techniques, coupling equipment, and tests for power-line carrier measurements. Single-sideband power-line carrier equipment is evaluated in the light of its role in providing the bulk of communication services between terminals of TVA's first 500-kV line. Expectations that insulated ground wires will perform as communications circuits and the line's radio noise evaluation program are other items discussed.
This paper presents a theory to explain the characteristics of a sequential phase energization based inrush current reduction scheme. The scheme connects a resistor at the transformer neutral point and energizes each phase of the transformer in sequence. It was found that the voltage across the breaker to be closed has a significant impact on the inrush current magnitude. By analyzing this voltage using steady-state circuit theory, the simulation and experimental results presented in a companion paper are explained. The results lead to the establishment of a guide to select the optimal value of the neutral resistor. The applicability of the proposed scheme to different transformer configurations has also been investigated in this paper. It is shown that the idea of sequential phase energization leads to a new class of techniques for limiting switching transients.
Decisions on sewer management have large, long-lasting consequences. These decisions have to be taken under uncertainty. Managers of sew er system are also faced with their infrastructure system ageing. A statistical and dec ision (using multicriteria analysis) model has been developed and used to improve strategies o f IMR interventions (Inspection, Maintenance and Rehabilitation). For estimating the asset performances, an approach based on Relative Risk analysis was developed. It enables to sort out prioritary sewer sections before any decision, accounting for the specific re quirements of the manager regarding the system itself or its urban or socio-economical envi ronment. This contribution focuses on the indirect sensitivity of decisions (accuracy in fina l decision) to uncertainties in external inputs and/or imperfect knowledge, based on a definition o f "the quality" of the given information. A set of parametric studies is performed to determi ne the effect of lack of knowledge or imperfect knowledge on risk estimation.
The purpose of our study is to evaluate the benefit of contrast enhancement strategies on a logic metal layer at pitch 28 nm. We build up on three studies from imec and ASML [1][2][3]. We take as a reference a Negative Tone Development (NTD) Metal Oxide Resist (MOR) process used in combination with a binary TaBN mask absorber, without SRAF, exposed with an X/Y symmetric pupil on a 0.33 NA EUV scanner, the NXE:3400 from ASML [7]. The fading mitigation strategies leverage asymmetrical pupil (monopole), wavefront injection (Z6 aberration) and low-n attenuated Phase Shift Mask (PSM). We find very good agreement between our simulations on design clips, the theoretical expectations and the experimental data shared in the above mentioned papers on building blocks (L/S through pitch and dense tip-to-tip). Overall the three fading correction techniques are efficient to improve the printability of our use case in term of ILS. It also improves the best focus shift of L/S through pitch and between L/S and tip-to-tip. In conclusion, the most promising exposure strategy for the logic metal pitch 28 nm use case is the attenuated PSM. It provides the highest ILS, the narrower best focus range, the largest overlapping process window without any compromise on the illumination efficiency, i.e. using the full NXE:3400 throughput.
Prediction models fortimeseries generally include preprocessing followed bythesynthesis ofaninput-output mapping. Neuralnetworkmodelshavebeenadopted to performbothsteps,by meansofunsupervised and supervised learning, respectively. Theflexibility andthe generalization capability arethemostrelevant attributes in favor ofconnectionist approaches. However, eventhough timeseries prediction canbe roughly interpreted as learning fromdata, highlevels ofperformance will solely be achieved ifsomepeculiarities ofeachtimeseries are properly considered inthedesign, particularly theexistence oftrendandseasonality. Instead ofdirectly adopting detrendand/ordeseasonality treatments, thispaper proposes anovel paradigm forsupervised learning based on amixture ofheterogeneous experts. Somemixture models havealready beenproved toproduce goodperformance as predictors, butthepresent approach will bedevoted toa hybrid mixture composed ofasetofdistinct experts. The purposeisnotonlytofurther explore the"divide-and- conquer" principle, butalso tocomparetheperformance of mixture ofheterogeneous experts withthestandard mixture ofexperts approach, using tendistinct timeseries. The obtained results indicate thatmixture ofheterogeneous experts generally requires a moreelaborate gating device andperforms better inthecaseofmorechallenging time series.
Losses and heating in rotors of large synchronous generators are examined following sustained stator-terminal and HV busbar line-to-line short-circuits at full load and no load, three-phase (L-L-L) short-circuits on a weak line connected to the HV generator transformer busbar with clearance at fault current zeros where the generator either remains in synchronism or falls from synchronism, and worst-case malsynchronization. Comparisons are made with negative sequence losses in solid generator rotors following these disturbances. The analysis uses a phase-variable model of a synchronous generator with detailed and reduced damper representations to compute stator and rotor current following a severe electrical disturbance at either the machine terminals or the HV unit transformer busbar. Simulations at full load and no load for a variety of assumptions and approximations, with connection of a field discharge resistor on tripping the main generator breaker, are performed. >
A study is conducted of the use of Pu in power reactors with reference to the possible commercial fabrication of Pu fuels and the kind of fabrication facilities needed. The supplies and markets for Pu fuels are assessed, methods of making typical fuels are discussed, the health and safety requirements of a Pu- handling facility are presented, and construction and operating costs are estimated. A hypothetical plant design is used to illustrate the techniques and estimate the costs. Uncertainties that should be resolved before beginning plant construction are outlined. Related services that would be needed along with the plant are also described. (D.L.C.)
This paper reviews the main technical, operational and economical aspects of a biogas plant. The analysis is focused on the key points of the biogas production process, the current situation of biogas plants in Europe and the advantages, risks and new trends of the production and use of biogas. The paper offers an integrated view of the different aspects involved in a biogas plant as source of renewable energy in contrast with other more analyzed renewable energy sources based mainly on wind or solar energy.
There are several various methodological approaches well known for the current level safety ensuring of industrial control systems. Two worlds apart methodological approaches have been considered new and new critical vulnerabilities never stop, including a signiﬁcant number in relation to industrial control systems. The problem of safety ensuring dates from the XX century, has passed several stages of maturity, and, presently, the approach “from functionality” is the most obvious. In general, this approach consists in the fact that the formation and solution of a problem begins when the manufacturer creates a solution based on a speciﬁcation consisting of functional safety requirements. Then the safety assessment based on trust requirements is carried out. For the overall process of the safety ensuring of industrial control systems, unfortunately, it is typical, that, so far, the industry has not yet developed a holistic culture of consumption of secure IT-components with security evidence that can be traced to the required level. Only a few suppliers in the world and in Russia are ready to offer components that have a proven level of Safety Integrity Level in accordance with the requirements of IEC 61508 and/or 61511 series. The present publication considers the issue of the safety ensuring of industrial control systems in such technical aspects as: the required resources, the speciﬁed speed, the management quality, the validation methods, estimation of residual risks and other computable estimates. A brief overview of existing approaches is presented and some possible solutions for the deﬁned problem are given.
Requirements for open access networks (OAN) for emerging services are described. The emergence of new services will necessarily lead to diverse technology requirements; and OAN will provide the basis for an infrastructure that is flexible, modular and evolvable. Existing standards are discussed in the context of how they respond to future needs. The author contends that these standards do not meet the requirements of emerging hybrid networks. Requirements, other than standards, for OAN are discussed.
The main application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) is in the field of ophthalmology, where it is used for diagnosis of various eye diseases. The automatic segmentation of the individual retinal layers as well as pathological structures in OCT scans is helpful for clinical examination and treatment planning. Current methods often do not consider the strict arrangement of retinal layers. Although graph-based methods are suitable for correcting topology errors, their applicability is costly and complex, especially in the presence of pathologies. In this work, a segmentation method is proposed that utilizes additional shape information of the retinal layers to provide improved topology preservation while maintaining simple applicability. For this purpose, a U-Netbased network architecture is extended to a multi-task approach to allow regression of the shape information of the retinal layers in addition to pixel-wise classification. This introduces spatial regularization and allows the generation of plausible segmentations. A consistency term ensures agreement between the classification and regression task, which also allows for semi-supervised training. In a comprehensive evaluation, the performance of the proposed multi-task approach is investigated, using OCT image data from patients with diabetic macular edema. The results demonstrate that the integration of shape information improves the preservation of the topology of the retinal layers. Moreover, the use of a semi-supervised training scheme via a consistency term improves the robustness and refines the fluid delineation of the proposed method.
The invention discloses a large external-driven integral horizontal rotary continuous biogas dry fermentation device and a method thereof, and belongs to the technical field of dry fermentation. The device is fixed on the inner wall of a fermentation tank in a built-in manner, and penetrates through the main spiral wing and parts of a transverse fin of the whole fermentation tank, and the built-in fin rotates with a tank body when the tank body rotates in order to realizes stirring of a fermentation material and the pushing of the fermentation material to a material outlet. A main rotor spiral panel and the inner wall of the tank body are fixed through spaced fixed points, and a certain gap is formed between the spiral panel and the inner wall of the tank body, and guarantees the material mixing, inoculation, fermentation and discharging. The device and the method realize no batch mixing in the whole reaction process and make fermentation more thorough.
In order to determine the suitable row spacing of maize mechanized production in Hebei Province.Under the planting density of 67 500 plants/hm2,the row spacing of 60 cm and 65 cm was designed,the effects of different row spacing on growth characters,yield,gleaning rate,fall grain number and mechanized harvesting efficiency of maize were analyzed.The results showed that the yield of maize was lower,mechanized harvesting loss was smaller,mechanical harvesting efficiency was higher,the walking speed of combine harvester was faster in the row spacing for 60 cm,which was the suitable row spacing of maize mechanized production.
A bicycle CAD system based on UG-NX2(Unigraphics NX2) platform was developed by using the methodology of CBR and was applied successfully in practice.Some disadvantages existing in the bicycle design field were overcomed,such as experimentalism,low efficiency,and the lasting developing cycle.The key techniques of CBR in bicycle design were mainly presented,including the representation of the case,the comparability matching algorithm,establishment and maintenance of the case library and so on.
Groping behavior based on contact sensors is necessary for manipulation in an unknown environment. For those situations, it is effective for a robot to accumulate contact information as an environment map, and to plan the motions for executing the safe trial motion. We first propose a method of updating the occupancy grid map of the manipulation region from the contact information by introducing the contact sensor model. Using this map, we propose a method of sampling-based motion planning that enables the execution of the safe trial motion based on the criteria of feasibility and safety. To verify the effectiveness, we show the experimentally obtained results, showing that a real robot plans and executes the manipulation with groping behavior in the occluded environment.
The management of energy resources for efficient utilization of the energy resources while reducing the system costs is a critical technical issue. Among many kinds of the energy resource management, the energy reduction for indoor lighting systems is getting much concern as a large portion of energy consumption has been made for indoor lightings. In this paper, an energy-efficient lighting control scheme for indoor lighting systems in order to reduce the energy consumption by controlling the luminous flux and the lighting direction under the illuminance constraints is proposed. With the use of the user location information for the luminaire which is closely located to the user, the proposed scheme firstly sets the light direction of the luminaire to be aligned to the user location. Then, an optimization problem to find the luminous flux of each luminaire is formulated in order to minimize the luminous flux sum of the luminaires with the constraints for the dynamic ragne of the luminous flux, and the light flux for each luminaire is determined by the solution of the problem. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the luminaire control scheme with only the luminous flux control in the evaluation of satisfaction of the required illuminance level.
Micro-class because of its teaching time is short, less teaching content, feedback timely, targeted, and other characteristics, rapid penetration into the institutions of higher education reform among teaching various courses. The engineering drawing course as a theoretical and practical are strong, difficult to learn the characteristics to become a bastion of hard to overcome a lot of students. This paper introduces the traditional engineering drawing problems in the classroom, and the adaptability of the micro-lesson course in engineering drawing for analysis, micro lesson concludes with a method of making micro-lesson curriculum mapping project design ideas and engineering drawing course.
David R. Olson's speculations (May 1985 ER) concerning computers as tools of the intellect lead him to conclude that the computer's dependence on * 'explicit language" and its intolerance of * 'ambiguous utterances" might enhance children's literacy competencies. He argues that literacy has historically shaped cognition along lines of * 'preserving language as an object" that fully conveys intended meaning without ambiguity or interpretative requirements. It isn't quite clear whether the kind of studentcomputer interaction Olson sees as beneficial involves programming, use of the word processor, or educational software, so I'll touch briefly on all three. If Olson is referring to the highly explicit requirements of computer programming, we have reason to wonder about the transfer of the mental rigor of programming to the rigor of explicitness in verbal expression. Program logic is explicit only in terms of the computer language one is learning. Beginning programmers, in fact, need to be assured that they aren't illogical dodos—that the computer will accept
Construction projects involve a large number of both direct stakeholders (clients, professional teams, contractors, etc.) and indirect stakeholders (local authorities, residents, workers, etc.). Current methods of communicating building design information can lead to several types of difficulties (e.g. incomplete under- standing of the planned construction, functional inefficiencies, inaccurate initial work or clashes between com- ponents, etc.). In that context, Virtual Environments can improve communication between different stakeholders around a visual, and thus intuitive, representation of the planned construction. The paper de- scribes how, within the EC funded Divercity project (IST-1999-13 365), end-users contributed in defining the requirements for the use of VE in the Construction sector and in defining test scenarios adapted to their busi- ness needs. The overall outcomes of the project are also be presented and special focus is made on the Design Review Workspace.
Abstract : Night vision goggles (NVGs) are used for night flying in many military aircraft in the US Army, Navy, and Air Force. NVGs are seen as a means of improving flying safety by providing aircrew with a direct view of the outside world scene thereby improving situation awareness. However, NVGs cannot operate effectively in a cockpit environment unless the interior lighting is NVG compatible. NVG compatible means the lighting is sufficient for the aircrew to view their instruments with their unaided vision but the lighting does not interfere with the NVG's view of the outside world. There are several ways to achieve NVG compatibility by using plastic and glass filters, and by changing light sources to eliminate near infra-red light from the cockpit. One less desirable technique for achieving NVG compatible lighting is to use chemical lightsticks to flood-light the cockpit instrumentation. This paper presents a number of issues associated with using "chemsticks" as a means of achieving NVG compatibility including spectral effects, temporal effects, and temperature effects. It is concluded that chemsticks are marginal as a means of achieving NVG compatibility. Also, if they are used, then pilots and associated support personnel need to be informed of the chemstick's limitations and characteristics to assure safe NVG flight operations.
FAB FEST is an International Fabrication Festival held at the University of Westminster in Central London. The festival is a unique pedagogic and social project, combining creative architectural design with innovative digital fabrication methods using lightweight, recyclable materials.  It was introduced in 2016 and developed and repeated in the Summer of 2017. The festivals involved 50 teams of five or more students from across the UK and around the world including participants from India, China, USA, Turkey, Greece, Spain and Italy. Teams worked together over a four-month period to develop a design for a habitable pavilion. Groups combined students, professionals in practice acting as design mentors, as well as staff from the University’s Fabrication Lab, advising on materials and digital fabrication processes. Following a series of design stages teams submitted their proposals to be digitally fabricated using CNC knives, lasers and robotic arms. In the week of the festival teams then worked together to assemble and install their pre-fabricated pavilions, collectively creating the architecture for a large-scale public event. Building and celebration took place in Ambika P3 - a 14,000 square ft space in Central London developed from the University’s former concrete construction hall. The project ended in a three-day celebration with live music and making-based events for visitors and the local community.
Just like the chinese and foreign theory of teaching and learning throughout the ages,the new concept of engineering teaching and learning(CDIO) emphasizes studying in practice.The essence is how to carry out the engineering education according to the inherent laws of engineering activities,emphasizing intensiveness and integration in the process of education,the close connection with engineering project,students' initiative and practice,and the all-round improvement in the quality of students.This is the inheritance,development and innovation of the Idea of large-scale engineering.
This paper introduces HighChest, an innovative smart freezer designed to promote energy efficient behavior and the responsible use of food. Introducing a novel human–machine interface (HMI) design developed through assessment phases and a user involvement stage, HighChest is state of the art, featuring smart services that exploit embedded sensors and Internet of things functionalities, which enhance the local capabilities of the appliance. The industrial design thinking approach followed for the advanced HMI is intended to maximize the social impact of the food management service, enhancing both the user experience of the product and the user’s willingness to adopt eco- and energy-friendly behaviors. The sensor equipment realizes automatic recognition of food by learning from the users, as well as automatic localization inside the deposit space. Moreover, it provides monitoring of the appliance’s usage, avoiding temperature and humidity issues related to improper use. Experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the localization system, and the results showed 100% accuracy for weights greater or equal to 0.5 kg. Drifts due to the lid opening and prolonged usage time were also measured, to implement automatic reset corrections.
A study was conducted on the out-of-plane seismic performance of anchored brick veneer with wood-frame backup wall systems, to evaluate prescriptive design requirements and current construction practices. Prescriptive requirements for the design and construction of anchored brick veneer are currently provided by the Masonry Standards Joint Committee (MSJC) Building Code, the International Residential Code (IRC) for Oneand Two-Family Dwellings, and the Brick Industry Association (BIA) Technical Notes. Laboratory tests were conducted on brick-tie-wood subassemblies, comprising two bricks with a corrugated sheet metal tie either nailor screw-attached to a wood stud, permitting an evaluation of the stiffness, strength, and failure modes for a local portion of a veneer wall system, rather than just of a single tie by itself. Then, full-scale brick veneer wall specimens (two one-story solid walls, as well as a one-and-a-half story wall with a window opening and a gable region) were tested under static and dynamic out-of-plane loading on a shake table. The shake table tests captured the performance of brick veneer wall systems, including interaction and load-sharing between the brick veneer, corrugated sheet metal ties, and wood-frame backup. Finally, all of these test results were used to develop finite element models of brick veneer wall systems, including nonlinear inelastic properties for the tie connections. The experimental and analytical studies showed that the out-of-plane seismic performance of residential anchored brick veneer walls is generally governed by: tensile stiffness and strength properties of the tie connections, as controlled by tie installation details; overall grid spacing of the tie connections, especially for tie installation along the edges and in the upper regions of walls; and, overall wall geometric variations. Damage limit states for single-story residential brick veneer wall systems were established from the experimental and analytical studies as a function of tensile failure of key tie connections, and the seismic fragility of this form of construction was then evaluated. Based on the overall findings, it is recommended that codes incorporate specific requirements for tie connection installation along all brick veneer wall edges, as well as for tie connection installation at reduced spacings in the upper regions of wall panels and near stiffer regions of the backup. Residential anchored brick veneer construction should as a minimum be built in accordance with the current prescriptive code requirements and recommendations, throughout low to moderate seismicity regions of the central and eastern U.S., whereas non-compliant methods of construction commonly substituted in practice are generally not acceptable.
Owing to the large steering effort, most of heavy-duty commercial vehicles adopt power steering system of which core components are the steering pump and steering gear. Conventionally, diagnosis and correction of commercial vehicle steering related problems are handled by properly trained mechanics who have the proper equipment or tools. However, recent automotive technology introduces various kind of sensors and actuators those are linked with ECUs for the purpose of intelligent control and smart diagnosis of malfunctions. Steering flow indicator is a type of flow switch which detects the specific level of steering pump flow. It is used to monitor the flow of power steering fluid as a diagnostic tool to ensure that the power steering system is not fail. This work deals with a controller design of test equipment for the steering pump which is newly-developed by domestic company. The controller hardware interfaces the hydraulic test-rig to impose the test conditions on the steering flow indicator and the embedded software is designed to manage the test procedure according to the test specifications. Although initial flow control by the proportional solenoid valve is replaced by the speed control of piston pump due to the jittering of control flow, overall functions are verified as it is expected.
We discuss multi-domain simulation of power electronic systems where non-linear capacitors have a significant impact on the system behaviour, e.g. employing the MOSFET output capacitor Coss for soft switching or employing nonlinear thermal models in coupled electrical-thermal simulations. It is shown which errors can result from approximating non-linear capacitors with simple linear ones as proposed e.g. for Coss in datasheets. Furthermore a highly efficient implementation of non-linear capacitors in numerical circuit simulators is proposed.
Abstract : The Defence Research Establishment Ottawa has designed and constructed an experimental air-to-air radar system as the first step in demonstrating an air-to-air surveillance capability for the Canadian Forces' CP-140 Maritime Patrol Aircraft. initial flight trials of the experimental radar system were conducted in October 1999. The resulting data set includes measurements of ground clutter, water clutter, urban clutter, and returns from targets of opportunity. These data will be used to support the development of new signal processing and target detection algorithms that will form the basis of the CP-140 air-to-air surveillance capability. The data will also be used to support the validation of radar simulation models with site-specific clutter.
Major infrastructure project approval is the responsibility of DIPNR with compliance given to the RTA as project proponent. The 3.6 kilometre Lane Cove Tunnel will take nearly 100,000 vpd from Epping Rd between the Gore Hill Freeway and M2 motorway-Epping Rd. The M2 serves the rapidly expanding north-west sector including Blacktown and Baulkham Hills LGA�s. The community continues to press the RTA for air quality improvements through in-tunnel filtration and better urban design and landscaping outcomes for Epping Road as two major unresolved issues. This paper outlines the community context of the Lane Cove Tunnel including a need for transparency. Resolving Mid Tunnel access is included as a case study. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E212977.
Parallel shear-bending beam model of tube-in-tube structures is used for the dynamic time history analysis.According to the total potential energy of structure,the Hamiltonian dual system of coordination analysis is established for tube-in-tube structure.The layer element stiffness matrix is introduced according to interval mixed energy matrix which is based on the precise integration method of the double end boundary value problems,and the global stiffness matrix of structure can be established according to the finite element stiffness integration method.Eventually,the dynamic time history analysis is processed on the tube-in-tube structures based on the precise integration method of initial value problems,and the relevant program is compiled.The reliability and feasibility of this method is testified through an example,and this method can also be applied to other tall buildings,such as frame structures,shear wall structures,frame-shear wall structures and so on.
Since her establishment, China Geological Survey has witnessed enormous progress in the building of a talented team, with an increased proportion of excellent people and more favorable environment for talents' development. Nevertheless, restricting factors, such as the incompatible quality of the team with the requirements of geological work in the new era, lack of top-ranking talents, deficiency in quantity, imperfect working system for building of talent team, insufficient investment, etc., still block the way. In this sense, several countermeasures should be carried out, including intensifying the talent cultivation system through education and training; taking advantage of the current talents while bringing in very scanty skilled persons in a positive and steady way; establishing talent appraisal and motivation mechanism and increasing input; building favorable environment for development of talents, etc.
The paper is focused especially on presenting possibilities of applying off-line trained artificial neural networks at creating the system inverse models that are used at designing control algorithm for non-linear dynamic system. The ability of cascade feedforward neural networks to model arbitrary non-linear functions and their inverses is exploited. This paper presents a quasi-inverse neural model, which works as a speed controller of an induction motor. The neural speed controller consists of two cascade feedforward neural networks subsystems. The first subsystem provides desired stator current components for control algorithm and the second subsystem provides corresponding voltage components for PWM converter. The availability of the proposed controller is verified through the MATLAB simulation. The effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated for different operating conditions of the drive system.
Structural-parametric models, parametric structural schematic diagrams and transfer functions of electromagnetoelastic actuators are determined. A generalized parametric structural schematic diagram of the electromagnetoelastic actuator is constructed. Effects of geometric and physical parameters of actuators and external load on its dynamic characteristics are determined. For calculations the mechatronic systems with piezoactuators for nano- and microdisplacement the parametric structural schematic diagrams and the transfer functions of piezoactuators are obtained.
Operating rooms often exhibit vertical temperature gradient, radiant asymmetry, local airflows, and local body cooling. The impact of these parameters on the thermal comfort of the occupants can be greatly affected by the type of air-conditioning system used in the room. This work evaluated thermal comfort conditions in an operating room ventilated with a spiral diffuser jet using an instrumented thermal manikin with heated sensors. The objective is to assess the conditions of thermal comfort and local discomfort of the patient and surgical team in this kind of environment using the concept of equivalent temperatures and a manikin with heated sensors. Additionally, the method proposed by Fanger was used to evaluate the thermal sensation. The results showed a very small change in the equivalent temperatures in different parts of the body for the surgeon and nurse. The thermal sensation for the surgeon and nurse simulated by the manikin and using a thermal comfort diagram for equivalent temperature was neutral in the whole body. However, higher equivalent temperatures were found on the heads of the surgeon and nurse because of the heat exchange by radiation from the surgical lights. The local thermal sensation for the patient varied from too cold, cold, and neutral, depending on the body part. Finally, the methodology proposed showed to be very effective for evaluating the thermal comfort conditions in operating rooms when compared to the method proposed by Fanger.
In the natural gas production process,the monitoring computer of SCADA system is very important as monitoring equipment,it's a terminal in the entire production supervisory system information flows,all monitoring data's displaying and operating of the production process through it to realize.At present,our SCADA System of gas gathering station have been paralyzed for a variety of reasons,lead to the production can not be carried out normally over a period of time.After analyzed the Ghost technical,we used the Ghost technology to realize our plant SCADA system's backup and recovery quickly,the monitoring computer of SCADA system's maintenance process will be reduced from about five hours to less than one hour,to reduce the workload of maintenance staff,reducing the difficulty and cost of system maintenance purposes.This method also works for our in the future construction of large-scale production Station SCADA System Configuration Control to provide a new way of thinking.
The third edition of a groundbreaking reference, The HumanComputer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications raises the bar for handbooks in this field. It is the largest, most complete compilation of HCI theories, principles, advances, case studies, and more that exist within a single volume. The book captures the current and emerging sub-disciplines within HCI related to research, development, and practice that continue to advance at an astonishing rate. It features cutting-edge advances to the scientific knowledge base as well as visionary perspectives and developments that fundamentally transform the way in which researchers and practitioners view the discipline. New and Expanded Topics in the Third Edition: HCI and global sustainability HCI in health care Social networks and social media Enterprise social computing Role of HCI in e-Government Role of creativity and cognition in HCI Naturalistic approach to evaluation, persuasion, and globalization The chapter authors include experts from academia, industry, and government agencies from across the globe all among the very best and most respected in their fields. The more than 80 tables, 400 figures, nearly 7,000 references, and four-page color insert combine to provide the single most comprehensive depiction of this field. Broad in scope, the book pays equal attention to the human side, the computer side, and the interaction of the two. This balanced, application-focused design coverage makes the book not only an excellent research guide but also an authoritative handbook for the practice of HCI and for education and training in HCI.
A central frequency shift is usually observed between the measured response and simulated response for a HTS filter.The difference is mainly attributable to the variation of material parameters of the substrate(permittivity and thickness) and the thickness of the film from the assumed values.To solve this problem,we have put forward a new micro-tuning model in this paper.In the model,a slight local change of resonator configuration was made to realize the offset of the central frequency shift.The model has been applied to simulate several types of resonators and a 4-pole HTS filter with a narrow pass-band,and good agreement was found between the theoretical curves and simulated data.
In order to measure multi-material level accurately and reliably,a new type of intelligent digital material-level sensor is invented.Directly digital detection theory is used,at the same time applying circuit for auto identification of material and single chip processor,the intelligent function of the sensor is realized.The experiment result shows that the section between any two measure points is blind area.The absolute error is ±1 cm and resolution is 1 cm.
Presents studies on the impact of pollution on stonework in urban environments. Important methodological contributions cover: the mapping of facades to explain rates of decay associated with conservation actions; the laboratory simulation of corrosion in polluted atmospheres; the quantification of colour change through a study of the artificial ageing of building stone. The effectiveness of stone treatments within the laboratory is also discussed.
To study the non-uniform stress and plastic deformation in threads of a bolted connection,a new method was proposed to detect three-dimensional weak magnetic signals under static tension loads within geomagnetic field.The triangular thread with a special hatch on the nut was used for static tension testing,and a two-dimensional magnetic memory detecting transducer was used to get weak magnetic signals of all the three dimensions on site.Then,the stress and strain of the thread was calculated using finite-element-method and the relationship between weak magnetic signals and stresses of the three dimensions was analyzed.The result shows that there exists a strong correlation between the magnetic signals and stress.
Cal Poly Pomona's College of Business Administration is in the process of introducing a new eBusiness option to its majors. In spite of the dot.com crash, or perhaps because of it, we believe the need for an understanding of the principles of eBusiness to be greater than ever. Our new eBusiness option is targeted at students who wish to participate in the next generation of dot.com businesses, but who do not seek the technical depth of our computer information systems majors. In creating this new option, we see ourselves at the frontier of institutions of higher education and a key component in the genesis of a new generation of eEntrepreneurs. This paper explores this new option for our business students that we will be offering at Cal Poly Pomona. We believe this paper will be of interest to educators, who, much like ourselves, are only now beginning to consider the importance of this new direction in information systems curricula.
Many countries and regions have struggled to put in place adequate water information systems to assist with sustainable water management. This article describes and assesses the key components of Australia’s water information and data systems, with particular reference to rural and regional Australia, focusing on progress with strengthening these systems at a national level since 2007. Through the early part of the period, much of Australia was experiencing a crisis in water availability. The article concludes with ongoing challenges for Australia and lessons from the Australian experience for other countries embarking on upgrading their water information and data systems. Upgrading a nation’s water information systems is a long-term task, but an important one in a world of climate change and increased climate variability. Substantial progress is likely to take five to 10 years to materialize. From the outset, upgrading information systems needs to be focused on data series that will facilitate answering key policy questions, assist water users in making significant decisions more effectively, and allow businesses and government to better address risks from water-related events. As always, political support matters. To sustain investments in information, its coverage must facilitate illuminating key questions and issues. Custodians of information systems must ensure that the value proposition is clear to all.
The study aims at answering the questions: 1) what is the role of internal utilization of references in international industrial marketing?, and 2) what are the propositions that the conceptual development of internal utilization of references should be based on? Consequently, the purpose of the study is to assess the role of the internal use of references in international business marketing and to develop propositions for the internal use of references. Data collection has been done by using the Decision Systems Analysis method (DSA) in one case company. This procedure has resulted in four flowchart descriptions about the utilization processes, which have been analysed to explore the tasks, practices and outcomes of the internal use of references. It is concluded that the role of the internal use of references seems to be twofold: 1) references serve as a tool for effective bidding both on strategic and operational level, and 2) they are used to improve sales force performance. All in all, it is proposed that in the short term references are used inside the company to improve the efficiency of sales and sales management, and in the long term they are used to improve the efficiency of the business. Purpose of the Study The questions of the study are: 1) what is the role of internal utilization of references in international industrial marketing?, and 2) what are the propositions that the conceptual development of internal utilization of references should be based on? Thus, the purpose of the study is to assess the role of the internal use of references and to develop propositions for the internal use of references in international business marketing.
The invention relates to a reciprocating drill or an electric drill support, which comprises a triangular bracket, a reciprocating drill or an electric drill fixation clamp and a strut, wherein the triangular bracket comprises a support holder and three ground jacks connected with the support holder; the middle of the support holder is provided with a hole; a screw rod sleeve is internally and fixedly connected in the hole and is provided with an adjustable screw rod; the lower part of the adjustable screw rod is provided with a screw rod handle; the screw rod sleeve is internally provided with threads; the adjustable screw rod is provided with threads; the screw rod sleeve and the adjustable screw rod are matched to lift via threads; the top part of the adjustable screw rod is provided with a rest which is symmetrically provided with two shaft sleeves; a rotary shaft is internally arranged in the shaft sleeve; the axis of the strut passes through the circle center of the section of the rotary shaft and is fixed with the rotary shaft in a welding mode; the fixation clamp of the reciprocating drill or electric drill is fixed with the top end of the strut in a welding mode; and one end of a first thread sleeve is fixed with the rotary shaft in a welding mode. The reciprocating drill or electric drill support is applied to bear of the balcony concrete floor, overhang concrete slab and local floor in unmanned operation spaces, and has simple operation, safety and reliability, and is convenient to be applied to the bear of other parts of floor.
I went to my reprint pile and selected a couple of papers that typify scientific and engineering models. If any of the writers read this, please don’t take offense at my criticisms. The fact that the papers made it into my reprint pile indicates I thought they were valuable and worth retaining for future reference. I’m going to restrict myself to process-oriented models based on conservation of mass and formulated as differential equations. I won’t consider regression models, neural network models, and similar formulations. I’ll save my opinions of these for another editorial.
In each industry, the weight of the transportation work and quantity of the load has increased. Thus, now the crane equipment is introduced than ever. For overhead crane used in factories and warehouses, efficient operation which suppresses the swaying of the suspended load during transport is strongly demanded. In particular, it is necessary to suppress the initial shaking or disturbance due to the shift of the center of gravity and the hanging point position at the time of raising the suspended load. Therefore, we need to develop the simple operation crane system that enables the operation of the same level as the person skilled in the crane operation in order to improve the safety and efficiency. The author have investigated the control using Dual Model Matching method based on characteristic transfer function matrix to a configuration of the controller. By implementing feedback control on an actual overhead crane in practical use, the efficacy and operability of the system and the method were discussed. The purpose of this study, by developing the simple operation crane system that allows the same operation as the skilled operator, is to improve the safety and efficiency of the crane operation.
The history of aero-engine external design technology development was reviewed and the general process of aero-engine external design is introduced. The distinctions among traditional external design,2-D 3-D CAD external design are distilled.This paper focused on the process,method,features and advantages of external design of aero-engine digital mock-up by applying UG,which indicates that external 3-D digital design technique of aero-engine is necessary and feasible.Through this,domestic factories can get rid of dependence on physical prototype machine in external design and realize the transformation from physical mock-up technique to digital mock-up one in a short period.Finally,the further developing plan of aero-engine external design is expected.
Heterogeneous objects, composed of different materials, are increasingly being used in engineering applications. Also, a new fabrication method called Layered Manufacturing (LM) has shown potential to manufacture these objects. In order to manufacture heterogeneous objects by LM, a CAD model is required that contains both geometry and material information. However, current solid modeling techniques focus on capturing the geometric information only. In this paper, we present an approach to model and represent heterogeneous objects by integrating the material information along with the geometry/topology in the solid model. We define new modeling operations for creating and manipulating heterogeneous models and to complement traditional modeling operations. We also address the issue of computer representation of these new models. Finally, the issue of fabrication of these heterogeneous objects by LM is discussed.
Current simulation object models are optimized to support practice, not training. Training requires support for human performance measurement and feedback. This, in turn, requires that simulation object models give first class status to data concerning human performance. We define Performance Measurement Objects (PMO), which represent actors, behavioral data, and measurement methods. PMOs support the real-time requirements of intelligent agents, human observer/instructors, and distributed performance assessment processors.
The project Conceptual Design for system interconection using HVDC Multiterminal profounded in the requeriments and aplicactions that HVDC Multiterminal offer in High Power trasnmission. To accomplish this, it was made a conceptual design of a AC network interconnection, aplying new techniques and methods involving existing regulations. The Kundur three-areas system is presented as a case of study, adjunting the interconnection at 230 kV and 60 Hz. An exportation and two importation areas of 400 MW, 200 MW and 200 MW, respectively are stablished. The parameters of work and the type of equipment are design. Finally, the system is evaluated.
This project demonstrated and implemented emerging corrosion protection technologies for utilities at Fort Carson, CO, consisting of six deep anode impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) systems, 106 drive-by type remote monitoring units for existing test stations, and 26 drive-by type remote monitoring units for existing and new rectifiers. ICCP rectifiers and groundbeds were installed on one natural gas main, one steam main, one water storage reservoir, and three separate water supply mains. The remote monitoring units have reduced the amount of time that it takes the contractor who maintains the ICCP systems at Fort Carson to obtain readings from 2 months to 2 days. The automated data are saved in a format that allows him to establish trends for early signs of problems with the system that needs immediate attention. Other Army and DoD Installations have experienced similar problems with the need to upgrade and maintain their cathodic protection systems. It is therefore, recommended that these installations implement cathodic protection upgrades and remote monitoring technologies to extend the service life of the utility system.
The physics and chemistry of liquid solutions play a central role in science, and our understanding of life on Earth. Unfortunately, key tools for interrogating aqueous systems, such as infrared and soft X-ray spectroscopy, cannot readily be applied because of strong absorption in water. Here we use gas dynamic forces to generate free-flowing, sub-micron, liquid sheets which are 2 orders of magnitude thinner than anything previously reported. Optical, infrared and X-ray spectroscopies are used to characterize the sheets, which are found to be tunable in thickness from over 1 micron down to less than 20 nanometers, which corresponds to fewer than 100 water molecules thick. At this thickness, aqueous sheets can readily transmit photons across the spectrum, leading to potentially transformative applications in infrared, X-ray, electron spectroscopies and beyond. The ultrathin sheets are stable for days in vacuum, and we demonstrate their use at free-electron laser and synchrotron light sources.
For reluctant Internet users, the technologically challenged, and educators with limited time and computer expertise, this book is a must. Kyker offers dozens of simple reproducible activities based on educationally oriented World Wide Web sites. Designed to reinforce curriculum content, these activities emphasize the informational and educational values of the World Wide Web and give students entry-level Internet experience, encouraging them to spend time on each Web page. For all projects there are complete Web addresses, guidelines for instructors, step-by-step instructions for students, and 10 to 15 related questions. Advanced activities (Super Surfer and Kowabunga, Dude!) are available for those who wish to practice more sophisticated Web skills and further develop them outside the classroom setting. Additional chapters address hardware and software needs, Internet service providers, and Web site evaluative criteria, and give tips for working with students on the Web. Grades 3 and up.
Since the voltage amplitude is hard to acquire caused by the non-ideal characteristics of SPWM inverter in dead-time effect compensation,this paper proposes a new compensation method based on PID control,a method which determines,with the known load parameters,the effective value of command current as control target according to the command voltage,and adjusts the compensation voltage amplitude by online adaptation of PID controller. The results of simulation and experiment shows that the method has a great effect in compensation for dead-time effect and improvement of waveform of load current.
The invention provides a side slope angle measuring device. The side slope angle measuring device is characterized by comprising a base (1), a plumbing rod (2) is perpendicularly arranged in the base (1), a dial (3) is connected to the plumbing rod (2), a plumbing line (4) is tied on the dial (3), and the other end of the plumbing line (4) is connected with a plumb ball (5). While the side slope angle is accurately measured, the side slope angle measuring device further has the advantages of being simple in structure, convenient to use and carry and the like.
The free-wing tilt-body aircraft is researched in the flight performance characteristics for center of gravity (CG) change. All of speed, body tilt angle and center of gravity change are simulated to determine the flight envelope by a non-linear 3-DOF mathematical model. In flight, this aircraft configuration changes by the tiltable empennage. Then, flight dynamics distinguishes from those of a conventional fixed-wing aircraft. Though flight performance and trimmability are studied by CG change, the flight model of free-wing tilt-body aircraft is to reduce the hidden risk and to achieve the successful flight test. It is analyzed the flight characteristics by CG change that distinguishes free-wing tilt-body aircraft from the conventional aircraft.
Part 1 Introductory chapters: the universe of medical devices, J.J. Nobel service and maintenance in developing countries, A. Issakov. Part 2 Assuring product quality: human factors in design, R. Mosenkis design validation through clinical testing, V.H. Wheble software validation for medical devices, S. Weinberg medical devices and the environment, H. Christmann and J.L. Laufer artificial market barriers and constraints, M. Reinikainen distribution and use, D.F. Sanders medical devices and the American pharmacist, A. Wertheimer safety at the workplace, K.G. Melin and L. Haggbom management of medical devices, P. Karp and N. Saranummi accident and forensic investigation, M.E. Bruley. Part 3 Ensuring systems quality in general: models for medical device regulations, E.G. Letourneau and P.D. Neufeld three systems in comparison, L.M.C. Faro GMP's - a government perspective, A. Lowery GMP's - an industry perspective, G.P. Freiberg medical devices and public policy - the pharmaceuticals analogy, C.W.D. van Gruting. Part 4 Ensuring systems quality within the European community: developments in the EC, J. Pirovano medical devices directive - industry's perspective, M. Carlisle an overview of European standardization in the healthcare sector, R. Moore in-vitro diagnostical medical devices, B.M. Maassen et al medical device and post marketing surveillance in the European communities, a legal perspective, A. Hamilton-van Hest et al. Part 5 Ensuring adequate use: information systems, J.J. Nobel and F. de Ranitz adverse effects reporting, J.J. Nobel information resources for healthcare technology assessment and medical device procurement, V. Coates and C. van Nimwegen assuring appropriate diffusion and use of medical devices, D. Banta and T. van Beekum international medical device group, F. de Ranitz and J.J. Nobel. Part 6 Geographical situations: Americas - Canada's medical devices, E. Letourneau U.S. medical technology overview, F. Samuel developments in Brazil and other major Latin American countries, B. Wang Australia - developments in Australia, D. Beech Japan - developments in Japan, T. Hirai South Africa - developments in South Africa, J.H. Muller west-Europe - developments in the nordic countries, G. Liedstrom developments in the United Kingdom, G. Higson the French medical devices market, P. Anhoury developments in Germany, E. Tschope and M. Wolf developments in Italy - regulation of medical devices, C. Mambretti developments in Spain, N.G. Pujolar developments in Turkey, N. Tanyolac developments in Greece, N. Pallikarakis east and central Europe - general information about the present position of healthcare systems in the east-European countries, G. Simon-Kis developments in Bulgaria, I. Daskalov developments in Czechoslovakia, V. Bulena developments in Hungary, N. Richter developments in Poland, W. Katkiewicz developments of medical devices in Russia, A.N. Ischenko and V. Mihaylova. (Part contents).
As the center of documents and information,the university library must be close to the teaching,research and reader.With the renewal of the service means and principles,the university library is faced with new challenges in the process of its reform and innovation.Adhering to the people-oriented and the practical and creative principle,the university library should associate with the teaching and researching practice,and start with the service principle,mechanism,method,and layer,so as to set up a characteristic and reader-friendly new service principle.
Cover: Rotary kilns represent the largest energy consumer and carbon dioxide emission source of the cement/concrete industry. The cover diagram shows a thermal image of an operating kiln. The high temperature of the kiln surface (300°F to 400°F) accounts for about a 5% energy efficiency loss. The diagram on the cover depicts a kiln that has lost insulating refractory material and shows hot spots and a hot ring that will require future repair. Acknowledgments We gratefully acknowledge the support of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Industrial Technologies Program. We especially thank The Portland Cement Association and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association for their valuable input and information. This document represents the valuable input of many individuals and organizations. We particularly want to recognize Anne Klontz (BCS, Incorporated) for the graphic design of the figures and tables. Government nor any Agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any Agency thereof. The views and opinions expressed by the authors herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any Agency thereof.
Construction planners face the decisions of selecting appropriate resources, including crew sizes, equipment, methods and technologies, to perform the tasks of a construction project. In general, there is a trade-off between time and cost to complete a task - the less expensive the resources, the longer it takes. Using Critical Path Method (CPM) techniques, the overall project cost can be reduced by using less expensive resources for non-critical activities without impacting the duration. Furthermore, planners need to adjust the resource selections to shorten or lengthen the project duration. Finding the optimal decisions is difficult and time-consuming considering the numbers of permutations involved. For example, a CPM network with only eight activities, each with two options, will have 28 alternatives. For large problems, exhaustive enumeration is not economically feasible even with very fast computers. This paper presents a new algorithm using linear and integer programming to obtain optimal resource ...
The purpose of this work is to inquire the potentials of a simplified method of modelling radial inlets in numerical simulation of airflow in mechanically ventilated livestock rooms. This simplified method is based on simulation of an angle section of the entire air volume with starting point in the centre line of the inlet. Using symmetry planes as boundary condition on the sides of the angle section, and grids including only one cell in the width direction, it is possible to include three-dimensional geometry in simulations nearly equally uncomplicated as twodimensional simulations. Inside and close to the inlet the angle section method generates practically the same air velocities and pressure conditions as simulation of the entire room. At floor level the angle section methods generates air velocities that can be regarded as typical for the variety for velocities that occurs in a corresponding entire room simulation. Compared to entire room simulation the angle section methods reduce the required modelling time and calculation time with at least 80 and 95 percent, respectively, and consequently, it becomes practicable to inquire a relative large number of alternative solutions in order to develop suitable layout of radial inlet armatures. Further on the angle section method gives much better possibilities to increase grid density in order to investigate for possible grid dependency on simulation results.
Steam overlapping and steam channeling decrease sweeping efficiency of steam drive while steam-drive exploiting heavy oil reservoirs. Thermal foam drive, steam drive by adding non-condensing gas and high-temperature foaming agent, shows effective recovery performances in foreign and domestic researches and applications. The recovery efficiency of thermal foam drive with displacement experiment and numerical stimulation is researched. The results indicate thermal foam flooding effectively improves displacement efficiency of steam drive and the oil recovery efficiency increases 38.5% in the experiment, up to 81.0%. The numerical stimulation of Gaosheng block in Liaohe oil field shows that recovery efficiency of thermal foam drive is higher than steam drive. Foam can block steam channeling and decrease steam overlapping, improve temperature distribution in reservoirs and thermal foam drive is an effective EOR method.
We have already started a project for creating a community security structure spread worldwide that uses individually maintained home computers connected to the Internet. We call this project "the e-JIKEI network project". JIKEI means "Vigilante" in Japanese. The basic concept of the project is that every individual person watches in and around his/her house using cheap cameras as his/her eyes, PC as his/her brain and Internet as his/her communication means by his/her own expense. In this paper, we discuss using the e-JIKEI project for construing homeland security infrastructure
The electrowetting is an area of significant interest. Many experimental studies have been conducted to find the relationship that binds the physical parameters of said phenomenon: the percentage of the white area inside the pixels of different sizes depending on the applied voltage etc. Our study is to develop a CFD model to validate the experimental results for the behavior of fluids (oil colored) within the reflector screens under the action of electric field.
The utility model relates to a wear-resisting shock-absorbing noise-reduction chute and belongs to the field of material delivery devices. The wear-resisting shock-absorbing noise-reduction chute comprises a chute body, the inner wall of the chute body is connected with a wear-resisting ceramic rubber plate through an adhesive layer, and an elastic damping coating layer is coated on the outer wall of the chute body. The wear-resisting shock-absorbing noise-reduction chute is simple in structure and convenient to manufacture; by means of the lining wear-resisting ceramic rubber plate, the wear-resisting shock-absorbing noise-reduction chute is high in wear-resisting strength and good in erosion resistant performance so that changing times can be reduced, production costs can be reduced, labor intensities are reduced, the service life of devices can be effectively prolonged, and labor productivity is improved; and the elastic damping coating layer is coated on the outer wall of the chute body so that noises can be reduced, working environments of workers are greatly improved, and the wear-resisting shock-absorbing noise-reduction chute is applicable to chute delivery systems in industries of thermal power, metallurgy, coal, cement, steel, chemical engineering and the like.
Presently, Thailand runs various sustainable development-based policies to boost the growth in economy, society, and environment. In this study, the economic and social growth was found to continuously increase and negatively deteriorate the environment at the same time due to a more massive final energy consumption in the petroleum industries sector than any other sectors. Therefore, it is necessary to establish national planning and it requires an effective forecasting model to support Thailand’s policy-making. This study aimed to construct a forecasting model for a final energy consumption prediction in Thailand’s petroleum industry sector for a longer-term (2018–2037) at a maximum efficiency from a certain class of methods. The Long Term-Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with Exogeneous variables and Error Correction Mechanism model (LT-ARIMAXS model) (p, d, q, Xi, ECT(t−1)) was adapted from the autoregressive and moving average model incorporating influential variables together in both long-term relationships to produce the best model for prediction performance. All relevant variables in the model are stationary at Level I(0) or Level I(1). In terms of the extraneous variables, they consist of per capita GDP, population growth, oil price, energy intensity, urbanization rate, industrial structure, and net exports. The study found that the variables used are the causal factors and stationary at the first difference as well as co-integrated. With such features, it reflects that the variables are influential over the final energy consumption. The LT-ARIMAXS model (2,1,2) determined a proper period (t − i) through a white noise process with the Q test statistical method. It shows that the LT-ARIMAXS model (2,1,2) does not generate the issues of heteroskedasticity, multicollinearity, and autocorrelation. The performance of LT-ARIMAXS model (2,1,2) was tested based on the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and the root mean square error (RMSE). The LT-ARIMAXS model (2,1,2) can predict the final energy consumption based on the Sustainable Development Plan for the 20 years from 2018 to 2037. The results showed that the final energy consumption continues to increase steadily by 121,461 ktoe in 2037. Furthermore, the findings present that the growth rate (2037/2017) increases by 109.8%, which is not in line with Thailand’s reduction policy. In this study, the MAPE was valued at 0.97% and RMSE was valued at 2.12% when compared to the other old models. Therefore, the LT-ARIMAXS model (2,1,2) can be useful and appropriate for policy-making to achieve sustainability.
Presented paper is devoted to research circulation current influence on losses in non-uniform network, when ratio of reactance to resistance is not equal for branches. Project Kurzeme Ring aims to improvement of costumer's power supply reliability and changing the transmission network topology. The goal is to consider the problem for non-uniform meshed networks. The projected Kurzeme Ring which is located in west Latvia is under consideration. Considered network consists of 330 kV power line ring which feeds the 110 kV meshed network inside it. In total the scheme includes about 50 branches and 13 loops. Three possible test cases are given for power losses and circulating currents evaluation and analysis.
Computer Programming and Electronics both are the major fields of future jobs and can make our lifestyle so easy that we could not need to use a single calorie of energy. All the devices, gadgets and other products are automatic and work on our voice command, fingerprint, human heat, or retina scan. These two are necessary to learn, if we want a developing future and the future in which workload is less. All work done by the robots and computer programming and electronics are reaches to a next level that we could not even think that this would happen.
Concrete stress-strain curves under cyclic loads include not only envelope curve,but also unloading and re-loading curves.Monotonic curve can be used as envelope curve for the linking of unloading points is similar to the monotonic stress-strain curve.Concrete unloading and re-loading models consist of linear models,multi-linear models and curve models.By comparing several unloading and re-loading models,a comprehensive model is put forward,which has a curve for unloading and a line for re-loading.An example is cited to indicate that the comprehensive model fits the best with the test load-displacement curve,which shows that it's an efficient and simple unloading and re-loading model.
The paper is comprising of the following 3 parts: 1. In the first part, a comparison between the 3-legged and 4-legged towers, both from the standpoints of their quality and economy is made. The merits and defects of both kinds of towers are stated. And finally, a preliminary suggestion for choosing the times of wooden tower is made. 2. In the second part, the author gives the results of the observation of the twist of the two types of towers mentioned above. These observations were made dering the summer of the previous year. By analysing these results and their influence to the accuracy of triangniation observation, a further comparison is made. 3. The final part of the paper emplains the procedure of derigning wooden towers after the method of V. E. Fulsof under the weather condition and strength of material in our country.
In order to create a successful socially useful software it is necessary to invest a lot of effort. It is important to manage the development team and their interpersonal relationships from the very beginning. The software manager must have different skills for the software development to reach a satisfactory level. He has to prove his ability to lead people and manage both the project and the clients. The most important part of the software development is for it to be well accepted, hence the testing which allows to see how to product is perceived. Thus, testing is the best way of avoiding the risk of failure in the first phase of entering the market. The second thing to point out is communication. The software manager has the very important responsibility of clearly end thoroughly explaining each task and requirement. He also has to understand the client's wishes (requirements) and communicate them to the team. The communication between the team and the software manager must always occur in an appropriate language, which consists of well-structured task and requirement description with diagrams in order to avoid potential mishappenings or misunderstandings. In this thesis, the project approach has been presented with a creation of an hypothetic web and mobile software which is meant to offer a clear view of all discounted items in the customer's surrounding area. A detailed scenario of the usage of the software wireframe for both web and mobile channel and client user interface was created for this occasion. Part of the research and testing was a 24 question questionnaire, which was important for understanding the target audience and their habits. The project was established after the first ideas and pitching the software's concept. From this point on, the thesis was written in a project-based approach. Finally, this can be perceived as a small part of a potential documentation for a further and more detailed project, in which case this part should be revised and enlarged with real facts, workflows, timelines and deadlines.
The design methodology, construction procedures and results of a full scale load test on a pavement system for container handling facility at Port Canaveral, Florida, is presented in this paper. The facility was constructed in an area that was created by raising under-water land with dredged materials that are expected to undergo differential compression under the anticipated high wheel loads from container handling equipment. In order to minimize the effects of differential settlement of the subgrade and lateral spreading of base course material, such as cracking, rutting and loss of serviceability, the pavement system was designed to consist of interlocking concrete pavers installed above a crushed granite base course reinforced with a layer of biaxial geogrid,
Anthracite coal as fuel for iron ore sintering is compared with coke breeze. Anthracite is lower in porosity, higher in density, and slower in combustion rate. With higher proportion of anthracite in fuel, permeability of sinter bed tends to decrease resulting in lower sinter productivity. Higher fuel rate with more replacement of coke breeze by anthracite is ascribed to the lower density of heat source particles and to the lower heat value and more volatile matters of anthracite. A smaller particle size for anthracite is recommended. Some subsidiary heat sources such as magnetite ore and mill scale could be helpful for more uniform sintering.
The tabernacle, the Jewish nation's central point of worship while in the desert and for many years after, was designed in a modular fashion and was meant to be assembled and disassembled on a regular basis. Its component parts were works of beauty and were built by the best craftsmen of their day. In the description of the assembly of the tabernacle, we are told, "And thou shalt make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps, that the tabernacle may be one whole" (Exodus, 26:6, The Tanach, Jewish Publication Society translation, 1917). The tabernacle was modular in design but was designed so that when fully assembled, it formed a coherent whole.
A comprehensive computer program has been developed to predict the performance of solar cells and complete arraysas a function of solar intensity. The program is unique in its capability to calculate the light-generated current of a singlecell by integrating the solar or simulator spectrum with the following parameters as a function of wavelength: solar cellspectral response, filter transmission, and space radiation damage. (Variations with temperature and incidence angle canalso be handled.) The diode equation is then used to obtain the current-voltage characteristics and maximum power point.The prediction accuracy is enhanced over a wide range of light intensities by using a variable curve factor derived fromexperimental data in the diode equation. Array current-voltage curves may be calculated for combinations of series andparallel cell wiring arrangements. These curves reflect wiring and diode losses as well as angular orientation to the sun.The program is also useful in extrapolating available data, comparing experimental data taken with different energysources, and correlating experimental and analytical predictions.17. Key Words (Suggested by Author(s))Solar cell performance
This paper reports on the performance of forensic document examiners (FDEs) in a signature comparison task that was designed to address the issue of expertise. The opinions of FDEs regarding 150 genuine and simulated questioned signatures were compared with a control group of non-examiners' opinions. On the question of expertise, results showed that FDEs were statistically better than the control group at accurately determining the genuineness or non-genuineness of questioned signatures. The FDE group made errors (by calling a genuine signature simulated or by calling a simulated signature genuine) in 3.4% of their opinions while 19.3% of the control group's opinions were erroneous. The FDE group gave significantly more inconclusive opinions than the control group. Analysis of FDEs' responses showed that more correct opinions were expressed regarding simulated signatures and more inconclusive opinions were made on genuine signatures. Further, when the complexity of a signature was taken into account, FDEs made more correct opinions on high complexity signatures than on signatures of lower complexity. There was a wide range of skill amongst FDEs and no significant relationship was found between the number of years FDEs had been practicing and their correct, inconclusive and error rates.
It is argued that preparing engineers for the challenging problems of present-day industry should involve the extension of homework problems to include realistic complications of nonlinearity and extensive use of the available computing facilities. This point of view has been illustrated through a simple Faraday's law problem of an electromechanical system that exhibits nonlinear effects if the resistance of the rails is taken into account. The procedure that is employed in this short note to solve the nonlinear equation is simple enough to be introduced at an undergraduate level for the engineering students.
Through the analysis of the risk in the chemical industry,the importance of the education and training of the chemical enterprise safety management was elaborated.Then some quite novel methods for education and training were introduced with emphasis,such as scene training,changing the guard for the day duty in turn.By these methods,effects of the safety education would be more effectively enhanced,achieving the twice result with half the effort.
The discrete element method (DEM) is developed in this study as a general and robust technique for unified two‐dimensional modelling of the mechanical behaviour of solid and particulate materials, including the transition from solid phase to particulate phase. Inter‐element parameters (contact stiffnesses and failure criteria) are theoretically established as functions of element size and commonly accepted material parameters including Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, ultimate tensile strength, and fracture toughness. A main feature of such an approach is that it promises to provide convergence with refinement of a DEM discretization. Regarding contact failure, an energy criterion based on the material's ultimate tensile strength and fracture toughness is developed to limit the maximum contact forces and inter‐element relative displacement. This paper also addresses the issue of numerical stability in DEM computations and provides a theoretical method for the determination of a stable time‐step. The method developed herein is validated by modelling several test problems having analytic solutions and results show that indeed convergence is obtained. Moreover, a very good agreement with the theoretical results is obtained in both elastic behaviour and fracture. An example application of the method to high‐speed penetration of a concrete beam is also given. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Energy has developed an econometric model relating the quantity of energy consumed in Missouri by fuel type and by economic sector to the value of demographic and economic variables, such as state population, total state personal income, and the prices of the various energy commodities. The poorer than expected fit of this equation as prices decreased suggests the possibility of other factors coming into play. In an effort to evaluate possible impacts from ridesharing programs, the ridesharing expenditures within Missouri were included as an additional variable for the equation modeling gasoline consumption in the transportation sector. This additional variable was found to be highly significant and to increase the already high value of R square for the equation. The variables were modeled in logarithmic form so that the resulting slope of -.010 implies that a 1% increase in ridesharing expenditure will result in a .010% decrease in transportation or highway gasoline consumption. These results were compared and contrasted with results obtained through a more conventional method and found to be higher, a not-unexpected result when considering the fact that the results are correlational and not causal and that causality must be inferred.
Today armed forces of a number of countries develop land warrior integrated, modular combat systems the so called Ground Soldier System. The German version is called "IDZ-Infanterist der Zukunft". This high-technically equipped soldier will have some outstanding capabilities which are based on technical components. One of them will be a handheld multifunctional thermal observation instrument. This light weighted instrument includes a thermal imager which detects an object in 4000m, recognizes it in 3000m and identifies it in 1500m. The IR Image channel can be superposed with the visual daylight image what is taken by an integrated CCD-camera. The image is seen trough a biocular viewer on two Organic Light Emmitting Displays. With the laser range finder which works up to 4000m and the Digital Magnetic Compass it is possible to measure distances and angles and so the own and the target object's positions. This information as well as live time video sequences can be transferred wireless to the soldiers C4I-system. The instrument is based on the surveillance platform NYXUS which was developed in close collaboration with the German Bundeswehr. The NYXUS includes additionally GPS, goniometer and northfinding gyroscope which makes it a precise and irreplaceable tool for nowadays armed forces. The instrument is developed and produced by Jena-Optronik GmbH.
Nancy Hershoff, Head of Bibliographic Control/Special Projects Officer, Florida International University; Daniel Cromwell, LMS Field Specialist, Technical Services, Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA).    In April 2008, the Biscayne Bay Library of Florida International University was faced with a seemingly insurmountable government documents disposition project, which involved the suppression of 19,700 bibliographic records, 112,482 holdings records, 88,731 item records, the compilation of approximately 120 disposition lists (200 entries per list), and the symbol deletion from 96,482 OCLC records. The proposed presentation will describe how this project was explored, planned, and implemented with record speed, relative ease, and substantial savings by utilizing various search features, global changes, services, and reports in Aleph V.18 environment. The presenters will share their experience and knowledge gained from this project with attendees in the hope that automation will continue to assist other librarians in similar projects.
One of the technologies highlighted at the recent ALEX '91 meeting in San Jose, Calif., was a new separation method, Perfusion Chromatography. The method, which builds on the principles of liquid chromatography (LC), can significantly reduce the time required for high-resolution separations, particularly separations of proteins and other large biomolecules. Perfusion Chromatography was invented by Fred E. Regnier, a chemistry professor at Purdue University, and Noubar B. Afeyan, executive vice president of PerSeptive Biosystems, a company formed by the two inventors to commercialize the patented technique. According to the inventors, three factors affect the efficiency and speed of chromatographic separations of biomolecules: how fast the sample passes through the column, the time required for sample molecules to reach interior particle surfaces by diffusion, and the ability of the particle's coating to selectively bind the molecule of interest. Historically, there's been a choice between high speed and l...
The ever-growing importance of information protection and recoverability is not unique to the corporate world. Home users continue to grow more dependent on their personal systems and the data they contain. Although a large body of knowledge is available regarding disaster recovery practices, very little of it has been applied directly to the home user. This leaves the home user isolated and their data at-risk, as they typically do not have the expertise or equipment necessary to implement the techniques generally associated with corporate data protection. This research will specifically look at prioritizing data based on recoverability; and then investigate ways of providing assurance for data based on this.
This paper describes a phase-locked-loop (PLL)-based power systems harmonic estimation algorithm, which uses an analysis filter bank and multirate processing. The filter bank is composed of bandpass filters. The initial center frequency of each filter is purposely chosen to be equal to harmonic frequencies. However, an adaptation strategy makes it possible to track time-varying frequencies as well as interharmonic components. A downsampler device follows the filtering stage, reducing the computational burden, especially because undersampling operations are performed. Finally, the last stage is composed of a PLL estimator which provides estimates for amplitude, phase, and frequency of the input signal. The proposed method improves the accuracy, computational effort, and convergence time of the previous harmonic estimator based on cascade PLL configuration.
AS/NZS 4586–1999, Slip resistance classification of new pedestrian surface materials, rejects the concept that a universal minimum slip resistance threshold value is the arbiter of safety. Slip potential is a function of footwear, gait, test method, environment, etc. Test results may indicate the potential ‘contribution of the floor surface to the risk of slipping when wet’, but designers also have to consider the pedestrian contribution, the nature of the anticipated activity and the probable range of contamination conditions. What trust can be placed in individual test results, and what are the implications for forensic investigations? These questions are indirectly answered whilst also addressing more challenging fundamental issues.
This paper describes a quad-channel Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) controlled Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) modular device and the calibration techniques used to characterize the system. Each module consists of four independently sampled analog channels and a single FPGA. The system is modular and the number of total channels is scalable to the individual intended application. Each module stores its own calibration coefficients for phase and voltage, enabling the user to acquire precise real and imaginary components of the impedance at various excitation frequencies.
The Bike Side stand unfolded ride lock link for tw o wheelers is the one of the lifesaving mechanism w hich prevents the ride from riding the bike in unrelease d position (retracted position) of the side stand. This prevents the rider as well the vehicle to lose the center of gra vity by imbalance or surface hindrance due to retra cted positionof side stand and thereby saves life of the rider. The side stand lock link is cheap, rugged and easier t o install without additional installations and fittings.
With the improvement of telecommunication and wireless Internet-access technologies, smart mobile terminals have been extensively applied for mobile shopping. In this paper, PPM Model is taken as a theoretical framework and an empirical research method is employed to determine the antecedents influencing consumers’ decisions on migrating from PC-based shopping to mobile shopping. We found that inconvenience, security, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use are the significant antecedents influencing consumers’ channel migration intention of choosing mobile shopping.
When you boil things down in business, wrote Beatrice Warde of the British Monotype Corporation nearly fifty years ago, good management is no more or less than "the art and science of getting things done efficiently, to the ultimate profit of all concerned." I For Warde, and for the sculptor and typographer, Eric Gill; along with other industrial designers prominent during the Anglo-American printing renaissance of the thirties; what considerably muddied the waters was making the case for rationalism in language designed for the mass market. Motivated by an idealistic belief about the power of aesthetics in print communication design to shape public culture, professional designers scrutinized every detail of letter shape and the language used to advertise printed products; including typography, news and fiction. Along with Eric Gill, Stanley Morrison and other printers and typographers prominent in the movement for good design in Anglo-American commercial printing during the 1920s and 1930s, Beatrice Warde asserted that they intended to "debunk the commonly held concept" that an artist took on commercial work "because he was really a creative failure."2 When the notion of scientific management was still in its infancy (1910-1930), the creative artist who engaged in commercial work struck many as anachronistic because artists were perceived as taking too long to make too few things which appealed only to the idiosyncratic tastes of those who cared about mass-produced designer goods bearing a signature. Warde predicted in the early thirties that modern management principles would grow to include the idea of "integrated" communication management in production, product design and marketing; and that rational design would become "more important than the self-expression of any single artist, or the wonders of new machinery."3 Two instruments of production defined modernism in the factory: the machine and its operator. Considered diametrically opposed in the decades of the arts and crafts movement, John Ruskin once worried about what he called modern "Michael Angelos" forced to pour their best talents into commercial ephemera. He also asked about how business might identify those with "special genius," and how a company could preserve and disseminate such work "to the best national advantage."4 William Morris; who reacted against the "visual depravity of the Industrial Revolution" by promoting the arts and crafts movement and its 1 Beatrice Warde, "Design and Management" (Lecture given to the London Centre of the Printers' Managers
The paper demonstrates a new means of achieving a broad impedance bandwidth with a simple mechanical structure and low cross-polarisation levels for a suspended plate antenna with a co-axial probe-fed strip. The feeding-strip co-planar with the plate has a capacitive coupling with the plate, which effectively wipes out large inductance due to the long probe and gives rise to a broad impedance bandwidth. The narrow feeding structure avoids unwanted change of the current distribution at the plate surface and therefore, improves the polarisation performance to some degree. Furthermore, the co-planar feeding configuration simplifies the mechanical structure of the antenna. As examples, two rectangular suspended probe-fed strip single-layer plate antennas were made and examined experimentally. Measurements demonstrate good performances with broad impedance bandwidths up to 36%, stable radiation patterns with cross-polarisation levels of less than -17 dB, and gains of 4-5 dBi.
Two behavioural training methods to teach young cyclists (9/10 year olds) priority rules and behavioural rules were developed, and evaluated in terms of knowledge and traffic behaviour. One training method was developed along the lines of the social learning theory (in particular the modeling principle). The other training method is based upon the adaptive control of thought (act) theory of j R anderson. The results showed that knowledge lessons increased the level of knowledge as measured by the knowledge test. However, this was not a long lasting effect. There was no relationship between knowledge of priority rules and application of those rules in a practical situation. After training the basic behaviour at intersections improved markedly. There were no signs of any deterioration in performance when this was tested some time later. There were no differences between the two training methods in the amount of effect on basic behaviour. Correctly applying priority rules appeared to be very difficult to teach. There was no effect of training of the modeling method in this respect. The group that was trained by the act based method even showed a small decrease in performance. The results have implications for the development of a bicycle training programme for primary school children. Theoretical lessons about formal traffic rules do not improve traffic behaviour. The number of required behaviour elements that are carried out in manoeuvre situations (like signalling and looking) can be markedly increased by systematic training. The most important element of an effective training seems to be that children can practise and receive direct feedback. One-off training is insufficient to obtain automatic behavioural sequences: regular repitition is necessary. Priority rules are difficult to teach. Children appear to apply informal rules rather than formal rules when they are in real traffic situations. These informal rules are often reinforced because of their generally defensive character. It is stated that these informal rules must not be ignored, but, instead, must form the starting point for teaching formal rules. (TRRL)
Using the Lane Change Task (LCT) a comparison of driving performance was made between normal (baseline) driving, driving whilst using an In-Vehicle Information System (IVIS) and driving while intoxicated at the UK blood alcohol level (80mg per 100ml). An attempt was then made to benchmark LCT performance while using IVIS to a well-established minimal level of acceptable driving performance (i.e. alcohol impaired but legally acceptable), both to provide a safety criterion for LCT performance and to illustrate the effect of IVIS on performance of the driving task. The results provided clear evidence for impaired performance of the LCT when performing an IVIS task in comparison to both baseline (LCT alone) and alcohol conditions [F (5, 15) = 14.421, P<0.05]. However, the LCT was found to be insensitive to the effects of alcohol in the absence of a secondary task. It is concluded that LCT performance can be impaired more when undertaking certain IVIS tasks than by having a blood alcohol level at the UK legal limit but the LCT requires further development before it can be used as a convincing proxy for the driving task. A tentative criterion is offered for minimum acceptable LCT performance when concurrently using an IVIS device based on lateral deviation from the normative model.
Techniques for optimally mixing the outputs from a pair of Kalman e lters are presented, generalizing previous results. These techniques are derived under the assumption that the designs of the e lters are e xed and cannot be modie ed to support fusion requirements. Conditions for using the optimally fused estimates to periodically reinitialize the Kalman e lters are described. The results are applied to an optimal spacecraft rendezvous problem, and simulated performance results indicate that use of the optimally fused data leads to signie cantly improved robustness to initial target vehicle state errors.
The crusher is the main device for materials breaking and is being widely applied to industries of metallurgical mines,building materials,road construction,chemicals and silicate.Analysis and summary were carried out in this paper on the crushing theory and current status of research and aimed at the currently existed problems the crushing theory and developing direction of crusher were put forward.
A compact and scalable two-dimensional optical crossbar based around a matrix-matrix multiplier has been designed. Low cross-talk is obtained by the use of high efficiency computer generated holographic fanout elements in a multiple imaging architecture. The methods by which the necessary holographic elements are designed and fabricated are discussed and a two-dimensional design technique is employed. The results of preliminary experiments using these elements in this architecture are obtained and the viability of the scheme is assessed.
This thesis presents a body of work conducted in the field of domestic thermal comfort. The aim of this research was to determine the suitability of the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index in homes within the UK. Two field studies were conducted with a sample of participants living in owner occupied properties in a UK city (London) and a UK provincial town (Loughborough).  Research findings indicate that the PMV is indeed a good predictor of thermal sensation in homes when conditions are steady state and people are engaged in near-sedentary activities. When conditions are not steady state and people are engaged in a variety of household activities, the accuracy of the PMV index can be improved by using a metabolic rate coefficient of 1.7. Further research work is required to ascertain this and likewise the range of applicability of the Adaptive Model.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the 2nd largest transit system in North America, currently is testing its new Communications and Information System (CIS) on 285 buses at its Wilson Avenue garage. The CIS project is believed to be among the most advanced of its kind, permitting automated continuous monitoring of all TTC surface vehicles--buses, street cars, and trolley coaches. The operator in the control center can locate a vehicle within 150 ft. Vehicle locations are picked up by microwave transmitters that are mounted on hydro and telephone poles along the way. Drivers can use the keyboard on the dash-mounted Transit Universal Microprocessor (TRUMP) unit to communicate with the control center, and the center can address the operator via a liquid crystal display on the TRUMP unit. By the end of 1991, the TTC hopes to have 2,000 of its surface vehicles integrated in to the CIS. There is enough equipment available for 2,300 buses.
Brian Novoselich is an active duty Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army and currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. His is a former assistant professor at the United States Military Academy and will return to the department in the fall of 2016. His research interests include capstone design teaching and assessment, undergraduate engineering student leadership development, social networks.
Factors affecting aquathermolytic reaction are presented in detail in the paper.Aquathermolysis is a technique that,via chemical reactions between heavy oil and steam taking place at steam injections,can reduce heavy oil viscosity,thereby recovering thick oil at bottom hole.Tt is addressed that the aquathermolysis,a new method to recover heavy oil commercially and efficiently,has very high potential value.
This paper aims to help higher education teachers know, and be able to deploy, certain information and communication technologies (ICTs) towards shifting from teacher-centred pedagogy to learner-centred instruction for increased quality of teaching and learning. Theories and many practices have emerged that have faulted teacher-centred classrooms common in educational institutions, especially in developing countries. The argument is that teacher-centred approach to delivering subject contents does not produce the calibre of school leavers and graduates the twenty-first century society needs. This argument has necessitated a longstanding call for a shift to student-centred teaching and collaborative learning. Many ICTs play a critical role in this direction, but are either unknown for the role or unutilized. The paper highlights many benefits of integrating these technologies into teaching and learning, as proved by projects in elementary and high schools. It then lists ICTs that can be used successfully in higher education, explains what they are, and shows how and evidence of use. They include Web-blogs, wikis, email, social networking Web sites, social bookmarking Web sites, mobile phones, presentation software and digital cameras. The paper concludes with suggestions of what can be done to implement their use as integral to the entire higher education effort.
The oceans occupy nearly three-quarters of the Earth's surface and represent an enormous source of renewable energy. While many of the world's industrialized nations have conducted exploratory research and development, the total power currently available from ocean energy systems, with the exception of the French tidal power plant, is less than one hundred megawatts (MW). An increasing number of ocean energy conversion systems are approaching an acceptable stage of development for commercial utilization. This paper considers the factors which are the most important in the design and development of ocean energy resource systems. Sources of renewable energy in the marine environment include tides, waves, currents, and thermal gradients. The challenge is to balance the energy resource potential with sources of environmental loading, which are applicable to a specific site, in the most logical and coherent manner possible, in order to make wise choices regarding site selection and system design.
The objective of an urban regeneration project is recovery of urban utilities through a physical, environmental, cultural, industrial and economic regeneration. The current paradigm of urban regeneration is not a simple redevelopment as physical redevelopment or improvement. Urban Regeneration is an overall development including a central commercial capacity and business capacity for administration and management, cultural facilities, sightseeing, and a residential area. Especially, Aspect of pursuing public values not individual stakeholder’s benefits, It is different from general construction project. Various values of government and local government should be reflected. For a successful urban regeneration project, it is necessary that all of values are considered and monitored. For that purpose, this study would offer to contribute the properties of urban regeneration the solution for successful urban regeneration. This study analyzed many characteristics and various values of an urban regeneration project in S. Korea. We used analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method so as to consider the relation between superior values (government, local government, etc.) and subordinate values.
Prior to May 1992, field demonstrations of characterization technologies were performed at an uncontaminated site near the Chemical Waste Landfill. In mid-1992 through summer 1993, both non-intrusive and intrusive characterization techniques were demonstrated at the Chemical Waste Landfill. Subsurface and dry barrier demonstrations were started in summer 1993 and will continue into 1995. Future plans include demonstrations of innovative drilling, characterization and long-term monitoring, and remediation techniques. Demonstrations were also scheduled in summer 1993 at the Kirtland Air Force HSWA site and will continue in 1994. The first phase of the Thermal Enhanced Vapor Extraction System (TEVES) project occurred in April 1992 when two holes were drilled and vapor extraction wells were installed at the Chemical Waste Landfill. Obtaining the engineering design and environmental permits necessary to implement this field demonstration will take until early 1994. Field demonstration of the vapor extraction system will occur in 1994.
This report presents the study of optimizing operation in manufacturing industry by  using linear programming. This study is conducted in one of the company that  involved in metal and fabrication sector in manufacturing industry which is  Impressive Edge (KL) Sdn Bhd. This report is focusing to the operation optimization  by using Hungarian Method under Assignment Problem model. Through out this  study, the data required which are the number of labor that work in production area  in the morning shifts, process that involved in the production and the number of  machinery involved in every process are collected within the duration specified.  Based on data collected, the assignment model been formulated and the model been  analysis by using Hungarian Method. At the end of this study, the optimal solution,  which is the worker's job assignment to machine on one-to-one basis are obtained.  The optimal solution from the analysis been compared to the true system and the  result is being discussed.
Recent work on dual-reflector antennas involving reflectarrays is reviewed in this paper. Both dual-reflector antenna with a reflectarray subreflector and dual-reflectarrays antennas with flat or parabolic main reflectarray are considered. First, a general analysis technique for these two configurations is described. Second, results for beam scanning and contoured-beam applications in different frequency bands are shown and discussed. The performance and capabilities of these antennas are shown by describing some practical design cases for radar, satellite communications, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) applications.
Cloud computing, with superior computing power, low-cost and high-security, will be applied to the resource-sharing area of E-government information with great significance and value. From the point of theory, technology and practice, it is scientifically feasible to build a cloud-based E-government information resource-sharing platform, and some areas are actively building this. This paper, through analysis of the problems existing in Cangzhou E-Government and through the design of the E-government cloud computing model, puts forward new ways to explore the development of regional E-government based on cloud computing.
Fuel rail device (60) of a combustion engine (22), wherein the fuel rail device (60) comprises a fuel rail (18), a union (34), a pipe (24) and a sealing ring (38). The union (34) has a longitudinal axis (L1), is fixedly coupled to the fuel rail (18) and is in hydraulic communication with the fuel rail (18). The pipe (24) is partially engaged by the union (34) and is designed to be in hydraulic communication with a fuel injector (20). The sealing ring (38) is arranged coaxially to the pipe (24) and is arranged radially between the union (34) and the pipe (24) and is designed to sealingly couple the union (34) to the pipe (24).
It is known that PID controller is employed in every facet of industrial automation. The application of PID controller span from small industry to high technology industry. Tuning the parameters of a PID controller is very important in PID control. Ziegler and Nichols proposed the well-known Ziegler-Nichols method to tune the coefficients of a PID controller. This tuning method is very simple, but cannot guarantee to be always effective. For this reason, this paper investigates the design of self tuning for a PID controller. For this study, the model selected is of isolated turbine speed control system. Isolated turbine system means that the turbine is not connected to the grid. The reason for this is that this model is often encountered in refineries in a form of steam turbine that uses hydraulic governor to control the speed of the turbine. The PID controller of the model will be designed using the adaptive fuzzy control method and the results analyzed. The same model will be redesigned using GA, PSO and ANFIS methods. The results of design methods will be compared, analyzed and conclusion will be drawn out of the simulation made.
Dynamic Voltage Regulator(DVR) is looked on as the most effective method for voltage sags control,so it draws much attention of electrical engineers home and abroad.According to the need of high voltage compensation,this article proposes a new kind of transformerless DVR based on multilevel-inverter,which can adds voltage directly to the power system, then we give a brief introduction to every part of this kind of DVR and its work principle as well.In modulation section,because of the complication of normal multilevel SVPWM algorithm,this article originates a new kind of nonorthogonal coordinates and a simplified unified multilevel SVPWM algorithm,based on the proposed nonorthogonal coordinates.Finally we demonstrate the validity of the algorithm and its effect in voltage sags control.
The electric power grid wide-area monitoring system (WAMS) has been extended from the transmission to distribution level. As the first WAMS deployed at the distribution level, the frequency monitoring network FNET/GridEye uses global positioning system-time-synchronized monitors, called frequency disturbance recorders, to capture dynamic grid behaviors. In this paper, the latest developments of monitor design and the state-of-the-art data analytics applications of FNET/GridEye are introduced. Its innovations and uniqueness are also discussed. Thanks to its low cost, easy installation, and multifunctionalities, FNET/GridEye works as a cost-effective situational awareness tool for power grid operators and pioneers the development of WAMS in electric power grids.
To summarize the study of amygdalin in recent years both at home and abroad,the physical and chemical properties,physical activity,pharmacological effects,separation,purification,determination,application expectation has done a detailed description,and combineing the advanced research at home and abroad,and expatiate amygdalin separation and purification technology,finally its applications are recounted briefly.
The aim of this work is the study of the Saharan desert dust storms effects on clouds properties and respective radiative forcing during a strong desert dust transport that occurred in 27, 28 and 29 May 2006. This is done by examining the results obtained from a mesoscale atmospheric model (MesoNH), over Portugal area and nearby Atlantic Ocean. The assessment of the aerosol properties provides information on the altitude of the aerosol layers and the determination of the cloud properties, influenced by the presence of desert dust aerosol, gives the information about the possible modifications that the cloud may suffer when they develop in an atmosphere where desert dust aerosols are present. The cloud radiative forcing (CRF) at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is also estimated. The CRF at the TOA, in a dust free atmosphere, present lower values when compared with the TOA CRF over the regions where dust aerosols are present.
Based on three-dimensional entity modeling software Pro/Engineer,Virtual manufacture technology in product design was analyzed.Three-dimensional entity modeling,virtual assembly of gear pump were achieved.Interference testing of the virtual product was introduced.In this way,the designer can find the disfigurement earlier,the cost of product development is reduced,and the efficiency of gear pump design can be advanced greatly.
Creating a three-dimensional trajectory within the confine of fighter's overloading restriction and verifying the overloading to ensure the validity of whole trajectory are two important parts of trajectory planning.By making use of the B-Spline curved-fitting,a three-dimensional trajectory for the fighter was created,and the trajectory curvature was calculated.One overloading judgment rule was deduced,and also some corresponding measures were made: reducing the speed;adjusting some navigation points.The overloading of some fighter flying along the planning trajectory was simulated and verified,and two principles of adjusting navigation points to reduce the overloading were analyzed and validated: crashworthiness precedence;elusion precedence.The algorithm has a practical value to create the three-dimensional trajectory of some fighters and verify its overloading.
The basic principle of inverse methods for the identification of material model parameters is to compare measured observations on a test specimen in a given test setup with virtual observations computed with a numerical model of the test specimen. The unknown parameters in the numerical model are updated until the computed observations match the measurements. Many inverse methods have already been proposed for the identification of uniform material properties in beamlike or plate like specimens based on a limited amount of observations. However, if the material properties in the specimens vary from point to point, more measured observation information is necessary. This paper presents an inverse method that can identify the local bending stiffness distribution in test beams based on the observation of the curvatures of vibration mode shapes. The test beams are freely suspended and the mode shapes are activated by acoustical excitation. The curvatures of the mode shapes are measured with a scanning laser and compared with curvatures computed with a finite element model of the test beams. The presentation will discuss the principle of the used inverse method, the experimental test set-up, the numerical model and give identified stiffness distributions results on composite material test beams. The presentation will end with some conclusions about the results and suggestions for future research.
In order to analyze large settlement of foundation under the influence of calculating deep of compressed soil layers,four codes that have being used in China have been applied to calculating the settlement of extra-long large diameter pile groups under south tower of main bridge of Sutong Yangtse River Highway Bridges.The results show that,calculating deep of compressed soil layers are nearly equal through deciding by four codes if ratio of deformation is 0.01,and the final settlements that are equal to theoretic calculating settlements multiplied by corresponding coefficients of correction are very close to those values gained by centrifugal model test,only-8.3%~+4.7% errors.Therefore,it is unfit for deciding calculating deep of compressed soil layers to use ratio of deformation 0.025 when theoretic calculating settlement is too large.
The University of Kentucky has been coordinating a phased watershed assessment and restoration project in the Cane Run watershed. This watershed includes the recharge zone for the Royal Spring aquifer, a major source of drinking water for Georgetown, Kentucky (pop. 40,000). Phase one of the Cane Run Watershed Project will be completed in January 2011, and includes development of a watershed-based plan (WBP) and initial best management practice (BMP) implementation. The WBP utilizes water quality monitoring to characterize current watershed conditions and identify areas for restoration. Five miles of streamside “No Mow Zones” have been implemented in the watershed to improve water quality, protect stream banks, and support aquatic life. These areas have been developed into graduate student research plots for riparian management strategies. The University of Kentucky’s Agricultural Experiment Station is located in the watershed, and is a major partner in the watershed project. BMPs installed on the University’s farm include a 4,000 tree Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) reforestation project and improved stream crossings. The crossings will reduce stream bank erosion caused by livestock and farm equipment and will be utilized by the World Equestrian Games endurance horse race. A 2009 pesticide amnesty in the watershed resulted in proper disposal of 6,700 pounds of outdated and unused pesticides. Local government officials developed an 8.5-mile multi-use recreational trail in the Cane Run watershed. A 26-acre easement for the trail includes streamside “No Mow Zones” and native plantings. Educational signage and kiosks have been placed along the trail to educate trail users about the watershed, its impairments, and restoration efforts. The city and University are also working together in urban sub-watersheds to identify sanitary sewer and stormwater problems. A watershed festival held in August 2010 promoted water quality awareness to over 300 watershed residents.
INTRODUCTION Dodies are all formed of atomic or molecular units. Most of the substances that form the living matter, belong to the diamagnetic substances category: both the magnetic molecular moments and the magnetic field are of no value. However, in certain circumstances, most of the biologica] products, plasma and the figurative elements so the living method can become paramagnetic. For example, the proteins and the polypeptidis subjected to electromagnetic radiations of variable frequencies can change their electronic spatial rearangement (schema).
A kind of dual channel high- voltage pulse generator based on CPLD was designed in order to solve the problem of large capacitive loads characteristic with transducer used in acoustic well-logging. MCU and CPLD were used in this design. This kind of generator can provide high amplitude,strong ability of current driving and the pulse width can be adjusted. C8051F350 MCU,PWM control chip MM33060 A and fly- back type circuit were used to get voltage uplift from 12 V to 300 V. Using CPLD to produce precise frequency and pulse width control signal,high- voltage pulse generating circuit outputted 300 V pulse voltage. 1 kV pulse signals were achieved on the secondary side of the transformer.The experimental results indicated that we can get ideal wave form the piezoelectric ceramic transducer. It has a steep rising and no tailing or oscillation. Therefore,this kind of generator meets the needs of practical application.
Streaming media curriculum resources as an effective means of online teaching methods,and provide a new way to explore effective ways of distance teaching and learning.This paper based on the management practice and experience in Beijing Radio and Television University,discusses the situation and pattern on the culture of cooperation about teaching and evaluation of streaming media curriculum resources.This paper suggests the resources should focus on interactive design and quality promotion,and play the advantages of the system.Only in this way we can provide the high quality learning resources to students.
Service orientation has become an accepted concept in how information systems should be exposed and coordinated in higher education. It is important that the learning environments of students and the working conditions of teachers can be planned to provide them appropriate and flexible information systems, data networks, and databases. Appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) tools enable efficient cooperation in networks in a way that they can promote the high quality learning. The service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the planning method of information systems that uses loosely coupled services to support the requirements of business processes and users. Resources on a network in an SOA environment are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation (Wikipedia, 2007). The approach is cost-efficient and flexible because it consists of various replaceable applications. The purpose of this article is to present the framework of the SOA to analyse the service structure in the networked and virtual working environments in higher education. The approach developed in this article is planned to be generic so that it can be applied to various kinds of organisations and networks for the analysis and management of services. This approach helps an organisation to reengineer the architecture of ICT environments. The architecture is useful for the planning of networked learning community. This article is intended for managers and other experts who may wish to familiarise with the benefits and opportunities provided by the SOA. The empirical context of this article is the Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) and other Finnish profession-oriented higher education institutions. The TUAS is a multidisciplinary higher education institution founded in 1992. The institution has 9,500 degree students and 800 full-time employees. The TUAS has six faculties and a Continuing Education Centre. ICT is an important field of education and it is mixed with the business, biotechnology, mechanical engineering, health care, performing arts, communication, and many other subjects. The cooperation between the 28 Finnish universities of applied sciences is active. This article is organised as follows: First the background section introduces the concepts and characteristics of the SOA. The main attention of the article is focused on the information system project of the Finnish universities of applied sciences. Thereafter, some future trends are presented, and the results of the article are summarized in the concluding section.
In this paper, we report a double patterning process resulting in amorphous silicon (a-Si) gate lines with a thickness of 80nm and a lateral critical dimension (CD) below 30nm. We present a full stack for a double patterning approach for etch transfer down to a Si layer, including a hard mask in which the line and cut patterning are performed. The importance of the hard mask (HM) in the success or failure of the exercise is evidenced. Once the suitable HM has been selected, the etch chemistry is shown to have a significant impact on the line width roughness (LWR) of the gate. Ultimately, remarkably low LWR could be achieved on gates exhibiting straight profile. All the results shown in this paper have been obtained on 300mm wafers.
As the Space Shuttle returns to flight this year, major reconfiguration and assembly of the International Space Station continues as the United States and our 5 International Partners resume building and carry on operating this impressive Earth-orbiting research facility. In his January 14, 2004, speech announcing a new vision for America's space program, President Bush ratified the United States' commitment to completing construction of the ISS by 2010. The current ongoing research aboard the Station on the long-term effects of space travel on human physiology will greatly benefit human crews to venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. The continual operation of ISS leads to new knowledge about the design, development and operation of system and hardware that will be utilized in the development of new deep-space vehicles needed to fulfill the Vision for Exploration. This paper will provide an overview of the ISS Program, including a review of the events of the past year, as well as plans for next year and the future.
This paper firstly explains essential meaning and characteristics of the BQ.Then,it expounds matters,measures and instruments on construction cost management and control during design stage,bidding stage,construction stage and final acceptance stage systematically under the mode of the BQ figure,which makes significant implication to controlling construction cost efficiently by the BQ for the building owners.
here have been few attempts to model the demand for factors of pro-JL duction at a sub-national level, even though the main emphasis of regional policy in most countries has been an attempt to increase the demand for labour and capital through the availability of factor subsidies. Estimates of the parameters of production functions are more readily available with regard to the US and Japanese regional economiesalthough many of these have used cross-sectional data (two particular exceptions are Alperovich, 1980; and Carlino, 1982), while Harris (1982a) has provided a comprehensive set of parameter results using time-series data for the regions of the UK (previous UK studies have been hampered through not having access to regional capital stock data, e.g., O'Donnell and Swales, 1979). Factor demand models have been estimated using Irish data (Higgins, 1981;Boyle and Sloane, 1982), while a recent paper by Hanseman (1986) estimated a quarterly factor demand model for Cincinnati (USA) using a Nadiri and Rosen (1969) type approach. This paper estimates an econometric model of the demand for the factors of production using data
In 2007, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Committee on Nuclear Risk Management (CNRM) formed a working group (WG) to develop probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) requirements for advanced light water reactors (ALWRs). Existing PRA Standard language (internal events, fire and external events) was developed for operating plants. The requirements in the existing, and possibly in the planned Standards, are not fully applicable for an ALWR from the design through initial operational phases. Furthermore the WG had a goal to determine if additional requirements were appropriate for design and operational features which might differ from operating plants. Consider for example: • Prior to completion of construction and initial operation, final design and operational information may not be available, and walkdowns of final, as constructed, features will not be possible; • Plant-specific operating experience will not be available; and • ALWRs may have features, such as passive systems and digital instrumentation and control (I&C), which may not be adequately addressed. The initial scope of this project has addressed internal events at power requirements. To identify new or revised requirements, the ASME Standard, Regulatory Guide 1.200 rev. 01, Regulatory Guide 1.206, and Draft Regulatory Guide 1.200 rev. 02 were reviewed in detail. In addition the results of a peer review of an ALWR in the design stage using the ASME Standard were considered. Draft requirements have been developed and are currently in review by the CNRM. The paper describes the approach, results and future actions to modify the combined Standard to address ALWRs.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
This article develops a fairly general framework for derivation of control strategies applying to moving objects, such as mobile robots or robot arms, in a dynamically changing environment. The basic idea is to consider stochastic terms for any uncertain future environment change and to apply stochastic dynamic programming for control strategy development. The method permits consideration of a number of possible missions such as collision avoidance or collision hitting and/or moving forward or following a trajectory. A number of examples demonstrate that the control strategies developed are capable of making efficient, human intelligence—like decisions in quite complicated conflict situations.
Voltage sags are the most frequent power quality problems for many industrial processes. Due to the wide usage of sensitive electronic equipment in many fields as, electronic controller, communication and computers, even voltage sags which last for only few tenths of a second may cause production stops with considerable associated costs; these costs include production losses, equipment restarting, damaged or lower-quality product and reduced customer satisfaction.    An advanced static var compensator “STATCOM” is a reactive power source applied for the dynamic compensation in power systems to provide voltage support, increase transient stability margin and improve damping of power systems. This thesis investigates the possibility to develop a STATCOM that improve the voltage sag due to starting of 5-kilowatt induction motor. The setup of this implementation consists of inverter with a capacitor in its dc side, coupling transformers, and a control system.  The self commutate thyristor inverter has been used in this implementation has a simple switching On/Off control operation. It operates at low frequencies (most often around ac line frequency), and in the conducting state. Thyristors feature have very low losses, making them attractive devices to efficiently control very high currents and energies.  A capacitor in the dc side is charging via a diode bridge rectifier which is supplied from the same power source.    The STATCOM compensator based line commutation voltage source inverter for correcting voltage sag in steady-state condition has been simulated using Matlab, and a good improvement on voltage sag has been obtained by injecting reactive power into the system during sag period.    In order to verify the results obtained by the experiments. These results have been compared with simulation results and a good agreement has been obtained.
Level-III leadership education and training (Diklatpim III) is one of the means of improving quality so that eschelon-3 structural officers and candidate officers can enhance their knowledge, expertise, skill and attitude for accomplishing their duties professionally based on the personality and ethics of civil servant in accordance with institutional needs, and with an objective to realize civil servants with competence according to the requirements of eschelon-3 position.    This research included four subject matters, namely: (1) Diklatpim III Program offered in accordance with the institution’s vision, mission, and strategy; (2) Training needs for the requirements of enhancing the quality of eschelon-3 structural officers as seen from the demand of organizational formation and that of duties; (3) Evaluation of Diklatpim III implementation; and (4) The factors supporting and inhibiting Diklatpim III.     This research was conducted at Education and Training Agency of Province of West Java Region by using a qualitative approach through documentary study, observation, literature study, and interview. The research objects were: organizer, widyaiswara, participants, and Diklatpim III graduates selected purposively.     The results of research showed conclusions that: (1) The Diklatpim III program has been in accordance with institutional vision, mission, and strategy; (2) Training needs for developing human resources as seen from the demand of organizational reformation and demand of duties has, in its implementation, not been properly planned, instead it was only prepared in a short term plan for every Diklatpim III program; (3) The evaluation of Diklatpim III was conducted after the termination of the program, not began since planning and there was no an evaluation of outcomes to Diklatpim III graduates; and (4) the factors supporting the implementation of Diklatpim III included: human resource, participants, curriculum, facility-infrastructure, and fund. The factors inhibiting were among others: “seat-teach” pattern policy and competence test was not conducted in the official placement.     Based on the findings, it was recommended as follows: (1) It needs a strong commitment of the leaders and organizers to develop the planning and implementation of an integrated Diklatpim III; (2) It needs to make a mature Diklatpim III planning according to the organizational formation and the duties in the field; (3) It should be conducted a comprehensive evaluation since the planning phase to outcome; (4) The policy of the implementation of “seat-teach” pattern should be reconsidered and the placement of civil servants in structural positions should be made by a competence test in advance.        ABSTRAK         Pendidikan dan pelatihan kepemimpinan tingkat III (Diklatpim III) merupakan sarana pengembangan kualitas agar para pejabat atau calon pejabat struktural eselon 3 dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan, keahlian, keterampilan dan sikap guna melaksanakan tugas jabatan secara profesional dengan dilandasi kepribadian dan etika pegawai negeri sipil sesuai kebutuhan lembaga, serta dengan sasaran terwujudnya pegawai negeri sipil yang memiliki kompetensi yang sesuai persyaratan jabatan eselon 3.    Penelitian ini mencakup empat pembahasan pokok permasalahan yang bertalian dengan: (1) Program Diklatpim III yang ditawarkan sesuai visi, misi dan strategi lembaga; (2) Training needs untuk kebutuhan pengembangan kualitas pejabat struktural eselon 3 dilihat dari tuntutan formasi organisasi dan tuntutan tugas; (3) Evaluasi penyelenggaraan Diklatpim III; (4) Faktor-faktor yang mendukung dan menghambat Diklatpim III.     Penelitian ini dilakukan di Badan Diklat Daerah Provinsi Jawa Barat, dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif melalui studi dokumentasi, observasi, kepustakaan dan wawancara. Objek penelitian ini adalah: penyelenggara, widyaiswara, peserta dan alumni Diklatpim III yang diambil secara purposive.     Hasil penelitian menunjukkan kesimpulan bahwa: (1) Program Diklatpim III telah sesuai dengan visi, misi dan strategi lembaga; (2) Training needs untuk kebutuhan pengembangan SDM dilihat dari tuntutan formasi organisasi dan tuntutan tugas dalam penyelenggaraannya belum ada perencanaan yang matang, hanya disusun dalam perencanaan jangka pendek untuk setiap program Diklatpim III; (3) Evaluasi Diklatpim III dilakukan sesudah program berakhir, tidak dimulai sejak perencanaan dan tidak dilakukan evaluasi hasil (outcome) kepada para alumni Diklatpim III; (4) Faktor-faktor yang mendukung penyelenggaraan Diklatpim III meliputi: SDM, peserta, kurikulum, sarana prasarana dan dana. Faktor yang menghambat antara lain: kebijakan pola ”duduk-didik” dan tidak dilakukan uji kompetensi dalam penempatan jabatan.     Atas dasar hasil itu direkomendasikan: (1) Diperlukan komitmen pimpinan dan pengelola yang tinggi untuk menyusun perencanaan dan pelaksanaan Diklatpim III yang terintegrasi; (2) Agar dilakukan perencanaan Diklatpim III yang matang disesuaikan dengan formasi organisasi dan tuntutan tugas di lapangan; (3) Seyogyanya dilakukan evaluasi secara menyeluruh sejak fase perencanaan sampai dengan hasil (outcome); (4) Kebijakan penerapan pola ”duduk-didik” seyogyanya dipertimbangkan kembali dan penempatan PNS dalam jabatan struktural perlu dilakukan uji kompetensi terlebih dahulu.
We study the use of lateral SOI PIN diodes as thermometers and Ultra-Violet photo-detectors in a large range of temperature from -175°C to 300°C and under radiations. These diodes indeed show very linear voltage vs temperature characteristics when biased with a constant current and can be successfully used in an integrated temperature sensor [1]. Similarly, they show high quantum efficiency for UV light sensing measured from -175°C to 125°C up to now. They have also been embedded in a dedicated readout circuit [2]. The diodes characteristics after neutron irradiation are also discussed. The diodes are implemented in two fully-depleted SOI technologies: UCL 2µm process and OKI 0.15µm industrial process [3, 4].
Biomass utilization to reduce fossil C0{sub 2} emissions is being supported by sixteen (16) EPRI research projects, each contributing to the commercialization of systems to address greenhouse gas emissions. These projects include: (1) cofiring combustion testing at the Seward Generating Station of GPU Genco; (2) fuel preparation testing at the Greenidge Generating Station of NYSEG; (3) precommercial testing of cofiring at the Allen and Colbert Fossil Plants of TVA; (4) testing of switchgrass cofiring at the Blount St. Station of Madison Gas & Electric; (5) high percentage biomass cofiring with Southern Company; (6) urban wood waste cofiring at the supercritical cyclone boiler at Michigan City Generating Station of Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO); (7) evaluation of switchgrass cofiring with Nebraska Public Power District at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, CA; (8) waste plastics cofiring with Duke Power in a tangentially-fired pulverized coal (PC) boiler; (9) cofiring a mixture of plastics, fiber, and pulp industry wastes with South Carolina Electric and Gas; (10) urban wood waste cofiring evaluation and testing by the University of Pittsburgh in stoker boilers; (11) assessment of toxic emissions from cofiring of wood and coal; (12) development of fuel and power plant models for analysis andmore » interpretation of cofiring results; (13) analysis of C0{sub 2} utilization in algal systems for wastewater treatment; (14) combustion testing and combustor development focusing on high percentage cofiring; (15) analysis of problems and potential solutions to the sale of flyash from coal- fired boilers practicing cofiring; and (16) analysis of C0{sub 2} capture and disposal systems. EPRI is supported in these efforts by numerous contractors including: Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation, Battelle Columbus Laboratories, New York State Electric and Gas Co., Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), NIPSCO, the University of Pittsburgh, John Benneman, and others. These projects address various aspects of cofiring for C0{sub 2} mitigation including testing of cofiring with various fuels, and in all types of boilers; development of analytical tools to support the cofiring assessment; addressing specific barriers to cofiring such as the sale of flyash; longer term technology development; and evaluating alternative methods for C0{sub 2} mitigation. Taken together, they address the critical concerns associated with this approach to biofuel utilization. As such, they support implementation of the most promising near-term approach to biomass usage for greenhouse gas mitigation. This report contains a brief description of each project. It then reports the progress made during the first quarter of the contract, focusing upon test results from the Allen Fossil Plant, where precommercial testing at a cyclone boiler was used to evaluate particle size and NO{sub x} emissions from cofiring.« less
The construction industry is notorious for its (lack of) innovativeness. Many papers, reports and articles have been written on this subject already for more than three decades. The explanations presented can be summarized by such terms as fragmentation, segmentation and segregation when referring to the industries’ structure and by qualifications such as opportunistic, hostile, antagonistic and conflictive when referring to its culture. In this paper it is argued that the main reason for the innovation status quo is the fact that the construction industry, when compared to other industries, lacks real producers- producers who develop products and compete with each other in terms of these products. It is particularly this kind of competition which is identified as a source to stimulate innovation. In construction, production capabilities are tested on the market and not product capabilities. As a result, design decisions are not tested on the market. It is this flaw which is examined in this paper, and possible improvements are suggested. Endurable strategic alliances, as quasi-firms, are proposed as the equivalent of producers. Essential herein is the pivotal position of design. An organizational innovation as such could change the way business is done in the construction industry. It would alter its structure as well as its culture.
A forced landing is an unscheduled event in flight requiring an emergency landing, and is most commonly attributed to engine failure, failure of avionics or adverse weather. Since the ability to conduct a successful forced landing is the primary indicator for safety in the aviation industry, automating this capability for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will help facilitate their integration into, and subsequent routine operations over civilian airspace. Currently, there is no commercial system available to perform this task; however, a team at the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA) is working towards developing such an automated forced landing system. This system, codenamed Flight Guardian, will operate onboard the aircraft and use machine vision for site identification, artificial intelligence for data assessment and evaluation, and path planning, guidance and control techniques to actualize the landing. This thesis focuses on research specific to the third category, and presents the design, testing and evaluation of a Trajectory Generation and Guidance System (TGGS) that navigates the aircraft to land at a chosen site, following an engine failure. Firstly, two algorithms are developed that adapts manned aircraft forced landing techniques to suit the UAV planning problem. Algorithm 1 allows the UAV to select a route (from a library) based on a fixed glide range and the ambient wind conditions, while Algorithm 2 uses a series of adjustable waypoints to cater for changing winds. A comparison of both algorithms in over 200 simulated forced landings found that using Algorithm 2, twice as many landings were within the designated area, with an average lateral miss distance of 200 m at the aimpoint. These results present a baseline for further refinements to the planning algorithms. A significant contribution is seen in the design of the 3-D Dubins Curves planning algorithm, which extends the elementary concepts underlying 2-D Dubins paths to account for powerless flight in three dimensions. This has also resulted in the development of new methods in testing for path traversability, in losing excess altitude, and in the actual path formation to ensure aircraft stability. Simulations using this algorithm have demonstrated lateral and vertical miss distances of under 20 m at the approach point, in wind speeds of up to 9 m/s. This is greater than a tenfold improvement on Algorithm 2 and emulates the performance of manned, powered aircraft. The lateral guidance algorithm originally developed by Park, Deyst, and How (2007) is enhanced to include wind information in the guidance logic. A simple assumption is also made that reduces the complexity of the algorithm in following a circular path, yet without sacrificing performance. Finally, a specific method of supplying the correct turning direction is also used. Simulations have shown that this new algorithm, named the Enhanced Nonlinear Guidance (ENG) algorithm, performs much better in changing winds, with cross-track errors at the approach point within 2 m, compared to over 10 m using Park's algorithm. A fourth contribution is made in designing the Flight Path Following Guidance (FPFG) algorithm, which uses path angle calculations and the MacCready theory to determine the optimal speed to fly in winds. This algorithm also uses proportional integral- derivative (PID) gain schedules to finely tune the tracking accuracies, and has demonstrated in simulation vertical miss distances of under 2 m in changing winds. A fifth contribution is made in designing the Modified Proportional Navigation (MPN) algorithm, which uses principles from proportional navigation and the ENG algorithm, as well as methods specifically its own, to calculate the required pitch to fly. This algorithm is robust to wind changes, and is easily adaptable to any aircraft type. Tracking accuracies obtained with this algorithm are also comparable to those obtained using the FPFG algorithm. For all three preceding guidance algorithms, a novel method utilising the geometric and time relationship between aircraft and path is also employed to ensure that the aircraft is still able to track the desired path to completion in strong winds, while remaining stabilised. Finally, a derived contribution is made in modifying the 3-D Dubins Curves algorithm to suit helicopter flight dynamics. This modification allows a helicopter to autonomously track both stationary and moving targets in flight, and is highly advantageous for applications such as traffic surveillance, police pursuit, security or payload delivery. Each of these achievements serves to enhance the on-board autonomy and safety of a UAV, which in turn will help facilitate the integration of UAVs into civilian airspace for a wider appreciation of the good that they can provide. The automated UAV forced landing planning and guidance strategies presented in this thesis will allow the progression of this technology from the design and developmental stages, through to a prototype system that can demonstrate its effectiveness to the UAV research and operations community.
This paper studies the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) receiving performance with different dimensions of tem horn and monopole antenna through CST MWS software. Two measurement methods of receiving EMP have also been discussed, using D-dot sensor and TEM horn Antenna respectively. The Full Wave at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the designed TEM horn antenna response function is about 90ps, and the effective area of the D-dot sensor is about 10−3 square meters. Based on the experiment and data analysis, it shows that the two methods are true and credible.
The random error model for evaluating FBG dynamic sensing system is proposed and established by using Allan variance, and the error recognition is experimentally demonstrated. The composition of the FBG sensing system, the characteristic of random error and error source for FBG acceleration sensing system are analyzed. The random error theoretical model based on the FBG acceleration sensing system is proposed and analyzed. In order to experimentally perform stability characterization of the system, the static output signal is achieved, and Allan variance curve is obtained by data processing, and the main coefficients of the error source can be further obtained. The model based on the Allan variance adequately demonstrates that it is feasible to evaluate the FBG system, which provides the basis for further designing, improvements and developing.
Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part I. Person-Centred Practice: Why This, Why Now? 1. Context: Why Person-Centred Practice Is Important Now. 2. The History of Person-Centred Planning and Thinking. 3. The Values and Principles Underpinning a Person-Centred Approach. Part II. Person-Centred Thinking. 4. Learning and Understanding the Balance Between What Is Important To and For the Person. 5. Person-Centred Thinking Tools that Enhance Voice, Choice and Control. 6. Person-Centred Thinking Tools that Clarify Roles and Responsibilities. 7. Person-Centred Thinking Tools for Analysis and Action. 8. Person-Centred Thinking Tools for Deeper Learning. 9. Deciding which Person-Centred Thinking Tool to Use and How to Build a Detailed Person-Centred Description. Part III. Person-Centred Reviews and Person-Centred Planning. 10. The Person-Centred Review Process. 11. Person-Centred Reviews and the Care Programme Approach. 12. Person-Centred Planning. 13. Person-Centred Thinking, Planning and Support Planning. Part IV. Person-Centred Thinking from Prevention to End of Life. 14. Prevention and Well-Being. 15. Long-Term Conditions. 16. Person-Centred Thinking in Recovery. 17. Person-Centred Thinking and Reablement. 18. Support at Home and in Residential Care. 19. Person-Centred Thinking and End-of-Life Care. 20. A Person-Centred Approach to Risk. Conclusion. Endnotes. About the Authors. Index.
Tapered composite plates have various engineering applications such as helicopter yoke, robot arms and turbine blades in which the structure needs to be stiff at one end and flexible at another end. No closed form analytical solution of tapered composite plates using Ritz method based on first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is available at present. In the present paper, the buckling analysis of different types of composite plates with longitudinal-internal-ply-drop-off configuration is investigated using Ritz method. The buckling analysis of these plates is also conducted using ANSYS®. The efficiency and accuracy of the developed formulation are established in comparison with available solutions, where applicable. A detailed parametric study has been conducted on various taper and lay-up configurations, all made of NCT/301 graphite-epoxy, in order to investigate the effects of taper angle, length-to-height ratio, length-to-width ratio, boundary conditions, and taper and lay-up configurations.
Abstract : DeTocqueville, describing the American frontier of the 1830s, was struck by the freedom of Americans to come and go as they pleased without documents. He recorded the effects of an open frontier which bred people whose optimistic outlook was entirely different from that which he had encountered in Europe. For the first time he met citizens who felt their only limitation to wealth and happiness lay within themselves. We have come a long way from the day of the frontier ethic. In the process of building more complex social institutions to better serve groups of individuals, we are (and perhaps unnecessarily) eroding mechanisms conducive to social mobility. Better record keeping may be forcing us to move away from the value structure deTocqueville described to that of a new nation, where the name of the game is too often 'keeping your nose clean' or 'not getting involved.' (Author)
This article has as its main objective to identify the elements of knowledge management within the scope of the organizational structure of a metallurgy industry. In order to reach the proposed objective, a qualitative research with a case study was carried out in a metallurgy industry of the city of Ponta Grossa. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview. The research evinced a top-down organizational structure in which the upper management creates the basic concepts so that the lower levels can implement them. However, this structure is ineffi cient in stimulating the necessary dynamic interaction for the creation of the organizational knowledge. As to the organizational structure compatible with knowledge management in the company, the data show a defi ciency in team work, with little delegation of responsibilities. This metallurgy industry must, therefore, try to strengthen other elements in the organizational structure, implanting a more fl exible and agile organizational structure in order to be able to react to market changes.
Fluctuations of electric load call for flexible generation technologies such as gas turbines. Alternatively, bulk energy storage (BES) facilities can store excess off-peak electricity to generate valuable peaking electricity. Interest in electricity storage has increased in the past decade in anticipation of higher penetration levels of intermittent renewable sources such as wind. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is one of the most promising BES technologies due to the large amount of energy (hundreds of MWh) that can be economically stored. CAES uses off-peak electricity to compress air into underground reservoirs. Air is combusted and expanded at a later time to regenerate electricity. One of the downsides of CAES is the large energy losses incurred in the form of waste compression heat. Distributed CAES (D-CAES) has been proposed in order to improve the roundtrip efficiency of CAES by utilizing the compression heat for space and water heating. The compressor of D-CAES is located near a heat load (e.g. a shopping mall) and the compression heat is recovered to meet this external load. D-CAES collects fuel credits equal to the negated heating fuel, leading to a higher overall efficiency compared to conventional CAES. We perform a thermodynamic analysis of conventional CAES and D-CAES to compare their heat rate, work ratio (electric energy stored per unit of electric energy regenerated), and exergy efficiency.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
This paper discusses the use of personal computers (microcomputers) at Stearns Catalytic, a large engineering and construction company. The historical development use at Stearns Catalytic is described. Examples of microcomputer applications in many different areas of the company are presented, as well as cost savings derived. The stages of microcomputer applications development are discussed, along with management concerns regarding the use of microcomputers. Finally, some thoughts regarding the future of microcomputers in the engineering and construction industries are presented.
The design of a novel instantaneous frequency measurement module based on the interferometer phase-comparison method is proposed in this paper. Relative to heterodyne receiver, the advantage of instantaneous frequency measurement is its measurement speed. Firstly, the basic operating principle of interferometer phase-comparison method is given. And then the module is fabricated and measured. The proposed instantaneous frequency measurement module consists of amplitude limited amplified and filtered circuit, power divided circuit, phase shift network, AD and coding circuit, etc. The measurement results show that the sensitivity of this module is better than −75dBm, the frequency measurement accuracy is about 5MHz, the speed could reach about 0.1us. The total dynamic range is from −75dBm to +25dBm. The performance of the proposed module satisfies the requirement of the design, and the module has been used in some equipment. Finally, the frequency measurement error is analyzed. The frequency measurement error in some frequency points exceeds 8MHz in 85°C,because the LO power of I/Q phase detector decreases in higher temperature and cause the loss increasing. It can be solved by tuning the power of LO amplifier.
In this paper we consider target state estimation and interceptor guidance as one integrated homing guidance problem. By this we mean that early in the guidance and estimation design process, due consideration is given to the dual problems of estimation and control. Estimation requires measurements which in this case are the bearing measurements, provided by a strapdown Infra Red sensor. The paper looks at the following integrated aspects of the guidance problem: proper time-to-go estimation, the guidance law and the Kalman Filter structure. The chosen guidance law requires an estimate of the relative target position, velocity and acceleration. Therefore, the structure of the Kalman Filter is designed to estimate these quantities. This requirement makes it necessary to have the components of range to target as inputs to the Filter. Since, the passive infrared sensor only measures boresight errors, a method for synthetic range construction is described. Via 6-degree-of-freedom simulations the integrated guidance strategy, starting with angle measurements and ending with generation of acceleration command, is examined.
The creation of the Advanced Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) was mandated by Congress in 1984 for the purpose of identifying specific systems of the Space Station which would advance automation and'robotics technologies. The initial ATAC report, released in 1985, proposed goals for automation and robotics applications for the initial and evolutionary space stations , as well as recommendations for implementation strategies of these goals. These recommendations have been accepted as policy by NASA. Since that initial report, ATAC has continued to release semiannual reports on Space Station's progress in automation and robotics, including areas of concern and further recommendations. This paper will review the history of ATAC and its future. Previously ATAC has been an external force to push the use of automation and robotics on the Space Station. ATAC also promotes the development of state-of-the-art technology in automation and robotics , which is crucial due to the lack of off-the-shelf items. Now that we are approaching the final design and development stages of the Station, actual implementation on the initial Station and provisions for future incorporation of automation and robotics on the evolutionary Station are critical. Where ATAC goes from here and what possible impacts it will have, are discussed. Text The Advanced Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) was formed as a result of strong interest on the part of the United States Congress that new technology be developed by the Space Station Program in the emerging field of Automation and Robotics (A&R), and that this new and evolving technology spin off to terrestrial applications in the American economy. Conference Report 98-867 of the House of Repre­ sentatives, 98th Congress of the United States, was submitted as documentation of agreements by the two houses concerning funding for fiscal year 3985 (House of Representatives Bill S7]3). Amendment No. 39 establishes the Advanced Technology Program. The congressional desires were stated in the documented words of the mandate as follows: "The ATAC is mandated to identify specific Space Station systems which advance technolo­ gies not in use in current spacecraft. Additionally, it is the intention of Congress that automation and robotics implementation will not only promote the efficiency of the Sp^ace Station, but by enhancing the technical and scientific base, will also lead to more productive terrestrial
Very fast transient overvoltage (VFTO) generated by switching of disconnector in UHV substations may exceed the lightning impulse withstand voltage (LIWV), which is a serious threat to the electric power system. In this paper, five UHV substations in operation or under construction have been modeled in EMTP-ATP, and four operation modes are considered in VFTO simulation. Statistical law of characteristic parameters, such as maximum amplitude and first-peak gradient, etc. is analyzed by smoothing kernel density estimation method. The result shows that the statistical law of the characteristic parameters presents concentrated distribution when the bus is uncharged. The maximum amplitude appearing in ninety percent probability reaches 2.5p.u., which may surpass the LIWV, and the first-peak gradient is 5.85kV/ns. While the bus is charged, the statistical law shows dispersed, in which the maximum amplitude as well as the first-peak gradient reaches 2.01p.u. and 9.68kV/ns respectively.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard's Rideshare Office estimates that between 2013 and 2022, NASA launches of primary satellites will have left unused more than 20,371 kilograms of excess capacity. This equates to hundreds of millions of dollars in launch-vehicle costs going unutilized. To fill this void with a standard CubeSat or SmallSat spacecraft platform, which when required to be more reliable, still will cost in the neighborhood of $1M a kilogram, making it prohibitively expensive. A newly proposed solution, which NASA is pursuing, is called the Capsulation Satellite or CapSat. CapSat is a modularized, pressurized, thermally controlled spacecraft designed to host ruggedized commercially available instrumentation in a terrestriallike environment on orbit. Using a technique that is under review for a patent, CapSat actively manages internal air temperatures in a manner similar to a household thermostat. This gives CapSat high-thermal stability, which, in turn, provides component longevity. CapSat was specifically designed to take advantage of the United States Air Force (USAF) Rideshare Program and the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adaptor, or ESPA ring. The ESPA ring comes in two sizes: standard and Grande. CapSat primarily will take advantage of the ESPA Grande to provide a 300-kilogram payload capability per attachment point, with up to four attachment points per ring. This approach combines a high-mass capability with a proven Rideshare mechanical interface and secondary payload management infrastructure. Opportunities for ESPA-based co-manifests are continuing to expand. The CapSat program is currently funded to design and build a limited prototype and perform thermal-vacuum testing. CapSat is currently in the concept/study phase for both single missions and constellation of earth- and space-observing missions. One of these studies includes land imaging using state-of-the-art advanced infrared detector technology. This paper will report on the current status of the CapSat hardware design, testing, and results as well as any openly available advanced concept study results. The CapSat solution is intended to be a game-changing paradigm shift. CapSat will repurpose currently available, already-proven technology to reduce spaceflight hardware costs to less than $50,000 per kilogram.
ABSTRACT Following appropriate literature review, this study defines 14 technique and management subjects and surveys Taiwan's logistic industry in order to compare the difference of the levels of importance and execution between these subjects. Individual analysis is used to extract the respective, critical successful factors in the technique and management aspects. Based on such key factors, fuzzy clustering method is applied to categorize the firms into three distinct patterns, namely “Excellent performance”, “Requiring improvement” and “Management leading”. Results may help the managers better focus on these key success factors, thus, enhancing each firms' logistic technology and adjust management strategy. The technology aspects focus the following binary-factors: inventory & delivery, quickness and friendliness, and sales & distribution. The management aspects focus on inventory strategy, supply chain integration, and customer service. All three firms are invited to refer to these findings, to the ways of adjusting logistic technology and management strategy relevant for each distinct pattern of use. Business performances are then described in terms of the technique characteristics and management system. Finally, each firm can identify its position in relation to the industry as a whole, and instigate changes to the management system and utilize the recommended means designed to promote its performance.
Cook, DuPage and Lake counties within the State of Illinois are the geographic areas of this study. The current practices of liquid hazardous wastes generation and management of selected waste streams which are land disposed in Illinois are quantified and analyzed in this study. Also, within this study report, generic flow diagrams and descriptions of processes pertinent to the waste streams studied were developed; alternative waste management practices for these waste streams were identified, described and analyzed; and the study methodology is described.
Mobile data traffic is expected to increase substantially in the coming years, with data rates 1000 times higher by 2020, having media and content as the main drivers together with a plethora of new end-user services that will challenge existing networks. Concepts and visions associated with the ICT evolution like the network society, 50 billion connected devices, Industrial Internet, Tactile Internet, etc., exemplifies the range of new services that the networks will have to handle. These new services impose extreme requirement to the network like high capacity, low latency, reliability, security, seamless connectivity, etc. In order to face these challenges, the whole end-to-end network has to evolve and adapt, pushing for advances in different areas, such as transport, cloud, core, and radio access networks. This work investigates the impact of envisioned 2020 society scenarios on transport links for mobile backhaul, emphasizing the need for an integrated and flexible/adaptive network as the way to meet the 2020 networks demands.The evolution of heterogeneous networks and ultra-dense network deployments shall also comprise the introduction of adaptive network features, such as dynamic network resource allocation, automatic integration of access nodes, etc. In order to achieve such self-management features in mobile networks, new mechanisms have to be investigated for an integrated backhaul management. First, this thesis performs a feasibility study on the mobile backhaul dimensioning for 2020 5G wireless ultra-dense networks scenarios, aiming to analyze the gap in capacity demand between 4G and 5G networks. Secondly, the concept of an integrated backhaul management is analyzed as a combination of node attachment procedures, in the context of moving networks. In addition, the dynamic network resource allocation concept, based on DWDM-centric transport architecture, was explored for 5G scenarios assuming traffic variation both in time and between different geographical areas. Finally, a short view on techno-economics and network deployments in the 2020 time frame is provided.
Accurate estimation of the human head conductivity is important for the diagnosis and therapy of brain diseases. Induced Current - Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (IC-MREIT) is a recently developed non-invasive technique for conductivity estimation. This paper presents a formulation where a low number of material parameters need to be estimated, starting from MR eddy-current field maps. We use a parameterized frequency dependent 4-Cole-Cole material model, an efficient independent impedance method for eddy-current calculations and a priori information through the use of voxel models. The proposed procedure circumvents the ill-posedness of traditional IC-MREIT and computational efficiency is obtained by using an efficient forward eddy-current solver.
The invention relates to an intelligent material conveying device. The device comprises a bracket, a work bench, a double-shaft straight conveying device and an accepting and feeding device, wherein the double-shaft straight conveying device comprises a mechanical gripper, a ball screw device for providing horizontal degree of freedom for the mechanical gripper and a guide rod cylinder device forproviding vertical degree of freedom for the mechanical gripper; the mechanical gripper is fixedly connected with the guide rod cylinder device; and the accepting and feeding device is provided with an upper slide way and a horizontal slide way, arranged on the work bench and positioned below the mechanical gripper. The mechanical gripper grasps a workpiece from the horizontal slide way of the accepting and feeding device and puts down the workpiece on the upper slide way of the accepting and feeding device, and an automatic production line during the entire process has the characteristic of uninterrupted operation; and the device shows the characteristic of self-circulation of the production line, and has a simple structure by only adopting two working stations.
Among the different strategies available to control engineering vibrations, the semi-active contrai based on Magnetorheological (MR) dampers have become a promising technology to be used in civil engineering structures. The ability of these devices to change the stmctairal behavior without the need of large power sources is a major advantage that can be used to justify their potential application to this engineering branch. This paper reviews the basic concept of MR fluids and provides an insight of MR dampers dynamic behavior and the available numerical procedures to describe the damper response. In the first section an overview ofthe basic properties ofthe MR fluids and the fluid behavior under different flow regimes are presented. Then, a selection of numerical models to simulate MR dampers behavior will be presented based on the available literature.
Intractable counties in the late Choson Dynasty can be divided into three types: 1) Large in size or located in the administrative or military center. 2) Carrying out special functions in the military or traffic, ect. 3) Having powerful local families. The solution centered on the point of selecting proper magistrates: 1) Selecting a capable magistrate proving his ability in active service. 2) Sending a civil magistrate to perform his educational and political duties and check the military magistrate. 3) Sending a strong or moderate magistrate proper to the conditions of the county. In the course of selecting proper magistrates, the incumbent magistrates were transferred to other counties. This caused frequent change of magistrates and, in turn, led to the spread of intractable counties. It is a halfway solution, with its limitations, to focus on personnel management without the ultimate change in the local ruling system. This way of solution are concerned with the idea that the success or failure of the local ruling depends on the magistrate’s ability and virtue.
By analyzing the cause of sinking in the place of bridge culvert deck backfill and bumping,backfill should be designed as independent item and the rigid-flexible transition in the bridge culvert deck backfill should be ensured reasonably and availably. It also should choose backfill material which can be pressed easily and has a certain rigidity,meanwhile,improve the construction management. If do this,the problem will be solved successfully.
This research is meant to find out and to test the influence of change management and work environment to the performance and the interaction of change management, work environment and work motivation as the moderating variable to the performance of the employees at PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Daerah Operasi 8 Surabaya.This research is quantitative research and the sample collection technique applies census method, so that the sample is processed and collected from the members of populations. The samples are 74 employees of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Daerah Operasi 8 Surabaya who has their position as supervisor. The data analysis technique has been done by using multiple linear regressions, interaction test and hypothesis test. Meanwhile, the instruments test has been done by using validity test, reliability, and classic assumption test. Based on the result of the research, it shows that change management and work environment have an influence to the performance of the employees of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Daerah Operasi 8 Surabaya, and the interaction between change management and work environment and motivation as the moderating variable to the performance of the employees of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Daerah Operasi 8 Surabaya. Keywords: change management, work environment, motivation, the performance of the employees.
The objective of all the braking systems fitted in vehicles isto reduce the speed, as well as to keep them at a standstill. Inorder to increase the active road traffic safety, the experts inthe leading vehicle manufacturer companies are trying from day to day to find a more efficient solution of the highest possiblequality. Braking problems, i.e. problems of stopping the vehiclesare closely related to time, forces, momentum, mass andother physical quantities. This is best seen in the braking ofheavy duty vehicles, trucks, buses, where the braking efficacyis questionable due to high inertia forces caused by heavyweight and more recently relatively high speeds. Such vehiclesare fitted with system of brakes that operate on compressed airor combination of pneumatics and hydraulics, since the driverhas not got enough power to achieve appropriate braking effect.However, the biggest problems occur by trucks runningdownhill, when the braking system is operated continuously fora longer period of time. This causes heating and overheating ofthe system elements ('fading'), thus reducing the braking effect.In extreme cases, particularly if the system is poorly maintained,it can eventually fail completely.Because of the mentioned reasons for difficulties in brakingof trucks, such vehicles have been recently fitted with anauxiliary slow-down system. This system is completely independentfromthe main one on the wheels and is used exclusivelyfor slowing down or for maintaining of speed.
This paper provides a brief analysis of a fault of secondary voltage abnormality in a 500 kV capacitor voltage transformer,introduces the whole process of CVT fault detection and its analysis.Based on secondary voltage abnormality and test results afterward,the defect has been analyzed;after CVT disassembled,the analysis correctness had been verified.At the same time,specific measures for monitoring CVT operating status have been proposed.
Recently, there has been growing interest in Gyongin Line demand estimation, because SMRT(Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation) Line 7 will be extended west by 9.8km from Onsu to meet the Gyongin Line at Bupyeong-gu Office. This study was designed to estimate the change of traffic demand in Gyongin Line before and after the completion year 2011, also provide against the economic loss caused by the derived demand from Gyongin Line to SMRT Line 7. In this paper we give preliminary results for the strategic plans for traffic demand estimation and train operating plan in Gyongin Line by analyzing transport performance of Seoul metropolitan subway, and an additional study on the transportation market and the urban development plan is needed for more accurate results.
The invention relates to an ecological noise barrier, comprising a ceramsite noise barrier main body which is internally provided with a reinforcement fabric, wherein the ceramsite noise barrier is provided with a noise reduction unit. The two side faces of the noise barrier are provided with a plurality of rows of inclined and square holes in a staggered way, and the holes are filled with ceramsites. The middle part of each hole is provided with a water-stop sheet which divides the hole into two parts, namely a sound absorber and an implant. The inner side is the sound absorber, thus realizing the function of absorbing a sound wave; the outside part is the implant, and the surface of the implant is paved with a synthetic fiber blanket, thus realizing the dual functions of fixing the ceramsites and plants. The base plate of the holes is provided with air holes in a certain density. The soilless culture technology is adopted, and the plants grow on the synthetic fiber blanket in implanting holes, thus a soilless ecological noise barrier is formed. Water in a water tank at the top of the noise barrier is transported to each implanting layer by virtue of a pipeline system. In the invention, the dual function of the ceramsites and the plants is utilized to effectively reduce road noise, and the noise barrier in the invention also has the advantages of good landscape effect and less dust pollution.
The invention relates to a night light capable of alarm in a fall. The night light comprises a remote control and a lighting system. The remote control is a wearable device comprising an inertial sensor and is used for determining whether a user falls. The lighting system provides lighting for the user who gets up in the night to urinate, and alarm when the user falls. The invention has the advantages of having a fall alarm function, and being energy saving, environmental protection and easy to use.
The invention belongs to the technical field of construction engineering and in particular relates to a construction method for a long-span hanging vestibule type template support system. The construction method comprises the following steps: (1) selecting the position of a hanging steel beam; (2) paying off the hanging steel beam in a positioning mode; (3) installing the hanging steel beam, and welding with a connecting rod; (4) laying a construction operating platform; (5) paying off an upright rod in a positioning mode and installing; (6) erecting longitudinal and horizontal cross rods; (7) unloading inclined rods and erecting inclined rods on a beam bottom; (8) installing an adjustable support; (9) installing templates on the beam bottom; (10) binding beam reinforcing steel bars; (11)installing templates on the beam side; (12) installing templates on the template on a plate bottom; (13) binding plate reinforcing steel bars; and (14) pouring concrete. The construction method has the beneficial effect that a three-dimensional cross operation space is provided for each construction working procedure, the construction period can be greatly shortened, a channel is provided for concrete in-site conveying, the pouring efficiency of concrete is improved, adopted materials can be reused, and the construction method conforms to the environmentally-friendly construction requirementsof high efficacy and energy conservation.
The ESP system is a chassis control module that improves the vehicle’s lateral stability by generating a compensating yaw moment with asymmetric brake force distribution among four wheels. The reference vehicle model can affect the overall control performance since the ESP system judges the vehicle stability based upon the model. Currently a 2 DOF bicycle model is most widely used for this purpose due to its simplicity and moderate capability of describing lateral vehicle motions. In this paper, feasibility study of using a 3 DOF vehicle model with roll motion as an ESP reference vehicle model has been conducted. Through simulation, the performance of ESP was compared and discussed when using the reference vehicle models with and without roll motions.
In traditional Embedded Control Technology courses, students learn to develop assembly language programs to control peripherals, handle interrupts, and perform I/O operations. Designing and programming of embedded systems require skills that need training and practice. The main problem of such approach is its focus on only one device type with other microcontroller families requires other development boards. This aspect becomes important in a university laboratory, where students have to work with different types of embedded systems. For example, in our Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, three 8-bit are used in different projects. Each microcontroller type requires its own development board with its own set of peripheral devices; this is a waste of resources and so came the idea to use the same set of peripherals on a mainboard and to plug in an application board with a specific microcontroller and its associated circuitry. A new laboratory evaluation tool (UMP-EVT) specifically will be designed to be as a learning tool for those who intend to learn microcontroller and for use in the academic environment. One mainboard and three application boards were designed and tests were performed. In this respect, this UMP-EVT would be applicable for education and expose the electrical engineering students to the understanding fundamental of microcontroller in electronic design field.  Keywords: Educational, MCS51 microcontroller, HC11 microcontroller, PIC microcontroller
Process variation in deep nanometer technologies causes read, write and retention failures in SRAM and results in yield loss. Although using larger transistors and higher supply voltages helps to mitigate these failures and improve the yield, they come at the cost of more power consumption, more area overhead and performance degradation. Reconfigurable control-signal circuits in SRAM not only help to reduce the failure rates, but also allow calibration after fabrication to improve the yield, reduce the power consumption and upgrade the performance. In this paper, a reconfigurable replica bitline scheme for sense amplifier set time is proposed to reduce the read failures and provide a wide operating-voltage range for SRAM. The proposed reconfigurable replica bitline also allows recalibration when SRAM performance deteriorates due to device aging degradation. Monte Carlo simulation results for a 64 kb SRAM array show that the proposed technique can reduce the access time by 20% compared to conventional replica bitline design in IBM/Global Foundries (GF) cmos32soi 32nm technology at 0.9 V with no area overhead.
This paper deals with a new robust fault detection (FD) scheme for nonlinear Lipschitz systems wherein a robust nonlinear observer is used in combination with the Bond Graph (BG) method. In order to improve the efficiency of the classical Analytical Redundancy Relations (ARRs) FD scheme based on the BG method, a new form of the ARRs for the nonlinear Lipschitz systems is presented. This new form of the residuals is based on the output estimation error of the observer and is called Error-based Analytical Redundancy Relations (EARRs). The robustness against disturbances and parametric uncertainties in the FD system is achieved by the proposed method. Next, the integral form of the EARRs for the nonlinear Lipschitz system is presented that is robust in the sense of measurement noises as well. The BG model of a single link manipulator with revolute joints actuated by a DC motor is derived and the efficiency of the proposed method in comparison to the classical ARR method is shown in the simulation results.
I would first like to thank the Royal Aeronautical Society for inviting Entwicklungsring Süd to give this lecture on the development work on vertical take-off aircraft. The Southern Germany Development Group—Entwicklungsring Süd—the abbreviation of which is EWR—was founded at the beginning of 1959 for the purpose of developing a vertical take-off and landing strike-fighter, the VJ 101, and was an association of the three firms: Bölkow-Entwicklungen KG, Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugbau GmbH und Messerschmitt AG. Heinkel has recently left the association and joined Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), Bremen. The work is now carried on by the remaining two firms, Bölkow and Messerschmitt. Since July 1965 EWR has the form of GmbH (Ltd).
This paper presents the finite element analysis of the model pile loading test considering large deformation theory. The area around pile tip is concentrated with significant compressive and shear stresses. A constitutive model with particle crushing is adopted to describe the mechanical behavior of model ground. The jointed element is introduced in numerical analysis to simulate the interaction between pile and its surrounding soil. The predictions of the relationship between the normalized bearing stress and displacement are good agreeable with the test results. The influences of the joint element on the accuracy of the predicted values are obtained. The figures of distribution for displacement vectors with different penetration depth are shown and discussed.
This paper presents a numerical model for the simulation of the axial-flexural-torsional coupling of undewater cylindrical structures. Cylindrical structures are largely utilized in the marine environment in a wide range of applications as in risers, marine cables, flexible pipes, mooring systems and so on. They may exhibit complex axial-flexural-torsional coupling, which makes the structural analysis highly nonlinear. In addition, the fluid-structure interaction may include flow induced vibrations, frequency lock-in and internal flow effects. The proposed three-dimensional model assumes that the structure aspect ratio is very high, its cross section is circular, the cable is elastic and may experience large displacements and large strains, as long as the elastic regime holds. The steady state load on the cylinder consists of the self-weight and buoyancy, drag and lift forces, in addition to a distributed residual twist along the cylinder. The drag and lift forces are evaluated by Morison type formulation. The governing differential equations are derived from first principles, assuming Newtonian mechanics. Then, they are solved numerically by a finite element formulation based on nonlinear space frame elements. The resulting set of algebraic equations is solved by a minimization technique that uses the Newton-Raphson algorithm. Results show the ability of the model to predict the static configuration of equilibrium of the cylinder and to capture the coupling between axial, flexural and torsional responses of the cylinder.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
This article deals with autotransformer based multipulse AC-DC converters feeding vector controlled induction motor drives (VCIMDs) for improving power quality at the point of common coupling (PCC). The proposed 24-pulse AC-DC converter is realized on the principle of DC ripple re-injection technique for pulse multiplication and harmonic mitigation. The design of the autotransformer is given for the proposed AC-DC converter for making it suitable for retrofit applications, where presently a 6-pulse diode bridge rectifier is used. The effect of load variation on VCIMD is also studied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed AC-DC converter. The test results, along with simulated results, on a developed laboratory prototype are presented to validate the design and model of the proposed 24-pulse AC-DC converter.
The invention discloses a processing apparatus of a flexible cable for supplying power to a mobile device. The processing apparatus comprises two line laying frames, two tension bars, a front draw gear, a positioning apparatus, a plastic extruding machine, a cooling water tank, a blow-dry mechanism, a rear traction mechanism and a take-up stand. One of the two line laying frames for laying lines is used for storing a first semicircular copper conductor, and the other one is used for storing a second semicircular copper conductor; the two tension bars are used for adjusting the line laying tension of the first semicircular copper conductor and the second semicircular copper conductor in a cabling process; the front draw gear is used for stabilizing the first semicircular copper conductor and the second semicircular copper conductor; the positioning apparatus comprises a fixation frame, two plane guide wheel mechanisms, two cambered-surface guide wheel mechanisms and a wire collection seat with a wire collection through hole arranged at the center; and the lower ends of first support rods in the plane guide wheel mechanisms are embedded into a first installation groove and are installed on a substrate through nuts. The processing apparatus provided by the invention solves the problem of low roundness of cables of conventional semicircular conductors and effectively avoids turning over of the semicircular conductors during cabling.
The definition of In-Vehicle Signing (IVS) functions was guided by the principles of traffic engineering as they apply to the design and placement of roadway signs. Because of the dynamic and active nature of computing, communications, and display technology, IVS can fulfill the signing principles of traffic engineering in ways that have been impossible with conventional signage. Current signing technology represents a series of compromises of these principles, especially the data and equations contributing to the calculation of required sight distance. A number of conditions relevant to sight distance are quite variable, e.g.: vehicle speed, visibility, weather, and driver reaction time. However, conventional signing requires that there are fixed values of each variable for the determination of (e.g.) legibility distance. IVS, on the other hand, will be able to tailor the timing of sign presentation to the dynamically diverse variable values of all of these conditions. A clear, in-vehicle sign display, adaptive to ambient and driver conditions, will in fact obviate the entire issue of sign legibility. These capabilities, together with information filtering functions, will truly enhance the presentation of sign information to drivers. The development of IVS is a critical step in the development of an integrated In-Vehicle Information System (IVIS).
This study updates a 1985 NHTSA analysis of the impact Minimum Drinking Age Laws (MDA) have on traffic fatalities (HS-806 902, Nov. 1985). The 1985 study estimated that MDAs are 13% effective in reducing traffic fatalities involving drivers that were no longer legally permitted to consume alcohol. This updated analysis confirms the 13% estimate. Using more crash data, the analysis indicates that MDAs are 12% effective in reducing traffic fatalities involving affected drivers. The 12% estimate is consistent with the 13% estimate in that it is within the statistical range surrounding the 13% estimate. This research note describes the method used to calculate the estimate of MDA effectiveness and presents the estimated number of lives saved by MDAs for each year (1975-1987) as well as the cumulative number of lives saved. The conclusion is that MDAs saved between 977 to 1071 lives in 1987 and 7433 to 8142 lives cumulatively between 1975-1987.
This paper proposed a new method by which the error of two self-balancing robot sensors was reduced and avoiding conventional Kalman filter can not meet real-time modulation. In the paper, Correction algorithm can come out real-time robot posture in the right way according to the characteristics of navigation sensor error from the iteration of nonlinear least-squares error model based on the method Adaptive Kalman Filter. By computer simulation, an error through the gyro and accelerometer has been corrected. Kalman filter fused the data of gyroscope and accelerometer adaptation, and errors of the sensors pose estimation was corrected. The test results and simulation proved that this method of reducing posture estimation error is feasible and effective, and can achieve better accurate estimates inexpensively.
Because of their characteristic attributes of storing all the information of a building and visualising the maintenance process of a project over its entire lifecycle, generating the automated control and monitoring of building diagnosis (e.g. component utilisation, component failure, etc.) as well as providing decision support for the choice of maintenance measures and the scheduling of maintenance, BIM technologies have a special appeal for the building maintenance profession. In spite of this appeal, there are currently very few operational BIM technologies in the field of IBS building maintenance. One reason for this may be a lack of awareness by the industry as to what BIM technologies currently exist and what their capabilities are. Presenting this information to the potential users in an easily scannable format is one of the objectives of this paper. A second objective of this effort is to present the characteristics of the state-of-the-art BIM technologies to researchers and industry practitioners. This information will help them in making a choice of the most appropriate tools and trigger communication between users working in similar domains.
The paper presents a novel concept of the integrated lens antenna (ILA) that includes multiple feeds and provides continuous scanning without gain degradation in the given scanning sector. Each feed includes its own RF mixing stage and a radiating element mounted on the lens back focal surface. By having multiple-RF circuits, the distribution network is moved from the millimeter-wave front-end as in the classical solutions down to the analog or intermediate-frequency (IF) part of the transceiver where distribution losses are significantly lower (or even negligible). Continuous scanning is achieved by the power distribution over all the radiating elements that leads to a predictable displacement of the common phase center of the group of active elements relatively to the lens axis. The lens focuses the radiation in the particular direction defined by this phase center position. Thus, instead of activating only a single radiating element as in the classical beam-switching ILA, it is proposed to use a group of active elements and set the actual power distribution according to the desired beam direction. Low losses and continuous scanning range make this ILA concept perspective for practical implementation in different millimeter-wave applications like point-to-point radios and future 5G systems.
what they call Matthew Fontaine Maury Workshops, and the essays in this collection are derived from papers presented at one of these workshops. It seems to this reviewer, however, that the introduction reveals a kind of collective enthusiasm that is veering toward programmatic overreach. The title of the book is a takeoff on Leo Marx’s well-known The Machine in the Garden (1964), but forcing a comparison does not serve it well. Overreach is also evident when the editors declare that “this volume aims to integrate the nascent tradition of history of oceanography with environmental history, the history of technology, and several other maritime-oriented fields of inquiry, including naval (military) history and maritime history” (p. xvi). Better to stay close to what is done well, the essays themselves, and not seek to form unlikely alliances and imperialize. The oceans have already supported plenty of that.
Purpose          The purpose of this paper is to offer a timely assessment of the influence of human resource (HR) processes and policies on expatriates’ employability, using a Dutch international engineering firm as the study setting.          Design/methodology/approach          The qualitative study, based on in-depth interviews with 15 respondents in various roles, such as expatriates, repatriates, HR managers and line managers, is complemented by a document analysis of HR policy reports about expatriation processes.          Findings          Expatriation management influences the internal employability of engineering expatriates, yet most HR policies related to expatriation work are counterproductive in terms of in-company employability of expatriates.          Research limitations/implications          Further research could extend this single case study by differentiating engineering from management functions and addressing employability implications for other assignments and other forms of expatriation. Comparisons are also possible across various stakeholders with regard to social support.          Practical implications          HR management can follow several prescriptions revealed by this study to increase expatriates’ employability within the organization.          Originality/value          This study is among the first to relate expatriation processes to the dimensions of employability.
This paper disputes the fact that product design determines 70% of costs and the implications that follow for design evaluation tools. Using the idea of decision chains, it is argued that such tools need to consider more of the downstream business activities and should take into account the current and future state of the business rather than some idealized view of it. To illustrate the argument, a series of experiments using an enterprise simulator are described that show the benefit from the application of a more holistic 'design for' technique, Design For the Existing Environment.
The effect of seismic action on anti-sliding pile in high-intensity earthquake region has not attracted enough attentions,which will reduce the reliability in project operation greatly.In connection with the design of anti-sliding pile in earthquake region,seismic angle correction is carried out against the allowable lateral stress affecting the anchoring depth to establish the model calculating lateral stress on anti-sliding pile under seismic action and determine the function of the lateral stress in the state of ultimate bearing capacity.Taking parameters of geo-materials surrounding pile,structural strength of pile body and seismic action as random variables,and by use of FOSM method,the index of reliability is calculated.Through case study,under certain anchoring depth,either the effect of soil parameter's variety or the conditions with or without the consideration of seismic action on anti-sliding pile's reliability can be known,the valuing standard of anchoring depth in the design of anti-sliding pile in high-intensity earthquake region can be obtained,and the new idea taking reliability as the guidance of valuation in design of anti-sliding pile is proposed.
This paper has two main objectives. It first aims at presenting a method of prescribing boundary conditions for the steady-state flow simulations of low pressure compression systems for turbofan engines. The methodology is generic and it can be applied for steady and unsteady flow simulations of numerous similar multi-component applications. The basic idea is to extend the flow domain upstream to the far field and downstream beyond the first set of stator vanes, both in the bypass and core, where variable area nozzles are used. Fixed static pressure boundary conditions are used downstream of the nozzles which are representative of downstream blockage. With such an approach, the need to prescribe accurate boundary conditions immediately upstream and downstream of the fan is eliminated. An iterative approach is then used to obtain the correct bypass ratio. The second objective of the paper is to demonstrate the use of the methodology in mapping out the loss loop for the outflow guide vanes (OGV) and examine its effects on fan performance. Wherever possible, predictions were checked against measured data and good overall agreement was obtained.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
TRADITIONALLY, THE RIDING QUALITIES OF A PAVEMENT ARE EXPRESSED AS SOME FUNCTION OF LOCALIZED IRREGULARITIES IN THE CONTOUR OF THE PAVEMENT SURFACE. MEASUREMENTS OF RIDING QUALITIES HAVE DEALT ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY WITH VEHICLE DISPLACEMENTS IN THE VERTICAL DIRECTION ONLY. DURING THE PAST FEW YEARS CERTAIN FEATURES OF HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION AND USE HAVE EMPHASIZED SURFACE IRREGULARITIES THAT CAUSE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF COMBINED TRANSVERSE AND LONGITUDINAL MOTION. IN RESPONSE TO THIS NEED FOR DETERMINATION OF RIDING QUALITIES ON THE BASIS OF COMPONENT MOTIONS, AN INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING AND RECORDING INDUCED ACCELERATIONS IN THE THREE PRINCIPAL DIRECTIONS WAS DEVELOPED AND ADAPTED TO A PASSENGER VEHICLE. THIS PAPER DESCRIBES THE EQUIPMENT AND ITS USE IN EVALUATING RIDING QUALITIES OF VARIOUS PAVEMENTS IN KENTUCKY. /AUTHOR/
As computing technology continues to progress very rapidly, many technical challenges emerge. One of these is the issue of power dissipation. Indeed, power delivery and dissipation are becoming primary limiters of performance and integration for microprocessors. In response, architectural and software level power-reduction techniques, which extend traditional circuit-level energy techniques, have gained more and more attention and become an active research area in the last few years.  The work in this thesis focuses on one important problem in this area, namely dynamic power and performance management in high-performance processors. Dynamic adaptive techniques are appealing because they offer the ability to adjust on the fly according to the current run-time power and performance situation. This thesis investigates architectural and compiler techniques for controlling power and performance in microprocessors. The overall contributions of this work are the proposed new concepts, methods, and framework for intelligent power and performance management.  Specifically, this work has had two major thrusts. First, formal control-theoretic techniques will be discussed in the context of hardware-based energy control. The environment is a multiple clock domain processor. An analytical system model is first proposed that describes relationships among performance demand, capability, and clock frequency. A controller is then designed to balance the speeds of different clock islands. Experimental results show that the proposed technique is 2--3 times more efficient in terms of energy delay product improvement, compared to a previous heuristic approach. In addition, the new technique is more robust with a guaranteed stability margin even under extreme cases. For the above design, both fixed-interval and adaptive interval control schemes have been investigated. Second, software-layer energy control opportunities are explored in a general dynamic compilation system. It is shown that a dynamic compiler driven scheme has several unique features and advantages over existing energy control schemes. Such a scheme is then designed, implemented, and deployed on real hardware (with a Pentium-M processor). Experimental results from physical power measurements show up to 70% energy saving is accomplished for SPEC benchmarks. In addition, because of its orthogonal features and advantages, the dynamic compiler driven scheme can be an effective complement to existing hardware-based energy control schemes.
The need for a new weapon system in response to changes in tne battlefield enviromnet and the need for much attention and effort for its development are required. In addition, the defense industry will become a stepping-stone for the defense industry to develop into a new future growth engine, as the President Moon of Seoul''s ADEX IN 2017 will strengthen the economy of the defense industry, which is a very high value-added industry. The defense industry can contribute to the wide development area and contribute effectively to the economic development. As a result, the military drone field in the defense industry can be the core. In order to understand this situation and to strengthen and prepare the enemy''s aggression and national defense in the future, we must prepare ahead of the future by developing the technology of the unmanned weapon system and positively raising the demand. So it is necessary to accelerate the development of unmanned weapon systems.  In this way, among the many types of unmanned weapon systems that have been developed and developed so far, we firmly assert that the development of weapon-drone based weapon system will be interested in and utilize in the future.  In this paper, we will examine the necessity and value of drone among the unmanned weapons systems which will play a role in the future string environment in general. In addition, we will analyze recent military operation cases and our current situation. we will present the direction of development, naval element operations, operational concepts of the Air Force, and the concept of operation in terms of contributing to the joint operation of the R.O.K military.  In addition, the goal of the unmanned aerail vehicle and unmanned submarine in the military is based on the development and opetation of the attacking unmanned weapon system, and based on this, it suggests the improvement direction of the military drones for development of the drones technology and defence industry.
This paper presents an accurate method cum procedure for soil modeling & designing the grounding system of gas-insulated substation (GIS) and air insulted substation (AIS). A grounding system design of the gas- insulated substation (GIS) is a complicated task to provide an adequate grounding system and meet specific criteria with regards to personnel safety and integrity of equipment during a fault condition. Similarly design of air insulated system (AIS) also need special attention. MATLAB GUI has been used to find the two soil model and accurate designing of grounding system of high voltage GIS/AIS.
Tubular Modular Track (TMT) is a relatively new rail design invented in 1989. The system is ballastless and is designed to continuously support the rails on twin reinforced concrete (RC) beams which are founded on a specially designed subgrade. These RC beams are linked together by galvanised steel gauge bars which encircle the RC beams and provide links to fasten the rails to the RC beams with the use of rail clip fasteners. Elastomeric pads are placed in-between the rail and the RC beam to provide shock and sound absorption and grout is placed below the RC beams to level the TMT beams and ensure constant contact between the RC beams and the subgrade. With the introduction of high speed trains and ballastless rail systems the design of the transitions between ballasted and ballastless rails needs special attention. Multiple studies have been done on transitions between various types of ballastless rail and ballasted rail, but limited research is available on transitions between TMT and ballasted rail. To improve the confidence in the use of the TMT system in a transition various analyses are performed on the RC beam, the main supporting component of the system, for varying train speeds and varying rail irregularity angles due to elevation changes in the rail which occur because of ballast settlement at the track transition. The TMT structure is supported by different layers of subgrade which need to be incorporated in the finite element (FE) model of the system, but modelling the subgrade as a continuum increases the computational cost of the analysis. To simplify the modelling of the subgrade elastic foundation theory with plate bearing test (PBT) models are investigated. The subgrade can then be replaced with an elastic support. The PBT model and the elastic subgrade stiffness are verified by using previous research models which simulate PBT and determine an elastic stiffness to replace the subgrade. To analyse the TMT structural components a static, three-dimensional (3D), FE model is created of the structure. The TMT 3D model is also verified using models used in previous research which analysed the TMT structure. A 3D model of the structure requires a fine mesh to accurately model the cross sections of the TMT components, making the analysis computationally expensive. To simplify the model a two-dimensional (2D) model is created using beam and plane stress elements. For the 2D model a damping factor sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the influence of damping on the behaviour of the structure. The 2D model is then loaded statically and dynamically to determine the dynamic amplification factor (DAF) for the displacements, bending moments and shear forces in the rail and RC beam. ii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
A comparison was made of two contrasting G-seat cueing schemes. The G-seat, an aircraft simulation subsystem, creates aircraft acceleration cues via seat contour changes. Of the two cueing schemes tested, one was designed to create skin pressure cues and the other was designed to create body position cues. Each cueing scheme was tested and evaluated subjectively by five pilots regarding its ability to cue the appropriate accelerations in each of four simple maneuvers: a pullout, a pushover, an S-turn maneuver, and a thrusting maneuver. A divergence of pilot opinion occurred, revealing that the perception and acceptance of G-seat stimuli is a highly individualistic phenomena. The creation of one acceptable G-seat cueing scheme was, therefore, deemed to be quite difficult.
A single model for analogue fibre-optic links is presented that is applicable using either direct or external modulation. The impact of device slope efficiency and effective resistance on the link gain and noise figure is explored, and it is found that both may be improved significantly. The gain improvements may be implemented at the source or detector end of the link; the noise figure is more effectively improved at the source end. The influence on gain and noise figure of average optical power and modulator sensitivity is also examined.
The Worldwide harmonized Light duty Test Cycle (WLTC) has been designed on the basis of the in-use driving databases provided by Europe, India, Japan, Korea and USA. These databases have been merged by applying a weighing factor to each of them, obtaining the “Unified” database. In order to verify the representativeness of the Unified database and the resulting WLTC with respect to the European driving behavior, a comparison between the Unified and the European database has been carried out, which has shown a high level of resemblance for the most important parameters (i.e. speed distribution, acceleration distribution, speed* acceleration, etc.). The drivability tests carried out over the WLTC in several laboratories have shown levels of CO2 emissions similar to those obtained with NEDC. Possible explanations of such results are presented. The WLTP database and the development of WLTC The construction of the WLTP database has been based on 4 main contributions: 1) EU + Switzerland; 2) India; 3) Japan + Korea; 4) USA. They are grouped in this way according to their driving characteristics, which in term of decreasing dynamicity can be ordered as: 1. USA database (the most dynamic driving behavior) 2. EU + Ch 3. Japan + Korea 4. India database (the least dynamic driving behavior) The WLTP database (also called “Unified database” and WWW database) has been obtained by applying a weighing factor to each database, as shown in the following diagram (Figure 1): Low, Medium, High and Ex-High, refer to the four speed phases in which the WLTP database has been divided. The Low speed phase includes all short trips with a max speed < 60 km/h; the Medium speed phase includes all short trips with max speed > 60 km/h but < 80 km/h; the High speed phase includes short trips with max speed > 80 km/h but < 110 km/h; and the Extra-high speed phase all short trips with max speed exceeding 110 km/h. The weighing factors are based on traffic volumes (current and foreseen) of each party. To derive such weighing factors the starting point was the national traffic statistics (Table 1). Region Total Urban Rural Motorway World-wide JP 1.9E+10 1.1E+10 6.5E+09 1.3E+09 EU 6.8E+10 3.3E+10 3.0E+10 4.7E+09 US 8.9E+10 4.9E+10 2.0E+10 2.0E+10 KR 8.4E+09 4.3E+09 1.5E+09 2.6E+09 IN 2.0E+10 1.4E+10 4.8E+09 1.0E+09 CN Total 2.0E+11 1.1E+11 6.3E+10 2.9E+10 EU BE 1.8E+09 5.5E+08 1.0E+09 2.4E+08 DE 1.1E+10 5.8E+09 4.2E+09 1.1E+09 ES 8.5E+09 4.5E+09 3.7E+09 2.8E+08 FR 1.2E+10 5.3E+09 5.4E+09 8.6E+08 IT 6.0E+09 2.2E+09 3.2E+09 6.1E+08 PL 2.3E+09 8.4E+08 1.5E+09 3.2E+07 SI 2.2E+08 1.2E+08 7.6E+07 1.9E+07 UK 1.1E+10 7.1E+09 3.8E+09 5.3E+08 CH 2.0E+09 7.2E+08 1.0E+09 2.0E+08 SE Total 5.5E+10 2.7E+10 2.4E+10 3.9E+09 Table 1: Traffic volume (vehicle hours). Sources: JARI; http://unfccc.int/ghg_data/ghg_data _unfccc/items/4146.php; http://www.irfnet.org/statistics.php ; for EU also TREMOVE. During data analysis, the road type (urban, rural, motorway) had to be redefined due to differences in the definitions and in the speed limits on these roads from different regions. It was thus decided to go from the Urban/Rural/Motorway scheme to the Low/Medium/High speed phase approach and, at a later stage, the necessity to split the High speed phase in two (High and Extra-High) emerged as the only possible compromise to continue with a harmonized approach (in fact there was an insurmountable difference in the motorway max allowed speed, around 130 km/h for EU and USA, around 100 km/h for India, Japan and Korea). After subdividing the database of each party into these four speed phases, the time percentage of each of them was multiplied by the total vehicle hour of the party (blue column in the table 1), obtaining the vehicle hour for each speed class and each party (see table 2). For India an exception was applied (total traffic volume increased by 50% in the light of the predicted increase over next years). From this the weighing factors shown in figure 1 were defined. Table 2: Traffic volume (million vehicle hours) per speed class for each contracting party To build the European database (which included the contribution of 9 EU member states + Switzerland) it was decided to use a slightly different approach. Starting from the observation that the driving behavior did not differ very much among EU countries, it was considered reasonable to give some weight also to the robustness of the single database. Thus, instead of considering only the traffic volume of the country (somewhat representative of the population) a 50% weight was assigned also to the mileage of each country’s database). The result of such approach is shown in figure 2:
Abstract : Commercial towboats in navigable waterways, particularly in confined reaches, generate waves and currents which can be of significant magnitude such that stabilization of the banks with riprap is warranted. This paper focuses on stable riprap design for tows under way (here referring to those whose sailing line is parallel to the banks and whose speed is constant). Therefore, return current, wave characteristics, and channel geometry are the governing parameters for sizing the stone. Propeller jet impacts due to maneuvering tows are not addressed. Most of the existing guidance on sizing the riprap on the banks for waves has been based on coastal waves. The riprap design guidance pertaining to waves produced by typical commercial towboats found on US waterways is limited. Based on site-specific needs to address stone sizes due to towboat-induced forces, several studies have been conducted at the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES), Vicksburg, Mississippi. The physical model studies include the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, the Gallipolis Lock approach on the Ohio River, and some general navigation research regarding stone slope stability in confined waterways. Although these studies have been primarily devoted to the evaluation of specific stone sizes and gradations subjected to specific towboat operations, the study results lend themselves to use as general riprap design guidance.
Corruption has been around for a very long time and will remain in the future unless governments can figure out effective ways to combat it (Mauro 1997). E-government is increasingly used to improve transparency in the government sector and to combat against corruption .E-government is being implemented in more areas of government administration for both the local and national levels worldwide. E-government system developed to reduce corruption. The aim of this paper is to organize and summarize existing theoretical and empirical work on corruption with a view identifying opportunities for further research. Computerization can help in modernizing the PDS. The southern states as usual have led the way on many reforms intended to address the issues above, and increasingly even poorer states have introduced changes in policies and implementation mechanisms to address the problems of PDS. This paper discusses strategy adapted in using ICT to control diversion and leakage in the delivery mechanism and its successful application in computerization of food grain supply chain. As an outcome of the project, 0.78 Million farmers have received computer generated cheques without any delay. Citizen involvement in the system has been increased in monitoring PDS. Here efforts from our side are done to overcome one of the corruption problem involve in ration distribution system through a kind of electrodynamics web template where distribution of ration products like kerosene, rice, wheat etc. at rural and urban areas, will be checked, monitored and controlled with filtering the problem of corruption and adulteration.
The head-capacity corves for pumps developed by the pump manufacturer are based on tests of a single pump operating in a semi-infinite pool with no nearby walls or floors and with no stray currents. Hence, flow into the pump suction is symmetrical with no vortices or swirling. Pump station designers rely on these curves to define the operating conditions for the pump selected. However, various constraints such as size, cost, and limitations on storage time require walls, floors, and pump intakes to be close proximity to each other. From this background, the authors are carrying out a systematic study on the flow characteristics of intakes within a sump found in pump stations. Model pump intake basin is designed and PIV is adopted as a measuring tool to capture the instantaneous flow patterns. Special attention is paid to investigate the flow patterns near the free surface, side-wall, and back-wall due to different clearances from back-wall to vortical intake pipe. Moreover, the locations and patterns of the various types of vortices that were found in the examinations are discussed.
Ship shock tests have been conducted for shock qualification of hull integrity and proper operation systems and subsystems. The ship shock trial identifies design and construction and it also validates shock hardening criteria. The main problem is that ship shock trials are costly. Numerical modeling and simulation, using FEM, may provide information to look into the details of fluid model, dynamic characteristics of ship hull and its internal component. The ship shock modeling and simulation has been performed and the predicted results were compared with ship shock test data made into sea trials. The preliminary studies of shock analysis approach are presented and the important parameters are discussed.
1966. , A1 . Each year in June, the cows and their calves were weighed and allotted at random to one of three separate native grass pastures. Whole oats was provided in a creep feeder to the calves in one of the pastures from the first of July until weaning in mid-October. Table 1 summarizes actual and adjusted wean­ ing weights of the calves for the trial period. Re­ cords used in computing the adjusted weights in­ cluded sire of calf, age and weight of the cow, birth weight, June weight, weaning weight, sex and age of the calf. _______.________
The Internet continues to provide an excellent resource for information on quality assurance concepts, regulations, and practices. A search using just the word "quality" produced over 42 million hits. The combination of "quality" and "assurance" yielded over 2 million hits. Presented here is a sampling of 100 quality assurance sites organized alphabetically by site name, and accompanied by a brief description of the information available at the site. The choice of which sites to include was based on the author's experience and familiarity with the QA profession, and was aimed towards providing examples in active areas of QA including business and manufacturing, good practice regulations (i.e., GxPs), information quality, medical practice, software quality, higher education, and quality of research. The 100 sites provide access to a broad array of documents, services, forums, and opportunities to exchange ideas, and include links to major national regulatory and standard setting bodies around the world.
During analyzing the drillstring dynamics in 3D borehole,initial bending of drillstring must to be dealed with.And the effects of position and deviation on contact force between the drillstring and borehole should be considered.Based on mechanical model of turning drillstring in 3D borehole,the affine coordinate system was introduced to analyze the deformation,contact force and friction torque.A new method was offered for study of drillstring dynamics.
Taking"cultivating new applied talents"as the core of Open University's quality view involves fundamentally Radio and TV University's achieving strategic transformation,existent foundation and development trend,the preliminary prerequisite to promote comprehensively Open University construction is objectively analyzing the quality problems confronting with and exploring every breaking avenue guided by the correct talent-training concept.
In this paper, a photorefractive crystal based all-optical architecture for implementing the fringe-adjusted joint transform correlation (JTC) technique is investigated. The photorefractive JTC technique is fast because it operates in the optical domain and it generates the correlation output in one step. Computer simulation results using real life image sequences are presented to verify the performance of the proposed technique for target detection and tracking purposes.
With the increasing use of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements, particularly in developing countries, management of these pavements and disposal of old pavements is becoming a challenging task. Recycling is one of the several rehabilitation alternatives available for flexible pavements. Among the recycling techniques, Hot In-Place Recycling (HIR) has proven to be a viable option for rehabilitation of pavements at low costs. In Pakistan, HIR technique was employed for the first time on Lahore-Islamabad Motorway (M-2) in March 2006. The purpose of this project was to rehabilitate the sections of M-2 to a depth of 38-50 mm. The project being first of its kind, performance evaluation was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this technique on motorways. Laboratory investigations included HMA volumeteric analysis, aggregate gradation analysis, extracted asphalt properties (penetration test and DSR), dynamic modulus and flow time after recycling of pavement. Based on results of dynamic modulus test, volumetric properties and gradation tests recycled asphalt pavement seems to be adequately crack-resistant and rut resistant in the field. The research enhanced awareness of HIR among local researchers and contractors. BACKGROUND Heavy volume of vehicular traffic, enhanced use of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements, high rehabilitation costs, construction impact on traffic and long term maintenance costs and disposal of old pavements have forced developing countries to search for efficient rehabilitation techniques. Efficient rehabilitation techniques with minimal wastage of old materials have become a necessity of the time in management of pavements at acceptable serviceability levels (1). Among various rehabilitation techniques of flexible pavements, hot in-place recycling (HIR) has proved most economical option. Known as an onsite method, HIR rehabilitates deteriorated asphalt pavements with minimal use of new materials. HIR can successfully treat surface defects, corrugation, surface rutting, longitudinal and slippage cracking upto a depth of 50 mm (2). In Pakistan, HIR technique was first used in March 2006 on Lahore Kala Shah Kaku section of Lahore-Islamabad Motorway (M-2) which was in service since November 1997. Surface recycling technique of HIR was performed on the sections rutted to a depth of 38-50 mm with addition of 1 % fresh asphalt binder. At few places remixing technique of HIR was also used.
According to the characteristic and requirements of Xiamen port,several aspects in the design of fire vessels were discussed about,such as ship type,fire-fighting classes,main fire-fighting capability,principal dimension,main technology performance,general arrangement and propulsion system.The relative materials of the domestic and overseas fire vessels were used for reference to propose the general design proposal of the fire vessels in Xiamen port.
Detailed three-dimensional free field noise data were obtained by NASA for an under-the-wing externally blown model three-flap wing, and for a similar slotless wing. Spatial (polar and azimuthal) and spectral characteristics of these data are presented. These data are compared with predictions from some published EBF noise calculation methods. Methods include the totally empirical ANOPP and GELAC procedures, and a semi-empirical noise component method. The latter method adds the separately computed dipole noise due to fluctuating lift and drag, trailing edge noise, and quadrupole noise due to the deflected jet. Each of these components is calculated for the local geometry and flow conditions.
Radio Frequency IDentification(RFID) is in the limelight of fields of military, delivery and library management as an alternative or barcode system. However, it is restricted within product manufacturing, sales and delivery. In this paper, we apply RFID technology into process, especially packing process management to gauge RFID applicability. To verify beneficial features of RFID, we simulate RFID-adopted packing process. As a result, we demonstrate the effectiveness of a RFID-based Process Improvement In manufacturing process. The results of performance evaluations demonstrate that the proposed RFID-based Process Improvement reduces the labour time, labour cost and material cost. Furthermore, we analyze the validity of RFID-based Process Improvement by RFID cost.
In this NewsBreak, the author shares his recent searching experiences using Westlaw WebPlus Legal and Thomson-Scientific WebPlus, both in the beta stage.The Thomson Corporation is expanding the beta testing of its WebPlus Internet search engine. Initially released in very limited markets in August, WebPlus is now available to users of Thomson-West’s Westlaw and Thomson-Scientific’s Web of Science information services. Thomson expects to roll out WebPlus among all its product lines, Health, Financial, Science, and Legal, with “walk-up” editions available free on the Web through Thomson products like Findlaw.com. The goal of WebPlus, according to Barbara McGivern, Vice President of Product Management for Thomson Web, is a search product that provides results that are optimized for each particular user group.
A number of countries in the Asia and Australasia regions are producers of palm oil products. Some of them are also petroleum producing countries but in many cases their petroleums are of light nature. When the petroleums are processed, they are suitable as fuel for vehicles but with little or no heavier fractions such as bitumen. For that reason these countries have to import bitumen from overseas although they themselves are petroleum producing countries. To alleviate the above problem and to help the oil palm industries, new methods of diversifying the usage of palm oil products have to be found. One of the ways is to use them as road and highway material particularly as an additive or extender to bitumen. Fundamental tests, carried out to find the suitability of the products, are described in this paper. For the covering entry of this conference, see IRRD abstract number 843191.
Abstract. Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging technique. Although commercially available photoacoustic imaging systems currently exist, the technology is still in its infancy. Therefore, the design of stable phantoms is essential to achieve semiquantitative evaluation of the performance of a photoacoustic system and can help optimize the properties of contrast agents. We designed and developed a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) phantom with exceptionally fine geometry; the phantom was tested using photoacoustic experiments loaded with the standard indocyanine green dye and compared to an agar phantom pattern through polyethylene glycol-gold nanorods. The linearity of the photoacoustic signal with the nanoparticle number was assessed. The signal-to-noise ratio and contrast were employed as image quality parameters, and enhancements of up to 50 and up to 300%, respectively, were measured with the PDMS phantom with respect to the agar one. A tissue-mimicking (TM)-PDMS was prepared by adding TiO2 and India ink; photoacoustic tests were performed in order to compare the signal generated by the TM-PDMS and the biological tissue. The PDMS phantom can become a particularly promising tool in the field of photoacoustics for the evaluation of the performance of a PA system and as a model of the structure of vascularized soft tissues.
It is a fact that Business Excellence is related to the development and strengthening of  management and organizational processes in order to improve performance and to  create value for the shareholders.  On the other hand, lean production is one of the most important methodologies in the  field of quality and performance management. Modern scientific literature has  reported in detail the advantages and Sousse constraints encountered in  implementation and which we mentioned in the present work.  Apart from lean production there is the lean 6s (lean six sigma), which provides a  means for improving the delivery of services, using a methodology based on the  methodology of both lean production and 6s (six sigma). This method has several  advantages, if implemented correctly, but also risks considered as another  management fad, if it is not applied properly.  In this thesis, we dealt with the concept of lean production as a form aimed at  entrepreneurial excellence, which these days has been discussed by many  organizations and businesses, which are oriented towards continuous improvement  and maximizing satisfaction their clients.  The general conclusion that arises from this work is that in today's rapidly changing  and complex business environment, the achievement of business excellence should be  an aim for every company and organization that cares about its success.  However they should be careful, before the decide, what methodology they will  follow, as they should know well both the benefits that they can have through each  concept, and also the risks that posed by the improper application of the principles of  the methodology, since in this case the loss of time and cost will be enormous for  them.
Keratinocytes play an important role in skin irritation. In an attempt to investigate mechanistic bases of human skin irritation response, we recently identified the upregulation by skin irritants of adipose differentiation related protein (ADRP) in reconstituted human epidermis. ADRP is a lipid-storage-droplet-associated protein, governing deposition and release of lipids from droplets. The purpose of this study was to characterize, in a human keratinocyte cell line (NCTC 2544), sodium-dodecyl-sulfate-induced ADRP expression, to identify the biochemical events that lead to ADRP expression, and to understand its function in sodium dodecyl sulfate cytotoxicity. Sodium dodecyl sulfate induced a concentration- and time-related production of ADRP that was associated with lipid droplet accumulation. Lipid accumulation following sodium dodecyl sulfate treatment was due to intracellular redistribution rather than lipid neosynthesis, as indicated by equivalent 14C-oleate and 14C-acetate incorporations. Other skin irritants, namely benzalkonium chloride, tributyltin, and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate, also induce lipid droplet accumulation. Sodium-dodecyl-sulfate-induced ADRP expression and lipid droplet accumulation were modulated by the calcium chelator BAPTA, indicating a role of calcium in ADRP induction. Decrease of sodium-dodecyl-sulfate-induced ADRP expression by specific ADRP antisense oligonucleotide resulted in increased cytotoxicity, indicating a protective role of ADRP and lipid accumulation in the process of cell damage induced by skin irritants. ADRP expression was also induced in vivo following treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate in an experimental model of skin irritation, indicating that the in vitro model represents irritation.
The bond lengths and bond angles of orthorhombic black phosphorus have been determined as a function of hydrostatic pressures to 26.6(5) kbar using time‐of‐flight neutron powder diffraction. We show that the markedly anisotropic compression reported previously results from a large pressure‐induced shortening of the van der Waals bonds separating layers of atoms combined with a shear motion within the layers. Covalently bonded chains of atoms along the a direction remain very rigid. The average effective linear compressibility for van der Waals bonds is 1.48(9) ×10−3 kbar−1 while the average effective linear compressibility for covalent bonds is an order of magnitude smaller, 2.6(8) ×10−4 kbar−1.
We agree with the authors of a recent article (1) in their belief that the best method for ethanol analysis is gas chromatography. However, we have some comments on the impact of this article on legal proceedings in cases that involve driving under the influence of alcohol. The authors' conclusion was based on postmortem samples and in vitro studies. The only clinical cases described in the article were those related to two patients with chronic liver failure and endstage liver disease; lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and lactate concentrations were 2379 and 8015 IU/L and 15.4 and 12.3mM, respectively (normal, less than 170 IU/L and 0.7-1.8mM). The authors' conclusion is misleading to law enforcement agencies, attorneys, and even some pathologists because the average individual found driving under the influence or even an intoxicated person with traumatic injury does not match the pathology or the LDH and lactate concentrations described in this article. We would like to caution the forensic toxicology community that such a conclusion does not apply to situations in which an injured driver has received lactated Ringer's solution intravenously prior to having his blood taken for a blood alcohol test. Their in vitro study with nonphysiologic concentrations of lactate and LDH did not apply to a living person. Their approach was not scientifically sound. Table I in the article did not show any case where LDH and lactate concentrations matched the 682 IU/L and 14mM listed in the article. We caution forensic toxicologists that the concentrations in this article did not apply to living subjects who are able to drive a motor vehicle and might apply only to extremely rare clinical situations and postmortem cases. As an aside, we disagree with the authors' comments on gas chromatography. We have never considered gas chromatography to be costly or time consuming.
Summary 1) Concentrations of inorganic phosphorus and creatinine in pancreatic secretion are much lower than their respective concentrations in plasma. 2) Any increase in inorganic phosphorus or creatinine content of plasma leads to proportional increase of their respective concentrations in the pancreatic secretion. 3) Ratios between concentrations of inorganic phosphorus in pancreatic secretion and in plasma remain constant, whatever the inorganic phosphorus content of plasma may be. The same is true for creatinine. 4) Relative lack of permeability for products of protein metabolism seems to be a characteristic of the pancreas, as compared to other digestive glands.
Research News: The removal of impurities, such as residual solvents, unreacted monomers, catalysts, and side-reaction products from polymers represents an important step in polymer processing. Conventional devolatilization techniques for the purification of polymers have limited effectiveness. Devolatilization with supercritical fluids, however, can enhance impurity removal by increasing the thermodynamic driving force and molecular diffusivity.
The kinetics of the free radical copolymerization in solution of N-(4-bromophenyl)maleimide (MBPMI), N-(2, 4-dibromophenyl)maleimide (DBPMI) and N-(2, 4, 6-tribromophenyl)maleimide (TBPMI) with styrene (St), methyl acrylate (MA), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and acrylonitrile (AN) at low and high conversions were described. Some characteristic properties of the copolymers obtained, particularly their thermal behaviour were also presented.
The identification of two natural products, FR-900848 and U-106305, has stimulated interest concerning the relationship between configurational isomerism, conformational isomerism, and biological activity of polycyclopropanes. Efforts to investigate the relationship between configurational and conformational isomerism through molecular modeling suggest that significantly different three-dimensional structures will result from unique primary structures. Any effort to address these issues demands that stereoselective methods for the preparation of polycyclopropanes be developed. We have investigated the application of zinc-carbenoid cyclopropanation in the presence of chiral dioxaboralanes to the preparation of eight stereochemically unique bicyclopropanes. The trans-vinylcyclopropane starting materials demonstrated very little substrate-induced stereoselectivity, while the cis-vinylcyclopropane demonstrates modest to excellent stereocontrol. A model for the substrate-based stereocontrol is proposed. We also used the spectroscopic data gathered in this investigation to probe the substrate-mediated stereocontrol in the rhodium(II)-catalyzed cyclopropanation of vinylcyclopropanes with ethyl diazoacetate.
The activation of the hydroxyl groups of two N-methyl/dodecyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)imidazole ligands by complexation with Cu2+ was investigated kinetically by observing the rates of the release of p-nitrophenol in the transacylation of p-nitrophenyl picolinate (PNPP). The kinetics were carried out in aqueous buffers of pH ranging from 4.5 to 8.0 at 25 °C in the absence of surfactant micelles for a hydrophilic N-methyl ligand, and in the presence of micelles for a lipophilic N-dodecyl ligand. The kinetic analyses indicated that the 1:1 and 2:1 complexes of the ligand and Cu2+ are active nucleophiles with the N-methyl and N-dodecyl ligand, respectively. The pKa’s of the hydroxyl groups of these complexes were determined to be 7.00 in water and 6.41 in aqueous CTABr micelles, respectively, by analyses of the pH-rate profiles. The rate constants, which show the nucleophilic reactivities of ionized hydroxyl anions of complexes toward PNPP, were determined to be kN=1.11×104 and 1.25×106 mol−1 dm3 s−1 with N-methyl ...
Concentration of bio-molecules prior to detection is very critical in the development of an integrated, multifunctional lab-on-a chip device for detection of ultra trace molecules from complex biological fluids such as serum, urine, or saliva. In this work, the preconcentration of a clinically relevant biomarker, cardiac troponin I (cTnI), is demonstrated in a cascade microfluidic channel using cationic isotachophoresis (ITP). The cascade chip is formed on PMMA (poly methyl methacrylate) with gradual changes in size both in width and depth direction to achieve a 100× reduction in overall cross sectional area between inlet (anode) and outlet (cathode) sections. The ITP experiments were conducted with two fluorescent proteins, FITC (Fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated) albumin and cTnI labeled with Pacific Blue. Potassium ions were used as the leader and hydronium ions were used as the terminator for these cationic ITP experiments. The microchip ITP demonstrates that it is possible to increase the concentration of cTnI by 10,000 folds using a potential drop of 400 V across a 3.5 cm long microchannel. The reduction in cross sectional area facilitates additional concentration gain, as the proteins migrate through cascade microchannel under discontinuous electric field and stacked into nearly pure zones.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
The surface-confined coupling reaction between melamine (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine) and 1,4-phenylene diisocyanate has been investigated on Au(111) by scanning tunneling microscopy. Diisocyanate species are stabilized at the edges of melamine arrays and coupling reactions to form small urea oligomers may be initiated at room temperature. These oligomers are incorporated into the two-dimensional melamine array. Annealing accelerates the formation of larger oligomers with multiple urea linkages. The oligomers can themselves form ordered 2-D structures stabilized by intermolecular H-bonding. At higher annealing temperatures, oligomers containing as many as seven or eight urea linkages were identified. These oligomers were able to form 2-D porous structures via interoligomer H-bonding interactions. We discuss the composition of all of the phases observed and identify how covalent and noncovalent interactions stabilize each phase.
A phenomenological model has been proposed in which it is emphasised that the dilute alloy problem should really be seen as that of the stabilisation of already existing local moments. It is then argued that the onset of ferromagnetism as a function of concentration, in atomically disordered (i.e. metallurgically homogeneous) transition metal alloys is a cooperative magnetic phase transition which is always magnetically inhomogeneous.
In this study, we have implemented four analytical generalized Born (GB) models and investigated their performance in conjunction with the GROMOS96 force field. The four models include that of Still and co-workers, the HCT model of Cramer, Truhlar, and co-workers, a modified form of the AGB model of Levy and co-workers, and the GBMV2 model of Brooks and co-workers. The models were coded independently and implemented in the GROMOS software package and in TINKER. They were compared in terms of their ability to reproduce the results of Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) calculations and in their performance in the ab initio peptide folding of two peptides, one that forms a beta-hairpin in solution and one that forms an alpha-helix. In agreement with previous work, the GBMV2 model is most successful in reproducing PB results while the other models tend to underestimate the effective Born radii of buried atoms. In contrast, stochastic dynamics simulations on the folding of the two peptides, the C-terminus beta-hairpin of the B1 domain of protein G and the alanine-based alpha-helical peptide 3K(I), suggest that the simpler GB models are more effective in sampling conformational space. Indeed, the Still model used in conjunction with the GROMOS96 force field is able to fold the hairpin peptide to a native-like structure without the benefit of enhanced sampling techniques. This is due in part to the properties of the united-atom GROMOS96 force field which appears to be more flexible, and hence to sample more efficiently, than force fields such as OPLSAA. Our results suggest a general strategy which involves using different combinations of force fields and solvent models in different applications, for example, using GROMOS96 and a simple GB model in sampling and OPLSAA and a more accurate GB model in refinement. The fact that various methods have been implemented in a unified way should facilitate the testing and subsequent use of different methods to evaluate conformational free energies in different applications. Our results also bear on some general issues involved in peptide folding and structure prediction which are addressed in the Discussion.
Prior exposure of cultured neonatal rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons to bradykinin resulted in marked attenuation of bradykinin-induced activation of phosphoinositidase C (PIC). The (logconcentration)-response curve for bradykinin-induced [3H]inositol trisphosphate ([3H]IP3) formation was shifted to the right and the maximum response was reduced. Bradykinin increases cyclic GMP (cGMP) in DRG neurons [Burgess, Mullaney, McNeill, Coote, Minhas and Wood (1989) J. Neurochem. 53, 1212-1218] and treatment of the neurons with dibutyryl cGMP (dbcGMP) had a similar, inhibitory, effect on bradykinin-induced [3H]IP3 formation. NG-Nitro-L-arginine (LNNA) blocked bradykinin-induced formation of cGMP. It prevented the functional uncoupling induced by pretreatment with bradykinin, but not the inhibitory effect of dbcGMP on [3H]IP3 formation. The ability of LNNA to prevent desensitization was reversed by excess L-arginine, indicating that its actions were mediated through inhibition of nitric oxide synthase. In addition to functional desensitization, exposure to bradykinin reduced the number of cell-surface receptors detected with [3H]bradykinin, without affecting its KD value for the remaining sites. In contrast to bradykinin, pretreatment with dbcGMP had no effect on either the KD or B(max) for [3H]bradykinin binding. This implies that the inhibitory effect of dbcGMP was down-stream from the binding of bradykinin to its receptor and upstream of IP3 formation. The lack of effect of dbcGMP on [3H]bradykinin binding suggests that the decrease in receptor number induced by bradykinin was mediated by a different mechanism and was not a key factor in the rapid phase of desensitization in these cells.
Lipase catalyzed trans-esterification is one of the excellent methods to obtain functional foods oils. Nevertheless, this techniques has been put intopractice only in limited areas. It is necessary to design the reaction system as simply as possible to develop it for versatile use such as hydrogenation, chemical esterification and fractionation. For the immobilization processing, other substances are required as a carrier, by which the specific activity of the enzyme is inevitably decreased. Thus, we investigated the trans-esterification reaction in consideration of the point that a compact reaction system can be designed by using powdered lipase. Optimal reaction temperature was higher for lipase powder with lower water content. The optimal reaction temperature of the lipase powder was 85t and its activity was 20% of the activity of the optimal temperature, even at the higher temperature of 130t . The half-life of the lipase powder activity was determined to be 380 hour by repeated reaction at 80t . The method developed by us has been put into practice in the industrial production of several kinds of functional food oils such as healthy oil consisting of Medium-chain Fatty acids and Phytosterol ester.
The possibility of reducing elevated blood cholesterol levels with agents that inhibit endogenous biosynthesis of cholesterol is an attractive one, since dietary treatment is sometimes difficult to achieve and almost always difficult to maintain. Some of the theoretical aspects of such an approach have been outlined (3, 4), and the feasibility of the approach has been established in experimental animals. For example, it has been shown that A4-cholestenone, a potent inhibitor of cholesterol biosynthesis (5), can indeed lower levels of blood cholesterol (3, 6). Unfortunately, the feeding of A4-cholestenone in man and animals leads to accumulation of dihydrocholesterol in the serum (7) and this latter compound is known to be itself atherogenic (8). Certain other inhibitory substances have been explored but either have proved to be relatively ineffective (9, 10) or have not yet been adequately tested clinically (11, 12). In 1959 Blohm, MacKenzie, Kariya and Laughlin at the William S. Merrell Company reported their finding of a new inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis, MER-29 (1[p-,8-diethylaminoethoxy) phenyl] -1(p-tolyl) -2(p-chlorophenyl) ethanol). Their studies indicated that the compound blocked synthesis at some point subsequent to the formation of lanosterol (13) and that serum and tissue levels of cholesterol were reduced in experimental animals (14). Animal studies in this laboratory demonstrated the accumulation of desmosterol (24-dehydrocholesterol) in the tissues of MER29-treated animals, and a series of isotopic studies established that the major site of action of the drug was at the last step in cholesterol biosynthesis-namely, in the reduction of desmosterol to
On the basis of the ZDO approximation of LCAO-ASMO-SCF-CI theory of π-electrons, the optical absorption of phycocyanobilin is calculated, by taking its interaction with a point-charge and a point-dipole into account. It is thus shown that the reversible change in absorbance of allophycocyanin from Anabaena cylindrica , which was observed by Murakami et al. , can be reproduced according to the following model: when allophycocyanin changes its tertiary structure due to the change in its physico-chemical environment, the terminal pyrrole ring D of one of the two phycocyanobilins in allophycocyanin rotates around the single and double bonds of its adjacent methyne bridge.
The dibromomaleimide derivative, N-(4-bromobutyl)-dibromomaleimide (dBMIB), is found to be a highly efficient coupling agent to dimerize thiol-terminated hydrophilic polymers by substituent reaction. When mono-thiol poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO45-SH) is mixed with dBMIB in an equivalent molar feed in water, a dimer of PEO45 with a maleimide unit located at the chain center, (PEO45)2MIB, is obtained quantitatively. The dBMIB is also used to dimerize thiol- terminated poly(N-(2-acryloyloxyethyl) pyrrolidone) and poly(N,N-dimethyl acrylamide). Moreover, the butylene bromide of (PEO45)2MIB is transferred into a butylene azide, which is allowed to react with alkynyl-terminated polystyrene to give a A2B miktoarm star polymer via a copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition coupling reaction.
The angular dependence of light scattering from solutions of three samples of poly‐α‐methylstyrene in various solvents has been measured over a wide range of scattering angles. For molecules with a radius of gyration larger than about 500 A, differences (δP) are found between the actual angular dependence (P) and the one (Pid) predicted—with Debye's equation—for ideal Gaussian coils. By subjecting the measured data to a statistical analysis, a quantitative description of δP was attained. The quantities δP contain information about the function δW(r), which is the difference between W(r) and Wid(r); the function W(r) is the actual distribution function for the distances between the segments in a polymer coil, whereas Wid(r) is the one that follows from random‐flight statistics, underlying the ideal Gaussian coil model. The information about δW(r) was obtained by applying a Fourier inversion to the measured δP curves. Although this information is necessarily limited, the typical features of δW(r) thus found...
Polyvinylsilazane, as a precursor for Si-C-N ceramics, was prepared by ammonolysis of functionalized chlorosilanes. Pyrolysis under inert atmospheres at Tp= 1000°C led to an amorphous Si-C-N-(H) ceramic. Further heat treatment caused the transformation to the thermodynamically stable crystalline phase assemblage. The structural changes, especially those of the excess carbon, were studied by characterizing the solid intermediates via solid-state magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Moreover, Raman spectroscopy, electron spin resonance spectroscopy, and chemical analysis were used. Based on these methods, a comprehensive picture of the formation and behavior of the free-carbon phase present in polymer-derived ceramics was obtained.
The synthesis of new N-carbamoyl-substituted isoxazolidine-4,5-diols and their 4,5-anhydro analogues, isoxazolidinyl epoxides, is described. The 4,5-unsubstituted 2,3-dihydroisoxazole starting materials reacted directly with potassium osmate/4-methylmorpholine N-oxide and 3,3-dimethyldioxirane, respectively. All addition reactions proceeded with excellent anti selectivity with respect to the substituent at C-3. The obtained isoxazolidinyl epoxides as well as benzoylated isoxazolidine-4,5-diols were subjected to nucleophilic substitution reactions with various nucleophiles. 4-Hydroxyisoxazolidines with chlorine, methoxy, and azide substituents bound to C-5 were prepared in moderate to good yields. In terms of chemical stability, the discussed isoxazolidinyl epoxides can be isolated and stored for a long time.
Abstract Helmy, Jacoeb AM, Suptijah P. 2012. Analysis of plant tissue of Bruguiera gymnorrhiza and its utilization as raw material for bioethanol production. Bonorowo Wetlands 2: 66-73. The fruits of Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (or locally known as lindur) have a high carbohydrate content potentially used as a source of bioethanol. The purpose of this research was to study the plant tissues of B. gymnorrhiza, utilizing fruit as a bioethanol feedstock and determining the optimum time of fermentation to produce bioethanol. The research was conducted from January to April 2012 in several laboratories at the Bogor Agricultural University, West Java. The study consists of preliminary and primary research. Preliminary research includes characterization of B. gymnorrhiza fruits as raw materials, anatomical analysis, proximate test, starter preparation (culture regeneration and liquid media starter), fermentation media preparation, nutrient addition, pH adjustment, and pasteurization. The primary research includes bioethanol making, alcohol fermentation, incubation treatment, final pH test, and ethanol content test. The results showed that leaf B. gymnorrhiza was composed of epidermal tissue, sponges, palisade parenchyma, and bundle tissue. The stem was composed of epidermal tissue, cortical tissue containing starch granules, and bundle tissue. The fruits were composed of epidermal tissue, cortical tissue containing starch, and carrier tissue. Proximate test of fresh gymnorrhiza fruit showed water content of 62.92%, ash 1.29%, fat 0.79%, protein 2.11%, and carbohydrates 32.91%. The longer the fermentation time causes, the lower the final pH. The highest pH value occurred on the third-day fermentation (XI), 4.41; the lowest was on the seventh-day fermentation (X3), 3.97. The highest ethanol content was obtained from fifth-day fermentation (X2), 3.51%; the lowest level was produced from third-day fermentation (XI), 3.01%.
A total synthesis of the racemic form of the marine sesquiterpenoid (−)-sinularene (1) is described. The key step of the synthesis involved the stereoselective thermal rearrangement of the highly functionalized bicyclo[3.1.0]hexene 12 to provide, in 86% yield, the substituted bicyclo[3.2.1]octadiene 13. Conversion of the latter substance into (±)-sinularene (1) was accomplished via an efficient 4-step sequence.
In order to clarify the histological localization of cadmium (Cd) in the placenta, we analyzed paraffin sections of placentas from rats with a single Cd exposure on gestation day 18 by the LA-ICP-MS imaging method compared with the histopathological changes. The placentas were sampled at 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 6 hours, and 24 hours after treatment. Histopathologically, the trophoblasts in the labyrinth zone of the Cd group showed swelling at 1 hour. At 2 and 3 hours, the trophoblasts showed swelling and vacuolar degeneration. At 6 and 24 hours, the syncytiotrophoblasts selectively underwent necrosis/apoptosis, resulting in a decrease in number. Remarkable metallothionein expression was observed in the trophoblastic septa, particularly cytotrophoblasts at 24 hours. The LA-ICP-MS analysis detected the localization of Cd in the fetal part of the placenta from 1 hour onwards. In particular, the intensity of Cd was prominent in the labyrinth zone and tended to increase with the progression of trophoblastic septa damages. The LA-ICP-MS analysis using the paraffin sections detected the localization of Cd in the fetal part of the placenta, and this methodology will be one of the valuable tools to detect heavy metals in toxicological pathology.
The synthesis of α-imino aldehydes has been achieved through the thermal [1,3]-rearrangement of O-alkenyl benzophenone oximes. A copper-mediated C-O bond coupling between benzophenone oxime and alkenyl boronic acids provides facile access to the required O-alkenyl oximes and a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons olefination can be applied to the α-imino aldehyde products to give γ-imino-α,β-unsaturated esters. The scope of the method is described and mechanistic experiments are discussed.
We report the results of an investigation of the oxidation of P/sub 4/ vapor under atmospheric conditions, with added H/sub 2/O or D/sub 2/O vapor. We have analyzed the visible and ultraviolet spectrum of the reaction, consisting of discrete band structure in the 228.8--272.1 nm region and a broad continuum onsetting at 335 nm and extending to 800 nm and longer, upon which are superimposed a number of weak bands from 450--650 nm. Discrete band emissions enabled the identification of the bands at 228.8--272.1 nm with the PO ..gamma..-system transitions, PO(A /sup 2/..sigma../sup +/) ..-->..PO(X /sup 2/Pi). Spectral changes arising from the substitution of D/sub 2/O vapor for H/sub 2/O vapor in the reaction led to the assignment of the weak bands at 450--650 nm to HPO (or DPO), A (/sup 1/A'') ..-->..X (/sup 1/A'). The main band emission in the visible region, the broad continuum which cannot be identified with any simple electronic transition, exhibits the kinetic and spectral characteristics of an excimer, an excited state dimer with only one member of the molecular pair being electronically excited. The existence of the (PO) )/sub 2/ excimer has been confirmed by affecting the dynamics of this equilibrium through dilution withmore » buffer gas and through thermal dissociation of the excimer, resulting in the appearance of the formerly quenched (0,0) transition of the PO ..beta.. emission in the spectrum. Our investigation has eliminated the possibility that the visible continuum arises from either PO/sub 2/ or HOPO. Enough information has been extracted from temperature dependent studies to construct the approximate shapes of the potential energy surfaces of the ground (..delta..nu-bar/sub g/=35 +- 200 cm/sup -1/) and the first excited state (..delta..nu-bar/sub ex/=846 +- 200 cm/sup -1/) of the (PO)/sub 2/* excimer. (AIP)« less
Protonolysis of [YMe3]n with 2-{(N-2,6-dialkylphenyl)iminomethyl)}pyrroles (alkyl = iPr (L1), Me (L2)) gave homoleptic iminopyrrolyl complexes YL13 and YL23 as well as the complex [L2YL2,Me]2 containing a dianionic pyrrolaldiminato ligand, formed via methylation of the imino backbone. Treatment of the half-sandwich complex [(C5Me5)YMe2]3 and yttrocene (C5Me5)2YMe(THF) with either 2 or 1 equiv of HL afforded the monomeric complexes (C5Me5)YL2 and (C5Me5)2YL,respectively. The complex (C5Me5)YL22 readily underwent Ln→Al iminopyrrolyl ligand transfer in the presence of trimethylaluminum, producing the known (C5Me5)Y(AlMe4)2. Salt metatheses of homoleptic Ln(AlMe4)3 (Ln = Y, La) with KL gave complicated reaction mixtures from which the η5/η1:κ1 pyrrolaldiminato-bridged complex [L1,MeLa(AlMe4)]2 and bis(tetramethylaluminate) complex L2Y(AlMe4)2 could be isolated and crystallographically characterized. Moreover, the solid-state structures of YL23, [L2YL2,Me]2, (C5Me5)YL12, (C5Me5)2YL1, and L2AlMe2 are presented.
Objective To find a reliable mtthod for detecting T cell′s functions induced by anti CD28 mAb costimulated.Methods The CD28 mAb costimulated with CD3 mAb or non characteristic mitogen PHA induced T lymphocyte transformation and cytokines (interleukin 2, 4 and interferon γ) production by means of the 3H TdR incorporation, bioassay, and ELISA method. Results Anti CD28 mAb did not induce PBL proliferation and cytokines production alone. The G.I of CD28 mAb costimulated with CD3 mAb or PHA (20.1±9.5,53.9±17.2) stimulating PBL proliferation were more significantly increased than that of CD3 mAb or PHA (10.6±4.9,22.0±7.2) used alone( P 0.05, P 0.001). CD28 mAb costimulated with CD3 mAb or PHA dramatically increased cytokine production for about 0.7～10 times, as compared to CD3mAb or PHA stimulation alone. The PBL activation stimulated with CD28 mAb costimulation was influenced by culture time and the concentration of CD28 mAb. The concentration of CD28 mAb costimulation in 0.1～10 μg/ml induced PBL proliferation.Conclusion The CD28 mAb costimulation may be useful for detecting T cells functions.
Three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum and ultraviolet absorption spectrum of Bletilla striata extraction drawn by boiling water were reported. Three fluorescence peaks, located at lambda(ex)/lambda(em) = 227/299 nm, 271/299 nm and 258/ 389 nm respectively, were observed in the three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum. Among them, the two former peaks having the same emission wavelengths were produced by one fluorescent component, while the latter peak was produced by another. Three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum is a characteristic mark of Bletilla striata, therefore it can be used in qualitative identification. The distance between emission wavelengths of the two components was 90 nm, so the fluorescence intensity of two components could be measured separately without pre-separation. For dilute solutions of Bletilla striata aqueous extraction, good linear relationships between fluorescence intensity and concentration of two components were obtained, thereby the quantitative determination of the two components may be carried out. In the range of pH 1.5 to pH 12.5, the fluorescence intensity of the two components changes with the increase in pH, indicating dissociable protons exist in the molecular structure of the two components.
Objective  To study the effect of a shaking method to isolate murine retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells for RNA extraction.      Methods  This was an experimental study. After an eye cup was made, an RNA-protected reagent and shaking method were used to isolate the RPE of mice (n=4). Immunohistochemistry staining was used to detect the status of the RPE residue, the detachable cells were collected and the total RNA was extracted. Other methods such as auto isolation, the enzyme method and eye-cup method were used to isolate the RPE and extract total RNA(each group n=4). The quantity of total RNA was compared among the different methods and quantitative real-time PCR was used to compare the RPE65, vWF and COL6A1 mRNA levels. The effect that the shaking method had on RPE isolation was studied. A one-way ANOVA and independent sample t-test were used in the statistical analysis of the data.      Results  The four methods resulted in statistically different quantities of total RNA (F=8.538, P 0.05) but less than that obtained by the eye-cup method (P 0.05), but was lower than the enzyme method (P 0.05), and much lower than the eye-cup method (P 0.05), but much lower than the eye-cup method (P<0.01).      Conclusion  The shaking method is effective, convenient and stable. This method can maximally decrease contamination of the choroid for total RNA extraction and allows further study of the gene transcription of RPE in small samples.      Key words:  Pigment epithelium of eye; Cell separation; Mice; RNA extraction
In the field of asymmetric synthesis, the development of new chiral ligands has been regarded as an attractive challenge for decades. Novel chiral ligands can often have a great impact on synthetic protocols. In this context, we are currently interested in the application of 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) as an entirely new class of chiral ligand. To handle this issue, we designed a chiral phen ligand that provides the N,N,O-tridentate coordination of the phen moiety and an additional phenolic hydroxyl group. As phen possesses greater coordination ability with various ions, our chiral phen ligand would be valuable as one of the "privileged" chiral ligands applied to a broad range of metal catalysts and new reactions. This account summarizes the results of the application of the chiral phen ligand to various kinds of metal catalysis.
The anaerobic oxidation of methane by methanotrophic archaea offers a carbon- and electron- efficient route for the production of acetate, which can be further processed to yield liquid fuels. This acetate production pathway is initiated by methyl-coenzyme M reductase, but this enzyme can only oxidize trace amounts of methane ex situ. Efforts to improve the kinetics of methyl-coenzyme M reductase through enzyme engineering have been, in part, limited by low-throughput assays. Computational enzyme engineering can circumvent this limitation through the design of smaller, more focused libraries, which have a higher probability of success. By drawing from a new consensus reaction mechanism for Mcr and newly published data, the first complete kinetic characterization of the Mcr reaction mechanism is proposed. In the developed kinetic description, the rate of methyl-coenzyme M unbinding is proposed to limit Mcr overall kinetics. A revised computational method was devised to improve the rate of product release while not disrupting the reaction’s activated complex. Large, hydrophobic amino acids that can assume multiple conformations were predicted to be most effective at reaching this design goal. Other rate-limiting scenarios were examined, such as (i) high-temperature (> 45 °C), (ii) methyltransferase-limiting case, and (iii) ineffective Cofactor F430 binding. A separate library of designs is put forth for each one of these cases. These efforts mark the first computational attempt at redesigning methyl-coenzyme M reductase for reversed or improved activity, which if experimentally validated, would have a cross-cutting impact across the biotechnology and biochemistry fields by debottlenecking anaerobic methane oxidation.
Effects of humus fractions (fulvic acid,brown humic acid and grey humic acid) on the leachability and transferring activity of five types of mineral-bound Hg were investigated.Under the acid leaching condition;fulvic acid could promote leachability and vertical transference of all the mineral-bound Hg.Brown humicacid could retard the leaching and trasferring processes of CaCO30-Hg,Fe2O3-Hg,MnO2-Hg and kaolinite Hg but not bentonite-Hg.Grey humic acid could greatly enhance residing ability of the mineral-bound Hg in the soil colum and restrain them from vertical transferring.The effect of humus on leachability and transferring activity on the mineral-bound Hg was closely related to its ability to convert the mineral-bound Hg into orgainc-bound form and the transferbility of the latter in the soil column.The characteristics of the mineral-bound Hg in speciation were the internal factors that determined the extent and rate of the influence of the humus.
We report the successful growth of high‐quality molecular‐beam epitaxy (MBE) GaAs, AlGaAs, AlGaAs/GaAs modulation‐doped heterostructures, GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum well, and AlGaAs/InGaAs multiple quantum wells (NQW) on GaAs (111)B substrates. Modulation‐doped heterostructures show a 77‐K mobility of 145 500 cm2/V s with a sheet density of 5.0×1011 cm−2. Photoluminescence of (111)B GaAs indicates a lower carbon incorporation than achieved on (100) substrates. The high material quality obtainable at low growth temperatures for (111)B growth will be advantageous for laser diode and heterostructure field‐effect transistor applications. AlGaAs/InGaAs MQW on (111)B are comparable in the photoluminescence linewidths to those on (100) GaAs.
Ti deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)infection ofspheroplasts was characterized bythefollowing. A smallnumberoftheDNA molecules initiated infectious centers, anda small numberofthespheroplasts wereinfected byTiDNA.Onceafavorable encounter ofTiDNA withspheroplast occurred, aminimumof20to30minwas required forTiDNA toenterthespheroplast. ThematureTIparticles produced intheinfection ofspheroplasts byTiDNA werereleased inaburst, buttheaverageburst size wasquite small compared withanormal burst ofthephage-infected bacteria. TiDNA preparations, capable ofcausing viral growth inspheroplasts, didnotrequire detectable amountsofprotein forinfectivity, were homogeneous inbandandboundary sedimentation, andhada guanine pluscytosine content of 48% anda minimal molecular weight of35X 106. Denatured TIDNA,likedenatured XDNA,didnotinfect spheroplasts. Renatured TiDNA was notinfectious; this was inmarkedcontrast torenatured XDNA.
An ultrahigh vacuum reaction chamber/transfer system is described which is used for the production of clean lithium and other soft group I metals. The system is used to study the reactions of clean lithium surfaces with small molecules of interest in electrochemical applications. Auger electron spectroscopy, in a spectrometer coupled to this chamber, shows that the product of the reaction of SO2 with the clean Li surface is a combination of Li2S and Li2O in a 1 : 2 ratio. The transfer system/reaction chamber also allows for the study of the rates of reaction of small molecules with the clean surface. Mechanical scraping of the metal transforms the passive surface into the active, clean state. Study of the SO2/Li reactions at a variety of temperatures (made possible by the special temperature control in the reaction chamber) shows a low activation energy for the dissociation reaction (2–5 kcal/mol).
We review the influence of GaN crystal polarity on various properties of epitaxial films and electronic devices. GaN films grown on sapphire by MOCVD or HVPE usually exhibit Ga-face polarity. N-face polarity is obtained either on the backside of such layers after removal from the substrate, or by turning the crystal polarity in MBE growth via a thin AlN buffer layer. In addition to rather obvious differences in their structural and morphological features, Ga- and N-face samples differ also in their electronic properties. Thus, different Schottky barrier heights are observed for both polarities, the position and detailed properties of spontaneously formed two-dimensional electron gases vary with polarity, and the adsorption of gases and ions also show an influence of the two different surfaces. A particular interesting possibility is the growth of lateral polarity heterostructures with predetermined macroscopic domains of different polarity separated by inversion domain boundaries. These structures make use of the crystal polarity as a new degree of freedom for the investigation of electronic properties of III-nitrides and for novel devices.
The influence of extraction method and structure type on the pyrolysis behavior of lignin was investigated. The functional groups and pyrolysis characteristics of Klason lignin extracted from cotton stalk and walnut shell by the Klason method (labeled as KCSL and KWSL, respectively), and milled wood lignin extracted from walnut shell via the Bjorkman method (labeled as BWSL), were analyzed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). The results were compared with commercial alkali lignin (CAL). The FTIR results revealed that alkali lignin, cotton stalk lignin and walnut shell lignins were Type G, Type GS and Type HGS, respectively. The pyrolysis results from Py-GC/MS suggested that the products distribution of various lignins were affeted by material type and extraction method greatly. The contents of catechol derivatives obtained from KCSL, KWSL and BWSL were 28.18%, 18.12% and 35.11%. Meanswhile modification of BWSL was mainly attributed to the breakage of benzyl aryl ether linkages, whereas cleavage of ether bonds at the α-and β-positions on the propanoid side chain was the marked feature of Klason lignin.
The three-phase extraction process, a new variant of reactive extraction, has been investigated for its applicability in the separation of organic acids. It has been compared with reactive extraction, liquid membrane permeation and supercritical fluid extraction. These processes are based on the use of amine extractants, which have to be dissolved in non-polar solvents, for the extraction of carboxylic acids, hydroxycarboxylic acids and aminocarboxylic acids. We compare the above processes and consider their possible use for acid extraction
Removal effects of cyanobcateria algal cells in chitosan-mediated in-situ-sediment in the sediment resuspension was studied in the laboratory. The research simulated the sediment suspension through quantitative simulated the middle-grade wave of lake Taihu, which usually experienced, by using the Y-type sediment resuspended generator. The results showed that the blue-green algal's removal effect is 93.55% and 99.19% as the dosage adding of chitosan and sediment were (0.100 + 0.200) g x L(-1) and (0.150 + 0.200) g x L(-1), respectively. The removal rate of turbidity of the water body reached 78.60% after still 30 min, in which the chitosan adding dosage was 0.150 g x L(-1); the removal rate of turbidity achieved 93.88% after 8 h of water body still. Furthermore, adding the chitosan could decrease the PO4(3-) -P concentration of water body in a short term. Preliminary results showed that the chitosan which adding dosage was 0.15 g x L(-1) could effectively remove the cyanobacteria cells in middle-grade wave situation; and also indicates using the chitosan-mediated sediment to flocculate the algal bloom of the Taihu Lake has a better application prospect. Contrast study shows that the quantitative simulation method of hydrodynamic intensity and the height of water has the obvious advantage to determine the dosage of chitosan in algal-flocculation removal.
The kinetic analysis of Apis mellifera acetylcholinesterase inhibition by the carbamate pirimicarb showed that native and detergent-solubilized membrane enzyme exhibited slightly different carbamylation kinetics. The acetylcholinesterase form sensitive to phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) was carbamylated more rapidly (kapp = 36.4 X 10(-3) min-1) than the PI-PLC-resistant counterpart (kapp = 10.13 X 10(-3) min-1) which had a behavior close to that of the soluble tryptic enzyme (kapp = 11.89 X 10(-3) min-1). A difference in acetylcholinesterase sensitivity towards pirimicarb was also observed between foraging and emerging bees. These results show that the molecular structure, the mode of preparation and the source of acetylcholinesterase from the bee head should be taken into account in accurate toxicological studies.
The eta(2)-C,C-acetylenedithiolate (acdt2-) complex K[(triphos)Co(acdt)], K-5, {triphos = 1,1,1-tris(diphenylphosphinomethyl)ethane} was obtained by consecutive removal of S-protection groups in [(triphos)Co(1)]PF6, 3-PF6 (1 = 1-Trimethylsilyl-7-phenyl-3,6-dithiahept-4-ine). Reaction of K-5 with selected Pt(II) salts resulted in the formation of the new heterobimetallic complexes [(phen)Pt(5)]BPh4, 6-BPh4, (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) and [(dppe)Pt(5)]BPh4, 7-BPh4, {dppe = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane}, which were fully characterized. X-ray diffraction studies showed that Co and Pt are linked by acdt2- in the eta(2)-C,C-2-S,S-bridging mode. The electronic structure of 6-BPh4 and 7-BPh4 was investigated by electronic absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and X-band EPR spectroscopy of neutral 7. In addition, NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and reactivity studies with the alkyne complexes [(PMe3)3Co(1)]-PF6, 2-PF6, with 3-PF6 and the intermediate product [(triphos)Co{eta(2)-(S)C2(SCH2Ph)}], 4, uncovered the flexibility of the CoC2S2-moiety within the persisting complex scaffold throughout the synthetic scheme.
The tabular functional dependence of the ethyl alcohol content in liquid products of winemaking on the density and readings of refractometer sugar scale based on the processing of the measurement data of the refractive index and density of the model solutions and samples of wine products, as well as the paralleling determination of the volume fraction of ethyl alcohol by the method certified in winemaking according to GOST 32095-2013 was obtained. The established dependence was the basis for development of a non-destructive express method of determining the volume fraction of ethyl alcohol for wines and wine beverages prepared using products of winemaking, based on the changes in the density and index of refraction of liquid media. The use of bilinear interpolation methods made it possible to create a clear algorithm of actions for processing the measurement data, ensuring the sufficient relevance and unambiguity in determining the volume fraction of ethyl alcohol based on refractometry and densimetry data. Metrological certification of the method has been carried out. The method can be the basis for development of a regulatory document prescribing its use in the wine industry, as well as a technical task for realization of a portable device for determining the volume fraction of ethyl alcohol in liquid products of winemaking, based on the joint measurement of the indexes of refraction and density of the liquid.
In the last decade a number of reports have been published on the synthesis and characterization of bridged cyclodextrin dimers (bis-CDs) connected with linkers of different lengths and structures. These dimers, having two hydrophobic cavities in close proximity, display much higher binding affinities and molecular selectivities than parent CDs, forming stable supramolecular adducts. We describe new synthetic protocols for the preparation of bis(beta-CDs) bearing 2-2', 3-3' and 6-6' bridges. Some of the critical steps were carried out either under high-intensity ultrasound (US) or microwave (MW) irradiation. Bis(beta-CDs) containing 6-6' ureido- and thioureido-bridges were prepared in high yields by a MW-promoted aza-Wittig reaction using polymer-bound triphenylphosphine, while those containing 2,2' and 3,3' bridges were prepared from mono-alkenyl beta-CDs by the cross-metathesis reaction (homodimerization) in the presence of 2(nd)-generation Grubbs catalyst under sonochemical conditions. By these improved protocols CD dimers could be obtained in gram amounts to prepare stable adducts of bis-CDs with contrast agents (CAs) containing gadolinium(iii) chelates. In the case of Gd(iii) chleate "G-1" the inclusion complexes were found to be 2 to 3 orders of magnitude more stable than that formed by beta-CD (K(ass) = 4.3 x 10(4) M(-1)vs 8.0 x 10(2) M(-1)). Relaxivity increased as well by factors of 3 and 4, viz. from 9.1 mM(-1) s(-1) (beta-CD) to 27.7 and 35 mM(-1) s(-1).
Metabolomics has become a mainstream analytical strategy for investigating metabolism. The quality of data derived from these studies is proportional to the consistency of the sample preparation. Although considerable research has been devoted to finding optimal extraction protocols, most of the established methods require extensive sample handling. Manual sample preparation can be highly effective in the hands of skilled technicians, but an automated tool for purifying metabolites from complex biological tissues would be of obvious utility to the field. Here, we introduce the semiautomated metabolite batch extraction device (SAMBED), a new tool designed to simplify metabolomics sample preparation. We discuss SAMBED’s design and show that SAMBED-based extractions are of comparable quality to extracts produced through traditional methods (13% mean coefficient of variation from SAMBED versus 16% from manual extractions). Moreover, we show that aqueous SAMBED-based methods can be completed in less than a quarter of the time required for manual extractions.
Acid-volatile sulfide (AVS) has been proposed as an important partitioning phase determining the bioavailability of cationic metals in sediments. The objective of this research was to evaluate the role of AVS in determining copper toxicity in sediments from two sites heavily contaminated with copper: Steilacoom Lake, Washington, and the Keweenaw Watershed, Michigan. Sediments from the two sites were used in 10-d toxicity tests with the amphipod Hyalella azteca, and results of the toxicity tests were compared to bioavailability predictions based on copper and AVS concentrations in the test sediments, as well as copper concentrations in the sediment interstitial (pore) water. Normalization of sediment copper concentrations to AVS accurately predicted sediments that were nontoxic when molar copper-to-AVS ratios were less than one; however, toxicity also was frequently not observed in samples with molar copper-to-AVS ratios significantly greater than one. In contrast, measurement of pore-water copper concentrations and subsequent comparison of these concentrations to water-only copper toxicity data for Hyalella azteca resulted in accurate predictions of the presence and extent of copper toxicity in the test sediments. These results indicate that AVS alone is not an appropriate partitioning phase for predicting copper bioavailability in freshwater sediments.
There is an industrial requirement for a suitable reference material for viscosity measurements in the moderate to high viscosity region. Diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) has been put forward as a candidate for this purpose. The field of elastohydrodynamics has a similar need for a reference lubricant that would allow the comparison of calculated contact behavior with experimental measurements. We report measurements of the viscosity of DIDP at atmospheric pressure between (0 and 100) °C and at high pressures to 1 GPa between (20 and 100) °C using three different falling body viscometers and samples from two different manufacturers. Densities obtained with a vibrating-tube densimeter are reported between (0 and 90) °C at atmospheric pressure.
Proximate and mineral composition of soup powders prepared in the laboratory and obtained from U.K. has been determined. The results show that (i) they are rich in proteins, carbohydrates (starch and sugars) and fairly rich in fat and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron; (ii) Sodium chloride forms the major component of ash and its concentration in the soup is directly proportional to the extent of dilution required for reconstitution; (iii) In general, the quantity of diluents like starch and cane sugar used in commercial soups is fairly high when compared with the laboratory samples.
The resting membrane potential (RMP), the intracellular free Na+ concentration ([Na+]i) and the intracellular free K+ concentration ([K+]i), were measured with double-barrelled ion-selective microelectrodes in mouse soleus muscles in vitro. In addition, the Na+ contents and K+ contents have been measured with the flame photometric technique. At rest the beta 2-selective adrenoceptor agonist terbutaline (10(-5) M) increased the membrane potential and [K+]i, and decreased [Na+]i when compared with control muscles. During a 5 min stimulation period the muscles, which were incubated with the beta 2-adrenoceptor agonist, showed a smaller depolarization, a smaller decrease in [K+]i and a smaller increase in [Na+]i than stimulated control muscles. This difference was probably associated with an increased rate of Na-K-pumping in the beta 2-adrenoceptor stimulated muscles. The beta 2-agonist treated muscles were more resistant to fatigue than control muscles. This effect was significant with 10(-6) M terbutaline (25 degrees C). A depolarization obtained by increasing [K+]o was shown to reduce the maximal tension. It is postulated, that the K+ shifts, which are responsible for the depolarization during muscle activity, are one of the mechanisms underlying muscle fatigue.
Lubricants are utilized in air-conditioning systems for the purpose of decreasing friction and wear within the compressor. While ideally the lubricant remains in the compressor, some lubricant is entrained and transported by the refrigerant to the other system components. During operational transients, the lubricant is redistributed throughout the various system components. The equilibrium distribution of lubricant depends among other things on fluid properties, phase change processes, flow rates, geometries, and operating conditions. Experiments were conducted in a commercially available, split-system, residential, air-conditioning system with a nominal 3-ton capacity that could be operated both as an air-conditioner and a heat-pump. While the system was designed to operate with R410A, most of the testing was conducted with pure R32, which is a leading candidate for R410A replacement pending regulatory discontinuation of its other constituent: R125. The lubricants used in this study were traditional and advanced polyol ester (POE) lubricants. Advanced polyol ester lubricants promise to improve lubricity and wear protection compared to current lubricants. The lubricants had nominal viscosities ranging from 32 to 80 cSt. To inventory the distribution of refrigerant and lubricant, the system was modified by the installation of ball valves which could be utilized to separate the system into its constituents: compressor, condenser, liquid line, evaporator, suction line, and accumulator. The system was brought to equilibrium at conditions A, B, C, H1, and H2 which are defined in AHRI Standard 210/240. After maintaining equilibrium, simultaneously the compressor being shut off and the ball valves were closed which isolated refrigerant and lubricant within each component. The components were subsequently removed and weighed in a manner which allowed the mass of refrigerant and lubricant in each component to be determined. Analysis of the results focuses on the change in mass distribution due to refrigerant-lubricant mixture properties and due to changes in operating conditions. The implications of the net migration of lubricant from the compressor to the remainder of the system will also be discussed.
alpha 1-Adrenergic stimulation of the neonatal heart may induce either an increase or a decrease in ventricular automaticity, with the latter response predominating as age increases. We used isolated tissues from the hearts of neonatal and adult dogs and rats, as well as rat myocytes in tissue culture alone or in coculture with sympathetic nerves, to study the role of sympathetic innervation in modulating the alpha-adrenergic response. In the absence of sympathetic innervation, alpha-adrenergic stimulation uniformly increases automaticity. As the myocyte is innervated, an increased quantity of a GTP regulatory protein is detectable. That this protein is an essential transducer of alpha-adrenergic inhibition of automaticity is evidenced by the conversion of the alpha response from excitatory to inhibitory as the protein develops. ADP-ribosylation of the protein with pertussis toxin causes the alpha response to revert to excitation in both adult canine hearts and innervated myocytes in tissue culture. Hence, we have evidence for sympathetic modulation of cardiac rhythm via a regulatory protein whose function depends on normal neuronal development. Abnormal development of innervation may predispose to arrhythmogenesis via persistence of a primitive response to alpha stimulation.
The applicability of an ELISA for detection and quantification of benalaxyl in red wine samples is described. The study of the influence of this matrix on the reliability of the assay indicates that red wine samples require a rapid and simple cleanup step before ELISA assay. Recovery and precision of the method were evaluated by spiking red wine samples with benalaxyl in the 0.5-24 ng/mL range. Benalaxyl can be determined with good accuracy and precision up to 0. 5 ng/mL in starting red wine samples (detection limit of 0.13 ng/mL). No false negative or positive results were obtained. Authentic red wine samples were analyzed by ELISA and by RP-HPLC. The amounts of benalaxyl found by ELISA were in good agreement with RP-HPLC analysis.
From the chemical point of view combustion is the oxidation reaction of organic compounds. Organic compounds a variety of hydrocarbons which have in the molecule the atoms of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). The oxidation reaction of hydrocarbons is accompanied by the emission of large amount of heat that is why the reaction is exothermic. Hydrocarbons and their derivatives containing other atoms in the molecule, such as sulfur (S), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), chlorine (Cl), etc. make a flammable substance which can be called fuel only when it meets certain qualitative conditions. Fuels can be divided according to several methods. One of them is the division according to the state of matter into solid, liquid and gas fuels. Another method is the division according to the origin natural fuels (e.g. fossil fuels) and synthetic fuels produced by processing natural fuels.
The well-established Müller-Rochow Direct Process for the chloromethylsilane synthesis produces a disilane residue (DPR) consisting of compounds Men Si2 Cl6-n (n=1-6) in thousands of tons annually. Technologically, much effort is made to retransfer the disilanes into monosilanes suitable for introduction into the siloxane production chain for increase in economic value. Here, we report on a single step reaction to directly form cyclic, linear, and cage-like siloxanes upon treatment of the DPR with a 5 m HCl in Et2 O solution at about 120 °C for 60 h. For simplification of the Si-Si bond cleavage and aiming on product selectivity the grade of methylation at the silicon backbone is increased to n≥4. Moreover, the HCl/Et2 O reagent is also suitable to produce siloxanes from the corresponding monosilanes under comparable conditions.
Rotenone (ROT), a plant-derived pesticide is a well-known environmental neurotoxin associated with causation of Parkinson’s disease (PD). ROT impairs mitochondrial dysfunction being mitochondrial complex-I (MC-1) inhibitor and perturbs antioxidant-oxidant balance that contributes to the onset and development of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in PD. Due to the scarcity of agents to prevent the disease or to cure or halt the progression of symptoms of PD, the focus is on exploring agents from naturally occurring dietary phytochemicals. Among numerous phytochemicals, α-Bisabolol (BSB), natural monocyclic sesquiterpene alcohol found in many ornamental flowers and edible plants garnered attention due to its potent pharmacological properties and therapeutic potential. Therefore, the present study investigated the neuroprotective effects of BSB in a rat model of ROT-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration, a pathogenic feature of PD and underlying mechanism targeting oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis. BSB treatment significantly prevented ROT-induced loss of dopaminergic neurons and fibers in the substantia nigra and striatum respectively. BSB treatment also attenuated ROT-induced oxidative stress evidenced by inhibition of MDA formation and GSH depletion as well as improvement in antioxidant enzymes, SOD and catalase. BSB treatment also attenuated ROT-induced activation of the glial cells as well as the induction and release of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) and inflammatory mediators (iNOS and COX-2) in the striatum. In addition to countering oxidative stress and inflammation, BSB also attenuated apoptosis of dopaminergic neurons by attenuating downregulation of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and upregulation of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax, cleaved caspases-3 and 9. Further, BSB was observed to attenuate mitochondrial dysfunction by inhibiting mitochondrial lipid peroxidation, cytochrome-C release and reinstates the levels/activity of ATP and MC-I. The findings of the study demonstrate that BSB treatment salvaged dopaminergic neurons, attenuated microglia and astrocyte activation, induction of inflammatory mediators, proinflammatory cytokines and reduced the expression of pro-apoptotic markers. The in vitro study on ABTS radical revealed the antioxidant potential of BSB. The results of the present study are clearly suggestive of the neuroprotective effects of BSB through antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties in ROT-induced model of PD.
We investigated the halogenation reactivity of copper cluster anions produced via a magnetron-sputter source after introduction into a fast-flow tube reaction apparatus simultaneously with chlorine gas. Interesting cluster products corresponding to [Cu(n)Cl(n+1)](-) (n = 1-6) were observed with notable stability, and the mass distribution of these clusters exhibits an exponential decay with increasing values of n. Reaction kinetics analysis is provided on the gas-phase reactivity of copper cluster anions with chlorine. First-principle calculations suggest a series of cubic-like structures for these species similar to the structure of alkali halide clusters due to their similar electronic configurations. These structures act as a starting point in the formation of ionic crystals.
The plasma concentration, production rate, and conversion ratio of androstenedione and testosterone were studied in seven children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) of the 21-hydroxylase type. Plasma androstenedione and testosterone measured by double isotope derivative assay and estimated blood production rates were manyfold increased in the untreated state, markedly suppressed with glucocorticoid, and increased after the administration of ACTH. The metabolic clearance rate when corrected for body size and the conversion ratio of androstenedione to testosterone were similar to previously determined values in normal adults. Consideration of the androgen concentrations and conversion ratios indicates that in children with CAH, 76% of the plasma testosterone in prepubertal females and 36% in males are derived from peripheral conversion of blood androstenedione. The calculated amount of testosterone unaccounted for by peripheral conversion is similar to normal prepubertal values. This approach indicates that virilization in these children results from increased levels of testosterone but that the major source in CAH of this potent androgen is androstenedione secreted by the adrenal cortex.
Abstract Effect of divalent metals was studied in the cross-coupling polymerization of thiophenes leading to head-to-tail-type poly-3-hexylthiophene. Deprotonation of the C–H bond at the 5-position of 2-halo-3-hexylthiophene by LDA followed by metal exchange was carried out in one pot and following addition of nickel catalyst underwent polymerization. One-shot reaction involving deprotonation/transmetalation/ cross coupling polymerization was also examined with manganese(II) chloride and nickel(II) catalyst.
We have prepared an extract presenting two types of topoisomerase activity from a nuclear fraction of Trypanosoma cruzi. The first one was revealed by the relaxation of supercoiled DNA molecules and was independent of ATP. Mg++ enhanced the reaction, without being necessary. Activity was observed between pH 5.4 and pH 8.5. The second activity was revealed by the formation of catenated molecules in the presence of ATP.
Red ginger (Zingiber officinale var. rubrum Theilade) is one of Zingiberaceae’s family that has been used traditionally for curing asthma, cramps, diabetes, fever, infection, hypertension, muscleache, nausea, sorethroat, stroke, and toothache. Red Ginger Rhizome has been proven pharmacologically as the medicine for many diseases. The purpose of this research is to investigate the characteristization of simplicia and ethanol extract of red ginger rhizome which is inoculated by Arbuscular Mychorrizae Fungi (AMF), to determine the total phenolic level by using Folin – Ciocalteau’s method and antioxidant activity test by using Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP). The researchers used the red ginger rhizome from Bari Village, Padang Pariaman, West Sumatera. Sample sliced 3 mm,  macerated with using 70 % of ethanol solvent, so that will produce ethanol extract. From the characterization of simplicia of red ginger rhizome, we could know that it has brownish yellow with wedge shape and spicy taste with unique smell. The characterization of ethanol extract from red ginger rhizome is thick liquid with brownish yellow and spicy taste with unique smell. Parameter shrinkage drying 6.01% ± 0.22, total ash content is 7.42 % ± 0.86, ash content non soluble acid 0.94 % ± 0.26, the levels of soluble extract of water 13.55 % ± 1.11 and the levels of soluble extract of ethanol 5.31 % ± 0.25. The moisture content of extract is 9.33 % ± 1.53,  total ash content 14.79 % ± 0.86 and ash content non soluble acid 0.97 % ± 0.26. Total phenolic of AMF inoculated red ginger extract is 26,7324 g/100g with ntioxidant activity is 1.65 mmol Fe(II)/100 g
Abstract The magnetic circular dichroism of the optical absorption (MCD), optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) as well as ESR and luminescence in Cd- doped BaF2 crystals γ-irradiated at RT were investigated. MCD signals centered at 295 nm, 290 nm and 365 nm are observed, together with corresponding radiation induced optical absorption bands in the same wavelength regions. The ODMR detected in all these bands is caused by hyperfine (hf) interaction of unpaired spin with Cd− nucleus. Three types of different Cd− related defects have been separated: 1) Cd+ c, represented by the MCD of derivative type centered at 295 nm and hf constant ACd = 480 mT, 2) Cd++c -center having lowered symmetry of the nearest neighbours and represented by derivative- type MCD centered at 290 nm and ACd = 370 mT. The nature of perturbation is not clear yet. The ESR spectrum of perturbed Cd+ c-center significantly differs from that of the regular Cd+ c-center. 3) Center represented by the MCD around 365 nm and the hf constan...
The periosteum plays a pivotal role during bone development and repair contributing to bone vascularization and osteoprogenitor cells source. We propose a periosteal substitute engineered using a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) membrane incorporating autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PRP/BMSC gel membrane) to be wrapped around an osteoconductive scaffold for regeneration of compromised bone defects. The PRP/BMSC gel membrane was optimized using different compositions for optimal release of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB). Survival and proliferation of cells in the PRP gel membrane with time were confirmed in addition to their osteogenic capacity. Furthermore, to evaluate the possible effects of the PRP/BMSC gel membrane on surrounding progenitor cells in the injury area, we found that the PRP gel membrane products could significantly induce the migration of human endothelial cells in vitro, and increased the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 2 in cultured BMSC. These cells also secreted significant amounts of soluble proangiogenic factors, such as PDGF-BB, VEGF, and interleukin-8 (IL-8). Finally, the functionality of the PRP/BMSC gel membrane periosteal substitute for bone regeneration was tested in vivo both in an ectopic mouse model as well as in a rabbit segmental bone defect model providing evidence of its capacity to biomimic a periosteal response enhancing bone regeneration.
Interleukin-6 is a multifunctional cytokine participating in the regulation of several immunologic and other cell-physiological phenomena. It acts via a receptor consisting of two components, that besides the ligand-specific chain also contains a second component of 130 kD (gp 130). The soluble form of the ligand-specific component of this receptor was shown to occur physiologically in body fluids and -following the binding of interleukin-6-to be capable of associating with the membrane-bound receptor component and inducing signal-transduction. We studied the possible differences between the effects of interleukin-6 exerted via membrane-bound or soluble receptors on HepG2 human hepatoma and primary rat hepatocyte cultures. We used two methods to study the action of interleukin-6: the mRNA expression of the protooncogene junB as an early marker, and the protein production of fibrinogen as a late one. The effect of interleukin-6 on both cell types examined with both methods used was lower via the soluble than the membrane-bound receptor. In addition, the soluble receptors alone (without interleukin-6) could induce the expression of the junB gene. Considering the wide-spread biological and pathological activities of interleukin-6 these phenomena could have some role in the pathogenesis of some diseases.
Immunological carbonyl determination DNPH-ELISA Protein carbonyl groups were quantified as described by Alamdari et al. [1] with some modifications. Triplicate 100 μl sample or standard containing 10 μg/ml protein diluted in coating buffer was added to the wells of a microplate. The plate was incubated over night at 4 °C, and subsequently washed three times with PBS 0.05 % Tween 20 (PBST). The plate was blocked for 1.5 hour with blocking solution PBST, and washed. Each well was added 1.2 μM DNPH (2,4dinitrophenylhydrazine) and incubated 45 min for derivatization. The polyclonal antibody, anti-DNP diluted 1:10000 in 0.5 % (w/v) BSA was used as primary antibody, and anti-rabbit-HRP diluted 1:10000 in 0.5 % (w/v) BSA was used as secondary antibody. Both antibodies was added in aliquots of 100 μl and incubated for 1 hour. TMB-One (3,3’,5,5’-tetramethylbenzidine) was used as substrate, and the reaction was stopped after 10 minutes by addition of 0.3 M H2SO4. The absorbance was read spectrophotometrically at 450 nm. Figure 1 shows a schematic overview of the reactants involved in the DNPH-ELISA.
Summary. In an exploratory study the 24-h urinary excretion pattern of caffeine and 14 of its major metabolites was studied in 32 volunteers (adults, adolescents and children), 14 patients either with end stage renal disease or liver cirrhosis, 7 heavy smokers and 27 patients on therapy with cimetidine, allopurinol, theophylline or phenytoin. Caffeine and its metabolites were quantified by UV:absorption after liquid/liquid-extraction and HPLCseparation, which ensured proper analysis of 1-methyluric acid. In adults the renal excretion of caffeine derivatives corresponded to an intake of 509 mg caffeine/day, with 1-methyluric acid as the predominant metabolite. About 69 % of caffeine was degraded by the paraxanthine pathway, and theobromine- (19 %) and the theophylline pathway (14 % ) were less important. The ratio of paraxanthine formation to urinary caffeine concentration ( = clearance equivalent) was about 2.2 ml. min- 1. kg- ~ in adults, and the corresponding ratios for theophylline and theobromine were 0.43 ml. rain- 1. kg- ~ and 0.59 ml- min: 1 kg-~, respectively. As expected, caffeine degradation was impaired in patients with cirrhosis and was increased in persons who smoked heavily or who were on phenytoin therapy.
1. Erythrocyte choline transport was studied in 10 haemodialysis patients immediately before and after a haemodialysis session and in 10 control subjects. Choline uptake was measured in erythrocytes from normal and uraemic patients after washing in vitro and subsequent incubation in autologous plasma. Amines present in uraemic plasma were examined for their effect on choline transport in normal erythrocytes. 2. NMR spectroscopy was used to measure choline, trimethylamine and dimethylamine in erythrocyte extracts from nine control subjects, 32 subjects with renal impairment and nine samples from haemodialysis patients. 3. The increased choline influx in uraemic erythrocytes is significantly decreased by prior haemodialysis (mean Vmax pre-dialysis 146 +/- 20 mumol h-1 l-1, post-dialysis 113 +/- 13 mumol h-1 l-1 (P < 0.005). After in vitro washing there is a fall in Vmax, and no longer any significant difference between pre- and post-dialysis samples. There remains a significant difference in the erythrocyte choline Vmax between samples from patients with chronic renal failure and from normal subjects (P < 0.005). 4. Human plasma was found to contain factors capable of increasing choline uptake. Trimethylamine and dimethylamine were found to inhibit choline uptake. Trimethylamine and trimethylamine-N-oxide trans-stimulated choline efflux, but the major transport substrate present in erythrocyte extracts from all groups was choline, which was higher in those with renal impairment (71 +/- 10 mumol/l) than in haemodialysis patients (47 +/- 10 mumol/l) and control subjects with normal renal function (40 +/- 9 mumol/l). 5. Our data suggest that erythrocyte choline transport is increased in uraemia as a consequence of increased transporter number or activity, rather than the presence of intracellular substrate.
Effluents from pulp mill are usually toxic and mutagenic. This characteristic is mainly a consequence of xenobiotic compounds that are formed during the process. Global parameters such as chemical oxidation demand, total organic carbon and others, do not permit identify whether the toxic potential was remedied by the treatments or not. The objective of this research was to evaluate the performance of an horizontal­flow anaerobic immobilized biomass reactor (HAIB) treating the bleaching effluent from a Kraft pulp mill using toxicological (Daphnia similis - Ceriodaphnia silvestrii) mutagenicity and citotoxicological assays (Allium cepa L). The results showed high sensibility of the test­organisms and capability of the anaerobic reactor to remove compounds that are exerting toxic and mutagenic effects. The bioassays represented an attractive alternative to water quality analyzes and the performance evaluation of treatments.
Cilnidipine and Valsartan in combined dosage form has been developed and validated. Sample and standard solutions of Cilnidipine and Valsartan were applied to precoated silica gel G 60 F254 HPTLC plates and the plates were developed with Toluene: Methanol: Ethyl acetate: Glacial Acetic acid in the ratio 8:1:1:0.1 (v/v/v/v) as mobile phase. The Rf value for cilnidipine and Valsartan was found to be 0.29 min and 0.56 min respectively. The detection was performed at 240 nm. The calibration curve was found to be linear between 1000 to 6000 ng/band for cilnidipine and 8-48 μg/band for Valsartan with correlation coefficients 0.993 and 0.993 for Cilnidipine and Valsartan respectively. Accuracy and precision of the proposed method was evaluated by recovery studies (% recovery for Valsartan and Cilnidipine was 99.03 % and 99.86 %).The results have been validated statistically as per ICH guidelines.    Keywords: Validation, Valsartan, Cilnidipine, HPTLC
Eighty-two new compounds were synthesized by liquid-assisted grinding amines, imines and   coordination compounds with perhalogenated aromatic compounds, followed by the   preparation of 24 single crystals via solution-based crystallization methods. The obtained   products were characterized by powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction, and by thermal   analysis methods. Structural analysis of the cocrystals shows that the dominant supramolecular   interaction is the halogen bond. It also demonstrates that carbonyl and morpholinyl oxygen   atoms are good acceptors of X∙∙∙O (X = I, Br) halogen bonds, and that these motifs show   sustainability in the series from amines to bigger building blocks. Utilizing the halogen bond   motif with the carbonyl oxygen atom, four donors containing iodine or bromine atoms have   been cocrystallized with square planar copper(II) and nickel(II) coordination compounds. It is   also shown that product supramolecular architectures and thermal stabilities can be altered via   utilizing donors of different geometries, strengths, and topicities.
The invention relates to a health care beverage, and disclosed a throat cooling beverage and a preparation method thereof. The beverage comprises raw materials of a dandelion extract, a chrysanthemum extract, mint oil, sugar, sugar alcohol, a non-sugar type sweetening agent, a sour agent, and the like, and is prepared by the processing processes of formulating, hot canning, high temperature instantaneous sterilization, and the like. According to the throat cooling beverage, the use amount of the sugar in the beverage is reduced, and the effects of ingredients are mutually complementary through the reasonable formulation of the beverage, so that the favorable functions of wetting and relieving the throat, cleaning teeth and preventing tooth decay are synergistically exerted.
We have developed a one-dimensional photochemical model to study both the composition and density structure of Titan's ionosphere. The model neutral atmosphere developed by Yung et al. (1984) and Yung (1987) was used as a basis to model the chemistry of Titan's ionosphere. Ionization rates due both to photoionization by solar EUV flux and to electron impact ionization by photoelectrons and Saturnian magnetospheric electrons were included. The major neutral species (nitrogen and methane) are ionized to produce N2+, N+, CH4+, CH3+, CH2+, and CH+ ions. Ion-neutral chemistry converts these ions to the major ion species H2CN+ (in agreement with Atreya (1986), Strobel (1985), and Ip (1990a)), as well as C2H5+, CH5+, HCN+, and more complex hydrocarbon ions (CnHm+). Inclusion of both forms of ionization gave a peak electron density of ≈ 3030 cm−3 at an altitude of ≈ 1175 km along the terminator. The radio occultation experiment on board Voyager 1 (Lindal et al., 1983) put limits on the maximum ionospheric electron density of 5 × 10³ cm−3 and 3 × 10³ cm−3 along the morning and evening terminators, respectively. The total external pressure (i.e., dynamic, thermal, and magnetic) upstream of Titan at the time of the Voyager encounter is of the order of the maximum ionospheric thermal pressure. As a consequence one can expect that the solar wind interaction with Venus during periods of high solar wind dynamic pressure might provide a good analogy for the interaction of Titan with the Saturnian magnetospheric plasma.
Many natural products have been reported to contain large amounts of antioxidants other than vitamin E, C, carotenoids (Javanmardi et al., 2003). These antioxidants play a role in delaying, intercepting, or preventing oxidative reaction (Vilioglu et al., 1998) catalysed by free radicals. This antioxidant activity may be mainly do to the present of phenolic components such as flavoinoids (Pietta,1998), phenolic acids and phenolic diterpenes (Shahidi et al., 1992). It is necessary to find out if medicinal plants could provide the antioxidant substances that may help to modulate oxidative stress who are associated with many pathological disorders. This phytochemical study emphasized the existence of some compounds with antioxidant action flavon and poliphenol types in hydroalcoholic extracts of Salvia officinalis and Rosmarinus ofiicinalis
A hair treatment agent containing, based on its weight, 0.001 to 10 wt .-% of at least one amine salt of a carboxylic acid and 0.001 to 20 wt .-% of at least one proteolipid of formula (II) R'-X-R '' (II) in the - R 'is a linear or branched, saturated or ungesatttigten hydrocarbon radical having 11 to 24 carbon atoms, - R '' is a protein, a peptide or a protein hydrolyzate means - X is -C (O) O- or -N - R - R - R with the proviso that R '' represents a keratin or keratin, when X is -C (O) O-, lead to an improved intra-structural strengthening of keratin fibers, better Pflegeffekten and reduce or prevent the leaching of color from dyed hair.
In this paper, we describe a novel nonlabeled biosensor with high diagnostic potential for rapid and sensitive detection of antigens in complex biological samples. The biosensor comprises a piezoimmunosensor (PZ) displaying a specially constructed recombinant antibody on its surface. The recombinant single-chain fragment variable (scFv) antibody contained a cysteine within the linker amino acid sequence used to join the scFv variable heavy and light chains. The presence of cysteine induced the scFv construct to self-assemble as a densely packed rigid monolayer on the gold surface of a quartz crystal microbalance. scFv molecules in this self-assembled monolayer (SAM) exhibited a defined orientation and high areal densities, with scFv-modified microbalance surfaces displaying 35 times as many variable antigen-binding sites per square centimeter as surfaces modified with whole antibody. Experimental data show that the scFv SAM PZ is superior to Fab fragment, Fab fragment containing a free sulfhydryl group (i.e., Fab-SH), and whole antibody PZs regarding sensitivity and specificity. Because of their small uniform size (MW approximately 27000) and the ease with which they can be modified using genetic engineering, scFv's have significant advantages over whole antibodies in microbalance biosensor systems. We demonstrate here that the use of scFv containing a cysteine within the scFv linker sequence (i.e., scFv-cys) for preparation of biosensor surfaces markedly increases the density of available antigen-binding sites, yielding a system that is highly selective, rapid, and capable of detecting low concentrations of antigens in complex samples.
AIM] To search for target com pounds with stronger anti-inflammatory activity and less gastro intestinal(GI) l esions. [METHODS]Diclofenac and rofecoxib were used as positiv e control. Two models were introduced to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of 17 target compounds——α-substituted  %p %-methylsulfonylphenylpropenoic acid s , one is xylene-induced mouse ear swelling , the other is carrageenan-induce d rat paw edema . The GI lesions associated with them in the rats were examined. [RESULTS] Compounds ZA 1, ZA 3, ZA 7, ZA 9, ZA 10 , ZA 13 , ZA 15 and ZA 16 exhibited remarkable inflammatory activity in xylene-induced mouse ear swelling model. And they were further evaluated in car rageenan-induced rat paw edema model. Compounds ZA 1, ZA 13 and ZA 15 showed inflammatory activity comparable to vehicle control. No significan t difference between ZA - {13 } and ZA - {15 } and rofecoxib was found. Most of the compound s with anti-inflammatory activity induced less GI lesions than diclofenac, but a li ttle more than rofecoxib. [CONCLUSION] Target compounds ZA 1 3 and ZA 15 deserve further study.
Several macrocyclic amine complexes of the type cis-[IrL3(A)X]+[L3= 1,4,8,11-tetra-azacyclotetradecane, (A)X = Cl2, Br2, or (Cl)Br], trans-[IrLX2]+[L = L3, X = Cl or NO2; L4(1,4,8,1 2-tetra-azacyclopentadecane) or L5(C-meso-5,5,7,12,12,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane), X = Cl or Br; and L6(C-rac-5,5,7,12,12,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, X = Cl], and trans-[IrL(Cl)Br]+(L = L4 or L5) have been prepared and characterized. All these complexes are diamagnetic monomeric species. The i.r. and electronic absorption spectra of the complexes are discussed.
Continuous cooling transformation(CCT)and temperature time transformation(TIT)diagrams of CaO-SiO_2-CaF_2-Na_2O quartemary slags by single hot thermocouple technique(SHTT)was constructed to measure the influence of basicity on the critical cooling rote and incubation time of mold slags.The results indicate that slags have larger critical cooling rate with basicity increasing, and that of basicity 1.5 slag is 20℃/s.The crystal phase precipitated at higher temperature of low basicity slag analyzed by X-ray diffraction was grammite(CaO·SiO_2),while that of high basicity slag was dicalcium silicate [Ca_2(SiO_4)] which has better conrail of the heat transfer in the gap.The incubation time of nose point of slag became shorter with the increasing of basicity,and TIT diagram of the slag can be described by deducted equation.It is possible that the basicity of slag in CaO-SiO_2-CaF_2-Na_2O quartary slag system is up to 1.5 for crack sensitive steel.
As the smallest chiral fullerene in conformity with the Isolated Pentagon Rule (IPR), D(2)-symmetric C(76) has been chlorinated with iodine monochloride to form C(76)Cl(34), a highly chlorinated derivative. Its structure with the chiral cage enwrapped by a helical chlorine pattern has been established using single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The high chlorination and its implication for constructing novel chiral fullerene-based materials are discussed.
Abstract Mothersill, C. and Seymour, C. B. Bystander and Delayed Effects after Fractionated Radiation Exposure. Radiat. Res. 158, 626–633 (2002). Human immortalized keratinocytes were exposed to a range of single or fractionated doses of γ rays from 60Co, to medium harvested from donor cells exposed to these protocols, or to a combination of radiation and irradiated cell conditioned medium (ICCM). The surviving fractions after direct irradiation or exposure to ICCM were determined using a clonogenic assay. The results show that medium harvested from cultures receiving fractionated irradiation gave lower “recovery factors” than direct fractionated irradiation, where normal split-dose recovery occurred. The recovery factor is defined here as the surviving fraction of the cells receiving two doses (direct or ICCM) separated by an interval of 2 h divided by the surviving fraction of cells receiving the same dose in one exposure. After treatment with ICCM, the recovery factors were less than 1 over a range of total doses from 5 mGy–5 Gy. Varying the time between doses from 10 min to 180 min did not alter the effect of ICCM, suggesting that two exposures to ICCM are more toxic than one irrespective of the dose used to generate the response. In certain protocols using mixtures of direct irradiation and ICCM, it was possible to eliminate the bystander effect. If bystander factors are produced in vivo, then they may reduce the sparing effect of the dose fractionation.
A multiple micellar pseudophase model of kinetics in aqueous surfactant solutions is described. The model has been developed using the transition state pseudoequilibrium constant approach. The advantage of this approach is that no assumptions are made about the nature of the micelle pseudophases. The kinetics of the reduction of pernonanoic and 3-chloroperbenzoic acids by iodide in SDS, Brij-35 and Triton X-100 are reported. The results are used to obtain the micellar association constants of the peracids and also the apparent (virtual) micellar association constants of the transition states. These are compared with the micellar association constants of the parent acids, obtained by pH titration. The association constants are discussed in terms of micellar catalysis and inhibition. Ratios of association constants indicate the relationship between initial, transition and final states.
Abstract The imprint mechanism in ferroelectric capacitors is a well known cause for ferroelectric memory cell failure. Various test methodologies for accelerating the imprint effect for failure point due to imprint predictions have been proposed. These methods include testing the sample at elevated temperature, biasing the sample at elevated temperature, and fatigue cycling the sample prior to and during imprint testing. A parametric study was conducted using various test conditions to determine which conditions or combination of conditions had the greatest effect on the measured imprint rate. Data will be presented to show the relationships between the test method used and the measured imprint rate. A figure of merit which can be used for comparisons of the imprint rate of multiple test samples as well as failure point prediction will also be presented.
Three compounds associating for the first time polyoxotungstates, bisphosphonates, and copper ions were structurally characterized. They consist in heteropolyanionic monodimensional materials where [Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4](4-) (Ale = alendronate = [O3PC(O)(C3H6NH3)PO3](4-)) complexes alternate with polyoxometalate (POM) units. In Na12[{SiW9O34Cu3(Ale)(H2O)}{Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4}]·50H2O (SiW9CuAle), the polyoxometalate core consists in a {SiW9Cu3} monomer capped by a pentacoordinated Ale ligand, while sandwich-type Keggin {(SbW9O33)2Cu3(H2O)(2.5)Cl(0.5)} and Dawson {(P2W15O56)2Cu4(H2O)2} complexes are found in Na8Li29[{(SbW9O33)2Cu3(H2O)(2.5)Cl(0.5)}2{Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4}3]·163H2O (SbW9CuAle) and Na20[{(P2W15O56)2Cu4(H2O)2}{Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4}]·50H2O (P2W15CuAle), respectively. A comparative magnetic study of the SiW9CuAle and SbW9CuAle compounds enabled full quantification of the Cu(II) superexchange interactions both for the POM and non-POM subunits, evidencing that, while the paramagnetic centers are anti-ferromagnetically coupled in the polyoxometalate units, both anti-ferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions coexist in the {Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4} cluster. All the studied compounds present a good efficiency upon the reduction of HNO2 or NO2(-), the POM acting as a catalyst. However, it has been found that SbW9CuAle is inactive toward the reduction of nitrates, highlighting that both the {(SbW9O33)2Cu3} unit and the {Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4} cluster do not act as electrocatalysts for this reaction. In contrast, SiW9CuAle and P2W15CuAle have shown a significant activity upon the reduction of NO3(-) and thus both at pH 1 and pH 5, evidencing that the chemical nature of the polyoxometalate is a crucial parameter even if it acts as precatalyst. Moreover, comparison of the activities of P2W15CuAle and [(P2W15O56)2Cu4(H2O)2](16-) evidenced that if the [Cu6(Ale)4(H2O)4](4-) cluster does not act as electrocatalyst, it acts as a cofactor, significantly enhancing the catalytic efficiency of the active POM.
Oleoyl-estrone (OE) decreases appetite, maintains energy expediture, induces lipolysis (sparing protein), and decreases cholesterolemia and insulin resistance. Rimonabant (SR141716) is a cannabinoid-receptor inhibitor that decreases appetite and mobilizes fat. We studied whether their combination improves their slimming effects. Male overweight rats received daily gavages of 5.3 mg/kg OE, 10 mg/kg rimonabant, or both drugs during 10 days. Body weight and composition, energy balance, adipose tissue weight, and serum hormones and metabolites were measured. OE halved food intake and maintained energy expenditure at the expense of body fat. Rimonabant effects on appetite and energy balance were less marked, resulting in lower lipid mobilization. OE and rimonabant followed the OE pattern, with no additive or synergic effects. Glycemia was maintained, but OE decreased insulin, GLP-1, and cholesterol, whilst rimonabant increased cholecystokinin and cholesterol, and decreased NEFA. Both drugs decreased leptin and triacylglycerols; ghrelin was unchanged. The results hint at different mechanisms of action of both drugs: we can assume that OE effects do not involve the cannabinoid pathway. OE does not seem to act, either, after 10 days, through the secretion of ghrelin or the intestinal appetite-controlling peptides tested.
Blocking chemokine production or action is a major target for pharmacological intervention in different human diseases. Bindarit (2-methyl-2-[[1-(phenylmethyl)-1H-indazol-3yl]methoxy]propan oic acid) dose-dependently inhibited MCP-1 and TNF-alpha production induced in vitro in monocytes by LPS and Candida albicans. It did not affect the production of the cytokines IL-1, IL-6, or the chemokines IL-8, MIP-1alpha and RANTES. In the air pouch model in mice, oral treatment reduced monocyte recruitment and local MCP-1 production, induced by carrageenan or IL-1 injection. In NZB/W mice, a model of lupus nephritis, oral treatment prolonged survival and delayed the onset of proteinuria. The results presented here show that bindarit is a preferential inhibitor of the production of MCP-1 in vitro and in vivo and suggest that its beneficial effects in models of joint and kidney inflammation are related to its anti-MCP-1 action. It is therefore possible to selectively and differentially regulate chemokines by targeting their production with small synthetic molecules.
This paper introduces Ir(I)(CO)2(pyalc) (pyalc = (2-pyridyl)-2-propanoate) as an atom-efficient precursor for Ir-based homogeneous oxidation catalysis. This compound was chosen to simplify analysis of the water oxidation catalyst species formed by the previously reported Cp*Ir(III)(pyalc)OH water oxidation precatalyst. Here, we present a comparative study on the chemical and catalytic properties of these two precursors. Previous studies show that oxidative activation of Cp*Ir-based precursors with NaIO4 results in formation of a blue Ir(IV) species. This activation is concomitant with the loss of the placeholder Cp* ligand which oxidatively degrades to form acetic acid, iodate, and other obligatory byproducts. The activation process requires substantial amounts of primary oxidant, and the degradation products complicate analysis of the resulting Ir(IV) species. The species formed from oxidation of the Ir(CO)2(pyalc) precursor, on the other hand, lacks these degradation products (the CO ligands are easily lost upon oxidation) which allows for more detailed examination of the resulting Ir(pyalc) active species both catalytically and spectroscopically, although complete structural analysis is still elusive. Once Ir(CO)2(pyalc) is activated, the system requires acetic acid or acetate to prevent the formation of nanoparticles. Investigation of the activated bis-carbonyl complex also suggests several Ir(pyalc) isomers may exist in solution. By (1)H NMR, activated Ir(CO)2(pyalc) has fewer isomers than activated Cp*Ir complexes, allowing for advanced characterization. Future research in this direction is expected to contribute to a better structural understanding of the active species. A diol crystallization agent was needed for the structure determination of 3.
In the human, normal growth appears to occur in two phases: prepuberal growth, hypothesized as being entirely referable to pituitary growth hormone, and puberal growth referable to steroid growth promoting factors from the gonads and the adrenal cortex (Kinsell et at., 1948). Nitrogen retention and protein anabolic effects of testosterone and its derivatives, methyltestosterone and particularly testosterone propionate have received considerable attention, and, although much factual information has been obtained (Kochakian, 1946, 1950), elucidation of the mechanism of these effects is still awaited. Technical procedures and mathematical treatment developed by Sprinson and’Rittenberg (1949) and Hoberman (1949–50) for assessing protein and amino acid metabolism in terms of rates of protein synthesis, amino acid catabolism, and size of the nitrogen pool have been utilized in characterizing and quantitating the over-all mechanisms involved in nitrogen storage induced in the adult female dog with anterior pitui...
A numerical mathematical model is described on the steam-flood process which depends on fewer restrictive assumptions than models previously reported, but the solution of which is economically obtained. Example calculations are presented which, on comparison with experimental results, tend to validate the model. Results which expose certain process mechanics are discussed. The model describes the simultaneous flow of 3 phases--oil, water, and gas--in one dimension. It includes the effects of 3-phase relative permeabilities, capillary pressure, and temperature- and pressure-dependent fluid properties. Interphase mass transfer of water-steam is allowed, but the oil is assumed nonvolatile and the hydrocarbon gas insoluble in the liquid phases. The model allows heat convection in one dimensional and 2-dimensional heat conduction in a vertical cross section spanning the oil sand and adjacent strata. The hydrocarbon-steam gas composition is tracked, but the effect of gas composition on water-steam phase behavior is neglected. The model is solved numerically in 3 separate stages. (12 refs.)
The application of a low-background neutron autoradiographic technique for determining 10B concentration and intracellular distribution in mammalian tissue is described. Knowledge of 10B concentration and distribution on a cellular level is necessary to evaluate the effects of irradiation when using the 10B(n,alpha)7Li reaction in experimental therapeutic procedures. Conventional boron analysis is not capable of extracting this information. The use of freeze-dried tissues, dry-mounted on nuclear emulsion, makes the technique applicable to water-soluble compounds used in previous clinical trials, as well as to water-insoluble proteins. Absolute concentrations of 10B in the form of sodium pentaborate were measured in mouse spleen, liver, kidney, muscle, tumor, and brain, 30 minutes after intraperitoneal injection, and compared to results from three other laboratories using conventional analysis. Boron concentrations similar to those used in previous clinical trials were evaluated to demonstrate the feasibility of the method. No intranuclear or extracellular concentration was observed; evidence is given to demonstrate the absence of leaching of the water-soluble compound. The method described will be useful in evaluating the newer boron compounds attached to proteins. The intracellular distribution of these compounds is of particular interest, since it is not clear that all proteins are capable of penetrating cell walls.
The use of mineral phosphate fertilizers associated with organic residues can improve fertilizer use efficiency and consequently decrease their usage costs. Soil application of filter cake (FC) can provide nutrients and enhance physical quality. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different phosphate fertilizers [rock phosphate (RP) and triple superphosphate (TSP)] applied at different rates (90 and 180 kg ha-1 P2O5) associated with filter cake (10 Mg ha-1 dry matter) on the soil phosphorus (P) fractions after two consecutive seasons of sugarcane in two distinct soils, sandy and clayey. Yield was significantly improved with FC addition in the first year in both soils, while inorganic P sources did not influence crop yield at either location and in both years. Organic and residual P forms were only slightly altered in the sandy soil. The most significant changes occurred in the labile and moderately labile P fractions in both soils. Filter cake was an effective source of nutrients for plant development, increasing the levels of soil available P and keeping it at agronomically adequate levels for up to two years, however it was not able to facilitate the P release from mineral fertilizers, irrespective of the source or rate.
The UV absorption cross-sections of methyl, ethyl and  isopropyl nitrate between 233 and 340 nm have been measured  using a diode array spectrometer in the temperature range  240–360 K. The absorption cross-sections of these  alkyl nitrates decrease with increasing wavelength and  decrease with decreasing temperature for λ>280 nm.  The photodissociation quantum yield for  CH   3  ONO   2   to produce NO   2   and  CH   3  O was found to be essentially unity at 248 nm  using transient UV absorption methods. Production of O and H  atoms in the photodissociation of methyl nitrate at 248 and  308 nm were found to be negligible using resonance  fluorescence detection of the atoms. High quantum yields for  O atoms were measured following 193 nm photolysis of methyl  nitrate. The OH radical was measured to be a photoproduct  with a very small quantum yield. Using the OH rate  coefficients reported in the accompanying paper and the UV  absorption cross-sections and the photodissociation quantum  yields measured here, the first-order rate constants for  atmospheric loss of methyl, ethyl and isopropyl nitrate were  calculated. Photolysis was found to be the dominant  atmospheric loss process for the three alkyl nitrates.
This work describes an efficient, simple, and ecofriendly sonochemical procedure for the preparation of new α-(arylamino)acetonitrile derivatives C-substituted with phenothiazine or ferrocene units. The synthetic protocol is based on the Strecker reaction of a (hetero)aryl aldimine substrate with trimethylsilyl cyanide (TMSCN) in poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) solution. The advantages of the sonochemical versus the conventional α-(arylamino)acetonitrile synthesis are the significantly shorter reaction time (30 min instead of 72 hours), the higher purity and the easier separation of the product that precipitated from the reaction mixture in crystalline form as depicted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis disclosed the arrangement of the α-(arylamino)acetonitrile molecules in the aggregated crystalline state as a racemic mixture. The mutagenic/antimutagenic potential for three representative derivatives containing phenothiazinyl, ferrocenyl, and phenyl units, respectively, was evaluated by the Ames Salmonella/microsome test using S. typhimurium TA98 and TA100 strains with and without metabolic activation. The preliminary screening results pointed out that the C-(hetero)aryl-α-(arylamino)acetonitrile derivatives can be considered genotoxically safe and possibly antimutagenic.
This in-vitro study evaluated the microleakage of Class V restorations prepared using 10 per cent maleic acid and a composite resin. Thirty human premolar teeth were evenly distributed and randomly assigned to three groups. Conventional retentive preparations, etched with 10 per cent maleic acid for either 15, 30, or 60 seconds, were cut in the enamel on the facial surface of each tooth to a 1.5 mm depth (dentin). All teeth were restored with Z-100, a small particle composite resin. The teeth were then stored in deionized water for seven days, thermocycled, stained with methylene blue dye, invested, and sectioned vertically through the centre of the restoration. Leakage was established along each wall of the sectioned restoration. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests indicate that the restored teeth in Group 1 (15-second etch) had significantly greater microleakage (p < 0.05) on the enamel wall than the restored teeth in Group 2 (30-second etch) or Group 3 (60-second etch). In addition, Group 1 restorations had significantly greater overall microleakage (p < 0.05) than Group 2 or Group 3 restorations. Although the results were not statistically significant, it would appear that etching with 10 per cent maleic acid for 30 seconds could be clinically significant. Since a 30-second etch time was found to produce the least amount of microleakage (not statistically significant), it can be assumed that this etch time would also be optimal for etching enamel and dentin. Similarly, since Group 1 revealed the most overall microleakage, it can be assumed that a 15-second etch would be inadequate for etching enamel and dentin. Restorations in Groups 2 and 3 displayed statistically significant lower overall microleakage results.
This study was conducted to investigate some biochemical characteristics of compound odontoma obtained from three cases, all found in the mandible. The results were compared with data obtained from deciduous teeth (3) and permanent teeth (3). The mole ratios of calcium to inorganic phosphorus (Ca/P) among three groups were deviated between 1.67 and 1.68 in the enamel extracts and between 1.65 and 1.69 in the dentine extracts. No significant differences were found in each case. Amino acid analysis of dentine showed apparent differences among these groups in the degrees of hydroxylation of proline (Hyp/Pro + Hyp) and of lysine (Hyl/Lys + Hyl). Hydroxylation rates of proline were 43.1 +/- 0.98% for the permanent teeth, 44.4 +/- 0.47% for the deciduous teeth and 40.9 +/- 0.44% for the odontoma. Hydroxylation rates of lysine were 32.0 +/- 0.67% for the permanent teeth, 27.3 +/- 0.0% for the deciduous teeth and 26.5 +/- 0.46% for the odontoma. T-test confirmed the significance of the differences between the permanent teeth and odontoma in the case of lysine (p less than 0.5%) and between the deciduous teeth and odontoma in the case of proline (p less than 0.5%). These results suggest the differential organization of dentine matrix between human permanent teeth, deciduous teeth and compound odontoma.
A differential chromatographic method for studying the preferential adsorption of solvent components by a small-molecule solute dissolved in the solvent mixture is described. In this method, the solvent mixture is used as an eluent and a solute solution prepared by dissolving the solute in the same solvent mixture is used as the injectant. By measuring the size of the free solvent peak, the preferential adsorption parameter λ_2, defined as the surplus weight of one solvent component in solvated solvent per unit weight of solute, can be obtained. The system of glycerol in a water-ethanol solvent mixture was investigated using this method. Preferential adsorption is negligible at concentrations of ethanol lower than 2% in the water-ethanol mixture. As the concentration of ethanol in the mixture increases, preferential adsorption behaves as follows: glycerol preferentially adsorbs ethanol at 5%, adsorbs water between 10% and 23%, and in the region of 30% to 60% adsorbs ethanol once again.
Absorption maxima and 13 C NMR chemical shifts were measured for retinal iminium salts. A good correlation was round between the absorption maxima and the 13 C chemical shifts or the retinal polyene carbons within the same solvent system. The chemical shifts or the odd-membered carbons or the polyene are affected much more than the even carbons by π-electron delocalization caused by perturbations in the Schiff base linkage vicinity
An efficient biomimetic synthesis of the reported structure of the hexacyclic, cytotoxic secondary metabolite FR182877 is described. The successful route features the synthesis of a 19-membered ring carbocycle using two pi-allyl palladium(II)-mediated C-C bond-forming reactions. This polyunsaturated macrocycle undergoes tandem transannular Diels-Alder reactions that create five rings and seven stereogenic centers in one operation under mild conditions, representing the first double transannular Diels-Alder reaction. The absolute stereochemistry of the natural product is demonstrated to be opposite of that reported previously. Significant quantities of both enantiomers of this microtubule-stabilizing natural product and related structures are now available via this approach.
Introduction Mechano-regulation algorithms have been proposed to explain tissue differentiation of precursor cells during osteogenesis. However, corroboration of these algorithms have shown to be difficult1-2, partly because repeatable experimental outcomes under controlled mechanical conditions are rarely available. During distraction osteogenesis (DO), a controlled displacement is used to regenerate large volumes of new bone.
The invention relates to the field of pharmaceutical preparations, especially to a cefixime granule and a one-step granulating method of the cefixime granule. The cefixime granule comprises the following components by weight: 1-20% of cefixime, 56-95% of diluent, 0.5-1.0% of a buffer agent, 0.5-10% of adhesive and 0.1-5% of flavoring. The cefixime granule has the advantages of good quality stability, good suspension property and good content uniformity, and good taste simultaneously, so that the cefixime granule is especially suitable for children and crowd of dysphagia, and medication compliance is good. A preparation method of the cefixime granule further is provided by the invention; due to use of the one-step granulating method, steps of mixing, granulating and drying are finished in the same one fluidized bed by one step; operation method is simple, and production efficiency is high, so that the preparation method is especially suitable for industrial production.
The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) as a relatively new numerical scheme has recently achieved considerable success in simulating fluid flows and associated transport phenomena. However, application of this method to heat transfer problems has been at a stage of infancy. In this work, a thermal lattice Boltzmann model is employed to simulate a two-dimensional, steady flow in a symmetric bifurcation under constant temperature and constant heat flux boundary conditions. The bifurcation effects on the heat transfer and fluid flow are investigated and comparisons are made with the straight tube. Also, different bifurcation angles are simulated and the results are compared with the work of the other researchers.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
It has been shown that calmodulin antagonists provide radio-protection in euoxic and sensitization in hypoxic conditions. This differential protection in euoxic conditions might have arisen from the interaction of calmodulin antagonists with oxygen free radicals. This possibility has been tested in the present communication. Radiation induced lipid peroxidation process in liposomes has been used for this purpose. Liposomes prepared from L-alpha-lecithin were irradiated with or without calmodulin antagonists. Calmodulin antagonists inhibited lipid peroxidation significantly. The inhibition was found to increase with increase in concentration of the drugs. These observations suggest that calmodulin antagonists have a capacity to scavenge oxygen free radicals involved in initiation and/or propagation of lipid peroxidation process. This may be the reason for their differential radioprotection in euoxic conditions in biological systems.
Eudragit L-100, a reversibly soluble-insoluble polymer, was used for the simultaneous immobilization of cellulase and xylanase from Trichoderma reesei. First, the effect of pH on the enzyme activity and the reversible solubility of carrier were studied. Then, the effects of carrier concentration and cross-linker (1-(3dimethylaminopropyl) -3 -ethylcarbodiimide hydrochlorid, EDC) concentration on the activity recovery of enzymes in immobilization process were investigated. It was shown that the cellulase had a stable activity in the pH range of 4.0 to 6.0. The pH for precipitation of carrier was increased by adding an appropriate amount of EDC, and the links between carriers and enzymes were strengthened accordingly. An activity recovery of 75% and 59% was obtained for cellulase and xylanase, respectively, under the condition of carrier con centration at 2%, EDC concentration at 0.1%, cellulase loading at 50 FPU and xylanase loading at 400 U in 50 mL carrier solution. After reused for 3 times, the activity recovery of cellulase and xylanse was still remained at 56% and 40%, respectively.
The growth of thick epitaxial 4H-SiC layers with low defect density is an essential step for the fabrication of SiC based devices. Cold- and hot-wall reactors using silane and propane diluted in hydrogen were used in this study. The typical growth temperature range is 1700-1900 K and total pressure range 10-100 kPa. The resulting epilayers exhibit low background doping, low defect density and good thickness uniformity. The main problem is that it is difficult with this first generation of reactors to ensure a good uniformity of deposition over large wafer dimension. A 3D simulation approach of heat and mass transfer was used with two objectives. The first one is to evaluate the electrical, thermal, transport and kinetic databases. The second one is to have a visualization and a quantification of the flow, temperature and gaseous species fields for a better understanding of engineering problems at elevated temperatures.
The JECFA Specification for gum arabic was revised in 1990 to reflect more closely the specification of the Test Article used in evaluations that led to its classification 'ADI not specified' in 1982/83. Some producers and traders have objected to the Revised Specification; in contrast, consumer-protection groups consider that it remains too lax to provide the degree of safety assurance expected. This paper presents analytical data that confirm the mean values previously established for nitrogen and the specific rotation of bulk commercial gum arabic from Acacia senegal. The data also establish that natural gum arabic imported into the USA and Europe in 1989/91 met the Revised Specification, but that a disturbingly high proportion of spray-dried, processed gums sold as 'gum arabic' did not. NMR spectroscopy has (a) indicated that some such samples are based on non-permitted gums and (b) confirmed that the 1983 Test Article represents not only typical 1990/91 shipments but also a wide range of reference gum arabic samples from other reputable sources. Details of a representative 13C-NMR spectrum, derived by averaging the relative intensities for the characteristic resonances of 35 gum arabic samples, are given for future regulatory/legislative purposes. Some limitations of the Revised Specification and its susceptibility to commercial exploitation are discussed.
The nuclear isomeric pair Te -> Te is a very suitable object for studies of annealing processes involving atoms activated byisomeric transition. Detailed investigations [1, 2] of the chemical effects accompanying this transition refer mostly to liquid systems, and as far as solids are concerned the question of the post-decay annealing reactions has not been studied until recently. Our preliminary results concerning the latter have already been reported [3]. Experimental work has been carried out since to determine how crystal defects introduced into Te-labelled sodium tellurate by various kinds of treatment influence the thermal annealing of Te atoms. After our experiments had been completed the work of A N D E R S E N et al. [4] came to our knowledge, which is concerned with the chemical consequences of the same isomeric transition in orthotelluric acid. The observations reported by the Danish authors are very similar to ours.
Esterification of cinnamic acid and cyclohexyl alcohol was studied by using p-toluenesulfonic acid as catalyst without water-carrying agent.The effect of different factors such as the mole ratio of alcohol to acid,reaction time and the amount of the catalyst on the yield of cyclohexyl cinnamate were discussed.The results showed that p-toluenesulfonic acid had good catalytic activity.The optimum conditions were as follows:when the amount of cinnamic acid was 0.02 mol,the mole ratio of alcohol to acid is 3.5 ∶1,reaction time was 1.0 h,the amount of the catalyst was 0.20 g,the yield can reach 95.4%.
The work presented in this paper is an attempt to evaluate the exhaust emission characteristics of a hydrogen-ethanol dual fuel combination with different percents of hydrogen substitutions (i.e. 0-80 % by volume and of 20 % increment ) at three different compression ratios of 7:1, 9:1 and 11:1. Experimental investigations have been carried out on a computer interfaced with; four-stroke cycle, single-cylinder, compression ignition (CI) engine, which was converted to spark ignition (SI) and carburetion, to suit ethanol fuel and a provision was made at the inlet manifold of the said engine to induct hydrogen gas. The effect of hydrogen substitutions on CO, HC, NOx emissions at 7, 9 and 11 compression ratios were determined. It was found that, at 100 % load, the percentage of hydrogen substitution varied from zero to 80 % and the NOX emissions increased by 58.62, 59.3, 62.74 % for 7, 9, 11 compression ratios respectively. When the effect of compression ratio changed from 7:1 to 11:1 the same change took place in the percentage of substitution which was a reduction of CO and HC by 30.4 and 21.67 %.
A sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to measure antibodies against capsular polysaccharide was developed, based on the enhanced binding of polysaccharide to polystyrene microtitration plates. The wells of the microtitration plate were primed with an adipic acid dihydrazide derivative of bovine serum albumin (AH-BSA) (100 micrograms/mL, 0.01 M NaPO4-0.14 M NaCl, pH 7.2 (PBS]. Capsular polysaccharide, the glucuronoxylomannan of Cryptococcus neoformans serotype A, was oxidized with NaIO4 for 5 min; the reaction was then quenched with ethylene glycol. The partially oxidized polysaccharide was dialyzed vs. PBS, and its concentration was adjusted to 50 micrograms/mL with PBS. This solution (100 microL/well) was covalently bound to the AH-BSA primed microtitration plates through formation of a Schiff base between the hydrazide group on the AH-BSA and the aldehyde groups on the polysaccharide. Antimouse IgG-alkaline phosphatase conjugate was used in an indirect ELISA to measure captured murine monoclonal antibodies directed against glucuronoxylomannan. Mean absorbances, after 15 min, were 0.13 in negative control wells, and greater than 0.7 in test wells. No intermediate steps were required to block nonspecific binding of antibody.
Abstract A procedure has been developed for the pulse polarographic determination of nanogram amounts of ortho-phosphate based on the reduction of molybdenum blue formed from 12-molydophosphate. The molybdenum blue is extracted into iso-amyl alcohol from acid solution, and the extract is then washed free of excess molybdate with dilute sulphuric acid. Finally, the molybdenum blue is back-extracted into a tartrate buffer and is pulse polarographed. Precise determinations can be made on 10 ng of PO4 3 ml−11 in the polarographed solution. Determinations have been made on standard and sample ortho-phosphate solutions at the 2 ng of PO4 3 ml−11 level by effecting a five-fold concentration at the extraction step.
All humans normally possess antibodies, predominantly IgM, that react specifically with the Thomsen-Friedenreich (T) and the Tn antigens which are present in immunoreactive form on > 85% of all human carcinomas, but not in healthy and otherwise diseased tissues. We report here a serological study of idiotype expression and antigen reactivity of the anti-T and anti-Tn antibodies. Idiotypy was analyzed with rabbit antibodies raised against, and made specific for, affinity-purified polyclonal anti-T and anti-Tn antibodies from blood group A1B healthy adult donors. Anti-T and anti-Tn antibodies cross-reacted idiotypically in spite of their distinct epitope specificities. By adsorbing anti-T antibodies on insolubilized synthetic T carbohydrate we could firmly link idiotype expression with antigen reactivity. The relation of idiotype expression to the antigen-binding site of plant seed lectins was also studied; one originated from Arachis hypogaea [peanut agglutinin (PNA)], the other from Artocarpus integrifolia (Jacalin). PNA inhibited only anti-T antibodies. Jacalin inhibited both anti-T and anti-Tn antibodies in a dose-dependent manner. Neither idiotypic nor anti-idiotypic antibodies diminished the binding of lectins to T and Tn epitopes. The shared idiotypes on natural anti-T and anti-Tn antibodies permit consideration of application of their anti-idiotypes in treatment and/or prevention of human carcinoma.
A method of determining immune receptor chains paired in a sample, the method comprising the steps of: (a) dividing a sample containing cells expressing pairs of chains immune receptor into a plurality of subsets; (B) determining the nucleotide sequences of a first string of each pair of chains immune cell receptor having such pairs in a portion of the plurality of subsets; (C) determining the nucleotide sequences of a second string of each pair of chains immune cell receptor with said pairs of the same portion of the plurality of subsets; (D) identifying as chains immune receiver matched pairs of first chains and second chains (i), for each subset portion or exist together or not exist and (ii) exist together in at least a subset of the portion and do not exist in at least a subset of the portion.
Chitosan (CS)-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cross-linked with sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) and modified with sulfonated polyethersulfone (SPES) mixed-matrix membranes are reported for their application in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Polyethersulfone (PES) is sulfonated by chlorosulfonic acid and factors affecting the sulfonation reaction, such as time and temperature, are studied. The ion-exchange capacity, degree of sulfonation, sorption, and proton conductivity for the mixed-matrix membranes are investigated. The mixed-matrix membranes are also characterised for their mechanical and thermal properties. The methanol-crossover flux across the mixed-matrix membranes is studied by measuring the mass balance of methanol using the density meter. The methanol cross-over for these membranes is found to be about 33% lower in relation to Nafion-117 membrane. The DMFC employing CS-PVA-SPES mixed-matrix membrane with an optimum content of 25 wt % SPES delivers a peak power-density of 5.5 mW cm-2 at a load current-density of 25 mA cm-2 while operating at 70 degrees C. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012
We demonstrate that a tripeptide hydrogelator, Nap-FFG, can selectively self-assemble at the surface of platelets, thus inhibiting ADP-, collagen-, thrombin- and arachidonic acid (AA)-induced human platelet aggregations with the IC(50) values of 0.035 (41), 0.14 (162), 0.062 (68), and 0.13 mg/mL (148 μM), respectively. Other tripeptide hydrogelators with chemical structures of Nap-FFX (X = A, K, S, or E) could not or possessed less potencies to inhibit platelet aggregations. We observed higher amounts of Nap-FFG at the platelet surface by the techniques of LC-MS and confocal microscopy. We also observed self-assembled nanofibers around the platelet incubated with the Nap-FFG by cryo-TEM. The ζ potential of Nap-FFG treated platelets was a little bit more negative than that of untreated ones. The amount of Nap-FFG at the surface of NIH 3T3 cells was much less than that of platelets. These observations suggested that Nap-FFG could selectively self-assemble through unknown ligand-receptor interactions and form thin layers of hydrogels at the surface of platelets, thus preventing the aggregation of them. This study not only broadened the application and opened up a new door for biomedical applications of molecular hydrogels but also might provide a novel strategy to counteract infection diseases through selective surface-induced hydrogelations at pathogens, such as bacteria and virus.
Increased arginase activity contributes to airway nitric oxide (NO) deficiency in cystic fibrosis (CF). Whether down-stream products of arginase activity contribute to CF lung disease is currently unknown. The objective of this study was to test whether L-ornithine derived polyamines are present in CF airways and contribute to airway pathophysiology. Polyamine concentrations were measured in sputum of patients with CF and in healthy controls, using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The effect of spermine on airway smooth muscle mechanical properties was assessed in bronchial segments of murine airways, using a wire myograph. Sputum polyamine concentrations in stable CF patients were similar to healthy controls for putrescine and spermidine but significantly higher for spermine. Pulmonary exacerbations were associated with an increase in sputum and spermine levels. Treatment for pulmonary exacerbations resulted in decreases in arginase activity, L-ornithine and spermine concentrations in sputum. The changes in sputum spermine with treatment correlated significantly with changes in L-ornithine but not with sputum inflammatory markers. Incubation of mouse bronchi with spermine resulted in an increase in acetylcholine-induced force and significantly reduced nitric oxide-induced bronchial relaxation. The polyamine spermine is increased in CF airways. Spermine contributes to airways obstruction by reducing the NO-mediated smooth muscle relaxation.
Using a laser generator and by excitation of transitions of energy bands of molecular oxygen, it causes fluorescence of oxygen is measured intensities of fluorescence induced in two different bands, the ratio of these intensities and we deduce the temperature is determined. Is excited over a slice of great depth (c (tau + tau / 2)) two absorption lines (R, R ') which at least overlap and which belong respectively to two different Schumann-Runge bands of oxygene.La the emission line (L) of the laser generator has a very small width compared with that of the absorption lines and its central frequency (omegao / 2pi) is adjusted to be substantially in the vicinity of the maxima of the two lines absorption (R, R ').
Thermodynamic analyses can provide key insights into the origins of protein self-assembly on surfaces, protein function, and protein stability. However, obtaining quantitative measurements of thermodynamic observables from unbiased classical simulations of peptide or protein adsorption is challenging because of sampling limitations brought on by strong biomolecule/surface binding forces as well as time scale limitations. We used the parallel tempering metadynamics in the well-tempered ensemble (PTMetaD-WTE) enhanced sampling method to study the adsorption behavior and thermodynamics of several explicitly solvated model peptide adsorption systems, providing new molecular-level insight into the biomolecule adsorption process. Specifically studied were peptides LKα14 and LKβ15 and trpcage miniprotein adsorbing onto a charged, hydrophilic self-assembled monolayer surface functionalized with a carboxylic acid/carboxylate headgroup and a neutral, hydrophobic methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer surface. Binding free energies were calculated as a function of temperature for each system and decomposed into their respective energetic and entropic contributions. We investigated how specific interfacial features such as peptide/surface electrostatic interactions and surface-bound ion content affect the thermodynamic landscape of adsorption and lead to differences in surface-bound conformations of the peptides. Results show that upon adsorption to the charged surface, configurational entropy gains of the released solvent molecules dominate the configurational entropy losses of the bound peptide. This behavior leads to an apparent increase in overall system entropy upon binding and therefore to the surprising and seemingly nonphysical result of an apparent increased binding free energy at elevated temperatures. Opposite effects and conclusions are found for the neutral surface. Additional simulations demonstrate that by adjusting the ionic strength of the solution, results that show the expected physical behavior, i.e., peptide binding strength that decreases with increasing temperature or is independent of temperature altogether, can be recovered on the charged surface. On the basis of this analysis, an overall free energy for the entire thermodynamic cycle for peptide adsorption on charged surfaces is constructed and validated with independent simulations.
In the past ten years there have been significant advances in the theoretical and experimental analysis of high-voltage gas breakdown and surface flashover of insulators in compressed gases. This has probably been fostered by the recent growth in the design and application of gas-insulated high-voltage equipment. The review describes the characteristics of compressed-gas breakdown, including the effects of failure of Paschen's law; conditioning; electrode area; material and surface; breakdown-voltage distribution; particle contamination; voltage waveform; temperature; and gas mixtures. The insulator-flashover characteristics are then described, including the effects of insulator-electrode interface; insulator material; insulator shape; voltage waveform; charge generation; particle contamination; surface contamination; conditioning; flashover distribution; and dependence on type of gas. The various mechanisms proposed for gas breakdown and insulator flashover are reviewed and discussed in relation to the experimental characteristics. Future theoretical and experimental work is suggested to clarify the gas-breakdown and insulator-flashover mechanisms, and which would also help bring about the design of improved high-voltage gas-insulated systems.
Granulocyte (PMN) concentrates collected for transfusion to septic, neutropenic patients are stored in the blood bank for various periods of time before they are given. Current methods of blood bank storage of PMN concentrates are associated with impaired in vitro PMN chemotaxis (CTX) and in vivo recovery and circulation kinetics after 24 hours of storage. This suggested the possibility that PMN may become hyperadherent during storage. To test this hypothesis, PMN concentrates were harvested and stored at both 22 and 6° C and their adherence properties to relevant biologic surfaces, endothelial cell (EC) monolayers, and extracellular matrix (ECM) derived from endothelium were measured. Adherence was measured within 4 hours of collection and after 24 and 48 hours of storage. The aggregation properties of fresh and stored PMN were also studied. The adherence of fresh, unstimulated PMN to EC and ECM (31 ± 5% and 34 ± 4%, respectively) increased significantly after storage for 24 hours (EC = 41 ± 8%; ECM = 43 ± 4%) at 22° C. F‐Met‐Leu‐Phe (FMLP) stimulated the adherence of fresh PMN (EC = 37 ± 4%; ECM = 42 ± 4%; p < 0.05). The adherence of PMN stored at 22° C was further stimulated by FMLP (EC = 46 ± 6%; ECM = 50 ± 4%). PMN stored at 6° C had significantly higher adherence than PMN stored at 22° C, and the percentage of increase in adherence induced by FMLP was attenuated in PMN stored at 6° C. Also in contrast to PMN stored at 22° C, PMN stored at 6° C aggregated spontaneously when warmed to 37° C and had an apparent decrease in their aggregation responses to FMLP. These studies indicate that short‐term liquid storage of PMN is accompanied by the development of hyperadherence and a tendency to spontaneous aggregation, particularly in PMN stored at 6° C. These changes may be responsible for the diminished in vitro PMN chemotactic function and the in vitro recovery, circulation, and migration of PMN after storage.
A new rhodium complex was obtained using tridecylamine as the ligand. The procedure was carried out with relatively simple equipment and under mild conditions of pressure and temperature. The complex so obtained showed similar activity and higher sulfur resistance than the Wilkinson's complex in heterogeneous conditions for the hydrogenation of cyclohexene to cyclohexane at low values of pressure and temperature. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) results indicated that the tridecylamine molecule is present in the coordination sphere of the rhodium complex. Elemental microanalysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results suggested that the complex formula is [RhCl(NH2(CH2)12CH3)3]; XPS also suggested that the complex suffered an insertion of a sulfur atom into the rhodium coordination sphere after poisoning with tetrahydrothiophene.
A numerical model of gravity sedimentation and thickening was developed from the governing two-phase flow equations for the liquid and solid phases. The inertial and gravity terms in the solid and liquid momentum equations were retained in the gravity sedimentation and thickening model. An implicit, space-staggered finite-difference algorithm was developed for the resulting coupled partial differential equations. Constitutive relationships describing the physical properties of the slurry were required to solve the numerical model. These constitutive properties describing the relationship between effective stress and porosity and between permeability and porosity were determined experimentally and by model calibration. The model was calibrated and verified using the data of dynamic porosity profiles of gravity sedimentation and thickening of kaolin suspensions in distilled water.
Trace nitrite can produce great catalysis in the oxidation of basic fuchsin with KBrO3 in H3PO4 and heated.The reaction conditions were studied,the kinetic parameters were determined,and the determination method for trace nitrite was established.The detection limit is 1.38×10-9g·mL-1 in the linear range of 1.38—69.00μg·L-1.This method can be used to determine the trace nitrite in water and saliva with satisfactory results.
Three mammalian lipoxygenases have been reported to date. They catalyze the insertion of oxygen at positions 5, 12, and 15 of various 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids. In the case of arachidonic acid, the immediate products are hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HPETEs). HPETEs can undergo different transformations. One reaction is a reduction of the hydroperoxy group yielding the corresponding hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs). In the neutrophils, the major pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism is the 5-lipoxygenase. In these cells the 5-HPETE undergoes a cyclization reaction leading to a 5(6)-epoxy(oxido)eicosatetraenoic acid or leukotriene A4. The 5(6)-epoxy fatty acid can undergo three additional transformations: (a) a nonenzymatic hydrolysis to epimeric dihydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (diHETEs); (b) stereospecific enzymatic hydrolysis to a specific diHETE, leukotriene B4; or (c) ring opening by reduced glutathione (GSH) to yield a peptidolipid, named leukotriene C4, in which GSH is attached via a sulfoether linkage. The leukotrienes constitute a group of biologically active substances probably involved in allergic and inflammatory reactions. The 5(6)-epoxy-eicosatetraenoic acid and the products derived from it contain a conjugated triene unit; the term leukotriene also denotes the cells (leukocytes) recognized to form these products, mainly the neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, monocytes, mast cells, and macrophages. In the present article various aspects of the biochemistry of the lipoxygenase pathways of neutrophils are reviewed.
This study aimed to examine the effect of L-ornithine hydrochloride ingestion on lipid oxidation during submaximal endurance exercise following resistance exercise. Ten healthy young male adults with no history of regular resistance exercise (age: 26.0 +/- 4.4) conducted resistance exercise after L-ornithine hydrochloride or placebo ingestion (0.1 g/kg). Subjects exercised for 60 min on an ergometer at 50% VO2peak 120 min after resistance exercise. Plasma ornithine concentrations measured immediately, 120min and 180min after resistance exercise in the L-ornithine hydrochloride ingestion condition were significantly greater than those in the placebo condition. No significant difference was found in serum growth hor mone concentrations between both conditions (F = 4.4, p = 0.065). Serum free fatty acid concentrations were significantly greater immediately after submaximal ergometer bicycle exercise in both conditions than those before ingestion, immediately after resistance exercise and 120min after resistance exercise (F = 43.4, p .001, 300% - 508%), but no significant difference was found between both conditions (F = 3.6, p = 0.090). A similar trend was observed in serum ketone bodies as well. Although total energy production during submaximal ergometer exercise did not significantly differ (t = 0.74, p = 0.238), a significant difference was found in energy production via carbohydrate and lipid oxidation; the former was greater in the Lornithine hydrochloride ingestion condition (t = 1.89, p = 0.046, d = 0.44, 106%), and the latter was greater in the placebo condition (t = 1.89, p = 0.046, d = 0.78%, 145%). From the above, L-ornithine hydrochloride ingestion may not affect lipid metabolism during submaximal endurance exercise following resistance exercise. It may be involved in energy production via carbohydrate oxidation with glucogenic amino acid.
Consistency between density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experimental observations confirmed our predictions on the behaviour of local bonds, and the electron binding energy of cuboctahedral and Marks decahedral structures of Ag and Cu nanoclusters. The shorter and stronger bonds between under-coordinated atoms cause local densification and quantum entrapment of the core electrons, which polarize the otherwise conducting electrons (valence electrons). Such strong localization may result in extraordinary catalytic and plasmonic properties in Ag and Cu nanoclusters.
The three basic types of biological treatment systems for the control of volatile organic compounds in air streams are the following: biofilters, in which microorganisms grow on a medium, such as soil, compost, peat, or mixtures of these materials with wood chips or polystyrene particles; suspended-growth bioscrubbers, in which microorganisms are suspended in a liquid; and fixed-film bioscrubbers, in which microorganisms are attached to a packing material. Design and application of biological treatment methods for air pollution control are difficult because only limited experimental data and few theoretical models are available. This paper utilizes an engineering simulation model of a fixed-film bioscrubber to investigate the applicability, removal efficiency, operational parameters, and design requirements for gaseous waste streams. Model results indicate that the removal efficiencies can be increased by increasing the column height, decreasing the superficial gas velocity or the superficial liquid veloc...
ABSTRACT This paper presents an alternative process for the conventional zinc electrowinning, which consists of a cell of two compartments separated by a anion exchange membrane.One of them contains a zinc sulphate catholyte and sulfuric acid while the anolyte solution contains ferrous sulfate and sulfuric acid.By using a membrane the classical lead anode may be replaced, as well as the main oxidation reaction of water, for that of the ferrous ion to ferric ion.This leads to significant savings in specific energy consumption of the overall process and eliminates the classic problem of acid mist in electrowinning cells.The results show that the proposed process consumes 30% less cell potential compared to conventional electrowinning cell. Keywords: zinc, electro-winning, reactive electrodialysis. e-mail:gerardo.cifuentes@usach.cl INTRODUCTION The process of obtaining zinc from zinc sulfide ore consists of 4 stages, according to Figure 1.1: roasting, leaching, purification and electrolysis.
A rise in pHw of three mineral soils was obtained with Al precipitated sludge due to the decrease in exchangeable Al content. The content of organic matter complexed (AAA-EDTA extractable) Al increased in the soils. The sludges precipitated with Fe had no effect on soil pHw and exchangeable Al in comparison to the no sludge treatment. Ca sludge as well as lime stabilized sludges elevated soil pHw by 0.5–1.5 units. The increase in soil organic matter content obtained with sludges was only slight, Fe+Al sludges resulting in the highest increases. Extractable P content of soils treated with Al sludge was lower than that of soils treated with Fe+Al or Fe sludges. In limed soils (pHw 6.5) the P contents did not deviate. The greatest increase in soil extractable P content was obtained with Ca sludge.
Electrophilic reactive metabolite screening by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) is commonly performed during drug discovery and early-stage drug development. Accurate mass spectrometry has excellent utility in this application, but sophisticated data processing strategies are essential to extract useful information. Herein, a unified approach to glutathione (GSH) trapped reactive metabolite screening with high-resolution LC/TOF MS(E) analysis and drug-conjugate-specific in silico data processing was applied to rapid analysis of test compounds without the need for stable- or radio-isotope-labeled trapping agents. Accurate mass defect filtering (MDF) with a C-heteroatom dealkylation algorithm dynamic with mass range was compared to linear MDF and shown to minimize false positive results. MS(E) data-filtering, time-alignment and data mining post-acquisition enabled detection of 53 GSH conjugates overall formed from 5 drugs. Automated comparison of sample and control data in conjunction with the mass defect filter enabled detection of several conjugates that were not evident with mass defect filtering alone. High- and low-energy MS(E) data were time-aligned to generate in silico product ion spectra which were successfully applied to structural elucidation of detected GSH conjugates. Pseudo neutral loss and precursor ion chromatograms derived post-acquisition demonstrated 50.9% potential coverage, at best, of the detected conjugates by any individual precursor or neutral loss scan type. In contrast with commonly applied neutral loss and precursor-based techniques, the unified method has the advantage of applicability across different classes of GSH conjugates. The unified method was also successfully applied to cyanide trapping analysis and has potential for application to alternate trapping agents.
Based on a design strategy that has resulted in conjugated energetic materials, 3,3′-((1E,1′E)-(2,4,6-trinitro-1,3-phenylene)bis(ethane-2,1-diyl))bis(2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its nitrogen-rich salts were obtained and characterized via spectral and elemental analyses. These new molecules exhibit good thermal stability (Td = 268.4–311.3 °C), especially for hydrazinium salt 4c, which is comparable to that of the benchmark HNS. Also, they exhibit low impact sensitivity (>40 J), high density (1.67–1.88 g cm−3), acceptable detonation properties (7268–8527 m s−1, 26.7–34.1 GPa) and brisance parameters (103.9–144.4). The energetic properties of the salts suggest potential applications to new energetic materials.
The fumed silica model substrate Aerosil was trimethylsilylated to different extents and studied by the combination of IGC and 29Si CP-MAS-NMR. Dihydroxydisiloxane groups were shown to be chemically more reactive than monohydroxytrisiloxane groups. Chromatographic experiments showed that these groups play an important role in the adsorption of functionalized solutes. Apart from the lowering of the surf ace energy of the Aerosil phases, also the types and the magnitudes of the specific interactions of test components with residual silanols could be studied. It was shown that IGC gives complementary information on the physico-chemical nature of the chemical surface structures identified by 29Si CP-MAS-NMR.
The changes in molecular size distribution of rice starch during extrusion cooking and simple heating of rice flour were compared and the effect of subsequent enzyme treatment on the molecular size was examined. A single-screw extruder was used with varing feed moisture contents () and barrel temperatures (). An aluminium capsule immersed in oil bath () was used for the simple heat treatment of rice flour. In case of extrusion cooking the mechanical energy input varied sharply at around 23% moisture content of the feed. At the feed moisture content of , a significant molecular size reduction of rice starch was observed by the gel permeation chromatography using Sephacryl S-1000 gel. The intact starch molecules of above dalton were largely disintergrated by extrusion cooking of rice flour containing the moisture content less than 23%. It was mostly degraded further into the molecules having below dalton by treatment. But at the feed moisture content above 26% the starch did not show molecular size reduction either by extrusion cooking or by subsequent enzyme treatment. On the contrary little changes in molecular size of starch was occured by simple heating of rice flour containing the moisture less than 20%. but slight size reduction was observed at the moisture content above 23%, where the effect of was also observed.
This invention relates to a water in oil emulsion containing the stabilized ascorbic acid, alone or in mixture with another acid, such that the aqueous phase has an acidic pH value at most equal to 3 5, the emulsion containing an emulsifier consisting of dimethicone or alkyldimethiconecopolyol. This emulsion is used in the cosmetic, dermatological and / or veterinarian. The invention also relates to a cosmetic treatment process which consists in applying the emulsion on the skin.
A preliminary experiment was conducted for 12 different organic materials to examine the physical, physico-chemical and chemical properties for soil quality and soil fertility rehabilitations. The results show that, the animal dung samples: cow, donkey, goat and sheep have common physical properties. Similarly, it appeared that the house-refuse and ani-cro-ber (combination of all materials) have the same physical properties. Leaf samples (Acacia nilotica and Acacia. albida) are types of organic materials, which show some similarities in their textural appearances but differed significantly in term of structure. Millet husk, wood ash and wood husk show unique physical properties. However, it is reported that nitrogen content for all the animal materials is above 2% but show a practical variation in term of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Ani-cro-ber has the highest nitrogen content of 3.07% while wood-husk has very low content (0.98%). There is high potassium content in Acacia nilotica (2.01%), Acacia albida (1.87%) and ani-cro-ber (1.82%). Generally, with the exception of anicro-ber that has phosphorus content of 1.04%, all the remaining organic materials show low phosphorus contain of less than 1%. Calcium is high in ani-cro-ber (17.9%), wood ash (17.6%), and wood husk (16.3%), but very low in sheep dung (0.13%), cow dung (0.16%), millet husk (0.20%), goat dung (0.21%) and donkey dung (0.29%). Also, calcium is high in ani-cro-ber (5.39%), wood husk (4.11%), wood-ash (3.23%), and millet husk (2.88%). This finding suggests that organic materials should be widely used as good sources of essential soil nutrients and soil quality and soil fertility rehabilitations; and this is particularly important under poor soil condition.
An experimental study of the ion/molecule association reactions in mixtures of methyl halide and dimethyl sulfide has been performed. MS/MS metastable and collision-induced dissociation experiments were performed on each [C3H9SX]•+ association product (X = I, Br, Cl, F) in order to determine structural conformations and to investigate reaction fragmentation pathways. For X = I, Br, and Cl, a two-center three-electron atomic connectivity for the association adduct giving the following structure [CH3X∴S(CH3)2]+ was observed. For X = F, the data suggests an F−H−S-bonded association adduct, [CH2F−H−S(CH3)2]•+. Kinetic energy release distributions were measured for metastable products whenever possible. Furthermore, density functional theory and unimolecular kinetic modeling were carried out to further probe the potential energy surfaces of these radical cations.
1. The binding of [6,7-3H]oestradiol-17β to uteri has been studied by using sucrose-gradient analysis and also the property of oestradiol receptors to form insoluble complexes with protamine. 2. Protamine precipitates the 8S and part of the 4S oestradiol-binding proteins in uterine cytoplasm from mature rats. It does not precipitate the oestradiol-17β-binding proteins present in cytoplasm from non-target tissues or serum. No tritium-labelled material was precipitated by protamine after equilibration of [6,7-3H]oestradiol-17β with either serum albumin or phosvitin. 3. Protamine precipitated a small amount of progesterone but not testosterone or cortisol that had been equilibrated with uterine cytoplasm. It did not precipitate any tritium radioactivity from muscle cytoplasm that had been equilibrated with either [1,2-3H]testosterone sulphate or [1,2-3H]dehydroepiandrosterone. 4. A simple method has been devised for measuring binding constants of tissue extracts for [6,7-3H]oestradiol-17β, based on precipitation with protamine. Reasonable agreement was obtained between the values obtained by this method and those obtained by sucrose-gradient analysis. 5. This method has been used to study the effect of maturity, ovariectomy, adrenalectomy and hypophysectomy on the cytoplasmic binding of [6,7-3H]oestradiol-17β. None of these procedures affected the dissociation constant Kd or the number of binding sites/mg of cytoplasmic protein. When measured per uterus or per mg of DNA, ovariectomy and hypophysectomy decreased the number of binding sites. Adrenalectomy had no effect. 6. The properties of the 4S oestradiol-binding protein present in cytoplasm from mature uteri have been studied. It is not present in uteri from immature, ovariectomized, or hypophysectomized rats and it does not bind testosterone or cortisol. Unlabelled oestradiol-17β, U-11,100A, N-ethylmaleimide and N-bromosuccinimide all decrease the binding of [6,7-3H]oestradiol-17β to both 8S and 4S receptors. Binding to both 8S and 4S receptors decreases when oestradiol is transported to the nucleus. The 4S receptor is not the same as the 4S binding component formed by salt dissociation of the 8S receptor.
The cytotoxicity and physical properties of the pyrrolo[1,2-a] benzimidazole (PBI) and pyrrolo-[1,2-a]indole (PI) aziridinyl quinones were compared in order to assess the influence of the benzimidazole ring on antitumor activity and DNA reductive alkylation. Our studies show that the PI system possesses none of the cytotoxicity of the PBI systems. Unlike the PBIs, the PI system does not reductively alkylate DNA. Apparently, the benzimidazole ring favors reductive alkylation due to its electron deficient character compared to indole. In addition, the benzimidazole ring may provide the hydrogen bonding interactions required for the interaction with DNA. Our findings resulted in the elucidation of a PBI pharmacophore. Inspection of the literature revealed another drug sharing the PBI pharmacophore, 5-(1-aziridinyl)-3-(hydroxymethyl)- 2-(3-hydroxy-1-propenyl)-1-methyl-1H-indole-4,7-dione (EO9), which remarkably has cytotoxic properties similar to those of the PBIs.
Products based on Camellia sinensis plant include white, green, yellow, oolong and black tea. White and green tea present completely unfermented products, due to enzyme inactivation during production. Oolong and black tea are products in which deliberate oxidation of polyphenols is induced, while yellow tea presents the rarest and least investigated type of teas in which a slight oxidation might occur due to the lack of enzyme inactivation phase during production. All of these products present a very rich source of bioactive compounds, especially polyphenols, which impart positive health effects but there is a lack of data on their anti-microbial properties. Bioactive composition (total phenols and flavonoids) of tested teas was determined spectrophotometrically. Additionally, antioxidant capacity was determined using three different assays (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP). Antimicrobial activity was tested on following test microorganisms: Escherichia coli 3014, Staphylococcus aureus 3048, Candida albicans 11 and Salmonella sp. 3064, by disc-diffusion and turbidimetric method on microtiter plates. In total, nine different teas were tested in this study (white tea – Pai Mu Tan superior ; yellow tea – Yin zhen ; green tea – Matcha, Twinings, Gyokuro, Long Jing ; oolong – Formosa Fine oolong ; black tea – Twinings English breakfast, Pu erh). Among tested teas, Twinings green tea possessed the highest content of total phenols (2560, 23 mg/L GAE) and flavonoids (1920, 20 mg/L GAE), while Pu-erh showed the lowest contents (675, 36 and 185, 76 mg/L GAE, respectively). Antioxidant capacity was in compliance with total phenol and flavonoid content. Bacteriostatic activity of Twinings English breakfast black tea against Salmonella sp. 3064 and Gyokuro green tea against S. aureus 3048 was detected. The obtained results confirmed high polyphenolic content and antioxidant capacity of tested teas. Despite the high content of bioactive compounds in all samples, only the Twinings English breakfast (black tea) and Gyokuro (green tea) showed bacteriostatic properties.
Supramolecular dimer of water is the simplest of the small water clusters [(H2O)n, n = 2–10]. During the course of our work on supramolecular coordination networks of three-component systems (divalent metal ion, tridentate capping ligand, and ditopic carboxylate linker), a cyclic water dimer is found to be entrapped in the network of [Ni2(6-Mebpta)2(adc)2]·2H2O (1) (6-Mebpta = 2-methyl-N-((6-methylpyridin-2-yl)methyl)-N-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)propan-2-amine and adc = acetylenedicarboxylate). Based on the single-crystal structure of 1, the water dimer plays an important role in connecting the bis(adc) bridged dinickel synthons to form a one-dimensional (1D) supramolecular network. To emphasize the role of 6-Mebpta in the judicious choice of components for 1, one simple modification to it by having another methyl group in the second pendant pyridyl group to make 6,6′-Me2bpta (2-methyl-N,N-bis((6-methylpyridin-2-yl)methyl)propan-2-amine) did not allow the formation of any water cluster in [Ni(6,6′-Me2bpta)(adc)(H2O)]·H2O (2), where a different coordination environment around Ni(II) is also observed. Further quantification of the difference in supramolecular interactions observed in 1 and 2 has been assessed by Hirshfeld surface analysis. Both 1 and 2 are obtained in good yields at room temperature (methanol as solvent) and are further characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis.
Fluorine's content of acidic ammonium phosphate pulp affects the production of ammonium phosphate. In this paper an RBF |PLS networks model was proposed and used to measure fluorine's content. Experiment results indicated that the mean error of self |examination is 3.98 percent and the mean error of prediction is 5.43 percent. The model can be used to predict fluorine's content in the process of ammonium phosphate production.
SYNTHESIS 2012, 44, 677–685xx.xx.2012 Advanced online publication: 13.02.2012 DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1289697; Art ID: M102411SS © Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York Abstract: There are several alternative methods to Friedel–Crafts acylation for the synthesis of ketones. Among these methods, transition-metal-catalyzed acylation of arenes via C–H bond cleavage represents a direct and promising approach to access ketones, in view of the advantages of C–H bond activation; recent advances in the development of this area are summarized.
The influences of Pd sites and specific surface area on oxygen storage capacity (OSC) were investigated over a series of Pd/Ce0.67Zr0.33O2 and Ce0.67Zr0.33O2 samples by CO−He pulse and dynamic CO−O2 measurements at 300−550 °C. The results show that the rate and quantity of oxygen storage/release capacity are greatly enhanced by Pd support, showing a more prominent CO2 slope gradient and CO2 reduction peak than that of Ce0.67Zr0.33O2. The existence of Pd−(Ce,Zr)Ox (interface between Pd and ceria−zirconia mixed oxides) interaction is confirmed to be important for oxygen reduction. During the CO−He pulse, acceleration of oxygen reduction by Pd promotion is limited by the reducibility of the whole system. At low reducibility, Pd−(Ce,Zr)Ox interaction is evident for OSC. Conversely, when the reducibility reaches above 12%, Pd−(Ce,Zr)Ox interaction is less effective, ascribed to the bulk oxygen migration in ceria−zirconia becoming the rate-determining step of the reduction process. The experiments with dynamic ...
Objective To optimize the preparation process of Wushenxingnao dropping pills. Methods Wushenxingnao dropping pills were prepared by PEG 4000 and PEG 6000 as excipient,proportional liquid paraffin and simethicone as condensate. After single factor test was used to make sure the ratio of condensate, mass ratio of matrix,the orthogonal test was used to screen the drug-soup temperature,condensate temperature, dropping distance,mass ratio of drug and matrix on the influence of preparation technology. Results The optimized process of Wushenxingnao dropping pills was as follows: V(dimethyl silicone) ∶ V(liquid paraffin) = 2 ∶ 3,m(PEG4000) ∶ m(PEG6000) =1∶ 1,the temperature for the dropping mixture was 72 ℃,the temperature for cool aqueous was 5 ℃,dropping distance was 13 cm,m(active ingredients) ∶ m(matrix) = 1 ∶ 2,Good quality of Wushenxingnao dropping pill can be produced in the above process. Conclusion The optimum procedure is feasible and in accord with the quality standards of dropping pills of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.
To assess the robustness of various indoor air quality (IAQ) indices, we explored the possible role of reproducibility-induced variability in the measurements of different pollutants under similar sampling and emissions conditions. Polluted indoor conditions were generated by pan frying fish samples in a closed room. A total of 11 experiments were carried out to measure a list of key variables commonly used to represent indoor air pollution (IAP) indicators such as particulate matter (PM: PM1, PM2.5, PM10, and TSP) and a set of individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with some odor markers. The cooking activity conducted as part of our experiments was successful to consistently generate significant pollution levels (mean PM10: 7110 μg m−3 and mean total VOC (TVOC): 1400 μg m−3, resp.). Then, relative standard error (RSE) was computed to assess the reproducibility between different IAP paramters measured across the repeated experiments. If the results were evaluated by an arbitrary criterion of 10%, the patterns were divided into two data groups (e.g., <10% for benzene and some aldehydes and >10% for the remainders). Most noticeably, TVOC had the most repeatable results with a reproducibility (RSE) value of 3.2% (n = 11).
This investigation was performed to study the separation of ethylbenzene from para-xylene by azeotropic distillation. The apparatus consisted mainly of a fractionating column with a Corad condensing head, a refractometer, and a gas chromatograph. The entraining agents were chemical compounds that were available at a reasonable price, that boiled from about 40°C below to 20°C above the boiling point of ethylbenzene, and that contained active oxygen, nitrogen, or halogen atoms since compounds having these atoms are likely to azeotrope with ethylbenzene. For each entraining agent a mixture of the entraining agent and ethylbenzene was charged to the column and distilled. The overhead product, which should be the ethylbenzene-entrainer azeotrope, since all azeotropes formed were minimum boiling azeotropes, was analyzed to determine the azeotropic-composition, The usual method of analysis was reading the refractive index of the sample and then determining the composition from a previously prepared plot of refractive index versus composition. The charge to the column was then adjusted so that there was enough entrainer to azeotrope with all of the ethylbenzene present./Also, about as much para-xylene was added to the charge as there was ethylbenzene. This charge was distilled at total reflux for at least three hours. Then samples of the overhead and bottoms were analyzed for percent ethylbenzene and para-xylene on the gas chromatograph so that relative volatilities could be calculated using the Fenske equation. If the entrainers did not azeotrope with ethylbenzene, or if the azeotropes were less than 10% ethylbenzene* the entrainers were not used for a relative volatility determination. This method for determining azeotrope compositions seems to be reasonably good. The azeotropic composition between ethylbenzene and cellosolve found by this method at 640 mm. of mercury was 59 weight percent ethylbenzene. The literature(8) gives this azeotropic composition at 735 mm. of mercury as 56.7 weight percent ethylbenzene. The relative volatility between ethylbenzene and para-xylene using no entrainer was 1.037. The relative volatilities obtained from the best four entrainers were: 2-methyl butanol, 1.079; methyl isobutyl carbinol, 1.075; n-hexyl amine, 1.073; and methyl amyl alcohol, 1.073. The ratios of the number of plates needed to obtain 95% separation in the overhead and bottoms products using an entrainer to using no entrainer were .48, .50, .51, and .51, respectively for these entrainers.
Chemical investigation of a Dysidea sponge, collected at Siquijor, Philippines, has afforded two new sesquiterpenoid metabolites, which we have termed furodysin lactone (1) and pyrodysinoic acid (2). The known 3,6,11-trihydroxy-9,11-secoergostane-7,24(28)-dien-9-one (3) was also encountered. Structure elucidation of the isolated metabolites involved high-field 2-D NMR spectroscopy including (1)H-(1)H COSY, HSQC, and HMBC.
A method for soaking macromolecular crystals in ligand solutions is described in which a crystal is placed in a capillary. The length of the capillary is used to form a gradient of the ligand concentration. This set up reduces the crystal susceptibility to cracking. An often-used approach in crystal studies of protein complexes is to grow native protein crystals and then soak the crystals in an artificial mother liquor containing desired ligands in addition to the precipitant, buffer etc. This approach works because protein crystals contain large channels between the protein molecules which are filled with solvent. The ligand molecules are usually small enough to diffuse into the interior of protein crystals through these channels and to bind to the protein molecules. There are some caveats, however. The process of the exchange of mother liquor sometimes leads to crystal cracking and/or significant loss of the X-ray scattering power of the crystals. This could in some cases be related to crystal crushing by osmotic pressure, especially when high-ionic-strength precipitant is exchanged for polyglycols (Ray, Puvathingal, Bolin, Minor, Liu & Muchmore, 1991). More often, however, crystal cracking is due to changes in the unit-cell dimensions that result from conformational adjustments induced by ligand binding to the protein molecules and subsequent changes in intermolecular contacts. If we consider the process of crystal soaking, a ligand molecule entering a solvent channel in the crystal may either bind to one of the binding sites on the protein molecules forming the channel or progress inwards through the maze of the channels. A competition between these two processes will lead to a gradient of ligands bound to protein molecules. If there is a unit-cell change connected with ligand binding, this gradient will lead to different unit-cell dimensions in the outer parts of the crystal and in the interior and in consequence will cause crystal strain and cracking and/or increased mosaicity. In many cases, ligand binding is a reversible process and one way to avoid crystal cracking is to use initially a very low concentration of the ligand, wait until equilibrium is reached, and gradually increase the ligand concentration. In some applications up to 40 exchanges of mother liquor were used (Ray et al. 1991). It should be mentioned, however, that if the ligand binding is virtually irreversible then even very low concentrations of the ligand may lead to a large gradient of the protein-ligand complex in the crystals. We report here a very simple procedure that allows one to eliminate laborious multiple exchanges of mother liquor. This procedure is essentially a modification of the crystalmounting technique used in many laboratories. A crystal is dropped into a capillary filled with the mother liquor. The crystal then sinks to the bottom of the capillary where it is supported by the lower meniscus, as shown in Fig. 1. For the crystal-soaking experiments, mother liquor from the capillary head is then removed with a syringe and replaced with a solution also containing the ligand. The capillary is then sealed with vasoline and left for a period of 3-4 d. During this time the ligand molecules diffuse through the capillary and their concentration in the crystal gradually increases. We have carried out tests with 1 × 10 -3 M permanganate ions diffusing through 50% saturated ammonium sulfate solution in a 1 mm capillary with a head-tocrystal distance of about 45 mm. The characteristic coloring of permanganate ions was noticeable at the crystal, at the bottom of the capillary, after about two days. After another two days, the concentration of permanganate ions within the capillary had equilibrated and its gradient was not apparent. Obviously, for larger ligands or more viscous solutions, the diffusion is slower and the soaking time should be adjusted. Using this approach, we were successful in
Results of CASSCF state-averaged calculations on the lowest electronic states of LaO and LaO+ are reported in this work. For comparison, some low-lying electronic states of AlO and AlO+ are also reported. The ground state of LaO was found to be the X2Σ+ (Re = 1.987 A, ωe = 794 cm−1) with a low-lying A2Δ excited state. Five more excited states below 26000 cm−1 were found. The first ionization potential (IP) is found at 5.16 eV, resulting in an X1Σ+ ground state for the LaO+ diatom, in opposition to AlO+ for which an X3 Π ground state has been found. Analysis of the wave functions, dipole moments, and Mulliken populations reveal that the bonding is quite ionic in both systems. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Aim: To investigate anti -inflammatory and antinociceptive potentials of aqueous stem bark extract ofKhaya senegalensisA.Juss (Meliaceae) in rodents. Methodology: Anti-inflammatory activity of aqueous stem bark extract of K. senegalensis (AKS) was studied in different models. Effect of the extract in acute inflammation was tested in carrageenan -induced rat paw edema and its effect in chronic inflammation was evaluated using cotton pellet -induced granuloma test. Croton oil induced ear edema in mice was used to investigate the effect of the extract on topical inflammation. Antinociceptive property of AKS was evaluated using three models of nociception: hot-plate test,acetic acid-induced writhing in mice and formalin -induced paw licking in rats. Membrane stabilizing effect of AKS was tested in heat and hypotonicity-induced hemolysis. The mechanism of antinociceptive effect of the extract was evaluated by pre-treating rwith metoclopramide, a dopamine (D2) antagonist (1.5 mg/kg body wt.) and naloxone, an opioid receptor antagonist (5 mg/kg body wt.).
In this study, a new molecular organic probe has been designed and synthesized by using recyclable, inexpensive and non-toxic polyethylene glycol (PEG-400) as a promoting reaction medium in water under environmentally benevolent conditions. The probe has been explored as a potential chemosensor to detect Al3+ ions using a HEPES buffer (pH = 7.4) solution. Investigations of the fluorescence behaviour of this sensor in DMSO/H2O (2 : 8, v/v) solution displayed a dramatic switch-on response only in the presence of Al3+, while other metal ions, like Li+, Na+, K+, Ag+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Mn2+, Ba2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Co2+, Fe2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, Pb2+, Sr2+, Fe3+ or Cr3+, have almost no influence on the fluorescence behaviour. Various common anions, such as ClO4-, Cl-, or NO3- in the form of Al3+ salts [e.g. Al(ClO4)3, AlCl3 or Al(NO3)3], had no influence on the fluorescence behaviour of the sensors. The detection limit for Al3+ is in the order of 10-6 M in DMSO/H2O (2 : 8, v/v) HEPES buffer (pH = 7.4) solution. Notably, this is the first report of a dihydroindeno[1,2-b]pyrrole moiety acting as a sensor for the selective detection of Al3+ ions through an off-on fluorescence response. The potential of the probe was also confirmed by employing it for fluorescence bio-imaging with Al3+ on HepG2 cells.
The conventional description of platelet interactions with collagen-coated surfaces in vitro, based on serial static measurements, is that platelets first adhere and spread to form a monolayer and then recruit additional layers of platelets. To obtain dynamic information, we studied gravity-driven platelet deposition in vitro on purified type 1 collagen by video phase-contrast microscopy at 22 degrees C. With untreated human and wild-type mouse platelets, soon after the initial adhesion of a small number of "vanguard" platelets, "follower" platelets attached to the spread-out vanguard platelets. Follower platelets then adhered to and spread onto nearby collagen or over the vanguard platelets. Thus, thrombi formed as a concerted process rather than as sequential processes. Treatment of human platelets with monoclonal antibody (mAb) 7E3 (anti-GPIIb/IIIa (alphaIIbbeta3) + alphaVbeta3) or tirofiban (anti-GPIIb/IIIa) did not prevent platelet adhesion but nearly eliminated the deposition of follower platelets onto vanguard platelets and platelet thrombi. Similar results were obtained with Glanzmann thrombasthenia platelets. Wild-type mouse platelets in the presence of mAb 1B5 (anti-GPIIb/IIIa) and platelets from beta3-null mice behaved like human platelets in the presence of 7E3 or tirofiban. Deposition patterns of untreated human and wild-type mouse platelets were consistent with random distributions under a Poisson model, but those obtained with 7E3- and tirofiban-treated human platelets, 1B5-treated mouse platelets, or beta3-null platelets demonstrated a more uniform deposition than predicted. Thus, in this model system, absence or blockade of GPIIb/IIIa receptors interferes with thrombus formation and alters the pattern of platelet deposition.
Viscosities of binary aqueous mixtures of Acetonitrile (AN) and 1,3-Dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone (Dimethylethyleneurea, DMEU) have been measured at atmospheric pressure and temperatures of 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40°C over the entire concentration region by means of Ubbelohde capillary viscometers, type 0c. For a set of 6 viscometers kinetic energy correction functions (Hagenbach-Couette correction) have been experimentally determined for each viscometer using tridistilled water and commercially available liquids. Further corrections accounted for buoyancy and surface tension. Viscosity measurements were carried out with at least three, usually 5 to 6 viscometers, giving viscosities with an estimated uncertainty of 0.3%. Hydrodynamic volumes were determined from relative viscosity vs. concentration curves by means of the viscosity-B-coefficient and compared to van der Waals volumes calculated using increments for functional groups from the literature. Our data indicate the formation of associated species of DMEU and water.
Administration of CCl4 to normal as well as Liv.52 fed rats increased in vitro formation of lipid peroxides; cholesterol and phospholipid composition of hepatic mitochondrial fraction was not altered, the recovery of cholesterol, phospholipid and protein in the microsomal fraction decreased and the microsomes became depleted in cholesterol, total and individual phospholipids. However, feeding of Liv.52 to rats gave marked protection against the increase in lipid peroxidation and decrease in the cholesterol and phospholipid contents of microsomal fraction.
The title compound, [PdCl2(C4H4N2)2], contains two crystallographically unique complexes; the PdII atom lies on an inversion center in both cases. The two pyridazine units bonded to the PdII atom are thus coplanar although dihedral angles within each complex are different. In one complex, the angle between the ring plane and Pd—Cl bond is almost perpendicular [89.4 (1)°], while the other is tilted with an angle of 60.0 (1)°. In the crystal, weak C⋯H—N hydrogen bonds and C⋯H—Cl interactions connect the two independent complex molecules.
The in-source polymerization of trioxane in the solid state was investigated over a wide range of temperature and pressure, i.e., from 30 to 140°C and up to 7000 kg/cm2, respectively. In the polymerization that was carried out slightly below the melting point under pressure, the higher the pressure, the higher the rate of polymerization. It was confirmed that the maximum rate of solid-state polymerization of trioxane occurs near the melting points, even under elevated pressure. The rate of polymerization decreased with increasing pressure at constant temperature. The shape of the time–conversion curves may be classified into two types, i.e., one which is typical of high pressure and low temperature, and the other which is typical of low pressure and high temperature. Changes in the shape of the conversion—intrinsic viscosity curves occurred coincidentally. Thus, three regions for the different “polymerization characteristic” were determined as functions of polymerization temperature and pressure. Explanations are given for the above-mentioned polymerization characteristic.
Abstract A new layered compound, Tl 2 NbO 2 PO 4 , has been isolated. It crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, space group R3. The cell parameters are a = 8.746(2)A, c = 44.753(7)A. Z = 18. Its structure has been determined from 990 independent reflections, with I ≥ 3σ( I ), collected on a CAD4 automated diffractometer. The final R index and weighted R ω index are 0.034 and 0.032, respectively. This structure is built up from layers of NbO 6 octahedra and PO 4 tetrahedra sharing corners. The Tl ions are located in the interlayer spaces.
The present invention relates to dye-based for application to the substrate, the dye is (a) at least one dye precursor, (b) an antifoaming agent, an oxidizing agent and (c) the catalyst and the catalyst is homogeneous it is a catalyst or disproportionation catalyst. Preferably, the catalyst comprises at least one metal-containing compound. The present invention is also a method of coloring a substrate also contemplates, the method comprising treating said substrate with a dye system of the present invention. Substrate In a preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises human hair, a natural or synthetic polymer or textile fibers. At least one dye precursor in a further preferred embodiment is an organic precursor, of at least one metal derivative used as a catalyst comprising at least one inorganic metal compound or at least one organic ligand It comprises at least one metal complex and an oxidizing agent is hydrogen peroxide.
ABSTRACT Gutted Atlantic cod, packed in cartons, were frozen immediately after killing in a magnetic field (cell alive system). The results were compared with traditional air-blast freezing or by putting the cartons directly in a cold storage room (without forced convection of air). After frozen storage, external and fillet properties were compared. In spite of differences in freezing rates, only minor differences were found among treatments. The mechanism for the freezing of fish in the magnetic field, under the current conditions, appeared to be similar to that of traditional freezing methods.
Chiral Jacobsen's catalyst anchored on zinc poly(styrene-phenylvinylphosphonate)-phosphate (ZnPS-PVPA) functionalized by diamines shows superior catalytic activities (conversion up to 99%; enantiomeric excess up to 99%) in the enantioselective epoxidations of unfunctional olefins with m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid and NaIO4 as oxidants. The whole chiral salen Mn(III) catalyst, including the ZnPS-PVPA support and the linker as well as chiral salen Mn ligand together contribute to the chirality of products. The heterogeneous catalyst has the potential for use in industry owing to superior stability (recycling nine times) and activity in large-scale reactions (such as 200 times).
INTRODUC T ION....... . . . ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... .... . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . 23 NA TURE OF THE CELL SURFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . .... .. 25 Surface Antigens 25 Immobilization Test 26 Serotypes 27 Rules of I ntigen Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SURFACE ANTIGEN GENES ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . .... . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . ... 29 Localization and Environment in the Genomes . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 General Properties of Surface Antigen Gene Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 VA RIAB ILITY OF SURFACE ANTIGENS . . . . .. . . .. ......... 34 Main Features of the Primary Sequence of the 156G Surface Antigen ... . . 34 Variable Regions 36 STRUCTURE OF SURFACE A NTIGENS ... . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Structural Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Maturation of Surface Antigens and Surface Anchoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 MOLECULAR BASIS OF SUR FACE A NTIGEN EXPRESSION. .. .. . . . .. .. 37 Regulation Level ......... .. . . . . . . . . . ... ... 38 DNA Rearrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Transformation by Microinjection: A New Tool for Studying Control of Gene Expres· sion . . . .... 38 CONCLUSIONS..... . ...... .. . . . 40
The purpose of this study was to develop antioxidant liposomes as an antidote for mustard gas–induced lung injury in a guinea pig model. Five liposomes (LIP‐1, LIP‐2, LIP‐3, LIP‐4, and LIP‐5) were tested with differing levels of phospholipid, cholesterol, phosphatidic acid, tocopherol (α, γ, δ), N‐acetylcysteine (NAC), and glutathione (GSH). A single dose (200 µL) of liposome was administered intratracheally 5 min or 1 h after exposure to 2‐chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES). The animals were sacrificed either 2 h after exposure (for lung injury study) or 30 days after exposure (for histology study). The liposomes offered 9%–76% protection against lung injury. The maximum protection was with LIP‐2 (71.5% protection) and LIP‐4 (75.4%) when administered 5 min after CEES exposure. Delaying the liposome administration 1 h after CEES exposure decreased the efficacy. Both liposomes contained 11 mM α‐tocopherol, 11 mM γ‐tocopherol, and 75 mM NAC. However, LIP‐2 contained additionally 5 mM δ‐tocopherol. Overall, LIP‐2 and LIP‐4 offered significant protection by controlling the recruitment of neutrophils, eosinophils, and the accumulation of septal and perivascular fibrin and collagen. However, LIP‐2 showed better protection than LIP‐4 against the accumulation of red blood cells in the bronchi, alveolar space, arterioles and veins, and fibrin and collagen deposition in the alveolar space. The antifibrotic effect of the liposomes, particularly LIP‐2, was further evident by a decreased level of lipid peroxidation and hydroxyproline in the lung. Thus, antioxidant liposomes containing both NAC and vitamin E are an effective antidote against CEES‐induced lung injury. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 23:143–153, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/jbt.20279
Migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) contribute to angiogenesis and the lesions of atherosclerosis. Since, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is overexpressed by VSMC in intima of atherosclerotic human coronary arteries, we determined if VEGF could stimulate VSMC migration and the intracellular signals involved. VEGF induced VSMC migration but had no significant activity on proliferation. VEGF increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), NF-kappaB activation and IL-6 expression. Blockade of the generation of intracellular ROS by antioxidants inhibited VEGF-induced NF-kappaB activation, IL-6 expression, and cell migration indicating that generation of ROS was required for NF-kappaB activation and the chemotactic activity of VEGF. Expression of a mutated, nondegradable form of inhibitor of NF-kappaB (IkappaB-alphaM) suppressed VEGF-triggered activation of NF-kappaB and upregulation of IL-6 as well as VSMC migration. Neutralization of IL-6 by its antibody significantly attenuated the migration stimulated by VEGF. Collectively, our data provide the first evidence that intracellular ROS and NF-kappaB are required for VEGF-mediated smooth muscle cell migration. Further, IL-6 induced by VEGF is involved in the ability of the growth factor to stimulate migration.
Summary The effect of the inclusion of three antimycotoxin feed additives (AAM) in naturally contaminated chicken diets with mycotoxins in serological and hematological parameters in growing broiler chickens (n=160) was evaluated. Two poul try diets w ere evaluated Di et 1: contained 6 pp b aflatoxin and 4.5 ppm fumonisin; Diet 2: contained 500 ppb zearalenona, 500 ppb DON and 1.2 ppm fumonisin. Each diet was combined with: hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate (HSCAS), esterified-glucomannan polymer (EGM) and multi modular additive (MM). Blood was collected a t chickens 21 da ys-old to de termine lactate de hydrogenase act ivity (LDH), total proteins, albumin, uric acid, cholesterol, haemoglobin and haematocrit. Each experiment was
The present technology relates to compounds of Formulas I-VI and methods of making and using such compounds. Methods of use include prevention and treatment of hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, fatty liver, and metabolic syndrome. The compounds disclosed herein also reduce total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, increase liver LDL receptor expression, inhibit PCSK9 expression, and activate AMP-activated protein kinase.
Method and device for determining in dialysis treatment the content of waste products in the outgoing dialysis liquid from the dialyzer. Measurement of the concentration of a certain substance or a combination of substances included in the waste products is effected spectrophotometrically directly on the outgoing dialysis liquid from the dialyzer. For that purpose there is provided after the dialyzer in or after the dialysing machine a measuring cell for spectrophotometric measurement. The measurement value obtained is multiplied by the flow of dialysis liquid for determining the content of said substance or said combination of substances in the outgoing dialysis liquid from the dialyzer.
The magnetic moment of the impurity atoms in dilute ferromagnetic transition alloys is calculated from the scattering of d electrons by spin-dependent Hartree-Fock potentials. The spin-dependent potentials are determined self-consistently by imposing Friedel's screening condition and the Hartree-Fock relation between up and down spin potentials. It turns out from this calculation that the impurity negative magnetic moments are due to the repulsion of a bound state above the Fermi level.
ii Access to decent sanitation remains a problem in developing countries. At the same time, sanitation technology is constantly evolving specifically regarding resource recovery solutions. Some chemical elements found in human excreta derived from non-renewable resources, and the recycling of phosphorous from sewage in particular is a possible solution to the growing issue of resource scarcity. A potential way to recover phosphorous from urine or water-borne sewage is through struvite precipitation. Struvite (MgNH4PO4. 6H2O) is a mineral that can be used as a slowrelease magnesium, ammonium and phosphate based fertilizer and can be produced from urine by adding magnesium to the ammonium and phosphate rich urine. Usually, magnesium is dosed chemically using salts such as MgCl2, MgO, MgSO4 or bittern, together with pH regulating agents but these reactants produce unfavourable chemical by-products and the process tends to be expensive. Previous studies have proven that electrochemical dosing of magnesium is a feasible and reliable method of struvite precipitation. It not only produces high grade struvite that is valuable and marketable, but it also eliminates the need for alkalinity dosing in order to create a suitable pH environment for struvite precipitation. Further to that, electrochemical precipitation does not produce any harmful chemical by-products. Previous work shows that one main challenge that is associated with this method is the formation of a mineral layer on the magnesium anode called nesquehonite (MgCO3 · 3H2O). This leads to increased electrode potentials and hence high energy consumptions and may also lead to system failures of the reactor. Further to that, struvite generally precipitates as small crystals that are difficult to separate from the solution, leading to low mass recoveries of the product. These small crystals are formed as a result of the high supersaturation, which generally occurs for most processes that are employed to make struvite. In view of these problems, this dissertation presents an investigation of the potential improvements to the electrochemical precipitation of struvite from source-separated urine. The main aim is to minimise or eliminate the formation of mineral precipitates on the anode surface. It also looks into ways of increasing the crystal sizes of the struvite being precipitated in the electrochemical system. The methodology for this investigation involved modelling and experimental work. The specific objectives for this study were to: a) Investigate how thermodynamic modelling of struvite precipitation compares to the experimental results from an electrochemical precipitation reactor, b) Employ the aspect of seeding in an electrochemical reactor for struvite production and determine the technical feasibility of the proposed process, c) Establish how to minimise the formation of nesquehonite so that the quality of struvite produced in the electrochemical reactor is not compromised,
The effect of hydroxyapatite on the activity of alkaline and acid phosphatase was studied in a simple in vitro system. Alkaline phosphatase had a reduced activity in the absorbed state, and the pH-optimum for the adsorbed enzyme had decreased with one-half pH unit. The acid phosphatase was not influenced by the apatite in the presence of substrate. When no substrate stabilized the enzyme, a reduction was observed. This reduction was larger at pH values close to the pH-optimum for the enzyme.
OBJECTIVE To study the effects of beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) on the inflammatory granular leukocytes in nasal secretions of the patients with allergic rhinitis.   METHOD The change of intercellular calcium ion of the eosinophils and neutrophils in the nasal secretions were observed under the laser scanning confocal microscopy and technology of fluorescence.   RESULT The concentration of intercellular calcium ion either in eosinophils or in neutrophils significantly rose after BDP treatment.   CONCLUSION BDP can rise the concentration of intercellular calcium ion in the granular leukocytes, which may be a factor of the anti-inflammation functions of BDP.
The present invention relates to a method for measuring a concentration of protein of the digestive tract taken from a human or animal (GI tract) sample. The invention, of the sample in a buffered aqueous extraction medium 1: 100 to 1: characterized in that it is obtained dilutions ranging from 10,000. The present invention provide a significant improvement in technical conditions, for protein GI tract sample, simple, provides a highly sensitive and specific measurement tool. Protein in the GI tract sample, for example, calprotectin, according to measurement of elastase or hemoglobin, more accurate and reproducible results are obtained. .BACKGROUND
This paper describes a procedure to analyse the addition of glycerine to wine qualitatively. It is based on a quantitative GC/MS-method to determine the by-products of the synthetic production of 3-MPD and CycD as Lampe and co-workers have proposed. In order to improve the ruggedness and the detection limit their method was modified by extraction with chloroform and silylation of the raw-extract before GC/MS analysis. Instead of Carbowax a Silicon-oil based stationary phase was used, which is commonly used in GC/MS applications. Therefor the chromatographic properties also could be optimised and the detection limit was better than 0.1 mg/l in the SIR-mode. The method was applicated to more than 100 samples in routine work.
The techniques for improving the stereoselectivity of asymmetric reduction of 3-oxo ester to chiral 3-hydroxy ester catalyzed by yeast cells were studied. Ethyl 4-chloro-3-oxobutanoate was chosen as the model substrate, and the effects of heating and enzyme inhibitor pretreatment of yeast cells on the stereoselectivity of the reduction reaction were investigated in detail. The results showed that the heating pretreatment and preincubation with allyl alcohol could remarkably improve the stereoselectivity of the S-(d)-product, respectively. The stereoselectivity of the S-form product increased with increasing temperature and treatment time in the heating pretreatment. Using allyl alcohol as enzyme inhibitor, the stereoselectivity of the S-form product also increased with increasing the concentration of allyl alcohol. Under appropriate pretreatment conditions, the ee of (S)-ethyl 4-chloro-3-hydroxybutanoate in the asymmetric reduction could reach as high as 97%.
We have observed two‐wave mixing in semi‐insulating AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum well structures at wavelengths near the exciton absorption. The photorefractive index changes are caused by the Franz–Keldysh effect on quantum‐confined excitons. Photorefractive gains larger than 200 cm−1 are obtained for the first time at wavelengths near 836 nm using stationary fringes and dc applied fields up to 5 kV/cm. The direction of energy transfer between the two beams is determined by the direction of applied electric field.
The effects of a voluntary contraction on the H reflexes of various muscles were quantified to determine whether the reflex responses were sufficiently reproducible to be used in diagnostic studies. During a voluntary contraction, H reflexes could be recorded reliably from tibialis anterior and abductor pollicis brevis, but accurate identification of the onset of the H wave from the on-going background EMG required duplicate averages of multiple responses. During a contraction the H reflex could be obtained at lower stimulus intensities in the forearm flexor muscles than when relaxed, and a more clear separation of the H wave from the M wave was possible. The background contraction abolished the attenuation of reflex amplitude with increasing stimulus repetition rates, such that repetition rates of up to 4 Hz could be used without significant loss of reflex amplitude. There were only small and usually insignificant differences in the latency of the H reflex or its variability when elicited with the forearm muscles relaxed and when flexor carpi radialis was contracting steadily. The reflex latencies of abductor pollicis brevis, tibialis anterior and soleus were compared with F wave latencies for these muscles. The minimal F wave latencies were shorter than the H reflex latencies for abductor pollicis brevis (mean 2.2 ms) and tibialis anterior (mean 1.0 ms) but not for soleus. Comparison of the spread of F wave latencies (F max-F min) suggests that, for soleus, F waves are recorded only from the faster conducting motor units in the pool, presumably those less readily recruited in the H reflex. It was calculated that the distribution of motor conduction velocities responsible for the F waves of abductor pollicis brevis was 8.8 m.s-1. This value underestimates the likely distribution of motor conduction velocities for the thenar muscle by as much as 50%, consistent with the view that F waves rarely occur in slowly conducting motor units, the units of lowest threshold in reflex studies. It is concluded that, for many motoneuron pools, the H reflex and the F wave appear preferentially in different motoneurons, low and high threshold, respectively, and that reflex studies can provide information not available from somatosensory evoked potentials or F wave studies.
A stability-indicating RP-HPLC-PDA method has been developed and subsequently validated for the determination of Acebrophylline in commercial capsules. The proposed HPLC method utilizes waters Cosmogel C18 column (150 mm x 4.6 mm, 5.0 μ particle size) and mobile phase consisting of methanol:acetate buffer (20:80 v/v) pH adjusted to 6 with glacial acetic acid at a flow rate of 0.85 mL/min and column was maintained at 50 0 C. Quantitation was achieved with UV detection at 274 nm based on peak area with linear calibration curves at concentration ranges 0.5-200 μg/mL for ACB (R 2 > 0.999). ACB and its drug products were exposed to acid, base and neutral hydrolysis, oxidation, heat and photolytic stress conditions. Under all these conditions, degraded products were well separated. The method was validated according to the ICH guidelines with respect to accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity, limits of detection, limits of quantitation and robustness. Method has been successively applied to assay of pharmaceutical formulation and dissolution study and no interference from the tablet excipients was observed. As the proposed method could effectively separate the drug from its degradation products, it can be employed as stability indicating method.
Functional interactions between dopamine (DA) and glutamate neurotransmissions in both the dorsal and the ventral striatum have been described for long time. However, there is much controversy as to whether glutamate transmission stimulates or attenuates DA release and locomotor activity. We investigated the functional interactions on locomotor activity between group I metabotropic glutamatergic receptors (mGlu receptors) and both D1‐like and D2‐like DA receptors in the rat nucleus accumbens. Intra‐accumbens administration of the selective group I mGlu receptor antagonist S‐4‐CPG (0.2 or 2 µg per side), which had no effect when injected alone, prevented the increase in locomotor activity produced by the selective D1‐like receptor agonist SKF 38393 (1 µg per side). Co‐administration with S‐4‐CPG of the group I mGlu receptor agonist DHPG, but not of the group II mGlu receptor agonist APDC or the group III mGlu receptor agonist AP4, reversed the antagonistic effect of S‐4‐CPG on the SKF 38393‐induced increase in locomotor activity. This indicates that the antagonistic effect of S‐4‐CPG could result from an action at the group I mGlu receptors. In contrast, administration of S‐4‐CPG showed no effect on the locomotor responses produced by either the selective D2‐like receptor agonist LY 171555 (1 µg per side) or a mixed solution of SKF 38393 + LY 171555 (1 µg per side each). Altogether, these results confirm that glutamate transmission may control locomotor function through mGlu receptors in a DA‐dependent manner, and further indicate that group I mGlu receptors would interact with D1‐like receptors, but not D2‐like receptors, to modulate DA transmission and locomotor activity.
An internal standard calibration methodology for radiofrequency glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (rf-GD-OES) has been evaluated for the quantitative analysis of glass samples. Glasses of very different composition and thickness (from 2.8 to 5.8 mm thick) were used for calibration. The absence of spectral interferences from sputtered oxygen was first investigated. For calibration, Si was selected as the internal standard and, when plotting intensity ratios (Ix/ISi) versus concentration ratios (Cx/CSi), linear graphs over the entire range of tested concentrations were obtained. In all cases, concentrations of the oxides of different elements have been used instead of elemental concentrations as is habitually done for the analysis of conductors. Thus, the proposed methodology allows us to quantify the oxygen indirectly without measuring its emission intensity. In addition, the internal standard calibration procedure was applied for the determination of the glass major components (SiO2, Na2O, CaO, MgO, Al2O3 and K2O) by rf-GD-OES in two glass samples and results showed good agreement with the certified values.
Aim: The present study was conducted to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of Tephrosia purpurea (TP) against sodium arsenite (NaAsO2) induced sub-acute toxicity in rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty four wistar albino rats of either sex were randomly divided into three groups. Group II and III were orally administered with sodium arsenite (10 mg/kg) daily in drinking water for 28 days. Additionally Group III was orally treated with hydro-alcoholic extract of Tephrosia purpurea (TP) @ 500 mg/kg daily for the same time period, whereas only deionized water was given to Group I (control). Serum biomarker levels, oxidative stress parameters and arsenic concentration were assessed in liver. Histopathology was also conducted. Results: It has been seen that TPE (500 mg/kg) significantly (P < 0.01) reduced serum ALT, AST, ALP activity and increased total protein and reduced necrosis and inflammation in liver of group III compared to group II. A significantly (P < 0.01) higher LPO and lower GSH levels without change in SOD activity in liver was also observed in group II compared to group III, though there was no significant difference in arsenic accumulation between them. The plant extract also protects the animals of group III from significant (P < 0.01) reduction in body weight. Conclusion: Our study shows that supplementation of Tephrosia purpurea extract (500 mg/kg) could ameliorate the hepatotoxic action of arsenic.
A new method has been developed at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory to analyze pulse-height energy spectra from whole-body counter in-vivo examinations that use high-resolution Ge detectors. A simple data transformation and smoothing function is used to calculate background and identify photopeaks for isotopic analysis. This technique is beneficial for routine in-vivo measurement programs because it avoids dependence upon complex spectrum deconvolution, stripping, or other least-squares fitting techniques that complicate the assessment of measurement reliability. An in-vivo measurement spectrum is analyzed by first applying the variance stabilizing transformation to the data in each channel, which results in a variable with unit variance. A background spectrum is then determined by smoothing the transformed data. Finally, peaks are identified whenever the difference between the background spectrum and the transformed measurement spectrum exceeds 2.57 standard deviations. This method of spectrum analysis is especially suited to whole-body counting because background spectra are calculated as an integral part of the analysis procedure. This new technique has been applied successfully to routine in-vivo measurements of Pu, Am, and U. The computations for this new pulse height-energy spectrum analysis procedure are easily programmed on a desk-top or analyzer-based computer. The simplicity of the computational technique is also attractive because of the ease with which results can be verified.
Heterogeneous enantioselective hydrogenation is an ideal method for synthesizing important chiral compounds in pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Up to the present, supported noble-metal catalysts are most widely studied in heterogeneous enantioselective hydrogenations. However, it is found that the weak interactions existing on the surface of support may have negative effects on the enantioselectivity. Herein, a new category of TiO2 (Aeroxide® P25) supported Pd catalyst with ultrathin Pd shell was successfully prepared via a simple strategy based on the reduction of PdI carbonyl complex. Characterization results show that a well-dispersed ultrathin Pd shell with an average thickness of ~1.0 nm and a Pd loading of 36 wt.% was formed over the surface of P25 support. By excluding the negative weak interactions from the support, the P25@Pd core-shell catalyst with unique electronic properties of Pd exhibits higher activity and enantioselectivity than that of Pd/P25 catalyst prepared by the impregnation method and unsupported Pd black catalyst in the enantioselective hydrogenation of acetophenone.
PCT No. PCT/SE92/00673 Sec. 371 Date Mar. 23, 1994 Sec. 102(e) Date Mar. 23, 1994 PCT Filed Sep. 25, 1992 PCT Pub. No. WO93/05810 PCT Pub. Date Apr. 1, 1993The invention relates to a vaccine, preferably for human use, against IgE-mediated allergic reactions. The vaccine contains a protein having the entire amino acid sequence of the constant CH2-CH3 domains of the epsilon chain of the IgE molecule or a structurally stable unit of said amino acid sequence, the protein optionally being coupled to one or more heterologous carrier proteins, and optionally containing an adjuvant. The vaccine is injected, with or without adjuvant, to raise the concentration of endogenous anti-IgE antibodies in the plasma of allergy subjects. In practice, the vaccine can be used against all types of IgE-mediated allergies since the antibodies are not dependent of the antigen specificity of the IgE molecule but will reduce the total IgE pool of the subject. Therefore, the vaccine is aimed at being used for treatment of subjects having different types of IgE-mediated allergies. The increased concentrations of anti-IgE antibodies reduces the free pool of antigen-specific IgE, which thereby strongly reduces the risk for an allergen-mediated release of the physiologically highly active substances which are stored or produced in connection with granula release from mast cells and basophilic leucocytes.
Although Ehrlich himself recognized the importance of discovering the fate of salvarsan in the animal body, it was Sieburg 1 who first approached the solution of this problem. This investigator succeeded in isolating from the urine of a syphilitic patient who had received repeated intravenous injections of salvarsan the following substances: p-aminophenol, o-acetylamino phenyl hydrogen sulphate, oxycarbanil, an aminohydroxyphenylarsonic acid, C6H8O4N As, and a hydroxyphenylarsonic acid, C6H7O4As, besides inorganic arsenates and arsenites. He concludes that salvarsan is broken down in the system in the following way (Chart 1): “Apparently o-aminophenol is to a comparatively small extent converted into the isomeric, highly toxic para compound, while the remainder is conjugated either with H2SO4 with the introduction of an acetyl group, or with urea with the subsequent elimination of 2 N H3 radicals.” Sieburg also studied the behavior of para-arsenobenzoic acid and of 3-amino-arsenobenzoic acid in the body of the calf and concludes that in all cases a cleavage of the toxophoric- As =AS - linking in ‘arseno’ compounds occurs in the living organism, whereby not only is the toxicity reduced, but transformation takes place into compounds which are more soluble in water and less easily soluble in other media. The characteristic effects are due to the small proportion of the substance which escapes oxidation to the arsinic acids, and to the subsequent liberation of the As2O3 and As2O5. Sieburg's discovery of conjugated phenol derivatives resulting from the metzbolism of salvarsan as well as our independent investigations on the causes of the reactions following intravenous injections of arsphenamine and neo-arsphenamine 1 led us to direct our attention to the mechanism of detoxication which the body possesses,-the power of rendering innocuous various aromatic toxic substances by conjugation with sulphuric acid, d-glucuronic acid, urea, glycocoll, bile acids, etc.
Reactions of ThexSiCl3 (Thex = 1,1,2-trimethylpropyl) with Li2S and Li2Se in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature afforded the tricyclo[5.1.1.13,5]tetrasilachalcogenanes (Thex2Si2S2)S2 (1) and (Thex2Si2Se2)Se2 (2), respectively. Similar reactions of ThexGeCl3 with Li2S and Li2Se gave the tricyclo[5.1.1.13,5]tetragermachalcogenanes (Thex2Ge2S2)S2 (3) and (Thex2Ge2Se2)Se2 (4), respectively. X-ray crystallography of 1−4 reveals that these molecules were isomorphous and possess strained “double-decker”-like frameworks (Candiani structure). Compounds 1 and 3 show isomerization at 190 °C to the adamantane-like systems, tricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]tetrasilathiane (5) and tricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]tetragermathiane (6), respectively. For 4, isomerization to the adamantane cage takes place at much lower temperature (e.g., 80 °C), indicating that Ge−Se double-decker-like cage is more reactive than Si−S and Ge−S cages.
Factor VIII and fibrinogen play an important role in hemostasis and thrombosis because they help bridge functions between platelets, endothelial cells, and the soluble coagulation system. In the present study, we found that the various contrast media examined in concentrations adequate to cause marked anticoagulation did not markedly affect either factor VIII or fibrinogen. These media act predominantly as inhibitors of other fibrinogen functions, not as protein denaturation agents.
The lipopolysaccharide of Escherichia coli J-5 was sequentially de-O-acylated, dephosphorylated, reduced, de-N-acylated, and N-acetylated. The products were separated by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography into a nonasaccharide (1), two octasaccharides (2, 3), and a heptasaccharide (4). Compositional analysis, methylation analysis, and NMR spectroscopy revealed the structures of the products as: alpha-D-GlcpNAc-(1-7)-L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1-7)-[alpha-D-Glcp-(1-3)-]-L -alpha-D- Hepp-(1-3)-R1, (1) L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1-7)-[alpha-D-Glcp-(1-3)-]-L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1 -3)-R1, (2) alpha-D-GlcpNAc-(1-7)-L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1-7)-[alpha-D-Glcp-(1-3)-]-L -alpha-D- Hepp-(1-3)-R2, (3) alpha-D-Glcp-(1-3)-L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1-3)-R1, (4) in which 1R is L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1-5)-[alpha-Kdop-(2-4)-]-alpha-Kdop-(2 -6)- beta-D-GlcpNAc-(1-6)-D-GlcN-Acol, and 2R is L-alpha-D-Hepp-(1-5)-alpha-Kdop-(2-6)-beta-D-GlcpNAc-(1-6 )-D- GlcNAcol (LD-Hep, L-glycero-D-manno-heptose; Kdo, 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulopyranosonic acid; GlcNAcol, 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-glucitol). Fast-atom-bombardment mass spectrometry of de-O-acylated and dephosphorylated lipopolysaccharide showed that the isolated oligosaccharides represented the complete carbohydrate moiety of the lipopolysaccharide, and indicated that the non-reducing terminal D-GlcN residue in lipopolysaccharide was present as the free base.
Paclitaxel, a polyol chemotherapeutic agent, was covalently conjugated through its 2'-OH to polylactide with 100% regioselectivity via controlled polymerization of lactide mediated by paclitaxel/(BDI-II)ZnN(TMS)(2) (BDI-II = 2-((2,6-diisopropylphenyl)amino)-4-((2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imino)-2-pentene). The steric bulk of the substituents on the N-aryl groups of the BDI ligand drastically affected the regiochemistry of coordination of the metal catalysts to paclitaxel and the subsequent ring-opening polymerization of lactide. The drug-initiated, controlled polymerization of lactide was extended, again with 100% regioselectivity, to docetaxel, a chemotherapeutic agent that is even more structurally complex than paclitaxel. Regioselective incorporation of paclitaxel (or docetaxel) to other biopolymers (i.e., poly(δ-valerolactone), poly(trimethylene carbonate), and poly(ε-caprolactone)), was also achieved through drug/(BDI-II)ZnN(TMS)(2)-mediated controlled polymerization. These drug-polylactide conjugates with precisely controlled structures are expected to be excellent building blocks for drug delivery, coating, and controlled-release applications.
A large number of medicinal plants are used as alternate medicine for diseases of man and other animals since most of them are without side effects when compared with synthetic drugs. Identification of the chemical nature of phytochemical compounds present in the medicinal plants will provide some information on the different functional groups responsible for their medicinal properties. While studying the in vitro efficacy of bioactive extracts of 15 medicinal plants against ES Lproducing multi drug resistant bacteria, Iqbal Ahamad et al. (2006) detected major groups of compounds as the most active fraction of four plants extracts by infrared spectroscopy. Ramamoorthi and Kannan (2007) screened the bioactive group of chemicals in the dry leaf powder of Calotropis gigantea by FTIR analysis.
A review is presented on the development of separation and determination methods for iron silicate in chemical phase analysis of iron ores.The importance of determination of iron silicate and recent research development in phase separation and determination methods were introduced.The significance and application value of the ferrous weighted sum calculation method in chemical separation and determination methods were also discussed in detail by the verification experiments and analytical data comparison with the reference materials.55 references were cited.
By applying exogenous NO or depleting endogenous NO,this paper studied the regulation effect of NO on the leaf anti-oxidation system of tall fescue(Festuca arundinacea)cultivars Arid3 and Houndog5 in hydroponic culture under high light stress.Comparing with the control,the endogenous NO production under high light stress in Arid3 leaves was increased by 201.5%,while that in Houndog5 leaves was only increased by 21.1%.Houndog5 leaves were more liable in suffering oxidative damage than Arid3 leaves,with the electrolyte leakage and MDA content increased by 72.6% and 85.1%,and 36.1% and 30.1%,respectively.Pretreatment with 0.2 mmol·L-1 of NO eliminator 2-(4-carboxy-2-phenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide(PTIO)obviously aggravated the oxidative damage to Arid3 and Houdog5,while supplementing with 0.1 mmol·L-1 of NO donor sodium nitroprusside(SNP)alleviated the high light induced electrolyte leakage and malondiadehyde(MDA)and H 2O 2 contents in both Arid3 and Houndog5 leaves.The production of superoxide(O-· 2)was reduced,the activities of peroxidase(POD),superoxide dismutase(SOD),catalase(CAT),ascorbate peroxidase(APX)and glutathione reductase(GR)were increased,and the lipoxygenase(LOX)activity was decreased.The effect of SNP was reverted when a NO-special scavenger PTIO was added.It was suggested that NO could effectively protect Arid3 and Houndog5 leaves from oxidative stress by increasing the activities of ROS-scavenging enzymes under high light stress.
The effects of soaking seeds with different concentration of extracting substance of peganum multisectum Bobr on the oat seed vitality, seedlings growth, respiration rate and activities of aminotransferase, amylase and lipease during germination were studied. The results showed that the seed soaking could inhibit activities of aminotransferase, amylase and lipase of endosperm and seedlings, growth and respiration of seedlings during germination, and cut down seed vitality. With the concentration of extracting substance of peganum multisectum Bobr increased, inhibit effects strengthened.
We measured time-resolved vibration–rotational emission of HF (Hartree–Fock) at various intervals (5–500 μs) after photolysis of 1,1-difluoroethene (CH2CF2) at 298 K with an excimer laser at 193 nm by means of a step-scan Fourier-transform spectrometer. Emission of HF(v) with 1⩽v⩽5 was observed, with intensity maxima at varied intervals after photolysis. Temporal profiles of HF(v) fit satisfactorily with a kinetic model consisting of nascent production of HF(v) followed by quenching of HF(v) by parent molecules. Measurements of rates of quenching at varied partial pressure of CH2CF2 yield bimolecular rate coefficients of quenching of HF(v) by CH2CF2:kqvII/10−12 cm3 molecule−1 s−1=1.07±0.10, 2.95±0.22, 13.5±0.9, and 45.2±4.1 for v=1–4; listed errors represent one standard deviation. The nascent vibrational distribution of HF is (0.365±0.014):(0.255±0.017):(0.177±0.015):(0.134±0.014):(0.069±0.012) for v=1–5, respectively, consistent with previous results. By adding Cl2 into the system, we observed weak emis...
Disclosed herein is a process for preparing a compound of Formula (I), comprising the steps of: (a) reacting an aniline compound of Formula (II) and an carboxylic acid compound of Formula (III) or an activated carboxylic acid compound thereof, to provide a compound of Formula (IV); and (b) converting said protected amine group attached to said compound of Formula (IV) to an amine group to provide said compound of Formula (I); wherein PAm is a protected amine group. Processes to prepare the compounds of Formulae (II), (III), and (IV) are also disclosed.
Objective: To study the effect of boiling processes on the quality of Paeony compound decoction and to make the best boiling process.Methods: Automatic decoction machine and traditional decoction process were used to boil the prescription herbal medicines and the same factors were set.HPLC was used to determine the content of paeoniflorin in the decoction.Results: Medicinal materials were soaked for 60min and boiled twice for 30min in the traditional way.The boiled decoction has the highest content of paeoniflorin,0.371mg/ml.Based on the indicator,the decoction had the highest content of paeoniflorin both in the decoction made by the automatic decoction machines and traditional decoction process.Conclusion: By the comparison of the decoction made by the machine and the traditional process,the traditional process is of more efficiency and the decoction is more effective,even if on the same factor in the liquid of per ml,the paeoniflorin content in the decoction made by traditional process is higher than that made by the machine.
The effects of 3-N,N-dimethylaminopropyl farnesyl acetate (DMFA), N'-geranylpiperazinyl farnesyl acetamide (GPFA) and N'-methylpiperazinyl geranylgeranyl acetamide (MPGA) were studied on gastric secretion, gastric bleeding and gastric mucosubstances in rats. DMFA lowered gastric juice and gastric bleeding, and GPFA increased gastric mucosubstances and decreased gastric bleeding. MPGA showed remarkable effects for all of these tests. Consequently it might be said that MPGA is a useful agent against both aggressive and resistant factors on gastric functions.
CeO2/γ-Al2O3 is found to be the best catalyst for the liquid-phase cooxidation of cyclohexane and cyclohexanone among several supported cerium oxide catalysts. By using this catalyst, the conversions of cyclohexane and cyclohexanone exceed those by other supported catalysts under the same reaction conditions. Furthermore, the yield of the desired products surpasses those in our previous studies. In addition, this catalyst is resistant to acidity and is more stable in an acidic medium than other heterogeneous catalysts in our previous works. The induction period, as a characteristic of the free-radical reaction, is not observed if γ-Al2O3 is used as a catalyst. The e-caprolactone is not formed via a free-radical mechanism but, instead, the Baeyer−Villiger mechanism. Experimental results also indicate that water profoundly influences the elusion of metals from solid catalysts; however, no cerium eludes from the CeO2/γ-Al2O3 catalyst under the present reaction conditions. The formation of dibasic acids and e...
Branched α- and β-cyclodextrin (CD) were synthesized by the transglycosylation of Bacillus acidopulluliticus pullulanase under the co-existence of α-maltosylfluoride (α-G2F) and α- or β-CD. The branched CDs were isolated by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. It was concluded by the enzymatic and chemical methods that the sugars were maltosyl-α- or β-CD.The amount of G2-α-CD produced was affected by the concentration of α-G2F and α-CD. From the proportion of the amount of G2-α-CD produced to that of α-G2F consumed, the optimum condition of G2-α-CD formation was found to be α-G2F (40mM) and α-CD (90mM).
By analyzing the sampled data and the results of the second national soil survey by the mid 80 s in Zhuanglang County,the article studied on the changes and influencing factors of the soil organic carbon in farmland of this area in the last 30 years. Farmland samples of top soil( 0-20 cm) were collected and analyzed in July 2011. The results showed that ① The average contents of the soil organic carbon in the county's farmlands were 6. 80 g·kg-1in 1985 and 8. 90 g·kg-1in 2011. It increased by 30. 9% in the past 30 years,which appeared as a carbon sink effect. The area of increasing contents of soil organic carbon accounted for about 90% of the county's farmland area. ② Under the available management measures and farmland input,the loessal soil organic carbon stability level was 11. 0 g·kg-1,The SOC accumulation rate showed that the farther the SOC was from the stability level the more quickly it changed, and the closer the SOC was from the stability level the slower it changed. ③ The SOC changes was affected by the altitude,the primary content of organic carbon,and the soil types and so on,in which the greatest contribution factor was the altitude,the influence of the primary content of organic carbon,soil type,production and organic fertilizer on soil organic carbon change was smaller,and the slope aspect had the smallest effect on soil organic carbon change.
Magnesium metal and its alloys have been proposed as a novel class of bone implant biomaterials because of their biodegradability and mechanical properties. The purpose of this study was to determine whether magnesium ions, which are released abundantly from alloys, affect proliferation and differentiation of human bone marrow‐derived stromal cells (hBMSCs). High levels of magnesium ions did not induce cytotoxicity in hBMSCs, but treatment with 2.5–10 mm magnesium ions for 48–72 h significantly increased hBMSC proliferation. The expression of integrins α2 and α3, but not β1, was upregulated compared with the control and shifted from α3 to α2 in hBMSCs treated with magnesium ions. Knockdown of integrins α2 and/or α3 significantly reduced magnesium‐induced proliferation of hBMSCs. Magnesium exposure profoundly enhanced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) gene expression and activity even at a relatively low magnesium concentration (2.5 mm). Exposure to magnesium ions facilitated hBMSC proliferation via integrin α2 and α3 expression and partly promoted differentiation into osteoblasts via the alteration of ALP expression and activity. Accordingly, magnesium could be a useful biomaterial for orthopaedic applications such as bone implant biomaterials for repair and regeneration of bone defects in orthopaedic and dental fields. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ABSTRACT In 1989, a coal-to-gasoline pilot plant was installed and operated successfully in China, and a dry desulfurization process was used in this plant. This paper presents an overview of the dry deaulfurization process. It includes design and operation of the process, and a description of ST801, T305 adsorbents and TGH COS hydrolysis catalyst. In addition, the desulfurization process used in a planned demonstration plant scheduled for completion in 1991 is presented.
A. Introduction Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a glycoprotein which regulates the production and function of blood cells(1, 2). GM-CSF stimulates the proliferation and maturation of progenitor cells in the neutrophil, macrophage, eosinophil and megakaryocytic lineages. In the presence of bacterial products, such as lipopolysaccharide, GM-CSF is also a potent stimulator of neutrophils and eosinophil phagocytosis. Thus, GM-CSF occupies a central regulatory role for renewing and activating the phagocytic system. GM-CSF is produced by many different cell types including lymphocytes, endothelium, monocytes, fibmblasts and other mesenchymal cells(3-5). GM-CSF mediates the proliferation of normal, benign and malignant myeloid cells, commits primitive cells to differentiate into granulocyte-macrophage lineage cells, and is an activator of mature granulocytes and macrophages(5-8). Cellular responses to GM-CSF are mediated by specific cell surface receptors(9). Haemopoietic cells which display specific GM-CSF receptors include progenitor cells in the granulocyte-macrophage lineage(including leukaemic cells), mature granulocytes, monocytes and macrophages. Cells in other lineages such as endothelium and some epithelial tumour cells also have GM-CSF receptors(1o-12). GM-CSF is being used clinically to prevent neutropenia and associated infections by promoting the proliferation of marrow progenitor cells following chemotherapy or radiotherapy, promoting the differentiation of myeloid cells and enhancing the anti-bacterial activities of granulocytes and monocytes (1, 2). The cloning of the murine(13) and human(14) genes for GM-CSF has enabled the production of large amounts of recombinant GM-CSF for biochemical and functional studies both in vitro and in vivo. Human GM-CSF expressed in E.coli results in the production of a non-glycosylated form of GMCSF(7). GM-CSF has also been produced in expression systems which add carbohydrate moieties to the protein, e.g. COS cells(15), CHO cells(16) or yeast(17). These expression systems add carbohydrate chains at the appropriate sites. However, the nature of the carbohydrate moiety depends on the A. は じめに
To investigate the effect of cold acclimation combined with 1-MCP and controlled freezing point storage on several physiological indexes related to fruit softening of Mopan persimmon was studied. The control group was 1-MCP combined with controlled freezing point storage. Results showed that cold acclimation combined with 1-MCP and controlled freezing point storage not only effectively reduced ethene production(p0.05),but also retarded the activities of polygalacturonase(PG),cellulose(CX) and amylase(AI)(p0.05),which reduced the increasing of water soluble pectin(WSP)(p0.05) significantly and delayed the decrease of fruit firmness(p0.05) effectively. Therefore,cold acclimation combined with 1-MCP and controlled freezing point storage was better than 1-MCP combined with controlled freezing point storage.
N-Arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide; AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), the two proposed endogenous agonists of cannabinoid receptors, and the putative AEA biosynthetic precursor, N-arachidonoylphosphatidylethanolamine (NArPE), were identified in bovine retina by means of gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry (GC-EIMS). This technique also allowed us to identify N-docosahexanoylethanolamine (DHEA) and 2-docosahexanoylglycerol (2-DHG), two derivatives of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the most abundant fatty acids esterified in retina phospholipids and necessary for optimal retinal function. N-Docosahexaenoylphosphatidylethanolamine (NDHPE), the potential biosynthetic precursor for DHEA, was also found. The fatty acid composition of the sn-1 and sn-2 positions of bovine retina's most abundant phospholipid classes, also determined here, were in agreement with a phospholipid-dependent mechanism for 2-AG, 2-DHG, AEA, and DHEA biosynthesis, as very high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, including DHA, were found on the sn-2 position of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and -ethanolamine (PE), and measurable amounts of di-docosahexanoyl-PC and -PE, two potential biosynthetic precursors of NDHPE, were detected. Accordingly, we found that isolated particulate fractions from bovine retina could release AEA and DHEA in a time-dependent fashion. Finally, a fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH)-like activity with subcellular distribution and pH dependency similar to those reported for the brain enzyme was also detected in bovine retina. This activity was inhibited by FAAH inhibitors, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride and arachidonoyltrifluoromethylketone, and appeared to recognize DHEA with a lower efficiency than AEA. These data indicate that AEA and its congeners may play a physiological role in the mammalian eye.
We use a novel, microfluidics-based technique to deconstruct the classical wound healing scratch assay, decoupling the contribution of free space and cell damage on the migratory dynamics of an epithelial sheet. This method utilizes multiple laminar flows to selectively cleave cells enzymatically, and allows us to present a ‘damage free’ denudation. We therefore isolate the influence of free space on the onset of sheet migration. First, we observe denudation directly to measure the retraction in the cell sheet that occurs after cell-cell contact is broken, providing direct and quantitative evidence of strong tension within the sheet. We further probe the mechanical integrity of the sheet without denudation, instead using laminar flows to selectively inactivate actomyosin contractility. In both cases, retraction is observed over many cell diameters. We then extend this method and complement the enzymatic denudation with analogies to wounding, including gradients in signals associated with cell damage, such as reactive oxygen species, suspected to play a role in the induction of movement after wounding. These chemical factors are evaluated in combination with the enzymatic cleavage of cells, and are assessed for their influence on the collective migration of a non-abrasively denuded epithelial sheet. We conclude that free space alone is sufficient to induce movement, but this movement is predominantly limited to the leading edge, leaving cells further from the edge less able to move towards the wound. Surprisingly, when coupled with a gradient in ROS to simulate the chemical effects of abrasion however, motility was not restored, but further inhibited.
The invention provides a culture medium of euglena gracilis, which is added with different inorganic nutrient substances, in particular to nutrient components such as a mixture of ammonium chloride and urea, and the like. In an open culture process, the culture medium not only overcomes the defects that euglena gracilis is easy to pollute by microorganisms and bacteria so as to pollute the environment, and the like in the prior art, but also can ensure that the euglena gracilis quickly utilizes the inorganic nutrient components to accelerate cell division under the condition of not adding an organic carbon source. The culture medium of the invention shortens the grown cycle of the euglena gracilis by 2-5 days compared with a conventional culture medium and has a biomass accumulation being 1-1.5 times higher than the conventional culture medium. The culture medium removes the organic carbon source of the conventional culture medium and supplements the carbon source in the mode of CO2, thus the culture medium not only can achieve the purpose of avoiding microorganism pollution, but also can increase the capacity of absorbing the CO2 of the euglena gracilis. In the process of the mass production and culture of the euglena gracilis, the culture medium can adsorb a large amount of industrial CO2 waste gas, thereby having important meaning to energy saving, emission reduction and environmental protection.
Abstract : Deposition of pyrolytic carbon on the surface of carbon substrates, including carbon fibers, was studied at 1000-1100 C using two different systems, a static reactor operating at subambient pressures and a flow reactor operating at atmospheric pressure. The experimental parameters that affect the deposition rates and mechanism are substrate temperature, type of reactor used, total and partial pressure of methane in the static reactor, partial pressure of methane in the flow reactor, flow rate of hydrocarbon above substrate, presence of hydrogen in the deposition medium, and the type of substrate, as well as its surface area. The two main differences between the deposition under flow and static conditions are rates of deposition and characteristics of deposits. While the rate under flow conditions is considerably higher than under static conditions, the deposits in the flow reactor are intact and less porous than those prepared in the static reactor. This is attributed essentially to the presence of hydrogen in the static reactor which lowers the rates of deposition, prevents the growth of intermediate species to large planar molecules, and attacks the carbon deposits.
A series of facile optical probe has been easily developed by a one-step Schiff base type reaction of 2,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde and ortho, meta or para aminophenol. Schiff base compounds as fluorescence sensor were utilized to identify metal ions by spectrophotometric techniques. The data of absorption and emission spectra displayed the extraordinary selective and sensitive sensor properties for Schiff base probe derived from ortho aminophenol (SB-2) toward Al3+ ions. Upon introducing Al3+ ions, an excellent increase in the fluorescence intensity of the probe (SB-2) resulting in color change was observed because of blocking the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism of azomethine unit. The specific bonding mode of probe (SB-2) with Al3+ was verified by using a series of spectroscopic techniques such as FT-IR, 1H NMR, and UV-vis (Job-plot data). The detection limit of probe (SB-2) toward Al3+was determined around 10−7M. Furthermore, cell imaging studies of probe (SB-2) were also performed and from these experiments, it was seen that the presence of even trace amounts of Al3+ in living cells could be noticeably detected by (SB-2). In this study, antimicrobial properties of Schiff base compounds were also carried out towards some selected bacteria species. This presented work provides a method for design, facile synthesis and application of effective fluorescence probes toward Al3+ ions in biological systems.
The effect of 4th generation poly(amidoamine) dendrimer (4G PAMAM) present in an anionic phospholipid composition, consisting of hydrogenated soyphosphatidylcholine (HSPC), cholesterol (CH), dicetyl phosphate (DCP), and poly(ethylene glycol) (Mw approximately 2000) derivatized phosphatidylethanolamine (PEG2000-PE), on the hydration and liquid crystalline structure formation was investigated. The optical and polarized light microscopies of the liposomal dispersion obtained from the hydrated lipid composition show two types of birefringent structures (mesophases): plastic, wormlike microstructures and conventional, over-elongated lamellae. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) shows an increase in the liquid crystalline phase transition (Tg) of the lipid composition from 60 to 94 degrees C with increasing 4G PAMAM concentrations from 0 to 0.011 mM, respectively. The Tg values of the two microstructures were 68 and 84 degrees C, respectively, indicating that the plastic microstructures were 4G PAMAM/DCP-complexes-rich (alpha mesophases) and the conventional and elongated lamellae were dendrimer-doped HSPC/CH-rich microstructures (beta mesophases). Optical microscopy shows that the alpha mesophases convert into various other types of vesicular structures such as giant unilamellar vesicles and biliquid foams, upon heating above the phase transition temperature of the lipid composition (approximately 60-65 degrees C). The microstructure transformation is a result of an osmotic influx of water and the detergent action of PEG2000-PE present in the lipid composition. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of the liposomal dispersion show particles embedding circular transparent domains that exactly correlate to the theoretical 4G PAMAM/DCP complex sizes, thus, providing evidence of 4G PAMAM interspersed within the two mesophases. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements indicate that the alpha mesophases are a dendrimer-interlinked, symmetrically undulated lamellar phase and the beta mesophases are dendrimer-doped, occasionally kinked lamellae. An increase in dendrimer concentration in the lipid composition was found to decrease interlamellar spacing. On the basis of optical microscopy, DSC, TEM, and SAXS data, a model of dendrimer-doped mesophase structure and lamellae fusion is proposed. This investigation provides new self-assembled materials for drug/gene delivery and supplements the understanding of mechanisms involved in various biological processes such as membrane fusion, transmembrane permeation, and endocytosis.
Increasing demand of fresh water, and limitation water resources, with respect to world economic growth brings up the importance of utilization of saline water. At the current research the sensitivity analysis of ROSA was conducted. For this analysis, a single stage reverse osmosis is designed for well water specification in southern Tehran under the following conditions: feed flow 40 m 3 /h and membrane element: BW30–400 FR. The sensitivity analyses for all chemical elements of base water were performed. As a result of sensitivity analysis the shortest sensitivity gap belongs to boron, and the longest sensitivity gap belongs to calcium, which reflects, under the same conditions the least element to be eliminated ion is boron and the most eliminated ion is calcium, in fact the order of omitting is from lowest to the highest interval is the following: boron, ammonia, nitrate, potassium, sodium, bicarbonate, fluoride, chloride, silica, strontium, barium, sulfate, magnesium, calcium. The optimum element which could result proper membrane selection achieved.
Biological systems like ciliated microorganisms are capable to respond to the external chemical gradients, a process known as chemotaxis which has been studied here using the chiral squirmer model. This theoretical model considers the microorganism as a spherical body with an active surface slip velocity. In presence of a chemical gradient, the internal signaling network of the microorganism is triggered due to binding of the ligand with the receptors on the surface of the body. Consequently, the coefficients of the slip velocity get modified resulting in a change in the path followed by the body. We observe that the strength of the gradient is not the only parameter which controls the dynamics of the body but also the adaptation time play a very significant role in the success of chemotaxis of the body. Path of the body is smooth if we ignore the discreteness in the ligand-receptor binding which is stochastic in nature. In presence of the later, the path is not only irregular but the dynamics of the body changes. We calculate the mean first passage time, by varying strength of the chemical gradient and adaptation time, to investigate the success rate of chemotaxis.
In this paper, a 3-D chemical release dynamics model including neutral gas diffusion, chemical reaction and ambipolar diffusion of plasma, is proposed first. And then the software frame is developed for the study of chemical releases in the ionosphere. The computer simulation on some representative chemical releases including H 2 O, CO 2 , H 2 and SF 6 is carried out finally. The temporal-spatial effects of the local turbulence introduced by these chemical releases are discussed.
Both protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation play key roles in the regulation of a wide range of life activities.Phosphopeptides are very important compounds for the study of these processes.Since the first successful chemical synthesis in 1940′s,the phosphopeptides has attracted wide attention among chemists and biologists.The Fmoc solid phase synthesis strategy has become the main synthetic method for phosphopeptides.This article summarizes recent progress on Fmoc solid-phase synthesis strategy for phosphopeptides(including global phosphorylation and phosphorylation of building blocks).The advantage and disadvantage of various synthetic methods are also discussed.
A pre-column derivatization method for the determination of oligosaccharides based on a labeling reagent 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole (AEC) was proposed. The enamines were generated by the reaction of the reducing ends of oligosaccharides and the primary amines of AEC, and then reduced to secondary amines by NaBH3CN, making oligosaccharides labeled by AEC. The derivatives were separated by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), and then directly analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ioization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The HPLC separation was carried out on a Waters Symmetry C18 column (3.9 mm×150 mm, 5 μm) with a gradient elution (acetonitrile and ammonium acetate as mobile phases at a flow rate of 1 mL/min) and ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. Under the optimized derivatization and HPLC conditions, the derivatized oligosaccharides were separated, and the derivatization with AEC increased the sensitivity of MS detection. The developed method for the analysis of oligosaccharides is satisfactory.
Abstract Kinetics of the dissociation of ethy1 N-hydroxymethylcarbamate, and monomethylolethylcarbamate (MMEC) at various temperatures and pH values have been studied by measuring the formaldehyde concentration in solution via an electrochemical technique. Formaldehyde and ethyl carbamate (EC) are the products of the dissociation. Formaldehyde concentration as a function of time has been used in a computer program designed to calculate the rate constant, kf, for the formation of MMEC form formaldehyde and EC and the rate constant, kr, for the dissociation of MMEC.
A chemically modified electrode is constructed based on multi-walled carbon nanotube modified glassy carbon electrode (MWCNTs/GCE). It was demonstrated that this sensor could be easily used for determination of acetaminophen (ACT) in aqueous buffered media. The measurements were carried out by application of differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) methods. Application of DPV method showed two linear dynamic ranges. The first linear dynamic range was from 0.1 to 22 µmol L-1, with a calibration equation of Ip(µA) = 1.2782c (µmol L-1) + 0.2431 (R2 = 0.9984) and the second linear dynamic range was between 26 to 340 µmol L-1 with a calibration equation of Ip(µA) = 0.7793c (µmol L-1) + 11.615 (R2 = 0.9986). A detection limit of 0.029 µmol L-1 (S/N = 3) was obtained. The modified electrode showed electrochemical responses with high sensitivity, excellent selectivity and stability for ACT determination at optimal conditions, which makes it a suitable sensor for submicromolar detection of ACT in solutions. The analytical performance of this sensor has been evaluated for detection of ACT in human serum, human urine and a pharmaceutical preparation with satisfactory results.
The functionalization of bio-sourced isohexides has proved challenging over the last number of years, especially in polymer and medicinal chemistry. We report herein the synthesis of bio-based amido-isohexides by the known boric acid catalysed amidation reaction. The coupling reaction was successfully performed with aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids. The extension of the scope of the reaction to eight Boc-protected amino acids is also described, the products being obtained in moderate to good yields. A preliminary screening of these new potential organocatalysts was carried out for the aldolization of isatin.
The aim of this research was to study the rehydration behavior of precooked whole beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) dehydrated at room temperature (25°C) and soaked in water at three temperatures (40, 60, and 80°C). The water absorption of the beans was determined by the gain in weight. The dehydration kinetic at room temperature of the beans was adequately described by the Logarithmic model (R 2 = 0.9989) with a dehydration rate constant (k d) value of 1.96 × 10−3 min−1. A semi-empirical first-order differential equation adequately described the rehydration characteristics of precooked whole bean under the experimental conditions (R 2 = 0.9934–0.9976). The rehydration rate constant (k r) increased from 6.10 × 10−2 to 12.14 × 10−2 min−1 with an increase in the temperature from 40 to 80°C. The temperature dependence of k r was well described by Arrhenius-type equation (R 2 = 0.8785), with estimated activation energy of 16.03 kJ mol−1 K−1.
Introduction  The precious metal substituted perovskites, LaFe0.57Co0.38Pd0.05O3, CaTi0.95Pt0.05O3 and CaTi0.95Rh0.05O3, have been reported to be highly effective three-way catalysts for automobile exhaust elimination, in which precious metal incorporates into the B-site of the perovskite with a self-regenerative function.1, 2 However, these intelligent perovskites are usually prepared by hydrolysis of expensive metal organic precursors. Here we report that LaFe1-xPdxO3 perovskites could be prepared by a simple sol-gel method and the interaction manner between Pd and LaFeO3 is examined.  Experimental  The LaFe1-xPdxO3 perovskites (x = 0, 0.05, 0.08 and 0.11) were prepared by a sol-gel method. Briefly, the aqueous solution containing metal ions and complexing reagents was heated at 80 ℃ for 6 h under reflux, the excess water then was slowly evaporated. The brown sol obtained was dried at 100 ℃ overnight and calcined at 450 ℃ for 3 h and then 800 ℃ for 5 h in air.  Results and Discussion All the samples exhibit typical diffractions of perovskite (Fig. 1A) and no diffractions of PdO or metallic Pd are observed. The lattice parameters of LaFe1-xPdxO3 slightly decrease with Pd loading in the samples with x = 0.05 and 0.08, indicating that Pd has doped into the lattice of LaFeO3 perovskite. The in-situ XRD patterns show that the perovskite structure is rather stable even up to 800 ℃ in H2, evidencing the excellent structural stability under reductive atmosphere.  As shown in Fig. 1B, the reduction properties of the LaFe1-xPdxO3 samples vary remarkedly with Pd loading. The negative peaks around 45 ℃ of the samples with x = 0.05 and 0.08 could be attributed to the decomposition of β-palladium hydride phase. While for the sample of x = 0.11, the reduction peak at 90 ℃ is simply assigned to the reduction of PdO. In the Pd-perovskites, the surface reduction of Fe3+→Fe2+ overlaps with the bulk reduction at higher termperatures and all shift towards lower temperatures compared with LaFeO3. This verifies that Pd substitution facilitates the reduction of Fe ions and thus improves the reducibility of the perovskites.  In the O2-TPD profiles (Fig. 1C), the desorption of lattice oxygen over the samples with x = 0.05 and 0.08 occurs at 600～900 ℃ and is more prominent than LaFeO3, indicating that Pd substitution has promoted the diffusion of bulk oxygen significantly. When the Pd content further increased up to 0.11, the desorption of lattice oxygen shifts to higher temperatures and the oxygen desorption amount decreases greatly, implyig not all the Pd has doped into the lattice of LaFeO3, which can accommodate no more than 11 at% on the B-site. However, catalytic performances of the LaFe1-xPdxO3 samples for CH4 combustion are almost the same, indicating that the promoted reducibility and the lattice oxygen mobility do not have great influence on the reaction behavior of perovskites. Study on the detailed reaction mechanism is undergoing.  Conclusions Pd-substituted LaFe1-xPdxO3 perovskites with Pd content up to 8 at% were prepared by a simple sol-gel method. Pd substitution has significantly promoted the reducibility and lattice oxygen mobility of the perovskites.  References  [1] Y. Nishihata, J. Mizuki, T. Akao, H. Tanaka, et al., Nature 418 (2002) 164. [2] H. Tanaka, M. Taniguchi, M. Uenishi, N. Kajita, et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45 (2006) 5998.
Pharmacokinetics, and the effect on cardiac conduction times were studied in ten patients after intravenous infusion (50 mg) of the new antiarrhythmic N,N'-Bis-[3-(2'-aethoxyphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]-aethylendiamin (Falirytmin). The change of the PA, AH and HV interval induced by the drug was measured by the His-bundle electrogram technique. The results were compared with those of a previous study where the atrioventricular conduction time (PQ-interval) had been measured non-invasively. A 2-compartment open model was fitted to the measured blood concentrations. A total body clearance close to 1500 ml/min was calculated in both studies. An average biological half-life of 18.2 and 13.9 min, respectively, was found. The significant delay which was observed between the time course of blood concentration and response vanished if the change in conduction time was set in comparison to the theoretical drug amount in the peripheral compartment of the model.
Background: Several studies showed that fluoride interferes in the dynamics involved in the development of caries and could present an antimicrobial effect or provide demineralization inhibition or dental remineralization. The development of fluoride-releasing materials can contribute to a preventive of demineralization. GIC and Compomer are restorative materials containing fluoride which can prevent demineralization. Purpose: To analyze the effectiveness of Compomer and GIC against prevention in enamel demineralization. Method: The cavities were made on 18 bovine teeth which grouped into 3 groups, each group consisting of 6 bovine teeth. After the restorative procedures, the teeth were submitted to demineralization and remineralization cycling during 14 days. The sections of the teeth were examined under scanning electron microscope after undergoing pH cycling. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Tukey Test (p<0.05). Results: GIC group showed the lowest lesion depth of demineralization (10.9883 ± 0.74333) followed by Compomer group (25.4183 ± 3.44268) and Control group (88.9783 ± 3.02495). Conclusion: GIC restorative materials have a better enamel demineralization prevention effect than Compomer. Keywords: compomer, demineralization, fluoride, GIC, remineralization
The expressions of cell adhesion molecules including vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), fibronectin (Fn), laminin(Ln) and collage IV(Col IV) on bone marrow stromal cells, the adherent capability of bone marrow mononuclear cells and GM-CFU growth on stromal cell adherence layer cultured in vitro were detected by flow cytometry, cell adhesion assay and blocking studies in mice. The results showed that: (1) The expressions of VCAM-1, Fn, Ln and Col IV on stromal cells from irradiation injuried mice and combined irradiation-burn injured mice significantly decreased compared with that of controls respectively (P<0.05). However, these molecules on stromal cells from combined irradiation-burn injured mice were greatere than these of irradiation injurious mice. (2) The binding capacity of bone marrow mononuclear cells to stromal cell adherence layer from burn injured mice was greater than that of controls and significantly increased at the time from 3 to 7 days post-injury compared with those of controls, irradiation injurious mice and combined irradiation-burn injured mice respectively (P<0.05-0.01). Contrarily, the capacity of binding for irradiation injurious and combined irradiation-burn injured mice at the time from 3 to 7 days post injury significantly decreased compared with that of controls respectively (P<0.05-0.01). The impaired adherent function for bone marrow hematopoietic inductive microenvironment post combined irradiation-burn injury might be one of the important factors in hematopoiesis disorder of combined irradiation-burn injury.
A new device has been developed for the trapping of volatile pollutants in trapping solvents. The device allows solvent recirculation and cryogenic trapping of evaporated volatiles to minimize the stripping effect and any losses of volatile analytes. Due to solvent recirculation, the trapping solvent column height remains constant during the extraction without any need for replenishment. Also mass transfer conditions are favorable due to the flattened shape of bubbles of CO2 and the longer extraction time. The bubbles have higher interfacial area and they have to pass a three times longer distance in the solvent column. The device produces more concentrated extracts, reduces solvent consumption, and reduces or eliminates its evaporation to the environment. The cryotrapping part reduces losses of volatile analytes and the stripping effect. It also enables single-phase extraction into much smaller solvent volumes. Due to constant and favorable extraction conditions, the precision of the method was also greatly improved (RSDs decreased from 2.2 to 0.8%). As proved by a set of rapid spiked-sample extractions of highly volatile compounds at very high flow rates, the relative standard deviation of the experiments performed in the new device is 3.5 times lower.
Stable aqueous dispersions of fullerenes, C60 and C70, were prepared by simply injecting into water a saturated solution of fullerene in tetrahydofuran (THF), followed by THF removal by purging gaseous nitrogen. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the stable dispersion of C70 in water. Fullerenes are dispersed as monodisperse clusters in water, 60 nm in diameter. High resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed the polycrystalline nature of the cluster. The preparation of the dispersion is very easy to perform, and the dispersions thus obtained are of excellent colloidal stability even though no stabilizing agent is used. It was found that the surface of the cluster is negatively charged and the electrostatic repulsion between the negatively charged cluster surfaces is important for the stability of the dispersions.
A method for the simultaneous quantitation of acetaminophen, aspirin, caffeine, codeine phosphate, phenacetin, and salicylamide was developed. The method is based on reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography with a mobile phase buffered with phosphate (pH 2.3). The procedure not only separated these six active ingredients but also salicylic acid, the major decomposition product of aspirin. The method gave excellent results for three commercial products and a synthetic mixture containing four active ingredients. Lowering the pH increased the retention time of some weak acids and decreased that of some weak bases. Only these changes in the retention times made the separation possible.
apparent in this cell when the Cu2+:M2+ ratio was large. In such instances, substantial diffusion from the narrow channel leading to the reference electrode necessitates the use of relatively long deposition times to prevent the deposition of Cu on the GCMFE. Future modifications of the cell design will be directed toward minimizing the effects of Cu2+ diffusion by further isolating the GCMFE from the channel.
A distilled water leachate was prepared from a hardwood-leaf compost. The 13C NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectra of organic acids isolates from this leachate provided support for the hypothesis that the composition of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the leachate is very similar to that in natural soil pore waters. The leachate DOC was adsorbed by a model mineral surface, and the organic coating on the surface was characterized by solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy.
Large Helical Device (LHD) has been started its operation from the end of March 1998. Second harmonic electron cyclotron heating (ECH) is used as a plasma production and heating. Three gyrotrons have been used at the frequency range of 84 GHz as power sources. Up to 420 kW power with the pulse length of 0.5 sec has been injected in LHD via long distance corrugated waveguide transmission system. The antenna system composed of four mirrors for each line focuses the microwave beam with the 15 mm in 1/e waist radius on the midplane of LHD in the radial direction that enables the local power deposition. The maximum stored energy with using only second harmonic ECH recorded so far is 36 kJ at the averaged density of ne,ave=1.5×1019 m−3. The maximum central electron temperature Te0=2 keV is achieved at ne,ave=3×1018 m−3. Power modulation experiments are carried out mainly to estimate the power deposition profile using ECE radiometer. The initial ICRF heating experiment was also carried out using a pair of loop a...
FACE platform was applied to study the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration on wheat grain yield and quality under two nitrogen (N) application rates. Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and applying N increased the grain yield, spike number, grain number per spike, and biomass significantly, but elevated CO2 concentration had no significant effects on harvest index (HI). Under elevated CO2 concentration, there was a significant decrease in the protein, gliadin, gluteinin, and glutein contents of the grain and the sedimentation value of the flour, and a significant increase in the starch and its components contents of the grain; under N application, an inverse was observed. The dough stability time and the dough viscosity characteristics, such as peak viscosity, final viscosity, and setback value, increased significantly under elevated CO2 concentration and high N application rate. The interaction of atmospheric CO2 concentration and N application rate had significantly positive effects on wheat grain yield and biomass, but less effect on grain quality. Therefore, with elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration in the future, maintaining a higher N application level would benefit wheat grain yield and paste characteristics, and mitigate the decline of grain quality.
The analytical method was optimized for L-cysteine (Cys) in rat plasma with co-existing L-cystine (Cyss). We observed that more than 100% Cyss in rat plasma was converted to Cys under typical conditions for the conversion with 7-fluoro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole-4-sulfonate (SBD-F). Another conversion reagent, 4-aminosulfonyl-7-fluoro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (ABD-F), was then employed, with which the reaction could be carried out at a low temperature without the use of a reducing reagent. Under the optimized conditions of 4 °C and pH 8.3, the conversion ratio of Cyss to Cys in rat plasma was as low as 5–7%. We determined the Cys concentration in plasma of the portal vein of rats that had been orally administered with Cys and Cyss by applying this method. The result indicated that Cys administration and also Cyss administration effectively increased the plasma Cys level. The method developed in this study is well suited for determining the thiol compounds in biological samples.
A function (FUMI) which describes the Shannon mutual information in chromatography is derived. FUMI covers two subjects in one formula: (i) the degree of peak overlap and the noise level; (ii) the mathematical formalism of peak deconvolution and quantitation based on the one-dimensional Kalman filter for peak resolution. Computer simulation demonstrates that a sufficient amount of mutual information can be retrieved from overlapped peaks (Gaussian) through (i) observation and (ii) data processing. A practical advantage of FUMI is logical evaluation and optimization of chromatographic experiments without resort to experience: the optimal can be defined as the chromatogram which can transmit the maximal amount of mutual information in a unit time.
Generally the degree of electrolytic dissociation of an aqua (protic solvent) is larger than that of a nonaqueous solvent (aprotic solvent). And the electric conductivity of an inorganic salt dissolved in a nonaqueous solvent is smaller than in an aqueous solution. Therefore the differential of electric conductivity was conspicuous because electric conductivity when dissolved with a solute is low in a nonaqueous solvent. The differential determination by conductometric titration of mixed solution of inorganic salts was possible in a nonaqueous solvent such as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The simultaneous differential determination of nitrate and inorganic acid in solution was conducted by nonaqueous conductometric titration with sodium tetrahydroborate (STHB) in DMF. Inflection points appeared on conductometric titration curves of nitrate and inorganic acid solution in DMF, and were due to differences in reactivity and acidity. The inflection points indicated concentrations of nitrate and inorganic acid simultaneously. STHB and Al(NO3)3 reacted at a mole ratio of 1:3, and Co(NO3)2 reacted at 1:2. It was considered that the reaction mole ratio of STHB and nitrate was fixed by the valence of the metal ion. In order to investigate the reaction mechanism, ions in the DMF solution and precipitates were identified during titration by fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), inductive coupling plasma emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and the X-ray diffraction method (XRD). 10 % water in the sample solution did not interfere with the titration. The determination limit was 0.01-0.005 mol dm-3 with this method.
This paper presents velocity and angular distribution measurements of the products of N2O4 photodissociated at 193 nm. The data show evidence for only N−N bond fission, with no significant branching to N−O bond fission or NO elimination products. The translational energy distribution of the N−N bond fission products is bimodal, indicating that at least two different NO2 + NO2 product channels contribute significantly to the observed products. Both product channels have an anisotropy parameter of β = 1.7 ± 0.2. Using a Franck−Condon-like sudden analysis, we tentatively assign the two fragmentation channels observed as NO2(X2A1) + NO2(14B2/14A2) and NO2(X2A1) + NO2(22B2). To further characterize the system we present ab initio calculations (at the level of configuration interaction with single excitations) of the relevant excited states of N2O4. The data considered together with the calculations suggest a model for the product branching in which there is spin−orbit coupling in the Franck−Condon region bet...
Inactivation of the p53 transcription factor by mutation or other mechanisms is a frequent event in tumorigenesis. One of the major endogenous negative regulators of p53 in humans is hDM2, a ubiquitin E3 ligase that binds to p53 causing proteasomal p53 degradation. In this work, a library of organometallic iridium(III) compounds were synthesized and evaluated for their ability to disrupt the p53/hDM2 protein-protein interaction. The novel cyclometallated iridium(III) compound 1 [Ir(eppy)2(dcphen)](PF6) (where eppy = 2-(4-ethylphenyl)pyridine and dcphen = 4, 7-dichloro-1, 10-phenanthroline) blocked the interaction of p53/hDM2 in human amelanotic melanoma cells. Finally, 1 exhibited anti-proliferative activity and induced apoptosis in cancer cell lines consistent with inhibition of the p53/hDM2 interaction. Compound 1 represents the first reported organometallic p53/hDM2 protein-protein interaction inhibitor.
OBJECTIVE To study on transport characteristics of four marker constituents of Baitouweng decotion, namely aesculin, esculetin, anemoside B4 and berberine in Caco-2 cells by HPLC. METHODS Primarily, fingerprint and quantitative determination of four compounds was established. Subsequently, the double direction transport characteristics for those compounds were researched by Caco-2 cell monolayer model and verapamil, a selective P-gp inhibitor. Drug concentration determined through HPLC was applied to calculate the apparent partition coefficient(Papp). RESULTS The testing results for four compounds were shown below: ①The transport of aesulin from AP to BL was similar to BL to AP, which indicated its main mechanism in Caco-2 cells was passive transportation; ②The transport contents of esculetin from AP to BL was much more than that of BL to AP, and further experiments showed that the contents from AP to BL could be reduced by P-gp inhibitor verapamil. So, for those evidences, the mechanism of esculetin was active transference involved with P-gp; ③The transport of berberine from AP to BL was similar to BL to AP. However, Papp(BL→AP) was significantly lower than that of reference reported. One reason may be that the interaction between compounds or some one could restrained P-gp(BL→AP) activity to augment the absorption. ④It was a pity that anemoside B4 was unable to be detected due to its poor response to UV. CONCLUSION The transport characteristics of acsulin, esculetin and berberine can be detected by HPLC in Caco-2 cell model.
In this paper, the antioxidant activities of purple cabbage pigment were studied and evaluated by determining the reducing capacity, antioxidant activity on lipid- peroxidation,free radical -scavenging activity on DPPH.At the same time,the anthocyanin contents was mensurated.The results showed that they had stronger reducing capacity,antioxidant activity on lipid-peroxidation,and scavenging effects on DPPH radical. In the range of test concentration, the maximum scavenging or inhibition rate to linoleic acid auto-oxidation,DPPH radical was 54.39 %, 93.2 % respectively.The results suggested that the purple cabbage pigment has antioxidant activities with broad application prospects.
Ship-based experiments around Berlin and laboratory tests were carried out in order to develop spectroscopic methods for the in-situ determination of chlorophyll a (Chla) and chemical oxygen demand (CODcr) of surface waters. The regression analysis of spectroscopic data (reflectance (R); laser-stimulated and conventional fluorescence (IF)) and chemical-biological data yielded correlations of a relatively good quality.
Title of Thesis : Acid recovery of Cadmium and Lead from immobilized activated sludge used to biosorb metals. Chandrakanth Hartman, M.S in Environmental Science. 1991 Thesis directed by : Sam S.Sofer, Professor, Sponsored Chair in Biotechnology. A study of the adsorption and subsequent desorption of heavy metals using various concentrations of hydrochloric acids has been performed. To accomplish this task, the following areas were investigated : immobilization of the sludge, adsorption of heavy metals, various concentrations of acid used as stripping agents, examination of the relative fractions of heavy metals obtained using various stripping agents, and the actual concentration of the acid at a particular fraction. It was observed that water helps in extraction of cadmium to a certain extent, but lead cannot be extracted with water. Also, water mixed with dilute hydrochloric acid is more efficient in extraction of metals as compared with direct addition of strong hydrochloric acid. It was also observed that nitric acid was not a very effective stripping agent as compared with hydrochloric acid. PREFACE This thesis presents a study done in work related to the biotechnology field. Biotechnology is defined as "the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of organic and inorganic materials by biological agents to provide goods and services". 1 Scientific and engineering principles cover a range of disciplines including biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, biochemical and chemical engineering and to some extent electrical engineering. The concept of "biological materials" refers to a wide range of biological catalysts such as enzymes, microorganisms, and animal and plant cells, while "goods and services" covers products of industries concerned with food, pharmaceuticals, biochemicals, metal recovery and biological waste treatment. Heavy metals have been defined as "those with a specific gravity greater than 4 or 5, located from atomic numbers 22 to 34 and 40 to 52 on the periodic table (as well as the lanthanide and the actinide series), and having a specific biological response". 2 ii The most common heavy metals include titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, silver, cadmium, tin, mercury, and lead. A discussion of bioaccumulation and toxicity of heavy metals requires a basic definition of terms. Toxicology is defined as "the science which studies the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms and assesses the probability of their occurrence". With this definition in mind, the prime objective of any toxicology investigation is to provide the primary data base from which estimates of risk can be made for a given population of organisms. 2 The area of wastewater treatment, gives scope to potentially exploit the intrinsic capability of microorganisms to "clean up" waters, especially since conventional physical and chemical means of removing soluble metal waste are generally very expensive when the contaminant concentrations are in the range of 10-100 ppm and below. Microorganisms have commonly been reported to be capable of sequestering heavy metals and concentrating them up to several thousand times over their concentration in the environment. With the increasing value and the growing scarcity of some metals, this inherent ability of the iii microorganisms has given prominence to the study of this field from the viewpoint of possible metal recovery. Some plants are also known to have the ability to concentrate specific metals, and their relative abundance has been used as indicators for "botanical metal prospecting". Also, some studies have been done to demonstrate the possible use of algae and simple plants as bioindicators of metal pollution in water systems. 3 Many researchers have sought to exploit this behavior, and numerous investigations reporting a wealth of data of a qualitative nature have been published. Field and pilot plant studies on metal ion recovery/removal have been conducted and several patents have appeared. The uptake process, however, is very complex and is dependent on the metal ion and the biological system in question. 3 The work study done here involves the use of immobilized bacteria to biosorb from water and to strip the heavy metals using different concentrations of acid solutions.
Objective To establish a simple, quantitative and stable method for plaquing assay of recombinant vaccinia virus.Methods The trypsin treated vaccinia was absorbed onto MA104 cells for two hours. Infectious titers of the virus were measured by two diffirent plaquing assays: (1) the cell monolayer was overlayed with MEM- agar and incubated at 37 ℃ in 5%CO2 for 3～4 days,then added the second overlay (containing neutral red) and plaques were calculated. (2) the cell monolayer was overlayed with MEM- methyl cellulose and incubated at 37 ℃ in 5%CO2 for 3～4 days,then the cell layers were stained with crystal violet and plaques were calculated.Results Round,even and clear plaques formed in cell monolayers in MEM- agar and MEM- methyl cellulose overlayer methods,and MEM- methyl cellulose overlayer method was simpler than MEM- agar overlayer method with a little bigger plaques and higher titers.Conclusion MEM- agar and MEM- methyl cellulose overlayer methods can be used for detection of vaccinia virus PFU titers and MEM- methyl cellulose overlayer method is better.
Several Acalypha australis Linn. species are used in traditional medicine in Southeast Asia. In this work, the ultra-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry fingerprints and the antibacterial activities of A. australis Linn. were investigated. An in-depth discussion on the reliability of identifying and obtaining potentially active compounds by spectrum-effect relationship and semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography was conducted. The result shows that gallic acid and a compound with molecular weight of 634.1 in the fingerprints were the main antibacterial compounds. Compared to the crude extract of A. australis Linn., both compounds increase the antibacterial efficacy 10 to 20 times. Compounds with molecular weights of 154.0, 292.0, and 485.1 in the fingerprints were the auxiliary antibacterial compounds. Through the entire isolation procedure, we obtained these antibacterial compounds with purities of 92.53, 87.98, 90.73, 89.36, and 88.14%, respectively. This work provides a general model of the combination of ultra-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry fingerprinting and antibacterial test to study the spectrum-effect relationships of A. australis Linn. This model can be used to discover further the active compounds of this herb.
The zero-field splitting parameter D of the lowest excited triplet states of benzenoid hydrocarbons is calculated within semi-empirical π-theory. The calculated D values with an average absolute deviation of only 0·003 cm-1 from the experimental values are governed mainly by the contributions of all bonds D 01. By analysing D 01 it is shown that D depends crucially on the size and symmetry of the molecule as well as on the degree of localization of the molecular orbitals which are singly occupied in the leading configurations of the triplet wavefunction. Furthermore it is demonstrated that there is no general correlation between the degree of localization of benzenoid units and their contribution to D. The relationship between the probability density or the mean separation of the two unpaired electrons and D is investigated.
FIELD: chemistry. SUBSTANCE: inventions relate to production of fertiliser based on organic substances. Method of obtaining fertiliser, based on organic substances, includes the following stages: (a) accumulation of wastes of animal breeding in shed (b) fast separation of wastes of animal breeding into liquid wastes and solid wastes on conveyor belt in shed, (c) clarification of liquid wastes and obtaining in this way supernatant and sludge, (d) extraction of ammonia from supernatant with obtaining ammonium salt and water solution, (e) filtration of water solution with obtaining concentrate and usable water, (f) application of ammonium salt, concentrate and sludge as additive to solid wastes, (g) shaping solid wastes as fertiliser based on organic substances. Method of obtaining fertiliser, based on organic substances, includes the following stages: (a) accumulation of liquid manure from wastes of animal breeding, (b) separation of liquid into filtration sediment and filtrate by pressing, (c) clarification of filtrate with obtaining supernatant and sludge, (d) separation of sludge by pressing with obtaining second filtration sediment, (e) extraction of ammonia from supernatant with obtaining ammonium salt and water solution, (f0 filtration of water solution with obtaining concentrate and usable water, (g) application of ammonium salt and concentrate as additive to first filtration sediment and second filtration sediment and (h) shaping first and second filtration sediments as fertiliser based on organic substances. EFFECT: inventions make it possible to provide improved system and method of producing fertliliser, based on organic substances. 12 cl, 4 dwg
One of the challenges associated with attending a BCCE (Biennial Conference in Chemical Education) is choosing which talks to attend, because there are often concurrent talks in different symposia in which participants are interested. These conflicts between multiple interests are especially challenging for members of the CCCE (Committee on Computers in Chemical Education) who organize symposia and workshops. Thus, the responsibility of presiding in talks of their own symposium precludes them from attending other symposia that interest them. This year, members of the CCCE organized four different symposia during the BCCE. Organizers of three of these symposia each invited two or three authors to present papers related to the use of computers in chemical education in a follow-up online ConfChem Conference. This approach allows participants who could not attend these talks to interact with authors, and also allows members of the broader chemical education community who could not attend the BCCE to benefit f...
We, and others, have previously shown that mismatch repair proteins, in addition to their repair function, contribute to cell death initiation. In response to some drugs, this cell death activity is independent of the repair function of the proteins. Rescinnamine, a derivative of the indole alkaloid reserpine, a drug used to treat hypertension several decades ago, was shown to target the cell death-initiating activity of mismatch repair proteins. When used in animals, the hypotensive action of this drug prevents applying appropriate concentrations for statistically significant tumor reduction. Using a combination of computational modeling, chemical synthesis and cell assays, we determine how rescinnamine can be structurally modified and what effect these modifications have on cell survival. These results inform further computational modeling to suggest new synthetic lead molecules to move toward further biological testing.
When an author submits his (or her) work to a journal, he commits an act of trust. He trusts that his article will be treated with respect and care and in a manner that is conducive to a free and open discussion of scientific issues. In processing the paper, the journal assumes that the author has exerted all reasonable care in the execution and presentation of his work and that he will respond in good faith to the review process. Implicit in this process is that every journal must handle its papers independently. This has been the declared policy of Meteoritics & Planetary Science since 1992 and maybe earlier. In 1992, I proposed to the editorial board of Meteoritics & Planetary Science that we have a policy of rejecting papers that we know to have been rejected by other journals. This was supposed to ensure that our journal quickly reached a level of excellence as great, or greater, than our competitors. The board displayed one of its few bouts of impatience: "No way!" "What if the other journals were wrong!" "That is unfair!" "That is stupid!" Five years later, I am embarrassed to have made the suggestion. Five years later, I realize just how essential it is that every paper is viewed independently in a free and unbiased way. Five years later, I see the danger of an elitist band of editors perturbing the system to a degree that novel ideas are beaten-off and the status quo protected at all costs. I see the danger of believing in "good" reputations-a danger that afflicts editors more than authors and reviewers-so that bad or ill-considered ideas from the obvious quarters are propagated, while excellent ideas from unusual quarters are extinguished before they see the light of day. Five years later, I see a real danger of good papers being rejected and bad papers being accepted because the system is not perfect. The editorial board was right in 1992, and I was wrong. Meteoritics & Planetary Science will evaluate every paper on its own merits regardless of previous decisions by other journals. In fact, we prefer not to know about a paper's history. Similarly, the interactions between an author and Meteoritics & Planetary Science are confidential, and the editors will not discuss these matters with the editors of other journals or anyone else who is attempting to evaluate an author's work or ideas. It is not just a matter of trust, or what is best for our Science or our journal, it is a matter of editorial ethics.
The effect of gradient cooling(storage at 12 ℃ and cooling them to(0 ± 1) ℃ over 30 days at a gradual interval of 1 ℃ every 2.5 days) on membrane lipid peroxidation and browning of Yali pear flesh with different maturity was explored.The results showed that flesh-browning index had significantly positive correlation with MDA and radical content,and significantly negative correlation with reducing substance and protective enzyme.Gradient cooling improved the activities of SOD,CAT and POD,delayed the decrease of vitamin C and GSH contents to a certain extent,inhibited the accumulation of H2O2,O2-free radicals,reduced MDA content and membrane permeability,and retarded flesh browning of Yali pears at the early stage after harvest.In contrast,the contents of vitamin C and GSH in the flesh of Yali pears at the late stage after harvest were obvious higher and revealed a fast decrease during storage.Meanwhile,higher contents of O2-.,H2O2 and MDA,and lower activities of SOD and POD were also determined.Therefore,gradient cooling can accelerate membrane lipid peroxidation and flesh browning of Yali pears at the late stage after harvest.Timely harvesting combined with gradient cooling can efficiently inhibit the flesh browning of Yali pears during storage.
The effects of non‐Maxwellian ion speed distributions on ion–neutral reaction rate constants measured in drift tubes are examined experimentally and are compared to the predictions of recent theories. The rate constants of strongly kinetic‐energy‐dependent ion–molecule reactions of O+ with O2, N2, and NO are measured separately in helium and argon buffer gases, in which the O+ speed distributions are expected to be very different. The differences between the helium‐buffered and argon‐buffered rate constants are often substantial. When different, the argon‐buffered values are generally larger than the helium‐buffered values at the same mean energy, indicating that the O+‐in‐argon distribution has a larger high‐energy ’’tail’’ than the O+‐in‐helium distribution. The differences between the two sets of data are compared to predictions from (a) the Monte Carlo trajectory calculations of Lin and Bardsley, and (b) the moment solution of the Boltzmann equation of Viehland and Mason, both described in accompanyin...
The indigenous extraction method of essential oil was widely used in the remote countryside due to its superiority such as simple devices, convenient to disassemble, transport and manipulate. The chemical compositions of the essential oil extracted by the indigenous method was analyzed by GC/MS,47constituents were identified from 71 chromatographic peaks, and the relative content up to 91.8%. The major constituents were α-cedrene(22.4%), cedrol(20.07%), α-terpineol(4.29%)and α-pinene(2.26%). This result provided reference for the further usage of the Cunninghamia lanceolata essential oil and improving the extraction equipment.
Objective To study the changes of Na+K+-ATPase,Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase activities in erythrocyte membrane and blood viscosity in children with essential hypertension.Methods The activities of Na+K+-ATPase,Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase in erythrocyte membrane were determined by a colorimetric method.Blood viscosity was measured and analyzed with the statistic analysis SPSS 12.0 software in 50 children from Nov.2004 to Dec.2004 in the people's hospital of guizhou province and adolescents with essential hypertension.Thirty healthy children were collected as control group.Results The activities of Na+ K+-ATPase[(6.12±1.30)μmolpi/(gHb·h)and(4.59±1.40)μmolpi/(gHb·h)],Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase[(7.46±1.30)μmolpi/(gHb·h)and(5.81±1.20)μmolpi/(gHb·h)] were lower significantly in hypertension group than those in control group(Pa0.01),and blood viscosity was significantly higher in hypertension group than that in control group(Pa0.01).The activities of Na+K+-ATPase,Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase in hypertension group were negatively asso-ciated with blood viscosity(P0.05,0.01).Conclusion Decreased Na+K+-ATPase,Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase activities and increased blood viscosity may play an important role in the pathogenesis of childhood hypertension.
A collection of texts which served as a forum for exchanging the most recent facts, figures and ideas on selected aspects of the chemical, biochemical, environmental and clinical toxicology of trace metals and metalloids. Part 1 deals with general aspects of the roles of trace metals in health and disease under three broad headings - essentiality and toxicity, interactions, monitoring and analysis; Part 2 describes chemical and experimental studies of specific metals. These are considered under four headings: aluminum and ''light elements''; lead, cadmium, and ''heavy elements''; chromium, nickel, and ''transition elements''; platinum, gold, and ''noble elements.'' Interactions between metals are well documented here, as are new and powerful analytical techniques.
Pleckstrin homology (PH) domains have been shown to be involved in different interactions, including binding to inositol compounds, protein kinase C isoforms, and heterotrimeric G proteins. In some cases, the most important function of PH domains is transient localisation of proteins to membranes, where they can interact with their partners. Tec family protein tyrosine kinases contain a PH domain. In Btk, also PH domain mutations lead into an immunodeficiency, X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA). A new disease-causing mutation was identified in the PH domain. The structures for the PH domains of Bmx, Itk, and Tec were modelled based on Btk structure. The domains seem to have similar scaffolding and electrostatic polarisation but to have some differences in the binding regions. The models provide new insight into the specificity, function, and regulation of Tec family kinases.
meat both lipogenic and lipolytic pro-cesses which occur in adipose tissue itself. appear species differences in the sensitivity of adipose tissues to lipolytic influences in vitro, and pig adipose tissue been considered to be insensitive 1965). However, in vivo studies (Cunningham & Friend, 1965) have shown that considerable fat mobilization can occur in pigs in response to influences which accelerate lipolytic mechanisms. The present studies were designed to investigate lipolysis in four Large White pigs (40-50 kg live weight, prepared with polyethylene catheters in both external jugular veins) in four physiological states: (I) up to 4 h after feeding ; (2) during constant infusion of norepinephrine; (3) in semi-starvation (16-21 h after a zoo g test meal); and (4) after insulin stimulation 21 h after the test meal. These states were investigated concurrently over a 2 d period. The concentration of free fatty acids (FFA) in plasma (mequiv./l, mean of four pigs +SEM) increased from 0.123 ko-037 in the fed state to 0-425 k0.053 and 1,062 t 0.099 after 16 h and 21 h of starvation, respectively; from 0.123 20.037 before a I h infusion of norepinephrine (5 pg/kg per min) to 3'125 &0.005 during the last 20 min of that infusion; and decreased from 1.062~0.099 ZI h after the zoo g test meal to 0.190 20.032, 50 min after intravenous administration of insulin (0'33 U/kg). goats. By intravenous infusion of tracer quantities of [1-14C]acetate and [3-14C]-3-hydroxybutyrate (3-HBA) into lactating goats, the contribution of these precursors to milk fat synthesis was studied under conditions in which the yield of fat was varied by intraruminal infusions of butyric acid. There was a variable response to buty-ric acid infusion in terms of milk fat yield: three out of the five goats used showed an increase. The yield of all individual fatty acids was not increased to the samc extent : C4-C1, showed a greater response than C,,-C,, and hence the proportion of short-chain acids in the milk was increased. In those goats which showed a response there were also changes in the amount and manner by which acetate and 3-HBA contributed to milk fat synthesis.
Summary and discussion We have shown that polyglutamic and polyaspartic acids are quite active in specific assays for F. VIII, much less so in specific assays for F. IX, and inactive in four other systems (Table I). The F. VIII and IX activities are demonstrable only when the deficient substrate plasmas have been activated previously with kaolin and when phospholipid is also present (Tables II and III). Furthermore, polyglutamic acid “potentiates” F. VIII activity, two- to fivefold, when it is added to normal human plasma or F. VII-rich fractions of normal human plasma (Table IV). “Potentiation” of F. VIII by PGA is apparently different from activation or enhancement of F. VIII activity by thrombin. Very low concentrations of thrombin are known to activate F. VIII in a time-dependent reaction in which maximum activation does not occur until several minutes after mixing (8). This increase in F. VIII activity is unstable, decreasing to the original value upon further incubation. In contrast, the “potentiating” effect upon plasma F. VIII of polyglutamic acids (as well as kidney AHF and AHF3 prepared from albumin) is observed immediately upon mixing and remains stable for hours at room temperature (unpublished observations). Our experiments suggest that polyglutamic acid does not decrease clotting times by activating factors XII, XI, or IX, but that, once these factors have been activated by kaolin, polyglutamic acid is able to “substitute” for F. VIII. The fact that the PGA shows a slight corrective effect in previously activated F. IX deficient plasma suggests a possibly even wider role, i.e., that polyglutamic acid may mimic the “intrinsic F. X activator.” Kaolin-activation of the F. VIII deficient substrate is an absolute requirement for expression of the activity of the polypeptides.
In isolated perfused organs (pig ear, rabbit ear, rat lung) pentosan polysulphate caused an increase in the release of plasminogen activator. The activator was released in a dose-dependent manner, the release being repeatedly induced as demonstrated with the rabbit ear. An increase in activator activity was also found in experimental animals (mini-pig, rat, rabbit). In the isolated perfused organ and the whole animal, the activator released proved to be tissue-type plasminogen activator. For the release mechanism displacement of mural plasminogen activator by pentosan polysulphate seems to be of importance. The release of tissue-type activator plays a decisive role for the regulation of the temporarily insufficient fibrinolytic system, for the thrombolytic process and for the antithrombotic action of pentosan polysulphate.
With in the dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM), the compound nucleus fusion/ formation prob- ability PCN is defined for the first time, and its variation with CN excitation energy E ∗ and fissility parameter χ is studied. In DCM, the (total) fusion cross section σ f usion is sum of the compound nucleus (CN) and non- compound nucleus (nCN) decay processes, each calculated as the dynamical fragmentation process. The CN cross section σCN is constituted of the evaporation residues (ER) and fusion-fission (ff), including the interme- diate mass fragments (IMFs), each calculated for all contributing decay fragments (A1, A2) in terms of their formation and barrier penetration probabilities P0 and P. The nCN cross section σnCN is determined as the quasi-fission (qf) process where P0=1 and P is calculated for the entrance channel nuclei. The calculations are presented for six different target-projectile combinations of CN mass A∼100 to superheavy, at various different center-of-mass energies with effects of deformations and orientations of nuclei included in it. Interesting results are that the PCN=1 for complete fusion, but PCN < 1o r<<1 due to the nCN conribution, depending strongly on both E ∗ and χ.
Hydrolysis of phosphatidylnucleosides, 5'-(rac-1-hexadecyl-2-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoryl)-3'-azido- 3'-deoxythymidine and -2',3'-didehydro-3'-deoxythymidine, effected by phospholipases (PL) A2, C, and D was studied to reveal the metabolism of these derivatives. It was shown that PLA2 deacetylates the glycerol residue at position 2, PLC is inactive, and PLD hydrolyzes the phosphatidylnucleosides to give free nucleosides.
The present investigation attempts to provide a better understanding of the influence of the nature of the carbon support on the HDS activity of Mo, Ni, and NiMo catalysts. For this purpose a high purity activated carbon was subjected to oxidative treatments with HNO3to modify its surface properties. NiMo catalysts supported on the resulting activated carbons were prepared and characterized by TPR, XRD, and SEM–EDX, and their activity for HDS of thiophene at 30 bars and 375°C was evaluated. The results obtained showed that oxidation of the carbon surface does not affect the HDS activity and other characteristics of the supported Mo phase. In contrast, the HDS activity of the Ni catalysts is enhanced by acid treatments of the carbon support. In this case, introduction of oxygen-containing functional groups (O(s)) leads to a strong interaction of O(s)–Ni during impregnation, which becomes essential to achieving and preserving high nickel dispersion. This effect on Ni dispersion is also reflected on the HDS activity of the bimetallic NiMo/C catalysts. The synergistic effect of the bimetallic catalysts is observed only when oxygen functional groups are present on the carbon surface, which are necessary for a good HDS activity, mainly because they enhance Ni–Mo interactions that produce the highly active Ni–Mo–S phase. A NiMoO4-like phase formed during impregnation seems to be the precursor for the active sulfide phase over the present NiMo/C catalysts.
Nodes of Ranvier are excitable regions of axonal membranes highly enriched in voltage-gated sodium channels that propagate action potentials. The mechanism of protein clustering at nodes has been a source of controversy. In this study, developmental analysis of nodes of Ranvier in optic nerve axons reveals that early node intermediates are defined by ankyrin-G. Other node components, including beta IV spectrin, voltage-gated sodium channels, and the L1 cell adhesion molecule neurofascin, are subsequently recruited to sites of ankyrin-G clustering. The role of intact paranodes in protein clustering was examined in the dysmyelinating mouse mutant jimpy. Jimpy mice do not have intact paranodal axoglial contacts, which is indicated by a complete lack of neurexin/contactin-associated protein/paranodin clustering in paranodes. In the absence of intact paranodes, ankyrin-G was still able to cluster, although fewer ankyrin clusters were seen in jimpy optic nerves than in wild-type optic nerves. Recruitment of Nav1.2, Nav1.6, beta IV spectrin, and neurofascin to sites of ankyrin-G clustering is unimpaired in jimpy mice, indicating that node formation occurs independent of intact paranodal axoglial contacts.
Tetracoordinate organoboron coordination compounds have been studied;1,2 some of them are of importance in optoelectronic applications.3 In addition, pyridine-triphenylborane and its derivatives are used as antifouling agents for ships.4 Previously, we reported on a tetracoordinate organoboron coordination compound5 derived from tetraphenylborate anion and 2,2′-iminodiethanol. In this study, a new tetracoordinate organoboron coordination compound was isolated from a reaction of tetraphenylborate anion and dimethylformamide (DMF); in order to characterize this compound, its crystal structure was determined by the single-crystal X-ray method. Single crystals of dimethylformamide-triphenylborane complex (DMF-BPh3) were prepared as follows: sodium tetraphenylborate (0.68 g, 2.0 mmol) was dissolved in hot DMF (2.0 mL); to this was added a hot DMF solution (1.0 mL) of vanadium(IV) oxide sulfate n hydrate (0.16 g, ~1 mmol), and stirred for 4 min. After cooling, slow diffusion of 2-propanol to the reaction mixture resulted in the precipitation of colorless single-crystals suitable for X-ray analysis. It is noted that this is a new reaction as far as we know. Vanadium(IV) oxide sulfate is indispensable for this reaction, and the detailed mechanism is under investigation. Crystal data are included in Table 1. The structure was solved by direct methods and expanded using Fourier techniques. The non-hydrogen atoms were refined anisotropically, and hydrogen atoms were refined using the riding model. The final cycle of a full-matrix least-squares refinement on F2 was allowed to satisfactory converge with R1 = 0.042 [I > 2σ(I)]. The crystal consists of only dimethylformamide-triphenylborane complex (DMF-BPh3) molecule (Figs. 1 and 2). In the complex, three phenyl groups bind to a boron atom, and DMF binds to the boron atom through the oxygen atom [O(1)], forming a tetrahedral geometry around the boron atom. The B–C bond distances fall in the range of 1.616(3) – 1.626(3)Å (Table 2), and the B–O bond distances [1.601(3)Å] is slightly shorter than the B–C distances, indicating a strong coordination bond between the DMF moiety and the boron atom. From the density functional theory (DFT) computation (GAMESS program,6,7 LC-BOP8/6-31G), the boron atom is positively charged and the oxygen atom is negatively charged. The DMF-BPh3 molecule weakly interacts with other surrounding six DMF-BPh3 molecules through CH···π interactions [C···C distances: 3.575(3) – 3.730(4)Å] and a π···π 2017 © The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry
Cassava starch hydrolysis was investigated in this study using alpha amylase and glucoamylase. The effects of process variables, namely: temperature, pH and time were studied and optimized for hydrolysis of cassava (Manihot esculenta) flour to glucose syrup. Three levels of process variables were used for the study. The three levels of process variables were: temperature (60, 67 and 74 o C), time (1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 h) and pH (4.5, 5 and 5.5). A polynomial regression model was developed using the experimental data. The results showed that production of reducing sugar was strongly affected by the variation of variables on alpha amylase and glucoamylase hydrolysis of cassava starch. The fit of the model was expressed by the coefficient of determination R 2 which was found to be 0.948 indicating that 94.8 % of the variability in the response can be explained by the model. The value also indicates that only 5.2 % of the total variation is not explained by the model. This shows that equation (2) is a suitable model to describe the response of the experiment pertaining to reducing sugar production. The statistical significance of the model was validated by F-test for analysis of variance (p ? 0.05). For alpha amylase and glucoamylase hydrolysis, the optimum value of temperature, time and pH were found to be 74 o C, pH 5.5 and time 1.5 h. The maximum reducing sugar production at optimum condition was 257 g/l representing 73.43 % conversion or 73.43 dextrose equivalent (DE). Key words: cassava starch, hydrolysis, factorial design, glucose syrup, dextrose equivalent.
The present work evaluated the cytotoxicity of piplartine {5,6-dihydro-1-[1-oxo-3-(3,4,5- trimethoxyphenyl)-trans-2-propenyl]-2(1H)pyridinone} and piperine {1-[5-(1,3)-benzodioxol- 5-yl)-1-oxo-2,4-pentadienyl]piperidine}, components obtained from Piper species. The substances were tested for their cytotoxicity on the brine shrimp lethality assay, sea urchin eggs development, 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay using tumor cell lines and lytic activity on mouse erythrocytes. Piperine showed higher toxicity in brine shrimp (DL50 = 2.8 d 0.3 μg/ml) than piplartine (DL50 = 32.3 d 3.4 μg/ml). Both piplartine and piperine inhibited the sea urchin eggs development during all phases examined, first and third cleavage and blastulae, but in this assay piplartine was more potent than piperine. In the MTT assay, piplartine was the most active with IC50 values in the range of 0.7 to 1.7 μg/ml. None of the tested substances induced hemolysis of mouse erythrocytes, suggesting that the cytotoxicity of piplartine and piperine was not related to membrane damage.
Abstract Three novel dicarboxylic acids, bis-4,4′-[N-4(4′-hydroxycarbonyl phenyleneoxy) phthalimido] diphenyl sulfone, bis-4,4′-[N-4(4′-hydroxycarbonyl phenyleneoxy) phthalimido] diphenyl methane, and bis-4,4′-[N-4(4′-hydroxycarbonyl phenyleneoxy) phthalimido] diphenyl ether, were synthesized, and several polyesterimides were prepared from diacid chlorides and bisphenols by solution polycondensation. The polymers were obtained in 65–88% yield and had inherent viscosities in the 0.18 to 0.64 dL/g range. The polymers were characterized by IR, elemental analysis, x-ray, TGA, DSC, and solubility tests. All the polymers were readily soluble in polar aprotic solvents and had a 10% weight loss temperature above 375°C in nitrogen.
Tissue modulated Raman spectroscopy was used noninvasively to measure blood glucose concentration in people with type I and type II diabetes with HemoCue fingerstick measurements being used as reference. Including all of the 49 measurements, a Clarke error grid analysis of the noninvasive measurements showed that 72% were A range, i.e., clinically accurate, 20% were B range, i.e., clinically benign, with the remaining 8% of measurements being essentially erroneous, i.e., C, D, or E range. Rejection of 11 outliers gave a correlation coefficient of 0.80, a standard deviation of 22 mg/dL with p<0.0001 for N=38 and places all but one of the measurements in the A and B ranges. The distribution of deviations of the noninvasive glucose measurements from the fingerstick glucose measurements is consistent with the suggestion that there are at least two systematic components in addition to the random noise associated with shot noise, charge coupled device spiking, and human factors. One component is consistent with the known variation of fingerstick glucose concentration measurements from laboratory reference measurements made using plasma or whole blood. A weak but significant correlation between the deviations of noninvasive measurements from fingerstick glucose measurements and the test subject's hemoglobin concentration was also observed.
The effect of thermal annealing on the Raman spectrum of Si1−xGex grown on Si was investigated in the temperature range of 800–1100 °C on three samples having Ge contents x of 0.2 and thicknesses of 0.08, 0.16, and 0.40 μm. For annealing below 900 °C, the stress relaxation played an important role on the Raman shift. The degree of the stress relaxation in a dislocation free sample was smaller than that in a sample with partially relaxed stress. Stress was not completely relaxed in any of our samples after annealing. For annealing above 900 °C, diffusion strongly affected the Raman shift and the spectral lineshape. The critical thickness was close to 0.08 μm.
ABSTRACT Ethylene glycol was used as an efficient and recoverable medium for the reaction of diazoles with aryl iodides and aryl bromides in the presence of CuCl2 as the catalyst and K2CO3 as the base. Consequently, imidazole, benzimidazole, and pyrazole reacted readily under microwave irradiation to give good to excellent yields of their corresponding N-arylated products in relatively short time periods. Apparently, ethylene glycol plays a dual role by activating the catalyst and also providing a homogenous medium for the processes. The reaction medium consisting of the solvent, the base, and the copper salt was recovered and reused successfully in the next several reactions. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
In this automated system for assaying guanidino compounds, the compounds are resolved on an ion-exchange (Dowex 50) column, then reacted with phenanthrenequinone in alkaline solution. This mixture is then acidified and the resulting fluorescence is measured (lambda ex, 305 nm; lambda em, 395 nm). I applied the system to the analysis of urine from control rats and rats given L-canavanine, L-canavaninosuccinic acid, L-guanidinosuccinic acid, L-arginine, or urea, intraperitoneally. The recorder tracings are compared with those obtained for urine from healthy and uremic humans. After urea administration some guanidinosuccinate is excreted, along with substantial quantities of another substance that elutes just before guanidinosuccinate and so may be mistaken for it. Urine from uremic humans also shows this unidentified peak, but not urine from untreated rats or healthy humans. L-Canavanine gives rise, mainly, to guanidine and homoserine, apparently by reduction. Similarly, canavaninosuccinate is reduced to homoserine and guanidinosuccinate. Arginine gives rise to small quantities of guanidinosuccinate. Guanidinosuccinate is excreted mainly unchanged. When the guanidinosuccinate concentration is increased, excretion of guanidinoacetic acid is suppressed.
N-Chlorination of polyacrylamide (PAM, 0.5%) with NaOCl was maximized after 34 h at 5°C and after 1520 min at 25°C. The lower the addition level of NaOCl, the easier the N-chlorination occurred, contrary to those of low molecular amides. This phenomenon was explained by the formation of amino and carboxyl groups, and the electrostatic repulsive forces between -CONCl and ClO-. The maximum level of N-chlorination was 63% based on NaOCl when 10 molar % of NaOCl to the carbamoyl group was applied to an aqueous solution of PAM.The effect of N-chlorinated PAM (N-Cl-PAM) on paper strength was compared with that of an anionic PAM (A-PAM) with the same molecular weight (7.25×105). Polydimethyldiallylammonium chloride (PDMDAAC) was added as a retention aid for N-Cl-PAM and A-PAM at the level of 0.1% or 0.2% on pulp. Handsheets showed an increase in dry tensile strength, for example, of 46% by the addition of N-Cl-PAM at 0.5% level based on dry pulp at slightly alkaline conditions, while of only 25% in the case of A-PAM under the same adsorption rate (77%). When N-Cl-PAM was employed at slightly acidic conditions, the retention of N-Cl-PAM reached to 90% even if the retention aid was not present, and an increase in strength was 44%. It was suggested that the paper strength was greatly improved by the formation of covalent bonds to some extent.
The influx of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) across the blood-brain barrier is partly mediated by the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). But other transporters, like Oatp (organic anion transporter polypeptide, SLC21) transporters, could also be involved. We used in situ brain perfusion to show that rosuvastatin and taurocholate, two established Oatp1a4 substrates, decreased (5-fold) the Clup of [3H]Aβ while L-thyroxine increased it (5.5-fold). We demonstrated an interaction between Aβ and Oatp1a4 by co-immunoprecipitation and western blotting experiments, supporting the hypothesis that the rosuvastatin- and taurocholate-sensitive transporter was Oatp1a4. In conclusion, our results suggest that, in mice, the brain uptake of Aβ is partly mediated by Oatp1a4 and that L-thyroxine may play a crucial role in the inhibition of brain Aβ clearance.
Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC  Introduction: Glioblastomas frequently overexpress a variant form of EGFR, called variant III (EGFRvIII), which has an in-frame deletion of an 801-bp sequence in the extracellular domain. EGFRvIII does not bind EGF ligand but exhibits constitutive kinase activity that results in enhanced transformation, reduced apoptosis, and resistance to therapy. Nimotuzumab (Nmab) is an EGFR-targeting antibody that has demonstrated encouraging results in early clinical trials treating adult and pediatric brain tumors. Here we present data characterizing the interaction of Nmab with EGFRvIII.  Methods: Binding of Nmab to the extracellular domain of wtEGFR and EGFRvIII was first characterized by SPR biosensor analysis: Nmab was captured via its Fc domain and varying concentrations of EGFRvIII and EGFRwt were flowed. Flow cytometry analysis was subsequently performed using a parental U87MG glioblastoma cell line and derivatives which were engineered to overexpress either wtEGFR or EGFRvIII.  Results: Nmab bound EGFRvIII and EGFRwt with similar affinity, which was in the 10−8 M range. This KD is consistent with the previously reported affinity constant of Nmab for EGFRwt (Telavera et al, 2009). Binding was further analyzed by flow cytometry. Nmab bound both EGFRwt and EGFRvIII expressed on the surface of parental U87MG, U87MG EGFRvIII and U87MG wtEGFR cells. Additional data concerning effects of Nmab on EGFRvIII expressing cell lines will be presented.  Conclusion: Nmab binds to wtEGFR and EGFRvIII with similar affinity, which supports development of the antibody as a therapeutic for glioblastoma. In U87MG glioblastoma cells, synergistic activity of Nmab in combination with radiotherapy has been previously reported (Diaz Miqueli et al, 2009). Nmab is currently being tested in an advanced randomized study in the first line setting for the treatment of adult glioma. Nmab is being tested in combination with radiation plus temozolomide, vs radiation plus temozolomide alone, with preliminary results expected in the second half of 2010.  Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1778.
Organic borate esters are now under intensive study for their excellent properties as multifunctional lubricant additives. However, they are very susceptible to hydrolysis, which limits their application in lubricating oil. According to molecular design, a series of inter molecular coordination borate esters containing nitrogen or oxygen were synthesized. Their hydrolytic stability was investigated with three methods, and compared with general borate esters and extra molecular coordination borate esters. The experimental results show that the hydrolytic stability of inter molecular coordination borate esters containing nitrogen is greatly better than that of general borate esters and extra molecular coordination borate esters. Tribological test indicates that the introduction of the nitrogen atom into borate esters significantly improve the hydrolytic stability of borate esters as well as their friction reducing and anti wear properties.
In weak acid medium,acid bisazo dye trypan blue(TB) reacts with netilmicin sulfate(NETS) and etimicin sulfate(ETS),and forms NETS-TB or ETS-TB complexes,which enhance the RRS intensity greatly and bring a new RRS spectrum with a maximum scattering peak at 717nm.The RRS intensity shows a linear relation with antibiotics concentration in the range of 0.2—8.0μg·mL -1 for the former and 0.4—7.0μg·mL -1 for the later, respectively.The new RRS method for the determination of NETS and ETS at trace amounts was successfully applied to the quick determination of antibiotics for injections with good selectivity.
Cyclophosphamide (CP), a widely used antineoplastic and immunosuppressant drug, is a prototypical bladder toxin in humans and experimental animals. CP itself is biologically inert. However, following bioactivation, acrolein, a potent tissue alkylator is generated. It is currently accepted that CP activation occurs via oxidative metabolism by the mixed-function oxidase system (MFO). Previous evidence from this laboratory demonstrated that CP can be metabolized by pathways other than MFO. In the current study, it was demonstrated that two inhibitors of the prostaglandin hydroperoxide synthase enzyme system, indomethacin and nordihydroguairetic acid (NDGA), diminish CP-induced bladder toxicity. However, the ability of these inhibitors to provide protection did not appear to be due to interference with CP metabolism. Many of the biologic effects of acrolein have been attributed to interaction with cellular thiols. Indomethacin and NDGA protected against CP-induced losses of soluble thiols in liver and protein thiols in bladder. Additionally, animals pretreated with indomethacin prior to CP appeared to have more glutathione available for conjugation, providing a potential mechanism for its protective effects against CP-induced bladder damage.
The influences of pressure on the carbonization and activation of activated carbon from Taixi anthracite coal were investigated.The system pressure changed the adsorption abilities and pore size distributions of carbide and activated carbon.The carbonization pressure influenced the mass transfer process of pyrolysis products and promoted the secondary reactions, while the activation pressure changed the adsorption equilibriums and reaction rates of the activation reaction.To activate carbon products, with the reaction pressure increasing, bulk density lowered, iodine number and methylene blue adsorption increased, specific surface area and pore volume increased and more micropores were formed.
Sugar and (14)C-assimilate release from the pedicel tissue of attached maize (Zea mays L.) kernels was studied following treatment with solute concentrations of up to 800 millimolal. Exposure and collection times ranged from 3 to 6 hours. Sugar and (14)C-assimilate unloading and collection in agar traps was reduced by 25 and 43%, respectively, following exposure to 800 millimolal mannitol. Inhibition of unloading was not specific to mannitol, since similar concentrations of glucose, fructose, or equimolar glucose plus fructose resulted in comparable inhibition. Ethylene glycol, a rapidly permeating solute which should not greatly influence cell turgor, did not inhibit (14)C-assimilate unloading. Based on these results, we suggest that inhibition of unloading by high concentrations of sugar or mannitol was due to reduced pedicel cell turgor. Changes in pedicel cell turgor may play a role in the regulation of assimilate transfer within the maize kernel.
CARMEN LIMBAN1*, ALEXANDRUVASILE MISSIR1, ILEANA CORNELIA CHIRIÞÃ1, CORINA ILIE2, MIRON TEODOR CÃPROIU 3 1 Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, Faculty of Farmacy, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Traian Vuia, 020956, Bucharest, Romania 2 National Institute for ChemicalPharmaceutical Research & DevelopmentICCF, 112 Av. Vitan, 031229, Bucharest, Romania 3 The Organic Chemistry Center of Romanian Academy “Costin D. Nenitescu” Bucharest, 202B Splaiul Independentei, 060023, Bucharest, Romania
The invention relates to a preparation method of a corrosion inhibitor for acidification of an oil well. The preparation method comprises the steps of adding formaldehyde, acetophenone, ethene diamine and HCl in a normal pressure reactor according to a molar ratio of 6 :1 :1 : 1 and adding ethanol as a solvent; heating to a temperature of 80-90 DEG C; reacting for 3-4 hours to obtain a condensation compound of aldehyde, ketone and amine; adding propynol with an amount of 5% that of a total mass of the product as a corrosion inhibitor synergistic ingredient and adding methanol with an amount of 30% that of a total mass of the product as a solvent to obtain the corrosion inhibitor for acidification of the oil well; and adding the corrosion inhibitor for acidification of the oil well with an amount of 0.4% that of the mass of the hydrochloric acid medium in a 15% hydrochloric acid medium at a temperature of 90 DEG C, so that corrosion rate of N80 test block can be reduced to 1.32 g/m .h. The corrosion inhibitor for acidification of the oil well solves the corrosion problems of an acidizing fracturing liquid to downhole oil tubes, sleeves and used metal equipment during acidizing and fracturing of the oil well; usability of the corrosion inhibitor for acidification of the oil well is increased; and preparation cost for the corrosion inhibitor for acidification of the oil well is reduced.
Numerical simulations of rarefied gas flows in pumping channels of a helical-type drag pump (HTDP) are carried out by using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Performance curves obtained by the DSMC method in the slip flow regime are compared with those obtained by the Navier–Stokes equations with slip boundary conditions. Satisfactory agreement between the two results is achieved. Also, the previously developed diffusion model [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 13, 2592 (1995)] is modified to predict the performance of a HTDP. Experimental data are presented in the pressure range of 0.02–4 Torr. The numerical results obtained by the modified diffusion model are in good agreement with the experimental data over the entire pressure range from the molecular to the slip flow.
The present contribution is focused on the evaluation of a high-speed triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, carried out under moderately fast GC conditions (analysis time: 16.6 min). The mass spectrometric instrument can be operated under high-speed GC conditions, in both full-scan (maximum scan speed: 20 000 amu/s) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) modes (minimum dwell time: 0.01 s). Additionally, the mass spectrometric system can generate full scan and MRM information, simultaneously and rapidly. A headspace solid-phase microextraction with fast GC coupled to triple quadrupole MS approach was developed for the: (i) qualitative untargeted analysis of brewed tea volatiles, and (ii) MRM qualitative and quantitative analysis of targeted volatiles (also in brewed tea), namely 30 phytosanitary contaminants. The performance of the triple quadrupole instrument was satisfactory both for identification and quantification purposes. Furthermore, the method sensitivity was more than sufficient for the requirements of current legislation. Method validation, related to the MRM analysis, was performed considering: precision of quantification data (maximum coefficient of variation value: 12.0%) and quantification/qualification ion ratios (maximum coefficient of variation value: 14.4%), along with limits of detection (4 parts per trillion-5 parts per billion range) and quantification (14 parts per trillion-16 parts per billion range).
It discloses compositions and methods cytocidal immune response against a predetermined cell type enhancement in a mammal. The methods and compositions rely on the antibody - a combination of a cytokine immunoconjugate and an angiogenesis inhibitor. Once administering to said mammal, the immunoconjugate because of the synergistic effect of angiogenesis inhibitors, the immunoconjugate inducing an immune response against the predetermined cell types (e.g., cancer cells) is greater than only the immunoconjugate with the immune response induced. Solid tumor or virus-infected cells aspect of the method and compositions are particularly useful anti mammal.
The Genesis mission was the first mission returning solar material to Earth since the Apollo program [1,2]. Unfortunately the return of the space craft on September 8, 2004 resulted in a crash landing, which shattered the samples into small fragments and exposed them to desert soil and other debris. Thus only small fragments of the original collectors are available, each having different degrees of surface contamination. Thorough surface cleaning is required to allow for subsequent analysis of solar wind material embedded within. An initial cleaning procedure was developed in coordination with Johnson Space Center which focused on removing larger sized particulates and a thin film organic contamination acquired during collection in space [3]. However, many of the samples have additional residues and more rigorous and/or innovative cleaning steps might be necessary. These cleaning steps must affect only the surface to avoid leaching and re-distribution of solar wind material from the bulk of the collectors. To aid in development and identification of the most appropriate cleaning procedures each sample has to be thoroughly inspected before and after each cleaning step. Laboratory based total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry lends itself to this task as it is a non-destructive and surface sensitive analytical method permitting analysis of elements from aluminum onward present at and near the surface of a flat substrate [4]. The suitability of TXRF has been demonstrated for several Genesis solar wind samples before and after various cleaning methods including acid treatment, gas cluster ion beam, and CO2 snow jet [5 - 7]. The latter one is non-invasive and did show some promise on one sample [5]. To investigate the feasibility of CO2 snow jet cleaning further, several flown Genesis samples were selected to be characterized before and after CO2 snow application with sample 61052 being discussed below.
The invention provides a high-energy-density lithium ion secondary battery. The lithium ion secondary battery mainly comprises an anode, a cathode, an isolating film, electrolyte and a packaging bag, wherein a positive active material is a mixed material of a lithium cobaltate series active substance A and a high-nickel ternary active substance B; the positive active material is subjected to surface coating treatment of a metal fluoride MeFx (Me is one of Al, Mg, Co and Ni) after mixing; and the mass ratio of the active substance B to the active substance A is between 0.25 and 3.0, and the compacted density is more than or equal to 3.8g/cm . The lithium ion secondary battery has the characteristics of high capacity, high compacted density, high working voltage and good cycle performance at a voltage more than or equal to 4.25V, and the problem that the battery generates a gas during high-temperature storage is solved at the same time.
The concentration-modulation approach to the study of absorption spectra of atoms and molecules developed with mode-locked dye lasers is extended in this paper to continuous-wave lasers. A ‘gain’ theory is developed for use with c.w. lasers and a comparison is made between the ‘gain’ measurements of our c.w. experiments and those of earlier studies using pulsed lasers. The experimental agreement between the measured c.w. ‘gain’ and the pulsed ‘gain’, after correcting for differences between the experimental arrangements employed, provides strong support for the ‘gain’ theory developed here. It is clearly seen that by means of this theory and the derived equations it will be possible to evaluate species concentrations where the state lifetimes are known, or the lifetimes where the concentrations are known. These studies provide a firm foundation for expansion of the applicability of this highly sensitive absorption technique for kinetic and spectroscopic investigation of chemical systems.
Peach brown rot, caused by the Monilinia fructicola fungus, is the main disease affecting peach crops, and it is mainly controlled via frequent fungicide applications. This study aimed at searching for alternatives to the intensive use of chemicals, evaluating silicon doses to control pre and postharvest peach brown rot and their influence on maturation parameters and fruit quality. Treatments consisted of control (water) and sodium metasilicate doses (2 g L-1, 4 g L-1, 6 g L-1, 8 g L-1 and 10 g L-1 of water). The following assessments were made: spore germination and in vitro mycelial growth, brown rot incidence, soluble solids, titratable acidity, flesh firmness, total polyphenol content and fruit ethylene production and respiration rate. The 2 g L-1 dose reduced spore germination by 95 %. Doses of 6 g L-1 and 8 g L-1 satisfactorily reduced the disease incidence in the field, with 77 % and 89.2 % control, respectively. Sodium metasilicate resulted in the maintenance of great fruit firmness, reduced respiration and ethylene production and increased total polyphenol synthesis, but it did not influence the titratable acidity or soluble solids. Applying 6 g L-1 may potentially control pre and postharvest peach brown rot, besides increasing the total polyphenol synthesis and maintaining a higher flesh firmness.
A new sodium chlorite – iodide – acetylacetone chemical oscillatory reaction has been studied by the UV-Vis spectrophotometric method. The initial concentrations of acetylacetone, sodium chlorite, iodide, and sulfuric acid and the pH value have great influence on the oscillation observed at a wavelength of 570 nm for the starch–triiodide complex. There is a pre-oscillatory or induction stage and the amplitude and number of oscillations depend on the initial concentration of the reactants. Equations for the starch–triiodide complex reaction rate change with reaction time and the initial concentrations in the oscillation stage were obtained. The induction time decreases linearly with the initial concentration of acetylacetone or sodium chlorite but increases linearly with the initial concentration of sulfuric acid. The oscillation reaction can be accelerated by increasing the reaction temperature. The apparent activation energies at the induction stage and the oscillation stage were 61.02 and 61.36 kJ/mol, ...
Selenocysteine (Sec), which is a biological selenol incorporated into selenoproteins specifically, plays vital roles in physiological processes and cancer treatment. However, there are limited fluorescent probes for selective detection of Sec and in only one case is a near-infrared (IR) fluorescent probe applied in biological imaging of Sec in living animals. In this work, we have synthesized a new fluorophore, boron-dibenzopyrromethene (B-Bodipy), with an absorption maximum at 650-660 nm, and constructed two deep red fluorescent probes, Sel-p1 and Sel-p2, which are two ethers composed of a 2,4-dinitrobenzenoxy and B-Bodipy moiety. Experiments in solution show that the two probes can react effectively with selenols to release the fluorophore via aromatic nucleophilic substitution (SNAr), with a low limit of detection (16 nM and 9 nM), high selectivity and excellent photostability. The potential application for the detection of Sec in cells has been demonstrated by cell imaging experiments of Sel-p2, including detection of exogenous Sec and selenite-induced Sec in living cells. Furthermore, Sel-p2 as a red fluorescent probe can achieve the detection of Sec in animals by mice imaging experiments.
Defects in nanomaterials often induce dramatic changes in the photoelectrical properties of semiconducting II–VI compound nanomaterials. The relationship between defects and carrier dynamics is pivotal in material engineering for potential applications. A thorough understanding of the dynamics of defect-related free carrier depletion is particularly important for the fabrication and optimization of nano-optoelectronic devices. In this work, optical pump–terahertz probe spectroscopy was employed to investigate the carrier dynamics in CdS and Se-alloyed CdS nanobelts. The dynamics are dominated by the surface defect trapping in the case of CdS and structural-defect-related recombination for the Se-alloyed CdS. The conclusion is also supported by temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopic studies. Our results indicate that congeneric element replacement is an effective approach for defect-distribution restructuring, which modifies the physical properties of nanomaterials through defect engineering.
The spatiotemporal dynamics of chemical plumes in natural environments imposes complex time-varying responses on chemical detectors, challenging the use of conventional chemical analysis instrumentation, which often relies upon precisely controlled sampling of analytes. Insects take a different approach to this problem, typically exposing their diversity of chemical receptors to the full extent of the space-time dynamics inherent to these environments. Here we adopt a similar approach, by exposing differentially tuned chemosensor arrays to analytes dispersed in naturally turbulent chemical plumes from a point source. We propose a novel sensor preprocessing metric for complex time-varying chemosensor responses, termed sensor variation, which after normalization generates a stable array response fingerprint representative of the analyte generating the response, and is invariant over a range of distances from the source and source volumes. When applied to chemosensor array response time series, the resultant fingerprints are demonstrated to reliably support chemical classification of a group of pure analytes advected from a point source. By comparing classification performance to the same analytes at equivalent concentrations in controlled sampling conditions, we show that chemical source classification can be achieved in turbulent chemical plumes with similar accuracy to controlled experimental conditions.
Structure-activity relationships study was performed for a few series of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors by using the Electronic-Topological Method combined with Neural Networks (ETM-NN). Specific molecular fragments were found for active compounds ('activity features') from both series by the ETM application. After this, a system of prognosis was developed as the result of training Kohonen's self-organizing maps (SOM) by the fragments. From the detailed analysis of all compounds under study, requirements necessary for a compound to be COX-2 inhibitor were formulated. The analysis showed that any requirements violation for a molecule resulted in a considerable decrease or even complete loss of its activity. The found activity features identified correctly different marketed drugs and new compounds that had passed pre-clinical and clinical trials; this fact confirms the workability of the system developed for the COX-2 inhibitory activity prediction.
A mathematical model has been developed to allow optimization and scale up of a metal evaporator as a function of plasma operating parameters such as composition and flow rate of the plasma gas, arc current, arc length as well as wall and crucible temperatures. The system argon-zinc has been chosen to validate and calibrate the output of the model simulations with experimental measurements. The plasma gas used in the system was argon, and the metal to be evaporated was zinc. The relatively low boiling point of zinc allowed more precise measurements of the boundary and operation conditions being examined. Experimental measurements of the evaporation rate of zinc at atmospheric pressure and steady state were compared with the predictions of the computational model over a broad range of plasma operating conditions and temperature boundary conditions. Measurements of temperature at different locations in the crucible were taken to obtain the crucible temperature profile; the range of current used was between 100 and 275 A; the plasma gas flow rate covered a range from 10.7 to 27.9 slpm while the arc length was varied from 3.0 to 5.2 cm.
The structural stability of CeN under hydrostatic compression has been analyzed theoretically. The comparison of enthalpies calculated as a function of hydrostatic compression for rocksalt type (B1), tetragonal (B10), and CsCl type (B2) structures suggests that the B1 phase will transform to B10 structure at ∼53 GPa, which upon further compression will transform to B2 phase at ∼200 GPa. However, the static high pressure energy dispersive x-ray diffraction measurements on CeN by Olsen et al. [J. Alloys Compd. 533, 29 (2012)] report that the B1 phase transforms directly to B2 phase at ∼65 GPa. To resolve the discrepancy between our calculations and experimental results, we have performed lattice dynamic calculations on these structures. The phonon spectra calculated at zero pressure correctly show B1 phase to be dynamically stable, and B10 and B2 to be unstable. At 60 GPa, the B1 phase becomes dynamically unstable and the B10 structure emerges as a dynamically stable phase whereas B2 still remains unstable....
The Larson-Miller parameter (LMP=T(C+log t)) with the determined C-value is suitable to describe the high-temperature ageing behaviour of pearlitic heat resistant steels, such as 12Cr1MoV with C of 20.62, and 15CrMo 20.30. The heat strength parameter Pc was proposed as one property of materials, and heat processing factor P as temperature-time processing parameter. In addition, the relationship between Pc and P was discussed. Then, based on the calculation of valence electron structures by the Empirical Electron Theory of Solid and Molecules (EET), the physical nature and microscopic meaning of C constant in LMP were analyzed, including the effects of carbon content on C-value.
Within obesity research it is almost axiomatic that the consumption of adequate protein is healthy. A large body of work suggests that high protein diets reduce food intake, while maintaining protein intake but reducing caloric intake promotes fat loss while sustaining lean mass. Yet evidence is also accumulating to suggest that excess protein intake negatively impacts health, and that the restriction of dietary protein triggers beneficial metabolic effects. This body of work derives in part from efforts in the ageing field to define the mechanisms through which dietary restriction extends lifespan. In this issue of The Journal of Physiology, Cummings et al. (2018) provide compelling evidence that the restriction of branched chain amino acid (BCAA) intake is sufficient to restore metabolic health in obese mice. Although it has long been known that BCAAs are elevated in settings of obesity (Felig et al. 1974), work by Newgard and colleagues in 2009 rekindled interest in this field by demonstrating that elevated BCAAs contribute to a ‘metabolic signature’ predicting insulin resistance in obese humans (Newgard et al. 2009). Furthermore, supplementing high-fat-fed animals with excess BCAAs reduced food intake and body weight but failed to improve glucose tolerance. This negative effect of excess BCAAs is consistent with more recent work by several groups suggesting that restricting dietary protein intake improves glucose tolerance and other metabolic endpoints. Cummings et al. build on their prior work (Fontana et al. 2016) by testing the impact of BCAA restriction in mice with established obesity. The key question is whether reducing dietary BCAA intake alone is sufficient to improve glucose homeostasis in obese mice, and whether this effect rivals the beneficial effects produced by the restriction of dietary protein (all amino acids). This question is first tested by transitioning mice made obese with a high fat ‘Western diet’ (WD) to a low fat, low BCAA diet. Not surprisingly, swapping mice from WD to low fat diet reduced adiposity and improved glucose homeostasis. However, the low BCAA diet was even more effective, producing a larger weight loss and improvement in glucose tolerance than low fat alone. The BCAA restriction also largely replicated the effect of a diet that was low in all AAs. While this study suggested that BCAA restriction exerts beneficial effects, the authors recognized the weakness inherent in simultaneously manipulating energy density, macronutrient content and amino acid ratios. Therefore, a second study was designed in which mice were made obese by 12 weeks of WD exposure and then swapped to a WD specifically restricting BCAAs. In this context the restriction of dietary BCAAs significantly decreased body weight and adiposity, increased energy expenditure, and improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. BCAA restriction also largely recapitulated the metabolic effects induced by the restriction of all amino acids. These data provide compelling evidence that restricting BCAAs is sufficient to restore metabolic health in the context of continuous WD exposure. The observation that restriction of BCAAs produces metabolic benefits that are comparable to the restriction of all AAs (dietary protein restriction) leads to the logical question of whether the beneficial effect of low protein diets are mediated by BCAAs. While the current data are consistent with this conclusion, there are reasons to be cautious. Cummings et al. demonstrate that BCAA restriction is sufficient to trigger metabolic improvements, but do not test whether BCAA restriction is necessary for the effects of protein restriction. Answering this question requires restricting dietary protein but restoring BCAAs to control levels. Interestingly, a recent study by Maida et al. (2017) used this design to suggest that the normalizing BCAA intake only attenuates the metabolic effect of protein restriction in lean mice and has no effect in genetically obese NZO mice. Taken together, the work of Cummings et al. and Maida et al. suggest that although BCAA restriction reproduces aspects of the metabolic response to general protein restriction, BCAA restriction does not functionally account for all the effects of protein restriction. It should be noted that the metabolic effects of BCAA restriction and protein (all AA) restriction are similar, but not interchangeable (Fontana et al. 2016; Cummings et al. 2018). While Cummings et al. provide compelling evidence that BCAA restriction influences metabolic endpoints, the report does not identify the mechanistic pathways that drive these improvements. For instance, BCAAs and leucine in particular are known to stimulate mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling, and mTOR has been linked to the regulation of insulin sensitivity. Restricting or supplementing leucine alone would have further complemented their prior work (Fontana et al. 2016) by delineating whether leucine is the primary mediator of the BCAA effect. Finally, a growing body of work implicates the metabolic hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) as a key mediator of dietary protein restriction (Laeger et al. 2014), but its contribution to the effect of BCAA restriction remains unclear. Cummings et al. suggest that restriction of BCAAs has inconsistent effects on FGF21, which was increased after 12 days on diet but not after 12 weeks. This temporal variability in the FGF21 response is also associated with temporal variability in other endpoints, such as food intake and energy expenditure. Therefore, when and how BCAA restriction influences metabolism, particularly glucose homeostasis, remain unclear. The report by Cummings et al. provides strong evidence that reducing BCAA intake restores metabolic health in obese rodents, thereby adding to a growing body of work suggesting that restriction of dietary protein or select amino acids promotes beneficial metabolic adaptations. Future work is necessary to define how these various dietary interventions produce these effects, the extent to which the underlying mechanisms are similar or divergent, and finally whether these beneficial effects can be translated to humans.
The regulation of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) receptor in liver was analyzed using a novel superfusion method. Hepatic microsomes were loaded with 45Ca2+, and superfused at high flow rates to provide precise control over IP3 and Ca2+ concentrations ([Ca2+]) and to isolate 45Ca2+ release from reuptake. 45Ca2+ release was dependent on both [Ca2+] and IP3. The initial rate of 45Ca2+ release was a biphasic function of [Ca2+], increasing as [Ca2+] approached 3 μM but decreasing at higher concentrations, suggesting that the hepatic IP3 receptor is regulated by [Ca2+] at two sites, a high affinity potentiation site and a low affinity inhibitory site. The relationship between initial rates and IP3 concentration was steep (Hill coefficient of 3.4), suggesting that activation of the calcium channel requires binding of at least 3 IP3 molecules. IP3 concentrations above 10 μM produced rapid decay of release rates, suggesting receptor inactivation. Superfusion with 10 μM IP3 under conditions that minimize calcium release ([Ca2+] < 1 nM) inhibited 45Ca2+ release in response to subsequent stimulation (400 nM Ca2+). These data suggest sequential positive and negative regulation of the hepatic IP3 receptor by cytosolic calcium and by IP3, which may underlie hepatocellular propagation of regenerative, oscillatory calcium signals.
This paper describes the extent to which lignin in unwashed auto-catalyzed ethanol wheat straw pulp is removed directly by ozone,based on kappa number analyses.For comparison,ozone bleaching OP pulp was also studied.The results show that lignin precipitates on the washed pulp fiber surfaces in a heterogeneous and spherical way and that lignin particle can be seen using light microscopy.The lignin remaining in the unwashed pulp was effectively removed directly by ozone,and the kappa number dramatically decreases from 128 to 34.This is much more than that of the OP pulp bleached with ozone,which depends on the deoxidization substance in ethanol pulp,the lignin-adsorbed morphology,and the location of the residual lignin.New ideas and technologies were introduced concerning the production of auto-catalyzed ethanol wheat straw pulp with comparable kappa number.
To estimate the effect of AF clustering on the efficiency of a virus to bind the target cell, we simulated two scenarios in a 1x1 μm membrane area, (A) a varying cluster size and (B) a varying degree of clustering. For A, we simulated a constant lateral concentration of AF (black) and added AF clusters (blue) at increasing size. In B, we keep the total amount of AF constant and gradually shift molecules into clusters. In both cases, an approaching virus was simulated as a 2D projection of a small spherical IAV particle (contact area as red circles in A and B). A binding attempt was counted as successful if at least 10 AF molecules were found inside the contact area. C and D show the simulation result plotted as the binding probability out of 1000 simulations against the respective tested cluster parameter. (PDF)
Polymers are one of the important pillars of our current society. Besides the great success a matter is the accumulation of huge amounts of end-of-life polymers. Current waste management bases primarily on landfills, thermal recycling, and down-cycling. Noteworthy, only a small part of the end-of-life materials is recycled by depolymerization, means low-molecular weight synthons are created, which can be polymerized to new polymers to close the cycle. Widely used polymers in modern life times are silicones (polysiloxanes). Based on the intrinsic properties the depolymerization is challenging and only a few high temperature or less environmental-friendly processes have been reported. In this regard, we have set up a capable low-temperature protocol for the depolymerization of silicones with acid chlorides, acetic acid, or methanol in the presence of cheap iron salts as precatalysts to yield dichlorodimethylsilane, diacetoxydimethylsilane, or dimethoxydimethylsilane as well-defined products. Notably, dichlorodimethylsilane, diacetoxydimethylsilane, and dimethoxydimethylsilane can be useful starting materials for synthesizing new polymers; overall a recycling is feasible. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41287.
An easy, quick, simple and accurate spectrofluorimetric method was recognized and validated for evaluation of sorafenib (SOR) in pure form and biologically in plasma. Cremophor RH 40 (Cr RH 40) used for enhancing the fluorescence activity of SOR in phosphate buffer (pH 7). Cr RH 40 improved the native fluorescence of SOR remarkably in water. The fluorescence spectrum of SOR was observed at 405 nm after excitation at 265 nm. The linearity appeared to be in the range of 5 to 600 ng ml-1 for pure and from 9 to 500 ng ml-1 for plasma using the protein precipitation (ppt) method while from 10 to 500 ng ml-1 for plasma using liquid-liquid extraction method. The precisions and the accuracy of the estimated method gave satisfactory results. The recommended method was effectively applied for determination of SOR in human plasma with high recovery values. The results of some compounds that are possibly found in plasma were studied. The proposed method was also focused on real volunteers and a drug dissolution test.
Abstract Two to four cows per treatment were fasted after test meals, their fluids were sampled for 28 to 54 hr, and analyzed by gas liquid chromatography. Methyl sulfide, acetone and butanone occurred and increased during the 1st hr after silage was fed and reached maximal concentrations at about 4.5 hr. Ethanol, however, reached an early maximum during the first hr and a secondary maximum at 4.5hr. The test meal of bromegrass pasture produced a small amount of methyl sulfide and an increase in acetone. They reached maxima at about 4.5hr. Acetone, butanone, and a small amount of methyl sulfide were the only components found consistently after test meals of alfalfa hay and grain, except that one of the four cows produced an unidentified material and did not produce butanone, except in urine. All animals fasted after the test meal developed high concentrations of acetone in body fluids at about 30hr.
Objective To collect personal PM10 sample and identify their potential exposure source for the elderly living in a community in Tianjin.Methods A total of 80 elderly participants were recruited in August and September,2009 and PM10 of 24 h personal exposure,residential indoor and outdoor was monitored with the instruments wore by people and placed indoor and outdoor,and 24 h time-activity patterns were recorded by the participants.PCA receptor model was applied to analyze related sources and contribution.Results The ratio of OC and EC were more than 2,which indicated the secondary organic pollution might be contributed to personal exposure.The relatively lower NO3-/SO42-ratio suggested that stationary source was a dominant source of PM10 personal exposure.Results of source appointment showed that seven sources,namely metal smelting,motor vehicle emission and nitrate,combustion,soil,industrial sources(mainly steel-making),secondary sulfate and indoor re-suspended particulate matter were identified.Conclusion Metal smelting,motor vehicle emission and nitrate,and combustion are identified as the principal sources of personal exposure to PM10.
Objective:To investigate the effect and mechanism of Foxp3-transduced CD4+CD25-T lymphocytes on the immunological activity of NK cells.Methods:CD4+CD25-T lymphocytes were retrovirally tranfected with Foxp3 gene.The transduced T lymphocytes were cultured with NK cells,and 51Cr labeling was used to detect NK cells cytotocixity.The anti-TGF-β antibody was added into the co-culture system to investigate the TGF-β blocking effect.Also the transwell co-culture system was used to investigate the regulatory effect of NK cells.Results:Foxp3-transduced CD4+CD25-T lymphocytes suppressed cytotocixity of NK cells significantly.After addition of anti-TGF-β antibody into the co-culture system,the inhibition rate of T lymphocytes decreased dramatically.Immunologic suppression of NK cells was induced by Foxp3-transduced CD4+CD25-T lymphocytes.Conclusion:CD4+Foxp3+ T lymphocytes can significantly inhibit the cytotoxicity of NK cells.Based on the pattern of cell-to-cell,Foxp3-transduced CD4+CD25-T lymphocytes affect NK cells,which was associated with the expression of TGF-β.
In order to study the relationship between structure and activity of flavones, several new 4′-phenylflavones, 4′-phenylflavonols, and 4′-phenylflavanones are synthesized by cyclization of corresponding 4-phenyl-2′-hydroxychalcones with selenium dioxide in hot amyl alcohol, with hydrogen peroxide in cold alkalic ethanol, or with phosphoric acid in hot ethanol, respectively. The 4-phenyl-2′-hydroxychalcones are synthesized by condensation of p-phenylbenzaldehyde with various 2′-hydroxyacetophenones in hot methanol under presence of potassium hydroxide.
The stability constants of complexes formed by Thallium (I) with Serine and Leucine have been investigated in aqueous medium, the complex with metal Serine as 1:1, 1:2 and complexes of the Tl(I) with Leucine as 1:1, 1:2 have been reported. The values of formation constant of Serine are log β1 = 2.1760, log β2 = 3.85325 at 308K and log β1 = 1.9030, log β2 = 3.6739 at 318K and complexes of Tl(I) with Lecucine have log β1 = 4.0290, log β2 = 5.2922 at 308K and log β1 = 3.4772, log β2 = 4.4151 at 318K, respectively were calculated by DeFord and Hume’s method.
Soil C oxidized by neutral KMnO 4 , or permanganate-oxidizable C (POC), has been used as an index of labile C by several workers, although the nature of organic C (OC) oxidized has not been well elucidated. This study aimed to determine the reactivity of diverse organic compounds found in the soil with KMnO 4 to judge the reliability of POC as an index of labile C. Sugars, amino acids, and other organic acids reacted slowly with 33 mM KMnO 4 (2-45% C oxidized in 1 h), while compounds containing glycol groups (e.g., ascorbic acid and pyrogallol) were oxidized quickly by KMnO 4 (25% C oxidized in 1 min). Permanganate did not oxidize cellulose, which is decomposed by soil microbial enzymes. The POC of organic manures and plant residues was positively correlated with lignin content. The rates of oxidation of SOM with KMnO 4 varied among different rice (Oryza sativa L.) soils and were highly correlated with total soil C. The clay + silt/OC ratio negatively affected POC rendering physical protection for oxidizable C groups. In the soil, KMnO 4 more rapidly oxidized less readily available organic compounds than the water-soluble carbohydrates, indicating that it did not discriminate the nonlabile from labile C. Soil POC was better correlated with total C (P < 0.01) than with water-soluble C (WSC) (P < 0.05) and was not correlated with microbial biomass C (MBC). Carbon oxidized by KMnO 4 is not a reliable measure of labile C and should be referred to as POC when used as a parameter for characterizing soil C.
Phyllanthus niruri is a useful medicinal weed for herbalist and it holds a reputed position in both Ayurvedic and Unani system of medicine. The aim of this work was to evaluate the chemopreventive effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of the whole plant of Phyllanthus niruri, in 7-9 weeks old male Swiss albino mice, on two stage process of skin carcinogenesis induced by a single topical application of 7, 12-dimethylbenz (a) anthracene (DMBA) and two weeks later promoted by repeated application of croton oil till the end of experiment (i.e. 16 weeks).The oral administration of P.niruri at 1000 mg/kg/b.wt./day during peri and post-initiational phases of papillomagenesis showed significant reduction in tumor incidence, tumor yield, tumor burden and cumulative number of papillomas as compared to carcinogen treated control. The average latent period significantly increased from 7.93 weeks in the control group to 10.52 weeks in the Phyllanthus niruri administrated group. Furthermore, a significant increase in reduced glutathione(p<0.001), catalase (p<0.001) and protein (p<0.001) level in skin was observed in the P.niruri administered groups as compared to carcinogen treated control, whereas MDA formation in lipid peroxidation was inhibited significantly by P.niruri extract (p<0.001). The results from the present study suggest the chemopreventive effect of Phyllanthus niruri in DMBA induced skin papillomagenesis in Swiss albino mice.
In this work we explore the torsional potentials for hydroxyacetone using second order Moller-Plesset (MP2) and coupled-cluster (CCSD(T)) ab initio theoretical methods. We have calculated these potential energy surfaces as a function of single OH rotation, and simultaneous OH and methyl rotation. The results indicate that the low energy isomers coupled to the reduced barrier to methyl rotation can lead to several rotamers for this species to form. The values are compared to experimental quantities and implications for astrobiological research are also addressed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2008
Abstract The relationship between poetry and painting has been one of the most debated issues in the history of criticism. The present article explores this problematic relationship in the context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, taking into account theories of rhetoric, visual perception, and art. It analyzes a rare case in which a specific school of painting directly inspired poetry: in particular, the ways in which the Netherlandish landscape tradition influenced natural descriptions in the poem Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622) by Michael Drayton (1563–1631). Drayton — under the influence of the artistic principles of landscape depiction as explained in Henry Peacham’s art manuals, as well as of direct observation of Dutch and Flemish landscape prints and paintings — successfully managed to render pictorial landscapes into poetry. Through practical examples, this essay will thoroughly demonstrate that rhetoric is capable of emulating pictorial styles in a way that presupposes specialized art-historical knowledge, and that pictorialism can be the complex product as much of poetry and rhetoric as of painting and art-theoretical vocabulary.
The power the image of Dino Buzzati's Fortezza Bastiani continues to hold in the imagination of Italian critics is reflected in the initial response to the young contemporary author, Paola Capriolo. A number of reviews of her debut collection of short stories, La grande Eulalia , draw attention to its striking similarity to Il deserto dei Tartari , in particular between the topos of Buzzati's fortress and the unnamed fortress which becomes a prison for the reader, writer and protagonists of the final two stories in the collection: "Il gigante" and "Lettere a Luisa." Alongside the claim that both authors draw upon the fantastic tradition there are more detailed parallels to be drawn between the fortresses and the psychological make-up of the central male protagonists in both Buzzati's novel and Capriolo's tale, "Il gigante".
This chapter traces the development of early Christian exegetical hymnody, and analyses this hymnody in terms of its relationship to Scripture. The chapter falls into two parts: part one argues that by the fourth century, in response to associations of hymnody with heresy, the scripturally allusive hymnic material of earliest Christianity gave way to a type of hymnody which interacted with Scripture in explicit and concrete ways. Part two traces the Syriac and Greek hymnic traditions that arose in the fourth and fifth centuries, and analyses their exegesis according to two primary categories—performance and rewriting. The chapter concludes by suggesting avenues for future research in the area of comparative Christian and Jewish exegetical hymnody.
The article considers an art of avant-gardism in the context of conception of circularity, according to which in culture and art there exists frequency of styles: ideational, idealistic, visual, representing themselves on different stages of historical time. Circularity, frequency in art, as author supposes, may mean, on the first hand, that art is a self-developing system, reproducing its stable elements; on the second hand, that avant-gardism as a trend is not a new one, as it has repeatedly been recurred on different stages of development of culture. On the third hand, avant-gardism is an immanent quality of art as a self-developing system.
In this article the medialization of everyday life is discussed, as it appears in the norwegian novelist Jan Kjaerstads "Forforaren" (The Seducer). I mainly focus upon the intermedia aspects between literature and other art and media forms, such as TV, film, music, etc. Another aspect discussed in the article is the cluster of connections between Norway/Scandinavia and the rest of the world, which dominate the image of Norway that is present in Kjaerstads story.
Song Neo-Confucianism constitutes the backdrop against which Song lyrics evolved.Song Neo-Confucianism focuses on the uplifting of human domain,which plays an indelible role in reshaping socio-cultural mentality and personality of literati at that time.Poetic exploration of the sublime,harmonious and mellow realms go on under the impact of Neo-Confucian ideas,which works to change the monolithic style with frivolous and coquettish expression,thus adding weight and substance to Song lyrics.
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The articles collected here were part of a one-day thematic session held during the7th European Music Analysis Conference(Leuven, Belgium, September 17–20, 2014). The session was dedicated to current understandings of tonality, particularly recent European perspectives and their connections to historical theory. Despite differences in methods and aims, the contributions here engage in dialogue by identifying specific research traditions and approaches—ranging from hermeneutical philosophy to neostructuralism—and by addressing characteristics of tonality. Three main threads run throughout: (1) the directional tendency of chord progressions; (2) centricity; and (3) hierarchical organization. Together, the perspectives adopted suggest that progress in the understanding of tonal language depends on a continuing dialectic between the theoretical discourse of the past and modern tools and models—including analysis of large corpora.
This essay traces the development of Derek Jarman’s ideas about Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy from his student days at King’s College London, through the film Edward II (1991), to the unpublished screenplay of “Pansy.” I argue that the play Jarman first read as a student and admired for its rhetorical figures and portrayal of same-sex love took on a political edge in 1986, when Jarman was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and homophobic legislation was first debated by Margaret Thatcher’s Government. The truncated film treatment “28” and the scripts for Sod ‘Em composed in response to these events use Marlowe’s tragedy as a structuring device that lends historical depth to the struggles of Jarman’s modern protagonist. In 1988, Jarman physically stood this script on its head as he started to rework it as Edward II in a script that imagined a Renaissance setting for the tragedy and stuck remarkably close to Marlowe’s words and Ranulph Higden’s chronicle account of the life of King Edward II. The screenplay Jarman eventually used for Edward II moves back in the direction of the political rage and focus on the present of Sod’Em and shows Jarman hesitating over the ending of his film and the significance of young Edward III. The return to Sod’Em is completed in Jarman’s Marlowe-inspired screenplay for the satirical musical “Pansy,” which imagines a hopeful future for its young queer king Pansy, who vanquishes the conservative forces of repression and dedicates his rule to sexual freedom.
Until recently the Museum of Modern Art in New York was one of the few major art institutions in the city that had not yet hosted a fashion exhibition (The Museum of Modern Art. The museum’s absence in the fashion race seemed especially conspicuous for several reasons. First—and to say this sounds almost like a truism these days—because of the audience appeal of fashion exhibitions. As the record-breaking shows Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011) and China: Through the Looking Glass (2015) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the traveling exhibition DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2018.1427922 ﻿ 2018 InIorma a U Kimiteded tradinin as saTaor r Franais sroro
This paper focuses on the recent history and current situation of multipart singing in Corsica, charting its evolution from a set of highly localised practices to a pan-Corsican idiom that is now viewed by many as iconic of island identity. Over the past decade, several Corsican groups have made their mark in international festival and concert tour networks, as well as winning prestigious prizes and lending their voices to the soundtracks of films on international release. Yet thirty years ago the indigenous multipart singing tradition on which many of these groups have built their careers seemed to be drawing its last breath. What forces, conditions and inspirations have allowed the old polyphonic style to find a new lease of life in the 21st century? What kinds of negotiations and transformations have taken place along the way? What are the issues that most concern today?s performers and researchers? The paper includes reference to (i) changes in performance contexts and modes of transmission and dissemination; (ii) the impact of the world music industry, tourism and the internet; (iii) the way in which official promotion and investment have married with the creativity of contemporary artists to produce new work in the traditional idiom; and (iv) the way in which individual musicians manage the tensions between a ?living?, everyday culture and a more formal and increasingly professionalised performance culture.
Cross Creek was published by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in 1942. For four decades Hollywood studios considered the memoir too commercially risky for celluloid life. In 1976 producer Robert Radnitz was offered the film rights. He read the autobiographical account, and became enamored with Rawlings. "I fell in love with her need to express herself," he said. ' A veteran of thirty years in the film industry, Radnitz was well aware that by the early 1980s it was high-tech, action-packed films that were packing movie theatres. Even though Radnitz realized that he could hit the box office sweepstakes by creating a space western with R2-D2 range riders, he wanted to continue his string of movies-A Dog of Flanders, Where The Lillies Bloom, My Side of the Mountain, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Misty, and Birch Interval-about people.2 "I knew then that it was not the kind of material a studio would want to finance." Indeed every major Hollywood studio refused to bankroll Cross Creek. One studio suggested that Dolly Parton play Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Another studio offered to consider the project if Barbra Streisand was cast in the lead role. "Sure, it's a stretch," the studio executive commented, "but it would be interesting." Still others told Radnitz not to come back unless he had under contract either Meryl Streep or Jane Fonda. Eventually Radnitz persuaded England-based Thorn EMI Films to put up the $8 million budget to make Cross Creek. Hollywood's reluctance to embrace Cross Creek was, as Boxoffice observed, "both understandable and surprising." Cross Creek was "a slow-paced, gentle, human story" that didn't "fit comfortably into a genre. It wasn't a safe bet." While the film might have been somewhat of a gamble, Radnitz had the distinction of turning out profitable movies and putting himself through marketing grinds. He had a proven track record of movies either making money or at least breaking even. Some films-like Soundermade a great deal of money. Moreover, Radnitz was a producer who nurtured films through from conception to consumption. Believing that promotion is as much a part of filmmaking as drafting the script, hiring the cast, and selecting the location, he personally went out on the road to help sell his films with extensive exhibition screenings and exhaustive community interviews.4 To direct Cross Creek, Robert Radnitz brought on board Martin Ritt, a familiar associate and another veteran of thirty years in Hollywood. Cross Creek would be his twenty-third film, and in many ways "a quintessential Ritt picture." Like half a dozen other Ritt movies, such as The Long hot Summer, Sounder, Conrack, and Norma Rae, the setting for Cross Creek was the South. Cross Creek would also join a long list of literary sources-William Faulkner's The Long hot Summer and The Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man, John LeCarre's The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, and Larry McMurtry's Hud-that Ritt had adapted for the screen. "It's with material that I like-the story-that things start," Ritt explained. Ritt had additionally established a reputation for creating strong female characters, and Rawlings held promise of another memorable performance for some actress. The impressive gallery already put together by Ritt included Joanne Woodward in The Sound and the Fury, Sophia Loren in The Black Orchid, Patricia Neal in Hud, Jane Alexander in The Great White Hope, Cicely Tyson in Sounder, and Sally Field's Oscar-winning performance in Norma Rae.5 Cross Creek may be set in a remote Florida bayou," the New York Times observed, "but it is so full of familiar faces that you may begin suspecting that even the fawn in the cast has appeared in a road-show production of Bambi." 6 For the part of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Martin Ritt secured a "hot property" by the name of Mary Steenburgen. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Steenburgen also identified with Rawlings, and saw parallels between their lives. …
Chol (Mayan) Folktales: A Collection of Stories from the Modern Maya of Southern Mexico is the product of nearly thirty years of fieldwork on the Chol language and folklore by Nicholas A. Hopkins and the late J. Kathryn Josserand. Following landmark texts like Whittaker and Warkentin’s Chol Texts on the Supernatural (a Summer Institute of Linguistics publication) this collection includes English translations of eleven Chol texts collected during Hopkins and Josserand’s fieldwork with the help of Ausencio (Chencho) Cruz Guzmán. Hopkins notes that the goal of this collection is to “convey a more nuanced sense of the oral tradition” (xviii). With rich companion chapters to the collection of eleven tales, this book certainly achieves its goal.
abstract:Brian Castro's Blindness and Rage: A Phantasmagoria is a verse novel published in 2017 and the unlikely winner of a Prime Minister's Award in 2018. This article concentrates on the role of France and French referents in the text, showing that they embody a literary, transnational cosmopolitanism that the text at once hails and critiques. Beneath the gaudy and flashy serve of the novel's erudite sheen, a self-questioning or even self-vexation occurs, where the text gets in the way of itself. By ironizing its protagonist, Lucien Gracq, and presenting the alternate personas of Catherine Bourgeois and the Dogman, and examining the realization that Gracq's writerly quest is also a propulsion toward his own demise, we see that the text's literariness is a kind of disguise. Yet the text's self-vexation does not involute it further; rather, it provides a way for readerly access into the poem, helping explain why, unexpectedly, this has proven to be Castro's most popular work with the Australian reading public.
If In 1968 someone had asked the 14-year-old me to define “sound art” I probably would have pointed to the megaphones that sprouted that spring across the Columbia University campus (see this issue’s cover). They were ubiquitous and frequently mishandled or malfunctioning: words were interlaced with feedback and obscured by distortion. Amplifying one’s voice to address a handful of friendly comrades under a tree seemed more of a conceptual statement than an acoustic necessity. In that turbulent year the inflection of art by politics seemed natural, and music was one of the most conspicuous vehicles of expression. The first discs to grace my kiddie record player were by the subtly subversive Burl Ives (blacklisted 1950), while Pete Seeger (blacklisted 1957) had provided the musical backdrop in the living room. But 1968 was also the year I bought Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced, and electricity became the central component of my musical world. To an adolescent the artifacts of feedback and distortion seemed as much an anti-authoritarian statement when applied to the guitar as they were when they rang out at a sit-in. These were the sounds of subversion, rather than of protest. While Seeger overlaid timeless, politically neutral chords and melodies with pointed lyric statements, Hendrix reshaped the underlying musical material; his message lay inside the sound itself. Between the protest song and the protesting megaphone lies the wide swath of political music and sound art, the timely subject matter of this volume of Leonardo Music Journal. Half a century after the Sixties we are again living in a world of intense political divisiveness, and activists on both the left and the right have taken up sound as a medium, a weapon, and a subject of study. The time has come to review this landscape. Many of our contributors addressed aspects of field recording in this issue of LMJ. With its quasi-documentary mandate, the emergent field of phonography abounds with political content and implications, from recordings of street protests (Christopher DeLaurenti and Christopher Wood), to ecological advocacy (Tom Kohut, Alison Pezanoski-Browne), to compositions based on the voices of Cuban street vendors (Neil Leonard), to analyses of the genre itself in terms of political agency (Gerald Fiebig, Tullis Rennie). Political agency begins with access, and several authors focus on the role of new technologies in increasing accessibility to music and sound. Helen R. Mitchell reports on the use of biometric computer games in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia, while Koichi Samuels reviews designs for “open” musical interfaces that can be easily adapted to compensate for various disabilities. Adam Tinkle and Daniel Walzer both discuss novel pedagogies for music education. The political and social characteristics of technology itself are the subjects of several papers. Andrew Brooks brings glitch into the field of queer studies. Ryan Jordan considers do-it-yourself (DIY) electronics as a form of “literal critical practice.” Shelly Knotts looks at network music as a means of developing nonhierarchical models of communication and power distribution. Karen Collins and Ruth Dockwray analyze the role of sound design as a rhetorical device in public service announcements. Nathan Thompson considers audio feedback as a tool for creating environmentally responsive installations. Providing an outline of the political topics utilized in his 40 years of work, Richard Lerman discusses his use of piezo contact mikes to make recordings at sites of human rights abuses, while Mo H. Zareei describes his mechatronic sound sculptures in terms of Brutalist design theory. William A. Thompson IV and Jeffrey Albert discuss the role of music production and listening during Thompson’s deployment in Iraq following 9/11. Jing Wang contributes an overview of the current state introduction
The result of years of research by an interdisciplinary team coordinated by R. Hidalgo Prieto, this book makes a significant contribution to the study of the Roman villa in a particular and important region, Baetica. The book draws heavily on the large amount of work done in this Spanish territory in recent years. When compared to J.-G. Gorges’ great synthesis (1979),1 this volume provides an even richer picture, thanks to the new excavations and research and to the careful collection of all the available data, much of it unpublished. In this sense the extensive and detailed catalogue of villas (vol. II) is fundamental, providing the basis for the detailed work of synthesis of vol. I.
The objective of this work was to develop the state of the art technology. Ocular monitoring in the fields of industrial engineering was based on the collection of information from the reading and research of texts, magazines, articles, bases of data among others, from 1997 to 2018 in order to identify the usefulness of eye tracking in industrial engineering and in the fields this technology is more common than in other fields.
One of the most interesting late‑medieval literary monuments is the military textbook entitled The Book of Deeds of Arms and Chivalry (beginning of the 15th century). The fact that the author of this book on war and chivalry is a woman, Christine de Pizan, is understandably arousing the interest of medievalists – but it is only one of the fascinating issues connected with this work. Equally interesting is the fact of the author’s reference to the antique models and their presence in the textbook. The aim of this paper is to engage in polemics with the thesis that invoking antique authorities was merely a form of “rhetorical” strategy of de Pizan, who wanted to demonstrate her knowledge of classical literature. My intention is to remind the readers that the function of the antique auctoritates (mainly Vegetius and Frontinus, as well as Valerius Maximus) was not purely ornamental, intended to demonstrate the author’s erudition, but that the quotations from the works of antique writers and the references to them constituted an integral part of the author’s line of thinking and argumentation. Their presence in the textbook testifies to the timeless value of the recommendations of the antique writers and their decisive role in the author’s argumentation.
THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN MONOLOGUE in the oral and epic traditions of poetry, in the novel, in music hall and its widespread appearance in modern drama are too copious for treatment in a short essay; suffice it to say that monologue, used so abundantly by the epic poets and the dramatists of the ancient world, persisted in masterful form in Shakespeare; it seems French par excellence in Corneille and Racine; it is brilliantly theatrical in Cyrano. Though the very untheatrical conventions of stage naturalism tended to hide the long speech, the soliloquy and the aside, the monologue endured. It continued a little while in music hall. It popped up irrepressibly in the modern novel, where it found its masters in Joyce and Woolf and Beckett. It provided a major device for dramatizing ideas in the plays of George Bernard Shaw. It is a fascinating weapon for satirists, tragedians and even sentimentalists. It has been faithful to such diverse talents as those of Cocteau and Pinter. That such an important and persi...
The article proposes a reading of the figure of Antonio Gramsci in the work of Alfredo Jaar. Based on the mediation of the poem Le ceneri de Gramsci , by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Chilean artist begins a search for Gramsci that is, at the same time, a search for the image, an interrogation and detained meditation on the place of the image in the contemporary society. An interrogation that is proposed as an inquiry into light, about the image as light.
Within the context of German immigration to Brazil, texts produced by individuals alert to the cultural realities of Teuto-Brazilian life began to be produced in the 19th century. This literature thrived until 1939 when the Nationalization Campaign of Getulio Vargas' Estado Novo prohibited the publication of texts written in foreign languages. In this article, I seek to analyze the role played by German language literature produced in Brazil - especially poetry - in the construction of a cultural identity which combined the principles of "Germanhood" with the realities of colonial life in Brazilian territory. The social universe I focus upon is "colony" of Blumenau in the Itajai Valley in the state of Santa Catarina. There, an emerging elite, which possessed cultural and economic capital, supported a variety of associative activities, maintained a theater and stimulated literary production and distribution, principally through newspapers and almanacs, in a very peculiar appropriation of the notion of Kultur.
In the pre - Qin literature, the characters "ti", "pi", "nian" refer to "tear", "beast skin" and "year" respectively and it became "nasal discharge", "man's skin" and "age" respectively in the Han dynasty, which never appeared in the pre - Qin period. By studying the semantic changes in books of different times, the meanings of the above 3 characters, that frequently occurred in Neijing, are identical with those books of the Han dynasty. Hence, it can be concluded that Neijing can only be completed not early than the Han dynasty.
Although Slavko Osterc spent only a part of his youth in Maribor he kept up with the musical development there through his friends, musical colleagues and pupils until death. In Maribor he received the basis of musical instruction at the teachers' training college from H. Druzovic and E. Beran. In Maribor Osterc (almost certainly) started to compose. Maribor reproductive musicians (orchestras, choruses, individuals) were performing in Maribor, on Ptuj, at Celje and in Belgrade a great many of his early works from the so-called 'amateur' creative period (from 1920 to 1925, or to 1927 resp.). It is thanks to them that Osterc's name was already at an early time and frequently mentioned in Slovene, Yugoslav, and in Slovenia issued German, newspapers. In Maribor Osterc had several respectable friends, thus the bandmaster F. Herzog and the notary I. Asic. Especially the latter was also Osterc's adviser, supporter, as well as performer of his lieder. By extending financial support he made it possible for Osterc to continue his studies in Prague, which was of decisive significance for Osterc's further development as a composer. Today Osterc's early works (those written up to 1923) remain almost unmentioned because he renounced them. Judging by the response they had been met with by the reviewers at that time they should, however, be made known again if we are to arrive at a complete picture of Osterc as a composer. Osterc was in Maribor (up to the 1925-26 season) undoubtedly the most often performed composer. This is true also of the period when he was active at Celje, as many of his compositions were here as well played by Maribor artists, in this way we can perhaps speak of 'Osterc's period' in the Slovene music (from 1922 to 1926) in Stajersko (Styria).
INTRODUCTION Why use authentic video? What you need Ways of using video How to use this book General guidelines for video activities PART A: VIDEO DRAMA INTRODUCTION: Why and what? 1 FEATURE FILMS Doing a film The film and the book 2 OTHER VIDEO DRAMA: Drama series Sitcoms Soap operas 3 SHORT SEQUENCES:Drama clips Comedy sketches PART B: NON-FICTION VIDEO : INTRODUCTION: Why and what? 1 PROGRAMMES ABOUT REAL LIFE: Documentaries News, weather, national events and speeches Interviews and talkshows Sports programmes and gameshows 2 SHOR T SEQUENCES & PROMOTIONS Non-fiction clips TV commercials Music video PART C: ACTIVITIES WITH AUTHENTIC VIDEO: Video comprehension Alphabetical bank of activities Activities classified Glossary
Dolly’s Family is a clarinet solo music. The author Professor Yu-Shan Chien unified the clarinet modern Technics and the family musical instrument's use. Because of played the different acoustics to display all kinds of dollies. Besides the idea is interesting, but could also expose clarinet this item of musical instrument to have the very big possibility and acceptance in the creation. That’s a very meaningful work. This paper's first chapter will introduce that composer's biography synopsis, composition and the creation background. In the second chapter will analyze each movement’s rhythm type, the interval relations and clarinet's acoustics utilization. Then explain that how to annotate each movement description about the dolly’s individuality and the characteristic. The third chapter will relate in detail explained that the method and the use of the all clarinet special skills in Dolly’s Family. The goal can let more performers besides understand, and easy to grasp by clarinet players. Also hoped that can have more composers to attempt the creation use special acoustics in the clarinet music.
The article describes the evolution of the idea underlying the first equestrian monument in Russia — the statue of Peter the Great on horseback by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli. The author appeals to recent studies in the history of its creation and gives her own view of the well-known sculpture, focusing on the figure of the horse. A marble statue of a horse on a high pedestal found by Sergey Androsov in a private collection in France appeared to be a missing link in the history of Rastrelli’s monument. In Russia this sculpture made by an Italian master Pietro Baratta for a long time was thought to be lost. The statue represents the “Campidoglio horse of Marcus Aurelius from Rome”. It was specially commissioned by Peter I as a pattern for Rastrelli to work on the equestrian monument that was significant for the Emperor because of its conceptual meaning. The author of the article analyses the changes of the horses’ proportions and traits, and the details of horse trappings in every subsequent replica, paying much attention to some aspects that have never been mentioned before. Thus, she traces the consequent transformations in the interpretation of the equestrian statue’s image: from the Roman monument to the monumental sculpture of the Petrine era.
The cardinal’s great grandnephew, prince Louis-Francois-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, marshal of Richelieu was an extraordinary character, not only because of his long life (as he lived 92 years), but also because his outstanding career. He served as a soldier, was an ambassador to Vienna and Dresden, but also an exquisit actor of the king’s theatre and a governor of Guyenne. The article analyses why the prince became a main, libertine character of romans rather than the war hero. Young prince spent some time at the royal court, then he transformed into a libertine conquering women’s hearts. Getting older, was considered rather as a relic of the past than a muse of writers. From ‘angelic’, young libertine, by the libertine, who awakened admiration and fear, literary theme became an old libertine, who was betrayed and mocked. Every stage of marshal of Richelieu’s life reflected in literature.
The author is to be commended for sparing use of the term dictator, so abused in the past to cover a wide range of types of political behavior. But it still seems mostly a term of general condemnation rather than a specific concept related to the context of cultural and political life. It would seem, also, that a fair and sympathetic interpretation of Latin American politics, involving inevitably its American character, would suggest the undesirability of restricting the term American, as the author does, to those things relating solely to the United States. The semantic difficulties to the United States student, involved in the use of the term in a hemispheric sense, are small compared with the importance of seeing the American aspects of Latin America.
It was at the London premier of Bravo China! that I first saw her. She was performing Soul of the Peacock and it seemed to me not an artist but a bird - a graceful peacock with a small elegant head and proud gait - that danced before me, Four years later I met Yang Liping, arguably the most famous folk dancer in China, in person, She is of the Bai ethnic minority that lives in southern Yunnan Province.
The thesis explores the use of religious themes and the notion of self-design in contemporary art practice. It argues that art today that addresses religion does so primarily for its rhetorical function: for a recognizable pattern of persuasiveness, which is ultimately defined by its established mechanisms of belief. Furthermore, it suggests that it is through an engagement with this secularized rhetoric that the art viewer today can potentially be provoked to re-create oneself in ones own terms; or, in Richard Rorty's terms, to 'revocabularize'.
Yucatec Maya (YM) is an indigenous language of Mexico that features both phonemic tonal distinctions and phonemic vowel length. These features are primarily associated with the phonetic cues of pitch and duration, which are also considered the primary correlates of stress in language. Though scholars have noted the existence of stress or accent since it was first documented centuries ago, no detailed account of stress as either a separate or related entity to tone or length has been made. This dissertation presents a unique view into YM prosody by looking at loan word incorporation in conjunction with native speaker intuitions, and production data. A case study of Spanish loan words into Yucatec finds that when Spanish words are incorporated into the YM prosodic system, the initial syllable undergoes lengthening. Statistical analyses performed on data from native speaker intuitions and production data, however, find no concrete pattern of obligatory stress on the word level in Yucatec Maya words.
Ramblin´Minds firade 25 ar som band med en spelning pa Kulturens hus i Lulea i Svartons Blues regi. Ett stort antal gastartister spelade ocksa med bandet. Repertoir spelad: Check Yourself-Fulsom Better Believe-Wedin Remote Control Mama-Wedin You Had It Coming-Wedin Hey Lawdy Mama-Slim Woke Up This Morning-King Too Many Teardrops-Wedin Caledonia-Jordan Ain't No Big Deal On You-Campbell Sugar Sweet-Morganfield Nobody But You-Jacobs Sufferin' Minds-Slim Dirt Under Your Sole-Wedin Party Girl-Walker Just Like A Woman-Jordan The Weight-Robertson Take A Little Piece Of My Heart-Ragovoy Wind Cries Mary-Henrix No Expectations-Jagger/Richards samt manga fler. Medverkande gaster: Britta Bergstrom, Bjorn Sjoo, Terese Hoggren, Morgan Andersson, Elin Lindstrom, Anders Ohlund, Lars Bonnevier m.fl.
Acknowledgments Chapter One: Playing Tricks on the Dead: Outing Joseph Conrad and the Ethics of Literary Criticism Chapter Two: Life, Letters, and Neurasthenia Chapter Three: Male Intimacy in Conrad's Tales of Adventure - The Nigger of the Narcissus and Heart of Darkness Chapter Four: Male Intimacy in Conrad's Tales of Adventure - Romance and Victory Chapter Five: Conrad's Bachelor Narrators: Lord Jim, "Il Conde," and Under Western Eyes Chapter Six: Conrad's Bachelor Narrators: "The Secret Sharer," Chance, and The Shadow Line Chapter Seven: Conclusion: "Amy Foster" and Imaginative Bisexuality Notes Bibliography Index
THE TOPIC I wish to take up here is the relationship between communication and the sense of self. In doing so, I intend to communicate to you a little bit about myself, and will thereby run the risk of narcissism. At the same time, I will run the risk of echolalia, as most of what I have to say is merely a repetition of what has been said before. And I want to begin by echoing a story taken from a children's book by Phoebe Gilman entitled Something From Nothing (1992), a book that my son Benjamin and I enjoy reading together. The text is itself an echo, as it is adapted from a Jewish folk tale, and I in turn will adapt and paraphrase Gilman's story. It is about a tailor who made his newborn grandson a wonderful blanket out of some rare and beautiful material. Joseph, his grandson, loved that blanket, but as time passed and the blanket got worn and frazzled, his mother wanted to throw it out. But Joseph took it to his grandfather, who said, "There's just enough material here to make a wonderful jacket." When, in time, Joseph outgrew the jacket and his mother wanted to throw it out, he took it to his grandfather, who said, "There's just enough material here to make a wonderful vest." When the vest grew old, and his mother wanted to throw it out he took it to his grandfather, who said, "There's just enough material here to make a wonderful tie." The tie in turn became worn and stained, and Joseph's mother wanted to throw it out, but he again took it to his grandfather, who said, "There's just enough material here to make a wonderful handkerchief." But over time the handkerchief grew dirty and tattered, and his mother said, now, finally, it's time to throw i t out. But Joseph believed in his grandpa, and brought it to him, and his grandfather said, "There's just enough material here to make a wonderful button." But one day Joseph lost the button. Distraught, he ran to his grandfather's house. His mother, running after him said, "Joseph! Even your grandfather can't make something from nothing," and his grandfather sadly agreed. The next day Joseph went to school, where he put pen to paper, and said, "There's just enough material here to make a wonderful story." The theme of material is a natural one for a writer and artist like Gilman, who used a folk tale as source material for a wonderful children's book. For my part, I am using Something for Nothing (1992) as material for this essay. Material is a concern for anyone engaged in acts of creation and communication: public speakers need material for their speeches, stand-up comics need material to get their laughs, teachers need material for their classes. The humor of Gilman's story revolves around the double meaning of the word material. On the one hand, it refers to physical substance, on the other to communication content. This pun is part of a larger metaphor through which communication is compared to cloth, tale-tellers are linked to tailors, and text is turned into textile. Across various cultures, stories are woven like fabric, yarns are spun, accounts embroidered, and falsehoods are manufactured out of whole cloth. The thrust of this ancient motif, in Gilman' s folk tale and elsewhere, is to ground the abstract concept of communication in the concreteness of the human life-world. It reminds us that both form and information are rooted in physical matter. We therefore should not forget that even the social construction of reality requires raw materials, and that common sense and scientific knowledge alike are rooted in our physical existence; they are not simply a result of political decision-making. Spiritual approaches to communication need to take this into account as well. After all, the theologians tell us that only God creates ex nihlo, out of absolutely nothing. All the rest of us have to make do with the materials at hand. I believe that an understanding of the materiality of communication leads naturally to the study of media, and to Marshall McLuhan's (1964) famous maxim, "the medium is the message" (p. …
More than a century has passed since E. B. Tylor, an English ethnologist, first formulated the idea that the art of prehistoric man, then a recent discovery, was one essentially dictated by magic. This art, which was born 30,000 years before our era and vanished at about 10,000 B.C., is the oldest known to us. It would appear to have developed simultaneously with the first explicit manifestations of concern with the supernatural. To reach this conviction, the prehistorian has at his disposal only the figures that decorate objects or cave walls. It is comparison with the decorated objects or wall paintings made by the last primitives of the present-day world that has guided perception of the religious content of the artistic remains bequeathed by our distant ancestors. This hypothesis, which in no way excludes real artistic effort on the part of prehistoric man, now encounters hardly any objection in principle, but the mystery of the contents of these works remains almost complete. It can indeed be demonstrated with reasonable certainty that paleolithic men, twenty thousand years before the end of the Ice Age, poured into their images of bison or mammoths feelings which correspond to religion as we understand it, but we have no way of reconstituting the manner of their religious thinking. Our thought, developing out of classical civilizations, has evolved in a manner such that understanding the thought of even living Australian primitives involves great effort on our part. How much greater, then, are the risks involved in the reconstruction of the beliefs of men who lived thousands of years before the appearance of writing. Within the century of our study of living primitives-of Australians, Bushmen, Amazonians, Eskimos ethnologists' ideas have greatly developed; theories have deepened, so that the very structure of religious thought appears in its fundamental outlines. The work of L6vi-Strauss has greatly contributed to the shifting of problems such as those of totemism to a level upon which the superstructure of tradition proper to each human group
During the 18th century, France was the leader in the field of dentistry, exemplified by Pierre Fauchard (1678–1761), who was given the title “the father of modern dentistry” for his comprehensive work, Le Chirurgien Dentiste. This paper examines an 18th century dental treatment in a barely 50-year-old male whose body was excavated from Saint Amé’s Collegiate Church, Douai, France. This individual had 6 dental restorations, exceptional for that period. All fillings were on the occlusal surfaces of molars and extended at least to the superficial dentin. Panoramic and retro-alveolar radiography confirmed the presence of a radio-opaque filling material, and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and x-ray diffraction analyses demonstrated the exclusive presence of tin in these restorations.
This thesis comprises a dissertation, ‘Two-Tone Detectives: Cross-Cultural Crime in Chester Himes’ Harlem Cycle Novels’; and Black Bush City Limits, a novel set amongst the ‘murphoisie’ of Irish London.    The focus of the dissertation is an exploration of Himes’ expansion of the terms of the crime novel to countenance the broader theme of crimes against humanity, specifically slavery and its legacy in the United States of America following Emancipation in 1865. The dissertation argues that Himes takes a subaltern genre and by means of resisting the formulaic limitations of crime fiction introduces discourses not usually associated with the genre, such as folk tales, the Absurd, aspects of comedy derived from Elizabethan theatre, carnival, and the historical novel. The dissertation argues that Himes does not consistently manage to blend all of these elements successfully, and that his final unfinished novel, Plan B, fails to realise the potential of Himes’ subaltern genre.   My novel, Black Bush City Limits, is an attempt to create a novel in the subaltern genre I argue Himes experiments with in the Harlem Cycle. In Black Bush City Limits a series of murders take place in and around the Dolmen Irish Centre in North London. Mick Kavanagh, a worker at the Centre, investigates these murders.   His story is interrupted by extracts from a tranche of letters sent to him by his dying uncle in Ireland. These are by his Victorian forebear, Margaret Kavanagh, alive at the time of the Famine in Ireland. As the novel progresses the significance of these letters becomes apparent, and the two stories are gradually brought together. My dissertation contains a concluding chapter in which I trace where my own novel applies lessons learned from Himes’ example, and where I depart from him.
The paper examines the features of perception of music opuses of S.V. Rachmaninov. The perception is characterized by reflection in listener’s consciousness of sound structures by means of which a comprehension and understanding of art sense of works as a special form of reflection of reality occurs. Symbols are noted to have an impact on perception of a piece of music, and on its sense. It is established that all the variety of the signals, transferred to the listener, is processed and turns into signs which can evolve subsequently in symbols.
An old Sudanese adage states that a good Sudanese woman leaves her house only twice in her life: once to be married and once to be buried. A clear exaggeration, these lines are nevertheless instructive for the ways in which a Sudanese woman’s life was presumed to be proscribed by the domestic spaces she inhabited: namely, the homes of her father and husband. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Arab-Islamic culture that dominated northern and central Sudan established a new social order of reformed religious practice and gender segregation. Strict standards of honour, enclosure and protection governed Sudanese women’s movements as they remained closer and closer to home. When women did venture out, they donned the tobe , a rectangular length of fabric which they loosely wrapped around their head and body. Over the next century, the tobe became the iconic form of dress for Sudanese women. In the 1950s and 1960s, nationalists and women activists lauded the tobe as Sudan’s national costume; they declared it ‘beautiful’ and ‘right’ and a crucial part of Sudan’s ‘indigenous culture’. 1 Yet the tobe did more than simply permit women to exit their homes modestly. This beautiful national dress was in fact an imported garment and in its foreign origins Sudanese women found an entrance into an exciting wider world. Africans colonial standards Moving and 2
In Dancing at Lughnasa, Friel returns to Ballybeg, a family drama and memories of childhood. It is a memory play, both biographically and in its formal construction as Michael remembering. The memory of Michael is 'true' yet untrustworthy. Friel has explored the 'tragic space' between these two notions. In the memory of that summer of 1936 in Ballybeg, the nostalgic 'atmosphere is more real than incident and everything is simultaneously actual and illusory'. In Dancing at Lughnasa, the Dionysian keeps erupting into the Apollonian world of rational order. The opposition between an Apollonian impulse for order and rationality and a Dionysian impulse for chaos and the irrational is figured by the two juxtaposed worlds in Ballybeg. The beliefs of the ancient culture of tribal Uganda where Jack was a missionary in its leper colony and those of rural Ireland clinging in folk memory to the vestiges of the pagan rites have been stifled by the conventions of a thirties Irish Catholic society. The Mundy sisters are dramatically caught between these two worlds. To highlight their dilemma the action of the play occurs at harvest time, when Ballybeg is celebrating the Festival of Lughnasa, where liberated pagan rituals are set against the repressive forces of the Catholic Church. The wireless Marconi comes to represent a sort of periodic Dionysian intervention in those sisters' lives. Marconi enchants them with music and whips them up into a frenzy of dance, which reveals their deep-seated desire or Dionysian energies for release from repression of all kinds. It is akin to the pagan rites of Lughnasa. The dance releases the life-force and provides a form of expression for their deepest passions which convention has continually denied them. The vestiges of the Lughnasa rituals and the Mundy sisters' wild dance suggest, in addition, that dark subversive forces still lie beneath the strictures and decorum of good Catholic households and religious orthodoxy. However, there are no Apollonian palliatives or Christian consolations for the Dionysian terrors in this play. The Dionysian is both its own reward and its own destruction. The older culture must die that the new may be reborn. Dancing at Lughnasa is a ceremonial mourning of the passing of the small-town family life that is figured in the Mundy sisters and energized by Marconi, the symbol simultaneously of its vitality and its impending demise at the hands of the instruments of mass culture. For Friel the paganism in this play is sufficiently generalized to suggest that beneath the veneer of civilization, the Irish soul was fundamentally pagan. In this play, the pagan elements have Celtic or Gaelic identities. And the regenerative power of the Dionysian is somehow dependent on its destructiveness. Part of the emotional appeal of this play is the nostalgia and sadness over what must pass in order to life to go on - the recognition of vitality destined for demise. The fate of the Mundy sisters casts a long shadow over the recollections of Michael's summer idyll. The promise of summer is overshadowed by dark forebodings which lead to the break up of the family and a tragic end for two of the sisters.
This paper examines one of the epithets throughout the texts of Edfu where adominating Horus of Behdety interacts with the forces of chaos as a lion bytrampling, retreating, smiting and devouring. The textual sources containlexical expressions of this epithet and provide the visual metaphors asdramatic scenes of the god's domination. Also they show Horus as theupholder of the legitimacy of the kingship and the defeater lion over anytransgressors. Furthermore he played a beneficent role toward the two landsof Egypt, his sacred mound, his chapel, his divine character and Osiris withIsis.
In this paper is presented the results of research conducted at the Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Puerto Vallarta (ITSPV) to diagnose technological skills in teachers to design training strategies, for this was selected a measurement instrument consisting of a questionnaire of 70 questions developed based on seven dimensions of technological competencies according to the proposal of ICT competency standards of the Ministry of Education of Chile (2006) 5-dimensional: technical; pedagogical; managerial and organizational aspects of school; social, ethical and legal aspects; and professional development. Two more dimensions were added to these aspects of communication with new tools and implementation aspects of ICT in ITSPV, considered important in order to obtain data on technological skills.  The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 93 teachers out of 118 that make up the population working in the ITSPV, and the variables considered in this study are the technological skills (expressed in terms of the standards and the above dimensions) and ITSPV teachers.  Keywords:  Information and communication technologies (ICT); ICT Standards for teachers; Technological skill
12. On the painting and its sources, see Bohrer, pp. 201 ? 3. 13. Among popular music, consider They Might Be Giants, The Mesopotamia , and Chumbawamba, On Ehay ["from Babylon back to Babylon"]. Among contemporary music drama, see Robert Wilson, The Forest (1988) and Bohuslav Martinu, The Epic of Gilgamesh (19S5). The BM exhibit listed none of these and instead displayed a table of music that looked like the result of a hasty Google search. 14. A particular lost opportunity was just across the Thames, where Cildo Meireles' Babel, 2001 (a tower of radios tuned to different stations) was at Tate Modern as part of the artist's retrospective there. It would have looked great in the BM's central hall (Cildo Meireles (Tate Publishing: London, 2008), p. 168). Another possibility is Leon Ferrari, Torre de Babel of 1963, which Tate Modern recently acquired. 15. A work by J&K, entitled 'The Babylon Case' was, in fact, installed in the 'Reality' section of the Berlin show. On Sundaram, see Saloni Mathur, 'Art and Empire: On Oil, Antiquities, and the War in Iraq', New Formations, vol. 65, Autumn 2008, pp. 119 ? 38. For Rakowitz, Brian Boucher, 'Babylon without Borders', Art in America, April 2007, pp. 124?7. For Kim Jones 'War Paintings', Stephen Maine, 'Things He Carried', Art in America, November 2007, esp. p. 239. 16. Iraq's Past Speaks to Its Present, 10 November 2008 to 15 March 2009. 17. In fact, the British Museum even lent a Babylonian boundary stone to the earlier ground-breaking exhibition Strokes of Genius, Maysaloun Faraj (ed.), Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art (Saqi Books: London, 2001).
INTRODUCTION How SHOULD we mark the centennial of continuous trade unionism in the Nova Scotia coalfields? One hundred years ago, on 29 August 1879, the miners of Springhill, striking against a wage cut, resolved to form an association to protect their interests. Pioneer Lodge was formed on 1 September, and on 15 October, delegates from five lodges from Nova Scotia mining communities constituted the first grand council of the Provincial Miners' Association. In 1880, the name was changed to the Provincial Workmen's Association to signal the union's intention of securing a wider base. So began 100 years of continuous trade unionism in the eastern coalfields. But notwithstanding the Canadian enthusiasm for centennial celebrations and the Nova Scotia miners'
The Howard L. and Muriel Weingrow Collection consists of approximately 4,000 items including original illustrated books, periodicals, exhibition catalogues, pamphlets, posters, manuscripts, letters, and original prints representing most of the major avant-garde movements of the twentieth century. It provides important information on primary and secondary works of related movements as well as themes of interest and concern to modern artists and writers. This catalogue is divided into two sections. Part One deals with all material excluding periodicals, which are covered in Part Two. Authors and/or artists are listed alphabetically. Each item is identified in terms of its movement. A description of its size and contents; information on special features of the publication, such as paper, binding, and edition; and other pertinent data concerning materials inherent in the book, periodical, catalogue, or object are provided. The reproductions included are representative of original materials found in the various publications included in this collection.
AbstractSomething of mystery hangs over the Brontes' early study of French. We know that Mr. Bronte paid £3 in order that Maria should study both it and drawing at Cowan Bridge School; and we are told she “made some progress in reading” the language, though completely ignorant of its grammar! The next information is from Ellen Nussey, who tells us Charlotte had “taught herself a little French” before coming to Roe Head School on January 19th, 1831; as a matter of fact she had already put into English verse the first book of Voltaire's Henriade, dated by her August 11th, 1830, printed for private cirulation by Clement Shorter in 1917. We know she made good progress under Miss Wooler, and on December 14th, 1831, received a prize in the form of a French Testament.
The novelist and poet Valery Larbaud has written very fine texts on military fantasies: in Enfantines, the short novel « La Grande Epoque » (1913) describes war games and fantasies of three children. The childish strategies, as subtle as the adults’ ones, reflect confusing expectations and grand ambitions that are still aligned with the war ideals of the period before the Great War.    In the short text Questions militaires (1918), Valery Larbaud questions again the powers of imagination. In a few pages, he delivers a surprising reflection on his passion for tin soldier collection, which he considers a most precious pretext for dreams and fantasies. The compulsive game player ironically refers to real soldiers’pulsions. Through games and fantasies, it is thus possible to play war as if it were a kind of dream.    In the same way, we will focus on the manner of Marcel Proust, who also wrote indirectly about war, through his characters’ conversations. Proust’s sensitive imagination lets him evoke war in an allusive way (for example, the descriptions of ladies’clothes during the war in Le Temps retrouve, 1927). Larbaud and Proust represent two great attempts to make war unreal, by games or fantasies that keep violence at a distance (James der Derian).
When Frantz Fanon spoke of the means by which colonial domination was achieved, he spoke not just of military engagement, nor of the means whereby the colonial landscape became a metaphor for the regimented life of the colony,1 but of a process so highly organized that it became a central point of negotiation long after the moment of national liberation had been achieved. Although Fanon concentrated on the broadly psychological effects of colonialism, and of the various supplementary agencies of the state, he focussed on one aspect of colonial, and arguably neo-colonial, authority that was to have considerable, and lasting, influence: the writing of history. In spite of the fact that recent research reveals a contemporary obsession with historiography, and with the methodological difficulties involved in reaching something like a balanced and value-free approach, the historiography which emerged from the colonial period, suggested Fanon, offered a particularly straightforward set of procedures. Used more as a tool of oppression than anything resembling a scholarly exercise, such history-making systematically precluded native participation in anything other than rudimentary ways, presenting colonial contact as a necessary, and invariably beneficial, moment. With native history regarded as little
This Norton Critical Edition of Dante?s masterpiece is based on Michael Palma?s verse translation, which is acclaimed for its elegant rendering of Dante?s triple-rhyme scheme into contemporary English. Richard Wilbur praises Palma?s translation as ?accurate as to sense, fully rhymed, and easy, as a rule, in its movement through the tercets. Readers will find it admirably clear and readable.? The text is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations. Also included in this edition are an illuminating introduction by Giuseppe Mazzotta, a Translator?s Note, The Plan of Dante?s Hell, and six maps and illustrations. ?Criticism? provides twelve interpretations by, among others, John Freccero, Robert M. Durling, Alison Cornish, Teodolinda Barolini, Giuseppe Mazzotta, and Robert Hollander. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included
of Russia has lost all claim to the admiralty of the Pacific; but according to Mr. Hislam, the ambitions of the kaiser in the Atlantic can not be ignored. The two chapters, The North Sea Amphitheatre, and The Invasion of England, disclose the supposed objective of German naval development. The book itself is an expansion of an article by Mr. Hislam, entitled The Strategical Features of the North Sea, published in Brassey's Naval Annual, 1907. A struggle between England and Germany would take place in the North Sea. Therefore the distribution of the fleet in peace must be such that it would be immediately effective at the outbreak of war. Mr. Hislam does not consider the danger at all remote, and is "actuated throughout by the conviction that the rise of German sea-power is a factor in international politics which England can neither with safety ignore nor with dignity overrate, and firm in the belief that it would be better to sacrifice our dignity than our safety." In outlining the situation, he treats of such subjects as the inception and development of the German navy, German and British shipbuilding resources, naval bases, and floating docks. In his preface, he suggests but does not expand the idea that Great Britain's most obvious means of crippling Germany would be to impose a tariff on manufactured imports. Thus he would put a check on the commercial development "which alone renders Germany capable of improving, or even of maintaining, her present status amongst the naval powers." The book is readable, has a special interest for naval officers, and is suggestive to the student of international politics.
This study is aimed at investigating the dynamics of desire, also linked to the theme of the gaze, as it can be found in the film Nostalghia (1983) by Andrej Tarkovskij. First of all, the study will analyze the desire of Gorcakov, the main character, to see his remote Russia and its slow focus, thanks to the encounter with the 'crazy' marginalized Domenico, on the will to bring a candlelight from one side to the other of an ancient thermal pool. Through an approach mainly related to thematic criticism (halfway between cinema and literature) we will try to demonstrate the interrelationships, from the point of view of seduction and analysis of fetish objects, between the desire of the protagonist and that of Domenico. Using also some means of social critique offered by Michel Foucault, we shall obtain results never previously analyzed by critical studies on Tarkovskij and Nostalghia .
In 1845, tenor and impresario Giuseppe Marinangeli (c.1818-1876) returned to Brasil besides some lyric artists, among them his young wife, the soprano Marietta Marinangeli. They brought lyric novelties to brazilian theaters, including the debut of Ernani and therefore the Verdi debut in the American continent. This opera was premiered in Recife and was repeated in Rio de Janeiro. This text recovers press records about such performances and explores the context at that moment, by events and characters
As the market economy grew in intensity after the New ERA, Shanghai films claimed to stand for commercial line, and it had the systems could come to mutual understanding with fairy tales and Hollywood films. And woman became a good material for take cinema audiences into theater, woman's sexuality was emphasized and became object and otherness. This study has analyzed the women's figuration of Shanghai films that named 『Suzhou River』 and 『A Beautiful New World』 forced on the influence of fairy tales and Hollywood films. Overall, the women's figuration of 『Suzhou River』 and 『A Beautiful New World』 emphasized their childish characteristics and sexuality, the elements of fairy tales and Hollywood films properly harmonized with each other. They brought woman into relief as inferior existence through comparison of both sexes and emphasized women's passivity and dependence, hereby they justified men's control and sexual objectification to women, and defended a male-dominated ideology. So we could be aware that the influence of fairy tales and Hollywood films played an decisive role in fixed the relationship between both sexes and enhanced a male-dominated ideology, and those are represented in Shanghai films in New ERA, too. But they changed unrealistic fantasy of fairy tales and Hollywood films into feasible realistic fantasy like 『A Beautiful New World』 or chose the different end with fairy tale like 『Suzhou River』 they reinterpreted them by Chinese reality and reflected convincingly Chinese reality.
Thank you for downloading a grand design the art of the victoria and albert museum. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their favorite readings like this a grand design the art of the victoria and albert museum, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some harmful virus inside their desktop computer.
The early films of the producer and scriptwriter Fritz Lang, such as "Metropolis", "Dr. Mabuse", and "M" have become milestones in the history of cinema because of their relentless aesthetics and visionary aims. After two years of research this extensive monograph highlights the work of this contradictory artist. The biography contains a detailed account of his life and work in Berlin and Hollywood, alongside details on his immigration and attempt to return to Berlin. His relation to Bertold Brecht, Egon Erwin Kish, Peter Lorre, Marlene Dietrich, Max Horkheimer and many others have been reconstructed from scripts, letters, diaries and private photographs. The result is a revision of predominating opinions about this gifted artist.
In general,Dunhuang manuscripts of "Meaning and pronunciation of sutra" preserve the Li-calligraphy oriented system and the real situation of characters from Han and Wei dynasties to Five dynasties.They not only record popular characters using in sutra,but also imply the evolvement of diction chosen by different versions of manuscripts.According to popular characters recorded,we could distinctly explore the developing history of Chinese characters from high antiquity to contemporary society.And it is helpful for us to apprehend its evolvement rule and it provides some principles for dictionary compiling work.
There is a legend which relates that in the seventeenth century three Hallowell brothers came to America from Eng land. Two of them settled in Pennsylvania, the other going farther south. The latter was a very loud and forceful preacher. The people insisted on writing his name Hollowell instead of Hallowell, and the descendants still spell the name with an o in the first syllable. Thomas Hollowell, second of the name, son of John and Sarah Hollowell, of Norfolk County, Virginia, was born on December 4,1739, and married Mary Peele (or Peelle), daugh ter of Robert and Elizabeth Peele. The cermony took place on December 7, 1760, in Quaker meeting in Northampton County, North Carolina. Thomas came to Orange County, Indiana, in 1812, and died prior to 1830. John Hollowell, father of the second Thomas Hollowell, died in 1751 or 1752 in Norfolk County, Virginia; his will was proved April 16, 1752 (recorded in Will Book If, p. 246). The will of John Hollowell, husband of Sarah Rountree, men tions a cousin Thomas, and a brother Thomas, and children (Rachel Copeland, Mary, Sarah, Rachel, John, and Thomas). In Will Book 5f of Norfolk County, Virginia, are recorded wills of two Thomas Hollowells?one of them (p. 208), dated June 16, 1693, probated September 15, 1693, mentions chil dren (Thomas, John, William, Elizabeth, Katherine, and Luke). The other will (p. 22), dated March 15, 1686, pro bated May 17, 1687, mentions a wife Alice, and children : Ed mond, Thomas, Henry, Joseph, Benjamin, John, Sarah, Eliza beth, Alice. Sarah, the wife of the first John Hollowell was the daughter of Moses and Sarah Rountree. Moses died in Perquimans County, North Carolina, in 1755. His will, made on July 21, 1755, mentions his wife, Sarah, and children: Sarah, Hannah, Ledy, Ann. The will of his daughter Han nah, probated in 1759, mentions sisters Sarah and Ledy, and is witnessed by Joe and Abner Hollowell.1 Mary Peele, wife of the second Thomas Hollowell was born on February 2, 1742 (o.s.) and died on January 11, 1813. She was the daughter of Robert Peele (or Peelle) who was born on June 29, 1709, and died on July 13, 1782, in
In June 2020 the statue of Edward Colton, both local benefactor and cruel seventeenth-century human trafficker, was drowned in the port of the British city of Bristol; in Belgium a statue of King Leopold, renowned for atrocities in Belgian Kongo, was defaced with red paint and burned, before it was taken down in Antwerp; in Boston the decapitation of a statue of Christopher Columbuswas followed by the demolition ofmanymonuments honoring slave owners andmembers of the Confederate States of America. As the contributions to this colloquium were being written, it was not yet apparent that in summer 2020 North America and Europe would be swept by a wave of symbolic and physical violence against monuments of colonialism, human trafficking, and the violent expansion of the West. This outburst of public protest made the long-standing but often unheard demands of postcolonial activist groups visible to a wider public (Bechhaus-Gerst 2020) and came in the wake of Fallistmovements like “RhodesMust Fall” inCape Town that reinitiated a transformative politics of place making in Europeanmetropolises. Theywere fueled by theworldwide protests of the Black Lives Matter movement and intensified by a feeling of helpless exposure to and dissatisfaction with the misguided handling of the Covid-19 crisis by many governments, the effects of which were borne disproportionately by impoverished ethnic minorities and People of Color (Landler 2020). From early on the breaking of images by fallist protestors was linked to producing alternative images such as artistic visualizations of objects that had been carted away by colonial soldiers, administrators, and missionaries and put into colonial collections and museums. One example is the dismantling of the Rhodes memorial on the University of Cape Town campus on April 9, 2015 that was accompanied by a public performance by vi-
Taylor and Francis Ltd RIAC_A_279007.sgm 10.1080/146493 0701789716 Inter-Asia Cultural S udies 464-9373 (pri t)/1469-8447 (online) Original Article 2 08 & Francis 90 000 p il 2008 Shahidul lam shah du @drik.net It was many years ago that I met that woman in Shondeep. It was after the cyclone in Bangladesh in 1991. Our helicopter had landed in the damaged airstrip of Patenga airport in Chittagong. There had been no fire, so why were the leaves all charred? What had happened on that fateful night of the 29th April? My questions to the ‘experts’ resulted in the standard response. The NGO workers told me of the bags of wheat they’d given out. The engineers talked of the torque of the wind. The government officers spoke of the funds they had allocated. Then the woman spoke. In a quiet but controlled voice she said, ‘The land became the sea and the sea became a wave’. In Sri Lanka too, I had arrived after the event. The Tsunami had come and gone. I then went to Telwatta, where the train Samudra Devi (The Goddess of the Sea), had been devoured by the wave. Eighth of October 2005. The quake in Kashmir took on a different form. While I had felt the pain of the Tsunami victims and their survivors, the predominant coverage of tourists and western ‘experts’ had angered me. As an aid worker and later a photographer after the Tsunami in Colombo, I could relate to the resilience of the victims, but the aid efforts had changed. There were many more ‘experts’ in the fray and I could see how the media and other major players determined how things panned out. News of the quake in Kashmir also filtered through slowly. It was Amjad the driver who brought it home as we approached Ballakot, when he said, ‘This was a city. Now it’s a graveyard.’ They had not come across the army, government officials, NGOs, but as in Muzaffarabad city, they were just getting on with their lives. Rebuilding their homes before the snow closed in. Winter came and went. Many survived the bitter chill, but months later, and nearly a year on, much of the talked about reconstruction was yet to be made. The pledges seemed to have been forgotten. Cluster bombs, warheads, bombs that dig deep before exploding, compete with burning oil wells, toxic spills and nuclear dumping, to shake our fragile earth. Rampant consumer cultures arrogantly shun treaties to curb our destructive habits. In a globalised world where material and human world resources are fodder for exploitation by giant nations and business entities, nature in its fury reminds us that our lives are entwined.
This PhD thesis addresses an artistic research practice based on the ontology and  phenomenology of the photographic image. Part I presents a series of photographs entitled  Midnight in Mumbai, and Part II considers the act of photographing by examining the  phenomenological aspect of photography arising directly from my artistic practice. By looking  into the prehistory of photography, foregrounding the early developments of the nascent  medium, I first consider notions of photography before the medium’s actual materialisation in  the 1830s; these emerged alongside the latent desire to see the world as a picture ‘true to  nature’ which predominated in literary fiction and experimental scientific texts. It informs us  about how the medium was initially understood, discussed and defined, and offers a valuable  insight into the ontology of the illuminated image (‘Photography before Photography’).  Expanding upon Andre Bazin’s essay ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’, I consider  the discourse of the early history of the medium to be vital in informing the ontological  questions developed in the thesis.  Taking photography’s early history as a point of departure, my research looks into the  possible manifestations of thinking photographically, and asks whether we can only  photograph what we know already. This relationship of the photographic image to the world  frames my enquiry into the domain of photography. I talk about my photographic work by  answering the questions: Can I only see what I name? (‘Naming’) How do I learn how to  look? (‘Echo’) and Where can I find the photographic picture? (‘Doubt’).  The title of the thesis refers to the speculative history of the medium and to my own  photographic work. Like the nineteenth-century photographers who tried to photograph the  spirit of a human being, my photographs aim to allude to what might not be apparent by  evoking a vision of seeing things that are invisible. The expression ‘via fotografia’ is used as a  method of making phenomena visible photographically. As a medium based on reality that  can reflect the world, however visible or invisible that might be, photography continuously  questions our perception of such reality (‘Picturing Thoughts’). Do we photograph what we  see, or what we think and imagine? This is not to suggest that the acts of photographing and  thinking are the same, but rather to propose that they are not separate from each other.  Photographs, in that sense, are not experienced in terms of their appearance, but in terms of  their continuous appearing.
If anyone had suggested to Michael Elyanow that he should write the play that turned out to be The Children, he likely would have passed because the idea sounded like a journey that was impossible to compass. But when Michael mentioned that he named his son Milo, after the iconic character from Norman Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, it all made sense to me. There are so many credos to take from that book, but perhaps most pertinent in this instance: "So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible."Fortunately for us, Michael didn't have the description of the play in front of him as he set out to write The Children. It appeared to him, slowly, over time, so he didn't realize that actually it was impossible. But in fact, where did such a play come from?Michael Elyanow is a storyteller, and has from his earliest days used stories to save his life as well as make it more interesting. He is also a lover of mystery. He says that even in his childhood, when he'd leave notes to lead his parents on treasure hunts to find the last missive which contained the denouement ("Need more cereal" or "I love you"), it was always about taking an audience on a journey.In his writing he is constantly experimenting with form, with humor, with pathos disguised in hilarity, with violence, with handcuffs, and most important, with naked frailties and real human pain. These thematic explorations range in styles from mostly naturalistic to impossibly theatrical. His plays move linearly forward in living rooms, then fracture time between present and past, then track stories that are like nesting dolls which reveal new selves inside larger selves, getting more complex as the layers are revealed. Most playwrights seem to have a theme they reinvestigate in many guises over time, and Michael writes plays in which worlds collide. He takes advantage of the theatrical form to allow impossible worlds to clash and inform each other.In his play The Idiot Box, he examines the smashing of reality inside a sitcom and what ensues from that destruction. In his latest play, A Lasting Mark, he investigates the collision of the present and the past in the shifting tenses of fragmented time. In Robyn is Happy, a friendship based on shared past trauma goes seriously, hilariously awry as three fierce funny women love, fight, and claw to try to both retain their friendship and their own individually defined happiness. In all these plays Michael has been investigating form, friendship, and family, in all its guises.But parents and children make an especially fertile subject matter, as all of us have been at least one if not the other. Before the inspiration for The Children came to him, Michael had gotten married and had a child, so he was seeing things with new eyes and inclined to ask new questions as he sat in a theatre watching Fiona Shaw play Medea. He found himself asking: Why isn't anyone stopping Medea from killing her children? Why are the characters content to sit and watch the train wreck happen? Michael, infused with all the wonder and terror of new fatherhood, needed to write the play where the answers to these questions would make sense to him.The Children seems to start off as a comic clash of cultures between 431 BC and modern Maine. However, as it goes on the multiple layers of the play start revealing themselves, and it proves itself to be much more complex and painful than its very humorous beginnings. This is really a play that asks whether or not it's possible to survive a horrific childhood and go on to have a good life, and the stripping bare of the storytelling frames within frames to get to both the truth of the past and the dilemma of the present is one of the many rewards of this writing.The Children also asks who parents the children when the children's parents aren't capable of parenting them. Who are the parent figures and heroes? Michael himself mostly grew up without a dad; he often felt that he had to be his own parent, offer himself his own guidance, and often longed for someone who could be a father figure with all that that entailed. …
In this study results of two underwater excavations in the Eastern Mediterranean, namely in the vicinity of Shavei Zyyon (Linder 1973:182-187) and Tyre (Seco-Alvarez 2011:79-94) where a hoard of clay figurines dating to the Persian Period and associated with Phoenician are dealt with. There may be other hoards, although they are represented by examples sold and bought by private collectors and museums or have, so far, not been published. Both hoards have been associated with possible wrecks, although in both cases, no signs of the wrecks were located. We propose yet another consideration of the hoards which are not associated with shipwrecks, namely a practice of mariners’ ex-voto.
Families, churches and the government are encouraging and sometimes pressurising people to hold white weddings in Zimbabwe. As a result there is an overwhelming demand for wedding services such as venues, decoration, music, photography and video filming, transport, catering and other services, especially during festive seasons. The high demand, busy schedules of wedding couples, their reserved and polite nature during the ceremony, their hurry for honey moon and adjusting to family responsibilities make them fail to effectively supervise service provision hence leading to their manipulation and dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, the guests who usually attempt to complain are 'told off' by these service providers on the basis that they were not part of the contractual agreements. If the areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the bride and bridegroom are not analysed, there could be a continuous series of disappointments and 'injury' to new couples who find the value of their wedding money negative in the Zimbabwean society. The study analysed the attitudes, perceptions and general evaluations of the wedding services and products by 175 spouses represented by a quota sample of 88 brides and 87 bride grooms who wedded in the past 7 years. The research results indicated that the wedding couples were generally disappointed by the service providers. There was some gendered differences in satisfaction levels, with males being more negatively dissatisfied than females. Elderly people at wedding were found to be more dissatisfied than younger partners. Those who had wedded long back expressed more disappointments than the recently married. Time taken preparing for a wedding was found to be unrelated to satisfaction levels. It was concluded that attending a wedding ceremony proved to be a chance to witness the bride groom and the bride being disappointed. The study recommends further research to be done on the perception of wedding guests on their wedding service experiences. Wedding couples are recommended to be rational and objective when engaging service providers for their wedding ceremonies.
one of the typical features in Katherine Mansfield' s writing style is the "plotless structure" of her stories. In the "plotless structure", her style of manipulating time and space plays a pioneering role in the experiment of the English short stories. The narrative structure in The Daughters of the Late Colonel typically displays this style of her and closely fits in with the nature of split self of the heroines. This delicate combina-tion of the narrative structure and content shows that Mansfield is more mature in her writing style, and at the same time it also presents more evidently her modernist style.
The concern of the present article is the evolution of the "generic masculine" in German as it is reflected in the grammars of the German language from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Grammarians recognized the ability of all masculine personal nouns to refer to both sexes only by the beginning of the 20th century and an adequate description is found as late as the 1960s. Formerly, women and men used to be segregated by grammatical description. The history of this process is being explored in detail and illustrated by citations from original works.
A rich tradition of decorating Hebrew manuscripts flourished in Italy during the Renaissance period, reaching its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when members of wealthy Jewish families commissioned lavishly illustrated works. This chapter deals with the scripts on ancient shekel coins; there it is noted that Isaac died in Jerusalem and was buried a mile outside the Zion Gate. We also know from records of purchase and heritage found in manuscripts, that the Hage family had an abiding love for manuscripts. These records of possession open new perspectives on the movement of precious manuscripts in Italy and indicate that Italian collectors were probably very good customers for codices brought to Italy by Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal. The practice of inserting additional illustrations when a manuscript changed hands was common during the period and was often the case in codices that belonged to illustrious Italian Jewish families. Keywords:Hebrew manuscripts; Italy; Jewish families; renaissance period
Abstract:In his review of Chrut und Uchrut, an extremely successful and popular practical booklet of medicinal herbs, Benjamin tests a new concept of literary criticism. He links the reviewing of the popular guide with reflection on the media-technology-conditioned transformation of criticism. By doing so, he delivers at the same time an accurate physiognomy of Swiss society, whose self-image was more informed by its peasantry than by its working class. It is a test for the procedure that Benjamin, a year later, by using the term new popularity, would describe as emancipatory process, which is directed against the continuous information-response or stimulus-response apparatus. It assumes that the audience's interest is always active—not passive, as in the stimulus-response model—and that this interest of the people should influence research and the sociology of audience itself.
Dr. Erin Labbie, Advisor Constructions of children and constructions of cyborgs in literature and other textual representations are very similar; both identities are liminal since they exist outside the realm of adult human experience and both identities also serve as vehicles through which adults can experiment with their own conscious or unconscious fantasies or fears. Because of these similarities, the figure of the child and the figure of the cyborg frequently become linked in popular culture. Although the figure of the cyborg offers many liberating opportunities for alternative hybrid identity formations (as posthumanist Donna Haraway has pointed out), linking the figure of the child with regressive constructions of the cyborg can have many harmful consequences. Often, the figure of the cyborg becomes a site for the fears and phobias of adults afraid of the future. And since children are already sometimes marginalized in adult texts, or get used as adults experiment with their own anxieties about the present or the future, linking the figure of the child with the figure of the cyborg in some situations can theoretically create a doubly-differentiated “other.” Arguing that the merging of the figure of the cyborg and the figure of the child has become much more popular in recent decades, this project will attempt to analyze the evolution of the child-cyborg from Romanticism to Modernism by discussing representations of the “child-animal cyborg,” the “preternatural child-cyborg,” and the “mechanized (or robotic) child-cyborg.” It will then conclude by interrogating from a sociological perspective how regressive representations of child-cyborgs may affect real child bodies, positing that more progressive constructions of child-cyborgs are both possible and desirable.
Exploring the position and interaction of poets’ tombs within Greek epigram collections, this chapter illustrates how poetry books could function as imagined literary graveyards, through which readers were invited to stroll in their mind. After contemplating a series of poems on playwrights by Dioscurides, it reflects upon the likely arrangement of poets’ tombs within Meleager’s and Philip’s Garlands. While Meleager combined a long series of epitaphs on poets at the beginning of his funerary book (concluded by a sequence of self-epitaphs), Philip excerpted primarily epitaphs starting with alpha, which permitted him to place them within the first section of his alphabetically organized anthology.
First published in 1992 and last revised in 1995, this is a fitting record of a show that changed the rules by which television was made. The first adventure drama series ever to run to seven seasons and more than 170 episodes, Star Trek: The Next Generation broke audience records wherever it was shown and remains the most widely viewed and consistently popular of all the Star Trek series. This new edition of the series companion has been brought bang up to date to include not only all seven years of the TV series but also all four films which have featured the Next Generation crew. In addition to Generations (1994), we now have full details of First Contact (1997), Insurrection (1998) and the very latest incarnation, Nemesis (2002). A positive feast of information, the Companion includes complete plot summaries and credits for each invidiual episode and film. There are fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses into how each one was made, and in-depth analysis really brings The Next Generation universe to life. Illustrated throughout with more than 150 black and white photographs, this is a truly invaluable reference guide.
The first film projections in the region took place in the city of Murcia during the September fair of 1896. Cinema became the predominant form of mass entertainment in the 1920s, a time when the historic coliseums of the city were built and the important Iniesta Company was founded. However, the end of the 1920s was marked by a traumatic revolution: the arrival of sound. Cinema projections reached their peak of popularity between the end of the Civil War and the 1960s. It was then that a crisis began, which became worse in the following decade and led to the closure of dozens of auditoriums in the region. Since 1991, a feeble recovery has been note
Even if translation is considered a linguistic operation, there is a consensus on agreeing that it is a very complex operation �in which human beings take part with their own intentions -that has to get out of its isolation and its ties with linguistics so as to open to other disciplines, such as sociology, rhetoric, pragmatics, genre theory, etc. Moreover, read and write competences, still ignored, should be developed when teaching translation. This article provides a new way of investigating translation from a socio-pragmatic view. This proposal is based on the �contextualization method�. More particularly, the notions of �ceremony� and �conventions� will be discussed.
The festival also presented many solo performers singly or in tandem. In Cooking con Karimi (con Castro), Robert Karimi (Mero Cocinero Karimi) and John Castro (Comrade Cocinero Castro) used a cooking-show format to critique the limits of propaganda and bio-politics and to demonstrate the politically transformative power of food. As Mero Cocinero stated, “The revolution starts in the kitchen, one kitchen at a time,” and their performance, replete with smells of chopped cilantro and sizzling onions, was appropriately delicious. Michelle Krusiec’s solo performance, Made in Taiwan, likewise featured food, although not quite so literally. As exemplified in her first announcement that “noodle soup is in my blood,” Krusiec’s performance emphasized both bodily consumption and exertion; for example, she spread her legs for a postcoital inspection by her mother and aunties, and hurled herself into metal sheets to produce the clamor of a family in turmoil. Her vigorous renditions of multiple characters reenergized mother-daughter narratives and offered new perspectives on violence and sexuality.
Thank you very much for reading the merchant of manchac the letterbooks of john fitzpatrick 1768 1790. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look numerous times for their favorite books like this the merchant of manchac the letterbooks of john fitzpatrick 1768 1790, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful bugs inside their computer.
Stephen Hodgetts read the e-mail over and over again and still could hardly believe what he had read. He had just come back from his vacation, well rested and refreshed, and this e-mail had dampened his high enthusiasm. It took time to absorb such bad news and for Hodgetts to get over his incredulity.Yet in the end Hodgetts accepted the truth‐a deep, dark terrible truth that would not go away. Robert Davis, his business partner’s son, had confirmed in an e-mail his worst fears about their newest business partner, David Russ.Many thoughts were running through his mind simultaneously yet each screamed to be heard.“How could he and his partner Richard Davis have been so blind, so trusting?” “How could Russ not have heeded the advice of his business partner, Richard Davis, Russ’s former English professor?” And most important, “What was now going to happen to their new business?” Yet the one thought that continued to echo among them all was surprisingly a quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved character, Sherlock Holmes: “But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”
People at the present age are facing much more spiritual and moral plights than people of the past. Unlike other writers of the modernist school, William Faulkner in his great works not only describes fully the plights of his contemporaries, but also points out the way of getting out. That is, returning to eternity, returning to the part of tradition which has great vitality. In his opinion, there are eternal truths in the traditional system, they are “courage and honor and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of the past.” And he believes that only “the glory of the past” can help the contemporary people to live like a man in the present society which is like a wasteland.
Sextus Pompey, the son of Pompey the Great, as an active player during the civil war (45-35 BC) minted several issues (RRC 477, 478, 479, 483, 511). He used them not only to pay his troops and followers but also to promote himself. To do that he started to propagate his exceptional piety – pietas. At first, he was doing that by emphasizing his devotion to his famous father (pietas erga patrem). Then, he introduced also other meanings of pietas – adversus deos and erga patriam. Sextus promoted the concept in many various ways – using monetary legends, symbols, personifications and allegories. Such a consistency in his propaganda was very unusual for the previous Republican coinage. Thus, it was a key step toward the monetary propaganda we know from the later, imperial coinage.
opinion between ‘Alliadophiles’ and ‘Germanophiles.’ Taking a closer look at the local civil society, the author analyzes the different ways in which the Argentineans (not all with ethnic connections with the belligerents) were mobilized through humanitarian aid, volunteer soldiers, and medical services. One of the main reasons for this commitment to war is related to the Francophile culture of the local elites, an aspect well reconstructed by the author. In addition, the empathy reported daily by the war correspondents touched the locals’ sensibility deeply, in particular in relation to the ‘Belgian drama’ narrated in the first person by the Argentinean journalist and writer Roberto Payró. Notwithstanding the general preference of the Argentinean public for the Allied forces, Germany had many supporters in specific fields that traditionally benefited from a German education, such as medicine, science, law, and the military. The polarization of the Argentinean public facing the war and war mobilization took a turn after 1917, not only because of the entry of the United States and its increasing pressure on other countries in the region to follow its path, but also because of the diplomatic fallout from unrestricted submarine warfare, in which Germany sank Argentinean ships. The new scenario for Argentina’s government, which firmly defended its neutrality, radicalized irreconcilable political positions and filled the streets of Buenos Aires with fervent demonstrations, as the photographs in the last chapter of the book show. The author concludes that the question of Argentinean neutrality after 1917 not only subsumed local political issues but also awoke the local nationalisms, quickly turning into a matter of which position, Neutralists or Alliadophiles, best represented the interest of the nation.
The volume is devoted to the important discovery of a kiln and other structures part of a large production place for figurines and pottery in Camarina (Sicily). The analysis conducted by the author on the excavation’s data and the numerous artifacts found on a large discharge pit associated with it, makes a fundamental contribution to the historical reconstruction of the city between the last decades of the fifth and the second half of the fourth century. B.C.  Emerges, for the first time, a significant picture of Camarina during the Dionysian age, the role played by its artisans within the Siceliote terracotta production of the period, and the contacts with other centers of production, distribution and consumption of terracotta figurines and pottery. The iconografy and the large amount of many terracotta types also reflected the cults, and the religious development of the ancient Greek colony.
This paper addresses the aesthetics of ’how’ a building is designed. Through 2-D and 3-D morphological analysis of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art-BMoCA (1987-1995), this paper aims to show that the aesthetic appreciation of an architectural work goes beyond its physicality to address its abstract logical form. The paper argues that the aesthetics of architectural form is extended to include ‘how’ design strategies and tactics direct and structure an interaction between formal elements and abstract spatial motifs in the distinctive final form. This proceeds by reconstructing the logic of geometric and formal organization of material form, which generates its formal properties. The museum was chosen because it exemplifies the formal vocabulary and formal logic of Richard Meier, a logic that endures throughout his later career. The paper concludes that through the tracing of ‘how’ the museum was designed; a deeper aesthetic appreciation of the work emerges. Furthermore, morphological analysis is instrumental to reveal the implicit formal operation strategies; and consequently, to contribute to a deeper understanding of architectural space and the formal principle of its generation.
The Art of War by Sunzi is not only a book concerning wars, but a masterpiece on shi. From the comments on shi, we can easily find out the influence which the book has had on the development of art aesthetics. Shi is used by Sunzi as natural condition, inner strength and war-situation, embodying the beauty of noumenon, reason and strength. From an aesthetic perspective, the great value of shi is the transcendence over the traditional viewpoints, and the aesthetic transition form nature and human to the society including wars. Due to the continuous explanation by many theorists in later generations, shi finally becomes a typical aesthetic catalogue with profound significance and national characteristics.
p. 805). However, the Victorian Britannia seems a more urban figure, unconnected with the earth or its produce. In the Victorian period, classical imagery was appropriated to represent modern civic values in the guise of powerful ancient civilisations. Britannia was typically portrayed in ancient dress. Ironically, the early images of Britannia appeared on the reverse of coins minted to celebrate the victories of the second century Roman Emperor Hadrian: Hadrian’s portrait is on one side and Britannia’s profile on the reverse represented the conquered island (Matthews 2000, p. 800). Ancient Greek and Roman gods and goddesses were regarded as ‘the protectors of citizens and community’ (Matthews 2000, p. 800). By the mideighteenth century, Britannia was modelled on Athena, the Greek goddess of warfare and wisdom. On British coinage from 1821, Britannia wears Athena’s helmet and she retained military garb over the nineteenth century (Warner 1987, p. 48). Britannia’s trident derived from the Sea-God Neptune in acknowledgement of Britain’s naval power. Britannia’s dress and accoutrements, with their ancient classical lineage and allusions to mythical or goddess-like powers, were well understood in Victorian Britain. Neo-classicism in art and architecture had become fashionable among the British upper classes from the second half of the eighteenth century and classical styles and themes in visual art persisted throughout the nineteenth century (see Jenkyns 1991). Young men from affluent families, although generally not women, received a classical education, and the ruling elites associated such figures with ‘prestige and power [and] moral values’ (Matthews 2000, p. 799). Britannia’s provenance as ancient and classical matched the aspirations of the Victorian upper classes, as well as the newly powerful middle classes. Britannia’s body language typically conveys selfpossession, self-discipline, and superior calm: she is rarely depicted as agitated or over-indulging. In this, Britannia embodied the Victorian upper-class value of moderation, which extended to various aspects of genteel societal presentation for both women and men. For instance, Hints on etiquette, written for aspiring country gentlemen, explained that ‘There is a slightly subdued patrician tone of voice, which [...] can only be acquired in good society’ (1834, pp. 47, 78). Britannia is modestly clothed, unlike many conventional depictions of allegorical figures such the goddess of harvests in Ceres, an allegory of August by Louis de Boullogne (1657–1733), or Marianne in Delacroix’s Liberty leading the people. Upperand middleclass Victorian women were expected to conform to a feminine ideal, based on a life of moneyed leisure, which Abstract: The figure of Britannia was widely invoked in Victorian statuary, cartoons and advertisements, whether as a personification of the nation, a substitute for the queen, or a marketing ploy. However, there have been surprisingly few studies of the Victorian Britannia. Britannia carried allusions that reinforced Britain’s role and self-image as a powerful imperial nation. As a symbol of nation and empire, Britannia was associated with food, and with famine in various contexts, although she is found to be strategically absent from some situations, when John Bull, another popular national figure, took her place. A less-acknowledged role played by Britannia, in alliance with John Bull, was to underpin the social class hierarchy in contemporary British society. The paper explores Britannia’s ambivalent relation to food and drink in the context of her status as an allegorical figure and as a visual embodiment of the mores of the upper and aspiring middle classes.
How did shamanhood originate ? The traditions of many peoples recount at least two types of stories of the first shamans. (1) The first shamans are the creation gods themselves or at least originate from them. (2) At the beginning there must have been a universal talented shaman or a high shamanic culture ; then the deterioration of shamanhood commenced ending in its complete downfall. Concerning most traditional legends shamanhood came into the world with the creation of man by gods ; shamanic abilities seem to be these of the gods themselves. So, the first shaman was a god and not a human being. But with the deterioration of the Golden age, where gods dominated life quality declined, sickness and death was brought into the world and since then and after the disappearance of the gods, persons became shamans and were necessary to help and to heal : talented people learned on the basis of a personal disposition and through nature the techniques of shamanhood. These primordial shamans were powerful in contrary to their successors which became less and less powerful. Today shamanhood is at its deepest level in parallel with the deterioration of mankind in general. Shamans are waiting for a new world and a rebirth of themselves ; theories of a world catrastroph are seen ahead
The proposal of the religious tourism route was developed in the rural parish Tocachi, Pedro Moncayo canton, province of Pichincha. The methodology applied in this study were interviews with experts in the tourist area, research of case studies and as a complement the application of the geographical factors that affect the flow of tourists was carried out. Finally, a tourist route with a total extension of approximately 17.6 km was obtained, which includes three tourist circuits and itineraries with different themes, containing natural and cultural attractions that complement the religious tourism of the parish.
When, after the approximately ten minutes of static, nearly motionless monologue which comprises Ohio Impromptu, we hear R pronounce "Nothing is left to tell," it is quite apparent that in this, one of Samuel Beckett's last plays, the author has taken yet another step toward the zero point of "lessness" (to use his own term) to which he had been striving in his late works. In previous plays like Footfalls, we can see a "winding down" of motion and interaction as May and V begin with dialogue and fairly consistent movement, only to (d)evolve into monologue, then silence and stillness in the final blank tableau. In Ohio Impromptu, however, the playas a totality apparently eliminates nearly all motion and interaction between characters. Two characters, owning only the titles Land R, simply sit, R reading a story from a "worn volume" of two other, implicitly related characters who eventually sit and read from a "worn volume" themselves. In this quiet, "Noh-like" play, the only motion and interaction we see fo...
The term Chronotope, which we may interpret as time -space, was put forward by Michael Bakhtin. Chronotope, which in the novel expresses the idea that every time seizes space, offers an important opportunity to understand Turkish novel. Being among the authors lived in the period between the collapse of the Ottoman and the emergence of the Republic, Halide Nusret Zorlutuna‟s novels include the period they witnessed. Hence, the space or location in her novels implies psychological, cosmic, and biographic time. A chronotopic study of her novels would not only facilitate comprehension of complex pattern of events in her novels, but also provide a chance to read historical traces, the biography of the author, psychological and cosmic time through space or location.
Abstract:Gustave Flaubert’s famous tale “Un coeur simple” (1877) is in very close dialogue with a recent tale written by his friend George Sand: “Les ailes de courage” (1872). Both works share an interest in the “éducation littéraire” and in the moral development of their illiterate main characters. Drawing on the eighteenth-century Rousseauistic concept of “l’enfant de la nature,” both Sand and Flaubert ask how a naïve or unschooled protagonist, attempting to make sense of his or her experience, responds to the weight of received culture: an intertextual relationship that merits more detailed study than it has previously received.
The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music. By Phil Hardy and Dave Laing. London: Faber and Faber, 1990. 876 pp. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Edited by Donald C. Clarke. London: Penguin, 1989. 1378 pp. The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. By Peter Gammond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. 740 pp. The Guinness Book of Rock Stars. By Dafydd Rees and Luke Crampton with Barry Lazell. London: Guinness Books, 1989. 560 pp. The Guinness Book of Hit Singles. By Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice. London: Guinness Publishing, 1991 406 pp.
This study focuses on symbol in order to investigate the ways symbols are used in Jive, what they mean, and what roles they play in each type of dance sport. It is a follow-up study form my previous researches on symbols in Paso Doble and Samba, Tango, Rumba, Fox trot. For this reason, definitions and general concepts of symbol overlapping with the previous works were not addressed in this paper. The symbol Jive composes with premise of transfer between its creator and appreciator. Therefore, analyzing what Jive means from the viewpoint of symbol works as a key factor in order to figure out the meaning and form which integrates separate parts art among the creator, artwork, and the audience into the meaning system of symbol. Jive is an artistic form of expression. It is intended that the viewer position to accept from, inherent in social Jive, grabbing at the same time become a symbol elements constituting the junction of cultural phenomena , and implies that period of time dancing. It is possible that after all the various interpretations of the works of art allow Jive to consider the parameters of the definition of scientific experience with his own aesthetic position that there is conceptually oriented to symbolize completeness.
Thank you very much for downloading research on politeness in the spanish speaking world. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look numerous times for their chosen novels like this research on politeness in the spanish speaking world, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful virus inside their desktop computer.
For manufacturers of products in a variety of colours, in particular powder coating has become an increasingly attractive option. Nevertheless, even these require tailor-made systems which make provision for other factors than the mere design of painting bays to accommodate frequent changes of colour. At least as much importance should be attached to minimizing production stoppage times for changes of colour.
Oscar Wilde's 1891 symbolist tragedy Salome has had a rich afterlife in literature, opera, dance, film, and popular culture. Salome's Modernity: Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetics of Transgression is the first comprehensive scholarly exploration of that extraordinary resonance that persists to the present. Petra Dierkes-Thrun positions Wilde as a founding figure of modernism and Salome as a key text in modern culture's preoccupation with erotic and aesthetic transgression, arguing that Wilde's Salome marks a major turning point from a dominant traditional cultural, moral, and religious outlook to a utopian aesthetic of erotic and artistic transgression. Wilde and Salome are seen to represent a bridge linking the philosophical and artistic projects of writers such as Mallarme, Pater, and Nietzsche to modernist and postmodernist literature and philosophy and our contemporary culture. Dierkes-Thrun addresses subsequent representations of Salome in a wide range of artistic productions of both high and popular culture through the works of Richard Strauss, Maud Allan, Alla Nazimova, Ken Russell, Suri Krishnamma, Robert Altman, Tom Robbins, and Nick Cave, among others.
It is sometimes very difficult to interpret the term origo, since it can refer to different elements such as birth, place of origin, family or tribe. From the Republican period the Romans used to include this type of information in their inscriptions after the mention of the name, although, curiously, they did not employ the term origo itself, but other forms of expression. In this work we suggest that in Roman epigraphy this term was used, from the end of the Second Century and during the first half of the Third Century A. D., mainly in the times of the Severan Dynasty.
The goal of the article is a synchron-diachronic analysis of possible word order positions of the pronominal clitics (se, si, ho, mu, mi, ti, tě) in non-finite verbal phrases in Baroque Czech. This article is based on data collected from a corpus of Czech Baroque prints representing different genres and styles of the Czech language of this period (from 1650 to 1750). The analysis is focused on the interpretation of factors governing the word order of pronominal clitics (grammatical factors, rhythmical factors, factors of the functional sentence perspective and stylistic factors).
Abstract Repressed trauma and psychological fragmentation denote a significant pattern in Carmen Laforet's novels, in which violence 'that threatens the integrity of the body and compromises the sense of mastery that aggregates around western notions of harmonious selfhood' (Henke, 2000: xii) produces 'shattered subjects' (Henke, 2000: xii), such as the protagonists of Nada, El piano, and La mujer nueva (first published in 1945, 1952, and 1955 respectively). But, in contrast with Andrea, who is not allowed to work through her own trauma in the space of the novel, both Rosa and Paulina experience a religious 'revelation': the 'turning point' or catharsis that helps them process their own injuries, understand their own repressed subjectivity in the context of their concrete circumstances, and regain an enabling sense of communion with themselves and the world that surrounds them. In the first section of this paper I discuss the version of Catholicism that the texts by Laforet insinuate. Then I will show how trauma operates as defence mechanism in these three novels and how religious or mystical experiences create conditions conducive to healing in El piano and La mujer nueva.
This beautiful volume features a compendium of the Metropolitan Museum's finest European paintings dating from 1800 to 1920. The focus is on French art of this period--of which the Museum possesses the most comprehensive collection outside of France--but extraordinary pictures by artists of other nationalities are also included. Thanks to a succession of generous and discerning donors-- from the H. O. Havemeyers to the Walter H. Annenbergs--this publication presents a history of painting in Paris from Prud'hon to Picasso, by way of Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Seurat, and many others.
Discover the origins of Peter Pan in this swashbuckling tale, full of black and white illustrations! When Peter, along with his fellow orphans, boards the Never Land, it is only the start of his adventures. Befriending Molly, he discovers a treasure chest of starstuff - the most magical substance ever known to man. Peter and Molly must stop it falling into the hands of a dastardly (but eerily familiar) pirate and his murderous crew. Shipwrecked, helped by mermaids, captured by savages and attacked by a giant crocodile - will they ever succeed?
The artist's multiple is difficult to define, but could be described as an original artwork produced in an edition of two or more. At Chelsea College of Art and Design, the artists' multiples collection was developed to give students first-hand experience of original work by artists, something that is rarely included in the special collections of art libraries. This article examines the history and development of this unique collection of objects, and how it has enabled the library to play an active part in the life and work of the academic community it serves.
This work is confined to a period going from the early fifties to the early seventies. Its aim is to analyse the "cinema novo" from a sociologic point of view, giving greater place to the important relationship that exist between the imaginary aspect of this cultural mouvement and the fundamental problem of the brasilian society. The imagniary aspect of the "cinema novo" shaws us the brasilian in as anthropological way, thanks to a new visual language wich can be caracterised by the multiplicity of its signe, inherited from the modern cinema - this language had emerged every where through numerous esthetic transfigurations come from the european avant-garde - and also by the heterogeous origns of the brasilian folklore and popular culture.
We, the Editors and Publisher of Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean, have retracted the following book review: Spyros P. Panagopoulos, ‘Mediterranes Kaisertum und imperiale Ordnung. Das lateinische Kaiserreich von Konstantinopel’, Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean, 29:3, 2017, pp. 281-282, DOI 10.1080/09503110.2017.1379983 Subsequent to publication it has been determined that this book review contains significant overlap with: Michel Balard, 'Stefan Burkhardt: Mediterranes Kaisertum und imperiale Ordnung. Das lateinische Kaiserreich von Konstantinopel', Francia-Recensio, Mittelalter - Moyen Âge (500-1500) 42:3, 2015 which was not cited nor otherwise acknowledged. As a result, the Editors of Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean and the publishers Taylor & Francis have decided to retract the review from publication. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The retracted book review will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.
catalaLa tramesa de tropes imperials a Mallorca, el mes de febrer de 1715, fou una de les mesures de reforc que l'emperador Caries VI projecta per a que les illes continuaren formant part de llurs possessions. L'objectiu principal d'aquest article es concretar denominacio adient de les tropes i el nombre correcte d'efectius humans. Per a dit proposit ens hem basat en els albarans d'assignacio de pa i en els pagaments de les despeses de les tropes abonades pel Reial Patrimoni. EnglishThe sending of the imperial army to Majorca in february 1715 was one of the back-up meusures that the Emperor Charles VI planned so that he could maintain the islands under his control. The main aim of this article is to specify the exact designalion of the troops and their accurate number. To this end the analysis is based on both the delivery vouchers for bread and the troops expenses as carried oul by the Real Patrimonio.
In her 2002 novel, The Secret Life of Bees, former Guidepost magazine contributor Sue Monk Kidd departs from Baptist conservatism to produce a fourteen-year-old heroine, Lily, who finds solace and spirituality in a black woman's face Set in 1960s South Carolina, this novel captures the period's racial prejudice and white patriarchy but reproduces the time's rebellious fervor as well. As Lily faces the revelation of a sheriff who doles out injustice to her housekeeper, Rosaleen, and a Southern Baptist religion that reinforces the tyranny of her father, T. Ray, she longs for a mother. This search takes psychological and archetypal turns as Lily confronts her own implication in her mother's death. Her only link to the mother she never really knew is a picture of a Black Madonna with a South Carolina town printed beneath it. Kidd ties all the frayed strands of past to present for Lily in the home of three black beekeepers-May, June, and August--who have their own Black Madonna, whom they declare is "blessed among women" (90). Throughout the novel, Kidd scrupulously ties all her symbols, most importantly those of the lily and bees, to this black icon. Thus, Lily's search for an archetypal mother expands from a quest for psychological identity to a quest for a religion that offers some reflection of herself. In 1996 Kidd wrote her spiritual autobiography, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, in which she recounts her own attempt to find a feminine face of God. This search sent her to visit monasteries, to read religious texts extensively, and to denounce the patriarchy of the Southern Baptist Church. An unlikely feminist, she speaks at length about a woman's plight in both conventional society and orthodox religion. As she puts it: When she finally lets herself feel the limits and injustices of female life and admits how her own faith tradition has contributed to that. when she at last stumbles in the dark hole made by the absence of a Divine Feminine presence ... this woman will become pregnant with herself, with the symbolic female-child who will. if given a chance, grow up to reinvent the woman's life. (Dance 12, emphasis Kidd's) Just as Toni Morrison did in The Bluest Eye, Kidd discusses the psychological damage of women's exclusion, exclusion from representation in society's power positions and in her viewpoint, exclusion from nearly all church images and stories. As she explains, "We find genuine female authority within when we become the 'author' of our own identity. By taking the journey to the feminine soul, we 'authorize' ourselves" (Dance 212). As she recounts in her own autobiography and again in the spiritual and psychological voyage of her heroine Lily, this writing a woman's self into being is often arduous. Though she does not offer Lily a safe or sweet early life, she does jolt her protagonist into a new way of thinking and a new way of interpreting old stories. Throughout The Secret Life of Bees, Lily is forced to examine institutional ideas of justice, and these revised thoughts inspire new ways of being, both for Lily and for Rosaleen. First, Lily discovers that the institution of local justice, the sheriff's office, only metes out fairness to white people. When Rosaleen goes to register to vote, she finds her path impeded by white men who want to denounce Civil Rights' progress. Empowered by the Civil Rights Act of 1963, she dumps her snuff can spit onto their shoes. When she is arrested after being beaten by these men, the sheriff opens her cell to these same men so they can continue the abuse. Though Lily had suffered through her own persecution at the hands of T. Ray, whose favorite form of punishment consisted in making his daughter kneel bare-kneed for hours on Martha White grits, Lily realizes that Rosaleen's injustice can produce life-threatening consequences. Fleeing from her hometown police after breaking Rosaleen out of her hospital jail, Lily concocts new stories for the many people who question a black woman and a teenaged white girl's being together on the road In these new identities, Rosaleen and Lily try on different personalities as they become part of life in the beekeepers' pink house. …
The old man and the sea" is a famous American Hemingway's representative work.The protagonist old fisherman Santiago is strongly shaped as the "tough guy" bythe writer. He believes that "people" can only be eliminated and can't be defeated.In the fight with the bad luck, Santiago showed great persistent courage and inexhaustible perseverance and the remarkablepower, and his invariable toughness.This paper analyzed the personality traits of the old fisherman Santiago, and emphatically elaborated onthe power of the old fisherman Santiago in his firm faith and hisnature charm.
Title: Sailors and Tentative Talk-a-lots: A study of folk linguistic notions of gendered language in action films Author: Marcus Midefelt Supervisor: Mats Mobärg Course: EN1C03, Spring 2013, Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg The relationship between reality and the media is a complex one; some say that media is the most important symbolic world for the shaping of our perception of reality while others argue that expecting the media to be representative of the real world may be potentially harmful for our understanding of this relationship. This study investigates this relationship by measuring the frequency of three folk linguistic notions of gendered language in action films. The selected notions are 'Women talk more than men', 'Men swear more than women' and 'Women use more tag and intonation questions than men'. These notions are studied in order to aid the understanding of the image of men and women projected by the action genre. The method used to achieve this aim is the quantitative method Content Analysis. The material consists of 10 action films from 2002-2006. 4 of these action films feature a sole male protagonist, another 4 feature a sole female protagonist, and the last 2 feature both a male and a female character as co-protagonists. All in all, 1105 minutes of film are analyzed. The study shows that male protagonists produce the highest number of each studied variable (lines, swear words as well as tag and intonation questions) providing grounds for the existence of one of the three studied folk linguistic notions. However, considering that the study also indicates that male protagonists speak more than their female counterparts, the higher production of all studied variables may be a result of this.
The idea that the Great War represents a watershed in the contemporary world is by now well established in the history tout court (Gibelli, 1991). On the other hand, the impact that the First World War conflict had on the schools of the time has not been as well investigated. A valuable source for exploring this field is undoubtedly those school books which were written and published during this period. The article which we are presenting here starts from such considerations and focuses on the works of a prominent figure of Italian children's literature, Luigi Bertelli, who wrote for schools and young people. The well-known author of the novel for young readers, Gian Burrasca, and founder of the children magazine, Il Giornalino della Domenica, wrote several books for schools and the young generation during the First World War. This article intends to examine these writings for the first time, in a careful and analytical way, not only to re-establish Bertelli's position as an author and educator, but also to contribute to the understanding of the real pedagogy of war, those teachings promoted during the years of the First World War.
ABSTRACT:This essay examines Samuel Jackson Pratt’s, Emma Corbett: Or, the Miseries of Civil War (1780), a popular novel about the American Revolution that mounted an argument against the violence of the war. Pratt’s critique of the transatlantic conflict between the colonies and the mother country arises from his depiction of suffering veterans with injuries and missing limbs. In an interpolated tale that he titles “A Military Fragment,” he uses what I call a “typographical prosthetics” to represent their absent body parts. Through a creative typography that includes extended dashes and multiple asterisks, he creates an architecture of the page that visually describes the placement and displacement of limbs. He thus criticizes and remediates discourses of national conflict by making the disabled bodies of injured soldiers discernible on the page.
The write identifies the specific locale represented in Edouard Manet's painting View at place Clichy. The work shows part of the street-front at the northeast sector of Place Clichy in Paris as seen from a building at its southwest sector. With its evident immediacy of technique, there is every reason to assume that it was painted directly from the motif as a work in its own right and not as a study, but with the scene isolated from the broader context of place Clichy, such assessments may, literally, not present the whole picture. The expansive horizontal vista available from the viewpoint was truncated to the narrow “slice” of the painting's vertical image. This narrow image may well have been conceived and painted directly from the motif, but the way in which the view is set just to the left of the Marechal Moncey monument also raises the possibility that it derived from the wider view of a photograph centered on the monument itself or was the outcome of a fragment cut from a larger canvas.
Film and television, computer graphics, and virtual reality have, as we know, caused images to run in ever faster sequences. Subsequently, a perhaps unwarranted jubilation has governed the past century's media theories: Writing in general and the book in particular are said to have been played out, while the image, more powerful and more able to unite humanity than ever, is reclaiming its ancient birthright. It is this jubilation, or at least the diagnosis upon which it is based, that I would like to contest. My counterargument, in brief, is that the printed book has not simply been played out, but rather that this unique medium was what made its own high-technological outdoing possible in the first place. This power, which in turn is probably the basis of all Europe's power, accrued to the book not because of its printed words alone, but rather because of a union of media that, with technical precision, joined these words with printed images. Media theorists, specifically Marshall McLuhan and, succeeding him, Vilem Flusser, draw an absolute distinction between writing and the image that ultimately rests on concepts of geometry. They contrast the linearity or one-dimensionality of printed books with the irreducible two-dimensionality of images. Simplified in this manner, it is a distinction that may hold true even when computer technology can model texts as strings, as it does today. But it suppresses the simple facts emphasized long ago and, not coincidentally, by a nouveau romancier, Michel Butor: the books used most often-the Bible, once upon a time, and today more likely the telephone book-are certainly not read in a linear manner. There is a perfectly good reason for this situation. Though the lines of a book have looked linear since Gutenberg, the page of a book has been two-dimensional since the Scholasticism of the twelfth century at the latest.' Each paragraph and section, footnote and title plays across a surface whose two-dimensionality is no different from that of an image. The fact alone that Gutenberg, before using his technology of movable type in Mainz on Bibles and calendars, had practiced the same technology in Strasbourg for reproducible pictures of the saints indicates that this pictoriality is at the origin of the printing press, which itself is not much more than a sobered-up Rhine wine press. The other issue, continually underscored by Michael Giesecke, that Gutenberg's movable type was never intended for mass production
dell’arte aurally conditioned early modern audience to the emergence of opera (32). The final focus of the chapter is on discussions of gesture in performance. Turning again to Quintilian, a touchstone in this book, Crohn Schmitt explains that he “lays out general guidelines about the interrelationship between words, gesture, and voice, and between gestures” (40). Crohn Schmitt next applies Quintilian to Scala’s scenarios and demonstrates, through close textual readings, how targeted gestures in these scenes evoked emotions such as anger, shock, and grief in order to create heightened performative displays (44–6). However, she is careful to nuance this point by arguing that the range of affective expressions, rather than merely create stereotypical characters and caricatures, could also reflect “real societal anxieties” through this range of acting styles (47). That was especially important for a period in which societal tensions between “fathers and sons; female lovers, wives, and widows and men; lovers; friends; citizens and servants; and with outsiders” were especially pronounced (47). The third chapter, “The Uses of Masks,” attends to a neglected area: the masking specific to the pastorals and tragicomedies. For example, Crohn Schmitt considers characters such as shadows, oracles, and magicians, all of whom are rarely ever analyzed. Rather than stop there, Crohn Schmitt provides a “Coda” to the book, a chapter on “commedia dell’arte today” in which she counters the “myth that there is an unbroken line of commedia dell’arte continuing into the present day” (104). Nevertheless, although there may not be a direct line to historic commedia dell’arte, Crohn Schmitt animatedly discusses the ways in which commedia dell’arte’s spirit is alive in the work of The Improvised Shakespeare Company (ISC) in Chicago. Short and intentionally narrow in focus, Performing Commedia dell’Arte, 1570– 1630 succeeds both in providing a foundation of Roman rhetorical writing for understanding commedia dell’arte performance and in culling together several recent scholarly works to focus on the wonderfully challenging subject of what performance was like in the golden age of commedia dell’arte.
Recent scholarship has revisited conceptual art in light of its ongoing influence on contemporary art, arguing against earlier accounts of the practice which gave a restricted account of its scope and stressed its historical foreclosure. Yet conceptual art remains both historically and theoretically underspecified, its  multiple and often conflicting genealogies have not all been convincingly traced. This thesis argues for the importance of a systems genealogy of conceptual art—culminating in a distinctive mode of systematic conceptual art—as a primary determinant of the conceptual genealogy of contemporary art. It claims that from the perspective of post-postmodern, relational and context art, the contemporary significance of conceptual art can best be understood in light of its “systematic” mode. The distinctiveness of contemporary art, and the problems associated with its uncertain critical character, have to be understood in relation to the unresolved problems raised by conceptual art and the implications that these have held for art’s post-conceptual trajectory.  Consequently, the thesis reconsiders the nascence, emergence, consolidation and putative historical supersession of conceptual art from the perspective of  the present. The significance of the historical problem of postformalism is reemphasised and the nascence of conceptual art located in relation to it. A  neglected historical category of systems art is recovered and its significance for the emergence of conceptual art demonstrated. The consolidation of conceptual art is reconsidered by distinguishing its multiple modes. Here, a  “systematic” mode of conceptual art is argued to be of greater current critical importance than the more established “analytic” mode. Finally, the supersession of conceptual art is revisited from the perspective of the present in order to demonstrate that contemporary context and relational practices recover problems first articulated by systematic conceptual art. It is from  systematic conceptual art that relational and context art inherit their focus on the social relations and the social context of art. By recovering the systems genealogy and systematic mode of conceptual art we provide a richer  conceptual genealogy of contemporary art.
The purpose of this research are to describe the nature and figures politeness that used by the main character in drama Tak Ada Bintang di Dadanya by Hamdi Salad. Theory that used in this research are pragmatic, according to Hasanuddin (1996), Semi (1988), Atmazaki (2007), literature and drama by Nurgiantoro (1995), Rahardi (2009), linguistic politeness by Wijana and Rohmadi (2011). Suryabrata (2012) and character/personality by Sujanto (2007).  The type of this research is descriptive qualitative research method. The steps in collect the data are (1) analyze the nature of the main character in drama Tak Ada Bintang di Dadanya by Hamdi Salad, (2) analyze the principle politeness the main character in drama Tak Ada Bintang di Dadanya by Hamdi Salad, (3) interprete the relationship between princip politeness character utterances with the main character in drama Tak Ada Bintang di Dadanya by Hamdi Salad, (4) formulate the conclusion of the study. Based on the result of this study, the researcher found that the main character in drama Tak Ada Bintang di Dadanya by Hamdi Salad is Mr.Hasan and his wife. The character of Mr.Hasan is melancholicus sometimes appear flegmaticus and sanguinicus character. The character of Mr.Hasan’s wife is flegmaticus sometimes appear chorelicus and sanguinicus character. The compliance of principle politeness that speaker said is application the maxim of the wisdom, acceptance, kindness, humility, suitability, and simpathy. Having violation maxim are only a few data because of the lack seriousness opinions are spekaer thought and opponents said. Key words: Character, Principle Politeness, main Figure, Drama Script .
En el presente articulo, el autor aborda la cuestion de la relacion de la temprana literatura sovietica con la literatura rusa clasica del siglo XIX a partir del relato La astilla, escrito en 1923 por Vladimir Zazubrin y publicado recien en 1989. La influencia de Fiodor Dostoievski, por un lado, y el intento de plantear el problema de la violencia politica desde posiciones esteticas vanguardistas, hacen de este relato un claro exponente de las tensiones que caracterizaban la creacion literaria en los anos inmediatamente posteriores a la Revolucion rusa. Palabras clave: literatura sovietica, literatura rusa decimononica, Dostoievski, Zazubrin, violencia politica. The early Soviet literature and the dialog with the literary tradition. The case of The Chip, by Vladimir Zazubrin. In this article,the author addresses the question of the relationship of the early Soviet literature with Russian classical literature of the XIX century focusing on the novellaThe chip, written in 1923 by Vladimir Zazubrin and not published until 1989. The influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky, on the one hand, and the attempt to pose the question of the political violence from avant-garde aesthetic positions, on the other, make this novella a clear example of the tensions that characterize literary creation in the years immediately following the Russian Revolution. Keywords: Soviet literature, Russian literature of XIX century, Dostoevsky, Zazubrin, political violence.
El presente articulo representa una sintesis de parte del trabajo de campo ejecutado por la autora en el 2013 en la Escuela Nacional de Arte de Cuba especialidad danza, el mismo se realizo como parte de la tesis de maestria que abordo los diferentes tipos de violencia que se pudieron constatar en la antedicha institucion escolar, donde se forman los futuros bailarines y bailarines del pais. A whisper between domes They sum up : The present article represents a synthesis on the side of the fieldwork executed by the author in the 2013 at Arte’s School Nacional of Cuba specialty, dance, the same it came true like part of the thesis of mastery that tackled the different kinds of violence that could become verified at the above-mentioned school institution, where the dancing futures and dancers of the country take shape.
Thomas Jay Lynn’s book examines Chinua Achebe’s language and narration in relation to the intersections of African culture – especially the oral traditions of his native Igbo community – and Western novelistic forms in a postcolonial critical framework. Although the title of the book alone does not indicate the importance that Lynn ascribes in his analysis to the specifically African elements in Achebe’s language, the cover design is telling: the background photo is of a giant traditional African mask – one of the most typical visual representations of African art. Although the mask’s lineaments are not apparent because the title and the subtitle cover them, this may be understood as a visual allusion to the African oral tradition, which greatly informs Achebe’s language, and this is precisely what Lynn is striving to illuminate for his readers. According to the author, Achebe invents a literary technique which enables him to the within Lynn argues that Achebe’s new technique is a form of “revolution” against denigrating perceptions literature, as Simon Gikandi a
Tigers, by Guy Mountfort. David & Charles, £2.25. I wonder what William Blake, when some 100 years back, he wrote those oft-quoted words, would have thought of the present-day tiger situation. More than 60 years ago the reviewer, serving in the Indian Army at a time when tigers abounded, was familiar with 'stripes' in the open woodland haunts in the Central Provinces where a system of strictly controlled shooting blocks was administered by the Forest Department: during one memorable morning twelve came to drink at a river-bed pool. Paradoxically, this was the most effective conservation method one could wish: the tiger population in each block was well known and never permitted to fall below a limit which would inhibit satisfactory recuperation. Villagers were allowed to destroy cattle marauders, though this rarely happened, as an abundance of deer, antelopes and wild swine provided ample tiger food. But the 1914-1918 war heralded an era of change. Guy Mountfort deals comprehensively with every aspect of a tiger's life, with die maneater problem, distribution in the past, present status, and the operative measures to save so noble a creature. A most useful summary of information includes a map of the existing tiger reserves. The book is profusely illustrated in colour but some criticism is justifiable, for whereas a superb picture of a tiger in all its feline glory appears on the glossy dust cover, the reproduction of a series of photos of varying merit on the semi-art paper of the text leaves much to be desired. Reproduction on a glossier surface of some of the better pictures would have enhanced the value of so praiseworthy an undertaking. C. R. S. PITMAN
Architectural practice in the Stalinist USSR saw the sudden and rapid revival of historical forms and styles. One approach interprets this development as part of a reactionary shift in Soviet temporal culture, a “Great Retreat” across all spheres of social and political life. The rival conception sees in historicism an aesthetic of “timelessness” and “perfection,” which expressed Stalinism's self-characterization as an eternal, utopian present. This paper presents a third perspective, arguing that the revival of historicism stemmed, paradoxically, from a future-oriented impulse. This revolved around the charge that Stalinist architecture “immortalize the memory” of the era, to ensure posterity's gratitude and admiration. Accordingly, Stalinist architects drew upon supposedly enduring historical styles, which they expected to remain understandable to future generations. Further, time-tested traditional materials, forms, and decorative mediums were employed to ensure the physical durability of Stalinist architectural monuments. The paper concludes by situating this logic in the global context of interwar monumental architecture and considering some implications for our understanding of Stalinist temporality.
During the 1940s, Carlo Levi and Cesare Pavese reflected on the topic of myth, both in relation to the classical tradition and to the manipulation of mythological materials by European dictatorial regimes. This interest, nurtured in Levi by the relationship with the archaic life and culture of the Lucanian peasants and in Pavese by his focus on texts on the history of religions and anthropology, was transferred into books and cultural operations that are important for a profound rethinking, philosophical and literary, of the myth. On the basis of that “knowledge for citations” that was so dear to Benjamin and Jesi, an attempt is made to let the authors speak for themselves, relegating the critical contribution to the comments on the citations. The revaluation of the poetic and identity value of the myth that Levi and Pavese reaffirm has emerged in spite of its political exploitation. For Levi, it is precisely the mythical character of the subordinate culture that makes it more human and positive than the dominant rationalist one. For Pavese, despite the modern collective inability to access myth, it still represents an archetypal model of self-formation. It is not surprising, then, that the myth becomes a strongly characterizing element in the work of Levi and Pavese, even if its poetic potentialities are not immediately captured by the culture of the forties.
This is an investigation around the essence of the design and the designers in Plato s dialogue, Philebus. Here we reached a provisional understanding, but essential, about the activity itself of the designer and their products, namely: the d?miourgik? fantastic and the phantoms psychics similars-to-truth re-created by anthr?poi. These two ideas constitute a contribution to the foundation of a philosophy of design, inasmuch as from these it is possible an original approach to it.
Minh Tran Huy participates in the production of a second-generation Vietnamese French literature that departs from the first-generation’s autobiographical immigrant narrative. In two novels, La Princesse et le pêcheur [The Princess and the Fisherman] (2007) and Voyageur malgré lui [Travelers in Spite of Themselves] (2012), Tran Huy engages with the postmemory that interrogates war and the trauma of the French colonization of Indochina, the American military engagement during the Vietnam War and refugee displacement from Vietnam to France that parents and families experienced. Attending to Tran Huy’s position as a second-generation Vietnamese French woman writer, I argue that she (re)presents the second generation’s postmemory through the mode of storytelling. Storytelling highlights the interpersonal exchange and transmission that occurs through the spoken word between generations despite traumatic silence.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, middle-class Americans embraced a new culture of domestic consumption, one that centered on chairs and clocks as well as family portraits and books. How did that new world of goods, represented by Victorian parlors filled with overstuffed furniture and daguerreotype portraits, come into being? A New Nation of Goods highlights the significant role of provincial artisans in four crafts in the northeastern United States-chairmaking, clockmaking, portrait painting, and book publishing-to explain the shift from preindustrial society to an entirely new configuration of work, commodities, and culture. As a whole, the book proposes an innovative analysis of early nineteenth-century industrialization and the development of a middle-class consumer culture. It relies on many of the objects beloved by decorative arts scholars and collectors to evoke the vitality of village craft production and culture in the decades after the War of Independence. A New Nation of Goods grounds its broad narrative of cultural change in case studies of artisans, consumers, and specific artifacts. Each chapter opens with an "object lesson" and weaves an object-based analysis together with the richness of individual lives. The path that such craftspeople and consumers took was not inevitable; on the contrary, as historian David Jaffee vividly demonstrates, it was strewn with alternative outcomes, such as decentralized production with specialized makers. The richly illustrated book offers a collective biography of the post-Revolutionary generation, gathering together the case studies of producers and consumers who embraced these changes, those who opposed them, or, most significantly, those who fashioned the myriad small changes that coalesced into a new Victorian cultural order that none of them had envisioned or entirely appreciated.
Interdisciplinary feminist research and its contributions to a more diverse set of perspectives in economic theory Abstract Economic theories greatly influence decision-making processes in govern-ments, international organizations and multinational companies. However, mainstream economic theory is often criticised for operating with a narrow-ly conceived framework of perspectives and methodologies, which may lead to flawed conclusions. This criticism was prominently voiced after the financial crisis of 2008, culminating in an increased public demand for a more pluralistic approach to economic theory, i.e. that economic science should acknowledge a greater diversity of theories and methodologies. The follow-*
fiction, Welch's easy style resists categorization. It is not " history " in a scholarly sense. The book suggests the documentary script from which it derives in its appeal to a non-specialist audience, and its visual and anecdotal emphasis. Much of the material Welch uses to reconstruct this past is dialogic and heteroglossic. It partly takes the form of a personal odyssey or travel diary. He records the yarning and testimony of individuals encountered en route. Historical data is integrated into the text in a loose way which pays little attention to allowing the reader to distinguish between hearsay and "fact," memory and reality. This is an approach to history which is good enough, if repositories of data (public archives, museums, letters and drawings) are themselves understood to offer limited perspectives, their meanings remaining inseparable from the conditions of their production, exhibition and reception. His digressive approach accords with the suspicion of traditional historiography that has developed in academia since the work of Hayden White. In The Content of the Form, White examined the extent to which history as narrative idealises and misrepresents the disturbingly incomplete and contradictory nature of reality. He posed the question of whether or not we can ever narrativise without moralising. Welch's procedure avoids the kind of coherent and orderly presentation of events which entails reference to a teleological moral framework. He challenges simplistic histories which either demonise Indians or present whites as the savagely unethical oppressors of an original, homogeneous and peaceful Indian "first nation." Black Hawk, for example, a Sioux warrior, reveals to the narrator that Indians may also choose to see themselves as antagonists, rather than victims. He says of the plains, "These lands once belonged to the Kiowas and the Crows, but we whipped those nations out of them." Welch creates instead a linked series of boldly imaginative "stagings" of key scenes, each of which functions to qualify or challenge established historical accounts. His aim does not appear to be to substitute white arrogance with a crippling but redemptive guilt. Such moral surrender arrives after too many broken treaties to be constructive. The aim of his revision seems to be not merely to accuse, but to help reconstruct contemporary social relations upon the acknowledgement of a renegotiated "past," a past where events remain richly and appallingly perplexed, but which is fundamentally illustrative of the tragedy of Indian history rather than the grandeur of white American conquest. This kind of narrative reclamation of the past may offer American Indians a greater stake in the present and the future.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, Hobbs tells in great detail that it is a bustling ‘focal point’ for shoppers, diners, strollers, businessmen, pickpockets, prostitutes and tourists. Another example might, to politically-sophisticated students, be regarded humorously, were it not for the serious heavy-handedness with which it is treated. In the chapter entitled ‘The Hero’, Hobbs compares movie actor John Wayne to King Arthur, Theseus and &us!
The author studies carefully the análisis made by Leo Strauss in some of their works about the estructure of contemporary ethical relativism; in this analysis he recognizes four kinds of ethical relativism: liberal, historical, positivistic and existencialistic. Then, he sumarizes the central critics made by Strauss to each kind, and ends with a general balance about the ethical consequences of present relativism.
This paper has studied introduces the relevant text with Kun qu opera ‘Shi Wu Guan’(崑曲『十五貫』)and their transformation process, looked at the same as the difference that exist in each text. As a result, the following conclusions were reached. First, ‘Cuo Zhan Cui Ning’(『錯斬崔寧』)was described the course of the incident based on the coincidence. on the other hand Chuan qi ‘Shi Wu Guan’(傳奇『十五貫』)describing the bizarre story. the characters of ‘Cuo Zhan Cui Ning’(『錯斬崔寧』)has reduced the role of judges. Chuan qi ‘Shi Wu Guan’(傳奇『十五貫』)increased the number of judges, and the ruled the case was delicately portrayed than ‘Cuo Zhan Cui Ning’(『錯斬崔寧』). Secondly, Kun qu opera ‘Shi Wu Guan’(崑曲『十五貫』) was described as a center of important events and important characters. it was deleted incidental elements and the consistency of the contents was maintained. in addition judges were sharply opposed to the process of adjudication of the case. To sum up, This study confirmed that the narrative of Kun qu opera ‘Shi Wu Guan’(崑曲『十五貫』)constantly changing every genre and era. in other words, the narrative of ‘Shi Wu Guan’(十五貫) was turned into a recreational effect to focus on the educational effect.
This research aims to interpret the subjects eating narratives through their life stories. Understanding that food goes beyond than materiality or primary biological needs of human beings, it's surrounded by symbolic and cultural dimensions that impact greatly on the individual eating behaviors. Therefore, it is important to recognize that individual food experiences are influenced by the social environment where they live. From this, for the redemption of these experiments, we used the memory as a resource to remembrance, it is essential that the past becomes present in their individual narratives. The methodology that was used was life narratives. Based on the recognition that in this method allows us to analyze the sociocultural components that influence in the individual eating habits. It was concluded that when subjects were stimulated with the idea of remembering, these people have woven webs of relationship with the neighborhood to eat, sharing food with others, periods of financial difficulties, socio-political changes and challenges facing. Memories over time expressed the experiences lived by individuals through food traditions, the manifestation of a collective memory of what eventually became the support of continuity and preservation of the social.
The writer analyzes Bernard Berenson's book The Drawings of the Florentine Painters Classified, Criticised and Studied as Documents in the History and Appreciation of Tuscan Art, with a Copious Catalogue Raisonne, first published in 1903 and reissued in greatly revised, expanded editions in 1938 and 1961. By 1903, Berenson had entirely reformed the study of early Italian drawings, imposing a unified method of critical inquiry over a cacophony of inconsistent attributions. The chief success of his method was the principle of objective, precise visual comparison of works. Judgments can be made about what he got wrong, but these can be made precisely today because of historical hindsight on a field that he largely founded. If one considers the huge body of works that he analyzed and wrote about, his ratio of discoveries and of convincing attributions is simply astounding, whether for a connoisseur of his time or of today.
of a thesis at the University of Miami. Thesis supervised by Professor David Ake. No. of pages in text. (108) Since the early nineteenth century, the sound of an operatic male hero has been the tenor. As such, countertenors reprising heroic castrati roles have been met with mixed reception, and puzzled response. There is at least one other genre, however, that utilizes heroic narratives, and has featured high-pitched male singing since its inception – heavy metal. Despite the prevalence of heroic narratives within metal and opera, little has been studied on precisely how those themes are constructed and negotiated by their respective performers. Certainly, less has been studied in regards to high-pitched male singers’ roles relating to heroism in these genres. In this thesis, I examine the ways in which high-pitched male singers confront, appropriate, and at times problematize the standard notions of heroism within opera and heavy metal. This involves first, analyzing the socio/cultural factors surrounding notions of heroism within each genre and how they are constructed. The discussion then moves into an exploration of how high-pitched male singers are affected by such themes in their effort to convey heroism. Finally, I trace how these singers adhere to, or deviate from, the hero’s journey as described by Joseph Campbell. In my analysis of works from opera and metal, I interpret the hero’s journey both narratively and musically regarding each singer’s lyrics, stage presence, and vocal melody. Ultimately, through demonstrating how high-pitched male singers influence, and are shaped by, notions of heroism, I help shed light on issues of violence, gender, and masculinity within these musics.
The research provides an analysis of war films from 1979 to 1989, with production  centered in the Vietnam conflict, and that unlike the propaganda film used in  previous conflicts, presents a critical look at the conditions that traverse military  troops in the field battle, emerging internal conflicts that cause the stereotype of the  adversary in this film is not the enemy country at war, but their own fellow soldiers.  Was studied three renowned film directors in this type of film, Francis Ford  Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon’s  Oliver Stone. Was analyzed three aspects, the iconography, the imagery and the  stereotype of the adversary. The iconography has continually elements alluding to  American consumer culture as opposed to the environment in that fight, being  Apocalypse Now contains the highest number of symbols.
The well-worn saying about being condemned to repeat the history we do not know applies to church history as much as to any other kind. But how are Christians supposed to discern what lessons from history need to be learned? In this small but thoughtful volume, respected theologian and churchman Rowan Williams opens up a theological approach to history, an approach that is both nonpartisan and relevant to the church's present needs. As he reflects on how we consider the past in general, Williams suggests that how we consider church history in particular remains important not so much for winning arguments as for clarifying who we are as time-bound human beings. Good history is a moral affair, he advises, because it opens up a point of reference that is distinct from us yet not wholly alien. The past can then enable us to think with more varied and resourceful analogies about our identity in the often confusing present.
noted that only four sources of bulk pigments are indicated, four paint manufacturers. There are indeed many other sources of bulk pigments acceptable for use in the fine arts. Similar comprehensive tables and lists are provided for inks (calligraphy, designer’s, waterproof, non-waterproof, water-based, water-soluble, pigmented, transparent); for soft pastels, oil pastels and crayons; for colored pencils, leads and water-soluble crayons; for canvases (linen, cotton, jute, synthetics); for papers and boards of different weights, sizes, rag contents and surface textures, and intended for different media (pencil, pen, pastel, calligraphy, water-based, oil-based); for drawing instruments (charcoals, pencils, pens and nibs); for brushes (oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolor, varnish, stencil, lettering, oriental). A few pages are devoted to studio furniture and equipment. Artists’ Materials is of maximum use today. Being a directory of commercial products, it will need to be updated in subsequent editions.
We live in a world–or so we’re told–in which we’re obsessed with the new. Shopping malls, glossy magazines, and catwalk parades encourage us to buy more new, shiny stuff. But the famous song line, “Hey, Macklemore! Can we go thrift shopping?” by American rapper Ben Haggerty (a.k.a. Macklemore) suggests that fashion on a different trajectory. To put it simply, Macklemore’s song suggest that what’s old is new again. It is only by wearing kitschy material culture from the ’80s and ’90s found in a thrift shop that one can be considered fashionable and–as it is often said–cool. What ten years ago would have been discernible as a sign of a lack of good taste is today an ultimate example of being fashionable. In short, non-fashion is its own fashion today. The only new things are from the past.
Sudan’s interest lies in material culture and commodities, from muds to nutmegs and inoculation, and their role in imperial discourses, the fashioning of English identity and as instruments of interracial relations. She reads travel narratives, letters from and to the East India Company offices, commentaries and tracts, alongside literary texts to demonstrate how ‘India’s technology scientific practice, and epistemology informed European Enlightenment values and socio-political norms’ (1). It is her contention that ‘some of the “classical” Enlightenment scientific knowledge is not European in origin but emerges from a far wider circulation’ (5). Initial encounters with Indian techne and commodities produced anxieties, which then the British transmuted into ‘knowledge’ that then became Western/European science.
The first decades of the twentieth century brought enormous change in Britain. Men's and women's roles came under scrutiny, class and social structures were transformed. This book casts new light on the notorious Bloomsbury Group and how the issues of their day influenced their interpretation and decoration of the home. Christopher Reed analyses the rooms designed by Bloomsbury artists as spaces in which to be modern. The book traces the development of Bloomsbury's domestic aesthetic from the group's influential promulgation of Post-Impressionism in Britain around 1910 through the 1930s. In detailed studies of rooms and environments created by Virginia Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Roger Fry, Reed challenges the accepted notion that these artists drifted away from modernism. He presents their work as an alternative form of modernism, later suppressed by sexist and homophobic attitudes that disparaged the decorative arts and domesticity in general, as well as Bloomsbury in particular. The aesthetic and ideological implications of the Bloomsbury interiors were international in scope, Reed argues, and these domestic designs served as an important marker along the route to modernity.
espanolTraduccion de los capitulos “Introduction” y "Chapter 1: Manifesto and Modernism", del libro Playing the waves. Lars von Trier's game cinema de Jan Simons. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007. EnglishTranslation of “Introduction” and "Chapter 1: Manifesto and Modernism" of Jan Simons’ Playing the waves. Lars von Trier's game cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007 portuguesTraducao de “Introducao” e “Capitulo 1: Manifesto e Modernismo” de Jan Simons “Playing the waves. O jogo de cinema de Lars von Trier. Amesterdao: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.
Henry Purcell has long been acknowledged as one of England’s greatest composers. Little is known about his life beyond his official appointments and their duties, but as a musician he excelled as a servant of the Court, the Church and the theatre, writing odes, welcome songs, sonatas, anthems, service music and incidental music, and a series of operatic extravaganzas which fascinated the public during the 1690s. The Purcell Companion opens with four background chapters - by Andrew Pinnock, Jonathan Wainwright, Graham Dixon and Michael Burden - on his position in British musical history, on music in London during his lifetime, on his Italian connections and on his contemporaries. In the section on the music, Eric Van Tassel presents a new view of the church music, Bruce Wood re-assesses the odes, and Peter Holman writes perceptively about the instrumental music. On the theatre works, Edward Langhans considers their context, while Roger Savage studies the music for the operas and plays. Finally Andrew Parrott deals with aspects of performance, and the volume closes with a revision of Savage’s classic essay on producing Purcell’s ever-popular opera Dido and Aeneas. A bibliography details research undertaken on various aspects of Purcell’s life and career.
This chapter examines the perspective of sword dance judges at the Dancing England Rapper Tournament. Using a form of video-assisted interview, strategies and patterns of adjudication and aesthetic evaluation are revealed as constituting different fundamental understandings of dance, shared by groups of judges and related to cultural and dance backgrounds. The content and timing of judges’ comments about rapper dances are charted, creating “temporal-aesthetic maps” that are used to reveal underlying cultural conceptions of the performance by comparing “aesthetically dense” moments with unmarked periods of time. This methodology allows the act of adjudication to be divided into four separate processes: expectation-setting, perception, interpretation, and decision-making, by which judges transform an ephemeral, aesthetic experience into scores for competitors.
In his 1967 seminal work The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord wrote: “In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation” (thesis 1). The opening of Debord’s book aptly describes what occurs in Matteo Garrone’s 2012 film Reality whose protagonist, an exuberant fishmonger by the name of Luciano Ciotola, becomes obsessed with his participation in the reality TV show Big Brother to the point that his entire life turns into a spectacle. The spectator witnesses and experiences an overlapping and, ultimately, a (con)fusion between Luciano’s everyday reality and his life as a (potential) member of the reality TV show. Luciano, who lives with his family in the outskirts of Naples, in “an incredible Neapolitan building, baroque, crumbling and magnificent” (C.G. 57), plods on with their fish shop and the illegal selling of kitchen electrical appliances. At first encouraged by his capricious daughter and lively family,1 and then by his own wish to change his life and become financially stable, Luciano auditions to be a member of the reality show Big Brother. While awaiting a response from the
The article is devoted to the consideration of the peculiarities of the American-European rock culture in the key of the musical, literary and general cultural traditions of Japan. The main purpose is to reveal the features of the Japanese national art, which are piercing the work of the Japanese rock band Onmyo-Za. The fundamental methods of the research were the method of historical and theoretical musicology, as well as the linguistic and content analysis. Based on the material of independent music compositions and compositions that make up the albums, the article considers specific examples of cultural refraction that have arisen in connection with the typical features of the Japanese mentality: borrowing and modifying foreign features in accordance with their traditions and philosophy. The Onmyo-Za band is the confirmation of the principle of synthesis of traditional and American-European principles taken as a basis for this work. The compositions are distinguished by the organic nature of the fusion of the Japanese national culture and western rock music. Traditionally, the Japanese manifested itself both at the contensive, figurative-semantic level and at the musical level. The study showed that the style of the Onmyo-Za band is an example of rock music with an organic embodiment of the distinctive features of Japanese traditions inscribed in the world context of rock culture.
Resena de la obra de Paloma AGUILAR and Leigh A. PAYNE: Revealing New Truths about Spain’s Violent Past: Perpetrators’ Confessions and Victim Exhumations , Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, 110 pp. ISBN: 978-1- 137-56228. A cargo de Ofelia Ferran. Ha sido recientemente traducida al castellano como El resurgir del pasado en Espana: Fosas de victimas y confesiones de verdugos , Madrid, Taurus, 2018.
Abstract The paper explores the philosophical treatment of sacrifice in four of Jiří Menzel’s films of the 1960’s, Closely observed trains (Ostře sledované vlaky), Capricious summer (Rozmarné léto), Mr Balthazar’s death (Smrt pana Baltazara), his short film contribution to the anthology film of the New Wave, Pearls of the deep (Perličky na dně), and Larks on a string (Skřivánci na niti). The paper argues that Menzel problematizes romanticized versions of messianic sacrifice as they all too easily disregard the moral significance of mundane relations. By analysing the treatment of sacrifice in each of these films, the paper makes a case for the significance of Menzel’s treatment of sacrifice for current philosophical debates.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has long been included in the horror genre of literature. It is even occasionally accredited with the birth of that genre. This paper discusses how this practice not only misleads the audience about the nature of Frankenstein but in fact damages the integrity of any potential interpretation. It first establishes a working definition of the horror genre, then compares that with Frankenstein to show how the work does not fit the expectations that the genre lays out. This comparison focuses on the expectations that the horror genre places on its protagonists and antagonists and how Victor Frankenstein and his creation defy those expectations. Genre as a concept fails Frankenstein, and this failure is indicative of the shortcomings of that system as a whole. It is a system that overwhelms meaning with labels, simplifying complex artistic pieces to fit into categories. Worse, this categorization is often logically flawed, and the full impact of the piece is reduced to something alien to its original intentions. Frankenstein demonstrates the worst of what labeling under a genre can do to a work of art and encourages us to move past this obsolete system.
Argues strongly for a reading of medieval poetry based on the notion of "array"--the outlined, divided, and subdivided parts making up many texts. He proposes a criticism based on "an analysis of outlines," or "an analysis of forma tractatus." Thus, the Confessio Amantis and the Vox Clamantis come in for brief mention, as evidence of versions of the array-making consciousness of the late 14th century. [PN. Copyright the John Gower Society. JGN 1.1]
This article analyzes the poetic feature of Jia Dao, who was a poet in the later period of Middle Tang Dynasty. he diversified the materials and feelings in his poems, which still seem to be limited and narrow. Jia Dao paid much attention to "Ku Yin (composing poetry painstakingly)"and polished his poems carefully. The feature of his poems is flat in essence. His poems of Wulu (a fivecharactered poem) was distinguishing in his poetry. The causes of these kinds of feature are as follows: the societal realities of Middle and Late Tang Dynasty; the changes in the aesthetic ideas; Jia Daos own experiences in his life; the influence of precursory poets.
In the past two years Russia has become one of the key players in the Middle East, to the benefit of some and the displeasure of others. Moscow's decision to intervene in Syria in the autumn of 2015 changed the course of the war and helped create the conditions necessary for subsequent political change. However, the year 2016 has made it clear that Russia's foreign policy in the region faces many challenges. This paper examines the issues which Russia must address, while also examining the nature of Moscow's relationship with the various regional powers.
As Logue notes, this exhibition looks at how various women artists use performance-based video and film to examine the physicality and fantasy of identity in a personal context. Logue’s text combines biography, descriptions of the works in the show and her responses to them. Adams underscores the concept of mimicry in her reading of the works. A short statement or text by most of the artists is included. Biographical notes.
LIBERATING STRUCTURES, NON-VISUAL SYSTE~IS IN TIlE ART OF SOL LEWITT Mette Gieskes is a dOClOral s!udclII illlilc Dcpartmcnr ofAn and Arr His/ory. Ullil'CrsiZI' of Texas. AIISlill. ln the tumultuous decade of the 19605. various anists. composers. authors. :md film directors chose to base their   'orks on predetermined systems as a means of 3voiding convention. rcpresentation, and personal habit. They sclecled a sel of rules Ihm  Vere strictl)' followed during the cxecution of the  Vork. These syslem·based works secm particularly self-referen!Ia!. )'e1 the systemic generators  Vere frequently imponed from other fields: composer Pierre Boulez based Structure la for t 'o pianos on a   'ork of Paul Klee. Alain Robbe-Grillet based Iwo movIes on seriaI and aleatorv structures encountered in contemporar)' music. l the writers associated with the O~lipo Group subjeeted their work to fonnal panerns from mathematics and chess. and Sol LeWin investigated the liberating em'cts for art of architectural. musical. and narrative structures. Why were sa many artists at this especiaJly turbulent moment in histo!)' interested in systems? 1 argue that the employment of systemic structures. which are inherently a----centric and non--hierarehical. not only provided an alternative to the more expressionist art from the immediate pa st-for yisual artists this  Vas abstract expressionism--but in a less obvious manner also reflected a rejection of the cstablished order of society. 1 further propose that the adoption of systems from other mediums added an extra libcTating dimension to the alread)' liberating effect of the systemic as sHch. serving ta preyent r('cession into a convenlional usage of the medium. The focus of this paper is the work of American visual anist Sol LeWin, a su il able figure for the subjeci of this collection perhaps especially because of the interplay in his work of image and texl, and his belief Ihal ideas in themselves can be  Vorks of art. whether they be gi 'en visual, verbal. aurai shape, or no fonn al aIl. His few but influential writings from the late 1960s, most notably Paragraphs on Conceplual Art and Sentences on Conceptua! An:' are indeed best known for describing and promoling a kind ofart thal is based on ideas mther tnar: on fOim. Since 1965, LeWin has b::tsed his structures, walldrawings. and prints on a simple idea. such as Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes (1974). Before cxecuting. or giving physical shape 10 the artwork. LeWin wmild come up with a set of verbal instructions. or rules. that he himself or his assistants were ta follow closely. Although the idea ilself is often logical. the physical m::tnifestation is generally perceptually illogical. and hard to analvz.e in the absence of a verbal description or schematic plan.~ ln order to conceive Ihe system behind the haphazard appeaTancc of the piece. the viewer has to becomc memally cngaged to fmd the key to the system, just as in detective stories-which LeWin lil.:ed ta read-the reader unravels the puzzle by actively analyzing and correlating the clues. 3 1 have chosen. however. to focus not on the idea---and language--oriemedness of lcWitt s art, nor on the delicate and dynamic encounter of idea, word. and image in his    ork. but to conccntrnte instead on the less thoroughly examined l'ole of systems in the artist's  York of the 1960s and early '70s.
The article is dedicated to the history of appearance and distribution of harpsichord playing in Russia. Studying of numerous published sources of 16-18th centuries leads us to the conclusion that harpsichord occupied certain place in the culture of different groups in the society. The author reviews main phases of introducin of harpsichord and related keyboard instruments into Russian musical life, up to the point of appearance of the piano. Keywords: harpsichord, clavichord, Russian music
Oedipe et le spinx by g. Moreau lays an enigma. It grant leaves to draw the delicate notion of the inter-what discolsed in the relation to the other. Love and awakening would be its variables; its gloomy side:anxiety. From the beautiful and the sublime according to philosophie (plato and kant). Then from the sublimation according to psycho-analysis (freud) is framing the scheme of the inter-what,real springness of the sublimation, in connection. It goes around the place of the other according to a "good distance"and an appropriated time. Doubtless close to the sublimation, the symbolisation differentiates. Klimt,rops,von stuck bring into work psychics process. Symbolist art would be an art of sublimation.
The Complete Works of Song Dynasty Poems embodies both You Mao’s poem Luomei in Vol. No. 2336 as well as Zhang Shi’s poem Luomei in Vol. No. 2422. Although there are word differences between these two poems, in my opinion, the differences should be attributed to the error of block printing and these two poems are indeed one poem. Based on these two poets’ background, the use of words in the poem as well as my textual research, the poem Luomei should be a work of You Mao. Furthermore, I believe that Luomei was most possibly written by You Mao as a poem and as a rhyme.
The essay shows how Ford Madox Ford’s tetralogy Parade’s End, though displaying a general metaphoric structure, has ties belonging to the metonymic sphere as well. Metonymies dissolve into metaphors and metaphoric suggestions lead in turn to metonymic associations. Through the use of time shift in interior monologues, Ford can vividly bring forth his characters’ lives and memories, and while metaphors become the means to recover their past, metonymies are essential in evoking it and in setting it in motion again. Il saggio vuole evidenziare come la tetralogia Parade’s End di Ford Madox Ford, pur svelando una struttura generalmente metaforica, abbia un substrato appartenente alla sfera metonimica. Tigor: rivista di scienze della comunicazione A.IV (2012) n.2 (luglio-dicembre) issn 2035-584x 64 Tietjens let the trunk of the body sink slowly to the floor. [...] He saw very vividly also the face of his girl who was a pacifist. It worried him not to know what expression her face would have if she heard of his occupation, now. Disgust?... He was standing with his greasy, sticky hands held out from the flaps of his tunic... Perhaps disgust! [...] (NMP, p. 30) The movement is metonymic: his girl’s expression of disgust leads him to consider the reason of the supposed disgust, that is the dead soldier’s blood. And then, through another metonymic association, from the dead soldier to soldiers who would be on duty the next day: He remembered he had not sent a runner along to I.B.D. Orderly Room to see how many of his crowd would be wanted for garrison fatigue next day, and this annoyed him acutely. (NMP, p. 30) From the soldiers’ duty to his own at the camp and again to the soldiers and their ‘present’ activity with ‘the girls’: He would have no end of a job warning the officers he detailed. They would all be in brothels down in the town by now... (NMP, p. 30) By moral, unexpressed juxtaposition (that is brothels vs. Valentine), his thoughts go back to his girl and her possible facial expression, and from her face to the face of the dead soldier and to the reason he, Christopher, has denied the man a leave to go home: He could not work out what the girl’s expression would be. He was never to see her again [...] How would her face express disgust? He had never seen her express disgust. [...]... The face below him grinned at the roof – the half face! [...] If he, Tietjens, had given the fellow the leave he wanted he would be alive now!... [...].(NMP, p. 30-31) Finally, the passage turns metaphoric, Christopher’s mind swings from the dead soldier (betrayed by the wife and prevented from going home) to himself (betrayed by Sylvia and without a notice from home): He was, anyhow, better where he was. And so was he, Tietjens. He had not had a single letter from 3 Abbreviations will be used parenthetically to refer to Some Do Not (SDN) and No More Parades (NMP). Parade’s End Between Prose and Poetry 15, 43, 57), characters to natural elements (men to dust, p. 43, men to waves, p. 42), Tietjens to a lonely buffalo (p. 186), Sylvia to a snake (p. 68, 124, 117, etc.), to mention only a few. Indeed the tetralogy is metaphoric, beginning with its book titles, its characters’ descriptions and its characters’ circumstances – such as Christopher’s fall and his subsequent re-birth as metaphor for a whole dying social class seeking a new life. I should add at this point that literary references in the tetralogy expand the scope of this metaphor, linking Ford’s characters to other protagonists created by other writers, such as Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Eliot – to mention just a few clear evocations which I will discuss later. Still, it would be wrong to read the tetralogy as a wholly metaphoric work since it is at times also metonymic – when characters express themselves through their interior monologues. In short, the novels display a general metaphoric structure but it has ties belonging to the metonymic sphere as well. Metonymies dissolve into metaphors and metaphoric suggestions lead in turn to metonymic associations. Parade’s End evolves through a series of memories, of flashbacks. Through the use of time shift in interior monologues, Ford can vividly bring forth the life of his characters, their temps perdu, their ‘remembrance of things past’. And just as in Proust, metaphors are the means to recover the past, but metonymies are essential in evoking it and in setting it in motion again. For the sake of brevity, and because I have already discussed elsewhere the main metaphors of the central characters (that is, a snake for Sylvia, a white bulldog and a lone buffalo for Christopher, etc.), I have chosen to focus on only a few examples of Christopher’s and Sylvia’s interior monologues, and then move on to descriptive passages. As a rule Christopher’s thoughts develop through a metonymic process of contiguity, only to reach a metaphoric conclusion. 2 M. A. Calderaro, A Silent New World. Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End, Bologna, 1993. Tigor: rivista di scienze della comunicazione A.IV (2012) n.2 (luglio-dicembre) issn 2035-584x 65 Parade’s End Between Prose and Poetry comparison without second term’. The second term will appear a few lines later with «like the head of a snake», and adjectives that can be referred both to Sylvia and to a snake: Hating... Her certainly glorious hair all round her... Hating... Slowly and coldly... Like the head of a snake when you examined it... Eyes motionless: mouth closed tight... (NMP, pp. 67-68). As for the second passage, here too the opening movement is metonymic: In Belgium... What had he been doing?... Trying to get the lie of the land... No... [...] The Belgian proprietor of the tobacco plants had arrived, and had screamed his head off over the damaged plants... (NMP, p. 251 ) From the tobacco plants and their owner we are led by a metonymy to what one could see from there – the whole war and Germany; and from Germany, by another metonymy, to Wytschaete and the mines that blew that village: But up there you saw the whole war... Infinite miles away [...] into Germany proper... [...] The German trenches before Wytschaete!... That was before the great mines had blown Wytschaete to hell... [...]. (NMP, p. 251 ) From these explosions («Our artillery practice»), through a series of combined metonymies, to another bombing, this time of Poperinghe by the Germans. That town had a tea shop, and inside the shop (another metonymy), two girls were killed by the shelling: Our artillery practice... Good shooting. Jolly good shooting! [...] Under the vast pall of quiet cloud!... There were shells dropping in Poperinghe... [...] The Huns were shelling Poperinghe! A senseless cruelty. [...] There were two girls who kept a teashop in Poperinghe...[...] The shells had killed them both... (NMP, p. 251-252 ) What follows now is a long digression with sentences that are once again connected by a series of contiguous images. Still, Christopher’s elaborate parenthetical thought ends with a very powerful metaphor: home since he had been out this time! Not a single letter. Not even gossip. Not a bill. (NMP, pp. 30-31) The metaphoric association between the two men is totally justified: both are openly betrayed by their wives and both are destined to meet the same fate: death. In the second passage, another of Christopher’s many interior monologues, the intertwining of metonymies with metaphors is more striking. But, damn it, he, he himself, would make a pact with Destiny, at that moment, willingly, to pass thirty months in the frozen circle of hell, for the chance of thirty seconds in which to tell Valentine Wannop what he had answered back... to Destiny!... (NMP, p. 67) From the frozen circle of hell and the pact with Destiny we are metonymically led to the figure of Alberigo dei Manfredi (Canto XXXIII, Circle IX) and to Dante, who wrote the Inferno and kicked Alberigo in the face. What was the fellow in the Inferno who was buried to the neck in ice and begged Dante to clear the icicles out of his eyelids so that he could see out of them? And Dante kicked him in the face because he was a Ghibelline... (NMP, p. 67) Through a metaphoric movement of similarity we move to Sylvia Tietjens, who undoubtedly is a good hater: Always a bit of a swine, Dante... Rather like... like whom?... Oh, Sylvia Tietjens... A good hater!... (NMP, p. 67) And here through a series of metonymies to the convent where she is supposed to be and the bed on which she is sitting, or, better, is «coiled»: He imagined hatred coming to him in waves from the convent in which Sylvia had immured herself... gone into retreat... He imagined she had gone into retreat [...] He imagined Sylvia, coiled up on a convent bed... (NMP, p. 67) With «coiled up» we re-enter the metaphoric sphere, since we may consider this a ‘justified Tigor: rivista di scienze della comunicazione A.IV (2012) n.2 (luglio-dicembre) issn 2035-584x 66 Parade’s End Between Prose and Poetry The three parts of the novel are mainly set in three different buildings: a hut, a hotel and a cook-house. Each is linked either through direct comparison or indirect suggestion to other types of buildings. The first two, the hut and the hotel, both introduced in the first paragraph of the opening page, are presented through a similar stylistic approach with a long sentence followed by a short one and a similar use of semantic units in order to create contrasting images. When you came in the space was desultory, rectangular, warm after the drip of the winter night, and transfused with a brown-orange dust that was light. It was shaped like the house a child draws. (NMP, p. 9, Part I, the hut) The passage has a strong poetical rhythm which appears to be drawn out only to come to an abrupt end with the prosaic brevity of «It was shaped like a house a child draws». And talking of poetical rhythm, here one cannot but remember Ford’s 1921 poem «A House»: [...] I am the House! I resemble The drawing of a child Tha
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The article investigates the poem Margiris (1855) by Vladislavas Sirokomle, a poet of Lithuania who wrote in Polish. Margiris interprets the heroic fight with Teutonic knights in Lithuania’s history: according to historiographical data, in 1336, in Pilenai, Lithuanians chose a collective suicide instead of slavery. The poem combines several archetypical narratives: the historical one of Pilenai, the mythological folk narrative about a dying snake-king, and the narrative of the biblical sacrifice. Sirokomle modifies the mythological and the biblical narratives so that the historical enemy of Lithuania acquires demonic features while the historical sacrifice of Pilenai is given the metaphysical dimension and forms an allusion of the Christian sacrifice. Sirokomle’s poem has strongly influensed the poetic imagination of Maironis, the main Lithuanian Romanticist.
In this article the Author offers a critical review of the mejor works of investigation on the issue of the creation and establishing of a specific poetic metre, the ottava rima and on the role played by Giovanni Boccaccio in such an issue. The Author argues that besides all the efforts to establish an origin for such a metre afore Boccaccio's poems, the results have been inconclusive; whereas Boccaccio's preminance in the establishing of the use of such a metre in Tuscany seems to grow in evidence slowly bur surely so that he should still be considered, de facto, if not the inventor, at least the designer of the original ottava.
An emotional article where Kharmawphlang remembers U.Dorbar Nongkoum-a storyteller and healer of the Nongkoum clan in the Khasi hills of Meghalaya. The author himself has spent more than 12 years on these very hills. He describes the tribal belief in the ka met or body, the kamynsiem or soul, and the ka rngiew or spirit. Tribals believe that Khpa phulis have divine powers and can transform into tigers and roam the jungle. It is tragic that authorities are considering converting a cave that houses the pdah kyndeng deity to a tourist spot. It will spell certain death to an age-old legend and myth.
In the billiard room of the Raday mansion in Pecel fragments of wall painting were discovered in 1954. They claim attention not only on account of their good artistic quality but also because when the coat of paint peeled off from the ceiling, the sinopia of the fresco applied with red and black colours – a truly rare sight – was revealed. The artist of the frescoes was Johann Nepomuk Schopf, whom the writer Ferenc Kazinczy also saw working in Pecel, as his travel diary reveals. The Prague-born artist was the scion of a family of artists and first worked in his father Johann Adam’s fresco painting workshop, but autonomous works of his are already known from the 1760s. In the early ‘70s he was in Vienna from where he came to Hungary to paint altar pictures for the cathedral in Temesvar, before he received a commission from Bishop Adam Patachich to decorate the cathedral and episcopal palace of Nagyvarad (1773–1776). Particularly the latter shows kindred traits to the decoration of the billiard room in Pece...
I ALMOST any group of scholars would agree that during the past fifty to one hundred years research in the natural sciences has provided truth and principles which are capable of transforming earlier and popular views concerning nature and man. Yet, despite the surpassing fruitfulness of this era of research, it may well be that if or when later generations of man should care to form an estimate of our present generation, they will marvel less at this brilliant research than at the depths of our present educational darkness-less at the intellectual achievements of an amazing century of science that has disclosed the basic facts of man's own nature and man's place in nature, than at our present educational programs which essentially fail to give the new truth and principles to this generation. It is in the field of biology-the life-sciences-that 1 Luncheon address before the Cancer Forum, Philadel-phia, November 30, 1937. this failure is so flagrant and conspicuous; and it is the truth and principles of this same group of sciences that could otherwise contribute so greatly to the mental and physical well-being of the present generation of mankind. These remarks will therefore deal with certain aspects of this flagrant failure of our educational program to-comprehend and teach life-science. In the course of this discussion it may become apparent that the same familiarity with life-science which is required for modern intellectual life, for good citizenship , for progressive agriculture and husbandry, for better health and for preservation against many diseases , will automatically supply that better knowledge which this audience well knows is needed also to save many thousands of lives from cancer. II To every one it is evident that only the primary and secondary schools of a nation have opportunity
Introduction Caroline Sharples and Olaf Jensen PART I: CONFRONTING THE HOLOCAUST 1. 'No One Believed What We Had Seen': British Soldiers who Witnessed Mass Murder in Auschwitz Duncan Little 2. Holocaust on Trial: Mass Observation and British Media Responses to the Nuremberg Tribunal, 1945-6 Caroline Sharples 3. Loose Connections? Britain and the 'Final Solution' Tony Kushner PART II: THE HOLOCAUST ON SCREEN 4. 'Marvellous Raisins in a Badly-Cooked Cake': British reactions to the screening of Holocaust Tim Cole 5. 'And the trouble is where to begin to spring surprises on you. Perhaps a place you might least like to remember.' This is Your Life and the BBC's images of the Holocaust in the twenty years before Holocaust James Jordan 6. The Holocaust in British Television and Film: A Look Over the Fence Olaf Jensen PART III: THE HOLOCAUST IN EXHIBITIONS 7. Holocaust Art at the Imperial War Museum, 1945-2009 Antoine Capet 8. Holocaust Memory and Contemporary Atrocities: The IWM's Holocaust Exhibition and Crimes Against Humanity Exhibition Rebecca Jinks 9. The Holocaust and Colonial Genocide at the Imperial War Museum Tom Lawson PART III: COMMEMORATING THE HOLOCAUST 10. 'We Should Do Something for the Fiftieth': Remembering Auschwitz, Belsen and the Holocaust in Britain in 1995 Mark Donnelly 11. Britain's Holocaust Memorial Day: Inculcating 'British' or 'European' Holocaust Consciousness? Andy Pearce 12. From Stockholm to Stockton: The Holocaust And/As Heritage in Britain Dan Stone
Abstract:How is the concept of intermediality used in theatre and performance studies? And how can we understand the notion of ‘the in-between’ that is at the core of intermediality? This article will develop a methodological approach to theatre practice and perception that goes beyond media difference and media comparison. I will take the very destabilizing of media difference and media identity as a phenomenological issue, and concentrate on the transactions between media, the mediated, and the observers that are activated by internal structural effects of multistability: the shifting of figure and ground, the switching of aspects. In doing so, I will argue for performance analysis that considers the whole ensemble of relations between media and between those phenomena that are brought to light by media: the interplay of seeing and speaking, of sounds and images, of words and things, the visible and the audible. Using the performance Forever Godard by Igor Bauersima, I will highlight the complex interplay between theatricality, performativity and mediality to offer a methodological approach that departs from the so-called vortex effect that brings forth processes of intermedial transfigurations in performances.
The Witch of Agnesi (or versiera) is a curve named for Marie Agnesi who first studied it. It may be defined geometrically as follows: In a circle with centre at and diameter a (hence tangent to the x-axis at the origin), a secant through the origin is drawn, intersecting the circle in A and the line y = a in B. The intersection of lines through A parallel to the x-axis and through B parallel to the y-axis determines a point P. The Witch of Agnesi is the locus of the point P as the angle the secant makes with the x-axis assumes all values from 0° to 180°.
Abstract Translation has been essential to the development of languages and cultures throughout the centuries, particularly in the early modern period when it became a cornerstone of the process of transition from Latin to vernacular productions, in such countries as France, Italy, England and Spain. This process was accompanied by a growing interest in defining the rules and features of the practice of translation. The present article aims to examine the principles that underlay the highly intertextual early modern translation theory by considering its classical sources and development. It focuses on subjects that were constantly reiterated in any discussion about translation: the debate concerning the best methods of translation, the sense-for-sense/ word-for-word dichotomy - a topos that can be traced to the discourse on translation initiated by Cicero and Horace and was further developed by the Church fathers, notably St. Jerome, and eventually inherited by both medieval and Renaissance translators. Furthermore, it looks at the differences and continuities that characterise the medieval and Renaissance discourses on translation with a focus on the transition from the medieval, free manner of translation to the humanist, philological one.
Redesign an edification with 3 levels for a beauty relax center, offering the service of a beauty salon, spa and yoga. The three areas are unifying with the same concept that is the Lotto Flower due to its meaning and its known for being a flower that symbolize peace, pureness and beauty, and it also has different color that will allow us to work with. An eco-design is the complement for this project so it will be environmental friendly, with use of recycle water, energy saving, ecologic materials, vertical gardens, and implementation of natural sounds. For the interior design organic architecture will be implemented in the furniture and floor giving a circulation mark.
The variation of i’rab in Tafseer and qira’at of the Qur’an is very important. It helps to explain the aspects of balaghat in the i’jaz of the Qur’an and at the same time, it helps researchers to understand the verses of the Qur’an for Tafseer purpose. Variations of i’rab help faqih (Islamic legal expert) to deduce sharia rulings from the verses of the Qur’an; for example, variation in the qira’at of the verses may lead to a variation in sharia rulings. This is itself serves as proof for the i’jaz of the Qur’an and to the art of i’jaz itself as subtopic of i’jaz of the Qur’an. Assamin Alhalaby gave special attention to above-mentioned issue in his tafseer. His deep knowledge of various qira’at and the knowledge of Arabic language was great help for him in this matter. In general, his methodology in relation to qiraat as a whole and more specifically in relation to i’rab variations in qira’at, his tafseer, and his knowledge of Arabic grammar contain deep knowledge of all these fields, which render the study of his methodology worth for academic effort.
Through literature review,this paper investigated the evolution and symbolization of Gan and Qi of GanQi dance.Results: Gan and Qi are practical weapons of ritual vessels,Gan is shield in dance,decorated by totem with special quality;Qi is battleaxe usually made of jade.Gan is the symbol of God's power,Qi is the symbol of royalty power,military power and patriarchal power.The combination of Gan and Qi is the combination of royalty power and God's power,implying the authority and legitimacy in the period of divine right of king.
Present article is devoted to description of cultural resources management process in the province of Alberta, Canada. Active industrial development involves potential hazards to historical resources, therefore questions of cultural-historical heritage study and preservation have to be addressed. The article focuses on the legislative basis of the cultural resources management process and the practice of its enforcement on the example of a project of historical resources impact assessment performed for the forestry company. All questions related to historical resources including archaeological objects in the province are managed by Historical Resources Management branch of Alberta Culture ministry under the Historical Resources Act. This Act regulates aspects of historical resources identification, designation, study, and preservation. More detailed regulations of historical resources study are stated in the Archaeological and Paleontological Research Permit Regulations document. It outlines the requirements for the specialists performing the historical resources assessments and identifies the procedures of reporting the results of theses studies. Any development that poses risks for historical resources must undergo Historical Resources Overview and if deemed necessary the Historical Resources impact Assessment. The latter involves either Pre-Impact infield assessment preceding the development or PostImpact audit. The results of these studies both positive and negative are to be reported to Alberta Culture in order to obtain the clearance for the planned development.
The doll « Aurore », 1999. (Collection of the Museon Arlaten, departemental museum of ethnography, Arles. Photo, J.L. Maby). This doll was born on December 25, 1999 in the town of Meynes. She was given by [her] godmother the seventeenth Queen of Arles, Aurora Guibaud, and Madame Marie-Jose Moreau, for the city of Arles’ transition into the twenty-first century. Bouen tous temps. Happiness and prosperity without end. Our ancestors exchanged these old Provencal good wishes when visiting each o...
The present study deals with the problem of the creative individual and is based on a broad view of artistic material from the early Middle Ages to the present day. The author tries to find out in what way the creators in keeping with the customs and conventions of the given age, or in opposition to them tried to express their own personality; how they tried, in more or less refined ways - through signature, hidden or obvious self-portrait, a particular sign, individual style, a particular expression - to leave some trace of their existence, their artistic conceptions, their feelings.
In the second chapter the author foUows step by step the entire curriculum of Walram's studies and especially the various disputations and sermons and such Uke at the final stage of his promotion. This latter part is exceptionaUy well done. Fr. Ciasen leads the reader, with the help of the Statuta of the University of Cologne and the documents in Walram's autograph, through all the performances the young doctor had to undergo; or rather, he gives an interpretation of the documents with the help of the Statuta. In any case, he succeeds in giving us a vivid description of Walram's activities. In the third chapter he deals with the professors mentioned in the documents, viz. Arnold von Cloetinge, Arnold van Doom, Gottfried Schlüssel O. P., Heinrich von Xanten, Johann Schlechter, O. F. M., Johann von Wachtendonck and Johann von Winningen, O. P., and also of Walram's socii, that is, his feUow students, viz. Bernhard von Galen, Gottfried van Loo, O. Carm., Heinrich von Emmerich and Heinrich von Werl, O. F. M. This third chapter is of especial interest because of its wealth of biographical and bibliographical material. The fourth chapter consists of an edition of the disputations and Principia, etc. It shows that Walram was mostly interested in questions of grace and moral theology; another sign that at this time speculative theology was slowly giving ground to practical theology. Father Clasen's work will at least make the reader realize that the scholasticism of the Fifteenth Century needs as much study as that of the Fourteenth, and that we are only beginning to bring the Ught of research into this era of change and confusion. Father Ciasen has succeeded in effectively dispelUng the darkness for a definite time and place. It is only by this type of work that we can hope to make the thought of the Fifteenth Century clear and understandable. As the learned author has shown by his careful edition of the documents, it is not by the intuitions of prejudiced historians, but by the hard labor of painstaking researchers that we can come to appreciate the achievement of the much-maligned and much-ignored Fifteenth Century scholasticism. Philotheus Boehner, O. F. M. Franciscan Institute
Contents: Introduction (Robert Hillenbrand); I. METALWORK AND TEXTILES: The Freer Canteen: Jerusalem or Jazira? (Teresa Fitzherbert); Mamluk Textiles (Maria Sardi); The Captivating Power of Textiles (Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga); II. CERAMICS: Unravelling the Enigmatic Fourteenth-Century Mamluk and Mongol Fine Wares: How to Solve the Problem (Rosalind A. Wade Haddon); Crossing Borders: Mudejar Ceramics in Paterna (Anna McSweeney); The Aesthetics of Simulation: Architectural Mimicry on Medieval Ceramic Tabourets (Margaret S. Graves); III. THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: A Symbolic Khassakiyya: Representations of the Palace Guard in Murals and Stucco Sculpture (Melanie Gibson); The Notion of Time and the Image of Place: Reflections on Islamic Gardens (Saeid Khaghani);The Public Realm in Central Damascus: 'Where Old and New Meet' (Rema Haddad); IV. ARTS OF THE BOOK: The Earliest Qur'anic Scripts (Marcus Fraser); The Influence of Oral Narrating Traditions on a Frequently Illustrated Thirteenth-Century Manuscript (Filiz Adiguzel Toprak); Exile and Adventure: Hassan Massoudy and Sindbad the Sailor (Sarah Sandow).
It can be argued that Campbell’s text The Hero with a Thousand Faces is principally concerned with the individual adventurer, the man or the woman, who embarks on the journey with the goal of breaking the bonds of his or her Oedipal attachments in order to achieve a state of liberation which mostly means not becoming an adult psychoneurotic. Campbell tells us that the stages of the journey are represented in the ritual actions of cultural rites of passage, ceremonials staged by members of a collective in order to usher the individual across difficult thresholds of transformation so that he or she may find the forms and proper feelings of his new estate. Campbell’s elaboration of the phases of the journey for the individual are rich with detail and illuminating evidence for his thesis about the hero’s ultimate objective which he describes as exiting the nursery. But, what of the collective who both reproduce the conditions of the rites of passage for the individual and stand witness to his or her becoming? What is their role in the advance of the hero towards liberation? Is it simply to watch and wait?
This article explores the sometimes tricky question of tonality in pop and rock songs by positing three tonal scenarios: 1) songs with a fragile tonic, in which the tonic chord is present but its hierarchical status is weakened, either by relegating the tonic to a more unstable chord in first or second inversion or by positioning the tonic mid-phrase rather than at structural points of departure or arrival; 2) songs with an emergent tonic, in which the tonic chord is initially absent yet deliberately saved for a triumphant arrival later in the song, usually at the onset of the chorus; and 3) songs with an absent tonic, an extreme case in which the promised tonic chord never actually materializes. In each of these scenarios, the composer’s toying with tonality and listeners’ expectations may be considered hermeneutically as a means of enriching the song’s overall message. Close analyses of songs with fragile, emergent, and absent tonics are offered, drawing representative examples from a wide range of styles and genres across the past fifty years of popular music, including 1960s Motown, 1970s soul, 1980s synthpop, 1990s alternative rock, and recent U.S. and U.K. #1 hits. Volume 23, Number 2, June 2017 Copyright © 2017 Society for Music Theory [1] Skilled nineteenth-century song composers such as Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms often exploited tonality and its expectations for symbolic or expressive purposes. About Brahms’s 1873 song “Regenlied” (op. 59 no. 3), for example, Heather Pla' observes that “[t]hroughout most of this song the tonic is absent . . . [and] the resulting wandering harmonies . . . create a dream world in which time seems to be suspended” (1999, 248). Broaching the issue of harmony and tonal design in their analysis of German lieder, Deborah Stein and Robert Spillman use the term implicit tonality to refer to “a section of music where a key is suggested (i.e., implied) but not fully (i.e., explicitly) presented” (1996, 135).(1) This essay argues that popular-song composers since the 1960s have often toyed with tonality in much the same way, and that many striking examples of such
Taking Hangzhou Qinghefang folk cultural street as an example.this article analyses and sorts its soundscape firstly,and then design the soundscape of Hangzhou Qinghefang folk culture street acorrding to its functional division,and points out countermeasures such as "sorting out those negative sound elements,analyzing the function that folk street soundscape acts in static landscape,returning the site characteristic sounds and changing the combination of sounds".
This work deals with the examination of artwork by photothermal radiometry. It was initiated at the time of the restoration of a florentine XIV century mural painting, the Saint Christopher of the Louvre Museum. The aim of this work is to evaluate the possibilities of photothermal radiometry concerning detection of deterioration of internal structure of painting, non visible on surface. The study concentrated on the detection of separations of coating and the existing air voids between the various layers of the support, which create zones of brittleness which often requires an intervention of consolidation. The photothermal analysis was initially carried out on a counterpart of the fresco. In a second time it is the Saint Christopher itself which was controlled. The results obtained clearly show the possibility of detecting defects located in such works of art. The correlation between the information collected by photothermal analysis and traditional acoustic sounding was demonstrated and finally shows the interest to associate these two methods of non-destructive testing. �
OF ALL the events in celebration of this great anniversary year, it is possible that none would please Bach more than the festival this May, at once special and regular, of the Bach Choir at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He would approve of the scope, the competency, and above all the spirit of the Bethlehem presentation. It will be remembered that, during his lifetime, Bach was famous throughout Germany as a master of the organ; but as a composer he was almost unknown. The cantor of St. Thomas's wrote his oratorios and cantatas to supply the Sunday and festival services of the four churches in Leipzig whose choirs he trained. The two principal choirs had twelve singers each, boys and men; and these as a double chorus, with eighteen to twenty instrumentalists, constituted the maximum strength which performed the St. Matthew Passion, sections of the B Minor Mass, and the Sunday cantatas at Leipzig in the 1720's. Bach, this May, would hear his colossal choruses given in Bethlehem by a choir of nearly three hundred voices and an orchestra of ninety. Size of course is in itself unimportant. What Bach would consider important (as his criticisms of his own choir show) is the competency of the performers. The Bethlehem singers are generally regarded as one of the finest choirs in the United States, "a national institution," in the words of Mr. Pitts Sanborn; and the instrumentalists are members of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. The supreme satisfaction which the Bethlehem festival would bring to our listening Bach would be its spirit-devotion to God. To a composer, who, when living, heard his works sung by a small band in perfunctory and careless fashion, there would be joy in the eager and careful singing of this large choir-an ever-renewing group which, over a period of thirty-five years, has restricted itself to the music of Bach. And Bach would perceive the deep religious feeling of these singers in their fulfillment of his own words about his work-that he "ventured upon it in the name of the Most High." How does it happen that this utter devotion to Bach's choral work
In Italy today, more and more people are becoming interested in dance as a subject of scholarly pursuit (1), in spite of a number of serious obstacles. Until two years ago there was no university in Italy which offered either courses or degrees in any aspect of dance. This rather basic handicap notwithstanding, starting about fifteen years ago, an everincreasing number of students has chosen dance-oriented topics—making them acceptable to the chairmen of their departments—for degrees in music history, Italian literature, history, art history, ethnomusicology, and theatre history (2). In Italian universities, students working on their dissertations have little guidance, for advisors with expertise in highly specific areas are, more often than not, unavailable. This is certainly the rule in the case of theses dealing with the dance, despite the interest and encouragement of professors. As a result, students have been left to fend for themselves, often without a focus, unaware of methodologies, bibliographic sources and previous research. Three-year postuniversity grants for Ph.D.s were introduced by the Italian government seven years ago, for the first time. The number of grants, to be won by competition, is exiguous. No provision at all is made for Ph.D.s in dance. What is most discouraging in this picture is that after completing a dissertation, it is almost impossible for anyone to continue his or her research. This problem is not unique to dance. University graduates with excellent degrees in, for example, art history or philosophy have great difficulty finding jobs of any kind, and jobs related to their field are a rarity. Only a select few are chosen to embark on a university career which would enable them to continue their research. But even this minute possibility is almost inconceivable for dance. As a result, a few students who are determined to continue their studies in dance — both in performance and in research (therapy, history, ethnochoreology, notation, etc.) — do so for the most part in the United States or in England. Yet despite the lack of institutional or government support, dance research is being undertaken, and much of it is of a high level. Most of it is concerned with dance history, for Italy has been in the forefront of dance from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. A small group of self-trained historians, specialized in fifteenth to seventeenth-century Italian dance, has emerged during the past ten years. Most have had practical experience with performance, teaching, and reconstruction. In 1987, Alessandro Pontremoli and Patrizia La Rocca published their // Ballare Lombardo (3)—the most complete study of fifteenth-century Italian dance to date—and they have continued their research on dancing in Venice (4) and in Milan's Jesuit Colleges. Pontremoli is now teaching a graduate course in history of theatre and spectacle (which includes dance) at the Universita Cattolica in Milan.
TO THE AGES OF AGES: RECONCEPTUALIZING HIGH SCHOOL ART HISTORY CURRICULUM Amy Michele Bergh, M.A.E. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011 Director: Dr. Nancy A. Lampert, Assistant Professor, Department of Art Education Through this curriculum study, I explored the application of ideas found within contemporary art education to a course of traditional secondary art history. These contemporary art education ideas included: visual culture instruction, interdisciplinary instruction, contemporary art instruction, curriculum development, the use of enduring ideas, and the inclusion of a variety of perspectives based on gender and ethnicity. Through these art education ideas, a new curriculum was formed, that pushed both the students and the teacher toward a more inclusive art history course that made real connections for students and allowed students to be active members in their own learning. Instruction shifted away from lecture and became more dialogue and discussion oriented. Unit examples are included for Romanticism, Dadaism, and American Social Realism.
Abstract This article addresses Guitar Hero and Rock Band gameplay as a developing form of collaborative, participatory rock music performance. Drawing on ethnomusicology, performance studies, popular music studies, gender and sexuality studies, and interdisciplinary digital media scholarship, I investigate the games' models of rock heroism, media debates about their impact, and players' ideas about genuine musicality, rock authenticity, and gendered performance conventions. Grounded in ethnographic research—including interviews, a Web-based qualitative survey, and media reception analysis—this article enhances our understanding of performance at the intersection of the “virtual” and the “real,” while also documenting the changing nature of amateur musicianship in an increasingly technologically mediated world.
In this project we shall analyse the main changes that take place in memory related to age, focusing on the ageing stage. Therefore we shall deak with the different ways in which memory is stored, noticing, in some cases, that in spite of a decline in performance, other aspects are preserved even with an increase in age. Lastly we shall also mention some norms on memory simulation linked with age, as on memory stimulation linked with age, as it is an hability capable of being learnt.
Eugene Bozza is a three-time winner of the Premier Prix from the Paris Conservatory, in violin, conducting, and composition divisions. He earned his reputation as a master composer of wind music, and contributed a great amount of repertoire to the woodwind family. This document contains a short biography of Eugene Bozza’s life, including his student years and his career as a composer. The purpose of this study is to provide information of how Bozza transferred, adopted and remade his own music among his wind compositions. This document shows that Bozza’s methods of musical adoption warrant a close examination in order to offer greater insight into the mind of a masterful composer. Discussion of Bozza’s compositions includes Aria (1936), Fantasie Italienne (1939), Pulcinella (1944), Concerto (1952), Idylle (1959), Caprice-Improvisation (1963), Epithalame (1971), Suite (1974), Trois Mouvements for Flute and Clarinet (1974), Graphismes for Clarinet Solo (1975), 14 Etudes de Mecanisme (1948), 12 Etudes (1953), 11 Etudes sur des Modes Karnatiques (1972), and Contrastes III for Clarinet and Bassoon (1977).
Addington, Larry H. The Patterns of War through the Eighteenth Century. Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990. x i i+ 161 p. illus., maps, biblio., index. (ISBN o253-30131-9) $22.50; (ISBN 0-25320551-4) $10.95 papAllen, Michael J. B. hastes: Marsilio Ficino's Interpretation of Plato's Sophist. (Five Studies and Critical Edition with Translation). Berkeley-Los AngelesOxford: University of California Press, 1989. x + 3 i 7 p . biblio., index. (ISBN 0-520-06419-4) $35.
Mario de Andrade’s poems, “Poemas da negra” (1929), by means of silent music, reveals the poet’s subtle lyricism that is insinuated into the verses. To try to apprehend this music is to participate in the seduction game of the poem, to abandon oneself while at the same time attempting to capture its essence, experiencing, thus, the critical act as the “passionate effort to love and understand” (ANDRADE, 2002a, p.11) .
an entire nation. Trades, Dekker tells us, were first "ordaind to be Communities," 1 and in the course of this play the fervent and jocund sense of community retained by a brotherhood of shoemakers triumphs over the intrigues of a suspicious and "subtle" society. As Simon Eyre, the mad cobbler of Tower Street, rises from master of a single shop to sheriff, to alderman, and finally to Lord Mayor of London, the craft of an older order is swept aside by the honest energy of artisans "not subtile, (But in Handi-crafts .)"2 The Shoemakers' Holiday is, all in all, a merry piece of work. And yet on closer examination the play's central episodes seem to
Painting Culture tells the complex story of how, over the past three decades, the acrylic "dot" paintings of central Australia were transformed into objects of international high art, eagerly sought by upscale galleries and collectors. Since the early 1970s, Fred R. Myers has studied—often as a participant-observer—the Pintupi, one of several Aboriginal groups who paint the famous acrylic works. Describing their paintings and the complicated cultural issues they raise, Myers looks at how the paintings represent Aboriginal people and their culture and how their heritage is translated into exchangeable values. He tracks the way these paintings become high art as they move outward from indigenous communities through and among other social institutions—the world of dealers, museums, and critics. At the same time, he shows how this change in the status of the acrylic paintings is directly related to the initiative of the painters themselves and their hopes for greater levels of recognition.  Painting Culture describes in detail the actual practice of painting, insisting that such a focus is necessary to engage directly with the role of the art in the lives of contemporary Aboriginals. The book includes a unique local art history, a study of the complete corpus of two painters over a two-year period. It also explores the awkward local issues around the valuation and sale of the acrylic paintings, traces the shifting approaches of the Australian government and key organizations such as the Aboriginal Arts Board to the promotion of the work, and describes the early and subsequent phases of the works’ inclusion in major Australian and international exhibitions. Myers provides an account of some of the events related to these exhibits, most notably the Asia Society’s 1988 "Dreamings" show in New York, which was so pivotal in bringing the work to North American notice. He also traces the approaches and concerns of dealers, ranging from semi-tourist outlets in Alice Springs to more prestigious venues in Sydney and Melbourne.  With its innovative approach to the transnational circulation of culture, this book will appeal to art historians, as well as those in cultural anthropology, cultural studies, museum studies, and performance studies.
Introduction: Called to Amma's Courtyard 1. Setting the Stage: The Healing Room, Its Actors, and Its Rhythms 2. The Healing System 3. Patient Narratives in the Healing Room 4. Negotiating Gender in the Healing Room 5. Religious Identities at the Crossroads 6. Immersed in Remembrance and Song: Religious Identities, Authority, and Gender at the Sam? Conclusion: Vernacular Islam Embedded in Relationships Epilogue
Is my PGCE drew towards its end, the prospect of my first teaching job loomed large in my mind. I had been forewarned that 50% of my teaching workload would consist of teaching Classical Civilisation, and that the majority of this would be at A Level. However, I did not have personal experience of the subject as a school pupil (I studied Latin, Greek and English Literature at A Level – there was no Classical Civilisation option), so I had no personal frame of reference or pre-formed opinion of how it might be taught best. The final research project of the PGCE course presented an ideal and much-needed opportunity to investigate the possible teaching strategies I should consider in preparation for my own teaching of the subject. I was particularly interested in how to ‘get through’ the seemingly vast amount of text which teachers often cited as a real challenge.
The realistic tragedies of the "northerners," Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov, forming the fifth of the five highest pinnacles that towered in the history of the Western tragedy according to Steiner, have usually been treated as a strictly nineteenth century phenomenon. But the factor of value judgment introduced by Ibsen is as viable today as in the nineteenth century. The spiritual _vacuum created by God's disapperance that prompted Ibsen's entrance still remains unaltered. The dignity of man underlies the value judgment. The rejection of compromise is one of the most conspicuous aspects of the dignity. The protagonists of the "northerners" are above all men and women of no compromise, ,and meet their crises alone and suffer the outcome to keep their dignity. Love and honor are seldom their goals. Truth is their main motive. The criterion of the value judgment, however, presupposes the solid entity of the self, or the essence of man, which cannot be sustained in the twentieth century, while the dignity of man is sought more than ever. Thus to us their pursuits of the dignity become the pursuits of the impossible, and in the long run the pursuits of the absurd. In many respects the drama of the Absurd, which clearly shows the above situation, can be seen as the latest readjustment of the value system established by the "northerners."
The article deals with the process of migration of audiovisual content from television to the Internet from the study of webseries, which keeps fragmented narratives from the telefication tradition. It presents brief analyzes of some Brazilian webs, trying to map elements of similarity and distinction between the series made for virtual environments and those produced for the television, besides pointing theoretical and methodological contributions pertinent to these new media products.
Mr Ross lives on an island where no visitors come. He stops people from taking photographs of him. He is young and rich, but he looks sad. And there is one room in his house which is always locked. Carol Sanders and her mother come to the island to work for Mr Ross. Carol soon decides that there is something very strange about Mr Ross. Where did he get his money from? How can a young man buy an island? So she watches, and she listens - and one night she learns what is behind the locked door.
Proclaimed the most illustrious of illustrators, Gustave Dore is best known for his engravings, which appeared in editions of the Bible, Dantes Inferno, Poes The Raven, The Adventures of Don Quixote, and even in Hollywood, from King Kong to Seven. Yet the extent of his genius remains largely unknown. Here, along with his renowned illustrations, his paintings and sculptures are also examined, bringing to light the rich diversity of his talent. Using watercolor, vivid oil paint, or sculpture, he demonstrated mastery in a vast scope of media, and in treatments ranging from monumental historical tableaux to landscapes to modest compositions. His work transcended techniques and eras, covering an inexhaustible range of subjects from Europe to the United States to Russia and revealing his insatiable curiosity. This comprehensive monograph accompanies an exhibition at the Musee dOrsay in Paris from February 18May 11, 2014 and at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from June 12September 14, 2014.
The very act of an Indian writing novels, plays or poems in English basically involves the phenomenon of linguistic authenticity which technically speaking, is the problem of verisimilitude. While Raja Rao’s prose is experimental, Indian idioms and proverbs and transliterations, R.K Narayan steers clear of the extremes by striking a fine balance between the modulations of standard English and the so- called experiments of IndianEnglish.
Tom O'Flaherty's unpublished novel Red Crom's Island is a distinctly political potboiler that envisions the Gaeltacht as a potential centre for leftist revolutionary activity. By comparison, O'Flaherty's two Anglophone short stories collections, Aranmen All and Cliffmen of the West, seem to eschew socialist politics in favour of ethnographic depictions of the Aran Islands. When read in conjunction, however, the novel appears to be a source for the short fiction, which prompts a reevaluation of the politics at work in both collections. In this article, I argue that reading the unpublished and published work in tandem with archival correspondences involving officials from the Irish Free State reveals the ways in which O'Flaherty sought to articulate the necessity of socialist values for the survival of the Aran Islands at a time in the 1930s when anti-Communist sentiment and distaste for socialism was on the rise in Ireland.
The female artist has been almost invisible in historical account  of the mid-Victorian period, yet between 1850 and 1879 many moves were made towards recognising women as practitioners within the  field of the fine arts, and indeed, the woman artist was a part  the 'woman question' which so exercised the period. There is a  stereotypical figure and stereotypical notions of 'woman's art'  at large in the mid-Victorian period which do much to obscure a  distort the actual activities and achievements of women practices  in painting, sculpture and graphic art within the period.  The situation of the woman aspiring to be an artist was very clearly determined by the situation of the mid-Victorian woman in society  at large. Particular factors, however, which form important pa of her circumstances are education, exhibition, patronage, and  employment. Within the period, education was seen as the most crucial factor in allowing women to test their capabilities in  fine arts, though many quarters of opinion, throughout the midcentury  period, held that women were more, and fundamentally, f  for the. applied arts of design or craft than fine art, and would never produce great art regardless of the opportunity they might be offered. The validity and development of such opinion can be t by examining the work which women did produce in this period during which their identity was being resolved, and by-considering the  critical responses made to their work. Unfortunately, much of  actual evidence is now lost or untraced, leaving only verbal or reproductions to stand for the paintings, drawings, and sculptures which the mid-Victorian woman artist produced. When she and he  work are taken into account, however, it can be seen that the  traditional face of mid-Victorian art, as heretofore defined and  described, should be corrected if an accurate and full picture  the art of the mid-Victorian period is to be drawn up. During  years 1850 to 1879, the woman artist became a recognisable figures  the art scene such as she had not been before, although later  historians have largely failed to recognise the fact.
In approaching the problem of Archive keeping at Mari, it might be profitable to inspect, at the outset, the archaeological evidence. On doing so, one is immediately struck firstly by the heterogeneous arrangement of objects in storage and secondly by the apparent lack of a noticeable system in organizing the archives. A spot check of other second millennium palaces which produced appreciable quantities of texts reveals this observation to be generally applicable. In almost every major segment of the Mari palace, a cluster of chambers, really store-rooms, contained a collection of tablets, varying in size. In addition, a text or two would be uncovered here and there at unexpected quarters. For this scattering, Hammurapi's victorious troops were often blamed. This accusation is contradicted, however, by the evidence, documented with archival tags, that after its initial victory, Babylon attempted to preserve Mari's archives under a modicum of order. In the south-east section of the palace, dubbed by Parrot as the “Eastern” and “Workshops and Store-rooms” Quarters, at least twelve chambers sheltered tablets, many of which dated to the days of Yaḫdun-Lim and his (son (?) and) successor Sūmū-Yamam. On the opposite end, tablets were found in four rooms and in one large chamber of the Administrative Quarters. More to the centre of the palace, and around the vast open courtyard no. 106, the largest proportion of tablets were stored. Rooms 115 to the east, 110 to the north-west, and 108 to the west came the closest to being strictly archival in character.
This article aims to utter and explain about women representation in the work of Galombang dance creation produced by Sofiani Studio. The methods used in this research are qualitative and descriptive method, the data is collected by interviewing techniques. Other techniques of data collection is performed by observing. This technique observes the ways or the structures of the work Galombang dance show by Syofiani studio, society responds, training and performance processes, either in the wedding party or in other ceremonial events. TheResults of thisstudy found that the role of women is particularly prominent in the work of Galombang dance by Syofyani studio this prominent role appears due to the works take more values through women characteristics. Itexplicitly states that this works do not basically apply lot of the movements from Silat. Women role is as artistically and aesthetically prominent figure of
In the forties decade, the writer Alejo Carpentier and the painter Wilfredo Lam return to Cuba after nearly 20 years of «exile» and that leads both of them to reflect on strictly Cuban issues and, to be more precise, on Afrocuban ones. This search for their own is carried out not only from the feeling of being Cuban but also from pro-European and avant-garde postulates. Cuban literature and painting arise from cosmopolitan artists for whom the «outside» and the «inside» fuse together, walking in parallel throughout their development.
Almost all show-world success stories in India appear the same. What sets individuals apart is the approach and the attitude once they reach the top. No one can resist a rags-to-riches story. It is every common man's dream. But Rajinikanth's story is irresistible. He continues to be an enigma to both his fans and contemporaries. He is simple Shivaji Rao Gaekwad who, by way of luck and hard work became a superstar, and continues to remain on top notwithstanding the vagaries of time.His starrer "Muthu" gave him an enviable identity globally, and sky seemed the limit after its unprecedented success in Japan. His lates, "Shivaji" has further spread his charisma globally. One can love Rajinikanth as millions do, one can hate him, as his detractors do, but the fact also remains no one can ignore him. None can shrug away his presence unless he or she is extremely insensitive to the film world.The book painstakingly seeks to record every nuance of Rajinikanth's life: the joys and sorrows, the pains and ecstasies, loves and betrayals. It also does not shy away from underlining the two extremes that have remained an intrinsic part of his highly eventful career: the human and the divine. The book tells the essential truth about Rajinikanth that has thus far remained unknown to his vast fan following.
Often referred to as the city of the future, Los Angeles is known for its sprawl, its constant change, and its special relationship to the film industry. The twelve contributors to Looking for Los Angeles focus on dramatic shifts in the urban landscape, important moments in the city's architectural history, and the role of the image in this mecca of image makers. Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom searches for Los Angeles's center and finds a city that "breaks itself down, builds itself up again, displaces and regroups itself" and where "freedom of movement" is a basic premise of life. Historian Philip Ethington documents the city's changing character in both text and images, urban studies professor Dana Cuff exposes the demise of once-thriving urban neighborhoods to make way for Modernist housing projects, and anthropologist Susan A. Phillips invites us on a personal journey into "the projects" to meet gang members and their families today. Artist Robbert Flick offers a sixteen-page, full-color photo-essay that takes us on a "drive-by" along Alameda Avenue, architectural historian Thomas S. Hines traces Frank Lloyd Wright's influence on the life and career of photographer Edmund Teske, and film historian Robert L. Carringer examines Los Angeles as a setting for Hollywood feature films.
espanolLa obra de Goya pone de manifiesto temas psicoanaliticos fundamentales, algunos de los cuales tambien sirvieron a Freud para sus teorizaciones; a traves de ciertas figuras mitologicas como Saturno devorando a su hijo, Judith y Holofernes, etc., pudo explicar la angustia, la castracion, la renegacion, etc. El genio creador de Goya muestra a traves de producciones escindidas, primarias, «locas», a un sujeto que mas alla de los episodios de irrupcion de la pulsion, pudo historizarse y escapar a la locura, ligando su caos interior a la creacion artistica, pudo incluirse en el registro simbolico, liberarse de los contenidos mortiferos y desintegradores de la dimension imaginaria en la que podria haber quedado atrapado. EnglishThe works of Goya manifest fundamental psychoanalytic themes, sorne of which were also useful to Freud for his theorizations. Through certain mythological figures such as Saturn devouring his son, Judith and Holofernes, etc., he was able to explain anxiety, castration, disavowal, etc. Goya's creative genius shows, through split off, primary, «mad» productions a subject who, regardless of episodes when the drive broke out, was able to historicize himself and escape madness. By linking his interna! chaos to artistic creation, he was able to include himself in the symbolic register, freeing himself from deadly and disintegrating contents of the imaginary dimension in which he could have remained trapped. francaisL'oeuvre de Goya meten evidence des themes psychanalytiques fondamentaux, certains d'entre eux ont egalement servi a Freud pour ses theorisations: a travers certaines figures mythologiques comme Saturne devorant son fils, Judith et Holopherne, etc., il a pu expliquer l'angoisse, la castration, le deni, etc. Le genie createur de Goya montre a travers des productions clivees, primaires, «folles», un su jet qui au dela des episodes d'irruption de la pulsion, a pu s'historiser et echapper a la folie, liant son caos interieur a la creation artistique, a pu s'inclure dans le registre symbolique, se liberer des contenus mortiferes et desintegrateurs de la dimension imaginaire ou il aurait pu rester attrape.
The article analyses the image of Tolstoy in the biographical essay by Romain Rolland "The life of Tolstoy". It also reconstructs the notions of French writer of the Russian national character. The essay about Tolstoy is inscribed in the context of French works on the great Russian writer which were published in the end of XTX-beginning of XX centuries (A. Suares, M. de Vogue, F. Shroder, J. Dumas, E. Rod). The article establishes the I place of the essay in Rolland's work of arts "The lives of the greats", shows a I determination of the principles of construction of the image of Tolstoy by the views of Rolland, his religious and ethical search. The article analyses the system of characters which realizes the author's concept of Russian character (patriotism, fatalism, inclination for passions, extremes and in the same time for the spirit perfection and search. The article states that Rolland destroyed the stereotypes about Russian character which were elaborated by the western discourse on Russia.
Literary Couples and Twentieth-Century Life Writing: Narrative and Intimacy by Janine Utell, London and New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, 215 pp., ISBN 9781350003453 Hannah Roche To cite this article: Hannah Roche (2021): Literary Couples and Twentieth-Century Life Writing: Narrative and Intimacy, Life Writing, DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2021.1886650 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2021.1886650
Bachelor thesis Language in popular scientific magazines (Scientific American) deals with analysis of the journalistic style in popular scientific magazines and the stylistic characteristics of the language of the journalistic style. For the analysis, four issues of the Scientific American magazine were selected as a sample material. Methods used for the study involve text analysis, comparative study of styles and interpretation of the text and context. The work focused mainly on analysis of the characteristic features of headlines and subheadlines. Description of the regular text types is also provided including characteristics of the magazine sections and individual rubrics, authors, the style of quotation, and remarkable traits of the table of contents.
H E history of the body and soul dialogue in England is strange. Developing from the older eleventhand twelfth-century address T of the soul to its body, it flourished in the fourteenth century, gradually disappeared in the fifteenth, and then reappeared “suddenly and inexplicably”‘ in the first half of the seventeenth century. There are four such dialogues and one address that have survived from this period, as well as a considerable body of related literature. While this scarcely constitutes a major revival of a literary form, the complete inexplicability of the appearance of even five works is hard to accept. Why did this apparently anachronistic literary form make a sudden and brief appearance between 1602 and 1651 only to die out completely after that date? A careful examination of the characteristics of both the form and content of the medieval debates makes it clear that they have much more in common with at least certain aspects of early seventeenth century thought and literature than one might suppose. And some of their seventeenth century descendents, while retaining many essentially medieval characteristics, can be seen adapting themselves to the demands and influences of the new age.
The history of art is accompanied by a history of writing about art in many formats or genres, which are sometimes mixed: criticism, appreciation, historical interpretation, theory, poetry, fiction, travel literature, letters, blogs, and so forth. The story of such writing extends from Homer's description of Hephaistos fashioning the shield of Achilles through the vast body of modern art-historical writing, almost all of which is academic in character. Although the story of art treats many great works, relatively little perhaps surprisingly little writing about art is worthy of the art that it celebrates. Much of this writing is lacking in vitality and is easily forgotten. Even when it captures the attention of readers, its influence lasts a season or two before it recedes into oblivion. History tells us that this is so. There are, however, certain texts written in celebration of art that stand out because they both rise to the condition of art and help us to understand the art they describe for example, Winckelmann's rapturous hymn to the Apollo Belvedere , Hawthorne's sensuous appreciation of the charm of Praxiteles' Marble Faun , Proust's uncanny understanding of the existential profundity of Giotto's Charity in Padua, and Auden's penetrating rendering in "Musée des Beaux-Arts" of Bruegel's Fall of Icarus. In the history of writing that is worthy of the art it describes or celebrates, Giorgio Vasari's extensive rhetorical descriptions of works of art in his Lives of the artists stand collectively as a monument to great art. Such writing is itself art. Even at this late date, almost half a millennium after he wrote, many of Vasari's descriptions of works by Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, among others, are unsurpassed stunning in their artifice and insight. Some of Vasari's texts are, however, still not appreciated sufficiently. Of these, I wish to single out his vibrant "word picture" inspired by Raphael's Liberation of Saint Peter a fresco that was painted during the second decade of the sixteenth century for Pope Julius II in the Stanza di Eliodoro of the Vatican apartments (Fig. 1). Such writing is exemplary. That is, like all great writing about art, it stands as a model to those writing later. Let us read what Vasari says about Raphael's great fresco (in the classic Gaston du C. de Vere translation):
The main objectives of this study were to describe the most common type of sessions in physical education classes depending on the type of students groupings and to analyze the time available for practice (TCM) depending on the type of meeting, school year or when students practice the first, second and third year of primary education. This study involved 264 children who were studying in the first, second and third year of primary education. A total of 176 physical education sessions were recorded by observation tool TiPEF which showed excellent reliability (Cohen's Kappa = 0.95 to 0.99). The sessions where a cluster of large group used were the most used (33.5%) and sessions where the clusters were in groups of 4, 8 and 12 participants were the least used (5.7% each). The mean duration of TCM for all sessions analyzed was 21.4 ± 3.8 min / session, meaning that 67.2% of the time bound for other tasks that did not involve driving practice. The freshmen were the most TCM arranged by session and the third year the least (p <0.01). In sessions after recess and early in the afternoon TCM having students was higher (p <0.01) than in the last session of the morning and afternoon. It can be essential that educational institutions and physical education teachers perform specific actions to increase the TCM at these ages.
Preface 1. Manuscript, book, and text in the twenty-first century 2. Complexity, endurance, accessibility, beauty, sophistication, and scholarship 3. Script act theory 4. An electronic infrastructure for script acts 5. Victorian fiction: shapes shaping reading 6. The dank cellar of electronic texts 7. Negotiating conflicting aims in textual scholarship 8. Hagiolatry, cultural engineering, monument building, and other functions of scholarly editing 9. The aesthetic object: 'the subject of our mirth' 10. Ignorance in literary studies Bibliography.
As a world intangible cultural heritage,the value of the Dazu Rock Carvings art has the meaning of humanity with itself.This article tries to explore the anthropological value and the rich anthropological meaning behind the features secular style of the Dazu Rock Carvings art from the religious themes in human life,modal characteristics,modeling style of life of situation and the formation of Dazu Rock Carving Art motivation.
By selecting and describing different life-stages in the production of one particular exhibition - the permanent ethnographic displays in the Centenary Gallery of the Homiman Museum, London - this paper examines the dialogical nature of exhibition making. From curatorial conception, through design, to the Museum's corporate modifications, the role of the curator as dominant producer is problematised and the differentiated languages of museum practice are interrogated. Attention is particularly focused on the intersections and interactions between and across these different professional languages which serve to constitute, transform and fix exhibitionary media.
This article sets out to illuminate two intermedial Dante references in the artwork of the Chinese-western artist Ai Weiwei: the music album The Divine Comedy (2013) and the Lego portrait Dante Alighieri in LEGO (2016). By paying special attention to surfaces, the “surface reading” presented in this article seeks to interrogate the function of these references. However, in place of Why? the question in this article is shaped more by How? Due to Dante's inherent mediality, the intermedial Dante references function as a social medium. The article demonstrates, how mediality becomes evident through two operators: seriality and combinatorics. By placing the artist on one of the two sides of mediation, this article implicitly reverses the role long reserved for Ai Weiwei: that of the cultural mediator.
This study was concerned with address term. The writer was curious to know about the address terms used by female Javanese shop-assistants at Tunjungan Plaza and those used by female Javanese shop-assistants at Pasar Turi towards their female Chinese buyer. Besides, the writer also wanted to know the frequency of used by female Javanese shop-assistants at Tunjungan Plaza and those used by female Javanese shop-assistants at Pasar Turi towards their female Chinese buyer. Related to the study, the writer used Kridalaksana and Janet Holmes theory about the address terms. Then, this study was also supported by Henrikus Supriyanto theory, which mentions the five different kinds of address terms used/spoken in East Java, Brown and Ford theory, and Wardhaugh theory. The writer used qualitative descriptive approach in doing her research. In getting the data, the writer asked a set of questions about the shop-assistants backgrounds to the female Javanese shop-assistants at Tunjungan Plaza and the female Javanese shop-assistants at Pasar Turi. The questionnaire was filled out by the writer herself after the writer got the data. There were 30 female Javanese shop-assistants at Tunjungan Plaza and 30 female Javanese shop-assistants at Pasar Turi. Finally, the writer found out that the female Javanese shop-assistants at Tunjungan Plaza and Pasar Turi have used similar address terms such as mbak (older sister), cece (older sister), nonik (younger sister), meme (younger sister), and cik (older sister). However, the writer also found that the address terms used by female Javanese shopassistants at Tunjungan Plaza and those used by female Javanese shopassistants at Pasar Turi were different in the frequency of use. At Tunjungan plaza, the higher frequencies of use were cece (older sister), nonik (younger sister), and meme (younger sister) when serving female Chinese buyer. While at Pasar Turi, the higher frequencies of use were mbak (oldest sister) and cik (older sister).
This thesis is a historical, biographical and literary investigation into modern poets’ diverse engagements with the visual arts and ekphrasis. The project situates contemporary poets in the context of the age of digital reproduction, which evolves from the Benjaminian age of mechanical reproduction, and re-frames ekphrastic poetry within an intricate network of relations between poets and the visual arts. Earlier studies of ekphrasis postulated a competitive relationship between poetry and the visual arts, but critics have now turned to recognise modern poets’ readings of not only works of art but their representations of life subjects. In line with this critical paradigm shift, I argue for a current, ongoing moment of a kind of biographically-inflected ekphrasis in the lengthy history of modern ekphrasis and poetry. I suggest that modern poets return to exploring the complex relations between visual artworks, artists, and viewers. The main body of the thesis is made of the case studies of three contemporary poets Pascale Petit, George Szirtes, and Tamar Yoseloff, chosen for their lifelong commitment to the visual arts and ekphrasis. I call them ‘ekphrasists’ and suggest that they take their bearings from their poetic, artistic and critical predecessors and contemporaries. Drawing on psychoanalytic and life-writing theories, especially Christopher Bollas’ 1987 notion of the transformational object, the case studies read their bio-ekphrastic oeuvres as three sustained life-writing projects about the transformational agency of art. This interdisciplinary project reveals new dimensions to modern poets’ engagements with the visual arts and ekphrasis as extremely fertile grounds for their various autobiographical and biographical purposes.
CONTENTS Dedication List of Contributors Foreword (Michael Crawford, Jo Alyson Parker, Paul Harris) President's Welcoming Remarks A Few Th oughts about Memory, Collectiveness and Aff ectivity (Remy Lestienne) Founder's Address Reflections Upon An Evolving Mirror (J. T. Fraser) Response: Globalized Humanity, Memory, and Ecology (Paul Harris) Section I: Inscribing and Forgetting Preface to Section I Inscribing and Forgetting (Jo Alyson Parker) Chapter One The Body as a Medium of Memory (Christian Steineck) Response (Remy Lestienne) Chapter Two Body Memories and Doing Gender: Remembering the Past and Interpreting the Present in Order to Change the Future (Karen Davies) Response (Linda McKie) Chapter Th ree Coding of Temporal Order Information in Semantic Memory (Elke van der Meer, Frank Kruger, Dirk Strauch, Lars Kuchinike) Chapter Four Telling the Time of Memory Loss: Narrative and Dementia (Marlene P. Soulsby) Response (Alison Phinney) Chapter Five Georges Perec's "Time Bombs": about Lieux (Marie-Pascale Huglo) Chapter Six Seeking in Sumatra (Brian Aldiss) Section II: Inventing Preface to Section II Inventing (Paul Harris) Chapter Seven Furnishing a Memory Palace: Renaissance Mnemonic Practice and the Time of Memory (Mary Schmelzer) Chapter Eight The Radiance of Truth: Remembrance, Self-Evidence and Cinema (Heike Klippel) Chapter Nine Tones of Memory: Music and Time in the Prose of Yoel Hoff mann and W. G. Sebald (Michal Ben-Horin) Response (David Burrows) Chapter Ten Once a Communist, Always a Communist: How the Government Lost Track of Time in its Pursuit of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Katherine A. S. Sibley) Response (Dan Leab) Chapter Eleven Temporality, Intentionality, the Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Causal Mechanisms of Memory in the Brain: Facets of One Ontological Enigma? (E. R. Douglas) Section III: Commemoration Preface to Section III Commemoration-Where Remembering and Forgetting Meet (Michael Crawford) Chapter Twelve Jump-starting Timeliness: Trauma, Temporality and the Redressive Community (Jeffrey Prager) Chapter Th irteen Black in Black: Time, Memory, and the African-American Identity (Ann Marie Bush) Chapter Fourteen Remembering Th e Future: On the Return of Memories in the Visual Field (Efrat Biberman) Responses (Shirley Sharon-Zisser) (Robert Belton) Chapter Fifteen Family Memory, Gratitude And Social Bonds (Carmen Leccardi) Chapter Sixteen Time to Meet: Meetings as Sites of Organizational Memory (Dawna Ballard and Luis Felipe Gomez) Index
The matter of the reproduction of style in C-E translation of Chinese Classics has not drawn much attention for long.With an analysis of C-E translation of Yi'an Ci-poems from Li Qingzhao,the great master of the "Gentle and Restrained School" of Classical Chinese Ci-Poetry,this paper probes into the translating methods and tactics of how to reproduce the original style in English versions,which is based on the perspectives of wording,rhetorical devices and musicality.From the analysis,it is concluded that the style of Chinese Classics is translatable and can be reproduced successfully.This fact calls for translators to grasp the original style and to put it into the global cultural context.
ABSTRACT Bessie Rayner Parkes (later Belloc, 1829–1925) was a central figure in British women’s rights activism during the 1850s and 1860s. She was founding editor of the feminist English Woman’s Journal and one of the organisers of the pioneering 1866 petition for women’s suffrage. She lived long enough to witness some women gaining the vote in 1918, by which time her children, Marie Belloc Lowndes and Hilaire Belloc, were themselves public figures who had taken up opposing positions on women’s suffrage. This article takes as its starting point 1866, a pivotal moment in nineteenth-century agitation for women’s suffrage and in Parkes Belloc’s individual biography, before moving to a longer view of her feminist life before and after this date. It demonstrates the value of a biographical approach to exploring the diversity of perspectives and experiences of women within first-wave feminism and the suffrage movement.
Introduction Definition and Classification Definition Attempts Proverb Markers and Meanings Origin and Dissemination of Proverbs Traditional Forms Related to the Proverb The International Type System of Proverbs Types of International Proverb Collections Major Anglo-American Proverb Collections Various Specialized Proverb Collections Selected Bibliography Examples and Texts Big Fish Eat Little Fish A Classical Proverb about Human Nature First Come, First Served A Medieval Legal Proverb from the Millers The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree A Proverb's Way from Germany to America The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian A Slanderous Proverbial Stereotype Good Fences Make Good Neighbors An Ambiguous Proverb of Relationships A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words An Advertising Slogan Turned American Proverb Proverbs from Different Cultures and Languages Authentic American Proverbs Regional American Proverbs Native American Proverbs African American Proverbs Selected Bibliography Scholarship and Approaches Proverb Journals, Essay Volumes, and Bibliographies Proverb Collections and Future Paremiography Comprehensive Overviews of Paremiology Empiricism and Paremiological Minima Linguistic and Semiotic Considerations Performance (Speech Acts) in Social Contexts Issues of Culture, Folklore, and History Politics, Stereotypes, and Worldview Sociology, Psychology, and Psychiatry Use in Folk Narratives and Literature Religion and Wisdom Literature Pedagogy and Language Teaching Iconography: Proverbs as Art Mass Media and Popular Culture Selected Bibliography Contexts A Man of Fashion Never Has Recourse to Proverbs Lord Chesterfield's Tilting at Proverbial Windmills Early to Bed and Early to Rise From Proverb to Benjamin Franklin and Back Behind the Clouds the Sun Is Shining Abraham Lincoln's Proverbial Fight Against Slavery Conventional Phrases Are a Sort of Fireworks Charles Dickens's Proverbial Language Make Hell While the Sun Shines Proverbial War Rhetoric of Winston S. Churchill Man Is a Wolf to Man Proverbial Dialectics in Bertolt Brecht Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth Proverb Poems and Popular Songs Proverbs in Caricatures, Cartoons, and Comics Proverbs and the World of Advertising Proverbs as Headlines and Slogans Selected Bibliography Bibliography Bibliographies Proverb Journals Major Proverb Studies Multilingual Proverb Collections Bilingual Proverb Collections Anglo-American Proverb Collections Regional and Thematic Proverb Collections Web Resources Glossary Index
When I do theology, unlike the mathematician doing mathematics, I use a language, in my case English, which is also the same language I use in my everyday life. So, normally, whenever I communicate whether in a lecture, in a chat with a friend, in writing, or a brief encounter on the street, I use this language with all its foibles, curiosities and hidden history. A word that is rich in one situation is explosive in another; a word that is redolent with meaning for some is bland and almost meaningless elsewhere. Negotiating these contours of language is a skill in any culture, and those who do not develop this ability are considered ‘awkward,’ gauche, or downright foolish. This seems such an obvious fact of life that it seems silly to mention it, and surely a fact of human nature with which no one would disagree? So, if it is an obvious fact of every linguistic analysis that, unlike mathematics, it is done in the language of the analyst, and therefore is prone to follow the particularities of that individual human language,1 then why bother to mention it? However, anyone looking at the new translation of the Roman Missal is struck by the fact that it reads like Latin in many places and whenever a Latin root (e.g. ‘chalice’ rather than ‘cup’ for calix) could be chosen for a word, it has been chosen. This is seen as acting in fidelity to the original text and, therefore, as a model of the practice of translating. Moreover, there is a growing number of Anglophone bishops who declare that this new translation is either excellent in itself or else a great improvement on the former one. But do these approbations stem from an adequate model for vernacular translation?
ABSTRACT. Mastication has always been well studied, deeply researched and published by recognized authors; focusing on general aspects, not considering the elderly population. However, research not only has not stopped, but engaged in new approaches regarding older adults, unimaginable a few years ago. There is a very special moment in this history; in the 80s when mastication and cerebral blood flow research begins. Numerous of those studies are about the process of aging. This paper summarizes the conventional role of mastication and highlights its hierarchy in the last decades. A personal view on mastication as ‘Mother Function’, leader among oral functions in the elderly concludes the study.
The first two chapters of this book isolate and describe the literary phenomenon of the Sophoclean tragic hero. In all but one of the extant Sophoclean dramas, a heroic figure who is compounded of the same literary elements faced a situation which is essentially the same. The demonstration of this recurrent pattern is made not through character-analysis, but through a close examination of the language employed by both the hero and those with whom he contends. The two chapters attempt to present what might, with a slight exaggeration, be called the 'formula' of Sophoclean tragedy. A great artist may repeat a structural pattern but he never really repeats himself. In the remaining four chapters, a close analysis of three plays, the Antigone, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus, emphasizes the individuality and variety of the living figures Sophocles created on the same basic armature. This approach to Sophoclean drama is (as in the author's previous work on the subject) both historical and critical; the universal and therefore contemporary appeal of the plays is to be found not by slighting or dismissing their historical context, but by an attempt to understand it all in its complexity. 'The play needs to be seen as what it was, to be understood as what it is'.
This piece specifically approaches some recent proposals for the study of f ant asy literature originated by specialized critics, from both America and Europe. These scholars seek to identify the particular characteristics of this type of literature with the purpose of defining it; with some of them demonstrating the necessity of broadening or modifying the viewpoint established by Todorov in 1970. These objectives have resulted an ongoing arduous task, as specialists have not been able to agree even on whether fantasy literature should be regarded as a genre in itself, or studied from other perspectives.
In this study I surveyed the dress and the color symbolism of Scarlett and Melanie in the movie "Gone with the Wind" based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell. In investigating the dress and the color symbolism, I analyzed Scarlett and Melanie's image as described in the novel, and examined how the symbolic imagery is represented through coloration based on the DVD reproduction of the movie "Gone with the Wind" originally produced in 1939. In her novel, the author Margaret Mitchell introduced two women, Scarlett and Melanie, whose respective image sharply contrasts with each other. To express Scarlett's young, vigorous, lusty, and vivacious image, she uses green to depict the character, clothing, and background on the whole. Black, which mainly expresses the death image of the mourning dress. Red symbolizes her fast and lavish image. On the other hand, gray is used to describe Melanie's sedate, shyness, and modest image while alluding to her gloomy atmosphere. Brown symbolizes her sedate and plain image in the novel. In the movie, green symbolizes Scarlett's overwhelming image of youth and liveliness as also depicted in the novel. Melanie, however, seems to appear consistently in gray-blue or purple dresses to reflect her image of modesty, sedation and dignity. Melanie's blue image contrasts with Scarlett's blue image in that the latter is used to hint at the omen to a tragedy to come. Red is used to express Scarlett's passionate and fast image. Black symbolizes death or mourning in the movie.
From the shore the boy watched his father go down. His homemade catama ran started to break apart a hundred yards out, then his father disappeared between the hulls. The boy wasn't afraid until he saw the looks of fear on everyone's faces, and then he was. His mother yelled, did something with her arms, and a lifeguard swam out with a red flotation jug and bobbed among the wreckage. Pieces of the boat began returning to shore, scraps of wood, a dented construction sign. Fifteen minutes later, the boy's father was still underwater.
This chapter presents the laws from the Temple Scroll. The biblical material which lies behind these prescriptions will be examined. The chapter explains how these laws relate to their biblical sources. It is worthwhile to summarize the approach of the author of the Temple Scroll to the biblical material in Leviticus 17 and Deuteronomy 12. Lev 17:1-9 was understood by the scroll as forbidding non-sacral slaughter within the distance of three days' journey of the Temple. Deut 12:5-7 was understood in the same way. These interpretations led the author/redactor of the Temple Scroll to a three-fold division regarding matters of slaughter. In the City of the Sanctuary it was forbidden to eat any meat which had been slaughtered outside. Within the boundary of three days' journey from the Temple it was forbidden to slaughter animals except in the context of שלמים sacrifices in the Temple.Keywords: biblical text; Deuteronomy; Leviticus; Sanctuary; Temple Scroll
In this paper we go in search of the Celtic Soul, tracking its historical intertwining with, and relation to, Irish masculinity, from Ireland's pre-colonial past to its colonial days and finally to its postcolonial present. We argue that the Celtic soul manifests itself, with great success, in the Magners Irish Cider advertising campaign. As a key part of our analysis we also illustrate how representations of the Irish Celt serve as a means of enabling young male consumers to reconcile the many tensions and contradictions they are experiencing over what it means to perform ideals of masculinity in contemporary western culture.
The body conceived as precise pictures of specific and relational exchanges, becomes an object capable of elucidating times and societies, therefore capable of enlightening a world. The diversity of its territories is abundant in the heart of each culture and each era. Thus, the effort of elaborating a history of the body consists in surveying and exploring the many and multiple bodily territories, entangling our representations and mistrusting our sensibility of the present.
What value ought engineers place upon the human body? Do different bodies earn different values? What about animal bodies? How should technological advances affect the human body? This paper will use a new undergraduate course entitled “Technology and the Body” to discuss how one group of second year engineering students in a variety of majors addressed the value of the human body and bodily integrity from physical, social, cultural, and ethical perspectives. This paper will focus on body-altering technologies as portrayed in H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). In addition to raising animal-human, gender, and mind-body issues, this novel questions the level of responsibility required of the researcher towards his subjects and towards other professionals.
The question of common authorship is one that has dogged the critical debate surrounding MS Cotton Nero AX for decades, exasperating commentators and literary researchers alike in their various attempts to win the argument, or else put the query to bed altogether by discounting its necessity. This essay will not point towards any grand theory of solution but discuss the form, style, symbolism and meaning of the poems (particularly Pearl and Sir Gawain and to a lesser extent, Patience) in light of the question, and with regard to some of the critical responses to it. The aim is to clarify the textual evidence in a literarycritical way and to demonstrate how much of that that evidence indeed supports the hypothesis of a single poet. Each poem in the manuscript has a distinctive shape, with internal patterns of varying rigidity and intricacy; although undoubtedly individual in this way, in certain respects the poems contain echoes of each other in their construction. Pearl is perhaps the most formally complex of the poems, its 101 stanzas of 12 lines each amassing 1212 lines altogether; the numbers in their symmetry and suggestiveness of allusion are clearly anything but arbitrary. The number twelve has numerous Biblical representations and significances, not least there being twelve Apostles, twelve legions of angels (Matt 26:53), and twelve tribes of Israel (Exodus). Even the age at which Jesus first publicly appeared was twelve, according to Luke (2:42). The number twelve, unsurprisingly, is most prominent in the book of the Bible which serves to be the poet’s main source of theological interest: the Book of Revelations (or Apocalypse), in which out of its 187 Biblical mentions, 22 are numbered. In Revelations the measurement of the New Jerusalem will be 12,000 furlongs square (a number which the Pearl-poet revises to 12 furlongs in l. 1030), while its four walls will be 144 (12 x 12) cubits long, twelve gates set in three of those walls. The poet’s own reflection of this description serves as a kind of climax of the poem’s numerical-structural thesis (l. 1023-32). As Otis Chapman has pointed out, the number twelve does not just show up in the number of lines, its factors proliferate the structure of the poem and its most basic level: the twelve lines of each stanza are governed by three rhymes (paye, pere, yot (stanza 1)), each line containing four stresses with most of the lines alliterating on three words or four. 1 So the perfection of the number twelve may never be elucidated by speech in the poem, but the significance the poet gives to it is manifest in the poem’s formal features. The poet’s carefully sustained form in reflection of this numerical symbol is reflective of a similar interest in the number five as a sign of perfection and circularity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The pentangle on Gawain’s shield represents, we are told, the five virtues of chivalry, the five wounds of Christ and the five joys of the Virgin, as well as
This is the second of three articles on narratives of the Old Testament and the oral tradition. The first (E.L.O., 9-10) dealt with the story of Judah and Tamar and this second one is centered on the story of Joseph (both from the Book of Genesis). Attention is drawn to the duplication of narratives dealing with different figures (Rebecca and Rachel; Esau and Jacob; Joseph and Benjamin), as if versions of the same narrative were unfolded inside the biblical text itself. Biblical recurrence of the sympathy for the rights of the younger brother as opposed to the natural rights of the eldest is amply demonstrated. Two tales of the Iberian oral tradition are given as examples of the theme of the youngest brother, victimized by the jealousy of the elder siblings and vindicated in the end, so familiar in folktales and so close to the story of Joseph.
ABSTRACT The Isle of the Dead served as the burial ground for the convict settlement at Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, from 1832 until the settlement closed in 1877. Ninety-one grave markers survive. The author first surveyed the cemetery in 1990 and immediately established environmental monitoring that continued over the following 28 years. This paper discusses the hand-in-hand role of preventive conservation in the overall preservation program, including physical interventions. Delamination of stone is not stopped by re-attachment, only by reducing the environmental causes, once these have been accurately identified. This project has exemplified the need for precise understanding of degradation to ensure that the intervention programme is not, in the long term, a futile exercise. Communicating this understanding to the management authority is essential. It is a popular misconception with outdoor objects and monuments, that to repair an object is to prevent the damage re-occurring. It is essential to convey that this simplistic concept can be very damaging for the object and is one the conservation profession needs to emphasize.
In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels famously use a spectral metaphor to describe the challenge that Eu rope’s midnineteenthcentury subterranean communist forces posed for the cap i tal ist establishment. Faced with an economic order that was increasingly predicated on the extraction of surplus value from the labor of the proletariat, Marx and Engels called upon their communist brethren to “meet this nursery tale of the specter of communism with a manifesto of the party itself ” (Marx and Engels 1998). Here, the “specter of communism” carries a retrospective as well as an anticipatory valence, connoting the past and current suppression of communism and the emancipatory promise that communism holds for the future. Postsocialist China, meanwhile, may be seen as a mirror image of this vision of midnineteenthcentury Eu ro pean communism. While The Communist Manifesto describes how communism arose in response to the exploitative tendencies of industrial capitalism, in con temporary China it is instead capitalism that is being offered as an antidote to the socioeconomic weaknesses resulting from a quarter century of communist rule. After a Maoist politi cal economic system predicated on egalitarianism yielded widespread poverty punctuated by periods of extreme famine, Mao Zedong’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, instead took aggressive mea sures to encourage rapid economic growth and privatization. Capitalism, in Deng’s view, offered con temporary I N T R O D U C T I O N
There are clear differences in meaning of the Prophetictraditions (hadith) among the Islamic scholars. Accordingto scholars of Hadith (muhaddits), everyting that comesfrom the Prophet, in the form of words, deeds, taqrir,physical and non-physical, since before his apostleshipand after it, is a Hadith or Sunnah, which should befollowed. As for the scholars of fiqh (fuqaha), hadith islimited on words, deeds, and taqrir taht only has a legalimplications. The deeds of the Prophet which isperformed for the basic needs as human beings, thedeeds that was done by accident, physical form, are nothadith. Among Muslims, Tablighi Jamaat is thecommunity that tends to the defination the scholars ofhadith, so they practices and strives for such outwardappearance of the Prophet. Tablighi Jamaat are generallytextual. It can be seen from the practice of the sunnahsthat related to worship, manners or appearance, such ashow to dress, wearing a cap and turban, siwak,lengthening the beard and shaving the mustache, eatingand drinking, and others. For them, the Prophet was sentas an example for humanity, so that everything thatcomes from him should be followed
How does the artist's self-conception change in old age? How does old age affect artistic practice? In this intriguing study, art historian Philip Sohm considers some of the greatest artists of Renaissance and Baroque Italy and their experiences of aging. Sohm investigates how art critics, collectors, biographers, and fellow artists dealt with old painters, what mental landscapes preconditioned responses to art by the elderly, and how biology and psychology were co-opted to explain the imprint that artists left on their art. He also looks carefully at the impact of prejudices, stereotypes, and other imaginary truths about old age. For some artists, the problems of old age were related to physical decline--Poussin's hands became shaky, Titian's eyesight dimmed. For others, psychological symptoms emerged. The book's cast of characters includes Michelangelo, the hypochondriac young fogy; Titian, the shrewd marketer of old age; the multiphobic Pontormo; and others. With sensitivity and insight, Sohm uncovers what it meant to be an old artist and how successive generations have looked at the art of an old master.
ABSTRACT Bhai Vir Singh's didactic play Raja Lakhdata Singh (1910) is one of the earliest modern Punjabi plays. The play was written in order to make the Sikhs aware of the ills assailing the community and to help set them on a path of reform. As an early play, the text is worthy of analysis in terms of the message it tries to propagate as well as its textual form and structure. This paper pursues this line of inquiry and will also comment on the dramatic and theatrical conventions prevalent in Punjab at the time, in order to understand the formative years of modern Punjabi drama.
In this thesis, I discussed three stories -Lee Sa-jong's Wife by Han Mu-suk, The White Bird by Song Woo-Hye and Heo Nan-seol-heon as the Liberal Spirit like a flame by Kim-Shin Myeong-suk. All these stories are important works in fictionalizing of the nobility women's life in Chosun Dynasty. The nobility women of Chosun Dynasty have double-faced features. On one hand, they belong to the nobility group. But on the other hand, they belong to a lower group in terms of gender. With these double-faced features, the nobility women of Chosun Dynasty experienced much suffering in everyday life. The three stories that I have discussed research the lives of those women. They have important meanings in two aspects. First, these works have meanings as good samples of the historical novel in Korean literary history. Second, these works have meanings as criticizing for tradition of sexual discrimination. Above all things, these three stories show the thought of real equality and human liberation.
Saziye Bayram, SUNY Buffalo Philip Broadbridge, University of Delaware Toby Driscoll, University of Delaware David A. Edwards, University of Delaware Joseph Fehribach, Worcester Polytechnic Institute James Graham-Eagle, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Ryan Haskett, Duke University Alfa Heryudono, University of Delaware Huaxiong Huang, York University Dale Larson Richard Moore, University of Delaware Steve Pennell, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Chris Raymond, New Jersey Institute of Technology Bob Ronkese, University of Delaware Lou Rossi, University of Delaware Ravi Srinivasan, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and others...
see art images. My works on canvas celebrate concepts presented in Nietzsche's ‘The Birth of Tragedy,’ particularly the duality between Apollo and Dionysus (order/disorder, rational logic/amorous frenzy...consider Dionysus as presented in Euripedes’ The Bacchae). In addition, my work is inspired in part by the ‘excremental philosophy’ of Georges Bataille, a philosopher who wrote extensively on Nietzsche.
Sanderson Miller (1716-80), of Radway in south Warwickshire, was a gentleman architect and landscape designer. Miller created a distinctive, informal landscape style that was surprisingly innovative for the period. He is well known for his architecture, but his creative landscape designs have been largely overlooked until now. Many of Miller's landscapes were completed over a decade before 'Capability' Brown, the most famous of England's landscape designers, set up his own practice in 1749. Using diaries and other personal correspondence, this book makes the pioneering claim that not only was Miller's style original but it also strongly influenced his illustrious successor. In the late 1730s, Miller designed the landscape for his own estate and created a mock ruined castle at Edgehill. This was an immediate success and prompted many requests from political and military leaders of the time for other mock ruins, the best known of which are at Hagley (Worcestershire) and Wimpole (Cambridgeshire). Miller's naturalistic landscape designs were centred on the importance of views, the creation of lakes and other water features and the use of indigenous trees, together with landscape buildings in various styles. Similarities with the work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown are striking, and it has become clear that Miller almost certainly influenced Brown's designs and even assisted him in acquiring his first commissions. Sanderson Miller can now be seen to have played an influential role in the development of the English natural landscape style, one of England's greatest claims to artistic fame. Through meticulous research and a stunning selection of illustrations, the author has succeeded in painting a vivid portrait of Sanderson's life.
A search of the Hebrew manuscripts and incunabula in the Vatican Library and other large Judaica collections yielded many dictionaries and citation indexes but almost no subject indexes, although the latter are common in Latin Christian manuscripts and incunabula. Reasons for this are suggested, and the compilation of early indexes for religious purposes is discussed. General conclusions relate to the methodological and terminological difficulties of conducting research on the earliest indexes, which were compiled in languages and scripts that are little known. The original manuscripts of early indexes are scattered in libraries throughout the world. Writings on the history of indexing are not concentrated in a single discipline: Descriptions of early dictionaries, concordances, and indexes are often found in religious publications rather than the literature of library-information science. The earliest reference tools related to religion are presented in a chronological table.
Description The Sermon on the Mount has had greater influence on the history and character of Christianity than any other text in the Bible. Yet as biblical scholar Hans Dieter Betz has recently lamented, “New Testament scholarship up to the present has offered no satisfactory explanation of this vitally important text.” The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount, by John W. Welch, offers, for the first time, a thorough Latter-day Saint interpretation of Jesus’ famous sermon. The author relies especially on crucial information and details that only the Book of Mormon can supply. In New Testament Palestine, Jesus gave the Sermon on a mount. In the Book of Mormon’s Bountiful, he gave it at the temple (see 3 Nephi 11—18). Close examination of the Savior’s words spoken in Bountiful reveal that they have temple significance, particularly for Latter-day Saints. The relationship of the Sermon to the temple generates an extraordinary explanation of the Sermon on the Mount as a sacred and holy text. While it remains possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in many different ways, the MAXWELL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS
This poem, “Hagar’s Prayer,” is about how easy it is to lose privilege by falling out of favor, by seeing other women as the enemy, or by aging out of employment or attractiveness. It is both a warning to other women not to forget to take care of themselves and a prayer for help. The poem uses the Jewish liturgical structure of prayer, a holy conversation in which only one side is heard, with an opening address to the one or One (the peticha), and a closing plea and summation to the same that seals the prayer (the chatimah).
This essay examines images of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp taken by American war correspondent and photographer Lee Miller. Miller’s work is mobilized as an optic through which to grasp the shock of confronting the Nazi camps. Her images are read as a form of visual testimony. That is, although they fail to provide a transparent view of what occurred in the Nazi lagers, they are nevertheless inscribed with all that the photographer did not know of the events to which she bore witness. The nature of this strange unintelligibility is what the author pursues: the visual inscription of the unspeakable as a disquieting resource for thinking through the paradoxes of witnessing and the transmission of human experience.
Distant scenic view; [The Sacre-Coeur Basilica is a Roman Catholic basilica and popular landmark in Paris, France, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre (Montmartre butte), the highest point in the city.] One of the more exotic variants on the Basilican form is Paul Abadie's design for the Sacre-Coeur (1875-1919), Paris, which has a Greek-cross plan expressed in a Byzantine Revival style. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 7/16/2008)
The article studies national peculiarity of the mental concept “um”, revealed by Alexander Griboyedov, determines its translation entails great difficulties due to extensive semantic potential of the Russian concept exceeding to that of its equivalents in English. Russian and British modern professional translators take various approaches to cope with the practically untranslatable Russian comedy.
In the development of the second Punic war is documented the existence of three great african kingdoms. the numidians of masaesyles, with syphax as leader, which was undoubtedly the most extensive and powerful. However, it turned out to be defeated by the masyles numidia, headed by masinissa. the roman victory over carthage was also associated with the fight between the two numidias. in this paper we study the data known about the reign of syphax: the problematic origins of the kingdom, its territorial extension, the coins minted by king, as well as the historical evolution of the reign of syphax.
This catalogue documents a group exhibition focusing on the theme of a single tree, comprised of works by 55 Canadian artists. Millard’s essay includes brief analyses of selected works in the exhibition. The following subjects are addressed in relation to the mythological and religious symbolism of the individual tree: concepts of the self and mortality, environmentalism and Canadian national identity. Includes list of works. 27 bibl. ref.
Yuan Mei influenced poem creation in Qian Jias regions by his xingling (disposition) theory. His theory was widely accepted and formed an independent school. He won over quite a few famous poets at the time, such as Jiang Shiquan, Huang Jingren, Li Diaoyuan, Chen Wenshu and Song Xiang. He was also criticized by Hong Liangji and severely attacked by Zhang Xuecheng. The acclamation and criticism both proved him the prominent figure in poem creation of Qian Jias Regions.
This paper aims at rethinking and problematizing the concept of heritage as defined by UNESCO and applied to Saint Louis of Senegal. It is based on the assumption that the notion of heritage is a novel modern construct, informed by and geared to serve Western hegemony through its epistemology and historiography. In fact, the island of Saint Louis hosted important French colonial buildings and infrastructures and became listed as a world heritage site in 2000. The local people living in or utilizing the site today abide by the UNESCO's regulations in matters of construction, conservation and demolition. Such universalistic impositions often are at odds with their needs, their memory and their traditions. The incurred tensions raise some questions: whose interests are there? Are peoples voices and preservation knowledge taken account in the process? To what extent does the heritage represent local peoples identity and/or memory?
Abstract Psychoanalytic inquiry into operas based on the life of Oedipus may provide further knowledge on the Oedipus complex. Therefore, we chose to analyze Enescu’s Œdipe and Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. Two distinct methodologies were used in our study. The first explored the concept of free association through musical themes in the operas. The second involved the comparative study of the Oedipus myth in order to provide a deeper understanding of Oedipus’s character. We observed that Oedipus displayed symptoms of his complex through the traits of aggressiveness and arrogance. Moreover, we noticed that Oedipus was compelled by the necessity of finding out who his real parents were and by unconsciously accomplishing the prophecy. Oedipus assumed the responsibility to free the Thebans from plague. Yet, it was too late, for the feared part of the prophecy was already accomplished. He provided a wrong answer to the Sphinx and then received the most severe punishment, one that would have ostracism as its outcome. It was, however, not too late for Oedipus to finally discover who his real parents were. Nevertheless, afraid of losing his place as King of Thebes, he investigated the plague’s causes. This resulted in his aggression as he resisted discovering “where babies come from.”
The article tells about how Sergey Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliette” ballet which has been put on stage in Novosibirsk twice. From the one hand, a look into the ballet version of 1965 allows to follow a career path of an outstanding choreographer Oleg Vinogradov. From the other hand, a look on the second version of “Romeo and Juliette” ballet the important stage of professional development of N. Kasatkina and V. Vasilyov ballet masters.
Expository preaching. Basis-theoretical elements from Hebrews This article specifically focuses on basis-theoretical elements in the Letter to the Hebrews - a New Testament book that can actually be regarded as a sermon. In the introduction the point of departure, that is the focus on bais-theoretical elements, is justified. Furthermore, attention is paid to specific elements of preaching implied in this "sermon" in the Letter to the Hebrews: elements applicable to the practice of expository preaching, the structure in an expository sermon, that is the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The purpose of the sermon is also touched upon. Issues like the spirituality of the preacher, his ministry of equipping by means of expository preaching, and his relationship to the congregation are also investigated, followed by final conclusions.
Abstract In this article I consider the ‘Judgment of Paris’ story that decorates the leaf of a fan made in the late seventeenth century. I review the popularity of this legend in seventeenth-century painting, music, and literature and explore how the concept of female beauty in competition was reflected in the practice of female portraiture in the period, particularly in the collections known as ‘beauties series’. I examine how some women (Elisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, Sophia of Hanover, Marie Mancini Colonna and Hortense Mancini Mazarin) both resisted and participated in these early modern beauty contests, in their written commentary and in their activities as subjects and patrons of art.
Based on the comparative analysis between some features of the "Luojingshi"site of the Han Yangling Mausoleum of emperor Jingdi And relative Historical records, this paper gets some points as below:1),the square ditch around the site is Fangze(方泽）,the central mound is Qiu(丘）or altar,3),the 8 wells respectively represents the well of God green at east, that of the God Red at south, that of the God White at west, that of months; 5), the pebbles around the site not only has the function to dispense rain water but also can surround the inner parts of the site;6), the round stone at center is the araloyue of the store which should be put on the altar at Taishan mountain for the sacrifice by emperor Wudi. According to the records, those features all are components of sacrificial or ritual building of the two Han dynasties.
Poetry needs specific methods" is a key aesthetic proposition for writing new poems at the earlier stage. The formation of this proposition derives from Hu's sensitivity to the problems in writing poems in colloquial Chinese, and at the same time it is closely related to his experience in Chinese and Western poems. Though the connotation of the statement is difficult to define, it is carefully intended when closely examined. It has had very important effect on Hu Shi himself and other new poem writers both negatively and positively.
Professor Ishihara visited Villa Vivani and Villa di Quarto. Here he shares his observations and photographs of the villas and includes Twain's comments about them.Moving to Villa Viviani, 1892In June 1891, facing serious financial difficulty, Samuel Clemens and his family shut down their beloved Hartford home and left for Europe to save money because of the cheaper living expenses there. They never settled anywhere during the year that followed, instead living mainly in hotels in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. They wandered about Europe without any real home.However, in September 1892 Clemens and his family finally put an end to their vagabond hotel life. With the help of two residents of Florence, Cornell professor Daniel Fisk and British author Janet Ross, who made the necessary arrangements, the Clemenses rented Villa Viviani, a medieval mansion that looked out over a delightful vista of Florence. Although Clemens was concerned that the relocation might give Olivia "infinite trouble & worry & distress" (SLC to Charles J. Langdon, 7 Aug. 1892), Olivia liked the idea and was looking forward to living in their prospective Italian home with "enthusiastic anticipation" (OLC to SLC, 23 June 1892). Olivia was right: this Italian mansion turned out to be the ideal home, and the family prospered there. Twain had finally found a place where he could focus fully on his writing. William James, who met Twain a couple of times in Florence, wrote to another friend that "[Twain] has written more in the past four months than he could have done in two years at Hartford" (James, 342). Twain wrote more than 60,000 words within a month at the villa and finished the first draft of Pudd'nhead Wilson there. We might be able to call Villa Viviani an Italian Quarry Farm, since it too provided Clemens with an immensely agreeable writing environment. As he had at Quarry Farm, Clemens enjoyed his life at Villa Viviani with his beloved family and dear friends, amid the villa's quiet atmosphere and view overlooking the town and the Arno river. In Pudd'nhead Wilson, Twain described the prospect at Villa Viviani as "the most charming view to be found on this planet, and with it the most enchanting sunsets to be found in any planet or even in any solar system" (2). As he said in his Autobiography, while at Villa Viviani he often enjoyed talking with friends over a cup of tea and taking in the view and the sunset. While living there, Clemens wrote to his friend Laurence Hutton, "I've never enjoyed being alive more than I enjoy it now" (SLC to Hutton, 5 February 1893).The villa stands on a hill three miles east of the center of Florence, in the area called Settignano. Villa Viviani is now used as an event venue for many kinds of parties and ceremonies. The current owner of Villa Viviani arranged a private tour of the villa for this project, and made it possible for me to share some of the pictures of Villa Viviani in its current state and compare them with Twain's accounts of the villa, found mainly in his Autobiography.Janet Ross and Villa di Poggio GherardoClemens's English friend, Janet Ross, was the person who discovered Villa Viviani for his family, took him there for the first time, and prepared everything before the family moved in. She was greatly impressed with his unique personality and they instantly became dear friends. Twain later wrote of her home that "in the immediate foreground was the imposing mass of the Ross castle, its walls and turrets rich with the mellow weather-stains of forgotten centuries" {AMT, Vol.l: 243) and he also recollected that the Ross castle was only a twelve-minute walk from Villa Viviani {AMT, Vol.l: 244). Even today, her castle, its original name Villa di Poggio Gherardo, can be seen from Villa Viviani. However, his memory was inaccurate. The castle did not have multiple turrets and was not standing "in the immediate foreground." In fact, it is impossible to walk from Villa Viviani to Ross castle in twelve minutes unless one were to run. …
0.1. Historical precedents and aims The modern theory of Partial Differential Equations is constructed around the natural notion of solution associated to each precise kind of problem. In the classical theory it is assumed that the solutions satisfy the equation pointwise since they are regular enough to allow all the required derivatives. When trying to find solutions, it is sometimes better to enlarge the class of functions where we look for the solution, interpreting the equation in some generalized or weak sense. In a second step, it is studied if the generalized solution we have found is more regular, desirably classical, often as a consequence of the fact that it is a solution of the equation. This strategy of dividing the problem has a long tradition; for example, it was necessary in the classical Dirichlet's work on his variational principle and it gave rise to Weirstrass' and then Hilbert's works and the theory of weak solutions with the notion of weak solution as is known nowadays, mainly based on integration by parts. We will not make much use of this kind of solutions along this work. Another classical example is the eikonal equation |u|2 = 1 which appears in geometric optics. The structure of the equation itself makes it impossible to use integration by parts in a sensible way. For this example, it is well known the Monge's method of characteristics, which yields local solutions, and more recently, in the decade of 1980, the notion of viscosity solution introduced by P. L. Lions and M. Crandall.
English opera reached a peak of popularity in the late- eighteenth century, sharing the stage with spoken plays. Stephen Storace (1762-96) dominated the music at Drury Lane from 1788 until his death in 1796, with works that were outstanding among their peers. In his main pieces he integrated music and drama along Italian lines; in his afterpieces, he followed the English tradition to which he was heir. His original music demonstrates a lyrical gift and strong sense of the theatre, while his use of borrowed material shows a practical man of the theatre. Theatrical life is discussed from a practical perspective to give fair weight to music in the well-being of the institution. The music publishing industry was also important to Storace, both in disseminating his music and in providing a large part of his income. His publications are placed in the context of publishing norms and early use of copyright provisions for his music.
The article offers an original approach to Heidegger’s late texts, which suggests drawing separate semantic lines in them, rather than adhering to them rigid overwhelming structures. This approach is realized on the basis of the example of the line “the world the thing the word”, the final wording of which, on having conducted the analysis, is defined as follows: the-world-“the-fourfold”, being materialized by the thing, enters the fullness of its presence as beings with a poetic word.
During the period of thatched cottage the style of Du Fu's poems of scenery description was characterized by simplicity and elegance and the poems were filled with his deep concerns of the nation and the people.It was an expression of his persistent style of gloominess.During the period when he was in Kuizhou the style of gloominess became even more profound but the sceneries of Kuizhou makes his style more meticulous than previously.
MONASTIC LIFE, ART, AND TECHNOLOGY IN 11TH - 16TH CENTURIES The conference will be held at University “1 Decembrie 1918” of Alba Iulia Department of History, Archaeology and Museology 16th-18th October 2014 Scientific Committee PhD Bela Zsolt Szakacs (Central European University Budapest, HU) PhD Jozsef Laszlovszky (Central European University Budapest, HU) PhD Pal Lovei (Institute of Art History, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, HU) PhD Adrian Andrei Rusu (...
The studies and monographs published over the years leave no doubt as to the great signifi cance of Shakespeare’s works for Arabic drama and theatre. The Lebanese writer Michail Nuayma went so far as to say “Shakespeare remains a Ka’ba to which we make pilgrimages, and a Qibla to which we turn in prayer.” No doubt the words of one of the leading writers of Syrian-American school cause huge surprise and even consternation. At the same time they encourage us to refl ect on the ways of reading and interpreting Shakespearean drama in the Arab world. This article aims to show the reception of William Shakespeare’s plays in Arab theatre starting from fi rst attempts of staging his works until their contemporary interpretations and attempts to formulate a response to the question of what has made Shakespeare remain continuously one of the closest Western playwrights to the Arab culture for more than a century.
Objective: To present the management of a female patients with transvaginal intestinal evisceration resulting from genital and perineal trauma, as well as to describe the aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of this gynaecological condition based on a review of the literature. Materials and methods : Case presentation of a 63 year-old female patient with genital prolapse who fell from her own height and sustained blunt trauma and genital and perineal crush injury. Afterwards the patient presented disruption of the vaginal wall and evisceration of intestinal loops and was admitted at a referral public hospital in Bogota, Colombia. A search was conducted in the PubMed, Science Direct and MD Consult databases using the key words "vaginal", "evisceration" and "trauma". The search was limited to papers written in English and Spanish. Results : Overall, 40 articles were found. Of them, 16 studies were selected: one descriptive case series while the remaining were case reports. The majority of the case reports described referred to post-menopausal patients with a history of pelvic gynaecological surgery, although there were reports of women of childbearing age with a different causal mechanism. Diagnosis is based on the clinical history and physical examination findings. It is considered to require urgent surgery and the surgical approach depends on the physical findings and the associated medical conditions. Conclusion: Transvaginal evisceration is a rare occurrence but it is considered to require urgent surgery because of potential complications associated with peritoneal contamination or necrosis.
Over the past few decades, I have gleaned many ways to approach piano accompaniments for hymn singing. Solo arrangements of hymn tunes - which can add depth to a worship service, and provide space for meditation and prayer -usually stand alone, allowing for wider exploration of tempo, phrase length, meter, and style. Accompaniments, however, should support, drive, and enhance the tune and words of a hymn while staying within a corporate context.In his book The Makers of the Sacred Harp, David Warren Steel describes folk hymns as "melodies from oral tradition including ballads and dance tunes or original melodies resembling them."1 Ethnomusicologist George Pullen Jackson speaks of these hymns as "religious folksongs" and "spiritual folksong."2 Music professor and scholar Charles Haywood refers to them as "sacred folksongs."3 And folklife specialist Don Yoder uses the terms "American religious folk music" and "American folk hymnody."4Regardless of which definition resonates with you, I'm talking about the body of hymns that includes the tunes Wonderous Love, Foundation, and Beach Spring.In the Mennonite churches I've attended, songleaders often choose to lead folk hymns a cappella. Sometimes this means using the four-part settings from our hymnals (Alice Parker's arrangement of Wonderous Love has long been a favorite). Depending on the experience of the leader and the congregation, many of these tunes also come alive in two-, three-, or four-part canon.Even so, there are times when we sing in unison with piano accompaniment, and that is what I would like to comment on here.Some of the things I always take into consideration when accompanying a folk hymn (or any hymn that doesn't have a composed accompaniment) are the acoustics of the room, the strengths and limitations of the piano, the size of the congregation, the overall mood of the text, and specific imagery used in the text.To start crafting the piano part, I develop short patterns, two or four measures long, to repeat throughout the hymn (See Examples 1,2, and 3). These patterns need not be complex chords or difficult rhythms. The point, again, is to support the singing. With some doublings, these could be played as duets by a teacher and a student, or expanded to include a string player using open strings, depending on the key.One technique that I learned from Alice Parker, and which I've applied in these examples, is to make an accompaniment for a gapped-scale5 tune using only the notes that appear in the melody.6 In the case of Wondrous Love, a hexatonic tune, this means leaving out the third degree of the scale. …
Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, was a younger brother of the Grand Conde. Destined for a church career, he gave it up and became politically associated with brother and sister – the famed intriguer Anna Genevieve, Duchess of Longue¬ville. Desiring to be regarded as a person unconstrained by moral principles, he led a very indulgent lifestyle. For a period of time, he was also Moliere’s patron. Armand wanted to equal his brother in renown, though he lacked the talent. For some time, he was considered the leader of the Fronde in Paris. He was imprisoned together with his brother and brother-in-law, then sought agreement with the court. His influences were to be boosted by marriage, first with the daughter of duchess de Chevreuse, then with the niece of Cardinal Mazarin – Anna Maria Martinozzi, which indeed took place. The marriage of a relative with a prince of the blood strengthened the position of the cardinal, while prince of Conti gained a way for final conciliation with the court. In the later years, Armand was a commander in Spain and held various court offices; he also changed his lifestyle utterly, having associated himself with the Jansenists. Armand died young, leaving two sons, the younger of which became a candidate for the Polish throne in 1697. His biography, in particular the issues relating to the marriage, are an interesting example of court intrigues and a game whose purpose was to consolidate the position of both Cardinal Mazarin and the royal cousin. The conduct of prince of Conti is also a vivid example of the mores of aristocracy in 17th-century France.
Public speaking and banking often go together. But when you work humor into your speeches, does it work? Here's advice from a CEO whose sideline is stand-up comedy Stan Freberg, comedian and advertising executive extraordinaire, once said, "Humor in the hands of a novice is like a gun in the hands of a child." I've seen more than one speaker open a presentation clumsily with a joke just tacked on like an obligatory regulatory filing. When it died, the audience was lost. When humor works, it can highlight, punctuate, and underline a speech. It can make it understandable at the time and memorable afterwards. Making it won't. How many times have you sat through a presentation that you knew was important, but that was presented so dully that you had to work at staying with the speaker--or just staying awake? Bankers usually stay conscious through Dr. Paul Nadler's speeches because he is entertaining and humorous. (Don't ever try to follow Nadler, by the way. I have. It wasn't a pretty sight.) You don't need the platform experience or the rapid-fire delivery of Dr. Nadler. One of the most effective users of humor I have heard lately is Bill Brandon, ABA's new president, who has a soft, southern approach. Born funny? I think it was comedian Steve Allen who once said, "If you aren't a comedian by the time you are ten years old, you are never going to be one." While there may be some degree of truth in that idea, I'm convinced that most people can learn to tell jokes or anecdotes that can crack a smile. These are some questions you can ask yourself along the way. (1) Do the jokes and stories you choose for your presentations make you laugh? If they don't, chances are they won't make your audience laugh, either. To tell a joke right, you have to enjoy it. You have to look forward to it. Your audience knows very well when you are uncomfortable with your material. An important tangent here regards puns. Most people should avoid using them in speeches. They can be funny in context, but remember that puns, by their nature, are "groaners." At best, they will get you mild appreciation, and some people will be scratching their heads--"What did he mean by that?"--long after you've moved on to other things you wanted them to hear. (2) Does the story "fit" you? If not, can it be changed in some way to make it work for you? When I do my act or give a speech, I bill myself as a country banker--I am a country banker. It would not suit me to use a lot of urbane material. This is important if you are going to use jokebooks. You can't let a book fall open and pick three jokes at random. Be prepared to read lots and lots of jokes before you'll find the right ones. I use jokebooks frequently. But I never use the joke as it's written. I take the punchline and develop my own story around it. The best material for you may be something funny that happened to you. The best thing about these stories is, once you've got them down, assuming they really work, they are yours and no one else is likely to tell them. (3) Does the story "fit" the audience ? You have to choose material that your audience will understand. That's common sense. I do a lot of banking jokes in front of nonbanking audiences. The ones I choose work because almost everyone at some time has had to deal with bankers. But some banking jokes won't work with a nonbanking audience because they require too much industry knowledge. Jokes I may make about regulations, for example, work with bankers because they get all the abbreviations and know what the rules are about. I'd have to explain so much to nonbankers that they'd forget the point by the time I got to the punchline. (4) Could the joke offend anyone in the audience? Is it sexist? Could it be construed as racist or anti-semitic? Might it be considered off-color? …
King Vajiravudh translated Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in 1916 followed by As You Like It in 1918 and his translation of Romeo and Juliet was first published in 1922. One of the most interesting points is his translation of Shakespeare’s sexual innuendo. It is very difficult for a translator to retain the sense of humor, vulgarity, or compassion connoted in the original texts. Sexual innuendo is a kind of pun which is a complex and diverse phenomenon. The study finds that, in his translation process, King Vajiravudh tried to keep the original meaning, and his choice of Thai terms to equate to the intended English meaning is excellent. However, the degree of severity of translated bawdy words is sharply lessened, and he occasionally chose not to translate the sexual puns possibly due to the cultural differences between the source language and the target language, the untranslatability of complex double entendres or their inappropriateness for the royal court. Moreover, loan words were frequently used to explain sexual innuendos with full explanation in the glossary. It can be assumed that the intended effect of double entendres in Shakespeare’s famous plays is lost in translation. It can be concluded that the translation of Shakespeare’s plays by King Vajiravudh is a significant revolution of literary studies in Thailand that was chiefly influenced by the western literary tradition because a play is used not only for performance, but also for literary studies. พระบาทสมเดจพระมงกฎเกลาเจาอยหวทรงแปลบทละครของวลเลยม เชกสเปยรสามเรองคอ เวนสวานช ในป 1916 ตามใจทาน ในป 1918 และ โรเมโอและจเลยต ในป 1922 ประเดนทนาสนใจในการแปลบทละครทงสามเรองของเชกสเปยรคอการแปลคำสอนยทางเพศ คำสอนยทางเพศเปนการเลนคำอยางหนงทมความซบซอนและหลากหลาย จงเปนงานยากสำหรบนกแปลทตองรกษานยแหงความขบขนทปรากฏอยในตนฉบบ การศกษาพบวา ในกระบวนการแปล พระบาทสมเดจพระมงกฎเกลาเจาอยหวทรงพยายามรกษาความหมายของตนฉบบใหมากทสดเทาท จะเปนไปไดผานการสรรคำ ทวาความรนแรงของคำถกลดทอนลง บางกรณทรงละการแปลคำสอนยทางเพศ ซงอาจเกดจากความแตกตางทางวฒนธรรมระหวางภาษาตนฉบบกบภาษาแปล จากความซบซอนลกซงของการเลนคำ หรออาจเกดจากความไมเหมาะสมของคำสอนยทางเพศกบธรรมเนยมของราชสำนก นอกจากนทรงยมคำภาษาตนฉบบมาใชและทรงทำอภธานศพทอธบายเพมเตม อาจกลาวไดวา กลวธการแปลเชนนทาใหอรรถรสของคำสอนยทางเพศในภาษาแปลหายไป ลกษณะดงกลาวนนาไปสขอสรปวา พระบาทสมเดจพระมงกฎเกลาเจาอยหวมไดทรงแปล บทละครของวลเลยม เชกสเปยรเพอนาไปแสดงเปนละคร แตเพอใชในการศกษาในฐานะวรรณกรรมเชนเดยวกบทปรากฏในโลกตะวนตก จงกลาวไดวาพระราชนพนธแปลบทละครของวลเลยม เชกสเปยรทงสามเรองเปนการปฏวตวรรณกรรมศกษาของไทยอกวาระหนงโดยไดรบอทธพลจากแบบแผนวรรณกรรมศกษาของตะวนตก
Magistrales, nobles, gentlemen, civilians and clergymen left Kingdom of Valencia and marched to exile by the end of 1705. The reasons of their favourable option to Felipe V, the circumstances of their exit of Valencia, their particular situation- frequently desperate-, short of ways for their own subsistence, in conditions of poverty and necessity, the aid they received from the Council of Aragon, the positions and favours they asked for as a prize to their fidelity and its sacrifices as well as the special treatments they obtained from the monarch, mean the possibility of an approximation to the Valencian felipismo reality during the tragic years of the con flirt and the first post war period.
The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the fact that, very frequently, the so-called grolesque ("comic") tales of Edgar A. Poe have been neglected, even forgotten and only the arabesque ("serious") have been raised to the category of "works of art". It is our aim to point out the outstanding place that the former have within the total short stories of the author, leading to a much more complete understanding of the meaning of his narrative in the North American Literature of the first half of the Nineteenth Century
Early 17th-century English lute song represents a perfect fusion of words and music, simultaneously conceived by poets and composers with a deep instinctive understanding of each other’s business. This is a critical commonplace with heavy implications for performers. To avoid distracting attention away from the words, musical settings were kept as simple as possible. To facilitate simple strophic setting the poets made sure that each stanza of a multi-stanza poem followed the same metrical scheme, and they naturally assumed that composers would follow it too. The Golden Age achievement relied on collective self-restraint (not too much self-expression or ‘interpretation’ therefore); and when Henry Lawes and other cavalier composers of masque songs and masque-inspired opera abandoned that restraint the Golden Age was over. Henry Purcell had to start again from scratch. Little of this turns out to be true. ‘A mangled chime’ looks again at the relationship between words and music in 17th-century England, suggesting a more complicated system of interplay between the two. Compositional technique was a mystery to most lyricists even at the height of the Golden Age, and as the century unfolded they found words matching the formal ambitions of contemporary theatre composers harder and harder to write. By 1680–90 (the decade of Venus and Adonis and Dido and Aeneas) the result was a peculiarly English approach to word-setting in which musical sound, though it echoed poetical sense, frequently obliterated poetic structure; a theory of English opera thoroughly confused in its aesthetic aims; and (in consequence) an uncoordinated response to opera seria when the Italian invasion began soon afterwards. Because Golden Age reserve inhibited frank negotiation between composers and poets it masked the composers’ textual needs in dramatic rather than lyrical situations and it led—via hugely resourceful but non-confrontational Lawes—to the overthrow of native English opera a century later
This article examines Mary Stolz’s Cold War adolescent girl romance novels— which I call “female junior novels”—to suggest that the dominant tropes that form the popular romance motifs within these texts (i. girls’ conformity, ii. girls’ use of “boy capital,” iii. girls’ collective establishment of a female dominant society, and iv. the recognition of the prom queen as the object of her own desire) create and then mask complex female power struggles within a highly regulated adolescent social hierarchy. About the Author: Amanda K. Allen is an assistant professor of Children’s Literature at Eastern Michigan University. Her research focuses on the intersection of adolescent girl romance novels, Cold War studies, and women’s literary and employment history. She is currently at work on a book-length project that suggests a revised history of young adult literature: one which focuses on the female producers and distributors of the nowneglected Cold War adolescent girl romance novels to show the gendered history of the genre, and to reveal a heretofore hidden battle regarding who has the right—and ability— to define our current concept of young adult literature.
The Dalmeny sarcophagus has animal carvings in bold relief at both ends. On the side there is a line of figures standing under an arcading of Norman style, whose arches and supporting columns were more or less clearly indicated at different points in the r nworn sculpture. This is believed to be a representation of Christ and the twelve Apostles, six placed on each side of the central figure of our Lord. The lid of the sarcophagus does not survive. The churchyard also contains a number of elaborate table-stones, a large representation of the symbolic designs common to the Lothians, and a few headstones. In the old churchyard of Edzell parish are a number of finely r nornamented tombstones, dating from the eighteenth century, several architectural features of the pre-Reformation church and a sculptured slab. At Lethnot there are two very elaborate table-stones and eight erect stones, all dating from or near to 1750. There are three massive inscribed stones at Stracathro.
Abstract This article analyzes how the relationship between fathers and daughters is portrayed in Zoë Wicomb’s You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. The paper observes that in these texts, daughters occupy spaces, both in and outside the home, that are usually considered reserved for sons who are often groomed as heirs to their fathers’ worlds. Drawing on discourse on women, history and the nation, particularly the work of Tiyambe Zeleza and Elleke Boehmer, among other scholars, this paper argues that by placing daughters in spaces often thought to be for sons, both Wicomb and Adichie challenge the marginalization of women in history and narratives of the nation. The paper further shows that instead of perpetuating their fathers’ legacies, daughters in the two texts chart for themselves paths that divert from their fathers’ aspirations. In that way, the daughters’ lives become counter-texts not only to their fathers’ lives and aspirations but also to the general patriarchal imaginings of history and the nation that the fathers represent.
The objective of this research was to analyze the pedagogical practices carried out by preschool teachers in the care of the diverse population. Their speeches were identified and their teaching strategies were characterized from a case study with 3 participants. taking into account the qualitative paradigm and the interpretative approach; for the collection of the data, a structured interview was made to each teacher and four nonparticipant observation were made for each of them. The results, it was found that the pedagogical practices of each teacher are differentiated, based on their experience, their training and the relationship that they shape
It is an axiom of Shakespearean tragedy, and perhaps of tragedy generally, that knowledge always arrives, if it arrives at all, belatedly.When Diomedes brings news to the dying Antony that Cleopatra is in fact alive, he could be speaking for knowledge itself when he says “I am come, / I dread, too late.”1 In the context of the scene, Diomedes simply means that he is too late to prevent Antony’s suicide, but such portentous lagging behind puts him in the company of a whole class of such latecomers—Emilia in Othello, for example, Friar Laurence in Romeo & Juliet, and a number of characters in King Lear, where there is a plethora of missed appointments: Gloucester’s delayed discovery of his true and false sons, Lear’s of his true and false daughters, Edgar’s delayed recognition of his brother Edmund’s treachery, Edgar’s and Kent’s delayed recognition of one another in their journey with the king, and most conspicuous of all, the two deadly delays in the final scene—Edmund’s death-bed conversion to kindness and Lear’s lastminute dispatch of Cordelia’s hangman, both of which occur too late to do anyone any good. The powerlessness of all such characters to have been anything other than late is remarked by Friar Laurence when he says “A greater power than we can contradict / Hath
Since the Chinese Han(漢) dynasty period, dramatic plays(曲藝) from the Western regions(西域) have been being introduced to China, and such addition of foreign plays made the existing traditional entertainment and techniques(百戱雜技) more layered and more versatile. Those cultural aspects of China were also introduced to the Korean peninsula, and were used or played at various parties and banquets. Along all kinds of entertainment and techniques, the songs and dances of the Western regions were also introduced to the Koreans. The examples include the Somakcha(蘇莫遮), which was passed on to the Goguryeo and Shilla dynasties, and also Sokdok(束毒), Weoljeon(月顚) and Daemyeon(大面), of which the names can be found from Choi Chi Weon's 「Hyangak Jabyeong(鄕樂雜詠:Local Music and Lyrics)」. The 5-string Bipa instruments and Pilryul flutes originated in the Western regions were relayed to China and then to the Goguryeo dynasty in mid-5th century, and after that used by the Shilla and Baekje people, and then even by the Japanese for musical accompaniments. Shilla people called the songs and dances from the Western regions ‘Hyangak(鄕樂: local music)', and viewed them as a different sort of music from the Chinese Dangak(唐樂) music. The title of ‘Hyangak' reveals that the Shilla people embraced and absorbed the Western regions' music and dances into their own culture and turned them into a unique version of songs and dances of their own.
Chaloupsky, D. (2014). Rock climbing in Czech Paradise: Historical development of the frequency of traditional ascents at selected sandstone towers. J. Hum. Sport Exerc., 9(Proc1), pp.S276-S283. Sandstone rock climbing in Geopark Czech Paradise. Overcrowded by climbers or sustainable? The main aim of the research is to analyse the frequency of rock climbing ascents on sandstone rocks in the Prachov Rocks in Czech Paradise from the year 1944 till now. In quantitative research were processed data acquired from summit books, which are installed on the top of each individual sandstone tower, and from older archived summits books. For the latest records it was necessary to ascend each tower and process the data straight in the field. Over 23 000 records were evaluated in total. The most frequently climbed towers with routes of different levels of difficulty were selected intentionally, because they provide comprehensive archival records. The research proved that the frequency of ascents increased rapidly in the early 60s. The period 1969-89 can be regarded as a peak frequency of climbs. The ascents each year exceed the number 600. Maximum in 1979 was 1022 ascents, minimum 631 in 1989. Further developments had a downward trend and the number of outputs was moving around the values of 500 per year. The rise can be observed since 2009 till recent, when the value fluctuate around 640 ascends per year. The hypothesis, that there is a continuous increase in the frequency of climbing towards the present, has not been confirmed. This work shows that rock climbing does not load local rocks in recent days more than in the past. Key words: CLIMBING ASCENT, HISTORY, GEOPARK, TOURISM MANAGEMENT.
This text establishes a link between some principles of the work of Francois Delsarte and Rudolf Laban, concluding that what identifies them is closely connected with the research method, which is based on the observation of human nature and human beings in real life and in art. It also shows that the principles of the method proposed by Delsarte are part of the contemporary scene and of different forms of pedagogy connected to this very same scene.
Huebner’s general information on ancient life comprises a concise overview of the everyday life of women as pictured through papyri (additionally discussing the Gospel of Mary and the question of leadership roles in the early Church in chapter 4); means and motives for travelling by individuals (chapter 6) as well as the living and working conditions of shepherds (chapter 7). In chapter 2, Huebner takes a leap in time to the 230s ce and presents P.Bas. II 43 with its nomen sacrum for ‘kyrios’ as the oldest extant documentary papyrus from a Christian context. Subsequently questions concerning the social milieu of Early Christians in Egypt are addressed. Huebner’s book points out a wide range of papyrological topics relevant to the New Testament and early Christianity and is recommended for students as well as readers with a general interest. For those who seek extensive studies of individual topics, the book’s bibliography contains a selection of the increasing number of papyrologically focussed New Testament studies in recent years. Keeping in mind the author’s disciplinary background readers should not take offence at occasionally ambiguous theological wording, yet one wishes that the description of Jesus as ‘the founder of [a] religion’ (p. 32) had not escaped the proofs. With her book Huebner proves that interdisciplinary research is more promising than ever. Papyrology, Ancient History and Biblical Studies form an attractive triangle which holds numerous insights still to be gained.
Preface: Alvaro Siza and the Art of Fusion Francesco Dal Co Architecture as Critical Transformation: The Work of Alvaro Siza Kenneth Frampton Homage to Alvaro Siza Fernando Tavora Complete Works 1952-1999 Writings by Alvaro Siza On My Work Leca da Palmeira Evora-Malagueira Living in a House The Museum of Santiago de Compostela The Chiado The Church at Marco de Canavezes Villa Savoye Alvar Aalto On Design Appendices Biography Bibliography Chronology of Works Index of Works Acknowledgements
The former Benedictine Abbey "Sancti Michaelis" in Hildesheim represents a highlight not only ot Ottonic architecture, but also ot the whole history ot western architecture. The intentions and plans of the holy bishop Bernward gave it an eminent spiritual and religious importance. The rich enlargements of the later constructors did not create an amorphous artificial conglomerate, but made possible a new whole ensemble that perfectionates, esthetically as well as iconologically, the original ideas.
Lisianthus growers look for methods to minimise the emission of nutrients, crop protection chemicals and CO2. In 2014 and 2015, nine crops with Lisianthus have been tested at the Delphy Improvement Centre. This report describes the four trials that have been carried out in the extended research in 2016. With this extension, a distinction was made between different substrates and intensities of assimilation lighting. In addition to knowledge about light use efficiency, water use, heat use, substrate differences and growth development, these extra crop cycles have brought to light that growing Lisianthus on substrate gives a less resilient plant against soil fungi than was experienced during the first crop cycles.
A Festschrift, to the unfamiliar, is a book honouring a respected academic. Derived from German, the word is likely to be unfamiliar to the Singaporean legal fraternity. Lives in the Law is the first Festschrift to be published in Singapore honouring a legal academic. The editors have not, however, been content with achieving a first in Singapore. As the editors wryly observe in their Preface, what had initially germinated as plans for three separate Festschriften evolved into, "the first collection to honour three [legal academics] in one go," thus achieving another first, this time internationally. Although the undertaking spans less than 300 pages in all, the colossal nature of it is evident from a quick perusal of the acknowledgments.
in formulating sound policies and programs for dealing with the post-war problems of the textile industry. It is designed to put these problems in a challenging perspective, and concentrates attention on those issues that, in the light of the author’s long experience with the textile industry, appear to be of paramount importance both to the industry and to the public. Although the emphasis is placed upon the need for further research as a guide both to industry and to government, the report should prove of immediate interest and value to current consideration of the industry’s problems, since the major alternatives of policy are clearly outlined and their interrelationship is indicated.
restaurant is the space and decorative features. The next thing is the relationship of wait staff and customers to that space. It is an obvious area of study and future conferences or anthologies of essays would do well to highlight the more performative aspects of dining. We all play roles in the restaurant industry and a further examination of those roles will deepen the understanding of how restaurants work, or, in some cases, how they do not. The Restaurants Book is an excellent first step in the examination of restaurants. There is so much potential for other researchers to take some of the ideas presented in the book to another level; I would love, for example, an anthology on the restaurant as a performance space or the total sensory experience of restaurants. As an academic, I am pleased to finally see food culture in general and restaurant culture in particular getting the solid academic attention they deserve. I’ve already used The Restaurants Book as a teaching tool and hope that the editors have future anthologies in the works. As the editors note in their introduction, “many interesting aspects of social and cultural life in our contemporary world are featured in restaurants” (p. 1). I feel a new area of study is burgeoning and The Restaurants Book will certainly be a pioneering work in the field.
The roots of professional musical and choreographic art of Buryatia go back to deep past, keeping its connection with the folklore and cult practices of the ethnos and its world outlook. With some elements adopted from folk games, religious and household rituals, modern producers manage to re-create the original dance with its distinctive ethnic colour, drawing various plastic patterns and combinations in the traditional art of the ethnos. Many choreographic moves are typical for the old Buryat pattern. Their semantics is included into the structure of the national world outlook, connected with the shamanist and Buddhist vision of the world.
Professor Stephen A. Ross died on 3 March 2017 at his home in Old Lyme, Connecticut. His death is a great loss to his family, to his colleagues at MIT, to the academic community more generally, and to the world of investment management. A preeminent academic, Ross published many papers across a wide range of subjects in both economics and finance. Moreover, his work—particularly as it relates to investment management—had an intensely practical focus. As he wrote in an article he published with John Cox in 1976, he had no patience for arguments that required the cunning of a currency speculator to understand.1 Many of the innovations in the financial markets and the way we think about those markets in recent decades can be traced to his thought and his writings, although he was not especially interested in the ephemera of the markets. Rather, his view was that financial transactions are central to the human experience. A gifted communicator, Ross delighted in making the most complicated ideas transparently simple, even common-sense. In this context, he was particularly proud of Fundamentals of Corporate Finance,2 an introductory text that he published with Randolph Westerfield and Bradford Jordan.
Based on the idea that animation art materializes the world of animism, which is the epistemological approach of identifying the presence of spirits and the action of life within all things, it is essential to comprehend how the body, as a place where life manifests itself so that the ‘plausible impossible’ imagery of life continues, follows its own physics in animation, which has been refined through animation history. This paper tries to explain how the animated body is first formed, and then acts out, by analyzing the specific example of ani-body of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928) by Disney.
QU Yuan’s poetries are rich in beautiful and meaningful images of fragrant flowers and plants which form a unified,intact image system to show incisively and vividly QU Yuan’s ideal,personality and emotion.QU Yuan’s creation of such images results from his own experience as well as the geographic environment and cultural background of Chu state (one of the Warring States).This literary tradition of expressing one’s emotion and will,created by QU Yuan,has exerted an enormous influence on later literati.
Claude-Louis Desrais’s suite of erotic drawings now held in a private collection, embody a libertine perspective relating to the politics of the French Revolution. Although little is known about Desrais and this suite, factors such as sadism, fashion, and the interior space of the boudoir relate the work to the visual culture of early modern erotica and the societal turmoil during the 1780s and 1790s. In particular, Desrais’s drawings depict extreme sex acts and express anti-clerical sentiments common in the politicized pornography at this time in Paris in the early 1790s. Female aristocrats, such as Queen Marie-Antoinette, and members of the clergy were attacked in revolutionary propaganda, especially in the form of libelles and “philosophical” books. In the public sphere, sexualized artworks typically represented figures in mythological guises. More hardcore, subversive works were relegated to the private sphere and flourished in the libertine subculture. Libertine ideologies seem to rise with political turmoil, for instance, during the Reformation in sixteenth-century Italy, the Restoration in seventeenth-century England, and the French Revolution, where subversive literature and explicit art thrived. Libertines believed in attacking religion and the monarchy. They rebelled against societal conventions that oppressed human nature by participating in outlandish sex acts, often expressed in creative outlets including art and literature. The most notorious and extreme libertine was the Marquis de Sade who produced works in the 1790s at the height of Terror and dysfunction during the Revolution. His writings included Enlightenment views and a repertoire of pornographic tropes to express a unique insight into the political atmosphere of the Revolution. The influence of the
Jealousy deceives. The characteristics of jealousy are registered into the master’s discourse. Freud and Lacan studied jealousy to show its strength and constant involvement in all human formations, and found that the way out of it is either segregation or death. This is why the analytical discourse suggested, from Freud, that another type of affection be attended so as to produce a real cut with respect to the desire of the Other; it is angst, an affection which does not fool and allows a non-segregating separation.
The article studied the blue and white porcelain in Yongle and Xuande year of Ming dynasty from the semiotic perspective.It summarized the symbol of modeling color,decoration with literature method and comparative method.It analyzed the semiotic characteristics through the diachronic and synchronic study,and interpreted the cultural connotation and the symbolic meaning from the perspective of the aesthetics of symbol
Qian Zhong Shu criticized in his book ”Tan Yi Lu” that some of the works from Wang An Shi (1021-1086) are imitation of the others, especially Wang An-Shi's lines collection poems.”Lines collection poem” refers to the poems that are made up of lines from various poets. The author will merge these lines into his own work. In the later part of Wang An-Shi's life, he has written about 60 of such poems collections.In the past, the study of Wang An-Shi's poems collections is mainly in these three aspects:1. Using a literature perspective, the researchers discuss the creation of poems collection, its special features, its strength and weaknesses.2. From the perspective of Song Poem studies, the researchers analyze the theory of ”adding new blood into the old stuff” and ”master of various scholarships for poems” and the formation of poems collection in the Song Dynasty.3. With the emphasis on Wang An-Shi's poems collections, the researchers discuss the relationship between the style of ”Jing Gong” and poems collection.Those researches have laid a firm foundation on Wang An-Shi's poems collection. Based on this foundation, this paper aims to provide a greater exploration and insight of Wang An-Shi's poems collection, focusing on the ”Eighteen Songs of a Nomad's Flute” which has received many praises.This paper examines the origins of Wang An-Shi ”Eighteen Songs of a Nomad's Flute” and analyzes the content as well as the narrative structure. The author of this paper continues by comparing it with Cai Yan's ”Eighteen Songs of a Nomad's Flute” and providing an overview of the artistic achievements of ”Eighteen Songs of a Nomad's Flute”.
Rigorous analysis was performed to identify the structure and materials of the murals to study techniques used on mural tombs of ancient Daegaya era(6th century). The murals were painted by applying mortar on the walls and the ceiling after building a stone chamber and creating ground layers on mortar layers. Mud was applied on most of the mortar layers on four sides of the walls except the ceiling. Sand was not used in mortar but was made of materials with pure calcium substances. In addition, shells in irregular sizes with incomplete calcination were mixed; and the mortar's white powder was inferred as lime obtained by calcination of oyster shells. Kaolinite(Al 2 Si 2 O 5 (OH) 4 ) was used in the ground layer, Cinnabar(HgS) was used for red pigment, Malachite(Cu 2 CO 3 (OH) 2 ) for green and Lead white(PbCO behind compared to that of Koguryo's in the same era.
More than a collection of witty sayings, the "Dictionary of European Proverbs groups proverbs into semantic clusters that demonstrate their linguistic roots and connections as well as their folkloric wisdom. In all, there are over 50,000 proverbs from over 60 languages and dialects including Dutch, Flemish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Provencal, Walloon, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Czeck, Serbian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Venetian, Polish, Turkish, and English. Because it was compiled using state-of-the art computer technology, the "Dictionary of European Proverbs is especially well-indexed and easy to use, providing key words in each language. Emanuel Strauss has been compiling material for this work for over 40 years with the help of editors, computer professionals, fact-checkers, and more than 30 experts in language, linguistics, and area studies from Europe and North America.
This study of Martin Parr’s book Signs of the Times: A Portrait of the Nation’s Tastes (1992) traces the roots of the British photographer’s interest in consumption practices and of the new form of social documentary photography that has become his trademark. We show that Parr’s take on the 1990s craze for home decoration pinpoints deep shifts in British society at the end of the Thatcher era, towards more individualism and materialism. The combination of images and quotes from his subjects gives an insight into the consumers’ psyche, revealing forms of commodity fetishism, narcissism of small differences, and an obsession with upward social mobility. Beyond seemingly futile decoration issues, the photos address personal identification through objects and the power relations that it involves. Yet, the photographer’s distant gaze and humorous use of motifs help avoid pathos and provide viewers with an “antidote to propaganda” in Parr’s own words, namely, to the dominant consumerist ideology, although this has meant a controversial departure from the traditional codes of social documentary.
During the last two decades of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Petrarchan convention lived its glorious age. Along with enriching the Elizabethan literature with sonnets and sonnet sequences, most of the poets of the time also employed the elaborate language of the convention in their eulogies for glorifying and idealizing the Queen. However, not only the poets, but also the Queen herself adopted it – in her own way – as a means in her self-representation and as a strategy in her relations with her male courtiers. It is commonly agreed that the Queen used Petrarchism politically especially during the last period of her reign, establishing a distance between her courtiers and herself, and making them feel powerful while in fact she held all authority and control. Although Elizabeth I’s speeches are primarily studied in terms of tracing the main features of her public image set by herself, her two poems, “On Monsieur’s Departure” and her answer in “Verse Exchange Between Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Ralegh” are equally significant in her self-representation and her use of the authoritative voice. Her public and her private selves are conflated, she uses the gendered discourse of the Petrarchan love convention, accommodates herself within the tradition, casting herself both as the object and subject of the poem. In “On Monsieur’s Departure,” through the use of the Petrarchan paradoxes, Elizabeth I describes the yearnings of her heart but acknowledges her duty to repress them for she is the Queen and should not be conquered by love. She changes the conventional gender of the speaker, expresses her dilemma and her choice despite all its consequences. A stronger self-assertion is evident in the verse exchange where she answers the Petrarchan complaint of Sir Walter Ralegh who blames fortune for his loss of favour. The Queen expresses her superiority over him and “Fortune,” and shows how much she allows * � This article is the revised and expanded version of the paper presented at Role and Rule: History and Power on Stage, London, The Globe Theatre, 6-8 February 2009, organized by Globe Education and the Universita di Padova,with the support of the Fondazione Cariparo.
The new millennium constitutes new dimensions of the need for new ways of understanding social exchanges, political power and economic profit and historical figures.  This study discusses the perception of spiritual and moral ideas of an outstanding Kazakh poet and thinker Abai Qunanbaiuly in the dialogue of world cultures. In order to achieve this target, we intend to discuss the aspects of promoting Kazakh cultural heritage within the works of Abai analyzing studies of Kazakh and Western scholars. As a result of the discourse, the awareness of Abai's modernized thoughts was accepted as cultural contribution to the world perception.
women chemists which was often forgotten or attributed to supervisors or, where there were husband/wife partnerships, attributed to the husband alone (the Matilda Effect); a change of surname on marriage encouraging a woman’s disappearance from the literature; or obligatory dismissal from employment. On the other hand, the study emphasises the positive role of many male chemists like Ramsay and Hopkins in encouraging research careers for women. While not neglecting “celebrities” like Elizabeth Fulhame, Jane Marcet, Martha Whiteley, Gertrude Robinson, and Hilda Ingold, the merit of the book is the extensive space it gives to invisible chemists such as girls’ school teachers, lecturers in women’s colleges or male-dominant universities, in industrial posts, and during the emergency situation of the First World War. There is, rightly, extensive treatment of the battle that women fought to become members of the learned and professional qualifying societies. Readers of the work will often find themselves wanting to find out more about the women portrayed or fill in gaps where the authors were unable to supply the information. For example, what did become of Armstrong’s and Ramsay’s brilliant protégé, Clare de Brereton Evans, who seems to have abandoned her promising research career around 1912? The answer is that, as a devout Catholic, she decided to devote herself to translating the work of the thirteenth-century German theologian and mystic, Meister Eckhart. Like many of their male counterparts, women could enjoy multiple careers.
Booklet documenting a two-part group exhibition comprised of works by eight artists dealing with the body. Lacayo's curatorial text situates the artists' works within discourses concerning technologies of the body and relationships between body/environment. Her interviews with the artists highight the following issues: process, alienation, gesture, the grotesque. Includes brief biographical notes. 1 bibl. ref.
First Corinthians is significant in that it represents the emergence of a church born of diversity, before any stable model of unity had yet taken shape. The church at Corinth shows diversity on social, economic, cultural, moral and religious levels, and this leads to division and rivalry. In response to this, Paul constantly calls for unity founded on Christ: the mystery of Christ proclaimed in the Gospel, Baptism in the name of Christ, the gift of the Spirit «in Christ», and the Eucharistic memorial of Christ's saving death. In I Cor. 11: 17-29, unity is broken by the division of the Lord's Supper into private meals shared by groups constituted along the economic and social fault lines of the community. Paul responds by showing the bond between Christ's death and the unity of the Church. I Cor. 11: 27 can be understood both as «whoever eats and drinks (a private meal) does not discern the body of the Lord, which is given in the Lord's Supper» and «whoever eats and drinks (a private meal) shames those who have nothing, and despises the Church of God, and thus does not discern the ecclesial body of the Lord». In I Cor. 10: 15-22, the argumentation is aimed at preventing ritual participation in idol worship, by contrasting it to communion in the Lord's Supper. But the «one bread», mentioned twice in the passage, is what brings the multitude together into a single body. No doubt this is a way of reminding the Corinthian community that unity is inseparable from faith in Christ. In conclusion, the author points out that Paul excludes no one from the Lord's table. Cases of exclusion from the community (I Cor. 5: 2) make no specific mention of exclusion from the Eucharist. Even the very basic differences between Pauline and Judeo-Christian communities do not appear to matter to Paul in this regard. Did Judeo-Christians and Pagano-Christians share the Lord's Supper? Gal. 2: 11-14 reflects a debate in which Paul insists on the unity of the body in faith, and therefore acc
This study is focused on looking into the essence and application in the modem history of 'Martial Art Culture' that is a representative cultural code in the East Asia. Doubting and reconstructing the paradigm of the past and present, Postmodernism in the 21st century has defined marital arts as a new cultural phenomenon. This study begins by doubting whether the essence of martial arts was a cultural conduct to train both bodies and spirits. Practically used as a fighting skill since the primitive age, martial arts has fallen into sports or cultural behaviors due to the invention of the state-of-the-art modern weapons. However modern people misunderstand that martial arts of East Asia is originated a kind of cultural behaviors. It implies there is a fundamental mistake in the wat Western civilization evaluates the orientalism. This study analyzes this mistake through access method based on realities of modern history. This trial will contribute to expanding the thinking range, inquiring into varied cultural phenomena including martial arts which are misunderstood in modern history.
The goal of the CARMA project is to advise the Dutch government on the effectiveness and efficiency of measures aimed at reducing campylobacteriosis in the Dutch population. This report describes the framework of the CARMA project. Components forming the project are a chicken meat risk model, intervention measures in chicken meat production, autonomous developments, economic analysis, the societal acceptability of the intervention measures and the political culture in which the decision making takes place. The risk model is used here to estimate the effects of interventions in the chicken meat chain, from farm to consumer. The output of the risk assessment model, in terms of number of expected Campylobacter infections per age group per period, is input for the economic analysis. Autonomous developments that may affect risks in the near future are concentration in the production chain, increasing consumption of chicken meat and increasing away-from-home consumption. The economic evaluation focuses on the cost per case (i.e. Campylobacter infection) averted and the cost per (quality-adjusted) life year gained. The effectiveness of the interventions also depends on the acceptability of the interventions to stakeholders (industry, retailers and consumers). There are differences in the role that economic evaluation plays in the decision making of the two Dutch Ministries (Agriculture and Public Health) involved.
Recent work on the 1630s has challenged the established view of Archbishop Laud's central role in the formulation and enforcement of ecclesiastical policy. Kevin Sharpe and Julian Davies have proposed that Charles I was the initiator of religious change, with his archbishop often trailing in his wake, and finding ways to qualify, if not subvert, royal directives on preaching, the Sabbath and the altar. Davies has also argued that an ideology of ‘Carolinism’ rather than ‘Laudianism’ shaped and animated key religious reforms, and to enact them Charles increasingly relied on Bishop Matthew Wren, an unyielding enforcer of royal policy and more ‘Laudian’ than Laud himself. This view of Laud of course echoes the archbishop's defence at his trial: that he was merely the king's good servant, executing the royal will, which is enough to make one pause, since Laud's objective there was not historical veracity but to save his neck. But other findings have also diminished Laud's political stature: it appears that Lord Treasurer Weston, not Laud, was the royal nominee for the vacant chancellorship of Oxford in April 1630, though by the time the king's letter reached the university Laud had been elected; later, in 1636, it has been suggested that far from securing the appointment of his protégé Bishop Juxon as the new Lord Treasurer, Laud may have actually been a defeated rival for the post.
In the context of artificial intelligence, the path of knowledge transmission needs to be transformed. In essence, the transmission of knowledge and the transformation of information transmission methods are integrated. This paper studies the foreign object tracking algorithm, analyzes the error in the target tracking algorithm, and uses the BP neural network principle to modify the IMM algorithm. Aiming at the problem of low tracking accuracy when the target is maneuvering, this paper analyzes the linearization error of Kalman filter and builds a BP neural network to correct the tracking model of IMM. The model creates a target prediction training set and a test set, optimizes the parameters of the neural network, and conducts simulation experiments using MATLAB, which proved that the model had a higher accuracy in predicting the target trajectory of foreign objects. Therefore, the transformation of ideological and political teaching mode in colleges and universities can be realized, and the intelligent classroom of ideological and political education and intelligent communication have technical support.
ABSTRACT The number of undergraduate degree programmes incorporating humanitarian engineering experiences and curriculum has increased significantly since the turn of the century. This paper describes a humanitarian engineering pathway embedded across all four years of an undergraduate engineering degree at an Australian university. Student participation in the pathway and their motivations were evaluated from quantitative enrolment data and anonymous surveys and compared to an overall student baseline. This found a higher percentage of students engaged in humanitarian engineering were female, domestic and involved in extra-curricular activities compared to the overall student baseline. Most students engaging with the pathway were motivated by opportunities to apply their engineering; some highlighting this was to have an impact on societal issues. Recommendations are made for research to further understand student engagement as well as suggestions for initiatives to address potential challenges as humanitarian engineering education continues to expand across Australasia.
This article discusses the Austrian author Hermann Broch's voluminous crowd theory with a special emphasis on its political superstructure. The aim of Broch's theoretical work is to understand modern crowd phenomena and, against this background, to fight totalitarian mass aberration. The article first outlines his basic socio-psychological analysis of the modern individual and its alleged urge for the totalitarian. Next, it discusses Broch's political theory of how to prevent fascist totalitarianism through a so-called total democracy that is based on extensive human rights. In the final part, the article offers a critical assessment of the legacy of Broch's political theory. It is argued that Broch provides an important understanding of irrational energies in modern political life. This could serve as a supplement to recent discussions of the socio-political impact of passions and affect.
ABSTRACT This paper is part of a case study aimed at researching the multilingual repertoires of young people from a linguistic and cultural minority. Further, it analyzes the role of and the place given to heritage languages (HL) in the development of a multilingual and intercultural competence in schools. In the scope of the study mentioned above, a survey was conducted using an online questionnaire distributed to students from a migrant background. These students attended two primary and secondary schools in the central region of Portugal during the academic year 2013–2014. Results show that the respondents value their HL and perceive them as an instrument of social interaction as well as identity construction and affirmation. Additionally, the results show that both school and teachers recognize and respect the students’ linguistic and cultural capital as well as their composite and plural identities. However, they do not take advantage of this in the classroom by not promoting activities that enrich their students’ cultural and linguistic culture. In this context, the possibilities for an education in/with HL, as a pedagogical and didactic project, are not yet present in the school curriculum and habitus, on the one hand, because there are no educational language policies that incorporate it, and on the other hand, because both school and teachers do not seem to value the role and usefulness of HL in the promotion of an intercultural and multilingual education.
This paper asks how the material differences between suburban neighbourhoods influence parents' experience of place and their everyday practices of parenting. Building on a view of place as ‘becoming’, we examine how the accessibility of community amenities and the in-place production and maintenance of social practices contribute to the cohesiveness of neighbourhoods and the social capital resources available to parents. We draw on a 2002–03 study of experiences of Maori, Pakeha (European), and Samoan parents residing in six diverse Auckland neighbourhoods. Analysis of the parents' narratives highlight aspects of the neighbourhood environment that give meaning to participants' daily experiences of parenting, and foster or impede the social relations of place. Beyond purely locational issues, the nuanced relationships between material and sociocultural resources of neighbourhood profoundly influence local patterns of parenting practice. We conclude that place matters in parenting but the salience of the neighbourhood for accessing material and social capital resources varies for parents of different ethnic groups. ‘Jumping’ spatial scale to meet resource needs through the active creation of amenities was more common for minority ethnic groups.
Nassi (1978) described the limits of community control in community mental health centers. This problem can be further understood by exploring the growth of professional dominance and psychiatric expansionism in the 1960s. One consequence was a 'social movement' ideology which psychologized political and economic phenomena, while actually opposing any effective mobilization for community control. Professionals have largely remained unaware and/or unresponsive to these tendencies. Likewise, they have failed to grasp the system of chaos which characterizes mental health policy in the U. S. Mental health care is increasingly falling under professional medical control, State-sponsored rationalization and efficiency planning, and private-profit concerns such as insurance companies and nursing homes. In this way, professionalism and capitalism coincide in their efforts to further their own efforts, while stemming community control in favor of social control.
A framework for evaluating museums' websites is presented. This framework is applied to evaluate 210 museums' websites (70 art, 70 science/technology, and 70 history museums) worldwide. The evaluation results show that all three museums' categories present websites that stay at a satisfying, yet not exceptional, level. Science museums' sites lead the list, with art museums' sites following closely and history museums' sites coming in next. Almost all sites outperformed with respect to technical characteristics. However, many sites present inefficiencies regarding Interactivity and Feedback. Finally, suggestions for improvements are made.
Campus concern is survival oriented. University commu iti s are worried about social, political, se curity, and financial crises. Concern for the curriculum, that life's blood of the university, has been for the mo ment overshadowed. But as the current confrontation eases the scholarly community will face anew the prob lem of "what should be taught ?" Perhaps the curricular issue will come to the fore as a result of reassessment of Black Studies programs. It may arise as a result of an untenable dropout rate among minority students. Or it may arise as a result of an in creasing rate of student transfers from one discipline to another. Whatever the cause, massive reassessment of university curricula is bound to come. This paper at tempts to identify a few basic curricular issues which lie in the path of relevant university programs, and pro poses a few specific curriculum development steps. No one man can perceive the complexities of the multiversity curricula, let alone the problems and weak nesses of the many programs, but a few common themes seem to this writer to be widespread. They are related to content organization, interdisciplinary relationships, stu dent consumerism, and relevance. These are not discrete categories. They are interrelated. A university is supposed to be a community of schol ars. It should follow that collegiate course work should promote scholarship. Scholarship involves promoting academic work and participating in the joys of creating new knowledge. Should not our students be pursuing scholarship ? Too often a university course is organized as a static historical presentation of data produced by scholars. Students are asked, once each semester or quarter, to dig from the archives enough additional static facts to fill a term paper of prescribed length. Evaluation of student performance is usually by rote memory questions. Writ ing style is a key to success in any university course. It is obvious that any scholar must master the history of his discipline and be able to communicate by means of a scholarly dialect to his peers. The problem is that scholarship involves so much more than this. Course work must develop the interrelationships between facts as well as identify them. Moreover the relationships be tween facts and concepts are not static. Somehow the dynamism of the discipline must be visible in course work. Disciplines are growing. Knowledge growth has been with us for so long that such terms as knowledge explo sion are already passing. Disciplines have histories, but they also have futures. Course work should reflect this by including trends and projections as a vital element for the students who will turn the trends into history. As a teacher educator, this writer has been contin ually appalled that his senior students cannot identify the difference between disciplines. For example, history majors cannot tell how their discipline differs from an thropology or sociology. Even worse they cannot recog nize that a new anthropological development might in fluence their discipline. Other groups of students are in little better shape. Students need to understand how new developments in one discipline spill over into other disciplines. Educa tors like John Dewey and Ned Flanders are widely studied outside of education. The work of psychologists widely influences other fields such as education. The work of giants like Einstein is so important that it is difficult to label them as belonging exclusively to any one discipline. The development of a new drug, such as the birth control pill, soon becomes relevant to scholars in all disciplines from medicine to sociology and education. Students need to be shown that the difference be tween disciplines is not as much in the data which "be long" to a particular discipline as in the method of the discipline. The problem solving procedures and the perspective of each discipline are unique. To take teacher education for a homey example, this writer often asks his senior students what a group of scholars would have to say about a pretty girl who is walking down a street. The data are the same for all scholars, but the psycholo gist would infer the girls' self-concept, the historian would think about her heritage, the dentist about her smile, and the educator would wonder about her motiva tion level. Unfortunately, college seniors can seldom de velop any hypotheses about the problem solving proc esses of various scholars. There is obviously an urgent need to upgrade instruction in the areas of disciplinary method and interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge. Most college students who march down the aisle to receive their degrees lack a most elementary concept about what it is like to produce knowledge in their disci pline. As graduates they will be expected to produce in their discipline, yet they have little idea about what the producing role is. The elementary and high schools of the country have done a much better job of resolving this problem than universities.
The essence of the theory of social crises and revolutions by P. Shtomky is revealed. According to him, today, to replace the theory of progress the theory crisis came, because since the fall of utopian human thinking stayed only the uncertainty in the future, its unpredictability. In these circumstances, the future is very limited open chance and random development. Crisis of thinking characteristic of social consciousness, which dominated pessimistic view of social reality, not only in underdeveloped and poor countries, but also in leading and prosperous state.Particular emphasis on crisis communications and traditions. During the crisis, declining the usual rules, regulations and laws, discredited the ruling elite and discarded tradition and therefore the role of the charismatic leader. In such situations, people used to believe only those who are not related to an existing order, which is defined as the product of tradition.In the theory of crises P. Sztompka important place is given to the revolution as the peak moments of social crisis. The main «mystery» of the revolution is its unpredictability. This problem is broken down into two points: the onset of the revolution prediction and prediction of outcome post-revolutionary social order. P. Sztompka proves the impossibility of predicting the revolutions that even if science can predict a revolution, it will make more active defenders of the old regime that will prevent its implementation. However, if the revolution crossed the point of no return (bifurcation), then there is nothing to prevent it fails. Applying synehretychnyy approach defined the crisis and revolution are the bifurcation point - the moment when the dynamics of change requires a solution, so that changes can lead to improvement or a disaster
As feminist critics Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Barbara Welter have noted, there was a significant shift from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century regarding the way in which women’s social and domestic roles were defined.1 In Good Wives, a study of seventeenth-century role definition, Ulrich suggests that while early New England women were certainly subservient to men, they could exercise agency within the framework of several distinct roles: housewife, deputy husband, consort, mother, mistress, neighbor, Christian, and, when circumstances demanded, heroine.2 These duties, however “discrete,” still allowed women a certain degree of agency and independence that was challenged significantly in the nineteenth century.3 By that time, feminine agency operated almost exclusively within the confines of the private sphere, and the roles associated with seventeenth-century women were distilled into what Barbara Welter identifies in her seminal essay “The Cult of True Womanhood” as “four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.”4 As a result, nineteenth-century historians and writers who sought to resurrect seventeenth-century women as archetypes of American womanhood—and to do so in a way that aroused reader sympathy—had to mythologize these women in terms of the ideal nineteenth-century American woman.5 The most popular outlet for such mythmaking was the women’s journal. Just as magazines like Cosmopolitan and Vogue today inform women of the latest trends in fashion, literature, and social mores, so too did popular women’s periodicals of the nineteenth century prescribe for their readers the parameters of femininity and womanhood. Immensely successful women’s magazines such as Godey’s Lady’s Book, Arthur’s Home Magazine, and Peterson’s Magazine were committed to defining the nature and role of women, both in society and in the home.6 Further, although men tended to own and manage these journals,
Presenting new research findings on undocumented Indonesian migrant workers in Macau, this article explicates the dovetailing arrangements between public and private sector interests that are systemically creating undocumented labor migration flows. It then shows how these arrangements are structurally inherent in the mutual competitiveness of globalizing nodes of wealth creation. Undocumented migration cheapens production costs and results in a flexible black market of vulnerable, right-less, and exploited workers. Contrary to illusions of an urbanizing Asia with expanding spaces for civil liberties, the development of globally competitive megacities, built and supported by low-skilled migrant workers, rests on a global underclass of transient workers who bear the human costs of transience and labor flexibility, enabling megacities to externalize such costs and enhance their global competitiveness. The article analyzes the vulnerabilities of undocumented Indonesian workers in the context of Macau's rapid economic development as an aspiring megacity The Macau government's laissez-faire tolerance of such workers is grounded in its need for human labor that is abundant, cheap, marginal, and disposable. The flow of Indonesian migrant workers into Macau is linked to Hong Kong's exclusionary immigration policies, which aim at extricating surplus migrant labor. Meanwhile, the Indonesian government refuses responsibility for its migrant workers in Macau because Macau is not recognized as an official destination. The article shows how public and private interests motivate increasing numbers of migrants to become undocumented overstayers in Macau, as they try to avoid oppressive practices in labor migration from Indonesia and the exclusionary policies of Hong Kong.
We are not here as women examining racism in a political and social vacuum. We operate in the teeth of a system for which racism and sexism are primary, established, and necessary props of profit . . . Mainstream communication does not want women, particularly white women, responding to racism. So we are working in a context of opposition and threat, the cause of which is certainly not the angers which lie between us, but rather that virulent hatred against all women, people of Color, Lesbians and gay men, poor people—against all of us who are seeking to examine the particulars of our lives as we resist our oppressions, moving toward coalition and effective action. (Lorde 1984, 128)
There is an increasing concern about the erosion of local ecological knowledge in recent times. Current discourses on the erosion of such knowledge focus on the effects of external factors and on the survival strategies of the community concerned. Internal factors of the community such as folklore, which is a mode of cultural production of knowledge, remain neglected in these discourses. This report focuses on the erosion of folklore from a cultural-ecological standpoint. It is based on a study among the Konda Reddis, a horticultural society of South India. The report highlights how the erosion of folklore is due to the interplay of cultural constraints in knowledge transmission, cultural and ecological factors in the process of making the auzam (a musical instrument), and the external influences of modern development.
This conceptual pair, Public Islam and Muslim Publics, forms the cornerstones of this collection of case studies in Islam in Africa. Public Islam refers … to the highly diverse invocations of Islam as ideas and practices that religious scholars, self-ascribed religious authorities, secular intellectuals, Sufi orders, mothers, students, workers, engineers, and many others make to civic debate and public life. In this “public” capacity, “Islam” makes a difference in configuring the politics and social life of large parts of the globe, and not just for self-ascribed religious authorities. Journal for Islamic Studies Vol. 27 2007: pp. 1-15
European auteur cinema has frequently relied on adapting qualitatively superior literary texts into screenplays. Moreover, with the advent of digital film, the modes of reception of literature and film converge and are increasingly characterized by the principles of hermeneutics and its circular, and cyclical, process of analysis. In the present study, we explore both the similarities in the artistic processes of creating fiction on the page and on the screen, as well as the transformations necessary in the process of adapting literature to film. Basing our analysis on critical concepts such as Lubbock's showing vs telling, Edward Said's Orientalism, and Brian Jarvis's observations on the literary leitmotif of walking and watching, we strive to show how novelist and filmmaker choose divergent strategies to achieve similar effects. McEwan's strategy rests on a disorienting narrative set in an incomprehensible foreign city conveyed to the reader through the conscience of the emotionally alienated characters. The cultural connotations toy with, yet ultimately defy, a clear identification with the actual city of Venice. Conversely, the filmmakers clearly unwilling to sacrifice the dramatic potential and the recognizablility of Venice choose to deploy a strategy that relies on cultural connotation as well. However, in contrast to McEwan's geographical and cultural opacity, Schrader achieves a similar effect by generating an audiovisual concept (employing both music and mise-en-scène) that places Robert and Mary's Venetian house at the center of an alien, labyrinthine twilight-zone, a kind of orientalized, ritualized domain which inexorably becomes the venue of a pagan ritual of human sacrifice. With the advent of video and DVD, it has become almost a quaint notion to base a film review or a critique solely on the first viewing in the semi-darkness of movie a house. The feature film, available to the reviewer even before its release, now makes it possible to scrutinize the footage in the minutest detail. Indeed, the reception and enjoyment of film has become increasingly akin to that of literature in that both the processes of "reading" the audiovisual and the literary "text" are characterized by the principles of hermeneutics and its circular, and cyclical, process of analysis. Viewing a film, like reading a novel, is no longer subject to the dictates of chronological linearity, nor is one compelled to sit through one complete, uninterrupted viewing. In fact, the gradual shift from the formerly fleeting nature of the viewing experience, which used to be one of the guiding principles of film production, to a process of fragmented, detail-obsessed scrutiny, has not only changed the process of reception but also the art and craft of filmmaking both in terms of form and content. Particularly in European auteur cinema, the adaptation of literary texts of unchallenged prestige has long been one of the guiding principles in film production, which, rather than declining, has experienced an upsurge over the past decade with numerous feature films based on successful novels by prestigious authors such as La pianiste in 2001 (Elfriede Jelinek, 1983) or Dead Babies in 2000 (Martin Amis, 1975), to list only a few of the adaptations based on recent novels, as opposed to film renditions of canonical texts such as Ackerman's, La captive, released in 2000, and Ruiz's Le temps retrouvé in 1999, both based on texts by Marcel Proust. Clearly, European film has its sights firmly set on stories crafted by renowned European novelists, thus bringing together writers and filmmakers across national frontiers, linguistic barriers, artistic periods, styles and sensitivities. We therefore propose to explore the transformations required in the process of adapting literature to film in two areas: 1) in terms of structural and contextual changes that are necessary to preserve the narratological force of the source text upon its conversion into a visual spectacle that privileges the "power of the gaze"; and 2) in terms of the choices made by the filmmakers regarding what we have termed "the politics of cultural connotations". We claim that a contrastive reading of a highly artistic novel such as Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers, and its equally ambitious screen adaptation by Harold Pinter 1 Conversely, Poe's Poetic Principle stipulates just the reverse – namely to read the text as one is wont to watch a film in one go without interruption. 2 Due to the limited space, the authors had to dispense with an intriguing analysis of the politicizing process which becomes manifest in the film adaptation, especially in relation to gender and social issues. and Paul Schrader exemplifies the gradual converging of the methods and habits of both production and reception of literature and film. We shall see that the novel opts for narrative modes which in the movie translate into a complex textual fabric that, while scrupulously faithful to McEwan's plot, deploy their very own strategies to achieve cinematographic verisimilitude, a keen generic self-awareness, and a remarkable degree of intertextuality in its choices of narrative techniques and the recognizability of the spatial and geographical setting. In fact, in the introduction to his Collected Screenplays 3, Harold Pinter himself hints at some of the key issues regarding the setting and the generic features of both novel and film: Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers is a truly frightening book. It slid onto the screen. Paul Schrader moved about a dark Venice almost on tiptoe and the deepening magnetism of evil (with a smiling face) I think is truly disconcerting. I found in it an echo of silent movies where the audience would cry: "Don't go through that door!" But the two victims did go through that door and the fearsome Christopher Walken ate them up. The two characters that are about to fall victim to the "fearsome Christopher Walken" starring as Robert are Colin and Mary, an unmarried British couple in their thirties who have come to Venice in an attempt to emerge from an impasse that seems to have affected their love relationship and their respective acting careers. Right from the opening sequences of McEwan's source text and its audiovisual adaptation, the emotive opacity that seems to characterize their relationship is mirrored by their perception of the city that surrounds them. In the same way that Colin and Mary fail to connect with one another physically, intellectually, and affectively, they are out of sync with the holiday venue they have chosen to jumpstart a romance gone stale. By portraying the spatial setting through the focalized perception of the characters, in a fluid alteration of what Lubbock has denominated “showing” and “telling”, the text evokes the drowsy, stagnant mood of the protagonists ("Two flies gyrated lazily round the ceiling light," p. 1). 3 We cite from. McEwan, Ian. The Comfort of Strangers, Vintage: London 1997 (first published by Jonathan Cape, 1981.) 4 Pinter, Harold Collected Screenplays 3. London: Faber and Faber, 2000. 5 In the analysis of audiovisual narrative, it is useful to distinguish the different modes of representation classified by Percy Lubbock as "telling" and "showing", modes which differ according to the degree of implication of the narrative authority in the story. "Showing", here, refers to mere dramatic representation which results in a very limited presence of the narrator, while "telling" implies the active presence of the narrator. In the movie, this inability to relate to each other and their environment is immediately obvious in the sequence (following the tracking shot of Colin on the balcony) which first portrays Colin and Mary in their hotel room with Colin reading a script for a play while Mary attempts to place a call to her children in England. Both attempts fail miserably with Colin declaring the script "unreadable" as Mary slams down the receiver after struggling in vain to communicate with the Italian operator. When the call finally does come through, Colin, sitting on the bed opposite, makes no attempt to hide the weariness produced in him at the thought of Mary's children from a previous marriage. The scene, absent from the novel, provides a first clue to the divergent strategies employed in the source text and the motion picture to portray two estranged lovers out of tune with each other and their context. In the novel, the sensation of affective and perceptual opacity is achieved by portraying Colin and Mary as foreigners in an impenetrably alien cultural setting. Indeed, almost the entire first half of the text abounds with instances that serve to convey the wondrously impenetrable nature of the nameless foreign city and its populace, or perhaps more accurately, the protagonists' projection of their own incapacity or unwillingness to decode, to connect, and to empathize. Thus, the novel opens with an account of the inexplicable behavior of the natives. Every afternoon, outside their hotel room, men work with no apparent purpose with mallets and chisels on boats "with no visible cargo or means of propulsion." Equally, the eerie thoroughness and fervor with which the anonymous maid carries out her task, and on which they come to rely completely, is a source of wonder to the British couple. The strangely disjointed city maps that refuse to provide orientation in a city where "there were no signs"(10), sold from the "virtual darkness" of barred kiosks by only partially visible and largely unintelligible vendors adds to the mystification of Colin and Mary, who wander around in "one of the eating capitals of the world" (13), presumably in the Mediterranean, where no food is to be had after nine 9'clock, public water fountains don't work, and local shops dedicate themselves to selling "one single item" (13). The Kafkaesque city space, populated by bizarrely inexpressive natives who go about their business compelled by unfathomabl
This paper aim to explores a philosophical analysis towards the obstacles who experienced by children with cerebral palsy in receiving inclusive education in inclusive schools. This paper based on qualitative research that refers to analytic in philosophy of education as its central method. Reconstructionism as one of the streams in philosophy of education also offer a philosophical response towards the dilemma of inclusive education for children with cerebral palsy through make serious efforts to positioning humanity in inclusive education for children with cerebral palsy. A philosophical response in the form of reframing the concept of inclusive education that held based on humanistic principles point out that inclusive education can be carried out comprehensively. The paper concludes that positioning humanity in providing education for children with cerebral palsy is carried out by aligning various components of education that include teachers, students, places, and time. Thus, positioning humanity in education becomes a holistic foundation in organizing education for all children.
Audre Lorde's speech, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, “sheds light on the margins of rhetoric in the sense of the public speech because she examines factors that may cause some people to remain silent while enabling others to speak and act. “Margins” refers both to the parameters employed for defining a practice and the relative place or value of varied activities exemplifying the practice. Lorde interweaves her commentary on the silence surrounding breast cancer with insights about silence drawn from her experiences as a member of several subordinated communities, especially as they relate to the misuse of power to silence those who are different. Her speech comments on silencing and power, sexism, verbal abuse, violence and sexualized aggression, shame, the taboo, and hostile social environments. Paradoxically, Lorde's speech is as much about the possibilities of rhetoric as its limits.
Summary As most students attend university following high school graduation, it is not surprising that the institutional ‘traditional student’ discourse is one of fraternity parties and breaking free of parental control. This discourse infuses university life, and excludes mature students from the vision of those who influence students' academic careers. While educational research provides an ‘adult learner’ discourse, many mature students find that they are not appropriately served by their professors or reference librarians. What may help is an environment which does not presume a need and its solution based on these discourses, but one which treats all students as individuals.
The concept of muda has recently been used to name the specific biographical junctures where individuals enact significant changes in their linguistic repertoire. Given that the use of different linguistic varieties constitutes a resource to construct social categories and to evaluate an actor’s claims to specific social identities, those who change their repertoire must deal with all the potential implications, namely how their social position to date may be affected. In this article, I explain how the notion of muda originated and how it has developed, and discuss how I believe that it can contribute to expand the purview of sociolinguistic research on multilingualism. I argue first that they provide an interesting angle from which to explore forms of agency through language. Secondly, I contend that muda makes time more visible in sociolinguistic processes. Finally, I show that these two aspects of mudes yield specific insights to address issues of linguistic legitimacy and their social consequences, particularly how linguistic capital participates in the construction of social difference and inequalities and, therefore, in the structuration of symbolic and economic markets.
The purpose of this text is to reflect on the existing relationships of knowledge and also its place within the context of political resistance, education and the construction of an educational theory from Latin American social movements. To do so the author will address three cases related to the concepts of education and pedagogy that emerge from the political struggle social movements are involved in. These have become seedbeds in the conformation of a political-historical subject and in the elaboration of a theory to analyze what is real and concrete in our historical time and the challenges to the interpretation of coloniality and the contradictions of capital.
The medium of dance is most often valued in Western society for its artistry and great skill of movement. However, the beauty of this medium often overshadows its ability to create pointed, and often political, messages through the body’s kinesthetic movement in physical space. As embodied expression through time and space, dance must be understood as an art form that actively seeks to create meaning (Hellensleben 2010), a fact that is acutely evident in the dance form known as Waacking. Born out of improvisation-based techniques, Waacking originated in gay, Black and Latino underground disco clubs of 1970’s Los Angeles. The gestures of Waacking were inspired by classical Hollywood glamour actresses, culminating in the distinctive fast, rhythmic arm whipping typical of this dance style. Yet, it is the more performative elements of the dance that holds one’s interest by including components of large locomotion, dramatic gesture and facial expression, and a compelling narrative. This expressive style of movement resulted in Waacking becoming a catalyst for gay refusal, functioning as a method for gay men to express themselves and fully explore their identity. Through an analysis of personal experience and online videos in dialogue with the methodologies of embodiment, phenomenology, and performativity, I will explore how Waacking has shifted from a form of gay refusal to a form of gender refusal, allowing there to be a renegotiation of gender standards through the catalyst of black queer kinesthetics and gender kinesthetics.
As a need for cultural pluralism and multimodal communication,the cultivation of multiliteracies has indicated a new development trend for language teaching. This paper sets up a controlled experiment among non-English major students at one university of Zhejiang Province to conduct an empirical study on the cultivation of multiliteracies. The results indicate that cultivating multiliteracies can not only improve learners' autonomy and ability of inquiring multimodal information, but also arouse their learning interest and integrated ability of English study.
This paper portrays critical ethnography in the sense that it explores ethnography’s relationships with the larger world in which it is embedded, rather than critiquing methodological or theoretical issues internal to its practice. My approach is autobiographical: I aim at what troubles me about anthropology, both as it constitutes a way of confronting the world and as a profession; and I conceptualise the ties that link anthropology and public life through my own experiences as an anthropologist and citizen.
Danish post-Cold War security policy is typically portrayed as a transformation from an anti-militaristic and multilateralist member of a Nordic bloc in international relations promoting international solidarity and global peace into an activist proponent of a liberal world order to be defended by military means when necessary. Focusing on Danish peace policy, this article puts forward a contending analysis arguing that what appears as change entails a considerable amount of continuity. Now, as in the past, the Danish contribution to international peace reflects a combination of international demand and the ability and willingness of Danish policy-makers to meet this demand in accordance with their liberal-egalitarian values and pragmatic approach to international relations.
The three papers contained in this report address different aspects of the problem of formalizing human communication about geographic space. Much of this thought grew out of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis’s Research Initiative #2, Languages of Spatial Relations . Each of these papers were presented at a NATO Advanced Study Institute on Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space, held in Las Navas del Marques, Spain, during July 1990. The meeting was directed by David Mark and coordinated by Andrew Frank. These papers will appear in a volume resulting from the meeting. They are being published as an NCGIA technical report to make them accessible before they are published and printed in that volume.
Abstract This study offers an insight into the rapidly changing patterns of the contemporary monastic life. It begins by looking at a popular and effective ecumenical monastery in Italy, so as to set the scene for a better understanding as to why traditional monastic communities are adapting their ways of living particular vocations. Recent television and radio programmes have brought this area of interest more and more into the public domain and people are generally interested in what can happen in places that were previously hidden and remote. Three specific titles are explored, each of which offers a different perspective.
Susan Peck MacDonald here tackles important and often controversial contemporary questions regarding the rhetoric of inquiry, the social construction of knowledge, and the professionalization of the academy. MacDonald argues that the academy has devoted more effort to analyzing theory and method than to analyzing its own texts. Professional texts need further attention because they not only create but are also shaped by the knowledge that is special to each discipline. Her assumption is that knowledge making is the distinctive activity of the academy at the professional level; for that reason, it is important to examine differences in the ways the professional texts of subdisciplinary communities focus on and consolidate knowledge within their fields. MacDonald s examination concentrates on three sample subdisciplinary fields: attachment research in psychology, Colonial New England social history, and Renaissance New Historicism in literary studies. By tracing, over a period of two decades, how members of each field have discussed a problem in their professional discourse, MacDonald explores whether they have progressed toward a greater resolution of their problems. In her examination of attachment research, she traces the field s progress from its theoretical origins through its discovery of a method to a point of greater conceptual elaboration and agreement. Similarly, in Colonial New England social history, MacDonald examines debates over the values of narrative and analysis and, in Renaissance New Historicism, discusses particularist tendencies and ways in which New Historicist articles are organized by anecdotes and narratives. MacDonald goes on to discuss sentence-level patterns, boldly proposing a method for examining how disciplinary differences in knowledge making are created and reflected at the sentence level. Throughout her work, MacDonald stresses her conviction that academics need to do a better job of explaining their text-making axioms, clarifying their expectations of students at all levels, and monitoring their own professional practices. MacDonald s proposals for both textual and sentence-level analysis will help academic professionals better understand how they might improve communication within their professional communities and with their students."
The removal of the Cherokees from Georgia has had a long and deservedly successful run as a morality play in which the good guys lose. Despite their success in learning the lessons of civilization and the substantial assistance they received from missionary allies and opposition politicians, despite winning one of the most important decisions the Supreme Court ever made and establishing that their residence in Georgia as a self-governing nation was beyond dispute legal, the Cherokees were forced to submit to Georgia laws, to abide by a treaty that no officer of their nation ever signed, and under that treaty to depart on their Trail of Tears. Pressure from the state of Georgia constituted an important element in their defeat, and Georgia won uncontested control of what had been the Georgia section of the Cherokee nation.
The article develops a case for the teaching of human sexuality within the social work curriculum on the grounds that it is a central part of life, that sexual functioning in one way or another affects everyone, and that social workers have to deal with problems and issues in this area for which they have little training. The objectives, content, and specific teaching methodologies used in the elective Human Sexuality and Social Work Practice at the School of Social Work, University of New South Wales are outlined. It is further argued that a special approach to the teaching of this subject is of equal importance to the content itself. Finally, the author hopes this article will break the apparent ‘conspiracy of silence’ surrounding the need to acknowledge that social work needs special courses on human sexuality in professional schools in this country.
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Questions of the right and the good have been variously recognised by anthropologists as key to understanding human action and behaviour since the early days of the discipline, with the influential recent ‘ethical turn’ perhaps the most obvious example (Mattingly and Throop, 2018). Here, the authors – who together founded the Social Science and Ethics Group at the University of Sussex – reflect on how their own fieldwork led them to engage with metaethics, and how doing so advanced their understanding of their ethnographic material, anthropological theory, and their own professional ethics. The three cases draw on fieldwork in Nicaragua, Bolivia, and China.
In a career spanning five decades, David R. Mayhew is best known for the bold simplification at the heart of his second book, Congress: The Electoral Connection (1974). By suggesting that political scientists can gain analytic purchase by thinking of members of Congress as single-minded seekers of reelection – and delivering on that promise by showing how both legislative behavior and congressional organization can be illuminated by this assumption – Mayhew launched a revolution in congressional studies, one that powerfully influenced the study of American politics more generally. But the Electoral Connection is just one of several landmark works that set Mayhew apart as a political scientist. When one steps back and considers the arc of Mayhew’s contributions, it is the combination of analytic sharpness, encyclopedic historical knowledge, and painstaking data collection that distinguishes Mayhew. Mayhew’s nine books and numerous articles have changed how we understand the US Congress, political parties, elections, the policy-making process, and the American constitutional system more generally. From Mayhew’s scholarship, a depiction of politics emerges in which ambitious individual actors are both responsive to constituent preferences and are active molders of those preferences through their activities in the public sphere. Voter “inputs” enter into the policy making process not just through the occasional critical election, but rather through an ongoing interactive process in which parties and candidates cull information from a diverse assortment of signals. More broadly, Mayhew’s work tells us to expect considerable posturing and symbolism from elected officials, and casts doubt on the notion that any particular institution – whether it is Congress, the president, or political parties – ought to be trusted with too much power. At the same time, Mayhew’s careful empirical work tells us to be wary of depictions of a broken, unresponsive political system in urgent need of fundamental change. The intellectual stance is one
ABSTRACT:  The major objective of the study is to develop a framework allowing for the systematic investigation of the institutionalised varieties and performance varieties of English (also known as learner Englishes). This involves a detailed description of the forms of English spoken in India and in Russia as well as discussion of sociolinguistic histories and cultural background. Relying on evidence obtained for Indian English and English spoken in Russia, this paper argues that learner Englishes are self-contained forms of English that reflect order and structure within the grammar and need to be documented and studied systematically in analogy to indigenised forms of English. Moreover, the description of both varietal types should take into account various factors relating to the extra-linguistic setting and sociolinguistic history of the variety in question. Finally, the study shows how systematic accounts of a learner variety can provide a sound basis for – and a useful source of – differentiated cross-varietal comparisons with other forms of English.
Educational reform efforts have pro duced a mounting demand for alter native assessment strategies (Perrone, 1991; Wiggins, 1993) and graphic organizers offer one possibility (Rafferty & Fleschner, 1993). Because graphic organizers foster the critical and interdisciplinary think ing recommended by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989) in Turning Points, they are a promising alterna tive to traditional assessment in middle level classrooms.
This study examined the experiences of eight African refugees resettled in regional Australia. Informed by the notion/idea of intersectionality and others, this study utilised interviews to capture the role of gender, culture, contextual realities of Australia and the participants’ family relations to analyse experiences of gender conflict. The study found that among other things, financial pressures, self-development and differences in power relations contributed to conflict and sometimes separation of couples. The article argues that this gendered experience of the participants both empowers and disempowers, and that social workers need to be aware of these tensions and use advocacy to improve clients’ living realities.
This article examines the explanations offered by men and women, at different academic ranks, for the scarcity of women in full professorial positions in Icelandic universities. Data derive from interviews and a survey involving the total Icelandic academic population. We test three hypotheses: Firstly, academics will not see family responsibilities as explanation, secondly, women will more often refer to a male-dominated environment and men more often to the ‘pipeline’ metaphor. Thirdly, the views of full professor women will be comparable to that of academic men. We find that the impact of the national context is considerably less than that of the gendered academic organizational context. Men and women explain gender inequality within academia differently. Moreover, full professor women are less convinced by the male-dominated environment explanation than lower-ranked women. The article calls for the visibility of gendered patterns in order to make changes.
Now,it is a pluralistic society,and it needs a lot of integrated talents,so English language education should be adapted to the needs of the community to become a comprehensive quality education.Based on the College English Teaching in combination with the status quo analysis of the importance of cross-cultural communication,the author proposed that in College English Teaching students be cultivated cross-cultural communicative competence.
This article is a meditation on a professor's effort to fuse the personal and political in his teaching and, especially, to reframe the stakes away from the technical and toward the moral. As a teacher and educator, I consider two questions about my teaching that emerged from the mandate to reflect on teaching effectiveness during my promotion and tenure review process: Are my students more powerful in the world because of my teaching, and does my teaching alleviate suffering? I theorize what each question means for how I approach my classes to uncover larger questions about what it means to teach. In particular, I argue that any consideration of teaching reduced to a set of skills fails to attend to the sociocultural reality of students' lives, and thus reproduces suffering.
In this article, I consider “alter-childhoods”: explicit attempts to imagine, construct, talk about, and put into practice childhoods that differ from perceived mainstreams. I critically examine alter-childhoods at fifty-nine alternative education spaces in the United Kingdom. I analyze alternative education spaces through the lens of biopolitics, developing nascent work in children's geographies and childhood studies around hybridity and biopower. I focus on two key themes: materialities and (non)human bodies; intimacy, love, and the human scale. Throughout the analysis, I offer a limited endorsement of the concept of alter-childhoods. Although there exist many attempts to construct childhoods differently, the “alternative” nature of those childhoods is always muddied, complicated, and dynamic. Thus, the concept of alter-childhoods is useful for examining the biopolitics of childhood and for children's geographers more generally—but only when considered as a critical tool and questioning device.
The paper argues that everyday exchange of business emails produces a development in the work-group relationship, which, in turn, makes new communication styles possible and acceptable by the users' habit to computer-mediated forms, even in unbalanced professional exchanges. The focus is on the (spoken) discourse features of email messages in a self-compiled corpus of selected computer-mediated business emails, produced by five participants over three months (October 2015 – February 2016). The exchange, involving the use of English by non-native speaker interactants (in particular, Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF)), as well as language adjustments in a computer-mediated exchange, takes the form of a ‘written dialogue’, and closely resembles the features of the spoken discourse. Results confirmed that, despite being the oldest computer-mediated communication technology, emails constitute a ‘not yet conventionalized’ communication mode that is influenced by the push email system, and provide a new (dynamic) communicative frame.
The landscape is not simply an element but a microcosm of nature in which static and dynamic processes are balanced. In the process a sense of harmony and wellbeing is achieved by unifying the indoor and outdoor environments. The natural factors that contribute to the balance of any environment such as physiography, climate, vegetation, wildlife, etc. are actually very closely related and interdependent. They individually contribute to the ecology of site. The unification of the environment and the symbiotic relationship of factors conspire to create a place of inspiration and relaxation for people. The following projects explore and utilize the power of nature in offering a refreshing antidote to dull and mundane spaces of extremely important learning environment. Engagement with Nature
This paper discusses the roles played by Lord Frederick Lugard in the crea­ tion of provincial administration in Northern Nigeria. During his tenure as the High Com­ missioner from 1900 to 1906, the provinces he created were more or less ··paper" provinces. This was so as the British colonial government had just been established in Northern Nigeria and thus exercised little or no control over most of the provinces. As the creation of the pro­ vinces was not preceded by a thorough study, and understanding of the customs and the in­ digenous administrative system of the people, Lugard's policies created serious problems. For instance, some ethnic groups were placed in provinces where they should not be. This provoked reactions from the people. Some colonial officials also reacted unfavourably to the creation of the provincial administration because of the huge expenditure involved. During his period as Governor-General of Nigeria, 1912-1918, Lugard embarked on the amalgamation of some provinces in Northem Nigeria. Like his previous efforts. this failed to materialize. The failure could be blamed on the character of Lugard and the style of his administration, as well as the peculiar circumstances of the governed. In spite of these pro­ blems. the provincial structure created by Frederick Lugard formed the bedrock of the British administration in Northern Nigeria in particular, and Nigeria in general.
AbstractFrontier zones are among the most violent areas in Colombia today. There guerrilla groups have established their rural bases; there military repression is most intense, and there in recent years the cocaine traffickers have entrenched themselves in various ways. This review of the relevant literature explores how students of Colombia have interpreted the significance of the frontier historically and how they are trying to make sense of the relation between colonization and violence today. It shows how the interpretations are influenced by conceptualizations of the the role of the state in colonization areas and it highlights the ways in which the study of frontier processes can shed light on broader issues related to the nature of the political regime and the popular struggles.
The article discusses the foundations, content and developments of contemporary psychology. The author argues that the systems’ principle has entered psychological theory and practice. Analysing contemporary tendencies in science, the author observes the following changes: 1) a genetic turn in the systems approach; 2) a focus on integration and holism in studies of psychological phenomena; 3) an interest in the ontology of the mind. The author suggests that the systems approach requires, first, sensitivity to the integral (systemic) qualities of reality under examination and, second, possibilities for synthesising various dimensions of research. The paper discusses the prospects for the systems approach in psychology, a science that is marked by multiple paradigms and is based on the principles of mutual inclusiveness and complementarity.
The displacement of Black educators after the Brown v. Board of Education decision was an extraordinary social injustice. The wholesale firing of Black educators threatened the economic, social, and cultural structure of the Black community, and ultimately the social, emotional, and academic success of Black children. The author presents a historical perspective of the work of Black educators in the pre-Brown era; discusses the impact of Brown on the professional careers of Black teachers, principals, and superintendents; describes some of methods used to fire Black educators; and concludes with a discussion of the impact of these losses on the Black community and an agenda for Black education.
Macmurray, is to determine its empirical reference, to get behind the necessary abstraction of all reflective activity to its anchorage in experience. Thus the nature of religious experience becomes a key issue. ’The falsification of religion that matters most,’ he writes, ’even in the sphere of religious thought, is not the ultimate truth or falsity of beliefs, but the falsification of the reference of these beliefs to experience.&dquo; To ensure this proper reference he believes that the discussion of religion should always begin with the experience which underlies it and come only subsequently to the question of God.2 Furthermore man must
Public opinion research of the Russian population attitudes towards Official Development Assistance(ODA) was undertaken in 2010 as part of the DFID supported WB Russia as a Donor Initiative (RDI) program assisting Russian Government in its development aid efforts. The research was conducted by Levada-Center, an independent polling and sociological company, using qualitative (in-depth interviews with opinion leaders) and quantitative (nationally representative survey) methodology. Volumes 1 and 2 report respectively on the findings of the qualitative and quantitative surveys. The qualitative survey included 25 opinion leaders interviews (public officials, NGOs, academia, business community, and the media), conducted in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, and Rostov. The interviews covered economic situation in Russia; Russia's global role; potential recipient countries of Russian ODA and types of assistance; and overall awareness of Russian ODA activities. The opinion leaders share a common feeling that Russia is a "rich country with poor people" that still should take increasingly active role in development aid, being an influential "world power". Opinion leaders believe that Russian ODA should focus on: (i) countries affected by natural disasters; (ii) neighboring former Soviet bloc countries that have traditionally been "a zone of Russia's historic responsibility"; and (iii) countries posing global security threats. "Giving a fishing rod, not fish" was indicated as a preferred approach to development aid. Joint ODA programs with the World Bank and other multilateral organizations were supported as a tool to strengthen Russia's donor role, learn international practices, and reduce corruption risks. Most of the interviewees had little knowledge of the Russian ODA, but they thought it was matching the national interests, and were interested to learn more on ODA. A need to inform the general public about Russia's donor role was highlighted. The nationwide survey included 1503 respondents from 96 cities and 35 rural settlements located in 44 regions of Russia. The sample was nationally representative of the Russian adult population (aged 18 years and older). The survey showed that 3/4 of the population approve Russia's development aid to the poorest countries with preferred areas of Russia support being countries affected by natural disasters (64 percent support) and poor CIS countries (22 percent). Potential assistance could be provided in a form of sending Russian specialists to work in developing countries (58 percent); educating their students in Russia (51 percent); and supplying food and equipment at subsidized prices (30 percent). Medical care, access to basic education, and developing industrial facilities and infrastructure are seen as the areas of most effective assistance. Russia ODA collaboration with multilateral organizations is also seen favourably. Motivation of Russia ODA in the views of the respondents included: (i) shared moral responsibility for reduction of extreme poverty in developing countries; (ii) expansion of the circle of countries friendly to Russia; (iii) reduction the threat of terrorism and drug traffic between Russia and neighboring countries; and (iv) increase of Russia's influence and prestige in the world.
Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Royce'sthought, providing the most comprehensive selection of his writings currently available. They offer a detailedpresentation of the viable relationship Royce forgedbetween the local experience of community and thedemands of a philosophical and scientific vision ofthe human situation.The selections reprinted here are basic to any understandingof Royce's thought and its pressing relevanceto contemporary cultural, moral, and religious issues.
In no way is the Soviet behavior as a whole irrational. In it there are "rational aspects," especially in strategic and tactical method and in the construction of political and conflict organizations. However, "none of these procedures outweighs the fact that the whole Soviet operation is permeated with conflicts engineered by an irrational doctrine, which can turn flexible stratagems into inflexible dogmas" (p. 51). The inquiry into the traumata of Soviet mentality rather than mentality itself allows the author to pose and answer such important questions as: a) Are Soviet leaders reasonable? b) Can the United States and the USSR communicate? c) Is Soviet conduct calculable? The answers to these questions fall short of prophetic projection into the future but constitute a logical consequence of the analysis of Soviet theory. The Communist theory observes that "history has defined the mutual relationship between Communist and non-Communist societies in terms of an intent to destroy or be destroyed" (p. 71). As a result, any "communication of meaningful signals between the non-Communist world and the Soviet world is extremely difficult" (p. 70). This, certainly, is unpopular but seems to be the only rational answer which can "protect the West from the pitfalls of a new peace offensive of which, in the past, it has too often been the victim" (p. 73). It is to be regretted that the book does not specify the possessors of this Soviet mentality. Should the reader assume that all Soviet subjects are irrational and that Soviet dogma is so potent that the Soviet population as a whole is affected by it? Or is this irrationality confined to the members of the Communist party—or only to those selected few "who would have become martyrs had they been Christians"? (p. 26). On page 28 the reader is referred to Klaus Fuchs's "doublethink" as a conspicuous illustration of the Communist mentality. Is then "Communist" synonymous with "Soviet"? If so, does it follow that Communists all over the world display the same type of illogical and irrational behavior? . An Inquiry into Soviet Mentality is unquestionably an outstanding, timely, and valuable study. It points out the important role Communist ideology plays in Soviet behavior and urges our "policymakers to submerge themselves in the vast literature of Communist ideology so as to see things as Communists are likely to see them, and yet emerge with an unimpaired devotion to non-Communist values."—JOHN FIZER
T AM sure it has been apparent that important changes have been taking J, place in the English curriculum at all levels in recent years, and it should be equally clear that a number of impending changes will take place during the years that lie immediately ahead. Many of these changes have been almost universally acclaimed by teachers of English; a number of them have served largely to confuse us or even to divide us into conflicting camps; and others have been viewed with misgiving. The marked changes which have taken place in English instruction in recent years, the fluid state of the English curriculum at the present time, and the urgent need for a clarification of the place of language arts and literature in American education impose upon professional organizations like the National Council for Teachers of English and the National Association of Secondary-School Principals grave responsibilities for leadership. O’n them as well as others falls a great responsibility for leadership. Recognizing the need for a better understanding of the function of English instruction in the education of all American youth and of the kind of curriculum needed to achieve our avowed objectives, the National Council of Teachers of English in 1945 appointed a National Commission on the English Curriculum. This Commission consists of twenty-eight members representing all levels of instruction and all types of schools in all sections of our country. Furthermore, the Council chose as its 1945 Convention theme &dquo;The Emerging English Curriculum.&dquo; The eighteen sessions of this Convention were designed
Ethnic competition theory provides considerable insight into the localized contexts within which ethnic solidarities intensify and contribute to increased conflict, but gives less guidance as to how the spatial dynamics of such contexts impact the rise of sustained ethnic mobilization. Using the case of the Civil Rights–era Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, the authors show that threat/competition dynamics were tied to distinct dimensions of spatial context and then root these spatial effects in social processes. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that mobilization was facilitated by the presence of opportunities for connections within and across counties, through which information about the klan could spread to other aggrieved individuals. These findings suggest that more attention be paid to the mesolevel contexts within which reactive political contention emerges.
There appeared in the March issue of the Cambridge Law Journal an article criticising the rules under which married, separated and divorced people were taxed in the United Kingdom. The article dealt with the position as it was in the tax year 1987/88, before the 1988 Busdget. The 1988 Budget made radical proposals for change and, at the time of writing, these proposals have just been enacted as part of the Finance Act 1988. On the whole the changes are to be welcomed. They will introduce rules which will be both simpler and fairer than those they replace. Having said this, the new system will include or retain some rules which are, in effect, left-overs from the old and which will make both for unnecessary complications and continued unfairness.
ABSTRACT This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study on a group of mainland Chinese students’ multilingual experiences during their cross-border studies in a Hong Kong university from a language ideological perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews as the primary dataset, the study investigated the language ideologies held by the participants about Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Findings indicated that while the participants espoused a distinct set of language ideologies about Cantonese, Putonghua and English underlying their multilingual experiences in the university, the ideology of language as identity and the ideology of language as commodity emerged as the two major language ideologies. It was also revealed that the ideological tensions arising from the co-existence of the multiple and competing language ideologies resulted in the participants’ ambivalences in their use of, and/or investment in, particular languages. Findings also point to the role of the participants’ language ideologies in maintaining the social hierarchy of languages within the local language ecology and reproducing the group boundaries between local and mainland Chinese students.
The Hirsch´s h-index is a new bibliometric indicator that has been considered useful to evaluate the scientific productivity of individual researchers and scientific journals. This paper uses it to evaluate the productivity of the 15 research universities of Chile. Since in Chile public rankings of perception of their universities are begining to be common, the article relates the h-index with a pair of rankings based on the prestige that the potential employers and students of the last level of secondary education have of them. I found that both rankings of perception were related and the same happened when they were associated to the h-index of Hirsch. The association was greater for the ranking based on the perception by potential students at those universities.
Abstract Taking Biobank UK as its centrepiece, this paper analyses the politics of legitimation accompanying the emergence of population-based genetic databases and the contribution of bioethics to the power play therein. First, it explores the nature of the legitimation problem experienced by biotechnology and considers the extent to which bioethics can be regarded as an epistemic community capable of responding to that problem through a regulatory contribution. Second, drawing on a range of documentary and internet sources, it examines the ethical content of the policy discourse of biobank regulation in four countries in terms of the balance of power expressed therein between the rights of citizens, science, industry and the state in relation to the control of genetic information. Third, the analysis deals with the contribution of the international discourse and networks of bioethics to the policy debate of biobank regulation and the disciplinary identity of this divided epistemic community.
Research results from Nielsen Company July 2017 mentions that Generation Millenials, aged 20-34 years prefer internet and cinema media to get content. Thus, at least millenials in the campus environment have the potential to experience radicalization in religious thought. The purpose of this study to determine the efforts of an institution or organization to minimize radicalization through the use of official websites and social media accounts. The sample of the research focuses on Instagram account "Pesantren Krapyak" Yogyakarta, Twitter account "NU Garis Lucu", Official Website "NU Online", Website of Universitas Wahid Hasyim, and IAIN Metro Lampung Website. This research is library research type with documentation data collection method. The results suggest that social media accounts and official websites owned by institutions can be a tool to minimize deradicalization in millenials. These efforts can be done through content that contains the substance of peace signals, news about the cooperation of mass organizations, cultural articles of politeness in religion, news results Ta'lim Pondok Pesatren, Quote Kiai containing peace, and scientific articles through the Open Journal System. Implication of this research is that social media accounts of institutions or communities and official websites owned by organizations have the potential to deradicalize millennials Keywords—Religious deradicalization; radicalization; Millenials; website; social media.
This analysis aims to observe the existing knowledge among the professors, students and servers of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Campus Praia Vermelha) with regard to the past of the place where they work. This investigation is based on the assumption that this knowledge is not passed on from generation to generation by teachers and students. It also turns to the applicability and the real social function of the perpetuation of this knowledge, since history shows us certain stigmas linked to mental health. The methodology consisted of bibliographic research based on articles and books and interviews with people who occupy the place in different ways. The conclusions showed that there is a gap in the information, but there are resources and they should be considered in favor of the university-society relationship.
Arguments about literacy typically take the same form. One kind of literacy holds a commanding position, that which comprises the ways of using language valued by the academy and the upper social classes with which it is associated. The dominance of this academic literacy is challenged by people who have made their way into the schools but whose native tongues are at a relatively greater remove from the academic dialect, whose preferred modes of developing ideas conflict with the linear logic and impersonal posture of academic debate, and whose cultural treasures are not included in the academic canon. These challenges of academic literacy typically come from social groups at some remove from the upper classes-that is, from the lower classes, foreign born, non-white, and/or female.
Against the backdrop of the social inclusion and widening participation agendas in Australian Higher Education (Transforming Australian Higher Education, 2009; Review of Australian Higher Education, 2008), increasing attention and resources are being directed towards access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Patterns of post-migration settlement have shown that low socioeconomic areas are often areas in which high numbers of people report using a language other than English (LOTE) at home. This means that now more than ever, issues of English language proficiency in general, and levels of academic language development and preparedness in particular, are critical. And yet, a significant cohort of domestic language background other than English (LBOTE) student remains poorly understood. These students, known as Generation 1.5 (Rumbaut & Ima, 1988), are students who migrated to Australia from a non-English speaking country during childhood. By virtue of being schooled locally, these students often lack the usual markers of cultural or linguistic difference. Moreover, their native-like “sound” leads educators to assume students are more proficient in academic language than they are. Further contributing to this comparative invisibility, the majority of research into LBOTE students is devoted to international students or more recently arrived migrants. Where research has been conducted, the findings are often contradictory. This highlights the often neglected heterogeneity of this cohort. As such, these students represent a significant blind spot. This paper calls for more research in this area, in particular, into the academic writing of these students and for individual institutions to implement locally targeted academic language and literacies strategies.
In recent years, trade unions in Canada have become increasingly reliant on constructing workers’ rights as part of the broader rubric of human rights. While the topic of labour rights has become popular in recent academic literature, it remains under explored. An important element of constructing labour rights as human rights is its impact on union democracy and rank-and-file mobilization, though this has yet to be fully explored. Utilizing the case study of the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) struggle against Bill 29, this paper suggests that a reliance on the construction of labour rights as human rights and the corresponding judicial strategy prevents the development of a from a more radical, grassroots social movement unionism and instead facilitates the proliferation of hierarchical, elite dominated forms trade unionism. It concludes by suggesting that unions must be cautious of the potential downfalls of quelling militant grassroots activism in lieu of a rights-based challenge.
Sex law is a loanword in our country. However,Chinese scholars did not have special study on the application of this concept. This term in Chinese context is not thoroughly understood and lacks both connotation and denotation. Hence researches centering on sex laws cannot be well grounded. By analyzing with a historical and comparative method,this study suggested that laws that regulated sex had never been named Sex Laws. For the convenience of this type of study,we may replace the concept of Sex Law with the concept of sexrelated laws. Sexrelated laws refers to all the laws and legal explanations that balance the sex demand and supply by protecting people's right of health and property and maintaining the moral customs and regulatory orders.
Foreword - Joseph R Biden, Jr PART ONE: BOOK CONTEXT AND CRITIQUES OF O'NEIL AND HARWAY'S MULTIVARIATE MODEL EXPLAINING MEN'S VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN What Causes Men to be Violent Against Women? The Unanswered and Controversial Question - Michele Harway and James M O'Neil Preliminary Multivariate Model Explaining the Causes of Men's Violence Against Women - James M O'Neil and Michele Harway Feminist Perspectives on Male Violence Against Women - Amy J Marin and Nancy Felipe Russo Critiquing O'Neil and Harway's Model Male Offenders - Richard J Gelles Our Understanding from the Data PART TWO: BIOLOGICAL, NEUROANATOMICAL, HORMONAL AND EVOLUTIONARY FACTORS EXPLAINING MEN'S VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Biological Perspectives on Violence Against Women - Anthony F Greene The Evolutionary Origins of Male Violence Against Women - Louise B Silverstein PART THREE: MEN'S AND WOMEN'S GENDER-ROLE SOCIALIZATION AND GENDER-ROLE CONFLICT1 FACTORS EXPLAINING MEN'S VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Men's Gender-Role Conflict, Defense Mechanisms and Self Protective Defensive Strategies - James M O'Neil and Rodney A Nadeau Explaining Men's Violence Against Women from a Gender-Role Socialization Perspective Women's Gender-Role Socialization, Gender-Role Conflict and Abuse - Roberta L Nutt A Review of Predisposing Factors PART FOUR: RELATIONAL AND INTERACTIONAL FACTORS EXPLAINING MEN'S VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Systems Perspectives on Battering - Stephen A Anderson and Margaret C Schlossberg The Importance of Context and Pattern Inter-Gender Relational Dimensions of Violence Toward Women - Sandra Rigazio-DiGilio and A Stephan Lanza A Co-Constructive-Developmental Perspective PART FIVE: MACROSOCIETAL, RACIAL AND CULTURAL EXPLANATIONS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN The Interaction between Societal Violence and Domestic Violence - Janis Sanchez-Hucles and Mary Ann Dutton Racial and Cultural Factors PART SIX: THEORETICAL PROPOSITIONS, REVISED MULTIVARIATE MODEL OF MEN'S RISK FACTORS, NEW HYPOTHESES AND PREVENTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS Revised Multivariate Model Explaining Men's Risk Factors for Violence Against Women - James M O'Neil and Michele Harway Theoretical Propositions, New Hypothoses and Proactive Recommendations
During the 2015 presidential election, tension was very high as to who becomes the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This was because of the sit-tight syndrome that characterizes African democracy. Sit-tight approach to leadership has caused wars and revolutions in many African countries. However, the reverse was the case with the former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who conceded defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari and affirmed in his speech that ‘nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.’ This paper is an appraisal of former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan conceding speech. Survey method was used and the work was anchored on Speech-Act Theory. The data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Some of the findings revealed that the speech was predicated on his philosophy that nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian and that the perceived objective was achieved. The study recommended that our leaders should imitate the spirit of democracy shown by Goodluck Jonathan.
Objectives. There has recently been much emphasis on the role of ‘partnerships’ between local community ‘stakeholders’ in strategies to redress health inequalities. This paper examines obstacles to participation in such partnerships by African‐Caribbean lay people in local initiatives to improve mental health in a town in southern England. We present a ‘social psychology of participation’ which we use to interpret our data. Our work seeks to illustrate some of the micro‐social mechanisms through which social inequalities are perpetuated, using Bourdieu's conceptualisation of the role played by various forms of capital (economic, social, cultural and symbolic) in perpetuating social inequalities. Design. Our empirical research consists of a qualitative case study of attitudes to participation in mental‐health‐related partnerships in a deprived community. In‐depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with 30 local community ‘stakeholders’, drawn from the statutory, voluntary, user and lay sectors. Results. While interviewees expressed enthusiasm about the principles of participation, severe obstacles to its effective implementation were evident. These included severe distrust between statutory and community sectors, and reported disillusionment and disempowerment within the African‐Caribbean community, as well as low levels of community capacity. Moreover, divergent understandings of the meaning of ‘partnership’ suggested that it would be difficult to satisfy both community and statutory sectors at once. Conclusions. We suggest that disadvantaged and socially excluded communities are often deprived of the social resources which would provide a solid basis for their participation in partnerships with state health services. In the absence of efforts to remove such obstacles, and to generate the necessary resources for participation, partnerships may be ‘set up to fail’, leaving social inequalities to prevail.
Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra, simulation and hyperreality were assessed in relation todominant themes and subthemes contained in the photographic images of Time magazine’s 9/11special edition by means of a qualitative thematic content analysis. This event was selectedbased both on its becoming an ‘absolute event’ and on the resultant representation of said eventsvia images. As such, visuals, because they contextually reflect a situation, play a powerful role inthe representation of major world events. This is particularly true of photographs.
Few of us would debate the basic argument that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is crucial to US competitiveness and that the future of job creation and retention rests (at least partially) on producing an educated technical workforce. The Biotechnology industry strongly supports this hypothesis. This is an industry that needs little in the way of the physical infrastructure of the heavy industries of the past, but is anchored firmly on the abilities of scientifically trained people at all levels, from the laboratory bench to the capital providers, who understand both science and business. The future leaders of the ‘‘BioCentury’’ must be educated to assure their mastery of the diverse areas of science and technology that will drive innovation and technological advancement. None would disagree as to the importance of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetics. But at the same time, we are asked to assure our industrial colleagues (as well as the government regulators and agencies who demand accountability) that our graduates can work effectively in teams, can solve real problems, posses the ability to read and write about complex scientific and social issues, and can become innovative and effective leaders with the highest levels of critical thinking skills and ability to integrate vast quantities of information. How can we accomplish this? Several months ago, two former assistant Secretaries of Education, Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Diane Ravich, wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal [1] decrying the rush to support STEM education at the expense of the ‘‘liberal arts.’’ Regarding STEM education they noted: ‘‘Worthy though these skills are, they ignore at least half of what has long been regarded as a ‘well rounded’ education in Western civilization: literature, art, music, history, civics and geography.’’ They have a valid point, but we should not frame the argument as requiring either STEM or liberal arts—we need both! It is important for us as scientists to appreciate the importance of liberal arts education as an essential element of scientific competence, effective leadership, and critical thinking. An interesting study carried out by Nobel Laureate Thomas Cech suggests that many of our science PhD’s come from liberal arts backgrounds [2]. Although the specifics in the analysis have likely changed somewhat since the 1999 study was completed, the basic conclusions are relevant to the current discussion. Besides the need for highly developed communication skills, Cech argues that there is significant synergy in the education of a successful scientist when it is combined with rigorous studies of the liberal arts. Cech suggests:
In this article, we propose an original method combining large-scale network and lexicometric analysis to link identifiable communities of Twitter users with the main discursive themes they used in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, France in 2015. We used this method to compare tweets and user networks in French and in English. We observed that the majority of the users who tweeted about Charlie Hebdo were people without any particular affiliation, who were shocked by the attacks and immediately expressed themselves through emotionally charged messages. But rather quickly their proportion decreased and they participated less in politically polarizing discussions. On the other hand, we found that smaller, highly politicized, and polarized groups had similar attitudes toward the events: they were less engaged immediately after the attacks in emotional expression of sympathy and shock, but they participated vividly in the following days in polemical discussions or engaged themes. Other findings include the central position of mainstream media and the existence of groups of users that aggregated on the basis of nationality. More generally, our results show clearly that even the most dramatic events such as a terrorist attack with innocent victims do not produce homogeneous reactions online. Rather, political engagement and cultural dispositions are keys to understand different attitudes on Twitter.
The following is taken from a paper given at the 1990 NARE National Conference. In it Len Barton argues powerfully for the centrality of teachers in the process of schooling. If all children are entitled to a broad, balanced education it follows that the well-being of all teachers is equally important. In these difficult times Barton offers some constructive suggestions including the plea that teachers' accounts of stress be taken seriously and not dismissed as a series of unconnected insights. Too many teachers are involved for this to be so. The issues go beyond the personal to the structural. More than ever, teachers now need to collaborate and support each other and to liaise more effectively with parents. Crucially, Barton warns us, it is time for the professional associations to use democratic channels to demand those changes we all believe are necessary.
In order to investigate the living condition of new generation of urban peasant workers,we conduct an investigation with in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey in Suzhou.The paper constructs an analysis frame following as income,occupation,health,the emotion to city and the feeling of self-affirmation.On the base of investigation,we put forward related countermeasures to protect the rights of new generation peasant workers,whereby to bridge the gap between cities and rural areas,to promote social harmony,and to enhance urbanization process.
The Dominican Republic, which has once again exhibited the fragility of its political institutions by taking over two weeks to ascertain a winner in its last presidential election, is, in many ways, a land of shared commonalities with other peoples. Its merengue rhythms point to a common musical bond with West Africa; its language and cultural institutions suggest a heavy Spanish stamp and its affiliations with other regional entities such as Puerto Rico and Venezuela are well known. Unfortunately for the Dominicans, however, they share their own island with another society — a decidely unique situation, especially since this schism represents an antipathic clash between different languages, histories and racial philosophies.
At the time of rapid change of social economy,the foreign language majors,being trained in the model of rote teaching,do not have enough professional knowledge and competence with no right of professional discourse,and fail constructing their own professional identity.Thus fail meeting their occupational requirement.Therefore,it is urgent for foreign language specialty to carry out a market-oriented education and construct a new teaching model loaded with specific]systematical relevant information to foster market-required compound talents.
How does a public library go from owning less than 5 French language books to owning more than 1500 in 3 years? How does a teaching of French language community go from having a scattered number of resources throughout the Peace district to gaining access to over 1500 titles in 3 years? This project began in 2004 when several organizations got together to apply for a federal government grant to explore ways to improve language services for students in French as a second language. The organizations were successful in their grant application to Canadian Heritage for just under $500,000 matching dollars and since that time the project has grown to include several other organizations. The result has been a successful collaboration in our community that includes the local college, the local public library and its regional headquarters plus 5 area school boards. The public library now houses a collection of over 2500 titles that assist teachers in their delivery of French as a second language (FSL), French immersion and Francophone education. For our French reading public our collection now numbers over 1500 items. Like any project, there were several drivers at the start. First, the local community members involved with Francophones and the delivery of French teaching programs in the city saw a need to address resources in Grande Prairie. Second, the provincial government mandated the teaching of FSL for Grade 4 and up. Our schools were not prepared. These groups got together and submitted an application to the federal government for a grant. It was a lot of work but the application was successful and Grande Prairie received over half a million dollars over 3 years to deliver the program. The school boards partnered with Grande Prairie Public Library and Peace Library System (PLS) to process, house and circulate the items, and contracted with a French teacher to do the selection of the materials. During the first year of the project, over $70,000 was spent on resources. During the second year of the project, a facilitator was hired to coordinate the project as it grew in scope enormously and went beyond the selection and ordering of resources; during that year, over $90,000 worth of resources arrived. Also during the second year, French was withdrawn as a language that was supported by the International collection. The library decided to use $10,000 of the Public Library Initiative money to develop the French adult reading collection. The project matched that amount and the items were ordered. Because this ordering was being done by the Library, PLS headquarters became involved because not only were they processing all of the French Resource Centre items, they now had to order and process all of the French adult reading materials. Collection Development How does one order resources for 43 schools each offering a variety of French programs and each experiencing different challenges and strengths? What steps were taken? The Centre... * Contacted the consultants working with Alberta Education and Edmonton Public Schools. Both institutions have recommended resource lists for FSL. * Met with principals in immersion and asked what they needed. * Met with teachers and asked what they wanted to see. * Talked to the librarians at the immersion schools, looked at their material and asked them for recommendations. * Talked to the provincial French bookstores and became informed on what is good, well-liked literature that would be useful for teachers. * Attended several conferences and asked many questions from publishers at the display tables. * Attended many sessions where specific resources were highly recommended. Through this process, the Centre was able to order a collection containing: * All FLS recommended resources for grade 4 through grade 12. * Several series of readers for FSL and Immersion for kindergarten through to grade 8. …
Rooted in British sociologist Anthony Giddens’s description of modernity as a historical and cultural space that is “in various key respects discontinuous with the gamut of premodern cultures and ways of life,” this study seeks to contextualize Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi’s life and legacy in relation to evolving ideas of modernity. Here I continue my concern with Ch’oe’s actual dancing. I first lay a foundation for moving forward by summarizing related previous findings. I then look at Ch’oe’s emerging aesthetic philosophy and artistic development in relation to modernity as it was becoming defined in dance in Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. I conclude that it was the diverse philosophies underlying the kinds of dance with which Ch’oe became engaged that in effect gave her permission to develop artistically in the way she did, and that allowed for her changing embodiment of Korean modernity during the 1920s and 1930s.
I suggest that evaluators have much to offer in being stewards of citizen deliberation during the conduct of evaluative inquiry, especially in regards to the professional community’s guiding principle of “Responsibility to the general and public welfare.” The deliberative forum is reviewed as one evaluation methodology for bringing the theory of deliberative democratic evaluation into practice. The paper offers a number of reflections from the field based on my experiences of adopting a stewardship role during my evaluation practice. These include: (1) working with the tacit program culture, (2) consciousness of risk, (3) creating dissonance, (4) the role of coaching, and (5) sustaining deliberation in program communities. Examples are offered in thinking about constructing deliberative forums throughout evaluation processes in practical contexts. The paper positions evaluation practice as an important mechanism for contributing toward a civil society and asks evaluators to consider their role in being stewards of citizen deliberation.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of manager-employee relationships and its impact on talent retention. The study discusses the power distance between managers and employees in knowledge-intensive sectors like Information Technology services industry. Grounded Theory Research design was used to explore the research phenomenon. The study was based on the analysis of fifty-two in-depth interviews from employees and managers in IT services industry in India. Purposeful and theoretical sampling designs were used to locate the participants for the study. Grounded theory analytical procedures - Open, axial and selective coding were used to analyse and interpret the interview narratives. The results and discussion of the study are in favour of the Hofstede's (2001) low power distance dimensions that are widely prevalent in organizations in IT services industry in India. However, the study's findings contrast the study conducted by Hofstede in which India was rated relatively high on power dimensions.
Although institutions of higher education have been increasing efforts to recruit and retain Black women graduate students, Black women are still low in numbers in graduate programs. Black women have experienced decades of socio-historical challenges that impact their persistence and resistance in graduate education, with the most common being inadequate mentoring, poor socialization, perceived negative campus climate, gendered racial microaggressions,outsider-within status,and a diminished sense of belonging. The hostile climate and culture combined with the overwhelming whiteness of agriculture and life sciences (AgLS) sends a message to Black women that they do not belong in AgLS and perpetuates white supremacy.The purpose of this study was to describe how intersecting marginalized identities shape the experiences of Black women doctoral students in AgLS disciplines at Historically White Institutions, and how those experiences shape their journey into or away from the professoriate. Two theoretical perspectives informed the study: Critical Race Feminism and Intersectionality. Three rounds of interviews were conducted via Zoom or in person. Initial, simultaneous, and narrative coding were used to analyze the data. There were four conclusions for the study: 1) First-generation status negatively impacted imposter syndrome, 2) avoidance of the Angry Black Woman stereotype, 3) departmental/campus climate and sense of belonging are shaped by practices in the academic environment, and 4) whiteness negatively shapes campus/departmental climate and sense of belonging. Implications for practice, policy, and research were provided, as well as recommendations for future research.
The common law rule of one-vote-per-shareholder was a prevalent feature of corporate governance at the start of the nineteenth century. Colleen Dunlavy attributes the persistence of the common law rule in early nineteenth century America to the social conception of the corporation as a body politic and egalitarian social norms. The social conception of the corporation was no doubt quite different at the start of the nineteenth century than it is today, but so were its economic purpose and function. At the start of the nineteenth century the corporation was commonly used to provide local public goods, such as turnpikes and bridges. In fact, the prevalence of the one-vote-per-shareholder rule in the early nineteenth century may have had more to do with the use of the corporation for what were essentially public purposes than with any social conception of the corporation as a body politic. As the nineteenth century proceeded and local and state governments increasingly began to provide these public goods themselves, the one-vote-per-share rule became predominant. Further research is warranted, but in the end, the transition from one-vote-per-shareholder to one-vote-per-share may prove to be interesting as much for what it reveals about the forces that drive important changes in corporate law and governance as for what it reveals about the social meaning of the corporation. The lesson may be that the social meaning of the corporation derives from its economic purpose and function.
In a sense unintended by the authors, these two closely related books present a story within a story. Both Rational DecisionMaking and Decisions in Crisis are striking efforts to understand the decision-making substance and process of a key actor in the Middle East imbroglio Israel. In addition, the authors strive to evaluate the quality of the decision-making choices against current insights offered by rational and other decision-making frameworks. As well, those analyses reveal important elements of decision-making choice by the authors themselves. They thus show the state of the art as it exists, and they provide clues of where the field must move in the future.
In the present junior high schools,teachers' ability is a problem our integrated science curriculum faces.After we conducted an investigation into 15 junior high schools of Changchun City where integrated science curriculum hasn't been applied,the questionnaire data show that science teachers know little about the integrated science curriculum,oppose the integrated science curriculum in junior high schools,and don't possess the knowledge structure and skills to meet the requirement of integrated science curriculum.We can improve the adaptability of science teachers through innovating higher teachers college education,adjusting the policy of teacher training and enhancing communication.
ABSTRACT This article describes neighborhood-based resilience and action among African American residents, to promote environmental cleanup and to reverse economic oppression, in a neighborhood bordering the most polluted waterway in the southeastern United States. This community-university partnered research explored how environmental contamination problems eventually served as a rallying cause for economic development and empowerment for the neighborhood. Based on review of neighborhood archives and newspaper articles, examination of reports from environmental regulatory authorities, and interviews with neighborhood residents and others, we identify environmental problems, barriers, and action on grievances that stem from environmental and economic conditions. A community collective action framework is used to depict the process by which community members have become increasingly sophisticated in leveraging local, state, and federal resources for environmental cleanup and neighborhood development.
much the findings might be affected by these problems, but further study is warranted. These are all challenges worth striving to meet. The work reported in this book takes us a long way toward understanding the interface between education and labor force entry in comparative terms. It provides a firm base on which to build. It is a pity that the book has such a high price. That will prevent many scholars from adding it to their personal collections. However, they should make sure that their university libraries obtain at least one copy. No serious scholarly library should be without this book.
Using as a point of departure Virginia Woolf s famous dictum that in order to be a great writer a woman must have a room of her own and 500 pounds a year to live on the author assesses the status of women in fine art in Latin America. Brief biographies are presented of three Latin American women artists of the twentieth century Debora Arango who retired from public view after her nudes caused a scandal in Colombia Frida Kahlo wife of Diego Rivera whose life of pain from polio and a serious traffic accident did not prevent her artistic endeavors and Ana Mendieta a Cuban exiled in the US whose innovative career was cut short by her violent death. The author finds that many women have the time and space to permit their creativity to flourish but few have the desire to devote themselves to art. It is argued that most women see themselves as objects rather than as subjects a trait interpreted by some psychoanalysts as essentially feminine but which may also be produced by intense cultural and social pressures. Only when women become subjects who regard their own passionate desires as legitimate will they be likely to reach the summits of their creative potential.
This final Project tries to reflect the investigation about one of the physical language that affects the most to the easiness of speaking, the stutter. The main purpose of this investigation is to establish which is the main problem of stammering within the classrooms, along with the most effective intervention both inside and outside of the school. In order to make this study more effective, I’ve used a mix methodology based in the data collection thanks to many qualitative and quantitative instruments.
MANY INDUSTRIES have come to benefit from the unprecedented expansion of the global economy and the corresponding rise in international trade in recent years. Perhaps no industry, however, can match the rapid change in globalization experienced by the technology industry,1 which has required it to adapt quickly to global dispute resolution procedures, including international arbitration, as a means for resolving business disputes.  Economic globalization has also fuelled explosive growth and increased demands on international arbitration.2 Increasingly, nations compete with each other for selection as the forum for international arbitration. This competition is reflected, in part, in the development of national arbitration laws which are often a significant determinant of a nation's ranking among the leading world arbitration centres.3  Historically, London has vied with Paris and Geneva for the title of the world's pre-eminent arbitration centre, but within the past decade, London has been seen to be falling behind. English arbitration law was increasingly perceived to be dated and out of touch with modern international arbitration practice.4 As England's standing was eclipsed, other nations, particularly economic strongholds around the Pacific Rim, attempted to fill the void.5 Many of these foreign efforts have been successful, particularly with regard to attracting technology arbitrations.6  England has attempted to meet the challenge under the Arbitration Act 1996. The Act, which became effective on 1 January 1997, was designed largely to return England to its glory as a preferred seat for the arbitration of international business disputes. Although technology arbitration did not receive any specific mention in the Act, the explosive globalization of the technology industry makes it a suitable subject for consideration. This article examines the new Act in order to determine its usefulness in promoting London as a centre for the resolution of international technology disputes.  Technology disputes …
The purpose of this essay was to examine how the identity changes during time in prison. I also wanted to look at the processes that makes this change possible. I wanted to examine in what extension those processes are deliberate strategies, or if they are a natural product of life in prison. The methods in this study are interviews with prisoners and personal in two different prisons, and the scientific basis and literature has been the theories of Erwin Goffman considering stigmatization and misidentification. I have come to the conclusion that it is almost impossible not to change during a internment in such an institution as the prison. There are many things in prison life that makes the individual feel small and brought to nothing. The normal identity is taken away with rules and regulations that the personal take for granted.
This article situates the counternarrative of three African American female school principals and their leadership practices toward equity using a critical race theory framework (CRT). The data come from a larger exploratory study that addressed the understanding of the so-called achievement gap by school leaders. Four prevalent themes emerged through the use of a CRT analysis: (1) Mind-set toward opportunity gap; (2) recognizing issues: race, racism, and interest convergence; (3) holistic approaches toward “Our” students; and (4) the (real) opportunity of loss. I conclude with four contexts for implication for school leadership practice.
This paper analyses the relevance of the motherist politics of Argentinas Madres de la Plaza de Mayo to Latin American feminism. The Madres were one of the most visible and outspoken opponents of the military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 staging weekly demonstrations in the citys main square in the name of reclaiming their children who had been disappeared by the regime as terrorists and subversives. The Madres adopted a strongly maternalist role focusing their opposition to the regime through their role as mothers and the rights and responsibilities inherent to motherhood. This paper aims to assess how such an approach can be related to movements in Latin American feminism at this time. The Madres undoubtedly proved the capacity and power of women as activists yet faced criticism for inhabiting emphasising and exploiting the traditional role of women which feminists were striving to deconstruct. The paper discusses the ways in which the Madres reinterpreted the traditional role of motherhood subverting it from a restrictive label to a positive force asserting the rights of mothers and transforming motherhood into a positive and politicised force. However the paper also assesses the extent to which such a reassertion can be considered feminist given the seeming incompatibility of the Madres identity with the equality and freedom from traditional roles as sought by feminism. It is acknowledged that the Madres themselves have rejected the feminist label seeking to distance themselves from what they consider bourgeois thinking that neglects real issues. Even so the paper also discusses how the Madres can be seen to have contributed to feminist aims especially within the increasing acceptance of diversity witnessed in feminism since the 1980s. The paper concludes by relating these questions of motherist versus feminist to the overall political and ethical objectives of the Madres. (authors)
The development ethics is new understanding and governing of the basic ethical relations between human beings and the nature,among different people,and between people and themselves.In understanding and governing these ethical relations,development ethics mainly answers the following three basic ethical questions: first,the relation between `what we can do' and `what we should do',ie how should we live in the limited and fragile earth;second,the fairness and justice in development,ie how should we live together;third,the relation between happy life and material prosperity,ie how should we lead a happy life.In brief,the basic problems of development ethics is how should we lead a happy life together in the limited and fragile earth.
In 2010, incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski was defeated in the U.S. Senate primaries by an insurgent wing of the Republican party that saw substantial success across the country. Senator Murkowski then announced her intention to mount a write-in campaign, offering the rare prospect of a realistic chance of success. In an attempt to forestall ballot errors that might prove determinative in a close race, the Alaska Division of Elections attempted to offer a list of eligible write-in candidates to Alaskan voters at the polls. In this short response to a symposium contribution by Professor Chad Flanders, I use the controversy over that list as a convenient point of departure for a return to first principles in election law. Alaska statutes required voters to write the name of their preferred candidate as it appeared on the appropriate candidate’s declaration of a write-in candidacy. Such a requirement is open to interpretation, and some observers believed that the requirement should be strictly interpreted, based on the fact that a list of candidates was offered at the polls. This piece explores the notion of fault as the link between the two issues. Then, using the Alaskan example, it questions more generally the adequacy of fault as an interpretive principle for election regulations.
PRECIS The Issue of the interaction between religion and politics has never come to rest, either on the American. scene or in most other societies. There has been a tendency in the United States to describe the Issues In terms of church and state, usually with a separationist slant, a formula that Is prone to overly simplistic solutions for a complex historical dynamic. in this essay, the author seeks to view religion and politics from the perspective of an assumed Judeo-Christian tradition and to ask whether such an approach might offer new and promising challenges to the ongoing Christian-Jewish dialogue. What proved crucial for the future of belief in the West was the Hebraic ideology that came with the Mosaic religion. (1) Western history would be dominated by the birth and life of a Gahlean Jew, who died before the age of thirty-five. (2) I am among those who see fundamental spiritual kinship rather than opposition between Judaism and at least the more Hebraic forms of Christianity... [W]hatever significant differences there may be between Judaism and Christianity considered as total systems, there is real and vital meaning in the idea of a Judeo-Christian religious tradition basically distinct from all other religions of the world. (3) I. Fact or Fiction? Some hopeful candidates in the year 2000 U.S. presidential race competed with each other in their advocacy of an increased role for faith-based organizations in dealing with some of the country's vexing problems. What they proposed in essence was a closer alliance between government and religiously oriented groups that would involve the allocation of federal resources, in terms of both money and goods, for certain agreed-upon programs. Then-Texas-Governor George W. Bush seemed eager to convince his more conservative listeners that, at least in these United States, "government is not [necessarily] the enemy," while then-Vice-President Al Gore, desirous to "reconnect the American spirit to the body politic," assured his more liberal listeners that he rejected both "hollow secularism" and "right-wing religion" as too rigid but not the influence of religion per se on policy issues. The rationale on both sides, one suspects, is that faith-based organizations do it better and do it cheaper, as has been demonstrated by church-sponsored world-hunger-relief programs, which depend heavily on government supplies. For politicians the basic question tends to be whether religion can and ought to play a supportive role in dealing with certain carefully selected social issues, such as drug abuse. To many of us who have detected a dangerous fundamentalist strain in the absolutist position on church/state separation, any overtures from political authorities to explore the possibilities of closer cooperation are welcome. The strict separationists will claim that any steps in this direction will lead the country on a slippery slope. Will the government be able to confine the discussions to their carefully selected issues? For instance, will not the question be raised about reconnecting the religions spirit resonating within the American body politic to public education and the issue of vouchers? I would hope that such hotly debated issues would, indeed, become more and more part of a deliberative public discourse on the future of our society and its culture. What has been the role of what kind of religion in the shaping of our national ethos? In the area of education this question calls for a critical analysis of what some have referred to as the "Protestantization" of the public schools during the nineteenth century and the anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish biases that influenced those developments. When the discriminatory practices resulting from this situation were challenged in the courts, did the latter, in pendulum-swing fashion, react by seeking to eliminate religion as much as possible from the educational scene, rather than opening the forum to more diverse religious voices through an "equal treatment" approach? …
This article explores the way in which adolescent girls in Cape Town, South Africa, use a cellphone-based instant messaging service called MXit. Bosch addresses key issues such as the 'why' and 'how' of girls' use of MXit, and the role mobile telephony plays in forming identity. Although currently MXit is used primarily as a social tool, other uses need to be identified and explored. In South Africa, a significant percentage of adults have access to cellphones, as opposed to fixed lines or the Internet. Against this backdrop, the article argues that MXit can be used as an educational tool, since it offers a promising method of communicating for educational purposes.
The recent PTRC meeting at Warwick on “Retailing and Local Planning” was notable for the practicality of its approach and its determination to avoid suffocation by excessive concentration on gravity models. Useful contributions were made by a number of people concerned with various aspects of the development of retailing facilities. The conference is discussed here by Patrick McAnally, (Research Department, John Lewis Partnership) who acted as Chairman of the Programme Committee for the meeting.
It is common knowledge that population growth has become a serious threat to the country. The seriousness of the problem can be judged from the following facts provided by some experts: more than 1,100 babies are born every hour in India. In a year it adds up to almost a crore, which is the population of Australia. To meet this increase the experts say we need 100 new houses, 600 kilos of extra food and 10 new primary schools every hour. It is these frightening statistics that have compelled the Government to launch the family planning campaign vigorously. Vast sums of money have been spent on this campaign. Birth control clinics have grown in number; people who patronize them have also correspondingly increased. And yet our population figures are growing. This shows that we have failed somewhere. The problem is therefore much larger than the free distribution of contraceptives or the opening of clinics, since the people who patronize clinics must have the willingness to practise contraception.
Dewey, J. (2012). The School and Society [Sola in druzba]. Afterword studies by Slavko Gaber and Ana Pesikan. Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education. 140 pp., ISBN 978-961-253-060-0.Philosopher, psychologist and educator John Dewey (1859-1952) was one of the historically most influential figures in the philosophy and theory of education. Despite this fact, only three books of his large opus have been translated into Slovenian, with The School and Society being the only work from the field of educational sciences (the other two translated books are A Common Faith and The Public and its Problems). Consequently, the Slovenian edition of The School and Society does not strictly follow Dewey's original from 1900. The selection of texts and essays has been altered slightly in order to present his theoretical aspects of educational philosophy in a more complex and complete manner. For this purpose, the essays My Pedagogic Creed and The Child and the Curriculum have been added, as well as the first three chapters from the book Experience and Education. With this particular selection, the editor has brought together Dewey's early and later work, in order to present two major possible ways of understanding his writing, both of which are clearly presented in two afterword studies by Slavko Gaber and Ana Pesikan.The most common understanding of Dewey's statements on educational philosophy is centred on his strong opposition to what he calls "traditional education" or "old education". In his opinion, the typical characteristics of such education, and consequently of the traditional school, are "passivity of attitude", "mechanical massing of children" and "uniformity of curriculum and method", all of which result from the fact that "the center of gravity is outside the child. It is in the teacher, the textbook, anywhere and everywhere you please except in the immediate instincts and activities of the child himself " (p. 30). What Dewey proposes is so-called "new education", writing: "It [new education] is a change, a revolution, not unlike that introduced by Copernicus when the astronomical center shifted from the earth to the sun. In this case the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the center about which they are organized" (p. 31). It was this belief that mostly influenced later researchers and theorists of education, as Dewey's demand for a shiftfrom the school to the child was, at that time, new and radical. This historical reception of his work was also influential for later interpretations.However, it is possible to read Dewey's texts from a different perspective, taking into account his pragmatism and his philosophical analyses of experience. Although in the original work from 1900 this particular point might not be so clear, the Slovenian translation emphasises it with the three additional chapters from the book Experience and Education. In these chapters, Dewey clearly presents his pragmatist understanding of the experience on which his educational assertions are based. His argument derives from the traditional subject-object dichotomy. However, the relation between subject and object is, in his opinion, always an "interaction" (p. 93). "An experience is always what it is because of a transaction taking place between an individual and what, at the time, constitutes his environment" (p. 94). In other words, the subject and object are always in a dynamical relation: when the subject experiences an outside object, he/she perceives different information and (also through reflecting on this information) knowledge that changes him/her. In this way, the subject him/herself is changed by his/her experience of an object, since he/she has perceived knowledge by experiencing the object. But that is not all. Since the subject has changed, i.e., has learned something, he/she now possesses a new view of the object. Ergo, the experience is a reciprocal interaction between subject and object or, if we talk about school, between the child and his/her educational environment. …
Marguerite A. Driessen* I. INTRODUCTION The Second Amendment is not for everyone. For the uninitiated, like myself, a foray into its analysis is fraught with potential pitfalls. There is an intensity of feeling on all sides of the debate that screams "This is personal!" between the lines discussing statutory construction, case analysis, and original intent. Does the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution recognize a right to bear arms? If so, is that right held by each individual who enjoys the protections of the Constitution or is it held by the "people" in some collective fashion? Is that right fundamental, such that any governmental edicts affecting it in any way are immediately suspect? Or, is it merely so much esoterica in the twentieth century when we are a free people and have evolved from our rough and ready pioneer ancestors for whom weapons were as essential as food, water, and oxygen? Whatever side of the issues people fall on, their positions have been carefully forged and are deeply entrenched. The debate, however, is largely an academic one. As a legal matter, the Second Amendment hardly resembles a controversy. Not a single case decided in this country has struck down statutes regulating the use or possession of firearms based on the Second Amendment. An early Supreme Court case set the stage,1 and all subsequent cases have obediently fallen neatly into line.2 Even recent cases in which the Supreme Court has invalidated gun-control legislation cannot be claimed as victories by those who believe the Second Amendment codifies a fundamental right because the Court did not rely on the Second Amendment to reach its conclusion. For example, in United States v. Lopez3 the Supreme Court invalidated the Gun Safe School Zone Act as beyond the scope of the Commerce Clause through which Congress had claimed the authority to promulgate the legislation. Similarly, the Supreme Court's recent evisceration of the Brady Bill was not based on the Second Amendment. Rather, it was based on notions of federalism.4 So why does the debate yet rage on and why is this yet another entry in the Second Amendment library? As a descendant of both slaves and forcefully dispossessed Native Americans, I can personally acknowledge that unanimity of legal opinion in no way guarantees its accuracy. But most importantly, whether you believe that cases addressing the Second Amendment have been decided rightly or wrongly, there is a distinct sense that they have not been decided well. The so-called settled case law raises more questions than answers. One conclusion apparently "settled" by the courts is that the protections of the Second Amendment (whatever they may be) are not implicated unless the arms at issue or the manner in which those arms are being stored, carried, or used bear some reasonable relationship to a well-regulated militia.5 If neither the arms nor the individual have that relationship-and so far none have been found to do so-the individual has been afforded no Second Amendment protection. In essence, courts have been able to punt6 on the issue of whether there is a fundamental right to bear arms and what the scope of that right might be. Assuming such a right, arguendo, courts have handily concluded that no right is implicated under the facts of the individual case because the militia is not affected. These "settled" holdings thereby raise an important question: What is a militia? If my right to bear arms, or at the very least my right to force a court to decide whether I have such a right, is contingent on my being in a militia, it is imperative that I know the meaning of "militia." And the courts are not saying, although when confronted they do tell us what it is not. Like obscenity, the courts have adopted an UI know it when I see it" approach.7 Unlike obscenity, however, the term militia does not defy legally cognizable (and legally enforceable) description. …
This paper introduces a collection of related research studies on the anthropological demography of Europe. Anthropological demography is a specialty within demography that uses anthropological theory and methods to provide a better understanding of demographic phenomena in current and past populations. Its genesis and ongoing growth lies at the intersection of demography and socio-cultural anthropology and with their efforts to understand population processes: mainly fertility, migration, and mortality. Both disciplines share a common research subject, namely human populations, and they focus on mutually complementary aspects. The authors of this paper focus on the differences between the disciplines of anthropology and demography, the emergence of anthropological demography and its theoretical, methodological, and empirical aspects. In addition, they critically summarize the contributions that were presented in the first workshop of the Working Group on Anthropological Demography of Europe of the European Association for Population Studies, held in Rostock in Fall 2005 and reflect on how these papers add to the further development of anthropological demography in Europe, i.e. elaborating the epistemology of anthropological demography; applying additional theoretical perspectives to better understand demographic behaviour in Europe ; illustrating the way in which culture plays a role in case studies on European demographic behaviour; and emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to data collection and the added value of triangulating quantitative and qualitative analyses.
ABSTRACT Limited academic publications analysing the theologies and ethics of historic Black Freedom Struggles have resulted in minimal inclusion in broader theological and ethical canons. In this article I explore the role of music in Black Freedom Struggles, especially the historic Civil Rights Movement, to argue that such music was a transgressive tool that expanded leadership positions and produced new theo-ethical and socio-political texts. These organic oral texts were published through alternative methods, expanding activists’ theological and ethical beliefs about the social and political struggles in which they participated. Finally, I suggest that protest music in the contemporary Movement for Black Lives offers a view into the lived realities and commitments of participants as they continue the tradition of using music as a theo-ethical and socio-political tool.
This article examines what I call ‘pulsing’ – visible surges of pedestrian activity. It applies a selection of Torsten Hägerstrand’s time-geographic vocabulary in an ethnographic case-study of Mitzpe Ramon, a small Negev Desert town in Israel, illustrating how various spatio-temporal constraints shape flows of walking at daily, weekly, and annual scales. Pulsing, I argue, simply but powerfully communicates when events of collective interest occur, where, for which groups, and at what volumes. Pulsing embodies cultural practices through mobilities, and shapes community norms. Extending beyond this particular example, I also suggest that the concept of pulsing advances understandings of synchrony and synchory in collective pedestrianism and mobilities more broadly, including pilgrimage, urban rhythms, commuter patterns, periodicity, rush hours, and the filling and emptying of public space.
Spatial criticism theory occupies the pivotal role in literature criticism,and different space images in different literatures have various functions in reflecting article themes.Using spatial criticism theory,The Yellow Wall Paper was analyzed in three aspects,namely geographic space,structure space,and theme space,in order to illustrate the social background of the awakening of the feminine consciousness and to explore the constraints on women's spirit and freedom in the 19th century American society,and the fact that the real freedom of female is not only from their true identities,but also from their courage of struggles to traditional social control was shown.
This article focuses on telephone conversations between addressees and radio announcers. The main aim of this work is to describe and analyse the discursive strategies interactants adopt in the co-construction of social identities at a popular radio show broadcast in Belo Horizonte (“Mistureba” – a Radio Favela program). This consists of a microanalysis work of discourse in the field of Interactional Sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982, Tannen, 1984, 1989, Schiffrin, 1996). Data were obtained from recordings on audio tapes, transcribed, accounting for a total of 171 interactions or three hundred transcribed pages. The analysis shows that the social identities of addressees and radio announcers are built on a demonstration of social affiliation that is revealed, especially in the way they address each other, which claims inclusion in the group and lexical choices that reflect the use of a distinctive dialect. This work also made it possible to understand the ethos of Brazilian radio interactions which are defined in essence as a place of social “interaction” – in the words of Da Matta (1979), the “horror of distance” and the desire for closeness. Key words: language, identity, interaction, radio.
Book Reviews My critiques point more to alternate analyses and theoretical preferences than to any shortcomings of this book, which has much to offer. Barnes had the fortitude to study a population that has been difﬁcult to locate, let alone research extensively. She is skilled at asking questions that yield rich data, and her writing style is very accessible. Moreover, Barnes balances the right amount of empathy and analysis. I would highly recommend this book for those interested in examining connections between gender and medicine. Clinical Labor: Tissue Donors and Research Subjects in the Global Bio- economy. By Melinda Cooper and Catherine Waldby. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2014. Pp. ix1279. $89.95 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). Janet K. Shim University of California, San Francisco In scholarship on the contemporary role and practices of the biosciences in the production of knowledge, value, and life itself, Clinical Labor stands out as an important contribution that helps make sense of new incorporations of bodies, stratiﬁcations, and relations. Melinda Cooper and Catherine Waldby make a compelling case for deﬁning clinical labor as the in vivo labor of production, metabolism, gestation, consumption, and oogenesis and sper- matogenesis that tissue donors in assisted reproduction and stem cell re- search, and human subjects in pharmaceutical trials, do. By naming this work as labor, the authors open up novel ways of historicizing that work and analyzing the markets, discourses (including bioethics), and relations that demand, supply, and structure such labor. After spending a chapter reviewing some of the major transformations in labor markets (e.g., the rise of labor outsourcing, service contracting, and human capital theory) that they argue deeply shape clinical labor, Cooper and Waldby ﬁrst examine fertility outsourcing. They compare sperm and oocyte procurement as distinct forms of clinical labor that redistribute re- productive risks and capacities across geography, time, and class. Especially illuminating is their tracing of the various conditions that gave rise to the contractualization—and the speciﬁc terms of such contracts—of gamete out- sourcing in the United States. Expanding their analytic lens to transnational fertility chains, Cooper and Waldby argue for the concept of reproductive labor arbitrage, wherein cheaper sources of reproductive labor are bought in one place and then sold for higher prices elsewhere. Both the case of the European oocyte market and that of gestational surrogacy in India show the increasingly transactional nature of assisted reproduction. Despite anticommercial regulations in the European Union, the interpretive ﬂexibility of “compensation” for the ex-
In this study, we used an interpretive approach to examine print media (newspaper) representations of the relationship between appearance and the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Our work was guided by the social constructionist definition of a social problem. Grounded theory analyses revealed that both primary and secondary claims-makers staged claims and/or counterclaims contributing to the construction of Columbine as an appearance-linked social problem. The content and form of these claims varied according to the stage in the construction of the problem. Further, although both primary and secondary claims were made with respect to the conceptualization of the problem, an explanation for it, and solutions to it, the roles of primary and secondary claims-makers in constructing the problem varied. Implications of claims made within the media and related to the role of appearance in the shootings are considered, and a call is made for future work in this area.
Globalization, as a systemic phenomenon, has demonstrated the incapability of an international structure, based on the traditional way in which the states are unavoidable parts, to provide the essential basis for structural order and governance. On the contrary, upon the new circumstance the political systems experiment, many old nations has reborn once the coactive State action has ceased. The global scenario is lack of an efficient political order and so called �nationstates� are incapables to provide it on new circumstances. So, as far as I think, it is unavoidable to recall the Kant�s proposal for a �global federation of nations�, which this article pretends to refresh in terms of actual political context.
Visiting schools or other educational establishments in foreign countries can be as much as a hazard as a help in understanding the educational system in other places. To provide a supporting framework to enhance the value of administrators travelling abroad, the author indicates some of the hazards that confront, educational visits and fact‐finding missions. Particular difficulties confronted include problems of context, bias, communication, sampling, interpretation and “culture shock”. The author recommends familiarity with recent works in comparative education and indicates some appropriate references.
Daniel Defoe, one of the pioneers of the English novel, primarily earned his living as a journalist, pamphleteer, proposal writer, and freelance business consultant. A born entrepreneur, Defoe's many projects included promoting and marketing the first practical diving bell, designing commercial fisheries and improving London's sewer system, producing a series of popular self-help manuals, and founding and editing the first English technical writing joumal, The Projector, These were the products of Defoe's indefatigable pen, and the utilitarian simplicity of his business and technical writing has strongly influenced English prose ever since. This article will examine two major pieces of Defoe's professional writing: An Essay of Projects, (1698) a portfolio of his best proposals, and the landmark The Complete English Tradesman (1725), the first English business writing manual. These and similar texts would form the loam of Defoe's great novels, Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1721), and A Joumal of a Plague Year (1722). While Defoe's professional writing shaped his creative writing, his gifts as a novelist-his plain, demotic style, his knack for concise narrative and analytical summary, his ability to create convincing personas through textual documentation-shaped his business writing. Both forms of writing made him the premier spokesperson of a new social and economic order.
The awareness that sports was an international science that emerged in the mid of 20th century, and in Indonesia it was officially acknowledged in 1998 by an sport science declaration. The application of psychology in sports was to support the sport talent in a person could be well developed without any constraints in his/her personality. E ksistensialisme  is a branch of the Phylosophy that reflects that men always exists in his/her life. Phylosophgy played important role in integrating many science reviews that could be formulated in sports having ontology, episthemology, and axiology dimensions which was in line with other sciences. Sport Psychology and Phylosophy reviews reveal the importance of the “root” of them in order to develop it, as well as to introduce sport psychology in Indonesia.
ABSTRACT This article discusses policy developments in the arts and local government since the publication of the original article on this topic. It assesses the continued relevance of the thinking behind policy attachment in the original article for understanding and explaining policy in this sector, and indicates the direction in which the concept of policy attachment could be developed in both analytical and empirical ways.
Today, metropolises have been exposed to process of urban stagnation and decline that was led to creation of ineffecient and worn-out spaces in the city. In order to resolve these problems, several approaches have been expressed from perspective of theorists where the urban recreation is placed on top of them. One may refer to smartening of smart cities as the foremost attitudes relatibg to regeneration in which revaluation of human pure life is assumed as the foremost preferences in this concept. The grounded theory has been utilized in this study in order to identify parameters of smartening of new cities based on justice-oriented indicators. Similarly, the methodology is of descriptive-analytical type. The new urban development and properties and definition of smart city were initially extracted by attribution to the existing references and they were concluded by analytical technique. Then the related principles were formulated for the theories and at the end these principles were compared and parameters were obtained using analytical-comparative method. Primarily, using mathematical analysis, normalization and standardization methods and parameters were arranged by means of McGranhan method and weighting in descending order to identify which of principles and parameters might play significant role in research result. The findings of this study suggest that justice principle (weight= 0.272) has devoted the highest weight in realization of smartening of smart cities based on justice-oriented urban development.
The National Student Dance Competition is a significant annual event in the field of dance in Taiwan supervised by the Ministry of Education. Dance pupils who participate in this competition are under the influence of their instructors and thus tend to reproduce the same culture in their socialization process. By using the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus and cultural reproduction, this paper brings to light the dance instructors’ pedagogic influences on the dance pupils’ training and the consequences of participating in the competition. By examining the effects of symbolic forces in the competition, this study critically examines the moulding processes of the participants’ personal, cultural and social identities during their formative training. This paper argues that such socialization processes potentially restrict the participants’ creativity and sense of agency since the individual and collective identities of a particular group often develop in similar directions.
Social networks connect the world. Human communication takes on another dimension through social networks, with the current generation often referred to as one growing up in a virtual context. This paper focuses on the experience of children and young adults with social networks. The authors evaluate the accessibility of internet access from the point of view of children and young adults, as well as which social networks are the most popular among children and young adults in the Czech Republic. Further sub-questions focus on assessing vulnerability in social networking environments frequented by children and young adults. The authors used a questionnaire survey which was instituted at basic, secondary and higher educational institutions in the Hradec Kralove region of the Czech Republic. How to cite: Kvetenska, D., & Jechova, K. (2017). Experience of Children and Young Adults with Social Networks.  Postmodern Openings, 8 (3), 96-109. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/2017.0803.08
ABSTRACT This case study presents the experiences of a newly hired distance learning librarian at a large academic library. Faced with taking over a position that lacked a dedicated staff member for two years, the librarian wanted to understand the current state of services. In the course of investigating and collecting data and while working through challenges, the librarian began to build her operations map and clarified her vision and values.
The in-service training of educators is receiving increased attention from universities, state departments of education, professional associations, local school districts, and commercial enterprise. Although this awakening interest springs from many conditions, several factors warrant recognition for their influence on the inservice emphasis. These include: (a) the need for continuous professional development, (b) Public Law 94-142, (c) funding patterns, and (d) the competition for funds.
Young women in Mexico and parts of Central America celebrate their fifteenth birthdays by following a complex rite of initiation, called Q uinceañeras, a special ritual developed as a mixed heritage of the native people and their conta ct with European conquerors. The emerging Latino population in Atlanta celebrates this rite, facing the reality of being a minority racial group, although they maintain the same essence and goal than the celebration than in their country. This research explores this growing popula tion group in Atlanta, in a special and significant cultural occasion, using an ethnographi c approach methodology through participant observation and personal journals of the Quinceañer as as way to describe the meaning, implications and issues of this celebration for the se girls and their families under a Social Constructionist Model of Ethnicity and Life Course Sociology theoretical framework. INDEX WORDS: Family, Latino, Immigration, Atlanta, Identity, Ethnic Rites, Rites of Passage, Teenagers ATLANTA’S QUINCEAÑERAS
This case study evaluates the experience of Australia's aid agency (AusAID) in supporting bilateral judicial reform in Papua New Guinea through its Law and Justice Sector Program between 2003 and 2007. It marshals and evaluates a substantial body of new evidence from the Asia-Pacific region, which has been relatively under-studied in the academic discourse to date. The question to be addressed in this article is: what does the actual evidence of practice tell us about the nature and effectiveness of judicial and related legal reforms in Papua New Guinea? This case study adopts a documents-based, inductive, qualitative methodology to gather findings from the available evidence of reform endeavours. The structure of this article comprises three sections: an introduction to this empirical case study; the body of evidence provided, including background, findings and analysis; and conclusions that highlight their significance to two key issues relating to the purpose and evaluation of judicial reform endeavour. The evidence of practice provided by this case study is significant in supporting a number of key propositions. First, it reveals the still evolving nature of the judicial reform enterprise. Second, it demonstrates that AusAID has created some ‘results’. Third, it remains much more difficult to find any evidence of ‘success’ owing to the continuing conceptual fuzziness in the purpose and goals of endeavour, and the continuing lack of systematic monitoring and evaluation. Fourth, there are some tentative indications of an emerging capacity to demonstrate developmental effectiveness. In sum, while the Papua New Guinea experience conforms in many ways to the global literature, it highlights the incubation of a potentially paradigmatic shift in developing performance monitoring and evaluation capacity.
While extensive provincial performance by Elizabethan professional companies is now widely acknowledged, little has been done to investigate their plays in the context of the venues they once visited. Unlike the lost London theatres, these venues survive throughout the country and offer us a chance to reintroduce performance into an original space. This article argues that performance was constrained both by the material conditions in which it was situated and by the local social and political contexts of that material space. Therefore, by studying both the spaces and places that informed and framed them, we can achieve a greater understanding of both text and performance. This article therefore considers performances of scenes from The Troublesome Reign of King John, a Queen’s Men play, which were staged at Stratford in 2011. It demonstrates how an archaeological and historical understanding of the Stratford Guildhall not only enhances contextual understanding, both of its inhabitants and visiting players, but directly shapes the performance choices and decisions taken by those players. This in turn has implications both for our wider understanding of early modern staging, and for the role of buildings in approaches to performance-as-research.
I could see my sister at the bottom of the hill that led to home and safety. She was younger and shorter than me and had fallen behind. Her face was red and I knew that she had started to cry, which would slow her down even more. When I reached our back gate I stopped and turned, leaving my hand ready on the lock. Fear for my own safety was replaced by concern for Liv, who had let out a shriek as he grabbed her. He was short and squat but much taller and stronger than Liv, who was only ten. I could see his thin toothless grin as he forced his lips forward, pretending she was his girlfriend. He told everyone for years 'this my girl' whenever Liv was nearby, despite the fact that she was now convulsing with sobs, twisting away from his drooling mouth.
In this paper we analyze the making of Liberty Village as a creative hub in inner-city Toronto. We focus on the role of property developers and the Liberty Village Business Improvement Association in fostering the area's internal economic geography. Drawing on the literature on governmentality, we dissect how the production of a place identity requires both the production of new subjectivities and the exclusion of alternative actors and understandings of organization within the district.
This article applies the Marxist notion of craft pride, a sense of labor fulfillment that becomes lost in worker alienation, to argue that research and writing and publishing might resolve some of the malaise felt by many academic librarians in their work. Though publishing is an institutionalized practice, it can have transgressive value when viewed as a craft in which the creator has ownership over his/her work. At the crux of this discussion is the argument that scholarship in Library and Information Science (LIS) should move beyond only using quantitative and qualitative methods.
Currently, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have set no limits to which whirlwind messages may flow unhindered universally. This trend has shocked many nations, particularly Nigeria, where the ills of nationhood are no longer hidden, but exposed globally. Nigeria is currently regarded universally as a failed nation. This essay considers and recommends very urgent steps for the effective re-positioning of Nigeria in the world scheme of things for popular and greater universal acceptability. This could be done, using globalisation and Information Communication Technologies to represent Nigeria's international image and reputation from a fresh national orientation and locally fronted perspective. The essay introduces related problems in questioning; defining or explaining associated concepts used in the study. It touches on the effects of globalisation and Information Communication Technologies on Nigeria now and in the future. It initially visualizes the possibility of repositioning Nigeria's image and reputation internally and then proffers coherent achievable remedies that may perhaps ameliorate the current sordid situation. If implemented faithfully, these solutions may serve to resolve the current negative picture of Nigeria globally.  LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol.3 () 2006: pp.299-311
The question of what might be understood as battles over the body in a society of gender equality is discussed. Women have become more like men, but at the same time their bodies appear to speak more clearly of difference. Difference between the genders has traditionally been understood in the light of the body/nature as immutable. In this study I explore where theoretical approaches that question such understandings might lead us. The production of gender is understood as produced in tandem with heterosexuality and linked to the culturally deep-structured homophobia. The body's suitability as battlefield over gender is seen in relation to its status as nature and therefore true.
The author discusses the issue of extreme socuio-cultural attitudes observable in the city milieus associated with traditional and folk music in Poland. He presents them in the context of two categories: those of “homeliness” and “multiculturalism”, pointing to the signs of a hermetic stance towards some universal values derived from the musical heritage, as well as to the ideologization of those values and an instrumental approach to them. He also discusses the problem of the superficial nature of the knowledge concerning the sources of both native and foreign musical traditions that constitute the inspiration and the basis for artistic practices. He also gives examples of “good practice” in the area of intercultural dialogue in the areas of traditional music and music inspired by it.
although the term "community mental health" bristles with definitional problems, there is general agreement that it includes a continuum of activities?precare (primary prevention), under care (early secondary prevention), and after-care (tertiary prevention or rehabilitation). This paper will review a selected group of projects concerned with various styles of time-limited crisis intervention to individuals and families in the group under care, with attention to some implications for community mental health programing. The following factors contribute to the relevance of this subject: (1) the current interest among the mental health disciplines in models of crisis intervention;1 (2) our perennial concern with the waiting-list problem, rooted in an awareness that placing a case on the waiting list is a decision, as of a given point in time, not to serve a particular individual or family in trouble; (3) the alarming number of treatment dropouts?that is, cases that are terminated prematurely as unplanned brief services; and?perhaps most important of all?(4) the chronically plaguing personnel shortages that put a premium on the maximal utilization of scarce professional mental health resources.
This paper follows the critical lines of feminism and psychoanalysis to argue that Othello is a conflict between female characters' moral voices and male figures' treacherous voices. Drawing on the concepts of Jungian and Freudian psychoanalysis, I argue that the association of female speech and silence with sexuality is a projection of misogynist and racist discourses. I read Iago's projection of his evil onto Othello as a verbal intercourse of homosexuality.  The cause of tragedy emanates from the fact that Othello weds his shadow, Iago and ignores his anima, Desdemona. While the verbal marriage between Othello and Iago results in Othello's accusation of Desdemona of being a whore, I argue that Desdemona escapes this category because a boy actor impersonates her physically and vocally. I argue that Othello stages for audiences in contemporary Palestine male figures’ deafness to feminist views. While Othello’s marriage to Desdemona symbolizes his integration into Venetian society, his murder of Desdemona signals the loss of his heroic identity and the dissolution of his link to Venice. In contrast, killing the supposedly aggressive female figures in Palestine marks the public respect of the killer. Furthermore, I use the romance of Antar (525-608) as a Palestinian literary intertext to scrutinize the significance of female figures in constructing male figures’ heroic identity and the racial discourse that the Romance of Antar and Othello embodies. Key words : Racism, Misogyny, Projection, Honour Killing, Gender Difference, Boy Actor
The"people-oriented"core concept of scientific development concept is the results to absorb the ideological essence of traditional Chinese"people-based thought," and Western"humanism", and to inherit and develop the"human science"of Marxism,in which the connotation of the new times is injected and the fundamental aim of the Chinese Communist Party is embodied. It has a very important era significance for building the socialist harmonious society and realizing the all-round coordinated sustainable development.
This paper explores the interaction between informal networks of care and ecclesiastical authorities in seventeenth-century Scotland. Previously, studies have identified poor relief and local care as a point of contention where authorities aggressively applied socioreligious reformation and created considerable local tension. This essay argues that the kirk of Scotland could not implement a single, nationwide, policy to radically alter palliative care networks as they were so variable, dependent upon local context and necessary to local life. Rather, ecclesiastical authorities accepted a variety of informal arrangements that directly impinged on their own disciplinary drive. Moreover, the essay shows that informal networks of care would co-opt official structures blurring the traditional image of polarized institutional and informal modes of care. Such relationships adveance our understanding of how Reformed behavioral ideals interacted with local necessity and circumstance, while maintaining general control of the parish.
The Civil Partnership Act (2004) was a watershed in the history of gay rights in the  United Kingdom, paving the way for later legislation, including the Marriage (Same-  Sex Couples) Act (2013). Lesbian and gay Christians entered civil partnerships,  although there was little explicit theology to support their decision, and the Church of  England opposed the Act in its official statements. This research explores an emerging  theology of civil partnership, examining in particular the voices of gay and lesbian  Christians who made this decision, in order primarily to bring first person accounts to  bear on discussions of same-sex relationships at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and in the  wider Church.  The topic was investigated within a broad conceptual framework of hermeneutical  practical theology, the language and theology of marriage, and queer theology. Using  qualitative research, the research method adopted was semi-structured interviews,  offered to the thirteen members of the congregation of St. Martin-in-the-Fields who  were in civil partnerships when the research began. Eleven verbatim reports, with two  responses to structured questionnaires, were coded by a process of thematic analysis,  evidencing overarching themes.  Three major themes were identified. First, the public nature of the rite and ensuing  relationship effected transformations, in which the love of God was known. I interpreted  that both the civil partnership rites and corresponding relationships participate in the  queer sacramental nature of reality. Second, participants reflected that God had acted in  both personal and political history. I interpreted their views to reveal an emerging if  under-developed queer liberation theology. Third, almost all participants likened their  relationships to Christian marriage. I perceived that in effect this meant that they had  “queered” the theology and language of marriage, simply by inhabiting it.  Overall, I conclude that these gay and lesbian Christian narratives create a queer  theology of civil partnership, in which the understanding of the presence, activity and  blessing of God—“something borrowed” from Christian history—is made new in  meaning, by being lived in the actual experience of their faith and life.
The development of this review article consists of: sincere the approach to the problem, the theoretical relevance, the consistency in the operationalization of variables, which will demonstrate that the scientific article, extracted from a research project approved by the General Directorate of Research from the Jose Maria Arguedas National University, designed by Simon Jose Cama Flores, presents confusion and error. The development of the review; Methodology, will be made to the original, underlining and citing in footnote, the observations found, which triggered the mistake in the theoretical relevance, consistency of the operationalization and unreliable results.
Using data gained from ethnographic research and interviews, this article examines ‘third place’ sociability in the social interactions of the Polar Bears of Martha’s Vineyard, a group of predominantly but not exclusively middle-aged and senior African-American men and women who swim, exercise and socialise together each morning at ‘the Inkwell’ beach. Using Georg Simmel’s concept of sociability and Ray Oldenburg’s third-place theoretical framework, this study explores the key role of the Monday communal breakfast and the function of conversation in establishing bonds between individuals. It further investigates the promotion of strong feelings of social connectedness, belonging, social support, social capital gains and community among its group members. The ongoing sociability and informal rules of the Polar Bears of Martha’s Vineyard has enabled it to become a model group demonstration of third-place community building. The importance of race, class and place is socio-historically investigated within the broader social context of the popular racialised section of the beach, ‘the Inkwell’, of African-American community life, and within the sub-community milieu of group social interaction.
The British military risk being trapped by their own media strategy. Independent scrutiny from the frontline is gradually diminishing. Media operations are focused on managing narratives to foster support for the military campaign and for securing the future of the military institution. Modern wars are complex and expert knowledge is needed to explain them. Wars are expensive to cover. There is a lack of resources to cover wars within many media institutions. Specialist knowledge is thus increasingly likely to come from the military themselves. Large-scale media operations drive the military approach to media information management in what Rupert Smith (2005) calls ‘war amongst the people’. Military–media relations are far from straightforward. This paper proposes that while modern wars are increasingly understood through the media, developing a sophisticated media strategy is also becoming more important from a military perspective. With this in mind, media portrayal of the war effort has become as significant as the war effort itself. And as Badsey (2010) argues, managing military narratives, and media information, is now an integral part of any military campaign, ranking it at the same level as the war fought on the ground. In addition, new and rapidly evolving media and warfare landscapes are pushing the military to manage warfare narratives.
1M Crise Economique en Afrique Beige, Situation Actuelk et "Perspectives d'Avenir, par GEORGES VAN DER KERKEN. pp. 109. Bruxelles, litablissements Smile Bruylant. Paris, Librairie du Recueil Sirey. 1931. IN this book Professor van der Kerken discusses the extent to which the present economic depression in the Belgian Congo is due to world conditions or to the mistakes of the government; and what remedies the latter can apply. He points out that the world depression has hit the Congo particularly hard as it produces only primary commodities which are dependent on overseas markets. He blames the government for allowing this position to develop as far as it has. A more diversified production should have been encouraged and costs should have been kept lower by diminishing the charges on it. The government should rectify this in future and furthermore should not allow the humanitarian side of the problem to impede economic development to the extent it has in the past. The humanitarian and economic sides are, of course, interdependent, neither can be ignored, but ' it is the imperative duty of the Belgian government to concern itself principally with the increase of production' for in that alone lies the true welfare of the people. We welcome this very able statement of this point of view. H. A. WYNDHAM.
Summary The practice of keeping horses is a central part of Irish Traveller culture although it does not figure very large in the literature on Irish Travellers. In recent years, this practice has become a locus of policy intervention. The use of the Control of Horses Act, 1996, as a solution to the wandering horse problem threatens to devalue the horse-keeping tradition and marginalize Travellers from mainstream settled society. Introduction The purpose of this article (1) is to critically examine public policy with respect to the control of 'wandering horses' owned by Travellers (2) in Ireland, a topic that has received little scholarly attention. While horses are often mentioned or alluded to in key anthropological works or depicted in photographic images in them, rarely is this feature of Traveller culture interrogated in a systematic way with the result that our understanding of it is somewhat limited. For example, Gmelch (1977) devotes just three pages to a discussion of horses while in Helleiner (2000) horses are mentioned only rarely. In McCann, O Siochain and Ruane (1994) there is an occasional reference to horses. The work of Saris et al. (2000) is one of the few scholarly articles that directly bears on the issue of Traveller horses but this important piece of anthropological research is limited to the experiences of one high-poverty urban community in Dublin. Thus, the present paper attempts to contribute to our understanding of Irish Travellers by examining current policy and practice with respect to Traveller horses. The paper explores the implications of public policy for Traveller culture and specifies the contribution anthropologists and sociologists can make to current thinking and policy decisions about this important, though often neglected, dimension of Irish Traveller culture. This analysis draws on the author's personal experience working as a housing liaison officer in a local authority housing setting in a midland town in Ireland over an 18-month period, work which was concerned with the day-to-day management of local authority housing estates. The article claims that public policy fails to deal adequately with the underlying condition that creates the wandering horse problem in the first place--the lack of adequate grazing land for Travellers living in local authority-provided housing and halting sites. Moreover, I argue that public policy with respect to Traveller horses, as reflected in the provisions of the Control of Horses Act, 1996, (henceforth, 'The Act') relating to the licensing, seizure and detention of horses, threatens to devalue Traveller culture and marginalize Travellers from mainstream sedentary society. To provide a context for the paper, I begin by exploring change and continuity in the place of horses in Traveller culture. This is followed by a description and analysis of the two principal policy responses to the wandering horse problem--the Control of Horses Act, 1996. and youth horse projects, with a particular focus on the Act. The final section of the article sheds some light on the policy implications of this analysis and the linkage between policy and culture. The Place of Horses in Irish Traveller Culture: Continuity and Change Travellers are Ireland's indigenous 'Other'. They share the same skin colour as white settled people and are not easily identifiable as Travellers on the basis of physical features alone. Yet, Travellers are considered as outsiders in their own society or, as Mac Laughlin puts it, they are at best considered as: An incongruous social residue from a pre-modern past, a people to be paternalistically admired for their determination to remain doggedly true to an unconventional lifestyle in a rapidly changing and increasingly materialistic and 'settled' society. (Mac Laughlin 1995: 10) One feature of that lifestyle that is viewed as unconventional and increasingly as uncivilized in contemporary consumer-oriented Ireland is the practice of keeping horses. …
In several of her novels, Margaret Atwood offers a clear picture of Toronto. That picture is so accurate that, when the Modern Language Association met in Toronto in 1997, The Margaret Atwood Society could sponsor a walking tour of the city guided by the text of Cat's Eye (1989). Whether the novel is the early The Edible Woman (1969) or the later The Robber Bride (1993), this geographical precision is present throughout the fiction. Atwood, however, gradually moves beyond the simple provision of accurately rendered scenes; she uses mapped places in Toronto metaphorically in the novels that intervene between The Edible Woman and The Robber Bride. More importantly, she grasps the oppressive quality of mapping and acts subversively toward city maps and other maps in the latter novel. Atwood's literal and metaphorical uses of mapped places require some explication, the purpose of this essay. Most particularly, The Robber Bride requires both more contextualization in contemporary thinking about mapping and more ex planation, because in it Atwood subverts mapping as an imaginative construct. This essay will therefore stress both that critical context at its onset and that specific text after it surveys the less subversive uses of mapping in novels from The Edible Woman to Cat's Eye. Theories of Mapping Mapping has recently attracted a great deal of attention--so much so that we cannot, in the few pages we have, survey the many theoretical treatments of it. Instead, we will look at five very different treatments: one that considers mapping literally; two that consider mapping metaphorically but in the very different contexts of technoscience and women's autobiography; and two that consider mapping as an important concern in Canadian literature. Although the five proceed from different assumptions and along different courses, what they say about mapping coalesces into a theoretical position that premises our work on Atwood and especially on The Robber Bride. Rose Gillian's Feminism and Geography (1993) surveys several attempts to reform what she terms the masculinist practice of geography. The subdiscipline of Time Geography acknowledges that there are social spaces beyond the spaces that meet the eye, the ones that geography traditionally privileges. The subdiscipline of Human Geography goes further and tries to incorporate in mappings "broader social power relations" (44). It also rejects scientific rationality, undermines dualism, recovers emotion, and calls for reflexivity by the geographer. Feminist Geography finds much of value in both of these reforms of traditional practice, especially in the latter. Even these reforms, however, privilege the male gaze, one that identifies the land to be mapped with the horizontally reclining female body. Feminist geography, then, must replace this male gaze with a female perspective. That perspective foregrounds networks of interaction. The resulting "feminist maps are multiple and intersecting, and they require...intric ate skills in cartography" (155). Gillian's study deals with the academic practice of geography, and it deals with literal maps. Donna J. Haraway's Modest Witness @ Second Millennium (1997) brings together, as its subtitle notes, Feminism and Technoscience. It deals extensively with maps that are figures but deny their status as such, hiding behind the aura of technoscience. A good example is the human genome project, which claims to offer a map of the human body. Like many other maps, this one seems neutral but, once the figure is recognized as such, it becomes apparent how the illusion of objectivity is used to obscure controversial aspects of the project. Like other projects embarked upon for economic reasons, this project hides those very reasons behind the mapping metaphor. Haraway reproduces and analyzes an advertisement for DNA-cutting enzymes by New England Bio Labs that promotes the project as a whole. The advertisement is titled "Mapping the Human Genome" and it features a nude female draped in a form-fitting map of the world with t he only continent visible being Africa. …
Although disciplinary program building and graduate education are both major tasks in the development of a research university,their coordinated development is often faced with practical difficulties such as different values attached,undefined goals,mistaken functions and institutional barriers.To promote the coordinated development of disciplinary program building and graduate education,improvements are needed in the guidelines and process of schooling,university management evaluation,and collaborative development.
This article builds on Fairhurst and Connaughton’s proposals for future research agendas in leadership studies by critically examining three key themes in the leadership literature: dichotomies, dialectics, and dilemmas. The first section argues that mainstream leadership research frequently relies on conceptual dichotomies which are often multiple, inter-related, and proliferating. Critiques of dichotomization are suggestive of more dialectical forms of analysis and these are discussed in the second section. Dialectical studies can surface important questions about organizational power relations, paradoxes and contradictions that are typically under-explored within mainstream leadership studies. The third section proposes an additional, future research theme for critical perspectives, namely whether and if so why, how, and with what consequences leaders may engage in discourses of denial regarding the dilemmas and tensions of organizational life. The article concludes by arguing that re-framing leadership dichotomies as multiple, intersecting dialectics can open up fresh lines of enquiry and generate important insights about the complex and situated relations of power and identity that comprise leadership and followership dynamics.
This special issue of JWSR is the offspring of an ASA Political Economy of the World System session that I organized in 2007. My thanks to Andrew Jorgenson, co-editor of JWSR, who moderated the session and proposed that I put together a special issue on this topic. In turn, I asked Timothy Moran to join me as co-editor of this issue. Tim is one of the foremost quantitative macro-comparative sociologists in the country, and was the discussant on the PEWS panel. Tim provides a summary and discussion of the contributions in the conclusion. As it turns out, only two of the panel presentations are included in this issue. The other two were submitted in response to a general call for papers. All four manuscripts were peer reviewed.
The cross-disciplinary research becomes the new trend of development of various disciplines now.The aim of this paper is to make a direct connection between Environmental Psychology and Landscape Architecture,and help evoke landscape architects and planners' concentration on environment-behavior research and respect for the users of parks.Based on the theories of Environmental Psychology and theories of landscape architecture,the research system of environment-behavior research of urban parks is primarily framed,and its research contents and methods are discussed.The integration of behavioral sciences with landscape architecture makes the human-oriented landscape design more scientific and also push landscape study from qualitative area to the quantitative one to meet the social needs.
This research proposes and tests a mediation model of interrelationships among multiple factors shaping international students’ online communication. Drawing from social capital and Internet-enhanced self-disclosure theories, this article analyzes the mechanisms underlying differences in students’ employment of computer-mediated communication (CMC) channels. Data collected from 168 international students are used to assess the extent to which comfort levels in using CMC tools mediate relationships among student-centered factors (i.e., age, English language proficiency, length of direct exposure to the host cultural environment, degree of individualism versus collectivism), and the frequency of their communication through social networking profiles and instant messaging. Additionally, the research investigates the moderating influence of gender on the observed pattern of interrelationships.
Writing centers have long been rich sites of critical inquiry into individualized instructional styles and methods. One of the great writing center debates involves directive versus nondirective tutoring styles and methods. While many writing center scholars have discussed the intricacies of directive or interventionist versus nondirective or minimalist pedagogical methods, few have examined the rhetorical implications of this important debate in relation to more classroom-based peer collaborations. This article rhetorically analyzes the literature on directive/nondirective methods and various approaches to tutoring writing, drawing pedagogical and rhetorical connections and implications useful for all teachers of writing and rhetoric.
New media, that which is based around social networks, ubiquitous consumer technology, and today’s near-universal access to information, has transformed the way that science is communicated to the scientist and non-scientist alike. We may be in the midst of mankind’s greatest shift in information consumption and distribution since the invention of the printing press. Or maybe not. The problem with predicting the future is that it’s very hard, and unless you’re Isaac Asimov, it’s very easy to be wrong. When one predicts the future regarding the internet, that risk becomes almost a certainty. Still, we can apply lessons learned from the near and distant history of science communication to put today’s new media evolution into perspective, and to give us clues as to where social media, digital journalism, open access, and online education will lead science communication in years to come. Most importantly, it remains to be seen whether this new media evolution will translate into a shift in how science is viewed by citizens and their policymakers.
An exploratory paper by an interdisciplinary team comprising two geographers and a political scientist investigates the role that aboriginal land claims legislation may play in efforts of Russia's ethnically based republics to increase their sovereignty vis-a-vis the Center. A specific focus is on the establishment of nomadic clan obshchinas in the Sakha Republic, and analysis of their spatial patterns within the republic. The paper then discusses how these units may serve as a possible hedge against secessionist sentiments in the south at the same time that they symbolize the republic government's commitment to preserving the rights of non-Sakha residents. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, H70, Q20. 3 figures, 2 tables, 47 references.
Science and Environmental Regulation by John D. Graham The EPA Science Advisory Board by Terry F. Yosie The Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology by Robert A. Neal The Health Effects Institute by Thomas P. Grumbly Unleaded Gasoline Vapors by Susan Egan-Keane, John D. Graham, and Eric Ruder Perchloroethylene by Elizabeth Drye Formaldehyde by Susan W. Putnam Nitrates in Drinking Water by Alon Rosenthal Carbon Monoxide by John D. Graham and David Holtgrave Resolving the Regulatory Science Dilemma by John D. Graham Appendix Selected Bibliography Index
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY There are some individuals in our communities whose potential cannot be fully fulfilled due to certain personal, social and financial factors. Consequently, such individuals inevitably lose social and personal identity, leading to their disempower-ment. While total disempowerment is an elusive state, empowering those with low self-esteem is a convoluted process. This chapter reveals that among other things, it requires strategies for regaining the lost identity and a will power to fight all other negative barriers to empowerment. Above all others, as it will emerge from Peggy's experience; it takes determination and focus on the part of the disempowered individuals to make use of the availed and available opportunities for empowerment. This chapter reveals that such determination does not go without challenges. For instance, Peggy experienced both internal and external obstacles throughout her empowerment process. Empowerment Beyond the Ordinary 151 INTRODUCTION This chapter presents an empowerment story of Peggy Boswa (pseudonyms), whose schooling prospect was cut short as parents could not afford the financial supplies of elementary schooling in Botswana. From an early age of fourteen (14) years, Peggy became accustomed to fending for herself. As an elementary school dropout, one of the available jobs for her was being a 'housemaid' or house cleaner' mainly employed to keep the house in order. Being naturally gifted, Peggy's ingenuity amazed those who could see beyond her poverty driven housemaid job. Among these were an American family she worked for who inspired her to pursue her junior secondary education through the Night Schooling system. This family offered not only financial backup but also emotional support abundant enough to see her throughout her secondary education. Their unwavering support saw her going through all levels of education, achieving her doctor of education and attaining the current high profile position of a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Botswana. To be noted here is that the University of Botswana is the first, oldest and perhaps most internationally renowned. To reach this position, Peggy had to go rigorous requirements such as good performance in her teaching, research and publication, professional service as well as community services. Having learned that hard work pays at a very tender age, Peggy worked hard to deserve her current prestigious position at work.
This essay responds to comments by three contributors to Rethinking Marxism’s symposium on Class, Gender, and the American Family Farm in the 20th Century, which presents a class- and gender-based critique of family farms in the midwestern United States in the early twentieth century. The essay first explores the role of women in contemporary farming, including the recent increase in the number of female farmers in the United States. Second, the essay raises questions about the gender dynamics of alternative food initiatives. Finally, it considers the political implications of the death of the family farm for the rural Midwest. The questions raised in the essay underscore the importance of examining the class and gender dynamics of family farms as well as other food and agricultural institutions today.
The crisis and the scandals have shown the dubious ethics of many management control and incentive systems in organizations. The root of the problem is to believe that a control system can be based exclusively on extrinsic incentives. We argue that an ethical control system should see people as also having intrinsic motives and values. A control system must make a judicious use of formal and informal systems as the only way to achieve ethical behavior in the long run.
Teacher preparation and preservice evaluation practices in the US have seen increasing influence from social efficiency and productivity logics. While analyses of the impacts of such neoliberal ascendancies are diverse and numerous, this article focuses closely on the impact of neoliberalism in preservice teacher evaluation and its impact on new teacher development. In particular, the teacher candidates who participated in this study shared their experiences with and perceptions of the edTPA, a relatively new, standardized portfolio licensure assessment published by Pearson, Inc. Analysis of qualitative case study data found that the regulatory influence of external surveillance created tensions with teacher candidates’ desire to learn and grow whilst completing their evaluation materials. Furthermore, analysis found that these candidates’ critical perspectives implicated their completion of evaluation materials. When more critical of neoliberal influences in evaluation policy, candidates’ materials were constructed in a performative manner.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the body of cross‐disciplinary literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR), organizational structure, and organizational culture. The author suggests that the issue of social responsibility is a phenomenon both external and internal to organizations, as it lies on the cusp of organizational culture and social expectations.Design/methodology/approach – The paper bridges classical sociological thought and contemporary views on CSR to develop an argument about the deviant nature of CSR. It highlights the theoretical challenges to establish socially responsible behaviors of organization as a mainstream norm.Findings – The paper suggests that CSR should be perceived within the context of the existing social norms and understood as an outcome of shared set of organizational norms and values. The review of existing theories of CSR is followed by a discussion of whether CSR is a deviant or a normative phenomenon.Originality/value – The paper presents CSR a...
Socrates' views on guardian education, as presented in Plato's Republic, are examined for insights into issues faced by American criminal justice educators. Socrates' scheme supports those contemporary analysts who argue that criminal justice education should stress ethics and theory, rather than vocational training, and should structure its curriculum around the humanities rather than the social sciences.
Oscar Vogt in Berlin and Moscow (in part to study Vladimir Lenin's brain). The second, by Nikolai Krementsov, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the on-again, off-again Seventh International Congress of Genetics (originally scheduled for 1937 in Moscow), and the degree to which issues surrounding German racial biology contributed to its uncertain status (it was eventually held in Edinburgh in 1939). Finally, the fourth and concluding section of the volume ("Scientific Migration to 'the Other'") describes the fate of the German Jewish physicians who emigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930s: Ulrike Eisenberg focuses on neuroanatomist Louis Jacobsohn-Lask, while Carola Tischler pieces together the fate of some 58 emigrants. Curiously, there is no concluding essay, and no attempt to assess what all these fine contributions, taken together, mean. Rather, the volume's structure seems to emphasize the complex interplay of personalities, institutions, agendas, and circumstances. There is also no attempt to compare medical relations between Germany and the Soviet Union during this period with their relations in other fields of science and culture (such as art, music, literature, sports, physics, chemistry, education, agriculture, or engineering). Lacking such a comparative dimension makes it hard to assess whether the links discussed here were unique to medicine or exemplary of broader patterns. Also, the volume could have been made more easily accessible by the inclusion of appropriate photographs of the people, institutions, and meetings discussed. The introductory essay includes five group portraits, but the rest of the volume is devoid of illustrative material. After reading four fascinating treatments of this fellow Heinz Zeiss, is not the reader owed at least one photograph of the man?
the possibility that some medical practices, particularly bloodletting, were harmful. The authors could perhaps have pursued the possibility of medical harm a little further. Male midwives have been implicated in increasing puerperal fever rates, not only because surgical interventions were more likely to result in infection (pp. 194, 312), but also because as surgeons they treated other types of wounds associated with streptococcal infections that also cause puerperal fever. Thus they may have been more likely than female midwives to cross-infect their pregnant patients. The authors address the issue of puerperal infection briefly in chapter 7, but conclude that its impact ‘was largely independent of the improvements in midwifery’ (p. 299). Puerperal fever took several days to manifest after delivery, and therefore appears relatively rarely in the case notes because, as Woods and Galley note, few observations reported the fate of mother or child beyond the day of delivery. Therefore case notes cannot shed much light on trends in this important cause of maternal and possibly neonatal mortality, and it is possible for instance that well-trained man-midwives could have raised the rate of successful deliveries and the rate of puerperal fever. Further demographic work is required to establish whether improvements in maternal mortality were confined to the period immediately surrounding labour, when the positive effects of obstetric advances should be most obvious. Mrs Stone and Dr Smellie is invaluable reading for anyone interested in the history of medicine, social history and historical demography. Exemplifying the multidisciplinary careers of its authors, the book transcends the limitations of historical periodisation and the narrow focus of most medical history, and provides a characteristically generous and diverse array of evidence and ideas.
We begin with a critique of previous methods (event analysis) employed in testing deprivation theories of social movements and collective violence. Then we consider the value of group analysis through examination of the relationship between one form of deprivation (unemployment) and collective action by the unemployed in the United States from 1890-1940. By using group analysis we are able to discover that the relationship between unemployment and collective action varied considerably between 1890 and 1940, suggesting that other variables often stressed by those rejecting deprivation theories are needed for fully understanding the subject.
This study focuses on the utterances through debate using Grice’s theory of implicature. Implicature is part of pragmatics study that concerns with implied meaning that is inferred from an utterance or words, but it is not the truth of utterance or words. Besides, in political debate when two people of different political persuasions confront each other, there is more at stake than grasping the immediate meaning of the words they use, moreover they also practicing language game which contain a lot of implicatures. Based on this background, the study about the implicature is intended to describe kinds of implicatures found in the debate between Barack Obama and John McCain and how the implicatures are used in the debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. The data are taken in the forms of conversations done by Barrack Obama and John McCain in their first debate which is held by Missisipi University on September 26th 2008.  The result of this study reveals some findings covering the formulated research problems. Finally, the writer suggests to the next researcher analyzes conversational implicature not only focuses on the type but also the characteristics of the conversational implicature in order to attain deep analysis toward Implicature’s theory.
This paper introduces the German linguist Karl Haag (1860-1946) and places his work within the historical context of writings on ‘universal language’, artificial languages and the development of mathematics and logic in the early part of the 20th century. Haag’s 1902 book develops a system to describe the logical structure of language and to represent it not by words but by symbols. The basis of the system is that language is predicated on the human body and it is through our perceptions of space (the vertical, the horizontal, the distant, and the enclosed) that we create both literal and figurative language. These perceptions form semantic primes and may be applied equally to a number of fields, e.g., the biological and the mechanical. Haag produces symbols to represent the primes and the fields. He furthermore introduces the notion of ‘force levels’, by which a single concept such as ‘in’ may apply at five levels (be in, go in, put in, force in, be inserted). A basic argument-predicate structure is offered for syntax, and Haag demonstrates the elliptical nature of relative clauses, as well as the ways in which spatial primes may be used as conjunctions. A critique of the system follows. The relevance of Haag’s work to modern work on linguistics and to a digital Real Character is discussed and appropriate modifications and applications are suggested.
JOB training for skilled workers and apprentices on construction projects is a part of the educational program of the Tennessee Valley Authority for the same reason that it is a part of the educational program of many large industries -namely, to increase job efficiency. A construction schedule, spreading over eleven years and requiring large numbers of skilled workers, has made job training a practical and economical policy. This program requires the assistance of printed and visual materials which are supplied by the library located at the site of construction. The proximity of the library, the instructor, the worker, and the job is an unusual condition which is most favorable for the librarian to explore the possibilities of library service to the worker. Such a condition exists at Chickamauga Dam, a TVA project now under construction on the Tennessee River, seven miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee. To understand how the library at Chickamauga Dam serves the job-training program a brief description of the program is necessary. Basically, the purpose of any job-training program is to further the project by increasing the technical knowledge and skill of the individual workman. The method of job training used at Chickamauga Dam may be described as the project method. The work in the classroom is so timed that the workmen are given helpful information on the job assignment only a few weeks before it is to be done on the project. For example, the electricians met many times to hear a thorough presentation and discussion of the problems involved in making the switchyard structure ready to carry electricity. From the tunnel carrying the conduit and cable to the switchhouse and control-room, all phases of the electricians' problems involved in this job were thrashed out in the classroom. As a result, when this work actually began, the men were prepared
This essay is an attempt to explore the ontology of context by elucidating its uses in the production of new knowledges out of the old. It is argued that some of the master concepts in anthropological discourse, to wit nature, culture, society and the individual, serve an important function of knowledge production by virtue of the ways they are deployed and emplotted as contexts to gather together, connect and reconstitute domains of data or phenomena. Drawing on the works of Marilyn Strathern and Roy Wagner, among others, two symbolic-metaphysical configurations of knowledge practices tentatively delineated as `Euro-American' and `Melanesian' are juxtaposed in order to make explicit particular modalities of contextualization. Some unexpected consequences, or predicaments, of our investment in making (explicit) partial connections as a privileged relational facility are then revealed; among them are the relativizing effects of a self-consciously universalizing epistemological strategy.
Purpose – This paper discusses how each year we make lofty goals that we have difficulty following through on, it then offers some tips and examples for following through on your “going to dos”.Design/methodology/approach – The author applies his own work experience as a business coach and uses real life business examples.Findings – The author identifies a few common errors that people make that make it harder to achieve goals.Practical implications – The author concludes that anyone can reach their goals if they approach them in the right way, and offers practical tips about how to do this.Originality/value – The paper is relevant to most people, but it is especially geared to business people. It will appeal to anyone who has had trouble reaching the yearly self‐improvement goals that they have set for themselves.
ABSTRACT Synopsis: In this article, we propose to understand the doctor–patient relationship (DPR) using a health communications perspective, as it is located in the sociohistorical framework of modernising processes. The paper analyses the academic literature about the doctor-patient relationship (DPR) during the period of 1980–2015, gathered from key words in digital collections and indexed magazines available in three electronic databases (SISBI, SciELO and DIALNET). Eighty-four articles were selected from the initial search. The results suggest three axes of thematisation of the DPR over the period analysed: patient satisfaction, models of relationship between professionals and patients, and eHealth. The latter, eHealth, demonstrates the current transformation of social and communication order and is the main axis of reflection and investigation.
From the May Fourth New Culture Movement to the initial phase of the Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the early Chinese communists,claiming themselves scientific,regarded religion as superstition and were strongly critical of all religions.However,they favored the practice of learning from religious doctrines in their effort to cultivate personal dispositions and develop a harmonious society.This viewpoint of religion held by early Chinese communists is still influential today in the policy-making.
What did politics mean to King Sejong (世宗: 1397-1450) of the Joseon dynasty? His theory on state administration is clear in the expression siin baljeong, that is, to “practice virtue and govern the nation,” which shows that Sejong succeeded the thoughts of Mencius. This concept in particular focuses on the formation and praxis of an institution, in which the practice of virtue, a Confucian idea, and governing the country, its actual policy, complement each other. The specifics of Sejong’s thoughts are evidenced in a number of literary records and books. This article will therefore focus on the process of how he enforced and institutionalized yukgije, the six-year term scheme, which was suggested as part of the policy regarding the long-term duty of chief magistrates.
This is only a selection from a large number of general and specialist studies available. Fuller bibliographies can be found in several of the works cited here, including the books by Biraben, Campbell and Poos. Bean, J. M. W. ‘Plague, population and decline in England in the later middle ages’, Economic History Review 2nd series XV, 1963, pp. 423-38. Benedictow, O. Plague in the late medieval Nordic Countries, Middelalderforlaget, Oslo, 1992. Beresford, M. & Hurst, J. G. Deserted Medieval Villages, Lutterworth Press, London, 1971. Biraben, J-N. Les hommes et la peste en France et dans les pays européens et méditerranéens, 2 vols, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1975-6. Bolton, J. L. The Medieval English Economy 1150-1500, Dent, London, 1980 (reprinted with supplement 1985). Bowsky, W. M. (ed) The Black Death: a turning point, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1978. Bridbury, A. R. ‘The Black Death’, Economic History Review, 2nd series XXVI, 1973, pp. 393-410. —‘Before the Black Death’, ibid XXX, 1977, pp. 393-410. Britnell. R. H. ‘Feudal reaction after the Black Death in the palatinate of Durham’, Past & Present CXXVIII, 1990, pp. 28-47. Campbell, A. The Black Death and Men of Learning, Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 1931. Campbell, Bruce M. S. (ed) Before the Black Death: studies in the ‘crisis’ of the early fourteenth century, Manchester Univ. Press, Manchester, 1991. Courtenay, W. J. ‘The effect of the Black Death on English higher education’, Speculum LV, 1980, pp. 696-714. Coville, A. ‘Écrits contemporains sur la peste de 1348 à 1350’, Histoire Littéraire de la France XXXVII, 1938, pp. 325-390. Crawfurd, R. Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1914. Davies, R. A. ‘The effect of the Black Death on the parish priests of the medieval diocese of Coventry and Lichfield’, Historical Research LXII, 1989, pp. 85-90. Dols, M. W. The Black Death in the Middle East, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J.,1977. Dyer, C. Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: social change in England, c. 12001520, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1989. —‘The social and economic background to the rural revolt of 1381’ in R. H. Hilton and T. H. Astons (eds), The English Rising of 1381, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1984, pp. 9-42. 1 1 2
Classical perspectives on sexualized torture are being increasingly challenged by contemporary debates informed by emerging claims (Mendez, 2016; Sáez, 2016; Sifris, 2014). Gender-based analysis based on feminist and other theoretical approaches is needed to adequately address these.  Arriving at a general framework for the reconceptualization of torture, and progressively widening the analytical scope of gender and torture, are priorities. Gender analyses of torture needs to encompass a broader range of phenomena, from rape and attacks on sexual integrity to any suffering inflicted on human beings that is intricately intertwined with gender (Jakobsen, 2014), including and not limited to discrimination against LGTBI persons,1 genital mutilation, and the restriction of any of the broad range of issues under the frame of reproductive freedom, such as abortion and involuntary sterilization.2  The push for a gender transformative rethinking of conceptual and analytical approaches to torture is accompanied by the need to develop specific tools to detect and assess sexual and gender-based torture (including the necessity for a reconsideration of gender perspectives on the Istanbul Protocol), to incorporate a feminist perspective in the rehabilitation of victims. This requires specific treatment approaches as well as holistic survivor-centered rehabilitation models that include access to high quality and comprehensive services. Services that support stigma reduction are particularly important.  Our own desk review on all papers published in Torture Journal since 2006 until 2018 showed a clear gender analysis gap: only 32% of papers included the word ‘gender’ and 38% the word ‘female’ in any part of the text. In 84% of the cases, these mentions simply indexed the presentation of data disaggregated by sex. Only 4% of all the papers published in the Journal attempted a gender analysis. To help address this gap, the Journal circulated a call for papers on gender and torture that aligned with research priorities identified in our Delphi study (Pérez-Sales, Witcombe, & Otero, 2017). The response to this call has been encouraging.  This issue features a collection of texts that highlight important aspects of sexualized and gender-based torture and provide reflections that contribute to framing the theoretical debate on the nature and scope of gender-based and genderized forms of torture. The Journal believes that even more research and reflection is necessary to adequately clarify and raise the terms of this debate and additional texts relevant to the topic are planned to appear in forthcoming issues. This current issue draws out key concepts that are important to making an impact, both on the debate and in practice.
Summary Differing results attributable to alternative question wordings have traditionally created problems in social science research. This study examines the impacts of dimensionality on alternative question wording. The data are from samples of elites (primarily male readers of Horizons USA) in Great Britain (N = 666), Italy (N = 344), the Phillipines (N = 532), and Venezuela (N = 334). The results suggest that cross-nationally questions related to concrete behaviors do not produce differing results when they fall within the same dimensions of a multidimensional construct.
This paper explores sources of therapeutic action located in inchoate experience, in the often-preconscious resonance that is generated in that dimension of experience which we have come to regard as enacted in the transference/countertransference field. The living and working through of a wide range of problematic and reparative elements distilled in the analytic relationship are described as a crucial source of therapeutic action. A brief historical treatment of the place of enactment in different psychoanalytic traditions is followed by the explication of two different kinds of enactments: ordinary, quotidian enactments that form the daily ebb and flow or ordinary analytic process and (capital E) Enactments. The latter are highly condensed precipitates of unconscious psychic elements in patient and in analyst that mobilize our full, heightened attention and define, and take hold of, analytic activity for periods of time. Clinical vignettes by Theodore Jacobs and Margaret Black are discussed in explicating the latter distinction and considering its implications for technique.
Abstract This article defines geography as a holistic science that seeks to explain variations in the human-environment relationship over the earth's surface. By critically evaluating the ontological, epistemological, and methodological commitments of geography, an attempt is made to bridge the gap between the specialized, professional discussion of geography and practical pedagogical needs. The central argument is threefold. First, by combining natural and social science, the geographical perspective is crucial as a means to explain, and to help solve, real world problems. Second, such a multidimensional science demands a holistic approach. Finally, if this message is to be heard, geographers will need to put more effort into translating their professional discourse into that of nongeographers. The key is to change the prevailing “folk model” of geography held by nongeographers as a means to render the geographic project more intellectually coherent and institutionally legitimate.
China’s second-generation rural-to-urban migrant youth, who grew up in their parents’ adopted cities, are still denied urban residential status and suffer from the institutional closure of higher education opportunities. This article explores in ethnographic detail the experiences and subjectivities of migrant youth in Shanghai who since 2008 have been channeled to secondary vocational schools. It highlights the direct involvement of the local state in reproducing a social hierarchy in which migrant youth provide cheap labor for manufacturing and low-skilled service industries. It reveals how contention over the limited choice of majors and career trajectories persists between state intention, market demand and individual aspirations. The time and space provided by vocational schooling enable migrant students to gain urban habitus and form networks across boundaries. Vocational schools have thus become a unique site for studying education and class reproduction in a late-socialist context.
This essay proposes that a family therapy founded on a contemporary, postmodern perspective demands an expanded range of metaphors for the family and the work of therapy. It describes a perspective that emphasizes a view of the family as a culture, as opposed to a system. A cultural perspective naturally addresses issues of meaning and language, narrative, politics, and practices of power-critical contemporary concerns not adequately encompassed by traditional systemic formulations. The essay explores the relationship between theory and metaphor, and contrasts the views of persons and of the family offered by the metaphors of culture and system. Case illustrations demonstrate how a cultural view effectively fashions an expanded therapeutic discourse, shifting the focus of family therapy from normative prescriptions for family "functionality" to issues of intercultural harmony. This shift in emphasis also extends to individual work, where the therapeutic task is construed as a peace-making between conflicting stories that intersect in the client's life.
This article examines the cause of Taiwan's recent successful democratic consolidation. It argues that cross‐cutting issues in the electoral process allow democratic systems to periodically generate new winners. The prospect of reasonable certainty to win gives different political groups, including previously anti‐system or semi‐loyal groups, incentives to adhere to the democratic rules of the game. This process contributed to the democratic consolidation in Taiwan. More specifically, the non‐mainstream faction of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party, which initially opposed democratization, and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which wanted more radical constitutional and political reforms, came to accept the post‐transition democratic regime due to the emergence of new electoral issues. New issues surrounding corruption and socio‐economic reforms allowed both the non‐mainstream faction of the KMT and the DPP to advance their interests through the democratic electoral process.
Schemes for biodiversity protection were instrumental to building thelegitimacy of post-national cooperation during the early phases of European integration. Today, Europe’s regime of environmental security suggests new dimensions of territoriality manifest in the adoption of information and communication technologies. This paper explores some changing paradigms for eco-development in Sardinia, Italy and the European Union to consider the political stakes and human dimensions inherent in the creation of databases such as the European Information and Observation Network. It critically expands the concept of “environmentality” in light of insights recognizing the multiscalar dimensions of governance in the global, digital age.
Fundamental changes in the meaning and practice of environmental science are affecting – and are affected by – the theoretical, technological, pedagogical and institutional projects of physical geography. These changes have given rise to a range of ‘integrative’ (or integration-directed) disciplinary narratives which articulate a role for physical geographers within an engaged project of societal relevance and transformation. In this context, we welcome the rise of a notional ‘Critical Physical Geography’ and here we seek to expand the conversation to support thinking about what it might mean to be critical within physical geography. Moving beyond definitions of interdisciplinary collaboration, we propose that being critical from within physical geography begins with cultivating a critical disposition towards the situated partiality of our scientific practices. This prompts consideration of the ways in which our environmental objects could be assembled differently, reflecting different personal histories and values, and from different epistemic locations and management framings and through different investment narratives. A critical disposition prompts reflection upon the situated constraints and opportunities presented by our institutional locations. Recognition and articulation of critical perspectives may provoke endeavours to more consciously reassemble our scientific and institutional projects into more effective interventions to secure a more powerful and meaningful role for physical geographers across their diverse engagements.
The main problem in this research is how Boarding School Management of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2 Serang. This study aims to find and describe the content of policies, planning, management, problems, supporting factors, results achieved, and how to resolve the problems in the Implementation of Boarding School in MAN 2 Serang. This study used qualitative descriptive method approach, which is related to data collection, which aims to describe the condition and situation in Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2 Serang. Data collection techniques used are interview, observation, documentation, and triangulation. Boarding School is an integrated educational institution between general education and 'pesantren' education as supporting of teaching learning activity in Madrasah. The aim of implementing more advance and comprehensive education, holistic, the world of science can be achieved and religious knowledge can be mastered. Boarding School management system in MAN 2 Serang is a 'semi-pesantren' system, where all students are required to live in Boarding.
Influenced by victimology theory started in mid- 20 th Century,the western criminal law scholars applied the cognition ideas of product of mutual relationship between the harm and victim into criminal theory,which has influenced the development of criminal law theory deeply. The first product of the combination of victimology theory and the criminal law was that the fault of the victim can reduce the quantity of criminal penalty. In the judicial practice of Germany,the academic basis that the existence of victim's assumption of risk can negate the perpetrators' action of being illegal is based on the principle of the self responsibility of the victim,which is the lower concept of the theory of objective imputation founded by Locsin in 1970,and the Victim Dogmatics,found in1977,is regarded as systematic theory that victim act could influence the perpetrators' illegal action. The research of victim theory in criminal law in China started lately,and the development of the theory has not yet been mature.Making clear the development status of the victim behavior theory in other countries and China could show up the further development orientation of the theory in our country.
This study is about Equality of Social Status. The problem of this study is how importance of equal social status in choosing spouse is reflected in Up at the Villa novel. The object of this study is Up at the Villa novel by William Sommerset Maugham. It is analyzed by a sociological approach. This study belongs to qualitative research. In  this method, there are two types of data source, namely primary and secondary data source. The primary data source is the Up at the Villa novel and the secondary data is  other material related to the study. Both data are collected through library research and analyzed by descriptive analysis. The result of this study shows the following conclusion. Based on analysis it is quite obvious that there is a close relation between this novel and the social reality in England in early middle twentieth century. William Sommerset Maugham wants to show social phenomena within society about equality of social status in terms of choosing spouse in England in early middle twentieth century through Up at the Villa
The cover photograph for this issue of Public Voices was taken sometime in the summer of 1929 (probably June) somewhere in Sunflower County, Mississippi... Full disclosure: This commentary on the photo combines professional research interests in public administration and public policy with personal interests—family interests—for that young nurse later married and became the author’s mother. From the scholarly perspective, such photographs have been seen as “instrumental in establishing midwives’ credentials and cultural identity at a key transitional moment in the history of the midwife and of public health” (Keith, Brennan, & Reynolds 2012). There is also deep irony if we see these photographs as being a fragment of the American dream, of a recent immigrant’s hope for and success at achieving that dream; but that fragment of the vision is understood quite differently when we see that she began a hopeful career working with a Black population forcibly segregated by law under the incongruously named “separate but equal” legal doctrine. That doctrine, derived from the United States Supreme Court’s 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, would remain the foundation for legally enforced segregation throughout the South for another quarter century. The options open to the young, white, immigrant nurse were almost entirely closed off for the population with which she then worked. The remaining parts of this overview are meant to provide the following: (1) some biographical information on the nurse; (2) a description, in so far as we know it, of why she was in Mississippi; and (3) some indication of areas for future research on this and related topics.
PurposeThis article considers the possibilities of and barriers to socialising tourism after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Such an approach allows us to transform tourism and thereby evolve it to be of wider benefit and less damaging to societies and ecologies than has been the case under the corporatised model of tourism.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual analysis draws on the theorisation of “tourism as a social force” and the new concept of “socialising tourism”. Using critical tourism approaches, it seeks to identify the dynamics that are evident in order to assess the possibilities for socialising tourism for social and ecological justice. It employs an Indigenous perspective that the past, present and future are interconnected in its consideration of tourism futures.FindingsCOVID-19 has fundamentally disrupted tourism, travel and affiliated industries. In dealing with the crisis, borders have been shut, lockdowns imposed and international tourism curtailed. The pandemic foregrounded the renewal of social bonds and social capacities as governments acted to prevent economic and social devastation. This disruption of normality has inspired some to envision radical transformations in tourism to address the injustices and unsustainability of tourism. Others remain sceptical of the likelihood of transformation. Indeed, phenomena such as vaccine privilege and vaccine tourism are indicators that transformations must be enabled. The authors look to New Zealand examples as hopeful indications of the ways in which tourism might be transformed for social and ecological justice.Practical implicationsThis conceptualisation could guide the industry to better stakeholder relations and sustainability.Social implicationsSocialising tourism offers a fruitful pathway to rethinking tourism through a reorientation of the social relations it fosters and thereby transforming its social impacts for the better.Originality/valueThis work engages with the novel concept of “socialising tourism”. In connecting this new theory to the older theory of “tourism as a social force”, this paper considers how COVID-19 has offered a possible transformative moment to enable more just and sustainable tourism futures.
The article aims at analyzing the dimension of history in the neo-scholastic conception of the European integration. The research focuses on R. Schuman’s vision of the European integration. He was among the politicians who created the first European communities. His political thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the famous French philosopher J. Maritain and the pope Pius XII who both cherished the historical ideal of the European integration, based on the Christian philosophy of history. The main incentive for undertaking this kind of research was the wish to find an alternative intellectual and theoretical position that would not be based on the historicist principles of modernity and enlightenment. Eventually, such position could enhance the poor reflectivity of today`s European integration theory. The analysis of the neo-scholastic European unification idea revealed that all three authors grounded their understanding of history in onto-existential epistemology of Thomism. Its main claim is twofold. First, every historical moment is perceived as a reference to the underlying reality that is not dependent upon historical flow and endows it with spiritual meaning. Second, at the very moment of perceiving the temporal circumstances and grasping their underlying transcendental reality, the moral requirements for the concrete historical moment are discovered. J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman withdrew their ideas of European unification and Christian heritage of Europe from this Thomistic conception of history and the onto-existential epistemology. It is sustained that the results of the undertaken analysis can open qualitatively new theoretical perspectives in the European integration theory and thus help to create a more meaningful Europe. First of all, such a non-historicist position of looking at the process of European integration can provide one condition that is necessary for every true scientific enquiry: it can help to create a theoretical distance among the knowing subject and the known reality. Second, the Christian conception of a human person, which was held by J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman, is able at least to stimulate the raising of the most fundamental questions about the true nature and goals of European unification. Third, the analysis has demonstrated that the issue of the Christian heritage of Europe is important and cannot be ignored, because it is a historical fact and not only a lofty idea.
Moving forward, this chapter explores ways of sharing learning, as the basis for building solidarity across time and space. The first example comes from India, as workers and communities shared their research on industrial malpractices, leading to the human and environmental disaster, when more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Research findings and experiences were shared across the globe, supporting Indian communities in their struggles for justice and a safer environment. The second example comes from London’s Docklands where communities and local workforces shared their learning over the years, developing the case for alternative approaches to planning, sharing ideas about redevelopment to meet people’s needs rather than to promote private profitability.
Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644), the foremost Spanish art theorist of his generation, worked on his manuscript Libro de verdaderos retratos (Book of true portraits) for more than forty years. This essay addresses how the visual cultures of Pacheco’s Seville, especially the city’s reimagined imperial Roman past, Catholic Counter-Reformation image praxis, and visual conventions of Renaissance humanism, shaped his conception of how an illustrious past could be recovered and shown.
We examine an important recent organizing success of the US labour movement: the ‘Justice for Janitors’ campaign in Los Angeles. This campaign has spanned a complete business cycle and shows the union’s capacity for growth over time. It illustrates the potential for unions to overcome pro–employer bias of labour laws, as well as their efficacy in appealing to the wider public. It exposes the importance of building coalitions, as well as the value of union analysis of legal, industrial, and political conditions. Our analysis suggests conditions under which unions might survive and thrive in the service sector in the twenty–first century.
The Quran laid down a normative standard, that men and women should  be held in equal regards, also in matters spiritual. It strives for a meritocracy that the worship of God should be without a spiritual monopoly by one gender. Regrettably, this message becomes distorted through the imposition cultural and sociological aspects. Our patriarchal culture for example, takes the Quran and hadiths at face value, and refusing to realize its underlying message, creates misogynic rules and perspectives. A product thereof is a ban (or at least a strong discouragement) on women from going to the mosques to pray, resulting in a loss of religious rights and a limitation in the avenues of worship for women. Such inequality causes discomfort and loss of rights and dignity to women as human beings, and such inequality, being inherently detrimental towards justice and humanity must be put to an end.
Analytic theories of knowledge have traditionally maintained that the provenance of a true belief is critically important to deciding whether it is knowledge. However, a comparably widespread view is that it is our beliefs alone, regardless of their (potentially dubious) provenance which feature in psychological explanation, including the explanation of action: thus, that knowledge itself and as such is irrelevant in psychological explanation. The paper gives initial reasons why the ‘beliefs alone’ view of explanation should be resisted—arguments deriving ultimately from the Meno indicate that the provenance of a true belief may be relevant to the explanation of action. However, closer scrutiny of these arguments shows that they are incapable of according provenance anything like as central a role in action explanation as provenance has traditionally been given in the theory of knowledge. A consideration of the history of science suggests anyway that all knowledge has a compromised provenance if one looks back any significant distance. It is concluded that the importance of the provenance of our beliefs is something that has been seriously over-emphasised in epistemology.
Abstract The rapidity with which therapy, as discourse and as clinical—professional practice, has become established in contemporary culture is subjected to a searching deconstructive critique. Specifically, it is argued that therapy's pretensions to being a legitimate professional, clinical practice are not only highly questionable, but actually constitute a self-serving and ethically questionable ideology. The ‘scientific’ status of therapy as a modernist enterprise is argued to be fundamentally undermined by new-paradigm epistemologies. It is further argued that, in its professionalised, commodified form, therapy can become routinely and intrinsically abusive to the extent that it self—fulfillingly constructs a framework which then serves to guarantee its own legitimacy within a discursive ‘regime of truth’. Parker's important work on discourse and power is drawn upon to illustrate these radical arguments, and to make the case for an approach to therapy which is ongoingly and processually deconstructiv...
In 2001 the Greek Parliament brought about extensive amendments to the1975/1986 Constitution. It is not clear why it was thought necessary to proceed to an amendment on such an unusual scale, since the two largest political parties supporting the amendment, the ruling socialist party PaSoK and the conservative New Democracy, were in agreement that the 1975 constitution had worked smoothly throughout its history. It appears that the original plans for an amendment, as conceived by the ageing leaders Andreas Papandreou and later Constantinos Mitsotakis, were driven by their separate but parallel intentions to strengthen the Executive over any other sources of power including Parliament and the courts. It is an interesting feature of the Greek political system that these plans largely failed. Parliamentarians of both parties ensured that the amended constitution did not alter the constitutional practice of the last 25 years.
Abstract Michael Oakeshott's contribution to political philosophy has been overshadowed by the widespread belief that the proper context for his writings is modern conservatism. The legend of Oakeshott's conservatism is shown to rest on a misunderstanding of the way in which his view of politics as a specific and limited activity is derived from a more general, sceptical account of the relation between belief and conduct. His scepticism here is not a Burkean rejection of the relevance of general beliefs, but a Humean call for “speculative moderation” appropriate to the occasion. This is not to say that Oakeshott's writings are without political significance. In fact, their significance lies in their powerful critique of modern conservatism in Europe and America. Résumé La contribution de Michael Oakeshott à la philosophie politique a été éclipsée par le mythe selon lequel ses écrits se situent dans le courant du conservatisme moderne. Le soi-disant conservatisme d'Oakeshott est attribuable à une erreur d'interprétation. En effet, Oakeshott conçoit la politique comme une activité spécifique et somme toute limitée, mais dérive cette conception des rapports plus généraux qu'il établit entre les convictions et les comportements. Le scepticisme dont il fait preuve n'est pas une réjection burkienne de la pertinence des convictions diffuses, mais un plaidoyer, inspiré de Hume, en faveur d'une spéculation modérée et plus pragmatique. Ainsi, les écrits d'Oakeshott ont d'autant plus de pertinence qu'ils critiquent vigoureusement le conservatisme moderne en Occident.
THE ‘NEW INSTITUTIONALISM’ HAS BEEN THE MOST VISIBLE movement in American political science during the last decade. It is a recoil from reductionism that is said to have dominated the political science of the previous decades. During the American Political Science Association presidency of Charles E. Lindblom in 1981, with Theodore Lowi and Sidney Tarrow as co-chairs of the Program Committee, it was decided that all titles of panels and round tables at the annual meeting were to have ‘and the state’ tacked on. The implication was that the behavioural revolution had resulted in the neglect of the power and autonomy of the state. But this adding on ‘and the state’ had very little effect on the content of the papers, and seemed primarily to have ‘buzzword’ significance. A second manifestation of this discomfort was an article in the American Political Science Review of 1984 by James March and Johan Olsen, entitled ‘The New Institutionalism; The Organizational Factor in Political Life’, followed by a book by the same two authors called Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics.
Combining a classroom activity with the goals of a campus student organization can promote active learning for the enrolled students, the campus and local community. A service-learning project in a general education geoscience course encourages stronger student enthusiasm and a vested interest towards the success of the project. Undergraduate students enrolled in historical geology are required to present summaries of geologic time periods and fossil samples during the Change Thru Geologic Time project, a service-learning activity at Penn State University Delaware County. Attendees at the event are asked to donate change to a student organization's fundraising efforts for pediatric cancer patients, their families, and innovative pediatric cancer research. The success of this event demonstrates that a common historical geology class assignment requiring students to scale geologic time over a certain distance can be modified to serve as an educational showcase and a fundraiser for a campus student organization.
Diploma thesis deals with the cult of beauty and health. The body care in the sense of beauty and health is embraced as the activities contingent on culture, as exemplifies the evolution survey of beauty ideal in the course of human events and the examples of geographical locations with special beauty requirements. There are the factors, which influence the appearance and health of human body. The possibilities and the limits of physical appearance correction, which the research field Spa Velichovky offered, show the cohesion of health and beauty care and the pervasion of cult of beauty into health care institution.
From the perspective of pedagogy,it is imperative to grasp the following three key links in discussing human nature.1).Human nature is the product of education and self-education;education plays a role of orienting,leading and controlling human nature;2).Different from the traditional idea of "It is easy to change rivers and mountains,but hard to change a person's nature",human nature is changeable,developing and fosterable."It is hard to change a person's nature" only illustrates nature's relative stability,but does not mean its absolute unchangeableness.As regards the natural force in a person's nature,the correct practice is not necessary to be changed: As for the spontaneous element in human nature,"It is not to attempt a forced change".As to the negative element in human nature,it is not proper to have a go at an unreasonable change.Only by making the best use of the situation and insisting on simultaneous development of correction and betterment,can it not be difficult to change and enhance human nature.3).The absence of the human nature of problematic students is due to the facts that they may have received non-human treatment and that the practice of human nature's nurturing is weak and ineffective.From the perspective of human nature,as a criterion to judge whether a person's personal behavior is in harmony with the society,it is,beyond a shadow of doubt,an important task to cultivate students' conscientious awareness of human nature and harmonious human qualities.
In spite of the important scientific results, for their more integral understanding of the sport´s talents selection, at global level; the investigations carried out in Ecuador, on the topic, are still insufficient, it is evidenced in practical limitations, among those that is stands out the inefficacy of the Physical Education to contribute to this process. Consequently, the objective of this article is to expose an oriented strategy to potentialize the selection of talents, like base for the development of the high-performance volleyball, starting from the use of the context of the Physical Education in the Basic General Education in the city of Manta county of Manabi, Ecuador. Key words. Strategy, talents selection, Volleyball
SINCE library schools and the library profession began to come ufider the scrutiny of their own analysts and of the educational world generally, they have been admonished repeatedly to consult the experience of medicine, engineering, law, and other callings. This is sound counsel, providing it be accepted and applied with faithful regard for all the facts. Librarianship clearly is paralleling other professions in its development, and its problems largely are those with which other groups of workers have grappled. Who should be admitted to practice, for example, and with what preparation? Are schools desirable or necessary to guide the learner, and if so, how should they be equipped, organized, located? Are several levels or areas of professional work indicated, and if so, what follows regarding rewards, status, and training? While such questions as these are of common pertinence, however, a simple, universal solution has rarely been found for any one of them. For instance, the state concern and control appropriate to the medical profession are not suitable even in a group so closely allied as that of social workers. Again, formal instruction is generally approved as prerequisite to professional work of any kind in the United States; but, to mention a single example of diversity, law evolved this from the office and sponsorship of the seasoned practitioner, while engineering set it up in almost complete isolation from the field. Finally, dentistry, education, and several of the other callings exemplify individual views or stages of development of specialization and internal division of function. In view of the foregoing, librarians need not be surprised that, although their problems find ample counterpart elsewhere, solutions are not necessarily predetermined. It remains to them to discover the courses which suit their own conditions. The present paper aims to point out the relevance and implications
One of the most popular studies discussed in the Qur'anic study today is called living Qur'an . Although its phenomenological cultural nuances, but it is still included in the study of scriptures. Since living Qur'an is basically began from the phenomenon of the Qur'an in Every Day Life. This study discusses not focused on study of texts of the Qur'an, but in realm of the importance and practical function of the Qur'an in Muslim society. There are pesantrens of al-Qur’an which, in fact, make an important contribution in developing and improving Muslims interaction on the Qur’an. Their roles in creating hundreds or even more than thousands Huffā ẓ al-Qur’ān have proven their existences in living Qur’an. Many varieties of methods of and processes of the interaction have been done, so that Qur'an become into a live "entity" among muslim community generally and especially for students of pesantren . There are three popular pesantrens have been creating Huffā ẓ al-Qur’ān , called Pesantren al-Munawwir Krapyak Yogyakarta, Pesantren Tahfiẓ al-Qur’an al-Asy’ariyah Kalibeber Wonosobo, Central Java, and Pesantren An-Nur Ngrukem Bantul. All these three Islamic boarding school have proven their existence are considered very important in creating society to love al-Qur’an. It becomes important to be discussed, because the study now sought to find out how that pesantren s community interact with the Qur’an. So that the fundamental values of the Qur’an can be manifested in every muslim daily activities and then can always brings spiritual charges to thier soul.
Education can provide the opportunity to affirm indigenous children’s cultural and linguistic identity by using their funds of knowledge as an essential tool in the teaching and learning process. This paper emphasizes the importance of using indigenous children’s voices, knowledge, and wisdom to continue to develop their talents and capacities to share, learn, inquire, analyze, and create. To do so, indigenous children should be given the opportunity to participate in meaningful activities that allow them to utilize their native language and culture which can be done through bilingual discussions, debates, artistic works, creation of poems, singing of songs, games and group activities related to their own indigenous culture while using both their native and second languages. Also, critical thinking skills can be developed through the use of this type of activities that can be artistic and also promote collaborative work since bringing the community together is fundamental in the indigenous cosmovision. In addition, the techniques that are suggested in this piece can help create a peaceful/harmonious environment in the classroom where students’ affective filters are open to welcome and practice the target language since enriching interactions that embrace diversity in all its dimensions are promoted. Thus, the purpose of this manuscript is to share some ideas to make the teaching and learning process more meaningful, respectful, harmonious, and enjoyable through artistic activities that promote indigenous children’s own language, culture and cosmovision. The ideas that will be discussed in this piece are based on a qualitative research study conducted at a Spanish-Indigenous Tsotsil bilingual school in
History is a never-ending story of change, so life is an experience of constant loss. Some losses are large and powerful, requiring us to summon all our resources to continue onward. But the small and familiar features of everyday life are also in flux and in evolution, more so in the contemporary world than ever before. Traditional culture offers tools for coping with big losses, and culture is always being revised to deal with surprising new circumstances. Culture is likewise our recourse in navigating the calmer waters of the everyday, and we are equally dependent on the effectiveness of the way it changes to adapt to the subtle shifts in those streams. American society has been an exercise in constant change since its beginnings. Paradoxically, the way we value the new is itself a part of our common tradition, and the deepest wisdom it contains is how to adapt. So among our heroes are those who led on journeys to unknown destinations, those who followed dreams of an unimagined future, and those who brought order to scenes of wildness and brutality. At the same time, we felt and imagined the loss of the way things had been. So other heroes have been those who fought to preserve a humane way of life, those who salvaged some vestiges of humanity in a world stripped of former virtues, those who fought irresistible and heartless forces of innovation. At the center of our culture of change is a regret at the loss of a culture that has been changed. We express in our culture and hear from it both the sweetness of a better world and the bitterness of a declining one. The wisest students of culture have noticed that it is richest when our dilemmas are most unresolved. We constantly require reassurance that we are doing right and warnings that we are doing wrong. A widespread idea in the human studies proposes that invention and technical revolution alter the circumstances of human life in unexpected and irresistible ways. Human communities, dependent on common values and agreed ways of doing things together, have a hard time contriving new methods that will be more effective in a technologically transformed environment. This idea reveals the assumptions we take for granted: Human intentions can never limit or control powerful technologies. Human inventiveness cannot be stifled or restrained. New forces in human life come from novelties in handling physical nature. However, we can also see the changes around us that have been wrought by human ingenuity about social organization and character formation. The attractively simple idea of the one-way effect of technology on culture must be abandoned in favor of the realization that change in some areas of culture can compel people to change other areas of culture. The determination of which areas lead and which are forced to follow is to be accomplished, as with all
The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis was a tipping point in Rwanda accelerating moves to gender equality. Rwanda has ratified and domesticated most international laws granting women equal rights with men; and has a growing body of domestic legislation protecting gender equality grants women equal rights with men, including the right to own land and property (including land), in the family and in the public sphere. Women have made significant gains in national political representation but less so in gaining senior positions at a local level and in the private sector. The health and welfare of women and girls has improved significantly and girls are now doing as well as boys at school. However, women are still severely restricted in their ability to claim and exercise their economic rights and are subordinated and exploited in the private sphere. An economic rationale underlies the commitment of the government to gender equality, and in the absence of a strong autonomous women’s movement the struggle for gender equality is played out between the forces of traditional patriarchy (patriarchy) whose interest is in keeping women subordinate in the private sphere and forces of modernity whose interest is in the economic empowerment of women so that they contribute to the economic development of the country. The voices of women themselves are seldom heard.
Cultural construction on campus, being an effective carrier of ideological and political work in universities and colleges on one hand, has also brought about new tasks to the work on the other hand. The paper, after analysing the relationship between the two respects, points out that under the new historical condition, the cultural construction should reflect the spirit of the times, stress the theme, pursue high quality, exhibit the college's own characteristics and put emphasis on orientation, systematism, regulation and collectivity.
Entrepreneurship is mental and mindset attitude that always have active or creative strength, thought, intention and humble effort in order to increase revenue on the business or his work. This research was aimed to explore the opinions of high school and vocational students as social media users in constructing and using social media in Bandung and also to find the communication model of social media negative impact diversion in forming Entrepreneurship mindset among high school and vocational Students in Bandung.The design was qualitative with phenomenology approach. There were 30 informants from high school and vocational students in Bandung which was taken by proportional purposive sampling to get accurate representative data. The data was collected by using participative observation and in depth interview and then analyzed by using interactive model data analysis. Data described that there are various types of chosen social media within different usage frequency. Fad, loneliness, association and needs were described as students’ motivations in using social media. Communication model of social media negative impact diversion in emerging entrepreneur mindset is formulated into five related points. This research expected the school may provide systematic education by designing an ICT learning material since early education as the solution. It was also recommended the use of communication model of social media negative impact diversion in emerging entrepreneur mindset to develop adolescent oriented entrepreneurship program by using social media.    Keywords: entrepreneurship, social media
The theory of hegemonic stability is an influential international relations theory in the western academic field. By the virtue of the analysis framework of structure and unit, the article reveals the essence of the theory of hegemonic stability,. By the virtue of the analysis framework of fact and value, the article assesses the theory of hegemonic stability. Then the article provides a different way to overcome the dilenna of collective action. It is contract stability that transcends hegemonic stability. Contract stabili-tyis embodied through the role international institutions play, of course, there are some difficulties. .
The pursuit of thought freedom is characteristic of human nature,which is a self-evident proposition.But as a "class" or "groups",people have the demands for the pursuit of a group,eagering to get to group identity through obedience,seeking a spiritual home and spiritual sustenance.Thought freedom and ideological restraints are always a pair of "twin sister" going hand in hand.In fact,this contradiction has led to two double paradox proposition in public life:one is a paradox of thought freedom;another is a paradox of ideological restraints.Only by the guaidance of ideology(ideological leadership) can this pair of paradoxs be resolved.
The financial difficulties which our universities are currently encountering are not without precedent, as a brief retrospective look at conditions in the 1930s will attest. However, the "decision space " in which we must operate today is far more circumscribed than at any time in the past. External constraints con- tinue to increase in number and severity; the contemporary academic culture has greatly weakened old institutional values and identities; and governance structures have become inordinately complex, cumbersome, and ill-adapted to deal with existing realities. In these circumstances, strident demands for "greater accountability " and "stronger leadership " cannot really be met. It is imperative that we not only address certain pressing problems but also identify several genuine system contradictions, which cannot be evaded and sooner or later must be resolved. Any credible agenda for renewal must be based on new paradigms of participation and models of governance, that will enable us to create patterns of decision-making far more suited to cope with emerging reali- ties than the outmoded forms embedded in our current systems.
People's university essence is people's characteristic, which people set up limitlessly extensive depending on,mental perception through sensory organs and the practice relation with target's world through practice. It offers essential foundation, value foundation and purpose foundation coming from subject to people's development in an all-round way. People's development in an all-round way is the only way that people realize and occupy their essential universality. Only through development in an all-round way that takes people as the center can people create the relation of depending on the world that really belongs to people. And people's inner world can break away from the constraint of the narrow utility quality and trend towards the limitless target's world, and the whole world can become people's inorganic body through the reconstruction of practices.
This article analyzes an Australian theatre program that engaged diverse youth in (re)visioning citizenship and multiculturalism by creating new notions of belonging and altering perceptions of Aboriginal culture and its value in Australia. This kind of work – where young people's understandings of inclusion and diversity can be unsettled, critiqued, and developed – is crucial because current approaches to Australian multiculturalism tend to rely on Anglo-centric norms and fail to account for indigeneity. Drawing on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, I argue that youth theatre based on reflexive practices and cross-cultural sharing may offer a useful tool for young people's education for inclusive citizenship in a multicultural, super-diverse context. When practiced thoughtfully, such programs can offer space for rethinking citizenship and belonging in ways that recognize the centrality of Indigenous culture and critically reflect on the limitations of the dominant culture's reliance on Anglo cultural norms and ideas.
Outreach is a treatment modality for engaging underserved populations in health care. Nowhere is outreach more relevant than in delivering services to homeless persons with mental illness. Programs providing outreach to homeless people have been in existence for at least two decades and a craft has developed naturalistically. However, there has been insufficient formal examination of factors that influence the effectiveness of outreach and how it is actually performed. The authors present an in-depth examination of issues related to outreach to the homeless. They review different outreach modalities, the role of the individual clinician, and the art of teamwork. They also discuss external issues such as financing, access to housing, interactions with other professions, and working conditions. The authors conclude with a brief discussion concerning the application of outreach to populations other than homeless individuals with psychiatric disorders and suggest future directions for improving our understanding of this important modality.
The judiciary has an important role to maintain the balance in the society. But the courts are bound to follow the procedural law. Sometime, it takes much time to conclude the cases. This exercise of the courts in minor or small cases, the litigant suffers and spend more money and time to help the court to conclude the case. Under alternative dispute resolution the cases of special nature have to be decided at grassroots level through arbitration, mediation, etc., it helps the aggrieved person to get justice speedily on his doorsteps. That decision under alternate dispute resolution has legal authority and treated as a decision of the lower civil court. Being not satisfied any person has a right to challenge this decision in the appeal before the appellate court. Nobody has right or ability to decide the cases, but there are special requirements and qualification to adjudicate this type of cases.
This essay addresses Trenberth's statement that ‘Given that global warming is “unequivocal”, and is “very likely” due to human activities to quote the 2007 IPCC report, the null hypothesis should now be reversed, thereby placing the burden of proof on showing that there is no human influence.’ We examine how the concept of a null hypothesis is being used implicitly and explicitly in the scientific and policy debate on climate change, in the context of scientific hypothesis testing, as a framework for ‘burden of proof’ arguments and policy deliberations, and metaphorically in the context of a polemic. It is argued that the statement of a null hypothesis is not particularly useful in the broader context of the scientific inferences surrounding the topic of the attribution of climate change and also policy decisions. WIREs Clim Change 2011, 2:919–924. doi: 10.1002/wcc.141
The US emphasis on democratic procedures and property rights profoundly distinguishes the American polity from nearly all consolidated and newly emergent democracies; democracies that place stress on more egalitarian notions of social justice. Interrelating institutional arrangements and democratic values through an application of George Tsebelis's veto players theory and Isaiah Berlin's notions of positive and negative liberty, we juxtapose the American and French democracies as we assess Russia's post-Soviet democratic consolidation. We focus on the policy-making proclivities of these three states, and a combined application of the veto players framework and positive-negative liberty dichotomy reveals a US policy bias toward the status quo as contrasted with a French and Russian system bias facilitating more substantial policy change. The 1993–1995 Clinton health-care initiative, the 1997–2002 Jospin-Left program, with attention to the 35-hour workweek and associated policies, and the 2000–2006 Putin policy agenda, with attention to health care and housing measures, serve as national case studies to illuminate our arguments.
This paper presents the initial results of a pilot study conducted at the University of Calabria, (Italy). The purpose was to investigate learners’ attitudes and beliefs towards ELF issues and the relationship between ELF awareness and classroom practices. In particular, it aims to explore learners’ awareness of the plurality of English in evolving sociolinguistic environments and their attitudes towards learning and teaching English as a second language at the University level. It is argued that although ELF empirical findings and theoretical arguments have raised profound concerns about current principles and practices in ELT, the classroom world has not been greatly affected by these issues. Through the analysis of the findings, this paper draws attention to the need to reconsider learners’ established beliefs in terms of learning and teaching goals. It is highlighted that learners need to be encouraged to become critical language users, capable of evaluating the cultural and linguistic input provided in class, from an ELF-oriented perspective, and therefore become actively engaged in their learning process.
English majors generally are adept at literary criticism but tend to have less experience in conducting empirical research that draws on both qualitative and quantitative methods and engages human participants. To introduce those methods to students and to satisfy a university requirement for quantitative instruction applied to the discipline, I developed a course called Approaches to Research in English Studies. The students complete individual IRB-approved projects that result in a research report, a poster, and a lightning talk. Before undertaking the individual projects, the students engage in a whole-class research project that models the process, and this latter assignment is described here in this essay.
Summary Autobiography, in exposing how the meaning of a life is constructed in language and through the writer's interaction with cultural codes, helps in creating the understanding on which a society may be built. But making meaning from within an oppressor's language may imperil as well as empower the subject. The meanings chosen by Kuzwayo and Mashinini as they present themselves as wives and mothers in their autobiographies, expose the problems of living and writing between two competing but unequally matched cultural codes. Their writing also affords glimpses of how family relationships are being given new force: the creative resistance to hegemony, which western women writers and theorists have sought in the presentational processes of autobiography, may be seen to be occurring in the life depicted in black women's autobiographies.
This article presents the results of a descriptive quantitative exploratory study conducted in the countries of Colombia and Ecuador to assess the degree of media competence of 146 journalists from the cities of Medellin (Colombia) and Loja (Ecuador). A self-administered questionnaire was applied, structured with nine sociodemographic questions, four on the generalities of the level of media competence and 24 evaluative distributed in the six dimensions of this type of competition with their respective indicators. The general results of low and medium-level competition obtained by this group of professionals demand priority interventions from local, regional and international works that mobilize scientific, academic and political cooperation to improve the performance of a population that should lead the general formation of the citizenship in media competitions.
Property Law is about things, but only secondarily. It is primarily about relationships between people as they pertain to things. As a result, although we commonly identify material and immaterial things as private, common, or state property, property law deals with the subset of human relationships that determines rights and responsibilities with respect to things. The institution of property law — the rules that define this subset of human relationships — arises in the context of scarcity. When things are scarce and accordingly hold exchange value, humans construct ideas of ownership. We have been doing so for millennia, or at least long enough that the subject of property law has acquired a reputation as antiquarian. Certainly in the common law tradition, many property law courses appear lost in the mist of English legal history. This need not be so. Property law deals with the allocation of scarce resources and therefore is also about the allocation of power. Understood this way, property law can be a lens through which to understand many of the most pressing social issues of the day. Similarly, the history of property law need not be dull. At least ten centuries of social change, economic transformation, technological innovation, and human drama can be seen in the customs and conventions, judicial decisions, and statutes that comprise the law of property in common law jurisdictions. In American Property: A History of How, Why and What We Own, Stuart Banner, the prolific legal historian and property law scholar, sets out to describe contestation and change in ideas about property over several centuries in the United States. The result is a beautifully and accessibly written book, stunning in scope, elegant in structure, and remarkably revealing in its detail about the debates over and the uses of property law doctrine and of the broader ideas that support the divergent interests and claims.
interiority of these debates to be difficult to navigate (and in fact Silva himself “sheepishly” apologizes for reviving scholarly conversations that are in some cases more than fifty years old [71]), but specialists will find much to appreciate. Silva’s readings of the 1616–1619 epidemics and of the 1721 Boston Inoculation Crisis, the episodes that bookend his monograph, are particularly interesting in this regard because his use of epidemiological theory cuts against the grain of conventional interpretations, reclaiming some of the erased narratives—the “counter-epidemiologies”—of indigenous peoples and Africans who were the subjects of colonial appropriation. The book is challenging, rewarding, and highly recommended. William Van Arragon The King’s University College, Canada
The first comprehensive dictionary of the field of sociolinguistics, this is a valuable reference book for students and teachers of sociolinguistics, others concerned with the socially-oriented study of language and those with a professional interest in language. Entries are concise, the style is reader-friendly and numerous cross-references enable readers to follow up links to related terms and concepts. Sociolinguistics is characterised by increasing heterogeneity, and students are faced with a proliferation of theories, concepts and terminology. This is sometimes a minefield, with similar terms used rather differently within different academic traditions. The dictionary provides a broad coverage of sociolinguistics, including macro- and micro-sociolinguistics and a range of approaches within variationist, interactional, critical and applied traditions. In explaining sociolinguistic terminology, the dictionary is able to map out the traditions and approaches that comprise sociolinguistics and will thus help readers find their way around this fascinating but complex subject. The authors have taught and researched widely across different areas of sociolinguistics.They also draw on their experience of working in different geographical areas, including the USA, UK and Europe, Australia, southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Features: *Covers topics relevant to a broad range of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology and education as well as linguistics *Organised alphabetically with terms explained in a non-technical way *Includes an extensive bibliography.
This is a case study which shows how Japan as the Other (defined as "all those elements of the culture which eluded words and yet impinged upon and helped to shape discourse") affected the career and beliefs of one of America's first generation of Japan experts. Edward S. Morse, a nineteenth-century naturalist who became the first professor of zoology at the Imperial University in Tokyo, was a scientist who before going to the Orient had little interest in art, philosophy or social questions. The experience of Japan served to raise his consciousness in all these realms, turned him into a gentle critic of American life and values and led him to a brief, unsuccessful attempt to share the mindset of Japan (to become the Other). His struggles to maintain the ways of his own culture while sharing those of the Other may be seen as representative of a larger group of Americans who faced the challenge of Japan.
No scientific disclipine can be credited with much accuracy until it has succeeded in defining its principal terms. While recent contributions to the still youthful field of the psychology of religion have made the problems clearer, and at least partially solved some of them, no definition that has yet been proffered has met with wide acceptance. It is the purpose of this paper to suggest a working definition which, it is hoped, will prove to be reasonably satisfactory. It will be claimed that the definition adequately covers the established facts in regard to religion, that it furnishes a clear line of demarkation between religion and related fields, and that it is serviceable as a preliminary step toward the solution of the more difficult questions of the social significance and metaphysical validity of religion.2 An adequate definition of religion must satisfy two prerequisites. The first of these is that, to meet the requirements of logic, it must be exactly coextensive with the term defined.3 It must include all varieties of all religions in the past as well as the present, and all of the logically possible forms that religions may conceivably assume in the future, no matter whether we believe these forms to be desirable or undesirable, uplifting or degrading, true or false. It must be thoroughly impersonal and descriptive, not normative.
Education must be good for something, and personal well-being is a plausible candidate for this role. The informed desired account of personal well-being has particular advantages so far as education is concerned, but it is vulnerable to criticism on grounds relating to the objectivity of prudential value. Accounts which avoid this problem, on the other hand, are exposed to objections from the libertarian standpoint, and in terms of their adequacy to reflect the distinctive value of education. This paper attempts to defend an objectivist account of personal well-being as the value of education against these criticisms.
The lived experiences of women higher education Chief Information Officers (CIOs) were investigated and documented in this qualitative study. Three women higher education CIOs provided their perspectives on the opportunities and obstacles encountered as they pursued and achieved their current positions. These women's stories were gathered under a conceptual framework focusing on the intersection of applicable elements from gendered organizational theory, feminist standpoint theory, and occupational jurisdiction. Methods of overcoming obstacles and facilitating opportunities were discussed in relation to their lived lives and experiences. Examining institutional gendered norms accentuated the thoughts, values, practices, and processes that lead to muted women's voices and the continuation of male-dominated organizations and social structures. The co-narrators described themselves as pioneers in the field and agreed that professional advancement opportunities resulted from having excellent personal strengths, mentors, family support, and a good educational and experiential background. Major obstacles included stereotypic responses and beliefs from co-workers or supervisors, a lack of recognition, support, and trust, and marginalization. Methods used to overcome or eliminate obstacles were strength from support groups, perseverance, and connecting with credibility to others. Elements related to genderedness and occupational jurisdiction were discussed in attempts to integrate women into typically-male and typically-less-technical positions. The perpetuation of gendered organizations was also
Population ageing means there are, and will be, far more older voters within the electorate. This may exacerbate the apparent marginalisation of young people within the democratic process, and more importantly, undermine the demographic context within which representative democracy has developed, that is, a pyramid-shaped age distribution. This paper details the 'open secret' of the impact of ageing on the age balance within the electorate, and uses voter turnout and registration data to document the extent of young peoples under-representation. It also discusses the traditional status of young people, and the nature of age as a psephological characteristic, within the democratic process, arguing that population ageing may be undermining an 'unwritten rule' of representative democracy by eliminating the over-representation at the ballot box of the voters most likely to be impacted by the outcomes of the democratic process for longest.
The theme positioning,which is popular in the commercial spatial design,is much less concerned than style in the housing design.The positioning of the style is generally decided by the house owner's preference and understanding,while the theme positioning is more expressed by the house designer's approaches to life,usually transmitted in certain decoration materials with housing culture,thus creating striking characteristics in the housing space.The theme is a soul of design,which is dominant in judgment of its quality and value.
Both Greiffenhagen and Kaltenbrunner begin by noting the difficulty German conservatives have experienced in getting a sympathetic hearing since 1945. Nazi goals resembled some ideas consistently advanced by German conservatives, and there is little doubt that some supportive relationship existed between the movements. Such connections have often encouraged the conclusion that conservatism lacks an independent ideology or positive ideals. Contesting such judgments, both authors wish to foster an understanding of conservative thought and its potential contribution to modern politics. 1. Greiffenghagen attempts to elaborate a systematic theory of German conservatism in the format of what he calls an old-fashioned Geistesgeschichte. While he admits that sociology and psychology could have importance for his study, he feels that his efforts in these fields would risk "charlatanism." Such frankness is refreshing, though one wonders if what is in the book has been dictated by the materials or the capacities of the author. In any case, reciprocal connections between methodology and conclusions appear from its outset. The author owes much to Mannheim's study of conservatism, including the impetus to begin his own work because of contradictions which Greiffenhagen saw in Mannheim's thought. As a practitioner of Geistesgeschichte, Greiffenhagen rejects quasi-psychological notions such as Mannheim's Urkonservatismus devised to account for pre-1789 conservatives such as Justus Moser. Like Mannheim, Greiffenhagen believes that conservatism arose with the French Revolution, but that it was historically generated and conditioned and requires no extrahistorical predispositions to explain its appearance. Approaching conservatism as a system shaped by and within specific circumstances accounts for the "dilemma" of his title. To view conservatism as an ideology structured to realize clearly understood political and social goals imputes to it the rational quality frequently rejected by German adherents. The so-called Conservative Revolution of this century made irrationalism a principle of political action, thus deepening the dilemma which Greiffenhagen treats. Though one must follow his arguments closely, this reader found the case for the rationality of conservatism persuasive. Greiffenhagen's demonstration that such fundamentals of German conservative thought as religion, nature, tradition, and institutions are conscious constructs rather than inspired intuitions is subtle and generally successful. As with liberals, conservative thinking is determined by temporal, not transcendental values. Though Greiffenhagen wishes to analyze conservatism as an internally coherent philosophy, he sees it in a dialectical relationship to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. This position does not, however, vitiate the rationalism inherent in conservatism itself. Conservatism has
In this study the authors borrow the concept of anasakti (non-attachment) and asakti (attachment) from the Indian philosophy of Anasakti Yoga to explain the relation between two emotional labor strategies of surface and deep level acting and burnout for accredited social health activists (ASHA workers or ASHAs).Emotional labor and burnout are widely associated with jobs that involve high customer interaction. Community health workers when interact with people have similar work requirements. Asakti-Anasakti are regarded as bi-polar emotional states wherein an individual high in asakti forms emotional attachments more quickly as compared to a person who is high in anasakti. Results from 116 ASHA workers bring forth that Asakti-Anasakti mediates the relationship between emotional labor strategies and burnout. Introduction The quality of the health care services delivered by community health care workers depends on the interaction between the caregiver and the caretaker similar to the service delivery in case of frontline employees and customers (Berry, Zeithaml & Parasuraman, 1985; Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2006). Customer is present at the time of service creation and delivery, this is in contrast to a product rich setting where a customer might not be present at the production site (Berry et al., 1985). In service setting the emotions displayed by employees have implications for customer satisfaction (Tan, Foo& Kwek, 2004) and in successful service delivery, therefore, emotions become an important factor in the health care service delivery. Healthcare workers are in close proximity of people for delivering healthcareservices; this makes their job rich in "people work" and therefore emotionally taxing through the performance of emotional labor (Maslach & Jackson, 1984). This close proximity also warrants them to display and/or suppress specific emotions that are desired for successful service delivery (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993; Smollan, 2006). This tussle between felt and projected emotions gives rise to emotional labor which is communicated by the strategies of surface level acting and deep level acting (Brotheridge & Lee, 2003). The emotional state of these health workers decides which strategies would be used by them and, thus, will be associated with outcomes like burnout. Scholars have tried to find the relevance of Indian philosophical thought in the domain of management e.g. congruence of Nyaya Sutras to modem theories of management (Pandey & Singh, 2015a) and application of Sankhya philosophy in managerial decision making (Pandey, Gupta & Naqvi, 2016).We look into classical Indian texts for concepts and constructs that could refine this relation. Asakti and anasakti are two emotional determinants drawn from classical Indian philosophy of Anasakti Yoga (Gandhi, 1946). Asakti can be loosely translated as attachment and anasakti as non-attachment. We propose that asakti or anasakti levels in an individual mediate the relation between emotional labor strategies and burnout. Emotional Labor Emotional labor is the "process of regulating both feelings and expressions for the organizational goals" (Grandey, 2003: 97). It has also been referred to as "the process by which workers are expected to manage their feelings in accordance with organizationally defined rules and guidelines" (Wharton, 2009:147). Care and concern that a nurse shows to patients and a doctor's interaction with critical patients are examples of emotional labor in action. A bad mood, bitter experience, personal loss, etc. should not ideally affect their behavior with patients but, human emotions take its toll when there is a tussle between perceived and projected emotions. This tussle gives rise to the effort on their part to display desired emotions which can be seen as emotional labor. Like a sculptor needs physical effort to carve a stone similarly a community health worker needs psychological effort to carve a positive image in the minds of the beneficiary. …
In this thought-provoking book, Sarah Soh takes on a difficult task of re-reading the history of ‘‘comfort women’’ against the ‘‘paradigmatic narrative’’ of Korean female victimization and Japanese masculine violence. Tracing the comfort women debates in the past two decades, she identifies the two strands of discourses—‘‘feminist humanitarianism’’ and ‘‘Korean ethnic nationalism’’—that have driven much of the domestic and international redress movements and defined the contour and content of the debates among historians, politicians, and feminist and nationalist activists in Korea and Japan. The paradigmatic narrative tells stories of poor young women who were forcibly abducted and violently thrust into sexual enslavement to Japanese soldiers. As powerful as the paradigmatic narrative of sexual slavery has been, Soh argues, Korean women’s experiences and memories of Japanese colonial rule are far more complex and diverse and thus require nuanced and multifaceted analysis with careful attention to heterogeneous voices and perspectives among the women. Culling information from her own interviews with former comfort women as well as Japanese and Korean publications since the 1970s, Soh presents diverse tales of comfort women and their memories. The picture
HE average cultured American citizen expects religion to baptize him when he enters this world and to bury him with proper blessing when he departs therefrom. He assumes that religion is a major factor in his life, yet he makes little provision for it in his education. A student may leave college skilled in science, fine arts, and social science, but untutored and weak in religion. He may become the dominating layman in his local church, but move on into old age holding still the religious concepts and attitudes which he acquired in pre-adolescent Sunday School. Aware that college should awaken and motivate latent potentiality, teachers of religion perennially face this basic question: how can the well-meaning but frequently lackadaisical college student become more religiously literate?
This essay explores the ways that American Indians in the late nineteenth century enacted collective memories of the Indian Removal Act (1830) in their dissenting responses to the General Allotment, or Dawes, Act (1887). I argue that these collective memories served as a means for American Indians to unmask the paternal benevolence associated with the Dawes Act, while simultaneously aiding them in repositioning U.S. and Native identities. Such resistance was supported by forging connections between the removal and allotment policies. This essay proceeds, first, by contextualizing allotment and removal within the ideologies of expansion and paternalism that were vital to nineteenth-century U.S.-Native relations. Next, collective memory is discussed as a rhetoric of resistance through an analysis of speeches, commentaries, memorials and petitions proffered by American Indian communities in their rebukes of the Dawes Act. Finally, the essay presents the implications of collective memory on Native resistance to the U.S. government's nineteenth-century Indian policies.
Abstract The article examines the challenges faced by the Pentecostal churches in practically and sensitively interpreting Biblical texts that relate to disabilities. It challenges the perception of Pentecostals regarding disability, especially in the context of their doctrines, teaching and general practices and beliefs. It shows how the Pentecostals have long struggled with those Biblical texts that portray disabilities negatively. It also appreciates that Pentecostals have at times positively used the healing narratives and miracles of Jesus and his disciples to emphasize the importance of physical healing, without marginalizing people with disabilities in the church and society. The article particularly uses Pentecostal churches in Botswana as examples of how Pentecostals worldwide have handled the issue of disability.
Mass media is a mirror of the society, which emphasizes on the value producing functions and develops a constructive relationship with the social capitals in many ways. Mass media are undoubtedly the most important part of society and an important factor responsible for social development by demonstrating the social reality on media platform. Besides, there are plenty of social issues discussed in various media like presentation of womens image on media platforms. The representation of women in Advertising, film and television also plays a major factor with the status of women. The research papers tires to critically examine the portrayal of womens on media and its impact on social attitudes, the study also attempt to examine how media is performing ethically in the present time of commercialization.
From the perspective of application-oriented talents' cultivation at undergraduate level of higher education, the paper describes the connotation, proposes the approach and outlines the general view of cultivating application-oriented talents at undergraduate level of higher education. According to the data released by the Ministry of Education in 2011, the total numbers of full-time undergraduate institutes in mainland China is 792, among which there are over 430 colleges and 350 universities. Undergraduate education is the foundation of higher education in China. Except for a few universities and colleges are research-based among 985 Higher Educational Institutes, and no matter teaching based or teaching-research based universities and colleges, most of the nearly 800 undergraduate level institutes in mainland China are application-oriented to train their students for the main battlefield of the economic development of our country which has important strategic significance to promote and realize our country to be more powerful in the field of human resource. This paper discusses a number of issues of application-oriented talents' cultivation at undergraduate level of higher education.
When researchers in new era look at the literature created in Pre-Qin Dynasty, three principles should be at work. First, researchers should have the historical conception. He should take into consideration both the complicated si tuations resulting from the historical circulation, and the outcomes of archeolo gy. The contents in the ancient literatures should not be denied readily. The re search on the pre-Qin literature should stand out the evolution of time. Second, research in the light of literature. Researcher should break through th e boundaries both of the study of Confucian classics and of the historical thoug hts as well as formulaic views. Third, insist on the facts in the history of lit erature when exploring the process of literal development and summarizing its ru les.
In this chapter we examine how some forms of interpersonal relations are organized in French society. We use data from national surveys to study four types of interpersonal ties and the networks they comprise: friendship, love, confidants, and mutual aid. a) we sketch a few elements of two middle-range theories that have guided our analyses ; b) we describe how the diversity of networks and ties are associated with major socio demographic characteristics ; c) we examine how different kinds of interpersonal ties articulate different relational subsystems (thus this section analyzes role relationships) ; d) we examine how different kinds of interpersonal ties articulate social positions, rather than roles.
We live in a global world where information and communication technology is changing the manner in which businesses create and capture value, how and where we work, and how we interact and communicate (Cascio & Montealegre, 2016). As some previous studies highlight, Information Technology (IT), although pervasive in our daily lives as well as in the organizational life, is frequently not taken carefully into account in organizational research (Orlikowski & Scott, 2008; Zammuto et al., 2007). Similarly, IT use in management education is frequently overlooked, especially recent (and sometimes, polemical) technologies such as the Metaverses. ABSTRACT
The Russian state is formally secular. Several elements, however, suggest that the principle of secularism has run out of steam in Russia. These include the absence of real debate concerning this particular question, growing state control over social forces, the increasing visibility of the Russian church in public spaces 1 and the persecution to which many religious minorities are subjected. In addition to supporting this observation, which is based on a normative approach to secularism, a consideration of the social construction of relations between church and state allows one to assess the degree of secularization attained by Russia. This is the result of conflicts and compromises between social actors who identify with secular principles or who, conversely, condemn them in order to advance their own positions. In Russia, relations between politics and religion are defined according to the principle of “hierarchized pluralism” and are explained by the predominance of the collective over the individual in representations. As a central element of tradition, religion is a legitimizing factor of the social order. Representations of secularism, for their part, draw upon the Soviet heritage as well as liberal perceptions.
Abstract In view of the recent criticisms of Janar Mihkelsaar the authors explicate their position on what political semiotics is and why it is important for both semiotics and the social sciences. Some further research trajectories are also discussed in moving from semiotic theory of hegemony to fully developed subdiscipline of political semiotics that would be part of the “relational turn” in political analysis more generally.
The web of Communist dialectic has ensnared few historical events as securely as the Paris Commune of 1871. Edward Mason protested this association early forty ears ago. While conceding that most of the Commune's leaders saw the struggle as a clash between capital and labor, he also noted that these same men had been quite unclear as to the meaning of the Paris revolution. As evidence, he cited their vague and frequently unintelligible d crees and proclamations.' This suggestion that the Paris Commune was not so red as often painted did not sit well with French historians of leftist political sympathies. Jean Dautry and Lucien Scheler referred isparagingly to "the Americans, Mason in particular, who speak of the 'myth' of the socialist and proletarian Commune."2 Socialists chose to ignore the fact that Mason's criticism of the "myth" was highly qualified, or that even so highly regarded a scholar as the late Georges Bourgin took pains to differentiate th several revolutionary doctrines represented behind its outburst.3 In socialist eyes the Commune stood much the same as Karl Marx saw it in May 1871: "Workingmen's Paris, with its Commune, will be forevwr celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. Its martyrs are enshrined in the great heart of the working class."4 Why did Marx's overly simplified portrayal of the Commune win easy acceptance, and why does it remain popular? For those seeking to understand the Commune, it is unfortunate hat its most militant supporters and most bitter opponents both refused to see the movement as anything but communist. The many who knew better kept silent or went unheard. Moreover, what claim to originality orto future attention could be made by a movement which Fran9ois Goguel preferred todescribe as a "patriotic and republican insurrection fthe same type as those of the July Monarchy or of 1848"?5 Was this conception of the Commune as just another outburst of Pa-
After 2008,"copycatting"now evolves into a widespread social phenomenon.Copycatting products with characteristics of low cost,functionality and easy operation are favored by the vast number of consumers;copycatting program with the great sense of humor is popular among audience;the exposure of copycatting figures on screen are of widespread concern,which are programmed by CCTV with official recognition.However,copycatting is at the edge of lawsuit case.
Uncertainty is an unavoidable fact of every decision. In forestry, the problem of uncertainty is, however, exacerbated by the long time horizons involved. Rotation periods for oak and beech, for example, are up to 150-200 years. And even spruce, which is considered to be a fast-growing tree species, has rotation periods of 40-80 years before it is sufficiently mature for harvesting. No other industrial or land-based process encounters horizons spanning these time frames. Such far-off horizons make it, however, extremely difficult to rely on estimates about future values as a guide to current actions, because the further one projects into the future, the more variables interact and the more uncertainties arise. The literature presents a peculiar contradiction when discussing the way foresters cope with the uncertain future. One the one hand, the forester is portrayed as a “visionary futurist”: someone who can overcome the barriers of the uncertain future, who looks ahead and plans for long-range goals. This is the so-called “doctrine of the long run”. On the other hand, foresters are seen as “stuck in the present”, with the far-off future considered too far away to guide meaningful action. Surprisingly however, this debate has only scarcely been touched upon in the forestry community. That is not to say that time is not talked about: however, mostly the discussion has been limited to a description of the subject either as a problem or as a peculiarity. Empirical evidence of how foresters cope with the far-off future has been missing. The research described in this thesis fills this gap by exploring the legitimacy of the doctrine of the long run, which is a long-standing hypothesis in forestry, and one of the premises on which the strong professional ethos in forestry culture still relies. The study takes a different approach than previous research: it takes an actor-oriented perspective and focuses on the question of how foresters actually cope with the uncertain future in their actions. This requires not only a shift in the understanding of time from a physical entity to that of a social realm but – even more importantly – a shift from interpreting uncertainty from some form of independent variable to viewing uncertainty as a cognitive and psychological state – a social construct about the availability and “makeability” of the future. Although an actor-focused perspective is taken, it is not the individual manager but rather the group of foresters as a whole that is at the very heart of this research. Every collective creates its own culture with its own view of time and uncertainty, which is expressed in the culture’s signs, communication, rituals and behaviour. This means that looking at foresters’ attitudes to time and uncertainty yields insight not only into the way individual foresters per se cope with time and uncertainty, but also of the forestry profession as a whole. The exploration started by examining the influence of time on action. In general, actions seem to be understood to form within, and operate under, two general structural spheres: time perspective and time orientation. Time perspective refers to the composite cognitive structures that characterize the way an individual projects, collects, accesses, values, and organizes events that reside in the past, present and future. The relevance of the concept is that it is linked to goal setting and to other aspects of motivation. For this research it is important that the further away in time a perceived goal lies, the less it motivates action. Studies have shown that for most people, 20 or 30 years from now is too far away to evoke meaningful concern leading to concrete behaviour. This is in sharp contrast with the much longer-term perspectives that have generally been stated to underlie traditional forest management. The first case study, carried out on Dutch and German foresters, therefore explored the time perspectives of foresters and the limits (if any) to these perspectives. The findings underscore the “short-range” nature of the actual practice of forestry decision-making: the most distant horizon to evoke meaningful action seems to be 15 years. The second structural sphere relates to time orientations. Time orientation describes the way how individuals focus attention on and react to the psychological concepts of past, present and future. Each individual has their own stable tendency (“bias”) of relating to these three time zones. The relevance and utility of the concept of time orientation for this research lies in the fact that although all time zones are important for action, only a clear future-orientation brings an added value to future thinking. Given the view that the forester is a “visionary futurist”, one would expect that foresters in general would have a strong bias towards the future. The opposite view, the forester as a “normal human being” who is engaged more in the present, would on the other hand point to a time orientation where the future is not that dominant. In the second case study, which was on Dutch foresters’ time orientations – specifically their orientation towards the future – are therefore explored. The findings show that foresters have a strong future orientation, which means that in principle, actions in forestry are not merely a continuation of the past and present, but are also based on the foresters’ future expectations (which are, however, as the first case study shows not that far in the future as always expected). Also researched in addition to the two structural spheres of time that determine action was the importance of the future time as source of uncertainty (which can block action). Although the future is objectively seen as uncertain, this does not mean that foresters also experience the future as very uncertain. As perceptions determine actions, the third case study therefore explored how foresters from the USA and Germanic Central Europe (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) experience uncertainty. The findings show that the most certain time period in forestry is the future. In order to create a feeling of greater control, foresters try to seek certainty and enact a stable world, even when they know that it is not. These findings show that the vision of the (Western) forester as a “visionary futurist” is an illusion. The futurity of actions taken is only limited, and foresters do not seem to differ substantially from other social groups. These findings also imply that the traditional rational approaches to action that forestry research in general has followed are unable to explain how foresters cope with uncertainty. Instead, the findings show that the essential processes used when foresters cope with uncertainty can be meaningfully described in terms of sensemaking. Sensemaking comprises all activities and processes with which actors construct meaning and reality of situations. The basic occasion for sensemaking consists of uncertain events; when people are unable to assign definite values to objects or events and/or are unable to extrapolate current actions and foresee their consequences, they resort to sensemaking in which this ignorance is reduced. In the case of the uncertain future in forestry, foresters create a picture of the future that is relatively short-term and certain, and which – though not an accurate picture of reality – is sufficiently plausible and stable for them to base their actions on it. This does not say anything about the quality of long-range planning in forestry, however. Previous research has been inconclusive on how long-range planning influences the quality of management. If one wished to encourage more future-oriented thinking, one could focus on developing individual sensemaking traits. Often, four principles are distinguished that allow for effective response in rapidly changing, uncertain conditions: (1) improvisation, (2) virtual role systems, (3) wisdom and (4) respectful interaction. Another option is to develop and/or enhance scenario thinking. The latter concept recognizes that the future cannot be known, but it might be understood. Using scenarios, foresters can imagine alternative futures and examine the consequences of possible future changes. They can then consider how to cope with such alternatives. Though scenario analysis is already being used in forestry, the applications mostly use a quantitative method of constructing and analysing scenarios. What makes scenario analysis such an interesting tool for training foresters to orientate on the future is, however, the more qualitative, “soft” approach of scenario thinking, in which intuition and creative thinking are core elements. To date, this variant has not been deployed much in forestry. Applying it in forestry may require substantial shifts in the cognitive-cultural institutions in forestry, as it requires foresters to understand and internalize scenarios; this can only be achieved when true learning occurs, and that requires the existence of a culture in which learning is institutionalized. But even if foresters are successful in embracing all skills and techniques to improve their capacity to understand and act on the future, the practice of forestry must still be regarded as one full of surprise. Traditionally, foresters have viewed surprises as unwelcome and dysfunctional. Little consideration has been given to the possibility of surprise being something that provides an opportunity. From a sociological perspective, the challenge of the future is to reduce uncertainty, but from an economic-entrepreneurial perspective the challenge of the future is to increase the degrees of freedom by creating an open future. The ability and willingness of foresters to recognize changes, and make use of arising opportunities might even prove to be a necessity for the future survival of forestry.
This paper surveys four seminal texts of Native American Philosophy from the last decade through the lens of Indigenous intellectual sovereignty. Indigenous intellectual sovereignty is articulated as a complementary dualism that positively negotiates the seeming conflict between the Indigenous intellectual and the connectedness of meaning and value in tribal sovereignty. This complementary dualism of individual and community is seen throughout the highlighted texts. Vine Deloria Jr. and Daniel Wildcat’s Power and Place: Indian Education in America , for example, shows that Native concepts of power and place both unify and individuate. Power not only moves humans individually but also forms the connections and relations of the human community and natural environment. Place is not only individuating in its geographic specificity but also unifying in creating a relational entanglement of everything. Similar examples are highlighted in Anne Waters’ edited American Indian Thought: Philosophical Essays , Viola Cordova’s How It Is , and Thomas Norton-Smith’s The Dance of Person and Place .
Particularly in the last quarter of a century, statistics has become more pervasive, and increased access to technology also means that more people "do statistics". While society can tolerate more para-statisticians, it cannot afford to be at the mercy of amateurish "dabblers". Citizens must be able to withstand "bad statistics" and appreciate information in increasingly quantitative forms. For example, the media and politicians resort to more data-based arguments, often reaching different conclusions from the same data, as in the BSE/CJD controversy. Members of society are expected to interpret and make life decisions based on school and hospital league tables, and to delight in patient power -with the right to choose treatments and to have doctors tell them about risks, likely outcomes, etc.
The article makes a theoretical reflection of space, which has been traditionally studied by geographers and citizenship, without making aside the empirical elements of this relationship. The first paragraph provides that studying the citizenship is necessarily linking it to the issue of democracy, and that, if there have been different approaches for spatial analysis at different scales, we have a diversity of forms and developments that have embraced democracy and citizenship. The second section is central to the theme of the city and it shows how they are given different manifestations and expressions of citizenship that responds to the transformation of public space and the fragmentation of the city. Finally, the third section deals with the theme on how their times currently can observe the emergence of new or different formations citizens. As a consequence of the global transformations, migratory transnational flows or social movements, citizens can be studied through different scales and spaces.
The article examines the use of Orthodox Christianity in the debates over the cultural heritage of contemporary Greece. Since the birth of modern Greece, Orthodox Christianity has been used as one of the foundational cultural markers for the construction of Modern Greek national identity. This employment of religion is particularly evident in the case of history in its popularized format. In contemporary cultural politics, debates over the building of a mosque in Athens or the role of Orthodoxy in history textbooks offer particular illustrations of the public significance of Orthodox Christianity. This high profile role was particularly pronounced during the reign of the late Archbishop Christodoulos (1998–2008). The article suggests that the engagement and influence of the Church on public debates depends upon the nature of the affair: The Church enjoys more authority in ecclesiastical issues and is far less influential on issues of broader interest, such as geopolitical disputes.
This article provides a commentary of Lub and Van der Smissen's (2016) response to the article 'Generational differences in the workplace: A systematic analysis of a myth'. We first discuss the aim of the original article, followed by the objections raised by Lub and Van der Smissen. Further, we discuss the added value for practice, and we advocate for a better comprehension on the origin of thinking in terms of generations. Finally, we try to explain why people hold on to such myths.
Exoticism in translated works refers to language styles,customs and traditions, systems and institutions, etc., which are foreign to our society and culture. Different cultural backgrounds make sure of its existence.At the same time, peoples aesthetic appreciation of exoticism adds a special aesthetic value to translated works. To give expression to exoticism,we should put to use the principle of measurable equivalence and the principle of acceptability.The degree to which exoticism is allowed is determined by three elements: the original work, the translator and the reader.
Drawing on authors who have been discussing the History textbook issue, especially Jorn Rusen (1997, 2010, 2012), I seek to present in this work some of the results of the research that is being developed in my postdoctoral studies within the Postgraduate Programme in Education from the Federal University of Parana, more specifically within the Center for Research in Educational Publications, under the supervision of Professor Tânia Maria Braga Garcia. The results here presented focus more specifically on the use and appropriations, by students and teacher, of the historical narratives present in the textbook regarding the substantive concept of african slavery in Brazil. The target audience in question involved primary education, seventh grade students (11 to 13 years of age) from a school belonging to the Municipal Education System of Curitiba. Some considerations can be pointed out, one of which is that the textbook has been used by the teacher in a way it becomes the “visible text of the disciplinary code of school History” (CUESTA FERNANDEZ, 1997, 1998), one of the ways to teach and learn History. As to the appropriations of the textbook narratives by the students, it can be stated that they were explicit in their narratives, inasmuch as the students incorporated to their texts the ideas present in the textbook after the didactic intervention.
The UQ Religion Bazaar project was originally conceived in 2007 and developed through 2008. It consists of a Second Life island situated in the New Media Consortium educational precinct and boasts a number of religious builds including a church, a mosque, a synagogue, an ancient Greek temple, a Freemasonic lodge, a Zen Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple to Ganesha. The island was used in two large first year classes and for supervising distance postgraduate students.    After a brief introduction to the discipline of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland, this paper will assess the suitability of using Second Life as an environment for learning based on constructivist methodologies. Further, it will explore the original  conception and development of the UQ Religion Bazaar project within Second Life, and outline the preliminary findings of the project.
Twenty-two years after the end of the Cold War, Turkey and the USA are still in search of a framework to stabilize their mutual partnership. Although the USA–Turkey relationship has shown signs of stability under the Obama administration, there is still ambivalence about its future, due to the evolving international system, transformations in the Middle East and changes in the domestic politics of both countries. The Iranian nuclear programme and the war in Iraq (2003) have demonstrated that a bilateral relationship is more prone to crisis when the two countries have differing objectives and security interests. These crises can be contained, however, when an institutional framework of cooperation is established and when there is effective communication between the countries' leaders. In this sense, the absence of an institutionalized cooperation and a lack of personal rapport between Turkish and American leaders during the crisis of Iraq in 2003 led to a major crisis of bilateral relations. On the other hand, the existence of both an institutional framework of cooperation and effective communication during the dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme in 2010 resulted in the containment of the crisis. As such, these two crises may demonstrate the effectiveness of these factors in the future stability of the USA–Turkey partnership in the emerging uni–multipolar international order.
Abstract The HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa prompted industrialised nations to initiate a coordinated global response, which to date has been inadequate in reducing the pandemic’s impact in Africa. To better understand this response, this article explores the portrayal of the pandemic in the Australian print media using critical discourse analysis to unpack the discourses surrounding the construction of the pandemic. In particular, it examines how issues of power, ideology, causation and responsibility are expressed and utilised to validate certain stances and responses. The findings demonstrate that the media presents a particular perspective on the pandemic that favours the agendas of industrialised nations. Linguistic devices uncovered racist, medical and development discourses that give voice to industrialised nations and silence those from sub-Saharan Africa, limiting discussion on alternative responses. These findings highlight the utility of critical discourse analysis in understanding power structures that construct and influence responses to public health issues.
THE RESULT OF THE DANISH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION OF 11 MARCH 1998 could hardly have been closer. It came down to 89 voters in the Faroes: had this number voted for the local centre-right party, rather than the centre-left one, both of the islands' two seats in the Danish Folketing (parliament) would have gone to supporters of the opposition, thus tipping the parliamentary balance. However, because the sister party of the Danish Social Democrats won one of those seats, the incumbent prime minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, managed to confound the predictions of the opinion polls and stay in power, continuing his Social Democrats' coalition with the Social Liberal Party. It remained a minority government; but this is the norm in Denmark's fragmented multi-party system. Moreover, with the presumed support of the parties to the left of the Social Democrats, and with other parties also professing their keenness to cooperate, the chances of a stable government enduring through the rest of the four-year parliamentary term looked bright.
The Mozambican civil war, 1977–1992, left an ambiguous legacy for women. Whilst women were among the most vulnerable victims of the war, in some ways they were also its unintended beneficiaries. The civil war, by weakening both the state and the traditional family, offered unprecedented opportunities for women to break free from patriarchal control. Especially decisive were women’s own responses to the war, which in turn were a function of their pre-war situation, class, and personal history. Some women managed to see and seize opportunities in their predicament and prospered, especially as informal entrepreneurs, while many others succumbed to their fate. A few even engaged in civil society activism, for instance, setting up victim support networks and participating in peacebuilding. This paper shows that, while destroying society the war also catalysed the process of gender transformation, social fragmentation and civil society activism. It concludes that violent conflict is a moment of choice, in which individual and collective responses create opportunities and/or constraints. Keywords: Women, War Victims, Activism, Patriarchy, Emancipation, Mozambique
The teaching of college English at the same time is also the teaching of culture. English teaching is not only the teaching of language knowledge,but also the broadcasting of cultural knowledge. The paper is trying to study the infiltration of Chinese traditional culture in foreign language teaching from the perspective of multimodality. It is helpful for college students to improve the ability of English multiliteracy and cultural communication.
Since the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1922, governments have consented to, and actively used, an ever larger number of international and transnational courts, quasi-judicial dispute settlement bodies and ad hoc arbitral tribunals for the settlement of disputes over the interpretation and application of rules of international law. Such judicial clarification of disputed interpretations of incomplete, intergovernmental agreements reduces not only the negotiation costs of governments by delegating the clarification of contested facts and legal claims to independent third-party adjudication. Judicial decision-making at intergovernmental, transnational, national and private levels also supplements rule-making and offers citizens judicial remedies for defending their rights and interests. Modern international economic law increasingly complements intergovernmental, legislative, and administrative governance by multilevel 'judicial governance' so as to protect rule of law more effectively for the benefit of citizens ( Section I ). This contribution criticizes the one-sidedly power-oriented perceptions of WTO law as 'international law among states' ( Section II ) and the related perceptions of international judges as dependent agents of states ( Section III ). Civil society, parliaments and democratic governments should encourage national and international judges to cooperate in their legal task of interpreting citizen-oriented international economic law 'in conformity with principles of justice and international law', as explicitly prescribed in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). The legal coherence of multilevel judicial governance depends on protecting principles of procedural as well as substantive justice and a common conception of 'rule of law' not only in intergovernmental relations among states, but also vis-a-vis their citizens engaged in, and benefiting from, international trade ( Sections IV-VIII ). , Oxford University Press.
understanding that Simpson was loading the legislative history with evidence of intent that would settle down opposition among “artifact collectors” in Wyoming. McCain, seeing the purpose, speaks lines far below the understanding of a man who had been working on the issue as long as he had. Th ose who like or at least fi nd tolerable the compromises that found their way into nagpra will consider McCain, along with Senator Daniel Inouye and Representative Morris K. Udall, to be the heroes of the narrative on the public offi cial side. Th ose who don’t like the result can at least understand the decision points and choose their own heroes and villains among a substantial cast of American Indian activists, anthropologists, museum directors, and others with interests that are, to put it kindly, less imbued with public purpose. As McKeown points out in his summary, case law in the federal courts interpreting nagpra is sparse. Th e pace of implementation— inventory of collections, rule making, dispute resolution— has been glacial. As nagpra proceeds from concept to praxis, this book will be an invaluable aid to lawyers, museum authorities, scientists who hope to work with human remains or sacred objects, and tribal offi cials who hope to protect them.
The aim of the study was to develop, implement and evaluate a concept for the first support program for young carers and their families in Germany. This paper intends to critically review the implementation of that study and describe the problems experienced by the research team, including: the complexity of the intervention itself, the difficulty of finding host organizations, the lack of infrastructure, different values and beliefs about the project aims held between the host organization and the research team, shortage of time, identifying and recruiting families among the hidden population of young carers. These initial problems led to the re-constructuring of the original research design. In order to evaluate factors that influenced these difficulties, the original research intentions, emerging problems and their consequences will be presented.
In her recent novel "What We All Long For," Dionne Brand offers a fascinating representation of post-diasporic identity in the globalized city of Toronto. The main characters are twenty-something second-generation immigrants from diverse backgrounds whose bond is a shared disavowal of their parents' diasporic identity. By offering us a glimpse into the sexually ambiguous, sexually ambitious world of these young people, Brand raises provocative questions about the possibilities and limitations of "diaspora" in capturing twenty-first-century identifications. My paper lays out the implications of the concept "post-diaspora" in relation to the term "postcolonial," and then goes on discuss two other key aspects of Brand's novel. First, Brand insists on the centrality of urban spaces to the configuration of the post-diasporic; the Toronto of "What We All Long For" is reminiscent of the Toronto she describes in "Bread Out of Stone" as "a weirdly hopeful place." Second, and in tension with this celebration of urban possibility, is the character Quy, who represents Giorgio Agamben's "homo sacer," the utterly dispensable human being. In using Quy as a touchstone throughout "What We All Long For," Dionne Brand suggests that urban cosmopolitanism, even in the twenty-first century, comes at the desperately high price of the unfinished business of colonialism.
Background: In the 40th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, Americans rated student discipline as the second largest problem facing public education. This poses a substantial problem for administrators striving to employ school reform policies, address public demands, and meet the needs of contemporary students. Purpose: A review of the literature revealed a large body of research that examines disciplinary practice; however, it also showcased a literary gap regarding administrative disciplinary philosophies. Research Design: This multiple case study highlights disciplinary philosophies possessed by five secondary school administrators. Analysis includes utilizing the administrator discipline facilitation continuum, an adapted discipline continuum developed to analyze administrator disciplinary philosophies. Conclusions: The versatility of the continuum as well as implications for its use and future development are discussed.
Abstract The circulation of the ruling class has been a relevant concern in political analysis, but investigation of the determinants of a successful career still remains relatively neglected. This article aims at filling this interpretative gap by focusing on long-term transformations of ministerial careers in Italy. By using an original dataset on ministerial careers between 1976 and 2015, the article explains the patterns of intra-governmental career by analysing the selection for higher government offices. A first descriptive analysis leads to the formulation of a working proposition based on the increasing complexity of the patterns of governmental careers. In this context, the new role of the Prime Minister as a principal in the process of ministerial selection and other procedural constraints are discussed. An ordinal logistic regression analysis confirms the validity of such a general proposition, highlighting the relevance of personalisation and policy expertise in the evolution of intra-governmental careers.
Campus culture is the product of the communication of education and culture, in which the school archives play a basic role. School archives are the inevitable product of campus cultural activities and the important carrier of campus culture. School archives provide basis and foundation for progressive campus cultural activities, and make up an important part of campus culture. Making clear the above relationship is significant for campus cultural construction by making use of school archives and for archivists participation.
In 1911 Margaret Byington was asked by the Russell Sage Foundation to prepare "an outline for the guidance of social workers and others who might wish to gather facts about their communities as a basis for efforts to improve local living conditions." The result of her effort was the well known pamphlet, What Social Workers Should Know about Their Own Communities. As social conditions changed and methods of inquiry developed, the pamphlet was modified until it had gone through four editions. Now this earlier guide to community study has been replaced by a more comprehensive volume. In its preparation less thought has been given to social workers and more to students and interested citizens. The outline of questions and suggestions covers general information about location, development, and population, and more detailed information about services involving delinquency, public safety, employment, housing, health, education, recreation, religion, relief, family and child welfare, ethnic groups, and community planning. In addition to lists of questions the book includes sources of information and suggests ways of organizing and presenting data that may be assembled. As a guide to the study of social services in the broadest sense, this book will prove of real value to high school and college classes and adult education groups. Many a social science teacher will find it a useful handbook for the outlining of projects. However, as Miss Colcord points out, this is not intended as a basis for research. Neither does it cover all sociological, economic, political, and physical aspects of local communities as sociologists conceive them. To every chapter it would be possible to suggest additions, but in the nature of the case the author had to proceed selectively. Bearing in mind her purpose and her intended audience she has chosen well. STUART A. QUEEN Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
This article presents a multi-method research design for measuring the (trans-)national quality of issue publics on Twitter. Online communication is widely perceived as having the potential to overcome nationally bound public spheres. Social media, in particular, are seen as platforms and drivers of transnational communication through which users can easily connect across borders. Transnational interactivity can be expected in particular for policy fields of global concern and elite or activist communication as practiced on Twitter. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of evidence for the enduring national structuration of political communication and publics as it results from a shared language (mostly), culturally defined media markets, established routines of social and political communication, and sociocultural stocks of knowledge. The study goes beyond measuring user interaction and also includes indicators of cross-referential cohesion. It applies a set of computational methods in network and discourse analysis and presents empirical evidence for Twitter communication on climate change being a prime issue of global concern and a globalized policy agenda. For empirical analysis, the study relies on a large Twitter dataset (N ≈ 6m tweets) with tweet messages and metadata collected between 2015 and 2018. Based on basic measurements such as geolocation and language use, the metrics allowed measurement of cross-national user interactions, user centrality in communicative networks, linking behaviour, and hashtag co-occurrences. The findings of the exploratory study suggest that a combined perspective on indicators of user interaction and cross-referential cohesion helps to develop a better and more nuanced understanding of online issue publics.
A noticeable revival of local and regional festivals and celebrations took place in Sweden during the 1980s. Similar trends can be seen elsewhere in Europe. Annual celebrations of all kinds, some focusing on the past (such as local historical events), others on the present (such as local market days), are being arranged. Some of the celebrations are aimed at tourists, others are directed toward the local population. Local cultural festivals have been used by a variety of actors, particularly in regions undergoing structural change, to draw outside attention to their regions and to initiate processes of change and development by mobilizing local people ‘inside.’ This article focuses on a ‘regional development area’ in Sweden. It describes a municipality and analyzes the local festivals, celebrations and plays that both unite and differentiate communities in the municipality. The article tries to explain when and why these celebrations began, which groups of people are involved in them and the way in which they have strengthened local identities, initiated social change or influenced local economic development.
Author(s): Horton, Kate Louise | Advisor(s): Dworkin, Shari L | Abstract: PurposeThe purpose of this critical ethnographic study is to examine sex workers’ engagement with the health policy issues they identify as harmful to their health.BackgroundThe “problem” of sex work and health is situated at the nexus of multiple competing perspectives and moral paradigms that define health priorities for sex workers in research and policy. Sex workers’ own perspectives are rarely central to analysis of this problem, leading to research and policy solutions that contribute to silencing sex workers’ priorities.MethodsI collected ethnographic data from four sources: In-depth qualitative interviews with 35 sex worker activists and advocates in a metropolitan area of the North American West Coast; 60 hours of participatory and observational fieldwork of sex worker activist and advocacy events; 14 informal field interviews; and public discourse analysis on sex work in the state and local area. I analyzed data following a grounded theory approach.FindingsSex workers were active participants in defining health issues and setting policy agendas to address the inequalities that impacted them. These efforts were transformative in challenging the dominant social constructions of sex work, and in clarifying the social structures that shape sex workers’ health and human rights. Sex workers challenged homogenous portrayals of sex work as a violent sexual risk behavior, and claimed structural drivers of health inequalities as policy priorities. Violence experienced by sex workers at the interpersonal level was perpetuated and justified by structural and symbolic violence, devaluing sex workers’ lives. Sex workers’ potential to contribute to social change was largely dismissed in society, as dominant understandings of sex work portrayed them as social deviants or victims.ConclusionsSex worker activism is focused on addressing broad social injustices that drive health inequalities and their associated risks within sex work. Through collective action and grassroots organizing, sex workers are shifting the paradigm of the “problem” of sex work, situating it in multiple systems of oppression. Creating formal mechanisms to include sex workers’ perspectives and experiences in the development of policies that have direct health implications for them is necessary for the improvement of sex worker health.
Wenzhou dragon boat race contains rich cultural connotation,it is the social political and economic life of Wenzhou in miniature.Cultural indentity and affective commitment,which are this region population for the dragon boat,are the key drive of development of Wenzhou dragon boat,we should spread Wenzhou dragon boat from a cultural perspective,and arouse population much more cultural identity and emotion recognition through propagandize Wenzhou dragon boat race cultural and set up characteristic Wenzhou dragon boat race,expand its mass base and to better promote the development of Wenzhou dragon boat race.
Introduction The reality of elite sporting competition today is that cheating in one form or another is relatively commonplace. No example of cheating however carries the stigma nor results in such punitive and emotive reaction as doping. For whatever reason, doping more than any other type of sports cheating, has transcended sport and entered the public domain. The public consciousness of anti-doping has been raised in part because of the stringent sanctions attached to such a breach and because the loss of a lucrative career often forces the hand of the sanctioned athlete to utilise appeal mechanisms built in to the regulations of sports governing bodies and, if unsuccessful, to seek recourse from the courts. For these reasons anti-doping and the law enjoy a complex and special relationship (1). Over the past ten years anti-doping regulation has been radically revised. Two landmark regulatory models epitomise the rigorous approach the issue: the World Anti-Doping Codes of 2003 and 2009. The 2009 model contains some important amendments to the 2003 code. The objects of this chapter are twofold: to evaluate the importance of the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) in the light of a changing legal and political landscape and to evaluate whether the 2009 Code improves on the 2003 model by satisfactorily balancing between the right of individual athletes to complete with the desire on the part of sports governing bodies to regulate effectively against those who seek to avoid anti-doping restrictions. In this context it is necessary to consider both the legal and the sport regulatory framework because, whether it is considered conceptually as a process of juridification or as an example of legal pluralism, the interaction between law and regulation has become so interwoven that the significance to the athlete of this distinction is practically irrelevant. Equally, as lawyers are actively involved in both the process of law and regulation, such a distinction might be considered more accurately as the difference between hard and soft law. The changing legal and political landscape It is important to observe the way in which, since 2003, the law has embraced the Code thereby further blurring the distinction between law and regulation. What in 2003 could have been perceived as little more than a professional code of conduct has now taken on a greater judicial and political significance. Courts, for many years, have condoned the use of the Code but tended to do so on the basis of Lord Denning's philosophy that ' justice can often be done ... better by a good layman than by a bad lawyer' (2) as might befit an approach to the Code predicated on a view that such regulation covered merely internal sports disputes which, for the most part, were not worthy of legal intervention. Although the Court of Appeal in Modahl v British Athletics Federation Ltd (3), did seem to strengthen the legal status of the Code by holding relationships between athletes and governing bodies was contractual and as a consequence, the Code constituted contractual terms, it did so only on a majority. The strong dissenting judgment of Jonathan Parker LJ followed a line of argument promulgated by Lord Denning who, in cases such as Nagle v Feilden and Lee v The Showman's Guild of Great Britain expressed his concern that the identification of a contractual nexus in such situations was little more than a fiction. This lowly legal status is now in need of reappraisal following the ECJ decision in Meca-Medina v Commission of the European Communities (4). The European Court of first Instance agreed with the European Commission that the anti-doping rule fell outside the scope of European competition law. The ECJ disagreed and gave an important judgment which helps to establish the sphere of legal influence and also whether the anti-doping regulations contained within the Code are a proportional response to the perceived problem. …
I. INTRODUCTION 951II. EMPIRICAL MEASURES OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONMAKING 955III. case DECISIONS 966A. Unanimous Decisions 966B. Eight-to-One Decisions 975C. Seven-to- Two and Six-to- Two Decisions 977D. Six-to-Three andFive-to-Three Decisions 986E. Five-to-Four Decisions 998IV. CONCLUSION 1008I. INTRODUCTIONThe U.S. Supreme Court's 2004-2005 Term marked the end of a period of remarkable stability for the nation's highest court. The retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor1 and the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist2 concluded an eleven-term span in which a single set of nine justices heard and decided cases together.3 Throughout this period, the Rehnquist Court gained a reputation for two trends in criminal justice cases. First, the Court generally favored conservative4 outcomes by siding with the government more frequently than with individuals.5 second, in cases in which the Court was deeply divided, the outcome often hinged on whether the Court's four most liberal justices-John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer-could convince one of their more conservative colleagues to provide a fifth vote in support of an individual's claim.6 This article's examination of criminal justice decisions in the 2004-2005 Term explores whether these trends remained evident at the close of the Rehnquist Court era.Criminal justice decisions are especially important because they can significantly affect the lives of individuals by defining rights against unreasonable searches,7 determining the extent of police officers' authority to act,8 and even impacting decisions about whether convicted offenders will be sentenced to death for their crimes.9 The 2004-2005 Term was much like prior terms in producing decisions with direct human consequences for those who come into contact with the justice system.Of the seventy-four cases for which the Supreme Court issued full opinions during the 2004-2005 Term, thirty-four dealt with criminal justice.10 This figure highlights the Court's continued, heightened attention to criminal justice that emerged when it decided thirty-three criminal justice cases in the 2003-2004 Term.11 By contrast, the Court decided only twenty-two criminal justice cases in 2002-2003,12 twenty-seven criminal justice cases in 2001-2002,13 and twenty-five criminal justice cases in 2000-2001.14 The Court had decided thirty-five criminal justice cases in 1997-1998,15 so the recent attention to criminal justice is not unprecedented. The reduced attention Court paid to criminal justice in the first years of the twenty-first century, however, gave the appearance that its agenda may have shifted toward other priorities. Alternatively, the ebb and flow of criminal justice cases may simply reflect unpredictable factors such as the particular issues in a given year that produce contradictory decisions in the lower courts requiring clarification from the nation's highest court.16This article will explore the Supreme Court's impact on criminal justice during the 2004-2005 Term. An empirical examination of the Court's decisions will help to illuminate patterns within the justices' decision-making. A review of the cases will provide details on the issues examined by the Supreme Court and new developments in law produced by the Court's decisions. Overall, the Court's stance in criminal justice cases appeared slightly less conservative than in several prior years, as evidenced by a nearly even balance between conservative and liberal outcomes and the production of several notable liberal precedents.II. EMPIRICAL MEASURES OF SUPREME COURT DECISION-MAKINGTable 1 summarizes the outcomes of the Supreme Court's 2004-2005 criminal justice decisions according to the Court's vote totals and the direction of the Court's decisions. …
The School Innovation in Science intiative is operating in more than 300 schools in Victoria. It has achieved considerable success in transforming science teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. This paper describes the core elements of SIS, and provides an overview of the different types of initiatives pursued by secondary schools arising out of an action planning process. case studies of initiatives illustrate the richness and range of innovation in schools. It is argued that the SIS model provides the conditions for deep seated change and innovation in schools' science programs.
The legal educator in Sri Lanka occupies a precarious space which is increasingly leading to academic displacement. This is exacerbated by poor pedagogic choices which have gained popularity amongst student masses for not requiring laborious student-centred education. ‘Narration sickness’ that pervades academia is viewed as a safe choice and it therefore hinders pedagogical innovations and renders the academic redundant. Externally, legal academics are perceived as not performing a socially relevant function. The author invites the reader to see how the increasing push for recognising the legal ‘professional’ as a ‘court-centric’ practitioner contributes to academic displacement within a university culture that dissuades ‘academics’ to engage in ‘practice’. Within this backdrop, changes effected to the existing curriculum are aligned with ‘bureaucratic rationalism’ that has infiltrated academia, and, is, at the least, indirectly sustained through student lethargy. The author focuses on three deep-rooted causes of academic displacement: namely, pedagogy and intellectual demise, curriculum traditionalism, and the narrow construction of the ‘legal practitioner’. The author warns that failure of academics to deal with these concerns will lead to academic displacement and makes an appeal to the academic community to reassess and reconceptualise pedagogy, curriculum, and the profession.
This Special Edition takes as its focus the issue of transition between post-16 and higher education in the study of English. Students making this transition face a number of areas of difficulty. The demands of moving from one institution to another and coming to terms with a new set of cognitive and metacognitive demands (Marland, 2003), teaching practices (Ballinger, 2003; Green, 2005a), study patterns (Stewart and McCormack, 1997), levels of independence (Smith, 2003; Smith, 2004), assumptions (Clerehan, 2003), expectations and assessment procedures (Cook and Leckey, 1999; Booth, 1997) are complex. For this reason it is vital that serious attention is given to the experience of students moving into higher education from a variety of institutional and academic backgrounds. It is also vital to consider how they manage the experience of change and why they either succeed or fail in making the necessary academic shift. This transition requires students to learn to apply themselves within the new parameters of higher education English. However, many students demonstrate uncertainty about course structures, teaching methods and rationales, the requirements of independent study, assessment procedures, and the means of functioning effectively in the higher education context. These issues and others are discussed in the papers that follow. Important in assisting students to come to terms with the many changes they face in their transition is the development of a clear sense of how English is shaped and ordered as an academic discipline. Bourdieu (1990, 40) considers the function of order within social formations, including schools and other educational institutions thus:
This study explores the internet-only political debate held in the run-up to the 2012 U.S. presidential election between political-entertainment personalities Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly. Independently produced and financed through a version of crowd-funding, the debate offers a window into the fundamentally hybrid nature of contemporary mediated political discourse. A novel form of hybrid celebrity politics afforded by emergent technological, economic, and cultural forces, the so-called “Rumble in the Air Conditioned Auditorium” interwove televisual celebrity, political advocacy, affective spectacle, and deliberative exchange. In so doing, it spoke to the increasingly complicated nature of representation, authenticity, and the possibilities of political speech in a hybrid media age.
This work examines how feminists have dealt with "disagreeable passions" such as rage, greed, anger and hate. Burack provides an account of women as ambivalent: both empathic and enraged, loving and hating. Examining the work of such feminist theorists as Carol Gilligan, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin and Dorothy Dinnerstein, Burack argues that feminist social theory can be repaired through attention to the psychoanalytic work of Melanie Klein. "The Problem of the Passions" should be of interest to feminists, psychoanalysts, political scientists and social theorists.
Practising teach as a kind of teach system has occurred more frequently in various education theory study accompanied by the gradual deepen of our country's high education revolution.This article talks about three aspects:the factors in rational choice of practising teach model,the defination of it,and the article has found many disciplinarian factors,they will have an active guiding effect on the practicing teach.
This article illustrates the way in which a State as traditionally as powerful as the Mexican one, despite its success in integrating the economy into the world market, actually led to the violent disarticulation of an already precarious social fabric, distancing majority aggregates of society from minimum levels of living standards, social justice and democratic behavior based on the strengthening of citizenship. Given this outlook, how can a change in cultural perspective be wrought that would lead to the material and moral reconstruction of collective identities, if the groups capable of self-organization constitute none other than the principal adversary of the regimes that promote globalization ?
The striking achievement of the Shinui (Change) party in the 2003 elections – 15 seats in the Knesset – reflected changes in Israel’s political centre even more than it reflected processes occurring in Israel’s party system. For the first time in more than 20 years, the Israeli voter overcame the trauma of the Democratic Movement for Change (DMC), the centre party that was the great hope of those disappointed with Ma’arach (the Labour Alignment). The DMC won 15 seats in the 1977 elections, but split up and had already disappeared before the 1981 elections. Since then, all centre parties have failed in their efforts to repeat the electoral success of the DMC. Until the change in the electoral system in 1996, centre parties won four seats at most, and lasted for one term only. Shinui, calling itself a centre party, was established prior to the elections of 1999, and gained six seats in the Knesset. In the 2003 elections it gained 15 seats, making it the third largest party in the Knesset. Shinui’s impressive electoral success has far-reaching effects, both politically and socially. Shinui’s success in the 2003 elections will be analyzed and compared with the failure of previous centre parties. Discussion of the factors contributing to its success will be conducted on two levels: the macro – an analysis of the party system and its effect on the survival of centre parties, and the micro – Shinui’s tactics in the fifteenth Knesset (1999). On the macro-level, there is a close connection between the type of party system and the survival of centre parties in Israel. There are four main periods in the development of the party system in Israel:
This study presents the concept of innovation pedagogy, which is a pedagogical approach developed for the universities of applied sciences. Innovation pedagogy emphasises efficient learning and the institution’s external impact on regional development. It is based on customer-oriented and multi-field needs of working life; integrates applied research and development and entrepreneurship with education in a flexible way; and promotes regional and international networking. This approach is clearly wider than the traditional individual-based learning, because it emphasises group-based and networked learning to promote innovations in working life.
For students studying journalism at HBCUs, there is a need for increased training in entrepreneurial journalism to offset the vastly changing media landscape and to train future media practitioners to become enterprising and to tell their own stories. However, in light of the ongoing challenges faced by many HBCUs, students receive a variety of entrepreneurial experiences ranging from moderate to sparing to none. In light of the new demands of the 21st century and the current shift to an entrepreneurship based economy, particularly within the media industries, this study using institutional theory examines the largest HBCUs by undergraduate enrollment to find that most schools with JMC programs offer either a course in entrepreneurship and or some business or entrepreneurship access on their campus. In order to ensure that all students who wish to become entrepreneurs receive adequate training during the foundational years of an undergraduate program, this study examines some of the barriers and challenges facing some universities and outlines suggestions and best practices.
The present work poses a reflection with the English language teachers on the importance that should be awarded to grammar in the teaching and learning of this language. Without leaving aside the integrating character promoted by the communicative approach in the treatment of the leading skills and the insertion of the students in communicative situations that enables the practice in linguistic habits formation through the development of the different components that are part of the communicative competence, the author expresses some ideas and criteria on how the professorship can teach grammar by means of the abilities to speak and write in English, and not English only through grammar.Cross grammar teaching from the leading skills-according to what is being analyzed by this author_ provides the tools and is the vehicle to carry out any communicative endeavor beyond the classroom. The author presents a system of exercises that show the transversal relationship of grammar with the leading skills. For the development of this work some methods were used such as: historic-logical, analysis-synthesis, inductive-deductive, systemic-structural-functional and the documentary revision. With the applicationof this grammatical proposal the students improved their speaking and writing skills, and their linguistic self-confidence was increased as well.
The paper presents a discussion of legal, scientific, and practical aspects of forensic linguistic analysis of the Internet extremist discourse as practiced at present and might be improved in the future. The author states that present experts’ practice in Russian legislation is based on limited knowledge of Internet linguistics properties and is conducted mostly as an empirical art in which the forensic linguist examiner acquires skill through extensive linguistic training and forensic experience. Courtroom cases in which forensic linguists have offered their written reports and testimony on extremist materials distributed on the Internet have got negative critical assessment in mass-media and scientific linguistic society. The judicial responses have varied with rulings, both admitting and rejecting extremist linguistic evidence. To some extent, the various legal viewpoints have reflected various linguistic methodical perspectives regarding the extremist diagnostic criteria to be expected in the examined Internet discourse represented under various forensic and communicative conditions. The necessity to use the unified linguistic criteria of resolving Internet text ambiguity is substantiated in the paper. The author concludes that methodological uncertainties concerning the contemporary expert practice of detecting linguistic signs of extremist statements are so significant as requiting that the forensic applications be approached with great caution.
Reviewing the development process of sports sociology of China and predicting the trend of sports sociology of China,it points out that sports sociology of China would be the first hot subject in sports social science,its academic level ranks advanced of world,subject knowledge will obtain popularization at sports institutes,interdisciplinary study will become increasingly significant,keeping up with the times and sport practice.
This article provides the result of a review of existing masculinity research within the university context. The objective of the present study was to determine the topics of analysis, characteristics, and tendencies of recent studies in this field. A search was performed in Scopus and Ebsco, using the search terms: masculinity and university students, which yielded 72 studies for analysis. The most commonly-explored topics among the investigations reviewed were as follows: the construction of masculinity, masculine social norms and gender stereotypes, romantic relationships, masculinity and health, attitudes toward sexual minorities and their effects, masculinity and violence, and masculinity and alcohol consumption. It was concluded that the shaping of masculinity in the university environment is a complex experience, influenced by the intermixing of traditional masculinity and vested with cultural, social, historical, and personal factors.
This new collection of essays, edited by historian Ana Lucia Araujo, addresses an important and timely topic. The book brings together ten chapters from renowned Brazilian and international scholars who explore the heritage of slavery and of African heritage in Brazil. The volume begins with a concise yet instructive introduction by Araujo, presenting an overview of how the Atlantic slavery past has come to be (under) appreciated in Brazilian society in post-abolition times. Araujo highlights the contemporary reemergence of a public debate in Brazil about the importance of valorizing and commemorating the country’s slavery past and its African heritage.
In the Amazon, under the influence of ayahuasca, eco revolutionary Christian visions describe how Christ’s power takes root in the Amazonian ground. The article explores the “Gospel”—the story of Christ’s life and teachings—according to ayahuasca as told by the Quichua Aguarico Runa, a native people of the Ecuadorian upper Amazon and then traces local phrasings of the Gospel according to Santo Daime, a Christian sect indigenous to Brazil. As the Christian myth transforms, these radical botanical visions reinterpret South American history, bringing healing to continental and communal memory, and to the decimated and threatened land.
The knowledge outdated, complexity of the problems, democratisation of the society, interdependencies and knowledge globalisation, next to importance of individual (self), unique case and new work structures in the companies are, between other tendencies and realities, the justification of the change in the teaching and universities organisation Regarding for the change of tendency is towards two aspects: the teaching in centred learning development and, in the universities organisation, the reconsideration of the university departments as spaces of collective deliberation. These two realities -teaching and university departments- they are interdependent. The construction of the new such concepts as interdisciplinary teaching, active learning, among others, they are the result of this relationship mentioned previously.
Abstract In the last years, the so called „Sinus-Milieus“ have become a popular way of targeting sociological groups for marketing purposes. In 2013, two Protestant churches in Southern Germany published the study “Brücken und Barrieren” (bridges and barriers) on the transitions from confirmation time towards an involvement in Christian youth work. For this study the Sinus Institute asked 72 teenagers in oral interviews about their views on values, faith and especially youth work. The article develops a critical perspective on the empirical methodology of the Sinus Institute in general and in respect of a number of specific questions. The author points out that the lack of transparency in the work of the Sinus institute raises doubts about the scientific basis of this research. He recommends a more critical and scientific approach for further usages of the “Sinus Milieus”.
In this research, we aimed to study the effectiveness levels of participation of student councils in decision making at universities according to perceptions of student council board members. Research scope is composed of 562, while its sampling includes 136 subjects. The results displayed that student councils and student representatives attend the elections held in faculty, department and program levels "a lot" but they can have "little" influence in decision making in these units and matters. For this reason, it seems necessary to make amendments in regulations or guides for students councils so that students can be given not only rights to vote but to participate in decision making as well. Key words: participation in decision making, student councils, student representatives, democratic university. Introduction As administration means necessary decision making to achieve an organization's aim and then application of these decisions, it also means that participation in administration and helping members in decision making (Mihcioglu, 1983). Administrations should choose the most appropriate solution among the possible ones about the different problems that they may have to face (Aydin, 2000). Chosen and the most appropriate decisions are put into practice. According to Kaya, the possibility of coming to the right conclusion alone with chance, coincidence, good intention or common sense is decreasing day by day. One of the aims of the universities each of which is an education organization is to educate at different levels, make and publish scientific research and mentor in an order based upon the basis of education and contemporary civilization in accordance with the aims and principles of the developmental plan of the society (YOK, 1981). When universities are carrying out their duties, if they put their organ in the process of decision making it will strengthen the democratic structure. Participation of the students in the process of decision making facilitates the application of these decisions. If the participation of the students in the process of decision making is restrained, participation in application decreases and even there can be an opposition (Bursalioglu, 2000; Taymaz, 2000). One of the organs in University Structure is "Student Councils". With the Bologna process, the importance of the student councils have increased, they are expected to participate in decision making at universities. Bologna process is described as a Higher Education structuring of European Countries which was started in 1999 by the education ministers of 29 countries at the European level and estimated to be completed by 2010 (Durman, 2009). 49 countries have been included to this process since 1997. According to this Bologna process; it is aimed to create "European Higher Education Area" and in this context to restructure the Higher Education Institutes at the European level and to make it possible to accept the academic degrees and transparency and dynamism in Higher Education in parallel with this competitive, dynamic, knowledge based European economic purpose. "Higher Education Institutes Student Councils and Higher Education Institutes National Student Council Regulations" (YOK-UOKY), Higher Education Board Presidency came into practice after being published in the official newspaper with number 25942 and date 20.09.2005. According to this regulations (article 2), it is compulsory for each university to found Student Council and related organs in its frame. After founding its student councils it is in the stage of founding Higher Education Institutions National Student Councils. The student councils at each university works locally at their university while the national student council carries out its activities Turkey-wide according to the YOK-UOKY. The organs of the Student Councils are defined in YOK-UOKY (Article 8) as: Student Representative of the Department (Programme, Scientific or Artistic Course), The Board of the Student Representatives of Departments (Programme, Scientific or Artistic Course), Student Representative of the Faculty (Faculty, Conservatory, Higher Vocational School, Institute), Student Council Plenary Committee, Plenary Committee Ministers, Student Council Administration Board, Student Council Board of Auditors, and the President of the Student Council. …
Jack Kerouac,representative of the Beat Generation,lives a life with banishment and exile.Kerouac is a person of counter-tradition and counter-culture,confronts traditional social systems and values with a Hippies life-style.Born a Catholic,Kerouac explores a new life mode,tries to gain a deal of enlightenment from oriental culture,practises meditations and combines Zen Buddhism with story writing.At the edge of pain and disappointment Kerouac tries to find of a way of self-salvation and moksha to achieve final individual freedom and regression.
Deeply resentful over gibes in the loyalist press about their proclivity for riot and anarchy and their ragged dress, the working men and women who gathered at St. Peter's Field, Manchester on 16 August 1819 were determined to make the mass meeting of that fateful day a display of order, sobriety, and decorum. Such concerns were of limited interest to most of the " 'old blackguard' Spenceans" of Iain McCalman's brilliant study. For over forty years, from the mid-1790s to the late 1830s, a small band of ultra-radical Spenceans lived and laboured in London's radical underworld, "a loosely-linked, semi-clandestine network of political organisations, groups, coteries and alliances", where radical politics intersected not only the world of the degraded artisan and the labouring poor but also London's notorious underworld of petty criminals, blackmailers, pimps, and pornographers (p. 2). Key figures in this shadowy world, the followers of Thomas Spence sought to spread their leader's views on land reform and politics through their connections to the rough and very masculine culture of London's workshops and tavern free-andeasies; these often thoroughly unrespectable radicals grafted "humour, escapism, sex, profit, conviviality, entertainment and saturnalia" (p. 234) onto the radical tradition and turned to blasphemy, burlesque, and a form of "obscene populism" to ridicule aristocrats, "arsebishops", and royal parasites. This ribald, vigorously anti-establishment culture of Thomas Spence and his disciples acted as a magnet for the impoverished journeymen, bankrupt tradesmen, and failed professionals of the metropolis. Drawing on Jacques Ranciere's work on French artisans of the 1830s, McCalman suggests that Spenceanism offered the jobbing tailor and marginal professional an alternative to the demeaning world of work and provided them with a sense of camaraderie and hope as well as an outlet for their intellectual and literary activities.
Canadian Margaret Clarkson, a lifelong Presbyterian and now retired elementary school teacher, stands virtually alone among present-day women hymnists as a spokesperson for conservative evangelical theology. A natural writer from childhood and the author of some seventeen books, Ms. Clarkson has intermittently turned her considerable talent to hymn writing. Her activity in this genre, extending from teen-age years to the present, frequently began with the writing of poems which later had to be adapted for hymn singing. A Singing Heart is a paperback volume containing 111 of these hymns. It constitutes one of the admirable series of publications of the collected works of outstanding contemporary hymnists by Hope Publishing Company. The hymns are printed as poems without music but with the author's suggestions for suitable tunes, as well as her brief commentaries on the history of each. Clarkson's hymns cover a wide range of Christian doctrine and devotional experience with special focus on themes of personal faith and Christian mission. Indeed, this
Developing nurse leaders for today and tomorrow is a priority considering the powerful relationship between leadership strength and the influence of the nursing profession in the future of health care. This article addresses leadership theories and research as they relate to visionary leadership. Education for visionary leadership is also addressed including the competencies and skill sets for effective visionary leaders. Visioning is a powerful force for change in shaping organizations and building teams for the future.
The article proposes to adopt the notion of diaspora as social practice for an analysis of Gypsy diasporas. It indicates the limits of the classical definition of diaspora, which is mainly based on the experience of the Jewish diaspora, and argues that the paradigm shift towards diaspora as social practice allows refocusing the debate on constitutive factors of diaspora making and on functions and main actors in developing a diasporic political discourse. The article outlines core elements of the Gypsy diaspora discourse and its main advocates. It offers thoughts on strengths and limits of this discourse and emphasises positive implications of the use of the diaspora concept for ongoing negotiations of Roma/Gypsy identity in the public sphere.
This paper shows the role of social studies of science in international and national accounting and their current and future potential. The perception of accounting as a social practice which builds reality while legitimating particular social orders. The paper makes special emphasis on rhetorical studies role and the rhetorical nature of accounting. Rhetoric is considered as those discursive means which are used by a transmitter (individual or group) within textual, oral or pictorial expressions through which a public will be persuaded. Thus, accounting reports are considered rhetorical instruments by which corporations seek to persuade various users while building their legitimacy. The potential of rhetorical research in accounting is wide; this wideness is evidenced in the paper.
Instructor: Dr. Tom Worthen Library 302 4:30-5:45 Office hours: After class and arranged times Phone:435-994-0023 – Cell EMail: tom.worthen@usu.edu No Text Overview of the class The goal of this class is to have you learn about argumentation and to be competent in applying this knowledge. Debate can be an overwhelming activity. Instead of starting with the final product this class will be like putting a puzzle together. Each day we will find a new piece to the puzzle and within a few weeks the puzzle will be completed and you will see how each piece/assignment fits together. If you fail to show up to class you will be missing a piece of the puzzle. The class moves very quickly. Missing class would not be recommended. • The Q after a date means a quiz will be that day. Topic AUG 30 Observe a sample debate SEPT 1 Intro to Argumentation 6 Q1 Research-Defining the Resolution 8 Q2 Propositions of fact, value, policy 13 Q3 AFF and Speaker Responsibilities also Name Quiz 15 Q4 NEG Responsibilities 17 (Sat) Intersquad debate tournament 8 am-1pm for team (20 points extra credit) 20 Q5 Refutation and Rebuttal 20 Speech-A-Thon 7-8:30 pm (10 points extra credit) 22 Q6 Flowing, Delivery (#1 Position statement due) 23-24 NORTHWEST NAZARENE (NAMPA, ID) 27 Q7 Class Debate (non Graded) 29 Class Debate (non Graded) OCT 4 Class Debate (non Graded) 6 No Class 7-8-9 Lewis and Clark College, Portland OR 11 Class Debate (non Graded) 13 Class Debate (non Graded) 18 Discuss Debates (#2 Position statement due) 20 (No class-Friday Schedule)
The political question doctrine obliges courts to set aside certain government actions and decisions from judicial review. The doctrine emerged in the United States in the early 19th Century. It first appeared in Ugandan jurisprudence in Ex parte Matovu (1966). After Matovu, the doctrine kept a relatively low profile in Uganda. However, the doctrine reemerged dramatically in the case of Centre of Health Human Rights & Development (CEHURD) and Three Others v. Attorney General. In CEHURD, the Constitutional Court of Uganda held that the political question doctrine prevented the court from reviewing government policy concerning the provision of maternal health care. Critics of the CEHURD judgment questioned the legitimacy of the political question doctrine and contend that the doctrine should not apply to matters involving human rights. Criticisms continue as the matter sits on appeal before the Supreme Court of Uganda.Notwithstanding the protestations, the political question doctrine has its rightful use and place in Uganda. The doctrine springs from a necessary limitation on judicial power and the need to honour purposeful allocations of power among the other branches over government. Thus the doctrine has a fundamental role to play in achieving separation of powers and allocating of government responsibilities. Despite its utility, the political question doctrine should not be used an excuse for the judiciary to abscond from core responsibilities or to avoid controversy. This is especially true in nations where courts are historically susceptible to political pressure. Thus it is important that Ugandan judges employing the doctrine be cognizant of its principled origins. Lastly, judges should appreciate that the political question doctrine is a flexible tool. If a court learns over time that it needs to be more or less engaged with the judicial oversight of an issue, the political question doctrine permits the court act on its knowledge. This aspect of the doctrine can be especially valuable in the unsettled context of judicial oversight and enforcement of social and economic rights.
Women’s empowerment is a multidimensional concept that encompasses different aspects such as access to education, freedom to make vital decisions, labor market access, wages, and political participation, among others. In this research, the authors construct a multidimensional index of women’s empowerment that takes into account individual resources and achievements and analyze its evolution across countries using data from the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations for 17 gender indicators across 96 countries over the period 1995–2015. By means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the authors identify three dimensions of women’s empowerment: reproductive health, economic participation, and basic education. In addition, the authors use cluster techniques to classify countries into four groups with similar behavior patterns in the different domains of women’s empowerment: a group of countries with high levels in the domains of reproductive health and basic education but with low levels in economic participation; a group of countries with high levels in the domains of reproductive health and economic participation that should pay attention to education; a group of countries with medium levels across the three dimensions of women’s empowerment, especially in reproductive health and economic participation; and a group of countries with low levels in all the dimensions of women’s empowerment, especially in reproductive health and basic education. The comparison of these different patterns serves to highlight the aspects in which improvements have been made or, on the contrary, to highlight the obstacles that are hindering the improvement of gender equality. Finally, the results suggest that advancements in women’s empowerment improve the countries’ level of development.
The mass-market fashion industry maintains complex economic structures globally. In recent years, the adverse consequences of commercialisation driven by this system have given rise to innovation in production systems, material cultures, and consumer awareness of waste. Alongside issues of long-term lifespan and ecological impact of wearables (wearable technology), focus on the values and thought processes that shape practices within the clothing sector are under-represented. The integration of emerging wireless technologies in garments heightens this problem. The potential to access, collectively experience, wear, monitor or exploit personal data is only just beginning to be understood. In this paper, the author explores the role value-sensitive design [7] plays to further embed sustainability into wearables ideation. From value-sensitive design, the Envisioning Cards toolkit [5] is employed to guide speculation in the design case of Aura:maton, an Internet of Things (IoT) connected garment with an olfactory-emitting display. With this in mind, the 'social, economic and aesthetic force' [3] of fashion is leveraged as a living network metaphor, in order to frame everyday experiences of an IoT ecosystem. Exploratory workshops trace how people perceive value-tensions of wirelessly networked garments. The author's evaluations show the potential of Envisioning Cards to connect the broader social, cultural, economic or political issues as conceptual design tactics, to avoid blind spots. This paper discusses how designers could intentionally explore value dimensions alongside the technologically possible, as they negotiate material-immaterial conditions during fashion wearables development. Interweaving values into decisions of what gets made, or not made can potentially shift the unfolding of design toward value-rich, IoT connected garments.
literary sense, he is at his best in describing, chiefly by the judicious use of quotations from eye-witnesses, boom times and panic on the frontier. Here he presents a picture at the same time clear and interesting. Occasionally the reader experiences some difficulty in finding his way through the assembled mass of factual detail; but, considering the number of Congressional enactments and administrative regulations bearing upon the subject, some confusion to the reader may be unavoidable. Yet it may be suggested that a more liberal use of summaries might have further clarified some of the topics presented. This criticism is not intended to suggest that the author does not reveal the land aggressions of the frontiersman, the rapacity of the corporations, the sectional and economic conflicts, and the tardiness of Congress in enacting appropriate legislation to develop and conserve "Our Landed Heritage." Furthermore, he weaves his story into the fabric of American history, thus enabling the reader to catch the broader meaning. For example, he clearly sets forth the reasons for the early opposition in the East to Western development and the considerations which caused the Old South to favor that development, and with equal clarity he shows why these two sections reversed their positions just prior to the Civil War.
Abstract Community engagement through service-learning has been a mainstay of higher education for the past 20 years and has increasingly proven successful in grounding academic knowledge in community experience. This article explores how service-learning programs designed to shape students’ sense of responsibility for the common good can also foster their faith development. In particular, it examines natural connections between service-learning and the Pentecostal tradition, and details how service-learning has been implemented at Lee University (located in Cleveland, Tennessee, USA) by drawing upon the institution’s theological heritage and using Sharon Daloz Parks’s theory of faith development. Three tensions encountered when implementing the program are explored: the assumption that academic learning is separate from and superior to affective learning, the concept that all service should be oriented ultimately toward evangelism, and the notion of the “savior” motivation that nullifies the cultural humility necessary for personal transformation. The article concludes by offering a series of lessons learned regarding the implementation of community engagement programs as a learning strategy within the Christian college context.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, with the threat of epidemic infectious diseases already in decline, attention shifted to the chronic maladies: hypertension, atherosclerosis, obesity, cancer, diabetes—and nephritis, or Bright's disease. New chemical methods devised by Otto Folin (1867—1934) at Harvard and Donald D. Van Slyke (1883—1971) at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital empowered the investigation of renal and metabolic disorders. Folin's colorimetric system provided rapid measurement of creatinine, urea, and uric acid, while Van Slyke's gasometric analyses allowed quantification of urea and total carbon dioxide. Also in the first decades of the twentieth century, the reform of medical schools provided new opportunities for academic medical careers. The stronger and ambitious schools embraced the ideology of research, and sought full-time faculty members capable of good work in the laboratory. In these contexts, we will examine the life and work of Thomas Addis (1881—1949), whose career in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California was fashioned almost entirely from a lifelong study of kidney disease. A brilliant investigator and colorful human being, Addis was probably the first American to become so fully identified as an authority in what only later became known as nephrology. The author has uncovered many letters from Addis in various archival collections, so some of his own words will help tell his story. Thomas Addis was born in Edinburgh on July 27, 1881, the son of a clergyman. He received his M.B. and Ch.B. in 1905, then the M.D. in 1908, all from the University of Edinburgh. He served as Clinical Assistant in the medical outpatient department of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and Medical Registrar at the city's Leith Hospital. From 1908 through 1910 he was a Carnegie Research Scholar and Fellow; this supported additional chemical training in Berlin and Heidelberg [1, 2] (the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1901 created a program to foster research in Scottish universities, the Carnegie Trusts for the Universities of Scotland). Addis also investigated hemophilia and antimicrobial sera
Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ hit European movie theatres six weeks after its release in the U.S. By that time, a large segment of the population was already familiar with the content, whether they read film reviews or not. This was due to the fact that all major newspapers covered the controversy in the U.S. over the movies potential antisemitism. The polemics surrounding the film were not paralleled in Europe. It may even be argued that the American reaction to the movie was of more interest to Europeans than the movie itself. As much as research on the differences in the American and European reception of The Passion might be worthwhile, this article focuses primarily on the Austrian context, with some references to Germany. It is a descriptive study, based on an examination of printed sources, particularly the country's most important newspapers. Magazines or journals dedicated to specific religious, or ethnic groups, such as Jews or Catholics, are not included since they do not have a substantial readership outside their respective communities. The Passion in Austria In Austria, the running of Gibson's movie occurred in an overall calm, sedate atmosphere. No fierce debate preceded its release, and no excoriating altercations took place in the weeks it was shown all over the country. This might be explained by the absence of Christian fundamentalists promoting the Passion and, conversely, of decisive attempts by critics of the film to dissuade people from watching it. Minor conflicts, such as a dispute between Klaus Kung, the ultra-orthodox bishop of the Austrian diocese Feldkirch, who recommended the movie, and the director of the Jewish museum in Hohenems, Hanno Loewy, who publicly criticized Kung for this enunciation, did occur.(44) But they were more of local interest and did not have any lasting repercussions. By and large, Austria's media coverage of the Passion was rather restrained. Although the newspapers reported on American reactions to the film and attempted to elucidate the context in which the various lines of argument were put forward, the counrry's intellectuals and opinion leaders remained largely quiet. This is surprising since the Passion displays images of Jews which correspond to the way many Austrians think. One might have expected the film to encourage a debate on the "guilt of the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus." According to the Spring 2004 EUMC-Report on antisemitism in Europe, the Austrian variant is characterised by "diffused and traditional stereotypes."(45) To put it more concretely: the Austrian perception of Jews has its roots in the views found in the Gospels and revived in Gibson's movie. Interviews conducted with people who watched the movie confirm the thesis that the stereotypes of the Jews conveyed by the Passion resemble typical Austrian images of Jews. The interviewees asserted that the movie merely shows "how it happened in reality."(46) But these views were rarely made public and were only scantly reflected by Austrian newspapers. In this sense it could even be argued that most of the media played an"enlightened role" in reviewing the movie from a more complex perspective. Yet, at a closer look it, it appears as though the medias restraint in advocating or even fanning anti-Jewish views was not entirely due to enlightened or ethical motives, but rather because they did not consider antisemitism to be a central issue of the film. This stance, however, could be interpreted as a lack of sensitivity towards this topic. In order to appraise the media coverage of Gibson's movie in Austria, one first has to understand Austria's "newspaper world." It is important to recognise that there are only two "quality" newspapers, aimed primarily at a national audience. These newspapers don't have to be considerate of foreign readers and/or worry about portraying a "nationalist" view, but may write from an "Austrian perspective. …
The outlook of all-round development of education in WU Yun-rui's physical education thought was analyzed in the aspects of educational scope,contents,means and ends etc.It considered that in order to construct a new model of knowledge,ability and personality three-in-one talent cultivation in Shanghai University of Sport,(it's) necessary to make full use of WU Yun-rui's physical education thought and the cultural resource of "the spirit of Shanghai University of Sport",inherit good tradition of running a school,adhere to the working train of thought of "five ones",train and model the persons with culture and strive to forge the famous brand of talent cultivation of Shanghai University of Sport.
In light of the social dynamics in today's world, Distance Education has become the main strategy aimed to increase capacities and opportunities, in order to achieve optimal levels of social welfare. However despite of the flexible programs that facilitate university linkage such as Technology and Business Management, offered by Instituto de Proyeccion Regional y Educacion a Distancia - IPRED of Universidad Industrial de Santander-UIS, the number of graduates compared to the number of newcomers is not the expected: during the period of 2007-2009 it was identified a dropout index of 55% and 28% respectively. This quantitative study of descriptive design it's based in a stratified random sample, and allows the identification of characteristics, behavior patterns and attitudes, in order to indicate the specific behavior of the deserters. As a result, it was established that socioeconomic motivations of dropout are interconnected with other variables, affirming a multi-causal phenomenon that guides the construction of socially responsible strategies of monitoring and permanence, in the pursuit of its decrease, in the framework of Social Responsibility of UIS.
This article presents the main types of class schemes of modem society in Western sociology. Class compatibility with society individualization is shown, to which a variety of sociologists addresses to deny the concept of classes. Authors of class schemes rehabilitate the concept “class” and state the class polarization in society. There are three class schemes: dual, plural and mixed. Some of the authors’ ideas of class schemes are objectionable. This concerns understanding of the precariat as a class. Critics of this approach help clarify the class concept and class structure outlines of modern Western society. Class analysis in modern Western sociology is not limited to economic explanation of class formation and introduces the possession of non-economic forms of capital as an important criterion of class divisions. The authors of class schemes show the changing nature of upper and lower social classes. In the upper class, the role of owners of non-economic forms of capital increases, while the lower class consists of people who are either in unstable situation in the employment system or excluded from the economically active population. Precariat and underclass appearance shows the weakening of social integration mechanisms and the strengthening of social differentiation processes. Misbalance between both types of social and structural processes threatens the stability of society. Loss of confidence in the future creates in people a sense of “uncertainty”, turning into resentment, because of which G. Standing’s “new dangerous class” is formed. Comparative analysis of class schemes indicates the growth of the class structure dysfunction of modern society.
The five essays featured in this special issue of Spiritus are the fruits of a 2013 American Academy of Religion session that was inspired by conversa- tions had a year earlier at the Spiritus editorial board meeting. When we discussed the Call for Papers and potential areas of focus, several of us noted the steady rise of ethnographies on Christian spirituality and a desire to devote a conference session and journal issue to some of these research projects. It has been a pleasure and privilege to organize the conference panel and this vol- ume and to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented people, all of whom have deep commitments to their work. The scholars featured in this issue: Candy Gunther Brown, Pamela Klassen, Brett Hendrickson, Susan Ridgely, and Tone Stangeland Kaufman, demonstrate that studying the spiritu- al lives of men, women and children through an ethnographic lens can help us more fully understand the nuances of lived spirituality. Each has worked, and continues to work, with living and historic interlocutors and offers important questions and challenges for the field of Christian spirituality studies. In this in- troductory essay, I will focus on what ethnographic approaches might contrib- ute to the field Christian spirituality studies and how these five essays push the field in new directions. While there might be some challenges in widening the methodological and theoretical framing of Christian spirituality, the rewards of a more robust interdisciplinary Christian Spirituality Studies far outweigh the risks and promise to strengthen it. Based on the audience response at the 2013 AAR session, a qualitative ethnographic approach to the study of Christian spirituality—not to mention a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative research—is viewed with a bit of suspicion. 1 On further reflection, this suspicion makes sense given the historic and theological roots of the field itself. Christian spirituality studies, as some audience members acknowledged in their comments and questions, and that Stangeland Kaufman notes in her compelling essay, has long focused on theo- logians who tend to focus on the spiritual "greats," historic and contemporary alike. The scholarship is primarily generated by theologians who maintain a Christian identity—to invoke and modify one of Ridgely's descriptors for at least one group of contemporary Christians—many of these scholars are them- symposium
Among the most important observations made in the course of Joe Rodriquez ' essay on the Chicano novel are that 1 ) an ethnic legacy must be recognized , des­ cribed , and acknowledged in its complexity and contra­ d i ct ions before i t can become a viable part of an i �dividual ' s ident ity ; 2 ) ethnic l egacies and affilia­ t lon s , as with al l relat ionships int o which individu 1 are born , can be burdensome l iabilities as well as a 8 touchstones o f sus tenance and liberat i on ; 3 ) an ethnic ' s unquestioning affil iat ion wi th the "group" often leads t o a d im i n ishment of personal worth . With his focus on d i a l ec t i cal forces within Chicano l i fe and on eth­ n i c i t y as a dynamic and problematical condition , Rodriquez supplement s other recent efforts to recon­ s ider prev a i l ing assumptions regarding f i ct ive state­ ment and s t ructure in Chicano wr it ing . l
Nowadays society has been suffering frequent transformations with the new digital era and, in the outlook where we find ourselves it is practically impossible to unlink the technology from our daily activities, where it is more present each day. The school being a microcosmos from this same society (BOURDIEU, 2011), which all transformation that happens reflecting equally on education. This way, the social medias used in a massive way as a source of communication and entertainment out of the school for students and teachers, become an immediate pedagogical access resource, within school contexts. Such groups or specifics spaces on the internet that allow shared data and information, from general or specific characters, from several formats (text, file, image, photo, video) (LIMA, 2011), therefore start being used as teaching resources in the classroom. Likewise, this article discusses experiences through a report about media integration in Spanish language class to a group from the 1st year in High School at the Colegio de Aplicacao da UFSC, using the social media facebook as a pedagogic tool. This experience was developed at the supervised internship, the social media served as a communication channel for presentation and information sharing about the activities proposed in foreign language class, following the projects methodology.
For some research projects, recruiting in public places is an invaluable addition to sampling strategies. It complements the more traditional recruitment strategies by providing researchers with' opportunities to include people in the research who would otherwise be excluded. One of the limitations of selective and snowball sampling is that participants often come from the same social group. Participants from these social groups often share similar experiences and ways of thinking about those experiences. The aim of recruiting in public places is to move beyond this 'in group' to ensure a wider perspective. This paper illustrates how recruiting in public places can provide greater sample diversity for theoretical strength. The paper begins with a brief overview of recruiting in public places. It then describes the theoretical considerations associated with this recruiting strategy. The paper demonstrates how recruiting in public places facilitates grounded theory by providing comparisons that are informed by diverse experiences. Using examples and a case study, we illustrate how recruiting in public places can complement selective, snowball and theoretical sampling to ensure a more comprehensive sample.
During the 1950s, Mexican railway women, known popularly as rieleras, joined their male counterparts to stage the most militant series of strikes of the postwar era. This study contests a large body of popular and scholarly literature which focuses exclusively on men in the making of the railway movement. Combining oral histories with union and company documents, the author traces how gender notions at work and in the community subordinated women to men, a process which nevertheless helped produce an identity for women based on the railway industry. Women did not challenge the patriarchal order but rather made use of it during the railway movement to mobilize in defense of their own interests as rieleras. These findings suggest that historians must look beyond the electoral arena, as well as beyond the archive, to capture working-class women's participation in postwar politics.
As in any developing economy, the Sub-Saharan African countries think of education for all as major impetus behind fundamental change or transformation. This may explain the first three major emphases of the 2004 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): (i) eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; (ii) achievement of universal primary education; and (iii) promotion of gender equality and women empowerment. Development economists and other concerned social scientists see transformation of the Sub-Saharan African countries as multi-dimensional in the sense that changes occur across various domains including, political, cultural, social, economic, intellectual and technological domains. It is worthy of note that as at present, none of the Sub-Saharan African countries has, by policy implementation fulfilled the promise of providing education for all through the existing traditional or conventional education system. It was in search for alternative implementation agent for the educational policies in these countries that gave rise to the evolution of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) systems. Apart from quality issues, a major problem of interest has been those of the implementable policies and ethical practice of ODL models in the Sub-Saharan African countries. This paper aims at examining the current policies and practice of ODL models in the Sub-Saharan African countries, with a view to identifying the best practice for a sustainable educational system in these countries. The applicable method involves review of the literature on policies and practice of ODL models, with major emphasis on sponsored studies published in relevant journals, conference proceedings, and unpublished reports. Our analysis indicates that majority of subsaharan African countries have accepted the benefits of distance learning. They seek curriculum design that meet practical traditional needs. Major problems are lack of expertise in the practice of ODL models and lack of documentation. The following recommendations are in place: need to formulate policies on effective documentation and emphasis on trained manpower.
This research discusses about the policy taken by the Brazilian President Lula Da Silva through its programs in addressing the foreign debt during his leadership. Past the Brazilian economy which is heavily dependent on foreign debt to international financial institutions. Brazilian foreign debt continues to rise each year. Wrong economic policies undertaken by the early leaders make Brazil stuck in ever-increasing debt. During the Brazilian government controlled by the military regime, the Brazilian economy is getting worse. Foreign debts Brazil is increasing. The number of poor people in the country is increasing. The subsequent years the Brazilian economy and the condition is getting worse due to the pilling up foreign debt following considerable interest. The author analyzes the case using qualitative methods to find data and facts through some literature. The literature was collected from books, journals, mass media and websites. Structuralism is rooted in the thought of Karl Marx or Neo-Classical end that many organizations under the shelter at the New Left movement (the New Left). Lula’s leftist leader focused on socialist policies that concentrate on people’s welfare and poverty alleviation by way of paying off all foreign debt of Brazil. Lula Da Silva of Brazil during her leadership very significant progress with its policies towards the pro underclass One of them is the “Fome Zero” (no hunger) to reduce poverty population. This program, among others, such as the creation of reservoirs in arid regions in Brazil. One of the major programs of the fome Zero policy called “Bolsa Familia”, namely the provision of financial assistance for low income families are poor Economic programs to reduce poverty was considered successful by some circles. However, the most important is Lula Da Silva is considered successful in stabilizing the Brazilian economy. Keywords: Policy, Economic Crisis, Economic Program, Foreign Debt
Summary “That’s just old wine in new bottles.” - The intention of this paper is to discuss competence based teaching and learning and to determine whether this innovation in German school pedagogy is able to improve education or not. Recently there has been growing interest in this question but there has also been some disagreement about it. The paper begins by briefly reviewing different concepts of the key term “competence” and its different theoretical implications. Section 2 then moves on to consider the practical impact of competence foundation on teaching and learning. It works out the differences between traditional teaching preparation and new standards-based preparing of lessons. Section 3 goes on to present basic assumptions and counterarguments in the case of competence based teaching and learning. Section 4 provides a critical assessment of the previous argumentation. On this basis, it can be concluded that on the one hand competence based teaching and learning are better descriptions of what is taught and learned in schools, and help to make the quality of teaching and schooling visible, on the other hand most of the basic assumptions have never been proven empirically, and reduce the German concept of “Bildung” (as inward formation of a responsibly thinking and acting person) to educational aims that are measurable through testing. But the classic concept of “Bildung” contains dimensions (f.e. moral, emotional, social, religious, aesthetic) that cannot be tested and don’t have a direct practical importance for daily-life challenges.
Despite the increased emphasis on research on ethics in accounting in recent years, there seems to be a lack of focus in this area of research. This lack of focus has two aspects. The first aspect deals with the question of the subject in the ethical act (i.e., who is it that is making the ethical decision?). The second aspect relates to the object of the ethical act (i.e., what is the goal or purpose of the ethical decision?). This paper attempts to bring a greater degree of focus into research on accounting ethics by looking at the relative degree of emphasis placed by different approaches to research on accounting ethics on these two aspects of ethical issues. A two dimensional classification matrix is proposed which includes a "Decision Maker" dimension" and a "Relational" dimension. The "Decision Maker" dimension classifies research on accounting ethics according to whether the underlying assumption of the research is that the ethical decision is made by an individual acting alone or whether the decision is made by a group. The "Relational" dimension classifies accounting research according to whether the underlying assumption of the research is that the goal of the ethical decision is the welfare of society as a whole or whether the goal is the welfare of the individual.
Looking back on my twenty-plus-year career as a lawyer, I can see that several institutions have greatly influenced my path, from my field of practice (antitrust and consumer protection law), to where I practice (primarily government service), to how I approach my responsibilities as a government official. George Mason University School of Law (“GMUSL”) is where I learned about antitrust, as well as the proper goals of economic regulation, such as the rules that protect consumers from fraud and deception. At the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, as a staff attorney and then a law clerk to a judge, I learned about how a collegial deliberative body should operate. Finally, at the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), I put that learning into practice, starting as an attorney in the Office of General Counsel, serving as an attorney advisor to a commissioner, heading the Office of Policy Planning, and now as a commissioner myself. Thus, as the FTC marks its centennial this year, I was very honored to participate in the George Mason Law Review and the Law & Economics Center at GMUSL symposium on “The FTC: 100 Years of Antitrust and Competition Policy” (“Symposium”).
The proposed "pro-competitive" overhaul of the ways in which health care is financed and delivered has sparked great interest and controversy among a wide range of participants in the health-care field. When first proposed, the notion of increasing competitive forces in the health-care field won broad support, since it promised to replace much existing regulation with a revised set of incentives. But as pro-competitive theory has assumed the more tangible form of legislation, it has become clearer to many groups of constituents that complex regulation will be necessary to make the proposals work properly, and that many of the specific . . .
The article analyses the problems which emerged on the eve of the Second World War: the European crisis of 1939, Anglo-French guarantees to countries of Eastern Europe, talks between the USSR, Great Britain and France and the Soviet-German non-aggression Pact. In conditions of the acutest crisis a question of general security acquired a key meaning. To stop the aggressor and to prevent global catastrophe was only possible by collective efforts of the great powers and their allies. Great Britain and France guaranteed independence of several countries of Eastern Europe, but they could not compensate the absence of a grand anti-German alliance. The USSR was striving to erect a system of collective security, but its possibilities were limited. More than that Great Britain and France did not refuse the idea of appeasing Germany at the expense of Poland, and this actually excluded their participation in anti-German coalition. The unwillingness of the Western powers to cooperate with the USSR closely showed itself at the AngloFrench-Soviet talks in spring and summer 1939. As a result of this the USSR, having no alternative, agreed to sign the non-aggression Pact with Germany.
Representative democracy has resulted in a system where those who own the means of production effectively control the political process. Consequently most public policy tends to privilege moneyed interests over those of the community or the environment. Systems of direct democracy survive to this day and would be best illustrated by the twenty-six cantons that constitute the Swiss State. Cantons are sovereign although federal law supersedes them similar to states' rights in the United States. Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government, and courts. Anarchism is one of the most diverse theoretical perspectives which, together with Marxism, are commonly referred to as libertarian socialism. As the libertarian wing of the socialist movement, anarchism played a key role in the development of economic analyses, practices, and visions of a future society that were anti-capitalist and non-Marxist.Keywords: anarchism; capitalism; democracy; libertarian socialism; Marxism; public policy
Political Settlements are often identified with post-conflict conditions. Basically the main idea of political settlements is a shared understanding among the elites in the context of power distribution. Common understanding is interpreted as an agreement on the negotiations carried out, which is intended for the continuity of the overall system after the conflict. Thus the study of political settlements will show how the elites, both the formal elite and the informal elite, as well as other institutions in the community carry out strategies or strategies to establish legitimacy. The political agreement also negotiates the distribution of available resources. Thus the power relations that occur will restore the classic concept of power from Laswell namely Who Gets What, When and How, showing who has power in the agreement. As political agreements emerge as a strategy for cooperation rather than competition, in order to secure their interests, it takes days or even centuries, to be renewed continuously. Those who agree would continue to contest and are subject to renegotiation. The result would be new regulations or policies in the context of maintaining the status quo. Therefore, the political settlement framework did not state that the emergence of each policy reflects the balance of power in a country. Although in reality political agreement occurs in every political action, but in concept not many people use it in political analysis. This paper tried to describe the development of the concept of political agreement by examining the level of reality.
Translated description (provided by author): This edited book aims to examine a progress of gender equality in education in developing countries based on review of UNESCO initiatives and donors' foreign aid policy. Academia and NGO practitioners contributed to this book to bring academic and practical perspectives on gender issues in education which is rooted in the culture and society in developing countries. This book is consisted of three sections. Section 1 reviews a range of initiatives of international education. A particular focus is on scale-up strategy applied to gender-mainstreaming in education. Section 2 explores local challenge and issues in education. Case studies in different regions including Asia, Africa and Arabic regions are examined to identify differences in gender issues by regions. In Section 3, the existing challenges and issues are examined. One of the issues include government budget for education about which I contributed to write a chapter. In this chapter, I demonstrated how government budget is a key to promote education for girls and women who generally have disadvantages compared to boys and girls.
Education plays a key role in shaping the attitudes, skills and culture, hence the actions of the European Union in recent years have aimed at promoting entrepreneurship as a separate course taught at all levels of education, from elementary up to the university level. In this respect, Europe lags behind the United States, where the elements of entrepreneurship education have been introduced into teaching programmes at the level of secondary education, and most universities offer compulsory or elective courses in entrepreneurship. Due to its importance for the whole of European society, the member state countries and their economies, entrepreneurship education should be included in the teaching curriculum not only in the fields of economics and/or business studies, but also in other fields of studies.
The speed with which the Indian Government accustomed itself to the conduct of foreign policy can be explained by the interest taken in external affairs by the nationalist movement, the Indian National Congress, which was founded as early as 1885. Originally its attention was directed towards issues closely related to India’s neighbours. The use of the Indian army and the consequent drain on Indian resources by various British expeditions caused early protests. The first session of the Congress passed a resolution condemning the annexation of Upper Burma, largely because of fears of increased taxation, and advocated separate status for Burma as a Crown Colony. In 1891 reference was made to the subject again as a possible source of a clash with China. The Younghusband expedition to Tibet in 1904 was severely criticised by the Congress President, Sir Henry Cotton, as an “act of wanton violence and agression.” Another member condemned the action, because there were no indications of fresh provocation by Russia in Tibet or Central Asia, which in any case would not necessarily concern India.1 In view of the importance they would later acquire, relations with Tibet deserve further attention.
Since 2001,colleges and universities in China have begun to reform bilingual instruction in law,and it was against this background that bilingual programs in international economic law was initiated.In the mode of bilingual teaching,the following issues must be heeded and well handled to ensure the teaching effectiveness of programs in international economic law: the design of teaching syllabus,the arrangement of English materials,the selection of teaching cases,and the use of multimedia approaches,etc.
The structure,national philosophy and culture of vocational education and training are greatly different from country to country,which to a certain degree has influence on the participation of companies,the main participants of educational training.This paper sets Britain and German for example,through the analysis of relevant influence,provides some thoughts about cooperation between schools and enterprises in China.
The aim of this paper is to illustrate how the legal basis of the court may affect enforcement of international law in the context of immunities. This paper will focus on the case of Charles Taylor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). Taylor was only the second Head of State in history after Slobodan Milosevic, and the first African head of state to be indicted for crimes under international law at the international level. The Taylor case well illustrates collision of the two interests in contemporary international law: the growing need for international accountability for crimes under international law and a system of immunities deriving its origins, as most often claimed, from principle of sovereign equality of States. The main focus of this paper is the legal basis of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), deeper analysis of personal and functional immunities available to Taylor will not form part of this paper.
It is difficult to achieve and maintain stable democratic politics in a plural society. Social homogeneity and political consensus are regarded as prerequisites for stable polity. Conversely the deep social divisions in African societies are held responsible .for political instability and break down in democracies. However it is empirically true that most democracies today are multi-ethnic states just as most dictatorships. Democracies such as Canada Britain Germany France the United States etc. are culturally heterogeneous. Since pluralism is a given phenomenon in Africa the state must become more developmental in order to solve the problems of its political economy. (authors)
This article aims to demonstrate the principle of cooperatives Concern for Community represents the way cooperatives interact to its com- munity, especially in a social aspect. Thus there is no need of using the termi- nology «Social Responsibility for Cooperatives» once the cooperative principle already encompasses the social actions of the cooperative in a more com- plete and organic way. This discussion is related to traditional mimicry of co- operatives management (technics and tools) from management of companies, which weakens the identity of cooperatives. This text also demonstrates the Theory of Giving can support the theory and practice of the Concern for Com- munity principle.
On 15 July 1979, President Carter delivered a dramatic television address to the American people on the subject of the energy crisis. Shortly into his remarks he broadened his topic and drew attention to "a subject even more serious than energy or inflation . .. a fundamental threat to American democracy." That threat, he said, was a "crisis of confidence . . . that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will." He pointed to "a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media and other institutions . . ." and emphasized that "the gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide... Jimmy Carter thus became one albeit the most prominent of many commentators who have noted and expressed concern over the declining confidence shown by the American public in their political, social, and economic institutions and leaders. The evidence of this decline appears in many public opinion polls; they indicate that a sharp downturn in public confidence in a wide variety of institutions began in the mid-1960s and continues to the present. Political scientist Jack Citrin of the University of California, writing in 1974, foreshadowed a poiIlt to be reiterated five years later by Jimmy Carter, then still unknown: "The current decline in trust in government and the public's seeming loss of confidence in a wide range of social institutions are expressions of a pervasive sense of malaise."' What, then, is the evidence for this decline, and what are its characteristics?
Performance is achievement implementation representation of an action/program/policy in order to achieved objectives, goals, mission and vision of the organization. In order to achieved these objectives it is necessary to pay attention to participation in budgetary participation and clarity of budget goals also commitment organizational, organizational culture and locus of control in relation to decisions related to the budget. This study aims to examine the effect of budgetary participation and clarity of budget goals toward performance of regional government officials in Pekanbaru by examining organizational commitment, organizational culture, and locus of control with serves as moderating variables. The population in this sudy were 26 SKPDs in Pekanbaru. The sample in this study was one person as head of programming/planning department and two persons as of programming/planning department’s staff by the number of respondents 78 peoples from 26 SKPDs. Data collection method using a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using analysis methods SPSS version 17 with multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this research showed : 1) budgetary participation and clarity of budget goals has a significant positive effect on the performance of regional government officials, 2) organizational commitment can not strengthen the relation between budgetary participation and clarity of budget goals toward performance of regional government officials, 3) organizational culture can strengthen the relation between budgetary participation and clarity of budget goals toward performance of regional government officials, 4) locus of control can strengthen the relation between budgetary participation and clarity of budget goals toward performance of regional government officials. Keywords: Budget participation, Clarity of budget goals, Commitment organizational, Organizational culture, Locus of control, local government officials in Pekanbaru city government.
The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an institution that fostered an international anti-communist consensus amongst intellectuals during the Cold War, represents a fascinating meeting-point between politics and culture, or, more broadly, between power and ideals.3 In particular, its links with the CIA have led some observers to disparage it as little more than a tool of US foreign policy, its intellectual-cultural interests being regarded as a smokescreen for an underlying 'politics of control'. Yet, with the facts of the CIA connection in mind, it is perhaps all the more valid to assess its intellectual contribution in order to appreciate the relevance of this institution in its Cold War context. The focus here is on the connection between the CCF and the discourse of the 'end of ideology' in the mid-1950s, particularly surrounding 'The Future of Freedom' conference held in Milan in September 1955 and the promotion of an 'Atlantic consensus' amongst European and American intellectuals. The connection is an important one, since, as one commentator has put it, 'whoever receives honours for coining the phrase "end of ideology", all indications point to a group of intellectuals associated with the CCF as the source of its popularization'.4
The US, refusing to recognise the annexation and occupation of the Baltic States, did not break diplomatic relations with them after 1940. Legations, consulates general and / or consulates of these countries continued to operate in Washington, New York and Chicago. Acting together, the Baltic diplomats were organized and united; they maintained regular contact with the US Department of State. The relations of the four countries were businesslike and friendly. Keywords: Baltic diplomats, US Department of State, diplomatic relations, Cold War. Summary The establishment of the first cross-border contacts between Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians and the US can be traced back to 1919. On 28 July 1922, the US gave its de facto and de jure recognition to the Baltic States. Nearly century-long Baltic-US diplomatic relations have never been discontinued. Due to the Soviet occupation, in 1940 the US was forced to withdraw its diplomats from the Baltic States. However, the diplomatic representations of these countries on the territory of the US remained in operation to this day. The Baltic diplomats residing in the US maintained regular contact with the US Department of State. It is a valuable exception in the history of international diplomacy of the 20th century. The history of development and the problems of these relations constitute the object of this research. Chronological limits: 1940–1991. The research of relations between the Baltic States and the US Department of State is based on the documents of the US Department of State kept in the National Archives in Washington (NARA) as well as the Lithuanian Central State Archives (LCSA), the documents of other archives and their analysis. The aim: to present how the Baltic States evaluated the US support and what their tactics was. Second, the research aims to reveal the approach of the US Department of State towards Baltic diplomats. The search for answers to the questions posed, which primarily took place in the archives of the US Department of State, highlights the novelty of the topic. The text presents the chiefs and diplomats of diplomatic services of the three Baltic States residing in the US. It is highlighted that all chiefs of the Baltic States (except for Stasys Lozoraitis and K. R. Zarins) resided in the US; they presided over the representations of their countries in the US. It is an indication of the exclusive orientation of the Baltic States towards the US. The analysis of archival material leads to the conclusion that even if the Baltic representatives felt any unexposed differences among themselves, they were never demonstrated in public. The diplomats acted on the key issues having previously agreed on them and supported each other. Their meetings were held periodically, every several months. It is concluded that such tactics was not random because their unity was first of all beneficial to themselves. The diplomatic posts of the Baltic States were funded from the accounts or gold reserves of each of the countries held in the Central Bank of the United States. Own funds were the decisive, or at least the main, cornerstone for the existence of diplomats. Each transaction made at the bank by the diplomats of the Baltic States was coordinated with the US Department of State in advance. When presenting the relations between the Baltic States and the US Department of State, the evaluations and attitudes of the latter were very important. First of all, the position of the US – not to recognise the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union. It was one of political principles in communication with the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Baltic diplomats did not face a “legal death” in 1940; they were recognised. The review of the archival material leads to the conclusion that the relations between Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian diplomats and the heads and officers of the US Department of State were based on moderate friendliness. The Baltic diplomats were equal among the members of the whole diplomatic corps of foreign countries residing in the US. However, the analysis of archival data leads to the conclusion that the favour of officers from the US Department of State was equivalent to the moderate position of diplomats from the three Baltic States and their strong sense of responsibility. The most rigid position of the US Department of State with respect to Baltic diplomats was not to admit new members into the existing consular corps who were not citizens of their country and had not served in foreign ministries prior to the countries’ occupations. Gradually, the position of the US Department of State became milder. A deeper analysis leads to the conclusion that it had at least three reasons: unwillingness to evoke a negative reaction of the Soviets; reluctance to get involved in the “interior struggle over the post” of an individual diplomatic corps, and the reducing financial resources. Eventually, the US Department of State was a highly inert institution because after the events of Hungary and Prague in particular, the US were afraid to give any hope and to make commitments which it could not fulfil. In other words, the Baltic States had to wait for a good moment and to liberate by themselves. The other statement: from 1922, the relations between the US and the Baltic States were handled jointly, and it was only from 1990 that the name “Baltic States” was replaced with “Lithuania”, “Latvia”, “Estonia”. Hence, for a long period of time the US considered the Baltic States a region bound by the ties of common fate. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/istorija.2015.21
This research starts from the fundamental problems of low Organizational Performance of Departments Cianjur Regency. Its thought to have been came by Bureaucracy Reformation and Aparatus Competency to Organizational Performance of Departments Cianjur Regency, not yet implemented. The approach in this study refers to the context of the theory of Bureaucracy Reformation and Aparatus Competency also Organizational Performance as part of the scope of Public Administration. The method of research used explanatory survey with technical analysis Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), while the population of Departments Cianjur Regency. The result of the research shows the need for the undertaking of further research regarding the need to optimalize the improvement of the influence of Bureaucracy Reformation and Aparatus Competency to Organizational Performance of Departments Cianjur Regency as seen from the perspective of Public Administration. This is shown by the existence of different variables which influence Organizational Performance of Departments Cianjur Regency.    Keywords: public administration, Bureaucracy Reformation, Aparatus Competency, Organizational Performance.
Jury system was transplanted to China during the last stage of Qing dynasty and since then its development has been up and down. But the existence of jury system has its basic value--it can set up the right location of natural judicature between judicial independence and judicial democracy and achieve a kind of mixed justice. The jury institution of common law system has any value of reference, and we should build the mixed system of lay judge and jury in China.
In Networks of Champions Christine A. DeGregorio details who in the U.S. House of Representatives took the lead in shepherding six major bills through Congress (bills dealing with welfare reform, drug control, international trade, farm policy, nuclear weapons testing, and assistance to the Contras) and how these champions of legislation worked with outside advocacy groups. The champions that DeGregorio finds were drawn from a diverse group that included individuals both within and outside the formal hierarchy of leadership - the representatives were not necessarily the publicly prominent holders of important positions. She finds a reciprocal process in which advocacy groups use champions to express their views while champions use the resources of advocacy groups to gain influence in the House.
Canadians do not have a constitutional right to state-funded counsel for matters of civil law, unlike for matters of criminal law. This article examines the reasons for this and, more importantly, the significant barriers for establishing a general constitutional right to state-funded counsel for civil cases. Analysis in this article shows that the most significant barriers for establishing such a general constitutional right have been, and will likely continue to be, the courts‘ interpretation of the Constitution from the perspective of the Charter framers and their reluctance to impose a positive constitutional obligation on government that would dictate the allocation of public funds.
During World War I, thousands of rural southern men, black and white, refused to serve in the military. Some failed to register for the draft, while others deserted after being inducted. In the countryside, armed bands of deserters defied local authorities; capturing them required the dispatch of federal troops into three southern states. Jeanette Keith traces southern draft resistance to several sources, including whites' long-term political opposition to militarism, southern blacks' reluctance to serve a nation that refused to respect their rights, the peace witness of southern churches, and, above all, anger at class bias in federal conscription policies. Keith shows how draft dodgers' success in avoiding service resulted from the failure of southern states to create effective mechanisms for identifying and classifying individuals. Lacking local-level data on draft evaders, the federal government used agencies of surveillance both to find reluctant conscripts and to squelch antiwar dissent in rural areas. Drawing upon rarely used local draft board reports, Selective Service archives, Bureau of Investigation reports, and southern political leaders' constituent files, Keith offers new insights into rural southern politics and society as well as the growing power of the nation-state in early twentieth-century America.
The Islamic Law accepts that the religious differences of non-muslim citizens or living in the Muslim society should be taken into consideration in law-making procedure as an essential principle. Therefore, the definition of the concept of shirk as a kind of belief and the determination of the individuals or communities who are Mushrikun are necessary to apply the legal norms. Namely, in accordance with the principle above-mentioned, it is important to determine that how the Islamic legal norms will be applied to non-muslims and which legal norms will be applied to whom from among them. In this study, we examine the conceptual comprehension of shirk term and the effect of its consideration on the legal norms and applications. For the meaning attributed to the shirk term determines the comprehension of legal norms
Towards a Better Climate Treaty - The essential problem with the Kyoto approach is that it provides poor incentives for participation and compliance: The minimum participation clause is set at such a low level that the agreement can enter into force while limiting the emission ofless than a third ofthe global total. The compliance mechanism essentially requires that non-complying countries punish themselves for failing to comply - a provision that is unlikely to influence behavior. The likely outcome will be an agreement that fails to enter into force, or an agreement that enters into force but is not implemented, or an agreement that enters into force and is implemented but only because it requires that countries do next to nothing about the treaty. These weaknesses cannot be improved by a minor redesign ofthe treaty. The basic problem stems from the requirement that countries agree to, and meet, emission limitation ceilings - the most centrai element ofthe Protoco!. My proposal focuses on collective funding ofbasic research into the development of new technologies and on standard protocols for the adoption and diffusion ofnew technologies around the world. The main attraction of this approach is strategie: it does not require that compliance be enforced, and it provides positive incentives for participation. 1t is not an ideai remedy to global climate change, but the principle ofsovereignty means that an ideai remedy does not exist for this problem.
The paper analyses and studies the present situation of school physical education at 98 middle schools in Qingyang City of Gansu province,and has concluded that school physical education has not been paid enough attention to,educational facilities are inadequate,and the subject fails to meet the contemporary pace of development in physical education.Based on the status quo,measures have been put forward so as to provide beneficial reference to the development of school physical education in the poor regions.
The empowerment of young people for entering the labor market and participate in the economic life is one of the urgent priorities that tops the list of agendas on developed countries. It has risen as a mechanism to improve the economic situation and to reduce the unemployment and migration of young people by integrating them into the labor market with more flexible and necessary tools, especially given that young people have become the most difficult figure in the development equation. For this reason, the revival of the economy and the creation of sustainable development enhances the economic opportunities. In this context, this study seeks to identify the empowerment of Arab youth in the economic field in the light of adopted policies, and the role of the new mechanisms in facilitating their integration into economic life with its contribution in correcting developmental imbalances. The study also aims to stimulate education, Learning and exchanging of views on the challenges and opportunities faced by Arab youth in the field of economic empowerment and how to address these challenges in scientific and practical ways, as well as focusing on the economic recovery that contributes significantly in the development of nations, especially developed countries. This will provide job opportunities for Arab youth.
The arbitral institutions of the civil people of insight not only won the majority of the recognition,can also gained strong support from the theory of functional differentiation of the social system.However,in China's current practice of arbitration,whether the arbitration community of ideas,concepts,or the operation of the current arbitration practice,there are civil organizations for arbitration of the tendency of changes.Therefore,revising the "Arbitration Law",it is necessary from the establishment of regional arbitration,the arbitration body set up organs,arbitration bodies of the conditions of service,the Arbitration Association arbitration and inter-agency relations and other aspects of the arbitral institutions of the civil principle to provide Legal protection.
Disseminating public health recommendations to community members is an important step in protecting the public’s health. We describe a community–academic partnership comprising health-based organizations, community groups, academia, and government organizations. This partnership undertook an iterative process to develop an outreach plan, educational materials, and activities to bring lead-poisoning prevention recommendations from a health impact assessment of a roadway demolition/construction project to the residents of an affected neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2012. Community partners played a key role in developing outreach and prevention activities. As a result of this project, activities among members of the partnership continue.
The aim of this article deals with the rural conflictivity in Galicia in the forties to define and to evaluate its forms and to outline a repertory of them. We will try to prove that, in spite of the repressive regime, the Galician peasantry started and reactivated a whole series of tactics and ways of protest to show their dissatisfaction against the application of the agrarian policies, breaking with it the wished «social peace» of Franco.
ABSTRACT Prominent event management scholar Donald Getz recently coined the term “event travel career” to describe how highly involved and/or committed persons can initiate a career of travel to events surrounding their preferred leisure activity. However, individuals may face dilemmas in prioritising between day-to-day needs and desires and those of their event travel career. Negotiating these competing priorities can lead to opportunity costs, or the loss of benefits that may have eventuated if one course of action was prioritised over another. The fields of leisure constraints and constraints negotiation are therefore relevant in understanding how event travel careers integrate into people’s lives. This paper argues that the concepts of competing priorities, values, and opportunity costs are useful in understanding how and why people make tradeoffs in aspects of their life in order to pursue event travel careers. A textual analysis of postings to an Australian online forum for triathletes was undertaken over four weeks. The data collected supported a contention that persons who train for and travel to triathlon events face numerous competing priorities, such as allocating leisure time between their event travel career versus spending time with family and friends. Three categories of competing priorities were identified: intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural. From a scholarly perspective this study represents new ground in the field of leisure constraints research. Avenues for future research based around the notion of competing priorities are discussed in this paper. Keywords: constraints, negotiation, competing priorities, opportunity costs, triathlon
The internationalist essence of the socialist statehood system does not mean that it is nonnational. Under conditions of socialism, international and national elements are not in conflict even in the area of statehood. The internationalism of Soviet socialist statehood necessarily includes consideration for nationally particular and nationally specific features in the organization, functioning, and development of the statehood of the various peoples. Precisely for this reason Soviet national statehood represents an integral unity of national and the international elements, with the international predominating. In a certain sense one may speak of this as a unity that is internationalist in content and national in form.
College professionals and faculty continually look for effective ways to inform and mobilize their students. In pursuit of this goal, the newly-established Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) embarked on a fact-finding process to determine the effectiveness of current digital communication methods, identify challenges, and ascertain student preferences for information dissemination. After reviewing appropriate literature, new social media strategies were developed and launched, resulting in CCEâs award-winning marketing and social networking initiatives. This article provides insight into the particular mediums students prefer, development and application of strategies, and their level of effectiveness in engaging young adults.
The existing studies on Islamic tourism lack consideration of a particular form of Islamic practice, Sufism or "Islamic mysticism," which is seen as a more moderate and apolitical form of Islam in the West. The Sufi sheikhs' perceptions towards visitors at their sacred sites remain underresearched. This is despite the fact that Sufi religious sites exist throughout a number of African and Asian countries, providing pilgrimage sites and retreat centers for both Muslim visitors and those of other faiths. Although a number of academic studies examine the host/guest relationship at different sacred sites of various religions, minimal academic research has been conducted on how tourism and tourists are perceived in an Islamic, particularly a Sufi Islamic, context. This research note aims to demonstrate and raise awareness concerning the lack of research of tourism at Sufi Islamic sites, and specifically research exploring the perspectives of Sufi host communities. How Sufi sheikhs perceive tourism development and how they cope with challenges created by visitors at their sacred sites are necessary questions for researchers and tourism planners in the Muslim world to consider in the future.
In discussing sustainable development it is not possible to avoid fundamental questions of justice, such as how we might achieve an equitable distribution among all peoples of the public goods that the natural environment provides. Sustainable development has been the dominant global environmental policy since the 1980s not only because it holds out the tantalising prospect that economic development might be reconciled with environmental protection, but also because it is a pliable concept that embraces quite different views about its ethical content. Although this flexibility has frustrated efforts to entrench sustainable development as a binding norm, it has meant that sustainability as a discourse has retained ongoing relevance. This chapter surveys the contribution made by international judicial decisions and arbitral awards to debates surrounding the ethics of sustainability, explaining that international courts are international legal institutions in a unique position to drive normative and conceptual development towards an ethic of sustainability in a manner that is widely accepted as legitimate.
As the ultimate remedy of rights, judicial remedy is of great importance to the protection of rights. From the perspective of third-party rights of appeal, the paper first discusses the existing dilemma of Chinese judicial remedy in protection of urban public interests. As the earliest nation of establishing urban planning judicial remedy system and introducing third-party rights of appeal, Australian experience has significant inspiration for China. Thus, the paper further researches NSW’s LEC and Victoria’s VCAT in detail. Based on the case studies, some suggestions of solving the institutional dilemma in China are finally brought forward. 关键词: 司法救济;第三方诉权;城市公共利益;
This paper analyses the business communications of the Tongshuntai firm to examine Cantonese merchants’ attitudes and responses to the Sino-Japanese War. Since the Tongshuntai achieved rapid commercial growth in Korea under the auspices of Qing empire’s political presence in Korea, Tan Jie-sheng, the executive manager of Tongshuntai, kept close eyes on the political evolution of events. While his overriding concern was with preserving property value and maximizing commercial profits, he identified private interest with national interest occasionally. Being as one of commercial diaspora, Cantonese merchants in East Asia, represented by Tan Jie-sheng and his trade partners, shared the position that the highest priority should be placed on preserving capital, though they, being as Chinese, wished Chinese victory as well. For the sake of their economic survival, they regarded western powers and their legal protection in the open ports as the last resort. As the war was evolving against China, the assaults on Chinese in Korea increased considerably. Ironically, while Cantonese merchants started to despise Japanese by calling them “Japanese dwarfs” or “Daikon head”, the biggest contempt was directed to Koreans who set a fire on the Chinese shops and looted them. After the battlefield was shifted into Chinese territory, Tan Jie-sheng monopolized the profit of wartime boom in Korea, taking advantage of temporary setback of Shandong merchants. His confidence in economic success in Korea reinforced his cynical and critical attitude toward Qing dynasty and bureaucrats that were forced to negotiate humiliating peace treaty with the Japanese.
If you want to understand the reason for the heightened contestations at the precipice of internecine strife in political parties' nomination and list processes for 3 August 2016 local government elections, pick up this book: Patronage Politics Divides Us. It gives insight into what is at the core of interand intra-party rivalry as the elections are looming-patronage. The book is one of the research outputs of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA)-a knowledge-based South African organisation that assumed a position in the Top Ten of the Best New Think Tanks in the world in 2013. At that time, MISTRA was less than five years old. Strategic thinking and generating cutting edge knowledge for societal advances underpin the edifice of its foundational disposition. Those with a sense of curiosity will naturally be spurred by this context, and will immediately lay their hands on the book and read it. Its purpose is to, as simply explained, 'explore the relationship between poverty and patronage politics' (p. 45). Sequentially arranged in five (5) chapters, the book is easy to read, with the academic jargon normally associated with traditional scholarship kept to the barest minimum. I wish that every politician could have an opportunity to read the book.
When William Rainey Harper, presi dent of the newly created University of Chicago, quickly turned his attention at the turn of the century to the founding of a law school, he asserted that "great emphasis will be placed upon the fact that the University spirit is to prevail in the work of the Law School." Only 30 years earlier, when Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell first introduced the case method of teaching at Harvard Law School, the opposition to it among the faculty, alumni, and bar resulted in the creation of a new law school at Boston University for the ex press purpose of providing what was termed "an antidote to the theoretical tendencies" alarmingly displayed at Harvard. And in 1890, when Professor Keener was brought down from Har vard to introduce the case method at Columbia, the entire faculty withdrew in protest a year later, as recounted by Erwin N. Griswold in his article on the history of American legal education in this Journal (64 A.B.A.J. 1051). The dis sident alumni established the New York Law School to enable them to carry on their teaching in the old man ner. Of course, Harvard and Columbia survived the counterreformation, and the new schools themselves eventually embraced the case method. Periodically the university spirit in legal education has been affected, not to say imperiled, by an upsurge of de mands for a greater measure of what is variously termed more "useful" or more "practical" instruction. We ap pear to be in such a cycle. The chief justice of the United States ? to whom all of us are greatly in debted for the extraordinary effort he has made, despite his own heavy judi cial burdens, to improve the adminis tration of justice?testifying in London before a royal commission inquiring into the state of the legal profession in Great Britain, ventured the assertion that 50 per cent of the American trial bar are incompetent. In his speech to the American Law Institute in May, 1978, he urged that at least some of the law schools experiment with devoting the third year solely to practical train ing. In his appearance before the Amer ican Bar Association in August, 1978, he stressed the result of a poll recently conducted by the Law School Admis sion Council. Of the 1,600 law school graduates of six schools between 1955 and 1970 who responded to the in quiry, a significant percentage pro fessed dissatisfaction with their legal The University Law School and Practical Education
The present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). In accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, this task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a grant agreement between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s). The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the Authority is subject. It cannot be considered as an output adopted by the Authority. The European Food Safety Authority reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors.
One of the issues disagreed among the Islamic jurists is the possibility of the actualization of justice among the people of the Scripture. The renowned majority of the jurists believe in the non-actualization of justice among the disbelievers in general. This article, at first, points out the evidences of the renowned majority of the jurists on the non-actualization of justice among the people of the Scripture. Then, it examines the evidences of those believing in the actualization of justice among the people of the Scripture; and finally, it proposes, by way of legal decision (ijtahād), the non-actualization of justice – in its jurisprudential sense – among the disbelievers.
In a multilevel system like the European Union (EU), social conflicts are defined and conceived mainly in territorial categories. As a result, the disparities between Eastern and Western Europe may give rise to additional transfer payments or even endanger further enlargements of the EU. The acuteness of this trilemma of enlargement, increased political cooperation and budgetary neutrality can be lessened either by a quick convergence of Eastern and Western performance levels, or by the differentiation of the regional employment and income situation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The capital regions and the Western border regions in Central Europe are developing dynamically. Consequently, one can expect to see a relatively durable prosperity gap between Eastern and Western Europe, as well as increased regional differentiation within CEE. These differentiation processes could be a first step in transforming the definition of inequalities and interests into territorial and non-territorial forms of social inequalities. However, the relative stability of the European centre– periphery structure does not allow for the ‘de-territorialization’ of social relationships. Instead, there is evidence of a non-identical, path-dependent reproduction of long-established disparities.
Campus disciplinary systems are positioned to provide a modicum of justice for victims of sexual violence and deter predatory assaults. Yet, this will occur only if victims find them worthy of use and the broader campus community believes them to be fair to accused and accusing students. This investigation reviews the legal status of various due process and victim protection practices and determines their presence in the student disciplinary policies of four-year residential colleges and universities in Maryland. Findings establish that compliance with the Clery Act is relatively high, while due process and victim protections vary widely. Findings also show that public institutions and those adopting “trial”-like adjudication procedures promise greater due process and victim protections compared to private institutions and those following an inquisitorial model. Policies are recommended to achieve procedural fairness while encouraging victims to report abuse and use campuses systems, along with further avenues for investigation.
Kamal-deen Olawale Sulaiman (PhD) AbstractSufism is a living and dynamic esoteric institution in Islam, as demonstrated by the ever increasing number of its adherents, especially in Nigeria. This article therefore, examines the impact that the Sufi movement orders have made on the Muslims elites and the growth and spread of Islam in Nigeria. In doing so, the concept of Sufism, its place in Islam, and its impact in the world of Islam will be examined. The articles reveals that the Sufis play an important role in the propagation of Islam in Nigeria. Even today, the Sufi orders are still involved in the promotion of Islamic education and the propagation of Islam. This is so because, through the efficacy of prayers derived from it, Sufis were able to solve some personal problems of Muslims in Nigeria. The article concludes that the orders have led many of their members to acquire the necessary discipline before they can acquire deeper knowledge of the true existence of Allah and his relation to Him and the universe.
The September 11 tragedy resulted in forming and breaking alliances among states at the regional and international levels. Pakistan, ideally located on the borders of West Asia and South Asia, has gained the status of a frontline state in the war against terrorism, in response to the US led war against those responsible for the September 11 tragedy. The US believed that the Taliban government of Afghanistan had provided a safe haven for terrorists across the globe and was the breeding ground of terrorists, specifically the al Qaeda network.
Foreign mercenaries held a precarious and paradoxical position in seventeenth-century Dutch society. While essential to colonial and military expeditions, they were also stigmatized as drunkards, gamblers, womanizers and displaced-idlers. Their social standing made them easy targets for polemicists who sought to perpetuate the Dutch national myth of superiority through allegories of foreign otherness. Despite the large body of scholarly work exploring seventeenth-century Dutch society, little attention has been given to the role of foreign mercenaries. Drawing largely from the firsthand account of the German mercenary, Johann Aldenburgk, this paper addresses concerns related to the marginalized status of migrant labor in the Dutch West-India Company, with special attention given to the exploitation and vilification of foreign mercenaries. Using seventeenth-century literature, travel accounts, and treatises, this paper examines the patriotic rhetoric used by polemicists, who promoted their own economic and political agendas, and juxtaposes it with the rhetoric of Johann Aldenburgk, who like many soldiers, carried out the objectives necessary to achieve their commanders’ terminus ad quem . Aldenburgk connects notions of conquest with social transcendence, a rhetorical motive which reflects his desire for belonging and identification. His cooperation with other low-ranking characters was both essential for survival and a threat to his social standing. His unenvious situation undermined the myth of an all-powerful conqueror/colonizer and perpetuated his marginalized status.
Basic state pension set to rise With public sector pension reforms receiving their third reading in parliament on Tuesday 4 December, this topic remains high on the agenda for many teachers. The Chancellor has announced that the basic state pension is set to rise by 2.5 per cent next year to £110.15 a week. This is lower than the 5.2 per cent increase pensioners received in April this year, but still delivers £2.70 a week more.
ABSTRACT Why do some rebel groups fractionalize during intrastate conflict? The focus of this article is on understanding a particular phenomenon within fragmentation during civil war: the emergence of viable splinter factions. Splinter factions are when a new rebel group emerges from an ongoing violent challenge against the state and concurrently launches their own violent campaign rather than continue to pool resources to mount a more effective fight. In this article, we outline how the organizational characteristics of the original rebel movement can create several conditions in which splinter factions will emerge. Organizational decisions regarding, mobilization, central command, and territorial control creates opportunities for aggrieved members within the coalition to strike out on their own. Support for the theory is found through statistical tests on the internal characteristics of rebel groups demonstrating the importance of rebel group structure in understanding contemporary conflict processes.
To punish the crimes committed by underworld organizations,the correct guideline should be followed,the specialized team built,international cooperation launched.At the same time,the relevant organs should correctly discern the crimes committed by underworld organizations,strengthen the international judicial assistance and well finish the collection,exchange and the utilization of information.The joint investigation and special way of investigation should be made use of to investigate;the procedure of extraditing should be strengthened;the crime income should be confiscated;the protection and help of the witness and victim should be strengthened and the cooperation of criminals and law enforcement should be encouraged.The interaction of this series of countermeasures has formed the intact scheme of punishing the crimes committed by underworld organizations.
This paper, based on the maritime jurisdiction of port State established under the international law of the sea, looks into the developments of port State control and regional MoUs on port State control. Focused is the Tokyo MoU in the Asia-Pacific region and further investigated is how Taiwan reflects the establishment of the Tokyo MoU. Concluded is that—though in terms of inspection effectiveness—there are still various spaces for improvement, especially as a non-Member State of IMO and regional MoU, Taiwan—via the bilateral agreement with Canada—established its port State control system and can thus still be a model for entity sui generis to enforce port State control.
case for Confucian values. Another major difficulty with this monograph is the author’s unexplained conviction that a real revolution is to come and, somehow or other, that elections eventually will work. In the end one sees a society completely corrupted, demoralized, removed from its history by an outside power, and thus inevitably compelled to remake itself out of some fundamental human desire for survival and national history. Despite the difficulties posed for the reader, ordinary citizen or academic, this book is a major work on Vietnam and will make clear to the sensitive reader how far
In the United States, concern about breast cancer has generated policies and programs aimed at increasing screening mammography and treatment access for the uninsured and underinsured. Oriented toward the importance of early detection and the state's responsibility to ensure health care access to its citizens, these policies and programs reflect and reinforce a moral economy of disease management that shapes the ethical behavior of patients, providers, and advocates. In contrast, the moral economy of market-based health care generates norms and assumptions about individual responsibility for health and limits expectations of the state in providing access to health care. Using breast cancer care for structurally vulnerable women as a focal point, this dissertation examines the social effects of intersecting moral economies of breast cancer management and market-based health care. It describes the relationships between public policies, social and economic marginalization, and gaps in health care access. Based on 18 months of ethnographic field work in Southern Arizona, I report findings from interviews with physicians, nurses, advocates, clinic office staff, and community health workers; from recurring discussions with women undergoing treatment for breast cancer; and from participant-observation in cancer-focused events and activities. This dissertation explores how policies that extend low-cost or free health care to broad populations also reproduce social exclusion and complicate what it means to be uninsured in America. I describe how everyday practices of health care, including determinations of eligibility for public insurance, reflect and reinforce social inequities based on citizenship status, gender, and occupational status. I conclude that the organization of cancer care for structurally vulnerable women effectively directs the
Funding for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's parts in the interagency U.S. Global Change Research Program was the focus of the House Space Subcommittee's March 30 hearing. The subcommittee authorizes spending for the two agencies, which together account for nearly 75% of the $1.3 billion of the total funding for the GCRP.    The subcommittee was looking for the rationale behind this level of funding in light of the scientific uncertainties associated with two of the major issues addressed by the GCRP: global warming and ozone depletion. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.), noted that “We cannot afford to get the science of global warming wrong.”
Part 1 Principles of Sustainable Development - Foreword o Evolution of the Sustainable Development Debate o Definitions and Principles of Sustainable Development. Part 2 Analysis of Sustainable Development - Measuring Sustainable Development Indicators o Ecological and Economic Indicators of Sustainable Development in Scotland o Sociopolitical Measures: An Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for Scotland o Indicators of Sustainable Development: Some Lessons from Scotland. Part 3 Sustainable Development: Policy Implications - Modeling Sustainable Development o Making Development Sustainable o Afterword: Towards Sustainable Societies. References. Index.
The sacred mission of education as stipulated in the motto of Indonesian Higher Education, which is to implement tridharma concept (education, research, and community service). However, looking at the current reality, it will be difficult for us to see our PT being able to succesfully implement the tridharma. This paper attempts to criticize our higher education which has unwittingly long ago developed into an agent of capitalism that perpetuates the system of capitalism in the practice of administration and policy of the higher education in Indonesia. Radicalism in education has been a potential futuristic threat to realize the quality of education. Radicalism may arise at any time, from anywhere and can be carried out by anyone, including by higher education institutions and government through various policy issued as Permenistek Dikti. Therefore radicalism needs to be fully integrated and comprehensively undertaken through constructive steps (deradicalisation) so that it can perform synergy neatly and precisely and relies on the paradigm and purpose of education itself.
T1 ■ ■ wo recent studies attempt to account for the Arab world's apparent I failure to keep pace with the economic, political, and scientific JL. innovations of the West. Bernard Lewis's What Went Wrong*? focuses on Muslim fears that foreign contacts and governmental entanglement might lead to a loss of faith, while the United Nations' second annual Arab Human Development Report emphasizes Arabs' lack of individual freedom and their fear that social chaos may result from questioning their own most basic assumptions. For all the insights they afford, however, neither study focuses on the deeper cultural factors on which any assessment of Arab society must be grounded. Three concepts in particular explain the resistance of Arab culture to Western-style reform. First, by contrast to the West, in the Arab world the self is never seen as divided. Whereas in the West we imagine ourselves able to take on multiple, even contradictory roles as when an official gives support to a law with which he personally disagrees to Arabs this self-segmentation runs contrary to the idea of a person as a unified whole. Second, doubt about fundamental beliefs has always been equated with unbelief and the threat of chaos. Arabs are, therefore, deeply afraid that uncertainty over religious fundamentals will lead to that most dreaded of ends, the breakdown of the community of believers. Third, political institutions have never been separated from the individuals connected with them. Indeed, personal attachments whether to a political leader, spiritual guide, or close relative focus not on the settled expectations of position but on the constantly
In the past few years, much has been written concerning the future of public education. Individuals and groups of all persuasions have speculated on methods to reform public education making it more responsive to the needs of students. Pseudo-educators and politicians have built a reputation on reforming public education and supposedly making it more meaningful. However, responsibility and accountability are nothing new to school leaders.BackgroundThe educational reform barrage "spurred on by business groups, school enthusiasts, conservative think tanks, and culture-war pundits, state governors and legislatures" (Zemelman, Daniels, & Hyde, 2005, p. viii) suggest that "almost all subscribe to the more-is-better school of rulemaking, generating hundreds of standards, targets, benchmarks, goals and procedures" (p. 8- 9). Targets for student achievement have been addressed through the implementation of accountability in the form of assessing teacher quality (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005). Less importance has been attached to principal performance.Policy makers are now taking notice of the research studies confirming the importance of the building-level principal in making lasting and meaningful change as well as noting that school leadership is second only to teacher quality (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, Orr & Cohen, 2007; Davis, Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, & Meyerson, 2005; Institute for Educational Leadership, 2000; Knapp, Copland, Ford, Markholt, McLaughlin, Milliken & Talbert, 2003; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom & Anderson, 2010; Mendels, 2012; Wallace Foundation, 2007; Zemelman, Daniels, & Hyde, 2005).Principals have traditionally been administrative managers and not the instructional leader in the school (Hallinger, 2005). Principals had myriad roles to handle: building and resource manager, handling public and community relations, fund-raisers, administering busing and meals, and managing discipline, while tending to school finances (Pierce, 1935). The most radical change advocated by reformers is the transformation of the principalship from a management role to an instructional leadership role (Hallinger, 2003; Loeb & Horng, 2010). Principal leadership expectations are different; instructional "leadership has overtaken management" (Hoyle & Wallace, 2005, p. viii).Principals are expected to establish a vision; to recruit and hire teachers; to motivate teachers and students through establishing high expectations; demonstrate instructional leadership skills with academic content and pedagogical techniques; and to provide professional development (Elmore, 2002) while facilitating the collection and analysis of data and ensuring teachers use data to drive student achievement (Branch, Hanushek & Rivkin, 2009), and ultimately, to ensure that all school operations run smoothly (Knapp, Copland, Plecki & Portin, 2006; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom, 2004).The principal has a critical role in working with teachers, students, and parents to provide a better education for students (Avolio, 2011). It is, therefore, imperative that reformers, governors, legislators, educators and others, consider the importance of the principal's role when attempting change (Cheney, Davis, Garrett, & Halleran, 2010; Hitt, Tucker, & Young, 2012). Current educational reforms demand the principal's participation in their implementation (DarlingHammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, & Orr, 2007). However, before the change to instructional leadership can be accomplished, five barriers must be addressed: societal factors, the dichotomy of principal roles, expectations of the principalship; knowledge of curriculum and instruction; and human relations (Grissom, Loeb, & Master, 2012; Leithwood & Beatty, 2007; Louis et al., 2010).Societal FactorsPrincipals are bombarded with demands from all segments of society and confront a variety of influences imposed upon the school from outside sources (Aud, Wilkinson-Flicker, Kristapovich, Rathbun, Wang, & Zhang, 2013). …
Exploring interdisciplinarity between international relations, public law and criminology, this paper deploys state pluralist and cosmopolitan perspectives to understand administrative measures of international governance in the Western Balkans. Sanctions and embargoes in the 1990s, followed by international oversight and political and institutional ‘reforms’, have had unintended consequences including the amplification of corruption. Cosmopolitan actors such as NGOs share responsibility, because of their active participation in a narrative on corruption that characterises the whole region as corrupt and thus needing yet more reforms and external management. This legitimises the dismissal of elected representatives, undermines democracy, stalls the development of the licit economy and, ironically, perpetuates corruption. This paper mounts a critique and, through consideration of ‘anchoring’ and ‘nodal’ models of security, points to the possibility of a post-nodal cosmopolitanism. [This chapter abstract does not appear in the book. For an extract from the chapter, by kind permission of the publisher, see link above. For Andrew Halpin and Volker Roeben's editorial Introduction to the book, see SSRN abstract 1486033.]
Police and farmers in Britain have differing views on the effectiveness and measures of effectiveness of the policing of rural and farm crime. Farmers are increasingly feeling abandoned by the police while the police are trying to resource rural policing against a backdrop of budget cuts, inadequate strategic guidance and a lack of understanding of the impact of rural and farm crime.  To obtain information on issues about farm crime, interviews were conducted with Police and Crime Commissioners and Crime Prevention Advisors across four rural police forces in England. Interviews and focus groups were also conducted with farmers.  The research found that farmers have low levels of confidence in the police, which resulted from the police providing poor response and feedback on incidents. This in turn results in low levels of reporting of crimes by farmers. The police are dealing with increased demands with much lower budgets and few opportunities for specialist training. Combined with ineffective strategic responses and a lack of understanding of farmers’ situations regarding the impact of farm crime, the police are perceived as ineffective in deterring rural criminals.  This paper explores these policing issues and suggests the need to improve confidence among farming communities to encourage the reporting of farm crime, enabling a better understanding of the extent of farm crime in Britain.
The Art of War is the wisdom of China's strategic culture,an important source of Chinese strategic culture constitutes.It has an instructive meaning to promote the spread of The Art of War by exploring its ideology and concepts of strategic culture.The discussion on the strategic culture research mode,practical significance and dissemination idea of The Art of War will further promote the research and dissemination of The Art of War.
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This chapter illustrates extratextual and intratextual aspects of ideology as related to translation with a case study, a policy document by Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroder, jointly published in English and German in June 1999. Textual features of the two language versions are compared and linked to the social contexts. Concepts and methods of critical discourse analysis and of descriptive and functionalist approaches to translation are applied for this purpose. In particular, reactions to the German text in Germany are explained with reference to the socio-political and ideological conditions of the text production, which was a case of parallel text production combined with translation. It is illustrated that decisions at the linguistic micro-level have had effects for a political party, reflected for example in the German Social Democratic Party debating its identity due to the textual treatment of ideological keywords. The subtle differences revealed in a comparative analysis of the two texts indicate the text producers' awareness of ideological phenomena in the respective cultures. Both texts thus serve as windows onto ideologies and political power relations in the contemporary world.
Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth is a community-based, public health youth development (YD) initiative across New York State. Diverse community partnerships and a wide range of community settings have participated in this statewide effort, providing a rich laboratory to study effective partnership development. Based on the experience of the first 6 years of ACT for Youth, this report discusses lessons learned in partnership development in ACT for Youth with attention to the most effective partnerships. The most effective partnerships were differentiated by their ability to accomplish four tasks: (1) clearly define the purpose and vision of the initiative, (2) establish a community development partnership organizational structure and membership, (3) develop collaborative work processes, and (4) create sustained momentum. These elements will receive close attention in future YD efforts in New York State, and should be used to inform YD efforts in other states or communities.
One of the limitations of Indian foreign policy literature is its apathy towards employing novel approaches and methods. Though Indian foreign policy has gone through a dramatic transformation, particularly in the last two decades, the majority of scholarly attempts still spin around traditional theoretical paradigms. Thus, the academic enterprise on Indian foreign policy remained limited to the realist, liberal and at best post-colonial explanations. The inability of these distinct theoretical traditions to explain the complexity of Indian foreign policy created a void in the literature. However, recent years have witnessed Indian foreign policy studies gaining new momentum with scholars’ willingness to use new theories and approaches to understand and explain India’s behaviour in the international system. New Directions in India’s Foreign Policy: Theory and Praxis is the latest in this attempt. As the title of the book suggests, the authors in the volume are promulgating a project that thinks beyond the traditional foreign policy analysis and offers an eclectic enquiry to set a new research agenda for the study of India’s external relations. The volume has two parts; the first part explores the theoretical evolution and the second, emerging themes on Indian foreign policy. Chapters in the first part analyse the role of power, identity and interest, historical memory, territoriality, and the process of foreign policymaking, and, respectively, engage with realist, constructivist, post-colonial, critical geopolitics and foreign policy analysis (FPA) approaches to explain the evolution of Indian foreign policy. What is impressive about the theoretical discussions in this volume is its novelty and depth. The authors not only discuss how the tools of their theoretical traditions enrich the study of Indian foreign policy but also show how the Indian case could contribute to enhance the analytical capability of each theory. For instance, Rohan Mukherjee’s chapter on power discusses how a relational conception of power will provide more traction than a capabilities-based approach, particularly in the context of power transition and technological changes in contemporary world politics. Alluding to the limitations of the capability-based approach, which dominates Indian foreign policy scholarship, to explain India’s ‘exceptional ability to synthesize material and normative power resources to serve its foreign policy objectives’ (p.42), the author calls for a new research agenda based on the relational conception of Strategic Analysis, 2019 Vol. 43, No. 5, 444–446, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2019.1647658
The purpose of this study is to explore the intermediary agency's operating characteristics in the three typologies of neighborhood regeneration governance. Case study is focused on Japan, UK, and US's related legal system, planning system, and intermediary agencies activities. Case Study is composed of regeneration type with public-led, semi-public-led, and neighborhood-led. Individual case shows distinguishing roles of intermediary agency governing neighborhood regeneration governance; government-affiliated organizations for Setagaya Machizukuri in Tokyo, non-departmental public body for Castle Vale project in Birmingham, and strong partnership of community organization with local foundation for Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston. Policy implications are as follows; first, intermediary agency has an important role for structuring governance, which is vertically engaging public sector with community organizations and horizontally engaging various local agencies. Second, in the early stage of neighborhood regeneration, public-led intermediary agencies are reliable but need to develop the governance framework for more neighborhood-led governance. Third, it is critical to set up community business belong to neighborhood-led governance for sustainable regeneration.
This article focuses on what was posited as the crisis of critical criminology in the 1980s. It analyzes in which context this supposed crisis is inserted, and the debate hampered between important theorists like Massimo Pavarini and Alessandro Baratta, has also the contribution of Elena Larrauri. As goal, it has the theoretical deepening and reflexion about the functions that criminology performs between the turn of twentieth-century society for the XXI and its social transformations. It works with the theoretical milestone proportioned by the last decades of analytical and empirical development of critical criminology; Having as its starting point a view from the Latin American region.
The aim and purpose of this study has been to examine how Swedish media portrays sick people and the discourses that are present doing that. I have used articles from Swedish newspapers, and to analyze this material I have used discourse analysis and the theory of social constructivism. I have used articles from several different publication years in order to enhance the quality of the material.  I have come to the conclusion that there were two different discourses that appeared most clearly in my material. Those discourses were the “cheat/overuse” and the “victim” discourse. Other conclusions are that the media often portrays sick people in a stereotypical and marginalized way.
Francois Mitterrand is one of France's most famous twentieth-century politicians, yet interpretations of his values and leadership vary widely. Alistair Cole's in depth study starts with a chronological overview of Mitterrand's career, and proceeds with a policy-based assessment of Mitterrand's presidency. By evaluating Mitterrand's policies in relation to various key roles such as the party leader, the President, the dispenser of patronage, the European statesman and the World Leader, this book places his leadership in comparative perspective, and offers a new understanding of him as an individual political leader. This fully up dated paperback edition will be invaluable for students of contemporary European politics as well as those interested in the career of one of post-war Europe's leading statesmen.
U radu se na osnovu transliteriranih verzija rjecnika Makbuli arif Muhameda Hevaije Uskufije (1631) vrsi podjela bosanskih leksema prema razlicitim kriterijima: odnos vremenskog sadržaja spram upotrebe i znacenja leksema; teritorijalna uvjetovanost leksema; opceupotrebna leksika i knjiski leksemi; opceupotrebna leksika u odnosu na idiolektizme i neologizme. Također, u radu se analiziraju turske lekseme koje je Hevaija uvrstio kao bosanske, te stare posuđenice iz nekih evropskih jezika. U radu se tretira i leksikoloski status sedam vlastitih imena navedenih u Makbuli arifu . Istice se cinjenica da je najveci broj uvrstenih leksema u Rjecniku opceupotrebnoga karaktera. Od posebno analiziranih tipova najvise je arhaizama, sto upucuje na unutarjezicke razloge nestajanja leksema u periodu pracenja razvoja bosanskoga leksickog blaga od oko cetiri stoljeca. Također, analiza pokazuje izuzetno zanimljiv sloj idiolekatskih neologizama, ali i leksema koje su dijalektalno ili regionalno zastupljene. ------------------------------------------  Classification of Bosnian lexems in Makbuli Arif On the basis of transliterary versions of the dictionary Makbuli Arif by Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi (1631) this paper deals with the division of Bosnian lexems according to various criteria: the relation of time content towards the use and the meaning of lexems; territorial conditioning of the lexems; general lexems and book lexems; general lexis in relation to idiolects and neologisms. Also, the paper analyses Turkish lexems that Hevaji introduced as Bosnian, and old loan-words from some European languages. The paper also treats the lexicological status of seven personal names mentioned in Makbuli Arif. It is stressed that the most introduced lexems are the Dictionary of general character. Of particularly analyzed types the most number is in the archaisms category, which indicates to inner-linguistic reasons of disapperance of lexems in the period of following of the development of Bosnian lexical treasure in the span of about four centuries. Also, the analysis shows a particularly interesting layer of idiolectic neologisms, but also lexems that are dialectally or regionally represented.
ABSTRACT Public participation is ubiquitous in many contemporary democratic societies – used for many purposes, and in many contexts, with particular and growing relevance for policy-making on science and technology issues. However, there is a dearth of evidence as to its qualities and benefits. We contend that the implementation and interpretation of participation faces a number of dilemmas that – together –undermine its successful adoption. In this paper, we identify and discuss six specific dilemmas that – together – may militate against the practice and development of good quality participation in science and technology policy, notably dilemmas of Timing; of Relevance; of Representation; of Evaluation; of Criticism; and of Impact. We theoretically account for these dilemmas and discuss their likely impacts. Finally, we provide some suggestions as to how the participation community might attempt to pre-empt difficulties due to these dilemmas and demonstrate participation effectiveness.
The Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security was called to order by Vice Chair Joseph J. Heck at 3:27 p.m. on Thursday, February 22, 2007, in Room 2149 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada. The meeting was videoconferenced to the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, Room 4412E, 555 East Washington Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada. Exhibit A is the Agenda. Exhibit B is the Attendance Roster. All exhibits are available and on file in the Research Library of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.
Anding District(original Dingxi country) lies in the middle of Gansu Province,is of typical eco fragile areas.Survey shows that unbalance between peasants' environmental education in the area and overall strategic view of Lee Soil and Water Conservation District,project of improvement in the ecological environment,citizens environmental education;meanwhile,the peasants' environmental education show a phenomenon that is superficial and deep-level unbalance,people in disparity in age,disjunction between environmental knowledge and environmental friendly action.Therefore,scientific educational plans should be draw up,achieving meet with strategy;hold on the value of country view,guarantee peasants' environmental education goes smoothly and rightly;Invocative method,improve the utility of peasants' education;resort present resources,build extrude from position for peasants' education;pay more attention to peasants' profit demand,improve having relative knowledge and action effectively;strength the strategic view for peasants' education,promot ecological and economic develop coordinately.
In the following paper we are dealing with certain application aspects regarding the article 12 of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European Certificate of Succession. The author’s primary concern is to analyze the justification of its constitution in principle, and then to deal with certain issues regarding the possibility of its effective application. Particular attention is paid to interpreting the conditions underlying the application of the article 12, whose abstract formulation can, in certain aspects, represent a problem for the the member state courts upon their decision not to administrate assets of the estate located in a third country. Moreover, there will be a word as regards to the influence that limitation of proceedings before member state courts has on realization of the principle of unity of succession established by the Succession Regulation, which will be followed by hypothetical example and a suggestion of a possible solution concerning scission of succession, one that would not disrupt the coordination with the third country legal orders.
With the rapid rate of globalization, the volume and complexity of the information that managers use has increased exponentially. However, there is little research to understand the characteristics of information considered important by managers. This study empirically investigated the impact of culture, environmental uncertainty and decentralization on the usefulness of information in three countries. We found that the contextual variables had an impact on the perception of information usefulness. Future studies should consider the preexisting epistemological differences among different countries. Expected national cultural differences were not significant. The tentative results support global management systems to deal with contemporary global business issues.
supporters took to the streets last year, the anti-immigration movement mobilized its own forces. The number of state and local antiimmigration groups in the United States has exploded, growing by 600% in the last two years. In 2005, there were fewer than 40 groups; today, there are more than 250.1 One fourth of the new groups are chapters of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the volunteer paramilitary group that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border, builds fences, and notes the license plate numbers of contractors who hire undocumented workers.2 Its leader, Chris Simcox, has become a national icon, and locally, MCDC members are making their voices heard at protests, council meetings, and courthouses. Although these armed vigilantes get most of the press, a national network of organizations working to end immigration has existed for decades. Today, 35 such groups, with a collective membership of between 600,000 and 750,000, work in research, advocacy, fundraising, and lobbying to influence state and federal policies.3 Some of the most salient include the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), English First, and NumbersUSA. Ten groups channeled $4.2 million into antiimmigration lobbying in 2005, and nine political action committees raised $3.4 million for campaigns in 2006. In Congress, the movement’s growth is reflected in the Immigration Reform Caucus, which has grown from 16 members in 1999 to more than 90 today. Not all anti-immigrant groups dedicate themselves solely or specifically to the immigration question. The movement is not unified in the traditional sense; groups promote different policy positions, and no umbrella organization unites them. Despite their differences, they all advocate restricting legal immigration and deporting undocumented immigrants. These goals are also those of both the Minutemen and white supremacists, and this confluence of interests has made for a troubling alliance: The leadership of each of the major anti-immigrant organizations is linked in some way to hate groups.4 (See chart, page 17.) There is more evidence for the connections between the U.S. anti-immigrant movement and organized extremists than there is room to explore in this article. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Montgomery, Alabama; the Center for New Community (CNC) in Chicago; and the NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS
This article presents a new method of teaching ethics in economics based on recent developments in game theory. Economics traditionally divides normative questions from positive questions, and relies only on the Pareto principle to distinguish good actions and policies from bad ones in answering the former. The traditional presentation of ethics as constraints on behavior makes it hard to justify ethics normatively using only the Pareto principle. Binmore (1994, 1998) instead presents ethics as coordinating conventions in games with multiple equilibria, in which all players gain from coordination. The author adds a discussion of stability to Binmore's presentation to construct a normative argument in favor of ethical or fair behavior, based only on the Pareto principle. The author describes teaching this material in a course on economics and game theory, and proposes ways to implement discussions of ethics at other points in the economics curriculum.
Immigration is no longer the pressing concern among the electorate that it was prior to the Brexit referendum, writes Jonathan Wadsworth (LSE). More than three years on, concerns about Europe have eclipsed anything else, including the NHS, defence, the environment and unemployment as well as immigration. However, immigration remains a highly contentious issue and its purported effects on the labour market and the wider economy are still highly contested.
In December 2001, following an initiative taken by France and Germany, the United Nations put in place an Ad Hoc Committee to prepare an International Convention against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings. Recently, the possibility of a Convention was called into question when the United States demanded an international ban on therapeutic cloning as well. On December 26, 2002 the announcement by Clonaid of the supposed birth of a “cloned” baby caused worldwide consternation. Whether science fiction or reality, policymakers around the world need to act or be seen to act.
On behalf of the red film with its unique appeal advantage by the contemporary college students love that become an important resource for education in colleges .Effective and reasonable use of red film resources can effectively enhance the national identity of college students, national identity, improve the ideological level of college students, moral sentiments. The use of red film as an educational means in the classroom, activities and campus culture of colleges and universities will enhance the level of education in colleges and universities.
In the 21st century,the Party's new generation of central collective leadership with Comrade Hu Jintao at its core carries on and develops the thought of people-to-people diplomacy developed by the Party's last three generations of central collective leadership.According to this thought,the subject of people-to-people diplomacy is the people.Ideologically,people-to-people diplomacy should follow the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents,thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development.People-to-people diplomacy in terms of policy should fully implement the Party's and the country's foreign policies and strive to create a new diplomatic situation.Economically,people-to-people diplomacy should serve our "bring-in" and "go-global" strategies and vigorously carry out mutually beneficial international cooperation.Culturally,people-to-people diplomacy should step up our efforts to cultural exchange and enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and the people of other countries.From this century,the CPC's thought of people-to-people diplomacy has provided a theoretical basis for our creating a new situation of the cause of China's people-to-people diplomacy.
Geothermal conflict in Serang Regency is occured because communication approach is inappropriately done between the company part and local affected community. Geothermal conflict map involves the company geothermal exploration permit holder, regional government, and local community who live in districts around Mount Prakasak Padarincang, becoming a geothermal location. The research was carried out using qualitative method with study case approach. Conflict of geothermal project seen from its characteristic is environmental conflict. Sealed communication of the company made an information gap impact to the creation of different perception with local community about the interest of geothermal construction in Serang regency. Perception gap between both parts underlied the vertical conflict of geothermal environmental came to the peak stage of conflict. Communication between both conflict parts is defensive and confrontational, also tending to violence. Geothermal conflict that nowadays happen surmised will be potential for violence that disserving both parts.
The eminent domain is a necessary instrument for a country to exercise the public administration.As a power to handle the conflict of public interest and private interest,the eminent domain is an infringement of private interest,while its premise should be based on the interest of the public and the necessary compensation for people infringed.The judgment of "public interest" is not unchanged in the development of the county.The concept and appeal of "public interest" are different in the phases of economic and social development.China is going through the rapid urbanization process,and the primary tasks of urban planning are expansion and renewal.To enforcing the Property Act,the government has to use the power of eminent domain in the implementation of urban plans.To implement the urban plans by the eminent domain,it is necessary to make clear what is the public interest in urban planning.The law about eminent domain should be made out.The procedural justice and juristic arbitration should be a basic rule in dealing with the conflict of public interest and private interest.
Higher efficiency rarely reduces water consumption Reconciling higher freshwater demands with finite freshwater resources remains one of the great policy dilemmas. Given that crop irrigation constitutes 70% of global water extractions, which contributes up to 40% of globally available calories (1), governments often support increases in irrigation efficiency (IE), promoting advanced technologies to improve the “crop per drop.” This provides private benefits to irrigators and is justified, in part, on the premise that increases in IE “save” water for reallocation to other sectors, including cities and the environment. Yet substantial scientific evidence (2) has long shown that increased IE rarely delivers the presumed public-good benefits of increased water availability. Decision-makers typically have not known or understood the importance of basin-scale water accounting or of the behavioral responses of irrigators to subsidies to increase IE. We show that to mitigate global water scarcity, increases in IE must be accompanied by robust water accounting and measurements, a cap on extractions, an assessment of uncertainties, the valuation of trade-offs, and a better understanding of the incentives and behavior of irrigators.
UNLESS IT BECOMES POSSIBLE to formulate an alternative to prevailing managerial and administrative practices, the widespread but unfocused discontent about them can only continue to contribute to an enervating malaise. We appear to lack an orientation for identifying and organizing what ails us. I should like to suggest that it remains possible to elaborate on a familiar if repressed vantage point, one that allows us to see the power relations which necessarily characterize bureaucracies even as it leads us to perceive our own irrevocable involvement in them, their deadly hold on us, their inescapable cost in alienation. To see these costs-the experiences we are kept from having-is to be in possession of a perspective that reconstitutes the meaning of reality. It maps a way out of mindless victimization insofar as it formulates a basis for focused action. Such mapping has become a veritable industry. The uneasiness about conventional bureaucracies has inspired a welter of both speculative and practical quests for some alternative-whatever scheme promises to subvert hierarchy, the division of labor, the centralization of control, and ultimately the technology that demands bureaucratic organization. There is no lack of programs for encouraging rank-and-file participation in decision-making by not
Transparency has gained an important status in public administration. This article focuses on recent research debate on transparency and on the value that is defined by the citizens. A large-scale citizen survey is used for the empirical analysis. The first aim of the article is to uncover the debate around transparency as an ethical value in governance; by using literature review the purpose is to answer why and how transparency is so important in ethical governance. The second aim is to study how Finnish citizens perceive the role of transparency, and to analyze the functions and influence of transparency from their perspective, and investigate how the demands of transparency are fulfilled. According to the results recent research focuses on critical viewpoint on transparency and its’ effectiveness. In citizens’ perceptions, transparency is highly valued in ethical governance, as a means to control decision-makers and as communication about public services.  Citizens express dissatisfaction in receiving information, communication about public services and influence of the feedback, therefore the importance of the value does not guarantee effectiveness.
The 21st century of the 3rd millennium has unleashed a plethora of spectacular developments for the enrichment of the modern civilization. However on par with the positivities, negativities also are impacting the world society which ultimately threatens the entire survival of humankind.Racial discrimination, Recurring apartheid regime, intrareligious conflicts and animosities, Hegemonic entanglements, Ideology crisis, Sectarianisms are all various factors which plays a very precarious role in the globalized era.As observed in the present situation, religious conflicts pose a great threat to the existence of humans.Marx opined that religion is the opium which can gradually  denigrate the entire system.That said, due to religion related enmities humans face a lot of rights violations and that is the single most focus which this descriptive writing endeavors to attend by taking into account of the happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This paper, originating with issues generated in Professor Deegan’s seminar on contemporary sociological theory at the University of Nebraska, explores the “frames” or microfoundations of everyday interaction and their consequences for the ultimate macrosociological threat: global nuclear annihilation. The theoretical basis of this study is Erving Goffman’s Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. The adequacy and comprehensiveness of Goffman’s major constructs are substantiated by data from the everyday world of newspapers and popular culture. “Keys” (or transformational conventions) are pivotal in this analysis. The central thesis of this paper holds that the keys used to transformationally restructure and “make sense of” frames in everyday, interpersonal interactions allow us to routinely ignore the high probability of macrosociological annihilation by keying it into less lethal frames, thereby dangerously increasing the probability of global nuclear holocaust. The paper concludes with the hypothesis that solving the macrosociological threat of global genocide requires inventing a new framework of meaning for the micro-level organization of everyday life. PART I: INTRODUCTION This paper concerns “bomb talk”: the many ways we talk about our lethal and precisely-targeted global nuclear arsenal. It is a theoretical and applied exercise based on Erving Goffman’s insightful study, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Most “bomb talk” is socially irresponsible to the extent that it continuously allows us to “escape” the serious and single-minded resolution of our macrosociological nuclear reality. The most dangerous features of “bomb talk” lie embedded in the very rules we use to give meaning and structure to interpersonal interaction. By focusing on the rules for organizing and transforming meaning in everyday life, this paper addresses our perplexing cultural preparedness for global annihilation. The thesis of this paper holds that the way we “frame” or engage in microfoundational talk about our lethal macro reality defeats our efforts to find a solution to the threat of global nuclear annihilation. This is the potential horror of life/death in a Goffmanian nuclear world. I conclude that to find a solution to this macrosociological nightmare we must radically overhaul, if not revolutionize, the microfoundational framework of everyday language and interpersonal social interaction. 1 Presented to the Parsons Conference on Microfoundations of Macrosociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 9, 1988. This paper shared firstplace honors in being one of two submissions selected for presentation in this national graduate student paper competition. The authors of both papers were awarded honoraria from the Talcott Parsons Memorial Fund. 2 As academics, we generate quite a bit of “bomb talk” ourselves, and this paper is no exception. Let me emphasize that this paper in itself is not “part of any solution.” The only genuine solution lies in coordinated, macro-social action. We need constantly to remind ourselves that academic and professional “bomb talk” is no less problematic than the everyday, garden variety. We go to great lengths as intellectuals to “make sense of” the nuclear threat. We teach about it in courses, we write analytic monographs, we organize symposia. Using Goffman’s concept of frame analysis, I demonstrate that our nuclear world can be (and has been) “made sense of” in so many disparate ways (including courses, monographs, and symposia) that we are in danger of failing to effectively confront the awesome, untransformed reality of nuclear destruction. I question here whether all our “bomb talk” in all its formats is helping in any significant way to reduce the probability of nuclear holocaust. Indeed, the plethora of formats may be a root microfoundational factor in our inability to concentrate our attention on the nuclear threat and act effectively. Curiously, sociologists as a group have been remarkably quiet on the problem of nuclear annihilation. The most cogent analysis to-date is still C. Wright Mills’ (1960) The Causes of World War Three. Mills calls on the world’s intellectuals to sensitize us to the macrosociological aspects of nuclear threat. He urges recognition, study, and publication of the vested interests of politicians, military men, and munitions merchants. I conclude here, however, that the world’s cultural laborers have a much more difficult task ahead than generating more studies and symposia on another “public issue” (Mills, 1959). In any event, few sociologists have responded to Mills’ call for academic mobilization. Ronald Kramer and Sam Marullo (1985) survey the recent sociological literature and find it largely barren. They recount a content analysis by Finsterbush of the three mainline sociology journals: American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Forces. Finsterbush examined the 6500 articles published in the years 1945 to 1984, but, Kramer and Marullo (1985: 283) report, Finsterbush found only six that “deal with nuclear weapons related issues.” Unlike many who are gravely disappointed by this low level of production, I do not call here for a crash program of specifically sociological studies focused on nuclear devastation per se. Workers in related social science disciplines, including history and political science, have written a great deal about nuclear conflict and the history of the arms race — without discernable effect. I see no reason to expect the standard sociological treatments to do any better. We do need to get to work, but our labors must take us in directions that differ dramatically from traditionally-defined sociological practice. I argue here, paradoxically, that symposia, conferences, special panels, and papers (such as the one now in hand) are symptomatic of a deep cultural sleep that fogs our thinking, our reflections, and our debates where globally destructive nuclear devices are concerned. My thesis is simply this: Our microfoundational cultural apparatus appears ill-equipped, if not unable, to conceptualize or frame the present nuclear threat in a way that lets us truly come to grips with it. We keep “making sense” of it in ways that let it slip away from us. My reasons for this dismal assessment rest on the arguments found in Erving Goffman’s (1974) analytical study of everyday life: Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Goffman is well-known for his studies of the microfoundations of interpersonal interaction, but these have only recently been interpreted as having wider sociological importance. Goffman’s influential early work includes: Asylums; Behavior in Public Places; Encounters; Gender Advertisements; Interaction Ritual; Presentation of Self in Everyday Life; Relations in Public; Stigma; and Strategic Interaction. With the publication of Frame Analysis, however, Goffman’s microfoundational analyses took a much more formal, systematic turn that informs our understanding of macrosociological possibilities. Anthony Giddens now writes: 3 Goffman’s writings thus contribute much more to an understanding of ‘macro-structural’ properties than Goffman supposed. (Giddens, 1987: 138). In this paper, I concentrate on Goffman’s analysis of the ways in which interacting persons “make sense” of their situation and activities by resorting to “frames.” It will become painfully clear that these techniques of “making sense,” while extraordinarily useful to everyday interactants, allow us to play disastrous “mind games” in the face of full force nuclear destruction. Drawing such macrosociological consequences from microfoundational analyses has been resisted by symbolic interactionists during the last two decades. The apolitical tone of much microsociological analysis is, in its own way, a social construction of reality — a construction whose full explication lies beyond the scope of this paper. It is helpful however, to point out that micro analysis has always had a macro political component — if one chooses to emphasize it. It is striking how few symbolic interactionists emphasize the fact that George H. Mead (1934) wrote on mind, self, and society. Much of Mead’s work and writing (and that of W.I. Thomas and Jane Addams, for that matter) focused on organized social action, and he took part in many political activities in Chicago. For Mead, the development of “international mindedness” was the mark of a fully mature “self” (Mead, 1934; Deegan, 1988). So too with Jessie Taft (a Chicago student of G.H. Mead and W.I. Thomas). Taft concluded her doctoral dissertation on the interpersonal meaning of the women’s movement with this observation: The fundamental purpose of the woman movement, therefore, as of any great social movement, is bound to be the producing of social scientists who will be capable of offering hypotheses that are based on the actual data constituting the problems, and the bringing about of an increasing social consciousness among all people such that they too will become sufficiently aware of the real content of social relationships and be willing to undergo the adjustments of the social order necessary to make actual the theories which promise salvation. (Taft, quoted in Deegan and Hill, 1987: 46). Taft states the platform for sociological action. Study of micro-level human experience and situations, and the offering of hypotheses based on these studies, calls forth social consciousness — and macro-level change. The widespread view of micro analysis as apolitical derives in some part from the popular and well-known work of Peter Berger, a student of phenomenologist Alfred Schutz. Berger’s work on the social construction of reality (Berger and Kellner, 1964; Berger and Luckmann, 1966) gives primary emphasis to the individual and his/her social development. Schutz’ (1944) “stranger” is not a citizen, but a social
As the eternal social ideal and the pursuit of value,building the harmonious society and seeking the best form of the social integration have constituted the content and the formation of social practices.This article analyses the problem of harmony and development on the base of historical materialism.And this article considers that the most deeply contradiction of china society is the Double tension between harmonious and development.After the argumentation of the inherent relevance of building harmonious socialist society and The scientific concept of development,this article researches the pursuit of value and the development path of the harmonious society.
The law inforcement of criminal law is one of the effort to get or create the regulation, security, and peaceful in society even it’s one of the way to prevent or criminal prosecution or the violation of law. From the formal juridical aspect a crime is forms of behavior that is contrary to human morals, detrimental to society, and in violation of the law. Criminal law as a public law so everey violation of state law through the State fittings such as police, prosecutors and judges take immediate legal action. Judiciary institution has a central position as an effort to enforce laws cored justice. The principle in the investigation of criminal cases at the trial court must assume that all persons suspected, arrested, detained, charged and appear before the court or shall be deemed not guilty before a court ruling that declared his mistakes and gain permanent legal force.
Municipal court judges are required to wear many hats. First and foremost, they are the focal point of the local judicial system and "keepers of the law." Second, quite often municipal court judges have administrative responsibilities. These may include input or control over the court's staff, community outreach and activities to be taken by the court, and from time to time administrative reorganization of the court's operations. Third, municipal court judges at times act as politicians. Whether taking nonjudicial actions for political reasons is done because a judge wishes to do so or is placed in a position where he or she required to do so, the fact that most local judges work in a political world is beyond question. Unfortunately, the three hats that judges wear (judicial, administrative, and political) can place conflicting pressures on them. Due to this reality, it is critical that judges and court administrators be vigilant in adhering to proper procedures and legal requirements when taking administrative actions. Administrative and particularly per sonnel actions taken by local judges are often held up to close scrutiny. The following cases, Meek v. County of Riverside, 183 F.3d 962 (9th Cir. 1999), and Mitchell v. Randolph, 215 F.3d 753 (7th Cir. 2000), present two situations that involve the all too frequent immersion of politics into judicial personnel and staffing actions. Donald Meek was appointed as a court commissioner for the Municipal Court of the County of Riverside, California, in 1989. In 1996 Meek ran against Albert Wojcik in a nonpartisan election to fill a vacant judgeship in the court. Before the election it was alleged that Municipal Court Judge Rodney Walker, who considered Meek a political enemy and Wojcik a political ally, threatened to fire Meek from his position as commis sioner if Meek proceeded with his candidacy and lost the election. Meek did, in fact, lose the election. A week following the election Judge Walker, Judge Curtis Hinman, and now Judge Albert Wojcik met to discuss whether Meek should be fired from his commissioner's position. After discussing the matter, Judges Walker and Wojcik voted to fire Meek while Judge Hinman abstained from voting. Later that week, Meek was informed of the meeting and vote and was told that if he did not resign his position he would be fired. Later that day, Meek announced his retirement. Meek filed suit in the District Court for the Central District of California under 42
The different meanings associated with sustainable development in policy , practice and academic discourse have been subject to much debate. This variation has been presented as both a problem and opportunity for education for sustainable development (ESD) within Higher Education (HE). There has, however ; been relatively little investigation into how sustainable development is understood by staff and students. These understandings should be of interest to those with a concern for advancing ESD. Recent work indicates some variation in understandings and a common association with environmental issues. The paper presents the results of a study based on interviews with staff and students at one university in the UK. It highlights the common themes and different conception types found. Although there was variation in understandings , the findings also suggest a relatively common core based on the idea of environmental concern and human progress . This typically emphasizes the environmental aspect. A model based on different layers and strands of understanding is proposed to map the different conceptions and to indicate a possible relationship between them.
A unique dilemma facing immigration judges (IJs) and practitioners today is how to address the acute problem of mentally ill respondents appearing pro se in immigration removal proceedings. Mentally ill respondents are more likely to face deportation from a position of indigence and detention, both of which create substantial barriers to obtaining counsel. Even where represented, the mentally ill are less able to contribute to their defense or understand the proceedings against them. This lack of meaningful participation has cascading deleterious effects on respondents themselves, but also on our already overburdened immigration courts by creating docket delays, prolonged detention, and constitutional problems. Many IJs have expressed concern about this issue and both judges and the immigration bar are in need of practical guidance. Fortunately, there is a path out of this bramblebush. In these situations, IJs can—and must—appoint counsel and a guardian ad litem (GAL) to represent mentally ill respondents appearing pro se. Legislative action is not required because IJs already have the authority to make these appointments, which is derived from a variety of sources discussed herein. In the recent Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision Matter of M-A-M, the BIA authorized IJs to prescribe safeguards for mentally ill immigrants facing deportation. Matter of
Like many other "late industrializing" countries, Singapore faces a downward trend in marriage and fertility rates that have come to be seen as urgent national problems. The Singapore state has made numerous attempts to shape Singaporeans' behaviour-using housing policies, tax incentives, and various campaigns to entice them to marry and have children. Combining data on state institutions and policies with in-depth interview data, the paper shows that these efforts have largely been failures if evaluated on the basis of their overt aims. However, they have had very important and interesting "latent effects." The policies have produced norms and values about the "ideal" Singapore family form and the average Singaporean's life path. In the process of negotiating state policies in their everyday lives, Singaporeans develop a specific sense of what "Singaporeans" do and how they do it; their own actions are then interpreted through this lens.
No wonder you activities are, reading will be always needed. It is not only to fulfil the duties that you need to finish in deadline time. Reading will encourage your mind and thoughts. Of course, reading will greatly develop your experiences about everything. Reading essentials of critical care nursing is also a way as one of the collective books that gives many advantages. The advantages are not only for you, but for the other peoples with those meaningful benefits.
We propose a critical approach to the first economic program of the democratic transition government of Raul Alfonsin (1983-1989) in Argentina. In a context of national economic crisis after the legacy of a preceding dictatorship (1976-1983) combined with the Latin American debt crisis from 1982 onwards, the Minister of Economy Bernardo Grinspun (1983-1985) proposed a Keynesian economic program in tune with the airs of the first democratic government of a new era. In this framework, we review the main economic discussions of the time as some testimonies in order to make a complete interpretation of the incentives of said plan, its development and subsequent failure. We have verified that the Grinspun program constituted the last Keynesian plan since the postwar hegemony, which was based on historical roots and that the changes that occurred in the economy since the 1976 dictatorship as the growing local and foreign economic power hampered its development by isolating the democratic government.
Catalonia’s decision to convene a referendum of Self-determination on October 1st 2017 constitutes a major challenge for Catalonia, as well as for Spain and the European Union. Scholars from all over Europe and beyond have been studying the recent self-determination trends that have their most salient expressions in Scotland (a self-determination referendum was held on 18 September 2014), the Brexit vote (23 June 2016) and Catalonia’s claim for self-determination. Numerous conferences, workshops, articles and books flourish on the topic. However, contrary to the Scottish and British referendums, the legality of the Catalan referendum is heavily contested by Spain national authorities, raising a legitimacy issue; not about the outcome, but about the process itself. This is these legitimacy issues of the process itself, the question of the legitimacy of the exercise of a right to decide by a people without a State within the EU, that the present report explores.
The aim of education is to enhance all-round national quality of the people of the country.The contemporary persons especially the young people are a generation who is the successor extension and operator of the excellent Chinese traditional culture.They are the builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics.At present in the course of collision between Chinese traditional culture and the western culture the Chinese culture will face the great challenge in the same goal in nature identifications and the national spirit nature will affect the future of the Chinese nation.The Chinese promised traditional culture is the soul and the blood of the Chinese nation and "the core of culture" in the Chinese traditional culture that is of the special strategic value in the course of the Chinese people quality cultivation.
A growing amount of research is being conducted on racial diversity in college football head coaching positions in the United States. However, very little has been conducted on the entry-level positions in college coaching: Graduate Assistants (GAs), Quality Control assistants (QCs) and restricted earnings coaches. These positions represent natural professional trajectories for student-athletes, who constitute the future pool of applicants for college coaching positions. In the United States, the majority of student athletes are nonwhite, but white coaches still dominate the world of college athletics. This paper investigates the pipeline issues that obstruct the matriculation of nonwhite student-athletes and produce what I call the diversity deficit in college football coaching. Existing analyses of empirical data from member institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) demonstrate the existence of racial inequality in the profession of coaching. This paper will explain the perpetuation of the diversity deficit by employing Critical Race Theory (CRT) to illustrate how whiteness, color-blindness and tokenism structure college football coaching. The paper then presents new research data that illuminate how power shapes NCAA member institutions and that can aid participants in addressing pipeline issues and the diversity deficit.
Societal changes in Uganda have created an adolescent period in which young people experience sexual needs but are not supposed to be sexually active yet. This paper explores how these societal changes affect teachers’ comfort to teach sexuality education. Cultural schema theory is used to explore teachers’ cultural schemas of sexuality education and the conflicts that arise, and to explain why this causes teachers to feel uncomfortable when teaching sexuality education. Indepth interviews were conducted with 40 secondary school teachers in Kampala, capital of Uganda. Findings show that teachers experience ambivalence between their traditional and present cultural schemas of teaching sexuality education. Traditionally, sexuality education has been regarded as immoral and an indirect approval for students to become sexually active. But in the present society, teachers feel that sexuality education is necessary to balance positive and incorrect sexuality messages circulating in society and to help students control their sexual needs in order to postpone sexual initiation. Teachers feel uncomfortable because teaching sexuality education may contribute to their students’ sexual and reproductive well-being but, at the same time, it may jeopardize the respect teachers enjoy in society.
The article examines the degree of institutionalization of the Guatemalan party universe across four areas: the pattern of interparty competition; the rootedness of parties in society; the legitimacy accorded to parties and democratic institutions; and the nature of internal party organization. Guatemala displays an extremely inchoate party structure across all these variables. There is no stability in the identity of the main parties in the polity. After more than two decades of electoral democracy, no single party has been able to avert a drift into electoral irrelevance or outright disappearance. With respect to the basic facets of internal party organization, Guatemalan parties exhibit a feebleness so pronounced that their very status as parties is questionable. In general, Guatemalan "parties" only fulfill Sartori's minimalist definition as organizations that field candidates for public office, but offer nothing more substantive. he obstacles to building a well-functioning liberal democracy in The Guatemala are many and often acknowledged: the legacy of an overbearing military stemming from the "counterinsurgency state," an inordinate degree of income inequality and poverty, and a large indigenous population that is fundamentally absent from political life, among others (Jonas 1991; Poitevin 1999). But the legacy of the country's wretched past also includes another crucial element that often goes unmentioned: the peculiar nature of its party universe and its parties. This essay qualitatively assesses the degree of institutionalization of the Guatemalan party system. The variables used for this task are those conceptualized by Mainwaring and Scully (1995) in their pioneering work: the pattern of interparty competition, the rootedness of parties in society, the legitimacy accorded to parties and democratic institutions, and the nature of internal party organization. While these components of institutionalization can surely be correlated with one another, empirically speaking, party systems do not necessarily exhibit uniformity across these variables; that is, they may be hybrid and underinstitutionalized in some respects while adequately institutionalized in others. This article will show that the Guatemalan party universe is exceptionally inchoate across all the aforementioned four elements. Comparative studies of Latin American party systems have usually ignored Guatemala, not least because of the marginal role that parties in this
1. Beyond Diplomacy 2. The Uses of Cultural Relations 3. Origins and Early Evolution 4. Propaganda 5. The Example of France 6. The War and the Unquiet Peace 7. Information and After 8. The Organization 9. Aims and Means 10. The Cultural Dimension in Development 11. A Personnel of Paragons 12. Analysis and Evaluation 13. Four Major Reports 14. Activities and Their Planning: Information and Books 15. Exchange of Persons 16. Languages and Language-Teaching 17. The Arts 18. Schools, Science, Universities, Literature and Multilateralism 19. External Broadcasting and the New Technology 20. Thematic Propositions. Appendices.
Pandemic emergencies and concomitant needs for interventions to protect public health place great pressure on individual liberty. In the United States, these pressures are exacerbated by views of negative liberty as the freedom to do whatever one wants with one’s person. This essay argues that the original US Supreme Court decision recognizing legislative powers to protect public health, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, was premised on an understanding of freedom of the person as limited by risks to others. Later court decisions have departed from this analysis, instead viewing individual liberties over the person as conflicting with public health. This jurisprudential approach pitting unlimited individual liberty rights over the person against public health contributes to the tensions in the U. S. over mask wearing and restrictions on religious services during COVID-19.
The Protection  of the Right to Education for the Isolated   Adat Community under Perspective of the Act Number 20 Year 2003 on the National Education System In Rengga Campong, N’toke Village, Wera District,  Bima Regency  is the title of this research. The Rengga Compong located in N’toke Village,  Wera District,  Bima Regency qualifies to be a territory of the Isolated Adat Community under the Decision of Republik Indonesia Predsiden Number 111 Year 1999.      This research is intended to know the application of the policy of Local Government of Bima Regency in giving  services of Basic Education basic for the isolated comminities and to know the handycap faced by the Local Government of Bima Regency in giving these services. In collecting field data, this research uses participated method conducted through three stages, namely the stages: (1) of  the location mapping and plumbing areal; and (b)  of the decent study.  Its results are: (a) the Local Government of Bima Regency has taken  policy in the field of Basic Education basic for the isolated comminities but it implementation is not maximal yet; and (2) the execution of physical development is the handycap by the Local Government of Bima Regency since to reach this Campong is difficult so the cost is very expensive.
More than anything, what is manifested here is the difference between a collection of lovely essays and a lovely collection of essays. These 15 essays (a third from the editor's own pen) are grouped loosely into three sections: "In Search of Time," "In Search of Context" and "In Search of Agency." The aspiration is to produce a postpositivist—if not quite postmodernist—style of policy analysis, one more historically and cross-culturally sensitive than is traditional among certain sorts of data-driven students of comparative public policy. Exercises in large-scale, many-nation, many-period number crunching have, indeed, fallen into disrepute. This is true not least for the reasons well captured in Ashford's telling anecdote about the "analyst of French communal budgets [who], laboring to extend a data bank to 1871, was mystified until someone told him of the Franco-Prussian War" (p. 27). Or, for another example more compelling than any of those in the relatively weak "Context" section, consider the 1951 Indian Census. Drawing on the neoclassical political economy of Ricardo and Smith, it included a category of "persons who cultivate land owned by another"; but in the Indian agricultural context, this construct nonsensically conflates the least secure peasant producers with the most powerful managers of commercial agribusinesses (see Barry Hindess, The Use of Official Statistics in Sociology [1973], 29-34). In doing policy studies, it is undeniably helpful to know a fair bit about the background of any statistics you find yourself coding and analyzing.
A number of separate states emerged on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after 1918. They had to give themselves new constitutions. This article compares the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic of 1920 with the Austrian Federal Constitution of 1920. Both constitutions drew – to varying degrees – from their common heritage (the December Constitution of 1867). This is already evident formally in that it was not possible to create a uniform, closed constitutional document. In many areas – such as fundamental rights or the organization of the judiciary – there are also similarities in content. With the establishment of specialized constitutional courts, both states succeeded in creating a significant innovation, which, however, was successful only in Austria. Both states created a two-chamber parliament, although the respective second chamber had a different function. In Czechoslovakia, the system of government was strongly oriented towards the President of the Republic, while there was parliamentary supremacy in Austria.
This paper provides a broad picture of the internationalization of tourism research within which the Latin American experience might be situated and offers some ideas and suggestions as to how research in the region might be integrated further and how a greater engagement with research and researchers in other parts of the world might be fostered. The first part of the paper addresses five questions: what is meant by the internationalization; what patterns are emerging; what is driving internationalization; what is the role of language in internationalization; and what is the significance and impact of internationalization? The second part offers suggestions as to how Latin American researchers might frame their work in order to disseminate it more widely and integrate their studies with greater impact in the international literature.
More and more, international criminal law is becoming a fact of day-to-day life in an ever-globalizing village. Legal practitioners, judges, prosecutors, defence attorneys and civil servants in ministries are increasingly confronted with issues of international criminal law. The jurisprudence of the ad hoc international tribunals (The Hague, Arusha) has intensified academic interest in the field and is changing traditional atti-tudes towards the law. National courts have to address difficult questions of interna-tional criminal law. Norms of international criminal law have gradually become the stan-dard by which behaviour of governments and individuals is assessed on the interna-tional scene. In the process, the general public has become increasingly aware of the existence of international criminal law. 11/9 and the war in Iraq have undoubtedly con-tributed to this awareness. In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the number of instruments in the field of international criminal law. On the post 11/9 international scene, there has been a dramatic increase in the conventions dealing with terrorism. In Europe, a multi-tude of new instruments has emerged in such fields as counterfeiting, trafficking in human beings and child pornography. New cooperation methods (the European arrest warrant) and new institutions (Eurojust, joint investigation teams) were created to cope with the challenges of transnational criminal law. The present collection is a selection of the most important instruments. It is meant to guide students and practitioners through the labyrinth. Its focus is on international (universal) and European instruments. The Third Revised Edition of this invaluable collection has grown considerably in comparison to previous editions, a fact which bears witness to the dramatic increase in international criminal law instruments. The 'growth areas' it contains include the section on International Criminal Courts; sections on 'new' international crimes, such as cybercrime and child pornography; greatly expanded entries for certain 'old' crimes, such as terrorism; and increased entries for a new player in the field, the European Union
In the context of the new era, the reform and innovation of Ideological and political education in Colleges and universities should keep pace with the times, and promote the combination of the traditional advantages of Ideological and political education and new science and technology. Based on the all-round effect of data and information on the ideological and political education in Colleges and universities, this paper proposes the application of big data technology to promote the innovation of Ideological and political education in Colleges and universities from the perspectives of data creation, ability creation, role transformation and means innovation. Since entering the 21st century, the application of big data technology to the innovation and upgrading of Ideological and political education in Colleges and universities has gradually become a hot topic in the academic circles.
espanolLa presente investigacion analiza las caracteristicas distintivas de la gestion tecnologica en empresas del sector comercio, servicio y manufacturero/ industrial ubicadas en Barquisimeto - estado Lara, Venezuela. Se evalua la situacion de las empresas en cuanto a sus practicas de gestion tecnologica y las limitaciones presentadas para su ejecucion. La investigacion es descriptiva con un diseno de campo, la muestra estuvo conformada por 60 empresas (12 sector comercial, 20 servicio y 28 manufacturero/industrial). El instrumento utilizado consto de preguntas cerradas considerando la escala Likert, complementadas con preguntas abiertas donde los gerentes entrevistados emitieron sus opiniones y percepciones. Se concluye que los gerentes tienen conocimiento sobre la gestion tecnologica y la consideran un aspecto importante en la actual economia, no obstante, son escasas las acciones realizadas en esta materia y no se le presta el debido interes. La capacidad tecnologica presenta deficiencias debido a la carencia de investigacion sobre los requerimientos tecnologicos de las empresas, adicionalmente el exceso de actividades rutinarias impiden la insercion de procesos de innovacion y de tecnologias. EnglishThis research analyze the distinctive features of technology management in business for the retail, service and manufacturing / industrial sector, located in Barquisimeto - Lara state / Venezuela. The current situation of the companies in their technological management practices, and the constraints they face for their execution are evaluated. It is a descriptive research with a eld design. The sample consisted of 60 companies (12 retail, 20 service and 28 manufacturing / industrial sector). The instrument applied consists in closed questions considering the Likert scale, complemented with other open questions, where interviewed managers gave their opinions and perceptions. It is concluded that managers possess Technology Management knowledge, and even consider it as an important aspect in the current economy. However, very few actions have taken place in this area, leading to a lack of the attention that this matter really deserves, Technological capability is deficient due to the absence of research on technological requirements of the companies, and the excess of routine activities prevents the insertion of innovation processes and technologies in companies.
In the recent literature, the term ‘participatory governance’ is applied in three ways: First as a normative concept, i.e., the portrayal of participatory governance as a desirable project with many utopian features; second as a descriptive term for a type of decision-making process involving several stake holders, and third as an empirical-analytical concept that focuses on participation and input. All three definitions, however, have not fully been elaborated upon to date and have not always been used in a clear and explicit manner. The target in this paper is to take part in the development and the elaboration of an analytical tool to analyze empirical forms of participatory governance in Africa. The general questions of interest are: what is the purpose of stake holder involvement in an African context; which stakeholders take part in which phase of the policy process? And third: Is there a connection between input, output, and outcome? Does an inclusive form of participation and input equity result in Local Economic Development (LED) providing more equity as well? Output and outcome can be defined in different ways – according to the studied cases. Output can, be a law, a program, a policy or a standard. Outcome may, be the solution of a problem or a material result such as the amount of goods produced or improvement in the citizens’ quality of life. This paper is part of a ‘work in progress’: A part of a research project by the authors which has just recently begun. Thus, the frame of research will be in the center and the application of the frame is still in process. Several questions will remain open or can be merely touched upon. In the context of this conference, focus is on “Policy Options for Participatory governance and local Economic Development”, the central theme being “Linking Participatory governance to Local Economic Development and Poverty Reduction” Policy Options for Participatory Governance and Local Economic Development in Africa Africa Local Government Action Forum Phase VII “Linking Participatory Governance to Local Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Authors: Livison Mutekede and Noah Sigauke 2 Introduction The debate on participatory governance has a very long tradition, although a variety of different wordings was used before the emergence and distribution of the term ‘governance’. Concepts of political arrangements emphasizing participation – for example, ‘sovereign power’ (Rousseau), ‘participatory democracy’ (e.g., Carole Pateman 1970), or ‘strong democracy’ (Benjamin Barber 1984) – have been widely discussed for decades, both in political science as well as in politics. In the 1990s, the term ‘participatory governance’ has been adopted in accordance with the general debate on governance as a new form or even substitute of the traditional government (e.g., Benz 2004). No matter which wordings and terms were applied, the basic theses of participatory governance concepts remain similar: They focus on bottom-up participation with involvement of several stake holders. Proponents claim that additional political participation would improve the quality of politics and “make better citizens” (Mansbridge 1999). Since its emergence in the 1990s the term ‘participatory governance’ has experienced an astonishing career. It is surprising that there were hardly any discussions whether and how ‘participatory governance’ is similar or different from the older concepts of ‘participatory democracy’ or ‘strong democracy’. However, the added value of the new term, which seems to be nearly identical with older concepts at least on first sight, is not stipulated clearly and precisely. Schmitter (2002), for example, defines participatory governance as follows: “The regular and guaranteed presence when making binding decisions of representatives of those collectives that will be affected by the policy adopted.” The presence of stake holders at the process of decision making is not sufficient and as such it can be argued that participatory governance could include participation at all phases of the policy process – from agenda-setting to evaluation – this definition is very similar to older definitions of participatory or strong democracy. Nonetheless, this paper adopts the term and intends to contribute to its further clarification. In the recent literature, the term ‘participatory governance’ is applied in three ways: First as a normative concept, i.e., the portrayal of participatory governance as a desirable project with many utopian features; second as a descriptive term for a type of decision-making process involving several stake holders, and third as an empirical-analytical concept that focuses on participation and input. All three definitions, however, have not fully been elaborated upon to date and have not always been used in a clear and explicit manner. The target in this paper is to take part in the development and the elaboration of an analytical tool to analyze empirical forms of participatory governance in Africa. The general questions of interest are: what is the purpose of stake Policy Options for Participatory Governance and Local Economic Development in Africa Africa Local Government Action Forum Phase VII “Linking Participatory Governance to Local Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Authors: Livison Mutekede and Noah Sigauke 3 holder involvement in an African context; which stakeholders take part in which phase of the policy process? And third: Is there a connection between input, output, and outcome? Does an inclusive form of participation and input equity result in Local Economic Development (LED) providing more equity as well? Output and outcome can be defined in different ways – according to the studied cases. Output can, be a law, a program, a policy or a standard. Outcome may, be the solution of a problem or a material result such as the amount of goods produced or improvement in the citizens’ quality of life. This paper is part of a ‘work in progress’: A part of a research project by the authors which has just recently begun. Thus, the frame of research will be in the center and the application of the frame is still in process. Several questions will remain open or can be merely touched upon. In the context of this conference, focus is on “Policy Options for Participatory governance and local Economic Development”, the central theme being “Linking Participatory governance to Local Economic Development and Poverty Reduction” An Overview of the Scope of Participatory Governance and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries Good governance has recently been accorded a central place in the discourse on development. In some ways, this may seem to be a fairly self-evident proposition, but many issues need clarification. For example, what are the essential features of an appropriate governance structure, what are the problems involved in achieving good governance, and what actions need to be taken in order to tackle these problems? Governance is a somewhat elastic concept. It has been interpreted in many different ways so as to encompass many different aspects of social organisation and the institutional framework within which social and economic activities are performed. Much has been written in the recent past on all these questions. The latest UNDP publication Overcoming Human Poverty is devoted largely to exploring the multiple relationships between good governance and poverty reduction (UNDP 2000). The World Bank, other international agencies and many individual researchers have also addressed these dynamics. A number of country studies sponsored by UNDP from 1997 to 1999 as part of its Poverty Strategies Initiative (PSI) have also dealt with different aspects of these issues in their specific country contexts. This section seeks to blend the ideas and lessons that emerged from the PSI. It focuses on one specific Policy Options for Participatory Governance and Local Economic Development in Africa Africa Local Government Action Forum Phase VII “Linking Participatory Governance to Local Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Authors: Livison Mutekede and Noah Sigauke 4 aspect of the institutions of governance namely, governance at the level of local communities. This focus entails a range of concerns involving decentralisation, people’s empowerment, and the involvement of community-based organisations in local affairs, as well as the relevance of all these reforms to poverty reduction. The first sub-section begins by noting the multiplicity of meanings that the term ‘decentralised governance’ seems to have acquired over time. People’s participation at the grassroots level is an integral part of this notion of decentralisation. The value of participatory decentralisation is demonstrated by drawing upon various examples contained in the studies sponsored by UNDP. Two sets of problems are then identified that stand in the way of establishing truly participatory decentralisation. They relate, on the one hand, to the devolution of power from the top and, on the other, to genuine involvement of the poor from the bottom. The first set of issues is discussed in the following two sub-sections of this section, in the light of the empirical evidence presented in the PSI studies. It is then argued that a crucial precondition for tackling both these problems is the creation of an environment that can empower people, especially the poor, so that they can exercise their voice in the affairs of governance. This paper then takes up this issue by examining various approaches to empowerment. Decentralisation and people’s participation in local governance ‘Big government’ is often blamed for the persistent woes of the poor in the developing world. It would be more accurate to say, however, that the problem lies in the wrong kind of government, such as a governance structure that meddles too much into the details of economic activities that are best left to the market, but provides
Two models of citizenship predominate in Western political thought: the model of ancient warrior and the model of modern producer. Both are traditionally male activities and tend to produce inequalities in society rather than mitigate them. A third model of citizenship exists, reaching back to Aristotle, whose goal is to reduce inequalities and realise a civic friendship among all citizens, but such is generally considered ‘unrealistic’ today. If we consider the theoretically underappreciated ethical reproductive activities of women, however, together with the Gandhian tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, this third model of political action emerges as possible and may be relevant to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Jerusalem.
The twenty-first century has seen many developments in judgments recognition law in both the United States and the European Union, while at the same time experiencing significant obstacles to further improvement of the law. This article describes two problems of perception that have prevented a complete understanding of the law of judgments recognition on a global basis, particularly from a U.S. perspective. The first is a proximity of place problem that has resulted in a failure to understand that, unlike the United States, many countries allow their own courts to hear cases based on a broad set of bases of jurisdiction, while recognizing judgments from other countries only if they are based on a much narrower set of bases of jurisdiction. This gap between direct and indirect bases of jurisdiction results in a level of discrimination against foreign judgments that does not exist in the United States and some other countries, and makes a harmonized global approach to judgments recognition difficult. The second is a proximity of time problem that has resulted in a failure to remember the full context of Justice Gray’s historic analysis in Hilton v. Guyot, the seminal case in U.S. judgments recognition law. This article seeks to explain the consequences of both problems, and then comments on how a clearer understanding of these two problems of proximity may aid in making further progress in judgments recognition law.
The article deals with the activities of the Republic of Belarus undertaken for the sake of regional security. The analysed aspect are the Minsk Agreements which have been worked out thanks to the country’s significant organizational and diplomatic efforts. The paper discusses the Belarusian security perspective of both the Central and Eastern European region and the Republic itself. Belarus’s neutral attitude towards the armed conflict in Ukraine is presented in the article as well as the issues related to the organization of the peace process as a result of which the Minsk Agreements were adopted. Attention is also paid to the evolution of Belarus’ foreign policy in which, during the last few years, a significant activity in the field of regional security initiatives has been visible, thus creating the country’s image of a mediator. Belarus can play an important role in this aspect, which can be demonstrated by the example of its commitment to the peace process that eventually led to the signing of the Minsk Agreements.
A competent and motivated health workforce is indispensable to achieve the best health outcomes possible through given available resources and circumstances. However, apart from the shortages and unequal distribution, the workforce has fallen short of responding to the public health challenges of 21 st century also because of primarily the traditional training of health professionals. Although, health professionals have made enormous contributions to health and development over the past century, the 20 th century educational strategies are unfit to tackle 21 st century challenges. One of the key recommendations of the Lancet Commission on Education of Health Professionals is to improve health through reforms of professional education by establishing networks and partnerships which takes advantage of information and communication linkages. The primary goal of this manuscript is to highlight the potential of networks and partnerships in advancing the agenda of educational reforms to revitalize public health education in India. It outlines the current status and expanding scope of public health education in India, existing networks of public health professionals and public health education institutions in the country, and opportunities, advantages and challenges for such networks. Although, we have networks of individuals and institutions in the country, there potential to bring about change has still not being utilized fully and effectively. Immediate collaborative efforts could be directed towards designing and adaptation of competency driven curriculum frameworks suitable of addressing public health challenges of 21 st century, shifting the current focus of curriculum to multidisciplinary public health outlook, developing accreditation mechanisms for both the programs and institutions, engaging in creating job opportunities and designing career pathways for public health professionals in public and private sector. These efforts could certainly be facilitated through existing networks.
The Western Balkans is known for the (actual) existence of all kinds of substantial asymmetries, pluralities and diversities as well as for the complexity of (social, economic, ethnic, cultural, etc.) situations within the region and every country. The MIRICo research with its case (country) and comparative studies and findings presents and confirms also an incredible diversity of perceptions and (re)interpretations of concepts, historic situations and developments, conditioned by specific ideologies and viewpoints, and reflect an enormous variety of concepts, definitions and theoretical approaches that exist in scholarly literature as well as in the public discourse. Such a conclusion can be made also with regard to the studies and reports prepared for the Work Package 4 of the MIRICo project that focus on the role of human and minority rights in the process of reconstruction and reconciliation for stateand nation-building in the Western Balkans.2
The fate of minority preference programs is one of the major civil rights policy questions that will be determined in the 1990s. The merits of these minority preference programs have become increasingly controversial; debate has raged in the media, in the legislatures, and in the courts.1 Proponents claim that these policies are responsible for tremendous progress in minority employment and business ownership and therefore are necessary to reverse entrenched patterns of racial discrimination that the marketplace has failed to ameliorate.2 Critics argue that the programs are overbroad and superfluous since there is no evidence of specific discrimination.
Parliamentary websites can help people engage with elected representatives and the democratic process. Devin Joshi and Erica Rosenfield have been comparing the websites of legislatures across the world. Here, they share their findings on how the UK Parliament compares to its international counterparts, finding it an excellent model worthy of being emulated elsewhere, with some room for further improvement.
Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court established a consistency principle in its race-based equal protection cases. That principle requires courts to apply the same strict scrutiny to racial classifications designed to benefit racial minorities — such as affirmative action policies — as they do to laws invidiously discriminating against them.The new consistency principle, under which discrimination against whites is subject to strict scrutiny, conflicted with the Court’s established criteria for declaring a group to be a suspect or quasi-suspect class entitled to heightened scrutiny, which focused on such considerations as the history of discrimination against the group and its political powerlessness.As a result of that tension, the Court’s line of precedents for identifying new suspect and quasi-suspect classes has gone dormant, and it has not since considered whether any additional such classes exist. Instead, when confronted with plausible candidates for heightened scrutiny, such as gays and lesbians, the Court has engaged in sporadic application of stealth rational basis review.In this article, I use a hypothetical equal protection challenge to a sexual orientation-based affirmative action policy as a vehicle for proposing a roadmap for harmonizing these competing lines of precedent. I demonstrate that, in light of the consistency principle, an aggrieved heterosexual can bring a challenge to such a policy and seek heightened equal protection scrutiny even though the Court has yet to establish heightened scrutiny for laws discriminating against gays and lesbians.I conclude that such a harmonization of the Court’s equal protection precedents will reinvigorate the Court’s moribund precedents for identifying new suspect and quasi-suspect classes. Moreover, I conclude that announcing heightened scrutiny in such a case would present a particularly appealing vehicle to the Court’s center, represented by Justice Kennedy, whose jurisprudence demonstrates both support for gay rights and hostility toward affirmative action policies.
Frederic Bastiat is best known for his popularizing of economic ideas in pamphlets like That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen, The Law, and The State, as well as his books Economic Sophisms and Economic Harmonies. However, he was also an economic theorist, a fact that gets lost in the midst of his fiery pamphlets. Examining his correspondences and early political and economic writing, I show how he began developing public choice insights into rent seeking, voter rationality, and the behavior of legislators that would anticipate scholarship that would come a century later.
Abstract This article argues that Latin American regionalism in international law is a direct consequence of a ‘creole legal consciousness’ meaning a shared basic assumption about the origins of law in the region (as coming from Europe through Roman law and Spanish law) as well as a belief in the uniqueness of an American (as in the continent) interpretation and development of that law. Those who participate of such a consciousness assume themselves as being part of the metropolitan centre (as descendants of Europeans), while at the same time challenging the centre with notions of their own regional uniqueness (as natives of America). Creole consciousness about international law was an instrument of nation and region building during the 19th century. This led to a discussion of the actual existence of a regional international law ‘[Latin] American international law’ (derecho internacional Americano) in the first half of the 20th century. The article concludes with a look at how a regional perspective was also inherent in the construction of a human rights regime in the second half of the twentieth century.
Science in diplomacy, the use of trained scientist to inform and support foreign policy objectives, has been a part of U.S. foreign policy since the time of Benjamin Franklin. The Diplomacy Laboratory project, a public-private partnership, allows the Department of State to ‘course source’ projects to seek input from universities and to recruit talented students to consider careers in diplomacy. This paper provides a summary of a case study using a DipLab project as part of a term-length, writing assignment in courses for undergraduate and graduate environmental engineering students. An overview of DipLab and suggested best practices to integrate DipLab projects into engineering courses is also included.
The four principles of freedom (four freedoms) include freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion and belief, freedom from want, and freedom from fear, are basic principles recognized by countries and translated into many more specific forms of human rights fulfillment human. The fulfillment and protection of human rights is one indicator of the progress of a country. The scope of fulfilling human rights that covers a very broad field, from education, health, to law enforcement, is a challenge. The UN Security Council 2017 Universal Periodical Review (UPR) session provides recommendations for strengthening human rights in Indonesia, including the ratification of international human rights instruments, the continued cooperation of UN human rights, the abolition of the death penalty, matters related to sexual orientation and efforts to protect tolerance and diversity. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) 2017 records 84 cases of violence and human rights violations that occurred. The issue of interpreting different human rights standards is one of the causes of this high problem in Indonesia. Many different interpretations are caused by the running of different political systems of state administration, causing the implementation of human rights fulfillment to be different. This paper looks at and compares the practices of human rights enforcement covering the four principles of freedom in Indonesia. This paper will compare the implementation of human rights standards and norms in national domestic practices based on international human rights principles and norms.
The experienced gap between educational institutions and social demands have placed burning issues on the agenda that suggest the need to think of a new configuration for schools, this one supported by new attitudes and practices more in tune to the contemporary. Since the technological development in motion allows an excessive amount of innovations and brings significant changes in the role and in the place of the teacher and the school, it changes all educational system´s logic, because such technologies reorganize the way they apply and access the knowledge. Finally, this article shares an experience of continuing education with teachers of the municipal chain of Caruaru, a city located in the agreste region of Pernambuco, regarding the incorporation of digital technologies in the classroom. As theoretical basis were used approaches developed by Freitas (2009); Giroux (1997); Kenski (2007), among other authors.
Overwhelming research indicates that recent national trends in U.S. food systems have led to the increased prevalence of processed foods and associated diet-related diseases. The effects of unhealthy diets have been distributed unevenly across the country’s socioeconomic and ethnic groups. Certain socioeconomic and ethnic groups face greater geographic, financial and cultural barriers to healthy food access. In Adams County, Pennsylvania, Latinos comprise 5.6% of the population, making them the county’s largest minority group, yet little is known about the food access barriers they face. In this study, we used a combination of surveys and focus groups with Latino residents and personal interviews with community leaders to identify the geographic, financial, and cultural barriers to food access for the county’s Latino community. We found that, though geographic and financial barriers had little effect on the community’s access to healthy food, cultural barriers presented a significant obstacle that needs to be addressed. We hope this study will inform the Adams County Food Policy Council in proposing policy measures that address specific food access issues in the county.
There is little empirical research to indicate whether the introduction of sentencing guidelines displaces discretion from judges to prosecutors. In the handful of studies that examine the hydraulic displacement of discretion, discretion is usually measured by the rate of charge bargaining. The current study uses an alternative methodology—calculating the value of the bargain—to examine the effect of sentencing guidelines on prosecutorial discretion in the District of Columbia Superior Court. It measures the impact of charge bargaining on sentence length in a sample of 266 pre-guidelines sentences and 263 post-guidelines sentences, and finds that the rate of charge bargaining did not change after the introduction of guidelines, but that the impact of bargaining on sentence length increased slightly. Although the amount of displacement of discretion in the D.C. Guidelines was modest, the study demonstrates that alternative measures (value of the bargain) might reveal displacement of discretion when traditional measures (rate of the bargain) do not.
In the aftermath of the genocide the Rwandan government is facing the difficult task of uniting Hutus and Tutsis that for generations has been hostile to each other. In this strive references to Hutu, Tutsi and Twa have been replaced by Rwandans in the public discourse, and the government has rewrited history in a way suitable for  its goal. This study aims at analysing this rewriting of history, look into how it is implemented in the Rwandan society, and how this is reshaping the national identity, mainly by using theories of narrative identity construction. The results show that the government is underlining what unites people - the pre-colonial period, and eclipse the part that seperated them - post-colonial period. The pre-colonial untiy is recalled through national symbols, traditional culture, media and public events. This is creating collective memroy and constitues the base for a Rwandan national identity.
Over the past decades, business has begun reacting to growing societal pressures by broadening its focus from profit maximization alone to the “triple bottom line” of people, planet and profit.1 In the years since this concept was first introduced, people and planet focused sustainability initiatives have become standard practice amongst businesses across the world. Yet, migration is often overlooked as a factor within a company’s overall sustainability strategy. Such an oversight is critical, as migration invariably impacts business, and ensuring that its influence remains positive requires both awareness and engagement amongst corporate leadership. Migration can offer opportunities within each aspect of the triple bottom line, for instance, by creating a diverse and competent workforce, fostering innovation across borders and creating possibilities for globally integrated strategies in the realm of environmental sustainability.
The way in which integrated effort encompas'Sing several epistemologies has developed in one organization is analyzed. The concern is to investigate under what conditions multidisciplimarity flourishes. The data base is a long-term, intensive case study of the Learning Research and Development Center (1RDC) of the University cf Pittsburgh since its inception in 1963. Several.aspects of the UDC experience offer themselves as suggestions to others who would seek to construct a multidisciplinary Organization. (1) In an environment that contains members of several professions or academic backgrounds, certain safeguards are required for those of "less scientific" fields. (2) There should be frequent attempts at communication among all groups. (3) Joint work is one of the best paths to multidisciplinarity. (4) Certain kinds of professionals and/or certain times in professional careers seem to lend themselves more easily to a multidisciplinary endeavor. (5) Ideal-type moles that embody characteristics of several disciplines can be encouraged as a prototype for the entire environment. (6) certain organizational characteristics facilitate multidisciplinarity such as placing all groups on the same level in terms of the authority heirarchy or the sharing of personnel and other resources. (7) The multidisciplinary centeY and the department or school to which a faculty member also belongs must both participate actively in evaluations and decisions regarding promotions or pay raises. (8) Finally, it is necessary that a stable environment be encouraged that provides time and other resources for multidisciplinary knowledge production. (Mb) Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from
This article describes the development and application of a framework to compare national counterterrorism policies. It discusses the state of the art regarding concepts, frameworks and inventories to compare counterterrorism policies, explains the logic behind our own framework, briefly describes the application to ten European Union Member States, and then formulates an empirically based categorisation of counterterrorism policies. It is shown that the counterterrorism policies of the nine European states differ fundamentally. The concluding section sums up the findings and addresses some possibilities for the practical application of a framework of this kind.
Establishing an Open Access Policy (OAP) in an academic institution is unlike establishing other policies the institution might have developed. An OAP in an academic institution would require the active participation of all stakeholders; researcher/faculty, library, management (Administration) and even students. OAP development in Covenant University spanned a total of 13 months; covering, draft policy development, legal review of policy, review of OAP by the university community, revision of policy document following institutional review, adoption of OAP by university community, ratification of OAP by University Senate. The OAP development period also saw a deliberate effort by the university through its Open Access (OA) office to sensitize its community on the drive for OA, as well as educates strategic units and departments of the university on OA issues to bring such key units and department abreast on OA and ensure proper execution on the OAP. Covenant University now operates an OAP for the development and use of open educational resources, alongside Institutional Repository (IR) guidelines. The OAP covers publications and access to research information, pedagogy materials and tools as well as access to non-research or pedagogical materials in the university and by the university workers, researchers and faculty.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to explain the role of six party talks in United States and North Korea negotiation process. There are many diplomacy issues between United States and North Korea, one of the hot issues that were on discussed was the issue of the inclusion of North Korea in the black list of the state sponsors of terrorism that maked by the United States. Various negotiations have been carried out by the two countries to achieve the mutual agreement, one of the negosiations which that was held between the two countries are the negotiations that involving the six party talks. In this case, I put more emphasis on the role of the six party talks in the negotiations between United States and North Korea to reach a mutual agreement between the two countries. Keywords: negotiations, six party talks, mutual agreement
The purpose ofthis project was to develop a list of useful health promotion web sites by integrating the health needs of school age youth and adolescents with information available on the Internet. The health needs of the targeted youth group, ages 10 to 14 years, were assessed using information from the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services (U.S. DHHS) as part of the Healthy People 2010 campaign, nursing literature, and interviews with a nurse practitioner at the Vine Middle Magnet School Health Center. Sites from the World Wide Web were accessed via several search engines (Yahoo, Google, and Alta Vista) and evaluated using criteria developed by Thede for nursing informatics (1999). Evaluation was subjective; the above criteria, as well as, relevance to health needs of the population and interest level were primary measures for evaluation. The results of this project are the comprehensive list of Internet sites available at the Vine Middle Magnet School Health Center web page, under useful links for students (http://web.utk.edu/~dolores/vinepg.html#students).This web page is part of a development project by Dolores Philpot, RN, MSN, instructor at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing. While the site is maintained as a resource ofthis Health Center, it is hoped that it will be a future resource for students in many demographic and geographic areas. 3 Health Information Health Information for Adolescents on the Internet The expansive Internet is a beneficial and practical resource for health information. It is rapidly becoming more accessible to the entire population, and thus the health information presented must be evaluated for accuracy and credibility. Youth often access the Internet daily for entertainment and information, and their use warrants the assessment ofthe health information that is presented to this population. It is the intent ofthis project to evaluate health web sites for adolescent youth and create an index ofthe best sites. Purpose As part ofcollaboration with instructor Dolores Philpot at the Vniversity ofTennessee (V.T.) College ofNursing, this project was proposed as an evaluation ofyouth oriented health web sites to be included on a web page designed for the Vine Middle Magnet School Health Center in Knoxville. The web page was designed for health promotion and education ofparents, teachers, and students and as a resource for health care providers. The sites included for students must be evaluated for content and accessibility to this population (adolescents ages 10-14). Then, the sites most appropriate in terms ofevaluation criteria would be listed as an index ofhealth resources for adolescents. Vine Middle Magnet School Health Center The Vine Middle Magnet School Health Center is a clinic located in Vine Middle School's facilities in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is a joint effort between the Knox County Health Department, the V.T. College ofNursing, and the Knox County School System and was established in 1996. Nurse practitioners, student nurses and student nurse practitioners provide primary care, immunizations, acute illness care, first aid, physicals, and health education to students at the school. These services are free to students in Knox County Schools. The four-fold 4 Health Infom1ation mission statement of the Health Center is to keep students healthy in order to learn, to have successful children, to provide health services to the con1ffiunity, and education, scholarship, and service. The clinic has been well received in the community it serves. Parents must sign permission forms for their children to be seen in the clinic, and a majority of students have this permission and receive care. One of the only conlplaints reported by parents is that the clinic has limited hours and days, as the schedule is dictated by school hours and school days (Monday­ Friday, 8:00 a.m.4:00p.m. (Gaylord, 2000). Through the clinic, the U.T. College ofNursing also provides a summer program for parents called Strong Families. This program is designed as an educational session about discipline, adolescent issues, drugs, and family issues encountered during adolescence. The clinic is a useful and presently accessible health resource for the community. Designing the web page was meant as an additional resource through this already prolific Health Center. Computers are accessible in the school, and students use them regularly as part of their health education curriculum. The hope is that students will use the web page as part of their personal searches for health information, as part ofassigned searches for health education, and when referred to it by the nurse practitioners in the clinic for further health information. Adolescent Health Needs Research Exploration of the health needs of this population was accomplished through a nursing literature review, interviews with nurse practitioners familiar with the students at Vine Middle Schoo~ and a review ofthe Healthy People 2010 initiative. This information was incorporated into the web site evaluation. 5 Health Information Adolescents have specific health needs as defined by their age and the many changes that take place during this time oflife. Biologic, cognitive, psychologic, and social developments all make this a complex period for adolescents (Sieving, 1999). Physically, hormonal and pUbertal changes are happening, causing increases in height, weight, and a more adult appearance (Sieving). Cognitive growth occurs as well, with formal operational thought emerging; this includes being able to think in abstract terms, to think about possibilities and consequences, and to weigh risks and benefits (Sieving). Adolescents have a heightened sense ofself-consciousness and the belief that their experience is unique, which leads to many ofthe health-related behaviors and beliefs ofyouth (Sieving). The development ofautonomy occurs also, with adolescents learning to make their own decisions and to develop unique opinions and beliefs (Sieving). Finally, adolescents learn social rules and explore new relationships with the opposite sex, with increasing importance placed on their social group rather than on the family unit (Sieving). The developmental milestones ofadolescence relate directly to their particular health needs. Obesity and physical inactivity, smoking, drug and alcohol use, sexually transmitted diseases, violence and injury, and pregnancy are the most prevalent issues in adolescent health. Eleven percent ofadolescents are overweight or obese, and adolescents from lower income families are twice as likely to be overweight (U.S. DHHS, 2000). In a study by Muscari, 79% of adolescents surveyed did not participate in moderate physical activity (1999). Three thousand young persons start smoking everyday, which equals about 36% ofadolescents who have smoked in the past month (U.S. DHHS). This is an increase from the 28% ofadolescents who smoked in the 1990s. Twentyone percent ofadolescents used alcohol, and 10% ofadolescents used illicit drugs, in 1997 and 1998, according to U.S. DHHS. Muscari reports substance abuse by teens to be even higher: 52% using alcohol and 25% using marijuana. Risky behaviors with 6 Health Information sexual activity cause other problems for adolescents. Teen pregnancy occurs in almost 1 million teenage women (Alan Guttmacher Institute [AGI], 1999). Three million teens acquire sexually transmitted diseases, which translates to about 1 in 4 sexually active adolescents (AGI). Homicides and violence account for a significant proportion ofmorbidity and mortality in the adolescent age group. Unintentional injuries and homicides are two ofthe top three causes of death in the 5-14 year age group (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 1999). Reports on the health risks that adolescents take, show that older adolescents have more risky behaviors than younger adolescents (Scales, 1999). Prevention activities then must be initiated early to reach youth before they make decisions that could be detrimental to their health. Adolescents must be actively involved, and must be provided with accurate information to guide and assist them in making their own decisions and maintaining healthy lifestyles (Muscari, 1999). The students at Vine have specific health needs, as identified by Gail Clift, the pediatric nurse practitioner who provides care three days a week at the clinic. The problems most often encountered are allergies and sinus infections, obesity, and sports injuries (G. Clift, personal communication, October 18, 2000). Chronic problems of students at Vine are asthma, allergies, and ADHD and other mental health illnesses (Gaylord, 2000). The biggest health needs of these students are health education about obesity and nutrition, exercise and pre-participation stretching, and injury prevention (G. Clift). Healthy People 2010 Leading health indicators. The health of the nation is the focus ofthe Healthy People 2010 document published by the U.S.DHHS (2000). This document provides a plan for the improvement ofhealth in specified focus areas. The public health issues selected as leading 7 Health Information health indicators were selected because these issues motivate action and can be measured with existing data and available measuring tools (U.S. DHHS, 2000). The leading health indicators are physical activity, overweight and obesity, tobacco use, substance abuse, responsible sexual behavior, mental health, injury and violence, environmental quality, immunization, and access to health care. These leading health indicators provided a guide to choosing health promotion web sites during the evaluation portion of this project. Web sites that included information about the leading health indicators or prevention education related to these indicators promote the accomplishment of the goals ofHealthy People 2010; thus these sites were included in the final index. Directing adolescents to these health promotion sites was t
The judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU in the El Dridi case clarifies the scope of application of the Returns Directive, in particular with regard to the difference between criminal detention and pre-return detention and to the general objectives of the EU’s immigration policy. The ruling will have far-reaching consequences not only on the Italian criminal and expulsions system, but also on the national legislations of a number of Member States.
Introduction ...................................................................................... 298 I. The Doctrines ........................................................................ 300 A. State Law in Federal Court............................................. 300 1. Erie Under the Rules of Decision Act ...................... 301 2. Erie Under the Rules Enabling Act .......................... 302 B. Federal Procedure in State Court ................................... 304 1. Preemption for Beginners ......................................... 304 2. Introduction to Reverse-Erie .................................... 307 II. Reverse-Erie in Practice ........................................................ 310 A. Asymmetry Between the Doctrines ................................ 311 B. Criticisms of Reverse-Erie As-Is ................................... 313 C. Reverse-Erie as It Should Be ......................................... 315 III. Applications Through Indian Law ......................................... 317 A. Special Status of Tribal Nations Under Federal and State Law ........................................................................ 318 B. Reverse-Erie As It Should Be Through the Lens of Indian Law ..................................................................... 319 1. Procedural Rules Not Preempted .............................. 320 2. Rules of the Forum Applied Where Conflict Unrecognized ............................................................ 321 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 323
Defendants with mental health problems find themselves caught between the healthcare system and the criminal justice system, with the inevitable debate in relation to care versus control in society. Cases taken to the European Court of Human Rights by mentally disordered offenders demonstrate the inherent challenges in ensuring appropriate care to individuals whilst safeguarding the public. The Department of Health/Home Office Circular 66/90 advised that no person detainable under the Mental Health Act 1983 should be detained in prison, although in practice, this seemingly sensible principle remains extremely difficult to achieve, almost two decades later.1 This article will examine the human rights of defendants, the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into UK legislation, the effect that this has had on the care and diversion of mentally disordered defendants from the criminal justice system, and finally the limitations to the Human Rights Act 1998.
Although it is unarguably the case that governmental and other state structures have changed since the seventeenth century, sometimes it can be unthinkingly assumed that in another major site of power differences, that of gender roles, matters have remained largely the same. This has the result that whilst readings of Donne, or Vaughan, or Marvell might include an active consideration of the specifics of the status of Catholics in the early 1600s, or of the problematics of political alliances in the 1650s, it is still relatively common to find work on those same poets paying no heed to the particular contemporary limitations of femaleness and maleness. The result is a blurring of the specificity of the poetry and its concerns. If the only evidence we had to go on when imagining the relationships between men and women in the seventeenth century was the most frequently anthologized male poetry of the period, we would gain a very distorted impression of the probable social realities. Whereas the legal and economic structures of seventeenth-century society ensured women's subordination to men, defending this through a panoply of ideological assertions, vast numbers of poems present the (would-be) mistress as all powerful, able to kill her admirer with an angry glance, her will irresistible.
English Abstract: In the article the scientific and methodical approach of a mechanism to ensure financial independence territory on the basis of decentralization. It is emphasized that financial capacity areas should be assessed in solving problems of tactical and strategic. In determining the financial independence of the territory proposed to use financial potential is calculated by taking into account the impact of the shadow economy on financial flows, thus avoiding the manipulation of money allocated for development of the area and to identify regions donor and recipient regions. The article draws attention to the fact that the mechanism for ensuring financial autonomy territory on the basis of decentralization should be based on achieving a reasonable compromise interests of the State and Territories (population and businesses). That financial autonomy areas is not an absolute concept, it is relative, is meant to increase the level of autonomy to certain maximum possible limits that do not conflict with the interests of the state and budgets at all levels.    Ukrainian Abstract: У статті обґрунтовано науково-методичний підхід щодо механізму забезпечення фінансової  самостійності території на засадах децентралізації. Підкреслено, що фінансові можливості  території повинні оцінюватися при вирішенні задач тактичного і стратегічного характеру. При  визначенні фінансової самостійності території пропонується використовувати фінансовий  потенціал, який розраховується з урахуванням впливу тінізації економіки на фінансові потоки, що дозволить уникнути маніпулювання коштами виділеними на розвиток території та визначати  регіони-донори і регіони-реципієнти. У статті звертається увага на те, що механізм забезпечення фінансової самостійності території на засадах децентралізації повинен бути заснований на досягненні розумного компромісу інтересів держави та територій (населення та підприємництва). Тобто фінансова самостійність територій це не абсолютне поняття, вона є відносною, мається на увазі підвищення рівня цієї самостійності до певних максимально можливих меж, які не суперечать інтересам держави та бюджетів на всіх рівнях.
One of the themes of a recent New York Times Magazine piece on Mitt Romney is that the likely Republican nominee for president is running a campaign that, unlike President Obama's successful bid for the White House in 2008, is not based on the candidate's personal narrative. This is largely true, not only because Romney, a national figure for at least four years now, still presents as an extremely boring man about whom ordinary people feel no curiosity, but also because the son of privilege who goes to elite schools and gets rich as a consultant urging companies to lay people off is not exactly a compelling story.
Juana Tapia did not know how to sign her own name. Yet, on September 12, 1900, Tapia successfully initiated a suit in federal district court for her son's release from military service. Her son, Miguel Álvarez, had been imprisoned by a local prefect during the recent municipal elections in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora, for alleged criminal activities. Instead of consigning Álvarez to a criminal judge to be prosecuted for these alleged crimes, the local prefect had ordered Tapia's son to nearby Torim to serve in the Mexican army's twelfth battalion.
Abstract Throughout English Canada, a variety of methodologies based on Stanislavski's “system” have been the centrepieces for actor training at a majority of colleges and universities for decades. Far from being a calculated pedagogical gambit, this practically unquestioned aquiescence to a pre-professional psychophysical training framework that consists of early Stanislavskian concepts such as “emotion memory”, “given circumstances” and the “magic if” has developed as a default response to hegemonic notions regarding the “marketplace” and a “common language”. The potential ramifications of this situation are examined, with specific reference to similar practices in the UK and the US.
The primary question that this dissertation seeks to answer is, “How might we characterize the narrative depiction of Esther’s political involvement in the affairs of the Persian state?” Many scholars have tried to answer this question with regard to how typical or exceptional Esther is vis-a-vis portrayals of other biblical women: Does Esther represent an aberration from gender norms or an embodiment of male patriarchal values? The project undertaken here is to challenge the way in which the entire question has been framed because underlying it is a set of problematic assumptions. The results of the question framed thus can only lead to more interpretive difficulties, either denying the commonalities between Esther and other biblical women, or ignoring the dynamics at play when the very same descriptions are used of men. In addition, the reliance on these two categories has provided a kind of self-perpetuating logic so that scholarship about men and women and their respective roles tends to replicate two separate and divided spheres within academic discourse. This dissertation begins with a review of scholarship on Esther. Many scholarly assessments of her, whether they see her as typical or exceptional, rely on problematic assumptions; yet within the body of scholarship on Esther there were also a number of insights that suggest a more nuanced approach to evaluating her character. One problem of dichotomous assessments of Esther is that they rely on an assumption of gendered and separate public and private spheres for men and women respectively, a construct that suffers from a number of
In the 1940s–1960s, the USSR made an ideological turn from leftist sports politics to the struggle for Olympic achievements. How has this U-turn affected the social order in Soviet sport and its artistic representation? The article offers a systematic review of Soviet sport fiction films. The study of sport and fitness imagination is conducted through a correlation between artistic performance and social context. Focusing on the 1950s–1980s, we found three different types of representation: No 1 is the creating of a hero (for an elite athlete). This is the lion’s share of all sport movies where the “Myth of a Hero” in Olympic sport was constructed. In praising elite sport, modern Russian movies continue the well-known Soviet tradition; No 2 is the laughing at clowns (for mass sportsmen). These are mostly episodes in feature films on themes, where mass sport (i.e., non-elite, grassroots, recreational, fitness, and ordinary) is mentioned. Surprisingly, this sport is presented in a comic sense (except hiking and mountaineering); No3 is sport reality. This type comprises the tiniest selection of movies where art reflects the real situation inside the Soviet sport industry. Elite athletes are presented here as antiheroes with social adaptation problems; additionally, such issues as shamateurism are severely criticized. The conclusions are following: since the 1970s, sport films ceased to function as propaganda of fitness and recreational sport. On the contrary, elite sport (as an art branch), its representations in official arts and media jointly constructed the great “evangelical myth” about itself, which became the part of public consciousness. However, this myth had little to do with a new reality. Elite sport’s positive representation acted only as a propagandist tool that created a fictional social world. The existing social order’s irrationality was critically reflected only by the comedy genre.
Indigenous peoples are constantly approached for research purposes. When researchers call on Indigenous peoples to hand over their knowledge, family histories, stories and images, Indigenous cultural and intellectual rights are at risk. The Kimberley Land Council ('Council') has implemented a policy to ensure that research is conducted in accordance with ethical standards so that the rights of Kimberley Aboriginal people are protected from exploitation. It aims to ameliorate the impact of Australian intellectual property laws which fall short of protecting traditional knowledge, thereby giving effect to principles recognised in international law. It mandates that researchers obtain the free, prior informed consent of traditional owners through the Council, duly attribute their assistance and ensure that they partake in any resultant benefits and intellectual property rights. This measure has limited avenues for abuse by providing a contractual safeguard in an area where existing legal frameworks are largely inadequate.
In April 2005, the cabinet council formulated basic policies for the reactivation of communities in Japan through the Local Revitalization Act. The council, while promoting the implementation of social networks and investing in human resources, stipulated the need to stimulate the social capital inherent to each community. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sciences and Technology (MEXT) as well as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) also examined the possibility of supporting social capital. It was at the same time that the long-term care insurance system was reformed. This reform promoted the implementation of a “community-based integrated care system,” but no mention was made of social capital. However, as the design of the system was a task delegated to each local government and considering that some governments put social capital at the core of the system, some leave it out of consideration, and some others try to cultivate a social capital adapted to the Japanese situation, significant differences between local governments in the design of the system can be expected.
A new political power, Caucasian Albania, grew in the eastern Caucasus between the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire and the consolidation of the Sasanian Empire (ca. 300 BCE – 300 CE). During this period, the region was a multi-polar intersection of Mediterranean, Iranian, and Steppe zones of interest and socio-political frameworks. Although never comfortably integrated into the Seleucid, Roman, or Arsacid empires, residents in the eastern Caucasus interacted with all of them. Antik Albania, however, has remained at the margins of modern scholarship, creating a gap in our perceptions of the networks flowing across antiquity. In this dissertation, I provide an archaeological, historical, and historiographic investigation of Antik Albania that addresses that gap. It focuses on Albania’s interactions with the Mediterranean world, while also exploring the ancient Iranian context. Additionally, it examines the intellectual history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet South Caucasus, and contemporary Azerbaijan that generated most archaeological data and previous scholarship on the region. Building from an examination of textual sources, I consider the way that the landscape of the eastern Caucasus shaped movement and connectivity. The mountainous terrain created distinct transit corridors through the space, but instead of positioning themselves directly along one of these, the Albanians chose to build their base of power in more distant space that controlled a juncture between lowand highlands. Despite their choice of an out-of-the-way location, the material culture associated with Albanian state administration demonstrates that local political authorities constructed their own vocabulary of power, which freely incorporated and re-imagined elements from Mediterranean and Iranian neighbors. Finally, mortuary data reflecting social identity highlight the sustained presence of mobile pastoralist populations connected to the Pontic and Eurasian steppes. These data show the fluidity between elements of the population that have been previously been presumed to be either mobile or sedentary. Throughout this study, I argue that the ‘remoteness’ of Albania in both its ancient context and within our Anglo-American scholarly one is, in, fact a conceptual strength of the space. It prompts us to wrestle with diverse datasets and conflicting intellectual histories, enriching and expanding our vision of a connected antiquity. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Art & Archaeology of Mediterranean World This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2824 First Advisor Lauren Ristvet
Enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs declined in the autumn of 2011, compared to a year earlier. Enrollments were down slightly at the senior and junior levels and substantially at the freshman level. Enrollment increased at the sophomore level. The majority of administrators say they have made curricular changes in the past two years in response to changes taking place in the communication landscape. Much of that change is focused on revisions to what had been the journalistic core. The field has become more diverse racially and ethnically, coming close to matching the characteristics of the overall population.
This Essay considers the Fifth Amendment barrier to orders compelling a suspect to enter in a password to decrypt a locked phone, computer, or file. It argues that a simple rule should apply: an assertion of privilege should be sustained unless the government can independently show that the suspect knows the password. The act of entering a password is testimonial, but the only implied statement is that the suspect knows the password. When the government can prove this fact independently, the assertion is a foregone conclusion and the Fifth Amendment poses no bar to the enforcement of the order. This rule is both doctrinally correct and sensible policy. It properly reflects the distribution of government power in a digital age when nearly everyone is carrying a device that comes with an extraordinarily powerful lock.
There is a deep relationship between energy transition and the governance of contemporary societies. However, while existing governance literature has gone a long way to accommodate complex and heterogeneous problems, it has so far fallen short of entirely dealing with the human, social and cultural challenges that this topic incurs. In particular, the deep relationship between energy transition and political dynamics at large has important connections to social, cultural and personal issues that remain underattended in theories of energy transition governance. As a matter of fact, in more or less direct ways, any event moving in the direction of energy transition requires sophisticated levels of coordination among the many actors involved in governance, and mobilizing a wide range of interests that are likely to produce conflicts, tension and resistance. Building on the interim results of the MILESECURE-2050 FP7 project, the authors reflects upon constitutive elements of energy transition regimes, i.e. more or less stable clusters of individual and collective actors, institutional or not, that can develop plans of action, activate social norms and standards and mobilize resources to encourage, manage, anticipate or direct the dynamics associated with energy transition. Theseelements are presented against existing, more abstract and generic approaches to governance of complex problems, in order to position them as potential operationalisations. Overall, the proposed contribution aims to derive general principles for the governance of Energy transition and Energy security, using both empirical material and existing scholarship on governance of complex problems.
Abbreviations Foreword Executive Summary 1. Gender, Poverty and Development Policy Introduction A Brief History of Poverty Reduction Policies Putting Gender on the Policy Agenda 2. Integrating Gender into Macroeconomic Analysis Introduction Gender Bias in Macroeconomic Analysis Empirical Findings Gender Equity and Economic Growth: Competing Hypothesis Conclusion 3. The Geography of Gender Inequality Introduction Institutions and Gender Inequality Regional Perspectives on Gender Equality Updating the Geography of Gender Classifying Gender Constraints Conclusion 4. Approaches to Poverty Analysis and its Gender Dimensions Introduction The Poverty Line Approach The Capabilities Approach Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs) Conclusion 5. Gender Inequality and Poverty Eradication: Promoting Household Livelihoods Introduction Gender Inequality and Household Poverty in South Asia Gender Inequality and Household Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa Links Between Gender Inequality and Income Poverty: The Wider Picture Conclusion 6. Gender Equality and Human Development Outcomes: Enhancing Capabilities Introduction Gender Inequality and Human Development: The Equity Rationale Gender Inequality and Family Well-being: The Instrument Rationale Conclusion 7. Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Introduction Conceptualising Empowerment: Agency, Resources and Achievement Access to Education and Women's Empowerment Access to Paid Work and Women's Empowerment Voice, Participation and Women's Empowerment Agency and Collective Action: Building Citizenship from the Grassroots Conclusion 8. Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Introduction Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Synergy or Trade-off? Poverty Reduction Strategy papers (PRSPs): A Gender Audit Gender-responsive Budget (GRB) Analysis Mainstreaming Gender in Policy-making Institutions Mobilising around Gender Equity Goals: Building active Citizenship Conclusion Select Bibliography Glossary
Many individuals proclaim that global capitalism is here to stay. Unfettered markets, they argue, now drive the world, and all countires must adjust, no matter how painful this must be for some. Robert Gilpin urges us, however, not to take an open and intergrated global economy for granted. Rather, we must consider the political that have enabled global markets to function and the probablity that these conditions will continue. This work is an enquiry into all major aspects of the contemporary world political economy. Beginning with the 1989 end of the Cold War and the subsquent collapse of Communism, it focuses on globalization and rapid technological change and covers a broad sweep of economic developments and political cultures. Gilpin demonstrates the fragility of a global and integrated economy and recommends what can be done to strengthen it.
In global security there are two new kids in town: hybrid threats and resilience. Hybrid warfare is a potent, complex variation of warfare seeking the decision primarily at non-military centres of gravity. Nations need to be better able to resist, recover, and to assign responsibility to an aggressor nation. Resilience requires joint action of all relevant actors. Decision-makers in nations and organizations, in public and private functions need to be cross-linked to overcome modern, hybrid challenges. Consequently, resilience requirements are reflected in recent European Union and NATO decisions. Four mutually reinforcing „focus areas” will provide for enhancing resilience: identifying key vulnerabilities and associated risks; synchronizing cross-governmental decision making; building military sustainability and civil preparedness; balancing the allocation of available resources. These could serve as a bridge between the presence and future and provide measurable change. „Resilience Readiness Centres” could contribute to significantly enhanced higher level, joint civil-military education and training.
The entry of WTO is a landmark in the course of our country's modernization. It will produce a deep and long influence to all sides of our country's social life. Making study of our country's current situation combining WTO demands will be helpful for our government to govern according to law so as to boost the market economic development and the perfection of law society. It has realistic meaning for our country after its entry of WTO.
always pronounced in the text. The last chapter ‘‘The Search for Shared Responsibility’’ summarizes its characteristic features in each of the four countries. However, a more general summary that encompasses all of the countries and shows the continuum of shared responsibility patterns could probably maximize the benefits of the arduous research work done by the author. The book it truly an invaluable and rare source of information on shared responsibility in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Russia, which has been obtained from a vast number or sources, including interviews with civilian and military experts, books, articles, and internet sources in English, Russian, and German. To sum up, the book Civil-Military Relations and Shared Responsibility: A four-nation Study by Dale R. Herspring is an ingenious in-depth analysis of shared responsibility in various cultural and historical contexts. The author reasonably expects it to stimulate similar research, because the book highlights a new fruitful research route. Moreover, its particular advantage is that it enables a reader to see civil–military relationship from the perspective of military culture, thus helping bridge the gap between the military and civilians. All that makes this book a must read for both experienced scholars seeking a new perspective on civil–military relations and students who are just beginning to explore the topic.
ABSTRACT Competence-based approaches (CBAs) in education have become an internationally important educational policy concept in recent decades. However, a substantial body of research has suggested that in order to understand and explain the evolution of CBAs, there is a need to analyse curriculum-making as a complex and multi-layered practice. To contribute to this research field, this paper makes use of Vivien Schmidt’s concept of discursive-institutionalism (DI), which focuses on ideas and discourse. First, we compare ideas of competences as expressed in four influential CBA frameworks, and second, we exemplify how these ideas, with special reference to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, have been translated when re-contextualised within Swedish curriculum policy-making. The results show that when re-contextualised within national borders, transnational ideas of competences are reconfigured. In the case of Sweden, this process has led to a national interpretation of CBAs, discussed in this paper as ‘hybrid competences.’
Kevin Gilliland is an associate in Sedgwick’s Los Angeles office with experience in construction and commercial litigation. Because of his prior work experience in the construction industry, he has an in-depth understanding of construction contracts, project management, remedying construction defects, and preparing and negotiating change orders. Mr. Gilliland is also familiar with estimating and submitting bid proposals for projects in the public and private sectors. In addition to construction law, Mr. Gilliland has experience in intellectual property and entertainment law, as well as employment and constitutional law. Mr. Gilliland’s practice includes all aspects of civil litigation at the trial level. He represents clients in state and federal courts, mediations, and arbitrations. Mr. Gilliland specializes in litigating domestic and international multi-party construction disputes, as well as drafting contracts for sophisticated construction projects. He also counsels contractors, owners, and sureties on various legal issues arising during the building process.
The article describes the analysis of the modern British party system in the age of changes and transformations. in particular, it analyzes the changes in the electorate as well as the legal-institutional conditions which, in consequence, led to a shift in the balance of power between the political parties on the parliamentary level that occurred after the 2010 general election. Forming a coalition in the Parliament and the Cabinet marked the beginning of an ideologically and politically difficult rule of two parties which both politicians and voters alike had to learn. i argue that the above circumstances led to a certain “crisis” not only in the way administration is handled but also in the society’s political participation. Simultaneously, it relates to what i view as a change in the British party system. The present article largely focuses on the transformations within the British party system that occurred in the early 21st century, on the genesis of the processes which affects the transformations in the above system, as well as on the causes and effects of these phenomena.
In the opinion of Marxism ,scaling the development of society includes two aspects: the development of productivity and de velopment of human being .From the whole process and the trend of the development of society ,the two is consistent ,but at present in china they show incomplete consistence .To promote the Party's ruling ability and construct harmonious society of socialism need the development of productivity and human being to beunified by the viewpoint of scientific development ,which is able to promote the harmony of both.
Research on the president's cabinet has been scant. I have been engaged in research on the cabinet secretaries of the Truman through Johnson administrations for a number of years, and I believe that one explanation for this dearth of cabinet studies may have been the inaccessibility of information and original source material on cabinet secretaries. In the 1950's when the last book-length manuscript on the cabinet was published, presidential libraries were in their earliest stages. Documents useful in longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of departments and secretaries were limited in availability. However, now there is an abundance of information useful for cabinet research, and presidential libraries housing such material have begun to grow like Topsy. What I wish to do in this article is to share some ideas regarding possible directions of future studies on the cabinet. As Gordon Hoxie has stated, we are fast "approaching the bi-centennial of the Cabinet in the American Presidency. Unlike the Cabinet in the parliamentary system, it is not at the heart of the excutive. Rather, it is a secondary political institution, related to the primary one, the presidency itself. Nonetheless, it is of consequence toindeed it is the crux ofthe presidency."1 The cabinet is an enduring aspect of the American presidency, and, therefore, deserving of systematic study. At this juncture research on the cabinet is relatively meager and similar to the state at which presidential studies were in the 1970's, when there was an abundance of presidential texts emphasizing the institutional and constitutional features of the presidency with some works using public opinion data, as well as case studies focusing on a single administration, or event of an administration, whereas now there is a plethora of studies on the presidency with a broadened scope of coverage -the media2, comparative executives3, public opinion4, and policy studies5 to name a fewusing presidents and administrations across time for an expanded data base. In a similar vein, research on the cabinet has been stalled, in part due to conceptual blinders as to how work on that body should progress. As a case in point, observers of the presidency are often quick to evaluate the cabinet, in its initial configuration, as a collectivity; they do not consider the president's or secretary's individual perspective that is, the secretary as a part of an administration, or as head of a department, or as a spokesperson for a certain policy constituency. In addition, understanding of the cabinet has been hindered by attempts to analyze individual members in terms of superficial and unimportant attributes (i.e., geographical balance, clientele affiliation), and by ascribing an
Justices of the Supreme Court, legal scholars, and reporters who cover judicial proceedings frequently claim that when the Court issues a constitutional decision it remains final unless the Court changes its mind or the Constitution is amended to reverse the Court. However, the record of more than two centuries offers an entirely different picture. Decisions by the Supreme Court lack finality on constitutional issues partly because the Court makes mistakes and has done so throughout its history. Human institutions, including the judiciary, are prone to miscalculation, including law, history, and political developments. After the Court issues a constitutional decision it does not deprive the elected branches from adopting policies directly contrary to what the Court has announced. This article offers many examples to demonstrate that constitutional interpretation is not centered entirely in the Supreme Court. The process involves all three branches, the states, scholars, and the general public. At times the Court recognizes the deficiency of an earlier decision and overrules it. However, the sole-organ error in CurtissWright (1936) was not corrected by the Court until its decision in Zivotofsky v. Kerry on June 8, 2015. On other occasions, the regular political process offers constitutional interpretations that override the Court.
The paper examines the impact of the migration crisis in the EU on the European Union's relations with Turkey. It is shown that for a number of reasons, including a result of EU actions taken from 2011 to 2015, EU has experienced an influx of migrants on a number of routes from the Western to the Eastern Mediterranean. The largest of them fell on Turkey, which has tried to use this factor to exert pressure on the EU in order to obtain economic and political preferences. The author examines the development of the EU migration policy in the context of the crisis, its trying to bring Turkey to cooperate and difficult negotiations, which took place at the summits of the EU-Turkey at the end of 2015. There have been disagreements among the EU countries, and the time factor, which Turkey took advantage of, advancing conditions for the closure of borders to Europe for migrants. Facing the influx of migrants the EU had to agree with a number of conditions, though not with all. The author shows that the agreement reached by the country in March 2016 is not universal, and a number of issues important to the resolution of the crisis, are waiting to be decided upon. However, according to the author, the development of the current crisis can lead both to the reform of the migration and border policy within the EU, and to restarting relations with Turkey. Though guessing on possibilities on Turkey's entry to the EU in the near future is still premature.
The sectarian differences that appear from time to time are considered - in light of the concept of the modern state - a source of threat to states that are composed of multiple sects due to the difficulty of reconciling them and coming up with political decisions that take into account all the social and political rights of citizens, and from here political sectarianism appears as a problem related to how all sects are represented In the political arena, and the political systems ability to accommodate sectarian pluralism without harming any of the rights of the sects, so we find that sectarian conflicts in the Iraqi community structure have negatively affected the country and individuals, as the sectarian and sectarian difference had a great impact on tearing apart community cohesion between The individual and the state, and fueling civil wars, especially after the year 2003 AD, in light of the hegemony of regional countries that struck the chord of sectarian conflicts in Iraq, and took from it an arena for a proxy war, and this is what made our country suffer from a major decline at the political, economic, social, scientific and educational level. The situation at the religious level, and accordingly, we find that the interests of individuals have changed, and the search for safety and stability has become a preoccupation under The difficult circumstances that passed through Iraq. After Iraq was prosperous and lofty among countries, it became torn and insecure, and society became suffering from all kinds of grief and disintegration and there was bloodshed, destruction and lack of awareness.
In both the United States and Europe, most environmental crime statutes focus on punishing disobedience to administrative rules and decisions. In most cases, the statutes do not require harm - or even a threat of harm - to the environment. Thus, convictions for these crimes vindicate mainly administrative values. Nevertheless, it is possible to define crimes such that environmental values are focal. This article suggests four models of environmental crimes. Purely administrative violations are at one end of a continuum, while crimes with no administrative predicates but serious environmental harm occupy the other end. Examples drawn from the United States and Europe illustrate each approach. After exploring the intricacies and challenges of each model, the article proposes a graduated punishment approach based on the described continuum. The article concludes with an evaluation of the extent to which current German, French, and federal U.S. environmental crimes fail to reflect the proposed approach. The approach advocated in the article is important for practical reasons. For one, if the goal is really protection of the environment - and not just of human beings and their activities - that goal is likely to be reached more effectively by statutes that actually focus on the environment. In addition, a graduated punishment scheme will better hone the governments environmental protection tools: with crimes defined accurately to reflect different degrees in the harm at issue, convictions will more suitably fit the defendants' actions. Finally, statutes that define crimes more particularly can better limit the discretion of judges and other fact finders, better ensuring that the social goals reflected in authorized punishments are actually met.
Section I: Labour Law and Europe Part I. European Labour Law: 1. European labour law and the social dimension of the European Union 2. EU labour law and the UK 3. The conceptualization of European labour law Part II. History and Strategies of European Labour Law: 4. Shifting strategies 1951-1986: ECSC, EEC, harmonisation, financial instruments, qualified majority voting 5. The strategy of European social dialogue 6. The European Employment Strategy, the open method of coordination and the 'Lisbon Strategy' 7. The strategy of fundamental rights: the EU Charter of Nice 2000 and a 'constitutional' strategy Section II: The Structure of European Labour Law Part III. Labour Law and the European Social Model: 8. The institutional architecture of the European social model 9. A framework of principles and fundamental rights for European collective labour law 10. A framework of principles and fundamental rights for European individual employment law 11. The European Court of Justice, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European social model Part IV. Enforcement of European Labour Law: 12. General principles of enforcement of European labour law 13. Administrative enforcement of European labour law 14. Implementation and enforcement of European labour law and employment policy through the social partners at national and EU levels 15. Individual judicial enforcement of European labour law 16. Euro-litigation: collective judicial enforcement of European labour law Part V. The European Social Dialogue: 17. The European social dialogue: from dynamism to benign neglect 1993-2008 18. External and internal scrutiny of the democratic legitimacy of the European social dialogue 19. Threats and challenges to and the future of the European social dialogue Section III: The Futures of European Labour Law Part VI. Agendas and Visions of European Labour Law: 20. The futures of European labour law: (1) The Commission's agenda - 'modernisation' 21. The futures of European labour law: (2) The European Court's agenda and ordre communautaire social 22. The futures of European labour law: (3) The agenda of the Member States and of the European Parliament - the Lisbon Treaty and after.
The 28th of January 2015 marked one year of the Bail Amendment Act 2014 (NSW). This Act amended the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) (the Act) in several respects. Of particular note was the introduction of the 'show cause' test in s 16A. Section 16A provides that for certain offences as set out in s 16B of the Act, a bail authority must refuse bail unless the accused person shows cause why his or her detention is not justified.
The urgency of sociological analysis of multiculturalism in Russian society is caused by strengthening of the role of intercultural interactions in the processes of global integration. In the context of intensive transnational movings and interethnic contacts, migratory processes, changes of ideological and political vectors of the development intercultural interactions get new specificity. Today the sphere of culture and education is the most productive field for interethnic interaction, development of dialogue and mutual understanding, acting as a powerful factor of development of national consciousness, self-affirmation of ethnic generality. The role of higher education in the development and strengthening of this system of values is strategic. An interest of foreign students to getting higher education in Russian higher schools is growing, the international cooperation of businessmen, scientists, art workers, public organizations is extending.
During the last decade the structure and scope of fundamental rights protection in the EU have dramatically changed. Ever-closer links have been established between the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU, and their respective jurisprudence. Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty has elevated the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to the status of EU primary law and imposed an obligation on the EU to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (Article 6 (2) EU). How will the accession impact on the relationship between the Courts? On the one hand, the ECHR and the case law of the Strasbourg Court have of course always been an important source of inspiration for the CJEU ever since it started to develop its case law on fundamental rights protection. The Convention as an instrument of international law did not directly bind the EC/Union. Yet, in practice the approach of the Luxemburg Court has come to be quite close to Strasbourg by way of increasing its acceptance and reference to the latter’s case law. And this influence has been reciprocated. This judicial dialogue is not just a matter of judicial diplomacy. Often, the references to each other’s case law reflect a real mutual impact. The CJEU has, on occasion, invoked the evolution of the case law of the Strasbourg Court to adapt its own interpretation of the scope of fundamental rights’ protection. Also the Strasbourg Court has sometimes referred to an evolution of the Luxembourg Court case law as an argument to further develop its own interpretation of the Convention. There is more to be said about this mutually beneficial effect of the cooperation between both Courts through their case law. Indeed, both Courts have been instrumental to strengthening each other’s legal system.
In tourism, dance is popularly used as a medium that attracts outsiders'attention and curiosity because dance effectively advertises the characteristics of a culture. One of the most prevalent images in Korean tourist broachers and films is a female dancer in a colorful costume, welcoming foreigner tourists with big smile. In this paper, through the examination of the stereotypes and gender differences in dance depicted in Korean tourism commercials, I focus on how Korean dance has been commodified in the politics of tourism. I also explore how tourism constitutes a “fantasy” of a culture in correspondence with Korea's globalization and localization process.
Few military officers ever command international coalitions in combat operations. Fewer still do it twice. General (retired) David Petraeus commanded coalition forces in Iraq from February 2007 to September 2008, and in Afghanistan from July 2010 to July 2011. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency until 2012. A team from the Belfer Center of the Harvard Kennedy School, led by Emile Simpson, recently interviewed General Petraeus to obtain his views on strategic leadership. What follows is a selection from those interviews, reproduced here with permission. (1) Question: Can you give us an overview of your four key tasks of strategic leadership? Petraeus: First of all, strategic leadership is that which is exercised at a level of an organization where the individual is truly determining the azimuth for the organization. When you look at a combat theater, the overall commander of that combat theater--Multi-National Force-Iraq, International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan--is the strategic leader who, within the confines of the policy that is approved by the President of the United States and/or the NATO authorities, he's the one that is developing the direction the organization is going to go. In essence there are four tasks. The first is to get the big ideas right. The second is to communicate them effectively throughout the breadth and depth of the organization. The third is to oversee the implementation of the big ideas. And the fourth is to determine how the big ideas need to be refined, changed, augmented, and then repeating the process over again and again and again. Now, in my experience, getting the big ideas right isn't something that happens when you sit under the right tree and get hit on the head by Newton's apple--a big idea fully formed or big ideas fully flushed out. My experience is big ideas result from collaboration, from study, research, analysis, having a large tent in which lots of people are engaged. Certainly the leader at the end of the day does have to make decisions, does have to settle on the big ideas; but it's a very iterative process, or at least it has been for me over the years. And that's the way it needs to be approached. Communicating the big ideas is a process that takes place using every possible medium and opportunity. It starts with the very first day speech, the change of command remarks after having taken command of the unit. In the case of Iraq, it continued with the issuance of a letter I'd written to all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and civilians of the Multi-National Force in Iraq. It then went on through a meeting with the commanders of the Multi-National Force who were all there for the change of command. In subsequent days, I changed the mission statement; over time we changed the entire campaign plan. You continue to communicate on a daily basis, through everything you do, including how you spend your time. The battlefield update and analysis we went through each day was another opportunity to communicate throughout the organization because there are a lot of people who are video teleconferencing into this particular event. It ran a full hour, and my comments were all transcribed and sent out via the military internet all the way down to brigade commander level. This gets now into overseeing the implementation of the big ideas task, which is one that involves a battle rhythm of how is it you're going to spend your time. Each day, what will you do? Beyond that, what are the metrics you use to measure progress? We spent a great deal of time trying to develop those, refine them, and make sure they were absolutely rigorous in application. How many days a week do you fence to go out and see for yourself, to go on a patrol, to meet with Iraqi leaders in their areas, to meet with our leaders all the way down to the company and platoon level, to get a sense of what they're experiencing, what their concerns are, whether they have been able to understand your big ideas, your intent, and then how they're operationalizing it at their level? …
Equitable sharing of fishing resources has been the major source of tension between Zambezi Valley communities and the Zimbabwe government authorities since the 1950s following the Kariba Dam-induced resettlement. Using participatory action research, it was found that the fishing license system and criminalization of fishermen were the major sources of tension between fishermen and government authorities. Engaging with government authorities to address these tensions, fishermen were recognized as partners in the fishing industry. The conclusion was that enhancing community agencies through participatory action research would be fundamental towards creating socially just and equitable arrangements that could emancipate marginalized communities from abject poverty.
Gerry Connelly (comedian) at HSV7 workers strike, April 1987. John Ellis writes "HSV7 workers went on strike as a result of "networking" by media owners. This meant that production facilities were to be centred in Sydney. The strike was called by the Australian Journalists Association (AJA) and supported by Trades Hall and Actors Equity". Previous Control Number: UMA/I/704 Previous Control Number: JE262-09a
The review of modern approaches towards the treatment of the globalization processes nature has been made as well as the role of the globalization processes in the development of the world economy and national economies has been detected and also the display of the globalization nature in social-economic relations and its impact on the accounting system has been considered Здійснено огляд сучасних підходів до сутності глобалізацій них процесів, визначено місце глобалізаційних процесів в розвитку світового господарства й національних економік, а також розглянуто прояв глобалізації в соціально-економічних відносинах і її вплив на систему бухгалтерського обліку
This article deals with the history of sport in Amsterdam between the two world wars. It asks: What was sporting life like in those days in the Dutch capital? Where were the sport grounds situated? What kinds of sport were played? Where were the sport facilities? Which organizations dealt with sport? The central question, however, is: What role did the Amsterdam city council play in the development of sport? The scientific study of sports history in the Netherlands is in its infancy and so it was difficult to find specific literature on this topic. Apart from a dissertation by the political scientist Hans Dona on the history of the Dutch Workers Sports Association, published in 1981, which is very informative on the situation in Amsterdam, there is little scientific secondary literature about the sports history of Amsterdam from 1918 to 1940. As a result archives, especially Amsterdam's city archive, provided the main source material. The most significant source was the so-called City-paper, containing the proposals, the discussions and the decrees of the city council. A second important source in the city archive was the press documentation which contains numerous reports on various matches as well as meetings about sports issues. Several reports, including interviews with people from the sports world, and comments about council meetings were further important sources for my queries. To minimize the potential subjectivity in the press articles I have, as far as possible, compared the chosen information with articles in the City-paper. The results of my investigations are presented chronologically in three phases the period 1918-28, the Olympic Games of 1928 and the period 1928-40.
Many authors have observed that unless accountants adapt to developments in information technology ( IT) they risk being reduced to a subordinate role. This paper reports on the results of two surveys of chartered accountant members in Nigeria spanning ten years. These surveys aimed at assessing the change in their roles as a result of IT developments. The paper identifies some specific IT skills necessary for decision support systems and discusses how such skills should be incorporated in accounting profession and also examines the possibility that accounting functions within organisations are becoming restricted to the areas of financial reporting and transactions processing, rather than decision making and problem solving. The findings of both studies show that chartered accountants perceive they spend on average only a half of their time on the latter types of accounting activities.
Recent years have witnessed widespread acknowledgement in both academic and policy circles that children deserve a special focus in poverty measurement. It is now generally accepted that children have different basic needs from adults and are harder hit, both in the short- and long-term, when their basic needs are not met. The European Union (EU) has acknowledged the need for child-focused indicators in monitoring poverty and social exclusion and is currently in the process of developing, testing and comparing single indicators of child well-being across member states. This paper aims to add to this debate by providing a micro-analysis of the breadth of child poverty in the European Union, considering both the degree of overlap and accumulation of deprivations across monetary and multidimensional indicators of poverty. Using the 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data, the European Union (EU) monetary 'at-risk-of-poverty' indicator is compared with a range of child deprivation indicators at domain level in four EU Member States (Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Overall, the paper’s findings provide a strong call for the need to take a multidimensional approach towards the measurement of child poverty in the EU context.
The major problem of modern Indian society is corruption, bureaucracy and security of information systems. Government is trying to provide many basic services online to its citizens. But major success has not been achieved on this side because success rate in implementation of e-governance projects is very low. There are so many security breach cases one can listen and see through various media in the modern society. In this paper certain challenges in implementation of e-governance systems in Indian democratic setup has been discussed. Certain solutions regarding the challenges are also highlighted. Particular security related metrics must be kept in mind while handling egovernance matters. Various Privacy, security and users in eGovernance related issues have been taken into consideration.
By linking censuses through time or by combining other information with the census, many more important policy questions can be answered than if we used one dataset alone. Summary Former Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) head Bill McLennan renewed the debate over privacy, data linkage and the census when he recently spoke of the major risks involved in retaining names and addresses from the 2016 Census. McLennan, and the Australian Privacy Foundation, rightly raised privacy concerns about retaining names and addresses on census records for the purpose of linking future census data. However, they ignored the approach’s significant benefits. Continue Reading>
In this paper, (a) we present a framework for developing a science content (i.e., science concepts, scientific methods, scientific mindset, and problem-solving strategies for socio-scientific issues) used to design the new Cypriot science curriculum aiming at ensuring a democratic and human society, (b) we use the previous framework to explore the citizenship notion which is cultivated by the science curriculum content of the primary education (grades 5 and 6) of two European countries: Cyprus and Greece. The analysis focuses on two science topics: (a) Health and human body, and (b) Natural environment. The results of this analysis highlight features that outline two different kinds of citizenship. On one hand, the cultivation of the citizenship in the Greek science curriculum is based on the knowledge acquisition by students, mainly related to science concepts. The Greek science curriculum promotes the idea that citizenship education is strengthened when science education focuses on the acquisition of knowledge concerning the “academic world” of science in order for the students to be able to decide on various socioscientific issues. On the other hand, the Cypriot science curriculum promotes the notion of citizenship based on the cultivation of knowledge, competencies, and mindset that can contribute to the improvement of children’s everyday lives. In this direction, students are strengthened socio-politically to reshape our society towards social justice and equity. We support the latter notion of citizenship and argue that the “scientific literacy for all” movement can radically overthrow the social obstacles that prevent us from moving towards a democratic and human society.
The concept of constructing a harmonious society is a significant strategic act made by the communist party of China. It has been raised on the basis of the practical experience of Chinas social developments since the Opening and Reform policy. Harmonious society is a society embodying democracy and legality, fairness and justice, honesty and friendship, vigor and security, maintenance of social order and concord between the nature and man. To build a harmonious society is to construct its motion system according to the cognition and control of social development laws.
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Thomas Jefferson was a key architect of early American foreign policy. He had a clear vision of the place of the new republic in the world, which he articulated in a number of writings and state papers. The key elements to his strategic vision were geographic expansion and free trade. Throughout his long public career Jefferson sought to realize these ends, particularly during his time as US minister to France, secretary of state, vice president, and president. He believed that the United States should expand westward and that its citizens should be free to trade globally. He sought to maintain the right of the United States to trade freely during the wars arising from the French Revolution and its aftermath. This led to his greatest achievement, the Louisiana Purchase, but also to conflicts with the Barbary States and, ultimately, Great Britain. He believed that the United States should usher in a new world of republican diplomacy and that it would be in the vanguard of the global republican movement. In the literature on US foreign policy, historians have tended to identify two main schools of practice dividing practitioners into idealists and realists. Jefferson is often regarded as the founder of the idealist tradition. This somewhat misreads him. While he pursued clear idealistic ends—a world dominated by republics freely trading with each other—he did so using a variety of methods including diplomacy, war, and economic coercion.
In the multicultural Malaysia, a new school model called the “Vision School” (Sekolah Wawasan) was established to foster racial coexistence and cultural pluralism among students. The Vision Schools would house all the three major vernacular (Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil) elementary schools in the same compound sharing common physical facilities and events. A qualitative study of selected Vision Schools highlights that the lofty idea of student integration for unity cannot be attained merely by physical reorganization or sporadic joint events. Successful implementation of multicultural education, just as any educational reform initiative, will require the coherent alignment of several critical action domains. And these could include principal leadership, teacher professional development, curriculum framework, pedagogical strategies, instructional materials and textbooks, and assessment. It is essential that these critical action domains are well aligned with the multicultural education initiative and aptly incorporated in the detailing process of the Vision School policy development processes.
Although the Second Sino-Japanese War (the “War”) ended many decades ago, hostilities between China and Japan are still raw in the memory of many Chinese people, even though most of them did not directly experience the War. In particular, the Great Bombing of Chongqing—the indiscriminate, sustained bombing of the Nationalist provisional capital by Japanese warplanes from 1938 to 1943—has been retrieved from the archives as a significant event. Subsumed under the narrative of the Great Bombing, Chongqing's Great Tunnel Disaster (the “Disaster”), following a prolonged Japanese air raid on June 5, 1941, resulted in some of Nationalist China's heaviest civilian casualties. This article discusses the Disaster in detail, suggesting that at the time, it was viewed more as a human-induced “stampede” than as a Japanese “war atrocity” when the Chinese public took to the press and condemned the Nationalist government for its inability to prevent, manage, and mitigate the Disaster's effects. Chinese civilians were attempting to renew and revise a traditional social contract of disaster, according to which the state was responsible for providing adequate relief to victims, by accusing the Nationalist government of callousness, incompetence, and negligence.
The increasing adoption of blogs by Internet users during the last seven years, has contributed to the restructuration of the online political mediascape in many national contexts. Based on an analysis of the socio-political behavioural profile of French-speaking Quebec political bloggers in the spring of 2008, this article provides an assessment of the multidimensional challenges and opportunities linked to the constitution of social media research samples through non-probabilistic viral or decentralized strategies. More specifically, it argues for the development of more methodologically-rigorous quantitative and qualitative investigation approaches that can deal with the constantlyevolving structural and functional particularities of the Web 2.0 political media environment. This is especially relevant considering the rising popularity of blogs, social networking services (SNS) and other Web 2.0 tools as objects of research among the international scientific community.
In the long 19th century (1795-1918) the Polish nation was deprived of its state. As a result, few Poles saw reasons to associate the State with the Nation. Romantic ideas which had predominated in the early 19th century, after 1863 were replaced by a special national brand of positivism. In the later 19th century, the "Warsaw School" of historians focussed on the economic revival and political reforms of the last pre-partitions decades. The "Cracow School" was more critical of the constitution of the Old Commonwealth (in the 16th-18th centuries); it attacked the form of the government and the gentry's anarchical tendencies. After 1945, the influence of Soviet-style Marxism was short and superficial. In the last decades, the interest of historians focusses on the society of orders and the parliamentary "structure of politics". The question is being discussed, when and why there opened a gap between Poland-Lithuania and other states of early modern Europe.
This paper reviews the ethnic multilingual policies and practices in China in general and Yunnan in particular. It first introduces the demographic features and multilingual policies in Yunnan and then discusses the challenges of ethnic minority education in China from a critical perspective in terms of policy and curriculum. It is argued that it is necessary to re-conceptualize ethnic minority learners in an ever dynamic sociocultural discourse in contemporary China. The author proposes to deepen the research in ethnic multilingual education so as to develop a curriculum to meet the needs of ethnic multicultural learners in the 21st century and to contribute to the design of more relevant language policies, teaching practices, and learning resources, and to pave the way for further in-depth research.
The purpose of the study was to establish how the integrated approach was used in teaching cultural practices and English language skills in the set book novel: The River and the Source by Magaret Ogola. The findings revealed that teachers analyzed cultural practices in isolation without integrating the teaching of literature with the language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Punctuation and grammar was also not taught. The instructional objectives focused on identifying and illustrating the cultural issues in the novel. Teachers emphasized on the cognitive domain ignoring the psychomotor and the affective domains, hence there was a disparity between curriculum developers’ expectations and classroom practice. This paper highlights the importance of using literature to teach English language while sensitizing learners to be “culturally literate” in the diverse cultural environment in Kenya. The paper focuses itself on cultural issues in ‘The River and the Source,’ by Magaret Ogola, which is the current set book in secondary schools in Kenya; and how it can be used to facilitate the learning of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The National Center for Cultural Competence defines culture as an “integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interacting and roles, relationships and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group; and the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations” (Goode, Sockalingam, Brown, & Jones, 2000). The Kenya Nation Education Commission reformed the education system inherited from the colonial government to make it responsive to the needs of independent Kenya. The National Committee on Educational objectives and policies focused on redefining Kenya’s educational policies and objectives, considering National unity, economic, social and cultural aspirations of the
What role have states played in promoting human rights education? While nongovernmental organizations have been at the forefront of human rights education, scholars have neglected the increased activism of states, especially national human rights commissions. This article addresses this gap by sketching the relationship between states and human rights education, examining cross-regional trends and presenting a case study of South Africa’s Human Rights Commission. The article concludes by considering the critical gap between state promotion and implementation of human rights education, as well as the limits of state involvement in constructing a culture of human rights.
Abstract The threat of nuclear terrorism should not be underestimated because it can have catastrophic effects if and when realised. Nor should the subject matter be politicised beyond a certain point because of its strong espousal by the United States, which has raised suspicions about whether the issue could be used as yet another instrument for asserting American hegemony. Institutionalisation of multilateral actions must therefore be supported and nuclear summit meetings must become the forums for addressing the doubts and concerns relating to the international initiatives.
Hyperlink analysis reveals that most of the organizations prominent in spreading Uyghur news and issues are geographically concentrated in Western Europe and North America. The Washington DC-based Uyghur American Association (UAA), for instance, is active in providing and disseminating information about the Uyghur cause to major news agencies, to international non-governmental human rights organizations, and on popular social networking platforms. This analysis further illustrates that governments do not play significant roles in Uyghur diasporic politics or networks. Hyperlink analysis, however, cannot detect Uyghur connections, which do not have a virtual presence, such as Uyghurs communities in Central Asia and Turkey. The online maps of Uyghur networks also omit Uyghur links to the Taiwanese independence movement, Tibetan self-determination movement, Chinese dissident networks, as well as worldwide Muslim communities.
Although many studies address the representation of women in parliament, few explore gender representation in Africa. Prior research on women's representation conducted in various areas of the world has emphasized the type of electoral system, quotas and the economic affluence of a country, as well as the state's political culture. In this evaluation these commonly used indicators are complemented by two factors that are not that frequently employed – a country's degree of democracy and its level of corruption. Besides quota provisions and the electoral system type of a country, both of these additional variables affect women's representation. Higher containment of corruption fosters higher percentages of women in parliament. In contrast, democratic states have fewer female members in parliament than non-democratic states.
To keep the inflationary pressure resulting from the rapidly growing demand for armament as low as possible the National Socialists generally tried to limit the profits of private firms by a strict price regulation. However, this attempt often failed because of adverse selection and moral hazard arising from the fact that the government was neither able to assess the firms' technologies nor to monitor the entrepreneurs' efforts to reduce production costs of the goods that were delivered to the state. This holds especially true for the German construction industry before and during the Second World War. Traditionally, public construction projects were assigned by inviting tenders and then giving the order to the firm which demanded the lowest price. It will be shown that, as a consequence of the growing shortage of construction capacity and the increasing complexity of the construction projects, the National Socialists were often forced to replace this relatively efficient method with inefficient costplus contracts that had to be carefully observed by regulatory agencies. In addition, principal-agent problems also arose between entrepreneurs and construction workers on the one hand and between the National Socialists government and the regulatory agencies on the other. With respect to the latter it will turn out that both poor knowledge and corruption of the members of the regulatory agencies considerably increased the possibilities of construction firms to achieve high prices.
Education, broadly defined, is cultural transmission. It is the process or set of processes by which each new generation of human beings acquires and builds upon the skills, knowledge, beliefs, values, and lore of the culture into which they are born. Through all but the most recent speck of human history, education was always the responsibility of those being educated. Children come into the world biologically prepared to educate themselves through observing the culture around them and incorporating what they see into their play. Research in hunter-gatherer cultures shows that children in those cultures became educated through their own self-directed exploration and play. In modern cultures, self-directed education is pursued by children in families that adopt the homeschooling approach commonly called “unschooling” and by children enrolled in democratic schools, where they are in charge of their own education. Follow-up studies of “graduates” of unschooling and democratic schooling reveal that this approach to education can be highly effective, in today’s word, if children are provided with an adequate environment for selfeducation—an environment in which they can interact freely with others across a broad range of ages, can experience first-hand what is most valued in the culture, and can play with, and thereby experiment with, the primary tools of the culture.
P. ii Acknowledgments P. iii Chapter 1: Introduction P. 1 1.0 Research Context and Problem P. 1 1.1 Purpose of the Study P. 3 1.2 Research Questions P. 4 1.3 Background on the Researcher P. 5 1.4 Overview P. 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review P. 8 2.0 Introduction P. 8 2.1 Risk Factors Associated with Youth Delinquency P. 9 2.1.1 Peer and parent relationships, and family structure. P. 9 2.1.2 Neighbourhood, school communities, and education. P. 11 2.1.3 Offender attitudes. P. 12 2.1.4 Mental health and substance abuse. P. 13 2.1.5 Abuse, maltreatment and child protective services. P. 14 2.2 Recommendations for Supporting Delinquent Youth, and Reducing Risk of Recidivism P. 16 2.2.1 Parent involvement. P. 16 2.2.2 Supports and services needed by juvenile offenders. P. 16 2.2.3 Diversion, deterrence and rehabilitation. P. 18
Treatment of aliens has a long history under international law. In this context, the main issue is the need for compromise between the competence of sovereign states and the protection of human rights. The expulsion of aliens is one of the most important subdivisions of international laws on treatment of aliens. Since the nineteenth century, affected by humanization of international law, the laws regulating this domain have been impressively evolved. Recently International law commission has drafted a treaty text concerning the expulsion of alien which in tenth article provides for the delicate problem of disguised expulsion. In this regard, the Commission has been influenced by Iran-United States Claims Tribunal judgments . This paper in intended to analyze the judgments rendered by the tribunal on disguised expulsion in order to show how its legacy has played a role in the development of international law.
This essay was written for the Widener Law Journal CrimTorts Symposium, and examines a theoretical question concerning the intersection of criminal law and punitive damages: Would the punitive damages legal framework materially differ today had the Supreme Court held that the Excessive Fines Clause rather than the Due Process Clause governs punitive damages? In 1989, the Supreme Court rejected application of the Excessive Fines Clause to punitive damages. Instead, the Court subsequently held that substantive and procedural due process guide and limit punitive damages awards. In the Court's most recent punitive damages decision, however, Justice Stevens, perhaps motivated by dissatisfaction with the Court's recent punitive damages jurisprudence, suggested in his dissent that the Court should have taken a different road, and applied the Excessive Fines Clause to these awards. This essay takes that suggestion to fruition and considers whether the road not taken would have materially affected the current analytical framework for assessing punitive damages. I found that the standards for assessing the constitutionality of fines and punitive damages awards largely overlap and, indeed, have influenced each other significantly. To the extent any differences exist, they are largely immaterial. In short, I conclude that the road not taken leads to the same destination.
1 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany 2 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany 3 Futurium Berlin, Germany 4 Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany 5 Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 6 Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany 7 University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada 8 Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria 9 Wageningen University, Netherlands 10 Dresden University of Applied Sciences, Germany 11 Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany
possibility of breaking out of the group through marriage, and also by the potential costs of any collective action. The latter included violent retribution by owners and managers. The difference between sex workers and other female migrant workers is also evident in their complex relationship to their home villages. Unlike women in other studies who often come home to stay after a period of working elsewhere, Dalian’s hostesses did not return home. Rather, they treated their homes as places of temporary refuge and an opportunity to flaunt their prosperity and modernity. But their ambiguous status in the eyes of villagers as sex workers and the attractions of urban autonomy mean that hostesses have preferred not to return permanently to their homes. Although there is no doubt that this is a rare and important study, I do have reservations about the extent to which the author’s personal investment in the subject may have sometimes led to uncritical acceptance of the testimony of her informants. We are told, for instance, how hostesses manipulated clients by making up stories about the ill treatment that led them to take up their current occupation. Yet Zheng does not seem to consider that these consummate actors may also have been performing for the academic anthropologist. Red Lights is produced in paperback, has a clear font, and is refreshingly free of proofing errors. However, a little editing would have removed some of the repetition in the text. A bibliography would also have been useful, in addition to the endnotes. Raelene Frances Monash University Geoff Robinson, When the Labor Party Dreams: Class, Politics and Policy in New South Wales 1930–32 (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing 2008)
How do variations in state–society relations affect development outcomes locally? Specifically, do local, non-state actors and informal institutions, including indigenous elders and traditional authorities, complement the work of the formal local authorities, or compete with them, with observable implications for long-term human development? This paper focuses on Guatemala, where despite nearly two decades having passed since the end of its civil war, and significant external statebuilding, governance and financial assistance, the country remains stricken with widespread poverty and crime. Most apparent in the Guatemala case is the well-documented disparity in living conditions between the capital region surrounding Guatemala City, and rural regions. Even within impoverished regions, however, there is unexplained variability in development outcomes across sub-regions and communities. Drawing from within-country case studies, the paper argues that qualitative differences in state–society relations at the community level — including the degree to which local indigenous leaders or other non-state actors either compete with or complement local formal authorities — have a direct bearing on development outcomes as indicated by human development indicators, and by demonstrated commitment to development programmes from formal authorities.
Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Japan's Demographic Collapse and the Vanishing Provinces Seike Atsushi Chapter 2: Monetary and Fiscal Policies During the Lost Decades Kenneth Kuttner, Iwaisako Tokuo, and Adam Posen Chapter 3: The Two "Lost Decades" and Macroeconomics: Changing Economic Policies Kobayashi Keiichiro Chapter 4: The Curse of "Japan, Inc." and Japan's Microeconomic Competitiveness Chapter 5: Making Sense of the Lost Decades: Workplaces and Schools, Men and Women, Young and Old, Rich and Poor Andrew Gordon Chapter 6: The Two Lost Decades in Education: The Failure of Reform Kariya Takehiko Chapter 7: The Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Lost Opportunities and the "Safety Myth" Kitazawa Koichi Chapter 8: The Last Two Decades in Japanese Politics: Lost Opportunities and Undesirable Outcomes Machidori Satoshi Chapter 9: The Gulf War and Japan's National Security Identity Michael J. Green and Igata Akira Chapter 10: Foreign Economic Policy Strategies and Economic Performance Peter Drysdale and Shiro Armstrong Chapter 11: Japan's Asia/Asia-Pacific Policy in Flux Shiraishi Takashi Chapter 12: Okinawa Bases and the U.S.-Japan Alliance Sheila A. Smith Chapter 13: Japanese Historical Memory Togo Kazuhiko Chapter 14: Japan's Failed Bid for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council Akiyama Nobumasa Chapter 15: The Stakeholder State: Ideology and Values in Japan's Search for a Post-Cold War Global Role G. John Ikenberry Conclusion: Something has been "lost" from our future Funabashi Yoichi
In autumn 1998, the United Nations' ad hoc tribunals delivered three landmark judgments dealing with sexual violence under humanitarian law. In Prosecutor v. Akayesu, a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted Jean Paul Akayesu for sexual violence committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, while two Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) separately pronounced guilty verdicts for sexual violence in the matters of Prosecutor v. Delalic and Prosecutor v. Furundzija. The judgments simultaneously interpreted the scope of sex crimes under the statutes of the ad hoc Tribunals and substantively advanced the jurisprudence of sexual violence under international law. Collectively, they hold that rape and other forms of sexual violence constitute acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war, namely war crimes, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The Akayesu decision is singularly significant. The Prosecutor originally indicted Jean Paul Akayesu for participating in the killings of male and female Tutsis. During the trial, the Trial Chamber granted leave to amend the indictment, so that the Prosecutor could charge the accused with rapes and other sexual abuses committed against female Tutsis. In the judgment, the Trial Chamber found that the acts of sexual violence satisfied the actus reus of "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group," a provision of the Genocide Convention that is incorporated into Article 2(2)(b) of the ICTR Statute. The judgment held that rape and sexual violence indeed "constitute(d) genocide in the same way as any other act, as long as they were committed with the specific intent to destroy in whole or part, a particular group targeted as such." 6 Akayesu likewise upheld the Prosecutor's allegation of crimes against humanity and convicted the accused of various forms of sexual violence, including acts that were interpreted to come within the meaning of Article 3(g) [rape], of the ICTR Statute. As a result, for the first time an international tribunal pronounced the elements of the international crime of rape and defined the conduct as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature, committed on a person under
Canada's current sentencing laws and classification schemes are archaic and inadequate. In this article, we outline a number of the more serious flaws in our, sentencing system. These flaws include the absence of a sentencing philosophy, a sentencing scheme which provides little or no direction to sentencing judges and results in serious sentencing disparities, and a sentencing system which is not sensitive to Charter guarantees of fundamental justice in areas such as mandatory punishment, parole, and dangerous offender provisions. In addition to describing the essential features of a new sentencing policy, we specifically recommend a major reclassification of current sentencing and offence structures, creation of "bench-mark" sentences, abolition of parole, and creation of a permanent Sentencing Commission.
Public debate regarding the role of government in lowering obesity often focuses on the fact that rising obesity prevalence is evident in all states. This article focuses on the hypothesized link between obesity and fast food employment by examining data on all states over 2001–2009 and controlling for other factors that may influence obesity prevalence. Our examination indicates no support for the view that fast food is a significant causal factor behind the substantial weight gain exhibited by the US population.
This essay aims to contribute to the discussion around the construction of more inclusive and intercultural universities, from the systematization of the strategy adopted by Universidad National (UNA) in Costa Rica for the pertinent implementation of the Quinquennial Plan for Indigenous Peoples (PPIQ) signed by four of the Costa Rican public universities in 2014. Its implementation took differentiated characteristics in each university, due to the diversity historically built among them in the construction of relations with indigenous peoples and in the forms of academic and administrative management, which require a singular  adaptation in each University of the PPIQ joint agreements. In the case of UNA, the execution of the Plan and the fulfillment of its commitments is based on the proactive participation of each instance involved base on their experiences and possibilities. Thus, the former coordination team of PPIQ was extended to absorb the different actors, each one of them propose and execute activities from their organizational structure. In addition, the inclusion of indigenous university students in the planning, formulation, execution and monitoring of actions and commitments has been vital, becoming an essential actor for its successful execution and for its continuity in the future. This participation also contributed with the strengthening of identity aspects in them as indigenous people and as university students. These open and participatory model has allowed us to have important results in a short time; allowing the University to incorporated actions and goals of the Plan in permanent work strategies of different instances.
Yesterday, in a rich judgment of 28 pages, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed the compatibility of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) with EU law. This judgment marks the first time that the ECJ gave a landmark ruling on pivotal provisions of the law concerning Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) since its judgments on the Stability and Growth Pact in 2004 and on the independence of the ECB in 2003.
This paper examines the consequences of the Decrees of April 26 and October 3, 1916, by which the Argentine government issued the article 32 of the Immigration Law of 1876. Since then, the article imposed stricter requirements on everyone that wanted to arrive to the country. The resistance of the foreign diplomats and the shipping companies deferred the application of the Decree. Nevertheless, due to the bloody events of January 1919 known as the "Tragic Week", the government of Yrigoyen decided to enforce it again. The reenactment of the Decrees of 1916 provoked, one more time, the reaction of several embassies, the Spanish among them.
Title of Document: CAN STEM INITIATIVES BE SOCIAL JUSTICE ORIENTED: AN ANALYSIS OF URBAN SCHOOL REFORM VIA SMALLER LEARNING COMMUNITIES Ryan Jared Mete, Master of Arts, 2010 Directed By: Dr. Victoria-Maria MacDonald, Department of Curriculum and Instruction STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEM academies are theme-based curricula that have gained considerable attention on the national level. The intended outcome of a STEM curriculum is to raise career awareness and increase college and graduate level enrollment in science and engineering in order to ultimately restore the United States’ position as a worldwide leader in technological innovation. In 2008, a group of middle school teachers in Maryland designed a STEM academy to address the achievement gap between African American and white students at their school. The founding teachers used a combination of thematic curriculum and structural redesign via a process called “looping” to create a school-within-a-school model that focused on averageperforming and at-risk students. This study explores the process these teachers underwent to implement a differentiated STEM program to a diverse student body in an urban middle school. CAN STEM INITIATIVES BE SOCIAL JUSTICE ORIENTED: AN ANALYSIS OF URBAN SCHOOL REFORM VIA SMALLER LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Territoriality has variously been seen in the contexts of space and law (Lefebvre, 1991; Taylor, 1993), behaviourism (Urry, 1985) and power (Sack, 1986; Taylor, 1993) and the like. These conceptions have often dominated the national scale, not least because sovereignty over territory has always been at the forefront of nationalist and separatist movements. As Taylor (1993) has shown, the establishment and disestablishment of states represent victories for some social groups and defeats for others. Beyond this, we need to understand territoriality at scales of analyses including sub-national and personal levels. As Urry (1985) has commented, one's conception of oneself and one's place in society is subtly merged with one's conception of the spacially limited territory of social interaction. In practice, territorial organisation can be used as an instrument for socialising people into space, as with apartheid social engineering in South Africa and districting in the United States, or in the general organisation of the state. All these become highly questionable when political changes occur as experiences in countries undergoing dramatic socio-political changes, show.
Since 1989 the political systems in Eastern European societies have changed from totalitarian regimes towards democratic regimes with free general elections. This paper examines whether in these post-communist political systems socio-economic cleavages have become as important as in long-standing democratic societies. The effects of social class and inequality attitudes on voting behavior are studied in six Eastern European and five Western societies. Also the extent to which the relationship between social class and voting behavior is mediated by people's inequality attitudes is examined. The data used to answer our research questions stem from the International Social Justice Project, the International Social Survey Program and the International Survey ofEconomic Attitudes. Results show that social class has clear effects on inequality attitudes and voting behavior in Western nations. In the postcommunist societies, members of different classes do consistently differ in their attitudes towards income inequality and social security, but do not differ in their voting behavior. Due to the political anomie in the emerging East-European democracies, class members probably are unable to translate their policy preferences into party preferences.
The Civic Mission of Schools: Key Ideas in a Research-Based Report on Civic Education in the United States. ERIC Digest..................... 2 GOALS OF CIVIC EDUCATION............................................. 2 PROMISING PRACTICES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING............ 2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND POLICYMAKERS..........................................................3 INTERNET RESOURCES..................................................... 4 REFERENCES AND ERIC RESOURCES................................. 5
The Council of State Governments conducted a survey of chairs of transportation committees and ranking minority members within state legislatures to determine their perceptions of the current level and value of private sector involvement in public transit. The goal was to create a profile of leadership thought on private sector involvement within public transit that will provide informational support to policymakers on this issue. All chairs of transportation in all 50 state legislatures were interviewed. A total of 107 questionnaires were mailed to chairs, and 88 to ranking minority members. Twenty-eight responses were received. Statistical tests were run to rank and group responses. The mailed survey consisted of 9 questions and the subject matter addressed ranged from rating public service areas as funding priorities and increasing taxes to cover public transit costs, to rating the role of private sector involvement and rating the adequacy of state funding and local public service programs. Results of the survey were compiled and ranked for the merged sample, for chairs, and for ranking minority members. After the survey results were compiled and ranked, a complete Pearson Correlation Coefficient Analysis was conducted. This analysis should provide the federal policymaker with information relevant to the implementation of technical assistance to the states. Appendix A of this report contains the survey document mailed to the full committee chair and the ranking minority member of each state's legislative committee having jurisdiction over public transit matters.
As one of three pillars of anti-monopoly law,abuse of dominant position takes an absolute important position in the act.The differentiated legislature exists between in Australia and in China.The presumption system is not regulated in Australian act,which is different with Chinese ones.Fault liability is acted in Australian law,but strict ones in Chinese act.Actually,the punishment in Australian is much stricter than that in China.Chinese regulation of abuse of dominant position should keep fault and strict liability,and increase the efforts of punishment.Criminal liability is suggested to be included.
Stephen F. Szabo has written a concise, nuanced and timely book on Russo–German relations. It is a gem. The crisis ignited by the annexation of Crimea and warfare in eastern Ukraine gives this book particular meaning. It provides a context for assessing Germany’s strategic and potential leadership role in and for Europe and identifying the divergences in US and German foreign policies that are deeper than many would like to admit. The narrative, however, tests the hypothesis that geo-economics has displaced geo-politics. This shift underscores Germany’s emergence as a power prepared to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, suggests that America is increasingly unprepared to do so and identifies a fundamental and intractable source of strategic drift within the transatlantic community. The introductory chapters provide a singular service in detailing the sources of Germany foreign policy, not only with respect to the institutional loci inside and outside of government, but also the individuals who dominant debates – public or otherwise – on Russo–German relations. Szabo also presents an empathetic overview of Germany’s cultural and historical attraction to Russia and the sources of a persistent, if mostly muted, anti-Americanism despite the broad and deep German–American economic and military interdependencies that evolved after 1949. Szabo’s operating assumption is that geo-politics will dominate the twenty-first century and that Germany meets the five characteristics of a geo-economic power: the national interest is defined in economic terms; multilateralism is fluid and promiscuous in choice of partners; business defines the national interest; democracy and human rights are subordinated foreign policy objectives; and economic power is exercised to impose national preferences on others. The geo-economic power hypothesis has a number of corollaries: foreign policy should secure global supply chains, open and then protect markets and ensure access to raw materials; and hard power is waning in salience while economic power is rising as a more effective and nuanced instrument of statecraft. Empirically, Germany meets the criteria of a geo-economic power. The corollaries are somewhat problematic: Germany’s relative indifference to the use of military force reflects the persistence of American hard power underwriting the international system. Only hard power can protect sea-lanes, prevent or remedy gross violations of international law or deter aggression. The American rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific, for example, could be viewed as safeguarding German geo-economic interests in an unstable region of the world rather than as a strategic retreat from Europe. Germany may be a geo-economic power, but remains an incomplete one dependent on the American Leviathan for protection against the depredations of others.
Russell Banks is a socially engaged writer, and one of those contemporary American authors whom Philip Roth has defined as fully dedicated to “trying to understand, and then describe, and then make credible, much of the American reality”, which is interlinked with global imperialism and processes of class and racial oppression (Roth quoted in O’Donnell 2010: 34).1 In his works, Russell Banks, not surprisingly,
Efficient medical progress requires that we know when a treatment effect is absent. We considered all 207 Original Articles published in the 2015 volume of the New England Journal of Medicine and found that 45 (21.7%) reported a null result for at least one of the primary outcome measures. Unfortunately, standard statistical analyses are unable to quantify the degree to which these null results actually support the null hypothesis. Such quantification is possible, however, by conducting a Bayesian hypothesis test. Here we reanalyzed a subset of 43 null results from 36 articles using a default Bayesian test for contingency tables. This Bayesian reanalysis revealed that, on average, the reported null results provided strong evidence for the absence of an effect. However, the degree of this evidence is variable and cannot be reliably predicted from the p-value. For null results, sample size is a better (albeit imperfect) predictor for the strength of evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. Together, our findings suggest that (a) the reported null results generally correspond to strong evidence in favor of the null hypothesis; (b) a Bayesian hypothesis test can provide additional information to assist the interpretation of null results.
The eternal vitality of the "aspiration"of Chinese aesthetics lies in its reference to the ideal of mankind and free will."Aspiration"potentially controls and guides the two-way movement of the spirit,granting aesthetic movement its ideality and transcendality.It takes a basic position in the cultivation of individual personality,and gives fundamental impetus to artists to create,and it also dominates the shaping of integrity, backbone and artistic conception.
This article is a feminist history of Al-Raida, a Lebanese feminist journal launched in 1976 by the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World at the Lebanese American University. The article outlines the journal’s role in the foundation of modern Lebanese feminist discourse, and in particular traces the dominant strand of discourse on development during the journal’s first decade. By situating this strand within both dominant and local historical contexts, the article analyzes the ways in which the journal positioned arguments for development, presented research studies, and employed methodologies in order to forge solutions to Arab women’s issues while maintaining international visibility through the use of normative and transnational language.
While undergoing industrialization and urbanization, the ideology of the traditional family community is being united with the problems that appear in the social environment of the 21st century’s knowledge-based society. The relationships of the family community should be changed to the communication of horizontal network and have the democracy of freedom and equality. Due to changes in social environment, if the family-centered environment was traditional familism, the family community from now on will bring about changes to the form of centering on intimacy and understanding. External family forms and structures in our rapidly changing society have changed through economic growth but institutions and view of value have not changed, and the family-centered exclusive tendency is hindering the creation of diversely formed family communities and the change of recognition. This research considers the increasingly differentiated family community as the community object and aims at consideration of others and the change of consciousness through the stream of times of Korean families’ ideology and the formation of new family communities based on new intimacy and interests. The family communities, whose social, environmental, economic, and cultural foundations are rapidly changing, will exist in the form of life understanding the ideology and diverse, rational ways of life through the experience of the community dance to form horizontal relationships between family communities based on the understanding and change of the individuals’ consciousness.
Sociotechnical systems such as online social media play a central role in today’s society, connecting millions of people all over the world. From a research perspective, a multitude of studies have gathered data from these environments to frame and unveil major questions on human social behavior. The goal of this chapter is to overview some theory of social communication behaviors, attention, and opinion formation in techno-social systems and their effects on individuals’ and group behavior. Examples of data-driven studies on large social media illustrate how users of techno-social systems behave during social protests, how they engage in political conversation, how they contribute to diffuse misinformation, and how they react to the spreading of fear and panic during a crisis. A quantitative analysis of the Twitter conversation during two global events (the Gezi Park protest in Turkey and the 2014 Ebola crisis) is presented as a case study to illustrate these phenomena. Understanding the dynamics of attention and opinion formation online allows people to build safer social media environments, hindering the spread of misinformation campaigns, hate speech, and stigmas.
An analysis is presented of the implementation of equal employment-opportunities policies in the British National Health Service (NHS). It focuses on policy development at national level for the NHS as a whole, and also at local level in a case-study of two District Health Authorities. The material was collected from interviews with over sixty respondents. At national level they included key actors in the policy process. Data from a mail survey of all Health Authorities and Boards in the NHS - undertaken for the thesis - is used to additionally evaluate policy progress at national level. The analysis focuses on the organisation and stimulae behind policy implementation at national level. At local level, interviews were held with personnel specialists responsible for the formulation of policy, and line-managers responsible for policy implementation. The analysis focuses particularly on equal opportunities monitoring, formalisation of the selection process for employment, and positive action measures. The analysis uses concepts of racism and patriarchy to theoretically structure a variety of disparate processes which deny equality of opportunity at work. It also suggests targets and strategies for policy implementation.
During Anti-Japanese War period, Hubei Government executed series of industrial and mineral construction works in west of Hubei. Industries, like Mining, Chemistry, Textile, Machinery, Papermaking and Printing, etc., had gotten certain development and progress. These achievements not only provided certain contributions to the development of the local war economy, but also brought some new changes to the backwardness, therefore promoted the social and economic development in West Hubei area.
The purpose of the study was to determine the topics and courses of a graduate certificate focusing on Global Food Security (GFS) for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through critical action inquiry. GFS is a major issue worldwide that will continue to expand in years to come. Almost 795 million people are estimated to have suffered from chronic hunger globally in 2014-2016. Studies have shown the strong relationship between education and food security and we do not argue for causation, merely association. For this reason, curricula focused on teaching GFS to graduate students will enable professionals in international settings to manage the complexities of food security more effectively. For this critical action inquiry study, identification of the content was the result of a three-round Delphi study performed with experts from LAC and its comparison with the result of the Texas Tech University (TTU) professors survey to determine the topics and courses. Of the 91-originally-idenified topics, 40 reached experts’ consensus. The topics were then grouped into 23 courses. Faculty from TTU also ranked the courses. In the end, seven courses emerged from the research. The curriculum was approved and directed toward professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean. The courses for the online and face-to-face delivery of this multidisciplinary graduate certificate comprise the four pillars of food security and cross-cutting topics.
Using the data from the Sixth National Survey on Migration conducted in 2006 I analyzed: (1) whether family migration has made a disruptive impact on married womens employment status and (2) whether the gender-role perspective explains the relationship in the Japanese context. The results are surprisingly consistent with the studies in the United States and Great Britain. The analyses indicated that both long-distance and short-distance family migration exert disruptive long-lasting effects on full-time employment of married women. The negative effect of family migration is much stronger for long-distance migration which is consistent with the past research. In addition the analyses show that the effect of long-distance migration is significant for part-time employment also though the effect is attenuated and does not last as long. The analyses also indicated that wives who migrated to follow a spouse whose reason of migration is employment-related are least likely to work full-time relative to wives whose spouse indicated other reasons. Since women playing a subsidiary role in family migration decision are assumed to hold more traditional gender-role beliefs the result is considered to support the gender-role perspective.
The present paper deals with cooperation and exchange relations between the mafiosi and the economic actors within the (formal) legal economy. The paper is mainly analytical in nature; nevertheless it relies on previous researches carried out by the authors in traditional and non-traditional areas of mafia presence in Southern and Northern Italy. According to a macro/micro level approach, we firstly lay out several features of «institutional environments» that offer a good opportunity structure for the infiltration by a mafia group. Secondly we present a framework of the different protection patterns between the mafiosi and the economic actors, thus by distinguishing between «service protection», «guarantee protection» and «regulative protection». Each of them provides different benefits and arises different relational structures and trust interconnections. Lastly, we show how micro-relations between the mafiosi and the economic actors «institutionalized» themselves giving rise to peculiar «organizational fields»: a recognized area made up by «grey» and illegal exchanges of resources among different kind of actors (e.g. entrepreneurs, politicians, civil servants, and mafiosi) sharing also systems of common meanings and of mutual recognitions.
Abstract It seems that currently the word “Pilkada” (regional head election) sounds familiar to the society. They understand that Pilkada is democratic medium for electing governor, regent mayor and their deputies. And interesting matter to study in this first ever Indonesia regional head election, which is also one of the reform agendas, is that there are changes of organization, culture, attitude and leadership as well as human resources. The shift on the assumptions is considered normal as now days people become more and more intelligent, have realistic demands and transform to the needs of better productivity. The paradigm shift requires the use of special strategy to win the election. The strategy to win in the regional head election brings a consequence of how the candidates do politicking toward factors so that they work more professionally and clean from corruption, collusion and nepotism. Keywords : Pilkada, Politicking, Paradigm Shift, Organizational  Behavior, HR Performer
In Italy, the Lega obtained outstanding electoral success in the 2019 European elections, becoming the first party on the political spectrum. Previous literature has argued that this performance can be attributed to the leadership of Matteo Salvini, who transformed the Lega from an ethno-regionalist party into a national right-wing party (Passarelli and Tuorto, 2018). Previous research has also argued that the recent geographical trajectories of the party’s success might be associated with the prevalence of a neo-fascist minority during the First Republic (e.g. Mancosu, 2015). However, the empirical evidence comes from aggregate official results and focuses only on some specific Italian regions of the so-called ‘red-zone’. By employing multilevel models on survey data, this paper tests whether this expectation holds also at the individual level, and in a larger geographical area. The findings show that individual propensities to vote for the Lega in 2019 are associated with the percentage of votes obtained more than forty years ago by the Movimento Sociale Italiano in the municipality where the respondent lives, but only in central and southern Italian regions, in which the Lega was an irrelevant competitor before Salvini’s leadership.  These findings provide additional evidence concerning the ideological drivers of preferences for the Lega.
This detailed, exhaustively documented account shows how and why just about everyone in today's teen pregnancy debate is wrong-often disastrously so. * Dozens of cases of original research findings from standard statistical sources that have not been presented in other works * A chronology documents the teenage sex and pregnancy controversy as it has occurred over the past century * Discusses in detail many popular images and fears, including internet predators, "hooking up," "sexting," and media-driven teen sexuality
The initiative was born at the beginning of a discussion with Professor Mabel Manrique, who, taking into account the research lines of the University, suggested me to start field work related to the production of different fresh fruits produced in the Municipality of Viotá Cundinamarca, in such a way that initiates this research process. For the above and taking into account that it was a question of carrying out a research process with fresh fruits, when trying with different fresh fruits, it would be the Lyophilized Strawberry that was selected, since it was expected to generate an added value to this fruit in order to have greater export possibilities. The entire process of inquiry is then started with respect to the cultivation and harvesting of the strawberry, recognizing the different types of soil and duck climates for the production of said fruit, understanding that this can be a great benefit, since it is grown in any month of the year without interrupting its production since its plant has a useful life cycle close to 3 years. Thus, the field work begins in the Municipality of Viotá, finding different problems with which farmers in the area are currently facing, such as lack of knowledge in marketing techniques and mechanisms, which facilitate good management of the capital they have. On the other hand, and EL PROCESO DE LIOFILIZACIÓN DE LA FRESA16 evidencing in some way some of the results of the research, it is found that strawberry production in this municipality has climatic difficulties, which translate into a decrease in the production of fruit, reason that leads us to locate another municipality, Chocontá, with some characteristics of climate and soil, favorable for strawberry production and that in general terms would overturn the initial purpose of the research: to concentrate the efforts of the project on the strengths of the Municipality of Chocontá in terms of strawberry production, without forgetting or leaving aside the municipality of Viotá. In the same way, it is worth clarifying that, as has already been mentioned in previous pages, the rural population of both municipalities is convinced that the Lyophilization process can be of great help in projecting the export market for strawberries and its natural properties to countries like Holland.
A number of philosophers have written about the moral status of children. Some talk about children's special rights (see Children's Rights); others discuss special duties children might have: to obey their parents, heed their teachers, respect the elderly, and so forth. Still others talk about special duties that others, especially parents, have to children. Although philosophers’ explanations for these special rights and duties vary, all trace them back to particular facts about children and their relationships. Children are especially vulnerable; they lack important knowledge and experience; and they depend on their parents and other adults for most everything, including food, clothing, shelter, education, medical attention, and, even more importantly, love.      Keywords:    ethics;  practical (applied) ethics
The Influence of Roman Law on the Creation of the Contemporary Theories of Force Majeure Summary This paper is devoted to the influence of Roman law on the creation of the contemporary theories of force majeure. Its aim is to verify a commonly shared view that Roman law deeply influenced the development of the private law. The Author analyses the works of the nineteenth century legal scholars on the issue of force majeure (L. Goldschmidt, A. Exner, G. Gerth, J. Luchsinger) to examine to what extent their theories and views were based on Roman law. The nineteenth century legislation referred to the doctrine of Roman jurists due to the fact that the notion of force majeure was applied in the same legal relationships as in Roman law (first and foremost the liability of carrier, innkeeper, stablekeeper). Apart from the national terms used to denote force majeure, e. g. German term hohere Gewalt, the legislators applied the original Roman term vis maior which was well-known in legal writing of European countries. The author comes to a conclusion that the above mentioned legal scholars took advantage of the thought of Roman jurists In fact, the scholars searched for the fundamental idea of their doctrines in the sources of Roman law, however, the sources themselves were interpreted in a creative way, to considerable extent abstracted from their content. The Roman law was analyzed taking into account the needs of the nineteenth century legal relations. To sum up: the theories of force majeure consisted of both the thought of Roman jurists and creative concepts of the nineteenth century scholars.
Article 8 of the CRC is a unique international human rights provision. There is no other international human rights treaty that contains a provision similar to Article 8. The right to be registered immediately after birth can be seen as closely related to the rights of every person to her or his own identity. One can also refer to Article 16 of the CCPR concerning the right of everyone to recognition as a person before the law. Finally it should be noted that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in its interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR, in particular the right to respect for private life, has ruled that this right covers an individual's physical and social identity, such as gender identification, name, sexual orientation and sexual life and the right to personal development and personal autonomy.Keywords: Article 8; CCPR; CRC; European Court of Human Rights (ECHR); international human rights provision
This note explores selected political economy aspects of taxation in Ukraine, compares that experience with Russia’s and draws some insights for the CIS region. Ukraine has been unable so far to carry out a comprehensive tax reform, while Russia has. The lessons drawn from comparing the political economy determinants of these two experiences provide valuable insights on the sustainability of reforms and similar experiences in other CIS countries. This note does not attempt to provide a comprehensive treatment of all these issues, but rather to advance some ideas that can help develop a more systematic look at the political economy of taxation in the region. The note begins with a brief overview of the introduction of modern taxation methods during the 1990s. The note shows why comprehensive reform became a necessity. It follows with a simple framework to consider the political economy issues of taxation in the region. Afterwards, the Ukrainian situation is examined in some detail with a focus on how the legislature has addressed taxation issues and the twin problems of tax arrears and tax exemptions. The note continues with a comparison with Russia’s successful experience at comprehensive tax reform. The paper concludes by considering the applicability of the insights obtained to other CIS countries as well as to understanding the sustainability of fiscal institutions in the long-term.
The author took the title of the tightening of Granting Remission to the perpetrators of the crime of narcotics After the enactment of Government Regulation No. 99, 2012 with the right backgrounds remissions of the inmates tightened about terms and procedures granting remission after he set up a government regulation no.99, 2012. Outline of the problems discussed about how the procedure of granting remission to the perpetrators of the crime of narcotics after the enactment of Government Regulation No.99, 2012. The research method used with this type of normative, research and data were analyzed qualitatively and use deductive method of though. Based on data obtained produce research results that the granting of remission procedurs againts the perpetrators of crime of narcotics tightened after the enactmentof Government Regulation No.99, 2012, the perpetrators of crime of narcotics that are convicted of most short 5 years, must be willing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to dismantle things that he had done the crime stated in Justice Collaborator, and the process of filing the proposed remission should be up to the General Director of Prisons.
New media is playing an increasingly important role in the judicial operation. In order to ensure the orderly operation of the justice,it must respond to the new media. However,when judicial authorities deal with the media,due to the restriction of the procedural requirements,the justice cannot respond to the new media's concerns in a timely manner. Faced with this situation,the justice is necessary to insist on judicial independence,efficiency,fairness and democracy,etc. To effectively respond to the new media,the judicial organizations shall establish and improve the interactive mechanism with the new media; strengthen the ability of discourse design; guide or even seriously digest people's compassion arising from the media. When extreme public opinion environment may lead to unfair trial,the judicial organizations should suspend the judicial case. By taking comprehensive measures,the benign interaction between the justice and the new media could be realized.
Abstract : Urbanization is a phenomenon threatening global stability. The increasing rate of urban population growth is creating several elements of destabilization to include increased levels of ethnic and tribal disputes excessive demand upon infrastructure and organized violence. With a major part of US strategy focused on engagement of terrorism and humanitarian operations military intervention in the world's cities is inevitable thus suggesting the requirement for a greater in-depth analysis of urbanization and new methods for operations in this complex environment. Successful urban operations require a sound strategy with clear objectives and a military force adequately trained and organized for the urban environment. This paper will examine urbanization and its associated elements of destabilization and suggest strategic imperatives and operational methods for contemporary urban operations.
This paper studies workers’ agency in the context of government austerity measures in contemporary, crisis-hit Greece. It focuses upon the spatial aspects of two cases of worker mobilisation. The first of these involves powerworkers who supported widespread popular protests against a new property tax designed to raise government revenues. Importantly, the government had sought to collect this tax by adding it to people's electricity bills, a novel method which generated massive opposition. The second concerns strike activity engaged in by steelworkers employed at the Greek Steelworks SA in Aspropyrgos, in the capital region of Attica. These workers were responding to the company's taking advantage of new laws designed to increase flexibility in labour markets by allowing employers to fire more people than they otherwise would have been allowed to do. The paper analyses the different tactics employed in both of these quite different efforts to challenge Greek austerity measures. In analysing these different tactics we explore the role of in-place and trans-local networks of solidarity in response to government policy. A deeper understanding of such factors, we would suggest, may contribute to strengthening the prospects of workers’ struggle in places and spaces where painful capital devaluation diminishes workers’ rights and dismantles social and employment protections.
The emergence of various movements or militant groups who are on behalf of the current da'wah is not small, it destroys the image and face of Islam. Da'wah should be interpreted as an effort to ground the messages of goodness, peace, and be a solution to all mankind's problems. Da'wah harakah or da'wah movement narrowly defined the activities of da'wah movement that demands total change by involving physical without compromise. In fact, the word harakah contains two insights that besides means movement but also means renewal effort to bring people to a better life. This paper, attempts to discuss how the later misunderstood harah dutwah, and gave birth to radicalism. This paper also tries to provide the da'wah map solution needed to reduce the misunderstandings developed in the community about da'wa and Islam.
The present article contains a comparative analysis of the functions and activities of the Old Empire's Aulic Council (that of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation) in the Early Modern Time. The author demonstrates certain peculiarities of that court and the degree of influence exerted upon it on the part of the imperial authorities. The Imperial Aulic Council was created as a counterbalance to the Imperial Chamber Council which was to a greater degree the proponent of the territorial interests. The sittings of the Imperial Aulic Council were attended by the emperors thus constituting its composition. It is also worth mentioning that catholic estates were predominant inside the council. The Imperial Aulic Council constituted a part of the imperial management system with definitely delineated functions. Its creation was to consolidate the position and role of the imperial authorities. The significance of the Imperial Aulic Council increased but it could not be interpreted just as early-absolutist claims of the imperial authorities. The competence of the Imperial Aulic Council embraced arguments between imperial officials, as well as between territorial lords and land officials, between imperial towns and burghers. The author stresses that the work of the Aulic Council was regulated in a very detailed way, but was not efficient enough because of the absence of a strong executive power.
The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate what role Polish business groups play at a supranational level. In Poland reliable advocacy of individual interests by Polish business groups brings negative associations, and the lobbying Polish business groups apply is perceived as an unfair way of exerting pressure on the authorities. Therefore, this paper outlines the conceptualization of the network of notions pertaining to Polish business groups. Lobbying is presented as an instrument applied by professional teams of lobbyists in lobbying campaigns aimed at exerting influence in a transparent, substantive and fair manner. The specificity of interest groups and the stages that affect the emergence of individual Polish business groups are also analyzed. The aspect of legal regulations concerning lobbying activity conducted at a national and supranational level is presented. The picture of the organizational structure, the functions business groups have in the Polish and EU law-making process are discussed as well. The paper also shows the forms of influence used by Polish business groups and exemplifies advantageous activities that contribute to the economic development of Poland.
The primary purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the current and preferred extent of non-supervisory classified staff employees' participation in university decision-making in Nigeria, as viewed by Nigerian higher level university administrators; (2) to investigate their current level of satisfaction with participation, and (3) to investigate the future trend of their participation in university decision-making. A three-part questionnaire developed by Allen L. Christian at North Texas State University in 1980 was slightly modified and used in this study. The respondents were 19 higher level university administrators at six Nigerian universities. The data were analyzed using frequency, t-test for related samples, one-way analysis of variance and the Scheffe' procedure used to test all possible comparisons among the means of the independent variables.
Introduction Over the last 15 years the population the peripheral areas of Denmark has declined, whereas it has grown significantly in districts close to the large cities and in the metropolitan area. Compared to Denmark as a whole the rural districts in the periphery have the relatively highest proportion of children and older people and an educational profile dominated by unskilled workers and persons with vocational training. The geographical inequality in levels and patterns of education is not only present between the most urban and economically strong regions – especially the Copenhagen area – and other parts of Denmark. It also characterizes the situation inside the individual regions, where marked differences are found between municipalities.
This paper aims to examine the interplay between individual subjectivities and collective action during a strike which occurred at a moment of political transition in Indonesia from Suharto's authoritarian regime to a more democratically inclined government. It attempts to highlight some of the problems in understanding the nature of protest and collective action and the construction of workers' identities. By following the sequence of a strike, we are able to see the collaborations and conflicts between the leaders and those who are central in the protest action and those who are at the margins; between those who join and those who do not join but hope to obtain the benefits of the results. This also means that it provides us with a better understanding of the complexities involved when we refer to “consciousness”, “identities”, and “experiences” as analytical constructs. Such a focus can counter the often simplistic links made between action and intent, between the economic circumstances and political action.
Despite increases in womenâ€™s employment, significant gender disparity exists in the time men and women spend on household and care work. Understanding how social expectations govern gender roles and contribute to this disparity is essential for designing policies that effectively promote a more equitable household division of labor. In this study, we examine how a womanâ€™s identity may affect the trade-offs between the time she spends on household and care work and her well-being, using an analytical framework we develop based on the work of Akerlof and Kranton. Analyzing data from rural Bangladesh, we find that longer hours spent on household work are associated with lower levels of subjective well-being among women who disagree with patriarchal notions of gender roles, while the opposite is true for women who agree with patriarchal notions of gender roles. Importantly, this pattern holds only when a woman strongly identifies with patriarchal or egalitarian notions of gender role.
Abstract The complex dynamics of inter-ethnic relations in post-communist countries leads to a puzzle: why do some ethnic minorities mobilise to obtain political representation whereas others do not? We use qualitative comparative analysis to capture complex causal patterns explaining the formation of ethnic parties and to analyse the combined effect of social, economic and political variables. Our article bridges a significant gap in the existing literature that usually focuses on simple explanations for the existence of ethnic parties. The analysis reveals that the political mobilisation of ethnic minorities is explained by institutional elements often underemphasised in existing theories and research.
ABSTRACT The way in which Cohesion Policy is perceived by citizens is a crucial issue for the process of European identity-building. Based on the idea that citizens’ perceptions depend on the local socioeconomic context in which Cohesion Policy is implemented, the paper seeks to define alternative combinations of the economic, social and institutional features of different local policy implementation settings, and to identify them empirically in European NUTS-2 regions. The results highlight a broad variety of policy settings, whose characteristics are relevant to the outcome of Cohesion Policy implementation. Video abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo
This paper seeks to analyze the general contours of the human rights protection in the European Human Rights System, seeking to emphasize the components of this system organs, and the procedure used in cases of violation of human rights. We begin with an analysis of the creation and system organization. Then the main aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights are analyzed and, finally, analyzes the role of the European Court of Human Rights and the processing of cases that are submitted to it, specifically as regards the effectiveness of their decisions.
United States and France were the two countries that had high involvement in humanitarian intervention in Libya in 2011. In fact, the humanitarian intervention process was deviated from the original goal of humanitarian intervention which was for humanitarian reasons. This indicates that the United States and France have their own interests behind humanitarian intervention in Libya. This research aims to analyze the interests of the United States and France in carrying out humanitarian intervention in Libya in 2011. In this study also briefly explained how the conflict in Libya occur until the UN Security Council gave a decision to intervene. This study uses qualitative and explanatory research methods with two data sources, primary and secondary data. The theoretical framework used in this research is Neorealism theory. From the research that has been done, there are three interests of the United States and France in carrying out humanitarian intervention in Libya. The First is the interests of the United States and France to control oil in Libya, and the second is the political factor of the United States and France, and the third is the interest of the United States to overthrow the Muammar Gaddafi regime.
It presents research data access and management initiatives in Argentina. The Database National Systems initiative by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (MINCyT) includes the National System of Biological Data, the National System of Sea Data, the National System of Digital Repositories, and the National System of Climate Data. Research data access and management legislation was promoted by MINCyT and it is now being discussed by Argentinean Congress. The National Council of Scientific and Technological Research is developing the Interactive Platform for Social Sciences Research to create an appropriate environment for data sharing, to allow interdisciplinary approaches and to contribute to the understating of complex problems. National University of Rosario is conducting a study to learn researchers' needs regarding repository services for data management and access.
Health care law and feminism - a developing relationship rethinking the Bolam Test professional regulation - a gendered phenomenon? informed consent in practice feminist perspectives on mental health law the medical treatment of children research bodies - feminist perspectives on clinical research feminism and health care resource allocation health confidentiality in the age of talk rewriting the doctor - medical law, literature and feminist strategy frameworks of analysis for feminisms' accounts of reproductive technology rethinking autonomy, commodification and the embodied legal self perspectives on enforced thoughts on "life" and death a feminist reflects on women's experiences of death and dying.
Today, studies regarding social rights need to be reconsidered and extended in light of emerging themes and issues presented by new migration trends. The United States and Europe, the two destinations often chosen by migrants, have very different views and policies around social rights. One of the most pressing issues in immigration studies is which protections should be extended to irregular or undocumented immigrants. The United States, a destination for significant numbers of irregular migrants in the world, do not explicitly recognize many rights for undocumented immigrants, especially those social rights requiring public expenditures. On the contrary, in many European countries, undocumented immigrants are formally entitled to social rights merely because they have human rights. These two different views lead to opposite policies. In both contexts, social rights remain one of the most important ways to solve many problems of undocumented migrants. However, social rights need to be reconsidered as tools for development and participation of poor and marginalized people essential to the common good, not as mere entitlements or mere human rights. The ambition of this article is therefore to help understand this gap by comparing laws, integration politics, and policies from these two different macro areas of the world.
Romanian Abstract: Simplificarea și modernizarea administraţiei fiscale reprezintă o componentă importantă a activităţii Agenţiei Naţionale de Administrare Fiscală, inscrisă in Strategia sa privind serviciile oferite contribuabililor 2013-2017. Simplificarea procedurilor precum si cresterea calităţii serviciilor reprezintă primul instrument prin care contribuabilii sunt incurajaţi să se conformeze. De asemenea, simplificarea procedurilor poate atrage o diminuare a costurilor de funcţionare a administraţiei fiscale.România a demarat o reformă administrativă majoră: regionalizarea teritorială si descentralizarea administraţiei publice pentru a depăsi diferenţa pe care o are faţă de Europa, aducând serviciile publice si deciziile politice mai aproape de cetăţeni.Procesul regionalizării a inceput in anul 2013 cu regionalizarea administraţiei fiscale prin crearea a 8 direcţii generale regionale ale finanţelor publice.De asemenea, simplificarea accesului contribuabilului la propriul dosar fiscal reprezintă o condiţie esenţială pentru conformarea voluntară. In acest sens, a fost aprobată procedura de comunicare prin mijloace electronice de transmitere la distanţă intre Agenţia Naţională de Administrare Fiscală si persoanele fizice prin intermediul "Spaţiuui privat virtual" si a serviciului "Buletinul informativ fiscal"In scopul dezvoltării unui sistem de comunicare electronică intre organele fiscale si contribuabili a fost introdusă posibilitatea emiterii si comunicării actelor administrative fiscale si in formă electronică.In ceea ce priveste simplificarea procedurilor de administrare a creanţelor fiscale amintim un alt obiectiv prioritar inclus in Strategia fiscal–bugetară pentru perioada 2013–2015, si anume rescrierea codului fiscal si a codului de procedură fiscală.Acest articol prezintă cateva aspecte privind reorganizarea administraţiei fiscale cât si privind modernizarea sa prin simplificarea procedurilor fiscale.English Abstract: Simplification and modernization of tax administration represent an important component of activity of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, registered in the Strategy for services provided to taxpayers from 2013 to 2017. The simplification of procedures and increasing service quality is the first tool that taxpayers are encouraged to comply voluntarily. Also, simplification of procedures may entail a decrease operating costs of tax administration Romania began a major administrative reform: territorial regionalization and decentralization of public administration to overcome the difference it has to Europe, bringing public services and policy decisions closer to the people.Regionalization process started in 2013 with the regionalization of tax administration by creating eight regional directorates-general of public finances.Also, simplifying access of taxpayer to their own file is a prerequisite for comply voluntarily. In this respect, was approved the communication procedure by electronic means of transmission distance between the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and of individuals by "virtual private space" and services "fiscal Newsletter".In order to develop an electronic communication between tax authorities and taxpayers was introduced the possibility of issuing tax administrative documents and communications in electronic form.Regarding the simplification of tax claims management we mention another priority objective included in the fiscal and budgetary strategy for the period 2013-2015, namely rewriting the tax code and tax procedure code.This paper presents some aspects of the reorganization and modernization of tax administration by simplifying of the tax procedures.
Within the past two and a half decades a tenant movement has grown to proportions disconcerting to the landed class and to the government. The Japanese tenant farmer is not as meek and servile as formerly. He has learned to organize unions and fortify his bargaining power even as his city brothers had begun to do through labor unions. He is discovering the power of collective action in demanding rent reduction and in refusing to give up the land. The tenant union is the center of this organized ef? fort. In 1937 there were nearly four thousand such unions with a combined membership of over 220,000. Another three thousand unions with about 250,000 members had been organized and supported jointly by tenants and landowners. While the latter organiza? tions occupy a position somewhat analogous to that of a company union, the former group is founded strictly on a class basis. The tenant movement, in consequence, has centered around the class-conscious unions. In former years they were associated closely with the farmer-labor parties and other more or less militant agrarian groups. With the compulsory dissolution of these affiliated organizations, the tenant unions have become the peasants' only rallying-point in the fight for freedom and security.
In the period under review, two long-standing items on the legislative agenda were completed: the legislative amendments to allow New Zealand's ratification of the Third Additional Protocol (the Red Crystal Emblem) and the legislation required for ratification of the First and Second Protocols to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict. Both are discussed below. Also, encouraging progress was made with the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). While there was a disappointing failure when treaty negotiations collapsed in July, by the end of the year, there was optimism that agreement would be reached in early 2013.
ABSTRACT Cutback management is a key theme for public services in an era of austerity, but the responsibilities for implementing public funding cutbacks do not always fall upon managers employed in the public sector. This article focuses on the cutbacks at third sector organisations (TSOs) – three national governing bodies (NGBs) of sport – which were affected by UK Sport’s ‘No Compromise’ policy following the 2012 Olympics. The article introduces the public funding cutback decision hierarchy as a novel framework which is used alongside existing theory to assess the implications of the severity and immediacy of cutback.
The cultural defense debates are charged with political, racial and feminist undertones. While there is a fear that the legal system would be threatened by making these accommodations for minority cultures and at the same time sees the cultural accommodation, there is also a feeling of the cultural defense being something bestowed upon inferior races and immigrants. On the other hand, proponents of the cultural defense feel that the value systems of minority cultures are marginalized. Further there is an argument that the cultural defense will lead to stereotyping of people from minority cultures. Overall there is skepticism about the court making a determination about the culture of a minority it knows nothing about. There is also resistance by feminists, to the recognition of cultural factors in crimes where victims are women as it would perpetuate practices of patriarchal cultures which is seen as antithetical to the feminist movement. This paper examines the cultural defense discourse in the U.S., situating it in the context of Asian Americans, and proposes a cultural defense test consisting of four questions as a guide for courts applying the cultural defense, in criminal law cases. It also proposes that the appropriate expert for cultural defense cases would be an anthropologist and puts forth guidelines for the expert in these cases so as to enable the court to use their testimony to apply the four question cultural defense test.
We first discuss what fairness may mean in the context of the dispute settlement process, noting the crucial relation between fairness in dispute settlement and the functioning of the trading system as a whole. We explore this relation further through an analysis of three main groups of dispute settlement cases. These are cases that turn around the question of defining fair competition; cases that arise from the use of contingency measures; and cases that draw the boundaries between domestic regulatory measures and the trade-related norms and rules of the WTO. There follows an analysis of experience with compliance and with the use of countermeasures in various cases. Finally, taking together the rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body and the procedures for compliance and the use of countermeasures, we conclude that while the present dispute settlement process serves to protect the fairness of the trading system as a whole, there are some aspects of dispute settlement that remain problematic from the standpoint of fairness.
medical practice”; p. 59). Rhetoric was often useful to physicians, but dialectic had a far more important role in medical theory than is usually acknowledged here. Some attention to medical education—especially the university arts course, which included dialectic as well as rhetoric—would have helped. The enthusiasm of the editors is unfortunately not always matched by their diligence. At page 131, Gross refers to Johannes Placotomus’s 1552 “Oration on Correct Speech, or Precepts of Medicine,” but gives the Latin title correctly in a note as Oratio de ratione discendi, ac praecipue medicinam—actually then, an “Oration on the Method of Learning, and particularly Medicine.” An eye slip and a mistranslation are perhaps forgivable (though the translations of Melanchthon are also unreliable); but he goes on to claim that “in a fashion resonant with the psychoanalytic methods of our era, Placotomus argues that young doctors must be trained to recognize the ways in which everyday language can be a site for curative, psychosomatic intervention.” What Placotomus briefly acknowledges in this work is the pedagogical utility of common subjects (“vulgares materias”) and discussions that are unadorned (“sine ornatu”), his main concern being with humanistic methods for studying Greek texts and learning Galenic doctrine. Readers will draw their own conclusions about this, and about the many typographical errors in the book. It is a shame to have to complain about such shortcomings in what is otherwise an enjoyable and stimulating collection.
As the legal basis for the adjustment of the WTO dispute settlement,the DSU does not provides a specific and comprehensive rules for the third party,this result in the inconsistencies of the rules and practice during the course of the dispute settlement,and also detract from the predictability of the WTO.The reform of the third party participation in the WTO must based on a correct foundation.The excess third party participation in the DSM will bring many unnegligible negative impacts to the course of the DSM.These negative influences include but not limited to the cost of dispute settlement;the probability of the early settlement;and the outcome of dispute settlement.On account of the negative effects of the excess third participation in the DSM,we should take a prudent attitude in the course of DSU reform.
By examining the historical development of Canada’s health insurance program this thesis demonstrates that the federal government played a significant role in establishing a national policy. Consequently, the federal government is obligated to promote, direct and contribute reasonable levels of funding to ensure the maintence and stability of the program. However, through a series of negotiations and directives throughout the 1980s and 1990s the federal government has reneged on its financial contributions. In recent years the provinces have correctly asserted that federal financial commitments have dwindled and undermined the sustainability of our national health care program. This thesis examines how these funding cuts have been achieved as well as public and provincial reactins to shifting funding responsibilities and the overall effect on the health care system.
This chapter discusses the history of the European Court and its legal force in domestic systems, ranging from individual remedy to legislative changes. The Court is a regional supervisory institution for safeguarding the rights expressed in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The story of the Court is intertwined with events in modern European history: from the horrors of the Holocaust, to the Cold War, to the European Union, to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Legal doctrine remains an interesting product of the Court's legal culture. The 'margin of appreciation' doctrine seems to 'comfort' the member countries, which otherwise might 'fear' that the Court would take away too much power from them and shift power to the supranational level. The ‘in the light of current society’ doctrine assures people that current norms are taken into account and that the Convention is not a fixed text that grows obsolete.Keywords: Berlin Wall; Cold War; domestic legal system; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); European Court; Holocaust; individual remedy; legal doctrines; legislative changes
In Russia and the European Court of Human Rights: The Strasbourg Effect, Lauri Mälksoo and Wolfgang Benedek bring together fifteen established European lawyers, judges and human rights scholars to explore interactions between Russia and the European Court of Human Rights in the twenty years since Russia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. Anyone interested in human rights, legal thinking and issues of sovereignty in Russia will welcome the insights found in this valuable, well-researched volume, writes Camille-Renaud Merlen.
A perspective is presented on how communications technology has evolved over the last century and has resulted in the digital revolution and information explosion affecting biocommunications today. The paper includes three sections: historical perspective, current situation, and future direction. The relationship between information technology and societal factors impacting on higher education, health care, and the field of biocommunications is discussed and suggestions made for understanding and coping with this change.
I argue in this Legal Opinion that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's appointment of Robert Mueller is unconstitutional both under the test for officer inferiority set forth in Justice Scalia's opinion in Edmond v. United States, which is cited as good authority in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB and also under the test for officer inferiority set forth in Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion in Morrison v. Olson. Under both tests, Mueller is acting as a principal officer even though he has not been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Mueller's appointment is therefore unconstitutional.
Indigenous people and their communities are often critical actors in resource development networks dominated by large‐scale private and public sector organizations. Development policies and projects have often been contentious in Australia because lands on which development has occurred or been proposed are frequently areas of spiritual and traditional significance to Aboriginal people. Conflicts over development are therefore intense, occur in the context of a history of social and political exploitation of Aboriginal people, and focus on issues of symbolic value, local autonomy, power, and participation in planning. This article applies social assessment models recognizing resource development as a power network to the analysis of the social impacts of development and focuses on the political involvement of local communities as basic to social justice. Research results suggest that social impact assessments should include assessments of community competency to participate in corporate resource developme...
This paper aims to discuss the issue on the stable union of the same sex couples whose rights are secured from law enforcements and the Federal Constitution, within the scope of contractual framework and established criteria. From this perspective this contribution will expound about the effective practice and attainment of these rights from the perspective of freedom, justice and solidarity, and also discuss about the profile of homo-affective family and their insertion in the Family Law. To this end, surveys were conducted on published materials about related topics and subsequently some results and considerations were elaborated on the used material. From this research it appears that the laws that defend homosexual rights, specifically related to stable union between people of the same sex has fulfilled its role, however, the society has not kept pace with this evolution, representing a negative social aspect that should pervade the area of Continuing Education, with the support of the government and organized civil society.
We present and discuss initiatives and participation in innovation projects for pre-service teacher training in the presencial and in the, new and necessary, distance-learning modalities, committed with a wider scale of enrollment and graduation figures. From the enrollment and graduation registers in Physics and related areas in 2003, and from projections of demand for the next ten years in different school levels, we concluded for the necessity of fully expanding of courses of pre-service physics teachers' education in the distance-learning modality, under the responsibility of consortia of public higher education institutions aiming, among other aspects of social relevance, to contribute to the development of inland scientific knowledge, still very deficient throughout the country.
The recent events in the Nigerian political space are clear indications of a match towards the ‘unwanted'. These political events, such as the 2011 presidential elections resulted into the most violent post-elections killings in the history of Nigeria. In the light of this, media representation of that election may not be a value-free exercise but one imbued with value judgments or opinions which conveyed certain ideological leanings. It is against this background that the author examines the macrospeech acts which characterize the discourse of the 2011 post-presidential election news reports with a view to identifying and interpreting the prominent acts and their ideological imports. The study is situated within the broad frame of pragmatics and operationalises Searle Speech Act model in order to uncover the macrospeech acts in the news reports and how the acts covertly convey instances of prejudice and control. Political Discourse in Emergent, Fragile, and Failed Democracies pp, 21. (2016). See more at: http://www.igiglobal.com/viewtitlesample.aspx?id=150140&ptid=142126&t=on+the +threshold+of+democratic+fragility%3a+a+macrospeech+act+explication+of+media+rep resentation+of+the+nigerian+2011+post-presidential+election+news+reports
This article explores the interplay between International Law and domestic law with the view to proposing a model for departing from the traditional pattern of application of international law in domestic courts. The article first discusses the prevailing paradigm of application of international law on the domestic plane. To illustrate and exemplify its disadvantageous results, the article analyses the United States judicial decision in Lisi v Alitalia as a paradigmatic case and I shall contrast it with an analysis in another jurisdiction. Secondly, it analyses existing proposals to depart from the traditional model of application of international law, particularly the transjudicial model and other ideas propounded by feminist, Critical Legal Studies’ advocates and Canadian and United States legal scholars. Finally, it outlines the main features of the proposed model for application of international law in domestic jurisdictions. This model calls for ample non-hegemonic participation of the international community in the adjudication process. It borrows its essence from the vision of collective deliberation advocated by transjudicialism theories and draws on the profound discomfort with the International Court of Justice’s application of the intervention procedures. Additionally, it echoes Chinkin’s call for a rupture with a purely bilateral conception of international dispute resolutions. Succinctly, the proposed model calls for participation of interested and potentially affected international parties in the adjudication process of domestic jurisdictions, with a view to providing decisions with a more legitimate and non-hegemonic nature.
This paper explores the affective economy of (un)belonging, revealed by the UK decision to withdraw from the European Union (EU). Emerging social science research on so-called ‘Brexit’ focuses on the anticipated effects of a stricter UK immigration regime on the lives of EU citizens and families. Against the background of the country’s postcolonial melancholia, and drawing from my ethnographic fieldwork in England (2018–2019), this paper discusses how British and mixed-migration status, mixed (race) couples narrate the impact of the poll’s outcome on their affective orientations towards the UK and the EU. It shows how race inflects partners’ different perception of Brexit as a historical rupture or as an event in a continuum; as a loss of entitlement to mobility in space, or of the legitimacy of permanence in place; as a lingering danger, or a magnifier of existing patterns of violence. By putting Black and mixed-race partners’ narratives center stage, this paper traces three scenes of expression of their perceived contested and precarious belonging: the ordinariness of racism in the UK, the mistrust in the durability of the boundaries of inclusion drawn by the British state, and a heightened alertness for fear of escalating racist and homophobic violence.
It is argued that although clustering policies have become fashionable lately, their applications demand many adjustments of culture and relationship among agents, which does not always occur in countries and regions trying to adopt such policies. Examples of some barriers to the success of such policies in Brazil are discussed here, which may condemn many of the initiatives under such policies strategies to failures. Some of these obstacles result from the culture of the country, developed along its most recent history. It is argued that the traditional dependency of the State on private agents and their lack of cooperative culture are the major obstacles to the success of such initiative.
A discussion of issues relevant to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Bill 2011. The paper includes background information on the definition, effects and control of corruption, as well as the history of Victoria’s integrity system. The paper also includes an overview of the main provisions of the Bill, and an overview of the history and composition of anti-corruption commissions in other Australian jurisdictions.
Cooperative learning is a widely researched pedagogy that has received very positive research results in the USA and Canada. In the last few years this pedagogy has been adopted by a number of schools in Scotland and by one Local Authority as a major area of investment in training. At the same time, a new curriculum, called Curriculum for Excellence, is being introduced in Scotland that will bring significant changes to current practice. Underpinning this new curriculum is the development of the ‘four capacities’ of successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. To achieve the aims of Curriculum for Excellence there will need to be a change in how schools are organised and in the approaches to learning and teaching that take place in our classrooms. This has implications for the continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers as there is a requirement, in the new curriculum, to provide more active learning in the classroom. This thesis has developed from a personal interest in the capacity of cooperative learning to include and engage learners and, therefore, its ability to promote active learning. This thesis argues, through the literature and research data reviewed, and the evidence of the research undertaken as part of this project, that cooperative learning is an effective way to support, and therefore develop, the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.
i i State-sponsored muiticulturalism has faced significant social and political challenges in recent years, resulting in the scaling back of most muiticulturalism policies in Western nations in favour of more assimilationist models. Against the trend, Canada has remained firm in its commitment to its version of the policy, and continues to assert at a governmental level that muiticulturalism is highly valued. This raises questions about why Canadian muiticulturalism appears to have survived the challenges that are causing the collapse of other state-sponsored multiculturalisms. The thesis suggests that muiticulturalism policies contain foundational philosophies, which are informed by historical rationales that originally justified the creation o f muiticulturalism, many o f which have competing goals. On one hand, muiticulturalism contains aspects of systemic racism that are based in the way a nation has historically engaged with diversity; on the other hand, it is a policy designed to promote inclusive equality. These two principles manifest throughout the many rationales that created the policy. Canada's capacity to balance competing interests within the policy has enabled Canadian muiticulturalism to adapt to challenges in a manner that not all other multiculturalisms have been able to emulate. Among other contemporary challenges, the charge has been laid against muiticulturalism that it fosters the spread of excessively patriarchal cultures in liberal national spaces, and subsequently should be abandoned in favour of more assimilationist models that protect against gender abuse, and abuse of liberal principles of individual human rights. B y carefully analyzing the foundational philosophies in contemporary Canadian muiticulturalism, the thesis shows that in the Canadian case this charge is based on a number o f inaccurate assumptions, which, once corrected, indicate that statesponsored forms of muiticulturalism may actually promote gender equality, as well as open increased avenues for advanced levels of cultural human rights. The thesis proposes a framework for advancing human rights through a fresh look at the individual rights versus group rights debate, and demonstrates how Canada is uniquely poised, through muiticulturalism, to establish advanced access to equality and freedom of cultural practice for a diverse population.
Was Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff victim of a coup or removed through a legal process of impeachment? The heated debate on the 2016 ousting of Brazil’s president testifies to the growing controversy around the definition of coups. Focusing on Latin America, we show that the use of coups with adjectives have become more frequent in public and scholarly debates. Occurring at a time when coups are becoming rarer, we argue that this development is linked to prevalence-induced concept change, meaning that when instances of a concept become less prevalent, the understanding of the concept expands. The meaning of coups has expanded through a proliferation of adjectives. Coups with adjectives are not new, but recent usage changes the concept from a classic to a family resemblance structure. Although this strategy can avoid stretching and increase differentiation, we urge caution and warn against harmful consequences, whether conceptual, theoretical, or practical.
Build the evaluation system of ideological and political education websites is significant for online ideological and political education at colleges and universities. Its content should include directional, scientific, technical, target and comprehensive evaluations, at the same time five methods such as expert appraisal, clicking rate investigation, dynamic following, renewal rate sampling, and summing-up appraisal should be adopted for comprehensive evaluation.
Qu Yuan left enormous material and spiritual wealth. Developing Qu Yuan culture is conducive to promoting the spiritual realm of Hunan people, is helpful for enhancing the overall development of soft power, is conducive to enhancing the lasting competitiveness of Hunan cultural industry and promoting the regional development of cultural tourism industry. If we first start the protection and development of Miluo, a center for Qu Yuan culture, including the provincial government organizes a public memorial ceremony for Qu Yuan in Quzi Memorial Temple, increases construction strength of Qu Yuan Cultural Zone, builds Quzi Memorial Temple Foundation of Hunan Miluo, the strategy of culture strong province will enter into a new level.
The problems affecting the processes associated with the accession Ossetia to Russia as the integration of the peoples of the North Caucasus into the Russian legal administrative system. The Christianization of Ossetia is paid much attention, before it the RussianOssetian relations were formed. There were some difficulties, mainly connected with the sphere of foreign policy, which didn‟t allow developing these relations in the XVIII century. The results of studying of many authors dealing with this problem were analyzed and compared in this article. The questions about the Ossetian population orientation to Russia and it lead to the relatively rapid and deep introduction of Christianity into the life of the Ossetian society are discussed in it. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact of Christianization of the Ossetian population examined under Ossetia joining process into the administrative and legal system of Russia, as in the study of the matter, it was found that the Christianization factor was one of the points in the process of joining North Ossetia to Russia. The relevance of the study is in the importance of taking a decision by the Ossetian population that they should be Christianized. It was an important fact was as neighboring nations, such as the Muslim Kabarda influenced this process.
A study was conducted on the performance of black students from a historically black university (HBU) as well as examinations used for teacher certification in Mississippi. Of specific concern for this paper was the success of black students in successfully completing the NTE/PRAXIS Examinations. Its scope began with the NTE examinations and covered the transition to the PRAXIS series. The data are discussed in terms of changes in preparation programs, cultural issues, and the implications for recruitment and retention of minority students in teacher education programs. Data analyses indicate that, over the period from 1993 to 1998, little difference was noted in the success rates of black candidates on the teacher certification examinations. The findings were consistent whether results of the NTE or the PRAXIS were used. The introduction of learning strategy instruction, including critical thinking units and practice on the Learning Plus System, seemed to have marginal effects on student success. When data are couched in terms of a broader set of educational achievement/predictor examinations, clear indications are observed for the alternative assessment Of minority candidates. (Contains 27 tables and 12 references.) (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PRAXIS SCORES AT AN HBU: A FIVE YEAR TREND ANALYSIS William E. Wilkins, Ph.D. Mississippi Valley State University and J. Reid Jones, Ph.D. Delta State University
This article is a fictional letter from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas about the relationship between democratic values and antitrust law. It responds to William Curran's fictional dialogue between Senator John Sherman and philosopher John Rawls. It discusses the importance of the anarcho-socialist movement of the late nineteenth century to the adoption of the Sherman Act, the historical and logical inevitability of adoption of a rule of reason in antitrust law, the relevance of economic efficiency to the rule of reason, and the relationship between competition and the promotion of democratic ideals.
The seminal papers of Persson and Tabellini have brought increasing interest in analyzing the effects of formal political institutions on economic policy choices. In contrast, the role of participatory policy processes in formulating efficient policies in developing countries has not been analyzed comprehensively yet. In both areas of research, systematic analyses are missing which aim at understanding the effect of formal and informal institutions on agricultural policy. Therefore, this thesis focuses on investigating the influence of formal and informal political institutions on agricultural policy choices. Electoral systems and forms of government are chosen as examples of formal institutions, political communication networks and legislative norms are considered as informal determinants of political decisions. In order to provide for a comprehensive analysis, theoretical hypotheses are derived from sound models of micro-political behavior and the empirical analyses use innovative econometric approaches. In summary, this cumulative thesis encompasses five contributions which show that formal and informal political institutions influence agricultural policy significantly. The first three contributions provide insights on the influence of constitutional rules on agricultural protection using time-series cross-section data on the national rate of assistance to agriculture, political institutions and standard polit-economic determinants of protectionism. The last two contributions focus on modeling participatory policy processes and determinants of political communication networks quantitatively. A network-based theoretical model of legislative decision-making and empirical data on agricultural policy positions and the communication network among influential actors in Malawi are used.
Based on the fact that as an archipelago, Indonesia shares borders with neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. With a large number of territorial borders of Indonesia and other countries, it has resulted in various cooperative relationships or various border problems between Indonesia and these neighboring countries. The purpose of this study was to determine the form of defense diplomacy and its analysis to include the Tanjung Datu Phase as the Indonesia-Malaysia Outstanding Boundary Problem (OBP). The writing method used is qualitative, wherein in this analysis, the writer does not make calculations. The findings of this study are the subject of Indonesia's defense diplomacy to include the Tanjung Datu Phase as OBP Indonesia-Malaysia, namely the national regional coordination committee (Pankorwilnas), Directorate of Topography of the Army, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Outstanding Boundary Problem  (OBP). Meanwhile, the object of Indonesia's defense diplomacy to include the Tanjung Datu Phase as OBP Indonesia-Malaysia is in the form of Indonesia's goal, namely as the implementation of national interests in achieving its territorial sovereignty, and this is included in the scope of the defense.
This paper focuses on the importance of non-public social media spaces in contemporary democratic participation at the grassroots level, based on case studies of citizen-led, community and activist groups. The research pilots the concept of participation spaces to reify online and offline contexts where people participate in democracy. Participation spaces include social media presences, websites, blogs, email, paper media, and physical spaces. This approach enables the parallel study of diverse spaces (more or less public; on and offline). Participation spaces were investigated across three local groups, through interviews and participant observation; then modelled as Socio-Technical Interaction Networks (STINs) [1]. This research provides an alternative and richer picture of social media use, within eParticipation, to studies solely based on public Internet content, such as data sets of tweets. In the participation spaces studies most communication takes place in non-public contexts, such as closed Facebook groups, email, and face-to-face meetings. Non-public social media spaces are particularly effective in supporting collaboration between people from diverse social groups. These spaces can be understood as boundary objects [2] and play strong roles in democracy.
The concept of flexicurity, which is a combination of flexibility and security words, involves the application of flexible working conditions providing security. There are various obstacles in the tourism sector of Turkey arising from the structural characteristics of the sector towards the applicability of the concept of flexicurity. In the study, the tourism sector was examined in terms of employment structure, working hours, wages, social protection, and representativeness, and evaluations were made on the dimensions of flexicurity. The statistics used in the study are compiled from TUIK (TURKSTAT), Eurostat and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and evaluated as accommodation and catering sector data. This secondary analysis of existing data involves obtaining datasets from studies that have already been completed in national sources and the results in this study showed that the concept of flexicurity in the tourism sector can be maintained as unsecured due to the structure of the industry.
This research explores Operation Joint Effort (OJE) as a case study of local and federal collaborations on immigration enforcement. OJE is a collective partnership between Escondido, California’s local police department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As individual states continue to opt into such collaborative efforts, the imperative need for a critical review is bellowing. The central concern of this thesis is of how such collaborations impact the daily routine for undocumented migrants within these boundaries of policing and reviews such boundaries by the cultural characteristics and definitions of “illegality.” This thesis is guided by ethnographic fieldwork and 16 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted by the ACLU and myself. Tactics of immigration enforcement not only shape how “illegality” is defined, but also how those saddled with the title of “illegal” must live within the constrained environment that “illegality” creates for human begins. This thesis hopes to be clear in its understanding of “illegality” by acknowledging its various layers; first, how it is defined through various federal, state and local legislation; second, how it is sustained through enforcement tactics such as the militarization of the southern border, and deportation, which invokes fear and criminality in the general public; and third, how it is lived and experienced through the bodies of those subjected to this every-changing notion of “illegality.” I argue that through immigration enforcement tactics, like Operation Joint Effort, the Escondido Police Department instills “deportation terror” while reinforcing and restructuring the boundaries of Mexican/Latino “illegality” within Escondido’s city limits.
Abstract : The purpose of this paper is to describe the reasons for including experimental interventions in longitudinal studies of the desistance of criminal behavior, the potential benefits that such combined longitudinal/intervention studies might produce, the problems that are likely to be confronted in conducting such studies, and some specific intervention strategies that have shown promise in previous studies and are appropriate for including in a Desistance Cohort design. Since many criminal justice researchers appear to stell subscribe to the Martinson/NAS Rehabilitation Panel view that 'there is no evidence that anything works,' the paper begins with a brief review of the more recent evidence suggesting that, under certain conditions, some interventions do appear to work, with certain types of offenders.
The article raises an issue about the alternative methods of protection subjective civil rights. These methods have become the most actual considering the fact of still undeveloped russian judical system. Courts do not apply the substantive law in their entirety, that, as a consequence, leads to a large number of miscarriages of justice, a gross violation of the law courts and violation the rights of the parties involved, rather than their protection.
The constitutional and legal regulation of the electoral system, in accordance with the restrictive interpretation made by our constitutional jurisprudence, allows the Autonomous Communities may assume some responsibilities in this area. Nevertheless, statutory regulation has produced a high degree of homogeneity by the electoral system of the Autonomous Communities, which could have had even more powers on topics such as the exercise of the right to vote, the electoral process, the form of government, the electoral formula, the establishment of constituencies, the electoral campaign, and so on.
A number of cases of serious child abuse have resulted from beliefs that children may be possessed by evil spirits and may then be given the power to bewitch others. Misfortune, failure, illness and even death may be blamed on them. The 'cure', nowadays called deliverance rather than exorcism, is to expel the spirits, sometimes by violent means.    This book draws together contributions on aspects of possession and witchcraft from leading academics and expert practitioners in the field. It has been put together following conferences held by Inform, a charity that provides accurate information on new religions as a public service. There is no comparable information publicly available; this book is the first of its kind. Eileen Barker, founder of Inform, introduces the subject and Inform's Deputy Director goes on to detail the requests the charity has answered in recent years on the subject of children, possession and witchcraft. This book offers an invaluable resource for readers, whether academic or practitioner – particularly those in the fields of the safeguarding of children, and their education, health and general welfare.
Summary The International Law Commission wrestled for over a decade with the relationship between the principle of equitable utilization and the no harm principle in its work on the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses. In its final Report to the UN General Assembly on this topic in 1994, the Commission presented a set of Draft Articles couched in obscure language that reflected the sharp differences of opinion on the matter and the compromises that had been made. This division of opinion about the relationship between these two principles persisted in the Working Group of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly to which the Draft Articles were referred. Again, compromises were reached and the language of the substantive articles (in particular Articles 5, 7, 20, and 21) of the Watercourses Convention, adopted by the General Assembly on May 21, 1997, continues to be obscure and its meaning debatable. It is argued here that in this Convention the principle of equitable utilization, which prescribes the reasonable and equitable sharing of the beneficial uses of the waters of an international watercourse, is made the primary substantive rule of international water law; harm caused by a utilization of these waters is, of course, an important factor to be taken into account in determining whether, in a particular case, the utilization is reasonable and equitable and, therefore, lawful. This interpretation of the Watercourses Convention brings it into harmony with customary international water law. It is an interpretation that finds support in the recent decision of the International Court of fustice in the Gabákovo case.
The paper examined politics of Exclusion and Separatist Agitation in Nigeria. The inequities and structural imbalance in the political system of Nigeria have unequivocally reinforced fissiparous tendencies in Nigeria. Thus, Politics of exclusion has characterized the body politics of Nigeria thereby, necessitating separatist agitations. The paper relied on secondary sources of data and frustration- Aggression theory was adopted as the analytical construct. The paper observed that antidemocratic forces as they find expression in social injustice, inequalities, intolerance, partiality, abuse of fundamental human rights and others are at the root of politics of exclusion and separatist agitation in Nigeria. It was also noted in the paper that even within a region, states or communities there are “bottled up” separatist agitations as a result of anti-democratic forces. The paper strongly believes that there a lot to benefit from unity in diversity and that going separate ways is not the best option as there may be separatist agitations within a region, state or community if democratic tenets are not upheld. The paper therefore recommended that not only should democratic institutions be strengthened, but also Nigerians should imbibe and demonstrate democratic culture.
Like many disputes, Romeo and Juliet is a story with no winners; the outcome is destined to be lose-lose. Disputes are an inevitable part of human interaction and people need to learn effective and reasonable ways of dealing with their disputes. The question is how can this be done in a way that leaves people intact. The article compares and contrasts two modes for resolving disputes: adjudication and alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The article looks at what happens when disputes arise—how do problems become “disputes” and what do people do about them? The role of lawyers as dispute creators as well as dispute resolvers is examined, as is the current state of the adversary system and litigation. The author problematizes the rush of lawyers into the ADR game and questions whether it is in response to decreased billings rather than from a desire to provide more creative, disputant friendly services. The author argues that ADR is not the great panacea it has been touted to be. It clearly has a place in disputes but it is as imperfect as any other process that exists or could be created. Because disputes arise from human interaction, there may be as many types of dispute resolutions as there are people. Imperfect people will create imperfect and fallible processes. Those who seek to assist in dispute resolution must accept that their role is one of assistance, not control. Lawyers are not necessarily well suited to this role. It is incumbent on those who wish to engage in the service of dispute resolution to recognize their own situatedness and interests.
Guarantee the protection of Human Rights. Security, protection, and respect for human rights is not likely to grow and live naturally in the absence of democracy and the implementation of the principles of state based on law. The principle of state based on law means to control the governmen power, especially rulers. Citizenship is belongs to human right. Citizenship status with rights and obligations for the owner. A citizen has a reciprocal relationship between the state and its citizens. State shall ensure the right of a citizen ownership that includes civil rights, political rights, economic rights, social, and cultural. While obligations as a holder of Indonesian citizenship status has been established Constitution. Lost of the citizenship means lost of rights and obligations that person to the country concerned. The loss of citizenship status resulted in the breakup of a citizen to his country . Status of citizenship is the right of citizens is important and special. By having the citizenship rights as citizens will be easily met by the state or government. Lack of clarity citizenship status is also useful for the government in carrying out its duties
In a time of austerity and rising unemployment across Europe, immigration has become an increasingly hot topic. One concern, frequently brought up by the media is that the presence of immigrant children in schools may reduce the educational outcomes of native children. Using data from the Netherlands, Asako Ohinata and Jan C. van Ours have taken an in-depth look at whether or not this is actually the case. They find that, after controlling for differences within schools, that the educational achievement of native children is almost completely unaffected by the presence of immigrant children.
Original title: Emancipatiemonitor 2012    During this period of economic crisis, emancipation is not a topic that is  high on the public agenda. From time to time, however, it does receive  attention. As an example, discussions take place with some regularity about  increasing the labour participation rate of women, especially in the light of  population ageing. And whenever the prospect of cutting spending on child care  is broached, this unfailingly raises the question of what consequences those  cuts would have for the number of hours that people (mainly mothers) work.    The Emancipation Monitor 2012 (Emancipatiemonitor 2012)  presents a picture of the emancipation process in the Netherlands. It describes  the position of women and men in a wide range of domains of society, presenting  the most up-to-date figures on education, paid employment, combining work and  care, income, senior positions and safety. It also looks specifically at the  position of young women and men. A number of themes are also considered in more  depth: low-educated women, flexible working, role division between partners,  managerial support for emancipation and the background to perceived lack of  safety by women.    The Emancipation Monitor is a joint publication by the Netherlands Institute  for Social Research | SCP and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). It is published at  the request of the Emancipation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Education,  Culture and Science. Among other things, this edition of the Emancipation  Monitor shows that women are holding their own on the labour market: their  labour participation rate has remained unchanged. Thus far, men have faced more  difficulties on the labour market as a result of the economic crisis.    Ans Merens (SCP) is a member of the  Emancipation, Youth and Family research group at SCP. Her research  interests focus on emancipation in a general sense and on women in senior  positions.  Marijke Hartgers (CBS) is employed in the Public Services Sector at  Statistics Netherlands. She carries out research on the educational statistics  produced by CBS, with special attention among other things for emancipation and  integration.  Marion van den Brakel (CBS) works in the Life Situation, Income and Cohesion  sector at Statistics Netherlands. Her research focuses on the CBS income  statistics. Her interests also include emancipation, and in particular economic  independence
The purpose of this paper is to review a synthesis of theories and empirical studies dealing with the mergers and acquisitions in the recent decay in an attempt to provide directions for future research. The review focuses on four main streams including: first, the motives for mergersacquisitions; which are the strategic profits, the overconfidence of managers and the desire to create a big empire resulting from merger. From second, corporate characteristics of firms that did merger or acquisition; third, the economic consequences of the operation of merger and acquisition and finally; fourth, the implication on the market with the impact of merger on the value of the firm. We think that this article can give another idea about the information disclosed by any company choosing to merge and can be analyzed by practitioners by giving them the theoretical background of the merger and acquisition problem.
Accountability practices of school counselors deserve attention and is a timely topic considering the direction of education reforms toward data driven practice. School counselors (n = 1,704) nationwide were surveyed online to determine their current accountability practices. The results suggested that approximately 54% of school counselors engaged in data gathering and approximately 32% engaged in information distribution. Further analysis indicated significant relationships between building level and accountability practices. Implications for school counselors and directions for further research are provided.
The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the legal implications for asylum-seekers flowing from their resort to falsified documents as a method of gaining access to the territory of asylum countries. Article 31(1) of the Refugee Convention is supposed to act as a shield against punishment for illegal entry. However, the paper identifies four issues relating to the application of Article 31 which make the functioning of the shield difficult. The first issue relates to the procedure of applying Article 31 and in particular the interrelationship between the refugee status determination procedure and the criminal procedure initiated as a result of usage of false document. The second issue is how immigration control rationale permeates the criminal procedure and results in reversal of the burden to the detriment of the defendant/asylum-seeker. The third issue relates to the unavailability of proper legal advice and the ensuing repercussions for applying Article 31’s shield. And lastly, the application of the shield could be so belated that by the time when Article 31(1) is under consideration by appropriate judicial authority, asylum-seekers might not only have been recognized as refugees, but they have already been convicted and served the sentence. Thus, the system is designed in such a manner that immigration control prevails and indeed breaches are sanctioned.
The Yamana parish belonging to the Paltas canton, province of Loja, contributes to the social, economic development of the southern region of Ecuador from the tourist point of view, the parish has a great cultural and natural richness, so it is important to develop the work of research called: "Tourism Strengthening the Development Plan and Territorial Planning (PDOT) for the Yamana parish, Paltas Canton, Loja Province", for which a general objective was established: Tourist strengthening of the Development and Territorial Planning Plan for the Parish of Yamana, Canton Paltas, Province of Loja; and for its consequent development, three specific objectives were stated: first, to carry out the diagnosis of the tourist component of the Parish of Yamana, Canton Paltas, Province of Loja; For the development of the same were used various methods: analytical - synthetic to obtain an analysis of the current state of the parish demonstrating the existing facilities and difficulties and obtain the bibliographic references collected throughout this investigation, descriptive method to obtain information regarding to the current state and situation, inductive method which allowed to make a general study of all the characteristics of each attraction. However, the process was complemented with the help of techniques such as direct observation through field work and interviews with the authorities, people involved in the tourist activity, using the methodology of Carla Ricaurte 2009 adjusting it to the current reality of the parish, the same one that helped the collection of information and for the lifting of tourist attractions, the MINTUR 2017 cards were used, with which 5 cultural and 3 natural tourist attractions were identified. The SWOT MATRIX was carried out in order to know the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats of the sector, and in turn, the cross-sectional matrix was carried out, the result of which allowed for the establishment of tourism development strategies, through the planning of tourism projects that would promote tourism within of the parish. One of the interviews with the president of the GADP and the residents of the town was finalized. In the second Objective: To elaborate a tourism development proposal for Yamana Parish, through the application of participatory methodology, After the information obtained, five schemes were drawn up, comprising a total of five strategic objectives: the first is to propose tourism products, the second is a training plan, the third is tourism promotion and finally the implementation of a tourism department or regulation. The participatory workshop was developed, where the information collected through the fieldwork and the proposed proposals was validated. The third objective: To propose strategies for the application of the proposed proposal for the tourist development of the Yamana Parish, for the fulfillment of this objective once the proposals were chosen, matrices were elaborated where each proposal consists of its strategy, clearly detailing the activity that is must do for the realization of the same, by planning proposals that allow boost the tourism development of the parish Yamana. The second participatory workshop was developed where the attendees chose the proposals that  5  they consider contribute to the touristic development of the parish. After the election, 5 schemes and possible designs for each proposal were elaborated: the first and second were based on the strategic objective, products tourism: with the proposed route of the petroglyphs and the proposed gastronomic fairs, the third was based on the strategic objective of the training plan with the proposal of: face-to-face training, the fourth was based on the strategic objective of tourism promotion: with the brand proposal tourism and the fifth was based on the normative strategic objective or tourist department: with the proposed tourist information center.
Rock typing is often a highly debatable topic between multi-disciplines of a field development team. This paper demonstrates an integrated approach to reconcile information and data obtained from various scales for rock type classification up to its application and impact on dynamic models. In our previous field development, discrimination of rock types are based on subjective geological observations and empirical porosity-permeability relationships. However, in carbonates, for any porosity within a given rock type, permeability can vary by several orders of magnitude, indicating existence of several flow units, which is the subject of current proposed rock typing workflow. As a pre-requisite, sedimentological evaluation of cores provides the depositional and diagenetic frameworks, and controls on pore types and geometries. In this context, six rock typing approaches were evaluated and compared across all static and dynamic data sources through several data visualisation, quantification and qualification tools. The final rock typing approach selected is one which exhibits consistency among all data sources. Finally, a numerical simulation run on two realisations (existing porosity cut-off method vs FZI integrated method) showed that an integrated FZI method significantly reduces the magnitude of deviation from actual production data, thereby reducing iterations (and time) spent for model calibration.
In recent years, the water area of Huangqihai Lake, which is located in Inner Monggolia of China, has changed dramatically mostly due to human factors and decreasing precipitation. Change monitoring of lake area is necessary in this case as well as a prior section for further environmental research of lake ecology. Development of space-geodetic monitoring synthetic aperture radar in the past few decades has made it possible for the access to wide-scale, fine resolution and short revisit interval data resources. In opposed with optical radar, synthetic aperture radar is relatively insensitive to atmospheric conditions and independent from sun illumination. In this paper, a modified narrow-band-section active contour model has been exploited based on a series of SAR images from sentinel-1 to detect the changing area of Huangqi Lake. This approach is generally implemented in three steps. In preprocessing, image radiometric calibration and data co-registration has been done in advance. Then speckle noise has been removed using FANS filtering, which can keep local information with relatively high calculation efficiency compared to traditional spatial filtering and transform domain filtering. After speckle filtering the lake area is extracted with active contour method in a narrow band along lake level. Since this method is sensitive to initial contour, a modified active contour is proposed, combine the region-based model and the edge-based model with a coarse-to-fine scheme to improve segmentation efficiency. Meanwhile, the narrow band is divided into segments to conduct the approach. Quantitative analysis will be given in the results during 2014–2017. The area of Huangqi lake has changed approximately 20 km2 in 3 years and calcification occurs in dry areas, which cause widely concern.
Thellier‐type paleointensity experiments were conducted on welded ash matrix or pumice from the 1912 Novarupta (NV) and 1980 Mt. St. Helens (MSH) pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) with the intention of evaluating their suitability for geomagnetic paleointensity studies. PDCs are common worldwide, but can have complicated thermal and alteration histories. We attempt to address the role that emplacement temperature and postemplacement hydrothermal alteration may play in nonideal paleointensity behavior of PDCs. Results demonstrate two types of nonideal behavior: unstable remanence in multidomain (MD) titanomagnetite, and nonideal behavior linked to fumarolic and vapor phase alteration. Emplacement temperature indirectly influences MSH results by controlling the fraction of homogenous MD versus oxyexsolved pseudo‐single domain titanomagnetite. NV samples are more directly influenced by vapor phase alteration. The majority of NV samples show distinct two‐slope behavior in the natural remanent magnetization—partial thermal remanent magnetization plots. We interpret this to arise from a (thermo)chemical remanent magnetization associated with vapor phase alteration, and samples with high water content (>0.75% loss on ignition) generate paleointensities that deviate most strongly from the true value. We find that PDCs can be productively used for paleointensity, but that—as with all paleointensity studies—care should be taken in identifying potential postemplacement alteration below the Curie temperature, and that large, welded flows may be more alteration‐prone. One advantage in using PDCs is that they typically have greater areal (spatial) exposure than a basalt flow, allowing for more extensive sampling and better assessment of errors and uncertainty.
Organic matter steadily accumulates in eutrophic lakes as a result of deposition of detrital tissue from algae and aquatic macrophytes and the slow rate of anaerobic decomposition. The rate of organic matter decomposition is affected by the nature of the sediment C (electron donor) and supply of electron acceptors. Batch incubation experiments were conducted to determine the rate and extent of organic matter decomposition in bottom sediments under anoxic conditions (...)
A significant component of the Indonesian throughflow, apparently about 25%, passes through the Lombok Strait. Direct observations in 1985 reported a ∼2 Sv annual average, with an annual cycle of amplitude ∼2 Sv. There are also significant fluctuations in this transport in the 0.01–0.1 cpd frequency band. Shallow pressure gauge data (sea level) inside the strait during the current meter observations were of limited use in explaining the large fluctuations in currents. Sea level data at Cilacap, 720 km west (upcoast), however, overlap the current observations for 5 months and correlate exceedingly well (r = 0.87) with the observations inside the strait at these frequencies. These sea level oscillations in the Indian Ocean force fluctuations in the Lombok throughflow that reach 50–70 cm/s, equivalent to 2–3 Sv. Lagged regression analysis indicates Cilacap sea level leads Lombok currents by 1–2 days, suggesting a low-frequency, progressive wave. Simultaneous data in 1989 from four stations extending from the near-equatorial station at Padang at 1°S to Benoa in the Lombok Strait (2000 km downcoast) clearly show the persistent propagation of low-frequency waves of 20- to 40-cm range along this coast. Lagged correlation on station pairs indicates a phase speed consistent with coastally trapped internal Kelvin waves. We speculate that further eastward progression of these waves to the Timor Passage of Ombai Strait will further modulate the throughflow. The forcing of these waves is not yet identified, but it appears likely that intraseasonal oscillations in the equatorial Indian Ocean winds, as demonstrated by Enfield [1987] for the Pacific, are a probable mechanism. Improved wind data quality in 1991 due to the assimilation of satellite data (special sensor microwave/imager) will allow investigation of remote forcing on more recent data sets.
ABSTRACT The sediment size characteristics were determined for 53 samples of sediment, from Matagorda Bay, Texas. The Foraminifera were studied in 21 of these samples. The dominant sediment in the Bay was a silty clay, with sand and shell generally distributed around the marginal area. The Foraminifera consisted almost completely of calcareous forms, although a very few arenacecus forms occurred in some localities. This did not agree with results of investigations in other bays along the Texas Coast where the arenaceous population was much larger. The reason may be attributed to hydrographic factors which do not permit a population of arenaceous fauna comparable to those in other bays. The distribution of the Foraminifera showed a general tendency for increasing population density in the eastern portion of the Bay, with minimal population occurring in Pass Cavallo. The greatest average density of Foraminifera was in the Mid-Bay sedimentary environment. The average density decreased in the Bay Marginal and Reef areas, and the Bay Inlets. Large variations in total populations were present within the same environment. A poor correlation was indicated by the graphical relationship of the total population to the median diameter of the sediments. However, in comparing the population of Elphidium gunteri, one of the dominant forms, with the median diameter, there was an indication that the higher population occurred in the silt range. The reason for the foraminiferal distribution may be connected with a combination of hydrographic and sedimentary factors. The available data did not allow evaluation of these factors.
B i v a r i a t e ( re d u c e d m ajo r a x e s ) and m u l t i v a r i a t e ( d i s c r i m i n a n t f u n c t i o n s , c a n o n i c a l v a r i â t e s , p r i n c i p a l c o m p o n e n t s , c lu s te r a n a l y s i s ) com pute r t e c h n iq u e s a r e used t o a n a ly s e q u a n t i t a t i v e m easurem ents on f i f t e e n t e s t d im e n s io n s o f t h e M esozoic c a s s i d u l o i d e c h in o id N u c l e o l i t e s and i t s p r o b a b le l i v i n g d e s c e n d a n t Apatopygus r e c e n s . A m o d i f i c a t i o n to s t a n d a r d t e c h n iq u e s i s d e s c r i b e d f o r a n a l y s i s o f r e d u c e d m a jo r a x e s and th e c l u s t e r a n a l y s i s . Twenty" sam ples a r e a n a ly s e d . They i n c l u d e n in e s p e c i e s o f N u c l e o l i t e s from th e J u r a s s i c ( N.ampTus, N ,b u r g u n d ià è , N .e l o n g a tu s , N . l a t i p o r u s , N .m ic r a u lu s , N . s c u t a t u s , N .w oodw ard ii) o f England and F ra n c e and C re ta c e o u s ( N . r o tu n d u s , N .s u b q u a d r a tu s ) o f F ran ce and N orth A f r i c a , The g e n o ty p e ,N u c l e o l i t e s s c u t a t u s , i s r e p r e s e n t e d by seven sa m p le s . S i g n i f i c a n t i n f r a s p e c i f i c v a r i a t i o n o c c u rs p r i m a r i l y i n s i z e , s h a p e and p o s i t i o n o f t h e p e r i p r o c t and i n t h e l e n g t h o f th e a n a l s u l c u s . A l a r g e p e r i p r o c t c o r r e l a t e s w i th l a r g e sed im en t g r a i n s i z e . No such d i f f e r e n c e s a r e p roved betw een t h r e e sam ples o f N . l a t i p o r u s ( = N . c l u n i c u l a r i s a u c t . ) . S t a t i s t i c a l d i f f e r e n c e s be tw een N . l a t i p o r u s and N . s c u t a t u s a r e o f t h e same o r d e r a s betw een i n f r a s p e c i f i c sam ples o f N . s c u t a t u s . Sam ples o f t h e se v en re m a in in g f o s s i l s p e c i e s a r e compared t o t h e g e n o ty p e . Q u a n t i t a t i v e l y , d i f f e r e n c e s c a n be e x p re s s e d i n te rm s o f two t e s t v a r i a b l e s , a l w a y s i n c l u d in g e i t h e r th e l e n g t h o f t h e p e r i p r o c t a n d /o r i t s d i s t a n c e from th e a p i c a l d i s c . The s i z e o f t h e p e r i p r o c t i s f a c i e s d e p e n d e n t . W ith in t h e J u r a s s i c s p e c i e s , t h e l e n g t h o f t h e a n a l s u lc u s i s c o n s i s t e n t l y s h o r t e r i n th e s t r a t i g r a p h i c a l l y younger s p e c i e s . T h is t r e n d i s n o t c o n t in u e d in t h e C r e ta c e o u s s p e c i e s . O v e r a l l , t h e d i s t a n c e o f th e a p i c a l d i s c from th e a n t e r i o r o f t h e t e s t becomes c o n s i s t e n t l y s h o r t e r i n t h e s t r a t i g r a p h i c a l l y younger o f t h e n in e s p e c i e s s t u d i e d . N . s c u t a t u s shows a s i m i l a r r a n g e o f v a r i a t i o n to i n f r a s p e c i f i c sam p les o f A patopygus r e c c n s from New Z e a la n d , A .r e c e n s burrows c o m p le te ly i n a c o a r s e s u b s t r a t e and i n j e s t s l a r g e s u b s t r a t e p a r t i c l e s . N . s c u t a t u s p ro b a b ly d id l i k e w i s e . These h a b i t s a r e t h e r e f o r e o f a n c i e n t o r i g i n i n t h e C a s s id u l o i d a ,
Prior studies have shown that colloids can facilitate contaminant migration in unimodal porous media. To investigate the effect of no‐flow regions on flow and contaminant transport in dual‐porosity soils, we model a porous medium composed of two different homogeneous, superposed, and interacting regions: the mobile region and the immobile region. We assume that the advective‐dispersive processes govern the transport of contaminant and colloids in the mobile region, while the diffusion process dominates in the immobile region. The contaminant and colloid mass transfer mechanisms between these two regions are represented by a first‐order mass transfer. Colloid deposition on the solid matrix is expressed by a kinetic sorption relationship. The contaminant sorption with the solid matrix and colloidal surfaces is also incorporated into the model. Coupled with mass transfer terms, two sets of governing equations representing the fate and transport of contaminant and colloids in both the mobile and immobile regions are developed and applied to experimental data available in the literature. Numerical solutions are obtained by employing a fully implicit, finite difference scheme. The numerical results indicate that the colloidal facilitation is increased in a dual‐porosity porous medium compared to a unimodal medium. The model is validated by comparing the numerical results with the experimental data available in the literature for colloid‐facilitated contaminant transport in a single‐porosity medium and contaminant transport in a colloid‐free, dual‐porosity medium. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to deduce the effect of major model parameters on contaminant transport. The analysis demonstrates that, although both the volumetric fraction of the mobile region and the mass transfer rate coefficients between the two regions have effects on the dual‐porosity transport, the early breakthrough is affected mainly by the volumetric fraction of the mobile region, while the tailing is affected largely by the mass transfer rate coefficients.
Rotation of domains within the upper crustal brittle layer around vertical axes has been documented in many actively deforming regions. Some domains in western Turkey and elsewhere comprise sets of blocks that are bounded by subparallel faults, are elongated and angular in plan view, coupled to the underlying plastic deformation, and rotate in the same sense at a uniform rate that may equal approximately half the vertical vorticity in the underlying plastic deformation. However, other domains in western Turkey that appear approximately circular in plan view and comprise a single block with little internal deformation appear to rotate in the opposite sense to the regional counterclockwise vertical vorticity, and are thus apparently decoupled from the underlying plastic deformation. Rotational behavior of any block in the brittle layer may be affected by torques acting both on its base and on its margins. The torque acting on the base of a circular block with radius R caused by viscous coupling with the underlying plastic deformation is likely to be proportional to R4, as well as proportional to the difference between the angular velocity of the block and that expected given the vertical vorticity in the underlying plastic deformation. The frictional torque acting on the margins of such a circular block is likely to be proportional to R2. Thus, provided a circular block has sufficiently small radius, the frictional torque acting its margins will exceed the viscous torque acting on its base. Frictional torques generated in this manner may cause circular blocks to rotate in the opposite sense to the regional vertical vorticity beneath the brittle layer. The circular domains identified in western Turkey comprise single blocks, are within the size range for frictional torques to dominate viscous torques, and their geometrical relationship to adjacent domains and to the regional deformation pattern allows them to rotate in the opposite sense to their surroundings. This suggests that frictional torques may cause their observed clockwise rotations.
Przedstawiono pogląd na role wydm i procesow eolicznych w ksztaltowaniu sie dolin Wisly, Bugu, Narwi. Wieprza, Liwca i , Świdra od schylku plejstocenu do chwili obecnej. Z udzialem wydm i procesow eolicznych autor wiąze lokalne modyfikacje sposobu rozwiniecia koryta rzecznego .oraz aluwiow. Są one tym bardziej wyraźne. im mniejszy jest ciek. Przedstawiono zespol czynnikow wskazujących. ze wydmy i procesy eoliczne generalnie opoźnily proces meandrowania rzek, ktory w holocenie mogl nastąpic lokalnie ze znacznym opoźnieniem w stosunku do zmian klimatycznych. ON THE INFLUENCE OF DUNES AND EOLIAN PROCESSES ON DEVELOPMENT OF LOWLAND RIVER VALLEYS IN THE LATEST PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE The studies showed that eolian processes were acting more intensely and longer in lowland river valleys than in highlands. This phenomenon may be explained by a delay in invasion of forests in river valleys in relation to highlands. In valleys, development of forest cover was primarily impeded by unfavourable conditions prevailing in sandy Pleistocene terraces and water regime. The water regime was there disadvantageous because of close water connections between terrace and river, large oscillaiions in water level in annual cycles and resulting numerous rises. The influence of dunes on development of a valley was varying, depending on size of river and amount of eolian material present in the valley. The mode of occurrence of eolian deposits in valley may cast some light on the course of processes responsible for its development (Fig. 5). The mechanism of influence of dunes and eolian processes on the course of sedimentation and erosion of alluvia was a follows : 1. Direct supply of eolian material to river channel was resulting in increase of load transported by river. The amount of material nowadays brought to river valleys by winds equals 15,000 t per 1 km 2 at the average, rising to about 50,000 t per 1 km 2 under particularly advantageous conditions. Quantitative estimations of morphological effects attributable to winds (Figs. 1-4) gave further support to the above .estimations based on measurements. of amounts of present-day material deposited by winds. 2. The extent of lateral river channel changes was limited by supply of eolian material coming from erosion of dune covered terraces. This suggests that the width of modelled valley was reversely proportional to. the number of dunes in its area. 3. The entrace of dunes into river was resulting in local rise of water level and, therefore, change in fluviodynamic processes. 4. Dunes occurring within the range of water rises were bearing some influence on flow as well as the course of sedimentation and erosion in time of a rise (Fig. 7). Vast areas of sedimentation of organic soils, i.e. intra-dune swamps, were originating in places where distribution of dunes impeded outflow of rise water. Dunes were also rising groundwater table and under specific setting, i.e. when dune lines were forming natural groundwater-table-rising steps, they resulted in swampy character of river valley on its ·whole width. 5. A specific type of flood-facies deposits, characterized by alternation of sands and silts (Fig. 6) is connected with dunes. The presence of such deposits in geological record indicates contribution of eolian processes to development of a valley. The above discussed set of agents is responsible for delay in development of river in relation to climatic changes. The delay in transition of rivers from braided-channel phase to the meandering was varying, depending on size of a river. Generally, the smaller the river, the large! the delay. Modification of geological structure of terraces by dunes and eolian processes could be so lalrge that it becomes possible to differentiate subtype of river controlled by eolian processes with reference to morphological features and the nature of sedimentation.
During drilling, the precipitation velocity of cuttings within an annulus depends on the density and configuration of the cuttings, and on the density, viscosity, and rheological characteristics of the drilling fluid. In directional drilling in particular, it is difficult to adjust and control the cuttings. In contrast to vertical drilling, it is very important to evaluate the flow characteristics of a drilling flow field. However, research on the transfer features of cuttings is inadequate. In this study, in order to identify transfer features of cuttings, an experiment was performed under wide-ranging conditions by constructing a slim hole annulus (44 mm×30 mm) device. In this experiment, the particle volume fraction were influenced by particle size, particle concentration within the flow, pipe rotation, flow volume, and inclination of the annulus. In addition, a mathematical formula for volumetric concentration was deduced and compared to the test results and behavior of cuttings under the other drilling condition was made to be predicted. Therefore, this study can provide meaningful data for vertical and horizont al drilling, and for directional drilling.
Steep slope types of revetment are commonly used in Japan as a countermeasure intending to reduce flood damage in small-and-medium-sized rivers to expedite their improvement works and to save land cost. In result, cross-sectional shapes become narrow and deep, frequently causing severe destruction of channels in spite of the improvement. It follows local bed scours around change points in channel forms caused mainly by accelerated flow due to reduced channel roughness by the improvement. This paper presents a consideration on the reasons why crosssections of small-and-medium-sized rivers in Japan had been changed into narrow trapezoidal shapes with steep side slopes according to historical changes of technical criteria in river improvement schemes, along with that on the difference of channel roughness determination among several technical criteria.
The authors developed a thermohydrodynamical 2D model of a vertical section of the geological environment of groundwater, taking into account deep active geodynamic zones. Such zones (fast filtration and migration zones — FFMZ) are actually permeable faults and their associated surface depressions and under-depression degassing channels. Their depth may be different, but they are also very deep (more than 7 km). Under these conditions, the formulation of a purely hydrodynamic problem is insufficient. It is necessary to take into account the heat flux coming from the interior and affecting the hydrodynamic features of the filtration. The HYDROTHERM program used by the authors, developed by the US Geological Survey, allows us to solve such problems. The hydrogeological schematization of the model section is selected in accordance with its intended location within the left bank of the Kyiv region, the Dnieper―Trubizh interfluve. To build the model, the authors used the available data on the location, distribution density over the territory, and the characteristics of the FFMZ activity. The vertical distributions of temperature and fluid flow rates are obtained, and the deep influence of the FFMZ on their formation is clarified. The presence of a dilatency zone, which is characterized by branching of fractures in the geological environment, is confirmed at a depth of 3―7 km at specified parameters of the model. In this zone, with a decrease in depth, an intermit-tent process of discharge of a stress-strain state of rocks, a decrease in the pressure of the ascending fluids, and their gradual degassing occur. The activation of fluid flows at these depths without preliminary specifying increased permeability in the model indicates the participation of fluids in the formation of the dilatancy zone.
Abstract The tropical intraseasonal (30–50 day) oscillation manifests itself in the Australian summer monsoon by a pronounced modulation of the monsoonal westerlies. These 30-50 day fluctuations of the monsoonal westerlies are coherent with rainfall and OLR across northern Australia. The OLR fluctuation originates in the Indian Ocean and systematically propagates eastward at 5 m s−1, consistent with previous studies of the intraseasonal oscillation. The detailed evolution of the intraseasonal oscillation of the monsoon is studied via composites of upper air data in and about the Australian tropics. During the summer periods 1957-87, 91 events were identified at Darwin, Australia. The composite oscillation at Darwin has a very deep baroclinic structure with westerlies extending up to 300 mb. The westerly phase lasts about ten days and lags a similar duration rainfall event by about four days. During the westerly phase, the upper troposphere is warm and the extreme lower troposphere is cool. This structure ...
Helium and argon, squeezed out of the earth through fissures by deep internal pressures, may signal an imminent earthquake. There has been little evidence, however, directly linking stress with gas emissions. Ryuichi Sugisaki of the earth sciences department at Nagoya University in Japan reports in the June 12 Science that the variations of the He/Ar ratio of gas bubbles in a mineral spring coincide with underground stresses caused by the earth tide.    ‘A comparison of the variation of strain in the ground resulting from the earth tide with the observed fluctuation of the ratio shows a good correlation,’ Sugisaki wrote. In addition, he says that the ratio fluctuation is more closely tied to the tidal strain than to atmospheric pressure or temperature.
Guilaizhuang Gold Deposit is the only one large-scale gold deposit in western Shandong.Its geological characteristics is obviously different from the Linglong type and Jiaojia type of gold deposits in Jiaodong,and it provides an example for looking for the same type of gold deposit in this area.For the ore-controlling structure of Guilaizhuang Gold Deposit,the predecessors have different discussions.On the basis of aggregate analysis of Guilaizhuang geological features,the ore-controlling structure is analyzed by drawing the rose diagrams of the mine fault trend and stereographic projection of the deposit.The result shows that Guilaizhuang Gold Deposit fault trend is mainly NWW.The two groups' controlling faults cross-line is 191°∠56°,which provides a scientific basis for further prospecting and exploration work for deep and surrounding gold district.
Understanding the sedimentary sequence and architecture is important for planning the development strategy. We illustrate a case study of analyzing the sequence and architecture of a sandy conglomerate reservoir by integrating geology, petrophysics, seismic, and development data. The analysis indicates that the depostional environment of the target lower part of the Ganchaigou Formation is an alluvial fan. We defined eight lithofacies according to the core analysis and five sedimentary microfacies by integrating the core and petrophysical data. We next propose four sedimentary architectural models by integrating the lithofacies result, microfacies analysis, and high frequency sequence models. The four architecture models include the extensively connecting body sandwiched with intermittent channels, the composite channel formed by the overlapping and separation of stable channels, the lateral alternated braided channel and sheet flow sediment, and the runoff channel inlaid in flood plain mudstone. We finally build an architecture model for the alluvial fan. The model of the alluvial fan overall shows an upward-fining grain-size features and this feature indicates that the alluvial fan belongs to a retrograding sequence. The built model consists of six alluvial fan bodies that migrates from north.
Like many of my colleagues in the burgeoning field of geodesy I primarily apply geodetic techniques toward illuminating tectonic and geophysical problems. In doing so, I must confess that I often take the underlying methods of measurement and analysis for granted, assuming that surface velocity and surface strain observations are the fundamental data of our science.    Geodesy: The Challenge of the Third Millenniumreminds me that the science of geodesy encompasses a much wider range of endeavor upon which recent innovations depend greatly. It reminds me, too, that the derived geodetic products I use are the result of a long sequence of scientific discovery and innovation in fields as disparate as statistics, electronics, mathematics, and basic physics. This discovery continues today in the work of the authors who contributed to this volume.
We assessed the utility of subtidal foraminifera to reconstruct Holocene relative sea levels from the central Great Barrier Reef shelf, Australia. We collected contemporary foraminiferal samples from Cleveland Bay and Bowling Green Bay, with water depths from 24.2 m to 248.0 m Australian Height Datum (AHD). The subtidal foraminiferal assemblages were divided into two distinct foraminiferal zones: an inner shelf zone occupied by Elphidium hispidulum, Pararotalia venusta, Planispirinella exigua, Quinqueloculina venusta and Triloculina oblonga; and a middle shelf zone dominated by Amphistegina lessonii, Dendritina striata and Operculina complanata. The zonations of the study areas and relative abundances of individual species indicate that the distributions of subtidal foraminifera are related to water depth. We used the subtidal data to develop a transfer function capable of inferring past water depths of sediment samples from their foraminiferal content. The results indicated a robust performance of the transfer function (r 2 jack 5 0.90). We produced ten sea-level index points, which revealed an upward trend of Holocene relative sea level from 28.86 6 4.5 m AHD at 9.3–8.6 cal kyr BP to a mid-Holocene high stand of +1.72 6 3.9 m AHD at 6.9–6.4 cal kyr BP. Sea level subsequently fell from the highstand to the present-day. The sea-level reconstructions are consistent with geophysical models and previous published data.
Success in dewatering a large region around London Underground's Jubilee Line led engineers to carry out a similar, massive dewatering to prepare ground for excavation for the London Tunnels section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). In one section of the project, dewatering devices will be installed to keep it permanently dry. While there was some direct pumping, it wasn't considered practical in sandy areas where sand could clog the pumps. Instead, the area beneath the sandy region was dewatered, thus underdraining the sandy strata. Schemes were designed using pumping trials and computer modeling of the groundwater system. Disposal of the water required construction of a special discharge pipe to avoid placing an overburden on the London sewers. There is hope that the dewatering for this project may have a long-term contribution to the overall scheme to slow or stem the rise of groundwater in London basin. Names and contact information of specialists engaged in the project.
The recent revision of the stratigraphy of the Aniai district (northern Honshu, Japan) showed the necessity of re-examination of the Paleogene and Neogene stratigraphy in other areas of the Dewa Hills, northeast Japan. We carried out a detailed ﬁeld survey in the eastern Dewa Hills, around the city of Kakunodate. In addition, we conducted zircon fission-track (FT) and U–Pb double dating for 4 samples from 3 formations. Based on our results, the volcanic and sedimentary succession in the study area were divided into the Yamayakawa (the Late Oligocene to early Early Miocene), Katsurabuchi (ca. 22 Ma), Shiotezawa (ca. 16 – 15 Ma), Hachiwari (ca. 16 – 12 Ma), Onnagawa (ca. 12 – 10 Ma) and Yamaya (ca. 8 Ma) Formations in as-cending order. Granitic rocks of the Cretaceous make up the basement of the Yamayakawa Formation. The contact between the Yamayakawa Formation and the overlying Katsurabuchi Formation (ca. 22 Ma) is a sharp angular unconformity and is newly discovered in this study. The Shiotezawa and Hachiwari Formations uncon-formably overlie the Katsurabuchi Formation; and the lower part of the Hachiwari Formation interﬁngers with the Shiotezawa Forma tion. The Hachiwari Formation is conformably overlain by the Onnagawa Formation. The youngest unit, the Yamaya Formation (ca. 8 Ma), overlies the Yamayakawa and Katsurabuchi formations by angular unconformity. The results demonstrate that the stratigraphic succession in the study area is similar to that of the Aniai district.
Efficient field management and appraisal rely on a good understanding of reservoir geology and recovery efficiency. This requires cooperation and good communication between different disciplines. This paper presents and demonstrates the shared earth model approach, to encourage integration and cooperation between disciplines producing more reliable reservoir characterisation and performance prediction. A North Sea field is used as an example to illustrate the development and use of the shared earth model. The way in which it brings together the subsurface disciplines is shown by dynamic data feedback and seismic validation of simulator predictions.
Effects of seafloor disturbance on sediment biogeochemistry have been studied in the DISCOL Experimental Area (DEA) during leg SO242-1 and 242-2 of RV SONNE (Aug./Sep.2015). A variety of approaches have been employed including investigations in retrieved sediment cores (solid phase and pore water geochemistry, shipboard oxygen microprofiles) as well as lander- and ROV-based in situ flux studies with micro sensors and benthic chambers. Several levels of disturbance and spatiotemporal scales were addressed: Types of Disturbances included disruption of sediments as well as removal of sediments and nodules. Comparisons were carried out between distant sites of contrasting disturbance level (plough track vs. reference area off DEA) as well as between microhabitats identified within disturbed areas (e.g., elevations, depressions, excavated subsurface layers). Post-disturbance time scales that were addressed ranged from minutes (experimental nodule removal by ROV) and weeks (Epibenthos sledge deployments during the first leg) to years (plough harrow tows during the original disturbance experiment in 1989). This contribution introduces the habitats studied and the methods employed to investigate disturbance effects. Furthermore, first results on biogeochemical zonations and interfacial fluxes are presented and discussed with regard to predictions based on geochemical models.
ABSTRACT Non-ductile reinforced concrete frames have seismic vulnerabilities due to inadequate reinforcing details. Adequately characterizing the performance of these details is critical to the development of analytical models. This study presents a methodology to simulate the response of such frames with and without fiber-reinforced polymer column jackets. The bond-slip effects between reinforcing bars and surrounding concrete, observed in column lap-splice and beam–column joints, are modeled with one-dimensional slide line models in LS-DYNA. The model is defined from failure modes and bonding conditions observed in full-scale dynamic tests and can predict story displacements, inter-story drifts, and damage mechanisms.
Low-grade mylonitic shear zones are commonly characterized by strain partitioning, with alternating low strain protomylonite and high strain mylonite and ultramylonite, where the shearing is most significant. In this paper the capo Castello shear zone is analyzed. It has developed along the contact between continental quartzo-feldspathic, in the footwall, and oceanic ophiolitic units, in the hangingwall. The shear zone shows, mostly within the serpentinites, a heterogeneous strain localization, characterized by an alternation of mylonites and ultramylonites, without a continuous strain gradient moving from the protolith (i.e., the undeformed host rock) to the main tectonic contact between the two units. The significance of this mylonitic shear zone is examined in terms of the dominant deformation mechanisms, and its regional tectonic frame. The combination of the ultramafic protolith metamorphic processes and infiltration of derived fluids caused strain softening by syntectonic metamorphic reactions and dissolution–precipitation processes, leading to the final formation of low strength mineral phases. It is concluded that the strain localization, is mainly controlled by the rock-fluid interactions within the ophiolitic level of the Capo Castello shear zone. Regarding the regional setting, this shear zone can be considered as an analogue of the initial stage of the post-collisional extensional fault, of which mature stage is visible along the Zuccale fault zone, a regional structure affecting eastern Elba Island.
An electromagnetic (EM) controlled source survey was conducted in the Raft River Valley, near Malta, Idaho. The purpose of the survey was: to field test U.S. Geological Survey extra-low-frequency (ELF) equipment using a grounded wire source and receiver loop configuration (which is designed to measure the vertical magnetic field (Hz) at the loop center for various frequencies); to present an example of the EM sounding data and interpretations using a previously developed inversion program; and (3) to compare graphically the EM results with previously reported DC Schlumberger results for a geothermal environment. Five ELF frequency soundings were made using a grounded wire source with a minimum length of 1480 meters and a maximum length of 3057 meters. The maximum frequency range for each sounding was from 1 hertz to 2000 hertz. The least squares EM station results obtained by an inversion program are given in sets of three plots in the appendix--least squares phase solution with residuals, least squares amplitude solution with residuals, and the EM layer solution superimposed over the nearest DC layer solution. (JGB)
The Cambrian system in the Western Hills of Beijing outcropps mainly along the Yongding river valley in the north and along the Dazhihe river valley in the south.Famed for the complete sequence,unique rock types and good exposure,the Western Hills in Beijing has been a key location for the study of Cambrian system in China.However,nearly all the field work and publications have been concentrated on the northern part (along the Yongding river valley),for the convenient transportation.The slump structures are found about 5 m above the boundary between the Zhangxia Formation (Middle Cambrian oolite) and the Gushan Formation (Upper Cambrian) in the southern part of Wetsten Hillsalong a branch of the Dazhihe river valley).The slump is mainly composed of micro folds and faults.Axial planes of these folds are SN-striking.The typically dip gently towards the east.The average dipping angle of the micro-faults is about 10 degrees.The deformation pattern is very similar with that in the Late Pleistocene Lisan Formation near the Dead Sea.Two wedge-shaped features are discovered just below the slump layer.Our preliminary research shows that the direct trigger for the newly discovered slump structures are probably the palaeoearthquake associated with the tilting movement of the North China palaeoplate in the late Cambrian.
SUMMARY    The North Sea Lg blockage for wave paths across crustal graben structures is a well-established observational fact. Analysis of such observations implies that Lg blockage takes place in graben areas associated with sedimentary basin formation and crustal thinning. These intriguing observations have triggered many theoretical studies aimed at highlighting specific Lg loss mechanisms, albeit so far with only moderate success. Our approach to this problem is to simulate seismic wavefield propagation through the crustal waveguide using 2-D finite-difference techniques. The graben structures are known in detail from oil exploration works in the North Sea, which has enabled us to use realistic crustal models in our Lg synthetics. In the most extreme model tested, the crystalline crust thickness beneath the graben amounted to only 5 km, while the overlying sedimentary pile is nearly 10 km thick. At the base of the crust in the graben area the Moho is elevated nearly 10 km. This model has similarities to the oceanic crustal waveguide, where total Lg blockage is claimed for path lengths exceeding 100 km. The synthetic wavefields are displayed in terms of snapshots, semblance velocity analysis and time-space rms amplitudes. The dominant structural Lg loss mechanisms are the delay of the Lg waves in the thick sediments, Lg-to-Rg conversions (scattering) by lateral heterogeneities in the sediments, and S-wave leakage out of the crustal wave-guide and into the upper mantle. A fraction of these upper-mantle S waves return to the crust and appear as Sn coda. Observationally, strong Sn phases of long duration are often associated with weak Lg phases and vice versa. Our synthetics produced Lg amplitude decay amounting at most to 6-10 dB, while observational data imply blockage amounting to 15-20 dB. The latter is equivalent to a Pn-Lg magnitude difference of nearly one magnitude unit. The main outcome of this study is therefore that Lg-wave propagation is very robust and that a dominant blockage effect associated with intrinsic attenuation, that is Q values of the order of 100 at 2 Hz for a path length of minimum 100 km, is necessary to conform to observations.
We report the petrography, mineral chemistry and oxygen isotopic composition of GRV 99027, a new Martian meteorite recently collected during the 16th Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition. This meteorite consists of two textural regions. The interstitial region is characterized by the presence of plagioclase and phosphate, and higher FeO contents of olivine and orthopyroxene, in comparison with the poikilitic region. All of the observations are similar to the three known Martian lherzolites. We classify GRV 99027 as the fourth sample of Martian lherzolite.
Aiming at a lot of landslide of the high-cut red sandy rock slope occurred on expressway in west of Hunan Province,the mechanization of which has been studied,so as to a stability analysis of sliding.at the same time,A effective measure with water seal,efflorescence prevention,prestressed hollow-core grouted anchor in slope and weep pipe to drain crevice water has been suggested.The application indicates the method is very effective.Especially it has directive function to cut slope protection at the high-cut red sandy rock slope in west of Hunan Province.
On the geological survey and engineering geological exploration is laid special emphasis in mining coal stage, however, in a very important sector in the process of pit-shaft construction those explorations are neglected, so partial work repetetion, and wastes of manpower, material, and financial resources occur, and the mine-shaft construction may be postponed.The stability of rock-mass in Pingdingshan mining area is discussed in detail. It is also pointed out that it is necessary to add engineering geological exploration in the phase of early exploration or supplementary exploration.
Douzhui slope was deformed under earthquake and continuous rainstorm,which had a negative impact on slope stability.On the basis of site survey,mapping,exploration and indoor test,the deformation characteristics of Douzhui slope are described and the deformation mechanism is analyzed in this paper.The stability of the slope under three typical conditions is separately calculated qualitatively.The results showed that this slope is basically stable,but the toe of #2 slope is facing the road,where human activities are frequent.Therefore,it is recommended to build toe wall and surface drainage ditch to prevent slope instability.
Topography is a critical element in the hydrological response of a drainage basin and its availability in the form of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) has advanced the modelling of hydrological and hydraulic processes. However, progress experienced in these fields may stall, as intrinsic characteristics of free DEMs may limit new findings, while at the same time new releases of free, high-accuracy, global digital terrain models are still uncertain. In this paper, the limiting nature of free DEMs is dissected in the context of hydrogeomorphology. Nine sets of terrain data are analysed: the SRTM GL1 and GL3, HydroSHEDS, TINITALY, ASTER GDEM, EU DEM, VFP, ALOS AW3D30, MERIT and the TDX. In specific, the influence of three parameters are investigated, i.e., spatial resolution, hydrological reconditioning and vertical accuracy, on four relevant geomorphic terrain descriptors, namely the upslope contributing area, the local slope, the elevation difference and the flow path distance to the nearest stream, H and D, respectively. The Tanaro river basin in Italy is chosen as the study region and the newly released LiDAR for the Italian territory is used as benchmark to reassess vertical accuracies. In addition, the EU-Hydro photo-interpreted river network is used to compare DEM-based river networks. Most DEMs approximate well the frequency curve of elevations of the LiDAR, but this is not necessarily reflected in the representation of geomorphic features. For example, DEMs with finer spatial resolution present larger contributing areas; differences in the slope can reach 10%; between 5 m and 12 m H, none of the considered DEMs can faithfully represent the LiDAR; D presents significant variability between DEMs; and river network extraction can be problematic in flatter terrain. It is also found that the lowest mean absolute error (MAE) is given by the MERIT, 2.85 m, while the lowest root mean square error (RMSE) is given by the SRTM GL3, 4.83 m. Practical implications of choosing a DEM over another may be expected, as the limitations of any particular DEM in faithfully reproducing critical geomorphic terrain features may hinder our ability to find satisfactory answers to some pressing problems.
We here report on two technical research projects of the Quaternary Isotope Laboratory (QL) vis, (1) the use of thermal diffusion isotopic enrichment to extend the technical range of 14C dating, (2) the preparation of samples for ion counting using a Van de Graaff tandem accelerator. The second project is carried out in cooperation with, and partly at, the Nuclear Physics Laboratory. A gain in dating range of 3 to 4 half-lives can routinely be obtained with the QL and the Groningen enrichment systems. The same gain in age range can be obtained for ion counting with a simplified system that requires only 0.5 to 2g of carbon and 3 to 7 days enrichment time. A method to convert CO2 quantitatively via CO into carbon is described. For short intervals the carbon deposit yields good 12C— beams. We also give a different procedure to make graphite-like carbon samples. The preparation of beryllium metal samples is given last.
Rainfall-induced failure is common after intensive rainfall events in mountainous areas, particularly in areas covered by residual soils. The infiltration of the surface water can have a significant influence on the stability of slopes. The increase of infiltration into the soil reduces the matric suction of the soil and hence results in a reduction of the shear strength of the soil, which increases the potential for slope instability. The mountainous road slopes in Timor Leste are located on scarp nearby the ocean. Slope failures repeatedly happened at several locations in Timor Leste after the intensive rainstorm events during the wet season. At some locations, the failure of the slopes occurred again even after the repair of the slopes. A geotechnical investigation, a geological study, and a surface seismic geophysical survey were conducted at the site to obtain soil/bedrock profiles and properties for the numerical modeling in this study. Seepage and slope stability analyses were conducted to evaluate the increase of the pore water pressures during the wet season and the resulting reduction of the slope stability. The results of the seepage analyses demonstrated that the pore water pressure within the slopes was significantly increased due to the increase in infiltration during the wet season. The results of the slope stability analyses showed that the as-built fill slopes at the dry season had only an initial factor of safety of about 1.3. The factor of safety of the as-built slopes was further reduced to reach unity or less during the wet season. The results of the analyses concluded that the triggering mechanisms for the failures are the combinations of geotechnical and hydrological properties in addition to the physical properties of the slopes. Conceptual repair plans including (1) regrading of the existing slopes, (2) installation of tieback anchors, and (3) installation of geogrids were considered in this study. Recommendations for the design of roadway in an area that is susceptible to a rainfall-induced slope failure potential were provided in the paper.
Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) have identified the need for a better understanding of radionuclide transport and retention processes in fractured rock since 1994. In the study, the first hard problem is to obtain rock fracture images of a good quality, since rock surface is very rough, and composed of complicated and multiple fractures, as a result, image acquisition is the first important. As a cooperation project between Sweden and China, we sampled a number of rock specimens for analyzing rock fracture network by visible and ultraviolet image technique, in the field. The samples are resin injected, in which way; opened fractures can be seen clearly by means of UV light illumination, and the rock surface information can be obtained by using visible optical illumination. We used different digital cameras and microscope to take images by two illuminations. From the same samples; we found that UV illumination image gives the clear information of fracture opening or closing, and the visible optical illumination gives the information of the rock surface (e.g. filling materials inside of fractures). By applying this technique, the minimum width of rock fracture 0.01 mm can be analyzed. This paper presents: (1) Rock fracture image acquiring techniques; (2) Rock fracture image acquisition by using UV light illumination and visible optical illumination; and (3) Conclusions. The studied method can be used both in the field and a laboratory.
We report engineering experiences from the critical task of relief well installation under high artesian flow conditions at the downstream toe of the Karkheh earth dam, Iran. Due to the establishment of excessive uplift pressure at the downstream toe of the Karkheh dam, installation of a series of new relief wells was considered to permanently relieve part of these pressures. The mentioned uplift pressure, as high as around 30 m above the ground level, was produced in a confined conglomerate aquifer bounded above and below by relatively impervious mudstone layers which reduced the safety factor of the dam toe to below 1.0. Investigations on the shortcomings of the old relief wells installed at the dam site showed that the main problems were: insufficient well numbers, insufficient well diameters, irregular well screens causing their blockage by time passing, and insufficient total opening area. Despite engineering difficulties and associated risk of downstream toe instability, installation of new relief wells was successfully completed under high artesian flow conditions” was successfully completed. The employed technique for the construction of the new relief wells under flowing artesian conditions was based on: 1) cement grouting and casing of the well, 2) telescopic drilling, 3) application of appropriate drilling fluid, and 4) controlling the artesian flow by adding a long vertical pipe to the top of the relief wells. Numerical modeling of seepage for the Karkheh dam foundation showed that, as a result of the installation of the new relief wells, the safety factor of the downstream toe increased to the safe value of 1.3 for the normal reservoir water level.
Four of the mountain ranges near Death Valley, California, display exhumed, low-angle normal faults on their flanks, features originally referred to as turtleback structures. These fault surfaces are smooth, planar to curviplanar, and defined by faceted spurs and coincident interfluve crests. The lowest parts of these faults are overlain in tectonic contact by poorly indurated fanglomerate, and locally by Quaternary volcanic rocks. Steep fault scarps in alluvium are present at the foot of each turtleback-type flank. Although these may be examples of active low-angle normal faults, it is difficult to establish the dip histories of these faults. The problem with constraining the dip histories is one of missing and concealed information, because the exposed hanging-wall rocks are some of the youngest material cut and displaced by the (currently) shallow-dipping faults. Another important relationship along these range flanks is the intersection between the low-angle faults and steep, scarp-forming faults that cut alluvium at the range fronts. Although this relationship remains unconstrained in most of the ranges, a shallow-dipping fault is cut by one of the steep faults in Panamint Valley, suggesting that, in one area at least, the low-angle faults are not active. The low-angle faults, and not the steep neotectonic faults, are probably responsible for most of the opening of the present valleys, because each low-angle fault intersects the valley floor at the range front. None of the low-angle faults are perched high in the ranges, as would be the case if the steep faults had uplifted them significantly. Therefore, even if there has been a geologically recent transition from low-angle normal faulting to steep normal (with or without strike slip) faulting, the modern topography still reflects the former regime. Strictly speaking, the Death Valley region may not be an example of active low-angle normal faults and supradetachment basins.
Hydrocarbon gas composition and carbon isotope of core gas from the hydrate reservoir in DK-2 hole,one of the scientific drilling holes of gas hydrate in Qilian Mountain permafrost,were determined and analyzed.The results indicate that gas hydrate from Qilian Mountain permafrost has complex hydrocarbon gas composition,with relatively high ethane and propane besides the dominant methane.All the δ13C1 values are higher than-50‰,and molecular ratios(R) are generally lower than 100,obviously suggesting thermogenic gas characteristics.According to the geological background and lithologic characteristics of the drilling area,the authors preliminarily estimate that gas comes from the near-by highly matured or over-matured coal-related gas and the deeper thermogenic gas which has migrated upward from the depth.
In order to study the damage of overburden rock and the surface subsidence caused by water-control mining at Lingxin Coal Mine, the in-situ stress distribution law, the damage height and crack height, the overburden rock displacement law and the ground pressure law were abtained by means of engineering geological investigation, color bore-bole TV inspecting, leakage monitoring in drilling fluid, simulation experiment, numerical computing, in-situ stress measurement and subsidence measurement. The result shows that safe mining at L3414 working face underneath the Xitian River and environmental protection can be implemented ultimately.
The main portion of this paper deals with the development of three sinkholes of unexpected size and depth in the WindsorDetroit area. The roles of the Sylvania Sandstone - a unit of unique mechanical properties - and of the high in situ horizontal stresses are evaluated. It is proposed that the Sylvania fails under high horizontal loads, converts into sand, flows downward through cracks towards deeper solution-mine caverns, and creates a shallow void that generates the deep sinkholes. Linear-arch theory is used to evaluate subsidence-induced horizontal stress increments. It is concluded that sinkholes are likely to occur in other areas where the Sylvania is close to the surface (less than 200 m) and active subsidence bowls have surface gradients of a few millimeters per meter. The last section contains a brief discussion of the role of downward mass transfer of slurries in surface subsidence with examples from the Midwest.
The great majority of Minnelusa Formation (Pennsylvanian-Permian) oil production in the eastern Powder River basin is derived from various types of stratigraphic traps which resulted from paleotopographic relief developed on the upper Minnelusa. This relief is mirrored by thickness variations in the overlying Opeche Shale (Permian). Construction of isopachous maps of the Opeche is one of the methods used to explore for paleotopographic traps in the Minnelusa. Hand-contoured Opeche isopachous maps may be subject to ambiguous interpretations in areas where the data points are scattered or nonexistent. This difficulty is partially overcome when the isopachous map is produced by mathematical methods. The upper Minnelusa paleotopography is believed by the author to reflect eolian sand dunes encased by the red shale of the Opeche. Observations from oil tests in the area indicates End_Page 1705------------------------------ that this paleotopography has a cyclicity, with a crest wavelength of approximately 3 mi (5 km). Double Fourier transforms are most appropriately used in modeling where such a cyclicity exists. The resulting double Fourier transform-generated computer model of the upper Minnelusa paleotopography shows a good correlation between the observed data points and the calculated best-fit surface. Additionally, the computer generated surface suggests areas away from present production and drilling which may warrant further exploration. The computer generated surface data must, however, be integrated with other known geologic data and examined closely in areas where the control point spacing exceeds either the x or y direction fundamental wavelengths. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1706------------
Abstract:South Mayo occupies a unique position in the British and Irish Caledonides in preserving little deformed Ordovician sedimentary and volcanic rocks between outcrops of a Laurentian cover sequence (Dalradian Supergroup) that shows evidence for the Grampian Orogeny and now lie both to the north and the south. The regionally significant arc volcanic rocks of the Lough Nafooey Group (LNG) display a simple northward dipping and younging succession that shows overall change from more primitive to more evolved magmatic compositions with time. New field data are used to reject the previous interpretation of an isoclinal fold pair within the group. The age range of the LNG remains poorly constrained. The upper parts are early Ordovician in age, but the lower parts are likely to be Cambrian. The LNG can be shown to be unconformably overlain by patches of Floian-aged limestone (Currarevagh Limestone Formation) which in turn is unconformably overlain by clastic sediments of the Darriwilian-aged Rosroe Formation. The Rosroe Formation has a muddy basal subunit (Bencraff Member) in the west that appears to die out eastwards. The clear unconformity bounded stratigraphic sequence of the southern limb of the South Mayo Trough allows rejection of the hypothesis that it represents a dismembered faulted succession. Although there are clearly episodes of early Ordovician tilting, the first major compressional deformation that produced folds affecting the South Mayo Trough occurred sometime between the Late Ordovician (Sandbian) and Early Silurian (Telychian).
Full waveform inversion (FWI) is a seismic imaging method suitable for wide aperture / azimuth acquisitions thanks to its ability to account for waves propagating over a broad range of incidence angles. Wide aperture / azimuth acquisitions makes, however, the imaging quite sensitive to anisotropy because of the intrinsic difference between vertical and horizontal velocities in vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) media. In this study, we present a numerical procedure to define the best parametrization for acoustic VTI FWI. High-resolution velocity model for either the vertical, the horizontal or the normal move out (NMO) velocity can be developed by monoparameter FWI, when the considered wave speed is combined with the Thomsen’s parameters δ and e in the parametrization, and when available smooth background models of δ and e are kept fixed during FWI. An alternative is to jointly reconstruct two wavespeeds (for example, the vertical and the horizontal velocities) using a model parametrization that combines these two wavespeeds and δ . However, the spatial resolution of the two resulting velocity models is more limited that of the velocity model obtained with the first mentioned parametrization.
Stochastic optimization methods, such as genetic algorithms, search for the global minimum of the misfit function within a given parameter range and do not require any calculation of the gradients of the misfit surfaces. More importantly, these methods collect a series of models and associated likelihoods that can be used to estimate the posterior probability distribution. However, because genetic algorithms are not a Markov chain Monte Carlo method, the direct use of the genetic‐algorithm‐sampled models and their associated likelihoods produce a biased estimation of the posterior probability distribution. In contrast, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, such as the Metropolis–Hastings and Gibbs sampler, provide accurate posterior probability distributions but at considerable computational cost. In this paper, we use a hybrid method that combines the speed of a genetic algorithm to find an optimal solution and the accuracy of a Gibbs sampler to obtain a reliable estimation of the posterior probability distributions. First, we test this method on an analytical function and show that the genetic algorithm method cannot recover the true probability distributions and that it tends to underestimate the true uncertainties. Conversely, combining the genetic algorithm optimization with a Gibbs sampler step enables us to recover the true posterior probability distributions. Then, we demonstrate the applicability of this hybrid method by performing one‐dimensional elastic full‐waveform inversions on synthetic and field data. We also discuss how an appropriate genetic algorithm implementation is essential to attenuate the “genetic drift” effect and to maximize the exploration of the model space. In fact, a wide and efficient exploration of the model space is important not only to avoid entrapment in local minima during the genetic algorithm optimization but also to ensure a reliable estimation of the posterior probability distributions in the subsequent Gibbs sampler step.
The rationale was outlined for constructing pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) paths by using U-Pb dating of garnet produced in thermobarometrically sensitive reactions. In an example from the Pikwitonei granulites of the Northwestern Superior Province of the Canadian Shield, garnets were formed at 2744-2742 Ma, 2700-2689 Ma, and 2605-2590 Ma, the latter events coinciding with times recorded by U-Pb zircon systems. Garnet grew during metamorphism at 6.5 kbar, 630 to 750 C and later at 7.2 to 7.5 kbar, 800 C; the later metamorphism apparently did not exceed the U-Pb closure temperature. The resultant P-T-t path is counterclockwise, with late isobaric cooling, interpreted to result from magmatic heating at an Andean margin.
The utility model relates to a caution light installation structure of a medical display, which comprises a hollow horizontal pole, wherein the front and back sides of the horizontal pole are respectively provided with first through holes and second through holes; the back side of the horizontal pole is connected with a supporting piece; a first groove is opened formed on one side of the supporting piece connecting with the horizontal pole; a second groove is opened formed inside the first groove; a caution light panel is arranged inside the second groove; and the central lines of the first through holes,; the second through holes and the second groove are arranged on the same straight line. The caution light installation structure of the medical display is simple and firm in structure,attractive in appearance, easy to process and manufacture, and good in caution effect, at the same time the caution light installation structure is fast toin assembly or disassembly;, and therefore, the labour intensity of workers areis lightened reduced largely and the working efficiency is improved.
The utility model discloses a skateboard with shoe-shaped grooves. The skateboard is characterized in that the bottom of the skateboard is connected with wheel stands through rivets, wheels are installed on the wheel stands, and the shoe-shaped grooves are formed in the front side of the skateboard. The skateboard with conventional functions has the beneficial effects that the shoe-shaped grooves are additionally formed in the front side of the skateboard, and a player can put feet into the shoe-shaped grooves when playing the skateboard, so that the player is prevented from falling caused by feet slipping.
Artificial or natural barriers may be divided into two classes, those from which waves are reflected and those on which waves break In general, any intermediate type that gives a combination of reflection and breaking may set up severe erosive action of the beach m front of barriers When the reflected waves are superimposed on the incident waves a stationary spatial envelope of the combined incident and reflected waves is produced Previous laboratory studies indicated that the crests of the sand bed appear fairly closely under the nodes of the envelope and troughs of the scoured sand bed under the loops of the envelope The predominant scouring pattern had a spacing between crests equal to one-half the wave length Other studies by Keulegan and Shepard established characteristic parameters for bar and trough depth for laboratory conditions and for several field locations Their studies were compared with beach profiles taken along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Distributed hydrological models are suitable for the determination of time and space variability of hydrological responses within a given watershed. In a watershed, the model can be implemented with different levels of space resolution, mainly as a function of data availability, objectives of the numerical study, and requirements of the system to be modeled. In this paper, the effects on landscape representation due to different cell sizes are analyzed and scaling of parameters in a lower spatial resolution level is proposed in order to obtain similarity in hydrological responses between different degrees of discretization. The comparison was made in terms of maximum discharge, maximum flow velocity, and maximum water depth by simulating a number of observed and hypothetical hydrological events. The concept of total equilibrium state of the watershed was used. Under these circumstances, the roughness coefficients associated to overland and stream flow and the storage function of each discretization element were adjusted separately for the lower spatial resolution level. The results show that the similarity in hydrological responses, in terms of maximum water depth, obtained by adjusting the storage function of the cells, is better than that corresponding to the adjustment of roughness coefficients.
The damage to structures caused by the velocity pulse effect of near-fault earthquake waves cannot be ignored, yet there are few studies on the risk assessment of seismic performance for precast concrete frame under near-fault earthquake waves. A novel self-centering precast concrete (SCPC) frame with hysteretic dampers is proposed to obtain great self-recovering and energy consumption characteristics. To accurately assess the seismic behaviors of the novel SCPC frame under the near-fault earthquake waves, a prototype structure is modelled and elastoplastic dynamic analysis is conducted at the design basis earthquake (DBE) and the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) seismic levels. Incremental dynamic analysis and the vulnerability analysis are performed. Annual and 50-year exceeding probabilities of the novel SCPC frame are calculated afterwards. In addition, the reinforced concrete (RC)frame and the traditional SCPC frame are also modelled, whose section sizes, reinforcements arrangement and seismic intensity are consistent with the novel SCPC frame. The dynamic time-history analysis at the two seismic levels are also carried out for two types of frames. The analysis results demonstrate that the novel SCPC frame has great seismic performance and low seismic risk possibility under the near-fault earthquakes loading.
The volcanic mass which we are about to describe occupies a definite horizon in the Upper Devonian, in the part of North Cornwall lying between Padstow and Bodmin Moor. We propose to confine our remarks to this limited area; for the point with which we deal is merely the mode of origin of this particular eruptive rock. Our views may, or may not, be applicable to other pillow-lavas; but the subject is so beset with difficulties, that we prefer to confine our attention to a limited region, where cliff-sections are exceptionally fine and inland quarries are also clear. We will not deal with the question of correlation, even with neighbouring areas. The volcanic rocks near Port Isaac were noticed by De la Beche in 1839. He mentions the vesicular character of some of them, and suggests that they were contemporaneous with the slates in which they occur. He does not allude to their peculiar structure. In 1848 Nicholas Whitley noticed and figured the peculiar concentric structure, ‘as if it had rolled down a declivity and become partially cooled during its progress, and then consolidated into the rock which it now constitutes; in fact, much like the ends of bales of cloth piled one on another. He speaks of the centre of each circle being generally composed of a nodule of crystallized gypsum, and compares this structure with that of some of the Vesuvian lavas. The petrological characters of these rocks were described in 1878 by J. A. Phillips, who gave
Abstract. The salt mining industrial exploitation located in Vauvert (France) has been injecting water at high pressure into wells to dissolve salt layers at depth. The extracted brine has been used in the chemical industry for more than 30 years, inducing a subsidence of the surface. Yearly leveling surveys have monitored the deformation since 1996. This dataset is supplemented by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, and since 2015, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data have also continuously measured the deformation. New wells are regularly drilled to carry on with the exploitation of the salt layer, maintaining the subsidence. We make use of this careful monitoring by inverting the geodetic data to constrain a model of deformation. As InSAR and leveling are characterized by different strengths (spatial and temporal coverage for InSAR, accuracy for leveling) and weaknesses (various biases for InSAR, notably atmospheric, very limited spatial and temporal coverage for leveling), we choose to combine SAR images with leveling data, to produce a 3-D velocity field of the deformation. To do so, we develop a two-step methodology which consists first of estimating the 3-D velocity from images in ascending and descending acquisition of Sentinel 1 between 2015 and 2017 and second of applying a weighted regression kriging to improve the vertical component of the velocity in the areas where leveling data are available. GNSS data are used to control the resulting velocity field. We design four analytical models of increasing complexity. We invert the combined geodetic dataset to estimate the parameters of each model. The optimal model is made of 21 planes of dislocation with fixed position and geometry. The results of the inversion highlight two behaviors of the salt layer: a major collapse of the salt layer beneath the extracting wells and a salt flow from the deepest and most external zones towards the center of the exploitation.
Alkali feldspars in the Tanakami granite, southwest Japan, contain a complicated fine-scale mixture of various micro-textures; lamellar crypto- and micro-perthites and micropore-rich patch perthites. Mineralogical examination mainly by TEM and SEM disclosed that there are two formational stages of these micro-textures, the subsolidus cooling stage and hydrothermal alteration stage. In the subsolidus cooling stage, lamellar crypto- and micro-perthite were formed by exsolution. Then nearly regularly arranged dislocations were formed at interfaces of Ab-rich lamellae and Or-rich feldspars. Hydrothermal alteration caused the dissolution of feldspar grains and re-precipitation of new feldspar grains mainly around the dislocations. These processes result in neo-formation of patch perthites that comprise irregular microcline, tweed orthoclase, numerous micropores and albite grains.      Bulk compositions of cryptoperthite have excessive Or content (around Or90) in comparison to those expected for primary alkali feldspars. It is estimated that retrograde inter-crystalline Na-K exchange between alkali feldspars and plagioclases occurs in the subsolidus stage. On the contrary, bulk compositions of patch perthite have poor Or content (Or64-71) from those of the cryptoperthite. This feature indicates that the chemical compositions of alkali feldspars changed drastically as well as the micro-textures in the hydrothermal alteration stage.      Coexisting plagioclases also underwent chemical change from the subsolidus cooling stage through the hydrothermal alteration stage. Especially in the hydrothermal alteration stage, alteration by percolation of hydrothermal water occurred in the internal areas of the plagioclase grains. These processes result in lower Or content (max Or2.7) and higher Ab content (>Ab90) of the plagioclases, and neo-formation of patchy zoning including micropores and fluorite subgrains.      Summarizing all of these features, the relation between micro-textural development and chemical compositional changes in feldspars was discussed taking into consideration their formation processes such as inter-crystalline Na-K exchange and hydrothermal reaction.
The total content of rare earth element(ΣREE)ranges from 70 15 to 202 04μg/g in sediments of core YA01.The average content of ΣREE is 155 18μg/g,approaching lower limit of the average content of ΣREE in sediments in the continental crust,and is slightly more than that of Yellow Sea and East China Sea,and less than that of Bohai Sea and South China Sea.The change trend of standard curves of REE has no difference in various types of sediments,which suggests that the sediments of core YA01 come from the same material source.ΣREE,δEu and δCe have obvious vertical changes,which may reflect lithologic change and sedimentary environment.Base on Sm /Nd and Ce/La ratios,the sediment source is near sediments from Yellow River.
This study presents new Rb–Sr age data concerning the metamorphic evolution of the Attic-Cycladic Crystalline Belt which represents a complex polymetamorphic terrane within the Alpidic orogenic belt of the Hellenides. Two major groups of tectonic units can be distinguished. Metamorphism in parts of the upper units is commonly considered as a Cretaceous event. In contrast, the group of lower units experienced Tertiary high-pressure metamorphism which was followed by a medium-pressure overprint. We focus on the island of Tinos where a representative spectrum of the rock units found in the Cyclades is exposed in three tectonic units: the Upper Unit, the Intermediate Unit and the Basal Unit. The complete range of tectono-metamorphic and magmatic events affecting the Attic-Cycladic Crystalline Belt is documented by numerous petrological and tectonic studies. Phyllites and phyllonites from the ophiolitic Upper Unit yielded Rb–Sr apparent ages (phengite–whole-rock) between c. 92 and 21 Ma. The older age differs from the Cretaceous dates reported for upper unit rocks elsewhere in the Cyclades. It is suggested that the sequence studied belongs to the Jurassic ophiolites of the Hellenides rather than to Cretaceous occurrences. The spread to younger ages is related to non-pervasive rejuvenation and resetting of the Rb–Sr system during tectonic juxtaposition of the Upper Unit over the Intermediate Unit. The youngest age obtained so far for a sample from the Upper Unit (21 Ma) is believed to approximate the timing of tectonic juxtaposition which probably occurred during a regional greenschist-facies episode producing a pervasive overprint in the structurally lower tectonic unit. The major phyllite/meta-gabbro/serpentinite sequence of the Upper Unit is interpreted as an emplacement-related ductile shear zone which experienced reworking under brittle conditions. In the Intermediate Unit, a gradient in Rb–Sr ages from top (c. 40 Ma) to the bottom (c. 22 Ma) was recognized, which is interpreted to represent greater effects of fluid infiltration and overprinting in the lower parts of this unit, possibly controlled by variable intensity of deformation which might be related to tectonic juxtaposition onto the Basal Unit. We suggest that synmetamorphic stacking of all three tectonic units took place during an Oligocene–Miocene greenschist event. Extensional deformation continued after tectonic stacking and after intrusion of the main granite, as is indicated by a Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron (15.1∓0.6 Ma) for a ductilely deformed garnet-bearing leucogranite from the marginal parts of the main undeformed pluton. Application of the Rb–Sr dating technique provided no unequivocal evidence that previously published Eocene K–Ar and 40Ar–39Ar dates for high-pressure phengites from the lower units are significantly contaminated with excess argon.
The existence of bedding planes is the fundamental cause of the anisotropy of the mechanical behaviors,the strength and the failure modes of shale formations and is also one of the main reasons for borehole instability of horizontal wells. In order to analyze the mechanical properties of bedding planes and the anisotropy of shear strength,direct shear tests on shale sample with different bedding angles were carried out. The causes for the anisotropy of shear strength were analyzed based on the anisotropy of the mechanisms of shear failure and the concentration factor of shear stresses.(1) The cohesion and the internal friction angle of bedding planes were found to be significantly smaller than those of the matrix of shale;the bedding planes are weak ones in shale formations and have the smallest shear strength. The shear stress-shear displacement curves do not exhibit the characteristic of slip-weakening when shear failure occurs along bedding planes and the residual friction is even slightly higher than the shear strength of the bedding planes.(2) The largest shear strength occurred if the angle ?between the bedding planes and the normal stress is 60°among the four angles of ? = 0°,30°,60°and 90°. The shear stress-shear displacement curves exhibit the characteristic of slip-weakening when the shear failure occurs for the shale samples with ? = 0°,30°and 60°.(3) The failure mechanism of shale is divided into three types: the shear failure across matrix,the sliding across matrix together with the tensile splitting of the weak planes, and the sliding along the bedding planes. The anisotropy of shear strength of shale is governed by the anisotropy of shear failure mechanism.(4) To some extent,the shear stress concentration factor can reflect the shear strength of rock, and it can be used to analyze the anisotropy of shear strength of shale. In the direct shear tests of shale,the shear stress concentration factor is related to the elastic modulus in shear direction and the thickness of shear layers. Under the same normal stress,the shear stress concentration factor is the largest with ? = 90° and the smallest with ? = 60°. But the shear strength of shale is the smallest with ? = 90° and the largest with ? = 60°.
The high cost of groundwater remediation is directly related to hydrogeological uncertainty. Of several parameters responsible for that uncertainty, hydraulic conductivity (K) is the most important, and at the same time the most difficult to estimate. K can be measured in the lab or field using permeameter tests, piezocone tests, slug tests and pumping tests. However, the hydraulic conductivities measured with these tests are not directly comparable because they characterize different volumes of the subsurface. In practice, one would like to know which method can be used to solve the engineering problem at hand most costeffectively. For example, is it cheaper from the risk-cost-benefit standpoint to take small-scale measurements with slug tests, or larger-scale measurements using pumping tests? Which method will provide greatest reduction in the uncertainty of the hydraulic conductivity field? I focus on the value of the two most commonly used field techniques, the slug test and pumping test, and address the problem using an empirical/numerical approach. First I examine the averaging properties of the pumping test using sensitivity analysis. The pumping-test averaging volume has an elliptical shape, and its size is proportional to the test duration and to the distance between the pumping well and the observation well. The averaging exhibits characteristic zonation, with zones behind and in-between the wells having the strongest impact on the pumping-test scale K. Additionally, the analysis shows the interwell zone influences the pumping-test K for tests of all duration. While the above mentioned properties of a pumping-test averaging volume disintegrate with increasing heterogeneity, some characteristic features can still be distinguished, even for strongly heterogeneous K fields. Next I develop a data-worth methodology applicable to measurements taken at different scales. The method relies upon the representation of larger-scale measured parameters as spatially-averaged smallerscale parameters. It combines a decision model, a hydraulic conductivity uncertainty model, and groundwater flow model employed in a Monte Carlo mode. I apply the data-worth methodology to a generic contamination scenario, where a decision maker is faced with contamination of a 2-D aquifer. The results show that a single pumping-test measurement has higher worth than a single slug-test
OBJECTIVE To explore the sectional anatomy of the structures related to lateral sphenoid wall (LSW) so as to further recognizing these structures. METHODS Studies were conducted on the optic nerve canal, LSW, and internal carotid artery on 20 cadaver heads. By using collodion embedding and thin sectioning at coronal and axial planes in ten cadaver heads, structure and location of the LSW were observed with light microscope. RESULTS ① At the LSW, 77.5 % of the internal carotid arteries and 90 % of the optic nerves formed a prominence medially. ② Anterior clinoid process is an important bony landmark in the anterior part at axial and coronal planes. ③ Spheno-ethmoid supreme recess and foramen rotundum are the important bony landmarks in anterior-mid part at axial and coronal planes. ④ Apex of the petrous bone and foramen ovale are the important landmarks in mid-posterior part at axial and coronal planes. CONCLUSION By studying sectional anatomy of the structures related to LSW and comparing them with gross anatomy of LSW, more detailed information can be provided for the development of imaging and operation in the region.
As part of a larger study of the geologic and tectonic history of the Cajon Pass area, we conducted paleomagnetic studies on sedimentary rocks recovered from the Cajon Pass DOSECC well, and adjacent surface exposures from unit 5 of the late Early to Middle Miocene Cajon Fm. A comparison of the magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the surface and the core sections suggests that they do not match well, which may imply that the rocks at depth have been deformed so that simple extrapolation from the surficial geology to depth is not possible. Although tectonic rotation cannot be inferred from the samples from the core, a clockwise rotation of 30 ± 8.9° was found in unit 5 of the Cajon Fm near the well site at the surface, which is consistent with the results from the same unit 2 km to the west. In contrast, the early Late to late Early Miocene Crowder Fm across the Squaw Peak fault and the youngest unit, unit 6, of the Cajon Fm at the northwestern end of the formation have not been rotated. The rotation of unit 5 near the Squaw Peak fault is thus probably local, caused by drag associated with the fault.
The invention discloses a unilateral residual current operated circuit breaker installation base, and includes a circuit breaker body and an installation base, an upper end of the installation base is provided with a row of through holes and is connected with an upper terminal box through connecting bolts, a lower terminal box and the upper terminal box are fixed on a lower end and an upper end of the installation base, the lower terminal box includes upper and lower layers, the upper layer is provided with a row of outgoing terminals and a row of outgoing side grounding devices and is covered by a base terminal lower cover plate, and the lower layer is provided with a row of incoming terminals; and the upper terminal box includes upper and lower layers, the upper layer is provided with a row of incoming side grounding devices and is covered by a base terminal upper cover plate, the lower layer is provided with a row of copper bars, and the copper bars extend to the lower layer of the lower terminal box to be correspondingly connected with the incoming terminals. The unilateral residual current operated circuit breaker installation base has the beneficial effects of simplifying operation steps of replacing a residual current operated circuit breaker, shortening working time, and improving safety in replacement work and line maintenance work.
The need for information on soil properties and behavior is growing at an unprecedented rate (Brown, 1985). People are requiring more accurate and site-specific information concerning the properties, composition, and variability of soils and to greater depths than are presently being attained in most modern soil surveys (Miller, 1978). Many non-agricultural uses of soils require information from zones deeper than the limits of modern investigations or to depths where insufficient observations have been made to establish reliable standards. To fulfill the needs for deeper, more intense sampling, and quantitative descriptions of soils, different methods of observing soils are required.
Abstract : Much focus is placed on beach erosion on the open coast. However, coastal processes often occur on sandy shorelines interior to inlets that can lead to severe erosion. These shorelines lie adjacent to coastal inlets and extend around the inlet from the ocean to bay. In particular, an examination of coastal inlets with jetties or terminal groins that are connected to a sandy shoreline develop inner-bank erosion in the absence of preventive measures. Many mature projects show eroded regions that required extensive revetment. Typically, if the erosion is permitted to proceed unabated, a crenulate-shaped shoreline region will develop from the terminus of the jetty, extending both bayward and laterally into the adjacent beach. This expansion of erosion leads to loss of property and difficulties in reclamation as a shallow water environment develops. The eroded sediment moves into the channel creating shoaling problems. Many times the eroded region may flank the jetty structure, leaving it isolated from the shore. Isolation of the jetty may lead to potential problems of tidal current scour near the structure, opening the already eroded embayment to increased wave activity and additional erosion, and permitting increased wave attack on the jetty itself. As part of the Coastal Inlets Research Program (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), this type of erosion was studied in a movable bed physical model of an inlet. After the governing processes were understood, several preventive techniques were investigated. A case study is included.
A fossil cave and associated sediments and fossil fauna located on the Greek island of Rhodes in the eastern Aegean Sea is reported here, and the depositional history discussed. The sediments were deposited during the late Pliocene, in the interstitial space between basement boulders of up to 1500 tons. The depositional history of the cave comprises eight stages. From initial flooding, the basin experienced a continuous transgression with sea‐level rise in excess of 500 m, followed by a rapid, forced regression of similar magnitude. The recognition of a succession of fossil communities illustrates this transgression, with a seemingly abrupt shift from endolithic to epilithic biota dominance late in the transgressive cycle. The communities recording the increasing water depth from 0 to >150 m are: The Gatrochaenolithes torpedo (bivalve boring) and Entobia gonioides (sponge boring) ichnocoenosis, with peak distribution between 0 and 1 m water depth; the E. gonioides – E. magna ichnocoenosis, with 1–5 m depth peak distribution; the exclusive E. magna ichnocoenosis, with 5–40 m depth peak distribution; and the E. gigantea ichnocoenosis, with a peak distribution approaching 150–200 m. Below this depth, an epilithic community without boring organisms takes over, characterized by the calcareous sponge Merlia cf. normani, and the inarticulate brachiopod Novocrania turbinata. Simultaneously with the succession of the endo‐ and epilithic cave wall fossil communities, skeletal calcarenite accumulated on the cave floor; the erosional remnants of this sediment are insufficient to further expand the overall transgression–regression model.
Textural analyses were made of 54 samples of gravel beaches from the Pacific coast of southern California and northern Mexico. These samples, plus 1 each from Washington and Japan and 6 others previously reported in the geological literature, are very well sorted and have nearly symmetrical frequency curves. The beach gravels are so much better sorted than fluvial gravels that textural analyses may serve as supplementary evidence in determining the agent of deposition of ancient conglomerates.
It is necessary to improve our understanding of the exchange of dissolved constituents between surface and subsurface waters in river systems in order to better evaluate the fate of water‐borne contaminants and nutrients and their effects on water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Here we present a model that can predict hyporheic exchange at the bed‐form‐to‐reach scale using readily measurable system characteristics. The objective of this effort was to compare subsurface flow induced at scales ranging from very small scale bed forms up to much larger planform geomorphic features such as meanders. In order to compare exchange consistently over this range of scales, we employed a spectral scaling approach as the basis for a generalized analysis of topography‐induced stream‐subsurface exchange. The spectral model involves a first‐order approximation for local flow‐boundary interactions but is fully three‐dimensional and includes the lateral hyporheic zone in addition to the flow directly beneath the streambed. The primary model input parameters are stream velocity and slope, sediment permeability and porosity, and detailed measurements of the stream channel topography. The primary outputs are the distribution of water flux across the stream channel boundary, the resulting pore water flow paths, and the subsurface residence time distribution. We tested the bed‐form‐exchange component of the model using a highly detailed two‐dimensional data set for exchange with ripples and dunes and then applied the model to a three‐dimensional meandering stream in a laboratory flume. Having spatially explicit information allowed us to evaluate the contributions of both gravitational and current‐driven hyporheic flow through various classes of stream channel features including ripples, dunes, bars, and meanders. The model simulations indicate that all scales of topography between ripples and meanders have a significant effect on pore water flow fields and residence time distributions. Furthermore, complex interactions across the spectrum of topographic features play an important role in controlling the net interfacial flux and spatial distribution of hyporheic exchange. For example, shallow exchange induced by current‐driven interactions with small bed forms dominates the interfacial flux, but local pore water flows are modified significantly by larger‐scale surface‐groundwater interactions. As a result, simplified representations of the stream topography do not adequately characterize patterns and rates of hyporheic exchange.
Design of earthquake resistant structures requires both ductility and stiffness. Lateral force resisting systems such as moment resisting frames and braced frames are conventional and have unexceptional performance. Structures subjected to earthquake forces are vulnerable to collapse and large lateral displacement. This leads us to focus on limiting this displacement. Energy Dissipating Devices (EDD) provided at appropriate locations in a building are an effective solution in reducing the seismic energy. The mathematical formulation of MDOF systems are solved by using New mark Beta implicit step by step integration method. The entire study is focused on time domain form only. The structural output results are measured in terms of structural displacement, absolute acceleration, storey shear force and base shear. The analytical investigation is being carried out for the blast load parametric prediction. In the present study, the effective blast resistant technique for the protection of structural components could also been suggested.
ABSTRACT This paper presents a geological map and cross-section of the Falcón Basin based both on published and unpublished work and on new data collected in the northern and southern basin margins. The geological map covers an area of 4600 km2 at 1:100,000 scale. The cross-section is oriented NNW-SSE, traversing perpendicular to the main structures. In general, the structure of the study area results from the inversion of a graben (Oligocene-early Miocene back-arc basin), that started in the middle Miocene due to the convergence between the Caribbean and South American plates. The map, the cross-section and the observations made in the field have been used to generate a tectonostratigraphic reconstruction of the Falcón Basin. The Oligocene-early Miocene sedimentary succession mapped and described is relevant to the hydrocarbon exploration in the Caribbean and in the Gulf of Venezuela, where new hydrocarbon resources have recently been discovered (i.e. Perla gas field).
The distinction between turbidites, contourites and hemipelagites in modern and ancient deep-water systems has long been a matter of controversy. This is partly because the processes themselves show a degree of overlap as part of a continuum, so that the deposit characteristics also overlap. In addition, the three facies types commonly occur within interbedded sequences of continental margin deposits. The nature of these end-member processes and their physical parameters are becoming much better known and are summarised here briefly. Good progress has also been made over the past decade in recognising differences between end-member facies in terms of their sedimentary structures, facies sequences, ichnofacies, sediment textures, composition and microfabric. These characteristics are summarised here in terms of standard facies models and the variations from these models that are typically encountered in natural systems. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that clear distinction is not always possible on the basis of sedimentary characteristics alone, and that uncertainties should be highlighted in any interpretation. A three-scale approach to distinction for all deep-water facies types should be attempted wherever possible, including large-scale (oceanographic and tectonic setting), regional-scale (architecture and association) and small-scale (sediment facies) observations.
After having selected Midu county,Dali city as the research scope,based on collecting,systemizing and comprehensively analyzing referential information summed up by predecessors,from such aspects of geologic structure background as topography,hydroclimatology,and terrestrial heat field,the geologic genetic analysis on hot spring in Midu was conducted,and the essential conditions of hot spring's occurrence were expounded,which indicated the ore-control functions of geologic structure.
A physical modeling and fu ll-scale testing of floodwalls is a challenging task. The challenge comes from simulating the actual loading conditions of a flood during which water covers a vast area. The tests performed even at full-scale, in terms of wall height and water levels behind the wall, would not be a full-scale when loading conditions considered, because only limited amount of water can be used to simulate flooding. The size effect of the flooding conditions was studied using finite element analysis and comparison to test cond itions was investigated. Test conditions, modeled using finite element method, were compared to a full-scale field test data performed by others previously. A finite element analysis tool capable of modeling s~i l-structure interaction, nonlinear soil behavior, and loading sequence, was used for numerical study. The numencal a~alyses results and the size effect on the behavior of floodwalls and soil-structure interaction durmg the floodll1g conditions are discussed.
The utility model provides a split type cutter-suction dredger. The split type cutter-suction dredger solves the problem that because the structure of a split type cutter-suction dredger in the prior art is complex, the assembly and disassembly difficulty is high. The split type cutter-suction dredger comprises a cuboid middle floating body and two cuboid side floating bodies. A cutter-suction arm extending forwards is hinged to one end of the middle floating body, the lower parts of the two sides of the middle floating body are each provided with a plurality of connecting holes, and the upper parts of the connecting holes are provided with connecting buckle plates fixedly connected with the middle floating body into a whole. The two side floating bodies are matched with the middle floating body in size and arranged on the two sides of the middle floating body respectively, and L-shaped connecting hooks corresponding to the connecting holes are fixed to the lower parts of the inner sides of the side floating bodies respectively and extend into the connecting holes to be buckled to the connecting buckle plates. The upper parts of the two sides of the middle floating body are each fixedly provided with a plurality of middle floating body connecting plates, and the upper parts of the inner sides of the side floating bodies are each fixedly provided with side floating body connecting plates corresponding to the middle floating body connecting plates. The split type cutter-suction dredger is simple in structure, convenient to produce, transport, assemble and disassemble, and high in practicality.
The basal slice of the Lizard Complex incorporates strongly foliated amphibolitic metabasites (Lower Landewednack Schists), interpreted as the remnants of a dynamothermal aureole formed beneath the ophiolite during intraoceanic thrusting. Structurally overlying the basal slice and occurring predominantly within the overlying Lizard peridotite is the Kennack Gneiss, a controversial, banded and gneissose unit comprising intimately mixed amphibolitic and granitic components, interpreted to represent commingled melts. Thermobarometry of hornblende–plagioclase pairs indicates that both the Landewednack Schists and the mafic component of the Kennack Gneiss recrystallized synkinematically at ca. 600 °C and 300–400 MPa. Three amphiboles, two from the Kennack Gneiss and one from the Landewednack Schists, yield disturbed 40Ar/39Ar age spectra characterized by low-temperature overprinting, but with good high-temperature plateaux with ages of 366.1 ± 4.2, 364.2 ± 4.8, and 359.8 ± 7.4 Ma, respectively. Theoretical dif...
Many countries have their own building codes-of-practice for earthquake resistant design of structures. These codes provide conventional approach to earthquake resistant design of buildings with sufficient strength, stiffness and inelastic deformation capacity to withstand a given level of earthquake generated force. Under a given earthquake, the level of damage to a structure is greatly influenced by nonlinear capacity of its members. Even when the nonlinear capacities are same, the overall damage is critically influenced by the structure’s shape, size and geometry. This paper presents the research on the influence of aspect ratio on overall damage of the structure subjected to earthquake loading. In this paper a numerical study is carried out for 3 benchmark structures, with an aspect ratio (height to width ratio) of 3, 1 and 0.3, to define failure pattern in nonlinear state. Nonlinear static pushover analysis is performed to understand the capacity of structure and expended energy based damage assessment is used to estimate the damage. The results are compared in terms of damage, displacement and plastic hinge pattern.
Cradle of the American oil industry, the Appalachian basin originated as a stratigraphic trough whose present deep-buried floor was the ancient Precambrian erosion surface first covered by Cambrian seas. It now holds an intricate series of marine and continental sediments whose deposition followed a fairly constant pattern, with primary source at the east, medial thickening, and an outer, western, zone of facies change and shoaling conditions along the east flank of the Cincinnati arch that formed a hinge in the subsidence following each formational deposition. The same country is now a structural trough shaped during orogenesis that finally crumpled the former source area into the familiar Appalachian highlands, and whose shadow or foreland folds were thrown far west eve of the center of the trough. Details of local orogenic history show at least two early stages of folding overridden by the final fold pattern with actual or incipient domes at various points of intersection. The Appalachian sedimentary trough was also a supply basin for petroleum hydrocarbons that moved mainly upward and outward to become concentrated in border zones having suitable reservoir qualities. Such zones have a present basinal position that generally parallels the west margin of the individual horizon, wherein emplacement of oil and gas was controlled primarily by favorable shore-line porosity and secondarily by fold patterns, with major imponding at the intersection of early and late folds. Subsequent differential sorting of the fluid systems of connected reservoirs was a result of gravitational flushing with concentration ultimately determined by relative buoyancy and local reservoir elevation. Other specific Appalachian entrapment occurs along linear carrier beds, in sedimentary wedgeouts, in fracture systems, in deep relic reservoirs, and in uncompromised islands of favorable porosity within regions otherwise unfavorable. The possibility of locating additional reservoir traps in the deep central basin, along the basement floor, or below unconformable surfaces, is favorably regarded. Attention is paid to the northeast end of the Appalachian basin, particularly east of the Adirondack arch, out of which no production has yet been found but which has been imperfectly tested so far. Similarities are discussed between such blanket sand deposits as the Tuscarora-Clinton, Oriskany, and Berea horizons. The shallow younger producing sands are treated as another genre, here named casual sands; and the several carbonate reservoirs are considered as a group. The possible future development of older horizons is anticipated. Finally, with the familiar Appalachian basin as a type, certain stages in general basinal emplacement are reduced to a simple list that may be useful in the similar analysis of other basins of this general type.
F-27 SHARED EARTH SYSTEM MODELS FOR THE DUTCH SUBSURFACE Summary 1 TNO-NITG is the central geoscience institute in the Netherlands for information and applied research to promote the sustainable management and use of the subsurface and its natural resources. Like any other geological survey TNO-NITG faces the challenge of disseminating geoscience data and subsurface interpreted models at low cost. For this purpose TNO-NITG has developed an internet based distribution system coupled with an in-house developed free 3D Java Viewer. In a first step data and volumetric models of the Dutch deep subsurface have been digitally compiled and optimally tuned to
Fine-grained rims around chondrules, Ca,Al-rich inclusions, and other coarse-grained components occur in most types of unequilibrated chondrites, most prominently in carbonaceous chondrites of the CM group. Based on mineralogical and petrographic investigations, it was suggested that rim structures in unequilibrated ordinary chondrites could have formed in the solar nebula by accretion of dust on the surfaces of the chondrules. Dust mantles in CM chondrites seem to have formed by accretion of dust on the surfaces of chondrules and other components during their passage through dust-rich regions in the solar nebula. Concentric mantles with compositionally different layers prove the existence of various distinct dust reservoirs in the vicinity of the accreting parent body. Despite mineralogical and chemical differences, fine-grained rims from other chondrite groups principally show striking similarities to dust mantle textures in CM chondrite. This implies that the formation of dust mantles was a cosmically significant event like the chondrule formation itself. Dust mantles seem to have formed chronologically between chondrule-producing transient heating events and the agglomeration of chondritic parent bodies. For this reason the investigation of dust mantle structures may help to answer the question of how a dusty solar nebula was transformed into a planetary system.
The area surrounding the Grand Canyon has spectacu-lar outcrop exposure in the modern canyon walls, leading to stratigraphic contact delineations that are well constrained near canyons yet poorly constrained where the terrain remains undissected and relatively unexplored by boreholes. An airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey of the western Hualapai Indian Reservation and surrounding areas was undertaken to support the development of a three-dimensional hydrostratigraphic framework of the Truxton basin and Hualapai Plateau. These data were used to develop models of the resistivity structure with total depths of investigation ranging from 200 meters in the most conductive parts of the Truxton basin to more than 600 meters in the higher resistivity areas underlying the Hualapai Plateau. The modeled resistivity structure was used in conjunction with geologic maps, well lithologic records, and results from gravity models of the depth to bedrock to develop high-resolution regional interpretations of the elevation of the Muav Limestone-Bright Angel Shale contact and the top of the crystalline basement. These contacts are conceptualized to serve as the base of the Paleozoic limestone aquifers primarily underlying the Hualapai Plateau and the Tertiary-Quaternary sedimentary and volcanic aquifers of the Truxton basin, respectively.
New gas wells at Tunu field in East Kalimantan are normally perforated using the extreme underbalanced (EUB) technique, in which a large static pressure differential between the wellbore and formation, or initial underbalance, is set before the gun is fired. This requires an operation to unload wellbore liquid, a wireline operation to set an anchoring tool, and several slickline operations to run and retrieve the gun string. The required degree of underbalance depends primarily on rock properties such as permeability, porosity, and strength. A new approach produces a well dynamic underbalance (the transient underbalance just after creating the perforation cavity). By basing the job design on the properties of the reservoir, wellbore, and gun string, the technique consistently minimizes perforation damage and thus maximizes productivity. This technique is based on recent single-shot perforating experiments that show that it is the maximum dynamic underbalance not the initial underbalance that governs perforation cleanup. The wellbore pressure was found to vary considerably during the first half-second after the charges were detonated. This variation in wellbore pressure can be manipulated to give a large dynamic underbalance. Perforating with the new technique and electric wireline was performed on 10 wells in the field. Software that considered wellbore geometry, fluid, gun-string selection, and reservoir properties was used to design a specific gun-string configuration and to predict the productivity increase contributed by the underbalance. The jobs were performed smoothly * Total E&P Indonesie ** Schlumberger with significant cost savings compared to conventional EUB operations and yielded an increased productivity. Details of the perforating jobs with the new technique will be described, including a cost reduction of approximately 40% and a significant production increase. Testing revealed an average skin value for four wells of -0.29, versus the average skin of 4.73 from 35 conventional EUB perforating jobs executed during the multi-year interval from 2000 to 2004.
Abstract. Bioapatite in mammalian teeth is readily preserved in continental sediments and represents a very important archive for reconstructions of environment and climate evolution. This project provides a comprehensive data base of major, minor and trace element and isotope tracers for tooth apatite using a variety of microanalytical techniques. The aim is to identify specific sedimentary environments and to improve our understanding on the interaction between internal metabolic processes during tooth formation and external nutritional control and secondary alteration effects. Here, we use the electron microprobe to determine the major and minor element contents of fossil and modern molar enamel, cement and dentin from Hippopotamids. Most of the studied specimens are from different ecosystems in Eastern Africa, representing modern and fossil lacustrine (Lake Kikorongo, Lake Albert, and Lake Malawi) and modern fluvial environments of the Nile River system. Secondary alteration effects - in particular FeO, MnO, SO3 and F concentrations – are 2 to 10 times higher in fossil than in modern enamel; the secondary enrichment of these components in fossil dentin and cement is even higher. In modern and fossil enamel, along sections perpendicular to the enamel-dentin junction (EDJ) or along cervix-apex profiles, P2O5 and CaO contents and the CaO/P2O5 ratios are very constant (StdDev ∼1%). Linear regression analysis reveals tight control of the MgO (R2∼0.6), Na2O and Cl variation (for both R2>0.84) along EDJ-outer enamel rim profiles, despite large concentration variations (40% to 300%) across the enamel. These minor elements show well defined distribution patterns in enamel, similar in all specimens regardless of their age and origin, as the concentration of MgO and Na2O decrease from the enamel-dentin junction (EDJ) towards the outer rim, whereas Cl displays the opposite trend. Fossil enamel from Hippopotamids which lived in the saline Lake Kikorongo have a much higher MgO/Na2O ratio (∼1.11) than those from the Neogene fossils of Lake Albert (MgO/Na2O∼0.4), which was a large fresh water lake like those in the western Branch of the East African Rift System today. Similarly, the MgO/Na2O ratio in modern enamel from the White Nile River (∼0.36), which has a Precambrian catchment of dominantly granites and gneisses and passes through several saline zones, is higher than that from the Blue Nile River, whose catchment is the Neogene volcanic Ethiopian Highland (MgO/Na2O∼0.22). Thus, particularly MgO/Na2O might be a sensitive fingerprint for environments where river and lake water have suffered strong evaporation. Enamel formation in mammals takes place at successive mineralization fronts within a confined chamber where ion and molecule transport is controlled by the surrounding enamel organ. During the secretion and maturation phases the epithelium generates different fluid composition, which in principle, should determine the final composition of enamel apatite. This is supported by co-linear relationships between MgO, Cl and Na2O which can be interpreted as binary mixing lines. However, if maturation starts after secretion is completed, the observed element distribution can only be explained by equilibration of existing and addition of new apatite during maturation. It appears the initial enamel crystallites precipitating during secretion and the newly formed bioapatite crystals during maturation equilibrate with a continuously evolving fluid. During crystallization of bioapatite the enamel fluid becomes continuously depleted in MgO and Na2O, but enriched in Cl which results in the formation of MgO, and Na2O-rich, but Cl-poor bioapatite near the EDJ and MgO- and Na2O-poor, but Cl-rich bioapatite at the outer enamel rim. The linkage between lake and river water compositions, bioavailability of elements for plants, animal nutrition and tooth formation is complex and multifaceted. The quality and limits of the MgO/Na2O and other proxies have to be established with systematic investigations relating chemical distribution patterns to sedimentary environment and to growth structures developing as secretion and maturation proceed during tooth formation.
Today, steel girder bridges with concrete deck slabs are generally constructed as steel-concrete composite structures, to utilize the material and the structural parts in an efficient way. However, many existing bridges constructed before the early 1980´s were designed without shear connectors at the steel-concrete interface. With increasing traffics loads and higher amount of load cycles, there is sometimes a need to strengthen these bridges. One way to increase the bending moment capacity is to create composite action by post-installation of shear connectors. The authors have studied the concept of strengthening by post-installed shear connectors, with a focus on a connector called coiled spring pin. This paper presents the results from the first beam tests performed with this kind of shear connector. In line with the previous push-out tests, the test results indicate a very ductile shear connection, with a potential to be a material- and cost-efficient strengthening alternative.
Over 500 rhinoceros fossils were collected from Udunga (MN15–16a), Transbaikalia, Russia and housed at the Southern Scientific Center, Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Both qualitative and statistic analyses applied for the fossils indicate that they are composed of a single species. 16 individuals are recognized in the collection. The Udunga rhinoceros is allocated into the tribe Rhinocerotini based on the anteriorly extended articulation between the ulna and the semilunar. Although the ossification of nasal septum is unknown, it can be assigned to Stephanorhinus based on the loss of the functional anterior dentition. In addition to the reduced incisor, the quantitative analyses for the dental and the postcranial materials show the similarities between the Udunga materials and S. megarhinus. The quantitative analyses for the central metapodials strongly suggest that the former species is more closely related to the European species than to the Turkish one. It also implies that the rhinoceroses were migrated to Transbaikal area directly from Europe. Introduction The Transbaikal area is rich in the Late Cenozoic mammalian fossil localities. The Udunga, one of the localities, has yielded a plenty of mammalian fossils including rodents, lagomorphs, carnivores, proboscideans, perissodactyls, artiodactyls and primates (Kalmykov, 1999; Erbajeva et al., 2003; Egi et al., 2007). Based on the mammalian fossil associations, the age of the Udunga fauna is correlated to the European mammal faunal zone MN 15-16a (Vislobokova et al., 2000; Alexeeva et al., 2001; Erbajeva et al., 2003). Although the persissodactyls such as the three-toed horse (Hipparion houfenese and H. tchicoicum) and the chalicotherid (Postschizotherium cf. chardini) have been studied well, the rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sp.) has rather poorly studied in spite of the rich occurrences from the locality (Kalmykov, 1999). The large samples from the locality enable us to examine these rhinoceros fossils qualitatively and quantitatively. This report is the first step
This present paper discusses the characterization of Pan African Mobile belt deformation of South Maradi. The methodology adopted was mainly primary data, and in that, in the deformation characterization, a multidisciplinary approach has been implemented, including geophysical correlations, cartographic and petrostructural observations. This approach has made it possible to establish a map of the geological formations of the area. The result shows that during the two episodes/phases, the setting of granitoids was associated with the re-playing of the regional shear-zones. The radiometric dating of the rocks revealed that Pan-African deformation phases affected both paleo-proterozoic and Neo-proterozoic formations. In the findings, the analysis highlighted at least three (3) deformational phases, noted D1, D2 and D3. The D2 Pan-African deformation phase, also ductile, consists of two (2) episodes (D2a and D2b) The more brittle D3 phase was associated with two (2) episodes of strain-slip schistocity; one of orientation N80 0 to N120 0 (S3) followed by a second orientation of N40 0 (S4)
The purpose of the present study has been to perform an empirical investigation of the energy transfer at an isothermal, melting snow surface and its relationship to observed meteorological parameters, using more refined instrumentation and methods of observation than were available in earlier, similar investigations by H. U. Sverdrup and C. C. Wallen.    The thickness of the surface layer of snow through which absorption of solar radiation occurs is determined from measurements of intensities of visible radiation within the snow. Albedo values for the snow are computed from measurements of incoming and reflected solar radiation over the snow surface. The snow albedo is found to vary with solar altitude and cloudiness as well as with changes in physical characteristics of the snow. When long-wave radiation is considered along with solar radiation, it is found that during the ablation season, the diurnal net transfer of radiant energy to the melting snowpack is often greater when skies are overcast than when skies are clear. A comparison is made between the radiative energy transfer at the surface of a model glacier in the Juneau Ice Field, and a model glacier in the Alps.    It is shown that energy transfer to the snow by rain falling on an isothermal melting snowpack is an insignificant part of the total energy transfer.    From measured and calculated values of net energy transfer at the snow surface, energy transfer by radiation, and energy transfer by rain, values of energy transfer by turbulence are determined for a series of selected observation periods. These values are used to calculate exchange coefficients. It is shown that by making a slight modification in the functional expression for heat transfer by turbulence from that used by Sverdrup and Wallen, it is possible to obtain a nearly invariant relationship between the heat transfer by turbulence, windspeed, and the vertical temperature distribution above the surface when an inversion is present.    It is found that turbulent transfer of heat is the most important factor in causing ablation on the Lemon Creek Glacier. This turbulent transfer of energy becomes very large during summer storm periods. As a result, the number of warm storms passing over the glacier in a single ablation season can largely determine whether the glacier will end the season with a positive or negative mass budget.
Recent observations have shown that, prior to the onset of equatorial spread-F, there exists an altitude modulation in bottomside F-region electron density contours. It has generally been accepted that such a modulation is caused by internal-gravity waves propagating upward from below. In this brief note we suggest that gravity waves may be generated in situ, via the wind shear mechanism. Theoretical calculations and some observations indicate that large wind shears can occur during early evening hours in the low latitude thermosphere. We show that the wind shear may possibly generate gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths on the order of a few hundred kilometers, which is the scale of the observed electron density modulation.
Mercury concentrations were measured in sediment cores from lakes in central and northern Canada. Typically cores spanned periods of one hundred to several hundred years, as judged by profiles of unsupported lead-210 and cesium-137. Mercury in the uppermost slices of sediment from lakes in more easterly locations was consistently elevated above that in deeper slices from the same lakes. The authors have interpreted this surface enrichment as evidence of increased recent loadings in agreement with similar studies in Ontario, Quebec, USA and Scandinavia. Western sites showed less surface enrichment with mercury, sometimes almost none, in agreement with experience in Alaska. Surface grab samples and two deep cores from Lake Winnipeg indicated that mercury in surface sediments exceeded that at depths corresponding to several thousand years in the history of the lake. The current indication from the cores is a regional difference in loadings of mercury with higher enrichments over basal values in the East than in the West. Recent literature, however, has raised the possibility of vertical mobility of mercury in sediments. This has suggested that processes controlling the well-known concentration of iron and manganese in oxidized surface sediments may also concentrate mercury. A number of the cores were analyzedmore » for iron and manganese but mercury (or lead or cadmium) failed to correlate with iron or manganese. Efforts are underway to develop ways to distinguish rigorously between natural mercury and contamination.« less
Movement along preexisting slickensided rupture surfaces in overconsolidated clay and clay shale slopes can represent a critical sliding mechanism during earthquakes. The seismic behavior of preexisting slickensided surfaces in overconsolidated clay was examined by performing dynamic centrifuge model tests of two slickensided sliding block models constructed using Rancho Solano lean clay. Dynamic shear displacements were concentrated along the preformed slickensided surfaces. The peak shear resistances mobilized along the slickensided surfaces during dynamic loading were 90-120% higher than the drained residual strength measured prior to shaking. To accurately predict the displacements of the sliding blocks using Newmark's method, it was necessary to use dynamic strengths that were 37-64% larger than the drained residual strength of the soil. Dynamic loading caused a positive pore pressure response in the soil surrounding the slickensided planes. The postshaking shear strengths were 17-31% higher than those measured prior to shaking.
The purpose of the study was to carry out a numerical simulation of the interaction of an underexpanded supersonic jet flowing into a flooded space with a normally located obstacle, and with the underlying surface. We performed the calculations in the ANSYS Fluent software package and presented flow patterns. For the case when the obstacle is located normally to the axis of the jet, we compared the pressure distribution in the radial direction with experimental data and made a conclusion about the changes in the integral load on the wall with a change in the distance to the nozzle exit. For the case when the obstacle is parallel to the jet axis, we presented the pressure distribution along the wall in the plane of symmetry, estimated the relative net force acting on the underlying surface, analyzed the nature of its change at various values of the off-design coefficient, the Mach number on the nozzle exit and the distance to the jet axis.
In this paper, a RANS/lifting line model interaction method is proposed to consider the duct geometry in the design of propellers and tidal turbines. In the lifting line model, the LerbsWrench formulas are used for the wake alignment procedure. In the RANS solver, the blade is represented by a pressure jump profile. The blade loading is determined via a previously developed optimization algorithm which takes into consideration the effect of the duct via a simplified image model. An iterative procedure is developed in which the advance ratio (based on the ship speed) and the total thrust in the propeller case and the tip speed ratio (based on the inflow velocity far upstream) are kept constant. The procedure is tested for different cambers and thicknesses of the duct shape for the propeller case and different duct angles for the turbine case. The efficiency, inflow velocity and thrust on the blade and duct are obtained and analyzed. In the propeller case, the influence of different factors, including the blade number, drag-to-lift ratio, advance ratio and thrust coefficient, are studied. This method is proved to be reliable and efficient in designing ducted propellers and tidal turbines.
In 1856 Darcy observed that water flowed through a sand bed at a rate proportional to the area of the bed and to the difference between the upstream and dowstream hydraulic heads and inversely proportional to the bed thickness. Since that time many investigators have accumulated masses of data in support of numerous theoretical and empirical relationships for correlating and predicting pressure drop, flow rate, and fluid and bed properties. Naturally certain areas of research have received less attention than others.    Among the areas receiving least attention are flow through beds composed of particles of identical shape but mixed size, flow through unconsolidated beds composed of small particles, and flow under the influence of a centrifugal driving force. Accordingly, the flow of liquids through unconsolidated beds of small spherical particles of mixed size was investigated in two laboratory centrifugal filters. Experimental conditions were such that the flow was laminar and the cakes were incompressible. While there was some difficulty in obtaining reproducibility of cakes, the data for any particular cake were correlated satisfactorily by the Darcy equation adapted for centrifugal filtration.
To study the effect of damping on seismic performance of steel frame, using the pseudo dynamic test by inputting damping and no damping to analyze the seismic performance of semi-rigid steel frame. Analysis was focused on the effect of damping on the panel zone strain, story drift and interlayer force.The conclusion was that under the more severe earthquake, the structural damping had effects on the seismic performance of semi-rigid steel frame.
A vascular access system to prevent injuries, comprising: a catheter assembly (10); a needle assembly (16) comprising a sharp object (40) having a trunk (42) ending in a limb (44); a limb protector (60) having a housing (62) with a closed distal end and a proximal end that slidably engages with the trunk; a housing (36) defining a conduit (54) with respective proximal (56) and distal (58) openings through which said sharp object slides, where the proximal opening of the housing releasably retains the end protector (60) in the duct; and wherein at least one between the sharp object (40) and the end shield (60) is adapted to prevent the trunk (42) from being completely removed from the end shield (60), and where the tip guard secures the limb (44) in the protector with the removal of the limb inside the protector, characterized in that the enclosure (62) defines a chamber (76) and includes at least one side wall (64) configured to slide in the trunk ( 42).
The WATEQ4F‐based “multiple step method”, or the method of running WATEQ4F repeatedly, was used to evaluate the error propagation in computations of water‐mineral interactions under the circumstances of constant and varied temperatures due to the uncertainties of input variables. The results show the following: the errors of water chemistry analysis can strongly affect the modelling results of water‐mineral reactions; different input variables (errors) have different effects on the saturation indices (S.I.) of different minerals; in many cases, the S.I. errors of minerals change with temperatures.
The two sections containing hominoid fossils in the Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan Prov-ince have been studied by means of magnetostratigraphy. The results are as follows. The Xiaohe section records over 8 polarity zones corresponding to Cande-Kent95 time scale, including C3Br.1n, C3Br.1r, C3Br.2n, C3Br.2r, C4n.1n, C4n.1r, C4n.2n and C4n.2r, attaching to Late Mio-cene. This section comprises two layers of hominoid fossils: the lower layer (the 1st layer in fig. 4) which records the lower portion of C4n.2r with paleomagnetic age of 8.20—8.10 Ma and the upper layer (the 16th layer in fig. 4) which records C3Br.1r with paleomagnetic age of 7.20—7.15 Ma. So the age of hominoid fossils in the Xiaohe section is about 8.20—7.15 Ma. The Leilao section records over 11 polarity zones corresponding to Cande-Kent95 time scale, including C3Br, C3Br.1n, C3Br.1r, C3Br.2n, C3Br.2r, C4n.1n, C4n.1r, C4n.2n, C4n.2r, C4n.3n and C4n.3r, attaching to Late Miocene. This section also consists of two layers of hominoid fossils: the lower layer (the 3rd layer in fig. 3) which records C4n.2r with the age of 8.20—8.10 Ma and the upper layer(the 19th layer in fig. 3) which records the middle portion of C3Br with the age of 7.15—7.1 Ma. So the age of hominoid fossils in the Leilao section is about 8.20—7.10 Ma. Sedimentary environments reflected in both sections are extremely similar, and the ages of hominoid fossils are of correspondency. The age of the lower and upper fossil layers is 8.20—8.10 Ma and 7.20—7.10 Ma respectively, which probably imply that hominoids living in Xiaohe and Leilao basins have uniform activity areas. There were hominoids activities all along during 8.00—7.00 MaBP in this field.
Bacteriological contamination of ground water from wastewater of Settat-city, Morocco Water can play the role of vector of potentially dangerous agents, in particular pathogenic micro-organisms. The shortage of the hydrous resources in semi-arid regions stresses this risk. The present study was carried out to estimate the impact of raw waste water on the microbiological quality of water of ten wells of the Commune of Mzamza in the North of the city of Settat and the physicochemical parameters which can facilitate the bacterial development. The obtained results confirm a microbiological contamination of studied subterranean water. Indeed, the number of the counted micro bodies (coliforms, streptococci and staphylococci) exceeds the values indicated by the Moroccan standards and the directives of the OMS. The enumeration of staphylococci shows that wells 2 and 7 are the most loaded with germs (respectively 8406 and 12920 germ / 300 ml). Water of the well 7 is the most contaminated by the various studied indicators. We find 5029 ± 1749 on coliforms fecal / 100ml, 6025±2225 fecal streptococcus there / 100ml, 1866±991 staphylococcus / 100ml. These results are justified by the low piezometric level of. The provenance of the contaminants of waste water is very likely. The excessive presence of organic matter (until 350 mg / l for the DCO and 45 mg / l for the Rev. Microbiol. Ind. San et Environn. Vol 4, N°1, p : 1-21 Hassoune et al., 2010 3 DBO) stresses the state of contamination.
The Tangtian manganese ore deposit lies in Gufeng formation of Permian system in Guichi area, Anhui province including sedimentary carbonatemanganese ore and the oxidized manganese ore. The geochemical characteristic is the high concentration of Mn, and the Ca?Mg?Si loss during oxidation. It is recognized that material source of the Mn ore layers and the Mnbearing stratigraphic units is both terrestrial and oceanic. They were deposited from deep water. Analysis of sedimentary features and geohistory reveals the maximum transgression of Qixia Period and mine district was then in deep shelfbasin sedimentary setting and the Mnbearing rock units were deposited.
The increased demand on efficiency when sealing tunnels by grouting has led to a need to seal narrow fractures. More conductive fractures are sealed by cement-based grouts, however the limitations in penetrability make these grouts less useful in low permeable rock. Colloidal silica is an inorganic grouting material that has the potential to penetrate narrow fractures. The grout consists of two components, a sol of colloidal silica and a salt solution, which are both considered harmless. The salt solution (NaCl) acts as an accelerator. The sol consists of colloidal particles of amorphous silicon dioxide that is uniform in size and shape and has a diameter of around 16 nm. The viscosity of the sol is initially very low but once the gelation starts, the viscosity grows rapidly. The geltime can range from a couple of minutes to an hour. Two large field-scale studies took place in the partly excavated tunnel in "Hallandsas" in the south of Sweden and were done in February 2003. The tunnel project has been delayed for over four years because of the environmental problems related to the use of Rhoca Gil (Acrylamid) in the autumn 1997. The rock type in "Hallandsas" is mainly highly weathered Precambrian gneiss with features of amphibolite slabs sub-parallel to the tunnel. In the rock mass where the field tests were carried out grouting with cement and Rhoca Gil has earlier been performed. The first field experiment included four series of boreholes. In each series hydraulic test were conducted and then grouted. A new series of boreholes were drilled and hydraulic tests performed and again grouted according to the method ''split-spacing''. The grouting pressures were low, around six bars above the groundwater pressure and the grouting duration was set to be 22 min. With this method it was possible to evaluate the gradual decrease in transmissivity. For field experiment two the strategy was to follow more conventional grouting with stop pressures of around 17-20 bars. First a set of boreholes were hydraulically tested and then grouted. In between the first series a new series of boreholes were drilled and hydraulically tested. The sealing efficiency could therefore be evaluated. The same boreholes were then drilled to a total length of 14.5 m to be in the rock mass not affected by cement grout. Hydraulic tests were again conducted and the evaluation can be interpreted as the conductivity of the ungrouted rock mass. A model was derived to predict the results from the field study with theories describing the penetration. The study indicates that colloidal silica can penetrate very narrow fractures and the ingress of flow is reduced in a cement grouted rock mass by at least a factor 10. The resulting conductivity of the rock mass can be as low as 10-9 m/s. Before grouting the conductivity of the rock mass was evaluated to be 10-6 m/s (Table 1). (A). "Reprinted with permission from Elsevier". For the covering abstract see ITRD E124500.
Sustainable energy production from geothermal reservoirs requires an exact knowledge of the hydrological aquifer rock properties as well as the processes that could potentially alter its productivity. The latter comprise both mechanical (e.g. fines migration) and chemical (fluid-rock interactions) effects. To perform controlled long-term investigations on the evolution of sedimentary rock transport properties at conditions pertinent to deep geothermal reservoirs two new permeameters have been set up at the GFZ-Potsdam.
One of the world's largest sinkholes (80 m long, 40 m wide and 200 m deep) developed in July 1986 as a result of potash mining 425-435 m below the land surface. The depth of the 3rd Bereznikovsky potash mine did not contribute to the collapse, and in fact, the sinkhole occurred in a location where the depth of the mine and the nature of the overburden were considered to be very favorable for mining. The nature and cause of the mine flooding and the collapse have been investigated and are elucidated. This case study is an example of how dangerous flooding can be in evaporite strata, even in deposits where geological conditions of mining appear to be very favorable. Key words: The Urals, potash mine, evaporites, collapse arch.
As an aid to better understanding fluid flow processes and potential source rocks for the Zambian Copper Belt, preliminary numerical fluid flow modelling has been undertaken, coupled to salinity and heat transfer. The computer code used for the modelling is from Yang and Large (2001), and has been previously used to successfully model fluid flow-salinity-heat transfer in the McArthur Basin related to Stratiform Zn-Pb-Ag ore genesis (Large, et al., 2002). A 43.5km x 17km theoretical geological section was constructed, based on our current understanding of the structure, stratigraphy and basin architecture in the ZCB. The geological model section incorporates elements of basement, footwall succession, Ore Shale, hangingwall lower Roan siltstones and carbonates, upper Roan siltstones, carbonates and a layer of salt, Mwashia and overlying Kundelungu shales. Porosity and permeability parameters have been assigned based on our understanding of the sedimentary facies, alteration zones, petrographic evidence and local to regional structures. The most permeable elements assigned in the model are; the Mindola Clastics in the immediate footwall to the Ore Shale; crosscutting breccias in the hangingwall (below salt layer) and fault zones. The least permeable elements assigned are the Ore Shale, hangingwall carbonates and siltstones, the Mwashia shales and the basement. A one km thick salt layer in the Upper Roan has been assigned a salinity of 30 wt% (the maximum allowable by the computer code). Other sedimentary units have been given lesser initial salinities depending on the interpreted sedimentary environment (evaporitic, marine or lacustrine). A normal geothermal gradient through the basin of 30°C per km has been assumed. The model has been designed to test fluid flow and temperature gradients associated with the downward flow and convective circulation of saline fluid, from the hanging wall evaporitic salt layer into the Lower Roan stratigraphy and basement. A number of scenarios have been tested by varying the permeability of certain basin elements and fault structures. The results indicate that the most likely scenario to account for the stratiform Cu deposits involves penetration of high salinity brines from the Upper Roan salt layer down into the basement along a series on normal master faults, with brine circulation and leaching of Cu from the basement terrain. The oxidised metalliferous fluids more upwards along second order faults and are channelled into the Mindola Clastics below the organic-bearing shale cap rocks where potassic alteration and Cu-mineralisation occurs.
The invention concerns a power-driven two-wheeler device, comprising: a body, a steering mechanism for the front wheel including a fork and a handlebar, an engine-transmission unit articulated on the body to drive the rear wheel, and a part forming a saddle support for a driver, the device being equipped with a loading trunk designed to increase the loading capacity while providing safe load transport. The invention is characterised in that the loading trunk consists of a container mounted on the body between the front wheel and the rear wheel and having a bulging shape, the trunk defining a load volume extending between the front wheel and the rear wheel and having a barycentre disposed in median position between the two wheels, in a low-slung position relative to the height of the rear wheel, the engine-transmission unit being arranged beneath the rear base of the trunk, the trunk comprising a loading opening and an opening hood mounted removable above the trunk, the site and size of the bulges of the trunk being dimensioned so as to provide two side recesses for the legs forming a protection in case of lateral impact.
The pumice of the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak is conspicuously banded. Light bands are dacite; dark bands are andesite. They represent two distinct magmas which were imperfectly mixed at the time of eruption; the portions of different composition were drawn out into bands by flowage. Similar, but less obvious and possibly less extreme, inhomogeneity exists in the lava flow of the same eruption. In both lava flow and pumice, the phenocrysts were out of equilibrium with the enclosing magma and were reacting with it. Numerous feldspar phenocrysts that originated in the dacite portion show clouding, which resulted from fritting of their outer parts, and a more calcic outer zone; however this appears to be related only in small part to the addition of the basic magma, represented by the dark streaks in the pumice. These feldspars probably are remnants of remelted granitic rocks of the underlying sialic basement admixed with basaltic magma rising from still greater depth. Phreatic explosions in 1914 probably resulted from distension of the Lassen dome by the rise of new magma.
Only a few vertebrate faunas are known for the Southern High Plains from the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. This review focuses on vertebrate local faunas from two major localities on opposite sides of the region but in the same drainage system that provide proxy data for paleoenvironmental reconstructions from ca. 11,600 to 8600 yr BP. Both localities are archaeological sites within deeply stratified, radiocarbon-dated deposits. Four distinct, successive vertebrate local faunas are known for Lubbock Lake covering the period 11,100 to 8600 yr BP. Two distinct, successive vertebrate local faunas come from Blackwater Draw Locality # 1 for the period 11,600 to 10,500 yr BP. All of the local faunas are disharmonious but the extent of disharmony and diversity varies. Faunal elements from the Northern Plains and Southeast are the most notable. The late Pleistocene local faunas indicate mild winters which did not maintain freezing conditions and cool summers with a more effective moisture regime, reduced annual temperature fluctuation, and less seasonality. The beginnings of a warming trend, greater seasonality, and increased annual temperature fluctuation denote the early Holocene. The latest local fauna marks the last of the pluvial-related ones and heralds the end of pluvial conditions beginning around 8500 yr BP. The successive local faunas illustrate the complexity of disharmony occurring in unglaciated regimes during deglaciation of North America.
Present knowledge of the location, quality, quantity and recoverability of sea floor minerals is severely limited, particularly in the abyssal depths and deep water within the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surrounding the U.S. Pacific Islands. To improve this understanding and permit exploitation of these mineral reserves much additional data is needed. Traditional video survey, core and grab sampling methods are difficult and expensive to conduct. This is especially true of the potentially valuable nodule and crustal manganese deposits for which conventional grab sampling methods are often ineffective. Non-intrusive nuclear methods have been developed and proven effective for rapid survey of the shallow outer continental shelf (OCS) regions. This technology can be adapted to survey and recover data in the deeper Pacific waters of interest. It has been conclusively shown that manganese nodules exhibit sufficient natural radioactivity from their intrinsic uranium daughter isotopes to be an effective method of location and quantification. It is hypothesized that similar results will be found in the crustal manganese deposits found on the margins of the Pacific Islands and seamounts. Unfortunately, the metal-sulfide deposits typical of those found near geothermal upwellings have little discernable natural radioactivity. Passive nuclear methods are, therefore, likely to be of little value in locating or quantifying these sulfide deposits. However, it is the manganese nodule beds in the deep Pacific basin, and perhaps to a lesser extent the crustal plate deposits surrounding some Pacific islands, that will prove to be of significant, economic value as recoverable minerals essential to worldwide industry. This paper will discuss a sponsored program for extending existing proven nuclear survey methods currently used on the shallow continental margins of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico into the deeper waters of the Pacific. This nuclear technology can be readily integrated and extended to depths of 2000 m using the existing RCV-150 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and the PISCESE V manned deep submersible vehicle (DSV) operated by The University of Hawaii's, Hawaii Underseas Research Laboratory (HURL). Previous papers by the authors have also proposed incorporating these nuclear analytical methods for survey of the deep ocean through the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Such a vehicle could extend the use of passive nuclear instrument operation, in addition to conventional analytical methods, into the abyssal depths and do so with speed and economy not otherwise possible. The natural radioactivity associated with manganese nodules and crustal deposits is sufficiently above normal background levels to allow discrimination and quantification in near real time.
The extraction of groundwater has increased rapidly over the past decades and forms one of the main causes of saline water intrusion into the coastal aquifers. Such the intrusion has been accelerated by the on-going rise of the sea level. Saline intrusion in groundwater in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta is highly complex as it depends heavily on different factors, including changes in water supplies (e.g. the magnitude of the annual upstream hydrograph during both the flood and dry seasons and timing distribution of the annual rainy season) and rising water demands (e.g. the amount of fresh groundwater extracted for different purposes like domestic, agriculture and aquaculture use). This article is to extent of saltwater intrusion of the Middle–Upper Pleistocene (qp2-3) in Ca Mau province. Based on samples analyzing data, 2 regression equations of each couple of the conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS) were formulated and displayed on graphs, these can be applied to calculate TDS from available conductivity values in any areas. Calculating all input data, a variogram was created, which indicates the spatial correlation between points. Then, Krigging interpolation was applied in map-making proccess. Finally the spatial distribution of fresh and saltwater and the extent of saltwater intrusion of the qp2-3 aquifer was delineated. Freshwater districts are located in the southern part of the Ca Mau province and Ca Mau City.
The invention relates to a vehicle blind arrangement (20), with a blind sheet (22) up in a pull-out direction (R), or can be unwound, a guide element (32) which extends along the extension direction (R) and in a fixed manner to the vehicle couplable guide rail (18) can be guided, and a belt member (36). The tape member (36) extends along the extension direction (R) and is arranged between the roller blind web (22) and the guide element (32) and a first longitudinal side (38) is integral with the roller blind (22) coupled to a second longitudinal side (40) fixedly coupled with the guide member (32). A module has a vehicle blind arrangement (20) and fixedly connected to the vehicle (10) can be coupled, along the extension direction (R) extending guide rail (18). The guide rail (18) has at least one guide portion (44, 44a, 44b), by means of which the guide element (32) is guided. The guide member (32) has a said at least one guide portion (44, 44a, 44b) facing surface. A portion (46a, 46b) of the band member (36) between the at least one guide portion (44, 44a, 44b) and the guide element (32) is on the 32 said at least one guide portion (44, 44a, 44b) facing surface of the guide element ( ) are arranged. A roof assembly has a roof opening (14), a roof opening frame (16) and an assembly (20).
The Iwate–Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake in 2008 (M7.2) occurred on June 14th 2008 in the northeastern Japan, Iwate Prefecture. We collected water and gas samples in hot springs from seven localities around the epicenter of the earthquake on June 21st and 22nd, one week after the earthquake, and measured the 3He/4He ratio and He and Ne concentrations of the dissolved gases. We found 10–85% increases in 3He/4He ratios in five hot springs, while we found 11-35% decrease in two others. The positive anomalies were interpreted as upwelling of aqueous fluid containing mantle 3He beneath the earthquake region. It is possible that ascending fluids triggered the earthquake.
Many models of incision by bedrock rivers predict water depth and shear stress from discharge; conversely, palaeoflood discharge is sometimes reconstructed from flow depth markers in rock gorges. In both cases, assumptions are made about flow resistance. The depth–discharge relation in a bedrock river must depend on at least two roughness length scales (exposed rock and sediment cover) and possibly a third (sidewalls). A conceptually attractive way to model the depth–discharge relation in such situations is to partition the total shear stress and friction factor, but it is not obvious how to quantify the friction factor for rough walls in a way that can be used in incision process models. We show that a single flow resistance calculation using a spatially averaged roughness length scale closely approximates the partitioning of stress between sediment and rock, and between bed and walls, in idealized scenarios. Both approaches give closer fits to the measured depth–discharge relations in two small bedrock reaches than can be achieved using a fixed value of Manning's n or the Chézy friction factor. Sidewalls that are substantially rougher or smoother than the bed have a significant effect on the partitioning of shear stress between bed and sidewalls. More research is needed on how best to estimate roughness length scales from observable or measurable channel characteristics. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We numerically simulate seismic wave propagation from the 1999 Mw7.4 Izmit, Turkey, earthquake, using a 3D finite difference method based on published finite source models obtained by waveform inversions. This earthquake has been reported, based on observations at the near-fault station SKR, as an example of super-shear rupture propagation towards the east. Although the modeled ground motion does show a characteristic Mach wave from the fault plane, it is difficult to identify any particular effects in terms of peak ground velocity, an important parameter in earthquake engineering. This is because the fault spatial heterogeneity is strong enough to mask the properties of super-shear rupture, which has been reported through several numerical simulations mostly based on homogeneous fault conditions. This study demonstrates the importance of studying ground motions for known earthquakes through numerical simulations based on finite-fault source models.
The present paper deals with the Molluscas fossils collected from the early Permian Gufeng formation in Guichi, Anhui Province. They consist of 16 species belonging to 3 classes ( Gastropoda, Lamellibranchiata, Cephalopoda), 1 of which is found to be of 1 new genus and 3 of which are found to be of 3 new species respectively. Associated with these Molluscas fossils are Brachipodas fossils sach as: Neoplicatifera huangi, Ur-ushtenia crenulata, Derbyia schellwieni etc. All this points to the fact that the lower part of Gufeng formation may be correlated with Dongwuji member of Dingjiashan formation of southwestern Zhejiang.It will be called the Altudoceras-Erinoceras-Paraceltites assemblage-zone.
Klemsdal, T. 1969. A Lista-Stage Moraine on Jaeren. Norsk geogr. Tidsskr. 23, 193-199. The terminal moraine of the Lista Stage has been traced to Jaeren with the help of marine charts. There, it forms the coastal ridge and Jaerens rev (Jaeren Reef), which supports a series of raised beaches. It can further be traced out to sea to a depth of 130 m until it is broken through at the mouth of Boknfjord. North of the fjord threshold, begins a new ridge which runs towards Karmoy and passes to the immediate west of the island. It is impossible to trace it further on the charts. Moraine has been identified only above the marine limit. Old borehole samples, however, indicate an inner composition of sand and gravel of doubtful origin. The date of the Lista Stage is thought to be about 14,500 to 14,000 years B. P.
THE INVENTION CONCERNS A BRUSH CONNECTION APPARATUS AND BAR WIPER. PART OF BLADE EQUIPMENT CONNECTION HAS A PAIR OF SLOTS AND TWO PARALLEL SPACED PINS 60, 62 SPACED LENGTHWISE ARRANGEMENTS ON bROOM. ONE OF THEM IS USED WITH END OF BAR WITH TWO LEGS PARALLEL WITH SPACED SLOT PIN DIRECTED TO THE FRONT AND THE OTHER WITH A BAR END HAVING TWO LEGS PARALLEL SPACED, SLOTS DIRECTED TOWARDS A PIN FRONT AND PARTIES GUIDE 48 SPACED BACKWARD.
A detailed study of the magnetic properties of some of the radiating dikes from the Spanish Peaks, Colorado, and from a pair of dikes from Shiprock, New Mexico, indicates that there is no correlation between the direction of stable remanent magnetization and dike orientation. Some dikes have a stable component of remanent magnetization; others do not. In general, magnetic stability is correlated with the presence of small grains observed microscopically. In most samples ilmenite lamellas are few or entirely lacking, indicating that high-temperature oxidation has been minimal. However, most samples have been affected to some degree by low-temperature oxidation resulting in the alteration of titanomagnetite to titanomaghemite. There is no relation between the presence of maghemite and the degree of magnetic stability. The dikes with higher magnetic stability were used to determine a pole position for the Eocene of North America. This position is 81°N, 149°W, and is close to other lower Tertiary pole positions.
The Shagou vein-type Ag-Pb-Zn deposit in the Xiong’ershan district, southern margin of the North China craton, is hosted within amphibolite facies metamorphic rocks of the Late Archean to early Paleoproterozoic Taihua Group. The Ag-Pb-Zn veins are localized in NE- to NNE-trending brittle faults and typically display symmetrical zoning consisting of siderite, quartz + sphalerite, galena, and quartz + calcite from the margin toward the center of each vein. Ore-related hydrothermal alteration is well developed on both sides of the veins, dominated by silicification, sericitization, chloritization, and carbonatization. Sericite separates extracted from a major Ag-Pb-Zn vein yield a 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau age of 140.0 ± 1.0 Ma (1 σ ) and isochron age of 141.1 ± 1.6 Ma (1 σ ), indicating that mineralization occurred at the beginning of Early Cretaceous. Field and textural relationships indicate four hydrothermal stages marked by assemblages of quartz + siderite (stage I), quartz + sphalerite + ankerite (stage II), quartz + galena + silver minerals + ankerite (stage III), and quartz + calcite (stage IV), respectively. Silver minerals are abundant in all veins and are composed of, in paragenetic order, argentiferous tetrahedrite, polybasite, jalpaite, argentite, and native silver. These silver minerals commonly occur as replacements of galena, chalcopyrite, and other sulfides, or as fillings of microfractures in sulfides and quartz. Microthermometric measurements of primary fluid inclusions in quartz, carbonates, and sphalerite from various hydrothermal stages indicate that ore minerals were deposited at intermediate temperatures (267°–157°C) from aqueous-carbonic to aqueous fluids with moderate salinities (7.2–15.9 wt % NaCl equiv). Coexisting galena-sphalerite pair yields sulfur isotope equilibrium temperatures of 205° to 267°C, consistent with the overall homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions. The microthermometric data also indicate that both fluid mixing and fluid-rock interaction were important mechanisms for ore precipitation. Carbonate minerals (siderite, ankerite, calcite) spanning the entire mineralization history have δ 13 C V-PDB values of −5.2 to −1.4‰ and δ 18 O V-SMOW of 10.9 to 15.0‰, corresponding to calculated values for the ore fluids of −6.5 to −1.8‰ and 1.4 to 5.4‰, respectively. δ 34 S V-CDT values of sulfide minerals (pyrite, sphalerite, galena) range from 1.1 to 5.5‰, consistent with a deep-seated sulfur source. Galena separates have 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios of 17.472 to 17.813, 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios of 15.411 to 15.498, and 208 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios of 38.178 to 38.506. The isotope data, together with geological and geochronological evidence, favor a primary metamorphic source for sulfur and other components in the ore fluids. A synthesis of available data suggests that the Shagou deposit is a typical vein-type Ag-Pb-Zn deposit that formed under an extensional geodynamic setting associated with tectonic reactivation of the North China craton during the late Mesozoic, a time period that is manifested by pervasive magmatism, widespread formation of metamorphic core complexes, and development of faulted basins throughout the eastern part of the craton. Metamorphic devolatilization of the Meso-Neoproterozoic marine sedimentary rocks previously subducted beneath the Xiong’ershan district, facilitated by extensive magmatism and elevated heat flow due to lithospheric extension, could have provided large amounts of ore fluids responsible for the Ag-Pb-Zn mineralization. The NE- to NNE-trending faults affiliated with the transcrustal Machaoying fault may have acted as pathways for the upward migration of deep-seated metamorphic fluids. Mixing of the metamorphically derived fluids with meteoric waters ultimately resulted in deposition of the Ag-Pb-Zn veins in brittle extensional structures.
Because the Isles Dernieres, a series of four barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana, have one of the most rapidly eroding shorelines in the world, geologists at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Louisiana Geological Survey have been monitoring erosion activity over the last several years, said Jeff Williams of the USGS in Reston, Va. Hurricane Andrew, which struck the state on August 26, caused severe erosional damage to these islands that has shortened their lifetimes.    Before Andrew struck, geologists projected that Raccoon Island would disappear below sea level by the year 2001 and that Whiskey Island would disappear by 2016. Now, due to the severe erosion from Hurricane Andrew, the scientists claim that the islands may disappear before the turn of the century, and the other islands in the Dernieres chain are expected to follow suit within 2 decades. Raccoon, Whiskey, Trinity, and East islands make up the Isles Dernieres, which existed as one island, known as the Isle Derniere, before an 1856 hurricane and subsequent erosion.
The objectives for secondary log data interpretation in reservoir developed zone were the foundations for detailed reservoir description and remaining oil distribution.Taking reservoir glutenite interpretation in Triassic Kexia Formation in middle zone of 5 3 as an example,the authors discussed the choices of several key parameters concerned with secondary log data interpretation,considered that more output data for the later production of the reservoir might be reliable for the recognition of reservoir and property analysis of the reservoir.
The invention relates to an embodiment of a machine oil well pump sand control and sand settling device; the machine oil well pump sand control and sand settling device comprises a release packer, a dual-pipe suspension assembly, a sand control pipe, a punching pipe and a sand settling pipe; one end of the dual-pipe suspension assembly is connected with the release packer, and the other end comprises an inner suspension joint and an outer suspension joint; one end of the sand control pipe is connected with the inner suspension joint, and the other end is connected with the sand settling pipe; the punching pipe is connected with the outer suspension joint; one end of the sand settling pipe is connected with the sand control pipe, and the other end is closed; the machine oil well pump sand control and sand settling device can prevent underground crude oil from directly entering the oil pump, and sand grains in the crude oil can be filtered and fall into the bottom of the device, thus providing sand control and sand settling effect.
The prestressed anchoring technology is applied extensively to the geotechnical projects. Due to the limitations of conventional prestressed anchorage cable, such as stress concentration on the head of anchor-root and distribution nonuniformity of shear stress, a new pressure-type anchor cable with precast anchor head is proposed. A number of numerical simulations based on FLAC3d are conducted to understand the technology systematically. The results show that the compressive stress concentrated on anchor-root is low; the superposition of axial compressive stress and shear stress in the grouting are not obvious; and the stress distribution is uniform. The new pressure-type anchor cable with precast anchor head can overcome the defects of conventional prestressed anchorage cable effectively and improve the reliability of cable significantly. The result can provide an alternative in selecting anchorage system in geotechnical projects.
This paper presents the numerical analysis results of the stability of highway subgrade above an elliptical karstic rock cavern.The factor of safety,development of the potential failure plane,which defined as the connection of the plastic zones and the shear strain rates,are used as the failure criteria.The thickness of the overburden material,shape,horizontal distance of the embankment toe to the cavern on the stability of the highway subgrade above the elliptical karst rock cavern are investigated.The results indicate that the settlement shape of the subgrade is a cone type and the magnitude of the settlement is reduced with the increase of the overburden material.The factor of safety will also increase and tends to stable.The failure patterns of the subgrade above the cavern are:tensile failure of the overburden rock and shear failure of the embankment above.For ellipsoid karstic rock cavern,the roof thickness was less than that for horizontal cavern roof.
A low-diversity brachiopod assemblage from the upper member of the Zorritas Formation in the Sierra de Almeida, northern Chile, further confirms the presence of Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian) strata in that region. Key taxa include Schuchertella? sp., Chilenochonetes anna new genus and species, Paurorhyncha chavelensis (Amos), and Septosyringothyris covacevichi new species. Other elements of the assemblage, including Paraconularia sp., Posidoniella sp., Bellerophon (Bellerophon) sp., Eocanites sernageominus, and Imitoceras? sp. support this Early Carboniferous age assignment. Local distribution of taxa suggests small-scale environmental control. Rhynchonelloid and syringothyroid shells, many articulated, occur in lenticular sandstone bodies that were deposited in deltaic distributary channels; chonetids, schuchertellids and mollusc-bearing, iron-rich concretions are found in siltstones and mudstones that reflect interdistributary quiet-water settings and possibly a delta-front setting. Certain elements of this fauna are also present in northwestern Argentina and Peru, indicating a regional nearshore clastic regime. The closest correlation elsewhere is with the Tournaisian faunas of southeastern Australia, although analogous big-shell assemblages are found in lower Mississippian clastic strata of the central Appalachians, Ohio, and Indiana.
ABSTRACT Although deeply buried (18,000 -> 20,000 feet) eolian and reworked marine Norphlet arkose and subarkose in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida have been intensely studied by several workers, fundamental questions remain regarding diagenetic controls on reservoir quality and the origin of porosity. In spite of a regionally uniform framework composition of quartz, albite, and potassium feldspar, the diagenetic character of the unit is variable on a scale ranging from individual laminations to single hydrocarbon-producing fields to areas encompassing several fields or offshore blocks. The presence or absence of clay minerals in various forms clearly is a dominant control on porosity-permeability trends. In deep reservoirs in Mobile Bay and offshore Alabama and Florida petrographic evidence for dissolution of pervasive authigenic carbonate and/or evaporite minerals to produce high secondary porosity values is equivocal or absent. Although evidence exists for some secondary porosity, much porosity appears to be relict primary porosity. On a regional scale, including both onshore and offshore areas, sandstones with radial, authigenic chlorite coats consistently have high porosity and permeability. In Mobile Bay and offshore Alabama, the distribution of this form of chlorite may be controlled by the presence of precursor clay/iron-oxide grain coats. The occurrence of these coats likely is related to environment of deposition. For example, reworked marine sands, which constitute much of the "tight zone" in the upper Norphlet in Mobile Bay and offshore Alabama, were deposited in an environment hostile to formation or preservation of syndepositional grain coats, as also may have been the case in some subenvironments of the eolian system. Although chlorite is the dominant authigenic clay mineral in offshore areas, illite is dominant in onshore areas. Sandstones with authigenic illite fibers and flakes typically have permeability values lower, by an order of magnitude or more, than those with authigenic chlorite. In general, chlorite is dominant in eastern areas of Norphlet exploration and production and illite is dominant in western areas. It is unlikely that provenance variations are of sufficient magnitude to account for the distribution of the two clay minerals, particularly since illite or chlorite may dominate in different wells within the same onshore field. Variations in types of authigenic carbonate minerals and in degree and type of feldspar alteration suggest that differences in fluid composition and fluid-flow paths relative to sub-basins, structural highs, salt structures, fault systems, and depositional texture are important. The occurrence of authigenic magnesium-rich chlorite, zeolites, and an unusual ferroan magnesite cement indicates that fluids associated with evaporites and variations in the composition of evaporites or residual fluids may be responsible for variation in diagenetic character of the Norphlet. Evaporites associated with these fluids include the underlying Louann salt and evaporite systems within the Norphlet.
The invention provides a new liner part of knee-joint prosthesis to solve the reduced service life of knee-joint prosthesis due to inappropriate position of rotation axis of existing liner part of knee-joint prosthesis in the prior art. When the knee-joint prosthesis performs physiological bend, the liner part rotates on the tibia part platform of the knee-joint prosthesis, the projection of the liner part on the plane of the tibia part platform is circumscribed by a smallest rectangle, two straight lines as the perpendicular bisectors on the long side and short side of the smallest rectangledivide the smallest rectangle into four zones, the projection of the rotation axis around which the liner part rotates on the plane is located in one of the four zones at the inner side of the back position of the knee-joint. The invention is applicable knee-joint prosthesis with a movable platform.
The heat conduction around a vertical borehole is analyzed and discussed. By means of a virtual heat source and the theory of linear superposition, an analytical solution of the steady state temperature distribution in a semi infinite medium with a line source of finite length is obtained, which is a more appropriate model for boreholes in geothermal heat exchangers. Its temperature field has been drawn up. Meanwhile, a mistake on this solution that appears in some handbooks and textbooks is indicated. Two representative borehole wall temperatures, the temperature at the middle of the borehole and the integral mean temperature along the borehole, are defined. Differences between them are compared, and concise expressions for both of them are presented for engineering applications. On this basis the influence of the annual imbalance between heating and cooling loads of the geothermal heat exchangers is discussed on their long term performance.
Scenic red color-banded claystones of the Clarno and Painted Hills areas of central Oregon are successions of fossil soils that preserve a record of Eocene-Oligocene paleoclimatic change. Conglomerates of the middle Eocene Clarno Formation near Clarno contain largely weakly developed paleosols compatible with an environment of volcanic lahars around a large stratovolcano. Deeply weathered paleosols (Ultisols) around a volcanic dome and overlying these conglomerates indicate a climate that was subtropical (mean annual temperature or MAT 23-25° C) and humid (mean annual precipitation or MAP of 900-2,000 mm). Comparable paleoclimates are indicated by fossil floras from the conglomerates, which show diversity and adaptive features similar to modern vegetation of Volcan San Martin, Mexico. An erosional disconformity in the Clarno area separates these older beds from less deeply weathered red paleosols (Alfisols) in the middle Eocene upper Clarno Formation. The change in paleosols may represent a decline in both temperature (MAT 19-23° C) and rainfall (MAP 900-1,350 mm), with dry seasons. Strongly developed lateritic paleosols (Oxisols and Ultisols) in the uppermost Clarno and lowermost John Day Formations in the Painted Hills record return to more humid conditions during the late Eocene. These paleosols are similar to soils of southern Mexico and Central America in climates that are subtropical (MAT 23-25° C) and humid (MAP 900-2,000 mm). Kaolinitic and iron-rich, red paleosols (Ultisols) of the lower Big Basin Member of the John Day Formation near Clarno and the Painted Hills are erosionally truncated and abruptly overlain by smectitic and tuffaceous paleosols (Inceptisols and Alfisols) of the middle Big Basin Member. This truncation surface can be correlated with the local Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Paleosols of the middle Big Basin Member are most like those of the Central Transmexican Volcanic Belt and indicate an early Oligocene paleoclimate appreciably cooler (MAT 16-18° C) and drier (MAP 600-1,200 mm) than during the late Eocene. Root traces and clay accumulations in the paleosols indicate forest vegetation, also evident from fossil leaves of the lake-margin Bridge Creek flora. The mid-Oligocene upper Big Basin Member of the John Day Formation includes distinctive brown as well as red paleosols (Alfisols). Its paleosols indicate a paleoclimate drier (MAP 500-700 mm) than before, and more grasses in the forest understory. Another erosional truncation marks the base of the late Oligocene (early Arikareean), olive-brown lower Turtle Cove Member of the John Day Formation. Calcareous paleosols with near-granular soil structure (Inceptisols and Aridisols) indicate an even drier (MAP 400-600 mm) climate, more open grassy woodland vegetation than previously, and local wooded grassland of seasonally wet bottomlands. The Clarno-John Day sequence preserves a long-term paleoclimatic record that complements the geological record of global change from deep sea cores and fossil plants. Similarly, it reveals stepwise climatic cooling and drying, with a particularly dramatic climatic deterioration at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary.
In an intriguing paper, Schultz et al. (2006, hereafter S06) have reviewed observations of mammatus clouds in the scientific literature and offered some candidate mechanisms for the formation of mammatus. This reasonably comprehensive review is both interesting and stimulating. I concur with the authors that although mammatus cloud formations have little or no direct societal impact, they are a fascinating enigma, certainly worthy of careful scientific scrutiny. One candidate mechanism they did not mention, however, is what is known in oceanography as “doublediffusive convection” (Turner 1973, p. 251 ff.). Its most well-known application is to the thermohaline flows known as “salt fingers.” The physical mechanism is that the fluid has two constituents that contribute in opposing ways to buoyancy; increased salinity makes the water more dense, whereas temperature increases make the water less dense. When warm, salty water overlies cold freshwater, the resulting density distribution is nearly neutral and stable to perturbations according to static stability theory, because the two constituents contribute oppositely to buoyancy. However, the rates of diffusion of the two constituents are very different— heat diffuses much more rapidly that salinity, so if a parcel of warm, salty water is perturbed downward, its heat content diffuses more rapidly than the salt. This ultimately causes a negative buoyancy in the descending finger; that is, the perturbation is unstable. The opposite happens in a parcel of cool freshwater perturbed upward. The resulting ascending and descending parcels eventually mix the layers at the interface. Of interest to the observations presented in S06 is that the stratification produced by the action of salt fingers comes to produce a layered, steplike profile of the constituents (Turner 1973, 270–273; Gregg 1973). The detailed view of stepped temperature profiles (producing very shallow superadiabatic lapse rates in the temperature profiles) in Fig. 10 of S06 could be considered compatible with the oceanographic observations. Turner (1973, p. 270) is careful to point out that layering need not be the result of double-diffusive convection, but this observation is at least consistent with the hypothesis of the presence of double-diffusive convection. How might this process be associated with mammatus clouds? The presence of particulates that are heavier than air in a “colloidal” solution would play a role comparable to that of salinity—acting to increase the overall density of the air-particulate mixture. Those particulates could be condensed water or volcanic ash particles. If the anvil (or ash) cloud is relatively warm compared to the air below, then the situation would be analogous to that in oceanic thermohaline flows that produce salt fingering. As is the case for thermohaline flows, the diffusion rate of heat would certainly be considerably more rapid than that of the particulates. In fact, particulates such as ash particles should be diffused quite slowly. I will return to this shortly. For the moment, consider the particulates to be water droplets or ice particles. In the atmosphere, within a descending “finger” initiated by the negative buoyancy produced as a result of double-diffusive convection, the particles would descend with the air, which would be warming as a result of compressional heating, even as their relative warmth as a result of originating in the warm anvil diffuses into the surroundings. If the particles begin to evaporate (or sublimate) as a result, they would contribute their latent heat and the initially unstable descent owing to negative buoyancy would be correspondingly diminished. By the level where all the particles have evaporated, the air would then move verCorresponding author address: Dr. Charles A. Doswell III, Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, 120 David L. Boren Blvd., Suite 2100, Norman, OK 73072-7304. E-mail: cdoswell@gcn.ou.edu MARCH 2008 N O T E S A N D C O R R E S P O N D E N C E 1093
PURPOSE: To provide an air damper that keeps a cylinder less susceptible to dust intrusion. CONSTITUTION: The air damper comprises a tubular cylinder 1, a piston 2 movable in a sealing state in the cylinder, and a piston rod 3 connected to the piston and movable into and out of an opening 1a at one end of the cylinder, and controls the movement of a moving body movable relative to a support structure with either of the cylinder and piston rod fixed to the support structure. The piston rod is molded to a sectional form having a peripheral wall 3b with a part opened at 3a and the rest in a continuous form. The opening of the piston rod is situated in a region ranging from a vertically downward position to a horizontal position, and at least the part of opening of the piston rod is oriented in a direction to keep it less susceptible to dust intrusion, so that a possibility is precluded for conventionally seen easy dust intrusion into the cylinder via the piston rod during operation.
Taking into account the fossil mammal material recently discovered at Cava di Breccia (sands outcropping at Ponte Galeria, Rome), the revised fossils from the area and the updated stratigraphical settings of the Ponte Galeria Formation (Rome), the Authors discuss the biochronology of the Middle Galerian faunal assemblages with a new definition of its Faunal Units. 1) The mammal fauna of Isernia in our opinion is strongly conditioned by palaeoenvironmental factors and by human influence. The occurrence at Isernia La Pineta of the rodent Arvicola cantiana, which was widespread in Western Europe from 0.6 MA, does not match with the biochronology of the fauna and with the absolute dating (0.736 MA). A new radiometric dating will be useful to determine the age of the Isernia La Pineta local fauna, which can be considered younger than 0.736 MA on the basis of its faunal assemblage.  2) The age of the faunal assemblage of Ponte Galeria is between 0.8 and 0.75 MA, approximately in correspondence with the Brunhes-Matuyama paleomagnetic reversal event. The first occurrence of Bos galerianus and Megaloceros savini testifies a faunal renewal in comparison with the faunal assemblage of Slivia. The megacerine cervids from Ponte Galeria are more primitive than those from Isernia La Pineta and Venosa-Notarchirico. The Ponte Galeria local fauna has to be considered as a distinct Faunal Unit, younger than Slivia F.U. and older than the Isernia La Pineta fauna. SHORT NOTE
The Bahía Blanca estuary (Argentina) has a morphological configuration resulting from hydrological and sedimentary processes related to Late Quaternary sea level changes. This estuarine system occupies a large coastal plain with a dense net of tidal channels, low-altitude islands and large intertidal flats. Little is known about the sedimentary units of the marine subbottom. Therefore, a stratigraphical analysis of the northern coast of Bahía Blanca estuary was carried out using high resolution seismic (3.5 kHz) in order to: i) define Quaternary sequences, ii) describe sedimentary structures, and iii) determine the paleoenvironmental conditions of sedimentation. The seismic stratigraphic data collected and their correlation with drilling lithological data show five seismic sequences (S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5), of which S1-S2 were found to be associated with a continental paleoenvironment of Miocene-Pleistocene age. Sequences S3 and S4, whose lithology and seismic facies (paleochannel structures and prograding reflection configurations), were defined on these materials, to evidence the development of an ancient deltaic environment which was part of a large Pleistocene drainage system. The S5 sequence was formed during the Holocene transgressive-regressive process and complete the seismostratigraphic column defined in the present study.
Estimates of shear resistance associated with lithospheric thrusting and convergence represent lower bounds on the force necessary to promote trench formation. Three environments proposed as preferential sites of incipient subduction are investigated: passive continental margins, transform faults/fracture zones, and extinct ridges. None of these are predicted to convert into subduction zones simply by the accumulation of local gravitational stresses. Subduction cannot initiate through the foundering of dense oceanic lithosphere immediately adjacent to passive continental margins. The attempted subduction of buoyant material at a mature trench can result in large compressional forces in both subducting and overriding plates. This is the only tectonic force sufficient to trigger the nucleation of a new subduction zone. The ubiquitous distribution of transform faults and fracture zones, combined with the common proximity of these features to mature subduction complexes, suggests that they may represent the most likely sites of trench formation if they are even marginally weaker than normal oceanic lithosphere.
The invention relates to a dirty collar (1) to prevent a dirt entry in a slave cylinder (2), wherein the dirt collar (1) is adapted to radially at least in sections and axially at least partially to surround a slave cylinder (2), wherein the dirt collar (1) a recess (3), wherein the dirt collar (1) has a collar edge (4) which extends along the recess (3), on the collar edge (4) tzdichtelement a protective against a dirt entry elastic Zusa (5) is mounted wherein the invention further comprises a slave cylinder (2) with a dirty collar (1), wherein the dirt collar (1) bears sealingly against a portion of the slave cylinder (2). The invention also relates to a system with a slave cylinder (2), with a clutch bell (6) and with a dirty collar (1) to prevent a dirt entry into the slave cylinder (2), wherein the dirt collar (1) the slave cylinder (2) radially, at least sections, and axially at least partially surrounds the dirt collar (1) has a recess (3) and the dirt collar (1) has a collar edge (4) which extends along the recess (3), wherein further on the collar edge (4) a protective against a dirt entry elastic additional sealing element (5) is mounted, the dirt collar (1) bears sealingly on the slave cylinder (2) and the clutch bell (6).
The article presents the results of the expeditionary investigations carried out from the “50 Let Pobedy” nuclear icebreaker to research the present physiographic conditions of the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean and estimations of the main features that may reflect the global climatic variability of the seas and oceans of the Arctic. The observations of the ice lanes, hummocks, puddles, icebergs, the thickness and closeness of ice allowed us to make a real picture of the ice cover in the second half of August 2017. The zonal distribution of drifting ice, air temperature, temperature and salinity of seawater is shown. The results of observations and conclusions presented in the article reflect the simultaneous situation of the most western part of the Central Arctic adjacent to the Norwegian-Greenland basin. The analysis of new data of the structure and distribution of sea ice and icebergs gives a reason to present a number of general conclusions about the variability of ice thickness and closeness, relative age, the ratio of the area covered with ice and pure water. Recommendations about the development of new satellite systems for a reliable assessment of the seasonal and inter-annual dynamics of the area and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean are presented.
The ionospheric scintillation effects on GEO SAR imaging was analyzed.Firstly,according to the characteristics of the GEO SAR system,corresponding simulations were carried out to illustrate the particular effects of the ionosphere on the GEO SAR.Then,based on the multiple phase screen theory,the effect of random phase fluctuation phenomena caused by the ionosphere scintillation was simulated and analyzed on the quality of GEO SAR imaging.At last,the optimal accumulation time of the GEO SAR processing was presented under the condition of the ionospheric scintillation through Monte Carlo methods.Simulation results show that GEO SAR imaging become deteriorated and even defocused when the scintillation is severe and the synthetic aperture time is much longer.
Six new radiocarbon dates have been obtained on shell and charcoal from the Mount Camel or Houbora Archaic site (N6/4). No new excavations were involved. Four samples were extracted from latex pulls of the stratigraphy, and the other two from charcoal samples bagged during excavation in 1965-1966. The charcoal samples are on identified short life-span material. The results are considered in relation to earlier radiocarbon dates and stratigraphy. It is concluded that occupation probably began in the thirteenth century A.O. and was short-lived. At an indeterminate later period there was disturbance of the upper level of deposit, possibly by horticulture.
The author considers problems of environmental protection of the Black Sea and Azov Sea which are related with de-velopment of sea floor mineral resources. The geological substratum is of primary importance at the assessment of marine aquatory ecological state as it is an accumulator of all pollutants coming from the atmosphere, water mass, river systems due to both human and natural geological processes. The concept notions of geoecological control are substantiated, and some hierarchy of investigations is suggested that is based on mapping the bottom natural territorial complexes. It is demonstrated that a number of ecological problems related to methods, information reliability, providing the recommendations and forecast evaluations should be solved only through use of manned submarine vehicles.
Information and data are provided on geological and geophysical exploration, leasing, development, production, and revenue for the US outer continental shelf. Related maps of Alaska, the Atlantic seacoast, Gulf of Mexico, Texas coast, Louisiana coastal area, and the Pacific coast are provided. Statistics by years (mostly 1953 to 1978) are included for oil and condensate, oil, gas, natural gasoline, and LPG, salt, sulfur, oil and gas lost. Production, value, and royalty, by years and products are given for 1978 for California, Louisiana, and Texas. A summary of bonuses, minimum royalties, rentals, shut-in gas payments, and totals by years, states, and products is given. Data on the 10 regions and total offshore and US production of oil and condensate and gas conclude the tabulations. (MCW)
In the period ±4 days from Jovian pericenter, Pioneer 10 returned data from 153 imaging sequences. Data were obtained with the imaging photopolarimeter, a 2.54 cm diameter and 8.6 cm focal length steerable telescope configured as a narrow beam (0.5 mrad) photometer in a spin scan mode of operation. Images were obtained in two spectral bands (390–500 nm and 595–720 nm), and seven of the most interesting pictures are shown and discussed.
The Huogeqi copper-lead-zinc polymetallic deposit in Inner Mongolia is located in the western part of the Middle-Late Proterozoic Langshan rift trough situated on the northern border of North China Platform. Previous studies suggest that the Huogeqi deposit is a sedimentary exhalative deposit and that the main metallogenic epoch was the Middle-Late Proterozoic, with metallogenic superimposition or transformation in later period. There is a lack of necessary chronological evidence of ore sulfides, required to support mineralization events later. This work conducted Rb-Sr dating of sulfides to constrain the metallogenic epoch of this deposit, which provides good chronological evidence for the comprehensive study of copper-lead-zinc-iron mineralization in this area.
End_Page 767------------------------------Concentration levels of the elements in a suspended load, when compared to average reported values for shales, show iron and manganese to be low. The other elements are higher. Values for these elements in the dissolved part are variable, possibly reflecting lithologic differences. Correlation coefficients indicate little relation between trace element content and season in most Kansas streams. X-ray diffraction study of the mineralogic content of the suspended load indicated that montmorillonite was the clay mineral present in all cases. Other minerals present in almost all samples were calcite and quartz. Gypsum, dolomite, feldspar, illite, and kaolinite were present in lesser amounts in some samples. Some question of the source of specific trace elements in these stream waters exis s. For nickel and lead, however, pollution is considered the most likely source. Some evidence is present to suggest that the major source of lead is fallout from the atmosphere. The data for partition coefficients suggest that nickel, lead, copper, and zinc are being strongly adsorbed onto the suspended load. The data are less certain for iron and manganese. The iron and manganese levels in the suspended loads of all streams are not unusual. Copper, nickel, lead, and zinc clearly are being concentrated by the suspended load. One source of copper and zinc may be from trace-element nutrient fertilizers. End_of_Article - Last_Page 768------------
The primary bounding fault on the northwest side of the Rome Trough, created during the Grenvillian orogeny is of significant interest for hydrocarbon exploration. Great potential exists for significant production in varied geologic settings associated with both active and passive basin margin configurations through the Paleozoic system. Significant drilling activity has not been accomplished to the extent necessary to test this complex deformational/depositional boundary. Targets listed to be correlated with seismic are: Rome/ Basal sand pinchouts, Cambrian delta front sequences, Cambrian shoaling, lower Ordovician unconformity traps, St. Peter sandstone, Ordovician mineralized fault zones, fractured Ordovician shales, upper Ordovician /lower Silurian distal turbidite sands, Silurian sand bars, Silurian McKenzie reefing, Silurian Newburg sand bars, Devonian Oriskany shoreline facies, Devonian Onondaga reefing, Devonian/Silurian unconformity surface, Devonian shale fracturing, Mississippian channels/bars/shoals development, Pennsylvanian Salt Sand deposition, and Pennsylvanian coal pinchouts. Posters of seismic will be presented to illustrate the postulated presence of these various phenomena showing the fault configuration in Jackson County, WV and Boyd County, KY.
We present the results of a detailed shear wave splitting analysis of data collected by three temporary broadband deployments located in central western South America: the Broadband Andean Joint experiment (BANJO), a 1000-km-long east-west line at 20°S, and the Projecto de Investigacion Sismologica de la Cordillera Occidental (PISCO) and Seismic Exploration of the Deep Altiplano (SEDA), deployed several hunderd kilometers north and south of this line. We determined the splitting parameters Φ (fast polarization direction) and δt (splitting delay time) for waves that sample the above- and below-slab regions: teleseismic * KS and S, ScS waves from local deep-focus events, as well as S waves from intermediate-focus events that sample only the above-slab region. All but one of the * KS stacks for the BANJO stations show E-W fast directions with δt varying between 0.4 and 1.5 S. However, for * KS recorded at most of the SEDA and PISCO stations, and for local deep-focus S events north and south of BANJO, there is a rotation of Φ to a more nearly trench parallel direction. The splitting parameters for above-slab paths, determined from events around 200 km deep to western stations, yield small delay times (≤0.3 s) and N-S fast polarization directions. Assuming the anisotropy is limited to the top 400 km of the mantle (olivine stability field), these data suggest the following spatial distribution of anisotropy. For the above-slab component, as one goes from east (where * KS reflects the above-slab component) to west, Φ changes from E-W to N-S, and delay times are substantially reduced. This change may mark the transition from the Brazilian craton to actively deforming (E-W shortening) Andean mantle. We see no evidence for the strain field expected for either corner flow or shear in the mantle wedge associated with relative plate motion. The small delay times for above-slab paths in the west require the existence of significant, spatially varying below-slab anisotropy to explain the * KS results. The implied anisotropic pattern below the slab is not easily explained by a simple model of slab-entrained shear flow beneath the plate. Instead, flow induced by the retrograde motion of the slab, in combination with local structural variations, may provide a better explanation.
Localized temporal changes in the magnetic field and coincident ground deformation are often observed at volcanoes that have fumarolic activities (Mt. Tokachidake, Mt. Meakandake, Mt. Tarumae, Kuchinoerabujima volcano, etc.). This study focuses on two mechanisms that may bring about some changes in hydrothermal system during inter-eruptive stages: (1) permeability reduction at the shallow part of the conduit, and (2) fluctuation of hydrothermal fluid flux from a deeper part. Numerical calculation serves as a platform for systematic investigation of the surface responses to these mechanisms. We classify the pattern of temperature and pore pressure changes as well as the resulting magnetic total field, fumarolic heat discharge, and possible ground deformation that are associated with the conduit constriction and/or fluctuating flux of hydrothermal fluid by means of hydrothermal numerical simulation. We used the numerical code “STAR” with the equation-of-state “BRNGAS” (Pritchett, 1995). It enabled us to calculate the heat and mass flow rate of H2O (vapor, liquid and two-phase) and Air in porous media over a temperature range 0–350 oC. The calculation region was set as axisymmetric 2D to represent a simplified conical edifice. The edifice (host rock) had a uniform porosity and permeability. Temperature and pressure were maintained constant at the ground surface and on the vertical boundary of the downstream side. Thermally insulating and hydraulically impermeable conditions were imposed at the bottom boundary. Meteoric recharge was injected at the land surface at a constant rate and a constant heat flow was supplied at the base of the model. The high-permeability conduit was introduced at the axis of symmetry, hydrothermal fluid is injected at the bottom of the conduit to reproduce fumarolic heat discharge of about 100 MW, after reaching a quasi-steady condition. Thereafter, an abrupt reduction of permeability at a particular depth (PCB) in the conduit (conduit obstruction) and/or an increase in the flux of hydrothermal fluid at the bottom of conduit (increase in hydrothermal-fluid-flux) were imposed, and the system response is observed. Conduit obstruction caused reduction in temperature and pore pressure above PCB, and increase in temperature and pore pressure below PCB. Meanwhile, increase in hydrothermal-fluid-flux induced heat accumulation and pore pressure increase around the conduit. When conduit obstruction and increase in hydrothermal-fluid-flux are introduced at the same time, whether temperature and pore pressure above PCB increase was influenced by the balance between the amount of permeability reduction of PCB and the amount of increase in flux of hydrothermal fluid. However, when the permeability of PCB after reduction was smaller than the permeability of host rock, temperature and pore pressure decrease above PCB regardless of the amount of increase in hydrothermal-fluid-flux. In the presentation, we will discuss the change in total magnetic field, ground deformation, and fumarolic heat discharge by using these changes in temperature and pore pressure. In addition, we will try to investigate the influence of parameters such as host-rock-permeability, depth of PCB, the construction of permeability and porosity in the edifice.
Dust Cave (1Lu496) is a habitation site in a karstic vestibule in the middle Tennessee River Valley of Northern Alabama. The cave, periodically occupied over 7,000 years, contains well-preserved bone and botanical materials and exhibits microstratigraphy and intact occupation surfaces. The chronostratigraphic framework for Dust Cave is based on 43 14C dates, temporally diagnostic artifacts, and detailed geoarchaeological analysis. In a broad sense, five cultural components are defined and designated: Quad/Beaver Lake/Dalton (10,650–9200 cal B.C.), Early Side-Notched (10,000–9000 cal B.C.), Kirk Stemmed (8200–5800 cal B.C.), Eva/Morrow Mountain (6400 to 4000 cal B.C.), and Benton (4500–3600 cal B.C.). Microstratigraphic and artifact analyses indicate that the primary differences in the deposits over time relate to intensity of activity and spatial organization with regard to changing conditions in the cave, not to the types of activities. Geomorphic transformations influenced the timing of occupation at Dust Cave, especially the initial occupation. The chronostratigraphy provides a framework for assessing the stratigraphic separation of Dalton and Early Side-Notched materials, the shift in technology from blades to bifacial tools, and the context of detailed flora and fauna evidence. These remains provide unique insights into forager adaptations in the Midsouth from the end of the Pleistocene through the first half of the Holocene.
Summary The conventional approach for seismic to well tying has proven to be of high efficiency in most cases when the bas ic ingredients, as documented by White (1998), are met: high quality seismic data and well logs, and near-vertical wells. Structural complexity can considerably affect the result of the seismic to well calibration process. Highly dipping strata, highly deviated wells, rapid lateral velocity variations, or anisotropy lie in many cases behind a poor seismic to well tie. In this paper, we study the various parameters that stand in the way of a good tie in complex media. In a first stage, we used a highly realistic modellingimaging ch ain to better understand “where, how and why” the synthetics computed from the well differ from the seismic data. Starting from the simplest case and complexifying the structural model in various ways, we analyse where and when the traditional approach fails. Conclusions will be drawn from this study and various examples wil l be presented.
Abstract The zero load readings of cone resistance (qc) and sleeve friction (fs) measured by a piezocone (uCPT) shift with the ambient temperature. A method of correcting the effect of temperature on uCPT measurements in seabed sediments has been proposed for the case where there is no temperature sensor in the uCPT probe. This method is based on the assumption that the “actual” profile of fs of soft shallow seabed sediments linearly increases with depth, and a rate of increase of α = 0.2 kPa/m was obtained using measured ground temperatures and fs values in seabed sediments in Isahaya Bay, Japan. An “actual” fs profile can then be constructed using the measured fs value at the shallow surface and the value of α. Using the differences between the measured and the estimated “actual” fs profiles, the ground temperature profile can be obtained, and then the effect of temperature on the uCPT measurements can be corrected. The proposed method was used for temperature corrections on uCPT measurements in Isahaya Bay, Japan. The values of undrained shear strength (su) from the temperature-corrected uCPT measurements agree well with the laboratory measured values of su using the undisturbed soil samples.
me naming of minerals that contain water easily lost through simple dehydration continues to plague mineralogists and collectors. Examples of such alteration abound for specimens that change once they are removed from their natural environment; some are easily distinguished visually from their less-hydrated derivatives, whereas others are almost impossible to confidently identify without detailed chemical analysis and sometimes X-ray diffraction analysis. An unusual number of variably hydrated uranium minerals fall into the latter category, many of which are attractive and of considerable interest to collectors. For example, the problems related to uranocircite versus metauranocircite and torbernite versus metatorbernite (and the metatorbernite group in general) have been discussed previously in this column (Cook 1994; 1998). Another hydration/dehydration-linked pair of minerals, autunite and meta-autunite, are commonly available in good to excellent specimens and have been suggested for discussion as a Connoisseur's Choice. Consequently, autunite, commonly perceived as the dominant and most widespread species, has been selected on the basis of its outstanding classic occurrence at the Daybreak mine near Elk, Washington. Autunite is characterized by color that varies from bright greenish-yellow through lemon and sulfur-yellow; some varieties are distinctly green and may vary to greenish-black. Autunite from some localities is so intensely fluorescent that it possesses an enhanced luminescence in indirect sunlight similar to that exhibited by "day-glo" paints. It displays an overall vitreous luster that is pearly on {00l}. It has perfect cleavage on {01O} and an indistinct cleavage on {01O}.
The timing of India-Asia collision is critical to the understanding of crustal deformation processes, since, for example, it impacts on calculations regarding the amount of convergence that needs to be accommodated by various mechanisms. In this research we use sediments originally deposited in the Tethyan ocean basin and now preserved in the Himalayan orogeny to constrain the timing of collision. In the NW Himalaya, a number of workers have proposed a ca 55-50 Ma age for collision along the Indus suture zone which separates India from the Kohistan-Ladakh Intraoceanic Island arc (KLA) to the north. This is based on a number of factors including the age of youngest marine sediments in the Indus suture (e.g. Green et al. 2008), age of eclogites indicative of onset of Indian continental subduction (e.g. de Sigoyer et al. 2000), and first evidence of detritus from north of the suture zone deposited on the Indian plate (e.g. Clift et al. 2002). Such evidence can be interpreted as documenting the age of India-Asia collision if one takes the KLA to have collided with the Asian plate prior to its collision with India (e.g. Petterson 2010 and refs therein). However, an increasing number of workers propose that the KLA collided with Asia subsequent to its earlier collision with India, dated variously at 85 Ma (Chatterjee et al. 2013), 61 Ma (Khan et al. 2009) and 50 Ma (Bouilhol et al. 2013). This, plus the questioning of earlier provenance work (Clift et al. 2002) regarding the validity of their data for constraining timing of earliest arrival of material north of the suture deposited on the Indian plate (Henderson et al. 2011) suggests that the time is right for a reappraisal of this topic. We use a provenance-based approach here, using combined U-Pb and Hf on detrital zircons from Tethyan ocean basin sediments, along with petrography and biostratigraphy, to identify first arrival of material from north of the Indian plate to arrive on the Indian continent, to constrain the time of collision. With the recent discovery that the Indus Group sediments in the suture zone cannot be used for this purpose as previously proposed (Henderson et al. 2011) we turn to the 54 Ma Kong and Chulung La Formation youngest Tethyan sediments on the Indian margin (Garzanti et al. 1987) to investigate whether we can identify such material, and whether it be Spong arc (Fuchs and Willems 1990), KLA or Trans-Himalayan derived, thus determining what collided with India and when. References Bouilhol P, Jagoutz O, Hanchar JM, Dudas FO. 2013. Dating the India-Eurasia collision through arc magmatic records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 366, 163-175. Chatterjee S, Goswami A, Scotese CR. 2013. The longest voyage: Tectonic, magmatic, and paleoclimatic evolution of the Indian plate during its northward flight from Gondwana to Asia. Gondwana Research 23, 238-267. Clift P, Carter A, Krol M, Kirby E. 2002. Constraints on India-Eurasia collision in the Arabian sea region taken from the Indus Group, Ladakh Himalaya, India. The tectonic and climatic evolution of the Arabian Sea region Geological Society of London Special Publication 195, 97-116. de Sigoyer J, Chavagnac V, Blichert-Toft J, Villa IM, Luais B, Guillot S, Cosca M, Mascle G. 2000. Dating the Indian continental subduction and collisional thickening in the northwest Himalaya: Multichronology of the Tso Morari eclogites. Geology 28, 487-490. Fuchs G, Willems H. 1990. The final stages of sedimentation in the Tethyan zone of Zanskar and their geodynamic significance (Ladakh - Himalaya). Jahrbuche Geologische Bundenstalt 133: 259-273. Garzanti E, Baud A, Mascle G. 1987. Sedimentary Record of the Northward Flight of India and Its Collision with Eurasia (Ladakh Himalaya, India). Geodinamica Acta 1, 297-312. Green OR, Searle MP, Corfield RI, Corfield RM. 2008. Cretaceous-tertiary carbonate platform evolution and the age of the India-Asia collision along the Ladakh Himalaya (northwest India). J Geol 116: 331-353. Henderson AL, Najman Y, Parrish R, Mark D, Foster GL. 2011. Constraints to the timing of India-Eurasia collision; a re-evaluation of evidence from the Indus Basin sedimentary rocks of the Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone, Ladakh, India. Earth Science Reviews 106, 265-292. Khan SD, Walker DJ, Hall SA, Burke KC, Shah MT, Stockli L. 2009. Did the Kohistan-Ladakh island arc collide first with India? Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 366-384. Petterson MG. 2010. A review of the geology and tectonics of the Kohistan island arc, north Pakistan. in The Evolving Continents: Understanding Processes of Continental Growth (eds. TM Kusky, M-G Zhai, W Xiao), pp. 287-327. Journal of the Geological society of London Special publication.
The overall objective of this project is to study the trace element attenuation characteristics of various overburden sediments from Texas and the Northern Great Plains. Soil trace element attenuation was measured using batch experiments. These batch attenuation experiments are being carried out on carefully selected soils which have been characterized with respect to both chemical and mineralogical properties. The key soil factors are mineralogy and buffering capacity. Special attention is being given to the buffering capacity since many trace elements are sensitive to pH with respect to attenuation. The neutralization capacity is being used as the reference rather than a target pH of the system. It was found that the alkaline buffering capacity of the Texas sediments used in this study were lower than that of North Dakota sediments which were used in a previous study. Attenuation experiments are being conducted using select cations and anions. The elements which are being used to measure attenuation are As, Cd, Fe, Hg, Mo, Pb, and Se. During this quarter characterization of the sediments by physical methods and by x-ray diffraction was completed. Experiments were performed to determine chemical and physical properties of the sediments. X-ray diffraction was completed to determine the claymore » mineralogy of the samples. The work to determine the alkaline buffering capacity of the sediments was completed. The buffering capacity is used in the design of the trace element attenuation experiments. The major effort during this quarter was the generation of data to measure the trace element attenuation properties of the Texas sediments. During this period the final samples were received and the emphasis was on bringing these up to date with respect to samples received earlier. 2 refs., 6 tabs.« less
Wind speeds have long been estimated from C-band VV-polarized SAR data by using the CMOD algorithms such as CMOD4, CMOD5, and CMOD_IFR2. Some SAR data with HH-polarization without any observations in VV-polarization mode should be converted to VV-polarized value in order to use the previous algorithms based on VV-polarized observation. To satisfy the necessity of polarization ratio (PR) for the conversion, we retrieved the conversion parameter from full-polarized SIR-C SAR image off the east coast of Korea. The polarization ratio for SIR-C SAR data was estimated to 0.47. To assess the accuracy of the polarization ratio coefficient, pseudo VV-polarized normalized radar cross section (NRCS) values were calculated and compared with the original VV-polarized ones. As a result, the estimated psudo values showed a good agreement with the original VV-polarized data with an root mean square error by 0.99 dB. We applied the psudo NRCS to the estimation of wind speeds based on the CMOD wind models. Comparison of the retrieved wind field with the ECMWF and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis wind data showed relatively small rms errors of 1.88 and 1.91 m/s, respectively. SIR-C HH-polarized SAR wind retrievals met the requirement of the scatterometer winds in overall. However, the polarization ratio coefficient revealed dependence on NRCS value, wind speed, and incident angle.
Rapidly accumulating sediments from the Bjorn drift deposit south of Iceland are studied for comparison of glacial/interglacial climate changes related to millennial variability of the subpolar surface and deep ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. High-resolution faunal, isotopic, and sedimentary analyses reveal a strong multimillennial climatic variability interpreted as oscillations in heat transport westward south of Iceland during marine isotope stage 6 (MIS 6), possibly related to the strength of the subpolar gyre (SPG). The oscillations persisted from MIS 6 through the following interglacial (MIS 5), although with diminished magnitude, and were respectively characterized by repeated advances of the polar front south of Iceland during MIS 6 and southward migrations of the Arctic front due to cold surface outflow through the East Greenland and East Iceland Currents during MIS 5. Incursions of cold, fresh surface waters, and drifting ice affected the dynamics of the SPG, episodically causing it to weaken and contract to the northwest. During these intervals of diminished SPG, the northward transport of subtropical heat and salt was strengthened and preferentially conveyed to the northeast past Iceland, enhancing deep-water formation in the Nordic Seas. By contrast, when the SPG was strong, more subtropical water and its associated heat were entrained within the relatively warm Irminger Current flowing westward south of Iceland. These oceanographic oscillations were associated with repeated multimillennial cooling and warming episodes during the glacial stage MIS 6, equivalent to the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles of the last glaciation.
Abstract. We propose a new concept of the Weichselian ice dynamics in the south-western sector of the Baltic Sea depression. The review of existing geochronological data from Germany, Denmark and southernmost Sweden in combination with new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data from the German Oder Lobe area is the basis for a reassessment and an improvement of previous ice dynamic models. Factors like the pre-existing topography, glaciotectonic features and the occurrence of till beds and inter-till deposits of varying origin are also taken into consideration for our process-based reconstruction of the sedimentary environments close to the ice margin and hence the ice dynamics of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS). During the early MIS 3 (marine isotope stage), the late MIS 3 and MIS 2, the SIS advanced into present-day terrestrial areas around the south-western Baltic Sea Basin. The first ice advance during the warming phase in early MIS 3 is poorly documented as the Ellund–Warnow Advance in Germany but may be correlated with the numerically dated Ristinge Advance in Denmark and Sweden. The late MIS 3 advance in contrast is reliably documented. It shaped the landforms of the Brandenburg Advance and the maximum Weichselian ice extent in the Oder Lobe area in north-eastern Germany and occurred contemporaneously with the Klintholm Advance in southern Sweden and Denmark. The lack of a corresponding till in various cliff profiles along the Baltic Sea coastline between southern Schleswig-Holstein and the island of Rügen can be explained by the distinct lobate structure of this ice advance, which was strongly guided by the pre-existing low-lying topography. We propose the horst of Bornholm, Denmark, acting as an ice divide, with ice-dammed lakes existing on the lee side between two glacier lobes. This lobate structure had not been considered in previous conceptual models, which led to seemingly conflicting chronological and stratigraphical interpretations. Our introduction of the lobate structure for the first time resolves these contradictions and integrates the data in a coherent model. The dynamics of the MIS 2 readvance to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) extent were clearly different to the previous advance and were most likely characterized by a more uniformly advancing ice front with a less lobate structure which also overrode the horst of Bornholm and the island of Rügen. This advance reached the maximum Weichselian ice extent in some parts of the south-western SIS, but, in the Oder Lobe area, it is proven to have terminated at a lesser extent than the early MIS 3 advance, but it did shape the most prominent morphological landform record of the last glacial cycle. In order to advance the reconstruction of Weichselian ice dynamics in the future, we strongly suggest using both an MIS-based terminology and a process-based approach in the interpretation of geochronological data to live up to the dynamic nature of continental ice sheets.
Kendong-Zhuanghai buried hill draping structure was located between Zhanhua Depression and Zhuangdong Depression where oil generation was rich,it was composed of many buried hill draping structures of NW trend,where oil and gas distribution was complex.By comprehensively studying structural evolution and stratum growth,the rule of oil and gas distribution and the main control factors were analyzed in structural belt.It is considered that influenced by the strike-slip movement of Tanlu Faults and "episodic" chasmic evolution,buried hill draping structures with different sequences are created from the north to south in Kandong-Zhuanghai buried hill draping structure.The characteristics of oil zones increasing from the south to north,reservoir types getting more and more complex are determined by the conditions of oil sources,effective combination of reservoirs and cap rocks and way of oil and gas transport.
Recent surveys in various regions of freshwater influence have shown considerably different flow patterns in each region. An analytical model including viscous effects and the Earth's rotation is proposed to examine the along-channel flow pattern and to explain the differences. Model results show that the flow pattern is strongly dependent on the Ekman number E. With a large Ekman number (E > 1) the system is governed by gravitational circulation, and thus horizontal density gradients in along-channel direction are important. The whole water column is in the Ekman layer and consequent jet inflow penetrates the surface over a deep depression if the bottom topography varies in a cross-channel direction. With an intermediate Ekman number (E ∼ 0.1) this jet inflow concentrates in the lower layer in which the viscosity still plays an important role. The flow in the upper layer is, on the other hand, determined by the geostrophic balance. The contribution by the geostrophic flow becomes larger so that the cross-channel density gradients are important when die Ekman number is small (E < 0.01). Since the Ekman layer is clung to the bottom, the jet inflow exists only in the thin bottom layer. The hydrographic and acoustic Doppler current profiler surveys were conducted in Ise Bay, Japan. Both the density structure and the flow pattern were different from those observed in many drowned river valleys. A strong jet inflow existed in the lower layer over the depression while the flow in the upper layer suggested anticyclonic circulation. The estimated Ekman number is 0.07 in the bay and thus the observed pattern is consistent with the model result when E = 0.1.
NEAR Shoemaker images reveal widespread occurrence of tectonic landforms on asteroid 433 Eros. Hinks Dorsum is a ridge that extends for about 18 km around the asteroid and strongly resembles thrust fault structures on the terrestrial planets. Tectonic landforms can provide information on the mechanical properties of asteroids, a subject of much controversy. Modeling constrained by topographic data shows that Hinks Dorsum can be accounted for by a shallow rooted thrust fault no greater than 250 m in depth with ∼90 m of cumulative slip. Strength envelopes based on frictional and rock mass strength criteria suggest the near‐surface shear strength of Eros is from ∼1 to 6 MPa. A spatial correlation is found between Shoemaker crater, a transition from low to high crater density, and Hinks Dorsum. This spatial relation along with the estimated strength of the asteroid suggests the thrust fault was formed by impact induced compression.
Mountainous area in North Vietnam is considered as one of the most prone region to landslide in Vietnam. Landslides in this area often occurs under the influences of heavy rainfall or tropical storms, steep slopes on mountainous sides and human activities such as road or house constructions. This paper applied Landsat satellite images and calculated Normalized Difference Indexes (NDIs) to evaluate the condition of vegetation, soil and water and detected 43 landslide points in Bac Kan, Ha Giang, Thai Nguyen and Tuyen Quang provinces in North Vietnam in 2015. In this paper, historical landslide data in 2013 was also used to analyse causative factors. Historical landslides often occur in a slope range from 10 to 40 on the elevation from 100 m – 300 m (48.23%) and on forests and crop sites. With regard to triggering factor and slope condition, three typical types of landslides are classified as i) landslide caused by rainfall on construction sites, ii) landslide caused by rainfall on natural slopes, and iii) landslide caused by rainfall and water drawdown on banks of reservoirs or streams. Considering the Landsat result type 2 and type 3 consist larger proportions (58.14 % and 25.58 %) compared to those in historical data (11.7 % and 1.53 %). This means that many landslide would occur in mountainous areas that far from residential or road areas (type 1). This paper thus would provide initial assessment for further studies on landslide problems on the bank of water sites such as reservoirs or streams.
In a case study of Baota landslide in the reservoir area of Three-Gorges project, a conceptual model for ground water systems in large-scale landslide was established by integrating the studies of groundwater dynamic field, physical-chemical characteristics, environmental isotopes, and temperature of ground water in the landslide. This model includes recharge, seepage, discharge conditions of ground water varying with the environmental factors (e.g. rainfall, reservoir impounding, and artificial surface water recharge, etc.). This is one of the keys to predict the slope stability and to take countermeasures to controlling landslide.
Much of the littoral region of Southern and Western Australia is composed of a soft limestone bed covered by a layer of unconsolidated sand [2]. The limestone bed, composed of calcarenite, has a high shear wave speed and there is often efficient coupling between the water born wave and the shear mode. Although studies of the effect of the elastic mode in the calcarenite on transmission loss have been undertaken, the effects of the thin sand layer and interface roughness must be quantified in order to determine a robust inversion scheme. It is found that a 1.0 m sand layer decreases the transmission loss by more than 5 dB while a 2.5 m layer can decrease the loss by as much as 20 dB. Interface roughness affects higher frequencies by increasing transmission loss and a rough interface waveguide with a sand layer can have a similar level of transmission loss as a waveguide with a bare calcarenite bottom. However, the frequency dependence and model interference patterns of the two waveguides are different. An inversion scheme based on a bare calcarenite model which would lead incorrect results.
Brines can have a profound influence on the relative abundance of calcareous and agglutinated foraminiferal faunas. Here we investigated the distribution of benthic foraminiferal species in four cores from a brine‐enriched environment in Storfjorden, Svalbard. Stratigraphically, the cores comprise the last 15 000 years. The purpose of the study was to reconstruct changes in the palaeoecology and palaeoceanography of Storfjorden in relation to past climate changes, and to identify potential indicator species for brine‐affected environments. The benthic foraminifera in Storfjorden all have widespread occurrences in the Arctic realm. Calcareous species dominated Storfjorden during the deglaciation and early Holocene until c. 8200 a BP. However, agglutinated species increased in abundance whenever conditions became colder with more sea ice and stronger brine formation, such as during the Older Dryas, the Intra‐Allerød Cold Period and the Younger Dryas. Following a moderately cold period with numerous agglutinated foraminifera from c. 8200–4000 a BP, conditions became more changeable from c. 4000 a BP with repeated shifts between warmer periods dominated by calcareous species and colder periods dominated by agglutinated species. The warmer periods show a stronger influence of Atlantic Water, with reduced brine formation and less corrosive conditions at the sea bottom. Conversely, the colder periods show a stronger influence of Arctic water, with higher brine production and more corrosive bottom water. The distribution patterns of the calcareous species are basically the same whether calculated relative to the total fauna (including agglutinated specimens) or relative to calcareous specimens alone. Moreover, the patterns are similar to the patterns found elsewhere along western Svalbard in areas without the influence of brines. No particular species appear to be specifically linked to brine formation. However, the most persistent agglutinated species R. scorpiurus and A. glomerata are also the species most tolerant of the acidic bottom water that normally is associated with brine formation.
Based on the mechanism of composite energy and its energy scale, evolution and distribution law of stress and fracture field in surrounding rock of roadway in deep mining, the article puts forward regional outburst prevention measures of unloading pressure by pre excavation rock roadway and constructing wear layer drilling to pump coal roadway strip gas, a complete set of technical system of regional outburst prevention in coal roadway strip by pre excavation and unloading floor roadway in the Fengcheng mining area is obtained. The field practice shows that regional outburst prevention in coal roadway strip is carried through pre excavation of floor roadway which layout in the bottom of the bottom of the coal roadway 8~12m to carry on the pressure relief combined with wear layer drilling drainage gas, it can greatly improve the permeability of coal seam and the effect of pressure relief, and ensure the safe and fast roadway excavation. Keywords-stress dominated outburst; pressure relief bottom roadway; wear layer drilling; relieved drainage
In April, 1991, a northwest-southeast trending 120-km-long seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profile was recorded across the Atlantic Coastal Plain of South Carolina, the passive margin of the eastern United States formed by Mesozoic extension during the opening of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Two-dimensional ray tracing of first arrivals and reflections indicates large lateral velocity variations in the upper 5 km of the crust. From northwest to southeast along the profile, Coastal Plain sediments thicken from a few tens of meters to more than 1 km. P-wave velocities within the sediments range from 1.85 to 3.5 km s −1 , while intercalated basalts have velocities of 5.2–5.5 km s −1 . The top of the crystalline basement dips eastward and is characterized by velocities of 6.0–6.2 km s −1 . High velocities of 6.2 km s −1 within the crystalline basement are locally restricted to a shallow 25-km-wide zone adjacent and east of the Dunbarton basin. Seismic, gravity and magnetic observations suggest that this anomaly represents a pre-Cretaceous mafic intrusion formed during Mesozoic rifting. Mesozoic rifting is also evident from observed eastward thinning of the crust from 37 to 32 km along the profile.
The deterioration of rock geomechanical behaviors subjected to freeze–thaw (F–T) action is a determining factor for rock engineering and rock structures in cold regions. In this work, taking six groups of granite obtained from an open pit mine as the research object, F–T cycle treatment, in-situ AE (acoustic emission) monitoring and ultrasonic detection techniques were performed to experimentally reveal the effects of F–T fatigue damage on the mechanical and acoustic properties of granite. The results indicate that the F–T action impacts the rock’s mesoscopic structure, deformation, strength, P and S-wave velocities, AE pattern and energy release. The accumulated AE counts and accumulated AE energy show a decreasing trend as the F–T cycle increases. The frequency spectrum revealed that the width of the low frequency band decreases and the high frequency band increases with increasing F–T cycles, indicating that there is an increase in large-scale cracks for a sample with high F–T treatment. In addition, energy balance analysis further illustrates the energy dissipation and release mechanism. The energy proportion used to drive the crack propagation is relatively small with high F–T treatment, and the final released energy becomes the minimum. The energy evolution characteristics analyzed by the energy balance approach is in good agreement with AE results. It is suggested that the F–T fatigue damage influences the rock energy storage and release characteristics and the instability of rock in the cold regions.
This paper has reviewed the methods and application of formation prediction in different exploration stages and suggested an efficiency stress method for the need of reservoir protection.The formation pressure prediction by the efficiency stress method may offer dependable parameters for drilling design and balance pressure drilling.Pressure profiles about 200 wells have been predicted since this method was applied in Shengli Oilfield.The drilling results indicate that the predicted pressures are more coincident with the practical formation pressures than the pressures calculated by other means,and can be applied to balance pressure drilling.The results also present good effect of reservoir protection.
Gangxi oilfield is rich in shallow gas resources in Neogene,and its g as reservoirs are characterized by shallow buried depth,complex origins,small reserves,many types and wide distribution.In this paper,the three-dimensional high-resolution seismic AVO technology was used for the first time to analyse t he gas response characteristics in Minghuazhen Formation of Gangxi shallow layer s.At first,based on the pre-stack seismic data,the gas-bearing reservoir is s tudied in response to the abnormal characteristics of the AVO through the AVO fo rward model,and used as the basis for inversion AVO anomalies to explain the pr operties.Then,based on pre-stack seismic data,AVO inversion is proceeded,and AVO abnormal attribute parameters are extracted.Finally,based on attributes c haracteristics,prediction is made for the distribution of reservoir and gas-bea ring status,and the attributes are optimized by correlation calculation to anal yze the ambiguity.Thereby,this can offer guidance for a reliable gas forecasti ng in Gangxi block.It has great practical significance for improving the explor ation and development of shallow gas pool in Gangxi block.
Abstract The Scotty Wash Formation on the Nevada Test Site (NTS), southern Nye County, Nevada has produced the first North American representatives of the globally significant index ammonoids Homoceras s.s. and Isohomoceras s.s. and contains the only ammonoid succession across an uninterrupted mid-Carboniferous boundary sequence known in North America. Four ammonoid assemblages can be recognized at NTS that are homotaxial with the reference successions for the middle and upper Arnsbergian (E2) and Chokierian (H1) Stages, Namurian Series, in western Europe, and their equivalents worldwide. The upper Mississippian (Chesterian) portions of the NTS sections yield assemblages referable to a Eumorphoceras girtyi Ammonoid Biozone, representing the middle Arnsbergian Stage (E2b), followed by a Delepinoceras thalassoide Ammonoid Biozone, equivalent to the upper Arnsbergian Stage (E2c). The latter ammonoid biozone also occurs in the Imo and Rhoda Creek Formations of Arkansas and Oklahoma, requiring reassignment of those formations to the upper Arnsbergian Stage (E2c). The appearance of the Isohomoceras subglobosum Ammonoid Biozone marks the base of the Chokierian Stage (H1a) at NTS. The zonal name-bearer continues into lower Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) strata, where it joins the Homoceras coronatum coronatum Ammonoid Biozone assemblage in an interval equivalent to the upper Chokerian Series (H1b). A pronounced unconformity at NTS separates the Scotty Wash Formation from the overlying Tippipah Limestone, which contains a fifth ammonoid assemblage characterized by Cancelloceras cf. C. elegans that is equivalent to the Yeadonian Stage (G1), Namurian Series, of western Europe. The conodont succession recovered from the ammonoid-bearing sections at NTS allows refined correlation of the Arnsbergian and Chokierian Stages with the Mid-Carboniferous Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at nearby Arrow Canyon, Nevada, and the North American midcontinent. The Lower Rhachistognathus muricatus Conodont Biozone of western North America is equivalent to the upper Arnsbergian Stage (E2c), and must include the upper portion of the Adetognathus unicornis Conodont Biozone as recognized in the midcontinent. The Upper R. muricatus Conodont Biozone is equivalent to that portion of the Chokierian Stage (H1a) below the appearance of Declinognathodus noduliferus, marking the mid-Carboniferous boundary horizon, including some of the R. primus Conodont Biozone as used in the North American midcontinent. The intercontinental mid-Carboniferous boundary, drawn at the appearance of D. noduliferus, does not correspond to the Arnsbergian-Chokierian Stage boundary (E2c-H1a) that is defined by the appearance of Isohomoceras subglobosum. A significant break occurs in the Arrow Canyon GSSP less than 4 m above the position of the mid-Carboniferous boundary, where Chokerian strata (H1) are probably succeeded by Kinderscoutian strata (R1). Higher at Arrow Canyon, the position of the Scotty Wash-Tippipah unconformity juxtaposes Kinderscoutian and Yeadonian (G1) strata and the entire upper Namurian Series is limited to no more than 54 m. Comparison of Eurasian and North American ammonoid assemblage compositions suggests that at least intermittent faunal interchange persisted between the two regions until at least the close of the Chokierian. Definition of the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary, which has never been defined faunally in either type area, to correspond to the intercontinental mid-Carboniferous boundary would be compatible with relationships known in the Chesterian and Morrowan type areas. Taxonomic treatment of the Chokierian ammonoid assemblage from Syncline Ridge, NTS provided herein includes Proshumardites karpinskii Rauser-Tschernoussova, 1928; Eosyngastrioceras inexpectans Titus, 2000; Somoholites cf. S. merriami (Miller and Furnish, 1940b); Euroceras ellipsoidale Ruzhencev and Bogoslovskaya, 1971a; Isohomoceras subglobosum (Bisat, 1924); Homoceras diadema (Beyrich, 1837); H. coronatum coronatum (Haug, 1898); and H. leedomi new species.
Carboniferous pit coal is the most important anthropogenic component of the contemporaneous Vistula river gravels and sands with individual fractions containing from 10 to 98 per cent coal fragments. Coal concentration is connected with differences in the bulk density between coal and other gravel components. The lower sediments date from the first half of the nineteenth century when the coal began to appear in large quantities in the Vistula channel. The presence of coal is also an indicator of the depth of channel sediment reworking during floods in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Mantle-crust isotopic relationships along Mid Ocean Ridges: constraints from the analysis of time series A. CIPRIANI 1,2 D. BRUNELLI 1,3 1 Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy; anna.cipriani@unimore.it 2 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964, USA 3 ISMAR – CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
The aim of this study is to verify the influence of the change of the spine configuration on human cervical vertebral motion and on head/neck/torso kinematics under low speed rear-end impacts. Seven healthy human volunteers participated in the experiment. Each subject sat on a seat mounted on a sled that simulated actual car impact acceleration. Impact speeds (4, 6, and 8 km/h), and seat stiffness (rigid and soft) without headrest were selected. During the experiment, the change of the spine configuration and the interface load pressure distribution was recorded. The cervical vertebrae motion was also recorded by 90 f/s cineradiography. The localized straightening of the lumbar spine starts at around 30 ms with the rigid seat. The localized straightening of the thoracic spine reaches the maximum at around 80 ms when the load pressure distribution is at its peak value due to the interaction between the shoulder and the seat back. For the softer seat, the pelvis starts to sink into the seat back and cushion at around 70 ms. As for this seat the load pressure is distributed over a large area, the localized straightening of the middle thoracic spine occurred together with deflection of seat back itself at around 120 ms. The results of the study can help clarify the relationship between the localized straightening of the spine and cervical vertebrae motion with respect to the difference in seat characteristics. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E203643.
The seismograms obtained by long-period seismographs in Tokyo at the time of the Sanriku earthquake of March 3, 1933 are analysed. As a first step, we examine the differences of the near-field properties of theoretical seismograms for a semi-infinite medium from those for an infinite medium. The wave forms of the horizontal components of displacements in the two media do not show much difference, while those of the vertical components are considerably different.In the next step, an attempt is made to estimate the focal parameters, such as the rise time and the rupture velocity, by comparing wave forms of direct P and SP waves. A good agreement of wave forms of the first half cycle on EW components of the synthesized and observed seismograms yields the following conclusions: (1) the rise time of the source time function is about 5 sec, (2) the average dislocation over the fault is 2-5m, (3) the particle velocity of the fault motion is 20-50cm/sec, (4) the rupture velocity is about 3.0km/sec, (5) the effective stress is 40-140 bar, and (6) the rupture began at the northern part of the fault area and propagated to the south.
Deep excavation retaining structure's lateral deformation using total station instead of inclinometer was expatiated associated with an actual project when lateral pipe cannot work normally.Meanwhile,according to geotechnical engineering knowledge,a detailed analysis on deformation and jump was performed,and prospective safety supervision outcome was obtained,which assure the implementation of deep excavation engineering and offer a reference to some similar projects.
Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is a technique designed to analyze the composition and spatial distribution of molecules and chemical structures on surfaces. These capabilities have generated much interest in its use in geobiology, in particular for the characterization of organic biomarkers (molecular biosignatures) at the microscopic level. We here discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and potential of ToF-SIMS for biomarker analyses with a focus on applications in geobiology, including biogeochemistry, organic geochemistry, geomicrobiology, and paleobiology. After describing the analytical principles of ToF-SIMS, we discuss issues of biomarker spectral formation and interpretation. Then, key applications of ToF-SIMS to soft (microbial matter, cells), hard (microbial mineral precipitates), and liquid (petroleum) samples relevant in geobiology are reviewed. Finally, we examine the potential of ToF-SIMS in biomarker research and the current limitations and obstacles for which furthe...
Quartz bar (or needle) exsolutions from clinopyroxenes are considered as one of the diagnostic indicators in the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism, and were frequently identified from several UHP metamorphic belts in the world. Exsolutions in omphacites in eclogites from the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling Project main hole (CCSD-MH) and Pre-pilot 1(CCSD-PP1) were studies by using laserRaman and electron microprobe analysis, and numerous parallel quartz bars (or needles) were found. For comparison, omphacites in CCSD eclogites without any quartz exsolution were also analysed. The results indicate that the omphacites with quartz exsolution is supersilicic. Ultrahigh-pressure experiments shown that part of silica can form octahedral coordination structure, if pressure is high enough. It's proposed that decline of pressure will facilitate quartz exsolution. The peak pressure of UHP metamorphism indicated by quartz exsolutions in the CCSD omphacites is much higher than 2.5GPa, which was estimated by the previous researchers based on facies transformation of quartz-coesite and graphite-diamond, suggests that subuduction depth of the Su-Lu UHP metamorphic belts may be greater than commonly recognized 80~120km.
This study reconstructs the sequence of deformation that affected a sector of the northern Apennines accretionary wedge (external Ligurian Units located in the Parma and Piacenza provinces). This external sector of the belt underwent several superposed events due to oceanic accretion and subsequent continental collision, at shallow structural levels. To this purpose, microstructural analysis was applied to the calcite veins. Twinned calcite crystals represent stress-strain markers and make it possible to estimate (1) pressure-temperature conditions, (2) amount and pressure of circulating fluids and (3) paleostress determinations. This methodology permitted to reconstruct the peculiar kinematics and tentatively interpreting this frontal zone of the belt as a tectonic wedge (triangle zone). The Ligurian wedge in the studied area differs from classical triangle zones, which typically form at foreland margins of thrust belts, in that its para-autocthon was already deformed when passively uplifted by the wedging event.
This paper deals with the north-west African or the Atlas depressions, named after the region of their formation. The subject is examined from the synoptic climatology point of view, and is based on mean sea level (M.S.L.) pressure and 500 hectopascal (hPa) heights of the five consecutive years from 1970 to 1974. Attention is drawn to the following topics.        1. The positions of the depression centres are determined when they are generated and afterwards. So the numbers of the occurrence of their centres in the subregions into which north-west Africa is divided and the tracks of these centres are obtained.        2. These depressions are divided into four categories. The first category is divided into four subcategories, whereas each of the remaining categories is divided into two subcategories. These categories are based on the 500 hPa flow patterns.        3. For each subcategory, mean charts of the 500 hPa height for the first occurrence of its depressions have been prepared. For these mean charts, the relative vorticity advection has been calculated. These charts suggest the region of the first occurrence of the depressions is mostly in a region of positive advection of vorticity.        4. The percentage of the number of depressions from each subcategory affecting the weather of Greece can be determined. For each percentage, the mean M.S.L. pressure and 500 hPa height charts showing the time at which these depressions start affecting the weather of Greece are drawn. Thus, the synoptic situations affecting Greece and resulting from the north-west African depressions are determined.        Finally, the rain, wind and temperatures from each north-west African depression subcategory occurring in Greece and especially in the Athens major region are discussed.
Failures of transmission tower-line systems have frequently occurred during large earthquakes. It is essential to control the excessive vibrations of transmission tower-line systems to ensure their safe operation in such events. This paper numerically investigates the effectiveness of using a novel bidirectional pounding tuned mass damper (BPTMD) to control the seismic responses of transmission tower-line system when subjected to earthquake ground motions. A finite element model of a typical transmission tower-line system with BPTMD is developed using the commercial software ABAQUS, with the accuracy of the results verified against a previous study. The seismic responses of the system with and without BPTMD are calculated. For comparison, the control effect of using the conventional bidirectional tuned mass damper is also calculated and discussed. Finally, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effects of the mass ratio, seismic intensity, gap size and frequency ratio on the seismic response of the system, while optimal design parameters are obtained.
Geothermal reservoirs can embody safe, accessible and stable sources of renewable and environmentally friendly energy. In order to access and extract this energy, drilling of deep wells connected with vast financial investments is unavoidable. Thorough predrilling  exploration followed by simulations of heat extraction can help to assess the site’s geothermal energy potential and thus lower the risk of possible financial losses.  Extraction of heat enclosed in the deep rock can be simulated with a two-well geothermal system. Through one of the wells cool water is being injected into the reservoir, where it is heating up while travelling towards the production well. If certain conditions are fulfilled, water pumped to the surface carries the amount of energy  sufficient for geothermal power production. With simulations of such geothermal systems it is possible to predict their profitability and sustainability.  The extensive amount of scientific experiments performed during the Continental Deep Drilling Program (KTB) within the years 1985-1996 yielded a wide database of miscellaneous information concerning the continental crystalline crust. This and the fact that temperatures up to 265°C were measured in the KTB drill hole were the motives to  choose the KTB site as case study representative for geothermal reservoirs located in crystalline environments.
The Upper Devonian to Lower Carboniferous fluvio-lacustrine Albert Formation hosts a small oil and gas field in northeastern New Brunswick, Canada. Back-scattered electron imaging suggests that secondary porosity formed by dissolution of K-feldspars, calcic-plagioclases, and calcite and ankerite cements constitutes the dominant sandstone porosity. Three factors were examined to explain the observed secondary porosity: organic acids and CO[2] generated from thermal maturation of organic matter, undersaturated meteoric water, and clay-carbonate reactions. In the Albert Formation sandstones, high secondary porosity occurs in association with oxygen-rich organic matter. This porosity occurs at a temperature at which organic acids and CO[2] production is at its maximum. However, mass balance considerations do not support organic acids and CO[2] as the main mechanism for secondary porosity formation. Consideration of the timing of dissolution, its relation to unconformities, and absence of biodegradation or water washing of the crude oils also indicate that meteoric water was not the principal agent in secondary porosity formation. We conclude that mineral-mineral reactions were probably the most important pore-forming process. This conclusion is supported by the abundances of kaolinite, mixed-layer illite/smectite, smectite, chlorite, and carbonates in the early mature, moderately porous sandstones of the Dover and Albert Mines areas compared with the more mature and more porous sandstones of the Stoney Creek oil and gas field.
Abstract A pilot study has demonstrated that heavy mineral analysis is a useful guide to the provenance of Silurian turbidites in the Southern Welsh Basin. The results confirm the sedimentological evidence for two distinct source areas of coarse clastic detritus, one lying to the south and the other to the east. They also provide mineralogical criteria by which the two source areas may be distinguished. The southern area provided material with relatively low mineral diversity, and is characteristic in having low rutile/zircon ratios, whereas the eastern source provided more diverse assemblages, generally with high rutile/zircon ratios. The southern source shows variations in terms of apatite/tourmaline ratio, with the older Aberystwyth Grits Group tending to contain relatively low apatite compared with the younger Cwmystwyth Grits Group (Rhuddnant and Pysgotwr Grits formations). There is evidence for polycyclic material and volcanic detritus in both southerly and easterly derived samples; however, easterly-sourced sandstones apparently tapped a more lithologically-diverse terrain.
The Mississippian North Wales Platform is located on the margins of the East Irish Sea Basin and has been little studied over the last 30 years. The exposed Visean limestones provide new insights into the deposition, porosity evolution, distribution of dolomitization, and Pb–Zn and Cu mineralization on the North Wales carbonate platform. This is of relevance to the characterization of fault-related dolomite hydrocarbon reservoirs and age-equivalent Mississippi Valley-type mineral deposits. In particular, the study demonstrates the intimate relationship between sedimentation, basin-scale tectonism and post-depositional fluid flux. Depositional cyclicity is marked, with metre-scale upward-shallowing cycles in which pervasive marine and meteoric calcite cements occlude matrix porosity and syndepositional fractures. Consequently, subsequent burial diagenetic replacive dolomitization is matrix selective and cements are primarily restricted to fractures. Seven phases of dolomite are defined based on texture and cathodoluminescence petrography, with phases D1–D3 as the most volumetrically significant. Dolomite phases D0–D2 are matrix replacive, cross-cutting stratigraphy and locally fingering along beds for several metres. Dolomite phases D3–D7 are hosted by faults and fractures and also line vugs. Evidence of telogenesis is recorded where burial diagenetic products are post-dated by calcite cements precipitated from meteoric fluids. Dolomitization probably occurred during the Mississippian and continued into the Pennsylvanian. Pb–Zn mineralization is also interpreted to have occurred during the Pennsylvanian, associated with Variscan tectonism. Overall, the North Wales Platform displays a more complex paragenesis than age-equivalent platforms in the Pennine Basin, owing to multiple phases of burial and exhumation. The study demonstrates the importance of linking burial history to detailed field and petrographical data to understand and predict the spatial and temporal controls on diagenetic processes and products within syn- and post-rift sequences.
TDR was used to determine dielectric constant of THF aqueous solution with different THF/H2O mole ratios before and after THF hydrate formation.As a result,the empirical formula was built to measure the water content of the system of "THF aqueous solution + THF hydrate".Then,the formula was applied to calculation of the content of THF hydrate produced by THF aqueous solution and to establishment on correlation between the content of hydrate and dielectric constant.In addition,the dielectric constant decreased during hydrate formation in THF aqueous solution.
I. Introduction. This communication is based on notes taken while engaged in the area on another investigation. A full account of the glaciation could only be adequately given if based on mapping of a wider area, in order to link up the work of Charlesworth (1) to the west, with that of Trotter (6) and Hollingworth (5) in the Carlisle basin and the Pennines. As this wider investigation may be unavoidably deferred, it is thought worth while to record here some interesting glacial retreat features and their significance in central Dumfriesshire (see map, Pl. XXVIII.). No account has previously been given of glacial features in eastern and central Dumfriesshire, apart from passing references in Charlesworth’s work. Trotter’s account of the glaciation south of the Border, although mentioning one or two localities on the Scottish side, does not extend far northwards. Hollingworth includes part of this area in his map of the drumlins of the Solway Basin. II. Topography and Structure. The area covered by these notes, roughly five by twelve miles, consists of uplands rising to about 900 feet in the north, and dropping irregularly to the low plain of the Solway shore in the south. The high ground, being the edge of the Southern Uplands, consists of rather featureless rolling hills of Silurian greywacke and slate. A thin band of Upper Old Red Sandstone, consisting of grits and marls, lies unconformably on older rocks and strikes roughly east-north-east to west-south-west. This is overlain by a series of lavas which
During 1∶250 000 regional geological surveys and special subject research on the Triassic, a group of plant fossils were taken from Xionglongxi, Xinlong County, and Rejia, Baiyu County, Sichuan Province. They include 15 genera and 20 species, of which two species are new and one genus was first found in China. These fossils not only enrich the content of the plant fossil assemblage in the study area but also provide an important paleontological basis for the determination of stratigraphic ages, stratigraphic correlation with neighboring areas and reconstruction of the sedimentary environment.
In 2011, the off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake with subsequent huge tsunami caused serious damages to many breakwaters. The damage process mainly comprises their slide or toppling over by the overflowing tsunami, whose typical cases can be seen in Soma and Kamaishi ports. In order to save the people as long as possible, it is necessary to design breakwaters effectively with keeping their resilience particularly against such an overflow of a huge tsunami. As the first step to the goal, the pressure force of the overflowing tsunamis should be predicted accurately, however, its feature remains unknown due to its complicated mechanisms. Regarding the Japan guideline of breakwater against tsunami, it introduces an estimation formula based on the static pressure with compensating coefficients Î±f and Î±r for the foreside and backside of the target breakwater, respectively, as shown in Figure 1. The compensating coefficients are set with semi-empirical values as Î±r=1.1 and Î±r=0.9. However, in recent years, it was found that the coefficient Î±r randomly varies depending on the hydraulic conditions (Arikawa et al., 2013), and to make matters worse, the variation appears more significant by changing the structure of the target breakwater, i.e. the condition of the mound under the caisson and the parapets above the caisson (Miyata et al., 2014). Therefore, improvement of the estimation method should be required as an urgent subject. In order to resolve this problem, this study performs hydraulic experiments targeting breakwaters under tsunami-overflows with focusing on the effect of the property of the mound, which has insufficient studies. From the results, an effective estimation method for the compensating coefficient Î±r is newly proposed by reconsidering the coefficient as a dynamic parameter covering the various boundary conditions.
Almahata Sitta (hereafter Alma) is an anomalous, polymict ureilite. Anomalous features include low abundance of olivine, large compositional range of silicates, high abundance and large size of pores, crystalline pore wall linings, and overall finegrained texture. Tomography suggests the presence of foliation, which is known from other ureilites. Alma pyroxenes and their interpretation are discussed in two companion abstracts. In this abstract we discuss the composition of olivine in Alma, which is indicative of the complexity of this meteorite.
Based on the surrounding underground environments change caused by tailrace tunnel excavation at Wendeng Pumped Storage Power Station,characteristics of groundwater distribution and strong drainage features due to adit and tailrace tunnel excavation are investigated based on an intensive analysis of hydrogeological conditions and engineering geological characteristics of the project area.Consequently,conceptual model of hydrogeology is presented and three-dimensional transient groundwater seepage model is established.By using improved cut-off negative pressure method to solve seepage flow with free surface,we have improved drainage substructure technique,pipeline substructure technique and preconditioned conjugate gradient method,simulation and analysis on the transient seepage at different construction stages of adit and tailrace tunnel excavation after linings are carried out.Dynamic variation procedure of the groundwater seepage flow and its influence on surrounding environments are studied for two schemes: tailrace tunnel excavated with and without lining.Results show that adit and channel system excavations have a direct and great influence on the lowering of water level and that groundwater seepage field gradually turns to steady state 300 days after lining of tailrace tunnel.
According to the principle of mass and momentum conservation theorem,the pressure drop equations of variable mass flow in the gravel-packed horizontal well were derived.The fluid flow in 3-D space was divided into flowing towards vertical fracture in the horizontal plane and radial flowing in the vertical plane near the wellbore.Using pseudo-three dimensional idea,the reservoir seepage model was developed.The model coupling seepage in reservoir with variable mass flow in wellbore was established and the solving method was given.The results show that the calculated results of well production by this model have high precision and the average error with field data was only 3.79%.The calculated flow rate along wellbore is consistent with the logging derived flow rate.The smaller the distance from root end of wellbore,the greater the fluid velocity in wellbore,the acceleration loss,the friction loss and pressure drop.With the permeability of gravel-packed layer increasing,the production increases sharply,after stabilizing,so a reasonable choice for permeability of gravel-packed layer is important to improve horizontal well productivity.
Great showers of tektites fell upon certain parts of the earth at widely separated geologic periods. The four major geologic groups are:        The typical forms—spheroids, disks, or oval, cylindrical, dumb-bell-shaped, and pointed, drop-shaped bodies—suggest natural shapes assumed by molten glass revolving in the atmosphere or a similar gaseous medium. The Australites show a partial re-fusing of the original glass sphere and backward flow, producing a peculiar button-like appearance.        Group three, which includes the Philippine tektites, may be divided into four major subgroups: (1) Indochinites; (2) Rizalites; (3) Billitonites and Malaysianites; and (4) Java Tektites. The characteristics etc. of these bodies are discussed in some detail.        Of the various theories of the origin of tektites, three are still worthy of consideration. These are: (1) the theory of volcanic or other earthly origin; (2) the burning, light-metal meteorite theory; and (3) the meteorite explosion-crater theory. An astronomical theory of tektites, proposed by Dr. W. Carl Rufus, is summarized and briefly criticized, pro and con.        The Philippines present a unique opportunity for the study of the richest known deposit of tektites in their natural environment. The only local students of the problem are the writer and Dr. Miguel Selga, S.J., joined recently by Mr. J. Van Eck. To stimulate local interest, the present outline was presented to the Philippine National Research Council.        1  The Ivory-Coast deposit, believed to be Mesozoic;    2  The Moldavites, or European, from the Helvetian strata of mid-Miocene;    3  The Indo-malaysianites, undoubtedly mid-Pleistocene; and    4  The Australites, believed to be post-Pleistocene or recent.
Terrestrial Gamma‐ray Flashes (TGFs), discovered in 1994 by the Compton Gamma‐Ray Observatory, are high‐energy photon bursts originating in the Earth's atmosphere in association with thunderstorms. In this paper, we demonstrate theoretically that, while TGFs pass through the atmosphere, the large quantities of energetic electrons knocked out by collisions between photons and air molecules generate excited species of neutral and ionized molecules, leading to a significant amount of optical emissions. These emissions represent a novel type of transient luminous events in the vicinity of the cloud tops. We show that this predicted phenomenon illuminates a region with a size notably larger than the TGF source and has detectable levels of brightness. Since the spectroscopic, morphological, and temporal features of this luminous event are closely related with TGFs, corresponding measurements would provide a novel perspective for investigation of TGFs, as well as lightning discharges that produce them.
It has been suggested that the ‘small‐tool’ and microblade Upper Palaeolithic industries coexisted in the Nihewan Basin of northern China for about 8–14 000 years during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2. This inference was based on uranium‐series ages of around 15 and 18 ka for bovid teeth recovered from the ‘latest’ small‐tool site of Xibaimaying – the youngest occurrence of such tools in the region – and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the earliest typical microblade site (Youfang: ∼26–29 ka). In this study, we re‐dated the Xibaimaying site using single‐grain OSL methods and the resulting ages indicate that the cultural layer was deposited 46 ± 3 ka ago, during MIS 3 – more than 20 millennia earlier than previously thought and older also than the so‐called earliest ‘primitive’ and typical microblade tools found at Zhiyu (∼31–39 ka cal BP) and Youfang. These new ages for human occupation of Xibaimaying remove support for the parallel development of the small‐tool and microblade industries in the Nihewan Basin during the Upper Palaeolithic, but reliable age estimates from additional sites are needed to confidently infer the nature of the chronological relationship between these two Upper Palaeolithic industries and the associated toolmakers.
In this study, the geophysical properties of the landslide-prone catchment of the Gaoping River in Taiwan were investigated using zones based on landslide history in conjunction with landslide analysis using a deterministic approach based on the TRIGRS (Transient Rainfall Infiltration and Grid-based Regional Slope-Stability) model. Typhoon Morakot in 2009 was selected as a simulation scenario to calibrate the combination of geophysical parameters in each zone before analyzing changes in the factor of safety (FS). Considering the amount of response time required for typhoons, suitable FS thresholds for landslide warnings are proposed for each town in the catchment area. Typhoon Fanapi of 2010 was used as a test scenario to verify the applicability of the FS as well as the efficacy of the cumulative rainfall thresholds derived in this study. Finally, the amount of response time provided by the FS thresholds in cases of yellow and red alerts was determined. All five of the landslide events reported by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau were listed among the unstable sites identified in the proposed model, thereby demonstrating its effectiveness and accuracy in determining unstable areas and areas that require evacuation. These cumulative rainfall thresholds provide a valuable reference to guide disaster prevention authorities in the issuance of yellow and red alerts with the ability to reduce losses and save lives.
Degree of decomposition is an important property of the organic matter in soils and other deposits which contain fossil carbon. It describes the intensity of transformation, or the humification degree (HD), of the original living organic matter. In this article, approaches to the determination of HD are thoroughly described and C dated peat columns extracted from several bogs in Latvia are investigated and compared. A new humification indicator is suggested, namely the quantity of humic substances as a fraction of the total amount of organic matter in the peat.
The thrust systems in the Himalayan fold thrust belt play a critical role in accommodating the large shortening resulting from ongoing collision between the Indian and the Eurasian plates. In the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya, the Main Central thrust system (MCT) is composed of a structurally higher MCT1, and a lower MCT2 (Bhattacharyya and Mitra, 2011). Each of these faults have translations greater than 100 km that helped carry the overlying MCT sheets within  ~7 km of the mountain front; this is greater than anywhere else in the western Himalaya. The sub-MCT Lesser Himalayan duplex has folded the overlying MCT sheets in a regional antiform-synform pair exposing the fault zone rocks at many structural positions in this region. To evaluate the mechanics of large translations along the fault zone, I studied the MCT2 fault zone rocks from the northern limb of the antiform that is exposed near Dikchu-Rakdong in east  Sikkim.    In this area, the MCT2 is exposed at two strands at Rakdong as an east dipping (~35°,118°) with true thickness 19-840m and at Dikchu (~41o,108°) with true thickness 284-1015m, where the amphibolite grade, quartzo-feldspathic Paro gneiss of the hanging wall has undergone grain size reduction and change in composition to form a quartz-mica mylonite. The footwall rocks are the greenschist grade Daling phyllites of the Lesser Himalayan sequence. The eastward dip is related to the plunge of the structurally underlying Rangit anticline of the Lesser Himalayan duplex (Bhattacharyya & Mitra, 2009). Within the mylonite zone, there is evidence of a stretching lineation along the N-S direction (8°→010°) that is consistent with the regional transport direction. My preliminary study suggests that quartz have undergone grain size reduction dominantly by dislocation creep, while feldspar grains by microfracturing. In addition, sericitization of feldspars is prominent within the mylonite zone. Reaction softening of feldspars to micas in the presence of fluids has been a dominant mechanism which has resulted in strain softening along the MCT and has allowed a large translation within a thin fault zone. The study  shows there is a effect of Rangit duplex in the deformation mechanism of grains.
1. Drain design, suitable for connection to the outlet of the sanitary equipment, construction includes! unitary drainage structure having one axial end adjacent to the drain pipe, the opposite axial end provided with outwardly radial threaded adjacent the attachable sleeve, and between the radially expandable flange; ! wherein the drain structure has an axial passageway extending through an attachable sleeve, flange and drain tube so as to be able to pass liquid from the drainage pipe fittings, if the drainage structure is connected to the outlet and the fluid passes through the outlet. ! 2. The drainage structure of claim 1, wherein the sanitary equipment - a toilet. ! 3. The drainage construction according to claim 1, wherein the radially expandable flange extends radially outwardly further than the attachable sleeve. ! 4. The drainage construction according to claim 1, wherein the drain structure is entirely made of metal. ! 5. The drainage construction according to claim 1, wherein the drain tube has a flat wall portion from the outside, suitable for use in this place the tool to rotate the drain tube along its axis. ! 6. Set of bathrooms and drainage pipes, which includes! WC, having a wash basin and a lower drain outlet, wherein said outlet has an internal axially expandable and provided with a threaded channel which extends from the basin; and! unitary drainage structure having one axial end adjacent to the drain pipe, the opposite axial end which Sleep
This paper deals with the two-way concrete slabs strengthened by the external prestressing technique.The external prestressing's construction properties in two-way slabs are illustrated.Some calculating formulas are also deduced for simply-supported two-way slabs.Studies indicate that the two-way slab's deflection and internal forces can be reduced by using the external prestressing technique,and its strengthening mechanism is obvious.
W osadach czwartorzedowych rowu Kleszczowa zidentyfikowano strukture synklinalną. Ma ona charakter synkliny nadblokowej, nawiązującej bezpośrednio do podloza mezozoicznego. W utworach wypelniających te strukture zaobserwowano liczne deformacje wewnątrzwarstwowe o charakterze faldow ciągnionych, uskokow radialnych i drobnych uskokow kompresyjnych. STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF QUATERNARY SEDIMENTS OF THE CZYŻOW SERIES IN THE ŁĘKIŃSKO ZONE (KLESZCZOW TROUGH) The paper deals with the question of deformations of Quaternary sediments, induced by endogenic movements of the Earth crust. The studies were carried out along cross-sections through the Kleszczow Trough (Fig. 1). Figures 2 and 3 show geological structure of the trough. The structure is characterized by coplanar disturbances of Tertiary and Quaternary sediments: a wide-radius syncline and anticline. Axis of the syncline follows the course of a tectonic depression in Mesozoic basement (Figs. 4, 5) and the syncline is best developed in strata of the Czyzow series. Two stages may be differentiated in development of the Czyzow series. The first stage was connected with its deposition in result of intermittently intense subsidence. The periods of subsidence were broken by those of tectonic quiet, evidenced by numerous erosional surfaces and rhythmically repeating cycles of fluvial and basinal sedimentation in the section (Fig. 7). The minimum value of subsidence in times of deposition of the series is estimated at 30 m. The second stage, completely postdepositional in character, was connected with origin of the syncline in result of intense downwarp of the basement. At that stage the originally flat laying strata of the Czyzow series became bent downwards for about 20 m, and faults corresponding to fractures in the Mesozoic basement originated in limbs of the syncline (Figs. 5, 6). This was accompanied by origin of numerous deformations of the intraformational type, also related to the downwarp. The deformations are especially well developed in the fossil soil horizon (Fig. 7). Folds from limb of the syncline (Figs. 8, 9) are the major structural elements traceable in this horizon. Several tens of such folds were found at distance of 200 m. The folds are characterized by northern vergence, i.e. vergence opposite to inclination of limbs of the syncline, and amplitude decreasing both upwards and downwards. This shows that they originated under sedimentary cover, i.e. are postdepositional. They cannot be interpreted as disturbances due to gravitational sliding but rather typical drag folds, with geometry matching the model of M.G. Ramsay (1967). The drag folds are accompanied by discontinuous disturbances. Minor compressional faults are known from cores of the folds (Fig. 10). Vergence of the faults is opposite to that of folds. The faults originated possibly due to differentiated response of water-saturated sediments to deformation, depending on granulation and structure of sediments. The set of faults found in the axis of the syncline (Fig. 11) is of the tensional type. The faults are vertical and sometimes open in upper parts. Their geometry resembles that of the so-called radial hinge faults (A.M. Johnson, 1976; M.G. Ramsay, 1967). The structural inventory of the syncline formed in the Czyzow series and location of drag folds, radial faults and other fractures (Fig. 12) indicate that we are dealing with structural assemblage typical of synclines developed above basement blocks.
Upwelling along the Java‐Sumatra Indian Ocean coasts is a response to regional winds associated with the monsoon climate. The upwelling center with low sea surface temperature migrates westward and toward the equator during the southeast monsoon (June to October). The migration path depends on the seasonal evolution of alongshore winds and latitudinal changes in the Coriolis parameter. Upwelling is eventually terminated due to the reversal of winds associated with the onset of the northwest monsoon and impingement of Indian Ocean equatorial Kelvin waves. Significant interannual variability of the Java‐Sumatra upwelling is linked to ENSO through the Indonesian throughflow (ITF) and by anomalous easterly wind. During El Niño episodes, the Java‐Sumatra upwelling extends in both time (into November) and space (closer to the equator). During El Nino (La Niña), the ITF carries colder (warmer) water shallowing (deepening) thermocline depth and enhancing (reducing) upwelling strength.
Determining the Late Cretaceous paleomagnetic pole for North America has been difficult because of the lack of suitable rocks of that age in cratonic areas to provide the necessary data. As an alternative, different studies have appealed to paleomagnetic data from rocks in western North America. Using paleopoles from stable areas in neighboring continents, it is suggested that the available Late Cretaceous paleomagnetic record in western North America should be analyzed in terms of rigid body deformations rather than be used to represent the cratonic reference field.
The Palliser Formation of western Canada constitutes a giant, tropical carbonate platform of Famennian age. Although now mostly composed of peloids, aggregates, intraclasts, and cortoids, a major proportion of these micritic particles originally consisted of bioclasts, primarily crinoidal, that were obliterated by bioerosion. Analogous to modern tropical environments, microendoliths may have proliferated on this platform during widespread mesotrophic conditions owing to excess nutrients derived from the developing Ellesmerian orogen in the Canadian Arctic. The orogeny was coincident with profound changes in the middle Paleozoic biosphere due to increased pedogenesis accompanying the spread of deep-rooting gymnosperms. This evolutionary event may have resulted in the disturbance of the ecological balance in epicontinental seas by causing enhanced nutrient mobilization and riverine nutrient flux. This precursor to the observed Mesozoic increase in bioerosion hides a bountiful, although low-diversity, skeleton- secreting benthos on the Famennian platform, thereby concealing the extent of the Late Devonian faunal crisis and its recovery.
Clay mineral recording plentiful environmental information of source areas during the course of its formation is one of the deposits distributed extensively on the surface of the earth.According to the contents and assembiling changes of clay minerals,the rules of paleoclimate evolution can be inferred,and the paleoenvironment can be reconstructed.So,clay mineral is one of the important proxy indexes for studying the paleoenvironment evolution,the same as loess,ice core and tree ring,In arid region where there are no other proxy indexes such as loess,ice core,tree ring and so on,clay minerals may be the most important proxy to be used to reconstruct paleoclimate.Thus,it can be seen that clay minerals will have a vast application prospect in the future study on paleoenvironment evolution.
Scientific editing by Mike Hambrey.  D. A. G. Nowell writes: The discovery by ⇓Velegrakis et al. (1999) of buried offshore channels in Poole and Christchurch Bays, some of which cut the line of the Purbeck–Isle of Wight monocline, is a most welcome development. However, the implications of this in terms of the evolution of the Solent River and detachment history of the Isle of Wight from the mainland have not been fully developed, as the authors have ignored both the detailed offshore maps of the area (⇓⇓BGS 1990, 1995) and the likely effect of faulting along the length of this monocline (⇓Nowell 1995).  The shallow seismic (sparker) method used by ⇓Velegrakis et al. (1999) to identify features within a few metres of the sea bed cannot be used with any certainty to pick out the marine boundaries of the Chalk subcrop along the Purbeck–Isle of Wight monocline. This can be illustrated by comparing the first (⇓IGS 1977) and second (⇓BGS 1995) editions of marine geological maps, since with ⇓Velegrakis et al. (1999) the first edition puts the chalk outcrop too far north compared with the second edition (⇓Fig. 1) and ⇓Underhill & Paterson (1998). This error can result from the Tertiary formations just to the north of the Chalk being vertical on the Isle of Wight or slightly overturned (120°N), as ⇓Curry (1942) found at Gunville brickyard [SZ 477/9 885]. It is easier on deeper seismic records to pick out the near vertical boundaries at some depth and follow or project them upwards on to the sea bed. When the correct alignment for the Chalk (⇓BGS 1995) is plotted with …
It has been observed in field and laboratory conditions that failure of intact hard rocks at highly confined compression can be accompanied by abnormal violence. Under both of these conditions the failure process is associated with shear rupture development. David Ortlepp, who acquired more than 40 years of experience in the study of shear rupture rockbursts in deep and ultra-deep South African mines, emphasized this phenomenon (Ortlepp, 1997; Ortlepp et al., 2005): ‘All rockbursts, by definition, involve sudden and often violent displacement of rock. Occasionally however, larger incidents cause damage of such intense violence that it seems that our knowledge of the mechanism of damage is completely inadequate.’ Special field studies (Gay and Ortlepp, 1979; McGarr et al., 1979) have revealed that shear ruptures causing abnormally violent rockbursts are created in intact rock mass. An important f f eature is that they nucleate in zones o highly confined compression that are some distance away from excavation (on the excavation surface the minor stress is equal to zero). It was shown that these mine tremors and earthquakes share the apparent paradox of failure at low shear stresses, while laboratory measurements indicate high material strengths (McGarr et al., 1979). Recent laboratory studies of post-peak failure of hard rocks (characterized by uniaxial compressive strength above 250 MPa) at highly confined compression (σ1 > σ2 = σ3 when σ3 > 50 MPa) support Ortlepp’s idea about inadequate understanding of the failure mechanism at these loading conditions (Tarasov, 2008, 2010; Tarasov and Randolph, 2008, 2011). Some observed abnormalities that cannot be explained on the basis of conventional approach are presented in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 shows two sets of generic stressstrain curves for different levels of confining pressure σ3. Figure 1a represents the conventional (well-studied) rock behaviour associated with increasing post-peak ductility with rising σ3. For clarity, the variation of the post-peak curves is indicated by dotted lines. Figure 1b represents the unconventional type of rock behaviour. Here, increasing σ3 can lead to a contradictory variation of post-peak properties. In fact, rock behaviour can be changed from Class I to extreme Class II and then to Class I again. Class I is characterized by a negative post-peak modulus M = dσ/d∈, and Class II by positive (Wawersik and Fairhurst, 1970). At extreme Class II behaviour, values of postpeak modulus M and elastic modulus E = dσ/d∈ can be very close, indicating extremely small post-peak rupture energy (compare Fan-structure shear rupture mechanism as a source of shear rupture rockbursts
Abstract Digital optical televiewing (OPTV) of hot-water-drilled boreholes is evaluated as a technique for the investigation of englacial ice and debris structures on the basis of six boreholes drilled in the terminus region of midre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. The resulting OPTV logs successfully reveal several visually distinctive englacial ice properties and deformation structures (e.g. oblique englacial fractures imaged here for the first time). Combining these OPTV logs with surface mapping has resulted in the identification of eight separate structural elements, several of which can be interpolated onto 3-D grids at a node spacing of 1 m vertically and 10 m horizontally. Basally derived englacial sediment layers are also found to be intercalated with primary stratification, elevated into near-vertical planes around a central fold axis by large-scale lateral folding. The analysis also allows supraglacial longitudinal debris ridges to be subclassified into two types: a previously described (type-I) form, which are the exposed fold axes of large-scale lateral folds, and a new (type-II) form experiencing secondary deformation by small-scale horizontal folding in association with vertical displacements across arcuate shear planes in response to longitudinally compressive stresses near the glacier terminus. Although using boreholes to investigate glacier structure is limited (e.g. by parallelism with vertical planes), applying OPTV to multiple boreholes at midre Lovénbreen has successfully revealed a range of 3-D structural elements at high spatial resolution. As such, interpolating between multiple OPTV logs overcomes many of the problems associated with interpretations made solely on the basis of surface-based structural mapping, and combining the two techniques represents a powerful glaciological tool.
Based on the geological features,occurrence features of high-grade rutile orebodies,rutile occurrence state,distribution feature,grain size variation in Liugang deposit,experimental research on adopting new technology for rutile ore had been carried out.High-grade rutile orebodies were at the upper part of first Member of Zuolaozhuang Formation.The ore-bearing rocks were mainly biotite-hornblende schist and biotite-plagioclase-hornblende schist.Rutile was mainly embedded between rutile gangue minerals such as graininess of the hornblende and the feldspar,assuming self half shape post shapes much,owing post the shape.Using the dressing technical process of scrubbing-gravity concentration-magnetic separation-gravity concentration-microorganism,the concentrate of RTiO2 91.07% with a recovery of RTiO2 70.55% was obtained.New method for micro-purification-depth study of rutile could be used as breakthrough of development and utilization of rutile ore in Nanzhao-Biyang rutile ore belt.
A marine sediment core from the leeward margin of Great Bahama Bank (GBB) was subjected to a multiproxy study. The aragonite dominated core MD992201 comprises the past 7230 years in a decadal time resolution and shows sedimentation rates of up to 13.8 m/kyr. Aragonite mass accumulation rates, age differences between planktonic foraminifera and aragonite sediments, and temperature distribution are used to deduce changes in aragonite production rates and paleocurrent strengths. Aragonite precipitation rates on GBB are controlled by exchange of carbonate ions and CO2 loss due to temperature-salinity conditions and biological activity, and these are dependent on the current strength. Paleocurrent strengths on GBB show high current velocities during the periods 6000–5100 years BP, 3500–2700 years BP, and 1600–700 years BP; lower current speeds existed during the time intervals 5100–3500 years BP, 2700–1600 years BP, and 700–100 years BP. Bahamian surface currents are directly linked to the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation, and thus periods with high (low) current speeds are proposed to be phases of strong (weak) atmospheric circulation.
This case study intends to estimate the probability of chloride-corrosion initiation over time in a reinforced concrete pier constructed in Brazil in 2005. A reliability approach utilizing the aid of Microsoft Excel Visual Basic (VBA) was performed, utilizing Monte Carlo simulations. A semiempirical model based on fib (2006) was applied. The results show an inadequate serviceability of the pier during its design life. It was noticed the probability of corrosion initiation is highly dependent on surface chloride concentration. These results utilizing data from 2010 imply that early maintenance of marine structures can be more economical, but new measurements of the surface chloride concentration would imply different results. This paper is a benchmark for future design of marine structures.
The production of hydrocarbon luids is via production system. The production system has diferent parts with diferent features. Assurance in optimized performance of this system is requiring precise knowledge of its diferent parts. The production system can be categorized into three major parts. These are Inlow that related to luid low through porous media, vertical well low (from sand face to the wellhead choke), and low through surface facility. By using available models, any part of production system can be modeled. Inlow information of production system such as reservoir pressure and temperature, luid type and porous media characteristics and vertical well low information (well geometry and pressure control devices) can be used to model the production system. After modeling of the production system, any problem can be speciied and then proper methods are applied to rectify the system. Selecting proper tubing and wellhead choke sizes are essential to maximize reserve recovery in depletion drive oil reservoirs. In this study two wells of an oil reservoir were analyzed to determine optimum tubing and choke sizes for production optimization. Database bank consists of lowing, static and buildup test were utilized. Data were analyzed with PANSYS and PIPSEIM software. Nodal analysis technique was used to analyze tubing and choke sizes for these wells. Also, efects of skin damage change on IPR curve and well deliverability were examined.
All Dutch rift basins that formed during Jurassic and Early Cretaceous extension have been inverted during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary. Several inversion pulses occurred more or less simultaneously in all basins. Analysis of vitrinite reflectance data, in combination with fission track and fluid inclusion data show that the magnitude of uplift and erosion generally did not exceed 2 km. Inversion was strongest in the Broad Fourteens, Central Netherlands and West Netherlands basins. The direction of maximum compressive stress was generally not at right angles to the pre-existing fault trends, and resulted in transpressional movements. Within the NW-SE striking basins, dextral strike-slip movements can often be interpreted, which is consistent with a general N-S to NNW-SSE direction of maximum compression related to Alpine structural events. Where no Zechstein salt is present, trends of flower structures formed through reverse reactivation of pre-existing faults. Where the Zechstein salt is thick, re-activated faults could not breach the salt, and a broad uplift of the post-salt succession resulted, while faulting below the salt caused acceleration of halokinesis. In areas where the Zechstein salt was thin, and where the offsets of reverse faults exceeded the thickness of the salt, impressive thrusts with the Zechstein salt as detachment horizon developed. The later Tertiary inversion pulses did not affect all basins, and caused broad basin uplift in the West and Central Netherlands basins while individual faults were no longer reactivated. It appears that due to crustal thickening during the first inversion pulses the crust could become stabilised such that further compression could only be accommodated by broad basin uplift.
The lower tertiary which is made up of igneous rocks conglomerates sands, shales and limestones forms an anticlinal with sorne structural complications Toluviejo nearby. Thickness of the limestones rangcs between 10 and 60 meters and the tenor of calcium (CaO) always is more than 50%. There are facies lateral changes giving rise to a quarzitic sandstone with calcareous cement and very abundant fossil fragments made up of molusca and foraminifera mainly. These variations are local at least as far as the region is concern. Extension, tenor of calcium, explotation advantages and transport facilities make these limestones good to the industry.
The current trends in marine 3D data acquisition towards improved productivity, reduced cycle-time and enhanced quality control are driving seismic service companies to pursue more sophisticated techniques than have previously been used. The three goals identified above have principally been achieved by deploying multiple source and streamer configurations. In addition, enhanced positioning techniques, such as underwater acoustic systems, have been introduced together with stricter quality control over a significantly increased volume of position measurements.
New evidence suggests that two major extensional basins were formed at the same time during the Jurassic in Mexico: the Gulf of Mexico Basin and the Arperos Basin of central Mexico. How those were interacting and how they were accommodated between subduction at the Pacific Coast and rifting of the Atlantic are the topic of our research. Preliminary results on the stratigraphy and sandstone provenance of Early Jurassic– Cretaceous clastic basins along a transect from Huayacocotla to Guanajuato has shown: (1) they were continental to the east and marine to the west; (2) they have a short time span of deposition and are followed by carbonate sedimentation; (3) if they recorded volcanism, it has small volumes and is felsic in composition; (4) some were exhumed and shed sediments to younger clastic basins that evolved toward the west; and (5) their ages range from post-Pliensbachian (Xaltipa and Cahuasas) to the east to Berriasian (Arperos Basin). Their setting suggests that they were related to strike slip faults, and were not aulacogens or simple rift basins as previously suggested. The Arperos Basin was a deep marine back arc basin, as evidenced by deep marine volcaniclastic turbidites and radiolarian chert. Preliminary results suggest that the ‘continental’ crust of Mexico experienced higher rates of transtension-extension toward the west, probably related to higher heat flow associated to coeval active subduction. These models need further testing.
The Sharang porphyry Mo deposit is the first discovered Mo porphyry‐type deposit in the Gangdese Metallogenic Belt. The orebody is hosted by the Eocene multi‐stage composite intrusive complex which is emplaced in the Upper Permian Mengla Formation and cut by the Miocene dykes. Granite porphyry is recognized as the ore‐bearing porphyry in the complex, which consists of quartz diorite, quartz monzonite, granite, prophyritic granite and post‐mineral lamprophyre. Granodiorite porphyry and dacite porphyry intrude the granite porphyry. Geochemical data indicate that Sharang complex has a High‐K calc‐alkalinc to shoshonitic, metaluminous to slightly peraluminous composition. The Sharang complex rocks are enriched in large ion lithophile elements, depleted in high‐field strength elements, Nb, Sr, P and Ti. REE patterns show slight enrichments in light REE relative to heavy REE and weak negative Eu anomalies. All rocks in this complex have a wide range of initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.705605∼0.712496) and lower εNd(t) values (−0.61∼−7.80). The geochemical data suggest highly oxidized‐evolved magma and old continental materials may have been the magma source for the Sharang intrusive complex that host porphyry Mo mineralization. Eocene pre‐ore and ore‐forming rocks at Sharang may have formed by partial melting of mantle wedge and by mixing with old continental crust at the lower crust level. In contrast the post‐ore rocks may have formed by partial melting of enriched lithospheric mantle.
In the article features of development of the changed rocks at the border of pre-Jurassic formations and the Western Siberian plateau mantle are characterised. Palaeozoic residual soils widespread within Nyurolskaya, Silginskaya and Tom-Kolyvanskaja structurally facial zones have trinomial stratification: the hydrolysis zone, the leaching zone and the hydration zone. The best collectors are rocks of the leaching zone
ABSTRACT Austin, M.J.; Scott, T.M.; Russell, P.E., and Masselink, G., 2013. Rip current prediction: development, validation, and evaluation of an operational tool. This contribution details the development, validation, and evaluation of an operational rip current prediction tool. Field measurements of rip current dynamics from a macrotidal beach in the southwest U.K. collected over 87 tidal cycles indicate that the rip currents are highly dynamic over a range of temporal and spatial scales. The morphology of the lower intertidal beach face provides the primary spatial control of the rip currents, whereas the variation in the pattern of wave dissipation due to the tidal translation of the surf zone at spring-neap and semidiurnal frequencies is the principle temporal control. The Lagrangian drift pattern associated with the rip currents displays three key behaviors: rotation, alongshore, and exit. Rotation and exit are observed under moderate conditions, whereas strong alongshore-directed currents prevail during energetic conditions. An operational regional wave model is used to force a two-dimensional horizontal (2D-H) nonstationary model for coupled wave propagation and flow to predict the rip current speed and behavior. The model is calibrated using measured Eulerian field data, and the resultant circulation patterns are validated against measured Lagrangian data. The model was run for a 2-month hindcast period, and the flow speed and behavioral output were combined to allocate a rip current hazard rating. The model performance was evaluated against beach lifeguard incident statistics; 64% of recorded incidents occurred under predicted high-risk conditions, and 36% occurred during medium-risk conditions. The rip hazard prediction model was subsequently run in forecast mode to provide an example of operational-type output.
A hanging pocket 1 with a slot opening situated at its top end is attached to a surface 2 with the attachment between the surface and the pocket's upper region being stronger than that between the surface and the pocket's lower region. In the event of high deceleration in travelling speed, the lower region of the pocket becomes detached, whilst the upper region remains attached, having the effect that objects stored in the pocket will not be thrown out of the pocket.
Step-by-step numerical integration method developed and applied to determination of response to digitized record of N-S component of the 1940 El Centro earthquake of a typical New Zealand 6-story single-bay reinforced concrete rigid frame, assuming idealized elasto-plastic moment-rotation properties for beam and column members. Elasto-plastic responses are compared with extended elastic behavior. It is shown that although character of elasto-plastic responses is similar to extended elastic predictions, magnitudes of maximum displacements are significantly greater in extended elastic cases. Plastic deformations are found to concentrate in weakest members. It is shown to be possible to restrict yielding to beams and base of bottom columns by having relatively low yield moments at these sections. Member ductility requirements are shown to be quite small, only barely exceeding 6 in one case.
A vehicle seating assembly has a first trim piece including a flange having a first side with intermittently-spaced elongate protrusions and a second side with intermittently-spaced attachment elements. A second trim piece including an inner wall having intermittently-spaced retention windows and an outer wall having an elongate channel disposed on an inner wall surface thereof, the inner and outer walls defining a cavity therebetween. The flange engages the cavity such that the intermittently-spaced elongate protrusions are removably engaged with the elongate channel and the intermittently-spaced attachment elements are removably engaged with the intermittently-spaced retention windows. An airbag deployment system is positioned proximate the first and second trim pieces and configured to deploy an airbag between the first and second trim pieces.
A base plate fastening device and method for a PC(Pre-stressed Concrete) railroad tie are provided to adjust or maintain the rail gauge by installing eccentric bushes comprising tapered tubular bodies, and annular flanges into eccentric through holes on the base plate. In a fastening device using screw spikes to fasten a base plate(51) for a PC railroad tie, the base plate has through holes(53) drilled through upper and lower surfaces of the base plate. Eccentric bushes(55), or double eccentric bushes are inserted into the through holes. The eccentric bushes include tubular bodies(59) having preset diameters and lengths, annular flanges(61) disposed on an outer circumference of an upper end of the tubular bodies, and a tapered outer surface(63).
Phenomenon of Hill karst have the characteristic with the characteristic predominated by limestone contain the calcite and dolomit. This rock have a lot of usefulness and its benefit. Strive to identify the swampy forest of hill karst conducted by using image from application SAS.PLANET.RELEASE.160707. Visible of Area of hill karst and its dale can be perceived better at image, so that earn the confirmation with the field condition. Area of Hill karst in Region of Regency of Sijunjung visible enough vary to start from there are; permanent wellspring, dolin, uvala, polje, lake, underground river, speleotem, and aquifer, up to area karst which visiblelity have been closed by thick sediment coat. Phenomenon of resident Life in region Sijunjung which still predominate by primary sector. Needed  approach empowermant to be they interaction can environmentally ecosystem functionally.Phenomenon of Hill karst have the characteristic with the characteristic predominated by limestone contain the calcite and dolomit. This rock have a lot of usefulness and its benefit. Strive to identify the swampy forest of hill karst conducted by using image from application SAS.PLANET.RELEASE.160707. Visible of Area of hill karst and its dale can be perceived better at image, so that earn the confirmation with the field condition. Area of Hill karst in Region of Regency of Sijunjung visible enough vary to start from there are; permanent wellspring, dolin, uvala, polje, lake, underground river, speleotem, and aquifer, up to area karst which visiblelity have been closed by thick sediment coat. Phenomenon of resident Life in region Sijunjung which still predominate by primary sector. Needed  approach empowermant to be they interaction can environmentally ecosystem functionally.
A wing (101) having one end outwardly (103) and defining a plane of the wing, and wingtip device attached to the end to the outside of the wing, the wingtip device comprising: a shaped element upper flange (104) fixed for non-mobile relative to the wing and projecting upwardly from the plane of the wing, the element having shaped upper wing a trailing edge; and a shaped element lower flange (107) fixed so that it is not movable relative to the shaped element upper flange (104), the shaped element lower flange a root chord (112) and a trailing edge , intersecting the root chord element shaped lower flange (112) the shaped element upper flange (104) and projecting the shaped element lower flange (107) downward from the intersection, characterized in that the element shaped upper flange (104) is larger than the shaped element lower flange (107) and the trailing edge of the shaped element lower flange (107) is adjacent the trailing edge of the element wing-shaped top ( 104) at the intersection, and wherein an included angle between the elements shaped upper flange (104) and lower (107) at the intersection on the side outward from the wingtip device in the spanwise is less or equal to 160 degrees.
For dam built on the deep overburden layer, stress field and seepage field affect each other during the process of filling and impoundment. Stress-seepage coupling should be considered in the FEM in order to obtain exact solution. Taking a core wall dam built on deep overburden as an example,combined with the theory of stress-seepage coupling, the finite element model is established. Through calculation and analysis, the obtained regularity of the deformation and stress of dam and the obtained regularity of the porosity and the osmotic coefficient of overburden layer are worthy of reference.
Introduction: Modeling of the surface stresses on Europa has been performed to date, considering tidal, nonsynchronous, and polar wander sources of stress [3-6]. The results of such models can be used to match lineament orientation with the candidate stress patterns. Moreover, stratigraphic analysis can be used in combination with stress modeling to infer the evolution of Europa’s surface back through time [9,12]. We are creating a surface stress model for Europa (in MATLAB) that will facilitate comparison of principal stresses to lineament orientation, and which will be available in the public domain. Modeling Surface Stresses: Nonsynchronous rotation and diurnal stresses contribute to a stress pattern that affects the surface of Europa, each on a very different time scale. Over the 85-hour orbital period, the diurnal stress pattern acts on the surface, with a maximum magnitude of ~40 kPa [21]. The nonsynchronous stress pattern sweeps over the surface due to the faster rotation of the icy shell as compared to the tidally locked interior of the moon, and occurs with a period of >10,000 years [21]. Polar wander (reorientation of the icy shell with respect to the axis of rotation) may contribute to the surface stress pattern on Europa [4]. When added, the resulting stress pattern can be used to predict the orientations of lineaments, as well as the regions within which faulting should occur [e.g. 3]. Mechanisms and timescales for reorientation of the icy shell of Europa have been considered using various geophysical models [16-21]. One approach toward understanding the surface stresses on Europa is to determine the stress difference induced by a change in flattening [e.g. 4]. We employ a different method, based on calculating the surface stresses from the Love numbers. Stressing the surface of a planetary body can be modeled by calculating the vector components of displacement s at the surface, which are functions of the potential V:
As the first application of the method of Hashida and Shimazaki (J. Phys. Earth, 32, 299-316, 1984), a three-dimensional seismic attenuation structure and source strengths are estimated by inversion of seismic intensity data for earthquakes that occurred in the Tohoku district, Japan. We carefully selected 1, 630 intensity data from 101 earthquakes so that the intensities are consistent with accelerations converted from Kawasumi's relation and so that a well-resolved attenuation structure is obtained. A reasonable fit of the formula proposed in our preceding paper to the actual intensity data guarantees that a systematically biased attenuation structure is not obtained. A comparison of the obtained attenuation structure with velocity structures estimated by previous studies shows that high (low) Q nearly corresponds to high (low) V. The correlation of both structures indicates that the attenuation structure estimated by the proposed method is reliable. The resultant attenuation structure shows a remarkable contrast in the attenuation coefficient and two prominent features. The first feature is low-Q zones down to a depth of 90 km, which corresponds to the distribution of volcanoes. The second is high-Q zones that correspond to the subducting Pacific slab. The high-Q slab is in contact with the high-Q zone in a depth range of 30-60 km, which lies on the east side of the volcanic front. The presence of high-stress earthquakes in this depth range, such as the 1978 Miyagi-ken-oki earthquake, is explained by a model in which the contact of the underthrusting Pacific plate with the surface high-Q zone accumulates higher stress and thus causes stronger seismic coupling. The estimated source strength, which is expressed as a point source acceleration, correlates well with earthquake magnitude. Normalized source acceleration, which is an average acceleration over a source area, is estimated. The acceleration suggests that the stress drop of an earthquake becomes higher with magnitude and with depth. The relation between JMA magnitude (MJ) and seismic intensity at a hypocentral distance of 100 km (I100) is found to be I100=1.5 MJ-6.5 for crustal events. This I100 is in agreement with the value reported by Utsu (Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst., 59, 219-233, 1984) which was determined from events excluding those which show anomalous distributions of intensity data. This agreement suggests that our method of estimating earthquake magnitude from intensity data is effective for removing the effect of structure.
Abstract— We present combined multi‐spectral imager (MSI) (0.95 μm) and near‐infrared spectrometer (NIS) (0.8–2.4 μm) observations of Psyche crater on S‐type asteroid 433 Eros obtained by the Near‐Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)—Shoemaker spacecraft. At 5.3 km in diameter, Psyche is one of the largest craters on Eros which exhibit distinctive brightness patterns consistent with downslope motion of dark regolith material overlying a substrate of brighter material. At spatial scales of 620 m/ spectrum, Psyche crater wall materials exhibit albedo contrasts of 32–40% at 0.946 μm. Associated spectral variations occur at a much lower level of 4–8% (±2–4%). We report results of scattering model and lunar analogy investigations into several possible causes for these albedo and spectral trends: grain size differences, olivine, pyroxene, and troilite variations, and optical surface maturation. We find that the albedo contrasts in Psyche crater are not consistent with a cause due solely to variations in grain size, olivine, pyroxene or lunar‐like optical maturation. A grain size change sufficient to explain the observed albedo contrasts would result in strong color variations that are not observed. Olivine and pyroxene variations would produce strong band‐correlated variations that are not observed. A simple lunar‐like optical maturation effect would produce strong reddening that is not observed. The contrasts and associated spectral variation trends are most consistent with a combination of enhanced troilite (a dark spectrally neutral component simulating optical effects of shock) and lunar‐like optical maturation. These results suggest that space weathering processes may affect the spectral properties of Eros materials, causing surface exposures to differ optically from subsurface bedrock. However, there are significant spectral differences between Eros' proposed analog meteorites (ordinary chondrites and/or primitive achondrites), and Eros' freshest exposures of subsurface bright materials. After accounting for all differences in the measurement units of our reflectance comparisons, we have found that the bright materials on Eros have reflectance values at 0.946 μm consistent with meteorites, but spectral continua that are much redder than meteorites from 1.5 to 2.4 μm. Most importantly, we calculate that average Eros surface materials are 30–40% darker than meteorites.
At the complex structures(upper shear wall & lower frame) subjected to seismic load, stress concentrations develop st the vertical joint by difference between upper stiffness and lower stiffness. So, soft story phenomena, which are lower stiffness and higher story drift than higher parts, develop at lower frame parts. But there are no Korean provision for the soft story phenomena. Therefore, referring to latest American provisions(UBC-94), this study shall contemplated soft story phenomena by equivalent static forces procedure as seismic load condition. This study presents effective method that increase story stiffness to reduce soft story phenomena. Increasig column stiffness to control story drift ratio is insufficient, therefore lower frame parts need shear wall construction. When the same quantity of shear wall are arranged, using staggered shear wall is better effective than vertical continuous shear wall.
As Alberta's W. Pembina play picks up speed, Canadian operators disagree on how much oil ultimately will be found--but all indicators read big. Gaging the progress of the play has been reduced to educated guesswork, due to provincial rules which permit discovery-well data to be kept confidential for one year. Even so, it is generally conceded that the play is Canada's best in 12 yr. Some industry sources predict that the play, involving so far a series of Devonian pinnacle reef discoveries mixed with a few Mississippi strikes, eventually will total one billion barrels of oil or more. That compares with total proved reserves of 6.25 billion bbl throughout Canada. The deep-zone seismic trend has drawn about 36 rigs--more than one-tenth of all rigs active in W. Canada--and nearly as many seismic crews. More than 12 discoveries and at least 6 dry holes have been drilled in the year-old play. About 50 more holes have been staked or are being drilled. Industry sources suggest W. Pembina's greatest long-term impact will be to encourage operators to prove formations underlying well-established fields which produce at relatively shallow depths. The play covers a 900-sq-mile area, west, north, and northwest of Pembina field. Seismicmore » surveys are fanning out to the west, north, and south.« less
In exploration of engineering geology, shearwave velocity is one of the key parameters, which is tightly related to parameters of geotechnique dynamics. The paper presents a inversion method of shearware velocity by using adaptively iterative damping least square method, which divides the subsurface into thin layers with the weighting matrix determined by equivalent thickness. The method can improve inversion accuracy of shear wave velocity and construct the 2D shear wave velocity section. The trial results of nondestructive inspection by the method for the compacting effect of some highway show the consistence with those of drilling and excavetion.
When natural slope is disturbed by human activity such as road construction and infrastructure, continuous landslide monitoring is important to prevent loss of material and life. Therefore, this study aims to determine the landslide material, the possible sliding surface and the influence of groundwater on the landslide occurrence. Low cost monitoring landslide is performed which is vertical electrical sounding (VES) and seismic refraction methods. Case study in Kisikli district, Antalya Province, Mediterranean Region of Turkey. VES survey was performed using Schlumberger electrode array at six locations. VES results interpretation leads to detect of maximum five geo-electrical layers. First, second and third layers represent saturated and permeable layer, while fourth and fifth layers correspond to an impermeable layer. Seismic refraction measurements were carried out on three profile layers. Low velocity and elastic parameters relatively correspond to the permeable materials in near surface with thickness about 4-5 m higher porosity. The integrated of VES and seismic survey allows mapping the weathered material at depth and providing depth information of the sliding surface which occurs at a depth between approximately 5 m and 20 m.
Many published values for the aluminium contents of displaced solutions and extracts from soils at varying pH values have been examined and found to be quite compatible with recent findings that A1OH2+, Al(OH)2+, or their polymers are dissolution products from aluminium hydroxide. Variation of phosphate content has also been considered and no case can be made for the presence of variscite in the systems examined. As far as aluminium compounds are concerned, the evidence is in favour of sorption of phosphate by the aluminium oxyhydroxide surfaces in the soil.
Antarctica was a center piece of the Gondwana supercontinent. About 85 percent of Antarcticas 10000 km long continental margins are of a rifted divergent type, and about 1200 km have been converted from a subduction-type to a passive margin after ridge-trench collision along the Pacific side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The separation of South America, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand from Antarctica and the creation of a continuous Southern Ocean began in the Jurassic and continued until the mid Tertiary. In recent years, the amount of geophysical data along the continental margin of Antarctica has increased substantially, which allows to differentiate the crustal characteristics of its continent-ocean boundaries and transitional zones (COB/COT). The data and geodynamic modelling indicate that the cause, style and process of breakup and separation were quite different along the Antarctic margin. A circum-Antarctic map will show the crustal styles or the margin and the location and geophysical characteristics of the COT. About 70 percent of the rifted passive margins contain extended continental crust stretching more than 50 km oceanwards of the shelf edge. Most of these extended margins have a continent-ocean transition with a width of more than 100 km, in many cases up to 300 km. The total area of extended continental crust on the shelf and oceanwards of the shelf edge, including COTs with substantial syn-rift magmatic-volcanic accretion, can be estimated to be about 2.9 x 106 km2. This has implications for improved plate-kinematic and paleobathymetric reconstructions and provides new constraints for accurate calculations of isostatic responses along the Antarctic margin.
Abstract. A high-resolution seismic tomography survey was acquired to obtain a full 3-D P-wave seismic velocity image in the Záncara river basin (eastern Spain). The study area consists of lutites and gypsum from a Neogene sedimentary sequence. A regular and dense grid of 676 shots and 1200 receivers was used to image a 500 m×500 m area of the shallow subsurface. A 240-channel system and a seismic source, consisting of an accelerated weight drop, were used in the acquisition. Half a million travel-time picks were inverted to provide the 3-D seismic velocity distribution up to 120 m depth. The project also targeted the geometry of the underground structure with emphasis on defining the lithological contacts but also the presence of cavities and fault or fractures. An extensive drilling campaign provided uniquely tight constraints on the lithology; these included core samples and wireline geophysical measurements. The analysis of the well log data enabled the accurate definition of the lithological boundaries and provided an estimate of the seismic velocity ranges associated with each lithology. The final joint interpreted image reveals a wedge-shaped structure consisting of four different lithological units. This study features the necessary key elements to test the travel time tomographic inversion approach for the high-resolution characterization of the shallow subsurface. In this methodological validation test, travel-time tomography demonstrated to be a powerful tool with a relatively high capacity for imaging in detail the lithological contrasts of evaporitic sequences located at very shallow depths, when integrated with additional geological and geophysical data.
Abstract The paper presents results of research based on analysis of marine icing nomograms, models and charts using in the sea navigation. The problem of ships icing occurs in specific weather and geographical conditions. Every year numbers of vessels navigate in these areas meet a phenomenon of icing. Ice on decks of ships can be formed from fresh water or sea (salt) water. Ships operating in waters where the phenomime of icing is occurred use for safety navigation icing nomograms and icing charts. Icing charts are created based on icing models. The main aim of the article is to perform a review of currently used in the sea navigation icing nomograms and icing maps, based on icing models, used in navigation to depict the phenomenon of icing.
Bone plate (100) comprises a first 3 combinations bore extending through a proximal portion of the plate (110), the first portion (112) was threaded the bone anchoring element (122) is configured to engage a head portion, a second portion (114) is configured to receive a bone fixation element along a substantially vertical axis (126) to the longitudinal axis of the bone, and , third portion (116) toward the distal end of the first of the non-vertical angle that the elongated with respect to the vertical axis in combination with 2 parts combined holes (138) body extending through the proximal portion defining a threaded shaft extending first threaded portion (140) is configured to engage a bone fixation element (122) threaded head portion and a second portion of (142) is, the plate slides along its longitudinal axis relative to the bone anchoring element Preparative As can, for receiving the bone anchoring element, which defines a slot elongated extending along the longitudinal axis of the plate. .The 25
Summary Field drainage methods have been investigated on soils in the Sava River Basin, Yugoslavia, which have a well-permeable topsoil of about 0.3 m underlain by an impermeable subsoil. The systems tried are tube drainage at about 1.0 m depth, surface drainage with open field ditches and mole drainage. Under rainfall horizontal flow through the topsoil takes place. The formulas for both the steady and non-steady state that apply to this flow have been presented. These formulas together with field observations about accessibility of the fields have rendered it possible to derive the drainage requirements for the climatological conditions and the soils as prevalent in the area. In selecting the most suitable type of drainage system, the intended mechanization of agriculture has played a role. Partly because of this mechanization, subsurface drains are to be preferred; other factors in favour of subsurface drains are that they provide better drainage than surface drains, particularly during reclamation and the first years of cropping. In addition, subsurface drainage is expected to be more profitable than the other two systems although it requires a higher initial investment. Under the soil conditions as prevailing in the area, flow over the surface is likely to occur. The factors determining the peak discharges of field drains have been discussed.
A fossil colony of the shallow-water, hermatypic scleractinian coral Galaxea clavus (Dana) was collected by research submersible in situ from a prominent terrace 175 m below present sea level along the margin of the Australian continental shelf. Radiometric ages obtained from the original skeletal aragonite indicate that sometime between 13,000 and 17,000 years ago, sea level was glacioeustatically lowered to at least -175 m. Oxygen isotope ratios of carbonate from the fossil Galaxea reflect both seawater temperature and the isotopic composition of seawater at the time the coral was alive. Limits can be placed on these parameters, however, by considering the minimum temperature for the distribution of modern Galaxea, and the maximum increase in seawater 18O resulting from the transfer of water from ocean to continental ice sheets during glaciation. Although the 18O values of fossil carbonates by themselves cannot be interpreted in terms of paleotemperature, the combined use of geochemical, biological, and oceanographic data severely restricts the possible range for values of paleotemperature and 18O of seawater. In-situ sampling of reef corals drowned by the rapid rise of sea level associated with the latest period of deglaciation can yield valuable paleoenvironmental information. In particular, it should be possible to partition the 18O/16O ratio of such samples into two components, one representing deposition temperature, and the other reflecting the oxygen isotopic composition of ambient seawater.
The conversion of lowland area into special economic zones at Tanjung Api-Api will trigger environmental degradations, one of which is land subsidence. Land subsidence potential is caused by several natural environmental factors, which are soil type, soft soil thickness, topography, geological conditions, and rainfall, and non-natural factors, which are caused by land use or land cover, groundwater extraction, building density and others. Multicriteria analysis was conducted to obtain the weight of each factor, then the factor was overlayed to determine the level of land subsidence based on land use or land cover. Spatial analysis has been done to many factors causing land subsidence. The results showed that industrial estates and housing areas have a high potential for land subsidence. Mitigation efforts must be carried out to reduce severe land subsidence at the built-up area.
The Au-Cu Igarape Bahia deposit, located in the Carajas Mineral Province (Northern Brazil), can be defined as a sequence of metamorphosed volcanosedimentary rocks, with metabasics at the base and metapyroclastics/metasedimentaries at the top of the sequence. The main mineralization occurs between volcanic and metavolcaniclatic rocks, and it is characterized by the presence of magnetitic and sideritic heterolithic breccias. The volcanic sequence underwent an intense hydrothermal alteration which resulted in chloritization throughout the whole sequence, associated with sulphidation, silicification, carbonatization, Fe-metasomatism, tourmalinization and biotitization. Chemical and mineralogical data show an REE, Mo, U, F, Cl and P enrichment of these rocks, specially in the mineralization’s neighbourhood. Saline and F-rich fluids at high T may have been responsible for the REE transportation. C and O isotopic data from hydrothermal carbonates suggest the presence of two fluids which promoted alteration and consequent mineralization. A magmatic fluid is characterized by negative values of δ13C (-9,3 to -5,8‰); moreover, the large variation of δ12O (0,7 to 9,4‰) suggests a mixture between magmatic fluids of high T (higher isotopic values) and meteoric fluids (lower values). Based on chemical and mineralogical composition, and isotopic data, a genetic model similar to that of Cu-Au-U- REE Olympic Dam deposit (Southern Australia) is suggested to Igarape Bahia deposit. However, some features are quite different for the two deposits such as the age of mineralization. All Fe-oxide(Cu-Au-U- REE) known deposits are of Proterozoic age, while the Igarape Bahia could be the first described of Archaean age. Moreover, besides the chemical and mineralogical composition of the mineralization are suggestive of granitic sources ivolvement, direct sources were not observed in the deposit region, so that Igarape-Bahia deposit may be related to other granitic intrusions present in that region. In Olympic Dam deposit the mineralization and granitic intrusions are contemporaneous.
We conducted a column experiment in the field, for 1 yr, to determine the chemical effects of the evaporation of a shallow aquifer through a homogeneous sandy clay loam soil. The experimental arrangement simulated conditions found in the polders surrounding Lake Chad in Central Africa. To characterize the nature of the water transfer, oxygen isotopes were determined in the soil solution. Major soil elements, as well as soluble species, were also measured as a function of depth. The data obtained indicated that the water, moving upward by capillarity through the soil profile induced the transfer of soluble ions from the lower column depths. Evaporation took place just below the soil surface, where soluble salts tended to accumulate: the concentration of the soil solution increased drastically, while some soluble species tended to precipitate. Thermodynamic simulation of direct evaporation of the aquifer water and mass balance calculations of the mass transfer during experimentation suggested the formation of Mg-rich clay minerals at the surface of the soil. Detailed transmission electron microscope observations confirmed these results in showing tiny fibers around detrital particules and longer rigid palygorskitelike laths. Thus, even after a short time, water evaporation of a nonsaline shallow aquifer affected strongly the chemistry of the soil above.
In order to reduce the seismic response of the multi-span long continuous girder under strong ground motions, the system mostly use seismic isolation bearings. Under the action of annual temperature difference, the bearings will produce an initial displacement, which changes the initial balance position of the structure and increases the demand of bearing displacement. The combination of seismic and temperature action belongs to the superposition of multiple random processes, and the code does not give a clear combination coefficient. Based on Turkstra combination method, this paper calculates the combination coefficient of temperature action in the seismic design. Through finite element analysis, it compares the response of the isolation system with friction pendulum support and cable-sliding friction aseismic bearing under the combination of seismic and temperature action.
The 950/560 nm spectral ratio has been traditionally used as a qualitative indicator or lunar soil maturity because the 950 nm band falls within the major Fe2+ mineral absorption bands near 1 µm characteristic of relatively immature, crystalline surfaces. Since there are several other processes unrelated to maturation that may affect this ratio value, we have evaluated the 950/730 nm ratio as a potentially better measure of the relative 1-µm band strength. We find that the 950/730 nm ratio appears to be much more sensitive to the 1 µm band depth, but feel that other unknown variables preclude using these single ratios to provide meaningful quantitative results at this time. Because of problems with near-IR scattering in vidicon detectors used in previous studies, we have measured the scattering properties of our two CCDs and conclude that any scattering is negligible.
Introduction: The tectonic histories of both Europa and Ganymede are exceedingly complex [1], complicated by multiple overlapping deformational events and fragmentary global mapping. Schenk et al. [2] proposed that enigmatic topographic features across Europa are evidence of true polar wander (TPW), first proposed by Ojakangas and Stevenson [3]. Significant questions remain regarding the timing and extent of TPW deformation. Further examination of Europa reveals additional features potentially linked to TPW on Europa, some of which can be dated. Further, we make a detailed search of Ganymede for any evidence of TPW on that satellite (and briefly consider Ceres).
Airphotograph interpretation is useful and popular method in researching landslides. However, it is pointed out that the method lacks in objectivism due to difference in interpretation between individuals. Therefore, we have checked causes which bring about such difference, and investigated the problems of interpretation.Based on the results, we introduce the concept of probability and propose judging criteria for airphotographinterpretation in order to be more objective method. The probability is composed of three stages based on certainty of topographic features. And then, we make two inventory maps: landslide map showing topographic features htrough airphotographs, and landslide division map which is associated with interpretation and its criteria.Because that interpretation of airphotographs is more are less subjective, individual difference is inevitable. However, we conclude that the above method is more scientific and reproducible.
Abstract. In the summer of 2005, we sampled surface water and measured pH and total alkalinity (AT) underway aboard IB Oden along the Northwest Passage from Cape Farewell (South Greenland) to the Chukchi Sea. We investigated the variability of carbonate system parameters, focusing particularly on carbonate concentration [CO32−] and calcium carbonate saturation states, as related to freshwater addition, biological processes and physical upwelling. Measurements on AT, pH at 15°C, salinity (S) and sea surface temperature (SST), were used to calculate total dissolved inorganic carbon (CT), [CO32−] and the saturation of aragonite (ΩAr) and calcite (ΩCa) in the surface water. The same parameters were measured in the water column of the Bering Strait. Some surface waters in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) and on the Mackenzie shelf (MS) were found to be undersaturated with respect to aragonite (ΩAr
The invention relates to a wind turbine and a method for guiding fluid flow by using the wind turbine. The wind turbine comprises a frame and an annular rotor assembly. The frame comprises an annular upper guide device and an annular base guide device. The central space is surrounded by the rotor assembly. The rotor assembly comprises a plurality of rotor vanes. Each rotor vane is located between the upper guide device and the base guide device.
The end product of erosion is sediment (soil deposit). This can cover roads surfaces, fill road drains, pollute and fill rivers, streams, lakes and dams; damage construction sites and distort the aesthetic disposition of the environment. Not only does the loss of topsoil from agricultural lands or subsoil from highways or road grades result in direct loss from the affected areas, but also it may have a greater economic impact at the place of deposition. Consider the followings;
The middle member of the Bakken Formation is an attractive petroleum exploration target in the deeper part of the Williston Basin because it is favorably positioned with respect to source and seal units. Progressive ratesof burial and minor uplift and erosion of this member led to a stable thermal regime and, consequently, minor variations in diagenesis across much of the basin. The simple diagenetic history recorded in sandstones and siltstones in the middle member can, in part, be attributed to the closed, low-permeability nature of the Bakken petroleum system during most of its burial history. The dominant mineral cements consist of anhedral nonferroan planar dolospar, rhombic nonferroan dolospar grains with ferroan rims, and calcite commonly replaced by dolomite. Other authigenic phases include syntaxial quartz and K-feldspar overgrowths, euhedral pyrite crystals, well-ordered illite, and Fe-bearing chlorite. Bitumen is widespread in sandstones and siltstones that are adjacent to thermally mature shales. Most diagenesis ceased in the middle member when oil entered the sandstones and siltstones in the Late Cretaceous. Porosity-depth relationships are consistent with petrographic results, which show that porosity in shallowly buried ( 3,000 m), porosity varies more widely in response to emplacement of oil and increased burial of the section. Most oil in the Bakken Formation resides in open, horizontal fractures in the middle member. Core analysis reveals that sandstones and siltstones associated with thick mature shales typically have a greater density of fractures than sandstones and siltstones associated with thin mature shales. Fractures were caused by superlithostatic pressures that formed in response to increased fluid volumes in the source rocks during hydrocarbon generation.
Closure phases in SAR interferometry have the potential to carry information about the scatterer and changes in its dielectric properties. We are modeling the effects of scatterer changes on the interferometric phases. In this contribution we present some result and open questions.  We start by using the interferometric model in De Zan et al. 2014 to explain the closure phases observed in InSAR with moisture variations and invert them. This model seems to work rather well in L-band and we report inversion results for the CanEX-SM10 campaign by UAVSAR (NASA/JPL) over an agricultural site in Saskatchewan, Canada. Here the field-based correlation between our inversion and moisture probes are higher than 0.7 for most of the fields. The scaling factor between the inversion and the probe signal is, however, highly variable and we do not have a satisfactory model for it yet.  We report also encouraging first results with C-band modeling over southern Italy observed with Sentinel-1. The closure phases obey a similar model as for L-band, but they are typically downscaled, i.e. we observed values smaller than the model would predict.  There is a possibility that the moisture model is not explaining the totality of the observed closure phase. This idea is suggested also by processing interferometrically stacks of SAR images and limiting the temporal separation to a few months. The retrieved deformation exhibits a spurious drift that amounts to a few millimeters / year. The drift is rather constant and does not seem to be related to the moisture cycles.  By adding just a few (3) parameters to the interferometric models it is possible to explain significantly better both the observed closure phases and the drifts when reconstructing a deformation series by limiting the temporal separation.
The acquisition of geological data is of fundamental importance for the study of areas potentially relevant to the occurrence of petroleum systems. In this context, the development of research in outcropping rock formations has proven to be a potential method to investigate the geology of the geological unit studied in subsurface. One of several examples found in Brazil are the outcrops Barreiras do Boqueirão and Praia de Japaratinga, belonging to the Maceió Formation, located in the northern coast of Alagoas State. The Maceió Formation has the lowest cretaceous sedimentation record within the Alagoas Basin. This sedimentation, present almost in the entire basin, is located mainly in its subsurface. This geological unit is composed of several lithologies, including a turbiditic sequence predominantly formed by shales, sandstones and conglomerates. This environment makes it possible the occurrence of a petroleum system. Our research group chose to investigate this environment because turbiditic sandstones are excellent petroleum reservoirs, and they have a great economic relevance in the Brazilian petroleum scenario. To develop this research, a petrographic characterization of the Maceió Formation sandstones was conducted to help determine the compositional and diagenetic aspects of these rocks and infer the influence of diagenetic processes on the quality of these sandstones as reservoirs. The petrographic analysis showed that the studied sandstones can be classified as arkose and quartzenite, present moderate porosity and good permeability, observed through the predominant presence of floating contacts between the grains. The porosity is predominantly primary intergranular, averaging 15%, but secondary porosity by fracture and dissolution of primary grains also occurs. The sandstones of the Maceió Formation are poorly and moderately selected, with angular, sub-angular and sub-rounded grains, showing low to medium textural maturity, which may also influence the quality of the reservoir, impairing the primary porosity in the samples. The three diagenetic stages were identified as: eodiagenesis, mesodiagenesis, and telodiagenesis. The diagenetic processes found were: mechanical compaction, beginning of chemical compaction, clay infiltration, pyrite cementation, grain dissolution, chlorite cementation, quartz sintaxial growth, and mineral alteration and replacement. Mineral replacement was a phenomenon observed quite expressively in the samples analyzed. This event was evidenced, particularly, by the substitution of muscovite and feldspar for kaolinite, the alteration of biotite was also identified in the samples. Therefore, one can infer that the diagenetic processes had little influence on the reduction of the original porosity in the samples studied. In general, considering all the analyses performed in this research, one can see that the sandstones of the Maceió Formation (northern portion) present a good reservoir quality.
A new class of fractals with random values of scales are developed. In accordance with a statistical self-similarity principle the probability distribution function of scales is found. The formulae for fractal porosity are obtained and a comparison with recent experiments is made. A new expression for a fractal component “containance” in polyphase systems is obtained.        [Russian Text Ignored]
This study introduces an improved hypocentral version of the space‐time Epidemic‐Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) model, entitled as the 3D‐finite source (3D‐FS) ETAS model, and applies it to the analysis of the Southern California earthquake catalog. By stochastic reconstruction, we are able to reconstruct the patterns of aftershock productivity density along the mainshock ruptures. Detailed analysis of the productivity patterns reveals that: (1) Directly triggered aftershocks make up 21% to 41% of all earthquakes within the mainshock rupture areas, and show significant spatial heterogeneity and temporal migrations; (2) Major aftershocks tend to locate in low productivity areas, at the edges of clusters formed by small aftershocks; (3) Large slip areas are depleted of aftershocks, over 60% of all productivity distributes in areas with slip less than 0.3 times of the maximum slip, and the trajectory of the productivity pattern on the fault plane demonstrates apparent compensation to coseismic slip. We relate the difference in triggering abilities of four mainshocks to the heat flow in corresponding regions. Simulation results suggest that the 3D‐FS ETAS model has apparent advantages of improving the performance of short‐term aftershock forecast. Moreover, the later aftershocks are more correlated with the locations of subsequent events than earlier aftershocks, suggesting that the migration of aftershocks is important for mitigating aftershock hazard.
Abstract The Orava Basin is an intramontane depression filled with presumably fine-grained sediments deposited in river, floodplain, swamp and lake settings. The basin infilling constitutes a crucial record of the neoalpine evolution of the Inner/Outer Carpathian boundary area since the Neogene, when the Jurassic-Paleogene basement became consolidated, uplifted and eroded. The combination of sedimentological and structural studies with anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) measurements provided an effective tool for recognition of terrestrial environments and deformations of the basin infilling. The lithofacies-oriented sampling and statistical approach to the large dataset of AMS specimens were utilized to define 12 AMS facies based on anisotropy degree (P) and shape (T). The AMS facies allowed a distinction of sedimentary facies ambiguous for classical methods, especially floodplain and lacustrine sediments, as well as revealing their various vulnerabilities to tectonic modification of AMS. A spatial analysis of facies showed that tuffites along with lacustrine and swamp deposits were generally restricted to marginal and southern parts of the basin. Significant deformations were noticed at basin margins and within two intrabasinal tectonic zones, which indicated the tectonic activity of the Pieniny Klippen Belt after the Middle Miocene. The large southern area of the basin recorded consistent N-NE trending compression during basin inversion. This regional tectonic rearrangement resulted in a partial removal of the southernmost basin deposits and shaped the basin’s present-day extent.
Recently large-scale land transformations especially for residential development have been progressing around the suburbs of the cities. There are several types of land transformation in building residential areas on the hills. The types differ according to geomorphic and geologic characteristics and also by the development of construction instruments. They are called a step-shaped cutting, a flat-type by cutting and filling, and a filled-up-valley type. Since much artificial ground which consists of fill has appeared around the suburbs of the cities, we cannot neglect it in a geological map. It should be treated as a special geologic unit, i.e., an artificial formation. Residential areas built by fill are often deformed by natural phenomena like, earthquakes and rainfalls. When a slump or slide occurs on an inclined land-surface composed of fill, the sliding plane is generated not only on its basal surface but also in the inner part of fill containing mud or clay. Even on the flattened surface which fills up a valley, there occur some deformations like slide, slump and subsidence. Compared with natural sediments, the artificial formation consequently bears some irregularities and differences as well as some characteristics, resulting from its processes. It is pointed out that there is some similarity between the artificial sediments which form a filled-up-valley type residential area and the debris laid on the natural valley floor. It is necessary to investigate the geomorphic development of the valley among the geology of young artificial sediments, for maintaining such artificially formed land in safety.
Shield-driven tunnels are widely adopted in the development of underground spaces for transportation and utility networks in soft soils. Pressure in soil chamber during shield tunneling controls working face stability and ground deformation. Excavating soil mass adopting Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) shield has been successfully implemented for many years. Some accidents occurred in shield tunneling and induced road collapse and building fracture because illogical pressure control appears. One of core problems in EPB shield is how to control pressure in soil chamber of shield in a given domain by adjusting rotating speed of screw conveyor and by utilizing some optimal algorithm. Appropriate pressure in soil chamber of shield can ensure ground deformation minimization and prevent soil loose during excavating. EPB shield provides continuous support to the tunnel face utilizing the fractured soil which is fulfilled in the soil chamber of shield after conditioning by adding some agents. The change of pressure in soil chamber versus time has time-delay characteristics because the fractured soil in soil chamber has viscosity and plastic properties. A new pattern for controlling chamber earth pressure in shield tunneling was proposed to achieve speediness and stableness in controlling process. The rotating speed of screw conveyor and thrusting speed of shield were determined as controlled variables in this investigation. The chamber earth pressure in shield tunneling is adaptively and automatically controlled. The adjusting thrusting speed of shield can be more effective to control chamber earth pressure because the diameter of shield cutterhead is larger than one of the screw conveyor. The experimental results show that the proposed new control strategy can increase speediness and stableness in comparison with singly adjusting rotating speed of screw conveyor.
Yemaquan granitic pluton in East Junggar of Xinjiang is a granitic complex,which dominantly consists of granodiorite, monzogranite,and alkali-feldspar granite. These rocks have nearly coincident zircon U-Pb ages ( ～ 300Ma) within errors,suggesting that this pluton was emplaced in Late Carboniferous by the post-collisional magmatic activity in East Junggar. The geochemical compositions show that all of these rocks are metaluminous,and their major elements and trace elements,such as CaO,Al2O3,Na2O, K2O,Rb,Sr have obviously linear relationship with SiO2. All these rocks display similar characteristics in incompatible-element spidergrams and REE patterns,and with SiO2content increasing,their negative Eu anomalies become stronger. In addition,in situ Hf isotope analysis of zircons reveal that the rocks in the Yemaquan pluton have much close Hf isotopic compositions,their eHf( t) values ranging from + 11. 8 to + 12. 7. According to the age and geochemical characteristics,we argue that the Yemaquan granitic complex was probably formed by the same magma which experienced some evolution.
Based on the terrain tracking,the shallowearthquake,the drilling composition section exploration and the trench excavation etc.,we ascertained the distribution of Xianyang Segment( Yangjia Village-Yaodian) of Weihe Fault and its latest active period. The result shows that the Xianyang Segment of Weihe Fault passes through the scarp on the leading edge of Weihe terrace in the north of Xianyang City. Considering that there is a left order oblique fissure zone with the wide of about 1 km around Jinjiazhuang and Dong'er Village on the fault,the fault can be divided into two sections: the segments of Yangjia Village-Jinjiazhuang in the east and Dong'er Village-Yaodian in the west.The Xianyang Segment of Weihe Fault is a synsedimentary normal fault,and the overall trend and the tendency of it is NE and S respectively,and the dip angle of it is 65° ~ 75°. The exploratory trench in Chenjia Village displayed that the bottom boundary of the Holocene Heilu soil was dislocated about 15 cm by the fault. The14 C dating result of the bottom boundary was 2 255 BP and the result of age dating on Optically Stimulated Luminescence( OSL) of the top boundary was( 3. 7 ± 0. 41) ka,which indicated that the fault was active in the Holocene. The activities of Xianyang segment of Weihe Fault weakened gradually since the late Pleistocene,and its average active rate was 0. 04 ~ 0. 12 mm / a in the Holocene.
The results of some laboratory experiments are reported concerning the distribution of boundary shear stresses in smooth closed ducts of a rectangular cross section for aspect ratios between 1 and 10. The distributions are shown to be influenced by the number and shape of the secondary flow cells, which, in turn, depend primarily upon the aspect ratio. For a square cross section with 8 symmetrically disposed secondary flow cells, a double peak in the distribution of the boundary shear stress along each wall is shown to displace the maximum shear stress away from the center position towards each corner. For rectangular cross sections, the number of secondary flow cells increases from 8 by increments of 4 as the aspect ratio increases, causing alternate perturbations in the boundary shear stress distributions at positions where there are adjacent contrarotating flow cells. Equations are presented for the maximum, center line, and mean boundary shear stresses on the duct walls in terms of the aspect ratio.
Slags formed within a large boiler were found to contain medium to calcic plagioclase feldspars which, on the evidence of X-ray powder diffraction patterns, possessed structural states comparable to those of volcanic plagioclase. Comparison of experimental data (e.g. positions of optical indicatrix axes and orientation of indicatrix in some of the twinned plagioclases) with published figures and migration curves showed correspondence of the indicatrix orientations in the medium plagioclases with the ''high-temperature'' curves but departures from these curves in the more calcic plagioclases from the slags.
The Mellot Ranch oil field is located in T52N, R68W, Crook County, Wyoming. A tabulation of geologic and production data is presented, including reservoir characteristics. Annual and cumulative production figures are given for the years 1961-1969. Oil is produced from a stratigraphic trap in the Minnelusa Sandstone (Permian) at a depth of 6,800 ft. The producing sand has an average thickness of 20 ft and porosity of 18%. Discovered in 1961, the field has produced 1,342,439 bbl of 21$ gravity oil to Jan. 1, 1969. Reservoir pressure dropped from 2,685 lb to 200 lb (Jan. 1, 1966). A structure map, an isopach map, and a correlated electric log across section are included. The estimated primary reserve is 1,280,000 bbl.
An experimental determination of the melting of Mg0.9Fe0.1SiO3 under lower mantle conditions is presented. Samples were compressed and laser heated (Nd-YAG) in a Mao-Bell-type diamond cell. The temperature fields generated in the sample are measured using a simple tomographic technique and spectroradiometer. Mg0.9Fe0.1SiO3 in the perovskite structure melts at 3000 ± 300 K independently of pressure over the range of 22–65 GPa. The melting curve of Mg0.9Fe0.1SiO3 represents an experimental upper bound upon the geotherm from 700 to 1500 km. This melting curve corresponds to a homologous temperature of 0.70 or 0.85 for one- or two-layer mantle convection, respectively. This is consistent with either one- or two-layer mantle convection and a lower mantle of constant viscosity (based upon homologous temperature arguments).
In this thesis, the water flow through and from Unteraargletscher, an alpine glacier in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, is investigated with particular emphasis on the internal plumbing and its behavior in time. To quantify water input to the glacial hydrological system during the ablation season 1999, a distributed temperature index melt model including potential clear-sky solar radiation was applied to Unteraargletscher. Model parameters were determined by calibrating calculated melt with ablation measurements. Discharge was measured in the proglacial stream for 18 days until the station was destroyed by an outburst flood. Comparison of modeled melt and measured discharge reveals an imbalance which suggests that water was stored in or beneath the glacier during this period. The culminating outburst flood presumably released this enor subglacially stored water and may be related to a change in the configuration of the glacial drainage system as inferred from measurements of subglacial water pressure. The morphology of the drainage system and its diurnal variability were investigated by conducting series of tracer tests over a number of discharge cycles during the ablation season 2000. Dye injections into a moulin were repeated at intervals of a few hours and were accompanied by simultaneous measurements of discharge of supraglacial meltwater draining into the moulin and bulk runoff in the proglacial stream. Records of dye concentration were analyzed using an appropriate transport model. Results of this analysis reveal a large diurnal variability in terms of transit velocity and dispersion coefficients. Furthermore, the obtained velocity-discharge and velocity-dispersion relationships display pronounced hystereses, thereby inhibiting the use of conventional evaluation techniques. A time-dependent and physically-based model of subglacial water flow is used to investigate the observed variations of transit velocity. It is found that the ability of a Röthlisberger-channel to adjust its size to the prevailing hydraulic conditions contributes to hysteresis of the velocitydischarge relationship. Additionally, the model results further suggest that such hysteresis can be caused also by retardation of water due to inflow modulation at the junction of a tributary moulin and a main conduit. Further, we studied the relation between conduit cross-section and tracer dispersion with numerical tracer experiments. The velocity field for steady flow through a given conduit geometry is calculated using a commercial flow solver. Tracer transport is represented by a scalar volume which is advected by the velocity field. Experiments were conducted for several scenarios by varying flow velocity and conduit geometry. Results show that a functional dependence of dispersion on the hydraulic radius of the conduit exists but it is weak. Further, it is found that the dispersion coefficient is strongly affected by changes in roughness. This suggests, that a dynamical conduit geometry can account for the observed velocity-dispersion hysteresis, especially, if the evolution of the conduit involves also roughness changes. Additionally, the effect
It is important to be able to accurately model the flow and noise generated by wing-in-junction flows because of the many engineering applications in which these flows occur. An incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation of a wing-in-junction flow test case was used with a combination of statistical and semianalytical acoustic models to predict the far-field noise. These noise predictions were compared with experimental measurements taken in an anechoic wind tunnel. The RANS-based noise prediction models were found to achieve good agreement with experimental data.
Monitoring ocean surface current is one of the most important applications for microwave remote sensing.It is significant for both civil and martial maritime activities.Microwave sensors mainly include early RAR,high-resolution SAR,and Bistatic SAR which is newly arisen.A simulation procedure for RAR/SAR/biSAR with parallel flight squint mode imagery of ocean current and waves is presented in this paper.With the use of ocean surface current file,sea state and radar parameters,and take tilt,hydrodynamic and velocity bunching modulation into account,this procedure can generate simulated radar imagery,based on the ocean surface scattering model and radar echo model.Radar imagery generated by this procedure can provide simulated data source for sequent algorithms research,i.e.,ocean targets detection.
The magnetic storm of January 10 to 18, 1944, occurred during a quiescent period on the Sun. No sunspots were observed from January 3 to 18. A very small spot (Mount Wilson No. 7633), seen on that day only, was in the bright calcium flocculi over the region where No. 7631 (which was accompanied by a magnetic storm from December 16 to 21, 1943), had been on the previous rotation of the Sun [see Terr. Mag., 49, 63 (1944)]. This region had returned to view at the east limb on January 9.
ABSTRACT: Stability of onshore and offshore structures subjected to stormy ocean waves is influenced by the soundness of seabed foundation ground, as well as the intensity of wave pressure acting directly on the structures. The seabed soundness would be affected by the change of the seabed surface elevation caused by erosion and/or deposition of sediment. The fluctuating effective stress in the seabed ground, which is induced by sea wave loading, would cause the reduction in seabed stiffness, and then the sediment flow and related scouring of seabed must be also affected by the effective stress fluctuation. The present study proposes a calculation method for sediment traction flow on seabed around cylindrical structures. The calculation method used comprises with linear wave theory, pore-linear-elasticity theory for seabed medium, and empirical sediment traction flow model regarding seawater flow velocity. Although the intensity of sediment traction flow is mainly a function of seawater flow velocity, the sediment traction flow must be also influenced by the soundness of seabed ground. The sediment flow and associated erosion-deposition around upright cylindrical structures of several types were calculated. The characteristic behavior of sediment flow was clarified.
Exemplified by an engineering building of Guangzhou,China,the seismic response of slab-column structure-raft foundation-soil interaction system was analysed using 3-D finite element method.Through comparing the interaction results with non-interaction results of the system,the varying rules of dynamic response was studied,and the influences of some factors on the system's dynamic characteristic and seismic responses,such as the damping ratio,soil property,the rigidity and type of foundation,the buried depth of foundation,the rigidity of structure and the seismic wave were discussed.
The daily variations of Chi. a, POC, primary production and 234Th/238U disequilibria in the Xiamen Bay were studied. POC concentration in the study area ranged from 14. 4 to 34. 6 mmol/m3, with an average concentration of 21. 6 mmol/m3. The contributions of living organic carbon (phytoplankton) and organic detritus were estimated to be about 8% ~ 26% and 74% ~92% of the total POC, respectively. The profiles of POC showed a gradually decrease with the depth, and its temporal variation showed that the POC concentrations in daytime are higher than those in nighttime. Both features suggested that POC is closely related to biological processes in the Xiamen Bay. The primary production in the study area varied up to 5-folds in 1 d, which was consistent with that of the biomass. Primary production also decreased with the depth, was coincident with the patterns of Chl. a and POC. In the meantime, we studied the effect of incubation time on the determination of primary production. The primary production calculated from short-time incubation (2 h) is higher than that from long-time incubation (24 h), indicating some of the new fixed carbon are preferentially respired and then excreted. Based on the paniculate 234Th export fluxes from 234Th/238U disequilibria and the POC/PTh, ratios in particles, the POC export flux from euphotic zone is estimated to be 16. 0 mmol/(m2·d), in which the export fluxes of living organic carbon and detrital organic carbon are 2.7 and 13.3 mmol/(m2·d), respectively. The ratio between POC export flux and primary production, referred as ThE ratio, is 0.31. Both POC export fluxes and ThE ratios are consistent with the prediction value from relation formula presented by Aksnes and Wassmann in 1993, but not with other models. The residence time of POC in the euphotic zone was estimated to be 11 d, indicating a rapid regeneration rate of POC in study sea area.
Impact cratering is the most widespread geological process in the Solar System. Impact craters can provide 'windows' into the subsurfaces of planetary bodies through excavation and uplift. By utilizing remote methods in the visible and near infrared (VNIR; 0.4-1.4 micron), short-wavelength infrared (SWIR; 1.4-2.5 micron) and thermal infrared (TIR 7-14 micron), subsurface mineral compositions may be identified and mapped via impact craters. Complex craters in particular, expose minerals from both the shallow and deep-seated subsurface, which may be identified spectroscopically. Complex craters have morphological features such as central peaks or peak rings, which are composed of relatively coherent lithologies tapped from deep-seated crustal components. While near-surface crustal components can be observed as coherent rocks uplifted and exposed in the rim and the crater walls, and from the ejecta deposits. Only two previously published studies using this approach have been successful on large planetary bodies. Tompkins and Pieters utilized ultraviolet and VNIR from Clementine to characterize near- and deep-subsurface materials in and around lunar craters. The work of Ramsey and Wright was the first remote spectroscopic study to successfully identify near-subsurface materials in the ejecta and crater wall of a terrestrial impact structure, namely Meteor Crater. Here we present early results of a third such study, a remote spectroscopy evaluation of the Haughton impact structure (HIS). The purpose of this study is to serve as terrestrial proof of concept that remote visible/infrared spectroscopic methods in this case, analysis of LANDSAT 7 ETM+ and ASTER data of the well-preserved HIS can be utilized in deciphering the subsurface composition of planetary crusts. This technique is particularly promising for Mars were limited tectonic uplift and ubiquitous dust-mantling offer few opportunities to access subsurface information.
1. The airbag retention system for the vehicle occupant, and c at least one first and one second layer (11, 12) of a material of the airbag, - at least one formed between the first and second layer (11, 12) an inflatable chamber (18) protection of the vehicle occupant (20); and- at least one seam (2), whereby the first and second layer (11, 12) are connected with each other at least along a perimeter segment prichem- airbag disclosed between the vehicle occupant and a side structure of a vehicle, wherein something airbag (1) is designed so that the seam (2) in the installed and inflated airbag extends longitudinally a plane which is oriented obliquely or transversely to the plane defined by the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and a vertical direction m avtomobilya.2. Airbag according to claim 1, characterized in that in the installed and inflated airbag vertical direction of the vehicle extends at least almost parallel to a plane which is longitudinal seam (2) is .3. Airbag according to claim 1, characterized in that something seam (2) is a first seam, whereby the first and second layer are connected to each other (11, 12) on the perimeter - the airbag (1) has a second joint (3) whereby the two layers (11, 12, 15, 16) the airbag connected to each other on the perimeter; and- first seam (2) extends longitudinally to the first plane and the second seam (3) longitudinally second plane, the second plane is located obliquely or transversely to the first ploskosti.4. Airbag according to claim 3, characterized in that the two connected by vtorog
The corals of the Serre de Bleyton mountain range are determined and described. The fauna consists of very small coral remains and fragments rarely exceeding one centimetre in size. It is clearly dominated by a few solitary and small phaceloid forms, while other growth forms are very rare. The fauna comprises 26 species in 16 genera of the suborders Amphiastraeina, Archeocaeniina, Caryophylliina, Faviina, Fungiina, Microsolenina, and Stylinina. With the exception of one Amphiastrea species, all corals have small to very small calices. The faunal composition is typical of Hauterivian to Early Albian coral faunas. Palaeobiogeographically they are related to BarremianAptian faunas of the Central Tethys and the western hemisphere.
A free-piston engine comprising an engine cylinder and a single piston member comprising a double-ended piston configured to move within the cylinder, wherein the piston member partitions the cylinder into two separate chambers, each of which are supplied with a compressible working fluid from one or more intake means, the piston being arranged to move over and past the intake means during each stroke such that the fluid is replenished within one chamber while the piston compresses the fluid held in the other chamber.
Central Anatolia typically represents well-preserved geological features of a collision zone. This collision zone is characterized by some geological events occurred in the Anatolide passive margin of the Anatolide-Pontide collision along the Ankara Erzincan suture zone. This suture zone is commonly known to be formed by the pre-Maastrichtian northward subduction of the northern branch of Neo-Tethys beneath the Pontides which was constituting the southernmost tip of Eurasiain plate at that time. These geological occurrences are inverted metamorphism; ophiolitic slabs derived from main suture zone; syn-collisional and S/C ST type magmatism; post-collisional, high-K calcalkaline, hybrid and I/HLO type magmatism; post-collisional, within-plate, A-type alkaline magmatism; and post-collisional Central Anatolian basins. Among these geological occurrences, the ophiolitic slabs derived from Ankara-Erzincan suture zone; post-collisional, high-K calcalkaline, hybrid I/HLO type magmatism; and post-collisional, within-plate, A-type alkaline magmatism are observed as a good association in space and time in the Cicekdaregion in Central Anatolia. The ophiolitic slab, named as Central Anatolian ophiolite, is composed of two mapable units which are called Cokelik volcanics and Akcakent gabbro. There are some gabbroic intrusions within the Cokelik volcanics in some localities, however, the major boundary between these two units is a thrust fault along which the Akcakent gabbro thrusted onto the Cokelik volcanics from east to west. The rocks of Akcakent gabbro possess a preserved ophitic texture and mineralogical composition which can lead one to call them uralite-gabbro. Some major and trace element geochemical data determine a depleted mantle and low-K tholeiitic characteristics in composition. The Halacli monzogranite, characterizing the post-collisional, high-K calcalkaline, hybrid I/HLO type magmatism, intrudes the Central Anatolian Ophiolite by forming some contact metamorphic hornfelses derived particularly from the Cokelik volcanics. The phaneritic- porphyritic texture is a recognizing feature in the rocks of Halacli monzogranite due particularly to existence of common K-feldspar megacrysts. The major rock forming minerals are composed of quartz+K-feldspar + plagioclase (An32-44)+hornblende + augite +biotite association. The Erialan syenite, part of post-collisional, within-plate, A-type alkaline magmatism, is seen to intrude both of the Central Anatolian Ophiolite and Halacli monzogranite. The rocks of this syenitic body can be subdivided into medium to coarse-grained and medium-grained rocks on the basis of texture. The major rock forming minerals consist of orthoclase+plagioclase(An 32-40 ) ± nepheline + riebekite / arfvedsonite+aegirine+biotite±melanite garnet; as for the accessory constituents they are composed of sphene+apatite+xenotime+monazite+allanite+zircon+fluorite minerals. The Erialan syenite includes some fluorite mineralizations within the syenitic body itself, and also at the contact with gabbros.
It is well known that 14C dating of fossil bone with seriously depleted protein levels, or bone that has been consolidated with preservatives, can produce erroneous results. In the tropics, warm and moist soil conditions lead to constant reworking of organic matter and add to the danger of bone contamination. Because of this, 14C dating of preservative-impregnated bone from such areas has rarely been successful. We report here a set of AMS dates on both unconsolidated animal bone and polyvinyl acetate/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA/PV-OH) impregnated human burials from the Maya site of Cuello, Belize. The steps needed to purify the samples are described, together with details on the use of qualitative infra-red (IR) spectra as a means of assessing sample purity.
The tectonic nature and subdivision of Gangdese Orogenic Belt is always one of the hottest scientific problems related to fundamental geology of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.The tectonic framework,subdivision and the Late Paleozoic-Mesozoic evolutional history of Gangdese Orogenic Belt have been studied based on regional geological survey(1:250000)and our data.Our study shows that the geological context of Gangdese can be well revealed by six major tectonic units and eighteen secondary units.Based on the analysis for spatial-temporal framework of different tectonic units and related magmatic records,we suggest that the Gangdese Orogenic Belt is not a simply block or continental segment,or terrane,but likely a complex orogenic belt experienced six arc-forming accretionary to a principal axis named Long'ge'er-Nyainqentanglha at Carboniferous-Permian,Early-Middle Triassic,Late Triassic, Early-Middle Jurassic,Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous-Eocene,as well as related arc-continent,continent- continent collision,and ultimately finalized its profile at the late Cenozoic.It is therefore evident that the evolutional history of Gangdese Orogenic Belt may have influenced from both the southward subduction of Bangong Co-Nujiang Tethyan Ocean crust and northward subduction of Yarlung Zangbo neo-Tethyan Ocean crust.It is emphasized that volcanic-magmatic arc formed at accretionary arc has the best potential for porphyry copper deposit in Gangdese,as revealed by Anglonggangri volcanic-magmatic arc,Dongqia Co accretionary arc and Sangri volcanic-magmatic arc,etc.
Due to significant depletion of reserves in Devonian terrigenous formations, carbonate reservoirs are often considered as targets for resuming production in spite of their complex geometry and high water cut. In this regard customized synthesis of water-shutoff chemicals is required to effectively shut off unwanted water production. One of the most promising water shutoff techniques analyzed in this paper is application of a modified elastomer which swells in water to a limited degree and maintains its plugging ability for a long period of time.
A series of interconnected soils were studied: Albic-Haplic Podzols, Albic-Stagnic Podzols, Histic-Albic Podzols и Epi-Histic Gleysols. The study area was located in the Northern taiga subzone, at the central part of the South Nadym-Pur province, in the Pyakupur River basin. Our article deals with the distribution of elements in the soil mineral horizons. The degree of profile differentiation of chemical elements was assessed using the illuviation coefficient Ki = СB/СE, where СB and СE are the content of the element in the illuvial and eluvial horizons and the coefficient of radial differentiation, where Kr = Ci/Cip, where Ci is the content of a chemical element in a particular genetic soil horizon, and Cip is the content in the parent rock. We also calculated the coefficient of lateral migration (Kl) - the ratio of the content of a chemical element in the studied subordinate landscape (Сp.) to its content in the autonomous landscape (Сl.) = Сp./Сl. Differences in the content of major and trace elements in the catenary gradient of environmental conditions were revealed. The series of accumulation of major and trace elements in different positions of the catena are close to each other, but not identical. The distribution of most elements along the soil profile occurs according to the eluvial-illuvial type, but the position in the relief determines the degree of migration of elements. At the border of the forest and the swamp, where the most intensive differentiation of elements along the soil profile was noted, a powerful geochemical barrier was revealed that accumulates substances coming from both lateral and horizontal runoff.    Keywords: soil, podzols, gleysols, major and trace elements, catena, Western Siberia    References    Akhmetova, G.V., (2019). 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Changes of oceanic salinity are highly related to the variations of evaporation and precipitation. To understand the influence of rainfall on the sea surface salinity (SSS) in the waters adjacent to Taiwan, satellite remote sensing data from the year of 2012 to 2014 are employed in this study. The daily rain rate data obtained from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission’s Microwave Imager (TRMM/TMI), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR), and WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer. The SSS data was derived from the measurements of radiometer instruments onboard the Aquarius satellite. The results show the average values of SSS in east of Taiwan, east of Luzon and South China Sea are 33.83 psu, 34.05 psu, and 32.84 psu, respectively, in the condition of daily rain rate higher than 1 mm/hr. In contrast to the rainfall condition, the average values of SSS are 34.07 psu, 34.26 psu, and 33.09 psu in the three areas, respectively at no rain condition (rain rate less than 1 mm/hr). During the cases of heavy rainfall caused by spiral rain bands of typhoon, the SSS is diluted with an average value of -0.78 psu when the average rain rate is higher than 4 mm/hr. However, the SSS was increased after temporarily decreased during the typhoon cases. A possible reason to explain this phenomenon is that the heavy rainfall caused by the spiral rain bands of typhoon may dilute the sea surface water, but the strong winds can uplift the higher salinity of subsurface water to the sea surface.
Internal tide driven mixing plays a key role in sustaining the deep ocean stratification and meridional overturning circulation. Internal tides can be generated by topographic horizontal scales ranging from hundreds of meters to tens of kilometers. State of the art topographic products hardly resolve scales smaller than ~10 km in the deep ocean, over which abyssal hills are the dominant ocean floor roughness fabric. An evaluation of the impact of abyssal hill roughness on internal-tide generation is presented in this study.
Terzaghi's one-dimensional consolidation theory is modified to account for the compressibility of fluid and solid phases. The proposed modified equations can be used to analyze the consolidation response of unsaturated soils over the saturation range where the gases remain in an occluded form (generally within a range between 80 and 100aturation); however, such applications are subject to the same limitations and idealizations implicit in Terzaghi's classical consolidation theory. The purpose of this note, therefore, is to offer a simple solution and not to unravel the complexities involved in general analysis of flow and deformation response of unsaturated soils. The proposed approach involves defining the consolidation coefficient, and hence the time factor, in terms of an equivalent fluid compressibility. This equivalent fluid is assumed to represent the compressibility characteristics of all the compressible phases that constitute the soil skeleton. The proposed generalized form of Terzaghi's consolid...
This PhD thesis is part of a research project focused on the kinematic and tectonic evolution of some key areas of the Western Mediterranean region from the early Cretaceous to present. The aim of this project is to obtain a quantitative model that reconciles the kinematic constraints with the geological-geophysical data recorded in the Mediterranean area. We will provide, using a large amount of data published in many papers in the literature, to develop a coherent reconstruction that will best explain the large scale tectonics of the western Mediterranean region.  The kinematic model is obtained taken into account different data derived from various geological datasets, like tectono‐metamorphic events, structural observations, stratigraphic record, magmatic activity distribution and palaeomagnetic data (where available).  Reconstruction was carried out using integrated software, PCME 4.0, for the developing of paleogeographic or paleotectonic maps. This software enabled us to create paleotectonic maps by the rotation of all present day tectonic elements to their ancient position by applying rotational motions to numerous microplates and tectonic elements involved in the evolution of the western Mediterranean area. In particular, this PhD thesis is focused on the Neogene evolution of the Sicilian Maghrebian chain. In order to obtain a self-consistent model, it was necessary to reconstruct the Mediterranean evolution, starting from the Mesozoic paleogeography of the western Mediterranean area.  The first step was to build a kinematic model that explains the tectonic relation among Western Alps, Alpine Corsica, and Calabrian Arc in the general context of tectonic evolution of the western Mediterranean during the late Cretaceous and the Cenozoic. We propose an alternative model, which overcome the classical models that either interpreting Corsica as the backstop of the Apennine subduction or apply a not easily justified geodynamically model of subduction flip (assuming the detachment of the Ligurian slab following the southeast dipping subduction stage). We suggest that the opposite subduction polarities for Alpine Corsica and for the Calabrian Arc are associated with the occurrence of a transform boundary active since the late Cretaceous. Moreover this new scenario, involving the definition of a new set of plate boundaries for the western Alps–Corsica area, satisfactorily takes into account geological constraints represented by metamorphic ages, stratigraphic record and structural data and also provides useful insights into the geometry of the larger (Africa–Iberia–Eurasia) plate boundary configuration and the original setting of the associated subduction zones. Moreover, the model explains the origin and the structural evolution of the wedge-top deposits, which develops in an extensional context (among Alpine Corsica, Calabria and Kabylies) during the Corsica and Sardinia block rotation, such as “Cilento Unit”, and “Capo d'Orlando Fm.”.  The second step provides a kinematic model of the Tyrrhenian- Apennine system evolution since the early Burdigalian. In this model, we divide the Apennine chain into six deformable sectors, characterized by homogeneous Tyrrhenian extensional deformation, each other separated by the transverse structures of the chain (Ancona-Anzio Line, Sangineto Line, Taormina Line) for which the model explains the origin and evolution. The rotation poles (Euler poles) of each sector are defined through a morfostructural analysis of the tectonic lineament in the Tyrrhenian basin and along the Apennine chain.  The ultimate goal of this PhD thesis was the characterization of the tectonic evolution of the Sicilian-Maghrebian chain and Southern Tyrrhenian area in the framework of the Tyrrhenian-Apennine system since the early Oligocene. The main tectono-sedimentary stages of the Caltanissetta foredeep basin and of the Cefalu basin, active from upper Miocene to Plio-Pleistocene, are described from a kinematic point of view through a series of plate reconstructions that show the Caltanissetta basin peculiarity with respect to the Maghrebian chain foredeep.  The development of the Neogene systems is deeply controlled by the Mesozoic physiography of the African and European margin: the sinking of the oceanic lithosphere, the thinning of the continental lithosphere, the location, and the structure of the different domains (Imerese, Sicanian, Panormide, and Iblean-Pelagian block) controls the development and the propagation of the foredeep and of the thrust tectonics.  Starting from the early Miocene, the foredeep (e.g. the Caltanissetta basin) develops on to the frontal sector of the chain, which is characterized by transversal extension on to the upper plate, while moved towards South-South East involving the Panormide carbonate platform, the basin domains (Imerese-Sicanian domains) and the Iblean-Pelagian domain. This process drives the thinning of the thrusted units whose thickness and elevation decrease toward the south. As a consequence of these coupled processes (E-W extension and contractional deformation in NNW-SSE direction), the geological setting of Sicily is characterized by a deep basin (the Caltanissetta foredeep), evolved since the Tortonian times, and by a chain, which develops in W-E direction, in the northern sector. The thrusting is contemporaneous with lateral movements related to the E-W extension in the basin accompanied by the late Miocene-early Pleistocene clockwise rotations of the  extensional structures, undergoing a tectonic inversion, during the progressively deformation of Sicilian margin. This extensional process involves the whole Sicily and it is responsible for the development not only of the Caltanissetta Basin but even of the northern Sicily offshore basins (e.g. the Cefalu basin). More in detail, the continuity of the extensional area is interrupted by an E-W trending regional structure (e.g. the Kumeta-Alcantara fault) that dislocates the different sector (the Caltanissetta Basin to the south and the Cefalu Basin to the north). Along this transpressional structure, which links the two different sector of the basin, the Sicilian Maghrebian chain develops starting from the Tortonian times. The extensional process in the Northern-Central Sicily Southern Tyrrhenian margin ends in the late Pliocene when this sector of the Sicilian chain welded to Europe with cessation of extension in the southwestern Tyrrhenian Sea and with the formation of the Taormina Line, a major NW-SE boundary between Sicily and Calabrian Arc. From this time, the progressive migration of the thrust front, which is today located in the southern Sicily offshore and, on land, along the Gela-Catania alignment, is controlled by the Africa-Europe movement. Moreover, this model includes a self-consistent reconstruction of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea margin and of the tectonics that led to the formation of structural highs and deep sedimentary basins (Peri–Tyrrhenian basins) and of the Aeolian volcanoes.
On 15 September 2017 the Cassini spacecraft plunged into Saturn's atmosphere after 13 years of successful exploration of the Saturnian system. The day before, the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) on board Cassini observed Saturn's northern aurora for about 14 hr. During these observations, several auroral structures appeared, providing clues about processes simultaneously occurring in Saturn's magnetosphere. The observed dawn auroral enhancement together with the magnetic field and plasma wave data suggest that an intense flux closure process took place in the magnetotail. This enhanced magnetotail reconnection is likely caused by a magnetospheric compression induced by an interplanetary shock. Additionally, a polar arc is observed on the duskside, tracked for the first time from its growth until its quasi‐disappearance and used as an indicator of reconnection location on the dayside magnetopause. Observation of an atypical auroral arc at very high latitudes supports the interplanetary shock scenario.
On May 10, 2007, the Muzhuping landslide moved into Modao-he River caused by impoundment and early rainfall, which is a first landslide hazard in the Shuibuya Reservoir. Using ABAQUS software to analysis the mechanism of deformation with considering the coupling Seepage-stress, and by according to residual thrust method, some predictions of the slope stability were performed with considering to fluctuation of the reservoir water. The numerical results show that the initial impoundment and rapid declining of reservoir water level are most dangerous for a reservoir.
Mineral dust is an active climate system component that may significantly influence the radiative balance of the atmosphere as well as biogeochemical cycles. However, the complex linkages between dust-generating processes and past or anthropogenic climate change are still poorly constrained.    The highly successful Dust Indicators and Records of Terrestrial and Marine Palaeoenvironments ( DIRTMAP) project, created by Karen Kohfeld (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) and Sandy Harrison (University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom) in 2001, provided a compilation of available dust deposition data from climate archives. DIRTMAP focused on a time slice approach, compiling data for modern/ Holocene (up to ∼10,000 years ago to the present) conditions and conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum (∼20,000 years ago).
The article “Characteristics of Point Recharge in Karst Aquifers, Water 6: 2782–2807” by N. Somaratne evaluates various recharge estimation techniques applied to four limestone aquifers in South Australia. Somaratne [1] concludes that methods based on watertable fluctuations, groundwater modelling and water budgets are independent of recharge processes, and are therefore superior to the chloride mass balance (CMB) approach for karst aquifers. The current comment offers alternative interpretations from existing field measurements and previous literature, in particular for the Uley South aquifer, which is the focus of much of the article by Somaratne [1]. Conclusions regarding this system are revised, partly to account for the misrepresentation of previous studies. The aeolianite sediments of Uley South are mostly unconsolidated or poorly consolidated, and dissolution features in the calcrete capping provide point infiltration into a predominantly unconsolidated vadose zone, whereas Somaratne’s [1] findings require that the system comprises well-developed conduits in otherwise low-conductivity limestone. Somaratne’s [1] assertion that the basic premise of CMB is violated in Uley South is disputable, given strong evidence of relatively well-mixed groundwater arising from mostly diffuse recharge. The characterization of karst aquifer recharge should continue to rely on multiple techniques, including environmental tracers such as chloride.
Drainholes are approximately horizontal holes drilled from an approximate vertical well bore. A drainhole is composed of 2 parts, a curved section in which the bore is turned from vertical to horizontal and a straight or stabilized section. The curved section has sharp radii as small as 12 ft and seldom larger than 40 ft. The stabilized section is not really straight, but usually a curved section of much larger radius. Typical radii for the stabilized section are 300 to 500 ft. Drainholes were initially field tested as a productivity enhancement technique in the early 1950's. They did not prove to be economic, especially compared to the low cost fracture treatments of that time. Difficulties also were noted in taking off from the whipstock and controlling the direction of the drainhole. A few drainholes were reported later in Italy and some were used in oil shale in situ field projects. Interest in drainhole drilling has revived with the rising cost of oil and gas. It is the more sophisticated of exploitive possibilities offered by this technique that are now of interest.
The falls of the elderly are becoming a serious problem, not only medically but also socially. The several study reported recovery movement of the lower extremity during slipping, but the recovery movement of the trunk research reported a few. The purpose of this study was to investigate the balance recovery mechanisms of the separated trunk during slipping with gait. The trunk segment was divided by the upper trunk, the lower trunk and pelvis. A kinematic and kinetic data during slipping were measured by 3D motion analysis system and force platform. Center of mass of the upper body, joint angles and joint moments were calculated by inverse-dynamics method. The results showed that the slip recovery movement needed strongly muscle activation of the upper trunk rather than the lower trunk. The fall prevention requires enough flexor torque of lower trunk for maintaining position between upper trunk and lower trunk. In additionally, trunk constraints group were needed extensional torque for maintaining position lower trunk in the late slip time.
A strike-slip ductile shear zone occurs in Changma area in Mengyin County, Shandong Province. Four tectonic rock zones can be idetified from the center to outside wall rocks of the strike-slip ductile shear zone, i.e. ultramylonite zone, mylonite zone, protomylonite zone and mylonized gnesis zone respectively. Ductile alteration featues both of tectonic rocks and micro-fabrics of them are well developed. The occurrence of mylonite foliation is 208°∠74°, the occurrence of lineation is 115°∠2°. Stress analysis shows that the difference stress value was 52.67 MPa and the palaeo-stress orientation( σ 1) was 73°∠2°, when ductile shear zone formed. Gold mineralization occurs at the central part of the ductile shear zone and forms gold ore bodies. A comprehensive study indicates that the strike slip ductile shearing progress controlled the distribution and occurrence of gold ore bodies. The Changma gold deposit is a syn-ductile shearing gold deposit.
Aim of study : To develop a statistical model framework to analyze longitudinal wind-damage records while accounting for autocorrelation, and to demonstrate the usefulness of the model in understanding the regeneration process of a natural forest. Area of study : University of Tokyo Chiba Forest (UTCBF), southern Boso peninsula, Japan. Material and methods : We used the proposed model framework with wind-damage records from UTCBF and wind metrics (speed, direction, season, and mean stand volume) from 1905–1985 to develop a model predicting wind-damage probability for the study area. Using the resultant model, we calculated past wind-damage probabilities for UTCBF. We then compared these past probabilities with the regeneration history of major species, estimated from ring records, in an old-growth fir–hemlock forest at UTCBF. Main results: Wind-damage probability was influenced by wind speed, direction, and mean stand volume. The temporal pattern in the expected number of wind-damage events was similar to that of evergreen broad-leaf regeneration in the old-growth fir–hemlock forest, indicating that these species regenerated after major wind disturbances. Research highlights : The model framework presented in this study can accommodate data with temporal interdependencies, and the resultant model can predict past and future patterns in wind disturbances. Thus, we have provided a basic model framework that allows for better understanding of past forest dynamics and appropriate future management planning. Keywords : dendrochronology; tree regeneration; wind-damage probability model; wind disturbance. Abbreviations used: intrinsic CAR model (intrinsic conditional autoregressive model); MCMC (Markov chain Monte Carlo); 16 compass points = N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, SSE, S, SSW, SW, WSW, W, WNW, NW, NNW (north, north-northeast, northeast, east-northeast, east, east-southeast, southeast, south-southeast, south, south-southwest, southwest, west-southwest, west, west-northwest, northwest, north-northwest, respectively); UTCBF (the University of Tokyo Chiba Forest).
The seabottom groundwater along the east coast of Laizhou Bay is distributed in the neritic Quaternary loose sediments, and its properties are significantly different from those of modern seawater. The groundwater samples were collected from land to sea, and their chemical analysis was made. It is shown from the analysis results that the characteristic values of groundwater such as pH, density, sodium absorption ratio(SAR) and rCl/rBr show a gradual variational rule from land to sea, the high nitrate pollutants in the land aquifer groundwater are also reflected in the seabottom groundwater and the hydrochemical type of groundwater from land to sea changes from Cl-Ca·Na·Mg type to Cl-Na·Na·Mg type and Cl-Na type. On other hand, the main components, concentration and mineral composition of seabottom groundwater have their characteristics, and the ion strength and mineral saturation index of groundwater from land to sea show a certain variational rule. Above-mentioned ion and mineral exchanges between water and rock make the groundwater change from fresh water to brackish water and brine water, which contitutes the general model of geochemical evolution of groundwater in coastal area. Because the seabottom groundwater is closely connected with the land groundwater, sufficient attention should be paid to the environmental effects due to the chemical transport of groundwater from land to sea in the future.
Most of the bedrock of the Mystic and Old Mystic quadrangles is part of an upper Proterozoic gneissic, crystalline terrane extending from eastern Massachusetts through western Rhode Island to and across southeastern Connecticut north of Long Island Sound. This terrane, equated with the Avalonian terrane of Newfoundland (Rast and others, 1976; Skehan and Murray, 1980), is separated from a block of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Ordovician or older age, the Quinebaug and Tatnic Hill Formations, by the ductile, northand west-dipping Honey Hill-Lake Char fault system which crosses the northern part of the Old Mystic quadrangle (figs. 1 and 2). The crystalline terrane, in the lower plate, consists predominantly of granitoid gneisses, the Sterling Plutonic Group of Late Proterozoic age (Day and others, 1980; Goldsmith, 1980), that intrude and are interleaved with a layered sequence consisting of the predominantly metaclastic Plainfield Formation below and the primarily metavolcanic and metaplutonic Waterford Group above. Regional metamorphism probably took place in the early Paleozoic and possibly in the Proterozoic, but metamorphic events continued, at least in the upper plate, during the middle Paleozoic. In the Silurian, the laccolithic Preston Gabbro was intruded in the developing Honey Hill fault zone. During the middle and into the late Paleozoic, deformation continued both along the Honey Hill fault zone and in the .gneissic terrane, where it produced a major foliation arch and a complex interference pattern. Late in the Paleozoic, lateto post-tectonic granite and quartz monzonite, including the Westerly and Narragansett Pier Granites, were intruded in the coastal area of Rhode Island and Connecticut. During the Mesozoic, brittle faulting accompanied by hydrothermal activity occurred in a north-south zone from Mystic River through the Preston Gabbro area. The prominent silexite mass at Lantern Hill formed at this time. The bedrock in the map area is partly covered by glacial deposits of Pleistocene age (Gaffney, 1966; Upson, 1971). Accordingly, bedrock exposures are discontinuous and irregularly distributed. South of the mainland, Fishers Island, Wicopesett Island (not shown on this map), Napatree Point, and Sandy Point are composed of thick unconsolidated glacial deposits, and no bedrock information could be obtained. ROCKS OF THE LOWER PLATE
In this paper we examine the relationship between the seasonal and interannual variability observed in the water flow through the Corsica Channel and the sea level difference between the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas. The steric contribution to the sea level difference, computed from historical hydrological data, is in good agreement with the stable presence of the seasonal signal in the water exchanges. We obtain the maximum steric difference in winter (∼16 cm) and the minimum in summer (∼2 cm). These values are consistent with the corresponding estimates of water volume transport (0.8 and <0.1 Sv in winter and summer, respectively). Also, TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) satellite altimetry is shown to be capable of capturing the sea level difference anomaly between the two basins at seasonal and interannual scales. Accuracy of altimeter data in the study region has been checked using measurements from a bottom pressure recorder deployed in Capraia Island (rms difference is found to be ∼2 cm after application of a 30-day half-amplitude Gaussian filter). Because of the lack of an accurate geoid, the total water transport cannot be adequately monitored by satellite altimetry alone. However, the recovered signal can be directly related to the water transport anomaly through the channel. The resulting T/P signal can be considered as representing, to a great extent, the real steric variation induced by the net sea surface heat fluxes. The high correlation found between the water transport and sea level difference anomalies confirms the results obtained by the climatological hydrography and provides new evidence that interannual differences in the sea level and water transport can be related to the different heat flux balance in the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas. Moreover, it demonstrates, for the first time in the Mediterranean, the potential of satellite altimetry for long-term monitoring of the water exchanges between adjacent basins.
The distribution of natural radionuclide γ-ray activities and their respective annual effective dose rates, produced by 40 K, 238 U, 226 Ra, 235 U and 232 Th, were determined for granite samples collected along the road of Idfu - Marsa Alam in eastern desert of Egypt. This subject is important in environmental radiological protection, since granites are widely used as building material. The variation in concentration of radionuclides for thirty granite samples was determined. A HPGe spectrometer was used for quantification of gamma emitting radionuclides in the sediments. All sediments contained radionuclides from the uranium and thorium series as well as 40 K. 238 U concentrations in the samples ranged (from 12.03±0.88 to 19.34±1.41 Bq.kg - 1 ), 235 U (from 1.16±0.11 to 4.83±0.44, Bq.kg -1 ), 226 Ra (from 9.69±0.82 to 18.97±1.33 Bq.kg -1 ), 228 Ra ranged (from 10.24±0.70 to 17.35±1.29) 232 Th range (from 9.99±0.67 to l7.65±1.23 Bq.kg -1 ) and 40 K (from 298.58±21.74 to 955.78±69.58 Bq.kg -1 ). Radium-equivalent activities (Raeq) in addition to the internal hazard index (Hin) have also been determined. Granite samples Raeq varies between 49.05 and 113.39 Bq.kg -1 . The total absorbed dose rates in air calculated from the concentrations of the three radionuclides ranged from 24.24 to 58.05 nGy.h -1 and the external annual effective dose rate of the areas were determined to be between 0.12 and 0.28 mSv.y -1 . The results can be considered as base values for distribution of natural radionuclides in the region and will be used as reference information to assess any changes in the radioactive background level due to geological processes.
Ashtamudi lake (Lat. 8° 45' - 9° 26' N and Long 76° 28' - 77° 17'E) is the  second largest and deepest wetland ecosystem in Kollam District of Kerala in  the South West Coast of India with a water spread of 61.4 km2 (6140 ha). The  estuary is palm shaped with eight prominent arms and the arms converge  into a single outlet at Neendakara to enter into Lakshadweep Sea. The Kallada  river which originate from the Western Ghats traverse through the forests  120km and empty the freshwater into the lake. The water spread area from  the Neendakara barmouth u p to 6-7 km upstream is the estuarine p a r t of the  lake with rich biodiversity
The interpretation of radar sounding data from Mars where significant topographic relief occurs will require echo source discrimination to avoid the misinterpretation of surface echoes as arising from the subsurface. This can be accomplished through the identification of all radar returns from the surface in order to positively identify subsurface echoes. We have developed general techniques for this using airborne radar data from the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. These data were collected in a single pass, including Taylor Glacier, ice-covered Lake Bonney, and an ice-free area of Taylor Valley. The pulsed radar (52.5-67.5 MHz) was coherently recorded. Our echo discrimination techniques included a radar simulator using a digital elevation model (DEM) to predict the location and shape of surface echoes in the radar data. Real and simulated echo strengths were used to calculate a signal-to-clutter ratio. This was complemented by the cross-track migration of radar echoes onto the surface. These migrated echoes were superimposed on the DEM and imagery in order to correlate with surface features. Using these techniques enabled us to identify a number of echoes in the radar data as arising from the surface and to identify subsurface echoes, including a continuous reflector under the main trunk of Taylor Glacier and multiple reflectors beneath the terminus of Taylor Glacier. Surface-based radar confirms the thickness of the glacier at three crossing points. The results illustrate the importance of using complementary techniques, the usefulness of a DEM, and the limitations of single-pass radar sounding data.
Abstract. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), is a major driving climate mechanism, in the eastern Caribbean Sea and the South Atlantic Ocean in relation to the dynamics of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS) for the late Holocene. Here we document the AMO signal in the San Nicolas-1 core of the Cauca paleolake (Santa Fe–Sopetran Basin) in the northern Andes. Wavelet spectrum analysis of the gray scale of the San Nicolas-1 core provides evidence for a 70 yr AMO periodicity for the 3750 to 350 yr BP time interval, whose pattern is analogous to the one documented for the Cariaco Basin. This supports a possible correlation between enhanced precipitation and ENSO variability with a positive AMO phase during the 2000 to 1500 yr BP interval, and its forcing role on the Cauca ria lake deposits, which led to increased precipitation and to the transition from a igapo (black water) to a varzea (white water) environment ca. 3000 yr BP.
The consequences resulting from varying the parameters of the vane shear test (used to determine the shear strength of marine sediments) were investigated. Experiment showed that larger ratios of container diameter to vane diameter yield more accurate shear strengths It was also shown that the four-bladed vane produced the best results. Finally, rates of rotation of one and two revolutions per hour were found to give accurate values of shear strength, while higher rates of rotation proved to be unsatisfactory. TABLE OF CONTENTS
This paper describes the unique InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) processing algorithms at Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and how ERS (European Remote Sensing Satellite) tandem data are used to prove the high performance of the processing chain. The InSAR baselines are estimated from the high precision orbit data only, without using ground control points in the Svalbard test area. The flattening of the interferograms is of high quality and the interferograms are used to generate InSAR DEM (Digital Elevation Model) by using an existing DEM from Svalbard. The root mean square (rms) of the InSAR DEM is between 10 and 20 m in the selected test area. Although one day interferograms with removed terrain fringes were used, a combination of field measurements, photogrammetric methods and interferometry are necessary to obtain a complete pattern of ice velocities on a fast‐moving glacier like Kronebreen (maximum 2 m day−1), where parts of the glacier are heavily crevassed. The study also demonstrated that considerable decorrelation may occur during one day over snow and glaciers due to changing weather conditions.
The article analyzes Mo-polymetal deposit's mineralization geologic background,mining area and ore deposit geologic characteristics,and discusses ore deposit forming mechanism in Fujiacun,Luchuan.The study result shows that the deposit is a molybdenum;copper;zinc;iron polymetal hydrothermal deposit of high-moderate-low temperature which is closely related to Yanshannian magmatic activities.The study proposes main prospecting indicator and direction
__________________________________________ Introduction _______________________________________ Fieldwork and acknowledgments. _____________________ Analysis of stratigraphic nomenclature ________________ Historical background_ _________________________ Early work_ _______________________________ Later work _ ______________________________ Necessity for a revised classification. ______________ Middle Ordovician section. __________________________ Structure of the Tellico-Sevier belt _ ______-__-__Rocks underlying Middle Ordovician__ ____________ Knox group (Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician) — relations with overlying rocks. _____ Lenoir limestone.. _ _____________________________ General features. _____________--________---Douglas Lake member___________-_-____---_Mosheim member __ _______________________ Argillaceous limestone member. ______________ Fossils ___ ________________________________ Soils and topographic expression. _____________ Blockhouse shale. ______________________________ General features. ___________________________ Whitesburg limestone member. Name __________________ Lithic features ___ _ _____ Dark shale member. _________ Lithic features ___ ______ Toqua sandstone member. ____ Lithic features ___ ______________ Stratigraphic relations.. _ _____________ Internal stratigraphy _ _ _________ Contact with the Tellico formation Fossils _ _ _________________________ Soils and topographic expression. ______ Tellico formation. _______________________ General features and name_ ___________ Lithic features __ __________________ Calcareous shale__ _______________ Calcareous sandstone. ____________ Stratigraphic relations _ _ ____________ Internal stratigraphy _ __ _ _______ Contact with Chota formation_____ Fogsils __ __________________________ Soils and topographic expression, ______ Chota formation _ _ _____________________ General features and name____________ Page 141 142 142 143 143 143 144 145 146 146 146 146 147 147 147 147 147 148 148 148 148 148 149 149 149 150 150 150 150 150 151 151 153 153 153 154 154
The study of superdeep hydrocarbon systems (SHCS) is of great importance for improving the fundamentals of forecasting oil and gas potential at large depths in the Earth's crust and for studying the generation, migration and accumulation of hydrocarbons. Research on the SHCS is very promising, both from the point of view of studying the fundamental processes of the ontogenesis of hydrocarbons, and for predicting the hydrocarbon potential of deep strata and for searching for hydrocarbon accumulations in deep-buried horizons of the Earth's crust. Isotope-geochemical studies and model constructions suggest that there is a wide distribution of the SHCS with autonomous foci of fluid generation, and deep-lateral distribution area exist in which impenetrable clayey oil-bearing rocks have very high fluid-conducting and reservoir capacities.
Fourteen rare-earth elements (REE) have been determined in metavolcanics and metagabbros from the island of Leka, Norway. The overall REE content of these rocks ranges from about 3 ppm, with strong light REE depletion, for the metagabbros to 170ppm with light REE enrichment, for porphyritic greenstones and pillow lavas. Based on regional geological features, lithology, and the REE abundances it is concluded that rocks of the island Leka constitute a part of an ophiolite complex.
The total carbon inventory in the terrestrial biosphere in the last glacial maximum (LGM), 18 kyr ago, is analyzed in a series of experiments that examine the sensitivity of the inventory to vegetation distribution and carbon dynamics. The results show that for most forest vegetation types, carbon densities for the LGM are within 10% of their present-day values. Discrepancies between vegetation distributions simulated by two bioclimatic schemes are attributable to the assignation of vegetation types to climates with rare or no present-day analog. The model experiments, combined with palynogical data for regions with no present-day analog climate, yield to a decrease of 612{+-}105 Gt C compared to present day. 47 refs., 12 figs., 3 tabs.
Abra is a high-grade sedimentary-hosted Pb deposit located in the Paleoproterozoic Edmund Basin in Western Australia. Mineralization is blind, with the top of the deposit occurring 250 m beneath the land surface. The deposit consists of a stratiform apron of Pb-Ag-Ba mineralization in laminated iron-oxide- and barite-altered dolomite and siltstone, which overlies a feeder zone of chlorite-altered, brecciated, and veined carbonatic siltstone that contains Pb-Ag mineralization in the core that transitions to Pb-Cu and Cu-Au at depth. Abra is characterized by discrete geophysical anomaly responses in magnetic, gravity, time-domain electromagnetic (TDEM), and induced polarization survey data. A +450 nT magnetic anomaly is caused by magnetite in the lower stratiform zone. Dense galena, barite, dolomite, and iron-oxide mineralization in the apron and galena in the feeder zone is surrounded by lower-density sedimentary host rocks, which results in a +1 mGal gravity anomaly. Airborne, ground, and downhole TDEM surveying resolved known mineralization as weak electromagnetic conductor responses, and petrophysical testing on core samples shows that this is caused by galena. Pole-dipole-induced polarization surveying resolved a +20 ms chargeability anomaly on the southern flank of the deposit. This chargeable anomaly response is related to disseminated galena, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and alteration. Joint audiomagnetotelluric-magnetotelluric 2D inverted data sections resolved Abra as a broad weakly conductive anomaly. Weak conductor responses associated with Abra were also resolved in 2D and 3D inversion modeling of airborne Z-axis tipper electromagnetic data. 2D seismic reflection surveying resolved Abra as strong flat-lying seismic reflectors, which are bounded and offset by faults and surrounded by a seismically bland zone. The seismic reflections are related to significant density contrasts between high-density stratiform mineralization that is in contact with low-density sedimentary host rocks, as the mineralization and host rocks have similar seismic velocities. Passive seismic horizontal to vertical spectral ratio surveying resolved the top of the deposit as a subtle layer sitting below a flat impedance contrast horizon that is interpreted as weathered siltstone on top of diagenetically cemented siltstone.
To mitigate the column damage during seismic events and to reduce the recovery time after a major earthquake, a post-tensioned bridge column with a rocking interface above the foundation and externally-installed energy dissipation devices was proposed. The energy dissipation devices were specially designed to serve as fuse elements that can be easily replaced after yielding. In addition, a mechanical joint that can rotate freely in all directions was incorporated at one end of the dissipater to ensure bending was not transmitted into this device. To verify the seismic performance of the proposed system, two proposed specimens with different prestressing forces and design details in the rocking base were constructed and tested. From the experiments, it was found that the proposed post-tensioned specimens suffered minor damage after cyclic loadings. All of the damage was concentrated on the inelastic deformation that occurred at the external energy dissipaters. The ease of replacement for the external energy dissipaters was also confirmed.
In the present study we analyze if the risk concept of the hegemonic epidemiologychanges its nature in purportedly alternative currents as ecoepidemiology and socialepidemiology focused in multilevel analysis.We analyze the way this concept is distinguishedin every current and its relationship with other epidemiologic key notions as cause. We findthat the risk concept and the notion of cause remain relatively unchanged among the differentcurrents even when there is some theoretical discussion about the complexity of multilevelsystems and other explanations for the events. Finally we discuss some consequences aboutthe appropriation of the risk concept in multiple interventions in the health field. We indicatethat the fragmented nature of the risk concept is problematic because it can make thesocial aspects of the disease considered only in a functional perspective. Alternatively to thatwe develop the vulnerability concept as a knowledge framed in a hermeneutical perspective.The vulnerability concept acts as a mediator knowledge between epidemiology and theinterventions in the health field. In the same way we point out some concerns from the anthropologicalfield about the simplification of social senses and omission of meanings aboutthe health of the communities.
Seeks to analyze the dialectic in Boaventura de Sousa Santos perspective from the application of the society division ideology by cartographic lines that segregate the "visible" – what's on the "here" line – from the "invisible" – the other end. The work presents a construction based on the several meanings that the expression can take including its use as a method in the scientific research in social sciences. Finally, the Post-Critical theory orientation contributes to the analysis of the dialectic, by presenting itself – according to Santos – as the most appropriate to the current time: postmodernity.
books. It contains numerous tables and about 200 black and white figures which mainly are photographic maps of the Mars surface indicating Mars geography, including impact and landing sites of missions. As this material is presented chronologically, the history of Mars explorations is easy to follow. It is not restricted to Mars itself, but includes also the moons Phobos and Deimos. The author, Philip J. Stooke, is a planetary cartographer at the University of Western Ontario. He has earned many positive reactions to his first book, and is now being praised for the present book in numerous forums and on websites related to the topic such as by The Planetary Society and on UnmannedSpaceflight.com where he is a frequent contributor himself. Taking into account the amount of work and motivation that needs to go into such a book and the nice outcome of those efforts, the appraisals appear to be very appropriate. This book is a well-founded and detailed documentation of all Mars explorations within the first 50 years and should be a good choice for anyone interested in the subject. It is printed on excellent paper and has a very convenient format for an atlas which is large enough to stay open by itself lying on a flat table but not excessive in size as some other cartographic books. Also, it has been avoided to print figures over more than one page, such that the view is not obstructed by the binding of the book, as is so often the case with large figures elsewhere. For all these reasons, this book deserves unrestricted recommendation.
THE recent death of Wilhelm Schuppe emphasizes the passing away of the older generation of philosophical teachers who, on the basis of their own philosophical systems, could make notable contributions to the field of jurisprudence.' But while professional philosophers have been withdrawing from this field, jurists, like other intellectual workers, have been driven more and more by the exigencies of their own work to a philosophical consideration of their own fundamental problems. Besides the general breakdown of the ideaphobia which was so fashionable in the latter part of the nineteenth century, special circumstances have brought issues involving the fundamental principles of jurisprudence to the foreground. The adoption of the German Civil Code which throws upon jurists the task of determining what is "good faith" and "morals," the adoption of the Swiss Civil Code with its explicit recognition of the judges' power of supplementary legislation, and the rise in France and other countries of social legislation involving new forms of responsibility and consequent new methods of interpretation, have all led to the breakdown of the classical theory according to which the law springs complete and fully armed from the brow of a somewhat mythical being called the will of the sovereign. German Historicism as well as French and
The way in which Buffon uses the concept of monster in his Histoire naturelle generale et particuliere de la nature might cause a problem for his method and its emphasis on accurate observation and comparison, to the extent that it is difficult to observe monsters objectively and to compare them with something else. The Buffonian method – which establishes the monster as a fact of nature – is able to overcome such a predicament. The reality of the monster is crucial for Buffon in order to defend the idea that the “view” of nature he is offering is a general view that indeed captures the very reality of nature.
Una leggenda in cerca d'autore: la Vita di santa Chiara d'Assisi. Studio delle fonti e sinossi intertestuale. By Marco Guida. [Subsidia hagiographica, 90.] (Brussels: Societe des Bollandistes. 2010. Pp. ?, 255. euro65,00 paperback. ISBN 978-2-873-65024-7.) About the same time that Pope Alexander IV canonized Clare of Assisi in 1255, he commissioned a hagiographical legend to support her cult. The resulting Life of Saint Clare never identifies its author, although surely it was known to some contemporaries. Modern scholars have debated its authorship since early in the twentieth century as part of the "Franciscan Question"- shorthand for the debates surrounding early sources for the life of St. Francis of Assisi and his followers. Following some medieval manuscripts, St. Bonaventure was identified as Clare's biographer, whereas others claimed it was Thomas of Celano, who had written three biographical works on Francis. Giovanni Boccali suggested an anonymous cleric within the papal curia as author, based on its use of biblical citation and relatively little detail concerning Francis. Marco Guido now presents a compelling argument in favor of Thomas. In addition to resolving this issue, his important study sheds additional light on the relationship between the early Franciscan brotherhood and the female community at San Damiano, as well as the transmission of Clare's writings and biographical records. The centerpiece of Guida's study is a synoptic comparison of the three thirteenth-century biographical sources for Clare's life: the process of canonization, the bull declaring her sainthood, and the legend itself. A complex table uses varying colors and typefaces to show the interrelationships between these texts, as well as borrowings from other contemporary documents including Francis's biographies and Clare's writings. His methodology follows that of the Federazione Santa Chiara di Assisi delle Clarisse di UmbriaSardegna, a research team of Franciscan sisters, whose similar treatment of the Rule of Saint Clare in Chiara d'Assisi e le sue fonti legislative. Sinossi cromatica (Padua, 2003) provided new insights into the circumstances of its composition. This chart demonstrates how the Legend of Saint Clare frequently uses literal phrases from the canonization process. This is more significant than it may seem. Clare's process exists only in a vernacular version, prepared by the Clarissan nun BattistaAlfani in the late-fifteenth century. The correspondences between process and legend indicate that her translation is a faithful version of an earlier Latin text. It is thus not simply the best text we have, but an authoritative one. …
Traditionally, typological classifications have been done in a macro-typological perspective; that is,they have been based on balanced world-wide samples of languages, which often avoid includingclosely related languages, since these are supposed to act alike with respect to their typologicalfeatures and structures. However, attention has recently been drawn to the idea that even closelyrelated languages, as well as dialects within languages, may differ on their typological features. Theintention of this thesis is to give an overview of and study how the Germanic languages differ fromeach other in regards to their negative word orders and negation strategies. Mainly their negativeadverbs (English equivalent not), but also their negative indefinite quantifiers, are analyzed in mainclauses, subordinate clauses, and (negative) imperative structures. The focus lies on the standardlanguage varieties, but some of their non-standard varieties are included, in order to be able to give amore detailed description of the variation within the family. The expected result that the ratherhomogeneous described area of the Germanic languages will turn out to be much more complex, withrespect to negation aspects, is confirmed. The results show that the standard language varieties behavedifferently than the non-standard ones, which are less "rare" cross-linguistically. In addition, the nonstandardNorth-Germanic varieties show that multiple negation occurs in the North-Germanic branch,which is traditionally claimed to not occur.
given that modern art is in danger of being carried away uncritically by the unconscious, and needs to be submitted to the discipline and doctrine of the conscious. Part III (the homage to Miro) then discusses these preceding concepts in detail through the work of Miro himself, in the context of his own tragic temperament, his depression, and his personal loss of identity in his adolescent years (1911) and again in mid-life (1937-42). His series of self-portraits is seen as an attempt to find and define himself. Jung, as an analytic psychologist, is very relevant to Miro's work when he states that the artist's role is to put the viewer back into touch with such spiritual forces as have been repressed by current culture, but in doing this the artist is often forced to sacrifice personal freedom and happiness in order to become an instrument of his art. As the various contributors show, this certainly applied to Miro. This is not a book to be read through cover to cover, but to be referred to for specific points of interest. Themes are painted on a large canvass and then Miro's work is taken to fill them out in some detail. It truly pays homage to Miro, but this is only part of the book, and as such could disappoint those who seek an extensive critique of Miro's work. It is however, a book to enjoy for the coloured illustrations, and a good source of references for those who wish to explore the psychiatric and spiritual ramifications of mental disorder in relationship to the creative process.
in Galilee was quite limited prior to the reignrightly emphasized that his proclamation of an of Herod Antipas. Galilee had been exposed to alternative kingdom, the Kingdom of God, must be Hellenism for more than three centuries before understood within the context of a people aware the time of Jesus, but not until the time of Antipas that the imperial shadow that had already fallen on was the penetration of Greek culture extensive. Judea would one day likely cover Galilee as well.' Antipas' rebuilding of Sepphoris and establishment Chancey's work bears the marks of meticulous of Tiberias led to Roman-style buildings in those research , and the author is aware that the arguments cities,, and Roman influences were themselves the based on archaeological findings are never more than vehicle of Greek culture, but there is little evidence provisional. New discoveries will be made, but he for Roman monumental architecture elsewhere in argues that they are likely to conform to rather than first-century Galilee. challenge such patterns as are already established. There is also little evidence for Roman statues, 'Those patterns', he suggests, 'are consistent enough inscriptions, milestones and other symbols of that they most likely reflect ancient social realities, Roman power and imperial ideology in Galilee. 'dents of survival and discovery'. Such evidence becomes common only in the second century, after large numbers of Roman soldiers ANDREW GREGORY
While Peirce is a seminal figure for contemporary semiotic philosophers, it is axiomatic of a fully semiotic perspective that no philosopher or philosophy (semiotics included) can provide any final answer, as signs are always interpreted and the context of interpretation always varies. Semiosis is evolutionary: it may or may not be construed as progressive but it cannot be static. While Peirce offers a way out of the mind-body divide that both permeates and separates classical rationalism and empiricism, he himself is read in this article as closer to the rationalist tradition exemplified by Kant and Hegel that he critiques than to either thoroughgoing empiricism or post-Nietzschean relativism. From a contemporary perspective, Peirce thus falls short of qualifying as a fully semiotic thinker, notwithstanding his key role in the development of semiotic philosophy.
The largely neglected characterization of Aeetes and the function of Ares in the 'Argonautica' may heighten the insight into Apollonius' intentions. Regarded more closely, the plot shows that Aeetes, though being the son of Helios, is marked as an Ares-hero, and not only in the scene in which he arms himself (3. 1225-45). Already in book 2 his close connection with the war-god is hinted at repeatedly, and in book 3 it is further intensified by the adaptation of the Cadmus-and-dragon myth (as told by Pherecydes). Jason, who was compared to both Ares and Apollo at the beginning of his aristeia, proved to be a match for the cruel Aeetes when he finally performs the shocking massacre of the earthborn. He wins, but he owes his success to Aphrodite. In Apollonius, Ares and Aphrodite rule over human beings and their fates; however, the outcome of their power is not harmonia (as in the Cadmus myth), but at the very end of his poem (book 4) crime, blood and death.
Edmund Wilson’s 1922 essay “F. Scott Fitzgerald,” which appeared in The Bookman magazine, contains ethnic stereotypes of the Irish-American F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wilson’s piece is important as an early critical assessment of Fitzgerald as an author; it helped establish Fitzgerald’s reputation. This article explores Wilson’s essay in order to show the nature and origin of these stereotypes. In so doing, it examines allusions in Wilson’s essay to characters and situations in the plays of Irish playwrights George Bernard Shaw and J. M. Synge, to the original Playboy magazine, and to the harlequinade. It also examines the ways in which The Bookman itself was part of the racial discourse of the time. Wilson was to revise his essay in 1924 and again in 1952, but he did not remove the stereotypes—a significant fact in itself.
Petrus oder Paulus? Studien fiber das Verhaltnis des Ersten Petrusbriefes zur paulinischen Tradition, by Jens Herzer. WUNT 103. Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998. Pp. x + 337. DM 168.00. This 1997 Berlin Habilitationsschrift advances a trend in Petrine studies that distances I Peter from Pauline tradition. This trend counters studies that understand I Peter as a reflection of Pauline theology or as an elaboration of extracts from the Pauline and Deuteropauline epistles or even as a composition of a Schiller des Paulus. Herzer pushes this trend to its extreme in rejecting Pauline influence on I Peter such as literary dependence or conscious appropriation of Pauline formulas, themes, and expressions. Herzer investigates only the most significant formal and thematic parallels between 1 Peter and the Pauline tradition. He uses K. Shimada's four literary criteria for determining direct literary dependence. Shimada proposes literary dependence when a document contains an express citation of another work or when two documents share a similar viewpoint or contain identical expressions, word placement, and words, or present broad concepts that are the same. To these four criteria, Herzer adds three more. He proposes Pauline influence only if context analysis demonstrates that similar conceptions are found in similar contexts or if concept analysis demonstrates that similar concepts occur with similar meaning or if I Peter consciously references a particular Pauline tradition. Herzer contends, however, that literary analysis alone cannot adequately investigate the relationship between 1 Peter and Pauline tradition. Consequently, he places the results of his literary analyses in the broader context of early Christian Traditionsgeschichte, which he understands as various traditions arising from the same salvation event but transmitted through different authorities. Herzer argues that 1 Peter represents Petrine tradition since Peter, not Paul, is the pseudonym (pp. 14-18). For Herzer, an adequate understanding of the tradition requires recognizing that Peter influenced Paul and that the Petrine and Pauline missions agreed in many respects. Hence, distinguishing between these traditions is difficult, especially since the Petrine text basis is small and unoriginal. By placing the results of his literary analyses within the context of early Christian Traditionsgeschichte, Herzer demonstrates that 1 Peter is neither literarily dependent nor directly influenced by the Pauline tradition. In chapter 2, Herzer applies his literary and traditio-historical methods to the Petrine and Pauline letter formulas. His literary analysis identifies Petrine additions, omissions, and alterations in comparison with Pauline usage. In the prescript for example, Herzer observes that the description of the recipients as "elect strangers of the Diaspora" transcends Pauline usage, as do the phrases "sprinkling of blood" and "be multiplied." The trinitarian formula in 1 Pet 1:2 is also not found in Pauline prescripts. In contrast, 1 Peter lacks the Pauline expansion of the title "apostle" and common Pauline terms such as "saints," "beloved," and "church." Most important for Herzer are the Petrine alterations of Pauline usages. Herzer emphasizes that Peter, not Paul, is identified as the sender, and the Petrine "apostle of Jesus Christ" differs from the Pauline formulation. Furthermore, terms such as "foreknowledge," "sanctification," and "obedience" occur differently in 1 Peter than in the Pauline corpus. Herzer concludes that the Petrine prescript neither relies on Paul nor falls within the Pauline epistolary tradition. When literary analysis alone is incapable of distancing 1 Peter from Paul, Herzer relies upon his traditio-historical method. For example, the eulogy formula "blessed be God," found in the NT only in 1 Pet 1:3; 2 Cor 1:3; and Eph 1:3 indicates that 1 Peter derives this formula from Paul. …
The paper explains Baumgarten’s foundation of modern aesthetics as the   science of sensible cognition. The paper first examines mentalistic paradigm   in modern philosophy as an intellectual background of Baumgarten’s philosophy   and aesthetics (I). This is followed by consideration of Baumgarten’s   definitions of aesthetics from Philosophical meditations of pertaining to   some matters concerning poetry (1735), Metaphysics (1739) and Aesthetics   (1750) (II). Finally, it considers Baumgarten’s definition of aesthetics as   the science of sensible cognition starting from Leibniz’s theory of different   stages of knowledge (III).
Many critics acknowledge Pope's indebtedness in Eloisa to Abelard (1717) to the Ovidian heroic epistle, and indeed the poem does owe much to the earlier poet's style and imagery.(1) However, as others have not, I see in Eloisa to Abelard a poem that imitates certain Renaissance sonnet conventions. Pope incorporates into his poem both the self-reflective language of Petrarch and the Shakespearean reinterpretation of Petrarch's language in order to express the erotic, ultimately impossible desire of his heroine. I shall argue that this inventive synthesis largely account for the disjunctive attitude of the poem that readers often note when Popes moves Eloisa back and forth between reality and illusion, a disjunction that Pope attempts to mediate in the poem's conclusion. Pope's uneven narrative initiates a Petrarchan ideal, then undercuts this ideal with a suspicion of language reminiscent of Shakespeare's "dark lady" sonnet cycle. In doing so, Pope not only complicates the associations among poet, persona, and the object of poetic desire,but transforms writing, itself into a mechanism for reconstructing reality and thus into an object of desire as well. As he adapt and conflates the conventions of praise poetry, Pope privileges writing over speech, a convention typical of the heroic. epistle. In establishing a hierarchy between the two forms of language, he adds a dimension to his poem that neither of the earlier poets contemplate. Ultimately, out of Pope's erotic epideictic poem emerges an epistle on the nature of language. I agree with James Winn that it is "mindless" to compare Eloisa in any literal sense to Pope.(2) However, certain similarities between the two, evoked by the language of the poem itself, suggest Pope's empathy with Eloisa, especially in sexual terms.(3) Pope's empathy with the historic Heloise seems to stem from a coincidence of circumstances: both were intellectuals and writers, in some aspects secluded from the world -- Heloise in her convent, Pope in his garden. Their sexual dilemma invites further comparison; both were sexually functional yet were hindered in their attempts to engage in normal sexual relationships. Heloise cannot stop Abelard's castration, and she ultimately agrees to join a nunnery; Pope's dwarfish physique made marriage and sexual relationships unlikely. The most significant difference between them lies in consummation; Heloise and Abelard did, and Pope apparently did not, speculation to the contrary notwithstanding.(4) The sexual imagination at play in Pope's letter to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and to the Blounts no doubt helped him vocalize Eloisa's dilemma in the poem.(5) By seeing language as a metonymy for sexual love, Pope imagined his writings as items of barter for -- and thus in some manner equivalent to -- the sexual favors of ladies, as he confesses in a 1711 letter to Henry Cromwell: "How gladly wou'd I give all I am worth, that is to say, my Pastorals for one of their [the Blounts'] Maidenheads, & my Essay for the other?"(6) And although he wrote to Martha Blount in 1716 that "the Epistle of Eloise grows warm and begins to have some Breathings of the Heart in it, which may make posterity think I was in love" [Mar 1716]; 1:338), it was to Lady Mary that he practiced his most overtly erotic correspondence: I must be content to show my taste in Life as I do my taste in Painting, by loving to have as little Drapery as possible. Not that I think every body naked, altogether so fine a sight as your self and a few more would be: but because 'tis good to use people to what they must be acquainted with; and there will certainly come some Day of judgment to uncover every Soul of us. (18 August [17161; 1:353). In substituting language for action to express desire, Pope was able to distance himself from real sexual contact, which his physique made problematic, while pretending familiarity with such contact. Pope seemed to find security in distance, for the further Lady Mary travelled from England, the more emotionally intimate Pope's letters became. …
The intimist and introspective literature practiced by Clarice Lispector, whose narrators and characters are put to explore their and other’s solitudes and deviations, makes the Identity one of her constant and central themes. Recovering this identity from passages of chronicles (one of them unpublished) and interviews, the purpose of this paper is to aim at the way of how this topic relates to questions that are dear to the literary work of this author, such as her creation process and shocks with language, often mentioned by her narrators, characters and Lispector herself, through a style often marked, for instance, by hesitations, repetitions, questions.
A curious feature of the Genesis flood story is the sequence of chronological notices that appears throughout. The intuition that these dates must hold some special significance has generated several scholarly attemps to unlock the logic behind the chronological data. The purpose of this paper is to offer another contribution toward the resolution of this stubborn problem. This paper will begin with a presentation of the data under consideration. Next I will summarize three previous proposals and offer some points of criticism. My own proposals with then be set forth and followed by some comments concerning implications suggested by the results of this study. Apart from J’s mention of the 40 and 7 day intervals (7.4, 10, 12; 8.6) the remaining chronological information found in the flood account is usually assigned to the Priestly tradition. The relevant notices are:
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION The Lectures on Pedagogy stem from a course on practical pedagogy that the philosophy faculty at the University of Konigsberg was required to offer as well as to rotate among its professors. Kant taught the course four times: winter semester 1776–7, summer semester 1780, winter semester 1783–4, winter semester 1786–7. His text the first time he offered the course was Johann Bernhard Basedow's Methodenbuch fur Vater und Mutter der Familien und Volker (Altoona and Bremen, 1770). In 1774 Basedow had founded the Philanthropinum Institute in Dessau, a Rousseau-inspired educational experiment that Kant greatly admired. (See also Kant's Essays Regarding the Philanthropinum , pp. 100–4 in this volume.) From 1780 on Kant was required to use his former colleague Friedrich Samuel Bock's book, Lehrbuch der Erziehungskunst zum Gebrauch fur christliche Eltern und kunftige Jugendlehrer (Konigsberg and Leipzig, 1780). However, in keeping with his general practice regarding the “required text rules” that were common at the time, Kant's own lecture notes follow neither Basedow nor Bock at all closely. Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert, co-editor of the first collected edition of Kant's works, reports that towards the end of his life Kant offered his lecture notes on pedagogy – “which according to the habit of the philosopher consisted in individual scraps of paper ( einzelne Papierschnitzel )” – to his younger colleague Friedrich Theodor Rink, “in order to select out from them the most useful ones for the public.
Preface to the second edition (2015) The second, fully revised and reset edition of Reading Greek (2007) consists of two volumes, one of Text and Vocabulary and one of Grammar and Exercises . The fully revised and reset second editions of The Intellectual Revolution and A World of Heroes contain the same selections of authors and follow the same principles as the first editions in the provision of vocabulary and learning vocabulary, and rely on Greek Vocabulary in the same way, but there are two vital differences:  all help is given in the order in which it appears in the text; the help now includes extensive grammatical and syntactical notes, together with comment of the sort one would expect to find in an edition of the works in hand. The revision of The Intellectual Revolution was undertaken by Keith Maclennan (Euripides), to whom the Project is (again) most grateful for his care and expertise, and Dr Jones (Thucydides and Plato). Dr Jones is responsible for the final editing. My very best thanks go to Professor Colin Leach for work on the proofs and to Cambridge University Press’s Leigh Mueller and Elizabeth Hanlon for the care they took over the editing of this new edition. Thanks also go to Cecilia Mackay for gathering the pictures and permissions.
This paper brings to light a new puzzle for Frege interpretation, and offers a solution to that puzzle. The puzzle concerns Frege's judgement-stroke ('r), and consists in a tension between three of Frege's claims. First, Frege vehemently maintains that psychological considerations should have no place in logic. Second, Frege regards the judgementstroke---and the associated dissociation of assertoric force from content, of the act of judgement from the subject matter about which judgement is made---as a crucial part of his logic. Third, Frege holds that judging is an inner mental process, and that the distinction marked by the judgement-stroke, between entertaining a thought and judging that it is true, is a psychological distinction. I argue that what initially looks like confusion here on Frege's part appears quite reasonable when we remind ourselves of the differences between Frege's conception of logic and our own.
The focus of the paper is on the role that Islamic religion plays in the 2014 Egyptian Constitution. On one hand, we cannot deny the role of the Islamic religion into the legal and cultural Egyptian context . On another hand, framing the religious factor “within” the Constitution, by means of the constitutional theory’s concepts, may be the occasion to arrange the issue for a major democratic purpose.
Francis Hutcheson's theory of perception, as put forth in his Synopsis of Metaphysics, bears a striking similarity to that of John Locke. In particular, Hutcheson and Locke both have at the centre of their theories the notion of ideas as representational entities acting as the direct objects of all of our perceptions. On first consideration, one might find this similarity wholly unremarkable, given the popularity of Locke's Essay. But the Essay was published in 1689 and the Synopsis in 1742, and during these years Berkeley had published a substantive attack on Locke's representative realism and the sceptical conclusions he saw it implying. Further, Hume had argued in 1739 that in accepting a Lockean account of perception, we (at least when thinking as philosophers in our studies) are left without any sure knowledge of external objects, even their existence. Despite this, Hutcheson apparently feels no obligation to address either Berkeley's idealism or Hume's scepticism in the Synopsis. The question addressed in this article is, Why did he not see any force to such arguments, and thus why did he feel no onus to attempt to offer an explicit refutation of Berkeley and Hume?
Abstract This article seeks to advance a Thomistic metaphysics of creation in light of certain claims made by Stephen Hawking on the beginninglessness of the universe. I start with an exploration of Hawking's proposal that a beginningless universe entails an uncreated universe. This propels me into Aquinas's contention that a created beginningless universe is indeed possible, and thence I consider the metaphysics behind Thomas's position in this regard. Given this metaphysics of creation, I contend that there follow some interesting conclusions with regard to our notion of a creator God and the means for establishing the existence of such.
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Paul de Man's understanding of the term "reading" radically expands the meaning of the term and actually relates it with "interpretation". According to de Man, all readings are misreadings because reading involves the use of language and language is always rhetorical. That means that any kind of reading or interpretation is only a perspective among many other possible perspectives. There is not such a thing as the single truth. As such, any kind of reading has two sides, that is , its insight and blindness go hand in hand. The reason for this is that , limited by its own perspective, it is always blind to other perspectives. de Man's theory analyses various mistakes because of this blindness in reading. Through his analysis, he opened new horizons for American criticism.
In this paper, the author argues that the controversy developed in the previous issue of Doxa about Ferrajoli’s constitutionalism shows the persistence of two disagreements between him and the principialist authors: the first one concerns the understanding of constitutional norms which confer rights and the second the balancing of principles in generic cases. Concerning this last issue, the author argues that Ferrajoli’s alternative comprises elements which simply do not correspond to the reality of our legal systems (the «abstract solutions») or involve taking an irrationalist stance (the «equitable balancings»).
THIS DISCUSSION CONSIDERS some fundamental aspects of medieval Jewish moral psychology and moral epistemology, with emphasis on several of Maimonides' claims. The purpose is to explicate some connections between those aspects, but also to indicate their relevance to enduring issues of ethical life and ethical theory, especially in connection with the concept of tradition. A key issue is the way in which the particularity of a tradition can be educative with regard to universal, objective moral considerations. The views of some medieval Jewish thinkers explicate how tradition is not just practice firmly established and transmitted across generations. Tradition can have a significant epistemic role. Maimonides figures especially prominently though I will refer to other thinkers, such as Saadia Gaon and Bahya ibn Pakuda, who are also important. They, along with Maimonides, shaped a current of Jewish thought in which even those elements of tradition least transparent to reason can have a role in the achievement of a rational ethics. They argued that practice and understanding form a spiral of mutual reinforcement. Practice can enable agents to attain greater comprehension of the rationale of the practice, and that higher degree of comprehension can fuel the motivation to persist in the relevant practices. The view is not uniquely Maimonides', though his explication of it is the most sophisticated and most fully elaborated. The view provides elements of a moral epistemology of tradition of more than just historical interest or significance within the Jewish context. It addresses some fundamental metaethical issues. I I begin by noting some general features of the view to be considered and by highlighting a contrast with some important currents of modern moral thought. Much modern moral thought answers the question of how fully evident the justification of moral requirements must be by maintaining that an agent should not regard a moral claim as obligating unless its justification is rationally compelling. This is true of some of the most influential early modern conceptions of natural law and it is true of Kant's theory and Kant-inspired approaches. There are diverse conceptions of the character of rational justification, but a great deal of modern thought agrees that moral obligation depends strongly on rational justification. However, even if one holds that moral requirements must be rationally justified, there may be grounds for reservations regarding the claim that the justification of a requirement must be evident. The Maimonidean (and more broadly, medieval Jewish) view maintains that there can be a good reason to uphold a tradition because we can understand that there are reasons for its requirements even if we cannot render the justifications for them fully evident. Jewish thinkers articulated a conception of tradition such that its requirements are rational but in ways that only come into view through living in accord with the practices, perspectives, and commitments constitutive of the tradition. On a different understanding of tradition, the value of tradition is that it sustains moral dispositions and moral orientation when those dispositions and that orientation are not underwritten by rational justification. In this latter view tradition can supply both moral substance and form in those areas into which reason does not reach. If one believes that there are strong reasons against an objectivist conception of moral considerations, this conception of tradition might be attractive. Tradition could help maintain realist-seeming features of ethical judgment and practice even though the metaphysics of morals does not underwrite realist value. Also, in both that view and the medieval Jewish view tradition can be vitally important to the cultivation of virtue, including the development of fluency of judgment, a discerning sensibility, and sound moral motivation. Whether tradition is a mode of access to objective values or shapes a form of moral life that is important because it is thought that there are no objective values, the views agree that moral agents are formed by tradition. …
indwelling of Christ. Muehlberger reads hierarchy as a will to power, “a powerful rhetorical tool for directing the way that readers accept existing information and how they organize new information” (208), “a practice that appears to produce knowledge without allowing for any kind of new intimacy or acquaintance with the beings it describes” (209). Her inspiration seems to be David Frankfurter’s work on demonology, specifically lists of demons. But is the Dionysian hierarchy really just a list of angels, in Frankfurter’s words, “grasping [at] totality”? The Celestial Hierarchy does presume to arrange the total scriptural witness to angels, but this arrangement is meant to be put to use, namely to train the intellect for its eventual overcoming in the dark cloud of “unknowing.” So if Dionysius’s angelology is a totality, it is, to borrow the words of Emmaneul Levinas, a totality explicitly in the service of infinity. My minor misgivings about the handling of Dionysius aside, this is an incredibly helpful resource and now stands as the book to read on the role of angels in early Christianity. Charles Marshall Stang, Harvard University
YUAN Hao-wen is the descendant of Xianbei of the Northern Wei Dynasty.He lived under the regime of Nuchen and Mondolia,which differs from traditional Confucianism in concepts of nationality and monarchical power.He achieved most in his poems of Jiluan for the subject matter,and also for his poems of mountains and waters.He achieved most in his Eight-line poems for the forms of literature,and also Four-line poems.Apart from region and times,his achievement was due to his admiration of the cultural character of northern nationality and his concept of preserving the literature concept of the poems of the Tang-Song period.His poetry is mainly about the feeling of life,but compared with poems,his poetry is more concerned with his personal experience.His poetry about love and mountains and waters is also well-known,not only bold and unconstrained,graceful and restrained,but also melted with SU Shi and XIN Qi-ji.
Some philosopheis (e.g. Ayer, Reichenbach, Lewis) use a version of the argument from illusion to prove that empirical statements are never certain. But this argument, unwittingly, also calls into doubt the certainty of calculations in logic and mathematics. The argument seems to call into question the application of any rule on the grounds that one might at some future time find out that one had misapplied it. But the argument from illusion is only the illusion of an argument.
Filial piety, whose basic meaning is to show love and respect to parents, was detailed described in Shang and Zhou Dynasty. And we Chinese have abided by the virtue scrupulously for thousands of years. Today, aging society comes ahead of time, so the filial piety in our tradition should be carried forward in order to build up a harmonious society. It's necessary to study and expound the relevant theory further and should not regard filial piety as draff or discard it.
In the primordial scene, which Girard has described, society is constituted on the basis of the lynching mob, whose mimetic desire, envy and egotism culminate in sacrificing the scapegoat. With spite, though, we confront the opposite situation, in which the mimetic desire does not establish but rather destroys `society'. Here everybody, and not only the scapegoat, is threatened with destruction. Regarding the genealogy of spite, the article elaborates on radical nihilism (that is, the will to negation) and relates this to passive nihilism (the negation of the will as such), arguing that these two nihilisms are significant to understand both the hedonism/disorientation that characterizes contemporary post-political culture and the emerging forms of despair and violence as a reaction to it. These two nihilisms constitute a non-dialectical `synthesis' in spite of seemingly antagonistic `disjunctions'. The article concretizes the genealogy of spite with two cases: French bestselling writer Houellebecq's novels and (the war against) terrorism. Then it focuses on the relationship between the three social formations (primitive, despotic and capitalist societies) and spite as an `affect without society'. Finally, agonism as a political virtue is set against spite.
The toponym Shilom likely derives from the Semitic/Hebrew root š-l-m, whence also the similar-sounding word šālôm, “peace,” derives. The first mention of the toponym Shilom in Zeniff ’s record — an older account than the surrounding material and an autobiography — occurs in Mosiah 9:6 in parallel with Zeniff ’s mention of his intention to “possess the land in peace” (Mosiah 9:5). The language and text structure of Mosiah 9:5‒6 thus suggest a deliberate wordplay on Shilom in terms of šālôm. Zeniff uses the name Shilom as a point of irony throughout his brief royal record to emphasize a tenuous and often absent peace between his people and the Lamanites. R the narratological wordplay on the name Absalom (“[my] father is peace”) in terms of šālôm (“peace”) and the verbal root š-l-m throughout 2 Samuel 13–20, Moshe Garsiel observes that “the entire story deals in a manner of the most pronounced irony with the absence of ‘peace’ between ‘father’ and son.”1 It is, he notes, an example of the “ironic inconsistency of names to events” being deliberately highlighted by the biblical writer.2 This observation brings to mind word usage in the brief royal autobiography of Zeniff recorded in Mosiah 9–10. During his life and 1. Moshe Garsiel, Biblical Names: A Literary Study of Midrashic Derivations and Puns, trans. Phyllis Hackett (Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1991), 226. For the full discussion, see pp. 226‒27. 2. Ibid. Capitalization altered. “Possess the Land in Peace”: Zeniff’s Ironic Wordplay on Shilom
Until ten to fifteen years ago, Jewish American literary history was construed and described in overwhelmingly mid-twentieth-century masculine terms. As a corrective to this longstanding trend, this essay undertakes to “remake” Jewish American literary history in feminist terms. First, in an act of feminist “readerly resistance,” it surveys recent efforts to remake the canon to include women writers and to reflect the experiences of women readers. Then it applies a variety of second-and third-wave feminist interpretive methodologies to readings of both classic and lesser-known works of Jewish American literature, including Henry Roth’s Call it Sleep, Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer, Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus,” Anzia Yezierska’s “The Lost Beautifulness,” Cynthia Ozick’s “Puttermesser and Xanthippe,” Jo Sinclair’s, The Changelings, and Dara Horn’s In The Image.
disputable assertions, however, Tucker's work is, overall, masterful, a very rewarding book and not to be missed. 6. Those interested in contemporary East-European sociological theory should look at a recent collection of essays edited by Peter Berger. The authors are sociologists in Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Russia. Eight of the 10 essays comprised the Autumn, 1967, number of Social Research; all were solicited with a view to clarifying "theoretical issues between Marxist and non-Marxist sociology" (vi). The first 6 essays attempt to set forth the essential features of the Marxist conception of sociology, which is presented as "wholistic," an extension of Marx's "materialist" conception of society's structure and development, and opposed to all positivism and reductionism, including economic. The most systematic and comprehensive of these 6 essays is that by Zivkovic on "The Structure of Marxist Sociology." There is a good deal of repetition in these 6, but one comes away with a good appreciation of what the authors feel are the basic "laws" and working concepts that specify contemporary Marxist sociology. The last 4 essays treat more specific topics: one sketches a treatment of the division of labor under socialism by use of a blend of theoretical concepts and mathematical techniques; another is a critique of the concept of "alienation" as a useful sociological concept; and the "social role" is the subject of the concluding two essays, the last of which, by the Czech, Baumann, is a very interesting comparison of themes in Luigi Pirandello's literary works and the social theory of George Herbert Mead. — JOSEPH J. O'MALLEY
Sin cannot be eradicated in this life. Take William Langland's description of Gluttony, who goes past the brew house on his way to confession:    And whither he would go the brew-wife asked him.  'To holy church,' quoth he, 'for to hear mass,  And then sit and be shriven, and sin no more.'  ...    Today I will concentrate on three medieval texts - Dante's Purgatorio, Chaucer's Parson's Tale, and Langland's Piers Plowman - and one modern one - the 1992 ABC TV Dramas - and discuss what the comparison reveals about modern society.
This chapter investigates a common eschatological pattern within the Old Testament and second temple Judaism. Both canonical and non-canonical Jewish literature from the era in which Paul lived demonstrate familiarity with a pattern of thinking about God's dealings with Israel which runs from plight to solution. In some cases, the plight was conceived as the inability of Israel to obey God's law and the solution was conceived in terms of a future in which Israel would be free from sin. This was certainly not the only way of thinking of God's historical design for Israel in ancient Judaism; but it was one way, and it was current in the first century. It remains now for us to examine Paul's statements about the relationship between the law and universal sinfulness in light of the plight-solution pattern which we have found in both canonical and non-canonical writings of his day.Keywords: Eschatological Salvation; Israel; Judaism; Old Testament; Paul; plight-solution pattern
The purpose of this article is to examine some issues concerning the composition of the Valencian humanist Pedro Juan Nunez’s Annotations per a entendre alguna cosa de l’arte poetica de Aristotil , preserved in folios 127v and 134r of miscellaneous manuscript number 69 of the Sant Cugat collection. They consist of very simple lecture notes on various Aristotle works, taken at the University of Barcelona by some of his students in around 1574 or shortly after, when he held the Chair of Greek in 1575.
these harsh, emphatic, isolated happenings. The American, it seems to me, has yet to achieve what is, after all, the product of education and thought, the conception of a whole to which all individual acts and happenings are subordinate and contributory. The tendency of the typical and successful American is to look at all state and social activities largely through the medium of his private and personal interests. "What are we h-ere for, if not for the offices ?" is but a crude form of this kind of thinking. The Japanese feel this. While they value personal liberty as intensely as any people, they abhor the fragmentary view of life. Individually the Japanese may not be as shrewd, as clever in business, as the Chinese. BILut they have what the Chinese have not-a "sense of the state," of the immense importance of collective and civilized action, of wise organization, of social discipline. This is the secret of their successes in war, in commerce, in their various competitions with the nations of the West. GARRETT DROPPERS
Two continents. Three countries. Mountains, archipelago, a little red dot & more to come. BERIT SOLI-HOLT (Editor): When I think of introductory material, I think of that Derrida documentary when he is asked about what he would like to know about other philosophers. He simply states: their love life. APRIL VANNINI (Editor): And as far as introductions go, I think Derrida brought forth a fruitful discussion on philosophy and thinking with this statement. First, he allows philosophy to open up the personal and second, the ability to conjure the notion of thinking in relation. After all, love lives are spawned from relations, and such are philosophical encounters—the co-emergence of thought and affect. This brings us to discuss the concept of the special issue of continent. called drift . From the Statement of Intent : The discussion that has become drift , a special issue of continent. began in the glow of a bonfire beside a lake near the Thousand Islands of Ontario when co-founders April and Berit came across a conception of a journal that would decline to follow traditional models of invitation and editorship, instead following a generated discourse through relational means. Shedding preemptive articulation of expected outcome and cohesion, we hope to light a fuse of chain interactions with each contributor active in authorial, editorial, and curatorial roles. drift seeks to allow the framing mechanism to choose itself, to find where something can flow or emerge in relation to a series of participants. By setting out a thread of thought to work its own way through writers and artists of various locations, drift operates through links, breaks, pauses, new directions, unintended consequences, twists, holes, bridges. We are attempting to give the scene for an emergence and what can become conceivable when given the opportunity to create chains of thought—linking, welding, fusing, looping, stitching. We hope to explore what is attainable when scholarly/artistic relationships transverse on their own terms instead of articulated by an institutional environment. JEREMY FERNANDO (Guest Editor): I think he was actually more interested in their sex lives. Though at the same time completely refusing to discuss, disclose, his own: I found it rather touching that he blushes whenever speaking of his life with Marguerite. So perhaps in this sense it is very apt to speak of it in terms of love; and the secret that is in each love: that even though it is a relationality between, there are parts of it that remain hidden, not just from everyone else, but even those in that relation itself. What the editors intend to ^do^ to impart this conceptualization is to provide a framework through the choice of a theme and by minimal standardization of form and content guidelines. As initial instigator, each editor will send their contribution to the issue to a fellow colleague, thinker, artist, friend with the invitation to send (via post) the accruing materials to another possible contributor. In this, we hope to engage with many individuals on ideas surrounding a specific theme determined but not limited by the editors of the drift . The end result will take the form of whatever is at hand (as materials can only stay with each contributor for two weeks) and whomever is at hand (the availability of interested and capable parties) through a course of five months. We are curious. What are the ways in which thought can emerge between individuals and places? What occurs when our fundamental mode of inquiry is between each other? How are ethical, social, spacious, political, aesthetic practices created between a chain of contributors. BSH: To introduce what to look forward to in June with the publication of drift isn't quite possible yet. It is in the stages of preparation, barely started, but already begun. I have been thinking about drift as an insect that goes through life cycles, chrysalises, pupas, larva. Each moment of the production and publication of this issue of continent. is its own life. A bug under a pin is not as interesting as one in flight or crawling up your leg. JF: Though the one crawling up your leg is also more likely to bite you. There is always already a danger in letting be, thinking …. Then again, there is also a potential rupture in attempting to seize, pin down, capture. BSH: I think a word we haven't thought about enough yet is capture. I think we are perhaps trying to capture something, or to allow for the moments of this capture along the way, the resulting material being the ripples left in the sand when the water waves away. AV: This question comes to mind when speaking about captures, waves, ripples: How can we activate a ripple? What I find interesting about a wave is the difference in frequencies, movements, forms, style that are activated in between intervals. What is interesting about a wave is that it is activated in relation to what came before. What remains in the sand is a ripple that forms in relation between multiple intervals of stylistic waves. As Deleuze and Parnet have taught us, "We were only two, but what was important for us was less our working together than this strange fact of working between the two of us. We stopped being 'author'. And these 'between-the-twos' referred back to other people, who were different on one side from the other. The desert expanded, but in so doing became more populous." 1 Drift is activation for thinking-with and possibly much more—who knows? There is the intent to subvert the relational qualities between people in journal publishing, but also important to the editors is the subversion of materials. The editors do not shy away from use of contemporary technology and, in fact, have relied and will continue to rely on the wonders of internet connectivity to midwife the drift. The connective infrastructure chosen to relay the developing issue is simply one of bodies, of postal workers and the varying postal systems. Some may find it to be merely be a call of an already dying form, but the editors believe that the conversation exchanged from hand to hand is of explicit difference in quality of engagement due to the complexity of peripheral information transported by physical matter. Different hospitalities and responsibilities are at play in keeping hold of one-of-a-kind materials for a time and entrusting various postal systems to bear the message forward. To have work physically transported through space and time through this kind of infrastructure that is reliant on individuals to literally carry a message is crucial in incorporating traces of bodily presence. AV: Thought is contingent and emergent process that folds, twists, pulls, shifts in multiple directions and we are interested in these multiple directions. JF: And even as thought is contingent on, hinged around, its place, time, venue—on its continents, as it were (we still tend to speak of gestures of thinking as Continental, British, American, European, Asian, etc.)—we might also attempt to respond to the landscape within each thought: its folds, unfoldings, rolls, manoeuvres, geography. BSH: How different is this than Morelli's screw that Julio Cortazar or Horacio Oliveira recounts in Hopscotch? The fable recalls a man who regarded a screw everyday on his stoop. When he perishes, the screw disappears, perhaps into a fellow neighbor's pocket for secret contemplation. Whoever is writing the passage remarks that "Morelli thought that the screw must have been something else, a god or something like that. Too easy a solution. Perhaps the error was in accepting the fact that the object was a screw simply because it was shaped like a screw." JF: Perhaps even more intriguing is the notion that we do not quite know who is inscribing these remarks on Morelli. That even as someone says that it is a screw, perhaps because it is shaped like a screw, the one who names it “screw”—the one whom we are in a relation with in relation to the screw—remains veiled from us. But even as this is so, the notion of the object as “screw” is marked, etched, onto us. BSH: A periodical, marking a period of time, but where? An issue, a magazine, a storehouse of information. To show the remainders of thinkers connecting and surfing. With all this stated, we, as editors of the drift are aware of the active fault, quaking potential, and ethical catastrophe of such a proposed project — the inheritance or the gifting of a project without consent. We are certain that there may be possible oversight on the process of such a project. If such is the case, we hope that oversight and misdirection will not leave this project dormant but rather open up promising new directions, questions, and potential considerations. We are very excited about the accidental propositions that can occur in between. In sum, we'll see what happens. JF: Perhaps, all we can know of the screw is that we are screwed ... NOTE Gilles Deleuze & Claire Parnet. Dialogues II . Revised edition. (New York: Columbia University Press). 2007: 17.
The paper aims to follow the central aspects of Deleuze's conception of causality, especially in its contrast to equivalent notions of Mecanicism, Platonism and Hegelianism. The point is to highlight how this notion, once emphasized as internal causality or causa sui, favors the establishment of difference as the origin of being, basic ontological requirement in Deleuzes's thought. Therefore, we will show the relevancy of Michael Hardt's comments in order to show the context that, crossing particularly Deleuze's dialogue with Bergson, places causality in immanence, and, at the same time, moves it away from negation's domain. This way, we will pay attention to some aspects related to an interesting translation controversy.
Abstract:Although it seems unlikely that Lowell used Moore’s poetry as a model, in fact he echoed and imitated her repeatedly. Lowell’s allusions to Moore ask us to rethink this prototypical confessional poet and how he viewed his work; they also show us under-observed aspects of allusion, and give us new reasons to return to influence studies. For Lowell, allusion is a way to get beyond his own style. I explore his relationship to Moore through Life Studies, and then sketch a broader technique the two poets share: the escape offered by farfetched metaphor.
The presented sketch on Norwid’s thoughts on independence takes into account only the statements of Cyprian Norwid after 1864, fol­lowing the fall of the January Uprising. As a starting point for discus­sion, the crucial 1869 text for the discussed issues was used: the epis­tolary essay Walka-polska, addressed to Agaton Giller. The main thesis of this essay is that Poles “know how to do battle” but “they cannot fight” and it is one of the main objectives of Norwid’s critical view on the Polish road to independence. Besides this essay, the above sketch brings back other texts by Norwid, important for the issues of inde­pendence. It discusses Odezwa w sprawie udziału Polaków w wojnie francusko-pruskiej [The call on the participation of Poles in the Franco- Prussian War] of 1870 and Odpowiedź Cypriana Kamila N. niektórym obywatelom o stanie rzeczy narodowej zapytującym [Cyprian Kamil N.’s answer to some citizens asking about the state of national affairs] from the period of Russo-Turkish War in 1877. These discursive texts are completed by a verse from Norwid’s poem Co robić? where the crucial question on the issue of independence is asked: “What to do in the dis­membered country.” Norwid’s comments on the meaning of spiritual independence, the importance of which could sometimes be more im­portant than independence understood only politically close the con­siderations included in this sketch.
Deviance theory has often been applied by historians to the study of heresies. This paper claims that it can also give very useful insights for the study of orthodoxy. The interactionist perspective which Howard S. Becker has developed in Outsiders (New York, 1963) is particularly suggestive. He describes, in addition to the labelling of deviants, the process of rule enforcement which begins with the deduction by moral entrepreneurs of rules from general values. Such an approach suggests that we should not study orthodoxy as a doctrinal unity, one that is contradicted by heretical propositions, but as a process through which definitions (rules) are formulated according to general values which belong to Tradition. A definition of grace is thus elaborated during the Pelagian controversy once it begins to be very clear that a general reference to grace is no longer sufficient. As long as Pelagius is asked only to agree on the necessity of grace he is acquitted by all his judges. Pelagius can be condemned only when the African bishops have convinced the pope to ask him to agree on a precise definition of grace and its consequences. The process of deduction can be described as deductive exegesis (cf. F. Young) in which doctrine is deduced from the Scriptures through the application of reason in order to work out the implications of the texts. The orthodoxy of deductive exegesis is grounded in conformity to a discernment of the overall unity of the Scriptures through the provision of a creed-like key which is guaranteed by the church. Thus orthodoxy is not «sound doctrine», but a process of interpretation of the Scriptures through which doctrines are elaborated according to a general scheme when circumstances make the values of Tradition insufficient.
In this paper I will analyse the role of the imagination in Kant's discussion of the mathematical sublime. I will show that there are experiential possibilities within the mathematical sublime which far exceed the parameters envisaged by Kant. These possibilities will provide a useful contribution to contemporary debates concerning the sublime experience. I will begin with an elucidation of Kant’s thesis; however, I will argue that there are deductive inconsistencies to be found in the text. I will argue that the failure of the imagination does not, as Kant argues, lie in the inability of the imagination to comprehend infinity, but in the inability of reason to comprehend a phenomenal totality. Not only does this contrasting analysis address various problems in Kant’s deduction, it also offers a more intuitive, clearer model of the mathematical sublime. I will then suggest a development of the analytic of the mathematical sublime which I offer for further consideration. Due to the constraints of length, I will not enter into a discussion of the validity of the sublime itself and will focus my analysis entirely on Kant's own analysis rather than that of secondary sources.
The triadic name given in the baptism command of Matthew 28:19b has often been considered awkward in its context and perhaps anachronistic in light of later Christian Trinitarian doctrine. This article argues that Matthew 28:19b is rather a fitting climactic conclusion to a narrative-theological motif throughout Matthew’s Gospel where triadic or at least dyadic language is employed within revelatory contexts that affirm Jesus’ divine sonship and messianic mission: either in small apocalypses or within apocalyptic discourse. This argument finds its crux in the baptism of Jesus itself (3:13–17) which is presented as an apocalypse in which the heavenly fatherly voice reveals the identity of the Son and anoints him with his Spirit, with the stated goal of “fulfilling all righteousness.” The revelation is presented by Matthew so that it is directed to the public within the narrative and implicitly to the reader disciple. The baptism revelation is then closely associated both with the lengthy citation of Isaiah 42:1–4 in Matthew 12:18–21, another triadic text, and with the visionary transfiguration account (17:1–8). Other passages are analyzed in order to trace the pattern throughout the Gospel. In the resurrection narrative (28:1–20) it is demonstrated that the resurrected Jesus is portrayed as a now heavenly, yet still embodied, revealer who is worshipped such that the Great Commission passage (28:16–20) is presented as a divine revelation. Within this “ultimate apocalypse” the risen Jesus commands his followers to make disciples of the nations by teaching and baptizing in the triadic name. The baptism command, in light of the triadic motif throughout the Gospel has the rhetorical effect of inviting Matthew’s reader-listener disciples to identify with Jesus in his own triadic baptism such that they too have an affirmed filial relationship with God and receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit to continue and extend Jesus’ messianic mission into the world under his universal authority and with his promised presence.
In my first two articles, I have illustrated the pioneering work of Hermann Dooyeweerd and Fernando Canale as they analyzed the realm and operation of human rational activities. An understanding of Dooyeweerd's analysis of theoretical thought and Canale's phenomenological investigation into human Reason sets a starting point for a much-needed critical investigation into the field of academic methodologies in general and the multifarious exegetical methods as they are applied in the field of today's biblical studies in specific. 1
In this and in the following chapter, I will defend the two-dimensionalist thesis that every linguistic expression is associated with a primary intension. In the preceding chapters, I mainly discussed modal arguments which were supposed to show that the meaning of a name or natural kind term cannot be given by speaker associations, since nothing that a speaker associates with such a term is modally equivalent with it. We saw that while these arguments do undermine traditional brands of descriptivism, they have no force against two-dimensionalism. But there are prominent arguments of a different kind, the so-called epistemic arguments, which still need to be discussed. Just like the modal arguments, the epistemic arguments most clearly apply to proper names and natural kind terms. And indeed, presumably most philosophers think there is nothing to be gained from an analysis of our concepts of tigers, gold or Feynman. Accordingly, if it can be successfully argued that names and natural kind terms have primary intensions, then a reasonably strong case has been made for the general thesis. But how important is the claim that every linguistic expression has a primary intension for a defense of conceptual analysis? As I have mentioned before, if the thesis turns out to be viable, this will be good news for the prospects of conceptual analysis. Nevertheless, it might be argued that the two-dimensionalist thesis is much stronger than required. There are basically two ways to weaken the thesis that every expression has a primary intension without denying conceptual analysis any significance in philosophical inquiry. The first is to say that although our terms do have conceptual associations which are accessible to a speaker, these associations do not amount to anything like primary intensions. One could hold for instance that some necessary conditions for a term’s applicability
Chinese philosophy is a philosophy featuring the thinking wisdom of the Chinese nation in the theoretical learning form.At the end of the 19th century,with multi-maturity of the philosophic terms,disciplinary generation,and discussion domain,Chinese philosophy surpassed the previous philosophy of ethics and theoretical learning and philosophy of principle.When reviewing the research of Chinese philosophy in the 20th century,the textual prosperity of the "history" of philosophy was achieved,but ignoring the textual construction of the "theoretical learning" of philosophy.As a discipline,philosophy contains two discussion fields-"philosophy" and "history of philosophy".Philosophy is an actual system of theoretical learning in the category of philosophic problems,while history of philosophy is the logic process for the development of the category of philosophic problems."Theoretical learning" is the original substance of "history";"history" is the logic process of "theoretical learning".The textual writings of the research of Chinese philosophy have a tendency of "more history,but less theoretical learning".The research work of Chinese philosophy in 21st century should exert efforts to intensify the system construction of "theoretical learning".
In the past century there has been a tremendous impact on Chinese Confucian culture,which arouses people's interests in how to carry on the traditional Chinese cultures and in how to merge the traditional cultures with the modern society.It might be of help to have a close look at the new interpretation of Confucianism put forward by Liang Shuming and other neo-Confucians from a perspective of the renaissance of traditional cultures.Such neo-Confucians believe that the rejuvenation of the traditional Chinese cultures will definitely be realized by a correct understanding of our traditional cultures,by a proper attitude toward our traditional cultures and by an appropriate handling the relationships between Chinese cultures and the western cultures,for Chinese cultures are not necessarily inferior to the western cultures.
Zhu Qianzhi's historical view of vitalism has an important position in the history of modern Chinese history.The west theory affected Zhu Qianzhi's historical view of vitalism.The academic circles have paid attention to it and paid more attention to Bergon.But Driesch hasn't been noticed as another vitalist.The article inquired chiefly into the concrete influence of Driesch who gave lecture in China in the 1920s upon Zhu Qianzhi.Then the ideological basis of Zhu Qianzhi's historical view of vitalism can be dissected deeply.The article suggests that Zhu Qianzhi absorbed Driesch's vitalism in some aspects,for example,the vitalism view on the historical meaning and the historical methodology,stressing vitalism's position on the history of the historical philosophy and so on.
follow. " The State " is used in different senses—but that is common in the idealist tradition. What, again, is the meaning of a statement that " we must enfranchise the whole economic class " ? And what is " the economic class " ? " The producer class will not strike against the employer class " in Professor Kung's ideal society: that is good. But is the " producer class " the same as " the economic class " ? Frankly, there is some danger that the theories of pluralism and monism in political philosophy may become like Rabelais's discussion of a chimaera, if political philosophers do not know the facts at first hand. This sounds ungracious to a Chinese interpreter of our theories ; but the book may be useful to those who live very far away from Western civilization—too far to see the crude outlines clearly. The general impression of a fundamental recasting of Western political philosophy which may be derived from the book is certainly valuable.
extensive list of UK abbreviations, particularly useful to international and recent graduates who have just started to work within the UK healthcare system. A meaty second section contains a list of the most commonly used drugs in psychiatry, arranged alphabetically, including relevant information about drugs used in general medicine, information that is always useful to any jobbing prescriber. Each drug includes a summary of mechanism of action, indicated uses, contraindications and cautions, secondary effects, aspects that need to be monitored and dose ranges. The information contained is succinct yet comprehensive, and as much as anyone is likely to reasonably need on a day-to-day basis. Where the book exceeds expectations is in the subsequent sections, where – surprisingly for one of its size and remit – it has areas dedicated to the most common psychiatric disorders, and information about their diagnoses and treatments protocols. Commendably, this also includes a section on non-pharmacological treatments such as psychoeducation, lifestyle changes and social interventions. Final sections are for ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘special populations’ (such as perinatal) and emergencies. This is, again, broader than we had anticipated, including information on the Mental Health Act, managing selfharm and even medical emergencies such as pulmonary embolism and diabetic ketoacidosis. The book concludes with a list of useful contacts (e.g. Samaritans), reference values, the Mini-Mental State Examination and algorithms for adult basic and advanced life support. Overall, we found this Pocket Prescriber a wonderfully comprehensive book for its small size. We particularly commend it to those who have recently graduated and those who have just joined the UK healthcare workforce.
In this article, I look at Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory as mimesis. This invites me to look at Integral Theory in three ways. First, I look at Integral Theory as process of making materialistic alterity, thus maintaining and fortifying the spirituality of the self. Second, I look at it from the perspective of the dialectics of epistemologies of estrangement and intimacy, raising questions concerning the legitimacy of the juxtaposing interpretative and explanatory approaches to culture. Third, I look at it from a social perspective, as a powerful instance of modern mimesis that creates a typically modern history. I will show how Integral Theory is grounded in the modern intuition of agency being distinct from and superior to the outer material world. To the extent that cultural agency has to materialize in some form, so does Integral Theory. My aim is to recall the close relations of scientific discourse with spirituality, even with magic and even more importantly, I want to show how supposedly secular intuitions of identity and agency bear strong potential for spiritual and religious discourse.
Romantic models dominate our conception of lyric poetry. This essay questions the pertinence of these models to the Renaissance lyric by reading that poetry in the light of Jonathan Culler’s classic account of the romantic lyric in his Pursuit of Signs (1981). Culler famously argues that the definitive trope of lyric is apostrophe, in which first-person speakers address pointedly fictive personifications, such as a sick rose or the west wind, in order to emphasize subjective voicing over objective perception. As Culler helps us see, apostrophes are surprisingly important in Renaissance as well as romantic lyric. But the apostrophes of Renaissance lyric characteristically portray first-person speakers as writing in real time and space to “empirical listeners.” What makes Renaissance lyric distinctive is its persistently social mode of address. Through readings of apostrophic poetry by Waller, Donne, King, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare, the essay calls for criticism of the lyric that pays closer attention to the differences among historically diverse lyric cultures.
Griffin explores two problems of cooperation: the Prisoner's Dilemma and fairness. He claims that the Prisoners Dilemma can be solved simply by a shift from the classical egoist and act-utilitarian perspective of "the isolated agent" to a "broader consequentialist outlook" that abandons the act-by-act or occasion-by-occasion method of deliberation. Griffin says many important things about this topic, but much of it is only sketched in and presented as preliminary to the main topic of the paper, the problem of fairness. Hence, although I have serious doubts about whether a utilitarian can solve the Prisoner's Dilemma simply by broadening his perspective of deliberation,' I shall not say anything about this part of Griffin's paper, beyond applauding his rejection of the narrow perspective of the isolated agent and expressing admiration for the economy and elegance of his argument. Concerning the second problem of cooperation, fairness in freerider contexts, Griffin declares that "broadening the consequentialist outlook, on its own, is no help with free riders. If enough people follow the rule not to burn log fires, the buildings in town escape harm, and I should increase welfare, impartially considered, by making myself an exception" (p. 112). But, he claims, utilitarianism has the resources to cope with the problem quite adequately, indeed rather better than Kantianism can. His solution, which unlike the Kantian he characterizes as only a weak one, rests on a principle, call it the principle of equal chances, which he discovers among the resources of utilitarianism. This solution is ingenious, novel, and suggestive. I shall first summarize it and then examine it critically. I have two doubts about the solution. First, unlike Griffin, I cannot discover this principle among the resources of utilitarianism. Second, even if utilitarianism embodied this principle, that would not seem to dispose of the problem of the free rider. Griffin's solution rests on a novel but to me ultimately implausible interpretation of utilitarianism as embodying a vaguely egalitarian principle of distribution. Griffin contends that "every moral theory [and therefore
More than forty years after Gilbert Ryle published his paper on "Knowing How and Knowing That" in 1945, 1 the problem of practical knowledge has still failed to establish for itself a secure position in the field of problems dealt with by analytic philosophers. Thus even today it can safely be asserted that it is discursive or theoretical knowledge, knowledge linguistically expressed, above all knowledge in the form of propositions, that holds centre stage in analytic treatments of epistemology and cognition. The present volume, which consists of treatments of the presuppositions and specific character of practical knowledge in different spheres, is an attempt to fill this gap. The successive chapters fall into four interrelated groups: (1) those dealing with general theoretical problems associated with knowledge and practice and their interrelations ; (2) those dealing with habit, learning, technique and skill as social phenomena, phenomena tied to socially established traditions and customs; (3) those dealing with that special kind of practical knowledge which is manifested in our use of language; and (4) those dealing with the role of practical knowledge and of tradition in the sphere of art.
This article is based on the Peruvian Cronwell Jara’s Montacerdos to investigate the topics of monstrosity and animality, by basing the thoughts mainly on the ideas of Foucault and Agamben. Using biopolitics as a transversal concept, an attempt will be made to identify the characteristics that bind them with monstrosity and animality in the characters of Montacerdos, mainly with Yococo, main character of the story. Starting with him, questions about the category of monster and its relationship with Homo Sacer will be answered, as well as about the boundaries between human and animal. Finally, an attempt will be made to identify the modalities in which biopower acts in the story and what resistance strategies the characters offer.
Kant is not often regarded as a major political philosopher. In comparison with the works of his fellow German Idealist, Hegel, his political writings have received but scant attention. This is not a fate that is entirely deserved. Kant deals more briefly, it is true, with politics than does Hegel, but this is not to say that what he does write is any the less profound. Indeed he has, as I shall try to show, an important contribution to make to the understanding of the Modern State. This contribution is particularly apparent, I believe, in his analysis of property in the Metaphysical Elements of Right (Metaphysische Anfangsgriinde der Rechtslehre). What interests Kant most about property is its possibility in general or, as he says, "the mode of having something external to myself as my own" (353/51).1 To him it is a highly problematical notion whose appropriateness to the affairs of men has to be fully explained. Kant begins by distinguishing the two ways in which we can be said to possess (besitzen) an object. The first mode of possession is what he calls the sensible, or physical possession of an object; and the second is the "intelligible" possession of an object. It is the second meaning of 'possession' which is, according to Kant, by far the most important. The "sensible possession" of an object simply signifies its bodily appropriation whereas "intelligible possession" signifies a possession which is not dependent on actual physical appropriation. Intelligible possession therefore means that a thing will be mine even though I do not happen to have it with me (ibid.). It is this Kant defines as de jure possession, or the legal possession of an object. We are perhaps more fortunate than Kant here in that the English language, unlike the German, has a word which specifically refers to this kind of possession: 'ownership'. Ownership, as Kant wants to point out, is quite distinct from the actual physical possession of a thing. But both ownership and possession are essential for an external thing to be properly mine. An external object is not mine, as Kant says, unless I both own it and am able to have it physically in my power; only then is it my property. Kant now applies this analysis to the three kinds of objects which in his view may become a person's property. These three kinds of object are, first of all, a corporeal thing external to me; secondly, what he calls the will of another with respect to a particular act (gained by a contract); and,
The relation of Tian Li and Ren Yu is one of the most important philosophic problems in chinese history,especially during the Song Dynasty,it was discussed more frequently and incisvely,many scholars put forward their views on it.Among these views the most influential one is Er Cheng and Chu Hsi's.Basing on the conditions of that time,it has important significance to analyse the background which made their view come into being.
The apocalyptic interpretation of the New Testament was developed in the mid-twentieth century in explicit opposition to the work of Rudolf Bultmann, and this conflict has persisted despite the changes that have taken place within the field of apocalyptic theology. This article interrogates the relation between Bultmann and apocalyptic in two ways. First, it takes a second look at the history of twentieth-century theology and shows that the work of Ernst Käsemann, who was instrumental in retrieving apocalyptic as normative for Christian thought, contained two distinct definitions of apocalyptic, only one of which Bultmann rejected. The other definition became the dominant position in later apocalyptic scholarship. Second, the article gives a fresh hearing to Bultmann’s theology by exploring his often overlooked Advent and Christmas sermons. Whereas current work in apocalyptic theology focuses on Paul’s theology of the cross, Bultmann develops a distinctively existential apocalyptic on the basis of John’s theology of advent.
For the 1857 Fleurs du mal Baudelaire restaged earlier poetry to suit his changed religious and political views. "Le Reniement de saint Pierre," originally a blasphemous challenge to both institutional Christianity and the idealistic Christian socialism of 1848, became part of Baudelaire's "douleureux programme" of dramatizing evil at once sympathetically and judgmentally. Partly shielded from the censors by his formal choice of dramatic monologue, Baudelaire used context and paratext to ensure that the apparently lyric expression of religious apostasy and militant politics would appear symptomatic of "l'agitation de l'esprit dans le mal." Censorship, both self- and state-imposed, motivated a poetic revision that achieved deniability of the very blasphemy the poem still affirmed.
Robert Musil's affinity with philosophers of self-culture, such as Emerson or Thoreau, sheds a new light on the very idea of a man without qualities. In fact, “the man of possibility” already appears in Emerson's essays as an emblematic figure of a certain version of moral perfectionism. This article defends the idea that the point of Musil's great novel is the moral constitution of the self. It focuses on one of the less commented-upon utopias: self-utopia, that is, the attempt to change oneself, to move from the real, disappointing self to a better one. The key to self-improvement is to be found in the development of an individualist ethics beyond social moral norms, which might be called the robber's ethics.
and a social being and his experience supports the claim that we do in fact reach a large degree of agreement on such issues. Personally, I am not convinced that we reach the degree of agreement Simpson implies, but then a rational basis for adjudication, not reaching agreement, is surely the crucial test. For this reviewer, Simpson’s meticulous, detailed argumentation is, in a way, the book’s major fault. He has turned his attention to a matter of great significance but is in danger of analyzing the problem (and his readers?) to death. The reader of this review may, of course, charge that I simply do not turn on to fine philosophical arguments. I can only counter that, with a subject of such import, I wish that reason had not quite so vigorously overwhelmed passion. Still for the dutiful reader, there remains much to be gleaned from this text.
I. God as Explainer of Morality mon to many natural law theories, God creates human beings with rational natures; those natures specify the good for human beings. At this point, natnature, considered through the lens of practical reason operating without creates; human nature, human good, and human reason obligate.1 Now Murphy objects to this line of natural law thinking that it does explanans ty.2 A theistic explanans at simply by looking at the explanandum 1 See Mark C. Murphy, God and Moral Law: On the Theistic Explanation of Morality 2 Murphy articulates his account of explanans one of God and Moral Law.
The theses of embodied and extended cognition are usually regarded as recherché doctrines, at odds with common sense. They are also, typically, regarded as theses that must be evaluated by way of their implications for the development of cognitive science. If they cohere with the likely trajectory of cognitive science they can be accepted. If they do not, they must be rejected. This paper argues against both these claims. At the conceptual heart of the theses of embodied and extended cognition is an analysis of intentionality as revealing activity, and the theses are mundane implications of this analysis. Moreover, since the analysis is not something that can be gleaned from cognitive science or philosophical reflections on cognitive science, the theses of embodied and extended cognition are not ones that can be adjudicated by appeals to what cognitive science does or is likely to do in the future. The theses of embodied and extended cognition are philosophical theses—not theses of cognitive science—and none the worse for that.
This study seeks to understand how Goethe appropriates the greek legacy in modernity. For this we call on the author´s fiction works, the correspondence between Goethe and Schiller, and especially the articles that make part of the Writings on Art. These texts show that the way Goethe develops his thinking on the Classical Art is based on consistent aesthetic principles. For example: the past that should serve nowadays, the criticism that should serve to produce, the theoretical formulations that should not violate the individual phenomenon. The unrolling of the research allowed the enlightening on these principles, and show that influence on later generations of thinkers. Among them stand the philosophers Nietzsche and Benjamin, because they detained and elucidated important aspects of aesthetic basement studied in the dissertation.
Professor Ronald H. Coase included his essays on Alfred Marshall in his book, Essays on Economics and Economists. Because of Coase’s standing as a Nobel laureate and professor of economics at the University of Chicago, these essays have been relied on by scholars, authors, and historians researching Alfred Marshall and the wider Marshall family, including Professor Peter Groenewegen for his seminal biography, A Soaring Eagle: Alfred Marshall 1842–1924. This research shows that the supposed meeting between Charles Henry Marshall, Alfred’s uncle, and Nehemiah Bartley on the Turon goldfields, on which Coase based his claims of a deceitful and self-aggrandizing family, did not take place. Alfred did know where he was born and was happy to say so. Alfred’s grandfather, William, was not a forgotten business failure. Alfred’s father, also William, was neither disliked nor ostracized by his family despite being cantankerous and possibly brutal. He and his wife Rebecca and their children, including Alfred, were embraced and supported by the wider family. Alfred was, in fact, a product of the family much as described by his wife, Mary Paley Marshall, and John Maynard Keynes. This does not diminish his accomplishments.
Olivier C16ment, You are Peter: An Orthodox Theologian’s Reflection on the Exercise of Papal Supremacy (London: New City, 2003. £7.95. PP. II2. ISBN 0-9042.87-87-4). This small paperback which at first sight might seem to be an inevitably superficial popular pamphlet manages to contain, first, an accurate, carefully organized, comprehensively informative and dispassionate survey of the development of Roman Catholic claims about the papal authority from the beginnings of the Christian era to the present, and of Eastern reactions to them. After that, it provides a lucid, courteous but candid review of the major changes which have occurred since Vatican II, pointing up what appear to be positive new developments on the one hand, and what might be retrograde steps on the other. Finally, there is a ’Postscript: For a Common Future’ which offers a thought-provoking appraisal of the material and spiritual, political, ethical and religious future of mankind as a whole, and the planet which is its home. In short, without becoming banal at any point, it places the issue of church unity and papal authority in a world-historical and futurological
ABSTRACT Lysias is best known for his portrayal of character (ethopoiia), his believable narratives, his plain or “Attic” style, and for the role he plays as inferior foil to Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. But he was also an important figure in developing, refining, and employing types of argument, including the rhetorical technique that would later be called the enthymeme. In On the Death of Eratosthenes, Lysias not only uses enthymemes, he highlights their use, selects a term (enthymizing), and demonstrates how “enthymizing” could be central to rhetorical artistry, to narrative development, to legal reasoning, and to political activism. Examining Lysias 1 not only deepens our understanding of Lysias’ rhetorical abilities, but it suggests that the orators had an important role to play in the development of rhetorical theory.
AbstractThe objective of the article is to present the overall picture of Maimonides’s views on magic. As the point of departure, three halakhot prohibiting various types of magical practices have been selected from Maimonides’s code of Law, the Mishne Tora. While the first two refer rather to the popular forms of folk magic and superstition, fortune telling and conjuring, the third prohibition addresses its learned form, astral magic, which in Maimonides’s opinion was the most vicious one. First of all, the article focuses on outlining the extent of diffusion of the above magical practices in the Jewish diaspora during Maimonides’s lifetime, to subsequently explore the epistemological grounds providing the basis for Maimonides's sweeping criticism of magic. Maimonides was convinced that the magical phenomena cannot be subsumed under the rubric of natural causality; they belong to the realm of chance and accident. Belief in the efficacious character of magical activities is actually a result of erroneous cognitive process, according to Maimonides. In principle, Maimonides’s epistemological analysis of the foundations of magical beliefs has much in common with the views voiced by modern positivist anthropology, for example that of Sir James George Frazer.
Both botanical tradition and codes of nomenclature have held that specific epithets that are Latin phrases in the ablative case are unacceptable. Solanum fructu-tecto, in Article 60 Example 41, has an epithet that is a phrase in the ablative case, so it too should be unacceptable. But because Article 23 now apparently prohibits only nomina specifica legitima (the polynomial phrase names, usually in the ablative case, used by Linnaeus and other early botanists), the status of Solanum fructu-tecto and of other names with binomial epithets (Linnaeus’s nomina trivialia) in the ablative case is unclear. The Code should return to tradition and prohibit specific epithets in the ablative case.
How Chinese civilization started is still a puzzle to be solved. Ancient Middle East and China which were far away from each other were two centers of human civilizations. They showed unexpected various tacit agreements. Based on the life story of Hou Ji, the eldest-son-inheritance system of ancient Middle East and China, prime minister system of both China and ancient Egypt, the writer of this article attempts to explore the developmental veins of the two civilization centers so as to view the "tacit agreement" between these two civilizations.
ABSTRACT The Clear Mirror: A Records of Teachings received (Thob yig gsal ba’i me long) was written by Dzaya Paṇḍita Lobsang Trinle (Dza ya Paṇḍita Blo bzang ’phrin las, 1642–1715) between 1698 and 1702. It is a unique work with many defining characteristics, the foremost of these being the huge number of namthar (rnam thar, ‘life stories’) which form the structural backbone of the eleven chapters of the topyik. Not only are these namthar capable of standing alone as biographies of the respective Buddhist masters, they are also reminiscent of the links in a chain, or the beads of a rosary. Strung together, these individual life stories form a larger lineage life story, reflected within them is the history, identity and chronology of the Gelukpa (dGe lugs pa) tradition as interpreted by the author and his tradition in the late seventeeth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries.
Abstract:This study considers two oddities of the syntax of Ancient Hebrew cardinal numerals: first, numerals participate to greater or lesser extent—depending on the numeral—in both adjectival and nominal syntax; second, some nouns appear in the singular when quantified by numerals with the value eleven or higher, though there are exceptions with the very same nouns. Are numerals adjectives or nouns, and why does each numeral behave in different ways? Numerals in Hebrew—as in most or all languages—are properties of sets, and as such they behave both like adjectives and like nouns. Their underlying semantics result in a diversity of morpho-syntactic and syntactic features. Why do some nouns usually appear in the singular with numerals eleven and higher, and why are there exceptions? The use of the singular with numerals eleven and higher is a feature from older Hebrew. In our extant evidence, it is found only with high-use phrases, where the older feature is preserved. Exceptions arise because old features sometimes occur even after they are replaced, because high use phrases—not high use nouns—preserve the earlier feature, and because the structure of complex adding numerals sometimes precludes analysis of the noun as quantified by the entire adding numeral.
The question on how God’s presence in the worship of the church can be discerned is once again on the theological table because of two contextual influences, namely post­modernism and the image-oriented culture in which we live. The author suggests a way of thinking about the presence of God which honours postmodernism’s criticism of traditional metaphysics on the one hand, and contemporary culture’s call for experiencing God’s presence through more than one sense (the auditory) alone. He contends that the presence of God in worship is something different from the omnipresence of God; that it is perceived in faith and that it interrupts the faithful’s everyday life by addressing him or her on the self-sacrificing love of Christ for the world in need. God is then present in worship as He is in everyday life, which is in the face of need, and his presence can be more appropriately depicted as a confrontation reelle than a praesentia realis.
In the postmodernist perspective,the essay challenges the music studies in the Orientalist line of thought and the subjective-objective dualism in modern musicology,makes an interpretative introduction to Tim Rice's hermeneutic ethnomusicology,and further suggests a reevaluation of the value that Chinese music falls into the Eastern category,advocating an equal dialogue based on the difference between the East and the West,as well as a reconstruction and rewriting of the contemporary cultural meanings of Chinese music.
Historical perspectives on the theological training of ministers of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika at the University of Pretoria In commemorating the establishment of the theological faculty of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk in 1917 at the old Transvaal University College, the forerunner of the University of Pretoria, some historical perspectives are given. In the first place the revised duplex ordo that marked the initial structur; of the faculty is discussed. With the advent and participation of the Nederduitsch Hervormde or Gereformeerde Kerk in the theological faculty, there was a gradual move to a simplex ordo, which was finally achieved in 1952. Concluding remarks are made about the theological intent of the faculty from 1917-1992.
Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity has the rare quality of being both a significant contribution to the philosophy of physics literature and a superb introduction for philosophers unacquainted with the field. Maudlin sets out to examine the implications for our understanding of the fundamental structure of space, time, and causation of what appears to be a mysterious action-at-a-distance observed in the quantum domain. Physicists and philosophers of physics have been grappling with these implications for the last half-century, and Maudlin does a remarkable job of elucidating central themes in the literature and clarifying conceptual confusions. Throughout the book, Maudlin draws out salient points from what can easily become a morass of scientific and philosophical technicalities. At the root of puzzles concerning relativity and quantum mechanics lie a few simple experimental facts. In an experimental setup in which quantum particles begin from a common source and travel in opposite directions, distant (spacelike separated) measurements of properties of the two particles are strangely correlated. These correlations have been observed, for example, in experiments which measure polarization properties of photons. A well-known theorem due to John S. Bell (1964) expresses a constraint on the kind of correlations that measurement outcomes in this experimental setup (known as a "Bell experiment") can display, in the absence of any communication between them. The surprise is that observed correlations violate Bell's theorem, meaning that the measurement events appear somehow to be influencing each other or to be otherwise connected. But there's the rub: in Bell experiments, measurements are spacelike separated, which means they are too far apart for any force of nature travelling at or below the speed of light to traverse the distance between them in time. Faster-than-light influences seem to fly squarely (and rather quickly) in the face of everything Einstein taught us about the structure of space and time. As it is often understood, the special theory of relativity asserts that the speed of light in a vacuum is some sort of physical limit, and that matter, energy, signals, causal influence, and the like cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Do the
It is usually supposed that the central limit theorem explains why various quantities we find in nature are approximately normally distributed—people's heights, examination grades, snowflake sizes, and so on. This sort of explanation is found in many textbooks across the sciences, particularly in biology, economics, and sociology. Contrary to this received wisdom, I argue that in many cases we are not justified in claiming that the central limit theorem explains why a particular quantity is normally distributed, and that in some cases, we are actually wrong. 1 Introduction 2 Normal Distributions and the Central Limit Theorem   2.1 Normal distributions   2.2 The central limit theorem   2.3 Terminology 3 Explaining Normality   3.1 Loaves of bread   3.2 Varying variances and probability densities   3.3 Tensile strengths and problems with summation   3.4 Products of factors and log-normal distributions   3.5 Transforming factors and sub-factors   3.6 Transformations of quantities   3.7 Quantitative genetics   3.8 Inference to the best explanation 4 Maximum Entropy Explanations 5 Conclusion 1 Introduction 2 Normal Distributions and the Central Limit Theorem   2.1 Normal distributions   2.2 The central limit theorem   2.3 Terminology   2.1 Normal distributions   2.2 The central limit theorem   2.3 Terminology 3 Explaining Normality   3.1 Loaves of bread   3.2 Varying variances and probability densities   3.3 Tensile strengths and problems with summation   3.4 Products of factors and log-normal distributions   3.5 Transforming factors and sub-factors   3.6 Transformations of quantities   3.7 Quantitative genetics   3.8 Inference to the best explanation   3.1 Loaves of bread   3.2 Varying variances and probability densities   3.3 Tensile strengths and problems with summation   3.4 Products of factors and log-normal distributions   3.5 Transforming factors and sub-factors   3.6 Transformations of quantities   3.7 Quantitative genetics   3.8 Inference to the best explanation 4 Maximum Entropy Explanations 5 Conclusion
WANG Duo was a prominent giant in the field of poetry in the late Ming Dynasty and beginning of the QING Dynasty. His poetry and literature thought inherited the theory of the Seven Sons, carried forward again the spirit of practical solicitude and unique style of prosperous TANG Dynasty so as to eliminate the abuses of trifling and overflowing, the slim and the fragile caused by unchecked SONG Ci composed by scholars in Gongan, Jingling and those at the beginning of QING Dynasty. WANG Duo's poetry also drew the merits of the various schools of poem federations of LI Zhi, Gongan and Jingling in order to save the loss of the work modeled after the ancients, which embodied a situation of the absorption of others' strong points, represented a new stage of development of poetic style and enjoyed a tremendous significance in the poetic history of the MING and QING Dynasties.
The article deals with F. Nietzsche's critical attitude to classical conception of truth and knowledge which is based on one and unique perspective to the world. Nietzschean conception of perspectivism says that during knowledge there is no universal true but only different interpretations of the world which are not adequate to it. In the article attempt to prove is done that the conception of perspectivism is ambiguous and inconsistent because it is based an knowledge unattainable and lost “truth”. This “truth” is negative and can be explicated only through trace. Given extra-perspective position allows us to speak about adequacy of the world and knowledge only using a word “as if”.
From ancient times many scholars had great differences on Confucius' thought "My Dao has one thread that runs through it"when interpreting it.This article proposes that Confucius' Dao is his whole thought,and the mean about which he said one thread that runs through it is that there is a main thread running through his whole thought.Three means are included in this main thread:The first is the Dao of Benevolence, which is the key view and true essence in his thought.The second is the Dao of Loyalty and Forbearance,which is the method to reach the Benevolence.The third is the Dao of Middle Use,which is the guarantee to realize the Benevolence.
Macpherson's Poems of Ossian derived its extraordinary popularity from its power to resolve, in imaginary terms, the vexing ethical contradictions of the mid-eighteenth century. The poems effectively reconcile the age's nostalgia for the ancient polis ideal with its modern taste for polite manners. In the character of Fingal, the passionate fierceness of the citizen-warrior combines with the delicate affections fostered by domesticity, precommercial civic virtue joins with politesse, and the traditional attributes of masculinity merge with those of femininity. The abiding irony of Macpherson's text, however, is that its “feminization” of male heroes is offset by the dramatic elimination of all heroines, suggesting a certain male resentment toward women as sponsors of men's acquisition of manners.
espanolEl 20 de marzo de 2015 el Papa Francisco recibio en audiencia privada al presidente de la Comision Internacional contra la Pena de Muerte Federico Mayor Zaragoza, a quien acompanaron la Secretaria General, Asunta Vivo y los profesores Roberto Carles y Luis Arroyo Zapatero, fundadores de la Red Academica Internacional contra la Pena de muerte y, respectivamente, Secretario General de la Asociacion Latinoamericana de Derecho penal y Criminologia el primero y presidente de la Societe Internationale de Defense Sociale. El Papa Francisco hizo entrega de una amplia carta-declaracion contra la pena de muerte, que aqui se edita y se comenta, texto que complementa la rotunda condena que se incluye en el texto mas amplio “Por una justicia realmente humana” coordinado por Jose Luis de la Cuesta y publicado en 2015 por las sociedades cientificas de la materia penal, ademas de las citadas, la Association Internationale de Droit Penal, International Society for Criminology y Fondation International Penal et Penitentiaire. EnglishOn 20th March, 2015, Pope Francis received the president of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, in a private audience, accompanied by the General Secretary Asunta Vivo and professors Roberto Carles and Luis Arroyo Zapatero, both founders of the International Academic Network against the Death Penalty and, respectively, the Secretary General of the Latin-American Association of Penal Law and Criminology and the President of the Societe Internationale de Defense Sociale. Pope Francis presented an extensive letter-declaration against the death penalty, that is published and commented upon here; a text that complements the outright condemnation that he pronounced in a lengthier document “For a real human justice” coordinated by Jose Luis de la Cuesta and published in 2015, by the above-mentioned scientific societies on criminal law as well as the Association Internationale de Droit Penal, the International Society for Criminology and the Fondation Internationale Penal et Penitentiaire
Of the three kinds of evidence which are used in ascertaining the text of the New Testament – namely, evidence supplied by Greek manuscripts, by early versions, and by scriptural quotations preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers - it is the last which involves the greatest diffculties and the most problems. There are difficulties, first of all, in obtaining the evidence, not only because of the labour of combing through the very extensive literary remains of the Fathers in search of quotations from the New Testament, but also because satisfactory editions of the works of many of the Fathers have not yet been produced. More than once in earlier centuries an otherwise well-meaning editor accommodated the biblical quotations contained in a given patristic document to the current text of the New Testament against the authority of the manuscripts of the document.1 Part of the problem, more-over, is that exactly the same thing took place prior to the invention of printing. As Hort pointed out, ‘Whenever a transcriber of a patristic treatise was copying a quotation differing from the text to which he was accustomed, he had virtually two originals before him, one present to his eyes, the other to his mind; and if the difference struck him, he was not unlikely to treat the written examplar as having blundered.’2.
Since vampirism threatens the psychological stability of human beings, religion is utilized to combat vampires in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Jutta Schulze alludes to a dominant discourse that establishes moral binaries through religion. However, when the presence of God is limited or non-existent, individuals within L. J. Smith's Secret Vampire cannot rely on moral binaries to understand vampires. Instead, they must redefine their self-identity without Christian beliefs that would otherwise deem vampires unacceptable. "Too Retro for Religion" examines the exclusive nature presented by religious binaries in Victorian literature in comparison with the transformative human-vampire relationship in modern fiction. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department English Language and Literature First Advisor Elisabeth Däumer Second Advisor Mary K. Ramsey
The earnest teacher who is desirous of interpreting literature in accordance with the canons of literary criticism has a hard time of it nowadays. There is so much criticism that loves to play with the recondite and the bizarre. Especially is this true of Shaksperean criticism. From the days of Goethe to the present era of Maeterlinck, there has been an ever-rising flood of criticism. Not all have been as modest as Goethe, who in one of his conversations said: "But we cannot talk about Shakspere. Everything is inadequate. It is true I have touched upon him in my Wilhelm Meister, but that is not saying much." Your modern critic differs from Goethe in that he thinks his "system" is adequate and that he has said much. Since the sane-minded critics have said the sensible things about Shakspere, the only hope the new critic has is that he may say something startling, or evolve a system which will explain Shakspere. The system-maker is usually a German or a disciple of a German philosopher. The trouble with the system-makers is that they are more concerned about their systems than they are abouit the truth in Shakspere. Matthew Arnold has said something suggestive in regard to the system-makers: There is the judgment of ignorance, the judgment of incompatibility, the judgment of envy and jealousy. Finally there is the systematic judgment, and this judgment is the most worthless of all. .... Its author has not really his eye upon the professed object of his criticism ati all, but upon something else which he wants to prove by means of that object.
Taylor sees a correspondence between alchemy as Gower understood and valued it and the project of moral and political reform in CA. In view of widespread contemporary condemnation of alchemical practices, "Gower's endorsement of alchemy in Confessio book IV is at odds not only with the usual exposes of transmutation, but also with his own intolerance of fraud in language and deed" (170). But when Gower criticizes alchemy, it is for "falling away from a true essence" that he "nevertheless endorses" (173). Taylor identifies two aspects of alchemy that were useful to Gower's ethical design. Alchemists placed great faith in the reliability of surface appearance as a sign of essence: "Alchemical continuity embodies a kind of sacramentalism, the visible sign of invisible truth" which "makes it an apt model for Gower's ideal integrity of reference in all spheres – politics and ethics as well as language" (175). It was also a "science of transformation" (175), which "promises that the face of nature can be made plainly legible" (176). "Having shielded alchemy from the suspicion of offences against political authority and referential truth, Gower can use it to forge his ideal of kingship in book VII" (176). In a key passage, however (7.3545-52), Gower concedes the need for the king sometimes to adopt a "calculated dissimulation" (176). In the tale of Lucrece, Gower explores both the dilemma that results for the heroine when her outward appearance (her violated body) does not correspond to her inner essence (her virtue) and Brutus's transformative power, able to bring her virtue to expression and to bring about better governance as well.[PN. Copyright. The John Gower Society. JGN 30.1]
Hermeneutic approach identifies translation with explanation,requirig the translator to provide smooth and clear versions and to some extent there is some truth in it.However,as far as C-E poetry translation is concerned,hermeneutic approach would betray some disadvantages by fixing the integration mode,freezing the logical relations of images,weakening the rhetorical effectiveness and ruining the original sense of poetry.
Lictionaries employ a variety of means to alert the reader that a given word's meaning or range of reference is limited to a certain belief system or field of endeavor. The most prominent of these restricting devices, the subject label, is external to the definition and can range from world religions (Islam, Hinduism) to academic disciplines (Physics, Mediciné) to sports (Baseball, Football), the arts (Dance, Music), and other fields and endeavors (Nautical, Computers) . Other ways of achieving the same end are built into the wording of the definition, as with orienting prepositional phrases (In mathematics) and even adjectives (A mathematical function ...). All of these devices have the added benefit of disambiguating polysemous words used in the defining language, as we just saw with the word function. In fact, without the restricting device, the definitions might be nonsensical in some cases — "a pitch that curves before it crosses the plate," for instance, might leave people who are unfamiliar with baseball at a loss.
God's mission is diverse, and so are the ways missiologists discuss it. This article outlines a constructive missiology of the current "disciple-making movement" phenomenon in a way that makes creative connections between different conversations in the field of mission studies. In so doing, a new concept called motus Dei (Latin for movement of God) is situated into our understanding of the missio Dei.
The aim of the paper is to address some aspects of the notion of the good as seen within the neo-Aristotelian framework. My general thesis is that normativity typical for the good is organized along two vectors: one pointing at nature as the source of the concept of flourishing, and the other aimed at emancipation enabled by the standard of good life of a human being set by the latter. My argument for this is threefold. I start by addressing the classical notion of the good as seen by Aristotle and Aquinas, highlighting the relation between metaphysical background and the kind of normativity typical for the concept of the good. Then, I turn to Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach, which I take as an attempt to use the Aristotelian functionalist framework to express a certain emancipatory project, yet free from its naturalistic grounding. The analysis of this standpoint enables pinpointing some deficiencies of such a selective form of Aristotelianism on the one hand, and on the other, highlighting an important change in setting the concept of the good as the main normative notion in moral philosophy of a modern kind. Finally, I point out some possible contemporary forms of the concept of the good and the uniqueness of normative propositions rooted in it.
Abstract:St Patrick's two fifth-century epistles, the Confessio (‘Confession’) and the Epistola (‘Epistle’), are the only reliable source for the life of the historical St Patrick, and an important testimony for the cult of the saint in the early Middle Ages. They survive in seven medieval manuscript witnesses of Irish, continental and English origin, the earliest dating to the ninth century. This paper looks at the incipit headings found in the seven manuscripts, plus a contents list of works that is presented in one case, and analyses what these reveal about the role that the epistles were seen as playing in contemporary society. Within Ireland, St Patrick's writings are preserved only in the Book of Armagh; their role there is a subject of ongoing scholarly debate, reviewed here. Outside Ireland, the transmission of the Confessio and the Epistola has been within collections of hagiographical texts, suggesting that together they were seen as approximating to a vita of St Patrick.
There are basically two ways of studying Scripture. One is objective and analytical, interesting in itself, but imparting little or nothing of the life of God to the student. The other, the way explored in this chapter, draws one to God and gives life. In the chapter, the terms 'prophetic', 'charismatic', 'Pentecostal', and 'spiritual' are for the most part used interchangeably, except when the specific reference of each is necessitated by the context. Conservative opinion tends to be strongest in the evangelical wing of the churches, liberal in the non-evangelical. Set side by side these varied views form a complete spectrum of biblical interpretation. Conservatism is a theology of biblical literalism, liberalism a theology of biblical criticism, but the chapter calls the charismatic approach a theology of biblical experience or, perhaps better, 'shared experience'. Revelation is the only book in the New Testament that actually calls itself 'prophecy'. Keywords: Biblical Interpretation; charismatic prophecy; Holy Spirit; liberal theology; New Testament; Pentecost; Scripture; shared experience
It is often claimed that structured collections of individuals with mental or cognitive states—such collections as courts, countries, and corporations—have mental or cognitive states of their own. The existing critical literature casts substantial doubt on this claim. In this paper, I evaluate a defensive move made by some proponents of the view that groups have mental or cognitive states of their own: to concede that group states and individual states aren’t of the same specific natural kinds, while holding that groups instantiate different species of mental or cognitive states—perhaps a different species of cognition it⁠self—from those instantiated by humans. In order to evaluate this defense of group cognition, I present a view of natural kinds—or at least of the sort of evidence that supports inferences to sameness of natural kind—a view I have previously dubbed the ‘tweak-andextend’ theory, as well as a theory of cognitive systems. Guided by the tweak-and-extend approach, I arrive at a tentative conclusion: that what is common to models of individual cognitive processing and models of group processing does not suffice to establish sameness of cognitive (or mental) kinds, properties, or state-types across individuals and extant groups, not even at a generic level.
Plato's doctrine that knowledge is "recollection" is unrivaled among epistemolgies at producing open-mouthed disbelief. To casual readers it is incredible. To most Platonists it epitomizes the master's lapses into prerational occultism. My belief is that the doctrine is profound and claims a place in any valid pedagogy. It tells us that the learner, as he originally presents himself, is not to be regarded as a blank page to be written upon, or a container to be filled, but as a potentiality to be fulfilled. Socrates calls his teaching a maieutic- a "midwifery"- calculated to deliver his students of what they already know. I want to show that maieutic has a significant place in good teaching, and that good teaching becomes better through attention to it. My undergraduate course in philosophy of religion affords occasions for the practice of maieutic. Its two kinds of subject matter are the last with which one might suppose students to be familiar. On one hand are the major doctrines of the great religions- Christianity's Grace and Agape; Hinduism's AtmanBrahman, Karma, and Maya; Buddhism's Anatta, Karuna, and Nirvana; Taoism's Wu-Wei. On the other are the concepts which have been proposed by various philosophers as the core of religiosity- eros (by Plato), intellectual love of God (Aristotle and Spinoza), agape (e.g. Anders Nygren), "spirit" (E. B. Tylor), the "sacred" and the "profane" (Durkheim), "the numinous"
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the visual precepts of rhetoric’s fourth canon found themselves at odds with the iconoclasm of England’s Protestant elite. Under this negative influence, mnemonic imagery disappeared from rhetorical theory. Interest in the fourth canon declined, replaced with a Ramist conception of memory grounded in abstract (and imageless) order. A general outline of this history has been offered by several scholars—most notably, Frances Yates—but new bibliographic data along with recently digitized archives can verify its accuracy. Print, written culture, or “modernist” ideologies alone cannot explain the historical marginalization of the canon of memory.
Philosophers and theologians influenced by Whitehead’s philosophy see other animals as subjects of their own lives, with purposes of their own, which add beauty to the whole of life, which add value to the life of God. Other animals are deserving of respect and care. It is thus surprising that so few Whiteheadians have seen the implications of this with regard to eating animals. Deckers rightly prods these thinkers to accept the moral implications of their thought, pointing in the direction of a process-oriented vegetarianism.
constructivist concept of justice. A clear instance of his embryonic thoughts on the matter appears in his discussion of Platonic justice. Here, Cohen notes two apparent diffi culties. First, Plato seems to be employing two distinct conceptions of justice: justice as “psychic harmony” (43), which is exemplifi ed by the claim that justice obtains when the philosopher kings devote their lives to contemplating the forms; and justice as reciprocity, which is exemplifi ed by the claim that the philosopher kings are obligated to govern the state. Second, these two conceptions of justice are seemingly in confl ict: insofar as the philosopher kings devote themselves to governing, they consequently divert themselves from contemplating the forms (40-3). His preferred solution is to draw a distinction between fundamental and applied justice. The second conception of justice is not in tension with the fi rst, he claims, if it is interpreted as an account of what fundamental justice (psychic harmony) requires in practice (the promotion of psychic harmony in society’s lower echelons via governance) (45). 2
Phenomenology is concerned not only with the study of the intentional correlation but also the structures of intentional subjectivity, the most important of which for Husserl is the nontemporal structure of the living present that underlies the temporalization of the subject’s experiences (and of objective time). This chapter considers Husserl’s account of the consciousness of inner time in order to provide a critique of Husserl’s discussions of the temporality of the phenomenal field. Focusing on the latter allows one to articulate more clearly both the structure of time as the dimensional character of the phenomenal field and the manner in which transcendent objects and their temporality are disclosed within the phenomenal field.
Creator God, Evolving World. By Cynthia Crysdale and Neil Ormerod. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2013. 184 pp. $18.00 (paper).Here is a confident but pleasingly pastoral book that addresses the nature and implications of evolution. Risk, freedom, and contingency are particularly in focus. On each of these topics, the reader is likely to find much that is thought-provoking. The authors also give attention to scientific methodology. This may be more well-worn territory but it is nonetheless always welcome to find theological authors attending to these issues, not least as this is one way in which theological contributions to this field frequently outshine atheist ones, where the scientific method can be seen as so monolithic and unimpeachable as hardly to need discussion.Each of the authors is a theologian with a long-standing interest in science: biology in the case of Crysdale and physics for Ormerod. Crysdale is Professor of Christian Ethics and Theology at the School of Theology at the University of South, Sewanee. Ormerod is Professor of Theology at Australian Catholic University in Sydney.The central theme is that Christian theology need not worry about a role for chance, freedom, and contingency in the history of life, and in each individual human history. If those topics call for renewed consideration in theology that is in part because they are now so central to the natural sciences, not least thanks to the commanding place of evolutionary theory and quantum mechanics. The message of the book is that Christians have nothing to fear here: classic Christian theology already had plenty to say about these topics already.The fertility of just such classical, or orthodox, theology is stressed throughout the book. Indeed, undergirding the various specific concerns discussed here is an overarching concern to show that Christian orthodoxy is up to the task of a dialogue with science. That makes this book part of a presentday return of theological confidence within the theology-science discussion. It stands in marked contrast to the story over previous decades when, to achieve scientific respectability (or what seemed like scientific respectability), or in order to solve problems thrown up by science (or what seemed to be problems), the theological side of the science-theology relationship often showed a startling willingness to jettison Christian doctrines. This was particularly obvious over the doctrine of God: eternity, immutability, and foreknowledge, and the ontological distinction between God and creatures.A considerable strength of this book then, and a strength in a significant area, is to have shown that truncated theology is less able to form a theological counterpart to the best science. …
Foucault professes the possibility of resistance despite the human innate entrapment in power and knowIedge. The ethical subject is the site where this resistance becomes possible, if and only this ethical subject is realised as something ofher than common speculative self-possession. Levinas does not equip the existent with any scope for e thical action. He constructs a ne xistent that is happy, independent and atheistic, but completely powerless. Social reality seems to affirm Levinas' suspicions therein that many of us are primarily concerned with our own needs, desires and ambitions. Foucault does not offer an unproblematic alternative but he does believe in the subject's inherent ethical potential and in the possibility of actualising it. The status of subject, in all of its multifarious manifestations, always bore the inherent ambivalence of designating man simultaneously as subjectum and subjectus. Following the death of God, man was hailed as transcendental Subject, and then, following his own demise, "Man" was decentred, recognised as historical construct and restored to its concrete finite existence in the world. For Foucault, the s ubject's restoration t 0 the world and to h istory, the realisation that man is not given, left us with only one option, that is, to create the subject ourselves. For Levinas, on the other hand, the subject is incapable of self-creation and only fit to be invoked by the Other. For both the late Foucault and Levinas the question turns on ethical subjectivity in which the self's status as malleable subjectum and/or responsive and responsible subjectus is at stake. This essay will consider the questionable status of Foucault's late ethical subject. The deployment of subjectivity in the earliest work of
The empirical rationalization of the nursery jingle has never, I think, fully convinced an insulted child. The child who lives in all of us persists in feeling that names can probably hurt quite äs much äs stones. Since the dawn of Speech man has regarded his unique faculty with a concentrated and religious ambivalence of fear and reverence, and his use of words has alternately been extolled äs the highest enlightenment and denounced äs the basest deceit. Both sides in this argument acknowledge the enormous power of language but differ in their evaluations of it. Another sort of argument, often advanced by scientists and artists, takes the despairing view that language has no real power at all. Words, in their view, cannot penetrate the hidden structure of matter, nor adequately reproduce the labyrinthine richness of experience. Both kinds of argument, however — the normative and the utilitarian — have been with us at least since Plato scorned the rhetoric of Gorgias. And the attitudes they articulate have been with us longer still, since the first prayer or curse — the first effort to control a force by a word, and the first fear that it might not work.
The author analyzes the problems of the religious world-view of the German scientist of the middle of the XXth century, the philosopher-existentialist, historian and politician Karl Jaspers and covers the main principles of Jaspers's philosophical belief as the general key to understanding the problems of existence, freedom, mind, religion, human being, history and policy at the same time developed by the scientist in various works.
Islamic civilization was noted as a civilization that was successful in developing  the outstanding academic and educational tradition, as can be seen particularly  from the seventh century to the thirteenth century. The article is an historical  tracing to disclose the similarities of the character of classical Islamic education to  that of democratic education as known nowadays. In fact, the principles of  democracy are fundamentally planted in the tradition of classical Islamic  education. Therefore, the notion of educational democratization should positively  be responded by Moslem community. The theological base as commonly argued  by Moslems to maintain the notion of democratic education actually got its  support in historical practice of Islamic education in the classical period.
What are we really? A person, Locke tells us, is "a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places."' This is illuminating: I am a person if I am anything. But what is the ontological status of persons? Derek Parfit maintains that a person just consists in the existence of a brain and body, and the occurrence of a series of interrelated physical and mental states. Persons aren't something extra. Further, the fact of a person's identity through time isn't a deep further fact: it just consists in the holding of certain more particular facts, facts which can be fully described in a completely impersonal way. Because a person just consists in the existence of other impersonal things, though persons exist, we could give a complete description of reality without claiming they do.' Parfit's Reductionism appears to provide a handy middle ground between the view that persons are extra and the view that they don't exist at all. The Realist assures us the status of ultimate substances, at the price of making us queer entities. If persons are extra to bodies, brains, and psychophysical events, what are we and in what relation do we stand to these things? The Eliminativist ejects us with the ontological bathwater, alarming those of us who are convinced that we exist and depriving deontological ethics of a subject matter. Parfit combines persons and a recognizable (though altered) morality with a comfortable Eliminativist ontology of bodies, brains, and psychophysical events; and he gives ingenious arguments for the Reductionist position. I will argue for Eliminativism. My strategy will be to demolish Reductionism, so that we must choose between Realism and Eliminativism; then I will show that Realism verges on absurdity and Eliminativism is the rea-
Interdisciplinary Course Work The department offers courses in applied ethics, ethics, feminism, logic, and the philosophy of science to fit the needs and interests of nonmajors. Many of these may be taken without prerequisites. The nonmajor may wish to supplement work in other fields or schools with a series of related courses in philosophy. Some suggested programs to be supplemented with this type of interdisciplinary course work are business, prelaw, premedicine, and engineering; classics, art history, and literature; and natural sciences and mathematics. Lists of philosophy courses relating to these areas are available. Consult the director of undergraduate studies.
The paper focuses on Simon Frank’s relation to Vladimir Solovyov’s religious and philosophical ideas. The use of historical, critical, and textual research methods enables to analise possible influence of those ideas on Frank in different periods of his creative biography. It is stated that despite an apparent fundamental difference in perception of Solovyov’s philosophy by the “early” and “late” Frank, in fact, his changing attitude to Slovyov was not so radical. The article also presents here an archival manuscript - by Simon Frank’s report on Vladimir Solovyov - that has not been known before. The text, having been taken into account of other sources, is attributed as the paper read on November 15, 1925 in Berlin. On the basis of analytical study of this text, as well as the paper “Die russische Weltanschauung” published in 1926, it is concluded that Frank almost invariably kept his critical position towards a number of certain features of Solovyov’s philosophical conception, and towards his abstract rationalism in particular. However, in the mid-1920s, and not only in his latest works, Frank defined Soloviev’s worldview - as well as his own – as panentheism and justification of the idea of Divine humanity.
Author(s): Alston-Garnjost, M.; Avery, R.E.; Barker, A.R.; Bauer, D.A.; Bay, A.; Buijs, A.; Belcinski, R.; Bingham, H.H.; Bloom, E.D.; Buchanan, C.D.; Caldwell, D.O.; Chao, H-Y.; Chun, S-B.; Clark, A.R.; Crane, D.A.; Dahl, O.I.; Daoudi, M.; Eastman, J.J.; Eberhard, P.H.; Edberg, T.K.; Eisner, A.M.; Erne, F.C.; Fairfield, K.H.; Godfrey, G.; Hauptman, J.M.; Hofmann, W.; Kenney, R.W.; Khacheryan, S.; Knopfle, K.T.; Kofler, R.R.; Lambert, D.J.; Langeveld, W.G.J.; Layter, J.G.; Lin, W.T.; Linde, F.L.; Loken, S.C.; Lu, A.; Lynch, G.R.; Lys, J.E.; Madaras, R.J.; Marsiske, H.; Masek, G.E.; Loken, S.C.; Lu, A.; Lynch, G.R.; Lys, J.E.; Madaras, R.J.; Marsiske, H.; Masek, G.E.; Mathis, L.G.; Miller, E.S.; Nicol, N.A.; Nygren, D.R.; Oddone, P.J.; Oyang, Y.-T.; Paar, H.P.; Palounek, A.P.T.; Park, S.K.; Pellett, D.E.; Pripstein, M.; Ronan, M.T.; Ross, R.R.; Sens, J.C.; Shapiro, G.; Shen, B.C.; Steinman, J.S.; Stephens, R.W.; Stevenson, M.L.; Stork, D.H.; Strauss, M.G.; Sullivan, M.K.; Toutounchi, S.; Vernon, W.; Wang, E.M.; Wang, Y.-X.; Wenzel, W.A.; Yamamoto, H.; Yellin, S.J.; Yost, G.P.; Zapalac, G.; Zeitlin, C.
Buddhism, the fourth largest world religion has become a subject of study in recent era. This paper shall examine the role of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar in the renaissance of Buddhism in India and how Buddhism initiated by the Sakyamuni Buddha have served as a means for the emancipation of the deprived caste from oppression at the hands of the upper caste Hindus. Buddhism being a rational religion have thrown open the doors for all sentient being irrespective of one’s caste, creed, gender and so on. The Buddha stated -“One does not become a Brahmin by birth. One does not become an outcast by birth. One becomes a Brahmin by act. One becomes an outcast by act.”(Suttanipata, pp. 641) Ambedkar after his research in Buddhism became a devotee of the Buddha as he was impressed by His teachings based on the right to live and equality among human beings and was in opposition of an unjust, caste-based superstitious Indian society. The Buddha’s teaching termed as ‘Dhamma’ is not merely a composition of rituals, prayers, rules and regulation but a way of life. He paved the middle path for the sentient beings which is known as the Noble Eightfold Path. It is called the middle path because one avoids the two extremes that is one neither follows the path of self-mortification nor that of self-indulgence
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Propagating the Wrath of God Chapter 3 A Guide For The Perplexed: Religious-Political Violence Chapter 4 The Wrath of God: Who Propagates It? Chapter 5 The Wrath of God: Why Is It Propagated? Chapter 6 The Wrath of God: How Is It Propagated? Chapter 7 The Revitalized Identity Group as Actor Chapter 8 Religious-Political Violence in Israel-Where Is It Heading? Chapter 9 Postscript: The Abyss Looks Back
Vico is the first theoretician who demonstrated the primitive thinking in the idealistic history. His discuss on the origin and characteristic of poetic wisdom enlightened the study of aesthetic thinking. From the perspective of his way of thinking, which is conjecturing something by oneself, this paper makes a summary of Vicos poetic wisdom and deals with its inspiration to aesthetic thinking, and the sensibility, creativity, materiality of his poetic thinking and the potential rational logic hidden in the primitive thinking.
A 29 year-old male patient, of the white race comes to the Camilo Cienfuegos University Hospital of Sancti Spiritus, reporting personal pathological antecedents of apparent health and morbid obesity, with the latter having a pending surgical treatment. The patient was admitted in the Service of Surgery for assessing his physical status and planning a surgical intervention that was an abdominal dermolipectomy, due to the highly pendular shape of his stomach in this case. In this article, all the procedures of diagnosis and treatment carried out on admission were approached in detail, as well as the perioperative anesthetic management of this patient, who was satisfactorily discharged five days after the surgical act.
W WRITING my book on the teaching authority in the Church, 1 found it most helpful to be able to make use of the 1975 document of the International Theological Commission, "Theses on the Relationship between the Ecclesiastical Magisterium and Theology." As I remarked then, it seems inevitable that on this question statements by members of the hierarchy will tend to stress the authority of the magisterium and the obligation on the part of theologians to follow its directives, while statements by theologians will tend to stress the freedom of theological research and publication, and the critical role of theology even with regard to documents of the magisterium. I felt fortunate in having these theses of the International Theological Commission, because while, on the one hand, they would reflect a fairly broad consensus in the Catholic theological community, on the other hand there is also reason to believe that they were acceptable to the official organ of the papal magisterium, namely, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, since they could not have been published without its approval. On June 26, 1990, fifteen years after the completion of the commission's work on this topic, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued its own Instruction, dealing substantially with the same questions, but manifesting no evidence of having made significant use of the theses of the International Commission. There is no mention of them either in the text or the endnotes of the Instruction. The failure to make use of the work done by the International Commission is all the more surprising, considering the fact that the intention of the Synod that proposed its creation was that it should serve as a consultative body to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the preparation of important documents. The inevitable result is that the present Instruction lacks the equilibrium given to the Theses by the fact that in a certain
The ethicist’s primary task is to help discover the essential metaphors through which men can best see and understand their condition. Contemporary ethics, the ethics of ageric man, has merely mirrored men’s illusion of power and grandeur. It has failed to emphasize the categories that could give men an appreciation for their condition as finite, limited, and sinful beings; thus it has failed in its moral task. By making man’s will the source of all value we have turned away from the classical insight of Christian and philosopher alike that the measure of moral goodness ultimately lies outside our selves. The image of man the maker has therefore had a detrimental effect on Christian theology and ethics. God has been driven into the universe of the ’wholly other,’ leaving the world to whatever fate man’s absolute freedom determines for it; even if he is present or is the God of history, he does little more than confirm the irrepressible march of human creativity. On such a view, any life-directing attraction toward God’s creative and redemptive being becomes unintelligible.3 Christian ethics in such a context inevitably tends to be Pelagian; the aim of the Christian life becomes right action rather than the vision of God. The special nature of the Christian moral life is understood as a matter of one’s
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Roger M. White: "'Ought" implies "Can": Kant and Luther, a Contrast'. Catherine Wilson: 'Confused Perceptions, Darkened Concepts: Some Features of Kant's Leibniz-critique'. Guy Stock: 'Thought and Sensibility in Leibniz, Kant and Bradley'. Peter Lewis: "'Original Nonsense": Art and Genius in Kant's Aesthetic'. Eckart Forster: 'Fichte, Beck and Schelling in Kant's Opus postumum'. John Liewelyn: 'Imagination as a Connecting Middle in Schelling's Reconstruction of Kant'. Giuseppe Micheli: 'The Early Reception of Kant's Thought in England 1785-1805'. Manfred Kuehn: 'Hamilton's Reading of Kant: A Chapter in the Early Scottish Reception of Kant's Thought'. Donald MacKinnon: 'Aspects of Kant's Influence on British Theology'.
There have been many sects throughout Islamic antiquity. To be contingent on an intellectual or sect as the basis for inaugurating a base for learning is deceptive. Other intellectuals and sects need to be deliberated as well. This development need consequently comprises an inclusive investigation of a variety of key suppliers to Islamic teachings during the course of history. Al-Ghazzali’s been very specifically about education and suggested an integral part of the Islamic educational model. Thus, this model is the key link in the Master-Pupil and Parent-Child relationships. Since motherhood is an integral part of the family unit, this study contains a re-examination of women’s education from AI-Ghazzali’s point of view, because some claim that, Muslim women are being oppressed or not at all reinvigorated to become fully educated. AI-Ghazzali’s legacy holds the beginnings of several influential concepts that can be useful to modern concepts of Islamization of Knowledge. The quest of knowledge was AI-Ghazzali’s main importance, one that he deliberated to be among the highest forms of worship. AI-Ghazzali’s philosophy of knowledge thoroughly conveyed a chain of unified methods for achieving such knowledge. He discussed the role of the intelligence, the way of knowing, the learning process, and the obstacles to the learning process. This is his legacy. AI-Ghazzali’s philosophy resembles the importance, engaged by Islam on religious and spiritual aspect of life, which is fundamental to the structure of a Muslim.
Literature should have dialogues with its times. In a sense,people should keep to the spirit of literary criticism. Criticism is the feature of literature, an indispensable means that carries out the functions of literature. There is no literature without criticism. Once literature discards criticism, it will wither soon, not to mention the functions that promote development of society and push forward history.
By “Brentanian inner consciousness” I mean the conception of inner consciousness developed by Franz Brentano. The aim of this paper is threefold: first, to present Brentano’s account of inner consciousness; second, to discuss this account in light of the mereology outlined by Brentano himself; and third, to decide whether this account incurs an infinite regress. In this regard, I distinguish two kinds of infinite regress: external infinite regress and internal infinite regress. I contend that the most plausible reading of Brentano’s account is the so-called fusion thesis, and I argue that internal infinite regress turns out to be inherent to Brentanian inner consciousness.
In Bergson's work, intuition and sympathy are not synonymous terms. Each of them are two different aspects of his method. Intuition means the intimate relation of the spirit with itself as a pure form of interiority, the spiritual field considered as duration. But, this means that the spirit can't reach a reality out of itself. Here intervenes sympathy. It reaches the material in matter, the vital in living forms, the social in societies, the personal in individual existences. Phenomena are perceived according to their inner sense, in duration as they are reflected in our spirit. This is the double relation we try to describe.
The development of Arabic Grammar by time is not far from the figure of this science pioneer, Sibawaih (Abu Bisyr bin Usman bin Qunbur). From this age, the emergence of topics is in Nahwu. Among these topics that are always appearing is Al-Maf’ul. Even Sibawaih is regarded as pioneer in Nahwu, in fact, there are also many experts that are not in line with him, they are from Classic Nahwu (Al Qudama) or contemporer (Al Muhdatsun). Because the language is still develop in line with the time, then the topics of language also develop like Al-Maf’ul that is still relevant for reviewed by the reviewer of this science. There are many opinions about Al-Maf’ul that is in fact, what is Maf’ul Bih or Maf’ul Muthlaq or other. By the arguments appear for supporting each theory, sure will make us more critic to review deeper in language science that in time always change.
Although the title page of The Life of Nathanael Greene, Major-General in the Army of the Revolution (New York, 1849) states that the work is "edited" by William Gilmore Simms, most commentators have assumed that Simms was the author and not the editor. In 1892 William P. Trent, Simms's biographer, noted that the book "purports to be by Simms," but concluded, "There is, however, no reason to believe that he did not write it." (1) Trent was mistaken. Simms's function is correctly described by the term "edited." A careful comparison of The Life of Nathanael Greene with William P. Johnson's two-volume Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene (Charleston, S.C., 1822) reveals that Simms had not written a new biography of Greene; he merely had abridged and paraphrased the two-volume work by Johnson. Simms's use of the word "edited" has served as much for concealing as for revealing, and his remarks about the biography have further misled his critics. Althugh The Life of Nathanael Greene was not published until 1849, Simms appeared to have started work on a life of Greene at least nine years earlier; in a letter of September 15, 1840, to James Lawson he stated, "I am also taking notes for my life of Greene...." (2) No further mention of Greene is made in the published letters until May 1847, when correspondence with Rufus Wilmot Griswold reveals that Simms had completed a biographical sketch of Greene for Griswold's collection, Washington and the Generals of the Revolution. (3) He then proceeded with a book-length biography of Greene, which cost him, he said, "more labor than I anticipated." (4) In late August 1848 he wrote to Lawson, "I have just got through the Greene (mum!)...." (5) Simms's prefatory note to the published biography further obscures the fact that he merely had edited Johnson's Sketches, for he stated, "In examining and revising for the publishers the present work, the editor has consulted nearly all the volumes which promised to have any bearing upon the subject. He has had before him the copious biographical sketches of Johnson, and the several volumes of Lee, Ramsay, Moultrie, Marshall, Tarleton, Graydon, and others...." (6) Throughout the Life, Simms followed not merely the events in Johnson's work, but the structure of the chapters. He appropriated many of Johnson's sentences without altering them; others he modified slightly. Here are two examples selected from a great many parallel passages in the two works: Colonel Henry Laurens then filled that chair; and but a few minutes elapsed after Greene had taken his seat, before the arrival of a communication from the Governor of Rhode Island was announced, and an order passed that it be read. Whilst the clerk was preparing to open and read this communication aloud, Greene, who had a suspicion of its contents from some previous intimation, wrote on a scrap of paper which he handed up to the president, `For God's sake, do not read that paper aloud, until you have looked it over." A whisper from the president to the clerk arrested his progress and another whisper passed round to the members.... (Johnson, Sketches, I, 117) Henry Laurens at this time occupied the chair; and, but a few moments had elapsed, after Greene had taken his seat, when a communication from the governor of Rhode Island was announced, and an order passed that it should be read. Conceiving, instantly, the character of the document, and that it embodied the same feeling and sentiments with those of Sullivan and others, which had already given so much offense, Greene seized the moment, while the clerk was unsealing the envelope, to convey to the president a slip of paper, on which he had written, `For God's sake, do not let that paper be read until you have looked it over.' His suspicion was instantly adopted by the president, who, in a whisper, arrested the progress of the clerk. …
A WIDELY-HELD BELIEF, especially among NT scholars today, is that the sayings and stories of Jesus in the Gospels were passed down in oral form over many years and were shaped (i.e., edited and interpreted) by Christian communities before reaching the evangelists. According to Richard Bauckham, this common belief about the formation of the gospel traditions is "one enormously influential legacy" of form criticism (p. 6). Bauckham challenges this legacy. In his view, the Gospels' authors "were in more or less direct contact with eyewitnesses" to the words and deeds of Jesus and were "substantially faithful" to the testimony of these eyewitnesses in writing their respective Gospels (p. 6). Consequently, he rejects form criticism's assumption that gospel traditions developed over a long period of time and through an anonymous, collective process of oral transmission. Bauckham counters this assumption by attempting to show that individual, named eyewitnesses not only were known to the Gospels' writers but also remained throughout their lives the sources and "authoritative guarantors" of the stories that they continued to tell about Jesus (p. 93). Based on his cumulative evidence for the role of individual eyewitnesses in the transmission of the gospel traditions, Bauckham builds a compelling case against the reigning form critical paradigm, with its belief in an anonymous, collective process of transmission. Many will appreciate his identification of the Gospels as "testimony," a kind of historiography that provides access to the "historical reality" of Jesus and thereby bridges the divide between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Bauckham could strengthen his case by addressing further such questions as these: if it is true that the evangelists would have preferred eyewitness testimony, is it also possible that they valued and included stories about Jesus that were used or shaped in Christian communities? In what ways did the evangelists themselves shape the testimony of their eyewitnesses in the writing and editing of their gospels? Some will question his more speculative claims (e.g., that the Beloved Disciple wrote John's Gospel). Despite such questions, this well-written, wide-ranging study certainly merits consideration by those in both the church and the academy. Many in the church will welcome and applaud his thesis, and the book will be a thoughtful and provocative resource in college, seminary, and graduate courses on the Gospels.
Abstract: Perry Miller and Sacvan Bercovitch are authoritative scholars in Puritan American Studies. Miller offers comprehensive histories of Puritan intellectual life and Bercovitch traces the ideological backgrounds and impacts of Puritanism on the formation and development of the U.S. This study will look at Miller and Bercovitch’s conflicting ideas on two fundamental assets of Puritanism: the jeremiad and the errand. Key Words: Perry Miller, Sacvan Bercovitch, Puritanism, the Puritan Jeremiad, the Puritan Errand. Ozet: Perry Miller ve Sacvan Bercovitch Amerikan Puritan Etudleri’nin onde gelen isimleridir. Miller, Puritan entelektuel hayatinin derinlemesine bir analizini yaparken Bercovitch, Puritanizm’in A.B.D.’nin kurulusuna ve gelisimine isik tutan ideolojik etkilerini inceler. Bu calismada Perry Miller ve Sacvan Bercovitch’in Puritanizm’in iki temel kavrami yeremiyad ve misyon gelenegi hakkinda birbiriyle catisan fikirlerinin bir incelemesi yapilacaktir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Perry Miller, Sacvan Bercovitch, Puritanizm, Puritan Yeremiyadi, Puritan Misyonu.
The traditional metaphysics grounded by Plato is a set of visually cultural tradition,which sank the meaning of Being-a concept belonging to the level of ontology-into the set pattern of the level of the one existed below which it has been hidden and forgotten.In Being and Time,Heidegger describes the communicating situation of human being as a Dasein in the world with other beings with the aid of many visual words around the radical meaning of Sicht(sight).Heidegger attempted to make the meaning of these visual words more opening so that his philosophy can smash the shackles of metaphysical language.Finally,Heidegger realized that his efforts suffered a setback.
Tertullian did not separate from the episcopally governed church, nor change from a ’Catholic’, institutional view of it to a ’Reformed’, prophetic one. He changed only by sharpening his ideas about the holiness of the church: the real church must have been, Rankin thinks, a great disappointment to him. Starting always with the New Testament, Rankin sifts judiciously through the images used for and notes of the church, and the terminology of ministerial office, and finds Tertullian’s position the same in both his early and later (Montanist) period. Himself a layman, he holds the threefold sacerdotium of bishop, presbyter and deacon to be of apostolic appointment, but
By the mid-1900s Hugh MacColl had published enough in the way of papers and notes on logic that a more connected presentation could be made. Accordingly, he reworked several items into a book published in 1906 and entitled Symbolic Logic and its Applications. In this paper I comment on some main features of the book and note reactions to it at the time, especially by Russell. Consequences of his ignorance of contemporary literature are also considered. The account begins with his little-known book on algebra.
Critics have characterized E.M. Forster as an advocate of what Jürgen Habermas calls the “secular public sphere.” Yet Forster was critical of liberalism’s insistence that religious experiences should be translated into the language of secular rationality. The discussion of the Clapham Sect in “Henry Thornton” (1939) suggests that eighteenth-century evangelical Anglicanism set in motion a historical trajectory that led secular modern intellectuals to retreat into their own privacy, a position exemplified by Forster’s contemporaries in the Bloomsbury Group. One can thus look back to A Passage to India (1924) and understand how the novel’s spiritual themes articulate a politically relevant alternative both to Clapham’s rationalized religiosity and Bloomsbury’s secular insularity. Forster depicts the Hindu religious festival of Gokul Ashtami as promising an alternative form of social cohesion that resists translation into secular, rational language.
The passage is remarkable first for being supported by no hint of linguistic evidence, and secondly for being directly contrary to comparable passages in Locke. Where Hume suggests a necessary semantic equivalence between languages Locke indicates actual semantic discrepancies. Having shown that men frequently combine simple ideas into "complex modes" in order to meet the communicative exigencies of their forms of living, Locke continues:
Introduction Jurgen Trabant * New perspectives on an old academic question 1. Biological aspects of the question Philip Lieberman * On the subcortical bases of the evolution of language Eors Szathmary * Origin of the human language faculty: the language amoeba hypothesis 2. The first language Manfred Bierwisch * The apparent paradox of language evolution: can Universal Grammar be explained by adaptive selection? Wolfgang Klein * Elementary forms of linguistic organisation Bernard Comrie * From potential to realisation: an episode in the origin of language James R Hurford * Protothought had no logical names Jean Aitchison * The birth of rules Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka * How language changed the genes: toward an explicit account of the evolution of language 3. Beyond bio-linguistics Merritt Ruhlen * Taxonomic controversies in the twentieth century Volker Heeschen * The narration "instinct": signalling behaviour, communication, and the selective value of storytelling Henri Meschonnic * The origin of origins: A play in five acts, with a prologue im Himmel and an epilogue auf der Erde
NIGERIAN WRITERS IN ENGLISH feel that they have been and are being read for the wrong reasons. The first generation of African writers, in the later colonial period, were anxious merely to speak to the West, to make themselves known in mitigation of the standard European stereotypes and misconceptions. To "sympathetic" observers of the African scene as to enthusiastic readers of "authentic" African literature, this generation was genuinely grateful. Now the situation has so far changed that the liberal European mentality has become suspect (of neo-colonialism, among other things) and so indeed have those earlier African writers who interpreted their own cultures to Europe under colonial conditions. Now is the time for European readers to follow suit, to become more sophisticated in their understanding of just what it is that African writers are about. One way of doing this is to consider the historical and intellectual situation in which the African writer finds himself determining the protean forms his self-consciousness will take. Since independence,'for example, among the elite, the whole business of how to go about being an African reincarnate has been a tremendously stimulating affair. It has unearthed untold treasures to the imagination and tightened the intellect as well: forcing ingenuousness into irony, it has made African literature exciting because complex.
What moved Copernicus to switch from the time-honored geocentric to a heliocentric setup for the planetary system? He himself did not explain this momentous move in any detail—his only comments about it suggest that Ptolemy’s complete solution to the problem of nonuniform motion, the equant model, led him to propose Earth’s annual motion around the Sun. The most widely accepted accounts of the origin of Copernicus’s theory dismiss or dispute any direct relation between the principle of uniform motion and the heliocentric theory. Two scholars, the Polish expert on Copernicus Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer (1855–1929) and the American historian of astronomy Curtis Wilson (1921–2012), constructed detailed arguments about how Copernicus’s rejection of Ptolemy’s solution led him to his theory. The principal aim of this essay is to reintroduce Birkenmajer’s and Wilson’s voices to the discussion of the origin of Copernicus’s heliocentrism.
BEST known of the American idealists, Josiah Royce expounded a philosophy which was in some ways like that of the absolute idealism of his English contemporary, F. H. Bradley. As an American, he was predisposed to individualism and sought to reconcile this motive with the absolutistic trend of his philosophy. The influences which most profoundly molded his thought were those received from his studies of
In 1 Cor 14.26-33a, the apostle Paul includes a few statements about the ordering of glossolalia (vv. 27-28) and prophecy (vv. 29-32) in his argument about spiritual gifts. There are a number of similarities between the instructions regarding glossolalia and prophecy. However, the use of distributive κατά in v. 27 over against v. 29 where such a preposition is missing, makes clear that prophecies may be uttered in front of the whole community, whereas, during the meeting, speaking in tongues should take place in separate and small groups of ‘two or at the most three people’ sitting together in order not to throw the whole assembly into disorder.
Recently, several philosophers have called attention to the idea that there are occasions on which we can perceive (at least some) mental states of others. In this paper we consider two recent proposals in this direction: the co-presence thesis (Smith, 2010) and the hybrid model (Krueger and Overgaard, 2012). We will examine the aforementioned alternatives and present some objections to both of them. Then, we will propose a way of integrating both accounts which allows us to avoid such objections. Broadly stated, our idea is that by perceiving other people’s behaviors we also perceive their mental states because behaviors co-present some features of the latter, and that this perception of others’ minds is direct and immediate because behavior is a constitutive part of the mental states in question. Keywords: mindreading, hybrid model, direct perception of other minds, co-presence thesis.
Abstract Some, notably Peter van Inwagen, in order to avoid problems with free will and omniscience, replace the condition that an omniscient being knows all true propositions with a version of the apparently weaker condition that an omniscient being knows all knowable true propositions. I shall show that the apparently weaker condition, when conjoined with uncontroversial claims and the logical closure of an omniscient being's knowledge, still yields the claim that an omniscient being knows all true propositions.
In studying the structural forms of the myths in Pin dar's odes, we note that the most conspicuous characteristic of his poetical art is the way in which he moves from the present, which he is now celebrating in song, to the mythical past, a world in which he loved to dwell.l Bowra refers to 'the apparent insouciance with which he sometimes introduces a myth', and: 'He seems almost to slide into it through some superficial association of words or ideas.' This method of formal transition from reality to myth by means of the so-called archaic associative way of thinking is typical of Pindar's structural forms; it is also neatly described by Viljoen3 as 'die van punt tot punt aanknopende denkvorm en glydende oorgange in gedagte'. One4 illustration will suffice: in his First Olympian Ode, dedicated to Hieron of Syracuse, winner in the horse-race, Pindar closes his praise of Hieron with the following lines: 5 M!l7tEt os oi KA.so~ f:v ~:;Mvopt Auoou TisA.ono~ anotKi!f.
Under similar social circumstances, there is a certain inherent similarity between the literature of scar reconsideration in the new era of China and Milan Kundera. Beginning with the common criticism of the super politics and on the basis of the literary creation of Milan Kundera's "humanitarian meditation surpassing politics ", the thesis reconsiders the contemporary scars. The inherent drawback of the creation of reconsideration literature, namely, the political restraint, makes literature unable to question historical tragedies minutely or describe the humanity profoundly. Consequently, different literary viewpoints bring about meditation and contemplation of the literary subjects.
This article examines the specific role of Hobbes’ Dialogue of the Common Laws in the development of the liberal tradition in the common law. Hobbes usually has been regarded as the founder of a theory of absolute sovereignty and as an advocate of state centralization. In some cases he is even considered a forerunner of such neoconservative political philosophers as Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss. However, this reading of Hobbes will contend that his philosophical and political enterprise has been misunderstood. Opposed to the authoritarian reading I wish to emphasize a strain of pragmatic and free thinking modernity in Hobbes’ writings. Hobbes supports freedom of expression and enquiry against all types of sectarian claims made by the most powerful legal and religious circles and guilds of that time which he saw as intent on pursuing their own narrow self-interests against the needs of the common people. In other words, he was an early advocate of intellectual freedom and was an agent of change within the conceptual history of common law. The historical influence of these liberal features of Hobbes set in motion a shift towards a kind of consequentialist and informal utilitarianism in the understanding of common law. This is the important historical outcome of A Dialogue. I argue that the contrast between Hobbes’ rational jurisprudence in A Dialogue and common law itself is particularly significant to the rise of English and American Constitutionalism, modern individualism and utilitarianism.
Several copies of works by Joseph Haydn and Anton Zimmermann, located mainly at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, have some striking features in common: almost identical calligraphic initials “NZ,” dates ranging from 1776 to 1778 on the cover pages, and great similarity in the handwriting of text and music. This handwriting was analysed by the author and compared to the surviving contemporary manuscript copies (paper, watermarks, script) of string quartets by Nicolaus Zmeskall (1759–1833), Beethoven’s friend in Vienna. Using previously unknown samples of Zmeskall’s handwriting from the period of his high school studies in Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia), it was possible to identify his music-copying style, and determine conclusively that his string quartet manuscripts are autographs. This study proves that the manuscript copies of the Haydn and Zimmermann works (including Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G Major and two symphonies by Zimmermann) were written out by Zmeskall, while he was living in P...
Physical Theory and Experiment.- Two Dogmas of Empiricism.- Empiricist Criteria of Cognitive Significance: Problems and Changes.- Some Fundamental Problems in the Logic of Scientific Discovery.- Background Knowledge and Scientific Growth.- The Duhemian Argument.- A Comment on Grunbaum's Claim.- Scientific Revolutions as Changes of World View.- Grunbaum on 'The Duhemian Argument'.- Quine, Grunbaum, and the Duhemian Thesis.- Duhem, Quine and Grunbaum on Falsification.- Duhem, Quine and a New Empiricism.- Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes.- Is it never Possible to Falsify a Hypothesis Irrevocably?.- The Rationality of Science (From'Against Method').- Index of Names.
This article deals with the authorship of Elísabet Kristín Jökulsdóttir, with special emphasis on the autofictional novel Heilræði lásasmiðsins (The locksmith’s advice), as well as other works that are based on autobiographical material. Elísabet writes a lot about the female body, its desires and erotic longings, as well as how helpless and weak it can be in particular situations. Her writing on the self, body and sexuality centres on the opposition between love and rejection. The desire for love is the driving force behind her writing and a deep and ruthless self-examination is at work in her fictional world. This desire is closely connected to the female body and sexual drive and Elísabet scrutinizes the nature of ‚femininity‘ and asks what it means to be ,a woman‘. Elísabet describes the female body in all its nakedness and vulnerability and shows how the body is the battleground where the main conflicts between self and others take place. Elísabet frequently describes two oppositional worlds in her works. There are conflicts between the magical world and reality, the father and the mother, the child and the grown-up, psychological difficulties and ‚sanity‘. a divided self is a persistent theme in her writings, as well as the struggle to remain on the right side of the „borders“, which are frequently mentioned. Elísabet’s writings reveal a struggle for marking a place for oneself in the world, to be heard and seen, to be able to createand recreate the self and through her writing, she copes with existence and difficulties that are rooted in childhood. Through writing, she finds a way out and the writing process serves as self-analysis and therapy. In her works Elísabet also creates her own personal mythology, which she connects with women’s struggle for self-realization, freedom and social space. The analysis of Elísabet’s works is inspired by the writings of feminist scholars, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Kate millett and Hélène Cixous.
Peter Singer's (1990 and 1993) interpretations of Biblical texts dealing with the natural world are evaluated in the light of recent Biblical scholarship. The texts in question are among those in the Bible relating to Christian ethical teaching about the natural world. The specific texts Singer examined concern the meaning of dominion and the flood of the earth in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, particular teaching by the apostle Paul in the book 1 Corinthians in the New Testament, and certain actions by Jesus in the New Testament book of Mark. Singer's interpretations have a lengthy pedigree commonly used to hold Biblical teaching partly responsible for adverse Western attitudes to nature. This article argues that such interpretations contradict a deal of recent Biblical scholarship on the texts at issue.
Folklore is a type of novel based on the folk events.It is linked to as well as distinct from rural and urban novels.It is characteristic of fixed model to express the authors' criticism against the traditional custom or praise for and construction of the traditional humanistic ideal.The surface structure of folklore has the aesthetic functions of rich local flavor and unique atmosphere and vivid description of life events while its deep structure requires readers to interpret and construct meaning from the surface physical events encoded in words,to understand the psychological state of minds and obtain the rich implications beyond the physical events.
analyzes the various metaphysics of modalities. He claims that three theories of the source of logical modalities were entertained during the early seventeenth century, which he labels respectively “transcendentalism,” “modal voluntarism,” and “divine conceptualism.” All of these positions can be traced back to medieval theories; however, they received an extensive treatment in late scholastic thought. Coombs is especially illuminating when he emphasizes the importance of the grounding metaphysical structure: essences and their systematic relations through “Porphyrian trees.” This generated two different accounts of the ontological status of essences: according to essentialist theories, complete Porphyrian trees are the basis of necessity and possibility, while according to a “string theories,” only the logical connections between the components of the essential structure are available eternally (196). Yet the most striking novelty of the time lies in the systematization of a statistical interpretation of modalities through the “moral modalities,” originating in post-Tridentine Catholic theology. In contrast to Hacking’s thesis (see The Taming of Chance [Cambridge, 1990]), Sven Knebel (“The Renaissance of Statistical Modalities in Early Modern Scholasticism”) contends that the concept of aleatory probability was first developed within this context. That an event-type Q is morally necessary means that Q is always the case, and that not-Q actually is never the case (236). According to some accounts, the ground of this moral necessity is only subjective, while according to others there must be an objective ground to such judgments, based on the frequency of the event-type. It would be impossible to give an exhaustive overview of the book within this short space. In addition to the preceding, there are more historical contributions by Maarten Hoenen, Russell Friedman, Sachiko Kusokawa and Gino Roncaglia, and a more analytical paper by Claude Panaccio on the differences between Ockham’s and Locke’s conceptions of a mental language. Thus the book as a whole, by presenting the recent work of leading scholars in this field, provides a good starting point for further researches in the field of late medieval and early modern philosophy. J E A N P A S C A L A N F R A Y University of Paris IV-Sorbonne
In this paper we discuss in which sense truth is considered as a mathematical object in propositional logic. After clarifying how this concept is used in classical logic, through the notions of truth-table, truth-function and bivaluation, we examine some generalizations of it in non-classical logics: many-valued matrix semantics with three and four values, non-truth-functional bivalent semantics, Kripke possible world semantics.
In "Bartleby,the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street",a short story by Herman Melville,the image of wall manifests itself throughout the whole parallel structure of value,characters,plots and so on.This image provides two layers of function——confinement and indulgence,resolving the conflicts between assumptions and preferences.The wall reveals how human beings are isolated for failure of communication;how they are alienated for restraint by material;and how they are lingering between life and death in a world where material is held to be primary.Bartleby's gradual deviation from others can be attributed to Melville's quests for humanity and his anxieties about the condition of human existence.
three editors. It is unusual because it is not a typical handbook comprising full texts of classics. Instead of offering a collection or an anthology of classics, what is to be found in this book are critical and insightful summaries and reviews of 41 classical articles or books in the field of public policy and administration. The book is interesting because leading contemporary scholars have written these reviews. So, as well as providing a brief summary of these classics, they also present their legacies and implications for the present day. The book puts all of these 41 classics into a context by outlining their legacies and connections and their impact on other research. Finally, it is an innovative work because it gives the reader a map for their own research. It is important for seeing a very broad picture and finding a way in the field of public policy and administration. For the editors, collaboration with 43 contributors is a very demanding task. But what is also challenging for them is to find, choose and identify 41 texts as classics. The challenge stems from the fact that ‘there is no objective standard for determining what constitutes a classic’ (p.3). Hence, the editors are aware of the fact that any attempt to find classics in any field is destined to be incomplete: ‘A different set of editors would certainly have come up with a different list’ (p.4). For example, the book comprises work by David Truman and CW Mills but not Robert Dahl; it includes Herbert Simon and Charles Lindblom but not Amitai Etzioni; it also includes Anthony Downs and Elinor Ostrom but not Patrick Dunleavy. Similarly, while there is work by Christopher Hood, there is nothing from Robert and Janet Denhardt or RAW Rhodes. The list goes on. All in all, this is a very useful book especially for postgraduate students who can easily get lost in the literature review when trying to find and develop a research problem and question. It is also handy for academics in the sense of using this book as a supplementary textbook in their courses.
Title of Dissertation: SEEING AND THE SEEN: POST-PHENOMENOLOGICAL ETHICS AND THE CINEMA Brian K. Bergen-Aurand, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Orrin N. C. Wang Comparative Literature Program What is the relationship between cinema and ethics, especially an elusive ethics more concerned with responding to alterity than with establishing moral order? Seeing and the Seen addresses this question by demonstrating how three seemingly unambiguous cinematic moments (from nations with totalitarian histories) are structured by ambiguity and aporia. These uncertain structures evoke non-assimilative, non-totalizing ethical responses that counter monolithic interpretations of cinema. Previously, skeptical approaches to cinema have not focused on ethics. They have relied upon hermeneutic techniques to “interpret” elements and then discuss their relevance. Their concerns have been ontological and epistemological. Using the post-phenomenological thought of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, I argue, however, that skepticism connects cinema to an ethics of response. Chapter One introduces the ideas of post-phenomenological ethics, skepticism, and cinema, to show how their interrelationship actually challenges traditional views, such as Levinas’s that see art as unethical. Chapter Two analyzes narrative absence and the ethics of alienation in Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura. I compare ontological and ethical readings of this film to argue against interpreting it as tragic. The final caress between the film’s protagonists is a metaphor for cinematic representations of ethical response. Chapter Three discusses the ethics of pornography in films by Pedro Almodóvar, who shows how pornography and non-pornography remain interdependent. Focusing on cinematic iterability, I demonstrate how pornographic and non-pornographic tropes oscillate between the two genres, rendering their borders uncertain. This uncertainty makes pornography more related to skepticism and ethics than previously imagined. Chapter Four outlines the “total criticism” of the ethics of law in Oshima Nagisa’s cinema. Specifically, I examine how the freeze frame at the end of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence evokes an ethics of the cinema that exposes the gaps of total criticism. The freeze frame is the least discussed cinematic device; however, it provides the most concrete example of the elusive relation between skepticism, ethics, and cinema. The Conclusion argues that these examples are only starting points toward further investigations of how filmic uncertainty highlights the relation between cinema and ethics. In the end, I emphasize this point by responding to instances from contemporary documentary filmmaking. SEEING AND THE SEEN: POST-PHENOMENOLOGICAL ETHICS AND THE CINEMA by Brian K. Bergen-Aurand Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland at College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Orrin N. C. Wang, Chair Professor Peter Brunette Professor Peter Beicken Professor Giuseppe Falvo Professor Simon Richter Professor Eugene Robinson ©Copyright by Brian K. Bergen-Aurand 2004
In All Judges Are Political—Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law (2010), Keith Bybee considers the hypocrisy of modern law—that is, the widespread view that judges are both principled and partisan—by drawing an analogy with courtesy. Both law and courtesy contain and manage the diverse and potentially divisive interests that would, were they not contained, disrupt social life. In this essay I extend this argument by considering whether the relationship between law and courtesy is more than merely analogical. I suggest that both systems are aspects of larger historical developments out of which emerged the modern subject and the modern state, creating a social world made up of apparently bounded individuals and institutions. As such, law and courtesy do more than conceal and contain interests and subjectivity; they produce the unruly, partisan subjects they are designed to manage.
A central, persisting problem for legal theory is the relationship between law and morality. Reasons to affirm and to deny that law merits some measure of respect seem safely grounded in the law. The law's antinomous character is reflected in Holmes's suggestion that understanding the law requires that we wash the notion of duty with "cynical acid."' Holmes meant not merely to distinguish law from morality but also to emphasize "that wrong statutes can be and are enforced."2 This suggests that legal requirements, or "duties," can fail to merit any of the respect that duties are due. The terms we apply to law, such as "duty," seem to carry moral force that law's moral fallibility appears at the same time to deny. There are other antinomies. That a government is "legitimate," for example, suggests that it enjoys a moral right to govern, and yet governments conventionally credited with legitimacy are capable of conduct that seems to forfeit any claim they might have to respect. The jurisprudential schools of "natural law" and "legal positivism" represent contrary attempts to resolve these antinomies-one affirming and the other denying that law, by its nature, merits respect. Philip Soper's theory of law can be placed within this context: Soper takes the side of "natural law." (Soper conceives of "natural law" more narrowly [p. 51].)
In much of Christian thought humans are taken to have an ultimate end, understood as the highest attainable good. Christians also anticipate “the life everlasting.” Together these ideas generate a paradox. If the end can be reached in a finite amount of time, some longer-lasting state will be better still, so the purported end is not the highest good after all. But if the end is to possess some good forever, then it will never be reached. So it seems an everlasting being cannot have an ultimate end—a conclusion that apparently makes human life pointless. How can the paradox be solved?
to persist. This problem of constancy, together with the phenomena of change such as state malfunction, militarization and social disorder, led to political disintegration and collapse in the first half of the 20th century. In the final analysis, according to Eastman, it was mainly domestic problems, not foreign imperialism, that inhibited Chinese efforts to develop a modern economy. Eastman's extensive knowledge will certainly benefit both Chinese and foreign students, especially with his instructive comparison of China's condition to that in the west in terms of, for example, market demand and per capita income (p. 156), manufacturing process (p. 145) and attitude towards nature (p. 150). Viewing China in the perspective of world history, he also puts forward some interesting ideas, such as that he does not consider China's failure to evolve further towards an industrial revolution in the 16th to 18th centuries a historical anomaly (p. 150). Equally interesting is the reference to Fernand Braudel's suggestion that the concurrent increase of population in several parts of the world during the 18th century might have been caused by the weather (pp. 5-6). The book includes chapters on cultural issues such as the family, popular religion and heterodoxical social forces which social and economic historians often regard as of secondary importance. In asserting that both familism and popular religion helped enforce the Confucian moral code and that the state cult was indistinguishable from the religion of the commoners (pp. 58-59) he virtually touches upon Antonio Gramsci's concept of "cultural hegemony," and shares Prasenjit Duara's cultural perspective-the parameter of the controversial book Culture, Power, and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942 (1988). More than half the chapter on "Family and the individual in Chinese society" is concerned with women's issues, and he also makes critical comments on the marginal efforts of both the Nationalist and the communist governments to improve women's status (pp. 215-16). One only wishes that he could have substantiated this part with a section on law and the legal system. If one must find fault the most serious is in the misrepresentation of some scholars' works. Eastman's citing of Philip Huang's The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China (1985) as the main example of the "exploitation school" obviously results from careless misreading of the book. Many of Eastman's major arguments are actually derived from various specialists' original discoveries, as he admits; yet they are not always properly cited or quoted. Nevertheless, it is clear that this work, with its coherent content and interpretative style, is more than just another general textbook of modern Chinese history, and readers will no doubt find it to be an inspiration for some time to come.
The Association for Symbolic Logic publishes analytical reviews of selected books and articles in the field of symbolic logic. The reviews were published in The Journal of Symbolic Logic from the founding of the Journal in 1936 until the end of 1999. The Association moved the reviews to this Bulletin, beginning in 2000. The Reviews Section is edited by Steve Awodey (Managing Editor), John Baldwin, John Burgess, Mark Colyvan, Anuj Dawar, Marcelo Fiore, Noam Greenberg, Hannes Leitgeb, Ernest Schimmerling, Carsten Schürmann, Kai Wehmeier, and Matthias Wille. Authors and publishers are requested to send, for review, copies of books to ASL, Box 742, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA. In a review, a reference “JSL XLIII 148,” for example, refers either to the publication reviewed on page 148 of volume 43 of the Journal, or to the review itself (which contains full bibliographical information for the reviewed publication). Analogously, a reference “BSL VII 376” refers to the review beginning on page 376 in volume 7 of this Bulletin, or to the publication there reviewed. “JSL LV 347” refers to one of the reviews or one of the publications reviewed or listed on page 347 of volume 55 of the Journal, with reliance on the context to show which one is meant. The reference “JSL LIII 318(3)” is to the third item on page 318 of volume 53 of the Journal, that is, to van Heijenoort’s Frege and vagueness, and “JSL LX 684(8)” refers to the eighth item on page 684 of volume 60 of the Journal, that is, to Tarski’s Truth and proof. References such as 495 or 2801 are to entries so numbered in A bibliography of symbolic logic (the Journal, vol. 1, pp. 121–218).
The kind of religion that Julian wanted to restore had very little in common with classical paganism, which comprised a set of doctrines that presupposed an unprecedented systematization of theology as well as a specific moral teaching. These aspects constituted a radical innovation, whose underpinning was a project of paganism that incorporated, at least to a certain extent, some of the institutions created by the Christian Church during its recent development.
St. Jerome is well known for his attacks on marriage. To understand why he developed his, for the most part, negative perspective on marriage we must take a broader view. Theology never takes place within a vacuum. Jerome`s understanding of marriage came out of the ascetic culture in his ages. If we look at his understanding of marriage, we realize that his understanding of marriage was not a biblical or theological development but a product of his devotion to a spiritual life in asceticism. Jerome`s ascetic ideal was to pursue virginity for a spiritual life and a practical concern for chastity. Nevertheless, his asceticism was not unchallenged. Helvidius, Jovinian, and Pelagius, known as Origenists to Jerome, supported anti-asceticism based on their creationism philosophy and claimed that the belief that virginity was superior to marriage as anti-creationism. Futhermore, their theology of creationism incorporated anti-manichaeanism as well as anti-asceticism into Christianity. Jovinian, especially, charged ascetic practices in Rome as Manichaeanism. In fact, his assertions seemed to be defending creationism and sincere Christianity while attacking Manichaean ascetic ideals. In this socio-religious context, Jerome needed to apologize his ascetic idea on virginity as asceticism. He developed his ideas on virginity as chastity, not only for a spiritual life, but also for a moral dimension against the Origenists, subordinating marriage to virginity. Through the controversies of Helvidius, Jovinian, and Pelagius, Jerome focused on a more negative perspective of marriage. Even though his denunciation of the charge of Manichaeanism seemed like an acceptance of creationism, Jerome never believed marriage to be equal to virginity in a spiritual life. Whenever Jerome developed his negative perspective on marriage, the backbone of the Origenist theology, namely, creationism always appeared in his controversies.
Abstract This article aims to compare and analyse two different perspectives of pneumatology: within the Pentecostal and the Evangelical perspective. In spite of many doctrinal tangents with the Evangelical theology, the Pentecostal has its own spirituality and theological accent, especially in the field of pneumatology. The two differences centre on baptism in the Spirit and the gift of prophecy. From a Pentecostal practical perspective, the spiritual gifts continue to play an important role for the contemporary church. Although there are differences in their theological approaches, the Pentecostals and the Evangelicals found the common ground in forming the Evangelical Alliance of Romania and working together for about a quarter of Century.
The semiotics is one of the scientific instruments for analyzing the discourse system, which studies the components of meaning structure and creation in texts. In semiotics, the gnosilogical characteristics of literary works will find the chance to appear clearly by surpassing mere constructive semiotics to phenomenology semiotics and showing the signs path of moving towards higher and more perfect signs. The beautiful poems of “Oghab” by Khanlari and “Arash Kamangir” by Kasrayie are the narrative oriented kind of poetry, which have the narrative characteristics due to having situational identity and various actions and nourishing precious mythos actions at the end of the story. Therefore , these two masterpieces are worth being studied and analyzed for semiotics analysis and discourse system. The prescriptive discourse system and manipulative ones are flowing at the beginning and in the middle of these two stories. Later on, proceeding the discourses and appearance of the narratives, two value systems are shaped, which through their conflicts, the dynamic semiotics discourse is provided, leading to tensional system, which is analyzable based on the expansion and pressure values. This research studies these texts by means of Greimas comparative approaches, passing through semantic square to tensional square while analyzing the type of discourse systems including prescriptive, manipulative and incidental ones in these two poems. This research Further tries to find out up to which point Persian narrative poetry is cable of analyzing the discourse systems ruling over it.
Confucius is the greatest educationist in Chinese history. Though in existence for more than 2, 000 years, his education thought still has important directive significance to modern education. No matter in such aspects as the educational objective, students, educational principle, educational method or the teacher - student relationship, there is too much nourishment that needs us to draw in Confucius thought. In inheriting and drawing lessons from the fine tradition of ancient education, modern Chinese education may get considerable development.
This chapter demonstrates the radical dissent between John Italus and Ioane Petritsi, two of the epoch's greatest philosophers of Georgia and Byzantium, on one essential subject, the issue of the substantiality of Good and Evil. Petritsi defends the doctrine of the insubstantiality of evil: only good has substance, and the only origin and principle is One and the Good. Petritsi, provides a couple of proofs in order to demonstrate that only the One has essence, and that only the One and the Good is the ultimate source and origin of beings, being the cause of both "production and subsistence" of each existence. By this Good, which is above everything, the multitude of beings is also made good. John Italus arrives at an altogether different conception by means of syllogistic inquiry in his treatise. Through logical argument, Italus is driven to profess the substantiality of evil. Keywords: Byzantium; evil; Georgia; good; Ioane Petritsi; John Italus
To the contemporary reader the phrase 'the default of God' may suggest something shocking, such as a failure on God's part to keep a bargain or a promise. Accordingly, it may seem a curious imper tinence to make this 'default' an explicit theme in an essay on religious tradition and education. It is important therefore, at the outset, to secure the theme as far as possible against misunderstanding. Default here signifies 'to be wanting', or 'to be in want of, or 'to be deprived of. Hence, what is described as 'the default of God' is a human, historical event and, as such, it means, in Heidegger's words: 'that no god any longer gathers men and things unto himself, visibly and unequivocably, and by such gather ing disposes the world's history and man's sojourn in it.' Of course a relationship with God continues to live on in our own historical epoch, in individuals, in churches, in some homes and indeed within some schools.
Mythology,Daoist school and Daoism are all the products of primitive thought.and thus have the similar thinking method and similar understanding and concept about universe,nature and spirit.however,the daoist school and Daoism which rose later are obviously influenced by mythology.ln the process of its spreading,a part of mythology have been personitied because of both external and internal factors,as a result,some of the mythology are protected by means of Daoism,and meanwhile,Daoism also become more solid and developed itself.
Philolaus is a peripheral figure in the history of Greek mathematics. We know of no important advance in mathematics that is attributed to him, nor is there any evidence that he wrote a book exclusively or even primarily devoted to mathematical topics.' Indeed the tradition about Philolaus suggests that he wrote just one book and not a terribly long one at that.2 What is known of that book from fragments and testimonia suggests that it covered a wide range of topics despite a relatively small compass. There is evidence that after an account of the basic principles of the cosmos Philolaus went on to present his own astronomical system, his own views on the different psychological faculties of human beings, and a theory of the constitution of the human body and the origins of disease.3 Moreover, mathematical ideas were prominent. The whole number ratios that determine the concordant musical intervals are mentioned in Fragment 6 while other fragments are concemed with number (Fragments 4 and 5) and include a classification of number into two primary types (odd and even)
In his very full Introduction Carson discusses the distinctive characteristics of the Gospel, how it has been interpreted in the early church and more recently, its authenticity (in which he includes such topics as sources and its relation to the synoptics, and Culpepper’s literary interpretation), authorship and date (tentatively accepting the identity of the author with the beloved disciple who is the son of Zebedee, and wrote the Gospel in about AD 80-85). John 20:30-31 is taken to mean that John’s purpose
Exprcssing a critical analysis about the Exner’s tlicoretical and mctliodological point of vue con-ccrning thc Rorschach Test, the author contests thc reduction and thc restrictivc effects of the psycho-mctric and thc cognitive modcls on thc Comprehensive Systcin for this tcst. l‘hc author asscrts an cqual rele-vancc for thc prqjective and pcrceptive factors of the cognitivc proccss on rcading, elaborating and intcr-prcting Rorschach’s data.
The Qur’an is a heavenly book which was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It is in the language of the Arabs of Quraish and deals with the basics for all spheres of life and field. Apart from this aspect of the Book, the Qur’an has discussed the other heavenly books which were revealed to other prophets and messengers of Allah-Moses, Jesus and others. These old heavenly books contained information regarding teachings of their holders beside information which was not revealed and added to it in later periods. The Qur’an has indicated to both the sides of these books where these books prove to be remnants of the heavenly teachings and also to be additions of their followers and later generations for reasons do not need to be mentioned here.  This article tries to shed light on the contents of the Qur’an, its being a heavenly book, its sources of explanations and finally proves that these heavenly books have some roles in explaining the Qur’an because these were revealed by Allah and still these have information remained out of the original text to prove the authenticity of the final revelation of Allah- the Qur’an, and to explain some of its difficult places and contents. The author has given ten examples wherein he proved that these heavenly books are not destroyed totally but these contain some real and original texts of the heavenly revelations to which the Qur’an itself pointed out.
I am delighted to have the privilege of giving this lecture in honor of Justice Brennan. The year I spent as his law clerk-October Term 1972was one of the most challenging and rewarding of my life. Justice Brennan was a man of extraordinary courage, insight, and vision. The idea of remembering him each year with a lecture dedicated to his spirit is both fitting and inspiring. Why, then, a lecture on the Age of McCarthy? This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Senator Joseph McCarthy's condemnation, and fifty years is always a good time to take stock. Moreover, the Age of McCarthy bears some relation to the present. Though history never repeats itself precisely, it does repeat its general themes, and it is helpful to know our past if we are to cope well with our present. Finally, there has been a disturbing movement recently to rehabilitate Joseph McCarthy. In her new book, Slander, for example, Ann Coulter refers to McCarthyism as a "paranoid liberal fantas[y],"' and in a more serious work, Arthur Herman argues that Joseph McCarthy was "more right than wrong in terms of the larger picture."2 His mistake, Herman says, was to make "a good point badly."3 I
lar (of the people, with the people), profeminine philosophy. It is philosophy expressed by . . . the youth of the world, the oppressed of the earth, the condemned of world history" (preface). The author is heavily influenced by the European intellectual tradition, particularly the philosophy of "the Other" formulated by Emmanuel Levinas, yet moves beyond that tradition by rereading it within the context of Latin American history. He is thus able to develop both the existential and the sociopolitical dimensions of liberation. This liberation presupposes a critique of a Euro-American ontology which, by identifying being and rationality with the Euro-American world view, and nonbeing and irrationality with peripheral cultures, provides a philosophical foundation for oppression. The philosophical foundation for liberation must then be born out of the peripheral histories of suffering, out of the experience of the poor, whose torturedbodies symbolize the radical "otherness" of the peripheral cultures. Such a liberation process is multifaceted and ongoing, incorporating the liberation not only of the poor (political liberation), but of women (erotic liberation), and of the youth (pedagogical liberation). It is interesting to note in this regard that Dussel was among the first Latin American liberation theologians to incorporate a systematic feminist critique in his methodology. One hopes that the inherent openness of his method to the otherness of peripheral histories will encourage Dussel to articulate an equally systematic critique of racism—present though not fully developed in this text. The comprehensiveness of Dussel's project makes him one of the most interesting thinkers in the liberation theology movement. At the same time, however, the complexity of his project often makes his writing somewhat abstruse. While the idiosyncrasies of the author's terminology present a serious obstacle for the translator, in this case the translators have done an excellent job of clarifying terminology whenever possible—in the translation itself, in footnotes, and in the glossaries. Moreover, any effort required to plumb the conceptual complexities of this text are far outweighed by the benefits derived from contact with one of the most fecund minds in the Latin American academy.
Sorokina Tatyana Evgenievna The article considers the main principles of Russian philosophy of history. The most discussed historiosophical idea, going through a variety of transformations, remains Slavyanofil doctrine of special destiny of Russia, its spiritual integrity. The author focuses on the fact that preserving «national archetype» as a key issue, Russian historiosophy offered various options related to the West as a symbol of a different worldview. Mindful of the global fascination with Buddhist understanding of human destiny and history of the world, it must be said that the Russian historiosophy presumed itself in opposition to the Buddhist concept of the historiosophical. Briefly it is explained the reasons for the occurrence of classical Russian literature historiosophical space. 1. The national literature was perceived by Russian thinkers as the «second history». 2. Figures of historical discourse were five Russian classics: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. 3. The fate and the works of Russian writers of the inherent rationale of national historical path in its different variants. 4. The Russian philosophy of history, to show interest in religious issues, examines the life and work of every writer as a definite spiritual model of public importance and is being implemented in the historical world. It is commented on historico-philosophical concept of Leontiev and Fedorov, Rozanov and Solovyov who emphasize that eschatology is the semantic core of Russian philosophy of history.  Key words : Russian historical philosophy, national archetype, historiosophical concept, Slavophile doctrine, Buddhism, eschatology.
Commentators on the music of Louis Andriessen have not been slow to point to the perceptible influence of a number of other composers and musical styles. Conspicuously absent from recent discussions of Andriessen's music is the name of Hanns Eisler. Eisler's example, as defined both by his ideas about music and politics, and by the music itself, loomed larger than any other at precisely the time-the early 1970s -when Andriessen was formulating his mature style. More particularly, the model established by Eisler and Brecht in their Lehrstuucke (learning plays) provided a framework for Andriessen's own attempts to reconcile popular and progressive elements within a politically committed context. In 1972 Andriessen was invited by the theatre director Paul Binnerts to work on Brecht and Eisler's best known Lehrstuuck, Die Massnahme. Andriessen wrote new music for the piece which sought to remain faithful to the spirit of Eisler's original settings but which also departed from them in significant ways, partly because of the influence of Reiner Steinweg's interpretation (published in 1971) of the Lehrstuuck as a fundamentally dialectical exercise. Eisler's attitudes toward musical material and performance, and the basic principles of the Lehrstuuck, both continue to resonate in Andriessen's later music, even after overtly political concerns have receded from the foreground.
This study aims to reflect on humanization in health care, recovering the history of understanding about mankind, the human and humanity, until humanization in humanity and health. We discuss the national humanization program in hospital care and reflect on this proposal and on the issue of humanization in Brazilian health care nowadays. Communication is indispensable to establish humanization, as well as technical and material conditions. Both users and health professionals need to be heard, building a network of dialogues to think and promote singular humanization actions. For this process to take effect, there is a need to involve the whole that makes up the health service. This group involves different professionals, such as managers, public policy makers, professional councils and education institutions.
Since its publication in 1960, Hans Blumenberg’s first book, Paradigmatic Instances towards a Metaphorology, has remained both an esoteric pamphlet for the initiated and a riddled challenge for the many. It offers an answer to the methodological problems left by Husserl’s diagnosis of the Crisis of European Sciences and Heidegger’s ‚History of Being‘. Blumenberg’s project of a historically reflected phenomenology introduces the Aristotelian paleonym of ‚metaphor‘ as a systematic instrument in the archeological investigation and analysis of philosophy’s coming to conceive of itself in self-reflective conceptual thought.
The article is devoted to the study of the status of intensionality in the exact contexts of logical and mathematical theories. The emergence of intensionality in logical and mathematical discourse leads to significant obstacles in its formalization due to the appearance of indirect contexts, the uncertainty of its indication in the theoretical apparatus, as well as the presence of various kinds of difficult-to-account semantic distinctions. The refusal to consider intensionality in logic is connected with Bertrand Russell’s criticism of Alexius Meinong’s intensionality ontology, and with Willard Van Orman Quine’s criticism of the concept of meaning and quantification of modalities. It is shown that this criticism is based on a preference for the theory of indication over the theory of meaning, in terms of the distinction “Bedeutung” and “Sinn” introduced by Gottlob Frege. The extensionality thesis is explicated; by analogy with it the intensionality thesis is constructed. It is shown that complete parallelism is not possible here, and therefore we should proceed from finding cases of extensionality violation. Since the construction of formal logical systems is to a certain extent connected with the programs of the foundations of mathematics, the complex interweaving of philosophical and purely technical questions makes the question of the role of intensionality in mathematics quite confusing. However, there is one clue here: programs in the foundations of mathematics have given rise to metamathematics, which, although it stands alone, is considered a branch of mathematics. It is not by chance that, judging by the problems arising in connection with intensionality, there is a growing suspicion that intensionality can play a significant role in metamathematics. As for the question of the sense in which metamathematics results can be considered mathematical, in terms of the presence of intensional contexts in both disciplines, it is a matter of taste: for example, the autonomy of mathematical knowledge as a result of the desire of mathematicians to eliminate the influence of philosophy that took place in the case of David Hilbert may be worth considering in the context of mathematics. Thus, the rather vague concept of intensionality receives various explications in different contexts, whether it is philosophical logic or metamathematics. In any case, the detection of context intensionality is always associated with a clear narrowing of the research area. It is obvious that the creation of a more general theory of intensionality is possible within a more general framework, in which logic and mathematics must be combined. In this respect, we can hope for the resumption of a logical project, which would be a purely logical consideration made of the natural and the mathematical.
Two independent expert groups assess new medicines in France: that of the journal Prescrire (P), and the official Transparency Commission (CT). Each uses its own 5-level scale to assess its contribution to therapeutics (P: (1) bravoi, (2) interesting, (3) adds something, (4) possibly useful, (5) nothing new; CT: (1) major, (2) important, (3) moderate, (4) modest, (5) none). We have compared the gradings for new drugs in P from 1993 to 1998 (except vaccines, generics and items for exclusive hospital use) to those of CT. Of 414 P gradings, 14 were without opinion, 54 were not found in CT (old or unexamined products), and 82 had been examined but not graded. The 264 graded pairs were 99 new substances (NS), 17 new combinations (NA), 50 new indications (NI), 56 new formulations (NF), 27 new dosages (ND), 10 new forms of packaging (NC), and 5 late gradings or reregardings (CR). For NS and NA, there were 21 discordances (2 degrees difference or more) between P and CT. When P is shifted one point to the left (better gradings), the number of discordances decreases to 2. NI, NF, ND, NC were less often graded by CT (respectively 63 per cent, 67 per cent, 54 per cent, 31 per cent of gradings). For NI, high CT grading results in 15 discordances (30 per cent). For NF, ND, NC the concordance is good (respectively 3, 1, 0 discordances). For CR, 13 of 18 products (72 per cent) are downgraded for P, and are discordant with the 5 initial CT grades. In 3 per cent of cases, P emits no opinion, CT gives a high grading in 2/3, never null (these are for severe diseases). In conclusion, the two groups of experts come to similar conclusions considering different objectives (use or not a new drug vs. give indications for reimbursement) and the time distortion. Discrepancies can also be explained thus, but some can result from differences in appreciation of the data.
Vatican practices as summary dismissals of religious from their communities, actions against individual bishops and theologians without due process, policies which exclude the laity from teaching positions in seminaries, refusal of collegial review processes in approving constitutions for religious communities. In addition, the relations between pope and bishops which affect the ecclesial consciousness of Hispanic Catholics in the United States were determined by political concordats and privileges radically distinct from the features limned here. Despite certain limitations, this work aptly demonstrates that the Catholic tradition is richer and more attuned to the principle of subsidiarity than present practices indicate. It is advised for personal reference and for college and university libraries. Undergraduates can be directed to particular essays, notably those by Portier and Fogarty.
Two conferences on genome editing held in December 2015 offer a lens through which to contrast bioethics policies in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Progress Educational Trust, which has no parallel in the United States, hosted the London conference and illustrates the close collaboration between government departments, scientific bodies, funding organizations, and lobby groups in the United Kingdom. The rhetoric of responsible regulation used in the United Kingdom protects not the embryo, but the practice of embryo destruction, and advocates of embryo experimentation are eager to guide the debate about genome editing. It would be perilous for the international community to allow the United Kingdom to frame the debate in this way.
ABAILARD t IS A CLEVER man, but in one respect he is just like the rest of us: Given one clear idea of which he is convinced, he tends to become intolerant, thinking the worst of everyone else. Abailard's clear idea goes something as follows. In what does universality consist? It consists, says Abailard, in the signifying of many things by one sign? Abailard's predecessors had been searching for some thing which was universal. But a sign must signify many things to be universal; and fur thermore, the sign itself, as a thing--a noise, gesture, or statue--is individual. ~ It may help to describe the model which crops up here and there in Abailard's examples and which, I think, dominates his analysis. Consider, then, a statue which is not meant to stand for any one particular individual: for example, the Minute Man at Concord, Massachusetts.* First of all, the statue is an individual thing. Second, just as a piece of metal, it need not stand for anything--anymore than a bird bath would, had the town council decided to bui ld that instead. What is more, it is information f rom other sources which leads us to take the statue as "general" ra ther than as depicting some individual (like Nathan Hale). And even though the statue stands for "all" minu te men, not only is the statue an individual thing but all those things for which it stands are (or were) individuals. And finally, we might also point out that the statue must be taken as signifying; it does not have "representative" qualities in qui te the same way that it has properties like weight and shape.
In Arabic Linguistics, Nahwu or Arabic Syntax has  established for centuries. However, its complexities make  the modern Arabic linguists re-formulate it so that it can be  comprehended better by the native and speakers of Arabic  as a second language. One of those linguists is Tamâm  Hassân, who put Arabic language in a more (al-manhaj alwashfi)  established position by perfecting its phonology,  morphology, syntax, and semantic. His view over ‘âmil as a  central theme and pillar in Arabic syntax or Nahwu reformulates  the Arabic syntax by using descriptive approach  (al-manhaj al-washfi). This makes Nahwu become more  comprehensible.  Kata kunci: Tamām Hassān; āmil; nahwu
This article investigates the concepts of love and eroticism of the Mexican poet and critic Octavio Paz, in his book The Double Flame. The purpose is to show how the author, in his treatment of the intersections between love, eroticism and sexuality in Western cultural life during several centuries, by way of an interdisciplinary and analogical method, makes as well a poetic manifesto in defence of sensitivity against the process of the commercialization of desire in the contemporary world and proposes an erotic re-education of society at this century's end through the rehabilitation of the idea of love.
have given the volume greater clarity and sharper bite. For example, sections such as 3:13-17 describe occasions of public shaming of members of the group. It would have been useful to know how important reputation was in this world, what role honor challenges played, and what "reviling" and "ashamed" mean in terms of social status (the language of honor and shame thoroughly permeates the document, although A. seems unaware of this social and linguistic phenomenon). Although we are regularly told about Roman imperial policy, some mention of the nature of political religion would have aided the integration of detailed but scattered comments which have a direct impact on the social situation envisioned. Materials dealing with the binary opposition of purity and pollution, which are just as prevalent in the Hellenistic as in the Judean world, would give special significance to many elements of the exhortation. We mention such items because 1 Peter has been the object of intense interpretation from the point of view of culture and anthropology, to which A. makes an obligatory nod but which he ignores in his interpretation. This studied neglect greatly reduces the social impact of this document and weakens the sense of the social function it played. As noted above, this is a magisterial work by a traditionally trained scholar who is at his prime. Thus one might argue over the interpretation of this or that point, but the commentary as a whole delivers what Hermeneia commentaries always provide: exhaustive, informed, critical reflections. I intend to return to this volume to consult it on select passages, but more to mine its wealth of background materials, access to which is conveniently provided by a detailed index.
Our earliest sources for the baptismal rites of the Church of Milan are the writings of St. Ambrose himself, particularly the two treatises De Sacramentis and De Mysteriis 2 • These are mystagogical addresses to the newly baptized, and from them, and from references in St. Ambrose's other works, we can form at least a partial picture of the ancient rites of Christian initiation of Milan. The next group of documents date from the ninth and following centuries. They are the Ambrosian sacramentaries 3, the Manuale Ambrosianum4 of the eleventh century, and Berolduss, a twelfth century description of the ceremonies of the cathedral church by its master of ceremonies for the guidance of those who performed them. The Ambrosian rite is, of course, a living rite and is still used in the old archiepiscopal province of Milan, and both the Missale Ambrosianum and the Rituale exist in modern editions. It is the intention of this paper to compare the rites described by St. Ambrose with those of the later period, with reference to ·the modern books when it seems relevant.
Author(s): Ross, Cody T; Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff; Oh, Seung-Yun; Bowles, Samuel; Beheim, Bret; Bunce, John; Caudell, Mark; Clark, Gregory; Colleran, Heidi; Cortez, Carmen; Draper, Patricia; Greaves, Russell D; Gurven, Michael; Headland, Thomas; Headland, Janet; Hill, Kim; Hewlett, Barry; Kaplan, Hillard S; Koster, Jeremy; Kramer, Karen; Marlowe, Frank; McElreath, Richard; Nolin, David; Quinlan, Marsha; Quinlan, Robert; Revilla-Minaya, Caissa; Scelza, Brooke; Schacht, Ryan; Shenk, Mary; Uehara, Ray; Voland, Eckart; Willfuhr, Kai; Winterhalder, Bruce; Ziker, John | Abstract: © 2018 The Authors. With apologies, an incorrect author list was given in the article. An additional author, Chris von Rueden, (Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond) also contributed to this work. Author Ryan Schacht's affiliation was out-of-date. His correct affiliation is: Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University.
Jesus’s refusal to be defended by the sword at his arrest plays a significant role in popular and scholarly understandings of Jesus as a committed pacifist. Of the four NT accounts, the Gospel of Luke offers Jesus’s most forceful and unequivocal rebuke: “No more of this!” (Luke 22:51 NRSV), translating ἐᾶτε ἕως τούτου. Such a translation, however, is tendentious and misleading, seemingly the result of a twentieth-century translational bias that has exerted enormous influence on subsequent biblical translation and interpretation. An analysis of Luke’s lexical usage, grammar, and context rather suggests that, instead of rebuking his disciples, Jesus is reminding them of the divine plan to which Jesus must not only submit, but which he must actively carry out. In Luke’s narrative framework, Satan has received permission to sift the disciples in the present hour of darkness, and the disciples must not interfere with the divine permissio. This apocalyptic reading allows the words ἐᾶτε ἕως τούτου their more natural force: “permit until this,” or, more pointedly, “allow the arrest to continue.” The subsequent healing of the high priest’s slave guarantees the continuation of the plan and expresses Jesus’s control over the situation more than his presumed compassion or love. The implications for Christian ethics are considerable: Jesus may have been a “pacifist” but not in the way one might think.
This study is concerned with the origin and original meaning of sacrificial blood offerings as practiced by the ancient Israelite people and their progenitors . "Modern" scriptural sources including the Pearl of Great Price, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants are used along with the Bible as the basic reference material . The lack of explicit information in the Bible as to the inception and meaning of sacrifice has resulted in the development of many theories which suggest that this rite had a human beginning . These theories imply that by natural expression man began to seek favor from his god by offering sacrifice . Through the use of these additional scriptural sources, the ordinance is seen to have had a divine origin . As part of a preconceived plan which was designed to provide a means of salvation for man, God commanded Adam to offer the firstlings of his flock to the Lord . The intricate meaning of sacrifice is developed from the basic concept that it was in similitude of the one infinite Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who would offer his own life for the sins of man . Through symbolic representation, all the qualities of holiness which the Savior emulated were embodied in the sacrificial ritual, and it was intended that these qualities would be developed in the life of the worshipper . Instead of having automatic powers in and of itself, 1
In his recent article ‘Notes Towards a Critique of Buddhist Karmic Theory’ Paul J. Griffiths makes four criticisms of Buddhist karmic theory: it is empirically false, it is incoherent, it is morally repugnant, and it is vacuous. After listing these four criticisms, Griffiths concludes that ‘all these mean that Buddhist karmic theory as expounded in the major theoretical works devoted to it must be false’ (p. 291).
The history of the influences and interactions between pragmatism and the social sciences is as rich as it has been neglected as a field of research. This volume – the first of a series of two – tries to explore both historically and theoretically some of these multiple relationships, building upon the assumption that pragmatism has been one of the philosophical traditions that have taken most seriously the study of the social. In fact, since its origins classical American pragmatism has been...
Psalm 85 gives utterance to a communal appeal to Yahweh for res- toration and blessing ("peace/well-being"). It is a passionate prayer that is based on both the Lord's past gracious dealings with his people and also their own present commitment to remain "faithful" to Yahweh's covenant principles as expressed in their "righteous" behavior. Thus, the blessed promise of "peace" carries with it a divinely established prerequisite, namely, a life-style that is truly in keeping with what the Lord desires for his saints. The admi- rable manner in which this psalm has been composed in terms of its style and structure serves to highlight the main themes and purpose of its powerful lyric message. As we examine the text of Ps 85 more carefully in this study, it will become readily apparent that the "psalm of/for the sons of Korah" ( � �
It is a common view that Ockham's critique of Scotus's position on the issue of contingency is "devastating," for it seems obvious that a possibility that does not actualize is simply no possibility. This rejection however does not commit Ockham to necessitarism, for the consideration of the temporal discontinuity of volitions should suffice to save contingency. But does it? Is it the case that diachronic volitions (which Scotus also acknowledges) are sufficient? This essay argues that (1) the debate between Ockham and Scotus is not to be reduced to a logical disagreement (Scotus's and Ockham's modal logics are actually substantially similar) but is properly ontological inasmuch as it concerns the reduction and eventual identification of being with actuality and of actuality with reality in the sense of manifest; (2) the retrograding movement of truth from the present (Ockham's 3 r d suppositio) entails a temporal gap between present and future; and (3) Ockham's solution depends on a conception of the will that cannot simply be identified with, and accounted for in terms of successive volitions.
The Book of Jeremiah contains a number of prophetic utterances which herald not only a physical but also a spiritual rebirth of Israel — and the reference is to Israel in the broad and original sense of the word äs including the northern tribes. For Jeremiah this spiritual rebirth does not mean merely a revival of the old tradition but a complete revision of former values and their adjustment to a new reality which would ensure success and preclude faüure such äs had occurred in the past. Set in the form of thesis and antithesis — they shatt say no more this . . . but . . .; not like this . . . but this ... — these prophetic utterances relate to values and principles hallowed in Israel since ancient times: the ark of the covenant, the tables of the covenant, reward and punishment, the tradition of the exodus from Egypt, and, in a different connection, also the sacrifices. We shall first cite these utterances, then analyse them, and finally draw what conclusions we may from them.
philosophical language. He wrote On the Subjection of the Senses to Faith, On the Unity of Soul and Body, 1 On Truth, On Faith, On Hospitality, and On the Corporeal God (Eusebius, I. E. iv. 26. 2). Some of these topics may take their texts from the epistle to the Hebrews (5.14 on the exercise of the senses, 13. 2 on hospitality, 12.29 God a fire). The first and the last, however, reflect contemporary Stoic thought, according to which the senses served the principal part of the soul, where tad-rtg, a "firm comprehension", took place (SVF III 548; cf. II 823-62), and according to which God was corporeal (SVF II 1028-48). In the StoicJewish IV Maccabees 2.22, it is the mind which controls the senses. 2
George Stigler defendit deux revendications importantes. 1) Ce que disent les gens a propos des choix na pas dimportance. 2) Toutes les institutions sociales sont efficientes a long terme. Je demontre que la seconde proposition decoule dune consideration pour la rationalite economique a laquelle sajoute une preference nulle pour le temps.Il est important de constater que la desapprobation dune preference positive pour le temps est un aspect de la moralite traditionnelle. Cela suggere que la seconde revendication de Stigler est tributaire de la proposition selon laquelle ce que disent le gens a propos des choix est extremement important.George Stigler defended two important claims. 1) What people say about choice does not matter. 2) All social institutions are in the long run efficient. I demonstrate that the second proposition follows from considerations of economic rationality plus zero time discounting. It is important to note that disapproval of positive time preference is an aspect of traditional morality. Thus suggests that Stiglers second claim depends upon the proposition that what people say about choice does matter very much.
The Asatir is a collection of Samaritan midrashim on parts of the Torah, which reached its final form in the tenth or eleventh century. It embellishes the pericope of the Tower of Babel with a number of surprising details: The Tower of Babel was built on a mountain and had a beacon attached to its top; the mount with the tower and the valley of Shinar are compared to Mt. Gerizim and the valley of Shechem. It is argued that these embellishments were introduced in order to read the story of the Tower as a blueprint for historical events surrounding the Church of Mary Theotokos, which was built by the Emperor Zenon on Mt. Gerizim and partly destroyed by the Samaritans in their revolts against Byzantium in the sixth century. The exegetical technique of reading contemporaneous history into the biblical text is discussed from a broader comparative perspective.
In the late 1830s and early 1840s, the decipherment of the famous runes at Runamo in Sweden was hailed as a sensation in the European press. It was a moment of triumph for Romantic antiquarianism and its recovery of a glorious past, since the interpretation confirmed what was known from legend. But when the runic “inscription” was exposed as nothing but incidental cracks and fissures in the rock surface, the success turned to scandal. The scandal is historically revealing, as it can be seen to summarize a paradigmatic shift in the way the past was recovered. The essay examines the clash between the older idealistic model of antiquarianism, which had gained new impetus among Romantic writers, and the new scientific mode of research, which relied on hard facts rather than legend. As part of this examination, the historical, cultural and intellectual contexts for these competing strands of antiquarianism are discussed.
The emperor Liu Yi-long attached importance to the cultural education of royal brothers,because these brothers lacked the ethical consciousness that led to fratricidal fighting continuously.Liu Yi-long advocated the frugality,valued military affairs and rule with practical characteristics.However,Liu Yi-long was suspicious in his personality and often limited the power of his royal brothers,so they led a luxurious life in order not to lose their lives.In general,the advice by Li Yi-long was in form and didn't achieve obvious effect.
Lu Gu is a famous thinker and a political writer of early Han Dynasty. It argues that Lu inherited the cultural uniqueness and selfconceitedness of the preQin Confucianism. Based on the Confucain 'ren'and 'li' ideas, Lu brought forth some ideas with monopoly feature for the cultural construction of Han, his ideas are consistent with that of Legalists.But Lu is different from Legalists in that his inheritage of the Confucian tradition of uniqueness, in form, is licentered and virtuecored, while in content more logical thought possessed. The present paper also discusses the selfconceitedness tradition and its connotations in the preQin Confucius,Mencius,and Master Xun's cultural thought.It holds that Lu Jia is the transition, which laid ,in terms of ideology, a foundation for" proscribing all nonconfucian schools of thought and espousing Confucianism as the orthodox state ideology".
Th e aim of this paper is to evaluate the level of gender bias in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals while exercising due care in the analysis of its arguments. I argue that while the GA theory is clearly sexist, the traditional interpretation fails to diagnose the problem correctly. Th e traditional interpretation focuses on three main sources of evidence: (1) Aristotle’s claim that the female is, as it were, a “disabled” (πeπηρωμένον) male; (2) the claim at GA IV.3, 767b6-8 that females are a departure from the kind; and (3) Aristotle’s supposed claim at GA IV.3, 768a21-8 that the most ideal outcome of reproduction is a male offspring that perfectly resembles its father. I argue that each of these passages has either been misunderstood or misrepresented by commentators. In none of these places is Aristotle suggesting that females are imperfect members of the species or that they result from the failure to achieve some teleological goal. I defend the view that the GA does not see reproduction as occurring for the sake of producing males; rather, what sex an embryo happens to become is determined entirely by non-teleological forces operating through material necessity. Th is interpretation is consistent with Aristotle’s view in GA II.5 that females have the same soul as the male (741a7) as well as the argument in Metaphysics X.9 that sexual difference is not part of the species form but is an affection (πάθος) arising from the matter (1058b21-4). While the traditional interpretation has tended to exaggerate the level of sexism in Aristotle’s developmental biology, the GA is by no means free of gender bias as some recent scholarship has claimed. In the final section of the paper I point to one passage where Aristotle clearly falls back on sexist assumptions in order to answer the difficult question, “Why are animals divided into sexes?”. I argue that this passage in particular poses a serious challenge to anyone attempting to absolve Aristotle’s developmental biology of the charge of sexism.
Absract: The relationship between the physical body and the conscious human mind has been a deeply problematic topic for centuries. Physicalism is the 'orthodox' metaphysical stance in contemporary Western thought, according to which reality is exclusively physical/material in nature. However, in the West, theoretical dissatisfaction with this type of approach has historically lead to Cartesian-style dualism, wherein mind and body are thought to belong to distinct metaphysical realms. In the current discussion I compare and contrast this standard Western approach with an alternative form of dualism developed in the Sāṃkhya-Yoga philosophical tradition, where matter and pure consciousness are held to belong to distinct and independent realms, but where the mind is placed on the material side of the ontological divide. I argue that this model possesses a number of theoretical advantages over Cartesian-style dualism, and constitutes a compelling theoretical framework for re-conceptualizing the mind-body problem.
Wittgenstein and Nietzsche on the Role of Philosophy: Description, Creativity, Naturalism, and Possibility by Michael Ch. Rodgers Claremont Graduate University: 2012 This dissertation places Wittgenstein and Nietzsche alongside one another in an attempt to deal with the question: “what is the role of the philosophy?” On the one hand Wittgenstein promotes a descriptive approach to philosophy, which insists that the philosopher should not meddle with practices but rather seek clarity and understanding as ends in themselves. On the other hand Nietzsche promotes a destructive and creative approach to philosophy, where the philosopher both dismantles values and offers a revaluation of values in their place. This work begins with a survey of remarks by the two philosophers and prominent interpretations of them on how best to conceive of and understand the philosopher and philosophy. In addition, the recent view of Nietzsche as a naturalist is responded to at length. If Nietzsche turns out to be offering substantive, naturalistic positions on human morality, the origins of religion, and so on, then he cannot be advocating a creative, spontaneous orientation towards perspectives. This work argues that while Nietzsche offers naturalized accounts of human practices, he does not mean these to be considered scientific hypothesis. After responding to this position, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein are looked at together, and what emerges is a shared goal: the creating and/or revealing of missed possibilities of human life. These existential possibilities are on the one hand always right in front of us, and yet they are seemingly out of reach and all too often passed over. Wittgenstein and Nietzsche, in their various ways, (re)open these possibilities. Finally, given this “hermeneutics of possibility,” the final chapter argues that the way Wittgenstein and Nietzsche differ with respect to Christianity and religion is not primarily about their style of philosophy nor even about Wittgenstein’s descriptive approach, but about the existential possibility that each has in mind to promote.
Most critics of the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion have come away convinced that this work, more than anything eise Hume wrote, is enigmatically inconsistent. In my opinion, the enigma is heightened by a failure to see precisely what was original with Hume in the theological Situation of his day; and indeed in some respects his contribution to natural theology is yet to be received. The theological theses which, in the eighteenth Century, are original to the Dialogues, are four in number: (i) that if there is a designing God, he must have a temporal succession of ideas, and therefore some things must be future to him; (ii) that in arguments a posteriori, no more can be inferred in the cause than is contained in the effect; (iii) that the existence of God cannot be proved a priori   (iv) that belief in design cannot be rational, and must therefore be natural. Of these propositions, the first and the third are presented by Cleanthes, the second by Philo, while the fourth is assented to by each participant in turn, it being left to Philo to ask what kind of natural belief it is. This distribution of original material sufficiently refutes any attempt to identify Hume exclusively with one of the protagonists. All on occasion act äs his mouthpiece. Any one of these propositions, if argued convincingly, would suffice to establish Hume äs a considerable theologian. In context, however, the first three are preparatory to a discussion of the fourth; and the fact that the fourth recurs throughout the Dialogues suggests that Hume was laying particular stress upon it. Yet no commentator has clearly discussed, let alone sharpenecl, this proposition in his Interpretation — not even Professor Kemp Smith, who pioneered recognition of the doctrine of natural beliefs in Hume's epistemology and in his ethics. For this reason I shall in this paper train my sights solely on the fourth proposition, in a belated attempt to resolve the enigma.
SUMMARY A catechism describes how the believer of the present day can live out his faith: catechesis is a manner of proclaiming, and a catechism is a proclaiming, and therefore a pastoral book, whose first intent is not to give theology. The characteristic of the New Catechism is the effort, not to replace old formulas with new, but to probe, with words, the possibility of saying what the mystery of God and man can mean, here and now. This occurs with eyes open for the relativeness which this implies. The New Catechism makes its proclaiming from out an altered representation of man and world, and with much feeling for the continuity between human and divine, between history and salvation history, between human existence and the message of salvation. We have posed some questions about this continuity, which come to this: the tension between continuity and discontinuity is in fact implicitly present in the New Catechism, but is too little explicitly affirmed. Thus, for example, in the relationship between t...
There are many translation versions of The Analects of Confucius, including the first version by the foreign emissaries to China, and the following versions at home and overseas, as well as modern and contemporary works by Chinese translators. The translation of The Analects became more and more diversified, and the research on The Analects was more and more in-depth. However, the translation of The Analects of Confucius began with ideological constraints that is hard to get rid of. This paper will refer to three translation versions from James Legge, Waley and Ku Hung-ming, in order to analyze the Christian, orientalism and Confucian culture ideological limitations on the translation of The Analects of Confucius. The paper argues that the translation of The Analects must be based on inheriting classic translation principles, accurately understand the original texts, aptly add to the annotations, break the ideological limitation, so as to translate and spread essence of Confucian classics better.
Technic and Practice of Psychoanalysis. By Leon J. Saul, M.D. Price, $8.00. Pp. 244. J. B. Lippincott Company, 227-231 S. Sixth St., Philadelphia, 1958. The spirit and flavor of this book are exemplified in these words from the Preface: "The technic of modern psychoanalysis, with reasonable correctness, might be distilled to this quintessence p=m- theanalyst must understand and bring the patient to understand as quickly, accurately and thoroughly as possible the patient's present emotional life as it is related
Few passages of Virgil have led to the expending of more ink than the above (Aen. VI, 743), and, to my mind, it is seldom that a crux has less deserved the name. I wish to show that the sense is perfectly clear and ordinary Latin, observing a usual convention of verse, and further, that it was taken as such within about a century of Virgil's death, and that this continued to be the interpretation of the soundest exegetes, as it is now.
In a paper published by Teorema in 2010, D. Moore claims that my misgivings regarding the coherence between Davidson's anomalous monism and his rejection of scheme / content dualism are misplaced. I have argued that there is a tension underlying most of Davidson's philosophy that becomes more notable when we contrast his monist ontology with the holism that vertebrates his ideas about radical interpretation. Moore appeals to the extensional character of events and to the causal nature of triangulation to make Davidson's arguments compatible. In this paper I hold that both approaches highlight, rather than ease, the tension.
A simile is a comparison of two unlike things, typically marked by use of “like”, “as” or “than.” Examples include “the snow was as thick as a blanket”, or “he is as brave as a lion.” Similes are widely used in the Arabic literature. The aim of simile is giving support to the meaning. This study clarifies the development of simile in the classical Arabic language and it explains the thoughts of the Arabic scholars from the historical and conceptual sides
In this paper, I investigate the nature of the metaphysical possibility of disunified time. A possibility that I argue presents unique problems for those who adhere to a strict A-theory of time, particularly those A-theorists who propose a presentist view. The first part of the paper discusses various arguments against the coherence of the concept of disunified time. I attempt to discount each of these objections and show that disunified time is indeed a possible and consistent topology of time. Then, I attempt to show that disunified time is a problem for a semantics based on the A-series since A-truthmakers are hard to come by in a universe of temporally disconnected time-series. Finally, I provide a novel argument showing that presentists should be particularly fearful of such a universe.
I do not ask for the sun and moon from your sky Your farm, your land, your high houses or your mansions. I do not ask for Gods or rituals, castes or sects Or even for your mother, sister, daughters. I ask for my rights as a man Each breath from my lungs sets off a violent trembling In your texts and traditions, your hells and heavens fearing pollution Your arms leapt together to bring ruin to our dwelling place. You’ll beat me, break me, loot and burn my habitation. But my friend! How will you tear down my words planted like a sun in the East? My rights: contagious caste riots festering city by city, village by village, man by man. For that’s what my rights are – sealed off, outcast, road-blocked, exiled. I want my rights, give me my rights. Will you deny this incendiary state of things? I’ll uproot the scriptures like railway tracks. Burn like a city bus your lawless laws My Friend! My rights are rising like the sun. Will you deny this sunrise?
New updated! The latest book from a very famous author finally comes out. Book of wagner in retrospect a centennial reappraisal, as an amazing reference becomes what you need to get. What's for is this book? Are you still thinking for what the book is? Well, this is what you probably will get. You should have made proper choices for your better life. Book, as a source that may involve the facts, opinion, literature, religion, and many others are the great friends to join with.
This article aims to connect the Georgics to its historical and political context in the thirties B. C. by showing how Virgil, witness of the civil war and the bloody aftermaths of Caesar’s murder, builds in his didactic poem a poetic curse which highlights the reference to Ennius and a meditation on the power. In the immediacy of Actium and Octavian’s victory, the poet contributes to outline the conditions of a renewed foundation as the one that Augustus will realize during his principate. Through the dialogue between Virgil, Maecenas and Octavian, the Georgics give responses to the new subject of the res gestae Caesaris. This article, in sum, analyzes some of the modes by which is expressed the interaction between literature and politics in a moment of transition, the triumviral era.
In this study Nursi’s thought of theological anthropology will be examined. Nursi’s works of theological anthropology includes three basic topics. These are origins and purposes of human beings, their epistemology and ethics. Nursi’s conception of the origins and purposes of human beings can be grounded and justified by the Qur’an. In Nursi’s perspective the ethical values and codes of human conducts can be searched and found in the Qur’an. In Nursi’s arguments the Qur’an sufficiently and explicitly explains all ethical values and codes of human conducts demanded and approved by God for human beings. In Muslim theological history Ash`arism has similar justifications like Nursi does. Nursi’s understanding of the Qur’an is fully confident, sufficient and complete in that ethical values and codes of conducts for human beings related to the good and bad or evil, useful and harmful can be explained within the scope of the Qur’an.
Abstract The final lines of Deleuze and Guattari’s What is Philosophy? call for a non-philosophy to balance and act as a counterweight to the task of philosophy that had been described by them in terms of concept creation. In a footnote, Deleuze and Guattari mention François Laruelle’s project of non-philosophy, but dispute its efficacy in terms of the designated relationship between non-philosophy and science, as had been realised by Laruelle at the time. However, the mature non-philosophy of Laruelle could indicate a resolution to the problematic relationship between science and educational philosophy that we have inherited due to the poststructural theories of Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze. Non-philosophy suggests a framework for thought that includes science in a non-positivist style and provides the means to view education as a performative practice. This article explores the non-philosophy of Laruelle in education as a means to view education under the conditions of strict immanence and in line with an anti-phenomenological metaphysics of non-representation. Laruelle is perhaps one of the most important critics of Deleuze in France, and as such, his insights into the Deleuzian oeuvre reveal a way forward for education as a practice that analyses science, philosophy and politics through non-philosophy.
1024x768 Рассмотрены исторические аспекты зарождения, становления и развития спортивно-технических и прикладных видов спорта. Показано значение неолимпийских видов спорта в международном спортивном движении с целью формирования гармонически развитой личности. Проанализированы особенности возникновения видов спорта , которые культивируются на территории Украины. Приведены данные о возникновении спортивных федераций по спортивно-прикладным видам спорта на территории нашего государства. Дана краткая характеристика наиболее распространенным спортивно-техническим видам спорта, которые развиваются в Украине. Normal 0 false false false RU X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */   table.MsoNormalTable   {mso-style-name:"Обычная таблица";   mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;   mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;   mso-style-noshow:yes;   mso-style-priority:99;   mso-style-qformat:yes;   mso-style-parent:"";   mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;   mso-para-margin:0cm;   mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;   mso-pagination:widow-orphan;   font-size:11.0pt;   font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";   mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;   mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;   mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";   mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;   mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;   mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;   mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";   mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
In 1843, Thomas Carlyle proclaimed a new “Gospel” for modern England: “Work, and therein have wellbeing.” Inspired by Carlyle’s vision, writers such as George Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Friedrich Engels, and others subsequently developed their own version of his spiritualized conception of work, reimagining the relationship between work, the self, and society. Indeed, the centrality of work is one of the primary characteristics of Victorian thought: as Walter Houghton remarks in an oftquoted line, “after ‘God,’ the most popular word in Victorian England was ‘work.’” Certainly, the emphasis on work appeared across Victorian culture, appearing in Victorian painting, self-help manuals, and even board games. Yet Carlyle and the Victorians were also influenced by a longer tradition: the gradual investment of worldly professions with religious energy inherent in the idea of a secular “vocation.” The fundamentally philosophical nature of the “Gospel of Work,” and of the idea of a secular vocation more generally, appears in its basic form in Carlyle’s argument for it. When one sets to work, he contends, a sort of moral transformation occurs: agents forget the searching questions of religious skepticism and the distractions of incidental desires and remake or realize themselves. Moreover, a society of such workers would no longer be founded on the cash “nexus”; in other words, social relationships would no longer be determined by economic structures. In that sense, meaningful work is essential for the healthy person and the healthy society. But when taken seriously and applied broadly, this seemingly straightforward philosophical claim encountered a number of philosophical difficulties and ideological tensions. Most obviously, it was not clear whether the sort of industrial labor actually available to most people could have the effects Carlyle and others imagined. Correspondingly, to advocate for the importance of the Gospel of Work under industrialism began to seem politically suspect, especially after versions of the Gospel of Work served to justify imperialist expansion. Then, too, it gradually became apparent how thoroughly the Gospel of Work was interlaced with elaborate assumptions about gender. Finally, the vexed status of the productions of writers and artists pushed at perhaps the hardest question in the Gospel of Work: what, after all, is “work,” and how is it different from other human activities? This research has been supported by the Danish National Research Foundation, grant number DNRF127.
For several days in late January of this year, the Department of Philosophy of Peking University conducted a symposium on some historical problems of Chinese philosophy. Speakers touched on the difficulty of affixing identification labels to Chinese philosophers. Idealism and materialism constitute a basic distinction in philosophy. Confucius is universally recognized as a great philosopher, but does he belong to idealism or materialism? In his Lun-yu [Analects] we can find evidence that he is an idealist, as well as evidence that he is a materialist. The philosophical systems of Wang Ch'ung and Fan Chen are obviously materialistic, but occasionally they reveal their fatalistic thinking. Chu Hsi's Neo-Confucianism is obviously objective idealism, but on the one hand he places principle before material force; on the other hand, however, he also speaks of investigation of things and the application of this knowledge. All philosophies have class origin; idealism is always in the service of the progressive cl...
The paschal mystery holds a place of prominence in the lives of Catholics, both theologically and pastorally. Given its prominent theological and ecclesial place since the Second Vatican Council, this article examines the place and role of the paschal mystery for Catholic education. With the move from a ‘classicist world view to historical mindedness,’ the thought of Bernard Lonergan is employed – particularly his understanding of the person as subject and his law of the cross – as a means to frame the relationship between the paschal mystery and Catholic education.
The concept of political difference concerns the distinction between politics and the political. The political refers to the ontological making possible of the different domains of society, including the domain of politics in the narrow sense. Political difference was introduced as a reaction to the theoretical controversy between foundationalism and anti-foundationalism. This reaction took the form of post-foundationalism. According to Marchart, post-foundationalism does not entirely deny the possibility of grounding. It denies only the possibility of an ultimate transcendent foundation insofar as this ontological impossibility makes possible the historical and contingent grounds in plural.The Heideggerian concept of ontological difference also undermines the possibility of an ultimate ontical ground which establishes the presence of all the other beings. If one wants to think beyond the concept of ground, one should obtain a clear understanding of Being as Being, namely one should grasp the Being in its difference from beings. All the same, Heidegger tends to replace the ontical grounds of metaphysics with Being itself as a new kind of ultimate ontological foundation.On the other hand, one can detect in many points of Heideggerian argumentation traces of a second alternative understanding of ontological difference which does not belong in Heidegger’s intentions and which undermines the primordiality of Being. This alternative understanding establishes a reciprocity between Being and beings. In our view, political difference not only is based in this second way of understanding but, at the same time, develops more decisively the mutual interdependence between Being and beings.In political difference the grounding part, namely the political, possesses both a grounding character and a derivative one. Politics and political both grounds and dislocate each other in an incessant and oscillating, historical procedure which undermines any form of completion of the social.
As the original existence of human beings,the social activity of material production is profoundly related to the manner of existence of individual life and the outspread of social history.In addition,as the dominant production system of capitalism,producerism is regarded as the contemporary truth of production without being questioned.However,on the basis of presupposition of fabricated metaphysics and the immanency of capital logic,acquisitiveness and immorality,producerism has led the contemporary people towards a colonized life world.Therefore,transcendence of producerism requires the philosophical guidance and value traction of production justice
A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery is a three volume collection of patient accounts that William Smellie published from 1752 to 1764. Smellie, a physician and instructor in obstetrics in Great Britain, published these compilations to share his expertise in reproductive medicine, while also providing his students and colleagues with a source of reference in their own medical practices. Smellie wrote these books to shift obstetrics from a discipline practiced by midwives with limited medical training to one practiced in a medical context by physicians. Throughout his books, Smellie describes effective and ineffective treatments, tools, and interventions for complications during pregnancy [2] . Due to the popularity of Smellie's writings, access to Smellie's work expanded beyond his students, allowing obstetricians, man-midwives, and physicians to refer to scientific literature and apply Smellie's teachings to their own practice. Employed as a physician, man-midwife, and medical teacher, Smellie treated many patients. He compiled detailed notes on hundreds of infant deliveries he assisted between 1722 and 1757. Smellie practiced in his hometown of Lanark, Scotland, between 1722 and 1739, and in 1740 he expanded his medical practice to London, England. After relocating to London, Smellie also opened a medical practice aimed at providing impoverished women with medical care and allowed his pupils to practice obstetrics on those patients. With vast access to patients, Smellie observed a number of conditions affecting women, fetuses, and infants, including miscarriages, breech presentations, uterine and vaginal cancers, pelvic bone injuries, irregular menstrual cycles, menopause, and fetal asphyxiation. In 1752, Smellie published the first volume of A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery in Great Britain. Smellie published the second volume, A Collection of Cases and Observations in Midwifery , in 1754. The third and final volume, A Collection of Preternatural Cases and Observations in Midwifery , was posthumously published in 1764, one year after Smellie’s death. Although Smellie strove to teach his students through demonstrations on real
Never talk about love,is one remarkble characteristic in XiaoHong's work.The wowen's love trategies,which XiaoHong expresses in her works,are the combination of her feelings of love and life.From her piont of view,the failure ofmarriage originantes from the society which is dominated by females and totally disregard women's dignity.The cause of the interfiority of woman is the old-fashioned ideas result of old traditional culture and morality.
This paper is a review of the nine chapters more directly concerned with philosophy of the volume Jaina Scriptures and Philosophy. Edited in 2015 by Peter Flügel and Olle Qvarnström, this interdisciplinary volume in philosophy, philology, linguistics, literary studies and history is presented as an essential contribution to the study of Jaina philosophy inasmuch as it offers a collection of cutting-edge analyses on the emergence and development of philosophical concepts such as the Self and its epistemic faculties, with a focus on early Jaina canonical literature and commentaries thereof.
Between the years 350 and 500 a large body of Latin artes grammaticae emerged, educational texts outlining the study of Latin grammar and attempting a systematic discussion of correct Latin usage. These texts-the most complete of which are attributed to Donatus, Charisius, Servius, Diomedes, Pompeius, and Priscian-have long been studied as documents in the history of linguistic theory and literary scholarship. In Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World, Catherine Chin instead finds within them an opportunity to probe the connections between religious ideology and literary culture in the later Roman Empire. To Chin, the production and use of these texts played a decisive role both in the construction of a pre-Christian classical culture and in the construction of Christianity as a religious entity bound to a religious text. In exploring themes of utopian writing, pedagogical violence, and the narration of the self, the book describes the multiple ways literary education contributed to the idea that the Roman Empire and its inhabitants were capable of converting from one culture to another, from classical to Christian. The study thus reexamines the tensions between these two idealized cultures in antiquity by suggesting that, on a literary level, they were produced simultaneously through reading and writing techniques that were common across the empire. In bringing together and reevaluating fundamental topics from the fields of religious studies, classics, education, and literary criticism, Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World offers readers from these disciplines the opportunity to reconsider the basic conditions under which religions and cultures interact.
It was after Tsong-kha-pa (1357-1419), the founder of dGe-lugs-pa, that the arguments on three times (dus gsunn) became popular in Tibetan Buddhism. The aim of his discussion on this topic was first to set forth the general Buddhist view of three times except the Vaibhasika's, secondly to elucidate the Prasangika-Madhyamika's peculiar view of three times which has much to do with the notion "zhig pa dngos po viii pa" of this school, namely that what has ceased to exist is a functioning phenomena. Inheriting the tradition of the Indian Mahayana Buddhism to a great extent, he proposed a unique interpretation of three times. The purpose of this paper is to explain how he interpreted the Buddhist view of three times. The emphasis will fall on the tenet which is commonly shared by the Sautrantika, the Yogacara, and the Madhyamika.
When Thomas Wolfe died of tubercular meningitis on September 15, 1938, his literary reputation was equal in the United States to that of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. In the sixty plus years since, his artistic reputation has been all but destroyed. With the exception of his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, he is read less and less often, and the academics who design anthologies and teach influential college courses routinely dismiss his work. So on the 100th anniversary of his birth, we are compelled to ask, Who killed Thomas Wolfe? By far the most common image of Wolfe is that of a bloated, self-obsessed Romantic, whose emotions are so intense and whose rhetoric is so inflated that critics assume he must have had almost no artistic or self-control. And indeed, from his earliest success with Look Homeward, Angel (published in October 1929), Wolfe was an easy figure to satirize. First, there is the writing itself. As David Donald wrote in introducing his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, "Thomas Wolfe wrote more bad prose than any other major writer I can think of" (xiii).(1) Further, there was the man's life, certainly no more dramatic than that of Hemingway but somehow tainted in the public eye by the "autobiographical controversy" that haunted Wolfe. Wolfe's height (and in later years his girth); his family, straight out of Dickens; his truly gargantuan love for alcohol and food as well as books and art; his tendency toward manic depressive behavior--all worked their way into the novels and contributed to the myth of raw, unpolished genius run amok. So who, then, murdered his literary reputation? Let us first round up the usual suspects. As early as April 25, 1936, Bernard DeVoto used the excuse of reviewing Wolfe's The Story of a Novel to blast Wolfe in a cutting essay entitled "Genius Is Not Enough." DeVoto paid a passing compliment to The Story of a Novel (written by Wolfe as an exploration of how Of Time and the River was created) and then went on to write that Wolfe "has mastered neither the psychic material out of which a novel is made nor the technique of writing fiction" (4). DeVoto attributed the success of Look Homeward, Angel to editor Max Perkins and the Scribner's' "assembly line" (14). DeVoto's essay wounded Wolfe more deeply than he would at first admit and may have contributed to his eventual break with Perkins. Even more significantly, however, it set the tone for critics ever since who wished to establish their own intellectual superiority by attacking Wolfe in print. More recent comments in the same vein include those by no less a cultural heavyweight than Harold Bloom, who wrote in reviewing Donald's biography that "there is no possibility for critical dispute about Wolfe's literary merits; he has none whatsoever. Open him at any page, and that will suffice" (13). Most all of these attacks flow out of the original notion that Wolfe was forever what Wright Morris described as a "raw young giant" who produced literally crates of prose but who had no notion of how to produce a "well-made" book from those crates. I believe, however, that Wolfe's critics, no matter how strident, could never have so reduced his reputation had not the author himself contributed to the undoing. In fact, the true culprit may well be a creature of Wolfe's own making. Consider for a moment Thomas Wolfe in his late twenties as like another young, ambitious genius in love with his own generative power--Victor Frankenstein. And just as Frankenstein produced his monster, so Wolfe did as well: the autobiographical monster Eugene Gant, the protagonist of Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River, the only two novels published during Wolfe's lifetime. In short, Wolfe's reputation was murdered by his own brainchild. Wolfe's readers often fall in love with Eugene when they first encounter him, but he grew into something Wolfe could never have foreseen: not just the prototypical Wolfe character but the only Wolfe character. …
We can find in the fourth book of the Physics the most extensive Aristotle's enquiry into time. Aristotle developed a conception of time not immediately obvious. To begin with, we have to distinguish the categories Aristotle uses in his analysis of the he temporal process. And again we can examine the questions about time he raised. What is the nature of now? What difference between time and motion? Is the time an universal continuous linear order the elements of which we can define in terms of the notions of simultaneity, priority and posteriority It may be possibile that, if we interpret the Aristotle's philosophy of time as an implicit anticipation of the concepts - A-series and B-series - McTaggart advanced in his enquiry into time, our understanding of the Aristotle's perspective could be perhaps more interesting and deeper.
In this paper I argue that, from a pragmatist point of view, to know the past means to anticipate it. Accordingly, historical inquiry is directed towards the future, namely the future of the past as known. I develop this argument in three steps: (I.) Starting with A. O. Lovejoy’s criticism of Dewey’s anticipatory theory of knowledge I defend the basic claim that all knowledge, including knowledge of the past, is anticipatory (i.e. directed at future consequences). Lovejoy’s criticism shows that Dewey’s statements invite misunderstandings, which have to be removed. (II.) I then turn to C. I. Lewis’ enhanced outline of a pragmatist theory of knowledge. Lewis provides epistemological arguments regarding the structural features of knowledge of the past and argues knowledge that is gained by the past’s present effects. (III.) Finally, I turn to a notable essay by E. Wind in which he stresses the intrusive and future-oriented character of historical inquiry: Documents are used as instruments for intruding into the past, asking how the past will be understood in the light of new or reconsidered evidence. This process involves anticipating the effects that a different past will have on those affected by the history in question.
This essay examines Foucault’s and Habermas’s critical project in order to show their complementary character. In the examination of the main aspects of their oeuvres, it is argued, contrary to what some authors state, such as Habermas, that Foucault’s position on modernity is not that of total rejection, but rather ambivalent. It is therefore possible to consider Foucault’s theory as a critical counterweight to Habermas’s. The point is made that Foucault’s theory awards flexibility to some theoretical distinctions upon which Habermas builds his own project. This enables making profound criticisms of modernity without relinquishing the project of modernity. It is thus possible to see the critical project of Habermas and Foucault as two complementary readings of modernity. Some aspects of the Habermas/Foucault debate are addressed in order to support this argument.
THE discussion between Professor Flew and Mr Hunter in the April number of PHILOSOPHY has once more called attention to the apparent conflict in Hume's ethics between what would nowadays be called respectively a naturalist and an emotivist view. Hume at times reduces judgements about good and evil to statements about the feelings human beings have on particular occasions, i.e. empirical judgements of a certain kind, and at other times seems to deny that they are, properly speaking, judgements at all and imply that they are rather to be regarded as merely expressions of the feelings of the person who utters them. Without specifically disagreeing with the arguments of Professor Flew (or for that matter with Mr Hunter's reply) I should like to make an additional point which, I think," helps further to explain how Hume could maintain two such apparently inconsistent views. All I need to do for this is to point to the well-known view of Hume, according to which belief (even inductive beliefs as to matters of fact) is nothing more than a species of'sensation' or feeling. As long as Hume holds that view, there is no inconsistency for him in saying both that value judgements are inductive generalisations about human feelings of approval or about the feelings of approval they would have under certain conditions and that they are themselves feelings rather than judgements, properly speaking. He can hold bo h that 'x is good' = 'x is such that the contemplation of it would call forth an emotion of approval towards it in all or most men', to quote Professor Broad's summary of Hume's account, and that these sentences are only the expressions of certain feelings, since he holds this paradoxical view about inductive beliefs in general. In so far, however, as Hume held that value judgements assert (as opposed to 'express') the speaker's own feelings, the judgements would not themselves come under the general heading of feelings. Even on Hume's view, I think, we have not belief but knowledge of our present feelings. But as Flew says, we could hardly expect Hume to have anticipated quite clearly the subtle modern distinction between saying that I have certain feelings and using words to express my present feelings.
Since the beginning of modern exegesis, the Judaism-Hellenism dichotomy and the duality of Hebrews and Hellenists was regarded as important in New Testament historiography. However, only one verse in the New Testament, Acts 6:1, mentions the two groups. In this essay it is being argued that the actual evidence for the dichotomy is scant. The noun 'Ellevistai is best translated Greek-speakers and does not denote a specific theological party, neither does Acts 6-8, 11 lend support to the prominent hypothesis of a hellenistic church theology. The author argues that the actual evidence is the factor for building the Hebrews-Hellenists dichotomy than the actual evidence is the Hegelian dialectic as adopted by Baur and later New Testament scholarship at large. Acts 6:1 should be regarded as a witness of ethno-cultural tensions in a multicultural church.
This essay explores Thomas Nashe's infamous religious tract and sermon Christs Teares over Jerusalem as a self-consciously extreme example of the proper role of rhetoric in preaching during the Elizabethan era. In doing so, I also hope to show that whereas the tract seems extraordinarily violent and rhetorically uneven, it yet manifests an internally coherent set of positions: that expansive wit and grand rhetoric are not ancillary but central to the preacher's task. Starting with a sermon in the voice of Christ, Nashe uses the fall of Jerusalem to warn London of its own wickedness. In doing so, Nashe both severely criticizes dull preachers and – more importantly – provides an example of the performative, affective discourse that preaching should be. Nashe's extravagance may appear inappropriate, but actually shows his firm grasp of the rhetorical notion of decorum.
HE more I pondered on the suggested title of j this lecture, the more I was gripped with a -Msense of nostalgia. Transport me back fifty years to the time when I was completing my theological studies at St Andrews. Then there was a strong whiff of consensus in the air in many fields of Old Testament studies, and the accepted orthodoxy seemed comfortably secure. As late as the i 97os, the standard histories of ancient Israel were nothing more than summaries of the biblical record, occasionally sprinkled with supposed archaeological illustrations. What the Book of Kings said was history. What Exodus said was history. Sometimes what Genesis said was history. Figures such as William F. Albright, John Bright, George Mendenhall, and Ephraim A Speiser were still holding the line on the existence of a ’patriarchal age’.’ Today other voices are increasingly heard.
What is Love?-Ask him who lives what is life; ask him who adores what is God.-On Love, Percy Bysshe ShelleyLOVE BETWEEN THE PRIVATE AND THE PUBLIC SPHERESHannah Arendt was fundamentally sceptical about psychoanalysis, which she saw as reductionist and solipsistic rather than encouraging political activity. Psychoanalysis, writes Arendt, destroys the world of the in-between that enables us to form relationships since it recommends that people focus on an inner world of sensations in order to explain failures in the public sphere. Rather than encourage revolutionary ideas and actions aimed at bringing about change in the world, psychology instructs us to "'adjust' to those [bad] conditions, taking away our only hope, namely that we, who are not of the desert though we live in it, are able to transform it into a human world" (2005, 201). Arendt finds that psychoanalysis and totalitarian movements have something in common for they both deaden the faculties of passion and action that could help us to change the world and make it better, more inhabitable. Taking a psychoanalytic approach, or living under totalitarian rule might, in some ways, lessen our suffering, but the cost is that we relinquish our courage-a courage that allows us to act.Despite Arendt's adamant resentment of psychoanalysis I would like to initiate a dialogue between Arendt and Freudian psychoanalysis. Hannah Arendt's explicit discussion of love occurs in her Love and Saint Augustine, where Arendt differentiates between Eros, erotic love, philia, friendship, and agape, love of God. In her subsequent work, however, Arendt does not take into consideration the libidinal aspects of collective bonds, nor does she give an account of the passionate aspect of being together despite the crucial role of amor mundi. By contrast, Freud views libidinal and sublimated love as forces that bind people together so that they may form political cooperation and bring about artistic and technological innovation in civilization. In this sense, Eros becomes a meaningful force that introduces worldliness into the individual's life. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud presents love as a force capable of subduing violence and enhancing the in-between world of relationships that functions as the basis of our joint activity in work and in the formation of civilization. Because love, or Eros, is not just discrete but a political force, it enhances worldliness rather than withdrawal from the world.By juxtaposing Arendt and Freud I will argue that love is basic to worldliness, central to the amor mundi, forgiveness, and the making of promises, which are pivotal components of Hannah Arendt's political thought. I will argue that the desire for love enhances friendship/forgiveness and thinking/respect of the others and of worldliness as such. In psychoanalysis and in the work of Hannah Arendt worldliness or amor mundi comprises a move away from the realm of need to that of thinking, which in turn inaugurates action in the public sphere by realizing the bonds of aim-inhibited love or friendship. By juxtaposing Arendt's and Freud's relation to love I will suggest that without love the relation of humans to the world is swayed by interdictions of the obscene superego. Such a loveless relation to the world engenders anxiety and doubt. The ultimate question I want to ask concerns the relation between love of the world and its negation by radical evil.LOVERS OF THE WORLDTo begin staging the dialogue between Arendt and Freud I want to juxtapose their texts that were written at the same time. Love and Saint Augustine was published in 1929 while Civilization and Its Discontents was published in 1930. While Freud's text studies the importance of the divine decree "love thy neighbor as thyself" for the formation of communities and nations, Arendt's text inaugurates a research question about "the relevance of the neighbor,"and demonstrates that Augustine's philosophy is engaged in the world. …
Part 1 Introductory: the narrow choice the agreed background. Part 2 The prior improbability of an incarnation: does God intervene in history? why would God become incarnate? how could God become incarnate? how could God incarnate be recognized?. Part 3 Incarnation as a needless explanation of the Christ event: does the miraculous indicate divinity? do the resurrection reports accredit divinity? do other factors point to divinity? does all his teaching befit divinity. Part 4 The place of Jesus in non-incarnational faith: seeking to understand the real Jesus why then the special focus on Jesus? an attractive and viable faith.
Contemporary medicine is said to be faltering in fulfilling its internal ends which aims at caring for the whole person. Physicians have assumed the role of “skilled technicians” who attempt at treating the diseases, often ignoring the person who has the disease. At the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine (AUBFM), we introduced the Physicians, Patients and Society (PPS) course series in an attempt at graduating physician healers who look at patients multidimensionally as individuals with an illness instead of a disease to be cured. This article describes PPS-2, one of the four PPS courses required to medical students at the AUBFM. PPS-2 comprises four modules: 1) Palliative Care and the Whole Patient 2) Spirituality in Medicine 3) Bioethics and Patient Care and 4) Caring Spotlight Experience 2 (CSE-2). Upon completion of the course, students expressed different perceptions of illness and their duty in patient care. We hope that PPS-2 will ensure future physicians appreciate their role in making the patient feel better, regardless of whether there is a cure or not and to appreciate that, in order to live up to its ideal, the profession of medicine will have to work by a new formula: M=EC 2 .
It is widely recognised that the expression ‘gathering stones and throwing them away’ in Qoh 3:5a presents the most enigmatic phrase within Qohelet’s well-known ‘catalogue of times’. This paper presents a brief overview of the divergent solutions that have been offered throughout its exegetical history, and subsequently evaluates in greater detail the suggestion that the ‘stones’ should be considered a sexual euphemism. Observing that all the arguments provided in favour of this interpretation are flawed, it calls for the development of an alternative interpretation.
Berkouwer and Pinnock embraced deterministic Calvinism when they were young theologians. However, later on they started to revolt against the ‘Calvinism’ of their youth and Dort. Paul Helm never joined or affirmed this uprising. It is not that I revolt against Dort, but I defend that Reformed scholasticism, including Dort, was never a kind of theological necessitarianism—this in contrast with John Calvin’s theology. Instead, classic Reformed scholasticism offers us a theology of contingency and individuality, of goodness and will, and of freedom and grace. Rediscovering this comforting historical reality is a gift and a joy. Helm argues that he cannot embrace this viewpoint. However, this present contribution demonstrates that he misinterprets the core structure and the medieval foundation of classic Reformed theology and philosophy. It is the latter that form the basis of Reformed systematic theology and the necessity-contingency, the synchrony-diachrony, as the necessity of the consequence-consequent and the secundum compositionem/divisionem distinctions show.
This paper seeks to revive the old theory of a “Lockean consensus” in early American political thought against the prevailing “republican” view. The language of “virtue” and “slavery,” which was pervasive at the time of the founding, and which many have been eager to take as evidence for the influence of civic humanism, in fact has a perfectly plain Lockean provenance. This is established first through a reexamination of Locke that links his account of virtue to a Christian asceticism (i.e., the Protestant Ethic) rather than republican philosophy. That the founders understood virtue in this way is then established through an exploration of Adams and Jefferson. In both cases, it was a Lockean slavery which they feared and a Lockean virtue which they sought. A Lockean sympathy did exist among the founders; in order to understand it, however, it must be distinguished from modern liberalism, with which it has only tenuous connections.
The strategic function of the Christ hymn in Colossians 1:13-20 The author of the letter to the Colossians positions and utilizes a Christ hymn in a strategic and functional way in his writing. This hymn forms a pivotal point in his letter and mentions the crucial theological issues that are at stake. The Colossians were threatened by false teachings according to which they were subject to different powers. Christ is, however, exalted and praised as superior to all these powers. As such the hymn lays the basis for the argumentation of the letter. The hymn describes the significance of Christ: He is the mediator of creation, the reconciler of the world, the head of the church. Dependence upon Christ sets one free from ties to all the proposed powers. The author assumes that his readers would also associate with the contents of the hymn regarding the supremacy of Christ. If so, the author actually wins his argument. He, therefore, does not need to convince them of his theological viewpoint anew, but can immediately continue warning them about the dangers of false teachings threatening their community.
According to Robert Hanna, natural kind concepts concepts have an indexical component, represented by 'THIS BODY', that refers to the totality of matter found in any given possible world, and an attributive component, made up of phenomenological identifying features. I will argue that there is no place for indexicals in Hanna’s theory. Initially, demonstratives don't select worlds, as his theory requires. Moreover, even as we try to amend his theory, either giving a proper reference to demonstratives or postulating the indexical reference to worlds by other linguistic mechanisms, we still can’t find a place for indexicals. The reason is that the satisfactional semantics of general terms, needed to vindicate his approach of modalities as evaluated at a rationally shaped modal space, requires no indexical component.
The aim of this article is to show how the modern liberal view of marriage as a temporary association contracted by two equal and autonomous individuals overrides and obscures an essential anthropological truth of the human person. Specifically, a reduction of marriage to the level of a purely historical good results in the obfuscation of the gift-like character of human existence and in the subordination of nuptial love to a mere “means” in service of some extrinsic, impersonal goal. Only a more robust anthropological vision, informed by categories of man’s filial and nuptial existence, is able to secure a historical order that can be a genuine “end” of indefatigable love unto itself. Only by attending to the paradoxical character of God creating man in his image as “male” and “female” does history avoid becoming an order of mere chronological or biological succession, and only thus does the rationale and gratuitousness of an indissoluble sacrament of marriage come to be seen as indispensable for preserving and promoting the dignity of historical man
Once Christ is dead, is he still a man? On this question, Thomas Aquinas objects to the argument of Hugues de Saint-Victor, who answered affirmatively in his De sacramentis, apparently because of his Platonic anthropology, Aquinas reasons. In reality, Hugue’s position, which Thomas knows through the Summa fratris Alexandri, is more complex, and the divergence is due not only to anthropology, but also to Christology and mereology. Thus, the misunderstanding illustrates the intellectual shift that has taken place and which separates the two masters.
Du Fu,one of great poets of realism in Tang Dynasty,had recorded the social changes and the sufferings of the people of his time.In his poems,among which there were lots of landscape poems,the poet had showed us his peculiar aesthetic values.From literature and aesthetic perspectives,we can probe into the poet's heart and appreciate the richness of his inner feelings from the vivid descriptions of scenery in his landscape poems.
Beginning with an analysis of Shakespeare's The Tempest and building to a new reading of Milton's Paradise Lost, author Seth Lobis charts a profound change in the cultural meaning of sympathy during the seventeenth century. Having long referred to magical affinities in the universe, sympathy was increasingly understood to be a force of connection between people. By examining sympathy in literary and philosophical writing of the period, Lobis illuminates an extraordinary shift in human understanding.
This article offers an introduction to Jacques Maritain’s relation to some of the key drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . First, we will describe the marginal role of Maritain in the drafting process; then, we will explain some of the French philosopher’s encounters with the most important drafters of this historical document. The aim of this paper is to introduce the ways in which J. Maritain might have influenced the writing process of the Declaration and its definitive presentation. Recibido: 02/03/2017 • Aceptado: 31/08/2017
Chapter 1 Introduction: Plato's Mysterious Forms Chapter 2 Plato's Dialectic of Forms Chapter 3 Plato's Development and the Development of the Theory of Forms Chapter 4 Plato's Theory of Forms: Recollecting and Recovering the Soul Chapter 5 Metaphysics and Pronouns at Phaedo 74b7-9 Chapter 6 Forms and Flux in the Theaetetus and the Timaeus Chapter 7 Do Forms Have a Role in Plato's Philebus? Chapter 8 Philebean Metaphysics Chapter 9 Fleshing Out the Form of Beauty: Socrates, Dialogue, and the Forms Chapter 10 Against a "Platonic" Theory of Forms Chapter 11 Plato's Eidetic Intimations
M SKY THEME is the tide of political and social ideas that flowed, mainly through the pen of Cicero, from the period of the late Roman Republic into European political thought, and that significantly influenced political thinkers from St. Augustine to Thomas Jefferson. After 1800 the impact declined markedly. The legacy of Roman republicanism has become increasingly ignored in the last two centuries, and Cicero, its great theoretical exponent, has tended to be dismissed as a brilliant stylist, but a shallow thinker who did little more than recast in accessible form and with a Roman veneer the political ideas of the Greeks. There are modern textbooks on politics that contain no mention of Rome or Cicero. This is as baffling as it is regrettable. Roman republicanism was a far from perfect system. Its catalogue of weaknesses has often been rehearsed, beginning with the ancient Roman historians themselves. But it created a constitutional order that was the product, not of theorists, but of a gradual process over centuries of pragmatic accommodation between the political claims of the two great natural divisions in any body politic, the mass of the people and the few whose abilities and circumstances give them greater influence and claims to greater political authority. In the process the Roman state confronted at a practical level issues of liberty and of personal and political rights and constitutional balances that must forever concern democratic societies. It dealt with them in novel ways and with a degree of success that for centuries brought a high level of political consensus and stability. A decline did eventually set in, as the growth of Rome's empire brought changed economic and political conditions that strained the unity and systems
The idea of 'Harmony' is not the unique invention of Chinese philosophy. Western civilization independently generates the ideas similar to 'Harmony' but not uniformity and 'Golden Mean.' This paper tries to describe the idea of 'Harmony' in Western philosophy from three aspects i.e. harmony and society. It aims to show that Western philosophy has a long tradition for the study of 'harmony,' and Marxism takes 'harmony' as its highest goal. It can be seen that the idea of 'Harmony' is one of common cultural relics of human beings.
Degree adverbs in Xing Shi Yan and modern Chinese have similar characteristics and different ones as well.The language in Xing Shi Yan shows these adverbs serve different compounding function in various synchronic planes.Commonly used as a modifier of predicate and adverbial modifier,some of them also function as complements in the form of words,"ji,zhiji,shen,yichang,busheng".A few of them "ji,geng,yue,yifa,hedeng," are even prior to the whole predicate rather than attached before their headword in order to highlight their position and stress tone.The displacement is accordant with modern attribute-headword rules without the aid of auxiliary words.Therefore,studying and revealing their difference has an important meaning for researching modern degree adverbs and the whole history of Chinese grammar development.
n the broader context of the North American scene today, “being progressive” is my central interest and commitment. But in other I contexts, often more immediate, my argument is for being conservative. Surely the truth is that authentic Christianity today is both progressive and conservative. Since I am a representative of “progressive Christianity” and since I am happy to be labeled in that way (among others), mainly I will argue that authentic faith expresses itself in progressive ways. First, however, I want to argue the importance of being conservative.
Abstract Ocular pathologies are a natural phenomenon that can be detected empirically. All over the world, such phenomena are often interpreted as an index of inherent personal capacity for causing harm. The Graeco-Roman world was no exception. During the early Roman Principate, the literary representation of such malformations was clearly influenced by two genres that had been developed in the Greek world during the Hellenistic period. The first was the paradoxographic or mirabilia tradition, a literary genre that in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquests inventoried supposed natural and anthropological wonders, reports that were subsequently brought up to date and adapted by Roman authors such as Cicero and Varro. The second was physiognomics, the systematization, mainly by the Peripatetics but also by some Hippocratic authors, of the popular idea that ethical character can be read from somatic signs. This paper understands Pliny the Elder’s accounts of peoples and families able to cast the evil eye, objectified in the possession of a double pupil, as a significant aspect of his socio-moral account of the effects of world-empire upon Rome. In transposing the theme to his figure of the procuress Dipsas almost a century earlier, Ovid created a synecdoche for moral disorder at Rome itself shortly before the two Augustan laws of 18 b.c.e. regulating sexual conduct. In short, if we are to progress in our understanding of Roman socio-moral instrumentalization of ocular malformation in relation to the evil eye, we must pay careful attention to the contexts and strategies of our texts.
Hannah Arendt’s controversial book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil offered an account of the actions and motivations of the Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann. Arendt’s book sparked lively debate and engendered polemical responses as a result of her portrayal of Eichmann as neither a cruel sadist nor a fanatical anti-Semite. Arendt described Eichmann as demonstrating the banality of evil, indicating that Eichmann’s motivations were banal and petty rather than deeply evil. And yet the banality of his motives did not preclude him from participation in radical, extreme evil. This significant philosophical point is often obscured by the disputes surrounding Arendt’s depiction of Eichmann. In this article I identify and challenge the main misconceptions and misunderstandings of Arendt’s account of Eichmann which have often overshadowed the philosophically pertinent discussions in the book, emphasizing the centrality of personal responsibility in Arendt’s portrayal.
The central theoretical argument of this thesis is that, the Old Testament concept of the Year of Jubilee is neither an anachronistic, nor a peripheral detail of the Canon of Scripture, but an integral part of, indeed a hermeneutical tool for interpreting the whole. The Jubilee can therefore serve as a hermeneutical tool for reconciliation, healing, and transformation for post-apartheid South Africa. The thesis seeks to demonstrate the ideal of the Jubilee as a continuous and coordinating theme, in both the Old and the New Testament, by reference to: the Pentateuch, the Historical Writers and the Prophets, the apocryphal Book of 1 Maccabees, the intertestamental Book of Jubilees, the so-called Nazareth Manifesto, Pentecost, and the Book of Revelation. In the Pentateuch, Israel liberated from slavery and returning to God, became a paradigm for the liberated slave to return to his or her inheritance in the year of Jubilee celebrated every 50th year. Seen to be divinely ordained, the Jubilee reminded God's people that they were called to act towards others as God had acted towards them, for this is part of what it means to be both just and holy. It was seen primarily as a resitutio in integrum, a restoration to an original state. It made provision for the redemption of the poor and disenfranchised, as well as provision and protection of the poor, the aliens, and release of slaves and their families, and indentured labourers. Its underlying concerns are with justice, freedom, human dignity, and rights. Human dignity and rights are intrinsically related to God's saving acts on behalf of his people, the assertion of divine justice in the face of every human abuse of power and injustice. Among the Historical Writers and the Prophets the Babylonian Exile came to be interpreted as divine judgment for the neglect of an institution meant to embody justice, mercy, and grace, characteristics of both a holy God and a holy people. Isaiah 61 casts a vision for the future in which the Jubilee becomes an inclusive promise of God's covenantal blessings to Israel and the nations. Following the return from Exile there is evidence of a return to abuse resulting in Nehemiah calling for a national day of prayer, fasting, and confession, and a renewal of the covenant to honour the ethical implications of the year of grace. In the intertestamental period, possibly as a reaction to hellenising in uences, the idea of the Jubilee may have become somewhat exclusive and nationalistic. Against this background Jesus would give it a new, radical and universal interpretation, and implication, namely that of Israel's mission to the nations. Jesus clearly understood his mission in terms of the proclamation of 'the year of the Lord's favour' (Luke 4: 14-21), or, of the announcement of God's Kingdom, and demonstrated this by preaching good news to the poor, freeing the prisoners, restoring sight to the blind, and releasing the oppressed. In the New Testament this is presented as a dialectic between the already and the not yet or, as being present yet still to come. Jesus linked his mission with that of his followers and their partnership in mission with the promise and gift of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost can, therefore, be seen as both ful llment and announcement of God's promise. It announces that the Kingdom of God is already here, whereas the Book of Revelation holds out the promise that it is still to come. The concluding book of the Bible, therefore, gathers together a theme which runs throughout the Canon of Scripture, and presents the Jubilee as good news both for now and the future. Indeed, God's future is presented as the ultimate Jubilee. Obviously this institution, probably more ideal than real, more intentional than functional even in ancient Israel, cannot be imposed on a secular, constitutional, democracy. Nevertheless, there are implications here for holistic evangelism and mission that not only transcend, but can transform culture, politics, and economics. In presenting the Jubilee as a hermeneutical tool for reconciliation, healing, and transformation in post-apartheid South Africa, the speci c foci of this thesis is on: • The contribution of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission's contribution to dealing with the past, reconciling, and building the nation in order to build upon that legacy; • The Restorative Justice vision in order to construct a Christian ethical response to thinking about and doing justice di erently; • Restoring moral values, and this by o ering a spirituality of reconciliation, healing, and transformation; and • Taking responsibility for reconciliation, healing, and transformation by presenting some practical, Christian, ethical responses and initiatives that could place the Christian community in the forefront of this process. URI http://hdl.handle.net/10394/3702 Collections Theology [619] Copyright © North-West University Contact Us | Send Feedback Theme by Who will blow the trumpet?: a christian ethical evaluation of the Jubilee as a hermeneutical tool for reconciliation, healing, and transformation in post-apartheid South 
Abstract The Path of Insight is a spiritual path of Tibetan Buddhism tradition. The fundamental part consists of three elements, such like: preliminary practices, the tranquility meditation and the penetrating insight meditation. However, counted three parts one ought to perceive as aspects of one process aiming to realize of the soteriology purpose. The achievement of the nondual state has its own development process, which consists experience of the nondual state, stabilise it and then development of it. Outline of development process is contained in the Path o Insight and relies on exceeding of subjectiveobjective divisibility. It is perceived as an effect of the ignorance of true nature of the individual. The achievement of the nondual state, that is nature of the mind (tib. sems nyid) constitutes the purpose of the Path of Insight and it is described by conceptsymbol called mahamudra.
This article focuses on the place of paradox in Northrop Frye’s writing and teaching, principally by way of several key examples. Paradox tends to counter, at least superficially, popular opinion and common sense, though in the interest of common enlightenment. The figure of paradox is linked by Frye to metaphor as a kind of logical contradiction that can nonetheless be a vehicle of truth, foremost in literature and religion. Such paradoxes are both a topic for Frye’s elucidations of literary and scriptural texts but also a mode enlisted in the very performance of Frye’s critical writing and teaching.
of theological method in Aquinas (p. 193; see also pp. 57 and 173). But this is not sufficient. Farthing should have acknowledged that Biel's recurrent critique of the supposed ' positive ' use of reason in Aquinas is beside the point and that, by thinking that Thomas is trying to ' demonstrate ' the faith, Biel has carelessly dismissed much that is interesting and valuable in Aquinas. By bringing Biel's error to the fore, Farthing would have made clear to the reader that in this crucial respect, the dialogue between these two thinkers has completely broken down.
The title for these remarks is drawn from Hume’s observations about the man he called “the greatest and rarest genius that ever arose for the ornament and instruction of the species,” Isaac Newton. In Hume’s judgment, Newton’s greatest achievement was that while he “seemed to draw the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he shewed at the same time the imperfections of the mechanical philosophy; and thereby restored [Nature’s] ultimate secrets to that obscurity, in which they ever did and ever will remain.” On different grounds, others reached similar conclusions. Locke, for example, had observed that motion has effects “which we can in no way conceive motion able to produce”—as Newton had in fact demonstrated shortly before. Since we remain in “incurable ignorance of what we desire to know” about matter and its effects, Locke concluded, no “science of bodies [is] within our reach” and we can only appeal to “the arbitrary determination of that All-wise Agent who has made them to be, and to operate as they do, in a way wholly above our weak understandings to conceive.” I think it is worth attending to such conclusions, the reasons for them, their aftermath, and what that history suggests about current concerns and inquiries in philosophy of mind. The mechanical philosophy that Newton undermined is based on our common-sense understanding of the nature and interactions of objects, in large part genetically determined, and, it appears, reflexively yielding such perceived properties as persistence of objects through time and space, and as a corollary their cohesion and conti-
This book says many challenging and some cogent things about the nature of time. It treats such topics as the objectivity of the 'A-determinations' pastness, presentness, and futurity, the distinction between physical and psychological time, the impossibility of causes being later than their effects, and of time travel into the past, and the identity of things through time. Lurking behind it all Chapman has a libertarian (contracausal) theory of free will, which gives some unity to what might otherwise look like a random grab bag of theses. This kind of free will presupposes both indeterminism and incompatibilism. The incompatibilism is not argued for at all. The causal indeterminism is argued only as follows: The only positive argument that can be offered for indeterminism is, I believe, the reality of intentional behaviour among human beings (it should perhaps be noted that this is independent of quantum mechanical indeterminism since the latter is consistent with macrodeterminism) and the unpredictability in principle and in fact of many other kinds of events' (53). That's it for free will. The author's commitment to it provides motivation and some unity. The book's detailed work is on other topics. The main villain of the piece is 'determinism' as it applies to the
Ever since the advent of quantum mechanics during 1925–26, its fundamental conceptual issues continued to intrigue some of the best minds in physics like Einstein, Schrodinger, Louis de-Broglie, David Bohm and John Bell, giving rise to extensive searching debates. The celebrated Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen argument stimulated Schrodinger to bring out the importance of quantum entanglement as the ‘essential characteristic trait of quantum mechanics’. Subsequently, the seminal discovery of John Bell in 1964 of a theorem enabling empirical testing of the fundamental notions of locality and realism vis-a-vis quantum mechanical predictions paved the way for intimately linking the quantum foundational studies with actual experiments.
Worship of saints was peculiar of China,which was based on rational thinking and breaks through the antique god worship.It had dominated in the Chinese society for more than 2,000 years both ideologically and politically.Up to now,it has not lost its impact.In accordance with the historical locus,this paper expounds the appearance,evolution,development and termination of worship of saints,and also enunciates the characteristics and roles of worship of saints.
I.THOUGH included in the First Folio as part of a trilogy, 1 Henry VI (generally considered to be "harey the vi, " in Henslowe's list of plays acted at the Rose in 1592-93) is an independent play. The Contention and True Tragedy, acted by Pembroke's Men, are advertised on their title pages as a play and its sequel, like Tamburlaine, Parts I and II or 1 and 2 Henry IV: the titles are The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster and The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke and the death of good King Henrie the sixt, with the whole contention between the two houses Lancaster and Yorke. In 1619, a Quarto edition of the two plays was published with the title The Whole Contention betweene the two Famous Houses, Lancaster and Yorke . . . Divided into two Parts.In some respects, the action of these two plays, in both Quarto and Folio versions, can be seen as continuous. Where True Tragedy and 3 Henry VI begin, in medias res, with Warwick's "I wonder how the king escaped our hands?" and York describing the flight of Henry VI from the battle, the earner play ends with an exchange between Warwick and York proclaiming "a glorious day' of victory, saying 'the King is fled to London" (2 Henry VI, 5.3.24, 29; 3 Henry VI, l.l).1 Though 1 Henry VI ends with a scene between Queen Margaret and Suffolk, including the ominous closing Unes by Suffolk, "Margaret shall now be Queen, and rule the King, / But I will rule both her, the King, and realm" (i Henry VI, 5.5.107-8), which can be said to anticipate the action of 2 Henry VI, the links between 1 Henry VI and the other two plays are less pronounced than in 2 and 3 Henry VI. In the RSC productions of 2000 and 2006, directed by Michael Boyd, treating the plays as a cycle, it was apparent that 1 Henry VI was in some ways a different kind of play from the other two. As the subtitle of the 1619 Quarto suggests, The Contention and True Tragedy could be seen as comprising a single tragic action, with the separate but connected "Tragicall ends of the good Duke Humfrey, Richard Duke of Yorke, and King Henry the sixt," occurring in The Contention, 3.2, True Tragedy, 1.4, and True Tragedy, 5.6 One structural oddity is that Talbot, the principal figure in 1 Henry VI, is never mentioned in the other two plays.2 A partial explanation for this anomaly may lie in the order of composition of the three plays: in all probability, 1 Henry VI was written after the other two.Two pieces of external evidence make I Henry VI, according to Gary Taylor, "the most securely dated of all Shakespeare's early work"-though there is no reason to assume that the text of 1 Henry VI, as printed in the First Folio in 1623, many years after its first performance, is identical with the play as acted in 1592 by Strange's Men. Henslowe's Diary lists a first performance of this play, particularly well attended, on March 3, 1592: "ne," in Henslowe's entry for "harey the vi," can only refer to a new play, given the unusually high gate receipts.3 Praise of this play, with its portrait of "brave Talbot," in Thomas Nashe's Pierce Penniless, entered in the Stationers' Register on August 2, 1592, confirms a date before June 1592, when the theatres were closed for several months because of plague. The extremely short time between March and June 1592 renders it virtually impossible for the plays to have been written and performed in the order in which they appear in the First Folio, as a sequence of three plays. The fact that versions of 2 and 3 Henry VI were performed by a different company, Pembroke's Men, is further evidence that the order of composition and performance was 2, 3, and 1, with 1 Henry VI the last to be performed. As Edward Burns says, "there is in fact nothing in 1 Henry VI that we need to know to follow the story of Parts Two and Three, " though in this "free-standing piece," it might be possible for members of the audience (or the dramatist) to "draw on . . . knowledge of the two earlier plays. …
In the work of Comenius, the garden metaphor appears to concur with a technological metaphor (clock, printing etc.). The history of the understanding of Comenius's didactics led mostly to a romantic interpretation: The educator is the gardener, who has to ensure by careful nursing, that the pupils grow by themselves (spontaneously) to their individual perfection. The Vignette reprinted in this paper seems to correspond to this interpretation. It is encircled by the verse “Omnia sponte fluant, absit violentia rebus”–Everything should flow by itself, force should be absent. But the subject of this verse is not education, but creation as a whole. The verse defines man's God‐given task to support everything on its own way to perfection. Then mankind will be “A Garden of Joy” for God. The perfection of the world lies in the hands of mankind. Education has to prepare children for this task. And this cannot be done by just Ietting them grow but by careful pruning and nourishing of the young people. They have to ...
SUMMARYThe well-known controversy about the (supposed) difference between sen-tences such as "cuiuslibet hominis asinus currit" and "asinus cuiuslibet hominis currit" is delineated and discussed. It is argued that the issue involved is entirely focused on the question whether or not nouns (names), by their own nature (secundum propriam inventionem), refer to existing things alone. The different answers to this problem (by Bacon, William of Sherwood, and others against certain Parisian masters, among others) are placed within the general frame-work of medieval semantic thought.RESUMEIl s'agit ici d'examiner la controverse bien connue au sujet de la difference entre des constructions comme "cuiuslibet hominis asinus currit" et "asinus cuiuslibet hominis currit". L'enjeu de cette controverse, nous montre l'auteur, est entierement centree sur la question de savoir si, oui ou non, les noms (denominations) ne se referent par nature {secundum propriam inventionem) qu'a des choses existantes. Les differentes reponses (de Bacon, Guillaume de Sherwood et d'autres, face a certains maitres parisiens, inter alios) sont ici replacees dans le cadre general de la semantique medievale.
1. Introduction Edward T. Oakes and David Moss Part I. Theology: 2. Revelation Larry Chapp 3. Christology Mark McIntosh 4. Trinity Rowan Williams 5. Church, ecumenism and culture David Schindler 6. Mariology Lucy Gardner 7. Prayer and the saints David Moss 8. Gender Corinne Crammer 9. Eschatology Geoffrey Wainwright Part II. The Trilogy: 10. The Aesthetics Oliver Davies 11. The Theo-Dramatics Ben Quash 12. The Theo-Logic Aidan Nichols Part III. Disciplines and Methodologies: 13. Patristics Brian Daley 14. Literary criticism Edwin Block 15. Contemporary metaphysics Fergus Kerr Part IV. Conversations: 16. Balthasar and Karl Barth John Webster 17. Balthasar and Karl Rahner Karen Kilby 18. Balthasar's reception among theologians Edward T. Oakes and David Moss.
RELIGIOUS instruction on the undergraduate campus has fallen on better days, and adequate leadership is being demanded in greater quantities. Yet little attention has been given to the task of providing teachers of religion who shall be both well versed in religious content and equipped with a sound method and viewpoint.' Accordingly, we face the unfortunate situation of colleges crying for teachers of religion, and graduate divinity students seeking in vain to answer the call, despite the thoroughness of their academic training. The purpose of this article is to offer suggestions to those seeking to prepare for religious work in college, as to the sort of preparation that is likely-in the experience of the writer, at least-to prove valuable. The problem will be dealt with by stating: (i) the objectives of college religious education; (2) the intellectual equipment needed to achieve such objectives; and (3) the graduate training designed to secure such equipment.
In “The Roland De Witte 1991 Experiment (to the Memory of Roland De Witte)” (Progr. Phys, 2006, v. 2(3), 60–65), R.T. Cahill gives us a briefing on his view that interferometer measurements and one-way RF coaxial cable propagation-time measurements amount to a detection of the anisotropy in the speed of light. However, while I obtain first order propagation delays in calculations for one-way transit which would show geometric modulation by Earth’s rotation, I do not agree with Cahill’s simplistic equation that relates the modulation solely to the projection of the absolute velocity vector v on the coaxial cable, called vP by Cahill (ibid., p. 61–62). The reader should be warned that Cahill’s equation for ∆t (ibid., p. 63) is crude compared with a full Special Relativistic derivation.
The Internet creates conditions, opportunities and offers any company to compete in the market, which successfully presents its products and services. The company will achieve this goal with e-marketing strategy for successful performance of digital markets. Information technology allows introducing innovations and improving the quality of products and services and thus improve the competitive position of company. The goal of this study is identify the influence of the interest and implementation of e-marketing strategy for successful performance of the company's digital markets.
This article examines the Sufi concept of tajallī and its application to environmental ethics. This study usesdescriptive and productive interpretation to analyze the data which are extracted from the main works of Ibn ͑Arabī, namely Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam and al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah. It finds that Ibn ʿArabī’s concept of tajallī can be understood not only in its philosophical sense but also in its spiritual and moral sense to develop a new approach to environmental ethics. This research has valid implications for taking a new direction in the study of mystic Islam and environmental ethic by incorporating tajallī and other Sufi doctrines such as waḥdatu-l-wujūd, maḥabbah, and maʿrifah.
It is species being that confirm human being is social being and has no eternal nature, which means more than the content of human being that Aristotle had given. By analysing species life activity, Marx formed his own moral principle and threw his doubt upon the effective of any others. Marx regarded free activity as human's ultimate value and substance of moral area, which is the unity of activity as means and as object.
The moral tradition of the West is derived from the virtue ethic of ancient Greece and the religious ethic of ancient Hebro. The modern transformation of western morality began with the religious reformation and the European Renaissance. It is nothing but the Enlightenment Movement that formed the ideological system of western morality. The modem morality of the West replaces traditional western morality, but does not go beyond its content. The only difference is in form.
Levinas and the Postcolonial: Race, Nation, Other by John Drabinski Edinburgh University Press, 2011. Reprint edition, 2013. 224 pages This highly successful study comparing the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas to that of a number of influential postcolonial philosophers faces a problem from the outset, namely what might be seen as deep incompatibilities between the two strands of thought. Granted that on a first reading Levinas and the postcolonialists seem to be describing the same thing. The root of Levinas's thought is the subjects encounter with the other: the Levinasian subject is ruptured at the core by the others difference; challenged in all its assumptions; found to be imperialist, murderous, and voracious; and in this rupture the subject is called to learn from the other, and to be judged by the other. If one looks no further than this, Levinas gives us both a pattern by which to understand colonialism and some foundational tools with which to question it. If, however, one looks only a little further, the neat conflation falls apart. Levinas's other, far from a colonized nation, an ethnicity, or a culture, is a singularity, encountered by the subject as a disincarnate entity which, "stripped of its very form ... shivers in its nudity" (Basic 54), and the ethical responsibility the subject shoulders in the encounter is a result not of any attribute or any history but of something so philosophically thin as almost not to be there: the other's otherness, i.e. the other's not-being-the-subject. In a nutshell, difference is important to Levinas on the plane of the face-to-face rather than politically, and politics has other rules under which it operates, one of which is the assumption of a certain mutuality and homogeneity. On this second reading, then, the two camps divide, such that one could almost put their difference in polar terms, the postcolonial thinkers appearing from Levinas's perspective as ideologues, fighting tired battles between us and them, and Levinas appearing from their perspective as another Eurocentric thinker describing ethics in the abstract without any awareness of a history of global-political injustice. Levinas's other stripped of attributes is in this reading "blanched" (69) to a familiar whiteness (69). The first great virtue of Drabinskis book is that he offers what I want to call a third reading. Previously, in addition to some excellent work on postcolonial thought, Drabinski has made significant contributions to our understanding of Levinas's place in the phenomenological tradition, and he knows the thought well. He understands that Levinas distinguishes between ethics and politics, with ethics being the sphere in which I find myself responsible to another human being without even noticing the color of his eyes, let alone his skin; and politics being the realm in which culture, ethnicity, and history re-emerge. Drabinski sees the virtues of this position: that it allows us to speak of cultural or national differences and also of a prior difference between each human being, one that relativizes any collective identification; that it therefore acknowledges that "politics, left to itself, is tyranny" (187); that it suggests a viable pre-politics that is both originary and corrective. And he sees the pitfall of the position: that it separates the question of the ethical from the question of the ethnic, the human being from the realm of history, and thus disallows an understanding of human ethics as connected to personal and historical violence grounded in global economics. Drabinski knows that a reading of Levinas that conflated him with the postcolonialists, such that the colonizing nation found itself commanded by the colonized, or forced into an ethical response to the subaltern, would no longer be Levinas. He therefore puts the camps into dialogue from positions that remain distinct and authentic. And, remarkably, a kind of compatibility gradually emerges in complex ways. …
This article seeks to establish dialogues between Angustia, by Graciliano Ramos, and Dialetica do esclarecimento, by Adorno and Horkheimer, reasoned by a conceptual that joins the discourse, society and the subject, all placed in their historical context. In this dialogue – a concept by Bakhtin (1895-1975) – between the author with his characters, the characters with themselves in the plot among and the work with its historical context, we aimed to demonstrate the Graciliano Ramos‘ability to make his work with the feeling and the values of his time and at the same time, to make it universal and for posterity.
In her novels and short stories,Flannery O'Connor not only borrows a lot of popular Christian prototypes and mythological images to express her literary themes,but also takes advantage of techniques of "displacement and deformation" to deform and damage these prototypes and images so as to create various "fake Christ" images which are changed and contrary to the original ones.In this way,O'Connor makes a striking contrast between Jesus' virtues of broad mind and self-sacrifice and selfishness and indifference of modern people.By employing the shocking and absurd techniques,the author exposed clearly the theme of morbid and wastelanded state of modern people and society.
Asklipieia were the first hospitals (or, better, health care campuses) in Europe, which flourished in Hellas (Greece) for about 12 centuries, since about the 6th century B.C. A kind of holistic health care was offered in Asklipieia through the conception of illnesses as a result of interaction of physical, psychological, social and environmental factors. The study of Asklipleian health care will help us to complete our knowledge on the history of health care and can teach us a lesson deriving from the Hellenic philosophy and history that could form the prototypical base for a better understanding of the concept of healing environment.
There is a long history of discussions of mediumship as related to dissociation and the unconscious mind during the Nineteenth Century. After an overview of relevant ideas and observations from the mesmeric, hypnosis, and spiritualistic literatures, I focus on the writings of Jules Baillarger, Alfred Binet, Paul Blocq, Theodore Flournoy, Jules Hericourt, William James, Pierre Janet, Ambroise August Liebeault, Frederic W.H. Myers, Julian Ochorowicz, Charles Richet, Hippolyte Taine, Paul Tascher, and Edouard von Hartmann. While some of their ideas reduced mediumship solely to intra-psychic processes, others considered as well veridical phenomena. The speculations of these individuals, involving personation, and different memory states, were part of a general interest in the unconscious mind, and in automatisms, hysteria, and hypnosis during the period in question. Similar ideas continued into the Twentieth Century.
The Treatise on Venoms and Poisons (Liber de venenis) by Pietro d'Abano has been traditionally considered as a collection of superstitions and unscientific data, even though it was also--and paradoxically--deemed interesting for the history of medieval science. The present contribution frames the treatise in the ancient toxicological literature, and suggests textual similarities with classical Greek works, mainly the two treatises On Venoms and On Poisons ascribed to the first-century A.D. author of De materia medica Dioscorides. Since Pietro d'Abano sojourned in Constantinople he might have had access to the Greek texts of these two works and could very well have integrated some of their information in his own treatise.
Prompted by a brief encounter between South African Nobel laureate in literature J. M. Coetzee and distinguished Italian hermeneutic philosopher Gianni Vattimo, this study is principally an endeavor to look at Coetzee’s engagement with literature through its possible points of interference with Vattimo’s pensiero debole or weak thought. The aim is to explore the meaning of literary thinking as revealed in J. M. Coetzee’s approach to fictional writing. Unlike other prominent figures in contemporary literature, Coetzee has constantly captured the attention of the philosophical community, mainly because of the non-conciliatory rapprochement between literature and philosophy that his fiction elicits. Coetzee’s “novelistic” engagement with philosophy suggests a mode of thinking that finds its fragile legitimacy in the tentative embedding of textuality in history within the context of a self-conscious appropriation of a hostile tradition – i.e., the western tradition in South Africa.  It is in the context of such a rapprochement between philosophy and literature that the present study operates, with the goal of providing a preliminary outlook on Coetzee’s understanding of the role of literature and the nature of thinking. This has been mainly done by targeting Coetzee’s “non-fictional” writing in an effort to shed light on the processes of authorship and readership so as to reveal the affinities between literary thinking and weak thinking. Deploying then the resources of a “weak poetics,” as informed by Vattimo’s weak thought, the three chapters constituting this thesis are an attempt to pose the following questions: How is truth “worked out” through storytelling once the question-begging character of thinking is acknowledged?; What is the nature of literature’s authority – or lack thereof – after the writer/subject has been de-centered?; Is it possible to break the paralyzing enchantment with the forever ungraspable Other through weaker, more earthbound modes of enchantment?
Lubac, who, in Ashley’s view, fails adequately to distinguish between the natural and supernatural orders (287). Some insights in Healing for Freedom provide vintage Ashley. For example, as an outstanding Thomist, Ashley rightly states Aquinas’s original contribution to theories of knowledge: “In Aquinas’s own case it is often claimed that his original intuition, evident in his first philosophical work De Ente et Essentia, is the ‘real distinction of essence and existence.’ In my opinion, more fundamental still was his profound recognition that all our natural human knowledge rests on the senses, a point in Aristotle not clearly seen by earlier readings of the Stagirite, even by St. Albertus” (199). Father Ashley worked on Healing for Freedom at the end of his long life (1915–2013). While he supplies references to contemporary psychological literature, students will also benefit from the bibliographical references found in his other works. All in all, one receives the impression of a master who has sought—and found—the truth in every corner of human learning. For those seeking a grounding in a philosophy of the human person that addresses issues of psychology and psychological counseling, Healing for Freedom will serve as a welcome resource. Christians hold on good authority that the truth sets free ( John 8:32). Healing for Freedom takes it cue from this biblical passage. Father Ashley teaches us that authentic freedom arises only when one embraces the full truth about the human person.
The historical connotation of "Three Legal Revolutions" is that the Third Legal Revolution essentially means giving up the western tributary modernity pursued in the era of planned economy, which brings us a new tradition different from the classical tradition, i.e., the nationalistic new tradition of the planned economy, which fails to be compatible with modernity and the contradiction is the most notable characteristic of China law's modernity problem. The parry of the mainstream not only departs from reasonable spirit of modernity, but also in fact brings on the absence of "China". The contradiction between "tradition" and "modernity" in china incorporates four forms of conflicts: modernity and classical tradition, modernity and the new tradition of the planned economy, modernity and post-modernity, and the first modernity and the second modernity.
abstract:Descartes claims that the passions of the soul are "all in their nature good" even though they exaggerate the value of their objects, have the potential to deceive us, and often mislead us. What, then, can he mean by this? In this paper, I argue that these effects of the passions are only problematic when we incorrectly take their goodness to consist in their informing us of harms and benefits to the mind-body composite. I maintain, instead, that the passions are good in their motivational function, which they carry out by representing objects and situations as having various properties and thereby appearing to be "reasons of goodness." Further, I argue that the main way in which the passions are problematic is merely an occasional physiological byproduct of a well-functioning system. I show, therefore, that the passions' motivational function, representationality, and accompanying physiology are all significant and interrelated aspects of their goodness.
The advent of religious toleration in England at the end of the seventeenth century has long interested political theorists as well as intellectual and literary historians. Many have argued that toleration is, or ought to be, a movement from below, born of the desire to be free. By contrast, a careful reading of John Locke and the latitudinarian tradition indicates that toleration originates in raison d'état arguments, and that the question of state power can be neither historically nor analytically detached from it. Toleration is among other things a linguistic program, and it turns out that the discourse of toleration mistrusts the ambiguities of literary language. Two poems by John Dryden, Religio Laici and "To the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young Lady Mrs Anne Killigrew," push against the limits of toleration discourse; the first, written while Dryden was still an Anglican, limns the emptiness of a formal commitment to "common quiet"; the riotous figuration of the second, written the year of his conversion to Catholicism, points to what Charles Taylor has called the "awkwardness" of a multicultural polity trying to balance its commitments to majority and minority identities.
This article provides an analysis of the complex of motifs within the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelof's (1907–1968) Diwan-trilogy (1965–1967), which is influenced by, and frequently refers to, the Byzantine sacred art and tradition. The following motifs are analysed in depth: Naming, and theological characteristics of the iconographies of God's Mother; the black image; the sacred room of the Byzantine church; Jesus versus Adam; and the motifs of mother and child, pain. water and thirst, Jesus Christ, and Nothing and No One. Based primarily on the concepts of intertextuality, and particularly M. Riffaterre's theoretical propositions within this field, the article demonstrates affinity between the Byzantine-Orthodox art and tradition, and the poetic complex of motifs.
This paper focuses on the sub-field of study the philosophy of mathematics education from one perspective. The field is characterised in both narrow and broad terms, and from both bottom-up (questions and practices) and top-down perspectives (in terms of philosophy and its branches). From the bottom-up one can characterize the area in terms of questions, and I have asked: What are the aims and purposes of teaching and learning mathematics? What is mathematics? How does mathematics relate to society? What is learning mathematics? What is mathematics teaching? What is the status of mathematics education as knowledge field? I have characterized the sub-field using a ‘top down’ perspective using the branches of philosophy. Looking briefly into the contributions of ontology and metaphysics, aesthetics, epistemology and learning theory, social philosophy, ethics, and the research methodology of mathematics education reveals both how rich and deep the contributions of philosophy are to the theoretical foundations of our field of study. But even these two approaches leave many questions unanswered. For example: what are the responsibilities of mathematics and what is the responsibility of our own subfield, the philosophy of mathematics education? I conclude that the role of the philosophy of mathematics education is to analyse, question, challenge, and critique the claims of mathematics education practice, policy and research.
The fourth century is a time of rapid change in the Christian churches brought on by developments such as the rise of the ascetic movement, the new relationship with the emperor instituted by Constantine, and the various Christological debates which splintered the church. This dissertation will contribute to our understanding of this process of rapid change by examining how the non-Nicene Apostolic Constitutions viewed religious authority. It will argue that the Apostolic Constitutions represent the editor’s attempt to defend the religious authority of the clergy in his community, while ultimately rejecting potential alternative authorities, especially alternative lay authorities such as ascetics and the emperor. The categories of potestas and auctoritas will be used to systematize the available data and provide a model for its interpretation.
Throughout the history of philosophy the concept of unity has presented a problem. What does it mean to say that the cosmos is one, that a thing is one, that an organism is one, that a nation is one, that mind and body are one, that knower and known are one? Exactly what is it that is denoted when unity is postulated of anything? And when two or more entities are conceived as subsisting in unity, exactly what is the relation between that unity on the one hand, and its correlative duality or plurality on the other?
Hellenistic emergence period indicates the convergence of two similar types of thinking: Greek and Roman ones. The difference in the fundamental thinking principles did not result in their convergence. Based on the logos principle the Greek thought is synthetic, while based on ratio the Roman thought is precisely specific. Christianity, a new type of thinking, overcame the thinking dissimilarity by combining the Greek ontology and Roman voluntarism.
The simple or elementary meanings of intuition and technological artifice are not so simple or elementary when they are joined together. Nevertheless, their combined importance helps to explain how free choice underscores creativity. In reference to intuition, emphasis is placed upon the concentration of mental powers, and in reference to technological artifice, emphasis is placed upon an ability that facilitates invention. Technological artifice is open-ended and may serve any cause, but regardless of its means, it remains an uncertainty. The interplay between intuition and technological artifice is expressed by the intuitive ability to observe something closely or to manifest a concentration of mental powers, but also the ability to invent or innovate. The thought of thinkers from Aristotle to the present are discussed indicating that intuition is always dependent upon the world and does not precede it. Although invention and its modification by means of innovation require technological artifice, the latter is not and will never be self-contained. Intuition remains a necessity in order for technological artifice to operate, as it confirms that consciousness in general is distinct from self-consciousness, and yet is coexistent with it. When expressed in metaphysical terms, non-being (that which does not exist) is the source where reality originates, including techno- logical artifice. The revealing of being from non-being occurs through the act of becoming in which being is manifested from non-being. Technological artifice is the result of this becoming.
Th e road that human beings traverse from infancy to maturity runs from consciousness to self-consciousness. It begins with a human newborn who is conscious, whose waking state is one of awareness, and ends with the same entity who is self-conscious, who can conceive of herself from the fi rst person. Th e newborn has no concepts at all, and the mature person has a wealth of concepts, including a self-concept. I shall off er a sketch of this road from (nonconceptual) consciousness to (conceptual) self-consciousnessness. Along the way, I shall argue that, pace Bermudez, (Bermudez 1998, 45) we neither need nor have “nonconceptual fi rst-person contents.”
This article examines the influence of Stanley Hauerwas on Baptists. It describes the nature and scope of Hauerwas’ Baptist project. Specifically, it provides a chronological narrative that explores his critique of Baptists as linked to the modern habits and patterns of fundamentalism-liberalism, enlightenment rationality and individualism, biblical literalism and historicism, and the secular ways of learning in the university. It examines his speeches, sermons, and published works specifically addressed to Baptist audiences. The article analyses not only on his published works, but draws upon the primary sources of original speeches, letters, and other unpublished materials contained in Hauerwas’ personal and academic papers in the archival collection at the Rubenstein Library of Duke University.
During the first 3 years of its existence, this book has been read, debated, and used by many thousands of clinicians and acclaimed as the guide to the summits of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Now David Sackett and his enthusiastic team of coauthors have produced a second, completely revised edition. What does this book contain and why is it of importance, not only to clinicians but also to the practitioners of laboratory medicine?  The ideas imbedded in EBM have a long history. The authors could appropriately add to their …
Our word ‘canon’ goes back through Latin to the Greek word kanon. primarily meaning a ‘reed’ or ‘rod’. The Greek word acquired two secondary meanings: (1) a ‘measuring-rod’ or ‘standard’. and (2) a ‘list’ or ‘index’. Origen, early in the third century A.D., applied the former of these two secondary meanings to the Bible, to indicate that it is the ‘standard’ or ‘rule’ of faith. i.e. the norm by which we are to judge everything that may be commended for our acceptance in the realm of religion. Athanasius, a century later, used the latter of these secondary meanings in reference to the books of the Bible, in the sense in which these books constitute the ‘list’ of writings which the Church reckons as the authoritative documents of divine revelation. When we speak of the Canon of Scripture, this last sense is the one which we intend; but the other sense, in which we regard the Scriptures collectively as the rule of faith, is not excluded.
This article aims to present the analysis of the video Addition in Libras – Sum 5, from the MathLibras project, based on critical events selected by the authors, about the constructed narrative, considering the use of at least one of these three analytical parameters: linguistic, mathematical or audiovisual resources. The MathLibras project is developed at the Federal University of Pelotas and aims to develop Mathematics video lessons in Libras. Note that the video Sum 5 is an original production in Sign Language and not a translation. Some scenes were selected for the analysis of the video and considered as critical events by the team: (a) popcorn bag, (b) carousel, (c) ghost train and (d) Ferris wheel. As conclusions, the pattern in the narrative strategy used by the deaf actor stands out, 1 Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil. <thaisclmd2@gmail.com> 2 Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil. <tblebedeff@gmail.com> 3 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil. <mayummi.aragao@gmail.com> 4 Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil. <lenaluz1098@gmail.com> SciELO Preprints Este documento é um preprint e sua situação atual está disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.2908 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
Erratum     Article title: “Four questions to Dipesh Chakrabarty”     Authors: Dipesh Chakrabarty, Tomasz Wiśniewski, Ewa Domanska     Journal: ETYKA     Bibliometrics: Vol. 58, nr 1, 2019, pages 97–101     DOI: https://doi.org/10.14394/etyka.1257     Tomasz Wiśniewski’s affiliation is incorrect. The correct affiliation for this author is “Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu”. This affiliation has been corrected in the online version of this article. The publisher  apologizes for any inconvenience caused.
Objective perception of the Concept of Jihad on the part of Muslims at large, is organically bewildering as they do not indentify the real scope and working orbit of Jihad. Which is originally based on several dimensions or kinds of Jihad just as Jihad-bil-Mall, Jihad-bin-Nafs, Jihad Bil-Lisan, Jihad-bil-Hijrah and so on. But they enlimit all kinds of Jihad to Jihad-bis-Saif or QITAAL alone. While Jihad-bis-Saif or QITAAL is one of the several kinds or dimensions of Jihad. Rather, it is the last one of the whole chain, to be used as the last option, when all of the other options would have gone in vain, priorly. The perception in question is not only bewildering but it is fallacious as well because it declares Jihad-bis-Saif or QITAAL as “offensive-in-nature” whereas it is not  “offensive-in-nature” at all. Instead, it is “defensive-in-nature” in accordance with the fundamental sources of Islam i-e Quran and Sunnah. Strange is the situation that a considerable number of the Muslim Ulama and Research Scholars, also holds the same fallacious view of Jihad-bis-Saif or QITAAL. Presence of such a class of Ulama and Scholars, in the present age of science and scientific thinking also confirms another fact. The alarming fact that such a class of the Muslim Religious-Heads has, eventually, remained always present to support and strengthen the Muslim Kings and Sultans to wage aggressive wars in the name of Jihad-bis-Saif or QITAAL.
The author presents this study’s problematic: can the biotechnological practices for assisted reproduction and genic therapy violate the individual’s fundamental rights, as well as cause damaging repercussions in the genetics’ patrimony of the humanity? From this thematic: “The juridical content of the concept of strict beneficence in face of the neo-eugenic experience: about the limits among therapeutic and reproductive techniques and eugenic practices applied in the human species”, the object of this study was developed: eugenics. The theoretical referential comes from the work of the Cathedra of Law and Human Genome from the University of Deusto, in Bilbao, Spain, under the direction of Professor Carlos Casabona, consultations to the periodical from the Cathedra, The Magazine of Law and Human Genome, beyond Galton, Lacadena, Barbas, Soutullo, Semprini, Frankena, Vasquez and S. Rocha. This study is characterized as qualitative, bibliographic and it has an exploratory nature. The author has as a general objective : to demonstrate that many of the biotechnological practices currently adopted , under the label of techniques of assisted reproduction or of genic therapy , then protected by the “ protective mantle” of science , present , actually, a strong neoeugenic connotation . There is the hypothesis that it is necessary to establish limits between the actions with strict beneficial consequences that emanate from the biomedical practices and the eugenic ones, the current juridical content of this concept in face of different types of culture, as well as to set out the way its acceptability will be seen by society. This study is organized into six parts, including the Introduction and the Conclusions. In Chapter 2, the author writes about the object of the study: eugenics. The proposal is to delineate the historical trajectory of the traditional eugenic ideology , analyzing its conceptions and the theoretical foundation that generated it , as well as to highlight the thinking of some scholars that defend the movement in favor of the purity of human race, especially Francis Galton; in Chapter 3, the phenomenon of the dissemination of eugenic practices around the world and its repercussions ; in Chapter 4, the outbreak and evolution of genetics as a scientific discipline , its achievements and consequent unfolding , as well as the intensification that has been experienced by the eugenic ideas from the advent of the genomic medicine ; in Chapter 5 , a juridical profile and the content of the concept of strict beneficence that comes from the principialist American bioethical doctrine that was unfolded in the sense of being admitted not only as an obligation nut also as an obligation / right.
Newman’s great love for the Church was evident throughout his life. So too, was his love for Holy Scripture. He knew much of the Bible by heart. Congregations were left spellbound by his extensive use of God’s Written Word, something to which his published sermons testify. It can be asked, however, what, for Newman, was the right relationship between these two great loves of his, Church and Scripture? We shall try to answer that question in this article. As far as possible, we shall let Newman do the talking. The thought of Newman on Church and Scripture was essentially one constant doctrine throughout his life, which underwent a process of development. Hence, it has seemed appropriate to present his thoughts (under each topic) in the order in which he expressed them. To follow Newman’s arguments well, it will be useful to have in mind the distinct Anglican and Catholic standpoints on the question of Church and Scripture: The Anglican approach has traditionally considered that &dquo;Scripture alone is our complete rule of faith and manners&dquo; .’ Chillingworth made this clear with his catch-phrase, &dquo;The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants&dquo;. At certain times, Anglicans have, undeniably, given importance to both Tradition and the Church as guides to faith. One such time was the High Church period, dominated by Archbishop William Laud (15731645). Nonetheless, the supremacy of Scripture as the Rule of Faith was never doubted. Tradition was seen as its &dquo;handmaid&dquo;, while the importance of the Church itself has always been hard to assess with accuracy. The Catholic standpoint, on the other hand, was to consider the
dental idealism. After reading Miller, it is necessary to say that Marx, Nietzsche, and the existentialists have only tempered the claims of idealism, not destroyed them. Miller has demonstrated the original and ineliminable role of freely proposed categories in the constitution of human experience, but as actual conditions of objectivity rather than as subjective, idiosyncratic, or fictive bars to knowledge. The manner in which Miller has reconciled the claims of mind and its ideality with the claims of nature and its reality makes him one of the more provocative successors of Kant and Hegel. If his way of talking takes some getting used to, what he says is thoroughly contemporary. If he rejects all metaphysical claims of transcending history and its contingency, he nonetheless shows science to be possible. I know of no saner via media between skeptical relativism and metaphysical certitude. His arguments will by turns remind the reader of Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Peirce, Dewey, and Kuhn, but he is in the end an American original.
This article argues for a Move-approach to expletive constructions, according to which expletives satisfy the EPP by moving to a designated position rather than by being simply externally merged into it. In particular, I argue that the expletive and its associate form a constituent underlyingly and that the associate carries partitive Case that needs to be checked in accordance with Chomsky's (2008) probe-goal system. Further, I propose that expletives carry only unvalued ϕ-features, unlike ordinary DPs. This makes it possible to accommodate those cases in which expletives appear to be involved in default agreement
In Yesoupuyan, Xia Jingqu deified the hero Wen Suchen with various kinds of literary devices in terms of his ambition, accomplishment, personality and achievement: hence the clearing-up of the suspense over the character's humanity, personality, and fate and the degradation of the work's textual value. As the most important “Daoist” in the history of the Chinese literature, Wen Suchen's image has its special cognitive and literary value.
HE starting signal for the new quest of the historical Jesus was given in 1953 by Ernst Kaisemann in a lecture on the problem of the historical Jesus.' He suggested that the question of the historical Jesus had to be raised again, lest theology become merely a reflection on a mythological Lord. The initial thrust of the new quest was a reaction to Bultmann's emphasis on the relevance of the kerygma of the church. Bultmann seemed to exclude the question of the relevance of Jesus for the church. The proclamation of Jesus was to be regarded as a presupposition of the preaching of the early church, but was not an integral part of Christianity. The new quest originated in the Bultmann school and was initially represented by Kaisemann, Conzelmann, Ebeling, and Fuchs. It was at first a Middle European affair. But within a decade it has found considerable reaction in Britain and the United States. James M. Robinson has written the American summary of this quest.2 In Robinson's view it is supposed to be different from the nineteenth-century quest which sought to study Jesus' life chronologically and psychologically. The latter was almost completely abandoned when the kerygma about Jesus became the center of inquiry in twentieth-century Protestant theology.3 It was especially the kerygma theology of Bultmann that stressed how illegitimate it had been to evade the challenge of the kerygma, a word that calls for existential faith in the saving event, by trying to establish an objectively verifiable proof of the historicity of the event to which the kerygma bears witness. As Robinson sees it, the new quest does not intend to prove that God has acted in Jesus or that Jesus is the Savior. It merely seeks to point out that it was Jesus' purpose to confront the hearer of his word with God. Jesus still meets us at least in terms of his action and his person. Herein he confronts us as much as the kerygma with the need for an existential decision.
