optimal Capital Structure is the imperative decision for any business management to be taken for persistent growth and wealth maximization of the shareholders. The purpose of the study is to investigate firm level and macroeconomic factors of financing behavirs of insurance sector during the study period of 2001-2013. The sample of the study is selected through convenient sampling technique. Moreover, empirical data has been extracted from a number of website notably, State Bank of Pakistan and World Bank. Hausman test and Breusch, and Pagan Lagrange Multiplier test select Fixed Effect and Pooled Regression Model for the study. The findings of the study have revealed that Age, size and tangibility are positively and significantly associated to capital structure, while inflation is insignificant in fixed effect but significant and positively associated in pooled OLS model. GDP is insignificant while lending rate is negative and significantly associated to debt ratio in both estimation techniques. Use of firms fixed effect model also increases the illustrative power of the model signifying that individual firms' heterogeneity issues influential to the leverage. Hence, the relationship of the variables supports Pecking-Order theory and Trade-Off theory of Capital structure. It is recommended to management of insurance sector that mature and large firm could use heavy debt by taking advantage of tax shield.Key words: Capital Structure, Firm level, Macroeconomic Factors, Insurance Sector


The article reports that according to analytic study by the Pew Research Center, Americans' preference for a religious president who have Christian morals during the U.S. presidential elections. Topics discussed include Americans' preference for their political leaders expressing religious faith and prayer; disadvantage for candidates as potentially suitable candidate and President-elect of the U.S. Trump's deportation and wall building proposals.


A case of pigmented villonodular bursitis which is located in the infrapatellar bursae is presented. No any symptom is established except a swelling bellow the knee and exist a slight pain during the knee flexion. There were two recurrences after first operation. And after third operation radiotherapy is applied. According to our literature investigations of the recent ten years we havent encountered any localization belong to infrapatellar bursae.


Mannoproteins were isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae mnn9 mutant cell walls by laminarinase digestion and purified by affinity and anion‐exchange chromatography. The purified mannoprotein fraction contained three predominant proteins with molecular masses of 300 kDa, 220 kDa and 160 kDa. These compounds were absent in an SDS extrct of cell walls or in a hot‐citrate extract of mnn9 cells.


The project MAGPlan, funded by the European Commission under the program LIFE+2008, aims to develop and implement an optimal strategy for integral groundwater investigation and efficient remediation of key sources of pollution for the whole inner city area. The first investigations included descriptions of the complex hydro-geological system of the eight aquifers, drilling of monitoring wells and set up of the conceptual contaminant model. A conceptual contaminant model was developed to describe the status quo of the present contaminant distribution, as well as the basic processes controlling contaminant migration within the observed aquifers. This included the characterization of redox conditions and natural chlorinated hydrocarbons degradation processes, as well as age dating, forensic interpretations with respect to the contaminant origin, and determination of radioactive and stable isotopes. Further on, a numerical unsteady groundwater flow and contaminant transport model were developed, which enabled a quantitative description of the mass balance within the project area. The unsteady numerical model provided detection of migration paths in the valley of Stuttgart and identification of key sources of pollution.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my advisor Dr. Aria Nosratinia for providing me with the opportunity to work as graduate student with him. I express my gratitude to Dr. Nosratinia for his guidance, support and confidence he has shown in my work. I also thank him for instilling a sense of curiosity to learn new things in me.


Two eupodid mites, Egypteupodes strandtmanni sp. n. representing a new genus and Eupodes momeni sp. n. are described and illustrated. Moreover, two established species Eupodes temperatus Shiba and Eupodes voxencollinus Sig Thor have been firstly recorded in Egypt.


Background and Objectives: Sailanur rehm refers (pathological vaginal discharge) refers to the disease entity in which there is flow of infected discharge from uterus.
Method: The study is an observational study performed in the Gynae OPD of AKTC, AMU, Aligarh. All the patients were randomly allocated according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Prevalence of Sailanur rehm is seen among 45 patients according to the Socio-economic Status(SES).
Results: In the present study most of the patients 36(80%) belong to lower SES, while only 9 (20%) belongs to upper SES.
Interpretation and Conclusion: In the present study most of the patients 36(80%) belong to lower SES, while only 9 (20%) belongs to upper SES.


It is recommended that the following described I & E fuel element pair be evaluated for rupture rate improvement, and if significantly improved, recommended for C Reactor usage. Operating conditions are estimated.


Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are one of the most widely used drugs in medicine and their uses has dramatically increased in recent years. They are a class of drugs that reduce pain and lowering the body temperature. The metabolism and excretion of indomethacin was conducted in kidney, so as a result, biochemical parameter and kidney tissues may altered. The present study was designed to evaluate the biochemical, and histological changes induced by indomethacin on the rat's kidney , Thirty adult male albino Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this experimental study. Rats were divided into three equal groups [ Ten in each]. All rats were kept in a quite non stressful environment, provided with food ad libitum and free access to water. Normal saline (1 ml) was given intramuscularly for the control group (I). Experimental groups (II, and III) were injected with indomethacin intramuscularly equivalent to 5 and 10 mg/kg body weight/day respectively for two weeks. Results revealed that indomethacin administration significantly increased the levels of blood urea, uric acid and creatinine when compared with control rats. This study confirmed the risk of increased oxidative stress, and nephrotoxicity due to indomethacin administration. Although indomethacin is reported to be effective in pain management, its toxicity should be kept in mind


This paper introduces a novel underwater hexapod robot NCUUV that integrates crawling and swimming. It can integrate the fixed-point operation capability of traditional ROV with the cruise detection capability of AUV. This paper focuses on a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) control strategy with body posture control, which can be used to control the body pose control of NCUUV while walking underwater. This can not only increase the robot's ability to resist ocean current interference by changing the body posture during walking, but also add additional degrees of freedom to body equipment e.g. cameras and robotic arm. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiments.


The article analyzes the features of the spread of financial crises in African countries in the context of the concept of financial contagion. The application of existing criteria for detecting local crises has made it possible to record numerous episodes of banking, currency and debt crises in the African region. The greatest severity of crises was experienced by such countries as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Zambia. At the same time, in modern conditions, the severity of financial crises has decreased compared to 1990-2000. Banking crises in Africa have not been observed since 2017, but in general, for many years the region has demonstrated an increased crisis burden, especially in terms of debt crises. It is advisable to study the interconnectedness of crises on the basis of the methodology of financial contagion, i.e. the process of spreading negative shocks and crises from one country (region, sector of the economy) to another country (region, sector). Many empirical studies confirm the susceptibility of African economies to such contagion. Moreover, with the growing involvement of Africa in the global world economic system, the frequency and intensity of financial contagion also increases. Today, the main channel of transmission of contagion from the leading economies of the world is trade. Through this channel, contagion was detected in South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco and other countries. The article presents the results of the author's empirical study conducted in relation to a number of African countries in order to identify contagion during the periods of the global financial (2007-2009) and pandemic (2020) crises. The use of an extensive statistical base on the dynamics of stock indices and special tests made it possible to conclude that South Africa was the only recipient of financial contagion in both crises. The susceptibility of this country to contagion is explained by its close trade and financial ties with the world's leading economies. Most African countries react poorly to external shocks (test statistics did not confirm contagion), and the reaction to COVID-19 was even weaker than to the global financial crisis.


Precise knowledge of sources and sinks in the carbon cycle is desired to understand its sensitivity to climate change, and to account and verify man-made emissions. An important role herein play extended sources like urban areas. While in-situ measurements of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) are highly accurate but localized, satellites measure column-integrated concentrations over an extended footprint. Our innovative measurement technique aims at determining CO 2 and CH 4 concentrations on the scale of a few kilometers near the ground, and therefore fills the sensitivity gap between in-situ and satellite measurements.


The invention relates to the technical field of planting of Chinese herbal medicine, in particular to a method for increasing the bud ratio of radix paeoniae rubra seeds. The method comprises the steps of selecting seeds, preparing a solution, soaking seeds, preparing sand, mixing the sand and the seeds, storing the seeds in the sand, conducting cultivation, conducting screening and separation and planting seedlings. The method for increasing the bud ratio of the radix paeoniae rubra seeds is scientific and reasonable and low in cost, operation is easy, and the bud ratio of the radix paeoniae rubra seeds is increased.


The invention discloses a thin film acoustic metamaterial silencer and a designing method thereof. The thin film acoustic metamaterial silencer comprises a pipeline, wherein a frame installation hole communicated with the pipeline is formed in the side face of the pipeline, and a plurality of layers of silencer frames are installed in the frame installation hole. Each silencer frame is provided with a plurality of thin film installation holes. A thin film is arranged in each thin film installation hole and is in a tensioned state. A mass block is arranged at the center of each thin film. Each thin film and the corresponding mass block form a unit cell of the silencer. When the noise frequency in the pipeline is consistent with the working frequency of the silencer, fluid in the pipeline can not vibrate any more due to the vibration of the unit cells, so that the noise of the frequency is eliminated. In terms of pipeline noise, the thin film acoustic metamaterial silencer is good in noise reduction effect, small in size and high in working frequency. By combining a thin film acoustic metamaterial with traditional pipeline acoustics, a new idea is provided for solving the pipeline noise problem.


Objective:To analyse the clinical experience in patients with living donor kidney transplantation in XinJiang area. Methodology:One hundred and seventy-six patients with living donor kidney transplantion in XinJiang area from August 1999 to September 2008 were enrolled in this retrospective study. Their general conditions, the incidence of acute rejection and the way of immunosuppressive agents were investigated. Results:They were 144 male and 32 female with a mean of (37.0±10.3)years old. The minority nationality were 132 patients. The living donor kidney transplantation was occupied only 5% in the same period in all kidney transplantation before 2006, but after 2006, it was rising to 69.4% in all renal transplantation. The 1, 3, 5,5 year patient and graft survivals were 94.3%,93.2%,92.0%,88.6% and 92.0%, 88.1%,92.0% and 86.9%, repectively. The cumulative incidence of acute cellular rejection (ACR) were 9.1%. 18 patients sufferred from severe the lung infection, 11 patients died. Conclusion:The living donor transplantation was rapid growth in recent 3 years in XinJiang area, in which majority of patients was minorities ethnic (74.4%), while the donors were three generationgs of family members, at the same time the donor of Han ethnic were the family people. Our data showed that HLA-mismatch rate had no very close relationship with acute rejection.


Remanufacturing technology is the advanced technology of the surface physical engineering, the technology can improve the physical indicators of material, and make waste materials to meet the new requirements on the use of the products, it has an important role in energy saving material and environmental protection. Aimed at using present situation and problems of the military aero-engine, the paper take a certain type of military aero-engine as an example, detailed analysis the feasibility and necessity of this type engine using remanufacturing technology, and the specific implement process. KEYWORD: Remanufacturing Technology; Aero-engine; Life-cycle


Fabian Hadipriono Tan has worked in the areas of construction of infrastructures and buildings, failure assessment of buildings and bridges, construction accident investigations, forensic engineering, ancient buildings, ancient bridges, and the ancient history of science and engineering for over 40 years. The tools he uses include fault tree analysis, fuzzy logic, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.


To achieve precise wind resource assessments, to calculate loads and wakes as well as for reliable short-term wind power forecasts, the vertical wind profile above the sea has to be modelled with high accuracy for tip heights up to 160m. For these purposes, it is crucial to consider the special meteorological characteristics of the marine atmospheric boundary layer. Continuing our work in the EU-project ANEMOS [1], we analysed marine wind speed profiles that were measured at the two met masts Horns Rev (62m high) and FINO1 (103m) in the North Sea. We found pronounced effects of thermal stratification and of the influence of the land-sea transition. In many situations, the wind shear is significantly higher than expected with standard approaches in mesoscale models. Nevertheless, the numerical analysis of the marine wind field above the North Sea from the German Weather Service seems to provide a good assessment of wind speeds at 103m height. For an improved simulation of the vertical wind speed profiles, we developed a new analytic model of marine wind velocity profiles. In particular, the flux of momentum through the Ekman layers of the atmosphere and the sea is described by a common wave boundary layer. The good agreement between our theoretical profiles and observations at Horns Rev and FINO1 support the basic assumption of our model that the atmospheric Ekman layer begins at 10 to 30m height above the sea surface.


powder particle and the second to interparticle voids. The latter has been found to shift to smaller radius with increasing compacting pressure and/or temperature. The effects of compacting conditions on open and total pore volumes were studied. And it has been shown that the compacting pressure at which the open pore volume remains unchanged with further increase of pressure decreases as compacting temperature is raised. The increase in the open pore volume was observed on heating the polyvinyl chloride powder compacts prepared at room temperature. This might be explained by irreversible displacement of


The invention discloses a self-information based discovery method for a co-occurrent topic in the interdisciplinary field. The method comprises the following specific steps of: (1), data collection: collecting a self-evaluation document set of a highly cited document author on success of scientific research; (2), data processing: extracting and digitizing a text part in self evaluation; (3), extracting candidate low-frequency topic words; (4), calculating a low-frequency topic evaluation coefficient; (5), setting a threshold value of the low-frequency topic word evaluation coefficient; and (6), filtering the low-frequency topic words. The method provides a new idea for related research of topic discovery. Not only are high-frequency words closely related with the topic but also the low-frequency words are available resources. The method can be applied to discovery of topics in evaluation type document sets, for example, common experience of characters is extracted from autobiographical themes and common indexes for stock evaluation are extracted from stock comments, thereby realizing extraction of co-occurrent topics in document sets in different disciplinary fields.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive fibrotic disease limited to the lungs. The course of disease varies widely, with some patients experiencing acute respiratory deterioration, a condition called acute exacerbations of IPF (AE‐IPF). The risk factors contributing to AE‐IPF are unclear. This systematic review and meta‐analysis investigated the risk factors for AE‐IPF.


In defense applications of the real time missile system and during checkout before firing a missile it is required to monitor and control the functions of various subsystems. Sensors will be there for measuring process parameters, conditioning the signal and then input to the digital processing element for storage and retrieval of various parameters is the objective of modern Data Acquisition System (DAQ). The proposed DAQ system design is based on one single FPGA controlling all the sub systems with MicroBlaze Processor configured on Virtex-5 FPGA. The DAQ software includes Xilinx Microkernel (XMK), device drivers, application code for data storage and retrieval system. Multithreading, scheduling, timer and user interrupts gives a complete scope to fulfill the DAQ system to work in real-time environment. Development of such systems in advanced FPGAs allows considerable flexibility in terms of on-chip memory, Customization and production time which is not the case with DSP"s and ARMs.


Three pathogenic fungi of tomato were separated by using transconjugate method and identified by morphological characteristics and internal transcribed spacers ribosomal DNA (ITS rDNA) sequence analysis. Morphological studies showed that FQ1, FQ2 and FQ3 generated spores on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates and slides. The ITS rDNA regions of these pathogens were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced. After analyses of their ITS rDNA sequences, a phylogenetic tree was obtained from the program Neighbor-joining (NJ) together with the sequence of related strains which were downloaded from GenBank. The results of morphological observation and molecular detection of three fungi showed that FQ1 belong to Alternaria alternate. FQ2 belong toCladosporium. FQ3 belongs to Fusarium sp.

 Key words: Tomato fruit, postharvest diseases, fungi, ITS rDNA sequence analysis, identification.


From the last few years, security in wireless sensor network (WSN) is essential because WSN application uses important information sharing between the nodes. There are large number of issues raised related to security due to open deployment of network. The attackers disturb the security system by attacking the different protocol layers in WSN. The standard AODV routing protocol faces security issues when the route discovery process takes place. The data should be transmitted in a secure path to the destination. Therefore, to support the process we have proposed a trust based intrusion detection system (NL-IDS) for network layer in WSN to detect the Black hole attackers in the network. The sensor node trust is calculated as per the deviation of key factor at the network layer based on the Black hole attack. We use the watchdog technique where a sensor node continuously monitors the neighbor node by calculating a periodic trust value. Finally, the overall trust value of the sensor node is evaluated by the gathered values of trust metrics of the network layer (past and previous trust values). This NL-IDS scheme is efficient to identify the malicious node with respect to Black hole attack at the network layer. To analyze the performance of NL-IDS, we have simulated the model in MATLAB R2015a, and the result shows that NL-IDS is better than Wang et al. [11] as compare of detection accuracy and false alarm rate.


1. Introduction Greenhouse plant production systems include the nutrient delivery system, and the plant culture management technique, that are enclosed within a controlled environment. The foundation of all plant production systems is the effective, efficient and dependable means of nutrient delivery. This system must be compatible with the management technique. The specific plant culture management procedures are directly related to the experiences of the grower. A protected environment must include a structure with automated monitoring and control systems. All successful controlled environment plant production systems, capable of producing the plant or its desired byproducts will maintain these interrelated components. Innovativeness in the development of plant production systems allows for unique applications in traditional [earth-based] and non-traditional [extraterrestrial] applications. Fundamental engineering design will be inherent in all successful applications. The nutrient delivery system [NDS] consists of those hardware components that transport nutrient solution [water plus fertilizer] from a central location to each individual plant. The central location may consist of a large storage tank filled with pre-mixed, pH balanced, and proportioned nutrient solution. An alternative to the pre-mix nutrient solution storage tank is the proportioning system that mixes nutrient solution on demand from concentrated stock solution. The prepared nutrient solution is pumped to the crop, and may be distributed uniformly and directly to each individual plant [as with microirrigation drippers], or more broadly distributed to the crop that may be grouped in rows [within troughs], in zones [on benches] or as an entire greenhouse bay [ebb and flood floor]. Some means for control of the nutrient distribution pump is required. Irrigation frequency and duration may be based on fixed time intervals determined from past experiences, or be more specific to plant demands, and be based proportionally to measured solar radiation. The plant culture technique includes the procedures that are completed by the grower of the plants in order to produce a healthy crop of desired quality. These procedures or culture tasks are crop specific, but they are directly related to the type of NDS. In general, they include those tasks necessary for complete regeneration of the plant, and are specific to the " product " desired from the plant. For example, the product may be vegetative [leave, stem or root] or reproductive [flower, fruit, tuber]. The interrelationship among the labor to complete the culture tasks, the plant growth habit and the NDS, combine to determine the production program and specific labor …


Palabras clave/ Urbanismo bioclimático, confort urbano, asentamiento histórico, sostenibilidad urbana. Keywords/ Bioclimatic urbanism, urban comfort, ABSTRACT/ This article reveals the existence of a bioclimatic urban pattern in an old village in Elqui Valley, Chile. This pattern was discovered when attempting to relate the ancient settlements of this Valley with the natural resources in the area, in order to achieve thermal comfort. Initially, the area's microclimate is studied with bioclimatic charts to then develop an interaction matrix between urban and natural environment variables. The findings show that the village of Algarrobito acts sustainably and efficiently uses the area's natural resources. The matrix shows the presence of an urban bioclimatic pattern. Subsequently, evidence of the existence of such urban pattern in other villages in the Valley is offered. Then, environmental urban planning to achieve thermal comfort was evident in other ancient housing complexes in the Elqui Valley.


The purpose of implementing this PkM activity is to increase student interest in learning and the quality of student education at SD Negeri 104212 Marindal II through free tutoring courses. Considering how the tendency of children in grades 1, 4, and 5 to have decency, and self-interest, and lack of literacy knowledge, it is hoped that this activity will have a positive and significant impact so that an orderly, safe and comfortable school environment is created. for all his students. The implementation method is carried out from February 2 to 28, 2022 at SD Negeri 104212 Marindal II. After the PkM implementation was carried out, the PkM Team students stated that there were several positive impacts on students at the school, such as: 1) Experience directly the benefits of community service activities through a series of activities that have been carried out, 2) Can help teachers in teaching students, and also 3) Add insight and improve new ways of thinking in solving problems in the school environment. The author hopes that this community service activity can increase the confidence of each participant in daily communication, especially in the school environment as one of the positive activities for the self-development of the participants.
Keywords: Courses, free tutoring, effect


In the modern conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, while digital transformations are affecting the economy, an unique opportunity to transform business operations as well as to increase productivity significantly and create new products appears. The paper deals with the essence of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation as an economic categories and the fastest growing technological segments in the global information environment. Thus, the aim of the paper is to study prediction algorithms as a unique opportunity to transform business operations by the use of digital technologies and the revitalization of e-commerce. The emphasis is on the fact that most enterprises are in the early stages of digitalization, which presents certain risks and opportunities. The authors consider that the artificial intelligence has already become an important factor of production to create sustainable economic growth and ensure the competitive advantage of any business organization.


The concept of quantization consists in replacing commutative quantities by noncommutative ones. In mathematical language an algebra of continuous functions on a locally compact topological space is replaced with a noncommutative $C^*$-algebra. Some classical topological notions have noncommutative generalizations. This article is concerned with a generalization of coverings.


After a long period of stagnation many sport stadiums have been built during the last years across Germany and other are still under construction or reconstruction. This boom was induced by the application for the FIFA Football World Championship 2006 (which was won, at the end) and seemed necessary, given the obsolete stadium infrastructure of German clubs. While in the past stadiums were wholly financed by public expenditure, current financial difficulties of the German government and especially of the municipalities, joint with the changes of the legal form of German football clubs, make it necessary and possible to search for alternative financing forms. This paper analyzes Cross-Border-Leasings between Germany and the U.S. as such an innovative form and tests its suitability for financing stadium building projects.


C/EBPα, β, and δ are all expressed by bone marrow-derived macrophages. Ectopic expression of any of these transcription factors is sufficient to confer lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-inducible expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) to a B lymphoblast cell line, which normally lacks C/EBP factors and does not display LPS induction of proinflammatory cytokines. Thus, the activities of C/EBPα, β, and δ are redundant in regard to expression of IL-6 and MCP-1. Surprisingly, the bZIP region of C/EBPβ, which lacks any previously described activation domains, can also confer LPS-inducible expression of IL-6 and MCP-1 in stable transfectants. Transient transfections reveal that the bZIP regions of C/EBPβ, C/EBPδ, and, to a lesser extent, C/EBPα can activate the IL-6 promoter and augment its induction by LPS. Furthermore, the transdominant inhibitor, LIP, can activate expression from the IL-6 promoter. The ability of the C/EBPβ bZIP region to activate the IL-6 promoter in transient transfections is completely dependent upon an intact NF-κB-binding site, supporting a model where the bZIP protein primarily functions to augment the activity of NF-κB. Replacement of the leucine zipper of C/EBPβ with that of GCN4 yields a chimeric protein that can dimerize and specifically bind to a C/EBP consensus sequence, but shows a markedly reduced ability to activate IL-6 and MCP-1 expression. These results implicate the leucine zipper domain in some function other than dimerization with known C/EBP family members, and suggest that C/EBP redundancy in regulating cytokine expression may result from their highly related bZIP regions.


This report summarizes the activities and experiences of a UF team that visited the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India from July 29 to Aug. 11, 2006. The UF delegation included K. Ramesh Reddy, Chair of the Soil and Water Science (SWS) Department; Sabine Grunwald, Associate Professor and Distance Education Coordinator (SWS Department). They were joined by Wendy Graham, Director of the UF Water Institute on Aug. 5, 2006.


This article uses a comparative case study design to investigate how inter-firm relationships affect the outcome of new service developments (NSD). Empirical evidence comes from the development of two e-commerce services in the four dominant Taiwanese convenience store chains. This study found that the interdependence between case companies and fundamental suppliers tends to be characterised by high switching cost and accompanied with ownership for both service developments. In contrast, the interdependence between case companies and non-fundamental suppliers is based on valuable resources. Moreover, case companies cooperate with their suppliers (i.e. fundamental and non-fundamental) on the basis of trust created by previous cooperative experience, the supplier's good capability and contract in two service developments. In particular, this study found that interdependence (asymmetrical or mutual) and a higher level of trust between firms shortens the time required for NSD.


Abstract : This memorandum describes the parametric testing methodology implemented to evaluate the outcome of an in-house CMOS, silicon on sapphire process in its development phase. The parametric testing methodology implemented is unconventional in that it seeks to validate the assumptions made when obtaining the parameter values sought rather than assuming that they are applicable. This is achieved by associating quality factors with each of the parameters evaluated, which will only be close to their ideal values when the assumptions made are valid. In addition, the procedures used to evaluate the parameters sought and the programs subsequently employed to analyse the parametric data thus obtained do not require prior knowledge of the range of parameter values anticipated. This method has been found to be of considerable value in practice, since it eliminates the need for an initial validation exercise and also checks that the assumptions which were originally made remain applicable as the process evolves. Whilst the methodology has only been implemented for a CMOS, silicon on sapphire process, it could be employed with equal effect for any other semiconductor process during its development phase. Keywords: Complementary metal oxide semiconductors; Parametric analysis; Great Britain.


The invention discloses an insulation performance testing method of electric power devices. The insulation performance testing method is characterized by including: obtaining accurate enough dielectric insulation characteristic parameters through short time measuring value according to a mathematical statistic method, establishing a sample insulation test reference criterion according to an insulation dielectric absorption theory and an insulation equipment degradation mechanism, and judging insulation quality of samples comprehensively. The insulation performance testing method provides a novel thought and a rapid, practical and novel method for comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the insulation performance of the samples so as to expand capability to obtain insulation performance information of the samples, and predicts wide application prospects of insulation characteristic parameters and characteristic quantity as the insulation test reference criterion.


The Convergence of Securities Law: Case Studies of Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and China / Mark Gillen, Pitman Potter Parallel Importation and Reputation Spillover: Transnationalization of Law and Legal Doctrine in a Transactional Context / Robert Howell Asia-Pacific Competition Law Frameworks: ASEAN and APEC Models / William A.W. Neilson Parliamentary Supremacy: Contrasting Change and Continuity in Thailand / Cheryl Crane, Mark Gillen, Ted L. McDorman Constitutional Change and Continuity in Thailand / Ted L. McDorman The Functions of a Written Constitution: Perspectives on the 1992 Vietnamese Constitution / Joanna Harrington, Ted. L. McDorman, William A.W. Neilson, Douglas M. Johnston Legal Regulation of Mental Disorder: Looking East and West / Gerry Ferguson Whores, Soiled Doves, or Working Women?: Law, Society, and the Sex Trade in Australia, Canada, and Thailand / John McLaren Environmental Security and the Quest for Sacred Text: Trends in North America and Southeast Asia / Douglas M. Johnston Indigenous Peoples and Legal Responses: Case Studies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States / Hamar Foster Dispute Management in Theory and Practice: Cross-Cultural Observations / Andrew Pirie


In a method of operating a radio station of a radio communication system (Node B), at least two values of the transmission parameters for the subsequent data transmission of wireless stations (Node B) a first subscriber station (UE1) (PAR1, PAR2 ) transmits the information relating to the first subscriber station (UE1). Receiving a radio station (Node B) a first signal over a radio interface from the first subscriber station (UE1) (PS1), for detecting a measure for the transmission quality based on the first signal (PS1) . It followed radio station (Node B) transmits to the first information (I1) first subscriber station (UE1) for selection of one of the values of the transmission parameters (PAR1, PAR2). First information (I1) to consider the transmission quality of the first signal (PS1).


Aim
To evaluate the effects of tolterodine and oxybutynin on visual accommodation, pupillary diameter, intraocular pressure and tear secretion in women with overactive bladder.


The present invention relates to a power conversion system and control method for a power conversion system. Proposed power converter for driving the permanent magnet motor by a sine wave filter or other load (16) and a transformer (18) (6) (10), the control means (20) and (100), wherein a current frequency relationship (24) controls the inverter output current (IA, IB, IC) to a value (21, 31) to a desired frequency or speed set point into a current (32), the sine wave filter having a ratio of (16) low resonant frequency bandwidth control algorithm (26) to adjust the inverter output current (IA, IB, IC).


Since the year 2000, fraud cases after rotation of ruling Parties of our country have broken into a succession, which causes compatriots' condemnation to the government's administrative efficiency, and even suspicion on the morals of the civil servants, especially the basic government officers who are responsible for the execution of actual policies. They, in administration for conduct or not conduct, are certainly faced with a difficult choice of ethics. From retrospective documents and materials, a majority of researchers focus on the ethics behaviors of high-orders or the intermediate personnel mainly, very few touch the basic government officers' personal key ethics value, and some may overweight the discussion on the law regulation. Therefore, this research aims to probe into administrative ethics norm, ethics philosophy and morals to judge the relation with ethics intention mainly, and the influence of the personal values. The basic government officers were respondents. 309 effective samples were collected. The empirical results show as follows. First, the basic government officers do not generally think the current administrative ethics norm of our country is paid attention to. They are helpless to the improvement of administrative ethics efficiency. It's worth government's units concerned making self-criticism and improvement. Second, the basic government officers' abundant ideas are closely related to the formation of ethics intention. Among them, inclination to Theory of Relativity is the most influential, Theory of deontology takes the second place, and Teleology is the last with very small influence. Ethics judgment is relatively strong in the correlation to positive explanation of the intention in the ethics attitude. In addition, administrative ethics norm is positively correlated to the variable items to ethics concern only, but influences very little. Third, the variable items of personal values are possibly similar to the independent variables. They are perhaps in relation to a forecast variable, an antecedent variable, an intermediary variable, or an exogenous variable. Fourth, the variables including sex, different backgrounds, such as age, marriage, education degree, job position, year and public service seniority, and year and seniority of organization service show significant differences in the surface of each studying and constructing, but the religious belief, government post and the duty department do not have obvious differences.


Now that the 1980 elections are history, it's time to gather your classes around you and like a football coach viewing films with the team on Monday morning look back on events of the past several months to see what can be learned about language manipulation. The timing is advantageous because the elections are recent enough that interest is still high and plenty of examples of political rhetoric are available in magazines and newspapers. On the other hand, many of the political fires have dissipated themselves so that it will be easier for both you and your students to be disinterested-though not uninterested-observers.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is driven by pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cell (PASMC) vasoconstriction and remodeling. One of the many drivers of PAH‐PASMCs remodeling is increased transferrin receptor‐1 (TFR‐1) expression. Under pro‐PAH conditions, PASMCs exhibit elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production which may disrupt ferrochelatase normal heme production. We evaluated the role played by ROS‐deregulated ferrochelatase in TFR‐1‐mediated PAH‐PASMCs remodeling. Intra‐lobar pulmonary arteries (PA) isolated from monocrotaline‐induced PAH model in Sprague‐Dawley rats have shown an up‐regulation of ferrochelatase expression, that can be a result of hypoxia‐inducible factor (HIF) mediated up‐regulation to compensate for decreased ferrochelatase catalytic activity. Decreased ferrochelatase activity was evident in the decreased levels of hemin (oxidized form of heme) in isolated PAH‐PAs. Endothelin‐1 (ET‐1), which is an inducer of mitochondrial ROS and is one of the mediators of PAH; was used in a 24‐hour organ culture of isolated endothelium‐removed bovine pulmonary arteries (BPA). ET‐1 cultured BPAs have shown decreased hemin levels and increased TFR‐1 expression. Thus, ROS‐deregulated ferrochelatase may promote vascular remodeling in PAH through the impairment of hemin‐mediated downregulation of TFR‐1 receptors in PASMCs.


This paper proposed a fast fractal image coding algorithm based on two-step selection.Firstly,classified all the domain blocks into several categories based on their moment invariant,and then searched the best-matching domain block for every range block to be encoded in the same category or adjacent categories.Finally,coded secondarily the range blocks which were larger than threshold based on their information entropy.The proposed algorithm achieves the speed-up of over 5 times compared with the moment-feature-based fractal algorithm for the same PSNR.Experimental results show that the proposed hybrid method can improve the speed of fractal coding and the quality of decoded image.


Transgenic plants of Asparagus officinalis cv. Mary Washington 500W were generated by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. After induction of flowers by treatment with atrazine, calli were induced from male and female plants. Calli of male and female origin were co-cultivated with Agrobacterium EHA101 (pIG121Hm) and EHA101 (pARK5), respectively. About thirty shoots developed from female calli and three shoots developed from male calli within six weeks on selective medium supplemented with 100mg/l kanamycin and 500mg/l claforan. Most of the shoots did not form roots. Seven shoots from female calli formed roots and were successfully transferred to soil in a greenhouse. But shoots of male calli did not form any roots. Stable integration and inheritance of transgenes were demonstrated by molecular and genetic analysis of transformants in the R0 and R1 generations. In an analysis using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fragments of both the NPT II gene and the bar gene were amplified from five R0 plant fragments. Southern analysis showed that both NPT II and bar probes hybridized to products of PCR from five R0 plants. One of the five R0 plants was crossed with a non-transgenic male plant. The segregation ratio of transformed to non-transformed R1 plants was about 1:1. These results indicated that drug-resistant genes were transferred to Asparagus by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.


This study was directed toward identifying unique maintenance and repair requirements in terms of manpower and materials for coal-fired steam turbine propulsion plant ships. The method of approach included surveys of industrial and marine coal-fired plant operators and coal-firing equipment manufacturers to obtain a data base of manpower and material requirements for a range of plant sizes and operating scenarios. A national coal-fired plant was then developed and the maintenance data base adapted to the marine coal-fired system. From this information, required crew manpower was determined and compared to typical oil-fired systems and associated manpower availability evaluated. Material and contract manpower costs were assessed and parametric data developed to allow potential operators to estimate daily maintenance and repair costs.


This paper aims to conduct exploratory research into dissemination of the purpose of the Industry 4.0 concept in Brazil, especially in the Architecture, Engineering and Civil Construction (AEC) sector. For this aim, a survey was conducted in on line magazines. In Brazilian territory the theme arises since 2016 in traditional manufacturing sector. In AEC the papers on these organizational mechanisms are incipient, especially when talking about possible networks of connections between clients, production, machines with data feedback and specialized programming.


The test of the crab waist collision scheme, undergoing at the e+e- Frascati DAFNE accelerator complex since February 2008, requires a fast and accurate measurement of the absolute luminosity, as well as a full characterization of the background conditions. Three different monitors, a Bhabha calorimeter, a Bhabha GEM tracker and a gamma bremsstrahlung proportional counter have been designed, tested and installed around the interaction point end of 2007-beginning of 2008. In this paper, we describe these detectors and present their performances in various operation conditions during the 2008 and 2009 DAFNE runs.


Warm Greetings!!!

It has been almost 3 long years, following the cannonade of publication and research, which has hit the fraternity of dentistry in India. In the bargain, certain individuals have actually lost the original concept with which the articles need to be published. Few of them, do it out of peer competition and others do it just to meet the criterions in their academic position. In such a case, there is huge amount of compromise which one needs to make in the quality of research performed. Thus, the applied current sketch in the field of dental academics is Publish and Publish; if not then career perishes which goes along with the phrase inscribed "Publish or Perish". Therefore, publication of research has become a great liability on the shoulders of the concerned researcher. Today, since many countries have made publications as mandatory criteria for their researchers, academicians and institutional consultants to be continuously associated with them as a faculty; they have indirectly pressurized the concerned personnel instead of motivating them. Also, corporate interest is playing a major role on the same lines. Since, numerous materials have been a part of the market today, each one over the other tries to project their advantages with the background of comparative research performed on co-equal paraphernalia. No matter, what the deal is, the liability should turn into an asset, and instead of pressure there should be pleasure associated with publication of valuable research performed then. It should not be associated with the creed of "Publish or Perish". Apart, one needs to let the world know about the research performed, in a debate that its importance should not decline as it could be a ladder for another step in the same acreage.

Along, Publication of Research is one of the few methods that scholars have practiced since time to describe their academic talent and excellence. Secondly, it also works as a double edged sword. In few cases, it keeps up the competition between universities to compel as best. In such instances, a university mandates quality check before each research is given approval by the Institutional Review/Research Boards. However, a similar check cannot be controlled at individuals level. Hence, the difference found. Thus, the phrase has advantages as well as disadvantages. One needs to take the positive aspect of this byword and not go by its mere shortcomings, even though the shortcomings have benefits in the way. To exclaim, these would only be a mere short term earning.

As in capacity of being Editor of Execution, JIOH; I hereby would like to take an opportunity to invite papers to the journal from the authors who have a strong belief in their accomplished research and the efforts taken to script the findings on paper which they intend to publish.


A 66-year-old male patient from Nice, French Riviera, suddenly woke up in themorning at his home feeling a severe stinglike pain, first in the neck and then in the back.He searched in his bed and found a 4-mm insect (Figure 1A and B). A pruritic rash with multiple inflammatory papular lesions in line was apparent (Figure 1C). The evolution was good without treatment. Inflammationdisappeared in thenext 2 hours. Threedays later, the lesions were not painful anymore (Figure 1D). On day 7, healing lesions were still visible on the patient's back (Figure 1E). The insect was identified as Scleroderma domesticum. Only the femalesare responsible for human lesions.Theycanbe foundnear old wooden furniture where they parasitize xylophagous beetles larvae. They inject venom with their sting to paralyze the larvae and feed on their hemolymph before laying their eggs on them. This insectmay be found in antique dealer stores because of the presence of its host. It very rarely causes human lesions. Its maximumactivity is in theeveningandatnight, but daytimebites are possible. Eradicating furniture beetles is the key to prevent these exceptional human infestations.


The paper has the analysis and research on the field management of the engineering programs,points out the field management in the engineering program should start from the highlights on the safety,the quality,the progress and the costs,and proves the ideas by taking examples,showing facts and making senses,and points out the safety is the premise,the quality is the basement,the progress is the guarantee and the costs is the core,and concludes the four aspects are indispensable and co-existent to be the organized whole.


which focuses on devel-oping systems that can manage and protect them-selves with only high-level human guidance. Thiscapability is especially important to systems such asfinancial networks and power grids that must sur-vive hardware component failures and securityattacks.There are two general approaches to implement-ing software adaptation.


In six of 11 subjects challenged with rhinovirus 21, nasal interferon was produced in levels sufficient to inhibit replication of 3 logs or more of rhinovirus 21 in tissue culture. In eight of 14 subjects similarly challenged after treatment for 24 hr with an alkyl-substituted propanediamine, nasal interferon was produced 24 hr earlier, and the levels were slightly higher. Drug alone induced interferon in four of eight subjects. Thus, topical application of the nonabsorbable compound, N,Ndioctadecyl-N'-bis-(hydroxyethyl) -propanediamine, induced nasal interferon and enhanced production of virus-induced interferon. Overall, there was no difference between the drug- and placebo-treated groups in rate of infection or incidence of illness. Faster recovery from illness was associated with appearance of high titers of interferon in nasal secretions. The reduced severity of symptoms that followed pretreatment with drug was independent of the effect of interferon. It may be concluded that any beneficial effect of secretory interferon as a result of viral infection is poorly related to its antiviral action. This infection began during the lag phase before interferon production, and no inference can be made as to the effect of preformed interferon on rhinovirus infection.


The use of steel pipe piles increased in Japan during the 1950s; at that time, they were driven mainly by the impact hammer (piling) method. Then, in response to the social requirement for minimum noise, vibration and waste soil, high bearing capacity and low costs, various steel pipe piling methods unique to Japan were developed and put into practice. More recently, against the background of the development of piles of high bearing capacity and increased seismic force to be considered in structural design, demands have increased for steel pipe piles and joint structures of higher strength and rigidity. Over the last few years, quick piling work at increasingly restricted sites in urban areas is being requested, renewal or reinforcing works of existing structures are being conducted often under restricted conditions such as limited overhead clearance, and an increasingly higher level of quality control is required while skilled labor decreases. Various types of steel pipe piles and piling methods have been developed to cope with these conditions and requirements. This paper gives an overview of the history of pipe pile technologies, and investigates the latest technical development trends to respond to the requirements with reference to some examples. NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL TECHNICAL REPORT No. 113 DECEMBER 2016 25 1970s, larger than what it is today. At that time, piles were driven mostly by impact piling, and big buildings and structures were erected rapidly during the period of high economic growth thanks to larger piling machines of higher efficiency. Impact piling is suitable for steel pipe piles of high strength and thin walls, excellent in bearing capacity and economical because of high driving speed and no waste earth. It is also reliable because the driving end depth can be effectively defined based on the dynamic bearing force control. These advantages of the impact piling method still hold true; it is one of the best piling methods in terms of cost performance and reliability, and is still used widely for port construction, etc., where regulations on vibration and noise are more relaxed. From the 1960s, however, the concern about public nuisance increased, the noise, vibration and oil droplets from piling machines began to be regarded as problems, and after the enactment of the Noise Regulation Act in 1968 and that of the Vibration Regulation Act in 1976, the method became impracticable in urban zones. 2.2 Low-noise, low-vibration piling methods —Development of inner excavation and vibratory hammer methods As steel pipe piles were effectively used in quantities in large unit lengths for structures on soft ground, the above restriction on the impact piling in urban areas, where soft ground is widely prevalent, constituted a serious problem, and new piling methods were eagerly sought to solve the problem. One of the early attempts to drive pipe piles causing low noise and little vibration was the inner excavation method shown in Photo 1; it was further modified later into various piling methods for pipe piles. It was initially developed in the 1960s, then, other piling methods having characteristic features in the driving and foot protection processes were proposed and made widely available. The method for evaluating the bearing capacity of the steel pipe piles installed by the inner excavation method was defined in the Specifications for Highway Bridge 3) of the Japan Road Association in 1992. Jointly with Tenox Corporation, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation developed the TN Method,4) whereby the pile tip was protected by injecting cement milk into the soil at high pressure to agitate and solidify it; the method was employed for pipe piles and pipe sheet piles for foundation construction of road bridges and the like. With the inner excavation method, many of the advantages of impact piling were lost; the bearing capacity was smaller because the soil underwent no lateral pressure or stress history during pile driving without impact; waste earth arose; it was not easy to confirm if the pile tip reached the bearing stratum; etc. Nevertheless, steel pipe piles continued being used in quantities mainly for the foundations of bridges and civil engineering structures in urban areas in appreciation of their strength, rigidity and other material properties. In fact, their consumption is still high, albeit somewhat less than what it once was, supported by new driving methods introduced lately. Another piling method is the vibratory hammer method shown in Fig. 1; this method does not involve earth augers or cement, but maintains the advantages of the impact piling method to some extent while reducing the noise and vibration. By this method, pipe piles are driven into soil under the load of the hammer and its vibration. It began to be used widely around 1970, and measures were taken to reduce the adverse effects on outside construction sites by variable control of the force and amplitude of the vibration and use of high-frequency waves. Its latest version uses a water jet at the pile tips to soften the soil and drive the piles more quickly. The application reference of the vibratory hammer method to bearing piles, however, was slower than those of the other methods, and the method only became widely practiced after sufficient bearing capacity data were accumulated and the bearing capacity by the method was evaluated in the Specifications for Highway Bridges 5) as late as in 2002. 2.3 Performance improvement and response to varied requirements —Technical development unique to Japan Although the inner excavation method solved the noise and vibration problems, it brought about problems of less bearing capacity, lower piling speed, generation of waste earth and the difficulty in defining the piling end depth. The problem of vibration persisted with the vibratory hammer method, albeit considerably reduced, and the water jet, which was introduced as a measure against it, caused uncertainty about the bearing capacity. In view of this, a new stage of technical development began aiming at solving the remaining problems and enhancing the cost performance, the environmental amenity and the reliability of the driving work of pipe piles. As a result, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal developed the following unique driving methods for pipe piles and offered them at the market. 2.3.1 Gantetsu Pile TM, piling method of high bearing capacity and less waste earth for civil engineering structures The Gantetsu Pile method was developed through joint development with Tenox and other partners. It is a steel pipe and soil cement piling method whereby, as seen in Fig. 2, the soil is excavated vertically, stirred and mixed with injected cement milk to form columns of soil cement, which are then unified with steel pipes with protruPhoto 1 Inner excavation method Fig. 1 Vibratory hammer method NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL TECHNICAL REPORT No. 113 DECEMBER 2016 26 sions on the outer surface. It can form piles of high bearing capacity with low emission of noise and vibration, while part of the excavated soil is used for the soil cement to decrease waste earth discharged to outside.6) The tip resistance and the skin friction of the piles formed by this method can be evaluated based on the diameter of the soil cement columns. The method offers good bearing capacity, and under favorable conditions, it is possible to build foundation structures more economically than with cast-in-place concrete piles. The Gantetsu Pile was first employed for a building foundation in 1990, and thereafter, in appreciation of its tip resistance, skin friction and horizontal resistance well balanced with each other at a high level, was applied mainly to civil engineering, where the resistance to pulling force and lateral deformation often constitutes a dominant factor in foundation design; it has been employed for the foundations of more than 400 road bridges and other structures. There are cases where the bearing stratum is so deep that it is too costly to support a structure with tip bearing piles only, and the method has been effectively employed recently for an increasing number of cases to form friction piles. In addition, its application to different ground conditions is increasing such as harder soils of weathered or soft rock (of the CL class). 2.3.2 TN-X TM method —Ultra-high-bearing-capacity piling method for building foundations The TN-X method is a method for forming expanded foot protections at the tips of steel pipe piles; it was developed jointly with Tenox. As seen in Fig. 3, at the end of each steel pipe pile, an expanded foot protection having a diameter up to twice that of the pile proper is formed, and thanks to the expanded excavation only at the pile tip, the tip bearing capacity is increased to nearly four times that of an inner excavation pipe pile of the same diameter,7) which means less excavation volume per unit bearing capacity. Another advantage of the method is that piles can be installed to great depths by using inner excavation. Because of these advantages, the method has been used for a large number of distribution centers and warehouses at coastal locations, where the soil is soft and the bearing stratum is deep, while heavy loads are imposed on the building columns. Since its first application in 2005, the TN-X method has been employed for many building foundations, where vertical bearing capacity is essential. Vertical misalignment of piles is small by the method, the position accuracy is good, and for this reason, it has been used for a great number of buildings in combination with antiseismic pile-top isolators. Now that high pile-tip bearing capacity is obtainable by the TN-X method and the pre-boring method for forming expanded foot protections for pre-cast concrete piles, from the viewpoint of the balance between the bearing capacity and the pile strength and the need for redundancy in consideration of the uncer


The present study attempts to analyse inter-regional disparity in rural infrastructure in the state of Odisha. Three separate indices have been developed for different categories of rural infrastructure-physical, social and financial - with help of the Principal Component Analysis before unifying them to a single index known as the Rural Infrastructure Index (RII). The study observes that there exists vertical inequality in the spread of different categories of infrastructure in the state. Disparity is the severest in the case of financial infrastructure. The study attributes underdevelopment of Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) belt and some of districts of western-central Odisha to the underdevelopment of rural infrastructure. The analysis lauds the formation of special plans such as the KBK plan and formation of Western Odisha Council by the government. It calls for a time-bound delivery system and region-specific measures in place.


PROPELLER technique can effectively cancel motion artifacts in MRI. But its wider application in clinical situation is limited due to considerable reconstruction times. Since most correction operations in PROPELLER reconstruction can be done for each strip respectively, the algorithm is highly parallelizable. This allows us to exploit the data-parallel nature of the GPU fragment processors. The paper presents an implementation to accelerate reconstruction of PROPELLER MRI on graphics processing units (GPUs) using CUDA. An improved grid-driven interpolation algorithm for PROPELLER trajectory is proposed for real-time imaging applications. The experiments show that the reconstruction is speeded up about nine times on GPU that of implementation on CPU with compatible motion correction accuracy and image quality.


Summary Wild yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi Valenciennes, 1833) and Samson fish (S. hippos Günther, 1876) were tagged with nylon-headed, single-barbed dart tags between December 1, 2004 and December 31, 2006 in Spencer Gulf and offshore from the west coast of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Two-hundred and forty-one S. lalandi and 73 S. hippos were tagged. Twenty-four S. lalandi were recaptured and the maximum distance between capture points was 130 km and the maximum time at liberty was 442 days. Two S. hippos were recaptured, of which one was at liberty for a maximum of 378 days. Both S. hippos were recaptured at the original capture site. Recapture results indicate that large S. lalandi remain in, or return to, northern Spencer Gulf. This region may be important for aggregations of large, reproductively mature S. lalandi. One large S. lalandi tagged at Port Augusta was recaptured near Fitzgerald Bay, indicating that wild fish may move past S. lalandi sea-cage farms in this region. This course of movement may provide opportunities for disease and parasite interactions between wild and farmed fish. An additional outcome of this research was the residual impact that it has had on sustainable fishing practices in South Australia with increased recreational fisher participation in the tag and release of S. lalandi and S. hippos.


Family is considered to be a significant factor of deviant behaviour within the multifactor theories searching for its causes. Family environment forms the core features of personality, including the deviations. It has undergone radical changes in the course of the past twenty years, which left its marks on the increase of the incidence of social deviation. This paper explains the most important context of this development.


Yogyakarta City has a sacred cosmological space formed by imaginary philosophical axes based on the centuries′ old Javanese belief system. The Kraton or Sultan′s Palace is the focal area with the space around the philosophical axes functioning as a buffer area, and the outer circle that serves as a supporting area. All are linked by the concept of co-habitation space. This paper aims to explain the spatial, philosophical principles in relation to the phenomenon of changes in the urban space in Yogyakarta today. The concept of co-habitation space is physically understood as activities showing guyub (harmony/togetherness) carried out by urban citizens. These can be seen from place attachment, livelihood, and spatial territory. The focus of this research is the sharing phenomenon (′co′) that takes place in kampong (urban neighbourhoods) spaces and their surrounding areas. This study uses a rationalistic approach and mixed methods of which the main methods employed were observation and space syntax. The results of this study suggest that the level of guyub in an area is influenced by the local spatial configuration. This study concludes that the concept of co-habitation space affected the way the Sultans of Yogyakarta utilized their kingdom′s territory for the welfare of their people.


The effective control of a construction project budget from project inception to completion and occupation is one of the primary tasks of any organisation employed to deliver construction project management services irrespective of the projects actual global location. This paper sets out the key issues and problems involved in the delivery of this service to construction industry clients in the UK. The main features of a project cost management system are identified in the paper before it addresses the principal problem areas of initial cost budget or baseline setting and project cost performance management. The literature reviewed identifies the potential project management tools that can be used to contribute to the management of each of the principal problem areas. The paper reports evidence collected from previous data collection exercises with practitioners based in the UK that allows current practice to be illustrated. The data on project performance measurement reported in the paper have been collected by mailed survey from one hundred and fifty two organisations involved in delivering project management services in the UK in 2004. The survey achieved a 42% response rate and its results raises questions about the claimed benefits of a bespoke project cost performance management tool termed as earned value analysis. The paper concludes by considering the direction of future construction related project cost management education and the role that can be played by professional institutions to promote change in practice.


The United States water and wastewater industry is a large consumer of energy and offers significant potential for energy efficiency improvement projects, particularly related to pumping, aeration, and solids treatment processes. However, energy cost savings are often not adequate to justify capital expenditures for identified energy efficiency measures. In such situations, additional non-energy benefits must be linked to the projects to ensure their development. Common non-energy drivers in the industry include system reliability, water quality, and operating costs. The paper presents specific opportunities to leverage the value of increasing reliability, improving water quality, and reducing labor and maintenance costs to advance energy savings opportunities.


This presentation describes an on-line image analysis system for the automatic distribution analysis of holographic particles in 3D space. To obtain the 3D distribution parameters of particles, sequences of 2D cross-sectional retrieved images of the particle hologram are obtained using the in-line retrieval method, and the processing of the 2D retrieved images is discussed in this presentation. To segment the candidate particles, an entropy based automatic threshold selection method is adopted. In the process of out-of-focus particle removal, the radial intensity profile of the candidates in the original image and the clearness of the candidate neighboring areas in the Sobeled image are analyzed. Experimental results are presented to show the efficiency of the approach described in this presentation.


The present invention discloses a probe for testing an electronic device for the module, said module comprising at least two probe contacts, each contact comprising: a first end portion along a first line extending in a first direction; and a second end portion extending along a second line in a second linear direction opposite to the first direction; and a third bent portion between the first end and the second end portion of the extending portion. The first line of the second line spaced apart from and parallel to the second line, and the at least two contacts in a direction of the first line and the second line vertically spaced from each other. The present invention also teaches a method of making this probe module.


A miniaturized dipole antenna is presented for implantation applications. The proposed antenna consists of two folded arms which are connected through a conductive plate. Whole antenna dimension is 7×9 mm2 and suitable for ISM 2450MHz application. Both theoretical study and practical measurements indicate that the proposed antenna has low specific absorption rate and preserves the primary characteristics from tissue.


This article examines whether the police have a constitutional duty to inform 'suspects' about their fundamental rights, despite the fact that section 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, is silent on this issue. The decisions of the different divisions of the South African High Court diverge on this question, and the Constitutional Court has not yet had the opportunity to settle it. In an attempt to resolve this question, this article considers the underlying principles of binding and non-binding international law standards, as well as how this is approached in the Canadian and United States' jurisdictions. This analysis reveals that an emerging consensus of opinion is developing which suggests that the informational duties should arise from the moment the police embark on an adversarial relationship with suspects, by approaching them to establish or disprove the existence of evidence linking them to a crime. The author concludes that such an approach accords with a contextual and purposive interpretation, and should be embraced.


Gene expression profile (GEP) testing in early hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer can inform adjuvant treatment decisions by providing refined estimates of prognosis and chemotherapy benefit. GEPs may also downshift chemotherapy use, potentially avoiding excess morbidity. Multiple studies have reported racial disparities in access to GEP testing. In this study, we examine the effect of race and GEP testing on chemotherapy utilization in early stage HR+ breast cancer. From The University of North Carolina Cancer Information and Population Health Resource (CIPHR), a statewide linkage of cancer registry and administrative claims data, we studied all women eligible for GEP testing, including those with HR+, T1-2, N0 or N1 unilateral primary breast cancers diagnosed from 2005 to 2012. Separate analyses were performed for N0 and N1 patients. Patients were required to have breast surgery within 6 months of diagnosis and no chemotherapy prior to surgery. Use of GEP testing and chemotherapy treatment were defined from insurance claims, while race was defined using cancer registry data. Propensity score adjustment by standardized mortality ratio weighting (SMRW) was used to control for differences in measured patient characteristics between treatment groups in a non-randomized cohort. Propensity score models included age, race, diagnosis year, co-morbidity, and tumor features. Propensity weighted Poisson models were then used to calculate the adjusted risk of receiving chemotherapy. To investigate differential effects of covariates on chemotherapy across racial groups, we used race-stratified models in the N0 cohort. Due to small sample sizes, race-stratified models were not used for N1 patients. The cohort included 11,958 women of whom 84.5% were non-Hispanic white (NHW), 12.9% black, and 2.6% other race/ethnicity. For stratified analyses, race was dichotomized to NHW versus non-white. In the N0 cohort (n=9,671), 11.5% of untested NHW women, 20.8% of tested NHW, 16.8% of untested non-whites, and 21.9% of tested non-whites received chemotherapy. In SMRW-adjusted models, GEP testing was associated with downshifts in chemotherapy for N0 patients (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.72-0.86) and N1 patients (RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.40 - 0.54). In race-stratified analyses of N0 patients, use of GEP testing was associated with a decrease in chemotherapy of 19% among NHW women (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.72 - 0.91) and 25% among non-white women (RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57 - 0.99). Taxane-based regimens were most common, but a substantial portion of chemotherapy-treated patients (43%) received anthracycline-based regimens with or without a taxane. We conclude that GEP testing was associated with decreases in chemotherapy use after propensity adjustment for patient and tumor factors, with greater reductions among non-white patients and node-positive patients. Possible explanations include over-treatment of black women in the absence of testing due to higher perceived risk, racial differences in provider recommendation or chemotherapy choice among tested women where benefit is uncertain, such as for intermediate recurrence scores. Further studies are underway to evaluate racial differences by recurrence score group and the effect of GEPs on racial disparities in outcome. Citation Format: Reeder-Hayes KE, Meyer A-M, Baggett C, Roberts MC, Zhou X, Meng K, Wheeler SB. Racial variation in effects of gene expression profiling on chemotherapy use [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-10-03.


The paper proposes approaches to solving the problem of comparing reference models with real images of objects represented by hierarchies in the form of pyramids of visibility – a set of planes diverging from the observation point. Everything inside the pyramid is considered visible. The first hierarchy (the lower part of the pyramid) is the most complete image, then the image is sequentially compressed from layer to layer according to a certain law up to one point, which corresponds to the model of the image observed from different distances. In this work, for each level of the hierarchy of an object belonging to the visibility pyramid, the Hu's invariant moments are calculated, which leads to the following positive effects: the same dimension of the compared images; a significant reduction in the dimension of the descriptions of compared objects; leveling out possible distortions associated with rotations and displacements of images. To solve the problem of the influence of illumination on the values of the moments, a transition to a long-range image is proposed, in which «brightness» is determined by the depth of the observed point relative to the observation point. The levels of the hierarchy of the observed object and its reference are compared in pairs, and then the minimum distance between the pyramids is determined using the dynamic programming method using the 2-1-2 scheme. In this case, the Euclidean distance is used as a metric. Applying such a combined approach to obtaining the distance between images does not presumably change the properties of the metric space. The proposed approaches make it possible to compare and can serve as an integral part in systems for modeling the motion of aircraft in three-dimensional spaces.


An indigenous six degrees of freedom servo hydraulic shake table has been developed and commissioned at Hall-3, BARC to demonstrate the technology of multi axis servo-hydraulic shake tables. The important components of shake tableservo hydraulic linear actuators, hydraulic power supply and servo controller has been briefly described. The multi axis shake table control algorithm has been described whose performance was simulated and later implemented in shake table. The article ends with description of benchmark tests conducted during commissioning and some experiments conducted using shake table.


T HE EVENTS of Watergate and Richard Nixon's unprecedented resignation from the presidency in the face of impeachment constitutes one of the true high points in American political drama. With the media now attending current but less explosive events, and with Nixon cloistered in San Clemente working on his memoirs, political scientists and historians are beginning to assess some of the less apparent theoretical and practical consequences of these tumultuous events. Studies have already shown, for example, that Watergate significantly tarnished children's previously benign images of political authorities, and we can be fairly certain that exposure of Nixon's strategems has accelerated the rise in public political cynicism.1 Watergate also focused public attention on Congress through sustained media coverage of the Senate and House Committee hearings on the cover-up, dirty tricks, plumbers, and Nixon's involvement with these and related events. This paper assesses one of the consequences of public exposure to the workings of Congress during this period: the electoral fate of members of the House Judiciary Committee after they were cast into national limelight during their deliberations and votes on impeachment. Never before has a committee of the House of Representatives received such national exposure. The intense media coverage of the hearings ought to have greatly increased constituency awareness of the Committee members and their positions on the nationally salient issue of impeachment. Our purpose here is to determine whether voters use such issue information about candidates when it is clearly available. That is, do the issue positions taken by candidates in this case proand anti-impeachment standssystematically influence House members' reelection chances?2


This study aims to show whether 21st Century Skills Material Design Teacher Training and Professional Development Program enhance foreign language teachers' perceptions regarding their educational technology and material development competencies. It is worthy of recommendation that teachers should learn what 21st century skills are and how to bring these skills into classroom by creating their own foreign language teaching materials through digital technologies. To that end, an 8-week teacher-training program was held at Istanbul University. Thirty-three English teachers participated in the study. Application-based Educational Technology and Material Development Competencies Scale was conducted as pre-test and post-test before and after 8-week training in order to measure changes of the teachers' perceptions. In addition, teachers' opinions have been obtained through structured interview technique to deepen the parts that are not acquired from quantitative data. Results of the study indicate that this type of strategy training was found useful for developing teachers' perceptions regarding their educational technology and material development competencies on 21st century skills.


ABSTRACT Purpose To evaluate cortical bone thickness in the infra zygomatic crest region for subjects with low, normal and high angle facial patterns by bone mapping using cone beam computed tomography. Material and methods The study was conducted using CBCT images of 33 subjects, who were assigned to low-, normal- or high-angle groups. Cortical bone thickness was measured from the cementoenamel junction towards the maxillary sinus floor at heights of 8, 10, 12 and 14 mm along the mesial aspect of upper first molar, middle of the crown through the furcation area of the maxillary first molar, inter radicular bone/interdental region between the maxillary first and second molars, middle of the crown through the furcation area of the maxillary second molar and distal of the maxillary second molar. Results Low angle patients had significantly higher values of bone thickness compared to normal and high-angle patients between the first and second molars at a height of 12 mm and distal to second molars at a height of 14 mm. Conclusion The ideal site for insertion of temporary anchorage devices in the infrazygomatic crest region lies between the maxillary first and second molars at a height of 12 mm in all facial types. To avoid the risk of trauma or mini-implant failure, clinicians should be aware of the probability of thinner cortical bone in high angle patients as compared to normal and low angle patients.


The piercing distress screams given by winter birds are hypothesized to be cries for help (usually in the form of mobbing from altruists) and to have been evolved by kin selection. The screams are apparently directed at the screamer's associates, not the predator, a point which supports our hypothesis of selection for altruistic behavior and weakens self-interest selection as a viable mechanism for their evolution. The screams are highly localizable, and attracted individuals are known both to mob predators and to experience risk in doing so; these facts argue that it is the attracted individuals which are altruistic, not the screamer. For two species, the proportion of individuals that screamed when mist-netted diminished as winter progressed; this suggests that kin selection and not selection favoring reciprocal altruism resulted in the evolution of such behavior. Our most powerful arguments that altruism, rather than self-interest selection, is the mode by which distress-screaming behavior was evolved are: (1) that permanent residents scream more than winter residents, and (2) that among winter residents, diurnal migrants scream more than nocturnal migrants. The very important implication of this work is that measuring the frequencies of such screams in samples of mist-netted birds provides an ordinal index of kinship (or at least, stability of interindividual associations).


In a trimodality treatment approach for Stage III nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), the prognostic impact of the ras mutation status in resection specimens was evaluated.


Utilizing the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm to realize location awareness of ground users (GUs) is a promising technology in green aerial Internet of Things (IoT) systems. However, a typical UAV-based positioning system is frequently applied in dense urban areas, where the traditional satellite positioning systems are severely impaired. Due to the co-frequency interference and the inevitable defect of limited resources of the positioning anchors, the UAVs positioning ability and system resource utilization suffer serious challenges. In this article, we propose a novel ranging code design for UAV swarm self-positioning, which consists of the code truncation algorithm and Greedy-based code group optimization algorithm, aiming to obtain the code group with the optimal correlation characteristics and shorter code length based on the pseudo noise (PN) code. In particular, the design can flexibly change the truncated length, so as to ensure the self-positioning accuracy with less positioning resource. To evaluate the influence of the proposed design for the self-positioning of UAVs on the aerial IoT, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of UAVs self-positioning is provided, and based on this, the Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) of GUs location estimate is derived. Numerical results demonstrate that the ranging code design is a superior way for future green aerial IoT in both positioning and resource utilization, as compared with a state-of-the-art approach.


the empire. Eggemeier does an excellent job of comparing and cross-referencing these writers. They are broadly placed in a spectrum from West, who might be considered an accommodationalist, working within Constantinian structures to transform them from within, to Hauerwas, who seeks to preserve a distinctive Christian ecclesia away from the compromises of political power. Eggemeier concludes that, notwithstanding their differences, each writer stands against the power of empire, which, despite its clothing of democratic legitimacy, ends up oppressing the poorest and most marginalized in society. It is through coalition building and popular networks that radical democracy, within and outside the Church, is best placed to challenge the empire of our times.


A physically-constrained localized linear mixing model suitable to process multi/hyperspectral imagery for Terrain Categorization (TERCAT) applications is investigated. Unlike the basic spectral linear mixing model that typically includes all potential endmembers in a set, simultaneously, in the model for each site in an image, the proposed approach restricts the local model at each site to a subset of endmembers, using localized spectral/spatial constraints to narrow the selection process. This approach is used to reduce the observed instability of conventional linear mixture analysis in addressing TERCAT problems for scenes with a large number of endmembers. Experiments are conducted on an 18 channel GERIS scene, airborne-collected over Northern Virginia, that contains a diverse range of terrain features, showing the benefit of this method as compared to the basic linear mixture analysis approach for TERCAT applications.


The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors (machinery, environment, risk control and selfawareness and social support) that lead to hearing loss. The investigation of the noise exposure towards workers is conducted at a manufacturing company in the northern region of Malaysia and is focused on workers who worked in the area that have high probability of exposure to high level of noise. A number of 170 workers participated in this study. Statistical Package software for Social Science (SPSS) Version 19.0 was used to analyze the data. Pearson's correlation, multiple regression, and one-way ANOVA were applied to test the hypotheses. A bivariate Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis indicated that three out of four variables (environment, risk control, and selfawareness andsocial support) have shown significant differences towards the NIHL. Multiple regression analysis revealed that 59 percent of variance that explained the dependent variables (NIHL) was accounted for by the independent variables (environment, machine, risk control, and selfawareness and social support). Of the four factors, only environment, risk control, and selfawareness and social support were significant predictors of NIHL. A one-way ANOVA showed a significant effect for length of service group. For future research, it is also suggested that other study should include other variables to measure NIHL so that this will increase the accuracy of understanding about other factors that could impact the NIHL among workers. Field of Research: noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), environment, machine, risk control, selfawareness and social support


Parthenocarpic cucumbers are one of the important commercial crops grown throughout the year under protected environment and are the money spinners for the farming community (Sood et al., 2018). Congenial growing environmental conditions and adequate plant nutrition favours the crop as well as the buildup of associated pests under protected environment. Production of cucumber under protected condition is affected primarily by the incidence of many insect-pests. The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is a serious pest and one of the important limiting factors in the production of cucumber plants during its three growth stages, seedling, flowering, and fruiting. Climatic factors like temperature (maximum, minimum and average) and relative humidity (morning, evening and average) play vital role in multiplication and distribution of insect-pests. Whitefly population showed negative correlation for minimum and maximum temperature and rainfall, while, positive correlation with morning and evening relative humidity and bright sunshine hours (Kataria et al., 2019). Kumar and Gupta (2016) reported that the population of B. tabaci in potato crop decreased gradually with the decrease in both maximum and minimum temperatures. Predictive model for pest forecast is an important tool for effective integrated pest management strategy. Therefore, a good understanding of pest population dynamics is of vital importance for crop protection. Keeping in view the importance of the crop and the damage caused by this pest, the present investigations were initiated to study the population buildup of B. tabaci and to deduce relationship with the abiotic factors, which would help in planning strategies for the management of the whitefly under polyhouse cultivation situations.


This paper studies on the weight calculation of the interval judgment matrix and the sorting problem.On the basis of interval data calculation rules,the paper proposes an effective algorithm-squire root method,which is illustrated in detail through the examples of supplier selection.The paper shows that the research results fit the uncertain thoughts and judgments of an expert.The paper also demonstrates that the proposed squire-root method is a simple and effective algorithm when the matrix order is low.


This paper shows how to choose the number of terms in a projection pursuit index and how to select a projection pursuit algorithm. It also demonstrates that Friedman's index [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 82 (1987), pp. 249–266] works better than Hall's [Ann. Statist. 17 (1989), pp. 589–605] in detecting separations or clusters.


This paper presents part of an ongoing research program which aims to apply mathematical and geometrical analytic methods to vowel formant data to enable the quantification of parameters of variation of interest to sociophoneticians. We open with an overview of recent research working towards a set of desiderata for choice of normalization algorithm(s) based on replicable procedures. We then present the principles of centroid-based normalization and account for its performance in recent road tests. In sections 4 and 5 we introduce a method that utilizes the centroid of the speaker's vowel space as an anchor point or vertex for calculation of planar locations on formant plots, permitting quantification of the distribution of vowel tokens within the space. This information, along with details such as Euclidean distances, can then be used to precisely pinpoint the trajectories of diachronic change, for instance over a set of speakers in different age groups within a defined speech community. This has the advantage of mathematical reproducibility, and reduces the level of subjectivity in visual analyses of formant plots used in investigations of vowel variability and change in progress.


BACKGROUND
The intake of nutrients and the nutritional status of untreated coeliac patients and coeliac patients in remission were investigated at Kuopio University Hospital.

METHODS
Forty untreated and 52 coeliac patients in remission were admitted to the study. The control group included 77 persons. Four-day food records, anthropometric measurements, and blood biochemistry were examined to obtain nutrient intake and nutritional status.

RESULTS
Concentrations of serum ferritin, vitamin B12, and erythrocyte folate were lower in patients with untreated coeliac disease than in those in remission. Altogether, 15-38% of the untreated patients but only 0-20% of the patients in remission had levels of haemoglobin, serum ferritin, iron, vitamin B12, or erythrocyte folate below the reference values. No difference in anthropometric measurements was found between the two groups of coeliac patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Except for some subclinical abnormal values in biochemical analyses in 20-38% of coeliac patients, nutritional status was quite normal in both groups of coeliac patients.


The current reforms in the water sector in the Sub Saharan Africa have put the customer at the centre stage for sustainable water service delivery. However, few studies have been conducted to assess the gap between customer's expectations and his/her perception of the actual water service delivered, yet this knowledge is important to support prioritization in developing water service delivery improvement. Using the SERVQUAL model, we sampled 527 customers of National Water and Sewerage Corporation [NWSC] and Dar Es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation [DAWASCO] to assess the service quality delivery gaps. The results indicate a gap of -1.98 for NWSC and -2.81 for DAWASCO on a seven point scale. We also found out that the service quality dimensions of reliability and responsiveness as very important to customers, yet it is on these dimensions that both utilities have the biggest service quality gaps of -2.73 for NWSC and 3.80 for DAWASCO. The results imply that water utilities in Uganda and Tanzania should continue improving the quality of water service delivery by concentrating more on reliability and responsiveness of water service delivery.


The current deworming strategy for soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) focuses on pre-school and school-aged children and women in the reproductive age to eliminate morbidity. However, mathematical modeling and meta-analysis show that STH could be eliminated if the entire population, including adults, were treated. The Government of India (GOI) has been deworming children through various maternal and child health programs and school health programs. One of the largest initiatives is the school-based biannual deworming program for children aged 1-19 years in the 'National Deworming Day' since 2015. Women of the reproductive age have the opportunity to get dewormed under the Anemia Free India program. Adult men and women have the opportunity to receive Albendazole in the lymphatic filariasis (LF) endemic districts. The gaps in deworming are women above the age of 49 and adult men above 19 years, living in non-LF endemic areas. Understanding gaps in deworming will help plan policy changes and program strategies for STH elimination in India, which has 21% of the global STH burden, as well as in other STH endemic countries.


An avian influenza virus vaccine comprises a liposome and a peptide bound to the liposome, wherein the peptide comprises (1) an amino acid sequence depicted in any one of SEQ ID NO:1 to SEQ ID NO:9, or (2) an amino acid sequence produced by substituting one or two amino acid residues in an amino acid sequence depicted in any one of SEQ ID NO:1 to SEQ ID NO:9, has a length of 9 to 11 amino acid residues, and can induce HLA-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and the liposome comprises a phospholipid having a C14-24 acyl group containing one unsaturated bond or a C14-24 hydrocarbon group containing one unsaturated bond and a stabilizer for the liposome, and wherein the peptide is bound to the surface of the liposome.


most certa: :;; the unskilled labour force, lay outside the guilds and hence outside Dr Rap! i area of concern. Much more important, and much more damaging to the book's value, is the conceptual framework within which Dr Rapp has set his work. The book is framed as a contribution to the debate around the causes and the nature of the decline of Venice in the seventeenth century; Dr Rapp argues that the history of the Venetian labour force during this period points to a gradual restructuring of the labour force, probably in the direction of the 'service trades', and to a situation in which there was little clear decline in 'he living standards of the mass of the working population. Such decline as there was was a relative decline, a failure above all to compete with Venice's new, northern European competitors. Dr Rapp's case is, in many ways, persuasive without being in any way convincing; the evidence he has, interesting though it is, hardly bears the weight of the interpretation he places on it. In any case, the whole argument about the nature of the Venetian decline seems, as Dr Rapp himself points out, to be basically a semantic one, rather than one susceptible of historical demonstration. The most interesting things in this book are interesting and important despite, rather than because of, the framework of argument in which they are placed; historians of Venice are, however, in Dr Rapp's debt for his delineation of the silent and frequently forgotten majority of Venetian society. Peter Musgrave Department of Economic & Social History, University of Leicester


Airmed at the characteristics in single-piece, small-batch factories, it presents an idea of implementing cost control in the whole process of the manufacturing, elaborates on the links in the cost-control chain and implement method.