Security and privacy in Car-to-X (C2X) communication is a major aspect that affects all applications used in the network. Due to the wireless communication and the decentralized character of the ad-hoc network attacks are inevitable and are hardly detectable by central entities. Especially, safety critical applications which trigger their actions based on data received from other network entities are relying on the trustworthiness of the exchanged messages. To achieve this trust in messages, the worldwide commonly followed approach is to introduce a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). The PKI issues certificates to C2X enabled units and therefore assures their validity. Yet, C2X has several special requirements on the design of a suitable PKI, like minimum overhead and privacy preservation. This paper presents a PKI organisation and structure, which was created in the context of the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium (C2C-CC), the European industry forum on C2X communication technologies. In the design of our proposed PKI, great importance is attached laid on interoperability with other PKIs (e.g. in the U.S.) and extensibility for future additional implementations. Processes are defined for message verification, certificate updates and entity revocation. Likewise, flexible privacy protection measures and anonymity aspects in the ad-hoc communication as well as in the PKI backend are also a major topic.


Most research works in routing and design of optical networks assume that the optical medium can carry data signals without any bit error. However, physical impairments of the optical signal introduced by optical fibers and components, e.g., power loss, noise, and dispersions, impose fundamental constraints in WDM networks, and must be taken into consideration in the routing and design problems of WDM networks. Only through 3R (optical-electrical-optical) regeneration (reamplification, reshaping, retiming) with OEO conversion can a lightpath be recovered from those impairments. Because 3R regenerators are costly devices and the OEO conversion can affect the efficiency of optical networks we need to use the regenerators efficiently and effectively. In this paper, we study the problem of placing the minimum number of regenerators to accommodate all requests with the consideration of physical impairments. We first propose a novel ILP formulation for an optimal solution and a benchmark for this problem. We then provide an effective heuristic for largesized WDM networks. Simulation results show that our schemes have good performance in terms of network design and running time.


This article offers a normative theological proposal about the authority of biblical writings for Christian theology. The author assumes that such a proposal necessitates an "imaginative construal" of what "the Christian thing" is basically all about along with certain philosophical commitments. In the light of that assumption, he makes the judgment that the Christian church is that community of persons for whom the life, death, and resurrection appearances of Jesus are the concrete mode in which God inaugurates his eschatological rule, and he suggests that the biblical writings are authoritative for theology only in the context of Christian praxis, a suggestion explicated through indirect use of the later Wittgenstein. The author then sets forth his proposal in five theses dealing with (1) the goal of those activities which comprise the life of the Christian community, (2) the role of theology in the community, (3) the de facto authority of biblical writings, (4) the de jure authority of biblical writings, and (5) the norming norm which guides the use of scripture in theology.


An important advantage of digital game-based learning (DGBL) over traditional educational tools is that dig-ital games possess certain attributes that can intrinsically motivate players to start and persist in the educa-tional intervention. In the context of DGBL, however, players are frequently extrinsically motivated to partic-ipate because they often perform the activity in order to receive a reward or to avoid negative contingency (e.g., in the context of a class or mandatory homework). Hence, the present study aims to investigate whether when a DGBL platform is provided as voluntary additional exercise material, it leads to a higher motivation among pupils to do math exercises and consequently, improves learning outcomes. For this purpose, a quantitative field experiment was conducted, comparing an educational game platform with tra-ditional paper exercises and comparing students with high and low arithmetic skills (high vs. low achievers) on short- and long-term cognitive learning outcomes such as math performance and affective outcomes such as enjoyment and attitude towards learning mathematics. One hundred twenty-seven children were randomly assigned to the gaming or paper exercises group. Results showed that in the long-term, partici-pants got higher math performance scores in the posttest session. These improvements were, however, not related to the experimental condition (gaming condition vs. paper exercises condition) or to user profile (low vs. high achievers). This allows us to conclude that both the educational game platform and the tradi-tional paper exercises have a positive effect on learning outcomes and are, therefore, good supplementary teaching materials for improving the arithmetic skills of children. Furthermore, results showed no signifi-cant attitudinal changes regarding learning mathematics. In addition, high achievers showed significant higher enjoyment levels than low achievers. Finally, the children in the paper exercises group experience greater enjoyment than the children in the gaming group, which is inconsistent with previous studies. A possible explanation for this could be that the game is not accessible enough: it can neither be played on a tablet, nor on the web browsers Chrome and Edge. The presented results can be of great value to everyone interested in improving cognitive, affective and motivational outcomes of arithmetic training.


Face recognitions have been used for various activities, especially for online verification and security. Face recognition system is a simple biometric, however it is more vulnerable than other biometrics because human face is easy to be manipulated. Face Anti-Spoofing (FAS) system is one of methods for detecting attacks on face recognition system. In this paper, we propose a method for FAS by analyzing the image texture from OULU-NPU database using Local Binary Pattern (LBP) method with Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as classifier. Our focus is on comparing optimizer on CNN and color representation on the data. The purpose is to find the best optimizer on CNN and the best color representation for FAS system. The FAS model is trained by half of the data from OULU-NPU database which is set in several color representations. The CNN is also set in several optimizers such as Adam, SGD, Adagrad, and RMSprop. The model that is trained in 50 epochs using HSV images with SGD optimizer achieves the best accuracy of 0.99 and area under curve (AUC) of 0.98 among 32 models. From the experiments, it was found that RMSprop optimizer was not suitable for this research.


Between 1946 and 1953, the publisher Argos from Buenos Aires brought out El arte y los artistas , a series of fifteen books on Art History and Theory framed within a wider collection called Biblioteca Argos . In this series classic titles on Art Historiography, as well as others, were published for the first time in Spanish with the intention of updating the bibliography on specific topics. This paper characterizes the catalogue of El arte y los artistas taking the history of the chosen texts, their earlier material inscriptions and their entry in the disciplinary discourse as a starting point. Among other editorial operations, the deletion or addition of prologues and images, the establishment of chapters as autonomous texts or the compilation of articles in the same volume are indicators of the ways of circulation and appropriation of the writings


The absorption spectral slope, S275–295, is an optical metric frequently employed for characterizing chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM). We collected CDOM absorption (aCDOM) and fluorescence spectra from the oligotrophic offshore South China Sea to identify the major determinant of S275–295 and to explore the potential of S275–295 as physical and biogeochemical tracers. S275–295 linearly decreased with increasing humic‐like fluorescent DOM, revealing the latter as the primary control on S275–295. The variability of S275–295 consistently declined from the surface to deep water, making S275–295 a potential indicator of CDOM molecular heterogeneity. The S275–295 vs. aCDOM plot was found to be a useful tool for characterizing water masses. The 14C content of dissolved organic carbon (Δ14C‐DOC) shows a strong correlation to S275–295, demonstrating S275–295 to be a proxy of the 14C‐age of DOM. A provisional equation, ln(−Δ14C‐DOC) = (−0.85 ± 0.06) × ln(S275–295) + (8.78 ± 0.19), was proposed to estimate Δ14C‐DOC from S275–295 for global oligotrophic oceans.


Electricite de France (EDF) is in charge of power production, transmission, and distribution in France. The total power demand i n the country reached 388 TWh in 1994, and exports amounted to 63 TWh. The peak load is about 70 GW. EDF operates about 50 large nuclear plants. The 400 kV network includes about 350 circuits and 120 substations. It is a highly meshed grid with rather short lines (average length about 60 km). Production is rather evenly spread over the country. The national grid is part of the network of the Union for Coordination of the Production and Transmission of Electricity (UCPTE) covering the continental part of Western Europe. The 400-kV power transmission network is essential to the proper operation and sound management of our system. It interconnects centers of production and of consumption, and thereby helps make it possible to maintain an uninterrupted power supply if one production site fails, to take advantage of the diversity of loads, and to use the least expensive fuel at any given time. EDF faces some public rejections of its overhead lines, the only technique economically possible today at this voltage level. Aesthetics is the recurrent ceintral theme of complaints about these limes. They are held to detract from the appearance of the landscapes they pass through. This impact is perceived as not only visual, but also ecological. New installations are regarded as detrimental to the countryside and to crops. Possible effects of eleclsomagnetic fields on the human metabolism are also regarded as a potentially very grave problem, one often mentioned by people living or working near such lines. Out of a concern to protect the environment, institutional parties, as well as people living in the vicinity, oppose new installations increasingly often while expecting the company to use more discreet techniques, in particular underground cables. We must explore new approaches both to dialog with the parties concerned and to the search for innovative technical solutions that are economical1,y acceptable. The stakes are vast: a grid no longer allowed to grow would induce billions of francs in extra costs every year. As an illustration, it is commonly accepted that the electrical interconnection as practiced within the UCPTE yields a saving on investment in generating capacity of about 5 billion francs a year for the UCPTE as a whole. Worse still, this threatens -the future availability of energy sources. We must take care not to sacrifice the future to the present. It is essential to restore technical, economic, and environmental balances that will remain viable and robust for the next few decades. This is the object of the res,earch and development program undertaken by EDF. This forward-looking analysis shows that a commitment to major development work on new very-highvoltage power transmission techniques is absolutely essential. It must find effective responses to the current difficulties of harmonizing our installations with the environment and also, in the longer term, ensure the survival of the power transmission function.


Medicinal plants have great importance in African medicine and are also used as precursors in drug discovery. The medicinal value of plants lie in their bioactive constituents which usually allow them to fight against several diseases. Plant-based natural constituents can be derived from any part of the plant like bark, leaves, flowers, roots, fruits, seeds. The mineral and phytochemical analysis of the leaves of Azadirachta indica, Parkia biglobosa and Leea guineensis were investigated. The leaves were collected from the Herbal Garden, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Jericho hills, Ibadan, Nigeria and identified at Forest Herbarium Ibadan. Oyo State. The leaves were air dried and milled to powder using a medium-sized milling machine and stored in an air-tight container until needed for analysis. Phytochemical screening/analysis and mineral analysis were determined using standard analytical methods. Phytochemicals like Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Tannins, Saponins, Anthraquinone, Cardiac glycoside were determined. while Minerals, such as Potassium, Sodium determined using flame photometer; Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Manganese, and Copper were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Results indicates that the bioactive contents of the leaves varied significantly (p<0.05) among the medicinal plants. The phytochemical analysis showed that the three medicinal plants contained alkaloid, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, polyphenols, cardiac glycoside and anthraquinone in varying quantities with the trend: A indica > P. biglobosa > L. guineensis; the macro elements showed similar trend as the phytochemicals while the micro elements followed the trend: P. biglobosa > L. guineensis > A indica. These results conceivably indicate that the three medicinal plant are good source of essential minerals and phyto-nutrients which possess strong pharmacological activities and provide scientific credence for its therapeutic usage.


In this paper, an approach for modelling and analysis of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) is proposed. By using our models, based on Markov process and queuing theory, we can investigate the impact of various factors, such as game types, the number of players, the intensity of players or NCPs interaction, the number of regions in a game world, avatar region-transition rate, and network configuration, on the system performance. A number of resource-cost functions are defined, which map the system resource consumed to the cost during a game play. We choose the federated peer-to-peer architecture as a target for this study, since it is a typical and potential architecture proposed recently and attracting more attention.


The localization of a stationary transmitter using receivers mounted on fast moving platforms is considered. It is assumed that the transmitted radio signal is random with known statistics. The conventional approach is based on two steps. In the first step the time difference of arrival and the differential Doppler shift are measured and in the second step these measurements are used for geolocation. We advocate a direct position determination approach that proves to be more computationally efficient and more precise for weak signals than the conventional approach. The direct method is a single-step method that uses the same signals as the two-step approach but searches directly for the emitter position without first estimating intermediate parameters such as Doppler frequency and the time delay. A secondary but important result is a derivation of closed-form and compact expressions of the Cramér-Rao lower bound. All results are verified by Monte Carlo computer simulations.


The distribution of particles in a rarefied gas in a vessel can be described by the Boltzmann equation. As an approximation of the solution to this equation, Caprino, Pulvirenti and Wagner [3] cons ...


Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit paleontologist, priest, and philosopher. In the figures published in articles in 1943 and 1951, he attempted to draw a "plausible schematic reconstruction of the natural connections between fossil men" and a "phyletic composition of the human group". I draw attention to Teilhard's reference to Eoanthropus ("Piltdown Man") in small print in his figure that was first printed in 1943. Most suspiciously, there is no reference to this (supposedly important) genus in the associated text, nor is there any reference whatsoever to "Piltdown Man" in the article published in 1951. Even as early as January 1913, Teilhard may have been aware that "Piltdown Man" was a hoax or joke, artificially associating a human cranium with a modified orangutan mandible. A new suspect is Edgar Willett (rather than Charles Dawson). Teilhard may have been an advisory accomplice in a joke that went seriously wrong.


Using a large galaxy group catalog based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4, we measure three different types of intrinsic galaxy alignment within groups: halo alignment between the orientation of the brightest group galaxies (BGG) and the distribution of its satellite galaxies, radial alignment between the orientation of a satellite galaxy and the direction toward its BGG, and direct alignment between the orientation of the BGG and that of its satellites. In agreement with previous studies, we find that satellite galaxies are preferentially located along the major axis. In addition, on scales r < 0.7Rvir we find that red satellites are preferentially aligned radially with the direction to the BGG. The orientations of blue satellites, however, are perfectly consistent with being isotropic. Finally, on scales r < 0.1Rvir, we find a weak but significant indication for direct alignment between satellites and BGGs. We briefly discuss the implications for weak-lensing measurements.


In this paper, we propose a new inertial self-adaptive subgradient extragradient algorithm for approximating common solution in the set of pseudomonotone equilibrium problems and the set of fixed point of finite family of quasi$-\phi-$nonexpansive multivalued mappings in real uniformly convex Banach spaces and uniformly smooth Banach spaces. The step size n is chosen self adaptively and estimates of Lipschizt-type constants are dispensed with. Strong convergence of the iterative scheme is established. Our results generalizes and improves several recent results anouced in the literature.


Laboratory — Second order nuclear radiative transitions have been observed in the decay of 137 Ba from a 137 Cs source. Such a decay is expected from second order perturbation theory at a level of 1/ α ) 2 , or about 10 − 4. Second order transitions have been observed before only in the special case of 0 + to 0 + transitions where there is no competing first order transi-tion. In the present work, transitions, which proceed via unspecified virtual states in 137 Ba and consist of various multipole mixtures, are reported. It is expected that these new data will stimulate further research into this long-neglected area of nuclear research.


Abstract : This report is the final report of a three-phase project whose objective was to formulate a computer code to perform detailed preliminary designs of solid propellant rocket motors. All major components and performance of a motor are mathematically modeled using source dimensions and characteristics. A direct pattern search non-linear optimization scheme based on the Hooke and Jeeves algorithm is employed to establish motor characteristics that optimize any one of several performance parameters. Constraints imposed during the optimization process are basic performance requirements, design constraints and operating limits. Decision variables during optimization are propellant formulation, propellant burn rate, propellant grain dimensions, nozzle dimensions, and pressure vessel dimensions. Provisions are made for easily inserted user-defined models of several characteristics. (Author)


Objective: To study dust exposure and inflammatory reactions in the respiratory tract among coffee curing workers in Tanzania. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a Tanzanian coffee curing factory. Coffee workers (n = 15) were compared with unexposed controls (n = 18); all workers were nonsmokers. Exhaled nitric oxide was examined using an electrochemistry-based NIOX MINO device. Personal air samples were analyzed for total dust and endotoxins, using gravimetric analysis and the chromogenic Limulus amebocyte lysate endpoint assay, respectively. Results: Total dust levels ranged from 0.2 to 27.9 mg/m3, and endotoxin levels ranged from 42 to 75,083 endotoxin units/m3. Concentrations of exhaled nitric oxide, analyzed by linear regression and adjusted for age (&bgr; = 0.57; 95% confidence interval, 0.08 to 1.06; P = 0.02), was higher among coffee workers than among the control group. Conclusion: The results indicate a relationship between the coffee dust and signs of respiratory inflammation.


83 Scientists in India Sensitized About Systems Biology Approach to Toxicity Testing: Hands-on Workshop on Computational Systems Biology and Dose-Response Modeling Bagavathy S. Karthikeyan 1,2, Mohammed Zeeshan 1,3, Sudin Bhattacharya 4, Qiang Zhang 4, Melvin E. Andersen 5, and Mohammad A. Akbarsha 1,6 1Mahatma Gandhi-Doerenkamp Center (MGDC) for Alternatives to Use of Animals in Life Science Education, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India; 2Department of Bioinformatics, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India; 3Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India; 4Center for Dose Response Modeling, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; 5Institute for Chemical Safety Sciences, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; 6Visiting Faculty, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia


Objective: to review the literature on the most common oral lesions in HIV-infected children. Material and Methods: a literature review was performed in Medical Literature (PubMed/Medline) and Health Virtual Library (HVL) databases from 2000 to 2015. Results: there were 163 papers and 11 were selected according with inclusion and exclusion criteria. Oral candidiasis was the most prevalent oral lesion followed by aphthous ulcerations, linear gingival erythema and oral hairy leukoplakia. Conclusion: despite advances in the disease treatment with the introduction of potent antiretroviral therapy, oral manifestations remain frequent in HIV-infected patients, with candidiasis being the most common finding. The review showed the importance of the dentist in the identification and early treatment of these lesions.


A control system with a novel speed estimation approach based on self- tuning was presented for lowcost brushless DC motor(BLDC)drives with low- resolution hall sensors. The back electromotive force(EMF)isusually used to estimate speed. But the estimation result is not accurate enough at low speeds because of the dividedvoltage of stator resistors and too small back EMF. Moreover,the stator resistor is always varying with the motor′stemperature. A speed estimation algorithm based on self-tuning was proposed to correct the speed error estimated byusing back EMF. The proposed algorithm′s most innovative feature is its adaptability to low speeds. And temperaturedo not affect the accuracy of the estimation result. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified through simulations andexperiments.


This invention relates to a process for preparing cyclic siloxanes by cracking, which comprises the step of: (a) mixing a hydrolyzate containing a trifunctional siloxane containing species with a catalytic amount of a cracking catalyst, ( b) adding to the mixture of step (a) an effective amount of an alcohol or an amine to high boiling point, (c) adjusting the reaction conditions to promote the formation of cyclic siloxanes, and (d) recovering the cyclic siloxanes simultaneously.


Copy right Idea Grou p Inc. Copy right Idea Grou p Inc. INTRODUCTION Applications are more and more often built on top of existing ones. Legacy applications and Enterprise Ressource Planning (ERP) are typical examples of development on top of a existing applications or components. It is very important to deal with the particularities of such context in the earliest stages of the process, and especially during the analysis phase, in order to control the risks inherent to this kind of development. Therefore, it is useful to clearly define as soon as possible what will be kept from the running application, why and how. Integration and interfacing aspects have also to be studied carefully. Problems related to building on top of existing applications have been studied from the implementation point of view [Fo99,Be97,Op92]. But we believe that it has to be taken into consideration already during the analysis phase. Indeed, in addition to the code itself, the expertise about the functional domain and the interfaces (describing the relationships the existent application may have with others systems) may also be of interest, as it will be shown in this paper. UML [OMG,RJB98,BRJ98] is an object-oriented graphical language. It is now a standard notation used by programmers as well as domain expert, through the whole development cycle. UML is customizable through the notion of profile [JBR98] which allows to re-assemble a set of extensions dedicated to a particular kind of application or development process. It has already been used in various domains [NF00,KS00]. In this paper, we present a profile dedicated to development on top of running applications. The profile presented in this paper is part of the COOP methodology (Contextual Object-Oriented Process) where we propose a flexible approach for analysis and design with regards to the context of the application. The need for situation-specific approaches, to better satisfy particular situation requirements, has already been emphasized [SH96, RR01]. In COOP, the application context is described through different criterias; to develop the application on top of existing ones is one of these criterias. Flexibility is handled through the different fragments proposed in each phase of the process. Some of them are useful whatever is the context of the application, others are dedicated to the criteria. The profile presented in this paper is used through the fragments dedicated to applications developped on top of running ones. By situating the application in its context and by choosing the interesting fragments, the process is tailored for the application under consideration in order to allow a more efficient development process. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we introduce a dedicated profile. Section 3 highlights the different aspects of preservation. Section 4 shows how this profile is used through the COOP methodology. Section 5 presents our conclusions.


Significance We assess how to meet growing demand for agricultural production to minimize impact on the environment. Higher levels of population and affluence may require expanding land in agriculture by converting grasslands and forests to cropland. Such conversions often reduce valuable ecosystem services. Our research identifies where are the best places to expand agricultural production that minimize the loss of one ecosystem service, carbon storage. We show that selectively choosing where to expand agriculture saves over $1 trillion (2012 US dollars) worth of carbon storage relative to a proportional expansion. Feeding a growing and increasingly affluent world will require expanded agricultural production, which may require converting grasslands and forests into cropland. Such conversions can reduce carbon storage, habitat provision, and other ecosystem services, presenting difficult societal trade-offs. In this paper, we use spatially explicit data on agricultural productivity and carbon storage in a global analysis to find where agricultural extensification should occur to meet growing demand while minimizing carbon emissions from land use change. Selective extensification saves ∼6 billion metric tons of carbon compared with a business-as-usual approach, with a value of approximately $1 trillion (2012 US dollars) using recent estimates of the social cost of carbon. This type of spatially explicit geospatial analysis can be expanded to include other ecosystem services and other industries to analyze how to minimize conflicts between economic development and environmental sustainability.


This study is on the rearrangement of the standardization of classification and terminological system which are in chaotic state in theater architecture especially concerned with floor plan and the purpose of the study is also to help the establishment of early planning conditions in theater building projects. The results of consideration are as folllows : The term, theater is generally used to describe various kinds of performing hall not only in domestic but Japan, Europe and United States. By the shapes of auditorium, theater architecture can be classified as horse shoe type, megaphone type, shoe box type, vineyard type, circle type, balcony type, fan type and sledge type. Theater architecture also can be classified extra small size(less than 200seats), small size(200-499seats), medium size(500-999seats) large size(1000- 1999seats) and extra large size(2000-2999seats) super large size(more than 3000seats) by capacity of auditorium.


Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force equation form the foundation of classical electromagnetic theory and their discovery led to the development of special relativity. Despite this achievement, their universal compatibility with the conservation of momentum and relativistic energy transformations is still debated. Incorporating effects of hidden momentum with the Lorentz force equation or using the Einstein–Laub formula are two common approaches to address some of these concerns. Which method to use, or if a change to classical electromagnetism is even required, remains controversial. A new theoretical approach is presented in this paper to address this using relativistic electromagnetic energy inertial frame transformations. These transformations identify a situation where an apparent violation of conservation laws could occur and how to consolidate this with electromagnetic theory. An explanation regarding the elementary nature of magnetism and the relationship between inertia and electromagnetic energy is also commented on.


A photo or a video of a student can be an education record subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.


The present invention relates to a method and system for setting TCP proxy via a wired and wireless integrated IP network to prevent packet loss and transmission delay between the sending server and the receiving terminal. How to perform a handover according to the present invention comprises the steps of: receiving a handover request message, the radio network control station from the mobile terminal; Step of the handover request message when received by the radio network control station generates a TCP proxy switch end connected to a separate TCP connection-oriented TCP; The method comprising an acknowledgment (ACK) for the receiving of the packets from the TCP proxy on behalf of the MS during the handover the transmission server; Storing the received packet is the TCP proxy from the server in the cache; And if the radio network control station has received the handover activation message, and transmitting the stored packet to the mobile station. By the configuration of the present invention described above, during handover only it can provide a seamless communication environment by creating a TCP proxy without packet loss and transmission delay.


Ideological and political education is a significant foundation to run socialist universities with Chinese characteristics. In the time of new media, putting efforts in the ideological and political education for university students is a profound reflection of higher education itself. The development of new media has greatly changed the way university students learn and treat others. It has also affected their ideology, political viewpoints and morality. The new media environment is both an opportunity and challenge for the ideological and political education for university students. Recognizing the requirement of ideological and political education for university students in higher education, sensing the changes in ideological and political education for university students in the new media environment rationally and dealing with the risks and challenges for ideological and political education for university students brought by new media effectively have become the embedded requirement of university ideological and political education.


The release of the neurotransmitter glutamate by the parasitic tapeworm Taenia solium appears to be implicated in the pathophysiology of a widespread, but neglected, form of adult-onset epilepsy.


grate services is well established. People come to human service agencies with a complex set of needs that no one program can fulfill. At the same time, different programs have different philosophies, goals, service structures and terminologies that often create challenges when trying to integrate services. As a result people come into a human service agency a "whole person" but are "broken into pieces" by the agency in order to serve him/her.


(57) [summary] 1. Base inorganic materials, so as to at least partially water soluble polymer agent, and polymer agents to reduce the tendency to be removed from the complex by the aqueous medium, substances which bind a polymer agent to a substrate of inorganic material, complex as products comprising a combination of and and their preparation their use.


The progress in microbial corrosion (MIC)research at home and abroad was surveyed.Discussions were made on the mechanism of microbial corrosion and the research methods.The research trend on the structure characteristics of biological film was also reported.


Abstract:This article analyses the narrative, structural, and semiotic functions of arguably one of the most remarkable pieces in the recent history of Spanish film music: the eight-minute string quartet piece written by Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias for Amante menguante, the brief silent film included in the central part of Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her. The aim of the study is to show how music helps to articulate the complex narrative structure, how it expresses the affective content of the film narrative and emulates (or compensates for the lack thereof) the sounds and the characters' speech absent in the silent film. The focus of the study is on (1) Iglesias's employ of a number of centuries-old musical topoi for musically expressing extramusical meanings, ideas, and emotions evoked in the film; (2) his practice of a hyper-descriptive, often onomatopoeic, musical illustration of a series of gestures, actions, objects, and "sounds" shown in the silent film; and (3) the echoing of the film's emotional content by means of musical allusions and quotations of materials from Henry Purcell's "O, Let Me Weep" (from The Fairy Queen), Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht and String Quartet, op. 10, and Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.


e16038 Background: Robust molecular subtypes have been identified in castration resistant prostate cancers (CRPC), including those that harbor ETS gene fusions. Preclinical studies suggest that tum...


The ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuator is a kind of soft actuator that can work for underwater applications. However, IPMC actuator control suffers from high nonlinearity due to the existence of inherent creep and hysteresis phenomena. Furthermore, for underwater applications, they are highly exposed to parametric uncertainties and external disturbances due to the inherent characteristics and working environment. Those factors significantly affect the positioning accuracy and reliability of IPMC actuators. Hence, feedback control techniques are vital in the control of IPMC actuators for suppressing the system uncertainty and external disturbance. In this paper, for the first time an adaptive full-order recursive terminal sliding-mode (AFORTSM) controller is proposed for the IPMC actuator to enhance the positioning accuracy and robustness against parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. The proposed controller incorporates an adaptive algorithm with terminal sliding mode method to release the need for any prerequisite bound of the disturbance. In addition, stability analysis proves that it can guarantee the tracking error to converge to zero in finite time in the presence of uncertainty and disturbance. Experiments are carried out on the IPMC actuator to verify the practical effectiveness of the AFORTSM controller in comparison with a conventional nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) controller in terms of smaller tracking error and faster disturbance rejection.


This paper presents three-dimensional micro flow measurement system "OCTIV", which is based on Optical Coherence Tomography. This was applied to solid-liquid two-phase flow in the microchannel. Consequently, OCTIV has an attractive two-component and three-dimensional velocimetry for micro flow.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Background: Mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) has a short growth period, long suitable sowing period, drought and barren tolerance, wide adaptability, nitrogen fixation and other characteristics. China is one of the original centers of mung bean, with a cultivation history of more than 2000 years. The current study aimed to assess the present mung bean germplasm in Liaoning Province scientifically, to provide a theoretical basis for collection, preservation, innovative and usage of mung bean germplasm resources.
Methods: This study was conducted during 2011-2015 and 170 mung bean germplasm collections were selected from the germplasm resource bank of Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Fourty six agronomic traits, including 34 quality traits and 12 quantitative traits, were observed and recorded. Data were comprehensively evaluated by multivariate analysis, i.e., diversity analysis, principal component analysis, correlation analysis, grey relational analysis and cluster analysis.
Result: It was observed that mung bean resources have abundant diversity for exploitation in breeding programs. The traits pod-bearing capacity and vegetative growth capacity of plants were found closely related to yield. Germplasm lines with superior performance for yield characteristics, growth period, plant height and grain size were selected which included one high-yield and one early-matured and high-yield resource.


Accurate classification is one of the most important prerequisites for hyperspectral applications and feature extraction is the key step of classification. Recently, deep learning models have been successfully used to extract the spectral-spatial features in hyperspectral images (HSIs). However, most deep learning-based classification methods are supervised and require sufficient samples to guarantee their performance. And the labeled samples in HSI are limited. To solve this problem, unsupervised feature extraction based on improved Wasserstein generative adversarial network (WGAN) is proposed in this paper. Further, in order to fully explore the spectral-spatial features in HSIs, a three-dimensional (3D) model is designed. Considering that its difficult for GANs to generate high dimension data, the dimension of HSI is reduced firstly by principle component analysis (PCA). Then, an improved WGAN is trained unsupervised with HSIs after dimensionality reduction to achieve the stable status. Finally, the discriminator of the trained improved WGAN is used as a feature extractor and followed by a classifier, which can be used to classify the HSIs. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, PCA-based methods and GAN-based methods are compared in the experiment of a real-world HSI. Experimental results have shown that our proposed method gained more promising results which has great potential prospects in HSI classification.


This is an excellent book by one of the major groups currently involved in cardiac natriuretic peptide research. This book is directed to all readers seeking a deeper understanding of the cardiac natriuretic peptide system (physiologists, cardiologists, and clinical chemists). The backgrounds of the editors (clinical physiology, cardiology, and endocrinology) strongly influence the concept of this book; the principal aim is to demonstrate that the heart is a multifunctional and interactive organ that exchanges information with the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Evidence for the endocrine function …


A method for cleaning a storage tank to which sodium metal is adherent, the method comprising: filling, with an inert oil, the storage tank to which sodium metal is adherent; subsequently adding water, water vapor, or a humidified inert gas to the inert oil; providing a gas discharge line to the storage tank and measuring the hydrogen gas concentration in the gas discharge line; regulating the amount of the water, water vapor, or humidified inert gas to be added per unit time in accordance with the level of the hydrogen gas concentration; regulating the temperature of the inert oil to 0-98°C; and converting the sodium metal into caustic soda while changing the liquid level of the inert oil in parallel with addition of the water, water vapor, or humidified inert gas to the inert oil.


Summary Experiences to find adequate End members for production monitoring and allocation of an oilfield in the Norwegian North Sea. Samples from exploration, appraisal and development making up the sample set with sample dates from the 1980s to 2020. Several test fluid samples were collected and analyzed by a range of standard analytical methods. As a result of this work, a number of positive learnings, as well as pitfalls, emerged.


We analyze the van der Waals interaction of an atom with the internal surface of a metal or dielectric submicrometer-sized cylinder and derive closed analytical equations for the van der Waals surface potential and forceintheelectrostaticapproximation.WeshowthatforaconcavecylindricalsurfacethevanderWaalspotential energy can be up to four times larger than for a flat surface. This result is qualitatively explained by a reduction in the effective distance between the atom and the concave surface compared to that for a flat surface. We also evaluate the shape of an atomic beam propagating inside a hollow dielectric submicrometer-sized cylinder and we propose a scheme that will enable a precise measurement of the van der Waals constant C3.


Background & Objectives: Bupivacaine, a commonly used local anesthetic, has potential neurotoxicity through diverse signaling pathways. However, the key mechanism remains unclear(1). In order to maintain genome integrity, cells have evolved DNA repair systems to efficiently correct DNA damage(2). However, the exact DNA repair pathways activated by bupivacaine remain poorly understood. Here,we investigated key enzymes of associated DNA repair pathways after neurons DNA damage induced by bupivacaine.


As a result of the many technical advances in microcomputers and mobile connectivity, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been on the rise in the recent decade. Due to the broad spectrum of applications, networks facilitating IoT scenarios can be of very different scale and complexity. Additionally, connected devices are uncommonly heterogeneous, including micro controllers, smartphones, fog nodes and server infrastructures. Therefore, testing IoT applications is difficult, motivating adequate tool support. In this paper, we present Héctor, a framework for the automatic testing of IoT applications. Héctor allows the automated execution of user-defined experiments on agnostic IoT testbeds. To test applications independently of the availability of required devices, the framework is able to generate virtual testbeds with adjustable network properties. Our evaluations show that simple experiments can be easily automated across a broad spectrum of testbeds. However, the results also indicate that there is considerable interference in experiments, in which many devices are emulated, due to the high resource demand of system emulation.


The capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements of GaN-based Schottky diodes were carried out in the frequency range of 0.3~1.5MHz. Anomalous peaks and negative value of capacitance were observed in the C-V plots of Au/i-GaN Schottky diodes under forward bias, while neither of them was seen in the plots of Au/i-Al0.45Ga0.55N Schottky diodes. Based on the parameters extracted from the current-voltage (I-V) and C-V plots of GaN and Al0.45Ga0.55N Schottky diodes, the peak and negative capacitance are ascribed to the capture and loss of interface charges. These processes are greatly suppressed when there exists a huge series resistance in the diode.


Krupp MaK's development of its engines for maximum economy, using the long piston stroke of the engines, is described. A variant of the M35 series with a longer stroke has been added. Fuel consumption rates are excellent owing to the utilization of the latest findings regarding supercharging. Because of a large air flow combined with a high compression ratio, heavy fuel compatibility is excellent. Economy is further improved by developments affecting cylinder liners, combustion chambers and valves.


Text input in virtual reality is not widespread outside of labs, although being increasingly researched. Current setups require powerful components that are expensive or not portable, hence preventing effective in-the-wild use. Latest technological advances enable portable mixed reality experiences on smartphones. In this work, we propose a portable low-fidelity solution for text input in mixed reality on a physical keyboard that employs accessible off-the-shelf components. Through a user study with 24 participants, we show that our prototype leads to a significantly higher text input performance compared to soft keyboards. However, it falls behind on copy editing compared to soft keyboards. Qualitative inquiries revealed that participants enjoyed the ample display space and perceived the accompanied privacy as beneficial. Finally, we conclude with challenges and future research that builds upon the presented findings.


BACKGROUND Gastroparesis is a common digestive disorder characterized by delayed gastric emptying, which can lead to symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and poor appetite. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used for centuries to treat gastrointestinal disorders, including gastroparesis. TCM theory suggests that spleen and stomach qi deficiency syndrome is one of the main pathogenic factors in gastroparesis. Nursing care plays an important role in the treatment of gastroparesis, and TCM nursing interventions have shown promising results in improving patient outcomes. However, there is limited research on the clinical effectiveness of TCM nursing interventions for gastroparesis with spleen stomach deficiency syndrome. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effect of TCM nursing intervention in the treatment of gastroparesis with spleen stomach deficiency syndrome and to compare it with routine nursing interventions. AIM To analyze the clinical effect of traditional Chinese medicine nursing intervention in the treatment of gastric paraplegia with spleen stomach deficiency syndrome. METHODS From January 2020 to July 2021, 80 patients with gastroparesis of spleen stomach qi deficiency type diagnosed in our hospital were selected for the study. The 80 patients were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group, with 40 cases in each group. During the treatment period, the control group received routine nursing interventions, while the experimental group received traditional Chinese medicine nursing procedures. Compare the nursing effects of the two groups and observe the changes in traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores, pain levels, and sleep quality before and after treatment. RESULTS After treatment, comparing the treatment effects of the two groups, the total effective rate of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group, with statistical significance (P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the TCM symptom score, visual analogue scale (VAS) score, and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) score between the two groups before treatment (P > 0.05). However, after treatment, the TCM syndrome scores, VAS scores, and PSQI scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION In the clinical nursing intervention of patients with mild gastroparesis due to spleen and stomach qi deficiency, the traditional Chinese medicine nursing plan has good clinical application value and nursing effect, and has a good effect on improving patients' pain and sleep quality.


The system of German courts bears a distinctive mark of history in the process of its formation and development. It is greatly influenced by cultural heritage, economic system and trade union movements. German courts consist of the constitutional court, the common court and the special court. The constitutional court has the jurisdiction over violations of the Constitution, while the common court has the jurisdiction over general criminal and civil cases. The special courts include the administrative court, the finance court, the labor court, the social court, the patent court, the court- martial, etc. Apart from the constitutional court and the common court, all courts are not independent form the executive, but subject to corresponding administrative departments. By nature, special courts are quasi- administrative and quasi- judicial, but they are of more administrative characteristics.


We present a new model for studying mul-titask learning, linking theoretical results to practical simulations. In our model all tasks are combined in a single feedforward neu-ral network. Learning is implemented in a Bayesian fashion. In this Bayesian framework the hidden-to-output weights, being speciic to each task, play the role of model parameters. The input-to-hidden weights, which are shared between all tasks, are treated as hyperparameters. Other hyper-parameters describe error variance and correlations and priors for the model parameters. An important feature of our model is that the probability of these hyperparam-eters given the data can be computed ex-plicitely and only depends on a set of suu-cient statistics. None of these statistics scales with the number of tasks or patterns, which makes empirical Bayes for multitask learning a relatively straightforward optimization problem. Simulations on real-world data sets on single-copy newspaper and magazine sales illustrate properties of multitask learning. Most notably we derive experimental curves for \learning to learn" that can be linked to theoretical results obtained elsewhere.


As a cornerstone service for many Internet of Things applications, channel state information (CSI)-based activity recognition has received immense attention over recent years. However, recognition performance of general approaches might significantly decrease when applying the trained model to the left-out user whose CSI data are not used for model training. To overcome this challenge, we propose a semi-supervised generative adversarial network (GAN) for CSI-based activity recognition (CsiGAN). Based on the general semi-supervised GANs, we mainly design three components for CsiGAN to meet the scenarios that unlabeled data from left-out users are very limited and enhance recognition performance: 1) we introduce a new complement generator, which can use limited unlabeled data to produce diverse fake samples for training a robust discriminator; 2) for the discriminator, we change the number of probability outputs from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k+1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> into <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2k+1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (here, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of categories), which can help to obtain the correct decision boundary for each category; and 3) based on the introduced generator, we propose a manifold regularization, which can stabilize the learning process. The experiments suggest that CsiGAN attains significant gains compared to the state-of-the-art methods.


We study spin superlattices composed of a repeated pattern of two long spin-½ XXZ chains with different anisotropy parameters. They can be viewed as the limit of p-merized chains when the number of sites per cluster is very large. Magnetization plateaus are found, with magnetization values that depend on the relative sizes of the subchains. In certain regions of parameter space, the low-energy properties are described in terms of a Luttinger liquid superlattice parametrized by an effective velocity and an effective compactification radius.


The subject of this paper is the lunar-diurnal variation of the magnetic declination and of the horizontal and vertical components of the magnetic force, derived from a seven years' series of photographic records obtained at the Kew Observatory between January 1, 1858 and December 31, 1864. The discussion which it contains has for its objects— 1st, to exemplify the consistent and systematic character of the lunar-diurnal influence thus derived; and 2ndly, to serve both as a guide and as an encouragement to the several establishments at home and abroad which have adopted, or are


This paper shows the results of a study focusing on the local seismic response of the Fosso di Vallerano valley (Rome, Italy). These results represent the starting point for future evaluations of the changes expected for the same local seismic response in the case of the presence of buildings (i.e. Site-City Interaction). This test site was selected for the following reasons: i) it is characterized by a complex geological setting; ii) it represents a very recent urban area. A detailed structural and stratigraphic setting of the valley was obtained by field investigations and by corelating several tens of borehole log-stratigraphies. All these parameters have been considered in a 1D numerical modeling performed to estimate the resonant frequencies and the related amplification values for the site under free field conditions. This analysis pointed out the relevant role of the layering of the subsoil deposits on the local seismic response.


The genus Alsodes is the most diversified anuran taxon (18 spp.) inhabiting the southwest of South America (Frost 2008), specifically in central and southern Chile and the southwestern part of Argentina. Sixteen species have been described for Chile, the majority known only from the type locality or from a reduced geographic area (Cuevas and Formas 2005). Most species have been described in the temperate forests south of 35°30' S, but a few are found north of this latitude, in habitats with Mediterranean vegetation (Alsodes nodosus) or in mountain streams from the western slopes of the Andes (A. montanus and A. tumultuosus).


Using a physics-based approach, we infer the impact of the coherence of atmospheric turbulence on the power fluctuations of wind farms. Application of the random-sweeping hypothesis reveals correlations characterized by advection and turbulent diffusion of coherent motions. Those contribute to local peaks and troughs in the power spectrum of the combined units at frequencies corresponding to the advection time between turbines, which diminish in magnitude at high frequencies. Experimental inspection supports the results from the random-sweeping hypothesis in predicting spectral characteristics, although the magnitude of the coherence spectrum appears to be over-predicted. This deviation is attributed to the presence of turbine wakes, and appears to be a function of the turbulence approaching the first turbine in a pair.


The efficacy of a novel carbohydrate extraction procedure was investigated with methylation analysis and alditol acetate method by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. A published extraction procedure for β-glucans was compared to one developed in house. Both procedures gave a dominant glucose peak in the Gas chromatogram indicative of successful β-glucan isolation. Further linkage studies showed four linkage positions for β-glucans isolated with the chromatogram for the published method indicated structure degradation. The results for mannan isolated with 50 mM base gave mannose as a dominant component compared to mannan isolated with 50 mM acid. Base extracted mannan also indicated a good yield of mannan in hyphal form of Candida albicans. This has not been reported with other published isolation methods. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most thankful to Jehovah God for His abundant mercies and undeserved kindness shown towards me throughout my studies. I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Rachel Greene and Dr. Cassandra Eagle for their mentorship, patience, understanding, and motivation. In addition, a big thank you to Dr. Aleksey Vasiliev and Dr. Marina Roginskaya for serving as committee members. Cook and Lisa Bertolo for their support throughout this project. My love goes to my dear fiancé Patrick, my parents and siblings, for their prayers, support and encouragement. I also thank the Johnson City English congregation of Jehovah's witnesses for making my stay in the USA enjoyable. It was incredible getting to know you all as a family. I would like to acknowledge Francis, Shadrack and James in the Greene research group for letting me use their samples for analysis. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the faculty, staff, and all graduate students of the Chemistry Department at ETSU for their assistance and support throughout my stay in the Chemistry Department.


The service-based architecture (SBA) of 5G Core (5GC) introduces significant landscape changes to the modern communication and network system, and the network slicing enables different Network Functions (NFs) to meet diverse service requirements. However, with the broadening interface, some key NFs may become more vulnerable to internal hostile NFs or external malicious entities, which pose severe threats to the control-plane components in the 5GC network (5GCN). In this paper, we propose ADSeq-5GCN, a network-level anomaly detection framework based on modeling network traffic sequences. Our framework focuses on the control plane of 5GCN, where the network traffic is captured and analyzed for anomalies. We use a sequence model, Bidirectional Long Short Terms Memory (Bi-LSTM) networks, to learn normal NF-to-NF interactions and detect anomalies based on incorrect service event prediction. We evaluate our proposed framework on a 5GCN testbed with Free5GC and UERANSIM under various scenarios. Our results demonstrate the overwhelming performance of our proposed framework over the baseline models.


Abstract Teachers believe they don't interact any differently with boys than with girls. However, an examination of the evidence base on gendered student–teacher interactions shows – at times contradicting – unequal interaction patterns for boys and girls. In this study, the videotaped lessons of 13 secondary school teachers in three schools are analysed by both the teachers themselves and the researchers. Video-stimulated recall is used to bring to the surface the thoughts, images and emotions that evoke teachers' (re)actions in the classroom. Content analysis and thematic analysis of teachers' recall reveal three things: (1) when recalling specific situations, gender imbalances in the thoughts and images that accompany teachers' (re)actions come to the surface; (2) "video-stimulated recall" interviewing is a promising method to raise teacher awareness of these gendered thoughts and images; and (3) with a view to practitioners' professional learning process, it is important for researchers to allow practitioners to co-investigate their practice.


Taking the down cover of soap box as an example,it introduced the process of product modeling and mould design by means of Pro/ENGINEER software.3D model design method of the product was discussed in details,and the flowchart of mould design and the design of parting surface,mould cavity,and the core were also expatiated with emphasis.


The relationship between infrastructure and economic development is not a one time affair. It is an ongoing process; and economic development invariably has to be preceded, accompanies and followed by progress in infrastructure. There cannot be a second thought to the fact that a country's infrastructure development is directly linked to its economic growth and vice-versa. Spanning from roadways to airways, ports to airports and power generation facilities, the Indian infrastructure segment is the thrust for the development of the nation and therefore enjoys intense competition from top grade policy makers of the country. There have been substantial inflows of FDI in various key sectors of infrastructure. Foreign direct investment (FDI) received in construction development sector from April 2000 to July 2013 stood at US$22.44 billion, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). The cumulative FDI inflow into the railways related into the railways related components sector stood at US$351.26 million from April 2000 to July 2013, according to the statistics published by DIPP. Likewise there have been surge in various other important sectors of infrastructure. Thus, keeping in view the necessity of growth in infrastructure in order to maintain as well as accelerate the growth momentum, this article tries to delve into the current scenario of foreign direct investment in infrastructure, infrastructural sectors receiving massive foreign direct investment inflows, policy matters pertaining to FDI in infrastructure, impact of FDI in various sectors of infrastructure etc. In order to understand the influence or impact of FDI in infrastructure of India, various papers and articles will be referred, relevant statistical tools will be used in order to derive conclusions, latest published data from relevant sources will be referred in order to understand the recent developments pertaining to flow of FDI in infrastructure.


Abstract : Australia is America's oldest friend and ally in the Asia-Pacific region and second closet ally in the world. However, there currently is a debate in Australia about what the United States expects from the alliance and the nature of American power. Australia's self-reliant defense posture in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific contributes to mutual security. That posture is strengthened by the U.S. security guarantee and access to U.S. intelligence, defense science, weapons, and military logistics support. The alliance also enhances Australia's status in world affairs, especially in Asia.


INTRODUCTION
The objective of this study is to develop guidelines that outline the optimal timing of decompression in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) and central cord syndrome.

METHODS
A systematic review of the literature was conducted to address the following key questions: (1) What is the efficacy of early decompression (=24 hours) compared with late decompression (>24 hours) based on clinically important change in neurological status? (2) Does timing of decompression influence functional or administrative outcomes? (3) What is the safety profile of early decompression compared with late decompression? (4) What is the evidence that early decompression has differential efficacy or safety in subpopulations? (5) What is the comparative cost-effectiveness of early vs late decompression? A multidisciplinary guideline development group used this information, in combination with their clinical expertise, to develop recommendations for the optimal timing of SCI. The benefits and harms, financial impact, acceptability, feasibility, and patient preferences of each recommendation were carefully considered.

RESULTS
The main conclusions from the systematic review included: (1) patients decompressed early were more likely to exhibit clinical improvement in neurological status at 6 months (cervical only) and at discharge from inpatient rehabilitation (all levels); (2) patients treated early for central cord syndrome achieved significantly greater improvements in neurological and functional status than those decompressed late; (3) there were no significant differences in length of acute care/rehabilitation stay or in rates of complications between treatment groups. Our recommendations included: "We suggest that early surgery be considered as a treatment option in adult patients with traumatic central cord syndrome" and "We suggest that early surgery be offered as an option for adult acute SCI patients regardless of level."

CONCLUSION
These guidelines should be implemented into clinical practice to improve outcomes and reduce morbidity in patients with SCI by encouraging clinicians to make evidence-informed decisions.


This Special Issue brings together a number of insights from Australia, USA and Europe about the generation, exchange and use of information and knowledge building for sustainable soil use and management, predominately in agriculture. The 19 papers offer a range of perspectives from people who span disciplinary and practice boundaries, including soil scientists working as extension agents (with direct contact with farmers), citizens and project coordinators, as well as social scientists, who seek to understand and explain farmer learning. The authors provide different interpretations and understandings of data, information and knowledge with respect to managing soil. Those concerned with online repositories, portals and networks largely discuss the transfer of data and information to different stakeholder groups and decision makers operating at a range of scales, whereas those concerned with changing practice on farms discuss building knowledge and learning at the farm scale. The papers reveal the breadth of interest in communication about soil and the different epistemic communities involved for a range of outcomes. The policy and science community have argued strongly for the value proposition that by providing soil information to those people who manage the land they can understand soil and its functions better. The reasons put forward are that, with good quality, soil information on soil types at an appropriate scale, those managing the land (planner, decision maker or a farmer), can:


The optical film of the present invention is in a range capable of preventing the reflection of light by the quantum dots are embedded structure within the pattern and the projection provided to the conical structure of the projection, and the solar cell absorbs light in a near ultraviolet wavelength ever wavelength It converted to, an effect that can greatly improve the efficiency of the device. It can also be used to easily attach to a device such as the optical film due to excellent transparency, and is itself has adhesive properties, the solar cell without any further manufacturing process according to the invention. Also it is applied to the optical film solar cell according to the present invention even if not significantly increase the thickness of the solar light absorption efficiency has the effect of remarkably improved.


Aim: This study analysed the visual outcomes of patients with myopia and myopic astigmatism following Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE). Visual outcomes were determined by Post-operative refraction, Uncorrected Visual Acuity and aberrometry estimated with iTrace aberrometer post operatively immediately and upto day 30. Results: On Post-Operative day 1, the spherocylinder group, attained an uncorrected visual acuity of 6/6. Materials and Methods: The final post-operative refraction in all cases was within ±0.25 diopters of sphere in 18 eyes and within ±0.50 diopters of sphere in 10 eyes. The aberrometry values recorded on iTrace at the end of 30 days revealed a decrease in the total higher order aberrations. Mean higher order aberration is significantly (P<0.05) reduced in the post-operative status Similarly the pure cylinder group attained uncorrected visual acuity of 6/6 in all eyes on POD 30, with a decrease in higher order aberrations. Mean higher order aberration is significantly (P<0.05) reduced in the post-operative status. The final post-operative refraction in all cases was within ±0.25 diopters of cylinder in 48 eyes, within ±0.50 diopters of cylinder in 16 eyes and within ±0.75 in 14 eyes. Conclusion: SMILE is a successful procedure in treatment of both myopic spherical and cylindrical refractive errors. The faster healing and flapless advantage along with lesser incidence of dry eyes has an edge over conventional laser vision corrective procedures. The other important advantage is the reduction of higher order aberrations and better quality of vision. To conclude SMILE is safe and effective procedure for correction of myopic refractive errors and is also beneficial in reducing higher order aberrations.


Diffusion of platinum and gold has been used to reduce minority-carrier lifetime in power metal-oxide-semiconductor devices in order to improve the switching characteristics of the internal diode. Gold thin-film deposition and gold- or platinum-ion implantation techniques have been adopted to realize the prediffusion source. For a given reduction in lifetime, the concomitant increase in the on-resistance of the device, as determined by the forward characteristics, is smaller in gold-implanted than in gold-deposited devices; an even smaller increase in on-resistance is obtained by using platinum implantation. Therefore, ion implantation of platinum in power MOS devices fabrication provides a better tradeoff between static characteristics of the devices and switching speed of their internal diodes. >


The study aims to demonstrate whether the wash‐in and wash‐out time can be reliable as a criterion in the differential diagnosis between hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and other hepatic nodules with vascular pattern similar to HCC on contrast‐enhanced ultrasound (CEUS).


The high biodiversity and economic costs associated with invasive pla nts have promoted research to identify traits associated with invasiveness. At p resent, most research has been based on comparisons between invasive and native species but, in this paper, two invasive species with different levels of invasi veness, Eupatorium adenophorum and Gynura sp., were studied. Both specie s were g rown under four different relative irradiances (RI 12.5%, 36%, 50%, 100%) fo r 50 days, and we then measured their biomass allocation, leaf morphology and growth properties to compare their light acclimation abilities and growth strategies.The two species exhibited typical leaf morphological responses to different ligh t conditions. At low light levels, plants enhanced light interception by means o f increased biomass allocation to leaves and formation of large, thin leaves wit h high specific leaf area (SLA), leading to a high leaf area ratio (LAR) . At hig h light levels, plants reduced transpiration losses and increased carbon gain by making small-sized, thick leaves with a low SLA, leading to a low LAR a nd leaf area to root mass ratio. Under most light regimes, E. adenophorum was higher in leaf mass ratio (LMR), leaf mass fraction (LMF), LAR, root mass rati o (RMR) and root mass to crown mass ratio (R/C), but lower in supporting organ biomass r atio (SBR), MLA and branch number as compared to Gynura sp. Leaf mass ra tio, LMF, an d leaf area index of E. adenophorum were the highest under 100% irradiance t han unde r other light regimes and higher than for Gynura sp.; however, for SBR, these pa tterns were reversed. Under 100% irradiance, leaves were much more self-shaded i n E. adenophorum than in Gynura sp. This might be an adaptive strategy t hat supp orts the vigorous invasiveness of this species because a high-shaded canopy coul d prevent other plant species from surviving and competing. The number of branch es of Gynura sp. was greater under 100% irradiance than under other light re gime s and significantly more than for E. adenophorum. This might be an adaptive stra tegy for Gynura sp. because a greater number of branches can produce more fl ower s and thus more seeds. For both species, an increase in light intensity resulted in an increase in net assimilation rates (NAR) and growth response coeffici ent of NAR (GRC NAR ), whereas mean leaf area ratio (LAR m) and g rowth response coeffic ient of LAR m (GRC LAR m ) decreased. GRC LAR m was high er than GRC NAR at all times. T he relative growth rate (RGR) of E. adenophorum increased with an increa se in li ght intensity but decreased in Gynura sp. With a decrease in light intensity , bo th E. adenophorum and Gynura sp. grew taller and produced more branches to inte rcept more light energy. The biomass allocation strategy differed between the tw o species: RMR decreased and SBR increased in E. adenophorum, while RMR increase d, and SBR decreased in Gynura sp. All of the results presented above in dicate t hat E. adenophorum was able to acclimate better to different light condition s, e specially to low light regimes, than Gynura sp., and its better ability to acclimate might explain its greater invasiveness.


academic ABSTRACT The university ranking is currently used as a measurement standard for the development of universities in the world or referred to as World Class University (WCU). Many universities in Indonesia use ranking websites as their credible ranking benchmark. This research tries to compare two flagship ranking websites, Webometric and 4ICU which are frequently used as the main ranking standards in Indonesia. The Webometrics itself has four types of parameters for the measurement, namely Size (20%), Visibility (50%), Rich Files (15%), and Scholar (15%), while 4ICU uses two parameters: Google Page Rank and Alexa Traffic Rank. The results of the Web Impact Factor analysis show that Universitas Alma Ata has the lowest web page ranking with a total score of 144. The results are obtained by combining internal and external links in the web domain: almaata.ac.id. The Google links connected to the Universitas Alma Ata website have 25 backlinks taken from the web crawlers. The web impact factor value obtained from the web impact factor (WIF) formula is 0.005. The WIF values obtained from twenty universities have the same significant results or accepts H o because the probability value for 2 = 1.03 F c is 0.5975, where the probability has higher value than a = 0.05. There should be a number of websites that can support existing backlinks on university websites.


Objective To study the CT performance of papyraceous lamina variation in orbital medial wall and its diffevevtiation with bone fracture.Methods To collect the cases of head and orbit scanned by CT from 2006 to 2007,192 cases as the suffering group,no injury history but suffering papyraceous lamina change;the injury history and papyraceous lamina fracture as the control group,the value in variation and bone fracture was analyzed.Results The probability of orbital medial wall variation in the people was 1.78%.The significant defference between both orbits in the orbital medial wall variation was not found.The significant difference between the suffering group and the control group in interior relocation of orbital medial wall(angle and interior relocation)was found(P0.05),but the significant difference in the coloboma was not found.Conclusion This research is helpful to understand orbital medial wall variation,it is important for us to discriminate the variation and bone fracture in the clinical medcine and forensic medcine.


Over the past century, it has been recognized that pelvic and abdominal lymph nodes are common sites for metastatic prostate cancer (1). Flocks (2) reported that metastatic nodes were also frequently found in early prostatic cancer, this finding, associated with the development of safe surgical techniques to remove the prostate gland, has brought attention to the importance of pelvic lymphadenectomy. The presence of positive lymph nodes is associated with a worse prognosis and every effort should be made to detect the lymph node involvement and establish the best therapeutic plan. Important questions have arisen since then: how extensive should the pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) be? is PLND a staging or therapeutic procedure?


The traditionally separate researches on cognition and posture have been connected in the study of posture-cognition dual-tasking, which has become a new expanding area of research.A large quantity of studies revealed the role of cognitive factor in the control of balance which indicated the coexistence of posture and cognition.Studies with old person's who had specific neurological disease showed some of the mechanisms underlying motor control problems in those patient populations.The knowledge gained from such studies will contribute to the design of old people's falling prevention and intervention method, and also provide insights into children's attention problem and the construction of their academic setting.Moreover, such studies indicated that the interaction between the development of postural control and cognition should be further investigated.


Greenshell mussel (GSM- Perna canaliculus) is the most important aquaculture species in New Zealand and produces one of the most expensive bioactive lipid extracts on the nutraceutical market. There have been numerous studies on the composition of GSM as well as pre-clinical and clinical studies on the efficacy of GSM extracts and foods. With increases in analytical capabilities, lipidomic studies using advanced mass spectral data may provide new insight into the content and activity of the lipidome, the totality of all lipids, of GSM. This study is the first reported characterisation of the GSM lipidome which may disclose important novel information regarding its nutrition, biology, physiology, and epidemiology. This study adds to the traditional lipid analytical outputs with new lipidomic capabilities to interrogate the lipid species differences between tissues rich in oil. We have identified 16 different lipid species in GSM including ceramide aminoethyl phosphonate (CAEP). Many lipid species are differentially expressed between tissues and correlation analysis demonstrates lipid species associated with the digestive gland that may be obtained from food sources, whilst other lipid species are dominant in the mantle or gonad. Linking this new information to the GSM breeding programmes may deliver functional breeding attributes to deliver premium strains for enhanced nutrition and/or extract production.


Statistical classification is to assign an object to an appropriate class. The assignment is made by comparing a score based on a set of attributes describing the object and a cutoff value. Bayesian methods, which are the bases for most classical statistical methods including linear discriminant analysis, use the a priori (or the prior) probability distribution to determine the cutoff value. The prior probabilities are equal to the proportions of the classes in a finite population. The predicted values of neural networks approximate the posterior probabilities when the network architecture and sample size are large. Thus, 0.5 will be the appropriate cutoff value in a two-group classification problem. Yet for a practitioner with a relatively small dataset, 0.5 may not be appropriate. This study illustrates with a data set obtained from AT&T that 0.5 is still the appropriate cutoff value to use when the sample size is relatively small.


It is our pleasure to welcome you to The 1st ACM Workshop on Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (BCC'17) held in conjunction with The 12th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (AsiaCCS'17) during April 2-6, at Abu Dhabi, UAE. Blockchain is an emerging technology currently being used for a variety of applications such as cryptocurrencies and other financial transactions, smart properties, credential management, Internet-of-Things, supply chain management and many more. The theme of this workshop is to understand the foundations of blockchain technology and the design of new blockchain applications using smart contracts.

The call for papers attracted 17 submissions from Asia, Europe, and North America. The program committee accepted 5 papers based on their overall quality and novelty. Apart from the research papers, there are two keynote talks by Dr. Juan Garay and Dr. Marko Vukolic. We are grateful to the keynote speakers for accepting our invitations and to the authors of all the papers for submitting their work to this workshop. We thank the members of the program committee and external reviewers for their valuable service in evaluating the submissions. We hope these proceedings will serve as a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the field of blockchain technologies.


The integration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) would challenge system operators to ensure the required system inertia (SI) and primary frequency response (PFR). The decline in response would arise system security and reliability concerns due to post fault frequency dynamics during contingency like the largest generation or load loss. These challenges can be addressed through incorporation of additional resources of frequency response in the system. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) due to its high power density and fast response is a viable alternative to maintain post-fault system dynamics, and thus maintain system security. In this context, the paper investigates the BESS potential for PFR adequacy in a day- ahead security-constrained generator scheduling problem under different RES integration. Further, a sensitivity analysis of BESS for PFR adequacy is presented. Frequency security parameters like SI, nadir-frequency are examined under the largest generator outage for the analysis. Simulations are performed on a New-England 39 bus test system to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model.


It is generally believed that, in ghost imaging, there has to be a compromise between resolution and visibility. Here we propose and demonstrate an iterative filtered ghost imaging scheme whereby a super-resolution image of a grayscale object is achieved, while at the same time the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and visibility are greatly improved, without adding complexity. The dependence of the SNR, visibility, and resolution on the number of iterations is also investigated and discussed. Moreover, with the use of compressed sensing the sampling number can be reduced to less than 1% of the Nyquist limit, while maintaining image quality with a resolution that can exceed the Rayleigh diffraction bound by more than a factor of 10.


Due to improper use and excessive exploration,along with grave pollution and limited water volume,water resources for ecology have been greatly occupied in Northeast Provinces where the ecological environment is being seriously threatened.A number of enterprises rush into as soon as the strategy to revitalize the Nation's Old Industrial Base in Northeast China was implemented.Despite their capability to well reach clean production standard with advanced facilities,water consumption will be increasing greatly,and ecological system is threatened.Therefore,red-line management for water resource use should be promoted by setting strict access to the environment of the projects and thus regulates the total consumption of water resources in social economy.


A HUGE FIGURE stands in the background, his bare back to the viewer. The left arm, and presumably also the right one which we cannot see, is raised in a menacing gesture. The face, in quarter view, seems enraged, for the visible left eye glares at something possibly beyond our vision. Pink and gray wisps of clouds swirl behind his torso, while the upper third of the sky is painted in dark colors. On the bottom third of the painting, behind the giant, two sloping masses of dark hills arise. Between them lies a plain covered with people fleeing in panic in every direction; cattle run wildly, save for one donkey standing curiously still in the left foreground. This is the famous painting of Francisco de Goya (Figure 1), first cited as "El gigante" in the inventory of possessions the painter and his son prepared in October, 1812, and subsequently called "El Panico" or, as the Prado catalogue has it, El Coloso. It is not known at what period before 1812 Goya painted the picture. The four years just before then were filled with events that so shook the foundations of Spanish public life that commentators on the painting, as we shall see, have tended to connect the menacing giant to particular historical circumstances. However, if we extend the perspective back a bit further in time, we find a more universal context for understanding the painting. Writers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, following a path set out by John Milton in Paradise Lost, presented several examples of apocalyptic visions. In them an angry Jehovah or a furious Lucifer acquires great dramatic relief. Priscilla E. Muller recently called attention to a painting and an engraving from the 1790s in which Milton's Satan and Dante's Lucifer are portrayed in ways that seem, very persuasively, to have anticipated Goya's cannibalistic monster titled Saturno. Muller notes


Summary The extraction of biomass in microwave field offers advantages such as reduced processing costs, improved stability of products, the possibility to use less toxic solvents and decrease solvent consumption. The submitted contribution presents the results of microwave extraction of wheat straw waste. The sample of waste was characterized by thermal analysis. The content of the fatty acids in extract after microwave leaching of wheat straw in methanol was assayed by gas chromatography.


Solid chemicals MgCO3 / Mg(OH)2(MgCO3)4˙5H2O were selected to facilitate CO2 absorption with MEA solvent. The catalytic carbamate formation was confirmed here, to verify heterogeneous catalysis. Since the aqueous hydroxide [OH-] can serve homogeneous catalyst of carbamate formation, MgCO3 can serve as heterogeneous catalysts/promotors implemented for CO2 absorption in the amine scrubbing process. The solid MgCO3 accelerate the CO2 absorption in MEA solvent properly. These solid chemicals proved to be good candidates for heterogeneous catalytic CO2 absorption with amine.


Would you like me to stop venting my rage on paper? Is that what you'd like me to do, all you selfrighteous, indignant females? All you poor persecuted downtrodden cunts? Would you rather I went out and raped twelveyearold girls? Would that be an improvement? Well, listen, you dumbassed broads, I'm gonna fucking well draw what I please to draw and if you don't like it, fuck you! (Crumb 1971)


Summary. This paper presents an overview of time-domain simulation of progressive flooding in a damaged ship. The principles of the applied pressure-correction method are presented in detail. In addition, some validation results from dedicated model tests are shown. Finally, several practical examples, including statutory calculations of cross-flooding and accumulation of water on deck, are briefly discussed.


The present study explores the possible interpretation of the terracotta cylindrical models found in Late Minoan to Early Iron Age contexts (generally known as "(circular) hut models") as reduced-scale models of tholos tombs. Theoretical issues concerning the relationship of an 'architectural model' with the archaeological context in which it is found are examined in order to support the above-mentioned suggestion. Archaeological data concerning the morphology, chronology, distribution, use and significance of the Late Minoan and Early Iron Age tholos tombs are explored in order to contribute to the discussion. The possible connection between the presence of the LM III tomb models in domestic contexts and the absence of contemporary intramural burials allows us to expand on the possible significance of these artefacts for our knowledge of LM mortuary practices and beliefs, especially those concerning the possible practice of 'ancestor worship'. The presence of terracotta figurines of the 'Minoan Goddess with Upraised Arms' type attached in the interior of two examples (from SM Knossos and PG B Archanes) is considered as a late development within the tradition of these models and linked with the practice of placing MGUA figures in Early Iron Age tholos tombs (Rhotasi, Kourtes).


in the U. S. National Museum as of Dec. 31, 1956. As a rule, reference is made only to holotypes and syntypes, paratypes being mentioned only where it is necessary to clarify the data or otherwise aid in the fixing of holotypes and lectotypes. The specific name is given under the genus to which it is now assigned, with a brief comment on its present status. If host names given in the type data have been changed since the original description of the Anoplura species, the currently accepted name is placed in brackets following the original form of the name. Appended is an alphabetical listing of the specific names of


Catherine Pepinster interviewed academics, Church leaders, diplomats, and distinguished Members of Parliament to unearth the history and to highlight the prospects of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Britain. Pepinster's vast experience as a journalist is displayed brilliantly as she uncovers the intriguing ways that Catholics have influenced public life in the UK and the mutual reciprocity between the papacy and the Crown over the past four decades. This engaging book issues a clear message reminiscent of Pepinster's editorial role with The Tablet, which acknowledges the Catholic Church as an important political player on the global stage and issues a plea for its leaders to come to grips with this fact. Pepinster argues that the UK provides a unique litmus test to re-evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of the Church in European society—not least because the UK faces secularism with a Catholic past and a modern minority that includes immigrants from countries where Catholicism currently thrives. After the Reformation, Catholicism was illegal in England until the Catholic Relief Act of 1791. The Catholic hierarchy was allowed to return to England in 1851 and diplomatic relations between the British Foreign Office and the Holy See date back to 1914 –despite the fact that official status was not granted to the resident UK envoy until 1981. In Pepinster's account, the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown followed by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government built upon this relationship with the Holy See to advance health care, education, and environmental goals amid the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the rise of Scottish Nationalism. Pepinster argues that diplomatic relations facilitated by Francis Campbell paved the way for Pope Benedict XVI's unprecedented state visit to the UK in 2010, which gave greater visibility to Catholicism. Moreover, Pepinster interviewed the Australian ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer who claimed that the UK influenced the conclave decision for Pope Francis through Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's 'most powerful non-voting role' (p. 71). Such political reciprocity underscores an ecumenical reality and Pepinster devotes an entire chapter to the role of Queen Elizabeth II and how the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams made significant progress amid a tumultuous decade. Readers interested in the history of UK-Vatican political relations and foreign policy will enjoy this very accessible and informative book, which makes a case for the strong and unwavering relations between Rome and Britain to remain.


Although BP algorithm can adaptive change with the environment, it can not guarantee that it can find the global optimal solution every time. A hybrid method of an improved genetic algorithm and BP algorithm is proposed to overcome the disadvantages of BP algorithm and that the genetic algorithm is prone to premature. Fault diagnosis results prove that the proposed IAGA-BP method is accuracy and the proposed IAGA-BP method is more high accuracy and smaller error than other methods.


Websites implement cookie consent interfaces to obtain users' permission to use non-essential cookies, as required by privacy regulations. We extend prior research evaluating the impact of interface design on cookie consent through an online behavioral experiment (n = 1359) in which we prompted mobile and desktop users from the UK and US to make cookie consent decisions using one of 14 interfaces implemented with the OneTrust consent management platform (CMP). We found significant effects on user behavior and sentiment for multiple explanatory variables, including more negative sentiment towards the consent process among UK participants and lower comprehension of interface information among mobile users. The design factor that had the largest effect on user behavior was the initial set of options displayed in the cookie banner. In addition to providing more evidence of the inadequacy of current cookie consent processes, our results have implications for website operators and CMPs.


There are significant changes in society's approaches to the energy policy development in the modern world. It is observable a transition from the old model of the energy sector maintenance, which was dominated by large producers, inefficient networks, fossil fuels, imperfect competition in the markets of natural gas, coal, electricity - to a new model, which creates a more competitive environment and equalizes opportunities for development and the dominance one of the types energy production or sources of fuel supply. The traditional network is based on centralized power plants that supply electricity to consumers through simple one-way transmission and distribution systems. The bulk of the current electricity generation capacity in Ukraine is generated by fossil fuels, which significantly contributes to the increase of the carbon dioxide concentration in the Earth's atmosphere and has a corresponding negative consequences for the climate. At the same time, modern preferences are given to increasing energy efficiency and the use of energy from renewable and alternative sources. Implementation of adaptation and prevention measures for climate change is also one of the priorities of global energy development. The renewable energy promotion is causing new economic and scientific challenges for Ukraine. However, at the same time it opens new perspectives for the search and implementation of innovative developments in the field of extraction, processing of fossil fuels, energy supply and consumption, which leads to create a new energy policy of the state. The article discusses theoretical and methodological approaches that reveal the benefits of Smart Grid using. It is emphasized that ensuring energy security and environmental sustainability of the energy sector should be based on the use of renewable energy sources. The article analyzes the main factors that can affect the development of Smart Grid technology. Also, the article describes the best experience of the EU countries, which are introducing smart energy systems for the economic optimization of renewable energy sources use.


THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCES UPON ECONOMICALLY AND CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN. TO EFFECT THE STUDY, A SERIES OF SCHOOL CONCERTS BY OUTSIDE PROFESSIONAL PERFORMERS WAS PRESENTED TO STUDENT AUDIZNCES IN DISADVANTAGED SCHOOLS IN THE ESPANOLA VALLEY AND SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO. EVALUATION PROCEDURES WERE ESTABLISHED TO DETERMINE THE EFFECT OF THESE. CONCERTS IN TERMS OF HOW MANY MUSIC FACTS THE STUDENTS ACCUMULATED AND HOW MUCH THEIR ATTITUDES WERE CHANGED ABOUT MUSIC. THE METHODOLOGY INCLUDED -tI) OBSERVATIONS BY THE RESEARCHER, (2) INTERVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS, SCHOOL PRINCIPALS, AND THE CHILDREN, AND (3) THE USE OF SEVERAL QUESTIONNAIRES DESIGNED FOR SELECTED CONCERT SITUATIONS WITH CHILDREN. THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSIONS WERE MADE AS A RESULT OF CHILDREN OBSERVING LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCES -ti) CHILDREN CAN ACQUIRE FACTS ABOUT THE MUSIC, THE PERFORMERS, THE INSTRUMENTS PLAYED, AND THE PERFORMANCE AS A WHOLE, (2) ATTITUDES MAY BE OBSERVED IN EXPRESSIONS OF THEIR INTEREST. IN THE MUSIC AND DESIRE FOR STUDYING AN INSTRUMENT HEARD IN THE PERFORMANCE, AND (3) TRANSFER EFFECTS IN THE AREAS OF ACCULTURATION, AND SPECIFICALLY, SELF CONCEPT, ARE MOST DIFFICULT TO MEASURE. FURTHER RESEARCH IN THE AREA Of LIVE PERFORMANCES SHOULD INCLUDE THE USE OF STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES AND A DETERMINATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OFDIFFERENT METHODS OF PRESENTING MUSIC. (ES)


Twenty-first century has seen the migration of many governance functions and services to the Internet. The terms like e-governance and m-governance are no longer unfamiliar words but are a political reality. The adoption of e-procurement by government entities to optimize and economize public procurements has been the buzzword of transparent governance. In fact, e-procurement has been touted as the panacea for issues like corruption and bureaucratic red-tapism. Literature is replete with studies which underline numerous benefits of migration of procurement functions to the Internet. However, e-Government Procurement (e-GP) has not taken off in India, though it is an integrated mission mode project as a part of the National e-Governance Project (NeGP) launched by the Government of India in 2006. A recent review of the e-procurement implementation by the Government of India brought out that the progress of e-procurement project implementation has been dismal. Against this backdrop, the study aims to identify the Critical Success Factors (CSF) for e-procurement project implementation. The research methodology followed included a detailed analysis of e-procurement CSFs reported in research literature and qualitative study of a few successful e-procurement implementations in India. The study concludes that the existing CSFs and their study models do not take the cultural and project context dimensions into account. Therefore, the existing body of knowledge does not aid managerial decision making. Finally, the paper brings out research gaps and suggests directions for future research.