Evaluation of Alternative Substrates for Bedding Plants

 Intellectual Property is a property that arises from the human intellect. It is a product of human creation.

Health Education Research, 2002

Failure of clients to initiate closure and move out of weight management programs after it is considered they should have reached the stage of maintenance in their health behavior change has implications for clients' self-management, provision of health promotion programs and their cost-effectiveness. This study aims to identify factors that enable and inhibit class attendees' transition from a weight management program. Six short-term attendees who had left the program after two terms and six long-term attendees who had attended four or more terms of the program volunteered to participate in in-depth interviews. Enabling factors were identified to be program knowledge and attainment of set goal weight, and inhibiting factors were the perceived need to come to classes, concern about keeping in control, recognition of the potential to lapse and being involved with a group. Recommendations are made for the program to include a component addressing relapse prevention training and to trial some form of follow-up support strategy. Additionally, further research is needed into transition from weight management programs.

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 2016

Rammelt, Claudia; Schlarb, Cornelia; Schlarb, Egbert (Hg.): Begegnungen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart: Beiträge dialogischer Existenz, 2015

This article is a contribution to the extensive commemorative publication of editors Claudia Rammelt, Cornelia and Egbert Schlarb for Prof. Martin Tamcke ("Begegnungen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart: Beiträge dialogischer Existenz"), published as a collective monograph (Münster: LIT, 2015).

2006

This report is a major revision of the Federal Highway Administration publication 'Seismic Retrofitting Manual for Highway Bridges,' which was published ten years ago in 1995 as report FHWA/RD-94-052. This edition expands the coverage of the previous publication by including procedures for evaluating and retrofitting retaining structures, slopes, tunnels, culverts, and pavements, in addition to bridges. It is published in two parts as follows: Part 1: Bridges Part 2: Retaining Structures, Slopes, Tunnels, Culverts, and Pavements Whereas Part 1 maintains the basic format of the retrofitting process described in the 1995 report, major changes have been made in this revision to include current advances in earthquake engineering, field experience with retrofitting highway bridges, and the performance of bridges in recent earthquakes in California and elsewhere. It is the result of several years of research with contributions from a multidisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners. In particular, a performance-based retrofit philosophy is introduced similar to that used for the performance-based design of new buildings and bridges. Performance criteria are given for two earthquake ground motions with different return periods, 100 and 1000 years. A higher level of performance is required for the event with the shorter return period (the lower level earthquake ground motion) than for the longer return period (the upper level earthquake ground motion). Criteria are recommended according to bridge importance and anticipated service life, with more rigorous performance being required for important, relatively new bridges, and a lesser level for standard bridges nearing the end of their useful life. Minimum recommendations are made for screening, evaluation and retrofitting according to an assigned Seismic Retrofit Category. Bridges in Category A need not be retrofitted whereas those in Category B may be assessed without a detailed evaluation, provided certain requirements are satisfied. Bridges in Categories C and D require more rigorous evaluation and retrofitting, as required. Various retrofit strategies are described and a range of related retrofit measures explained in detail, including restrainers, seat extensions, column jackets, footing overlays, and soil remediation. This manual comprises 11 chapters and six appendices as follows: Chapter 1 gives a complete overview of the retrofitting process including the philosophy of performance-based retrofitting, the characterization of the seismic and geotechnical hazards, the assignment of the Seismic Retrofit Category, and summaries of recommended screening methods, evaluation tools, and retrofit strategies. Topics in this chapter are described in greater detail in the following 10 chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the characterization of the seismic and geotechnical hazards. iv Chapter 4 presents two screening and prioritization methods, with examples of each method. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 describe six evaluation methods, of increasing rigor, for the detailed assessment of demand and capacity, using either a component-by-component approach, or a system approach for a complete bridge. Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 describe retrofitting measures for bearings, seats, columns, piers, cap beams, column-to-cap joints, abutments, and foundations. Remedial techniques for hazardous sites are also addressed. Appendices A through D provide supplementary material on conducting site-specific geotechnical investigations, the evaluation of geotechnical hazards, fragility curve theory, and the calculation of capacity/demand ratios for bridge components. Appendices E and F present two examples illustrating the application of the component capacity/demand method (Method C) to multi-span concrete and steel highway bridges, respectively. A glossary and lists of abbreviations, symbols, and references are also included. It is noted that this manual was developed while the U.S. Department of Transportation was transitioning to metric units. As a consequence, example problems are presented in SI units. Future editions may however use Customary U.S. Units to reflect the current movement in many State DOTs back to customary units.

STUDIES AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES. ECONOMICS EDITION, 2018

Reinsurance is used by primary insurers as a device to cushion the effect of underwriting and solvency risks. However, an overdependence on reinsurance could cause depletion in the income of the primary insurer. The study examined the effect of reinsurance on the financial performance of non-life insurers in Nigeria. Secondary data used for this research were analysed with descriptive statistics, coefficient of determination (R 2), and linear regression. Results showed a significant positive relationship between reinsurance utilisation and premium growth rate. Similarly, a significant positive relationship was found between reinsurance dependence and profitability (loss ratio). It was recommended that non-life insurers should embrace more of reinsurance facilities particularly for risks of high loss potentials in order to stabilise premium growth rate. In addition, Insurance firms in Nigeria should harness their claims management activities in order to minimise cost and exposure to underwriting risks.

Economic history conducting investigations into financial crises of the long 20th century primarily analyses the permanent character of crises and their macroeconomic consequences. Statistics focuses, primarily, on the number of bank failures, corpo-rate bankruptcies, low macroeconomic output (gross domestic product [GDP]), decreased employment rates as well as increased inflation and government debts. Both economic history and statistics only deal with the decrease in household in-come and with losses in their net wealth positions afterwards. The authors of this study investigate the impact of the 2008 crisis on household income and their net wealth positions. They also examine options of restoring household income in Visegrad countries based on the data of NUTS 2 level (Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques) territorial units. The authors have used empirical analysis and statistical comparison for the change of the income and wealth situation of the Visegrad countries’ households. The results show that in the 2000s, the growth in the income gap between households slowed down, but after the crisis of 2008, the differentiation of the wealth of households in the region continued. As a result of this crisis, the income differences also started to rise again, which led to even wider gaps in income inequalities. Recovery of income and wealth has begun, but it will take at least 3-4 years to reach the pace of pre-crisis growth. In addition, its level could be permanently lower since households and credit institutions behave more cautiously than before the crisis.

Masculinity is attributed to the Qur’an by Ibn Mas‘ūd (d. 32/652) who called reciters to treat it as such and mainly opt for yā’ in cases of doubt in selecting between tā’ and yā’. Striving for an appreciation of the claim is conducive, in Arabs’ conception, to conceiving as masculine what is divinely accorded any worth and significance. Accordingly, hadith scholars and litterateurs have referred to themselves as masculine and have termed their disciplines as such. Furthermore, considering the great impacts of Ibn Mas‘ūd on the readings adopted by reciters flourishing in early Islamic times and his report that resembles a reading principle, the present study investigates the reciters’ degrees of such impact ability. Aiming at studying the significance of the reading principle in question on the ‘seven readings’, the present study provides a textual analysis of the reports, with an eye to their transmission authorities, and approximate times and places of their transmission. On the other hand, the readings that are equivocal as to the masculinity and femininity of verbal forms have been provided along with the degrees of masculinity in each report. The study reveals that readings by Ḥamza, Kisā’ī, and ‘Ᾱṣim are, in descending order, indicative of utmost masculinity, beaconing Ibn Mas‘ūd’s profound impact on Kufan readings, since such reports found further prevalence in Kufa. The topic treated in this article is unprecedented in the literature devoted to the disciplines in question.

New Literary History, 2015

The idea of aesthetic experience did not fare well in the second half of the 20 th century. Adorno and his disciples, clad in black, despised indulgence without reflection. A primarily non-intellectual reception was liable to lead into the snares of ideology. Under the influence of Adorno, 2 a generation of intellectuals, at least in Europe, tried hard not to be carried away by catchy tunes and felt guilty for identifying with James Bond in the movie theater. Art's title to truth, a debt inherited from Hegel, led to a ban on the senses. Perhaps even more than Critical Theory, poststructuralism contributed to the disregard for aesthetic experience. The very idea of experience was shunned by a philosophy that replaced subjects with discourses and dissolved presence into traces: 'As to the concept of experience, it is very unfortunate here... it belongs to the history of metaphysics and we can only use it under erasure.' 3 Even Barthes' concept of jouissance, the voluptuous reading, refuses the reader an immersion in the fictive universe and instead aims at her masochistic disfiguration in plays of signification. In the Anglo-American tradition, Dewey's heritage dwindled soon. 4 The notion of aesthetic experience became more and more confined in the course of the controversy between Beardsley and Dickie. 5 In major analytical theories of art, it played no role. While aesthetic experience has no place in Goodman's semiological agenda, Danto denies it relevance to the definition of (modern) art. 6 Surely, there were dissenting voices: Launching an invective against the anemia of contemporary criticism, Susan Sontag fervently pleaded for an erotics of