We present a serially concatenated coding scheme for partial response channels. The encoder consists of an outer irregular LDPC code and an inner matched spectrum trellis code. These codes are shown to offer considerable improvement over the i.i.d. capacity (> 1 dB) of the channel for low rates (approximately 0.1 bits per channel use). We also present a qualitative argument on the optimality of these codes for low rates. We also formulate a performance index for such codes to predict their performance for low rates. The results have been verified via simulations for the (1-D)/sqrt(2) and the (1-D+0.8D^2)/sqrt(2.64) channels. The structure of the encoding/decoding scheme is considerably simpler than the existing scheme to maximize the information rate of encoders over partial response channels.

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The Swedish National Labour Market Administration wishes to acquire further knowledge about how the evaluation process of vocational rehabilitation at the employment service operates as a part of the quality assurance of this activity. The primary task for vocational rehabilitation at the employment service is to investigate the work capacity of unemployed people, to give them increased knowledge and better understanding of their own capacity concerning work or education. The aim of this study was to survey the evaluation process of vocational rehabilitation at the employment service in Sweden. Data were collected through telephone interviews with 15 occupational therapists employed at the employment service, who were working with vocational rehabilitation. The result shows that the investigation of work capacity can take place in different environments and that the space of time for an investigation can vary. During the evaluation process, different types of data collection methods are used. Nevertheless, the result shows that the evaluation process begins and ends in similar ways. Further studies to validate the result would be interesting. These could be done through quantitative studies, for example by sending questionnaires based on the result of this study.

<p>This thesis explored the empowerment needs of volunteer members of Women for Peace at the Nobantu Centre, Mfuleni in the Western Cape. The volunteer members, the majority of whom are women, come from a previously disadvantaged background created by the Apartheid system used in South Africa from 1948-1994. Apartheid driven education purposefully taught an inferior form of education to the black masses. This case study investigated the needs of the volunteer members, the impact that the four empowerment programmes had on the volunteer members and their future needs after being empowered.</p>

<p>This study investigated, within the context of Brain Reserve Capacity (BRC) theory, whether repeated concussions resulted in residual deficits in cognitive and academic functioning of early adolescent rugby players relative to non-contact sports controls.</p>

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Abstract Innovational behavior is one of the main sources of an organization¡¦s competitive advantage which is verified by many scholars. Peter Drucker¡]1985¡^said that two of the most important issues in knowledge age are knowledge management and innovation. Therefore, organizations have the chance to develop the ability of innovation when they are able to control knowledge. Only with the innovation of product and management skills, hi-tech companies could catch up the changing environment. This study focuses on the relationship between innovative behavior, leadership, absorptive capacity, and psychological contract between units. In the meantime, leadership style contains transactional leadership and transformational leadership; absorptive capacity contains the ability of acquisition, assimilation and exploitation; psychological contract contains transactional, relational and balanced relationship. The result of the research indicates that: 1. The differences of employees¡¦ gender, marriage and the function of occupation have significant difference on innovative behavior 2. In addition to difference analysis, relationship between transactional leadership, transformational leadership, acquisition ability, assimilation ability, exploitation ability and balanced relationship of psychological contract have significant influence on innovative behavior.

There have been studies on the role of land use planning and development regulations on hazard mitigation and the importance of including these in effective mitigation planning initiatives. However, little empirical research has examined how the local capacity and commitment affect the adoption and implementation of land use and development regulations to mitigate any type of hazards in the coastal areas. This study investigates hazard mitigation policies and practices at municipal and county level in the Texas coastal area and examines the influence of capacity and commitment for the adoption and implementation of these hazard mitigation strategies and actions. The data utilized in this survey were collected as part of a web-based survey. Responses were solicited from 267 local jurisdictions that consist of 226 cities and 41 counties. The survey was targeted to leading planner, or mayor/city manager and county judges. In total 124 responses were obtained, yielding an overall response rate of 46%. Study results show that local jurisdictions are employing a very limited a set of land use and development regulations that the literature has identified as important for hazard mitigation. There are considerable differences between municipalities and counties in the implementation of those policies. Municipalities tend to put more effort in employing building standards and development regulations, whereas counties more extensively employ information dissemination and private-public sector initiatives. In addition, statistical models are developed to assess the influence of local capacity and commitment on the adoption and implementation of hazard mitigation policies and strategies. Other factors such as jurisdiction type and location, hazard experience and exposure as well as population characteristics, are also examined in multivariate models. Results suggest that capacity and commitment of local jurisdictions have significant effects on the adoption and implementation hazard mitigation policies and strategies. Additionally, factor such as floodplain area, jurisdiction type municipality, and hazard experience have strong associated with implementation of hazard mitigation policies and strategies.

Heat exposure causes several physiological and metabolic alterations. Although lipids are vital in sustaining energy production, heat-induced alterations in lipid metabolism have not been clearly established. CHAPTER 1 reviews the known metabolic alterations resulting from heat stress, with a specific focus on changes in whole-body lipid utilization and plasma lipids. CHAPTER 1also outlines the physiological changes caused by heat stress, and their role in reducing exercise performance. The study presented in CHAPTER 2 has shown that, compared to thermoneutral conditions, NEFA concentrations were 37% higher following passive heating and 34% higher following exercise in the heat, without significant changes in whole-body lipid utilization. In addition, the level of hyperthermia attained during passive pre-heating and exercise in the heat resulted in a 13% decrease in total external work and a significantly higher rate of perceived exertion. CHAPTER 3 summarizes the study results and presents the limitations and applications of the study.

Flavonoids are of great interest for their antioxidant and health-promoting activities. Ascorbate (vitamin C) has antioxidant activities but also sometimes displays pro-oxidant activities <i>in vitro</i> and reportedly <i>in vivo</i>. This research investigated to what extent flavonoids moderate oxidative stress from vitamin C <i>in vivo</i>.<p>Dietary experiments were conducted in two phases using adult male Wistar rats. First, all animals were maintained for two weeks on a control flavonoid-free diet with the dietary requirement (27 IU) of vitamin E/kg diet. In the subsequent four weeks, the animals were treated in four groups (8 rats/group), being fed the following diets: flavonoid-free control (C), ascorbate-supplemented (7.55 mmol/kg diet) (A), flavonoid-supplemented (2.67 mmol/kg diet) (F) and flavonoids (2.67 mmol/kg diet) plus ascorbate (7.55 mmol/kg diet)-supplemented (T). Measurements were done on in vivo biomarkers of oxidative stress, tissue antioxidants and on tissue in vitro susceptibility to oxidative stress.<p>In the combined feeding of ascorbate plus flavonoids, endogenous thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) increased in liver by 114%. No effects of dietary ascorbate or flavonoids were seen on endogenous TBARS in brain or heart, or on plasma thiols or erythrocyte fragility.<p><i>In vitro</i>, the susceptibility to TBARS formation of liver homogenate (incubated for 60 min at 37ºC in air) showed a significant 60% increase in ascorbate-fed animals compared to control, but no increase in animals fed ascorbate plus flavonoids, suggesting that the additional feeding of flavonoids helped to prevent the increase produced by ascorbate-feeding. Incubation of liver mitochondria with 300 µM ascorbate in vitro produced a large (2-7 fold) increase in TBARS, but there was no difference among mitochondria from the different feeding groups.<p>The ability of flavonoid-feeding in protecting against oxidative stress from ascorbate in vivo could not be demonstrated in this study, even showing pro-oxidant effects of flavonoids in combination with ascorbate in liver. However, in vitro tests in liver suggest a protective effect of flavonoid-feeding against susceptibility to oxidative stress from ascorbate. Further investigations are needed in order to resolve the differences observed in vitro and in vivo and to determine the endogenous effects of specific flavonoids under ascorbate-induced oxidative stress.