This study describes nectar production patterns for Ipomopsis aggregata and discusses their potential adaptive and ecological significance. It also examines the influence of environmental and other factors on nectar production rate (NPR) and nectar sugar concentration. For I. aggregata there were no NPR differences with flower age. An hypothesis for the presence or absence of such differences is discussed. Ipomopsis aggregata has a relatively constant rate of nectar production during the day and production continues overnight but at a reduced rate. Newly opened flowers already have a sizeable accumulation of nectar. 24-hr nectar sugar production on overcast days was 62% of sunny day production. NPR values at the beginning ofthe flowering season were almost twice as great as those near the end but the sugar concentration did not change. Whether nectar was removed periodically (to simulate pollinator visits) or simply allowed to accumulate over 24 hr had no effect on total production. Nectar sugar concentration has a characteristic diumal pattern: highest in the afternoon and lowest in the early morning, probably in response to diurnal changes in relative humidity. Sugar concentration was also lower on overcast days. These changes are not due to evaporative losses from the open end of the flower. However, evaporation did occur in flowers which had been punctured at the base of the corolla by nectar robbing bees. In general the results of this study suggest caution in characterizing the NPR or sugar concentration of a species by making measurements at one point in time under one set of environmental conditions. A PLANT S NECTAR PROPERTIES are an integal part of its strategy for pollination success. There are a number of nectar properties of interest including the sugar concentration of the nectar (Baker, 1975; Pyke and Waser, 198 1), the composition of sugars in the nectar (Baker and Baker, 1983), the amino acid composition of the nectar (Baker and Baker, 1975) and the rate of nectar production (Heinrich, 1976; Brink and deWet, 1980; Pleasants, 1981; Cruden, Hermann-Parker and Peterson, 1982). In this paper I examine some of the nectar properties, primarily nectar production rate (hereafter abbreviated NPR) and sugar concentration of Ipomopsis aggregata, a hummingbird-pollinated species. The purposes of the paper are 1) to describe how nectar production rate and sugar concentration are influenced by flower age, time of day, point in the flowering season, weather conditions and removal of nectar by pollinators and nectar robbers and discuss the ' Received for publication 3 December 1982revision accepted 18 August 1983. I would like to thank Bob Neely, Renee Neely, Mark Pelham, Paul Rich, Martha Pleasants and Barbara Pleasants for assisting in collecting the data for this study. The paper benefitted from discussions with David Inouye, Nick Waser Graham Pyke, Larry Wolf and Mike Zimmerman. This study was supported by NSF Grant DEB-8 1 1 1027 and an Iowa State University Minigrant. potential effiect of this on pollinator foraging patterns and possible advantages for the plant, and 2) to evaluate these influences on nectar production in terms of our ability to accurately characterize the NPR and sugar concentration of plants. A plant's NPR is considered to be a trait which is as important a part of its pollinator syndrome as flower color, odorS etc. It is common to use 24-hr NPR to explain the attractiveness of diffierent species to pollinators (Heinrich? 1976; Brown and Kodric-Brown, 1979; Southwick, Loper and Sadwick, 1981; Pleasants, 1981) or to examine ecotypic variation within a species (Brink and deWet, 1980). In general, 24-hr production is measured by bagging flowers for 24 hr and measuring the amount of accumulated nectar. But there are some questions concerning the validity of this measure. First, is the secretion rate altered by the presence of accumulated nectar? Second, is nectar sugar reabsorbed if accumulated nectar is not removed? Serious errors may occur when comparingthe 24-hrproduction of species which differ in this regard. There are also some questions about characterizing the NPR of a plant by sampling at one point in time. First, how are the estimates of NPR affected by whether the measurements were done on an overcast day or a sunny day? Second, is the


Virtual classrooms manifest a burgeoning pedagogic instrument in current English language teaching and learning contexts around the globe; the use of which was significantly increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Such practices can also be traced to the secondary-level educational context in Bangladesh. Alike the traditional classroom, these virtual classrooms are not without challenges. To unravel such challenges of online English classes at the secondary level in a developing country context like Bangladesh, a qualitative research framework was used in this research. As such, the current study utilized qualitative data collection instruments to collect in-depth information about the individual, course, contextual and technological challenges of online English language education at the secondary level in Bangladesh, based on Anderson and Grönlund's (2009) conceptual framework of online education in developing countries. The data was collected from both the learners and the facilitators of such online English language classes and analyzed based on the codes from the conceptual framework of the study. Moreover, data regarding the pedagogic participant-oriented suggestions to encounter such challenges were also collected and analyzed. The findings of the study highlight a range of different pedagogic and contextual challenges in relation to online English education in a developing country context like Bangladesh and draw on its implication to address policy issues as well as pedagogic practices


In the not-too-distant past the 70-kg male was the paradigm for medical practice and women were systematically excluded from clinical trials. In a relatively short period, sex-and gender-based analyses have contributed to an exponential growth in our knowledge about health-related differences


In the present work the colour coordinates have been obtained in the CIELAB system (L*,a*,b*) for the teeth of 600 individuals. to determine the region of the CIELAB space which contains all the different hues found in human teeth. In addition. one of the colour guides most used in dentistry has been studied to compare the hue range in this guide with the range possible in human teeth. The results show that colour coordinates of human teeth fall within an elliptical contour centered in a yellowish white. The colour guide studied did not cover all the possible values found for teeth chromaticities.


Objective To investigate the clinical value of prenatal diagnosis of fetal tetralogy of Fallot with fetal echocardiography.Methods The data of 15 fetuses diagnosed as tetralogy of Fallot by fetal echocardiography were reviewed and the abnormal echocardiographic features in various sonographic views were analyzed.Results Thirteen fetuses were confirmed to be tetralogy of Fallot by autopsy or operation after birth and two fetuses just simple ventricular septal defect verified by post echocardiography and surgery.The key echocardiographic features of tetralogy of Fallot were uniformly demonstrated to ventricular septal defect ,overriding aorta and subpulmonary stenosis.The leftward deviation of the cardiac apex,aortic root dilation and abnormal ratio of pulmonary artery to aorta were helpful to the prenatal diagnosis of fetal tetralogy of Fallot.Conclusions Fetal tetralogy of Fallot can be detected by echocardiography,but some affected factors should be noted in fetal heart examination.


The pelt collection figures for colored fox in the province of Quebec were examined. The figures for the central and southern part of the province show a typical nine-year cycle. In the northern sections the data show that until 1930 there was a nine-year cycle in colored fox coexisting with a four-year cycle in white fox. After 1930 the four-year and nine-year cycles exist simultaneously with the four-year gradually dominating the scene. In the Upper James Bay region the typical nine-year cycle shows a supplementary peak corresponding with the four-year peak observed in the regions to the north. The coat color phase ratios cannot be explained by monohybrid equilibrium but they are consistent with the view that the population consists of isolates. A partial breakdown of isolate barriers would account for the ratios observed without the necessity of the large unexplained gene frequency changes which occur if panmixia is postulated. Migration causes the breakdown of isolate barriers and this accounts for th...


General practices in England will have to pay fees of between £550 and £15 000 to register with the Care Quality Commission from April, despite most GPs who responded to the commission's consultation opposing the proposed fee schedule.

General practices and other providers of NHS primary care services with one location will have to pay fees of between £550 and £850, depending on their list size, to register with the regulator in 2013-14.

Providers of primary care services with between two and 10 locations will have to pay fees of £1200 to £3000. …


This paper proposes a fully digitized hardware design scheme of a vector-controlled servo controller, which is verified and implemented on one-chip field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), for high-performance servo drives of the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). This scheme integrates the vector control strategy, the M/T speed measurement algorithm, the PI regulating technique and the SVPWM principle as well as the EDA design methodology, and it will be a good substitute for traditional PMSM drives practice. The realized control IC also contains a standard host communication interface, which enables the on-line configuration for all kinds of control parameters. The actual sample frequencies of the torque loop and the speed loop are limited by the selected FPGA; with respect to the Altera FPGA prototype mentioned in this paper, the two loops can respectively obtain a sample frequency of 40kHz and 20kHz as well as a bandwidth of 5 kHz and 400 Hz. Experimental results indicate that the controller can provide a controllable speed range from 0.2 RPM to 10,000 RPM with satisfactory dynamic and static performances.


Vyacheslav I. Dyogtev is the author of short stories gathered in such collections as Russkaya Dusha, Karambol and others. This article is devoted to one of the early stories named Requiem. Traditional for Russian literature theme of creation and mission of an artist represented in the story is considered through the symbolic connection. It is the main method of the story with well-established myths in modern culture Pushkin and Vysotsky.


We report on recent progress of the implementation of the similarity renormalization group (SRG) for three-body interactions in a one-dimensional, bosonic model system using the plane-wave basis. We discuss our implementation of the flow equations and show results that confirm that results in the three-body sector remain unchanged by the transformation of the Hamiltonian. We also show how the SRG transformation decouples low-from high-momentum nodes in the three-body sector and therefore simplifies the numerical calculation of observables.


We analyze multi-instanton sector in two-dimensional U(N) Yang-Mills theory on a sphere. We obtain a contour integral representation of the multi-instanton amplitude and find "neutral" configurations of the even number instantons dominate in the large-N limit. Using this representation, we calculate the 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-body interactions and the free energies for N=3, 4, 5 numerically and find that the multi-instanton interaction effect essentially contributes to the large-N phase transition discovered by Douglas and Kazakov.


LaRC has developed a 20-Year Center Revitalization Plan. The objective of this plan is to assure that the center infrastructure is sustainable for the long-term and that the center will have the essential facilities and laboratories to execute the future NASA mission. The plan was developed by a centerwide team, VITAL, and was approved by the Center Leadership Council (CLC) in March 2012. The revitalization plan will be implemented through the Center Master Planning process.


This article is devoted to one of the topical issues of modern traumatology and vascular surgery – the possibility of performing primary reconstructive operations for complete and incomplete amputations, open and closed fractures and dislocations of the bones of the lower extremities in conditions of impaired blood circulation based on twenty years of experience in treating 151 patients with similar injuries, of which 127 (84.1%) managed to save lives and preserve damaged segments. The article presents the tactics of assisting patients with various types of injuries and performed reconstructive operations, certain conclusions are made. The clinical example shows the main stages of performing reconstructions.


The data audit is a critical element in any quality assurance program and an area in which considerably more methods development is needed. To assist the QAU in organizing the requirements of the data audit for bioassay data and in developing a more rational and flexible sampling strategy, a decision tree has been designed. Surprisingly few QA auditors are aware of the many options available in performing a data audit. The general rule of thumb is the 10% audit, but other sampling plans may best represent the potential error rate of the whole data set. Presented here is a step-by-step approach to assist the quality assurance unit (QAU) in organizing the requirements of the data audit for bioassay data and in choosing the best available option. Steps in the development of a sampling plan include (1) defining, identifying, and characterizing data, (2) determining what constitutes an error and how errors are categorized, and, if possible, (3) specifying acceptable error rates.


A genetic algorithm for building-block placement of ICs and MCMs is presented that simultaneously minimizes layout area and an Elmore-based estimate of the maximum path delay while trying to meet a target aspect ratio. Explicit design space exploration is performed by using a vector-valued, 3-dimensional cost function and searching for a set of distinct solutions representing the best trade-offs of the cost dimensions. From the output solutions, the designer can choose the solution with the preferred trade-off. In contrast to existing approaches, the required properties of the output solutions are specified without using weights or bounds. Consequently, the practical problems of specifying these quantities are eliminated. Promising experimental results are obtained for various placement problems, including a real-world design. Solution sets representing good, balanced cost trade-offs are found using a reasonable amount of runtime. Furthermore, the performance is shown to be comparable to that of simulated annealing in the special case of 1-dimensional optimization, in which direct comparison is possible.


In order to explore the relationship between principal dimensions of V-hull bulk carrier to displacement,lightship weight etc.,35 000 t bulk carrier was taken as parent ship and transformed to a series of Ⅴ-hull sections based on the Ⅴ-hull theory.The hydrostatic,lightweight,fore draft and aft draft for the V-hull vessel were calculated in calm water.Relationship curves between principal particulars to displacement,lightship weight,fore draft and aft draft in calm water were obtained for the 35 000 t Ⅴ-hull bulk carrier.


Colour design research studies are concerned with identifying colour preferences and emotion elicited by colours, and a deep understanding of the aspects shaping these emotions will lead to better exploitation of colour design. This study highlights the aspects that contribute to human emotional response to colour. Hue, brightness and chroma are colour attributes used in different colour model identifying colours. Brightness and chroma in most studies affect the hue on colour emotion association. Colour context, texture and size are also discussed in terms of contribution to colour motion response. Other factors such as time span and culture impact the colour emotion link and aspects related to humans including personality, age, gender and preference to colour and/or emotion are discussed. The findings of this research will benefit marketers and designers to understand the effective usage of colour in design making in its aesthetical and functional aspects.


Purpose – The marriage between information and communication technology (ICT) and law has brought forward a significant change in the administration of justice. This paper aims to present the scenario of technology adoption in the court of law with special reference to Malaysia. It also aims to illustrate the intelligent use of technology to advance the pace of the administration of court reflected in w‐Shariah project in Shariah Court systems in Malaysia through various electronic applications, and finally propose an ICT adoption framework based on an information systems (IS) theory.Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts a qualitative case study approach to explore the scenario of information technology (IT) adoption in the court of law in Malaysia through semi‐structured interviews, observation and document reviews. Data gathered provide an understanding of how technology is used in the court workflow as well as the whole life‐cycle management of records in Shariah Court. This case study cov...


Abstract Although there is a great deal of research linking social support with favourable psychological well-being outcomes a number of contradictory findings have been published showing support to be associated with increased psychological distress. These contrary findings arise when social support is measured as the receipt of supportive behavior rather than perceptions of support availability and quality. This paper examines three hypotheses that have been advanced to explain why the receipt of support is associated with distress. The first of these hypotheses (the support mobilisation hypothesis) argues that the relationship is a spurious one, and that it is a product of distressing circumstances which increase both support receipt and psychological distress. The other two hypotheses (the inequity hypothesis and the esteem threat hypothesis) both argue that receiving support actually causes distress. We tested these hypotheses in two samples. One sample was a group of individuals who reported having ...


I agree with the author's opinion about the role of sigmoid dolichocolon in the development of ileosigmoid knotting (ISK). As he discussed, a sigmoid volvulus (SV) attack history is present in approximately 25% of patients with ISK [3]. Although sigmoid dolichocolon is the most important factor in the development in SV [4], it is not the unique affecting factor in ISK and the presence of a hypermobile terminal ileum is more effective in the development of ISK. Consequently, Type II cases with ISK, in which sigmoid colon is active component, constitute approximately 20% of all patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Objectives: Rapid and accurate screening for carbapenemase-producing organism (CPOs) in hospitalized patients is critical for infection control and prevention. The Xpert Carba-R assay is designed for rapid detection of CPOs, but 1 assay is usually conducted for only 1 sample. We evaluated a pooling strategy for CPO screening using the Xpert Carba-R assay. Methods: Swab sets containing 2 swabs were collected from 415 unique patients at Peking University People's Hospital. One swab was used for the pooling test, in which 5 swabs from different patients were mixed in 1 sample treatment solution. The prevalence of CPOs in the hospital (5.3%) predicted that 5:1 pooling was most economical. As the reference method, the other swab was tested by culture using sequencing. Results: Of 415 samples, 383 were CPO negative using the pooling test strategy and 31 were positive. All samples that were negative by pooling were negative by culture and sequencing. Among the 31 positive samples identified by the pooling strategy, 26 were positive by culture and sequencing (including 24 samples with 1 targeted gene and 2 samples with double targeted genes, 1 NDM+/IMP+ and 1 VIM+/IMP+), and 5 were negative. Overall, 198 tests were conducted in the study, and 217 were saved compared with testing individually. The efficiency of the pooling strategy was 215%. The overall sensitivity was 1 (95% CI, 0.840–1), the specificity was 0.987 (95% CI, 0.968–0.995), the accuracy was 0.987 (95% CI, 0.970–0.996), positive predictive value was 0.838 (95% CI, 0.655–0.939), and the negative predictive value was 1 (95% CI, 0.988–1). Conclusions: The pooling strategy using the Xpert Carba-R assay showed good potential in screening CPO with good sensitivity and a significantly lower cost.


Slepian and Wolf considered a coding system (called SW system) for coding the multiterminal (information) source. This paper extends the SW system and defines anew a system (called SWL system) where encoders are mutually links. The problem of determining the optimal error exponent in the admissible rate region has not been answered completely for the SW system.

It is shown in this paper that this problem can completely be solved for the SWL system. It is shown also that the optimal exponent can be achieved by the universal code. It is shown further that even if the encoders are linked, the admissible rate region is not enlarged and the reliability of the information transmission is not improved when the transmission rate is outside the admissible rate region. It is interesting to note that those results correspond in a sense to those for the channel with feedback.


Twitter is a popular public conversation platform with world-wide audience and diverse forms of connections between users. In this paper we introduce the concept of aggregated regional Twitter networks in order to characterize communication between geopolitical regions. We present the study of a follower and a mention graph created from an extensive data set collected during the second half of the year of 2012. With a k-shell decomposition the global core-periphery structure is revealed and by means of a modified Regional-SIR model we also consider basic information spreading properties.


Abstract : Executive Order (EO) 12941 requires all Federal agencies to develop and submit "seismic upgrade" cost estimates to the Federal Emergency Management Agency no later than 1 December 1998. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assisted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in responding to this EO by evaluating the seismic resistance of many of their facilities. This report presents a detailed seismic evaluation of the FAA's Airport Traffic Control Towers in Salinas, San Carlos, Palo Alto, and San Luis Obispo, CA.


The article presents and analyzes consumer preferences to improve the quality and competitiveness of pasteurized milk "Vamin-Tatarstan" by market research population of Kazan Republic of Tatarstan.


This thesis is from the general situation of the Pu 65 gas reservoir and the process of development of the gas reservoir is analysed. Using the data of new well RFT and the data of old well that pressure measurement, well testing and dynamic analysis , the gas reserves draw up on and potentiality of the gas reservoir is analysed.The productivity instauration project is deployed. The good development result and the all the better benefit of development compare to expectation acquired by being carried out gradually with year after year.It provide the beneficial experience for old gas reservoir in productivity instauration, exaltation development level and benefit of development.


Graphical passwords have been demonstrated to be the possible alternatives to traditional alphanumeric passwords. However, they still tend to follow predictable patterns that are easier to attack. The crux of the problem is users' memory limitations. Users are the weakest link in password authentication mechanism. It shows that baroque music has positive effects on human memorizing and learning. We introduce baroque music to the PassPoints graphical password scheme and conduct a laboratory study in this paper. Results shown that there is no statistic difference between the music group and the control group without music in short-term recall experiments, both had high recall success rates. But in long-term recall, the music group performed significantly better. We also found that the music group tended to set significantly more complicated passwords, which are usually more resistant to dictionary and other guess attacks. But compared with the control group, the music group took more time to log in both in short-term and long-term tests. Besides, it appears that background music does not work in terms of hotspots.


In general, the spleen accompanied by abnormal abdomen is hypertrophied. However, if the spleen size is originally small, it is hard to detect the splenic enlargement due to abnormal abdomen by simply measure the size. On the contrary, the spleen size of a person having a normal abdomen may be large by nature. Therefore, measuring the size of spleen is not a reliable diagnostic measure of its enlargement or the abdomen abnormality. This paper proposes an automatic method to diagnose the splenic enlargement due to abnormality, by examining the boundary pattern of spleen in abdominal CT images.


This paper introduces the definition of work breakdown structure technology and the usage of the technology. The possibility of applying work breakdown structure to optimize and improve the current standardization organizations evaluation indicators has been discussed. The indicators have been considered and established by decompose the standardization organization works from quantity, quality and efficiency aspects. Twenty standardization organizations are randomly selected to verify the availability and rationality of those indicators.


ENGLISH ABSTRACT: With the aim of promoting learner achievement, development is regarded as indispensable for the teaching and learning process. Many schools however, face the challenge of teachers who are not willing to participate in development activities. Motivation is viewed as a catalyst that may aid in teachers" participation in development activities, as motivation provides a reason to display certain behaviour. In the case of this research behaviour refers to the behaviour to participate in development activities. Participation in development activities refers to teachers" inclination to submit to self-development, engage in daily development activities of the school or engaging in formal development activities arranged by the school or Department of Education. This research addressed some of the factors that motivate staff in underperforming secondary schools to participate in staff development activities. Schools are categorised as underperforming if they do not obtain a pass rate of at least 60% in the National Senior Certificate examinations. Underperforming schools are mainly townships schools with peculiar contexts. This study focuses on the particular context of underperforming schools and the role of the principal in staff"s motivation to participate in development activities as these are important aspects in the development of a school from an underperforming to a performing categorisation. The literature was reviewed on aspects of activities of staff development, the motivation theories and adult learning principles. Teachers are adults and therefore the factors that motivate adults to participate in development activities are important as they require a different approach than children"s learning.
Qualitative research was conducted with the principal and four teachers from each of two township schools located in the same education district, but two different circuits. Both schools were categorised as underperforming two years ago, but have developed to performing schools. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that teachers in this study are intrinsically motivated to participate in development activities. Factors such as passion, empowerment, collaboration and the child"s wellbeing are mentioned as factors that motivate these teachers to participate in development activities. Despite these intrinsic factors, teachers mentioned extrinsic factors that impact on their inclination to participate in development activities. These factors include contextual and organisational factors. The role of the principal is emphasised as the principal is accountable for the development of staff. Furthermore, the principal, having the highest authority at a school has an influence on the factors that motivate staff as well as those factors that may deter staff from participating in development activities. Recommendations for the motivation of staff and staff development activities are made, as well as recommendations for further studies. This research is significant as it…


This is the first article in a two-part series entitled "Why Glide Paths Evolve." The series discusses one of the most fundamental questions of optimal glide path design – should optimal glide paths be evolving or stationary?This article demonstrates that the investor's glide path should generally evolve if the investor endeavors to achieve the best outcomes and expects to regularly reevaluate his portfolio makeup. The article presents a concise review of the pros and cons of the existing justifications for evolving glide paths. The article also presents a simple example that demonstrates that the principle "any sub-glide path of an optimal glide path should be optimal on its own" generally leads to evolving glide paths. We call the glide paths that follow this principle "expected-to-do" glide paths because they are based on rational expectations of the investor's future portfolio selections. The second article in the series will present different conditions that also lead to evolving glide paths.


This study investigated the relationship between expertise in bridge playing, the degree to which the individual believes that luck or fate determine his success and self-description. Ss, 46 males and 24 females participating in a national bridge tournament, were administered Rotter's I-E scale and the Adjective Check List (ACL). Correlations of I-E scores and degree of expertness showed that the more expert males were significantly less external, indicating that they perceive bridge as much more a game of skill rather than chance. No significant correlation was found for the group of female bridge players, perhaps due to the smaller number of Ss and the greater degree of homogeneity in the group. On the ACL male experts perceived themselves as more controlled and optimistic toward life and their ability to cope with it. Female experts seemed to regard themselves as more assertive and self-confident than their less expert confreres and as having a more risk-taking life orientation. Correlations of the ACL and I-E scores indicated in general that the more internally oriented person had a more positive self-concept.


This is the second of two articles providing an introduction to the critical appraisal of research reports. In this paper guidelines for evaluating the quality of evidence and the validity of conclusions are suggested, and a check-list of evaluation points is presented.


Differential PCM (DPCM) is a method use to encode analog information sources with greater efficiency than PCM. However, due to its characteristic decoding mechanism, where the decoded signal values depend on previous ones, DPCM is unsuitable for progressive decoding.

This paper proposes a new method, "DPCM-PCM Hybrid Coding," which is highly efficient similar to DPCM and also is suitable for progressive decoding.

The principle of the proposed encoding method is described and computer simulation results of its quantization error performance are presented. Finally, the performance of the encoding method proposed herein is compared with that of the conventional DPCM.


Abstract Background Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase II deficiency (CPT II) is a disorder of long-chain fatty-acid oxidation. Clinical presentations include a lethal neonatal form, severe infantile hepatocardiomuscular form, and myopathic form. The myopathic form is the most common disorder of lipid metabolism affecting skeletal muscle. Individuals with CPT II deficiency are unable to metabolize long-chain fatty acids and can have myalgia. The incidence of statin-induced muscle symptoms is 1.5% to 5%. Individuals with CPT II deficiency have been reported to have an increased incidence of statin-associated myopathy. Yet, it remains crucial to place patients with high ASCVD risk on the appropriate statin therapy. Case Presentation We present a 70-year-old male with medical history of CPT II deficiency (myopathic form), hyperlipidemia with significant hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, carotid artery stenosis, atrial fibrillation, and recurrent pancreatitis. Family history was positive for hyperlipidemia and premature coronary artery disease. After history of recurrent pancreatitis and severe myalgias, patient was diagnosed with CPT II deficiency at the age of 30 years. The myalgias were managed by increased carbohydrates intake for many years. Multiple low potency statins, and fenofibrate were attempted but he developed severe myalgia with elevated CPK levels. Eventually he was started on ezetimibe 10 mg daily with fish oil 2000 mg twice daily but his LDL-C continued to rise. CMP and TSH were within normal limits. Nuclear stress test was normal but his ASCVD risk score was 39%. Given the patient's CPT II deficiency and high risk for ASCVD score, statin was recommended for primary prevention. After a thorough discussion of risks and benefits of lipid-lowering therapy, the patient was started on pitavastatin 2 mg twice-weekly regimen and ezetimibe 10mg was continued. Eight weeks later, his LDL-C reduced from 132 mg/dl to 94 mg/dl (n <129mg/dl), TG from 449 mg/dl to 307 mg/dl (n 0-149 mg/dl). As he experienced no myalgias, an extra tablet of pitavastatin a week was added until he reached a daily regimen. He continued to tolerate this treatment and his LDL-C improved to 66 mg/dl with normal CPK levels. Clinical Lesson: We present a case of CPT II deficiency and significant hyperlipidemia successfully managed with pitavastatin and ezetimibe, which helped to achieve a desirable LDL-C. Pitavastatin is not metabolized by hepatic CYP3A4 isoenzyme as other statins and is minimally metabolized by CYP2C9. In addition, patients with CPT II deficiency may benefit from avoiding extended episodes of exertion and high-fat diet. When treating patients with CPT II deficiency and hyperlipidemia, close follow-up and laboratory monitoring will be needed. Presentation: Sunday, June 12, 2022 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.


Nowadays it is quite a common practice for modern enterprises to adopt data mining in human resource management. HR management can make use of data mining technologies to efficiently monitor the employees performing specific functions. However, today there are no approaches to integrating big data analysis methods into HR management processes. We have identified the most vulnerable HR management process: the stable staff allocation by scope of the tasks depending on their professional preferences and professional skills parameters. We suggest a solution for this problem which involves applying data mining methods to build a stable human resource management model. The model is based on employees' competence characteristics needed for performing professional tasks, as well as on assessment of staff engagement and productivity level. The model features a system of work activities which is provided with a set of conditions required for their execution and the employees' competences. Testing of the model's operability and stability engages the algorithm for staff allocation to professional tasks. The algorithm is based on cluster analysis which is used to identify clusters with dominant indexes and free elements with implicit characteristics. The linear regression method is applied to measure the degree of interconnectedness between the staff engagement and competence indexes for modelling the prospective dependence of these parameters. This became the defining factor for assessing the stability of the model in conditions of external destabilizing impact. An experiment was conducted to prove that the model is able to redistribute the free elements in order to maintain the system stability even in case of the initial data sample change.


Works for the rehabilitation of nuclear and radioactively contaminated objects of the RRC Kurchatov Institute, continued for several years and now the experts of the center began work to prepare for the decommissioning of research reactor MR. As part of this work is carried out radiation survey radwaste repositories located in its premises, characterization of high-level waste that has accumulated in the storage basin and the extracts of the CPS, a survey of loop reactor facilities. Radiation survey carried out using robotic tools Broкк, equipped with gamma locator for the identification of intense gamma radiation sources. The gamma locator installed on a robotic tool serves for control and gamma vision of the Brokk. Management of the robotic tool and the gamma locator made from a safe place. Transfer of control signals and measurement data of the gamma locator were carried over by radio channel. For the radiation survey of the waste placed in cooling pools and the gateway of the reactor, the clarification and decontamination of water in these reservoirs was carried out. The clarification of the water was not carried out from 1993, when the reactor MR was shot down. Water purification was executed by standard water treatment systems for small basins. Sand coarse filters water collected radioactive particulate matter present in the pools and the gateway. Upon completion of the filter as radioactive waste were sent to long-term storage of Radon enterprise. Use of standard equipment was fully justified in referring to relatively low costs of conducting operations. In 2008 the characterization of the high level radwaste placed at the storages in the reactor hall was executed. For measuring of specific activities of the casks containing the radwaste the gamma locator installed at robot Brokk was used. The gamma locator allowed measuring of distribution of activity along the casks. This works allowed planning of amount of containers for removing of the high level radwaste from the reactor premises.In addition, work carried out on the removal of accumulated spent fuel from research reactors, including reactor MP. Now the project of decommissioning of research reactor MR is prepared and held its state expertise. If it approved at the end of 2009 it's expected to start work of decommissioning the reactor.


The tremendous worldwide technological and social changes of the past one hundred years have placed unbearable pressures on our planet's wildlife. The growing list of extinct and vanishing species leaves the serious aviculturalist with no choice. Successful and sustainable captive reproduction seems undeniably necessary for the long-term survival of many animal forms. At Brookfield Zoo we regard hand-rearing as one of many tools to be utilized in the quest for successful captive propagation programs. Hand-rearing has been utilized to achieve two distinct and specific goals. First, among species known to be indeterminate layers, eggs may be removed from the nest inducing the female to produce greater than normal quantities of eggs. Successful hand-rearing techniques will thereby increase that species' reproductive success. Secondly, given instances of abandoned nests or high neo-natal mortality, successful hand-rearing techniques may be used to increase a species' reproductive success. Increased captive reproduction for the broadest possible spectrum of avian species must be the final goal. In that vein we would to communicate preliminary results from our hand-rearings of two related species. The family Threskiornithidae - the ibises and spoonbills - has long captured the interest and imagination of man. Artistic renderings depicting the distinctive bill shapes characteristic of this avian family have been discovered decorating the walls of Neolithic caves. The very name Sacred Ibis is derivative of the veneration once bestowed upon an ibis species. Hieroglyphics adorning ancient Egyptian monuments and artifacts frequently depict the easily recognizable silhouette of an ibis. The Sacred Ibis, often associated with the Egyptian deity Thoth, was frequently mummified and placed in elaborate tombs and pyramids. Yet this fascination, which has benefited the artistry and mythology of man, has held few benefits for its original stimulus. The affection of man has been selective and fickle. A small number of ibis species have appeared in avicultural or zoological collections. And an even smaller number have responded to attempts at captive propagation. But taxonomists recognize over twenty species of ibis representing many varied geographical and ecological adaptations. Despite the thousands of years of selective attention from man little is known of many of these animals. Like so much of the world's flora and fauna, ibises must be viewed as endangered and vanishing animals. It is perhaps a prime irony that the so-called "Sacred" ibis, associated in Egyptian mythology with wisdom and fertility, is now extinct within Egypt - a victim of habitat destruction. In a paper presented before the Colonial Waterbird Group, Dr. George Archibald and Dr. Sharon Lantis of the International Crane Foundation report that, "Today the (Japanese) crested ibis is perhaps the world's most endangered avian species with but eight survivors remaining in the wild in Japan, two in South Korea, and an undetermined number (if any) in China, North Korea, and the USSR. The Japanese population has not reproduced since 1973." Clearly there is a need for effective captive propagation and avicultural expertise for this avian group. Although the world of taxonomy is renowned for its disagreements and revolutions, it is generally held that the subfamily Threskiornithidae, the ibises, is comprised of twenty-six species with nearly global distribution. The ibis is a moderatesized bird with long legs and unwebbed feet suitable for wading. The most characteristic feature of an ibis is its long, slender, decurved bill. The Chicago Zoological Society currently maintains two species of ibis at its Brookfield Zoo. The Sacred Ibis Threskiornis aethiopicus has long been a resident of the Aquatic Bird House, with our current flock containing some individuals approaching thirty years of age. The adult Sacred Ibis exhibits primarily a white plumage, although soiling may compromise the purity of the whiteness. The head and neck area are bare skin, a dull black in color. The tips of the primary and secondary feathers are also black. Additionally, blue-black decorative scapular plumes are evident on birds in breeding condition. The Sacred Ibis occupies tropical and sub-tropical habitats, occurring most frequently by inland lakes and rivers and in cultivated areas. Geographically the extent of its distribution is somewhat disputed. It is primarily associated with African fauna, but also occurs in western Asiaand southwestern Pacific islands. In 1977 Brookfield Zoo expanding its collection by acquiring a group of six Hadada Ibis, Hagedashia hagedash. In appearance the Hadada is a medium-sized ibis with grey-brown body plumage. The wing coverts are an iridescent green and it bears a white streak on each cheek. The Hadada is primarily a bird of open forest and savannah. Its range seems to be limited particularly to wooded streams and watercourses, although it has been observed in coastal mangrove swamps. Geographically its prime occurrence is along the southeastern portion of Africa, but it crosses the continent equatorially to the west coast. Despite the fact that the Hadada occurs commonly throughout its range, it has seldom been kept or exhibited in zoological gardens. In 1978 Brookfield Zoo became the first institution to have this species successfully reproduce. It has been our experience that captive ibis reproduction is prone to the same prime nestling mortality factors attributed to wild populations. Skead (1951) and Raseroka (1975) report that Hadada Ibis young apparently often fall to their death from rudely constructed nests. Urban (1974) attributes nest falls as a mortality factor in selected Sacred Ibis populations, with nest abandonment playing a prime role in populations not nesting in high trees. Predation was not reported as a significant nestling mortality factor. Ibises are indeterminate layers and therefore we have attempted to maximize the reproductive rate and success of our ibis collection by supplementing the natural parent rearing process with artificial incubation and hand-rearing. In that vein, we have developed the procedures recounted below. All ibis eggs removed for artificial incubation are placed in forced air incubators and maintained at 97.5°F. with wet bulb reading of 80.0°F. The eggs are automatically rotated 90 degrees every hour. After pipping eggs are transferred to a glassfronted hatcher which allows closer observation. Contrary to figures in current literature (Urban, 1974, reports 28-29 days; Skead, 1951, reports approximately 26 days; Raseroka, 1975, reports 25-28 days) all our eggs have hatched following a 22 day incubation period. All eggs have hatched unassisted, with most chicks completing the hatch within 24 hours of pipping. Hatching weights have generally ranged between 40 and 50 grams. Immediately after hatching the abdominal areas of the chicks are swabbed with an iodine solution to prevent the possibility of infection originating in the umbilical area. Ibis chicks are best described as serni-altricial.


The occurrence in a fragmentary text in Manichaean Middle Persian of the word twstr 'goat' provides the meaning for the corresponding word in Zoroastrian Middle Persian, which, because of its rarity, has hitherto not been recognized. This in turn suggests a slight emendation, giving better sense, to a page in the Dēnkard.


MEMORY function is profoundly suppressed by general anaesthetics. Therefore, under normal circumstances, patients do not recall any events during or immediately after general anaesthesia but, unfortunately, awareness does occur. Recall of events under general anaesthesia is seen in 0.1–0.7% of patients, and this may have long-term psychological consequences with nightmares and anxiety (1, 2). Awareness may be caused by misjudgement of the anaesthesia requirement or by malfunction of anaesthetic equipment. Occasionally, clinical signs of anaesthetic depth are unreliable and circulatory depression may lead to the inadequate administration of general anaesthetics. In addition, anaesthetic requirements can be significantly increased in some patients, such as drug abusers. Depth of anaesthesia monitoring has been shown to reduce the incidence of awareness in patients at very high risk, but there are important limitations associated with these technologies, and there is no doubt that awareness will still occur (3–5). Patient movement in response to noxious stimulation is regarded as an important sign of inadequate depth of anaesthesia, but this sign is less useful when neuromuscular blocking agents are used. It has been suggested that deepening the anaesthesia in response to patient movement could prevent awareness, because it has been assumed that the threshold for recall will be higher than the threshold for movement (1). In this issue of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, immediate peri-operative memory was assessed in a well-designed study by presenting word lists to patients and controls on three separate occasions (6). It was specifically examined whether general anaesthesia was associated with retrograde amnesia. The authors defined this phenomenon as a decline in patients' memory from the pre-operative holding room to the operating room, and this decline was greater in patients than in controls. Memory was significantly poorer in patients, but retrograde amnesia could not be detected in the sample consisting of 40 patients and 19 controls. Apart from the risk of type 2 error, it should also be noted that general anaesthesia was not standardized. Nevertheless, it seems fair to conclude that one should not rely on retrograde amnesia as a safeguard against awareness. This is also supported by another study in which no evidence of retrograde amnesia was found in connection with intravenous midazolam, even at a dose of 10 mg (7). Patients at high risk of awareness should be identified pre-operatively and an inadequate depth of anaesthesia should be avoided by careful titration of anaesthetics. Awareness is a potentially preventable complication and deepening of anaesthesia in the case of patient movement may not be effective. This is in accordance with the finding that awareness can still occur if neuromuscular blocking agents are avoided (2).


"Inside the Floating World" presents an overview of Japanese social history from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries using images of children, actors, courtesans, and landscape. All of the most eminent woodblock artists are featured, including Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utmaro. In the last two decades, visual culture of our own time has come under the scrutiny of specialists from such diverse disciplines as anthropology, sociology, film studies, psychology, comparative literature studies, and art history. Methodologies and critical practices have emerged from each discipline that focus on the wide range of experiences contemporary visual culture offers to its consumers."Inside the Floating World" affords a unique opportunity to bring these recent critical approaches to bear on the historical and aesthetic issues surrounding japanese printmaking. The book serves as both an introduction to and a serious explication of the social meanings imbedded in Japanese prints. Allen Hockley is associate professor of art history at Dartmouth College. He is the author of "The Prints of Isoda Koryusai: Floating World Culture and Its Consumers in Eighteenth-Century Japan".


Virtual reality is revolutionary! The world has never seen anything like it! It will change everything! Well, no; such manifestos of futurity now clang with a retro quaintness. As the gushing pronouncements of virtual reality's newness have slowed to a trickle, here to put some needed scholarly perspective on its bloated boasts is Oliver Grau's Virtual Art: From Immersion to Illusion. In search of a deeper history of technology, Grau employs art history, media history, and visual culture to provide an archaeology of "immersive" images— specifically, those that utilize 360-degree spaces. From ancient Roman frescoes to nineteenth-century panoramas to recent digital art, these encompassing environments share certain rhetorical strategies, seeking to enclose viewers within the fabric of the image itself. By creating a prehistory of contemporary interactive technologies, Grau provides necessary grounding for virtual reality's exaggerated claims of originality. Proceeding chronologically, he covers a lot of territory in order to consolidate his assertion that virtual reality has historical precedents dating as far back as antiquity. The book first offers a whirlwind tour of precomputer "virtual" spaces, starting with Pompeii's Villa dei Misteri and jumping forward to fifteenth-century Italy, trompe l'oeil, stereoscopes, 3-D film, and military headtracking. A comprehensive chapter on Anton von Werner's 1883 panoramic depiction of the Franco-Prussian War, The Battle of Sedan, demonstrates Grau's contention that immersive spaces are specially suited for propagandistic aims. "Like the majority of battle panoramas, [it] aimed to 'educate' through a powerful model—not of democratic thinking, but of unquestioning obedience" (p. 110). Throughout the hurtle across centuries, some of the relevant critical theory's greatest hits make cameos: Foucault's panopticon, Benjamin's aura, Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk, McLuhan's symbiosis, Virilio's speed. Some of this is poorly integrated into the argument, as Grau veers between cursory name-dropping and plodding rehashes of by now familiar concepts. The second half of the book offers extended investigations into contemporary computer-generated art projects, including works by Knowbotic Research, Agnes Hegedues, Daniela Alina Plewe, Charlotte Davies, Maurice Benayoun, Ken Goldberg, and Jeffery Shaw. Grau offers a fresh take on how artists utilize advancements such as head-mounted displays, user interfaces, and CAVEs. He also touches on the artistic avatars of other pivotal developments, such as telepresence, artificial intelligence, and genetic alterations. Grau does not stress the connections between early illusions and today's virtual environments. Rather than forced equivalences, he lets rich resoT E C H N O L O G Y A N D C U L T U R E


The 14-electron species Ru(TMP), obtained via vacuum pyrolysis of Ru(TMP)(MeCN)2, reacts with a plethora of ligands to form bis-ligated species, including the first bis(dinitrogen) metalloporphyrin complex [TMP = the dianion of 5, 10, 15,20-tetramesitylporphyrin].


Since its publication,The Fortress Besieged is a historical existence from its time,while its interpretation is also a historical existence.We need to understand the context in which the novel is received to understand how it is appreciated and to offer a close-to-the-text criticism.


A set of individual URM walls as well as an assemblage of a three-storey URM hollow clay block masonry structure composed of two shear- and two cross-walls have been tested in original and strengthened state. As a method of strengthening, the coating of the walls, consisting of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) grid laid in fiber reinforced cementitious mortar matrix (sometimes called textile reinforced mortar), anchored to the walls with glass fiber anchors, has been used. All specimens were subjected to constant vertical load simulating the effect of gravity loads and cyclic horizontal displacements with step-wise increased amplitudes, induced either at the top of the walls or at the floor levels of the assemblage, simulating the effect of seismic loads.The observed behaviour and failure mechanisms were of the shear type. The results show that by the application of FRP reinforced coatings, the seismic performance of URM structures can be significantly improved. As the results of experiments indicate, the energy dissipation, displacement capacity and shear resistance of URM increase substantially. In this regard, adequate anchoring of coating to the masonry and into the r.c. floor structures is essential.


The world faces an environmental crisis known as global warming and carbon footprint, one of the main causes are the gases produced by the combustion of fossil fuels derived from oil. Faced with this panorama, different countries have looked for an alternative, finding answers in the so-called renewable energies, one of these possible solutions are in obtaining electricity from solar energy. These systems can be had in isolation or with connection to the electrical network. In this document we will therefore find a review of the mathematical models of solar panels and their various applications.


A 31-year-old woman was admitted because of hypertension. She often had unexplained fever and had taken tranquilizers due to general malaise, with little effect, for a few months before admission. The symptoms had gradually improved and completely disappeared 2 months earlier. On admission, her blood pressure was 183/85 mmHg, but the remainder of the examination was normal. Carotid ultrasound showed diffuse, homogeneous wall thickening of the bilateral common carotid arteries (Picture A, long-axis; Picture B, short-axis), known as the "macaroni sign" (1, 2). The diagnosis of renovascular hypertension due to Takayasu arteritis was finally made. Takayasu arteritis is a chronic inflammatory vasculitis characterized by stenosis or obliteration of the aorta and its major branches predominantly in young women. Corticosteroid was not administered because of the lack of inflammatory signs. The blood pressure normalized after successful balloon renal angioplasty. She has remained well for over a year, but the macaroni sign has not changed.


Reaction of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate with PdCl2 in methanol yields [Pd{HC8(CO2Me)8}Cl]2, which gives monomeric and non-conducting adducts [Pd{HC8(CO2Me)8}ClL2]; an X-ray structure determination of the adduct (L = pyridine) shows it to contain five-co-ordinate PdII.


In the recent concrete industry, when producing recycled aggregates, waste concrete powder is by-produced in large quantities; however, since it is not used properly but buried or discarded. This study is to apply the waste concrete powder to a cement extruding panel as filler. Flexural strength and microstructure characteristics of panel is tested in order to improve the economics of the extruding panel. As a results of this study, it was found that extruding panel replacing silica(No.8) as the waste concrete powder totally showed little difference in the strength and satisfied the target flexural strength of 14MPa, comparing with controlled panel. In addition, we can understand that rich Portlandite and Calcite contributed to develop the strength in all curing conditions from XRD pattern.


In this paper, a 4-year-old boy of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) confirmed by excisional biopsy is reported. The patient was initially sent to a local medical clinic due to a mass about 2 cm in diameter over the left mandibular angle. After one week of conservative treatment, he received excisional biopsy at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, where embryonal type rhabdomyosarcoma was diagnosed. The mass grew rapidly after the patient's family refused any further treatment. Four months later, the patient was referred to our Pediatric Department for further evaluation and management of the tumor. After a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, partial shrinkage of the tumor was achieved. However, he died of rapid tumor progression because the tumor was very extensive. Biologic behavior of this tumor will be reviewed in this paper.


By introducing the new research achievements on modern communication technology,intelligent measurement and control technology and automatic control technology,adopting the information platform based on SWCC owned by author was adopted,realized transfer for information through ZigBee wireless sensor network,information access of testing equipment from different manufacturer or different interface are effectively realized.Using the method of embedded system for data storage,the data security potential problem is solved in the data storing,at the same time,Web internet service is provided.Follow the system design principle about practical,scalability,open,standard,normative,professional and economy,the management information system for energy of cigarette factory is developed in this paper.


This paper presents preliminary data from a comprehensive research program investigating the efficacy of combinations of fly ash and lithium compounds for preventing damaging expansion due to alkali-silica reaction in concrete. The data presented include results from mortar bar expansion tests using two highly reactive aggregates from New Mexico and Pyrex glass (i.e. ASTM C 227 and C 441), and from a modified version of the accelerated mortar bar test (ASTM C 1260). Cements were blended to give a range of alkali levels and fly ashes from six different sources were selected to provide a range of chemical compositions. Lithium was added to mortars in the form of a 30% lithium nitrate solution. The data indicate that the beneficial effects of lithium and fly ash are cumulative when the materials are combined and, in some cases, there is a synergistic effect.


The mass production and the attachment of Pasteuria penetrans endospores to Meloidogyne javanica J2 were evaluated in soils of different textures and in river sand, in the greenhouse. Tomato seedlings of the Santa Cruz group were transplanted to pots containing these substracts. The upper 5 cm layer of the substrate was infested with P. penetrans (1 x 10 5 endospores/g soil), and each plant was inoculated with 2000 J2. At 70 days, the plants were harvested, the roots washed, dried, weighed and ground. The number of endospores/g of root and the number of endospores per plant were estimated. Soil samples (50 cm 3 ) were collected from the upper 5 cm and from the bottom (17-20 cm) of each pot, dried and infested with 600 J2 of M. javanica to evaluate the endospore percolation by determining the number of endospores per juvenile, and the percentage of juveniles with P. penetrans endospores attached. The spore production per plant was higher in sandy soils than clay soils or river sand. Negative correlation was observed between P penetrans endospore production per plant and the soil clay content. A higher number of endospores/g root was observed in the plants growing in sand, but the total bacterial mass production was less when compared with other treatments (P<0.01) due to the lower dry root weight. Soils with lighter texture allowed higher attachment of P. penetrans to juveniles of M. javanica than heavier soils. Most of the endospores were leached to the bottom of the pot containing sand by the percolating water.


Background and objective: The purpose was to study the agreement between cardiac output measurements with electrical velocimetry vs. intermittent thermodilution before and after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Methods: Cardiac output was measured simultaneously with electrical velocimetry and intermittent thermodilution before and immediately after coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and in the intensive care unit. Measurements were performed in three different body positions. The results were analysed according to Bland and Altman. Results: The mean bias of all 150 paired measurements in 16 patients was 0.21 ± 0.78 L min−1, and the mean error was 40%. Before skin incision the mean bias was 0.04 ± 0.41 L min−1, and the mean error was 25%. After skin closure the mean bias was 0.57 ± 0.92 L min−1, and the mean error was 42%. In the intensive care unit the mean bias was 0.26 ± 0.68 L min−1, and the mean error was 32%. Conclusions: The agreement between cardiac output measurements with electrical velocimetry and intermittent thermodilution was clinically acceptable only before skin incision in coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The mean error was unacceptably high immediately after skin closure and was at a borderline level in the intensive care unit. Thus, the overall accuracy of cardiac output measurements with the electrical velocimetry technique during coronary artery bypass graft surgery is not clinically unacceptable.


The war in Kashmir for the past 14 years represents the rise of subconventional war as a means of pursuing ideologically driven nationalism. It also represents the exploitation of religious extremism to pursue territorial objectives in the name of a 'holy war'. This would not have been easily achieved but for the growing alienation of the youth in the valley of Kashmir consequent to maladministration and a degree of rising prosperity which was accompanied by growing sense of relative deprivation. Pakistan's Kashmir war was also linked to its search for 'strategic depth' westward through installation of the Taliban in Kabul. In a late 20th-century transformation of the Clausewitzean concept, terror, legitimized in the name of religion, has been employed as the instrument of policy in prosecuting the sub-conventional war. The terror war finally turned inwards into an ethnosectarian conflict until 11 September, and the consequent global war against international terrorism started to reverse the processes.


"The ingathering" surveys modern Jewish literature after the Second World War beyond Israel and the United States and meditates on the multilingual aspect of Jewish literature. This includes the work of Alberto Gerchunoff and Jacobo Timerman in Argentina, Clarice Lispector and Moacyr Scliar in Brazil, Elias Canetti in Bulgaria, Dan Jacobson and Nadine Gordimer in South Africa, and Harold Pinter and Howard Jacobson in the United Kingdom. Jewish writers are simultaneously insiders and outsiders, a position that allows them a unique perspective full of nuance. Therefore, modern Jewish literature is truly global, in regard to not only its authors but also its multifaceted audiences.


This paper examines the endogenous dynamics of the social structure of a city where the spatial repartition of amenities is endogenously modified by the spatial repartition of social groups. We start from the well known fact that, in most European cities, central locations are occupied by rich households; while in American cities, they are occupied by poor households. In a standard urban model without amenities, for rich households to locate downtown, their unit transport cost must be very high compared to the poor. Bruckner and alii (1999) show that, when there are historical amenities mainly located in the city center, we no longer need a high differential between transport costs: if demand for amenities by the rich is strong enough, this advantage could attract the rich households in the city centre. This explanation fits well with the fact that the most European cities have a long history, with the consequence that they accumulated many amenities in their city centre. However, the paper by Brueckner and alii is purely static and does not explicitly consider the historical dimension of the process generating amenities. Our model explicitly takes account of time: at every period, the equilibrium spatial structure of the city is determined by the transport costs and by the spatial repartition of amenities; but, between periods, the spatial repartition of amenities changes, rich households generating local amenities in the locations they occupy, and then the spatial structure of the city changes. We show that the city may have several long term equilibria. We explicitly analyse two of them: an "American equilibrium" with the poor living in the centre and the rich in the periphery, and a "European equibrium" with the rich living in the centre and the poor in the periphery. We show that the conditions for the existence of a European equilibrium are more restrictive than the conditions for the existence of an American equilibrium. We compare the two equilibria from an efficiency point of view. The results show that an American structure is more efficient.


syn- and anti-1,2-Diol units were prepared by using asymmetric aldol reactions of the silyl enol ethers derived from α-alkoxythioacetic S-esters with aldehydes. In the presence of tin(II) triflate, a chiral diamine, and dibutyltin diacetate, (Z)-2-benzyloxy-1-ethylthino-1-(trimethylsiloxy)ethene reacted with aldehydes to afford the corresponding anti-aldol adducts in high yields with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities, while syn-adducts were obtained from (Z)-2-(t-butyldimethylsiloxy)-1-ethylthio-1-(trimethylsiloxy)ethene and aldehydes under the same reaction conditions. Thus, both diastereomers can be synthesized in excellent enantiomeric excesses by simply choosing the protective groups of the alkoxyl parts of the silyl enol ethers.


Objective of the proposed architecture is to enable representing an electronic document as a multi-layered structure of executable digital objects, which is extensible and without a need to support any particular formats or user interfaces. IODA layers are intended to reflect document content organization levels rather then system abstraction or functional levels, as in software architecture models.


Transnational subsidiaries in the advantageous industrial cluster could become the significant resource of competitive advantage for the contemporary multinational corporations.Therefore the control of subsidiaries in cluster has become the important activities for multinational corporations.Based on the theory,this paper puts forward the main factors at multinational corporations' control level to subsidiaries.Moreover according to these factors,this paper analyzes the choose of multinational corporations' control mechanism on subsidiaries in cluster.


Research developments for structural dynamics in the fields of design, system identification and structural health monitoring (SHM) have dramatically expanded the bounds of what can be learned from measured vibration data. However, significant challenges remain in the tasks of identification, prediction and evaluation of full-scale structures. A significant aid in the roadmap to the application of cutting-edge methods to the demands of in-service engineering structures, is the development of comprehensive benchmark datasets. With the aim of developing a useful and worthwhile benchmark dataset for structural dynamics, an extensive testing campaign is presented here. This recent campaign was performed on a decommissioned BAE system Hawk T1A aircraft at the Laboratory for Verification and Validation (LVV) in Sheffield. The aim of this paper is to present the dataset, providing details on the structure, experimental design, and data acquired. The collected data is made freely and openly available with the intention that it serve as a benchmark dataset for challenges in full-scale structural dynamics. Here, the details pertaining to two test phases (frequency and time domain) are presented. So as to ensure that the presented dataset is able to function as a benchmark, some baseline-level results are additionally presented for the tasks of identification and prediction, using standard approaches. It is envisaged that advanced methodologies will demonstrate superiority by favourable comparison with the results presented here. Finally, some dataset-specific challenges are described, with a view to form a hierarchy of tasks and frame discussion over their relative difficulty.


In this paper we compare the resource flows of Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru between 1980 and 2000. In this time span, the domestic extraction of materials increased in the four countries, mainly due to the mining sector in Chile and Peru, biomass and oil in Ecuador and construction minerals in Mexico. Imports and exports increased too, due to the increasing integration in the international markets, prompted by the liberalization policies undertaken by the four countries between the late 1970s and the late 1990s. The four countries had a negative physical trade balance for most of the period analyzed, meaning that their exports exceeded their imports in terms of weight. However, the increase of imports reduced the physical deficit in Chile, Mexico and Peru. Ecuador's physical deficit was the highest and did not decrease in the period analyzed. Also, a diversification of exports away from bulk commodities could be observed in Chile and Mexico, and to a lesser extent in Peru, whereas in Ecuador the export sector remained mainly based on oil and biomass. More research is needed to explore the environmental effects of this phenomenon. Also, the indirect flows associated to the direct physical flows deserve to be subject to further analysis.


Reputation is an important means to establish trust in decentralized environments such as the Semantic Web. In reputation-based trust management, an entity's reputation is usually built on feedback from those who have direct interactions with the entity. A trust function is used to infer one's trustworthiness based on such feedback. Many trust functions have been proposed in the literature. They are typically designed for specific application domains, thus differ in a variety of aspects, including trust inference methodologies, complexity and accuracy. In this paper, we propose a classification scheme for trust functions, which will help the systematic analysis and selection of trust functions for particular applications.


On the basis of the executed geological-production analysis the factors, complicating carrying out of pilot works at pools of YuS2 horizon of Surgutneftegaz OAO fields, are determined. Comparison of efficiency of realized systems of development in the same geological conditions by modelling of the fluid filtration in a layer on three-phase hydrody-namic model is executed.


Sleep duration has decreased in the general population over recent years. According to the 'Sleep in America poll' conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in 2015, Americans sleep on average approximately 6.9 h on work days, although they indicated that they would prefer to sleep 7.3 h per night on average (1). In Korea, the average amount of sleep was also reported to be 6.8 h in 2014 (2). Unusual sleep durations in modern society can cause various health problems including cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), such as hypertension (HTN), myocardial infarction, angina, and stroke (3,4). Thus, sleep duration is viewed as a major public health concern. Furthermore, sleep duration independently predicted mortality rates (5,6). According to the statistics on the causes of death in America, non-communicable diseases were Abstract Background: Sleep durations shorter or longer than 7 h are associated with cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to investigate the association among sleep duration, risk factors of hypertension, and cardiovascular disease in South Korea using data from a recent large-scale survey. Methods: Data produced by the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were subjected to multivariate logistic analysis. This cross-sectional, nationally representative survey was conducted from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2011, by the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, 6,466 participated. Data were analyzed using STATA version 13.0 (STATA Corp LP). Results: The participants' socioeconomic, physical, and lifestyle factors were statistically different between the two age groups (<65 yr and ≥65 yr). Shorter sleep durations were associated with hypertension in individuals younger than 65 yr of age. On the other hand, in participants aged ≥65 yr, both shorter and longer sleep durations were associated with hypertension, while shorter sleep durations were associated with cardiovascular diseases. Conclusion: Unusual sleep durations are associated with an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease among Korean adults. The effect of sleep duration appears to be more significant in individuals with hypertension, suggesting that the management of hypertension should be prioritized in patients older than 65 year.


A hexapeptide that we have named pro-methionine-enkephalin has been isolated from acid extracts of porcine hypothalami and found to have the amino acid sequence H-Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met(O)-Arg-OH. This peptide is not a fragment of either porcine beta-lipotropin or beta-endorphin, which suggests that it could be a precursor of [Met]enkephalin in the brain by a pathway differing from the one usually postulated. The existence of still larger precursors of [Met]enkephalin, perhaps related to the recently reported alpha-neo-endorphin, is strongly implied by these studies. Synthetic H-Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met-Arg-OH exhibited low, but significant, opiate activity in vitro.


It is important for counselors to understand refugee children's fears and coping mechanisms as these children adjust to their new environment. This qualitative study explored the fears and coping strategies of 18 refugee children from the countries of Haiti, Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela, and Vietnam whose families sought asylum in the United States. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the children and their parents. Frequency distributions, content analysis, conclusions, and implications of the findings are included.


Performance analysis of the four time-independent regression models presently used by Bell operating companies to forecast special-services circuit requirements, and the characteristics of actual special-services demand history observed from three operating companies, indicate a need for a new method to forecast these difficult time series. A new special-services demand sequential projection algorithm (SSD-SPA) is developed based on a linear Kalman filter model. It includes methods to detect previous deterministic events, to accept and process exogenous information affecting the demand, and to recognize and adapt to a "no-growth" situation. Compared to the present algorithm, SSD-SPA generates significantly better forecasts: approximately 30 percent improvement in forecast accuracy and stability, 25 percent reduction in rms error, and 22 percent reduction in circuit misplacements.


Assessing the impact of different network conditions on user experience is important for improving the telecommunication services. We have developed a modular framework that includes monitoring and data collection tools and algorithms for user-centric analysis and prediction of the QoE in video streaming. The MLQoE employs several machine learning (ML) algorithms and tunes their hyper-parameters. It dynamically selects the ML algorithm that exhibits the best performance and its parameters automatically based on the input (e.g., network and systems metrics). We applied the MLQoE for predicting the QoE of the video streaming service in the context of two field studies, one performed in the production environment of a large telecom operator and the other at our Institute. The analysis indicated the parameters with the dominant impact on the perceived QoE and revealed that the QoE vary across users. This motivates the use of customized adaptation mechanisms in video streaming under network performance degradation. The MLQoE results in fairly accurate predictions e.g., a median error in predicting the QoE of 0.0991 and 0.5517 in the first (second) field study, respectively, on the MOS scale.


MarshaLL mcLuhan based much of his thought on a powerful metaphor. This metaphor says that all media are extensions of our senses. McLuhan felt that print media extended the eye, with consequences rebounding through the entire culture. Now, electronic media extend the entire nervous system, which produces an entirely different state of being. (See McLuhan 1964) The metaphor of "media as extensions of the senses" is simple and productive. But I have often wondered about it. What if this metaphor has the most important relationships backwards? What if media do not fundamentally extend our senses? This line of questioning has led me to reverse McLuhan's metaphor. In this reversal, media do not extend our senses, media intrude upon our senses. Media come at us from outside. They approach our senses with something new. Media are an intrusion. Different media intrude in different ways. They attract our attention in different ways. Print media, for example, are still, and silent. They require us to put forth some effort to use them, and we must call into play learned symbol systems. A television, by contrast, provides moving pictures and sound. We do not have to put forth much effort to watch television. But both print and television come at us from outside. Both bring something new to our senses, and invite our attention. Both are intruders.


This article will briefly address the origins of confirmation and the current approaches to adolescent confirmation. Moreover, the article discusses the two predominant models of confirmation in the Catholic Church in the United States and the predominant methods for adolescent confirmation in Catholic parishes and in youth ministry settings. Finally, the article delineates three proposed methods for confirmation catechesis in Catholic youth ministry. The hope is that these three methods will help Catholic youth ministers and/or confirmation coordinators in their important work of providing confirmation catechesis with teenagers.


We investigate the late-time cosmological dynamics in a simple case of explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking. By expanding in a small symmetry-breaking coefficient we are able to write the Friedmann equations as $\Lambda$CDM + dynamical dark energy, which we show contains logarithmic dependence of the scale factor. We find that the dark energy equation of state displays divergences and phantom behaviour for certain values of the symmetry-breaking coefficient, where the Null Energy Condition is also broken. We also discuss the adiabatic sound speed of dark energy and compare the model to current constraints using the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrisation.


The promotion to a full professor is the ultimate achievement in the career development of an academic. However, little has been written about the promotion process to a full professor.It has become a common understanding that the criteria for promotion in academic career centres primarily on teaching, research and service. However, due to the changing landscape of higher education shaped by the ease of mobility, internationalisation and emphasis on knowledge society, the promotion criteria has become more diversedand complex.This paper aims to explore the academic career, particularly the profile of a professor within the context of Malaysian higher education.Further, recognising that the higher education policy has an impact on the academic career, the discussion takes into consideration the strategic plan of the national higher education transformation and the guidelines for the tenure and promotion of two categories of professor: the professor and distinguished professor. This discussion is timely, as it will provide guidance for young academics to strategise their career planning in achieving the highest position in their career. KEYWORDS: academic career, professor,distinguished professor, promotion guidelines, Malaysian higher education


The international workshop on e-Health Pervasive Wireless Applications and Services e-HPWAS'13 (in conjunction with the 9th IEEE WiMob conference) targets providing optimal, secured and context aware e-health services with the best quality of services (QoS) and user's experience (QoE). Applications and services are considered in wireless environments and architecture with a strong heterogeneity of the used access technologies, sensors, terminals, users' needs and services (data, content, live streams or complex network services). Emerging e-Health services and applications can involve the use of "heavy" content such as multimedia content and streams (e.g. 3D-TV, media conferencing, remote live diagnostics) using conventional e-health equipments and devices but also using modern devices like smart TV sets, home-boxes, smartphones and tablets. The considered issues of e-HPWAS are related to e-Health care and safety services provided for patients, elderly and dependent persons. These services are generally built using different communication technologies, for different profiles of people and in different contexts and places (e.g. in health institutions, at home, in the city). Ideally, provided services should be accessible anytime, anywhere and using any kind of device or platform. eHPWAS discusses works describing research results, practical or industrial e-health solutions. It includes works describing advanced prototypes, platforms, techniques and general survey for discussing future perspectives and directions. All accepted papers will be published in the WiMob 2013 conference proceedings published by IEEE, and will be accessible via IEEE Xplore Digital Library.


In this contribution, we present a survey on fault tolerance methods in the area of logic controllers. More and more, computers take over protective and control functions in industry, traffic and commerce. Computer failures cause financial losses, either due to resulting computer downtimes or due to resulting accidents. If the reliability of conventional computers is not sufficient enough, fault-tolerant computers are used which on the other side are more expensive. They pay off by the production downtimes or assurance fees, which they make avoidable. Fault-tolerant computers can be realised at lower costs if they exploit the fault tolerance of the controlled plant. According to the individual system line and the effects of a failure, three different classes of fault-tolerant computers are used: integer (fail-stop), persistent, or fault-masking (the fault is not noticeable outside the system) computers. These architectures especially differ in how failures are detected and how the states of the redundant components are held consistent, either by explicit update actions or by synchronous operation.


Background. Lymphatic filariasis is an important public health problem in India. Nalgonda district of Telangana is one of the endemic districts where Mass Drug Administration programme is undertaken every year to eliminate lymphatic filariasis. The present study was undertaken to evaluate percentage of coverage and compliance rates of the programme during December 2014 and study reasons for noncompliance. Materials and Methods. The guidelines of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme was used to select a total of 120 households from three villages and one urban ward using three stage random sampling. Each household was visited by a team and data was recorded on structured questionnaire. Data was compiled on Windows spreadsheet and analyzed using SPSS software version 19. Results. The study population consisted of 542 individuals from 120 households, out of which 537 were eligible for mass drug administration. The study revealed that coverage rate, compliance rate and effective compliance rate were 84.05%, 76.39% and 64.20% respectively. 'Fear of side effects', 'unaware of the benefits', 'forgot to take medicines' and difficulty in giving tablets to children were main reasons for noncompliance. Side effects were reported by only 1.81% of cases. Conclusion. The study reveals that, in addition to upgrading education, information and counseling activities to improve compliance rates, the programme managers at all levels must ensure up gradation of coverage rates by involving more human resources, supervision and incentive linked to work-output.


A growing economy, expanding cities and increasing work load demands. Better time management and resource management. For an executive, college student or business man, the need is for a set of wheels that will grant him or her mobility and prove to the affordable, efficient and reliable. A two wheeler is an affordable solution that will grant good mobility. In olden days, people felt that owing a two wheeler is a prestige on pride. But it is not an access able want for each and every person. Realizing its increasing important in the present scenario, more and more working women move on to possess two wheeler. There by two wheelers play an inevitable role in the present day working women life


Floods are the causes of heavy downpour or the sudden release of water from the dam. The Public is facing drastic human and monetary loss due to this. 'Chennai Floods' is a best example for such natural disaster. Public aren't aware of the sudden release of water from the dams and they couldn't get any information because there was complete loss of network connectivity. This paper is based on the design of ZigBee based wireless sensor network for early flood monitoring and warning system. ZigBee technology, is a low cost and low power consumption device. The Flood alert system ensures to provide the water level information to the public in their mobile application even without network connectivity and help them reach a safer place through stored images.


The newly aroused interest in infertility and in demography in Africa has operated for such a short time that its impact on the basic problem of the inadequacy of the existing data is yet to be felt. The following are included among the constraints on demographic work in Africa: 1) materials for estimating fertility mortality and growth rates in African nations are both limited and defective; 2) lack of money; 3) lack of skilled personnel in the field of statistics and demography in the tropical African nations; and 4) the belief in many statistical offices that it is impossible to create the conditions necessary for a successful modern census in African conditions even where budgetary conditions permit such a census. The constraints identified and the need to eliminate them would obviously condition any planned program of research and training in demography and it might prove useful to distinguish between what might be considered as more immediate needs and long-range needs. An easily identifiable immediate need is that of expanding research and initiating training in the field of census-taking and methodology for the African countries. Long-range programs of research in fertility need to remedy the following deficiencies: 1) investigating the interrelationships between fertility and the other change and structural factors relating to marriage; and 2) relating fertility to semi-demogrpahic and socioeconomic factors. The identified needs cannot be met from the internal resources of these countries and a long-range program of technical assistance is required. In implementing any United Nations program of work in Africa such program should embody the principle of foreign-local partnership throughout all its stages.


WHERE there is no seweragesystem the proper disposal of human excreta is difficult. There are many things to be consideredapart from the mere removal of noisome material from the regions of dwellings, though this is all that interests the majority of citizens, and certainly it is urgent enoughin many places. Unfortunately,disposalof night-soil is generally regarded as a disgusting business, almost unfit to be discussed. Persons engagedin it are placed so low in the social scale that they are not mentionedin polite circles. Their trade is plied under cover of darkness while the citizen sleepson. This lack of interest is only one of the reasonswhy the methods of night-soil disposal in many places have not improved commensuratelywith improvementsin other measures of hygiene and sanitation. There are very few towns in Australia whereevery householder'snightsoil is removedmore frequently than once a week: quantities of fteees that have accumulatedfor a week are perhapsno more dangerousthan fresh freces ; but they are distinctly more unpleasant. Lack of funds may be given as the reasonfor this dilatoriness; but the work should be done with sufficient economy to make funds available. This is possible if regard is had for the economic uses of night-soil. For centuries the Chinese have utilized human freces and urine for manuringtheir gardens;but their methodsare unhygienicandtend to encouragethe dissemination of parasitic and other diseases. In parts of India farmers collect refuseand night-soil from towns, and after allowing the mixture to rot, spreadit on their land. Human waste is recognizedby thesepeople as the best of all fertilizers. It is by such meansas the preparation and saleof fertilizers that the disposalof nightsoil can be economically effected; in fact, it has been found possible to conduct the businessat a profit rather than a heavy loss to the civic authorities. • F. K. Jacksonand Y. D. Wad, of the Institute of Plant Industry, Indore, central India, have recently describeda method, known as the Indore method, which is simple, cheap and efficient, and can be a SOurce ofmunicipal income." They quote Leather (1895) as follows: There is, perhaps,no more important subject in relation to agriculture than the proper disposal of night-soil and other town refuse, for it may be said, without exaggeration, that nearly one-half the plant food extractedby food crops from soil is contained in the materials which are included under these two heads. It follows, therefore. that on their properdisposaland return to the soil depends the addition of a large proportion of the food necessary for the crops.


MECA is pleased to provide testimony in response to EPA's request for public comment on the Proposed Consent Decree, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit (Docket ID Number OGC-2004007). MECA believes an opportunity exists to significantly reduce emissions from new stationary internal combustion engines including engines fueled with both diesel and gas fuels. At the public hearings conducted in 2003 for EPA's Tier 4 nonroad diesel engine standards, MECA stated that emissions from nonroad diesel engines can be significantly reduced by utilizing an engineered systems approach that incorporated and combined advanced engine designs, advanced emission control technology, and very low sulfur fuel. MECA believes that this approach also can be applied to new stationary diesel engines to substantially reduce emissions from these engines. MECA believes that the general approaches recently used by the EPA to formulate emission reduction programs for highway heavy-duty diesel engines and nonroad diesel engines, requiring approximately 90% reductions in diesel particulate emissions and 90% reductions in NOx emissions versus engines certified without advanced emission control technologies, can be used as model for developing emission standards for new stationary diesel engines. MECA also believes catalyst technologies can be used to significantly reduce emissions from stationary gas engines.


ABSTRACT According to the International Association of Universities, an increasing interdependence among nations as well as intensified mobility of goods, ideas, and people has had the effect of making internationalization more of an institutional imperative. Communication is frequently conceptualised in this conversation as an independent variable that is facilitating the dependent variable – the internationalization of higher education. While communication technologies can bring students and educators together, communication as a discipline provides our institutions and students with the theoretical and methodological grounding for adjudicating the benefits, consequences, and meanings of an increasingly global world. This article provides an overview of the history and current climate of internationalization, specific examples of how faculty and administrators around the world can partner to achieve comprehensive internationalization at the macro, micro, and meso levels, and delineate how communication, as a discipline, can and should be a voice in that conversation.


In recent years, we have witnessed that technology has advanced dramatically. While new, hi-tech, automated devices entered our lives, a tendency of moving from the disjointed nature of objects to a more interconnected world has emerged. Although such need of interconnection was originated in the IT industry and with the Internet of Things (IoT), automotive industry was also affected by such a trend. Connected, electric, highly-automated and autonomous vehicles are making their way into our lives. As a result of this paradigm shift, new security challenges are introduced in the automotive industry. Vehicles are comprised of tens or sometimes a hundred of computers, also known as Electronic Control Units (ECUs) that need to communicate and be interconnected in order for the vehicle to function properly. Protecting vehicles from potential threats and attacks that may compromise the security and consequently the safety of both the vehicle and the passenger is of great importance. Hence, a comprehensible attack analysis methodology is needed to model the possible attacks in vehicles. Attack analysis is part of the risk assessment process. To have an accurate risk analysis, two factors are needed: first, the impact of an attack vector, which is not the subject of this thesis, and second, the feasibility of an attack path which is what we address as a part of our thesis using the nominated attack analysis methodology. In this thesis, we investigate existing methodologies for modelling attacks and try to nominate one that is most suitable for the automotive industry. This judgement is based on a list of criteria that are collected either through surveying previous related works or through interviewing industrial and academic experts. Once the methodology is nominated, we introduce a method for calculating the feasibility of different possible attack paths using the proposed methodology. Finally, we use some use cases by means of which we demonstrate how our nominated method can be used to model attacks against some assets and how the feasibility of each attack vector can be calculated for the use cases.


Background: Parents of premature infants are more likely to be exposed to stressful situations than parents of term infants. This study aimed to determine the effect of educational-supportive interventions on the tolerance of parents of premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, the participants included 50 parents of premature infants admitted to one of the NICUs in Shiraz, Iran from October 2019 to May 2020. Parents were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Educational intervention (training package and its content) was done in five 45-minute sessions for two weeks and three times a week. The supportive care was provided one day after the intervention. The data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and Distress Tolerance Scale and analyzed by SPSS 24 using paired t-test, independent t-test, and chi-square test.
Results: The mean scores of the mothers' and fathers' distress tolerance in the pre-intervention stage were 36.0 ± 6.1, 33.9 ± 7.4 in the control group (P < 0.14), and 38.4 ± 5.8, 38.0 ± 5.9 in the experimental group (P < 0.001), respectively. After the intervention, the mean scores of the mothers' and fathers' distress tolerance in the control group were 35.9 ± 5.3 and 36.5 ± 6.3, and in the experimental group 54.7 ± 5.3, 53.0 ± 6.0, which compared to before the intervention showed a significant increase (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Supportive-educational programs can increase distress tolerance in parents of premature infants. In the future, these programs can be planned to promote the quality of infant care.