ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 10 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Nosocomial infection is a key factor in determining clinical outcomes among patients admitted in intensive care units. Studies on nosocomial infections in ICUs found that respiratory tract infections, blood stream infections, urinary tract infections and soft tissue infections are the common nosocomial infections in ICUs. These organisms causing nosocomial infections are highly resistant to antibiotics. Early recognition of bacteria and appropriate antimicrobial therapy are essential for controlling infection, preventing the morbidity and improve the quality of life. Aims of this study are to find out the profile of Gram positive bacteria causing nosocomial infection in patients admitted in intensive care units and to know the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the nosocomial isolates. A total of 192 culture positive samples were taken from various clinical specimens. The organisms were identified by Gram staining, cultural characteristics and a battery of biochemical tests. Drug susceptibility was performed on the isolates by Kirby Bauer's disk diffusion method. A total of 202 organisms were isolated from 192 various clinical samples. Respiratory tract infection 76(39.6%) was the most common infection in Intensive care units. The number of Gram positive isolates was 60 (29.7%). 142 (70.3%) Gram negative organisms were isolated. The most common Gram positive cocci was Staphylococcus aureus 34 (16.8%) followed by CONS 16(26.6%). Among Gram positive cocci minimum resistance was seen against vancomycin (6.7%) followed by linezolid (10%) and cotrimoxazole (26.6%). Methicillin resistance was seen in 28 (82.35%) of S. aureus. 57.1% of MRSA caused respiratory tract infection. This study shows that Gram positive bacteria can cause serious infections in intensive care units. The most common isolates were S. aureus followed by CONS the isolates were resistant to most of the drugs. For Gram positive cocci the most effective antibiotics were vancomycin followed by linezolid and cotrimoxazole. Appropriate antibiotic utilization in Intensive Care Units is crucial not only in ensuring an optimal outcome but also in preventing multidrug resistant bacteria. K e y w o r d s Nosocomial infection, Gram positive bacteria, MRSA, Antibiotic susceptibility pattern Accepted: 24 September 2018 Available Online: 10 October 2018 Article Info Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(10): 3259-3269


Hyperspectral interferometric microscopy uses a unique combination of optics and algorithm design to extract information. Local brain activity rapidly changes local blood flow and red blood cell concentration (absorption) and oxygenation (color). We demonstrate that brain activity evoked during whisker stimulation can be detected with hyperspectral interferometric microscopy to identify the active whisker-barrel cortex in the rat brain. Information about constituent components is extracted across the entire spectral band. Algorithms can be flexibly optimized to discover, detect, quantify, and visualize a wide range of significant biological events, including changes relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of disease.


Gaussian graphical models have been widely used to construct gene regulatory networks from gene expression data. Most existing methods for Gaussian graphical models are designed to model homogeneous data, assuming a single Gaussian distribution. In practice, however, data may consist of gene expression studies with unknown confounding factors, such as study cohort, microarray platforms, experimental batches, which produce heterogeneous data, and hence lead to false positive edges or low detection power in resulting network, due to those unknown factors. To overcome this problem and improve the performance in constructing gene networks, we propose a two-stage approach to construct a gene network from heterogeneous data. The first stage is to perform a clustering analysis in order to assign samples to a few clusters where the samples in each cluster are approximately homogeneous, and the second stage is to conduct an integrative analysis of networks from each cluster. In particular, we first apply a model-based clustering method using the singular value decomposition for high-dimensional data, and then integrate the networks from each cluster using the integrative $\psi$-learning method. The proposed method is based on an equivalent measure of partial correlation coefficients in Gaussian graphical models, which is computed with a reduced conditional set and thus it is useful for high-dimensional data. We compare the proposed two-stage learning approach with some existing methods in various simulation settings, and demonstrate the robustness of the proposed method. Finally, it is applied to integrate multiple gene expression studies of lung adenocarcinoma to identify potential therapeutic targets and treatment biomarkers.


The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw has reached a crucial moment: we have drawn a new Code of Ethics, started to implement anti-violence and antidiscrimination policy, appointed Spokesman for Students' Rights. This text is a story about what had to happen so that we could find ourselves in this particular place –to enable the change we impatiently expect. In December 2017 the Warsaw Academy witnessed an unprecedented occurrence in its over 80-year history: almost 40 male and female students together with graduates of the Directing Department met with the Academy's Rector, and in the presence of the then department authorities talked about cases of mobbing, abuse and discrimination, which they either experienced or witnessed while studying. The scale of accusations was enormous. Their confessions triggered a discussion, but also exposed the system's weakness and insufficiency of the existing procedures. Corrective actions did not guarantee changes the students expected, and were perceived as implemented too slowly and inefficiently. Tensions arising from drawn out lack of radical solutions was growing to only reach its peak in July 2018, when the students and graduates reiterated their accusations and the news about the situation at the Academy hit the nation's media. It was time to give an effective diagnosis, start genuine dialogue and cooperation. It is high time we introduced substantial changes, whose main objective is to create a truly safe environment for students, foster their artistic development, creative freedom and subjectivity. We need to find effective tools to fight violence and discrimination within the system of artistic education. A significant consequence of this chain of events was setting up a Working Group made up of female representatives of the Academy authorities, employees, students and graduates; female students of the Directing Department Agata Koszulinska and Karolina Szczypek, graduates Weronika Szczawinska and Malgorzata Wdowik, lecturers Agata Adamiecka and Marta Miloszewska, the Academy Chancellor Beata Szczucinska – authors of the article.


The probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) has a protective effect against metabolic syndrome in rats and humans. Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this study, Goto-Kakizaki rats were used as a diabetic model and fed diets containing LG2055-fermented or nonfermented skim milk for 4 wk. Indices of diabetes such as blood glucose levels, serum glucagon levels, plasma levels of insulin, C-peptide, and glucagon-like peptide-1, tissue glycogen contents, and pancreatic mRNA levels were measured. The plasma C-peptide levels and pancreatic mRNA levels of insulin genes (Ins1 and Ins2) and Pdx1 (a transcriptional factor of insulin genes) were increased in LG2055 diet-fed rats. The increase in insulin secretion corresponded to an improvement in serum and pancreatic inflammatory status, associated with decreases in serum levels of serum amyloid P and pancreatic levels of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Insulin resistance in Goto-Kakizaki rats was ameliorated by increased glycogen storage in the liver and quadriceps femoris muscles and decreased serum free fatty acid levels. This improvement may be related to the increased cecal production of short-chain fatty acids. In conclusion, dietary LG2055 improved insulin secretion in diabetic rats by improving the inflammatory status in the pancreas and serum.


Whether increasing resource use in schools has a positive effect on pupil performance has occupied governments, parents and researchers for decades. A main challenge when trying to answer this question is to separate the effects of school resources from the effects of pupils' family background, since resources may be allocated in a compensatory manner, and pupils may sort into schools. We address these issues using a comprehensive dataset for two cohorts of pupils graduating from lower secondary school in Norway. The dataset is rich in performance measures, resource use variables and family background variables. As performance measures we use results at age 16 across 11 subjects, and we exploit the fact that we have both information from results from national exams and from continuous assessment in class. Controlling for family background, we find a positive but modest effect of resource quantity such as teacher hours per pupil, on pupil achievement. Observable teacher qualifications, within the variation present in lower secondary school in Norway, do not appear to have significant effects on school results. Resource quality as measured by teacher characteristics does not appear to have a significant impact on pupils' marks. We find clear evidence of compensating resource allocation and teacher sorting as well as relative setting of marks.


Whirlwinds, dry convective helical vortices, move large gypsum crystals in the Andes Mountains of northern Chile. The crystals are entrained from a saline pan surface, where they grew in shallow surface brines. They are transported as much as 5 km and deposited in large dune-like mounds. The dune gravel is cemented relatively quickly by gypsum cement precipitating from near-surface saline groundwater, resulting in gypsum breccia. This marks the first occurrence of gravel-sized grains moved efficiently in air by suspension, provides a new possible interpretation for some ancient breccias and conglomerates, and improves understanding of limits of extremity of Earth surface environments.


Databases have been designed to store large volumes of data and to provide efficient query interfaces. Semantic Web formats are geared towards capturing domain knowledge, interlinking annotations, and offering a high-level, machine-processable view of information. However, the gigantic amount of such useful information makes efficient management of it increasingly difficult, undermining the possibility of transforming it into useful knowledge. The research presented by De Virgilio, Giunchiglia and Tanca tries to bridge the two worlds in order to leverage the efficiency and scalability of database-oriented technologies to support an ontological high-level view of data and metadata. The contributions present and analyze techniques for semantic information management, by taking advantage of the synergies between the logical basis of the Semantic Web and the logical foundations of data management. The books leitmotif is to propose models and methods especially tailored to represent and manage data that is appropriately structured for easier machine processing on the Web. After two introductory chapters on data management and the Semantic Web in general, the remaining contributions are grouped into five parts on Semantic Web Data Storage, Reasoning in the Semantic Web, Semantic Web Data Querying, Semantic Web Applications, and Engineering Semantic Web Systems. The handbook-like presentation makes this volume an important reference on current work and a source of inspiration for future development, targeting academic and industrial researchers as well as graduate students in Semantic Web technologies or database design.


From 2005 through 2008, 23 states across the nation have enacted laws generally referred to as "castle doctrine" laws or "stand your ground" laws. A castle doctrine law gives a homeowner the legal right to use force (even deadly force) to defend himself or herself and the family against an intruder. No study, however, has been conducted to evaluate its deterrent effects. The State of Texas enacted its castle doctrine law on September 1, 2007, and the subsequent Joe Horn shooting incident in Houston in November, 2007, served to publicize the Texas law to a great extent. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the deterrent effect of the Texas castle doctrine law and the subsequent Horn shooting on burglary in the two largest cities in Texas, Houston and Dallas. Daily data of residential and business burglary, over the period from January 1, 2007, to August 31, 2008, were obtained from the Houston Police Department and the Dallas Police Department. Interrupted time-series designs were employed in the study to analyze the intervention effects. The findings reported suggest a place-conditioned deterrent effect of the law and the Horn shooting; both residential and business burglaries were reduced significantly after the shooting incident in Houston, but not in Dallas.


Glioblastoma multiform is the most common and aggressive brain tumor with a worse prognostic. Ionizing radiation is a cornerstone in the treatment of glioblastome with chemo-radiation association being the actual standard. As a paradoxal effect, it has been suggested that radiotherapy could have a deleterious effect on local recurrence of cancer. In vivo studies have studied the effect of radiotherapy on biological modification and pathogenous effect of cancer cells. It seems that ionizing radiations with photon could activate oncogenic pathways in glioblastoma cell lines. We realized a review of the literature of photon-enhanced effect on invasion and migration of glioblastoma cells by radiotherapy.


Metatarsal pads are frequently prescribed for nonoperative management of metatarsalgia due to various etiologies. When appropriately placed, they are effective in reducing pressures under the metatarsal heads on the plantar surface of the foot. Despite the positive clinical reports that have been cited, there are no quantitative studies documenting the load redistribution effects of these pads during multiple step usage within the shoe environment. The objective of this study was to assess changes in plantar pressure metrics resulting from pad use. Ten normal adult male subjects were tested during a series of 400-step trials. Pressures were recorded from eight discrete plantar locations at the hindfoot, midfoot, and forefoot regions of the insole. Significant increases in peak pressures, contact durations, and pressure-time integrals were noted at the metatarsal shaft region with pad use (P ≤ .05). Statistically significant changes in metric values were not seen at the other plantar locations, although metatarsal pad use resulted in mild decreases in mean peak pressures at the first and second metatarsal heads and slight increases laterally. Contact durations decreased at all metatarsal head locations, while pressure-time integrals decreased at the first, second, third, and fourth metatarsal heads. A slight increase in pressure-time integrals was seen at the fifth metatarsal head. The redistribution of plantar pressures tended to relate not only to the dimensions of the metatarsal pads, but also to foot size, anatomic foot configuration, and pad location. Knowledge of these parameters, along with careful control of pad dimensions and placement, allows use of the metatarsal pad as an effective orthotic device for redistributing forefoot plantar pressures.


We investigate the link between credit booms, productivity growth, labour reallocations and financial crises in a sample of over twenty advanced economies and over forty years. We produce two key findings. First, credit booms tend to undermine productivity growth by inducing labour reallocations towards lower productivity growth sectors. A temporarily bloated construction sector stands out as an example. Second, the impact of reallocations that occur during a boom, and during economic expansions more generally, is much larger if a crisis follows. In other words, when economic conditions become more hostile, misallocations beget misallocations. These findings have broader implications: they shed light on the recent secular stagnation debate; they provide an alternative interpretation of hysteresis effects; they highlight the need to incorporate credit developments in the measurement of potential output; and they provide a new perspective on the medium- to long-run impact of monetary policy as well as its ability to fight post-crisis recessions.


In this work, the quantum dot (QD) formation of InAs on In0.5Ga0.5As/InP(001) has been studied theoretically using a hybrid approach. The surface energies were calculated using density functional theory. For elastic relaxation energies, continuum elasticity theory was applied. This hybrid method, as already shown in the literature, takes into account the atomic structure of the various facets of the QDs as well as the wetting layer. Our study deals with the aspect of shape evolution of InAs QDs on a ternary substrate. It shows how the island shape close to equilibrium evolves with varying volume in InAs/In0.5Ga0.5As/InP (001) epitaxy. Overall, our study indicates that for this system, there may exist two paths for island growth: one path involves an early energetic stabilization of flat, hut-shaped islands with high-index facets (that may persist due to kinetic limitations), whereas the other path involves islands with larger height-to-base ratios that develop low-index facets. At large volumes, the steeper but more compact islands tend to be energetically more favourable compared to the elongated shapes.


Many statistical applications require the forecast of a random variable of interest over several periods into the future. The sequence of individual forecasts, one period at a time, is called a path forecast, where the term path refers to the sequence of individual future realizations of the random variable. The problem of constructing a corresponding joint prediction region has been rather neglected in the literature so far: such a region is supposed to contain the entire future path with a prespecified probability. We develop bootstrap methods to construct joint prediction regions. The resulting regions are proven to be asymptotically consistent under a mild high-level assumption. We compare the finitesample performance of our joint prediction regions to some previous proposals via Monte Carlo simulations. An empirical application to a real data set is also provided.


Starting from a neurobiological standpoint, I will propose that our capacity to understand others as intentional agents, far from being exclusively dependent upon mentalistic/linguistic abilities, be deeply grounded in the relational nature of our interactions with the world. According to this hypothesis, an implicit, prereflexive form of understanding of other individuals is based on the strong sense of identity binding us to them. We share with our conspecifics a multiplicity of states that include actions, sensations and emotions. A new conceptual tool able to capture the richness of the experiences we share with others will be introduced: the shared manifold of intersubjectivity. I will posit that it is through this shared manifold that it is possible for us to recognize other human beings as similar to us. It is just because of this shared manifold that intersubjective communication and ascription of intentionality become possible. It will be argued that the same neural structures that are involved in processing and controlling executed actions, felt sensations and emotions are also active when the same actions, sensations and emotions are to be detected in others. It therefore appears that a whole range of different 'mirror matching mechanisms' may be present in our brain. This matching mechanism, constituted by mirror neurons originally discovered and described in the domain of action, could well be a basic organizational feature of our brain, enabling our rich and diversified inter-subjective experiences. This perspective is in a position to offer a global approach to the understanding of the vulnerability to major psychoses such as schizophrenia.


Objective: The objective of this study was to diagnose rare palatal fractures and to subcategories them to formulate a definitive treatment plan depending upon the fracture lines. Materials and Methods: All patients presenting in triage with palatal fractures were classified after computed tomography scan. Thirteen patients diagnosed with complex and transverse palatal fractures were included in the study. Complex fracture was further subdivided into five groups: (a) comminuted, (b) oblique, (c) S shaped, (d) C shaped, and (e) T shaped. The patients were divided into two groups. In Group A, six patients were managed without palatal vault plating, and in Group B, seven patients were managed with palatal vault plating along with anterior alveolar and anterior maxillary buttress plating. Results: Twelve patients presented with complex fracture and one patient presented with transverse fracture. The male-to-female ratio and age range of the study were 5.5:1 and 15–55 years, respectively.Le Fort I and II fracture was present in five patients, isolated Le Fort II fracture in four patients, Le Fort I was present in two, and Le Fort I, II and III fractures was present in two patients. Conclusion: Complex palatal fractures can be subcategorized which simplifies the management and documentation of the fracture. Palatal vault plating should be attempted in cases where there are two large fracture segments to achieve the better stability of fracture and reduce the duration of maxillomandibular fixation in postoperative period.


This study was designed to reveal cell growth inhibitory potential of six different edible mushrooms: Ramaria flava, Agrocybe molesta, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus, Lactarius deliciosus, Bovista plumbea, and Tricholoma terreum on HepG2 cells together with their antioxidant and antibacterial power. Methanolic extracts of V gloiocephalus and aqueous extracts of R. flava had the most potential cytotoxic effects over HepG2 cells. The best results for 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activities were obtained from both aqueous and methanolic extracts of R. flava. Methanolic extracts of T. terreum (IC50 = 1.62 mg/mL) and aqueous extracts of B. plumbea (IC50 = 0.49 mg/mL) showed maximum metal chelating activity. The highest reducing capacities were observed among the methanolic extracts of R. flava (EC50 = 1.65 mg/mL) and aqueous extracts of B. plumbea (EC50 = 1.71 mg/ mL). High-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed the presence of many phenolic compounds in macrofungi; gallic acid and p-coumaric acid were the two main phenolics identified in all extracts. Antibacterial studies indicated that all six tested mushrooms showed antibacterial activity on at least three microorganisms. These results indicate that different extracts of the investigated mushrooms have considerable cytotoxic, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties and may be utilized as a promising source of therapeutics.


Coffee plantations were unquestionably one of the defining features of Angola's colonial landscape. From the 1870s to independence, coffee was the main export of this former Portuguese colony, barring a couple of intervals during which rubber and diamonds held first place. During this time, Angola ranked consistently among the world's largest robusta producers, which it might still have been today had the country's civil war (1975-2002) not made commercial farming all but impossible. In Angolan popular memory, coffee occupies an ambivalent position: for some people it brings up memories of colonial forced labor, while others recollect stories of successful family farms. My research project, "Coffee and Colonialism in Angola, 1820-1960," aims to reconstruct the multiple, intertwined realities behind these contrasting memories. Focusing on northern Angola, where smallholding and estate farming always coexisted, it investigates how African farmers, colonial settlers, foreign traders, and global consumers shaped one of the oldest commercial coffee frontiers in subSaharan Africa. In doing so, it reflects on the question to what extent "colonialism" is the proper lens through which to study the history of coffee cultivation in Angola.


PURPOSE
Previous measurements of the accuracy of image-based real-time dynamic multileaf collimator (DMLC) tracking show that the major contributor to errors is latency, i.e., the delay between target motion and MLC response. Therefore the purpose of this work was to develop a method for detailed analysis of latency contributions during image-based DMLC tracking.

METHODS
A prototype DMLC tracking system integrated with a linear accelerator was used for tracking a phantom with an embedded fiducial marker during treatment delivery. The phantom performed a sinusoidal motion. Real-time target localization was based on x-ray images acquired either with a portal imager or a kV imager mounted orthogonal to the treatment beam. Each image was stored in a file on the imaging workstation. A marker segmentation program opened the image file, determined the marker position in the image, and transferred it to the DMLC tracking program. This program estimated the three-dimensional target position by a single-imager method and adjusted the MLC aperture to the target position. Imaging intervals deltaT(image) from 150 to 1000 ms were investigated for both kV and MV imaging. After the experiments, the recorded images were synchronized with MLC log files generated by the MLC controller and tracking log files generated by the tracking program. This synchronization allowed temporal analysis of the information flow for each individual image from acquisition to completed MLC adjustment. The synchronization also allowed investigation of the MLC adjustment dynamics on a considerably finer time scale than the 50 ms time resolution of the MLC log files.

RESULTS
For deltaT(image) = 150 ms, the total time from image acquisition to completed MLC adjustment was 380 +/- 9 ms for MV and 420 +/- 12 ms for kV images. The main part of this time was from image acquisition to completed image file writing (272 ms for MV and 309 ms for kV). Image file opening (38 ms), marker segmentation (4 ms), MLC position calculation (16 ms), and MLC adjustment (52 ms) were considerably faster. For deltaT(image) = 1000 ms, the total time from image acquisition to completed MLC adjustment increased to 1030 +/- 62 ms (MV) and 1330 +/- 52 ms (kV) mainly because of delayed image file writing. The MLC adjustment duration was constant 52 ms (+/- 3 ms) for MLC adjustments below 1.1 mm and increased linearly for larger MLC adjustments.

CONCLUSIONS
A method for detailed time analysis of each individual real-time position signal for DMLC tracking has been developed and applied to image-based tracking. The method allows identification of the major contributors to latency and therefore a focus for reducing this latency. The method could be an important tool for the reconstruction of the delivered target dose during DMLC tracking as it provides synchronization between target motion and MLC motion.


Brood parasites face considerable cognitive challenges when locating and selecting host nests for their young. One aspect of this challenge is determining how to use different sources of information to make decisions regarding the quality of a prospective nest. Here we investigate how female-brown-headed cowbirds, Molothrus ater, use information when prospecting for nests, and then expand upon this to investigate decisions related to foraging. In chapter 1, we demonstrated female could use social information acquired from observing the nest prospecting patterns of conspecifics to influence their own patterns of nest selection. Furthermore, we found a negative relationship between a female's accuracy at using personal information and her tendency to copy others. In chapter 2, we found the females were able to use social information in a foraging setting as well. The female's accuracy using personal information remained consistent across nest prospecting and foraging contexts however, the relationship between accuracy and tendency to copy others drastically reversed. A follow up experiment revealed the likely possibility that the differing relationship between personal and social information use depended on the degree of conflict that existed between the two types of information. In chapter 3, we redeveloped and implemented a new RFID tracking technology allowing us to investigate how the cognitive strategies from chapters 1 and 2 translated to a naturalistic, socially complex breeding environment. We found female cowbirds who spent more time prospecting, produced a greater quantity of eggs and demonstrated high accuracy scores during chapter 1 and 2, whereas females who relied on copying others spent significantly less time prospecting and demonstrated lower laying accuracy scores. By demonstrating how individuals' cognitive strategies relate across context and translate to a socially complex setting, we have demonstrated the importance of examining behaviour in both of these settings and our RFID tracking technology provides researchers with the framework to effectively study this in the future.


School children have often been regarded as lacking competence when it comes to using media texts. Some researchers refer to them as less active audience or uncritical media users because of their short attention span and because they often perform other activities while using the media. They are not considered as the critical media users a democratic society requires. Children's access to the media has also raised a lot of questions like what and which media they have access to and who selects for them. Their selection and access to the media will relate to their social, economic and cultural background and their race and gender. This research explores the type of media school children have access to and what media texts they select from the range they have access to. This research is premised on a belief that a knowledge of the selection and access of media texts is immediately relevant to education and critical literacy. This will help media educators to assess what learners already know. This research is not intended to judge any learner in relation to their access and use, it aims to get better insight into the types and genres of media learners engage with depending on the race, social class and gender of the learner. I examine the topic against the theoretical understandings of audience reception theory. This discusses how theorists have considered whether the audience are passive or active or critical. The research process involves participation by learners between the ages of 15 and 18 from three different schools of Crawford College in La Lucia, Rossburgh High School in Rossburgh, and Clairwood Secondary School in Clairwood and investigates the nature of media engaged with over a short period of time. Research findings reveal that the type of media accessed by various learners varies in relation to background factors of the learner such as economic background, race and gender.


The purpose of this thesis is to study the importance of materiality for the interaction of reading among teenagers, age 15-16. The purpose is also to study if the attitude to the form of e-book versus the printed book differs depending on how comfortable the teenagers are with the activity of reading. The method we have chosen for this study is the form of semi-structured interviews, four with teenagers who are positive to fiction reading and four with teenagers who say they don´t like fiction reading. We analyse the teenagers´answers by looking at some aspects of materiality to see how these aspects affect the interaction of reading.During the interview the respondents were asked to read one chapter of a book on an Ipad and the next chapter in a printed book. Our study shows that materiality is a factor for the interaction of reading and it can lead to different experiences of reading. Some aspects that the respondents mention as important are the amount of text, the typeface and the feeling of holding a book. The ones who are comfortable with the activity of reading claim they would still choose the printed book after reading both on the Ipad and in the printed book. The ones who are less comfortable with reading are more positive to the e-book, than they were before.


Because of its relative prominence in infancy, a normal thymus gland can give the impression of cardiomegaly, a mediastinal mass or even lung pathology. Recognition of certain radiographic characteristics that pertain to this normal structure help to differentiate it from pathology.

The thymus is a soft organ comprising two asymmetric lobes joined by an isthmus and invested by a fibrous capsule. Embryologically it is derived from the third pharyngeal pouch. The thymus occupies the anterior and superior mediastinum, located behind the sternum in the midline. In infancy the upper border of the thymus extends almost to the thyroid gland in the neck and the lower margin overlaps the upper part of the heart, occasionally extending as far as the diaphragm. It can be thought of as a soft pancake-like structure draped over the mediastinal vessels.

The thymus has a crucial role in the development of immunity, although its function has only been elucidated fairly recently. It serves as the site of differentiation of T lymphocytes in all mammals. These migrate to the thymus during fetal life and early infancy, emerging after a process of molecular modifications as specific types of immunocompetent cells involved in cell mediated immunity. Mature immunocompetent cells emerging from the bone marrow or thymus circulate and populate secondary lymphoid organs—the spleen and lymph nodes as well as aggregates of lymphatic tissue associated with mucosal surfaces such as the gut and bronchial system. The critical role of the thymus is completed in the first few days of life but it does have a continued role in immunity throughout life.

The thymus has its largest size relative to body weight at birth, weighing on average 10–15 g. It has an extremely variable size and appearance during early life but grows to a maximum weight of approx 35 g at …


PT. Telkom as exponent company of telecommunications base on out for first CDMA in Indonesia remain to maintain product which they have that is Telkom Flexi. To be able to maintain its Product, PT. Telkom Kancatel Pasuruan look for gap by maintaining its consumer which loyal to product of Telkom this Flexi, from at obtaining new customer by giving service of which can gratify consumer at product of Telkom Flexi through promotion mix. If continuous consumer obtain to get satisfaction hence consumer will progressively like and have preferensi to product represent one identifying from formed its of]loyalitas to product brand.
Formula of this problem is there any Influence of Promotion Mix to Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi and if there is, how big its influence. While intention of this research is to know there is do not Influence of Promotion Mix to Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi and to know how big its influence.
Promotion Mix represent strategy combination of promotion appliances covering personal of selling, advertisement, sales promotion of public and relations and direct marketing with aim to promote a product / service of company to consumer candidate and also consumer which in general used to persuading consumer of company / product to be can accept, buying and loyal at product which on the market company utilize to create the target of either through and also financial of non-finansial.
Hypothesis which the told is Ha: There is influence between Promotion Mix to Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi. Ho: There no influence between Mix Promotion to Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi. This type research is korelasional asosiatif because researcher wish to try how far two variable owning relation where variable of independent influence variable dependent. By using quantitative approach with calculation of statistic. While method in this research is research of survey. Technique data collecting by using documentation and kuesioner. Its population is customer of PT. Telkom Kancatel Pasuruan which enlist in Mei-Oktober 2008 with monthly mean 2476 customer. Because big enough Sampel hence stipulating of size measure of sampel use Formula of Taro Yamane is till got sampel 100 responder people. In determining accurate obyek use technique Non Probability Sampling by Quota sampling.
Result from analysis Test F obtained by Fhitung equal to 37,415 with probability equal to 0,000. While Ftabel level of signifikansi 5% showing value equal to 3,938. Along of or 37,415 3,938, hence alternative hypothesis ( Ha) accepting and ( Ho) refused. So that known there is influence between Promotion Mix to Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi. Equation Of Linear Regresi Modestly Y = 30,863 + 0,517X can know that coefficient of regresi 0,712 interpreted that, if Promotion Mix mount, hence Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi will mount also. Level of influence known from value of determinasi ( r) = 0,526 x 100% equal to 27,6%, while other factor which influence Loyalitas Consumer Product of Telkom Flexi equal to 72,4%. From result of this research is expected by PT. Telkom Kancatel Pasuruan more is drawing near of product Telkom Flexi to society. So that society will be more know better yielded product and also company so that will grow customer marrow loyalitas to product of Telkom Flexi.


The objective of most Reinforcement Learning painting agents is to minimize the loss between a target image and the paint canvas. Human painter artistry emphasizes important features of the target image rather than simply reproducing it. Using adversarial or L2 losses in the RL painting models, although its final output is generally a work of finesse, produces a stroke sequence that is vastly different from that which a human would produce since the model does not have knowledge about the abstract features in the target image. In order to increase the human-like planning of the model without the use of expensive human data, we introduce a new loss function for use with the model's reward function: Content Masked Loss. In the context of robot painting, Content Masked Loss employs an object detection model to extract features which are used to assign higher weight to regions of the canvas that a human would find important for recognizing content. The results, based on 332 human evaluators, show that the digital paintings produced by our Content Masked model show detectable subject matter earlier in the stroke sequence than existing methods without compromising on the quality of the final painting. Our code is available at https://github.com/pschaldenbrand/ContentMaskedLoss.


Standard smoldering and flaming combustion tests using small coal samples have been developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines as a method to evaluate the response of a smoke detector. The tests are conducted using a standard smoke box designed and constructed according to Underwriters Laboratories. The tests provide a standard, easily reproducible smoke characteristic for smoldering and flaming coal combustion, based upon a comparison of the smoke optical density and the response of a standard ionization chamber to the smoke. With these standard tests, the range of threshold limits for the response of a smoke detector and the detector's reliability can be evaluated for nearly identical smoke visibility and smoke physical characteristics. The detector's threshold response limits and reliability need to be well defined prior to the instrument's use as part of a mine fire warning system for improved mine safety.


The wireless efficiency of the strongly coupled magnetic resonance (SCMR) method is studied here for non-homogenous interfaces. Specifically, SCMR's wireless power transfer from a source in air to a sensor embedded in concrete is analyzed. The concrete material properties are modeled for various humidity levels using the extended Debye model. The performance of SCMR is examined for both plain and reinforced concrete. Finally, rectification of the RF power is performed and the DC power delivered to the embedded sensor's battery is calculated.


The Protected Disclosures Act has been in operation for some two years. Though the notion of the "whistle blower" has become common currency in South African discourse, the Act remains uncharted territory. It is likely to be more widely used following the enactment of the latest amendments to the Labour Relations Act: Those protected by the PDA may now utilise the "unfair labour practice" and "automatically unfair dismissal" provisions of the Labour Relations Act to seek remedies for "occupational detriment" and "dismissal" in terms of the PDA. The new amendments to sections 186 and 187 of the LRA make explicit reference to the PDA.


Today the web browser get a more central role in the arsenal of programs users use and at the same time installing programs is a bit of the past and every type of applications gets a web alternative. Users sees this as a good thing, however software companies which have put a lot of time, effort and money into their products might not be as happy in this platform paradigm shift.The question is though, does it need to be a paradigm shift? Or is it possible to move an old application into this new, Operating System (OS) and architecture agnostic, multi purpose system the web has developed into?This thesis tries to summarize which techniques there are, how they work, what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a bonus it also contains an independent case study of how it is to use the technology Native Client (NaCl) in alarge scale project.The conclusion, from the case study, is that NaCl is a very promising technology both for migrating old code and for creating high performance code for this new platform. Our tests shows a 12:9% speed up when we using the 64 bitNaCl version over the native x86 32 bit version of Algodoo.However, even though the technology seems mature the Software Development Kit (SDK) aren't which might be reason enough to idle for a while.


The purpose of this thesis is to conduct a detailed study of optimism in financial decision making. I contribute to the literature by clarifying the relationship between financial optimism and individual investors' portfolio choice. I also investigate whether optimism benefits an investor's objective and subjective well-being within the same study by using large-scale survey data. I then explore how feedback, framing, and personality, contribute to financial optimism using controlled user experiments. Both survey-based and experimental approaches are applied in this thesis to study various aspects of optimism in a financial decision making domain. In this thesis I propose a theoretical framing work for measuring financial optimism and use these measures to analyse investor profiles. My survey-based studies show that optimistic investors prefer to invest in risky portfolios to risk-free portfolios, and borrow higher debt and larger mortgages. Optimists are significantly younger with lower accumulated financial wealth compared to non-optimists. Financial optimism is found to be beneficial in improving objective well-being by increasing future financial wealth, but this positive effect is very limited in terms of increasing future total wealth. Optimism is associated with current happiness and satisfaction which means optimism might help to improve current subjective well-being, but the long-term effect of optimism on happiness might be less desirable if the investor's realised financial situation is lower than expected. By conducting experiments on subjects given investment tasks in a controlled environment, I find that positive feedback on previous portfolio returns decreases optimism when forecasts on future portfolio returns are made in absolute values, while positive feedback increases optimism when participants forecast in relative terms. I also show that framing influences financial optimism - optimism is higher when forecasting in absolute values than in percentages. I discovered that certain personality traits, such as extraversion and modesty, correlate with financial optimism. Optimism is also strongly positively associated with an attitude for risk tolerance. The overall implications of this thesis is that when making a financial decision, individual investors should not neglect the effect of optimism on their choice of portfolio. Optimism is beneficial towards both objective and subjective well-being, however such positive influence of optimism is fairly limited and should not be magnified. Optimism might not be subject to the control of an individual because optimism could derive from environmental factors, such as feedback and framing, as well as from internal factors to the investor, such as personality and innate risk attitude.


1. Abstract We use three-dimensional modeling of the basin of Hidden Lake, Montana, to assess the influence of effective fetch on diatom-inferred changes in mixing depths throughout the Holocene. The basin of Hidden Lake is characterized by a complex morphometry; for example, three-dimensional modeling of the lake basin indicates that a decrease in lake level of two meters would result in complete isolation of the deepest part of the lake basin from the rest of the lake. Our model suggests that small changes in the lake surface elevation at Hidden Lake would produce threshold-like responses in effective fetch, which in turn would have a profound influence on average lake mixing depth. The present-day planktic diatom community of Hidden Lake is comprised of three species. Neo-ecological experiments revealed the effect of mixing depth and nutrient levels on growth rates of these species. A sediment core collected from the deepest part of the lake basin and spanning the last 8,640 years was analyzed for diatoms. Here we show how changes in fetch through the Holocene explain changes in the dominant planktic diatom species by modification of the thermal structure of Hidden Lake. Additionally, the timing of diatom-inferred changes in effective moisture and thermal structure from Hidden Lake were compared to late Holocene patterns reconstructed from other regional lake records. Between 8.64 – 7.61 ka the diatom record from Hidden Lake suggests that the lake was deep and fresh, although somewhat lower than the modern lake. After 7.61 ka, water levels rose, expanding the available benthic diatom habitat. Between 6.18 –4.13 ka, lake level declined and seasonal stratification was enhanced. After 1.4 ka, the lake became deeper and less stratified in response to the effects of enhanced fetch. We argue that changes in effective fetch may play an important, and underexplored, role in planktic diatom community structure over longer time scales and should be more broadly considered in paleolimnological studies.


Tetanus is a disease which has a high mortality rate, caused by clostridium tetani. It presents with trismus, difficulty in swallowing, and more ominously difficulty in breathing, or opisthotonus. Included in this retrospective study are 23 cases of tetanus treated in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between Jan. 1986 and Dec. 1989. Age ranged from 36 to 87, with the highest incidence in the middle-aged and elderly (91% older than 40 years of age). In 20 cases a wound was found as the source of infection, most of which were minor injuries. Of the nine patients who received no medical attention, three received herb drugs. Of the eleven patients who did seek medical attention at the time of injury, four received tetanus toxoid but none of them received human tetanus immunoglobulin. Tetanus is a totally preventable disease. Prevention includes three basic principles: local wound management, active immunization, and passive immunization. When treating injured patients, it is important to recall that many middle-aged and older adults are not adequately immunized against tetanus. Such patients should receive human tetanus immunoglobulin as well as tetanus toxoid.


In data analysis problems where we are not able to rely on distributional assumptions, what types of inference guarantees can still be obtained? Many popular methods, such as holdout methods, cross-validation methods, and conformal prediction, are able to provide distribution-free guarantees for predictive inference, but the problem of providing inference for the underlying regression function (for example, inference on the conditional mean $\mathbb{E}[Y|X]$) is more challenging. In the setting where the features $X$ are continuously distributed, recent work has established that any confidence interval for $\mathbb{E}[Y|X]$ must have non-vanishing width, even as sample size tends to infinity. At the other extreme, if $X$ takes only a small number of possible values, then inference on $\mathbb{E}[Y|X]$ is trivial to achieve. In this work, we study the problem in settings in between these two extremes. We find that there are several distinct regimes in between the finite setting and the continuous setting, where vanishing-width confidence intervals are achievable if and only if the effective support size of the distribution of $X$ is smaller than the square of the sample size.


Both species are moderately abundant, and are obtained by dredging off Vineyard Haven, near East Chop, Martha's Vineyard, Mass. The most reliable feature for distinguishing between them is the shape of the arms or rays; in A. forbesi the rays are stout and cylindrical and tend to be blunt at the tip, and in A. vulgaris they are flattened and taper to a point. The sexes are separate but cannot be distinguished on the basis of external characteristics.


: Twilight Sleep was a technique originally developed by physicians in Germany in the early 20th century as a novel way to address parturient women's fear and aversion to pain endured during labor and childbirth. Using a combination of amnestic and analgesic agents such as scopolamine and morphine to synergistically suppress pregnant women's memories, physicians Carl Gauss and Bernhard Krönig enabled women to give birth free of pain, or more accurately any memories of pain. Despite widespread use throughout Europe, Twilight Sleep initially experienced less popularity and more resistance in the United States where doctors were wary of the potential health risks that Twilight Sleep brought upon women and infants. Some adverse effects caused by incorrect doses of scopolamine and morphine included hallucinations and uncontrolled thrashing in women and depressed respiration in infants. Thus, Twilight Sleep's status as a vogue topic in obstetrics during the first half of the 20th century came about due to the work of affluent and educated American women. While lacking formal medical training, a subset of women became experts in the matter of Twilight Sleep by traveling to Germany to experience and investigate Twilight Sleep first hand then disseminating their findings through published books and articles. This thesis explores the impact of Twilight Sleep on women and physicians and their perceptions of childbirth. Twilight Sleep empowered women to take on a more active role in shaping the medical care they received rather than accepting childbirth as a natural event associated with physical and mental trauma and high risk of mortality. For doctors, the debate regarding Twilight Sleep's safety and efficacy affirmed a ubiquitous notion that childbirth ought to be seen as a pathological rather than natural event. By considering childbirth a medical condition


ABSTRACT Atmospheric variables such as interior layout and music stimulate behavioral responses from customers in service settings. This study examined the extent to which these cues affect revenue generation in 153 full-service small business restaurants. The results demonstrate that both interior layout and music are significant predictors of revenue generation and thus they may offer an important collateral strategy to restaurant revenue management. INTRODUCTION An important segment of the economy, full-service restaurants, had sales of $144.6 billion in 2002 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). With a continuing rise in American meals being eaten away from home, these sales are expected to grow (National Restaurant Association, 2005). Among restaurants, seven out of ten are single-unit; i.e., independent operations (National Restaurant Association, 2005). Kimes, Chase, Choi, Lee, and Ngonzi (1998) developed a framework for applying revenue management in restaurants. Conceived in the airline industry as yield management, revenue management involves the management of demand and pricing in order to maximize sales revenues (Cross, 1997). It has been shown to increase sales revenue by as much as 7% for airlines (Marraorstein, Rossomme, & Sarel, 2003). Revenue management is now used in a range of industries such as communication, hotels, and shipping (McGill & Van Ryzin, 1999). The restaurant revenue management framework developed by Kimes et al. (1998) suggests demand-managing strategies that present customers with cues to affect revenue generation. Indeed, case study evidence shows that restaurant revenue management, used in conjunction with adjustments to table top mix (e.g., a "four-top" is a table that seats four), increases sales by 5% (Kimes, 2004). Atmospheric cues are a potential collateral strategy to restaurant revenue management. Based on a stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, atmospherics involves the use of stimuli such as interior layout and music to elicit behavioral responses. For example, studies show that atmospheric cues can result in faster shopping traffic flow and an increase in the time and money customers spend in a retail store (Areni & Kim, 1993; Milliman, 1982). Atmospheric stimuli such as interior layout and music help to create ambiance in a restaurant setting. However, there is no large-sample empirical evidence on the effects of these variables on revenue generation in small business restaurants. Evidence of the effects of atmospheric cues would extend the restaurant revenue management literature and contribute to restaurant managers' understanding of collateral revenue management practices. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the use of atmospheric cues, such as interior layout and music, in small business restaurants has significant effects on revenue generation. In the following section, literatures on restaurant revenue management and atmospherics are reviewed to derive a hypothesis. The hypothesis was tested with a survey of small business restaurant managers. Results are presented, and implications for revenue management in small business restaurants are discussed. LITERATURE REVIEW Revenue management manages demand in order to maximize sales revenues from a business's existing capacity (Cross, 1997; Kimes & Chase, 1998). There are several conditions that facilitate the practice of revenue management in a business. First, the outputs of the business should be perishable (Weigand, 1999). For example, airlines have a perishable product (i.e., a flight on a given date and time to a given destination flies only once). Second, a business should have primarily fixed capacity (Weatherford & Bodily, 1992). For example, airlines have fixed capacity in their investment in a fleet of airplanes. Given fixed capacity, one means that any business can use to seek to improve its profitability is to increase the amount of revenue that is generated from that fixed capacity. …


Drought is the cause of adverse environmental impacts on plant growth and crop yield. In this study, the effects of water deficit on plant molecular and physiological responses were investigated using two cultivars (namely, Sardari and Zarin) of bread wheat selected based on the results of a three-year research. For the purposes of this study, they were grown in plastic pots containing field soil and maintained in growth chambers (30/20 °C, 14/10 h day/night, 60% R.H). The cultivars had been The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. Plant response to water stress was evaluated at the physiological level by determining the relative water content (RWC) as well as chlorophyll, free proline, and total protein contents following the drought treatment with subsequent re-irrigation. All the physiological parameters were found to be affected by drought stress. The Zarin cultivar exhibited a significant decrease in its RWC. Chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll in both the cultivars showed significant decreases but chlorophyll b did not exhibit any significant variation in either cultivar. The free proline content increased significantly in both cultivars such that they were both restored their normal proline contents life when irrigation was resumed after a short-term experimental drought stress. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis of leaf proteins in both control and experimental samples revealed regulating adjustments in protein contents. Modification in the expression level of the dehydrin (DHN) gene (that is, Rab17) was also analyzed by reverse transcription– polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This gene was expressed slightly in the well watered plants of the two cultivars, but the gene expression in the Sardari cultivar increased significantly after the long-term experimental drought.


ABSTRACT A two-stage sintering process was successfully used to sinter FeAl to densification levels of just above 95% at a temperature of 1300°C. In the first stage, mixed iron and aluminium powders were synthesised at 750°C via self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) to form brittle and porous Fe2Al5. Then the pellets were crushed and milled to various sizes and mixed with iron powders in the nominal composition of FeAl40 and pressurelessly sintered at a higher temperature to obtain a higher densification by taking advantage of the less violent exothermic reaction of Fe2Al5 and Fe. The intermediate and end products in SHS and sintering were characterised by SEM/EDX and XRD. The porosity level of the final FeAl40 product was controlled by the heating rate and powder size, which was also strongly influenced by the temperature, holding time and the ratio of the two powders.


We propose a novel configuration of the finite-impulse-response (FIR) filter adapted by the phase-dependent decision-directed least-mean-square (DD-LMS) algorithm in digital coherent optical receivers. Since fast carrier-phase fluctuations are removed from the error signal which updates tap coefficients of the FIR filter, we can achieve stable adaptation of filter-tap coefficients for higher-order quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) signals. Computer simulations show that our proposed scheme is much more tolerant to the phase noise and the frequency offset than the conventional DD-LMS scheme. Such theoretical predictions are also validated experimentally by using a 10-Gsymbol/s dual-polarization 16-QAM signal.


1. I have simplified the dilution method by using a stock glycerine emulsion of the virulent cord, from which the desired dilutions can be readily prepared. The proportion of glycerine should not exceed ⅕ part, if it is desired to retain the full virulence of the emulsion. 2. There is some danger of giving rabies to animals in the dilution immunization treatment, a danger which is not present in the Pasteur method. 3. The dried-cord method does not rest solely upon the principle of dilution, but is based also upon attenuation of the virus. 4. The Pasteur method being entirely free from the element of danger which pertains to the glycerine dilution method and resting upon a sounder experimental basis is the one to be preferred.


Background The UK government plans to extend the opening hours of general practices in England. The 'extended hours access scheme' pays practices for providing appointments outside core times (08:00 to 18.30, Monday to Friday) for at least 30 min per 1000 registered patients each week. Objective To determine the association between extended hours access scheme participation and patient experience. Methods Retrospective analysis of a national cross-sectional survey completed by questionnaire (General Practice Patient Survey 2013–2014); 903 357 survey respondents aged ≥18 years old and registered to 8005 general practices formed the study population. Outcome measures were satisfaction with opening hours, experience of making an appointment and overall experience (on five-level interval scales from 0 to 100). Mean differences between scheme participation groups were estimated using multilevel random-effects regression, propensity score matching and instrumental variable analysis. Results Most patients were very (37.2%) or fairly satisfied (42.7%) with the opening hours of their general practices; results were similar for experience of making an appointment and overall experience. Most general practices participated in the extended hours access scheme (73.9%). Mean differences in outcome measures between scheme participants and non-participants were positive but small across estimation methods (mean differences ≤1.79). For example, scheme participation was associated with a 1.25 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.55) increase in satisfaction with opening hours using multilevel regression; this association was slightly greater when patients could not take time off work to see a general practitioner (2.08, 95% CI 1.53 to 2.63). Conclusions Participation in the extended hours access scheme has a limited association with three patient experience measures. This questions expected impacts of current plans to extend opening hours on patient experience.


The rise of computer technology, the Internet, rapid news dissemination, multi-tasking, and social networking have wrought changes in human psychology that alter how we process news media. More specifically, news coverage of high-profile trials necessarily focuses on emotionally-overwrought, attention-grabbing information disseminated to a public having little ability to process that information critically. The public's capacity for empathy is likewise reduced, making it harder for trial processes to overcome the unfair prejudice created by the high-profile trial. Market forces magnify these changes. Free speech concerns limit the ability of the law to alter media coverage directly, and the tools available to trial judges to minimize harm to trial fairness are toothless. The usual solution has been lawyers' ethics rules designed to channel their communications with the press, particularly rules focusing on prosecutors.This piece addresses these concerns, using a recent proposed revision to the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Standards for the Prosecution Function as a jumping off point for the discussion. Those Standards, like most state ethics rules, prohibit prosecutors from making "public statements that the prosecutor reasonably should know will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing a criminal proceeding." Drawing on cognitive science, behavioral economics, rumor-transmission studies, and jury research, this article argues that a substantial likelihood of mate-rial prejudice to criminal proceedings from prosecutor statements to the press will always be present in high profile cases. Accordingly, the rules generally governing prosecutor dealings with the press, including the latest version of those rules embodied in the proposed Standards, are unrealistic. Better rules are theoretically possible. Nevertheless, this article concludes,such rules are probably not politically realistic. Accordingly, this piece recommends modest changes to the proposed standards' commentary to alert prosecutors to the true nature of the risks arising from their contact with the media and recommending prosecutor training and internal and external accountability mechanisms to improve prosecutor performance in this area.


Toward a Production Ready FBJ Process for Joining Dissimilar Combinations of GADP 1180 Steel and AA 7085-T76 Kevin Alexander Shirley School of Technology, BYU Master of Science Friction Bit Joining (FBJ) is a new technology that can be used to join dissimilar materials together. This ability makes it a good candidate for creating light weight structures for the automotive industry by combining lightweight materials such as aluminum to stronger materials like advanced high-strength steels. The automotive industry and many other industries have great interest in reducing structure weight to increase fuel efficiency. The purpose of this research is to make FBJ of GADP 1180 to AA 7085-T76 a production ready process by (1) better understanding the effects of process parameters, bit design and tool design on joint strength and reliability especially as they relate to different joint configurations; (2) determining if consecutive FBJ joints on a part will be additive in strength; (3) improving surface finish for better coating adhesion so that joints can be made to withstand extended corrosion testing; and (4) determining the failure modes and fatigue life of joint components at high and low load amplitudes. No universal parameter set for optimizing peak load for T-peel, cross tension, and lapshear tension configurations were found. Due to the extreme load conditions of T-peel and the smaller margin of safety it is better to optimize for T-peel. However, strength and reliability were still improved across the board. Cutting features and tapered shanks were found to not always be necessary. Removing cutting features from the bit design increased peak weld cycle loads, but a stiffer machine can overcome this. Consecutive FBJ joints on a part are mostly additive in nature. When the weakest joint fails, its load is distributed to the remaining joints and will limit the peak load of the whole part. If all joints are "good" then the peak load will be approximately additive. Most of the stress is localized on the side of the bit opposite of the pulling direction. Failure modes in lap-shear tend to change from weld nugget pullouts in single weld specimens to aluminum material failures in multi-weld specimens. This is because of the added stiffness that additional material and welds provide to resist coupons bending and creating a peeling action. Surface finish was improved by development of a floating carbide cutting system which cut aluminum flash as it was generated around the head of the bit. A new internal drive design provided the ability to drive bits flush with the aluminum top layer if desired with minimal reductions in strength. Flush bits provided benefits in safety, cosmetics, and coating adhesion.


The research topic arose following the author'Th observations of tutor—student interaction in the subject area of Industrial
Relations. Fellow students held hostile attitudes towards trade unions, yet the tutor was committed to the encouragement of an understanding and acceptance of trade union activities in accord with the pluralist emphasis of Industrial Relations teaching. The research project therefore seeks to establish information on management student attitudes towards industrial relations and trade unions, and to evaluate the impact of management education in changing student attitudes towards trade unions.
Some 108 current and previous students of the DM8 and 1PM courses were interviewed at the commencement, completion, or some time after completion of their courses. Additional interviews were conducted with 1PM, BIM and CNAA officials, and with IR tutors. Also participation observation was undertaken in management classes.
Firstly, the results confirm previously reported findings showing management hostility towards trade unions at a general level, while at a workplace level favourable attitudes towards trade union representatives are recorded. 1PM respondents demonstrated less hostile attitudes towards trade unions than did DM3 respondents, and this too confirms a distinction noted in previous research between the personnel and other managerial functions.
Secondly, the results indicate that students are marginally less hostile towards trade unions on completion of their management courses suggesting that management education may have an impact upon attitudes. However, appropriate post—course consolidating employment experience or experience gained in conjunction with study, particularly experience of the personnel function, is associated with a further decrease in hostile attitudes.
Additional findings extend present knowledge of the wider conceptions and characteristics, and employment and interaction patterns of managers and aspiring managers. Finally, the implications the study results have for management education in the subject area of Industrial Relations are considered, and five aspects are highlighted which may lead to more positive
attitudes towards trade unions in industrial relations students.


In his published writings, Jacques Derrida rarely concerned himself with the work of Hannah Arendt. He discusses Arendt's essays "Truth and Politics" and "Lying in Politics: Reflections on the Pentagon Papers" in "History of the Lie," and interrogates her famous statements on her relationship to the German language are interrogated alongside comments made by Rosenzweig and Levinas in a long footnote in Monolingualism of the Other.' In addition to these readings, Derrida briefly evokes Arendt's remarks on the decline of the nation-state and the rights of refugees in several analyses of hospitality and cosmopolitanism, and he speaks of her in discussions of Jankelevitch and forgiveness, as well as in remarks on the name of "democracy."2 On none of these occasions is Arendt's work submitted to the kind of scrutiny and analysis that Derrida performs on so many other philosophers and writers. The citations, when they occur, are extremely limited in their scope, and Derrida makes no attempt to draw out any implications his claims might have for Arendt's oeuvre as a whole. Arendt just is not an important figure in Derrida's thinking. One can only speculate about the reason for this lack of interest. What Derrida does say, brief as it is, suggests that he did not perceive Arendt's writings to be a rich enough resource to warrant further attention. It is only in "History of a lie" that any positive possibilities arising out of Arendt's work are proposed, and even there it reads a little half-hearted. In the other discussions Derrida quickly passes from Arendt's claims to those of others, or to broader tendencies in traditional thinking. Another explanation might be found in Derrida's avoidance of reading women, and in particular of reading women as philosophers.3 Or it could just be that constraints of time, which work against all philosophers prevented any deeper engagement. I do not want to overplay the significance of this absence of reading, claiming that it demonstrates some deep or decisive point concerning Derrida's writings as a whole, or that Derrida committed some grave error in this omission. However, I would like to suggest that even if Derrida himself did not engage extensively with Arendt's writings, there are good reasons for thinking that such an engagement would have proved more fruitful than his work might lead us to believe. At the very least, Arendt and Derrida share much in their personal and intellectual biographies. Both were Jewish with a distant relationship to their religion. Both emigrated, for different reasons, from the countries of their upbringing. Both were educated in philosophy, but had a greater influence outside of this discipline. Both enjoyed greater success and acceptance in America than in the Europe that trained them. Both addressed political questions-Arendt at every moment, Derrida more in his later writings-and in these investigations many of the same issues are discussed, including sovereignty, human rights, violence, promising, and forgiveness. And both constantly worked through an intense engagement with the philosophical tradition-their writings always refer back to traditional texts, with a view to challenging and transforming received interpretations. It is this last point that provides the impetus for this essay. That the work of both Arendt and Derrida are marked by a continuous struggle with traditional texts is no doubt due to the thinker who influenced them the strongest (another point in common), Martin Heidegger. Heidegger's "destruction" of the history of being instituted a new way of reading the history of philosophy. Both Arendt and Derrida took this seriously, and took it up, uniquely, in their inheritance of the Heideggerian legacy. In this essay I will investigate the relationship between Heidegger's thinking on the one hand, and the writings of Arendt and Derrida together on the other. Such a study would be fascinating, but it would need much more space than is permitted in an essay. …


This thesis extends existing and contributes new knowledge to current understandings of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and examines why some individuals experience more severe symptoms than others. The research comprises three studies and employed three cross-sectional samples of Australian residents who have experienced a trauma event. The first sample consists of individuals who were central to or the victim of a trauma, the second employed individuals who intervened to help another person in a trauma event, and the third consisted of individuals who, as part of their employment, intervened to aid others. Two primary hypotheses guided this research. The first predicted that individuals' peritraumatic experience, posttraumatic responses, and endorsement of PTSD symptoms would vary according to the type of involvement in trauma. The second suggested that adult attachment style, as applied as a theory of individual difference, would be associated with PTSD symptom expression. More specifically, well established robust predictors of PTSD symptoms would mediate this association through pathways unique to each attachment style. Overall, the results supported the hypotheses. PTSD symptom expression, peritraumatic distress, posttraumatic coping, resilience, and perceptions of available support varied as a function of the individual's type of involvement in the trauma. Models describing possible relationships between attachment styles and PTSD symptom expression were tested across all three samples. Within each sample, mediation and multiple mediation analyses further clarify the underlying mechanisms regarding PTSD symptom expression, and the direct and indirect effects of attachment style. Distinctive pathways were evident between PTSD symptoms and each attachment style. Overall, secure attachment appears to be a protective factor facilitating optimal peritraumatic responses, and posttraumatic behaviours during peritraumatic and posttraumatic stages of trauma exposure. In contrast, preoccupied, fearful and dismissing attachments were associated with increased PTSD symptom expression. In summary, attachment theory proved to be an exceptional theory of individual differences for understanding the underlying mechanisms associated with symptoms of PTSD.


A large body of evidence documents the educational and labor market returns to birth weight, which are reflected in investments in large social safety net programs targeting birth weight and early life health. However, there is no direct evidence on the private valuation of birth weight. In this paper we estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for birth weight in the US. Using a series of discrete choice experiments, we find that individuals are, on average, willing to pay $1.44 for each additional gram of birth weight. This marginal WTP is particularly high at low birth weights, and turns negative at higher weights. The WTP among parents is higher than among non-parents, and particularly than those who do not plan to have children. Nonetheless, a series of calculations suggest that even the parental WTP for birth weight falls short of the inferred public WTP from large social safety net programs, and is lower than the expected present value of birth weight in the labor market for a US-born child. We present a parsimonious model which is able to explain the different WTP by parental status and the discrepancy between our estimated private valuation and the returns in the labor market: Parents may underestimate the value of birth weight, opening the door for new policy interventions to increase health at birth via informational campaigns.


This work deals with the potential application of artificial neural networks to model sunshine duration in three cities in Algeria using ten input parameters. These latter are: year and month, longitude, latitude and altitude of the site, minimum, mean and maximum air temperature, wind speed and relative humidity. They were selected according to their availability in meteorological stations and based on the fact that they are considered as the most used parameters by researchers to model sunshine duration using artificial neural networks. Several network architectures were tested to choose the most accurate and simple scheme. The optimum number of layers and neurons was determined by trial and error method. The optimized network was obtained using Levenberg-Marquardt back-propagation algorithm, one hidden layer including 25 neurons with Tan-sigmoid transfer function. The model developed in this study has the ability to estimate sunshine duration with a mean absolute percentage error value equals to 2.015%, a percentage root mean square error of 2.741% and a determination coefficient of 0.9993 during test stage.


ABSTRACTThe International Organization of Standardization (ISO) has developed test protocols that quantify the physical and mechanical characteristics of wheelchair seat cushions that are considered relevant to their influence on tissue integrity (ISO16840-2). The draft standard contains a total of nine test methods, of which we have focused on four tests, namely recovery, load-deflection and hysteresis, lateral and forward stiffness, loaded contour depth and overload deflection.The first goal of this study was development of the recovery test protocol. Recovery characterizes the short-term (25sec) and long-term (20min) resilient tendencies of a cushion. The test was repeated three times on three sets of eight cushions. The same sets of cushions were tested by two other laboratories to verify protocol reproducibility. The test had high intra-lab repeatability, but low inter-lab reproducibility. The reproducibility is affected mainly due to the high sensitivity of the test. The results also suggested that the long-term recovery test be converted to a pass or fail binary test.The goal of the second part of the study was to implement these tests and to evaluate their reliability by analyzing their repeatability and ability to differentiate between the cushions. Each test was run on a set of 21 commercially available cushions. Reliability and repeatability was evaluated using the ICC (intra class correlation coefficient) and RC (repeatability coefficient). The load-deflection and hysteresis characterizes the cushions' hysteresis at 8N, 250N and 500N. The 250N value was the most reliable measure. The lateral and forward stiffness test measures the peak and 60sec force required to displace the cushion indenter by 10mm. The test showed high reliability. The loaded contour depth (LCD) and overload deflection test measures the cushions' depth of immersion in loaded (135N) and overloaded (180N) states. The LCD test was also highly reliable. However, lack of variability for the overload test suggests that it be converted into a binary test, to check if the cushion has bottomed out or not. The recovery test displayed high intra-lab repeatability, but its reliability is questionable due to its poor ability to distinguish between cushions. Overall, the test results suggest that time interval between replications should be increased to atleast 30mins to reduce the potential of a systematic trend between readings. The RC can be used as a precision statement for each test, thus giving us a baseline for acceptable variations between its replications. In order to validate these tests completely, we need to establish inter-lab reproducibility, conduct research to investigate the clinical resolution for each test and clinically validate these test parameters.


Abstract The conventional Western understanding of communication is profoundly asymmetric, biased towards a formal concept of communication as a one-way distribution of meaning from a Sender to a Receiver—the view enshrined in the Information Theory of Claude Shannon and implicit in Dawkins' theory of the meme as a semantic replicator. Rational communication in the form of science has been singularly successful in identifying the probable and predictable, and thus in revealing nature's laws. For the same reason rationality is fundamentally inadequate as the basis for a discourse with our chaotic planetary environment, where the probable and predictable are always in conflict with the improbable and unpredictable . . . a veritable lake of black swans (Taleb 2008). The paper suggests that for our species to survive in that increasingly turbid lake we will need a more inclusive understanding of communication, taking into account both rational and relational communication, both the analytic and syncretic forms of meaning. The paper argues that the emergent forms of relational meaning have the potential to offer a more effective engagement with global risk than the predictive forms of the rational.


The struggles of the Turkish people of Cyprus for their existence and human rights began immediately after the signing of the Cyprus Agreement, on 4 June 1878, between the Ottoman State and England (Britain), giving the latter the right to occupy Cyprus provisionally. These struggles accelerated following attempts by the Greek Cypriots, pampered by the British, to aspire for enosis (union with Greece), and reached the zenith after the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960. The Greek Cypriots, who believed that the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus was provisional, and dreamt of the Megali Idea (Great Ideal), in the fulfilment of Greek imperialism, prepared various secret plans and plots in order to cow down, and eliminate the Turkish Cypriots, which they began to implement in 1964. However, there were splits and divisions among them, which led to the Sampson coup d'etat in 1974. However, there were splits and divisions among them, which led to the Sampson coup d'etat in 1974, thereby causing Turkey to intervene, as one of the guarantor powers, in order to protect the Turkish Cypriots against the Greek-Cypriot plans to exterminate them. However, Western states and organisations, and particularly the European Union (EU), which admire, and are under the influence of, ancient Hellenes continued, and still continue, to recognise the government of South Cyprus as the 'legal government' of the whole island and refuse to recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. As a result, the Turkish Cypriots have been subjected to isolation, unfairly and contrary to the principles of justice. In this monograph I shall try to reveal as to how and why the EU decided, with the pressure of Greece, to admit South Cyprus to membership contrary to the principles of fairness, justice and legality.


Abstract Ecological and environmental conditions in and around cities are under pressure: transportation distances grow, protection and qualities diminish, and infrastructures (including management) get more complex, less robust and less visible & transparent, which result in a decline of sustainable commitment and behaviour of users. Yet, citizens are concerned that environmental degradation is affecting the quality of life in their neighbourhood. Resource reduction strategies and integrated waste management in close collaboration with urban planners, infrastructure developers, and representatives of key social groups is the basis to achieve environmental improvement. To do so the option of interconnection of the most important so called 'essential flows', especially waste related flows, energy, water and nutrients, at scales closer to users is argued to be necessary. This will be the guideline for urban planning based on the 'urban metabolism'. The paper will focus on the options for improving the sustainability of the urban metabolism by interconnecting these essential flows and thus closing cycles at lower scale levels within the built-up environment (decentralization). This will be done from the perspective of the 'sanitation flows', consisting of waste water and solid waste flows in residential urban areas. After a short introduction on cycles existing sanitation infrastructures and waste management will be drawn up. Subsequently future developments will be analysed and form the basis of a new approach to waste in urban residential neighbourhoods. It promotes sustainable management of the environment and its resources through a renewed focus on waste flows (mostly ignored resources) in urban neighbourhoods and local 'quality-cascading', together with niche planning to improve knowledge on the interactions between natural resources, human activities, waste and environmental impact. The approach is illustrated with two case studies.


PP33C-1256
A series of climate interruptions have been noted around the last warm period (MIS5e). Some of these are particularly conspicuous and occurred during both the deglacial as well as the glacial onset. These events are often associated with iceberg/meltwater charges into the subpolar/polar North Atlantic. A new multiproxy analysis using planktic foraminiferal abundances and SSTs, abundances of alkenone compounds and alkenone SSTs, and stable O/C isotope measurements was performed for Site 975 (Balearic Basin; Western Mediterranean). Samples covered the time from late MIS 6 to early MIS 5d with emphasis on the climate progression of the last interglacial period. A number of abrupt climate changes related to alternating influence of northern nutrient rich and southern oligotrophic water masses was revealed. Among the climate fluctuations, North Atlantic events Heinrich 11 as well as cooling events C27 – C23 could all be identified. However, in comparison to the eastern North Atlantic mid-latitude region, at Site 975 events C27 and C26 seem to be significantly more pronounced. This fact, along with evidence of a two-phase climate optimum with the SST maximum reached during its later phase, implies close similarity in climate dynamics between the Western Mediterranean and the polar Nordic Seas. It is therefore proposed that the postglacial marine development in the Nordic Seas – for instance, due to presence of winter sea ice – had a strong impact on the western Mediterranean climate via meridional atmospheric circulation patterns and temperature gradients.


Web computing is gradually shifting toward mobile devices, in which the energy budget is severely constrained. As a result, Web developers must be conscious of energy efficiency. However, current Web languages provide developers little control over energy consumption. In this paper, we take a first step toward language-level research to enable energy-efficient Web computing. Our key motivation is that mobile systems can wisely budget energy usage if informed with user quality-of-service (QoS) constraints. To do this, programmers need new abstractions. We propose two language abstractions, QoS type and QoS target, to capture two fundamental aspects of user QoS experience. We then present GreenWeb, a set of language extensions that empower developers to easily express the QoS abstractions as program annotations. As a proof of concept, we develop a GreenWeb runtime, which intelligently determines how to deliver specified user QoS expectation while minimizing energy consumption. Overall, GreenWeb shows significant energy savings (29.2% ∼ 66.0%) over Android's default Interactive governor with few QoS violations. Our work demonstrates a promising first step toward language innovations for energy-efficient Web computing.


This paper - which was selected from over 30 papers to be presented at the American Society of Comparative Law Annual Conference - will explore a critical question at the intersection of constitutional and democratic theory: Is the process of constitutional drafting and ratification important in determining whether a constitution will serve as a constraint on future government activity? Many constitutional theorists maintain that constitution-making process is critical in making a constitution "matter." They argue that the best constitution-making process is one where the people divorce constitutional drafting and ratification as much as possible from pre-existing, ordinary rules and institutions by encouraging the "people" to directly act through irregular mechanisms such as referendums and constitutional conventions. This irregular expression of popular sovereignty – what I term "popular constitution-making" – ensures that the constitution will transcend ordinary politics and therefore limit future legislative and executive action.The massive wave of constitution making in post-communist Europe and Asia in the late 1980s and early 1990s – a valuable laboratory for testing constitutional theory – suggests serious problems with this approach. First, the most successful and legitimate post-communist constitutional orders were established without engaging in popular constitution-making. Instead, these countries made wide use of ordinary political mechanisms - including parliaments - in the construction of robust constitutional orders. Second, post-communist nations that have sidelined ordinary political institutions and rules in favor of the mechanisms of popular constitution-making in creating constitutional orders have actually been far less successful in building constitutions that constrain government activity. Post-Soviet constitutional development helps explain the dangers of popular constitution-making. Russia is the paradigmatic example. After two years of parliamentary constitution-making, Russian President Yeltsin – locked in a battle with parliament to control the fate of Russia – drew on the language of popular constitution-making to sideline existing rules and institutions. After winning a referendum in which more than 50% of the voters declared their support for Yeltsin, he called an appointed constitutional convention, disbanded parliament, and dispersed the Constitution Court. He then ratified his own personally drafted authoritarian constitution. Other countries in the former Soviet Union soon followed this model. The Russian example shows how popular constitution-making can allow charismatic individuals to reassert dictatorship. In the absence of unwritten conventions or rules, the extralegal mechanisms of popular constitution-making can help charismatic leaders claim the mantle of popular legitimacy and assert dictatorship. Constitutional theorists therefore should appreciate the essential role that ordinary and pre-existing political institutions and rules – even ones tainted by association with a prior regime – can play in the construction of legitimate constitutions. Otherwise, liberal constitutional theorists risk legitimizing the creation of authoritarian constitutions.


Purpose: This paper summarises the scientific rationale supporting the need to promote healthy diet and lifestyle choices during pregnancy and describes a pilot study assessing the impact of public health messages on diet quality and lifestyle choices among a population of pregnant women.

Design/methodology/approach: 18 women (ages 21–46 years) in their second trimester of pregnancy completed an online questionnaire entitled "Your Health in Pregnancy".

Findings: Results found that knowledge of the roles of specific nutrients important in pregnancy—folic acid 89%, iron 72%, vitamin D 78%, calcium 100%—were higher than those gained for translating knowledge into practical 'food-based' skills, i.e., identifying food sources of the same (folic acid 61%, iron 83%, Vitamin D 67% and calcium 94%).

Practical implications: Women are aware of public health messages during pregnancy but are inconsistent when translating knowledge into behaviour change. Encouraging positive changes requires a greater understanding of complexities of factors which influence dietary and health choices.


As regards mine contamination, the Republic of Croatia is one of the ten most contaminated countries in the world, There are almost 1 million mines on mine suspected areas of 4000 kmz. About 500 km~ are covered with minefield, while the rest of the area is contaminated with individual explosive ordnance. Mine suspected areas and minefield are located in 14 of 2 I counties. Mine affected areas have not been used for years, they pose a huge economic problem, they obstruct the infrastructure development and reconstruction, return of displaced persons and their reinteg-ration into normal life, They also pose a significant safety problem. In particular, any activities that are carried out in the mine contaminated areas pose a significant risk to human life and to material assets. It is estimated that removing all the mines present in the Republic of Croatia would cost approximately 1,157 billion US$ and would require 10 years of intensive work. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an order of priorities for mine removal, assessing which territories offer the greatest potential benefits if the mines are removed and normal activities can be resumed thereon. Clearly, such territories should be de-contaminated first. This paper describes a model aimed at determining the objective priorities to reduce the risks stemming from mine contamination. The model is based on a combination of GIS analysis and a multicriteria method. Further, the model incorporates the views of all interested parties, i.e. the representatives, whether public or political, of the contaminated territories,


On the basis of the meticulous transcription/observation process of 'Conversation Analysis', this book observes recurrent patterns in sequences where Japanese speakers negotiate agreement and disagreement. It contributes to the growing body of research on 'interaction and grammar' by examining how linguistic recourses are utilized for constructing turns and anticipating the upcoming course of interaction. More specifically, it focuses on the recurrent use of two structurally different types of connective expressions: clause-initial connectives and clause-final connective particles. The study examines the occurrences of these causal and contrastive markers with reference to their sequential environment and the resulting interaction. While the introductory chapters situate this approach in the current literature, the main analytical chapters investigate the ways in which 'delivery of agreement', 'delivery of disagreement', and 'pursuit for agreement' are performed with the use of the different types of connective expressions. As one of the earliest conversation analytic studies of Japanese, this book also addresses methodological issues concerning cross-linguistic, cross-cultural studies of human interaction.


Background:Proximal humerus fractures are one of the commonest fractures occurring in the skeleton. They account for approximately 4 – 5% of the all fracture. The incidence of fracture of the proximal humerus is bimodal in geriatric due to osteoporosis and in adolescents due to highenergy trauma. A conservative treatment in a sling followed by functional rehabilitation under supervision yields satisfactory results in minimally displaced fractures. The proximal humerus is adapted to allow for the large range of motion of the shoulder joint. The proximal humerus consists of the humeral head, the greater, lesser tuberosities, and shaft. The region of transition between the articular cartilage and surrounding bone is defined as the anatomic neck and serves as the site of attachment of the articular capsule, whereas the region immediately inferior to the tuberosities is termed the surgical neck. The incidence of proximal humerus fractures is increasing, especially in the elderly. Proximal humeral fractures account for 4% to 5% of all fractures in adults and less than 1% of children's fractures. Approximately 3% of physeal fractures occur through the proximal humerus.Operative management can consist of closed reduction and percutaneous fixation, suture fixation, operative fixation with plate and screw construct, or intramedullary fixation. The goals of operative fixation are to restore the anatomy of the proximal humerus to allow for successful union, maximize function and early rehabilitation.The articular surface's relationship to the shaft must be restored to maximize range of motion as well as stability. The tuberosities must also be reduced to their anatomical position especially Isolated fractures of the greater tuberosity may be managed surgically even with less displacement to maximize function of the arm by re-establishing the insertions of the rotator cuff.