This study examines the influence of parenting on alcohol and drug use among teacher trainees in Nigerian universities. The sample includes students who leave home after secondary school (residential--students on campus) as well as those who continue to live at home after secondary school (non-residential). Seventy-nine residential and 124 non-residential students were sampled. The attributes for parenting in this study consisted of behavioural monitoring, involvement, and encouragement of autonomy. Non-residential students described their parents as being more involving and providing less behavioural monitoring than residential students (residential: [M.bar] = 54.35, [SD.bar] = 11.94; non-residential: [M.bar] = 57.56, [SD.bar] = 8.75; t (2.205) p = .029). Greater parental involvement was related to lower levels of alcohol use among non-residential students, but unrelated to the use of other substances. A very low relationship between parenting and alcohol or other drug use was found for residential students. Introduction Traditional psychoanalytic and neo-analytic theories suggest that healthy adjustment during adolescence is marked by a cleaving of childhood ties to the parent (Blos, 1967; Freud, 1969). In contrast, contemporary research and theory indicate that a continuing, though transformed and renegotiated, connection to parents facilitates healthy and adaptive adjustment to the challenges of leaving home to attend university (Obot, 1993a, Sullivan and Sullivan, 1980). One of the goals of university education in Nigeria is to "acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self-reliant and useful members of the society" (FME, 1998:32). Typically this transition involves a departure from home creating physical distance from family and peers, and the reciprocal need to learn how to live on one's own in a new environment, establish a new network of peer and other proximal social supports. The effect of this transition on university students has been studied from a number of different perspectives. University students have described their relationship with their parents as emotionally close and supportive and view emotional separation as dysfunctional (Kenny, 1987;). Students who believe that they have an affective bond with their parents also tend to report feeling and acting in more independent and responsible ways, suggesting that an emotional connection with parents has an important influence on how adolescents negotiate this transition and move toward adulthood. Specifically, the ability to establish emotional autonomy while remaining connected in an affectionate relationship with parents predicts healthy current adjustment, and also increases the likelihood of later healthy adjustment and development (O'Connor, Allen, Bell and Hauser, 1996). Moreover, Wintre and Jaffe (2000) found that parenting style was significantly related to university students' overall psychological well being, but was not associated with specific measures of adjustment such as academic performance. University provides an environment where alcohol is generally available despite legal age prohibitions; where most peers are drinking or are perceived to be drinking and where alcohol is available at many social events (Baer, Stacy and Larimer, 1991). It presents a period of high-risk for engaging in the abusive use of alcohol with nearly 90% of all students using alcohol (Johnston, O'Malley and Bachman, 1993). Many investigators have tried to identify the risk factors and causes of such behaviour. For example, risk factor research has explored the role of gender (Lo, 1995), family history of alcohol and drug use (Weitzman and Wechsler, 2000), and the influence of peers (Moronkola, 1995;) on university students' use of alcohol. Because the adverse consequences of drinking during university period are well documented (e.g., Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Moeykens and Castillo, 1994), a consequence of these environmental features is that drinking becomes considered "normative" behaviour and abstinence considered "deviant" behaviour (Egbochuku, 2000). …


This paper presents a new approach to the formal verification of properties of discrete control specifications given by Statecharts. Specifications for the Statechart behavior are given by temporal logic expressions for the Statechart computation tree, that is, the tree of possible sequences of Statechart configurations. To take advantage of existing model checking technology, the Statechart is converted into a finite-state representation and the Statechart specification is converted into an equivalent specification for the finite-state system. The definitions and general procedure applies for arbitrary Statechart semantics (a specific semantics results in a particular realization of the procedure). The results are illustrated with examples using the Math-Works Stateflow Toolbox (for Statecharts) and the SMV model checking program. The procedure is realized in an extension of the MATLAB sf2smv command presented in previous papers.


Well crystallized and interconnected SnO2 nanoparticles (<5 nm) were synthesized via oxidation of exfoliated SnS2 sheets. The SnO2 nanoparticles exhibit a high total faradaic efficiency (FE) of 97% towards electrochemical reduction of CO2 at −0.95 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The main product ratio of CO/HCOO− which intrinsically correlates to the surface SnOx/Sn ratio variation varies with the applied potential. Beyond CO and HCOO− products formed via the two-electron transfer pathway, hydrocarbons and oxygenates are produced. The formation of hydrocarbon (CH4) versus oxygenate (C2H5OH) depends on the choice of electrolyte (KOH vs. KHCO3), both of which can reach a maximal faradaic efficiency of 10%. The distinctive grain boundary and exposed corner/step sites in the interconnected SnO2 nanoparticles contribute to the high FE of CO2 reduction and unique selectivity.


Brucellosis can mimic several primary hematological diseases. Mild anemia and leukopenia have been frequently associated with acute brucellosis, but pancytopenia, thrombocytopenia, and hemolysis are less frequently seen. To our knowledge, brucellosis has not previously been described in association with Coombs-positive autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Here, we report a case of acute brucellosis presenting with coombs-positive autoimmune hemolytic anemia. The patient responded well to short-term pulse corticosteroid therapy followed by antibrucellosis treatment. We suggest that Brucella infection may be the probable cause of the immune hemolytic anemia in this patient. Therefore, the differential diagnosis of Coombs-positive autoimmune hemolytic anemia should include brucellosis, especially in areas where the disease is endemic.


It is natural to try to extend the results of Robertson and Seymour's Graph Minors Project to other objects. As linked tree-decompositions (LTDs) of graphs played a key role in the Graph Minors Project, establishing the existence of ltds of other objects is a useful step towards such extensions. There has been progress in this direction for both infinite graphs and matroids.  Kris and Thomas proved that infinite graphs of finite tree-width have LTDs. More recently, Geelen, Gerards and Whittle proved that matroids have linked branch-decompositions, which are similar to LTDs. These results suggest that infinite matroids of finite treewidth should have LTDs. We answer this conjecture affirmatively for the representable case. Specifically, an independence space is an infinite matroid, and a point configuration (hereafter configuration) is a represented independence space. It is shown that every configuration having tree-width has an LTD k E w (kappa element of omega) of width at most 2k. Configuration analogues for bridges of X (also called connected components modulo X) and chordality in graphs are introduced to prove this result. A correspondence is established between chordal configurations only containing subspaces of dimension at most k E w (kappa element of omega) and configuration tree-decompositions having width at most k. This correspondence is used to characterise finite-width LTDs of configurations by their local structure, enabling the proof of the existence result. The theory developed is also used to show compactness of configuration tree-width: a configuration has tree-width at most k E w (kappa element of omega) if and only if each of its finite subconfigurations has tree-width at most k E w (kappa element of omega). The existence of LTDs for configurations having finite tree-width opens the possibility of well-quasi-ordering (or even better-quasi-ordering) by minors those independence spaces representable over a fixed finite field and having bounded tree-width.


We propose a new neural network architecture and use it for the task of statement-by-statement alignment of source code and its compiled object code. Our architecture learns the alignment between the two sequences – one being the translation of the other – by mapping each statement to a context-dependent representation vector and aligning such vectors using a grid of the two sequence domains. Our experiments include short C functions, both artificial and human-written, and show that our neural network architecture is able to predict the alignment with high accuracy, outperforming known baselines. We also demonstrate that our model is general and can learn to solve graph problems such as the Traveling Salesman Problem.


In his 1973 paper, Steven Cheung discredited the "fable of the bees" by demonstrating that markets for beekeeping services exist and function well. Although economists heeded Cheung's lessons, policy makers did not. The honey program has operated for over 50 years, supporting the price of honey through a variety of mechanisms. Its effects were minor before the 1980s but then became important, with annual government expenditures near $100 million for several years. Reforms of the program in the late 1980s reduced its market effects and budget costs, returning it to its original role as a minor commodity program. Although the 1996 Farm Bill formally eliminated the honey program, it was reinstated in the 2002 Farm Bill. We measure the historical welfare effects of the program during its various incarnations, examine its frequently stated public interest rationale—the encouragement of honeybee pollination—and interpret its history in light of economic theories of regulation.


A step-by-step guide to more synthetic, holistic, and integrated urban design strategies, "Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities" is a practical manual to accomplish complex community design decisions and create more green, clean, and equitable communities.The design charrette has become an increasingly popular way to engage the public and stakeholders in public planning, and "Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities" shows how citizens and officials can use this tool to change the way they make decisions, especially when addressing issues of the sustainable community.Designed to build consensus and cooperation, a successful charrette produces a design that expresses the values and vision of the community. Patrick Condon outlines the key features of the charrette, an inclusive decision-making process that brings together citizens, designers, public officials, and developers in several days of collaborative workshops.Drawing on years of experience designing sustainable urban environments and bringing together communities for charrettes, Condon's manual provides step-by-step instructions for making this process work to everyone's benefit. He translates emerging sustainable development concepts and problem-solving theory into concrete principles in order to explain what a charrette is, how to organize one, and how to make it work to produce sustainable urban design results.


In recent years, a discourse of 'ethical artificial intelligence' has emerged and gained international traction in response to widely publicised AI failures. In Australia, the discourse around ethical AI does not accord with the reality of AI deployment in the public sector. Drawing on institutional ethnographic approaches, this paper describes the misalignments between how technology is described in government documentation, and how it is deployed in social service delivery. We argue that the propagation of ethical principles legitimates established new public management strategies, and pre-empts questions regarding the efficacy of AI development; instead positioning implementation as inevitable and, provided an ethical framework is adopted, laudable. The ethical AI discourse acknowledges, and ostensibly seeks to move past, widely reported administrative failures involving new technologies. In actuality, this discourse works to make AI implementation a reality, ethical or not.


The use of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) material is widespread although the overall amount in the mix and the plant technology vary for each country. Reusing RAP allows for potential benefits due to less material consumption and possible energy savings although the benefit greatly varies depending upon the technology adopted for recycling (hot, warm, or cold asphalt recycled mixes) and material performance during the service life. Performance of recycled asphalt, among several other factors, is strongly related to the binder characteristics which presents himself in a oxidized state due to weathering effects (UV radiation, humidity) and load-related distresses accumulated over the service life. The present research investigates the use of bio-rejuvenators to recover 100% cold RAP mix and evaluates its possible recycle as a construction material for new transport infrastructures. In particular, the rejuvenated asphalt binder was analyzed through several laboratory experimentations including: standard physical tests, rheology tests in the in-service temperature domain, fatigue resistance, and rutting potential as well as chemical characterization through infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). A multi-approach assessment was indeed found to be essential to comprehensively evaluate the "new" performance of the recycled binder. The Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV) was also adopted to simulate the in-service aging of the rejuvenated binder according to the standards and the multi-approach testing was again adopted to analyze the properties of rejuvenated binder after aging. This allowed characterizing the potential and durability of the "second-life" asphalt. Asphalt binder was extracted from RAP material following the standard centrifuge extraction and solvent recovery procedure. Preliminary analyses were conducted on the extracted oxidized binder (control binder) and the following was shown, as expected: very low penetration (5.4 dmm); very high softening point (72 °C) and dynamic viscosity; great stiffness and low phase angle value at high temperature (Dynamic Shear Rheometer - DSR analysis); brittle behavior at low temperature (Bending Beam Rheometer – BBR analysis); poor fatigue resistance (linear amplitude DSR test) regardless of the testing temperature but good resistance to rutting (multiple stress creep recovery DSR test) at high and very high temperatures; solid gel structure (microscope imaging analysis) and consequently reduced maltene phase (FTIR analysis). Several quantities of rejuvenator were cold added to 100% RAP mix and the same binder extraction process was performed. Besides the common quantity of rejuvenator-final performance approach, the rejuvenated binder was also evaluated by taking into account the contact time, which represented the time since the rejuvenator was applied to the oxidized binder, and the relative humidity of the RAP before mixing. It was found indeed that rejuvenators commonly have a differential effect depending on the "curing" time, therefore changing the physical, rheological and chemical properties of rejuvenated binder over time. Relative humidity of RAP material, essential on a plant scale where RAP is commonly open-air stored, was proved to affect with lower magnitude the properties of rejuvenated binder. The amount of rejuvenator greatly affected the final binder performance; in particular, a greater content helps in improving physical and rheological characteristics in the low-temperature domain. Fatigue damage of the binder was increased (compared to oxidized RAP binder without rejuvenator) regardless of the rejuvenator content but resistance to rutting was reduced. However, the correct proportion of rejuvenator amount depending on RAP humidity and contact time allowed for an acceptable balance of performance in the overall temperature domain. Infrared spectroscopy analysis showed the evolution of carbonyl, sulfoxide and other bands in the rejuvenated asphalt binder. The adoption of rejuvenators can be considered as an optimal way to improve the recycling of RAP and therefore increasing the amount of recycled material to be included into asphalt mixes without lowering performance and durability; this will allow for substantial environmental savings leading the way towards sustainable transport infrastructures. However, rejuvenators should be always carefully calibrated depending upon the in-service climate conditions of the recycled pavement as well as the initial RAP condition to provide the maximum benefit.


During 2007, South Africa started experiencing the Web as the rest of the world does. It was the year when bandwidth became broadly available and its cost dropped to (relatively) affordable levels. 2008 is the year when large numbers of South Africans will start using the Internet in life-altering ways. Consider that there are 780 000 broadband users in South Africa, and 550 000 South Africans are members of Facebook.


Spontaneous mirror symmetry violation is carried out in nature as the transition between the usual left (right)-handed and the mirror right (left)-handed spaces, where the same particle has the different lifetimes. As a consequence, all the equations of motion for the unified field theory of elementary particles include the mass, energy and momentum as the matrices expressing the ideas of the left- and right-handed neutrinos are of long- and short-lived objects, respectively. These ideas require in principle to go away from the chiral definitions of the structure of matter fields taking into account that the Dirac matrices come forward in the Weyl presentation as the matrices having an exact mathematical formulation but not allowing to follow the logic of a true nature of mirror symmetry including the dynamical origination of its spontaneous violation. Therefore, from the point of view of the mass, energy and momentum matrices, each of the structural contradictions between the spontaneous mirror symmetry violation and the chiral presentation of the Weyl must be interpreted as an indication to the absence in nature of a place for chirality.


Purpose of reviewThis article reviews the impact of ageing on the gastrointestinal tract, including effects on the absorption of nutrients and drugs and the gastrointestinal tract defence system against ingested pathogens. Recent findingsRecent publications support earlier observations of an age-related selective decline in gut function including changes in taste, oesophageal sphincter motility, gastric emptying, and neurons of the myenteric plexus related to gut transit which may impact the nutritional status. Ageing is also associated with structural and functional mucosal defence defects, diminished abilities to generate protective immunity, and increased incidence of inflammation and oxidative stress. A number of gastrointestinal disorders occur more frequently in the elderly population. SummaryAlterations in gut function with ageing have particular implications for oesophageal, gastric, and colonic motility. Older individuals are particularly susceptible to malnutrition, postprandial hypotension, dysphagia, constipation, and faecal incontinence. Decrease in the number of nerve cells of the myenteric plexus that impact digestive absorption and the surface area of the small intestine because of degeneration of villi may lead to blunted absorption of nutrients. Impairment of the intestinal immune system as a result of ageing, including the mucosal layer of the gastrointestinal tract, appears to be a significant contributor to the age-related increase in the incidence and severity of infections.


An outpouring of memorial tributes and public expressions of grief followed the death of the Tejana recording artist Selena Quintanilla Perez in 1995. The Latina superstar was remembered and mourned in documentaries, magazines, websites, monuments, biographies, murals, look-alike contests, musicals, drag shows, and more. Deborah Paredez explores the significance and broader meanings of this posthumous celebration of Selena, which she labels "Selenidad." She considers the performer's career and emergence as an icon within the political and cultural transformations in the United States during the 1990s, a decade that witnessed a "Latin explosion" in culture and commerce alongside a resurgence of anti-immigrant discourse and policy.

Paredez argues that Selena's death galvanized Latina/o efforts to publicly mourn collective tragedies (such as the murders of young women along the U.S.-Mexico border) and to envision a brighter future. At the same time, reactions to the star's death catalyzed political jockeying for the Latino vote and corporate attempts to corner the Latino market. Foregrounding the role of performance in the politics of remembering, Paredez unravels the cultural, political, and economic dynamics at work in specific commemorations of Selena. She analyzes Selena's final concert, the controversy surrounding the memorial erected in the star's hometown of Corpus Christi, and the political climate that served as the backdrop to the touring musicals Selena Forever and Selena: A Musical Celebration of Life . Paredez considers what "becoming" Selena meant to the young Latinas who auditioned for the biopic Selena , released in 1997, and she surveys a range of Latina/o queer engagements with Selena, including Latina lesbian readings of the star's death scene and queer Selena drag. Selenidad is a provocative exploration of how commemorations of Selena reflected and changed Latinidad.


The shale oil and gas boom in the U.S. provides a unique opportunity to study economic growth in a "boom town" environment, to derive insights about economic expansions more generally, and to obtain clean identification of the causal effects of economic growth on specific margins of business adjustment. The creation of new business establishments--separate from the expansion of existing establishments--accounts for a disproportionate share of the multi-industry employment growth sparked by the shale boom, an intuitive but not inevitable empirical result that is broadly consistent with canonical models of firm dynamics. New firms, in particular, contribute nearly half of the cumulative economic growth resulting from the shale boom.


Australia is an increasingly diverse country, with a robust history of migration which has a strong impact upon Australian values, culture and composition, particularly with respect to the contribution that has been made by of a growing proportion of Australians with non English speaking background (NESB) ancestry. People from diverse backgrounds also include people with impairment and illness, with an increasingly large number of Australians from non English speaking backgrounds with disability. Despite evidence of a strong impact of cultural and linguistic diversity on the 'face' of Australia, there remains very little data on the role of non English speaking migration in shaping contemporary Australia and Australians. While data is released through Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) surveys on select characteristics for migrants and people born in countries where English is not the primary language, the sophistication of this reporting has arguably been lacking. For example, as is discussed below, while the ABS Census of Population and Housing includes questions on ancestry, the ABS is yet to release a substantial analysis on the ancestry of Australians, and how this might shape outcomes and characteristics for different population groups. Similarly, it is fair to say that within the Australian social policy literature, there has been a lack of analysis on how culture, language and faith affect participation and socio-economic outcomes, or how and whether these circumstances change between first and second generation migrants. It is palpably apparent that in order to understand social inclusion and exclusion in Australia, cultural, linguistic and faith diversity must also be understood, yet there is scant analysis in Australia of work in this area. This report highlights issues of significance for people from NESB with disability on the basis of the currently available data. Further, it highlights areas for urgent improvement with respect to data collection and analysis. Embracing such improvements will go a long way towards assessing progress of a socially inclusive Australia, avoiding discrimination against people from NESB with disability on the basis of lack of accountability alone. Image: Monkwhy / flickr


Theory offers differing perspectives and predictions about the impact of product market competition on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using firm-level data on CSR from 2002 through 2015 and panel data on competition laws in 48 countries, we discover that intensifying competition induces firms to increase CSR activities. Analyses indicate that (a) intensifying competition spurs firms to invest more in CSR as a strategy for strengthening relationships with workers, suppliers, and customers and (b) the competition-CSR effect is stronger in economies where social norms prioritize CSR-type activities, e.g., treating others fairly, satisfying implicit agreements, protecting the environment, etc.


This paper aims to examine the Indonesian experience with two big economic crises in the past 12 years, namely the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis and the 2008/09 global economic crisis. The paper is based on secondary data analysis and a review of key literature. It has two main parts. The first part gives a theoretical explanation of the main transmission channels through which the two crises have affected the Indonesian economy. The second part is the empirical part of the paper about the impacts of the crises on such as economic growth, employment, remittances and poverty in Indonesia. One important finding from this study is that the Indonesian economy was much more resilience to the last crisis as compared to the 1997/98 crisis. During this first crisis, Indonesian economic growth was–13 percent and poverty increased significantly; whereas during the second one, Indonesia managed to keep a positive economic growth rate (though declined), and poverty kept declining.


An accurate model of the user's preferences is a crucial element of most decision support systems. It is often assumed that users have a well-defined and stable set of preferences that can be elicited through a set of questions. However, recent research has shown that people very often construct their preferences on the fly depending on the available decision options. Thus, their answers to a series of questions before seeing decision options are likely to be inconsistent and often lead to erroneous models. To accurately capture preference expressions as people make them, it is necessary for the preference model to be agile: it should allow decision making with an incomplete preference model, and it should let users add, retract or revise individual preferences easily. We show how constraint satisfaction and in particular soft constraints provide the right formalism to do this, and give examples of its implementation in a travel planning tool.


Along the far eastern margin of the Weddell Gyre is a persistent feature in the middle of the ice pack which we previously reported and called the Cosmonaut polynya. A study of polynya occurrences from 1973 to 1993 reveals that since 1986 the polynya has become more active with an average size of about 7.2 × 104 km2 and an average location at 52°E and 65°S. Satellite observations indicate that the polynya has recurred several times during winter in recent years with intervals ranging from a few days to a few weeks. The centroid of the polynya varies only slightly with each formation during the year and from one year to another, suggesting a controlling influence of the ocean and bottom topography that may be initially induced by wind. The daily time series indicates two primary modes of formation: one that is initiated in the early winter during a storm at a site usually preceded by an embayment of the ice edge and another that occurs during midwinter often preceded by a coastal polynya event adjacent to Cape Ann. The Cosmonaut polynya region is characterized in this study by compression of the westward flowing coastal current and the eastward flowing southern edge of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Following the principle of conservation of potential vorticity, vertical stretching of the water column would ensue, enhancing upwelling. Such a process accelerates the injection of relatively warm salty deep water into the surface layer, inhibiting sea ice growth and causing the polynya formation. This theory appears to explain the general behavior of the polynya in terms of frequency, duration, size, and location.


Background: It has been shown that conscious awareness of an inducing grapheme is necessary for synesthetic color experience (Mattingley et al., 2001; Rich & Mattingley, 2005). However, whether grapheme recognition should precede synesthetic color perception has not been addressed. Using particular grapheme pairs that entail ambiguous recognition when rotated, i.e., W-M or 6-9, we investigated the temporal relationship between grapheme recognition and synesthetic color perception. Experiment 1: In 2 separate blocks of trials, 9 synesthetes observed either the letter W(M) or the digit 6(9) followed by a pattern mask. The presented graphemes were in one of seven different angles between 0 and 180 degrees. Observers responded by pressing one of two keyboard buttons indicating the perceived identity of the grapheme in the grapheme recognition task (e.g., W or M) or the experienced synesthetic color (e.g., purple or green for SK) in the synesthetic color task. For the most synesthetes tested, reaction time(RT) was slower in the synesthetic color task than in the grapheme recognition task. Experiment 2: In 2 separate blocks of trials, a subset of synesthetes who participated in Experiment 1 observed either the letter or the digit rotating in clockwise or counterclockwise direction. The initial angle of the grapheme was varied. Observers responded by pressing a button indicating the moment the grapheme changes its identity (e.g., from W to M or from M to W) or the moment the experienced synesthetic color changes (e.g., from purple to green or from green to purple for SK). For all the synesthetes tested, the pattern of results shown by perceptual latency in Experiment 2 was parallel to that shown by RT in Experiment 1. To further investigate whether grapheme familiarity influences the microgenesis of synesthetic color experiences, we're now testing Korean synesthetes who see colors on both alphanumeric and Korean characters


In semi-nomadic professions such as medicine, practitioners move through office buildings carrying personal computing and communication devices. These practitioners make use of fixed computing and communication resources in the rooms they visit. Organizations have strong financial incentives to help their mobile professionals find each other, communicate effectively, and make efficient use of the infrastructure. The challenge is to provide the desired functionality in a cost-effective manner without requiring special hardware on the mobile devices. Our solution consists of a standards-based voice, video, and instant messaging communication system integrated with a location tracking system. Our location tracking system is a low-cost scanning network that monitors the wireless network transmissions from the mobile devices and uses that information to identify and track the mobile clients. This paper describes (1) the architecture, implementation, and performance tradeoffs for a low-cost sensor network for live tracking of 802.11 wireless clients in an office building, and (2) the integration of the location tracking data with a standards-based SIP voice/video/presence communication infrastructure. This architecture requires no special client hardware or software. This system has been deployed and tested both in the laboratory and at two conferences.


The detection of gravity (g) modes of solar oscillations is important for probing the physical conditions in the Sun's energy-generating core. We have developed a new method of spatial masks optimized to reveal solar g-modes of angular degree l = 1-3 and applied it to Michelson Doppler Imager data in the frequency range of 50-500 μHz. These masks take into account the horizontal component of g-mode velocity eigenfunctions and the variations in the level of noise across the solar disk and adjust for the time-dependent mode projection properties caused by the inclination of the Sun's axis of rotation. They allow us to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio in the oscillation power spectra for potential g-modes of various angular order and degree. The peaks in the resulting spectra are analyzed in terms of their instrumental origin, long-term stability, and correspondence to the theoretically predicted g-mode spectrum. As a consequence of failing to detect any g-mode candidates, new upper limits for the surface amplitude of g-modes are obtained. The lowest upper limits in the range of 5-6 mm s-1 are found for sectorial g-modes (l = m). These limits are an order of magnitude higher than the theoretical prediction of Kumar et al. in 1996.


The success of faculty members of medical sciences universities to promote higher ranks is through long-term evaluation of four educational, research, executive, and cultural performances them. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in non-systematic review form in 2016 to under title of pathology of faculty members' rank promotion in universities and higher education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran.It was conducted based on views of experts and searching the international databases such as Thomson Reuters, Scopus, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Iranian databases such as Magiran, SID, Iranmedex. Database without language restriction, since 2000 sources, with the MeSH term "Faculty promotion". At first, in the initial search,188 articles were found, and finally, 21 of them which were related to the subject of this research were used.The promotion indicators of faculty members to ranks of assistant professor, associate professor and full professor are based on regulations of faculty member promotion. Paper-orientation and lack of attention to educational activities, the lack of appropriate quality and quantity indicators to assess the four activities of promotion, subjectivity of some promotion indicators, lack of transparent and fair promotion practices, heterogeneous processes and lack of expertized forces in promotion committees in some universities, lack of using promotion automation system in some universities, prolonged promotion process, unnecessary bureaucratic requirements, adding cultural Article in faculty member promotion since 2011 without covering all cultural activities examples are considered as major problems in faculty member promotion process.


In the preliminary design of missile systems it is necessary to consider the weight of the individual components which comprise the missile. The usual procedure in weight approximation is to consider that an article is composed of small regular-shaped bits, each of whose weights is easily found and whose sum approximates the weight of the total article. When the component is such an irregular shape that a simple approximation cannot be made, or where the number of digital operations is excessive, the estimation of its weight becomes a tedious procedure. In this report, a method is derived for approximating the structural weight of such an article, namely, the divergent section of a bell-shaped nozzle for a rocket motor.


In this provocative book, two leading law professors challenge the existing campaign reform agenda and present a new initiative that avoids the mistakes of the past. Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres build on the example of the secret ballot and propose a system of "secret donation booths" for campaign contributions. They unveil a plan in which the government provides each voter with a special credit card account containing fifty "Patriot dollars" for presidential elections. To use this money, citizens go to their local ATM machine and anonymously send their Patriot dollars to their favorite candidates or political organizations. Americans are free to make additional contributions, but they must also give these gifts anonymously. Because candidates cannot identify who provided the funds, it will be much harder for big contributors to buy political influence. And the need for politicians to compete for the Patriot dollars will give much more power to the people. Ackerman and Ayres work out the operating details of their plan, anticipate problems, design safeguards, suggest overseers, and show how their proposals satisfy the most stringent constitutional requirements. They conclude with a model statute that could serve as the basis of a serious congressional effort to restore Americans' faith in democratic politics.


This thesis focuses on the social organisation of advice, as it unfolds in interactions between mothers and their young adult daughters on the telephone. The analysis is based on a corpus of 51 telephone calls from 5 different families. Advice giving is studied here using the methods of conversation analysis and discursive psychology. The main interest has been to consider the dimensions that are relevant to the potentially tricky action of advice giving, building on the dimensions of normativity and knowledge asymmetry that have already been identified in the literature. The less strictly institutionalised context studied here provides a relatively new arena for considering the array of issues that are relevant to advice giving. Indeed, this has provided a broad scope for specifying how recipiency is brought off in advice giving sequences and how the position of advice recipient is managed.

 The analysis begins by considering the different forms of advice that were found in the data and their affordances in terms of the recipient s next turn. Contingency is identified as an important dimension in advice giving and a range of resources are identified which build contingency into the advice in various ways and which provide the recipient with different degrees of optionality when responding to advice. The thesis then goes on to consider how recipients respond to advice and the sorts of issues that make relevant one response type over another. The analysis identifies the importance of affiliation and alignment when considering different types of advice response. Furthermore, it is shown that morality, activity type, and alignment to the recipient s position, are important features of why a particular response type is chosen over another. The final analytic chapter then considers how the potentially tricky action of advice giving is made relevant in the first place. It is shown that the choice between different forms of advice is related to local issues of entitlement and contingency. In considering these different components to advice giving, the analysis explicates an array of important issues in advice giving sequences including: knowledge asymmetry, normativity, entitlement, contingency, affiliation, alignment and morality as well as considering evidence to suggest that advice is a dispreferred action. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for studying advice and promoting advice acceptance, as well as considering how we can begin to see relationality being constituted.


Droplet-based single cell RNA-seq has emerged as a powerful technique for massively parallel cellular profiling. While these approaches offer the exciting promise to deconvolute cellular heterogeneity in diseased tissues, the lack of cost-effective, reliable, and user-friendly instrumentation has hindered widespread adoption of droplet microfluidic techniques. To address this, we have developed a microfluidic control instrument that can be easily assembled from 3D printed parts and commercially available components costing approximately $540. We adapted this instrument for massively parallel scRNA-seq and deployed it in a clinical environment to perform single cell transcriptome profiling of disaggregated synovial tissue from a rheumatoid arthritis patient. We sequenced 8,716 single cells from a synovectomy, revealing 16 transcriptomically distinct clusters. These encompass a comprehensive and unbiased characterization of the autoimmune infiltrate, including inflammatory T and NK subsets that contribute to disease biology. Additionally, we identified fibroblast subpopulations that are demarcated via THY1 (CD90) and CD55 expression. Further experiments confirm that these represent synovial fibroblasts residing within the synovial intimal lining and subintimal lining, respectively, each under the influence of differing microenvironments. We envision that this instrument will have broad utility in basic and clinical settings, enabling low-cost and routine application of microfluidic techniques, and in particular single-cell transcriptome profiling.


The attempt to study if scuba produces positive pro-environmental behaviour, used the theory of planned behaviour to build a new model to observe variables capable to explain possible reduction of plastic and food waste in the household. Previous studies have recognised subjective norms as giving little contribution to recycling process and waste prevention control; as a consequence the proposed model excludes such variable, but introduces scuba diving, awareness and demographic variables to register different behaviours adopted by divers and non-divers. A questionnaire was developed to assess 181 U.S. divers regarding their household practices for plastic and food waste production, and two-step cluster analysis was used to observe how variables can relate to each other. Although clusters containing values for environmental awareness, attitude toward the behaviour and perceived behaviour control can be used as important combination to predict for pro-environmental behaviour, the fact of being a certified scuba diver is not significant for environmental behavioural. However, it definitely plays an important role in raising awareness of and observing the impacts on the reef. Thus, scuba diving is only characterized as a good vehicle for promoting good environmental practices, motivating people to rethink their attitudes toward their behaviour in the household.


This short paper
presents a case report on detecting hijacked journals. Towards identification
of a fake journal website and preventing a hijacked paper, we can use different
tools including Google Scholar (an altmetric tool), Web of Science (WoS) and
Scopus (both as scientometric databases) to distinguish a fake
website from a legal journal website. Our evaluation shows that analysis of a
doubtful website for a targeted journal based on Google Scholar is not reliable.
In fact, the use of scientometric tools for tracking prior publications of the
targeted journal is compulsory. Another result of this case study is that
in some uncommon cases, fake websites may sometimes convince a scientometric database
in order to be partially indexed along with an abstracting of their
hijacked papers while these websites steal identity of the legal journals.
Therefore as a results, we should check both of WoS and Scopus
for verifying a fake website at the same time to obtain more
reliability.


The work presented in this thesis has been devoted to the investigation of new
schemes for beam steering and high-intense electromagnetic radiation generation through
coherent interactions of charged particle beams with crystals. A series of experiments was
carried out in two different laboratories, i.e., the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN
in Geneve and the MAinzer MIkrotron (MAMI) of the University of Mainz in Germany, by
different international and national collaborations, namely the UA9 experiment., the
European CUTE project and the INFN COHERENT and ICE-RAD experiments. The
experimental data have been analysed and critically compared with simulations.
First of all, the possibility of combining the efficient deflection and the intense
electromagnetic radiation production of ultrarelativistic electrons through channeling or
volume reflection in bent silicon crystals was investigated. Interesting results were
obtained in a wide range of beam energies, spanning from 0.855 GeV available at MAMI
to hundreds of GeV accessible at the H4 extracted beamline of SPS. It has been
demonstrated the possibility to use bent crystals for efficient deflection of electron beams
in the subGeV energy range. This range of energies was still unexplored due to the lack of
properly sized bent crystal for negative beams steering. Secondly, it has been shown that
the radiation accompanying single (VR) and multiple (MVROC) volume reflection in a bent
crystal has peculiar characteristics, such as higher intensity than for bremsstrahlung in an
amorphous material and a wide angular acceptance, that make this kind of radiation quite
interesting for applications. On the very high-energy side, crystal-aided collimation through
radiation accompanying VR and MVROC has been proposed for the future electronpositron
colliders, e.g., the International Linear Collider. On the other hand, in the subGeVGeV
energy range, which is accessible by most electron accelerators worldwide, the
radiation accompanying VR can be exploited as an high-intensity X- or γ-sourse with poor
emittance beams.
In addition to the studies carried out with electrons, the investigation of new
schemes for manipulation of charged beams trajectories was carried out at the H8
beamline of SPS with the usage of 400 GeV/c protons. Firstly, a periodically bent crystal
was realized via the superficial grooving method and tested at the H8 line. The
effectiveness of this method in achieving perfectly periodic structures was demonstrated.
On the strength of these results, it has been proposed to test the crystal sample as a
positron-based crystalline undulator in the energy range of 10-20 GeV, as a source of
intense MeV photons. Finally, it has been experimentally demonstrated that even a
straight crystal, i.e., a crystal mirror, may be used for the steering of ultrarelativistic protons
in place of a bent crystal. Unlike the traditional scheme relying on mm-long curved
crystals, particle mirroring enables beam steering in high-energy accelerators via
interactions with μm-thin straight crystal. The main advantage of mirroring is the interaction
with a minimal amount of material along the beam, thereby decreasing unwanted nuclear
interactions.
Summarizing, all the experimental studies presented in this thesis lead us to
consider crystals, either bent or unbent, as reliable tools in particle accelerator physics for
different applications within a wide energy range.


The free-electron laser (FEL) amplification mechanism is discussed, including the influence of the electron beam quality (energy speed, emittance, stability) on the FEL performance. Considerations regarding the choice of the electron accelerator are presented and some characteristic properties of the laser radiation are discussed. An overview of FEL facilities for the infrared spectral region, which are being designed and built worldwide, is given.


International evidence shows the wide economic benefits of inflation targeting, says a ground-breaking C.D. Howe Institute report. In "Mounting Evidence: Findings from Natural Experiments in Inflation Targeting," author Michael Parkin shows how the evidence broadly supports the merits of inflation targeting as a monetary policy tool for central banks that have clear independence.


It is shown that a certain simple imbedding T of the ordinary two-dimensional torus in C 2 contains a poly normally convex compact ^-neighborhood of each of its points, but T is not holomorphically convex in even the weakest presently accepted sense. This example illustrates some of the limitations of a theory of lower dimensional sets in Cn. In particular, it shows the difficulty of developing a theory based on


Ethnology museums are developing and spreading at a striking rate in Quebec and in the test of Canada, in First World countries as well as in the Third World. In Canada, the number of museums has increased considerably over the last 30 years. There are currently over 1,300 museums in the country visited by some 26 million people annually. The temples of post-modern times, museums pop up as churches once did in our 19th century cities and countryside. States, provinces, regions, cities and even the smallest towns want a museum to call their own in the hope that it will help enhance their historical memory, negotiate new alliances and affirm their identity, in short, secure their existence in the world. Justas in another era a village or an urban neighborhood without a church was marginal in a community of believers, today a population without a museum is deprived of the sense of cultural belonging created by a public place. In other words, existing beyond the reaches of tourist-inspired cultural awareness is tantamount to existing without recognition. In response to this social demand, governments create subsidy programs to fund the growing number of museums, and universities develop training programs in museology to provide the needed skilled labor. More and more often, ethnology students are turning to museums as a principal outlet on the job market. How can this dizzying growth of museums be explained? What is the meaning of the institution's importance in the new political economy of our post-modern and post-colonial world? This generally positive assessment should not conceal the serious problems that ethnology museums are currently experiencing. Curators warn of the difficulties that lie ahead. Some wonder whether ethnology museums have already seen their golden age and whether they will not disappear altogether (Halpin and Ames 1999; Hudson 1991). Others think that ethnology museums have become simply places of memory, void of meaning and out of sync with their initial mission; therefore it would be better to burn them all down (Galinier and Molinie 1998; Gonseth, Hainard and Kaehr 2002; Jamin 1998). This is especially the case for ethnology museums of the old colonial powers of Europe -- France, England, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal -- which sought to solidify and reinforce links with their colonies. With the decline of colonialism, these institutions have become simple warehouses for collections of assorted objects stripped of all representational power and remain of little interest to anyone. On the other hand, museums in countries born of colonization -- nations where heirs of the colonizers and the colonized still live side by side -- suffer the ill effects of there being too many contending interests and the negative impact of disputes of all kinds. In Canada, as in the United States and Australia, Aboriginal peoples call the authority of museums into question, demanding a say in the presentation of native objects, and sometimes the repatriation of their collections (Jones 1996; Mauze 2001; Parezo 1998; Peers 2000; Simpson 1996; Dubuc 2002). In these "new" countries, members of so-called cultural communities also want access to museums in order to be recognized and appreciated within the heart of the nation. How can the discourse of the colonizer and the colonized or the viewpoint of the ethnographer and the "ethnographed" coexist in one space? In our increasingly pluralistic societies, how can national museums bring together the inevitably divergent interests of the different groups that make up the nation? Not all ethnographic museums are cast from the same mould. The great diversity of their missions, and of their challenges, must be acknowledged. A first distinction can be made between institutions that are often labelled ethnology museums, containing collections derived from colonized peoples and treating their subjects as the "Distant Other," and those popular culture museums concerned with the "Near Other" of regional or national cultures. …


In this tutorial we provide a methodology for developing large scale applications with the ECLiPSe system. This methodology follows a top-down approach from the original problem specification to detailed implementation aspects of the resulting code. We concentrate on general design and programming aspects, and largely ignore specific problem solving techniques, which can be found in other tutorials. This current report is intended for programmers developing applications with ECLiPSe as well as those tasked with the maintenance of such programs. This tutorial is based on an earlier version restricted to internal Parc Technologies use, and contains numerous corrections and improvements suggested by the ECLiPSe team.


We investigate the way in which errors arise in photocount-limited, coherent imaging systems and how such errors fundamentally limit the quality of images formed. To reflect the best possible imaging performance with a given optical system, we utilize a continuous-photodetection model to describe the operation of the image-recording mechanism, in which the image-plane camera records the exact x and y positions of each photodetection event produced by the detected coherent field intensity. Using this continuous-detection model and well-known statistical properties of. laser-speckle patterns, we compute the signal-to-noise ratio of the complex Fourier amplitudes estimated by the detected coherent image. With the help of computer-simulated coherent imagery, we illustrate how this expression can be used to characterize the effective resolving power of multiple-snapshot coherent imaging systems.


Professional football is one of the most popular television genres worldwide, attracting the support of millions of fans, and the sponsorship of powerful companies. In A Game of Two Halves, Cornel Sandvoss considers football's relationship with television, its links with trans-national capitalism, and the importance of football fandom in forming social and cultural identities around the globe, to present the phenomenon of football as a reflection postmodern culture and globalization. Through a series of case studies, based in ethnographic audience research, Sandvoss explores the motivations and pleasures of football fans, the intense bond formed between supporters and their clubs, the implications of football consumption on political discourse and citizenship, football as a factor of cultural globalization, and the pivotal role of football and television in a postmodern cultural order.


Author(s): Dore, Olivier; Werner, Michael W; Ashby, Matt; Banerjee, Pancha; Battaglia, Nick; Bauer, James; Benjamin, Robert A; Bleem, Lindsey E; Bock, Jamie; Boogert, Adwin; Bull, Philip; Capak, Peter; Chang, Tzu-Ching; Chiar, Jean; Cohen, Seth H; Cooray, Asantha; Crill, Brendan; Cushing, Michael; Putter, Roland de; Driver, Simon P; Eifler, Tim; Feng, Chang; Ferraro, Simone; Finkbeiner, Douglas; Gaudi, B Scott; Greene, Tom; Hillenbrand, Lynne; Hoflich, Peter A; Hsiao, Eric; Huffenberger, Kevin; Jansen, Rolf A; Jeong, Woong-Seob; Joshi, Bhavin; Kim, Duho; Kim, Minjin; Kirkpatrick, J Davy; Korngut, Phil; Krause, Elisabeth; Kriek, Mariska; Leistedt, Boris; Li, Aigen; Lisse, Carey M; Mauskopf, Phil; Mechtley, Matt; Melnick, Gary; Mohr, Joseph; Murphy, Jeremiah; Neben, Abraham; Neufeld, David; Nguyen, Hien; Pierpaoli, Elena; Pyo, Jeonghyun; Rhodes, Jason; Sandstrom, Karin; Schaan, Emmanuel; Schlaufman, Kevin C; Silverman, John; Su, Kate; Stassun, Keivan; Stevens, Daniel; Strauss, Michael A; Tielens, Xander; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Tolls, Volker; Unwin, Stephen; Viero, Marco; Windhorst, Rogier A; Zemcov, Michael | Abstract: SPHEREx is a proposed SMEX mission selected for Phase A. SPHEREx will carry out the first all-sky spectral survey and provide for every 6.2" pixel a spectra between 0.75 and 4.18 $\mu$m [with R$\sim$41.4] and 4.18 and 5.00 $\mu$m [with R$\sim$135]. The SPHEREx team has proposed three specific science investigations to be carried out with this unique data set: cosmic inflation, interstellar and circumstellar ices, and the extra-galactic background light. It is readily apparent, however, that many other questions in astrophysics and planetary sciences could be addressed with the SPHEREx data. The SPHEREx team convened a community workshop in February 2016, with the intent of enlisting the aid of a larger group of scientists in defining these questions. This paper summarizes the rich and varied menu of investigations that was laid out. It includes studies of the composition of main belt and Trojan/Greek asteroids; mapping the zodiacal light with unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution; identifying and studying very low-metallicity stars; improving stellar parameters in order to better characterize transiting exoplanets; studying aliphatic and aromatic carbon-bearing molecules in the interstellar medium; mapping star formation rates in nearby galaxies; determining the redshift of clusters of galaxies; identifying high redshift quasars over the full sky; and providing a NIR spectrum for most eROSITA X-ray sources. All of these investigations, and others not listed here, can be carried out with the nominal all-sky spectra to be produced by SPHEREx. In addition, the workshop defined enhanced data products and user tools which would facilitate some of these scientific studies. Finally, the workshop noted the high degrees of synergy between SPHEREx and a number of other current or forthcoming programs, including JWST, WFIRST, Euclid, GAIA, K2/Kepler, TESS, eROSITA and LSST.


Abstract. In this paper we describe how recent high-resolution digital elevation
models (DEMs) can be used to extract glacier surface DEMs from old aerial
photographs and to evaluate the uncertainty of the mass balance record
derived from the DEMs. We present a case study for Drangajokull ice cap,
NW Iceland. This ice cap covered an area of 144 km2 when it was
surveyed with airborne lidar in 2011. Aerial photographs spanning all or
most of the ice cap are available from survey flights in 1946, 1960, 1975,
1985, 1994 and 2005. All ground control points used to constrain the
orientation of the aerial photographs were obtained from the high-resolution
lidar DEM. The lidar DEM was also used to estimate errors of the extracted
photogrammetric DEMs in ice- and snow-free areas, at nunataks and outside the
glacier margin. The derived errors of each DEM were used to constrain a
spherical semivariogram model, which along with the derived errors in ice- and snow-free areas were used as inputs into 1000 sequential Gaussian
simulations (SGSims). The simulations were used to estimate the possible bias
in the entire glaciated part of the DEM and the 95 % confidence level of
this bias. This results in bias correction varying in magnitude between 0.03 m (in 1975) and 1.66 m (in 1946) and uncertainty
values between ±0.21 m (in 2005) and ±1.58 m (in 1946). Error estimation methods based on
more simple proxies would typically yield 2–4 times larger error estimates.
The aerial photographs used were acquired between late June and early
October. An additional seasonal bias correction was therefore estimated using a
degree-day model to obtain the volume change between the start of 2
glaciological years (1 October).
This correction was largest for the 1960 DEM, corresponding to an average elevation change of −3.5 m or approx. three-quarters of the volume change between the 1960 and the 1975 DEMs.
The total uncertainty of the derived mass balance record is dominated by uncertainty in the volume changes caused by uncertainties of the SGSim bias correction,
the seasonal bias correction and the interpolation of glacier surface where data are lacking.
The record shows a glacier-wide mass balance rate of Ḃ  = −0.26 ± 0.04 m w.e. a−1 for the entire study period
(1946–2011). We observe significant decadal variability including periods of
mass gain, peaking in 1985–1994 with Ḃ  = 0.27 ± 0.11 m w.e. a−1. There is a striking
difference when Ḃ  is calculated
separately for the western and eastern halves of Drangajokull, with a
reduction of eastern part on average  ∼  3 times faster than the
western part. Our study emphasizes the need for applying rigorous
geostatistical methods for obtaining uncertainty estimates of geodetic mass
balance, the importance of seasonal corrections of DEMs from glaciers with
high mass turnover and the risk of extrapolating mass balance record from
one glacier to another even over short distances.


What are the President's war-making powers? This essay, a brief reply to an article by Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith, contends that the answer lies in administrative law, at least in the first instance. The President's authority often depends on what Congress has said, and under established principles, the President has a great deal of power to interpret ambiguities in congressional enactments - in war no less than in peace. The principal qualifications involve interpretive principles, also found in administrative law, that call for a narrow construction of presidential authority to invade constitutionally sensitive interests. The relevant arguments are illustrated throughout with reference to the 2001 authorization for the use of military force in response to the attacks of September 11; the authorization may or may not include the power to make war on Iraq and Afghanistan, to use force against those suspected of giving financial aid to terrorist organizations, and to detain American citizens.


We examine the effect of the interaction between resource rents and democracy on corruption and internal conflict for a panel of 29 Sub-Saharan African countries during the period from 1985 to 2007. We find that higher resource rents lead to more corruption and that the effect is significantly stronger in less democratic countries. Surprisingly, we also find that higher resource rents lead to fewer internal conflicts and that less democratic countries face not a higher, but a lower likelihood of conflicts following an increase in resource rents. We argue that these findings can be explained by the ability of the political elites in less democratic countries to more effectively quell the masses through redistribution of rents to the public. We support our argument by documenting that higher resource rents lead to more (less) government spending in less (more) democratic countries. Our findings suggest that the mechanisms through which resource rents affect corruption cannot be separated from political systems. Copyright 2013 , Oxford University Press.


Objective To demonstrate the effect of Pioglitazone hydrochloride on spatial memory ability in diabetes rats via improving the level of hippocampal cholinergic neurostimulating peptide (HCNP) in the hippocampus tissues. Methods Twenty-four 12-week old male SD rats were equally randomized into control group (Con),diabetes group (DM),DM+Pioglitazone hydrochloride treatment group (DP).Rats of the DM and DP groups were fed with high fat diet,and rats of the DP group were also performed intragastric administration of 10 mg/(kg· d) Pioglitazone hydrochloride daily.Morris water maze test was performed on the rats enjoyed successful model making to detect their spatial memory ability; the level of HCNP precursor protein (HCNP-pp) was measured by Western blotting so as to measure the level of HCNP; and the relative mRNA contents of HCNP-pp, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT),muscarinic receptor 1 (M1R) and α7 type nicotinic receptor (α7NR) genes were measured by reverse transcription PCR. Results The escape latency in rats of the con and DP groups was significantly shortened as compared with that in the DM group (P<0.05).As compared with that in the Con and DP groups, the relative amount of HCNP-pp in DM group was higher in protein and mRNA levels (P<0.05); however,the relative amount of HCNP in the DM group was obviously lower than that in the Con and DP groups (P<0.05).And the mRNA ChAT,M1R and α7NR levels in the Con and DP groups were significantly higher than those in the DM group (P<0.05). Conclusion Pioglitazone hydrochloride can accelerate the lysis of HCNP-pp in the hippocampus to induce the increased level of HCNP,further making the cholinergic nerve receptors activation,which maybe one of the mechanisms to improve the ability of spatial memory in eldly rats with type 2 diabetes.

Key words:
Pioglitazone hydrochloride; Diabetes mellitus; Spatial memory; Hippocampal cholinergic neurostimulating peptide


A numerical modeling approach was developed to predict the dielectric properties of heterogeneous particulate materials with arbitrary microstructures. To test the method, simulation and experimental data were acquired for the effective permittivities of various glass sphere suspensions. Both ordered lattices and random microstructures of up to 3600 spheres were modeled for volume fractions of 0.025-0.60. The electric fields in the suspensions were computed using an iterative multipole method that included multiple-scattering effects. The effective permittivities were obtained by averaging the electric field and electric displacement over a representative volume. Frequency spectra, electric field images, and single-scattering results (i.e., no particle-particle interactions) were additionally generated. The results were compared to experimental data for random close-packed microstructures, to effective-medium approximations, to exact lattice models, and to a perturbation expansion model. The comparisons showed the iterative models agreed with the exact lattice models to within 3.31% for crystalline suspensions. Results for random suspensions agreed with the perturbation expansion model to within 1.76% for volume fractions up to 0.50. Single-scattering models additionally predicted permittivities for the microstructures as well as or better than the Maxwell Garnett approximation, suggesting microstructural effects and multipole moments higher than the dipole are required for more accurate statistical prediction of effective permittivities. The effective permittivities, convergence behavior, and dispersion behavior of the simulations were sensitive to both microstructure and the extent of multiple scattering included in the models, illustrating how the macroscopic properties depend significantly on the microscopic details of the interactions. In contrast to other approaches, the iterative multipole method can model both the frequency and spatial dependencies of the electromagnetic properties of particulate materials, as well as a wide variety of microstructures, including polydisperse and hierarchical systems.


The document describes a network design architecture for routing
packets via different paths available in the network based on
application port number. Primarily, this is targeted for Enterprise
customers who have built up redundancy at their WAN edge but are
suffering from a congested primary link whilst the secondary is idle.
The objective of this architecture is as follows 1) Offload bulky
application on to the secondary link 2) Achieve the above with out
introducing asymmetric routing in the network


Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be described as cautious and hesitant, manifesting an excessive indecisiveness that hinders efficient decision making. However, excess caution in decision making may also lead to better performance in specific situations where the cost of extended deliberation is small. We compared 16 juvenile OCD patients with 16 matched healthy controls whilst they performed a sequential information gathering task under different external cost conditions. We found that patients with OCD outperformed healthy controls, winning significantly more points. The groups also differed in the number of draws required prior to committing to a decision, but not in decision accuracy. A novel Bayesian computational model revealed that subjective sampling costs arose as a non-linear function of sampling, closely resembling an escalating urgency signal. Group difference in performance was best explained by a later emergence of these subjective costs in the OCD group, also evident in an increased decision threshold. Our findings present a novel computational model and suggest that enhanced information gathering in OCD can be accounted for by a higher decision threshold arising out of an altered perception of costs that, in some specific contexts, may be advantageous.


Previous security research efforts orbiting around graphs have been exclusively focusing on either (de-)anonymizing the graphs or understanding the security and privacy issues of graph neural networks. Little attention has been paid to understand the privacy risks of integrating the output from graph embedding models (e.g., node embeddings) with complex downstream machine learning pipelines. In this paper, we fill this gap and propose a novel model-agnostic graph recovery attack that exploits the implicit graph structural information preserved in the embeddings of graph nodes. We show that an adversary can recover edges with decent accuracy by only gaining access to the node embedding matrix of the original graph without interactions with the node embedding models. We demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of our graph recovery attack through extensive experiments.


The "War on Drugs" has been a central concern of the justice system for the more than thirty years I have served as a federal district court judge in New York City. At the start of my tenure, it was a learning experience for me, as I was introduced to an industry with which I was unfamiliar, beyond the well-publicized stories of busts, codes, and conspiracies. In 1989, after more than ten years of accumulating doubts about the efficacy of drug prosecutions, the fairness of the harsh sentences imposed, and the social and economic forces underlying drug-related crime, I publicly questioned the validity of the War on Drugs. In December of 1989, I spoke out about the need for reform. (1) I had my fifteen minutes of public attention and reiterated my position in various fora. (2) My comments emphasized the absence of evidence of the War's success, the massive size of the underground economy sustained by criminalization, and the need to adopt a therapeutic, rather than punitive, approach toward drug addiction. My primary recommendation was that Congress eliminate the federal criminal prohibition on drugs and regulate drug sales similarly to those of alcohol. The subsequent twenty years have served only to fortify and amplify my conclusions. While there is a vast amount of data indicating the toll that the War on Drugs itself has taken on our society, evidence regarding the social and economic benefits of the present system remains scant. If all the relevant facts can be determined and disseminated through a comprehensive, high-level, well-funded study of the costs and benefits of the drug war, common sense, social policy, and public opinion will dictate an end to criminalization and the adoption of a public health approach to drugs. (3) Indeed, as 2008 marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, parallels must be drawn between the present economic crisis and the bleak financial situation facing the nation during the final years of Prohibition. (4) "Change is the law of life," (5) and after three-and-a-half decades of the War on Drugs, at a time of national economic and budgetary turmoil, change is imperative. Thirty-five years after the so-called War began, the United States is the world leader in incarceration, with approximately 1 in 100 adults imprisoned. (6) Of the nearly 2.3 million people behind bars, nearly half a million are incarcerated for a drug offense. (7) Drug offenders represent more than half of the federal prison population. (8) The number of drug arrests has more than tripled since 1980, (9) reaching a total of over 1.8 million in 2007, more than for any other offense, 82.5% of which were for possession. (10) Lengthy incarceration has not been reserved for the worst offenders; the overall average sentence length for a federal drug offense ranges from 129 months for crack cocaine to 40.4 months for marijuana, (11) with the majority of cocaine and crack offenders subject to five- and ten-year mandatory minimums, (12) despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of them, approximately 90% in 2005, committed no violence in connection with their drug crimes. (13) In state prisons, more than half of the inmates incarcerated for drug offenses have no history of violence or high-level drug trafficking activity. (14) As has been well-documented, the enforcement of the drug laws has been discriminatory in both its implementation and its effects, although constitutional attacks have not met with appellate approval. (15) While it is estimated that African-Americans represent only 14% of regular drug users, they constitute 37% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 56% of state inmates incarcerated for drug offenses. (16) The African-American community suffers disproportionately from the one-two punch of mandatory-minimum sentences and the Sentencing Guidelines' crack-cocaine disparity; in 2007, African-Americans represented only 29.5% of all drug offenders, but 82. …


Hydroxyl radical-mediated in vitro modification of human serum albumin (HSA) showed 59.2% hyperchromicity at λmax, 30% loss of alpha helical structure and 71.4% loss of tryptophan fluorescence. The reactive oxygen species (ROS)-modified HSA was highly immunogenic in rabbits as compare to native HSA. The antibody binding was inhibited to the extent of 97% with the immunogen as inhibitor, indicating the induction of immunogen specific antibodies. Experimentally induced antibodies against modified HSA exhibited diverse antigen binding characteristics. Native plasmid DNA, ROS-modified plasmid DNA and ROS-chromatin were found to be an effective inhibitor of induced antibody–immunogen interaction. Induced antibodies against native HSA showed negligible binding to the above mentioned nucleic acid antigens. Band shift assay reiterated the recognition towards nucleic acid antigens. Thus, the induced antibodies against √OH modified HSA resembled the diverse antigen-binding characteristics of naturally occurring systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) anti-DNA autoantibodies.


Kinerk, Robert. Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! And Other Poems More or Less About Manners . Illus. Drazen Kozjan. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print. "You be nice to me; I'll be nice to you. / That agreement might work. It may get us quite far. / (And it could be what manners, in truth, really are.)" (1). Books filled with poems about manners must be relatively rare. If so, then a book filled with twenty rollicking, frank, vivaciously-illustrated poems about manners must be nearly unheard of. However, this is what Robert Kinerk and Drazen Kozjan have given us in Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! Readers of all ages will enjoy Kinerk's direct, extravagant rhymes. His approach is comprehensive: he provides poems on entry-level etiquette such as cleaning one's room, saying "please" and "thank you," and keeping one's clothes on in public, while also exploring more complex courtesies, such as shaking hands with adults, being on time, and keeping quiet at the movies. Kozjan's illustrations are rich in both colour and detail. His style has been widely described as "retro," likely because his work shares a particular rosy-cheeked exuberance with the work of iconic predecessors such as Mary Blair. Kozjan's is a style in which an entire story is contained within a few strands of hair or a precisely-arched eyebrow. Despite its rolling rhythms and cheeky illustrations, what is most winning about Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! is its sophisticated approach to its topic. It even contains a poem about the fact that it's bad manners to lecture others about their manners. "Manners aren't lists of things you should do. / Manners help folks become easy with you," Kinerk writes (12). It's this deft touch that makes this book memorable and admirable. Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! will be appreciated by primary-school readers (and their adults). The poems are best read out loud, but the illustrations should not be neglected. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Sarah Polkinghorne Sarah is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta. She enjoys all sorts of books.


New two-component photoinitiator systems for radical polymerization of acrylates are presented. The systems discussed comprise a synthetic dye 1,3-bis(p-bromophenylamino)squaraine and borate and onium salts as coinitiator. The effect of the composition of the system on the photopolymerization kinetics was analyzed. To this end, the photophysics and photochemistry of the dye under polymerization conditions were explored by means of stationary and time-resolved spectroscopic methods. The action mechanism of the different photoinitiators systems is discussed.


Current antiretroviral (ARV) regimens are extremely effective therapies for increasing life expectancy in HIV-infected individuals, and have been shown to be cost-effective as treatment in both resource-rich and resource-limited settings [1]. However their effectiveness in preventing infection, except in the case from mother-to-child, is unknown. When AZT was introduced (over 20 years ago) infectious disease experts hypothesized that ARVs, by reducing viral load, would make individuals less infectious and consequently decrease transmission. Modelers only began to investigate this secondary benefit of ARVs after the introduction of more powerful treatment regimens (in the late 1990s) that were highly effective in suppressing viral load. Blower and colleagues predicted, in 2000, that a high usage of ARVs could be expected to decrease transmission in San Francisco by over 40% in a decade [2]. They assumed ARVs, by reducing viral load by several logs, reduce the infectiousness of treated individuals by 50 to 99%. Velasco-Hernandez et al. took this modeling further and showed an HIV epidemic could (theoretically) be eliminated if treatment rates were very high; they calculated elimination would take 50 to 100 years [3]. Recently, it has been suggested that instead of considering prevention as a secondary benefit of ARVs, it should be considered as the primary purpose. On this basis, Granich et al. have proposed a "Test and Treat" strategy; where all individuals would be tested annually for HIV-infection and infected individuals would receive anti-HIV treatment regardless of clinical need [4]. Using modeling Granich et al. have shown this strategy could (theoretically) eliminate HIV in a decade if the following conditions are met: almost all infected individuals accept treatment, ARVs reduce infectiousness by 99%, drop-out rates remain below 5%, drug resistance does not evolve and risk behavior is substantially reduced. In an interesting paper in this issue Dodd et al. further examine the use of ARVs as a prevention tool [5]. They expand on the Granich et al. model by including two behavioral risk groups: a large group of individuals with few sex partners and a smaller "core" group of individuals with high numbers of sex partners. They use their model to examine the impact of the frequency of HIV testing on the effectiveness of a "Test and Treat" strategy. They determine the optimal testing frequency (defined in terms of reduction in incidence per unit cost) depends on the degree of heterogeneity in risk behavior, and is likely to lie between 1 to 5 years. Most importantly, their modeling shows a "Test and Treat" strategy could reduce transmission, but would be unlikely to eliminate HIV in hyper-endemic settings.

Large-scale clinical trials are being initiated to quantify the impact of ARVs on reducing transmission; however results will not be available for several years. Until then models, such as the one constructed by Dodd et al. will be used to predict the effectiveness, as well as to estimate the cost-effectiveness, of the "Test and Treat" strategy. The model presented by Dodd and colleagues is built on a number of assumptions regarding the effects of ARVs on increasing survival and reducing infectivity. These assumptions can be "tested" against existing data from clinical trials and observational cohorts to assess their validity. Dodd and colleagues assume ARVs increase survival by a maximum of 25 years [5]. They further assume an individual only receives this maximal survival benefit if they initiate treatment immediately after infection; if an individual waits to initiate treatment they are assumed to lose ~2.5 years from the maximum survival time for each year they wait [5]. Consequently, in the modeling of the "Test and Treat" strategy, individuals who wait to initiate treatment until their CD4 cell count falls to 350 cells/microL only survive ~12 years [5]. However clinical data suggest individuals who initiate treatment at a CD4 cell count of 350 cells/microL survive for 15 to 30 years; and recent studies indicate the earlier an individual begins treatment the greater their chances of survival [6–8]. These data imply infected individuals are likely to survive for significantly longer than Dodd et al. have assumed. The assumptions Dodd et al. make regarding infectivity can also be "tested" against data. They assume ARVs reduce infectivity by ~90% (in all individuals) and viral suppression rates can remain constant for several decades [5]. Clinical data show ARVs effectively suppress virus in the majority of individuals (70–95%), but in a minority only partial suppression is achieved and hence these individuals remain infectious. The degree of viral suppression is very dependent on adherence. In resource-limited settings, due to interruptions in the drug supply (stock-outs are already occurring) adherence rates may only be moderate. Clinical data also show viral suppression rates are highest in the first year of treatment and then decrease in subsequent years. Taken together, the current clinical data indicate that the reductions in incidence predicted by Dodd et al. may be overly optimistic because infected individuals will live longer and be more infectious than they have assumed.

The paper by Dodd et al. illustrates how models can be used as thought experiments. Modeling can be useful for designing health policy, but it is essential that models are based on realistic assumptions and parameterized with the most recent biomedical data. It is crucial to include resistance in any model that is used to evaluate the "Test and Treat" strategy as previous modeling has shown significant levels of resistance emerge when treatment rates are high [2]. Dodd et al. assume resistance will not evolve, but unfortunately it appears certain that resistance will develop when millions receive treatment. Clinical data show that treatment regimens based on two NRTIs and a NNRTI (which is the current first-line regimen in many resource-limited countries) could lead to 5–15% of patients developing resistance after one year. Resistance rates could double after three years if patients are not tested for resistance and switched to new regimens. Deciding whether to use ARVs primarily for therapy or primarily for reducing transmission has significant implications for determining who gets treated. Assuming that the primary purpose of ARVs is prevention Dodd et al. argue that behavioral "core" groups should be prioritized to receive treatment. However, if the primary purpose of ARVs is therapeutic then the sickest should receive treatment. Recently it has been reported that only ~40% of people in need of ARVs are receiving treatment [9]. Many individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa are initiating treatment with a CD4 cell count less than 100 cells/microL [10]. These numbers strongly indicate that before a "Test and Treat" strategy is implemented there is an urgent need to focus on a "Find and Treat" strategy. The goal of such a strategy would be to attain universal access to necessary medications for those most in need and to ensure that treatment is sustainable.


The footing that placed on slope surface will decrease bearing capacity of soil. The function of using composite bamboo pile is to increase bearing capacity of footing on slope and that is one of the innovative slope reinforcement methods which necessary for last few years. Slope modeling with composite bamboo reinforcement was using an experiment box with 1,50 m as length; 1,0 m as width and 1,0 m as height. It used sand soil with fine gradation and composite bamboo pile with various diameters and space between piles. The load was modeled as a strip footing with continuous increasing load by load cell until the limit load has been reach. The problem occurred in laboratory has been analyzed with Finite Element Method. It changed 3D slope modeling to be 2D modeling. Composite bamboo pile has been chosen as a new utilization innovation of bamboo as reinforced pile and that's a positive value to optimize bamboo local material as steel reinforced replacement material. The result of experiment using composite bamboo as pile reinforcement on slope has increased slope bearing capacity. It shown with significant increasing of bearing capacity and max imum limit load can be reached on slope.


With the promotion and popularization of computer technology, every aspect of the society can not be separated from information technology. Circulation enterprise especially relies on information technology. In an era of economic globalization, EPR management system is one of the representatives in the operation and management of modern enterprise, and EPR environment provides a good platform for performance management of the enterprise. Balanced Score Card (hereinafter abbreviated as BSC is an important tool for performance management, which can perfectly meet the requirements of strategic management of the enterprise, which can also comprehensively evaluate the performance of strategic operation of the enterprise. ERP information management of the enterprise provides a good environment for the performance evaluation; cooperated with ERP, BSC can have a better performance evaluation effect, which provides more reliable guarantees for long-term development of the enterprise. Through the introduction to relevant theories concerning ERP and performance management, the specific implementation methods and processes for optimal performance management can be concluded, and education optimization mode of circulation enterprise can be accordingly obtained.


We evaluated the results of a novel conditioning regimen of reduced dose cyclophosphamide (Cy, 25 mg/kg for four days), fludarabine (Flu, 30 mg/m2 for four days), and rabbit ATG (2.5 mg/kg for three days) for allogeneic transplant of children with SAA, implemented since January 2009. Overall, 23 patients were treated with this regimen (16 male, seven female), including 10 diagnosed with VSAA. Donors included eight‐MSD and 15 UD (five‐matched UD, and 10 mismatched UD). All patients showed neutrophil and platelet engraftment. Cumulative incidence of acute (grade 2 or above) and chronic GVHD was 26.1% and 8.7%, respectively. Estimated two‐yr FFS and OS for the entire cohort was 90.3 ± 6.5%. Rates of TRM and graft failure were 5.3% and 4.3%, respectively. No difference in OS was found according to disease severity (SAA vs. VSAA, p = 0.184), or according to donor type (MSD vs. UD, p = 0.699). Excellent outcomes of patients with VSAA underscore the efficacy of allogeneic transplant as a means of expediting hematopoietic recovery. Improved survival of UD transplant reaffirms its role as a valid therapeutic alternative in the absence of MSD.


The increase in drug abuse in South Africa has had major social implications in the country. Problems associated with drug dependency are poverty, unemployment, a heavier burden on the health care system, the disintegration of family systems and drug‐related crimes. Another area of concern is the link between drug abuse and child abuse. While child abuse is a crime in South Africa, the law does not consider the abuse of drugs during pregnancy as a crime and research on prenatal drug abuse as a form of child abuse is still limited. The issue of prenatal drug abuse as a crime is controversial, to say the least, since society tends to take two stances regarding the use and abuse of psychoactive substances during pregnancy. The harm reduction approach views prenatal drug abuse as a social welfare issue, whereas the punitive approach views the abuse of substances during pregnancy as a crime. Drug‐related child abuse cannot be looked at simplistically by merely assessing the physical damage sustained at birth. Harm done to the foetus may result in lifelong problems for the child. Literature on the subject indicates that drug abuse does cause harm to the foetus but that this level of harm in each case should be individualized. Some studies show that substance abuse treatment during pregnancy has been proved to be effective in both reducing the risk of drug exposure before birth and improving the drug user's parenting skills. The paper highlights the situation in South Africa regarding the problem of drug dependency by pregnant mothers, and makes recommendations for further research on prenatal substance abuse. In addition, a call is made for the development of a drug policy dealing with drug dependency in the pregnant mother. Research is also necessary to determine whether drug policy should bring about the criminalization of substance abuse by pregnant women.


Economic values of biological collections in three Australian botanic gardens in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney were estimated using the travel-cost method (TCM) and the contingent valuation method (CVM). The TCM component of the study produced average per-trip consumer surplus (CS) values of $39 and $18 for single- and multiplesite visitors, respectively, for each botanic garden, resulting in an estimate of approximately $194 million for the total social welfare generated by trips to the three sites. Marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for access to botanic gardens was also investigated through payment vehicles of entry fees or higher parking charges using the CVM component. The analysis revealed a positive mean WTP of between $3 and $5 per trip per person. The difference between the CVM and TCM results reflect the different underlying concepts of value under investigation: average CS per visit for the TCM and the utility arising from a marginal visit for the CVM. Marginal changes in CS from the TCM were derived. The confidence intervals from the TCM marginal values overlap the WTP estimates from the CVM. These findings will be useful for resource management decisions in the botanic gardens collection in Australia.


Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) can cause the migration of fibroblasts. In order for the cells to move, there are major changes in the actin cytoskeleton: decreased stress fibers and focal adhesion sites, redistribution of actin to the cell cortex, and the formation of lamellipodia and filopodia. Jiménez et al. studied the mechanism by which PDGF signals to the actin cytoskeleton using transfected or microinjected cells. Transfection of dominant negative forms of the small guanosine trisphosphatases (GTPases) Rac or Cdc42 suggested that the PDGF receptor (PDGFR) couples to both of these GTPases to produce different effects on the cytoskeleton: Rac stimulates lamellipodia, Cdc42 stimulates stress fiber disassembly, filopodia, and decreased focal adhesion complexes. Transfection of cells with activated forms of Cdc42 or treatment of cells (transfected with Myc-tagged Cdc42) with PDGF stimulated a Cdc42-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activity. However, when cells were transfected with the regulatory subunit (p85) or a constitutively active catalytic subunit of PI3K, different phenotypes (decreased stress fibers and focal contacts for p85 subunit-expressing cells and increased formation of lamellipodia for catalytic subunit-expressing cells) were observed. Pharmacological inhibition of PI3K activity did not block the Cdc42-mediated cytoskeletal changes. Analysis of cells expressing mutants containing only the Cdc42 interaction domain or a p85 isoform that cannot bind Cdc42 suggests that the p85 subunit directly interacts with Cdc42 to mediate these cytoskeletal changes. Mutants of the PDGFR lacking critical residues for p85 interaction were also unable to respond to PDGF with Cdc42-mediated cytoskeletal rearrangements. These two pieces of evidence suggest that p85 must interact with Cdc42 and the PDGFR to mediate the Cdc42-controlled actin rearrangements. A final piece to the puzzle fell into place when N-WASP mutants blocked the Cdc42- and p85-induced actin rearrangements and inhibited PDGF-stimulated cell migration. Thus, the PDGF stimulates Cdc42 activity by a pathway that involves N-WASP and the p85 subunit of the PI3K, but is independent of the catalytic activity of PI3K. Jiménez, C., Portela, R.A., Mellado, M., Rodríguez-Frade, J.M., Collard, J., Serrano, A., Martínez-A., C., Avila, J., and Carrera, A.C. (2000) Role of the PI3K regulatory subunit in the control of actin organization and cell migration. J. Cell Biol. 151: 249-261. [Abstract] [Full Text]


A study of soil genesis in a small area of south-west Wales is presented. The soil-forming factors are considered first in the context of time. The evolution of the factors and the importance of past environments and conditions in affecting these factors, and hence less directly the present-day soils, is emphasised. The soil-forming factors are also examined in the spatial dimension. Two of these factors - "topo-drainage" and "parent material" - are particularly important as determinants of soil type and are plotted on the Pedogenetic Map. The Pedogenetic Map is a map of the soil-forming environment and not of soils as such. Its relationship to the soils of the study area is discussed, however. Soil types are also described according to the new classification (Avery, 1973) of the Soil Survey of England and Wales, and selected properties are examined. The second part of the thesis concerns itself principally with the soil sand fraction. The lithological composition of the sand fraction is investigated, and it is shown that the coarsest sand fraction {2,000pm - 1,200pm) can be used as an indicator of the provenance of the soil "parent material". Contamination of finer sand fractions is also encountered and this is pursued in the analysis of detailed size distributions of the soil sand fractions. These studies also suggest a mechanism of weathering by surface granular disaggregation of sand-sized red silt- stone fragments in the soils. Additional evidence is given for this mechanism from scanning electron microscopy, followed by a brief discussion of the theory of grain size distributions. Finally, the different sources of information are drawn together in an attempt to effect a reconstruction of the environment that has influenced soil genesis in the area.;


Abstract Sedentary lifestyle is associated with obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases. Increased physical activity can produce clinically significant changes in body composition and a reduction in risk of obesity-related chronic diseases in obese people. Because a great proportion of a primary care physician's patient population will be obese, it is essential that physicians know the scientific facts about the role of physical activity in the treatment of obesity and how to effectively prescribe it. This article summarizes significant research .conclusions about the relationship between physical activity, obesity, and health. It also provides practical strategies for helping obese patients integrate physical activity into their lives.


A series of new N1-, N2- and N3-substituted 1,2,3-triazole derivatives has been synthesized by cycloaddition of butyltin azide with substituted alkynes followed by a N-alkylation reaction. The regioisomers have been isolated and characterized using NMR techniques. GIAO/B3LYP calculations of the absolute shieldings have been performed to verify the assignments and so the structures have been unequivocally identified. The proportion in which the three isomers are obtained corresponds with the relative order of stability indicated by the energy values calculated at the B3LYP level. CB1 cannabinoid receptor binding assays have been performed but none of the compounds showed significant activity.


In this paper, a permanent magnet (PM) electro-dynamic suspension and electro-magnetic suspension (EDS & EMS) hybrid suspension system is proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the under-damped dynamics in a PM EDS system. The linearized model is established and its stability is also analyzed using the Routh criterion. According to the rational distribution between the repulsive force and the electromagnetic force, a controller is designed to meet the dynamic performance required in practical applications. A novel maglev system using a hybrid suspension scheme is also presented in this paper. Furthermore, a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) hybrid suspension experimental mechanism is established, and some experiments have also been undertaken to validate its effectiveness on suppressing the oscillation of the PM EDS system caused by external disturbances.