It is poorly understood why people with Down syndrome (DS) are at extremely high-risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to the general population. One explanation may be related to their extra copy of risk factors modulated by chromosome 21. Myo-inositol (mI), whose transporter gene is located on chromosome 21, has been associated with dementia in the non DS population; however, nobody has contrasted brain mI in DS with (DS+) and without (DS-) dementia to other non-DS groups. Our primary aim was to compare the hippocampal concentration of mI ([mI]) and other brain metabolites such as N-acetylaspartate (NAA; a proxy measure of neuronal density and mitochondrial function) in DS+, DS-, and age-matched healthy controls using proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1 H-MRS). We compared hippocampal [mI] and other metabolites in 35 individuals with genetically-confirmed DS [DS+ (n=17,age=53+6) and DS-(n=18,age=47+8)] to age-matched healthy controls (n=13,age=51+10) adjusting for proportion of the MRS voxel occupied by cerebrospinal spinal fluid, and grey/white matter. DS+ had a significantly higher [mI] than both DS-and healthy controls. In contrast neither DS+ nor DS-differed significantly from controls in [NAA] (although NAA in DS+ was significantly lower than DS-). Our secondary aim of comparing brain metabolites in DS+ and DS-to Alzheimer's disease (AD; n=39;age=77+5) revealed that the DS+ group had significantly elevated [mI] compared to AD or DS-. [mI] may modify risk for dementia in this vulnerable population.


Background: Since there are increased numbers of clients with traumatic injuries and non-traumatic cases in the emergency department in Indonesia, triage skill is an essential competency required for the emergency nurses. Purposes: This study aimed to examine the level of perceived triage skills and the relationship between knowledge, training, working experience and perceived triage skills among emergency nurses. Method: Two hundred and sixty six emergency room (ER) nurses working in two secondary and two tertiary public hospitals in East Java Province, Indonesia, were recruited by purposive sampling. Data were collected using a set of questionnaires which included the Demographic Data including training and working experiences, Triage Knowledge Questionnaire (TKQ) and Triage Skill Questionnaire (TSQ). The contents of questionnaires were validated by three experts and tested for reliability. The correlation coefficient for the TKQ was 0.99 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the TSQ was 0.93. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including Pearson's product-moment correlation to examine the relationship. Result: The results showed that the majority of subjects were female (71.4%) with aged of 22 – 40 years (79.3%), educated to diploma level (94.4%). All subjects had attended Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ACLS), and about half of them had greater than 5 years working experiences in ED. Overall perceived triage skill was at a moderate level with the mean score of 75.12 (SD = 11.23). There were significantly positive correlations between triage skill and working experience (r = .27, p < .01), training experience (r = .37, p < .01), and triage knowledge (r = .38, p < .01). Conclusion: The findings provide a better understanding of triage skills among ER nurses and suggest that the continuing education and training courses related to triage and advanced management of medical emergencies for ER nurses are required in order to increase and update the triage skills in enhancing the quality of emergency care and patient safety. Key Words :Triage knowledge, triage skills, training, working experience, emergency nurse


This article discusses the shortcomings of 20th century judicial interpretations of the Married Women's Property Acts and contributes as a result to the scholarly literature on the tenancy by the entirety. In addition, it has implications for teaching the doctrinal development of marital property interests and advocacy in property law litigation. Courts in the 20th century forgot the historical meaning and significance of the 19th century acts which aimed to protect the interests of married women and families from husbands' debts. They seemed to uphold equality in property rights between spouses when protection was really at stake. By the 20th century, when jurisdictions like Massachusetts and New Jersey were interpreting their states' Married Women's Property Acts, recognition of the married woman's interest in debt protection seemed to have been lost. Courts deliberately upheld practices that appeared directly to contravene the spirit and purpose of the original Acts, as these courts interpreted the acts to mean an equality which did not exist in fact. At stake were the rights of women who owned property in their own name as wives. Yet, the wives' property was seized for their husbands' debts. They were required to make their separate property over into tenancy by the entirety property; upon doing so, they were threatened by seizure of their property interest and foreclosure once creditors attached their husbands' share of the property interest. In Hawaii, the shape of the litigation and the development of the doctrine took a different turn. The debtor husband was a widower. Yet, the court misread and misapplied the debt protection rules. The non debtor spouse was dead and the survivorship rules were irrelevant as a result. Pursuant to the traditional view of the tenancy by the entirety, he could have been held liable as the sole owner of the property. Nonetheless, Hawaii affirmed the ongoing significance of the tenancy by the entirety from the perspectives of doctrine and policy: protection of families and familial assets.


Zingiber officinale, commonly known as ginger, has been used as a medicinal plant for decades for medical and culinary purposes. This study aimed to determine the antimicrobial potential of ginger root extracts using the Kirby-Bayer agar diffusion method to compare the zones of inhibition of the extracts to those of synthetic antibiotics against five clinical bacterial pathogens (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae). Ginger extracts showed more antimicrobial activity against the five test organisms compared to the synthetic antibiotics. The least resistant bacterium was S. aureus while the remaining four bacterial strains were strongly resistant to most of the antibiotics. Antimicrobial activity of ginger root extracts at various concentrations revealed that E. coli had the lowest concentration (1.2 mg/ml) in 20 mg/ml while the highest concentration (9.1 mg/ml) was observed for S. aureus in 75 mg/ml. Phytochemical screening of the ginger root extracts revealed the presence of all the tested secondary metabolites (saponins, tannin, flavonoids, glycoside, terpenoids and alkaloids). A number of phytochemicals present in ginger were identified to be possibly responsible for the antibacterial activity of ginger roots. These could be used independently or in combination with synthetic antibiotics to create more efficient antibiotics. Findings of this study can contribute to on-going research towards identifying alternative treatment of nosocomial infections that eliminate the use of antibiotics. With these findings, scientists could be employed in the health sector to create antibiotics that are not resisted by pathogens that cause infections in health care facilities.

 Key words: Antibacterial, ginger, phytochemical, zone of inhibition.


Peoples Temple has been seen as the paradigmatic cult exemplifying the horrors of manipulative leaders and brainwashed followers due to the deaths in Jonestown on 18 November 1978. This article argues against the utility of making comparisons to such an extreme event, however. Drawing upon Godwin's Law and its observation that online debates eventually raise the trope of Hitler and Nazis, the article introduces Jones' Corollary: Discussions of new religions inevitably begin with a comparison to Jonestown. Making generalizations about new religions by starting with Jonestown is inappropriate because of the unique nature of Peoples Temple and its extraordinary ending in Jonestown. Nevertheless, Jonestown functions for the anticult movement and in online exchanges the same way that references to Nazis and Hitler do—to evoke shock, disgust, and outrage, and, ultimately, to terminate analysis.


The Thesis investigates issues of growth and development economics from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. The basic stylised fact which motivate the analysis are the existence, documented in the work, of poverty traps and the observation that there is a critical stage in which growth becomes the normal condition of a society. The main objective of the work is to identify economic determinants which explain the growth-stagnation dichotomy, or why countries find more difficulties in activating growth rather than in keeping growth going. In the first chapter, I construct a model which combines self-sustained growth and 'underdevelopment traps' into a common analytical framework. The model exhibits aggregate non-convexities and thresholds which separate a region in which the equilibrium growth path converges to a stationary steady-state from a region in which growth is self-sustained. The core of the chapter is a set of original formal propositions about non-linear economic dynamics of which I make use in both this and the following chapter. The outcome of some simulations are also discussed. The findings are used to interpret some historical episodes like the take-off experience of different countries during the Industrial Revolution. The second chapter presents a model built on a similar analytical framework, based on the parable of an economy of many island which grow different fruits from specific trees, whose fertility increases when fertilisers taken from different islands are employed. The parable aims at explaining how the cost of 'market activity' and intermediation affect growth and, possibly, cause underdevelopment traps. The following chapter tests some implications of the model. The fourth chapter introduces into the analysis foreign direct investments as a potential source of growth, stressing how enforcement problems may limit their flow towards poor countries. Overlapping generations of heterogeneous agents choose the level of individual investment in human capital, whose effects are transmitted between dynasties, and elect the government. The political equilibrium is determined by the distribution of income across generations. Simulations show that it is possible for structurally identical countries to select alternative equilibria at some period and converge to either a constant positive growth rate or a low income stationary state. The last chapter is an empirical investigation of the sources of macroeconomic fluctuations using the methodology of structural vector autoregression analysis. It extends to a multicountry framework the decomposition analysis of the GNP into permanent and temporary components and present the results of an application to the United States and United Kingdom using a sample of about one century length. The results confirm other authors' findings about the large relative importance of temporary disturbances in explaining business cycle fluctuations.


In a recent book entitled Love and Sex with Robots, the British scholar David Levy has argued that relationships with robot Companions might be more satisfying than relationships with humans, a claim which I call "the greater satisfaction thesis" (GST).  The main reason Levy provides in support of GST is that people will be able to specify the features of robot Companions precisely in accordance with their wishes (which I call the total specification argument or TSA).  In this paper, I argue that TSA is wrong.  In particular, the argument breaks down when we consider certain behavioral characteristics that we desire in our partners. I illustrate my argument with a thought-experiment involving two kinds of robot – the FREEBOT, which is capable of rejecting its owner permanently, and the RELIABOT, which is not


By studying fruit fly ovaries, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a protein known to block cell death also has the completely independent role of enabling normal cell movement. The discovery creates an unexpected new path to follow in the effort to understand the biochemical steps behind cells' movement, a critical aspect of embryonic development and the spread of cancer. The work is described in the July 9 issue of Cell. By studying fruit flies engineered to make extra use of random genes, the Hopkins team discovered that a protein called "inhibitor of apoptosis-1" (or IAP) can restore the tightly choreographed cellular movement that naturally occurs in fruit fly ovaries as egg cells mature. "This discovery was completely unexpected," says Denise Montell, Ph.D., professor of biological chemistry in Johns Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. "Based on what was known about this protein's function in blocking cell death, there would have been no way to predict its involvement in cell migration." Instead, graduate student and now postdoctoral fellow Erika Geisbrecht and Montell relied on "forward genetics," an approach in which the scientists alter the expression of random genes, look for a specific effect in the resulting flies and then figure out which gene was affected. In Geisbrecht's experiments, a small number of cells in the fruit fly ovaries had a dysfunctional protein called Rac, which caused those cells not to move properly and the flies to be sterile. Geisbrecht then randomly increased production of other genes in the cells and looked for flies whose fertility was restored, an obvious sign that their cellular choreography had returned to normal. "The idea is simple -- if the cell migration problem improved, the overexpressed gene must have fixed or compensated for the lack of functional Rac," says Montell. The fruit fly ovary consists of about 100 egg chambers, each made of 16 cells -- 15 "nurse" cells and one oocyte, which becomes the egg -- surrounded by a layer of several hundred epithelial cells. At a certain point in development of the egg, a single small cluster of these epithelial cells normally detaches from the others and moves from the edge of the egg chamber to the center, sliding between nurse cells and coming to rest at the edge of the oocyte. In egg chambers whose cells were missing Rac's function, the epithelial cluster rarely made it even halfway to the oocyte. Returning a working Rac protein to these cells allowed about half of the epithelial clusters to complete their journey, as did overexpression of IAP and overexpression of proteins called actin and profilin, two components of cells' internal skeletons, the researchers found. Once IAP had been identified as the "rescuing" protein, Geisbrecht determined that IAP's effects on cell migration stem not from its previously known role in preventing cell death, but from its ability to bind to and block enzymes called caspases that chew up a variety of proteins. By doing so, IAP prevents the destruction of a whole host of other proteins. Montell says she'll be trying to identify the "downstream" proteins that may be more directly responsible for restoring fertility in flies with dysfunctional Rac. Two initial candidates are actin and profilin, she says, and other components of cells' internal skeletons will be on the short list, too, since cells have to take apart and rebuild their skeletons in order to move. "If these obvious choices don't pan out, we'll go back to a forward genetic screen," says Montell. "Then we can let the animal tell us what is happening." As always, Montell and her colleagues will use genetic tricks so they can change the genes in a limited number of cells in the ovary. Doing so allows them to study genes whose functions, if altered in the entire animal, wouldn't let the insect fully develop. The use of these so-called mosaic flies is crucial for studying cell migration, since migration gets all the cells of a developing embryo where they need to be to form a normal, viable insect. Authors on the study are Geisbrecht and Montell. The work was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. Johns Hopkins Medicine;Office of Corporate Communications;Media Contact: Joanna Downer;410-614-5105; firstname.lastname@example.com


During the austral summers of 2003 and 2006 suprabenthic assemblages were investigated at 35 stations located in the Bellingshausen Sea and off the western Antarctic Peninsula, at depths ranging from 45 to 3280 m. Suprabenthos was collected with a Macer-GIROQ sledge equipped with an automatic opening and closing system. This study presents data on the occurrence and relative abundance of the major suprabenthic taxa collected in the water layer immediately adjacent to the bottom (10-140 cm above bottom). Assemblages were dominated by Peracarida and the most common groups were Amphipoda, Mysida, Isopoda and Cumacea. Among the 66 taxa identified, 40 account for more than 80% of the dissimilarity levels among any of the different combinations between groups of stations. The highest dissimilarity values in the segregation of the pairwise station groups were obtained for Mysidae, Lysianassidae, Gammaridea, Cumacea and Munnopsidae. The recorded faunistic patterns showed dependences in the environmental variables depth and percentage of mud in the sediment, as single and combined variables.


This paper presents an approach based on Bayesian Networks to estimate the workload of operators. The models take as inputs the entropy of different number of physiological features, as well as a cognitive feature (reaction time to a secondary task). They output the workload variation of subjects involved in successive tasks demanding different levels of cognitive resources. The performances of the classifiers are discussed in term of two criteria to be jointly optimized: the diversity, i.e. the ability of the model to perform on different subjects, and the accuracy, i.e., how close from the (subjectively estimated) workload level the model prediction is.


Despite increasing support for global human rights ..., some scholars and constitutional democracies, like the United States, continue to resist constitutionalizing socio-economic rights. Socio-economic rights, unlike political and civil constitutional rights that usually prohibit government actions, are thought to impose positive obligations on government. As a result, constitutionalizing socio-economic rights raises questions about separation of powers and the competence of courts to decide traditionally legislative and executive matters. ... [W]hen transitional democracies, like South Africa, choose to constitutionalize socio-economic rights, courts inevitably must grapple with their role in the realization of those rights.... Two questions immediately come to mind: (1) whether it is possible to treat conflicting constitutional rights equally, or whether a hierarchy of rights, either formal or informal, is an inevitable result; and (2) whether in a true participatory democracy courts should be placed in the position of determining this hierarchy of constitutional rights, or whether the ordering of rights is an inherently political task. A related question is whether when vast socio-economic inequities exists among the citizenry a judicial approach is more appropriate until that society has reduced those inequities.... [and when courts] declare these rights justiciable, judicial enforcement is an issue. This chapter argues that some hierarchy of rights that privileges one set of rights over another is inevitable, especially where neither the state constitution nor the court clearly creates a formal hierarchy of rights. It uses the right to housing cases decided during the Constitutional Court's first decade to explore this question.


A panel of board-certified medical physicists with MBA degrees will share their insights about business schools and career paths in a moderated discussion format. The panelists bring a broad range of experience in terms of medical physics specialties, MBA program types, current organizational roles, and business school alma maters. The discussion will include: 1) the process of deciding if, where, when, why, and how to pursue the MBA; 2) the MBA student experience, including workload, networking, and school-life-work balance; 3) post-MBA career impact, and 4) advice to medical physicists considering an MBA. The conversation will also include questions from the audience.
This session is the second of two consecutive sessions exploring the professional impact of supplementing medical physics credentials with formal business education, and is also part of a larger block of sessions concentrating on the Management, Business and Supervision aspects of Medical Physics.
Learning Objectives:
1.
To learn about the pre-, intra-, and post-MBA experiences of several medical physicists.
2.
To gain a sense of possible career outcomes that business credentials could catalyze.


In the United Kingdom (as in many other countries) increasing attention is being paid to the importance of each library and archive having a written preservation strategy endorsed by its governing body. So increasingly we are asking: where does "preservation" begin and what are its top priorities? Some would say preservation begins with the definition of collecting policies to ensure that only relevant items are acquired in the first place, and therefore that no unnecessary costs are incurred on the long-term care of unwanted and unconsulted items. Others might argue that the first priority must be the careful appraisal of existing holdings to determine their preservation and conservation requirements and to prioritise their treatment. Or should preservation begin with damage-limitation: restricting the physical handling of books and documents, on the one hand by providing whenever possible surrogate copies in digital formats or microform, and on the other hand by offering at least basic protection through appropriate boxing and packaging? This, surely, goes hand-in-hand with the education of staff and readers about the importance of treating rare or unique materials with proper respect.


Research has shown that some teachers are dramatically more effective than others and further, that these differences are among the most important schooling factors affecting student learning. Accordingly, shifts in policy have resulted in the development of new performance management systems with the goal of improving teacher effectiveness. Although a growing body of research has begun to examine the impact of recent systems, we have very limited knowledge on how these systems influence teachers' motivation and improvement. This dissertation moves the body of research forward by using expectancy-value theory and mixed-methods analysis to examine the impact of INVEST, a new teacher evaluation system in Aldine ISD in Houston, Texas, on teacher motivation, effectiveness, and retention. It also explores how individual personality characteristics, school organizational factors, and evaluation system features influence these outcomes. It employs a mixed methods design, utilizing the strengths of both methodological approaches. The quantitative research captures broad-based results from a teacher survey given to the population of teachers preand postpilot and uses difference-in-differences analysis to examine the impact of the pilot on key outcomes (i.e., motivation, effectiveness, and retention) and multiple regression analysis to examine which predictors (at the individual, school, and system level) influenced outcomes. This analysis is supplemented by the qualitative research which draws from a small purposive sample of teachers to gain an indepth understanding of how the policy influenced teachers' experiences. Analyses revealed that overall INVEST had a negative impact on teachers' belief in their abilities (expectancy) and no significant impact on the importance they placed on their work (value), their effectiveness, or their decision to remain in teaching. However, teachers' responses varied considerably based on their individual characteristics (e.g., teachers' grit), their school's conditions (e.g., leadership), and their system perceptions (e.g., understanding, accuracy of measures, quality of feedback). The extensive data collected in this analysis offer a rich picture of the implementation of new performance management systems. Thus, it provides both policymakers and researchers with a better understanding of how new policies impact teacher's behavior and the influence of various characteristics (at the individual, school, and system level). Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1420 First Advisor Richard M. Ingersoll


A research on studying the effect of the wake generated by an aircraft wing section on a following aircraft wing section is performed. NACA 2412 is chosen as the airfoil model in this project. The airfoil model is fabricated by using CNC machining. Aluminium is chosen as the material for the airfoil model because it provides a good surface finish. Three experiments are conducted by using the open-circuit wind tunnel in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The wind tunnel tests were carried out at the velocity of 5m/s to 30m/s in a test section of the size 0.30m (W), 0.30m (H) and 0.60m (L), at the Reynolds number of 4.10 x 104 to 2.54 x 105. Experiment 1 is the testing of single airfoil model to define the coefficient of lift, coefficient of drag and Reynolds number at various angles of attack. Experiment 1 is functioning as references for comparison for Experiment 2 and Experiment 3. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 are the testing of two airfoil models at a separating distance of 1 chord length (13cm) and 2 Chord lengths (26cm) respectively. The main objective of Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 are to study the effects of wake turbulence on the characteristic of coefficient of lift, coefficient of drag and Reynolds number of a following airfoil model when an airfoil model is placed in front of it at a specific distance. The characteristics of the wake generated by an airfoil model on a following airfoil model are observed and studied during the testing in wind tunnel. Further investigations, discussions and conclusions are carried out throughout completing this research project. The results show that the separating distance between the two airfoils affects the coefficient of lift, coefficient of drag and the stall angle of the following airfoil at various angle of attack and free stream velocity.


In this research work more emphasis was given to improve the absorbency of terry towel along with imparting anti-microbial property to terry towel fabric. The piles which was chosen were given pre-treatment process followed further with various concentration of citric acid and sodium hypophosphite. This treatment with citric acid leads to crosslinking of the interstices in the yarn thus providing more space for the accommodation of more amount of water. This treated fibers creates a hydrophilic networks which not only absorb but retain the huge amount of water within it. This chemical modification which was achieved by hydrophilic group increases the uptake of water within hydroxyl group of cellulose molecule. The whole fabric along with base and piles were treated with different concentration of aloe-Vera gel showed good anti-microbial property.


Does market power of banks affect firm performance? To answer this question we examine 25,236 syndicated loan facilities granted between 2000 and 2010 by 296 banks to 9,029 US non-financial firms. Accounting for both observed and unobserved bank and firm heterogeneity, we find that firms that were recently poorly performing obtain loans from banks with more market power. However, in the year after loan origination market power positively affects firm performance, but only if it is not too high. Our estimates thus suggest that bank market power can facilitate access to credit by poorly performing firms, yet at the same time also boosts the performance of the firms that obtain credit.


Introduction Researchers have investigated female criminal activity since the early 19th century (Bowker, 1978). These writers generally attributed criminal behavior to biological differences between offenders and non-offenders. By 1875, van de Warker and others argued that criminal behavior resulted from environmental factors ("social conditions") such as poverty, though endogenous explanations of criminal tendencies persisted (Bowker, 1978). Hans von Hentig (1942) published a landmark volume counteracting a study by Mary Huff Diggs who argued that Black, immigrant, and Catholic women were constitutionally predisposed to criminal behavior. Von Hentig attributed statistical trends, instead, to demographic differences between Black and White women. Both biological and environmental explanations for female criminal behavior can be found in the contemporary scientific literature. Daly and Wilson (1988), for example, propose ultimate (i.e., evolutionary) interpretations of homicide, arguing that decisions (conscious or otherwise) to kill are part of the perpetrator's lifetime reproductive strategy. This evolutionary perspective views homicide as a high-risk reproductive tactic with the potential to serve the offender's selfish genetic interests, in particular, the survival and reproduction of the perpetrator, her offspring, and her kin.(1) Proximate (i.e., non-evolutionary) explanations of criminal behavior by females stress environmental factors. Steffensmeier and Allan (1998), for example, propose a "gendered theory of female offending" to advance knowledge of both female and male crime. They suggest four areas of life relevant to an analysis of homicide by females that "shape the patterns of female offending that do occur". These are: (1) gender norms; (2) moral development and relational concerns; (3) social control; and, (4) sexuality. In this paper we employ a theoretical framework that follows from Steffensmeier and Allan's model. While there exists a large literature on female offenders, comparisons by race are not often presented. The U.S. Department of Justice (1998a) reports that Whites are "slightly" more likely to exhibit violent offenses (e.g., homicide, robbery, assault) against intimates (i.e., individuals known prior to offense) than were Blacks or Hispanics but provide no data on homicide that would permit statistical analysis of racial differences within sex. McClain (1981) studied Black female homicide offenders. She concluded that most Black women commit homicide alone and that most lethal incidents were a function of conflicts in a heterosexual relationship, including jealousy. McClain's sample of 119 Black homicide offenders suggest that these women kill sexual partners about 56% of the time, while acquaintances and children account for approximately 33% and 11% of victims, respectively. Thus, McClain's study suggests that Black females are overwhelmingly likely to kill intimates as defined by the U.S. Department of Justice (1998a). Ray & Smith (1991) employed data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 1988 Uniform Crime Reports and the Bureau of Justice Special Report, "Violent State Prisoners and their Victims". These authors concluded that murder victims of both White and Black females are likely to be a male of the same race, that Black females are more likely to murder other women than are White women, that White women are more likely to kill minors than are Black women, and that Black and White women are equally likely to murder strangers. Defining "intimate" differently than in McClain's study, Ray & Smith concluded that "White females were two times as likely to have killed a relative than Black females. On the other hand, Black females were two times as likely to have killed an intimate friend/lover than were their White counterparts." (p. 150). Ray & Smith found partial support for a "subculture of violence" hypothesis for both Black and White female offenders whereby the offender's environment, especially an environment of poverty, condones the use of aggression for conflict resolution. …


Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the prevalence of nonverbal oral apraxia (NVOA), its association with other forms of apraxia, and associated imaging findings in patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and progressive apraxia of speech (PAOS). Methods: Patients with a degenerative speech or language disorder were prospectively recruited and diagnosed with a subtype of PPA or with PAOS. All patients had comprehensive speech and language examinations. Voxel-based morphometry was performed to determine whether atrophy of a specific region correlated with the presence of NVOA. Results: Eighty-nine patients were identified, of which 34 had PAOS, 9 had agrammatic PPA, 41 had logopenic aphasia, and 5 had semantic dementia. NVOA was very common among patients with PAOS but was found in patients with PPA as well. Several patients exhibited only one of NVOA or apraxia of speech. Among patients with apraxia of speech, the severity of the apraxia of speech was predictive of NVOA, whereas ideomotor apraxia severity was predictive of the presence of NVOA in those without apraxia of speech. Bilateral atrophy of the prefrontal cortex anterior to the premotor area and supplementary motor area was associated with NVOA. Conclusions: Apraxia of speech, NVOA, and ideomotor apraxia are at least partially separable disorders. The association of NVOA and apraxia of speech likely results from the proximity of the area reported here and the premotor area, which has been implicated in apraxia of speech. The association of ideomotor apraxia and NVOA among patients without apraxia of speech could represent disruption of modules shared by nonverbal oral movements and limb movements.


Scholars are eager to evaluate the effects of health policy on health, but they often neglect that policies are intricately connected to marriage, family structure, and social standing. The three chapters of this dissertation study unintended consequences of health insurance policies in the United States. How people gain private health insurance is connected to divorce (chapter 1) and availability of a public insurance program at birth is associated with lower mortality not only in infanthood but also in adulthood (chapter 2). US health policies that tie health insurance coverage to socioeconomic status add dimensions to racial and ethnic inequality. Minorities spend more years without insurance due to their greater probabilities of losing coverage (chapter 3). These chapters provide national landscapes of health insurance coverage and inequality in the years prior to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 setting the baseline for post-reform comparisons. In Chapter 1, I apply hazard models to the nationally representative longitudinal Survey of Income and Program Participation (2004 panel) to find lower divorce rates among people who are enrolled in their spouses' health insurance policies. Women who depend on their husbands for health insurance had the lowest rates of divorce. This chapter highlights how familyand employment-based insurance coverage could create inequalities between families and between men and women. In Chapter 2, I use US Vital Statistics data to compare changes in age-specific mortality rates between cohorts born in states with Medicaid and cohorts born in states without Medicaid. I exploit the variation in the timing of States' Medicaid participation to establish a connection between the availability of public insurance at birth to improvements in later life mortality. This chapter underscores the lasting consequences of having access to medical care during critical periods in the life-course. Chapter 3 examines the dynamics of gaining and losing health insurance across the life course and how it contributes to racial and ethnic disparities in coverage. African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians have high uninsurance rates mostly due to their greater likelihoods of losing the insurance that they already have. Lifetable simulations show that simply increasing the accessibility of health insurance does surprisingly little to reduce disparities in insurance coverage. This paper draws attention to the importance of developing policies that stabilize existing insurance. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Demography First Advisor Jason Schnittker This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2030


Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!' Throughout the hardships of her childhood - spent with a severe aunt and abusive cousin, and later at the austere Lowood charity school - Jane Eyre clings to a sense of self-worth, despite of her treatment from those close to her. At the age of eighteen, sick of her narrow existence, she seeks work as a governess. The monotony of Jane's new life at Thornfield Hall is broken up by the arrival of her peculiar and changeful employer, Mr Rochester. Routine at the mansion is further disrupted by mysterious incidents that draw the pair closer together but which, once explained, threaten Jane's happiness and integrity. A flagship of Victorian fiction, Jane Eyre draws the reader in by the vigour of Jane's voice and the novel's forceful depiction of childhood injustice, of the restraints placed upon women, and the complexities of both faith and passion. The emotional charge of Jane's story is as strong today as it was more than 150 years ago, as she seeks dignity and freedom on her own terms. In this new edition, Juliette Atkinson explores the power of narrative voice and looks at the striking physicality of the novel, which is both shocking and romantic.


Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a pulmonary disease of asthmatic or cystic fibrosis patients. It is a hypersensitivity reaction to Aspergillus fumigatus. Genetic factors, CD4 + Th2 lymphocyte activation and spesific antibodies production are responsible for the development of the disease. The diagnosis of ABPA is a combination of clinical, biological and radiological criteria. The treatment consists of oral corticosteroids and itraconasole. In this article, we review the diagnosis and treatment of ABPA according to recent investigations.


This article presents Codelet Extractor and REplayer (CERE), an open-source framework for code isolation. CERE finds and extracts the hotspots of an application as isolated fragments of code, called codelets. Codelets can be modified, compiled, run, and measured independently from the original application. Code isolation reduces benchmarking cost and allows piecewise optimization of an application. Unlike previous approaches, CERE isolates codes at the compiler Intermediate Representation (IR) level. Therefore CERE is language agnostic and supports many input languages such as C, C++, Fortran, and D. CERE automatically detects codelets invocations that have the same performance behavior. Then, it selects a reduced set of representative codelets and invocations, much faster to replay, which still captures accurately the original application. In addition, CERE supports recompiling and retargeting the extracted codelets. Therefore, CERE can be used for cross-architecture performance prediction or piecewise code optimization. On the SPEC 2006 FP benchmarks, CERE codelets cover 90.9% and accurately replay 66.3% of the execution time. We use CERE codelets in a realistic study to evaluate three different architectures on the NAS benchmarks. CERE accurately estimates each architecture performance and is 7.3 × to 46.6 × cheaper than running the full benchmark.


Joe Sax made his ideas matter. He had consequential ideas that shaped an entire field—in his case, environmental law—both in theory and in practice. His scholarship was first rate and has enduring significance in academia, as evidenced by the fact that two of his law review articles are among the 100 most frequently cited articles of all time. Others are more competent to review the importance of his scholarship; my experience in environmental advocacy is more pertinent to evaluating his impact on environmental policymaking. Here, his ideas have had a greater impact than any other legal academic. As the New York Times observed in the opening sentence of its obituary for Professor Sax, he "helped shape environmental law in the United States and fueled the environmental movement." As environmental law historian Richard Lazarus put it, Sax "provided much of the strategic blueprint followed by the environmental public interest groups," which is still followed more than fifty years after he began his career at the University of Colorado Law School in 1962. How did a self-effacing, erudite, bookish professor come to have such an impact?


Congress often uses its power to preempt state laws when a uniform nationwide regulatory environment is desirable. Unfortunately, preemption may have unintended, far-reaching effects. When Congress enacted the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 ("MDA"), it included an express preemption clause to ensure that only the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") could establish ex ante, premarket requirements for medical devices, thus allowing the Agency to establish a uniform regulatory floor. Just four years later, Congress enacted the Medicare Secondary Payer Act ("MSP"), part of a series of amendments to the Medicare program designed to improve the program's finances. The MSP included provisions that allow the United States to recover payments Medicare had made on behalf of its beneficiaries, by standing in the place of those beneficiaries in state tort actions against tortfeasors. These provisions gave Medicare broad authority to seek recovery from the manufacturers of defective medical devices when the program had paid for the devices. However, in many cases the express preemption clause of the MDA and the Supreme Court's overly broad implied preemption jurisprudence preempt Medicare beneficiaries' state law claims. Since Medicare's ability to recover under the MSP is based on its beneficiaries' rights, the MDA may also prevent Medicare from recovering under the MSP. This collision between two statutes drafted within four years of one another illustrates the unintended effects that a broad preemption doctrine may have. This Comment argues that both Congress and the Supreme Court need to review and narrow the reach of preemption under the MDA — without completely abandoning preemption — so that both the MDA and the MSP may serve the purposes Congress intended.


Purpose: We examine how uncertainty, both about students and the context in which they are taught, remains a persistent condition of teachers' work in high-poverty, urban schools. We describe six schools' organizational responses to these uncertainties, analyze how these responses reflect open- versus closed-system approaches, and examine how this orientation affects teachers' work. Research Methods: We draw on interviews with a diverse set of 95 teachers and administrators across a purposive sample of six high-poverty, urban schools in one district. We analyzed these interviews by drafting thematic summaries, coding interview transcripts, creating data-analytic matrices, and writing analytic memos. Findings: We find that students introduced considerable uncertainty into teachers' work. Although most teachers we spoke with embraced the challenges of their work and the expanded responsibilities that it entailed, they recognized that their individual efforts were not sufficient to succeed. Teachers consistently spoke about the need for organizational responses that addressed the environmental uncertainty of working with students from low-income families whose experience in school often has been unsuccessful. We describe four types of organizational responses—coordinated instructional supports, systems to promote order and discipline, socioemotional supports for students, and efforts to engage parents—and illustrate how these responses affected teachers' ability to manage the uncertainty introduced by their environment. Conclusions: Traditional public schools are open systems and require systematic organizational responses to address the uncertainty introduced by their environments. Uncoordinated individual efforts alone are not sufficient to meet the needs of students in high-poverty urban communities.


We present an experimental study of the generation of second-harmonic light in a one-dimensional periodic structure truncated by the introduction of a defect in the central period. We observed an enhancement of the nonlinear interaction in the vicinity of the defect when the second-harmonic wave was excited for modes within the forbidden zone or stop band. We also observed an enhancement near the band edge, where the group velocity approaches zero. Second-harmonic generation is completely suppressed for local modes within the forbidden band other than the defect mode.


In this article, the authors argue for the use of ecological models of development in studies of teachers prepared through alternative certification (AC) programs. Previous studies of candidates in AC programs have focused on variables that describe their demographic characteristics. An ecological approach focuses on persons and situates their desires and attitudes toward teaching as shaped by their particular life circumstances and personal histories. This approach was applied to a large-scale study of individuals enrolled in California's teacher internship program. The results are the development of six typological profiles that capture some of the complexities behind why individuals choose to enter teaching through AC routes.


Maize leaf weevil (Tanymecus dilaticollis Gyll) is the main pest of this crop in south and south-east of the Romania. Every year, over 1 million hectares with maize are attacked by this pest, crop can be totally damaged if wasn't effected seed or vegetation treatments. In experimental field of Plant Protection Laboratory in frame of National Agricultural Research and Development Institute Fundulea it has studied new generation insecticides, used like correction vegetation treatment for maize leaf weevil control (Calypso 480 SC 0,09 l/ha, Decis Mega 50 EW 0,15 l/ha, Karate Zeon 5 CS 0,15 l/ha, Karate 2,5 WG 0,3 kg/ha). The insecticides assigned a satisfactory protection of the maize plants against this pest, saved plants percent were over 94 % at all treated variants while at untreated plants saved average plants percent, in period 2009-2011, were 79,02 %. Plants height at 50 days after sowing were higher than 159 cm at all treated variants while at control variant were 137,63 cm.


The competitiveness of National Collegiate Association (NCAA) schools increases in intensity each year. With the increased pressure on college sport staffs to be undefeated season after season, coaches have to find ways to keep players happy; to do this, they have to find factors that contribute to unify the players. It is nearly impossible to have a winning season one year and retain that same winning attitude among players. Since the chemistry of teams changes with the new addition of players each year, coaching staff have to be able to maintain a positive bond among players. Coaches have to surround players with the necessities needed to maintain this attitude. This study examines variables that can influence and contribute to sport teams at a college in the northeast of the States. The first part of the research utilizes peer-reviewed articles of previous studies relating to this topic. This includes factors that researches deemed important to the chemistry of a team. The second part of this research examines the result of regression models implemented in this paper. A questionnaire was made and sent to one hundred athletes at the college. Several variables such as class standing, team record, funding, travel accommodations, coaching staff, academic policy are considered to improve team unity. Finally, the result, using SPSS Statistical package, is analyzed and appropriate policy recommendations are suggested. ********** Review of Literature Team unity is not a new phenomenon; it has been around since the beginning of time. Because of the success it can bring to a team, and it continues to be implemented in many areas. Team unity exists in businesses and sports alike. It is used to reach a common goal: success. The success factor, however, depends on how well a team can coexist and the effectiveness of the factors that can help achieve that. In recent years building team unity/cohesiveness has become one of the most popular and widely used tools for improving management relations and organizational effectiveness in the business industry (Yukelson, 1997, p.73). Traditional organizations that implement in individual orientations that do not utilize the power of a team approach can no longer be competitive in the intricate and dynamic world of business (Ibbetson, & Newell, 1996). In today's corporate world, organizations have to boost the morale of its employees to act and operate as a cohesive unified body in order to have a competitive edge. A team consists of different bodies, all with different unique expertise and together operations can run smoothly and efficiently. Building a unified team environment can only yield positive result in the long run. A three year study by Glaser (1994) on teamwork and communication found that participating members reported a change in several areas. They reported an increase in their ability to raise issues, manage conflicts among employees, give mutual praise, support and cooperate. These are all mediums that can goes along way to helping build team unity and help strengthen a company in the long run. Human resource professionals have utilized ropes challenging courses and other experimental based adventure activities to develop communication, trust, leadership, problem solving skills, and the ability for a team to work efficiently with one another (McEvoy, & Cragun, 1997) and cohesion among employees. Over the past decade, organizations have realized that employee involvement and participation are crucial to their success (Glaser, 1994). Activities that are used in a business environment may be not necessary be the same for athletes in regards to sports but, building a sense of cohesion and the paying close attention to variables that may contribute to it is something coaches and employees alive must be aware of. To be successful at anything in life, there has to be factors that work together in order for success to be achieved in the end. …


A 41-year-old African American man presented with the chief complaint of a constant, dull headache for 3 days. The headache had a gradual onset and was associated with nausea and mild neck stiffness that was not relieved by acetaminophen. The man denied experiencing visual disturbances, fever, night sweats, weight loss, cough, shortness of breath, emesis, or weakness. He had no recent history of trauma or sick contacts.


The potential of gene expression programming (GEP) approach for modeling monthly lake levels is investigated. The application of the methodology is presented for the monthly water level data of Van Lake, which is the biggest lake in Turkey. The root mean square errors, mean absolute relative errors, determination coefficient, and modified coefficient of efficiency ( E M ) are used for evaluating the accuracy of the genetic programming-based models. The results of the proposed models are compared with those of the neuro-fuzzy models. The comparison results indicate that the suggested GEP-based models perform better than the neuro-fuzzy models in forecasting monthly lake levels.


Abstract Background: Cervical spondylosis is common and progressive degenerative disease which occurs with the aging process 2. . Cervical spondylosis affects 95% of patients over 65 years. The disease can be asymptomatic and symptomatic (in patients over 40 years). 3 Acupuncture is well accepted and widely used as a treatment to treat symptoms caused by cervical spondylosis. 1 The goal of acupuncture treatment is to improve the flow of Qi energy, so as to regulate its flow, to complement it where there is a deficit and if it has accumulated an excessive amount of energy to be reduced. In this way is restored the balance of the flow of Qi, the energy and health. 4 Purpose: The main purpose of this work is to show the results and efficacy of the research and analysis done for the patients diagnosed with cervical spondylosis treated with acupuncture. Material and methods: In the research were included 30 male and female patients diagnosed with cervical spondylosis in the past year. The treatments were done in the clinic for Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture 'Tong Da Tang' in Skopje by Spec. Dr. Zhu Jihe. All the patients were effectively cured with the treatment, with certain number of treatments. The treatments were done in a closed room on temperature of 25 0 with duration of 35-40 minutes. All the acupoints that were treated for cervical spondylosis are located on the neck and head: Du16 (Fengfu), Du20 (Baihui), Du21 (Qianding), SJ16 (Tiannyou), Bl10 (Tianzhu), SI15 (Jianzhongshu), SI14 ( Jianwaishu). Results: From the analysis, although there is no big difference, we can see that women are more likely to suffer from cervical spondylosis than men. The most common age group is of 50-60 years, with average age for men – 55 and for women 64. Men are affected earlier, by the age of 50 and women by the age of 60. The number of the treatments is different for all the patients, but on average for the efficiency 8 treatments were needed. The most common symptom is neck pain and dizziness and headache may appear as first symptoms of cervical spondylosis. Conclusion: Acupuncture, as a part of the 5000 years old Traditional Chinese Medicine, gives satisfying results in the treatment of cervical spondylosis and this evidence-based research is a proof that it is generally safe and effective treatment. Key words – acupoints, acupuncture, cervical spondylosis, effect, treatment


This article describes a novel approach for finding similar trajectories, using trajectory segmentation based on movement parameters (MPs) such as speed, acceleration, or direction. First, a segmentation technique is applied to decompose trajectories into a set of segments with homogeneous characteristics with respect to a particular MP. Each segment is assigned to a movement parameter class (MPC), representing the behavior of the MP. Accordingly, the segmentation procedure transforms a trajectory to a sequence of class labels, that is, a symbolic representation. A modified version of edit distance called normalized weighted edit distance (NWED) is introduced as a similarity measure between different sequences. As an application, we demonstrate how the method can be employed to cluster trajectories. The performance of the approach is assessed in two case studies using real movement datasets from two different application domains, namely, North Atlantic Hurricane trajectories and GPS tracks of couriers in London. Three different experiments have been conducted that respond to different facets of the proposed techniques and that compare our NWED measure to a related method.


Quantitative geochemical calculations are not possible without thermodynamic databases and considerable advances in the quantity and quality of these databases have been made since the early days of Lewis and Randall (1923), Latimer (1952), and Rossini et al. (1952). Oelkers et al. (2009) wrote, " The creation of thermodynamic databases may be one of the greatest advances in the field of geochemistry of the last century ." Thermodynamic data have been used for basic research needs and for a countless variety of applications in hazardous waste management and policy making (Zhu and Anderson 2002; Nordstrom and Archer 2003; Bethke 2008; Oelkers and Schott 2009). The challenge today is to evaluate thermodynamic data for internal consistency, to reach a better consensus of the most reliable properties, to determine the degree of certainty needed for geochemical modeling, and to agree on priorities for further measurements and evaluations.

Recent attention has been directed to arsenic (As) thermodynamic data, partly because of the worldwide recognition of arsenic poisoning in more than 70 countries (Nordstrom 2002; Ravenscroft et al. 2009) and the need to interpret As mobility more quantitatively in groundwater and surface-water systems. Unfortunately, not as many useful thermodynamic measurements have been made on reactions involving As compared to other major solutes and trace elements. Grenthe et al. (1992), when reviewing As data for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) thermodynamic database on U, stated " Although needed, a complete reanalysis of the chemical thermodynamic data for arsenic species is not within the scope of the current review ." Although a complete reanalysis is not feasible at this time, this chapter reviews As thermodynamic data with a focus on internal consistency and the quality of the original measurements, updates with new data, …


Kersti Loite (MA in traditional technologies) spoke to ethnographer and researcher of national costumes Igor Tonurist. Tonurist has been active as a lecturer on Estonian national costumes since the 1970s and was a member and later the chairman of the national costume unit of the Office of the General Song Festival of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. From 1971–1992, he was the artistic director of the famous Estonian folk music ensemble Leegajus. The discussion concentrated on the ideas and ideologies that have influenced the completion of Estonian national costume sets. The museum collections in Estonia include many separate items of national costumes, but there are few such complete costume sets as worn together in peasant society. Tonurist describes the preferences for the assembly of sets during the Soviet period and the principles he would now be guided by in developing a new national costume for Virumaa. While discussing these themes, issues relating to national costume patterns, suitable jewellery and the different social functions of clothing sets emerged. The roots of the completion of national costume sets in Estonia can be found in the 1930s when a national costume advisory chamber operated at the Estonian National Museum. A book compiled by ethnographer Helmi Kurrik, Eesti rahvaroivad (Estonian National Costumes) (1938), is today considered one of the most important manuals for analysing historic national costumes. During the Soviet era costume sets were completed by ethnographers by supplementing earlier publications and recommendations. On the other hand, in this period choirs and especially dance celebrations were more forcefully directed towards a homogenous colour scheme. It became increasingly common for groups performing in national costumes to wear unified costumes that caught the eye on the dance field and enabled the use of different colours in dance performances. The great influence of dance instructors on the wearing of national costumes had several consequences: certain costume sets (Muhu, Ansekula et al.) became fashionable and were worn everywhere in Estonia; eclectic sets were compiled and unsuitable styles were used; striped skirts became an unpopular choice due to their heterogeneous appearance; and so on. Trained ethnographers and the national costume advisory chamber had little impact on these processes. Nevertheless, attempts were made to develop and train people's tastes in national costumes: groups that wished to use a set worn in their home region were recommended by the advisory chamber to use new costumes and not those already existing, deep-seated sets. These tendencies strengthened during the period of Estonia regaining its independence in the 1990s. When the advisory chamber received orders, these were discussed jointly by the ethnographers and the craftsmen. The solutions offered proceeded from the ethnographic model as much as possible. Tonurist's personal example and the experience of his group Leegajus made it possible for many of the now popular alternatives to come into use. It was he who again recommended the use of short trousers alongside stylised trousers and a more typical short waistcoat alongside the long one; for women he recommended colourful aprons alongside white ones and was an influence for the development of the bead-wearing fashion. Tonurist emphasises that the completion of a national costume set is in fact a generalisation. An ethnographer who introduces typical examples of various regions to people must be familiar with the whole picture. It is worth remembering that some phenomena may be common all over Estonia, but fashion is regional. One craftsman could have serviced a wide region, but homemade embroidery characterised the tastes prevalent in the community and the local sense of beauty. An ethnographer is able to take these discrepancies into account and make broad generalisations. However, people wearing national costumes should not be guided exclusively by the most typical examples but should rather be open to variations as well. Tonurist encourages the use of more diverse sources when assembling new national costume sets: the written sources and materials found in museums can be taken into account, but you should also pay attention to the written descriptions of former national costumes or to paintings in which they are depicted.


In a static network reliability model, one typically assumes that the failures of the components of the network are independent. This simplifying assumption makes it possible to estimate the network reliability efficiently via specialized Monte Carlo algorithms. Hence, a natural question to consider is whether this independence assumption can be relaxed while still attaining an elegant and tractable model that permits an efficient Monte Carlo algorithm for unreliability estimation. In this article, we provide one possible answer by considering a static network reliability model with dependent link failures, based on a Marshall-Olkin copula, which models the dependence via shocks that take down subsets of components at exponential times, and propose a collection of adapted versions of permutation Monte Carlo (PMC, a conditional Monte Carlo method), its refinement called the turnip method, and generalized splitting (GS) methods to estimate very small unreliabilities accurately under this model. The PMC and turnip estimators have bounded relative error when the network topology is fixed while the link failure probabilities converge to 0, whereas GS does not have this property. But when the size of the network (or the number of shocks) increases, PMC and turnip eventually fail, whereas GS works nicely (empirically) for very large networks, with over 5,000 shocks in our examples.


This paper develops a twelve-step process for interdisciplinary research. While indi- vidual researchers cannot be expected to follow all of these steps in every research project, the process alerts them to the dangers of omitting steps. Moreover, communities of interdisciplinary researchers should ensure that all steps are followed. The process draws upon earlier efforts by William (Bill) Newell and Julie Thompson Klein. It also draws inductively upon the debate concerning Newell's theory of interdisciplinarity in the last issue of this journal; all of the con- cerns raised during that debate find a place in this process. Finally, the paper illustrates how several classifications developed by the author facilitate interdisciplinary research.


Trained neural network models, which exhibit many features observed in neural recordings from behaving animals and whose activity and connectivity can be fully analyzed, may provide insights into neural mechanisms. In contrast to commonly used methods for supervised learning from graded error signals, however, animals learn from reward feedback on definite actions through reinforcement learning. Reward maximization is particularly relevant when the optimal behavior depends on an animal's internal judgment of confidence or subjective preferences. Here, we describe reward-based training of recurrent neural networks in which a value network guides learning by using the selected actions and activity of the policy network to predict future reward. We show that such models capture both behavioral and electrophysiological findings from well-known experimental paradigms. Our results provide a unified framework for investigating diverse cognitive and value-based computations, including a role for value representation that is essential for learning, but not executing, a task.


BACKGROUND
Barriers to recruiting and retaining acutely ill older adults in clinical research include complexity of illness, fatigue, and early discharge.

OBJECTIVE
To describe recruitment and retention challenges of examining cognitive dysfunction in older adults hospitalized for acute heart failure.

METHODS
An examination of the reasons for recruitment and retention issues within an acute care, university-affiliated health care system.

RESULTS
Sixty-two patients refused to participate for a variety of reasons; 11 were ineligible, and 27 participants who completed initial data collection refused to participate further because they were too tired, were being discharged on the day of data collection, or were discharged before the next data collection day.

CONCLUSIONS
Multiple barriers to the recruitment and retention of older adults hospitalized for acute heart failure were identified. Strategies are needed to augment recruitment and retention efforts, including expanding the number of data collection sites and allocating sufficient support resources.


Cognitive Radio (CR) is a new paradigm that enable nodes to exploit unoccupied frequency spectrum for transmissions. Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) have been proposed to enable wireless mesh networks to communicate via dynamic channels. Many existing research consider routing in static CRNs with relatively stable communication channel where the duration of the availability of the communication channel is much longer than the communication time. However, there is limited routing related research in dynamic CRNs where the average available duration of the communication channel can be much shorter than the communication time. To address this, we propose a cross-layer cognitive routing protocol, the Opportunistic Service Differentiation Routing Protocol (OSDRP) for the dynamic CRNs. OSDRP discovers the minimum delay - maximum stability route in CRNs by considering the availability of spectrum opportunity in addition to switching delay and queuing delay across primary user networks. In addition, service differentiation is achieved through a combination of transmit power control and opportunistic routing. Simulation results demonstrate that OSDRP can achieve much better performance in terms of lower delay compared to other existing routing protocols in various scenarios.


Victim participation in the sentencing hearing by way of oral victim impact statements (VISs) is a contentious aspect of contemporary criminal justice. A particular concern is that the disjuncture between the legal goals of the sentencing hearing on the one hand and the goals of victims on the other can generate tension and conflict in the courtroom and threaten the integrity of the process. The subject of this article is the management and containment of victim participation in 18 sentencing hearings observed in the NSW Supreme Court. It is argued that various cooling out structures and processes effectively managed and contained the emotional tension in the courtroom as well as assisted victims to adjust to the legal constraints and the compromise inherent in their position in the process.


Social media has become an established tool to engage and maintain customer loyalty. However, its successful use involves a balance between promotion, public relations and corporate social responsibility. Nineteen individuals working in the Australian gambling industry were interviewed. The aim was to explore how gambling operators are using social media to engage with users and promote products, their considerations underpinning these actions, and the extent to which responsible gambling practices are included. All operators were active on social media and used these platforms to attempt to increase customer engagement and strengthen existing relationships. Gambling-related content was usually balanced against non-gambling content, or operators focused exclusively on non-gambling content. Sales goals or raising revenue were not direct aims of social media use. Operators sought to use social media as an indirect way to maintain their customer base and attract new customers via favourable ratings and information transfer. Few operators provided specific responsible gambling messages, despite being mindful of the dangers of targeting vulnerable populations, specifically young people and problem gamblers. This study is unique as it provides an in-depth first-hand account of how gambling operators are using social media.


This literature review focuses on the objectives of the research project which were to: - Update on recent developments in the international literature on SoTL to inform the project- Chart the way SoTL is defined, supported, and embedded in institutional policy in the UK - Provide resources to support institutions in relation to their rewards and promotions processes- Identify strategies to engage students in SoTL- Inform the next iteration of the Higher Education Academy UK Professional Standard Framework The review examines the way SoTL is defined in the literature; SoTL in the disciplines; SoTL as educational development; SoTL in institutions; national frameworks for promoting SoTL; and student engagement with SoTL. The methodology for the review is outlined in paragraph 1.2. The conceptual framework for examining SoTL is discussed in paragraph 2.2. The paper concludes with a set of findings and recommendations emerging from this literature review. These must be read with reference to the Executive Summary which provides an overview of the whole project, and a set of recommendations based on all components of the project.


Author(s): Cappers, Peter; Murphy, Sean | Abstract: The 2017 DOE Staff Report to the Secretary on Electricity Markets and Reliability noted a disconnect between falling wholesale electricity prices and flat or rising retail investor-owned utility (IOU) electricity prices between 2008 and 2016. This analysis sought to assess recent trends in utility costs, retail sales, and/or retail rates vis-a-vis wholesale market prices in order to help explain this disconnect. Using FERC Form 1 and ICE Power Indices data, Berkeley Lab researchers developed key annual metrics between 2007 and 2016 at a regional level for five of the seven NERC regions: Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO), Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC), ReliabilityFirst Corporation (RFC), SERC Reliability Corporation (SERC), and Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). The analyses of these metrics enabled Berkeley Lab researchers to arrive at the following conclusions: ~Retail and wholesale rates were increasingly disconnected across all included NERC regions; ~Reductions in wholesale electricity market prices happened concurrently with reductions in IOU fuel and purchased power (FPP) costs, but sizable regional differences in the degree of FPP cost reductions existed; ~Reductions in IOU FPP costs were offset in part by increases in non-fuel operations and maintenance (OaM) costs, but modest regional differences in the degree of these cost impacts existed; ~Reductions in IOU FPP costs were also offset in part by increases in capital expenditures, but regional differences in the magnitude and type of investments existed; and ~Reductions in retail sales tended to mitigate the effect on retail rates from reductions in total utility costs, but regional differences existed that were sometimes counterintuitive and suggest the value in a more detailed analysis of utility costs vis-a-vis general rate case filings and decisions to better understand retail rate changes over time.


Severe storms often have high flash rates (in excess of one flash per second) and are dominated by intracloud lightning activity. In addition to the extraordinary flash rates, there is a second distinguishing lightning characteristic of severe storms that seems to be important. When the total lightning history is examined, one finds sudden increases in the lightning rate, which we refer to as lightning "jumps," that precede the occurrence of severe weather by ten or more minutes. These jumps are typically 30-60 flashes/min, and are easily identified as anomalously large derivatives in the flash rate. This relationship is associated with updraft intensification and updraft strength is an important factor in storm severity (through the accumulation of condensate aloft and the stretching of vorticity). In several cases, evidence for diminishment of midlevel rotation and the descent of angular momentum from aloft is present prior to the appearance of the surface tornado. Based on our experience with severe and tornadic storms in Central Florida, we believe the total lightning may augment the more traditional use of NEXRAD radars and storm spotters. However, a more rigorous relation of these jumps to storm kinematics is needed if we are to apply total lightning in a decision tree that leads to improved warning lead times and decreased false alarm rates.


The physical properties of ethylene-styrene (ES) copolymers, like many other copolymers, are determined primarily by copolymer composition. ES copolymers may also contain a small amount of polystyrene. It is important to quantify the copolymerized styrene and polystyrene in ES copolymers. The difficulty associated with this analysis, however, arises from the fact that copolymerized styrene and polystyrene have a similar infrared spectrum. The quantitative analysis of ethylene-styrene copolymers by the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) technique, combined with the partial least squares (PLS) method, is described. The use of the PLS method facilitates the analysis. The PLS factors, which are calculated iteratively to maximize the covariance between the independent variable and the dependent variable in PLS, remove the collinearity problem present in the original spectral data, and make this analysis possible. The standard error of calibration (SEC) for 60 samples included in the calibration is 0.19% for polystyrene and 0.48% for copolymerized styrene. The standard error of prediction (SEP) for polystyrene and copolymerized styrene, calculated from 120 samples that were excluded from the calibration, is 0.25 and 0.51%, respectively.


PURPOSE
To investigate longitudinal changes of subbasal nerve plexus (SNP) morphology and its relationship with conventional measures of neuropathy in individuals with diabetes.

METHODS
A cohort of 147 individuals with type 1 diabetes and 60 age-balanced controls underwent detailed assessment of clinical and metabolic factors, neurologic deficits, quantitative sensory testing, nerve conduction studies, and corneal confocal microscopy at baseline and four subsequent annual visits. The SNP parameters included corneal nerve fiber density (CNFD), branch density (CNBD), and fiber length (CNFL), and were quantified using a fully automated algorithm. Linear mixed models were fitted to examine the changes in corneal nerve parameters over time.

RESULTS
At baseline, 27% of the participants had mild diabetic neuropathy. All SNP parameters were significantly lower in the neuropathy group compared with controls (P < 0.05). Overall, 89% of participants examined at baseline also completed the final visit. There was no clinically significant change to health and metabolic parameters and neuropathy measures from baseline to the final visit. Linear mixed model revealed a significant linear decline of CNFD (annual change rate, -0.9 nerve/mm(2), P = 0.01) in the neuropathy group compared with controls, which was associated with age (β = -0.06, P = 0.04) and duration of diabetes (β = -0.08, P = 0.03). In the neuropathy group, absolute changes of CNBD and CNFL showed moderate correlations with peroneal conduction velocity and cold sensation threshold, respectively (r, 0.38 and 0.40, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates dynamic small fiber damage at the SNP, thus providing justification for our ongoing efforts to establish corneal nerve morphology as an appropriate adjunct to conventional measures of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.


Abstract The search for representative resistant systems for a concrete structure requires deep knowledge about its mechanical behavior. Strut-and-tie models are classic analysis procedures to the design of reinforced concrete regions where there are stress concentrations, the so-called discontinuous regions of the structure. However, this model is strongly dependent of designer's experience regarding the compatibility between the internal flow of loads, the material's behavior, the geometry and boundary conditions. In this context, the present work has the objective of presenting the application of the strut-and-tie method in linear and non-linear on some typical structural elements, using the Evolutionary Topological Optimization Method (ESO). This optimization method considers the progressive reduction of stiffness with the removal of elements with low values of stresses. The equivalent truss system resulting from the analysis may provide greater safety and reliability.


Kites have been known to man for thousands of years. Their invention is somewhat of a mystery in itself. Kites have played major roles in art, religion and science. But even after thousands of years, the kite as a flying object has seen a relatively small amount of scientific research. Compared with another popular flying object, the airplane, it seems to have seriously lagged behind in the last 100 years. Using kites for energy generation would seem like a viable way to tap into the energy contained within the winds at high altitude. The Laddermill is a project at the Delft University of Technology, which envisions this very thing. But in the design of the Laddermill, it becomes more and more apparent that the scientific research of kites has lagged behind. This paper will go into the reasons for this, and will attempt to lay down a path through which kites can mature and become a serious player in the energy generation sector.


The extend of the Greenland ice sheet during the Plio/Pleistocene of East Greenland is largely unknown. It is assumed that in this period shelf regions were repeatedly eroded and formed by glaciers. Present - day bathymetry, particularly in the fjords shows prominent troughs which were probably formed by fast flowing ice currents. Information on the intensity and frequency of the glacial periods can be derived from seismic data from the East Greenland continental margin. Shelf sediments show clearly prograding sequences, which are indications of glacial influence.A comparison of seismic profiles from 2003 demonstrates that the progradation of the shelf decreases from north to south. Prograding sequences on the northern profile (AWI-20030390) are visible over a distance of 75 km. The glacial structures on the profile AWI-20030350 extends only over 38 km. While high sedimentation rates are recognisable between glacial periods in the southern part of the investigation area, topsets are eroded on the northern profiles. For this region, either strong glacial erosion or lower sedimentation rates between erosional cycles can be suggested.Data processing shows that the velocity structure is complex. The glacially influenced shelf region is not only visible in the sedimentary reflectors, but also in their velocity struture. The velocity gradient inside the upper sediments is very high ans velocities of about 2100 m/s can be expected. An analysis of seismic refraction data confirms this assumption. Furthermore, low-velocity-zones are located in the subsurface at the continental shelf to continental slope transition. On profile AWI-20030390, about one kilometer below the prograding sequences, a low-velocity-zone is visible where velocity decreases from 2700 m/s to 2400 m/s.First results of this campaign will be introduced.


Wet powder suspensions (WPS) are used to develop latent fingermarks found on a range of semi-porous and non-porous surfaces, including wetted surfaces. Despite their effectiveness the interaction between the latent fingermark and the WPS is unknown. This study aimed to investigate inter and intra person variation when latent fingermarks are developed with iron oxide WPS. Participants deposited natural, groomed eccrine and groomed sebaceous fingermarks. The latent fingermarks were developed using iron-oxide based WPS, graded and statistically analysed. A multiple regression test was used to analyse the effect of time since deposition, depletion number and condition of sweat on the fingermark grade (dependent variable). The resulting R value of 0.257 confirmed that the independent variables only had a small effect on the dependent variable. A Kruskal Wallis test indicated that there were statistically significant differences in fingermark grade between some participants (p ≤ 0.001). This suggested that some participants' residue contained one or more specific constituents or properties that the WPS was preferentially adhering to, in a higher quantity or arrangement than other participants.


The past two decades had witnessed tremendous increase in the role of NGOs in various walks of life and it is now an established fact that their role cannot be sidelined any state while formulating and implemented the her policies. The number of NGOs has grown tremendously and so their functions, conservatively estimated at between 6,000 and 8,000....  They are bringing the voice of voiceless and marginalized to the centers of power, enforcing accountability, building responsive and transparent systems. They are performing an important task in the arena of social, cultural, economic and political activity alongside the state and market. They are being perceived as a constructive power building vibrant democracy and people oriented development. Its absence is being considered as a criterion for authoritarian move. This paper is an attempt to shed light on the emerging role of NGOs in world politics, making an assessment with regard to their gains in the socio-political arena.

 Key World: NGOs, Role, Politics, Human Rights, Public Policy, State, UN, Lobbying.


INTRODUCTION: Overweight and obesity in children can deteriorate physical and psychological health in the short, mid, and long term; alterations like dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance and other cardiovascular risk factors like prehypertension and hypertension occur more frequently in children and teens with obesity. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the weight status and the aerobic capacity of schoolers in Tijuana, Mexico. METHODS: This study's samples were constituted by 275 children, 135 girls and 140 boys from 5th and 6th grade, between the ages of 10-12, currently enrolled in the morning and evening shifts. Weight, height, body-mass index and the maximum oxygen consumption (20 meter Shuttle Run Test) were evaluated. To identify relationship between the weight status with the aerobic capacity, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used. RESULTS: The overweight and obesity prevalence were 29% and 13% in boys and 33% and 12% in girls respectably. It was observed a moderate negative correlation but statistically significant between the weight status with the aerobic capacity (r= -0.437, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: In this population, the greater the weight was associated with low aerobic capacity. In conclusion, the aerobic capacity could be affected due to overweight, obesity, and a superior corporal weight than the recommended one for a certain height.


In article features of interaction of institutes of the state, business, science and education reveal during creation and introduction of new hi-tech production. The author gives classification of interaction's forms of innovative process's participants in the conditions of globalization of economy which, depending on a structural component, includes: institutes of the state support (allocation of budgetary funds to the research organizations, granting grants, etc.); programs of support of integration of the higher education and fundamental science; the international cooperation in the scientific and technological sphere. In article the tendencies which have laid down in a basis of transformation of economy are allocated: the increased need for creation of communication networks as new basis of creation of communications on interaction of the state, business and science; change of "a leading link" relationship; globalization. Analyzing each form of interaction and its structural components, in article world and domestic experience, taking into account both existing, and perspective programs of development is considered.


The cornerstone of contemporary nursing home care is a commitment to patient rehabilitation. Improved care is an important and worthwhile goal, but it is a goal that has yet to make room for the dying. A significant proportion of older people will spend their final days in a nursing home. This article calls for a culture shift in nursing home care to promote improved care for not only those who can be rehabilitated but also those who are dying. This article begins by addressing challenges to achieving this culture that are particular to the nursing home context. It then explains how adjusting the general framework for end of life decision-making to better account for the nursing home context can help make room for the dying. End of life care should be framed around issues that commonly face the dying rather than the extreme scenario of, for example, the person in the vegetative state. Focusing on more common issues may help to reduce incidences of unnecessary hospitalization and improve pain treatment at the end of life. The article concludes by considering three fundamental assumptions in the current structure for end of life decision-making that are particularly ill-suited to the nursing home environment. First, the concept that palliative care is synonymous with "care for the dying" may cause providers to withhold such care until an individual is labeled as "dying." Second, it is problematic to single-mindedly focus on the autonomy of the patient in end of life decisions when family members and caregivers are integrally involved in long-term care. Third and finally, the legal structure of end of life decisions weighs in favor of medical intervention, and this may affect one's ability to opt for palliative care.


Distant metastases are the main cause of death in patients with medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). These 21 recommendations focus on MTC patients with distant metastases and a detailed followup protocol of patients with biochemical or imaging evidence of disease, selection criteria for treatment, and treatment modalities, including local and systemic treatments based on the results of recent trials. Asymptomatic patients with low tumor burden and stable disease may benefit from local treatment modalities and can be followed up at regular intervals of time. Imaging is usually performed every 6–12 months, or at longer inter vals of time depending on the doubling times of serum calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen levels. Patients with symptoms, large tumor burden and progression on imaging should receive systemic treatment. Indeed, major progress has recently been achieved with novel targeted therapies using kinase inhibitors directed against RET and VEGFR, but further research is needed to improve the outcome of these patients.


The article illustrates the fundamental characteristics of the Franciscan Theological School of the thirteenth century, dealing specifically with the works of Alexander of Hales, Olivi and Scotus. The concept of theology is summarily examined in the context of these author.s works as well as in relationship with the use of philosophy. Later, their doctrine on contemplation and mystical experience is briefly reviewed. Furthermore, the article attempts to identify the possible links between the three described dimensions in order to discover various traits of the Franciscan School. As a result, the author is able to offer some reflections on the possibilities of Franciscan Theology for the present time.


Some years ago a number of historians argued that the urban environment of early twentieth-century America was so destructive for African Americans that it invariably led to widespread poverty, family disintegration, and overall community disorientation.(1) More recently, however, scholars of black urban life in the North and South have countered that this view wrongly discounts the persisting strength of black cultural life.(2) This essay examines the familial, religious, and educational life of blacks in the Southern city of Tampa, Florida, between 1900 and 1930 and finds much evidence to support the latter view. Family, church and school were fundamental institutions within the African American community which worked in concert not only to assure black survival in the face of adversity, but in many instances allowed black people to prosper and advance in spite of a rigid caste system. Because of the strength of these institutions in Tampa, as well as in many Southern and Northern cities, the breakdown of the black community did not occur to the extent that historians once thought. Enduring almost overwhelming misfortune in the forms of economic privation, white supremacy, segregation, disfranchisement, and white violence, blacks developed strong institutions that created and sustained a vigorous, coherent sense of community. Although scholars have examined the history of African Americans in numerous Southern and Florida cities, surprisingly little has been written about the black community of Tampa, one of the South's most unique cities, well known for its Latin flavor, high quality Havana cigars and Cuban cuisine. During the early decades of the present century, the energy and labor of Tampa's African Americans contributed significantly to the town's dramatic growth into an important multicultural, urban manufacturing center.(3) As a boom town its expansion was nothing short of phenomenal as the overall population leaped from 15,839 in 1900, to 37,782 in 1910, to 51,608 in 1920, and finally to 101,161 in 1930.(4) Despite their origins in the Old South, Tampa and surrounding Hillsborough County have been classified by historians as "largely a product of the New South" because values and institutions from the late nineteenth century dominated life there through the 1920s. Furthermore, this community displayed a number of features commonly associated with other Southern urban regions: outside capital financed its development into an industrial center; Southern-born whites comprised the local elite; and the New South biracial caste system was the rule in race relations.(5) Nevertheless, in some important respects Tampa resembled many Northern cities. Like Pittsburgh and Chicago, for example, in the early decades of the twentieth century it experienced not only a sizable influx of foreign-born immigrants (largely Italians and Hispanics in the case of Tampa) and rural blacks seeking economic opportunity, but also the social and racial tensions that accompanied such circumstances. Tampa's black population multiplied significantly in the early years of the century as it grew from 4,382 in 1900, to 8,951 in 1910, to 11,531 in 1920, and 21,172 in 1930. Even so, it clearly grew at a slower rate than the white population, declining from about 28 percent of the total in 1900 to some 21 percent in 1930. Additionally, census records reveal that Tampa's black community in those years was of diverse origins: in 1920, 39.8 percent of the city's blacks were born outside of Florida, and in 1930 it was up to 43.7 percent.(6) Tampa appears to have attracted many of its new black residents from the farms and villages, not only from the Florida countryside, but from other nearby Southern states such as Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia as well as from Cuba and the West Indies.(7) They undoubtedly came to escape the insecurity of rural life or to experience the attractions of the metropolis; but above all, they came seeking economic betterment in one of the South's most rapidly expanding municipalities. …


ABSTRACT We examined response of small mammals to woody invasion of tallgrass prairie in northeastern Kansas by sampling sites that ranged from 0 to 100% in woody cover (i.e., frequently burned prairie to unburned closed-canopy gallery forest; woody coverage mapped from satellite imagery). Abundance and biomass of small mammals initially increased with increasing woody vegetation, but then decreased to their lowest level at 100% woody cover. Richness was greatest (an average of seven species) where woody cover was ≤17% and decreased to one species where woody cover was 100%. Abundance of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) increased as woody cover increased from 0 to 62% cover, but decreased in forested sites (100% cover). Abundance of western harvest mice (Reithrodontomys megalotis) decreased as woody cover increased; they were not recorded in forested sites. Deer mice (P. maniculatus) were present in sites with no to low levels of woody vegetation, but were absent in sites with moderate to high levels of woody cover. The 11 species captured were recorded in sites that had little woody vegetation (≤17% cover), whereas only seven species were captured at sites where considerable woody vegetation (≥28% cover) occurred. Even white-footed mice and eastern woodrats, which are considered woodland forms, decreased in abundance or were absent from forested sites. Overall, the results demonstrate that even relatively small amounts of woody vegetation in prairie landscapes can alter abundance, biomass and species richness and composition of small mammal communities.


Energy and cost performance optimization for commercial building system design is growing in popularity, but it is often criticized for its time consuming process. Moreover, the current process lacks integration, which not only affects time performance, but also investors' confidence in the predicted performance of the generated design. Such barriers keep building owners and design teams from embracing life cycle cost consideration. This thesis proposes a computationally efficient design optimization platform to improve the time performance and to streamline the workflow in an integrated multi-objective building system design optimization process. First, building system cost estimation is typically completed through a building information model based quantity take-off process, which does not provide sufficient design decision support features in the design process. To remedy this issue, an automatic cost estimation framework that integrates EnergyPlus with an external database to perform building systems' capital and operation costs is proposed. Optimization, typically used for building system design selection, requires a large amount of computational time. The optimization process evaluates building envelope, electrical and HVAC systems in an integrated system not only to explore the cost-saving potential from a single high performance system, but also the interrelated effects among different systems. An innovative optimization strategy that integrates machine learning techniques with a conventional evolutionary algorithm is proposed. This strategy can reduce run time and improve the quality of the solutions. Lastly, developing baseline energy models typically takes days or weeks depending on the scale of the design. An automated system for generating baseline energy model according to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 performance rating method is thus proposed to provide a quick appraisal of optimal designs in comparison with the baseline energy requirements. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a new design optimization platform to expedite the conventional decision making process. The platform integrates three systems: (1) cost estimation, (2) optimization and (3) benchmark comparison for minimizing the first cost and energy operation costs. This allows designers to confidently select an optimal design with high performance building systems by making a comparison with the minimum energy baseline set by standards in the building industry. Two commercial buildings are selected as case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this platform. One building is the Center for Sustainable Landscapes in Pittsburgh, PA. This case study is used as a new construction project. With 54 million possible design solutions, the platform is able to identify optimal designs in four hours. Some of the design solutions not only save the operation costs by up to 23% compared to the ASHRAE baseline design, but also reduce the capital cost ranging from 5% to 23%. Also, compared with the ASHRAE baseline design, one design solution demonstrates that the high investment of a product, building integrative photovoltaic (BiPV) system, can be justified through the integrative design optimization approach by the lower operation costs (20%) as well as the lower capital cost (12%). The second building is the One Montgomery Plaza, a large office building in Norristown, PA. This case study focuses on using the platform for a retrofit project. The calibrated energy model requires one hour to complete the simulation. There are 4000 possible design solutions proposed and the platform is able to find the optimal design solution in around 50 hours. Similarly, the results indicate that up to 25% capital cost can be saved with $1.7 million less operation costs in 25 years, compare to the ASHRAE baseline design.