The gray-code kernels (GCK) family, which has Walsh Hadamard transform on sliding windows as a member, is a family of kernels that can perform image analysis efficiently using a fast algorithm, such as the GCK algorithm. The GCK has been successfully used for pattern matching. In this paper, we propose that the G4-GCK algorithm is more efficient than the previous algorithm in computing GCK. The G4-GCK algorithm requires four additions per pixel for three basis vectors independent of transform size and dimension. Based on the G4-GCK algorithm, we then propose the segmented GCK. By segmenting input data into Ls parts, the SegGCK requires only four additions per pixel for 3Ls basis vectors. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly accelerate the full-search equivalent pattern matching process and outperforms state-of-the-art methods.


The effect of adding a third component, oils (1-hexene, n-decane, 1-decene) or water soluble protein (lysozyme) on the lyotropic liquid crystalline phase behaviour of hexaethylene glycol n-hexadecyl ether (C16E06) and water ( 2H20) mixtures has been investigated. A combination of optical microscopy and 2H NIVIR spectroscopic measurements were carried out to establish the phase diagram upon addition of oils and lysozyme. Having established the phase behaviour, small angle x-ray scattering experiments were used to elucidate the detailed structure of the lyotropic phases formed.
Oils are hydrophobic additives that have good compatibility with the alkyl chains of the surfactant. The oil molecules either penetrate into the gaps between the surfactant chains or locate in the centre of the interlayer, resulting in phase swelling. 1-Hexene, the most penetrating of the oils, locates between the surfactant chains causing the surface area per molecule, S. to increase. This makes the head-group EO chains more accessible to water and results in Pb increasing, thus increasing At'. For n-octadecane, both Av and S. hardly change from the values for the binary system, showing very little effect of the added oil on the head-group region of the amphiphiles and confirming its almost ideal swelling character. Irrespective of the oil type added, at high enough concentration there is a loss of phases with high interfacial curvature and ultimately
phase separation. The Mh i (R3m) phase is destabilised at low oil concentrations because the interlayer interaction is destabilised by the swelling of the alkyl chain region and the changing water layer thickness. The Mh1(0) phase has a wider range than the Mh1(R3m) phase, but smaller than the L. phase, indicating that the oils are affecting the rigidity of the interface, discouraging the formation of curved interfaces and suppressing the water-filled defects. The L a phase, with no interfacial curvature, is destabilised only by phase separation. At high concentrations of n-octadecane with alkyl chain volume fractions of nearly 0.5, of which 0.25 is derived from the n-octadecane, the phase separates into oil rich and oil poor components.
Lysozyme acts as a relatively passive additive to the aqueous region of the phase structures in this system. At higher concentrations it has the effect of competing for solvent water with the EO head-groups and destabilising the interlayer interaction. For all phases except the Mh1(R3m) phase, this results in a phase separation into a water and lysozyme rich phase, which at 50 °C is another lamellar phase, or below circa 43°C, an isotropic micellar, L1 phase. The Mh j (R3m) phase is destabilised at a low concentration of oil to form a single Mh1(0) phase. This transition may have more to do
with the destabilisation of the sensitive interlayer interaction than the loss of correlation between the layers. The Mh1(0) phase has the most stability to the addition of lysozyme, because it has the largest aqueous voids in its structure and is not sensitive to the interlayer interaction.


AIMS
To explore adult experiences of fatigue after discharge from an intensive care unit and identify potential management strategies.

DESIGN
An exploratory qualitative study.

METHODS
One to one audio-recorded semi-structured interviews with 17 adult survivors of critical illness in the United Kingdom, lasting up to 1 h, between September 2019 and January 2020. Anonymised and verbatim-transcribed interview data underwent a standard process of inductive thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke.

FINDINGS
Three themes were identified: fatigue is different for everyone; complex interrelating interactions; and personalised fatigue strategies. Fatigue was described as a distressing symptom, unique to the individual that causes an array of complex, often long-term interrelating impacts on the survivor and their wider family, made worse by a lack of understanding, empathy and support resources. Support from others, alongside interventions such as exercise, good nutrition, information and alternative therapies are used by survivors with variable degrees of success.

CONCLUSIONS
This qualitative study reports peoples' experiences of fatigue after critical illness. Findings highlight the significant impact it has on people's lives and those of their family and friends.


Sediment cores from southeastern Tanzania contain exceptionally well-preserved calcareous and organic-walled microfossils in numerous samples spanning from the Aptian to the Miocene. The unusually high quality of preservation is commonly attributed to shallow burial and high clay content of the host sediments. However, such attributes apply to many deposits that are not characterized by exceptional preservation, and, thus, invoking only grain size and burial depth is clearly an incomplete explanation for the exceptional microfossil preservation. In an attempt to better characterize additional factors that were important in creating the Tanzanian microfossil lagerstatte, we integrated a wide range of paleontological, geochemical, and sedimentological observations to constrain the paleoenvironmental and early diagenetic conditions of a Turonian interval where exceptional preservation is common. Planktic microfossil assemblages suggest that open-ocean surface-water conditions prevailed at the site, but, despite excellent organic matter preservation, marine biomarkers are rare. The sediments are dominantly composed of terrigenous silts and clays and terrestrially derived organic matter. Paleontological and geochemical observations record a remarkably stable interval dominated by excellent preservation through the Lower−Middle Turonian. During the Middle−Upper Turonian, though, the preservation quality declines, and this is associated with notable shifts in foraminiferal assemblages, palynological species diversity, carbon and sulfur isotope compositions, and biomarker distributions. The integrated data suggest that an increase in subsurface microbial activity and associated changes in pore-water chemistry were important proximate variables that led to the decline in the quality of microfossil preservation up section within these shallowly buried, Turonian silty claystones from Tanzania.


A combination of the two remote sensing systems, imaging spectrometry (IS) and Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR), is well suited to map fuel types, especially within the complex wildland urban interface. LiDAR observations sample the spatial information dimension describing geometric surface properties. Imaging spectrometry on the other hand samples the spectral dimension, which is sensitive for discrimination of species and surface types. As a non-parametric classifier Support Vector Machines (SVM) are particularly well adapted to classify data of high dimensionality and from multiple-sources as proposed in this work. The presented approach achieves an improved land cover mapping based on a single SVM classifier combining the spectral and spatial information dimensions provided by imaging spectrometry and LiDAR.


The amygdala is central to emotional processing of sensory stimuli, including pain. Because recent findings suggest that individual differences in emotional processes play a part in the development of chronic pain, a better understanding of the individual patterns of functional connectivity that make individuals susceptible to emotionally modulated facilitation of pain is needed. We therefore investigated the neural correlates of individual differences in emotional pain facilitation using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) with amygdala seed.Thirty-seven participants took part in 3 separate sessions, during which pain sensitivity was tested (session 1), participants underwent rs-fMRI (session 2), and emotional pain modulation was assessed (session 3). Amygdala served as seed for the rs-fMRI analysis and whole-brain voxelwise connectivity was tested. Pain modulatory scores were entered as regressor for the group analysis.Stronger connectivity of the amygdala to S1/M1, S2/operculum, and posterior parietal cortex at rest characterized individuals who showed greater pain facilitation by negative emotions. When comparing the amygdala networks associated with pain unpleasantness and with pain intensity modulation, most of the identified areas were equally related to either pain rating type; only amygdala connectivity to S1/M1 was found to predict pain intensity modulation specifically.We demonstrate that trait-like patterns of functional connectivity between amygdala and cortical regions involved in sensory and motor responses are associated with the individual amplitude of pain facilitation by negative emotional states. Our results are an early step towards improved understanding of the mechanisms that give rise to individual differences in emotional pain modulation.


Charitable status is self-evidently a key framework for a great deal of voluntary activity in the United Kingdom (UK) and in an increasing number of overseas jurisdictions. This article offers a critical review of the processes involved in revising the definition of 'charity' in the UK over the
last 20 years, with specific attention to the principle of public benefit. It considers particularly the impact of the Deakin (1996) Commission and the subsequent reform of charity law enacted for England and Wales in the Charities Act 2006, plus the parallel changes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The aim is not to offer a detailed legal analysis, but more to consider how these changes to the definition of 'charity' impact on voluntary activity more widely.


ABSTRACT SMC (structural maintenance of chromosomes) proteins play fundamental roles in various aspects of chromosome organization and dynamics, including repair of DNA damage. Mutant strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis defective in SMC were constructed. Surprisingly, inactivation of smc did not result in recognizable phenotypes in hallmark assays characteristic for the function of these genes. This is in contrast to data for smc null mutants in other species.


Bordetella hinzii infects primarily poultry and immunocompromised humans. Although initially thought to be nonpathogenic in poultry, it was recently shown that some strains cause disease in turkey poults indistinguishable from the clinical presentation of turkey coryza caused by Bordetella avium. B. hinzii and B. avium are closely related and share many genetic and phenotypic traits. Distinguishing between these bacteria is difficult and there is no method for identification of B. hinzii suitable for use by diagnostic laboratories. The ompA gene was identified as a potential target for a B. hinzii-specific PCR based on DNA sequence comparisons of amplicons from several candidate genes obtained from a limited number of B. hinzii and B. avium isolates. A PCR assay based on the ompA gene was designed for further testing. Assay sensitivity is 100% based on analysis of 48 B. hinzii isolates from diverse geographic locations representing all known ribotypes. Evaluation of 71 isolates of B. avium and 20 other bacterial isolates from poultry, comprising gram-negative and gram-positive commensals and pathogens of 9 genera, demonstrated an assay specificity of 100%. Reproducibility is 100% using either purified genomic DNA or cell lysates. The ompA PCR is a rapid, reliable and accurate method for identification of B. hinzii. It provides a valuable new tool for veterinary diagnostic laboratories investigating poultry respiratory disease outbreaks and may also be of value in the diagnosis of human infection.


Amir Naderi is one of Iran's most internationally acclaimed directors, and he is considered to be among the central figures in the nation's postrevolutionary film industry. Paradoxically, his choice to leave Iran in hopes of expanded artistic opportunities in the United States has cost him the critical and scholarly recognition bestowed on his former compatriots Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf. This essay seeks to address this imposed cultural exile by analyzing Naderi's work and situating him as an important diasporic Iranian filmmaker. Films discussed include The Runner (1985), the Manhattan Trilogy (1993–2002), Sound Barrier (2005), and Vegas: Based on a True Story (2008). The analysis foregrounds continuities of displacement and confinement between Naderi's films about Iran and his subsequent portraits of the United States. The journeys and paths undertaken by Naderi's protagonists are explored as reflections of a diasporic filmmaker who left the constraints of one home for the limitations of another.


International adoption from Korea constitutes the background to this study. The forced migration of Korean children has by now continued for over half a century, resulting in a diaspora of more than 150,000 adopted Koreans dispersed among 15 main host countries on the continents of Europe, North America and Oceania. Both the demographic scope, the time span and the geographic spread are absolutely unique in a comparative historical child migratory perspective, and still over 2,000 children leave Korea annually. This massive intercontinental displacement and dispersal of Korean children was, for many years, silently taking place in the shadow of Korea's transformation from a war‐torn and poverty‐stricken country to a formidable economic success story in the postcolonial world. Even if the subject of international adoption and adopted Koreans turned up now and then in the political debate throughout the years, it was not until the end of the 1980s that a comprehensive discussion started. Ever since, the adoption issue (ibyang munjê) has been haunting Korea as a recurrent subject in Korean media and popular culture. This paper is a reading of the pop group Clon's song Abandoned Child from 1999 and the world‐famous Korean director Park Kwang‐su's film Berlin Report from 1991 where adopted Koreans are seen as symbols of a divided and dispersed nation. With the background of Korean nationalism with its notion of the nation as family and its strong emphasis on homogeneity and continuity, the point of departure is the very existence of the adopted Koreans as a delicate threat to nationalist ideology, causing anxieties of disrupting a supposedly fixed and unified national identity, and calling into question what it means to be Korean and who belongs to the Korean nation. The reading is grounded on the fact that the subject of separated families is considered to be one of the most important aspects of the Korean reunification discourse, and has become a powerful metaphor of the Korean nation itself. Abandoned Child is the most typical of Korean adoption songs in representing the fate of Korea's 150,000 lost children, and the adoptee of the song is easily transformed into a powerful symbol of one of Korea's numerous separated families. In Berlin Report, the divided and dispersed Korean nation is represented by two separated adopted Koreans longing and searching for each other as the adoption issue is set upon the reunification issue, and their individual traumas become the national trauma of all Koreans.


To meet the new DBP rules, ozone doses will have to be minimized to control bromate formation. In some surface water treatment plants, this situation may become of concern, since disinfection will have to be maintained at the current level. Alternative disinfection means such as UV have therefore to be evaluated, and this study was designed to evaluate the impact of MP-UV on water quality parameters such as atrazine, BDOC or nitrites, to determine whether such a treatment step should be inserted before or after the current GAC filtration unit. According to the results shown here, this question is not an issue under conditions needed for Cryptosporidium inactivation.


Highly crystalline perovskite ceramics were templated by an eggshell membrane (ESM) via strong metal-protein bonding. Templated Sm0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (SSC) ceramics retained an interwoven fibrous structure at a temperature up to 1000 °C. The use of citric acid-assisted sol–gel coating in the template synthesis greatly enhanced the crystallininty of the ceramic because the sol–gel process ensured the stoichiometric adsorption of ceramic precursors, and it also affected ceramic morphology. The highly crystalline SSC ceramic was used as a cathode material of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), and the cathode properties were compared with those prepared with the ceramic synthesized via a conventional combustion method. The maximum power density of the cell made with the templated SSC was 44.5% and 29.8% higher than that made with the combusted SSC at 600 °C and 500 °C, respectively, because the highly porous cathode constructed with the templated SSC reduced the cell concentration polarization and cathode polarization resistance. This study suggests high-performance perovskite ceramic for SOFC was produced via the template synthesis.


This brief argues that permissive religious accommodations violate the Establishment Clause and conflict with Free Exercise Clause and Title VII accommodation decisions when they impose significant costs of practicing the accommodated religion on those who do not believe or participate in it. For-profit employer exemptions from the Affordable Care Act contraception mandate under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act would constitute congressional and federal judicial action that violates the Establishment Clause, by shifting significant costs of observing religious beliefs against contraception from the employers who hold them to employees who don't. The brief concludes that keeping federal government action within the structural limits set by the Establishment Clause is a compelling interest that justifies denial of for-profit employer exemptions from the mandate under RFRA.Amici on the brief are Frederick Mark Gedicks (Brigham Young University Law School), Vincent Blasi (Columbia Law School); Caitlin Borgmann (CUNY School of Law), Caroline Mala Corbin (University of Miami School of Law), Sarah Barringer Gordon (University of Pennsylvania Law School & Dept. of History), Steven K. Green (Willamette University College of Law), Leslie C. Griffin (William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas), B. Jessie Hill (Case Western Reserve University School of Law), Andrew M. Koppelman (Northwestern University Law School & Dept. of Political Science), Martha C. Nussbaum (The University of Chicago Law School & Dept. of Philosophy); Eduardo Penalver (The University of Chicago Law School); Michael J. Perry (Emory University School of Law); Frank S. Ravitch (Michigan State University College of Law), Zoe Robinson (DePaul University College of Law), Lawrence Sager (University of Texas at Austin School of Law), Richard Schragger (University of Virginia School of Law), Micah Schwartzman (University of Virginia School of Law), Elizabeth Sepper (Washington University School of Law), Steven H. Shiffrin (Cornell University Law School), Nelson Tebbe (Brooklyn Law School) & Laura Underkuffler (Cornell University Law School).Catherine Weiss, Natalie Kraner, Michael J. Hampson, Joseph A. Fischetti & Meg Slachetka of Lowenstein Sandler LLP served as counsel to the Amici.


With hundreds of processing units in current state-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs), the probability that one or more processing units fail due to permanent faults, during fabrication or post deployment, increases drastically. In our experiments we found that the loss of a single streaming multiprocessor (SM) in an 8-SM GPU resulted in as much as 16%performance loss. The default method for dealing with faulty SMs is to turn them off. Although faulty SMs cannot be trusted to completely execute a single kernel (program assigned to an SM) correctly, we show that we can still make use of these SMs to improve system throughput by generating and supplying high-level hints to other functional SMs. By making the faulty SMs supply hints to functional SMs, we have been able to achieve an average speed-up of about 16 % over the baseline case (wherein the faulty SMs are turned off). The proposed technique requires minimal hardware overhead and is highly scalable.


A feminist activist in Toronto, the author recounts her experience of managing the 'women's safety audits' initiative for the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women (METRAC), an organization established in 1984 in response to a large number of assaults on women in public places in the City with the founding mandate to be "a catalyst for change." The 'women's safety audit' – based on the fundamental belief that women are the experts of their own experience - was developed in 1989 by METRAC to address the problem of women's unequal access to public space and their unequal participation in planning decisions that affected their sense of safety in their communities. In this article the author discusses the impact of the safety audits both in terms of effective changes to personal safety and empowerment for women and highlights the need that these initiatives – that have been adapted to different contexts and groups of women – are developed as partnerships between the women who have local safety concerns and key stakeholders such as elected representatives, city officials or the police, who have the authority to implement recommended changes.


INTRODUCTION
The main objective of this study was to determine the mental health status of population aged 15 and over in the province of Ardebil in 2015.

METHODS
The statistical population of this cross-sectional field survey consisted of residents of urban and rural areas of Ardebil province in Iran. An estimated sample size of 1200 people were chosen using systematic random cluster sampling. Access was provided by the contribution of Geographical Post Office of Ardebil, Pars abad and Germi cities. The General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was used as the screening tool for mental disorders. Data analysis in the current study was carried out using the SPSS-18 software.

RESULTS
Using GHQ traditional scoring method, the results showed that 21.4% of individuals (26.3% of females and 16.5% of males) were suspected of mental disorders. The prevalence of suspected cases of mental disorders was 20.8% in urban and 22.8% in rural areas. The results also showed that somatization and anxiety symptoms were more prevalent than social dysfunction and depression symptoms, and were more common in women than men. The results of this research also showed that the prevalence of suspected cases of mental disorders increased with aging. Such disorders were more common in females, age group of 65 and above, people living in rural areas, divorced and widowed, illiterate and unemployed individuals compared with other groups.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study showed that about one fifth of people in the province were suspected of mental disorders. Therefore, it is mandatory for the provincial public health authorities to take the needed steps to ensure that necessary requirements encompassing prevention and promotion of mental health are implemented.


A hybrid brain–computer interface (BCI) system that combines a self-paced BCI and an eye-tracker is proposed for text-entry applications. To make a text-entry of a letter/word, the user must gaze at the target for at least a specific period of time (called the dwell time) and then activate the self-paced BCI with an attempted hand extension. Although the self-paced BCI is available for use at any time, a built-in sleep mode is activated when the user is not looking at a letter/word or when the user gazes at a letter/word for less than the dwell time. Such a design has the advantage of greatly minimizing the false positive outcomes compared to the state-of-art self-paced BCIs. To further improve the system's performance, a method that adaptively updates the BCI classifier is also proposed. The results from seven able-bodied individuals show great improvements compared to the pure self-paced BCI. For dwell times of 0.75 and 1.00 s, the number of false-positives/minute is significantly reduced to 2.5 and 1.7, at acceptable average true positive rates of 54.5% and 54.1%, respectively.


This dissertation looks at the role of photographs in two works of autobiographical, travel-based life writing. Michel Leiris' 1934 travel diary, L'Afrique fantome features 31 ethnographic photographs taken during a French ethnographic expedition that crossed sub-Saharan Africa at the beginning of the 1930s. J.-M.G. Le Clezio's 2004 memoir L'Africain includes 15 photographs taken by his father, a British medical doctor stationed in remote areas of Cameroon and Nigeria in the 1930s and 1940s. What brings these works together in this research has surprisingly little to do with the readily apparent commonalities in subject matter between the two photo sets—peoples and places of the African continent during the high colonial period. Rather, we focus here on text-image relationships, examining how, in each case, the photographs aremade to be autobiographical. Taking an intermedial approach to literary studies that raises the photographs up from a subordinate illustrative function, we consider the primarily textual operations that, in plays of meaning and intention, work to appropriate and incorporate into these texts photographs that can be resistant or disruptive to those efforts. Our readings of these works contribute new insight into the use and function of photographs in life writing.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect higher education student satisfaction and to understand students' perceptions of their academic success and future employment expectations at a particular institution.

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyzes institutional performance related to students' satisfaction and their preparedness for future employment endeavours. The questionnaire is designed specifically for students who are eligible to graduate, and the survey is implemented over the institutional website via the student portal and a total of 750°-seeking undergraduate students (target population) are invited to participate.

Findings

The descriptive results of this study suggest that while student satisfaction may be relatively similar for all academic programmes, there are differences in the perception of career expectations based on chosen academic programme. Most notably, the results also indicate students' expectations for employment did not have a negative effect on their satisfaction with the higher education institution (HEI). In contrast, they were mostly satisfied with their academic and personal development. In essence, they felt prepared for the workplace and satisfied with the skills and knowledge developed at a university, regardless of job expectations. This paper suggests that institutions may wish to heighten their focus on academic factors in their efforts to retain students and improve their student academic experience.

Originality/value

This study is conducted at a small-sized (less than 5,000 students) higher institution in Canada that primarily provides undergraduate courses and focusses on students' employment expectations and their rating of the academic experiences. This study can assist HEIs in developing policies related to student retention and success. HEIs may find this study useful in developing policies and programmes related to transitioning from undergraduate studies to the workplace.


Sarawak's population of 2.4 million consists of the Iban, Chinese, Malay, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu and Melanau in that order of demographic size. The classification of Orang Ulu alone includes the Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Lun Bawang, Punan, Penan, Murut, Kedayan and a host of other smaller communities. It is said that there are at least 27 different ethnic groups but no one is really sure1 The complexity of such a multiethnic population has led some to say that Sarawak is an anthropologist's paradise or nightmare depending on how one looks at it. It has a rich history of research where anthropologists documented the indigenous cultures and customs dating back to pre colonial times. As a result, we have much historical information on the family and kinship structures of the various indigenous groups but far less is known of the contemporary family. In this chapter, I have tried to piece together whatever little there is to try to understand the changes that have occurred. In order to do this, we have to begin with the past. Although I have set up the following sections as a contrast between the past and the present, it is more accurate to talk of continuity and change. Present day Sarawak, is after all a land which encompasses the full range of communities from the nomadic hunter-gatherer Penan in the hinterland to the globetrotting elites in the cities. It is therefore not my intention to present a dichotomous view but merely as a comparative especially in the light of rapid socio-economic transformation in Sarawak. However, the focus of my discussion of the past would be on the indigenous communities in rural Sarawak.


To control bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum, phylotype IIB/4NPB), the antimicrobial effect of Allium fistulosum aqueous extract was assessed as a preplant soil treatment. Three concentrations of extract (100, 50, and 25%, 1:1 [wt/vol]) were evaluated by in vitro inhibition assay and in vivo experiments in a growth chamber. In vitro, A. fistulosum (100 and 50%) suppressed growth of R. solanacearum. Preplant treatment of the soil with A. fistulosum extract significantly reduced the R. solanacearum populations. No pathogen was detected in the soil after treatment with 100% concentrated extract from the third day after application until the end of the experiment. A. fistulosum also significantly reduced the incidence of tomato bacterial wilt. In the untreated control, the disease affected 61% of the plants whereas, with 100 and 50% extracts, only 6 and 14% of the plants, respectively, were affected. These results suggest that A. fistulosum extracts could be used in biocontrol-based management strategies for bacterial wilt of tomato.


The paper analyses the process of real convergence of the New Member States of the European Union. Its importance is underlined in connection with a successful catching-up and a special attention is paid to the countries involved in the fifth European enlargement, with the exception of Cyprus and Malta. We note that, over the last decade, these economies experienced robust economic growth, which had a stronger impact on the convergence process within the EU8 group than to EU15. Our assumptions are investigated empirically by a comparison of beta and sigma-convergence analysis with time-series based stationarity and cointegration tests.


Background: Despite the threat of resistance, the use of antibiotics globally is high and continues to increase. Much of this use is attributed to overprescribing by physicians. The objective of this study was to assess doctors' management of common community-acquired infections in Namibia. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey based on a web-based self-administered questionnaire was conducted. Doctors belonging to the local professional associations comprised the study population. Data were collected from March to July 2014. Results: A 10% (n = 44) response rate was achieved. Respondents were from across the country and practised mainly in the private health sector. Both awareness of local antimicrobial sensitivity rates and ownership of national Standard Treatment Guidelines were poor (20% and 31% respectively). Common practice in managing common infections, with the exception of chronic otitis media, cystitis and pyelonephritis, is to treat empirically. The reported first-line antibiotics of choice were the combination of amoxicillin with clavulanic acid for upper respiratory tract infections and ciprofloxacin for urinary tract infections. Management of infections was the same across all socio-demographic factors and was not influenced by patient workload. Conclusion: This survey revealed that first-line antibiotic choices of doctors are not informed by the Namibia Standard Treatment Guidelines and the local and regional antimicrobial sensitivity data. Interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing in Namibia should include better dissemination of guidelines and information regarding local antimicrobial sensitivity rates as well as strategies for the implementation of guidelines.


The aim of this study was to assess the effects of two levels of clinoptilolite administered in feed (2% and 4%) on some selected performance indicators, metabolic utilization of basic nutrients and the health status of laying hens. The selected 24 Bovans Goldline hybrid laying hens were divided into three equal groups, two experimental groups (E1 and E2) and one control group (C). The laying hens were housed individually in cages with an automatic supply of drinking water, manual feeding, in a setting with controlled light and temperature regimens. Hens from individual groups were all fed a complete feed mix of the same composition and the only difference was in clinoptilolite supplementation: feed mixes for E1 and E2 groups contained 2% and 4% of clinoptilolite (commercial additive ZeoFeed) respectively, replacing the same amounts of wheat. The hens received feed mixes and drinking water ad libitum. During this 28-day experiment, feed consumption and the number and weight of eggs laid were monitored individually for each hen. At the end of the experiment, the balance test using the indicator method (Cr 2 O 3 ) was performed in all eight hens in each of the groups. The results of balance tests were then used to calculate the metabolic utilization of selected nutrients (nitrogen, fat, ash, nitrogen-free extracts, starch, gross energy, Ca, P). After the balance tests, blood samples for haematological and biochemical examinations were collected via puncture of the vena basilica. The addition of 2% clinoptilolite to feed mix resulted in a highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) increase in mean egg weight to 64.69 g, but the addition of 4% clinoptilolite in group E2 resulted in a highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) decrease in mean egg weight to 62.20 g compared to the control (63.73 g). Moreover, daily feed mix consumption in group E1 decreased to 114 g per one laying hen/day compared to the controls (118 g per one laying hen/day). In group E2 (4% clinoptilolite), daily consumption of feed mix increased compared with the controls to 124 g. The 2% clinoptilolite supplementation of E1 group feed slightly increased metabolic utilization of fat, nitrogen-free extracts, starch and gross energy compared to group C. Results of haematological test of the hens' blood showed significant changes in haemoglobin, whose values in groups C and E1 were significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) than in group E2. Differences in the values of the biochemical indicators monitored (total protein, glucose, cholesterol, triacylglycerols, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and the AST enzyme) between group C and experimental groups E1 and E2 were not significant and remained within the range of reference values. ZeoFeed, nutrient balance, biochemical profile, mineral profile, haematological profile


This article explores how researchers in a scientific research lab co-operate with each other and value these co-operations, using a case study of a life sciences lab as an illustrative example. It explores how researchers within the lab co-operate in three main ways: through their ideas, methods and resources. A core contention of this article is that the values researchers attach to these different ways of co-operating can be assessed on two dimensions: goals and ways of understanding. The goals dimension moves from group goals, manifested in the vision of the lab defined by its principal investigator, to the goals of individual researchers within the lab, often achieved through work on individual projects. Individual goals were more highly valued by researchers in this case study. The ways of understanding dimension moves from theory-based and theory-building research activities, to craft-based activities related to the research lab's experiments. Theoretical ways of understanding are more highly valued by researchers in this case study. Combined, these two dimensions mean that researchers will value co-operations that support individual goals and theoretical ways of understanding more highly. Idea-based collaborations, individualistic and theoretical in nature, were the most highly valued. Collaborations based on resources, communal and craft-centered, were the least valued in this case study.


Accepted: 21.10.2013 This study aims at revealing the efficiency of the application of the instructional design prepared via the Six Thinking Hats and SCAMPER techniques. The question "How do 7th grade students associate the course unit Human and Environment which is taught via the Six Thinking Hats and SCAMPER techniques?" constitutes the problem of the study. For this purpose, the case study method, which is a method of qualitative research, was used in the second semester of the academic year 20122013. The study group consists of 20 students in total, including 10 girls and 10 boys studying at the 7th grade at a full time secondary school in Beykoz district of Istanbul province. The primary source of data in the study included observation, open-ended question form and document while interviews were employed as the secondary source of data. The data acquired upon the study were analyzed through content analysis. This study provides awareness to the students with the instructional design prepared via The Six Thinking Hats and SCAMPER techniques. As a result of the study shows that students were seen to have performed improvement in comparing ecosystems in terms of diversity of living creatures and climatic features. It was revealed that majority of the students have a negative/ pessimistic approach regarding the world and the environment in future both before and after the application; and they possessed the main point of view that the "world will be a dirty place" in future.


BACKGROUND
Low-grade chronic inflammation is a characteristic feature of obesity, the most important lifestyle risk factor for hypertension. Elevated plasma concentrations of the inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein (CRP) are associated with an increased risk of hypertension, but elevated plasma CRP concentrations are also closely associated with obesity. It is uncertain whether CRP is directly involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension or is only a marker of other pathogenic processes closely related to obesity.

METHODS
We studied 103 obese men (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30.0 kg/m(2)); 63 of these men had 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) ≥ 130/80 mm Hg and comprised the obese hypertensive (OHT) group. The 40 remaining obese men had 24-hour ABP < 130/80 mm Hg and comprised the obese normotensive (ONT) group. Our control group comprised 27 lean normotensive (LNT) men. All participants were medication-free. We measured plasma CRP concentrations with a high-sensitivity assay and determined body composition by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scanning.

RESULTS
There were no differences in anthropometric measures (BMI, waist circumference, or total fat mass percentage) between OHT and ONT groups (P ≥ 0.08). The obese groups had higher CRP concentrations than the LNT group (OHT: median = 2.30, interquartile range (IQR) = 1.10-4.10mg/L; ONT: median = 2.55, IQR = 1.25-4.80 mg/L; LNT: median = 0.60, IQR = 0.30-1.00 mg/L; P < 0.001), but there was no difference in CRP concentrations between OHT and ONT groups (P = 1.00). In the obese men, CRP was not correlated with either 24-hour systolic (r = 0.04; P = 0.71) or 24-hour diastolic ABP (r = -0.03; P = 0.78).

CONCLUSIONS
Obese hypertensive men, matched for anthropometric measurements, have plasma CRP concentrations similar to those of obese normotensive men.


This paper provides an overview on 18 papers presented at a Stanford University conference on the Asian pharmaceutical industries. It begins by putting the contributions and growth of individual national industries in quantitative perspective. Several substantive issues are then addressed: (1) the distortions introduced by the system prevalent in many Asian nations for physicians to secure much of their compensation through the profits from drugs they directly dispense: (2) the effects of government price controls, which among other things encourage emphasis on proliferating minor improvements to existing drugs; (3) the fragmentation of manufacturing industry structure, which leaves too many firms lacking the economies of scale required inter alia to sustain high levels of quality control and which makes regulatory monitoring difficult; (4) the implications of World Trade Organization rules requiring nations to begin issuing pharmaceutical product patents where previously their industries could free-ride on the technological advances of industrialized nations; and (5) whether more Asian pharmaceutical firms can overcome the hurdles to becoming significant technological innovators.


Objectives
The objective was to compare the efficacy of a black lentil aqueous extract (BL) and a semi-purified anthocyanin (ANC) extract to prevent tumor development and inflammatory processes and impact on immune response in an azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) mouse model.

Methods
BL was obtained from an overnight soak of organic beluga black lentils (1:2 w/v) in water, filtered, frozen, and freeze-dried. The major ANC identified was delphinidin 3-O-(2-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-α-l-arabinopyranoside (D3G). Seven and a half week old C57BL/6 mice were randomly separated into four groups: healthy control (n = 6), disease control (n = 14), BL (n = 12), and D3G (n = 12). After a one week acclimation, the mice were given treatments for 11 weeks, either placebo or BL: 600 or D3G: 41 mg/kg body weight (equivalent to D3G in a BL extract) using a voluntary jelly administration every morning throughout the study. Following the first week of treatments, mice received an AOM injection of 10 mg/kg body weight. Three cycles of DSS in water started one week later. The first cycle had 2% DSS for one week; the second and third cycles had 1%. Each cycle had two weeks of regular water post-DSS. Inflammation, progression, and immune markers were analyzed in the colon, spleen, and plasma by histology, gene expression, ELISA, and protein arrays.

Results
BL had total ANC concentration of 21.3 mg D3G equivalent/g dry extract and total polyphenol concentration of 264.9 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry extract. BL group had a lower disease activity index (DAI), throughout and at the end, of 2.4 compared to 6.3 of the disease control and 4.0 of D3G group (P < 0.05). Mice in the BL group had an average of 7.8 neoplasms while the disease control had 12.8 and D3G had 12.1 (P < 0.05). BL group had a lower relative spleen weight and colon weight to length at 5 and 59 mg/cm compared to 10 and 82 mg/cm and 10 and 83 mg/cm of the disease control and D3G groups, respectively (P < 0.05). Based on colon cancer cell results, BL lowered expression of inhibitory immune markers, like PD-L1 (P < 0.05).

Conclusions
BL attenuated the DAI and helped mice maintain their weight throughout the AOM/DSS treatment. BL also resulted in a lower total and lower large neoplasm number, relative lower spleen weight, and colon weight to length ratio compared to the disease control. BL showed anti-carcinogenic anti-inflammatory properties.

Funding Sources
USDA-NIFA-HATCH project 1014457.


We present a simple modification in the design of glow discharge mass spectrometry (GD-MS) system that allows for two-dimensional (2D) elemental imaging. To obtain 2D images, we used in situ translation of samples with respect to the fixed glow discharge lamp, and thus the image size was not limited by the size of the anode. Using an add-on 'xyz' high-vacuum manipulator equipped with a membrane bellow, we obtained 2D images, where pixel-by-pixel acquisition applied for xy maps (7.5 mm × 5.5 mm) consisted of 3040 and 1520 data points. The maps were taken within 25 and 12 min of the total acquisition time, resulting in the spatial resolution in 0.16–0.42 mm range along the x axis. The presented results were obtained using a DC-glow discharge quadrupole mass spectrometer at 1.1 kV DC voltage and 1 mA current. We discuss the applied control procedure of 'xyz' manipulator, as well as possible applications of the developed technique for the analysis of homogeneity of materials, distribution of surface impurities, and 3D imaging.


This paper stress the importance of strengthening emotional intelligence (EI) among youths. Human capital resources targeting youths are one of the main thrusts of national development in Malaysia especially from the political, economic, social and educational aspects. The main target of this study was to test the presence of the significance impact of EI competence on the constructs determining youths' political behaviour. A total of 313 students from four public universities in Malaysia were selected as the sample. The Emotional Intelligence Self-Description Inventory (EISDI), and Political Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ) were used to obtain data which was analysed using regression analysis. The findings showed that the hypotheses were accepted, i.e. there is an impact of EI competence on the political behaviour which significantly influenced EI on the constructs of political behaviour namely conservativism and nationalism. Hence, EI can be construed to be a determining factor in behaviour and ideology that signifies political maturity among Malaysian youth.


To the Editor: Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) causes many cases of severe disease and death among children <5 years of age, mostly in developing countries (1,2). Before conjugate vaccines can be introduced in developing countries, information about disease epidemiology is urgently needed. The lack of laboratories equipped to perform pneumococcal serotyping leads to the need to send isolates to reference laboratories. Good sample preservation is necessary to prevent samples from arriving at the laboratory in poor condition. We evaluated the usefulness of multiplex real-time PCR from strains and blood samples kept at room temperature on dried blood spot (DBS) filter paper for detecting and serotyping Streptococcus pneumoniae. DBS screening is a reliable method that requires only a small amount of blood; it is used for the diagnosis of several human diseases (3,4).

To validate the technique, we selected 15 pneumococcus clinical isolates representing 15 serotypes (1, 5, 19A, 19F, 14, 3, 7F, 4, 6A, 6B, 8, 9N, 18C, 23A, 23F) obtained during 2009 from patients at Hospital Sant Joan de Deu, in Barcelona. These isolates, used as controls, had been serotyped by quellung reaction at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Majadahonda-Madrid, Spain. These strains were cultured overnight at 35°C in 5% carbon dioxide on Columbia agar plates with 5% sheep blood (bioMerieux SA, Marcy l'Etoile, France). A suspension of each strain was adjusted to match a 0.5 McFarland standard (equivalent to 108 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL). Stock solutions of pneumococcus culture for each previously identified serotype were injected into blood previously extracted from 2 healthy volunteers. Serial dilutions of 100,000 CFU/mL to 1,000 CFU/mL (1,000 to 10 CFU equivalents/PCR) were performed. A total of 100 µL of blood was applied to DBS filter paper, and another 100 µL was used for DNA extraction from fresh blood. All DBS samples were air dried for 1 week.

The procedure was also performed on negative control blood samples.

DNA was extracted from DBS and fresh blood samples by using the NucliSense easyMAG automated extraction platform (bioMerieux, Boxtel, the Netherlands) according to the manufacturer's instructions. DNA detection of the pneumolysin (ply) gene by real-time PCR was performed according to a published assay (5). In addition, we performed a multiplex real-time PCR for molecular serotype detection of serotypes 1, 3, 5, 4, 6A, 6B, 7FA, 8, 9VANL, 14, 15BC, 18CB, 19A, 19FBC, 23F, 23A and the conserved capsular gene wzg as described by Tarrago et al. (6). DNA extracts were amplified with the Applied Biosystems 7300 Real-time PCR System (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). Negative results were defined as those with cycle threshold >40.

To evaluate the reliability obtained with this in vivo approach, we performed identification and serotyping of S. pneumoniae in 25 DBS samples from 25 children at Saint John of God Hospital in Mabesseneh-Lunsar, Sierra Leone. This hospital does not perform blood cultures. IPD was confirmed when DNA of a pneumolysin (ply) gene and an additional capsular gene of S. pneumoniae were detected by multiplex real-time PCR of DBS samples.

Detection of ply, wzg, and the specific gene for molecular serotype showed that both fresh blood and DBS samples yielded correctly positive results from the 10-fold serial dilutions analyzed (Table). With respect to the 25 (11 female and 14 male) patients from Sierra Leone who had suspected IPD, the median age was 25.71 months (range 15 days to 96 months); all had a diagnosis of fever without apparent source, and 16 also had malaria. Of these 25 children, DBS samples from 15 (60%) yielded a positive result for the ply and wzg genes, so they were considered confirmed episodes of IPD. A serotype included in 13-valent conjugate vaccine was detected in 6 (40%) of 15 positive samples: serotypes 3, 7FA, 19A, 6A, 6B, and 9VNL (1 sample each). In the remaining 9 samples, the results for ply gene and wzg gene were positive, but none of the 24 tested serotypes was detected.

Table

Sensitivity of real-time PCR for detecting Streptococcus pneumoniae ply or wzg genes or a specific gene for molecular serotype from fresh or dried blood spot samples*

This preliminary study enabled us to demonstrate that DBS screening is a reliable and easy method for diagnosing IPD and also for epidemiologic surveillance of the more frequent serotypes. The main limitation of our study is the small number of DBS samples sent from Saint John of God Hospital in Sierra Leone.

In conclusion, the DBS technique enables reproducible transport of samples for identification and serotyping of S. pneumoniae by multiplex PCR. The use of DBS on filter paper is an attractive alternative method for storing samples at room temperature and easily transporting them. Additional studies, including evaluation of the relative sensitivity of this method compared to direct culture, are necessary.


Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs) [1] are mobile ad-hoc networks formed by small and medium-sized UAVs. Nowadays, most UAVs are equipped with omnidirectional antennas. In addition, most of the existing routing protocols were designed assuming the use of omnidirectional antennas. Directional antennas have the potential to increase spatial reuse, save the battery's energy, and substantially increase the transmission range. However, these benefits come with a few challenges. Existing directional MAC protocols deal with these challenges, mostly in static ad-hoc networks. We define DA-FANETs as FANETs where directional antennas are used. In this paper, we investigate the performance of existing routing protocols in DA-FANETs. First we implement an 802.11b-based directional MAC protocol that embodies common directional MAC protocol features. Then we evaluate the following routing protocols in DA-FANET scenarios: AODV, OLSR, RGR, and GRP. The results show that each antenna beamwidth has an optimal network size that gives the highest amount of routing. In addition, RGR is the best option for DA-FANETs while GRP is the worst. Although RGR shows the best performance of all, it still leaves a lot of room for improvement with a PDR sitting at just 85% and a relatively high amount of overhead in terms of the number of transmissions performed.


There can be no denying the profound changes in U.S. campaign financing since the U.S. Supreme Court's January 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Nevertheless, there has been confusion about the extent to which the decision should be seen as the primary explanation for what has occurred. This paper begin to disentangle the strands through an analysis of independent expenditures in elections at the state level in 2006 and 2010 from new data gathered and supplied by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The paper's findings tend not to support some key claims being made on both sides of the contemporary political debate surrounding independent spending. First, contrary to statements made by some of the decision's critics, we find that Citizens' United itself did not have a noticeable direct effect on independent spending in 2010 – although this could, of course, change. Increases were more or less comparable in states that prohibited corporate spending before the decision and those that did not. However, the paper also addresses one of the claims normally associated with the opposite side of the political spectrum. It is often said that limiting contributions to the political parties (ending "soft money") has displaced party money, increasing independent spending by unaccountable non-party organizations. We find that party contribution limits have indeed displaced some party independent spending in the years and states we studied. However, the displacement has been not been toward ideological groups, umbrella organizations or vaguely defined party networks, but rather toward national organizations of state elected and party officials who are acting as party organizations in all but the most formal sense of that term.


The purpose of my study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of inductive teachers in secondary education. My purposive sample included 11 licensed, inductive teachers from 10 different schools spanning eight school districts within a large metropolitan area of the Pacific Northwest. I used personal interviews, within a microethnographic research design, to explore four issues related to inductive teachers: (1) the process of entering the teaching profession, (2) significant personal and professional transitions, (3) motivations for remaining or not remaining in the field, and (4) perceptions on self-defined roles. Five thematic claims emerged from the results of my research study. First, the high desire and ability of inductive teachers to build and maintain significant relationships is a principal reason why they enter, and remain in, the teaching profession. Second, the notable presence or noticeable absence of collegial relationships is the most significant difference between inductive teachers who view their professional entry experiences as manageable versus stressful, respectively. Third, the use of a priori teacher typologies provides a valid and reliable way to gain insight into the level of emotional development and career-stage maturity of inductive teachers, thus suggesting the most appropriate workload demands. Fourth, inductive teachers perceive decidedly different rewards for being in the profession, and attempts by administrators or educational policy-makers to use a one-size-fits-all approach to inductive teacher retention is not likely to be effective. Finally, the more that teacher encompasses an inductive teacher's personal identity, the higher the level of accountability that inductive teacher will have toward being a mentor of not only students, but also of other colleagues and community members.


The effects of a Carbendazim-Mancozeb fungicidal mixture on microbial populations and some enzyme activities of three selected soils of Kwara State, Nigeria were studied. The soil dilution method was used to isolate bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and some functional microbial groups from treated soils. Cultivation and enumeration of the soil microorganisms were made on different selective media. Assays for cellulases and pectinases in the treated soils were carried out. The populations of actinomycetes, bacteria and fungi were reduced significantly by the application of the fungicide. The fungicide applied at a concentration of 2.34mg/kg soil had a greater (p < 0.05) inhibitory effect than the recommended concentration of 1.67mg/kg soil. The populations of nitrogen fixers nitrifying bacteria and cellulolytic organisms were also significantly (p < 0.05.) reduced at the two concentrations. The fungicidal mixture equally lowered the cellulose and pectinase enzyme activities in soil significantly, with a return to normalcy by 60 days after treatment. A re-establishment of the soil microbial populations was observed by 21 days after treatment. It was concluded that the use of the Carbendazim-Mancozeb mixture should be with caution since it reduced the populations of ecologically important non-target organisms and that the recommended concentration should be adhered to.


The effect of thermal injury on the response of interferon (IFN) production in vivo and in vitro after stimulation with eight representative inducers was investigated in a mouse model. The response of mice to immune IFN (IFN-gamma) inducers, staphylococcal enterotoxin A, concanavalin A, and a specific antigen for BCG-sensitized lymphocytes (purified protein derivative) was impaired after a 30% total body surface area third-degree burn. Suppression of IFN-gamma production was observed at day 2 and persisted until day 7 after burn. Decreased IFN-gamma production correlated closely with the percentage of total body surface area burned. When virus type IFN (IFN-alpha/beta) inducers, Newcastle disease virus, polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid, 10-carboxymethyl-9-acridanone, and E. coli endotoxin, were administered to mice, no change in IFN response was observed after thermal injury. Similar results were obtained when spleen cells obtained from thermally injured mice were stimulated with IFN-gamma inducers in vitro. These studies suggest that although the capacity for IFN-alpha/beta production remains intact in thermally injured mice, IFN-gamma production may be selectively decreased in burned animals and in their spleen cells.


Abstract In this article, the authors carry out conceptual and theoretical reflections on smartphone communities by closely investigating two apps: Ingress (Niantic 2012) and Pokemon Go (Niantic 2016). While the games' narratives fabricate reasons for the players to move, it is the Smartphone - understood as an open object between technological and cultural processes - that visualizes and tracks players' movements and that situates and reshapes the devices, the users and their surroundings. A central aspect is that the 'augmented' cities that become visible in the apps are based on the traces of others: other processes and technologies, as well as other players. These traces of practices and movements structure the users' experience and shape spaces. Traces are necessarily subsequent and we therefore develop the concept of a deferred (smartphone) community and analyse its visibility within the apps. By close reading the two case studies, we examine potential "smartphone communities" in their temporal dimensions, as well as their demands and promises of participation. In order to gain a perspective that is neither adverse to new media nor celebratory of assumed participatory community phenomena, the article aims to interrogate the examples regarding their potential for individuation/ dividuation and community building/dissolution. In doing so, the games' conditions and the impositions placed on the players are central and include notions of consent and dissent. Drawing upon approaches from community philosophy and media theory, we concentrate on the visible aspects smartphone-interfaces. The traces left by the various processes that were at work become momentarily actualized on the display, where they manifest not as a fixed community, but as a sense of communality.


The texts of the Bible have been used and interpreted in various ways across different time periods and different cultures, and there is much to be gained by studying these changes. Changing attitudes about and uses of Scripture tell us something about other changes taking place in society. They reflect new ideas about religion, knowledge, and authority. Most of all, they demonstrate the techniques used by pastors, theologians, and other authors to make texts written long ago relevant to contemporary problems. The purpose of my study is to use Hebrews 9:11-14 to look at the ways in which the interpretation of Scripture and the uses of Scripture change across time and geographic locations. By analyzing the text itself in its first century context, as well as documents citing this passage from the Early Church, the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and the present day, I am able study both the ways that the interpretation of this particular passage has changed, and how methods of biblical interpretation themselves have changed.


In this paper we focus on the development of rational number knowledge and present three research programs that illustrate the possibility of bridging research between the fields of cognitive developmental psychology and mathematics education. The first is a research program theoretically grounded in the framework theory approach to conceptual change. This program focuses on the interference of prior natural number knowledge in the development of rational number learning. The other two are the research program by Moss and colleagues that uses Case's theory of cognitive development to develop and test a curriculum for learning fractions, and the research program by Siegler and colleagues, who attempt to formulate an integrated theory of numerical development. We will discuss the similarities and differences between these approaches as a means of identifying potential meeting points between psychological and educational research on numerical cognition and in an effort to bridge research between the two fields for the benefit of rational number instruction.


ENTER AT OWN RISK. Sometimes it is necessary to sign an indemnity agreement before entering areas such as business zones, parking lots, building, events and facilities. In other instances, there is nothing to sign but the placards of disclaimers mounted on the walls soon tell you that the managers and owners of the property will not accept liability for any injury you suffer as a result of your visit. But are these disclaimers and indemnity agreements sufficient to protect the owners? Before tackling this question, one needs to consider the meaning of an indemnity.


The dynamic behaviour of an existing building is sometimes difficult to predict, particularly when the information available for the specific case study is not as much as would be necessary for a complete description of the structure. Dynamic response to vibration induced by external natural/artificial sources, thanks to the relative ease with which it can be measured and analysed, makes vibration-based assessment an attractive complement to traditional visual inspection and nondestructive evaluation methods. This study moves from an investigation that is being carried out on a building sited in the port area of Bari, Apulia, where excavation and dredging operations are thought to be responsible for a series of damage that could involve structural and non structural elements in the monitored buildings due to vibration induced in the entire surrounding area. Having the chance to measure the real acceleration and displacement at the basement floor and in some other relevant parts of the building, it will be possible to update the finite element model, matching the response of the FE model in a series of combinations of parameters with the real measured dynamic excitation. Many other studies regarding dynamic identification and the usual modern methods make use of ambient-vibration induced by the so-called environmental noise or, otherwise, inducing a dynamic response by artificial sources of vibration. In this research work the source is known in terms of frequency and magnitude and, so, with an adaptive procedure it will be possible to predict the future damage, serviceability loss or, more generally, the performance of the building towards different combinations of static and dynamic loads.


Laser-Doppler flow measurements with penetration depths from 10 to 30 mm have been performed on a layered model of the human head consisting of a regular array of capillaries with diameters of 340 microm embedded in an epoxy matrix with tissuelike scattering and absorption properties. Monte Carlo simulations and an analytical approach based on diffusing wave spectroscopy have corroborated the measurements and have led to a quantitative description of flow in deep-lying tissue layers with regard to layers near the surface also. The results indicate that it may be possible to measure changes in cortical blood flow even in the presence of a well-perfused scalp.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
To review a selection of research published in the last 12 months on the role of social influence in the obesity epidemic.

RECENT FINDINGS
Recent papers add evidence to previous work linking social network structures and obesity. Social norms, both eating norms and body image norms, are identified as one major source of social influence through networks. Social capital and social stress are additional types of social influence.

SUMMARY
There is increasing evidence that social influence and social network structures are significant factors in obesity. Deeper understanding of the mechanisms of action and dynamics of social influence, and its link with other factors involved in the obesity epidemic, is an important goal for further research.


Intrarenal adenosine concentration is threefold greater in the one-kidney, one clip hypertensive rat compared with normotensive animals. Since exogenously administered adenosine may increase renal blood flow by direct vasodilation, inhibition of renin release, or prejunctional interruption of adrenergic neurotransmission, these studies examined whether endogenous intrarenal adenosine maintains renal blood flow distal to renal arterial stenosis. Administration of theophylline, which blocks the direct vasodMating effect of adenosine and antagonizes the inhibitory effect of adenosine on renin release and sympathetic neurotransmission, resulted in marked renal vasoconstriction in one-kidney, one clip hypertensive animals. This theophylline-induced renal vasoconstriction was markedly attenuated by angiotensin II blockade with saralasin and was unchanged by renal denervation or β1-adrenergic blockade with atenolol. These findings indicate that the marked renal vasoconstriction in one-kidney, one clip hypertension during theophylline administration is mainly mediated by angiotensin II, is to a lesser degree due to inhibition of adenosine-induced vasodilation, and is independent of sympathetic influences. These data suggest that endogenous interstitial adenosine preserves renal blood flow in one-kidney, one clip hypertension mainly by inhibiting renin release.


Cocoa pod borer (Conopomorpha cramerella (Snellen)) is the main fatal pest that destroys cocoa plantations in South East Asia, mainly in Indonesia and Malaysia. Infested cocoa beans stick to each other, the pulp become hard and normal fermentation process to produce flavour precursors cannot be done. This research aimed to utilize the infested cocoa beans as a source of phenolic compounds. Extraction of phenolic compounds was carried out for three infestation levels regarded as low, medium and heavy. Parameters of study were bean size, shell content, fat content, total polyphenol and antioxidant activity. Results of the study showed that the increase in cocoa pod borer infestation significantly decreased cocoa bean size, fat content and total polyphenol; but shell content was increased. Antioxidant activity of the extracted polyphenol was not significantly affected by the infestation. The results clearly indicate that cocoa beans infested by cocoa pod borer can potentially to be used as a source of phenolic compounds for natural antioxidant uses.


An effective strategy of seismic retrofitting consists of installing nonlinear viscous dampers between the existing building, with insufficient lateral resistance, and some auxiliary towers, specially designed and erected as reaction structures. This allows improving the seismic performance of the existing building without any major alteration to its structural and nonstructural elements, which makes this approach particularly appealing for buildings with heritage value. In this paper, the nonlinear governing equations of the coupled lateral‐torsional seismic motion are derived from first principles for the general case of a multistory building connected at various locations in plan and in elevation to an arbitrary number of multistory towers. This formulation is then used to assess the performance of the proposed retrofitting strategy for a real case study, namely, a 5‐story student hall of residence in the city of Messina, Italy. The results of extensive time‐history analyses highlight the key design considerations associated with the stiffness of the reaction towers and the mechanical parameters of the nonlinear viscous dampers, confirming the validity of this approach.


Given that semantic Web realization is based on the critical mass of metadata accessibility and the representation of data with formal knowledge, it needs to generate metadata that is specific, easy to understand and well-defined. However, semantic annotation of the web documents is the successful way to make the Semantic Web vision a reality. This paper introduces the Semantic Web and its vision (stack layers) with regard to some concept definitions that helps the understanding of semantic annotation. Additionally, this paper introduces the semantic annotation categories, tools, domains and models.


The stochastic gravitational-wave background is a superposition of sources that are either too weak or too numerous to detect individually. In this study we present the results from a cross-correlation analysis on data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run (O2), which we combine with the results of the first observing run (O1). We do not find evidence for a stochastic background, so we place upper limits on the normalized energy density in gravitational waves at the 95% credible level of $\Omega_{\rm GW}<6.0\times 10^{-8}$ for a frequency-independent (flat) background and $\Omega_{\rm GW}<4.8\times 10^{-8}$ at 25 Hz for a background of compact binary coalescences. The upper limit improves over the O1 result by a factor of 2.8. Additionally, we place upper limits on the energy density in an isotropic background of scalar- and vector-polarized gravitational waves, and we discuss the implication of these results for models of compact binaries and cosmic string backgrounds. Finally, we present a conservative estimate of the correlated broadband noise due to the magnetic Schumann resonances in O2, based on magnetometer measurements at both the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston observatories. We find that correlated noise is well below the O2 sensitivity.


Due to the availability of many sophisticated image processing tools, a digital image forgery is nowadays very often used. One of the common forgery method is a copy-move forgery, where part of an image is copied to another location in the same image with the aim of hiding or adding some image content. Numerous algorithms have been proposed for a copy-move forgery detection (CMFD), but there exist only few benchmarking databases for algorithms evaluation. We developed new database for a CMFD that consist of 260 forged image sets. Every image set includes forged image, two masks and original image. Images are grouped in 5 categories according to applied manipulation: translation, rotation, scaling, combination and distortion. Also, postprocessing methods, such as JPEG compression, blurring, noise adding, color reduction etc., are applied at all forged and original images. In this paper we present database organization and content, creation of forged images, postprocessing methods, and database testing. CoMoFoD database is available at http://www.vcl.fer.hr/comofod.


Herein we describe the design and the assembly of temperature sensitive polysulfone (PS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) blend membranes using supercritical fluid technology. Blended membranes were prepared using the CO2-assisted phase inversion method, and their pores were coated with two thermoresponsive hydrogels-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and poly(N,N′-diethylacrylamide) (PDEAAm). Permeation experiments of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme (LYS) solutions were used to evaluate the performance and temperature-responsive behavior of coated membranes. While membranes coated with PNIPAAm presented similar protein permeation profiles at temperatures below and above its lower critical solution temperature, PDEAAm coating imparted a temperature-responsive behavior to PS/PAN (90:10) membranes and selective permeation of proteins with different sizes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper develops a competitive equilibrium model of CEO compensation and industry dynamics. CEOs make product pricing and product improvement decisions subject to shareholders' compensation choices and idiosyncratic shocks to product quality. The choice of high-powered incentives optimally trades off the benefits from expected product improvements and the associated agency costs. In market equilibrium, the interaction between CEO pay and product market decisions affects the stationary distribution of firms. We characterize a dynamic feedback effect of industry structure on CEO incentives. As a result of this effect, we predict that the performance-based component of CEO pay should be higher, (i) across industries, when the degree of heterogeneity of industry structure is lower; (ii) within industries, when firms are laggards with respect to their industry peers. We empirically estimate pay-performance sensitivity for a large sample of U.S. CEOs and other top executives over the 1993 to 2004 period and find strong support for our theory. Our results offer a novel product market rationale for the increased reliance of CEO pay on bonuses and stock options over the 1990s.


Marsilea strigosa (Marsileaceae, Pterydophyta) is a rare water fern found in the Mediterranean basin, in temporary flooded habitats only. We analyzed the level and the distribution of genetic variation at seven microsatellite loci, both at the Mediterranean scale and at a narrower scale within a highly fragmented French metapopulation. Genetic diversity among individuals within each pond suggests that M. strigosa reproduces predominantly through selfing. The very high population differentiation at the Mediterranean scale indicates that gene flow (if any) is highly restricted. Similar differentiation is also found at the scale of a single metapopulation. The distribution of multilocus genotypes suggests that the genetic variation in this species is maintained mainly through the interplay of mutation and low recombination.


Flexible electronics are electronic devices and components that can be stretched, bent, twisted, and folded without losing their functionality. Flexible electronics is conformable, lightweight, easily tailorable, and low-cost, and thus, flexible electronics is increasingly being explored in health care, internet of things, automotive, aerospace, communication, safety, security, and food-related applications. Also, flexible electronics can now support increased functionality as well as various fabrication techniques. With an increased adaptation of flexible electronics, research is being conducted to better understand the failure mechanism of flexible electronics and thus improve their reliability and service life. In this paper, a cyclic mandrel bend test has been designed and carried out on printed conductors with PET and PI substrates. With the designed test apparatus, both tensile and compressive bend tests have been performed. Using a 4-wire method, the resistance change of the printed conductors with different widths has been measured in-situ under tensile and compressive loading conditions using mandrels with different radii. The results have been compared among different conductor widths, bending modes, and substrate materials. Besides, in-situ SEM images have been taken to understand the failure mechanisms of the printed conductors. Based on the study, it is seen that there exists a direct correlation between the mandrel diameter, the damage in the printed conductor, and thus, the resistance change with cyclic mandrel testing. Also, it is seen that the damage under compressive bending mode is significantly lower than the damage under tensile bending mode.


The problem and the solution . The workforce of the 21st century is in a continual state of flux. This has created a need by human resource development scholars and practitioners to continue to review best practices in developing a workforce with the latest technology, knowledge, and expertise. Revisiting traditional training models and processes is important as a means of moving forward. Although there are many system models, almost all are based on the generic analysis, design, develop, implement, and evaluate (ADDIE) model that evolved from instructional systems research following World War II. The purposes of this article are to (a) reacquaint the profession with the background and basic concepts of the traditional ADDIE model and (b) compare the original and revised ADDIE models. Subsequent articles in this volume deal with issues and advancements surrounding ADDIE and the ADDIE phases.


In this essay I reflect on the meaning of atmospheres while the human world has been overwhelmed by a respiratory disease. In an auto-ethnographic gesture I reflect different ways of sensing and becoming sensitive to the atmospheric changes in my home during self-isolation. This self-questioning is directly related to the conceptualisation of air in view of its potential risk of carrying infectious virus particles. The air we breathe is currently stylised as a cloud on the micro level of aerosols, which gives reason to think anew about the status of the atmospheric with regard to our being in the world. Through combining philosophical reflection with aesthetic practice, I explore how an attunement towards the ways air flows through our habitats can open a new perspective on processes of subjectivation in a time of ongoing crisis. I argue that becoming sensitive towards air flow not only heightens our sensitivity for the affectivity of atmospheric processes but also for the different registers of our experience able to capture these effects.


The detailed test morphology of the type suite of specimens for the planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides sacculifer (Brady) is illustrated for the first time since the species was identified in 1877. Fossil representatives of this species are a key index for oceanographic reconstruction of the Neogene and Quaternary tropics. The types of G. sacculifer, sourced from a loose 'chalk' block on a beach in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, all bear a sac-like terminal chamber and are heavily calcified. They have undergone gametogenesis. Scanning electron microscopy identifies calcite fabrics of the test that were formed post-ontogenetically.


A model is proposed to obtain expressions for thermodynamic functions like the heat of mixing (HM), excess specific heat ( Delta CP), volume of mixing (VM) and isothermal compressibility ( chi T) of liquid binary alloys with a strong compound-forming tendency in order to cover a large range of temperature. This has been used to analyse the temperature dependence of the free energy of mixing (GM), HM and Delta CP for liquid Li-Sn alloys. The specific heat of the liquid Li7Sn2 alloy has been determined experimentally by drop calorimetric heat content measurements and is found to support the theoretical value, which is based on EMF analysis. The results indicate self-coordination towards the Sn-rich end and strong hetero-coordination in the region 0.33<or=cLi<or=1.0, being maximum around Li3Sn. The influence of the chemical short-range order (CSRO) on the concentration fluctuations, Scc(0), chemical diffusion, D, and order parameter, alpha 1, has been considered. Scc(0) registers a dominant temperature effect in the self-coordinated region, whereas the effect of temperature on the diffusion coefficient is most visible in the hetero-coordinated region.


"Since 1947, aliens have poured from the abyss that lies between ourselves and the world." So begins Bryan Appleyard's dazzling survey of one of the most pervasive yet under-reported phenomena of modern times: aliens -- what they are, why they are here, and what they say about us. Before science and technology took hold of our lives we called them different things: angels, demons, goblins. But in the post-nuclear world, in which man has discovered his cosmic insignificance, our need for aliens has reached the stars. Since 1947 there has been a deluge of sightings, abductions, cover-ups, conspiracies and all their associated sub-plots from cattle mutilation to anal probes. Science fiction both on the page and on the screen is in thrall to our perception of Little Green Men. How did we get here? And what does our fascination with all things alien, whether extraterrestrial or manufactured, say about us in a post-religious world? Bryan Appleyard's brilliant book is both a cultural history and an intellectual tour de force, covering everything from the joyful anthropocentrism of "Star Trek" to the bloody-minded nihilism of Stanislaw Lem.


Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultra-rare genetic disorder which leads to a process called ochronosis, this process discolours and damages the integrity of the joints. Ochronosis within the joint leads to several symptoms including joint pain, premature osteoarthritis and a decline of joint health until eventually total joint failure. These symptoms directly impact mobility, gait and consequently the patient's quality of life, however, there is limited data focussing on the effects of AKU on gait. Mechanical loading at the joint contributes to the ochronosis process, joint damage and progression of the disease. Treatment options currently include nitisinone, however the adverse side effects of long-term use remain a concern. A gait modification intervention is a non-invasive method which has the potential to reduce the loading in the joints which could delay the progression of the disease and delay the time before joint replacements are required. The work within this thesis firstly describes and characterises gait using novel methods to help understand the progression of the disease and its specific gait mechanisms. The gait of 36 AKU patients between 16-70 years under no treatment were analysed. Gait deviations from normality were discovered in patients as young as 16 years old and a sharp increase was seen at 50 years. Joint level descriptions of gait mechanisms revealed the knee joint to be a problematic factor across all age groups in AKU. Driven by the evidence, the knee joint became the focus of the gait intervention's development and design. The thesis also includes development of a novel intervention tool tailored to alkaptonuria patients, which overcomes some of the methodological shortcomings found in related previous research. The 3D Lever Arm method is a simplified, fast computing method which provides the 3D knee moment impulse in real-time to the patient and is designed to create an individualised approach to gait modifications. The 3D lever arm method was compared to the 'Gold Standard' inverse dynamics during normal walking and six well known gait modifications for 16 healthy controls. The new method demonstrated good agreement during normal walking although underestimated the 3D knee moment impulse, most importantly it was able to detect change during the six gait modifications. The protocol also investigated six gait modifications' ability to reduce the 3D knee moment impulse and the effects on adjacent joints. Only four out of the six were effective at reducing the 3D knee moment impulse, with two increasing adjacent joint moments, and the results highlighted a large variation of individualised approaches. The results led to only three out of six gait modifications being acceptable for future guidance during the final intervention study. Finally, using the new intervention tool, a gait modification protocol was designed for AKU patients, however, findings of only one healthy participant are presented. The results showed that the participant was able to reduce the 3D knee moment impulse after the individualised gait modification intervention and this was also retained when walking overground. Overall, the findings of this thesis provide the first joint level description of gait in alkaptonuria, develop a gait modification intervention tool and protocol design. These findings provide the vital first steps towards gait modification interventions for alkaptonuria patients with discussions for future research studies.


Excess nonpoint source nutrient loss presents one of the most vexing water management challenges for water quality managers. Agriculture is the single largest contributor of nutrients to the Chesapeake Bay, and achieving nutrient reduction targets for agriculture will be costly. Biofilters offer new opportunities to reduce nutrient loads from artificially drained agricultural land. Nutrient biofilters consist of organic carbon (C) medium, typically woodchips, that when saturated with nitrogen (N)-enriched waters supports the activity of naturally occurring soil microorganisms that convert bioavailable N into N gases via denitrification. This study estimates the cost and N removal effectiveness for a biochar-amended woodchip biofilter draining a 10 ha (25 ac) field planted in a corn (Zea mays L.)–soy (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) rotation in eastern Virginia as well as for alternative design scenarios for biofilters ranging 25 to 150 m3 (883 to 5,297 ft3) with either woodchips alone or biochar-amended woodchip C substrates. Nitrogen removal effectiveness is estimated using modeled site-specific influent loads and N removal effectiveness estimates derived from experimental trials in a pilot scale system on the Delmarva Peninsula. This analysis estimates N removal costs as a function of biofilter size, which directly relates to residence time, per unit of N removed. Modeled N removal estimates over a five-year period (2009 to 2013) for five bed volumes range from 88 to 391 kg (194 to 862 lb) for the woodchip biofilters (21% to 95% removal) and 132 to 412 kg (291 to 908 lb) for the biochar-amended woodchip biofilters (32% to 100% removal) of the 412 kg total N load exported to the biofilters during the five-year period. The N removal costs range from US$15 to US$48 kg−1 y−1 (US$6.82 to US$21.82 lb−1 yr−1) for the woodchip biofilter and US$15 to US$33 kg−1 y−1 (US$6.82 to US$15 lb−1 yr−1) for biochar-amended woodchip filters. While biofilters are determined to be cost-effective for N removal compared to conventional agricultural best management practices, agricultural producers may be reluctant to voluntarily adopt biofilters because of the relatively high initial installation costs and the lack of direct incentive payments for pollutant removal effectiveness. Nutrient trading programs offer some potential to enhance adoption, but not in the immediate future.


In hepatocytes, newly synthesized apical plasma membrane proteins are first delivered to the basolateral surface and are supposed to reach the apical surface by transcytosis. The transcytotic pathway of apical membrane proteins and its relationship with other endosomal pathways has not been demonstrated morphologically. We compared the intracellular route of an apical plasma membrane protein, B10, with that of polymeric IgA (pIgA), which is transcytosed, transferrin (Tf) which is recycled, and asialoorosomucoid (ASOR) which is delivered to lysosomes. Ligands and anti-B10 monoclonal IgG were linked to fluorochromes or with peroxidase. The fate of each ligand was followed by confocal and electron microscopy in polarized primary monolayers of rat hepatocytes. When fluorescent anti-B10 IgG and fluorescent pIgA were simultaneously endocytosed for 15-30 minutes, they both uniformly labelled a juxtanuclear compartment. By 30-60 minutes, they reached the bile canaliculi. Tf and ASOR were also routed to the juxtanuclear area, but their fluorescence patterns were more punctate. Microtubule disruption prevented all ligands from reaching the juxtanuclear area. This area corresponded, at least partially, to the localization of the mannose 6-phosphate receptor, an endosomal marker. By electron microscopy, the juxtanuclear compartment was made up of anastomosing tubules connected to vacuoles, and was organized around the centrioles. B10 and pIgA were mainly found in the tubules, whereas ASOR was segregated inside the vacuolar elements and Tf within thinner, recycling tubules. In conclusion, transcytosis of the apical membrane protein B10 occurs inside tubules similar to those carrying pIgA, and involves passage via the pericentriolar area. In the pericentriolar area, the transcytotic tubules appear to maintain connections with other endosomal elements where sorting between recycled and degraded ligands occurs.


Clinical guidelines focus on statins for dyslipidaemia management for prevention of cardiovascular disease. It is clear, however, that there remains an unacceptably high residual risk of further events among patients who achieve target low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. Low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, an independent predictive factor, is likely to be an important contributor to this excess risk, and is also common among dyslipidaemic patients. The ARBITER 2 study (ARterial Biology for the Investigation of the Treatment Effects of Reducing cholesterol) showed that raising HDL cholesterol with prolonged-release (PR) nicotinic acid in addition to lowering LDL cholesterol with a statin slows progression of atherosclerosis, and would therefore be expected to improve cardiovascular risk reduction in this setting. This economic analysis evaluated the cost-effectiveness of this strategy using computer simulation economic modelling incorporating two decision analytic sub-models. In the first sub-model, a cohort of 2,000 patients was generated using baseline characteristics and statin effect from the Heart Protection Study. Treatment effects observed with PR nicotinic acid (1,000 mg/day) in the ARBITER 2 study were then applied. The second model evaluated long-term clinical and economic outcomes using Framingham risk estimates. Direct medical costs were accounted from a National Health Service (NHS) perspective and discounted by 3.5%. In the UK setting, the addition of PR nicotinic acid to statin therapy resulted in long-term reduction in CHD events and increased life expectancy in patients who had achieved target LDL cholesterol levels but had persistently low HDL cholesterol, and this was achieved at a cost well within the threshold (< £30,000 per life years gained) considered good value for money in the UK. This strategy was highly cost-effective in patients with diabetes. Thus, adding PR nicotinic acid to statin therapy in these patients is both clinically and cost-effective and could be recommended for routine use in this setting in the UK.


The shape and surface area of fiparticles are traditionally measured using projected or two-dimensional (2D) sections or with nitrogen gas adsorption using the BET (Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller) method. However, 2D sections are incomplete shape descriptors and nitrogen gas adsorption analysis is precluded when the amount of sample is limited, for example, in direct ash cloud sampling. In this study we present a technique for measuring the shape and surface area of individual grains of volcanic ash using scanning electron microscope (SEM) stereo pairs. The application we discuss is the stereoscopic analysis of 25 ash particles in the 4‐130 µm size range from the August 1992 Crater Peak‐Spurr eruption, located 130 km west of Anchorage, Alaska. Surface area data are presented from stereo measurements of glass microspheres in the same size range as validation of the technique's accuracy. Differences in surface area values between our technique, 2D shape data, and nitrogen gas adsorption are presented and discussed.


Virtual Inertia Emulation (VIE) and traditional Active Power Droop Control (APDC) are among the most common approaches for regulating the active power output of inverter-based generators. Furthermore, it has been shown that, under certain conditions, these two methods can be equivalent. However, neither those studies, nor the analyses comparing the two control schemes with respect to their dynamical properties, have investigated the impact of the converter operation mode. This paper explores the subject by investigating the two control approaches under such conditions, and determining when this assumption does not hold. Using time-domain simulations with a detailed Voltage Source Converter model, we compare VIE and APDC qualitatively and reformulate the respective conditions for equivalence.


The efficiency of today's most efficient organic solar cells is primarily limited by the ability of the active layer to absorb all the sunlight. While internal quantum efficiencies exceeding 90% are common, the external quantum efficiency rarely exceeds 70%. Light trapping techniques that increase the ability of a given active layer to absorb light are common in inorganic solar cells but have only been applied to organic solar cells with limited success. Here, we analyze the light trapping mechanism for a cell with a V-shape substrate configuration and demonstrate significantly improved photon absorption in an 5.3%-efficient PCDTBT:PC(70)BM bulk heterojunction polymer solar cell. The measured short circuit current density improves by 29%, in agreement with model predictions, and the power conversion efficiency increases to 7.2%, a 35% improvement over the performance in the absence of a light trap.


This report summarizes the recent state of the California Current System (CCS), primarily during the period April 2005 through early 2006, and includes observations of ocean conditions made from Washington State south to Baja California. During 2005, the CCS experienced very unusual "ocean weather." For example, off Washington, Oregon and northern California, the start of upwelling was delayed, resulting in anomalously warm sea surface temperatures through the spring and the early summer months. The warming observed in the northern California Current (NCC) in the spring and early summer appeared to be a regional phenomenon, since waters south of approximately 35 ̊N to the California–Mexico border were near the long-term average, and cooler-than-normal temperatures prevailed off Baja California. The extent of the warming and subsequent ecosystem response was similar to that of a major tropical El Niño event. However, we know from observations made at the equator that equatorial waters were in an El Niño-neutral state. The impacts on the NCC pelagic ecosystem were profound with very low biomass of zooplankton observed in Monterey Bay, the Gulf of the Farallones, and off Oregon, accompanied by unprecedented reproductive failure and mortality in several locally-breeding seabird species. Recruitment failure was seen in a variety of fishes as well. The proximate cause was a delay in the initiation of the upwelling season in the NCC (which usually begins in April) to a nearly unprecedented start time of late July. Thus, animals that reproduce in spring and in other years would find bountiful food resources, found themselves faced with famine rather than feast. Similarly, marine mammals and birds which migrate to the NCC upwelling region in spring and summer, which would otherwise find a high biomass of energetically-rich zooplankton and small pelagic fish upon which to feed, were equally disappointed. Moreover, 2005 marked the third year of chronically warm conditions in the NCC, a situation which could have led to a general reduction in physiological condition of fish and birds, rendering them less tolerant of adverse ocean conditions in 2005. INTRODUCTION This is the thirteenth in a series of annual reports prepared since 1993 that summarize the climatology, oceanography, and biology of the California Current System (CCS). It is the third to include data from the entire length of the California Current System. Programs or institutions contributing to this report include U.S.


Dental caries is a preventable infectious disease, and the early identification of risk factors and implementation of oral health preventive measures at a young age can reduce or even avoid this lesion progression. Some of the important changes that have taken place over the last few years that have influenced caries prevention are changes in disease level among different populations, increased understanding of caries pathogenesis process, material and operative technique development. We have a variety of new agents, which can be used to prevent dental caries, but the application of these agents in clinical trials is still limited in the developing countries. Moreover, dental caries is multifactorial and all preventive measures should be evaluated properly in human trials so that they can be introduced at the community level for the prevention of dental caries.