Mastitis in dairy cows is an emerging and challenging disease in the tropics, including India. Nation-wide reports suggest that the incidence of clinical mastitis varies from 3.94% to 23.25%, and for subclinical mastitis from 15.78% to 81.60%. In Assam, a northeastern province of India, dairy is an essential part of the mixed farming system that exists in the state, but the milk yield is far below domestic standards. In 2009-2010, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and local associates started to develop a training program for local farmers in Assam, in order to enhance the informal bovine dairy sector in and around Guwahati, India. The project continued until mid-2013. This study was conducted in order to investigate the prevalence of clinical and subclinical mastitis in dairy cows based on the California Mastitis Test (CMT) and clinical examination of the udder, in trained as well as untrained farms, to see if the hygiene training had led to lower disease burden. The objective also included getting an understanding of the pathogens involved, cow factors associated with higher CMT scores and comparing trained with untrained farms regarding milk production and hygiene routines. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 73 trained and 76 untrained farms. From these, 25 trained and 25 untrained farms were chosen for additional CMT and clinical examination of the udder, on 25% of the lactating cows on the farm. Noted parameters for each cow included stage of lactation, parity number and udder hygiene. In total 178 cows were screened. Cows with a CMT score of 3 or more were considered positive and subjected to a milk test for bacterial evaluation. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistics, χ2–test and t-test. At cow level, 6.2 % suffered from clinical mastitis, while 50.6 % suffered from subclinical mastitis in at least one of the quarters (n=178). At quarter level, 1.6 % suffered from clinical mastitis, while 26.6 % suffered from subclinical mastitis (n=700). The mean CMT score among all cows was 2.08 (1-5). A near significant association existed (p=0.08) in CMT score in trained/untrained farms, indicating a lower CMT score in trained farms. The results from the bacterial analysis show that on quarter level for subclinical mastitis (n=184), coagulase-negative staphylococci (n=56) were the most common, followed by Streptococcus agalactiae (n=42), negative growth (n=42), Staphylococcus aureus (n=14), mixed growth (n=13), Streptococcus dysgalactiae (n=10) and 'streptococci, other' (n=7). On quarter level for clinical mastitis (n=11), S. agalactiae (n=4) and negative growth (n=4) were most common, followed by S. aureus (n=2) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (n=1). All S. aureus bacteria were tested for penicillinase production; all were negative. A near significant association (p=0.06) existed between CMT score and lactation stage, indicating a higher CMT score in later lactation stages. A near significant association (p=0.06) also existed between CMT score and parity number, indicating a general tendency against higher CMT scores for higher parity numbers. No significant association between udder hygiene and CMT score was found in this study. The average milk production in trained and untrained farms was 7.8 and 6.8 liters respectively. A two sample unpaired t-test showed that the difference is significant (p<0.01). The results show that the prevalence of clinical and subclinical mastitis is in harmony with other studies conducted in India and nearby countries. The bacterial testing saw exclusively gram-positive cultures. The significant increase in milk production and the tendency towards lower CMT score in trained farms indicate that the hygiene training has led to positive results for the dairy farmers.


Metal gratings for in-coupling a Gaussian beam incident from broadside to the long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) propagating in one direction along a membrane-supported Au slab bounded by air or water are proposed and modeled by the finite-difference time-domain method. Grating couplers for out-coupling the propagating LRSPP into free radiation directed along broadside are also investigated. Short grating designs consisting of a small number of Au bumps yield 15% to 20% in-coupling efficiencies, and about 60% out-coupling efficiencies. LRSPP back-reflections along the membrane waveguide caused by the out-coupling grating are also calculated and discussed.


Effective management of water resources entails the understanding of spatiotemporal changes in hydrologic fluxes with variation in land use, especially with a growing trend of urbanization, agricultural lands and non-stationarity of climate. This study explores the use of satellite-based Land Use Land Cover (LULC) data while simultaneously correcting potential evapotranspiration (PET) input with Leaf Area Index (LAI) to increase the performance of a physically distributed hydrologic model. The mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM) was selected for this purpose due to its unique features. Since LAI input informs the model about vegetation dynamics, we incorporated the LAI based PET correction option together with multi-year LULC data. The Globcover land cover data was selected for the single land cover cases, and hybrid of CORINE (coordination of information on the environment) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) land cover datasets were chosen for the cases with multiple land cover datasets. These two datasets complement each other since MODIS has no separate forest class but more frequent (yearly) observations than CORINE. Calibration period spans from 1990 to 2006 and corresponding NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency) values varies between 0.23 and 0.42, while the validation period spans from 2007 to 2010 and corresponding NSE values are between 0.13 and 0.39. The results revealed that the best performance is obtained when multiple land cover datasets are provided to the model and LAI data is used to correct PET, instead of default aspect-based PET correction in mHM. This study suggests that to minimize errors due to parameter uncertainties in physically distributed hydrologic models, adequate information can be supplied to the model with care taken to avoid over-parameterizing the model.


Scene text detection methods based on deep learning have achieved remarkable results over the past years. However, due to the high diversity and complexity of natural scenes, previous state-of-the-art text detection methods may still produce a considerable amount of false positives, when applied to images captured in real-world environments. To tackle this issue, mainly inspired by Mask R-CNN, we propose in this paper an effective model for scene text detection, which is based on Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) and instance segmentation. We propose a supervised pyramid context network (SPCNET) to precisely locate text regions while suppressing false positives. Benefited from the guidance of semantic information and sharing FPN, SPCNET obtains significantly enhanced performance while introducing marginal extra computation. Experiments on standard datasets demonstrate that our SPCNET clearly outperforms start-of-the-art methods. Specifically, it achieves an F-measure of 92.1% on ICDAR2013, 87.2% on ICDAR2015, 74.1% on ICDAR2017 MLT and 82.9% on Total-Text.


With the technologies proliferation for Internet, such as cloud computing, mobile devices, social media and the internet of things, small and medium enterprises, despite their smaller size, less revenue and small number of employees cannot operate with less information. There are many opportunities for these organizations however, additional tools are needed to generate potential value from these data. When dealing with value creation it is essential identify the main beneficiaries from value being created. The research's objective, still in development, is to create applications using open technology for information treatment and display to make them more explicit creating value in such open data. To validate the principal research's theoretical concept, this paper conducted a proof of concept with open data from a federal government agency that supports and finances investments in small and medium enterprises. The results proved to be possible to develop predictions about the possible investment expenditures for next year in each sector.


Abstract BIOMEX (BIOlogy and Mars EXperiment) is an ESA/Roscosmos space exposure experiment housed within the exposure facility EXPOSE-R2 outside the Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS). The design of the multiuser facility supports—among others—the BIOMEX investigations into the stability and level of degradation of space-exposed biosignatures such as pigments, secondary metabolites, and cell surfaces in contact with a terrestrial and Mars analog mineral environment. In parallel, analysis on the viability of the investigated organisms has provided relevant data for evaluation of the habitability of Mars, for the limits of life, and for the likelihood of an interplanetary transfer of life (theory of lithopanspermia). In this project, lichens, archaea, bacteria, cyanobacteria, snow/permafrost algae, meristematic black fungi, and bryophytes from alpine and polar habitats were embedded, grown, and cultured on a mixture of martian and lunar regolith analogs or other terrestrial minerals. The organisms and regolith analogs and terrestrial mineral mixtures were then exposed to space and to simulated Mars-like conditions by way of the EXPOSE-R2 facility. In this special issue, we present the first set of data obtained in reference to our investigation into the habitability of Mars and limits of life. This project was initiated and implemented by the BIOMEX group, an international and interdisciplinary consortium of 30 institutes in 12 countries on 3 continents. Preflight tests for sample selection, results from ground-based simulation experiments, and the space experiments themselves are presented and include a complete overview of the scientific processes required for this space experiment and postflight analysis. The presented BIOMEX concept could be scaled up to future exposure experiments on the Moon and will serve as a pretest in low Earth orbit.


Optical parametric oscillators are widely-used pulsed and continuous-wave tunable sources for innumerable applications, as in quantum technologies, imaging and biophysics. A key drawback is material dispersion imposing the phase-matching condition that generally entails a complex setup design, thus hindering tunability and miniaturization. Here we show that the burden of phase-matching is surprisingly absent in parametric micro-resonators adopting monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides as quadratic nonlinear materials. By the exact solution of nonlinear Maxwell equations and first-principle calculation of the semiconductor nonlinear response, we devise a novel kind of phase-matching-free miniaturized parametric oscillator operating at conventional pump intensities. We find that different two-dimensional semiconductors yield degenerate and non-degenerate emission at various spectral regions thanks to doubly-resonant mode excitation, which can be tuned through the incidence angle of the external pump laser. In addition we show that high-frequency electrical modulation can be achieved by doping through electrical gating that efficiently shifts the parametric oscillation threshold. Our results pave the way for new ultra-fast tunable micron-sized sources of entangled photons, a key device underpinning any quantum protocol. Highly-miniaturized optical parametric oscillators may also be employed in lab-on-chip technologies for biophysics, environmental pollution detection and security.


We have developed a numerical method for simulating viscous flow through a compliant closed tube, driven by a pair of fluid source and sink. As is natural for tubular flow simulations, the problem is formulated in axisymmetric cylindrical coordinates, with fluid flow described by the Navier-Stokes equations. Because the tubular walls are assumed to be elastic, when stretched or compressed they exert forces on the fluid. Since these forces are singularly supported along the boundaries, the fluid velocity and pressure fields become unsmooth. To accurately compute the solution, we use the velocity decomposition approach, according to which pressure and velocity are decomposed into a singular part and a remainder part. The singular part satisfies the Stokes equations with singular boundary forces. Because the Stokes solution is unsmooth, it is computed to second-order accuracy using the immersed interface method, which incorporates known jump discontinuities in the solution and derivatives into the finite difference stencils. The remainder part, which satisfies the Navier-Stokes equations with a continuous body force, is regular. The equations describing the remainder part are discretized in time using the semi-Lagrangian approach, and then solved using a pressure-free projection method. Numerical results indicate that the computed overall solution is secondorder accurate in space, and the velocity is second-order accurate in time. AMS subject classifications: 65M06, 76D05, 76M20


Orexin (hypocretin) neurons, located exclusively in the PeF-LH, which includes the perifornical area (PeF), the lateral hypothalamus (LH), and lateral portions of the medial hypothalamus, have widespread projections and influence many physiological functions, including the autonomic regulation of body temperature and energy metabolism. Narcolepsy is characterized by the loss of orexin neurons and by disrupted sleep, but also by dysregulation of body temperature and by a strong tendency for obesity. Heat production (thermogenesis) in brown adipose tissue (BAT) contributes to the maintenance of body temperature and, through energy consumption, to body weight regulation. We identified a neural substrate for the influence of orexin neurons on BAT thermogenesis in rat. Nanoinjection of orexin-A (12 pmol) into the rostral raphe pallidus (rRPa), the site of BAT sympathetic premotor neurons, produced large, sustained increases in BAT sympathetic outflow and in BAT thermogenesis. Activation of neurons in the PeF-LH also enhanced BAT thermogenesis over a long time course. Combining viral retrograde tracing from BAT, or cholera toxin subunit b tracing from rRPa, with orexin immunohistochemistry revealed synaptic connections to BAT from orexin neurons in PeF-LH and from rRPa neurons with closely apposed, varicose orexin fibers, as well as a direct, orexinergic projection from PeF-LH to rRPa. These results indicate a potent modulation of BAT thermogenesis by orexin released from the terminals of orexin neurons in PeF-LH directly into the rRPa and provide a potential mechanism contributing to the disrupted regulation of body temperature and energy metabolism in the absence of orexin.


ABSTRACT Background In industrialized countries, the audit has become an integral part of medical care. The experience from developing countries like Bangladesh is still inadequate. This study had been carried out to find out relation among some factors like age, sex, causes, diurenal variation, duration of hospital stay with death and errors in certification process. Materials and methods It was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Department of Medicine, Sir Salimullah Medical College (SSMC) and Mitford Hospital from March 2010 to August 2010. Information of consecutive 100 deaths was collected in a predesigned clinical data sheet within half an hour of every occurrence. Necessary data were collected from hospital case records (admission registrar, case files and death certificates) using structured checklist. Patients who were brought dead were excluded from the study. Results Among 100 deaths, 48% were males (n = 48) and 52% were females (n = 52). Within this group, 66.7% were males and 33.3% were females. First day (within 24 hours of admission) death accounted for 46% (n = 46) of all death and by the second day 23% (n = 23) of all deaths occurred. The highest underlying cause of death was cerebrovascular diseases (29% of total death), infectious disease contributed 20%, chronic liver disease 13%, malignancy 7%, poisoning 6%, cor pulmonale 5%, while others were 20%. Conclusion In this studychronic liver disease was found to be one of the leading causes of death in our hospital and most of them occurred due to hepatic encephalopathy. So, early detection of hepatic encephalopathy and treatment is necessary to reduce hospital mortality. How to cite this article: Abedin MF, Hoque MM, Islam ASMS, Chowdhury MFI, Das DC, Begum SA, Mamun AA, Mahtab MA, Rahman S, Saha AK. Chronic Liver Disease is One of the Leading Causes of Death in Bangladesh: Experience by Death Audit from a Tertiary Hospital. Euroasian J Hepato-Gastroenterol 2014;4(1):14-17.


Thomas Sakmyster. Hungary's Admiral on Horseback: Miklos Horthy, 1918-1944. Boulder, CO: Eastern European Monographs; distributed by Columbia University Press, 1994. x, 476. Illustrations. $50.00, cloth. Admiral Miklos Horthy, Hungary's head-of-state from 1920 to 1944, is one the most controversial statesmen in modern Hungarian history. His name has been linked to the White Terror of 1919; he is also reputed to have been the chief architect of the "semi-feudal order" that prevailed in Hungary after 1920. However, in the eyes of many, his greatest "crime" was Hungary's involvement in World War II on the side of the Axis. Half-a-century later, his name still stirs up emotions. Indicative of this is the acrimony that accompanied his reburial in Hungarian soil in 1993. Although transferring his remains from Lisbon (where he died in 1957), to Kenderes (where he was born in 1868) was only the implementation of his deathbed wish, there was an outpouring of opposition to the idea both inside and outside Hungary. Horthy will undoubtedly remain a controversial figure even though Sakmyster's book should help to reduce the controversy surrounding him, at least in the scholarly circles of the English-speaking world. Sakmyster suggests that the negative image Horthy has had throughout the years is largely undeserved. Few people know, for example, that during the last months of his rule not a single Jew was deported from Hungary to Nazi concentration camps. It amounts to a miracle that this can be said of an Axis country whose capital in 1944 had the largest concentration of Jews in Central Europe, at a time when for Hitler the solution of the "Jewish problem" seems to have had greater priority then Germany's struggle against the Allies. Indeed, as Adolf Eichman remarked during his trial in Jerusalem, Horthy's was the only Axis country during the war where the military was used to protect Jews! And there is more that can be said in favour of Horthy. He could have suppressed all leftist opposition parties in wartime Hungary, but he refused to do so. Though the Communist Party was banned in Hortyite Hungary, in Horthy's prisons Hungarian communists were more secure than their exiled comrades were in Stalin's Russia. As Sakmyster concludes: "It was largely through his influence that [before its occupation by the Wehrmacht in March 1944] Hungary was... an island in the heart of Hitler's Europe where a semblance of the rule of law and a pluralistic society had been preserved..." (p. 400). We may ask why is it that this man, whose country in early 1944 was an island of civility in a "sea of barbarism," acquired quite a negative reputation? The explanation stems from the fact that, ever since his coming to power in 1920, Horthy has been vilified in many quarters. In 1919 thousands of the participants of Hungary's postwar revolutions left the country. Most of them were well-educated individuals who became influential publicists wherever they settled. Many of them waged a propaganda war against the regime whose existence made their life in exile necessary. At the same time, Little Entente spokesmen had their own reasons for blackening Horthy's reputation. Though Horthy ceased to play a role in Hungary's politics after October 1944, his detractors continued to denounce him for years. Another reason for Horthy's negative image was the fact that the communist regime of post-World War II Hungary considered him as the incarnation of the evil against which progressive people everywhere had to fight. The result was the outpouring of anti-Horthy propaganda both at home and abroad. …


C.A. Francis, A.M. Nicolaysen, G. Lieblein, and T.A. Breland. (2020). Transformative education in agroecology: student, teacher, and client involvement in colearning. Int. J. Agric. Nat. Resour. 280-294. Educational methods have evolved rapidly in agroecology, which is a complex and holistic field without a long history or the formal tradition of any single academic discipline. Definitions of agroecology have evolved from its initial conception as a marriage of agriculture with ecology, to an aggregation of different paths including science, practices, and movements, and recently as a broad appreciation of the ecology of food systems. In contrast with traditional courses that begin with a history of the discipline and review the contributions of early leaders, we have embraced phenomenology to firmly establish roots in students' learning through their experiences interacting with farmers and practitioners in food systems. We have pursued close collaborations among students, teachers, farmers, processors, retailers, consumers, and government officials to build ownership of the learning process in a transdisciplinary education model. Working together in the learning landscape, we have codeveloped visions of sustainable systems for the future. As a team, we are searching for meaning and applications to help advance substantial changes in the production and consumption of food and more importantly, a transformation in thinking about educational alternatives. Our learning program's focus is catalyzing the student journey by developing five competencies: observation, dialogue, participation, reflection, and visioning. Implementing the program requires fundamental changes towards colearning involving students, instructors, and stakeholders, plus modifications in the institutional environment. With well-focused skills and practice, our graduates are prepared to deal with a complex and unpredictable future, where many of the questions and challenges are yet to be discovered. By involving students and others in design, this becomes a process of empowering each participant to take responsibility for their education and preparing them for lifelong learning with the motivation to be an active and responsible agent of change.


Abstract The chemical and sorption properties of clay minerals from the Mako area, Senegal, were investigated using FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy equipped with an X-ray energy dispersion spectrometer, thermal analysis and chemical analysis. The clay sample is essentially dominated by kaolinite and quartz as also shown by treatment with ethylene glycol and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). The clay fraction of this natural clay was organically modified by grafting with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) in order to improve significantly its retention ability of heavy metals. The silane groups of the APTES reagent were partly grafted on the surface of platy kaolinite particles and the remaining ethoxy groups could be hydrolysed by aqueous treatment. The natural clay, its clay fraction and the organo-functionalized clay (with APTES) were investigated as adsorbents for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solutions. Evidence for an organic grafting has been demonstrated by comparing the spectroscopic characteristics of the natural clay and those of its chemically modified derivatives. The effects of different parameters (i.e. initial Pb(II) concentration and contact time) on the adsorption efficiency were studied. For an initial concentration of 10 mg L-1 Pb(II), the adsorption was maximized after 30 min contact time both for the raw material and its clay fraction and after 90 min for the APTES grafted clay. Although the maximum of sorption for the APTES grafted clay is reached with slower kinetics, this maximum amount of Pb(II) uptake at room temperature (Xmax) is significantly higher since it is 0.99 mg g-1 for the raw clay, 1.46 mg g-1 for its clay fraction and 3.02 mg g-1 for the organically modified clay, i.e. three times greater than the raw clay.


Student loan debt has reached crisis levels, topping $1.64 trillion dollars this year and surpassing credit card debt to become the second largest source of debt held by Americans. When discussing student loan debt, it is easy to fixate on the aggregate impact of the burdens this debt places on taxpayers, the economy, and borrowers alike, such as the depressive effects that student loan debt has on marriage, homeownership, and entrepreneurship. Yet, a discussion of which graduates are saddled with the largest student loans and how their debt obligations impacts their career choices is often absent from conversations about student debt and has been understudied to date. This Article contributes to the discourse about student loan debt and its potentially negative externalities by investigating responses from an original survey administered at four law schools, revealing novel findings about law students' expected debt loads, career choices, and intentions to participate in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

In Part I of this Article, the student loan crisis is more closely examined with particular emphasis on its salience for law school graduates. In addition, the first part of this Article provides credible descriptive evidence that rates and amounts of borrowing to attend law school impact law students differentially on the basis of their endowed characteristics, such as race and parental education. Next, Part II explores the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, describing the program's creation and implementation, in addition to evaluating its efficacy and the direct and indirect costs of its administration. Part III discusses two pervasive issues within the legal academy with significant social implications — the access-to-justice gap and the public-interest drift — against the backdrop of the student loan crisis and the possible answers that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program could provide in addressing these issues. Part IV describes the data collected from the original survey, the methods used to analyze these data, and reports and discusses the results. The findings reported in Part IV offer insight into how a law student's endowed and acquired traits influence their career intentions and provide evidence of the causal relationship between loan debt and career choice and intentions to enroll in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Finally, this Article concludes by suggesting that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program presents the best available option to address problems stemming from the access-to-justice gap and the public-interest drift, while also offsetting the negative effects of structural stratification in legal education.


In order to understand better the mechanism of action of a permanent modifier based on Ir deposited on graphite furnaces pretreated by carbide-forming elements (W and Zr) an XPS investigation was carried out on samples submitted to thermal treatment simulating the exptl. conditions used in electrothermal at. absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). Platforms pretreated by W and Zr were analyzed: evidence of tungsten carbide and oxides was found in the former whereas mainly oxygenated species were found on Zr-treated platforms. In both cases the existence of species anchored to graphite substrate via O and Cl bridges was hypothesized to account for the binding energy values obtained by a curve-fitting process. The deposition of Ir on either W- or Zr- platforms significantly modifies their surface chem. compn. and, in particular, promotes the formation of W and Zr species at higher oxidn. state (for example, WC is oxidized to WO3). At the same time, a substantial decrease of the overall signal intensities was recorded, most likely due to modifiers removal from the platform surface and/or their migration into the platform subsurface region as a consequence of the thermal treatments required by the platform-modifying procedure. Possible correlations between the chem. compn. of surface modifier species that are formed on graphite substrate and previous findings obtained by ETAAS expts. and morphol. and elemental investigations were pointed out. Confirmation was obtained that in all the modifier systems studied (W, Zr, W/Ir, Zr/Ir) there are at least 2 eventual forms of the modifier at the end of the preatomization treatment, with a prevalence of O-contg. species. Thus, differences in thermal stabilization as well as in the ETAAS patterns of analyte atom generation can be ascribed reasonably to the presence of active centers that are chem. different and characterized by different morphologies. [on SciFinder (R)]


A change in technology can redefine roles in society. Skills that were previously considered specialties and/or optional can become required for the general population. Some recent examples include typing and drafting. Neither skill was expected from engineers before the widespread availability of personal computers. Secretaries performed the overwhelming majority of typing, and drafting technicians were available in sufficient numbers to do the drafting. Both were considered necessary support personnel in all engineering organizations. Recently, however, the adoption of personal computers has made typing and drafting expected and necessary skills for every engineer. The reason is that the number of typists and designers has decreased steadily during the last 20years as engineering organizations reaped the benefits of the investment in personal computers that increased workforce efficiency. Some of the reduction in support personnel can be explained by increased efficiency but, in addition, today most engineering organizations expect engineers to perform tasks previously assigned to typists and designers. One implication of decreasing numbers of drafting technicians is that, increasingly, recent engineering graduates are expected to perform in such role without the benefit of lengthy on-the-job training, while simultaneously learning to apply other traditional engineering skills such as analysis and project management. Engineering students can benefit by learning and practicing the skills traditionally associated with designers, namely, the production of engineering drawings. This requires more than learning to use computer aided design (CAD) software. In addition, the students must have a good understanding of drafting practices and standards and they must be able to write callouts for materials and commercial items in the correct format. This report is a study of historical employment data from the past 100 years. The data appears to indicate that typing and drafting duties are transitioning from specialized support employees to the general population of engineers.


The Genetics Society of America annually honors members who have made outstanding contributions to genetics. The Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal recognizes a lifetime contribution to the science of genetics. The Genetics Society of America Medal recognizes particularly outstanding contributions to the


This article intends to highlight some of the experiences that an International novice English teacher had in the classroom of some pre-degree students of Malaysia, who werein their twenties. As a student of education, the author has some theoretical background in the field of teaching, with which he realized that an eclectic teacher is the one whom a classroom always needs; not a lesson plan-bounded teacher especially for adults, provided that he or she has an active and creative mind, not only inside, but also outside the four walls. The paper introduces some new approaches that the author practiced for a twomonth Intensive English course for Malay students, whose local language is unfamiliar to the former. Among these approaches were some new dimensions of self-disclosing approach, free talking approach, labeling approach, behavior diversion approach, translation approach, and teacher-student conversion approach. Being cognizant of both positive and negative consequences of eclecticism, this study would analyze some of the pros and cons, underpinned by an experience-based understanding. The research design used in this paper is basically observational method after which a narrative analysis method is exercised. The article concludes with some of the implications for the pre-degree students as well as early University students arguing that eclecticism should be valued not only for schools but also for post-school periods.


BACKGROUND
Erythropoietic protoporphyria is a severe photodermatosis that is associated with acute phototoxicity. Patients with this condition have excruciating pain and a markedly reduced quality of life. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of an α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone analogue, afamelanotide, to decrease pain and improve quality of life.

METHODS
We conducted two multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of subcutaneous implants containing 16 mg of afamelanotide. Patients in the European Union (74 patients) and the United States (94 patients) were randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to receive a subcutaneous implant containing either afamelanotide or placebo every 60 days (a total of five implants in the European Union study and three in the U.S study). The type and duration of sun exposure, number and severity of phototoxic reactions, and adverse events were recorded over the respective 180-day and 270-day study periods. Quality of life was assessed with the use of validated questionnaires. A subgroup of U.S. patients underwent photoprovocation testing. The primary efficacy end point was the number of hours of direct exposure to sunlight without pain.

RESULTS
In the U.S. study, the duration of pain-free time after 6 months was longer in the afamelanotide group (median, 69.4 hours, vs. 40.8 hours in the placebo group; P=0.04). In the European Union study, the duration of pain-free time after 9 months was also longer in the afamelanotide group than in the placebo group (median, 6.0 hours vs. 0.8 hours; P=0.005), and the number of phototoxic reactions was lower in the the afamelanotide group (77 vs. 146, P=0.04). In both trials, quality of life improved with afamelanotide therapy. Adverse events were mostly mild; serious adverse events were not thought to be related to the study drug.

CONCLUSIONS
Afamelanotide had an acceptable side-effect and adverse-event profile and was associated with an increased duration of sun exposure without pain and improved quality of life in patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria. (Funded by Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals and others; ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT01605136 and NCT00979745.).


This study aims to design a learning environment supported with problem-based learning in a webenvironment, with the purpose of providing a more meaningful and to examine the effects of this learning environment on students' conceptual understanding. The study uses a pretest posttest control group experimental design. A total of 56 eighth grade students attending a public primary school in Istanbul, Turkey participated in the study. Diagnostic tests were used to measure the level of conceptual understanding among students concerning the subject of acids and bases, and to identify misunderstandings. It was found that the posttest conceptual understanding scores of the control and experimental groups differed significantly from one another, with the experimental group students receiving higher scores (t54= 6,63 p< ,05 ).


Abstract. Cities worldwide are challenged by increasing urban flood risks. Precise and realistic measures are required to reduce flooding impacts. However, currently implemented sewer and topographic models do not provide realistic predictions of local flooding occurrence during heavy rain events. Assessing other factors such as spatially distributed rainfall, socioeconomic characteristics, and social sensing, may help to explain probability and impacts of urban flooding. Several spatial datasets have been recently made available in the Netherlands, including rainfall-related incident reports made by citizens, spatially distributed rain depths, semidistributed socioeconomic information, and buildings age. Inspecting the potential of this data to explain the occurrence of rainfall related incidents has not been done yet. Multivariate analysis tools for describing communities and environmental patterns have been previously developed and used in the field of study of ecology. The objective of this paper is to outline opportunities for these tools to explore urban flooding risks patterns in the mentioned datasets. To that end, a cluster analysis is performed. Results indicate that incidence of rainfall-related impacts is higher in areas characterized by older infrastructure and higher population density.


The book provides a valuable systematic guide to the evaluation and understanding of worldwide ground and environmental conditions of sites and their surrounds. This is done through a series of annotated block models and supporting photographs of common geological and geomorphological situations around the world, with basic text explanations and information on each principal block diagram and its annotated photographs.

 Ground conditions depend on the climatic, geological and geomorphological history of the site and its surrounding area. In ground investigation, ground engineering, design and construction, a preliminary study of the local environment (including climate), the landforms and the geomorphological processes creating and modifying the local landscape is thus required, as well as informed detailed knowledge of the soils and geology, their distribution, properties and engineering behaviour.

 Geomodels in Engineering Geology outlines the world's climatic and morphological zones and the changes such environments bring upon the ground. It deals with fundamental aspects of surface soils and geology in relation to their engineering behavior and guides the way that ground investigation can be developed to provide appropriate information needed for design and construction of a project – augmented by case histories and experience of practical problems.


Abstract In recent years, Africa has emerged as a hot spot for energy sources. The reopening of the oil sector in Sudan and the oil discoveries in West and Central Africa has made this possible. There is a growing argument that oil breeds instability in the African and other oil-rich developing countries across the world. While oil wealth has led to an increase in conflicts in Africa, particularly in the case of Sudan and Nigeria, the rising energy demand is pushing major US, European, Chinese and Malaysian oil companies to invest in African oil. Similarly, India's energy security concerns are driving it towards Africa. In fact, India has no option but to turn towards Africa for diversifying its petroleum sources. However, it will have to draw upon its past ties with the oil-rich African countries if it has to gain a foothold.


In this study, we characterize experimentally, the behavior of a wet foam flow along a square channel and through some singularities (an enlargement and a fence). The enlargement characteristics are a square section 21×21 mm2 at the upstream and a rectangular section of 21 × 42 mm2 at the downstream, for an aspect ratio of 0.5. As for the fence, it presents a height of 10 mm, a width of 5 mm and an inclination at its point of 45°. Experimental data were obtained in order to well understand the singularity effects over the foam flow and its texture in the immediate vicinity of this latter. The experimental investigation is focused into finding the wall shear stress and the liquid film which links the duct walls to the foam flow. The properties of the foam and the influence of this phenomenon might have an important role. We try to relate the wall shear stress obtained experimentally to determine the rheological properties of the foam. The use of different experimental devices and measurement techniques allow the comprehension of physical phenomena aspects that govern the foam structure. The PIV method gives the dynamics of the wet foam including the velocity fields near the walls. These ones are experimentally obtained from a series of instantaneous snapshots that will capture the bubbles movement. The innovative use of the polarographic method hands the measurements of the mass transfers, from which wall shear stress between the foam flow and the Plexiglas walls of the channel can be determined. The mass transfer measurement technique is based on a polarography method, by measuring the redox reaction controlled by the convection and diffusion phenomenon. The conductimetry technique, based on the measurement of the electric resistance in a liquid volume, allows the accurate perception of the liquid film thickness formed between the foam flow and the walls. The static pressure losses are directly obtained by the measurements taken from a series of pressures taps placed in the bottom wall of the channel. This parameter will allow the determination of the foam flow behavior. It is taken into consideration a one-dimensional flow, meaning that the established flow behaves as a piston or move as a bloc, with a foam velocity of 2.3 cm/s. All experiments lead to determine the general tendency of the foam flow structure along the square channel and the singularities, including its rheology behavior and drainage ability.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


The authors analyzed the relationship of visits to a magazine's online companion website and total circulation, subscription, and kiosk sales using bivariate vector autoregressions estimated on 67 German magazines that were observed monthly in the period May 1998 to November 2009. Their econometric analysis finds some support for the widespread belief that the Internet cannibalizes print media. On average, a 1% increase in companion website traffic is associated with a weakly significant decrease in total print circulation by 0.15%. This association is mainly driven by a statistically significant and negative mapping between website visits and kiosk sales, although they do not find any statistically significant relationship between website visits and subscriptions. The latter finding is reassuring for publishers because advertisers value a large subscriber base. Moreover, the authors show that the negative relationships between website visits and total circulation as well as kiosk sales are primarily associated with magazines that have a mainly male and Internet–affine readership and by magazines that are published with a less than weekly periodicity.


One distinguishing feature of the "new" regionalism is its outward orientation – the increased importance of the external dimension of regional cooperation. It makes sense, then, that efforts to manage external perceptions of a region, on the part of policy-relevant actors in that region, might contribute to important changes to regional norms and institutions. By and large, though, existing accounts of normative and institutional change at the regional level do not explicitly conceptualize and theorize collective image consciousness and management. This paper offers an initial attempt to address this conceptual gap, making use of two cases of regional image crisis (post-Cold War Africa and post-1997 Southeast Asia) in order to draw out logics of regional image consciousness and to distinguish among types of regional image management efforts. As regional communities of states, Africa and Southeast Asia promoted and adhered to a relatively strict interpretation of the principle of non-interference during the Cold War period. In the post-Cold War era, the non-interference norm has eroded in both regions. In each, these developments constituted – in part – a collective image management strategy, aimed at external audiences. Reforms to regional institutions were promoted in part as efforts to ameliorate negative international perceptions.


This paper describes the key economic variables and mechanisms that will determine the adjustment process in those euro area countries now under financial market pressure. (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and ItalY = GIPSY). The key finding is that the adjustment will be particularly difficult for Greece (and Portugal) because these are two relatively closed economies with low savings rates. Both of these countries are facing a solvency problem because they combine high debt levels with low growth and high interest rates. Fiscal and external adjustment is thus required for sustainability, not just to satisfy the Stability Pact. By contrast, Ireland and Spain face more of a liquidity than a solvency problem. Italy seems to have a much better starting position on all accounts. Fiscal adjustment alone will not be sufficient to ensure sustainability. Without significant reductions in labour costs, these economies will face years of stagnation at best. Especially in the case of Greece, it is imperative that the cuts in public sector wages are transmitted to the entire economy in order to restore competitiveness, and thus ensure that export growth can become a vital safety valve. Without an adjustment of wages in the private sector, the adjustment will become so difficult that failure cannot be excluded.


Prescribed burning is one of the primary tools used for habitat restoration in the fire-adapted prairies of the Pacific Northwest. Concerns about detrimental effects of burning on butterfly populations, however, can inhibit implementation of treatments. Burning in cool and humid conditions is likely to produce low-severity patches and result in lowered soil temperatures, which can be critical to survival of butterfly larvae. With these burning conditions, it may also be possible to enhance the heterogeneity of butterfly habitat, and thus achieve a secondary objective. In this study, twenty experimental plots were burned across a wide range of weather and fuel conditions to address the potential for meeting these two objectives. Overall risk to diapausing butterfly larvae – assessed by measuring subsurface soil temperatures and heat dosages – was lower when air temperature was less than 26 oC, dead fuel moisture was greater than 8%, and relative humidity was higher than 54%, providing threshold recommendations for habitat management using prescribed fire. Targeting moister burning conditions to leave some unburned or low-severity patches that can serve as insect refugia required at least a small amount of pre-existing fuel discontinuity. Post-burn habitat composition and structure were also influenced by burning conditions. In the first growing season post-burn, species richness increased slightly more when burns had occurred in mid-summer vs. late summer. Ordinations showed shifts in plant composition from perennials towards annuals, with somewhat larger shifts for plots burned in the afternoon. Geospatial analysis was used to assess the heterogeneity of vegetation height structure, which can help to buffer insect populations by producing fine-scale variability in thermal heat loading at ground level and providing a range of microclimates. This structural heterogeneity and microclimate availability increased following morning burns conducted in higher dead fuel moistures, and when burns occurred in little to no wind, highlighting the linkages between fuel continuity, fire spread, and vegetation response. This research provides regional recommendations for burning in sensitive butterfly habitat and contributes to a greater understanding of how fuel moisture and continuity during grassland burning can affect fine-scale heterogeneity of vegetation structure and microhabitat availability.


This documentary by the celebrated Danish producer Rikke Houd, in collaboration with Iranian journalist Sheida Jahanbin, is a work of art. It is also a powerful piece of documentary journalism that measures the pulse of a young couple's emigration from Iran and their attempts to settle in Norway. The narration by Sheida Jahanbin, our guide to establishing a new life as an asylum seeker, is lent a profound dimension by being choreographed in a sophisticated 'hocketing' with the voiced-over translation, which acts as Sheida's Norwegian voice. This is an inspired device, which also serves as a metaphor in a story about communication, translation and transition. This documentary communicates both the circumstances of how a young couple escapes the horrors of imprisonment, suffering the anguish of exile and difficulties of assimilation, and, remarkably, it conveys the sense of how it feels to endure these trials. It's both a map of what has to be gone through and a poetic reflection on that migration. There are countless potential narratives in this documentary – relating to history, poetry, activism, social care, personal dislocation – but the achievement of My Share of the Sky is to fulfil all of them. And more. Memory and dream or nightmare carry as much weight as reportage. A yearning for expression saturates this documentary, as is brilliantly encoded into every detail of the production. There is at work here a deeply empathetic intelligence that measures 'how' and 'why' as accurately as 'what'. Through an exemplary use of the unique palette available to the radio feature maker, My Share of the Sky demonstrates how fact and feeling, journalism and art, the everyday and the elevated can dance together in a profound expressive form. The program was a finalist in the Prix Europa 2012. DOWNLOAD FULL REVIEW (2,200 words) AND EMBEDDED AUDIO CLIPS at 'Download' icon top right of page.


Altitudinal migration is defined as the seasonal movement of birds from high level breeding haunts to lower levels during the winter. Data is given on the movements of selected species and it is shown in some cases that the migrants maintain a territory in their winter quarters. Evidence from ringed birds shows that species undertaking altitudinal migration do so year after year proving that the phenomenon is not merely a dispersal by young birds. There are no known forests where the whole population moves to lower levels. The significance of the migration is discussed and it is concluded that its evolution was related to vicissitudes of the pseistocene climate. At the present time it is probably important in maintaining gene flow between populations in montane forest, a highly fragmented and, in many areas, a vanishing habitat.


A recent survey of gender and ethnic differences among science and engineering majors suggested that Asian American students were less content with their undergraduate experiences and with their field of study than were White students or students of other ethnic groups. Asian Americans appeared to enjoy their studies less and to feel more pressured by family to continue their science or engineering studies. Their responses indicated that they were less encouraged by professors to continue in their field, and they gave lower ratings to their relationships with professors. This study reports the results of additional analyses aimed at better understanding the responses of Asian Americans.

Results of the additional analyses indicated that Asian American students tended to endorse the middle response on a 5-point Likert scale more than White students did, and to avoid extreme responses. This response style accounted, in part, for the lower ratings Asian Americans gave to their undergraduate experiences. When items were rescored, collapsing the 5-point scale to a 3-point scale, Asian American ratings were still lower. These results indicated that there was at least one type of Asian American response set affecting the comparison of Asian Americans with Whites. Furthermore, Asian Americans were either less content with their studies, or, the tendency to respond more neutrally to questions of judgment was another type of response set.

A hypothesis was posed that students in large research universities would be less content than students in other institutions, and that because a greater proportion of Asian Americans than Whites attend large research universities, the relative discontent of Asian Americans might be attributable to the type of institution attended. This hypothesis was not supported by the data.

Response styles that are unique to specific ethnic groups may lead researcher's to draw erroneous conclusions from survey data. A number of recommendations are made for further research to determine how general the Asian American response set is, and to attempt to account for the lower satisfaction ratings of Asian Americans even when a correction is made for a response set.


Understanding how teaching and research contribute to the overall efficiency of university operations is of great importance for universities to improve their performance. This paper adopts a holistic approach to evaluate the university efficiency from three perspectives including (a) the overall university operations efficiency, (b) the university teaching efficiency, and (c) the university research efficiency. It applies the technique of data envelopment analysis to thirty-six Australian universities in the period of 2011 to 2015 for evaluating their relative efficiency respectively from these perspectives. A strategic group analysis is further conducted for exploring the source of inefficiency of an individual university in its respective strategic group. Such an analysis provides individual universities with valuable information on how they can make full use of their resources for improving their efficiency in an increasingly competitive environment.


Computing connected components of a graph lies at the core of many data mining algorithms, and is a fundamental subroutine in graph clustering. This problem is well studied, yet many of the algorithms with good theoretical guarantees perform poorly in practice, especially when faced with graphs with hundreds of billions of edges. In this paper, we design improved algorithms based on traditional MapReduce architecture for large scale data analysis. We also explore the effect of augmenting MapReduce with a distributed hash table (DHT) service. We show that these algorithms have provable theoretical guarantees, and easily outperform previously studied algorithms, sometimes by more than an order of magnitude. In particular, our iterative MapReduce algorithms run 3 to 15 times faster than the best previously studied algorithms, and the MapReduce implementation using a DHT is 10 to 30 times faster than the best previously studied algorithms. These are the fastest algorithms that easily scale to graphs with hundreds of billions of edges.


AIM
To gain a deeper understanding of how Swedish head school nurses perceive their leadership in developing school health care.

BACKGROUND
A well-functioning school health care is important for promoting the health of children and young people.

METHOD
Constructivist-grounded theory was used to analyse 11 individual interviews with nine head school nurses.

RESULTS
Head school nurses strive to find a balance between what they experience as vague formal goals and strong informal goals which leads to creating local goals in order to develop school health care.

CONCLUSION
The head school nurse's job is experienced as a divided and pioneering job in which there is uncertainty about the leadership role. They provide individual support to school nurses, are the link between school nurses and decision makers and highlight the importance of school nurses' work to organizational leaders.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
This study shows that school health care needs to be founded on evidence-based methods. Therefore, a structured plan for education and training in school health care management, based on research and in cooperation with the academic world, would develop the head school nurses' profession, strengthen the position of school health care and advance the school nurses' work.


Whites and Blacks disagree about the prevalence of racial bias in America (Norton & Sommers, 2011). This disconnect may be due to differences in the behaviors that each group considers prejudiced (Sommers & Norton, 2006). On average, Blacks believe subtle and blatant behaviors signal prejudice, whereas Whites only believe blatant behaviors signal prejudice. The present study examined how cognitive depletion affects the detection and categorization of subtle and blatant behaviors as prejudiced among Black and White individuals. Participants were cognitively depleted (or not) and then watched a videotaped interracial interaction between a White individual and a Black confederate. In the subtle bias condition, participants learned that the White individual endorsed positive racial attitudes, but then observed them displaying relatively negative, avoidant behaviors during the interaction; in the blatant bias condition, participants learned that the White individual endorsed negative racial attitudes and observed them displaying the same relatively negative behaviors. Participants reported how prejudiced they believed the White partner was and their expectations about future interactions with the White individual. Results revealed that Black participants did not categorize subtle behaviors as prejudiced regardless of their level of depletion. However, cognitive depletion blunted Black participants' categorization of blatant behaviors as prejudiced. Blacks who were not depleted and exposed to blatant behaviors categorized them as more prejudiced relative to nondepleted participants in the same blatant bias condition. White participants did not categorize subtle and blatant behaviors differently. Instead, cognitive depletion caused Whites to categorization all behaviors as less prejudiced. That is, cognitive depletion made White participants less likely to categorize subtle or blatant behaviors as prejudiced. Mechanisms for these effects were examined and potential implications of this research for future work are discussed.


A strong earthquake (M w =6.4) occurred in NW Peloponnesus, Greece, on June 8, 2008. The focal mechanism shows a transcurrent kinematics, and based on aftershocks distribution the causative fault is a dextral strike-slip NNE-SSW trending structure. The shock generated severe secondary environmental effects like rock-falls and liquefaction phenomena inducing structural damages and ground failures mainly along the fault strike. Evidence of liquefaction was observed in the area of Kato Achaia and Roupakia villages, while rock-falls were triggered mainly close to the epicentre at the foothills of the Skolis Mountain. Based on a quantitative methodological approach, the ground deformation and failures generated by the event have been investigated. In particular, based on an immediate post-event survey, we mapped in detail the distribution of the earthquake-induced ground failures, defining the areas prone to liquefaction and their associated potential. Moreover, a rock-fall hazard zonation in the area of Skolis Mountain has been developed based on the shadow angle approach, confirming the validity of the safety run-out distance models.


How can behavioural finance inform the investment process? We have taken a hypothetical 'typical' large fund management house and analysed their process. This collection of notes tries to explore some of the areas in which understanding psychology could radically alter the way they structure their businesses. The results may challenge some of your most deeply held beliefs.


The problem of type, characteristics, and factors which influence organizational structure has always been a basic problem in management, both for researchers and for managers. Organizational structure, in addition to being a management tool, is also an expression of power and social status, and this obviously makes it an attractive problem for everyone. In management literature, particularly in the literature on the management of innovation processes, there are few studies more numerous than those on the relation between technology and organizational structure. The results from these different studies are very contradictory.

Woodward and her supporters established a direct relation between the type of technology and organizational structure. About ten years later, however, Hickson and his associates discovered than structure is influenced considerably by many factors, and its relation with technology is indirect. In spite of the contradictory nature of the results from a large number of empirical studies, their importance in this field is constantly increasing. This has been especially true in the past few years because of major technological changes and the introduction of technologies essentially different from those with which researchers and managers had been familiar in the past.

A special place in contemporary studies is occupied by the problems relating to the influence of information technologies on organizational and management structure. Here again the conclusions and hypotheses are rather diverse. Therefore, each step forward, even the smallest one, in this direction is important and valuable for practical activities.

The project "Management of Technological Change" (MTC) investigates some of the possible links between the phases of the life cycles of technologies and the elements of management, including its organizational structure. Recognizing the importance of information technologies during the present technological revolution, we can say that there is no change greater than that caused in all fields by the introduction of information technologies. Even the simplest innovations in this field essentially change the content of many management functions, change the place of hierarchical levels and decision-making centers, and create new links and relations.

This paper is based on results from studies of Bulgarian organizations as well as results from past studies and information about organizational structure collected from the MTC pilot study. The results direct attention to the impact of information technologies and to the special role of the level of technology in changing organizational structures. On this basis, the introduction of so-called high technologies is a special factor which provokes such changes. In this sense, the conclusion is that the dynamics of structural changes are much greater in the case of high technology. To this influence is added the influence of information technologies whose invariant phase structure allows them to be defined and considered as analogous production technologies.


Fab City aims at fostering the social resilience of urban areas by structuring networks of Fab Labs and third-places. This research paper reviews the ontology of this initiative and provides with an understanding of the articulation between networks of interests and communities of values so to enhance Fab City's potential for territorial resilience. Openness is identified as a key feature of projects nested within Fab City, even though the diversity of participants is very low in the makers movement. In order to assess openness, this paper proposes a semiotic design methodology that is anchored in the actor-network theory and cyber-counter-culture heritage, and distancing from human-centred and participative design. The semiotic design methodology is then applied on three case studies as an illustration of the method's potential as a diagnostic tool to appreciate their openness. In providing a methodology for a systemic understanding of community oriented design, this research could help pave the way for a dynamic practice of design, one that aims at building an evolving common language for resilience while prizing cultural differences.


Alterations in checkpoint and DNA repair pathways may provide adaptive mechanisms contributing to acquired drug resistance. Here, we investigated the levels of proteins mediating DNA damage signaling and -repair in RPMI8226 multiple myeloma cells and its Melphalan-resistant derivative 8226-LR5. We observed markedly reduced steady-state levels of DNA glycosylases UNG2, NEIL1 and MPG in the resistant cells and cross-resistance to agents inducing their respective DNA base lesions. Conversely, repair of alkali-labile sites was apparently enhanced in the resistant cells, as substantiated by alkaline comet assay, autoribosylation of PARP-1, and increased sensitivity to PARP-1 inhibition by 4-AN or KU58684. Reduced base-excision and enhanced single-strand break repair would both contribute to the observed reduction in genomic alkali-labile sites, which could jeopardize productive processing of the more cytotoxic Melphalan-induced interstrand DNA crosslinks (ICLs). Furthermore, we found a marked upregulation of proteins in the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway of double-strand break (DSB) repair, likely contributing to the observed increase in DSB repair kinetics in the resistant cells. Finally, we observed apparent upregulation of ATR-signaling and downregulation of ATM-signaling in the resistant cells. This was accompanied by markedly increased sensitivity towards Melphalan in the presence of ATR-, DNA-PK, or CHK1/2 inhibitors whereas no sensitizing effect was observed subsequent to ATM inhibition, suggesting that replication blocking lesions are primary triggers of the DNA damage response in the Melphalan resistant cells. In conclusion, Melphalan resistance is apparently contributed by modulation of the DNA damage response at multiple levels, including downregulation of specific repair pathways to avoid repair intermediates that could impair efficient processing of cytotoxic ICLs and ICL-induced DSBs. This study has revealed several novel candidate biomarkers for Melphalan sensitivity that will be included in targeted quantitation studies in larger patient cohorts to validate their value in prognosis as well as targets for replacement- or adjuvant therapies.


Advanced Practices in Nursing are widespread in several countries, especially in Canada and EUA. However, only recently they have been discussed in Latin American and Caribbean countries, driven by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). They aim to improve users' access to health services and the qualification of health systems to achieve universal coverage. Nurse Practitioners should have specialized training, being recommended the master's level, and must have knowledge capable of meeting the health needs of individuals, families, social groups and collectivities. They must be able to analyze and synthesize knowledge, understand, interpret and apply the theory and research in Nursing, contributing to the development of the profession and practices based on scientific evidence (CNA, 2008). They should also have a high degree of professional autonomy and competence to make clinical decisions, perform assessments, diagnoses, and prescriptions, being responsible for case management, evaluation, and implementation of care and referral programs and plans, and to be the first point of contact of users with health services (ICN, 2009). They should be recognized for its leadership by the healthcare team and users; use scientific evidence to guide their clinical practice, integrating Nursing knowledge with their clinical experience and other related areas; explain and apply their theoretical references in their professional practice; understand, develop and disseminate evidence-based Nursing. They must also demonstrate the ability to propose, plan, implement, participate and evaluate health programs and services according to users' needs; know, perform and apply translational research; make decisions based on advanced judgments. In addition, they should be able to critically analyze health systems and policies (CNA, 2008). This research used the method of development and implementation of ECP proposed by PAHO (2018) in Primary Health in a local health system in the city of Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil. A participatory action research was conducted, a methodology that involves individuals, organizations and communities in a democratic process for health promotion and social change (Tripp, 2005). The implementation process has multiple applications and allows investigating phenomena underexplored in practical contexts through workshops (Peters, Tran, & Adam, 2013). The workshops are spaces for reflection and experience that make it possible to establish horizontal relationships between the researcher and the research participants and promote exchanges of experiences, knowledge and perceptions about a particular theme (Chiesa & Westphal, 1995). Despite their potential, they are responsible for the generation of large amount of data in audio, video and image formats. Thus, the use of software to support qualitative analysis is essential for the organization of empirical material leading to the research results. In addition, the usability of qualitative analysis software in this research is innovative because the method involves the development and implementation of Advanced Practice Nursing in Brazil.


The goal of this working paper is to identify the core challenges that have contributed to the poor performance of Ethiopia's rice sector, and highlight approaches to successfully promote the commercialisation of the rice value chain. The authors achieve this by emphasising the underlying political economy dynamics of the rice value chain in Ethiopia, and how these can offer a better understanding of the drivers and constraints of agricultural commercialisation in the country. The paper also discusses the performance of, and challenges faced by, actors involved in the rice value chain. In addition, it looks at the role of development partners in promoting the rice value chain, the role of rice in the rural labour market, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the various actors.


Problem statement: Handwriting number recognition is a challenging problem researchers had been research into this area for so long especially in the recent years. In our study there are many fields concern with numbers, for example, checks in banks or recognizing numbers in car plates, the subject of digit recognition appears. A system for recognizing isolated digits may be as an approach for dealing with such application. In other words, to let the computer understand the Arabic numbers that is written manually by users and views them according to the computer process. Scientists and engineers with interests in image processing and pattern recognition have developed various approaches to deal with handwriting number recognition problems such as, minimum distance, decision tree and statistics. Approach: The main objective for our system was to recognize isolated Arabic digits exist in different applications. For example, different users had their own handwriting styles where here the main challenge falls to let computer system understand these different handwriting styles and recognize them as standard writing. Result: We presented a system for dealing with such problem. The system started by acquiring an image containing digits, this image was digitized using some optical devices and after applying some enhancements and modifications to the digits within the image it can be recognized using feed forward back propagation algorithm. The studies were conducted on the Arabic handwriting digits of 10 independent writers who contributed a total of 1300 isolated Arabic digits these digits divided into two data sets: Training 1000 digits, testing 300 digits. An overall accuracy meet using this system was 95% on the test data set used. Conclusion: We developed a system for Arabic handwritten recognition. And we efficiently choose a segmentation method to fit our demands. Our system successfully designs and implement a neural network which efficiently go without demands, after that the system are able to understand the Arabic numbers that was written manually by users.


Conversational modeling is an important task in natural language understanding and machine intelligence. Although previous approaches exist, they are often restricted to specific domains (e.g., booking an airline ticket) and require hand-crafted rules. In this paper, we present a simple approach for this task which uses the recently proposed sequence to sequence framework. Our model converses by predicting the next sentence given the previous sentence or sentences in a conversation. The strength of our model is that it can be trained end-to-end and thus requires much fewer hand-crafted rules. We find that this straightforward model can generate simple conversations given a large conversational training dataset. Our preliminary results suggest that, despite optimizing the wrong objective function, the model is able to converse well. It is able extract knowledge from both a domain specific dataset, and from a large, noisy, and general domain dataset of movie subtitles. On a domain-specific IT helpdesk dataset, the model can find a solution to a technical problem via conversations. On a noisy open-domain movie transcript dataset, the model can perform simple forms of common sense reasoning. As expected, we also find that the lack of consistency is a common failure mode of our model.


Partition-based methods are increasingly-used in extreme multi-label classification (XMC) problems due to their scalability to large output spaces (e.g., millions or more). However, existing methods partition the large label space into mutually exclusive clusters, which is sub-optimal when labels have multi-modality and rich semantics. For instance, the label"Apple"can be the fruit or the brand name, which leads to the following research question: can we disentangle these multi-modal labels with non-exclusive clustering tailored for downstream XMC tasks? In this paper, we show that the label assignment problem in partition-based XMC can be formulated as an optimization problem, with the objective of maximizing precision rates. This leads to an efficient algorithm to form flexible and overlapped label clusters, and a method that can alternatively optimizes the cluster assignments and the model parameters for partition-based XMC. Experimental results on synthetic and real datasets show that our method can successfully disentangle multi-modal labels, leading to state-of-the-art (SOTA) results on four XMC benchmarks.


Princess Mononoke (1997) is one of anime's most important films. Hayao Miyazaki's epic fantasy broke domestic box office records when it came out in Japan, keeping pace with the success of Hollywood films like Titanic (1997). Princess Mononoke was also the first of Studio Ghibli's films to be distributed outside Japan as part of a new deal with Disney subsidiary Buena Vista International. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the release of the film, Rayna Denison curates this new collection to critically reflect on Princess Mononoke's significance within and beyond Japanese culture. The collection investigates the production, and re-production, processes involved in the making of Princess Mononoke into a global phenomenon and reevaluates the film's significance within a range of global markets, animation techniques, and cultures. In revisiting this undeniably important film, the collection sheds light on the tensions within anime and the cultural and social issues that Princess Mononoke explores, from environmental protection to globalization to the representation of marginalized groups. In this remarkable new collection, Princess Mononoke is examined as a key player during a major turning point in Japanese animation history.


Murine double minute (MDM)-2, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, promotes cancer cell survival and growth, by degrading the cell cycle regulator p53. Antagonism of MDM2 by the small-molecule cis-imidazoline nutlin analogs is currently under study for cancer therapy. We observed that MDM2 is strongly expressed by the epithelial cells in the kidney for example, tubular epithelial cells and podocytes. To test whether MDM2 promotes regenerative cell growth, we studied the effects of MDM2 antagonist, nutlin-3a on tubule cell healing during postischemic acute kidney injury and on podocytes during adriamycin induced chronic renal failure.
Consistent with the hypothesis, we observed that treatment with nutlin-3a impaired tubular cell regeneration during postischemic AKI in C57Bl6 wild-type mice in a p53-dependent manner. However, MDM2 blockade also prevented tubular necrosis by suppressing sterile inflammation during the early postischemic phase. This effect also occurred in p53-deficient mice, indicating a second, pro-inflammatory, p53-independent role for MDM2 in AKI. In-vitro experiments confirmed that MDM2 is required to induce mRNA expression and secretion of NF-κB-dependent cytokines upon Toll-like receptor stimulation by enhanced binding of NF-κB to cytokine promoter–binding sites. Thus, MDM2 links inflammation and epithelial healing during AKI. It promotes the inflammatory response after the injury at the same time it drives the regeneration of injured tubular epithelium. Therefore, these additional biological functions need to be regarded when considering MDM2 inhibition therapy in patients with acute renal failure.
Since, podocytes strongly express MDM2, we hypothesized that blocking MDM2 during glomerular injury may enhance podocyte apoptosis, proteinuria and glomerulosclerosis. However, unexpectedly MDM2 blockade in early adriamycin nephropathy in Balb/c mice had the opposite effect and reduced intrarenal cytokine and chemokine expression, glomerular macrophage and T cell counts, plasma creatinine and BUN levels. In cultured podocytes exposed to adriamycin, MDM2 blockade did not enhance podocyte apoptosis but rather prevented aberrant nuclear divisions and death of aneuploid podocytes, i.e. mitotic catastrophe. Accordingly, MDM2 blockade induced p21 and prevented podocyte mitosis in-vivo while TUNEL+ apoptotic podocytes were not detected. Thus, mitotic catastrophe is a previously unrecognized variant of podocyte loss where MDM2 promotes podocytes to complete the cell cycle, which in the absence of cytokinesis, leads to podocyte aneuploidy and death. Furthermore, delayed MDM2 blockade also reduced plasma creatinine levels, BUN, tubular atrophy, interstitial leukocyte numbers and cytokine expression as well as interstitial fibrosis. Together, MDM2 blockade with nutlin-3a could be a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent renal inflammation, podocyte loss, glomerulosclerosis, proteinuria, and progressive kidney disease.

In conclusion, therapeutic MDM2 blockade may hold the risk of impaired epithelial healing in AKI. On the other hand it may delay or halt the progression of glomerular disorders to CKD by reducing renal inflammation and by directly protecting podocytes from cell death by mitotic catastrophe.


Abstract. Fishery Observing System (FOS) was developed as a first and basic step towards fish stock abundance nowcasting/forecasting within the framework of the EU research program Mediterranean Forecasting System: Toward an Environmental Prediction (MFSTEP). The study of the relationship between abundance and environmental parameters also represents a crucial point towards forecasting. Eight fishing vessels were progressively equipped with FOS instrumentation to collect fishery and oceanographic data. The vessels belonged to different harbours of the Central and Northern Adriatic Sea. For this pilot application, anchovy ( Engraulis encrasicolus , L.) was chosen as the target species. Geo-referenced catch data, associated with in-situ temperature and depth, were the FOS products but other parameters were associated with catch data as well. MFSTEP numerical circulation models provide many of these data. In particular, salinity was extracted from re-analysis data of numerical circulation models. Satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll were also used as independent variables. Catch and effort data were used to estimate an abundance index (CPUE – Catch per Unit of Effort). Considering that catch records were gathered by different fishing vessels with different technical characteristics and operating on different fish densities, a standardized value of CPUE was calculated. A spatial and temporal average CPUE map was obtained together with a monthly mean time series in order to characterise the variability of anchovy abundance during the period of observation (October 2003–August 2005). In order to study the relationship between abundance and oceanographic parameters, Generalized Additive Models (GAM) were used. Preliminary results revealed a complex scenario: the southern sector of the domain is characterised by a stronger relationship than the central and northern sector where the interactions between the environment and the anchovy distribution are hidden by a higher percentage of variability within the system which is still unexplained. GAM analysis showed that increasing the number of explanatory variables also increased the portion of variance explained by the model. Data exchange and interdisciplinary efforts will therefore be crucial for the success of this research activity.


Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are a new and increasingly popular public policy tool which link payments to outcomes thus, in theory, transferring risk from governments to private investors. This paper draws on the concepts of institutional work and discursive institutionalism to analyse
 how a SIB influenced the rules, norms and decisions of key actors. It identifies two dominant discourses. One focused on addressing the social determinants of health, the other on creating the financial structure needed to run a SIB. These discourses were congruent at a macro-policy level,
 but tensions emerged between them at the meso and micro levels. This exemplifies the interdependence of structure and agency in institutional work and the mediating role which discourse plays. It also suggests that the effectiveness of a SIB depends not just on whether it achieves its outcome
 targets but also on whether it can institute new sets of practices and thinking.


Infections with human parechoviruses (HPeVs) are highly prevalent, particularly in neonates, where they may cause substantial morbidity and mortality. The clinical presentation of HPeV infection in neonates is indistinguishable from that of enterovirus (EV) infection and may vary from mild disease involving gastrointestinal and/or respiratory symptoms to more severe illness with sepsis-like symptoms such as fever, seizures, irritability, rash and/or feeding problems. HPeV is among the most common single causes of aseptic meningitis/meningoencephalitis in infants <90 days old worldwide. The mainstay of diagnosis for HPeV infections involves the use of molecular diagnostic techniques for detection of virus RNA (ribonucleic acid) in various materials (e.g. faeces, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), nasopharyngeal, bronchial and autopsy materials). Despite the relatedness of HPeV and EV both at the genomic and clinical presentation levels, routine nucleic acid detection methods for EV will not detect HPeV. Laboratory diagnosis of these viral infections is important not only for differential diagnostic purposes and determining a patient's prognosis but also for guidance of clinical management. Clinical disease varies somewhat among genotypes; while HPeV1 mostly causes gastrointestinal illness, HPeV3 prominence is due to sepsis syndromes and central nervous system (CNS) infections in preterm and term infants. Of diagnostic importance, HPeV3 CNS infections usually lack CSF pleocytosis, and despite 'unremarkable' CSF, HPeV3 RNA can be amplified from CSF, nasopharyngeal and rectal swabs in an infected individual. Taking the global incidence of reported laboratory-confirmed HPeV cases into consideration, mortality and sequelae are overall uncommon and usually accompanying initially severe or neurologically complicated acute illnesses. However, underreporting due to lack of testing and/or appropriate diagnostic methodology likely means gross underestimation of the true incidence of HPeV disease. Currently, neither effective treatment nor vaccines are available in the control of these common viruses with the potential to cause severe harm in neonates and young children worldwide.

Key Concepts

HPeV infections are common among infants and children worldwide.
HPeV infections are underdiagnosed, and HPeV disease burden underestimated.
Nineteen HPeV types identified so far – their role/significance in human infections unclear except for HPeV3.
HPeV3 is a major cause of neonatal infections including severe meningoencephalitis.
Genomic differences between EV and HPeV.
Diagnostics: HPeV required specific PCR for detection, not that easy to culture.
Majority of children with HPeV3 infection lack pleocytosis in CSF/have normal CSF.
Having older siblings are associated with higher risk for an infant to be hospitalised with severe HPeV infection.
HPeV infection should always be ruled out when caring for infants with sepsis-like illness and/or CNS infection.

Keywords:

parechovirus;
epidemiology;
infection;
diagnostic;
subtyping;
diagnostic guidelines;
clinical presentation


Potato virus Y (PVY), of the genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae, is highly pathogenic virus, causing enormous economic losses in solanaceous crops. Based on the ELISA test for the screened areas, the virus incidence ranged from 15- 30%. Mild mosaic and/ or mottling associated with leaf deformation were observed after 21 days on N. tabacum cv (white barley and galtinosa), mechanically inoculated with PVY- Kafer El-Zayat isolate. However, only mild mosaic was observed on same plants following PVY-Komhamada challenge. Molecular analysis measures including, coat protein amplicons, RFLP, sequence and phylogenetic analysis of the viral CP genes (~900 bp), confirmed that the two PVY isolates are existed in Egypt (Borg El Arab and Kafer El Zayat isolates). These two isolates were in close relation to France (KC005883) and Germany (AJ890342) isolates with identity 95% and 90%, respectively. Our results showed that the potato cultivar Spunta was more resistant to the infection by the PVY and the viral coat protein gene exhibited a low level of expression compared to the other two cultivars, Cara and Diamont. Collectively, our study here demonstrates that the two PVY isolates were commonly distributed in the Egyptian potato fields and their origin are European and Spunta potato cultivar is the recommended cultivar for cultivation in all the examined areas


The vertical, horizontal, and three-dimensional (3D) distribution of binary particles with different diameters are investigated simultaneously in a cylindrical container under coupling vibration and airflow. Airflow is blown into the vertically vibrating granular bed from its bottom with vibration frequency of f = 15, 30, and 45 Hz; vibration acceleration Γ = 2-7; and air velocity u = 0-1.82 m s-1 (fluidization number u/umf = 0-1.49). In our experiments, several distribution states have been observed, such as the mixing state, where particles are uniformly mixed; Brazil nut separation (BN), where large particles rise to the top; reverse Brazil nut separation (RBN), where large particles sink to the bottom; horizontal separation (HS), where binary particles separate horizontally; and combined distribution of BN/RBN and HS, in which one type of particles is above the other and close to one side of the container wall. Briefly, the vertical distribution forms five pattern types, and the horizontal distribution has four pattern types. The resultant pattern of 3D distribution exhibits 15 pattern types. These patterns can be always obtained under the conditions of certain control parameters, but the condition differs with the diameter ratio of binary particles. Phase diagrams of vertical, horizontal, and 3D distributions are drawn to provide the excitation condition of various patterns. These experimental results contribute to the further understanding of the entire distribution of particles and the control of particle distribution for different industry requirements.


Many people vigorously defend particular institutional judgments on such issues as the filibuster, recess appointments, executive privilege, federalism, and the role of the courts. These judgments are defended publicly with great intensity and conviction, but some of them turn out to be exceedingly fragile, in the sense that their advocates are prepared to change their positions as soon as their ideological commitments cut in the other direction. For example, institutional flip-flops can be found when Democratic officials, fiercely protective of the filibuster when the President is a Republican, end up rejecting the filibuster when the President is a Democrat. Other flip-flops seem to occur when Supreme Court justices, generally insistent on the need for deference to the political process, show no such deference in particular contexts. Our primary explanation is that many institutional flip-flops are a product of "merits bias," a form of motivated reasoning through which short-term political commitments make complex and controversial institutional judgments seem self-evident (thus rendering those judgments vulnerable when short-term political commitments cut the other way). We offer evidence to support the claim that merits bias plays a significant role. At the same time, many institutional judgments are essentially opportunistic and rhetorical, and others are a product of the need for compromise within multimember groups (including courts). Judges might join opinions with which they do not entirely agree, and the consequence can be a degree of institutional flip-flopping. Importantly, some apparent flip-flops are a result of learning, as, for example, when a period of experience with a powerful president, or a powerful Supreme Court, leads people to favor constraints. In principle, institutional flip-flops should be reduced or prevented through the adoption of some kind of veil of ignorance. But in the relevant contexts, the idea of a veil runs into severe normative, conceptual, and empirical problems, in part because the veil might deprive agents of indispensable information about the likely effects of institutional arrangements. We explore how these problems might be overcome.


Only 5 reports of cases of renal arteriovenous fistula appeared before or in 1953. Subsequently, 7 isolated reports brought the total to 12, and the 3 that we are reporting make 15. In reviewing the subject, the classification, incidence, causation, clinical features, diagnostic procedures, and pathophysiologic features were considered. Good evidence supports the thesis that in cases of congenital arteriovenous fistula an eroding renal arterial aneurysm is etiologic. Outstanding clinical features were hypertension (to group 4) and myocardial insufficiency; these contrast markedly with features of the usual peripheral arteriovenous fistula. Dramatic relief of heart failure and lowered reserve followed corrective operation in every case in which these features were recorded; relief of hypertension followed corrective operation in 11 of 12 cases in which this feature was mentioned. A loud, diffuse, continuous bruit invariably was present. Preoperative and postoperative catheterization and indicator-dilution studies, angiograms and aortograms are diagnostic measures emphasized in our 3 cases. Arterialization of blood in the vena cava, greatly increased cardiac output, and markedly shortened recirculation times of the dye were found. Excretory urograms were abnormal in 11 of the 12 cases in which they were made. The mechanism producing hypertension appears related to loss of pressure, decrease in flow, and loss of pulsatile character in the renal artery distal to the fistula, giving a Goldblatt-kidney type of end result. A vicious cycle of increasing hypertension followed by increasing flow through the shunt makes heart failure inevitable. Since 10 of the 15 cases were reported in the last 4 years, indicating that the lesion is commoner than previously supposed, we advise auscultation over the renal regions in patients with cardiac enlargement or failure of unknown causation, unexplained deformities in urograms, and renal tumors.


Abstract This paper reviews the literature on the economic contribution of pastoralism to the national economies of seven countries, two in the Horn of Africa and five in southern Africa. For all the countries covered here, it is difficult to disaggregate at the national level the economic outputs of pastoral livestock from livestock more generally. Research studies have nonetheless identified the distinctive contributions of pastoralism and occasionally quantified these contributions for selected localities and regions. This work demonstrates that the economic role of pastoralism can be quite different even for national economies in the same region. There also exist broad regional differences between the Horn, where pastoralists are heavily involved in producing live animals for export, and southern Africa, where smaller herds are kept primarily for purposes other than commercial sales. At least three methodological shortcomings limit our ability to quantify the contributions made by pastoralists to national economies: aggregated national statistics, the selective recording of data on pastoral production, and analytical confusion about how to impute realistic cash values to the products that herders obtain from their own herds for their own consumption. Keywords: Pastoralism, Horn of Africa, southern Africa, livestock economics Introduction This review takes the proverbial trip from the Cape to Cairo, pastoral style. For pastoral purposes we begin the journey in Somalia and finish in the Republic of South Africa. The object of our journey is to establish the contribution of pastoralism to national economies in the Horn and southern Africa. Along the way we encounter both conceptual forests and conceptual trees. The trees that might prevent us from seeing the forest are represented by individual African countries. With respect to livestock marketing and pastoral commercial involvement, each of the countries reviewed in this study is remarkably distinct, a fact that is emphasized in the following national case studies. But there is also a forest to report on, in the form of a single, overall pattern that emerges from the subcontinental breadth of this review. In terms of variations in the level and kind of pastoral commercial involvement, there is a clear regional difference between the Horn and southern Africa. The economies of Ethiopia and Somalia are poor, technologically underdeveloped, but integrated nonetheless into global capitalism. In terms of livestock exports, these countries produce relatively unprocessed raw commodities--hides, skins and live animals--for regional markets. Weak, non-existent or (from the perspective of livestock producers and traders) parasitic national governments do little to promote their livestock industries. Despite these constraints, pastoral households in Ethiopia and Somalia are increasingly involved in commercial livestock production for sale, with results that in the aggregate are impressive both in terms of the volume and value of international trade and foreign exchange earnings. In return, these pastoral households receive marketed commodities such as grain and clothing that are essential for their survival. Despite their remoteness and their participation in weak national economies, these are pastoral production systems oriented to commercial international exports. The situation is different in southern Africa, where strong and occasionally benign national governments support and may subsidize their livestock producers. The export product range includes both processed commodities (such as chilled, boneless beef from Botswana) and sophisticated goods for international niche markets (such as Karakul lamb pelts from Namibia for the fashion industry, or branded 'free range' meat from South Africa). The export trade is officially regulated, treaty-bound, technically advanced, and diverse in the geographical spread of its markets. …


Emergence of drug resistance to all available therapies is the major challenge to improving survival in myeloma. Cereblon (CRBN) is the essential binding protein of the widely-used IMiD and novel CelMOD drugs in myeloma, as well as certain PROTACs in development for a range of diseases. Using whole genome sequencing data from 455 patients and RNASeq data from 655 patients, including a newly-diagnosed cohort (n=198 WGS, n=437 RNASeq), a lenalidomide (LEN)-refractory cohort (n=203 WGS, n=176 RNASeq) and a pomalidomide (POM)-refractory cohort (n=54 WGS, n=42 RNASeq), we find incremental increase in the frequency of three CRBN aberrations, namely point mutations, copy loss/structural variation and a specific variant transcript (exon 10-spliced), with progressive IMiD exposure, until almost one third of patients have CBRN alterations by the time they are POM-refractory. We find all 3 CRBN aberrations are associated with an inferior outcome to POM in those already refractory to LEN, including those with gene copy loss and structural variation, which has not previously been described. This is the first comprehensive analysis of CBRN alterations in myeloma patients as they progress through therapy, and the largest dataset. It will help inform patient selection for sequential therapies with CRBN-targeting drugs.


Student absences are a potentially important, yet understudied, input in the educational process. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative survey and rich administrative records from North Carolina, we investigate the relationship between student absences and academic performance. Generally, student absences are associated with modest but statistically significant decreases in academic achievement. The harmful effects of absences are approximately linear, and are two to three times larger among fourth and fifth graders in North Carolina than among kindergarten and first-grade students in the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. In both datasets, absences similarly reduce achievement in urban, rural, and suburban schools. In North Carolina, the harm associated with student absences is greater among both low-income students and English language learners, particularly for reading achievement. Also, in North Carolina, unexcused absences are twice as harmful as excused absences. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.