Solar energy is one form or another is the source of all energy on the earth. Humans, like all other animals and plants, rely on the sun for warmth and food. World widely peoples are also harness the sun's energy in many other different ways. For example, fossil fuels, plant matter from a past geological age, is used for transportation and electricity generation and is essentially just stored solar energy from millions of years ago. Similarly, biomass converts the sun's energy into a fuel, which can then be used for heat, transport or electricity. Wind energy is used for hundreds of years to provide mechanical energy or for transportation, uses air currents that are created by solar heated air and the rotation of the earth. Today wind turbines convert wind power into electricity as well as its traditional uses. Even hydroelectricity is derived from the sun. Hydropower depends on the evaporation of water by the sun, and its subsequent return to the Earth as rain to provide water in dams. Photovoltaics (often abbreviated as PV) is a simple and elegant method of harnessing the sun's energy. PV devices (solar cells) are unique in that they directly convert the incident solar radiation into electricity, with no noise, pollution or moving parts, making them robust, reliable and long lasting as well.


We advocate the use of Agnostic Allocation for the construction of long-only portfolios of stocks. We show that Agnostic Allocation Portfolios (AAPs) are a special member of a family of risk-based portfolios that are able to mitigate certain extreme features (excess concentration, high turnover, strong exposure to low-risk factors) of classical portfolio construction methods, while achieving similar performance. AAPs thus represent a very attractive alternative risk-based portfolio construction framework that can be implemented in different situations, with or without an active trading signal.


Measurements of the attenuation of longitudinal ultrasound in superconducting UPt3, show a peak,below Hc2, which depends strongly on the orientation of the field relative to the c axis. We propose an explanation of this peak in terms of a vortex phase transition in an unconventional superconducting state, which is consistent with recent neutron-scattering data.


Core build up is necessary as a foundation for post endodontic restorations when the tooth structure is severely damaged, fractured or extensively carious. Core build up material should provide resistance and retention form for the coronal restoration and possess sufficient strength to resist occlusal forces. An ideal core build-up material should have physical properties similar to those of tooth structure where the occlusal biting loads are transferred to dentin. The study evaluated and compared the shear bond strength of two nanofilled resin composites Group A – Filtek Z350 XT and Group B – Filtek Bulk fill) as core build up materials. Eighteen extracted permanent human molar teeth were sectioned horizontally with a carborandum disk beneath the DEJ to expose the coronal dentin surface and finished to create a uniform flat surface. Teeth are then mounted in custom-made wax molds (size 1.5 cm height, 1.5 cm length, and 5cm breadth) by autopolymerizing pink orthodontic resin, with coronal portion of the tooth exposed. Composite is layered over unset GIC and self-etch primer is used, over which composite is layered and cured. The samples are subjected to SBS test using Instron Universal Testing Machine. Mean and standard deviation for Bulk cure was 2.6033 MPa and 1.50829 and for Z350 2.4267 MPa and 2.65740 Levene's Test for Equality of Variances was done for checking the difference between groups (p=.090). The present study concluded that Filtek Bulk fill resin composite is similar to Filtek Z350 XT for core build with no difference in shear bond strength.


This paper focuses on the role of institutions in poverty alleviation, where both poverty and institutions are interpreted broadly. The broadening of the poverty notion is important at least from the policy perspective. Even if one were convinced that higher growth would reduce income poverty to an acceptable margin, there appears to be little concrete policy measures that one may offer so as to harness greater growth. Besides, the weight of the empirical evidence to date, if not squarely founded on the transition economies of the EEFSU region, is that reducing average poverty is not enough. Existing and possibly rising inequality would ensure that a great many would fall through the cracks, and not benefit from high growth, even if that was achievable. The non-income elements of poverty, on the other hand, are more directly open to influence by policy interventions such as the easing of micro credit and other public and private ventures in health, sanitation, literacy and numeracy fronts. Finally the modest amount of information available at our disposal indicates that the underlying strength of the institutions (economic, political and social) is possibly the single most agent of significance to bring about the alleviation of non-income poverty. There is a further possibility that the same institutional forces would also materially affect the income measure of poverty as well in a discernible fashion.


Abstract. In this article intelligent systems are placed in the context of accelerated Turing machines. Although such machines are not currently a reality, the very real gains in computing power made over previous decades require us to continually reevaluate the potential of intelligent systems. The economic theories of Adam Smith provide us with a useful insight into this question.


Research has shown that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are rapidly adopting the e-commerce. However, there is nearly no research into how microenterprises are adopting eCommerce. Present paper focus on microenterprise adaption of eCommerce in terms of barriers in relation to already known research on SMEs. A case study, carried out by 12 microenterprises to find out barriers to adapt eCommerce had been done. The empirical results show that the microenterprises share most of the barriers to adapt the eCommerce with studies of SMEs, but also reveal additional factors affecting adaptation option of eCommerce; supplier agreement, communication and customer strategy. Conclusions are that microenterprises need additional support and communication and customer strategy to adapt eCommerce, depending of their requirement and needs of eCommerce.


One of the linguistic consequences of globalization is the increase in the number of people communicating with each other in a language that is not their own. Studies have started to examine how non-nativeness affects people in their production and evaluation of discourse. This special interest section brings together a collection of empirical papers in a particular domain of non-nativeness in communication, that is, the use and effects of foreign languages in job and product advertisements. These papers investigate how the use of foreign languages is appreciated by non-native users, what determines the occurrence of foreign languages, how recall of foreign languages compares to the recall of L1 advertising, and whether foreign languages attract the readers' curiosity. Together, these papers demonstrate the growing academic interest in non-nativeness in communication.


The long-term growth forecasts of equity analysts do not have well-defined horizons, an ambiguity of substantial import for many applications. I propose an empirical valuation model, derived from the Campbell-Shiller dividend-price ratio model, in which the forecast horizon used by the "market" can be deduced from linear regressions. Specifically, in this model, the horizon can be inferred from the elasticity of the price-earnings ratio with respect to the long-term growth forecast. The model is estimated on industry- and sector-level portfolios of S&P 500 firms over 1983-2001. The estimated coefficients on consensus long-term growth forecasts suggest that the market applies these forecasts to an average horizon somewhere in the range of 5 to 10 years.


We revisit the problem of finding small solutions to a collection of linear equations modulo an unknown divisor p for a known composite integer N . In Asiacrypt'08, Herrmann and May introduced a heuristic algorithm for this problem, and their algorithm has many interesting applications, such as factoring with known bits problem, fault attacks on RSA signatures, etc. In this paper, we consider two variants of Herrmann-May's equations, and propose some new techniques to solve them. Applying our algorithms, we obtain a few by far the best analytical/experimental results for RSA and its variants. Specifically, – We improve May's results (PKC'04) on small secret exponent attack on RSA variant with moduli N = pq (r ≥ 2). – We extend Nitaj's result (Africacrypt'12) on weak encryption exponents of RSA and CRT-RSA.


Growing commercialization and competition in microfinance drives the focus of micro lenders from outreach per se to achieving financial sustainability in serving the poor. Such a goal can conflict with the traditional social mission of microfinance � outreach to the poor. In places where credit markets are inefficient, attaining financial sustainability while serving the poor depends largely on the ability of lenders to overcome the costs of market contracts and constraints. Such ability of cost containment often varies by lending terms and organizational forms. Using disaggregated data of microfinance providers in Ethiopia, we compared financial cooperatives and specialized or non-bank microfinance institutions on their outreach, financial performance and ability to achieve financial self-sufficiency together with outreach to the poor. The results show that nonbank microfinance providers perform relatively well in terms of breadth and depth of outreach, but face higher cost, which creates tension between outreach and financial sustainability. In contrast, there exists a positive complementarity between outreach and financial viability for financial cooperatives. On average, financially self-sufficient cooperatives lend small size loans and serve larger proportions of women borrowers, implying a greater depth of outreach together with achieving financial sustainability. While non-bank microfinance providers do better in expanding outreach, based on the findings, financial cooperatives better contain their costs, balance social and economic goals and enable the microfinance industry to fulfill its full promise �serving the poor on cost-covering basis.


We evaluated a consecutive series of signet ring cell colorectal carcinomas in an attempt to correlate the histopathologic pattern of infiltration with molecular alterations and prognosis. Of the 4760 primary colorectal carcinomas surgically resected between the years 2002 and 2012, 53 (1%) were composed of >50% signet ring cells. Of the 53 signet ring cell carcinomas, 40 (75%) were composed of >50% extracellular mucin with signet ring cells floating within pools of mucin and were subclassified as mucin-rich signet ring cell carcinomas. Thirteen (25%) carcinomas were characterized by diffusely infiltrating carcinomas with minimal to no extracellular mucin and were subclassified as mucin-poor signet ring cell carcinomas. All 13 mucin-poor signet ring cell carcinomas were either stage III or IV, whereas many cases of mucin-rich signet ring cell carcinoma were stage I or II (17 cases) (P=0.005). Compared with mucin-rich tumors, mucin-poor signet ring cell carcinomas more frequently demonstrated adverse histologic features such as lymphatic invasion (13/13, 100% vs. 22/40, 55%; P=0.002), venous invasion (6/13, 46% vs. 3/40, 8%; P=0.004), and perineural invasion (11/13, 85% vs. 9/40, 23%; P=0.0001). Twenty-three of 53 (43%) signet ring cell carcinomas demonstrated high levels of microsatellite instability (MSI-H). Twenty-two of 23 (96%) MSI-H signet ring cell carcinomas were mucin rich; only 1 MSI-H signet ring carcinoma was mucin poor (P=0.0033). Mucin-poor signet ring cell carcinoma had significantly reduced overall and recurrence-free survival compared with mucin-rich signet ring cell carcinomas (P=0.0035 and 0.0001, respectively), even when adjusting for tumor stage. Mucin-poor signet ring cell carcinoma had a higher propensity for peritoneal dissemination (5/13, 38%) compared with mucin-rich signet ring cell carcinoma (5/40, 12.5%), although this was not statistically significant (P=0.052). Finally, MSI-H and microsatellite-stable signet ring cell carcinomas had similar overall and recurrence-free survival (P=0.2266 and 0.1055, respectively), even when adjusting for tumor stage. In conclusion, we identified a unique subset of signet ring cell colorectal carcinoma with diffuse infiltration and minimal to no extracellular mucin (mucin-poor signet ring cell carcinoma), which lacks MSI-H and has a dismal prognosis with an aggressive clinical course often with peritoneal dissemination. Further, our results confirm that MSI does not affect survival in colorectal signet ring cell carcinomas.


Left-right asymmetric genitalia have appeared multiple times independently in insects and have been associated with changes in mating positions. However, there is little experimental data on how the evolution of genital asymmetries may have affected the evolution of mating positions or vice versa. As opposed to its closely-related species, Drosophila pachea has a conspicuous asymmetry in its male genitalia external lobes, with the left lobe being 1.49 ± 0.08 (SD) times longer and thinner than the right lobe. In a laboratory stock, we found that 20% of the males possess fully symmetric lobes. To better understand how asymmetric genitalia may affect mating, we compared D. pachea copulation behaviour between these mutant males and wildtype males. We found that D. pachea wild-type males adopt a one-sided mating posture with the male always one-sided 8.55° ± 1.79° (SD) towards the female's right side. Within 45-min recordings, all wild-type males did mate whereas 39% of symmetric mutants failed to form a stable mating complex and did not mate. In successful copulations, symmetric mutants also adopted a right-sided mating posture but the angle between male and female bodies was significantly more variable compared to wild-type males. Our results suggest that lobe size asymmetry is required for the formation of a stable mating complex and for the positioning of the male according to a precise angle on the female. However, lobe size asymmetry is not required for D. pachea right-sided mating posture.


Abstract Given the lack of active nurses in industrialized countries throughout the world, in combination with demographic changes, it is of utmost importance to protect nurses' well-being and to prevent psychological distress, because of their strong association with premature occupational leave. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of quality of leadership and social support at work on well-being and psychological distress of nurses and to determine whether nurses' overcommitment mediates the relationship between the abovementioned determinants and the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather our data. This study utilized part of the database of the Nurses' Early Exit Study. A total of 34,771 nurses (covering all nurse qualifications) working in hospitals, nursing homes, and home-care institutions in 8 European countries filled out a questionnaire (response rate = 51.4%). For all model variables (job satisfaction, satisfaction with salary, positive affectivity, personal burnout, negative affectivity, quality of leadership, social support from immediate supervisor, social support from near colleagues, and overcommitment), psychometrically sound, that is, valid and reliable measures were used. Outcomes from testing a structural equation mediation model indicated that, respectively, positive and negative influences of leadership quality and social support from supervisor and colleagues on nurses' well-being and psychological distress are partially mediated, that is, reduced, by nurses' overcommitment. Social work environment is highly important in relation to nurses' well-being and psychological distress.


This Article reviews how the Delaware courts have assessed whether plaintiffs have pleaded facts which overcome the business judgment standard of review in favor of enhanced scrutiny or entire fairness in challenges to conflict transactions. The standard of review remains almost outcome-determinative at the motion to dismiss stage of the proceedings. Following a discussion in Part I of three issues the Delaware Supreme Court has clarified since the publication in 2001 of Standards of Review in Conflict Transactions: An Examination of Decisions Rendered on Motions to Dismiss, 26 Del. J. Corp. Law 911, Part II discusses the standard of review for a motion to dismiss under Delaware law. Part III defines a "conflict transaction" and Part IV describes the three standards of review for challenges to conflict transactions: business judgment, enhanced scrutiny and entire fairness.Part V analyzes the court's application of these standards of review to complaints in the past ten years challenging conflict transactions. The authors organize the analysis by complaints in which plaintiffs succeeded in rebutting the business judgment rule, complaints where they failed to do so, complaints involving the interplay of Revlon claims, and complaints involving controlling stockholders. The authors conclude that at least for transactions not involving a controlling stockholder on both sides, a plaintiffs' complaint remains unlikely to survive a motion to dismiss if a conflict transaction has been approved by a majority of fully informed, disinterested and independent directors as such a complaint will be dismissed under the business judgment standard of review. While the entire fairness standard will apply ab initio to transactions where the controlling stockholder is on both sides, whether the Delaware Supreme Court will change the standard for controlling stockholder, going-private transactions involving unilateral two-step freeze-outs as has been suggested by the Court of Chancery remains uncertain.


The diversity provided by disjoint paths can increase the survivability of communication networks. This paper considers the allocation of network error correction flow on a network that consists of disjoint paths from the source node to the destination node. Specifically, we propose an algorithm of allocating the path-flows to support the given rate with minimum cost. Our analysis shows that the asymptotic time complexity of this algorithm is linearithmic, and this algorithm is optimal in general.


Application of multicultural education is in shaping the character of learners by describing the findings. The qualitativeresearch approach aims to reveal the existing data in the field by describing and interpreting events real in the field.
 Character education on the attitude and behavior of learners in terms of character education, to be able to form a good character in learners, In the context of education, character education is a conscious effort made to form learners into positive
 and character personality in accordance with the standards of competence graduation. The type of research used in this study is qualitative research. term This is considered suitable because it is natural and requires integrity in accordance with the
 research problem is the application of multicultural education in shaping the character of learners in public primary school 7 Metro Center Lampung. This research was conducted on the students of class V of public primary school 7 Metro Center
 Lampung. This is based on the consideration that public primary schools 7 Metro Center Lampung has many learners and one of the primary schools that excel in the area of Metro Center Lampung. In addition, public primary schools 7 Metro Center Lampung
 have good quality, consistent in maintaining the quality of education so that the primary school 7 Metro Central Lampung.


Purpose
Process improvement initiatives, such as Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, typically have common characteristics that are carried through projects. Whilst a project's performance is an important determinant of the successful implementation of continuous improvement (CI) initiatives, its failure can undermine the impact of any CI initiative on business performance. As a result, an understanding of the reasons of process improvement project failures is crucial. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a pilot survey highlighting the most common reasons for process improvement project failures.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a pilot survey of 42 Brazilian manufacturing specialists who have been involved in process improvement projects. The participants of this survey were Six Sigma Master Black Belts, Black Belts, Green Belts and Six Sigma champions from manufacturing companies in Brazil. The survey questionnaire was piloted with five experts in the field in order to ensure that the questions were valid and technically sound.

Findings
The execution of Six Sigma projects in organizations results in a moderate rate of project failures. These failures can cost organizations several millions of dollars especially within the context of larger organizations. The main reasons for project failure, as cited by the specialists include: resistance to change, lack of commitment and support from top management and incompetent teams.

Research limitations/implications
The authors report the findings from a pilot survey having a limited sample size. Moreover, the data have been collected from one country and primarily from large manufacturing companies.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study looking into the reasons for process improvement project failures. The authors argue that if the top reasons for such failures are understood, a framework can be developed in the future that can mitigate the chance of project failures during project execution. This could potentially lead to significant savings to the bottom-line of many organizations.


It is necessary to increase the capability of engineers to carry out maintenance management for keeping infrastructure safe and serviceable. Many regional training programs have been established to develop engineers into "maintenance experts." While small and medium size construction companies and engineering consultants play an active role in infrastructure maintenance, they have limited human and economic resources for joining the training programs, so the sharing of knowledge acquired from the programs becomes important for improving the capability of the company as a whole. The objective of this research is to investigate how engineers who participated in regional training programs shared their knowledge inside their organization using an online questionnaire survey. It was found that leadership is an important factor for driving knowledge sharing activities, particularly for adapting the knowledge acquired from the training program to the company's environment. However, the lack of experience serves as a barrier to the deeper transfer of knowledge, such as on-the-job training or seminars, as these methods of knowledge sharing require expert knowledge. For organizations to improve their knowledge sharing practices, it is necessary to consider the type of knowledge to be shared and the appropriate method for sharing, along with the improvement of the leadership for knowledge sharing in the organization.


An application is presented of a modified Vlasov model to earthquake analysis of plates resting on an elastic foundation. The effects of the subsoil depth, the plate dimensions and their ratios on the dynamic response are investigated. The method of finite elements is used for spatial integration and the Newmark-β method is used for time integration. A number of graphs are presented to show the effects of plate dimensions and the subsoil depth on the dynamic out-of-plane responses of plates on elastic foundations. Numerical examples associated with the applicability of the model to earthquake analysis of plates resting on elastic foundations are given.


Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on the shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways and distributions in the ocean are very sparse and inaccurate. Total amounts of plastics and other man-made debris in the ocean and on the shore, temporal trends in these amounts under exponentially increasing production, as well as degradation processes, vertical fluxes and time scales are largely unknown. Present ocean circulation models are not able to accurately simulate drift of debris because of its complex hydrodynamics. In this paper we discuss the structure of the future integrated marine debris observing system (IMDOS) that is required to provide long-term monitoring of the state of the anthropogenic pollution and support operational activities to mitigate impacts on the ecosystem and safety of maritime activity. The proposed observing system integrates remote sensing and in situ observations. Also, models are used to optimize the design of the system and, in turn, they will be gradually improved using the products of the system. Remote sensing technologies will provide spatially coherent coverage and consistent surveying time series at local to global scale. Optical sensors, including high-resolution imaging, multi- and hyperspectral, fluorescence, and Raman technologies, as well as SAR will be used to measure different types of debris. They will be implemented in a variety of platforms, from hand-held tools to ship-, buoy-, aircraft-, and satellite-based sensors. A network of in situ observations, including reports from volunteers, citizen scientists and ships of opportunity, will be developed to provide data for calibration/validation of remote sensors and to monitor the spread of plastic pollution and other marine debris. IMDOS will interact with other observing systems monitoring physical, chemical, and biological processes in the ocean and on shorelines as well as state of the ecosystem, maritime activities and safety, drift of sea ice, etc. The synthesized data will support innovative multi-disciplinary research and serve diverse community of users.


BACKGROUND
Little is known about the impact of sedentary and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) bouts on cardiometabolic health. The aim was to examine how the accumulation of bouts of sedentary time and MVPA associates to cardiometabolic health in children independently of total sedentary and MVPA time.

METHODS
In a cross-sectional study with 123 boys (10-13 y), sedentary and MVPA bouts were determined using 7-day accelerometry. Each bout was compared with cardiometabolic risk factors and with the risk score that was calculated using standardized values of body mass index, waist circumference, homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance, triglycerides, and total cholesterol/high-density cholesterol ratio.

RESULTS
Time in 10- to 14-minute sedentary bouts was negatively associated with continuous cardiometabolic risk score in weekdays and weekend days and with triglycerides in a weekend (P < .05). Time accumulated in ≥30-minute sedentary bouts was associated with higher insulin and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance values in weekend (P < .05). Weekday total MVPA and time accumulated in ≥10-minute MVPA bouts were negatively associated with continuous cardiometabolic risk score and body mass index in weekdays (P < .05). No associations were found between total sedentary time and metabolic health.

CONCLUSION
Significant associations between sedentary and MVPA bouts with cardiometabolic risk factors suggest the need of the more detailed analysis for sedentary behavior and its effects on health risks.


In the recent past, the use of autonomous vehicles is becoming of relevant interest in several fields of application. In many cases, the use of articulated structures is preferred to single chassis robots for their peculiar modularity. Such vehicles are often built as an active front module and a rear one that is pulled passively or that can contribute to the vehicle traction when required. Understanding whether this contribution is convenient or not is the main matter of this paper. Two different mobile robots of different scales and purposes are taken into consideration. A dynamic model is presented and analyzed. An experimental validation of the model parameters is also presented in order to make it exploitable as a reliable analysis tool. At last, a simple yet effective actuation law is tested for both the considered robots to evaluate whether the contribution of the back module is beneficial or not to the whole machine maneuverability.


Asian-Pacific countries have made significant efforts to address weaknesses in their procurement frameworks and practices. To support these efforts and to assist the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative's 28 member countries in strengthening their public-procurement mechanisms, the Initiative conducted a Regional Seminar on Fighting Bribery in Public Procurement in November 2007. This volume compiles the experience that experts from Asian and Pacific countries – as well as beyond the region – shared during the seminar. It is addressed to policy makers and experts who wish to learn from other countries' experiences in strengthening frameworks to protect public procurement from bribery and corruption risks.


Human milk contains agents that affect the growth, development and functions of the epithelium, immune system or nervous system of the gastrointestinal tract. Some human and animal studies indicate that human milk affects the growth of intestinal villi, the development of intestinal disaccharidases, the permeability of the gastrointestinal tract and resistance to certain inflammatory/immune-mediated diseases. Moreover, one cytokine in human milk, interleukin (IL)-10, protects infant mice genetically deficient in IL-10 against an enterocolitis that resembles necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in human premature infants. There are seven overlapping evolutionary strategies regarding the relationships between the functions of the mammary gland and the infant's gastrointestinal tract as follows: 1) certain immunologic agents in human milk compensate directly for developmental delays in those same agents in the recipient infant; 2) other agents in human milk do not compensate directly for developmental delays in the production of those same agents, but nevertheless protect the recipient; 3) agents in human milk enhance functions that are poorly expressed in the recipient; 4) agents in human milk change the physiologic state of the intestines from one adapted to intrauterine life to one suited to extrauterine life; 5) some agents in human milk prevent inflammation in the recipient's gastrointestinal tract; 6) survival of human milk agents in the gastrointestinal tract is enhanced because of delayed production of pancreatic proteases and gastric acid by newborn infants, antiproteases and inhibitors of gastric acid production in human milk, inherent resistance of some human milk agents to proteolysis, and protective binding of other factors in human milk; and 7) growth factors in human milk aid in establishing a commensal enteric microflora.


We present a statistical study of the distribution and physical properties of cold, dense material in and around the inner Galactic Plane near-infrared bubbles as cataloged by the Milky Way Project citizen scientists. Using data from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy 870 μm survey, we show that 48 ± 2% of all cold clumps in the studied survey region ( , ) are found in close proximity to a bubble, and 25 ± 2% appear directly projected toward a bubble rim. A two-point correlation analysis confirms the strong correlation of massive cold clumps with expanding bubbles. It shows an overdensity of clumps along bubble rims that grows with increasing bubble size, which shows how interstellar medium material is reordered on large scales by bubble expansion around regions of massive star formation. The highest column density clumps appear to be resistent to the expansion, remaining overdense toward the bubbles' interior rather than being swept up by the expanding edge. Spectroscopic observations in ammonia show that cold dust clumps near bubbles appear to be denser, hotter, and more turbulent than those in the field, offering circumstantial evidence that bubble-associated clumps are more likely to be forming stars. These observed differences in physical conditions persist beyond the region of the bubble rims.


The reputations of nonprofit organizations can be damaged as a result of an organizational scandal, as demonstrated by recent examples of international nonprofit and non-governmental organizations. Common practice and findings from studies using administrative data suggest that nonprofits can reduce the negative effects of scandals by voluntarily disclosing information about the event to stakeholders. This study tests those assumptions in an experimental framework and finds that organizations' voluntary disclosure of a scandal does not effectively mitigate negative donation intentions following the crisis.


This Thesis investigates the optimization of a Focused Ion Beam/Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB/SEM) Slice and View protocol of brain tissue. Using a Slice and View protocol in a Dualbeam instrument, the ion and electron beams are used in sequence to alternately mill and image the newly exposed surface of a predefined volume. This creates serial section images that may be used for 3D reconstruction. Research questions addressed include finding FIB parameters most beneficial for accurate milling of the tissue, use of different software strategies and image processing for 3D reconstruction of selected subsets enclosed within the volume sectioned, and the use of Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy for revealing the volume contents \emph{a priori} of the Slice and View. The reults showed that FIB parameters of $30kV$ and $0.9nA$ provided sufficient accuracy and consistency; that the DAB labeling protocol provided characteristics easily identifiable of the morphology of selected interneurons which were reconstructed, but was difficult to use in a generalized semi-automatic reconstruction protocol; and a model created to test EDX tracing did show potential for its use to increase protocol efficiency by narrowing down the regions of interest of the FIB block.


Objectives To determine whether baseline demographic, clinical, articular and laboratory variables predict methotrexate (MTX) poor response in polyarticular-course juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Methods Patients newly treated for 6 months with MTX enrolled in the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organization (PRINTO) MTX trial. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were used to identify baseline predictors of poor response according to the American College of Rheumatology pediatric (ACR-ped) 30 and 70 criteria. Results In all, 405/563 (71.9%) of patients were women; median age at onset and disease duration were 4.3 and 1.4 years, respectively, with anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) detected in 259/537 (48.2%) patients. With multivariate logistic regression analysis, the most important determinants of ACR-ped 70 non-responders were: disease duration >1.3 years (OR 1.93), ANA negativity (OR 1.77), Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) disability index>1.125 (OR 1.65) and the presence of right and left wrist activity (OR 1.55). Predictors of ACR-ped 30 non-responders were: ANA negativity (OR 1.92), CHAQ disability index>1.14 (OR 2.18) and a parent's evaluation of child's overall well-being ≤4.69 (OR 2.2). Conclusion The subgroup of patients with longer disease duration, ANA negativity, higher disability and presence of wrist activity were significantly associated with a poorer response to a 6-month MTX course.


Asbestos litigation continues apace. Sixty companies of the 100 that have been bankrupted to date by asbestos litigation have emerged or are in the process of emerging from bankruptcy by channeling their asbestos liabilities to trusts funded with their assets and insurance coverage. After having paid out over $15 billion in claims, these trusts still have assets exceeding $30 billion. Asbestos litigation today differs in two major respects from what it was in the 1985-2003 period. First, hundreds of thousands of nonmalignant claims generated by litigation screenings have been replaced by 2500-3000 claims of mesothelioma filed annually and several thousand lung cancer claims that are rapidly increasing in number. Second, there are now dual compensation tracks: suits brought mostly in state courts alleging personal injuries and claims filed with the trusts. This Article is about the interplay between trust payments to asbestos claimants and suits against solvent defendants in the tort system. In previous publications, I have laid bare the massively fraudulent enterprise that lawyers, litigation screening companies and doctors perpetrated in nonmalignant asbestos litigation — findings that were largely corroborated in a report by U.S. District Court Judge Janis Jack who found that the litigation doctors hired by asbestos lawyers had "manufactured diagnoses for money." In this article, I lay bare the scheme used by lawyers in "big-dollar" mesothelioma cases to maximize tort recoveries by suppressing the fact that the plaintiffs they represent have claimed and will claim "meaningful and credible" exposures to the products of 20-25 reorganized companies when filing trust claims even as they deny, "under penalty of perjury," all such exposures in the course of discovery and trial of their tort claims. Plaintiffs' counsel are able to effectuate such a scheme because of (1) their effective control over the production of evidence of exposure to asbestos — containing products; and (2) their control over the creation and administration of asbestos bankruptcy trusts and their use of that control to include provisions in the trusts' Distribution Procedures designed to limit, if not preclude, defendants' ability to use discovery to access evidence that tort plaintiffs have filed multiple trust claims contradicting their sworn discovery responses and trial testimony. My conclusion is supported by the findings of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges in his estimation order on January 10, 2014 in the Garlock bankruptcy. Judge Hodges' conclusions, based on very limited discovery that the debtor was permitted to conduct, has allowed us to peer behind the heretofore impermeable asbestos curtain that has shrouded the inner workings of the highly successful scheme to use the judicial system to defraud asbestos defendants in mesothelioma litigation out of billions of dollars. Though plaintiffs' counsel strenuously deny the occurrence of any fraudulent conduct in mesothelioma litigation (with the exception of a "one-off" case), after reading Judge Hodges' order in the Garlock bankruptcy and this article, no one can now legitimately deny that mesothelioma litigation is permeated with fraud.


During the past few years, natural disasters, political or social unrest and institutional actions have imperiled herbaria. The question has been raised multiple times whether or not the data gathered about herbaria in Index Herbariorum could be used to predict which herbaria are at the greatest risk. Armed with such knowledge curators and the greater collections community might be in a better position to safeguard those herbaria. To explore the feasibility of using Index Herbariorum data in this way, we have identified a set of specific threats and then scored herbaria according to their susceptibility to those threats. These threats fall into two categories: Physical and Administrative. Physical threats are those that could lead to loss of collections through outright destruction due to catastrophic events (e.g., earthquake, flood) or loss of the protective controls (e.g., air conditioning, building security) that ensure a safe collections environment. Determination of these threats is based on location.
 Administrative threats involve decisions made by the governing body to remove staff support, appropriate space or climate control measures for the collection. Physical threats were determined using GIS to plot the location of all herbaria, and then overlaying these with map layers indicating current earthquakes, floods, cyclones and landslides and potential future threats (sea level rise and civil unrest). We deduced Administrative threats from Index Herbariorum data elements. These include the status of the herbarium (active or inactive), whether or not the Index Herbariorum entry for an institution has been updated in the past 10 years, whether or not the herbarium has a designated curator, the ratio of staff to specimens, and whether or not the collection has been digitized. Each threat was assessed as absent or present, and assigned a value of 0 or 1 accordingly. Using this method, less than 4% face no identified threats; 65% face one to three threats and 35% face five or more threats. The criteria used in this study cannot alone predict the future security of a collection, or the lack thereof. The reasons for the loss of a collection are usually more complicated than Index Herbariorum data can convey. However, the large proportion of herbaria that face multiple threats suggests that all herbaria should be aware of the risk factors for their collection, perhaps conducting a self-evaluation using the criteria presented here or others, and where possible should incorporate responses to those threats into their strategic and disaster preparedness plans.


This thesis describes a qualitative mixed-methods study carried out in a vocational-technical secondary school with second-chance adolescent learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in a peripheral area of Israel. The learner population was characterized by complex, socio-economically disadvantaged family backgrounds and a high rate of learning disabilities. The study investigated the effects of a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) intervention to support the development of basic EFL literacy skills by students who lacked solid foundational English skills. The intervention provided an interactive educational software application, The English Club™, on iPod Touch devices to scaffold learning and review of letter sounds and rules of English, integrate them into words and texts, and practice reading, writing and comprehension. Learners developed literacy skills depending on the level they reached in the application. The English Club follows a scaffolded Multi-Sensory Structured Language (MSL) approach, adapting for struggling EFL learners the Hickey Multi-Sensory Method (Combley, 2001), developed by Kathleen Hickey of the British Dyslexia Institute. Printed books containing the material complemented the use of the MALL. The English teachers at the school chose the learners who participated and determined how to integrate the intervention into their English classrooms. An investigation of the teachers' roles was included in the study.

The methodology was primarily action research with case studies of individual learners and teachers. Pre-intervention and post-intervention data on learners' English knowledge, skills, attitudes and opinions and on teachers' attitudes and opinions about use of this MALL intervention was generated via skills assessments and semi-structured interviews. As a participant-teacher-observer, I observed the intervention's use in classes and in sessions with individual students.

Changes in skills, attitudes and opinions were analyzed in the framework of Vygotsky's theories of language acquisition and the Zone of Proximal Development as elaborated in Scaffolding Theory. Theories of motivation, literacy and second language acquisition, and how struggling learners experience these, have provided additional lenses for analysis. My goals in performing this study were to understand in depth the whole picture of the intervention, both its effects on students' English skills and attitudes, and the factors that shaped these outcomes. The study's findings contribute to an understanding of the ways in which delivering a scaffolded MSL approach to literacy education via MALL can contribute to addressing the world crisis in literacy acquisition, and issues that must be addressed for this type of intervention to be effective.

Findings showed that learners who actively engaged in the intervention made significant progress in their English literacy skills, increased their confidence in their ability to learn English and thus their willingness to engage in learning, and demonstrated increased awareness of the connection between their own investment of effort and learning. This success was shaped by many factors, including variation among individual learner profiles, the degree of teachers' support for the intervention, increasing students' motivation to invest effort, minimizing disruptions to the students' learning routine, and maximizing access to charged, working devices and to books. The individual MALL delivery platform enabled an untrained, inexperienced but committed teacher to provide the benefits of this scaffolded method, appropriate to her learners' needs, in multi-level English classrooms and to provide a solution for students returning from extended absences to catch up with missed classwork.

Recommendations for policy and practice include use of such scaffolded MSL MALL applications with struggling language learners in conjunction with printed materials and closely accompanied by committed teachers, who do not have to be highly trained in specialized methods to support learning by struggling students. Schools engaging in such interventions need to ensure that the devices will be fully available for use during learning hours, minimize disruptions to the class schedule, and maximize students' use of the MALL app and books in class, during free time at school, and at home. If necessary, extrinsic rewards should be offered to overcome students' learned helplessness.


Based on the conformal mapping technique, a novel macro- π model is proposed to accurately predict the electrical performance of a low pitch-to-diameter ratio (P / D) through-silicon via (TSV) pair on the 3-D IC. The model combines the conventional resistance and inductance (RL) circuit with several parallel capacitances and conductance (CG) circuit. The accuracy-improved CG model rigorously considers the proximity effect. The model can be established by using the derived closed-form formula that is related to geometrical parameters of the TSVs. Compared with the conventional π-type model, the proposed model can significantly reduce the error of CG value from 25% to 2% with respect to a full-wave simulation, and thus the insertion loss can be well predicted from dc to 40 GHz.


An intimate sharing of the environmental scanning, strategic foresight/futures thinking used at Dublin City University . Uncertainties and Complexity There are many forces shaping university futures today. We certainly cannot assume that the next five-year strategic period will be in any way similar to the last. Business as usual is simply not an option despite whatever conservative institutional impulses might wish to pull us in that direction. Managing higher education in an atmosphere of austerity will be the challenge for some time to come. As Shattock (2008) argues, in this scenario it is those institutions that are able to preserve institutional cohesion and to hold on to institutional values that will come out of the recession in better shape. We are now clearly moving into a post-public era of higher education funding. With operating uncertainties increasing both structurally and specifically, there may well be a greater differentiation of mission among universities. All these uncertainties create the need for clear strategic planning, vision, and foresight. As Abeles (2006, p. 31) comments, "academic institutions need to revisit Shelley's Ozymandias" the central theme of which is the inevitable decline of the empires people build, however mighty they seem. Regardless of their status as medallion or lower tier institutions, their future is not assured in any form, much less as visions of time past. The future is uncertain and we need, as far as possible, to "future proof" our strategies. One broad global overview suggests four drivers shaping the future of the university: globalism, multiculturalism, the Internet, and politicization (lnayatullah and Gidley 2000). Globalism (or globalization) and politicization could be regarded as long-term trends. Knowledge is now global and the university market is likewise. As a result, globalism has become a structural imperative, related to such issues as the "commodification" of education and the student as "consumer" Politicization can, of course, take many different forms, but in general refers to the definitive decline of the notion that knowledge and education are neutral, commonly-accepted public goods. This may lead to difficulties as does, of course, the rise of multiculturalism, itself a more recent effect of globalization. Reality is socially constructed in ways that are both gendered and racialized. The rise of multiculturalism means that the ideal university may eventually take different forms as various minorities seek to influence the inherited Enlightenment notion of the university as a place for the disinterested pursuit of truth. And finally the Internet, a dramatic revolution in the making of connections, will continue to decisively affect the purpose of the university and the way it conducts research, teaching, and publishing. The "virtualization" of the university has barely begun, and futures-oriented thinking is clearly required to understand the effects and fully grasp the opportunities. Today, what is perhaps most certain as a major determinant of university futures is, in fact, uncertainty. To cope with uncertainty, universities will need to become increasingly more flexible. In their influential treatise Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty, Nowotny, Scott, and Gibbons (2001) argue cogently that "universities may be unable to react rapidly and creatively to future demands if they are constrained within either a historically determined or bureaucratically imposed division of institutional labour" (p. 255). Despite the inherently conservative nature of the university, it has, at times, reflected upon its current and future role. Since Newman's (1873) iconic The Idea of a University, there have been intense debates regarding the university's teaching and research roles. More recently, Kerr's (1963) The Uses of the University argues that the modern university is in fact more like a "multiversity" with no single animating principle, but rather with a multiplicity of missions that respond to its multiple stakeholders. …


Published in Wisconsin's Sesquicentennial year, this fourth volume in "The History of Wisconsin" series covers the twenty tumultuous years between the World's Columbian Exposition and the First World War when Wisconsin essentially reinvented itself, becoming the nation's "laboratory of democracy."The period known as the Progressive Era began to emerge in the mid-1890s. A sense of crisis and a widespread clamor for reform arose in reaction to rapid changes in population, technology, work, and society. Wisconsinites responded with action: their advocacy of women's suffrage, labor rights and protections, educational reform, increased social services, and more responsive government led to a veritable flood of reform legislation that established Wisconsin as the most progressive state in the union.As governor and U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., was the most celebrated of the Progressives, but he was surrounded by a host of pragmatic idealists from politics, government, and the state university. Although the Progressives frequently disagreed over priorities and tactics, their values and core beliefs coalesced around broad-based participatory democracy, the application of scientific expertise to governance, and an active concern for the welfare of all members of society-what came to be known as "the Wisconsin Idea."


— Background : Evolution of open source projects frequently depends on a small number of core developers. The loss of such core developers might be detrimental for projects and even threaten their entire continuation. However, it is possible that new core developers assume the project maintenance and allow the project to survive. Aims : The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on: 1) the frequency of project abandonment and survival, 2) the differences between abandoned and surviving projects, and 3) the motivation and difficulties faced when assuming an abandoned project. Method : We adopt a mixed-methods approach to investigate project abandonment and survival. We carefully select 1,932 popular GitHub projects and recover the abandoned and surviving projects, and conduct a survey with developers that have been instrumental in the survival of the projects. Results : We found that 315 projects (16%) were abandoned and 128 of these projects (41%) survived because of new core developers who assumed the project development. The survey indicates that (i) in most cases the new maintainers were aware of the project abandonment risks when they started to contribute; (ii) their own usage of the systems is the main motivation to contribute to such projects; (iii) human and social factors played a key role when making these contributions; and (iv) lack of time and the difficulty to obtain push access to the repositories are the main barriers faced by them. Conclusions : Project abandonment is a reality even in large open source projects and our work enables a better understanding of such risks, as well as highlights ways in avoiding them.


This study examined how students who had no prior experience with videoconferencing would react to the use of videoconferencing as an instructional medium. Students enrolled in seven different courses completed a questionnaire at the beginning of the semester and again at the end of the semester. Students at the origination and remote sites did not differ in their reactions toward videoconferencing but there was a significant difference for gender. Women reacted less favorably to videoconferencing. Compared to the beginning of the semester, students reported significantly less positive attitudes toward taking a course through videoconferencing at the end of the semester. There were no significant differences in students' attitudes toward videoconferencing across courses at the beginning of the semester but there were significant differences across the courses at the end of the semester. The results suggest the need for better preparation for both students and instructors.


The structure of the densest crystal packings is determined for a variety of concave shapes in 2D constructed by the overlap of two or three discs. The maximum contact number per particle pair is defined and proposed as a useful means of categorizing particle shape. We demonstrate that the densest packed crystal exhibits a maximum in the number of contacts per particle but does not necessarily include particle pairs with the maximum contact number. In contrast, amorphous structures, generated by energy minimisation of high temperature liquids, typically do include maximum contact pairs. The amorphous structures exhibit a large number of contacts per particle corresponding to over-constrained structures. Possible consequences of this over-constraint are discussed.


Individually stereotyped vocalizations often play an important role in relocation of offspring in gregarious breeders. In phocids, mothers often alternate between foraging at sea and attending their pup. Pup calls are individually distinctive in various phocid species. However, experimental evidence for maternal recognition is rare. In this study, we recorded Weddell seal ( Leptonychotes weddellii ) pup vocalizations at two whelping patches in Atka Bay, Antarctica, and explored individual vocal variation based on eight vocal parameters. Overall, 58% of calls were correctly clas- sified according to individual. For males ( n = 12) and females ( n = 9), respectively, nine and seven individuals were correctly identified based on vocal parameters. To investigate whether mothers respond differently to calls of familiar vs . unfamiliar pups, we conducted playback experiments with 21 mothers. Maternal responses did not differ between playbacks of own, familiar, and unfamiliar pup calls. We suggest that Weddell seal pup calls may need to contain only a critical amount of individually distinct information because mothers and pups use a combination of sensory modalities for identification. However, it cannot be excluded that pup developmental factors and differing environmental factors between colonies affect pup acoustic behavior and the role of acoustic cues in the relocation process. between 33% and 100%. These differences


Abstract. To estimate the sea level rise (SLR) originating from changes in surface mass balance (SMB) of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS), we present 21st century climate projections obtained with the regional climate model MAR (Modele Atmospherique Regional), forced by output of three CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) general circulation models (GCMs). Our results indicate that in a warmer climate, mass gain from increased winter snowfall over the GrIS does not compensate mass loss through increased meltwater run-off in summer. Despite the large spread in the projected near-surface warming, all the MAR projections show similar non-linear increase of GrIS surface melt volume because no change is projected in the general atmospheric circulation over Greenland. By coarsely estimating the GrIS SMB changes from GCM output, we show that the uncertainty from the GCM-based forcing represents about half of the projected SMB changes. In 2100, the CMIP5 ensemble mean projects a GrIS SMB decrease equivalent to a mean SLR of p4 p 2 cm and p9 p 4 cm for the RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios respectively. These estimates do not consider the positive melt–elevation feedback, although sensitivity experiments using perturbed ice sheet topographies consistent with the projected SMB changes demonstrate that this is a significant feedback, and highlight the importance of coupling regional climate models to an ice sheet model. Such a coupling will allow the assessment of future response of both surface processes and ice-dynamic changes to rising temperatures, as well as their mutual feedbacks.


This book provides the analysis on capital markets in China, focusing attention upon (1) the bubble phenomena (whether or not a Chinese bubble really exists and might burst), (2) foreign direct investment and (3) integration, through all of which we could recognize the current situation and the future prospects of Chinese marketization. As regards to the bubble phenomena, particularly 'early warning indicator' of the bubble, this book attempts to utilize the Grubbs-Smirnov Test to discover the 'abnormal value' in several asset markets. Investigations of this book suggest that the distinctive features of the Chinese market have been significantly different from the markets of capitalist countries such as the United States and Japan. As far as Japan's foreign direct investments in China are concerned, this book tries to reveal the Chinese characteristics on FDI phenomena with FDI-trade ratio. The analysis of this book suggests that Chinese FDI from Japan has undoubtedly revealed the distortions caused by non-economic factors, which also mean that the distinctive features of the Chinese market have been different from the markets of the United States and Japan etc. Regarding integration, this book provides the analysis on the 'G2' system between the United States and China (cooperation or conflict between them). The considerations of this book conclude that it might be difficult to have good cooperation between them because of significant differences between the Chinese system and the US system.


The percolation thresholds of carbon black–polymer composites have been successfully lowered using particulate polymer starting materials (i.e., latex and water-dispersible powder). Composites prepared using carbon black (CB) and commercial poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) latex exhibit a percolation threshold near 2.5 vol % CB. This threshold value is significantly lower than that of a comparable reference composite made from poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PNVP) solution and the same CB, which exhibits a sharp rise in electrical conductivity near 15 vol % CB. This dramatic difference in critical CB concentration results from the segregated microstructure induced by the latex during composite film formation. Carbon black particles are forced into conductive pathways at low concentration because of their inability to occupy volume already claimed by the much larger latex particles. There appears to be good qualitative agreement between experimental findings and current models dealing with conductive behavior of composites with segregated microstructures. Lack of quantitative agreement with the models is attributed to the polydispersity of the polymer particles in the latex. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 692–705, 2001


National quality registries have been used in several medical specialties to improve healthcare worldwide.1–8 Owing to the inferior clinical results associated with some hip prosthesis designs in the early 1980s,6 nationwide Hip Arthroplasty Register (Norwegian Arthroplasty Register, NAR) was established in Sweden, in 1979, and in Norway, in 1987, with implant revision as the main end point.1 The purpose is the early detection of inferior results caused by implants, cements or surgical techniques.1 ,3 ,6 In 1994, the Norwegian registry was expanded to include all joint replacements.3 In 1995, two studies1 ,3 described implant inferiority at an early stage, a finding only possible through registry studies.

The Hip Arthroplasty Register is based on a simple reporting system (approximately 1 min to complete a single-page registration form) and hospitals are provided with continuous feedback from the registry.1 ,2 These two factors are believed to explain why the compliance rate of nearly 100% has not declined during 30 years of operation.1 ,2 Immediately after each operation, the surgeon completes the registration form, which is mailed to the NAR office. Patient identification and the different procedures, including the type of implant and cement used, are specified on the registration form. Feedback to the surgeons and recently to the public is given as annual national reports. In addition, each hospital receives a report on its own activities and results, which can be compared to the national average. A wide range of studies have been published based on the NAR database.1 ,3 ,6 To date, national registries have been established in Norway, Sweden (1979), Finland (1980), Denmark (1995), Australia (1999), New Zealand (1999), Canada (2000), Romania …


The time-varying flow field in spacer-filled channels of spiral-wound membrane (SWM) modules is mainly due to the development of fouling layers on the membranes that modify the channel geometry. The present study is part of an approach to tackling this extremely difficult dynamic problem at a small spatial scale, by uncoupling the fluid dynamics and mass transfer from the fouling-layer growth process. Therefore, fluid dynamics and mass transfer are studied for a spacer-filled channel whose geometry is altered by a uniform deposit thickness h. For this purpose, 3D direct numerical simulations are performed employing the "unit cell" approach with periodic boundary conditions. Specific thickness values are considered in the range 2.5–10% of the spacer-filament diameter D as well as other conditions of practical significance. The qualitative characteristics of the altered flow field are found to be very similar to those of the reference geometry with no gap reduction. For a given flow rate, the pressure drop, time-average wall-shear stresses and mass-transfer coefficients significantly increase with increasing thickness h due to reduced channel-gap, as expected. Correlations are obtained, applicable at the "unit cell" scale, of the friction factor f and Sherwood number Sh, which exhibit similar functional dependence of f and Sh on the Reynolds and Schmidt numbers as in the reference no-fouling case. In these correlations the effect of channel-gap reduction is incorporated, permitting predictions in the studied range of fouling-layer thickness (h/D) = 0–0.10. The usefulness of the new results and correlations is discussed in the context of ongoing research toward improved modeling and dynamic simulation of SWM-module operation.


Abstract The use of herbal and nutrition supplements is widespread. It has been reported that about 80% of the world's population use herbal medicines [1, 2, 3, 4]. Very few supplement use studies have been conducted in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and neighboring nations (5,6). Supplement use data among young adults is scarce. In one study aimed at determining the use of supplements among athletes in Qatar (5), over 60% of the study participants reported using vitamin supplements. Data regarding attitudes on the use of supplements among young adults is almost non-existent. The data on their perceptions about alternative medicine practitioners is also inadequate. We thus conducted a survey in which we examined the a) prevalence of supplement use among college students in Qatar, and b) their perceptions about the use of supplements and alternative medicine practitioners. We have previously presented our study findings regarding the use of supplements (7). At this meeting we will present our study findings concerning the perceptions of college students about the a) effectiveness and safety of supplements and b) alternative medicine practitioners. References 1. Eisenberg, DM, Davis, RB, Ettner, SL et al. Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States, 1990-1997: results of a follow-up national survey. JAMA 280: 1569-1575, 1998. 2. Farnsworth, NR, Akerele, O, Bingel, AS., Socjata, DD, Eno, Z. Medicinal plants in therapy. Bull World Health Organization 1985: 63: 965-981. 3. Gesler, WM. Therapeutic landscape medical issues in light of the new cultural geography. Soc.Sci. Med. 1992; 34: 735-746. 4. Rafferty, AP, McGee, HB, Miller, CE, Reyes, M. Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine use: state-specific estimates from the 2001 Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System. Am. J. Public Health 92: 1598-1600, 2002. 5. Knez WL and Peake JM, The prevalence of vitamin supplementation in ultraendurance triathletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2010 Dec;20(6):507-14. 6. Abu-Irmaileh, BE, Affi, F.U. Herbal medicine in Jordan with special emphasis on commonly used herbs. J. Ethnopharmacology 89: 193-197, 2003. 7. Mamtani R, MacRae B, Mahfoud Z, Cheema S , El Hajj M, Lopez T and Lowenfels A. Use of herbal and nutrition supplements among college students in Qatar. American Society of Clinical Nutrition, 2013, Dubai. Acknowledgement: This work is supported by the Biomedical Research Program at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, a program funded by Qatar Foundation.


New developments in 3D visualisation software enable interrogation of volcanic architecture by analysis of surface morphology and composition. We apply this remote sensing approach using Geovisionary™ software to investigate volcano evolution in the Manda-Hararo rift segment, Afar, (Ethiopia) and compare this with the Syrtis Major volcanic complex on Mars.

In Afar, extensive exposure and low erosion rates in arid conditions allow comparison to Mars using remote sensing data sets of similar resolution. We use this comparison to understand the evolution of the Syrtis Major low-angle basaltic shield volcano – an edifice measuring 1500 km by 1000 km, formed in the early Hesperian (3.7 – 3.0 Ga). The complex is capped by calderas containing evolved volcanic products. Extensional fault systems and fissures, probably resulting from lack of buttressing on its ENE side, are aligned to the NNW-SSE these are comparable in morphology to the central part of Afar's Manda-Hararo rift segment.

We present results of an initial field campaign at the Manda-Hararo rift segment and an initial survey of the Syrtis Major calderas. In Afar oblique views of lava flow surface morphologies and cross-sections through successive lava flows reveal details of the relationships between lavas, topography and local structure. Lobes range in scale from 0.1 m to 10 m wide and are typically 1.5 m thick. Most lavas in this rift segment are pāhoehoe, emplaced as inflating lobes. Cross-sectional surfaces, exposed in fault scarps, show interfingered lava flows. Some very recent low volume (< 0.5 km3) rubbly pāhoehoe lavas occur at the rift axis. Distinct 'a'ā lava flows originating from Dabbahu volcano are faulted and interfingered with lavas from a rift axial source. MRO data has been interrogated for similar morphologies. We examine evidence of similarities in emplacement style and the interaction of lavas from both Syrtis Major calderas, using Geovisonary™.

Insights gained from the Manda-Hararo rift segment study will guide us in producing an architectural model of the evolution of the Syrtis Major complex, with the aid of further high resolution Mars imaging, including newly requested data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.


The purpose of the present study was to describe how one of 290 Swedish municipalities improved its FS service by terminating their earlier service of food distribution (FD) which was the delivery of ready cooked meals produced at a central kitchen in the community and introducing food preparation at the client's home. The revised system is referred to as the new FS. This study was performed using an action research approach. The data was collected by individual- and group interviews and through participatory observations. The transcribed interview material was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The (n=30) subjects were recruited The findings of this study revealed that the new FS was experienced as being a good service, that the new municipal FS met individual needs in a better way and that the elderly recipients could participate more actively in planning and preparing their meals. In conclusion, it was found that having their food prepared at home was considered by many of the recipients to be synonymous with individually adjusted help. The results of the study could have implications for nursing, public administration and gerontology.


A parametric Reduced Order Model (ROM) for buoyancy-driven flow is developed for which the Full Order Model (FOM) is based on the finite volume approximation and the Boussinesq approximation is used for modeling the buoyancy. Therefore, there exists a two-way coupling between the incompressible Boussinesq equations and the energy equation. The reduced basis is constructed with a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) approach and to obtain the Reduced Order Model, a Galerkin projection of the governing equations onto the reduced basis is performed. The ROM is tested on a 2D differentially heated cavity of which the side wall temperatures are parametrized. The parametrization is done using a control function method. The aim of the method is to obtain homogeneous POD basis functions. The control functions are obtained solving a Laplacian function for temperature. Only one full order solution was required for the reduced basis creation. The obtained ROM is stable for different parameter sets for which the temperature difference between the walls is smaller than for the set in the FOM used for the POD basis creation. Then, the relative error between the FOM and the ROM for temperature is below 10^(-4) and for velocity below 10^(-1) for the vast part of the simulation time. Finally, the ROM is about 20 times faster than the FOM run on a single processor.


A study was conducted to identify the new invasive pest infesting maize in Gujarat, India. During the survey conducted in the month of September 2018, sweet corn field in the Anklav village of Anand district found infested with new invasive pest. Larvae were collected and brought to the laboratory of Department of Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand for identification and further study. Based on morphological and molecular characterization, the pest is identified as fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) and it is the first confirmed report of occurrence of new invasive pest in maize fields of Gujarat, India.


The goal of most agents is not just to reach a goal state, but rather also (or alternatively) to put restrictions on its trajectory, in terms of states it must avoid and goals that it must 'maintain'. This is analogous to the notions of 'safety' and 'stability' in the discrete event systems and temporal logic community. In this paper we argue that the notion of 'stability' is too strong for formulating 'maintenance' goals of an agent – in particular, reactive and software agents, and give examples of such agents. We present a weaker notion of 'maintainability' and show that our agents which do not satisfy the stability criteria, do satisfy the weaker criteria. We give algorithms to test maintainability, and also to generate control for maintainability. We then develop the notion of 'supportability' that generalizes both 'maintainability' and 'stabilizability, develop an automata theory that distinguishes between exogenous and control actions, and develop a temporal logic based on it.


Participatory varietal selection in a development project in western India showed that the rice (Oryza sativa) variety Kalinga III was highly preferred by farmers. The spatial diffusion of this variety from three villages (two project and one non-project) was studied. Seed of Kalinga III had spread from the three villages in 1994 to 41 villages by 1996 and is estimated to have reached over 100 widely distributed villages by 1997. Farmer-to-farmer spread was as high from the non-project case study village that received no further seed from the project, possibly because farmers are more likely to spread seed of a new variety to other farmers when they have no assured supply. Project interventions used key villages, informal-sector seed merchants, and Non-Government Organizations in the spread of seed. The project also collaborated with Rajasthan State Agricultural University and Kalinga III has been proposed for release in that state. A financial analysis revealed the very high internal rates of return that are possible from investment in participatory varietal selection.


The sample of South African early to mid-Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) human crania is small and quite fragmentary, limiting our knowledge of human craniofacial morphology for this period. Previous limited analyses have described the morphology displayed by these early crania as a combination of Khoesan and non-Khoesan traits. Although essentially Khoesan-like in terms of facial morphology, their overall large size and robust neurocranial structure were regarded as atypical of Khoesan craniofacial morphology, leading to questions about the role of these early populations in the ancestry of recent Khoesan populations. Here we provide a quantitative analysis in which we compare five well-preserved pre-5000 BP LSA crania with (i) a large sample of post-5000 BP LSA Khoesan crania; and (ii) a sample of crania from recent South African Bantu-speakers. We show that these pre-5000 BP crania fall comfortably within the range of variation observed for the post-5000 BP Khoesan sample, in terms of both size and shape, suggesting that distinctive Khoesan craniofacial morphology was already present in South African LSA populations by the first half of the Holocene.


Security techniques have been designed to obtain certain objectives. One of the most important objectives all security mechanisms try to achieve is the availability, which insures that network services are available to various entities in the network when required. But there has not been any certain parameter to measure this objective in network. In this paper we consider availability as a security parameter in ad-hoc networks. However this parameter can be used in other networks as well. We also present the connectivity coefficient of nodes in a network which shows how important is a node in a network and how much damage is caused if a certain node is compromised.


Full of wonderful yawning creatures who spread sleep thoughts at bedtime, this book is the perfect remedy for children who don't want to go to sleep. This delightful book forms part of the second stage in HarperCollins' major Dr. Seuss rebrand programme. With the relaunch of 10 more titles in August 2003, such all-time favourites as How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? and Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book boast bright new covers that incorporate much needed guidance on reading levels: Blue Back Books are for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books are for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books are for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book belongs to the Yellow Back Book range.


In this paper we examine the potential role of light limitation in the regulation of phytoplankton standing crop in Florida's largest river, the St. Johns. We hypothesized that spatial and temporal patterns in standing crops of phytoplankton are strongly affected by variations in light availability in the mixed layer, particularly as they relate to river basin morphology and changes in water color, which reach high levels in the St. Johns River. This hypothesis was examined within the context of four principal research objectives: (1) Determination of the spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton standing crops and key environmental parameters related to nutrient concentration and light extinction, (2) Estimation of spatial and temporal patterns of mean light availability in the mixed‐layer, (3) Examination of the correlations between phytoplankton standing crops and light availability, and (4) Evaluation of the relative role of different limiting factors on the regulation of phytoplankton standing crop. The results of this study revealed a relationship between standing crops and light availability. Twelve sampling sites along a 130 km reach of the river were sampled and analyzed for phytoplankton abundance, water chemistry, and light attenuation over a three year period. Our empirical results, along with the outcome of our efforts to model light availability for planktonic production were consistent with our original hypothesis. Temporal variations in color were strongly correlated to variability in phytoplankton standing crops. Spatial trends in standing crop were most readily explained through the effects of changing basin morphology and flushing rates. The results are discussed in the context of the River Continuum Concept and variations on this theme specific to blackwater ecosystems.


'Dewsbury Noir'

This paper suggests that David Peace's Red Riding Quartet offers contemporary readers an alternative crime fiction, a form of 'Dewsbury Noir'. David Peace is a twenty first century author who writes about twentieth century crime but, significantly, does not consider himself to be 'a crime writer'. His novels may concern crime, but offer more than a Yorkshire version of the James Ellroy series. The paper will discuss how and why Peace possesses the framework, tropes and conventions of the genre to articulate an alternative perspective through a recognized form. Offering the Red Riding Quartet as an example of a socially conscious development of British crime fiction, its controversial and explicit content will be analyzed as an anti-sanitisation approach to shifting definitions of crime in contemporary society. The issue of how and why Peace uses his quartet to foreground the shared humanity and morals of hunter and hunter – Ripper and police – is explored through representations of human redemption and salvation. An interest in moral degeneracy is discussed through shifting definitions of criminality and deviancy. Despite a pronounced desire to emphasize their difference, the paper argues that the similarities at the heart of these representations of criminal and victim, accused and accuser, enforcer and deviant, effectively blur and challenge singular notions of good and evil. As a result, the political role of the crime novel is posited as a necessary obligation rather than a personal gratification of the socially conscious contemporary British author.


The law of judicial remedies deals with the nature and scope of relief afforded a plaintiff following appropriate court procedures and after establishment of a substantive right. These remedies usually fall in one of four categories: (1) damages, (2) restitution, (3) coercion and (4) declaration. This presentation will deal principally with the damages remedy, but a few thoughts regarding the use of a restitutionary remedy are introduced toward the end of these remarks.


Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences is the official English language journal of the Egyptian Society for Biological Sciences , Department of Entomology ,Faculty of Sciences Ain Shams University . The Botany Journal publishes original research papers and reviews from any botanical discipline or from directly allied fields in ecology, behavioral biology, physiology, biochemistry, development, genetics, systematic, morphology, evolution, control of herbs, arachnids, and general botany.. www.eajbs.eg.net Provided for non-commercial research and education use. Not for reproduction, distribution or commercial use.


Transformer is a new kind of neural architecture which encodes the input data as powerful features via the attention mechanism. Basically, the visual transformers first divide the input images into several local patches and then calculate both representations and their relationship. Since natural images are of high complexity with abundant detail and color information, the granularity of the patch dividing is not fine enough for excavating features of objects in different scales and locations. In this paper, we point out that the attention inside these local patches are also essential for building visual transformers with high performance and we explore a new architecture, namely, Transformer iN Transformer (TNT). Specifically, we regard the local patches (e.g., 16$\times$16) as"visual sentences"and present to further divide them into smaller patches (e.g., 4$\times$4) as"visual words". The attention of each word will be calculated with other words in the given visual sentence with negligible computational costs. Features of both words and sentences will be aggregated to enhance the representation ability. Experiments on several benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed TNT architecture, e.g., we achieve an 81.5% top-1 accuracy on the ImageNet, which is about 1.7% higher than that of the state-of-the-art visual transformer with similar computational cost. The PyTorch code is available at https://github.com/huawei-noah/CV-Backbones, and the MindSpore code is available at https://gitee.com/mindspore/models/tree/master/research/cv/TNT.


The paper describes the complexity of the seismic assessment and rehabilitation of three different existing buildings in New Zealand. The assessment was performed using Progressive Collapse Analysis. This method has been materialized into explicit requirements for redundancy in building codes. Conventionally, the engineering industry uses a simplistic procedure for most seismic assessments, which models only linear beam and column elements. This neglects the contribution of walls and slabs, leading to uneconomic solutions. Walls and slabs may be considered secondary members in other types of analysis but in progressive collapse analysis, walls and slabs often behave as primary members with slabs carrying load though membrane action and walls providing alternate load paths in case of loss or extensive damage of columns. The buildings have been modelled using the "Applied Element Method" (AEM) [1, 2, 3]. This approach allows tracking of the structural collapse behavior passing through all stages of the application of loads including elastic stage, crack initiation and propagation in tension-weak materials, steel yielding, element separation and element collision. It has also the unique ability to accurately evaluate the dynamic Eigen modes accounting for the phenomenon of period elongation due to cracking of the structural elements during the ground excitation. Period elongation is a phenomenon that may alter significantly the response of the structures and the effects of the ground motions on the buildings. This is a significant breakthrough not only for the New Zealand industry but also for the international engineering community. Extensive research was undertaken to overcome the modelling complexities to incorporate the specific building characteristics including riveted connections, slabs, infill panels, foundation and surrounding soil and to assess the performance of the structures using the state of the art methodology [4, 5, 6, 7]. A set of Numerical Integration Time History (NITH) analyses in compliance with AS/NZS 1170.5 [7] recommendations was completed for the Progressive Collapse methodology. Various geotechnical and material testing was undertaken to confirm the parameters used in the analysis. The ground motions were selected and scaled in accordance with Site Specific Seismic Hazard Assessments. To validate the accuracy of the models, the results were checked against ASCE41-13 [8] acceptance criteria in conjunction with AS/NZS code requirements and limitations [7, 9]. The post-earthquake observation in one of the case studies were used to validate the results of our analysis. The results indicate the efficiency of the specific methodology to visualize the extent, magnitude and direction of any potential local or global collapse or crack occurrences within the structures and provide accurate insights on the performance of the buildings, leading to the most effective strengthening strategy. This methodology also enables the engineers to safely design the egress routes away from falling debris, for the safe evacuation of the buildings during the earthquakes.


Published by European Publishing. © 2020 Kyrou M. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) Dear Editor, Labor and childbirth should be a great experience with positive memories and emotions. However, there are many women who experience their childbirth as a negative or even traumatic experience. Stress factors during labor can be a really life-threatening situation or a situation that is experienced as threatening, such as loss of control, loss of dignity, a hostile or negative environment, and generally situations where women feel fear, loss of control, and terror1-3. Various studies show that about 10.5–30% of women after birth recognize their childbirth as traumatic1,2, and 1.5% to 6% appear with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)2,3. The partners of the women can also have PTSD as witnesses of a traumatic birth3. Studies refer as basic risk factor for PTSD postpartum, the mode of delivery and women's subjective birth experience4. Women who gave birth vaginally with forceps or have unplanned or emergency caesareans, report the poorest health and wellbeing after birth. Caesarean section is also related to greater intensity and duration of pain, even one year after a caesarean than normal delivery5. The quality of daily life postpartum in women with vaginal deliveries is better regarding movement, self-care, sense of pain, daily activities and sense of discomfort, 30 days or even one year after labor compared to women that underwent a caesarean6. Also, caesarean is related to greater possibility of stress symptoms one year after labor, compared to vaginal delivery7. It seems that maternal satisfaction is greater after normal deliveries8. Midwives have an essential role to play regarding birth process and birth experience. Studies, regarding the presence of a midwife during labor, show that the constant presence of a midwife increases the sense of control in decision-making, increases the rates of vaginal deliveries, reduces the labor duration and the rates of hemorrhage of 3rd stage. Also, the constant presence of a midwife during labor in low risk pregnancies, increases the sense of satisfaction during labor and postpartum period. Constant midwifery care increases the rates of initiation and continuation of breastfeeding too8-10. Midwives should try to create a trusting and more personal relationship with the women during pregnancy. It seems that women who feel secure, support, calmness, interest, guidance, reassured and relief from their midwife, have more positive birth experience even if they deliver with caesarean section10. Midwives have to evaluate and redefine the mode of provision of care constantly, as the birth experience influences not only the woman but her partner, the couple, the relationship with the child, and the whole family.


In May 2013, a European alert was issued regarding a hepatitis A virus (HAV) outbreak in Italy. In June 2013, HAV subgenotype IA with an identical sequence was identified in Ireland in three cases who had not travelled to Italy. The investigation consisted of descriptive epidemiology, a case-control study, microbiological testing of human and food specimens, molecular typing of positive specimens and food traceback. We identified 21 outbreak cases (14 confirmed primary cases) with symptom onset between 31 January and 11 October 2013. For the case-control study, we recruited 11 confirmed primary cases and 42 matched controls. Cases were more likely than controls to have eaten berry cheesecake (matched odds ratio (mOR): 12; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3-114), whole frozen berries (mOR: 9.5; 95% CI: 1.0-89), yoghurt containing frozen berries (mOR: 6.6, 95% CI: 1.2-37) or raw celery (mOR: 4; 95% CI: 1.2-16). Among cases, 91% had consumed at least one of four products containing frozen berries (mOR: 12; 95% CI: 1.5-94). Sixteen food samples tested were all negative for HAV. As products containing frozen berries were implicated in the outbreak, the public were advised to heat-treat frozen berries before consumption.


This Article argues that the materiality doctrine, which lies at the heart of securities fraud, has the potential to operate as a self-fulfilling prophecy. This Article labels this phenomenon "legal circularity." In order to place the potential legal circularity of materiality in context among the various other legal doctrines that share this potential, this Article proposes a two-part Theory of Legal Circularity. First, this Article proposes the following Legal Circularity Test to identify potentially circular doctrines: A legal doctrine is potentially circular if: (1) the legal doctrine incorporates the behavior or attitude of a population or person, either hypothetical or real; and (2) the subject population or person either would (if hypothetical) or does (if real) consider prior precedent interpreting the legal doctrine when choosing said behavior or when adopting said attitude. Materiality, among other legal doctrines, arguably satisfies this test because (1) the materiality standard focuses on whether there is a substantial likelihood that a hypothetical "reasonable investor" would consider information important when making an investment decision, and (2) a reasonable investor would arguably consider prior materiality precedent when assessing whether information is important to his or her investment decision. Second, this Article proposes a Framework to Assess Legal Circularity, with the goal of providing guidance about whether to embrace a doctrine's potential legal circularity. Under this framework, which draws from the rich scholarship on the related but distinct concepts of stare decisis, substantive law heuristics, and precedential herding, courts and scholars should weigh (1) the risk of a "wrong" rule; (2) the effects of greater predictability; and (3) the import of reconceiving the courts' role. Finally, this Article applies this framework to materiality, concluding that courts and scholars should explicitly embrace the legal circularity of materiality, coupled with increased investor education about materiality and absent any clarifying guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission about the scope of the doctrine.


Internalized stigma is the adoption of negative attitudes and stereotypes of the society regarding a person's illness. It causes decreased self‐esteem and life‐satisfaction, increased depression and suicidality, and difficulty in coping with the illness. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the internalized stigma state of psoriatic patients and to identify the factors influencing internalized stigma. The secondary aim was to identify the correlation of internalized stigma with quality of life and perceived health status. This multicentre, cross‐sectional study comprised 1485 patients. There was a significant positive correlation between mean values of Psoriasis Internalized Stigma Scale (PISS) and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, Body Surface Area, Dermatological Life Quality Index and General Health Questionnaire‐12 (P < 0.001 in all). Lower percieved health score (P = 0.001), early onset psoriasis (P = 0.016), family history of psoriasis (P = 0.0034), being illiterate (P < 0.001) and lower income level (P < 0.001) were determinants of high PISS scores. Mean PISS values were higher in erythrodermic and generalized pustular psoriasis. Involvement of scalp, face, hand, genitalia and finger nails as well as arthropathic and inverse psoriasis were also related to significantly higher PISS scores (P = 0.001). Our findings imply that psoriatic patients experience high levels of internalized stigma which are associated with psoriasis severity, involvement of visible body parts, genital area, folds or joints, poorer quality of life, negative perceptions of general health and psychological illnesses. Therefore, internalized stigma may be one of the major factors responsible from psychosocial burden of the disease.


The prevalent tumors of the upper extremity that are difficult to diagnose and treat, and some of the relevant surgical procedures are addressed in this study. The tumors of the upper extremity are discussed in three regions: shoulder girdle, elbow-wrist, and hand. Sarcomatous lesions are highlighted among tumor samples. While the shoulder girdle is one of the most common sites of malign tumors, elbow-wrist and hands are not. Thus, due to less frequent malignity observed in these two regions, the risks of misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment increase. In this study, the anatomical region of related tumor addressed is determined according to its rate of prevalence, clinical significance, and frequent diagnose and treatment faults.


There is perhaps no leadership challenge more daunting than managing creativity—and more urgent than delivering breakthrough innovation. How do you harness some of the most passionate, intelligent people in your organization without stifling them? How do you simultaneously unleash their energy and channel it into something tangible? Lina Echeverria offers seven proven principles through which new ideas come to fruition, from unleashing passion and drive, and embracing productive conflict, to emphasizing excellence and structure while living values that liberate creativity. As team catalyst, the leader delivers results while nurturing intuition and growing talent. These principles apply well beyond traditional creative domains, propelling innovation across entire organizations. Drawing on the author's considerable experience assembling and nurturing cutting-edge teams at Corning Inc., Idea Agent shows readers how to juxtapose creative freedom with management rigor and lead dedicated professionals as they generate and execute one great innovation after another.


Celecoxib is a poorly water-soluble nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Here we report four ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41 supports with different particle size, pore volume, and surface properties to investigate their loading capacity with celecoxib and their release abilities. Spherical MCM-41 mesoporous supports less than 50 nm in diameter were prepared and to compare the effect of the template removal process on morphology of samples, acid extraction and calcination methods were used. Moreover, nearly 500 nm sized rod-shaped MCM-41 mesoporous silica was obtained by changing the template concentration in preparation. Boron doping was performed to determine the effect of a heteroatom on the surface of mesoporous silica and adsorbance of drug molecules and release. In order to investigate the effect of polarity of solvent during drug loading, two different solvents were used: ethanol as polar solvent and hexane as nonpolar solvent. All bare and drug-loaded samples' physicochemical characterizations were performed. The release experiments were conducted in phosphate buffer solution of pH 7.4 at 37 °C. Celecoxib solubility was highly improved compared to the pure drug. The morphology and surface property differences of MCM-41 and the solvent effect in adsorption of celecoxib have been discussed, including its delivery.